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

[controlledvariable]

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.

Comments

[controlledvariable]

Steph winks for the quote, her grin just a little bit cheeky, and she feels a little guilty all of a sudden, because she's going to have to lie to Collette, about the connection between Stephanie and Batgirl.

A year doesn't seem very long at all, to have so little time before being brought into a war, thought she reminds herself how much of a different a year made to herself, when that included training for months with Dinah.

Something like annoyance crosses her expression at the comment about it being a weird way to fight crime, "Sometimes it's the only way that works."

It's probably not fair to focus on that point, but it feels like a criticism against vigilantes, and Steph's never been great at taking criticism.

[whatsupcroc]

Masks were great at distorting expression, if not completely. Collette finds herself smiling again, small and amused by what she sees. "Weird doesn't mean bad." In fact, most recently in life it's been the opposite. "And you're right about the creative solutions being the only ones sometimes. Of course, if you want to get into a discussion on corruption and the benefits of direct action, I'm all for it."

She smiles, lopsided this time. "Though I'll probably be a better listener than anything else."

[controlledvariable]

"Not always, but there's generally the implication of it," In her experience weird, or strange or odd usually means not right, which is just another way to say bad.

And she's a Gothamite, weird is how they talk about most of their rogues gallery.

Still, she forces herself to breath out slowly, softening her expression, and when she speaks again her tone is more amicable, "I'm guessing whatever you do isn't exactly legal, either."

[whatsupcroc]

"You've just hung out with the wrong crowds." Or the healthier ones. At the hospital, weird was more often normal; normal was more often weird. And then sometimes, you just earned titled in plain odd. "Or you haven't had people tell you that your whole life."

Though she frames it as more of a question. She doesn't know -- maybe Batgirl has. She can only frame it in her own experience. Collette had to choose not to see herself as being something bad a long time ago, for all the frustrations in limitations that came along with it.

Still, it isn't a pleasant thought, and she lets it slide away like so many droplets of water in a gutter drain. Down, out, then gone.

"You could say it's definitely on the shady side of legal. Is war legal if people refuse to admit it's happening? What about guerrilla warfare, is that technically legal? I feel like there's some political answer in there." She snorts, wrinkling her nose. "I dunno. It's war. People worry about the legalities after someone's convinced they've won. Until then, it's doing what you have to, and that's usually never legal when... okay. Nope, nothing legal here."

She holds up one hand, a stopping motion paired with something of an apology. "Freedom fighter's the term I'd prefer, though, so if we get to labels, I'm totally sticking with that one. You know, over 'those Andalite bandits!'"

[controlledvariable]

Steph pauses over the wording, the way Collette frames it; it makes it seem like there's a little more to it, "I'm used to hearing words like that applied to the people I fight." And her wording is careful there, the implication that it's others not herself, that talk about them that way.

The explanation is interesting, and Steph listens carefully, then takes a moment to actually think about her answer.

"I think the answer changes depending who thinks they're in the right," Not who wins, necessarily, but the ones fighting for the 'right' cause. She knows people sometimes think of vigilantes as soldiers, she knows she likes to think she's doing the right thing, but there are plenty of people who disagree. It's part of why she finally started listening to Bruce's rule about killing. If they don't cross that line, they keep themselves seperate from the murderers and psychopaths that they go after, at least in the eyes of the public.

At the mention of preferred terms, she adds, "One man's freedom fighter is another man's terrorist, after all." It's not a criticism, simply reframing her point, and it's her way of saying that she doesn't really have an answer to Collette's questions.

[whatsupcroc]

"Wouldn't Jerks work just as well?" she quips, lips twitching upward. She's amusing herself considering what Steph is saying, though in the end she inclines her head to the Batgirl and has nothing further to say. Criminals, people who sought to create pain and strife, they did count as pretty weird. No argument on that front.

"Perspective is crazy." There's more she can offer on the subject, but she's said about as much as she's willing to on her world, the war, and the conclusion only Vanadi's word has provided. He may be as much of a liar as she is, or as she often is out of a defense against the world and a decision on how to view the events around her, but she and he had stopped that dance some time ago. She felt he knew, from the Collette in his improbable world-crossing home in Cittagazze. The girl who lived, and the war that was won. If she had to settle for only one of those truths for herself, well, the war would be won. As long as she was here, the other would also hold true.

"It's got to be the worst for people who aren't sure what they're doing is right." The Yeerks who didn't want to fight, who wanted peace or coexistance, or to be nothlit as something beyond themselves for the rest of their natural lifespans. "How's the rooftop cruising going around here? Is there much to really vigilante with?"

[controlledvariable]

Steph's brief, wry smile matches Collette's. Jerks is a little too broad for some of what Gotham's villains are like, but she doesn't really see much point in arguing for the sake of arguing, when they're not really in disagreement about anything.

"Maybe, but maybe they're the ones who end up actually doing the right thing," Anyone who stalwartly believes they can do no wrong, well, more often than not they end up making things worse. Lex Luthor genuinely believes that Superman is a menance, that Lex is doing the best for their world, but all Steph can think about is the kids he's killed. Seeing the world in black and white never really works.

As for the question, she shrugs, "There might as well be crickets chirping, seeing as how quiet it is compared to back home."

Gotham's soundtrack might as well be sirens.

[whatsupcroc]

Collette won't say otherwise. In her opinion, people questioning themselves were better off as leaders than the ones who never questioned, and didn't stand for people questioning their ideas. That a leader had to pick a plan at some point and stick to it, without showing hesitation then -- that was a different sort of burden.

Anyway, it's all complicated and something Collette understands and is thankful never to have to be. Hah! Anyone looking to her for leadership was going to be in a tough spot, and fast!

"Gotta wonder what it'd mean for this city if it was screams and shouts all night long. Not from bombing, either." There'd been some rough moments that first day down in the catacombs. "For an island made up of the law breakers and exiles, it's funny to see people generally being better than they could be."

Not laugh out loud funny. Collette shifts under Steph's borrowed cloak, turning her head to look off in the general direction of downtown. "That'll all change eventually, if we keep doing what the Initiative has us doing."

[controlledvariable]

The whole city is getting to her, and she realizes how badly when her first thought in response to people generally being better than they could be is to come up with alternate explanations for why the crime rate is so low. She'd like to think that's what it was, to have a little faith, but it's hard right now. So she just shakes her head, the corner of her mouth twisting up in something that could be the start of a smile, or a grimace.

"I know some anarchists who'd have things to say about it all," It's not really a disagreement or an agreement, she's just thinking of what Anarky - the real one, not fucking Ulysses - would make of it all.

Anyway, the thought of how it's all going to change has more of her attention, since it's something that's been weighing on her mind, "Aren't they creating a paradox?"

Time travel isn't really her thing, but she's sure the number one rule is don't mess with the past. If they go back and make things better, so that the United Earth never gained as much power, will the Initiative as it is ever exist to send people back to fix things?

Thinking about it gives her a headache.