[Thread] Operation: Find Out What's Wrong With Tim

[notarrowette]

Characters: OU: Cissie King-Jones, OU: Bruce Wayne/Batman, AU: Quatre Winner
Where: An empty classroom
When: An hour after sunset, late in the third stage of the modplot, after these conversations
Summary: Tim has been acting very strangely since before the modplot, but now it's worse. The three people who have noticed it the most get together to

Comments

[gonnaloveme]

Batman didn't even blink as Quatre interposed himself between him and Cissie. The gesture was useless on the pilot's part, although it probably made him feel better to pretend he was protecting the girl. First, Batman wouldn't ever hurt Cissie. Quatre knew this, and Batman knew he knew this, and it was all pointless from there. Second though, no matter what Quatre implied, and Batman most definitely understood what was being implied, Batman would always do the same thing. He would always be the same, always talk in the same manner.

Quatre's meek gesture sure as hell wasn't going to change this, not even for this encounter between allies.

The Batman listened to Quatre's explanation with an impassive expression. On the inside though Bruce was trying not to scoff at all this "metahuman" nonsense being told to him. He told himself this was usual here, that he had already seen a few instances of its existence, and to just listen carefully and accept it as truth. No matter how far-fetched.

He was hard-pressed to do just that. But the Batman was anything if not practical and therefore the Bat overrode what Bruce might have otherwise easily dismissed. He accepted it--for now, and because it was vital to the situation. And only because of that.

He was silent for a moment even after Quatre finished telling him all of this. Then, instead of telling his own part, went straight into a question. "Is there any way around such an obstacle? It would be easier to extract the cause of trouble directly from the source rather than go fishing for an answer in an ocean of possibilities."

Oh, dear. He was using metaphors. What next?

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Cissie tugged Quatre's hand briefly to pull him back against the desk. She appreciated the gesture, but she didn't think it was necessary--she knew Batman wouldn't hurt her. She might be intimidated and uncomfortable, but her concern for Tim overrode all of that.

Cissie had witnessed--and experienced--far too much magic and supernatural happenings to doubt Quatre. She pushed her hair back, sighing in frustration. She didn't have the abilities necessary to do anything to Tim's mind, except maybe yell at him until he snapped.

"It would," she agreed. "But this is Tim. Even if it is just him blocking things in--or out... He's stubborn." She looked up, intending to make eye contact with Batman. "He's very private. He must hate that someone got in his mind in the first place. I don't know that we can do anything without his permission."

And she was not entirely sure it wasn't too late for that already.

[gonnaloveme]

Bruce didn't so much consider Quatre a freak as he just plain didn't want to believe in all sorts of things considered paranormal--psychic abilities, magic, and supernatural powers all included. And despite the fact that Bruce had no psychic abilities or anything else of the sort, his thoughts were so locked up and guarded in his own mind that most of his immediate feelings, emotions, and general thoughts weren't really that easily read. Not to say that Quatre couldn't pick up on these things, but some of them would have required a more active role on Quatre's part rather than the inactive one the young psychic usually chose to follow.

That was neither here nor there, but it was probably a good thing that Bruce wasn't thinking about Quatre's passive abilities at the moment because he would have remembered what he was told that one day, and possibly have just walked out on the two for that basis alone.

At first the Batman might have looked ready to argue the point on how to deal with Tim's problem. But he kept silent and after a moment, and a quick shift of weight that did nothing to hint at whether he was annoyed or not as whichever case may be, he decided to answer the question asked of him.

Batman explained that Tim had come upon him when he was purposefully avoiding company and refused to talk to the teenager. That might have come out a bit reluctantly, but he was firm, short, and concise no matter what he said. He could have been talking about the current menu at the local fine cuisine sushi bar for all that it showed in his voice.

He went on about how Tim had refused to give up speaking with him and that he had responded somewhat harshly--what, exactly, that entailed wasn't said. From there Tim had kicked him, went on to go out of his way to insult him, and that when he had reached out for Tim rather than responding in kind the teenager had actually physically attacked him instead of something, anything else. There was a short pseudo-fight and then Tim had left.

"Something in the way he spoke was distinctly off," the Batman said in conclusion. "It sounded like a different personality from the time he began to purposefully insult me, perhaps even a bit in the words he said just before the kick."

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Cissie listened quietly to what they both had to say. By the time Batman finished speaking, she was staring at an indistinct floor tile somewhere near his feet, frowning thoughtfully. As for what Quatre had said, she was hoping that the block wasn't magical. She didn't trust magic. She trusted Tim's mind and their ability to help him fix it a lot more.

Batman, though... Cissie wasn't sure what to make of the story, even though she had managed to extract pieces of it from him before. It was different, hearing it this way, and she took a moment to consider it. It wasn't unreasonable for Tim to react badly to being pushed away by Bruce, especially considering what had just happened. She knew how much worry Tim was carrying about his Bruce, who was still missing back home, and seeing this Bruce killed--even if he wasn't the same, there was no way it hadn't shaken Tim. Some of the things Bruce had mentioned in their earlier conversation made a bit more sense now.

