19839/Jason The Smasher Todd

Jason The Smasher Todd
Date of Scene:	11 January 2025
Location:	Red Cave (14th Street Garage) - Park Row
Synopsis:	Babs and Jason speak after the incident. This takes place near Christmas 2024.
Cast of Characters:	Jason Todd, Barbara Gordon

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Jason Todd has posed:
Dark, angry, violent thoughts swirl within Jason's mind. His knuckles are bloodied, his hair matted. Stains from the alleyway and dirty street mark his clothes.

The music echoing through the garage is no less angry or dark. He's turned the volume up to 11, currently blasting out Megadeth's frenzied guitar riffs and drumb beats. Barbara can easily verify that her BatgirlMobile delivered him to the garage and that he went inside. He hasn't left. On the wall beside the entry door's frame is a bloody knuckle impact in the wall.

Inside Jason hasn't changed or gotten cleaned up. He's standing in the back corner, punishing a speed bag with a flurry of never ending punches.

Barbara Gordon has posed:
Christmas was on the horizon. coming soon. It often brought with it, heightened levels of negative emotions too. Was that to blame, for what Babs had witnessed in Jason? Seems a bit far fetched. She had to check on him though.

They had originally been headed home soon, to go out on a patrol together. Following the incident, Babs had gone on home, where she had suited up, and expected to find him out there waiting for her somewhere. But he had not been.

thus, whatever systems that alerted Jason to someone slipping in to his secured garage, would inform him, and a moment later, there she was. In full Batgirl suit, armored up, her cape draping down her shoulders, and her body language casually calm, as she walked out of whatever corner the garage access wwas located in.

"You bailing on me tonight?" She asked, her green eyes visible from behind her black half-mask. "Could have at least warned a girl." She stated, showing him a faint smirk, before she glanced at the bag he was punishing.

Jason Todd has posed:
Jason Todd got the alert to his smart watch and his phone. Only the best WayneTech had yet to release, just like the rest of the family. He'd considered being a rebel and switching to Starktech. But he already waves enough red flags in front of the charging bull that is Batman. Needling him that way somehow feels like a bridge too far. Usually.

Not turning around, Jason delivers a brutal series of blows to the speed bag before finishing with a brutal haymaker that would rip most bags off the mount. He's done it before, many times, so now this bag has a custom designed mounting.

Pausing a moment, his chest rising and falling rapidly.

"You told me to go home." And, for once, he listened to someone. If it had been anyone else? Well.

Barbara Gordon has posed:
Barbara had bared witness to a lot of testosterone being vented over the years. she'd spent the past decade and a half around a lot of very manly men. She'd trained directly with them too. She watched Jason, from over his shoulders, standing about eight feet away, her armored suit making her look a bit out of place, when in an arguably casual setting like this.

"I did, you're right." She answered him, about sending him home. "Buuuuut.... I thought you'd just get cleaned up and head back out to... You know what? Nevermind." She said, as she stepped around to find a stool to perch a booted foot upon, her dark gold boot rising high up to her knee. She let her eyes wander around his garage. "Been awhile since I came in here... Looks like you got some dusting, you could be doing." She said, a gloved finger swept over a surface space.

she smirked back at him, after glancing at her fingertip. "Look, you got pissed off. It's okay to get pissed off. Happens to me all the time." She tells him, her voice soft and unfiltered by a modulator, leaving it in her naturally feminine tone.

Jason Todd has posed:
Jason Todd turns back to destroy the speed bag with another double punch. The bolts on the wall appear to have worked loose a little.

He looks back at her. He opens his mouth to reply but stops short. He taps his smartwatch and the music drops from 11 down to about 3. Still enough the frenzied speed can be heard but low enough they can have a conversation above it.

"No. I saw him." It's all he thinks he has to say.

"Something about the way the guy moved. Similar gait." He flexes his fists, studying his bruising knuckles.

"And they ruined our date." It's quiet but that comment with the other may explain most of the motivation to destroy the would be robber.

To the comment about dusting, he shrugs. "Cat hair and dander is impossible to keep out of here."

Not far away, a small orange tiger (Maine Coon Cat) perks his head up now that the annoying cacauphony of 'music' has decreased. Church regards Jason and his visitor with silent disdain. The humans haven't come over, yet, to pay proper obeisance to the king.

Barbara Gordon has posed:
Babs had never been one for listening to loud music, so with Jason turning it down, she felt a wealth of inner relief. She didn't like having any of her senses dulled, though her helmet did have a noise reduction element to the technology feeding her sounds through the ear pieces. When he spoke of the cat, Babs walked over to the orange tiger, and lowered down to a crouch, her cape pooling around her feet, as she reached out to touch the furry one.

"I was never allowed to have pets, growing up." Babs said softly. "Dad said he had a hard time enough putting food on the table for us. Plus, he said I had allergies to worry about. To this day, I am not sure if he's right or not about the allergies." She stood up again, and turned to face Jason once more. "I get it. But don't let it get you down. It made our date a little more interesting, a little more memorable, right? Plus, it isn't like we're not used to that kind of thing now. We practically breathe it for oxygen to sustain ourselves." She smirked, as she gave another look around the garage.

"I don't know if you've noticed it, Mr. Todd. But we're all adrenaline junkies..."

