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thejusticelounge2014-12-31 06:23 pm
bossymarmalade) wrote in thejusticelounge2014-12-31 06:23 pm
buried deep inside
KSpenz drinks all the eggnog on the Tower. ALL THE EGGNOG.
Ollie strolls by with yet another gingerbread latte, since he gorges on these things come Christmastime. “I hope you rummed that up,” he says.
"Wouldn’t have it any other way," Kate replies, and she has a little bit of a nogstache, to be perfectly honest with you.
Ollie hovers, not quite sitting down, restlessly tapping his fingers against his thigh and looking around. “Something feels … hinky,” he says, nose twitching. “In the air. Don’t you feel it?”
KSpenz hadn’t, actually. She cocks an eyebrow, considering. “What do you mean, hinky,” she asks, raising an eyebrow that incredibly high level that only really happens when she’s tipsy.
Ollie frowns, still looking around. Scenting the air, is what it seems like. “I dunno,” he says. “I just feel wild under my skin. But not in a sexy way. Or even a beat-things-up way. Like I got electricity itching under there.”
"Maybe it’s the rift that The Guy From The Future came through?" Kate says, looking slightly disappointed that he’s not feeling it in a sexy or a fight kind of way. She sips her rapidly-cooling eggnog and considers heating it up in the microwave, which would be a fucking disaster.
"Humph," Ollie finally says, and sits down, sprawling his legs out. "I guess it’s a misfire. Maybe I’m wound up from the Thanksgiving bustle."
"Or maybe it’s just that there’s unresolved business," Kate notes, though she probably wouldn’t have said this if she weren’t drinking; better to not be so damn blunt, to dance around things a little more. "That everyone’s got a lot of unresolved business."
Ollie looks over at her. “Yeah?” he says, sounding interested in this theory. “What’s your unresolved business? The most important one.” He shakes his head after saying that. “No, strike that, the most /meaty/ one.”
KSpenz gives him a seriously type look. “You and me,” she says. “And how I was shit at helping you. Listening to you. Both meaty and important. Like a steak.” This metaphor seems to make sense to her.
Ollie looks, of all things, disappointed. “God dammit,” he complains. “I thought it would be something else. Something new. Not something that’s actually gonna be long hard work.” He licks at some coffee caught on the lip of his cup’s lid, sulking.
"Isn’t that kinda the nature of unfinished business, Ollie? That it’s long hard work?" Kate is very intently watching him lick the plastic rim. Very. Intently.
Ollie sighs, “Yeeeeeeeah. That doesn’t make me itchy under the skin, though. That just makes me all … soggy. Like if you leave a tomato slice in a sandwich too long.”
"You mean when it gets all mealy and gross?"
"Like when the bread gets soaked through and if you put your thumb on it you push through this mushy mess."
KSpenz slurps her nog, getting down to the dregs, thick with spices and traces of rum. “Ugh,” she says, wrinkling up her nose. “Do you want me to find some other unfinished business instead?”
Ollie props his chin on his hand. “If you don’t mind,” he says, trying to sound cordial and polite. “Make some up, if you have to. Just make it juicy.”
"We can talk about that other business soon. When there’s not hot drinks involved," says Kate, and she gets up to get another (only slightly spiked) nog and a decaf gingerbread latte for Ollie, as it can’t be good for his antsiness to have more caffeine. "Uh, let’s see, something a bit less painful? I need to talk to Bruce about his mom’s studio. I still have the key, and…now that the Manor’s in one piece…I don’t know if I should give it back to him or if I should use it or what."
Ollie seems pleased with this offering, as well as the new coffee, and returns to his sprawled position. “Did you guys talk about it? His mom’s studio. Or why he gave you the key.”
”Not really. I meant to talk to him more about it, and then the Manor was…uh, no more. And then I meant to give him the key so he had a piece of it still, but realized that that would be kind of like throwing it back at him.” Kate fidgets a little bit, scratching the outside of her nose with a fingernail. “So I just…kept it. Wore it.” She draws the chain out from under her shirt, the metal warm from her skin.
Ollie reaches over, sliding his fingers behind the key to study it. “He’ll be glad you still have it,” he says. “Maybe you should talk to him and you can use it together.” Ollie traces his thumb over the key, then resumes his former pose. “So his mom was an artist?”
KSpenz nods, letting Ollie’s fingers brush against the key without pulling back or tensing. She sips her fresh drink. “It seems like she was. I didn’t really know, until he said, did you?” Though somehow it explains something about Bruce, the flashes of desire for beauty, for passion, for things that aren’t logical.
Ollie considers, wrapping and re-wrapping his hand around his cup. “When I — when /we/ were little,” he says, “Bruce and his parents came to visit. I mean, our dads weren’t close or anything, but our moms were. Apparently they’d met at some function or the other and had a lot to relate over, especially when it came to marrying into old-money empires and having sons.” Ollie blows out a puff of air through his lips. “I was too young to really understand that my mom could have friends. But I remember her putting all her own art out, before the Waynes came over. Maybe Bruce’s mom brought her a piece.” He frowns, perturbed. “I wonder if there was anything in the Estate, put away.”
KSpenz reaches out and puts her hand over Ollie’s on the cup. “Was there ever a list of all of the items in the Estate at the time your parents died?” she asks. “That way, if you really want to know…”
Ollie shrugs. “There must’ve been,” he acknowledges, “but by the time my uncle kicked it, I dunno if it was still around. If all the things my parents had were still around. He just got rid of things that he didn’t think were of any value.” Ollie’s voice twists at the end of the sentence and he stops talking, swallowing, his eyes hot and angry.
