10163/Knightfall: The Forge

Knightfall: The Forge
Date of Scene:	23 November 2019
Location:	Batcave - Wayne Manor
Synopsis:	In the wake of Bruce's recovery, he and Diana discuss happiness, being old, and the way forward.
Cast of Characters:	Batman, Wonder Woman
Tinyplot:	Knightfall

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Batman has posed:
It's bordering on late evening at Wayne Manor which, as usual, means it is quiet and still. Only a few months ago, Bruce would have been out there in the guise of Batman watching over Gotham. Now, he finds himself with a void of time to fill - and he does so in the Batcave.

Down in the Cave, not at the computer or tending to the newly-under construction Batmobile but, in the Armory, there is the sound of industry. Something being constructed, the occasional flash of white light from within as a welder's torch sparks. He's been down here for hours now. Ever since the rest of the Family put on their uniforms and set off to make Gotham safe.

Wonder Woman has posed:
Diana had arrived at the Manor about thirty minutes ago. Having come in from Manhattan she'd settled into the house and had a casual conversation with Alfred while he prepared some drinks on a tray for her. She, was now moving to take those drinks down to where he said Master Bruce would be found. In the CAve.

Wearing a white long sleeved shirt that is form-fit to her body, with a half-turtleneck up her slender neck, a pair of black slacks and black heeled shoes on, Diana appears in the room that Bruce is welding away at his project. She starts to casually walk through the room holding the tray with hot tea and two cups.

As she moves to a desk she settles the tray down and glances over to him, then prepares them both a cup and starts to walk toward him within his peripheral... she's not trying to sneak up on him and she assumes he likely knows she's already there anyway.

Batman has posed:
What is laid out before Bruce on the workbench is a suit of some kind. Something not unlike the Batsuit, though it seems decidedly more armored and reinforced in places. Rather than the simple expanse of black and grey antiballistic material, it seems as though he is developing something more technological - even more imposing. He settles the welding torch down, turning to face Diana with his face half obscured by a pair of round, black, and reflective goggles.

"Busy day at the office?" he asks, rising up from the stool he sits on. His hand finds her waist, resting it there at he leans in to kiss her lightly on the cheek. Only then does he pull the goggles up, letting them rest in the uncombed black hair that he must have dried after exiting the shower but that was it.

He looks towards the drinks tray, gratefully mopping the sweat from his brow with the back of his hand before scooping one up in the other hand and taking a sip. The crutches are gone now, and though he still walks with a limp he appears to be well on the way to being his old self.

Wonder Woman has posed:
Diana holds her cup of tea between both of her hands and as he approaches to kiss her softly she smiles at him, her lips painted red and her dark hair tied back behind her shoulders, she's in a very casual fancy sort've attire and style at the moment.

"Oh yes." She replies of the 'Office' work today. "I had the pleasure of visiting a children's hospital and speaking at a woman's rally event. Both were... memorable experiences for very different reasons." Of course he'd known about that, she'd mentioned it before she'd left this morning, but she wasn't entirely sure he'd heard her as he'd seemed to be in pre-focus mode for what was like this project he's been working on ever since she left the house today.

Her eyes are upon it while he gathers up his own drink. "You are keeping busy." She says then in her thickly non-American accented voice. "Are you building a robotic Batman to patrol Gotham's streets now?" It probably isn't that far fetched of a question in today's world, really.

Batman has posed:
"What do you think Dick would say to that?" Bruce asks her, looking down at the work-in-progress on the bench, "If I told him he could head on back to Bludhaven because I've built a robot to take his place. Take all their places. I could just put my feet up ... "

He trails off, one hand on his hip and the other clasping the mug that contains his own tea. He sucks his teeth thoughtfully, nods his head, and turns back to her.

"No," he says, shaking his head, "No, it's a new suit. I thought it was a good time to try and incorporate some new materials they've put together at WayneTech. Provide more support."

It's no secret that many of his bones were broken, and though they may heal they still would lack their full strength for some time now. His eyes rest on the half-completed suit for a long moment before he turns them back to Diana.

