metaheroes | ourpowers | text

its kinda nice to know you're annoying no matter the universe
i wont make you keep up pretenses for long, just wanted to say hi and tell you to be nice to my boys
ive worked hard on socializing them

i'll only bully them as hard as they bully me

thats a fair deal
i dunno if you've even met me where you're from but if you're chill then i'm chill

[Which is to say that she's not interested in starting shit.

She's only interested in being a (little) shit.]

we've met
we're chill
even if you're usually annoying

damn i really have to up my game if its 'usually' not 'always'

if i was b this is where i'd scowl and give a "i'm so disappointed in you" speech

at this point i've gotten that speech so many times he'd have to break out the thesaurus to avoid repeating himself

why change it up when he can continue to give the same speech over and over again?

i've gotten the same words in the same order more times than i can count

he keeps trying new things in the foolish hope that eventually something will stick
it wont!
but its cute that he tries

and he probably knows if he DID try to repeat his speech id start quoting along like its shadowcast night at a rocky horror screening

( if only he'd let jason get out long enough sentences during their speech sessions. )

come find me later
we can gossip and catch up

you know the way to a girl's heart
ill bring coffee :)

i'll let you find me

rude

[But fair.

Steph knows she's good, and she's gotten even better at the detective stuff in the past couple of years, but Jason's been in this game far longer than she has and is capable of keeping Batman off his trail. If he didn't want her to find him, she likely wouldn't be able to.

But he wants her to find him, so after giving him a little while to get settled, she dons her Batgirl suit to take off into the night.

The good thing about having been operating in the city for several months now is that she's built up some decent connections, people who'll tell her if they spot anything strange, including a man that roughly fits Jason's description, wearing a domino mask.

Once she suspects she's getting closer, she swings by a diner to fill her thermos (Bat themed, of course) with coffee, so that when she does spot Jason while she's up on a higher rooftop, she can drop the thermos on him.]

Heads up.

[She's assuming he's been aware of her presence for at least a few minutes and will therefore have plenty of reaction time to catch said thermos.

Hopefully.]

( there are dozens of ways to disappear in a city like this, but jason doesn't utilize any of them. not how he normally would. he keeps out of the eye of most people just going about their day when he opts to check out the streets of central city, but the thugs and everything else that goes bump in the night should already be used to seeing some rando leaping from building to building, and he's betting that, given the lack of a hood and his extra bulk, most people won't look at him and think that's that red hood guy. vaguely close especially given the only clothes he has here that he'll wear out while patrolling is the outfit he arrived in, which is significantly similar to his original(latest) red hood do, minus the jacket he likes to say he's still wearing because it's hilarious when really, it's 90% because of who gave it to him--well.

he can't be expected to change that much just because he got here second. his mini me can go fuck himself if that's what he's expecting.

jason settles for some time on the corner of a particular rooftop, where down in it's darkest alleyway he's watched not one, but two drug deals go down and a drop off of a nice brown bag to the dealer from someone who quickly exited and took off in their car, all in the span of thirty minutes.

waits even longer, when he feels eyes burning into his back and tips his head just enough to barely make out the bat ears. she'll get there when she gets there. and when he hears her voice, he's plenty ready to reach up and catch the thermos before it clamors onto the ground and likely warns the unsuspecting wiry new dealer whose wandered his way in. )

Knew I could count on you.

[Oh good, minor crisis averted. Tim would've been so annoyed if she managed to piss off a version of Jason. It's a miracle they've managed to play nice with one version for so long, she just hopes that this doesn't throw too much of a wrench in the works, as it were.]

I'm a woman of my word.

[When she wants to be.

Steph drops down silently next to Jason, her boots absorbing most of the impact to save her from having to do a silly little roll. It's cooler when she gets to do a proper superhero landing.

Not that she needs to impress Jason, but it doesn't hurt to look as cool and competent as possible when dealing with unknown variables, like ex-Robins who may or may not hold a grudge against other ex-Robins.]

You doing recon, or should I be ready to bust some heads?

[From a quick assessment of the situation, it certainly looks like the sort of spot that shady deals go down, and she's hardly opposed to beating up some dealers, even if it's likely serving Jason's goals rather than being for the greater good. Or whatever.]

Recon.

