Who:Raven and Dick What:Chatting When:recently Where:His house Warnings:none. STATUS:complete
Dick was getting bored, so a room in his house was becoming a training room. One where he could take students. Honestly he sort of missed the apartment, it had a great rooftop space for things like this-but he had a pretty large house. Tons of rooms and only one or two rooms he actually used. He was just getting off the phone with a contractor to put in a large wall mirror, that part he didn’t really know how to do and didn’t trust himself with tearing out a wall. Floors were quite different. Those were easy enough, just took forever.
Plus he was specific with what he wanted. He wanted tatami mats. They felt good under bare feet, they were sturdy and could handle a lot. Except shoes, you didn’t wear shoes on tatami mats or you got glared at. He stuck a pencil behind his ear as he glanced over at the desk in that room.
Just that morning, his escrima sticks had shown up and he hadn’t even really touched them yet. He chewed at his lip and reached out to touch one. The wood felt nice. They were weirdly familiar, and he’d forgotten about that feeling. It was so strange.
Dreams were annoying. Well, that was a given. Being constantly in pain thanks to the Dreams and fighting to keep Trigon locked away was….exhausting. But the empath pushed through it because she had to. Of course that morning she had woken up from the latest dream. They had found Damian and he had decided to show them everything he had lost thanks to Clark’s original plan, and how he apparently had decided to go back on his promise and used the Lazarus Pit on Dick and it hadn’t gone well.
Which of course it didn’t. So while she had half a mind to hunt down Damian, Raven didn’t. And instead she just decided to go bother Dick to distract herself from the pain and Trigon and everything really. And because why bother with formalities like texting ahead and instead the twenty one year old just focused and thus appeared through a portal in the room that Dick was with his escrima sticks.
“It’s coming along.” Because what were proper greetings?
Given their mental link it wasn’t like he was going to be startled by her random appearances, though he was quite lost in his thoughts when she showed up. He hadn’t really expected anything to show up from the dreams. He forgot what a weird sensation it was. It wasn’t like these days he was really parading around as Nightwing. He was a detective. Occasionally in New York he put on the suit, but normally he preferred his badge over vigilante justice..though it did have some perks.
He gripped the weapon fully in hand for a moment before setting it down and glancing over at the voice nearby. “Getting there anyway, thought about installing mirrors on my own but..out of my realm of expertise.” He admitted. He hated having to call in someone else, but there was a reason specialists existed.
“Not really sure this is the right thing to do..but..it’s a thing I guess.” It could potentially become money if his classes got big enough, so it was kind of an investment.
The Dreams liked to do that. Randomly remind you of their weirdness, like items showing up. And the escrima sticks were definitely better than a jagged pipe that she had been about to kill herself with. So she would chalk that up as a win for Dick. Admittedly, she had always kept up her patrols, even in New York. Still, that was the life it seemed. And now? Now they were back in Orange County with everything that brought.
“And it’s very important we acknowledge when things are out of our expertise. You get a gold star for that.”
Gold stars made everything better. Wasn’t that the belief?
“Sometimes the right thing only appears like a thing….or something.” She could be profound and sometimes she just fell over her words. Today seemed to be more falling over words day. She’d adjust though. Still, she had been shocked when she saw the post and while she helped Kory with her powers, self defense? She could thanks to her own training with Dick but not so much in training someone else, “Might I suggest not using a sword and stopping it right in front of the eye just yet?” Raven? She wouldn’t blink. Newbies though? They might second guess their decision.
“I want two.” He held out a hand for a serious moment as if he actually expected gold stars just to see what she did. One didn’t just threaten stars and not deliver, right? Right? “Looks like your friend Kory will be joining me too.” He wasn’t sure if that would be weird or not, but who the hell knew. He’d just barely started Dreaming again. Apparently she knew Raven, so did she know him too already? Whatever, fact of the matter was people should know how to defend themselves, it didn’t matter what the reason was. That was something he believed in-and could help with if they did not.
Besides, it was giving his brain a break from spiraling downward, and that was something he needed. Otherwise he could be prone to just hiding away in that house, reading a book or otherwise ignoring the world-and it wasn’t really like him. He just wasn’t sure how to cope with loss. At least not in a healthy way.
Nightwing had other options for coping, and now that his weapons of choice had shown up he felt that familiar itch to try them out. “Dream fairy broke into my house last night I think.” He stated in reference to the weapons. They hadn’t been there the day before.
Interdimensional portals were good for producing gold stars, so she just shook her head in amusement and produced two gold stars for Dick, handing them to him with a nod as he mentioned that Kory was going to be joining them.
