metalogs | [OPEN Mingle] If music be the food of love…

Who: Mingle post! Jason Todd (DCAU version)

robintohood is also available in a separate top-level comment
What: Valentine’s Day season at the Descendant Karaoke Bar and Lounge
When: 2/1 to 2/13, before the February game event
Where: Central City
Content Warnings: None for now. Will update if needed.

[It’s early February and even a place as gritty and tough as Central City isn’t immune to the Valentine’s Day mood.

If one visits the Descendant around this time of the year, one may notice that some of the Gritty the mascot figures are holding fake roses and Cupid bows and arrows. Don’t worry. They’re safe. Really.

In addition, there are two types of songs getting a ton of play. On one side you got romantic and sweet songs such as Truly, Madly, Deeply, My Heart Will Go On, and As Long As You Love Me. On the other side is quite the opposite. These songs about heartbreak. A lot of them also are blow-out torch songs. Classic hits such as You Give Love A Bad Name, I’m Still Standing, and Should I Stay or Should I Go are getting performed with at least as much enthusiasm as the love songs, if not more. Even mobsters sometimes have rough love lives and need to blow off steam.

So whatever your feelings are about Valentine’s Day this year, come drop by for a drink, some entertainment and maybe a bar game or two. Chances are, you’ll be in decent company. Besides, what else could possibly happen in Central City this month?]

((OOC: Mingle post before this month’s big event! Have fun. Jason’s own top-level is right here. 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.))

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Jason listens patiently. While he’s not the party type nor even the extrovert type, he knows Bette isn’t like him and he can follow where she’s coming from]

Here’s fine. It’s one of the safest spots in Central between all of us coming in and out of here and all the extra security we put on the building.

There’s also the new building Dick bought. It’s not done yet but it’s supposed to be like a Belfry for us to use and live in if we want to. The shindig could double as a housewarming party if the others are okay with that.

[Patience is a good trait to have around Bette, honestly. Even when she's low in spirits, she still somehow manages to talk a mile a minute.]

Might be nice to have, like, a centralized place for everyone to live at. Strength in numbers and all that. Kind of like a Melrose Place, but with superheroes.

[She was about to say "and a lot less drama", but they wore dramatic capes and masks, had dramatic superpowers, and jumped out to save the world. Dramatically. It was about the same amount of drama, really.]

That could be fun, too! Less of a thing for me to play hostess at, more of a thing for everyone to bond?

[Because that would be nice. The bonding. Or the attempt of it.]

Plus it might take the pressure off of everyone, to not be at a place that's also related to some worky-things.

[Granted, the Belfry would also eventually be related to that, but at least at first, it'd be something different.]

Gotta break in the new digs somehow, especially since most of us are short of a cave and a manor to brood in on this Earth.

[Though the penthouse Jason has been at with Dylan and Sleeper has been fine so far]

Just shoot Dick a text if you want. That’ll be your in with talking with the rest of the flock.

See, this is why I do the whole club-and-dance scene. Grab a mocktail, grab a cute person, and dance your worries and brooding away. And if that doesn't work...yeah, okay, sometimes you need a brooding space.

[There had been, after all, many a night where Bette had sat on the edge of her bed, hugging herself, looking down at her Flamebird costume, trying to figure out where she'd gone wrong. If she could ever go right. Those nights were the worst, and had led to many a midnight tennis training session with her automatic ball thrower. But she wasn't going to think about that now.

She sighs and lowers herself into a seat across from Jason. She's well aware that he's well unaware - or not, depending on how much Dick has told him, or if this is even the Dick from her reality or a reality similar to hers - of Bette's complicated history with Dick. Even more complicated, now that she knows that Dick Grayson and Nightwing - two separate crushes from two separate worlds - are one and the same.]

I'm not like usually at a loss for words - and I like usually never am around Nightwing - but this just feels different. More real and less real, you know? But I guess I can like break the ice by clarifying that I totally didn't like stalk him to an alternate reality. Which I'm sure he's like aware of, but still.

It wouldn’t hurt. He didn’t seem upset when I told him and the others of your arrival. If they can accept a dirtbag like me while knowing what I do, then they’ll be fine with you.

[As far as Jason knows, the others talking with Bette shouldn’t cause drama. Or at least not more drama than what happens with him sometimes]

Dirtbag's like a little harsh of a word, isn't it, Jay?

[She gives him a warm smile as she says it. Jason's gone out of his way to be kind and welcoming to her, even going as far as setting her up with employment in a place where she might not feel so alone and out of sorts. Dirtbags aren't generally known for doing that sort of thing.]

Not upset is a good thing. I like honestly don't know why I'm getting in my head over this. Different circumstances, I guess.

[Or just experience from a history of kind of being looked down on by people. She'll never entirely admit it outloud, but that does take it's toll on a person.]

I’ve been called plenty of worse things. “Dirtbag” is almost polite.

[At this point in his life, he’s numb to most insults]

Is it because you felt like you were kept at arm’s length before?

[It’s only a guess based on how Bette wasn’t told how many people in the family were also vigilantes like her]

Well, as long as we're being polite with ourselves.

[She's been called some unpleasant things in her own time - though maybe the one that hurt the most was 'Easy Bette.' She tries not to think about those days, but it's not always easy.

She sighs and nods her head softly.]

It's, like, ridiculous, I know. Everyone's got their secrets and their reasons for keeping their secrets. No one owed me anything, but I still...you know. It hurts that no one seemed to trust me.

Bruce’s part of the family was never the greatest at communicating, myself included. We still have our fights but I think right now most of us are trying to be better at it, if only because we’re stuck here.

[And ultimately, they do care about each other]

I can relate, the Kanes aren't particularly great communicators either. Kate tends to be as walled-off and broody as Bruce is at the best of times. Honestly, with that in mind, you'd think I would have put two and two together faster where Bruce as Bats is concerned.

[Then again, Bruce had been so good at playing the carefree playboy, and Bette knew so many guys who fit that sort of profile that she'd never given Bruce a second chance, beyond trying to figure out why he never seemed to care much for her.]

I think family's always going to fight? Usually, it comes from a place of love, which took me a long time to understand, but then I've seen how some families just...ice each other out and act indifferent, and that's like way worse. Not the sort of thing I'd ever wish on my worst enemy.

[Not that she HAS a worst enemy, but an arch-nemesis would be nice to have, one day. That's when you made it, right? As a superhero? When you got an official arch-nemesis?]

Sometimes icing the rest of the family out is necessary. Better than sticking around and having more damage done.

[Jason’s directly speaking from personal experience. Even now, he finds it strange he’s in contact with his family on this Earth]

Like, every time I've been damaged, it's been because I was iced out? Mostly emotionally, except for that one time where I was a little too too and then I was nearly killed, but I got better. And hopefully smarter.

[It wasn't like she was ever going to go toe-to-toe with someone who could slice her open again without proper preparation.]

Has it been hard for you? Letting this group in here? The fact that they're from different walks of multiversal life has got to help somewhat, right?

I’ve been making do. Sometimes the multiverse shit helps. Sometimes, it just makes things awkward. A lot of us have enough similar histories that feels almost exactly like home but then there would be curve balls we might’ve not been prepared for.

I was the last Robin in my world but obviously, that’s not the case with the worlds the others come from.

[It’s safe to say Jason didn’t take that bit of news well, especially as he found out the same day the Confluence dropped him off]

[OPEN Mingle] If music be the food of love…

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