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Who: Dick Grayson/Nightwing

forceforlight and YOU!
What: April catch all
When: During April
Where: Rooftops around the city; a park
Content Warnings: Updated as needed

He knows better than to complain, especially after the past few months in Blüdhaven. It's been a long time since he's had a quiet, even after coming to this world.

Which is why Nightwing sits on the edge of a high rooftop, a bag of bagels on the rooftop behind him and a cup of coffee warming his hands. After all, early spring isn't any warmer in Michigan than it is in New Jersey.

"I'm going to jinx myself if I say it," he says to whomever shows up, without looking their direction. He's just really used to listening for people coming up behind him. "But, damn, it's quiet."

The name "circusbrat" wasn't taken on TikTok. Not that Dick had any real plans of what to do with it. So far, he'd posted a few short videos of him at a local circus school, doing some tricks on the silks and the lines. There were also a few from the park, with him doing some simple, if impressive, gymnastics.

Which is what he's doing now: filming himself doing handstands.

However, every time he starts, he ends up in a heap of giggles as Haley runs in and hops up to lick his face. "Haley, no," he says, gathering the puppy up and ruffling her ears. "We really need to work on your stay, don't we?"

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"You definitely just jinxed it," comes a familiar voice from overhead, and Jon drifts down to settle next to him. Probably the fabric rustle of his cape gave him away, but he's not complaining. It's never a good idea to startle a vigilante, after all, especially one trained by Batman.

He feels a little guilty for not being around more, but.. well, it's just easier to keep busy, especially now that his other-mom has gone back home. Still, Dick is always going to feel like safety and comfort, so after a few moments, he leans into his side a little, dropping his temple onto his shoulder.

"Mom's gone," he says, though by now he expects Dick already knows as much. "I cleared out the apartment. It was sort of sad." He's glad she went back home to her Clark and her twins, but it's still kind of lonely. "I heard another Robin arrive." He listens for their voices and their heartbeats, of course. "Is he settling in okay?"

Jason's not surprised that Dick sensed him coming. He wasn't trying to sneak up on him and Dick's well-trained enough to pick it up. Jason's surprised by the bagels though.

"Thanks, asshole. Now we're gonna get a jailbreak," Jason says casually. He then sits next to Dick. He's in his Red Hood suit and perhaps the most notable thing for Dick to notice is that Jason's body armor lacks a red bat symbol. "Expecting company?"

Edited 2023-04-10 15:25 (UTC)

Bart had taken Kat-El with him to do some hospital appearances on behalf of the Alliance, a job he understood, but he was just as glad to ditch the costume and let the furry beast enjoy some harness time outside. If it happened to be the park that Dick tended to film from, that wasn't really stalking. Tim had told him about the TikTok as soon as it had happened, and he'd been amused.

"And here I thought you could keep your poise through just about anything. Now I find out your kryptonite is tongue baths." Just a teen with a cat on lead laughing at his best friend's big brother. "Maybe you should do puppy yoga instead? I bet she'd love jumping up on your poses."

After the older Tim did the work of letting at least some of the Bats know about his presence, Tim sets up a meeting with Dick first since - well, Dick. (If he's also very curious about the dog he saw in Dick's OurPowers post, well, that can stay between him and himself, thank you.)

They arrange to meet at the park, where Tim is not terribly surprised to see Dick doing casual gymnastics. It's still a little weird, coming up closer, to see him looking older than Tim's used to - in person - but then Tim's promptly distracted because Haley looks in his direction and comes running towards him while he's still several feet away.

Leo's not used to humans being up on the roofs; he's even less used to them hearing him coming. He must be slipping if he was heard that easily, but then it wasn't like he was trying that hard.

Or this human is just really good.

Either way, Leo freezes for a second, before coming closer slowly. He'd been up here watching the streets below for any signs of anything concerning - more specifically, anyone who might be hunting for someone. He's not really supposed to be out here doing this, but who's going to stop him?

Well, other than humans who hear him coming.

