Re: Steph/Bruce -- Steph's loft.
[The squeeze earned a shaky smile, and she turned away briefly, audibly sniffing before she sighed deeply. Trying to stave away the pain, trying to fight tears, trying to be some semblance of functional. How had she gotten here? Where the fuck did her Pollyanna attitude go? When did she stop being the optimistic one? Was it after her divorce? Or on Earth-3? Or earlier than that? She pushed her sunglasses up her nose, swiping at rouge tears as she reached up. A laugh bubbled out at his wry smile, and she side-eyed him with a smile of her own.]
Oh, yeah. Just like you to get philosophical. [She wanted to press more, but then he asked his question. Sighing again, she continued walking, Flounder leading the way down the street towards a small park/playground around the corner. Steph jerked her head in that direction, silent question about whether they should go there, and then looked down at her beat-up Converse sneakers.] I was in a circus, I was the magician. Illusionist. Whatever. [She waved a hand.] Everything was nice and fine, the circus was ending for the night. I was out focusing on fixing some locket. I have no idea why. Then, out of nowhere, some man comes in, asks for some cotton candy and when I brought him to the stand? He started massacring the entire place. [A shaky sigh, and her grip tightened on Flounder's leash.] I couldn't help any of them. I couldn't save them. I stabbed the man in the chest, and he just went off to do more damage. [She bit down on her lip, looking up at the sky.] It was the Joker. Of course it was. [She sounded almost amused.] Of course it was.