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June-July 2024 Test Drive Meme
June-July 2024 TDM
Introduction
Welcome to Folkmore's monthly Test Drive Meme! Please feel free to test drive any and all characters regardless of your intent to apply or whether you have an invite or not.
All TDMs are game canon and work like "mini-events". For new players and characters, you can choose to have your TDM thread be your introduction thread upon acceptance or start fresh. Current players are also allowed to have in-game characters post to the TDM so long as they mark their top levels ‘Current Character.’
TDM threads can be used for spoon spending at any time by characters accepted into the game.
Playing and interacting with the TDMs will allow characters to immediately obtain canon items from homes especially weapons or other things they may have had on their person when they were pulled from their worlds! There will always be a prompt that provides some sort of "reward" to characters who complete certain tasks.
🦊 New Star Children meet the Fox still in their worlds, and she brings them into the new realm of Folkmore. As you follow her, your body begins to change and new characteristics emerge. These may stay for a while, or perhaps they will hide away after. And during all of this, the Fox explains to you where you will be going: to Folkmore.
and then... you fall like a shooting star, falling to the land in a burst of starlight.
🦊 Experienced Star Children are already familiar with this time of the month. There are shooting stars all across the sky, and some fall to the land, which means the Fox has brought new arrivals. These newly arrived Star Children will face some tests, but Thirteen wants the more seasoned residents to participate as well.
Perhaps you follow the falling stars on your own, or perhaps the Fox simply teleports you there, but it appears you too will be part of this.
Content Warnings: Ghosts, Potential Violence, Potential Death
Summer has hit. It's hot, and nowhere is it hotter than Cruel Summer. Naturally, new Star Children arrive in Cruel Summer with no indication of which direction to go to escape, unless they're so lucky as to arrive near the Selkie River. The water provides a break, and a selkie skin will protect Star Children from the heat. Though beware the cruelty of leaving a selkie without their skin. Along with the heat, Star Children can hear whispers and the echoes of screams throughout Cruel Summer. There's no obvious source of the noises. Not the normal creatures. Not anything anyone can see.
Whether new or old Star Child, anyone lost, overheated, in need of a rest, or anything else will find a friendly spirit will find them in the sands, rock, or shores of Cruel Summer. They'll guide the way toward the huts found in Cruel Summer. These huts have changed; the huts are bigger and grow together, making them one interconnected twisting winding empty town. No one appears to live there. The wooden town is in disrepair, varying from building to building. Even so, they are cool inside, a welcome break from the summer heat.
No matter how one entered, even through the swinging doors to the saloon, that exit disappears behind Star Children. There's no turning back. The only way out is to explore the way through the buildings. This fact continues to be true building to building as exits continue to vanish. The abandoned town isn't as empty as it first seems. As Star Children explore the branching paths through the wooden structures, they see ghosts of spirits going through the paces of their lives. They're familiar to these spaces and interact with missing objects that sometimes shimmer in spirit energy.
Spirit Children may interrupt these routines to try to talk with the ghosts. Some ghostly spirits are friendly. They may interact with Star Children as though they're someone else, someone the spirits used to know. Others, like the bartender, may treat them like a new customer. Other ghosts are determined to stick to their routines and, should Star Children continue to interrupt, will attack those who disturb them.
These spirits may kill Star Children when they attack. Normal weapons won't hurt them. There are revolvers, shotguns, iron pokers, hunting knives, and other plain weapons around to grab in self-defense. Salt bullets and iron will dispel ghosts. These weapons may be grabbed at any time. However, doing so attracts the creatures in Cruel Summer. A blood red worm spitting yellow acid may break through the floor to eat or spray Star Children. An enormous coyote may leap through the window. Whether attracted by the use of weapons or passing by, any dangerous creature found in Cruel Summer seems agitated when they come near these structures and will attack them and anyone inside. They will focus especially on anyone with a stolen selkie skin.
Should Star Children die, whether to ghosts or creatures, they will not immediately return to life.Do not pass go. Instead they will haunt the ghost town for one week in the room where they were killed. Other Star Children may recognize them and work to snap them out of their routines. Yet nothing will free the Star Children's spirits before the week is through. At the end of the week, they'll come to, alive, in their bodies in the room they died in. Best get through and out of the ghost town before dying again!
