metalogs | [OPEN/CLOSED] A Bird, came down the Walk

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[OPEN/CLOSED] A Bird, came down the Walk

Who: Jason Todd

robintohood and you!
What: Catch-all for May
When: April 28th to May 31st
Where: Central City
Content Warnings: Potential mention of death, PG-13 level violence, child neglect, and abandonment. Will add more warnings if needed.

Jason:

[It's a new month but unfortunately for Jason, he's wrung out already. The fight he had with his doppelganger on April 27th has left him feeling raw. He and the other Jason confessed and screamed at each other several very ugly things to each other, some of it was heard by both Tim Drakes.

Now there are questions swimming in his head. They're questions he doesn't know if he should be asking or even wants answers to. He doesn't know what to do with the emotional shrapnel the fight left behind. He's feeling incredibly uncomfortable in his own skin.

He knows he's too distracted to do all of his usual work so he decides to take a weeklong break from Descendant. People can still call and text him for any Descendant-related issues but otherwise, he won't be in the building. It's also because he doesn't know if he wants to deal with his brothers yet.

However, a lightened workload also means more time to think about the things he doesn't know if he wants to think about. This leaves him restless. Kind of literally too as his sleep schedule has worsened.

But he has to keep trucking along somehow. So during the day, you might catch Jason browsing at a library or a thrift bookstore. He keeps hovering at the classic literature sections and near the self-help books, unsure about what to pick]

Red Hood:

[The Society gave Jason a hit job and a deadline. He intends to build good favor with them so he and his gang can’t dawdle for long.

It's twisted but compared to other recent events, Jason finds the work almost a breath of fresh air. As far as he's concerned, the lines are clear and he knows exactly what to do. And after confirming the accuracy of the Society's intel, he now just needs to get a clear shot of the targeted serial killer.

It's evening and Jason's dressed in his Red Hood gear and perched up on a rooftop with a sniper rifle. He's staking out a seedy pool hall across the street from him. Meanwhile, a handful of his lackeys have taken their positions in nearby dark alleyways or are on standby with their motorcycles. They're all waiting for the serial killer and his crew to walk out of the pool hall.

Jason can't risk taking a shot yet as he and his gang are trying to avoid civilian casualties. Plus, the Society wants proof of his kill so he can't just shoot and run. He'll just have to be patient and wait. Hopefully nothing tries to thwart his plan]

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.))

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[Guy settles back away from the edge of the roof, sitting in a squat the way he might near a fire.]

I'm glad you didn't make me regret it. If you'd enjoyed that too much, I might have rethought things.

[Even with thinking this needed to be done, he doesn't like drawn out suffering. Even for those who are truly evil.]

[Stopping them is to protect others. Not to enjoy killing.]

Gloating and enjoying the thrill too much always come back and bite you in the ass later.

[Jason's speaking from years of dealing with Gotham's rogues gallery. How many villains chose to monologue instead of just finishing the job already? He himself has been guilty of this a few times but generally he likes to keep things pragmatic. Plus, tonight was about doing a guild job with a deadline. He and his crew can always celebrate later]

Thanks for the assist. This would've been a lot tougher to handle if we had to worry about crossfire.

[Since he's away from the edge of the roof where he can't be seen and is back in the shadows, he pulls the kerchief down to his neck so his face is visible. Expression and body language are important to his family. It's part of their basic communication. Keeping his face covered when trying to talks is something that feels rude, even if he doesn't expect this Red Hood to unmask for him.]

[His gaze goes distant.]

I've already seen too many innocent people get hurt. Even when I protected them, it was never enough. This is the first time I've actually been able to keep it from happening.

[So of course he was going to protect them.]

[He meets Jason's eyes again.]

Is this what you do? [He's curious.] I know there are people in this world that do different things. The ones that wear masks like you. Some protect people. Others hurt people.

Do you hunt the people that hurt people?

[Jason's back to studying Guy as he stares back at him. His body language relaxes in response. His hands aren't hovering near his weapons. The bat-hypervigilence is always on but he doubts Guy will attack him now]

Yeah. It's part of my job. It's not pretty but someone's gotta do it. Someone's gotta be the predator that picks off the other predators.

