metaheroes | ourpowers | text

Leashed is an unnecessarily strong word.

( there's the i wanted to be part of the family again thing but admitting to that out loud to anyone--including himself--sounds like a shit idea. most the time, he can barely admit that to himself. and it's not what the bat is for now. he hasn't worn it in--well, since the last time he saw bruce and it was ripped off of his chest. now? it's a sign for i'm not psychotic and i probably won't shoot damian or paint the walls with drake's blood after pummeling him.

be a real shame if he gave off the wrong impression, after all.

fingers of his free hand hook under his hood to find the catch, and jason pulls it off. there's the mask under the hood, because being overly dramatic is fun. and aside from jason and someone who is most likely tim he doesn't see anyone else close enough to make out his face. )

What's your plan? Run me through it. Are you leaning more, "I need to figure out how much this guy is going to fuck up all my progress that I've worked so hard on" or "After I get a decent read on him I'm going to beat his face into the tarmac so he knows I'm the lead here"?

Edited 2023-03-02 17:30 (UTC)

[Removing the helmet doesn't exactly ease the tension Jason has but it eliminates a few possibilities at least. To seemingly be on equal ground, Jason removes his own helmet and reveals his own domino mask. It's a simple black one and the very same one he wore when he confronted Bruce and the Joker that night]

Depends on which one will give me the best results. The clown's here too. Or was that post for him too?

I was looking for you.

( he'd seen red hood on the network. knew if he saw his own shit seemingly found in random alleys, his first instinct would be to double check his inventory. then figure out who was trying to draw him out with a replica. he could have gone with using matches malone to pull in whoever knew bruce's old moniker--it would have been effective, but it likely would have drawn in others first, jason lingering in the background to investigate what everyone else was chasing down.

but he can worry about figuring out where and when everyone else is from after he's done settling this.

if the joker had shown his face, it would have been a nice bonus. he's already broken the no killing rule he'd sworn to as far as bruce is concerned, so what's one more? )

'll save you a few steps: I'm just as excited about this as you are. Try an' fight me and you'll regret it. You wouldn't be the first I've done this dance with. I don't want your shit.

( his index and middle finger remains hooked into the hood, keeping it in hand but just barely. he's ready to drop it if this turns sideways. )

But if you piss me off, there's no one who's gonna know where to hit you better than me. Tell Red to come say hi, it's been a while since I've seen him. Is it 'Red'? Or did he hit his very brief but hilarious bad boy phase yet?

Don't know who Red is.

[But he can make a few guesses]

In my world there wasn't a whole damn flock when I came back to Gotham. Imagine my surprise when I got here and found out the old man didn't learn.

[He's in a foul mood but not going to fight his other self for now. The other Jason is right. He would know best how to take him down. Jason also hasn't missed how this other Jason is bigger and older than him. Presumably he's got more experience too]

( ah. that answers some questions he wasn't intending on asking but wanted answers to regardless. )

D said you were younger, but it looks like I'd overestimated you anyway.

( jason could go back and count when he'd gotten each scar, but from this distance there's not much to make out. and he knows this one has had plenty of time to adjust to a new space with--the potential for this happening. gauging his reactions doesn't give him a clear answer either. this gets him closer. )

Your little bird. The one that came with you to make sure this wasn't a trap.

[ The little bird in question is a few rooftops over, with a sightline thanks to the higher roof.

He knows that Jason knows that they all know he’s here - body language, lip reading, the fact that he’s eavesdropping through Jason’s comm (or, you know, this week’s batch of bugs if he’s being honest), so Tim stops crouching in the shadows and messes with something in his gauntlet to break into the pre-existing Jason’s ear. Really showing his cards, but Jason let him set up the security in the gym and the bar. This isn’t a surprise.

If the new arrival has similar tech to that of Tim’s world, he might get it too. ]

You know, the appropriate terminology for a group of male robins is technically a blush.

[Jason's not surprised that Tim's on the comm. This is one of those times when he actually appreciates it]

Haven't really talked to D much. He hasn't really made himself available so far unlike the others. The family dinner back in December didn't help.

And as Robin so helpfully just chimed in, a blush. Not a flock.

( cute. there's a pause when he hears tim's voice coming from his commlink, before he's gripping onto the hood tighter to raise it up to his face. not to put it on, just so when he speaks, it's closer to the actual mic.

the relaxed posture shifts into something a little lazier, a slow grin spreading across his lips that leaks into his voice, )

Breaking into my shit, Red? You're going to make me blush.

Gently borrowing. I’m not angling to be this world’s Oracle, so don’t count on me eavesdropping if you didn’t ask me to.

[ A grappling line connects with the elevator shaft housing, and Robin swings over. He’s fairly confident that they’re not going to cut the line. When he drops down to roof, he’s a good thirty feet away when he waves, in a uniform almost like his latest Red Robin suit, but with more black and a singular R on his chest. In order to kill time when he looks over the other Red Hood. ]

Red’s on sabbatical.

[Jason looks back at Tim and wonders if this is the Jason Tim actually knows. Are they from the same universe?]

You were using "Red" as a moniker before?

