[Open]

[batburgers]

WHO: Jason Todd and You
WHERE: Around The City
WHEN: throughout event
WHAT: Jason is an brainwashed enforcer for the government and part of that job is surveillance and "encouraging" compliance and registration for any meta.
WARNINGS: potential swearing, brainwashed ideology, violence


[It's like a guy can't get any off duty time anymore around here. All these new arrivals are causing problems and the underground is making moves, breaking people out of containment and snatching up imPorts before they can be processed and registered. Stocking up on more members--more living weapons to be used against the innocent civilians. Their tactics would be impressive if they didn't piss him off so much.

Especially when he knows certain people are helping them, even if he can't prove it. Not yet, anyway.

So he's working overtime--more than usual--investigating the areas that have the most underground activity. He's watching the people he thinks--knows--might have some connection to those groups, the ones harboring Unregistered Metas.

If Blackbird has to crack a few heads to get some answers, then that's probably the highlight of his day. Who knows, maybe he'll decide to take the direct approach and call someone out right to their face.]

{OOC: So Jason Todd has been brainwashed into a willing and loyal government enforcer known as Blackbird which is basically his Red Hood costume, but all black with a bird on his chest instead of a bat. I'm up for him being nosy any and everywhere people want him.}

Comments

[notafraidofyou]

[The sudden new activity from the Porter and influx of new metas have meant that Tim's been pretty busy too. Mostly busy directing the new metas away from where they might get snapped up by the government, and toward where they might get real information about what's going on here, but occasionally doing some snooping of this own.

Knowledge is power, right? And the more they know about the government's plans for the newly awakened Porter and the metas pouring in, and... well, everything else, the more able they'll be to thwart them.

So right now, he's got a pocket full of bugs, and plans to plant then in... oh, every government vehicle he happens to come across on his totally casual stroll... through government property.

(small aside: I don't have the icons for it, but because of the time difference here, AUTim is about 19-20)]

[batburgers]

[Totally casual. So casual that most people probably wouldn't notice except Jason was trained in those same tactics. He knows what to look for, especially when it's someone he's already been aware of. Hard not to notice one of Bruce's birds flitting around.

There's someone coming around the corner and Jason wonders if he'll get out of the way in time. He'll keep watching for a minute, to see what happens.

And maybe he's preparing a localized EMP just because. Never trust a Bat.]

[notafraidofyou]

[Whoop. Someone's coming. Tim straightens from his most recent drop, and tucks his hands into his pockets, schooling his features into innocence. What? This is a restricted area? Golly, he had no idea, he was just out for a walk. Which way is the exit? Thanks so much, he'll get out of you hair.

No, you don't have to worry about walking him out.]

[batburgers]

[The guard hasn't noticed Jason, but he doesn't seem to be buying whatever the little bird is selling either. Things have been really on edge with all the new imPorts.

Jason makes it easy by dropping down from his perch, light and quiet.]

You shouldn't text and wander, kid.

[The guard snaps to attention, recognizing Blackbird's costume instantly.]

[notafraidofyou]

[Tim eyes him warily. Jason isn't usually in a mood to be helpful where he's concerned.]

Yeah, I guess I got a little careless and wasn't watching where I was going. My mistake. I'll be a lot more careful in the future.

[batburgers]

[Jason would be smirking if he wasn't wearing the helmet and walks right up to the kid--nineteen but still a kid to Jason--and reaches to put a hand on his shoulder.]

Why don't I escort you to the right exit. You could get lost.

[notafraidofyou]

[Tim glances at the hand. Glances up at Jason. Inwardly curses--again--the fact that he is still among the shortest in their messy little 'family,' and that Jason is decidedly not.]

Golly, that'd be swell.

[batburgers]

[Jason looks at the guard.]

Get back to your post, I've got this. [When Blackbird tells you to do something, you do it. Even when he's saying it in the nicest way possible despite his synthesized voice from his helmet.]

Why don't you come this way, kid. [Not that he's giving Tim much of a chance to run just yet.]

[notafraidofyou]

[Not like he has a whole lot of choice, given the circumstances. He can be reckless sometimes, but he tries not to be actively stupid, and throwing down with Blackbird with his extremely limited weapons and zero armor is just an all around bad idea.

He lets himself be directed toward the exit.]

Thanks for the escort. I hate to think of what might happen if I got turned around again.

[batburgers]

Next time you'd get shot in the head and they wouldn't bother asking.

[Blackbird is chatty, everyone knows it, but Blackbird also has the darkest humor.]

That'd be a shame, wouldn't it?

[notafraidofyou]

[He raises an eyebrow.]

I mean, it doesn't exactly sound like a fun way to spend an afternoon.

[bodilesswarrior]

[ Oracle left her life as a civilian behind, and she rarely appears outside of resistance bases. But her power set doesn't involve teleportation, so she has to travel from one to the other the old-fashioned way.

Most of the time, it's not much of an issue. People don't look at a random woman in a wheelchair and think Ah, yes, one of the masterminds of the resistance. She even takes time to stock up on some groceries, so their couriers can focus on trickier targets.

