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Post by dinah on Dec 15, 2012 16:44:09 GMT -5
This is becoming a bad habit Dinah…really this is the fourth night in a row!
The lovely blonde’s thoughts were everywhere and it was impossible to shut them down. The nights were the worst and she’d much rather be out working, just moving anything but sitting at home, in the dark left to her thoughts and worst of all her memories. She had been put a sort of as Barbara put a little vacation a chance to enjoy herself and take break from her position on the Justice League.Taking a break was the last thing she needed, what she needed was to stay busy was to not let things get so out of hand where she couldn’t even handle her own demons when things got ugly and they got ugly a lot more frequently than she’d ever admit out loud, hell she couldn’t even admit it to herself that it might be time to give her therapist another call back or another try, but then that’d be admitting she needed help and she couldn’t very well do that.
This was the fourth night in a row that Dinah hadn’t been able to sleep more than two hours throughout the day; they were sporadic instances throughout the day, twenty-four seven that she’d sleep for maybe twenty minutes. Her dreams were a void wave of blackness like she’d like, no they were filled with a darkness and all she’d be able to feel was the sudden wave of sound or the sudden flash of the man’s face or the feeling of his hands on her skin, and then the pain as he tried to her to talk. She didn’t talk about it, it was merely another way to try and make it as though it didn’t happen that things were normal. Denial is such a powerful thing.
She couldn’t help the shiver that crawled down her spine. She looked at herself in the mirror in the darkness that littered through her apartment and she couldn’t help but feel frustration at the woman who stared back at her. She glared at her reflection and made a choice, as she moved sweeping up her black jacket from the back of the couch as she passed through her living room heading for her front door. She hadn’t been able to get out of a pair of gray sweat pants and a black tank top. They were comfortable; it was either those or her black corset top and the netted leggings and boots, which were at Barbara’s place. She ran fingers through her blonde locks and sighed heavily. Her locks had that fingered look that it was no secret she’d been constantly running her fingers through her hair. The usually flat locks held a few waves in the front. She headed for Barbara’s clock house to talk to someone other then herself. She’d use the gym, and she needed some company.
Dinah slipped into Bab’s place without needing to say much, more then give her a bit of a wave as she moved through the compound and made her way for clothes that she kept over, if she ever needed them. She shrugged off her jacket and let the familiar black material fall down her arms as she caught it by the sleeve and set it down on the back of the chair as she toed off her shoes and slipped the baggy gray sweats from her legs and proceeded to change, this wasn’t uncommon and Bab’s was used to it and anyone else who ran around here would just have to get used to it. She slipped on her net leggings and continued to get dressed starting to zip up the black buster of a top as she turned her head her blue eyes catching the movement from the room leading to the computers that in turn lead to Oracle.
Her body turned even as she wasn’t fully finished zipping up her costume. Her wavy blonde hair falling around bare shoulders and she had yet to slip into her boots. “Been a while Kiddo,” the comment left her lips as she pierced the younger girl with her gaze, even as she started her way over to her with sure steps, she hadn’t felt this sure of herself in a while, sometimes the costume helped them ground themselves and in some cases bury their demons and focus on the important things, or focus on something else for a little while.
“You busy? If not I’d like to catch up, you can fill me in on your time as the first female Robin,” her lips curved up in a small smile, but there was a bit of darkness behind her eyes, but most everyone knew better then to comment on it. “In exchange for a sparing session,” she let it hang there between herself and the young Batgirl, she knew it was a bit of a low trick dangling this in front of her, but she needed the distraction and she was willing to pull away from her conscious for just a little bit to do this. She took a slow breath, her blue eyes looking into Steph’s own as she waited, knowing she was coming on awfully strong and it wasn't quite like her, but she hadn't been herself in some time.
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Post by Batgirl on Dec 17, 2012 7:20:12 GMT -5
Say one thing about working for Oracle, she had all the good toys. Not that Steph was doing badly, down in Firewall, but it was just by herself and sometimes…. Ok, quite often she liked to come up here, hang out with Babs (read: hang around annoying her while she was working) and use the facilities in the clock tower. Plus drop a few more hints about a Batgirl and the Birds of Prey team up. So far, no luck, but that wasn’t going to stop her trying.
Anyway, that was how she stepped out of the computer chamber, having finished a session of Babs-bothering (or baiting), and found herself face to face with one of said Birds. The fishnetted one, as opposed to the thigh-high booted one, though Steph was so very glad that she didn’t have to wear either. She didn’t have the legs for them and, though she was definitely blonde, she’d question the ‘bombshell’ part. Still, Steph grinned, nodding at the other’s comment. It had been a while. Long enough that she couldn’t remember when it was, actually. Spoiler days, probably. ”Definitely. Good to see you again, Ms Canary.” The Canary wasn’t the only one partly uniformed – Steph was just wearing the eggplant leotard that covered her under the armoured Batgirl costume, which was in her view more than enough to hang around in.
