[open] This is all we got now, scream until your heart stops

[spoileralert]

WHO: Stephanie Brown
WHERE: Various Outdoors
WHEN: After Take Two Part 1
OPEN TO: All
WARNINGS: None anticipated

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The first thing Steph does when she gets home is take a long, hot shower. Definitely top priority. The second thing she does is head down into the bunker. She’s heard about people using the vending machine and nothing terrible seemed to happen as a result. She deserves a treat, she figures, and she knows exactly what power she wants.

She waits until she’s out in the open again to try it out, and isn’t disappointed. She’s small, yes, but whatever she is, she has wings.

HOUSES

established cr

One of the advantages to being small is that you attract less attention. The same holds true for being a bird. As a robin she can glide into her friend’s houses, moving quickly and then staying still to be sure she wasn’t noticed. From there she has all sorts of fun options. She can perch on top of refrigerators, swoop down and startle someone, or steal food when they aren’t looking. A little more difficult is moving small objects around, but that’s just as fun.

Her favorite, though, is waiting until the person is distracted and landing in their hair. With hollow bones and proper timing they might never notice she’s there.

WOODS

OTA

Being a bird isn't all sunshine and rainbows, of course, and not just because it's early March. Her first real, open-air flight comes to an inelegant end as, failing to out-maneuver a hawk, she changes suddenly back to human shape to foil the poor creature.

She falls with a yelp into the foliage below.

VILLAGES

OTA

When she tires of flying and trolling her friends (which takes a good while, to be sure) Steph decides to wander around both villages, gaining an appreciation of what everything looks like when you're a small handful of inches tall. She also takes the opportunity to unnerve people as much as possible.

Getting some food from the inn? Did you notice that there's a bird on top of the fridge, or the ceiling lamp in the common area?

Sitting outside to soak up what sun there is? Don't look now, but a bird's joined you on the bench, and it looks like it's bird-watching too.

Or maybe you're just going about your business, in the dojo, one of the farms, even the library. Wherever you are, a small bird has taken great interest in your doings.

Comments

[clouded_heart]

He startles, but manages to keep his composure pretty well. "Well, most birds don't read. Nice to meet you. I'm Foggy."

[spoileralert]

Ah, so she does know him, at least briefly.

"I'm Steph. You look like you've got a long day ahead of you."

[clouded_heart]

"We've chatted, haven't we? About herbal birth control and the like." He looks at his books. "Eh... as I burn out on one, I move onto the next. How I got through college."

[spoileralert]

She eyes the pile and grimaces.

"Yick. Almost makes me glad I dropped out."

[clouded_heart]

"I graduated cum laude. Matt told me off because I could've done better if I spent a bit less time partying and a bit more studying, but I didn't go as crazy as he did, so I'm comfortable with my choices."

He shrugs. "And this isn't memorising laws and precedents."

[spoileralert]

She groans, but it has a playful note.

"God, of course you're a lawyer. You sure you want to learn about emergency care? It gets real messy."

[clouded_heart]

"Oh, it's far worse than that. I'm a well paid defence lawyer, the natural enemy of justice everywhere." Foggy grins as he says it. "And I know. I work with a vigilante. Finding him bleeding out from multiple stab wounds inspired me to take a first aid course and emergency trauma course. I just want to make sure I know how to cope without useful things like injectable painkillers and pre sterilised needles."

[spoileralert]

Steph gives an exaggerated groan and rolls her eyes, a smile still on her lips.

"Really? You work with a vigilante? Isn't that like, explicitly against the rules?"

[clouded_heart]

"Shh. He gives me information. And files. And sometimes I clean up blood and administer butterfly clips. He knows how I feel about it... I also recognise the legal system isn't always a justice system."

[spoileralert]

"Yeah, no offense but your whole career is a farce." She shrugs magnanimously. "But you do you, I guess. Not your fault cops are useless and prison is a joke."

She may have a couple of thoughts on the subject. Just a couple.

