jumpscares

Entry tags:

!open,
bruce wayne

:o)

▶ WHO: Everyone!
▶ DATE: August 9th, evening (IC)
▶ WARNINGS: N/A yet.
▶ SUMMARY: A small mingle, for any purpose!

[ Good evening, everyone!

Well, actually it's not. It's raining—hard. Is it supposed to be? Who knows. But there's a thunderstorm rolling in, and zombies aren't immune to being struck by lightning.

Really, though—there's nothing entirely extraordinary about tonight. It's what you choose to make of it.

OOC: This is just a quick little mingle; your characters can be doing whatever you'd like! ARE THEY HUDDLING FOR SHELTER FROM THE STORM? REMINISCING ABOUT FOND RAINY DAY MEMORIES? IS THERE A MURDER GOING ON SOMEWHERE? ARE YOU STILL TRYING TO PIECE TOGETHER EVIDENCE OF WHY YOU'RE HERE? ]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[The ragged cut's from a piece of rusty metal, and it's probably a good thing his tetanus vaccination is up to date. Not that it's easy to tell and Roger being concerned about not turning into a zombie is still something Bruce would consider a sign of intelligence. ]

You came to the medical bay for cleaning supplies? [ Not the worst idea in the world. He finishes knotting off one of the stitches he's putting into his arm and then gestures with his head. ] Check that cabinet over there for the industrial cleaner. Soap is at the sink or under them. What are you trying to clean up?

[ the second time bruce speaks, roger relaxes visibly. he doesn't feel at all at home here, especially with a portion of the compound's residents (roger grimaces every time he thinks of them that way; it suggests a permanence that he's not really accepting yet) having been established well before he arrived. this guy seems a little brusque, but he's helpful and he's not chasing roger off or threatening him.

tearing his eyes from bruce's arm, he heads over to the cabinet. his head stays turned with one ear toward bruce, even when it means he's surveying the cabinet's contents from the corner of his eye. ]

Mud. Fuckin' pourin' out there. [ not that there's mud on his shoes or clothes at all, though his hair is damp. ]

[ He spends a second or two studying Roger, pretty blatantly looking him over and then bends his head to put in another stitch. He's got maybe one more after this one. ]

Who tracked in that much mud?

[ roger picks up a washcloth and steals a glance at bruce as he closes the cabinet. ]

Some dog, I guess. Pawprints all over the halls.

[ at least, that's what roger intends to let everyone think. he'd rather be the guy willing to clean up a mess that's not his than the asshole who tracked mud into their humble abode.

besides, he's not really excited to explain the whole werewolf thing, if he doesn't have to. ]

[He put in the last stitch, knotted the thread, tied it off and clipped it before he stood up.

No, he was not a small man.]

I'd hoped we'd seen the last of that dog.

[ He was thinking of Thud, who wasn't exactly a dog and he hadn't seen in some time. ]

I suppose it's possible that it's a different one. Let's go look before you wipe up the evidence.

[ oops, there roger goes, getting some other poor innocent dog in trouble. that wouldn't be enough to get him to bail on its own (poor innocent dog, sure, but roger always looks out for number one), but 'let's go look' is a different story.

roger's not an idiot. those muddy pawprints go straight to his room. if he can talk his way out of this, he's gotta start now. ]

Nah, it's no big deal. Probably long gone now, anyway.

[ he makes the mistake of turning to actually look at bruce, preparing an earnest and guileless expression. no, that most certainly is not a small man. roger's well-practiced innocent look falters. ]

[had Roger played this even remotely cool, Bruce would have been fully capable of accepting that Thud was tracking mud around the halls and Roger was going to be helpful. He wouldn't have even, probably, paid much attention to who's room the tracks led to or from. Okay, he would have, but he would have come up with a reasonable explanation for himself, or believed one if Roger had given it to him.

He's a detective, not a mindreader.

That response, though? The falter? Yeah, that's enough to make him really curious What in the world about a dog is worth hiding?

He puts the medical supplies down, picks up a roll of paper towels and just- walks for the door. With or without Roger, it's clearly not cleaned up yet. ]

The dog, yes. The prints no.

[ well. roger did not maintain control of this situation at all.

he makes an exasperated noise and takes several long steps to catch up, then continues to take long steps to keep up. ]

Seriously, I can take care of this. You look like a busy guy.

