awashlogs | Event Eight.

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Event Eight.

To thee I'll return, overburdened with care;
The heart's dearest solace will smile on me there.
No more from the cottage again will I roam,
Be it ever so humble, there's no place like home.

he Town is quiet this week. No sudden quests on the forum post, no roars of werewolves in the distance... just peaceful, peaceful quiet. Of course, it's hot as hell right now, but that aside, it's pretty pleasant. You probably don't want to wander around the Town right now, but...

Naturally, now's when the Town is going to start thoroughly encouraging you to do just that.

You do want to find your doorway back home, don't you?

Better get searching! And don't mind the other worlds you might end up stumbling into first.

Welcome to Awash's eighth event log, everyone! Further information on this event can be found here at the OOC post.

You are welcome to start your own posts or logs for this event as well. If there are any questions, please ask them here. Thank you!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Shut up. [He's quick to push himself up into a stand.] You don't have any reason to be down here, Ichinose! Get out! [Carefully, he sproings from his place on the trampoline to a spot on the ground without issue.

He's still glaring? Of course he is.] You think I can't get you back out of that hole, but I can.

Hey, shut up for a minute.

[Guren is, of course, not too worried about Damian's threats, and literally waves him off as he walks further into the place. Not when he can look at the weirdest cave he's ever been in. Is that a dinosaur? A bunch of ridiculous things, actually, and a large computer screen that looks like it might have some interesting things on it...

Too bad it's useless when he walks up to it and taps a few buttons.]

Huh. This is a little too advanced to be some kid's secret hideout. Is this your father's? [He has no idea about Bruce's hobbies...]

I beg to differ. [Excuse him?! HE HAS A SECRET HIDE-OUT WITH JON! It's under the ocean! Was... under the ocean. A sociopathic metahuman kid blew it up right before he got here. ANYWAY, it was amazing, thanks! It had stuff in it just like all this!] Stop touching everything.

It's not my father's. It's Batman's. [No one has to know they're the same person, okay. He just has to remember not to fuck up in what he says. Easy.

Lifting an arm, he points across the cave. A few platforms up houses several cylindrical, reinforced showcases. A few iterations of batsuit prototypes. Robin uniforms. And a single well-crafted and elegant, dangerous looking scimitar. What he's trying to indicate is the batsuits. Batman.] The computer doesn't work, so you can quit touching it.

Who the hell is Batman?

[Just to be a brat, he's now touching everything even if he doesn't have to. Touch, pat, poke.]

What's the point of a place like this if the big screen is broken? Oh, well. I'm guessing this is some kind of headquarters?

[Is this another hero thing like superman, god.]

[You can't just ask who Batman is, Guren...] Batman is a legally recognized vigilante who assists the police in apprehending criminals, or assists a league of men and women protecting the world from global threats.

This all belongs to him, and it's his main base of operations-- Would you stop touching whatever you can reach? I said it didn't work. [Damian just got two gray hairs.] Are you finished? We can leave.

Haha. First Superman, now Batman, huh?

[But he knows who Superman is, so... hmm!! He comes to a stop in front of the area overlooking that weird memorabilia. Interesting.]

Don't get such a hair up your ass. I'm just looking. [A real adult role model here.] If it bothers you that much, I can take you to my world, after.

[If he wants. But right now, he's going to peek down to see if he can hop down further without bothering with stairs...]

[OH NO. Oh no... Clark......] Superman and Batman work together. [Suspiciously, he follows right along behind Guren. The memorabilia is peculiar to those who haven't ever seen, say, a dinosaur... or a penny... or the joker card in a fifty-two deck. Their sizes are interesting, all large.] You weren't just looking earlier.

[But the offer he keeps in mind, lips pursing. Maybe he doesn't wanna see your stupid world, Guren... (He wants to see it because he's nosy.)]

Whatever you're trying to get into, stop while you're ahead.

[Looking over the edge leads straight down, mostly, into the darkness below. The sound of water is evident; the cave floor is a river. If Guren is good at jumping, though, the other staggered platforms can be reached, some below. If Guren wants to be ridiculous instead, he can use stalactites for stepping-stones.

Take a pick: the cylindrical showcase displays, a medical bay, a mechanic and tool area, a dormant server farm, a small library.]

[Clark was very open with him! It's all very nice.]

I'm not getting into anything.

