exsiliumlogs | [open] this time I'll be a little smarter

Entry tags:

[open] this time I'll be a little smarter

Date & Time: First two weeks of Feb
Location: Training area, rooftops, other places!
Characters: Stephanie Brown AND YOU
Summary: Steph's finally settling into a routine in the city; see threadstarters for options or make up your own c: Or PM me if you want to work out something specific!
Warnings: Violence, will update if necessary

It's been over a month since Steph first stepped off that damn platform and into the Initiative Hold, and she's still struggling with it more than she' d like to admit. Time travel and the multiverse and strange creatures aren't exactly new to her, but they're all things she had minimal contact with, they're the things that the Justice League deals with. Batgirl might be a bigger player in the vigilante game than Spoiler was, and she's certainly noticed a shift in the sort of situations she finds herself in, but it's nothing compared to being pulled into another city to fight a war. That stuff happens to Superman, or Wonder Woman. Steph doesn't have the training for it.

But even if she's struggling, she refuses to let it show, and puts on a brave face to deal with life until things start making sense. Exsilium is depressing, with the constant rain and cold temperatures, with the citizen living in poor conditions, and all the Transports and their nonsense. It takes her a while to warm up to using the network, and to warm up to the idea of even getting to know the other people here, but she's getting there, and starting to maybe, possibly, sort of make friends.

That doesn't mean she likes it in the city, but at least she doesn't actively hate it anymore.

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Steph's silent for a moment, considering the new information.

"How do I know you aren't lying?" Her paranoia wasn't trained into her as part of being a vigilante, it's a survival instinct that she's had since she was young, that she's tried to train herself out of. It's exhausting and lonely to distrust everyone, but being in Exsilium has had her taking up a lot of her old behaviour.

< I don't know how you do, really. >

Collette considered the question. < Isn't that something you'll have to decide for yourself? >

She shifted, considering one possible way of making power dynamics in favor of her unknown companion.

Isn't that something you'll have to decide for yourself?

She doesn't want to be like Bruce.

"Do you have a name?" The question is accompanied by a shift in Steph's posture; she sits back on her heels slightly, moving into something more of a relaxed crouch than a ready-to-spring position. She even collapses her staff, though she doesn't click it back onto her belt just yet.

Edited 2013-02-09 23:41 (UTC)

Noting the shift in posture, Collette smiles within the confines of her mind. < Sure do, > she admits, following the statement with a better answer. < I'm Collette. What about you? >

Oh.

Steph is careful not to let the surprise, or relief, show in her expression or posture. Collette had seemed - nice, normal, harmless. And while Steph knows how easy it is to fake that sort of thing, she'd like to hope that isn't the case here.

"You can call me Batgirl," With the obvious implication that it isn't her real name.

She has to laugh, letting the sound roll across in Thought Speak. Call her new friend Batgirl indeed! < If you want! Though I'll be honest, between the two of us, I'm not sure who better fits the description right now. How does Batgirl feel about bat girls? >

Collette drops away from her perch, flitting back out into the night air. It's away from her companion, a wide arc out toward the opposite building.

< I'm all ears! >

That's - weird. Not bad, she doesn't think, but it's strange to hear someone laughing in her head.

Once Collette is away from the building, Steph's night vision picks up her body heat, and she flicks the lenses back up so she can get a proper look, and...

Okay yeah, that gets a quiet chuckle from Steph, "You're a bat," Her tone so dry, an implied of course you're a bat, as if there was no other way this night could go.

"Are you making fun of me?" That's said a little more lightly, and while she still hasn't moved beyond the intitial relaxing of her posture, she's starting to ease up on the tension a little.

Collette circles back, taking a hectic and frenzied flight pattern fifteen feet above where Steph crouched. < Only a little! I did tell you I was a friendly neighborhood bat. >

She still sounds amused, though her mental laughter has largely abated. < Bet you didn't think I was being so literal! Got a perch for me down there? This is fun, but bats aren't really the sort of fliers who stay in the air indefinitely. >

She doesn't mention the bugs. Collette's aware of them, and the ping in the bat's brain stating hunger each time another one registers on sonar. She could stop echolocating, yet the thought of flying blind was less appealing than nixing an ongoing litany of the merits behind eating any insect that blessed the night air.

