as a child i knew that the stars could only get brighter

[slingshots]

WHO: Jason & Carrie
WHERE: WHERE EVER JASON HAPPENS TO BE during this conversation
WHEN: Backdated to the 6th.
WARNINGS: none!
SUMMARY: ROBINSTALKING (that's the worst description ever i'm so bad at these let me try again) Carrie scoots to go intercept Jason so he doesn't get himself Joker-killed!
FORMAT: quicklog

[ She knows better than to announce that she's on the way. That's just not very good strategy. So she waits, instead, until she's close enough to tuck away her communicator and pay a visit in person.

She's only partially here to stop him, really. It would do the Joker some good to die. But it would also be a pretty damn selfish action, since he'd just show right back up again. No, more than that, she'd prefer to shape his apparent determination into an actual plan.

...It's strange to think that way about Jason, and she's not sure she likes it. But this one, she tells herself again, isn't exactly the Jason she's come to love. And she's not exactly using him, just... helping. Right. She takes a breath, and drops quietly to the ground behind him. ]

So what's that make you?

Comments

[secondrate]

[Jason's grinning to himself as he expects Dick to be flying around the city, trying to dig up his little brother before he goes to get himself killed. However, instead of being on his way to kill a lunatic, the vigilante is chumming it up in his apartment. One of the few things he's really bought since arriving is a good proxy, but he's still not too surprised when he hears the baby bat speak.]

Not a Bat, CK.

[He doesn't get up to greet her, keeping his lounging position in a torn-up armchair. What few other personal effects he has lay shattered on the floor against the wall. Someone lost his temper.]

[slingshots]

[ Well, at least he's not on his way out the door. She doesn't relax, and she doesn't look any less the-absence-of-cheerful, but she does move to take a seat on the arm of the couch and pull one knee to her chest. ]

Why? [ She's pretty careful, this time, not to give anything away in her voice. But man, she really doesn't like that spontaneous nickname. ] What're the differences?

[secondrate]

[Jason doesn't look over at her as he flips through his communicator and texting a few things on it. The life of a troll.]

There's all kinds of differences. I'm not about to explain them to you so you can go rat to Grayson about them.

[Needless to say, he still doesn't trust her one bit, especially with so many of his 'family' here.]

[slingshots]

[ There's no answer for a while. She wears no particular expression as she watches the floor, and even her body language isn't giving anything away beyond the obvious quiet seclusion. It's forgivable to hear that he thinks his methods are unknown to her. It's depressing to hear that he thinks she would go to Dick with whatever she heard from him.

She'd never told him, before, the steps she'd taken to be a little more like him. Maybe it's finally time. ]

When you were here before, you left for a while. Couple months, maybe a little more. [ She's glad that her voice doesn't give anything away either. It's low and measured, because these are words she knows. She's been keeping them unsaid for a pretty long time now. ] 'N while you were gone, there wasn't anyone around to take care of the people that need taking care of. Murders, dealers, all that. So, I did it.

[ She finally glances over, flat and calm. ]

There's not much you need to explain.

[secondrate]

[Jason turned slowly, eyes measuring her as he took her appearance. A Bat who did things his way. Maybe she wasn't so bad after all. He shifted and raised a skeptical eyebrow at her.]

Your first?

[It's a roundabout way of asking who the first person she killed was.]

[slingshots]

Fred Case.

[ One leg swings gently, heel knocking almost silently against the arm of the couch now and then. ]

Dealer with a bad habit of killing the guys what couldn't pay, as examples. My first was supposed to be a pimp, Shawn Darby, only I wasn't fast enough and my-- teacher finished him. [ a beat ] Miho. I mentioned her.

[secondrate]

[Jason purses his lips for a moment before standing up from the armchair, setting his communicator on the cushion he just vacated.]

Egon. [He gestures to himself.] Self-defense teacher, child slaver.

[slingshots]

[ She watches him closely, every detail. She hadn't known that. She'd never thought to ask. ]

How?

[ Hands-on? A distance, faceless kill? ]

[secondrate]

I knew I couldn't beat him in a hand-to-hand fight. Didn't stop him from trying.

[Pause.] So I poisoned his energy drink.

[slingshots]

[ A nod, and she's quiet for a few seconds. Obviously someone that needed to die, if he was both that skilled and that corrupt. But using him first, learning from him? That's kind of... admirable. She'll keep it in mind. ]

How old were you then?