exceptfebruary | Mask or Menace: IC Contact

[Crane's voice might ring familiar. Same polite tone, same unassuming beat - a little lower, of course. Words flow longer, and sometimes he pauses for air, but its essential character is the same.]

Though I realize you are a busy man this time of year, Mr. Day, please return this call. The matter might interest you.

Edited 2016-02-13 13:40 (UTC)

[ He calls back quickly, in the middle of preparations for tomorrow. ]

It's your day today, Scarecrow. [ And the birthdate of that name. ] I am not too busy for you today.

[His proper name. His deserved respect.

Good.]

Excellent. Straight to business, then. [A longer pause for air. There's a slight remoteness in his tone. His mind's still back in Gotham.] Our ghost in the machine chose to mess with me again. I thought to call you first. For the sake of your work

[So appreciative!]

You were ported out. [ The obvious conclusion. But Crane has his full attention, the need to know clear in Julian's voice. And first (so good of Scarecrow) implies - ] You got back today? Your day.

Yes. My ninth anniversary.

[It's a short, simple message with a power all its own. Nine years. Nine repeats of the calendar. Meetings. Experience. The amount of dates must be staggering, and Julian's brain will do all the work. He doesn't have to say anything else.]

[ Ninth anniversary. Nine years. Minus the year he spent in this world, that meant he went home for eight.

He went home and gained back years.

Julian had been ported back to Gotham, lived six months and came to this world 3 years, 1 month and 26 days later to find out almost everyone he'd made an impact on had been ported out or died when the previous universe ended. One leap year to another, for mere months of home.

And Scarecrow gets back years in the span of days ]

[ He breathes. Tries to calm himself. He knows there is an audible silence on his end.

He decides not to focus on how unfair it is, but on how he has been vindicated.Jonathan Crane came back on the 13th of February, the same day he arrived a year ago, and the same day he became Scarecrow. ]

I was right.

Tell me what happened during those years. Tell me who you met. [ Did you meet him? ]

Edited 2016-02-13 15:42 (UTC)

[It's almost cute, the eagerness Julian speaks with. He denotes it against his need to be vindicated, as being opposite his existential fear of being forgotten, and considers how best to make use of that. How far would Julian go? He wants to know. He wants to make it happen. He wants that control back in his hands.]

I met tens of thousands of people, Julian. You cannot expect me to remember all of them. And most of them, like Falcone, got exactly what they deserved. [He clicks his tongue in his cheek. Tens of thousands of names on his rolls. Should he remember them all?] Harvey Dent prosecuted my case. Gordon provided him with transcripts of my interrogation. Joker was... himself. Ask the Batman about that one. He'll have plenty to tell you. [He inhales deeply.] But Bane... you should have seen it, Julian. Everything the Joker is capable of, he did it better. I was there. I got to see it. And it was glorious.

[Julian might notice his own name missing, there. It's deliberate.]

[ Harvey Dent he expected. Harvey was one of the older ones too, even before he was Two-Face. Gordon too. The Joker he wasn't fond of, but Julian wouldn't deny he was memorable.

The names missing were notable too, like Poison Ivy, Mad Hatter, Riddler, or Catwoman. Maybe they were among the thousands. But after eight years, it seemed odd that they hadn't made an impression.

He did notice the lack of his own name. That wasn't right. Especially if Scarecrow was bringing up Bane. He hadn't even shown up until very recently, mere months ago for Julian. And so many others has been in the interim. He was sure there'd be some who Crane would mention if he had, including himself. It didn't make sense.

It became clear to him, now more than ever, that the world this Jonathan crane game from really was very different from his own. ]

Bane I haven't met. Personally, that is. But he did help me get early parole. [ And everybody else in Arkham. And Julian had used the opportunity to skip town.

He doesn't want to talk about Bane. ]

Which Falcone?

[ If Crane remembered Holiday and not him, he'd have to break something. ]

Carmine Falcone.

[He replies promptly, airily. His cold tone shows he feels nothing for the man. Before his vacation he would have given his thoughts on the blowhard, but now he's more patient, more willing to let Julian ask. The fact they have both met some version of Bane is remembered and filed away.]

Ah yes, the father. [ He sounds relieved. Evidently Alberto was not worth a mention. ]

Did Harvey kill him?

[Harvey and Falcone. A link of logic that implies the two are personally connected where Julian is from. Interesting, interesting. But still, Julian wants his information, and he's going to have it.]

No. Death would have been preferable. You're familiar enough with my work in some form. So you know what happens to those who dare threaten me. Especially when I'm still making preparations.

[Before February 13th, in other words.]

[ That Bane turned up and the events of the long Hallowe'en hadn't - everything about Crane's universe was wrong.

Scarecrow's actions and Carmine's fate make sense in terms of actions taken, even if the events were out of order. And a part of him approves. He has no love lost for Falcones. ]

A different fate, but not one I would mourn. They tried to keep up, the mob. But they were eclipsed by those of us who were more. The ones who gave ourselves new names and fought the Bat.