[clouded_heart]

"I want to see justice done for my clients. I do a fair bit of pro bono work for where I grew up in Hell's Kitchen. My job isn't to get someone off a charge, it's to make sure that everything is being done right, responsibility is being correctly attributed and to make sure the court is aware of mitigating circumstances regardless of my client's race, gender or religion. Or any other circumstances."

[spoileralert]

"Can lawyers afford to be that picky? I thought you said you were well-paid." Her experience with the criminal justice system is more on the career criminal side of things.

[clouded_heart]

"I am now. And I'm not picky. I'm specialised. Vigilantes and super powered individuals."

[spoileralert]

She still looks dubious, but figures she’s probably played about as much ‘twenty questions’ as he’s willing to put up with.

"Where I’m from metas and other masks don’t go to court where their identities might be compromised."

[clouded_heart]

"Not everyone has a hidden identity. My big break was defending an ex-soldier who killed a lot of people. A lot. But they were all drug dealing murderers who killed him family and shot him in the head, so there was a little wriggle room."

He hated that case.

"I also represented people who were undertaking reasonable action in defence of others, but the complications come in with what is reasonable for someone with super strength, versus someone who doesn't have it."

feel free to upset her, she minds but I don't :3

[spoileralert]

She shrugs again, this time magnanimous and withdrawing. She doesn't have anything against lawyers, really. She's definitely never been to court. Her mom had the presence of mind to leave her with a babysitter, and Steph had the presence of mind to outright refuse once she was old enough to come along. But it does make her wonder what poor asshole was put in charge of her father's case. They sure as hell never had the money to hire anyone decent.

Really the problem is that all of this is starting to make her think of her dad, and that always makes her angry, or depressed, or both. She's making a conscious effort not to say anything cruel or stupid, and to pull her mind away from those kinds of thoughts.

"Like I said, where I'm from vigilantes do. And there's enough of them around that if you want to join in, they'll stop you. Or try," she adds with the slightest twitch of a smile. They could certainly try.

[clouded_heart]

"That's really fair enough. We don't have a huge vigilante problem in my world, but we do have superheroes and now the Sokovia Accords, which I like in theory, but I don't think I trust governments enough to be in control of that sort of information."

He looks at her. "It's almost like they don't want young people getting involved in the violence and darkness of vigilantism."

[spoileralert]

She grimaces in disapproval.

"Somebody has to think of the children, I guess. It’s not just kids, though. Some of these superheroes must have had powers all their lives, right? But most of them aren’t all that young." Don’t give her that look, this is definitely not about her!

[clouded_heart]

"Some of them, I guess. I don't know. I know none of my clients were born with super powers, they all got them through different happenstances. Experiments, accidents, that sort of thing."

[spoileralert]

"Well, the ones that are aliens, they've had 'em from the start." She can't really say more without going into why she knows so much... But it definitely makes sense for aliens to have always had alien powers.

[clouded_heart]

"Well, yeah, I suppose so. I don't know any aliens personally." He can't really comment on that.

[spoileralert]

"Me neither. There's just, like, a ton." Laws of probability, you know?

"I guess my world's a lot wackier than yours, huh."

[clouded_heart]

"Oh yeah, alien invasions and stuff, there's aliens. I guess I never really thought super hard about how they get their powers, or if they go through like, kindy for kids who can blow up things with their mind."

[spoileralert]

"You'd think they'd have to, right?" Or there would be toddlers blowing shit up left and right.

"I'm sure there are tons of metas that don't make any noise though, you know? I mean, we only ever hear about the heroes, villains, and occasional accidental disaster."

[clouded_heart]

"I presume so. Or their powers develop as they get older, like, welcome to puberty, zits, hormones and eye lasers."

Foggy hums and leans back in his chair. "Yeah. Mr Cage, he mostly tried to stay on the low. He just wanted to run his barber shop and keep the gangs quiet in Harlem."