@hafid.alghul

[batricide]

[ He's been gone... a while. And it's been a while back home. A lot has happened. Damian should be angry when he wakes up back here, but when the alternative is waiting to be executed? He'll takke. ]

I'm going to need someone to bring me up to speed on what I have missed.

Comments

[batricide]

I didn't ASK to go back there.

[reneger]

how was it?

[batricide]

I'll tell you, but not here.

[ He can't have this particular conversation over text. ]

[reneger]

that bad, huh
you know where i live
come by whenever

[batricide]

Expect me by later.

[ When is pretty nebulous. So many people actually care and it's - kind of hard going from home, from all that, to back here. Where people were worried and want to check in. ]

private;

[reneger]

( yeah. he knows damian has a few more friends here than anywhere else. jason knows he's alive and kicking, and that's enough for now. he can wait on whatever status report damian's going to deliver.

and he doesn't go out much anymore either, so there's nothing he needs to get to any time soon. waiting on his couch with his feet propped on the coffee table seems like a fine way to spend his day. )

window's open

action

[batricide]

[ It's a while later that he takes him up on that open window offer. Everything is messed up beyond all belief back home, but at least Jason is a comforting constant. ]

Jason.

[reneger]

( he hasn't left, yet. has just been stuck here like the rest of them who haven't managed to slip passed whatever weird as fuck barrier keeps them here. and when damian comes in, he's--still sitting on the couch, head back against the backrest, legs spread out in front of him and arms behind his head. an eye opens up, peeks through bangs that are almost too long before his lips twist into a subtle smirk. )

Welcome back, baby bird.

[batricide]

Don't call me that.

[ He expected to feel angry.

Some kind of lingering resentment. Jason and Vixen had left him behind, and normally when that happens he gets angry. But considering Buddy's death, how little chance any of them had of surviving, he can't muster it.

Besides, that isn't this Jason. ]

[reneger]

( it's not, and his expression softens when damian fusses. jason leans up, moves to rest his elbows against his knees and gestures for damian to come a little closer. figures he'll come on his own time anyway, but maybe, maybe he doesn't feel like waiting for it. )

Doesn't matter what name you decide to go by, y'know. You'll still be our baby bird.

[batricide]

Whatever.

[ He steps closer, sliding his hands out of his jacket pockets and sitting down. ]

I screwed up.

[reneger]

( not exactly what he anticipates hearing from damian wayne, serial "i'm right and you're wrong"-er but. )

You wanna talk about it?

( since they're here, sitting down, and have the time anyway. )

[batricide]

[ not really. but he should. ]

Kara exists in my world. [ He scrubs a hand down his face. The one highlight to all of it. ] She - did what she's always done and inspired me to be a better person.

[reneger]

( cute. good to know damian's crush goes all the way back home with him. )

How'd that lead to you screwing up?

[batricide]

I betrayed Ra's and I wasn't quick enough to escape his wrath.

[reneger]

( . . ah. yeah. that'd do it. there's a moment's pause, before jason's reaching over and pressing his palm to the back of damian's head. tries to pull him in to a pseudo half-hug. )

You alright?

[batricide]

[ He lets himself be hugged. Or at least pulled closer. Sighing. ]

I'm fine.

[ not totally. not completely, but. ]

She made me want to be better. There... and here.

[reneger]

She is one of Clark's. ( kryptonian. all the non-crazy ones he's met seem to have the same set of morals: they're bright, soft, make people want to try harder. ) Back home, I had a Supes clone on my team. Went by Bizzaro. Little fucked up in the head, but y'know.

( most the people who hang around jason are. )

[batricide]

[ well. ]

Grey skin, backwards way of talking?

[reneger]

You get used to it.

( can't really blame the dude considering who made him. )

[batricide]

[ AH.

WELL. ]

He existed in my world. Briefly.

[reneger]

Briefly.

( there's a pause, but. jason just lifts his shoulders after, nonplussed. )

Doesn't surprise me. His situation wasn't. . ideal from the beginning.

[batricide]

[ He sighs. Letting the words sink in, the weight of Jason's arm around him.

Clark had killed the clone the second he'd been alerted to what he was doing. Slaughtering innocents. Clark hadn't even hesitated - and now here's Jason telling him that in another life he grew into being a hero. Maybe from the same origins, maybe not.

He brings a hand up to his head, pushing his hair back from his face. ]

... I don't know what I believe in anymore, Jason.

[reneger]

I don't have any answers for you. ( jason has always been an outlier. the black sheep of the family, the one whose ideals never quite aligned right with anyone else's. and after that last incident with bruce back home--well. he doesn't know what to believe in, either. he believes in helping others, in preventing the crimes that led to kids like him existing in the first place. protecting innocents, defending those that can't defend himself. but he knows that regardless of what damian does or doesn't believe in, he'll always follow those ideals. bruce may not have passed on some of his more obnoxious genes, but damian certainly inherited his integrity. )

We all reach a point eventually where we've got to spread our wings out from under whatever big name we've aligned ourselves with. Us sidekicks. ( damian was robin, but he was robin under someone else. some shitty version of clark--so he won't specify daddy bats in this case. ) And figure out what's important to us, yeah? What path we want to take outside of their shadow. It's not easy. Harder for some of us than others. But you've got time, and you'll figure it out.