( open-ish ) dedicate and sacrifice my everything

[batsymbol]

Who: Bruce Wayne/Batman batsymbol
What: catch-all for the month, largely time travel and event focused
When: Throughout September
Where: Primarily the past
Content Warnings: TBD but let's just say Bruce being Bruce and Batman being Batman.

open to both [brackets] and prose, i'll follow your lead if you have a preference. if you want something else with bruce or bats, shoot me a PM or PP at telekinetics to discuss. otherwise things we've planned/discussed can be dropped in here as well. starters in comments.

Comments

assure me it's ok — diana.

[batsymbol]

( with their time in the past — in 1985 — an undisclosed amount of which none of them know even a potential end date for, motels seem like the best bet in their travels around together. both dick and bruce had brought bills with them that dated prior to the year which they'd fallen into and with it being the eighties and eighties pricing all about, they're relatively ok in terms of things like board and food. at least for the time being.

even so, any attempts to stretch what they have what with not knowing just how long this so-called trip is to be, two rooms split between four travelers seems like the best option. side by side, mind you, and very eighties in the look and layout of the place. like something out of the movies bruce would sometimes watch with his father when he probably should have been in bed.

bruce goes with diana, leaving roy and dick beside them, duffel bag slung over his shoulder and cap pulled over his head. key in hand for the room they've been given, he opens the door, flicks the light on and... stares at the one queen sized bed there. a look around the room, spotting the rest of the furnishing, he steps inside regardless and goes to check the bathroom. definitely not wayne manor-esque.

hands stuffed in his jacker pockets — the drifer jacket — he looks over to diana. )

I can see if they have another room maybe.

( although it doesn't seem like they do. )

[avatarfortruth]

[ Well. That is unexpected. She wonders if Dick and Roy are finding the same restriction in their quarters. She goes further into the room, setting down the small bag she'd brought and sets her hands on her jean-clad hips to study the place. It looks clean, at least, if worn and – not to put too fine a point on it – of its time. ]

These seemed to be the only two vacancies.

[ He knows it as well as she does, but she appreciates his attempt at finding a solution. ]

Perhaps there will be a different room available tomorrow. For now, I think our first priority should be planning, and rest.

[ She slants him a smile, unperturbed. ]

I've slept in much less comfortable quarters before. I'm sure you have, too.

[batsymbol]

( moving over to the television there in the room, he turns the thing on after finding the remote and flips through a few channels before he drops the remote down onto the bed, a lazy glance around the room. )

Maybe food, too.

( even though he's thinking more about her than himself, but.

moving over to one of the chairs there in the room, he drops his duffel bag down to it, fishing through it for the wallet he'd packed. there was a diner across the street he remembers seeing when they'd pulled in. )

[avatarfortruth]

Food would be most welcome.

[ Perhaps they should invite Dick and Roy with them... or perhaps the younger men will want to find their own dinner. She turns to watch the channel Bruce had landed on, crossing her arms over the tank top she wears instead of her armor, then glances over at him. ]

How are you feeling?

[ There's just a hint of unease beneath her voice at that question. The last time they'd gone into the past, they'd all been hit with debilitating fever. And Bruce had been hit worse than any of the others.

He looks fine now. Pale, but he has been since they met after her arrival. This Bruce seems to rarely got out into the sunlight. Still... it's best to check. ]

[batsymbol]

Fine.

( as if he'd ever give any other answer.

taking his cap off his head for a moment, he cards a set of fingers through his hair before he's slipping it back on, adjusting in some. a glance down to the wallet he'd fished out of his duffel bag, he looks through it to see the amount of cash he has on him. )

A little out of sorts, but. I imagine we all are.

( looking over to diana, he pockets the wallet then. )

I can grab something to eat. Bring it back. If you wanted to... rest.

[avatarfortruth]

No. I'll come with you. I've never been good with idleness... and we should stick together.

[ Their group, she means. But, also, them. But, first: she reaches into her bag and pulls out the golden lasso, then threads it through the loops at the waist of her jeans to wear it like a belt.

She never has liked being away from it. ]

There was... across the street, a place that looked like it was still open, I think.

[batsymbol]

( he watches the way she loops the lasso around her waist out of the corner of his eye, feeling around in his jacket pocket for the key to their room. )

Yeah. I saw it, too.

