1457/It's Been Awhile

It's Been Awhile
Date of Scene:	30 April 2020
Location:	The Elementals Apartments
Synopsis:	Carrie and Jason reconnect for the first time since his return. They find that while Jason may be a gorilla right now, not a whole lot has changed.
Cast of Characters:	Jason Todd, Carrie Kelley

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Jason Todd has posed:
Jason had opted to remain in the cave after his newly formed truce with the Bat Family. It wasn't comfortable, either physically or emotionally, he had so many memories tied to this place. They'd mostly been good when they were formed but time and circumstances had made them bitter-sweet at best, sour at worst.

Memories were on his mind that- actually he wasn't sure what time it was right now, and really it didn't matter- day(?) and so still an ape, dressed in the ruins of his Red Hood suit looking like a black and silver furred Hulk, he pads over to the case with his old Robin suit in it, staring at it and his own distorted reflection in the glass.

He snorts a little at the plaque reading 'A Good Soldier' and shakes his head.

Carrie Kelley has posed:
"Yeah he always was bad at what to write to express things." It's Carrie's voice that greets as she comes into the cave from upstairs carrying a few items in her arms. The topmost was a serving tray with a plate full of still oven-warm cookies, and a pitcher of milk along with glasses. Large glasses. The largest poor Alfred could find which were, unfortunately, commeorative plastic tumblers from a visit to Amusement Mile that he'd kept shoved way back in the cupboard in hopes the 'kids' would forget about them. Beneath that was a box that simply had 'Jason' written on it.

"I come bearing gifts," she offers with a wry grin. "And the code to Netflix if it'll help kill time."

Jason Todd has posed:
"That's an understatement," Jason rumbles, his voice had improved since his arrival, having learned to navigate new teeth and a mouth that only bore a passing resemblance to a human one.

He turns and looks up at Carrie and her gifts, his nostrils flare. "Are those Alfred's cookies?" he asks. Even with the gulf of years since he'd last felt welcome here, somethings never left the memory. "And Netflix. Yeah, that'll help. Have to admit last time I watched it I was still on my first life." After that he'd been laser focused on other things.

He lopes over on all fours to find a spot near the Bat Computer, it was tradition for most little cave chats to happen there, or had been when he was Robin anyhow.

Carrie Kelley has posed:
It still was. Carrie makes her way over with a chuckle of amusement at the guess. "Of course they are. Made like you like them. Tim likes them with nuts. Weirdo," she utters with a shake of her head as she carefully sets the tray down. It's the box she takes out to offer over toward him that she gestures toward first.

"Here, took a bit to get them made, but should be better than wearing scraps," she offers. Inside the plain white box is a very.... very large house robe, and a pair of draw-string pants that were equally large. Enough to fit a gorilla one would hope.

"We got the information off to Dr. McCoy who is working on the issue. Hopefully we'll have an answer soon. But so far..." She can only shake her head. "How're you holding up? Besides being bored to death."

Jason Todd has posed:
Jason can't help but be glad somethings don't change, even if he had! His ape features contort into a look of surprise, "He likes them with nuts?" Jason shakes his head. "Where'd Batman find him anyhow? Park the Batmobile and come back to find him inside doing his tax returns for him?" He'd done his reasearch, he knew Robin was Tim Drake, and a good lot of biographical details about him, but not that part.

The gift distracts him though, and he cocks his head holding them up, blinking. "Wow," he says. "Thanks," he says after a moment. There's an awkward beat, trying to work his way around kindness in his mind. "Guess I should try these on," he says. "Change rooms still back there," he nods towards where they've always been.

The news about the cure is met with a nod, "As long as there will be a cure, I can wait, for now."

