maskormenacelogs | it's the wonders that i'm after, even if i have to fight

[she stands as soon as their network conversation ends, heading for the kitchen to make a pot of coffee. cass keeps an eye on the manor's security systems on her phone, before taking the carafe and Things For Coffee over to the grandfather clock and stepping down into the cave. she might as well try to get some work done while she waits. jason can see himself in, probably.]

[The Cave lets him in without any problems, which Jason shouldn't be surprised by considering Cass had said she'd be waiting for him. But not even a year ago he was sneaking in and swearing Alfred to secrecy on a regular basis. He always thought that Bruce knew, but didn't say anything and it was just an unspoken thing between them. Now Bruce is gone back to that Cave and their world and he gets in without even having to hack the security system. It's weird.

But he's not going to let the unease show that much, no matter what kind of body telepathy Cass has, and saunters his way into the Cave wearing his whole Red Hood outfit.]

So I'm here. You're here. Let's get whatever Bats had to say over with.

How poor are they that have not patience.

[othello, naturally. cass slips out of her chair, watching jason curiously--and tapping the red bat symbol on his suit as she steps past to a lower level where the usual street vehicles are parked. the motorcycles, the car. she gestures for him to follow, before stepping over to the batmobile and picking up the bag sitting on top of it, holding it up for jason to take.]

Message is on a drive by the computer. Marked with J.

[Jason raises an eyebrow. It always confuses him how she can speak so well when mimicking or repeating and yet still struggles conveying her own thoughts. Maybe he should have studied more about the psychological effects of delayed language development. But instead he responds with a quote from Richard II]

I wasted time, and now doth time waste me.

[He takes the bag and already knows what's in it by the smell alone. Cheesy, greasy burgers. What a piece of work Bruce. Sentimental and a troll at the same time.]

Not sure I care what he had to say. Is this still edible? [Because Jason Todd does not throw out food.]

Edited 2018-07-16 00:49 (UTC)

Don't know. Hopefully?

[hey she'll take them if he doesn't want them. and circling back,]

You do. Play it. [not reading him so much as taking a stab in the dark. still a guess she feels safe making.]

[It's always a gamble when it comes to Bruce, no matter what Jason wants. Will this be some sentimental, heart-warming goodbye or another of the lectures about Jason's failures and flaws? It's always a toss up. He wants to think they had done better, been better...but who knows?

So he goes over to the computer and takes up the flashdrive. Still doesn't put it in to play it, but holds it in his hand. Then he snorts.]

I've survived food poisoning before. [He's totally keeping the food.]

Now, where's the fun toys around here?

[cass just sort of nods. he's holding onto it, so that's fine. at his question, she rolls her eyes, pushing herself forward from where she had been leaning against the batmobile.]

Depends. What do you want to play with? [she's got drones, she's got bolas, she's got micro bombs, gel plastique, thermite, laser cutters, tasers, more wonderful toys than you can shake a stick at. good thing bruce's production is still active.]

Explosives, right?

[Now that the topic has been reasonably diverted, Jason doesn't mind taking off his helmet and tucking it under his arm.]

Are there any better toys than ones that blow up?

Rubik's cube. [deadpan. is it a joke? who knows. she heads over to a wall panel. with the press of a keypad, the wall opens up and a row of drawers and racks folds out along with it, storage for various gadgets and tools. not the whole stockpile, but a healthy supply, especially for the consumable gear.]

Plenty of choices.

[Jason snorts at her response, but focuses on the treasure trove of explosives on the wall. It's enough to make a grown man cry in happiness. He moves along the wall grabbing and looking over different items and taking stock in his own mind of what they can do and how they are the best effective.]

Clearly with this many options we should try them out and see what works best.

[she sends a short voice message asking him to come to the cave, since evidently, the ping bruce had probably sent as part of his protocols (if her own experience was any indication) hadn't been enough to get his attention. or to spur him to show up. that is, if it had been a thing at all. she stays at the batcomputer for now, knees pulled up into the chair as she reviews footage for a case. whatever way he usually uses will open for him, if he decides to come, so she doesn't trouble herself too much with prepping for his arrival.

things have been weird between them for months. she's kind of tired of it.]

