When I first met robin, he was this... Calm child, who was always collected. To me, 'most nothing could faze the boy.
Robin. He was spectacular, soaring through the air on nonexistent wings with an inhuman grace about him.
Then, after we met the team, I noticed he became much more cheerful. He was a michevious child, who was a great hacker and could always cheer us up.
Robin, boy wonderful. He was more like the child that underneath his mask, he truly was. The kid loved pranks, and the ease at which he performed his impossible feats of flight was stunning to all who was fortunate enough to witness the bird.
After that, I met Dick Grayson. He was a billionaire's adopted son, who was also michevious and charming, despite his tragic past.
The happy mask in front of all the tragedy in his life, shielding the world from the hidden calamity in his life - and behind all those personas he held throughout his life. The last of the flying Graysons.
After Jason died, I saw his masks change. They melted away, and became darker, much darker. There was a line that none of the batfamily dared to cross. Except maybe him. Several times, he came close to crossing the line, too close. Sometimes, Nightwing wouldn't talk to the team, or me, at all for weeks.
Nightwing- the same impossible grace and unbelievable skill, but this version of him bottled his feelings up and that bottle would often explode at the worst times.
One day, I visited his home. Through the window, I saw not an graceful bird, but a boy, sitting upon the floor. I silently watched the boy. He had the same blue eyes, but instead of being calm, or the grave dark cerulean of Nightwing, they were filled with fear. Beneath his masks, he was truly just a boy. A boy who was scared. There was no trace of the calmness of Nightwing, or that of Robin. He seemed so vulnerable, compared to all those masks that I had once known.
Sometimes, it was so easy to forget that he was only human.
As I watched him curl into a ball, silently sobbing, I began to wonder.
Which was the mask? The vigilante, or the boy?
Or what if, beneath all his masks, he was just an empty shell, occupied by nothing but sorrow?