( open ) it started with a spark

[brat]

WHO: Bats, birds, and friends.
WHEN: Late April into May
WHERE: Wayne Tower
WHAT: A Bat-Mingle.
NOTES\WARNINGS:

In the Northern section of Nova City, Wayne Tower stands tall above the multiple empty buildings that make up the cityscape. The top two floors consist of the Wayne Penthouse in gothic architecture while the lower floor and main entrance are largely abandoned and home to a number of fruit bats. A basement serves as a work in progress Batcave, complete with hidden elevator to the penthouse.

And within the Tower itself? Who knows how many bats and birds may be found wandering about. After all, it has WAYNE written in big bold letters right across the front of it. That means it's free real estate, right?

Comments

[her_own_rules]

[ There's a rye tip at one corner of her lips. ]

I'm tracking you.



I never did ask if you didn't want that. I should've.

[ It's not really a things she thinks about. With the family.
Except with Batman Jr. Who she's obviously tracking anyway.

He's just sort of the exception to her rules. ]

[leastdramatic]

[Jason shrugs, not troubled at all by Barbara's admission]

I'm not surprised and I don't mind. Stalking's almost a love language in this family.

[Jason does have boundaries that he'd rather most people didn't cross but he trusts Barbara not to abuse her abilities]

[her_own_rules]

[ Maybe that's why. But maybe she should have asked still. ] You're not wrong.

[ Very few of them as invasively as her, but all of them have been on the carpet for it. It's also been the reason any number of them have stayed alive in the diciest of spots because someone was tracking them down for the umteenth hundred reason in this life. ]

Though it's not like it isn't happening inside this bubble, too.
We've simply lost the screens and voting audience.

[ She considers her coffee again. The invasiveness of the system that still remains uncracked. The one that brought them all here. Keeps them all here.



Sent Dick—the literal best of them—away. ]

[leastdramatic]

[Jason nods as he sips more of his coffee]

We're still not in the greatest situation. We're just back to someplace that's comparably better than Aphaia.

[her_own_rules]

"Marginally."

She supposes she has to start somewhere after Damian.
It wasn't his responsibility, and she was so good with responsibility, wasn't she?

Even when she felt the last inclined toward it;
and selfishly so many other things in the bargain.

It wasn't just her loss, though, and she knew it.

It was why she was here.



"They sent back Dick this morning."

She can't let herself think about it in another way.
Not even if each optional end result is scored into her mind.

[leastdramatic]

Jason pauses. He's surprised by the reveal.

"What happened? Or was it just that sudden?" he asks, concerned.

[her_own_rules]

Barbara's too collected. But she had some of the morning and the walk here. Her voice is even after she takes another sip of her coffee. "I woke up alone. Both of Dick's comms were still here." She'd been pretty sure, even before— "Double checked with Aurora."

Even though she's still not fond of the tracking system here.

There's a gentle whine and headbutt at her calf, and Babs looks down. It cracks something just marginally loose for a second. The turn of one corner of her mouth upward, even if it takes her expression nowhere near a smile, as she leans down to scratch Haley's head. "Correction. I didn't wake up entirely alone."

[leastdramatic]

"Sorry," Jason says, deeply sympathetic. Of course he knows how close Dick and Barbara are. He's not surprised Dick's sudden departure is affecting her. "He's at least home now but not right he went alone. It must've been forced."