5778/The demon and the Demon pt.II

The demon and the Demon pt.II
Date of Scene:	14 November 2018
Location:	Unknown
Synopsis:	Damian and Colette discuss what it means to be the grandson of the Demon while watching Amarok attempt to calm the daughter of a demon. (Crossover with scene 5783)
Cast of Characters:	Stardust, Robin (Wayne)

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Stardust has posed:
With the location of the storage container Raven had rented found and a multi-spectrum probe dispatched to monitor, it's just a matter of waiting. Waiting for confirmation that Raven is even in the same town as the storage container, and waiting to find out if she's actually there, before any attempt is made to visit her. It's one of those things that could take minutes or could take days, but in the hope that it will be minutes rather than days, Colette and Damian have taken to the Evidence Room, to keep an eye on the incoming transmissions.

    "So, you kind of clammed up there," Colette points out to Damian, once they are out of earshot of the others. "I mean when Vorp and Brick turned up. They're good guys. They know your past. Is it just you don't like airing these things in front of an audience?"

Robin (Wayne) has posed:
     Robin had luckily kept his mask on between then and now. The eyelets mask where exactly his eyes were looking when talking. It was a design that all of the Bat Family took advantage of. In Damian's case, it would mask some tells of the truth.

  He keeps his face toward the feeds for now, of course, not showing anything yet. "I don't make a habit of 'airing' out my past with most people." He was defensive, well, more than usual. The nonsense with the Wayne Tower attack, and the Halloween fallout have had Damian considerably on edge. His face was still stitched up from a fight. There were more in places covered by his uniform, which was all-new equipment, shiny and no battle damage.

Stardust has posed:
Colette nods her head slowly. "I noticed. You're a very private person. That's fine, but... well, it's good to have people you can trust. And I think with those two, you have it." She flicks a control on a monitor, flipping the display from the probe between several different modes. They are kind of interesting from a technical aspect, but don't offer any clarity. Visible light really is the best sometimes. "To be fair, I guess I don't exactly talk about myself much either. Haven't even mentioned my family name to anyone except Rayner, because he bugged me about it. Though I wouldn't be surprised if you'd done enough digging into your team-mates' pasts to find out. Honestly though, it's not like I have much to talk about. The parts of my life that haven't been straightforward and normal, well, you guys have been around for most of them. Not really the same for you."

    Turning away from the monitor, Colette looks to Robin, seeking expression behind the expressionless mask. "I did ask for a reason, though. Something Raven said to me... before she got angry... made me think about you. How you deal with your past, how you deal with the two sides of you. And if you ever worry that it's not something you're fully in control of."

Robin (Wayne) has posed:
     Robin turns slightly to Colette, then back again. "I would suspect there are more differences than similarities. I was grown, in an artificial womb. From the moment I was born, my mother tested me. As soon as I could hold a sword, I was fighting. Never any punches pulled. If I couldn't block a sword, I got cut, at four years old. Mother cursed so much, I thought my name was Fuck until I started training with the recruits at six."

  Damian keeps his head towards the monitors, one glove creaks with tension, his hand balled into a fist. "I had asked her who my father was when I was six. You know what she told me? 'I will tell you who your father is when you best me in combat, my beloved.' So every year, on my birthday, I made more and more plans to try and best her. I was twelve when I finally did. By that time, I was already as Master Assassin."

Stardust has posed:
Colette nods her head slowly. "You know it's hard to really - to process all that. For me. It's such an alien way to have been brought up. Honestly, I wouldn't exactly call you well-balanced, but for where you've come from, it's kind of a miracle. " She flashes Damian a grin as she speaks. "I mean the identity of my parents was the first thing I ever knew, I guess. Did it take you until you were six to be curious, or did it take you until you were six to dare asking?

     Cycling through the display modes again, Colette stops on one to study a faint purple blob that might be showing something through the walls of the container. Or might not. With a shrug she flicks back to visible light. "How old were you when you realized 'this isn't normal'? About your upbringing? And what made you first doubt your... the way your mother and your grandfather wanted you to be?"

Robin (Wayne) has posed:
     "I wasn't curious about it until then." Damian responds, looking to the purple blob. "I realized it in my thirteenth year. It was the Year of Blood. A set of challenges set out for me by Mother and Grandfather, to prove I was to be the heir of the League of Assassins." His arms cross in front of himself. "I was to steal an artifact called the staff of Kings from a shrine in Central America. The tomb was guarded by creatures called Bat Dragons. An extremely rare species. I slaughtered all but one. A small, red baby. Who after seeing all of his kind murdered in front of him, showed no hatred toward me whatsoever, even after I pointed my blood-ridden sword at him. When he showed no inclination of fighting me, instead he licked at me like I was one of his own kind." The boy that became Robin, and the creature that became Goliath. "That was the start. Now I actively hold back every single blow I make, every swipe of my sword is calculated to stop just from being a fatal blow."

