open rp

[saintjames]

Comments

@erosh

[saintjames]

link


In this city? Turns out the answer is yes.

[erosh]

Ouch.

Well I'll let you know if I hear one around.

[saintjames]

I'm almost surprised you haven't heard about it.

[erosh]

Honestly sir, I thought it was a joke because I looked like I was new in town.

[saintjames]

I see your point.

[ Clark definitely looks like he shouldn't be within 2 miles of Gotham City. ]

But you can probably believe about 80% of the craziness you hear in Gotham.

@escapist

[saintjames]

link


I know how it sounds, but I swear it wasn't. She couldn't get a hold of any of you. We were only talking.

[escapist]

I didn't even know she had your number.

❰ which is to say that she maybe grudgingly kind of believes him, on a probationary basis at least.

after a pause, another text comes. ❱

Nell's been through a lot of shit. In life, and in the past year.

❰ but that doesn't cover what she's trying to convey, even in an unspoken way. so: ❱

Just don't give her the impression that she can lean on you. She's more than you can handle, and I won't watch her get hurt.

❰ she's more than the crains themselves can handle, but at least the margin isn't as wide. at least they've figured out how to deal with it over the years. ❱

[saintjames]

I gave it to her when I was trying to get a hold of you during the Brown case.

That wasn't my intention. She just needed someone to talk to.

[ He doesn't know how to tell her that he's... concerned. He's heard how people talk when it gets dark and Nell didn't sound so great. ]

life's been nuts, just wanted to drop this in here so you know i didn't bail

[escapist]

I believe you.

❰ addressing that part first, because she's almost not sure if she wants to address the rest of it. but a short pause later: ❱

I know how it seems. I know how she sounds, and how it looks when she has four siblings and she can't get a single one of us on the line.

❰ she's not even going to defend it. she's not innocent here. she screens nell's calls when she just can't be assed after a full day of work. but the crain siblings all cope in their own ways, and trying to help one another through those coping mechanisms just makes everything worse - and they've largely come to realize that this includes nellie, no matter how much they might worry. ❱

no worries! i wasn't even in town for like 2 weeks backtag me forever tbh

[saintjames]

[ gordon was an only child, he can't understand exactly what her situation with her siblings might be— but he can understand what it means when things get to be too much. the way it will erode the relationships around you, regardless of how much you care. this is just a reminder that he hasn't even scratched the surface of the crains, and he goes back and forth on how much he should push. ]

I'm in no position to judge.

[ not after the way any of his recent relationships have ended; but he doesn't know how much of that has percolated out of Gotham, and he's not chomping at the bit to bring it up. ]

I know it's not really my place but if you need anything, you can call me.

@pearlstrings

[saintjames]

from here

Yeah I'm sure the restaurant owner doesn't think very highly of me right now.

[pearlstrings]

I'll have a word with Mister Huang, I'm sure he'll understand.

[saintjames]

You're really taking this networking thing seriously these days, aren't you?

[pearlstrings]

Networking has such an impersonal connotation.

[saintjames]

What are you calling it?

[pearlstrings]

Making new friends.

@hobblepot

[saintjames]

from here

[ The problem is he knows that sentiment too well. Gordon's been told countless times to give up on this place, but it turns out stubbornness is a quality they share. ]

So did I. Have you forgotten where everyone fled when things went south? It wasn't to you and your gilded castle.

I've seen the good in this city, even in it's darkest hours, and I'm not giving up on that. So if it comes down to your disappointment and what I have to do?

I'm not choosing you. I'm choosing Gotham.

[hobblepot]

[A minute goes by with no response.

He's hardly new to mourning dead ends in life but this one shouldn't be mourn-worthy at all. This shouldn't have the power to bring on a dull ache, and not for someone who couldn't care less.

Of course Jim wouldn't choose him; Jim has never chosen him. Jim hadn't so much as paused, he remembers, when he was stumbling around with a rag pressed to the oozing open wound that was his eye. But when the city was up in flames, Oswald hadn't chosen Ed.

They all have their own desires, their own dreams and priorities. But for one brief moment, they had all stood on the same side, prepared to die if it came to that. He only wishes it meant something more.]

Very well.

Then you leave me no choice but to continue my fight for what I know in my heart to be right.

[Another pause.]

Some part of me always knew it would come to this, Jim.

But it seems that knowing something and accepting it can be two very different things.

[There's a dark side to hope. He's familiar with it, with all the hurt that comes of broken expectations.]

I guess I thought standing shoulder to shoulder with you against what was essentially a firing squad would've meant something to you.

[saintjames]

Don't think I'm discounting what you did. But you and I both knew that was temporary.

[ it always is. they both want peace for Gotham, Jim knows that, but they're never going to agree on what peace looks like. ]

[hobblepot]

[He can't even begin to touch the second statement when the first comes like a slap to the face.]

Stop!

I am not buying that nonsense for one instant!

Need I remind you that neither I nor Ed were offered so much as a single word in acknowledgement, never mind a pardon, while a certain someone enjoyed the luxury of having their crimes swept under the rug by virtue of them carrying your child?

How convenient!

@aenigmata

[saintjames]

from here

Does this mean you've kissed and made up then?

Re: @aenigmata

[aenigmata]

Well, I don't know Jim, have you kissed and made up with Lee? Or is it Barbra now? I've lost track...

[saintjames]

[ hmm how petty is he feeling tonight... ]

You're going to have to get over that one of these days.

[aenigmata]

Really? Why?

@hobblepot

[saintjames]

from here

Pour one out for Edward, probably living it large on the other side of the river.