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( getting in to central's where it gets complicated, but jason has resources. friends who can open portals, knowledge where junior's gang is stationed, and jason knows damn well he can take most of them out without breaking a sweat. he has, before. so it doesn't take him too much effort to sneak in, and even less to pull said bike up right in front of dick. it's quiet, much more quiet than it should be--jason's spent a good while modding it, though most of those mods aren't obvious. he can show off to dick later.

for now, he's dropping a booted foot down to balance the bike and reaching back behind his thigh for the hidden compartment that he opens up to pull out a green helmet. there's a mic and speaker built into the inside of it, visible from how jason holds it out bottom up. )

Hop on, we're going on a roadtrip.

[ Oh Dick is definitely jealous. First Bruce's Batmobile, now Jason's bike? How could he not be? So he doesn't hesitate to grab the helmet and hop onto the bike. ]

Ready when you are.

[ He could ask where they're going, but what would be the fun in that? ]

( they're going to need a mini van at this rate, with how many of them keep showing up. a batvan. batbus? they can figure that out later. in the meantime, jason's waiting for dick to settle before he's getting his foot back on the bike and--starting them down the road.

when he talks, it goes straight into the commlink built into dick's helmet--voice loud and clear. jason's heading out of central city, weaving between cars when they're going to slow for him. he's got places to be, thanks, and the rules of the road don't apply to him. )

We're heading to NYC. I'm guessing you've got everything on you that you'd need need.

[ Dick laughs, reveling in being moving again. He doesn't hate Central and he's made friends here, but sitting still never suited him, especially when he doesn't quite have a home here. As they zip through traffic, he could imagine it was Gotham if he closed his eyes. ]

Pretty much. I take it I could come back for my gear, though, right?

You can, but I am getting you new shit.

( benefits of being pals with tony stark: access to nanotech shit that jason doesn't understand but tony does. jason turns around another corner and takes the bike's wheels over the curb, into an alleyway. his hand shifts on the bike's gear, and in front of them, a portal opens up just before the brick wall, leading out to a cement garage space.

makes it easier to get from city to city, too, when he can call on a fucking wizard. they've got teleporter shit in the tower, but bothering people to help him with stuff is always more fun. he slows the bike down as they approach an elevator, but doesn't get off of it.

because his bike is his baby and it goes up to his floor with him, thanks. )

Drove there, figured we'd take a shortcut back.

Edited 2023-07-11 23:40 (UTC)

[ Dick is starting to think that people like doing this to mess with him. First, Bruce speeding into a blanket of darkness in the Batmobile, now Jason speeding them right toward a brick wall. He figures there's some sort of trick to it-- a hidden passageway or something-- but he wasn't expecting the sizzle of magic and a portal. He blinks and glances back to see the portal close on Central City. ]

What was the shortcut?

I have a sorcerer friend. Stephen Strange. ( that jason's neural implant very conveniently can connect to. ) I'll introduce you later.

( in the meantime, jason's tugging off his helmet. his face is a little bruised, but it's not terrible. a split lip, a black eye, nose swollen. superficial wounds. the helmet gets put on a handlebar, and jason tips his head back towards the camera in the corner of the elevator. )

Hey, Kas.

( "welcome back, jason. which floor would you like to go to?" returns a very unenthusastic masculine voice. jason makes sure to return the sentiment by flipping off the camera, before he's moving to climb off the bike. )

Mine. This's Dick Grayson, he'll be staying on the seventy-first floor. Give him access to the restricted floors, pretty please.

( a nod of his chin towards the hand scanner on the wall of the elevator, before jason's shoving his own against it. kasper gives an "affirmative. but not because you told me to." )

He'll need yours, too. There's bioscanners, voice recognition, an' this hand geometry scanner. Stark goes a little overboard. First two it'll run automatically, last one needs this. ( the hand thing, which he's taking his hand off of. )

[ Dick pulls off his own helmet and glances over at Jason. The bruises look nasty but, as far as injuries go in their line of work, they're not that bad. He sets his helmet back into the compartment where it came from and listens to the banter between Kas and Jason with a raised eyebrow. ]

Okay.

[ He presses his hand against the scanner. ]

Given what I've seen since I got here, I'm not sure this is "overboard."

