With This Ring (Young Justice SI) (Thread Fourteen)

[Mr Zoat]

I'm wondering...that level of sheer hatred for her former body...is she, or was she I guess, trans?

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It's hard to say for sure, but I don't think so.

 

[Stsword]

Why would they waste a Lazarus charge on some random woman with psychological problems?
...
Oh. Right. Supervillains.

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Well the rational thing would be she was an expendable test subject for proof of concept before they start mass producing their own supersoldiers, but they never did that in the comics.

Lady Clayface there was a part of Strikforce Kobra, a group of engineered supers by the Kobra cult- Elemental Woman who can transform matter, Planet Master 2 with a duplicate of the first's supersuit, Zebraman 2 who could attract or repel objects diamagnetically, and Spectumonster.

The less than completely obvious inspirations for the members were the villains the Element Man (who had different powers actually) and the Rainbow Creature.

 

[Chojin Patriarch]

Still not coming out.

Okay, sitting inside a warded area is actually a pretty good plan. The area around the warehouse is empty enough that there's clearly no way it could escape without me noticing. And if I enter the warehouse facility then it might be able to exit through one of the door, or the ventilation-

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Boy, his patience is wearing thin.
Correction: 'the doors, or'

Spoiler: Commentary spoilered for length

Still not coming out.

-or just through a gap in the walls or the roof. The wraith is looking, but I'm not confident of its ability to locate an intelligent object that is actively trying to hide from it inside an internally warded building. I can't leave a drone up here while I search myself because I don't have a drone that could reliably spot a shapeshifter that was making an effort.

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He really has to do something about that. Unfortunately, any system complicated enough to overcome that kind of deception would likely be self-aware in some way.

Still-.

Right! That's it! Gotham doesn't have street magicians and the wards wouldn't stop a serious magician anyway.

I open my eyes, needing to see even the tiniest flicker of emotion within the warehouse. The whole building wavers in my vision for a moment, then snaps back with a tiny orange glow… Tiny orange glows, but those are rats and other minor pests. Only one stands out as a sophont mind. It's hiding… In the main warehouse. Now I don't have to worry about the wards I can easily detect it by ring scan; it's pretending to be some sort of rag doll. The wraith begins flying in its direction with a renewed hunger, but I shake my head.

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Got him. Now to catch him.

I transition into the building. Though this facility is new, most of it predates its current usage. There is more than enough room for me to trace an unobstructed line between myself and my target. The doll doesn't move as I and its greater whole appear, and doesn't have time to as I grab it and dump it into the mud ball with the rest of it.

"This has been a long and annoying night. Reform. Now."

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Yeah, his patience is worn through. I bet the next step if the Clayface didn't comply would be heat lamps?

The doll swiftly dissolves, the shape and then the colours of the 'fabric' merging with the rest of the mass, the doll's face merging with the formerly-vacant mudface. The more complex lights are still there, growing in complexity as whatever it was trying to do to shut itself down stops.

The face shirks, rising from the surface of the mud and becoming noticeably more feminine as it extrudes. Still to misshapen to easily identify as any person in my database, assuming that this being is foolish enough to use its original face.

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Feminine? Oh-ho!

"Please let me go."

"As I told your lesser half, you're under arrest. It is extremely unlikely that I will let you go."

"Please."

"Oh, well since you asked so nicely a second t-. No. What happened to Charles Adelsen?"

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OL sarcasm. It has really been a long night..

"I don't know."

"Uh-huh."

"I was.. given pictures. I was told who he was. I was given recordings of his speach. I never met him myself."

"And who gave you those pictures?"

"Kobra."

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And that's enough to ID this as Lady Clayface, one Sondra Fuller.

"Plausible. Which part?"

"Lady Eve."

Not a well known name, outside of intelligence circles. Still, hardly conclusive. She doesn't keep her name a secret. I imagine that if you move in the right circles it's not too hard to hear it.

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And how likely is it this person would have, eh?

"And how did you end up like this?"

"I hated my natural face. I wanted to change. Lady Eve promised me that she would make it happen."

"Right… But how did you get from that… Actually, how did you get in contact with Lady Eve in the first place? She must have hundreds of willing cultists who'd do anything to get power like this."

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That.. is a very good question.

"I don't know. I just wanted it."

"Oh, come on-."

"I don't!"

Her face expands, her eyes going from a dull red glow to a furious burn.

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She's serious, it appears.

"Kobra agents came to my ro-. My house! They offered and I said yes. I didn't want to be me anymore."

