riverviewlogs | april catch-all

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april catch-all

WHO: Natasha
WHAT: patrolling, shopping, working her way through her marshmallows, the usual. As always, I'm open to wildcards, and will be happy to write a custom starter for anyone who wants one.
WHERE: shops, the PC apartment building, beyond the perimeter,
WHEN: Whole month of April. If you have a preference, feel free to pick the date.

WARNINGS: none yet
NOTES: Natasha also has a top level during the flower festival with available prompts for the 2nd-15th. So feel free to hit that up.

The fireflies can be their own prompt, or combined with something else. Feel free to pick the colour you want. If you don't, and leave it up to me, it's going to be a RNG situation.

I'm only going to be tagging in prose, but I don't care if you want to tag in actionspam if that's what you're most comfortable with. I have no problem with our styles not matching. I will match tense, though, so feel free to pick either past or present.

i - GYM

Natasha's working her way into a routine. It's not the world's largest comfort, but it's still a comfort. She wakes up early, heads out, and tries to calm her mind in the chaos of a busy city. Most mornings, the first place she heads is the gym. it's not particularly close, but she likes the walk, and it has the best facilities that she's found. She also gets a considerable discount here, as a member of the Perimeter Guard. On mornings when someone who looks like a decent challenge is around, she's always up for getting her workout in the form of a couple of rounds of sparring. On mornings when she can't find a partner, she runs through circuit training, instead, and finishes off with a few miles around the track or in the pool. If the weather's particularly good, she takes her run outside, instead, in the park.

ii - PERIMETER GUARD

Being on call for Search and Rescue is, at times, incredibly boring. A whole lot of hurry up and wait. She probably should be spending most of that down time staying rested and loose and ready. She doesn't, though. She paces the corridors, walks the wall, ducks in and out of the break room. Staying still is getting harder and harder. If it were possible to outrun doubts, she's pretty sure she'd never stop moving. As it is, taking on extra patrols is the closest she can come, hoping for a chance to let off steam, focused on the treeline,
high alert forcing other concerns to the back of her mind, if only for a little while.

iii - HOUSING

Now that she has a roommate, even though there's nothing at all wrong with the girl, Natasha find some self spending less and less time and then shared space. It's not Re-L's fault. It's nothing at all that she's done. Natasha just starts to get... stretched too thin around people. She wonders if that's ever going to go away again, if she'll ever bounce back. She hopes so. She doesn't particularly enjoy being this person, and she hates that she doesn't know how to fix it.

The balconies are still a favourite for her. She's begun heading to the one on the highest floor, watching stars that still aren't familiar, but have stopped being quite so unsettling in that regard. She lights one of the fire pits and continues to work her way stubbournly through her massive stash of marshmallows. Always with a book, though more and more often it's staying untouched on the seat next to her.

FIREFLIES

The fireflies become a sort of constant low level... threat isn't the right word, but it's close. Natasha can't stand the way the most effective repellent smells, so she waits for one that's entirely odorless, which takes a while. In the mean time, a bug bite is just a risk of existing. There's no way she's found to avoid them entirely without locking herself away and not doing her job, and she's not going to hide from a little bit of emotional overwhelm. Which means, as she goes about her day to day life, she's at risk.

WILDCARD!
You know the drill. Make up something else, and we'll rock the unexpected!

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[ Jon had never lived in a city before. Certainly he's stayed at Metropolis a few times when his mother had work, but otherwise they stayed close to Hamilton County, away from prying eyes and people who would question a tiny family living on a farm. Or any accidents that might happen on the farm.

The city was loud. Many days, it was just overwhelming, which is why Jon took to the rooftops instead. It was quieter and he could practice his powers (and someday, someday he'll fly). Jon leaps from rooftop to rooftop before tumbling onto his building. He adjusting his cape and his superboy shirt, brushing the dust of his clothes. ]

Got to work on that landing.

[ If Natasha is there, he doesn't notice her. ]

Edited 2017-04-24 09:34 (UTC)

She sure as hell notices him, though. Even with her attention only loosely on the sky, the sound of a small child-sized projectile whipping through the air and then landing heavily on the roof, that's impossible to ignore. She watches him, watches him hit the ground, straighten up, adjust his clothing and cape. "Maybe your situational awareness, too? Where did you come from?"

[ Jon jerks before remembering he is (sort of) in costume. Nothing has been exposed. ]

I . . . came from the other building.

[ The one that's at least a couple of blocks away. And he has no grappling hook. ]

Natasha chuckles at the casual way he says it. "You mean that building?" she asks, pointing as she stands up. "That building, across the road, whose windows I can't even see into? You-- what? Jumped?" She's still smirking, still resisting the urge to laugh at him. "Flew?"

