[Open]

[deadbythename]

Date & Time: Jan 18-23
Location: Lots of bars. Lots of dark, unpleasant places.
Characters: Jason Todd the Grump and whoever decides to interrupt his willful ignoring everything.
Summary: Jason Todd is willfully ignoring everything and spending most of his time up on lonely rooftops and occasionally drinking.
Warnings: idk, gloomy bullshit, swearing, we'll see.

[ Okay.  Jason wasn't an idiot.  It was really kind of obvious he wasn't going to be able to avoid everyone forever.  Exsilium wasn't Gotham and there just weren't enough places he could go until he just.  Ran into somebody.

Maybe he'd even run into Dick or that tiny girl Robin.  Or Joey...  Though that didn't bear thinking about.   Running into them eventually didn't mean running into them immediately.  All Jason wanted was space.  He needed to reorganize himself, needed to separate himself from the memories that of this place that still floated through his head.  Exsilium wasn't Gotham, but Jason was still himself.  The holster under his jacket was a reminder of that.  So he spent most of his time in bars, in the darker, shadowy parts, nursing a drink and listening. The rest of the time, he wandered, relearning the alleyways and rooftops of this weird ass city.  If nothing else, he'd be prepared for however long he'd be staying here. ]

Comments

[outright]

[ Why, there's his elusive grumpy human from the network. Vanadi smiles to himself, changing directions quickly. The bar can wait, he has a human to mock.

He slips into the empty seat next to Jason, looking perfectly innocent, and flips a few locks of thick, glossy hair over one shoulder. ]

You look at home here.

[deadbythename]

[ Oh Christ. He can see Vanadi heading his direction, but there's fuck all he can do about it without causing a scene. He leans back in his chair a little and frowns enough that Vanadi can see it despite the cut of the mask. ]

Funny, I can't really say the same about you.

[outright]

You'd be right. [ Smug, so smug. ] This place is disgusting, actually. But there isn't anything up to my standards here, so it will have to do.

[outofsp]

[ He has… no idea where he is. The note he'd left for himself had only been able to describe so much of Exsilium for him. He's understandable, he supposes, and he's a little bit pleased that he turns into the kind of man with enough foresight to actually leave a note for his younger self.

But the point is, there had been no maps included in the note, and Ashraf has managed to get himself lost between the market and the housing. And naturally he hadn't thought to save any warp portals yet, so… well, it seems that the plan is to simply wander, bread under one arm and eggs under the other, until he sees something he recognizes. Too bad about the sun starting to sink. ]

[deadbythename]

[ Jason was also en route, though not to the housing. He'd manage to secure himself a temporary safe house, as far from the Hold as possible without winding up in the wasteland. It wasn't the same as losing himself in the Gotham underground, but it worked.

Of course that did mean he had to venture out in search of food and his hours were still pretty nocturnal. So it was a grumpy, hungry and slightly bed-headed Jason that was swaggering down the darkening street, headed the opposite direction. ]

[outofsp]

[ Spotting Jason, Ashraf angles to head toward him. He pauses when he gets nearer though, blinking at him. That mask… there had been something in his note about a young man in a mask, previously a lost seeming boy. God, if he's wrong, this is going to be embarrassing. But he has to try it: ]

…Al?

[slingshots]

[ This whole kid-thing is turning out weirdly stressful. As it turns out, there's all sorts of things to worry about when it seems like half the transport population has forgotten how to tie their shoes. Robin perches at the edge of a rooftop, knees to her chest and seeming to stare down into the street. It's not as dramatic as it looks, though. She's on a brief network-break, since it seems like most trouble that goes down starts there.

…Man. She'd kill for some hot chocolate to take the chill out of this rain tonight. ]

[deadbythename]

[ Jason is actually on street level when he spots the little bump of yellow on a rainy rooftop. He freezes in the middle of the street before swearing and ducking his head.

Shit. Had she seen him? The fuck was she even doing out in the open like that?]

[slingshots]

[ Oh yes she has seen him. More specifically, the motion of someone looking sharply away again catches her attention. It doesn't take her long to place him, either — she'd seen that network post, sir.

She stands up, and in a few seconds she's gone, lost to the rain and shadows. It won't last, though. ]

[onblackwings]

[ She's been watching the guy on again and off again for a while now, from her seat at the bar. He looks… familiar. She's not sure why. Not someone from home, that much is obvious — she'd met her first human in Exsilium. Someone from here, then? But why wouldn't she recognize him, then?

She sips at her drink thoughtfully, falling into a longer stare than the previous glances. If she can't place him, maybe she can stand out enough to him to make him come over and explain himself. ]

[deadbythename]

[ He recognizes her, of course. How could he not? She was gorgeous, crazy and potentially life-threatening. Practically a slice of home. And staring at him. He sighed into his drink. Guess he was pretty different looking from how he used to be...]