A constant through these scenes are the spirits' spoons, visible somewhere in each scene. The ghost spoons are whole. Once free of the ghost town, Star Children may choose to travel to the Shattered Spoon Shrine in Never Fade to search for the broken fragments of any of these spoons. They are in such small pieces, however, that no Star Child may feed them enough Lore alone to bring the spirit back. Two or more Star Children may spend time in the Shrine creating and feeding Lore toward the spoons to heal them. It just may be enough to bring someone back.
Summer has hit. It's hot, and nowhere is it hotter than Cruel Summer. Naturally, new Star Children arrive in Cruel Summer with no indication of which direction to go to escape, unless they're so lucky as to arrive near the Selkie River. The water provides a break, and a selkie skin will protect Star Children from the heat. Though beware the cruelty of leaving a selkie without their skin. Along with the heat, Star Children can hear whispers and the echoes of screams throughout Cruel Summer. There's no obvious source of the noises. Not the normal creatures. Not anything anyone can see.
Whether new or old Star Child, anyone lost, overheated, in need of a rest, or anything else will find a friendly spirit will find them in the sands, rock, or shores of Cruel Summer. They'll guide the way toward the huts found in Cruel Summer. These huts have changed; the huts are bigger and grow together, making them one interconnected twisting winding empty town. No one appears to live there. The wooden town is in disrepair, varying from building to building. Even so, they are cool inside, a welcome break from the summer heat.
No matter how one entered, even through the swinging doors to the saloon, that exit disappears behind Star Children. There's no turning back. The only way out is to explore the way through the buildings. This fact continues to be true building to building as exits continue to vanish. The abandoned town isn't as empty as it first seems. As Star Children explore the branching paths through the wooden structures, they see ghosts of spirits going through the paces of their lives. They're familiar to these spaces and interact with missing objects that sometimes shimmer in spirit energy.
Spirit Children may interrupt these routines to try to talk with the ghosts. Some ghostly spirits are friendly. They may interact with Star Children as though they're someone else, someone the spirits used to know. Others, like the bartender, may treat them like a new customer. Other ghosts are determined to stick to their routines and, should Star Children continue to interrupt, will attack those who disturb them.
These spirits may kill Star Children when they attack. Normal weapons won't hurt them. There are revolvers, shotguns, iron pokers, hunting knives, and other plain weapons around to grab in self-defense. Salt bullets and iron will dispel ghosts. These weapons may be grabbed at any time. However, doing so attracts the creatures in Cruel Summer. A blood red worm spitting yellow acid may break through the floor to eat or spray Star Children. An enormous coyote may leap through the window. Whether attracted by the use of weapons or passing by, any dangerous creature found in Cruel Summer seems agitated when they come near these structures and will attack them and anyone inside. They will focus especially on anyone with a stolen selkie skin.
Should Star Children die, whether to ghosts or creatures, they will not immediately return to life.
A constant through these scenes are the spirits' spoons, visible somewhere in each scene. The ghost spoons are whole. Once free of the ghost town, Star Children may choose to travel to the Shattered Spoon Shrine in Never Fade to search for the broken fragments of any of these spoons. They are in such small pieces, however, that no Star Child may feed them enough Lore alone to bring the spirit back. Two or more Star Children may spend time in the Shrine creating and feeding Lore toward the spoons to heal them. It just may be enough to bring someone back.
- Whispers, echoes of screams, etc become common throughout Cruel Summer
- Huts become bigger, interconnected, growing together. Anyone lost, overheated, in need of something in Cruel Summer gets a friendly spirit redirecting them to these buildings
- Buildings will still be in some state of disrepair, but like a whole twisting winding town
- Insides are a cool respite
supernatural ghost spirit air conditioning - Only way out is through, no turning back, as the exits disappear behind you
- Many are friendly, but some are not. One can attempt to talk to them, but how interactive they are varies
- Occasionally other creatures from Cruel Summer may burst in and attack
- If a Star Child dies, rather than return to life immediately, they stay a ghost for about a week, part of the tour
Content Warnings: Fire, Coerced Confessions
Fire! Fire across the realm! For the second half of June, wildfire burns everywhere. While it doesn’t hurt Star Children, it can reduce everything else to ash: homes, businesses, gardens, spirits. The local spirits will be in a panic and beg Star Children for help from small ice mice in Wintermute to fennec foxes in Cruel Summer. How can Star Children help? Confessions. Anything the person they are with doesn’t know. The more earnest and meaningful the better.
