( closed ) tied my lead and pulled my chain

[reneger]

Who: Jason Todd reneger, Roy Harper thwikt, Tim Drake mostdangerousbird, Dick Grayson forceforlight, Kyle Rayner torchbearer, Jimmy deadthenred, Tony Stark voicelog, Tony Stark the second ingeniar, and Stephen Strange rehandle
What: a jailbreak
When: july 7thish
Where: an island prison off the washington coast
Content Warnings: ??

After deciding to do some snooping around Arcadia and dragging in Roy after his arrival, Jason and Roy both ended up knocked out, pulled out of Arcadia, and dropped off on an island off of Washington with a facility on it built to hold metahumans. Fun! Except they're both drowsy and depowered, stuck in cells, and aside from Jason's neural implant, they don't have a way to reach out to others from inside. But hey, at least the guards haven't seen their faces, so it could be worse.

Comments

[reneger]

I don't stay dead when I'm killed. That's my whole thing, ain't it? The dead Robin.

( he says it with a teasing lilt to his voice, but there's a--bitterness behind it jason doesn't quite manage to mask. )

You run into B yet?

[torchbearer]

[ firmly, though not with any real heat. ]

That is not your thing. Not with me. If people see you as the guy who comes back, good for them. But that's not how I see it. You could come back and I'd still mourn.

[ a brief pause as he nods. ]

I did. We talked, twice.

[reneger]

( not the return he'd expected from his haha i died semi-joke, and it hits heavy enough to shut him up for a minute. because he doesn't know what to throw back at that, so instead he opts to leave it. )

He talked? With words?

[torchbearer]

[ kyle's brow furrows as if perplexed. ]

Well, yeah. I mean, he seemed a bit stiff but considering he's younger than normal, I figured that was just him getting his stride.

[reneger]

( bruce has gotten better about opening his mouth and using words instead of grunts and side-eyes to communicate, but even the bruce jason knows has a tendency to let other people do the talking for him. he also realizes that--part of that was probably because jason never shuts up. the banter comes second nature, the filling in the blank spaces bruce leaves is habit.

gross. )

He's thirty. Basically a baby.

[torchbearer]

[ kyle rolls his eyes pointedly. ]

Aren't you younger than both of us?

[reneger]

But I put on the hot pants ten years ago. He's had his batsuit for--what, maybe a couple? At most. I outrank both of you in experience.

( he and kyle might be closer if he discounts the time missing post-resurrection to when he'd gotten thrown in the pit, but that's irrelevant. he's keeping it at ten years, kyle can fight him on it. )

You're both babies.

[torchbearer]

Yeah, I don't think we measure age by hot pants. Otherwise, I'm pretty sure we'd be letting the kids run the place.

[reneger]

I could kick his ass just using shit he taught me.

( now the grin grows, reaches his eyes. freshly unbroken nose be damned. )

Our smaller Tim has more experience on the field than B does. Dickie Jr laps him at fourteen. We measure B by how many Robins it'd take to knock him down, an' I'm pretty sure the teenagers could do it on their own.

[torchbearer]

Uh-huh.

[ kyle's tone is pretty disbelieving, but he's not going to challenge the internal laws of bats and robins. ]

So, did you? Try to kick his ass.

[reneger]

( and as quick as it grew, the grin fades away into something--sour. )

No.

[torchbearer]

[ sounds like a yes. kyle lets it go without fuss. ]

We just talked. He gave me a tracker if I want to reach out.

[reneger]

Do you still have it on you?

( kyle's not that stupid, but just to make sure. )

[torchbearer]

No, it's floating in a bubble somewhere around. I'll collect it later.

Should I let him know you're okay?

[reneger]

No.

( don't talk about him to his tiny not!dad. )

I'll go find him later.

[torchbearer]

All right.

[reneger]

( he's quiet, for a moment. let's that sit. there's a lot he could say; jason told kyle he was here, but he didn't tell kyle much else. by now, he's figured out all the important bruce-related details. that's something. and kyle's heard enough of jason's bruce-bitching by now, so.

clearly it's time for more. )

I told him to stay out of my turf. If he shows up in NYC or Newark, I'm kicking him out.

[torchbearer]

[ that seems like a pretty typical response. ]

I'm sure he won't cross the line.

[reneger]

B's got no respect for boundaries. He'll cross the line eventually.

( jason's expecting it. he's almost looking forward to it. but "i'm going to have a great time beating up the guy you worked with / who mentored you or whatever" is probably not the ideal thing to say. )

He's not him though. Not yet.

[torchbearer]

[ yeah. eventually, bruce will, for his own reasons. those reasons may not have anything to do with jason, which jason will hate. ]

And that's . . . bad?

[reneger]

No.

( it's not bad at all. jason prefers it this way. a young bruce is manageable, if his bruce showed up he'd have to dip under the radar. )

Last I saw B, he ignored a black hole sucking up my team in favor of telling me how he was an idiot for ever trusting me and dragging me off by my face to who the fuck knows where. I did fuck up a little, but--if I never see him again, it'll still be too soon.

[torchbearer]

[ not that jason could truly stay away. kyle idly rubs his shoulders. ]

I told him discussions about you are off the table.

[reneger]

( he'll always go back. jason's traveled the east coast, the west coast, everything in between and then some. but he's always returned to gotham in the end, regardless of how bruce felt about it. gotham is his home, his mess, the city he cares about as much as anything else.

jason leans back against kyle. lets his shoulders go loose. )

That go both ways?

[torchbearer]

It does in my book.

[ kyle does know how to give a good massage, his thumbs don't dig in hard and he lets his fingers roll off the shoulders. not much, just a little pressure to ease the aches. ]

I've got you.

[reneger]

( there are enough knots to earn a boyscout badge, but jason's not complaining. he's reaching a hand up instead, to grab onto kyle's shirt and yank him down enough so he can move those fingers into kyle's hair. pulls him into a kiss, even if jason being on the floor means it's a little--upside down.

smiles a little. )

You'd be a shit anchor if you didn't.