exsilium | 01 | video | slightly backdated to mid-afternoon may 5th!

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01 | video | slightly backdated to mid-afternoon may 5th!

[Jaime chooses to use the video function for a couple of reasons: the first is that he’s really, really hoping that someone he can trust will be able to recognize his face if not his voice and the second is that he hopes others will use it too. He doesn’t look happy in the slightest, but he also doesn’t look quite as terrified as he probably should be.] Hi. I guess I’m supposed to introduce myself here. I’m Jaime.

Uh, I already got the run-down from that spooky-weapons-lady a little earlier, but I’m guessing I didn’t get everything about this place because all this? Still makes no sense. So if there’s anything I should know... [He trails off, gaze diverted up into the sky. He tears his eyes away from whatever he's looking at to address the network again.] Aaaanyway, I'm starting to get used enough to this place that I know I'm not gonna make it home in time for dinner anytime soon, but I still want to hear how legit all this is from people who don't actually benefit from spoon feeding me this in--

[He's staring up again. There is a definite boom, and Jaime's eyes widen as he ducks his head as if that will somehow protect him from any debris] Did that spaceship just explode--

[Fade to black as Jaime unceremoniously shoves the device into his pocket, though he does announce his apparent survival a little after the hubbub is wrapped up with the voice-only addition of:] Next time I say I'm even starting to think about getting used to this place, someone should probably hit me. Are exploding spaceships just a thing here?

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[If he had thought his first day here was exciting - for a given value of the word - then he knew absolutely nothing compared to this place. He'd suited up to help out, of course, because being a superhero is all about saving lives no matter who those lives technically belong to, but there hadn't actually been all that much to do.

Having someone recognize his real face not too shortly after his first instance of suiting up? Definitely a surprise. He's still not too sure about her, but Robin's really... intense, and anyone who Robin trusts, he supposes he can probably trust too.

(He also appears to trust Ravager, but he tries not to think about that too hard.)]

Hey! [He waves back from where he's sitting on a convenient cooled down bit of rock.] Glad you could find me in all this mess, um... I don't think I got your name.

[She closes the last of the distance between them, coming to a halt a few feet away, though she doesn't quite still, because despite how exhausted she is, Steph isn't very good at standing still.]

Sorry about the mess in the first place, we really thought we'd found all the bombs. [She's... still kind of beating herself up about that, but it's not a problem for now.] And I'm Steph. Or Spoiler, Robin, or Batgirl, depending on exactly what time you're from.

[She offers her hand to shake, smiling. There's no one else around right now, so she doesn't mind telling him her various names.]

[Jaime rises to his feet and reaches out to shake her shake her hand on pure reflex alone, which is good because he's gotten a whooooole lot of information out of her very suddenly in very few words.]

You were on the - wait, you were Robin? What happened to --

[Okay, he needs to take a second to digest all that, preferably without asking just short of a million and one questions, though the most prominent one is about what happened to the last Robin.]

Nnnh, sorry, one question at a time. [He smiles a little sheepishly at her.] Hi. Nice to meet you. I know all those names, technically, so... what are you going by now?

[Her returning smile is apolgetic, maybe a little sympathetic.]

Nice to meet you, too. [That was a lot of information, wasn't I? She's a bit too used to just telling everything to Babs and letting her peice it together. Luckily she can guess what all those half finished questions were.]

Yes, yes, he temporirly retired, and I go by Batgirl now. Anything else?

So that's how you know who I am, [he says, looking a little relieved - both at the fact that he won't be helping put up a statue of Robin up at the Tower in the future beside Superboy and Impulse and that his identity isn't just common knowledge in Gotham.] I'm guessing that Batman's got something about me in that huge computer. I didn't really think Robin went around blabbing that kind of thing. Or anything.

[Just like everyone else who has any sort of superpower judging by Brother Eye. As far as Jaime's concerned, Batman is definitely one of the good guys, super cool and surprisingly funny... but unbelievably creepy.]

Just a couple, if you don't mind. I know you guys usually don't have any superpowers or anything, so... how'd you manage to get out of an exploding spaceship? I went to go help, but everything was weirdly well handled from the ground-up for a disaster of that size.

Batman's got something about everyone in that computer. [Wrly, because after the whole Brother Eye distaster and then Tim's subsequent Damian disaster with his list, she's really not sure the boys should be allowed to keep information like that.

(Oracle is a different story, of course).]

We had someone with us who could teleport a group of people. [a beat] Who we now owe a shitload of gold to, so that's gonna be fun. [She wonders if Onyx wanted the teleporting thing to be a secret but then realizes she doesn't care because fuck her for holding their lives ransom for gold.

