Dick makes leaps of faith! (shadowofthebat) wrote in sog_ic, @ 2012-09-10 00:52:00 |
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Entry tags: | old - dick grayson, old - harleen quinzel |
Once More, With Squealing
Who: Harleen Quinzel and Dick Grayson
NPCs: Uninvited Guests
Where: Colgate Park
When: Last year, Summer.
What: After a frenzied charity auction, Dick finds himself entangled in the dizzying presence of an old classmate.
Rating: PG-13
Status: Complete.
The park was filled to the brim, a crowd of onlookers and partiers using the excuse to get drunk and act like fools. Potentially a good time, except that Dick was stuck on stage, the last of seven on the auction block. The big prize. He kept his smile plastered, and read the words burned onto the lawn before Colgate Park's auditorium.
Despite the best efforts of the city and its authorities, the grounds near the stage were hit by the same annual prank, and the crowd gathered for the charity auction ate up the 'mystery' of the strange message left burned into the grass. 'Born on a Monday' had become a mantra, based on an old urban legend about early pilgrims who'd met a dark fate in the earliest days of the city. College students gravitated to the myth that there was an entire city deep in the earth where the undying pilgrims toil to this day, waiting to get their vengeance on a city that had wronged and abandoned them, so every year a few students managed to make it out during the summer months to sear the message in.
Dick smiled. He thought it was hilarious. There were certainly bigger problems in Gotham to deal with. It was why he became a police officer. That, and he could no longer condone Bruce's methods, as he'd recruited Cass and then young Tim Drake to the cause, putting them in unnecessary risk. That Dick did not feel the same about his own path, despite the fact that Bruce had trained him before even he'd left high school, was not something he cared to dwell on.
This was a favor. Not to Bruce, but to a city who needed something to focus on that wasn't the crime rate or the economy. So here he was, rookie police officer and young heir to the Wayne Empire, being auctioned off to the highest bidder for a good cause. Somehow, those years at Dartmouth seemed like a joke now. But it was one he was amused by. He'd always had a chip on his shoulder, somehow not liking that he was given this opportunity so many didn't have to get an education and life he hadn't earned.
It was why he became a cop. And because doing the the right thing didn't mean only dealing with it outside the law.
Being Nightwing had improved his sense of control over his life. Dick knew when he joined the force that it was time to shed Robin forever. He'd let Tim have his turn fighting beside Bruce, but if anything happened to Tim like... Dick continued to hope for the best and pushed it out of his mind.
The bidding was getting high. Lights on cameras flashed in a dizzying storm of pomp and circumstance. He was tempted to ditch... but the cause was good. Giving other youth an out by expanding the network of libraries in the city. Good luck getting kids to use them, but they were a tool all the same. And the prize of the high bidder? A cruise with Dick on the Maenad, a luxury liner favored by the elite and with a reputation for drunken revelry that was either well-earned or over-exaggerated for shock value. Three days and three nights... he only hoped it wouldn't turn into some sort of business trip for Wayne Enterprises, or worse, dancing around the clutches of a society matron with more wrinkles than wiles...
The tens of thousands, a number of bids, all going up a bit at a time.... then the auctioneer surprised him. "One... one million! We have one million, going once, twice... SOLD!"
Dick looked for the high bidder in the crowd, but the faces were dark past sunset, and all the lights did more to blind him than aid him. He walked to the center of the stage as a woman approached, climbing the stairs.