[ Look, a Bat can appreciate an abundance of highly-engineered over-caution. ]

Fine, it's not overboard, but I gotta find some way to insult Stark.

( it's the point of the thing. the elevator raises, and stops at the 71st floor--it opens up to a wide open, massive space with minimal furniture. there's a couch, a tv, a floor mat for throwing down on pushed against a far wall next to a punching bag. there's a small kitchen with a counter off of it that has barstools under it, and to the side there are six full apartments along with a couple half-rooms.

it's too much space. but jason's pulling his bike out of the elevator out towards the couch. )

Sixty-ninth floor has a gym and pool, sixty-eighth has an arcade and theatre, among other bullshit. Sixty-seventh is a full kitchen and a huge storage space. Lower floors have businesses, residential apartments, and other shit. There's a few floors in there that you don't have access to, but feel free to try. You can explore all you want, Kas'll help.

[ Dick looks around in mild surprise. Is this a universe where real estate in NYC is dirt cheap? He takes in as much as he can in one look-- minimal furniture (possibly not really lived-in? he's sure Jason's more valuable stuff is in a more secure location, even if this floor is restricted.) He files away the information about the other floors. It's something for him to explore later. More importantly: ]

This is all yours?

Damian's around here somewhere too, but yeah.

( damian's around when damian feels like being around. jason's been giving him his space, there's a shitton of crap going on, and damian's got his own problems to deal with. )

The guy upstairs, Tony Stark--we have history. He bought the tower, he pays the building-related bills. Likes to think he's keeping an eye on me, an' handing over an entire floor's the way to do it.

( they're keeping an eye on each other. jason has access to most of tony's shit, tony knows when jason comes back to the tower to get a catnap in. mutual stalking clearly makes it alright. )

I trust him, and he's not gonna give you shit. He knows you're moving in. Damian won't either--you might not see him for a while. He's working some shit out, comes and goes quietly. You'll know him when you do see him; looks just like a younger B. Never tell him that. His shit with Bruce's complicated.

[ Dick is keeping a mental list of every question he has as Jason gives him the run-down.

But then he mentions Damian looking like Bruce and Dick furrows his brow in confusion. ]

They're related?

[ Dick has a feeling he knows how they're related. But Bruce taking in more kids and having more Robins is difficult for him to comprehend. Bruce having a biological child? That's even more of a stretch. ]

( right. there's that mess. )

I'm not the best person to get into it, 'cause I wasn't around much when it all went down and I wasn't involved at all, but, ( shoulders raise in an loose shrug, and jason parks the bike just a little to the right of the elevator. kicks out the stand, so he can leave it alone and walk himself towards the couch. ) Damian's B's and Talia's kid. B didn't know about him until he was ten, 'cause Talia was raising him off in secret to be the perfect heir or some stupid shit like that. She dropped him off on his doorstep, fucked off, and Damian was a terror for a while. It was Dick who--taught him to calm down a little. You know how shit B is at actual parenting.

[ Dick sinks into the couch, staring at Jason with wide eyes.

Talia and Bruce having a thing for each other isn't a secret. It's well-known (and hated) by both Dick and Alfred. But it escalating into having a kid? Is mind-boggling. But Talia hiding him from Bruce isn't entirely shocking-- she's loyal to her father over everyone else, even Bruce. If he wanted Talia to keep the secret, she would. If he wanted a good little heir, she'd raise one.

That poor kid. ]

I never liked her, but I think I hate her now.

[ Wait. ]

If he knows older not-me, is he going to be freaked out by me?

( dick sits, and jason sits down on the opposite side. angles hips so he's semi-facing him, albeit not fully. the statement isn't--surprising. what talia did to damian is horrible, and they all know it. even damian. )

No. I told him you were moving in, he'll know you're around. ( there's that. and there's also-- ) He's not the Damian from my side of the multiverse either, but we spent over a year together somewhere else. Three different Dick Graysons showed up during that time. So this's an old hat to him.

[ He rubs his face and sits up a little straighter. ]

Yeah, but me being fourteen changes a lot. Everyone's a little freaked, so wouldn't he be?