KSpenz keeps her hand where she’d put it. “Shit,” she murmurs. “I’m sorry, Ollie.” KSpenz looks back at him, happy to stop talking about it if he wants, or hell, to talk more about it. Or to go kick the shit out of things with him.
Ollie turns his hand so he can link his fingers with hers. “Anyhow, he couldn’t send it to boarding school or drown it in the pond, so he probably sold off what he could and junked the rest.” Ollie screws up his mouth. “I can’t say I ever did much spelunking to find out what was there, anyhow, when I was eighteen and got the house. It was … it was too … well, I didn’t have any interest.”
"Don’t blame yourself too much for dumb shit when you were young," says Kate, though her eyes widen slightly at ‘drown it in the pond’, in horror. "You never know, maybe Roy’s work crews will find something."
Ollie lifts one shoulder in a shrug. “I don’t blame myself,” he murmurs. “It was self-preservation, not stupidity. The only thing I could handle then was partying and fucking and any other avoidance tactics that came my way.” Ollie rubs his face with his coffee-warmed hand. “That would be incredible. But the Estate got blown up once. I dunno what might’ve survived /that/.”
"In this world, who the fuck knows," Kate notes, raising her eyebrows. She leans over to kiss his forehead. "Considering what you and me and everyone and everywhere we know has been through? I wouldn’t entirely discount the idea."
Ollie nods. “But anyway,” he says, “Martha’s studio. You could probably go in there by yourself, if you found yourself in the Manor wanting to. I mean, he gave you the key for a reason, and it wasn’t to keep you out. It was — that was for Mothers’ Day, right?”
"Yeah," says Kate, and she can feel her face heat up for reasons she hasn’t entirely parsed through herself, and she’s not sure if she wants to yet. "I’d just…I’d rather Bruce knew about it maybe before I did go."
Ollie watches the blush spread across Kate’s face and reaches forward to tap the key, through her shirt. “Tell him that you have it,” he suggests simply. “I mean, if you want to go in but you want him to know, just tell him. Tell him /something/ or just … do it.”
"Yeah," agrees Kate, because this makes perfect sense, really, and why she’s sucking at making sense right now is anyone’s guess. "Okay. So that’s…that’s my unfinished business for you, so there," she determines finally, and slurps loudly as she takes another sip of her eggnog.
Ollie opens his mouth but whatever he was about to say is drowned out by a loud tik-tik-tikking noise as a dozen or so creatures that look like patchwork piglets run into the cafeteria on their hind legs. “Heard about your Thanksgiving we!” some of them squeak. “Feed the meal of grace us!” They’re followed closely by a frazzled-looking Saint Walker, who tells the assembled Leaguers, “Apologies, friends. These young Valmaar are aboard the Watchtower waiting for transport to another place and they heard of the festivities and wanted to partake!”
KSpenz blinks several times, as a sky blue Valmaar wanders past with a large pastry in its snout. “Well,” she says, “that happened.” The pale blue piglet stops next to Kate, snorfling down its pastry. “Give an item me,” it requests.
KSpenz doesn’t know if she has an item, exactly, and she considers this for a moment, before giving the piglet one of the gingerbread beings that she grabbed on the way in and didn’t eat. ”Happy Thanksgiving,” she says, with a hopeful smile.
This is clearly not what the Valmaar had in mind, because it gives a very cute high snort and shakes its head, displaying the spring green patches behind its blue ears. “”Give an item me,” it repeats. Then as Saint Walker comes by and consults with it, the Valmaar rephrases, carefully. “Give a good you thing me. Give a good thing you me. Give a good thing of you, me.”
Ollie stays very very quiet and still, so he doesn’t attract attention.
"May I ask why?" asks Kate, though it’s mostly to buy time. She knows what she is not willing to give up, but of the things she has on her…she considers for a moment, then opens her phone case and pulls out a drawing Ramsey did when he was younger, of the Getty Museum (though really it’s sort of a stretch to picture it, that’s not the point), and unfolds it, handing it solemnly to the Valmaar. "This is something my son gave me. A good thing."
The Valmaar does something like a curtsy when it views the picture, but pats it gently with one hoof. “Not this,” it says, and concentrates very strongly to formulate another request. “Good thing in you. Good about you. Give a good about you, me.”
"Far out, man," Ollie murmurs, smiling against the rim of his coffee cup.
"Ohhhh," says Kate, getting it now. She folds up the picture and sets it on the table. "A good about me…I’m good at the jobs that I have and I love doing them, and I love the people who I do them with." Trilling, the Valmaar spins on one hind hoof and claps with its forehooves. "Tasty!" it declares. A yellow and pink Valmaar rushes over, excited, and stares winsomely up at Kate, joined almost immediately by two other of the little piglets. Laughing, Ollie sits forward and says, "Here, I’ll take the stress off. She’s devoted to her beliefs, she’s a survivor, and she tries to do the right thing even when it’s hard. Okay?" The Valmaar all do the same trill and spin, clapping.
KSpenz blinks a few times, confused, but please that the Valmaar seem to be pleased with the offerings of good things about her. She gives Ollie a grateful look, though she hopes more won’t come by and want MORE good things.
The Valmaar seem satisfied with Kate and look over at Ollie, but he shakes his head and gets up. “Sorry, little ones, ” he says briskly, “but you’d only manage to get a snack out’ve me. You’re gonna have to look elsewhere.”
Zee wanders in, looking surprised, “We have new guests?” she asks Kate and Ollie. Snorting in disappointment, some of the little piglets herd themselves off to make requests of other people, although the yellow one and a violet one stop when Zee arrives. “Give a good about you me!” they chorus.
