[If it wasn’t for the carnage, Bruce would look somehow like a regal and well put together man. Jason knows he isn’t. Then again, Bruce may be lying shot to hell and back in Crime Alley, but he’s still in a fancy boy’s club suit.
If you have money, you can always look regal and put together even being murdered.]
Yeah. That’s him.
[Is it weird when a black-haired, blue-eyed man keeps adopting children who look exactly like him?]
[ we both know it is, and cloud has seen enough black haired and blue eyed men in this corridor to at least find it a little weird. he unfortunately does not roast Bruce Wayne about this. ]
... That tracks. Never seen anyone who looks like that not be totally unaware of reality.
[the areas in which cloud and jason are converging are sending me]
He has a savior complex. So he thinks you can try to save even the worst people.
[And, look, at the core of it, Jason gets it, but he does not want to live by that standard. Sometimes, bad people need to die. That's what he believes in.]
I guess you'd hear a different story if you asked someone else. Like Dick, or Gordon, or Gordon's daughter. All the people benefiting from the little charities he does.
Pretty sure there's some stuff people can't come back from doing.
[ cloud is thinking not just of sephiroth but also everyone's favorite scientist hojo and like. honestly. most of fucking shinra. yikesies. he keeps going and also okay he gets it his name is cloud he can't mock people but also ]
[ you think anyone in ff7 is named RICHARD, anna? you think any person has a name like RICHARD? the most normal name is johnny.
anyway cloud looks a little ? at the richard = dick thing, but also he is distracted by something else, which jason had not mentioned when complaining about his mentor before. ]
[ richard highwind. anyway, cloud has seen some of the paintings of people that he has no idea who they are so they must be jason's (imagine if i put zack in here. no), and while they are horrible and messed up, he does glance at them quickly ]
... To be honest, most of you kind of look like you could be related. This a thing with this guy? Picking up kids?
Guess he has a weird thing for boys who look like him.
Oh yeah. He loves adopting. [And also adopting boys with a certain aesthetic. COMICS?] He has about seven or eight of us. Well, not all of us are technically adopted, but same difference. He thinks he can fix things with all his money.
He gets real bent out of shape when he can't fix things.
Yes and no. Maybe a sliver of him thinks he can always fix the clown. But it's mostly his morals are sky-high, and he thinks if you kill someone, you're not better than they are.
So you're not telling me something I don't already know. You try convincing him the bad people should probably die.
Never been in the business of trying to convince other people that kind of junk. I do what I do, and if they don't like it, tough.
[ he shrugs. he says that when there is a picture of both tifa and aerith looking beaten and stabbed and judgmental all at once and he kind of winces. it's fine. the art gallery is fine ]
Pretty sure the closest thing I had to a mentor burned down my home town, so.
... Nibelheim was in the middle of the mountains. Closed off, small town, with nothing else to see except an old so-called "haunted" mansion and a mako reactor.
[ there's a pause ]
Mako's-- an energy source from the planet. [ to try and explain. he is also saying all of this as he walks away so he does not have to look at jason ] Honestly, it was a podunk little town. [ I can't believe he said the word podunk unironically. ] Lived there with my mom. I couldn't wait to get away from it, so I joined the army to make something of myself. Pretty much every guy around my age went too, but I'm the only one who made it to SOLDIER.
[ or so he thinks. this is fun. this is funny. he pauses in front of a picture of Tifa that is maybe just a tad on the realism side, laid out and bleeding and it sure looks like some kind of nuclear reactor she is in there! wow! what a coincidence. ]
... It's funny. I never liked the place, but I never wanted it gone, either.
[This is fine because Jason walks along beside Cloud and does not make eye contact with Cloud at all. Two dudes walking around an art gallery, not making eye contact because they're not sharing feelings.
He's surprisingly quiet, giving Cloud the opportunity to talk without any kind of dry jokes or sass. Not even when Cloud says "podunk" unironically.]
Doesn't sound too different than my world. Depleting fossil fuels and causing global warming, plenty of patriotic babies signing up for the army because they think it'll make them a man. Can't relate to living in the middle of nowhere, though. I'm a city boy.
[He slows down and stops a bit away when Cloud takes the time to look at the picture. He peers at it thoughtfully.]
I could probably say the same about Gotham. Friend of yours?
[ he does not know what fossil fuels are because unfortunately barret only becomes an oil baron by advent children, but he can get the gist of it. he's not sure he'd call any of the nibelheim kids patriotic so much as there truly was no other job option that wasn't working the mako reactor, and the mako reactor is a shitty job that slowly poisons you over time.
he does not share that because he is busy staring at tifa ]
... Yeah. From Nibelheim. [ he could say from childhood. what a loser. ] I... This one...
[ happened. right? he looks like he has a mild headache looking at it and he shakes his head, holding it ]
... She made it out. Her dad didn't. [ jason did not need to know that part. cloud is maybe working through his mess of memories right now, let's move on. ]
Jason watches him from the back and side exactly like a Bat would watch anyone who started acting really weird. Maybe it would have been better if he had just went with the tease of her being his girlfriend like he planned.
