It happens to everyone - sometimes, you have nights where you just can't fall asleep, no matter what you do. It could be for a number of reasons, or no reason at all. And this is what's happened now: you've been laying in bed for what feels like hours, just tossing and turning, and nothing seems to help. So what's left to do? Get out of bed and go wake someone else up, of course. If you're not getting any sleep, then why should they?
i n s t r u c t i o n s • Post with your character (note the name and fandom in the subject).
• Other people reply to you by generating a number from 1 to 10.
• Have fun!
o p t i o n s 01 • FEAR. Maybe you're hearing strange, indeterminable noises; maybe there's a severe storm happening outside; maybe you watched a scary movie before bed? Whatever the reason, you're terrified and it's keeping you awake. You just want to wake someone else up so they can protect you from the monster in your closet.
02 • HUNGER. Your stomach is growling and it just won't stop. Or perhaps your throat is so dry you could cough up a tumbleweed? Well, you've gone to the kitchen to remedy this and hey, that was a pan that just dropped on the floor. It was loud enough to wake the dead! Oops.
03 • PAIN. Your body is completely worn out, be it from exercise, battle, sickness, or what have you. Either way you're in enough pain to keep you from sleeping, so maybe someone else has a home remedy or something, or can at least help you take your mind off of it.
04 • SOLITUDE. For some reason, your bed just feels so empty at the moment. You're feeling terribly lonely and really just want someone to keep you company for a while. Maybe it'd be easier to fall asleep if you're with them...
05 • DISCOMFORT. Your room is an oven. Either that or a freezer. Or maybe this bed is just really uncomfortable? Who knows why you can't get to sleep, it feels like it could be anything. Why even bother trying? Maybe someone else can preoccupy you until you feel tired enough to ignore your discomfort.
06 • PENSIVE. Something's on your mind, and no matter how hard you try to focus elsewhere, it's just not going to work. Your body may be tired, but your mind is incredibly busy and it's virtually impossible to get to sleep. Surely, talking it out with someone else will help?
07 • SADNESS. Something terrible has happened that day, perhaps; or you could just be severely depressed. Either way you're trying your hardest not to cry yourself to sleep, and it's not working at all. Better find a way to get it out of your system somehow; you need a shoulder to cry on.
08 • ANGER. You are just... fuming. Who knows why - that annoying dog is barking again, or maybe the people next door are getting busy and keeping you awake. Whatever the reason for your ire is, you'd better put an end to it so you can get some damn rest already! Go wake up a friend so you can complain to them.
09 • RESTLESS. You're far too energetic to sleep right now. Maybe you're just trying to do so out of necessity - you have to be up early tomorrow! But you just don't think you'll be able to fall asleep for a while now, so why waste the time trying to sleep when you could be doing something else? Namely bothering someone else - you're totally jealous because they're getting more sleep than you.
10 • WILDCARD. Choose one of the options above, or make up your own scenario. |
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bakerstreet2020-06-10 07:06 pm
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[ Bruce eyes him over the paper. Mildly, ]
How do you think he would feel?
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He wouldn't have known. I can tail him without him noticing, you know that. [ The teacup sits holding freshly poured tea, a joke because Dick's in no mood for tea. The paper must be a joke, too, because isn't it so damn ironic that Bruce still reads the physical paper? He's always thought so. ]
Look, this is gonna end one of two ways, right? [ Hands clasp together in front of him, elbows resting on his knees, shoulders tight. ] Jason succeeds, great, he comes back, all's well. Or, Jason gets into trouble, he could get himself killed. I could've been there.
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[ He turns the page. True, the entire resources of the Batcomputer sit at their fingertips, but far above internet archives, Bruce has meticulously scanned and kept many, many paper copies. Nothing beats them in terms of historical sources, and besides, there's always some interesting article or the other tucked away. And he does sometimes like to see himself between pages 6-8 than on the headlines. Narcissism, but ah, one has to keep themselves entertained what ways they can, at his age. ]
You could.
[ He doesn't doubt Dick's capabilities. He's the one who nurtured all that, after all, he had a large hand in creating — this, but the best parts of it? That was all Dick, all him, shining through his personal tragedy. Bruce takes no credit for that. ]
But there's a third option.
[ Investigate the same lead, show up without being asked for help, tag along. Brotherly bonding. ]
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If he’s learned anything, in all his years of being Robin, in slowly distancing himself from Bruce, it’s to be prepared. It’s his exact point right now—he should have gone out there, stayed steps behind Jason to be prepared in case anything happened. It wouldn’t have hurt. But like so many times before, he had listened to Bruce. In all these years, if he’s learned anything about Bruce, it’s that he wouldn’t have allowed this to happen if he wasn’t prepared. So when Bruce brings up a third option, Dick’s gaze lifts to his eyes, scanning, earnest but no longer blindly trusting as he had been in the past.
He takes a slow breath, fingers lacing tighter together.]
Bruce, you--[ Could have told me. Could have discussed this whole thing with me. Should have let me plan this with you. But he had never been a partner, who is he kidding, he was never let in on it all. Not before, not now. ] What option.
