batmanschmatman | 124 [voice/spam]

Entry tags:

124 [voice/spam]

[Warden Filter]

[Dick's gone back and forth on saying something public about this, because while he's still kind of freaking out about this and knows this isn't his Bruce, he still feels weird basically siding with the other wardens/the good of the Barge instead of him. This wasn't exactly the father/son reunion he was expecting. :c] That isn't the Bruce Wayne from our world. If he says anything to anyone that gives you reason to be concerned, I want to know about it immediately.

[This is legitimate, okay, he's already talking about staging an escape attempt. B(]

[Filtered to the DC Cast]

I need you to tell me everything he told you. [This is an order, not a suggestion. :|]

[Private to Dean]

...

[Private to Sara]

...

[He was going to message you both, but he really doesn't know what he wants to say, and there's a pressing issue he needs to deal with right now.]

[Spam for Tim]

[Dick isn't honestly sure how he's processing all of this. He's angry, he's frustrated, he feels like he's running on adrenaline but doesn't have anything to do with it, which means he's been pacing and kind of shaky the entire time he's been talking to Bruce. It's stupid, he knows it's stupid to get this worked up over the Barge throwing something like this at him, and really, with all the different realities out there, he probably should have been anticipating it. But that doesn't make it any easier to deal with, and it doesn't change the fact that he's seen what that kind of psychotic break does to someone like them, and he's never really actually... dealt with the fact that he'd been killed by someone with a pretty similar mindset.

At least this time, the crazy murderous Batman apparently wasn't planning on holding a gun on him any time soon.

Which is actually the more pressing issue he needs to deal with right now, so, message composed and posted, Dick tosses his comm down and head out of his room down the hallway and knocks at Tim's door impatiently.]

It's me.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[It was a lot, finally finding Bruce and having him not be anything she remembered. He's not the person she thought of as her father. Nothing close to that.

So she kind of needs her big brother right now. There's a thud on his door, but only one because she's just kind of resting her forehead on it while she tries to decide what she's going to say.]

Today sucks.

[There, that about sums it up. Let her in Dick :c]

[Fortunately, Dick hasn't wandered too far into his apartment - it's one of the penthouses they use as a safehouse in Gotham, so it's huge - so he hears the thud at his door and goes to answer it carefully, just in case that was the sound of someone collapsing against it.

He's really not surprised to see Cass, and while he's still pretty edgy and miserable, Cass is the first non Tim member of their little clan who hasn't gotten snarky with him for being upset about this, so he's doing his level best to smother his own feelings so he can be there for her, pulling the door open to let her into the room.]

Yeah, it does. Do you need anything?

[When he opens the door, she walks straight to him and hides her face against his chest, arms wrapping around him so she can hug him. If he doesn't hug back she'll let go, but right now? Casshugs.]

Our Bruce.

[That's what she really needs, more than anything. Or Alfred, to make them tea and make things seem not so bad. But of the things they have here?]

This is... a start.

[All joking aside, even when miserable, spiraling and doing his best at imitating Bruce's worst qualities, Dick still loves hugs pretty much more than anything else on the planet, so he hugs Cass back tightly and tries to pretend like he's not maybe getting a little choked up.

He's a sap, this is not news. B(]

I've got plenty of tea, if you're in the mood for that, too. [Because lol Alfred has taught him this is apparently the solution to feeling miserable.]

Hugs first. Then tea.

[He's not the only one who was taught to cope through tea, and she expects all the other Robins and Batpeople crave tea when they're upset, too. But then she remembers what his private message said, and Cass is nothing if not a team player.]

Wanted to know things. Other Robins, other Batgirl.

He seems really hung up on that.

[Which he gets, really. He hadn't exactly been doing backflips when Tim had pretty much volunteered himself - although how much that had to do with the fact that Tim had scrap books dedicated to him was maybe up for questioning - but Tim had pulled Bruce back from the edge in a way no one else had been able to manage, and Dick really could not imagine his life without his brother.