  Damian lowers his hood, slipping a wireless earbud into an ear, music starting to play to him. "I see death in every thug I fight. I have no figurative angel and devil on my shoulder. No one whispers in my ear to kill. That's just my normal mode. I hate, I kill, I assassinate."

Stardust has posed:
"Literal ones would be better," Colette responds quickly. "A tiny little Batman on one shoulder, a tiny little R'as al-Ghul on the other. That would be funny. And also probably drive you completely insane. Mind, a figurative pair might do that to you too." She tilts her head sideways, looking askance at Damian. "I'm not convinced that your grandfather is quite a devil. And your father's no angel. But they are opposites of a sort. Despite that, you have adopted your father's ethics without entirely dismissing your grandfather's... out of hand. Do you never feel... split?"

    Colette's eyebrow raises slightly when the hood comes down. His gesture seems obvious. Hiding himself with the hood, the earbud to block out the world. She leans back in her seat, and wonders if he means it to be so.

    It's an irony not lost on Colette that Raven uses the same defensive tactic with her hood. Maybe it's just a thing that people from evil families do. When she speaks again, her voice is pitched slightly louder, in response to the earbud, though it's a stronger projection, conveying no heightened pitch of emotion with it. She'll let the plainspoken words do that. "You know you're not a monster, right Damian?"

Robin (Wayne) has posed:
     Damian was more than capable of listening to the music and his teammate. "Can you extrapolate what you mean by split?"

  Robin is visibly paused by the comment from Colette. He's done monstrous things, that's for sure. He is silent for more than a minute. He contemplates himself. Which usually ends up with someone with a wound. "Is the son damned for the sins of the mother, carried out by the son? When the son believes wholeheartedly in the mother's cause?" For the first time, he turns to Colette directly. "I didn't obey blindly. Mother didn't raise a soldier, she raised a five star general."

Stardust has posed:
Colette lets Robin have his quiet minute's thought, and considers his answer for a time in silence too, though less than his minute. "I think it's hard to talk about wholeheartedly believing something," she speaks slowly, "If you have not been given a reason to challenge it yet. In certain ways you lead a very sheltered childhood. Someone raising a general does not expose them to viewpoints that would make them question the fundamental principles they are supposed to fight for. People grow, change. The decisions you made in the past are yours, and there is no escaping from them. But they aren't the decisions you have to make in the future. A monster is bound by its nature to be evil. A person can change, and grow."

    "As for 'split', well..." Colette leans back, stretching lazily. "I mean that you have two different ethical views of the world that have been presented to you," Colette elaborates. "A split. Between your father's side and your mother's side. Not just different, but incompatible. Antagonistic. How do you manage that? You've said to me before, that sometimes it's like... both voices, in your head. How did you put it? Something like your mother saying 'finish him off' and your father saying 'place him under arrest'. But it's you who has to make the decisions. Who has to decide which voice is right."

Robin (Wayne) has posed:
     Robin considers the words, another moment of silence before he turns again to the monitor. "I guess the jury is out on me then. To be decided once my life is completed." Clearly he doesn't know which way he will end up lying.

  "I think you answered your own question. I always have them in my head. But it's not Mother and Father. It's me. For now, the Robin wins out. But The Assassin...won't be able to hold out forever. I vowed to not kill again. But honestly? Not everyone deserves to live."

Stardust has posed:
"You have to wonder, don't you?" Colette's expression is blandly neutral. "If he's right. Your father. I mean if he put The Joker in a grave instead of in Arkham, how many lives would be saved? Is his moral principle actually costing lives? On the other hand," she stops a moment, looking at Damian to see if there's any reaction, any hint on his face that he's thinking ahead to what she's about to say. "Maybe that's not the right calculation. Maybe he wonders what it would do it him, if he went down that path. Maybe a Batman who thinks that he gets to choose who lives and dies is a more dangerous thing than a Joker. "

    Colette leans forwards, studying the monitor as something moves in one corner. She plays with the controls until she persuades the camera to move. It's a bird. Not a Raven. "Honestly, I think the jury is out on all of us. Judging someone on their actions, when you don't know what their future actions are? I don't think you can do that. Sometimes you can't afford to wait though. Because the price is too high to just wait and see. But yes, someone might appear to be a monster, and later become a saint. And I guess that's why you have to be very careful about deciding someone doesn't deserve to live. And that's why your Grandfather is wrong. The only way you can be sure you make the world a better place by killing someone is if their life is complete. Which makes assassinating them kind of pointless."

    Colette tilts her head and looks wryly at Damian. "Saying that, I maybe killed someone. I mean I cut someone in half in Mexico, just he might be dead before I did that. But I intended to. It wasn't a moral decision, though. It just seemed necessary. No time to judge, desperate measures to save the world. Here's the thing though. I mean if you're going to make a habit of leading bands of rookie supers. You should have asked if I was okay. Your experiences aren't our experiences. The rest of us aren't used to it."

Robin (Wayne) has posed:
     Robin's brow furrows slightly at the comment on Batman's methods. He often clashed with his family over it. Pointing out their fallacies, not caring. "I don't wonder. I know."