In Steph's defense, she wasn't entirely paying attention to the content of the words back then so much as the weirdness of having a voice in her head.

"I suppose you did," Her tone's a bit indecipherable there; she's not entirely sure what she feels about the whole situation, but she does flick out her staff again - keeping it against the ground as she does, so it doesn't seem like a threat - then stands up, holding the staff horizontal, "Does this work?"

It's the best she's got.

< Only one way to find out! >

Collette drops down, coming in for an awkward attempted landing. Tiny feet slide along the staff, wings buffeting it as Collette latches on, an awkward little shape clinging desperately to the length of Steph's shaft.

< Um. >

Collette blinks, more or less secure in her tight hold on the staff.

< I'll admit I've had more graceful landings. >

Edited (okay better sorry about that) 2013-02-10 07:25 (UTC)

This isn't entirely a situation she's trained for, but she keeps her hold steady and watches the landing with a hint of amusement.

"I probably couldn't do much better, so I won't judge too harshly," Although if it could hold her wait, she could land on a small surface area pretty easily. As long as she wasn't, you know, an actual bat.

Speaking of, "How come you're a bat?"

Prior experience informs Collette this is far easier when the surface you're landing on is made of material and flesh. Johnny had been a good perch to clamber along in their search for buried treasure of a sort in the catacombs.

She doesn't move much now, concentrating on simply holding on and not appearing any more awkward than necessary. < Try cruising a city at night in pigeon form. It's way under-equipped! Though the short answer is I felt restless, so got out to work it out. What about you? Why're you Batgirl? >

Well, Steph can't fault that logic, though she files away the fact that apparently Collette isn't limited to simply being a bat, "What about an owl?"

They're cuter than bats, which is clearly all that matters.

And she gives her own answer a moment of thought, it's harder to explain when Batman isn't a thing, "Do you know what vigilantes are?"

< Gotta acquire one before I can. It's on my to-do list! >

She means it, having considered over time what's more practical given her general limitations. An owl would be something like how Cassie moved at night, completely silent fliers with far greater control than a bat could afford.

Batgirl's second question tickles her fancy. Did she know what a vigilante was? Sure, she said to herself. And I'm half in love with one.

< I've heard of them! I know a few around here, too, but before that, not so much. You're one? >

Maybe there was an animal naming theme to vigilantes that she just hadn't really pinned down before...

"Can I ask how that works?" She's using someone like Gar as a baseline for how animal shifting works, and as far as she knows he can do anything he wants. There's Vixen and Animal Man, but they mimic an ability rather than actually transforming.

She wants to ask which vigilantes Collette knows, but decides to limit her questions for now, "I am. There's a guy called Batman back home, he picked the theme because bats are kinda scary, you know? And Batgirl's the spin-off franchise."

Since 'sidekick' wouldn't be the right word.

< Sure, though I can't explain all the science behind it. I'm totally not a scientist, and even if I were, the technology that lets me do this is alien in design. >

Adjusting her hold on the staff, Collette twists her head around to look toward Batgirl's face. < When I'm me, anything I touch that's living and with some kind of nervous system is something I can kind of acquire a copy of it's DNA. Once I have that code, I can turn into it's perfect clone. And I do mean perfect! No scars, physical defects, anything like that carries over. But a genetic tendency? Yeah, it'd still be there. >

Laughter comes bubbling forth again at the name of another vigilante from Batgirl's world. < Batman? Are you serious? > The animal theme was particularly amusing to her, given the nature of what she was, and what the Animorphs did.

If only they were around for her to laugh with, pointing out the pleasant hilarity in these other worlds. But that was neither here nor there.

That's not entirely what she expected, but she looks thoughtful as she considers everything Collette has said. She'd thought the girl might be a metahuman, but if it's some sort of technology that allows the shifting, that probably makes her a baseline human.

