metalogs | [open] sun's up, a little after 12

Entry tags:

dcau: jason todd

[open] sun's up, a little after 12

Who: Bette Kane

feathersandflames and you!
What: Bette is visiting Descendant Bar and Lounge!
When: Shortly after her arrival/the Confluence
Where: Central City
Content Warnings: N/A but will update as needed!

Bette’s used to staying in strange hotels in different cities. Not that the hotel she’s situated in currently is strange, but the circumstances she’s found herself in - falling through the sky, fighting a giant robot alongside Red Hood, and then finding out that she’s on some alternate, parallel Earth - some might call that a typical Tuesday, but it was a little far out, even for Bette. Still, she’s spent a couple of days acclimating herself to life here - or what life is going to be - and though she’s spent her days shopping and reading up on things that needed reading up on (and there was a LOT that needed reading up on) she’s also starting to feel the bite of loneliness. Ergo, Descendant. Red Hood had suggested this as a place to check out, and bars are generally where you go to meet new people, right?

Right.

She’s left her costume and weapons at home - she’s never really been one to wear her costume under her civilian garb, it bunches up in the wrong places and looks unflattering under the wrong fabrics - but with the slightly wide-eyed look in her sky blue eyes, it’s clear that she’s new here. She’s clearly looking around for a familiar face - any familiar face - as she approaches the bar and orders herself a Paloma.

Once she gets her cocktail, she’s going to wander around, check out the arcade machines on the second floor, maybe waft through the reading room, though she’s feeling a bit too energized right now to sit and read anything more serious than the latest issue of Vue or Elle.

How’s the visit going to go? She’s not sure, but she’s hopeful, and she’s excited to find out.

[OOC: Feel free to come across Bette anywhere in Descendant and say hi! If you have any other ideas, hit me up on Plurk or DM me!]

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Bette takes the tissue from him and gives him a feeble, mildly embarrassed smile. "No, you don't have to apologize. How could you know?" Out of everyone involved in this brand new mess of a situation, Jason was the only one who she couldn't blame. Back home, she only knew him as one of Bruce's wards, and sure, while it was weird that he'd like died and come back, that happened more frequently than one would think. So, weird? Sure. But not enough to raise any suspicions, unless she'd been playing closer attention to things, but she'd never had a reason to.

But Kate? Dick? Bruce?

That was a different story.

"There was another Flamebird for awhile, back when I was busy doing the tennis thing and taking a break from the costumed crimefight-y thing. Kryptonian. She could fly and had, like, fire-based powers or something? But that makes sense. I mean, I learned about the name from Superman. I just sort of co-opted it because I liked how it sounded." Granted, if the Flamebird was teamed up with Batwoman, it was good chances that it was another version of Bette. She could dream, anyway.

"I'm sorry, Jay. I...didn't meant to overwhelm you with my freak out? Finding out secrets about your family while on an alternate Earth just wasn't on my bingo card for today. Though new world, so maybe I need a new bingo card drawn up." She chuckles softly. "I know Bruce, Kate, and Dick from back home. You and Tim, only very vaguely, through what I've seen in the news, mostly, and Damian not even a little bit." Some days more than others - and especially today - it felt like Bette was family in name only.

“I don’t think I’m that much better than you in knowing our whole family. Or at least not by a lot,” Jason says sympathetically. He thinks back on when the Confluence first dropped him onto this version of Earth. It was a shock to him on multiple fronts, including learning about the Robins that succeeded him.

He leans back in his chair with his brow still furrowed.

“Part of it was because I was dead but also because in my Gotham, I was the last Robin,” he continues. “After I died, there wasn’t a third. Then I get dropped here and find out on day one that Bruce didn’t learn his damn lesson after I died. That was when I first met Tim too. Right after that, I found out about Steph and Damian too. I still barely know who Damian is. And Kate being Batwoman is news to me.”

"Steph?" There probably is a Steph on her world, but she has no idea who the hell that might be. Oh god. Wait. Was it that blonde Robin that ~~Batman~~ ~~Bruce~~ Batman had had for like a week?

"That sounds...like a lot to deal with. The dying thing, and the coming back thing. How did you deal with that? Because, I mean, I was in a coma for a few months and that's traumatic enough, but I can't imagine what your situation was like and I'm really sorry you had to go through any of that."

