I went out into the night

[controlledvariable]

Who: Stephanie Brown. Anyone who wants to meet Batgirl (Open).
What: Patrol.
Where: Starting in Mog Hill and heading towards the Spatters, passing through Bonetown and other neighborhoods.
When: Misdi/Coardi. Any time between sunset and sunrise.
Notes: Characters can run into her if they're on the rooftops as well, or if they're down on street level getting into, or up to, trouble. Rather than setting up a thread for each neighborhood, just LMK which area you're in.
Warnings: Violence/death/gore in the thread with Snape.

She had planned to wait longer until breaking out the Batgirl suit, not wanting it to be completely obvious that 'Batgirl' and 'Steph' were one and the same, but recent events have made her realize patrolling is more important than secret identities right now. And it's not like it matters if people know, they can't exactly go after her family or anything.

Even so, she was sticking to the rooftops, her aim for the night mainly reconnaissance. She's heading to the Spatters purely because the pamphlet warned against it, but she'll be making stops along the way to check things out. The city is big, and considering the distance she needs to travel, she expects to spend most of the night out. Having her grapple gun makes things easier; swinging across rooftops is quicker than running across them and she might get a lift from the El train by riding on top. She briefly wishes she had her car here, before reminding herself that she wouldn't get to see as much driving through streets as she does watching from above.

Comments

[controlledvariable]

Steph's eyes go wide when she sees the apparition and takes off at run, dropping down to street level because it's quicker. Something like dread settles in her stomach, the area on it's own is creepy enough, the glowing skull and snake really doesn't help.

She hesitates briefly before entering the catacombs, putting down the lenses of her cowl and turning on night vision, and pulling out her bo staff, before heading in. Her movements are quiet, careful, but that goes out the window when she sees the bodies.

"Oh my god." She puts her staff away and runs to the bodies, checking the pulse of each one, despite the fact they all clearly look dead. The smell isn't overwhelming yet, so she knows this can't have happened too long ago. But once it's clear that no one's left alive, Steph just stands still for a long time, fighting down the horror and nausea at the scene in front of her. This is worse than what she saw on the network, worse than almost anything she's seen during her time as a vigilante. She can't imagine who - or what - would have done this and part of her doesn't want to try.

It takes her a while, but eventually she's calm enough to run though the usual procedure of checking a crime scene, her actions automatic. She takes samples, and looks for any traces of other people having been there, cursing under her breath when she realizes how little there is to find. She doubts she'll ever find answers to this.

"I'm sorry," it's spoken to the bodies, an apology for the fact she can't do anything else for them, she doesn't have the strength to dig graves for each of them, and she's not sure if she should tell the authorities about this. She's done what she can here.

Steph turns away from the bodies and starts on her way home.