are you insane like me?

 “ um, yeah.  i guess so, ” colin agrees, walking through the door when she steps aside.  he probably shouldn’t.  there’s part of him that thinks he should be suspicious of this woman.  she’s — a criminal, at the very least.  could definitely pull a fast one and kill him.  but that also could be the paranoia talking.  they’ll find out, won’t they ??

colin’s gonna take the chance because…because he’s got a thousand questions for this woman who might be his mother.  for now, he wants to stay away from the why.  he suspects no answer for why he was put up for adoption will make any of the past years seem worth it.  

“ you told me i looked like my father. ”

Peyton closed the door behind him and walked over to the nearby couch to sit down. It was large enough that they wouldn’t be too close if he wanted to sit, but there was also a chair nearby if he wanted to sit further away. She felt like every move she made had to be cautious, considering she would probably not get any more chances after all this trouble she’s put him through.

Of all the questions, that was the hardest to answer. How could she explain anything about his father without mentioning everything else? She put her hands in her lap, entwining her fingers with each other, and took a deep breath. “You do, like a mirror image of him really. Except for one thing, it’s almost like there’s more life in your eyes. He was...an angry person. Angry and jealous. I’m sorry, I don’t even know where he’s been in the past seventeen years.” Not that Peyton would tell him if she did, keeping those two apart was the only reason she gave Colin up in the first place.

“ well you see, my geometry teacher failed me my senior year so i threw him through the wall. origin story complete. “

 he raises his eyebrows at her explanation before nodding. “ better origin story than penguin. we all got demons, guess some of just don’t resemble..fond memories. “

   nico reaches out to snatch the watch from her hands.  on closer inspection, it’s not as nice as he thought.  pity.  “ of course i am, peyton.  i’ve got to go — visit the regulars soon and take what i need.  you can come along, if you want.  just bring ear plugs so you don’t get all drooly over me too.  i’d hate to rob you blind. ”

@vcntriloquist

colin hates the indie-movie vibe of having to admit this, but he’s spent all week watching a small bouquet of flowers wilt and die.  bought on mother’s day, colin almost convinced himself to give them to peyton.  not because he feels anything really, for her, but it seems like the right thing to do.  or maybe he had hoped doing something like that would make him feel something.  but no such luck.

it had been a hollow gesture, a pitiful attempt at sentiment.  the flowers had laid on his counter for days before the lack of water made them unsalvageable.  

but peyton doesn’t know any of that, and colin will be damned before he admits his own insecurities about THIS to her, of all people.  “ do you think we could talk ??  i have – some questions.  about this whole thing. ”

There was no book on how to deal with these kinds of situations, no precedent Peyton knew of that she could use for some kind of guidance. She had pushed enough, she’d hoped by giving him her address that she could wait and eventually hear from him again. Normally she knew all her steps ahead of time, she was in control, but with this she had to be so careful and mindful of what she said. It wasn’t what she was used to.

She could hardly believe he was actually there, but she tried not to show too much expression. She was happy to see him, but she didn’t want to scare him off either. “Of course, I’ll answer anything I can. Do you want to come in?” she offered, standing aside to allow him to pass.

  “ i guess it’s better then walking around in booty shorts, but come on. what’s the deal here? “

@vcntriloquist requested a starter !!

 “ the puppet thing is creepy as hell. seriously, why? “

    “ i like that watch.  can i have it ?? ”

             ‘ not really, i didnt think about it before drinking it. i probably should have switched to decaf after the first cup. ‘

              ‘ i have found that whiskey and coffee do not settle well together on the stomach. ‘ 

               ‘ did a drink three cups of coffee, yes. am i going to sleep tonight. probably not. ‘ 

“Nothing to tell you.” The words were perfectly punctuated, crisp. It wasn’t a game Selina was playing, not this time. It was a warning. There were lines she would intervene in the crossing of, and lines she would eviscerate others for even thinking about. The Cat had changed in the time since their last encounter. This one was sleeker, more attached and less likely to cast a blind eye. “Boring might suit you.” 

“Hm, so defensive. Did I do something to personally offend you, Selina?” Peyton continued to smile, the way she used to with Scarface around. She almost wished her life was boring, but coming back to Gotham came with finding her son. Never a dull moment. “Do you still run into Batman often? You know, I’d love to tell him how much I appreciate him almost ruining my plans for revenge,” she said with venomous sarcasm. 

I wish they’d been lying. Selina snorted, rolling her eyes at Peyton’s half-bragging. As if getting caught and shot in the head was something to be proud of. As if jumping off a boat was some grand attempt at escaping. She’d never been sure Peyton was dead, but then again, no one really died in Gotham. They just took vacations to a different kind of hell. “Oh, this and that.” 

Selina rolling her eyes didn’t go unnoticed, Peyton only wished she could still do that to the same effect. The glass eye made the whole thing much less effective. Peyton sighed, a bit annoyed that Selina was being so vague. Quite frankly, she hated that her life was so much more public than those she dealt with. “Really? Nothing to tell? What a shame, your life must have gotten boring. Well, now that I’ve accomplished my goal, I think I’ll enjoy a little boring too.”

@vcntriloquist

There’s no light teasing in her voice as Selina greets Peyton, no lilting smile, no grandiose fondness. Not even the half-fondness she reserves for Ed. Just a flat, steel-laced tone. Peyton Riley has never been good news for Gotham. “When I heard you were back, I thought they were lying.” 

“Normally I’d tell you don’t believe everything you read, but in this case you better believe it.” Peyton smirked. She couldn’t help having some satisfaction in her return making people react. Although she did feel a bit out of the loop on what the citizens of Gotham were up to. “If I can get shot in the head and live to tell the tale, it would be shameful for me to die by jumping off a boat. And what have you been up to since my little vacation?” 

it’s been – a week for ghosts of colin’s past.  except colin doesn’t recognize this one.  but it’s sort of a toss up between who he’d like to see less, scarecrow or the woman’s who claims to be the mother who abandoned him.  both options are painful, make him angry, and definitely are the cause of lost sleep.

“ how do you even know it’s true? ” colin demands, arms crossed tight across his chest.  “ there are other orphans named colin.  my name doesn’t mean anything.  hell, i knew at least two other orphans with the same name.  so maybe you’d feel better trying it out with one of them ?? ”  he hates the way the words sound in his own mouth.  they sound cruel, bitter.  maybe he is those things.  “ i did some research on you, you know. ”

Her answer should have started with any and all of the facts she could rely on to explain why she was so sure, that would have been the better way to answer. But Peyton couldn’t help blurting the answer that had struck her when she first laid eyes on him. “Because you look identical to your father,” she said in a rushed tone.