well they call him the Prince of Gotham, anyway... (open)

[cowled]

Characters: Batman, Lina Inverse, and open to anyone else!
Location: 'Batman' will be on the Mainland, but Bruce Wayne/Devin Craig will be available on certain days on the Turtle. Because secret identities. They're a thing.
Situation: He's being the goddamned Batman that's its own situation I promise.
Warnings/Rating: Probable violence/fighting/injuries.
Notes: This log is good for 1-20th, give or take. He'll be available as Bruce Wayne earlier in the month (let's say 1-5th) and from the 12-13, and the rest of the days he'll be off Batmanning it up. Bruce will have his Batsuit from the 15-onward, but until then he'll be dressed in Ye Olde Batzorro get-up. Here.






[It's decades too late for any alien locale to cause particular unease as far as Batman's concerned. The desert landscape is harsh, yes, but it's no Apokolips. Still, there's something about it that he doesn't like.

Though truthfully, the same could be said of anywhere that isn't Gotham. It's the one place in the universe he knows with the complete and total intimacy of long familiarity. It's his home, both a prison in hard times and a refuge in the same. And it was a sign of how well Tim knew him that the simple act of bringing him back from cardiac arrest was to say tell him Gotham needs him.

These last three and a half months aren't the longest he's been away from Gotham, but they are in many ways the hardest. If he had something-- a direction, a clear goal, it'd be easier to endure. But between the secrecy of the Emperor and the clandestine nature of this place, he's come up with nothing time and again.

The architecture of Tu Vishan is seven hundred years old. The written language is as complex as any he's ever seen, though he's been working on deciphering it it's a slow, secondary project to keeping people safe.

But his family is here - as whole as it's ever been at any given time in Gotham. He's... trying with Jason, though every conversation they have feels like going ten rounds with Killer Croc, leaves him bruised and beaten in invisible ways. But Cassandra, Dick, Stephanie-- even Damian. Having them here, as much as it irritates him that they're as trapped as he is, he's... glad of their presence, as he is of Kal's and Lois' as well.

And Kon, if he has to admit it. (Though he'd rather not)

He has allies here, and he's come so far in this life as to be able to admit it without much more than a cursory grimace.

He's not happy.

But he's close, and that terrifies him.

So he shoves everything down and aside, throws himself into his work. It's what he always does when he has an excess of emotion he'd rather not dealing with. Bruce - not Bruce Wayne, but Bruce at his most human and vulnerable - ceases to exist, eclipsed by the Batman. The Landfall is a perfect opportunity, one he plans to spend largely alone.

Though, as has been said, 'no plan of operations extends with certainty beyond the first encounter with the enemy's main strength'.]

Comments

[tendnottoweep]

[ Natasha's been exploring the mausoleum for some time, examining the corpses and very much hoping their cause of death isn't contagious - but she stops immediately when she hears someone else inside. It's not much, but with the lack of living things in this place, it doesn't take much to be noticeable to someone whose instincts are as finely honed as Natsaha's; there's a change in the quality of the air, somehow, the faintest scuffs and thumps as someone moves in a place where no one's been for who knows how long...

She immediately drops what she's doing and circles back toward the entrance, moving silently as possible, and when she spots Bruce, she stops to watch him, still mostly hidden around a corner, crouched down so she's not as easily noticeable. As reluctant as most of the kedan were to come to the mainland, chances are he's a foreigner... but it's hard to tell in that costume, and Natasha isn't nearly trusting enough to immediately count all foreigners as allies. ]

[cowled]

[And all the things that tip off Natasha also tip off Bruce. It's a curious dichotomy, the skills and abilities of lifetimes playing off one another and almost cancelling them out. Though he doesn't shift from what he's doing (taking scrapings from under the fingernails of one of the corpses at random) he can tell reasonably where the individual is situated.

Woman, by the step. Trained. Cautious. He considers just how many women that could be on Tu Vishan - and there are many. It's not any of his, however.]

I know you're there. Do you mind?

