[OPEN/CLOSED] We've gotta hooold on~ To what we've got~

[robintohood]

Who: Jason Todd robintohood and you! And special closed prompts with Jason Todd (reneger), Sleeper (solo_sleeper), Bucky Barnes (deadthenred), and Tim Drake (overlyprecocious).
What: Various antics Jason’s gotten into. Some are more legal than others and might be related to pod people.
When: Second half of April
Where: Central City
Content Warnings: PG13-level violence in the closed prompts. Will add more warnings if needed.

Descendant:

[It’s early evening and the Descendant Bar and Lounge is open as usual. However, compared to most nights, this night and this entire month has been kind of quiet. There aren’t as many customers and the ones who do show up sometimes leave early. Jason knows it’s because of the alien worms but business still needs to continue somehow.

He’s still doing what he can whenever he’s working as the bar’s owner. He’s attending to customers (especially the VIP ones), serving drinks and food, checking on the reading room, and sometimes has to step in as part of security to throw out a rowdy customer. Sometimes, he’s literally throwing them out. It’s good exercise.

Coincidentally, songs like “Another One Bites the Dust,” “Livin’ On A Prayer,” and brave attempts at “Bohemian Rhapsody” can sometimes be heard from the second floor’s stage]

This shit better not be prophetic.

[Regardless of what Jason’s doing, come talk to him. He could probably use the break]

Warehouse raid (Closed to the other Jason Todd, Bucky Barnes, and Sleeper):

[Ever since his other self told him he successfully robbed the D’Amicos, Jason sought out more of their bases with his gang. After all, it’s not often he gets a chance to further weaken a mob that was still recovering. After many nights and a lot of hard work, Jason soon enough found the perfect base to rob. He’s even going to have backup for tonight.

It’s nearly midnight and Jason’s at the edge of Central City, perched on the rooftop of an old brick building and fully dressed in his Red Hood gear. He has a plan and he trusts the rest of the party enough to not screw up the raid.

But as Jason stares at the warehouse a block away from him, he can’t help but frown under his helmet]

Another Productive Night (Closed to Young Justice!Tim Drake):

[It's another Central City evening and Jason's deep in his gang's territory as the Red Hood once again.

There are three motorcycles parked outside of an auto repair shop and the building’s lights are still on. Suddenly, there’s a loud commotion as Jason drags out a man and then slams him against the wall. He then pins his victim by having his forearm pressed hard against the man’s neck]

You were warned, Benny.

[As Benny struggles to breathe, two more men come out of the building. Both are in motorcycle helmets with the visors down to cover their faces and wearing gloves. One man has hands as large as a gorilla’s. Neither of these two men seem disturbed as they watch Jason begin to pistol whip Benny across the face]

Wildcard:

((OOC: Got something else in mind? Hit me up! I always welcome new CRs as well. My contact information is on this journal's profile and I'm in the game's Discord server. Feel free to contact me with any questions or concerns as well. I also have a feedback post.))

Comments

Descendant

[deadthenred]

[ The crowd tonight is thin, but it wouldn't've been hard to find Jason even if it wasn't. The kid is everywhere, and there's at least a passing resemblance to the Jason he knows. Younger, though, not by much.

Bucky basically missed the 80s, and so ballads from the era all sound the same to him. It's a funny thing, but sometimes you can't hear lyrics unless you know them already. So the omens are lost on him. All he can tell is someone's having a hard time hitting the high note. ]

Jason? [ He says it like it's a question, but it isn't, really. ] I'm Bucky Barnes.

[ He's wearing his sleeves down, but no gloves, so Jason can see the metal arm if he cares to look. ]

[robintohood]

[Jason sees that metal arm and nods. Since his older self's arrival, Jason's been anticipating people he didn't know knowing him. He also knows his older self must be having similar experiences]

Nice to meet you. We got some mutual friends I'm guessing.

[It's a light crowd tonight but there are still witnesses. Jason's keeping his tone casual as if he's being friendly to a new friend but he's also assessing and trying to get a read on Bucky.

The metal arm is interesting and Bucky looks like he could handle a fight]

Can I get you anything?

[deadthenred]

[ He raises an eyebrow, but it is a bar, after all. It'd be suspicious if he wasn't drinking. So he sits down on one of the stools. ]

Whiskey, up.

[ He knows Jason is sizing him up, and catches him glancing at that left arm. To his credit, Jason doesn't stare. Bucky is used to stares. Those are useful, it's why he doesn't cover it up in uniform. But he isn't in uniform. Bucky isn't even armed, 'cause he didn't come to fight, and he wonders if maybe that was a mistake. The Jason he knows always comes to fight.

So he uses his polite voice. ]

You can ask about it if you want.

[ He's not sure what the other Jason has said about him, if anything. ]

[robintohood]

[Jason goes to prepare Bucky's drink]

How fancy is it?

[He's taking a guess the alloy is more than just metal at least]

And how long have you known our mutual friend?

[deadthenred]

Fancy enough that my supplier'll be cross if I trash it again. You need a way to jam metal detectors. [ Which has other, obvious benefits he doesn't think he needs to explain. ] The earlier versions didn't mix well with alcohol.

