#tt03 apprentice

[candy8448]

Fic idea:

Apprentice arc stockholm syndromed dick is in distress and someone needs to knock some sense into him, tells him that a real mentor would actively want their apprentice to grow to their skill level, if not surpass them in skill

Slade wanted dick to get stronger with his training, yes, but he would never, ever have let dick ever get stronger than him (so he doesnt fight back/break out and such, but strong enough to be able to use him)

[darlingdickie]

ooc: my friend made this edit for me! Since I’m making a Renegade!Dickie sideblog and all 😁

( @renegadewing )

[natostine]

Practisants by inabsurd

fandoms: DCU, Teen Titans (Animated Series) rating: M | category: gen | words: 14,612 warnings: Rape/Non-Con, Underage Sex relationships: Dick Grayson & Teen Titans, Dick Grayson & Koriand'r, one-sided Dick Grayson/Slade Wilson additional tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Past Rape/Non-con, Rape Recovery, Hurt/Comfort, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Pedophilia, Non-Explicit Sex, POV Outsider, Slade Wilson is Deathstroke, Dick Grayson is Robin, Episode: s01e12-13 Apprentice Parts 1-2, Tara Markov as Slade Wilson's Apprentice, Dick Grayson as Slade Wilson's Apprentice, Dysfunctional Family summary: The Titans finally find Deathstroke's lair. They also find a second apprentice, one with a seemingly very different purpose than Terra.

for anyone whose heard me mention "The TT03 Epic" over the past 4-5ish months, this is it. we finally made it

[beyourownsavior]

screaming frothing at the mouth excited doesn’t begin to explain how hype I am for this

Photos from my TT03 party last January Just Because

Help me pick out the date for the event to happen?

[zahri-melitor]

So I’m going to provide Potted Fanon Histories, one character at a time. Putting this all into a single timeline was too messy. If you have additions to give, would love to hear them.

Let’s start with Robin One, DICK GRAYSON.

Dick, 8-12: Haly's Circus. (Exactly who is in the crowd is up for debate. Definitely Bruce. Arguably half of DC at this point)

Dick, 8-12: Dick becomes Robin. Exactly how old Dick is for this varies depending on if the writer wants to think about Tiny Child Dick.

Dick, 14-15: Teen Titans get together. The line up of this Titans may vary but frequently looks far more NTT than Fab Five. Garth for instance is almost certainly not present.

Dick, 18-20: Bruce fires Dick or has a massive fight with him (it’s definitely getting fired, Dick does not quit), usually over Dick being attacked by the Joker. Sometimes over Dick being shot by Two-Face.

Dick’s time as Robin: largely an impenetrable black hole. He and Bruce did everything together, they were the best, etc etc. Dick calls Clark “Uncle Clark” and Diana “Aunt Diana”. Only storylines referenced will be sneaking out to try and kill Zucco, and maybe the Hanging Judge with Two-Face.

Dick’s time with the Teen Titans: As likely to just be ‘remembered highlights of Teen Titans 2003 (cartoon)’ as actual comics events, but if they are comics events it’s the highlights of NTT: Trigon, Brother Blood, Judas Contract, plus Snowbirds Don’t Fly. They’re based in New York. Dick’s closest friendship is with Wally.

Optional teen Dick storyline: ‘Dick was Slade’s apprentice!’ via some horrible mashing of Devin Grayson’s Renegade arc with TT03 (cartoon)’s Red X arc. Dick spent 6 months or so under Slade’s mental control.

Second optional teen Dick storyline: AU where he was a Talon

Dick, 20: after being fired/fighting with Bruce, Dick becomes Nightwing and moves to Bludhaven immediately. He is either working as a gymnastics teacher or training to become a cop.

Dick, still 20: goes on a ski trip with Jason.

Dick, 21: probably was a relationship with Kory. They broke up. The reasons why are unknown, or implied to be due to Mirage. If you’re really lucky there’s a joke about the wedding. (yes. Events happen in this listed order)

Dick, 21: in space when Jason dies. Has a guilt complex over this forever.

Dick, mid 20s: tried to kill the Joker at some point. The Joker lived. Little context is given for this other than maybe mentioning that Joker mentioned Jason’s death. This is the single event that has occurred during the 90s and 2000s between ADITF and UTRH.

Dick, mid 20s: is (probably) a cop. Conflict with Blockbuster, Blockbuster dies, Dick is ‘raped in the rain’ by Catalina Flores. Whether anyone remembers she is Tarantula is up for debate. This is the single thing Catalina ever does.