[onblackwings]

[ He's seen her, she knows he has. She narrows her eyes, waiting, and… dammit, why is he not coming over? Everyone comes over when she does this. Annoyance already blossoming, she pushes herself from her seat and strides forward for herself. Hope you're happy, Jason, because she doesn't look pleased. ]

23rd? later in the week

[whatsupcroc]

( Collette flapped and dodged through the night skies, taking advantage in a brief lessening of the rain. Flight was always an adventure, an adrenaline rush she was happy to admit she was addicted to. Especially down low in Exsilium, darting through overhangs and partial collapses, over the lit buildings and the quieter burrows where her high pitched squeaks returned to her information on people much much larger than she.

She does this for the hell of it, keeping an eye on this shifting city because no one tells her she can't, and no one dictates she should, either. It's nice to escape for a moment, leave the concerns and worries behind at the apartment where they can wait alongside her tablet and her stopwatch.

Time, displaced as it is for some Transports in the city, is the one thing she never lets herself lose. Two hours is a deadline she can't afford to miss. But it's with time still to spare that she reaches out with dainty claws and catches herself up on the underside of sign hanging unevenly above the lower roof of one building closer to anyplace with a nightlife.

It's a breather at first, one that takes a bit of an amused turn when her eyes pick up on movement on the far wall. Echolocation tells her there's nothing there besides a wall and a collection of insects, ones that make the bat in her switch into overdrive all but chanting dinner dinner dinner dinner dinner. Disinclined to indulge the bug devouring instinct, she focuses on what turns out to be a light. Coming from behind me? she wonders, twisting enough to see a glimpse of something relatively blinding to her eyes.

Perhaps not the most strategically sound place to stay, if she were thinking strategy. She's not. In fact, as it soon turns out, she's thinking more along the lines of shadow puppet theatre. Overtaken by a whimsical urge, Collette Thought Speaks without a filter, spilling over into the minds of anyone in the general area as she starts her one bat show. )

< I am the terror that flaps in the night. I am the sudden realization you totally left the oven on back home. I am... >

( Flaring her wings out for the dramatics, her shadow on the far wall does so in tandem. )

< Darkwing Duck! >

( Whatever dramatic effect she might have been going for is lost as she laughs afterward, figuring no more than a few disillusioned drunks were around to hear. )

[deadbythename]

[ Bats aren't generally something he pays any attention to. At least not outside of briefly tensing and then getting annoyed with himself for it. He doesn't ever remember seeing any bats in Exsilium before, but he makes a mental note of it, watching out of the corner of his eye as the bat takes it's landing.

He watches it idly from his shadowy corner not far from the bar's entrance, sobering up. He'd spent a little too much time in the bar, taken a little too much solace in the alcohol. He was at worst tipsy, but the rooftops of Exsilium were too unfamiliar and too slippery to risk heading back to his safehouse right then.

The calm he had felt was quickly interrupted by a sudden and really disturbingly familiar voice crashing into his mind. He stared at the little bat as it spread it's wings dramatically, casting an equally dramatic and painfully familiar shadow. ]

You gotta be kidding me.

[whatsupcroc]

( She was, but for completely unrelated and starkly impersonal reasons. Collette was expecting nothing, really, maybe confused looks and a few extra stumbles inspired by something more than just the alcohol. Having a semi-coherent reaction drew her attention, wings wrapping back around her body as she shifts her head, ears pointed in his direction.

She's not sure she properly recognized his voice at first. Narrowing her Thought Speak down to just who'd spoken, her response is light and amused. )

< Hey, I might be slightly in the wrong section of the animal kingdom, but I dare you to find me an actual duck half so good at navigating at night. >

( She pauses. )

< Alfie? >

1/19 rooftop/bats otp

[gevurah]

[ Not many brave the rooftop of this city in the night. Kate's been out here long enough to know what to expect above and below. Tonight though, there's someone else moving about in the shadows that lures her in. The silhouette is too big to be any of the Robins, though they know how to use their shadows just as well as the kids and she does.

Should she make herself obvious? It's a question she asks every time she finds herself stumbling across someone not familiar to her. But who really spends their nights on the cold, wet rooftops of Exsilium? It's worth looking into for a brief moment.

So something red and black moves across the shadows. ]

the truest of romances

[deadbythename]

[ The movement causes Jason to freeze in his place, muscles tense before the flash processes all the way and the color registers. Red. Red mixed in with the black.

He relaxes, though not by much. Batwoman. Even now, he still didn't know her. Maybe she was from even farther in the future, like the littlest Robin. But did that mean she knew him? He does not leave his shadow, but he does speak. ]

Nice to see somethings don't change.

