Barbara Gordon (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
bodilesswarrior) wrote2014-07-23 09:53 pm
bodilesswarrior) wrote2014-07-23 09:53 pm
Entry tags:
27 - Voice
[Iris is dying.
It takes everything inside Barbara, every ounce of training and experience, to be still. She knows she'll be too late. If she goes bursting in without knowing the situation, chances are high she'll just die next.
She knows better than that. It's not what Iris would want.
So she stays in her tower. She maps the way to Jack's cabin in her head, and she gathers her weapons, and she waits.
She's just about to make her own call - to the people she trusts most - when she gets Iris' message. When her heart sinks and bile fills her mouth.
She will not feel guilty or foolish or afraid; there's no time.]
[Voice]
[Barbara's voice is low and grim, betraying none of the rage or grief she feels.]
Jack killed Iris. I don't know why, not yet. She's in his cabin; he might still be there, he might have left.
There's something wrong with Mason - drugs, she said. Not sure how it's connected.
[A slow, deep breath.]
The laughter. The warped mirrors. They might be connected, too. They might not.
Either way, you need to stay on your guard. Look out for each other. Iris might not be the first victim, and she probably won't be the last. That's how the Barge is.
[Private to Cain]
You got one too, right?
[Private to everyone Iris is close to]
[She switches to video for this. She figures she owes them that. Everyone else that Iris loves.
There are no tears streaking down her face. Instead, her lips are curled in a fierce snarl, and her eyes are blazing. Still, her voice is steady.]
No one go out half-cocked. We don't know what we're dealing with, not yet, and the last thing she'd want is you getting yourselves killed.
[Private to Motorcycle Boy]
[Back to voice! Hoarse but calm.]
Harvey may be missing. Have you talked to him lately?
It takes everything inside Barbara, every ounce of training and experience, to be still. She knows she'll be too late. If she goes bursting in without knowing the situation, chances are high she'll just die next.
She knows better than that. It's not what Iris would want.
So she stays in her tower. She maps the way to Jack's cabin in her head, and she gathers her weapons, and she waits.
She's just about to make her own call - to the people she trusts most - when she gets Iris' message. When her heart sinks and bile fills her mouth.
She will not feel guilty or foolish or afraid; there's no time.]
[Voice]
[Barbara's voice is low and grim, betraying none of the rage or grief she feels.]
Jack killed Iris. I don't know why, not yet. She's in his cabin; he might still be there, he might have left.
There's something wrong with Mason - drugs, she said. Not sure how it's connected.
[A slow, deep breath.]
The laughter. The warped mirrors. They might be connected, too. They might not.
Either way, you need to stay on your guard. Look out for each other. Iris might not be the first victim, and she probably won't be the last. That's how the Barge is.
[Private to Cain]
You got one too, right?
[Private to everyone Iris is close to]
[She switches to video for this. She figures she owes them that. Everyone else that Iris loves.
There are no tears streaking down her face. Instead, her lips are curled in a fierce snarl, and her eyes are blazing. Still, her voice is steady.]
No one go out half-cocked. We don't know what we're dealing with, not yet, and the last thing she'd want is you getting yourselves killed.
[Private to Motorcycle Boy]
[Back to voice! Hoarse but calm.]
Harvey may be missing. Have you talked to him lately?
[private]
She can deal fine with Iris being reckless, taking risks. That's who she is. That's who Barbara fell in love with. But this time - it wasn't a risk, she had no reason to be afraid, to be cautious. She was just seeing a friend.
It makes Barbara feel sick and helpless and small.
When she speaks again, her voice is harder, stronger, fuelled by desperate determination.]
We can work on preventing it, though. For everyone.
Re: [private]
I'd love to know how. Even I stopped thinking of him as a threat.
[It's a peculiar thing about Barbara that she can be such a strong motivator. Like this, for instance: Cain is exhausted with it all; but that Barbara can be even moreso, and still soldier on, keeps some part of Cain in line. Barbara Gordon is somewhere between inspiration and a charged cattle prod, really.
Not, of course, that he will ever say so to her or even to Iris.]
[private]
That's the point, isn't it? We can't think anyone isn't a threat, even the people we love most. Not here.
We need to stay prepared. Always. Protection, weapons, backup.
Re: [private]
[It's the same philosophy he lived by at home, but it seems wrong to carry it here.]
...Let's find the Joker, keep people safe. After this is over, we'll pick this subject back up, all right?
[private]
I hope people listen to me when I tell them to just shoot him.
Re: [private]
[Heh. Well, Cain can smile at that.]
I hear you loud and clear.