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]

"There are healers - the magic kind - around the place, if it starts to look bad I'll ask one of them for help," She'd have brought them here, but she knows how busy they are dealing with more serious injuries. Things that can't just be stitched up.

Steph tenses when he does, her grip firming, ready to hold him down, but she realxes when he doesn't wake. She lets go of his shoulder for a brief moment, to brush the man's bangs away from his forehead, "It's going to be over soon." It's said to him, not Tatiana. Steph needs to say it, even if he can't hear her.

[catiana]

"Yeah, I met one - it was amazing, what she could do." There's more admiration than envy in her voice; every doctor wishes they could do more, but Tatiana is largely happy with the skills at her disposal. It seems like magic would involve more - more distance, than using her own two hands to close someone's wounds.

She smiles, just slightly, at Stephanie's gentle assurance. If nothing else, Tatiana still has good taste in friends.

"Do you have any plans for moving him? I could change again, if I - um." She hasn't explained how her powers work, yet.

[controlledvariable]

"Amazing is a good word for it. I owe Hermione my life," It's unlikely Steph could have gotten to a doctor in time, if she'd even trusted them enough to go. Without Hermione she probaby would have bled to death.

"I was gonna carry him," which sounds so ridiculous now, but she looks up, curious at what Tatiana says, "How does that work, by the way?" Steph hates to pry, but there are some things that she needs to know if they're going to work together properly.

[catiana]

"...You know Hermione?" It would make her glance up, if she wasn't in the middle of another stitch. "That's who I was talking about. She - was really good out there."

It makes her wonder just how many of them have experience with brutal violence. If that's why they're here in the first place. It makes her feel a bit sick.

She bites at her lips; she's always a bit reluctant to tell people how she changes. "I - I need blood. When I touch it...well, you saw." Her lips quirk in a wry smile. "I found that out when I was fourteen. A dog got hit by a car, so I took him to this clinic I volunteered at." She won't lose herself in the memories; she's too focused on what she's doing. And thank goodness for that.

"It didn't happen straight away, that time. It didn't happen until I got to class."

[controlledvariable]

Steph laughs, a tiny, huff of a thing, but a laugh all the same, "Small world, huh?" Small city, small cohort. It's not surprising Tatiana ran into Hermione, but it's still amusing, in it's own way.

She sobers up again as soon as Tatiana starts explaining, her expression carefully neutral until the end, when she frowns in sympathy, "I'm sorry, that must have been awful." She can't imagine, especially considering what she's heard about that world.

"I don't know if there's anything close by, I can carry him for the twenty minutes t'll take to get to the safehouse."

[catiana]

Tatiana manages a wry smile. "You never know who your real friends are until the blood-thirsty riot happens." The answer, at the time, had been "none". It wasn't devastating, really - she hadn't been particularly close to any of her classmates - but it was disappointing.

The smile warms, though, as she continues her work. "It was how I met Kiden and Laura, though." And Cameron, but she's not going to think about that.

"If you're sure. I didn't actually see any - you know." All this time and she still can't say it. She shakes her head. "I tried using blood vials for a while, but apparently it needs to be fresh."

[controlledvariable]

"Oh," it's the only thing she can get out, but she still manages to sound distraught that something like that happened to Tatiana, especially when she must have been so scared herself. Steph kind of hates the world.

She does smile back, more for Tat's sake than for anything she's feeling herself, "I'm glad something good came out of it. They're good people." At least as far as she can tell, she's undecided on Laura.

"That's annoying," The way Tat's powers work in general, not this specific situation right now, "It'd be easier if you could keep it with you. But - yeah, I can carry him. We'll keep an eye out on the way, maybe you'll find something you can use." It seems like a good compromise; they can get moving, but they won't pass up an opportunity for Tatiana to use her powers, either.