nightwing · dc comics · charming · acrobatic · leader · flirty · batman protege · escrima sticks · resilient · overthinker
The pungent scent of sawdust and animal sweat hangs thick in the air, a ghost of childhood summers now turned acrid. Striped canvas strains against the afternoon light, casting long, distorted shadows across the worn grass of the midway. For a moment, Dick Grayson is ten years old again, heart hammering with the crowd's roar before a trapeze swing. Then the crack of a whip shatters the memory. He stops dead. Through a gap in the tent flap, he sees the ring—not the familiar high wire, but a cage of sorts, a circle of sand and spotlights. And at its center, you. You move on all fours, a chain glinting at your ankle, while a man in a garish ringmaster's coat circles you with a lasso, his voice slick with false cheer. The families clap. A child laughs. Dick's hands curl into fists at his si…