say that you're grateful for the time alone, two years away and i don't miss home;

[xuffasch]

WHO: xuffasch & YOU;
WHERE: Various places throughout the city;
WHEN: All day Friday;
WARNINGS: n/a
SUMMARY: A day in the life of Damian Wayne, with interruptions from YOU.
FORMAT: Reply as you like and I will follow; specify time, too!



↬ MID-MORNING;

If you were to ask Damian about things he never did, one of the first he’d list would be sulking. However, Damian is a terrible liar, because sulking is exactly what he’d been doing for the past few days, though he would never admit it. Watching events unfolding and having no control over them is enough to chafe his already irritable nature, but the fact that Grayson isn’t around is what makes it all the worse. Robin is a formidable force, but without Batman he can be a purposeless one.

Which is why he found himself where he was now, lying on his back on the rooftop of the apartment building he and Grayson had been living in for the past few months. The kitten he’d adopted is there, as well, laying across his stomach as he stares up at the sky. Damian’s legs are hanging out over the edge of the building, and though his body is relaxed his expression is fierce and he is hardly off-guard.

Occasionally he’ll shift his position or mutter something under his breath, but for the most part he just lays there, impassive. Unless, of course, someone sees fit to interrupt.

↬ AFTERNOON;

For someone who prides himself on his ability to adapt, Damian tends to be very habitual. Even after arriving in the City, it had taken him no more than a few weeks to set up a few haunts, and one of those was the corner bakery. Famous for their frivolously-decorated cupcakes, the bakers now know Damian by face, and his order of tall black coffee which he paired with different sweets—they swear he was steadily eating his way through the entire menu.

Today, he sits at his usual corner table. There is a single cupcake wrapper left empty one on side, surrounded by five empty cups that once held coffee. Sprawled across the table are various papers—maps, handwritten notes, print-outs and blueprints. Curious about Damian’s scrawl is its mirrored quality, nearly impossible to read without first reflecting it. Also curious is the different scripts and languages he uses. Every so often, he lifts his pen to his mouth and knocks it thoughtfully against his chin. His expression is one of utmost concentration, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t watching everyone else in the place, coming and going.

↬ MIDNIGHT;

Robin sits on the edge of a building—or perhaps “crouches” is more the right term for it. In any case, he surveys the city with a mixed expression of distaste and resignation, until he catches something out of the corner of his eye. It’s at this point that he swoops down into an alleyway, breaking up a robbery before it can occur. He knocks one man over as he touches down, shoving his elbow up under another’s chin. If he’s even more violent than normal, the people he’s attacking certainly aren’t in a position to complain. But someone else might be.

Comments

[gevurah]

It's vaguely reminiscent of looking into a mirror and seeing your ten year old self, only a boy with surprisingly strong features and the snippy attitude of a fully grown cat.

She leans against the table behind her, setting her coffee down on it. Reaching up, she removes her sunglasses so she can get a better look at him. She hadn't bothered with the Waynes since helping Batman save the boy and their butler but old curiosity is creeping back up. What did that zombie-like Batman want with him in the first place?

"Thought you were going to be on a plane somewhere. It didn't work out?" half-amused she is but the other half is interested to know because of Nill.

[xuffasch]

The mention of it makes Damian a bit embarrassed. Bruce did offer him the jet, but the conditions he set were enough to make Damian want to retract the request in the first place. Of course, layered beneath all of that was the fact that he'd only spoken to his father a couple of times since arriving, and still wasn't sure where he stood with him.

But this woman didn't need to know any of that, so Damian just lets out a huffy sigh. "Tt. My plans were a bit derailed, but I still plan on going eventually."

[gevurah]

She instantly wonders the validity of his words or if it's mostly hot air. But he's none other than Damian Wayne and she can see him getting whatever he wanted, being the son of Gotham's single billionaire.

While he's not very welcoming, he's slightly different from what she can recalls on the Network. A good day after all?

"Still going to take Nill?" she masks any hint of genuine concern in her tone; with the recent headlining news of places being blown up and the fact Nill had been one of the many kidnapped weeks ago, she can't help the feeling it's better for the young girl to stay close to adults she's familiar with in the City. At least until whatever was going on is put to rest.

It's not even a feeling, it's common sense to her.

[xuffasch]

At the mention of Nill’s name, Damian’s expression softens, just enough to be a visible change. He purses his lips for a moment, and then shrugs. “It would be a bit ridiculous of me not to, considering I originally made the plans for her.”

Sitting at the corner table, on a long-legged chair perfect in a modernly designed placed like this, Damian swings his legs, his feet never quite touching the floor. He’s dressed like a little man: collared shirt and slacks, but with a loose hoodie on top to provide his trademark security blanket. It’s a strange image he creates, as he steeples his fingers and gives Kate a long look.

“You seem to have adapted fairly well,” he says blandly, wondering at that. He’s impressed, vaguely, by any civilian who doesn’t dissolve into hysteria.

[gevurah]

Zatanna had mentioned she was quicker than most who were dragged in from their respective worlds. Kate acknowledges this with a nod.

For a child, his speech patterns are very adult-like. Private tutors don't necessarily teach that in this day and age, do they? She knows next to nothing about Bruce Wayne's son who seemingly entered from nowhere. Or maybe Bruce had explained how a ten year old boy suddenly entered his life and she just hadn't caught wind of it yet. She's not been in contact with family aside from Bette back home.

"What good does panicking do?"