Still, her annoyance isn't really useful for Jaime, so she lets out a breath and tries to ignore it] As for the clean up, I guess the Initiative managed to get their act together when a spaceship is up for grabs.

Someone on a mission with you was willing to let you guys die without payback, [Jaime summarizes, looking about as impressed as he feels about that.] Wow.

[That's, like, supervillain behaviour right there as far as he's concerned. He imagines that Steph will back him up on that one considering that hers was one of the lives hanging in the air.]

Just one more question, [he says, and while he feels a little bad for piling them onto everyone he talks to, being informed is important. Especially with something like this. If there's any advantage to be gained over the Initiative - who he has nothing but distrust for which is totally founded because, um, they're kidnappers - he's going to take it and run.] Some people said that you guys grabbed the spaceship to barter with. But what're you bartering for?

Trust me, if I'd had any say in who was coming along, she wouldn't have been on my list.

[Onyx was useful, yes, but it wasn't really worth how antagonistic she is, and the faact she managed to get a promise of gold out of them.

For all that Steph joked with Caesar about a heist, she doesn't want to actually pull one off.

As for the question, she exhales roughly.] We took the spaceship so the United Earth wouldn't have it, same reason we blew up the compound. [There's - something raw in her tone for a moment and she looks away, pushing a hand through her hair before she finishes answering.]

But we knew we couldn't keep it, so we decided to see what we could get out of the Initiative in exchange for handing the ship over. Mostly we're looking at more transparency about their operations and a bit more of a heads up about the missions.

I guess it was a good thing that she was, but. Not much of a consolation for that.

[He does happen to catch the tonal shift in her voice, which means that whatever happened there? It's not his place to push. It does not, however, mean that he's not thankful for the information he can glean from what she's told him, which is a sizable amount.]

That sounds reasonable. I hope it's worth it.

We probably should've just taken the risk.

[She doesn't really mean it, and her expression shows that she regrets even having said it. If it'd just been her, it wouldn't matt, 'cause the Initiative would just bring her back, but she wouldn't want it for Ellie, or Collette.]

It will be, if the Initiative don't meet our conditions, we'll just steal it back.

[Somehow, she manages to put some cockiness into that, as if it'd be the simplest thing in the world.]

[He's not going to comment on the first bit, not with the face she made, but he's personally grateful that they didn't risk it. He doesn't exactly know any of them, but he doesn't wish death on anyone, let alone the messy, explode-y sort of death.]

You'll just... steal it back. The spaceship. The one that exploded and can't just be flown away anymore.

I'm Batgirl.

[It's a forced sort of casualness, confidence, because that's easier to deal with than thinking about everything else that's happened.

Of course Batgirl could steal back a spaceship.

But that's not really important, it's something that can be dealt with if it does happen. Right now she's got a couple of questions for Jaime.]

What was the last big thing that happened for you, back home?

[She wants to know when he's from.]

[That elicits a curl of a smile from Jaime.] Good answer.

[And with what he's seen of Batman and Robin? Somehow, it is an answer.

Luckily, Steph's question is very, very easy.] The Reach Invasion. Or, well, the Reach invasion followed directly by the Reach retreat.

[She grins in return; it's a relief to have someone around how knows what the Bat means, instead of having to explain it to people.

His answer is less of a relief; it's nothing personal, and she's not surprised, considering he apparently hadn't gone to the Titans recruitment drive yet, but, still, it'd be nice to have someone from closer to her time.]

That's a couple years ago, from my perspective. [and she was playing dead then, which is weird to think about] You did that, right, with the Reach? It was good work.

[She can't keep up to date on everything, but she remembers something about the Blue Beetle handling the attempted invasion.]

[The compliment pulls a full fledged - albeit embarrassed looking - grin from him. Having any hero compliment him is still sort of a trip, but honestly, it goes double for the Batfamily.]

Oh, um, thanks! That was me - us. [As odd as it may seem to credit the technology inhabiting his spine, it wouldn't be right not to. He couldn't have done what he did without the Scarab, and the Scarab had been just as willing to be killed in the crossfire as Jaime was.] Me and the scarab handled all the spaceman stuff while some of the others came to handle everything on the ground.

And hey, at least we've got a timeline to work with now. [It's also good to hear that he's not, you know, dead where she's from. That's a total plus.]

[Okay, with that grin she's officially decided to keep him, because she knows what that feels like. She probably had the same look on her face every time Dinah complimented her.]

And the scarab, right. [She knows... not a whole lot about that.] How's that working out?

