entrancelogs | time to take a stroll

_{[The people who come here aren't blank slates--they're carrying baggage with them, sometimes so much so that it conceals the actual person underneath like in Adam's case. They've got other lives, other homes. Truth be told, Blake might have a loose idea of where Adam comes from and where he's been, but Adam knows even less about him.

Blake mentioning Gotham reminds him that he hardly ever asks. Too much stuff going on in the present and his own recent past to bother.]}

Gotham. Like the story.

_{[It's late in coming, this tiny flicker of disbelief. They're even now, he expects. If Blake means that Gotham, then they've both been letters on a page to each other--a mention in a prophet's stupid book, or a spread in a comic.]}

Maybe. Maybe not. I don't think anyone knows what being crazy or hating something's really like. _{[Until you go so far you don't have to wonder if you're too far gone, you just know.]} Maybe it's just easier to see things clearer here and stop going through the motions. Living in a place where you can die anytime makes you more honest.

[ Blake almost asks if there's any difference between the threat level in their home worlds and Wonderland, but he figures it's better not to. Adam's right in that their eyes are more open, and that's essentially a gain, even if it sucks. ]

We're still goin' through the motions. Just diff'rent motions.

[ He shrugs and gestures best toward the mansion. ]

Feels good to get out. Go for a jog every mornin' and it's not 'til today it's really felt like summer. Just a few days a year like this back home. In Gotham. Like the story.

_{[Most of them are going through the motions, anyway. Adam likes to think he's stopped, to an extent. Stopped lying to himself, stopped believing in fate and fairness.

He changes direction and asks the obvious question.]}

So have you seen Batman, too?

_{[After all, it's Gotham City, right? Home to crime, and rich guys who try to be superheroes?]}

Yeah, oh yeah. Not many people in Gotham who haven't. He's kind of a big deal. [ Blake smirks. Yeah, Bruce's Batman was kind of a big deal, but he's never expected his own version to garner such attention, even if he's supposed to be the same guy to the people of that city. Maybe one day... if he doesn't get himself killed first. ]

Helped him save the city 'bout six months before I came here. Most of the cops were outta commission and the streets were on lockdown. It was a crazy coupla months. Par for the course, though. But nothin' like you guy've got goin'.

Here, too?

_{[You know, just... asking. Adam vaguely remembers his first few bouts of consciousness in Wonderland and the bizarre encounter with some kind of costumed Batman in the hall. Compared to the cloud of fire and brimstone he'd been living under, it'd been a nice, fresh, weird breath of air.

Maybe he should question Blake more--it's not everyday you learn someone you're friendly with is from Gotham City--but then again, who is he to talk? He's gotten the grand tour of both Heaven and Hell. He's not winning any awards for normalcy.]}

You saved a city with Batman. _{[His eyebrows rise.]} I'd say that's pretty intense.

[ Blake reaches a hand up to scratch at his hair, squinting a bit at Adam. ]

Yeah, definitely intense. Haven't seen him here, though. Have you?

[ Haha... ha... He's really got to play dumb in the smartest possible way here, because the last thing he needs is another person knowing he wears tights in his space time. ]

Christ, if he was here — the real Batman, I mean — you think half this stuff'd go down like it does?

_{[Adam furrows his brow in consideration. You're going to make him start sounding crazy, Blake. Not that he... isn't already.

He just makes an effort not to showcase in everything he does.]}

Yeah, kind of. We've already got supernatural monsters and superheroes coming out our asses, and look how far that's gotten us.

_{[He avoids answering the original question for another moment, then shrugs.]}

I don't know. I've seen a lot of things. I thought I did, once.

[ Nodding, Blake warily eyes Adam, but only in such a way that suggests he's disturbed at the thought. In some way, he is, but he can't exactly mention that to Adam, can he? ]

Yeah, well, if you see that guy again, you gimme a call, okay? Got some questions to ask him..

[ This is ridiculous. He feels like he's passing notes to himself. Anyone with any kind of idea how people work would likely consider John entirely insane, and maybe they're not that far off. But at least he's in good company, for the most part. ]

_{[Adam debates for a second and then... finally just snorts, shaking his head in amused disbelief.]}

Yeah, sure. I'll do that.

_{[Are they really talking about swapping info on Batman? That real people live in a real place called Gotham. They are. Adam doesn't think he'll ever get used to it.

It's no different than saying his last mailing address had been "Lucifer's Cage, Hell."]}

We're talking about Batman at a beach party in Wonderland, you know that, right? Does that seem totally weird to you, too?

_{[What would be weird is Batman in a pair of swim trunks...]}

[ Weirder yet: Batman in Batman swim trunks. ]

Adam, what doesn't seem totally weird to me? I'm a guy from the poor side of town in a mostly unremarkable city. For the most part, I was a beat cop right up 'til just before I came here. I'm— I'm talkin' to person from another universe 'bout stuff that's real in my world and fictional in everyone else's.

There's just— there's no way talkin' 'bout the Batman at all doesn't sound weird. Weird's our new way. Everything's weird.

It's just weird, is all.

_{[He shrugs, an airy gesture to highlight the comment's dry humor. To people in other worlds, the things of nightmares--monsters that eat you alive, and Hell in the very real sense of the word--probably seem like fiction, too. Even to people in the same world.

Those things are a different kind of weird, the bad kind. Honestly, he prefers Batman and Wonderland. Anyone with a soul left would.]}

What you're saying is, weird's your new normal?

Something like that. [ He grins thinly at Adam and then claps him on the shoulder. ] But I'd rather that than be constantly surprised.

time to take a stroll

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