I know it's hard but...

[controlledvariable]

Who: Steph Brown, others [closed]
What: Monster fighting, rescues, healing
Where: All around Baedal
When: Over a two week period since Hasi broke reality
Notes: Everyone has their own thread starter, which are in no particular order, if there are any problems/questions please let me know!
Warnings: NPC death, gore, violence, monsters, PTSD, my inability to be succint, if I've missed any feel free to tell me

The monsters are new for her.

It's not that she isn't used to dealing with all the assorted bullshit that Gotham can throw at a vigilante, but there's nothing quite like this. There are people like Killer Croc and Zsasz and Black Mask, who might be horrific, but they're still people. These monsters are more like animals, but they're huge and violent and they hunt people. She's not trained for this, she's not equipped for this and she sure as hell isn't prepared for it. Getting the gun and new batarangs from Rex helps, and she adds a large hunting knife to her array of weaponry, but it still doesn't feel like enough.

It's terrifying, in a way that she doesn't have time to deal with, so she pushes that down and focuses on doing what she can. There's moments, as she faces down things that eclipse her worst nightmares, when she wonders if she should be hiding instead of out here fighting. But there are other moments, times when she wins, when she gets to reunite a parent with their lost child, and it doesn't matter that Steph is bleeding, bruised and exhausted, because she did good.

At the behest of Babs, and the reminders her own body sends, she forces herself to stop and rest once in a while. Usually she goes back to wherever Babs is, or Kate, if she happens to be resting at the same time. Her sleep happens in small bursts, a few hours here or there, curled up near Babs or Kate and letting the exhaustion take over. She tries not to eat too much, because she has no idea how long these monsters will stay in the city and she's scared that food will start running out. She's already started collect supplies, bringing them to the safe places and distributing them to people.

She doesn't think about the dead bodies she sees, or the injured people. A lot of Baedalites can look after themselves, but some of them can't and it's those who end up as smears on a wall. Except for when she has to stop to throw up, after seeing half eaten corpses; then she thinks about it, and she doesn't know how long she can keep going out and coming back alive.

She hopes no one will hold it against her if she gets killed.

Comments

[controlledvariable]

She's up as soon as she hears his voice, turning to the entrance to the room with a hand on her gun. It's probably excessive paranoia, considering she did ask for someone to be sent but she figures it can't hurt. She moves her hands to her hips when he tells her who he is, looking him over to try to gauge how helpful he'll be. Her expression is serious, because this is a serious situation, but she still manages to exude friendliness despite all that. It's obvious she'd be smiling at him if these were better circumstance.

"Thanks for coming. You can call me Batgirl," she could probably just tell him her real name, but some things are ingrained in her by now and this is one of them. Maybe she'll tell him later; it's fairly likely he'll end up seeing her face at least - it's hard to be careful about that when she's living in close quarters with a bunch of people - and she remembers him talking to Babs on the network, so he's in their cohort.

She can worry about that later, there are more important things, "What can you do?"

[gifted_hands]

The spandex and cowl catch Tadhg a bit by surprise, but not too much so after better than four months of life in Baedal. The woman wearing the outfit moves like someone who can take care of herself and others besides, which is all he can ask for in a situation this dire. Besides, with all the blades hanging from his body, he's well aware that he looks more than a little odd himself.

He answers her greeting with an archaic little half-bow and her question with quiet forthrightness. "I can put these to good use." His fingers brush the hilts of first his sword, and then the knives strapped to his sides. "And I can fight barehanded if it comes to that. Healing, spellcasting ... I might be able to craft a little distraction for those walking maws," he adds, nodding in the bars' direction.

[controlledvariable]

Steph might be eyeing those knives with a little jealously, the one she's got isn't all the big, and she wonders if she should've invested in something larger for the situations where her gun doesn't work; a lot of creatures seem to shake off energy attacks, but most things will bleed to death. It's a little scary how easily she's adapted to going for the kill.

"That's good to have on the table," Distractions are useful, Steph knows from experience (why else would Batman dress a kid in bright colours?). "I've got this," she motions to the gun, "which is an energy weapon, I've also got a collection of shuriken that can do assorted things, including explode and deliver an electric shock, a bo staff, a hunting knife and I'm competant in hand to hand combant." So, a baseline human with nifty gadgets and combat training.

"I'd like to kill as many as possible in one go, rather than taking them down one at a time." She's already trying to think of exactly how they can do that, but she's open to any suggestions Tadhg might have.