batmanschmatman | 018 [audio]

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018 [audio]

[There's a second or two of silence before Dick starts speaking, because he is very consciously trying to stop himself from blurting out "Holy _______" statements and adding Bat to the beginning of nouns, and it is quite the uphill battle, unfortunately. His "superpower" is basically adopting Burt Ward Robin's speech patterns TO THE XTREME. :|]

I'm not feeling great. Anyone needs me, I'm gonna be in my Bat-

... I'll be kind of scarce.

[Filtered to people who know THE BIG SECRET. So basically Tim, Steph, Wally, Costigan, Hayley, Spike, etc. Ask if not sure.]

Holy redundant flood, Admiral, this had better only be for a couple days. I'm starting to talk like the Robin from the BatTV Show character flood again and the Batnovelty's already seriously worn off. How's everyone else holding up?

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[He accepted the mug, still regarding her seriously.]

I am pretty sure.

We all make... Dammit. [He sighed, brow furrowing in continued frustration with the flood.] We all screw up sometimes. Learn from it, and don't make the same one twice.

["Mistake" would have to remain implied, since Batmistake just sounded ridiculous. And he seriously did believe it. They'd all made mistakes - hell, he'd gotten an entire city flattened because he'd made the mistake of trusting that Deathstroke would keep his word that Bludhaven wouldn't be touched by the Society, but he was still here, fighting the good fight. Anything less was unacceptable.]

[Ariadne nodded, recognizing the good will and very serious intention behind his words. She didn't make a joke or anything to diminish what he said, as the architect had never been the type to. With her focus back on him and away from her own thoughts, she nodded again. The architect needed to step it up and start collaborating with more of the warden population.

She was glad that Dick was here with her.]

I won't.

Good.

[He slowly drank some of the tea and didn't elaborate further, shifting his gaze from the other warden to a random spot on the wall. He wasn't angry with her, more frustrated and sort of confused, since that sort of logic just made so little sense to him in that while he could see where quitting looked easy, he knew he'd be pretty immediately swamped in self hatred if he ever did just walk out on anything, especially this. What they were doing here was important, and he couldn't just walk away.]

[Ariadne knew what it was like to get up and walk away from something. She'd gotten up after being exposed to the most amazing thing in the world and simply left. But she couldn't stay away and she had the feeling that if she got up and walked away from the Barge, she wouldn't be able to stay away either. The longer she talked about it, the more confident she felt in staying. Things would settle down.]

Thanks.

Don't mention it.

[He managed a small smile before drinking more of his tea, still sort of contemplative and frustrated. He was usually pretty good at compartmentalizing and repressing things that bothered him - maybe too good, honestly - but thinking about why he was here and why he definitely wasn't leaving any time soon was kind of depressing, and usually weighed heavily on his mind for a while afterward if the topic came up.

After a moment, he inclined his head back towards the living room and the couch.] Want to go sit back down?

[Ariadne took some relief from the small smile that things hadn't become undone and made a mental note to unpack once he left. No need to leave the possibility lying around. She nodded quietly and moved toward the living room, sparing one hand from the mug to tuck some hair behind her ear.]

Yeah.

[He smiled again and headed back over to the couch, sinking down carefully to avoid spilling his tea and sighing slowly.]

Ho-

[He cut himself off, rubbing a hand over his eyes while trying to avoid touching his still broken nose, scrunching up his face in frustration.]

I hate this. I like being able to talk.

[Ariadne pulled her knees up onto the couch so she somewhat sat on her feet and perched her mug on one knee. When he reached for her face she almost wanted to stop him, what with that broken nose and everything. To try and solve some of that frustration, she reached over for the notebook and pen, holding it out for him, silently supporting him.]

[He smiled and set down his own mug before taking the pen and notebook.] Thanks.

[He scribbled down a note and passed it off to her to read.]

I don't know if this is just the BatBarge or what, but we seem to do a lot of talking and/or hanging out in crisis Batsituations.

I think it comes with where we are.

[Ariadne smiled, feeling a little warmed up from the tense conversation in the kitchen, and sipped her tea. Oh. That's still really, really hot.]

If this were Bludhaven, I probably wouldn't set off your radar. I'm not a law-breaking type.

[He shrugged, grinning playfully before providing his answer.]

You never know. I might have run into you one way or another.

[He hesitated before adding more to it, once more holding it up for her to read when he was finished.]

Besides, if this were Bludhaven, we'd both be in a hell of a lot of Battrouble.

[Ariadne leaned over to look at the notebook, remembering what he'd said about its destruction. She'd meant a prior time, but realized it wasn't quite that obvious of an implication.]

Yeah, that's true.

[She shifted when the mug of tea got a little too warm for her knee, unconsciously closer to Dick.]

Do you think it's being rebuilt?

[He shook his head.]

Not unless they've made a lot of progress taking care of the Batradiation. I mean, maybe some Batday, but... I don't exactly have my Bathopes up.

[Ariadne looked over when he started writing again and furrowed her eyebrows a little when he started scribbling out the "Bat" in front of "hopes."]

Bat?

[Whelp, he'd been caught. He put the notebook down, looking a little embarrassed and trying to control the urge to just make his excuses and leave. Seriously, good work Grayson. Hopefully she hadn't seen the campy TV show.]

I keep adding "Bat" to Batwords. I can't really control it.

[Ariadne sipped her tea, looking a little confused. She hadn't seen Batman and the cartoon shows weren't much to her style when she was younger.]

Okay.

[She stared at him, not quite sure what she was supposed to think about it.]

Is that...? [she raised an eyebrow.] I'm sorry if it's embarrassing.

[He shrugged, wondering how to continue passing it off as embarrassing without it seeming like a big deal or something that actively could be a problem for him.]

I guess it's not the worst Batthing that could be happening. Still annoying. I can hear myself doing it, I just can't stop.

[Ariadne couldn't help but smile a little at the strange sound of 'batthing' before trying to swallow that smile down at his embarrassment.]

Yeah, sorry. I shouldn't be smiling at that.

[He laughed softly, rubbing a hand over his face again, wincing this time as he stretched the skin over his nose by accident before leaning back farther onto the couch, trying to get comfortable.]

This Batflood is giving me a Batheadache.

[She saw that wince and reached for his hand, her own was quite warm from holding her mug of tea.]

I would think so. Batheadaches sound really terrible.

[The architect was moving into teasing territory and her smile grew despite her desire to remain somewhat serious.]

[He let her move his hand away from his face, chuckling quietly again, his own sort of sleepy grin widening as well.]

I'm fine, seriously. It's healing.

Batheadaches really do suck, though.

[Ariadne kept a loose hold on his hand, a casual if not friendly touch. It was truly meant to just keep him from touching his nose anymore.]

How different are they from regular headaches? [she smiled wider at him, not quite catching the sleepy element to his expression.]

[Dick shrugged, not pulling his hand away.]

I'm not sure. I've never had one before.

[Which was... a lie. He definitely had Bat headaches before, if by Bat headaches, you meant headaches brought on by trying to reason with Bruce, which he had definitely had more then enough of back home.]

[Ariadne couldn't help but chuckle quietly at that.]

I hope some tea helps.

Yeah, it's definitely helping.

[And to prove his point, he retrieved his cup and took another sip before settling back onto the couch.]

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