multiversallogs | handing over reins or shirking responsibilities, your choice

Who: Babs and Jason
What: surprise apartment warming! and then Jason is like "hey how about you run this show."
Where: Jason's new, less shitty apartment
When: after... stuff.......
Notes: no he doesn't actually have a campbell soup poster, god. (it's that poster of the two girls in bed kissing) (NO IT'S NOT) (it's a mucha prinOKAY I'M STOPPING NOW)
Warnings: can't imagine anything happening here

It is a reasonable time to switch living spaces, what with various areas of the city having been trashed, and in any case, he is not particularly happy to stay in one apartment for too long. Even if he weren't doing this whole thing, he would have left by this time. The deed to the previous place is still in his name, but now someone else is paying him rent, which finds its way to the oblivious landlord.

There's no real motivation for choosing a nicer place this time other than the fact he has a bit more money to do so. Helena, Babs, and Steph get the new address. That's approximately three more people than he's used to, but it's not wholly unpleasant.

Like last time, the apartment almost completely lacks any personal touch, unless you count the weapons.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

She doesn't actually tell Jason she's stopping by with snacks and gifts. (Well, sort of - unwrapped bits and bobs for a new place stuffed in a plastic bag.) He might argue, or just flee the apartment, and really, she can't have that.

So she expects some measure of shock and bluster when she knocks. Somehow, though, it doesn't chase the smile from her face.

The security is not everything he might wish for — it never is anymore in Baedal, and especially not in Bonetown — but regardless, when Jason opens the door, the look on his face is just really? He ostentatiously leans against the frame of the doorway as if debating the merits of letting Babs inside, looking more shaven than last time, but also more tired. It's the kind of tired they're both well accustomed to being and to seeing on others, the have-worked-hard-and-am-planning-on-working-harder mode that people of their peculiar occupation are capable of running in for days at a time.

But he smiles, perhaps a tad reluctantly, and moves back to give her room to enter.

"That was fast."

Her own smile deepens when he moves aside. "I don't waste time," she says lightly as she wheels herself in. Her gaze automatically scans the front room.

"It's a nice place." From what she can see, anyway, and it's a relief. Jason himself looks a bit worn, in and out, but so do they all.

"My last place didn't have a real stove." He says idly, shutting the door. "It had a camping stove or something on the counter."

Having lived in all sorts of conditions, he only shows mild bemusement at the memory. The bed is unmade, there are basic explosive components on the coffee table, but there's very little clutter, and everything is clean. Still, there's a sense he wouldn't care if it were otherwise, that he'd be completely unself-conscious about Babs seeing a mess. That's partially true.

"You want anything? Coffee? Beer?" The last Jason says deadpan.

She can't help but grimace slightly in sympathy. She's never had a ton of money - not that she used on herself - but they could always afford the basics, even in Chicago.

The expression shifts seamlessly into a smirk at the offer. "Actually - " She lifts the thermos, obscured by the bag on her lap.

"I brought cocoa. Followed a great recipe." She figures it's safer to imply Alfred than mention him outright.

From the steady look he gives her, it wasn't much safer. But as restless and standoffish as a part of him still remains, he's not so childish nor so ungrateful as to refuse the gesture. He's not lone wolfing it right now — he asked for her help, he approached her when she thought he was dead, and she had been kind. The least he can do is get some mugs for them, which he does.

"We have some new recruits," he mentions as he brings one to her, the idleness present again in what isn't really a formal report or even a rebuff in the form of focusing on 'work'. He's genuinely intereted in the subject. "Some other prospects. I have to check up on them since everything went down."

Barbara keeps her own expression neutral as she stares back. Her smile is slight and soft when he returns with the mugs, and it lingers as she pours the chocolate.

She doesn't mind the subject change; it's generally her topic of priority, too.

"It's a bit harder to track people down here, but I'm getting a knack for it."

"That's good. Because I know you run — ran something, back home. A group of operatives, right? Not as many as we have here, maybe, and under different circumstances, but I never did anything like that."

He takes a drink as he turns to look for something, then pauses instead and takes another drink. It's a genuine concession to the taste and whatever memories it might have visibly triggered if he'd been more off guard. After that moment, though, he puts the mug back down and draws out a thin file — business-like, but not nearly as brusque as Bruce could be. His notes aren't as detailed, either.

"There's Stephanie, Helena, Kate, Hermione, Rex, his sister Ana, a doctor called Vanessza, and two prospectives, Will and Olivia." Jason puts the file down on top of parts. "Will seems solid, Olivia I need to look more into. Vanessza is slippery but I think she thinks I'm cute, like a puppy. Baby's first uprising." He doesn't say it too sourly; what irritation there is seems halfhearted, reflexive. "If any are potential Militia informers, I'd say it's Olivia. That's kind of why I'm handing all this over right now."

Barbara nods with a slight smile. "There are four primary members, including me. I've done work - coordination, strategising, investigation - for other teams, too." For most teams.

She sips her own drink as she listens, her mind swiftly recording and filing the information as it always does. "Vanessza I know - we met during the attack." Her brow furrows slightly as she studies him. "Are you worried we might already be compromised?"

He doesn't answer right away, deliberating more than hesitating as he drinks some more.

"No," Jason says finally, "but all of these people just about fell into my lap over a period of a few weeks. It seems too easy. We're not exactly a big deal but the Militia have informers all over the place already, and are plainclothes a lot too. They could've stumbled over this or one of the people I met could be coerced into cooperating."

And he likes Olivia, something he mistrusts, but somehow he fails to mention this to Babs.

handing over reins or shirking responsibilities, your choice

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