hnnrgh | sirenspull

Player Information

Name: CAPS
Age: 18
AIM SN: MA YO NAI SU
email: hnnrgh@gmail.com
Have you played in an LJ based game before? Y
Currrently Played Characters: N/A
Conditional: Official Reserve Link: Here.

Character Information

General
Canon Source: DC Comics.
Canon Format: Comic books.
Character's Name: Damian Wayne/Robin
Character's Age:10
Conditional: If your character is 13 years of age or under, please clarify how they will be played. Damian is very, very competent in fighting. He's been trained from birth by assassins; many of them masters of their field. Thus, surviving in a setting with monsters constantly out to kill him is something he could most definitely manage. In fact, as it is implied that his trainers showed no mercy during their sessions with him, being in constant danger is something he is accustomed to. This is proven by, and I quote, "Finally. People trying to kill me. Something that makes sense." Furthermore, Damian is mature beyond his years. Though he looks like a child, he speaks like an adult. He is very capable of thinking and rationalizing, and also well-educated -- possessing knowledge that spans from management to mechanics to random trivia. Also, despite being the Robin to Dick's Batman, Damian is capable in his own right. He rarely ever falls behind or 'screws up', and sometimes even pursues his own leads successfully.

What form will your character's NV take? A watch with a touchscreen, maybe.

Abilities
Character's Canon Abilities:

Damian is genetically perfect, but how this affects his capabilities has never been fleshed out in canon. Therefore, I'm assuming he has the strength, speed and agility of a trained, athletic ten-year old boy. Because of his training, he is good at many things. They include:

♜COMBAT

He was trained by assassins, so I assume he knows quite a lot about fighting. How good he is, and how many different kind of martial arts he knows is not specifically mentioned in canon (to my knowledge). However, he can hold out against several ninjas at the same time pretty comfortably. Furthermore, despite being ten, the people around him are rarely worried about his safety. Rather, they tend to worry about the safety of the ones opposing him. This must mean he's pretty good, if anything. They wouldn't let a ten-year old go up against the dangerous and batshit insane in the first place, otherwise.

♜WEAPONRY

His main weapon is the katana, and he seems to be pretty good at it! Damian has also been seen using grappling hooks, boomerangs (both of those, bat-requirements), brass knuckles, longbows, bazookas, a flamethrower and several other weapons. He claims to be able to shoot 'most anything from an M-16 to an AK-47'. He has also been taking target practice from very early into his childhood.

♜VOCAL-MIMICRY

Perhaps a natural-born skill, or another thing drilled into him, Damian has a knack for imitating voices. He can pick up on a person's voice and accent after only exchanging a few sentences with them. Because he is skilled in imitating voices, he is also skilled in detecting fake accents.

♜MISCELLENIOUS OTHER THINGS

●ESCAPING. He can untie himself out of most situations.
●HACKING. He can hack into computer systems, though this isn't his strongest skill. He managed to hack Tim's password, but it took him six meticulous hours to do it.
●MECHANICS. He managed to finish up the new Batmobile his father was building.
●CORPORATE SHENANIGANS. He once led a Board meeting at Wayne Enterprises, his father's company. As Board Director, Damian solved the mystery of financial irregularities within the company by investigating into charity donations -- something nobody else was MEAN enough to do.
●PILOTING. Damian claims to have made his first H.A.L.O dive at a young age. Bruce also let him pilot his rocket.
●EXTREME WHEELCHAIR TOSSING. He tosses wheelchairs. While recovering from a spinal injury and clearly needing one. What is this child I don't even --

Conditional: If your character has no superhuman canon abilities, what dormant ability will you give them?
♜ADVANCED VOCAL MIMICRY

He will acquire the ability to mechanically emulate any type of noise, and also (with tons of practice) multiple noises at a single time. It's only been made physically possible for him now, however. He still needs to learn them and practice. Sounds made by living things, such as animals and other humans, will be quite easy for him to imitate. (He already knows quite a bit about that, anyway.) Sounds made by non-living things, however, will be considerably harder. Sounds of frequencies beyond the human ear's capability to register will be exceptionally difficult and tedious to imitate.