She pauses for a second and then adds, "From what I hear about Damian, he's apparently quite the personality. Which, again, makes so much more sense."

"I came back from dead because of someone else, not because I wanted to. But once it happened, that was that," Jason says. His face and tone are neutral, trying to downplay just how traumatic the whole experience still is for Jason. He usually doesn't like to talk about his psychological damage. He then shrugs his shoulders. "What's done was done. I still don't understand all the details to when it happened. I just knew I wanted to keep going."

"Do you regret that you were brought back?" Bette hadn't been ready to die, and honestly, if Uncle Jake hadn't visited her every day, she wasn't sure if she would have survived or not. She knew the doctors thought that she was a gone case, but Uncle Jake had thankfully held on to hope. "Like I respect the fact that you, like, came back and like...did this." She indicates the room around them, meaning Descendant in general. Wherever Jason had been before he died - whoever he'd been - it was clear that here, he's built something pretty damn extraordinary for himself. It's admirable.

“I don’t think about it,” Jason lies.

The truth is that when his mind goes to a dark place, he sometimes thinks about what it would be like if he had just stayed dead. Would he have been better off? Would his family have been?

But then he’ll pull himself out of it and just keep going forward as the Red Hood. It gives him a purpose and helps him not fall into utter despair over all the trauma he’s gone through. It’s like blinders on horse. Just focus on taking out criminals and have some sense of control to help people. Otherwise, all the suffering he had gone through would have been pointless.

“I just do what I can. And it’s not like Descendant was a solo project.”

"I'm sure you don't think about it as much as I don't think about my near-death experience." Which was to say that Bette still had nightmares about her fight with the Hook, and how he'd all but left her for dead. Honestly, if it hadn't been for the DEO trying to figure out Batwoman and Batman's secret identities, she probably would have died that night.

With the exception of Uncle Jake and Aunt Cathy - maybe Kate - she doubted anyone would have missed her. Or noticed she was gone.

"Solo project or not, don't sell yourself short. People like us have a bad habit of doing that. Keeps us from getting all evil and egotistical, sure, but it also robs us of our accomplishments. At least that's what my therapist said when I was feeling the imposter syndrome over my tennis career. I figure like the same applies here."

“‘Therapy?’ You really are the white sheep of the family,” Jason dryly jokes. It’s not a secret the Wayne side of the family could use counseling but the chances of finding a mental health professional who wasn’t going to be a supervillain were alarming low in Gotham. “And this isn’t me being humble. The way I do things doesn’t usually earn me friends. There’s a reason why you’ve been warned about me.”

"Between childhood beauty pageants, intensive tennis coaching, the early celebrity that came with being a teenage tennis wunderkind - at one point they were calling me the next Steffi Graf - I...needed the help. So I reached out for it, you know?" It wasn't like she could tell her therapist about Flamebird or the Teen Titans or anything, but there was other stuff that she had been able to deal with, and it had helped, immensely. "It's a safer bet in LA than it is in Gotham, where it feels like everyone except the Joker went to grad school before going evil." Which begged the question - did grad school turn you evil? Was she that intent on becoming Dr. Bette Kane one day? Maybe it doesn't matter anymore, here, now.

"It's the guns, right? The mysterious resurrection, the guns. I don't know about you, but where I'm from there are rumors that 'Red Hood' used to be Joker's old identity before he turned into the criminal clown he is now. I'm assuming - judging by the bar and who is and isn't allowed in (and unless they're armed, it doesn't seem like there's a whole lot of isn't) - that you're maybe tied to the criminal element a little bit?"

The way she says it, all brightly and easy, without any sort of judgement or disdain, is probably different from how other Bats and Birds have handled his connections. But she's seen how Batwoman has worked with the likes of Clayface and even tried to help Alice become more heroic as Red Alice, no matter how short-lived that was. Maybe it's not the way she'd do things, but he's from a different world - both literally and figuratively - and she sort of understands that. Or at least she's keeping an open mind about it.

At this point, Jason’s met several family members and multiple versions of family members from different universes. They all have different personalities and come from different backgrounds before becoming vigilantes. But Jason has also observed that something that’s been consistent between most of those family members is their lack of rejection of him despite knowing at least the general details to his work as the Red Hood. Apparently, Bette might be the newest addition to that group.

