ladyofgotham | 1

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[The smile she gives the camera is the sort she's practiced a thousand times; friendly and soft and completely unthreatening.]

Hello. My name is Barbara Gordon, and I think there's been some sort of mistake.

[Her voice, too, is a gentle one, though edged with confusion.]

I have no idea why I'm here. I'm nothing but a novelist, an activist – I'm pretty sure my worst crime is a few boring lectures.

[She runs a hand through her hair, lets the fingers tremble just slightly.]

I really would like to go home. The Waynes – my family will be worried.

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Yes. [And so are you.]

You?

Most of my life. I grew up in the Heights.

Nice neighbourhood. I went to school there.

Yeah? We moved around a couple times, but I did my first year of high school there.

So - any relation to the Commissioner?

I did two, before graduating. [She flashes a wry smile.] It was pretty nice, except for all the other teenagers.

[And the smile fades abruptly. Her voice is quiet when she answers.] Jim Gordon was my father. Never made Commissioner, though.

[It makes her chest ache, a little, to know he did in other Gothams. They must be better for it.]

[Dryyyyl] Yeah, those teenagers have a way of ruining it.

[He matches her, drops the amusement, and wonders just what that meant for Jim - for her, though the way she's acting now is a pretty clear tell.]

Sorry. Sore subject?

I hung out with the teachers. I was cool that way. [It's easier than usual to slip into this casual, teasing persona; she'll need to file that away to examine later.]

[She shakes her head.] No need to be - it was an obvious question, from what I've heard.

I assume, in your Gotham, he and my mother survived past my eighth birthday. [Well. It had been a few months after.]

[Oh. OH.

Wow, this was shaping up to be a nightmare, wasn't it?]

Uh - yeah, well beyond, I - I'm sorry.

Most people are. [He seems more sincere than most, though - much like Dick did. That draws a slight, sad smile.]

Do you know the other Gothamites aboard?

Yeah. Most of us seem to be from the same one, though from different times. With a few exceptions.

That sounds disconcerting.

Won't say it wasn't weird, but you get used to it.

Sounds like you have to get used to a lot of things on this ship.

Most things, really.

Any questions left I can answer?

[For a while, she doesn't answer; when she does, her expression is different - still calm, but in a taught, brittle sort of way. Her voice is much the same.]

If an Inmate never leaves, what happens to their home?

Couldn't ask an easy one, could you?

[It's not like he doesn't understand, though; his thoughts stray to Gotham all the time. He isn't there protecting his city. The thing that gets him by is the fact that a second will have passed when he shows up again. But for an inmate?]

Hard to say. When I come here, it's like no time passes at home. When inmates graduate, they usually choose what they want to do, where they want to go - my first inmate wanted to come to Gotham, for a little while. When you graduate, I guess - you can ask to go back. To make sure no time passed.

[Her smile is hard and wry.] I didn't make a name for myself out of easy questions.

[She shakes her head.] You're assuming graduation as a foregone conclusion. I don't even know why I'm here.

You'll be assigned a warden, and you'll figure that out together. [He's actually legitimately afraid to find out why; if she's to her Gotham what Batman is to his, then the things she could have done, to bring her here...that's terrifying.]

Maybe time never moves on, maybe it always done, and the Admiral rewinds it or creates a pocket dimension when we go back.

You know the only option is to graduate. [For Gotham. To get back there and protect the city. Although if he was in her shoes...]

[Her laugh is a harsh, bitter thing. The façade is splintering.]

By molding myself to this Admiral's ideals? How useful will I be then?

[A swift, sharp shake of her head.]

He's holding my family's safety over my head. My city's future. How moral is that?

[He sees that, and switches over to private.] I've had three inmates now, and after reading their files, I can't say they didn't deserve to be here. One was a serial murderer; he graduated, and got to go home, fix the things he'd done. The other two are just kids who made mistakes.

Whatever reason you're here? Odds are it's a good one.

[She'll be grateful for that, later.]

I'm not a killer. [Which isn't to say she hasn't killed - there are situations where that's simply the best choice to make - but it's never her intention, never the first option.]

All I want to do is protect Gotham. [And there's a note of desperation in her voice. No, no, she doesn't get desperate and if she did no one should be allowed to hear -

She raises a hand to her head. Takes a steadying breath. When she speaks again her voice is perfectly calm.]

You're here to help people, I understand that. I'll even concede that this system works, for some of them. Even most, I don't know.

[Her hand drops, revealing a steely gaze.] What I will not do is accept the judgement of some alien force who thinks it has the right to play with peoples' lives.

I know. [Man, this is getting stranger and stranger, because it's Babs, but at the same time it really, really isn't. Tim's silent for a moment, looking for an angle that he knows won't work anyway, before he shakes his head.]

When you're assigned, your warden will be given a file on you. Ask to see it. Maybe that will...clarify a few things. [He wants to see that file, but he also never ever wants to lay eyes on it.]

...Hm. Maybe.

[Then she just - looks at him, for a moment. Considers him.]

Thank you.

[It's a measured gesture, but a sincere one.]

[Uh-oh. He knows looks like that, and doesn't shift under it - he keeps the look on his face honest, if guarded, and he nods after a fractional hesitation.]

If there's anything else I can do, just...let me know?

[She gives him a slight nod of her own.]

I - might.

[A faint, rueful smile.

Then her eyebrows arch.]

Maybe then you can share what it is you're not telling me.

[He's awfully invested for a boy who just happens to be from the same city.]

[Private Video]

peektuttut - 2012-07-23 18:54 (UTC) - Expand

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