[ walking beside him now, roger steals another glance at the wound on his arm. bruce doesn't smell like dead things, which is a plus. roger's wondering if he'll be able to smell the infected, if he encounters them. ]

[ Bruce isn't sure about the source of exasperation, but the more exasperated and frustrated Roger gets, and the more he tries to dissuade Bruce, the more determined he gets to find those paw prints and figure out what's so unusual about them. ]

I don't have anywhere I need to be for hours.

[ His tone is pleasant. His smile is - cutting, frankly, and he isn't slowing down. Good news, though - that wound is neat as can be, and he doesn't even remotely smell like anything dead, not even from close exposure. Just soap, sweat, leather and - well, gun powder, because he's batman and he's been playing with explosives. ]

[ because of course he doesn't.

okay. get it together, roger. just because the guy looks like a fucking olympian, doesn't mean you have to be intimidated. you're a werewolf, remember?

... oh yeah, that's the problem. ]

Okay — okay.

[ roger takes a quick couple of steps to put himself in front of bruce, holding up his hands in an uncertain cross between 'don't shoot' and 'calm down.' ]

Look, I thought somebody might get — y'know, I get that it's the zombie apocalypse or whatever, we probably don't need a fuckin' dog around. The dog should probably be food. That's why I didn't wanna say anything.

[ ssssort of true, roger supposes, in that it had recently occurred to him that someone might eat a dog, given current events. he's just hoping he doesn't have to clarify that he is the dog. ]

[Bruce stops walking for a moment, because just walking into the kid is a bad idea but he really, really, hates that movie and there's a flash of actual irritation in his eyes. It's that same flash of irritation that made his tone just a bit colder and had him calling the bullshit out more directly. ]

Except you already told me that there was a dog, here. You had no problem at all in letting me know you were cleaning up paw prints - and I already said that I'd met at least one dog here. [ Dog or near enough to one ] Whatever your issue is, it isn't that you're worried about the dog being here. Maybe you're afraid I'm going to hunt it down and eat it?

[ And then he puts a hand on Roger's shoulder, moves him to the side (or tries) and keeps going. ]

[ roger can feel the creeping sensation of fear down the back of his neck. he'd lay his ears back if he could: if bruce was intimidating when pleasant, he's definitely setting off fight-or-flight bells now that he's annoyed. good fuckin' job, roger.

he flinches, ducking away from bruce's hand when he reaches out, so there's hardly any moving to be done. he's out of the way, and he falls back into quick step behind bruce once he's walking again. ]

Not you, specifically? [ needless question marks and uneasily lilting speech take the place of the canine body language he's missing. ] I'm not sayin' you look like a guy who'd eat a dog, just — someone might?

Then it's a good thing we're going to go clean up the evidence of where he came from and where he went, isn't it?

[ Yeah, he's bugged. He's not bugged enough to miss the dodge of his hand or the extra question marks or uneasiness in the kid. He is, however, bugged enough to ignore them - or maybe that's just him being himself. He does make a mental note to not try and make physical contact again (unless that dodge reaction gets him what he needs), but meanwhile he's going right out into the hall and heading toward the front door. That's where those paw prints have to start. If they're there, and if they're actually mud instead of something else. Then he is absolutely going to follow them.

Unless Roger make a break for it. If Roger makes a break, he's what Bruce is going to follow. ]

Still not sure why there's a 'we,' big guy. I mean, I know I look like a delinquent, but I keep a clean house.

[ he's a nervous talker. he knows it, too, but that doesn't mean he can stop it.

they'll encounter the pawprints before they reach the front door, where roger took a turn to head for his room. they're definitely made of mud, and the floor is sprinkled with water from dripping fur.

he's not running. maybe he could outrun bruce with four legs, but he's not that fast with only two, and getting caught would probably suck. a lot. roger's not a fighter. ]

Because you are being evasive, and not doing a good enough job of even that to disguise the fact.

[Hey, look, it was honesty on his end. Then again - honesty, used as a weapon. It isn't quite the same as actual honesty, but. Well, it's Batman. You get what you get.

He looks around at the ground, cranes his head back to verify where those paw prints came from and then follows them all the way to the end. He even tries that door, then turns and lifts his eyebrows at Roger.