Subsequent to this, Dick’s just…hanging around Gotham and Bludhaven. Not a single event in Nightwing vol 1 after Nightwing 93 occurs. He’s around the Batcave helping Bruce track Jason down during Under the Red Hood.

Dick, slightly later mid 20s: becomes Batman while Bruce is dead. Insert preferred flavour of Red Robin 1 angst here. Battle for the Cowl may happen, but if it does the only aspect of it involving Dick was that Dick was reluctant to become Batman.

Dick mid 20s: raises Damian all on his own! They become incredibly close immediately and Damian never bonds properly with Bruce or SHOULD do so, as Dick’s Damian’s real dad.

Dick later 20s: Spyral arc MAY have happened. It was traumatic. Dick is now back as Nightwing.

Dick, currently: Dick has remained Nightwing since either stopping being Batman or since Spyral. No other events have occurred. He lives in Bludhaven, drops in at the Manor constantly and cheerfully teases his brothers. He may have shared custody of Damian and be living at the Manor with him part time. 

Dick, currently: is in a relationship with pick one - Barbara, Kory or Wally. If in a relationship with Wally, no event in the Flash has ever occurred. Linda who?

[scaryscarecrows]

hey!!! idk if you can help me with this but you're a fic writer so i'm hoping lol. is there a word for the trope of someone reluctantly betraying their team ie. apprentice arc robin in tt03?? i SWEAR there is and i'd like to be able to look it up on ao3 lol

Hmmm.

For Ao3, 'forced betrayal/reluctant betrayal' will likely get you results. There's not really anything on TV Tropes save for You Said You Would Let Them Go, so I open the floor to anyone who might know more than me.

[secondgenerationnerd]

1. What would be the season finale of the omega tv show? ( like how in tt03 , the finale of season 1 was robin becoming Slade’s apprentice)

2. Do you have villain ocs in the omega verse , or do the omegas “inherit” their parents’s villains ? (Like is deathstroke Mar’i and Damian’s villain, since slade hates Bruce and Dick?)

3.if you had to write a synopsis for the omega tv show, what would it be ?

2. Mostly they inherit just because I write the more fun parts, but I’m sure I could make some OCs lol

I’ll answer 1&3 together

I’d want it to feel like theTT03 show, a mix of serious episodes and comedy. And like it starts with a voiceover taking about the Justice League and the heroes that come after them, like a really serious moment, then it’s cut off with “First off, Bitch!!”, cutting to 14 year old Irey fighting with her brother. So Omega’s been a team for a year, they’re all 12-14 years old the first season.

The first season has more comedy, but lots of dark humor. Like “Who died and made you queen?!” “My mom.” I just because I do say it happens: Season ends with the most inconsequencial episode….until the last five minutes. Because that’s when the Titans (Tim, Jaime, Cassie, and Bart) show up with Chris.

Season one ends with Jon finding out Kon was killed. And him lashing out at his oldest brother. Mar’i is the first one to hug him and tell him Kon will be okay. He’s safe with her mother. And then the rest of their team hugs him. The last shot of the season is Jon crying with his teammates holding him tight, keeping him safe.

[anawrites3]

Wondering if you can tell us what the finishing school wip is 👉👈👀

Of course, love! The finishing school is an omegaverse story where omegas basically have no right at all, they’re just meant to serve their alpha and make them happy, be a proper wife and mother. The finishing school is a place where omegas get sent to to learn how to be ‘a proper omega’ and in reality it’s a place where omegas get brainwashed and trained into obedient little slaves :3

The idea is, Dick managed to avoid the school for long because Bruce did his best to hid him but they finally make a mistake at one point and the government basically breaks into manor and drags Dick out kicking and screaming because “he needs to be fixed”. Obviously, Dick fights them at every step and doesn’t listen and teachers don’t know what to do anymore – so they call the man they sometimes hire when an omega is too unruly to tame

That man, obviously, is Deathstroke :>

Of course Slade and Dick know each other from earlier, and I’m thinking about setting it in tt03 universe with apprentice arc :3 So in this world Slade would learn that Dick is an omega only after he forces him to become his appreciate but he doesn’t get all ‘omg I need to turn him into a proper bitch’ no no, he would think it’s amazing that Dick is omega and a hero and doesn’t take shit from anyone and he would want to use it because omegas can be so powerful when trained right – they can make alpha stupid with just a whine or whimper, they can wrap the alpha around their finger and get needed information with no trouble, can lure the alpha into trap with just their smell etc.