( he could easily jump down and cause trouble, it's not as if they're not looking for it, hanging out in dark alleys and cutting deals. but given his lack of time to get a good feel for the city, and that red hood already has a reputation around these parts, jason's keeping out of sight for now. gives him time to sit down and sip at his batcoffee, too. it's in a bat thermos, clearly it deserves no title lesser.

they're plenty out of sight, for now. so there's no reason to stop jason from slouching over and getting himself as comfortable as one can be on a rooftop above a lurking drug dealer. he raises a hand back towards steph to gesture her in closer, too. for gossip purposes. )

Green Lantern filled me in some. My mini-me gave me the addresses for the not-cave and his bar. Robin and Big Bird showed up to make sure I was rightfully terrified. Which's 'bout as much as I've gotten thus far.

[After another few seconds of scoping out the alley — which might be cover for weighing up exactly how close she wants to get to Jason — Steph settles back beside him. She's not officially on patrol, as much as they have any sort of 'official' system, so she's not too worried about hanging out for a little bit.]

That's not the worst welcome committee you could've gotten, all things considered.

[It's a fairly neutral statement. Steph doesn't even know exactly what universe this Jason is from or how things went down there; there's clearly some antagonism there, she just won't make a judgement until she knows more.]

Did mini-you tell you that most of us work at his bar? It's pretty fun, we have weekly karaoke nights.

[Does she mean the bar itself? The Batfolk specifically? She'll let Jason decide.]

( not the worst welcome committee, she says, and he gives an ugly snort. because he knows she's right; jason has had worse welcomes, and he's given plenty worse himself. thus a good chunk of the reason for his very obvious, very clear i'm here statement, instead of going for the more subtle, walk into their space unannounced with a little finger-wave.

as fun as antagonizing them can be, starting over here with a broken face sounds like a really shit way to do it. and it's not as if he really has a reason for being an asshole. not yet. )

Aren't you an' Robin still underage? ( the corners of his mouth upturn into a snarky little smile, shaping the teasing lilt to his voice. ) Last time I tried to take him out for a drink, he gave a whole "but Red, that's illegal" speech. ( there are no obvious weapons on him, but when he leans back to sit on his ass, the knife sheath attached to his belt sticks up against the back of his jacket. ) Mini-me, too, not that I'd ever give a shit.

[That question actually earns a genuine pause, Steph looking somewhat like a confused puppy as she does some mental math.]

Not to make you feel special, but congrats on being the first person to make me realize I'm technically twenty one now. If we're counting months from when I left home, not when my birthday month is.

[It makes more sense to her that it should be counted as a progression of months, rather than sticking to an arbitrary date when those dates didn't line up with how it was back home. So enough of them have passed that were she at home, her birthday would have rolled around.

It should maybe be weird that she missed it, but birthdays have never been much of a thing, in her life. Her parents would forget more often than not, when she was little, and while Crystal is making more of an effort now, it's hard to undo years of neglect.

(She doesn't think about the false memories from last month. She's gotten very good at not thinking about that.)]

Anyway, I think Robin would tell you that serving alcohol and drinking it are different. Still probably illegal? I never checked, it's not as if we signed employment contracts.

[The bar is basically for money laundering and a cover to eavesdrop on criminals; they aren't doing things by the book.]

Happy belated twenty first. I'll have to take you out sometime to celebrate.

( because clearly jason is the bad influence bat, he may as well live up to the title. for now, he watches the dealer below leave the alley. for the moment, it's empty. no one to watch, no one to potentially jump down and beat the shit out of for doing shady business in the dark.

leaving jason with just the rest of his nice coffee and steph's company. his free hand raises, shoving fingers through his hair before he clicks his tongue against the roof of his mouth. )

I'm surprised you've all settled long enough to work somewhere he's running. ( i'm not bitter, he says, bitterly. or at least his tone seems to imply. even if all of them were on fairly decent terms back home--it was the occasional team up. jason stayed on his turf unless called elsewhere. no one killed each other during their co-ops, and it's jason's own damn fault he fucked it over in the end. which just makes him more bitter. that his mini-me, despite being younger and most likely in a more fucked up stage of his life, still managed to maintain a decent enough relationship not to fuck up for however long they've been working together. )

There's a recipe for disaster.

[This is a joke. Mostly. She's fond enough of their pre-existing Jason that she's willing to extend some of that to this new Jason, even if he hasn't earned any fondness yet. So she'll make jokes and be friendly, as long as he doesn't seem like he's going to be a dick.

The whole situation is a weird one and only serves to remind her how... on the outskirts she can be, sometimes, with the rest of the Bats. None of this drama has anything to do with her, except for the fact that people she cares about have gotten hurt.]

We were poor. [said with a bit of a rueful look, even if there's still amusement there.

