multiversallogs | born from dark water

Helena is doing her weekly grocery trip with Benny strapped to her front with a cleverly tied swathe of cloth. On one hand, it's a good way to keep an eye on him, but he's been fussy lately, so it's a bit of a challenge to peer over his head when she wants to consider the tomatoes. It's understandable that she's not paying quite as much attention to the people around her as she would otherwise.

Steph had decided to do a little exploring once she'd been freed from the arrival room and sorted out her hotel room. The starter money was helpful, considering the first thing Steph probably needs is food and she's planning ahead, going to buy groceries instead of just finding a restaurant. The money will last longer this way.

She's absently looking over the vegetables when she notices Helena and does a double take; she recognizes her, but can't pinpoint from where. So for now she's just going to watch Helena out of the corner of her eye and act inconspicuous by picking a couple of apples to go in her shopping basket.

It doesn't take long for Helena to notice that she's being watched. The back of her neck always starts itching when she's being followed. She holds an eggplant up to the light, pretending to examine its colour while she uses her peripheral vision to scope out the market.

Ah.

Now that she's looking, it's hard to miss Steph. She's just so very blonde and wholesome looking and, on top of that, Helena had taken note of her when Jason had remarked on her Robin-status.

What kind of girl would Bruce have broken his streak of black-haired little boys for?

Only one way to find out.

Helena pays for her eggplant, then walks down the way and "trips", sending the poor vegetable flying at Steph's face. Think fast, girl.

Steph catches the eggplant almost reflexively, chuckling when she notices what exactly she just caught. Then she looks up to determine where it came from and walks over to Helena, brow furrowed slightly in a mix of worry and confusion. She still can't work out where she recognizes her from.

"Are you okay?" She offers a hand to help Helena steady herself.

"Oh, yes. Thanks for the catch, though." Helena smiles and takes Steph's hand as she stands and, yes, those are some pretty distinctive callouses. Hmm.

Jason would be telling her to leave right now, but Helena can't help but be curious. She takes the eggplant back from Steph and tips her head to the side.

"I'm sorry, you look very familiar. Are you in the Ceidary Blue cohort?"

"I was thinking the same about you, and yeah, I am." She doesn't see any point in not being polite, even if Helena is acting a little odd, "I'm Steph."

Steph is almost 100% sure she'd have put a face to the name already if Helena was a bad guy from back home.

Huntress tends to start her patrols with a quick sweep through Bonetown, both to make sure that her house is in order before straying to other parts of the city. After that, she'll go for one of two circuits. If she wants a quiet night, she'll head for Sunter, hop through Echomire, then stop in at Mog Hill before heading home. If she's looking for a bit more action, she'll go north through Ludmead to trawl East Gidd for thieves, then do a loop through Mafaton and Saltbur to get to Mog Hill, then home.

She's not the only one examining Mafaton in detail this evening.

It's a good place to live for Rhade. It keeps the Candlelighters out for the most part, though he has concerns about the local vampires that might be inclined to take unwilling victims. While the fact there's not been a horrific Magog-like infestation has done much to settle his kneejerk fears, he does like to go out and make sure no one's hiding away and frightened (or worse).

His keen hearing catches the footsteps of someone above, just a faint scrape that could have been as much a thrown stone as a shoe. It's enough of a curiosity that he works his way up the building (darts up the fire escape, leaps onto a stone windowsill, and flips onto a landing that puts him within climbing distance of the roof), and once he's up there he looks around for the source of the noise.

Barbara's exploration strayed a bit later than she'd have liked; she'd rather be in doors before sundown nowadays, even in Gotham. It's not something she likes, but it's something she generally abides by.

Her timing was off, though, and she was on the other side of the city when night fell. Now she's making her way back. Barbara knows a bad neighbourhood when she sees one; she clutches her eskrima sticks and wheels forward with the heels of her hands.

She's more resigned than afraid when she hears someone attempting, and not very well, to sneak up behind her.

Shawn is busily exploring the town, drawing a mental map of the streets he's walking, when he runs into her. At first he pays her no mind but there is this itch of recognition in the back of his mind that makes him stop after a few steps and take a second look.

There is just something in the movements that gives it away, the way she turns her head and the automatism kicks in. Shawn's mind quickly strips her from the ordinary, daily life outfit, his photographic memory overlapping her with the figure that visited him in the inn and it fits just a little too well to be a coincidence.

