It's going down tonight in this town

[ichoosefight]

Who: Stephanie Brown, Jason Todd and Dick Grayson (spectator)
When: When Steph arrives
Where: Temple of Night and the Moon
Warnings: Violence!

She'd done enough research on arrival to find out that people could become gods here... which is to say, she skimmed the network and immediately set out to look around and preferably obtain coffee somewhere.

There was no coffee to be found, but there was a Temple of the Night. Which, if Steph had to be a god, she would definitely choose to be. She will be the Night!

But when she gets inside the temple is already lit up, and there are two whole people inside. One looks like some kind of priest, and the other is...

"Jason?"

Comments

[shutupnightwing]

Sorry, Girl Robin, someone else had that idea first. He turns at the sound of his name, and frowns in confusion when she sees the speaker.

"...I thought you were dead."

Really, Jason. Really. You're one to talk.

[ichoosefight]

He thought she was dead? Well, she guesses that explains what happened to the rest of the world when the dome went up.

"Nah, the world just tried to end. But hey, you're not dead either! So that's cool."

[shutupnightwing]

"Yeah, that happens with kind of annoying regularity." Though from what he'd heard it was mostly just Gotham that had tried to end. He hadn't really been in town at the time. "And no, not for a couple of years now. Hell of a life we lead when 'no I'm not dead anymore' is a thing we can say with a straight face."

[ichoosefight]

"A couple of years?" This conversation has only gotten more confusing. Of course there's time travel involved. Why not?

"You mean after the domes went down? 'Cause that just happened for me like, yesterday."

[shutupnightwing]

...Domes. What the hell is she talking about?

"What?"

Jason is the most eloquent.

[ichoosefight]

...Okay, so not that.

"Why did you think I was dead?"

[shutupnightwing]

"...I kinda feel like I'm missing something here." Though. Now that he's actually paying attention, she looks... older than she had. "I think I'm missing a big something. Maybe... a few years? The... first time you died, maybe?"

How the hell is that a real sentence.

[ichoosefight]

That doesn't clear things up at all.

"I never-- oh. Oooohhh." Oh. Well, this is embarrassing. She scratches her neck and uses it as an excuse to turn and look at... the priest? Wow, that just made things even more awkward.

"I, uh, well, I never actually... died. I sorta... faked it?" Should she be apologizing for that? Does he care? Is it extra weird because he did literally die?

[shutupnightwing]

He blinks a couple of times. Maybe it should be awkward, but he's trying to get over his "I died and came back and things were kind of shitty" issues, so he says the first thing that comes to mind.

"Yeah, I'd fake dead to get away from those two, too."

[ichoosefight]

She blinks at him, then stifles a laugh. She's not sure what kind of a response she was expecting, but it definitely wasn't that.

"Yeah, well, more or less." He's not wrong about her reasons, anyway.

"So, what, are you supposed to be the god here or something?"

[shutupnightwing]

"That's what they say." He glances around. "No one else was doing it, and--" He shrugs. "I do all my best work at night. Seemed like we should have one."

[ichoosefight]

She raises an eyebrow at him. It's a decent reason, but she hopes he at least saw the opportunity for jokes there.

"Yeah? Well this town ain't big enough for two Dark Nights. Stick 'em up, partner!"

[shutupnightwing]

Look, Jason is all about the terrible jokes in the continuing vein of not taking himself too seriously these days, so bring them on, Dork Knight.

He snickers. "Oh yeah? You think you can take me?"

[ichoosefight]

She snorts a laugh.

"I mean, I haven't actively been Batgirl for the better part of a year, so. What could go wrong?"

[shutupnightwing]

"Batgirl?" Huh. Well... Cool. "Look, after this is over, can you go be the god of beer or something so we can get a beer and talk about what the hell else I've missed?"

[ichoosefight]

Hell yeah she's Batgirl!

"Are you kidding? I haven't had fresh coffee in a year. Caffeine first, booze second." She doesn't actually want to be any kind of god, but if that's what she has to do to get some fucking coffee around here she will absolutely take that bullet.

[shutupnightwing]

He holds a finger up.

"Wait. You passed over being the god of caffeine--" he has no idea if that is actually a thing, but he fucking hopes so. "--to come here? Where are your priorities?"

[ichoosefight]

"If there was a caffeine throne don't you think I would've jumped on it?" Not that she's done extensive research to that effect...

"Besides, this is a matter of pride. You're not the night." She mimes pulling a cape up in front of her nose.

"I am the night."

[shutupnightwing]

Jason shakes his head sadly and holds his fingers up to his ears in an imitation of Bruce's cowl. "No way. I am the night."

[callipygous]

Dick's been wandering around the streets all day, getting the lay of the land, learning about the problems people are having (which apparently mostly at this point come to THEY HAVE TO EAT which is... something to look into) but first, he has to see if anyone else from his family showed up in this weird place.

