batmanschmatman | 016 [audio]

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016 [audio]

So, don't get me wrong, I appreciate that there hasn't been much mass murder and mayhem since we got back from port. Aside from all this politics stuff that I'm not getting into - by personal choice, I trust the rest of you who are actually more involved with the situation to be able to sort it out - I think it's pretty safe to say things have been pretty quiet, all things considered.

And that's fine. Seriously, I'm definitely not complaining about the apparent lack of horrible crisis situations with dozens of people dying or anything like that. Heck, I've even been kind of enjoying having some time to take it easy, I guess.

But it's the excessive down time I really can't figure out what to do with. I mean, sure, it's nice to have some time to relax and hang out in CES or watch movies or whatever, but I'm used to always having something to do with myself. And I don't just mean helping out an inmate or something, like a tangible case or something to work on. People to interview, places to stake out, paper work to file... I was basically living from one difficult case or catastrophe to the next, and without that everything's felt kind of... weird, these last couple days. I guess somewhere between being a cop and coming here I forgot how to just be used to having some free time to kill.

Anyone got any suggestions on how to cope until the next catastrophe?

[Private to Steph]

Sorry I skipped out on lessons without warning you about it. You up for some more practice later tonight?

[Private to Hayley]

This doesn't change anything.

[ooc: So this is an audio because Dick broke his nose. And it's sort of a funny/embarrassing story, the bruises are still really colorful/noticeable, and therefore no video for you, Barge. Infirmary folk would know it happened twoish days ago in CES while sparring with Costigan, who broke/fractured one of his ribs. IT WAS AN ACCIDENT. :| ]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Well, after Costigan made that gloriously public reply and then asked about my nose, I think anyone who cares about what I post knows. And the infirmary staff knows, obviously.

[And he's going to start attempting to tidy up a little bit, which mostly means trying to organize the piles of stuff he has all over the place. Fortunately, all the stuff tying him to the vigilante community was safely tucked away, but there were still books and papers and DVDs spread out all over the place.]

[Ariadne nodded, taking that answer, but when he started to clean up, she had to protest.]

You don't have to. I don't mind. Really.

[And considering how her room had stacks of pages of drawings from a night or so of finding it difficult to sleep, she wasn't about to start pointing fingers.]

No, it's okay, I should try and straighten up anyway.

[At least the room had been put back together after the detox thing. That was something.]

[Ariadne really didn't know whether she should help or just stay out of the way, so she sat down on the couch and waited for any kind of instruction.]

It's not that bad.

[He shrugged.] Guess it could be worse.

So, you've been here about a month now, right?

[Ariadne nodded, still watching him.]

Yeah, just about a month.

[It'd passed pretty quickly, actually.]

You're two months, right?

Yep. Sort of already feels like I've been here forever though.

[He grabbed a stack of books and started re-shelving them.] So, what do you think?

Of... the Barge?

[She raised an eyebrow, considering. ]

It's an adventure.

It's definitely different. You miss home at all?

Not really.

[She was here for a purpose, after all, and that purpose kept her driven to stay.]

Do you?

[Dick paused for a moment before shrugging and continuing to shelve the books. It was a lot more complicated then just a yes or a no.]

Sort of. Parts of it, anyway.

You like to keep busy.

[She'd read his entry, despite her first question being completely unrelated. Still, she's watching the titles of the books he shelves, reading for hints about him.]

Yep. It's definitely been a transition. I actually can get sleep here.

[Upon closer inspection, she'd find a lot of them are just general good books, maybe leaning a little towards sci-fi and crime dramaish stuff, with a healthy smattering of nonfiction covering just about everything from the history of martial arts to criminology to biographies.]

[Martial arts. Hmm. She supposed that could be slightly normal for a cop. Criminology made sense. Sci-fi made her smile mentally. ]

You mentioned that. Is it really something you don't like?

[Finished with that stack, he started trying to reorganize some of the papers on his desk, looking over with a smirk.]

What, sleeping?

[Ariadne smiled at his smirk, raising her eyebrows at him.]

Yes, sleeping.

[She really liked sleeping, probably a little more than the usual person, especially now that she'd started to remember some of her dreams here and there. It took practice definitely, but she'd been improving until a few nights ago.

Before talking to Eames, she hadn't ever seen dream sharing as akin to murder. She'd been surprised to even hear that they were going to destroy Fischer's relationship with his father, but to hear that with she had aided in, essentially, the murder of a man, she'd been utterly shocked. The only time the architect had ever raised a weapon against someone was Mal, and that was after she'd shot Cobb. Even then, it'd left her out of breath. Then, Crane arriving back so soon after that had made her jump to conclusions she shouldn't have; she knew about Bargetwins.

The thought of killing Fischer had kept her up one night already; it disturbed her, deeply.]

I just don't really have time for it, back home. Plus I've kind of had problems sleeping since I was a kid, so busy schedule, plus general insomnia... There you go. Not really something I spend a lot of time doing, usually.

