just a city boy

[overrate]

WHO: Jason Todd (the smaller one) & you
WHERE: Throughout New Amsterdam
WHEN: Feb 11th on
WHAT: Catchall post to catch Jason as he's getting to know the city and tracking down investigation threads.
NOTES OR WARNINGS: None right now.


i. food troubles

[ so he'd been living at wayne manor for about a year, and titans tower for a couple of months. so he had gotten used to being somewhat liquid. but now he was right back to having money issues, and even worse, if he wanted to blow that money on something fast, cheap, and easy for food, he was staring down some really hard choices.

meat? gone. even cheese was questionable. forget having easy favorites like mac and cheese, or a hot dog, or burgers. he was reduced to fries, and often they were soggy within five minutes of purchase.

not ideal. but at least he'd quickly learned to identify who a "local" was, versus, you know. the displaced. so, first question, ]

Hey, you been around for awhile? And are you from Earth?

[ he picked up something from Jyn. ]

ii. investigation time

[ he'd heard the soldiers were brainwashed. and while he already had a chip on his shoulder about cops being functionally useless? this really drew his attention in. where he's not hunting for a new place to crash, or trying to find decent food in this new hellhole, he's trailing the UNA soldiers.

There's a healthy enough distance between him and them-- enough to follow along as they did their routes. he wants more information about them. and how they operate. but that doesn't mean that even if he's focused on not catching their attention, it doesn't mean he won't catch someone else's. ]

iii. hideout troubles

[ despite everything, he does need to find a place to stay. but whereas most people would look at actual apartments, he's looking.. you know. at abandoned spots. sneaking in and out of them after he makes a decision.

honestly, he may in fact be breaking in to some. ]

locked. for kate

[ he has the knife that the other him gave him-- and a couple more he bought with some of the "allowance" that had been given to them. now it was just time to get the lessons. he knew how to throw a batarang, but he could always be better, right?

besides, minor annoyance aside, kate was fine. he was mostly fine with her. she didn't do too much comparison between him and his alternate self. so he texts her. under the UN robert.plissken because of course he does. ]

hey, it's jason. you still up for knife throwing lessons?

locked. for loki

[ he had his USB. there was a part of him that very definitively did not want to give it back, because that felt like the kind of lesson worth teaching. don't give people stuff and expect it back. but the only thing that really changes his mind is that he realizes the alternate lesson is: don't trust me. and he doesn't know if that's a lesson he wants to teach.

maybe a year and a half ago, but now? now he actually kind of wants to be seen as trustworthy. or at least someone you can count on. but it's still annoying, because now he has to go out of his way to return this USB, because he has no clue where Loki lives.

grudgingly, he sends him a text. under the UN robert.plissken, because, well. he refuses to be jason.todd2 or some bullshit like that. ]

i have your usb still. where do you want to meet?

Comments

food troubles

[resleeves]

Yeah. And nope.

( he's feeling generous today in that he answers the questions honestly though doesn't provide a lot of detail because of course he doesn't. instead, he smiles at the tiny person who'd asked him the question. )

Who's asking? And why?

( he's been here too goddamn long and he doesn't want to be anymore but it looks like he doesn't have a fucking choice. )

[overrate]

Trying to find some actual good food. Or, you know, at least a place that doesn't have soggy french fries.

[ he offers a shrug and tosses the bag of half eaten fast food into the closest garbage can. then he continues. ]

Some chick asked me if I was from earth, so I assume that's the barometer for "people who care."

[resleeves]

I wasn't born on Earth but spent most of my time there.

( harlan's world was nice, peaceful but it wasn't where things happened. he still misses it. )

Why don't you come with me, Junior? I can get into some places you can't.

( because he was some goddamn fake fucking artist who everyone suddenly revered so he could do almost anything he wanted to do. )

[selfimage]

[ it was less about getting the flask back, but more about what Jason decided to do with it. Loki was curious, really, what kind of person that he was, and what kind of person he wanted other people to think that he was. the flask itself was something that was replaceable, but impressions of this particular Jason were not.

when he receives the message he's at work, delegating a few new tasks to the business team at Tempo.

instead of replying he sends a location pin: it's in the business district a little ways off of Pular's deliberately phallic skyscraper (but it's not surprising, since the company itself that he transferred to was a subsidiary). it's a nice little cafe that's buzzing with people taking a break from their jobs, dressed in some business casual, looking sharp for this part of town. Loki's waiting at a table in a dark suit without a tie and a pair of nicely fitted jeans. it makes him look less stuffy and more like be belongs.

but he's always been good at blending in and not really belonging anywhere. ]

They let you out.

[ with an easy cadence and a tilt of his head as Jason approaches. ]

[overrate]

[ this wouldn't be out of place in the financial district in San Francisco. or in the nicer parts of Gotham, well below the streets he tended to stalk. he just has the clothes that his counterpart gave him. far more casual than anything the people taking a break were wearing. almost like a student, with the backpack he was using to carry what few belongings he had.

he doesn't want to necessarily sit down. he doesn't want to have to acknowledge the fact that there is another him here. that that other him has friends. and that those friends had given him charity-- even charity he thought was plenty ill advised.

