April Catch-alls

[pummelgranite]

WHO: Persephone
WHERE: Places
WHEN: April
WHAT: Mostly closed prompts don't mind me
WARNINGS: normal pseph blanket warnings for mental health/addiction shit

Comments

The Batcave, some time during doppleplot

[pummelgranite]

[ well there's nothing to follow up a time loop like having your Emotionally Charged Secret Identity out. Just really superb all around. Laura. She'd been doing so much work to make peace between her pieces, and now her name is tabloid fodder again.

She was wandering through the dark fairly aimlessly when she reaches the rubble pile that he'd needed to pull her out of all those months ago. So she's outside the Batcave, huh? Well no real point in going there. What had seemed like almost a second home was now just a reminder of how foolish she'd been to rely on someone else.

She does enter some of unfinished parts of the cave. Down even deeper than Bruce's lair. Down in the places she'd walked with Nico. Where Laura'd fought to survive.

What is she even doing here? ]

[the_caped_crusader]

[There's a familiar mechanical clicking from the upper platforms, by his computer. Upon closer inspection, his towering height and broad shoulders betray his identity compared to the slimmer Cassandra's. He stands quietly-- busy-- and working like nothing had ever happened, the coma and the accident, like his beard, all but a distant memory.]

1/?

[pummelgranite]

[ wait... is that.... ? ]

[pummelgranite]

[ is???? THAT?????? ]

[pummelgranite]

[ OF COURSE IT IS. OF COURSE IT IS. ]

done

[pummelgranite]

[ SHE IS JUST GONNA LEAVE BEFORE HE NOTICES SHE'S THERE. ]

[the_caped_crusader]

Hello to you, too.

[He calls out, dryly, as soon as she turns to leave, as though he knew-- he knew the whole time-- that she was there.]

[pummelgranite]

[ DANGIT ]

Yeah, same. Really appreciated the heads up.

[the_caped_crusader]

Sorry. [A pause.] I've been busy.

[Technically true. He's also only been back for as long as any other doppelganger, but she won't care, so he doesn't bother.]

[pummelgranite]

[ Oh? Oh. An apology?? She turns around without much reluctance to actually head over there. ]

Uhm. It's fine. All caught up already...?

[the_caped_crusader]

For the most part.

[An ominous turn.]

You and I need to talk.

[pummelgranite]

[ OMINOUS INDEED. ]

We're talking now, aren't we?

[the_caped_crusader]

Come here. [Tone softer, less abrasive.] I'm not sure how much time I have.

[He presses a button on the computer, an image of Bruce Wayne, beard-laden and sitting at a cafe, appears on the screen in real time.]

[pummelgranite]

[ she does scramble up the ledge and behind him. ]

Why, what's that supposed to-

[ her mouth moves faster than her brain, but the brain catches up soon enough. ]

You're not real. You're one of the rumors.

[the_caped_crusader]

[He nods quietly, confirming her suspicion, and then...]

Why haven't you told me...?

[An intimate question, lacking interrogation, as though maybe he had done something wrong to warrant her silence.]

[pummelgranite]

[ it might not be accusatory, but she still can't quite meet his eye. ]

Do you want me to?

[the_caped_crusader]

[He tips her chin up with his finger so that she's looking at him.]

If I wasn't prepared for the responsibility, I would have hung up the cowl a long time ago.

[pummelgranite]

[ Stupid, Laura, stupid. It was easy enough to tell herself she didn't need him when he wasn't there, but now she can feel her resolve crumbling.

She does look back up at him, or at least at his mask. She looks tired, and a little lost. It's a look much more like those early, uncertain days, rather than the confident stability she's been slowly building.

She doesn't have an answer for him. ]

[the_caped_crusader]

You're stubborn, you know. Remind me of someone.

[He says softly, before placing a hand on her shoulder-- it's as much affection as he's known to show.]

Tell him to go see Jonathan Crane. That's it's time to test the thing the two of them have been working on. He'll know what you mean. [Cryptic, like he's known what to do all along.]

[pummelgranite]

[ There had been a tightness building in her chest, threatening to become a lump in her throat. The hand on her shoulder helps. She takes a couple of metered breaths. ]

Bruce? To Crane?

[the_caped_crusader]

Mmhm.

[He doesn't offer anymore explanation, as the initial request sounds too stupid to be informed as it is. But then again, it's him, and his voice doesn't waver, like whatever plan he has is enough regardless of how half-cocked it sounds.]

[pummelgranite]

. . . Can I just text it to him?

[the_caped_crusader]

Not a fan of the beard?

[pummelgranite]

Look, it's-

He's too weird, without you there. Like you've been lobotomized or something. I know he's happier but I . . . [ miss you ]

He thinks he cares about me, but he doesn't know me.

[the_caped_crusader]

[He looks at the screen, at himself.]

There's still a boy who lost his parents somewhere in him. Just like there's a girl who lost hers somewhere in you. We're not so far apart as you think. [He looks back.] Do whatever you have to do.

[pummelgranite]

Sure.

[ well,how many times has Batman ever asked her for a favor. ]

You need- uhm. Do you eat?

[the_caped_crusader]

Depends. You buying? [He smirks. Cheeky.]

[pummelgranite]

I'll put it on your tab.

[the_caped_crusader]

[He starts to walk out, side by side.]

You know that no matter what happens, I have things under control, right.

[pummelgranite]

[ huffs ]

Why, because you're the bloody Batman?

[the_caped_crusader]

[Smirks.]

Yeah, you know.