[ Jon unconsciously straightens himself, his cape fluttering behind him. His expression is determined.]

I can't fly yet but my jumps are still good enough for large distances.

"I'll say. I know people who couldn't run that far without getting winded." Not many of them. She also knows people who could sprint ten times that distance and not even break a sweat, but that's hardly the point, is it? "I like your cape. What are you doing out on your own so late?"

[ Jon makes a face, but his reply is unfailingly polite. ]

Taking a shortcut. I was looking at video games.

[ He won't mention the noise, how it still hurts its ears. People wouldn't understand the kind of sensations Jonathan is bombarded with, just living in the city. ]

I'm Superboy.

Video games, now that she absolutely believes. Though it's still pretty late to be shopping, especially if the age he looks is anything near the age he actually is. "Superboy." When she repeats it, her voice is entirely accepting. If that's what he wants to be called, that's what she'll call him. "Is that a name, or a title?"

[ Jon doesn't know what the difference is between the two and it clearly shows on his face. Even though he lies and hides his identity regularly, Jon hasn't mastered the art of faking his facial expressions. ]

Uhmm. It's a title. From Superman.

"Well, in that case. Hello, Superboy. You can call me Nat." She holds out her hand, but doesn't actually come any closer. She wants to see what he'll do, if he'll come over to her to shake it, or try to keep the distance. There's no one else on this level to worry about, just her, and children tend to not find her very threatening. When she's in plain clothes, anyway. Granted, her experience with children is ridiculously limited, but she does remember Cooper being this age.

[ Jon isn't afraid (but it takes a lot to scare him anyway) as he approaches closer and shakes her hand. His grip is too firm for a ten year old. ]

Hi Miss Nat. How come you're up here? Most people don't hang out on the roof.

[ Unless it's Batman. ]

His grip is a surprise. Natasha's handshake is pretty weak until she feels it, and then she tightens to match. It doesn't hurt him. He doesn't even seem to notice. Interesting. "I'm up here because it's quiet, it's usually empty, and it has a nice view of the stars. I do this a lot. Do you go jumping from roof to roof a lot?"

[ He shrugs. ]

Not really. I don't stay in the city that often.

[ And in Hamilton County, that was nigh impossible with its wide yellow fields and quiet meadows. ]

It is a little quieter here.

[ Jon doesn't feel the need to clap his hands over his ears at least. ]

"So you live out beyond the perimeter?" That's interesting. A little unsettling, actually. When Clark talked about cities out in the jungle, she hadn't imagined anything like this child existing there. He can clearly handle himself. The boy can jump from building to building. She doubts that's the only trick he's got up his sleeve. Still, he's a child, and children deserve... everything. It's a convoluted thought train in her mind.

Natasha looks back over her shoulder, at the fire pit, her abandoned book, the bag of marshmallows on the seat. "Do you want a marshmallow, Superboy?" That thought train is very straightforward.

What? No. I meant like . . . back in my reality.

[ He says this with a practiced tone. Jon is no stranger to other alternate universes. At Natasha's suggestion, his eyes brighten and he moves closer. ]

Yeah! But I can't have too many.

Natasha heads back to her seat, turns on the fire pit and moves the bag of marshmallows so that it's between where she's sitting and where Superboy will probably sit. What is too many to... an eleven year old? Twelve? Twelve feels too old, eleven somehow feels too young. Though, once again, all she has to go on is Cooper.

From underneath the fire pit, she produces a metal skewer. Yeah, she's probably up here too much. She offers it, in case he wants them roasted. Though he's also welcome to just eat out of the bag. She does that a lot, too. "What kind of world to you come from? Can everyone there do what you do?"

[ He could probably roast them by himself, but Jon doesn't have a steady gaze when it comes to his heat vision so he doesn't risk it. Instead, he happily places the marshmallows on the skewer, bringing it closer to the fire. ]

No. There are other superheroes, but they have different powers.

"Really? Like what?" Natasha's default method of dealing with children is to talk to them like they're small adults, only using gentler language. Which doesn't always work so well. In fact, it almost never works out as well as it's working out now.

She pulls a very slim folding stiletto blade from her pocket, opening it and sticking it through another marshmallow for herself. Not exactly typical usage, but there's supposed to be something bonding about roasting marshmallows over an open fire, isn't there? Usually works with Cooper and Lila, anyway. They get so focused on the fire, the sticky treat, the chocolate and graham crackers, they forget what's bothering them. Or they forget that they don't want to talk about it, and she's able to get under the walls. Natasha doesn't have the other two thirds of a s'more, but she's got plenty of marshmallows.

Uhh, super speed. Flight. All kinds of stuff. There's Green Lanterns too, who get powers from their rings. Then there's Cyborg . . . Wonder Woman . . .

