metalogs | ( open-ish ) dedicate and sacrifice my everything

Let’s hope it doesn’t cost much.

( which… that might possibly be said with a bit of a raised brow around his mug before he takes another sip. )

We’ll come to something more concrete with Dick and Harper.

[ Setting down her fork, she reaches across the table to briefly curl her fingers around his wrist, warm and gentle. ]

You worry about enough already. Let me worry about this. Whatever the cost is, I will manage it.

[ After a second, she lets go and retrieves her fork to turn back to her food. ]

Will we? What are their plans?

( her fingers wrap gingerly around his one wrist there and, like always, he falls quiet at the touch. allows for a brief moment of his blue eyes lifting their gaze to meet hers before she’s pulling her hand away, and he’s looking back down to his plate. )

I’m sure we’ll find out.

( because that’s the whole point of this teamwork thing here. for now though, he intends to finish the rest of his meal before they head back to the motel. )

I'm sure we will.

[ For the moment, she applies herself to her meal, until she's finished the omelette and is sipping at the remainder of her tea, content to wait until he's finished with his own meal before she asks: ]

Ready to go back?

( with his own meal more or less finished, he nods as he leans to the side some, pulling out his wallet to wade through the bills in there for the meal. he knows he has enough. he’d made sure to bring what could be considered enough to this time. so, signaling for the check, he looks back over to diana. )

Three hours tomorrow. Any longer and I’m coming to find you.

I understand.

[ She isn't surprised. It's typical of Bruce to chose to rush into a situation even knowing that if it were dire enough to slow her down, it would be extremely dangerous for him. ]

I won't be late.

Perhaps he'll have a phone I can use to call and let you know I'm on my way back.

( brow raised, there’s a huff on his lips and before the waitress comes over with their check, he manages to get out a low: )

Funny.

( with the check in hand, bills are laid out as well as some extra for a tip and he slides himself out of the booth, wallet tucked in his back pocket while hands stuff themselves into his jacket pockets. he waits long enough for diana to slip out of the booth as well before he starts for the exit of the diner, knowing he has a lot to think about throughout the night now. )

I have my moments.

[ She follows him through the diner, making sure to wave and smile and thank the waitstaff as they go, until they're back outside in what is now true night. She tips her face up to the sky, looking for familiar constellations, as they walk. ]

Have you ever been to an area like this before? Is there anything like it near Gotham?

[ The motel. The diner. The quiet, all around them. ]

( he glances to her out of the corner of his eye as they go, the walk to the motel not at all far given the diner is across the street. still, the short distance somehow has a way of feeling much longer than it actually is. at least it does to bruce. )

There’s pockets here and there. I mostly just pass through them.

( on his bike when he’s playing the drifter role throughout gotham. )

[ There's certainly nothing quite like it anywhere on Themyscira. Hadn't been before; certainly isn't now. She looks, but she can't see her constellation – Cassiopeia, the W – in the sky overhead before they reach the motel once more and the lights outside the rooms send the stars above into muted darkness.

The room looks precisely as they left it. She begins unwinding the lasso from around her waist, considering their options. ]

Are you tired?

( unable to help himself, he throws a curious glance around the room — checking for signs, things. letting tips of his fingers run across the top of the television set as he looks around. things he can't quite seem to shake in doing and, more than likely, never will.

when he looks over to her, it's with a slight squint, throwing his glance around the room again. )

Coffee will probably keep me up a bit yet. But if you want to rest, I can find something else to do.

I'm fine for the moment.

[ She sets the lasso on the bedspread, then props a pillow against the headboard to take a seat against it, one leg curled beneath her as she watches him prowl around. When was the last time he hadn't gone on patrol once the sun set? ]

We could take a look around the area tonight. Cover some ground.

[ They don't know yet what they're looking for, but sometimes what's needed is the action more than the result. ]

( realizing what he's doing, he slowly slips his hands into his jacket pockets and stands there near the television, staring down to the ground. quiet. mulling over something like always. )

Do you think I was wrong?

( a pause, words soft. )

To have Kyle stay behind.

No.

[ This answer requires very little deliberation. ]

You don't know what he went through, when we – the Justice League – went into the past. [ There's a beat, as she reconsiders, allows: ] What we all went through. Both for him, and for the others left behind, I think you were correct in your assessment.

Why do you ask?

I don't know.

( a glance off across the room, again, he falls quiet. )

Just the thought of this turning into a one-way trip... I just hope we brought the right people with us for this.

I don't know that we had all that much choice in the matter.

[ Surprised as she was to hear Dick had opted to go against Bruce's wishes, they all made their choices freely. ]

This isn't the League. We're all individuals, here, without any organization. When everyone makes their own decisions, instead of making them together...

[ She shrugs. They aren't a team, exactly, just a group of people with similar goals... or so she hopes. ]

In the end, we work with what we have. So, what do we have?