When wildfire erupts and spreads, Star Children may stand in or in front of an area they want to protect and confess something to another Star Child who happens to be nearby. Their neighbor? Their partner? A stranger lost in a new land? These confessions simply need to be something the other person doesn’t know to protect structures and spirits. Memories related to the confession will show in the fire. The fire will fuel these memories until they run out of energy, dying down to embers. At least in that place at that time.
Should something start to burn before someone confesses, multiple confessions are necessary to catch the wildfire’s attention and distract it from the fuel source it is feeding on. Two or more Star Children will need to make confessions whose memories are shared in the flames. Water powers can also help quell the flames, but confessions are necessary in the end.
Once July hits, the wildfires are mostly gone, only sparking up here and there on occasion. In their stead are embers. They spark in the air like fireflies and fly around Folkmore, attracted to Star Children. These embers land on Star Children and make them glow. There’s no pain. In fact, the embers provide sparks of insight into memories, situations, and other emotional dilemmas that Star Children haven’t previously understood. Talking the issue over with another Star Children provides further emotional clarity.
Spirits are welcoming to both embers and Star Children. Confessionshelp Folkmore grow as well. Gardens bloom in beautiful displays. Crops grow healthy and joyful. It’s even possible to hear humming from some of the vegetables and fruits. The land grows with the Star Children. Anyone who lacks a green thumb can work their way around that with confessions! Save that dying plant and grow those tomatoes.
One time that a Star Child confesses, either to wildfire or to embers, they will find a jeweled box shaped like a flame. The peak of the flame comes off to reveal the insides. Within, there is an item from home. It may even be a weapon or magical item. Larger more meaningful confessions are more likely to receive weapons. These items may even be larger than should fit in the box or its entrance. Whether the box should only hold a single ring or fill the palm of one’s hand, these items fit. Star Children also can keep the jeweled box, and this one item from home can be stored within the box. Other items too large to fit the box will not enter it. Only the one from the box.
Fire! Fire across the realm! For the second half of June, wildfire burns everywhere. While it doesn’t hurt Star Children, it can reduce everything else to ash: homes, businesses, gardens, spirits. The local spirits will be in a panic and beg Star Children for help from small ice mice in Wintermute to fennec foxes in Cruel Summer. How can Star Children help? Confessions. Anything the person they are with doesn’t know. The more earnest and meaningful the better.
When wildfire erupts and spreads, Star Children may stand in or in front of an area they want to protect and confess something to another Star Child who happens to be nearby. Their neighbor? Their partner? A stranger lost in a new land? These confessions simply need to be something the other person doesn’t know to protect structures and spirits. Memories related to the confession will show in the fire. The fire will fuel these memories until they run out of energy, dying down to embers. At least in that place at that time.
Should something start to burn before someone confesses, multiple confessions are necessary to catch the wildfire’s attention and distract it from the fuel source it is feeding on. Two or more Star Children will need to make confessions whose memories are shared in the flames. Water powers can also help quell the flames, but confessions are necessary in the end.
Once July hits, the wildfires are mostly gone, only sparking up here and there on occasion. In their stead are embers. They spark in the air like fireflies and fly around Folkmore, attracted to Star Children. These embers land on Star Children and make them glow. There’s no pain. In fact, the embers provide sparks of insight into memories, situations, and other emotional dilemmas that Star Children haven’t previously understood. Talking the issue over with another Star Children provides further emotional clarity.
Spirits are welcoming to both embers and Star Children. Confessions
One time that a Star Child confesses, either to wildfire or to embers, they will find a jeweled box shaped like a flame. The peak of the flame comes off to reveal the insides. Within, there is an item from home. It may even be a weapon or magical item. Larger more meaningful confessions are more likely to receive weapons. These items may even be larger than should fit in the box or its entrance. Whether the box should only hold a single ring or fill the palm of one’s hand, these items fit. Star Children also can keep the jeweled box, and this one item from home can be stored within the box. Other items too large to fit the box will not enter it. Only the one from the box.