Carrie Kelley has posed:
"Everything's where it was, other than more vehicles and updated equipment," Carrie assures with a nod in response. She sinks down into one of the computer chairs for now to queue up a quick login to Netflix while he goes to change. "Nah, Tim actually figured out who he was and came sniffing around. Dick helped convince Bruce he needed another Robin since he was going off the rails after you were gone. He always needs someone to keep him in line," she points out before confirming. "Yep. Walnuts. It's okay-ish but not the same." Which is why she already has a cookie in hand herself to nibble on while he changes.

"Things have been crazy around here lately as it is. Even without all the dinosaur and gorilla things." There's a pause before she adds, "Good to have you back."

Jason Todd has posed:
Nodding Jason lopes off to change with his new clothes tossed over his shoulder. "Really? He broke the secret huh?" there was genuine surprise in his voice. "And I am sure he would have gotten over it. After all just another dead soldier, right?" he says of Batman and his own death. "Would have though it'd go down more like it did on your world. Guess that was too much to hope for."

There's some grunts and the sound of a heavy body falling against the lockers as Jason pulls clothes on to his still unfamiliar body, but before too much longer he emerges, dressed in the pants and robe, tying up the belt of the latter. "What do you think?" he asks, spreading his arms for a moment before going back to knuckle walking over to the computer. "And really?" he asks about being back. "I figured I burned through my welcome trying to take out Tim and Bruce." Though they likely crossed paths during Jason's summer long reign of terror he hadn't taken a serious shot at Carrie as the Red Hood.

Carrie Kelley has posed:
"He's stupid smart. Tim that is I mean. Both stupid and smart." Even as Carrie digs on him a bit she grins with amusement. Another bite of cookie is taken, and she types absently with her free hand to set up another profile on Netflix for Jason. No way was he ruining her account. Fft.

"He sort of did. He refused to have another Robin. Wouldn't let me go out with him. I figured I'd give him some time.... but then Tim showed up. I was off going to school." Boooring. The explanation is given with another final tap to the keyboard before she looks over toward him.

"Not bad. Less like a bad video game character now with the shredded suit," she points out only to have her expression soften. "Hey, it's me we're talking about. Yeah you didn't win any prizes, but we kind of grew up together. Least for awhile. *I'm* glad you're back at least."

Jason Todd has posed:
Oh come on, not like Jason would dare watch a couple minutes of each of the most annoying things on Netflix just to fill Carrie's 'continue watching' queue with the dregs of Netflix series and movies. Okay maybe it was for the best he had his own profile. Jason helps himself to a cookie, taking a couple of tries before he can make his fingers pick up the slender cookie without breaking it. "I know the type," about the stupid smart thing. "No street smarts, all book smarts," he says with a shake of his head. "What is a kid like that doing as Robin."

As to the rest he frowns, "If he'd picked you it would at least made sense, you were ready made, and maybe even a little better than I was," a pause, cookie half-way to his mouth, he raises his other hand, fingers an inch apart, "A little," he continues, before narrowing the gap a bit more. "Very little. But still-" he says and shakes his head before finally taking a bite of cookie. His eyes close, they were as good as he remembered.

He nods, about Carrie's reasons for her welcoming him back, "Fair enough, would have worried if that was the general feeling," he says. "You know, I was never going to actually hurt you, right? We only fought that time because you weren't letting me get away, was trying to keep the focus where it belonged."

Carrie Kelley has posed:
Carrie Kelley holds up a finger toward Jason at his remarks of being better than her. "Just because I let you think that. Boys have such tender ego." Really, her training had been different. She *had* slacked a little when she came her. Partially due to the emotions of losing her own home, and partially due to not needing to have so much responsibility put soley on her. Something she would occasionally regret as she got older.

"I know. I could tell you were holding back. So was I. I just..." A little puff of air is blown out and she turns to face him fully. It was odd having to tip her head up to peer at him even without the gorilla part. "I was hoping I could convince you to calm down. I don't know what happened after you came back. But... He wasn't the only one that mourned you, you know."