KSpenz is about to disagree with Ollie, when she notes Zee’s entrance and the approach. “They want to know something good about you,” she supplies.
"Something good?" Zee smiles, "Well in that case, I am very good at making friends. When I want to be." she looks up to Ollie and Kate, "Did you have to share what’s good with you?"
"We’re all done on this end, yeah," Ollie says, and slips off to go throw away his coffee cup. The Valmaar do their twirling clapping thing and trot off towards other tables, although the violet one pauses to say shyly, "Like you for a friend I," before following the yellow one.
KSpenz can’t help but smile at this, though she’s going to pick up with Ollie later why he can’t come up with anything for himself.
Zee waves as the violet one trots off to meet the others, “Pretty cute.” she smiles up to Ollie, “Your holiday still going well?”
Ollie gives her a lopsided smile. “You know how it goes,” he says. “The longer a holiday goes on, the more chance there is that it’ll get fucked up.” He scratches the side of his chin. “Did you meet this future traveler person? The one B’s in a knot over?”
Zee nods, “Oh yeah…big time.” she rubs a hand over her mouth, “I did. I was babysitting him last night actually. For someone from the future, he seems pretty normal if you ask me. Probably wanting as many answers as we do.”
Ollie eyes her as he tediously separates his cup into plastic lid and cardboard cup for recycling. “You think it’s like Mar’i? He’s one of us, but from a different variety pack?”
Zee drums her fingers along her arm, “I think so. He seemed to describe something similar of how she came to us. A rip, in space then poof he’s here. His name’s Terry. He said he’s been his time’s acting Batman for something like…three years. It’s crazy.”
Ollie blinks. “Wow. He’s … a Batman? And Bruce said Terry’s biologically his kid, so…” Ollie swallows. “Maybe he /is/ Damian. Or some Damian equivalent. Some different child that Bruce had with somebody other than Talia.”
Zee narrows her eyes, “Wait Bruce said what?”
Kyle strolls in consuming a giant drumstick of turkey, wrapped in bacon, until he sees the little piglet aliens and he tries to hide it. “Valmaar! Oh! Uh.” Kyle looks over to where Ollie and Zee are. “I just left the guy locked up tight in his quarters to get some time-warp jet-lag sleep - did you just say he’s a son of the Bat??”
Zee frowns, “He had mentioned something weird possibly turning up on his bloodwork but I didn’t think that’d be it. Oh wow. That’s got to be it.”
Ollie looks slightly pissed. “I thought you guys would know!” he kvetches. “Goddammit. Well, the cat’s outta the bag now, and christ, Tim’s already skittish about there being another Son of Bat around, it’s probably not making Jason very happy either, and Bruce—” Ollie shakes his head. With Bruce it could be anything, considering all of the complications around Damian and fathering children and not being able to father children. “What’s he like, this Terry?”
Kyle uses his drumstick to emphasize his words. “Uh, is there a way I can unhear this whole son of Bat thing? Because if there’s one thing I know, it’s that Bats isn’t too fond of randoms like me knowing his personal business.”
Ollie snaps, “For fucksake, just get Zee to wipe your memory about it then.” He realizes what he’s said and looks over at Zee, teeth bared in remorse. “Oh, jesus, Zee. I didn’t mean it that way.”
Her mouth hangs open, a joke of the same subject on the back of her throat but she swallows it, “It’s fine. Kyle, if you want to pretend to be out of the loop on this, just try and ignore it?” she bites her lip, “Terry is a nice guy, funny once you get him to relax a little. Tim shouldn’t be expecting the second coming of Damian from him.”
Ollie chuckles sheepishly, glad Zee doesn’t seem too upset about his rudeness. “This Terry kid’s probably feeling more off-balance than any of us, that’s for sure.” He purses his mouth. “I hope we’re able to get him back. I think it’s been hard for Mar’i, being here. She’s built herself a life but it probably seems like she has everything to lose, if things go wrong. Not like having all her friends and family in her own time.”
"What I wanna know," Kyle says through bites, "Is how come no alternate timeline Green Lanterns come on through these rifts? I want some sorta….cool…human…chitinous badass Lantern to show up and…no wait I probably don’t want that. Given the way Lanterns are I’d probably end up having to fight ‘em. Whatever. Batrifts it is. Unless you got a long lost sister somewhere, Zee…" Kyle grins and elbows her. "Double the Zee, double the fun."
Ollie rolls his eyes extensively to cover for the fact that he agrees with this statement about Zee.
"We’ll just have to see…it’s one thing to be placed on another Earth, but it’s a whole different game trying to retrace where he came from, if that Earth even exists anymore. It might not now that he’s gone." she laughs at the idea of Lanterns entering their Earth, "For all you know they’re already here. You’re just so militarized you don’t notice anyone out of place. And you don’t wanna meet Annataz." she jokes, with a smile, "She’s trouble."
"Shit, yeah," Ollie says when Zee points out that Terry’s world might not even be accessible or exist anymore. "I didn’t even think of that. Was never all that good at wrapping my head around the whole infinite worlds thing." Ollie thinks briefly of Hal, mildly humming Take Me Out to the Ballgame as they gazed out at an infinite starfield of other Earths, and has to bite back a smile.
Kyle looks conflicted, both offended by Zee’s easy critique of Lanterns, and also fired-up imagination-wise about this Annataz, even if she might just be fictional. He concentrates instead on the topic of this Terry. “I still don’t get how a kid can be Batman. Why not make him a Nightwing? Or a…Bat…wing?”