[Not the most intimidating but neither is Robin or Red Hood]

( feels good to be proven right at least. that's definitely tim, even if the uniform is not quite what he's used to, it's not that off. likely an upgrade, which is concerning because it means tim may be further down the timeline than him.

and last jason remembers he was getting himself into so much shit he's not sure if he'll ever manage to dig himself out of it.

but the lazy grin doesn't dissipate, even if he stands himself up straight. braces for tim going off on him, hopes it doesn't turn out that badly. jason does raise his own hand for a wave, too. )

Red Robin.

[The comms crackle again, when maybe nobody was expecting them to.]

Well, I'm blue. Little D is leans toward yellow. If we're going with a theme, that means you two sharing the last primary color.

[Oh goddamnit. Jason is reconsidering being on the same comm as the rest of the BatFamily]

Very funny. We got enough red as it is here.

Hey. You two came up with Red Robin. I’m not taking the rap for that one, and I also didn’t invite Big Bird.

[ Tim gestures at his current take of the old stoplight colors. ]

The green is growing on me.

( and there it is. dick's voice is met with a twitch of his lips, barely noticeable. he doesn't let the grin fade either, because that'd be too obvious. instead, jason's taking an easy stride over to tim and putting the knife back into it's hilt. no one's stabbing anyone so it's not needed.

and he needs that hand to reach out and ruffle tim's hair, if he'll let jason get close enough. )

I'll stick with Red. Robin, even. Don't think there's another of those here, is there?

[Yeah, that's pretty expected. The twitch. Not that Dick can see that at the moment.]

[It's only a few more moments before Dick arrives. In uniform. Though whether Jason recognizes the new one with the return of the arm stripes, he has no idea.]

I'm sure they're the ones that would know. I'm still getting my bearings.

[He doesn't go in for a hug. That's not how things are with Jason at the best of times. But he's certainly fairly relaxed around him.]

[Jason sighs and pinches the bridge of his nose. This is such a mess and he's not sure where to start]

I'm guessing this is the Jason you both know.

I’m giving him the same benefit of the doubt that I gave you.

[ He is not going to start off giving either Red Hood preferential treatment. Geez, how dumb would you have to be to do that? Just an instant devolution to the word pretender coming up and NO. ]

He knew about Red Robin, so it’s a point in his favor, but I’m going to need more proof than that to say he’s definitely “the right” Hood. Personally, I’m good with “close enough”, but we could take him to Loki if we want to see where you both fit on the multiversal map.

[ Hm. Bee tea dubs I have a multiversal map? ]

( a loki that isn't his, given how whichever loki this one is, he's not connected to their neural interface. he's followed the network back enough to see that a similar one has been here for some time, too, which is--disappointing since it isn't the one he knew, but reassuring in that while the loki he knew was as de-powered as an asgardian could be, jason'd talked to him enough that he figures loki would have a multiversal map. )

Haven't seen the arm stripes around in a while, ( gesturing over to dick and his nice fingerstripes. giving his own timeline away--backtracking the last few days--isn't going to hurt anything. ) and the suit's new, ( shoving down just a little harder on tim's hair, before he's dropping the hand away entirely. ) so I'm guessing not quite.

( a glance around the rooftop; they're still missing at least one, but he has an approximate location of the missing bird. )

Our youngest, ( who's now older than a good chunk of them. which will never be acknowledged. ) say anything to any of you? Or has he been busy skulking around in the shadows with his depression hair?

[ Only when the hand is out of his hair does Tim admit it was happening to him and duck away, struggling not to laugh and finger combing it into submission. ]

I know Little D is around, but he hasn't said anything to me. And I haven't exactly been subtle about being here.

[Dick only knows this because he reads everything on the network and went back.]

[He glances down at the stripes and shrugs.]

The new suit was necessary. At least, according to Mr. Terrific. When somebody like that offers you something, you don't really say no.

[Dryly]

He tried to do a family dinner with some of us back in December. It didn't go well.

He got Flight of the Navigator’ed and has an irritating tendency to go to ground.

[ Meaning Tim has lost track of him entirely. Twice. If it happens again, he’s going to tear himself in half like Rumplestiltskin in a rage. ]

The family dinner wouldn’t have gone so badly if he didn’t invite us like he was the fucking Riddler and Superboy hadn’t gatecrashed.

Depression hair era then.

( he could go through the whole list: a dead dick grayson, a missing and then dead tim, fuckier jason, a damian without his support system. but he doesn't have the backstory here yet. this jason doesn't look like he's going to be a problem at least. younger, but adjusted enough to this place and the family he's found here. the threats have been minimal. he wasn't attacked for touching tim.

jason can work with this.

hood still in hand, he raises it up to shove it back on over his head. they've all met, face-to-face. conversations were had, it's not necessary to drag this on any longer. not when he's got a lantern to go cause problems with. )

We good here? Or did you want to drag me off for your multiverse map check?

Wouldn't hurt to check.

[Truthfully, Jason still has questions for the other him but he doubts most of them can be asked in front of Tim or Dick. Nor does he think the other him will answer honestly]

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