...it feels almost too cliche to think they'd show up at the actual Temple of Night, but well. If they all have the same dumb cliche idea, it'll work out, won't it?

And there are torches burning, which either means he was right or completely off base cause what self-respecting bat actually uses lights?

He swings from a roof to a window, peering in. There are two people there... Stephanie, and a man he can't recognize from this angle. Stephanie is making Batman jokes at him, though, so it's probably someone he knows. He eases the window open and drops to the ground in an easy flip.

"I'm pretty sure both of you are twilight at best. Or maybe a sort of early dusk? You'll just never be as night as the master. Sorry kids."

[ichoosefight]

To her credit, Steph isn't so absorbed in her dumb jokes that the window entrance startles her. She may not have kept up with her training this last year, but she's every bit as aware as she ever was. Post-apocalyptic Gotham is not a place to be caught off guard.

Steph uses the pretend-cape arm to wave cheerfully at Dick. From his comment she naturally assumes he's from a point in time where he's Batman, but also not grumpy about her existence. So probably pretty close to hers?

"Hey, Dick! You're not dead either! But if we're fighting over who's Batman I want in this time."

[shutupnightwing]

Jason doesn’t drop his hands, but. Dick? Dead? He might drive him crazy but that’s never anything he’s wanted. He glances over his shoulder at him. “He can pry it from my cold undead fingers.” And he turns his attention back to Stephanie. “Seriously. You and me and caffeine or alcohol, whichever is available.”

[callipygous]

Oh.

Oh.

This... shouldn't be possible.

He recognizes that face, even though it's older than it should be. Even though the clothes are different.

Jason Todd is dead. Dick knows this. And he has a lot of questions, but they can wait until after he's crossed the room and thrown his arms around Jason in a big hug. "Jason! You're alive!"

[ichoosefight]

Oh. Oh dear. That look on Dick's face pulls hard at Steph's heartstrings.

"On second thought, maybe we should skip straight to the Irish coffees."

[shutupnightwing]

Jason’s back is to Dick, so he misses the look on his face in favor of facing off against Stephanie. The hug comes as a bit of a surprise (though he’d heard Dick coming up behind him, so really, he should have been prepared for something like that), and he tries to shrug him off. “Hey! Octopus! Let go! The Dork Knight and I aren’t done yet!”

[callipygous]

NOPE NOT LETTING GO. YOU ARE GETTING HUGGED, JASON. "This should be impossible. How are you alive? And... adult?"

[ichoosefight]

"We can reschedule, Helmet Head. I wouldn't want to interrupt the love fest." She also doesn't want to end up fighting Dick while trying to fight Jason. Not over a joke.

[shutupnightwing]

Oh. Shit. Jason’s aware enough for Dick’s words to penetrate his thick skull and he freezes. He glances over at Stephanie again. “Yeah. Maybe we should hold off until some of us are a little more caught up. Hi, Dick.”

[callipygous]

Dick finally lets go, looking between the two of them and frowning. He looks over at Steph. "You knew? What happened?"

[ichoosefight]

Steph throws her hands up in surrender.

"Hey, I was out of town when it happened. Don't ask me."

[shutupnightwing]

"Can we skip the painful details?" His tone is light, but he really would rather avoid going into the mess of his resurrection and the time that immediately followed. There's a lot that he only remembers vaguely, and plenty that he does remember and isn't necessarily proud of these days (though he's not sure he'd really change it either). "Something, something, Superboy Prime punched reality and I fell out. How's that? Is there beer or coffee somewhere where we can continue this conversation?"

[callipygous]

"I think we're going to need those painful details. But also beer or coffee." He grimaces, glancing at the other two. "Do you know where we go for that? I just got here."

[ichoosefight]

"I saw a couple of places that looked like bars," Steph suggests, though she looks to Jason. He's been here longer, he would know better than she would.

[shutupnightwing]

Jason makes a face. He's still going to try to gloss over it as much as possible, but that can come later. "They probably were. We have a guy doing Revelry, which I'm going to assume includes drunkenness, and therefore--bars. Let's go."

[callipygous]

"Weird that things just don't work unless there's a god involved." He's still getting used to it. "Is there a coffee god or something?"

[ichoosefight]

"If there is, I call dibs. I've gone long e-fucking-nough without."

Steph rubs at her temple. It's going to be a long evening.

"Either way. Let's get out of here." They can sort out godly considerations on the way.

[shutupnightwing]

"We didn't even have a night until I put my ass in that chair." He nods toward the center of the temple. "I don't know why things don't work without someone being in charge, though. I feel like we're the wrong people to ask. Let's hope Wonder Woman shows up. She might get how this tall works a little better."

He starts heading for the door of the temple.