8280/A Town Like Gotham

A Town Like Gotham
Date of Scene:	17 October 2021
Location:	Wayne Enterprises
Synopsis:	Damian and Jon shoot the breeze.
Cast of Characters:	Jon Kent, Damian Wayne

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Jon Kent has posed:
"How do you not smell that?" Jon asks, sniffing at the air as super-powered Kryptonian senses pick up the aroma of everything from gunpowder to greasy fast-food wrappings, "I'd probably go crazy if Metropolis stank like this."

It's mostly a jibe. A good-natured little jab as the pair find a moment to shoot the breeze on the neon-lit rooftop of Wayne Tower. Jon is clad in a new Superboy costume, one more befitting the significant growth spurt he's had. Cresting towards the point where maybe he ought not to be 'boy' anymore, but still not ready to match his future parent.

He floats upside down, legs crossed, dark hair a dangling mess beneath him. Gravity is optional for him.

"Oh!" he announces, attention suddenly diverted to something on the sidewalk far below, "That lady's listening to the new Maniaks album."

Damian Wayne has posed:
     "I don't smell it because I (thank god) do not have an elevated sense of smell." Damian responds, sitting in top of the W of Wayne Tower. The boy literally sitting on his family's most visible legacy.

  "Metropolis isn't a squeaky clean as it pretends to be, by the way. It just spends a good amount of resources on making it seem like it is. Gotham doesn't pretend to be anything it isn't." Robin looked down, not exactly seeing the lady Jon mentions, but able to imagine his friend can hear it just as well as anything. "Is it any good?" He asks, not having delved into the Maniaks much, but at least able to converse about music pretty well. "I like Nick Drago...but I am done with listening to his new album, playing bodyguard to him just in case Gentleman Ghost decides to try and drag a rock star to hell will do that to you."

Jon Kent has posed:
"I just think maybe they could spare some public funds for a sanitation department," Jon muses, flipping forward so he's hovering upright in the air, "They've got these street cleaners that hover, and the mayor is talking about zero waste by 2050. They didn't look like they were anywhere near it yet when I left, but it's a nice thing to try for."

"It's okay, I guess. It's probably as cool as it can be for a band who was around when my dad was a kid."

"Nick Drago? I think he was on my WayneMusic recommended list ... you're doing bodyguard work now? I thought you were Boss Titan?"

Damian Wayne has posed:
     "We have a sanitation department. It's just on strike..." Yeah, uncomfortable there, but Batman cannot intervene just because management is shitty. "They do deserve more money though."

  That was about when Robin took out a red and metal object, a birdarang, and threw it, the blunted weapon making a long way around, and catching it in the same hand that threw it. He kept throwing it and catching it as he talked. "Yes, and no. I am doing it because I have a vested interest in not having him die. The world is an interesting place, and him being in it makes it better. I wouldn't say I am the boss there either. Sometimes they just forget I am there until shit hits the fan, then it's 'Save us Robin'."

  "I don't think most of them have forgiven me for spray painting a giant red X on their tower last year."

Jon Kent has posed:
"Weird," is all Jon has to say in response to that.

"Well, it probably cost them a fortune to clean. You've got to learn to express yourself outside of sharp things and paint, man. Get to know the real you."

He rotates again in the air, moving like a blur to catch the birdarang out of the air once it is thrown into the air again. He turns it over in his fingers, looking it over curiously.

"Is Donna the leader? Or Nightwing?"

Damian Wayne has posed:
"Cyborg had his robots clean it. No one other than him lifted a finger." Damian watches Jon catch the birdarang. "She's the closest thing to a singular leader they have. Rightly so. And even then, there is nobody other than me handling the portfolio, putting it in the black after years of dormancy."

  "And by the way, the X was supposed to get them united again, instead of being a complete mausoleum of overgrown plants and eight years of sorrow. Raven was in there, living in the carcass of the old Tower. Turns out synchronicity is a bitch and someone else was trying to revive the Titans as well."

  "How the hell am I supposed to let people know the real me when I don't even know the real me?" It was the kind of thing that the young man would only admit with Jon, and his pets.

Jon Kent has posed:
"Maybe you've gotta take a bit more of a look," Jon suggests easily, unperturbed by any aggression or deep and meaningful discussion as though it were just an everyday conversation about the weather, "My dad told me how he went on a long trip when he was around my age. Just went all over the place helping people, learning about the world and stuff. Maybe we should do that? I can take a year off school. Not like I'm even properly enrolled."

He shrugs, and then with a mischievous smile he rears back and heaves the birdarang into the sky. Far enough to break orbit and disappear into the cold space beyond.

"Or we could go into space and get your throwing star back."

Damian Wayne has posed:
     And there it was...gone in an instant thanks to a super powered arm. "You know that will probably hit some alien's ship and they'll get pissed off and attack earth now." Damian looks toward his friend, and sighs. "I don't hate the idea." He admits, but he also knows about three other people who would have something to say about it. "You know, I saved someone from jumping off a ledge once? He was ready to jump, and when I asked what he was doing he stopped, I made us tea and listened to him." As much as Damian can be an ass, and very dangerous, there are times where he generally is just good. Just getting past the crunchy outer shell is hard. "I can see Bruce either not caring or saying no to that idea. Because of course he would. It's not like I do much at school anyway, it's all things I've learned before. But you don't get a diploma when your mother drowns your professors."

Jon Kent has posed:
"I still think it's weird that you call your dad by his first name," Jon opines, finally landing on the rooftop, "I mean, if you consider all the weird time travel theories then my dad probably isn't my dad, but I still don't think I could call him that anyway."

But then he dismisses the thought just as quickly.

"Well, I'm not saying drop everything and go tomorrow. But it might be something fun. Considering I can be pretty much anywhere on Earth in a couple of minutes, it's kind of silly that I haven't seen a lot of it."

Damian Wayne has posed:
     "Your father and you have a relationship where you knew each other. Mine never met me until I started killing off mob bosses and taking over Gotham. And even then, he only knew I was Ra's al Ghul's grandson. It wasn't until we were about to fight that Talia stepped in and laid that bombshell on us."

  "Fun...I agree with that." Though Damian's normal fun involves swords and fighting. "I've seen much of the world. But it would be interesting to see it from another angle, and not from an assassin's point of view."

Jon Kent has posed:
"For us I guess it's the other way around. He never knew me, but I knew him. Maybe I better get a DNA test to find out I'm not, like, some weird half-brother of Lex Luthor or something."

Jon laughs, turning in the air again. Not a care in the world. Nothing seems to bother him or drive him into deep and melancholic introspection. At least not obviously.

"It would, wouldn't it? I - "

A pause, a sound beyond the realm of human hearing.

"Darn, I've gotta scoot. Eternal Fighter 7 later? I've got dibs on Mecha-tron!"

Before he can hear a reply he's on the move, burning a red line through the sky towards Metropolis.