Stephanie Brown (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
ichoosefight) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
isleofavalon2021-05-14 06:49 pm
ichoosefight) wrote in isleofavalon2021-05-14 06:49 pm
Once a Bat, always a Night Person [Open]
🧙 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! ]
⚔️️ 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! ]
no subject
Still, he smiles pleasantly as he cuts into the breakfast sausage again.
"It really depends. It can be a concern that techniques that are secret to the sect might be taught to outsiders. Within the many sects belonging to jianghu," Which whatever passes for real time, magic Google translate might interpret it as 'pugilist world'. quite a few of them consider the techniques passed down to be something guarded with their lives or are family heirlooms. A head disciple takes those secrets with them and some might worry they will teach others."
He takes a bite, chews and swallows. "Sometimes it's a matter of face. Some of them feel as if, if they cannot control their own disciples it reflects poorly on them."
Yun Yifeng says this all very matter-of-factly. Whether he agrees with it or not has never mattered. "And sometimes...since these disciples are family or as seen as family, their teachers and parents worry that they may actually be in trouble."
no subject
"I guess that makes sense... I think. And it's kind of sweet to think about someone calling in the CIA to find their missing kid." It escapes her for the moment that he probably doesn't know what the CIA is.
She tries to picture either of her parents going to such lengths for her. Her mom she could actually see pulling it off. Her dad? Maybe if he'd been replaced by a pod person. That thought leads her to Batman, and she remembers the lengths he'd gone to in order to retrieve his Robins. Excluding herself, of course, but she's too sleepy and steeped in the smell of coffee to fall into that particular hole of self-pity.
"Does your world have superheroes and supervillains?"
no subject
"The CIA?" He asks because, yeah. He has no idea what that is.
He cannot say if his own parents were or were not the type to do such things since he was an orphan but maybe some part of him hoped.
But hoping didn't have any practical worth, did it?
He tilted his head a little. "I suppose that depends on what superheroes and supervillains are.]
no subject
She waves off the question about the CIA. If he's going to talk to her at the break of dawn he's going to have to deal with some rambling.
"They're..." she pauses and frowns, realizing she's already messed up this explanation by calling them 'superheroes'.
"People with powers, super-powers, like magic, or aliens, that fight crime and protect people. Not usually legally, but that doesn't really matter when a meteor is headed for the planet. Or people who do the opposite. Not all of them actually have powers, though. And technically the aliens are perfectly normal for their own species... Really they're just heroes and villains, but those are pretty broad terms for a pretty specific thing."
Where was she going with this again?
"That just sounds like the kind of stuff that they might do if they found out about it."
Sorry for the late reply! Work was killing me.
As a professional, he would prefer an answer. But it is very early in the morning and he's not the sort to keep pushing things without any reason or money involved.
Besides, this whole superhero thing seems so much more interesting.
"Hm...that's a tricky question. To begin with, while what some disciples and masters of various sects can do resembles some forms of magic here, none of those abilities are inherently...super." He says the word as if the exact meaning of that word in this context was rather novel to him. "It's simply something anyone could learn with enough dedication. But as for fighting crime and protecting the people...martial arts sects do do that as does the government. However, it's not entirely correct yo say it's not legal." He lays his fork down to take a sip of tea. "The sects that are part of the jianghu and the government tend to not get involved with each other. Sects will deal with crimes and bandits in their territories which makes the government officials' jobs easier and the government manages the borders and stability of the country so those who are part of the wulin can focus just on improving their martial arts."
He touched a finger to his chin thoughtfully. "I suppose, by the metrics you mentioned then I suppose we do have superheroes? But it's hard to say as I'm still a little confused over the larger context of your world."
No worries! That was me week before last.
"I think that probably doesn't count. The heroes without powers don't fight like you could learn if you paid for classes, and they have all sorts of gadgets and gizmos you definitely can't buy at the store." You could buy some reasonable substitutes, but she did almost die that way because she didn't understand the physics of grappling wires.
"And the people with powers, there are a lot of them, but it's definitely not normal. I don't think it's really intentional, either. There are aliens, of course, but my understanding is a lot of them get their powers through unpleasant experiments or accidents. The secrecy is probably pretty similar, though.
"I guess they wouldn't be as close in a group of dozens as our heroes are in teams of like, 5. I'm pretty sure Superman, Supergirl and Superboy are literally family, too."
She takes a pause to drink some orange juice.
"I never really thought about how complicated it all is before."
no subject
He has some more idea of things where he is but he'd be a poor information broker if he didn't.
"Many sects tend to also be family and those that aren't tend to be close. Within a sect, those who study under the same teacher refer to each other as martial siblings and their teacher is akin to a parent figure while their teacher's martial siblings would be their martial uncles and aunts." He paused and looked thoughtful, "Though given how often people will poison or harm each other in order to take over the position of sect head it's debatable how important some of them sees these ties."
no subject
"How many of these sects are there? There are hundreds of heroes in my world, but that's really just individuals, not organizations."
no subject
Though all this is to say, there can be very many or very few. It depends on how you count them and whether or not someone cares to know them.
Also canon never says."Though I doubt they could be counted in the hundreds. If that were so, then that'd be enough for an army." And then the Emperor would have to take notice.
no subject
"So you're in charge of one of the big ones? I guess that makes you pretty important, huh?"
no subject
"Fengyu Sect is one of the major sects though our importance isn't defined by that. After all, everyone has times when they need something found." It was his way of ensuring the safety of the disciples under his care: as long as Fengyu Sect's services were important no one would touch them. "Though I don't particularly enjoy participating in inter-sect politics...to the disappointment of my head disciple."
no subject
"Does he have to do all that stuff instead?"
no subject
And that was one of the (many) endearing things about Qing Yue, the way that no matter how exasperated he got about things he would support him. He smiled a little fondly.
"Though, once I retire he'll be free to stretch his wings." He'll be interested to see what happens then.
"What about your family, miss?"
no subject
"It's just me and my mom, really. Or, it was. Dad's an asshole bank robber." She shrugs. She's had her whole life to figure out how she feels about her father, and the conclusion she's reached is that the less she thinks about him the happier she is.
"Mom and I were getting along better after he stopped coming home. But... she wasn't downtown when the dome went up. I've been living with my best friend this last year."
no subject
He knows what a robber is, but not a bank. Though perhaps there's never a good context for being a robber.
And he can relate, to doing better after getting certain people out of your life.
He took another bite of food, chewed and swallowed.
"My sympathies. It's terrible to not know what's happening with your family."
no subject
"It gets easier."
no subject
But easier is only relative. It's become easier for him since he left Mihuan Island and yet it will never be easy.
But she doesn't seem like she wants to talk about it, so perhaps a change in topic is needed.
"You certainly know a lot about those superheroes. Is that common knowledge or is it from personal experience?"
no subject
She blinks at him, trying to remember what all she's said already. Anything she shouldn't have? No, she's probably safe.
"Pretty common knowledge, I think. It gets talked about in the news a lot. I even remember running around the house playing Superman when I was little. I guess I know more than most people about the normal human heroes since they're mostly from my home."