"Because Batman in his world can’t exist anymore, not in the family at least. That’s what I assumed." she shrugs, folding her arms, "So, that leaves Terry. I think he said he took the suit for like…a joyride first. It wasn’t just handed to him."
Ollie gives a hoot of amusement. “Kinda like how Jason took the Batmobile for a joyride? Or did he boost its tires? I can’t remember, something like that. I guess he’s the one Terry’s gonna have the most in common with.”
Jason walks in and then pauses at the sound of his name, feeling strangely as though he’s interrupting something, he glances about the room at the other three, eyebrows rising. “You talking about me? Cause I can leave again if you wanna keep going…”
Kyle looks at Jason. “You took the Batmobile for a joyride?”
"Psssssh," Ollie says, "As if we’d stop talking about you just ‘cause you showed up." He grins, beckoning Jason closer as Kyle asks his question. "We were going over your origin story!"
"We have no shame Jason, plus this way we get to hear about it all straight from you. Did you steal the tires or go on a joyride?"
Jason snorts and shakes his head as he wanders closer to the group. “Nah, I just jacked the tires. Only got caught cause I went back for the radio. And then I kinda hit Bruce with a tire iron and ran away… not really the most exciting origin story,” he says with a shrug.
Kyle snorts. “You haven’t heard MY origin story.”
Zee rolls her eyes, “Share with the class.”
Ollie grins, delighted with the audacity. “You figured the Batman would have a jammin’ stereo for all the Top 40 Hits he spins while he’s on patrol?”
Kyle stares at Queen. “Since Mia’s not here, in her honor I’ll feel embarrassed you just said that, Queen.” Ollie is unperturbed by Kyle’s diss on his sick 90s slang.
Jason shrugs again. “Figured a Batradio would probably be pretty high tech, might get a good price for it.” He looks over at Kyle and cocks his head to one side. “What’s your story, Green Bean?”
"Picture it: Los Angeles, six years ago. A young, extremely handsome man steps out into the alleyway through the backdoor of a club, to take a breather. Being only twenty—" Kyle gives Jason significant, if somewhat lecturing eyes, "- he’s not drinking at said sleazy establishment. He’s with his friends, but they’re all about picking up ladies, and he’s still moping about breaking up with his girlfriend. Suddenly: a green shooting star beams across the sky, and before the handsome young man, a blue Smurf appears, clad only in an a-line, unstylish dress. ‘You’ll have to do,’ the Smurf glumly intones, and flings a piece of green jewelry at the young handsome man, before disappearing into the night sky. Was it a dream? Of course not - the handsome young man still had the ring in his hand. Carefully, he slips it on his finger, sealing a contract that’s even older than the Earth concept of marriage and - presto bammo, he’s the only Green Lantern in the universe." Kyle bites his drumstick. "The end….? It’s a question in case there’s a sequel."
Ollie: ”And we all hope there’s not.”
Zee claps politely for Kyle, “Very nice.”
Jason rolls his eyes at Kyle, even as he elbows Ollie. “Well, guess smurfs gotta find their heroes somewhere too.”19:26
Kyle sniffs and folds his arms, looking soured. “Well. I still think jacking the tires offa Batman’s Batmobile is a way cooler story. I mean, obviously it impressed Batman. And that’s no easy feat.”
Ollie says before he can help himself, “/I/ find it easy to impress Batman,” and then snickers like he’s twelve.
Jason shrugs again. “Well, he was less impressed by the theft and more that I didn’t stay in the secret crime school he enrolled me in.” Letting out a huff, he elbows Ollie again. “How old are you, Jolly Green?” Zee shoves at Ollie, “Oh my god.”
Ollie refuses to be properly ashamed of himself. “Just speaking the truth,” he says, still smirking.
"EggggGAHHHH," Kyle shudders visibly. "Well now I’ve lost my appetite." He looks over at Jason. "But wait wait wait. Secret…crime…school? Issat a Gotham thing?"
Zee lightly slaps at Ollie for good measure, “I. Don’t. Care. Ick.”
Jason just shakes his head at Ollie before turning his attention back to Kyle as he shrugs. “It used to be. There was this creepy old lady that was training kids to be thugs. Bruce accidentally stuck me there till I helped him take it down. That’s the part that made him let me be Robin.”
Ollie sidles over to stand next to Kyle. “Ooooookay. You Gothamite weirdos and your old lady Fagins and so forth, jesus.”
Kyle shakes his hand. “Well half a dozen of twelve and six of the other - so your crime didn’t impress him, your infiltration and take-down of a creepy exploiting criminal did the trick. That’s still a bfd. At least, it is to me.”
Zee nods in agreement, “It’s impressive, like that was your first mission? Crazy.”
Jason shrugs yet again. “You grow up in Crime Alley, and that kinda stuff seems pretty normal. It wasn’t really a mission, I was just sorta in the right place at the right time to help him out.”
"It was fate," Kyle says decisively. "And maybe criminals are rife in a place called ‘crime alley’, but a kid taking a criminal down from the inside isn’t. Jason Todd, you - yes you - actually did something /good/." Kyle pats his shoulder. "I know it’s hard, but you gotta accept this fact of inherent goodness, dude."
Jason rolls his eyes and slouches away from Kyle’s hand. “Yeah, I know I did something good. I was a good kid, and I was fucking adorable, and I can admit that. Doesn’t mean things are still that way… except I’m still adorable.”
Ollie smiles and shakes his head at all this youthful capering. “Well,” he says, “being well past the age of adorable, I think I’m gonna turn in and let you romp.” He hugs Jason, kisses Zee, and strolls off.