And then came the question. Well, she wasn’t busy, so Steph shook her head, but the rest… Ok, that wasn’t fair.
Steph narrowed her eyes slightly, the absence of the Batgirl cowl no doubt letting Canary see every little twitch of her features as the younger blonde frowned, about to ask why in a million, billion, trillion years she would want to talk about that – add a few more zeroes. Like, ‘break the calculator screen’ few more zeroes. If there was anything in her life that Steph would happily do terrible, terrible things to the time-space continuum to make so that it never happened, that was it. Well. Uh, sort of. Maybe. Kind of.
To say the least, Steph had very, very mixed feelings about that time in her life.
And then she was pre-empted as the other vigilante dropped the other shoe. A sparring session. With the Black Canary. Oh, that just wasn’t fair. Low ball, ref, or whatever the silly sports metaphor that she couldn’t remember was. Talking about the time she nearly got the city into a gang war – no, okay, about the time she did get the city into a gang war – because Bruce wanted Tim as Robin, because she’d played right into the dumb blonde shtick and because he’d never trusted her and she’d believed him. Seriously, that whole thing hadn’t been a good time for anyone. But, yeah, stupid-ass Batman or not, she’d been to blame too. Talking about that was a bit like having somebody use power tools on you.
And yes, she knew. Someday, she was going to get great therapy from peeling that stupid mask off with a saw. Or so she dreamed.
Which really didn’t help her much.
”You’re mean.” Steph told the Canary, eloquently. ”You’re going to kick my butt in fishnets while making me talk about the time I got totally punked by Batman and then nearly got all of Gotham wrecked. Can’t we, I don’t know, talk about something fun to distract me from all the broken bones…” Not that she was turning down the opportunity, because that whole statement? That might as well have been a direct challenge. Steph’s response to challenges?
Challenge accepted!
”But sure. I’m in. But Ms Canary? I’d really appreciate it if you didn’t break anything. “ Well, she wasn’t going to learn anything if she played it safe, sure. And at least this way, she could try to punch something at the same time. Plus, though Steph had absolutely positively no illusions whatsoever about how well she was going to do in a fight with Black Canary, she’d learnt a lot since they last sparred and maybe she’d be able to surprise the older blonde. If she held back. Not that Steph was going to ask for any favours. She’d been taking on Cass at full speed for years now, then fighting alongside her, so she was totally used to being the punching bag for a top level martial artist. And, from what she knew, while Canary had the experience, the two were pretty closely matched. So, hey, maybe she’d not be a total wreck by the end of this.
Steph took another look at the way the Canary was eyeing her.
This was so going to hurt, wasn’t it…?
”So, can I just put my boots on for this or do I need full armour?” She asked, heading towards where the rest of her costume was stored.
TAG: Black Canary
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Post by dinah on Jan 2, 2013 16:12:13 GMT -5
Dinah gave a slow nod of her head, her blue eyes lighting up with the knowledge that she had said yes to a sparring session. She stood up and walked over to her, her presence normally soothing, it seemed more of a suffocation, as if there was some big secret no one seemed to be talking about. Or that big elephant in the room. She placed her hands on the younger girls shoulders and leaned down to look at her, blonde hair falling over one shoulder.
“I promise I won’t break any bones and if it makes you feel better, you can tell me about whatever you want. As long as you learned something as your time as Robin, you shouldn’t be so upset with it, and Batman wouldn’t have let you be Robin if he didn’t think you couldn’t do it”
Why was it as she said those words to her only a few of them registered in her mind and she was taken back, momentarily sucked back into her night where Jankowski had her tied up and hanging from her wrists her feet not able to touch the ground. Her fingers curled a little tighter around her shoulders and her eyes got a very far off, distant look to them. And a sharp intake of a breath was the only warning that was given that would give you an inkling that she wasn’t here, that she wasn’t complete in the present and the person she saw in front of her wasn’t Stephanie Brown.
As her fingers met soft muscle and not the roughness of a rope that seemed to bring her back and she immediately let her go, realizing that she very well could have left the imprint of her hold on her arms in the form of what would be a deep bruise. “Sorry” the word can out soft and low as though she had a hard time admitting that she had a problem, even something as minor as PTSD. Her eyes had widened as though she’d been unaware of what had happened a few moments ago, that was why she was on level at the moment, a forced vacation from her life, when you couldn’t very well run from this sort of thing, it wasn’t something that could be so easily punched between the eyes and things would just stop, no she’d been tortured you don’t just get up the name day and you’re fine and you can function normally.