"For sure you jinxed it." Good going. "But hey, we're past the full moon - maybe people calmed down."

He wonders if this guy will freak out at seeing a human-sized turtle behind him.

He may not have super hearing, but Dick knows what to listen out for with the supers. Even Clark doesn't sneak up on him.

Much.

He lets Jon lean against him, sucking in a breath at the news. "I'm sorry," he says after a moment. "B left a month ago, so I get it." Not that he'd TALKED to Bruce since he'd arrived, but that's neither here nor there. Just knowing Bruce had been around had been enough. "And yeah. We have another Tim. He's around fourteen years old and...well, taking to all this about as well as can be expected. I'm not sure how much he's had to do with the multiverse before now."

He's not asking Jon if he's okay. That's always a 'values thereof' question. And how okay, really, can he be with this place taking his MOM away?

Dick reaches back, grabbing the bag of bagels and offering it to Jason. This isn't the first time he's seen the younger Jason in his full body armor, but the lack of the red bat is still a bit jarring.

"There's a really good Jewish bakery a couple blocks away from here. I found it when I was walking Haley the other day." And crime fighting is hungry work because they're out all night doing it. "I sort of figured anything that didn't get eaten tonight would keep until I got up."

Jason takes off his helmet to reveal the domino mask he's wearing underneath before reaching to grab an everything bagel.

"You're not wrong. Surprised you found any place nearby with decent bagels," Jason says. "Apparently, we've been spoiled from living in Jersey."

He then takes a big bite of his bagel.

"Only from puppies." Dick's grinning, though, moving to sit tailor-style in the grass, Haley in his lap. "Would you grab my phone, please? And I could do puppy yoga. Though I would have to do some research on it. Believe it or not, I'm not done a lot of it."

Dick rolls to his feet, going for the phone to pick it up and stop the recording. "Abandoning me already? I knew you loved Tim more."

Even if it's not the right Tim. Or, rather, not the Tim that Haley knows. Not that she cares as she runs up, jumping against Tim's leg and barking to get his attention. "She doesn't bite. Unless she's scared." Since she'd bitten him once. "Haley, down."

Haley promptly ignores Dick.

The lenses on his mask hide the way that Nightwing's eyes travel over the...human sized turtle. Less surprising to a guy who has fought a human-sized crocodile, but it's still a surprise for a moment.

After a moment, he reaches over and snags the bag of bagels, offering it over. "Help yourself," Nightwing says, the corner of his mouth ticked up in a half smile. "And I don't know if I subscribe to the whole full moon thing, honestly. But it's as good a reason for it being calm as anything, I suppose."

“Hey, girl.” He is more than willing to temporarily abandon his plan to properly meet this Dick Grayson in favor of kneeling down to greet Haley with ear scritches. “You having fun? Learning gymnastics?”

The domino UNDER the helmet never fails to be amusing. Dick's good, though, and doesn't mention it.

"Well, apparently the owner moved out for a job that paid well but sucked. So, instead, he got his grandfather's recipe and opened the bakery." Dick shrugs with a grin. "And yeah, we have been. But these are pretty good. Tons better than the mass market stuff."

She immediately flops onto her back, belly up as a hint.

"She's shameless." And at least two of his brothers would say that she took after her dad in that respect.

Dick stands back, letting this new Tim pet the puppy while he looks him over. Fairly young, though his Tim had been Robin for a bit by that age. Thin, which meant he probably didn't eat enough. Which just has Dick annoyed at the Drakes again, but that's something for another day. Tim will protest that he can take care of himself and...well, Dick already knows that's not going to happen. "So. How're you getting along with...yourself, I guess?"

There. That's only slightly awkward. "Don't worry, nobody really pays attention in the park. It's about as safe a place as you'll get in the middle of the day."

With his mouth stuffed with a bagel, Jason nods before he swallows.

"Supermarket stuff never hits the same as something more fresh," he then says. "Never thought I'd say it but I miss some of Gotham's food. Michigan's stuff is boring unless it's Detroit-style pizza."