[And he still kept weird hours, even if he didn't really have anything specific to be doing at four in the morning on the Barge. Probably just out of habit - because he'd been doing this since he was a kid - but at the same time, it felt weird being able to get this much.

And, as stupid as it sounded, if he wasn't exhausted when he went to sleep, he did have nightmares more often then not about a variety of things. Lately they'd been a little focused on not being able to save Costigan in time when he'd sliced himself up in the bathroom, but there were general stress dreams left over from home too. Training with Steph until the small hours of the night had been helping get them under control, but it was still unpleasant.]

[His answer didn't quite meet what she'd been expecting as a response, so she rephrased:]

Do you not like sleeping? Even when you do get it?

[He shrugged casually.] It's okay. I mean, we need it to survive, so I'm definitely not complaining if I get a couple hours here or there.

[Regular, nice, preferably dreamless sleep could be great.]

[That answer actually told her what she wanted to know. He didn't like sleeping for one reason or another. He needed it to survive, but nothing more. She jumped right onto the topic. The most common reason to not like sleeping was nightmares, right? That or being unguarded and having secrets, but she didn't think that he knew that people could steal things from you while you slept.

Her voice dropped a little, despite the fact there was no one else in the room:] What kind of nightmares do you have?

[Dick fielded the question casually enough, shrugging again while going to put more books back on the shelf. It wasn't the most out of the question leap in conversation, she apparently did the whole dream sharing thing, and they were on the topic of sleeping anyways. Nightmares wasn't an out of the question topic.]

I don't know. Work related stuff, mostly, I guess, if I have them at all. [Which again, didn't generally happen if he was exhausted.] Why, what kind of nightmares do you have?

[Throwing the ball back in her court could give him an idea of why exactly she was asking.]

[Ariadne didn't like having the question turned back on her, but he'd given an answer after all, even if she didn't quite believe him. While she knew he likely wouldn't have an elevator of key nightmares, the architect was now even more curious, if not concerned. Would this be affecting his waking hours too like it did Cobb?]

I don't really have nightmares.

[Hers was more along the line of not sleeping period. Rather than getting a couple hours before a nightmare woke her. But, she's trying to turn the conversation back around.]

And when they're not work-related?

[That was a little more complicated, and for a fraction of a second, he was torn between making up a lie, a half truth or just telling the truth. He didn't like talking about what had happened to his parents, or revisiting the night they were killed, and part of him wasn't sure he should open up to her more then he already had. Clearly, the last time he'd done it on the Barge, things had ended badly. He didn't want that to happen again.

So, after considering for a moment, something he could probably pass off as just honest thinking it over, since dreams were hard to remember anyway, he just shrugged and went back to organizing the books.]

You know, typical I slept through an exam, I'm in the wrong class, that sort of thing. Nothing too exciting.

[Of course, that didn't really explain why he'd had issues sleeping since he was a kid, but this was also sort of a test of how observant Ariadne was. She could brush it off and accept it, or put the pieces together, and part of him was curious about how that would happen. It might give him an idea of how much or how little he could tell her about back home to protect his identity.]

[Ariadne had honestly expected a mention of his parents. She knew that they'd died when he was young and would explain the general insomnia as a kid. What he said, though, was something completely different and it felt like it almost fell flat on her ears; it was definitely a lie. She wasn't sure what had warranted it either as, so much as she knew, he'd been pretty open with her about himself. Or so she'd thought.]

As a kid?

[So she'd called his bluff. Not that he'd necessarily expected she wouldn't, since she'd seemed pretty intelligent from their previous conversations, but it was still interesting. He stopped shelving the books to lean against his desk as he answered, his tone a little more serious.]

My parents... My parents were murdered. I was there when it happened. [He shrugged again, still maintaining the casual but serious attitude he'd become accustomed to slipping into when he talked about this.] Kinda does stuff to you, you know?

[He elaborated quickly, but in a way that wasn't rushed or forced or trying to brush off what he'd said.] I mean, I don't dream about it as much now as I used to, but one or two slips in every once and a while.

Spammmm - I'm horrible. Drowning ghosts are also pains to put up with. >>

Re: Spammmm - WAIT WAIT WAIT. How do you drown ghosts? I am confused.

Spammmm - Oh when you drown a sim, their ghost leaves puddles everywhere. Really annoying.

Re: Spammmm - Woah! I didn't know that. /played Sims 1 mostly

Spammmm - sims 2 bb xD

Re: Spammmm - Pffffff.

Spammmm

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Spammmm

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Spammmm

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Spammmm

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Spammmm

Re: Spammmm - Also that was supposed to say "stabbed Cobb" up above. My bad. :x

Spammmm - Nooo worries <3

Re: Spammmm - Let me know if this is a little too meta. I worry.

Spammmm - That's fine!

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