Hm. Perhaps they picked someone who already hated their own body in the hope of them not having so much of a psychological problem adapting to being made of mud? It still seems… Kind of dumb. Someone fanatically loyal would be better. Or several fanatically loyal people. The usual Kobra loyalists wouldn't talk to law enforcers like this.

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As noted above by Mquz, they likely put some magic mind-whammy on her at some point. I doubt she'd be knowledgable enough to regocnise it.

"What exactly did they do to you?"

"They blindfolded me and took me out into the middle of nowhere. There was this… Sarcophagus… Thing, filled with some sort of… Gunk. They said it was some sort of magic and told me to get in."

"And you just… Did?"

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Never underestimate a desperate enough Want.

"Yes."

Ah. Hated her life so much that she wanted to cease existing… Still puzzling how Kobra found her. Or a Lazarus Pit. I could understand Ra's having a few stashed away somewhere, but I'd have thought that a man like him would have had protocols to prevent them falling into the wrong hands.

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Also very good questions that I hope OL remembers to check on, even if he leaves it to the Batfamily.

"Why did they send you here?"

"I was supposed to hide here and wait for other orders. They set up ' Charles Adelsen'… I don't know if they killed him or if he was a Kobra member or if he ever really existed in the first place."

We can check th-. Richard can check that.

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Still sick of Gotham, eh?

"And what do you plan to do now?"

"I.. thought you were going to send me to prison."

"Yes, but assuming that you're telling the truth about Charles Adelsen, I've only got you for your Kobra membership. Taking into account that from what you said you appear to have been more of a test subject than a member, then even adding in the other charges that the District Attorney's office might raise, you're not looking at all that much prison time. And given that you're made of mud, you may well be effectively immortal."

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I'm betting that didn't occur to her at all.

"You tried to hide rather than fight, you're been reasonably cooperative and you haven't shouted 'snake snake' even once. That suggests to be that you're an essentially rational woman. So what I'm going to suggest is that you speak to a colleague of mine and tell him absolutely everything about your contact with Kobra. And you can have a think about what you want to do with the rest of your life. Does that sound like a good idea to you?"

"I.. guess… I just assumed that they'd be watching me."

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...Okay, that's reasonable.

"With a view to doing what, exactly? You're made of mud. I shot the only other person I know about who's like you with a truly terrifying amount of gamma radiation and he was up and about in a couple of months. If you're happy being made of mud and you don't have any external leverage, there's essentially nothing they can do to compel you."

"There's… Someone else like me?"

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Heh, I see the possibility of not being alone in this has her engaged.

"Sort of. He's much worse at shapeshifting than you are. So how about it?"

"And you can keep me safe from Kobra?"

"You can keep you safe from Kobra. But the more information you give me, the more I can do."

"Then… Okay."

Hey. A rational would-be supervillain. Perhaps tonight wasn't a total waste of time after all.

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The night's not over yet..

Well, that was unusual. Both Kobra's plan, and the young lady's willingness to cooperate. Let's hope the night doesn't throw up any worse surprises...

 

[Buggy123]

Much more likely that she was just fat and ugly.

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From the page Zoat provided, it seems like she's just ugly, and they're going with the "incredible thing that we won't actually depict, just describe" route. Whoever that is with the black-and-white costume probably wouldn't be so horrified if she was looking at a normal face.

 

[Mr Zoat]

Correction: 'the doors, or'

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Thank you, corrected.

 

[Prince Charon]

From the page Zoat provided, it seems like she's just ugly, and they're going with the "incredible thing that we won't actually depict, just describe" route. Whoever that is with the black-and-white costume probably wouldn't be so horrified if she was looking at a normal face.

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I'm pretty sure that's Looker, who in setting is known for being quite the... yeah (I think she was a model before she got her powers, but I'm not sure). Sondra isn't just speaking relatively when she calls Looker beautiful.

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Anyone know what episode that's from, or at least the circumstances?

 

[w34v3r]

Question: Has Paragon!Paul appeared on Triple-G's show yet? I think that has some hilarious potential.

 

[Sceptic]

Perhaps tonight wasn't a total waste of time after all.

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Hahahahahahahahahahahaha no.

 

[Mr Zoat]

Question: Has Paragon!Paul appeared on Triple-G's show yet? I think that has some hilarious potential.

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I don't think that GGG's show exists yet. Unlike in canon, Scott Free and Big Barda are around and would spot him immediately.

 

[Breadnaught]

Why would they waste a Lazarus charge on some random woman with psychological problems?

