[Chiraptora: For Bryce Wayne]

[serinusniger]

The book launch Dinah so much wanted to go to is taking place in the ballroom of the Gotham Hilton, and the guest list is long and illustrious enough to warrant a large media presence in front of the hotel lobby, parting occasionally to let cars arrive.

It's into this crowd that Dinah, dressed to impress in red, with impressive slits up both sides, pulls her matching red Ferrari. She grins at the snapping photographers, pulls on her heels while still sitting in the convertible, and offers the keys to the valet who opens the door.

Then she offers a hand to her passenger, because coming out of this door will still be easier than fighting the other side.

Comments

[gothamsheiress]

"Oh?"

[serinusniger]

Dinah stays by the window, looking down on Gotham rather than looking into the light of the apartment.

"She calls me sister," she explains, "because we were trained by the same so-called 'mother.' I went to experience the same training as the assassin Lady Shiva. Sin was already there."

[gothamsheiress]

Bryce's faint smile disappears.

"Not the League of Shadows?"

[serinusniger]

"If that's your version of the League of Assassins," and Dinah doesn't doubt for a moment that it is, "then you've got it exactly right."

[gothamsheiress]

"Led by Ra's al Guhl," grimly. "When I trained with them. I guess that does make me your sister."

[serinusniger]

Dinah glances down at her coffee cup.

"Well, he wasn't there when I trained. But yeah, I guess it does."

And suddenly she's fighting a smirk.

"You know I almost married him, once?"

[gothamsheiress]

"--Ra's?"

[serinusniger]

Defensively:

"I didn't know that was who he was! And he can be very charming."

[gothamsheiress]

. . . Bryce is just going to shake her head and sip her coffee.

And see if she can avoid the subject of what her 25-year-old self thought of Henri Ducard at times.

[serinusniger]

Dinah shakes her head as well.

"Judge me all you want. I'm sure you've never fallen for someone on the other side."

She knows nothing about Bryce, she just knows who her own rivals have been.

[gothamsheiress]

"Not to the point of almost marrying them."

And the disastrous date with Jim Moriarty wasn't really a date with him. Just disastrous all around.

[serinusniger]

Dinah laughs, and rubs the back of her neck.

"Yes, well, when I do something stupid, I do it completely," is her answer.

Then something occurs to her.

"And you don't even know about Damien, do you?"

[gothamsheiress]

She shakes her head.

"Haven't heard the name."

[serinusniger]

"Yes you have," Dinah corrects her. "Dick mentioned him. His little brother, Bruce's son.

"And the grandson of Ra's Al Ghul."

So there.

[gothamsheiress]

. . . Bryce blinks at her, disconcerted. There is a lot to unpack there.

[serinusniger]

She offers a sympathetic smile for the suddenness of the bombshell, but it did amuse her.

"Does your world have a Talia?"

[gothamsheiress]

"Talia? That one I'm sure I don't know."

[serinusniger]

"Ra's' daughter."

Dinah tries to sound neutral when talking about her, at least. "Bruce and she had a thing a few years ago, during one of our many 'off' periods. Ten years later, she shows up with Damien in tow."

[gothamsheiress]

A daughter.

He has -- had -- a daughter.

And in this world, Bruce had a child with her.

"Did he know who she was?"

[serinusniger]

Dinah nods.

"Oh, yeah," she says. "He usually does."

[gothamsheiress]

Well. Note to self: schedule a follow-up about that IUD, just in case in her world, Ra's had a son.

"All due respect to my counterpart," wryly, "he might have you beat in the doing completely stupid things category."

[serinusniger]

Dinah smirks. "I knew you'd be on my side."

Sometimes people aren't.

She follows it up with a shrug. "Damien's life so far was much like Sin's, only his mother gave him material wealth while training him to be an assassin. Dick put him in the Robin outfit to give him something useful to do with the only thing he knows how to do."

[gothamsheiress]

Bryce frowns.

"That's horrific. They're kids. Training them as assassins--" She shakes her head, her fingers tightening on her cup.

[serinusniger]

The argument goes, that the earlier you train them, the better they are as adults.

Dinah agrees with Bryce, and doesn't feel like voicing that thought. Not does she feel like bringing up Cassandra.

"Yes," she says quietly. "I know."

[gothamsheiress]

"Sorry." She sighs. "Obviously you know."