- Last two weeks of June, wildfire burns across Folkmore. After that, they are rare.
- Confessions can protect or rescue buildings, land areas, and spirits.
- Come July, embers spark across Folkmore like fireflies. They provide insight for Star Children. Talking helps.
- Confessions help the land grow.
- Confessions reveal a jeweled box containing an item from home.
no subject
Dick Grayson happened three years ago. The media blitz, while bloodthirsty (everyone's doubts about an orphan in the care of someone as publicly irresponsible as Bruce Wayne confirmed in the worst possible way) wasn't as protracted as the one around the murder of the Waynes, and had tapered off into uncomfortable, if not particularly respectful, silence.
This hits him where it matters. This is ruining three years of carefully packing away all of the things about Dick he'd miss if he actually thought about them, preserving and protecting them like any memento of the dead and shutting them safely out of sight. Dick Grayson forces open that door, breaks the lock, lets in rays of sunlight that bleach and fade photographs and fabric and make him actually see what's there, what was there, because (the face, the voice, the acrobat build, the way his shoulders turn uncertain) there's no question that this is Dick, like there's no question that the young man at the shark tank was Clark Kent. It was never meant to see the light of day, because -- Bruce has done things, broken things, that Dick was never -- would have never --
Oh, God. If this is the one Steph knows, the one that's friends with Superman -- of course he would have been, they'd deserved that, not what Bruce had done to both of them, getting them killed --
Bruce's heart twists, painfully. Okay. This has to be addressed, and it's better to have the conversation inside than out in front of the neighbors. Time to grasp the nettle.]
...yeah. Come on in.
[He steps inside the hobbit hole, holding the round door open behind him. It's sized for a human, and -- well, the best thing you can say about it is, it is bright, and it's open. The furniture, counters, and fixtures are black, white, or gray. The walls are white, reflecting both the light from the exterior windows and the angular starburst fixture hanging from the ceiling, and the doorways are round and wide. He's open-floor-planned a hobbit hole, and instead of earthy, welcoming, and homey, the only thing that's not monochrome is the sandy wood that makes the floor and windowsills. It coordinates, sure, but except for the dress shirt thrown over one of the kitchen chairs and the plates drying by the sink, it looks like it's about to host a magazine shoot in the 2010s, not like a place someone lives in.
It's a patently ridiculous hobbit hole.
Bruce hasn't made himself comfortable here. He's not at home, not relaxed. He's performing.]
Have you -- [God, his voice is dry. He doesn't know yet, not fully, if this person can be trusted. He's not going to mention Steph by name, or bring attention to her, until he's more certain.] -- met anyone else from Gotham yet?
no subject
Getting a good look around at the inside of what looks like a hobbit home straight out of Lord of the Rings only confirms those suspicions. It's not that it runs completely contrary to everything that a person might expect from the whole cottagecore vibe — though it does — or that he can easily imagine Bruce living like Bilbo Baggins — he can't — it's just... something is off here. Broken. He knows immediately that Alfred isn't here, this is what Bruce has done when left to his own devices, and it's a reflection of what he's been picking up ever since they locked eyes.
They've always had their ups and downs, and even on a good day Bruce strives for practicality, but this feels cold. And empty, in a this page intentionally left blank kind of way. It's even different from what he would have expected from Bruce when he's isolated and alone.
He's just finishing his visual sweep of the place when Bruce breaks the silence, and he turns, absently running a hand through his hair. ]
I ran into Steph just after I arrived. She wasn't too happy to see me.
[ Fair, honestly. Has it occurred to him that maybe he shouldn't spill everything until he's got a better grasp of the situation? Yeah, but if he can't trust Bruce what the hell is he even doing here? ]
Actually I don't think anybody's been happy to see me, talk about taking the ego down a peg or two.
[ He's kidding. Mostly. ]
no subject
[It comes out like blood from a cut. Because it's cutting into him, seeing Dick like this, and it's -- it's difficult to stand. Difficult not to just react. Difficult to think.
He's right there. Breathing. Grown up, but still looking a little lost.
Christ.