He doesn't think he needs to ask clarification about making it out. Whew.]
She made it. [He does not know this for absolute certain, but Cloud can figure out whether or not that's a lie later. He reaches out to bump Cloud's arm with the back of his hand.] Come on.
[ is it the ptsd trauma or the swiss cheese memory? no one will ever know. but the bump kind of jolts it out of him and he hums before they start walking again. embarrassing someone else saw him like this but also it is a constant for cloud so whatever.
sometimes you have brain problems. ]
Never liked art that much, but I think this place is turning me against it totally.
[ FUCK art galleries, all our homies hate art galleries and try to move on from their obvious trauma ]
[Someone help Cloud. Someone help Cloud and Jason, but especially Cloud.]
I hate to give you the satisfaction, but I agree.
[He's more of a bookworm than a fine art kind of person. He doesn't mind the art--this kind of art he minds--but he'd walk into the book store before an art gallery.
He thinks to make another typical complaint about how long they have been in here, but right before he does... they are just not in there anymore. It's like it happens while he's blinking. Suddenly they're in the gallery, then suddenly they are back out in the hallway. And he kind of jostles to attention at the change.]
[ no one can help cloud because remake part 2 will never come out.
but yeah mood on being startled. cloud looks around the hallway a little wide-eyed, like he expects another portrait to pop up and go NYEH!!! loudly. ]
... Guess that was the grand finale. [ he blinks slowly and frowns, annoyed ] We're 0 for 3 on getting anything out of these rooms so far.
[GODDDDDD. He reaches up to rub the sockets of his eyes and the bridge of his nose with his fingers. LOOK. Look.]
Yeah, except airing out all our emotional baggage. I get it.
[He's so stubborn, though. He's so convinced there might be something, and he hates having this annoying little trait from Bruce. There could be something in, like, a single room! They won't know until they have searched them! But going through the last door showed him the rooms sort of roulette. They might not even ever get the right door.]
Fuck it. Enough. I'm done for now. [He points at Cloud.] Shut up, don't say anything.
Yeah, I feel like a wrung-out, sweaty jock towel from the local over-crowded city gym.
[He could have chose literally any other better description.]
I've already took the aspirin, and there's no Xanax, [he says this like he actually tries to do anything about his mental health in the first place] so I guess I'm going to lie down in my room in the dark and hope the ground consumes me.
I was gonna take five and get lunch until I heard that metaphor.
[ wry. ]
Not at the ground consuming me part of the day yet, though, so I guess I'm better off than you. I wanna look to see if anything else new opened up. Hopefully one where there's less people.
[He is proud to make Cloud lose his appetite. Welcome.]
The freaky garden with the butterflies in it. Don’t go in there.
[He wants to say don’t go with someone else especially, but not going with anyone means potentially being trapped in there with wild feelings and no one to snap you out of it.]
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If you have money, you can always look regal and put together even being murdered.]
Yeah. That’s him.
[Is it weird when a black-haired, blue-eyed man keeps adopting children who look exactly like him?]
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... That tracks. Never seen anyone who looks like that not be totally unaware of reality.
[ fucking rich people ]
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He has a savior complex. So he thinks you can try to save even the worst people.
[And, look, at the core of it, Jason gets it, but he does not want to live by that standard. Sometimes, bad people need to die. That's what he believes in.]
I guess you'd hear a different story if you asked someone else. Like Dick, or Gordon, or Gordon's daughter. All the people benefiting from the little charities he does.
[Or people he saves at Batman.
He turns away from the painting to keep walking.]
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[ cloud is thinking not just of sephiroth but also everyone's favorite scientist hojo and like. honestly. most of fucking shinra. yikesies. he keeps going and also okay he gets it his name is cloud he can't mock people but also ]
Dick?
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What're you, five? [STOP, HE WILL LAUGH. Poor Dick.] His name's Richard. [That explains it.] He gets that a lot.
He'd tell you the other guy has some issues, but he's trying to do his best. Maybe. Unless Dad is mad at the golden boy this time around.
[me having to dunk on dick in front of you]
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anyway cloud looks a little ? at the richard = dick thing, but also he is distracted by something else, which jason had not mentioned when complaining about his mentor before. ]
Dad?
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Surprise. We're adopted. Can't you tell?
[He is really going to bring weird family drama into this horror house of never-ending artwork. It's fine.
He would, like, point out Dick, and Tim, and Damian, maybe the girls, but he does not want to look at the paintings when they are still very awful.]
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... To be honest, most of you kind of look like you could be related. This a thing with this guy? Picking up kids?
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Oh yeah. He loves adopting. [And also adopting boys with a certain aesthetic. COMICS?] He has about seven or eight of us. Well, not all of us are technically adopted, but same difference. He thinks he can fix things with all his money.
He gets real bent out of shape when he can't fix things.
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Starting to get that picture. So, what? He wanted to fix the clown, too? Only way to do that is with him six feet under.