Edited 2023-09-11 19:02 (UTC)

An amazon, an archer, an acrobat, and vengeance. Sounds like the beginning of a joke.

( brushing the tips of his fingers along a brow, he goes and pops his cap off, dropping it down on the chair there as he sighs, seeming a little restless. )

You forgot something.

[ His hair rumples as he removes the cap, so much longer and shaggier than she's accustomed to. There's very little of Bruce Wayne, billionaire playboy, in this raw-edged version of her friend. ]

We have a detective. Two detectives, really. Which is excellent news for us, as we have few enough clues to follow thus far.

We have flight, through me. And... well, I suppose Roy might have some trick arrows.

[ One never really knows what the archers might have available. ]

( the look he gives diana is not one that could be considered hopeful, bruce looking off to the duffel bag he'd dropped down to the chair with the cap resting atop. this is out of his area of expertise — nothing he's ever come close to having done before and it's still taking him some wrapping his head around being in the 80s like this, but. they still have a job to do — still have people back in the present-future depending on them, and so he'll do whatever he needs to. just push everything else down like always. )

When are you leaving to search out Cupid?

( dryly said, bruce damn well knowing it's eros. )

Ah, yes. One more thing we have. A diplomat.

[ A moment, before she adds, slightly pert: ] Meaning me, of course.

[ Certainly not him. Not as he is now, anyway, poking at her with that pointed mistake. She keeps her own tone peaceful. ]

First thing in the morning.

Are you annoyed with me?

I'm always annoyed.

( and stressed and in pain...

words he mostly mutters as he moves across the room, boots scuffing as he goes. feeling in his jacket pockets for his wallet, he brings a hand up to card fingers through his hair, stopping there at the door as he takes a second to just sigh to himself. )

I'm going to get a couple things from the pharmacy. I'll be right back.

Always. That is a shame.

[ And untrue, as it happens, but she knows there are times when it feels truer than anything else. ]

I'll be here.

( he heads out to the nearby pharmacy, making sure the door is closed behind him as he goes. the breeze on his face and in his hair... he just needs a few moments to himself, not used to being around others so much like this. never mind the whole being in the 80s thing that still has him looking around in disbelief at times. things like this shouldn't be possible. then again, the fact that he has shadow powers all of a sudden is also a thing that shouldn't be possible and yet, here he is. both in the 80s and with shadow powers, along with an amazon teammate and friend from another universe, an adopted son he's yet to meet back in his gotham while being close enough in age to him who is also from another universe, and an archer who, in the past few weeks prior to this time travel trip, he'd thought was something of a friend to him here, only to discover his real identity complicates things on the other's end.

cut off from the others in the present-future and everything still weighing on his mind back in his own gotham, to say he's annoyed isn't entirely a lie. it's just more that he's stressed and doesn't know what the hell he's doing right now.

he focuses on the things needed there in the pharmacy. some medical supplies, a couple snacks, a pair of sunglasses that catch his eye even at this time of night. putting his things up on the counter, he's pulling a few bills out of his wallet when something catches his eye there at the register and he pulls one off the carousel, adding it to his purchases. paying for his things and taking the bag with him, he heads back to the motel, steps slow but steady, slipping the new sunglasses on his face despite it being dark out.

when he gets back to the rooms, he slows some outside dick and roy's door, trying to see if they're in there before he goes about opening up the door to his room with diana, bag in hand, only thinking at the last minute that maybe he should be more quiet in case she had decided to sleep. )

[ Diana isn't asleep.

She's sitting on the bed, cross-legged, an elbow on her knee and her chin in her palm as she watches the tail end of a game show, waiting for the eight pm local news. It seems clear to her that the show is rigged, with its flashing lights and high pressure situations, but the people involved seem happy to be there, and the audiences in the studio seem excited to watch them try their luck.

The sound effects, though, had been too annoying. She'd turned the sound all the way off, making it easy to hear Bruce's steps in the hall, the key in the door before he opens it.

Diana straightens and looks over at him, at the small bag he's carrying. ]

Did you find everything you were looking for?

[ A difficult question at the best of times. ]

Yeah.

( the word, soft. the door, gently shut behind him.

a glance to the television that seems to be on now, he raises a brow at what diana happens to be watching as he passes by, heading for the table there in the room near the chair that he's unofficially claimed as his, what with his cap and bag on there.

setting the purchases down on that table, he fishes through to grab a couple granola and fruit bars at the bottom of the bag, tossing one over to diana, assuming she'll catch it. taking one for himself, he moves over to the bed there and, without much in the way of a second thought, he drops himself down to sit there on the edge of it, near diana. )

Here.

( feeling around in his pocket, he pulls out the hot pink headband with the large bow on it and holds it out for her to take. )

Might help to blend in.

Edited 2023-09-11 20:13 (UTC)

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