"That sounds pretty damn awesome," It's the most genuine she's sounded so far, talking a little more normally rather than using her more controlled Batgirl voice.

She huffs a little at the laughter, "You wouldn't laugh if you met him." Most people don't, although Steph enjoys mocking him openly, she's had a while to get used to the Batglare.

"There's also a Man-Bat, but he's, uh, more like a were-bat."

She held her opinions on what she would or wouldn't laugh about to herself. A tendency to be amused by people rather than afraid was part of what made it easier to convince herself that heading into the fight when they were asked was going to be fine. It let the edge of adrenaline carry her that much further for that much longer.

It's a moot point at the moment, considering they're not being bombed, invaded, gassed, or even mildly inconvenienced by the UE. Unless they were, but the new AI probably had something to do with everything being sorted out in regards to the technology the UE had been forcing into malfunctioning after the Transports had been tossed into New Mexico.

< Were-bats? Like a normal sized one, or a big massive one? I've met were-wolves and were-bears, but a were-bat is a whole new category. >

Amusement comes across with her words, even if she's not giving it the particular cadence of someone close to laughing. < Morphing's the best. Totally crazy, but there's nothing more amazing that's happened to me in all my life! >

For all of what it meant, and for why she and James and the rest had been given the power to change form like this, the most important part was the thrill of freedom. Flight, breaking past the boundaries of your own physical drawbacks? She doesn't regret a moment of what followed from eavesdropping on the Animorphs, confessing her own life-structuring lies, or facing down her first Hork-Bajir armed with a dracon beam.

She won't even regret the end. < Not that it's all fun and games! It's totally the grossest thing to watch in the world, and I can't stay in morph forever. >

Technically both truth and a lie. She could -- if she forever wanted to become something other than what she was. Collette has no such desires, but... she can see where some would.

"Like big enough to carry my weight when he decides I'm enemy number one for the night," She's still a little annoyed about that, especially considering she ended up in the sewers, which is never a fun way to spend a night.

It's a little strange to think of a power like Collette's coming from technology, rather than being magic or her being a metahuman. She's not as much of a scientist as the rest of the Bats, but she wonders how the whole 'conservation of mass' thing works. It's probably not worth worrying about.

"That's pretty much how I feel about this gig," It's not all fun and games, but it's definitely one of the most amazing things that's ever happened to her. And then, a little more concern in her voice, "What's your time limit on a morph? Don't let me keep you if you need to change back."

Collette referenced her own mental clock, knowing it was more trustworthy these days only due to extensive practice. She had time, but it was better safe than sorry.

< Mind setting me down on the roof? >

She sidesteps answering the exact time, curious in a different way about what someone used to were-creatures and all sorts of... what even existed in these superhero heavy universes? What someone like Batgirl will think about what she does.

Sure, she knows what Al thinks, but that'd been a whole different introduction to the concept in the first place. It leaves a very striking impression when you leap in, tooth and claw, just to get shot up and carried off before demorphing back to a whole, complete, untouched human girl.

< Though I warn you, there's probably nothing you've seen that morphs like we do. It's seriously gross! >

Steph crouches down slowly, so that she can gently set the staff down on the roof for Collette to hop off. She doesn't miss the lack of an actual answer to her question, but she also knows she has no real right to the information, so she won't ask again.

"I've probaby seen grosser," There's a morbid sort of humour in her tone, and she takes a couple of steps back to give Collette enough room to be human sized again.

She's not staring, but she won't look away, either, her curiosity winning out over her politeness.

Once in range of the rooftop, Collette loosens her hold on the staff. An attempt to gracefully transfer ends in failure as her claws slide and she falls down with an unheard thump and a protesting flap of her wings. Her mental ooph! stays private, collecting herself into an awkward, almost seated bundle of elongated arm-wings and tiny hing legs and overlarge ears.

Demorphing fails to get less disorientating for her as a mental exercise. The image of herself is easy enough to hold in mind, but the randomness of the changes, the lack of consistency, always feels and looks deranged. Tonight it's as grotesque an absurdity as ever, size changing first. Fragile seeming wings become stretched, joints rearranging with almost audible pops. The tines of her fingers take a sudden turn toward human, fur retreating as the thin membranes of the bat's wings remain, stretching thinner and showing retreating veins by merit of how thin the tissue becomes.