I've seen too many times what happens when nobody steps up.

[Bruce certainly doesn't]

So we got that much in common.

[It's absolutely a language Guy understands.]

That's what I tried to do in the other world. But you can't completely stop predators in a world where other predators who can control life and death want them alive again.

They usually brought them back. And when I died, they brought me back to kill them all over again.

[Doesn't that paint a lovely picture.]

Why do you wear a mask? Is killing predators like this against the laws here?

[Jason nods]

Laws don't always line up with doing what's right. It's why I'm not part of the Alliance. I gotta be careful to not get caught.

Sounds like you've gone through a lot of battles.

We don't have laws back home. Just beliefs. Right or wrong. Cruel or kind. The only laws I've known until now have said evil things were allowed.

[His voice brims with disgust.]

Including killing children.

[It's very hard for children to make it to adulthood where he comes from. Enough every adult he's ever known has been preoccupied with keeping their children safe because of it. His parents had kept him from falling in the tar and convinced him to leave. Grug and Ugga had fought hard to protect their brood, with Grug especially overprotective. Hope and Phil had put walls around the farm to keep Dawn safe, paranoid after Guy's family had died.]

[They invented agriculture to keep her from danger.]

[Children are honestly the most precious thing in his world.]

As for battles...they were real. But also fake. We fought for their entertainment. [His voice drops, husky with bitterness.] We were so lucky to be famous.

The law said that - and worse things - were allowed. They dressed up their cruelty in rules and systems. But laws mean nothing unless they actually say something true.

[They only mean anything if they align with good morals.]

This world doesn't do anything about these people? What happens when the Alliance tries to stop them?

[Jason quiet when Guy explains the previous world he was in. It sounds crueler than the one they're currently in]

Sometimes laws are just excuses to do shitty things to people weaker than the lawmakers.

From what I get, if the Alliance ever discover those kinds of battles, they would break up the rings and think they're done. But they don't have the stomachs to permanently stop that kind of cruelty. Not in the way I would do it.

[He's quiet for a moment, pondering something. Thinking about his place here and how he still can't control that he has to be here. Thinking about all the things he wished he could've done in Panem but couldn't.]

[All the people he'd wanted to stop. That he couldn't fight. That he just had to cower in fear from.]

[Some of whom made it so he couldn't do what his parents had wanted him to do.]

[("Don't hide. Live. Follow the sun. You'll make it to Tomorrow.")]

[Every arena he'd hidden. Every arena he'd died. Every day had been spent trapped in a darkness that stuck to his heart like tar. And every day they'd held him back from Tomorrow.]

[Because he'd come to realize that Tomorrow wasn't a place. Eep was his Tomorrow. Is. But they'd promised themselves to each other. It wasn't supposed to just be a short time, it was supposed to be every tomorrow after too. Every one.]

[So even now, even if the Alliance lets him visit home, he won't be able to just stay. Until there's a way home for good, his life will still be rent in two, partly in an alien place full of things that feel unnatural, and only partly at home. Some of his days with her will still be stolen from him. Some of her days with him will be stolen from her.]

[The only way to make this hurt less is for his time in this world to mean something more than it had meant in Panem.]

Has it been hard to keep it a secret from people? From the Alliance.

[He shrugs one shoulder, mock casually, raises an eyebrow, and adds sardonically.]

Because I could use a hobby.

[Jason's helmet hides the arched eyebrow he makes at Guy's question. Guy seems to be moving awfully fast for someone who just joined the Alliance]

I've adapted and have my ways. But I've been hiding for a long time now.

[For all his problems with his family, the Bat-Training he got as a kid remains very useful]

Why the quick change? Alliance failing to meet your expectations already? Besides the trips to home, they gotta be giving you other stuff too.

You say that like I bought into it in the first place. I'm used to saying what people in power want to hear. It's how we all had to survive.

They have things that are useful to me. Visits home, if they can make it work. I haven't seen my family, my mate [he briefly closes his eyes tightly and then opens them again, clearly pained] since I was taken.

