15144/The Wayward

The Wayward
Date of Scene:	26 May 2023
Location:	Markovia Station, Old Gotham
Synopsis:	Batman devotes some time out of his busy schedule to trying to improve the Relationship Level with his most disapproving protege. It's possible Jason listens to some of what he has to say.
Cast of Characters:	Red Hood, Batman

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Red Hood has posed:
The skies have opened up tonight and have chosen to drown Gotham in a deluge. Though it may not be of biblical proportions it is still dumping water in the range of an inch an hour. Enough to cause most storm drains to fill up and ensure water starts saturating and leaking down into places where it usually isn't. The edges of Markovia Station are a part of this. Little streams have formed in the corners and water falls - in drops and even steady streams in some places around the edges of the long abandoned station.

In the middle of this, Jason is ignoring the water and the weather. With the hood of his 1967 GTO open, he is leaning over the fender, resting atop a work mat to protect the paint.

Batman has posed:
"Have you engineered adequate drainage down here?" Who GREETS someone like that? The tone is intent, stoic, focused. A kind of understated urgency to it. The Batman lurks near one of the gathering streams, adjacent a waterfall that likely shouldn't be there, yet the Dark Knight appears largely dry himself. It's unlikely he came here to discuss or indict Jason's plumbing-- but it's still not a super amicable way to express his sudden concern for the impact of the rain in the Red Hood's hideout.

"Nice car." That's closer, but still wary. Stalking around any issue at hand. Feeling Jason out. Ever the Detective. He strides forward as if gliding, unnatural grace for such an imposing figure augmented by the sweep of his iconic cape, unreadable cowled gaze scanning the mechanic's efforts with an expert's eye.

Red Hood has posed:
Who greets someone like that? The world's best detective and sometimes (some. times.) best dad. Because of course he does.

The eye rolling is heard in Jason's tone when he does finally respond.

"Well. I figured if having an underground water feature was good enough for you, why should I try to stop nature?" Flippant but not entirely disrespectful, Jason continues wrenching on the component he's added to the already far-beyond-stock motor he's wedged into the once vintage muscle car.

Stepping back from the fender he sets his tools back on the rolling cart in their exact places. Orderliness. It was something he had drilled into him back in the day by both Bruce and Alfred. Some part of that seems to have stuck anyway.

He finally looks to Batman with a bit of defiance in his gaze. He's on edge and wary himself. It wasn't so long ago that he'd returned from the dead with a vendetta against the Joker and Batman alike. Even with their peace being made, old feelings are hard to get past. Particularly when someone shows up unannounced.

_Nice car._

"Thanks. It's getting there. It's no Batmobile" said with a bit of envy? "But it'll go Zero to Sixty in four-point-three seconds currently. With armor that'll stop a direct hit from an RPG." Just one. But who plans to stick around to be hit twice?

Batman has posed:
"The Cave was formed by running water. It naturally drains into the Bay." Batman observes with matter-of-fact certitude. This may or may not be anywhere near the actual point of the wisecrack, of course.

"This is a subway station that's been derelict for years." World's. Greatest. Detective. "It's just... a deceptively easy way to get yourself hurt." Probably the most damnable part of the whole reply is that it's hard to say the Dark Knight is WRONG on any particular point.

"More than one-- if you're driving well enough to avoid a direct hit." And Jason always did love cars; sometimes a little too enthusiastically. "Would you /want/ it to be?" The Car. This 'batmobile'. There's both curiosity and olive branch in the deceptively simple query. "If you're back In, you don't have to make do or proxy your requisitions." Clearly, he's heard about Barbara. Did she tell him? Would she even need to?

Red Hood has posed:
Wiping his hands off with a shop towel and some hand cleaner Jason spares a glance to Batman. "Just noticed that did you?" He spares a glance around the easily century-old station and it's many iron girders supporting the upper structure. It's a perfectly gothic snapshot to an older era of Gotham's history.

Then he answers the question. He may be slightly peeved that Batman dropped in without asking, but he wasn't looking for a fight.

"There's a sewer main that runs between A-track and B-track. They accounted for some water intrusion when the station was built. The drainage is in decent shape considering the age of it all." Pausing to look up at two of the larger streams of water falling from above the ceiling to splatter against one set of tracks. "I've put additional drainage in where it was needed. Station's too big to run around plugging all the holes. Not enough fingers and toes."

Looking back to Batman then to his car, he considers. "I don't intend for it to be hit, no. It's not like that symbol" he jabs a finger toward the Bat symbol on the other man's armor. where he knows the armor is several times thicker. "If it gets hit, it gets hit. If it keeps me alive long enough to get out and take down the bad guys, it served its purpose. It just happens to be Jason Todd's daily driver as a value added bonus."

He turns a frown toward his one time mentor, "If? I'm back in? I've been 'back' in for a while and you know it." Turning to face Batman, Jason folds his arms. "What're you here for. Bruce." Because they both know Batman does nothing without some intention behind it.

