milliways_bar | (no subject)

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Dick went back upstairs as soon as he saw Cubefall had started.

He comes down, burdened with a deceptively small knapsack containing probably not much.

(What it does contain includes: a domino mask, a yellow belt with multiple pouches, batarangs of varying sorts, grappling hooks, wires, various tools for all sorts of functions, and a few smoke bombs.)

He hesitates once at the furnace, clutching it to his chest protectively, before throwing it hard into the furnace. The resulting explosion is small, and well contained by the door that he heaves shut after it, and he can't help but feel disappointed that such a huge, all-consuming part of his short life can be over so quickly.

He hops up into the rafters to consider if he feels like changing form. LEGO Superman is there, again, but Dick isn't sure that he fancies pretending to be a superhero at the moment.

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Down below another patron enters the bar. This might not be anything to note, but there's a good chance Dick will note the fellow walking into several objects before getting his bearings.

Also of note is the lack of any stumbling or disorientation associated with being drunk or on drugs in the guy's body language. It's as if he's forgotten you can't just walk through things.

He does catch up pretty quickly and begins to walk around tables and people until he gets to Bar and gets the Cubefall vidscreen. He reads it and seems to be interested until he gets to the options. His shoulders tense and while he does a couple of double takes, he ultimately shakes his head and cancels the screen.

"Thanks I guess, but no thanks. Can I get waffles though?"

"Hey,"

Dick dismisses his screen and raises his voice just enough to catch attention.

"If you want to get away from all that, the flyers haven't found their way up here, yet."

It was the tense shoulders and the double takes. Cubefall is a lot, he gets it.

Ben half tenses at the sudden voice, but looks up (rather than around).

Then blinks a few times.

"I never realized people went up there." He looks around for the best way up and decides that's going to be from the back of a booth. He's not graceful or acrobatic in the climbing, but he gets there. He'd always been the final weapon on the team, implacable but not needing much physical training. "Well, this is open and cozy at the same time."

He's pretty sure Diego would love it up here. He also knows he does not want Klaus to find out about it. He'd end up high and fall and hurt himself.

Dick follows him from above, hopping unexceptionally from rafter to rafter to meet him and even offer a hand up.

"Sometimes it's the only place to get some quiet around the place," he says. "When everyone changes into birds or airplanes later it'll get busy, but it's okay right now."

Ben tries a smile and thinks he gets it mostly right. So many things to remember when you have a proper body again.

"Does this Cubefall happen often? I've only been here a couple times before. Usually my brother needs to pull me in."

"Once a year," Dick says, though he pauses. "I think. I've been coming for two years my time but there was a time skip and it's been longer here. So maybe it hasn't happened in four years, I don't know."

Yeah, he's not helping. But he does flop down on the rafter, legs out straight in front of him, leaning back on his arms.

"I'm Dick."

"Oh. I'm Ben." He sits with more care than Dick had, leaving his feet dangling. "I'm glad it doesn't happen every day. I guess the holiday seems alright."

Talking to anyone who is not Klaus is awkward, but this guy's a kid. How do you talk to kids? Like they are people, he tells himself.

"You like heights or just being away from the weird?"

"Both."

Dick grins at him. "I like being able to see everything from above. Means you don't miss out on interesting things."

Like people who are trying to walk through things.

"And no one bothers you if you don't want to be bothered."

"I can see that, though I think I'd argue you can pick up on a lot from down there if you just pay attention." Ben smiles, more natural this time, and relaxes into dangling from the rafters.

"Though I can see not wanting to be bothered."

"Angle of view," Dick counters. "Attention is fine, but it can't make up for actually seeing it."

Why Dick cares so much about being able to see things is anyone's guess, really.

Total mystery.

Ben gives that some thought before venturing his opinion. "Sure, from a tactical point of view but you don't get much on facial expressions and body language is distorted."

"You can understand body language just fine with experience."

He's seen more conversations from above than most people, and can read it pretty well.

The other - well, that depends on the lenses in your mask.

Ben laughs. a short but honest little sound.

"I'll take your word for it." He and his siblings never went much for the rooftop action. Reginald wanted to make sure the press saw them coming. Interestingly enough, they also didn't get tech.

It's about then that Ben remembers his waffles. "Oh man, my waffles."

"I got 'em."

No seriously, he got them. Dick drops easily to the table below, grabs Ben's waffle and some of his own, tucks both plates on to one arm clutches against his chest, and leaps right back up, curling his body around the plates to keep them level.

