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

[backwordscompatible]

[Any traces of a smile she may have had until then faded away at the deliberate choice of tense. Were? Mentored? And that tone...]

Did...something happen to my dad?

[cowled]

[Damn. He knew he should have lied about that. Then again, she'd likely have pounced on that, too. She's always had an uncanny ability to tell when he's omitting the truth.]

He died. Several years ago now.

[backwordscompatible]

[She inhaled sharply. Even knowing that his was a completely different world than the one she knew...in hers, her dad was all she had.]

He...

How?

[cowled]

Peacefully.

[Relatively speaking.]

[backwordscompatible]

[Her eyes lower to the ground, and she appears momentarily far away as she tries to absorb all this. Peacefully...helped. Not much, but it was a small comfort to know he hadn't suffered. And she had been older when she lost him. Batman's age. Not 14.]

Do you think whatever happened to him there could happen where I'm from?

[cowled]

[The pain of a child losing a parent is... always difficult for Bruce to endure. Even tangentially. So his tone is gentle when he replies,]

Everyone mortal dies, Zatanna. It's... difficult for those left behind, but it's an inevitability everyone has to face. As much as we wish and hope otherwise. Your father was a good man, and regardless of the universe I imagine he loves you very much.

[backwordscompatible]

I know he does.

[He was strict. Overprotective. He rarely smiled, and his tone in public was the epitome of formality. Often, when she spoke of him to the others, she even called him Zatara. But never once had Zatanna ever doubted that what he did, he did out of love.]

Still...there's nothing I could do? If I ever made it back home.

[cowled]

Without knowing your world, it's difficult to say. I'm sorry.

[And he sounds it, too.]

[backwordscompatible]

No. It's not your fault.

You didn't have to tell me anything. You could've lied, but you didn't.

[She takes a deep breath, forcing a smile.]

Well, this all turned pretty depressing real fast, didn't it? Some second first impression.

[cowled]

I've had worse.

[... second first impressions, that is.]

[backwordscompatible]

[A name immediately comes to mind, but she hesitates in saying it aloud because she's not sure. And she doesn't want to assume.]

Something tells me this sort of thing might become a regular occurrence.

[cowled]

Then we deal with it. As it comes.

[Does that name start with R and end in 'obin', by any chance.]

[backwordscompatible]

[Maybe]

Easier said than done.

I have a strong feeling I've gotten off easy so far. A couple smart-alecs making comments about my age, one or two doubles...and now you.

[cowled]

[Eyebrow.]

You'd classify me as 'easy'?

[backwordscompatible]

[What, are you offended?]

Well, yeah.

You're still talking to me. If my dad were here, he'd even probably use the words 'civil conversation'.

[cowled]

[Batman's been described as many things over the years. 'Easy' has never been one of them. In... any capacity to which the word might apply.]

Hn. No doubt.

[He shifts his posture just slightly. Balancing.]

Do you have any questions?

[backwordscompatible]

A million. The first one being: where do I even start?

What about you? I feel like you're the one who's been doing most of the explaining until now.

[Another oddity, which made her wonder what the catch was.]

[cowled]

I learned everything I needed to know from Robin.

[... which is mostly true. What he didn't learn from Dick he picked up from Wally (unintentionally on the speedster's behalf) or is gleaning right now from this discussion with Zatanna.]

[backwordscompatible]

Right. That makes sense.

['Robin stuff'. She'd asked him how the conversation went, and what they'd talked about, and that's what he'd told her. Always with the secrets. Not that she didn't understand, but it was still kinda frustrating at times.]

Are you two...okay?

[cowled]

[His jaw tightens incrementally.]

Have you spoken with him?

[He knows she has. But he asks regardless.]

[backwordscompatible]

Yeah. He showed up at my window on my first day. Not long after I'd made my first broadcast.

Why?

[cowled]

You're asking me how we are. That means you asked him and didn't like his answer.

[At least he didn't have time to bug Zatanna's suite beforehand.]

[backwordscompatible]

There wasn't an answer to like. He wouldn't tell me much. Just that you two talked, and that you were a different Batman from the one we know.

But his tone sounded...off.

[cowled]

He's disappointed. The first Robin is only nine years younger than me in my universe, and our relationship is significantly different. I can't be the man your Robin expects me to be, and he's too young to understand why.

[A world in which, by 32, he'd never lost Jason, or adopted Tim and Cassandra-- no, he can't be what Dick expects. Or what he needs.]

[backwordscompatible]

What is your relationship like?

[She was potentially crossing a line with the question, and she knew it. But better to ask and not get an answer than to never have tried at all. As little time as she had known them, Zatanna still had a fairly good notion of what Robin's relationship with Batman was like in her world. Enough to understand if there was a significant difference.]