( the diner, he means.

breath on his lips, he tilts his head back some before he nods and makes his way for the door. right. they're going out. to get some food. and then figure out what their next move will be. he'd go and check in on dick and roy, but. given how roy seems to feel about the bruce he knows, he decides to just leave it. plus, the whole roy being orchard and bruce being paul thing.

getting the door, he looks back to her. )

You ready?

bruce — all good fortune

[avatarfortruth]

[ The Diana who arrives back at the motel – very nearly at the stroke of the three-hour mark – is different from the Diana who left, although not in any very obvious way.

Aside from, of course, the gorgeously crafted bow which she wears over her shoulder, the quiver of gleaming arrows now tucked against her back. But these things, new as they are, don't encompass the whole of the difference; for one thing, she was almost late, which is unlike her, and for another, her expression in one of someone wandering deeply within their own thoughts.

But she did make it back, even if it was only with a minute or so to spare, and she comes with at least some information that should be useful in their search. She lands lightly some distance away from the motel, trying to stay inconspicuous (difficult for the princess of the Amazons at the best of times, even though she isn't wearing her costume). The pink headband bobs at the edge of her field of vision as she opens the door to the room they'd shared. ]

Bruce?

[batsymbol]

( a minute or two to spare is still within their agreed amount of time, so. lucky her. at least in that regard.

he and dick had taken it upon themselves to do a bit of investigating while diana had set out to see cupid eros, much to bruce's uncertainty about the supposed god. after all, they aren't anything he has personal experience with outside of myths and legends read alone in libraries or in bed from his parents. to think they actually exist or some form of them does... just something else he's had to wrap his head around since finding himself in this place.

he's there when diana arrives, scribbling things down in a journal, a glance up from where he sits on the chair there, slightly bent over. it's hard to miss the bow and quiver she's sporting on her back, but there's also something else there. something that wasn't there before. something beneath the skin. )

One minute left.

[avatarfortruth]

I took a little extra time on my way back.

[ It isn't an apology, just a note. She'd needed it, the extra time, to try and clear her head. Now, she sets bow and quiver onto the bedspread, then removes a folded piece of parchment from her pocket and offers it to him. ]

But I'm pleased to say I do not return empty-handed. This map shows us where she will be... when the time is right.

[batsymbol]

( blue eyes quietly watching her, a hand lifts to take the paper between two fingers, a slow turn of it towards him. glancing to it, the way bruce's gaze settles on a particular spot on the map; recognizing it. )

And when is the time supposed to be right?

( the annoyance of such a thing not easy to miss there in his voice even as he asks that. )

[avatarfortruth]

Gods don't work on human timetables, Bruce. But we'll know.

[ That, she has absolute faith in. She takes a seat at the edge of the bed and takes off the headband, raking her fingers back through her hair and rubbing gently at her temples. ]

If you wanted to be sure, you could go and stake the location out.

[batsymbol]

We could be there for who knows how long.

( he's not saying no, but. there's just a lot more to all of this now that he and dick have come away finding. suddenly, he's not so sure how much time is needed for any of this.

looking up from the paper, however, he regards her with that same look he'd had the moment she'd stepped into the room. )

What'd he want for those?

( the bow and quiver, he means. )

Been thinking all night - Bruce and Diana

[forceforlight]

Morning dawns late in the first week when there's a knock at Bruce and Diana's door. He'd found a job as a bouncer. All cash in hand and under the table, but it paid pretty well. And left him a lot of time to think.

Which is why he's there, really. With a couple coffees from across the road. Since it's only right to do so since he might be waking them up.

[batsymbol]

As if Bruce ever needs more than a couple hours of sleep.

He's up, in the chair there in the room with his notebook there on his lap, jotting down some things when he hears the knock at the door. Given there's not much in the way of room service here, he figures it's probably Dick, but. Just to be sure, he takes a second to peer through a nearby shadow and double check.

Notebook coming to close, he rises from the chair, the television acting more as soft background noise than anything else and when he's opening the door, it's done so shirtless, but at least he has pants on. Pen held between his lips, he plucks it away, eyeing the coffee some with a slight squint of his eyes.

"Getting up or going to bed?"

They both know what it's like to work the night shift after all.