[ all clowns should die anyway ]
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Yes and no. Maybe a sliver of him thinks he can always fix the clown. But it's mostly his morals are sky-high, and he thinks if you kill someone, you're not better than they are.
So you're not telling me something I don't already know. You try convincing him the bad people should probably die.
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[ he shrugs. he says that when there is a picture of both tifa and aerith looking beaten and stabbed and judgmental all at once and he kind of winces. it's fine. the art gallery is fine ]
Pretty sure the closest thing I had to a mentor burned down my home town, so.
[ ZACK BEING SO ERASED ]
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What was your hometown like?
[It's maybe easier to talk about than shitty Sephiroth, or giving platitudes that just sound like pity. Minus the burning down part. Oops.
DON'T JUST FORGET ZACK. Very funny for any memshare and the people who get deep-rooted Zack(?).]
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[ there's a pause ]
Mako's-- an energy source from the planet. [ to try and explain. he is also saying all of this as he walks away so he does not have to look at jason ] Honestly, it was a podunk little town. [ I can't believe he said the word podunk unironically. ] Lived there with my mom. I couldn't wait to get away from it, so I joined the army to make something of myself. Pretty much every guy around my age went too, but I'm the only one who made it to SOLDIER.
[ or so he thinks. this is fun. this is funny. he pauses in front of a picture of Tifa that is maybe just a tad on the realism side, laid out and bleeding and it sure looks like some kind of nuclear reactor she is in there! wow! what a coincidence. ]
... It's funny. I never liked the place, but I never wanted it gone, either.
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He's surprisingly quiet, giving Cloud the opportunity to talk without any kind of dry jokes or sass. Not even when Cloud says "podunk" unironically.]
Doesn't sound too different than my world. Depleting fossil fuels and causing global warming, plenty of patriotic babies signing up for the army because they think it'll make them a man. Can't relate to living in the middle of nowhere, though. I'm a city boy.
[He slows down and stops a bit away when Cloud takes the time to look at the picture. He peers at it thoughtfully.]
I could probably say the same about Gotham. Friend of yours?
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he does not share that because he is busy staring at tifa ]
... Yeah. From Nibelheim. [ he could say from childhood. what a loser. ] I... This one...
[ happened. right? he looks like he has a mild headache looking at it and he shakes his head, holding it ]
... She made it out. Her dad didn't. [ jason did not need to know that part. cloud is maybe working through his mess of memories right now, let's move on. ]
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Jason watches him from the back and side exactly like a Bat would watch anyone who started acting really weird. Maybe it would have been better if he had just went with the tease of her being his girlfriend like he planned.
He doesn't think he needs to ask clarification about making it out. Whew.]
She made it. [He does not know this for absolute certain, but Cloud can figure out whether or not that's a lie later. He reaches out to bump Cloud's arm with the back of his hand.] Come on.
[Let's walk away from the trauma painting.]
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sometimes you have brain problems. ]
Never liked art that much, but I think this place is turning me against it totally.
[ FUCK art galleries, all our homies hate art galleries and try to move on from their obvious trauma ]
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I hate to give you the satisfaction, but I agree.
[He's more of a bookworm than a fine art kind of person. He doesn't mind the art--this kind of art he minds--but he'd walk into the book store before an art gallery.
He thinks to make another typical complaint about how long they have been in here, but right before he does... they are just not in there anymore. It's like it happens while he's blinking. Suddenly they're in the gallery, then suddenly they are back out in the hallway. And he kind of jostles to attention at the change.]
Christ.
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but yeah mood on being startled. cloud looks around the hallway a little wide-eyed, like he expects another portrait to pop up and go NYEH!!! loudly. ]
... Guess that was the grand finale. [ he blinks slowly and frowns, annoyed ] We're 0 for 3 on getting anything out of these rooms so far.
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Yeah, except airing out all our emotional baggage. I get it.
[He's so stubborn, though. He's so convinced there might be something, and he hates having this annoying little trait from Bruce. There could be something in, like, a single room! They won't know until they have searched them! But going through the last door showed him the rooms sort of roulette. They might not even ever get the right door.]
Fuck it. Enough. I'm done for now. [He points at Cloud.] Shut up, don't say anything.
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[ but as much as he raises his hand and as an almost mocking tone for a second, he does relent; ]
If you weren't calling it quits, I might've. Think we've both overshared enough for one day.
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[He could have chose literally any other better description.]
I've already took the aspirin, and there's no Xanax, [he says this like he actually tries to do anything about his mental health in the first place] so I guess I'm going to lie down in my room in the dark and hope the ground consumes me.
What're you going to do?
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[ wry. ]
Not at the ground consuming me part of the day yet, though, so I guess I'm better off than you. I wanna look to see if anything else new opened up. Hopefully one where there's less people.
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The freaky garden with the butterflies in it. Don’t go in there.
[He wants to say don’t go with someone else especially, but not going with anyone means potentially being trapped in there with wild feelings and no one to snap you out of it.]
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