The First Broad Daylight (Fourth Wall)

[cowledcrusader]

[The thing about sudden influxes of people means Batman's constantly busy and can't inevitably stay away from everyone because they're everywhere.  So most of his stalking he expects to be bothered... and in fact, it probably will be.

He'll be out in the open a few times today, investigating inevitable disturbances in the village.]

Comments

[cowledcrusader.livejournal.com]

If you came here under normal circumstances, you wouldn't be. Removal of the Filial Wings is instant death.

Considering you and so many others arrived under specific conditions, the rules are clearly different for you. ...Though there is no definitive answer to how long it can stay this way.

[titango.livejournal.com]

It looks like there's a break from the status quo. I'd assume there's a chance that I'm in a better position to finding a way out than the rest of you as far as this construct has been built. [He's just been lingering here for too long, though. There are some people he hasn't seen in almost a year. He can't resist the spying.]

[cowledcrusader.livejournal.com]

Even beings on the outside have wings. I suspect that your arrival was due to an errant Shift. An accident.

...If anything, I'd say you're correct about finding a way out.

[titango.livejournal.com]

Hmph. Not like you to admit someone else is right about anything. [Okay, so maybe it just slipped out. That doesn't mean he's going to be in a hurry to take it back.]

[cowledcrusader.livejournal.com]

[Unsurprisingly, he doesn't look bothered by this much. Maybe he's gotten used to you saying it, Dick. ...And depending, Batman may look and sound older than what you remember.

But the comment brings up plenty of unpleasant memories of the final few months Dick Grayson had been Robin in his world. The growing rift between them and Dick's growing frustration. Honestly, this still bothered Bruce in his more private moments, but he knew what Dick did was his own decision.

All of his pushing, his prodding, his expectations? They were for something greater. Batman and Robin stood for more than just being crimefighters. But to be more than that, mistakes couldn't happen. And even besides creating a "legend"... one of the most important things was always that his teammates, his family, made it home alive.

Of course, he never said that out loud. Maybe he should've. But dwelling on it was something that he really couldn't do much. Because there were causes much higher than his own happiness he had to pursue. Because few others could.]

It happens.

[titango.livejournal.com]

[Perhaps the Dick in his world had been of a lonelier sort. Though he never really stopped self-identifying as Dick Grayson, he also wasn't one to have much in the way of dates, and hadn't really socialized properly until college. Whereas this Robin had long since given up attempting to maintain himself as Dick at all, and already slipped into more Batmanisms than he'd care to admit.

Maybe there was a plan after all. But going in accordance with that plan didn't have to be mutually exclusive to turning coldhearted and solitary. And that was the bit Batman could never understand, the bit that always tempted him most severely when Slade Wilson took an interest in him. A real family worked as a unit stronger than the sum of its parts. Each member could have its flaws, but there would always be another nearby to ensure everyone returned home in one piece.

Bruce would never get that. It wasn't in his nature. And that's what's making it so hard to keep looking at him now.] ....I'll get it done as soon as I can. And then you can go back to Gotham and I'll head back to Jump City and we won't have to deal with one another again. All right?

[cowledcrusader.livejournal.com]

Jump City?

[There's a brief look of confusion on his face which might surprise even Robin.]

...Hm. I thought you looked different. ...You're not the same Robin I know from my universe. No less of one, but different.

[titango.livejournal.com]

Jump City. In California. ...Where Titans Tower is. [...And now he'll be regarding Batman curiously. Had Batman been here so long he was already starting to lose his tenuous grip on sanity?]

...Is this another one of your tests?

[cowledcrusader.livejournal.com]

Hardly.

If you were the Robin from my world, you'd still be attending high school in Gotham City. And there's no "Jump City" anywhere within the state of California. And there's no "Titan's Tower" either.

Luceti has a habit of bringing people from all sorts of different worlds together, even alternate worlds of existing planets.

It would seem you and I come from different worlds, or at the very least, different timestreams from each other.

[titango.livejournal.com]

...Sounds like. I've been on my own for almost a year now. [Says the fifteen year old with just a hint of that "no bedtime for ME!"-style liberation.] The Titans are my team. We're doing a lot more good than I ever did for Gotham. [... "you'd be proud". But that's the bit that'll never get said. Not after the last fight.]

...You really don't remember any of that? [Timestreams were a logical enough answer, but it's still hard to hear Batman talk about an alternate universe where everything he's worked so hard to attain just... doesn't exist. Where he's still pulling double-duty trying to be a model student and a perfect little soldier. Batman Junior, with nothing of his own to show for it.]

[cowledcrusader.livejournal.com]

[He catches on. At first he figures that it's just Dick being, well, a teenager. And then the comment about doing more good than they did for Gotham... plus the tone...

This Robin must've had a falling out with his version of Batman. ...Unsurprising if his own world was any indication. His just happened later. But if this Batman knew the level of things Robin has accomplished, he probably would be proud. He was proud of his own Robin for a very long time, even if he never said it.]

No. That never happened in my world. You didn't have any reason to leave Gotham at the time, much less form a team.

[Said implying that the Dick Grayson he knew was actually happy at his age. Which is true. The real friction between them didn't start until well into his college years.]

.... Stop being awesome and making me want to type an app so they can develop. D:

[titango.livejournal.com]

That's a shame. Getting out of that cave is the best thing I ever did for myself. [He might be trying to make it hurt, just a little. Not like Batman could be hurt.] The team part was accidental, but I wouldn't trade it for any other experience.

[This Robin would probably argue that point just for the sake of arguing, but that's beside the point.]

...But none of that'll matter once I figure a way past the barrier. I know what's in the journals. What kind of research have you been hiding?