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Apparently OL doesn't know this in character, but Kobra actually have access to a number of Lazarus Pit sites. So it's not really costing them anything to expend a use on this woman as a test subject or something.

Also, while getting a loyal minion to do it would be a better idea, but only if they remain loyal after undergoing whatever fucked up body dysphoria issues they process could grant someone. There's really no guarantee the subject would remain loyal, or particularly sane, after being turned into a mud monster. So I can see the reasoning of using a subject that is both expendable to their organisation, and also hates their current body and would accept a change.


From the wiki:

Like Ra's al Ghul, Kobra owned a hidden network of very specialized Lazarus Pits.

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[Mr Zoat]

Apparently OL doesn't know this in character, but Kobra actually have access to a number of Lazarus Pit sites. So it's not really costing them anything to expend a use on this woman as a test subject or something.

From the wiki:

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Yes, but it's not referenced. I spent a couple of hours trying to find out where they got hold of them and the only thing I found was that by Faces of Evil they already had them.

 

[Ngamer11]

Does Paul have enough reformed villains to make his own group yet? It'd be a good way for him to increase the good he can do, especially when he has to leave Earth for OLC reasons. He could just give info to his own team and they can go fight the good fight planetside while he's out making the universe a better place. Also, they could do things the Justice League couldn't/wouldn't. Just like a combination of the Outsiders and Batman Inc from YJ Season 3.

 

[Mr Zoat]

Does Paul have enough reformed villains to make his own group yet? It'd be a good way for him to increase the good he can do, especially when he has to leave Earth for OLC reasons. He could just give info to his own team and they can go fight the good fight planetside while he's out making the universe a better place. Also, they could do things the Justice League couldn't/wouldn't. Just like a combination of the Outsiders and Batman Inc from YJ Season 3.

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Technically yes, however most of them are in prison.

 

[Mquz]

Technically yes, however most of them are in prison.

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So what's Abra Kadabra doing these days?

 

[theaceoffire]

They could have put in some sort of magical / technological mind control safeguard to turn her into a sleeper soldier. That needs to be checked. Would be fairly hard to do though.

This is probably them trying to figure out what made Clayface transform by using a test subject with the right mindset of wanting to change who they are (something most versions of Clayface have).

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I'm not sure if they could.

Any gadgets installed would turn to mud, and she doesn't have a brain or mind depending on what form she takes.

Maybe soul or magic brainwashing? But if they had that much ability then they would have pro-kobra'ed her.

 

[nick012000]

Technically yes, however most of them are in prison.

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Suicide Squad with a name that's better for morale? Maybe something like the Thunderbolts.

 

[Mr Zoat]

So what's Abra Kadabra doing these days?

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Negotiating. He's got quite a few years left on his sentence, but his surprisingly good behaviour combined with offering assistance during last years breakout attempt means that he might be able to wangle early parole. The only problem with that is that he won't be able to go to Atlantis right away.

Suicide Squad with a name that's better for morale? Maybe something like the Thunderbolts.

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The SI torpedoed Suicide Squad over a year ago. It will be a while before Senator Knight feels the need to revisit a very contentious idea like that.

 

[DAT_NOOB]

The SI torpedoed Suicide Squad over a year ago. It will be a while before Senator Knight feels the need to revisit a very contentious idea like that.

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I would've thought a slightly altered take where supervillains instead of getting time off for good behaviour get to go on a 'suicide squad' to get them off their sentences for playing superhero would be something paul agrees with?

 

[Mr Zoat]

I would've thought a slightly altered take where supervillains instead of getting time off for good behaviour get to go on a 'suicide squad' to get them off their sentences for playing superhero would be something paul agrees with?

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I think this came up earlier, but in summary? No. You don't get called a supervillain for jaywalking. No one in Belle Reve should be doing anything other than rehabilitation. Perhaps a very few n extremis could volunteer for national emergencies, but the fact is that if controlling the inmates was simple then Belle Reve wouldn't be needed.

 

[Grimnar]

Still-.

Right! That's it! Gotham doesn't have street magicians and the wards wouldn't stop a serious magician anyway.

I open my eyes, needing to see even the tiniest flicker of emotion within the warehouse. The whole building wavers in my vision for a moment, then snaps back with a tiny orange glow… Tiny orange glows, but those are rats and other minor pests. Only one stands out as a sophont mind. It's hiding… In the main warehouse. Now I don't have to worry about the wards I can easily detect it by ring scan;

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What... just happened?

Did he just devour the wards at a distance? Without even touching them?

 

[Mr Zoat]

What... just happened?

Did he just devour the wards at a distance? Without even touching them?