"Just keeping busy. You know."

Wonder Woman has posed:
Diana's brown eyed gaze goes over to him after he asks about Dick's response to the notion of a Bat-bot and it just makes her smile pensively toward him. She looks back to this new suit then and takes another sip of her drink. "In this world of Sentinels, I am sure a Batman robot would go over swimmingly with a number of people, not just Richard." She replies.

A movement is had as Diana finds a work stool and lowers herself down onto the edge of it before her eyes leave the new suit and return to the man building it. "What will he say when you tell him, some day, that you wish to return to the position yourself?" She asks. "Your recovery is going very well. It is possible you will be in fit shape again before anyone even could expect it. Do you think he... will be disappointed in some way?" She asks only because Bruce knows Dick better than she does.

Batman has posed:
"That's the thing, Diana," Bruce says quietly, looking down for a moment into the contents of his mug, "I don't think I wish that. These last few weeks - the opera? This is something new to me. Living a life where I didn't have this shadow looming over me. Waiting for me to wrap myself in it and do what it said."

He gestures at the suit on the workbench, the cowl still incomplete and the bat symbol not yet painted on the chest but nevertheless clearly that uniform of the Batman.

"I don't have that now," he admits, shaking his head, "And maybe it's - it's selfish to leave Dick to fill that void permanently. To expect the rest of them to cover that ground in my stead but - "

His trails drift off, he wraps both hands around the mug and turns his head slowly to regard her warmly.

"But don't I deserve it?"

Wonder Woman has posed:
Diana is seated with her back straight on the edge of the stool and her teacup held between her hands in front of her torso. She looks from Bruce to the suit again and then back to Bruce. "So this project is just to keep yourself busy and your mind occupied or is it a gift for Richard?" She then asks before she raises her cup up toward her red lips... but she pauses.

There's really only one question she could have for him after he says there at the end what he does. "Why would you not deserve such a thing?" She then asks. "You are too hard on yourself, Bruce. If you truly are happier now, after everything you have done to get you to this point..." She smiles then, its a soft and sweet smile that grows and blossom into a larger one. "Then embrace that. Wrap yourself in that. Happiness is far more comfortable than... molded body armor."

Batman has posed:
Bruce takes another sip as Diana speaks, eyes fixed upon her as he listens to her question. He sighs in response, putting the mug back down on the bench and flattening his palms out against the tops of his thighs.

"I don't know what it's for. It's not for Dick - not really. It's built to my dimensions. But at the same time, I'd just as soon box it up and put it in storage for some crisis that will never come. I don't feel any draw to put it on. They're holding it together out there, as much as they mightn't feel that they are."

Her words make him smile, and he moves to stand behind her. Both arms drape down across her shoulders, hand clutching wrist as he rests his chin against the top of her head and then tilts slightly to kiss her there. He draws in the scent of her dark hair, sighing contentedly. Saying nothing.

Wonder Woman has posed:
Diana's eyes go back to the suit in-question as Bruce moves around behind her and embraces herl ike that. She smiles warmly when she feels him press his chin down atop her head and her eyes just remain on the suit on the workbench.

"Of course there will be another crisis that will warrant such a menacing looking costume." Diana quietly replies then to the man behind and above her. She does eventually start to lean back on the stool to use him as a backrest and lead her head back against his body now that he is more sturdy on his own two legs again.

She sips her tea once more before speaking further. "We need to get you a new hobby." She then says. "Perhaps you can spend time down here making clothing for a children's shelter, rather than deadly scary armor for beating up terrible criminals?" She's joking again, lightly anyway and he'll likely spot it on the tone of her smoky voice. "Oh, I know! You should make a new type of Iron Man suit and send it to Tony Stark to tell him how you 'improved his design'. That will inevitably lead to a war between our neighboring city's and their billionaire super hero entrepreneurs." She's grinning at herself now.