This is going to be a difficult conversation. Usually, Bruce faces difficult conversations head on with an iron grip, forcing his way through both his discomfort and everyone else's alike. This time, though, it's different. Dick makes things different, in a way only one other person has managed since. Bruce is raw, on his heels, and he's still going to do it, of course, he'll still talk ahout this, but he can't muster up the cold-steel sternness he otherwise might.
Not when Dick is cracking those kinds of jokes again, the self deprecation that's half real, giving away that he's not sure about this.]
You should sit down. This isn't going to be easy to hear.
[Or easy to say, but...Bruce can handle it. He'll have to. Dick deserves the truth, whether he's the one Bruce knows or not, and telling him what happened isn't going to compromise Bruce if this Dick Grayson turns out to be a problem.
....god, Bruce doesn't want it to turn out that way. That's probably the only thing that could twist the knife harder.]
no subject
[ Multiversal differences aside, it's hard to square those with the idea of Bruce being different in some fundamental way that would change anything he thinks and feels about the man, he's been too much of a constant. Funny, in a very unfunny way, that seeing Bruce thrown off like this, and even considering how much might be different about him, makes him feel like he's walking on crumbling ground. It's not even like he's seen Bruce that much lately, he's been busy trying to establish himself and sort out his own life— both the Dick Grayson and the Nightwing parts, something that's easier said than done to reconcile. He's good at balance, he's determined to make it work.
There's just a difference between knowing that Bruce is in Gotham doing his thing, with Alfred and Damien, and meeting him here, alone and looking, and sounding, like he's been through hell. He's worried, of course he is, but much more selfishly he realizes just how dependent he still is on Bruce to be steadfast, unshakeable... to always be there. Because he always has been.
And he is, he's here, but it's too obvious to someone who knows him so well that he's worn too thin. Equally obvious that something terrible happened here and he's at the middle of it, his guesses are narrowing down and bleak is definitely the right word for them. Yeah, sitting down might be good. He parks himself on the couch, glad that he had a chance to shower and change before he got this far.
Nothing's ever easy in this family. ]
I'm as ready as I'll ever be. [ He'll manage, because that's what they always do, but he's not so arrogant as to assume that he'll take it easily in stride. ] I bet you've got some questions for me too.
no subject
Not that he needs it. He's picking up on immediate trust, immediate belief that the man in front of him is who Dick thinks he is, an immediate willingness to answer questions -- god, it almost hurts. It's the kind of thing that makes Bruce want to be worthy of it, and reminds him that he isn't, and never will be. But at least he can try not to betray it.
He leans in, resting an elbow on a knee.]
Steph and I...are not from the same place. There are certain events that happened, ah -- differently, for her, than how I remember them. Alternate realities. Maybe a changed timeline. I don't know.
[Someone might have fucked with time at some point. Hard to say. He's not making any assumptions. But the important thing is the impact, the effect.]
If you know her, you're probably from somewhere closer to hers. Somewhere there was more than one Robin, and a couple of Batgirls. Right?
[He's watching, intent, approaching this from the side.]
no subject
A mitigating factor? Knowing that Bruce would figure him out even if he tried to put on some casual civilian act, even if he had kept on walking down the road today, his presence wouldn't go unnoticed for long. If nothing else this is cutting to the chase, but nowhere in his heart does he believe that he could have done anything different.
Different timelines, different realities... It doesn't faze him. He's dealt with more than his fair share of that business too, enough to know that it's entirely possible for things to get tangled up like this, on the whims of a fickle deity. Maybe he should have led with that, but on the other hand maybe it helps to have a runway up to this specific situation.
The observation that feels like a solid lump in his throat is that this isn't about something he did, it's about something that's happened to him. To them. ]
Right. Four Robins, three Batgirls, one Batwoman... [ Rather than make the obvious joke he leans forward, arms braced over his thighs, somewhat mirroring Bruce's own posture. Classically signaling reciprocation, empathy, but more personally between them a wink and nod toward routines they both know by heart. ] You didn't have all that, did you?
no subject
God. Okay. No more putting it off.]
No.
[He makes himself look at Dick, swallows, and forces it out.]
Dick Grayson died almost four years ago.
After that, it was me and Alfred. I didn't take any field partners again, until --
[How does he even put this? How does he describe what happened that night?]
