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Still raining in Gotham. Maybe Jason can only find this place in the rain. Or when the need for a home he can never have again cuts into him like a switchblade. When it ceases to matter who he hurts as long as someone else hurts. When he wishes he was still dead as much as everyone else does.

Then he's here. Where time stops. He wouldn't mind being trapped here, but that's probably why he never will be.

Jay --although he would never admit to wanting to be called that after everything that's happened-- keeps his helmet on for a few minutes before removing it. It hisses loudly, drowning out the one sigh he allows himself. He still has the smaller mask on underneath. Safer that way.

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And a few moments after, another man in a mask is thrown into the bar. -Probably- a coincidence, hmm? Or at least the bar's sense of humour. They don't know each other, and the helmet is off, so Connor doesn't do the 'it's Red Hood!' dance when he sees the fact the bar has put him near someone. He merely looks puzzled for a moment at the fact there's someone else in a mask, then offers a nod of greeting.

Jason nods slightly as he contemplates the table.

Connor isn't one that's inclined to walk off instead of being social, to abandon a conversation that might start. So after a moment of pause as he eyes the man, he wonders out loud, "Are you new here? I've never seen you around before."

He still doesn't look up. "New here. Used to be a bird."

A bird? Connor isn't -quite- up on the superhero family names. He just... knows them by who they are. "Oh?"

"A robin." He smirks but it's mostly to stop himself from making any other facial expression. "Then I fell out of the nest."

A Robin? But there was... Stephanie, and Tim, Dick, and then... Connor blinks, and tries not to let his confusion show on his face. He thought that one had been dead?

Well, he supposes it's not any different than his father coming back.

"And what are you now?"

"No one." And no one's son. No one's anything. "Jason."

"Jason." Connor studies him as he sets down his quiver and bow. He might as well, if they're going to be standing around for awhile. "That's a good thing to be."

Jason snorts. "Believe me. It's not."

This didn't sound good. "Oh? Why not?"

He scowls half-heartedly. "It's just not."

"Because of Batman?" It was a fair guess, Connor feels. He liked the man, but... he could be rather... imposing.

Jason balls his hands into fists under the table and says nothing.

"I see." Why did so many mentors seem to give their students complexes? Connor didn't understand it. Even if he had had a father complex himself. He was the first to admit it.

"Well, you don't have to listen to what he says."

But without Batman... All Jason has to listen to is himself. And even when he feels it's right to, he feels like it's wrong.

"Yeah."

"There comes a certain point where one needs to move on from the mentor, and decide what values they truly believe in. Whether they want to stay the same... or find a new path."

"I was forced."

"Forced?"

Jason looks away.

"He doesn't want me back. He likes the costume in the case. The family he has now. I was a failure. A lesson. Not a person. Not anymore."

"Maybe he's just surprised. Scared." Connor looks at him. "It's not every day that someone returns back from the dead."

Jason shakes his head. "He doesn't want me back."

"Then it's his loss."

He can't help but think that that's not true. Bruce has everything. Jason... He has what he can steal.

"But you don't agree with me," Connor observes. "Then you need to find a way to move on."

"When I've fixed Gotham. When I'm better than him."

"So you'll make it about him, all over again."

Jason's not sure why that's a problem. "It's always been about him. It used to be about me too."

"And why isn't it anymore?"

"He doesn't-- I came back. And he wouldn't even look at me more than he had to."

"So because he didn't, you won't either?"

Jason grinds his teeth. "He was supposed to save me."

"Sometimes, the only one that can save us is ourselves."

"I will someday. I will have peace and Gotham will too."

"Why not just peace?"

"Because they'd kill me. I can't have peace until it's safe. It's not safe."

"But how does 'having Gotham' come into that equation?"

"Gotham hasn't rejected me."

"Cities can't. Only people."

"Exactly." People only rejected Jason.

Connor sighs at that. "Maybe it's not as bad as you think. Sometimes it all just -appears- bad, because you're caught in the middle." Does that even make sense?

"I'm caught but not in the middle. And it is bad."

"So where are you caught, if not the middle?"

"Everywhere."

"That's an awfully broad range of places."

"I know."

"Well..." Connor trails off and just looks at him for a long moment. "If you ever need anyone to talk to, I'm around."

Jason blinks and then his eyes narrow. "Why?"

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