No Nuance November

Defend Thy Legacy

This actually something I've been working on and off for a few months now and is easily the longest story in this set. Figured I'd test drive it here and see how it does.

The news only seemed to be getting worse.

Every night they seemed to say the same thing.

Batman has gone on a rampage, Batman has lost his mind, no mercy, no forgiveness, it's only a matter of time before he starts going down a darker path.

Tim couldn't believe those things. He'd grown up watching Batman and Robin defend the streets, defend the innocent, be people others could only strive to be.

But then Robin disappeared. Suddenly the streets didn't feel safe for an entirely different reason.

Tim wondered why. Why would Batman turn so violent so quickly? And then it hit the papers. The information had been leaked. Source unknown.

Jason Todd had died.

Supposedly in a car accident but Tim knew better. Bruce Wayne had made no comment, nor had he confirmed if this was true or not.

But Tim knew. He was mourning. He wasn't about to go to the press and announce his son had died in a freak accident. If he was going to, he would've done it by now.

Some reporters had even gone looking for the ever elusive Richard Grayson for answers. He'd left Gotham for, also, unknown reasons. Though it was rumored that he felt suffocated in Gotham and wanted to be somewhere where he could grow into himself, others said he and Bruce Wayne had a falling out.

A bad one.

Tim didn't know which one he believed.

He hoped that it was something along the lines of the first reason. Gotham was Bruce Wayne's city and Richard felt like he had no room to grow in what was basically his father's shadow. Because if he and Bruce had a falling out. That was going to make his task all the more difficult.

Finding Richard Grayson had been... tricky.

The few reporters that had managed it found him going about his business on random streets and Grayson hadn't responded well to them. He hadn't reacted violently but very hostilely, which was something they weren't used to out of him. He'd always been charming and polite. Even when the questions he'd been asked were rather invasive, he always had a good (what Tim would call) almost answer.

But, based on that information, and the fact that Tim had figured out which precinct he worked out of, Tim had narrowed his location down to one residential building that was walking distance from most things he would likely have been seen at including where he worked.

The city bus halted at his stop, as Tim quickly gathered his bag and followed an older woman out the door. He had been anxious for days. Anxious since he booked the bus ticket to get him to Blüdhaven, anxious since he told the maid that he was going on a school trip for a few days that he knew she wouldn't fact check, anxious since he boarded said bus to bring him to Blüdhaven, anxious when he got on the city bus to get him to this very point.

His breath caught as the bus rolled away and stared up at the building.

This has to work. He has to listen to you.

The city air was thick with smog, giving the sky an almost brown hue, making it feel dirty. Tim waited for the street to clear enough for him to cross. He hadn't really worked out what he was going to say to Grayson. He knew the point he wanted to get across, but he had spent this whole time praying the words would come to him in the moment. Because they still hadn't and he'd made it.