Zee smiles, “You’re adorable. Uh-huh. And so am I and so is Kyle.” as Ollie takes off she calls after him, “You’re adorable too! Everyone is adorable.”
Ollie strolls by with yet another gingerbread latte, since he gorges on these things come Christmastime. “I hope you rummed that up,” he says.
"Wouldn’t have it any other way," Kate replies, and she has a little bit of a nogstache, to be perfectly honest with you.
Ollie hovers, not quite sitting down, restlessly tapping his fingers against his thigh and looking around. “Something feels … hinky,” he says, nose twitching. “In the air. Don’t you feel it?”
KSpenz hadn’t, actually. She cocks an eyebrow, considering. “What do you mean, hinky,” she asks, raising an eyebrow that incredibly high level that only really happens when she’s tipsy.
Ollie frowns, still looking around. Scenting the air, is what it seems like. “I dunno,” he says. “I just feel wild under my skin. But not in a sexy way. Or even a beat-things-up way. Like I got electricity itching under there.”
"Maybe it’s the rift that The Guy From The Future came through?" Kate says, looking slightly disappointed that he’s not feeling it in a sexy or a fight kind of way. She sips her rapidly-cooling eggnog and considers heating it up in the microwave, which would be a fucking disaster.
"Humph," Ollie finally says, and sits down, sprawling his legs out. "I guess it’s a misfire. Maybe I’m wound up from the Thanksgiving bustle."
"Or maybe it’s just that there’s unresolved business," Kate notes, though she probably wouldn’t have said this if she weren’t drinking; better to not be so damn blunt, to dance around things a little more. "That everyone’s got a lot of unresolved business."
Ollie looks over at her. “Yeah?” he says, sounding interested in this theory. “What’s your unresolved business? The most important one.” He shakes his head after saying that. “No, strike that, the most /meaty/ one.”
KSpenz gives him a seriously type look. “You and me,” she says. “And how I was shit at helping you. Listening to you. Both meaty and important. Like a steak.” This metaphor seems to make sense to her.
Ollie looks, of all things, disappointed. “God dammit,” he complains. “I thought it would be something else. Something new. Not something that’s actually gonna be long hard work.” He licks at some coffee caught on the lip of his cup’s lid, sulking.
"Isn’t that kinda the nature of unfinished business, Ollie? That it’s long hard work?" Kate is very intently watching him lick the plastic rim. Very. Intently.
Ollie sighs, “Yeeeeeeeah. That doesn’t make me itchy under the skin, though. That just makes me all … soggy. Like if you leave a tomato slice in a sandwich too long.”
"You mean when it gets all mealy and gross?"
"Like when the bread gets soaked through and if you put your thumb on it you push through this mushy mess."
KSpenz slurps her nog, getting down to the dregs, thick with spices and traces of rum. “Ugh,” she says, wrinkling up her nose. “Do you want me to find some other unfinished business instead?”
Ollie props his chin on his hand. “If you don’t mind,” he says, trying to sound cordial and polite. “Make some up, if you have to. Just make it juicy.”
"We can talk about that other business soon. When there’s not hot drinks involved," says Kate, and she gets up to get another (only slightly spiked) nog and a decaf gingerbread latte for Ollie, as it can’t be good for his antsiness to have more caffeine. "Uh, let’s see, something a bit less painful? I need to talk to Bruce about his mom’s studio. I still have the key, and…now that the Manor’s in one piece…I don’t know if I should give it back to him or if I should use it or what."
Ollie seems pleased with this offering, as well as the new coffee, and returns to his sprawled position. “Did you guys talk about it? His mom’s studio. Or why he gave you the key.”
”Not really. I meant to talk to him more about it, and then the Manor was…uh, no more. And then I meant to give him the key so he had a piece of it still, but realized that that would be kind of like throwing it back at him.” Kate fidgets a little bit, scratching the outside of her nose with a fingernail. “So I just…kept it. Wore it.” She draws the chain out from under her shirt, the metal warm from her skin.
Ollie reaches over, sliding his fingers behind the key to study it. “He’ll be glad you still have it,” he says. “Maybe you should talk to him and you can use it together.” Ollie traces his thumb over the key, then resumes his former pose. “So his mom was an artist?”
KSpenz nods, letting Ollie’s fingers brush against the key without pulling back or tensing. She sips her fresh drink. “It seems like she was. I didn’t really know, until he said, did you?” Though somehow it explains something about Bruce, the flashes of desire for beauty, for passion, for things that aren’t logical.
Ollie considers, wrapping and re-wrapping his hand around his cup. “When I — when /we/ were little,” he says, “Bruce and his parents came to visit. I mean, our dads weren’t close or anything, but our moms were. Apparently they’d met at some function or the other and had a lot to relate over, especially when it came to marrying into old-money empires and having sons.” Ollie blows out a puff of air through his lips. “I was too young to really understand that my mom could have friends. But I remember her putting all her own art out, before the Waynes came over. Maybe Bruce’s mom brought her a piece.” He frowns, perturbed. “I wonder if there was anything in the Estate, put away.”
KSpenz reaches out and puts her hand over Ollie’s on the cup. “Was there ever a list of all of the items in the Estate at the time your parents died?” she asks. “That way, if you really want to know…”
Ollie shrugs. “There must’ve been,” he acknowledges, “but by the time my uncle kicked it, I dunno if it was still around. If all the things my parents had were still around. He just got rid of things that he didn’t think were of any value.” Ollie’s voice twists at the end of the sentence and he stops talking, swallowing, his eyes hot and angry.