[He looks down at the stone bracelet, fiddling with it.]

She and I had just moved into our own hut separate from our family the month before. We don't have marriage where I come from but if we did, we would have been...what do you call them here? Honeymoons? We were honeymoons.

[So yes, he'll say what he needs to for visits to see her.]

And they have the special money cards. It's not easy to get by in a world like this when you can't read and nothing is familiar.

[He knows he'd struggle even harder than most. He doesn't have a lifetime of familiarity with the culture, laws, and technology. He can easily be taken advantage of when he doesn't know what's fair to ask for work and can't learn things as easily since he can't just read them.]

But I don't think the way a lot of future people do and I don't think that's any different here. They overcomplicate things. And they're either too hard to be decent to others or too soft to do hard things that need to be done.

[He taps his chest.] You need a soft heart. [He taps his temple.] Hard mind.

[He holds out both hands, briefly causing them to waver and then steady, like scales balancing out. (He has never seen scales but at least knows how levers work.)]

Or there's no balance.

That's why I wanted to know how hard it is to keep it a secret so I don't lose the perks. If they really do believe in doing good, we have that in common, but there are right ways and wrong ways.

I don't trust systems so if they're relying on that [he lets out an expressive, extremely derisive snort that is pretty much caveperson for "Fat chance."]

Edited 2023-05-07 06:30 (UTC)

[Guy really is a good storyteller. Jason can say that much about him at least. Plus, for better or for worse, love can be a hell of a motivator for anyone. It's not hard to imagine someone willing to straddle between two sides for it. He's certainly guilty of it too. How much did he do for his adoptive father as a child? And then there was the agonizing pain when he learned Bruce didn't avenge his death after all. Heh. Love will make you do a lot of wild things.

After a moment of mulling over some things, Jason speaks again]

The Alliance believes in the appearance of doing good. They see nothing wrong with doing small things like stopping a purse snatcher and rescuing kittens stuck up in trees. Everyone eats up those kinds of stories. Makes the Alliance looks good.

But be careful if you question them too much. They like control too. They care more about how they look than doing long-term good. There's something else you need to know about their leadership too.

[Jason takes out his burner phone again and then pulls up video of Fantastic's speech from several months ago. It's the speech he made telling the Starfallen that they are soldiers, regardless of how they feel about going into a Confluence with unknown effects]

[When the speech starts Guy sits back out of the squat on the roof, fully engrossed in listening. As it goes on, and gets...very very bad, his eyes glitter slightly but no tears fall. It is the kind of near-crying that comes with anger brimming over. His fists ball up, he briefly bares his teeth with a huff that sounds like a threat. His entire body tenses, and starts trembling with barely contained rage.]

[And pain.]

[He really can't escape this, can he. This state of being. People constantly trying to make it so he's owned. When only one person really owns his entire self, the one that carefully holds his heart in her hands and only surrounds it with light.]

[Then the speech is over.]

[His throat is hoarse when he speaks.]

They keep doing this. There's always someone that keeps trying to make it so I don't belong to myself anymore.

[He needs to do more watching himself. When he's alone. To make sure everything this man is saying is true.]

[But...]

I understand appearances. I know how to pretend to be the image someone else wants me to be. They always want a picture, not a person.

[His expression twists into a mask of primal pain.]

But if I'm stuck here, I want to find a way to do something that matters. That's real.

[he draws up his knees and wraps his arms around them. At 5'7" he's already a little small, so it makes him look impossibly smaller. ]

I need to.

Edited 2023-05-07 16:59 (UTC)

[Jason softly sighs in sympathy. He recognizes Guy's reaction as one of exhaustion and frustration. He's certainly become reacquainted with those feelings recently. He gets it. Guy wants to make something good out of this trapped situation]

For what it's worth, you staying low tech could work in your favor. Phones and those "money cards" are how people can be kept track sometimes. I use them but I have to be careful about where and when to use them. And I'm always switching and using different phones and cards for different things.