Eyes move to their proper position, still small, one bulging forth and settling back into the changing sockets while the other soon follows suit.

Collette catches herself with a spindly fingered hand as she loses balance, legs thrusting forward like some strange growing protrusion that resolves into bare, taloned feet and legs covered in patched black leotard-like material revealed after disorienting moments where fur clumps and pulls back in to resolve into the smoother material.

The stretching, cracking, shifting, untrackable nature of the changes slows and steadies as wavy, dark hair pushes up across the top of her almost entirely human skull. Bat's pointed, ribbed ears continued shrinking, the shell of something more recognizable showing even as the tumble of wavy hair soon hides them away.

Awkwardly supporting herself on one hand, legs splayed beneath her, Collette smiles and shifts almost apologetically.

"Ta-dah," she says at last, straightening up and nonchalantly pulling her wayward leg in to better support her new seated position. "I'd bow, but it looks way less impressive when you're sitting down."

Way more ironic, too. Nonetheless, she gets a good look at her batfriend now, entertained and amused by what she can see of the costume. "I like the ears!" she comments, using one hand to indicate the general space on Batgirl's head.

Steph might have been wrong about that I've seen grosser. She's seen more awful things, of course, corpses in varying states of decay, after having been put through varying sorts of violence. Still, the morphing is high up there on the list of unpleasant things, mostly because it looks painful, and she can't help wincing sympathetically as she watches.

Once Collette is fully human, Steph registers that she's only wearing a leotard and automatically starts unlatching her cape from around her shoulders.

"I think I'll take your word for it next time, on the whole 'gross' thing," Steph steps closer and sits down opposite Collette, holding out the cape for her, if she wants to put it around her own shoulders to keep off the rain. The way Collette moved her leg, the way she's holding herself, hasn't escaped Steph's notice, so she's putting herself at the same level to save Collette having to look up.

And she smiles for the comment about her ears, "You might be the only one, apparently they aren't bat-like enough for some people."

She wants to laugh. Back home, it'd been all the same sorts of kids in the same situation. People didn't have jackets or coats or capes to offer each other when they demorphed. How the Animorphs had handled the frozen tundra in the Arctic was nothing short of a miracle.

Then she ends up here, where people practically threw clothing at her when faced with the elements. It's nice, in an amusing way. Probably better for her health too.

"That's what people usually say," she said, not bothering to hide some of the smugness in her tone. "After ignoring me the first time."

Collette takes the offered cape, shooting Steph a smile that's more thankful for the quiet way in which she's come to sit down across from her than for the cape itself. There's a lot of perception in what Batgirl does. Collette appreciates that even as she pulls the cape on over her shoulders.

Looks like she's in for a conversation, brief or extended as that may be.

"I'd comment about the nose first," she admits, rubbing some of the cape's material between her thumb and forefinger. "Bat's don't have cute little noses. Stylized ears just make sense!"

Steph laughs, shrugging in a you win sort of gesture, acknowleding that she probably should have listened to Collette about the morphing. Not that she regrets it too much, her curiosity is sated, at least.

"I'm not known for listening to advice," Which is true enough, ignoring people is a problem of hers.

The cape is a blend of kevlar and nomex, and heavy, it's thicker than her suit, since they have to sacrifice protection for maneouverablility when it comes to how thick they can make their suits. But the capes can be a little more sturdy.

"Are you saying I have a cute nose?" She's smiling, her demeanour much more relaxed now that she's confident Collette isn't planning to hurt her, "I'm glad someone appreciates my fashion sense, at least."

Not that she made the uniform, but still.

[open] this time I'll be a little smarter

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oh my god help i'm so done

i can't look at me i'm a wreck!

i feel like i took a wrong turn and ended up in a bad porno

caught in a bad pornmance???

.... the most appropriate use of those lyrics tbh

a cornucopia of giving, that lady gaga

she is occasionally useful

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