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driftfleet2015-06-10 06:17 pm
birdsbirdsbirds) wrote in driftfleet2015-06-10 06:17 pm
(no subject)
Who: Robin
Broadcast: Video!
Action: None!
When: Now!
---
[hey, it's Robin. he's lounging around in his captain's chair, feet up on the control panel. he's twirling something around in his fingers--it looks kind of like a glow stick? it's a glass cylinder filled with some sort of glowing, red liquid.]
Back in those casino stations, I won one of these.
[he stops twirling the cylinder. when he holds it up closer to the camera, you can see that it's capped with silver on one end. the insides seem to be bubbling a little, as if the liquid is carbonated.]
This is a Luxilizer... though most people below the surface just called them Dummy Sticks, as in, you were an idiot if you walked around the lower levels without them. They're filled with a liquid extracted from a luminescent fungus that grows in the caves of my hometown.
[he twirls it again. Robin himself doesn't seem particularly delighted about the thing, he's just casually explaining, perhaps out of boredom.]
They were originally designed as a backup light source, in case a person got lost in the tunnels. It also makes it easier for others to see them. It can get pretty dangerous down there, in the dark...
[after a pause, he grips the glowing tube and smiles at the camera.]
It's funny to me. No one where I'm from would give these a second thought, but I've learned that underground cities are not a familiar concept in most worlds.
---
[PRIVATE TO JASON | TOTALLY HACKABLE, HE AIN'T NO COMMS OFFICER]
Hey, remember me? [waving from his side of the video feed.] Mr. Mean Everything?
Broadcast: Video!
Action: None!
When: Now!
---
[hey, it's Robin. he's lounging around in his captain's chair, feet up on the control panel. he's twirling something around in his fingers--it looks kind of like a glow stick? it's a glass cylinder filled with some sort of glowing, red liquid.]
Back in those casino stations, I won one of these.
[he stops twirling the cylinder. when he holds it up closer to the camera, you can see that it's capped with silver on one end. the insides seem to be bubbling a little, as if the liquid is carbonated.]
This is a Luxilizer... though most people below the surface just called them Dummy Sticks, as in, you were an idiot if you walked around the lower levels without them. They're filled with a liquid extracted from a luminescent fungus that grows in the caves of my hometown.
[he twirls it again. Robin himself doesn't seem particularly delighted about the thing, he's just casually explaining, perhaps out of boredom.]
They were originally designed as a backup light source, in case a person got lost in the tunnels. It also makes it easier for others to see them. It can get pretty dangerous down there, in the dark...
[after a pause, he grips the glowing tube and smiles at the camera.]
It's funny to me. No one where I'm from would give these a second thought, but I've learned that underground cities are not a familiar concept in most worlds.
---
[PRIVATE TO JASON | TOTALLY HACKABLE, HE AIN'T NO COMMS OFFICER]
Hey, remember me? [waving from his side of the video feed.] Mr. Mean Everything?
action;
And this... this is a familiar story. Steph wasn't quite like that for him, but she was family, by profession if not by blood, and she got him in a way he didn't think any of Batman's little helpers ever would. ]
I lost someone a little like that, too. More unexpected family than what your guy was to you, but... I'm starting to wonder if they do that on purpose.
"You have someone who can see you for what you really are and still care? Well, we can't have that! Drama gets better ratings!"
Fucking Atroma.
[ For all the bitterness in his voice, his hand is still gentle in Robin's hair. ]
But if he's not the reason you came looking for a fight, I take it it gets worse?
action;
he pauses before he continues, looking up at Jason again... and lifts his still-feeble arm to briefly ruffle the other's bangs with his fingers. kind of returning the gesture.]
Family's important, though. I'm sorry to hear that.
[he drops his arm back onto his chest, where it's out of the way.]
Fucking ratings. The whole thing's... [well, he doesn't know what it is. real or fake. vital or excusable.] They're all like this. I've been to a few different places--before this show, or whatever it is--and they're all like this. Run by some higher being that never makes an appearance. People just... Leave, sometimes, without rhyme or reason.
[he's finally coming back around to irritation. his next breath almost seethes out of him, between his teeth. this is why he's here--this feeling.] Yeah, it gets worse.
action;
Well, there's family and there's family. [ I'll give you this one for free, he'd said, not that long ago. I'm no one's son. ] But thanks.
And why am I not surprised that there are more assholes like this out there. [ It's not really a question.
He keeps stroking Robin's hair, despite the growing irritation. Easy there, pretty bird. ]
Is this my cue for a change of subject, or do we fare boldly forth into the gaping chasm of suck?
action;
"Gaping chasm of suck"... You have such a way with words...
[it's not eloquent, but it's maybe one of the better ways he's ever heard to describe his life. he doesn't want to stop here, not while he's already open and gushing. not while there are still fingers in his hair.]
...At the risk of sounding melodramatic, I feel like I've been cursed since the day I was born. Nothing good ever seems to last. I have a particular talent for ruining everything I touch. I was meant for something very grand, once, on my own world, but... [his smile here is bitter.] Even fate couldn't save me. I've been walking in its shadow for a long time.
[that is something he doesn't want to talk about, yet. he speaks vaguely and poetically because the details are a disgusting, tangled mess. it's bad enough that he's already speaking so lowly of himself in front of another person. Robin, the man who claims he's too fantastic and gorgeous to ever be wrong--he shouldn't have faults like this.]
I wish I could stop caring, but there's a... wolf in my chest, always snarling. Always angry about it. It walks through my dreams and I can hear it when the world is too quiet. It's exhausting, and I'm sick of it... And here, I thought things might finally start to be different. People are nice. I've met others who are like me. Some bad things happened and I decided that I didn't want to be miserable anymore.
[he has to close his eyes, here. he might be rambling--it's not like he'd planned out a "woe is me" speech ahead of time. the points of it are kind of confusing even to him, who's living in it.]
But being kind and open and honest... I don't know. People still leave. I'm still some Gods' plaything. I thought that maybe I could claim some of what I'm supposed to be, but it's just...
[and Jason can almost feel how much it makes him seethe, how deeply frustrating it is. he's sick of it, tense with it, until he finally finds another path to talk along.]
This last one, this nightjar, I swore I wouldn't let the wolf devour him like it does everything else. I told him the truth, I kept him away from my shitty decisions... He would have been so easy to snare, but I didn't want him living like that. I wanted him to be happy without clinging to me and my poisonous way of being.
[and he's gone now.] I think I just made it worse. I should have just eaten him.
[that's when he finally opens his eyes again. his face is all healed up, his breathing is starting to get easier. it's hard to say if his mood is really faring any better--his voice is subdued while his gaze settles on Jason's face again.]
I don't know. I get really sick of listening to myself think about this... useless spinning. I'm just... Even here, I'm starting to think that I really am meant to stay away from people. My heart just ruins everything.