[It is a credit to Guy's resilience that he can go from angry to nearly the point of tears to taking a deep breath and moving on. Trying to consider what's being said, trying to problem solve.]

[As his brows furrow in thought, he taps his fingers in a little twiddling gesture on his knees.]

I don't need to keep things with me. The card I can just use around the place I live for food. [His expression is confused.] And I don't see why anyone would need to take a phone everywhere.

[It's novel but not necessary. And the idea that it might have a map on it is totally off his radar. That's why he's been climbing buildings to get the lay of the land. He'd memorized the layout of the Capitol over time too.]

[Belt was always the better navigator but Guy used to be a nomad. If you don't have a good sense of direction as a nomad and the ability to navigate a landscape you're in trouble, especially if you have to backtrack to get around difficult terrain.]

So that just leaves finding the...whatever it is I can do. Which will take some time. [He pushes a hand against his hair, pressing his bangs out of his eyes. They fall back in place even messier.] Some of the things I learned apply here. Like they also have the - the videos and screens. And phones are like comms.

But it's like I have to completely start over in learning how things work. [He shrugs one shoulder.] So I guess that's step one.

[It's going to be a rough adjustment period. Again.]

[He looks up at Jason, eyes soft, expression grateful.]

Thank you, by the way.

Edited 2023-05-08 02:44 (UTC)

[It feels strange for anyone to sincerely thank him while he's the Red Hood, especially when they don't know his civilian identity. He's not exactly a good boy scout like Superman these days.

But he guesses it's a sign that Guy's genuinely finding him helpful]

You'll be doing me a favor if you keep staying out of the Alliance's way. Follow some stuff they tell you to do to keep a cover.

[It's concern, he thinks, the warning to keep a cover. Because he's taken time he didn't need to. Guy notices things like that, the things that matter as much as words. Or more.]

I will.

[Red Hood plowed past the gratitude, but Guy doesn't let him.]

Seriously, thank you. I would never have known how to find out about what that Fantastic guy said. And I've gotten into trouble before for not knowing something because I didn't even know to look. Or how to look backwards on the comm thingies.

You didn't have to take the time to warn me about all this.

Edited 2023-05-08 06:14 (UTC)

If this means one less naïve Alliance follower then it's worth it to me.

[Even though it's a risk talking to any Alliance member like this. He has to watch out for both guilds. Getting too chummy while bein a Society member could mean consequences for him]

You got any ideas on what you're gonna do next? Jobs?

[Guy gives him a slightly shrewd look at the insistence it's just to avoid there being more naive Alliance followers. Sure, the guy who wanted civilians to be protected isn't doing it just to be helpful at all.]

[But he doesn't say anything.]

[Instead he thinks about this whole "job" thing.]

Oh yeah. Those exist.

[He knows at least some Capitol people had them. He hadn't had to worry about it there when he was basically a slave. He thinks back to Capitol TV and the modern ways they talked about work and industry on news, lifestyle, and drama shows.]

[Even if most of the Capitolites lived a life of decadence and indolence, some had jobs in the various power structures that ran everything. There were shows about moving up and gaining greater power at jobs.]

Well, I figured I'd maybe just live off the card but if also having a job as a backup thing is a good idea, I am definitely trying to make a lateral move away from professionally dying.

[It's a very dark joke but sometimes it's laugh or cry. In a weird way, it feels good to treat it like something a lot less dire he can just casually walk away from, no more serious than a job.]

There fortunately doesn't seem to be demand for that here anyway.

Beyond that, I don't really know what I could do. Most of my skills involve surviving in the wilderness and nobody needs that here.

I guess I could maybe work on a farm? I live on one back home. Even if the animals and plants are...entirely different. And... the whole thing is pretty new so they probably farm differently here.

We're kind of still at ground level with farming. My parents' best friends were the ones that invented it.

["Invented" farming? Jesus, he really is very, very behind in the timeline]

Little Love is a farming community so you might luck out there. Might be good for you to learn about all the farming tech that's been made since your time.

And being a guild member means you have access to teleporters so traveling to and from there will be easy for you too.

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[OPEN/CLOSED] A Bird, came down the Walk

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