DICK;

[crashout]

Comments

[crashout]

No, no this is definitely new. [And the barrier gently closes around them and whatever Dick was working on. Give him a moment to eyeball the barrier, trying to reach out and see if he can break it. It means immediately punching, but there's obviously nothing there.] What the hell?

[unpredicktable]

[ cool. two days in a row he's stuck in impenetrable barriers. this is fun and not at all triggering. dick tries to put his hand on it, just. letting it rest. ]

I don't know, but I don't like it.

[ let them out?? let them out???? rattles the bars of his cage ]

There's got to be another exit.

[crashout]

There always is, but what the hell are we missing? There's nothing here. [His voice is tense because even without demon barrier trauma, he's getting very tired of being trapped. However, it's not long before the Funyarinpa falls into a pile of dust, and Dick is pulled to experience a memory that lasts until 2:46:38, minus Akane-Vision and also the puzzle is sudoku because the playstation version made it too easy.]

[unpredicktable]

[ it's one thing to have heard the general gist of most of this and another to experience it first hand. the countdown, the people, the incinerator-- everything feels real, and dick outright gasps when he's taken out of it, eyes wide.

it feels abrupt, and he's looking around. the barrier is still up, and junpei is there, and-- it felt like being pulled into a mind link with m'gann, almost. seeing through another's memories. those were the people he spoke of. the events he mentioned. ]

... What was that.

[ it's less a question and more a statement, because what the fuck just happened. why was sudoku involved. ]

[crashout]

[Junpei, unfortunately, has no idea what he just saw because that's not how the memory link works. He has no idea what Dick witnessed and he's giving him a suspicious sort of look, unsure of what he's asking.]

What was what? What happened?

[unpredicktable]

You didn't... see that?

[ dick frowns, putting a hand on the barrier again. henlo. knock knock ]

... I think... that was you. Or-- I mean, that was yours. I was in an incinerator, and I saw those people you talked about. Seven, Lotus-- well. You know. [ theory? time? ] Something about that item must've triggered it.

[crashout]

[Pokeprod. Apparently that wasn't all our mystery barrier wanted, but he's busy trying to think of what the fuck Dick saw. As he begins to describe it though, everything becomes very clear. He's frozen for a moment, staring at Dick with the same kind of unreadable expression he's given him before in rare moments before he frowns again.]

...sudoku. [He sounds tired.] Fifteen minutes left. [...there's a beat.] Did you hear her?

[unpredicktable]

[ there's a beat of silence. ]

... Yeah. Yeah, I think so. That girl... she wasn't in the room, was she?

[ it's not so much that it's fleeting as it wasn't his memories, and so it's a bit hard to parse them. was that... the morphogenetic field? ]

[crashout]

[There's a nod.]

She wasn't even in that year. Or that timeline. She was nine years in the past. [So yes, the field.] She...connected to me. She was connected the whole time to plan everything the way it needed to go, but it was only then I heard her to help save her.

Nine years before, she had 15 minutes left before the incinerator would turn on. She had to solve the puzzle, but could only do it with my help. [And that's why sudoku.]

[unpredicktable]

[ ... geez. he puts a hand over his mouth, shaking his head ]

That's... [ a lot? ] I think that goes a little beyond sink or swim on the power front. [ dick knocks on the barrier again ] I-- I'm sorry this thing let me see into your mind. Invasion of privacy much?

[ LIGHTENING THE MOOD AFTER THIS IS HARD ]

[crashout]

[He just...shrugs? Poking the barrier again, no longer meeting Dick's eyes.]

You're not the first. That's what happens with the field. We're connected like that. [Pokepokeprod.] Anyway it could be worse. At least I already kind of told you about that, but what in the hell is this ship doing to us? That's gotta be it, right? Another ship thing.

[Like horny disease, and those tattoos.]

[unpredicktable]

If it is, then what's going to let us out...?

[ thank you for asking, dick! in your case, it will specifically be junpei witnessing this fun yelling session, which ends at 33:06. at least it's quick! not that dick knows that, because he's just trying to push on the barrier while that happens. ]

[crashout]

[Oh there's a significant amount of yelling going on here. Okay. Who the fuck is this? What the fuck is this. Somebody who's a friend, obviously, because he calls him Dick instead of Nightwing. Who's Artemis? Or Kaldur. What lengths did Dick go to to get what he was after?

So yeah Dick's busy pressing on the barrier while Junpei's staring off into space witnessing this guy yelling in "his" face.]

...[Should he say something? He should maybe say something, but he's not sure what to say first.] ...was that flashdrive worth it in the end?

[unpredicktable]

... Flashdrive?

[ dick-- pauses, and the barrier goes with it because they've shared their memory. that's really what clues him in to what junpei might be talking about, more than anything, and he turns with a frown ]

You... saw something, didn't you?

[crashout]

Yes, obviously. [He has so many questions, but...] That guy seemed pretty pissed.

["Wally" is the name his brain supplies, but he's not mentioning it. They're just going to dance around names right now.]

[unpredicktable]

[ dick... looks away ]

You're gonna have to be more specific than that. A lot of people have been mad at me recently.

[crashout]

Wally. Because you didn't tell anyone else the plan. [Sounds familiar enough.]

[unpredicktable]

[ dick looks shocked, first, but then-- then he looks a little bit heartbroken. ]

... That was... when we blew up the cave. [ god. it feels like a lifetime ago. ]

[crashout]

...yeah. There was a cave mentioned in there somewhere. [He's tentative in the conversation, especially since he actually doesn't like that look in the slightest.] It cut off after the suspicion was cast against--Kaldur? I think. About being a triple agent.

[unpredicktable]

Wally was just-- [ and maybe his voice chokes a bit on the name but he presses on ] Worried. I-- I'd brought his girlfriend out of retirement to help on a deep undercover mission, helped fake her death-- [ he shakes his head, switches course a bit; ] Kaldur-- Aqualad-- wasn't a traitor. He'd never be. But Wally was... was having a rough time dealing with things.

[crashout]

[...bad. He won't press the Wally subject because that's a visible hot topic he shouldn't touch yet. Granted, helping someone fake their death is a little extreme and he's quiet as he thinks of what to touch first.]

...was there a reason you couldn't explain it to him before?

[unpredicktable]

He knew. He-- Artemis wouldn't have done it without telling him. He was in on that much. But... the cave was... [ dick runs a hand through his hair ] The flashdrive was information, but it was also to explain the attack. I-- Aqualad couldn't exactly call out a warning. I learned why he'd done it... after.

[ he-- repeats what he'd said, back then: ]

It was necessary. He'd already spent months undercover, and we'd gone as far as to have him-- we'd agreed, both of us, that we'd do whatever it took. We-- we hit a few snags, but if we hadn't done it, there's no way we could've ever stopped the Invasion.

[crashout]

...but you did stop it, didn't you? In the end. Things worked out the way they needed to, even with your cave blown up or whatever.

[The end justifies the means.]

[unpredicktable]

Yes. We stopped the invasion, and we dealt a critical blow to the Light. The mission was a success.

[ it sounds like there's something more to that, but. dick stops it there. ]

[crashout]

Okay. [It's what he says first, because he thinks that's appropriate. He's not a moron, he can read the tone, but...pushing seems like it's a delicate matter.]

...having been on Wally's end of things, I think I get it. Akane used to do the same. [Still does, actually, but he's sidestepping that.] You do what you have to to get results, but...I dunno.

[An awkward pause.] Sorry for seeing that. But I guess we're even? [A joke that falls flat, because now he's just watching Dick carefully to try and read him.]