She shrugs, too, after a second.] It seems like he was kinda the last Robin, where he's from. His issues are with B, not us, and as far as I'm concerned the whole 'no killing' rule is kinda bullshit so...

[So while she may not agree with all Jason's methods, she doesn't have the same moral opposition that Bruce or Tim or Cass might. She understands why Bruce doesn't kill and why he's extended that to the rest of them, but she also thinks Jason should be allowed to kill the Joker.

As a treat.]

( so he's an acceptable level of batshit. not causing problems directly with any of the existing robins, just. bitching about b. he still remembers when he painted the walls with tim's blood, because he was pissed. stabbed him and left him to, potentially, die. even if killing him wasn't really the intention. when he shot damian when he and dick were running after him. the multiple times he and dick went at it. he was angry. not even necessarily at them, it was all rage focused at b, at himself, but a jason who has hit the end of his fuse doesn't make much fucking sense, even to who he's grown into now.

even if he still makes shit choices.

brows pinch together tight, lips pursing. he hasn't gone into the figure out when everyone is from bullshit just yet, some of that seems pretty pointless. he'd tried to explain to another dick grayson that he wasn't out to get anyone, but dick still looked at him like he was waiting for jason to pull a knife on everyone. )

I haven't tried to start shit in a while. B let me back into Gotham after I promised to be a good boy and not push it too far. Didn't bat an eye when I went under cover to pull Black Mask out into the open. Told 'em I could do what he couldn't. Big Bird an' I worked together on and off, same as Robin. R2's still a nosy little brat but he hasn't tried to play-assassinate me in a while. We had a nice family reunion sometime back, going after Brother Eye. All of us, including you and every other Gotham bird.

( it's only slightly a lie, because jason only just recently pissed off bruce again. at least by his memory back home. clearly that doesn't count. )

I'm not planning on starting shit here either.

[As much as she's a talker, Steph is also perfectly capable of listening, so she sits and watches Jason as he explains himself, or his history, or whatever term is most appropriate. From what Tim told her of their earlier meeting, Jason didn't reveal a whole lot. She's not entirely sure why he's telling her, of all people, but maybe she's just an easy way to disseminate information without having to wade through emotional issues first.

God knows Jason has a lot of emotional issues with the other Bats.]

First of all, I'm super glad you're not planning on starting shit, 'cause this place sucks enough without having to deal with that mess. No offense.

[She's not sure if that could be taken as offensive, so she's covering her bases.]

Secondly, you're either from a different world or the future, and I really hope it's another world because Sionis is dead in mine and I'd like him to stay that way.

[That's the part that matters. She doesn't want to contemplate the idea that he could come back.]

No offense taken.

( because jason has started shit. he has been the person causing a shitton of drama that dragged everyone else down. he did, in another elseworld, start a fight with a sadistic CEO that ended with damian matching bucky and another body. for a moment, he was contemplating seeing if he could wipe the floor with the other jason, just to let him know who is leading here. except he didn't get here first, he hasn't made any allies, and who the fuck knows how many contacts this jason has.

especially considering how many robins came to his defense. )

He's not dead back home, but he is a vegetable who chokes on his own spit whose fully conscious, even if he can't do shit with it. ( a little grin, because no rule was technically broken even if it got jason what he wanted in the end: a criminal who, while not behind bars, can never cause harm again to anyone and instead gets to suffer in his own skin. ) World got pretty fucked up. Tim can explain it better than me.

( well. )

If Tim's from the same place I am.

[It's different than talking about Sionis with the other Jason; she was able to control that narrative, to tell him exactly what she wanted to tell him with the knowledge that it never happened in his world. This Jason is from a world close enough to hers that he's likely well aware what happened during the gang wars.

The discomfort is obvious, mostly due to the fact she's making zero attempt to hide it. It'd be pointless, when Jason isn't an idiot.

So as much as there's some satisfaction in knowing that Sionis is suffering every damn day — and she does huff out a dryly amused laugh — she'd still prefer him to be dead. With all the bullshit that can happen, even death isn't certain, but it's the most definitive option there is.

She'd also prefer to not talk about it at all, so she's going to latch onto the rest of what Jason said.]

I think he is. He's mentioned the world getting all messed up, something about things kinda resetting and some people not remembering stuff. [It doesn't sound great.] It was pretty funny, he thought we were like, freshly broken up and I had no idea why he was being so weird at me.

[Will Jason think this is funny? Maybe, just 'cause it involves Tim being awkward.]

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