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WHO: Stephanie Brown
WHERE: The Fountain, 6I inn
WHEN: July 16
OPEN TO: All
WARNINGS: Violence and injury in the narrative

A moment ago (or maybe it was hours, who could even tell anymore?) Steph would have told you she was dead. It seemed obvious. She'd been fighting for hours before she was captured, throwing herself against enemy after enemy in a desperate attempt to get things under control. Then she'd been in the hands of a sadist for... days? Weeks? A lifetime. Getting shot in the chest was just icing on the cake. Definitely dead, she would have told you.

Now she burst through the water's surface with a gasp like a quiet scream. There was only one thought in her head: If I'm alive, I want to stay that way. She dragged herself to the edge of the fountain with sheer desperation, certain she was still in the clutches of the Black Mask.

[ Later ]

The inn was like something out of a movie. Then again, Steph’s experience with hotels was pretty limited to Gotham City shitholes where criminals go to hide. She tried not to think about that as she hugged the peacoat tight around herself next to the fire. It probably wasn’t the best look for a girl, staring blankly into a fire, huddled in a coat on a warm summer evening, but her black scrub top was still drying next to her. And besides, the warmth was comforting after a frankly harrowing however-long-it-was.

She didn’t shy away from company, she just didn’t seek it out either. She seemed more adrift than anything. She wasn’t sure where she wanted to go or what she wanted to do.

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Danny lifted his shoulders in another shrug. "No one seems to know. Everyone has theories but I've only been here a week or so. I'm not sure what's happening yet." He was trying to learn.

"But it seems like they can control the environment or something. I haven't seen it."

“The environment?” She was cautiously relieved. She could deal with a hostile environment.

“Just the environment?”

"From what I know, yeah." He wasn't ruling out anything else yet but Danny had been told about deadly thunderstorms and other strange things that have happened in the past.

Danny paused and leaned forward an inch or so. "Are you taking this okay?"

She took a breath, allowing herself to relax. Her body didn't seem to care if there was still any danger or not-- suddenly she was exhausted.

"Yeah, that... it's fine. I just... I need to sit down."

"Whoa." Danny stepped forward and gently took her arm. "Come on. I'll get you something to drink too." She looked like she was going to fall over though he didn't want to presume and just carry her towards the inn.

He's fairly sure that she'll punch him in the face if he wasn't careful.

She just nodded, allowing him to lead and (subtly) support her. She’d been through too much to keel over on account of an adrenaline dip, but god if it wasn’t tempting. She could be relieved and rest once she had a chair under her.

Danny made sure that she didn't fall and once inside he guided her towards a chair near the fire. "I'll be right back okay?" He disappeared into the kitchen and grabbed a glass of water and then swiped a spar blanket from the store room. When he returned he gently pushed the glass of water into her hand and then draped the thick woolen blanket around her shoulders.

"There. How are you doing?" He couldn't chase away the worry from his voice.

She takes the water, resting her fingers on the glass and appreciating the smooth coolness in contrast to the dry heat from the fire. The backpack was dropped on the ground before she sat down, and now the weight of the blanket is a much more distributed comfort.

"I don't really know," she admitted in answer to his question. She was exhausted and sore, but she couldn't tell how much of that was physical and how much was psychological.

"Better, I guess. Right? Definitely better." She finally looked up from her cup as though he might have some kind of answer.

Danny chased a smile as he looked down at her. "Good. If you're tired there is a second bed in my room. You can rest there until you feel up to wandering around. I'm not sure if any of the other rooms are empty right now." He didn't really want to leave her but he didn't think she wanted a stranger cooing and crowding around her. It wouldn't really help in the long run.

Instead he grabbed a seat and sat across from her and waiting.

"Take your time. If you need something just ask." He had a lot of patience.

She shook her head fervently.

"Don't want to sleep. I might just be dreaming." The worst thing she could imagine would be to wake up and find herself in Gotham again.

She huffed a sigh and began the arduous task of drinking the entire glass of water at once. If she was in shock (and at this point she couldn't really tell) she would need to stay hydrated.

"Danny, right? Are you from Gotham?"

"You're going to give yourself a head rush." She spoke absently as she downed the glass of water. Danny wasn't going to stop her but if she was dehydrated she should really sip at the water. Oh well.

He leaned forward when she'd drank all of the water and took the glass from her.

"No. I'm from New York City. Can't say I've heard of Gotham." It didn't sound familiar though there were a lot of places that Danny didn't know.

"Do you want more water?"

She did give herself a head rush, but she didn't mind it. If anything it made her feel more... real.