[ Pause. He's afraid to confirm his suspicion, but he needs to know - ] But "we" as... colleagues never happened for you, did it? You haven't met me.

[There's a pause on Crane's end. He's not afraid of telling it like it is, brutally, truthfully, but he has to manage Julian at the same time. Plus there is a fellowship between those from Gotham who are... more, as Julian puts it. Even for those from a Gotham where everything was evidently wrong.]

No. Not yet. Yet, much as I hate my present confinement, it seems here there is semblance of family. I am not as ignorant as to believe our emotions and feelings are the same, but the symbols, well, they speak for themselves, don't they? The Batman is a constant, indelible presence in all our lives.

[ The use of the word family hit him hard. Julian's family, his real one, was never much to speak of. Neglect would be an understatement. And unfortunately, it had been quite some time since any of the Rogues felt like family to him. If they ever did.

Perhaps he craved it. Perhaps that's why he joined the Misfits, why he put together the Time Foes.

He pauses again, chewing his lip. ] It must be dire, if the few of us that are here are a semblance of family. There's so many of us. A gallery of symbols.

But yes, we will always have a Batman. Our sun. [ Which decides the length of the year, the seasons. It is integral to the existence of the calendar, like how the Batman is integral to his rogues. ]

[Crane falls silent. If the use of "family" had hit Julian hard, the word "always" was ruminating inside his own mind. His answer doesn't come for a long while. The Batman was a constant present in Julian's life. He was like the sun, yes.

And unfortunately he could be quite angry when reminded of what others possess, and of what he lacks.

He speaks, finally, controlling himself.]

Julian. Have you ever wondered what the moon would look like without the sun?

[There's a firm point to this. The moon only shines because it reflects the sun's light. Take out the sun - take away the Bat - and what happens? Does the moon become nothing? It still exists. But still...]

[ Julian had met other bats in the City. Other men (and women, for that matter) who had taken on the mantle. He had met people from his future who had said they'd fought the Batman. Julian didn't particularly care about who wore the mask. The symbol, as it were, was more important.

Cycles. The calendar was one big cycle, and everything would come around again in some form or another. Spring would always follow winter, January 1st would always follow December 31st, and - ]

Though the new moon is dark, eventually the sun will return and it will become full again. [ Nightwing will become Batman, and the cycle will continue.

But more worryingly is that Crane wouldn't ask without reason. Julian had noted that reaction. Whatever reason Crane was asking for, it was important. To Crane, but also to him; the Batman in this world was part of Crane's matching pair. If something happened, what would that mean if Batman ever ported out? ]

Tell me. Where did the sun go?

[Crane manages to merge disbelief with scorn in his voice seamlessly.]

It exploded.

[He had heard about the plane flying out to sea. How it had exploded in a final sacrifice to save the city. He didn't particularly believe it. The problem, as it were, was that ~~the real~~ Batman had never shown his face afterward.]

What? [ His reaction is incredulous, losing his composure for a second.

There's a pause as he regains it. ] Explain.

[An immediate response, though his voice is calm and controlled and more detached, as though he's separating himself from the loss.]

Gotham lived under the threat of nuclear winter. For five months people withered; surviving till tomorrow became less of a guarantee. Bane isolated Gotham from the world and kept its people hostage by wielding the threat of nuclear detonation. But if winter comes, can spring be far behind?

[Percy Bysshe Shelley. Crane clears his throat and his voice is slightly higher.]

Batman sacrificed his life for Gotham.

Are you certain?

The clouds or the sunset may hide the Sun from our eyes, but it will always rise again. One way or another. There can be no spring or summer without the Sun, after all.

[ There will always be a Batman. There has to be. ]

The people erected a memorial.

[He says matter-of-factly, like he's giving expert testimony.

But underneath it he's regarding their conversation with a cold, detached interest.]

Yet they believed he murdered Harvey Dent. You can calculate the movements of the calendar, Julian, but not the madness of people.

[No guns. No killing. He inhales deeply.]

I am certain he is alive.

[Might even have seen the sun again, personally. But it's not the same.]

I believe you're right.

[ He pauses, something that Crane said just sinking in. What is this about Harvey Dent being murdered? Maybe Harvey wasn't really dead? That sounds about right for Gotham.

Still, it was unsettling. The implications. ]

He wouldn't have murdered Harvey Dent. Why would they think he did?

[He presses his lips together. His tone is blank and emotionless. The disappointment.]

Conspiracy. The Batman took the blame for Harvey's appalling crimes so that Gordon could, to his shame, build a lie around his fallen idol. Both concealed Dent's madness from the public, and presented Dent as the shining example of justice.

They lied to the people of Gotham.

[A beat. His tone almost hides the fact he's full of glee. Almost.]

It wasn't accepted well.

So Harvey died. And no one knew him as Two-Face. [ A Gotham where Two-Face was kept secret. Begrudgingly, Julian can see how that can make the timeline skew off from how it was supposed to go. ]

But you knew the truth?

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