[tendnottoweep]

[ For a moment, Natasha goes completely still, startled despite herself - there aren't many people who can pick up on her presence when she's making an effort to go unnoticed. But after that momentary surprise, she smiles wryly to herself, because whatever brings people here, it does have a tendency toward abducting people with unusual skill sets.

She stands up straight and steps around the corner, seemingly at ease as she approaches. ] I suppose not. Do you mind telling me what you plan to do with that? [ As long as they're being straightforward with each other... ]

[cowled]

Research.

[Which is about as straightforward as Bruce ever gets when he's wearing the cowl. He still doesn't turn to face her, gauging her instead by the way she talks and moves towards him. Confident in a way that suggests training and experience more than bravado. A woman who expects to be obeyed by the way she phrased her question. Bruce closes his eyes briefly, trying to discern where he's heard her voice before. And he has heard it-- ah.

Just after the gang war. She was the one who broke the news about the lapse in Evandau's security. One man - Banner - called her an 'Agent'. And Murphy had called her Romanoff. An Americanization of the name Romanov. There's no trace of an accent, however. American? She's involved with Rogers, so he puts her down as a potential agent of SHIELD, or at least allied with them.

He doesn't ignore her, per se, but he isn't interested in paying her much mind unless she gets in his face about it.]

[tendnottoweep]

[ Natasha, however, is interested in anyone who's willing to venture this far into hostile territory and poke at corpses for research. That alone makes him someone she should be aware of, and she doesn't recognize the voice - not that he's making it easy, almost certainly intentionally. Between that and the disguise, someone is considerably more paranoid than almost anyone she's met here; not that she can blame him. Honestly, she's a little jealous.

She moves closer until she's a couple feet away and then stops, arms folded over her chest, leaning against the nearest coffins while she studies the body he's crouched over - and his movements, his body language, everything she can learn without actually seeing his face. ]

Illuminating. And unless you're hiding a forensic lab somewhere on Tu Vishan, I doubt you'll find much.

[cowled]

[Well, really, who's to say he isn't.

After all, he is Batman. He can almost feel her scrutiny like a physical weight. Sizing him up. Well, let her. His movements remain deft, unhurried and casual, but there is almost no wasted motion to anything he does. Bruce isn't graceful, per se, (though he's been referred to as such) but he is wholly utilitarian.]

Your vote of confidence is appreciated.

[And his tone stays low, rough and neutral.]

[tendnottoweep]

I'm not known for my confidence in anyone.

[ Natasha pauses, and then crouches down on the opposite side of the corpse from him, her eyes on his face - or what she can see of it, anyway. Her expression is closer to mild curiosity and amusement than the intense scrutiny actually behind her gaze, though she has her doubts he'll be fooled by the mask. ]

Good to finally meet the infamous Batman, though.

[cowled]

[Smart. Dangerous. Forearmed with knowledge. Bruce has kept the Batman off the network whenever possible, opting to use encryptions that would make Oracle proud if she learned of them. But the same can't be said for the streets. 'Batman' has become a staple there, for just shy of three months. Bruce had waited until the pool of foreigners was sufficient to mask his identity before he'd ever put on the cowl, and it was several weeks again before he went to the effort of making the 'Batman' identity known to the criminals he terrorized.

So she's connected, and she's not afraid to let him know it. Interesting.]

That depends on your definition of 'good'.

[He's not going to play the game. If she wants to draw out what he knows about her, she'll have to try harder than that.]

[tendnottoweep]

[ Hah. Well, given what she's heard about him, she hadn't expected information to be easy to get from him. The evasiveness is still a little annoying, but there's not a flicker of it on her face. ]

Well, there aren't many people I can't find once I start looking.

With all the masked vigilantes, supersoldiers and so on here, you wouldn't stand out that much... and yet you've kept your head down. Why is that?

[cowled]

So people wouldn't see fit to ask me questions like that.

[He's spent most of his life evading difficult queries. As Bruce Wayne, his methods differ greatly than as Batman, but the end result is often the same.

He never gives more than he intends to away. It's kept him alive. Sometimes it's kept him alone.]