Event Eleven.

[awashmods]

"Four ducks on a pond, A grass-bank beyond, A blue sky of spring, White clouds on the wing; What a little thing To remember for years -- To remember with tears!"

he day is normal. It's a bit chillier than it's been, the nip of fall in the air, but as the new people in the Town settle in... things have gotten peaceful. And yet. When everyone goes out to greet their neighbors, to hug their friends, to shake hands or make eye contact or who knows what -- they'll realize very, very quickly that nothing about today is normal at all, actually. Hopefully nobody minds a little extra sharing today. Welcome to Awash's eleventh 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!

Comments

[bittybat]

[Damian barely has time to step on the ice to test it. The memory hits him like a brick, but experiencing it isn't quite as bad as the surprise of its beginning.

It hurts his heart, in a way. He doesn't at all act as if he's very sympathetic or even empathetic, but... seeing, hearing, feeling what Shouto feels. Relatable in the emotions. Damian understands. Damian sees it happening.

There's a lump in the bottom of his throat at the end, suffocating him. He's tense, unsure how Shouto may react to the exposure, but not defensive. It's not enough. It only left a taste. An uncertain longing.

He doesn't walk forward or walk back.] What happened?

[glaciers]

[ That was a long, stressful walk. But he made it there. He still feels guilty about the way she was treated, how she's been in the hospital for a decade and nobody's there to get her out. One day... One day he'll rescue her from the cage his father locked her in. ]

We talked. It was... hard at first.

[ After that much time they were basically strangers. They barely knew anything about each other's lives. ]

She... She forgave me surprisingly easily. [ Does he feel like he deserves that? Not entirely. She would've been well within her rights to tell him never to come back. ]

[bittybat]

[Admittedly, Damian isn't sure what to say. There's not really much he can say that hasn't already been said, and nothing he can say which will change anything. He and Shouto have a quiet, gentle bond over something shitty, so Damian can lowkey call them friends. Maybe.

Besides, Shouto is important to Izuku, and Damian is fairy fond of Izuku, too, who reminds him of Jon.

Carefully, he steps up along the ice walkway and reaches out to put a hand on Shouto's shoulder reassuringly. He nods, lowering his hand again. Shouto did the right thing.]

I'll tell you a story about parental forgiveness when we get to the boathouse.

[glaciers]

[ He'd definitely like to think he's doing the right thing. Slowly repairing an old, burnt bridge with weekly letters and meeting whenever he can find the time.

It's not great that either he or Damian have such a complicated history with their families. But it's something they share that he's not sure anybody else would understand.

Shouto gives Damian a little nod before walking towards the house. ]

I tried to visit her every weekend.

[ He misses it now that he's stuck in Chroma. ]

[bittybat]

[With some caution--and balance and sure footing--Damian follows alongside Shouto across the walkway to the boathouse. It's not very far, luckily, so it won't take them long to reach the porch steps and the door.]

Visiting her helps her, you know. [That might not make Shouto feel very good about missing it now, but--look. Damian is trying to be helpful... even if it sounds kind of clinical. He's trying.] People who have been through trauma and isolate themselves don't recover as well as those who continue to be social active.

Getting there isn't easy, I'm aware. But I think she started getting better when she finally saw her son again.

[glaciers]

[ The only shoes Shouto arrived with were his hero outfit's, so he has no problem walking across the ice. But he matches his pace to Damian's. ]

I didn't know that. [ Trauma... that's what living with his father was like for his mother. Years and years of trauma and being used as a tool. But mental health is barely covered anywhere at home. ]

I think my siblings visited even when I didn't. [ Or at the very least Fuyumi did. He can't say anything about Natsuo or Touya. ]

[bittybat]

Not a lot of people talk about it. Not even where I'm from. [Mental health. Lord knows Damian and the Bat family needs the most of it.] She wasn't always alone, is the good thing.

You know... she probably thought you were angry with her. When you didn't go see her, even if she understood. It's best you went and let her know that wasn't the case.

It takes more courage to do that than fight super villains.

[glaciers]

I thought she never wanted to see me again. [ The whistling of the kettle and the boiling water incident happened when he was five. He'll never be able to forget it. Or the way his mother spoke on the phone. Every day his left side looked more like his father... His left side was unbearable, hideous.

It was never her fault. His father was awful and abusive and didn't care about anything but the prize at the end. Never mind the people who surrounded him. ]

It took me a long time to visit her. But I was never angry at her.

[ If Izuku never got involved in his life, he doesn't know if he ever would. Nervousness and guilt sticking to every memory. ]

[bittybat]

[Damian makes it across without embarrassing incident, and he moves from the icy walkway to the porch and opens the door to let them both in.

It's... sure a thing, the boathouse. A mish-mash of two very Different boys trying to coexist. Damian is minimalistic like his father; things either have a place, or they should be hidden out of the way. Jon, on the other hand, while not a disaster, doesn't mind; organized chaos in spurts here and there.

It looks much like Jon whirlwinds through, and Damian follows along behind (tries) to keep things in order. No fridge, of course, but Jon has plastered drawings to the wall of the stairwell leading up to the balcony above and outsider. A ten year old's art: the greatest, not the worst. Many of it drawings of them or drawings making fun of Damian, a lot of exaggeratedly >:( faces on a tanned boy's head.

The Superboy is missing, but there's a note on the counter in the kitchen that says,

D,
took krypto to play with ace
giving batcow the love and attention she deserves
what are we eating for dinner?
J

Damian motions to--the general area inside.] We can sit on the balcony if you'd rather be outside.

