6896/War Games: A Whole Lot of Crazy

War Games: A Whole Lot of Crazy
Date of Scene:	12 July 2021
Location:	Dick Grayson's Townhouse
Synopsis:	Charlie visits Stephanie at the brownstone and hears about the dead conspiracy theorist that Dick is working on.
Cast of Characters:	Stephanie Brown, Charlotte Gage-Radcliffe

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Stephanie Brown has posed:
Stephanie had previously mentioned she was staying somewhere other than her college apartment. A brownstone that is also close to the University, if not quite right across the street like her place is. She'd invited Charlie to come by to see it.

And there was extra reason to stop by. Barbara had been doing some investigative work. "When you get over there," Barbara says, "Have her check my results, I should probably have them up by the time you get there." She hadn't gone into any detail though on what it was Barbara was looking into.

At the moment, Stephanie is camped out in the living room. Wearing a pair of shorts and a Gotham U t-shirt, she's lying on the couch, feet up on one of the armrests as she reads from a white binder. There are stacks of other binders around the room.

Charlotte Gage-Radcliffe has posed:
Charlie replies via comms <<Okay cool be right over>>.

Then because honestly Charlie is basically always Charlie she sticks her tongue out at Babs. "Better type fast then if you want to beat me to it." it is teasing tones

The teen snaps a smart little salute at her foster mom, then steps backwards and vanishes from the clocktower with a slash of pink and purple smoke.

Appearing a heartbeat later in the room with Stephanie in a mirrrored slash of smoke.

There is a pause as the redhead looks all around the living room trying to soak it all in detective style. Eyes flitting from binder to binder now. "That is... a lot of binders. So this isn't school work. I mean I know it isn't the thing Babs is sending over any moment now for you to check the results on....." she pauses a beat "Because that would all be on the computer..."

She gestures and then wlalks over to plop down on the other end of the couch, carefully shifting a stack of binders to make room. "So what is all this?"

Stephanie Brown has posed:
Stephanie Brown gives a tiny jump as Charlie arrives. Yes she was expecting it, but still maybe wasn't expecting it just that exact moment. Plus she'd gotten engrossed in her reading of the binder.

The spine has the word "Textbooks" written on it in large, clear letters. Others have labels like "North Korea", "Freemasons", "Philadelphia Experiment", "Utah Landing", "H2O Fluoride", and "Moon Landing". Stephane swivels to get her feet down onto the floor and sits up. "Hey Charlie! Oh, this is all from one of Dick's cases with GCPD," Stephanie says as she looks at it. "Talk about a whole lot of crazy in matching binders."

The blond goes on, saying, "This guy was found dead... in a compromising situation like he'd been asphyxiating himself. He runs a conspiracy theory discussion site. Only it looks like it was more likely murder. And, even more suspicious, Dick and his partner found a listening device in his house. In a fake rock in the guy's tank holding his turtle. He sent what he had on it to Barbara to try to track who was listening in."

Stephanie hoists the binder. "So the guy took meticulous notes detailing all the conspiracy theories he believed in. I'm helping go through and see if any of them might be something that could lead to, you know, guy getting killed over it. Most of it is pretty nuts though. This one, he believes the Illuminati are responsible for all the school textbooks in America and are pushing their hidden agenda," she says, shaking her head.

Charlotte Gage-Radcliffe has posed:
GCPD cases gets the teens attention and she plucks a binder off the end table and turns it over looking at the label and then cracks it open. "Uh.... is Gotham PD actually investigating the Philadelphia experiment or does someone in records just have a crazy sense of humor in labeling the binders and no one bothered to unpdate the binding due to budget constaints or something?"

Then it becomes more clear, oh. Someone who ran an actual god honest conspiracy theory website was murdered and all that. The information about a bug in his turtles fishtank is even more interesting.

"Okay so why do we think he was murdered... I mean other than a bug ... which honestly could have been him bugging himself in case anything happened."

She drops that binder and reaches for another one at random and popping it open to see what is in it. "Which Illuminata.... martian... mole people... lizard people... Gorilla Grodd... Luthor... Justice League?"