After Loki speaks, he pulls the flash from his jacket pocket, and places it on the table, his palm flat, and then pulls back. ]

Yeah, they did.

You shouldn't just give people cash like that.

[ there was a time he absolutely would have taken everything from it. but this time, it was only just taking slightly more booze than was necessary. he hikes the backpack up. and steps back. ]

[selfimage]

[ there's a glance to the flask and then back up to Jason's face. Loki unfolds his legs and sits up a bit in his chair, as if something had stirred him from lounging. ]

Do I get a lecture?

[ there's a look on his face that says he kinda hopes he gets a lecture.

with dark nails he makes a motion toward one of the chairs at the table, not yet moving to take the flask. ]

I'm not going to meet you at a cafe and not offer at least a plate of unfortunate alternative breakfast meats.

[ there's a little more now that he's talked to Jason about Jason, but it does put him somewhat in the thick of it. while both Jason and Loki ran their personal business on the side, it was rare that the two of them couldn't resolve their issues independently. Loki didn't usually step in unless it was profoundly necessary, he trusted Jason to resolve his own problems.

here, though, it hit too close to home. here, it crossed. he's not sure he could leave it alone, or that Jason should be left alone. ]

III

[unlucky7]

[Abandoned buildings are ripe with possibilities. A few have too much structural damage to work as a safehouse, but still have viable nooks and crannies to work as viable dead drops. They're viable as material sources too. An open mind is everything.

Ginia walks through the third floor of an abandoned building. It must have been a store on the bottom floor, office or other open floor plans on the higher levels. There's signs of a fire, water damage too, though it's not too old either. The results of the EMP perhaps. She carries a length of rebar in her hand, using it to poke ahead where the floor looks a bit too worn or to dig under and pry off usable metal salvage. Her steps are quiet, pausing every few minutes to check for additional noise.]

[overrate]

[ of course, leave it to him to break in, pushing the door open that had been jammed and blocked with debris. just enough to get inside. sure, it had been a long day, and sure, he was definitely planning out where to crash for the night. but he wasn't exactly being quiet.

because who needed to be quiet in an abandoned building?

he starts out on the first floor, and moves from there.

he's not quiet, or really caring about his movements all that much as he looks for the best spot to crash for a bit. ]

[unlucky7]

[Ginia sits back as she picks up noise from the lower floors. Her grip on the rebar tightens as she marks out the doors and windows. She's not looking for a fight and there's a hunch the other occupant isn't either. It's footsteps, the bang of doors as they're forced against the rubble, the movement of someone looking for something but not caring if anyone else notices.

She's close enough to bolt for a window, climb her way back down. It's how she got in anyway. Ginia continues to track the noise, moving toward the entrance of the office she's rummaging through. When the other person seems like they're on the same floor, she whistles sharply twice. A fair warning.]

—food

[webshoots]

[ peter's had a little more time to adjust to the swift change in diet being here has brought, that doesn't mean he's entirely happy about it, it just means he's had a little longer to be disappointed. that aside, spotting a displaced isn't the most difficult thing in the world, especially when they're opening with questions about how long and earth.

he's decided that as far as something close to a taste of home goes, burritos are the best option — veggie option, obviously, since meat is a no-go. ]

—No. [ it's been a couple of weeks. it manages to feel a lot longer, something peter's putting down to a degree of homesickness and the slightly off-kilter feeling he's had since arrival thanks to not having his spider abilities. proportionate strength of peter benjamin parker doesn't really amount to a whole lot. ] And yeah, New York. Twenty-nineteen, since that's probably a little more relevant, right? [ beat. ] —Why?

[overrate]

Trying to figure out which of these food carts are actually worth a damn.

[ hey, same year. and new york. so this guy should understand exactly why he's complaining. sure, bugs, protein, whatever. didn't mean he had to like it. didn't mean he had to like the status quo. ]

So, did you decide to go totally vegetarian or are you living it up in this eco-friendly shitshow?

[webshoots]

I don't know if choice has a whole lot to do with it. [ peter half-admits, half-grumbles. as long as the food tastes good, he's not going to complain, but it turned out that finding something that tasted good was a whole lot easier said than done. vegetarian's fine, theoretically, and he's asked only enough questions about what the food entails so as to be sure he shouldn't be totally horrified.

a breath of a pause. ] But I'm still working on that question. So far, I've managed to work out which ones are 'okay' and which ones are 'avoid, absolutely'.

[fledges]

[Kate is a little relieved when Jason texts her, actually. It means he hasn't done anything stupid yet. Or at least not anything irrevocably stupid. Right?]

I'm at your service, Mr. Plissken.

[overrate]

[ as far as he knows, he's been a total model (?) citizen. granted, it's only been a matter of tailing soldiers and breaking into abandoned office buildings. all totally benign things, right? ]

don't know if you've got a spot you like to practice at
but otherwise, i've found a few places that might work?

[fledges]

I went missing for a few months, so all of my places might be gone. You can take the lead.

