[OTA] They say this is the city of angels

[spoileralert]

WHO: Stephanie Brown
WHERE: The Inn
WHEN: Dec 21
OPEN TO: All
WARNINGS: Violence, a noose necklace, breaking bones (in link and text)

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Steph is sitting down to eat lunch in the dining room for a change when the message arrives. She frowns to see the sender section left blank. Who would be contacting her anonymously? She doesn't know all that many people, and she's made a bit of a point not to stand out herself.

Naturally curiosity gets the better of her, and the video begins to play as the message is opened.

Her face peeks out of a tattered cowl, the bat ears the only parts that don't look like they've seen better days. Steph herself has definitely seen better days-- she looks maybe an inch from unconsciousness, the beginnings of a bruise already showing next to her bloody nose.

Above and behind her stands a man in brown linens, what appears to be a fitted burlap sack over his face and a noose hanging limp around his neck. There are holes for his eyes and mouth, though the mouth is stitched into the shape of an ugly grin. There are ropes tied around his arms and legs too, seemingly decorate in nature. His voice is high pitched and grounding, like his throat has been torn from too much screaming.

"Shh," he tells her. "I'll make this quick."

A voice sounds, distant, like a recording in the girl's ear. It's a woman's voice, insistent, with just a touch of fear tinging it.

"Batgirl! Wake up!"

Steph rallies with a gasp, her eyes shooting open just as the Scarecrow raises his foot to stomp on her skull. She snatches it just as it begins to lower.

"Maybe not," she says, and snaps his foot sideways with an audible crack.

It's only 15 seconds of footage, but she has to play it again. She stares at the watch, trying to wrap her head around any part of what she just saw. The one coherent thought that arises is Babs called me Batgirl.

Her lunch sits untouched for several minutes.

[ Later ]

In the evening she can be found on the inn's roof, playing the message over and over. It's given her a lot to think about, most of it questions. She doesn't know how she feels, only that she feels a lot. It may not be the most private of places to think, but the height gives her that touch of comfort she needs to process.

Comments

Lunch Time

[plate_builder]

It wasn't often Reeve saw young Steph here at the inn, beyond when they had first met. So seeing her there at lunch immediately had Reeve going toward the young woman with his own meal. But as he approached he saw her look at her wrist device, and then her expression fell. That made him move more rapidly, and by the time he arrived he barely caught a glimpse of the last second of the video.

"Steph?" he asked, concern in his voice as he settled down near her. Probably shouldn't reach out to touch her. "Are you okay?"

[spoileralert]

The sound of her name startled her out of her thoughts, and she looked up at Reeve like a deer caught in headlights.

"What? Yeah... Yeah, I think so." What should have been a statement came out more like a question. She frowned at the watch again, though the screen was blank.

"Just my watch being weird. It happens now and then."

[plate_builder]

Should he call foul on that claim that she was okay? Probably. What he does instead is sit next to Steph. Sometimes talking about bad things before one is ready could be a serious issue. Instead he intended to do what he could though. And for right now that meant making sure she ate and keeping her mind on lighter things.

“The worst part about this place is that I can’t build robots. Have I told you I am something of a miniaturized robotics expert?”

[spoileralert]

She doesn’t get it. The girl in the video is definitely her, and definitely a few years older. But what would she be doing in Batgirl’s costume? Hell, what would she be doing back in Gotham? It must be from one of those alternate universes she’s heard about, but the thought of going back and fighting that fight again scares her.

She glances up again suddenly when he starts talking again, embarrassed to find herself so rudely distracted.

“Mini robots? No, you definitely passed over that one. What kind of robots?”

[plate_builder]

“My primary one, made with many iterations mind you, was named Cait Sith,” Reeve smiles. He pulled out one of the few pieces of scrap paper he always had and a pencil to start draeig the feline, complete with crown and large gloves.

“He was my hands and eyes when I could not be there, and my voice. Well, he had his own way of speaking. Quite fun to pull off.”

Of course he had little intention of explaining what he had used Cait for in the past. Spying hardly seemed noble. Granted they were a terrorist group when he had started. But they had been on the right side of things even if they went about it wrong.

[spoileralert]

No more does Steph want to explain what she did in the past. She doesn’t care so much about the secret anymore, but it’s hard to explain to people who don’t know who Batman is.

“Sort of like remote surveillance and automation?” She hazards a guess at the translation.

“'Cait Sith'... Cat spirit?”

[plate_builder]

Color Reeve shocked, and pleased from his smile.

“Indeed. Where I am from Cait Sith is the king of the fae spirits of cats. Quite a prankster too. My mother adored the story so much that I based my work on him.”

There. His sketch of the robot was finished and he slid it over for her to see a rough sketch of his creation in black and white.

“I had a whole line of them.”

[spoileralert]

She pulls the sketch over so she can get a good look at it.

"It's a Scottish thing, in my world. A myth. I like the design, it's very creative."

[plate_builder]

"The concept of Cait Sith exists in your world?" Reeve asked, again shocked and pleased. The man almost seems proud of it. "There seems to be less overlap between the culture of Gaia and of many worlds here, but to have this be one of them... That would make my mother happy."

And he was happy he had carried to story here to learn it as well. Ruvie would be glad if she knew. Reeve, well... he just missed the connection to Cait that should be there, easy as a dream to reach for.

"Of course, he wasn't entirely robotic."

Later

[mediumhoodie]

"I thought I'd find you up here." Kat followed the familiar route to the inn's roof and took a seat at the young girls side. Her mouth curved into a weak smile as she settled in next to her.

