MAY CATCH-ALL

[khajidont]

WHO: Jaime Reyes & OPEN
WHERE: Various.
WHEN: Throughout May!
WHAT: Various.
WARNINGS: None anticipated; I will update this if necessary! I'll be making specific starters for people, but if you want something in particular, feel free to either tag in with a starter of your own, or you can PM/PP me at feygasm, and I'll be more than happy to set something up for you!

Comments

[alreadywon]

[He's been asked that question before. And like before, his answer is the same:] Because I can help people. [Unlike before, it feels a little hollow. Not because it's not true; the reason has always been to help people. It's just also because being the person Batman trained him to be is what he's good at - what he's good for. Why would he stop? What right would he even have to stop and potentially let someone get hurt because he wasn't there?]

[khajidont]

That's the big reason for most of us. But not the only one. [Jaime gestures for Tim to follow him over to the living room, and to bring their prodigious amount of sugar with them.] It had to have been fun for you in the beginning, right? Kind of?

[He's not so sure of that. It wasn't for Bombshell, or for Ravager. But Robins... Robins are supposed to find some joy in it.]

[alreadywon]

[It's almost weird to think about what he was like when he first started this. Was it fun? Yeah. It was scary and important, too. He remembers being awestruck and terrified that he wasn't going to be good enough. That he was going to be the one Robin that was a failure.] Yeah, it was. [It occurs to him that he's somehow let that get framed in the past, like it's not fun anymore. Which is - maybe it's accurate, lately, but that seems unfair. A lot of stuff seems like the fun drained out of it.] Is.

[khajidont]

It's okay for the answer to be was, y'know. I think it's that way for more people than we wanna think.

[If it counted for Ted and Booster of all people, the people who were known for their laughter, for injecting a little joy into a job that could be nothing short of crushing, then were any of them really safe from it becoming a drag? He doesn't think so. Not with the way it wears people down.

He hesitates, then says,] If, um... if you wanna talk about it, you can. 'Cause, no offense, but you look pretty tired for just doing regular patrols.

[alreadywon]

There's not much to talk about. Unless you're really interested in the day-to-day workings of a company. [He's honestly not picking up on it if Jaime is trying to refer to something other than his day job. It's not like he has much going on right now outside of that and patrolling.]

[khajidont]

Depends on whether or not the day-to-day workings of the company is what's stressing you out, [Jaime says, frankly, as he flops onto the couch. He offers Tim a small smile.] I'm a good listener, y'know. I don't let not knowing how the heck half of these things work get in my way, or else I'd never get to talk to my genius friends.

[Being able to run a company as a teenager probably counts underneath that fun little genius umbrella, he thinks. He'll be just as knowledgable as he is when Tadashi goes off on a spirited description of his android technology, or when Wally starts going on about one of the thousand projects he has going on.]

Is that it? I mean, I dunno what goes into a company.

[Could be what's stressing Tim out, making him exhausted. Sometimes Jaime gets to repair a car by himself, and even that feels like a big responsibility. Running a company? God, he'd have a heart attack on the first day.]

[alreadywon]

A lot of it doesn't really need that much input. Or at least has someone else in charge to handle most the day-to-day stuff. [Bruce is usually good about setting up the company so he doesn't have to micromanage on top of being Batman.

It occurs to him that part of the reason he came over was to check on Jaime. He's not really sure how he ended up being the topic of conversation, but he should probably steer it away at some point.]

[khajidont]

Well... that's good, I guess.

[Sorry, Tim; Jaime's modus operandi is to deflect, and then to divert concern onto someone else. And, to be fair, that seems like the appropriate course of action here. Tim's still relatively new, and probably needs a friend or two to harp on him about taking care of himself.]

But you still have to stick around there, right?

[alreadywon]

Someone does, and Dick's not exactly interested. That, and people have marginally more confidence in a 17-year-old than a 16-year-old. [It's harder to spin that as a positive thing without the dedicated PR people and Lucius still largely running the show.]

[khajidont]

Point.

[Jaime's not sure what to say next, mostly because he doesn't want to belabour the point. Isn't running a company stressful? Are you sure? Are you super duper sure?

So in lieu of saying anything productive right away, he pops a hunk of the pan dulce into his mouth. Eating to avoid talking is an age-old tradition, and one that Jaime indulges in extremely happily.]

I, um... I didn't know you got to know him. Well enough for him to give you his company, I mean.

[alreadywon]

I didn't, really. I only really got to talk to him a few times. But, he already had a will set up so that if he... disappeared, it would go to whoever of us was here, pretty much. [Wait, does Jaime know he has a handful more adoptive siblings? Or any? He reconsiders that phrasing.] So Dick and I, basically.

