riverviewlogs | ( open ) but everything looks better when the sun goes down

who: dick grayson + others
what: fireflies + may catchall
when: all of may!
where: all over
warnings: possible violence

Yellow

[ In Dick, fear blends and shifts, keeps him moving rather than freezing him up, looking a lot more like newly single-minded dedication than anything else. Fear turns him outward, draws him inexorably into the role of unasked-for shadow, and whether you're a friend or a stranger you're likely to find him there, sudden and unannounced, if you happen to step out late at night. If you're venturing out past the fence alone. ]

Hey. [ Look again and he's beside you, decked out in a mask (or a police uniform, take your pick). ] Not sure if you know the area, but it's not safe out here right now.

Red (anger)

[ On red Dick simmers. At the Police Station he's picking up extra shifts, passing the break room to down coffee after coffee in the rare moments that he's not out on patrol. With coworkers and friends he's snappish and short, burying himself for hours at a time in the archives with old case files. He's never at home.

As Nightwing he's somehow easier to find - or run across by chance - but if you happen to be looking the road there is paved with unsettled lowlives. No one is maimed or even seriously injured, but he's scared them, clearly with an intent running deeper than Nightwing's typically brisk, playful style of violence. Find him mid-battle just by the fence, taking on at least 12 too many vicious, snapping monsters. Find him mid-interrogation on the roof, holding someone against the drop-off more securely than the man in question likely perceives. ]

Blue

[ Or find him just after that.

Blue never lingers on Dick for long, but he's easy prey when his strength is limited, worn down by effort expended on walking himself down from anger and fear. He can't outpace the feeling when he's already steeped in shame. When a thousand what ifs crowd out everything else. Find him sagging in that dark alley, head in his hands; or huddled out by the fence, surrounded by wounded monsters. Give him a few minutes, he'll be alright. ]

[ ooc: pm or hit me up at

with_pins if you'd like to play out a more specific scenario! I'd prefer to avoid lust prompts for Dick at this time, but Violet, Green, and Orange are all on the table with some discussion. ]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ He notes that she's shutting down on him a little abruptly, and he wonders if that means he's upset her somehow. If the topic itself is upsetting.

Damn it. Of course it's upsetting. And it's on him. Dredging up things she's rather not talk about for the sake of his curiosity. She's entitled to her secrets. Entitled to privacy. ]

It's okay, Wanda. It's- seriously, you don't have anything to apologize for. [ He's the one who should be sorry, and it gives him a sharp little pang that he can't even explain to her why. ]

...I can't imagine what it was like to go through that. [ To not only lose her parents, but to then be experimented on and imprisoned. The unfairness of that turn strikes him as particularly cruel. He hesitates. ]

But I do know something about how hard it is to... to open up about things like that. Even when you want to. [ His eyes drop to the table again. ]

I think it's brave as hell that you were willing to share it anyway.

[She offers him a smile and shrugs.]

It's easier each time I do it. I'm just sorry that...you said you wanted to know me and so I shared but it's not a particularly light story. Not for a date...

[And that's the truth of it. She feels self-conscious because she just trotted out all of her horrors forgetting that most people didn't have stories like hers. Most people wouldn't know how to respond to them. He's being very sweet about it all which she appreciates immensely but in some ways she feels a little bit worse that she's making him feel as if he has to support her emotionally.

She gives him a stronger smile instead. Forced, but there.]

Perhaps I should have told you stories about my mother when she would cook us dinner, or the time Pietro took us out to the countryside for a day...[She pauses a beat, then tilts her chin toward him.] Or you could take your turn. Tell me more about yourself?

[ He can spot a deflection when he sees it. But it's her right.

The odd thing is, he believes her when she asks. He believes she wants to know. It's not a question he's used to answering very often without an easy deflection ready, and for a moment he's lost for the words. Oddly, stupidly, he wants to tell her about the way Bruce had tooled him around in his race cars, when he'd been small. The look on Tim's face when he's solving a riddle. Zitka the elephant. ]

...A lot of the circus bedded down in Florida, in the off months. But my dad was always big on Europe. He grew up in a caravan there.

...Anyway, wherever they were, somehow we'd chase them down. Sometimes it was France. Belgium. Qurac. [ He'd been loved. Doted on by nearly everyone, inside of the circus and out. He's spent a lifetime fighting for the truth in those memories. He can't quite help a little smile. ]

I never really figured out who I was actually related to and how, but they were all family. We'd sing and dance every night.

[That sounds lovely. For a girl who has always wanted to see more of the world, to travel with family from city to city, to have the welcome of so many in such a place, to sing and to dance with joy with all of them? It sounds a little like heaven. Wanda smiles to hear about it, tension slipping away from her quickly.]

That sounds wonderful though. To have so many of them in your life, and for blood relations not to matter so that they're just...all family.

[So much family...She wonders if she would have had that much if there hadn't been so much war in Sokovia.]

So, you sing? If I ask you to sometime would you sing for me?

Not... well, not really since I was a kid... [ Not since the circus. But his startled look clears, leaving an unguarded softness in its place. ]

But I would, yeah. If you asked me. [ And abruptly his eyes lose the faraway look. Wanda is the present. He zeroes in on her, a teasing edge to his smile. ]

I bet you can sing.

[She grins and shrugs, pleased beyond belief to see him looking at her that way. To have his attention on her. It feels a little like stepping out of the house into the sun.]

I'm capable, but I'm not certain I'd say that I'm talented. I'm sure I sound as good in the shower as anyone else might.

[She thinks she's on-key, but really how would she know if she wasn't?]

Well, last I checked talent wasn't a prerequisite for much. [ The look in her eyes is charming him, and he makes a note to ask her if the occasion ever arises. ]

So what do you do when you're not saving the world from certain doom?

[ Though it's occurring to him already that they've lasted longer than twenty minutes now which officially beats the standing post-Kory record. It's been too long since he's had much of a life outside of the work himself. He wills his phone to be silent. ]

[Wanda leans back in her seat at his question and gives him a little shrug.]

I hardly know, honestly. I've only been living in New York for a couple years. My teammates will take me sight-seeing on occasion. [Clint's taken her to the farm a few times even.] It's a little different here, at least. I have a job and the occasional emergency that I'll lend my powers to...And I recently found myself hosting a colony of religious, talking mice. does that count as something I do?

[If she wanted something light to talk about, well, this is surely it.]

...Wow. Seriously? [ Whatever he'd imagined her coming up with, it wasn't that. ]

Do I get to ask what a colony of religious talking mice has to say?

[She gives him a little smile and calm as can be responds:]

Hail!

[Seriously. With a shrug she leans back, still smiling.]

They saw me using magic and so they think I'm a goddess and that my roommate Sam is a priest, also worthy of worship. They eat my cookies and make holidays and rituals out of most everything. It's an interesting experience so far, though it's hard to say how I'll feel about it all in the long run.

Sounds like they came to the right goddess.

[ It says something that she hadn't even thought twice before taking on the responsibility. ]

So what exactly was the story there? They just happen through the portal one day and spot you?

They came through the portal and found their way into my backyard where I was practicing. And just like that...

[With a little gesture to indicate the rest is history, Wanda lifts her glass to take a sip of water.]

I tried to convince them otherwise but they're single-minded about the whole thing. It's a done deal as far as they're concerned. Apparently it's quite common where they're from to find someone or something and worship it as divine. It was just chance that it happened to be me.

[After a moment, her smile grows wider.]

Perhaps you ought to meet them. I'd pay money to learn what they'd decide to call you.

( open ) but everything looks better when the sun goes down

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