“Yeah? That’s good. I’ve been helping her with her powers, but….” There was a difference between learning control over powers and self defense training. Raven could do some of that as well, but really, best to leave it to someone more trained for teaching. As for if Kory had come across Dick in the Dreams? Raven couldn’t say. It hadn’t come up in conversation.
Nodded at the comment about the Dream fairy.
“So I see. And with a useful gift at that.”
He would be putting those stars up on his fridge later, thank you. He pocketed them and glanced over with a raised eyebrow. “Anything I should know about her powers..I really don’t know anything at all about her yet.” Beyond her name and the name Starfire he was basically clueless. His dreams had been a bit on the random side.
“Not sure about useful, but at least it isn’t traumatizing. I’ll settle on that.” He wasn’t really doing much Nightwing stuff these days, but he had been feeling a bit of an itch since losing Ruby. What better way to bury your pain than to go galavanting on rooftops?
Or was it insane. It was probably insane.
As Dick asked about Kory’s powers, Raven could only shrug. It was still weird how his dreams jumped around so that he didn’t actually have the information even if it felt like he should but it wasn’t like there was much she could do about that.
“I’m still figuring out specifics since the version of the Dreams she’s having are a version I haven’t had,” When one had five sets of Dreams to contend with, it became a headache to keep everything straight, especially when you had friends who were dreaming either of one version or a completely new one, “But the basics feel the same. Tamaranean physiology, so superhuman strength and durability. She can absorb solar energy and also use thermal energy as an offensive attack, known as Star bolts.” Which had not been fun to feel when Kory had attacked her right after she had unlocked her memories, but that was months ago now, “I’m not sure yet if they’re tied to her emotions like they’ve been in some Dreams or not but those are the basics I can think of.”
The comment on the gift at least not being traumatizing was met with a nod. Because yeah, she had no idea if he would pick up the Nightwing thing again or not, though the arrival of the escrima sticks certainly would seem an invitation or something. Plus something to do to bury grief. Okay not really that healthy but no matter.
“Fair enough. Not traumatizing is always a good thing.”
He didn’t really appreciate the Dreams being out of order either, if he could force them back in order he would. He chalked it up to leaving Orange County and returning. Maybe they got screwed up and reset, he had time to think about things. The house was big and quiet.
In fact he’d also been thinking of having Raven move in, but he’d bring that up later. “Oh, I’m sure that’ll be unpredictable fun. Everyone loves roulette that could end in your face being burned off.” He rolled his eyes as he set the weapon back down and shook his head.
“I’m pretty sure the dreams are baiting me.” Trying to drag him back into the insane world of Nightwing and Bat people.
The Dreams could be weird like that. Then again, Raven had planned on avoiding the network entirely to avoid new Dreams and then ended up getting a new set not twenty four hours after moving back and not having gone on the network. So being out of order just to be annoying and get reset could always be a thing. Who even knew.
“I know it’s my favorite game. Thus why I’m helping her learn how to control and use her abilities, so that doesn’t happen. I can contain the solar flare with my soul self which helps.”
Would the Dreams try and bait him back into that world? Hard to say. Raven knew it was a lot harder to resist here than in New York but she’d alway kept up her patrols in a way even there.
“Maybe they are. I don’t know, I’ve stopped trying to make sense of them when it comes to things like that.”
Dick rolled his eyes in response. “Well, at least I’m flexible.” He shrugged in response since he didn’t have a Soul Self to absorb things. Maybe he’d be able to do something to not be burnt. He really didn’t want this to end poorly.
“I haven’t worn that suit in..years.” It was still locked up in its case. When they’d moved to New York, he’d worn it a few times at first but then eventually just traded it in for a badge and a night shift. Still ever the insomniac, but in more recent years he’d been one without kevlar.
Walking over toward the freezer he pulled out a box of eggos. “..Lunch?” Not the healthiest thing ever, but whatever.
All Raven could do was shrug. Though she doubted that there would be any sort of accidental solar flares. Still it was good to be prepared just in case. Orange County was weird and one could never count on control to always be maintained when abilities were suddenly the thing that was being affected by whatever the latest weirdness was.
“Well no time like the present if it’s what you want to do.” That was the trick. Was it something Dick actually wanted to do? Put the suit back on and everything that came with it. After all, not wearing it hadn’t stopped the Dreams from coming back and now the escrima sticks had shown up. Would the pull continue to get stronger or not?
Ah, the promise of eggos. Definitely not the healthiest of choices but who really cared at the moment?