So the whole apprentice arc happens, Dick manages to get away from him, a few years passes by and that’s when Dick gets into the finishing school. He’s around 18-19 by then, I’d think, and has no idea what to expect when the teachers say they’ll have to call in the Master to train him :3 Then Slade walks in and Dick know he's fucked. And the rest of the story is Slade turning Dick into the good omega

I have mostly only outline that is still very rough cuz it’s a new idea but lemme share this bit of a dialogue I have written;

“Do you regret now not staying with me as my apprentice?” He asked, voice a smooth purr as he forced Dick’s head higher. “Do you regret running away from me?” Dick stayed quiet, teeth grinding together to stop himself from spitting out insults. “You could’ve been a free man. You could work by my side and be treated with respect but no. You decided to fight me, to go back home.” His fingers dug into Dick’s jaw, forcing him to stay still even as he leaned down enough for his breath to dance on Dick’s lips. “And now you’re here. Now you’re nothing more than just a bitch, a slave to knot and order around. So tell me, Robin. Do you regret leaving my side?” “ “It’s a pity, really. Such a waste.” He hummed, turning Dick’s head to the left and to the right, examining. “But I’m going to enjoy finally putting you in your place, omega.”

And this little bit :3

“I believe you already know what to call me, omega.” “...Master.” “Good boy.”

You can ask me about my wips right here

[theonehitwonder]

the apprentice episodes in tt03 are actually really funny because without the subtext, the situation is that Slade wanted to adopt Robin, and decided the best way to attempt this was to harass him until he reached a state of severe mental distress, to the point of having nightmares about him, upon which Slade finally makes a very credible threat on his friends’ lives if Robin didn’t live with him. Ridiculous behavior.

[pin-crusher2000]

do you think death stroke would be impressed with the Grayson twins ( like how he was impressed with dick in tt03 and took him as his apprentice)

Impressed: definitely, due to how they were trained and have powerful mixed blood due to their mother.

Apprentice: nah, maybe try to “mind-control” them (unless that’s how Robin became his apprentice, been ages since I watched the show)

Also: I’m 50/50 spilt on deathstroke being a……well……..he should stay away from teens and kids if you know what I mean lol 😅

[candy8448]

Do you have a recs for fics based on the Apprentice arc?

Ooohohoho yesss, you've come to the right person. I have quite a lot of fics to rec (ive been obsessively consuming and hyperfixating like mad on the apprentice arc in particular):

(Also i consider haunted to be part of the overall apprentice arc so there are a few fics based on and set after that episode)

First you can look at the tag "dick grayson as slade wilson's apprentice" on ao3 and there are hundreds of fics, with every dynamic and characters you could want, these are just my favorites ive read (put very very vaguely in an order going down from my most favorites):

Never Alone

My favorite, its a masterpiece, its amazing! After haunted robin continues to have hallucinations and its a finished longfic that gives a really good look into robin's mental illness and how he is still only a human. I made a whole post about this fic and how its perfect in every way, i have not binged a longfic this long in forever but i did this one in a single reading session because i was completely and utterly gripped

More coherent and detailed but completely spoiler free rambles about what makes this fic so good here i cannot stress enough how this is a must read if you like the arc. I like, really really want you to read this one

The voice and gears of sunset

Oneshot set right after robin is rescued from slade in the apprentice arc. It hits so hard and hurts. Robin's recovery and him trying to connect again with the titans after what he had gone through, the titans being there to help every step of the way. The ending melts my heart

Emotional motion sickness

Oneshot set many years later when the batfam is fully formed and robin is nightwing. A good fic with dick and damian's brotherly relationship and discovering new ways to cope. There is an encounter with slade and that scene fills me with so much undescribable emotion

The fight and the war

Oneshot with the batfam. After an encounter with slade, dick is interogated with his family about the way he responded to slade's commands in the battle and how it could have gotten him killed. Dick is forced to admit what happened back when he was with the titans in the apprentice arc. Very good protective batsiblings in a different way to the other fics

Bedeviled

Oneshot set right after haunted. The spores have a lingering effect and robin presses an emergency distress signal to batman who is there for him

To pick at a scab

Years later with the batfam dick comes to the batcave and his younger brothers have some questions about a sound recording from his time with slade. Dick is thrown into a vivid flashback and the batfam break him out of it and help him talk through it. Oneshot

Just the same

Robin deals with stockholm syndrome and cant help but compare how similar or even better slade is than batman. The titans are there to help him figure things out. Oneshot.

Reforming Nightwing

Unfinished longfic. The titans never find iut about the nanobots and dick is forced to be slade's apprentice for 9 years. After Slade is killed and dick is able to excape, he goes to bludhaven where he picks up a new civillian name and the new identity nightwing. Meanwhile tim and steph want to figure out who this new "nightwing" and what his connection is to the villian "renegade"

Do you think batman will give me partial custody?