"What do you mean you haven't heard of Gotham?" She said it like he was crazy, or stupid. For all she knew he was.

"Is that even possible? Have you been living under a rock in 4th century China? It's Gotham. You know, Batman? The Joker? All that?" That was like saying he'd never heard of Washington DC.

To be fair, Danny had been living under a rock for the last fifteen or so year. It was a mountain really but it was a little hard to explain everything that lead up to that point so he sat back in his chair and awkwardly scratched at the back of his head.

"I have no idea what you're talking about. I just returned to New York recently but I've never heard of the city Gotham." He paused and then shrugged.

"We might be from different worlds. I've been told that happens here."

"Different worlds, huh?" Now that she thought about that, had she seen something of the like in Batman's files? He made her memorize so many all at once...

"A world with no Gotham. There's a thought." A strangely relieving one. She pulled the blanket a little tighter around her as she stared into the fire. A world with no gang war, no Batman, no Black Mask... no Robin, no Spoiler. No Stephanie Brown. She could get behind that sort of a world. She supposed she already was, being here in this strange place.

She snapped out of her reverie when she felt a tear slide down her cheek. She rubbed it away.

"Sorry. It's been a rough... week, I guess. You're from New York? How long have you been here?"

Just because a world didn't have Gotham didn't mean that it didn't have problems. It had people and having a lot of people generally made everything more complicated.

"A week or so. Some people have been here for years." Though he hadn't been able to get to many specifics about the first wave of people in this strange world. "Apparently it started first in a canyon or something and now people are here. So the world changes."

Danny didn't know what to think about that but he didn't want to dismiss it either.

No, but it definitely didn't have Steph's immediate problem, and that was good enough for her.

She nodded thoughtfully at this revelation.

"Weird. Not exactly disproving the 'dead' theory."

"Well, I'm not dead." That had to count for something.

Danny pointed towards the empty glass of water. "Do you want more to drink? I might be able to get some left overs together too. If you feel up to eating." He's glad that she's at least drying off but he didn't want her to think that she couldn't get sick here.

She glanced at the glass, but the mention of food was what really caught her interest.

"Yeah, actually, I'm starving." She couldn't remember the last time she ate... or felt like she could keep anything down if she tried.

"I'll see what I can find." He flashed her a brief smile before standing and disappearing into the kitchen. Someone at the inn had made stew for dinner and there was still a little bit of it left, stashed at the back of the ice box. Danny filled a small pot and began to heat it up.

She was cold enough and Danny didn't want to make that worse by feeding her cold stew.

About twenty minutes later he reappears in front of the fire with a steaming bowl, a spoon and another glass of water. "Here. Sorry that took so long." He paused before continuing. "I don't think you ever told me your name."

The stew is certainly welcome, and she immediately stirs it around and pulls up a spoonful to blow on.

It takes her a moment to form the right answer. Robin, she wants to say, then Spoiler, before she remembers that her costume is long gone.

"Stephanie," she finally offers before taking a bite of the stew.

"Thanks for this. And everything else."

Danny sits back down, a light smile touching the corner of his lips. The situation sucked and was kind of severe but it was nice to see her relaxing some and taking care of herself.

"No problem. This world sucks enough without people making it worse." He shrugged. "The people here are actually pretty nice." Mostly...

His hand ran through his hand, disrupting the dirty blond curls. "Should I call you Steph or Stephanie?"

"Steph is fine," she answers between bites. Now that there's food in front of her it's hard not to just stuff her face. Her injuries may be healed, but she's far from recovered.

"Where's everybody else?"

Danny nodded his head before glancing around. "Probably sleeping or working on things. A lot of people pull together to help out around here. So they're all over the place but lunch has regular meals here. It's sort of a place that everyone can eat in case people don't know how to fend for themselves."

People came and went a lot from the inn. Even those who didn't live here.

"Huh. That sounds really nice." And really useful, since Steph isn't familiar with the local ecology and has never hunted in her life. But then, after a moment she realizes that the thought of accepting charity in the long term makes her a little nauseous in the same way that the thought of going back to Gotham does. It makes her feel guilty, weak, like an impediment. She doesn't want to cause any more trouble for anyone else.

"Do you know at least roughly where we are?" If they're in the US she at least knows some of what's edible.

Danny shook his head. "It's the middle of no where with no way out." He hadn't liked the idea of doing nothing either which was why he quickly set to chopping wood for the inn and working towards paying his way. At least, he did in his own mind. It never felt like enough.

"What's up?" He looked at her carefully and then at the stew. "You worried?"