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31_days2017-01-31 08:29 pm
praiseofshadows.livejournal.com) wrote in 31_days2017-01-31 08:29 pm
[31-Jan-2017] [Batman: The Animated Series] Epistolary
Title: Epistolary
Day/Theme: January 31, 2017 - Every time someone forgets, someone else disappears
Series: Batman: The Animated Series:
Character/Pairing: Jack Haly, Bruce Wayne, Richard Grayson
Rating: PG
Dick’s early letters had been troubling: a large, empty house, with only Wayne’s butler for company as Wayne himself kept long nights away doing whatever the hell Wayne actually did.
Several times Jack had been tempted to drop everything and catch the next train back to the Gotham. But he consoled himself (as he consoled Dick) that all of this was temporary. Dick only had to stay with Wayne until Dick testified at the trial. Then Dick could – and would – come back to the circus.
But then Tony Zucco had skipped Gotham, and Wayne’s lawyers had sent some very firmly worded letters. Oh, the letters were polite, of course. It could never be said that Wayne – even through the impressive letterhead of Rowe, Maw & Nath – was nothing if not polite.
Of course Wayne would do what was best for Richard (always Richard in the letters, never Dick). And (though the lawyers were clever enough to make sure it went unsaid) what could be better for Richard than the best that Wayne’s money could buy?
Jack hadn’t liked it, but even if he used the circus as collateral, he couldn’t raise enough cash to fight Wayne. And by then, Dick’s letters had become less frequent and far less heartbreaking. Instead, Dick chattered on excitedly about the box seats Wayne (though Dick by now had dispensed with Mr. Wayne and referred to him Bruce) had procured for the Gotham Knights season opener, of a daytrip out in Gotham Harbor aboard Wayne’s yacht. He hadn’t written of his admission as a day student to the exclusive Brentwood Academy, but Jack saw the results of Brentwood all the same, as Dick’s untidy scrawl transitioned in the space between one letter and the next into something worthy of a graduate of the Palmer Method of Business Writing.
Eventually, Dick’s letters stopped entirely. The lawyers dutifully forwarded Dick’s report cards every quarter, and once a year they sent Dick’s latest school photos. With his hair slicked back and his Brentwood tie in a perfect half-windsor, he looked nothing like the Dick Grayson who had laughingly executed quadruple somersault after quadruple somersault high in the circus tent’s rafters. He didn’t even look like the Dick Grayson that had stood, small and alone, at his parents’ funeral. He looked like a Richard. A Richard (though the lawyers left it unsaid) Wayne.
Day/Theme: January 31, 2017 - Every time someone forgets, someone else disappears
Series: Batman: The Animated Series:
Character/Pairing: Jack Haly, Bruce Wayne, Richard Grayson
Rating: PG
Dick’s early letters had been troubling: a large, empty house, with only Wayne’s butler for company as Wayne himself kept long nights away doing whatever the hell Wayne actually did.
Several times Jack had been tempted to drop everything and catch the next train back to the Gotham. But he consoled himself (as he consoled Dick) that all of this was temporary. Dick only had to stay with Wayne until Dick testified at the trial. Then Dick could – and would – come back to the circus.
But then Tony Zucco had skipped Gotham, and Wayne’s lawyers had sent some very firmly worded letters. Oh, the letters were polite, of course. It could never be said that Wayne – even through the impressive letterhead of Rowe, Maw & Nath – was nothing if not polite.
Of course Wayne would do what was best for Richard (always Richard in the letters, never Dick). And (though the lawyers were clever enough to make sure it went unsaid) what could be better for Richard than the best that Wayne’s money could buy?
Jack hadn’t liked it, but even if he used the circus as collateral, he couldn’t raise enough cash to fight Wayne. And by then, Dick’s letters had become less frequent and far less heartbreaking. Instead, Dick chattered on excitedly about the box seats Wayne (though Dick by now had dispensed with Mr. Wayne and referred to him Bruce) had procured for the Gotham Knights season opener, of a daytrip out in Gotham Harbor aboard Wayne’s yacht. He hadn’t written of his admission as a day student to the exclusive Brentwood Academy, but Jack saw the results of Brentwood all the same, as Dick’s untidy scrawl transitioned in the space between one letter and the next into something worthy of a graduate of the Palmer Method of Business Writing.
Eventually, Dick’s letters stopped entirely. The lawyers dutifully forwarded Dick’s report cards every quarter, and once a year they sent Dick’s latest school photos. With his hair slicked back and his Brentwood tie in a perfect half-windsor, he looked nothing like the Dick Grayson who had laughingly executed quadruple somersault after quadruple somersault high in the circus tent’s rafters. He didn’t even look like the Dick Grayson that had stood, small and alone, at his parents’ funeral. He looked like a Richard. A Richard (though the lawyers left it unsaid) Wayne.