uncurtained | pc catchall for dick (heh) (unpredicktable)

[From her spot with her hand on the barrier, she turns towards him, tilting her head slightly.]

Uh... Like what? Did you see something?

I ... yeah. But I wasn't... here. [ he frowns, looking at himself ] Or myself. I-- there's no nice way to say this. Beck, did your father die of an overdose?

...What?

[The way she freezes, and the stricken look on her face - it's at least a sign that he's hit something raw, something deep inside her.]

Why would you ask that?

Because I think... no, I know-- I saw it happen.

[ he turns to look at beck, grief on his face ]

I'm sorry. I don't know how, but... It was like I was you, in that moment.

But that's not...

[Possible, she wants to say, but - how many times has she already thought that, here? She takes a breath, looking around, and as she crosses her arms:]

I remember... How I was sure he was dead, right, when I found him? I remember how scared I was. [...] The ambulance ended up coming in time. So it's not what you thought.

[She should probably sound happier about that, but.]

[ dick... hesitates, before moving over to her and putting a hand on her shoulder ]

We don't have to talk about it if you don't want to.

[ an overdose like that isn't exactly a great sign, fatal or not. ]

[She glances at him for a second once he puts his hand there, before looking back down at the ground.]

There isn't much to tell. For a while it seemed like it was a wake up call, but then he relapsed and abandoned us. Shocker.

[There isn't much, she says, but there's clearly a lot there - even if it's buried, it's not hard to hear the resentment in her voice.]

[ dick doesn't know what to say to that resentment immediately, so he just squeezes her shoulder silently. ]

... I'm sorry. That can't have been easy.

[ to think she might have saved him only for him to still die like that later. dick can't pretend to understand that. ]

[She doesn’t know quite how to deal with that sympathy, but while she seems a little bit uncomfortable with it, she tries for a small smile.]

...We’ve all got our own childhood trauma to work through, right? He cleaned up a little a few years after he left us, so... He seems much happier now with his new wife and kids.

[Which comes with its own set of emotional baggage for her, but. She’s trying to make this conversation less awkward.]

[ OH OKAY THAT KIND OF ABANDONMENT DICK AND I COMPLETELY MISUNDERSTOOD THAT ]

Ah.

[ luckily for dick, the effect seems to take pity on his dumb ass, so instead of him having to talk, beck gets to experience his family dying ... and maybe more. Except it's not narrated in five comic pages, but it's 2am and i need to go to bed, so, tl;dr: it starts with dick asking to participate in and being rebuked on what turns out to be a very cool and neat aerial show that sure ends in a first person POV of five (eh, four and a half) people falling to their deaths in a pretty gruesome way! the crowd screaming, panic, dick climbing down-- then a man, coming out of the crowd.

and then nada. ]

[Well! That's horrifying. By the time it's over, she's just looking at him with a hand pressed over her mouth, clearly concerned. She takes a deep breath, moving her hand away.]

...I get what you mean. The - memories.

[ the good news is. now that both of them have seen memories the barrier falls away!! yay. otoh, that and what she says means dick turns to look with a worried frown ]

You... saw something too?

[She nods, and then, softly:]

I saw your family... [She takes a breath.] I'm so sorry.

[ ah. he can't say it's fine, but-- ]

... At least you already knew the gist of it.

[ just without the "also it was a gory spectacle!" bits ]

Still, I didn't know that you... saw it like that.

[She glances up at him before she looks back at the ground.]

You probably don't want to talk about it. Sorry.

[ dick looks away, not that it's super easy to tell because Mask, but he-- shrugs ]

Me and a few hundred people in the crowd. [ it doesn't bother him too much that she saw it now because of that, though it's... not exactly a sight he'd want anyone to witness. and she's right, he doesn't exactly want to talk about it, but-- he'd said it was a murder, but he knows what it looks like from that angle, so he explains: ] It's-- we caught the guy responsible. He was a mobster who wanted the circus' owner to pay protection money while we were in Gotham City. Haly refused to pay up, so he cut the line to his main attraction. Made it look like an accident.

But... He didn't get away with it, right?

[That seems like a pretty poor silver lining to her; it doesn't change what happened prior to that. Still, it's important to know.]

[ his smile is slight, but it's there. ]

No. First guy I brought to justice. My-- the man who took me in helped me make sure he didn't get away with it.

...Was that him, at the end there?

[ he didn't see it, but if there's one thing he remembers for sure about that day, it's bruce wayne parting through the crowd. so he smiles because he's fond, and he sounds sad because he's been in a Mood re: batman since he killed escha so it's All Fine ]

Yeah. That was him. He happened to be in the crowd, since we were passing through his city.

[ and he went to the circus in a full suit because he's a ho ]

...I'm glad you had someone there, after all that.

[She isn't really glad it was him, based on what she's heard about him, but.]

[ bruce wayne is an ok dad, and it causes dick to smile ]

Me too. Don't know what I would've done without him.

[ go to therapy maybe ]

[She gives a small nod, while I cry about html in the background.]

You don't have to answer this if you don't want to, but... There wasn't anyone else who could take you in?

[ i told you i would only be nice once. uno times. dick... hesitates ]

Not... really. [ his uncle "survived" the fall but i have no idea if he's still alive so i'm not going into that ] Circus wasn't considered the most stable environment for a kid after that.

[ and becoming a kid superhero was!! ]

[She's been dancing around it, but:]

Right, but... Wasn't what you started doing after more dangerous than that?

pc catchall for dick (heh) (unpredicktable)

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