#lmao ffs what if thats how Gordon figures him out?

[br-uwu-cewayne]

Thinking about the sounds basically all of late 30's/early 40's (where i typically like to place him) Bruce's joints must make constantly, like

The man is a walking bag of pop rocks.

He gets up to give his presentation and the entire Wayne Enterprises Board of Directors winces at the loud pop from his right knee but he just keeps breezing on. Most are just convinced he's got some kind of arthritis though.

The batfam, on the other hand, who know exactly what it is, full on flinch in sympathetic pain. Not because it's particularly painful, just the sounds seem like it should be, and they know that it's from all the hard hits and trauma his body's been through.

Like... helping with cleanup after dinner.

("B, we have a butler." "No, I have a butler. And it builds character. Teaches responsibility. Now grab a dishtowel and get to it.")

Bruce is at the sink doing the rinsing and his left elbow crackles and Dick fully drops a plate on the floor.

Or one night he's having stoic silent re-bonding time with Jason in the batcave, working on the car. He's on a skateboard under it and plants his feet and pushes to shift his position and his ankles click-click-click like the engine turning over, making Jason jump and bang his head on the hood.

He reaches up to a shelf in the library for a book almost just out of reach and his shoulder casually snaps out and back in to place as he extends and retracts, and Tim accidentally tears a page in the book he's reading.

He turns his head slightly just to look to the fucking left a bit at the dinner table, his neck gives a little machine gun like ratta-tatt, and Damian is pushing his ate away, appetite fully lost.

I must reiterate here, Bruce is having absolutely zero reaction to these sounds. At all.

The man is a fucking bowl of rice krispies 24/7, and he's just... whistlin' through his day, off to play No Thoughts Head Empty Wii Music On Loop Brucie paying his speeding tickets at the GCPD, completely oblivious to the entire bullpen flinching as he leaned over the counter.

And don't even get me started on what the Supers must pick up on.