Jason still doesn’t understand why none of them have tried to get into a bigger fight with him. He had long wrote himself off as someone who can never be a “good guy.” He had already accepted that he was a criminal with a special agenda.

Jason keeps his expression and body language calm and neutral as he listens to Bette and as he responds.

“Not just a little bit. I was a full blown crime lord in Gotham,” he says. “Wrecked Black Mask’s shit and caused shit for the Joker and Bruce too. I knew what I was doing and I still don’t regret any of it. You’re better off controlling crime than fighting it. And yeah. I stole the Joker’s old moniker. I was trying to get his and Bruce’s attention. Didn’t see why I should ditch it afterwards. I still don’t.”

Edited 2023-11-19 01:40 (UTC)

"Are they trying to get you to change the moniker? Because believe me, I've tried it, and it doesn't always stick. I briefly went by Hawkfire, and it like so wasn't it." She takes another thoughtful sip of her drink. Even with the ice watering it down a bit, it's still good. Descendant clearly has a good staff on hand. "I think the most important thing is staying true to who you are. If that's Red Hood, then own it. Don't listen to all the noise." Though she already has a feeling that he wasn't listening to it.

"So how does this work then?" Bette asks after a moment. "You said Dick and Tim work here, but I'm assuming they aren't doing the crime lord thing. Is it about balance, them and you, or is it strictly a bat-brother thing that's keeping you together? And if I'm getting too nosy, tell me and I'll stop. I'm just curious. There's a lot of dynamics here I'm trying to understand...but mostly I think it's so cool that the three of you have managed to stick together here, too."

“I think we’ve managed to pull this off because we still got some shared goals,” Jason replies. “Descendant kinda works like the Iceberg Lounge. We’re in neutral territory so Central’s gangs can come here and talk business and do a little bit of business. The private karaoke rooms especially are good for that. As far as those customers know, we’re a business that’s not too scared of who we’re serving.”

Jason then vaguely gestures at the door to where the rest of Descendant is.

“What they don’t know is that the whole building is bugged. This is how we’ve been getting a lot of intel on Central City’s underworld. Getting a bar and using it for spying was Tim’s idea. He talked me into it because I had the resources to pull it off. And my own crime lord shit is separate from all of this.”

"Jason Todd, proprietor of Descendant. Red Hood, crime lord. But only a few know they're one and the same." That's her best guess, at least. "Not that you need my validation, obviously, but this is like a totally brilliant operation. I'm guessing you don't act on every piece of criminal activity that's discussed here, since it would be a conflict of interest with some of what you do, and also tip your hand about this place being what it secretly is?" This is something she may not have put together on her own in the before-coma-times, but training with Uncle Jake and the Crows had taught her a thing or two about surveillance. When she was paying attention, anyway.

She swirls the ice around in the cocktail's highball glass thoughtfully. It's a ~~Bat~~ Bird-run business, she thinks. God only knows how Dick's going to react when he realizes she's here. And hadn't Jason said something about a Batman...? That's going to be another bridge to blow up when she comes across it. Hi-Bruce-you-may-not-know-Flamebird-but-surely-you-recognize-your-younger-cousin-Bette?

But if time here the last few days has taught her anything, it's that she needs a place to ground her, a place to tie her to people in some way. It's not like she can pick up the phone and call one of her girlfriends or a spa day or something, not here. They don't exist.

"So, Jay. What are the chances that Descendant is hiring? Because I'd like in."

Jason smirks at Bette’s blunt question. He likes the attitude and so far it seems like they won’t have much trouble working together.

“When it comes to our family, I’m always hiring,” he replies. “Dick’s one of the bartenders and Tim’s a busboy. When Cass, the stitched-up Batgirl, was here she was a bouncer. Steph was a server. Most people who work here don’t know what we actually are but obviously family members and our closest friends and allies do.”

So far the current setup has served Jason and the others well. Jason wants to continue it.

“And yeah. We don’t act on every intel. It’d be a dead giveaway if every Descendant customer got arrested after visiting us. We just focus on the bigger fish.”

That took a lot less convincing than she had been prepared to give. She grins brightly. Was this what it felt like not having to fight for every inch of space and acceptance? "Actually the ninja Batgirl makes - made? - a lot of sense as bouncer. She's tiny, but she's tough." Bette remembers that much from the few times they've worked together in those giant group ordeals that seem to pop up once a year. "So, wait, what happened to Cass and Steph if they're no longer working here?" Pause. "Also, do you guys collectively get together and decide which intel to act on? Is there a whiteboard somewhere?"

