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[forceforlight]

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(Please note if you are messaging Nightwing's official inbox or contacting Dick Grayson)

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[forceforlight]

I have no peripheral vision with a helmet on.

[Which had been one of his main complaints when he'd been Batman. The cowl had driven him crazy.]

[He huffs a laugh and grins.]

All right, all right. Let's get going. Two is my limit, though.

[He's not that long off of being an amnesiac alcoholic, after all.]

[hackingyoursensors]

[ Dick does the mental math and concludes the obvious-- his other self is ancient.

He toys with a fry half-heartedly. ]

I'm "going to be" more than that. I'm not, right now. I don't know how I'm supposed to fit into anything. It doesn't help that my "younger siblings" look at me like I'm, I don't know, fragile? Inexperienced?

[forceforlight]

[He only FEELS ancient. Especially next to this younger version of himself.]

[And he wonders if he was ever this insecure. Probably was. But it's different when you're the only one versus a family.]

They know you aren't. They weren't at your age, and they all know I wasn't at your age, either. But that doesn't negate our natural urge to protect the younger ones as best we can. We don't want you to get hurt, even if we logically know you can handle it.

[He picks up one of his own fries.] And we're all about to have an existential crisis about B, I'm certain.

[hackingyoursensors]

[ Dick just sighs and takes a half-hearted bite of his fry. It makes sense, but it doesn't mean he has to like it. Once he finds his footing, maybe he'll appreciate it more. But, right now, he's just frustrated because he doesn't have everything squared away in his mind yet.

But the change of subject makes Dick give his older self a sympathetic look. ]

How are you doing with that?

[forceforlight]

[It's not really a change of subject, honestly. Or not much of one. They are connected in Dick's mind, at least.]

[Dick sighs, reaching for his coffee again.]

It's still weird. For me, part of it is just him being so young. Even if I know that, logically, he wasn't that much older than he is now when we met. But he's so young and awkward in ways I never saw. Either because he consciously kept me from seeing the awkward or because something happened between this age and when we met that made things different.

unknown number (encrypted), text—

[thwikt]

surpri
guess what? it's me r
so funny story
i'm aliv nope
shit
hey grayson, it's harper
got your # from jaybird
just wanted to let you know i'm here

[forceforlight]

[The answer takes a while. Partly because Dick puts his phone on Do Not Disturb when he's trying to sleep (because his siblings are assholes and the Batchat can get going at any time of the day or night). And partly because it's difficult knowing how to reply to a ghost.]

[Though, obviously, not a ghost. And probably from pretty far back in his own timeline, before things got weird again. So Dick takes the time to make coffee and feed Harley before he replies, because it takes time to figure out how to phrase it.]

Is this some kind of joke?
Ha ha, very funny, Jason.
Tell me something only Roy Harper would--
How the hell am I meant to respond to this?

Hey. I'd say I'm glad you're here, but given everything, I'm not sure I should be glad anybody gets pulled here. Glad to hear from you, though.

[hackingyoursensors]

[ Dick takes a bite of his sandwich and chews thoughtfully. ]

It's not as big of a leap for me age-wise, but he's different from what I experienced too. It's like his introversion is cranked up to eleven.

[ He sighs. ] Without Alfred, it's gonna be rough on him.

[forceforlight]

Being without Alfred is going to be rough on all of us.

[And he's pretty sure he's able to keep the twinge of sadness out of his voice and face. Even if he can rightly say that it's just because Alfred isn't here. Without saying that he's not back home, either.]

And you're not wrong about the introversion. I mean, we've always known he was an introvert who could make himself be an extrovert. But I'm not sure he's learned that trick yet.

[thwikt]

[ it's hard to gauge a response over text, but what was he supposed to do? just show up at his door?

jaybird didn't know though. maybe it's the same for grayson. it'd make things easier anyway. ]

yea, it was a surprise for me too
i def didn't have cross dimensional travel on my roster
or else i would've rsvp'd back a hard no

[forceforlight]

Yeah, you and me both. This sort of thing is never on my to-do-list.

But. Since we're here and all. You want to meet somewhere for breakfast or coffee or something? Easier than texts.

[Is this a good idea? No idea. But no matter how rocky things get between him and Roy, Roy IS still one of his oldest friends.]

[And maybe he has to gauge if he needs who needs warning.]

[thwikt]

sure
you're in cc right?

[forceforlight]

Most of the family have gravitated to CC. It reminds us too much of home.

[Notable exceptions being Bruce himself, the older Jason and his younger self, of course.]

[thwikt]

it might take me a few days but i can ride out there

[forceforlight]

Not trusting the teleporters? Can't say I blame you. That'll give me some time to figure out a good place to go.

[thwikt]

yea
the guild doesn't inspire much confidence

actually
i might know a place
a friend intro'd me to a pretty good diner the last time i was there

[forceforlight]

[There's a moment of pause as Dick takes that in. Sure, he knew that Roy must have come in a recent Confluence, which the last one was at the beginning of the month. But knowing he'd been in town and hadn't reached out? ]

[Well. Maybe it's not that much of a surprise.]

Sure. I know a few good diners, but I'd be interested to know if that's one of them.

[hackingyoursensors]

Yeah.

[ The younger Dick doesn't do as good of a job hiding his twinge of sadness. He never thought he'd actually be without Alfred or Bruce. ]

Maybe he hasn't had to. Or something happened that makes it particularly difficult for him.

[ With a small sigh. ] He's even worse at expressing emotion than usual too. It's like he panics if he relaxes too much.

[thwikt]

[ he isn't saying that he let that tidbit slip out intentionally.

but he also isn't saying that he didn't let that tidbit slip out intentionally. 💁‍♂️ ]

it's this one [ he sends him the address. it's located within a block or two from a bat-favorite hardware store. ]

[forceforlight]

I know where that is. It's one of Tim's favorites.

[He can wait until he sees Roy in person to figure out the rest of it. And maybe figure out what the last things Roy remembers are.]

@green.lantern

[torchbearer]

hey amazing grayson.

got a minute?

[forceforlight]

[Dick grimaces, shaking his head.]

I'm not sure. Whatever the reason, it's probably a major difference between his world and ours. [Since the younger Dick seemed to be from a world fairly close to his own in some ways, at least.] A B who isn't as much a part of Gotham as his alter ego is unusual enough as it is.

[forceforlight]

Hey, GL. Got a few. What's up?

[torchbearer]

I have not so great news for you.

Your boss shrunk.

[forceforlight]

My boss...

Wait. B shrunk? How? And where is he?