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No, he applied enough power that they broke.

 

[Lazurman]

Phew. At least OL can more aggressively counteract scry wards now. The bloody things have long overstayed their welcome.

 

[Massgamer]

So this canon character?

Origins still confusing.

 

[Ganurath]

So this canon character?

Origins still confusing.

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Sondra Fuller.

 

[ForeverShogo]

Well, I think this is supposed to be the face she had before she became Lady Clayface.

 

[Mr Zoat]

Positively indolent.

17th February
09:57 GMT -5

I shuffle across the bed, noting that I appear to have moved during the night so that my face was on Jade's part of the pillow. A quick glance at the flat's internal monitoring shows that there've been no attempted breaches since I got in this morning. There's a team meeting scheduled for this afternoon and I've got no plans to do anything of significance until then.

But…

Ring, status of Sondra Fuller.

I walk in the direction of the kitchen.

Sondra Fuller remains in containment at Gotham Central pending a decision on her possible transfer to Belle Reve.

I take my bowl of milk-soaked oats out of the fridge and put in it the microwave.

Since she clearly isn't insane, there isn't any case for putting Ms Fuller in Arkham Asylum. Despite what some elements of Earth Prime's Bat-media seemed to think, Arkham Asylum is a maximum security hospital and not a prison. Mr Cobblepot -for example- has never been there, as he's clearly sane. Mr Lynns didn't go there initially, as it wasn't originally clear that he had actual pyromania and wasn't just on a more normal power trip. Dr Fries didn't go there before his transfer to Belle Reve. Mr Blake...

The point is, it isn't really a metahuman containment facility. And neither is Blackgate. By the time that Gotham was functional enough for it to be worth considering creating that sort of institution, Belle Reve was up and running and it was judged that it would be better to send them there, relying on Batman to arrange the actual transportation. In fact… Aside from Dr Isley, I don't think Gotham really has any local supervillains who'd need that sort of institution.

I should probably visit her. While I think I convinced her to stay put, imprisonment is an extremely stressful thing and the situation will only get worse if she does something ill-advised. Plus, the Gotham police don't actually have all that much experience in handling metahumans. The Major Crimes unit isn't Metropolis's Special Crimes Unit and I remember… Reading something about the Spiderman villain Sandman. Because his body works nothing like the body of a normal person, if you didn't have the right equipment when you confronted him then you were going to lose.

The microwave pings and I take out my bowl, a construct oven glove automatically appearing around my right hand. That's nice to see after last-. This morning's construct-failure. I'm not used to not wanting to do the thing I'm working on. The privilege of being an absurdly powerful superhero and your own boss. I had thought about trying to get myself more invested in Gotham, but I just… The place is getting better and there aren't any supervillains powerful enough to actually need me to deal with them. I wanted to make it clear that I was available if I was required, and then… Things just snowballed.

Ugh.

I'll need to check in with John Quinn and Dr Balewa-. Actually… Do I? Dr Balewa had clear seniority, John's allegedly grandfathered Justice League membership notwithstanding. And… Find out if Talia got anywhere.

A construct filament opens a nearby cupboard and pulls out a box of granola. I shake a handful out onto the porridge for texture and sweetness, then return the box to the cupboard before generating a construct spoon and taking a mouthful.

Or do I? Dealing with baleful supernatural foes is actually Dr Balewa's job, by virtue of his Justice League membership. I'm just a volunteer. Building rep with the Gotham establishment doesn't benefit me at all; it just might save them a little time in a crisis because they know they can call on me. No, the relics John sounded like he wanted to acquire. Those might actually be beneficial. The gang who attacked the Dragons and the gang who attacked the mayor… Don't care. Kobra gang… Don't care. We took down one crazy cult and another expanded to fill the void. The best way to stop their local spread is by improving social institutions and employment opportunities, both of which are already underway and neither of which I can really help with.

I'm not feeling particularly heroic at the moment.

I frown, spoon evaporating in my bowl. I had been assuming that enlightenment rendered me immune to external mental influences, and that has been borne out so far. But…

I step

fully into the Honden, fragments of all of the desires Jade felt here mapping out an approximate representation of the room. And previous residents too, I notice. My own don't stick out in the same way, fitting into the metaphysical flow of the place better than those of people who don't integrate them quite so well. In theory, only the Ophidian and I can access this place at the moment, though I imagine that wizards and mystics of various stripes have peeked into it at one time or another. Since I don't have a physical body there shouldn't be any way for most mundane influences to work.