Oneshot. After the apprentice arc, robin returns to gotham. Unable to figure out how he feels about the situation he goes to his parents' graves where he encounters harely who helps him start a conversation with him about the abuse they both faced

The apprentice

Unfinished longfic where the titans dont discover the nanobots and robin has to continue being slade's apprentice. He spends his time figuring out how to get a message to the titans or to batman or to anyone without slade knowing

Next to my robin and some matchsticks

Oneshot set after apprentice part 2 where the titans patch up robin's wounds and talk about some scars he has, some from his time before the titans and some from slade

Update: since making tthis post, any good fic with the slade and dick dynamic that i read snd liked i have put in this collection

Update update: here are my thoughts on this fic i also found

[arobberry]

fjjrjeidkskska okk (i'm a bit nervous of talking about my hcs but i'm so happy you wanna hear it fjjskaka)

so

i really like the TT03 apprentice arc

so, i kind of have an "au" that it happends (but way differently)

and in this au, after everything he's not "rescued" just by the titans but also by batman and superman.

at first batman tried to "talk him out of it" but he gets terrified of bats and always runs away (bats doesn't know why yet, but its bcs slade kept saying shit to him, and with his own problems he keeps(?) thinking bats will arrest him or send him away and being completely disappointed at him by what happened), so he calls supes, that is able to convince him to go back.

he can't face bruce yet, so clark takes him to the kent family farm. he spends some months there w them, just trying to get over everything.

bruce visits him a lot and they figure it out after some time.

the Titans go there a lot too, kf and donna also went there and spent days with him nfndkakakao

and clark is even closer to him after this because he's one of the only people who knows everything that happened

(just for context, this au apprentice arc went for 1 year and some months, and terra is also there with him cuz i love her (she also goes to the farm bcs i can))

i got carried away, and i hope it's understandable jcjrjekkakakaoa. i can't really write that well (and english isn't my first language cjjdjdjwkaka)

Whenever someone asks me why I like that much Dick and Clark's uncle-nephew relationship, or why I think Clark is also another father to Dick just like Bruce, I just have to show these pictures:

[zeroducks-2]

Okay but did Slade really slept with Terra or was it just heavly implied??

Hi Anon, I assume you're talking about tt03 Slade and Terra. If your question is "is there a scene or a line of dialogue that shows with irrefutable proof that Slade slept with Terra", then the answer is no. And I'm sure that if you talked with whoever wrote the show, they would swear up and down that Slade never committed rape, statutory or otherwise.

This is because it was a kids show. They could only heavily imply things, and they were walking a fine line of censorship the whole time. Did you know that they wanted to name him "Deathstroke", but they were forbidden from doing that because it was "a word too dark for a kids show"? And so they had to call him Slade which luckily worked very well. With this in mind, imagine just how many things they had to cut from the final product, and how many things are overly watered down.

For example they couldn't show blood, but they did show Slade beating the everloving shit out of the kids. Especially in the episode "Haunted" it's really violent, imo, more violent that whatever is happening in DC comics in 2022. Or the way Slade himself dies, by falling into lava, is as "kids friendly" as possible, or how Terra magically turns into a statue instead of yk dying buried by rubble. Or the fact that instead of saying "Robin suffers from crippling PTSD after what happened to him in the Apprentice Arc", they had to come up with "oh yeah he smelled Slade Dust from the man's mask and now he hallucinates".

The rape aspect goes by the same principle. They couldn't put anything explicit in the text because it's a kids show, and so they just heavily implied things. Like the way Slade holds Robin down with his pretty little behind up in a presenting position, tells him "good boy, I want you to call me Master". Like the way Slade manhandles Terra and then grooms her, and later on interrupts her during her date with Beast Boy right when the two are about to kiss. He could have picked any moment, but he barges in and starts poking Terra to show her true colors (meaning, her allegiance with him) only when she and BB starts getting romantically close (and later on, Slade focuses on wanting Terra to kill BB specifically, using a sharp rock, while controlling her through the suit). Or like when he rips Raven's dress off of her for no reason.

I don't need to see blood on screen to know that this man was hurting the kids, and I don't need to see one of the kids naked on a cot to know that rape happened.

So, the answer to your question is "it's just heavily implied" without anything textbook, because it could only be heavily implied; there was no way on earth that anything more explicit was going to pass the censorship ban.