"Here."

One plate for Ben, one for him.

Ben half lunges when the kid drops but catches himself when he sees it's a controlled dive. He just watches after that, jaw-dropping farther and farther.

"Holy shit, kid. You an acrobat or something?" Ben doesn't think he's even seen Diego do something like that. "That was amazing!"

"Yeah," Dick says easily, and unconceitedly. "Well, aerialist, but close. Ever heard of the Flying Graysons?"

Ben again pauses to think about the question before shaking his head.

"Sorry, can't say I have. The circus wasn't a big priority for my guardians when I was growing up. And I shouldn't call you a kid. I know I hated it when adults did that to me."

Of course, he could also be from a different reality.

"You even hear of the Umbrella Academy?"

Dick shrugs with one shoulder. "I don't mind. I am a kid."

He's going to have to grow up fast outside the bar, but he can be a kid in here.

"No. Is it famous in your world?"

"Famous, infamous, take your pick. Well know, at least."

Ben decides he likes this guy as he takes a bit of waffle.

"What's the difference between an aerialist and an acrobat?"

"Acrobats are just any gymnast who puts on a show."

Dick idly turns into a handstand. Because.

"Aerialists use the trapeze."

"Ah, I see your point."

And he can tell MOther would have chided him for not looking at the words and deducing that for himself.

"You kind of remind me of my brother, just fewer knives." Of course, Diego kept his feet on the ground more.

"Knife-throwing is a whole different art."

Yeah, he knows what Ben means, though. Which is why, when Dick returns to sitting it's with a raised, questioning eyebrow.

Ben meets that raised eyebrow with a blank expression before shrugging. Vayna already wrote her book, so what could it hurt?

"Diego. He loved knives and playing superhero. He never missed," Ben mimes throwing a knife, the path, and then around a corner, "even around corners."

"I think he and Luther were the only ones who really were into it. Well, Allison kind of enjoyed it, though I think it was more going along with things."

"Oh and Five really went for the Kool-aid."

"I'm likely not making much sense."

"Five."

Dick has heard that before, hes sure.

"... hey, you got any other friends coming here?"

Ben cants his head slightly, guess where this is going.

"Actually yeah. My brother Klaus. Weirdo, likely high on something?"

"Yep," Dick confirms. "So high he thought I was your Five."

Ben sighs sadly, likely the first real emotion he's managed.

"I can see why, though the uniform is all wrong. I know drugs aren't really an answer, but he's been through a lot and is just trying to survive you know? Our 'Dad'," you can just hear the air quotes, "didn't take being a kid and afraid as an excuse not to do what he wanted."

Edited 2020-06-03 19:31 (UTC)

Dick raises his hands. "Hey, I don't judge."

Much. But on things like this, he really doesn't. But he does take a second to backtrack the conversation. And think hard about what he should say.

(He can't just volunteer it, dammit.)

"I've not had the best time of it, and I haven't been forced into superheroing."

This is technically all true!

"People find a way to cope."

Call him five years when one of his best friends will have his own drugs problem.

"Yeah, well he's my brother so I do." Plus he's stuck following Klaus around while and sees the things he does both to get high and while he is high. Fun times.

"Still brotherly love right?"

Rueful smile.

"I guess, I never had any brothers."

Yet.

"Sisters?"

He's guessing Dick is an only child but doesn't want to jump to that.

"Nope," he says cheerfully. "Just me. And the elephant and lions. But I don't count those."

Ben feels sorry for the kid, as much as his own siblings drove him nuts.

"I don't know, my siblings probably weren't much different."

Dick grins at that. "How many were you?"

"There were six of us, though Mr. Hargrevees tried to adopt more." Ben has a slightly sour expression on his face at the mention of the attempted adoptions. He's not sure how much to tell this kid to be honest.

"There was this weird thing where a bunch of women all got pregnant and delivered the babies, all in one day. Whether they were pregnant before or not. Mr. Hargreeves, Dad, tried to adopt as many of them as he could. Seems he had the idea they were all superheroes or something. He only got six of us."

Dick's smile fades. Drops entirely, in fact. His relaxed, gentle crouch tenses up, slightly, and by the time Ben finishes talking he's in full brooding gargoyle pose, despite not having changed posture in any meaningful way.

"Doesn't sound much like adoption to me," he says, sounding a little older than the thirteen he was five seconds ago.

It sounds more like abduction.

And now he has to figure our how much he can tell Ben.

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