( 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

[batsymbol]

"No. But they're getting themselves involved in something they probably don't even know the extent of potential consequences attached to it all." At least that's how it seems to Bruce.

A glance between Dick and Diana, he goes about opening up his notebook — takes a look through it, goes over his things, letting Diana give Dick the map she'd been given by Cupid Eros after their little chat.

[avatarfortruth]

"Of course."

Getting up, she goes to where she'd stashed the map in the bedside table, next to the Gideon Bible, then offers the parchment to Dick. "This is where we'll find her."

[forceforlight]

"Thank you," he replies, along with a smile because Alfred raised him right.

He opens the parchment up, spreading it out on the coffee table. Just so they can all see it, even though they all know what it says. "So. We know, now, where this is at. Neil Perkins' house, right?" A quick look to each of them before he drops his finger to that point. "So. Why is she going to be there? He's connected, but barely, right? We've kinda been operating on the idea that she might try to stop the Douglases."

Or, at least, that HAD been Dick's thought at one point. "But she's almost definitely operating on other knowledge." A moment, then, "What if she's trying to stop a deal that Sawyer's parents made? Eventual fame and power for them for their son. Sawyer's life in exchange for Starstruck's?"

[batsymbol]

Thumbing his bottom lip, his gaze lingers there on the map in his silence — breaking it away after a moment to let it fall on both Dick and then Diana.

"It might have something to do with the Shining God as well," he murmurs. "She's the one Chaos Gate is here for. The one she wants to exact vengeance on."

[avatarfortruth]

"Do we have any idea who or where the Shining God might be?"

She turns to Dick, thoughtful. "You've been observing them. Would they accept such a deal? If her goal is to save Fantastic... she'd be willing to do anything it took."

[forceforlight]

"I'm pretty sure it definitely has something to do with the Shining God. I'm just not sure what. Or where she is."

He settles back in a crouch, still staring at the paper. "I ran into somebody from our time last night." --Or close enough for this sort of thing.-- "Apparently, he was able to talk to Chaos Gate before she came to this time. She's apparently responsible for the Confluences starting up again and bringing us here. Which isn't that weird, considering she was nominally able to stop them."

Nominally because Diana is here, after all. "There's more to what's going on in Chaos Gate's head than we know. And she's far more powerful than I think anybody had realized. Which is the same problem they ran into with Starstruck. Nobody realized how powerful he was until the day of reckoning." He considers a moment before he stands. "I don't know if they'd take the deal. But they don't seem to be her target. Not unless they happen to be at Neil Perkin's house when she's going to be there. Not impossible, but the meetings only happen at his office. Whatever her plan is, it may not involve them."

[batsymbol]

"No, I don't think they are either." Running a thumb along his bottom lip, lost in thought, he drops his hand away. "She may have figured out where the Shining God will be and it could be there. If she's not lured there somehow."

A glance up, he looks to the both of them. "Tracking down the Shining God might eventually just lead us there. We have a location of where Chaos Gate will be, at least."

[avatarfortruth]

"And a weapon that can reach her."

If necessary. And it may be necessary, although Diana promises herself she will not shoot to kill unless no other way forward reveals itself. "And Starstruck? What of him?"

[forceforlight]

"I'm not sure. I know the story, though." Of course he does. He'd researched the Godfall once he'd learned about it. "On April 2nd, his family is going to be killed by a villain that he had captured previously. And the next day, Starstruck goes absolutely ballistic. Nobody knows how powerful he is until anger and grief force him to let it all go."

And Dick knows how it is because he's been there. Been in that tornado of pain and grief that watching your family die to the bad guys causes. He was lucky that Bruce was there to help steady him. Starstruck didn't have that.

"I'm not sure what to do about that. I know what I want to do, but whether it would be prudent is an entirely different question."