  The hood lowers, and Damian sighs. "You said it yourself. I don't do the human thing." He crosses his arms in front of himself. Clearly defensive, he doesn't respond further.

Stardust has posed:
"Never too late to learn," Colette tells Damian with a smile. "I'm not blaming you. I'm pointing out something that might not have occured to you. I'm fine, thanks for asking. Well... I mean I don't... I think about it a bit, but I have zero guilt. It was absolutely the right thing to do. And honestly, I'm on Team Kill Joker. I don't think it's a good thing to make a habit of, but maybe just occasionally, things are black and white, and we just make things worse if we pretend there are shades of gray."

TColette leans back in her seat, eyes fixed firmly on the monitor, showing nothing. "Let's not say any of that to Vorp, or Brick, or... the others. The whole not killing thing seems to be a bit of cape dogma. And honestly I don't entirely disagree, I just don't entirely agree." There's barely a moment's pause before she changes track. "Moon Moon thinks he's a monster. I wonder about Raven, too. What Vorp said about her being dangerous if her emotions get out of control. Which I've seen."

    Colette leans forwards sharply, spotting something on the monitor. "Here she... no, it's not..." A figure has walked into the picture, and knocks on the door of the container. Colette pans the camera and zooms in on a masked face. "Fuck. Moon Moon. What the hell is he doing there? Not to mention, he tracked her and didn't bother to tell us."

    She pulls out her communicater, hits a button, and says "What the hell, Moon Moon?" into it. The figure on the monitor turns, looks around, scanning the space around him before sensors in the mask identify the electromagnetic signature of the drone, and he flips it off. "You ass, Moony." She says into the com.

    Amarok can be seen on the monitor stepping to one side and leaning on a wall to wait. The drone monitor blurts an alarm, and heads-up-display graphics indicate a mystic energy spike off to one side. The drone moves up for an overhead view, and shows a second figure approaching him. It's Raven. Colette holds her finger on the talk button of her com unit. "Shall we warn him? I vote no."

Robin (Wayne) has posed:
     "If you weren't fine, I would venture to say you would have stopped your conversing." Is that a motormouth comment? Yes, yes it is.

  Robin's brow raises with surprise, seeing Amarok on the monitors was a bit of a shock. "Best case scenario: she blasts him and he is fine, worst case: he tries to kill her and she ends up killing the two of them...and more. I say let him get a zap for his insolence."

Stardust has posed:
Colette actually laughs at the motormouth comment. "That's your diagnostic technique? I'm talking so I must be fine? I'm pretty sure most people would say that all it means if I'm talking is that I'm still alive.Yeah, I'm okay though. I'm a little worried that I'm okay, but I'm okay.

     She leans forwards, watching the drama unfold on the monitor. "Five dollars says she zaps him back to the tower." She turns up the gain, until the conversation between the two of them can be heard. "Think he's going to mention what the Portal Voice said about her? Guess that depends on if he knows. Did it bother you, the first time you killed someone?"

    "...This can't be -fought.- The only way for everything to stay the way it ought to be, is for me to be separated from it." Colette listens carefully to Raven's voice, coming faintly through the speakers, then nods her head. "I think that means it's about him, not her. Moon Moon is right though. She's not making any sense. She controls things by... separating. Her emotions. This is defensive, not practical. Shying away from... she's pulling her hood down and putting in an earbud."

Robin (Wayne) has posed:
     Damian slaps down a fiver from his utility belt. "I'll take that bet." He says, a bit of lightheartedness after the dark brooding before.

  "No." He responds to her question. "I thought it was a game." He expands a little more on the matter. The explanation of Raven's actions only get a furrow of Damian's brow. "Is that a dig on my account?"

Stardust has posed:
    "A game, "Colette repeats, still watching the drama on the monitor. "Yeah, that figures. I mean you don't have to brainwash child-soldiers, do you? You just fool them into believing it's normal, before they know better." She pulls out her comm again, and says "I can hear yoooou," into it, then starts fiddling with her phone. She starts to play the recording of the last portal visitation, skipping forwards and back until she finds the right spot, starts playing, then presses the button on her com to send it across. "...even there? She may be trying to avoid certain events in our past and your future, but she needs to be with you, or disaster will not be avoided."

    The conversation continues on the monitor. After a moment, Amarok's reply comes through the com. "Repeat."

    "Ah it was just something the Portal Voice said, so whatever that means..." Colette replies through the com.

    "I didn't say comment. I said, repeat." Colette gives the tiny figure of Amarok on the monitor an eye-roll and a shake of the head, as if he could see her. Nevertheless, she repeats the message, while grinning to Damian. "A dig for a dig. I admit I talk too much, you can admit you're defensive sometimes. It's probably a bat..."

    The drama unfolding on the monitor gets more dramatic as Raven reacts to the message of the Portal Voice. "Shit. Damian, she's going to freak. We need to get there." She jumps to her feet, making for the door. "Get Vorp! We need a rabbit hole. Something I'm gonna grab quick, be right back!"


(... To Be Continued in scene 5783!)