[avatarfortruth]

Diana emerges from the bathroom in a cloud of sweet-smelling steam, dressed in jeans and a tank top and rubbing at her damp hair with a towel. Her glance flicks to the open door and Dick beyond it, coasting over Bruce with faint exasperation before warming as she smiles at their visitor. On the neatly made bed sits her coiled lasso, gleaming gently next to a similarly glowing bow and quiver of arrows.

"Dick. Good morning. Would you like to come in?"

[forceforlight]

"Just getting in," Dick replies, offering one of the coffees to Bruce. "I worked most of last night, then took a long walk around the city."

He can't really patrol, so the walk is as close as he gets right now.

Diana coming out of the bathroom gets a smile and one of the coffees raised so she can see it past Bruce. "Honestly, could I? I kinda need to bounce some ideas off of people and Roy's in the wind at the moment." Roy has his own stuff going on, as usual.

[batsymbol]

Taking one of those coffees in hand, he waits until Dick's made his way inside after the invite before he closes the door behind him, turning some to catch sight of Diana there fresh out of the shower.

"Might as well," he murmurs, taking the coffee with him to set it down on the table near his notebook. "Not like we're here on vacation." Contrary to what everyone else around them may think.

[avatarfortruth]

"He keeps saying that," Diana tells Dick, smiling her thanks at him as she takes the coffee in one hand and drapes the damp towel over her shoulder with the other. "Even though I think we are all perfectly cognizant that this isn't a vacation."

She gestures for Dick to come in, not that there are too many places to sit; she perches at the foot of the bed, leaving the sole armchair for him to take. "What's on your mind, Dick?"

had to find some higher ground — bruce

[avatarfortruth]

[ They all feel it; the pull. They've all heard the Willow Maiden whispering, telling them that everything will change, that more help is on the way.

And yet the sky tonight is clear, and all is calm.

She sits on a rooftop overlooking the motel, her gaze turned up toward the sky as she searches for Cassiopeia, for the W, her constellation. Her voice is a murmur to herself alone. ]

Mother. I'll be thinking of you, tomorrow. Pray for your daughter. And perhaps, one day, we'll see each other again.

[batsymbol]

( there's no telling what will happen tomorrow. they've done whatever they could here in the past — found as much as they could with what time they'd managed to have for themselves here and yet, bruce still feels as if it's not enough.

it's why he's already suited up in his batman gear sans the cape and the cowl. boots heavy despite the slow steps as he makes his way to her from behind. maybe it's more to let her know he's here — to not sneak up on her within the shadows of the night and risk being thrown off the roof he finds them on. or maybe it's due to his own thoughts slowing everything around him down. either way, he stands there next to her, looking off to the skyline as a breeze gently touches him — gently brushes strands of hair in front of his face. he's quiet. pensive. just there. with her. )

[avatarfortruth]

[ Even in the dark, she gleams, starlight and moonlight kissing her skin, the metal of her tiara and breastplate shining even in the shadow, the lasso a glow of gold at her hip. She looks up at the moon, scudded over with a few lackadaisical clouds, letting its light fall on her face.

Not a hunter's moon. It's the wrong time of year, in this when and where. It isn't full yet, but it's waxing toward a pink moon, likely in the next week. She wonders if she'll still be here to see it.

She doesn't turn to him as she hears his steps on the rooftop behind her, but her shoulders relax, slightly, knowing he's there. The breeze caressing them both, cool and gentle. ]

Am I in your spot?

[batsymbol]

( smile faint, he doesn’t look to her, the skyline where his gaze still lingers. )

You’re good.

( words soft, he looks down then. to his boots and the ground below them. )

Worried?

[avatarfortruth]

Yes.

[ She never shies from the truth, and doesn't now, but her voice is rueful. Not resigned, never that, but the night before a battle always tends to bring out something a little meditative in her. Until the fighting begins. ]

And you?

[batsymbol]

I don’t know. Uncertain, maybe. With how it’s all going to go.

( this is so far beyond his realm of expertise and he has nothing he can really compare it to. he wants to hope for the best but brcue tends to often prepare for the worst above all else. if even mentally. emotionally.

a soft glance over to her, he’s quiet again before he speaks. words still soft. )

You think Superman would have been able to help?