[He says, hopping over too easily. He is, in fact, the ridiculous type to use a stalactite or two as a bounce off, grab at a ledge and swing in to the area he wants. That is, the medical bay! Time to poke around here, literally. He's a menace.

He just has a bad impression of things like labs, okay, he wants to eliminate any fishy business.]

[Feeling old and exasperated and too Tired to go leaping after Guren (show off), he simply stalks the walkways and stairs until he gets to the medical bay. Fortunately, Bruce is very hyper organized and secretive, and Guren can't access much of anything without knowing where the buttons are or without clearance.

When he finally arrives, he crosses his arms and watches Guren like a hawk. The expression makes his face very Bruce Wayne(TM).] What are you looking for?

This is a medical bay. Addictive, poisonous, and dangerous substances are kept concealed from sticky fingers. You need clearance to open anything.

Why does he need things like that in the first place?

[That's the real question, rather than getting his hands on it. Though, he's a bit too perceptive himself. It'd be kind of like a test to see how long it took for him to find a button, even if he didn't have the clearance for it.

Ah, but there's no point wasting time, he guesses.]

He's Batman. [As if that answers anything at all for someone like Guren.] He's a legally recognized vigilante who assists the police and a league of other men and woman in apprehending both local criminal threats and global threats respectively.

There's a medical bay because he doesn't have any special gimmicks. [Guren, of course, is well aware what Damian is snidely implying here.] He's human with no supernatural physical recovery. [It does look quite like a surgery room, in a way. There's a stationary chair, almost like a dentist's. There's also a surgical operating table, lights, armed tools, magnifiers. The platform is completely sterile, and everything else appears to be trapped behind locked storage compartments.] The bay is for injuries.

He's also extremely skilled in medicinal biology and chemistry, among other things. Are you looking for something in particular?

[Geez, this brat. He could toss back plenty of things— what he's picking up on from this Batman, the implications of his mental health, how he'd die in an instant to a vampire from Guren's world, and so on... but there's no point in arguing with a kid who only wants to see things one way. Guren can see the benefits of someone like this, but he's also seeing the risks.]

I meant why have poisons for something that should be used for recovery, unless you're forming antidotes. [Which... he guesses?]

No offense, but I'm too used to guys with power and money being up to no good. [Legally recognized means shit when the government is corrupt! He leans against the operating table.]

You don't have to get so defensive. I'm just curious.

He collects every poison, venom, and drug so he can make antidotes, especially ones easily produced on a mass scale. He studies them so he can learn where they come from, how they would be used against people, and how he can cure them.

[The rather sour expression doesn't exactly ease with the consolation. He hasn't said or confirmed as much, but Batman is his father, and he's just naturally defensive of people trying to shit on his work.] Batman isn't someone you would ever have to worry about.

He's not like whatever greedy, moronic men you know.

[Honestly, the more Damian gets defensive and mouths off like he is, the more Guren is assuming it has to be Bruce. He'd already given a strange list of qualifications for joining the force, and they're in this tiny little town with so few people...

But he won't say anything on that. He'll just shrug, uncaring, and turn back for the stairs.]

Hey, kid. Why do you really want to fight me so bad? To prove something to me? Or just to yourself?

[The pains of being in a tiny-ass town where some of the heroes came in uniform and some didn't... and then they're related. RIP.]

"I'm too used to guys with power and a need for a force being up to no good." [His brows tighten at the middle, and the green eyes follow Guren unwavering to the stairs. He's quiet for a long stretch of moment.] My grandfather is the leader of a league of assassins. He uses the honor and loyalty of others to attempt to cleanse the world, to make it a purer place by starting new, creating something better.

In order to do that, he is going to use genocide.

I want to make sure you're fit to lead a bunch of children with undying loyalty without walking the same path.

...

[Fair enough. He pauses at the top of the stairs, and it's clear he's just heading back out, satisfied enough with his curiosity. But for now, he's stopped, looking back down at Damian. Honestly, as fun as Damian is, and as funny as it can be sometimes, it gets a little exhausting. So, opening up a tiny bit can't hurt.]

Before the catastrophe that ruined my world, I was born into the lowest branch family of the Hiiragis. I had to watch my father be beat and humiliated in front of me, and everyone else, all for the ego of some man who was born with status and power. My father was a kind man who never fought back. People in the family began to view him as useless, looking forward to me as the next head. The one who would take down the Hiiragis, and free us all.

Years later, and I'm still crawling at their feet. The head of the Ichinose family, just Kureto Hiiragi's dog. [He places his hand on his hip.]

