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

[ichoosefight]

She keeps a close eye on her remaining bacon, nibbling on it whenever it isn't too rude. She pulls out her own phone slowly, careful not to let the dog catch her unaware.

"Yeah, sure. Can you write it down? I'm going to bed in a minute."

[doctorintern]

When Atom starts sniffing around too close, Fenton grabs his collar and pulls him back, still pulling up a few places on his phone.

"Sure thing! I can also send you the addresses, if that would be easier."

[ichoosefight]

"That works! I'm learning the streets pretty well, I think." Given, it's only been a day, but it's actually easy to remember streets that aren't just all numbers.

Plus, she'll be able to check her phone in the morning and see if this was a bizarre dream or not.

[doctorintern]

"Yeah, no problem!" He holds out his phone to her. "Here, if you want to put your contact information in, I can go ahead and send you those addresses."

[ichoosefight]

"Okay!" Now this is familiar. She takes the phone and navigates to the contacts page easily enough. Then she has to stop herself. Her cell phone doesn't work here. Her magic phone probably doesn't have the same number. Does it even use the same numbering system? She has to mess around on her own phone for a bit to find the information to give him. She takes the opportunity to register the username @coffeefiend. "There we go. These things don't actually vary much between universes, huh. Weird."

[doctorintern]

Once he gets his phone back, he immediately sends her a text with a few different cafes. "There you go! And it's fascinating, isn't it? Even with the lack of some technological advances, there are others like a smartphone that exist! I know a lot of the devices here use a combination of magical technology, but finding out how it works has been a bit of a challenge."

Not that he seems to mind. In fact, the idea of figuring out the challenge seems to excite him.

[ichoosefight]

"Like taking them apart?" He actually sounds a lot like Tim with a new electronic toy. That makes it a little easier to deal with the whole bill-lips thing.

"I'm just glad that they do. It's hard enough to get used to everything else here without having to go find people any time you want to ask a question."

Sorry for the late reply! We can keep going or just handwave, if you'd like!

[doctorintern]

"Sort of! I've been tempted to take mine apart, but I'm not as familiar with magic tech yet to do so comfortably without worrying about damaging it too much. But once I learn more about it, I'm eager to toy around and figure out how it all works."

Yes, working with tech is definitely like a kid with a new toy.

"And it does make it a lot easier! The network has definitely been helpful with connecting with others for help. Though you do still get the occasional person who doesn't take much seriously."

So, pretty standard of the internet then.

We can keep going!

[ichoosefight]

She doesn't see what he could gain from poking around cell phone wiring, but she doesn't really get most of what Tim does with tech either.

"Oh yeah," she agrees a little too enthusiastically, "that's the worst. Hate that."

She has definitely been an internet troll.

Sounds good!

[doctorintern]

If he catches her tone, he at least doesn't comment on it. Because honestly, he's known a few trolls so he can't judge.

"Yeah, but for the most part people are pretty friendly and don't mind helping out. And with all the different kinds of people, you're bound to find someone who can answer a question you might have."

Re: Sounds good!

[ichoosefight]

There are definitely different kinds of people, if Fenton is any example.

"My head will have to stop spinning before I can think of any actual questions."

[doctorintern]

He chuckles a little. "Ah yeah, it can be a lot to take in at first. It's the first time I've experienced inter-dimensional travel myself, even with all of the unusual things back home that I've gotten used to."

[ichoosefight]

She can imagine what sort of weirdness he must experience back home, but in her head it's just her own home populated only with ducks. She's not sure anymore what weird is.

"Yeah... My usual response to crazy nonsense is to keep doing my job and hope it goes away eventually. It'll be interesting to see how well that works here. Especially since I don't have a job anymore."

[doctorintern]

"Oh, well, you could always find a job here! There are a lot of places that could use some extra help. What kind of work do you usually do?"

[ichoosefight]

"Oh. Um, well... I was working in an emergency clinic. But I'm not... actually trained?" She's a little embarassed to admit it, even if they'd practically fallen over themselves to hire her. First-aid experience and a willingness to work nights were pretty desperately needed with the way Gotham's been for the last year.

"I was starting my second year of college when everything went to hell."

[doctorintern]

He can't help frowning a little. "Do...you mean before you were brought here? Or did something else happen that disrupted your schooling?"

[ichoosefight]

"Hmm? Oh, no." It's still strange to her that it isn't just common knowledge, what happened last year. She grins tiredly.

"You've got coffee. This is miles away from Hell."

She twists her mouth, taking a moment to think about how best to explain this.

"I guess you could say the sky fell. A year ago part of town got cut off from the rest of the world. We've been on our own ever since. No supplies, no information, nothing."

[doctorintern]

He draws a bit up at that, eyes wide. "Oh, wow...that must be rather frightening. Any idea how that happened?"

[ichoosefight]

"No clue," she answers carelessly. As long as she doesn't treat it seriously she doesn't have to worry about everyone she knows being dead.

"You can probably imagine, people didn't exactly take it well. Actually, they're still not taking it well. So the clinic's been pretty busy."

[doctorintern]

He nods. "Yeah, I can definitely get that. But gosh, I'm sorry. That really does sound like it'd be difficult."

[ichoosefight]

Steph shrugs. It's been more than just difficult, but she doesn't like to let people see her down if she can help it.

"I'm here now. And I've got coffee. Real coffee, made from actual coffee beans. The end of the world can suck it."

[doctorintern]

He laughs a little. "I guess that is one way to look at it." Still, the whole point of them being there is to save their worlds. Was there anyway to save a place that seemed like it was already ending?

[ichoosefight]

If there is, it probably hinges on Steph being a half-decent Batgirl. They're screwed.

"Totally. And there's plenty of milk, food that didn't come from a can... my guinea pig is here for some reason, and she doesn't have to worry about being emergency rations anymore. Plus the sky, actual weather, water that isn't our gross, polluted bay... and people who aren't either half-crazy or half-dead inside. Actually, I could use the break from nursing."

If her tone sounds odd, it's because Steph is trying to convince herself that there are things here worth being happy about even if everyone she knows back home turns out to be dead. She's been awake way too long today for her normal resilience.

[doctorintern]

He can't help frowning again as she continues describing where she'd come from. It's definitely a lot worse than he'd imagined it, and he can't help wondering if there's something to be done.

There had been talk about seeing if people could travel between different worlds after being here. If that was possible, could they send help to her world too?

If they could figure out how to do that...

[ichoosefight]

Well, that's decided. She won't be working in the medical field, not for a while.

She starts picking apart another muffin when she yawns. It goes on a lot longer than she expected when it started. She rubs a watering eye.

"I guess I should get to bed, huh."