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[ He did not ask for this mask. So he cannot be blamed if it fits less well than the one he wanted to wear. Bruce's mouth curves a little, his shoulders shift. He is not a man of apologies, never out loud. Only, only ever in adjustments. ]
[ He takes in this, from Dick's, keeps it away for the future. ]
Bonding.
[ Says Bruce, and it could be a joke if it wasn't such an utterly serious suggestion. ]
Chase the same lead, intercept him. You never know, he might let you. [ A beat, and ruefully, ] He certainly wouldn't let me.
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I don’t wanna mess things up with him again. Not after he...[ Shit. Does Bruce even know? His voice is slow, quiet, apprehensive and fizzling with the edge of pain. He looks away because of how much he failed Jason. Bruce trusted him. ] Not after he almost jumped off the Titans tower.
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[ Movement possesses him, always seems so. Bruce watches, keenly. No tap of Dick's fingers on his arms goes uncounted, no step unobserved for its pressure on the carpet. He's always been a boy to leave an impression. ]
[ And he looks away. Bruce does too, at the crackling fire, seeming a mockery of the secret that's been shared with him. Certainly, he can observe spikes in heart rates, rushes of adrenaline, but the idea of a boy up on a ledge — ]
[ Between them, it's always about falling. ]
You watched his back once. [ It's an effort, to keep emotion out of his voice. To know how far down it is, what a body looks like, and how small coffins can be made. Bruce exhales, audibly, from the effort. Even that is the movement of another pawn. ] It's important to follow the precedent you've created.
[ And, ]
This isn't something I could do, Dick.
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[ It makes it worse: the telling way Bruce exhales, cementing it as a failure in his mind. Bruce is supposed to tell him it's no big deal, to tell him to compartmentalize, to shove it away and ignore it and support him in thinking it was inevitable. That Jason's been messed up from day one, and that it's not his fault.
But instead, it's the opposite. Dick's inhale wavers as he struggles to keep up this front. He doesn't miss the admission, either, that he can do something Bruce can't. It's incentive, isn't it? Bait to prove that he's somehow competent, better, as if there's anything left to prove.
After he'd tried so hard to sort the differences between he and Bruce. ]
Yeah. I watched his back right to the ledge of the tower. [ A beat as he turns to face Bruce, Jaw tensing and untensing and tensing. ] You couldn't do it so you tried to make me, didn't you? You know I couldn't say no because I needed the tower.
no late only fun!
[ And yet. And yet. He's also bound to other things, to people, to Alfred and Dick and Jason and the League, that all these strings tug at him minutely, make him aware of the precarious acts he has. It's gotten easier, with time. It is easier, when family is there with him. But it also feels inevitable: that one day they won't be, and Bruce will be alone again, to bear the oncoming bullets. ]
[ In this moment, it is a big deal. It is something only Dick could ever do. ]
You wanted the Tower.
[ He reminds Dick quietly. They can nitpick over want and need so much, but it's never so clearly defined. ]
Jason did as well.
[ What's the joke, two birds, one stone? ]
<3
He wanted the tower? [ It's a quiet echoed question. ] When? [ Fine. Wanted. No, needed. He needed to do what he had done. ]
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When do you think? [ Softly, but the old one-two, ] and why do you think?
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When he first met me. [ It's a shot in the dark, but he's still from shoulders to crossed arms, heels planted into the floor with the storm pelting behind him. ] He said he'd been wanting to meet me. [ He shakes his head once, holding Bruce's gaze. ] You set it up. [ Realization dawns like a stream of cold down his back. ] Is that why you offered the tower? With Jason? That why you sent him after me?
no subject
[ Bruce lifts his chin slightly, raises an eyebrow. No, he hadn't engineered Jason taking off to see him as perfectly as Dick imagines — it's always messier than that. But the end result had been desired, hadn't it? New family member, new brother, someone around whom their orbit might have stabilised. Bruce wanted Jason and Jason needed him; it was really that simple. ]
I offered you an option.
[ He says, neutrally. ]
One of many.
[ Boy, he taught you to make your own options, too. Dick could have said no Jason and pushed back, and that would have been its own negotiation. But as to the setup — he refutes nothing. He confirms nothing, verbally. ]
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He was offered options and he took the option. It’s on him, and as much as he hates to admit it, as much as he tries to blame Bruce for it all, the option he chose was exactly that—a choice. ]
I wanted to be there for him. I thought I could do it. Still do. [ Jason hadn’t stepped off the ledge in the end, right? He’d managed to get him down and suffered the consequences of telling the truth. All that’s missing from the team is Jason, and like always, the family drama is the loose end, between him, Jason, Bruce.
And his own displeasure that once again, he’s here, having to do what Bruce tells him to without a choice. ]
Bruce, I’ll tell you now. It’s not going to be the reconciliation you’re imagining. When I go out there and say we’ll work together, he’s gonna think you don’t trust him to work alone. [ Which is the truth, isn’t it? ]