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[born_this_wayne]

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status HEALTH: *HEALTH. LOCATION: *LOCATION. MISC INFO: *MISCINFO

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Comments

[ghostboy]

... are you sure that's a real power?

[born_this_wayne]

do you want to test it?

[ghostboy]

no, not really

[born_this_wayne]

you're learning, that's good.

now tell me why you decided to contact me, before i'm forced to track you down and shoot arrows at you again.

[ghostboy]

i died, okay? i just wanted to see if it was some isolated thing, or if everyone in the box was dying, too.

*Danny doesn't really believe that Robin has this superpower. That said, if he does... well, they're about to find out, aren't they?*

aw would you look at that damian really is a detective.

[born_this_wayne]

[damian considers this answer for a moment before responding.

it stands to reason that danny did die, or if not die, at least come very close to it, because nobody liked to use death as an excuse if it wasn't true. for some reason it made people uncomfortable.

on the other hand while this month had been proving rather irritating to some people, he hadn't exactly observed it to be particularly deadly, which told damian that it probably wasn't the technicians who had been responsible for danny's death.

which made the reason danny felt the need to check in with damian anyway somewhat troubling.]

where are you right now?

aaw, just like daddybats

[ghostboy]

dude, i'm not going to stand around if you just want to shoot arrows at me anyway

shhhhhhhhhhh

[born_this_wayne]

i won't shoot at you if you tell me where you are without giving me trouble.

if i have to look for you...

Re: shhhhhhhhhhh

[ghostboy]

look, robin, i'm really not in the mood for playing around right now.

[born_this_wayne]

this isn't a game fenton, or did you forget that i'm no good at those.

[ghostboy]

i don't know, you're doing a pretty good job of playing right now.

1/2

[born_this_wayne]

i think i miss when you were afraid of me.

[born_this_wayne]

between the two of us i'm the younger one, stop behaving like a child and tell me where you are.

[ghostboy]

*There's a sulky delay before the next message, one that's privately wrought with anxiety and unease.*

southtown. at the zoo.

[born_this_wayne]

[and there's no response on damian's end. just damian showing up barely ten minutes later, wearing his civilian clothes and actually looking sort of worried?

nah, can't be.] What happened? [then again, maybe...]

[ghostboy]

*For someone who's just died a literally torturous death and is living with the threat of his friends' lives over his own head, Danny looks... surprisingly okay. There's still shadows in his eyes, of course, and it's clear something has happened, but he's giving mixed signals here.*

Well I died, is what's happened.

*He unfolds himself from sitting on an abandoned kiosk counter and scoots off the edge. His cellphone isn't in his hands: he's been waiting for Damian without entertainment.*

Some of my, uh, food was poisoned. I think it was the technicians. Um. All of it was from foodland.

[born_this_wayne]

Try again.

[damian tells him flatly, arms crossed over his chest. death is too common around here for someone to look like that over a little poisoning, especially someone like danny who had been lecturing damian over what a place like this could do to people, back when they first met.

not to mention that no one else has mentioned poisoned food over the network yet, and that's something that would have been brought. danny himself would have brought it up if he thought it was something that could happen to everyone.

to warn them.]

Remember I know when you're lying.

[granted it didn't seem like everything danny was saying was a lie. parts of it seemed to come easier to him. it was the lies damian was concerned with though. the truths would come later.]

[ghostboy]

*His eyes narrow, and he has the distinct look of someone bracing for the long haul. There's also--regret? He regrets letting this meeting happen.*

Dude, that's not even a real super power.

And I'm not lying to you. I might be wrong, sure, but who else is going to go around leaving poison out for people to eat?

[born_this_wayne]

[damian raises a single eyebrow at danny and let's the silence sit just long enough.]

Plenty of people. The world isn't a nice place, even outside of this very tiny piece of hell that we've all found ourselves in. Did I ever tell you what my mother did to me when I told her I wanted to keep saving people?

[ghostboy]

... No.

*Danny wasn't expecting this change in approach. He draws back a little, resistance fading to something more uncertain.*

Um. What'd she do?

[born_this_wayne]

She put a chip in my brain and made me try to kill my brother.

[whoah he actually said it. well, it has more of an effect saying it like that, which is why he did. and because dick isn't around to hear it and get a swelled head over it.]

The first person to actually care about me outside of what I could do for them. She made me try to kill him with my own two hands. Because I chose him over her.

[ghostboy]

... Wow. *Shock. Solemnity. Danny understands at least some of what Damian described, as well as the magnitude of him having brought it up at all.*

Um.

Your mom's kind of a huge jerk.

Just--just for the record, and all.

[born_this_wayne]

[and damian actually laughs at danny's comment, though it's a soft and somewhat reserved laugh nonetheless.

perhaps even a bit bitter.]

She threatened to replace me with a clone of myself after, as well. She's my mother, she's supposed to love me. So if she can still do something like that, imagine what complete strangers are capable of.

[and oh hey look, it wasn't as much of a subject change as danny might have believed.]

[ghostboy]

*Danny drops his gaze, expression shutting down. The moment is brief: horror, and 'if we cut off your hands now, do you think you'd wake up with them next week? don't have enough time to really get off the ground, and he's tapping into the Danny Fenton side of himself. It's a tell in its own right: 'Danny Fenton' is the crutch that doesn't have to worry about ghost fighting. Danny Fenton has the freedom to stop caring about his latest traumas, because if he starts caring he'll go insane.*

*Damian is trying to go against this game. He's demanding to see a wound that Danny's managed to hide so far, and Danny can't tell if he's hysterically pleased that someone recognizes something is very, very wrong, or terrified that he might actually talk about it. Czes was right: Danny wants to talk. He's equally right that Danny can't tell anyone if he wants to keep them safe.*

*Danny leaves heavily into his mental shield, swinging guilt and regret over one shoulder like grocery bags. Damian just confided this in him. Danny will confide back in him some other day, and he'll tell him even more to make up for his lies now.*

Dude...

I'm--really sorry about your mom, but--don't you think that was kind of the point I was making all along?

The technicians are strangers, and they've never really cared about us.

[born_this_wayne]

I don't need apologies about my mother, I've lived with her this long already. [blunt and dismissive. what good would apologies do him anyway?]

I might have even been as bad as her once, or did you forget that I used to be an assassin? You're foolish if you think that the only cruel people here are our captors, and I don't actually believe you're that foolish.

Besides, I tend to stop regarding people who kill me as strangers, don't you?