[ Something about neural receptors. Not that his Soviet handlers wanted him drinking, anyway. ]

I'm not an android or nothing, I just blew my arm off when I was about your age. [ He likes being able to drink. That's the best thing about not having the Super Soldier Serum. ]

And I've known our friend about a year. I was trapped in the same place he was, before this.

[robintohood]

He told me a little bit about that. Hell of a place it must've been.

[Along with other versions of Jason he was told about. That was depressing]

You've worked with him before?

[deadthenred]

[ He nods. ]

We had to. [ Thinking back to a conversation he had with the other Jason earlier, he adds: ] Organized crime isn't usually my beat, but I'm not a rookie.

[robintohood]

I would hope so.

[Jason pours Bucky's whiskey in a tumbler and slides it forward to him]

They're not small-timers who just shake down people for chump change.

[Jason's assuming his other self has given Bucky some of the details to their plan]

Though rumor has it, they've been a little shaky.

[deadthenred]

That can be dangerous.

[ He takes a sip of his whiskey. ] Won't just be you lookin' to knock 'em off.

[robintohood]

[Jason smirks]

Me? I'm just a business owner and concerned citizen. You probably know how these things work. The bigger someone else, the more people there are looking to knock'em down.

[deadthenred]

I think the saying is, the bigger they are, the harder they fall.

[ Bucky takes another sip of his whiskey. ]

[robintohood]

That too. What kinda work have you done anyway?

[Bucky said organized crime isn't his usual thing so Jason's thinking about maybe soldier? Mercenary?]

[deadthenred]

I've been a lot of things. [ Assassin, superhero, space spy. ] Before I got caught in this extra-dimensional crap, I was trying to extract people out of bad situations.

[ He raises an eyebrow at Jason. He knows a lot of the other Jason's personal history, but that doesn't mean he knows where this guy has been. ]

When I was a kid, people called me a sidekick. I always hated that word.

[robintohood]

[Ah. That would explain how the other Jason is possibly friends with Bucky. Bucky mention losing an arm earlier. Was it during his own time as a sidekick then?

There's only a slight pause before Jason responses]

It's not a great label. Makes it sound like you were some tagalong kid in a costume.

[deadthenred]

Like friggin' Rin-Tin-Tin.

[ They made it so much worse in the newsreels and on the posters telling everyone to buy bonds. That part of how they pitched it, of course: every kid had to do their part for the war effort. Everything about war had to be glossed up so people could talk about. ]

[robintohood]

[Jason snorts. Comparing being a sidekick to a dog isn't entirely wrong]

So were you a good boy and did your part? How tight was the leash?

[deadthenred]

[ His tone brightens, like some echo of an old radio ad. ] Aw, shucks. We all gotta do our part, don't we?

[ He finishes off his drink, the glass making a thud on the counter. ]

It was tight, but probably not like how you're thinkin'. [ He recalls something about how the other Jason was under a strict no-kill order. ] I was good at it, by my reckoning, but there was no one to compare me to.

[robintohood]

What about the guy you were partners with? What was he like?

[Because if Bucky got called a sidekick, then there was the main guy everyone paid attention too as well]

[deadthenred]

Cap? Just about the best person who ever lived.

[ He means that genuinely. ]

The kind of guy who could turn scared kids from Oklahoma into men ready to die for each other, just by talking to 'em. The kind of person who makes you wanna be better than who you are.

[ And the kind who you'll never live up to, no matter how hard you try. Bucky knows, because he's tried. ]

[robintohood]

[Jason quiet as he listens to Bucky talk about Cap. It's a different kind of description than if one were to try to describe Batman. Or maybe it's just Jason's being biased given his personal and painful history with him. But he can recognize what an genuinely positive impact Cap must've had on Bucky]

Sounds like a real boy scout.

[It's not a mocking tone. He's trying to be respectful. Jason hasn't forgotten how good it used to feel to be part of a dynamic duo]

Those kind of people are rare.

[deadthenred]

That's true.

[ On both counts. And Steve was a positive influence— Bucky was an angry kid who needed a purpose, and Cap gave him that and a best friend. ]

No sense of humor, though. [ A pause. ] So. What was your guy like?

[ He's not gonna press if Jason doesn't want to answer, or disbelieve, necessarily, if he denies it. But it seems cheap to Bucky to pretend he doesn't know a version of the Jason Todd story, at least. ]

[robintohood]

[There's a short pause as Jason starts to make a whiskey for himself]

How much did our mutual friend tell you? From what I got, our stories are nearly identical. I was a lost kid who needed a home and guidance. For a while I had that. Technically my guy had a sense of humor too but I was always the one making the jokes.

[After all, Batman is meant to be a figure of fear. Robin on the other hand, brings a different kind of energy to the fight]

[deadthenred]

Almost everything. [ About dying, being brought back to life somehow. He kept real names out of it, though. ]

But I guess I wouldn't be able to pick out the missing pieces. [ Not like he can run a name through a database, here. ]

[robintohood]

Kinda surprised he's said that much.

[Then again, other Jason did say he's had his own share of adventures so maybe it's not that far off he would make some decent friends]

I didn't know about having younger siblings until I got here. That seems to be one of the bigger differences between us.

[deadthenred]

Yeah. I don't have siblings. [ He has to correct himself— ]

I mean, I got a little sister. But it's not the same thing.

[ He is trying to be polite so he's not calling the Batfamily a cult. But when someone described it to him, the thought it sounded like a cult. ]