paradisamemes | (no subject)

(no subject)

Fourth Wall Meme

It's the return of the Fourth Wall Meme, and we're opening it for the next full week!

paradisa does not allow non-members to post or comment in our main community, so we're offering this as a place to roleplay with our cast. Both character journals and personal journals are welcome, as well as doubles, original characters, AUs, whatever. Not all can be applied to the main game, but they're certainly welcome here.

Premise:
You wake up in a giant, magical castle. Everything is beautiful and the castle grants material wishes. It also provides a magic journal to every resident that allows everyone to communicate with each other like a two-way radio.

Format:
[Actions] Dialogue.

IE:
[Mickey Mouse enters the room, and sits down at the kitchen table.]

Gosh, guys, is this place ever swell!

What are you gonna do?

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[Steph's minding her own business as usual, taking the long route today when visiting a friend. She doesn't usually pay too much mind to the doors, given how many were empty and how often they changed, but a head poking out of a door gets her to pause.

Pause, and then immediately drop everything she's been carrying--which is a bag and her journal. They hit with a loud thump, but Steph doesn't seem to notice.

She's looking at one of the last people she wants to see. Last she checked, she and Bruce were on decent terms, and she'd gotten along with the ones in Paradisa previously, but after a few choice villains... Bruce was on the Do Not Want list. He never failed to make things complicated.

Ohgodwashenaked?]

Um. This is awkward.

[Awkward is one word for it. Ticked off is another. He shows none of it - she knows how irritated he is, and if she doesn't, she'll learn soon enough.]

[And he'll learn too, why exactly she's staring at him like that.]

Fairly! [Completely cheerful.] I don't suppose you'd know where I can find a tailor, Miss..?

[Oh, she knows he's not happy. She's probably the last person he wants to see, too, even on a good day. Magical castle day? Oh, god.

Stephanie feels her face turn red as she holds out a hand, seemingly to no one at her side.]

Towel, please.

[Either Stephanie's now a magician or there's something up with this place. There's now a nice, big, plush bath towel in her hand, and she teeters over to awkwardly pass it over.]

Here you go, mister. Let's cover you up before anyone invites anyone in to chat or something.

[Maybe if she closes her eyes, he'll go away. Or the castle will eat her.]

[It's not so much that he doesn't want to see her as much as she's the first person he recognises, and thus, gets the brunt of his ire. The fact that she's simply handed him some sort of magical towel is really not helping anything at all, but he'll soon find someone to take it out on. Kidnapped or not, there was someone responsible, and it wouldn't be long until he found them. In the intervening time, the door closes with a click that's much more vicious than if he slammed it, and a few moments later he opens it again, looking sheepish.]

That's quite the trick, isn't it? Legerdemain?

[Steph uses those few moments of freedom to pinch the bridge of her nose. Today was not going as planned. Tim, Cass--they'll be thrilled. Her boyfriend and her best friend, her roommates. They'll be so happy... her? Not so much. She already knows all the things he could rip her apart for.]

Gesundheit.

[Okay, maybe not the time for jokes.]

I see you're new. I can try to explain what's going on.

[Also known as an excuse for her to get into a nearly naked man's room. Whatever. It's Bruce, and Steph's eyes are glued to his face. Calm, now. They need to talk.]

[Bruce counts the seconds, and then he opens the door. The room is almost completely untouched, but to a Bat's sharp eyes, it's been ransacked and then put back exactly as it was found.]

[He closes the door behind her, and locks it, and when he speaks, he lets his voice carry so that anyone (or anything) listening]

That would be very kind. I just woke up here, if you can imagine that!

[Translation: Are we bugged? Status report. Now.]

[Stephanie steps in after scooping up her belongings, knowing damn well he didn't just open the front door right off the (ha ha) bat. She doubts he showed up in his birthday suit, too--must have been another suit entirely, stashed somewhere.

She's never known Bruce as well as Cass and Tim do, and probably never will. That's fine. He's being obvious enough with her.

She holds up her journal, shut. If he has one, it better be shut, too.]

I know. Believe me, I know. It's crazy, but you've gotta trust me.

[There's no hidden meaning behind that. God knows when he came from.]

[He studies it, tapping his chin.]

I have one of those, I think. [Ta-dah, somehow it's been within arm's length.] How utterly fascinating. An iPad?

[He's stalling. She trusts him, he wants to know why, precisely, given the last time he saw her. Well. She slapped him.]

[Without a word, she approaches him and picks the journal out of his hand. She makes sure it's shut, then heads over to the nearest drawer and places both of their journals inside before shutting that. Good enough. When she speaks, she sounds more like herself, and less like herself straining to be polite.]

The dumb playboy thing is so much more annoying than the awkward nerd thing. For the record.

[Stephanie takes a breath before turning back to Bruce. Time to get this sorted out.]

It's safe. No one's listening.

You know why.

[He has straightened up, the Bruce Wayne hat is off and it is very much Batman who is staring back at her. He's definitely not as cold as he was to her as Spoiler, not as shocked as he would be when she'd first shown up on the radar again, because while he'd suspected she wasn't dead he'd had no evidence. (And still, he remembered holding her hand in Leslie's clinic.)]

Are you and I the only ones here?

[It's a sharp question, but the anger is directed elsewhere. He's simply allowing her to see it.]

I know, but I don't ever have to deal with it firsthand. [There's no reason for Stephanie Brown and Bruce Wayne to cross paths. They're worlds apart, supposedly.

She leans back against the dresser, posture relaxed despite being ready to bite back. She reminds herself of the Bruce that came from a universe without Jason Todd, without Stephanie Brown, without Damian Wayne. He had been easier to talk to, easier to be friendly with. She reminds herself of telling him that he wasn't going to take Batgirl away from her, and that still stood. Three and a half years away from Gotham changed her, but she wasn't going to go back to groveling at his feet for acceptance.

At least, that's what she was telling herself right now.]

Tim and Cass are here.

Hello to you, too.

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