app @ somarium

[staystraught]

[Player name] Kaley
[Age] 22
[Personal Journal] perpetuity
[Other characters currently played] Youji Kudou / Weiss Kreuz / coolestcat

[Character name] Dick Grayson (Robin)
[Age] 13
[Canon] Young Justice (Animated Series)
[Point in time taken from canon] After the ‘secret meeting’ in ep 18, Secrets.

[Background]
http://youngjustice.wikia.com/wiki/Robin
[Personality]
Dick is a thirteen-year-old kid—who also happens to be a superhero’s sidekick partnersidekick younger associate. He approaches this in two different ways: he is, on the one hand, conscious of the whole life-saving and better-world-making aspect of the deal; his family were the victims of violent crime and he’d rather not see anyone else suffer through that—or if they did, he’d like to get those responsible some nice, restrictive silver bracelets and a charming jail cell.

On the other hand—Robin is a thirteen year old kid. He is capable of realizing that he can hack the Justice League’s computer, beat up all kinds of bad guys, and crack jokes while doing it, and it’s actually pretty cool all on its own. The how and why of becoming Robin still causes him pain, but Robin itself is something to be proud of and enjoy.

And he is proud of it. Robin has a fairly clear idea of exactly how skilled he is, which translated to great confidence—even a smug sort of arrogance at times. He had a tendency to either assume everyone else was on the same page, or else assume that they’d catch up if they’re not. He’s not very good at explaining himself yet, but he is good at setting and achieving goals, and recognizing which goals he is or is not equal to. He knows he can usually plot a course of action to achieve a mission objective, but he was also able to (after some trial and error—mostly error) recognize that a) the team couldn’t read his mind and b) he lacked the leadership experience it would take to get everyone up to speed, delegate jobs, and generally be responsible for that many people.

While he was able to step up to the challenge when thrown into a ‘kill-‘em-all’ mental simulation, remaining calm, cool, and casually manipulating his friends to help them remain calm and fulfill the necessary objectives (a methodology and skill set his mentor, Batman, is especially famous for), he was very frank in the subsequent therapy session—he hated it. He hated being in charge, he hated making the tough decisions that—while effective—killed his friends one by one, and it made him completely rethink his life’s goals. He can be taught!

Robin’s sense of humor is usually at the forefront of what he’s doing. He is capable of buckling down and getting serious when the situation calls for it, but if it doesn’t? He has no compunctions against making fun of his friends or enemies. He counterpoints most of Wally’s attempts to look cool with sly commentary and outright (and rather conspicuously) points and laughs hysterically when Superboy gets thrown around by their combat trainer. After snarking on his best friend’s earlier beatdown. And excessively enough that Aqualad felt it prudent that he stop.

If you do something amusing, he will tell you. After cracking up, and not without an injection of sarcasm.

Despite that, his affection for his friends is sincere, and he seems to make friends with other superkids fairly easily. He was welcoming to Superboy and Miss Martian, and while his reaction to Artemis was decidedly lowkey, he later defends her very nonchalantly. He clearly isn’t as close to them as Kid Flash or Aqualad, whom he’s known for years, but he’s capable of working with them, accepts them, and tries to include them. He does like people and he likes to talk, he just tends to have an ‘I’m good and I know it’ vibe in there.

He is also rather thoughtful and observant. He’s a quick-witted, intelligent kid, who likes dissecting words and is apparently good enough at math to be honored at his school. To say nothing of his technological expertise, and the creator mentioned on his website that he has a passing familiarity with several different languages. Give him a reason to learn it, and he will sit down and do it.

At his core, though, he is a hero. He spends his free time either dodging bullets to make the world a better place, or training to make himself better at dodging bullets to make the world a better place. As mentioned, he has himself been touched very close by violent crime, and did not stop his pursuit for justice when the man responsible was caught. He’s been working as Robin for four years, longer than any other sidekick junior hero. Shows no signs of stopping; he’s committed.

[Abilities]

He’s a skilled acrobat and aerialist, trained from early childhood to be part of his family’s circus trapeze act. He’s very flexible and capable of creatively using his surroundings.

Four years of crimefighting have also given him mastery in many fields, including investigation, detective skills, and deductive reasoning. These were all taught by Batman, the World’s Greatest Detective, so the instruction was top-notch and the student is naturally intelligent enough to make good use of it. Robin is able to calmly assess crime scenes and notice the little details.

Other skills learned from Batman include stealth; Robin frequently confuses his superpowered teammates by simply vanishing without them ever noticing. Along with Superboy, who is invulnerable, he’s one of the few team members to not use a stealth-specific color palette on missions.

He’s also a skilled martial artist, with instruction from Batman and Black Canary, another well-respected and skilled superhero. He’s agile and quick to dodge, since he can’t take hits from people with super strength so easily, but still capable against much bigger opponents while still remaining nonlethal. He’s also demonstrated familiarity and skill in fighting with Escrima sticks.

