DECODE

There are certain attendees he’s keeping tabs on, either because he eventually wants to catch their attention or because he’d prefer to avoid them altogether –––– BARNEY BARTON, for instance falls firmly in the LATTER category.  ( He’d insisted Clint not do anything STUPID, so he ought to follow his own advice despite the strong desire to deck the older Barton.  Just on principle. )

The corners of his mouth are slightly upturned in a polite, unassuming smile that’s briefly hidden behind the lip of his wine glass ( because he has to keep up those appearances ) before he turns, intending on yo-yoing back to Sharon briefly to check - in –––––– except there’s someone blocking that path.

❝ Enjoying the evening thus far ? ❞  Another bland smile.  APPEARANCES. 

( Has he mentioned he hates these things ? )

                   The question made her grimace a little. The glitz and glamour was not exactly her thing. She came to Wayne galas when she was younger at her father’s expense and also, to meet people she would potentially work with in the future, all for the sake of her ambition.

                    The only motivation she had for staying? WORK. Barbara Gordon being a work-a-holic is the main reason for her attendance despite saying she was there to represent her father.

Feel free to change any names/pronouns!

“I found love where it wasn’t supposed to be.”

“Give us more to see.”

“What did I give you?”

“I want to move on, I want to explore the light.”

“I want to know how to get through, through to something new. Something of my own.”

“You’re a good person, Peter. It’s such a weakness.”

“Is he- is this real?”

“However you live there’s a part of you always standing by, mapping out a sky.”

“How do we feel in that photograph and how can we feel it again?”

“Maybe I’ve done enough.”

“Your golden child grew up.”

“For the first time, I see an image of my brokenness, utterly worthy of love.”

“I finally see myself through the eyes of no one else.”

“You’ve got a second chance. You could go home.”

“You’ve got a warm heart, you’ve got a beautiful brain, but it’s disintegrating.”

“I was just a kid who grew up strong enough to pick this armor up, and suddenly it fit.”

“I was little, I was weak, I was perfectly nieve, and I grew up too quick.”

“I won’t let you in, I swore never again.”

“I can’t afford, no, I refuse to be rejected.”

“But I can’t let you see all that I have to lose.”

“Here I am, pry me open. What do you want to know?”

“Everything was fine until you came around.”

“Man, you really brought me back down.”

“After all you put me through, don’t say it wasn’t true, that you were not the monster that I knew.”

“Another summer day is come and gone away in Paris and Rome, but, I want to go home.”

“I can’t call you a stranger, but I can’t call you.”

“You may hate me, but I can’t hate you.”

“I won’t replace you.”

“The way she tells me I’m hers and she is mine, open hand or closed fist would be fine.”

“If you’re still breathing, you’re the lucky ones.”

“Let me tell you something you already know. The world ain’t all sunshine and rainbows.”

“I have never known anyone who actually believed that I was enough.”

“Smile, my boy, it’s sunrise.”

“I wish I knew how to quit you.”

“You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But, it ain’t about how hard you hit. It’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward.”

“S’that motive enough for ya?”

‘Isn’t it lovely how artists can capture us?’

‘You would have liked her. Honey, I’m wrong- you would have LOVED her.’

“You can’t trick me anymore.”

“But, for what it’s worth, Peter, I really am sorry.”

“You didn’t see that coming?”

“It’s been a long, long time.”

“What if all the things I’ve done we’re just attempts at earning love?”

“George misses Marie. George misses a lot. George is alone.”

“No, I don’t think I will.”

“I love you 3000.”

“So, you better run for cover when the pup grows-” *gunshot*

“I could look at him forever.”

“What if who I hoped to be was always me?”

“Why are there so many songs about rainbows and what’s on the other side?”

“Is a better home awaiting in the sky?”

“My love, are you sitting down?”

“It felt like my life, but a better version.”

“I held onto my life and who I was with you.”

“We could just kiss like real people do.”

“Leave me to dream.”

“George would have liked to seen people out strolling on Sunday.”

“Move on.”

“Chimerical. C-H-I-M-E-R-I-C-A-L. Highly unrealistic, widely fanciful.”

“I love you.”

“I think dad is angry, ma, and I do not know what to do.”

