Duplicity Contact Post

[notrosecolored]

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[covert]

I barely blinked at Space Pirate and you're going to hassle me over Batman?

[It's a tease, you don't live this long as a small brightly coloured assistant to someone in a bat onesie and not appreciate the absurdity.]

He wanted to instill fear in people, and he's afraid of bats so - he might have overestimated how universal that feeling is. But he does have sonar. Me too. It's in the suit.

[notrosecolored]

[ He holds his hand up, thumb and forefinger held about an inch a part to say yeah, he's hassling a little. ]

And to think, I settled for spandex and a shutter trigger in my gloves. I should have held out longer.

[ It's an easy, dry, sort of humor ]

So Batman is who took you in after your parents died?

[covert]

Batman's who stopped me from killing the man who murdered them. It was a longer fall for me than them but with a better ending. Bruce is who caught me.

[It's not without sentimentality. These are the defining motives of his life - the reason he, guilty as anyone, finds to stay alive. If, maybe, his life can be of use.]

And that's why I do what I do.

[notrosecolored]

[ He really isn't sure where literal and metaphor intersect there, but after a second of thought decides it doesn't matter. ]

I landed on my head, but eventually with Charles. He built the team around me. I'm sure that saved my life. Also why I do what I do. Or did what I did.

[covert]

[Charles. He's picked up on more than a few mixed feelings around that man, but every one of them passionate. Not unlike what people must pick up when he talks about Bruce.

Since they're on commonalities - he slides a glance across.]

I've thought about setting up a team, here. How about you?

[notrosecolored]

[ Scott looks Dick dead in the eyes, lifts both of his eyebrows and keeps his voice so deadpan it's frankly making a mockery of himself. Exaggerated 'innocence' but without actually trying to sell it. ]

I have no idea what you're talking about. What would I possibly do with a team. I just put out periodic calls for experienced people looking for advanced combat training. It's how I make a living here.

[ Yeah. He's thought about it. You want his notes? Because there are notes. Very, very sketchy ones that look innocent. ]

[covert]

[One corner of Dick's mouth ticks up.]

A few months before you got here I put a call out for skilled or powered people - not just fighters. Magic users, telepaths - we had a few more mutants, then, we had technopaths, aliens, hackers.

I called it a network - just to train together, have people to call on when we needed to. [And the aim, of course, was ultimately to narrow it to a team of the most capable and a pool of reserves and lookouts.] Most of that network's gone and - I admit - I let more of it slip than I should have.

[He tips his head back, looking up to where pale clouds skim across the black of the sky. Of course, never being able to put things in plain terms doesn't help.]

There are plenty of threats, here - giant tigers, tentacle monsters [Themselves.] And whenever something happens the response is a piecemeal mess. Having a response unit couldn't be a bad thing. At least, people tell me I shouldn't try and do everything myself.

[As long as it doesn't look like they're arming themselves to bring down the system.

Doesn't look like it.]

[notrosecolored]

[ This is the first time Scott has so much alluded to doing anything, to anyone. The need for that level of discretion certainly does not make it easy to get shit done.

It also makes his relationship with his son complicated and tense.

It is what it is.

He unfolds and leans back onto his elbows so he can look up, more than out. Still moving carefully but a lot more normally, too.]

There's a lot of chaos that is inherent in the place. You'll never keep people from responding on their own, but some of it could certainly be cut out with a little careful organization.

The continual turn over in who's here's it's own sort of problem. People who keep turning up for their training session does a decent job of tracking that subset, but I'm probably overdue for putting out an offer for newer arrivals who might need to burn off some aggression. [ Ie: Find out who's there and pissed and can hold their own. ]