Weapons: A utility belt with batarangs, bat-grenades, a grappling gun, and other tiny gadgets. Also, a katana.

History/Personality/Plans/etc.
Character History:
Damian Wayne is the scion of two ever-warring worlds: One of murder, drugs and terrorism; the other of capes, cowls and justice. His mother is Talia Al Ghul, daughter to the international eco-terrorist Ra's Al Ghul, and his father is Bruce Wayne, none other than the Goddamn Batman himself. All it took was one night. A night Talia remembers fondly as one of passion, one shared under the tropic of cancer -- and one Bruce remembers as largely unconsensual. The ethics of an international crime empire are questionable to begin with, what more the courting practices of its princess? Fueled by the Ra's Al Ghul Empire's need for a worthy heir --her father having approved of Bruce as her spouse a long time ago -- and also her own love for him, Talia drugged Bruce and raped him. There are no mincing words here, that's what happened.

The result -- their child -- was kept secret from Bruce for ten whole years, and make no mistake; those ten years, from the very beginning to the very end, were far from what anyone would call a normal childhood. Perfection is something highly sought-out by his mother, so Damian had to be perfect in both mind and body. Not long into the pregnancy, Damian was plucked out of Talia's womb and placed into an artificial womb where all birth conditions were perfect -- far superior to those a normal human could provide. During his time in this womb, he was also genetically altered to leave no room for defect. The goal of it all was to produce the ultimate heir. Not only was Damian next in line to inherit the crime empire of Ra's Al Ghul, he was also being engineered to kill and replace Batman.

After the nature, comes the nurture. The moment he was ready to be released from the artificial womb -- or, 'birthed' -- his training begun. Day in day-out, he was being equipped with martial art skills by masters in the League of Assassins, a group of some of the strongest assassins in the world. Not only was he being trained in combat, but he was equipped with many other skills as well. While other seven-year olds were making friends, Damian was locking fists with martial artists who would kill him at the drop of a hat if ever ordered to. While other seven year-olds were discovering shooting games, Damian was shooting guns. Real guns. Along with bazookas, arrows, machine-guns, flamethrowers -- you name it, he's used it. While other seven year-olds were creating neopets accounts, Damian was learning how to hack into computer systems. Generally, there wasn't a lot of room for 'fun' -- or what most children would consider fun -- and his mother herself was rarely ever present to spend time with him. But hey! If it's any consolation, she did provide him with any material possession he ever set his eyes on (A private island that one Christmas, too).

As the purpose for his existence at that time was to become Batman, he had to learn about him. Talia had briefed him on Bruce's mannerisms, body language and posture, and this led to Damian connecting Batman to Bruce Wayne at first glance. (This is Kind Of A Big Deal in comics, mind you.) That was likely only the tip of the ice-burg, however. 'Batman' was elevated to a position of high prestige. He was the mortal enemy of Ra's Al Ghul, a 'worthy foe' of whom the Al Ghul house had tremendous respect for. Damian was told of his many skills, intelligence, strategic expertise and ability to consistently rise above those he crossed paths with. More than anything, this left Damian convicted to achieve that position -- to become the next 'Batman'.

His first meeting with Bruce wasn't exactly a smooth one. Talia basically abducted Bruce, made Damian's existence known to him, and dumped him at Bruce's side. Her reasoning for this was that Damian was getting too rambunctious for her to control, and that he needed discipline from 'a great man'. It is possible that she also planned to disrupt his work and keep him out of her hair for that time-being. It was a well-calculated move, too, because disrupt his work Damian did. One of the first things Damian did once at the Batcave was demand weapons and a laptop, trash the room given to him at Wayne Manor, and earn himself a batgrowl that would leave the toughest of men trembling to their knees. Bruce reprimanded him for his petty tantrums, labeling them dishonorable and unfitting of a martial artist. There was something else Bruce said that got Damian really fired up. Bruce told him that he would have 'many chances to prove himself', and Damian took this as a challenge.

