001 First Flight - Audio

[isitablurred]

[Clark is in no hurry to go splashing his face all over the network after his little run in with SERO, so this post is audio.I'm looking for some friends of mine--I don't want to put them in any danger, but if you can hear me, please respond on this frequency

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voice, hard to trace // unhackable

[kingofrooks]

You've gotten lazy in your young age.

[ There's a password for Carrie. He wants her to see this. But to not make a comment. ]

voice, hard to trace // unhackable

[isitablurred]

[ Oh, hello there, Dark Knight. Post meeting, right? ]

Then what would you suggest?

voice, hard to trace // unhackable

[kingofrooks]

[ Oh definitely. Hi, honey. ]

Read.

voice, hard to trace // unhackable

[isitablurred]

There's a certain something to be said for hearing it first hand, isn't there? It means I can ask the right questions.

voice, hard to trace // unhackable

[kingofrooks]

And of course, people tell you everything.

voice, hard to trace // unhackable

[isitablurred]

Everyone has their secrets. But there's a big difference between knowing something and understanding it; empathising with it. People aren't just information.

voice, hard to trace // unhackable

[kingofrooks]

[ That hurts, a little. ]

Right.

Of course.

[ Stop treating him like your Clark, self. ]

voice, hard to trace // unhackable

[isitablurred]

[To be fair, he was thinking of Watchtower when he said that. But if the shoe fits. He can hear the hurt in that hard, dark voice, though.]

This network seems to go back to January of last year. That's a pretty long time for anyone to be trapped here, but there are a few familiar faces in the old records. We might be here for a while. Years, even; maybe forever.

[Or in other words: if you frighten everyone away, this place could be pretty lonely.]

voice, hard to trace // unhackable

[kingofrooks]

So what?

[ That's pretty much my plan. ]

voice, hard to trace // unhackable

[isitablurred]

So call me some time.

[He'd be a hypocrite if he suggested anything more.]

voice, hard to trace // unhackable

[kingofrooks]

I'd rather not.

[ Flat-out refusal. ]

You've never dealt with Gothamites before. Don't start.

voice, hard to trace // unhackable

[isitablurred]

Then maybe despite all your words, you don't know me at all. I don't give up on people, and you strike me as a man who has very few friends.

Who are you more afraid for? Me, or yourself?

voice, hard to trace // unhackable

[kingofrooks]

[ Fuck you and your Boy Scout tendencies. And most importantly, fuck you and your perceptiveness. X-ray vision has nothing on how transparent Clark makes Bruce feel sometime. ]

Neither.

Don't presume to know me.

[ It's more of a struggle than he expects to keep control of his voice. There's a weak, soft part of him that wants to just give in and not have to fight alone.

But he has to. He has to. ]

voice, hard to trace // unhackable

[isitablurred]

[Oh, he knows you Bruce. His experiences with cowls in the past makes knowing you easily. Hawkman comes to mind; a bitter man hidden behind his mask, tempered by centuries on top of centuries of losing the one they loved. Batman reminds him of Lana, too, in those last days, protecting him and caught up in her own revenge against Lex, pushing him further away. And of himself more recently, wanting to do everything alone and risk no-one else's lives in what he perceived as his fight.

But you can't ever fight alone. It destroys you.]

I probably know you better than you think.

[Pause.]

But I'll give you space, if you want it. I know better than anyone that this is something you have to work out for yourself.

voice, hard to trace // unhackable

[kingofrooks]

[ It's funny, to think that even younger, Clark still understands him. Still gets him with that annoying nonverbal sort of understanding that he never knows whether he appreciates or hates. ]

Don't get in my way.

[ He doesn't deny that Clark knows him.

That much is obvious by now. ]

voice, hard to trace // unhackable

[isitablurred]

I'll think about it.

[If Bruce goes off the deep end, he'll be there with a lifejacket, but he does have some respect for that piece of green kryptonite.]