“Confluences took back Cass and Steph a while ago. No one knows how that works either,” Jason says. While he’s glad they’re both back home, he still misses them. “And for intel, we trust each other’s judgement and keep each other in the loop. If looks like it’s gonna be a bigger operation, we’ll talk more but so far we haven’t had to over Descendant intel.”

Jason then points upstairs.

“The attic’s a safehouse by the way. It’s only for family and whoever we trust with our secrets.”

"These confluence things sound keen." It's snarky, but only in so much as she doesn't exactly love that there aren't answers for how it works - more so for the fact that she could suddenly get pulled back home. But she wasn't going to think about that. Not just yet. "The basement's not like a Batcave, is it?" It's a joke, but hey, you never know. "So what do you need me to do? It sounds like you're down both a bouncer and a server, and between the two, I'm like pretty sure I'd do better as a server?" She's watched 2 Broke Girls, she knows how to carry a tray.

Jason lightly huffs in amusement.

“Now why would I be that obvious?” He jokes while putting a hand on his chest in mocked offense. Though they set up Descendant to be relatively safe, it still wasn’t wise for them to cluster too many of their resources in one spot. “Nah. The basement really is just for storage. The building is Prohibition-era though so we got hidden doors and passageways. I’ll show you those later.

As for the job, I can always use a server. You can do part time or full time.”

"I was joking about the cave - mostly - but I do love a good secret passage!" As a child, she'd been convinced that Wayne Manor had housed them, but she'd never really been allowed to explore the few times she'd visited. (Though it was now dawning on her that there probably WAS a secret passage that at least led to the legendary Batcave.)

Given that most of the Kane family resided in the Diamond District, they were more high rise people than outskirts-of-Gotham-mansion people. There was a mansion belonging to the Kanes, but Bette had never visited it, and lately, they mostly stayed at her Aunt Cathy's mansion, which technically was more a Hamilton thing than a Kane thing.

"I definitely think I'll start out full time, at least for now? It'll give me something to like ground me while I get my bearings, you know?" Besides, working there was probably a better way for her to familiarize herself with Central City and its people than anything else. Even if it didn't pull in everyone - what place did? - it would give her enough to get a gist for the place and the people.

And being around some familiar folks definitely didn't hurt.

“You’ll definitely learn a lot once you deal with the customers,” Jason assures her. “Also, you can fight back if someone’s being an asshole. We’ve literally thrown out people before. Don’t be afraid to bust someone’s wrist if they deserve it.”

As important as it was that they all maintain civilian covers, it was also important that nobody think any of them were pushovers. Firm boundaries are necessary, especially given the kind of customers that visit Descendant. Not everyone was a criminal but there were enough to be on extra guard.

"My favorite thing to do is to scare the ones who think I'm a harmless, defenseless, blonde ditz," Bette laughs. "So it's good to know I can get punchy if they get handsy or something." Given that violence isn't usually Bette's first resort, she doubts she'll gain a reputation for being the ball-busting server, but it's reassuring to know she'll be able to defend herself if it comes to that.

Jason laughs as well. He’s witnessed other BatFamily members impressively defending themselves from a bad customer. It’s always entertaining.

“It’s a great way to flip what could’ve been a bad night into a good night,” he says.

"It's always fun seeing someone's face when they realize they've underestimated me. Don't get me wrong, I know I'm not Black Canary, but I can hold my own when I need to." She's been underestimated for a chunk of her life for many different reasons and the only thing it's ever done is push her to work harder, to improve, to prove her naysayers wrong. "Also, you know. Thank you, Jay. You've already taken a few chances on me since I fell out of the sky, and I really appreciate it."

“It’s fine. You haven’t given me a reason to do otherwise so far,” Jason says calmly.

He hasn’t thought of himself as a good person in a long time and it probably won’t change anytime soon. His work as the Red Hood is ugly and even his work at Descendant is partially for selfish reasons. However, Jason feels no regret in any of it. As far as he was concerned, it all necessary.

“I told the others that you’re around after we took apart the giant tin can. Nobody seems upset.”

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[open] sun's up, a little after 12

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