[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

[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."

[spoileralert]

"I think it's the same word," she pondered. "Maybe it just sounds similar." But the meaning was recognizable, so it was clearly close enough.

"What do you mean, not entirely robotic?"

[plate_builder]

“Typically robotics works on hardware and software. Cait... did not.” Not by any stretch of the imagination, though he had been content to imply such for many a year. After all the climate toward magic users was never the kindest where Shinra was involved. Not ones they couldn’t easily use at least. 

[spoileralert]

Steph waited for him to continue. When he didn't she waved a hand encouragingly.

"Hence my question, yes...?"

[plate_builder]

“Magic,” Reeve smiles. At least he has her attention. So she can’t think about whatever her watch had done. “I was born with a rare form of magic called ‘Inspire’. It allowed me to breathe life into inanimate objects. Cait was a fully functional robot, given life though my magic. It tied him, them, to me, and I could control them over great distances.”

He had not been joking to call them his ears and eyes and hands. They could go where he could not.

[spoileralert]

"Ooooh," she intoned with sudden understanding. That was a much better answer than some kind of Evangelion scenario.

"Cool! But it functioned without the magic too?" She was, at least for the moment, distracted.

[plate_builder]

“Uh... well no.”

Now that was a hard admission. As much as Reeve would love to say the Caits worked without the use of his magic, there were things he just could not do.

“I learned many things growing up and through formalized education. I am an architect, a city planner, an administrator and capable of making all the little bits that make robots work. I was not, however, really good at software. Nor had I the time to learn it. Therefore I used my magic to awaken them. I can, could I suppose, take control of any unit at will and control it with my mind. Or they could operate independently from me.”

His powers had given him a short cut.

[spoileralert]

She nodded her understanding. She didn’t understand a thing about programming, so it might as well have been magic.

There was a brief pause as she thought on that, and her eyes found the wrist device again. She had way too much to think about as it was.

"What exactly did you do, back in your own world?" That ought to be a simple enough subject.

[plate_builder]

"I had primarily two jobs in my life. I was the Head of the Department of Urban Development at the largest corporation in the world. Later on, I worked as the Commissioner of the World Regenesis Organization. Basically I was an architect, a city planner, and an administrator. For different purposes."

That was a serious simplification of everything that he did, but to explain more would mean talking deeply about his world.

[spoileralert]

That sounded like a whole bunch of mumbo-jumbo, which probably meant 'government job'. That sounded about right.

"What's 'World Regenesis'?" Some kind of nature conservation project?

[plate_builder]

Only a government job in that Shinra had become the defacto government for a large part of the world.

"An attempt to recover from a near cataclysmic event. Rebuilding, uniting people, protecting them. A non-profit organization," he clarified. The WRO was a thing he had explained many times. "Between the damage from Meteor and the Lifestream in Midgar, the monster population swelling without SOLDIER to deal with it, the Stigma, WEAPONS... Basically the world I am from is a bit of a mess."

[spoileralert]

Some of that made sense to her, and some of it may as well be gibberish. She got the idea, at least.

“Sounds like a rough job. We have enough trouble keeping Gotham from imploding and the worst natural disasters we’ve had have been an earthquake and the time the sun went out for a week.”

[plate_builder]

"Indeed. But as I was in part responsible for all that happened, I have a duty to assist in remedying it."

And those former Shinra employees who did not return to Rufus for guidance tended to look to Reeve. To redeem themselves, as he sought to do every day. Which was not to say he had a clean slate here. Just that he could start from a better grounding.

[spoileralert]

"You were responsible?" Her voice was low, sympathetic. She knew all too well what it felt like to be witness to a disaster of your own making. Clearly Reeve was a stronger person than her--the same kind of guilt had destroyed her.

"It must feel nice, being able to help after something like that. Or, not nice, but better."

[plate_builder]

"To a degree. I... made certain processes more efficient and viable, and therefore gave very bad people a lot of power. Literally and figuratively."

He would rather not think too much about Mako Reactors at the moment.

"I have committed my life to helping after that. Of course, being trusted..."

[spoileralert]

"That's a whole other thing," she finished for him, her gaze falling to the table before making its way back up to her watch. She tapped a finger distractedly for a moment.

"I'm told it gets easier." She found it hard to believe that anyone would ever trust her at all again, much less let her be Batgirl.

[plate_builder]

“What is this? A bright young woman such as you? Clearly trust should be given. Not that I would let you hold my materia, but still, you seem upstanding to me. Putting up with a clueless middle aged guy floundering around? Clearly you are a good person.” Not that good people are always trusted. Or don’t sometimes do bad things. 

[spoileralert]

She raised an eyebrow at him, half amused.

"They say the road to Hell is paved with good intentions. You were trying to do something good, weren’t you, when things went wrong? Besides, for all you know I make fun of you behind your back.

[plate_builder]

"They went so far beyond wrong..." Reeve answered, and the way he slouches, the darkness in his gaze, the way his hands fold in his lap and his fingers grip at each other.

This was not a subject he was going to go in to at this time. He could not. Maybe... Maybe another day.

"I do not doubt that you do, Steph," he answered as he tried to calm himself, to banish the memories of what he had wrought by improving mako reactors so much. And all the things he failed to protect. And not being able to stop Deep Ground. All the lives time and time again lost, and how many could be laid at his feet?

His mother's for one. His father's.

"You remind me very much of a friend of mine. Her name is Yuffie Kisaragi, and she's a princess. Also a ninja. And a talented thief. Those descriptions of course I would not apply to you," he continued, seeming to brighten a bit at the reference to the other young woman he knew. And, of course, he didn't know how some of those could apply to Steph. "But she would talk about anyone behind their backs. Sometimes it just meant she cared."