[It's half checking that he's got everything under control, but also genuine concern, since she can't imagine having an alien parasite thing fused to your spine is a bundle of laughs.]

But yeah, what's your policy on getting told about the future?

[It probably won't matter in the end, here, if they don't remember Exsilium once they go home, so she hasn't been too careful about spoiling people's futures. But if Jaime would rather not know things, she can keep everything to herself.]

Better than you'd expect? I mean, he's gotten a lot better since we first... [since he first burrowed his way into his body distinctly without his permission?] ...met.

[The scarab, of course, is quick to correct his terminology, which means Jaime is obliged to add on, a bit dryly,] He's also learned sarcasm. We're all very proud.

[And as for the time traveling business...]

I'm fine with it. Unless there's some big reason I don't know about why I shouldn't be?

[That gets a laugh, even if she looks a bit bewildered by the whole thing.]

I wonder if that's what Batman feels like with us Robins.

[Since they're kind of like running sarcasm commentary that he's forced to deal with.]

You're still around and doing your thing. [Just - reassuring him quickly, since she knows that's what she'd worry about.] I don't know a lot of specific details about what you're up to, but generally in our business no news is good news.

[Because she'd know if like.... he died. Or his mom died. Or something along those lines.]

That might be the one and only time anyone compares me to Batman, [he feels obliged to point out. Batman is the scary avenger of the night, demanding respect from civilians and criminals alike.

Jaime gets told he's short. By both criminals and regular people, which strikes him as deeply unfair.]

[The note that he's still running around, however, garners brief exhalation.] Not gonna lie, that's kinda a relief. [Blue Beetles? Don't have the greatest track record in the world. And unlike some superheroes, they seem to stay dead.]

That's probably a good thing, really. [Not getting compared to Batman very ofte, because as she much as she loves Bruce, he's also a terrible person and no one should really aspire to be anything like him.

Which is exactly what she keeps fighting with Tim about and a part of the reason they broke up, so she's just... going to stop thinking about that, now.

Better to focus on Jaime's relief.] In less great news, there's a whole mess with zombies and Darkseid tries to kill everyone again, but that happens like every second week.

[She would probably be less glib about the Black Lanterns if she knew more about what went down with Ted.]

I... see, I don't even know if you're serious when you say it like that. You could probably tell me anything and I'd believe you. [Because their lives? Are just that weird. If he was zapped here before the whole scarab business, he'd be running around wigging out and possibly crying a little, though he'd deny it later.

And okay, maybe he still feels like crying a little because he's not digging the prospect of being this far away from everyone he loves for so long, but as for the situation itself? It's just one more weird thing in a long list of weird things.] How bad is it?

[There's a bit of a grin, as if she's contemplating all the stories she could tell, but - with everything that's happened lately, the grin doesn't last.]

I promise I won't lie to you about stuff that's happened back home.

[Which doesn't mean she won't lie to him at all, because... Bat, but she's pretty sure he won't hold that against her.]

Here? Where do you want me to start?

[Because there's a long list of terrible things about Exsilium.]

Thanks.

[Though she could be lying about that too, but Jaime is typically charitable in his judgment of others.]

I was thinking back home, but... yeah, what's going on here is probably more important. I can deal with the future as it comes. [Besides, aside from the whole zombie-and-Darkseid thing, he's hoping like heck that he'll be dealing with two-bit villains and Steph won't exactly be able to tell him which algebra test he's going to fail.

As for where to start...] I dunno, is there anything you wish someone gave you the heads-up about when you first got here?

You probably won't remember this, anyway, when you get home.

[Her expression is vaguely sympthathetic, as if she realizes that isn't all that comforting, but it seems to be the pattern of things, with people who come and go from the city.

She considers saying don't rely on people but decides to keep it to herself.]

Not anything you wanna hear. [Because it's just her own bitterness talking, rather than anything Jaime might find useful to know.] But I've got notes and casefiles written up, if you want some of them.

[Not all, since she doesn't quite know him well enough yet, but she'll share the basic information she's gathered.]

Oh. Well. Okay.

[There's not much to say to that, but it makes sense that they won't actually remember their time traveling shenanigans in a backwards sort of way.

Okay, so it doesn't actually make that much sense to him, but it's used in enough fiction for it to be a palatable truth. It will bring him more trouble later down the line, he's sure, but it's easy enough to just carry on for now.]

I'd love to see them. I've been trying to take notes on what people've told me already, but. [He gestures vaguely with one arm in a way that mostly conveys, what am I supposed to do with all of this?]

01 | video | slightly backdated to mid-afternoon may 5th!

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