} t e s t { spoilers likely - just to be safe.

[inextricable]

Joining the masses? That's what they call it right?

But why me?

I can feel the skepticism several dimensions away. Look I know I need some work.

...

Fine. A lot of work.

Not saying I know what I'm doing on all five points.

But I'll figure it out.

I mean, I have to. Wasn't lying when I said I'd do anything. And maybe...maybe places like Gotham'll always need...

Well. What we all need.

Something to believe in.




[OOC: holy hotfoot batman -- and theeennnn it was late ;_; but seriously loving...all the everything here...I shall tag back again ASAP!!! thank you for threading in this rollercoaster voice-test! I thought I mgiht be too late ldkjfdls let's pretend RL isn't steam rolling me u_u /tags at a turtle's pace...]

Comments

[believe_in_me]

Your belief is merely an escape from your monotonous, stupid and cruel life.

I'll omit the "God" out of respect for people who's personal deities sometimes mingle with their professional ones.

[Bitter? You had better believe it.]

[inextricable]

Belief - true belief? It's the opposite of escape.

[ His tone says what his words don't quite: but how would you know.

He still doesn't know the whole story - not in the detail he'd prefer, which accounts for the halfway rend between pity and disgust, disappointment thrown in and not carelessly. ]

[believe_in_me]

The ardor of a fanatic. [a soft laugh] And people call me crazy. [Or so he's heard. Harvey's bad eye circles in it's socket and his hand finds a small metallic object.]

[aceofkillers]

Yanno, I'd always wanted to ask you sometime.

What's it like, not havin' to think for yourself anymore?

[believe_in_me]

[Harvey's head tilts]

...Surprisingly liberating. [But also incredibly constrictive.]

[latetowork]

[From one Doubting Thomas to another...]

That's pretty deep.

[inextricable]

[ He's note totally sure if this guy's being serious or making fun, but he goes with benefit of the doubt, laughing briefly. ] Thanks, I guess.

It is what it is.

[ And he's okay with that - as much as he can be at any rate. ]

[latetowork]

[Neo kind of sucks at hiding when he's making fun of something. He'd know.]

That's not so deep, but it's the damn truth.

[ichoosefight]

If it ever stops needing people like us, we'll go away, I promise.

[inextricable]

Basically. I mean. It's what we hope for too right?

But until then...

[ Goes without saying maybe. ]

[ichoosefight]

Plenty of time to sleep when we're dead, right?

[savedbatman]

Just make sure your writer takes it slow. Gives you the time and attention you deserve son.

[inextricable]

[ Last he saw Gordon it was outside the Wayne manor, declining the offer to stay with the force. It's funny and sad and all those little in-between feelings. He'd felt let down when Bane held up that letter, read it and mocked it but told only the truth. But he looks at the Commissioner now and without consciously meaning to looks at his own hands. Someday he might...

...fair enough. No one can predict the future - what it will demand and the thin set of options one will have.

It was his son, a voice keeps reminding him and ultimately the betrayed feeling is just replaced by a sadness. In a way he's grateful that it's not anger; he has enough of that still, for others and even for himself. But he'd always liked Jim Gordon. People called him a hero after the lies of Dent's death but Blake had him in bright lights before then, just as with the Batman. They say never meet your heroes but he thinks, as things are now, maybe a degree of disappointment's part of what it's supposed to be - keeps them human. No one likes bad choices or hard choices. They come up anyway.

So when he smiles at Gordon it's honest, and when he inclines his head it's with some of his old respect, tempered with that edge knowledge brings. ]

No more and no less, Commissioner.

S'all I'm asking.

[ He pauses, curious in spite of himself. ]

What about you, sir?

[ Sometimes muns keep them floating, so other voices have told him, and he's always preferred something concrete but they've told him it's not up to him more than once so he's biding his efforts. ]

[savedbatman]

[Jim Gordon has mentored a lot of other cops. It comes with the territory. In each he finds a small piece of himself that he'd like to nurture into being good at the job. He is at turns a father and a teacher as well as a police officer.

He's come to realize that.]

Let me give you a piece of advice. Stand firm, and only be willing to compromise when your safety is at stake son. They like to have...fun. With people.

[The last question surprises him.]

