[ He has attachments. His dog and his new protege, both of whom mean a great deal to him. But he doesn't have the emotional bandwidth to start forming new ones. Not when the only thing these people have in common with his own versions are their names and their faces. There is no shared history and Bruce wasn't about to talk about what happened with veritable strangers. He barely talked about it with Terry. ]
( damian acknowledges that the younger batman may need more support than this aged one. he's new, still adjusting to the mantle, and as much as damian insists bruce needs someone - bruce has been supporting damian just as much. damian would say he can't, his father is back home, but he understands that's not what he means. there is a bruce wayne here who damian has stuck beside since the beginning, who he intends to return to later, because batman needs robin just as much as robin needs batman.
but that also brings him back to the batman in front of him. )
He wouldn't have recognized me if I hadn't told him who I was. He's yet to meet Mother. Yet you were able to discern my identity in mere minutes.
[ Grateful now that the conversation is moving away from Dick Grayson. Though Talia's not any easier to discuss. What happened to her was. Unfortunate and maybe if he hadn't shut himself off from the rest of the world, he could have done something about it. Stopped Ra's before it was too late.
There's no delicate way to put this and Bruce imagines Damian will not accept a nothing answer. If his persistence about Dick was any indication. ]
She's gone. Ra's took over her body when his deteriorated.
ra's had tried to do the same with damian's body just after he'd met his father. his body had been horrendously injured, leaving him in a position where he felt the need to jump ship into a new one - and that had been the purpose of damian's existence, hadn't it? a heir to the league, to ensure the al ghul lineage continued. and given how ra's has often doubted his and talia's capability to continue his work - well. without damian there to take over, his mother would be first choice. )
If you hadn't shut everyone out, it wouldn't have been her. It would have been me, and you would've saved me.
( talia was not a good parent, but damian would argue she didn't deserve being erased. it's almost, almost as upsetting as grayson being - absent. )
[ Funny thing was, Talia wasn't the end goal. Bruce was. So he doesn't mention how he was manipulated into taking a plunge in the Lazarus Pit. How, for a brief fleeting moment, he'd been desperate enough for his youth back that he'd trusted Ra's-as-Talia more than he usually did. ]
I should have stopped him before it got that far.
[ But his heart and his pride stopped him. Thank goodness he had Terry. ]
( it's easy to repeat the obvious. bruce should have been there to save her. he shouldn't have let ra's destroy his daughter, damian's mother, to complete his quest. )
Grandfather's concern with legacy will ultimately be his downfall.
[ It's Ra's so of course there's always a possibility he survived. But that explosion had been pretty decisive. And so had Ra's insistent he remain with his equipment. ]
No body means you cannot confirm he's gone. Either he killed mother and died along with her, or he survived with her. Grandfather needs a suitable host, and he needs to be alive to get one.
( he's hoping that, regardless of whose world it is, that talia managed to survive regardless of ra's presence in her body. that she managed to wrangle control out from under him in time to survive, because damian's mother would not be erased so easily. because she deserves better. )
She loved you, and you couldn't even manage to save her.
[ There's a bitter feeling in Bruce's gut. He would have saved Talia if he could have. If he'd know what Ra's was planning. He would have been Batman one more time for her. ]
No, of course you don't. I'm just the illegitimate child another you had with a different Talia al Ghul. There's nothing you have to justify to me. None of your decisions, your failings, everything you've clearly failed at accomplishing. Everyone you've lost. Everyone who you have watched die, because something in you broke, and you've simply chosen not to face it.
( if the flat tone doesn't give away how little damian believes any of that, the blank look on his face will.
he's trying to get a rise out of him. trying to find batman under the layers bruce has used to hide himself. )
[ An accusation he's heard before. Something happened to you, didn't it? And it wasn't just that you got old. The problem was, there wasn't a single moment in his career that was the something that broke. It was all of it - losing people again and being unable to stop it. The final straw, the one that made it all too much to bear was the gun.
Damian wants a rise out him? He very nearly gets it, because Bruce turns to look at the boy, to stalk closer to close the gap between them. Bruce told the younger one he wouldn't be so hard on them. But he was never very good at keeping promises. ]
You're right. You are the child of another Bruce Wayne. Not me. I am not your father and you do not know anything. Now go pester someone else.
[ A judgement this spoiled, undisciplined, entitled little shit doesn't have the right to make. Alfred's approval isn't his to give or take; Bruce isn't even going to acknowledge that. He glares. ]
( but his expression. . . shifts. for a moment, he looks almost sad before damian manages to get himself under control once again and shifts the small, sad frown into an outright scowl again.
and turns around on his heels, to head in the opposite direction of bruce. )
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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Go back to your father, Damian.
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( damian acknowledges that the younger batman may need more support than this aged one. he's new, still adjusting to the mantle, and as much as damian insists bruce needs someone - bruce has been supporting damian just as much. damian would say he can't, his father is back home, but he understands that's not what he means. there is a bruce wayne here who damian has stuck beside since the beginning, who he intends to return to later, because batman needs robin just as much as robin needs batman.
but that also brings him back to the batman in front of him. )
He wouldn't have recognized me if I hadn't told him who I was. He's yet to meet Mother. Yet you were able to discern my identity in mere minutes.
( which reminds him - )
How is Mother?
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There's no delicate way to put this and Bruce imagines Damian will not accept a nothing answer. If his persistence about Dick was any indication. ]
She's gone. Ra's took over her body when his deteriorated.
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ra's had tried to do the same with damian's body just after he'd met his father. his body had been horrendously injured, leaving him in a position where he felt the need to jump ship into a new one - and that had been the purpose of damian's existence, hadn't it? a heir to the league, to ensure the al ghul lineage continued. and given how ra's has often doubted his and talia's capability to continue his work - well. without damian there to take over, his mother would be first choice. )
If you hadn't shut everyone out, it wouldn't have been her. It would have been me, and you would've saved me.
( talia was not a good parent, but damian would argue she didn't deserve being erased. it's almost, almost as upsetting as grayson being - absent. )
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I should have stopped him before it got that far.
[ But his heart and his pride stopped him. Thank goodness he had Terry. ]
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( it's easy to repeat the obvious. bruce should have been there to save her. he shouldn't have let ra's destroy his daughter, damian's mother, to complete his quest. )
Grandfather's concern with legacy will ultimately be his downfall.
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[ It's Ra's so of course there's always a possibility he survived. But that explosion had been pretty decisive. And so had Ra's insistent he remain with his equipment. ]
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( he's hoping that, regardless of whose world it is, that talia managed to survive regardless of ra's presence in her body. that she managed to wrangle control out from under him in time to survive, because damian's mother would not be erased so easily. because she deserves better. )
She loved you, and you couldn't even manage to save her.
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I don't have to justify myself to you.
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( if the flat tone doesn't give away how little damian believes any of that, the blank look on his face will.
he's trying to get a rise out of him. trying to find batman under the layers bruce has used to hide himself. )
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Damian wants a rise out him? He very nearly gets it, because Bruce turns to look at the boy, to stalk closer to close the gap between them. Bruce told the younger one he wouldn't be so hard on them. But he was never very good at keeping promises. ]
You're right. You are the child of another Bruce Wayne. Not me. I am not your father and you do not know anything. Now go pester someone else.
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You are unworthy of the name Batman. Pennyworth would be ashamed.
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Your validation means nothing to me.
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( but his expression. . . shifts. for a moment, he looks almost sad before damian manages to get himself under control once again and shifts the small, sad frown into an outright scowl again.
and turns around on his heels, to head in the opposite direction of bruce. )