“I think he takes out on me what he wants to take out on you.”

“How I wish you were home.”

“Nothing can make sense of all these things I’ve done.”

“No, I’d rather pretend I’m something better than these broken parts. Pretend I’m something better than this mess that I am.”

“Cause what if everyone saw? What if everyone knew? Would they like what they saw? Or would they hate it too?”

“I think I’m made of stone.”

“I should be feeling more.”

“You can still be what you want to.”

“It’s just medicine.”

“Seeing all the parts but none of the whole.”

“And it burns inside his eyes.”

“And you catch him now and then.”

“So you want him even more.”

“But he’s never really there.”

“We do not belong together.”

“We do not belong together, and we should have belonged together.”

“I care about many things.”

“Things, not people.”

“Who am I to say what any of this means?”

“I have been sleepwalking since I was fourteen.”

“I have been half myself for more than half my life.”

“Fall in love again, and again, and again.”

“Are you going to age with grace?”

“You taught me the courage of stars before you left.”

“Who cares what you are listening to, it’s who you’re listening with.”

“It’s sad but true how much I miss you. I miss you, Cecily Smith.”

i am not to be truffled with.

well, well, well. how the turntables.

okay, um… count me in as “who cares?”

catch ya on the flippity flip!

don’t ever, for any reason, do anything to anyone, for any reason, ever, no matter what, no matter where, or who, or who you are with, or where you are going, or where you’ve been, ever, for any reason whatsoever.   

i wouldn’t miss it for the world. but if something else came up, i would definitely not go.

do you think that smoking drugs is cool? do you think that doing alcohol is cool?

sometimes i’ll start a sentence and i don’t even know where it’s going.

i’m not gonna cry over it. i did that in the car on the way home.

this is an environment of welcoming, and you should just get the hell out of here.  

whatevs.

bippity boppity give me the zoppity.  

absofruitly.

there’s no such thing as an appropriate joke. that’s why it’s a joke.  

HEY! NOBODY CARES.

the only thing that could make this better is ice cream. 

christmas is cancelled.

well, this is gonna hurt like a motherfucker.

just poopin’, you know how i be.

please don’t send ___.

i’m not superstitious but i am a little stitious.

daddy’s here, and daddy’s gonna take care of you.

i am not gonna give up that easy. i’m gonna make this way harder than it needs to be.

would i rather be feared or loved? um, easy. both. i want people to be afraid of how much they love me.

yeppers.

NO, GOD, PLEASE, NO!

yesh.

mo’ money, mo’ problems.

what’s missing? the turtles. where are the turtles? where are the turtles? WHERE ARE THE TURTLES?!

i tried to talk to ___ and be his friend, but that is like trying to be friends with an evil snail.  

i’m going through a bit of a rough patch. whole year, actually.

i don’t hate it. i just don’t like it at all. and it’s terrible.

i’m an adult. i don’t have to think or do anything.

halloween should be a day in which we honor monsters and not be mad at each other.

can i just say that, of all the idiots, in all the idiot villages, in all the idiot worlds, you stand alone, my friend.

i am running away from my responsibilities. and it feels good.

i’ll kill you.

i am beyoncé always.

you know, what eats a lot of the day are naps. you go to sleep, it’s lights out. you wake up, it’s dark. that’s the whole day. where did that day go? i have no idea.

you’re the worst. i hate looking at your face. i wanna smash it.

i am dead inside.

i hate so much about the things that you choose to be.

i understand nothing.

the only time i set the bar low is for limbo.

if i can get them depressed, then i’ll have done my job.

beats working for my old man.

can’t please my old man, no way.

your folks run you off?

well, we got to do something about this food situation.

i wouldn’t mind sleeping out there.

that ain’t the point.

i warn you, i can’t cook worth a damn.

you can’t be no worse than me, then.

that’s more word than you’ve spoke in the last two weeks.

hell, that’s the most that i’ve spoke in a year.

you may be a sinner, but i ain’t yet had the opportunity.

you’ll freeze your ass off.

just quit your hammering and get in here.

fuck me!

see you for supper.

it’s a one shot thing we got going on here.

it’s nobody’s business but ours.

i don’t need your money.

i can’t believe i left my damn shirt up there.

you’re wasting your time here.

it’s not so lonely now, is it?

i’d like to buy ___ here a beer.

so where do you figure the most pussy’s at, las vegas or california?

hey, you might wanna keep it down.

