Once a Bat, always a Night Person [Open]

[ichoosefight]

🧙 WHO: Stephanie Brown and YOU
⚔️️ WHAT: Settling in
🕒 WHEN: Around arrival: after midnight, 6am and afternoon
🗺️ WHERE: Around town, the breakfast buffet and outside a cafe
⚠️ WARNINGS: None

1. Old Habits
Steph has been staying up all night since she was 15 years old. That's 4 years of getting most of her exercise well after dark, and 1 year of night shift that may well have been more work than being a vigilante. Her arrival had been hectic and tiring, but she just couldn't force herself to go to bed at what society generally considered a 'normal hour'.

Instead she wanders the town after dark, taking a meandering route and keeping an eye on the rooftops, just out of habit. She has some of her weapons, but she has no intention of taking up the cowl again here. It's fricken Camelot, how much crime can there really be?

She barely notices anybody that might be on the streets. She has a lot on her mind, and not just deciding whether or not she's dreaming all of this.

She makes it across almost every inch of town before the sun rises.

2. Continental Breakfast
She happens upon the hotel's breakfast entirely by accident, and while she's actually on her way to bed she can't say no to free food. For a few days she's there every morning at 6am, hoarding muffins and keeping a half-full cup of coffee as close to her face as she can without looking too weird. She doesn't drink it, she just likes to keep it close. She's missed this smell. Given, it's probably not very good coffee, but it's a hell of a lot more coffee-like than what she's been drinking for the last few months.

Every now and then she takes a deep whiff of the untouched coffee and quietly sighs in satisfaction.

3. Magic was easier in books
Steph sits at a table outside a cafe, a truly gigantic mug and an assortment of coffee-condiments in front of her. The mug is full to the brim with latte, but it's already her second cup. Four packets of sugar and three wooden stir-sticks are pushed to the outside of the group, glowing brightly enough to be noticeable in the middle of the day.

She was trying to make them invisible. She hasn't had any success. Maybe she should try reverse psychology, she thinks. If she tries to make the sugar packet in front of her glow, maybe it will vanish instead.

She's been at it long enough that she's scowling as she focuses on the packet, making fists with both hands and splaying her fingers at the thing every time she makes an attempt.

"Glow," she mutters under her breath. "Glow! W...olg? Wolg. Lumos!" Unconsciously raising her volume, she makes a noise of frustration and tries one more time.

That final attempt has some effect at least. A dozen needles made of light pin the packet in place, stuck at all angles as if they had circled it when she wasn't looking. For a moment she just stares at it.

"...What?"

[ooc | brackets also accepted! ]

Comments

2

[doctorintern]

One morning, Steph may find a dog sitting nearby and staring up at her with an almost hopeful expression. It was pretty clear that it's looking for a handout, and even whines softly for the full begging effect.

This would go on for a few moments before a...Duck suddenly appears, finding the dog after a quick glance around. "Atom, I said no begging!" he says, reaching down to lightly tug at the dog's collar and pull him away. "Sorry, I hope he wasn't bothering you too much."

[ichoosefight]

Steph looks down at the dog, unimpressed no matter how adorable he is.

"If you want my bacon, you can't have it. Do you have any idea how long it's been since I've had bacon? No. Not happening."

If he was begging for a muffin, she might consider sharing. But nothing in the world is going to convince her to give up fresh, unpreserved, deliciously fried meat. She does give in enough to scratch his ears, though. She can only be so strong.

When the dog's owner arrives, she can only blink tiredly at him for an awkwardly long moment. She could swear this man is a duck. How long has she been awake? 20 hours? She must be hallucinating. There aren't duck people. Duck people only exist in cartoons.

At about the time most people would start feeling really uncomfortable having not said anything, her brain gives up. Duck people. Why not? She needs sleep.

"No, he's fine. I totally understand his feelings about bacon."

[doctorintern]

The dog whines softly, still begging until Fenton finally holds out a strip of bacon, which he snaps up eagerly.

"I really need to stop spoiling you," he sighs, wiping his hands. Looking up at her, he smiles. "Thanks for keeping his attention, though. He tends to run off on me sometimes." He holds out a hand. "The name's Fenton Crackshell-Cabrera. And you've met Atom, of course."

The dog yaps happily.

[ichoosefight]

Seeing that the begging worked in the end, Steph snickers.

"Stephanie Brown." She shakes the offered hand, noting how strange it feels and wondering why she expected it to be furry.