Jason Todd has posed:
Jason could imagine some of what Carrie had been going through then, when he'd woken up from the Pit he'd felt much the same. Lost, unsure of what he wanted or what to do. Hell he felt some of it now, his plans turned so throughly upside down by this sudden transformation and the truce it necessitated.

That last bit hit home and Jason lowers his head, "I know, I mean, I guessed," he lets out a sigh. "I didn't mean to walk into that trap, if I'd gotten even a whiff of the Joker being there I'd have run, I mean you warned me right. I knew better."

Carrie Kelley has posed:
Carrie Kelley reaches out to place a hand on his arm. Even if it was overly large and gorilla-ey at the moment she gives it a squeeze. "That's the thing about the Joker: He's a smart criminal even if he may not seem like it on the outside. I didn't know when it would happen, just that it would. I never had the details... so even I was caught by surprise." Here she pauses biting down on her lower lip rather hard as she recalls what happened when he was found.

"Damn, Jason, I almost went after him myself." Drawing her hand back she rubs the bridge of her nose to quickly wipe away the tears that were threatening. A mixture of sorrow and anger and something she had thought she'd gotten under control a long time ago.

Jason Todd has posed:
Jason flinches a bit a the touch, not sure how he felt about people touching him in this state, but slowly, he relaxes his hand and allows the touch. It was needed. He couldn't remember the last time someone offered a supportive touch, not in this lifetime anyhow.

Carrie's admission gets a surprised looked from Jason, and maybe somewhere in that inhuman face a bit of appreciation. "Should have figured you would have, you're not soft like the others," he says, excluding Batman of course he was many things but soft wasn't one of them. "What stopped you? Not that I'm not glad you didn't, we both weren't ready to take him on back then."

Carrie Kelley has posed:
Carrie Kelley allows herself a rueful smile at that as she looks back toward him quietly. "I was upset. I was *too* upset. I recognized that. He would have exploited it and I'd have lost my touch. Besides that, he vanished for awhile. I mean... Makes sense to do so. He just stuck a stick of dynamite in the hornets nest. He went to ground and didn't show up again for nearly a year." A little shake of her head comes along with a chuckle.

"By then I was off to school trying to give the Boss time to recover. I wasn't around as often and didn't see how much he was going down the hole. Otherwise I would have come back sooner. But..." She shrugs faintly. "It's one of those things that you look back on and realize you let so many things slip away but at the time you just didn't notice."

Jason Todd has posed:
"You were always the smart one," Jason says. "I have to admit when I realized who had been behind my mother, my real mother sending me those messages I tried to fight, it was no good, you'd think a guy dressed like that couldn't move that fast but he can. He took me apart and then-" he lets that trail off, looking down at his oversized hands. "Anyhow I should have ran, my birth mom had sold me out anyhow, would have been what she deserved to be abandoned with that psycho but, y'know, hindsight."

He nods, taking in what Carrie told him about the Joker and what came after his death. "Well, like I said, hindsight, no point in torturing yourself over what you didn't see," he says, putting a big hand on Carrie's shoulder, odd as that felt. "It's okay. You did what you could. Batman was the one that let Joker live after he returned, after what he did to me."

Carrie Kelley has posed:
"To be fair, so did my Batman. For years. It was only when he came out of retirement that he..." She shakes her head a little, and reaches up to pat that overly large hand. "Takes him awhile to process things I think." A single nod is given though at that before she takes a deep breath.

"So now that you know all that... Just what *did* happen after you came back? Talia wasn't it?" She asks with a cock of her head to the side. At least it surely seemed as if she'd been involved given his apparent recognition of Damian's lineage.

Jason Todd has posed:
"Guess that's right. Maybe there's hope yet," Jason says, a little thoughtfully though there's skepticism in his tone too. Carrie's Batman may have finally done the deed, but he doubted his ever would and it comes through even in his distorted voice. "Gave him the chance last summer you know, to kill the Joker, turned it back on me, got out of it, the bastard," he says letting that go for now.