1/23

[notbeth]

[ It's dark out and Kate has no idea what time it is. She forgot to take the tablet with her when she decided to embark on this "journey to freedom" or whatever she's calling it in her head. Though she's dressed appropriately for the weather, she's still cold and now hungry and tired.

It's as if no matter where she turns in this city, she finds herself going in circles and nowhere close to getting out. A voice in the back of her head tells her it's not like leaving the city will amount to anything-- she's in a different world.

Dad is miles and miles away and she's stuck here. Now a soldier, she supposes, for a war she's feeling apprehensive about. They don't train them. How is she supposed to help?

Every now and then she lifts her head so that bright hair of hers can be seen under the hood and she looks around, obviously lost. She's the only kid in this part of the street, she realizes. She's only surrounded by some shady looking people. One of them bumps into her and tells her to watch where she's going, half-snarled at her before he carries on.

... Yeah, this is a bad idea. ]

Ah...

[deadbythename]

[ All things considered, Jason feels he deserves some congratulations for how well he's avoided all of the kids running loose in Exsilium now. Well... Okay, most of them. He's got a bad feeling his luck wasn't too hot to begin with when he sees the girl.

And not a single likely looking candidate for baby-sitter around. Fuck. He sighs and heads towards her. He decides it's a mark of maturity that he doesn't chase down the guy who bumped her. He's not that hungry for a fight. ]

Hey. You okay, kid?

23rd for reasons

[forfutureuse]

[ After Quill had made sure she'd been armed, Gamora had taken to exploring the hold. She'd never been allowed planet-side alone before - Thanos or one of his robots had always come with her to make sure she, or anyone else, didn't get into trouble. Gun stashed in the belt around her waist, she's got both hands to help her climb up somewhere for an advantage point - slight rain and all.

Dressing for the weather, however, was something beyond her. It's cold out, and for someone used to the warm heat of her planet and then the carefully climate controlled environment of Sanctuary II, it's colder than it had any right to be. Not that she'll let that stop her - freedom is completely worth the price of getting a cold. ]

reasons???

[deadbythename]

[ He's really starting to hope that this age thing is temporary. As much as he's (kinda) settling in, he's also getting really freaking tired of running into kids where they really shouldn't be.

Case in fucking point. He'd spotted her when she started climbing up and had almost, almost turned and walked away. He didn't need this headache. ]

Isn't that Pete guy supposed to be watching your scrawny butt?

[ This said as he crouched down from his own vantage point. ]

[kneecaptain]

[ Bucky didn't know if the kid (he was still the kid) was serious about getting a drink. But he showed up, anyway. So what if it didn't work out? It wouldn't be the first time he drank alone. ]

[deadbythename]

[ He'd been dead serious about it, though so far he'd kept himself from crossing that precarious line from little tipsy to full on drunk. He wasn't so crazy that he would get completely wasted in unfamiliar territory.

He's occupying the shadowiest corner of the bar, staring down into his drink. ]

[controlledvariable]

[Steph's starting to work out a regular patrol route, and she's on it when she spots another figure on a rooftop, a few yards away from her. She stills, dropping low as she flicks down the lenses in her cowl, trying to get a better look at the figure, but she can't really make out much beyond 'male' and 'probably dressed in civvies', which... really doesn't leave her with a lot. She doesn't want to approach without knowing more, but her other options are leaving someone lurking on the rooftops, or settling in to stalk them for a while. The first option just isn't something she's willing to do and, well, the second option sounds really boring.

There's also the possibility it's Jason. She saw him on the network, and had promptly decided to leave well enough alone, but she can't in good conscience leave him to whatever it is he's doing. He might've been a good kid, once, but things have changed a lot since then.

Which is why she crosses a few roofs, keeping to the shadows, until she's on the same rooftop as the figure. Her boots are silent, as is everything else about her movements, and she's landed on the opposite end of the roof, behind them, just in case they decide to attack.

What she isn't going to do is alert them to her presence; she wants to see how long it'll take this person to figure out they have company. Bruce might already know she's there, Cass definitely would, it'd probably take Tim a little longer, and she's pretty sure she could sit there all night if it was Detective Gage (she likes him, but he's not... one of them). She wants to see how good they are, partly because if it is Jason, it shouldn't take him very long at all.]

[deadbythename]

[ Jason does notice pretty quick. He changes course a few times, heading away from his safe house. He was actually feeling pretty good about this shithole, but there's a limited number of people who can move over the rooftops like the person behind him and all of them piss him off just on principle. He's not in the mood for a fight yet, so he least he can do is frustrate the shit out of someone else.

Unless Stephanie decides to make some kind of noise that means he has to acknowledge her, Jason will lead her on a merry chase all the fuck over the city. For no apparent reason other than to piss her off until she either engages him or fucks off. Maybe not the most mature response, but hey, at least he hasn't taken a shot at her, right? ]