Anddd he's sort of anticipating Bruce being an asshole or really weird about the whole thing, and it's really not helping his overprotective sibling instincts at all. B(]

Don't like it.

[Not-Bruce is worse than Not-Kon by miles and miles, but she's sure Dick understands that. You'd think there'd be one week where things didn't fall apart but apparently not.]

Can only... watch him. Tried talking, didn't work. He's... set.

He wouldn't be here if he wasn't set, Cass. The Admiral doesn't mess up with stuff like this. [He might mess up about plenty of other things, but bringing people here? He was pretty good at doing for the right reasons.]

[She just doesn't know if he'll stay that way, is the problem. He has no regret for the things he's done, he wouldn't change a single thing.]

Is there... can inmates be unhelpable?

[Dick... honestly needs to consider how best to answer that question, because honestly? There were and are people here he didn't think were redeemable. But, well. It's Bruce.

... Which actually honestly means this could go either way because he's the stubbornest person Dick's ever known, so. :\]

No.

[She chooses to trust him, because he's Dick and he's her brother and it's easier to just believe that Bruce can be fixed, somehow.]

Good.

[She should probably let go of him now, shouldn't she?

Notice how she is definitely not doing that. Barnacle Cass, yep.]

[Dick is very okay with Barnacle Cass. :c He is happy to stay like this as long as you need it.]

Sorry. Too bad the Admiral doesn't think we deserve advanced warning when this kind of stuff happens, huh?

Wouldn't really help. Would still... hurt the same.

Good point. [He'd still like a head's up. B(]

[They should make a club of all the people who feel that way. It'd be a big one.]

What should... we do?

There's not a lot we can do. Either he'll be here for years, or he'll disappear and it's not our problem anymore. [Which did nothing for the emotional baggage that went along with the whole fiasco, but. That was how this place worked.

But, well, important thing he feels like he should put out there:]

No one's going to make you talk with him if you don't want to.

Want to. He's not... ours, but. It's Bruce.

[She can't help the need she has to be with him, in his life, anywhere near Batman. She doesn't know if Dick will understand that, doubts he'll approve, but it's just something she'll have to do.]

Will you? Talk to him?

[Dick was momentarily grateful she was hugging him instead of looking him in the eye right now, because he knew she'd be able to read just how much the idea of talking to him bothered him. A year ago, he would have said yes, it's still Bruce, I want to help, I want to get to know him, but a year ago he hadn't stared down the barrel of a gun held by Tim, wearing a Batsuit, spouting the same rhetoric as this Bruce was, he hadn't been shot from three feet away by that gun and bleed out on the floor, struggling to breathe around damaged organs, and he didn't want to admit it, but the idea of watching that happen again, of seeing Bruce be willing to hold a gun on him, pull the trigger and watch as he died terrified him. He didn't think he could do that again.

And while she'd probably be able to tell anyway that he was intensely uncomfortable with this entire situation, and maybe miserable and tense and worried, he didn't want to tell her what had actually happened at all.]

Yeah. I guess so.

[She doesn't have to read him to know he doesn't want to address... something. She could tell when she got there he didn't really want to talk, and really, she doesn't either. She's there for comfort, for both of them. Making him tell her things doesn't help anything.]

Love you, Dick.

[It's accompanied with a squeeze and her cheek rubbing into him a little more. She really just wants to cuddle her brother right now.]

[Words cannot properly express how much of a relief that is. Dick usually loves talking, and it's not that he doesn't want to right now necessarily so much as he just didn't know what to say, or that there were things he wanted to say that were too hard, so this is above and beyond what he needs right now.

So he hugs her a little tighter and rests his head against hers, even managing a tiny smile at the comment.]

Love you too, kiddo.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

124 [voice/spam]

Spam

Spam

Spam

Spam

Spam

Spam

Spam

Spam

Spam

Spam

Spam

Spam

Spam

Spam

Spam

Spam

Re: Spam

Spam

Spam

Spam I will forever hate that I can't have a Cass and Dick hug icon B(