Spoilers for TDKR in post

[withoutrope]

My interest is in creation. In the cycle of chaos and order, in ash and soil.

If I am to take a journey, I would see it writ in fire.

There is no fire, here.

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[pulvisetumbrasumus]

You aren't interested in creation.

[withoutrope]

I am invested in the paths that lead to it. And the anomalies that block them.

[pulvisetumbrasumus]

I thought we were past lying to each other.

[He knows she believes. He's not so inhuman he doesn't want to hurt her.]

[withoutrope]

I have no interest in lying to you, Bruce. There is nothing to be gained from it.

[He has already hurt her -- the slow knife, a cut that she had never imagined was possible. It was years before she could begin to entertain the idea that she mourned her father. Years more before she had a name for it.]

[pulvisetumbrasumus]

Explain to me what you thought you were creating.

[He could be angry, he supposes. But betrayal, to Bruce, is a hollow ache. A void. Her father taught him that. He could tell her she died for nothing. That he saved Gotham, despite her. He could tell her what Ra's had told him about love, that grief made you hate; that the man he knew would never have been able to love her. (Bruce had.) But he's not cruel.

There's part of him she still owns. It's hers forever. Something neither Rachel or Selina. Just hers. So he wants to understand. That's all.]

[withoutrope]

Why? Would this bring you some measure of solace?

[Nor is she angry with him. She hates him, certainly. She can recognize, in a way that now feels nearly academic, that this is rooted in what he has rejected. That chance to remake the world.

Everything that should have been Bane's was instead given to the Batman. Because his face carried no guilt.

But she was taught long ago not to hate with passion, but with purpose. She hates him and she thinks nothing of him, and the world might have fallen at their feet.]

[imnotsure]

...You're not going to try and start one?

[withoutrope]

Not without the proper research.

[imnotsure]

See the last time you tried that it really didn't go over so hot.

I mean, don't get me wrong I did just fine but something about seeing kids going hungry..

[withoutrope]

Children go hungry every day. I am more concerned with stopping that globally than in places with rations enough for every citizen.

[imnotsure]

And that's why your revolution's a sham.

And it'll always-if you'll pardon the common venacular- suck.

[withoutrope]

That is because most have resigned themselves to such a fate. And so they take, with the justification that others take. And they become trapped, and tell themselves there is no way out.

But there is. You have spent your whole life trying to find one, Ms. Kyle. But you have looked in the wrong places.

[Oh, yes. She has read everything on Selina Kyle. There are commonalities, in their backgrounds.

Perhaps, if the league had found her early on...but, no. Selina is already too focused on her own happiness to be do what would need to be done.]

[learnedtosmile]

You can take your philosophy crap and shove it. You don't get to toy with the lives of millions to prove some point about the circle of life, or whatever kool-aid you drank.

[withoutrope]

I do not operate in philosophy. That is the realm of men who know little and think less.

[savedbatman]

Where is there creation in fire? You lost me.

[withoutrope]

There is creation in what comes after.

We did lose you. [There is a small measure of curiosity in there. Their men had been unable to find the commissioner.] That is to your credit.

[savedbatman]

You see, the thing about creating...about being involved in the soil means that you have a job to do. You're adding something to people. [He pushes his glasses up on his nose] and it's like a savings account. The more you add-the more you create the more you can take away.

or the more the bank might be willing to help you out. [He had people willing to shelter him Talia. Good people.] ...thought you might have understood that Miss Tate.

[withoutrope]

[She smiles at James Gordon, and means it.]

I do not believe that your banks have worked like that in quite some time. We did not underestimate your community, Commissioner Gordon. But we did underestimate you. Your tenacity.

For this, I apologize.

[savedbatman]

[He can look at that smile...and not want to shoot her. Because she's just lost. Because he watched her die and there's nothing there-no fear just pity.

Grudging respect...and pity. The corner of his lip quirks.]

Honestly you underestimate me still if you think I didn't have help with it.

Miss Tate.

[withoutrope]

[She does not want his pity -- would seek to stamp it out of him. But she can recognize the hypocrisy, there. Because he has her pity as well.

He has given his life to a city that rejected him at every turn. And he sees that as something to be proud of.]

I knew you would want to help. I did not know you would be so able.

Commissioner.

[wing_of_night]

Still crazy as ever, I see.

[withoutrope]

A small word for small men.

[wing_of_night]

I would've said Psychopath, but I'm trying to be nice to Damian, and I doubt he'd appreciate the implication that he was the son of a psycho. ...Despite how accurate the implication.

[withoutrope]

[The son...?]

I believe you are the one here not fully in control of their mental capabilities. I do not know anyone called Damian.

[wing_of_night]

Oh, believe me, I've thought of that. If it weren't for the fact that I can validate some of the weird stuff I see on a daily basis with at least five other people, I'd have been in Arkham a long time ago.

But, no. I am very much sane, Talia. And yours is not a face to forget. See, I'm from a Gotham parallel to yours. In my world, Ra's is still alive and kicking - despite numerous 'fatal' wounds. And you didn't go quite off the deep end. Still pretty out there, but not city-burning psycho. In my world, your dad is still dead set on passing off the League to Bruce, except that would mean that Bruce would have to marry into the family.

So yeah, where I'm from, your dad was not only doing the whole assassin thing, but was also finding time to play matchmaker in a creepy sort of way. And then there's Damian. The son you had with Bruce, and my step-brother.

Like I said, I've thought I was crazy more than once.