[It still kind of floors him to think about, once he pushes past all the painful memories associated with parental figures and wills. That Bruce didn't even know him, and he had already arranged for Tim to be treated as part of his family. That kind of automatic acceptance was... Different. Nice.]

[khajidont]

[Jaime does not, in fact, know that there are more heirs to the Wayne throne. He doesn't know a whole lot about Bruce Wayne besides disgustingly rich and I screwed him over that one time and he's the reason I still have a house. He's not so great at following celebrity culture, which has come back to bite him in the ass more than once.

(There should really be a Keeping Up With The Waynes TV show so he could catch up in one fell swoop.)]

He must have trusted you. Did he know a version of you back home too, or...?

[alreadywon]

Not really. But I guess being his adoptive kid from another universe counted for some. [That, and Alfred.

(He kind of wishes Alfred was still here. Not that they were ever here at the same time.)]

[khajidont]

Wow. Must've been a great first impression.

[And a lot of responsibility to dump onto a perfect stranger. If, somehow, Ted got his own company (again) and decided to heap it onto Jaime's shoulders... phew. Jaime's pretty sure he'd have about ten panic attacks and then possibly try to force it onto Karen.]

Big responsibility to saddle you with, though. I'm sorry he got ported out so soon after you came in.

[alreadywon]

[He shrugs. It's not... ideal, but.] I wound up in charge of Wayne Enterprises at home, anyway, so I guess it's not that different.

[khajidont]

Oh! I didn't know that. Maybe I just don't watch the news closely enough.

[But if something bad happened to Bruce Wayne, truly bad, surely the world would hear about it? Even Batman can't keep his cover up for that long.]

Why?

[alreadywon]

It's a... [Something that he doesn't really want to dwell on, honestly, now that he thinks of it.] Long story. [It's not inaccurate. It is a long story.]

[khajidont]

That sounds like one of the I don't want to talk about it long stories.

[How's he supposed to give Tim a hand when he can't even get a straight answer out of the guy? Maybe he doesn't want to be here in the first place -- it's hard to tell.]

[alreadywon]

It's... [Well. Yeah. But he feels bad about saying it outright.] It actually is a long story. [One that involves a lot of stuff he'd hoped he could put behind him.

Time for a change of topic:] Was there anything you wanted to do? [Aside from talk about that?]

[khajidont]

Hey, you can say one thing that's technically true while leaving out another. Isn't that what we do?

[It's what Jaime does. All these little half-truths just stack up higher and higher until something happens (it happened to him, anyway), and all those lies - and they are lies, no matter how they justify it to themselves - just fall apart.

But he's not interested in Tim picking him apart. Instead, he'll put the onus of conversation on Tim, at least momentarily, as he tosses him the remote.]

You're the guest. That means you get to decide.

[There are video games, if that's Tim's fancy, but he's also got Netflix ready to go. Everything a couple of nerds could want!]

[alreadywon]

[Ouch, called out on it. At least Jaime's willing to let it go for now.

Video games aren't a bad idea, but watching something would put a buffer on the conversation for a while, so he goes for that.] Classic sci-fi okay?

[khajidont]

Always.

[He kept all his space posters up even after swearing off space personally, after all. Once a sci-fi nerd, always a sci-fi nerd, even if he can't seem to pick sides in the eternal war of Star Wars vs. Star Trek.]

What sorta stuff do you like, anyway? Not that it's available here, but hey, s'not like you've had the time to check out what they got here in the first place.

[alreadywon]

Very little that would get me a seat at the cool kids' table. [Hey, he can still make jokes. That's nice.

This place sort of nailed it when they got him a job with an RPG company, even if he did have to quit because of unexpected company.]

[khajidont]

Pssht, the cool kids table's got no taste. Or maybe they do. My buddy from home - [best buddy, god, he misses Paco like crazy] - could fit in there if he wanted to, but instead he's got, like, the biggest stack of Hellboy comics you've seen in your life.

[There's fondness in his voice at that, and a fondness in his eyes. No matter how bad things get, he won't stop loving his people. He gestures at the TV.] So? You a Trek guy or a Star Wars guy? 'Cause both have, like, copycats here. They're not bad.

[alreadywon]

Why pick one when you can have both? [Oh, talking about nerd buddies back home. It gives him a pang of - something, regret maybe - thinking about how he kind of ditched Ives and hasn't really talked to him much.

He's kind of a shitty friend, huh?]