-- a more recent incident --
[meant I had to? No. No, that's not what happened, or why.]
-- changed my mind about it.
[And got another teammate killed. How many is it going to be, Bruce? How many good people are you going to lead to their deaths?
The unfortunate answer is that he isn't going to stop. Not with the threat of invasion still coming. If they don't fight, they're dead anyway.]
no subject
If he hadn't seen Bruce's first reaction, there's no other way to describe it than saying that it looked like he saw a ghost, and if he couldn't pick up on the hints along the way. He could rule out a lot of things just because he's seen so many shades of disappointment and anger and bitterness from his mentor over the years, and, rarely, the impact of a heavy loss. But to be on this side of that loss being him? That's new. And it's hard. He was the one who convinced Bruce that he needed a new partner, after he took up the responsibility of leading the Titans and he couldn't be that partner.
He couldn't do that if he was dead.
His expression tightens as the emotions swirl, teetering from guilt to useless frustration to— well, more guilt. As if he had anything to do with it, and berating an alternate self would be a colossal waste of time at best, questioning the circumstances won't help either. Ironically it's not actually about him at all, at the very core of this, it's about Bruce and how his life drastically shifted from the one that Dick knows, four years is a long time to close himself off from the rest of the world. He'd blame himself, because of course he would, and Dick knows he would have done the same if their positions had been reversed. ]
Bruce, I... don't know what to say. [ Oh he does. 'I let you down.' But that's not constructive. He drops his shoulders slightly, fighting against the urge to scrub his face or look away, and latches on to the easier part. ] Who are you working with now?
[ Not any of the other Robins? Or... ]
no subject
Bruce takes the new subject for the easy out it is.]
...right now, Diana. They're calling her "Wonder Woman."
[No last name. If Dick knows, he knows. If he doesn't, Bruce won't be the one to make her civilian identity easy to trace.]
But, hopefully, others. If they agree to work with us.
[They'll have to, if they want to live.]
That's back home. Here, I'm not operating under the usual cowl. Apparently, Gotham's unique in the multiverse. Only one other person here besides you, me, and Steph has even heard of it. Makes it easier than usual to put two and two together.
no subject
For all of their struggles and near-misses and temporary brushes with the other side they're all alive, which compounds the guilt a bit, to come from being so self-centered and worrying about himself when his family is a phone call away to being here with Bruce, who only had Alfred there to try to do what he could.
The silver-lining is there at least, Bruce is fighting. ]
That's a good start.
[ Dragging his thoughts back to this place makes sense, but it's harder than it should be, with so many differences between their universes it's impossible to know what connections are the same and which ones never happened, and ultimately it's not even really his business, but— ]
Sorry, but... Is Barbara okay? Barbara Gordon?
[ He'll get back to the rest of it, he just can't help it, whether or not it would things easier if Bruce just had relatively little awareness of who she was, if she didn't exist at all where he's from or she just managed to live some kind of normal life that didn't land her in a suit. ]
no subject
[An eyebrow goes up -- but not an entirely surprised one. He'd thought Dick had had a crush.]
She's fine. Started working as a PI a few years back.
[No suit, no. Sometimes she's a useful contact -- about as good with computers as Alfred, and that's with significantly fewer fancy resources. But they don't really work together.
Not in the field.]
no subject
Dick seems to relax slightly, it's mostly a relief to know that she's living her own life, as different as it is to the one he knows. Even better that they apparently didn't have a connection, so his death wouldn't have devastated her the way it... well, they way it did when everyone except Bruce was convinced that he was dead for a while. No amount of rationality or reasoning was going to make him feel better about that, but it's done and in the past. They're good now, if perpetually on that teetering edge, peering into a life that they could have if things worked out.
Which they consistently don't. Mostly because of him.
Yeah. It's good that she's doing her own thing. ]
She... We're pretty close, even now that we're not working side by side.
[ As if Bruce needs him to spell it out. It does not take a detective, world's greatest or no, to read into that and come to the obvious conclusion. But back to the present situation that they're dealing with now— ]
So you haven't been using the suit here at all?
everything in the apartment is gonna end up covered in gold leaf from all this gilt
So, instead, he gives a matter of fact answer to the question at hand.]