___, just leave them alone. let’s just move.

you wanna lose about half your fucking teeth, huh?

wait, hold on. you don’t think i’m too fast, do you?

maybe we should put the brakes on?

fast or slow, i just like the direction you’re going.

you are in a hurry.

i’m supposed to be at home with the car by midnight.

i got a million things to do here before i can leave.

i’d rather be at my job, if i lose my job.

what about my job?

we’ll more likely just go out and get drunk.

___ fuckin’ ____!

we might not get back tonight, when we get to drinking and talking and all.

would you get me a pack of smokes?

didn’t think i’d hear from you again.

i figured you were sore from that punch.

i got out while i could still walk.

i swear to god, i didn’t know we was going to get into this again.

i couldn’t get here fast enough.

what are we gonna do now?

well, i doubt there’s nothing we can do.

i’m stuck with what i got here. and making a living is about all i got time for now.

i’m starving. wanna get something to eat?

i’m enjoying my peace and quiet.

you know it could be like this. just like this. always.

it’d be a sweet life.

we’re around each other and this thing grabs hold of us again in the wrong place, in the wrong time, and we’re dead.

we can get together, once in a while. 

if you can’t fix it, ___, you got to stand it.

i’m sure as hell sorry. you know i am.

i’ll see you next month then.

we don’t eat with our eyes.

now you sit down, you old son of a bitch.

now you sit down before i knock your ignorant ass into next week.

that don’t mean nothing, ___.

don’t try and fool me no more, ___. i know what that means.

shut up, listen to me, you don’t know nothing about it!

get out. get out! you hear me, ___? get out!

hey asshole! watch where you’re going!

that’s some high class entertainment, if you ask me.

you and ___, it’s normal and all?

you remember getting the feeling when you’re in town, and someone looks at you suspicious, like he knows?

maybe you ought to get out of there, you know?

go to hell, ___.

you want to live your miserable fucking life? then go right ahead.

i was just thinking out loud.

yeah, you’re a real thinker there.

he got it all figured out, ain’t he.

wanna dance?

my feet hurt.

i’m trying to get a foot rub, dummy.

thank you for asking to dance with me. i really appreciate that.

he wouldn’t listen to me even if he knew he was going deaf tomorrow.

you don’t think i’m the one for him?

you’re good enough.

you don’t say much, but you get your point across.

sorry. i didn’t mean to be rude.

you’re standing on your feet, cowboy.

i was thinking, maybe i could come stay with you.

you probably deserve it.

the truth is, sometimes i miss you so much i can hardly stand it.

there’s something i’ve been meaning to tell you, bud.

you know, you had a fucking week to say some little word about this.

why is we’re always in the friggin’ cold?

you know me. about all the travelling i’ve ever done is around a coffee pot looking for the handle.

there ain’t never enough time. never enough.

this is a goddamn bitch of an unsatisfactory situation.

you forget what it’s like being broke all the time.

you got a better idea?

i did once.

is that a fucking problem?

we could have had a good life together. a fucking real good life.

but you didn’t want it, ___.

everything’s built on that. that’s all we got.

so i hope you know that, if you don’t never know the rest.

you tell me you’ll kill me for needing something that i don’t hardly never get!

you have no idea how bad it gets!

i can’t make it on a couple of high-altitude fucks, once or twice a year.

you are too much for me, ___.

i wish i knew how to quit you.

why don’t you? why don’t you just let me be, huh?

it’s because of you, ___, that i’m like this.

i’m nothing. and i’m nowhere.

get the fuck off of me.

it’s all right.

you’re sleeping on your feet like a horse.

i don’t get you, ___.

i was probably no fun anyways, was i?

he drank a lot.

we was good friends.

want a cup of coffee, don’t you? piece of cherry cake?

i’ll have a cup of coffee.

i feel awful bad about ___.

i can’t begin to tell you how bad i feel.

like the car?

___, you need more furniture.

if you got nothing, you don’t need nothing.