KSpenz keeps her hand where she’d put it. “Shit,” she murmurs. “I’m sorry, Ollie.” KSpenz looks back at him, happy to stop talking about it if he wants, or hell, to talk more about it. Or to go kick the shit out of things with him.
Ollie turns his hand so he can link his fingers with hers. “Anyhow, he couldn’t send it to boarding school or drown it in the pond, so he probably sold off what he could and junked the rest.” Ollie screws up his mouth. “I can’t say I ever did much spelunking to find out what was there, anyhow, when I was eighteen and got the house. It was … it was too … well, I didn’t have any interest.”
"Don’t blame yourself too much for dumb shit when you were young," says Kate, though her eyes widen slightly at ‘drown it in the pond’, in horror. "You never know, maybe Roy’s work crews will find something."
Ollie lifts one shoulder in a shrug. “I don’t blame myself,” he murmurs. “It was self-preservation, not stupidity. The only thing I could handle then was partying and fucking and any other avoidance tactics that came my way.” Ollie rubs his face with his coffee-warmed hand. “That would be incredible. But the Estate got blown up once. I dunno what might’ve survived /that/.”
"In this world, who the fuck knows," Kate notes, raising her eyebrows. She leans over to kiss his forehead. "Considering what you and me and everyone and everywhere we know has been through? I wouldn’t entirely discount the idea."
Ollie nods. “But anyway,” he says, “Martha’s studio. You could probably go in there by yourself, if you found yourself in the Manor wanting to. I mean, he gave you the key for a reason, and it wasn’t to keep you out. It was — that was for Mothers’ Day, right?”
"Yeah," says Kate, and she can feel her face heat up for reasons she hasn’t entirely parsed through herself, and she’s not sure if she wants to yet. "I’d just…I’d rather Bruce knew about it maybe before I did go."
Ollie watches the blush spread across Kate’s face and reaches forward to tap the key, through her shirt. “Tell him that you have it,” he suggests simply. “I mean, if you want to go in but you want him to know, just tell him. Tell him /something/ or just … do it.”
"Yeah," agrees Kate, because this makes perfect sense, really, and why she’s sucking at making sense right now is anyone’s guess. "Okay. So that’s…that’s my unfinished business for you, so there," she determines finally, and slurps loudly as she takes another sip of her eggnog.
Ollie opens his mouth but whatever he was about to say is drowned out by a loud tik-tik-tikking noise as a dozen or so creatures that look like patchwork piglets run into the cafeteria on their hind legs. “Heard about your Thanksgiving we!” some of them squeak. “Feed the meal of grace us!” They’re followed closely by a frazzled-looking Saint Walker, who tells the assembled Leaguers, “Apologies, friends. These young Valmaar are aboard the Watchtower waiting for transport to another place and they heard of the festivities and wanted to partake!”
KSpenz blinks several times, as a sky blue Valmaar wanders past with a large pastry in its snout. “Well,” she says, “that happened.” The pale blue piglet stops next to Kate, snorfling down its pastry. “Give an item me,” it requests.
KSpenz doesn’t know if she has an item, exactly, and she considers this for a moment, before giving the piglet one of the gingerbread beings that she grabbed on the way in and didn’t eat. ”Happy Thanksgiving,” she says, with a hopeful smile.
This is clearly not what the Valmaar had in mind, because it gives a very cute high snort and shakes its head, displaying the spring green patches behind its blue ears. “”Give an item me,” it repeats. Then as Saint Walker comes by and consults with it, the Valmaar rephrases, carefully. “Give a good you thing me. Give a good thing you me. Give a good thing of you, me.”
Ollie stays very very quiet and still, so he doesn’t attract attention.
"May I ask why?" asks Kate, though it’s mostly to buy time. She knows what she is not willing to give up, but of the things she has on her…she considers for a moment, then opens her phone case and pulls out a drawing Ramsey did when he was younger, of the Getty Museum (though really it’s sort of a stretch to picture it, that’s not the point), and unfolds it, handing it solemnly to the Valmaar. "This is something my son gave me. A good thing."
The Valmaar does something like a curtsy when it views the picture, but pats it gently with one hoof. “Not this,” it says, and concentrates very strongly to formulate another request. “Good thing in you. Good about you. Give a good about you, me.”
"Far out, man," Ollie murmurs, smiling against the rim of his coffee cup.
"Ohhhh," says Kate, getting it now. She folds up the picture and sets it on the table. "A good about me…I’m good at the jobs that I have and I love doing them, and I love the people who I do them with." Trilling, the Valmaar spins on one hind hoof and claps with its forehooves. "Tasty!" it declares. A yellow and pink Valmaar rushes over, excited, and stares winsomely up at Kate, joined almost immediately by two other of the little piglets. Laughing, Ollie sits forward and says, "Here, I’ll take the stress off. She’s devoted to her beliefs, she’s a survivor, and she tries to do the right thing even when it’s hard. Okay?" The Valmaar all do the same trill and spin, clapping.
KSpenz blinks a few times, confused, but please that the Valmaar seem to be pleased with the offerings of good things about her. She gives Ollie a grateful look, though she hopes more won’t come by and want MORE good things.
The Valmaar seem satisfied with Kate and look over at Ollie, but he shakes his head and gets up. “Sorry, little ones, ” he says briskly, “but you’d only manage to get a snack out’ve me. You’re gonna have to look elsewhere.”
Zee wanders in, looking surprised, “We have new guests?” she asks Kate and Ollie. Snorting in disappointment, some of the little piglets herd themselves off to make requests of other people, although the yellow one and a violet one stop when Zee arrives. “Give a good about you me!” they chorus.
KSpenz is about to disagree with Ollie, when she notes Zee’s entrance and the approach. “They want to know something good about you,” she supplies.
