I don't apologize for being an asshole, I don't expect you to.
It got bad. I shut down. I didn't realize until you said that how badly I must have scared Barbara and Tim, because I look back on it and see they were going along with it.
And the last thing I said to you was unnecessary and cruel.
He'd made a habit, after a certain amount of time, of making sure that the last thing he said to Bruce in any communication was not one that he'd regret. Even here, he wasn't happy with himself. He should have been above parting shots, especially ones that brutal.
Of course not, he'll just use it to cripple him when he feels cornered.
Bruce does not send that response, but only because he doesn't have to. If Clark wants to use that against him, he gets to know, and in that respect it was a very good move. One Bruce has done to other people, even, and it does not escape him that willfully or not, Clark probably learned that instinct from him. You turn the thing the other person doesn't want to do into a ticking suicide bomb, and hope that when it goes off, you're the one least damaged.
His death was deliberately and skillfully faked. It is unlikely that the Joker ever put more effort into something than the effort and work it took to fool me into believing he was dead, that he'd been so brutalized that only blood and the odd bit of gore and armor was left. Harley implied, once, that they'd fed him to their dogs.
He kept Jason. He kept Jason for over a year. In Gotham.
Clark had seen the footage from the room when the other Superman, the terrifying Superman, had stuck his arm quite literally through the Joker. He doesn't like feeling like he shares anything but a face and an origin with the man. But even knowing what he knows, he can't help but understand the level of rage.
Jesus.
As much for Bruce as for Jason, but as much for Jason as for Bruce. Those boys were... well, nephews was a good word, sometimes accurate, sometimes not. They looked up to him and he'd cared about them deeply.
An apology at this point is not only meaningless but redundant. He'd been sorry before. Now, he's just... sad.
Was that your request? Is that what you're doing here?
My son, in my city, miles away from me. Inches away from me. Being tortured while I went to grief counseling. Jason broke.
I didn't train him well enough. I gave him too many chances, like you'd always said, and he wasn't strong enough because of me. I couldn't find him. For all my work and all I've done I could not find him, I could shortchange the god of evil to get your cousin free but I could not find Jason in Gotham. I have failed him in every way, I have failed so profoundly and I hope you will never understand.
You tell me there is a world where that thing gets Lois killed, gets your baby killed, gets it done by your own hand, and I'm supposed to sit across from you and pretend to be fine. I'm sorry.
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I owe you an apology.
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It got bad. I shut down. I didn't realize until you said that how badly I must have scared Barbara and Tim, because I look back on it and see they were going along with it.
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And the last thing I said to you was unnecessary and cruel.
He'd made a habit, after a certain amount of time, of making sure that the last thing he said to Bruce in any communication was not one that he'd regret. Even here, he wasn't happy with himself. He should have been above parting shots, especially ones that brutal.
I would imagine they were terrified.
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Clark can't know why Jason shot him. The truth is too awful. The rest of it though, about Bruce being a shitty person, is spot on.
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Bruce does not send that response, but only because he doesn't have to. If Clark wants to use that against him, he gets to know, and in that respect it was a very good move. One Bruce has done to other people, even, and it does not escape him that willfully or not, Clark probably learned that instinct from him. You turn the thing the other person doesn't want to do into a ticking suicide bomb, and hope that when it goes off, you're the one least damaged.
His death was deliberately and skillfully faked. It is unlikely that the Joker ever put more effort into something than the effort and work it took to fool me into believing he was dead, that he'd been so brutalized that only blood and the odd bit of gore and armor was left. Harley implied, once, that they'd fed him to their dogs.
He kept Jason. He kept Jason for over a year. In Gotham.
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Jesus.
As much for Bruce as for Jason, but as much for Jason as for Bruce. Those boys were... well, nephews was a good word, sometimes accurate, sometimes not. They looked up to him and he'd cared about them deeply.
An apology at this point is not only meaningless but redundant. He'd been sorry before. Now, he's just... sad.
Was that your request? Is that what you're doing here?
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I didn't train him well enough. I gave him too many chances, like you'd always said, and he wasn't strong enough because of me. I couldn't find him. For all my work and all I've done I could not find him, I could shortchange the god of evil to get your cousin free but I could not find Jason in Gotham. I have failed him in every way, I have failed so profoundly and I hope you will never understand.
You tell me there is a world where that thing gets Lois killed, gets your baby killed, gets it done by your own hand, and I'm supposed to sit across from you and pretend to be fine. I'm sorry.
I don't know why I'm here.
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Where are you? Right now, where are you?
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Technically he's on the roof of the building behind the diner, half-laying down, staring up at the sky and the fading light.
Also it's been like, thirteen hours since Clark yelled at him.
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