FOR GENE

[overrate]

[ it feels weird to have access this easily to the bars. he'd always relied on fake ID's or just straight up sneaking inside to get in-- especially after his Uncle Ray died.

mostly, he wants to see what the future looks like from that perspective. if it really has any connection to home, because absolutely nothing else does. besides, if it was like home, that meant he could steal drinks easily enough and not have to pay a cent, digital or not, for them.

so of course, he'd bump into Gene, first thing. ]

Hey, watch it--

[ he starts out aggressively when he bumps him, and then stops when he realizes who it is. and how that doesn't work. ]

Oh. Hey, Gramps.

[preseance]

( bars are a markedly different affair in his day. the lion's share of his experience was in europe, where cold drinks weren't hardly the order of the day. he got used to drinkin' his beer warm, which is maybe why he ain't ventured a drink yet of the frothy mug he's got in his hand. jason bumps into him, an' gene curls his arm around the beer protectively so it don't slosh down his front before he clues into the fella himself. then it's just a wry smile. )

You gon' run into me every time you see me? I got magnets in my pockets or somethin'?

[overrate]

No.

[ look, he just has a lot of anger. but also, this time, it was definitely an accident. probably. ]

I'm definitely not trying to pick a fight today. That counts.

[ and then he glances at the beer he's holding ]

Anyway, anything good here?

hideout troubles

[evite]

[ daisy has seen her fair share of runaways. kids on the street, unequipped and underfunded, left to figure out their own way when the people who were supposed to take care of them either gave up or got left behind — they seek out places to be alone, where no one will find them, or worse, try to drag them back to wherever they're running from.

so when she leaves the warehouse where she and marcos have been storing supplies for outreach missions and comes across a familiar silhouette trying to jimmy open a locked window, she's only maybe half-surprised. maybe even less than that. what else would she expect from a kid who tried to bolt out of the safehouse? ]

Hey, genius, [ called out, but quietly, as she steps a little closer, gravel kicked purposefully under her feet. ] You forget how to use the front door?

[ what are you doing here, and why do you want to get into trouble so damn bad? ]

[overrate]

[ he hears her before she speaks. which draws his attention early-- and the way he tilts his head back in annoyance, and then straightens to look straight at her. he's not trapped. he's not beholden. no jokes about electrocuting himself need to be made. ]

Ugggghhhh-- don't you have anything better to do?

[ what's it look like he's doing?

the front door's broke, so you may as well use the window. ]

[evite]

[ of course she has something better to do. but she's doing this, so "robert" will have to deal. ]

Well, Bobby, I was just taking a walk around the neighborhood. You know, checking out the sights, visiting neighbors.

[ does she live here? absolutely not. ]

You know, it doesn't look like this hotel got your reservation.

a wildcard! lmk if this is ok

[monomachy]

[Back in Paris, Diana hadn't spent many nights stopping petty crime; her worries had been bigger then, more global in nature. But here in New Amsterdam, her attention has shrunk to the city itself, which means during the latest hours of the night, she bounces from place to place in the city's underbelly, doing what she can to ease the plague of crime that afflicts every large city she's ever seen.

And she doesn't always do it alone.

The selling of illegal weapons is one of the biggest problems in the city, and she's tracked down the location of a deal on banned blades. It's a small step towards fixing the bigger problem, but a step all the same. She sits perched on a rooftop with her (unplanned) companion, lasso at her hip and her newly-reacquired bracers on her forearms. She feels more complete with these pieces of who she used to be, and it makes her willing to let slide the fact that she has company tonight.]

I've counted four of them. Do you see any more?

[overrate]

[ meeting Diana in the flesh? fucking awesome. he'd always wished Bruce would take him along on the big Justice League gatherings, but more importantly, already Diana seemed to have it more together than Donna, and that was just fine by him. he absolutely had no need to rehash any of that out.

still, while he's a little more nervous than he likes being on this roof, it's not impossible. it's something he can shove aside, as he can clearly track the way down and what to do if he, you know.

fell.

so, you know. he's fine. ]

Saw two more head inside. They're probably the ones making the deal.

3.

[lucubrare]

[ Cass has been, to put a fine point on things, doing a bit of mindless wandering.

Part of it is because there is so much to take in. The sheer size and scope of the city is immense, and everyone she knows, if they're from this universe in the first place, is probably dead. Or back home in their own slot of time/space in the universe, right where she left them, which she has no idea how to get to.

She's trying not to stress about it really. Whatever happens, happens. In the meantime she's gotta live this life, in this place, and accept whatever that means.

(Easier thought than done, honestly.)

As someone used to Gotham, used to living on the streets and seedy underbellies, there's a draw towards the places that are overlooked, abandoned. Even in this shining somewhat future, they exist.

And there's Jason, stepping out of one.

She doesn't call his name but he's facing her direction so she waves at him a little to catch his eye before signing: ]

Hi.

Promise I wasn't stalking.

[overrate]

[ it's weird, there being other people in this "family," besides him, Dick, and Bruce. He still can't quite get used to it, though he's willing to try. Which is more than he offers to most people. ]

That's a hell of a coincidence.

[ he won't accuse her of lying.

it's a step in the right direction. ]