( closed ) twisted steel beneath my knees

[reneger]

Who: bruce wayne batsymbol & jason todd reneger
What: a fun family trip
When: late january into early february
Where: excelsior, the shadow realm
Content Warnings: shadowbugs, joker, head trauma, discussion of child trafficking and sexual assault, comic book violence

Comments

» dirty my hands, steady my feet

[reneger]

( the world goes to shit. or at least - moreso than it usually does. everything's a mess, and jason's exhausted. tired after the bullshit he pulled with bruce, earlier. tired after getting kidnapped and spending a shitton of time looking out for all the kids who'd ended up there along with him. tired after pulling himself together for yet another battle after they'd gotten back to the chaos.

tired still, with bruce pulling a page straight out of his book (well, bruce's book, jason's just borrowing pages) and fucking off because he's being an asshole. jason doesn't have the advantage of being able to teleport himself wherever the hell he wants to anymore, but he uses the teleporters the guilds have opened up between arcadia and everywhere else to assist in their aid efforts. pulls his bike straight on through to washington, and heads right on through bruce's chosen city.

jason's not being coy about it; there's a red hood pulled up over his head, red lacing his arms, the red half-mask on under the hood, and he's intentionally gaining the attention of nearby ruffians. his efforts don't go unnoticed: jason's in an alleyway, bike turned away from the dead-end to instead face the small gathering of gangsters who had been out breaking into unguarded cars before jason'd pissed off a few cops into chasing him straight through to their area. they'd all scattered; these guys just happened to scatter in the same direction jason had - and 'cornered' him. a few are wielding tire irons, a couple others some nice, shiny knives.

and jason's sitting on his bike still, head tipped back to look up towards the rooftops of the two office buildings he's between. )

You gonna lend a hand, B, or are you just gonna watch?

( batman's stealthy, but jason knows his tells well enough. )

» crawl through the ashes

[reneger]

( bruce doesn't answer, and jason doesn't wait around for long before deciding something was off. he rang in the crew with no luck, opted to instead call kyle over to bring him gear so he could jump in after bruce.

didn't know where the hell he was aiming, aside from nowhere here. not having a destination while going in--feels wrong. like jumping into the void - which doesn't feel all too-far off, when he realizes he's falling. the bright green rope wrapped around his waist snaps, breaks off and dissipates entirely as jason tumbles down through the air. it's dark, too dark, and he realizes a few moments too late he probably should have left his mask on before lurching through the hole in the ground. luckily, there's - nothing, no one, just him endlessly tumbling down up until he isn't anymore.

he lands in something black and tarry, cursing as his hand flails for the edge of whatever the hell this bullshit puddle is. the backpack's heavy, but not so much he's tempted to drop it to make squirming his way out of this mess easier. especially not given he's landed - somewhere, even if it's dark as hell and he can't see where that somewhere is yet. )

» cut through the static

[reneger]

( they've been here a couple weeks.

and it's been at least a couple days since jason's opened his mouth to say a word. he hasn't needed to: jason knows how to read bruce well enough without words, and filling space with snark and banter only gets them so far. eventually, jason runs out of snarky bullshit to throw bruce's way while they wander, looking for an exit. he runs out of stupid shit to throw at him, runs out of things to bitch over. it's just them and getting out left behind.

luckily, the trauma to his head wasn't too bad. his balance came back after a few days, and the ringing in his ear subsided. and here he is: walking one step behind bruce with his hood drawn up over his head as they make their way through the nothing that fills this place when they're not being attacked by whatever got left behind here. it's quiet, too quiet. and when it's quiet, all jason's left with is the bullshit that's constantly running through his head, every what if and i should have.

he opens his mouth, but closes it before taking another step. pauses in place for a moment, before he reaches for words, )

I freaked out on Rayner, a few nights before we ended up in this shithole. I had a nightmare and he asked me about it. Probably 'cause I threw a knife before I even knew what the hell was out there.