Me? Oh I'm around. My writer's got a special place in her heart for Gothamites. Hasn't really found a solid place for me yet. Not too many places do well with old war-horses.

[They want the young ones. The tempered ones with fire and spirit.]

[adapted]

Careful. Saying you'll do anything makes you sound desperate.

[inextricable]

Or committed. You can guess which one I prefer.

[adapted]

Committed also means that they could be calling the men in white coats to come collect you at a moment's notice, you know.

[hasissues]

What better to believe in than the power of good and hope? [Because that's what Bruce had done. Made people believe again. Believe that there was hope and that there was still good even in the corrupt.]

[inextricable]

No idea.

[ Because possibly there's nothing better for someone like him, for someones like them.

There's a sense of relief resurgent in him. He watched, as did everyone, while what they knew to be the Batman took Gotham's poison out at his own expense - not for the first time but arguably for the last. But his inheritance, so to speak, had gotten Blake rethinking what had happened. There just wasn't time to account for these things between his reappearance and the bomb going off. He had to have been planning to leave one way or another, out with a bang or a burst of smoke, a red herring.

But he hadn't been sure. No way to be sure of most things these days, but he'd have nearly given his eye-teeth for this one last solid.

So to meet Bruce Wayne again, even in this nebulous arena of minds and voices, is a grace of sorts. His childhood hero, then dethroned by years of lies, then crowned and caped again in time for the bitter finale - Blake doesn't like to spin maudlin but there's something unavoidable about being fervent when it comes to something he's been following this long. Someone. Without fully ever even realizing it, not until Dent's 'murder', not until he'd thought Gotham had lost him for good.

His smile makes his eyes crinkle, makes Blake look more his real age than the few years shy he more often seems to be notching. ]

You're okay, I -- [ he says, because he can't help it. Then he gets a grip on himself, all those stories he and the other boys made up, the stories he never believed whispered through the GCPD backrooms, all the in-betweens. ] -- it's...it's good to see you.

[ Bruce? Mr. Wayne? What's in a name?

He leaves that up for grabs. ]

[hasissues]

[How he's here or why isn't really a question that needs answering. He's positive that he's picked someone more than worthy of wearing his title. Or up holding the symbol of hope for all those who are barely hanging on.]

I'm sure it is. [Which in angry orphan speak is "you too" but he's sure Blake could see through that.] Just remember to stick to who you are. Wherever you go.

Even if it's hard sometimes. [And he knows this all too well.]

[borrows]

Is yourself not an option?

[inextricable]

It's an understood, more or less.

[ But he gets the feeling Selina Kyle knows all about understood - even the ones that actually aren't. An understood absence of an old woman's diamonds or the like, so on and so forth, but it's no longer his job to incarcerate and last he checked Selina Kyle doesn't even exist. He stuffs his hands in his pockets, brow arching in a dozen questions he's finding it hard to pick between.

Have you seen him? How'd you do it?

What should I call you now?

Likely none of these would get real answers anyway, but he rifles through them as options just the same.

She can't be any happier to be here than anyone else, even less so as someone who recently escaped two kinds of prison: literal and figurative, a city and a past. Nice for some he supposes, and he wonders if someday he'll think himself unlucky for wanting precisely the opposite of that. ]

[battyman]

[ There's a small moment of observation here, before he makes his voice heard. ] You'll do just fine.

[inextricable]

[ It makes him feel good to hear it; he has to be honest. But at the same time his mind turns it around, has him tilting his head and his posture conflicted between wary and simply watchful, curious. He's known since he was a boy who this man was, but that's to say little of particulars; anyone worth an hour in the Gotham archives can know the basics - his history and his apparent 'future', which an explosion over the bay says doesn't exist anyway. But some people, people like Blake, can't accept anything at face value and maybe it's because of that (somewhat) he could see past the one Bruce Wayne wore to the public. ]

And what about you?

[ One doesn't leave behind coordinates and a bungee set for a lark. He doesn't need, wouldn't ask for answers such as where will you go and what will you do. In a vague sense of something sad Blake understands an exit strategy, but again if he's honest he'd hoped it wouldn't have to be that way. ]

[robinception]

[Oh hey there...me.]

If it helps, I'm with you completely.