Batman has posed:
"He came to visit me, you know," Bruce says of Tony Stark, remaining where he is for now with arms wrapped about Diana, "Shortly after I woke up and they moved me into the bedroom. He worked it out. He wasn't sure at first, of course, but it seems like the fight between Batman and Superman coupled by my state in the aftermath helped him connect the dots. He's keeping it to himself - I suppose I owe it to him not to one-up his gimmick."

He looks down at the suit yet again, sighs, and gives her a light squeeze against her shoulder between his upper arms.

"You're right, though," he admits, "When I'm not sure what I want to do next, I fall back into old habits. Half of the equipment in here I built because I was feeling rudderless. They all chalk it up to preparation - and it is, in a way - but I think a lot of it stems back to just doing what comes easiest. Making war."

Wonder Woman has posed:
"I did not know that." Diana replies to the word of Tony coming here to not only check on Bruce but to reveal that he knows Bruce's identity. It makes sense really, he and Tony share a lot of similarities only Tony's chosen to open his identity up to the world and bring in a whole different set of complications that come with that, compared to Bruce that deals with probably nearly just as many problems on the other side of such a fence. "I trust him to keep the secret. He seems like a man who is very capable of doing that, if he so desires to." She only knows him a little bit though.

Diana takes a hand off of her teacup and raises it up to place it over one of his wrists where she gives it a soft and caring squeeze then. "You are not making war, Bruce." She reminds him. "You are trying to make peace. That is something you must remember. Warriors do not fight for wars. They fight for the peace that is yielded through war. We are warriors fighting for that, for the moments where we do not have to build suits of armor, but rather build... memories of joy and happiness that come through simply being people, without conflict and death around us."

She glances her eyes upward in a vague attempt to look up at him though this angle makes it really impossible ultimately. "You just need to find a part of yourself who can enjoy a time of personal peace. It is... new ground for you."

Batman has posed:
When Diana turns her head upwards to look at him, Bruce takes the moment to shift as well and kiss her on the forehead. There's a faint, thoughtful sigh from him as he hears her words.

"I'll admit, the time was I'd never have even considered being at peace like this," he tells her with a faint smile, "I would've probably almost killed myself getting back on my feet and putting on the suit again. I'm not a little surprised at how it's all changed."

He gives the suit on the table one last, pensive look and then reaches to take her by the hand. The other reaches over to switch off the welding torch and the work lamp that has been set up over the bench.

"Have you eaten yet? Feel like a late dinner? Midnight snack?"

Wonder Woman has posed:
Diana warms up visibly when she feels him lean down to kiss her forehead, soft and smooth the skin of her forehead, sweetly scented with that enticing smell of the Princess.

Her eyes close as he kisses her too and she just listens to his voice. Her lips spart through her smile to show off the whites of her perfect teeth behind them and then she speaks. "It is funny how our lives can take a completely different route from where we were just a moment before. Hopefully always for the best, but still... In this instance I would say that we have both taken a step toward a happier present moment." Diana will then lean forward on the stool off of him and she'll move to turn around and face him.

"I have not eaten." She states then to the man as she rises back up to her feet. "I would happily do-so though and in fact, Alfred asked me to mention it to you. He worries, you know?" She asks with a hint of a grin because she knows that Bruce knows... how much his caretaker does indeed worry.

Batman has posed:
Bruce can't help but chuckle a little at Diana's words, "How's that for change? Once upon a time, it was like pulling teeth getting me to eat. Now here I am asking about it. He's going to be turning cartwheels through the halls at this rate."

As they step out of the Armory, the lights power down. The work in progress left. Abandoned for now. Perhaps he'll go back to it - it would be hard for him not to - but it no longer consumes him. No longer does he feel the relentless drive to be Batman - to always be Batman.

On the steps leading up to the elevator that will take them to the manor, he holds Diana's hand and runs his thumb gently across the back of it.

"I'm still not eating in the dining room," he says, as though making some grim concession, "That place never feels cozy with anything less than twenty people. I'm not going to be sitting at the other end of the table shouting for you to pass the salt."

