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]

[ It's awkward, maybe because both of them are in some ways, outside their zones of comfort. Bruce lingers in the doorway, offering his explanation, stuck in a liminal space not quite gone and not invited. Vanitas, utterly lost for this display of compassion, has no idea how to respond to it.

In fact, it seems to take him a moment to understand what, exactly Bruce is trying to say. That he wasn't dodging the question, that he was only trying to actively let Vanitas decide for himself. I'm not good at cooperating, doesn't make any sense to him, but maybe that has as much to the do with the fact Vanitas also lacks that skill as anything else.

After a few long uncomfortable seconds, Vanitas' gaze cuts away. He glances to his left, then down at the ground, then off toward his right, like he can't figure out what he's supposed to do, or how he's supposed to act.

This goes on for a few more seconds, before he finally capitulates with: ]

Neither am I.

[ Without looking back at Bruce. ]

[pearlstrings]

[It is a compromise. Perhaps not one that just anyone might recognize, but Bruce has found their conversations to be- a more familiar language than those he has with others. He's learned in Gotham how to be many things, often all at once. But those 'many things' are rarely true reflections of who he is. Bruce is not a good person. He knows this and does not require anyone to convince him otherwise, he does not lose sleep over it.

Vanitas is not a good person either. There are ghosts that haunt them both and there is an immense comfort in knowing that he will not be asked. That he will be accepted as is. It brings them to this moment again, and Bruce considers what he knows to be fact- that Vanitas may not have the capacity or ability to meet him the rest of the way. But Bruce can supply him the tools and the opportunity.]

Ask me again, please.

[evulsed]

[ Bruce has a way of talking that's doesn't always feel like a conversation. There's a subtleness to it, like he isn't just speaking. It slides like silk, it's like the way a curtain will coast over an open window, filtering the light of the moon. There are times that Vanitas thinks if he didn't look at see him, he wouldn't be entirely sure Bruce was there.

This is one of those times.

Vanitas can see him from the corner of his eye, despite the determination with which he averts his gaze. He's a shadowy cut out, his lantern casting a halo around him. He shifts his weight. The silence stretches again. Vanitas is quite visibly trying to work up the nerve to say anything at all.

It takes probably a solid minute of fumbling, awkward silence, until all at once Vanitas bursts out with: ]

Are you going to come find the stupid theatre or not?

[ Flushed and staring angrily at the wall to Bruce's left. He glances briefly at the other boy, before his eyes dart away again. ]

[pearlstrings]

[Silence reigns and for a long moment Bruce isn't entirely sure what the outcome will be. He can expect that it will go one of two directions- that Vanitas will either dig his heels in for the sake of discomfort and refuse to try again. Or he will begrudgingly fumble for something else. It's an uncomfortable experience, to surrender control.

Vanitas shifts his weight, doesn't look up and instead casts around in every other viable direction. Around him the unversed are equally uncertain. And then, as if he hasn't been hesitating at all, Vanitas booms in his direction, looks up, but not quite at him.]

Yes.

Thank you for inviting me.

[evulsed]

[ Bruce doesn't keep him waiting. Truthfully, Vanitas can't really remember a time that he did. Not when it mattered. Vanitas nearly shouts the question at him for its abruptness, and Bruce replies almost immediately, even and calm. A shore for Vanitas to break against.

He looks quickly back at Bruce, maybe somehow surprised by the immediacy of it. He inhales, then lets it out in a sharp, short burst. ]

Good.

[ Vanitas would never say he pouts, but from an outside perspective it almost looks like that. Especially as he glances away, rubbing the meat of his palm against his eye. The Unversed at his ankles seem to de-escalate, their focus on Bruce tapering off from the intense stares from before. ]