batmanschmatman | 018 [audio]

Okay. Let me know if you change your mind.

[Maybe a few hours later.]

I change my mind.

Okay, where are you?

Back in my room.

I'll be right down.

[Ariadne was sitting quietly in her room, quietly tucked on her couch with a blanket wrapped around her. It had been a questionable day so far, really, and after the previous evening of drama, the architect felt out of sorts. She didn't know if Dick wasn't feeling well because of all that or what. Still, she was glad he'd agreed to come.]

[Dick was seriously debating what the hell he was thinking, and trying to come up with some kind of contingency plan to cover up his word vomit. While admittedly, adding Bat to the beginning of words and spouting Holy not exactly relevant noun phrases without warning wasn't exactly like a "Hi my name is Dick Grayson and I'm secretly Nightwing", it still could be enough for her to make the connection, and he didn't really want that to happen.

So, he'd brought along a notebook and pen, because at least when he was writing, he could scribble out anything horrifically embarrassing/incriminating and therefore be a little more in control of what he was saying.

He knocked on the door, still not really sure what he was doing outside of making sure a friend was okay after the flood was clearly bothering her.]

[Ariadne slowly got to her feet, moving over toward her kitchen to shut the door, as she had a few bags packed in there that she'd packed as soon as she'd heard Capa's announcement that morning. When she felt secure enough that Dick wouldn't go looking, the architect tucked her totem back away in her pocket and answered the door with a quiet,] Hi.

[She tucked some hair behind her ear and stepped back to allow him in if he wanted to come in.]

Hi. [He smiled and stepped into the room, still feeling a little awkward. As long as he could control what he was saying and thought about it, things should be fine.]

I can't really talk. So - [He held up the pen and notebook as an explanation of his current plan before looking at her with concern.] You okay?

[Ariadne nodded, accepting that. It definitely wasn't the weirdest thing she'd heard. She quietly closed the door and locked it for good measure as she moved to sit back down on the couch. Was she okay? Well wasn't that the question. Things had been stressful with Hayley, and then hearing that she'd murdered someone had struck the architect deep inside. It'd been like hearing that Cobb had performed Inception on Mal, a darkening of the moral gray she'd previously perceived. Then, with the whole seeing trains thing and feeling like a big bowl of Cobb-flavored crazy, it really hadn't been that great of a few days. But still, she gave a quick nod.]

Just working on not thinking about elephants.

[But she distinctly felt like she wasn't being entirely truthful to Dick. Sure, yeah, she was lying about what she was seeing, but that was such a little thing, it was the pretending to be okay, to be professional, that felt like a bigger lie.]

[Dick nodded and went to sit next to her, pointedly not thinking about much of what was upsetting the architect. He was good at compartmentalizing, and considering he already had to focus on not slipping up and saying anything that could incriminate him, he didn't have a lot of time to think over what had happened with Hayley.

Especially because while Hayley might see things in black and white? Dick sort of did too, and murder was something he couldn't really reconcile with. It was their number one rule, and even when he knew someone probably deserved it, he couldn't do it. Hell, he'd had a total breakdown when Tarantula had shot Blockbuster.

So yeah. Definitely not thinking about that. Or elephants.

He scribbled down an explanation, pretty effectively blacking out the uncontrollable phrases.]

I keep blurting out random Batprefixes in the middle of Batsentences. It's really embarrassing.

[Ariadne read the paper quietly when she was allowed to see it and tilted her head to the side a little. Hmm. That was a little weird too, but she couldn't quite understand why prefixes would be embarrassing.]

What kind of prefixes?

[For now, she would focus on what seemed to be going on with Dick, rather than Hayley or her own possible plans of leaving. She just had to remember that she was here for Cobb. ]

[Well, that was easy enough to come up with a decent excuse for why he wouldn't want to just keep talking.]

Inappropriate ones.

[The note was accompanied by a sort of sheepish smile before he changed the subject.]

Claire gave me a Batlist of all the Batdisappearances/departures she could track.

[Inappropriate ones? She didn't quite get it. She thought pre-, re-, and the rest were pretty tame compared to some curse words. Still, Ariadne offered a smile and nodded.]

She's been tracking the disapp---

[The architect stops as soon as she hears the rumbling. The train entered from the far end of the room, giving her just enough time to seize Dick's shirt and pull him off the couch sideways and onto the floor. She's staring with her mouth slightly agape (and breath coming in a panicked hurry) as the freight plows through the other wall and out of the room.]