Robin is good with computers, technology, and machinery. He was able to hack the Justice League’s computers based on their similarity to the systems used by Batman, and Batman owns a technology company in his civilian identity.

[Other important stuff] He likes to make up his own words by adding and removing prefixes. “Denial” -> “re-nial,” “distraught” -> “traught,” etc. He’s also going to be trying to maintain a secret identity.


[Sample post]

[First Person]

[Dick is lounging comfortably on his couch, looking confident.]

Couple questions for everybody. Say your legal guardian paid for you to take some very extensive, very expensive martial arts classes, and you wanted to keep in shape. I mean, so none of it goes to waste. Is there some kind of center for that? Or even someone who wouldn’t mind going easy on me?

[The small smile makes it clear he’s being facetious.]

I’d be willing to barter work or something, but… you’d have to be patient with me. Bored rich kid with limited skills, you know how it goes. I’m really good at math homework, is about the only thing.

So if SOH CAH TOA isn’t your friend but you can kick pretty hard, I’m free most afternoons after school.

[Third Person]

The first thing Robin noticed upon opening his eyes? While the skyscraper whose roof he was on was tall and the view was spectacular, this was not Gotham City. Or Happy Harbor. Or any place he’d ever seen before. Even Kansas would have been great right now, because at least he knew someone from Kansas.

The second thing was that it was daylight, and Batman was going to be furious with him for sleeping through Halloween. Always a big night for crime and the crazies, two things Gotham City had no short supply of, and they’d already lost valuable patrol time dealing with the meeting at Mount Justice.

A good three minutes of intense concentration yielded the confusing fact that the meeting with Batman, Aqualad, and the others was the last thing he remembered. He didn’t even remember it adjourning, just Kaldur declaring his faith in the team and himself sinking back into his chair. It was a strange place for his memories to end, but he didn’t sweat it. He could have been mindwiped again, or maybe he was in some kind of simulation that repressed his memories of ending up there. But he was pretty sure Batman and the League wouldn’t sanction another one of those just quite yet, not after the disaster of last time, which, if he was going to focus on the simulation scenario, left the Dungeon Master to be on bad guys’ side.

Still, clinging to that idea was a really good way to end up blinding himself to other possibilities, and he could almost hear Batman’s disapproval. Okay. There also was the mindwipe possibility, but it’d have to be someone who, well… Where was he?

He reached for the computer in his gauntlet, intending to use the GPS function, but the glove changed, folded up off his arm and reformed itself into a sleek, expensive-looking smartphone.

“Whoa. Pretty sure Batman didn’t do this…”

It wasn’t a model he could identify; it looked like a Blackberry, but there was no Blackberry name or logo across the top. No logo at all, not on the start-up screen or anywhere on the phone itself.

“Someone is really confident in their local market shares,” he muttered. What kind of self-respecting corporation let anything leave the production line without at least three reminders of who made it? Scratch that, what kind of anything could get into his equipment, equipment designed and built by the Batman himself, and replace it with some magical transforming phone-amajig?

It had been set up by someone. There were messages in the inbox and a contacts list already provided, with “Dick Grayson” in its proper alphabetical space. He wasn’t sure whether he should be surprised or grateful that it didn’t go all-in and call him “Richard.”

Worry, however, that it knew him at all was present and the lack of any familiar names in the contact list was discouraging. Once he was done examining it, it wrapped itself back around his arm, his own glove and gauntlet once again. His GPS tracker couldn’t locate any satellite signals, which was really just the perfect icing to a perfect day. Expecting WiFi for Internet access, or even just a way to bounce a signal to the Batcave, Mount Justice, the Hall, even the Watchtower or the Fortress of Solitude after that was a lot more optimistic than he could really afford to be, but trying only cost him time. Possibly an annoyed look if he told Batman about it later.

It’d probably be more productive to check the resources of the Blackberry ripoff, or see if he could locate some kind of life or source in the surrounding area. Just because no familiar names were listed on the contacts didn’t mean no one else was nearby. Batman, at least, could be counted on not to give up his secret identity against his will under any circumstances, and it was a grim prospect, if anyone connect that name with the costume he was wearing.

For now, however, it was not ideal to clue anyone else in to the idea that Robin, the Boy Wonder, was on the case. And his zipline gun was still in his utility belt. And the swing to what looked like a bank across the street would be pretty fun.

[Why do you want to play this character in Somarium?] Because my experience before was that it was pleasant and laidback, but now the action aspects seem to be getting dialed up. It seems like a good place to play both sides of a superhero character.

[Which rule was your favorite and why?] Stay IC, because fictional characters are interesting and I like to read about them.

[Where did you hear about Somarium?] Been here before.

[Do you need a promo code?] No, thank you.

[Any questions?] Okay, say you’re a teenage superhero trying to maintain a secret ID. I checked the posting guide and when calling, the caller ID can be set to display “Anonymous.” Can he do that when doing public broadcasts on the dreamnet, or would he have to keep changing his display name in the contact list between “Dick Grayson” and “Robin?” Either is cool.