forhope ://
      â  could you stop preparing for the worst and just hope for the best?   â    steph bounds into his side,  to knock some supplementary sense into him, but also to wrap an arm around his elbow and steer him through the gaggle of gothamites.  they really knew how to throw a party.  metropolis could keep itâs sun,  safety and superman;  the people of gotham were her people.  her neighbours,  who had next to nothing but their own time,  had shown her what this cityâs true colours were;  a community no one else would understand, who helped each other and knew each other.  this fare wasnât as exuberant as the one tim could attend but thatâs what made it better.  it was common, it was loud and in your face, it was tacky and it was so very much the heart of the city.  the people attending the fare were the heart of the city. these were the people of gotham city that mattered.Â
no matter how tired she may be at the end of a night of saving them;  seeing them happy and safe,  made every sleepless night worth it.Â
             â   we could go on a ride;  i love the dodgems or the haunted house ride.  we could have our fortunes read,  though i tried to have someone do that once and they just kept getting really confused when the death card kept coming up.  we could gorge ourselves on food till we canât move. the fair is your oyster.   â
jason tries to remember a time when steph wasnât one of the most optimistic of them all,  and quickly realizes he canât.  she sees things he doesnât,  a little too jaded by years of hard - fought experience and the kind of trauma that should only exist in horror stories.  (  not to say she hadnât had her own fair share ;  sheâd certainly seen the ugly as shit side of the city as much as any of them and experienced firsthand what it really meant to live a life here  )  but steph had a way of still seeing the good in a way jason realized he was almost jealous of.
for a moment his eyes scan around the fairground,  not looking for anything in particular,  just  ...  looking.  maybe trying to see things the way his current companion did,  though with almost nonexistent success.  so it doesnât take long for jason to turn his attention back to the one currently hanging off his arm as she rattles off quite the list of suggestions.
he quietly scoffs at few of them,  but reels it in a bit.  he knows sheâs excited to be here,  knows she wants him to be  (  at least a little  )  so he makes a point not to make as few derogatory noises as possible.  who knows.  maybe heâd actually have fun if he stopped treating everything like they might get jumped at any time.
thereâs a knowing laugh at the mention of tarot,  and the reading she'd gotten.  somehow jason doesnât think it'll have changed much ;  for either of them.  â mm.  yâknow what,  you take first pick.  you gotta know all thâ best ones. â  heâs not exactly a veteran carnival - goer,  which probably goes without saying.