So… Gotham…

Yeah, I don't care about the place. Saving that people I care about live in it. I can't even sell it to myself as a structure which was built by human hands and so has value as a manifestation of human ingenuity. Almost every place I've been was clearly built by the lowest bidder to the lowest standards, even the apparently nice property.

There are reasons why I haven't tried visiting Blüdhaven. With Gotham I just can't be bothered to upgrade things with my rings anymore. With Blüdhaven I'm genuinely concerned that I might start tearing it down.

I look around at my orange light body. No unnatural-looking strands anchoring me to things, no unnatural-looking cut ends where I should be connected to things. That still leaves the possibility that my other emotions are being influenced, but that's less of an immediate concern.

I suppose that's as much assurance as I'm going to get. I step

back into the material world, picking up my bowl again and recreating my spoon. So what, what is my next objective? The gnomes are working on Dolmen Gate production so planes and long distance road travel are going to be a thing of the past. Power generation is getting much cheaper. Inclement weather… Volcanism? There must be a few volcanologists who might be lured into animistic magic. I can't think of any volcanologists from DC at the moment but I'm sure they were there. But as concerning as Yellowstone is, volcanic activity isn't a widespread concern-.

The doorbell rings.

I turn to the door, frowning mildly. Who-? Oh. Talia.

I put my bowl down, swap my pyjamas for a morning suit and then walk over to the door, my ring disarming the flat's defensive systems as I go. I open the door and then step back to allow her inside.

Talia is similarly dressed for a business occasion. Though Batwoman visiting the house of Orange Lantern would make perfect sense, it isn't really a sensible getup to loiter around in during the bright of the day. People would ask her for selfies, and I'm sure that she'd find that demeaning.

She walks inside and waits for me to shut the door and reactivate the security before speaking.

"Winslow Heath."

Ring? Ah. No, hang on.

I frown. "Why would he spread Smilex?"

"He wished to revenge himself upon Batman for failing to permanently end the Joker." I raise my right eyebrow. "I suspect that his own exposure to Smilex has affected his reasoning. He wished to sell the Smilex-based narcotic cheaply enough to addict people, and then use that addiction to encourage them to cause violent havoc across the city. Now, he will spend many years in Blackgate."

"Not Arkham? If his mind has been compromised that much, wouldn't that be a better place for him?"

"In the same facility as the Joker?"

"Plenty of people in Arkham have wanted to kill each other before. A secure hospital is either secure or it's not, and if it's not then I'd rather find out using people who aren't going to get better than people who might."

"Fortunately, you are not the one who makes such decisions."

I nod. "Well done for tracking him down. I got a bit distracted."

"Perhaps you will give me a little more deference in future."

"I'd like to argue that I was perfectly happy to acknowledge your abilities, but honestly? What I learned yesterday and this morning was that I don't care about Gotham. You're welcome to it. Have as much fun as you like and call me when you need fire support."

She regards me cautiously for a moment. "That's all you have to say?"

"Yes. The Bat-signal's all yours."

"Very well then." She turns away and walks towards the door. Then she stops and looks back at me with a frown. Then she returns her attention to the door and marches out of the flat.

 

[hkim]

rip talia's ego, slain by an orange man

 

[Handlewithcare]

Ah yes, expecting an apology from an Orange Lantern. A futile effort.

 

[Ngamer11]

I bet she imagined that scenario a lot differently in her head. She probably feels a bit insulted that someone (apparently) younger than her is not giving her respect. I bet if she asked he'll reply he'll do it when she's earned it.

 

[Flux Casey]

"Fortunately, you are not the one who makes such decision."

I nod. "Well done for tracking him down. I got a bit distracted."

"Perhaps you will give me a little more deference in future."

"I'd like to argue that I was perfectly happy to acknowledge your abilities, but honestly? What I learned yesterday and this morning was that I don't care about Gotham. You're welcome to it. Have as much fun as you like and call me when you need fire support."

She regards me cautiously for a moment. "That's all you have to say?"

"Yes. The Bat-signal's all yours."

"Very well then." She turns away and walks towards the door. Then she stops and looks back at me with a frown. Then she returns her attention to the door and marches out of the flat.

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Talia still tragically misreading the situation. Still talking down to him, still with the attitude that she knows best and should not be questioned (just like dear old dad), still thinking he actually gives a crap about her in any way shape or form.

And then he tells her to her face that he was slumming it and doesn't care about her, her husband's city (jury's out on if she considers it "hers" like he does) or even most of the people living in it.

Even when he told her exactly what his feelings were on this whole thing she still didn't quite get it. She doesn't deserve to call herself a Bat.