[locked] action;

[babybatshit]

Who: The Batfamily
What: Baby brother crashes the party
When: The day of Damian's arrival (we'll call it May 30)

[The arrival of Damian Wayne begins with a bang and not with a whimper.

He doesn't bother to go for subtlety at the hospital, when he smashes a doctor's face into the wall repeatedly, ties up another and leaves him strung up from the ceiling and beat nearly to a pulp. The statements filed with the police attribute it to a dark-haired boy, somewhere around elementary school-aged, but Damian's long gone by the time any of the authorities can get there with all his gear, and he doesn't intend to be caught any time soon.

Somewhere somebody knows something, and the premise is too mad to be real. But maybe somebody believes it, somewhere around here, and somewhere there has to be a clue as to who would go to the lengths of constructing an entirely new city just for the sake of some stupid plot like this. In his mad rush for answers he goes after the likely targets first. Hospital personnel, and whatever files he can find; the city government, and their records, and the elected officials most likely to have any clues on any sort of criminal conspiracy involving the kidnapping and psychological mind screw that is attempting to convince people they're fictional. Worse, they must know he's Robin. Somebody must know, his clothes were there. This can't be a coincidence. There's got to be a reason he's here, a pattern between what's going on and what's been constructed and a plot to string together to make it all make sense and give him a direction that points to the culprit, and from there, back to Gotham. If Richard doesn't find him first.

From there he moves downwards, into the slums and the gutters and the underworld. Something has to be there, somewhere.

For the people who know how to read the signs, all of this- the systematic searching for information, the harsh interrogations conducted swift and brutal- should make it obvious who the culprit is. And when his investigations turn up certain names- Timothy Drake (not Wayne, no matter how much he wants to call himself Wayne, Damian is Batman's true son), Stephanie Brown, Jason Todd- he'll have a new direction entirely. Tracking them down and breaking into their strongholds. Waiting for them to come.

If they don't find him first.]

Comments

[babybatshit]

[He should have seen that coming. When given the opportunity to do something undignified and utterly disgraceful, Stephanie Brown will always take that option. The fact that he set himself up for it is irrelevant compared to the fact that she should be good enough not to do things like that, or that he has to clamp his legs to keep from falling and losing his position because she caught him off guard even if he's just going to flip and drop to the ground the second he has enough space to do that without mostly falling on top of her.]

I should be asking you that. Here we are in the middle of a mass kidnapping situation orchestrated by who knows what madman and I find you eating ice cream. And on top of that, you didn't even respond once you knew I was here, if you knew at all. If you're going to get sloppy you should just give up being a part of my father's legacy entirely. You're certainly not going to be of any help to me.

[This is something like disappointment and irritation and somewhere, buried deep down, a genuine happiness to see that she's here and ok enough to be sitting around eating ice cream and the admission that he would actually seek her out for help, in the absence of Dick Grayson.]

[eggplantier]

[Steph grimly stops herself from sticking her tongue out. She is an adult, damn it. Kind of, anyway.]

Ugh. First day, huh?

[It's rough. She knows. Tim does the whole explanation thing so much better, though. ]

Yeah, I'm eating ice cream. I have a job here. I'm probably signing up for college again next semester. The whole thing's kind of...permanent.

[She chances a glance at him. That'll be hard to swallow. It is for everyone.]

And I am not getting sloppy! You're just...too tiny for me to spot.

[babybatshit]

[And Damian pretty much thinks he's an adult. Or at least that he should be treated as one. But that never stops him from sulking like a ten year old.

It doesn't stop the moment of child-like terror, either, at the thought that this isn't something he'll just be able to think or fight or trick his way out of. He might disparage Steph every chance he can get, but she's not- she's not that incompetent. If she's been here long enough to sign up for college again, she must be well and truly stuck. How long have Jason Todd and Tim Drake been here? How long have they been stuck?

Damian much prefers to think of himself as infallible. One second of doubt, before he sucks it up and shoves it somewhere deep where hopefully it never sees the light of day ever again.]

I am stealthy, as I should be, and the idea that even you could overlook an entire person in your proximity should be laughable. Now what the hell do you mean, permanent?

[eggplantier]

[Steph takes her hand off her forehead. She hopes it's not red, or anything, but she knows her luck is not that good, especially around Damian.

Now she just needs to figure how can she even start to explain this to him without sounding like she needs to be hospitalized.

Yeah. Right. That's definitely gonna happen. Better to just jump in there.]

Well, okay, um. When was the last time you saw me back home?

[babybatshit]

[It's definitely going to swell and be noticeable for days, on account of how thick-skulled they both are on a regular basis. Or perceive themselves to be.

Or maybe it's just Damian, who won't want to hear anything she has to say. It means losing- losing a lot of things.]

When you were hospitalized under the influence of Black Mercy.

[eggplantier]

[That's kind of a bad last memory of her. But then again, she'd also thought she'd hallucinated that part, so it's nice to have confirmation. Yeah, she's a horrible person.]

I remember going to England with the big guy, and then I was here. But it's been like...six months since I woke up in that hospital. The one here, I mean.

[You know, just in case he gets confused with the last time she woke up in a hospital. She'd like to stop doing that sometime soon. At least six months is probably a new record.]

[babybatshit]

[No he was there, paying his respect. It's a gesture he doesn't make very often, and he's not sure he'd be glad to hear that she thought she hallucinated it and let him off the hook for any potential feelings-laden conversations he's too awkward to deal with, or hurt that she doesn't believe he'd really do it.]

If you'd been gone for six months I think I would know.

[But she hasn't been. She very much hasn't been.]

[eggplantier]

Yeah, uh. That's what I thought too.

[Her ice cream's starting to melt. She just pushes it aside. This is a big sacrifice, okay.]

I mean, about Tim. You know he's been here like, two years. Apparently people don't, like, disappear back home.

[babybatshit]

[She could keep eating the ice cream. He didn't tell her not to.

Of course, he'd probably have something snide to say about it, but she could do it.]

I would definitely notice if he'd gone missing back home. I might even consider it one of the top ten days of my life. What the hell has he been doing here for two years?