multiversallogs | Running is something that I've always done [open]

Who: Steph Brown. Open
What: Training/stress relief
Where: Mog Hill, anywhere else you might wanna run into her
When: Newdi evening, after work
Notes: Feel free to run into her at any point during her evening.
Warnings: None yet.

Meditation has never really worked for Steph; she hates sitting still and when she tries, she ends up getting too distracted by all the movements she wants to make to actually relax. Running has been her form of meditation, so it's what she plans to do when she finishes work for the day and finds herself still feeling stressed out.

She heads home, changing into her work out clothes - the under layer of her Batgirl suit, a loose, long-sleeved shirt and sneakers - then goes out again. She wishes she had her iPod with her, just because it'd make it easier to tune out the city sounds, but she manages without. The thoughts that have been troubling her the last few days slip away, leaving her with nothing but the thump of her footfalls, the controlled rush of her breathing and the prickle of sweat as she pushes herself to run harder.

Her route takes her out of Mog Hill and in a loop through the nearby neighborhoods until she's back near the Valhalla Inn. Rather than going straight back to the Inn, she stops at a park close by to warm down. She stretches first, then starts going through series of kata; she doesn't get them perfect, but they help work out some of the tension. She would normally practice on bad guys, but she's too tired to risk patrolling tonight; Babs would yell at her if she got herself killed. Babs would probably yell at her for doing something like this in public, but it's not like martial arts is all that exotic, so Steph figures she can just say she learned all this at self defence class or something.

She'll be there until late, until her muscles are sore and her mind is clear, then she'll walk the rest of the way home.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

He smiles; he understands what she's trying to do--encourage, not dismiss, and he's grateful for the effort. Especially from someone he's only just met. "They do. I just hope the rest of my crew feels the same. I try to make sure they can."

"If they haven't committed mutiny yet, you're probably on the right track. I doubt they'd put up with a captain they didn't trust." The Bats don't have a rigid chain of command aside from 'Bruce is in charge' and she's knows people don't put up with his shit if they don't trust -- Helena is a perfect example.

"That's true enough. Hell, I committed mutiny, once, with a captain I didn't trust." He shrugs. "I wasn't entirely in the right myself, either." He's learned from that experience, grown.

He flashes her a sheepish but brilliant smile. "Sorry, I just kept talking. I don't mean to keep you from your practice."

"I think we've all commited mutiny once or twice." Or like twenty times, whatever, "Does your old captain hold it against you?"

"It's fine," because really, what else is she supposed to say to that smile? "I think I'm responsible for at least half the conversation."

"No, he doesn't. He's my first officer now. And a damn good one." He can admit that, these days, now that he's come to see some of the wisdom of logic and patience.

Some of it.

"Okay, good." He gestures at a bench. "If you're not gonna practice, should we sit?"

"That's an interesting role reversal theree," She's completely lacking the context of course, and from the way Jim has explained it, it does sound kind of confusing her.

"Sure, I probably should've stretched after I stopped but..." she gives a ~~Kanye~~ shrug before walking over to the bench. Rather than sitting on it propery, she perches on the back of the bench with her feet on the seat of it.

"I guess. Works for us, though."

He joins her, perching on the back of the bench. It would seem weird to sit properly with her up there, not to mention he worries she'd think he was trying to be inappropriate or something.

"So how long have you been studying martial arts?"

"Um..." she has to think about it for a bit, trying to figure it out, "Self-defense is pretty much a compulsary course in Gotham schools, but I didn't start doing it properly until I was about fifteen. So four years ago. It's been on and off since then."

Mostly because her teachers would abitrarily decide they were going to abandon her every now and then. Cass was probably the most consistent teacher she ever had, "A fair bit of it's self-taught, I guess."

Jim frowns faintly; he wonders, what the hell kind of place is this Gotham that they teach self-defense in the schools? But he doesn't ask; that's passing judgment, and they taught him not to do that in Starfleet. Every place and culture is different, and just because it's so different from his doesn't mean he gets to point out that he feels it's wrong. He may not have the whole story.

"I think a little improvisation is a good thing," he notes. "Teaching yourself, learning on your own. I think adhering too rigidly to the official disciplines can make you predictable. And you don't ever want an opponent to be able to predict your next move."

Gotham is... Gotham. And Steph wouldn't mind any questions, she's just so used to saying it's name to be enough. Everyone in America from her world knows exactly what Gotham is like.

"I've never been predictable," she grins, taking what Jim said as a compliment, "Though I did get in trouble for biting opponents."

It's hard to tell if she's joking.

The grin he breaks into is anything but professional. Joking or not, he approves of that tactic. "I'm fond of headbutting, myself, but I haven't quite perfected the technique of delivering a solid one without scrambling my own brain for a second." He shrugs. "I did a lot of bar fighting before I enlisted and got proper training. Old habits die hard, I guess."

"I think most people have that trouble with headbutting," Wearing a cowl is surprisingly helpful, considering it's designed to absorb shock.

"I've never learned to bar fight," because bar fighting is totally it's own recognized style, "I mostly specialized in school yard brawls."

Running is something that I've always done [open]

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