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

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)

[ The granola bar is caught and set aside; she'll bring it with her in the morning. But the next item has her chuckling in faint disbelief. ]

Adeptly deduced.

[ She reaches for the headband, glancing askance at the color – it would be almost impossible to achieve on Themyscira – before she slips it over her head. Spending a few moments adjusting her hair, pulling glossy black waves through the material, she pushes the headband up, then looks to him with a brilliant smile. The bow, tugged jauntily to one side, is about half as big as her whole face. ]

Well. How does it look?

( watching the show diana had been, fingers toying with the granola bar he holds between his legs there, it's only when she goes and asks him that, that he tears his gaze away from the television and over to her there beside him.

the way she smiles... it's so bright compared to his own lack of bright and it has him staring for a long moment before he looks away — looks down to the granola bar between his fingers, biting back the telltale signs of a smile threatening to pull at the corners of his lips. )

Very... eighties.

( he says finally, looking up and over to her, few strands of hair falling in front of his face as he does. )

[ Her smile widens at his observation – and at the twitch she can see there at the corner of his mouth. ]

And very pink.

[ Not a color she wears often, but it is attractive, in its way, boldly set as it is against the blue-black of her hair. Her lips quirk again as he looks up, and she reaches to push a few of those strands of hair out of his face. ]

It seems you could use one, as well. How can you see like that?

[ Half-scolding, half-teasing. Alfred would have a conniption. She's not sure what the Bruce she knows uses to keep his hair out of his face, but he seems to have found some method that works. ]

( eyes fall shut the moment gentle fingers brush those strands of hair out of his face. a fleeting moment of what could be considered an attempt to relax. blue eyes flutter open a second or two later, however, and he looks to her with a sort of softness he doesn't often let himself feel.

glancing away, a quiet huff leaves him. )

Do you mean the hair or the sunglasses?

( because, honestly. she could mean either. )

The hair more than the glasses, but both, to some extent.

[ Are tinted glasses really necessary at night... inside.

She sets her hand back on the coverlet of the bed and leans on it, apparently content to keep the headband in her hair for the moment. This is... nice. It's rare to have quiet moments like this at home; rarer still to spend any of them with Bruce. ]

I'll have to pick up some matching legwarmers.

( another huff, but this time it's mixed with the faint sound of laughter there, just barely on his lips. reaching a hand up, he pulls the sunglasses off his face and looks over to diana, flicking some of his hair out of his face as he does. )

Maybe in bright yellow or neon green.

( those were considered colours of the 80s after all and often were found worn together. )

Or orange.

[ The large pink bow at the corner of her field of vision is a distraction, but not one she can't ignore. For a moment, she feels a pang of wistfulness for the Canary, who would no doubt leap at the opportunity to wear the most garish of styles possible.

Even so, she smiles over at Bruce, who seems willing to go along with the little joke. ]

It's nice to see your eyes.

[ He likes his walls, his barriers, just like the Bruce she knows. Even taking off his sunglasses feels like a small opening in the doors he keeps closed. ]

( her words leave him quiet for a long moment, the crinkling of the granola bar held there between his fingers filling that silence between them. swallowing some, he looks down to it — slowly turns it over a couple times. )

Nothing much to see in them.

( nothing anyone would really want to see, he thinks. )

Edited 2023-09-11 21:05 (UTC)

Rude as it may be to contradict someone, on this, I think, we disagree.

[ She reaches up to pull the headband free from her hair, shaking out the long dark waves. The pink band she sets on the loops of the lasso, glowing gently on the coverlet. ]

You haven't asked about the League's trip into the past before. Not curious? Or simply trying to stay focused?

Wasn't sure if I should.

( he softly answers, looking back over to diana. )

[ She meets his glance with her own clear and steady – and thoughtful. ]

It feels a little unfair, sometimes, that I know so much about you and you know so little of me. If you'd like to know, I'll tell you.

But I understand the desire not to know, as well. I fear there are no easy answers here.

If you want to tell it to me as a bedtime story, I won't say no.

( it's said with a faint smile there on his lips, despite the heaviness he feels more than likely comes with such a story, but. it's just typical bruce at the end of the day. sitting there on the edge of the bed. holding that granola bar. gently letting himself look over to her then. )

[ Her smile is wry at that, but it's good to hear him tease, to see him looking a little lighter. He's been carrying a heavy burden since even before coming to this place, with all its myriad complications.

Diana shifts on the bed, moving over to the other side, and pats the side she'd left, inviting. He may as well make himself comfortable. ]

Do you know anything about the city of Atlantis? Or has Kyle told you of a man named Arthur, called Aquaman?

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