[Terry had gotten Bruce's ping, but after the last time he was at the cave resulted in a huge fight, he'd ignored it. By the time he realized the ping was a result of Bruce being gone... Well he'd been too guilty to go slinking back to respond to it.

But when he gets a ping from Cass, he realizes he can't push this off any longer. Dressed in his civvies, he slips in through his usual side entrance, the one he usually used in the vain hope of avoiding Bruce as things got more awkward between them.

He sees his summoner over by the batcomputer and approaches.]

You rang?

Um... yeah.

[cass turns in her chair to look at him, nodding. she isn't... really pleased with the circumstances of this. she holds up a thumb drive, marked with a T.]

He, uh. Left you this. Probably a message. Maybe something else, too.[she stands up and places the drive down on the batcomputer terminal, before glancing at him.]

I'll... give you some privacy. [she starts to head away from the computer, to go to another area of the cave.]

[Terry nods and pops in the thumb drive, not looking to see if she's out of earshot. He's got a pretty good idea what Bruce wants to say, and it doesn't matter to him if she hears it or not. She and Bruce were close, closer than he ever was.

Still, it's weird to hear the message all the same, to hear this goodbye and have it all feel so... real. At the end of the message, Terry just leans back into the chair and stairs up at the roof of the cave.]

Sure, now you praise me... stupid old man...

[once it's clear terry doesn't care if she lingers or not, she stays close enough to hear. when it's done, she walks back over, grimacing.]

I know you, uh. Might not believe me? But I was... never sure, either. Where I stood, with him.

[sure, she knew, and usually she could read him well enough to understand. but things were always strained, more complicated than they looked from the outside.]

[Terry's eyes flick over to her general direction, but that's about the only part of him that moves from his current position. Honestly, he isn't sure whether or not he wants to believe that yet, but what he does know is he's done with starting fights in this cave about now.]

You definitely hide it better than me.

[cass isn't interested in arguing, either.]

Hh. [she shakes her head, a wry look on her face.] Maybe. Still true, though.

[she has a sense of the complicated baggage terry has about her. she doesn't totally understand why, though. what lies beneath it, how to sort through it. and she's tried, she's apologized and tried to clear the air for what slights she has committed. and terry's made it clear he finds her hard to read. so she leans against a table near the batcomputer, considering for a moment. to hell with it. she's just going to fucking ask.]

What's your problem with me? [it's not accusatory. not angry. but bruce isn't here, they can't just go on not speaking to each other.]

[The question certainly gets Terry's attention. He finally stops staring at a set spot in the ceiling and looks over at her. Okay, maybe he's not making eye contact, but it's a start.]

With you? Like... specifically? Nothing. Frankly, you're way sch... [He sighs.] Very cool.

[But that's not the answer to her question, is it? Not in the sense that he knows she means it, anyway.]

Look... I know I've been super weird, but it's just... [He pauses, glancing away again.] It's stupid. It's just... where I'm from, I'm the only Batman. Heck, the old man I knew barely had any partners, not compared to wherever you and this old man were from. And though I might have been the only one, I was always compared to the original. I won people over but... I always felt the old man's shadow.

[Terry scratches at his neck and leans forward.]

Then I get here and I'm literally in the old man's shadow. It was so damn frustrating to get called a pretender or a fake or... or second rate. I tried bringing it up to Bruce a few times but of course he never freaking understood what I was talking about.

[It was why he was constantly losing his temper whenever he spoke with Bruce those last few months. He knew Bruce wasn't exactly the most emotional person in the world, but it didn't make it any better whenever he got lectures when what he really needed was support and legit advice that wasn't "you're probably going to die in that cowl one day."

Like Terry didn't already think that one on his own.]

Then he disappeared for a bit and you took up his cowl and I immediately got downgraded from second-rate Batman to third-rate.