Despite how much trouble he was giving his father, Damian still had an ingrained desire to prove himself. As such, he went out to fight crime that night -- an act he scoffed over just hours before. After hunting down and decapitating the ghost-themed villain Spook, Damian brought his head back to the batcave as one would a trophy. It is here he waits for his next target, then-acting Robin and his own adopted brother Tim Drake-Wayne. Damian hated Tim at first sight. It wasn't his personality, it wasn't his words, it wasn't even some 'bad feeling' or 'aura'; Damian hated Tim because he was 'Robin', a position he himself had his eyes on. Now that Damian was here, he felt it his own right to replace him; and in the League of Assassins, you kill your predecessors. Cold, murderous intent fermenting inside him, Damian put a grenade into the mouth of Spook's clammy head and waited for Tim to arrive. Something explodes, they tussle, and somehow the both of them end up fighting on top of a mechanical T-Rex found in the Batcave. Now, Tim's a pretty nice guy. He's good to his friends, and he always knows when to do the right thing. Tim actually saves the little snot from becoming chewing gum between that dinosaur's teeth! And how does Damian repay him? Shove him off when he's off-guard so he falls a good twenty-feet onto the cold, hard floor below, of course.

After nearly killing his older brother, Damian usurps the Robin title. He takes the liberty of stealing Jason Todd's -- a Robin who died on duty -- old costume from its memorial display, combining it with various other League of Assassins gear and forming his own convoluted version of a Robin costume. This makeshift Robin costume is what he continues to wear for most of his appearances until finally getting a legitimate costume of his own. His unwillingness to let go of it implies a strong desire to be the one working beside his father.

He appears in front of Batman, not the least bit sorry for any of his actions. Bruce, naturally, is furious, but cools down when Damian reveals that he knows what his mother is up to. According to Damian, Talia kidnapped the Prime Minsiter's wife and wants the Garrison at Gibraltar in exchange for her life. The both of them head out, taking a rocket that Bruce has in storage to catch up with Talia. It is here that Bruce lays out the boundaries for him. He makes Damian promise not to kill, phrasing his reasoning in a manner that convinces Damian to oblige, "Our way is stronger and more disciplined than the assassin's way. It takes skill." Basically, he spoke to Damian's prideful nature, challenging him to adopt a more disciplined method to deal with his adversaries. Damian, not wanting to appear weak, made no objection.

Once they catch up to Talia, they attack immediately. While locking fists with Talia's Man-Bat minions, Damian kept telling his mother to watch him, so eager to show her what he can do. Despite being on different sides of justice, the exchanges the two of them share are much like you would see between any other mother and child. Here, Talia reveals that knowing Damian's personality, she had expected Damian to bring Bruce to her. She had also expected Bruce to foil her plans, and defeat her minions with ease. The whole thing was orchestrated just so Bruce would know how easy it is for him to play into her hand. With that laid out, she offers Bruce a choice: Start a family with her, and she will join his war on crime, contributing her vast resources to his own. Reject her offer, and the war is between them. Naturally, Bruce does not oblige, and Tali does the craziest thing to date. Already knowing that the British military had fired a missle at them - a missle that would kill them all -- she simply stands there, waiting for it to come. At the sight of the missle, Damian scrambles to save his mother -- caring little for his own life. A lot of his internal organs are destroyed as a result, and she simply harvests new ones and replaces them.

Fast forward a few weeks, and Ra's Al Ghul - Damian's Grandfather - is partially ressurrected. He is alive, but trapped in a rotting, sensory-deprived corpse of a body. On top of that, his body is a ticking bomb; ready to cast him out at any minute. Because Damian shares Ra's DNA, he chooses Damian as his new host, assuring him that the transfer of consciousness will not be painful. Despite spending a considerable part of his life in a test-tube, Damian is not an 'it', as Ra's so kindly refers to him. Damian had a will of his own, and he was not prepared to simply give up his body and 'die'. He scoffed at mere suggestion, all too eager to defy his Grandfather. Ra's is, like his daughter, not a person who took 'No' lying down. He demanded absolute obedience, and to this Damian simply threatened to inform Batman of his return, confident in his father's ability to 'break you into little pieces.' Pursued -- on order to maim but take home alive -- by his Grandfather's ninjas, Damian sought his father's help, fleeing to the Batcave. Instead of Bruce, however, he meets his favourite person once more -- Tim Drake.

