( it's just numbers in his head while the waterbender falls. statistics. likelihood of a mattress resting in the middle of the road to catch his fall. angles and half circles, pulley systems he can construct in a second to carry the brunt of his weight. potential outcomes. reasonable expectancy of survival, various injuries. gravity, equations of weight and force and acceleration. the seconds counting down before it's too late to make a decision.
it's only when his body goes horizontal to the roof, that dick imagines his parents.
and then it's not numbers at all. it's flesh and blood, the broken remains of the graysons, with limbs bent in all the wrong directions, with the splatter of human fat like maggots on the ground from the explosive force. dick watched it. there wasn't any slow crawl of life from their eyes - they hit the ground and they were dead, flattened but bent together, lovers even in death. no one expected it, so no one thought to turn his gaze elsewhere. when something terrible happens, it's a shock to the senses. you don't think what about their son? until after the smell of blood is gone from the air, and the adrenaline of their dead bodies runs cold. dick carries that with him like a pack mule, the scent of the circus and disembodied flesh, popcorn and blood intermingling in a way that still makes him sick when he smells butter. the sight of his parents and all their bones crushed, lifeless, swollen eyes expanding from their sockets, blood, god, blood everywhere. dick wanted to jump right after them, and plunge to his own buttery, soda stained death.
he plunges now, unthinking. not to die - to save. he was a young airbender at the death of his parents, untrained and incapable of protecting anyone. now, he just. he doesn't want to see anyone die, ever, ever again. that might be childishness, or the cold fears of a lonely child clawing up his throat, but. he can't watch this guy die. it doesn't matter how terrible he is, what awful things he's done. no one should be splattered on the ground.
it's amazing. he's tried so hard to unlearn airbending, but it's written into the very fiber of his being, etched on the raked leaves of his soul. he doesn't leap off the building thinking he'll airbend to safety - he just knows. this man is not dying. i won't let him die. i'll figure something out.
when mako comes down, dick is just sitting on the ground. knees bent, elbows resting on top of them. the criminal has been apprehended with a makeshift restraint made from dick's belt, and he just looks. exhausted. he lightens up once he sees mako, though, cheery smiles covering up eternities of grief. he waves a hand. )
Worst part about this is I didn't get my snacks. ( c'mon mako. crack a smile. ) We made a pretty good team, don't you think? You're an amazing firebender. Though, I'd expect as much from the great Mako!
( the fire ferrets, come on. he and jason snuck into a match once. it was amazing. )
cw: gore
it's only when his body goes horizontal to the roof, that dick imagines his parents.
and then it's not numbers at all. it's flesh and blood, the broken remains of the graysons, with limbs bent in all the wrong directions, with the splatter of human fat like maggots on the ground from the explosive force. dick watched it. there wasn't any slow crawl of life from their eyes - they hit the ground and they were dead, flattened but bent together, lovers even in death. no one expected it, so no one thought to turn his gaze elsewhere. when something terrible happens, it's a shock to the senses. you don't think what about their son? until after the smell of blood is gone from the air, and the adrenaline of their dead bodies runs cold. dick carries that with him like a pack mule, the scent of the circus and disembodied flesh, popcorn and blood intermingling in a way that still makes him sick when he smells butter. the sight of his parents and all their bones crushed, lifeless, swollen eyes expanding from their sockets, blood, god, blood everywhere. dick wanted to jump right after them, and plunge to his own buttery, soda stained death.
he plunges now, unthinking. not to die - to save. he was a young airbender at the death of his parents, untrained and incapable of protecting anyone. now, he just. he doesn't want to see anyone die, ever, ever again. that might be childishness, or the cold fears of a lonely child clawing up his throat, but. he can't watch this guy die. it doesn't matter how terrible he is, what awful things he's done. no one should be splattered on the ground.
it's amazing. he's tried so hard to unlearn airbending, but it's written into the very fiber of his being, etched on the raked leaves of his soul. he doesn't leap off the building thinking he'll airbend to safety - he just knows. this man is not dying. i won't let him die. i'll figure something out.
when mako comes down, dick is just sitting on the ground. knees bent, elbows resting on top of them. the criminal has been apprehended with a makeshift restraint made from dick's belt, and he just looks. exhausted. he lightens up once he sees mako, though, cheery smiles covering up eternities of grief. he waves a hand. )
Worst part about this is I didn't get my snacks. ( c'mon mako. crack a smile. ) We made a pretty good team, don't you think? You're an amazing firebender. Though, I'd expect as much from the great Mako!
( the fire ferrets, come on. he and jason snuck into a match once. it was amazing. )