[glaciers]

[ Even Izuku and Shouto's shared space doesn't look so divided. But what's that saying? Opposites attract? There's probably a reason they decided to live together even with... how the boathouse is.

But the art is pretty endearing in its own way. Damian apparently left them up, so he can't be that bothered by them.]

The balcony would be good.

[ He's not sure he wants to be inside right now. ]

[bittybat]

[Obligingly, Damian goes up the small staircase and opens the hatched door to the flat roof of the house and the deck, holding the door so Shouto can follow and come out. It is better, in a way. Open, freer. The air is cooler, and there's a breeze because of the water.

The chairs aren't deck chairs and look out of place, but Damian and Jon have put two normal chairs up here for sitting. It seems, actually, like they may spend a good majority of time here, too. He lets Shouto pick a seat.]

I said I would tell you a story.

[glaciers]

[It's nice up here, in the crisp ocean air. It looks like the house's residents agree. So he settles into one of the chairs and looks ready for story time.]

About parental forgiveness. [He was listening when Damian said it.]

[bittybat]

Yes. [Damian lifts his head a bit and peers out at the harbor and the sky on the horizon. He's frowning, but more in a contemplative way.] I think it was easy for your mother to forgive you. In fact, I don't think she believed she had anything she should forgive you for, but regardless, it was easy.

Because you were her son.

[His head lowers. He glances at Shouto, near the chest, the seat of the chair, and then he moves to sit in the other one.] My father doesn't believe in killing. Anyone. It sounds expected to some people, that it's wrong to kill. But Father believes even criminals shouldn't be killed no matter what they've done.

I was never raised that way with my mother. She taught me anyone opposing me should die; survivors were a detriment, a loose end.

There was a night, even after having lived with my father, when I killed someone. I did it on purpose, voluntarily. I wanted the man to die because he said he would come back and hurt Father, and I knew he would do it.

It's one of Father's highest moral codes, not killing. I knew I was a disgrace. I knew he would disown me. I would never be his son again; I was a monster. And yet... he forgave me. I still don't understand why. He didn't send me away. He didn't turn me in. He didn't hate me.

[glaciers]

[No, he definitely should've apologized for scaring her all those years ago. It took him too long to meet her too. There's a lot of things they had to talk about.

That's a lot for a kid to deal with he thinks. But maybe he can understand, just a little bit. Damian... he grew up with his mother, who had a very different way of thinking, who used Damian like a tool. All sharp edges and brutality from a young age.

Then he started living with his father, who didn't believe in killing. But Damian didn't want to lose something precious, family.]

It comes back to the same thing. You're family.

[bittybat]

Exactly.

[He glances over at Shouto, looks away, then finally looks back again for longer than a few seconds.] My point is it was easy for your mother to forgive you for whatever happened because you're both family.

More so in your case. You didn't exactly do anything wrong, not intentionally.

[glaciers]

[It's hard to argue logic like that. And mother already forgave him for it all so easily.]

You're pretty good at this. [Dealing with other people's guilt. Maybe it's because they were similar to begin with.]

[bittybat]

[For a moment, Damian looks a tad embarrassed. He turns his head away and keeps it facing out over the boat and the water.]

You can thank Richard Grayson if he ever shows up here. He's the idiot who always tried talking people through their problems. I guess some of it rubbed off on me.

[glaciers]

It's not a bad thing.

[Even if Damian is embarrassed about it.]

I'll remember if I meet him. What does he look like?

[bittybat]

Short, black hair, blue eyes. Athletic. He's in his late twenties. [He acts like he almost says something else, but then rethinks it.

He's not sure if Grayson would pop up in Nightwing gear or cop gear or as simply Grayson. Thanks, town.] He's overly nice, will probably say he was in a circus, and he tells the world's worst jokes at the most inopportune moments.

You'll know it's him immediately.

[glaciers]

[Is he like... a big brother? What's going on in the Damian extended family.]

Sounds like you've spent a lot of time with him. Or at least with his jokes.

[bittybat]

Unfortunately, he was already my father's ward before I arrived, and I had little choice.

[THE WORST BIG BROTHER.]

There's two others, one official and one as illegitimate as they come, [This sounds super sarcastic, and it's bold coming from a legal bastard like Damian.] but they aren't even worth the words to explain. Two girls, only one of them officially adopted, my Father's cousin, and the Commissioner's daughter. We're in an extra now: Duke Thomas, friend of the family like Gordon.

Pennyworth, our butler. Titus, Ace, Batcow, and Pennyworth, the cat.

[Shouto's fam is almost as big as Damian's. Wild.]

Let's hope I'm the only one you'll ever see here.

[glaciers]

[There's no possible way they're as bad as Damian's trying to make them out. One of them taught Damian how to talk out his feelings. That's pretty important.]

I didn't realize your family was that big.

[bittybat]

[Damian's quiet, not entirely upset sigh says more than he probably could about the situation of the Wayne "family."]

Father may seem serious, but in truth, he cares very much about people. Especially children. He... [Here, Damian thoughtfully pauses and frowns, his eyes downcast.] I believe it was lonely for him. His parents died when he was young, and he had been the only child living in an eleven bedroom mansion.

Now, he tries to fill it with people. And I suppose he has the financial means of caring for a big family and friends of the family.

[glaciers]

[Lonely... he knows that emotion well, though it was inflicted on him by a parent than due to circumstance like Damian's father.]

Taking care of others... that's not a bad thing.

[And then when Shouto goes back home, he'll start donating to an orphanage.]