@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

[rehandle]

[ And there it is.

I wouldn't have stopped them if it wasn't for Kara. But she was there. And with her help and her influence, he went back in spite of the steep cost.

There's a brief quiet, Stephen's gaze sliding away. Then, and without looking back: ]

We can't always act alone, or expect ourselves to be able to take huge steps without first having to learn. Without support.

[ Damian had Dick's. Kara's. People aren't solitary creatures - he learned from them how to be better. Just as he'd learned from his family, from his circumstances, how to be worse.

Which is to say... ]

I think the more accurate phrasing would be that you haven't always been a good man.

[ There's no such thing as redemption, not really. People who were hurt in times when you weren't kind will always have been hurt, no matter what reparations are made. But people are not without the capacity to change state.

And perhaps he's not a shining beacon of goodness, but the preface of this whole conversation? I'm not a good man? He's too young to deny himself the possibility of progress. It's too final, when he's already made a change.

Stephen turns his head to look at Damian again. Gaze firm. Tone steady. ]

You acted. It matters.

[batricide]

I'm a good man when I have someone to hold me accountable

[ He'd told Markus that. When he'd first conceived of the whole thing - Markus was the kind of person who would hold him accountable, corral him when he got out of line.

He isn't sure that he's a good person. He's pretty sure you're disqualified from being one if you never stop plotting to use the people around you, or if you don't regret murdering helpless men in revenge.]

I'm self-aware enough to admit that.

[rehandle]

[ It's an honest assessment. Honest enough that Stephen doesn't fight it, mouth hitching briefly at one corner before he reaches for his tea.

A decent spot for a breather. ]

I'll drink to that.

[ He's young. He's got years of learning to do before he'll be able to do for himself what others can do for him now. But he's willing to listen. He wants to listen, knows how to identify beliefs that resonate with the kind of person he'd rather be and allow himself to be guided by them.

It's a solid foundation. Stephen has faith that he'll find his way to being his own moral compass one day, acting in ways he won't regret when he looks at them through the lens of somebody else's point of view. ]

[batricide]

[ Other's faith in him comes easier than his own. Damian knew too well what he was capable of, how often he careered headlong into violence as if alternatives don't exist.

How he'll meet soldiers carrying out orders and hate them for not questioning. Almost as much as he hates himself. ]

So... What do we do now?