"I saw you at lunch but I hadn't had a chance to say anything." She paused and gently bit her lower lip. "Are you okay?"

Kat had a small bag tied to the belt of her shorts. Inside were bits of nuts and cured meat that she'd grabbed from the inn's kitchen before making her way up to the roof. She didn't know how Stephanie was doing but she imagined that she hadn't eaten.

[spoileralert]

Steph only glanced over at Kat as she settled down. She couldn't say she minded the company, especially from one of her closest friends. A sigh escaped her as she turned her attention back on the horizon.

"I don't know. I think I'm mostly... confused. I got this weird message." She turned her wrist to look at the clock-screen like it might light up with another message.

[mediumhoodie]

"What kind of message?" Kat had heard about people getting glimpses of events through their communicator. She had seen Alec when he was still human but he hadn't known that it had spread to everyone.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

She wouldn't press if Stephanie didn't want too. Kat trusted Stephanie to come to her if she ever needed someone to listen or to simply distract her from how sucky things could be.

[spoileralert]

"It's a video," she explained, but couldn't find the words to describe the contents. Her from another world? A stalker vid? A fever dream sent straight to her watch?

"Here, just watch." She pressed the button to play it again and twisted her wrist so Kat could see.

[mediumhoodie]

Kat glanced over at the fifteen second clip and frowned. She hadn't expected to see that... it was Stephanie but not here. "That's..." A chill passed over her skin and goosebumps rose along her arms.

"I'm so sorry Steph." Kat was fairly comfortable with everything that had happened in her life but she didn't know what she'd do if someone else saw it.

[spoileralert]

The reaction made Steph blink, her wrist hanging in the air still.

"I... haven't explained why it's weird yet." What exactly was she sorry for?

[mediumhoodie]

"It's your home... isn't it?"

Kat met her gaze, her bright green eyes curious and open. "Something that had happened. I saw something similar like this happen to someone else. He saw his death and... I saw it too."

[spoileralert]

Steph frowned, setting her hand down on the roof again.

"No, that's the thing... I mean, yes, it's Gotham. That was the Scarecrow, and that was-" Oracle- "my friend, on the comm. But it's not something that's happened. At least, not to me. Other people have gotten videos like this?"

the inn, some handwavey timey wimey

[vidal]

“Anything important from our overlords?”

The voice cuts in unexpectedly, snapping into her reverie over lunch. Normally Reyes wouldn’t pry, wouldn’t butt into someone’s lonely meal like this — he appreciates his own privacy and space to think, after all — but he’s just recognised the blonde at the other table as his young new trade partner. So after a small detour into the kitchen, he saunters back into the main room and joins Steph’s table without preamble. He’s carrying a small leather bag, the leftovers from his delivery for the inn itself (Hawke is a good influence in more ways than one), but he slides it across in much the same way he once slid credits across bar tables, an entire world and galaxy away.

“Probably shouldn’t open it here. Raw meat,” he explains, with a shrug. To onlookers, it might look like the strangest holiday exchange ever.

[spoileralert]

She jumps a little, looking up at her unexpected guest.

"What? Oh, no, not really..." She isn't sure what the message is, but 'important' doesn't seem correct. It takes her a moment to get back to the present, and the meat exchange. She shrugs and peers into the bag. It definitely looks like the kind of stuff Selina would enjoy.

"Around here I doubt anyone would care. Thanks. I'll have to grab that coffee for you when I get home."

[vidal]

“No problem. Not like you or I have anywhere else to disappear to, anyway.” A flash of a smile, a sardonic piece of humour. Har, har, we’re still all captives here.

Reyes is already lounging in his seat, an arm thrown over the back of his chair, but he cants his head and takes a closer look at the teenager. “You alright? You seem a little... rattled.” Could be personal, could be private, but he’s also automatically alert just in case it happens to be something pertinent to the village as a whole. Ice mice scurrying through and freezing their things was one thing, but he’s heard there could be much worse lurking here.

[spoileralert]

Life is hilarious like that. She fiddles with her watch, not actually pressing any buttons but giving her hands something to do.

"Just... confused, mostly. Have you gotten any anonymous messages lately?"

[vidal]

"I'm still new," he reminds her with a shrug, still leaning back against his chair. "I haven't received any anonymous messages, actually -- didn't know it was a possibility. Like those gift-exchange instructions, you mean?"

The ones he hadn't received, but had heard Sam describe. Instructions, commandments, directives from their watchers. Whatever they were.

[spoileralert]

"Something like that, yeah." It pretty much has to be the Observers, she knows. Right? Nobody around here is capable of this kind of movie magic.

She shakes her head.

"It's not important. They just want a reaction, that's all."

[vidal]

That kind of showboating, he was familiar with. Over the course of his life, he'd received no end of messages from rivals, enemies, other cartels, all flexing their metaphorical muscles and trying to intimidate the other. The key, then, was to not flinch. Don't blink. Remain as cool and calm as if your heartbeat hadn't ticked up and your nerves hadn't shaken.

So he didn't even know the context, didn't know what had rattled Steph so much, but if there was one piece of advice that seemed universally applicable—

"Don't give them the satisfaction," Reyes said.

[spoileralert]

"Of course," she agreed lightly, her eyes on the watch. "Of course not." She tapped her finger on the watch a few more times before managing to pull her eyes away.

"Thanks for the meat. Did I say that already?"