well the sun one day will leave us all behind

[pixieboots]

Who: Dick Grayson and various
What: SOME THREADS I PROMISED PEOPLE collected in one log so the comm is lovingly spared
When: October 2-11
Where: MOON BASE
Warnings: batangst, child trauma


[ THINGS GO BELOW ]

Comments

for Jaime - the 1st??

[pixieboots]

[ The moment he hangs up, he knows it won’t do to be where he is when Jaime shows up. What is he doing here, hiding in bed from what's happening like he's eight and not thirteen? Jaime needs a friend, doesn’t he? A real friend, not someone else he has to worry about the way they all worry about everyone. The way he’s probably worrying about everything happening down there already, just like he is now.

He wants to be Jaime’s friend.

He sniffles hard and wipes his face on his sleeve. Then he tries swinging his legs up and over the edge of the bed he’s in, wincing a little at how stiff they are. The room is still spinning.

He does hurt, all over. Inside and out. ]

[khajidont]

[Jaime can't say that he didn't spend time grieving or that he's not still grieving, in fact, but it's easier to pull himself together when there's something tangible he can do. This applies even if it's something as small as swinging by the moonbase's admittedly limited cafeteria and loading up on something that can at least pass for a meal by his own standards.

He shifts the tray over to one hand when he arrives at Freddy's door and knocks twice, calling out,] Hey, it's Jaime!

[He doesn't bother waiting for an answer before he goes ahead and lets himself in, nudging the door shut behind him with the heel of his foot.]

[pixieboots]

[ He'd kind of forgotten that there was food tied into the deal too, and seeing it with Jaime makes him smile, just a tiny bit. Jaime's a nice guy. He wipes his face on his sleeve again and hopes he won't notice. ]

Thanks. [ He slides off the bed, wincing a little at the pain in his feet. But making the effort to take the tray off his hands seems the surest way to pay him back for the trouble. ] You didn't have to, you know.

[khajidont]

I know. I wanted to.

[There's no way that Jaime's going to miss the fact that Freddy's in pretty rough shape at the moment, but he'd be more worried if he wasn't. That sort of lack of emotion was something restricted to people like his new roommate.

He glances around the room, and finding that it's in the exact same layout as his own - which is to say, a single room with four beds and a lack of space for anything but sleeping - and hands the tray over to Freddy, letting him decide whether they'll be eating on the floor or on his bed.

Then, noticing the wince:] Did you hurt yourself?

[pixieboots]

Yeah, I- maybe? I think so. [ He sets the tray on the bed and sits cross-legged across from it, leaving space for Jaime to take the spot at the foot if he wants to.

Admitting the injury though, it implies a few things. He doesn't deserve the lie. Not this time.

He keeps his head down, hoping against hope it doesn't show in his face. ]

I wasn't really in a fight this time.

[khajidont]

Oh.

[Jaime mirrors Freddy as he takes a seat at the foot of the bed, cross-legged. It's an oddly familiar feeling; he remembers way back when, when he and Paco would be sitting just like this with a pile of comics in between them, arguing about exactly what character was the coolest.

These are markedly different circumstances than those days.]

What happened?

[pixieboots]

Just- I thought if enough of us worked together than maybe-

[ He can feel his throat tightening up again, so he swallows the feeling instead. He scrubs his hands through his hair; a miserable gesture that's still somehow easier than looking at Jaime. ]

You can't laugh, okay?

for Collette - the 5th??

[pixieboots]

[ Avoiding it at first was easy, once he’d gotten up and out of there the first time. He's used to having the Robin's Nest, a space all his own to fall back on which was something even when it was cold and lonely and empty. That it’s Collette’s room he’s supposed to be crashing in now just makes it even worse, because she knows the truth and that means if he keeps staying here it'll be her problem too. No matter what, it will be.

He doesn’t need that room. He can do without sleeping, without thinking, without remembering anything. He can save the space for someone who does need it. He can catch ten minutes here or there in the Observatory when he really, really has to.

But his mask is still in there, probably still shoved under the pillow he’d been lying on. And he knows that isn’t fair, leaving it up to her to find it herself or cover for him when someone else does. With a little luck he won’t even have to explain; he knows she’s not the type to hang around in one place when she doesn’t have to. He’ll grab his mask and then he’ll be gone just as fast.

He’s still hovering awkwardly at the door a whole fifteen seconds later before finally he shakes the feeling off and gives the door a careful, gentlemanly knock. Somehow crawling in her window while she was asleep felt less weird than just walking in when she might be awake. ]

[crocodilesmiles]

( Collette looks up from where she's leaning against pillows on her bottom bunk. Was that a knock? People so rarely bother! )

Hello? The door's open!

[pixieboots]

[ He pokes his head in, and the room gets a once-over before he slides the rest of his body inside. It's been a couple of days, so he flashes her a small, sheepish grin. ]

Um. Hey!

[crocodilesmiles]

Dick!

( She smiles big and warm, setting her tablet down and pushing up more properly. )

Where've you been?

[pixieboots]

Uh. Just around. [ What who doesn't disappear without warning for days on end? He scratches at the back of his neck and squirms. ]

Can we talk for a minute?

[crocodilesmiles]

We can talk for a whole ninety of them and more, if you like. Actually, I've been wanting to talk with you too.

( She pats on her bed, using her hands to scoot herself closer to the wall after the fact. )

for Max - the 11th??

[pixieboots]

[ He knows how it would sound, if he tried to explain it to someone in actual words. That he knows Max can take care of herself better than almost anyone he’s ever met. And who hadn’t needed a little space after what happened on the surface anyway? As long as he’s known her, Max has always been that way.

