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

[controlledvariable]

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.

Comments

[controlledvariable]

It was probably a good decision not to try to sneak up on her, Jim might've gotten a black eye.

As it is, Steph slows her movements when he calls out to her, checking that he was addressing her and when she confirms he is, she stops completely, resting lightly on the balls of her feet. She looks Jim over, in a 'threat assessment' sort of way, but he seems harmless enough.

"It's taekwondo," She answers with an easy smile, "Do you study any martial arts?"

She's curious as to why he stopped her to ask, and for now her guess is that he recognized the style.

[captaincocksure]

"Taekwondo," Jim repeats, and he does that chin-lift-and-nod thing people do when they realize they should've already known something. His lips curve into a friendly, open smile. "I couldn't place it--thank you. I learned a small amount of judo as part of my officer training, but the bulk of our training was in krav maga."

He leaves it at that; offering that he was an instructor, head of his class, blah blah, just makes him seem boastful. He understands that appearing to try to hard to impress comes off as either pathetic at best or a threat at worst from a guy a woman's just met.

Anyone who knew him before he enlisted a few years back would be surprised by his sensitivity now. Starfleet training at its best.

He moves closer, offering a hand. "I'm Jim Kirk."

[controlledvariable]

"No problem. I've done a little of those," It's a slight understatement for Steph too, Bat training is comprehensive, "You're a cop?"

It's the first thing 'officer' makes her think of. And there's an edge of amusement in her voice, what is it with her and cute cops?

"Steph Brown, nice to meet you." She gives his hand a firm shake, "How long have you been here?"

It's one of the questions she's decided she needs to ask; it helps her know how to talk to people.

[captaincocksure]

"Nice to meet you, too, Steph," he says, shaking her hand. "I've been here... God, it's five months now, about. What about you?"

He doesn't mind the question; he's used to it, and likely would've asked it himself if she hadn't beaten him to it. It seems to be the shared gauge of experience here. You ask and you know whether to offer help, seek help, or just commiserate.

He laughs softly, shaking his head, as he goes on. "And I'm not a police officer. Military officer, is probably the closest thing. I'm a ship's captain, where I'm from."

[controlledvariable]

"Two weeks, going on three," It's always a little disheartening to find out how long some people have been stuck here for, "Five months is a long time."

"Oh, that's pretty cool," She doesn't have any feelings one way or another on the military (aside from the militia here, but that's different), "So you were in the navy? It must drive you crazy to be stuck in one place for so long."

At least Steph is used to being in one city - she rarely left Gotham back home - but she imagines someone use to captaining ships would get around a lot.

[captaincocksure]

"Oh, so you're pretty new here." That always breaks his heart a little, knowing the place is still dragging people in. "Are you settling in okay, do you need anything?"

He smiles again. "It does drive me a little crazy to be stuck in one spot, yeah. I'm not in the Navy. I'm in Starfleet. I'm captain of a starship." And it's clear he's proud of that, but not in a boastful, what a badass am I sort of way. It's different, it's subtle, it's more along the lines of what an awesome thing I'm lucky enough to do.

"So, yeah. One city feels kinda confining."

[controlledvariable]

"I'm fine," there's a hint of amusement in her voice and her smile, it's mostly directed at herself, because her first thought had been annoyance at the offer of help before she reminded herself that she'd have done the exact same thing, "I've got a job and everything, and I'll be moving into a proper apartment once I find somewhere suitable."

Have Steph just staring in wide-eyed wonder for a moment. Because starship in space! She knows Tim has been in space before, and Kara's from space, but the idea of someone being captain of a starship is still really awesome, "I'm upgrading my original assessment of 'pretty cool' to 'ridiculously amazing'."

And then she realizes it must be even worse for him being stuck and winces sympathetically, "I'm surprised you haven't tried to build your own spaceship yet to try to get outta here."

[captaincocksure]

"Good, good." He's glad for that, and impressed that she's accomplished so much in such a short time. He's firmly of the belief that the faster you get on your own feet in this city the better off you are against it. He doesn't trust the inn's hospitality, doesn't think anyone should rely on the help and wind up indebted.

And then his smile brightens, widening to a grin. "Thanks. I gotta admit--I do it for a living and even I think it's ridiculously amazing. Unfortunately my genius engineer didn't make the trip here with me, just my chief medical officer. So building a ship to escape is a bit out of reach but at least I can be patched up properly if I make the attempt and it blows up in my face?"

[controlledvariable]

Well, she'd been happy to take the free two week stay and the 20 marks, but she's been trying not to rely on it to heavily; she's used to doing things on her own.

"I'd be worried about your sanity if you thought it was boring," she laughs, "At least there's that. I think a ship built out of scraps from the Tinker's Lot could only end in disaster."

[captaincocksure]

"Most likely, yeah. Biggest thing I ever rebuilt was a car." He laughs. "And that was rebuilt, not built from the ground up. There's enough trouble in this city without me inviting it. So where are you working? What do you do for a living?"

[controlledvariable]

"Yeah, I don't think a car is quite the same level as a spaceship, not that I'm speaking from experience, the most machinery I've messed around with is my mom's sewing machine and my boyfriend's motorbike," although Babs is gonna help her build her own motorbike one day soon, Steph is excited.

"I work at the college library, it's... about as exciting as it sounds." But it's a steady, easy enough job, "What about you? What does a starship captain do when he's stuck on the ground?"