"Something good?" Zee smiles, "Well in that case, I am very good at making friends. When I want to be." she looks up to Ollie and Kate, "Did you have to share what’s good with you?"
"We’re all done on this end, yeah," Ollie says, and slips off to go throw away his coffee cup. The Valmaar do their twirling clapping thing and trot off towards other tables, although the violet one pauses to say shyly, "Like you for a friend I," before following the yellow one.
KSpenz can’t help but smile at this, though she’s going to pick up with Ollie later why he can’t come up with anything for himself.
Zee waves as the violet one trots off to meet the others, “Pretty cute.” she smiles up to Ollie, “Your holiday still going well?”
Ollie gives her a lopsided smile. “You know how it goes,” he says. “The longer a holiday goes on, the more chance there is that it’ll get fucked up.” He scratches the side of his chin. “Did you meet this future traveler person? The one B’s in a knot over?”
Zee nods, “Oh yeah…big time.” she rubs a hand over her mouth, “I did. I was babysitting him last night actually. For someone from the future, he seems pretty normal if you ask me. Probably wanting as many answers as we do.”
Ollie eyes her as he tediously separates his cup into plastic lid and cardboard cup for recycling. “You think it’s like Mar’i? He’s one of us, but from a different variety pack?”
Zee drums her fingers along her arm, “I think so. He seemed to describe something similar of how she came to us. A rip, in space then poof he’s here. His name’s Terry. He said he’s been his time’s acting Batman for something like…three years. It’s crazy.”
Ollie blinks. “Wow. He’s … a Batman? And Bruce said Terry’s biologically his kid, so…” Ollie swallows. “Maybe he /is/ Damian. Or some Damian equivalent. Some different child that Bruce had with somebody other than Talia.”
Zee narrows her eyes, “Wait Bruce said what?”
Kyle strolls in consuming a giant drumstick of turkey, wrapped in bacon, until he sees the little piglet aliens and he tries to hide it. “Valmaar! Oh! Uh.” Kyle looks over to where Ollie and Zee are. “I just left the guy locked up tight in his quarters to get some time-warp jet-lag sleep - did you just say he’s a son of the Bat??”
Zee frowns, “He had mentioned something weird possibly turning up on his bloodwork but I didn’t think that’d be it. Oh wow. That’s got to be it.”
Ollie looks slightly pissed. “I thought you guys would know!” he kvetches. “Goddammit. Well, the cat’s outta the bag now, and christ, Tim’s already skittish about there being another Son of Bat around, it’s probably not making Jason very happy either, and Bruce—” Ollie shakes his head. With Bruce it could be anything, considering all of the complications around Damian and fathering children and not being able to father children. “What’s he like, this Terry?”
Kyle uses his drumstick to emphasize his words. “Uh, is there a way I can unhear this whole son of Bat thing? Because if there’s one thing I know, it’s that Bats isn’t too fond of randoms like me knowing his personal business.”
Ollie snaps, “For fucksake, just get Zee to wipe your memory about it then.” He realizes what he’s said and looks over at Zee, teeth bared in remorse. “Oh, jesus, Zee. I didn’t mean it that way.”
Her mouth hangs open, a joke of the same subject on the back of her throat but she swallows it, “It’s fine. Kyle, if you want to pretend to be out of the loop on this, just try and ignore it?” she bites her lip, “Terry is a nice guy, funny once you get him to relax a little. Tim shouldn’t be expecting the second coming of Damian from him.”
Ollie chuckles sheepishly, glad Zee doesn’t seem too upset about his rudeness. “This Terry kid’s probably feeling more off-balance than any of us, that’s for sure.” He purses his mouth. “I hope we’re able to get him back. I think it’s been hard for Mar’i, being here. She’s built herself a life but it probably seems like she has everything to lose, if things go wrong. Not like having all her friends and family in her own time.”
"What I wanna know," Kyle says through bites, "Is how come no alternate timeline Green Lanterns come on through these rifts? I want some sorta….cool…human…chitinous badass Lantern to show up and…no wait I probably don’t want that. Given the way Lanterns are I’d probably end up having to fight ‘em. Whatever. Batrifts it is. Unless you got a long lost sister somewhere, Zee…" Kyle grins and elbows her. "Double the Zee, double the fun."
Ollie rolls his eyes extensively to cover for the fact that he agrees with this statement about Zee.
"We’ll just have to see…it’s one thing to be placed on another Earth, but it’s a whole different game trying to retrace where he came from, if that Earth even exists anymore. It might not now that he’s gone." she laughs at the idea of Lanterns entering their Earth, "For all you know they’re already here. You’re just so militarized you don’t notice anyone out of place. And you don’t wanna meet Annataz." she jokes, with a smile, "She’s trouble."
"Shit, yeah," Ollie says when Zee points out that Terry’s world might not even be accessible or exist anymore. "I didn’t even think of that. Was never all that good at wrapping my head around the whole infinite worlds thing." Ollie thinks briefly of Hal, mildly humming Take Me Out to the Ballgame as they gazed out at an infinite starfield of other Earths, and has to bite back a smile.
Kyle looks conflicted, both offended by Zee’s easy critique of Lanterns, and also fired-up imagination-wise about this Annataz, even if she might just be fictional. He concentrates instead on the topic of this Terry. “I still don’t get how a kid can be Batman. Why not make him a Nightwing? Or a…Bat…wing?”
"Because Batman in his world can’t exist anymore, not in the family at least. That’s what I assumed." she shrugs, folding her arms, "So, that leaves Terry. I think he said he took the suit for like…a joyride first. It wasn’t just handed to him."
