inbox

[pearlstrings]

bruce wayne @ᴡᴀʏɴᴇ @ʙʀᴜᴄᴇ audio & text

PLEASE NOTE: Bruce has two inboxes.

His official user id for the network is Bruce and if you meet in person, in the unlikely event he gave you his contact details, this is the ID he would give you.

That said, his conversations on the network have largely been under the id of Wayne, as a way to keep his two identities separated.
This is the username he uses most often and he will answer replies to that handle- there just seems to be no physical person on the registry to link it to.

Comments

[evulsed]

I go there all the time.

You can't hear right. I can tell.

[pearlstrings]

Yes, I'm deaf in one ear.

Who are you looking for?

[evulsed]

Why are you deaf? You weren't deaf before. What did you do?

[pearlstrings]

It's your turn to answer Vanitas.

[evulsed]

[ He tightens his grip almost crushingly tight on his tablet for a moment, furious, before backing up from the edge: ]

You already know the answer to that.

Tell me!

[pearlstrings]

There was a machine at the market, that would answer any question you asked for a price.

[The process of following the exchange is important. Bruce knows about the person beneath the trap door, that Vanitas has spoken to. But the reason he seeks them out is less clear.]

What do you go see her for?

[evulsed]

[ This explanation diffuses him quickly. For a moment he'd thought maybe... ]

None of your business.

Was the answer worth going deaf?

[pearlstrings]

Do you want to know badly enough to answer the question?

[evulsed]

[ He could tell Bruce what she said to him, it would be the simplest side step to this conversation. But that isn't why he went there in the first place, and it isn't why he goes there so often. Mostly he just cast wide for a reason to keep her there as long as possible and happened to land on what Bruce saw before. ]

Whatever.

Keep it to yourself then.

[pearlstrings]

Did you think I lost my hearing because I died?

[evulsed]

[ a very long pause, because Bruce is much too smart for someone like Vanitas to fool. ]

You ran off like an idiot by yourself. It's not exactly a stretch.

[pearlstrings]

I wasn't by myself.

I had the Unversed with me.
I told you where I was.

[evulsed]

That's not a foolproof plan. If it was sudden I wouldn't have known.

[pearlstrings]

You said that you feel them, when they die.

[evulsed]

I do.

But just because you're dead doesn't mean that thing would be destroyed too.

It doesn't matter. Why are we even talking about this?

[pearlstrings]

Because you were being evasive about my other questions.

[Vanitas thought that he'd gone deaf because he'd died. Which suggests that Vanitas knows that death here changes a person, which suggests that he is invested in Bruce's safety but also-]

Is that why you didn't come down to the market?

[evulsed]

[ He's too smart. Sometimes, Vanitas can't help comparing him to his Master, who had been the smartest person Vanitas knew— even if his sample size wasn't very large. ]

...

You're some kind of detective, aren't you?

[pearlstrings]

Vanitas, I'm just asking you what happened.

[evulsed]

You're ferreting out my weaknesses.

I can't go down there.

[pearlstrings]

Can't?

[evulsed]

I came back less than whole.

I wasn't afraid before but now just looking at it makes me



Its stupid.

[pearlstrings]

Would you like me to tell you about what I saw there?

[evulsed]

[ Despite the fact Bruce has never done it, Vanitas still expects him to push. To lean on the weakness the way Vanitas does, the way he learned.

There's a long pause between messages, shock and relief and something like gratitude, though he doesn't recognize it as such, rendering him silent. ]


Okay.

[pearlstrings]

[Maybe they're just well-suited to each other. Bruce doesn't have to reach for kindness or patience, they come to him naturally- and Vanitas requires both in abundance. As if there's a hole that needs to be filled before anything of worth can be built on top. But he is changing. They both are.]

I'm downstairs. I'll make a hot chocolate.