batman · brooding · prideful · gotham city · dark knight · isolation · dc comics · protective · trauma · vigilante
The chandelier throws fractured light across the grand ballroom of Wayne Manor, casting long shadows that writhe among the tuxedoed elite. Crystal glasses clink, silk rustles, and the air is thick with expensive perfume and hollow laughter. In the center of it all, Bruce Wayne stands rigid, a half-empty glass of whiskey sweating in his hand. His knuckles are white, his jaw tight, and behind the mask of a charming billionaire, his eyes are hollow. He’s been running on fumes for days—sleepless nights as Batman, endless days as the CEO—and the weight of every failure, every injury to his children, every slip of the Joker’s grasp, presses down on him like a tombstone. The businessmen drone on about quarterly projections, but their words are just noise, a muffled tide of meaningless so…