[lemonandpie]

I know you ship it, but can you talk about Slade/Dick for the ship ask thing?

Ship It

What made you ship it?

Fun fact I never actually saw a Slade episode until recently. I wasn't one of the cool kids and couldn't watch Teen Titans consistently (didn't have the channel) so I didn't know about Sladick until 5-ish years ago when I stumbled across some good fic. And we all know I am so so so into hero/villain ships. Then last year I was in the mood for Brudick again and ran out again and came across all these fics where Slade had turned Dick into his apprentice and then I found clips from TT03 where Slade was battering Dick all while speaking in that voice

...anyway that took me from dipping my toe in to typing furiously at the bottom of the ocean

What are your favorite things about the ship?

They give me everything! Slade dragging Dick to the dark side. Dick trying to drag Slade to the good side. Meeting in the middle. Sweet fic, dark fic, full on horror porn. The Nightwing Protocol's existence! Fucking nicknames and "call me Master" and all the brainwashing tropes! The mentoring element and the age difference and how their dynamic just oozes drama and sex

(there's an HBO adaptation yet we still don't have a intense Sladick sex scene. CRIME.)

Is there an unpopular opinion you have on your ship?

I think Slade should always be a little mean. He needs to have that brutality either on display or hidden under the surface. He knows Dick the best of anyone, but uses that to manipulate rather than support. The difference between a light Sladick fic and a dark one lays not in Slade's behavior but how much Dick is into it.

But I also think that even at his worst, his cruelest, his most brutal, Slade should still respect Dick. He praises Dick's abilities even as he takes them away from Dick forever

[everydarkcorner]

Funny story, I rewatched the Apprentice Arc episodes as an adult. And I've realized how sexually charged Slade and Dick's interactions are. Like, Robin undressed in front of him off screen to put the apprentice uniform on. And there's the whole "Haunted" ep where Dick hallucinates Slade and self-harms while ripping his own clothes. And how obssessive they are when it comes to one another.

And don't get me started on Slade's creepy behaviour towards Terra or Raven. Even in a cartoon for kids Slade is a pedo lmao

YES YES YES YES YES YES

I have an old post somewhere that’s literally just a list of Slade quotes from that show that sound. SO PERVY. Plus all the touching, grabbing, obsessing, comparisons from both Slade AND Robin that the characters are very alike. No wonder we all got brain rot.

TT03 was a gift to Sladick shippers and I’d like to thank the writers for sneaking all that shit past the censors ten years ago. ❤️

[fantastic-nonsense]

DID I SEE AN APPRENTICE AU IN YOUR WIP LIST?!? For the ask meme, SPILL ABOUT THAT ONE.

Lol yes, yes you did:

Summary: “Slade has decided that he is in the market for an apprentice, and what Slade Wilson wants, Slade Wilson gets.” An exploration of the Teen Titans Apprentice arc as it might have occurred in the Young Justice universe.

This is a fic I've had on the backburner for years that's set in the YJ cartoon universe, but ultimately pulls from about six different places (including post-Crisis canon, post-Flashpoint canon, the DCAU, and the Teen Titans cartoon). It's set between S1 and S2, when Dick is ~16 and just transitioning to Nightwing, and also has Jason in it in addition to The Team :)

Because look: in the comics, Dick was never Slade's apprentice. Ever. As Renegade, he worked with Slade as part of an attempt to infiltrate the Society of Supervillains, but he was never Slade's subordinate or student (and was in fact training his daughter Rose at the time). HOWEVER, please consider that it was very sexy of TT03 to create the Apprentice arc because it makes for some very excellent plot bunnies about how to recreate certain aspects of that plot in a completely different universe that actually self-invites the opportunity for Batman and the Justice League to get involved.

Anyway....Dick gets lowkey recruited by Deathstroke on a mission and turns him down only to get kidnapped/forced into an apprenticeship about two weeks later. The League is off-planet negotiating some massive peace treaty the GLs couldn't deal with by themselves, so it's up to The Team, Jason, and the remaining JL members to find him (don't worry, Bruce gets involved later on).

Meanwhile, Dick is absolutely not impressed with literally anything happening to him, but thinks he can manage to get out and get home if he pretends to go along with it (Slade sees right through him, lmao). Slade is, of course, working for The Light (as he does in YJ S2), and so there's this overarching Big Plot about the Light beginning to build up all of the plans that they execute in Invasion that's happening in the background while this massive psychological struggle and tug-of-war over Dick's loyalties is happening in the foreground. And...well...that's the fic. *jazz hands* Maybe one day it will actually get written.

Ask me about one of my WIPs!