Jason Todd has posed:
Jason Todd watches as Barbara moves over to Church. The large floofy orange tabby coated Maine Coon; is a good four feet from nose to tail tip and stands as tall as some dogs. Golden eyes regard her thoughtfully as he sniffs the air and then sniffs her gloved hand. He is familiar with others in such silly attire with little to no scent visiting the garage now and then so he isn't bothered by her, just curious.

He bunts her fingers and hand with the top of his head as any good royal should to declare others as part of his accepted retinue. With a quiet 'mrow', Church begins to purr as he walks a slow circle around her, curiously.

Jason shrugs. "Maybe. This was more than adrenaline." He turns away to a back counter in the garage and begins washing and soaking his hands to clean them.

"I don't know. Maybe I was trying to be protective. Maybe..." he trails off as he begins to scrub the dried blood from his knuckles.

Barbara Gordon has posed:
With Church up on his feet, and brushing up against her boots, Babs falls back to one of her mainstays, whe ever she is around Selina's cats.

A laser pointer on her gauntlet, a rarely used feature, but one she still had installed, activated. A little red dot hits the floor of the garage, and she begins waggling it around, to try and get Church's attention. Is he a laser fiend? Or is he a laser snob? Every cat is different!

"Maybe that isn't so bad, either?" Babs asked, as she glanced a look up to him, while he washed his hands. "A lot of bad things happen in this city, Jason. to a lot of good people. we see it all the time. Protecting each other is perfectly fine. Maybe... not killing someone to do it, but, still. Maybe killing a bad guy isn't that bad, when we have no choice."

Were they supposed to say that? She said it kind of darkly, but she still said it anyway.

Jason Todd has posed:
Church experiences a record scratch moment and comes full stop, his left front paw frozen in the air, mid step. Shiny laser pointer?

Weeeeell. Hello new prey!

The large cat winds up his gear box, complete with Authentic Booty Wiggling Action (tm) before pouncing n the laser dot like a fox would jump high to land on top of a vole hiding under a blanket of snow. Missed?! How could he have missed! It was -right there-. Fluffy tail swishing with attention and curiosity, Church looks around quickly for the dot.

Jason pauses as if he'd tasered himself. Rigid. The moment she suggested the idea that killing might not be as forbidden as Bruce has preeched it to be from Day Zero.

Finally he finishes washing his hands and carefully pats the knuckles dry with a roll of paper towels.

Turning around to watch Barbara play with Church (who is already all-in on this dot thing), Jason shakes his head, "No. None of you are supposed to kill." You. Because he's the black sheep. He, alone, has crossed that line. Multiple times. If anyone is going to do it again, it'll be him. Because Bruce wouldn't really be surprised. And he couldn't think any less of Jason for doing it than he already does. It's something Jason is prepared to accept. But the others? No.

Barbara Gordon has posed:
Was the laser dot actually fun to chase, for the furry kitty? Or was it abject torture for him to be unable to capture the dot? Either way, a smirk appeared on Babs' lips, as she waggled the laser around, the beam iminating from the back of her wrist bracer. She paused it, however, when she heard him reply to her.

Her eyes looked back up at him, her chin angled down a bit, as she eyed him closely. "I have no immediate plans..." She said softly, as she lowered her eyes to stare back at Church, and keep up the game of cat and laser dot.

"But still. Our enemies kill, and we let them go. We capture them, we let them go. We capture them again, and we let them go. We put them in places like Arkham, and we know the corruption there often runs deeper than we would hope it too. We just screw them up even worse, and they escape, or some other bullshit happens. They kill again, and we repeat."

She shuts the laser off, and releases a sigh, as she walks toward him, and stops within arm reach of him. "Sometimes it would be nice to feel a real noticeable change to the city. To see some serious results. Maybe killing the wicked isn't the answer, but the thought still creeps inside anyway."

Jason Todd has posed:
Church is not new to the Evil Glowing Dot game. But he doesn't get to play it that often. Jason isn't the sort to play like that too often. Church does have other enrichment toys, plus he has a whole garage to run amok in. And keep the mice and huge Gotham rats out. Which he does a heroic job at. He is the Feline Gotham Needs.

"It's true" he agrees as he watches her walk toward him. Church sees the dot has escaped again and with a swish of his tail, he looks around a moment then to the humans. This is their doing. But now they're talking and that's boring, so the large cat saunters off to patrol his domain. A king's work is never finished.

"There has to be a better way. A revolving door isn't it." He flexes his knuckles again. They're more than sore but he's had worse.

Barbara Gordon has posed:
"And that is where you get in to the real weeds." Babs answers him, her voice soft, loud enough to be heard just over the music though. "Rehab, mental healthcare, outreach programs, corruption in where the money is going, and who it is actually going to. Maybe try something new, like radical hallucinogenic therapies? Sign me up." She smirked again at herself, before she stepped over to put a hand on his shoulder. "We're okay, Jason. That is what matters most."

She lingered her green gaze on him, for a moment, before she nodded toward the way she had come in. "I'm gonna go do the patrol. You take the night off. Maybe try to up your game in Call of Duty. I don't need you holding the team back..."

She teased him, as it was her nature, but before waiting for a response, she headed for the doorway she came in.

Jason Todd has posed:
Jason Todd listens to her theory, considering it. "Maybe. But Tetch does that with his hats and that's nothing more than forcing different behavior till the stimulus is removed."

As Church disappears and Barbara announces her intentions to go on patrol, Jason is faced with being alone again.

"No. I'll join you in thirty minutes." It isn't out of guilt, or out of obligation. It's because she's helped him work through what was eating at him.