But what bothered her were the last things said. She rubbed the back of her neck absently and finally looked back at Batman. "When he left you, he came back to the room--he told me he saw you. But..." Cissie frowned. This was part of what bothered her. She had been in the middle of a panic attack when he arrived, and she was mentally kicking herself for it; she couldn't remember enough about Tim because she just hadn't been in a condition to notice. "He was frustrated, and he said that he lost his patience and stalked off. He didn't say anything about a fight, or anything physical. And--I can read him fairly well when he's upset, and he was frustrated, but not--violent. If that makes sense."

[gonnaloveme]

Batman was silent as his steely gaze settled firmly on Quatre when the pilot spoke at the end. What Cissie had explained either meant Tim was lying to hide one thing or another, or that his mind was fractured and truly didn't remember. Neither boded well in the Bat's mind. But what Quatre said...

He stared for a long moment, forcing his body to stay still and not react in a usual manner--leaving. It was not a visible struggle, and to anyone that knew him they would probably recognize the stare as that one he used when in deep thought. Unfortunately the stare was intimidating as all hell when accidentally directed at someone as it probably looked like he was glaring at them. He wasn't, but it seemed that way.

In Quatre's case it was a bit of a mixture of both. He was staring thoughtfully, but when he was 'there' it happened to be a glare directed at the listed abilities. He finally shook his head.

"You're not the only one that can read people," he said. "There are other ways that don't involve magic or supernatural abilities; it's what a detective might call 'intuition.' You don't have to be there for me to confirm if something is wrong with Tim or not."

He began to turn his back on them but his head turned slightly to his shoulder. He didn't look at them necessarily but the gesture was more than his usual. "Sitting around here further discussing things isn't going to get us much farther if the two of you aren't trying. I'll confront Tim; it's the simplest action to take, and it poses no real threat. I'll tell you the results and you two can go from there."

Then his back really was to them and he was a fraction of a second from being swallowed by the darkness.

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Before Batman spoke, Cissie had been about to tell them that Tim hadn't been lying or hiding anything. They had known each other for years, and she knew him well enough by now to almost always be able to tell when he was hiding things or telling only half of a story. Which was part of why Bruce's story had surprised her so much--Bruce had no reason to lie about what happened, and she hadn't doubted Tim's account of things for a moment.

And then Batman spoke, and Cissie saw red. Batman was terrifying and intimidating, but Cissie didn't care. She cared about Tim. She had been a hero; she had fought a goddess, been to the planet Apokalips, watched her friends die, yelled at Superman... Back home, two of her best friends were dead, another was so angry she was unstable and Tim certainly hadn't been himself in a long time. But this--this was something different, and the implication that she wasn't trying to help him was more than enough to make her forget who she was about to snap at.

"Excuse me?" she demanded, jumping off the desk and stalking a few steps forward. "If we're not 'trying'? What do you think we're doing here? We all know something is wrong with Tim, and I thought we were trying to help him. We can't figure out what to do before we know what's wrong and if he doesn't even know what he's doing half the time, he can't help us. And whether or not you think Quatre's abilities can help, he can at least try--believe it or not, he might be able to see things even you can't. But if you--"

She cut herself off, crossing her arms defensively across her chest and looking away from both of them, taking a second to collect herself. "If you don't want to help, just tell us now and we'll figure out a way to help Tim anyway," she snapped, her voice shaking. She was not--not--going to cry.

[gonnaloveme]

((Batman is facing the wrong way for Quat to look in his eyes. However, his cowl does not have obstructions in front of his eyes so if he was you could see his dark brown, almost black irises. ^_~))

Batman paused briefly before continuing but this time he didn't bother to turn his head around as he spoke to them. "You say you're here to help him but you keep doubting there's anything wrong. You're running in circles talking like that. What's the point? If you wanted to help you'd make decisions; find out what it is then figure out the best way to fix the problem."

It probably sounded like he was preaching to them, and in a way he sort of was. They all kept telling him they knew what they were doing, that they "played the game," did all this "superhero" business, and yet none of them seemed to have the right skill sets. Or if they did they did a very good job of canceling them out with other faults.

Batman had long ago figured out why he would never be able to preform what he wanted as a child. The was no conviction. He had that now, and instead of being some "hero" he was something more. He was an ideal. If anyone ever asked him if he was a hero he would disagree. He never wanted to be that. That was not his cause.

No, Batman was not here to keep talking. "You have the facts now. It's time to make a decision. I've already made mine."

He disappeared into the shadows for real this time. "And you can't go where I can."

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"We never said we doubted anything was wrong!" Cissie shouted after him. "Damn it!" She turned and kicked the desk hard enough to make it move several inches. She would have been surprised if Batman had even stuck around long enough to hear her. She shoved her hands roughly through her hair, making a noise of frustration.

"What does he think?" she snarled. "You can't make a decision unless you know what's going on! We have a better chance of fixing this working together but he's such a--" she cut herself off with another angry snarl, lashing out at the desk again. "Does he even want to help Tim?"

[notarrowette]

Cissie stilled when Quatre touched her, glaring at some indistinct point over his shoulder. She forced herself to take a few deep breaths, working at unlocking her jaw. When she had calmed down a bit, she exhaled slowly and nodded. "I'll talk with some of the others--Kon, Robin, Nightwing--see what they know." She paused, frowning deeply. "And he had better tell us what happens."

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[OOC: This seems like a good ending spot to me! :)]