[Even though the grab caught Dick completely off guard, he managed to roll with it, landing neatly and able to get himself upright pretty quickly.]

Holy - [He cut himself off before finishing the statement, looking over at Ariadne with wide, confused eyes.]

What was that about? [Because while the architect looked like she was hyperventilating, there was... seriously nothing to be afraid of in here. Unless the flood had suddenly given her an intense, irrational fear of apartments or something.]

[Ariadne stared a little longer, swallowing as she tried to regain her breath. What had she told him she was seeing earlier? Elephants?]

An... an... elephant just...

[Her hand was over her pocket, she knew Dick was sitting there, she could see him in front of the damage that was slowly knitting up as if the train had never been there. Was this really reality? Quickly, she got to her feet and darted into the bathroom, closing the door. In that brief moment of privacy, she pulled out the gold bishop and knocked it over. Reality. This was reality.]

[He'd been about to try articulating another question - something along the lines of what the hell are you talking about, I grew up around elephants and there definitely wasn't one in here just now - when she got up and fled to the bathroom. After a moment, he pushed himself to his feet and followed her, standing several feet away from the door to the bathroom.]

It's just a B- [He cut himself off, swallowing slightly.] It's gonna be over soon. I promise.

[Or so he hoped, anyway. The floods he'd been around for ended pretty quickly one way or another. Still, the statement was sincere, and he wished there was something more he could do.]

[Ariadne turned on the water and splashed some up in her face. How could she be losing her grasp on reality so quickly already? She hadn't gone under since the job and had been sleeping pretty well, despite a few nights here and there that eluded her, why was she suddenly seeing things? The flood explained part of it, yeah, but not enough of it. She leaned against the sink for a few moments, tucking her totem back away in her pocket before opening the door, looking a little less than sure, cautious like she was whenever she saw Mal. Would another train come busting through the room?]

[Dick sighed, frustrated. He didn't know what he could do to help, especially if he couldn't really talk. He leaned against the wall next to the bathroom door and rubbed a hand over his eyes, careful not to touch his still healing nose more then he had to. Sure, this might have - in some ways - been better then desperately trying to find something to do to keep busy or something, but it sort of sucked that the flood was impeding his ability to try and help with whatever was bothering her, let alone communicating with anyone in general.

When she opened the door, he tried smiling reassuringly, once again carefully picking his words before speaking.] It's going to be okay.

Edited 2011-02-08 04:04 (UTC)

[Ariadne wondered just how crazy she looked to him. Seeing things and running off into the bathroom, it all had to look utterly bizarre. Still, she had to have some sort of confidence that he wouldn't make her question reality. Or run off screaming. She blinked a few times before nodding.]

Yeah.

[That got him to smile a little wider, once again tiptoeing around nouns.] I know it sucks, but... I promise you're not going crazy. It's just... [He gestured.] Where we are.

[Meaning, the Barge, but for the sake of not calling it the BatBarge, he stuck with being vague.]

[Ariadne wasn't quite so sure, she ran a hand over her damp face and tucked yet another strand of hair behind her ear.]

Sorry I... [she gave a vague gesture to the whole pushing him off of the couch thing.]

It's hard to sit still when there's a... [wait, crap] an elephant pounding through your room.

I get that. [Seriously, he got the being afraid of things that weren't actually there thing. He'd had enough experience with Scarecrow's fear gas and all sorts of other crazy hallucinations to know how crappy it felt not to be able to trust your own mind and fearing what it was presenting to you.]

It's okay, seriously. Come on, let's go sit down. Or, I don't know, do you want to try eating B- dammit. [He smiled sheepishly.] Sorry. I still can't really control it.

[Ariadne didn't really want anything to eat and didn't really want Dick going into the kitchen, but she offered a slight smile as she moved back toward the couch, stepping over the holes in the floor that hadn't quite closed yet. ]

We can go back to using a notebook.

Awesome.

[He sat back down on the couch and wrote her a new note, handing it over once he'd blacked out the offending prefix.]

So, what do you want to Battalk about?

Private - Text

Re: Private - Text

Private - Text

Re: Private - Text

Private - Text -> Spam?

Spaaaam

Spaaaam

Re: Spaaaam

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Re: Spaaaam

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Re: Spaaaam

Spaaaam

Re: Spaaaam (Permission given! )

Spaaaam I SEE NO TRAIN D:

Re: Spaaaam JERK. :C

Spaaaam SORRY :C

Re: Spaaaam <3

Spaaaam <3

Re: Spaaaam

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Re: Spaaaam

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