"I'm new in town, I guess." She's not sure what else she would be, but at this point she's not very sure of anything at all except the smell of coffee.

[doctorintern]

His hand isn't quite furry, but there is some kind of texture. Feathers? Some kind of mix of that and fur? It's hard to say. "It's nice to meet you, Stephanie! So you've just recently arrived, huh? Have you been able to find everything all right so far?"

1

[flapsin]

During her patrol, there's one sight that may stick out. Atop one rooftop, there's a cape that billows in the wind. A shadowed figure perched like a gargoyle along the ledge...

On closer inspection, this dark avenger of the night will become clearer. It... it... it's....!

It's a duck-man wearing a purple outfit and fedora.

[ichoosefight]

The cape catches her eye immediately, though the hat is an odd choice for someone who swings through town on a wire. It takes her a moment to remember that she wasn't expecting to see anyone on the rooftops.

She squints up at him, trying to make sense of the silhouette that just seems... wrong, somehow. She considers calling for the bat that calls itself her familiar, but she doesn't want to spook... whatever it is.

[flapsin]

After a few moments, the duck starts... to talk to himself.

"And so, our assiduous avian avenger prowls in the darkness, patiently waiting for the criminal element to show itself..." He appears to be narrating for himself. "After all, crime never sleeps! ...So, so you think it would be a bit more active!"

He leans forward, squinting down at the streets below in search of any kind of action!

[ichoosefight]

She can almost make out what he's saying, which also throws her off. Gotham is never this quiet. But that does mean that he would definitely hear her tell Cassie to check him out.

She finds herself looking for a way up. If there are masks around, she wants to know who they are and what they're up to. There aren't any fire escapes, but there are some trees, and more vines than are probably safe for the buildings.

She scrambles up easily enough, putting her on top of a clothing store at an angle to realize that this mask is... short. And definitely weirdly shaped. Is that... a bill?

3.

[notwearingthekeds]

Izzy had shown up for work, violin case sticking out of her backpack and a red canary perched on her shoulder. She rushed through the back, snagging herself a breadroll to munch on as she headed to the corner next to the tables she usually played from.

Passing by a woman who had decided to murder a packet of sugar with tiny needles of light.

Izzy stopped, stared at the display, looked at the woman. Thought a moment, and decided she should be a brat. "What'd that sugar packet do to you?"

[ichoosefight]

Steph blushes, realizing how insane she must look to people walking by. It's not like it would have been any more discreet inside the cafe, either.

"Well, it sure didn't turn invisible," she retorts. "So... needles it is." She pokes one of the needles, then tries to wiggle it loose. It feels like it dug into the table. Shouldn't they disappear, or something?

"That's what you get."

[notwearingthekeds]

"So... You tried to turn it invisible, and you ended up just stabbing it to death?" She wanted to be clear on how bad this woman's efforts at magic was. Which it isn't like she could judge.

Well, she could a little, her magic at least did vaguely the right thing. Except for a matter of desire and scale. Sometimes she could levitate a rock. Sometimes she didn't mean to do anything and a chair snapped in half. "If it helps, I'm not very good with my magic either."

[ichoosefight]

She grimaces. Somehow that isn't very comforting coming from a child.

The needle comes loose, and Steph inspects it from both sides before trying to snap it in half. It doesn't even bend. Cool.

"I didn't even know I could do that. It'd be nice if these powers came with like, a manual or something."

2

[badlypoisoned]

"Are you planning to drink that at some point?"

The man who sits down beside her sounds just a little amused as he sets a plate of. Well.

Basically a plate full of all the greasy, hearty meats. Bacon, breakfast sausages...if it's meat he has it on his plate along with a little bit of eggs and a biscuit.

The general opinion in Great Liang is that Yun Yifeng looks elegant and refined...but in truth his tastes in food were quite the opposite.

As he settles down he tilts his head, as if in thought. "Or perhaps you are trying to practise inedia? I hear holding a warmed rock against your body is the preferred method of some monks."

[ichoosefight]

Steph blinks at him for a moment, confused enough by the new word to forget the original question.

"Oh, no. I'm going to bed. I just hadn't had real coffee in like, four months." The smell helps her mood, even if it does nothing for her energy levels. She probably should have taken it a little easier, just starting out in a strange new world. The coffee is a big draw, though.

"Why would I hug a rock?"

[badlypoisoned]

But isn't it the morning?