She's leaving the store, chair festooned with shopping bags, when she sees him walking down the road. She freezes, heart pounding in her ears, and it's not just because Jason knows damn well what she's capable of.

It's been a long time since they were face to face. It's easier to watch Blackbird through a screen and tell other people how to fight him. She avoids him as Aegis. No matter how high the walls she builds around herself become, their foundations are brittle.

She failed him and Cassandra, as surely as she failed Stephanie, and all she can do is stare at him as she comes closer. ]

[batburgers]

[He's not in costume--attracts too much attention when he's trying to get intel from some of his informants. He'd just left the nearby office of a local businessman whose secretary feeds him tidbits from all over the neighborhood when he sees her on the sidewalk. He blinks, surprised, and then his lips curl in a knowing kind of smile.]

Well, would you look at that. Long time no see, Babs.

[bodilesswarrior]

Jason.

[ Her voice is quiet, and tightly controlled. She doesn't manage a smile, but her expression doesn't crumple.

She can't let him use this to strike at the resistance. She can't get sidetracked trying to get through to him. ]

Taking care of yourself?

[batburgers]

[He may not have proof, but just like with Bruce, he knows where Babs' loyalty lies and it's not with the people. It's with the metas putting civilian lives at risk. The ones who show up where half of them can't even control their powers. And when people die, they act like they weren't the ones in the middle of it.

Jason knows even if he can't prove it. He knows it in his bones.]

Oh sure, I'm doing swell. Been really busy lately. How about you?

[bodilesswarrior]

[ He still talks like Jason, is the thing. They didn't just erase his personality and replace it with something else. They just made adjustments, in ways she's still desperately studying. When she's not hacking, or guiding, or spying - so not nearly as often as she could be, when it comes down to it.

One more thing to feel guilty about, gazing up into his eyes. ]

Doing a lot of reading. You know, all these years later, I haven't worked out all the historical divergences between this world and ours. [Not that they share exactly the same Gotham, but it's closer than this.

She manages to sound more at ease, now that she has a focus. An angle.]

They give you a lot of history lessons, up there?

[batburgers]

[Easy, sure. Like it's nothing but old friends running into each other on the street. No hidden agendas or secrets between them.]

Why bother worrying about it? It's close enough. I'm sure you can find the same work here as you do there.

[He knows exactly what kind of work she's probably up to.]

[bodilesswarrior]

[She shrugs, smooth and casual, as if she isn't primed for fight or flee. (Neither of which give her good odds; she still aches terribly from the last Aegis outing, and this chair isn't exactly souped up. She wanted to be inconspicuous.)]

The greater context is always important. [She knows that Bruce taught him that. She wonders if he remembers.]

[batburgers]

Forgetting there are trees in the forest, huh. [There's even a little chuckle.] I think sometimes the little things matter more than whatever big picture you're looking for.

[Because the little people are the ones who get hurt when the Resistance is busy worrying about their precious "freedoms" and "moral high ground." The ones Jason cares far more about protecting.]

We may as well enjoy ourselves while we can. All work and no play and all that, right?

[And Jason does have fun beating the shit out of traitors and rogues.]

[bodilesswarrior]

[ She can't quite stop her lips from curling into a scowl.

She cared more, once. Before this war steadily burned it out of her. ]

Maybe the trees ought to have their own say.

[She doesn't say "not everyone in the Resistance is a meta"; if he doesn't know that, then good.]

Oh, do they let you have hobbies?

[batburgers]

[Check. He smirks just a bit. He had been waiting to see what kind of statement would get a real reaction from her, not this fake niceness and cordiality. They hadn't know each other long before...before...

That doesn't matter, but he knows her enough to know what she's really like. She's a bigger threat than the Bat himself.]

Sure, lots of hobbies. I've always liked keeping myself well-rounded. You, too. I bet you've got your hands in a bunch of different pies.

[bodilesswarrior]

[ She could curse herself for letting him get a rise out of her, but it was inevitable. That's why she avoids him.

Now that he's broken through, she doesn't keep holding the mask up. But the anger has passed; now she just looks tired and sad.

She won't give him anything useful. But maybe that emotional truth will matter, somewhere down the line.

So she ignores the very clear implications and keeps it literal. ]

Back home. Did your Barbara turn you onto Austen?

[batburgers]

We didn't talk much about literature.

[His Barbara hadn't seem to care much about him one way or the other but she'd been nicer than he'd expected to someone who had been so close to the original Robin.]

She did give me some tips to figure out calculus. Knows her way around numbers and data.

[bodilesswarrior]

[ She'd suspected as much, in the little time they shared together before Jason was taken.

She was so eager to forge a new connection, to take advantage of what felt like a miracle. ]

I did that, too. Wouldn't be a very good tutor, otherwise.

[ It strikes her, all at once, how much she misses being a teacher. It's not the kind of thing she lets herself feel, most of the time. ]