But it’s been weeks now, and finally he’s out of patience waiting for her to come out on her own. Waiting for her to notice, and find him the way she always does. It’s easier to be put out, to feel just a little bit forgotten and shunted aside than it is to let the knot of anxiety in his stomach take over.

It’s too important now. She’s seen him without his mask before, when he’d been calling himself just Robin. He has to explain why he’s not wearing it now, before she does catch him out and use the wrong name in a situation he doesn’t have under control ahead of time.

So today he’s combing the base from top to bottom. He’ll find her if she’s here, one way or another. ]

[motherofnemesis]

[ Max would be the first to deny it, but the fact of the matter is that she's got a very tenuous grasp on functionality at the moment. Tenuous enough that she's not really able to think of much outside of herself and the immediate mission of them not being stuck here anymore.

Which isn't to say she hasn't wondered if he's okay, but to go looking - she can't do that. Not really.

Today she happens to be swearing at a panel near a hatch down a corridor that nobody's really been looking at, a bag of basic tools at her side as she works with the wires. She feels him coming long before she hears or sees him, mind raw and sensitive to the fluctuations of anyone's presence, but she gives no outward sign that she realizes anyone's in the vicinity, just sets her jaw and keeps working. ]

[pixieboots]

[ He's wandered past that corridor twice before the shape that keeps catching his eye down there finally solidifies into something familiar. Seeing her means she's alive, that the silence at least didn't mean anything worse than probably the same thing that's been eating all of them. But it lifts his spirits up anyway, and he can feel his face breaking into a grin. ]

Hey, Max!

[ He's already called out her name and started running to close up the distance before it occurs to him with a sharp jolt that maybe she won't remember his face at all. It's been months, hasn't it? Maybe he should have given her the chance to prove he doesn't have another choice but to tell the truth, but he's too happy and relieved now to stop. ]

There you are. I've been looking all over.

[motherofnemesis]

[ And there's the inevitable calling of her name, but it's Dick and she doesn't have the heart to not at least try for him. So when she turns on her heels to look up at him, the tiredness running through her is restrained at least a little, tucked away as best as she can. ]

Hey kid. Looking a bit different today.

[ It's the only nod she'll make to his lack of costume - if he chooses to elaborate further on it, that's for him to decide. ]

Looking all over? Careful, I might start thinking you care. [ It's a joke. Sort of. It's most of a joke, but the punchline's missing. ]

[pixieboots]

[ Well there goes any notion of her maybe not fitting it all back together, and for a second he's not sure if he should be relieved or terrified. Of that. Of her.

But there's something in her tone that stop him cold. ] Of course I do. You're my friend.

[ And he sits on the silence for a moment before he speaks again. ]

...You remember all that?

[motherofnemesis]

[ She stops moving when he says friend, watches the tools in her hand for a long moment. It's a word she hasn't been good with in a long time, but it means she needs to do better. ]

I have a near perfect memory. Of course I do.

[ She looks back up at him, this time trying out something sort of like a smile. ] What's up?

for Jericho - the 12th

[pixieboots]

[ Training is still easier than a lot of other things, and after only a few restless hours he’s decided he can’t give it up. Even if he has to go in civvies, even though it means he’ll probably have to come up better lie than summer camp for gymnasts to explain it sooner or later. He can’t stop practicing. Not even for Batman.

So he’s at the VR rooms with a towel wrapped around his shoulders, opening the door without thinking before he steps inside and sees-

-somebody else definitely beat him to this one. ]

[eyecontact]

[someone who has no mind for combat or strength training at the moment, that's for sure.

it's a sprawling, flat space covered in yellow and orange flowers, surrounded by the smoky, chilly backdrop of ice-capped mountains. the sights are nice enough, but even in a virtual world things aren't too terribly perfect, so the way Jericho's guitar rings out doesn't quite fit the scene's acoustics.

not that most anybody would know; how many people know what music sounds like at that elevation?

the one who does is trying very hard to not focus on that, and is seated with his back turned to the interloper. notes are plucked pointedly, like someone trying to articulate every syllable to be heard. it makes less of a melody and more of a monologue of the notes; there's a lot in his head he's trying to get out.]

[pixieboots]

[ The blond hair is hard to miss, but miss it he does for a good thirty seconds while he's taking in... wherever this is. It's beautiful. Beautiful in a way he's sure he never could have come up with on his own.

And people create these sims to be by themselves. Which means he should just turn around and go back the way he'd come in, before he wrecks it for Jericho, who he can see now with his guitar. He should've known it had to be his.

His hands go up to touch his face automatically, but-

No. Not today.

It's the chance he'd been waiting for. The thing he can't shy away from anymore. ]

Hey, what is this place?

[ He takes a careful step further into the simulation, far enough that he could reach down and touch the yellow flowers. If Jericho wants him to leave, he'll let him know. ]

[eyecontact]

[the last note twangs off-key and is cut off as Jericho presses his fingers on the neck. huh–?!

he whips his head around quickly, alarmed. it takes a while for him to realize who it is...]

[pixieboots]

[ Well-

now he's just self-conscious.

and it's making him edgier than he'd thought it would already, being looked at like this. Even if it is only Jericho, who's seen it before. He's still someone who doesn't know already, who'll probably see everything differently now. He'd gone about it all wrong, hadn't he? Pretending it wouldn't matter when it does. ]

Uh. Hey. It's, um. Me.

[ He shuffles his feet and studies the ground, but luckily there's actually a lot there to look at. ]

...I'm kinda here by accident. [ It's as good an excuse as any. ]

[eyecontact]

[it is him. but...unmasked.

Jericho's head turns and eyes avert the second he realizes it, looking embarrassed. he didn't mean to look! well...you know...

he nods, fidgeting where he sits, looking like a guilty child who just saw or did something they oughtn't. and, from his perspective, he just did!]