[xuffasch]

He just shrugs. "None at all, but that doesn't stop the majority from engaging in it quite regularly." To hear Damian tell it, the world is made up of three types of people--the competent heroes, the competent villains, and the useless and blubbering masses. It is worth noting that most of the people one might consider heroes or villains still fall firmly into the third category in his view.

[gevurah]

She can agree to a certain degree; Catherine the elder often complains about inane subjects back home. The downside to being pampered or feeling secure all your life. Far removed from it, anyone would start getting agitated and on the edge.

"People will complain about anything." Maybe it's wrong to say that to a ten year old but this one seems different. There's no guilt in talking to him the way she would others and in all honesty, talking down to kids is rarely a smart move.

[xuffasch]

This elicits a roll of the eyes. "That's just because they are either unwilling or unable to do anything about their problems, and prefer to just whine about them, instead."

He decides that this woman isn't entirely useless, if she can keep up with him in conversation. Perhaps he did underestimate the Kanes...

[gevurah]

A beat.

"Did your father teach you that?"

[xuffasch]

A shrug.

"My mother, actually." Most people had mothers, he reasoned. It wasn't as if mentioning her was giving anything away, but thinking of Talia still made Damian dully sad, in a way.

[gevurah]

"Is she here?"

It's her first thought, having not heard of who the mother in question was. There were some crude jokes back home about how it was "no surprise" Bruce had a young child running around.

[xuffasch]

In response, Damian just shakes his head. He doesn't want her here, of course, especially considering what transpired the last time they met. But some small part of him still misses her, and it probably shows in his eyes, though his expression is flat.

[gevurah]

She watches quietly, then waves a hand as if dismissing the topic but she quickly says, "It's alright to miss her."

[xuffasch]

He just gives her a flat look, in response. "I don't," he lies. "And wasting my time thinking on it won't change anything, in any case."

[gevurah]

That's her attitude on various matters but Kate, while she can't admit it openly, is in a fact a person who clings to the past. Not just out of sentimentality but a lot of negative emotions. Only, as intelligent as Damian is proving himself to be, he's a complete stranger and ultimately a child. It feels wrong to tell him what attitude to have about his own mother when it's obvious he's like any other a boy missing a maternal figure.

She opts for dropping the topic. Maybe it hit a sore spot with her.

"Still intending to prove me wrong, by the way?" She hasn't forgotten him saying he could dig up information on the Kanes if he wanted to.

[xuffasch]

He's grateful for that shift in topic, probably more than he realizes. And in any case, the less he talks about his family, the better. Talking about her family, though, is an entirely different story. Not that he knows much more than he did before--by the time he'd thought to ask Grayson, he was gone to Nevada on some mission or other. And it wasn't the type of thing they were in the mood to discuss once he got back.

But Damian just gives Kate a smug look and lifts his chin. "Of course. I rarely alter my course of action once it is decided."

[gevurah]

Now she's amused.

"What have you got so far, Damian?" she asks, waiting for an answer that may make her amuse her even more.

[xuffasch]

He gives her a smug look, then leafs through his papers briefly before pulling one sheet in particular out.

"The Kanes. One of the oldest families in Gotham, second in wealth and influence only to the Waynes. Colonel Kane has been married twice; first wife and one daughter killed overseas over a decade ago. One surviving daughter, Katherine."

[gevurah]

Her expression falls before he's finished speaking. Something burns in her chest, the feeling she gets when her temper is threatening to rise and trying to hold herself back. It's not the information. Most of it is (unfortunately) public.

It's the sudden cocky attitude this boy has, treating it as such: merely information. Not people who still mean something to others. To her.

"Yeah? Did your father tell you that?"

[xuffasch]

Perhaps he senses the change in her temper, perhaps not. But her response is not what he was expecting. He relayed the information as he had found it on the Bat-computers--succinct, factual, and emotionless. But the mention of his father causes his hackles to rise.

"He doesn't tell me anything," Damian snaps, with more force than he intends. "I find out what I need to know on my own."

[gevurah]

"Congrats," she's short and a part of her is making a feeble attempt to remind herself this is a ten year-old child before her. Children don't have a proper grasp on the consequences and harsh reality of death. Unbeknownst to her, she does hope he won't have to find out for a long time.

She exhales, the coffee on table long forgotten. "You were serious about this." If it isn't for the fact it's unnerving information on her, she would be impressed.

[xuffasch]

He blinks at her, surprised. "Of course I was serious." He's never much seen the point in not being serious; the concept of fun is entirely lost on him. So he just tilts his head at her and quirks an eyebrow upwards to form a skeptical expression. "I'm never not so. I'm not a child who goes around playing games and doing nothing important."

[gevurah]

There's brief silence between them, Kate trying to gauge his reaction until she decides he's being serious. That, or he's got lying perfected. But that information on her cannot possibly be here. This is a place people could forge new identities, the Kanes and the Hamilton Rifle Company didn't and couldn't extend into another universe.

"Why not?"

She's curious, so she'll bite. There's something she can't put her finger on with Damian Wayne.

[xuffasch]

Another strange question. This woman seems to be full of them. Damian pauses a moment, deciding what is safe to reveal and what isn't.

"It isn't what I was born to do," he says slowly. "I have a specific purpose, and I don't waste time doing things that don't contribute to it."

[gevurah]

She eyes him warily. "Who told you that? Your father?" But Kate can't imagine Bruce Wayne saying something so cold to his own child. "It's alright to play and have fun."