I'm not done yet. But I'm not looking to be anything like the Hiiragis themselves, either. By getting as high in the ranks as I have, I'm closer to seeing who the real enemy is, and I'm going to save everyone from it.

I don't want anyone in Chroma to get hurt, but I don't want us stuck here, either. I'm going to find us a way home, as carefully as I can— but there are always risks in something like this. You can think whatever you want about me, but that's all there is to it.

I don't plan to stay either. [The eyes staring back at Guren are a lot older than the body they're in. They're smart, maybe too smart, and they don't look away.] It's possible, if you try hard enough without being an idiot. [But he doesn't clarify what he's responding to exactly.]

I use to be like them. [The pill is still difficult to swallow, even if it's easier telling others now when he can do it like a textbook.] The Hiiragis. I was created to lead the league of assassins. Becoming the Demon's Head meant compliance, honor, apathy. There were no friends, only expendable warriors. I trained every day with my mother for ten years. [Guren becoming Ra's had been a worry, sure... but it was less Guren becoming Ra's and more Guren becoming Damian al Ghul. That was the point, in the end.]

It was an honor I took very seriously.

Yeah. The Hiiragis didn't choose their lives, either. Born into it and forced to dominate or die, that's how it was.

[There was no honor. A twisted family that's so twisted and isn't even at the real top— but Guren doesn't think details matter for this. He can tell when a kid is more than a kid, and he's known that about Damian since the day he arrived. Normal kids don't talk in the methodical way he does, first of all. The rest is pretty clear.]

Whether you got out of something like that on your own or with help, that takes a lot. [And it's not like you're ever truly rid of it, either. He's aware of that.] Good job.

Thank my father. I would gladly be where I was if I had not won the right to meet him.

[He comes halfway up the stairs and stops. It feels better if Guren is in front, allowing him to keep watch. He doesn’t want to be hi-bye’d because that’s their job.]

You still owe me a fight, Ichinose. Don’t think I’ll feel sorry for you and forget.

[Guren is batman-esque, but not that batman-esque. That's too much. So, he smirks, half shrugging at Damian.]

I told you how to earn it. I'm not going to just pity you and give you one, either. Show me it'll be worth my time and go all out with Izuku.

Tt. I wasn't under the impression you were a sadist interested in children fighting, but I'm not exactly surprised. You need a better hobby.

[On second thought, he ascends the stairs past Guren, though his pace is steady and easy. At the top, he half turns and smirks over his shoulder.] You think Midoriya will put me in my place so you can gloat. You're wrong. He's smart and powerful, but in the end, he's too soft. He'll be easy to trick because he cares about his friends more than himself.

[Sweeping one leg back, Damian shifts his weight and presses his heel down on one of the tiles of the platform, activating a mechanism that hastily tucks the stairs into a slippery ramp beneath Guren's feet. What Guren decides to do is up to Guren. Damian is just keeping the man on his toes.]

You also owe me a look at where your portal leads.

[Guren sighs, and just as the stairs begin to tuck away, he hops up the rest of them, landing too easily at the top, rubbing the back of his head.]

You brats just want to give me a headache. Don't you listen to anything I say? I paired people up because they can learn from each other. Both of you have lessons to learn.

[Though this attitude is one he's wishing Damian would learn faster.]

So now you're interested all of a sudden? It's just an empty school, but I can show you, if you really want.

[Regardless of Guren's dodge, Damian continues to retain the smug half-smirk. It was fun to try to annoy and inconvenience the man.]

We're aware of your reasonings behind our pairs. At least, some of us are. I'll still win even if Midoriya puts up a decent fight because I've had more training. [Sorry, Guren... He'll forever be this cocky, probably even a little when he's older.]

I'm curious, not enthralled by the idea. [He's interested.] Why is an empty school the destination for your wormhole? Was it one you attended?

[Now he does hope Izuku creams him. At least once.]

I taught some classes there. Keep in mind this is after the catastrophe— the apocalypse, basically. The school feeds directly into the army, and I have an elite unit within it that I was scouting for talent for, too.

[At that, Damian's face sours slightly, and Guren gets a Look even if it's hard to discern whether the look is exasperated or disgusted.]

So, the Lieutenant Colonel is prospecting for child soldiers to join his--what was it?--Moon Demon Company? You really are a piece of work, Ichinose. [There's a pause, brief.]

I want to see it.

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