riverview | text | un: d.wayne

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text | un: d.wayne

Has anyone seen a big creature with red fur, yellow eyes, a thick tail, and large dragon-like wings?

It would make loud, shrieking noises, respond to sonic waves and vibrations, and it would possibly hide in mountainous areas or caves.

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[ Oh. Jon takes some time before he switches to audio. He doubts he can fully discuss this via text. It would lack . . . something. An element of what Jon imagines Damian is looking for. ]

Uhmm, well she's warm. Sometimes we just sit in front of the TV to watch dad on the news. So she's always got her arms around me.

[ A beat before he huffs. ]

Of course, that means she's ready for a tickle attack. But we don't do anything special together. I help her with cleaning the kitchen, or putting away her books. My parents are always kind of touchy-feely about stuff. Y'know, patting my shoulder or my head and mushy things.

[ It's the Superfam way. ]

But when she started work again, it was weird because she was always there and then one day, she just wasn't. It took me a while to get used to it.

( Damian wasn't expecting an answer anything like his own childhood. Still, it was strange to hear the explanation. Almost bordering on uncomfortable.

He listened without a sound, letting his thoughts wonder for a moment. He remembered time with his own mother, the different sides of her he'd seen over the years. She'd been affectionate in her own ways, of course. There were a handful of times when she held him as she told him a story, often something dark and promise of the legacy and world he would inherit. And she touched him often - his hair or his cheek - but now that he was older, he doubted it was out of affection every time.

Damian forced those thoughts aside. Instead of making a comparison or sharing his own experiences with his mother, he posed a different question. )

Why would she stop working?

We were in hiding, remember? And there were two of my dad and mom. That kind of made it hard for her to do anything.

[ From White to Smith to . . . no, that was it. They moved from place to place constantly. After all, they were strangers in this world. They didn't belong here. ]

Tt... I suppose.

( He won't say how he doesn't agree with that. His own mother was sneaky, able to move about the world unseen until she wanted people to know she was there.

It was hard to wrap his head around how the idea of anything different. )

[ Jon knows a lot of it had to do with Jon himself. His powers, his identity, how he needed to be hidden. A loose Kryptonian is not something to scoff at. ]

What was your mom like?

( The other end of his feed went quiet for a long moment, and if Jon were there in person, he would have seen the way Damian's jaw tightened and his expression darkened, became distant.

His mother was a sensitive subject, especially with how recent his encounter with his grandfather had been. But Jon didn't know any of that. As far as he knew, Jon didn't know anything about the situation with his parents, the circumstances of his birth, and the empire, the world his mother intended for him to inherit.

To Damian, she was a woman he had little respect for anymore. She'd abandoned him at the first sign of him acting on his own free will, deprived him of so much of the world that left him as someone to be mocked now, and at the end of it all, it was at the hands of her creation that he'd died, even if it hadn't been on her orders or her intention.

Damian sighed quietly before he finally responded. )

My mother is the daughter of Ra's al Ghul, the leader of the League of Assassins. She's intelligent, deceptive, and dangerous. The only thing that matters to her is getting what she wants, no matter who suffers in the process.

[ Okay, definitely a sore topic. What was Jon supposed to do now? This is the first time they've really talked like this. He shifts on his feet, uncomfortable. Jon is out of his depth and he's never felt it so keenly. ]

I'm sorry you suffered.

Don't apologize.

( It was a sore topic, sure, but Damian didn't feel there was any reason for Jon to apologize for something that way far out of his control. )

I have my father, Pennyworth, and Richard now. I don't need her.