But how to be sure? Well. There is just one safe way to find out, really.

When he passes her he stops, drawing in a sharp breath and pressing his fist against his temple, swaying and collapsing against the nearest storefront for support. "Ohhhhh, I'm getting something here! The spirits are speaking to me, they have seen something! Something-- distorted! Shady! Not shady, but shades! Not Anastasia but definitely in the Dark of the Night!"

Initially, Helena pays Shawn no mind -- she's more interested in getting home to put Benny down for a nap before he gets cranky. When he steps up to her, though, she frowns, unsure where she remembers him from... and then he eyes go wide when he finishes his spiel.

No one has ever recognized her before out of costume, not just randomly on the street. Maybe it's not what she thinks, though. She smiles nervously at him, like an uninvolved civilian might. "Ah, if the spirits are talking to you, you might want to stay out of the fog, hun."

It's a good act, but probably not good enough to fake Shawn out, not with her initial reaction factored in.

Shawn takes a closer look at her and he sees. Sees the change in her eyes and the small twitch in her smile, those tiny little hints that tell him entire stories.

He pushes himself away from the wall, opening his hand to tip against the side of his head. "I can feel anger. It's so intense, a fuel to the soul. An enhancer of wardrobe choices. A narcotic to that part of our brain that develops after our tenth birthday and suddenly tells us that heights are a dangerous thing and subsequently ruins climbing trees forever."

There's definitely annoyance displayed in those elevens on her forehead now, barely restrained as she continues to play dumb.

"Deeeefinitely ought to stay out of the fog."

Helena tilts her body away, knowing that she should leave. She doesn't like letting challenges like this go, though, so she doesn't move, just turns. It's not in her nature to back down, especially from someone as silly as Shawn.

At this point he is pretty much convinced that he got it right. Shawn leans forward, smiling brightly - probably not even to mock her, just pleased with himself that he figured it out.

"I prefer clear nights myself."

It's followed by a short pause that he doesn't like, because it is that certain moment where Gus is supposed to chime in and continue the one-liner wrap-up. Shawn compensates by pushing even further. "You know, watching the stars by an open window..."

Is there an unneccessary stress on windooowww? Yessir, there is.

When Shawn leans in, Helena curbs her urge to lean back, and instead smiles with just a bit too much tooth.

"Is that right?"

She moves her bag to her other arm and looks around. Yes, they're surrounded by people, but none of them are really watching what's going on. That's the beauty of public spaces.

"Oh, I think there's a bug, let me just--"

Helena darts her hand out, pretending to swat at something, and jabs her fingers into a nerve cluster in Shawn's neck. He falls over unconscious almost immediately, and she steps in to catch his weight, waving off bystanders with a cheery smile and a "Oh, I think he's just tired -- spends a little too much time near the fog. You know how it is."

It's a bit hard navigating while carrying a grown man and pushing a baby carriage, but somehow Helena manages. When Shawn wakes up, he'll be sitting in an empty alley with Helena looming over him, looking rather pissed off.

He comes to slowly and clumsily. It is quite obvious that while he possessses a sharp mind he's even less-than-average in the physical department. Shawn groans, one hand feeling up the pinched nerve in his neck and rolls his head back, glad of the supporting wall behind him.

Until he looks up.

Right.

Mental note, do not out vigilante moms in broad daylight.

It does make some kind of sense, in retrospect. It's just one of those damn consequence things he can never think of beforehand. "... Dude, did you just spy-pinch me?"

She tries to hide it, but Helena can't quite keep the smug grin off her face as she flicks her hair back over her shoulder. "In a manner of speaking, yes, I did spy-pinch you. You were making too much of a fuss in public."

With that, she folds her arms over her chest and looks down her nose at him.

"Now, how did you know it was me? Did someone tell you?"

Because if they did, she has to go threaten them with bodily harm.

"No. Yes."

Shawn's hand goes up to his head again and then he winces, pulling a face when his world keeps spinning. He takes a couple of deep breaths and blinks a few times until his vision clears.

"The spirits told me. I am a psychic." He wriggles his toes in his shoes, feeling a moment of relief that the pinch doesn't seem to have done any permanent damage, like paralyzing him from the waist down.

"It's... what I do. I divine things. I am a diviner."

born from dark water

grocery shopping (closed to Stephanie Brown)

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patrol

patrol

Mind a late tag?

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