(no subject)

[painetched]

Just go catch some shut-eye, kid. You'll need it.

We can keep, there.

... and I mean, go now.

Comments

[copybat]

My mun's snickering, old man.

Hope you can handle the nap.

[painetched]

Yeah, well. She'll regret when she's going to have to think, later, but I guess snickering is permissible.

[copybat]

You almost sound like you're gonna miss the time. Someone getting a little more active in their autumn years?

[painetched]

... don't push your luck, McGinnis. Nobody knows what'll come out of it.

[copybat]

C'mon, it's not like you can stay cooped up in that apartment of yours forever.

[painetched]

Sure about that? Been 'cooped up' there from before you were walking upright under the table.

[Beat. Because - easier than admitting Terry might possibly maybe be right.]

Watch out with the company.

[copybat]

You're just making my case even more for me. Yeesh.

Let me guess, the last movie you even saw was Inception? [ That's particularly old to him, okay? ]

[girlfriend_beyond]

...Dick Grayson?

[He's looking pretty good for his age, but...] What happened to your eye?!

[painetched]

That'd be me, yeah.

And thanks - but long story, a very long time ago. Miss Tan, right?

[girlfriend_beyond]

That's right. Have we met, in my time? I've met a much younger you in my game. Um. I don't know about the Dana Tan you knew, but- I know about your job. Your old job, that is.

[painetched]

[Dick watches for a moment...]

She's not entirely sure, but going to go with 'no.' I don't exactly spend time in Gotham.

[Yet, apparently, Terry's mom has Dick's number, so, who knows.]

And that was a long time ago. But some habits die hard.

[girlfriend_beyond]

If you don't mind my asking... how are you? I've met people, like Kid Flash, who have been worried when they found out that Wayne never mentioned Dick Grayson.

[painetched]

Kid Flash? Where we come from... I would be surprised if he even knows my name.

[There was almost nobody for decades. He's a shadow of the hero of who he used to be, if even that. But he survived.]

I'm fine.

[Sort of. Also, don't ever trust a bat saying those words.]

And now I have your boyfriend making sure to remind me that I am, too. So, see? Fine.

[staystraught]

Who're you calling "kid?"

[painetched]

[Well you just done and killed him... Dick stares, the voice and motions completely familiar... from two lifetimes ago.]

Not you, kid.

[staystraught]

Walked right into that one Uh-huh.

You actually trying to get someone to listen to you? My experience is that it never works.

[painetched]

[Yeah, well.]

Kinda complicated.

And she slept for about three hours. Going to catch one more. It sort-of worked.

[staystraught]

She must be a lot older than me.

Maybe not as old as you. But older than me.

[painetched]

[Oh. Stop that, kid. Stop that right now. Dick almost, almost smiles slightly.]

Score for the student of the world's greatest. Right on both counts.

Comes from a currently defunct multi-comic crossover game, where he's a founding Titans member.

[arach_nerd]

I hate to tell ya this shortpants, but if you're going for a Nick Fury cosplay the eyepatch is on the wrong side.

But the combo. Only CURRENTLY defunct, man.

[painetched]

Hate to tell you, kid, but it's only fun and play until somebody gets hurt, and losing an eye's not the stuff you laugh at.

[Nor any of the rest of the forty shots. Including the one in the spine, after which he couldn't walk, for a while, yeah, DC is really creative with that one.]

Re: But the combo. Only CURRENTLY defunct, man.

[arach_nerd]

If over a decade of getting stabbed, shot, set on fire, electrocuted, having acid sprayed in my eyes, getting repeatedly turned into a giant spider monster, and being buried alive hasn't shut me up, nothing will.

Making jokes is how I deal. If I didn't have that, I'd turn into Bruce. And one Bruce is more than enough for the universe.

[painetched]

I think I've missed out on the getting turned into a giant spider monster, and I had a decade down when I was about nineteen.

But that was half a century ago.

[Half a century of being alone deserted by almost everybody, and definitely by said Bruce Wayne. Think of the Dick you know, Peter, and thin what fifty years pretty much alone would do to him.]

Yeah, sure. Suit yourself.

[arach_nerd]

[Now that Peter was actually acting a little serious, he was picking up on the cues that he should have been from the start]

...you had your support structure pulled out from under you, didn't you?

[painetched]

That's assuming I had much of one in the first place.

But, sure. Let's go with that.

[It's not even properly hurting, anymore, the broken. He's just old and bitter, behind that shell that kept him pushing forward, towards life, when he had absolutely nothing. And nobody.]