It is quite clear that at this point, Tim's opinion of Damian has sullied. Damian has no interest in fighting him this time, though. He has his priorities straight, and at that point he was honest-to-god scared to death of his Grandfather. He knew what his Grandfather was capable of, what kind of resources his Grandfather had at his disposal. Damian tries to relay information of his Grandfather's return to Tim, but Tim -- who is suspicious of his intentions -- refuses to believe him. They have a tussle as usual, and Damian knocks him out, then scours Wayne Manor for any sign of his father. He encounters Alfred, the Wayne family butler, and confides in him, expressing his fear of having his body stolen and insecurities regarding his father.

Not long after, ninjas ambush them at Wayne Manor. The both of them are taken to Ra's lair. It is here Damian and Tim have their first team-up, but Damian soon abandons him to fight the ninjas on his own. Despite working toward the same goal, it would seem Damian still has little regard for his older brother's life. Talia, Bruce and Nightwing all come together to rescue them, and in the many fights that subsequently occur, notable character-defining events include Damian defying his mother once more to find his father, Batman finally acknowledging Damian as his son, and Talia taking Damian home by force when he refused to leave his father's side.

Fast forward to after the events of Battle for the Cowl, which Damian did not have much of a significant part in, and Bruce is dead. Damian has started to live with the paternal side of his family, and Dick Grayson -- formally known as Nightwing -- finally takes on the cowl, becoming the next Batman. In a cruel irony at Tim's expense, he chooses Damian as his Robin, reasoning that the role of a Robin is given to someone in need of guidance. Dick saw Tim as an equal, but Damian was a different story. Though Damian was skilled in combat, his understanding of the moral ramifications of his actions is left to be desired. He would most likely kill again if left to operate on his own. Damian, of course, accepted this role with no objections, and continues to play one part of this most recently revamped version of Gotham's Dynamic Duo.

More information can be found at:
001: DC Wikia
002: Batman Wikia
003: Wikipedia

Point in Canon: Batman & Robin #16. Here's a quick rundown of what just happened: Dick Grayson was shot in the head by Hurt, the Joker left a nuclear bomb in the batmobile, and Bruce Wayne has returned to the present. Basically, Bruce, Dick and Damian fight it out with Hurt, but this fight is cut short when the Joker poisons all his henchmen. Bruce goes after Hurt in a bid to rescue Alfred Pennyworth, and Damian is tasked with both bringing Dick to safety and diffusing the bomb. He accomplishes both in time, and they all return to the Batcave!

Character Personality:
Look at this child, he's positively darling! With that ever-present scowl on his face, that unyielding glare, that blood-stained sword in his arms so eager to break flesh; how could you not adore him? Quite easily, actually. Most people can't stand him. This is Damian Wayne, and there's nothing delightful about him at all. At first glance, he looks like any other ten-year old boy. Short but athletic build, round cheeks, blue eyes, a colourful Robin costume if you catch him at night -- why, he looks like a child out trick-or-treating on Halloween! Then, he opens his mouth. And words come out. Mean words. Words questioning authority, words belittling competence and intelligence, words promising a swift and painful execution at his small, tiny hands. Never taught to hold his tongue, Damian simply says whatever he wants to say. If he finds someone a nuisance, he will tell them that. If he finds someone incompetent, he will tell them that. If he feels a desire to stab someone in the stomach, he will ... well, you get it. His sentences are curt and straight to the point, and they can sound almost eloquent -- or far more eloquent than most would expect coming from such a small child -- until he dishes out that occasional swear word, or starts mocking Batgirl for her chest size.

