riverviewlogs | With a thousand lies and a good disguise, hit 'em right between the eyes

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With a thousand lies and a good disguise, hit 'em right between the eyes

who: pint-sized Dick Grayson + YOU
what: Dick is 12 years old and confused
when: June 13 - 24
where: everywhere
warnings: child endangerment, bat angst, possible minor injury

"See 'em running for their lives"

[ Crime waits for no unresolved personal crisis, as it turns out, which is actually more of a relief today than it probably should be. It's luck that Robin spots the thief in action just ahead of the victim's yell, but it's that luck that gives him an advantage. An objective. Finally something to chase down that isn't the ghost of the man he's supposed to be someday.

He gives chase across the roof, bridging gaps between buildings with a dazzling array of acrobatics, all restless, over the top flair as he closes the distance.

He's set up for a dramatic entrance at the end of a blind alley, a confrontation to end all petty thievery for all time, but in the split second that he's mid-showy quad flip the thief below plows into someone crossing the street and abruptly changes direction, and Dick's lost him by the time he hits the street below. ]

Hey. [ And he'll snag the hapless bystander by the sleeve. ] You see where they went?

[ Whether you're a hapless bystander, the unlucky victim, or even the thief, Robin doesn't seem to be prepared to let the issue slide anytime soon. His gaze narrows, roving to one street, then another. ]

"Show me how to lie, you're getting better all the time"

[ If you happen to be acquainted with the grownup-sized version of Dick Grayson (or even if you're not, I'll just handwave a reason tbh) your home or place of work has potentially made Robin's list of hotspots. Breaking and entering isn't right of course, especially not without probable cause, so he's careful to case the area first, waiting for the moment when he's pretty sure whoever he's following is going to be away for a while.

He needs information. He needs to know about this place, about what it all means to the people stuck here, and he doesn't believe in his heart that any adult will give it to him straight. He has to know. He has to.

Catch him just ahead of the act - perched precariously at a window or crouching by a door, lockpick in hand - or catch him already inside, picking his way through belongings with a set of evidence gloves on over Robin's green ones. When people don't know can't hurt them, after all. ]

"Now someone is gonna pay"

[ By the end of the week you'll be able to catch him in civvies, attempting to blend with other groups of tween-age children near schools and parks, walking on his hands in high spots where no sane person should feel comfortable balancing, or eating copious amounts of ice cream and candy as he wanders the city.

As Robin he's a little flutter of yellow cape on the roof, a batarang tucked into a bird's nest, an obnoxious burst of laughter if you happen to make a pratfall somewhere in public. He's incredibly easy to find lurking nearby if you happen to stand out in some obvious way. ]

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[ The guards at the gate hassled him enough that he'd feel a little bad about giving them the slip where he could be seen. Where any one of them unlucky enough to spot him would probably have the blame pinned on him for a kid going missing, silly costume or no. They're doing good work, keeping all the children inside. Keeping the innocents safe.

But the shoe hardly fits, where Robin's concerned. And Robin would be duty bound to case the area, even if the jungle didn't loom there like a prize, promising untold adventure in its own right.

He slips out under cover of night, keeping to the trees at first, if only because the files he'd dug into had said that a lot of the monsters tended to stick to the forest floor. Navigating with a line is a little out of the question, but he's a good enough climber to manage without one.

As it turns out, a few rumors about the monster population of Riverview's perimeter were exaggerated. Something small and spider-like darts past his face without warning, and he has just enough time to dodge the spitting jaws, barely visible even with his infrareds.

He only has one shot to break his fall, so he twists mid-drop, using the line to snag himself rather than risking the long plummet into the unknown below. His foot catches, mercifully. The blood rushes to his head. ]

Shoot. [ He says, very quietly. He can't hear the thing moving above him. ]

[ Khisanth really, really enjoys the jungle outside the city. Even more, she enjoys the jungle at night, when it comes alive with a hundred different beasts for her to discover and learn about. And, generally speaking, eat. In fact, there's one in particular she's been stalking — a little spidery thing, clever and sharp and quick. It's fierce, she's watched it tackle prey several times its size as she's been following it on an owl's silent wings. She has the idea that it might be good for reconnaissance — not as helpless as a mouse, and far more nimble.

It's hunting again, and she does so love to watch it hunt — but quickly she realizes just what it's hunting. A human. In fact, isn't that a human child? Out awfully late, and all alone. It isn't really her business if this child goes and gets himself eaten, but ... well, she has to admit she's curious as to what kind of person goes traipsing through the jungle trees at night.

The kid nearly falls, catches himself, and dangles. The spidery thing is working on a slow and inexorable descent toward him, silent on its several legs. It never makes it to him, though.

An owl swoops silently in, and a dragon instantly takes its place. With a snap and a crunch the creature is in her jaws and unmoving, and a mere instant later she's past the kid and into a brief clearing wide enough to slow her lunge with several quick flaps. She brakes, twists, and lands with as much grace as she can manage under the circumstances. With a few more quick crunches, she enjoys her snack. ]

[ The line snaps back once he gets his fingers in the release, and Dick rights himself in time to hear the sharp crunch of bone inches above his head. He rolls, grasping wildly for the branch just below, and as he catches it one-handed that long, sleek line of black glides past him in a dazzling flood. He watches, transfixed, as it turns, drops and touches down like a feather. He feels the eyes on him. A dragon's eyes.

