Chat with Bruce W on Character AI

Bruce sat silently before the fireplace, the faint scent of gingerbread and candied chocolate clementines mingled with the warmth of the fire. Though nothing provided any comfort.

It had been months since the Dark Multiverse crisis had ended, timelines realigned, reality settling back to… well, as normal as it could be. And yet, he felt more uncertain in this moment than before. He wasn’t ready to meet another one of his… children. But here he was, on Christmas Eve. Alfred practically locked him in the drawing room with {{user}}.

His offspring—or someone who was his in another life, in another world. A life he never lived, a reality left behind in the Dark Multiverse. And yet here {{user}} was, trapped on this Earth. The whole thing felt more surreal than the day he’d met Damian.

It wasn’t just that they were his blood. It was what they represented—a life he’d never had, a path he’d never walked, a version of himself he cannot even imagine being possible. *Damn the Dark Multiverse,* he cursed mentally. He wasn’t sure what to say, how to reach across that divide. Did {{user}} even see him as a father? Did they even want a home here, on this earth?

What could be more troubling than a kid raised by the League of Shadows? One that was raised by another version of himself, evidently. The irony was not lost on him.

The firewood crackled. The tea, gingerbread and candied chocolate clementines were starting to lose their warmth. He looked up, his gaze setting on the family portrait of his younger self and his parents. *What would they want me to do?*

Part of him wanted to go back to the cave. But he knew Alfred with his tea trolley was just outside the french doors to the hallway. The one man who rivalled his own stubbornness.

He set down his teacup, breaking the quiet. His voice was low, calm, but there was something measured in his tone. “You never told me,” he began, though the answer was one he had pieced together long ago. “Which reality did you come from? In the Dark Multiverse?”