She swallowed her fingers reaching up to touch her throat as she turned around her back to her, gathering her wits about her, gathering herself. She leaned down to pick up her boots off the ground. “You still…” she paused not realizing she done it, she turned around to look at her over her shoulder. “You sure you want to do this kiddo?” she let it hang there, she wasn’t sure if this would be a good idea. She didn’t wait for her answer either way she’d be doing her own thing if this didn’t work out as a sparring session.
“Just your boots…I told you I wouldn’t hurt you” the last few bit of works from ‘I told you…’etc. had faded to a mere mumble under her own breath as if the remind herself that she could hurt her, very badly if she wasn’t entirely aware of her surroundings, of herself.
She walked into the training room and glanced around knowing that the second Batgirl had often times like to frequent the place and had been training here non-stop for some time. She stepped into her boots and laced them up with a slow, practiced ease you just couldn’t shake as she stepped more into the room and faced the center waiting to see if Batgirl really wanted to test the waters with her.
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Post by Batgirl on Jan 7, 2013 17:17:44 GMT -5
Steph wasn’t a reader. By which she meant she wasn’t a people reader (stop snickering, Omen Fan Boy). True, she had her moments and she liked to think she had a great nose for double-dealing scumbags who’d grab her ass, get her pregnant and dump her. But she didn’t read people like a lot of them did. So, while she was wary at the way the Black Canary was acting, that was because it felt way, way out of character for how she remembered the other blonde acting years back, The hands on shoulders, that felt, but there was something... Batman like in how she leant over her and something downright creepy in how eagerly she looked at the notion of sparring.
Not that Steph planned to back out. But still. Creepy.
Still, the last thing that was said netted the more experienced vigilante a very sceptically raised eyebrow and a look that said ‘oh really?’ far more eloquently than she could ever have managed otherwise. ”Sure,” Steph replied in a sing-song, sarcastic tone that nobody had ever been able to beat out of her. ”I learnt tons about how Bats is willing to wreck my life, play with my emotions and fire me at the drop of a cowl if he could have Tim back. Seriously – we keep talking about this? I am not the one who’s going to be worried about broken bones.”
The armour that Steph was wearing wasn’t her full Batgirl rig by any stretch of the imagination. It was basically the underlayer of the suit, a woven fabric designed to do things like stop bleeding, keep her warm in cold environments and coincidentally keep her own heat-signature low, prevent chafing with the real armour above, that sort of thing. Oh yeah, and to stop bruising. Despite being meant to stop it and to stop it from things like bullets and other military level gear, Steph had to resist the urge to wince as she felt the Black Canary’s fingers dig into her shoulder like a damn vice. Seriously, it was like she could feel the older blonde’s digits punching through the armour and into her flesh. It hurt.
Was she going to bruise? Probably not, because the suit was really good. Babs knew her stuff about designing them. It still hurt and a lesser girl than Steph would have groaned or sighed with relief as the pressure suddenly went away. Not that one more bruise was a big deal – she had tons of them and worse all over her body, plus stretch marks on her belly and all the rest of it. That didn’t mean she wanted more or that she’d been planning to get them from somebody who was supposedly on the same side as she was. Carefully, Batgirl rolled her shoulder, testing it. Yup, full range of movement, and she waved away the apology. ”I get that way with black skull masks and power tools,” She said lightly, though her eyes flashed darkly with remembered pain and her own hands tightened to white-knuckled fists.
”Seriously, the first time I saw someone with a drill, I totally freaked. I nearly strangled the guy with his extension cord...” That came with a chuckle that had about as much humour in it as one of Batman’s. ”Think he was sweet on Mom too. But he didn’t want to hang around the psycho daughter.” The laugh that escaped her after that was a lot more Steph, life glinting in her eyes once more as she threw her head back to let it out. Was she sure that she wanted to do this? Steph laughed again, loudly and honestly, eyes sparkling with mirth. ”Ms Canary, I’d do anything to get a decent training session out of you. Ok, maybe you’re not like my idol or anything, but you’re still an awesome, kickass blonde who gives Bats orders! I’d totally want to grow up to be you.”
She paused, quirking her lips in an unconsciously ‘Cass’ like fashion. ”Just... No fishnets, thanks. I don’t have the legs for those.”
Just her boots then. Ok, she could do this. She could do this.
Steph stopped mid-walk as the words sunk in. Her eyes narrowed thoughtfully. Was she going to do this? Oh Hell yeah. Was she just going to run into a fight with a woman who had a literally killer body without an escape plan or lots of tricks up her sleeves? Hmm, yeah, the blonde didn’t go to her brain, thanksverymuchbye. And so, after grabbing her boots and clasping them around her calves and feet, grinning slightly at the familiar feeling, Steph also grabbed her utility belt. That went around her waist and her bo staff – boomstick, haha – went in its holster. Totally kosher? Nope. Sensible? You betcha.
