bodilesswarrior | TLV 1

TLV 1 - Video

[Barbara is sitting in her wheelchair, hands folded in her lap as she smiles wryly at the camera.]

Hey there, Barge. You've got another Warden. My name is Barbara.

Nice to meet all of you.

[Her smile fades as she leans forward, just slightly.]

I know a lot of you aren't here by choice. If it were up to me – [she shakes her head] - but it's not. We're all working with what we have.

That's no reason not to take the chance now that you've got it. A lot of people don't. And I'm here to help with that, if you'll let me.

[She leans back again, arching her eyebrows.]

So – these headaches. Is this a normal thing around here?

((Hell yes she's affected.))

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[We can thank Bruce and two years of living on the Barge for the fact that Dick looks utterly unfazed to see her here despite internally flipping out a little, because yikes. This is going to be. Interesting.]

Less normal than some other stuff.

[Barbara's eyes widen just slightly, only a hint of the utter shock she's feeling.]

No kidding. How long have you been here?

[He definitely doesn't seem like he just got here. And there's - there's something -

It's a ridiculous time anomaly, isn't it.]

[Well that's... something. At least she knows who he is this time, although again, he's learned that even that isn't really a good thing sometimes. He's used to being the one who's farthest behind in the timeline, and every time someone from back home shows up, he can't help but worry that there's some new thing he's got to "look forward to" waiting for him at home.

But he lets himself smile a little, even if some of the tension's not going way.]

About two years. What happened last, before you came here?

[Okay, she flat out stares at that one.]

Two years.

["Holy crap" feels like an understatement, so she just...slowly shakes her head. Yeah, that's an anomaly, all right.]

It - the Joker broke out of the Slab. We were rounding up the last of the criminals he infected.

[Oh. Well, have some staring right back. :|]

The Barge pulls people in from different points in the timestream, and sometimes from different universes. There are a lot of people we know on board, and most of them are from a couple years ahead of you. That actually happened a long time ago for me.

Ivy, Harley, Riddler and an alternate version of Crane are here. Ivy and Riddler are both inmates, Crane graduated and came back as a warden. Tim, Steph, Wonder Girl and an AI that works with Hal Jordan called Aya are here as wardens, and Supergirl and an alternate universe's Superboy are here as inmates, and [There's no use beating around the bush, really.] until about a week ago, there was another version of you, here.

[It's very rare that Barbara is left speechless, but she stares at Dick for long moments before she responds.]

Another me.

[It will be strange enough, she's sure, being surrounded by people from her future. She definitely has questions on that front - since when is there a Supergirl? How alternate is Superboy, that he's an Inmate? Crane really graduated? - but knowing there was another Barbara takes precedence. ]

...What was she like?

She was- [And he hesitates for a moment, trying to figure out how to really explain it.] Intense.

[There's no good way to put this, so he decides to go for just ripping the bandaid off.] In her world, her parents were killed when your dad intervened to help the Waynes. They took you in, and you grew up to, well [And lol this is so hypocritical right now. :c] basically be Batman.

She was here as an inmate. Her warden - Faith Lehane - is probably going to want to have words with you, and she's not really the most subtle person, so. Sorry about that.

[Barbara slumps back in her seat, eyes wide. She wouldn't be open with most people, but - it was always easier, with Dick, when she let it be.

She knows what it is to lose her parents. She's done it three times now. The idea of losing Dad - because she knows it had to have been Jim Gordon, who saved the Waynes - and of not just drifting from Barbara, but seeing her fall...

She takes a breath, deep and calming. She hasn't. She didn't.]

I - can imagine. What she'd be like.

[A bit terrifying, probably. A rueful little smirk quirks her lips.]

I'll...deal with Faith when it comes to it. [She frowns.] So - she didn't graduate? What happened, then?

Sometimes - [And he hates saying it like this, really, because it sucks that this is so much a part of life here that there's really no other option but to brush it off and keep going as if everything's fine.] People just vanish without warning. It happens to inmates and wardens, there's no real pattern to it, and allegedly the Admiral has no control over when it happens.

[You're getting an altogether different sort of stare now, Dick.]

So he's either incompetent or cruel.

Funny, that wasn't in the job description.

Incompetent. He's a terrible driver. The headaches right now are a side effect of a flood, which is basically a temporary disturbance with varying effects that range from waking up in the wrong body to not being able to lie. Occasionally we'll stop into ports, which can be basically a vacation on another planet or a catastrophe, and there's usually no way to tell which one it's going to be until you're actually down there, and sometimes we'll crash into the fabric of another reality entirely and think we've spent our whole lives as cowboys in the old west.

It's kind of a wild ride.

...That's one word for it.

[She didn't expect any of that coming it. But she can roll with it.

She peers at Dick, then.]

And you've been dealing with this for two years?

Just about. Tim's been here for about three. He's... older. [Compared to the scrawny little teenager you're used to. :c]

A lot's happened since the Joker broke out.

[Tim.

There's an aching, helpless sort of concern in her eyes, just for a moment. She knows Tim can defend himself just fine, but - she's supposed to be there to support him.

And he's been here for years.]

...I'm not surprised. It's never slow for us, is it?

Edited 2012-09-08 22:58 (UTC)

[And for most of them he's had Cissie and/or Dick around to make sure he's not doing anything stupid. :c]

No. But I mean he's like, physically seventeen. We don't really age here.

[Good. :c]

...Makes sense, I suppose. [As much as anything about this ship makes sense.] Disconcerting, though.

How's he been doing?

Fine. We're both fine. [Which... is kind of a lie, so hello again, increasingly irritating headache. Thank God Bruce taught them how to mask this kind of thing, right?]

Have you talked to anyone else yet?

[Barbara arches an eyebrow at that, but she lets it lie - for now.]

Steph. [A stunned sort of smile.] Batgirl, huh?

Yeah. Like I said, a lot's happened.

And apparently us being here and finding all this out doesn't irreparably damage the time stream.

It doesn't.

[And he hesitates for a good long while before asking:] How much do you want to know?

[Barbara pushes a hand through her hair, looking decidedly uncertain.]

I'm not sure, honestly. What was it like for you, learning about the future?

Hard. But I can tell you pretty confidently we figured out everything works out okay.

Good to know.

How's everyone back home?

That kind of depends on when you're asking about.

[But okay sigh you might as well just know since we all suck at keeping secrets here, and you're bound to find out eventually.] At some point in the future, everyone thought Bruce was killed in a fight with Darkseid, but he was really just lost in time. Tim figured it out. In the mean time, I was Batman and I gave Robin to Bruce's son, Damian, who apparently has been around basically this whole time but Talia waited until maybe a couple months from where I was before I got here to let us all know. Cass went to Hong Kong on Bruce's orders and gave Batgirl to Steph, Tim became Red Robin and changed his codename to Redwing recently, and eventually Bruce came home and apparently things are more or less back to normal. So, I guess everyone's fine, unless Tim's been lying.

... Between floods and ports, and people recognizing us from comic books and movies where they're from? A lot of people know the secret. We don't really go around telling people oh by the way, I'm a vigilante, but circumstances have made it so it's not really something we have the luxury of hiding anymore, for the most part. You'll probably be able to fly under the radar for a while, but as soon as you mention Gotham, people usually start making assumptions.

TLV 1 - Video

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