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]

[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.]

[cowled]

Complicated.

[Dick has been many things to him over the years. They've weathered many storms together, and Bruce knows beyond a shadow of a doubt that Dick would die for him, regardless of whether or not Bruce actually wants him to.

But he has his faults, and Bruce knows damn well he has his own. When those faults go head to head, the resultant fireworks are... impressive, to say the least.

Dick's his son, his partner-- at times an enormous pain in the ass. He's been a hero and a lost soul. He was the last one to know about Barbara, about Jason-- and Bruce's broken spine, but when information permits he's always the first to offer support or assistance. He's a leader and one of the best men Bruce has ever had the privilege of working with.

'Complicated'. That's not the half of it.]

[backwordscompatible]

What about...ours?

[Any thoughts even remotely close to the truth were so far out there, she dismissed them even before they could really process. But if it was something that could affect them here and now, she wanted to know. She deserved that much.]

[Back home, she liked Batman. There was little doubt in her mind that he played a huge role in her being allowed back into Mount Justice after her initial life grounding sentence. She still sort of owed him for that one, even though he'd never fully admitted it.]

[cowled]

Roughly the same. I've worked with my version of Zatanna enough to call her an ally. Not enough to trust her implicitly.

[It's blunt, and as simple as he can make it. It barely touches the surface in summing up the twenty-odd years of their acquaintance, but... it's enough to go on.]

[backwordscompatible]

[There's not really much more Zatanna can say to that. Batman called her an ally. Well, not her specifically, but a version of her. Close enough. Even the lack of implicit trust was to be expected. She wouldn't think him to trust her so soon after re-meeting for the first time. She came from a different world, and was barely a few months' older than Robin.]

[Even the Batman from her world didn't. Which was why she was still in the dark about their identities.]

I figured as much. [In her mind, there weren't many people he would. No offense taken.] There aren't too many people I would probably trust here yet, either.

[cowled]

Good.

[Of course Bruce would be an advocate for being eternally paranoid and not trusting other people.]

[backwordscompatible]

[Of course he would. If this was anybody other than him, Zatanna would've rolled her eyes.]

Any other names you think I could add to the list?

[Aside from the obvious.]

[And yes, she's asking your advice on who she can trust and who she can't. Use this opportunity wisely.]

[cowled]

[Almost, he says 'Steve Rogers'. Despite his disdain for the man's principles (or the lack of them in some aspects) there's no denying he's trustworthy. His lips thin.]

In our line of work?

[That is to say, vigilantism.]

Batgirl. The other Robin. Nightwing, who is currently active under the Batman name.

[Obvious names aside. He's hardly going to tell her to trust Superman, because in their worlds there's not a single name that inspires trust and respect more than that one word. He leaves Cassandra off the list because she currently has no code-name, and... as much as he cares for his daughter, she's easily identifiable in a way that tracks back to everyone else's identities if he simply says 'Cassandra'.]

Favrielle nó Eglantine has proven a trustworthy civilian contact. She's a clothier in the Water sector.

[backwordscompatible]

Robin, I've met. [Yes, she means Damian. It was a very pleasant conversation. Not.] Batgirl, I haven't, and...okay, wait, say that last one again for me?

[Wally mentioned something about this. "Their" Robin eventually becoming Batman in a different universe. Except he neglected to mention the thought of BatRobin actually being here]

[cowled]

Nightwing. I'm sure you've heard.

[Probably from Wally, because god knows the speedster has trouble keeping his mouth shut regardless of universe.]

[backwordscompatible]

Kid Flash mentioned that Robin would eventually take on the Batman title. [Oh, Batman, you know him so well.] But Nightwing? ...that's new.

Are you telling me he's here too?

[cowled]

He didn't go from being Robin to being Batman overnight.

[Oops his tone is just the slightest bit chiding.]

He is. Scouting the desert.

[backwordscompatible]

I never said he did.

[And hers gets a little more defensive.]

Would I know him if I saw him? [Because she's curious now. So very, very curious.] And, for that matter, would he even know who I am?