 Lorendiac 2/7/07 . chapter 1I liked it. Let me mention one bit that caught me by surprise, though:
* "I was hoping," she started in a forced calm voice, "that you and I would be able to do something tonight, that is until I was informed by, first Flash, then Clark, then J'onn and finally Shayera, that you had agreed to take all their shifts for today, tonight and tomorrow morning." She leaned forward and rested her elbows on her knees. "Twenty-four hours of monitor duty, Bruce?" She straightened up, placed her left hand on his right shoulder and asked in a whisper, "Do I scare you that much?" *
I was very surprised by her reaction, because I didn't expect her to take this change in shift scheduling so personally. I wouldn't think Valentine's Day specifically - as opposed to any other day when she could plan to spend some quality time with someone she really liked - would be such a big deal to her. I mean, Bruce grew up in a culture where boys and girls associate a certain day of the year with romance, above all other days of the year, but Diana grew up in a culture descended from Classical Greece, right? Totally different experience! She probably never even HEARD of "Valentine's Day" until after she became a founding member of the League!
(I guess she's getting assimilated into American culture awfully fast, though?)
Incidentally, I ended up with the conviction that the League DESPERATELY needs to hire some sort of "temps" or "pinch-hitter heroes" or whatever to handle monitor duty for them instead of requiring the regular membership to stand watches all the time, especially on holidays, if they are currently so short-handed that everybody and his brother couldn't find any way to make things fit except by pestering Batman to fill in for them. What if he had been honestly unable to make that commitment because he had some really serious business to attend to in Gotham that just couldn't wait? (Catching the Joker again, or whatever.)
Granted, you made it pretty clear that one reason Flash - and probably the others - all picked on Batman was their general ASSUMPTION that he couldn't possibly be planning anything "romantic" for Valentine's Day, the way several other JLAers were, therefore he was "fair game" for a sudden request to switch shifts! Always interesting to know what your friends really think of you, isn't it? ("'Batman'? 'Social life'? Don't be silly, guys - those two concepts are diametrically opposed!") |