tushanshu | 1

Entry tags:

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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[He wants to tell her that she survived it, that everything turned out all right, but that's... it's not a lie, not exactly, but it wouldn't be telling her the whole truth. And he's learned with Cassandra. The truth is always the most important thing you can trust her with.

His expression becomes a little bit more closed off.]

There's beauty here as well. Perhaps you'll get an opportunity to see it.

[She tilts her head slightly, wondering what he's not saying.]

Yes. I...look forward to it.

[And she does, truly. She had glimpses, on the way to her suite, of the world she's found herself in; she means to explore it. To enjoy it.]

Mm. Good luck, Cassandra. Please feel free to contact me if you need anything.

[And with that, he cuts the feed. He'll sit here and work on his 'ornithological journal', which is in reality a heavily encrypted notebook about the Bat-goings ons in Keeliai, whoops. But being out here among the crowd is a good way to catch the general mood of the people, in lieu of any of his usual gadgets.]

[Some time later, when night begins to fall - a much brighter night than she's used to, but one she can still get comfortably lost it - Cassandra heads for the Fire Sector.

She tries not to get too distracted, but it's still a good while until she makes her way to the street Bruce had shown her.

She slips through into the cafe like anyone else passing by who wants a light meal, and orders - something. She recognises 'tea'.

Then, for all anyone else could see, she just happens to head over to Bruce's table.]

This seat - taken?

[He looks up in 'surprise', and then shakes his head, gesturing at the empty seat with a pencil. He's sketching now, the local bird life.]

No, by all means.

[She nods her thanks as she slides into the seat, glancing at his sketches with a little smile.]

You like birds?

[There's a glint of amusement in her eyes.]

More than I do most people, honestly.

[... he sees your amusement, Cass. It's okay, it's vaguely amusing to him too. He adjusts his glasses and smooths his hand over his false goatee.]

[A slight, thoughtful nod as she raises her coffee.]

They seem...to make things brighter.

[And then, slight shift of her shoulders; when you let them.]

[Bruce goes very still. The cessation of body language stretches for a time, and then he shakes his head, wryly amused. Of course Cassandra would pick up on that.]

They can. In the proper circumstances, yes.

['Batman needs a Robin'. He thinks of Damian, and how it might now be the other way around.]

[Her own smile is just a bit cheeky.]

Most, I think. Life...needs light. As much as darkness.

[It's something she's learned; something that's been twisting and turning in her head since Barbara taught her what a rose needs to grow.]

[He misses when she was like this. So completely in the moment. The best and brightest of his little family. There's a touch of that sorrow in the way he smiles back.]

Balance. Most people forget that.

[Cass tilts her head at him, curious.]

People forget...a lot. [A slight shrug.] Not their fault.

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