Though he does have the capability to think and plan, Damian is rash. Kicks and punches are something he gives out eagerly -- generously to the deserving, even. When he spots someone he identifies as an adversary, his immediate reaction is usually to tackle them. Questions can be asked later. When he finds someone's partnership or leadership ineffective, he will act on his own; this 'acting' usually comprising of abandoning his teammate in a huff, hunting down that week's villain and beating them until he gets what he wants. This, unsurprisingly, gets him into a lot of trouble -- the life-threatening kind, hardly anything like a slap on the wrist. Fortunately, he usually has someone to back him out; though they may not get a 'Thank You' for it. On top of being rash, Damian also has quite the temper. This is something neither the rogues nor his own caped 'family' are excused from. Probably a result of being raised spoiled -- anything he wanted from a hydrofoil to a private island having been presented to him on a silver platter back when he still lived with Talia -- Damian will throw a tantrum if he cannot get what he wants. One of the first things he did after meeting his father for the first time was complain about not having his own laptop, and hurl the plate of food that was provided for him at the closest wall. He has mellowed out considerably after taking on the role of Robin, but he may still lunge at someone in bluster from time to time.

Damian can be cocky. He has high confidence in his abilities, particularly his combat skills. Having been trained from Day One by masters in the League of Assassins, there isn't a lot about fighting that Damian doesn't know about. As such, he has a tendency to dish out death threats without first knowing how good his opponent is. He'll talk big, even if there's no guarantee he can deliver; And when it becomes true that he cannot deliver, you'll have to cut off his tongue before he'll admit to being weak. This was very evident in one of his frequent tussles with Tim Drake-Wayne. When Damian's constant mocking finally hit a nerve and earned him a punch from Tim, Damian's immediate reaction was not to apologise or cower, but to make the excuse that he let Tim have that punch so he'll feel good about himself. Furthermore, his arrogant nature makes it very difficult for him to accept help from others. He believes he can do everything on his own, and he will try, until it becomes evident that such is not the case. Even after being held dangling by the neck ten or twenty storeys above the busy traffic below, even after being thrown over the edge while still recovering from paralysis, he maintained ---his calm demeanor at that time implying that he honestly believed it -- that he could save himself somehow, and gave Dick no 'Thank You' for swooping down and grabbing him before he joined the roadkill below.

Competence is very important to Damian. His mother was a perfectionist, and it is without a doubt that the League of Assassins that raised him were highly-trained and perhaps unrivaled of their field. This left Damian with an appreciation for the skilled, and a disdain for the unskilled. His differing treatment toward those he deems competent and incompetent is very painfully apparent. To the ones he deem competent, there is less mocking. He speaks with respect, and may even perform gestures most would consider 'nice'. An immediate example would include Colin Wilkes. Colin is a fellow ten-year old who has teamed up with Damian with satisfying results. In thinly-veiled gratitude, and perhaps to enlist Colin as a potential ally, he gave him a motorcycle to make his crime-fighting operations smoother. Damian has yet to be seen giving anyone anything otherwise. On the other hand, to the ones he finds incompetent, Damian is a pest. He will pick at their flaws -- whether relevant ones like a sloppy fight style or inability to keep up, or irrelevant ones like the impracticality of their hairstyle and the size of their chest -- and constantly express his disdain until the very mention of his name can leave throbbing veins in his victim's forehead. He can hate them, or at least tell them that he does, based on this perception of incompetence alone. It doesn't matter if he actually knows them well enough to have a real reason to or not. Stephanie Brown -- Batgirl -- is an unfortunate victim of a lot of this treatment. Tim Drake-Wayne is another.

Though his criticism of Steph's ability is based on objective observation alone, his many criticisms directed at Tim have more emotional roots. Tim is -- or was -- Robin when Damian first met him. Bruce's Robin. His Father's Robin. Not only was Tim Robin, but he was also the adopted son of Bruce. All of that alone was enough to make Damian classify him as a rival, and almost take his life at the second meeting. He found Tim unworthy, and he barely even knew him. It is unclear if Damian still harbours this mindset, but back then he believed strongly in his birthright. As he is Bruce's only biological son, he saw himself deserving of the fortune and also the Robin title -- that place at his father's right hand. Tim was but an obstacle, and in the League of Assassins: You kill anyone who gets in your way. Thankfully, the two of them can function in the same cave now (for the most part), but Damian continues to mock him every chance he gets.

