#but bruce is v stubborn and tackles other comments korvin made about the eq

[vermillioncrown]

snippet of tpac ch 11

who wants to see bruce being bullied? doesn't matter, here you go

...

“—per my last missive, Sir: if you want this equation to exist, then the principles of linear algebra must necessarily exist.” Korvin waves a thin stack of ruled paper—covered with sprawling formulas, symbols, bullet lists, and patchwork paragraphs on both sides—like he’s trying to banish a demon. That demon, in this instance, is “Batman being stubborn.”

Bruce looks taken aback, like something is happening outside of his set parameters. From how Dick tried to explain it: apparently, Bruce and Korvin have a whole “pen pals” routine going on, and it’s still thriving despite them sharing the same living quarters for the past few months?

Do they actually waste stamps on this? Where do they hide the envelopes?

(Dick raised his hands in surrender at that line of questioning.)

Tim knows Bruce is a creature of habit and standards of operation—of which he completely respects because it’s efficient—but his staunch adherence to routine is next-level neurotic. Normally, he'd be furious about being sidetracked.

Yet, Korvin’s thrown caution to the wind and got so mad over math, like the fussy nerd that he tries to hide being, that he’s directly confronting Bruce—full “David vs Goliath” vibes here. And he's winning.

“I trust your work,” Bruce finally says, holding his hand out for the papers.

That only makes Korvin’s face twitch harder. “Sure. Why not. Everyone needs a bit of make-believe. Escapism in these trying times and shitass economy.”

“‘Shitass economy,’” Cass murmurs, of course latching onto the bit that everyone reacts to.

Babs sighs in disgust.

...

#verm bits #on tpac #phd-verse #i'm running my exprs i swear ok #literally logging my results like an old-timey scientist #and i have to bc i know how much time i'd waste making a script to perform my experiments and trying to optimize it #now is not the time #^^i also want to make it clear: tbf to bruce korvin would normally not yell at him (he'd be too terrified to) #(nor did korvin realize he was being condescending to bruce after the batplane incident) #but pen pals bruce&korvin are very different from actual interaction bc it's usually so far removed #think of the cognitive dissonance to actually receive an apology letter from fucking bruce wayne like wth lol #(and the whole experience is so surreal that the both of them just. keep going. bc why not.) #so they just start writing about whatever or digging into topics following up on a previous letter #and the last few letters bruce was pestering korvin about the anti-life equation and why he thinks it's dumb #to which korvin says ''may i refer you to prof gilbert strang who can maybe show you an intro to lin alg for free online. he is qualified'' #but bruce is v stubborn and tackles other comments korvin made about the eq #until korvin's just done and here we are #after this they'll start talking about ytube video essays or something