[ Dick is still processing the part where older not-him played a big role in Damian's life. So many things happened in other futures and other worlds with other hims that he's constantly caught off guard, constantly learning something new. ]

It doesn't matter that much.

( they're all used to dick grayson being the oldest. the one to pull them together when they need it, who keeps his head together when tim is looking batshit (but is right), jason is being murderous, and he's been handed a tiny little assassin with a horribly large ego.

but he's not putting it on this dick grayson, and nobody else should be. jason remembers what it was like to be robin, to be constantly compared to dick and how great he was. is. he's not putting that on a fourteen year old, even if that fourteen year old is dick himself. )

There's gonna be an adjustment period for everyone, but--you're not the Dick Grayson any of us grew up with. An' no one expects you to be, not even him. You're one of ours regardless, which's all that matters.

[ Dick raises an eyebrow at Jason when he says it 'doesn't matter much.' He's pretty sure it does. A lot. But he's not really sure how to articulate how it matters, how he feels about it, whether he's happy or anxious or upset. He can't pinpoint why he's getting this sense of deja vu or why old memories are bothering him again.

So he just nods. He tries for a teasing smile, but it comes off completely fake. ]

Any other major news to drop while I'm sitting down?

You want me to dump everything on you now, or do you want time to process the obvious shit first and then get into the rest of it?

( better to ask than assume. and a lot of the other shit is just--background details that he knows will eventually come up. )

You can ask me whatever, too.

[ He takes a second to think. ]

What do you think I need to know to get through the whole... adjustment period with everyone?

Edited 2023-07-16 03:00 (UTC)

I think you've got a lot of the basics.

( dick having numerous younger siblings, damian's situation, he's--met tim by now. which is the important bit. ah, but. )

I died when I was fifteen and got shoved in a Lazarus Pit. Might come up.

( because jason both tends to be very volatile and doesn't shut up about it. )

Same as the younger me.

[ Dick just stares uncomprehendingly, like he's waiting for the punchline he knows isn't coming.

Death isn't unfamiliar to him. He's been to crime scenes, he's come across people he was too late to save, he'd gone to Kent Nelson's funeral only months ago. That ill-fated training session turned out-of-control psychic trip... his team had been connected telepathically and he felt them die one by one as he led them to their deaths.

(And glassy blue eyes the same shade as Jason's casting their empty gaze to the ceiling of a circus tent.)

He can't imagine Bruce using the Lazarus Pit. But he also can't imagine what it would do to Bruce to lose a child. It might break him. ]

Bruce used the Pit?

( bruce did get desperate, once. but it wasn't for jason. it was for damian. he pulled up jason's worst memories, tried to get him to dig into them to see if he could find a sliver of something that could be useful for bruce to try and pull damian back to life, too. it's not a memory jason likes. it's not something he likes remembering.

neither is his death, so. he sucks in a breath, lets it sit there for a moment. when he opens his mouth again, his voice is calm and steady. quiet, but steady. )

Bruce didn't use the Pit. Talia did.

[ On one hand, it makes more sense that it would be someone other than Bruce. On the other, Talia is someone he wouldn't expect to do this. Unless it was some sort of manipulation? 'I brought back your son, so now you owe me'?

Dick can tell that Jason doesn't want to talk about it really. Does it matter if he knows why? (It's going to bother him, he can already tell, but what's another unanswered question at this point?)

Instead, he sits up a little straighter and tries to seem a little less upset. ]

I still think she's a terrible person.

Yeah, she didn't do it out of the goodness of her heart.

( dick grayson in all iterations is a nosy little brat, and him being an actual little brat likely does nothing to change that. and jason's--gone through this talk so many times lately, he may as well add another one to his list. )

Our stories differ, between me and Junior. I don't have all the details behind his. But I came back before the pit. ( skipping over the very traumatic memories of digging his way out of his own grave while also suffering through over forty fractures, flash burns, a collapsed lung, and all the other bullshit that was fucked with him after the joker and the explosion. those are unnecessary. ) I just didn't come back all the way. My body was alive, but my head was empty. Talia found me, tried to pull me back out, gave up, then threw me in the Pit. Pretty sure she thought she'd get some brownie points for trying to fix the Robin he'd lost.

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