His upbringing with League of Assassins has shaped him in many ways, few of which pleasant. Damian's moral compass can only be described as skewed. He has killed, and will kill again if not for the promise he made his father. Damian's fighting style can only be described as offensive. If the opponent is deserving, he punches to wound and slices to draw blood; he does not wait for the other to attack and go on defensive. In fact, he may question why the people around him fight defensively at all. There are a lot of things that make no sense to him, but fighting does. Killing does. People trying to kill him does. Those were words that came out of his own mouth, and they imply many brushes against death supplied by trainers who spare no chops or slashes. Even as Robin, he has shown a willingness to kill dangerous criminals on several occasions. He takes that promise at face value, you see. Non-lethal force is simply a job requirement to him. He does not have the compassion to register its importance. That is why Dick chose Damian as his sidekick over Tim. Damian needed someone to remind him of his limits.

Behind the sarcasm, blunt nature and general unpleasantness, Damian does have a desire to do what's right. If the ruthless way he deals with criminals -- how ruthless directly proportional to the severity of their crimes -- indicates anything, it's this. He's not quite at the level of adhering completely to the superhero moral code, but he may get there someday. Killers who choose children as their victims get a particularly strong reaction out of him, perhaps because he identifies with others his own age. At the sight of the corpses of Victor Zsasz's young victims, Damian was physically repulsed. He gagged, then seethed -- probably already planning to give Zsasz a taste of his own medicine. He nearly did kill him, too, but stopped his sword at the last minute -- just an inch or two short of severing the spine. Damian takes his job seriously, and will try his darndest to save those who are helpless. If he cannot accomplish that, he takes the responsibility onto himself. Sasha was a girl he failed to save from Professor Pyg. The trauma caused her to go insane and join forces with Jason Todd, this time taking on the alias 'Scarlet'. After encountering Scarlet, Damian recognised her immediately and felt obligated to her. Despite the fact that she tasered him, slashed him and knocked him out, he still fulfilled this obligation by saving her from Flamingo.

Damian, in Dick's words, 'bleeds a need for acceptance', particularly from his parents. He wants them to love him the way he loves them, though he may never admit it. When his own mother placed an implant into his spine, using it to control him and force him to kill Dick, Damian did not despise her for it. He was disappointed, maybe even hurt. Most people who attempt the same thing would likely get a jaw broken, but all Damian did was ask to talk. After Talia rejected his decision to continue operating as Robin and subsequently ousted him from her family, Damian was visibly dejected, but duly accepting. His relationship with his father is also something far from perfect, and this is a source of insecurity for him. Bringing it up can hit a nerve and most likely silence any mocking or harsh words. He harbors a strong idolization for his father, constantly gravitating to him and choosing him over his mother. He wants nothing more than to prove himself to Bruce, and that is why he had his eye on the mantle of Robin from the start. Because it is the 'Batman' and not the 'Robin' that motivates him to take on the role, Damian once threw his crest on the floor in a huff when Dick's performance failed to impress him. He accused Dick of making a mockery of his father's image. (Thankfully, Damian has since had a complete change of heart.)

In general, Damian is a monster who's growing to fit the shoes of a boy. At his first appearance, he had no compassion or sympathy -- having never been showed such himself. All he had was a strangled craving for affection, and one he did not know the right way to go about expressing. After meeting his Father, Damian was introduced to a brighter world -- a more honorable way to live his life -- and people who actually treated him like a person. The more people that subsequently entered his life, the more 'human' he started to become. Now, Damian has begun to show positive traits, namely: responsibility, empathy and attachment. He's begun to elevate people beyond the impersonal 'partner', 'rival' or 'nuisance', and he's started to accept others as a 'friend'. This alone is a big development for him, having been raised in a world where worth is only measured in competence. He may not have the overbearing love for humanity that some others do, he may not be gentle; but under Dick's guidance, he is learning.

. . . These things just take time.

Character Plans:
"Robin" will be fighting supervillain assholes, regular assholes, monster assholes, finding a way home, and being a prick at everyone.