Ollie gives a hoot of amusement. “Kinda like how Jason took the Batmobile for a joyride? Or did he boost its tires? I can’t remember, something like that. I guess he’s the one Terry’s gonna have the most in common with.”
Jason walks in and then pauses at the sound of his name, feeling strangely as though he’s interrupting something, he glances about the room at the other three, eyebrows rising. “You talking about me? Cause I can leave again if you wanna keep going…”
Kyle looks at Jason. “You took the Batmobile for a joyride?”
"Psssssh," Ollie says, "As if we’d stop talking about you just ‘cause you showed up." He grins, beckoning Jason closer as Kyle asks his question. "We were going over your origin story!"
"We have no shame Jason, plus this way we get to hear about it all straight from you. Did you steal the tires or go on a joyride?"
Jason snorts and shakes his head as he wanders closer to the group. “Nah, I just jacked the tires. Only got caught cause I went back for the radio. And then I kinda hit Bruce with a tire iron and ran away… not really the most exciting origin story,” he says with a shrug.
Kyle snorts. “You haven’t heard MY origin story.”
Zee rolls her eyes, “Share with the class.”
Ollie grins, delighted with the audacity. “You figured the Batman would have a jammin’ stereo for all the Top 40 Hits he spins while he’s on patrol?”
Kyle stares at Queen. “Since Mia’s not here, in her honor I’ll feel embarrassed you just said that, Queen.” Ollie is unperturbed by Kyle’s diss on his sick 90s slang.
Jason shrugs again. “Figured a Batradio would probably be pretty high tech, might get a good price for it.” He looks over at Kyle and cocks his head to one side. “What’s your story, Green Bean?”
"Picture it: Los Angeles, six years ago. A young, extremely handsome man steps out into the alleyway through the backdoor of a club, to take a breather. Being only twenty—" Kyle gives Jason significant, if somewhat lecturing eyes, "- he’s not drinking at said sleazy establishment. He’s with his friends, but they’re all about picking up ladies, and he’s still moping about breaking up with his girlfriend. Suddenly: a green shooting star beams across the sky, and before the handsome young man, a blue Smurf appears, clad only in an a-line, unstylish dress. ‘You’ll have to do,’ the Smurf glumly intones, and flings a piece of green jewelry at the young handsome man, before disappearing into the night sky. Was it a dream? Of course not - the handsome young man still had the ring in his hand. Carefully, he slips it on his finger, sealing a contract that’s even older than the Earth concept of marriage and - presto bammo, he’s the only Green Lantern in the universe." Kyle bites his drumstick. "The end….? It’s a question in case there’s a sequel."
Ollie: ”And we all hope there’s not.”
Zee claps politely for Kyle, “Very nice.”
Jason rolls his eyes at Kyle, even as he elbows Ollie. “Well, guess smurfs gotta find their heroes somewhere too.”19:26
Kyle sniffs and folds his arms, looking soured. “Well. I still think jacking the tires offa Batman’s Batmobile is a way cooler story. I mean, obviously it impressed Batman. And that’s no easy feat.”
Ollie says before he can help himself, “/I/ find it easy to impress Batman,” and then snickers like he’s twelve.
Jason shrugs again. “Well, he was less impressed by the theft and more that I didn’t stay in the secret crime school he enrolled me in.” Letting out a huff, he elbows Ollie again. “How old are you, Jolly Green?” Zee shoves at Ollie, “Oh my god.”
Ollie refuses to be properly ashamed of himself. “Just speaking the truth,” he says, still smirking.
"EggggGAHHHH," Kyle shudders visibly. "Well now I’ve lost my appetite." He looks over at Jason. "But wait wait wait. Secret…crime…school? Issat a Gotham thing?"
Zee lightly slaps at Ollie for good measure, “I. Don’t. Care. Ick.”
Jason just shakes his head at Ollie before turning his attention back to Kyle as he shrugs. “It used to be. There was this creepy old lady that was training kids to be thugs. Bruce accidentally stuck me there till I helped him take it down. That’s the part that made him let me be Robin.”
Ollie sidles over to stand next to Kyle. “Ooooookay. You Gothamite weirdos and your old lady Fagins and so forth, jesus.”
Kyle shakes his hand. “Well half a dozen of twelve and six of the other - so your crime didn’t impress him, your infiltration and take-down of a creepy exploiting criminal did the trick. That’s still a bfd. At least, it is to me.”
Zee nods in agreement, “It’s impressive, like that was your first mission? Crazy.”
Jason shrugs yet again. “You grow up in Crime Alley, and that kinda stuff seems pretty normal. It wasn’t really a mission, I was just sorta in the right place at the right time to help him out.”
"It was fate," Kyle says decisively. "And maybe criminals are rife in a place called ‘crime alley’, but a kid taking a criminal down from the inside isn’t. Jason Todd, you - yes you - actually did something /good/." Kyle pats his shoulder. "I know it’s hard, but you gotta accept this fact of inherent goodness, dude."
Jason rolls his eyes and slouches away from Kyle’s hand. “Yeah, I know I did something good. I was a good kid, and I was fucking adorable, and I can admit that. Doesn’t mean things are still that way… except I’m still adorable.”
Ollie smiles and shakes his head at all this youthful capering. “Well,” he says, “being well past the age of adorable, I think I’m gonna turn in and let you romp.” He hugs Jason, kisses Zee, and strolls off.
Zee smiles, “You’re adorable. Uh-huh. And so am I and so is Kyle.” as Ollie takes off she calls after him, “You’re adorable too! Everyone is adorable.”