"After I died?" He snorts and helps himself to a new cookie. "Yeah, Talia was part of that, I woke up from the dead on my own but she was the one who gave me my mind back, I guess she thought she could drop me off on the manor doorstep with a bow for Bruce. Really clung to it too," he shakes his head. "Even after I escaped and tried to kill him she kept hoping I'd change back and she could be the hero and bring me back to him."

He shakes his head. "Gonna guess, pipsqueak is one of hers?" he asks Carrie.

Carrie Kelley has posed:
"IS hers. And his," Carrie confirms with a single nod. "She dropped him off few months ago informing him 'this is your son' and left. And he's ignored the kid ever since," she adds with a sound of mild disgust. "Tried to get me to train and bring him into the fold. The one time a kid is his actual flesh and blood." There's a pause, and she wags the cookie in his direction, "We did check. Don't know how, don't really want to know those deets, but it is his kid. He and I argued a lot over that. About how ignoring him was a bad idea, but you know how he is. He knows best."

"It's *stupid* too. He wants him to prove himself like we all did but he's not giving him a chance to even do so. Like... How!? Yeah, okay, I get he doesn't want us to feel that the new kid is getting favoritism, but he let us work with him when we were learning. So now he has a kid that is already trained, a bit TOO violently, and he doesn't give him a chance. That's not the same at all. Not even for what I went through," she points out with a sigh of exasperation.

"I've stepped back a lot. We had it out last on his birthday. Threw Chinese at him." Not that it hit but boy that was cathartic. "Been working on my own and with the Birds of Prey as Sparrow."

Jason Todd has posed:
Jason takes that all in big eyes blinking. "I'd wondered, but for real?" He says and would have whistled if he had the lips for it. "That's all sorts of awkward. Well, she never mentioned him to me, I must have been the backup plan if the bio kid thing didn't work out." Or who knew what he was Talia's logic was hard to work out sometimes.

"Sounds like Bruce," he says of the rest. "He's never been a candidate for father of the year," he says. "But that's cold even for him."

There's a smile then, "Really? Chinese food?" he says. "Remind me to get you some shuriken," not like she didn't have tons, they were Bats, they were never short on weapons. "Well, proud to see you're following the Grayson tradition of bailing and joining your own team. The Birds though, that's Bab's girl gang, right?" he asks before cocking his head and asking, "Sparrow?"

Carrie Kelley has posed:
"Yeah. I may still do my own thing, but I just needed to branch out a bit with something new. I can't be Robin forever. I'm twenty," Carrie points out with a little chuckle. It's when he inquires about the name that she grins. That little impish gleam to her eye comes that he might recognize as her when she's being clever or making a joke. "Sure, why not?" A crunch of cookie comes as she draws out the apparent joke a moment longer.

"I started feeling like he was using me as a back up. You know. A Spare RO-bin."

Jason Todd has posed:
Jason watches that impish smile and braces for what's to come, he's not disappointed! "Boo!" he teases with the first real laugh he's had since he got back. "That's so bad I think it actually goes right through bad and circles back to good," he chuckles about the reason for the name before he tests out the name again. "Sparrow," he nods. "It suits you, C. And it's good you're getting out on your own. I mean back in the day I'd figured I'd be Batman's right hand forever, you know, getting a cooler name later, but still, but looking at it now? Forget it. Let someone else handle that. I," a beat. "We, did our time."

Carrie Kelley has posed:
Carrie Kelley beams proudly at the horrible joke and the response it gets. A lot of things may have changed but she was still the same person as before. So was he. Just older, and with more experiences both good and bad. Possibly more bad. "I thought it was good," she has to agree with a quiet chuckle at her own joke. "And it does work. I've had a few other names before coming here, but I am not being Catgirl again. That was just wrong." Her head shakes a bit at the memory. Then, quietly she adds, "Yeah, We did."