Because the last Damian has set up a civilian identity, he will have to keep up the facade. However, I cannot see him reaching out to many people and getting involved in their business. This civilian identity will be used when he has a plot-related reason to talk to people, and likely only then.

Appearance/PB: As DAMIAN WAYNE, he's a pretty tiny guy. The DC Wikia lists him as 5'4", but sometimes he looks way too short in canon for that to be true. I'm going with an inch or three under 5 feet. He has black hair, blue eyes and is at the peak of physical condition. His civvies usually include hoodies, but he'll put on a suit for formal events.

As ROBIN, his costume is a splash of yellow, red, green and black. He wears a hoodie, a yellow cape, spiked gloves, and boots that reach just below the knee.

Writing Samples

First Person Sample

[ A child's voice, curt and rough around the edges. He has no reason to hide it -- not at this moment, anyway. He starts off with a huff. ] Information is readily available. The majority of you aren't visually-impaired.

There's no excuse for how much redundancy this network contains. [ Now that he's made his presence known, the feed closes. (Expressing his annoyance and insulting people was, of course, a bonus.) ]

Third Person Sample
Ever since the donning of the 'R' crest, Damian rarely worked alone. Dick was always by his side; sometimes delivering a humourless quip, sometimes imparting a little wisdom, and sometimes -- as much as Damian would hate to admit -- pulling the morbidly eager boy out of that occasional sticky situation. The Damian of months prior would find the whole thing absurd. Of all the things he had been trained in -- the target practice and escape artistry and long line of martial arts -- that Damian had never been trained to work as a team. The technicalities, he was well-versed; group tactics were, after all, a necessary brand of strategy for a heir that would one day mobilize an underground empire. The more interpersonal aspects of teamwork, however, were something foreign. Things like acceptance, mutual respect, trust -- anything rooted deeper than the mere expectation of competence was never taught to him. (What good would teaching an 'It' the value of 'We' even be?) So, yes, he had in fact spent his first few days as 'Robin' rejecting the very idea of their partnership. He was unwilling to obey orders or even consider them. And he did throw his crest on the floor in a very theatrical display. But that's all changed.

In fact, over time, he had grown to accept this partnership. It was more than that; it was tolerable, satisfactory -- he really, really liked it. The heart that was once cold and without a shred of mercy found its walls softening, his mind learning. He started to consider. He started to take responsibility. He started to emphatize. The ways of the League of Shadows that once shaped his entire nature begun to corrode, and from the cracks a boy was emerging. Furthermore, he may have found his first 'friend' in the older man. This was the most foreign concept of all; having that personal connection where the respect is mutual, and there was never any need to impress or prove himself. He was comfortable, and could thus humble himself to the level of a student -- modestly learning under the wing of his most honored 'friend'. The most important thing, however, was that he was happy.

Damian stirred, finding himself sprawled in the middle of an empty field by his lonesome. The last thing he remembers is clear in his mind, "Father. Now that you're back, what happens to Batman and Robin?"

He never got the chance to receive an answer -- the Pull sucking him in and enveloping him whole, then roughly depositing him where he laid then. The long, damp grass tickled at his sides, but that was only a fleeting discomfort compared to the queasy, upturned feeling that was slowly moving up to force a gag. His mind was in a whirl, and fatigue manifested itself in a systemic dull ache, but Damian simply focused on trying to stand up. Tolerating such discomforts was something in his conditioning. Dealing with residual uncertainty, a wavering doubt over whether his father had outright dismissed that question and his entire position along with it, was not.

But clearly, none of that mattered. He was in a foreign place, and other priorities were due. Straightening out his frown, Damian turned his attention to his surroundings. An old, abandoned baseball field with signs that littered the walls. The field was obviously no longer in use, yet the signs looked brand new. It didn't take much to figure out that there were others in his same situation, as well. The largest thing of note was the watch attached to his wrist, however. It was a computer of some sort, with a touchscreen and cordless headset. Turning it on confirmed that there were others like him; a whole network of text entries, voice calls and video logs were made available to him, an option to make his own post sitting by the corner of the screen. It made little sense for someone to keep their captives so well-connected, but what part of his colourful experience that day made sense? Damian started to read.

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