tushanshu | 1

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1 | Video

[The video reveals a girl studying the screen intently. Her hair, mussed and bedraggled, is loosely pulled back. Her outfit is odd; it looks like a form-fitting black body suit, but it's torn and tattered, stained with blood.]

Can you...hear me?

[She tilts her head slightly, brow furrowing. She doesn't like devices like this - communication without contact - but it seems like the...sensible thing to do. The sort of thing Oracle would tell her to try.]

I'm - Cassandra. Just got here.

[Her frown is, at most, mildly bewildered.]

What they told me - about the...In-Between - is that...what they say to everyone? Is it true?

[She doesn't sound particularly sceptical. Why should she? Dying is the last thing she remembers.

This next bit, though, has her eyes widening and her lips quirking.]

Is it...really a turtle?

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Not where, but alive. Mother and I had a falling out, I am no longer privy to... pertinent information.

[But he does know she was part of the events of the Blackest Night, then the Brightest day - although that info was more or less gotten by Grayson than reported to Batman. Considering Gordon's Birds of Prey and their autonomy.]

I might be from... everyone-of-us-here's future. Except for Brown.

[A slight nod, and a sad smile. She knows it's - difficult, to not be on the same side as your parents. To not be what they - not expected. Crafted.]

That must be - lonely.

[It applies to both statements, really.]

Not more so than usual.

[Now this? Is a lie. Not in general, but he really, really does miss Grayson. And Pennyworth.]

Have a chance to talk with... people.

[Father. This is not a lie. Damian would be calling it a miracle, if he was that kind of a guy.]

[Cass just shakes her head at the deception.]

Talking...is good.

[It's something she's come to realise. Actions may speak louder, but words are important too.]

Have you - known him long?

I have known of him all my life. First met him about a year ago, and there hasn't been much time... nearby. Not until here.

[All truths. If any of what his body says is confusing... she may ask. Not like there is no REASON to be confusing.]

[A slow nod. She's...pretty openly peering at him, trying to sort it all out.]

Is it - working?

[No, that's not right.]

Your...relationship. Is it...good?

[Damian looks away. Just for a moment.]

Learning how to.

[Neutral as the sentence is, his body clearly indicates that Damian is the one leaning (in his mind, that is how things are), the one who is, slowly, starting to do better.]

[Cassandra nods, her expression soft.]

I...also. Had to learn.

[Slow, slow blink. He... hadn't actually thought about that.]

You would have, wouldn't you.

[He tilts his head to one side, and asks way more wryly than... most people expect him to be able to, really.]

Did you ever think it a good idea to prove your worth by delivering the severed head of a criminal?

[Because... yes. She can probably understand how bad a start that would be. And he can't bring himself up to talk about his initial interactions with Drake. He couldn't have done anything else... and he knows he should have. Knows now.]

...No.

[She tilts her head, studying him.]

But you thought - it was right. [Why shouldn't he, if he was a child of the League?] Didn't...know better. [But he seems to now, and that's the important thing.]

He should - understand that. ...But he - has trouble.

[A slight, sad smile.] He didn't...want to accept. That I had killed.

[He shrugs. Partly knowing better, partly something else.] I promised him.

[And some people don't believe him, about that. Some people...]

Grayson accepted. That I can change. He has been... patient with me. Father accepted his choice.

Everyone can change. If they choose.

You have. [It's not difficult for her to see. The sincerity and conviction is clear, beneath everything else.] That - is all that matters.

[And then she smiles.] I am - not surprised. That Dick helps. He is - good. To everyone. Especially...family.

[Damian... almost flinches at the you have she says. Because he has been good about not breaking his promise - he's gotten better at knowing why he is not doing it, other than the promise - but the urge is still there. The need to bring a fight to its perfect completion. The awareness of the satisfaction draining an enemy's life's blood. None of that has faded. None of that has stopped calling to him. Not for a single day.

He doesn't mean to break his promise (not without actual reason) - his word means more to him than the satisfaction that action would bring - but he doesn't consider himself to have changed.

Instead of explaining that (it will help nobody, telling it, even thinking too much of it), he nods.]

Whatever this place really does, if we're not missing or affected for as much time as we spend here would be... good.

[Because Grayson would go out of his mind. And he is already carrying too great a weight.]

[Cassandra sees the flinch he doesn't make, and that's why she clarifies.]

You've...chosen.

It's - okay. If you haven't... [She frowns as she struggles for the right words.] If it's not...easy.

The things...they taught us. What they wanted us - to be. It doesn't just. Go away.

[She remembers the drug, the one that made people kill. It took ten minutes for one man, an hour for another. For her, it was a heartbeat.

She wonders how long it would be now.]

[That, he nods to, firmly. He has, and - while it was not an easy choice, exactly, not even in the fit of anger that Mother had caused - he has never regretted it, not truly. It makes a difference, he makes a difference, and it means more to him than all the promises of power that he can ever be made.]

No, they don't. And when they do - what's left?

What we have made. Our...new dreams, and memories, and...family.

...

What if my dreams are the old ones, only worse?

[He's suppressing the levels of violence as far as he's required. It keeps on boiling up inside his head. He'll not do anything about it, he won't, but it's still there in his mind. Or his mind is still in there, back there. Whichever.

And family...

It'll take somebody a lot less intelligent than Damian Wayne to miss the fact that, for the most part, family took him in because they had to, because he pushed his way in and ignored any attempts to displace him, by both circumstance and attitude. He's grown to want to stay with family, but it's difficult to believe he's wanted. Other than by two people. Maybe three, if Damian's having a good day.]

[Cass smiles at that, soft and sympathetic.] More work to do.

...A friend of mine told me - not to ignore what they taught me. My...killer instincts. But - to use them. In different ways.

That - might help.

... [The first bit makes his eyebrows go up... and that gets chased by a small, lopsided hint of a smile as he agrees.] More work to do.

[And the amusement fades.]

Killing is only a part of my training. Part of conquering the world. And I could have done it, I think.

It's not supposed to be done. Don't know what else it is useful for, other than helping the company when it's needed.

[He can't ignore it, no. He has to struggle against his trained 'instincts' every waking moment, basically. Maybe not during some training, but... the rest of the time.]

[Cass frowns thoughtfully.]

I think - you could use those...skills for other things. Even if they aren't...part of being Robin.

[Yeah, pretty much. Add to that the fact that he's ten and nobody listens to him (almost nobody, at this point, and even that is progress), and... you get a frustrated young man.]

I'll try.

That's all...we can do.

[She places a hand against her chest.]

I - still have to try. To not - give in. And to be...more.

It keeps feeling like I'm trying to be less.

[Hence always trying to prove himself, to prove that he's enough, anyway. At least... part of it.]

Edited 2012-09-24 12:18 (UTC)

[Cass shakes her head.] No.

The League - you wouldn't have been...

They wanted to make us tools. Even if - you ruled the world, you wouldn't...be free.

Making your own choices. That...is strength.

No. Not free. [Ohhh he had this point driven home just fine.

It's just difficult. Because it was his Mother teaching him, and while the trust is severed now, he has nothing else that lasting to replace it with.]

I understand it is better. I understand it is right. But it - less constant discipline, less pushing harder, everybody trying to get me to do casual things, things that are not productive. It all registers as being less.

1 | Video

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