Bruce always thought that I meant that I wanted the attention to myself or something. That I saw the name Batman as some kind of competition that I wanted to "win". I'm not that petty. I don't put on the mask for glory, I put it on because it's the right thing to do. I just want people to take me seriously. That maybe after two years everyone to stop looking at me like I'm some kid playing dress-up for fun.

...I guess I got angry that it came so naturally to you, and you'd been here like a week and a half.

Edited 2018-07-29 03:01 (UTC)

[she listens as he goes on, nodding every so often. cass understands, really. as he finishes, though, that last point gets a scoff.]

Wanted it for years. But--naturally? No. [cass shakes her head.] Wasn't ready.

[she looks down, pausing.]

Still not. Brave face, but... did it because I had to. Not because... it was time. It's... pressure. Almost too much. Even if you don't want to... be like him.

[there's more she wants to say, but she'll wait for terry's reaction. she needs to sort out the words anyway.]

[He steals a sideways glance to look over at her. He certainly hadn't expected that kind of reaction.]

The name Batman means something. And the old man set us all up for an impossible standard.

There. Enough for today.

[batman nods, letting her cape fall back around herself as the training session draws to a close. she steps off to the side of the training space--a large workout room in a safehouse in heropa--to grab two bottles of water, tossing one to izuku. she says nothing as she pulls up her mask to just below her nose, taking a long drink from her own bottle before lowering the mask back again.]

Getting better.

[Magnus is restless after Persephone doesn't show, for an appointment about a new hire. it's not like her to flake on what she loves -- performing, building her underground haven for the fucked-up and fucked-over. but maybe she's gotten caught up in Hades with some other business, he thinks. maybe something had happened with Luci, her on-again-off-the-rails-again girlfriend. maybe she was just, hungover after a night of partying with her friends]

[there's no reason to panic. there's a hundred reasons, someone could miss an appointment (but there was one very big one, that he refuses to look at, that nevertheless keeps pressing painfully against the inside of his chest like a stuck-out rib)]

[when he arrives in Hades, the home he'd built in the shadows with Persephone, wreathed in luminescent flowers, it's a destroyed mess and he doesn't know what to do or look at or say. he takes a sharp breath, before calling out]

Persephone? -- Laura? [she's both, to Magnus; neither name is more or less true. Magnus loves all of her, unconditionally, like family] Hello?

Not here.

[and cassandra looks none too happy about it. she drags a hand back through her hair, glancing to magnus as she steps out of the part of hades she had been examining. leather jacket, gloves, a band shirt, dark jeans and boots. laura's not answering her phone, her ID isn't listed, it's been a week now. she thought she might come by hades, to at least rule out the possibility she was holed up somewhere, but she hadn't expected... this. it's a lot. finally, she lets out a shaky sigh, looking towards him and moving a bit closer.]

Magnus. Right? [she remembers him, a bit. and as close as she is to laura, of course he's come up.]

Yeah. [it takes him a longer moment to place her, but he does] Cassandra. [normally Magnus would give a crooked smile, say things like it's nice to meet you, because of course he's heard about her (and seen her about in Hades) too. but it's hard to tear his eyes from the devastation of Persephone's nest, the one she's so proud of; he finally does, grey eyes a bit intense] Do you know where she is? I -- [have this terrible feeling] -- I don't know what happened here, do you?

Edited 2018-07-25 23:52 (UTC)

[she shakes her head in response to both questions. those large brown eyes have an analytical intensity as she watches him, understanding the worry in every move he makes. twitches of the eyelid, the way his grey eyes are taking in his surroundings, the set of his jaw and lips, every bit of tension from head to toe.]

Luci happened. [cass is pretty sure about that, anyway.] And she's gone. [she sounds none too happy about it, shoving her hands into her jacket pockets.]

it's the wonders that i'm after, even if i have to fight

jason

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terry

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ugh chrome ate this yesterday

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green naruto

in hades - post laura port out

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