I don't even have it.
[He sits back a little, folding his arms comfortably over his chest, waiting to see what conclusions Dick draws from that. Is it a test? Not exactly, but it's fact-finding. What does Dick think he's doing with himself, if he's not being the Bat? What would the Bruce he knew have done?]
now we know where bruce actually got all his money
Okay, so, weird, but if something actually concerns him a bit it's that Bruce has seemingly made peace with the fact that he doesn't have it, that he couldn't use it anyway, but... then again, the circumstances here are weird, to put it lightly, and he's only got the barest grasp of things so far. What has Bruce been doing? Investigation, he would expect. Learning this place inside and out and keeping tabs on their fellow abductees along the way.
Anyway it's not like they can make demands of the Fox, just, apparently, requests that she may or may not grant depending on her mood, so no matter how much anyone here wants something they might be out of luck.
Pivot, then. ]
I was wearing mine when I was picked up. Have you even seen the Nightwing suit yet?
eyyyy lmao
No, [he says instead, and the words are light, but that hoarse quality's back that betrays that this isn't casual, far from it.] Never got the chance.
[You never got the chance. He never got the chance. It's ambiguous.
His arms unfold, body language opening up again.]
You -- Steph said you were on good terms with Superman. That Nightwing was a Kryptonian legend.
[There's something in his eyes there that's complicated -- sad, curious, attentive. Hungry to know, but knowing it won't be painless. Superman comes out easier than Dick Grayson, but there's a past tense there that slips out.
He mentioned Diana, but not Clark.]
no subject
Bruce has to know how obvious he is, hearing the pain in his voice elicits an echo in his own chest, as if he wasn't aware that this isn't going to be easy. They've gotten past the first hurdle, the thing that makes these broken pieces fit, but it's not as simple as laying out the truth and leaving it at that. Him being here, alive, doesn't fix things, it makes them harder. Of course he's immediately resolved to push through, to make things work, to find some kind of new rhythm here, it's just going to take time. It's going to hurt.
One step at a time.
Steph's been chatty, apparently. He makes a mental note to swing back around to have another chat with her sometime soon, hopefully without the distraction of ghosts trying to give him the slice and dice treatment. As it is he's only got a few very minor scrapes to show for the whole ordeal, but it wasn't conducive to having an already awkward conversation. ]
Yeah, Nightwing and Flamebird were Kryptonian gods. [ As hard as it is that the Clark he knew is gone those memories aren't, and it tugs a smile out of him. ] Nightwing's job was to rebuild what the Flamebird destroyed, including himself. They called him the eternal rebuilder. Pretty egotistical to take that name for myself, I know, but it just felt right for what I set out to do.
[ There's a renewed confidence to it now. And as hard as all of this is it also feels right to tell him these things. ]
After you fired me, I mean.
no subject
Excuse him?]
I fired you?
[Dick's probably kidding. But please tell him the other Bruce isn't the one who put it in those terms, instead of -- benched, or graduated, or whatever way the Robin part of the operation was going to end.]
Tell me you're kidding.
no subject
Plus how often does he get to see that expression on Bruce's face? Very, very rarely. ]
Nope. Totally serious. [ He's not mean enough to let Bruce struggle with trying to make sense out of that one, he gestures vaguely, smiling in spite of— well everything. ] There was a lot going on, I was spending more time with the Titans and after—
[ 'After the Joker shot him...' Okay, not going to bring that up now, he saw that distinct name on Bruce's lips and considering what he knows now about what happened he's going to play it safe. There's no reason to twist that knife any more today if he can help it. ]
We were having some disagreements over methodology, I think we both needed some space.
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[Okay. Okay, he follows well enough. Disagreeing on methodology sounds about right, too.]
It was never going to be forever. One day, you were going to decide the life wasn't for you after all, or strike out alone.
[Leave the nest, as it were.]
I'm sorry we didn't part on better terms. ...but, I'm not really surprised.
[He's a difficult man, and Dick was a headstrong boy. Did that Bruce even know what he had? Or did he just -- decide, for whatever reason, that being an asshole was what he had to do?
...Bruce can't really throw stones, as far as the latter case goes.]
These Titans. Who are they?