[captaincocksure]

"A motorbike! Those are cool. I should get another one--I had one before I went into the Academy." He sighs, a bit wistful. He could have a motorbike again, couldn't he? It's not like he has to worry much about image or his crew here.

"At the library--do you work with Martel? Or am I thinking of a different library?" He smiles. "And me, I'm part-time at Hellsing. I teach some self-defense classes--which is how I kind of sort of recognized what you were doing, I was an instructor at the Academy--and I do crisis management. I teach self-defense privately, too, here and there."

[controlledvariable]

"If I find anywhere that has a good selection of bike parts, I'll let you know." Steph isn't sure how much luck she'll have, but she's planning to go searching soon.

"That's the one, Martel's my boss." Her expression gets curious at the mention of Hellsing, it's another one of the things she's planning to check out and until then she's going to be a little suspicious of it, "You must get a lot of business here, Baedal isn't very safe. What's it like working for Hellsing?"

[captaincocksure]

"Yeah? Thanks! That'd be great." He could build one. That'd give him something to do with himself when he's not working or trying to shake answers loose from the city.

"Tell Martel I said hi, next time you see him. I should look him up myself; it's been a while."

He's quiet a moment, considering his answer regarding Hellsing. He shrugs slightly, smile still on his lips. "I like working for them. It was weird at first because 'preturnatural horrors' wasn't quite something I was used to. But it's nice to work with good people, helping other people. And it's nice to see tangible results from what I do."

[controlledvariable]

"I get first dibs, though," Steph is a mature adult.

"I haven't actually talked to him much, but I'll pass the greetings along," Most of her time at the library is spent gossiping with Kate, wih occasional bouts of actually working.

"So they're the good guys?" She hadn't been entirely sure, even if they seemed okay so far. The preturnatural horrors thing was a bit off-putting as well, even if Steph has had some dealings with it before.

[captaincocksure]

"Of course you do, if you're doing all the legwork. And thanks." About Martel.

He nods, his expression going a little more serious. "We are the good guys. I know it's hard to tell in a place like this. But I genuinely believe that about Hellsing. Their intent is protecting people--all kinds of people, not just the ones who look a certain way or who kiss the right person's ass. That's something I can stand behind, wholeheartedly."

[controlledvariable]

"That's reassuring to hear. You're right about it being hard to tell who the good guys are here," More accurately, it's hard to tell who isn't a bad guy, "Now I don't have to worry about their sorcerer having done something to me."

After her run in with a pile of corpses, Integra had sent a sorcerer to check if any magic left behind from the fight had clung to Steph. It had been a weird experience and left her feeling kind of vulnerable.

[captaincocksure]

"Sorcerer? A Hellsing sorcerer?" Jim shakes his head, holding up a hand. "Seriously, whoever they were, they're fine. I've worked directly for the ladies who run things at Hellsing. Believe me--they aren't the types to let anyone get away with trying anything out of hand. Not for a second. I promise you you're fine."

And therein lies his faith in the organization; there's strong leadership and a strong sense of how people should be treated and how agents should conduct themselves. It gives him a lot of faith in the group, confidence in working with these people.

[controlledvariable]

"Yeah, they had to check me for curses. There was a... thing," she accompanies that verbose statement with a vague hand gesture. She's not sure how much inter-company communication there is or how much she should discuss, "It's good that you trust your bosses. It seems like your work can be dangerous, and that never ends well if you can't trust the people running things."

Steph is pretty much the poster girl for that. Thanks, Bruce.

[captaincocksure]

He holds up a hand again. It's fine; he doesn't need to know the details. He knows the people at Hellsing well enough to know that they'd let him know if he needed to know.

"You're right; it is dangerous, and that's exactly the situation where you need to be able to trust the people you take orders from. I guess I have a better understanding of that since I became a captain myself. My people need to know they can put their faith in me and the decisions I make."

[controlledvariable]

"I'm guessing you had to work a little harder to get that trust, you're a little young for a captain, yeah?" She doesn't know how the promotion system for spaceships work, but she always thought the higher ups in the military and stuff were older people.

[captaincocksure]

He nods. He's not bothered by the question--it's true, he's terribly young. And he feels it, a lot of days. "I am, yeah. Most people in Starfleet who are my age are finishing up their last year at the Academy. After that you go into service, and most make captain in about eight to ten years. I, uh." Jim shrugs. "It was a field promotion."

[controlledvariable]

"You must be good," She's fairly sure a field promotion would have to be earned by doing something really important, "And I'm sure it's a lot better than waiting ten years to get into the top spot."

[captaincocksure]

"Oh, I just. You know. Saved Earth." He grins. "And it's better than waiting ten years, yeah. But..."

He wonders if it's oversharing, saying too much to someone he's just met, but this place seems to inspire that in a person sometimes. You're all thrown in together, camaraderie more a necessity than a choice.

"...sometimes I feel like the ten years might've given me the insight to be better at the job. Or at least the experience so I wouldn't have to fight for some people's respect. I don't know."

[controlledvariable]

"As you do," not that it's... that unusual for people she knows to have saved the world, but it's still an impressive feat.

She listens to what Jim says, it makes sense, and she feels bad that he has to worry about something like that. She has no idea what it must be like to have so much responsibility.

"I think you'll always have people whose respect you're gonna have to fight for. And while experience might be good, it's definitely not the be-all-end-all. Obviously your superiors trusted you to do a good job." She hopes she's not being dismissive of Jim's worries, she's just trying to reassure him.