Then there was Alfred's cooking but talking about him remains painful after Dick told Jason of their surrogate grandfather's murder.

"Arf! Arf arf!"

A large white wolf dashes towards the pair, before skidding to a stop. She bows and wags her tail in the universal dog signal of 'Hey, wanna play?'

Free food from a stranger? Don’t mind if he does!

(Someone should really have a talk with him about this sometime.)

“Thanks!”

He takes a big bite before responding. “It’s gotta be somethin’.” Swallow. “Central’s usually a mess.”

Although it has been a mess for Leo, which is why he’s up here now, but he’s not going to talk about that. Not for a bagel.

"It's... fine. Weird, but fine." Oh, Tim will happily go in for the belly rubs. He doesn't get to spend a lot of time with dogs - Wolf doesn't exactly count, seeing as how he's Wolf and spends more of his time with Conner anyway - so he'll get his cute puppy time in now, thank you. "Staying whelmed."

"Max thought it would help me focus. I think I lasted a whole twenty minutes," Bart says, grinning at the memory, embarrassing as it might be. "It's more that some people do silly things with their pets at the same time. Or just be a jungle gym for animals."

The cat is keeping Bart between himself and the dog and human, but otherwise seems mostly okay. That's part of why Bart takes him for walks, even if most people think he's crazy for it. They never met Kat-El when he was in his velcro phase. But he takes a step to scoop up the phone and bring it over, pausing to snap a couple pictures because the duo are just that cute.

"So, the two of you settling in?"

He straightens up a little in surprise at hearing about Tim's age, turning on his perch and arching his brows questioningly. "Fourteen? That's like D's age.." Well, Damian is fifteen at home now, but it's still weird. Weirder even than it had been when he'd first come home older than Damian. Tim and Jason and Dick and Stephanie and Cassandra are all supposed to be adults in Jon's head.

Still, he'll have to drop by to say hi sometime. It's still Tim, after all, and he ought to know Jon's around if he needs a(nother) super.

"He's not staying with older Tim, is he?" Last he recalls, Tim-from-home's place is some crappy apartment in a rough part of town.

She knows who he is. Sort of. There'd been a Nightwing in her universe, and she'd of course read the file CADMUS had. One of the Gotham set. The Bat Club, as she'd called it. She'd always assumed that Batman and his abilities were kind of bullshit. A show put on for the creeps of Gotham so they'd be scared.

But even just floating in the air, behind him, sure she hadn't made a sound - she assumes that what they said about Batman, and who he trained, were actually true. Some of them, anyways. It's actually creepy - and a little bit intimidating, since she can't understand it.

Well holy shit.

"How did you...?"

Dick nods, taking a sip of coffee before glancing over. "Right now, I think he's mostly at the hotel. But he's going to need a guardian in the eyes of the authorities here."

It occurs to him that Jon may need one as well. It's something to bring up. Perhaps later, though.

"There's actually some form of decent pizza here?" Dick asks with a raised eyebrow. "Or is it just more interesting than anything else?"

It's a good question, after all. "I'd try making pizza myself one of these days, but I'm not sure the oven is quite right for it."

"Depends on how you feel about deep dish and Wisconsin cheese," Jason replies before taking another bite. "If you're talking about Descendant's kitchen, you're paying if something goes wrong."

Jason thought he's been very generous enough employing most of his siblings. He has to set up boundaries too.

"Donna tried teaching us all after I moved out." After he'd become Nightwing. "Some of us took to it better than others. Pretty sure at least Roy didn't make it as long as twenty minutes."

Neither had Wally, but there are things that Dick doesn't mention around Bart. Because Wally may be his best friend, but he had NOT been a good mentor to Bart at all.

Dick reaches for the nearby messenger bag, pausing before unzipping it to pull out a metal water bottle and a collapsible pet bowl. "Thanks. We're settling in pretty well. I've found an apartment that's not too expensive. Though I think I may have to start looking for a bigger place."

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