Batman has posed:
Batman listens to the explanation intently-- because flood safety is serious business. Especially when operating high-end equipment in an underground lair, while a maelstrom rages outside. When Jason is finished, the Dark Knight just nods.

Well-- he doesn't //just// nod. There's also a ghost of a smile, passing unbidden across the only visible portion of his face. No, the Caped Crusader didn't come here to fight, either. But when does he ever apologize for just dropping in? He's a busy man. That little smile serves as approval that might be better spoken; but sometimes these things are Complicated. With the Bat, these things are USUALLY complicated. "You made the call to set up on your own. You needed time to find this path."

Beat. Frown. "Or maybe I just didn't want to make things worse." The Symbol, the Job; they have their own baggage with a protege who's tried to kill you. "The /point/ is, if you want my help, it's here. It's /been/ here." Beyond ghosting in and out to utilize the advanced fabrication machinery available at one of the primary Caves, at least.

Red Hood has posed:
Jason Todd frowns. "My path. Wwas to come back and put a fucking bullet in his skull. And yours." His. He isn't going to give Joker power by using his name. He isn't scared of the man. When the least that can be done is killing you, the worst that can be done becomes a lot less frightening.

"But we've gotten past that." Mostly. Probably.

He studies Bruce in silence. "Okay."

Okay?

"We're not going to agree. It's going to be a long time before either of us actually feels comfortable around the other. I get it."

After another pause he adds quietly, "I know it isn't easy to see me. This" he gestures to the brutal scar. It has healed and the skin is fading but it is no less visible as it stretches from above his left temple down to the left corner of his mouth, "and not be reminded of how badly things went. I'm never going to get over the nightmares. Maybe never get over the anger. I dont' know."

He turns to fidget with the tools again. Straightening tools that don't need it, just to have something to do with his hands.

"I'm trying."

"I'm never going to be like Dick. Or Tim."

He sighs and turns back. "I'm just. Keeping out of the way and doing things the only way I know how." At least his way no longer involves killing. It's progress.

Batman has posed:
"And now it isn't." Hence, it's a different path; or at least a trail that diverged some paces back. "We never really got a chance to be 'comfortable'." The Dark Knight observes, and to his credit, very little bitterness creeps into the stoic observations. Their association was new, Jason's training incomplete, there are a million excuses. Instead of finding accord, they got a roller coaster of alienation and validation; a biological mother not worth finding and an adoptive father ripped away.

"Jason..." The Dark Knight steps in beside the prodigal, and lifts a gloved hand to rest on the younger man's shoulder. His eyes don't flinch from his protege's gaze should it be found; nor from the brutal scar.

"You think I need to see this to remember, every day, what happened? You think this makes it /harder/?" Well. Jason said it himself. Tim is the smart one. "You could be Harvey, and it would still be easier than every single day you were... gone." //Dead//. A thing he still takes sole responsibility for.

There's a subtle pleading, and a bit of quiet agony. It's not easy to talk about. "You're not in my way; you've never been in my way." Batman pauses. Corrects himself quickly.

"Except when you were trying to kill me."

Red Hood has posed:
Jason Todd listens, his jaw clenching and relaxing as he tries to work through the tension he feels just from trying to have this conversation.

He doesn't pull away from the hand to his shoulder but even now he can't hold that gaze for as long as it is on him. For all of their personal darness, that gaze is like a spotlight on his soul. He's not sure there's anything there he wants anyone else to actually see. Even now.

"I don't think you need to see it to remember, Bruce. I know you blame yourself. Seeing it doesn't help." Jason blamed him too for the longest time. Some part of him might still, even if logically he knows better.

"Yeah. I couldn't even do that right." Trying to kill Batman. There is just the faintest hint of a wry smile with the comment. It's not easy to talk about any of this. It never will be, of course. but all the same he is thankful that he didn't succeed in that half of his original quest on returning to Gotham.

Batman has posed:
"It doesn't make it harder." The Dark Knight reiterates quietly, only then withdrawing the offered hand. "I blame myself because it was my fault." And the only other party to blame will never take responsibility. "I cracked down on you, pushed you away when you needed the opposite." In trying to protect Jason, to improve things, the chain of events that led to his little lone wolf play and resultant death was set in motion.

"There's no doing it again; only where we go from here. Luckily, I'm not as easy to kill as some people always seem to think." It's a good-natured bit of dry ribbing-- and let's be fair, Jason's far from the only name who's graced THAT list. "Just let me know what you need; and remember you're never on your own out there." Even when they are. The Red Hood also isn't the only operative in the Network prone to acting without backup, is he?

"And show up for dinner soon; Alfred misses you." The subtle report of a rush of compressed air, the quiet whirr of a precisely calibrated spool of line, these are the only things that announce the Caped Crusader's ascent back towards street level, slipping out of the secret sanctum much the way he snuck inside.