(Untitled)

[whitechapelred]

Do you wanna talk about it?

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[watchmyanger]

That part of the price for the tea?

[whitechapelred]

[Jack smiles warmly] Not at all. And I'm sorry if I'm disturbing you but... you look like you have something on your mind. Thought I'd offer a friendly ear.

[watchmyanger]

*wry look, as he stirs a little milk into his tea,* I doubt it would make much sense to you. My situation seems to be... anomalous.

[whitechapelred]

You never know, maybe trying to explain it to a layman me might help you find whatever solutions or answers you're looking for.

[watchmyanger]

It's not so much a problem I can face as a decision I have to make.

I don't know how much you know about the multiverse. Some people here do, some don't. But it seems like there's a significant slice of the Jason Todd population that have hopped around the multiverse with Donna Troy and Kyle Rayner, like I did.

Difference is, they weren't on the move for quite so long, or quite so alone. And... it seems like the ones who went back home only did bad. Made the world worse.

So I'm thinking... maybe I can't get home because home is keeping me out. Like a defensive mechanism. And I'm trying to decide if I keep trying to get back or not.

[whitechapelred]

Are you concerned that going back to your own world could turn out badly or that you will do bad if you get back?

[watchmyanger]

Both. Either.

The high incidence of Jason Todds who become worse after their journeys through the multiverse means that the probability I will do the same is rather high.

[whitechapelred]

But the fact you're consciously questioning the morality of your decisions would imply you have a better chance of not following the same path. Surely the multiverse and this place especially holds a mirror up to the myriad of possibilities that are out there. Not all Jason Todds go bad, not all of us die. Not all of us were ever heroes. Nothing is truly preordained.

[watchmyanger]

[Jason laughs quietly.]

I wear the costumes, but I was never a hero.

[whitechapelred]

[Jack cocks his head] Not even as Robin? Not even when you were young and beating up the bad guys seemed so simple?

[watchmyanger]

The only simple thing about it is that I wanted to make them hurt. I wanted them to suffer for what they did to people like me.

[whitechapelred]

[Jack frowns softly.] And now?

[watchmyanger]

Do you care?

[whitechapelred]

Would I have asked if I didn't?

[watchmyanger]

People do it all the time. They say what's expected of them without meaning it.

[whitechapelred]

[Jack looks Jason in the eye.] If you don't want to talk, I understand but I didn't ask out of social expectation. I ask because I care.