He's not a stranger to people who stay out all night and need to sleep in the day. Though usually that only happens when one of his disciples needed to be out at night to gather information.

He's curious, naturally.

"Is it not the norm for people where you're from to sleep at night instead?"

There are duck people so at this point that wouldn't surprise him if that were the case. Then he picks up his cup of tea.

"Some cultivators living in mountains who aim to achieve immortality through cultivating their so-called spiritual energies and through meditation. The goal is to reach a state where one doesn't need food or water. There are also monks who believe the path to enlightenment involves giving up on all earthly things." Once again including food and water. Hence, inedia. "But it's only human to feel hunger so some of them will take a warmed rock and hold it against their stomachs to ease the hunger...or so they say."

He clearly has no interest in such things as he takes a sip of his tea...then makes a face. It wasn't very good tea.

[ichoosefight]

She tries to keep an open mind as she listens to that explanation. It's not easy.

"That is literally suicidal." She feels like that should be pointed out, even if the reasoning is religious. And she doubts a warm rock would help much if you were dying of thirst. She shakes her head and shrugs the notion off.

"I've been helping out at an emergency clinic, and nights in Gotham can get... long." Even without traditional resources, the city is full of crime and most of it takes place at night. The added wrinkle of being cut off from the world just meant more people were hurting themselves in truly idiotic ways.

"Plus, we ran out of real coffee a few months ago. Totally worth staying up for." Of course she drinks it during the day. She's going to be totally destitute soon, but at least she'll be caffeinated.

1.

[yorhaberserker]

She was jumping from roof top to roof top, before settling herself down on one of them, glancing up at the sky. Night time wasn't something she was familiar with so she was taking in the stars from the vantage point of the ground. She glanced downwards to survey the area, trying to familiarize herself with it, and noticing the figure down there walking. She hadn't ran into many people in the darkness.

"Hey, shouldn't you be sleeping like the others?" She called down, just loud enough to be heard but not so loud as to disturb people who might be trying to sleep.

[ichoosefight]

Steph spun to find the source of the voice, pissed at herself for being caught off-guard. Just because this wasn't Gotham didn't mean she shouldn't be on guard. It had been a long day, she supposed.

She crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow at the woman, though it was too dark and she too far away to make her out clearly.

"Shouldn't you?"

[yorhaberserker]

She stood up with a dry chuckle at that question. "I don't require sleep." She told her as she jumped off of the building, landing in front of her heavily though perfectly balanced.

"But humans... don't they?" She inquired, more curious than anything. She was trying to not be as hostile as she used to be. She wasn't home after all. "And everything I know about the Old World says they sleep at night. Unless the records were wrong?"

[ichoosefight]

She takes a step back to give the woman space to land, and to give herself space to maneuver if she needs it.

"What makes you so sure I'm human?" Apparently the mystery woman isn't, but Steph is curious. It's an odd assumption to make when she knows at least three other humanoid species.

She waits to give any answers until she's sure the stranger isn't an immediate threat.

3, late AF but we talked.

[cameprepared]

Claire couldn't help but smile, watching someone clearly new playing with the spells they'd been given. Picking up her cup of ice coffee, she leans against a column for a moment, but when the spell clearly goes awry and the blonde makes a face, she steps in.

Sauntering over, she sits down across from Steph without so much as a nod and holds out her hand towards the needles. The light dims a bit, just a bit, some of the pins seeming to gutter like candles.

"Careful. You might put a hole in the table if you play around with hard light too much."

[ichoosefight]

Steph jumps a little to be interrupted, then drops her face onto the table to hide her shame. She hadn't exactly been looking for an audience.

She groans into the table, then lifts her head just high enough that she can pull her coffee under her chin. All things are easier with coffee.

"Hard light, right... Duly noted." Is she a green lantern now? Her familiar told her she could make things invisible, but she didn't mention anything about needles made of light.

"No stabbing the furniture. Solid rule."

[cameprepared]

"Generally, yeah. More worried about you accidentally losing a finger."

Leaning back with her own cup, Claire settles in, shifting to get comfortable in her seat.

"You're new to Avalon, right? They're pretty shit about explaining how it all works."

[ichoosefight]

"A couple days," she admits grudgingly, lifting her head a little. She is very new. She can't be expected to be good at this right away, can she? She hopes not, anyway.

"I didn't even know that was a possibility. I was trying to make it invisible."