Wonder Woman has posed:
Diana walks with him after having retrieved the tray again for the tea, she wasn't going to make Alfred have to retrieve it some other time after all that would be rude of her.

Her eyes glance back to the workshop as he closes it down and then she continues to walk alongside him and into that lift that will take them upstairs. A laugh bubbles out from within the Princess at what he says. "Goodness no. Rooms like that are not made for so few people they are made for many. No no, we will go to the room with all of the sofas and we will make a pillow fort around the center of said room to eat our food upon the floor within the protective walls of said fort." She grins over at him then, playfully so.

"That way, should any of your family return and find us as such, they will question our mental well-being, which will thusly be... fun, and amusing. For us." She pauses. "Scary for them. But fun for us!" In good spirits, she smiles slyly to the man beside her as they ride the lift up.

Batman has posed:
"A pillow fort?" Bruce asks, glancing momentarily over at her and raising an eyebrow, "I don't think I've built a pillow fort since ... "

His expression becomes a far away one, trying to recall a happy moment from his childhood. But despite how things have changed, how happy he is with Diana, he still sees only darkness when he looks back. Still cannot remember his parents as living, vital people instead of rapidly cooling corpses on rain slick concrete. There's a brief, pointed shake of his head as he banishes those ghosts of the past.

"A pillow fort it is, then," he says with no small amount of wonder for her, and her spirited approach to life, "Then I thought I might show you a movie. It used to be a favorite of mine."

Wonder Woman has posed:
Diana's goal with the pillow fort idea wasn't to sound like a crazy person, if one knows her well enough they'd know that her goal here would be simply to ease the brood and push it toward something else. To take a heavy life and find a way to even lesson the weight of it just a little bit, and to do something out of the normal to shake things up, which is good for the spirit... so she believes.

"We can leave the ceiling off of the pillow fort, so that we can simply sit inside it and pretend it is... a drive-in theater then, if we're to watch a movie. And yes, in my world my fort can drive to an outdoor theater if it so desires." She grins at him. "Have you seen my jet after all?" It can be anything she deems it to be, the kind of magical alien technology that a little girl with a wild imagination would go... wild for.

"I am excited now." She declares as the lift continues onward and upward. "Just don't tell me it is a gore-y horror movie. Those are -not- my favorite things." Her stare drifts forward then and she shakes her head at the thoguht of such a thing... horror movies. Pah!

Batman has posed:
That is perhaps what has most appealed to him about Diana, what drew him to her initially and has fanned the sparks of their relationship. The way she puts him at ease. Gets him to forget, even intermittently, about a lifetime of grief and pain bent towards one grim purpose. Like the sun peeking out from behind heavy clouds.

"No," he shakes his head, "Nothing like that. It's a movie I liked a lot as a child. I'm not sure why - it was ancient even when my father was a boy. But we used to watch it every year around this time."

They even took me to see it at the cinema, once, he wants to say, though the words don't come. They lead to that same painful memory that he's pushing back. Not wanting it to color their time together.

"The Mark of Zorro. With Tyrone Power? I was going to warn you that it's black and white but I suppose you of all people wouldn't have a problem with that."

Wonder Woman has posed:
Diana's gaze goes back over onto him and she shows a hint of a grin then to him. "I do not mind black and white films, it is true. It is because I am sooooo 'old'!" She shakes her head side to side while mockingly saying the 'old' part of that sentence and then smiles at him. "I have not seen that one, no. Typically I stick with what I am most comfortable with, which are silent pictures. The ones that have the little caption cards in-between each scene that you have to read to understand what just happened on screen, you know? Those fit my age demographic after all."

She's teasing him of course. In reality she's much much older than silent films!

With a continued grin, Diana glances away and leans her head over to lay it against his shoulder. "I will watch your modern movie with you, you young and impressionable hipster of a man." And these words are said with a deep rooted affection, even if they're still silly in their intent.

"This is a very slow elevator, by the way." She then idly comments for no particular reason.