[They're talking more or less normally now, and Bruce can almost ride the wave of how he feels about seeing Dick alive, here, in his living room. It's still carrying him and his hammering, grieving heart along with it, it still feels like he's going to go under at any second, but at least he's on top of it, not being dragged along the bottom.]
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[ Sooner or later they'll undoubtedly get around to talking about all the unpleasant details, especially considering the fact that confessions are all the rage around here at the moment. For now there's no reason to dig into it, hopefully it's enough to drop the hint that it wasn't some one-sided betrayal out of nowhere. He wouldn't have felt any differently about the way things were going if he had to do it all over again, but he definitely could have handled it better.
Which is true for a lot of things. ]
The Teen Titans. You know the Justice League? [ If he knows Clark and Diana then it should follow... ] It was basically an off-shoot of that, I knew a bunch of former side-kicks like me, it just kind of made sense to bring everybody together. The roster's changed up over the years, and I passed on leadership a while ago, but we still trade assists pretty often.
[ If he's accomplished one tangible thing that's left his mark on the world it would be the Titans. He couldn't have been sure at the time that things wouldn't fall apart as soon as he left but it definitely didn't, and he's exceptionally proud of the ones that have kept it going. ]
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Because no, he doesn't know the Justice League. He doesn't know of anyone else with sidekicks, as though this were the kind of game you let kids onto all the time, instead of a last resort when they're going to go out and get themselves killed if you don't do something.]
We...
...don't have anything like that.
It's me, Diana, a couple of names I'm following up on -- and whatever the hell Waller thinks she can do after her first operation with kill switches went sideways.
[Were there really that many capes in Dick's world? The place must be absolutely lousy with teams. Resources. People who know already that they have to trade assists sometimes if they want to win.
He envies that, a little. It's an uphill climb for him, negotiating with loners who don't trust or believe him about the stakes, herding cats that could break him in half if they caught him.]
Could've used it. Maybe still could. There's something coming for us, out of space, because it knows Superman's dead and thinks it has a shot at us.
Guess there's no way for your world to dial up ours if you make it back before me, is there.
[He doesn't sound too optimistic; if it were possible, it'd have happened, right?]
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They can't do this alone. Even Bruce can't do it alone, as stubbornly as he tried to insist otherwise for a very long time.
Hearing that he's lost Superman too is rough, but not actually surprising. He's clearly not shocked, just sad, though it's been long enough for him to have come to terms with the situation. ]
We lost our Superman too. It's a long story, but then it turned out that a different Superman from another timeline was on our Earth, which is an even longer story that you'd have to ask him about, it's above my paygrade. He's a good guy though, it's just— well it's kind of like this. Same people, different lives.
[ Something coming because Superman's gone? That could be a lot of different things. More questions to add to the pile. ]
Multiversal travel isn't my area of expertise but I know it's possible, and I know people. There's a way, we just gotta find it.
[ He really wishes he could talk to Babs. ]
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[Briefing. Sharing information.]
Apparently, you'll usually go right back to the moment you left, with no memory of anything that happened here at all, and live out some more of your life. Some people, though, go back with their memories of Folkmore still in place. They're able to make changes, based on what they learned here.
If that happens to you, I want you to look me up. Tell me yellow solar radiation is the key to Superman's powers.
[Dick's been here less than a week and he's already a part of a backup plan. Bruce sure isn't wasting any time.
Also, he sure did not know that about Superman until Steph told him, here. They...were complicated.]
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If I had to guess I'd bet that the people who meet their 'full potential' are the ones who go back with their memories intact. Whatever that means to Thirteen.
[ He only makes a face because it feels too much like implying that he's only supposed to be a messenger, to swoop in with information or... what, send a letter? That's not how this is going to go down, whether Bruce is ready to accept that or not. He's not going to blurt out any dramatic declarations here and now, he's got a lot to think about as far as the best way to approach things, but this? This just became his fight too.
He just has to make sure he doesn't screw this up. ]
Why do you need to know that if he's gone?
[ Unless this oncoming threat is related to Krypton somehow. ]
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Because I'm going to bring him back.
[They can discuss Thirteen and just how much Bruce doesn't trust a word out of her mouth later. Right now, different business.]
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cw disordered drinking
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