Going off your symbolism of the Wayne grandfather clock: what about a scenario where Spoiler, completely oblivious and independently, investigates the mansion, figures out the clock with her detective skills, and finds out the truth for herself? Would that even change anything?
WAIT. GREAT GREAT QUESTION. So glad to have other Bruce n Steph understandrrs on here bc Steph in costume interacting in any capacity w Bruce Wayne The Guy pre-‘reveal’ is something I have Never thought about but is sooooo fucking ripe with potential. (A short solo comic set during their robin run where they interact (if done well) could be killer.)
But to the point of specifically Steph Spoiler discovering the Cave through the manor?? It’s just so crazy to think about. For one there’s such a natural place for it timeline wise, Murderer/Fugitive!! I can see Steph being pretty upset hearing about some big shot corporate scumbag escaping jail (and to her, any consequences) after murdering his girlfriend. This line of thinking is not only like, textually shown in Bruce Wayne: Murderer from other characters, but also fits very veryyyy well into stephanie browns worldview when it comes to crime. It’s a very natural stance for her to take, so if she wasn’t dealing with her shitty dad moving back into her house (and threatening to kill her and her mom) during BW:Murderer/Fugitive, I think she could’ve done some investigating on her own. Especially given just How Much she was being purposefully left out of the loop by like everyone else who did know The Secret. I can absolutely see her sneaking in on a whim. How she’d end up sneaking her way into the cave is a separate matter, (especially if this is after Bruce changes the entrance lock, which he does at some point during Murderer/Fugitive iirc).
As spoiler, it’s hard to say how anybody would react. I kinda like the idea of Steph figuring out what she’s looking at, putting the dots together of why everyone’s been so dodgy with her lately, and doing one of two things:
1. Either doubling down and joining in on the effort to find Batman to get her own answers about Vesper (maybe when she finds him we get a Steph brown robin alternate universe where in the midst of rejecting the rest of his team he ends up working with Steph during his whole ‘there is no Bruce Wayne 😠😠😠only Batman’ moment)
2. She Shuts Up about it and leaves, pretending not to have seen anything. Resumes life as normal. Plot resumes as ordinary, Murderer/fugitive ends, and Gotham Knights 37 occurs, but this time with the Huge difference of Steph showing up to confront Bruce not on a rooftop, but in his fucking kitchen or something. Fucking awesome. Then she quits before he can fire her and everyone claps (let me have this. Please)
And of course there’s a whole Separate scenario where Steph finds her way down not during murderer/fugitive, through a different set of circumstances, which could result in all sorts of other crazy shit. Really fun to think about. Please let me know if you or anybody else has a take or thought about this!! There’s a lot of potential here. Thanks for the ask!!
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