Stephanie Brown has posed:
Stephanie reaches over to where she has a bottle of flavored soda water, grabbing it to take a sip as she relaxes back, sinking into the couch. "From what Dick's notes said, the belt around his throat was way too big to be his, and he had a broken finger which would make it pretty difficult to pull off autoerotic asphyxiation," Stephanie replies.

She motions towards some others, "Yeah, the fluoride in the drinking water being the first a two-stage mind control agent was pretty out there too," Stephanie says with a little roll of her eyes. "There's like, 30 of them to go through though."

Stephanie rises then, saying, "So... this is it. The house I mean. Dick bought it and... ah... not sure if you noticed, or heard. But we've been kind of... seeing each other for a little while now," she says a little sheepishly. "And, well, this way we can see each other easier than going back and forth between Bristol and here."

Charlotte Gage-Radcliffe has posed:
Charlie flips through the binder she picked up. "Project Safeguard. A Military complex in North Dakota built for over $500 million in known expenditures, shaped like a half finished pyrmid. Opened on October 1st 1975 and then closed on October 2nd 1975 when congress ended the program. Supposedly built to detect incoming missiles. Lot of stuff about freemasons and illuminati.... that is odd. I mean pork spending I suppose or secret installation." she closes the binder and holds it.

"Thing about some of these.. we know for a fact about Cadmus... DEO... ARGUS... SWORD... probably like a dozen others Batman knows about right." she waves at the binders. "I mean... The League has a base on the moons and aliens do exist.. who is to say there isn't a grain of truth in a lot of this?"

The last bit does prompt her to look around the house there and then nods. "I'd sort of picked up on it... not totally oblivious.. jus.... a bit." she grins. "Hope your happy... you do know that someone is going to crack a joke about Dick having a thing for Batgirls right?"

Stephanie Brown has posed:
Stephanie gives a wry grin at the talk about the conspiracy theories. "Yeah, a lot of stuff that would have once seemed like it was out there, well, the whole alien thing definitely not so unbelievable. But... I've read 7 already and it's just a lot of paranoid fantasy so far," Stephanie says, giving another little shake of her head.

A quiet chuckle follows then. "Yeah. Told Barbara already. She was happy for me. For us. It... well," Stephanie says, getting quite a bit smile. "It was kind of unexpected when it happened. I'd... realized how I felt about him. But didn't figure there was any chance. And he was dating that police detective from New York. Sarah. And I guess she was the one who made him realize I wasn't the young teen he first met anymore." Stephanie is trying to repress her grin, but it's still leaking through. It's pretty easy to tell how happy she is.

She clears her throat. "How are you doing? Anything interesting going on with you?"

Charlotte Gage-Radcliffe has posed:
Charlie flails to grab another binder and cracks it open next browsing it. "Well as long as you know there is no way Tim or Damian won't be all... unbearable." she grins a bit. She seems happy enough for Stephanie really. Zero reason not to be.

Dick has been nothing but nice and helped save her from demon possession after all.

"Wow the file on the Denver International Airport is ... ridiculously large for an airport. She slowly starts to flip through it. "Illuminati. Neo Nazis. Scary Murals. Fourth Reich...." she considers. "Isn't HYDRA like all.. Nazi... wonder if they built a facility under the Denver International Airport..." she pauses "Okay so... I stand by my earlier statement.. I mean.. maybe he was right about one of these binders and it got him killed??"

Then she blinks. "Oh uh.. me." she thinks. "Well I met a lady named Morgana LeFay who goes to Happy Harbor... witch or mage or something.... I'm going to go help her recover the philosphers stone maybe... oh some teen heroes may be meeting in Jersey in a couple days.. may pop over to see what is up with that... you know. Usual stuff." she says it totally dead pan. "Want to order a pizza.. I can snag pickup... I'll help with binders."

Stephanie Brown has posed:
"It's a deal," Stephanie says of the trade of pizza for help with the binders. "We went to watch his partner's daughter playing softball. Wow that girl has a canon for an arm, and 10 years old," Stephanie shares as she goes over to get her phone.

She puts in a call for the pizza and then grabs some drinks from the kitchen and comes back, setting aside the conspiracy theory on the textbooks to pick up a different one. "Looks like I get Crop Circles," she says as she reads the binder. Stephanie grins and then settles in with Charlie for a night of reading and pizza.