And then she followed Ms Canary into the training room, somewhere she was already more than used to.
Heart in her mouth, thinking that it was a totally stupid plan but about to go through with it anyway, Steph walked to the centre of the room. Smiled to Ms Canary. Bowed.
And used the opportunity to drop into as fast a sweep as she could using her legs and aimed at taking the older vigilante’s legs right out from under her.
Because Pearl Harbour turned out so well for the Japanese. Dead, dead, dead, that was her.
TAG: Black Canary
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Post by dinah on Feb 20, 2013 16:49:52 GMT -5
Dinah had been expecting something like this, she knew how Batgirl reacted and a lot of the time, they were rash movements intend on catching her opponent off guard, a valiant move, but one that only worked on those opponents not prepared for the unexpected. Although this blonde was no one such opponent and the kick that would normal have taken someone of far less experience to the ground, she merely bunched her knees and leapt over the sweeping kick.
She didn’t allow herself time to over think her moves merely allowed her body to react naturally to the situation and as such, she twisted her body slightly and extended her right leg and swung her boot covered foot to arch out towards her opponents head, the movement going more towards the side of her head.
As she waited her breath held a little bit as she let herself focus only on the fight, and nothing else, but she noted the way her body was warm and ready for the fight, as well as the way her breathing was even and steady at the moment as she didn’t allow herself to get overwhelmed or loose focus. The adrenaline flowing through her veins helped keep her sharp focus as she watched the way the younger blonde had moved her body and the way she held herself.
She’d gotten better, she noted to herself the girl had improved from the last time they had spared and she was greatly pleased that she was excelling and getting better, she would need the skills in the bad guys she faced and the challenges of being Batgirl, everyone had something to loose and the better you were able to protect yourself and others the more likely it was that you would succeed or survive to fight another day.
Time seemed to stand still and slow, but even she knew that fights while seeming to last quite a long time and go on for hours usually only lasted a couple of minutes, it was strange to be in that area sometimes, that in-between state where all that mattered, all that you noticed was the person in front of you, as you two battled for dominance, for the win.
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Post by Batgirl on Mar 7, 2013 12:21:31 GMT -5
Another recent but now former holder of the Batgirl title and costume would have dealt with this a different way. Cass Cain would – well, she wouldn’t have been in that position to start with – but she’d have done something that would’ve left the Black Canary down and probably out or at least avoided the kick. Because she’d have known it was coming. And she was Cass and so very, very awesome. Most likely, because again she’d never have been stupid enough to think that would work. Or think she’d had to resort to – for which read ‘desperately try’ – a rather sneaky sneak attack because Cass would have just stood there, let Bee-Cee make the first move and shut it down with the same easy skill she did every time she and Steph sparred.
Cass would… Well, enough on what Cass would do because Cass most decidedly was not here.
Steph was. And Steph – well, she wasn’t Cass. As, hey, shown by the fact that she’d had to desperately try a sneak attack that was working about as well as the Pearl Harbour thing. Actually, no, and Steph hated to admit that she knew this when she tried it, it didn’t even work that well. The Japanese got about a year and a half out of it. She got about two seconds of thinking she’d pulled it off before the older woman just… hopped over it. Like they were playing and Steph’s leg was a skipping rope. Just. Like. That.
The really worrying thing was that she’d seen it coming. She really could. It was like… a train crash she’d decided. Something awful that was downright inevitable but just… hey, still inevitable. Slo-mo replay, basically. That leg coming right at her head. This, Steph knew in her bones, was going to hurt.
Despite feeling like she was moving through mud, Batgirl managed to get her arms up, one to block the kick and the other to support it. It still hurt, the shock shivering through her bones as she only just stopped it from cannoning into her head. Steph went rolling away, managing to turn the ungraceful spin into a passable tumble that saw her come back to her feet in a half-crouch. One hand rubbed at her jaw for a moment, blue eyes narrowed as she realised again that she was in way over her head. Way, way, way over her head. In fact, so far over her head that she was totally out of luck.
But then she wouldn’t have been Steph Brown if she had been willing to just give up and stay down.
Newsflash. She was Steph Brown and she wasn’t going to stay down or give up. She shook any lingering disorientation out of her head and rolled her shoulders back until the threatening stiffness went away, grinning with defiance as much as pure bull-headed stubbornness. And then Steph lunged up, throwing a vicious little uppercut at Canary’s chin, following up with a hard knee aimed at the belly. No way was she catching the older vigilante off guard, but she was going to do her best.
TAG: Black Canary
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