[ Jon mostly knows them from TV or what he hears other people say. His father has clarified a few details, but not much. ]

He's not naming such a huge number, but Natasha gets the impression that it's only part of a much longer list. She watches her marshmallow turn slightly golden brown. "Your world sounds very interesting. And you came here alone? Are you living within the city walls?"

Uh, yeah. Obviously. Can't go living with all the scary stuff outside.

[ Not that it scares him. Everything that scares Jon is mostly internal. ]

What's different about your world?

"Oh, I'd imagine quite a bit. For one thing, we don't have as many interesting people as you do. Those Green Lanterns sound neat. What do their rings let them do?"

Don't ask her about her world, kid. It's such a fucking mess right now.

[ Hm. Jon tries to recall what his father told him about the Lanterns. ]

If I remember correctly, they have special rings that give them powers. It works with their will power. They create these power constructs through their imagination and willpower.

"So they think it, and it becomes real? That sounds..." She thinks on it seriously for a moment, taking her marshmallow from the fire and eating it. "Pretty scary, actually. What if they imagine something horrible?"

[ Jon frowns. ]

They're only light constructs. They can't actually make real things. And . . . if they did that, the rings wouldn't work. I think. It's kinda specific.

"Light constructs of good things only. That seems safer. I wonder how the ring knows." It all sounds kind of ridiculous to her. Then again, she knows a man who turns into a giant green rage monster when something pisses him off enough. Normal and regular, it's all relative.

The Lanterns are good. They have willpower.

[ Jon has always liked Simon Baze and Jessica. He settles himself comfortably. ]

The Justice League is full of people like that.

"Oh yeah?" Natasha begins waving her latest marshmallow over the fire. "Tell me about some more of them, then. I like a good story. Are all the Lanterns green?"

[ Jon munches on his marshmallow noisily as he considers this question. ]

No. They come in different colours? My dad said the colour is important. Yellow for fear, red for anger, blue for . . . I actually don't remember what blue is for.

"Red for anger," Natasha repeats. "All right." Makes sense, really. Natasha pulls another couple of marshmallows out of the bag and puts them on Jon's metal skewer. He can keep on eating her sugar until he's sick of it. Assuming young boys who go jumping from building to building in capes actually get sick of sugar. Who knows?

So, lanterns of all different colours, Wonder Woman, Cyborg. Interesting world he comes from. "So, tell me about Superman? He seems like a pretty cool guy. Hero of yours?"

Superman is everyone's hero.

[ Jon says it proudly. That's who his father is. And he can do that anywhere for anyone. Some of the other heroes stay mostly in one place and in a way, so does Superman. But his father has always made it a point to go wherever he's needed the most. ]

That's just how he is.

"Yeah?" She smirks, a memory both fond and painful running through her mind. "I know a guy-- I had a friend like that back home. Everybody's hero. Just being near him made you want to be a better person."

[ Jon frowns lightly, a little on the childish side. ]

Sure, but Superman is better.

[Pacing back and forth between the corridor and the break room reveals another member of the guard with seemingly nothing to do. The strange woman, clad all in black, is far from restless though. In fact all she does is sit on her seat, arms crossed, almost completely still.]

Hmm? Is something the matter?

[She does turn her head to face Natasha when she walks nearby, so there's that at least.]

Natasha isn't looking around her for anything to interact with, so a woman sitting completely still doesn't get much notice. Other than the fact that she's there, hardly moving, and not someone Natasha knows. If she'd stayed silent, she'd have walked right past without a second thought. She doesn't, though, and Natasha pauses in her quest for a snack to take a closer look.

"No, nothing's the... matter." Those aren't sunglasses. It's not a visor. "Are you all right? Do you need something?"

Everything is fine, I'm just on standby.

[She stays stoically, like if sitting around with a blindfold on your face was the most ordinary thing.]

You're moving around a lot. I was wondering if something is bothering you.

"Just working off some excess energy." She's hardly about to dump out her purse in front of a stranger. "You're on call? You're working here today?" Because she's not just going to ignore the whole blindfold thing. It's weird. Not such a huge level of weird, compared to some of the stuff she's seen, both in her own world and here... but still weird.

Ah. I understand.

[The strange woman stands up, her arms raised in a brief stretch. Except for the strange smoothness with which her movements flow she seems to act normally, not inconvenienced in any visible way.]

Yes, I am waiting for emergencies that will require my intervention. It's my duty to handle missions related to search and rescue tasks.

"All right," Natasha concedes after a moment. "I'm just going to ask. Can you see through that blindfold?" Because, again, weird. Any other day she might have been more tactful about the situation, found a subtler way to get her answers. Today has been a very up and down day for her, though, and direct just feels... like a relief, honestly.

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april catch-all

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