Next excuse?e ]

[ roger is also not doing a good enough job to deny the fact, so as an alternative, he sighs in resignation and stays put while bruce investigates the tracks. eventually, he follows him to the end.

it's too bad he closed his fucking door when he left. at least if it was open, it might be plausible that the dog escaped (and floated off into the ether, leaving no more muddy tracks? not really, but); with the door closed and no dog inside, roger's got nowhere else to backpedal. the muddy prints end abruptly within his room. there's no sign that the dog went anywhere after that.

he raises his eyebrows back at bruce, looking far braver and at least as stupid as he feels right now. ]

Guess maybe Rover was worried about our housemates getting hungry, too.

[ He looks from the end of the tracks to Roger, and then without changing either his tone or expression says: ]

Yes. And then to escape them he grew wings and flew away. Or maybe he was carried off and became lunch.

[ He wants to meet the person that picked up a dog of that size without a struggle - or leaving foot prints themselves, giving the water and mud around, or any sort of disruption to the area. ]

By a floating person.

[ roger lets his eyes wander down the hall past bruce, just so he doesn't have to look the dude in the face. he's aware that he's almost smiling, but it's more closely related to the hysterical laughter that comes along with terror than actual amusement.

people come up with all kinds of shit to explain away what they don't understand, or don't want to. maybe bruce will find an answer that works for him. ]

Let's not rule out teleportation.

[ why the fuck can't you just stop talking, roger ]

[ Bruce would have bought a lot of things had Roger not acted so ... off and blatantly suspicious thus far. After all - zombies and reality hopping and men who can fly. Superman could be the explanation.

Thing is? Roger's still hiding something about that dog. ]

Cut the crap. You're hiding something. What and why?

[ roger studies bruce warily and weighs his options. he can't really outrun him, and there's even less of a chance he can outrun him without giving himself away. maybe roger continues stonewalling him, but maybe then bruce circles the wagons and roger finds himself the subject of further interrogation.

maybe roger says 'i'm a werewolf' and bruce doesn't even believe him. maybe he does believe him, and decides it's not a good thing. the general impression of 'werewolf' is rarely favorable, roger's found. but, hey — at least if it's out in the open, roger won't be losing anything by shifting in front of him so he can get the fuck out of here, if it comes to that. ]

Werewolf. [ and, in a flash of inspiration: ] He's a werewolf.

[ maybe roger's the kind of guy who'd stick his neck out for someone else like this. bruce doesn't know otherwise, anyway, and that's what matters. ]

[ That is... odd as hell, but it's actually believable. It explains the paranoia, the footsteps, the lack of paw prints going out of the room and Roger's defensiveness. So he stays silent and -

Doesn't ask who he is, because Bruce can figure that out readily enough, by seeing who Roger spends time with and even who this room belongs to.

He shrugs and tosses Roger the paper towels. ]

All right.

[ roger catches the paper towels and manages not to immediately drop them. his heart rate might finally be slowing.

he's not ready to assume he's out of danger, though. ]

'All right?' [ it's a cautious echo, not really an incredulous one. ] You're not gonna, like — hunt him down?

[His eyebrows go up a little, and he manages to look mildly confused and even offended by the suggestion. It's an act, of course. He knows damned well he's... intimidating, even when he's not suited up and growling himself.]

Hunt him down? [ His echo is a little incredulous. ] For what? Tracking mud in? [ No, he's not that stupid. ]

[ roger turns his head a little, glancing off to one side as he listens to bruce's heartbeat. he has one, which is a great start. and it's a pretty normal one, at the moment. there's no obvious sign of stress in his heart rate.

that, as much as anything bruce has done, inspires admiration and a little more fear in roger. anyone who isn't in a constant state of terror here and now is worth admiring (and fearing).

he lets himself relax a little, slowly, and steals a cautious glance back at bruce. the eye contact is brief. bruce is an alpha male if roger's ever met one. ]

For being a werewolf, I dunno. Figured you might think he was dangerous.

[ Bruce takes that moment of eye-contact but he also notices the break - and just the kid's general demeanor. He really is trying to protect someone. ]

If he gets bitten by a zombie or starts eating people here, I'll reassess. Until then, at least he's more likely housebroken than the actual dog that was wandering around.

[ All bullshit aside? Bruce isn't overly worried about the werewolf. The zombies are a bigger problem. He doesn't particularly like or enjoy animals, but if Superman hasn't sent him over the edge, a werewolf isn't. ...Yes, he thinks Superman's the bigger threat. ]

:o)

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