Batman would tell him to run. He knows that. That he had to lean on luck to survive at all is bad enough. To stick around now, staring down something that could make him dinner in half the time is a death wish.

And yet he can't bring himself to look away. ]

Are you- [ He hesitates for a moment, feeling silly. But if he's going with the stories here, he might as well commit all the way. Dragons speak. He should speak to this one. ]

...Did you save me?

[ He doesn't run. She's paying only a sidelong sort of attention as she finishes off her quick meal, but that's impressive. Even fully grown ogres run from her. She folds her wings into her sides and settles a little more comfortably onto her haunches as she turns her attention more fully onto him, like a great, satisfied cat. ]

I suppose I did. [ Her deep, rumbling voice sounds a little smug about it. ] Does that mean you owe me a favor?

[ Not that she really wants a favor from such a small human, she doubts he has anything she would want. But she likes the idea of people being indebted to her, no matter how small or insignificant. ]

Heh. Well, shouldn't that depend?

[ A blind to promise to an unknown quantity doesn't sound very fair, after all.

But still, there's the fact that he's talking to a dragon. That he'd been saved by a dragon, whether it (she?) had really intended that or not. His heart thuds wildly with the thrill of it. ]

...You want something?

[ Does she want anything? Just to make sure she's not shelving a favor she could make use of immediately. Well... she isn't hungry, after her little snack, and though she's in constant want of treasures for her hoard, that doesn't sound like something such a small human can help with...

So: ] Not at the moment.

[ She does, however, summon a little ball of white light to dance around her clawtips. It's under the pretense of getting a better look at him, but really, she can see just fine in the dark. It's so she can impress him with a better look at her, stretching out into the darkness past the light. ]

I suppose you could tell me what you're doing outside the walls so late, though. It gets dangerous out here, in case no one told you.

Yeah, I know that.

[ He beams a little bit there, a little stupidly, if only because for once it's a question that doesn't fall distinctly into off-limits territory, and that's handy when he's actually pretty eager to make friends here.

Now that it slips past him, the way she's lighting up the space around them. His infrareds filter out the glare, and he finds himself fighting the urge to take a step back. There's a lot more of her there than he'd thought.

But he's faced Blockbuster. Two-Face. The Joker. His voice only falters a touch. ]

I'm, uh- I'm pretty new in town, so I figured I'd do some recon. There's only so much you can learn second-hand, right?

[ Well, there's something she can understand. She'd done more or less the same thing, immediately taking to wing to explore the new place she'd found herself in. In fact, she's still doing that. It's a little more initiative than she'd figured humans would show. ]

And only so much on top of that that you can learn from the ground. Or trees, in your case. [ She offers a smirk, all gleaming teeth and eyes slitted in amusement. ] It's a shame you don't come with wings.

...Yeah. Well, that goes without saying. [ Dick's confident enough in his own abilities that he doesn't often question them, and comparisons are a little pointless when you happen to run in the same circles as Superman.

On the other hand, it's a little hard run in the same circles as Superman without wishing, just a little, for the power of effortless flight. Dick tilts his head. ]

You get around out there much?

Daily. [ She looks a little smug about it, too. ] When I arrived, they had the good sense to ask me to take on the tasks of the Perimeter Guard. I survey for them, when it pleases me.

[ Which is, honestly, pretty often. It's not like she has anything else going on.

With a touch of honest admiration: ] You wouldn't believe the beasts out here — it's more variety than I've ever seen in my own world.

Man. [ He leans his chin on a green-gloved hand, transfixed by the idea. ]

Then you just hold if all in your head? All the stuff you see?

You must have a heck of a memory.

[ Well. No. It's the seeking and discovering part she's good at, she's working on reliable reports. No need to share the sorry state her non-existent cartography skills are in, though. So she shrugs, and mildly: ] Something like that.

[ There, that sounds appropriately mysterious. She rises to her feet from her resting crouch, wings beginning to hover somewhere around unfolded. ]

I'll be getting back to it. [ And normally she'd just spring into the air and be done with this encounter, but ... well. She's in a new place, essentially without any allies. She supposes it couldn't hurt to take a chance, extending a tentative offer at a connection. A little awkwardly: ] You can come along, if you want.

Well, I wasn't gonna ask but- [ but in absolutely no universe is she going to have to say it twice. He's on his feet in a rapid little flutter of yellow-cape, face alight, taking a step closer before he stops himself again. ]

...Is there, uh- any dragon etiquette to flying?

[ It's never polite to assume. ]

[ That's... that's a great question. Her horns shift as her brow knits thoughtfully, considering it. ]

The nyphids I've known rode at my shoulders, between my wings. [ Her neck twists to direct a glance back at the spot. Yeah, he'd fit there. A pause, then even more thoughtfully: ] But they also had wings of their own, and could leave any time I got... distracted.

[ read: anytime she saw something to attack or eat and forgot she had a rider. ]

[ Well if that's all. ]

You don't have to worry about me. I do a little of my own flying.

[ And to that point he launches off the tree branch with a showy little flip, landing light-footed precisely on the indicated spot. See he can totally be useful. ]

[ Oh. Well then. Khisanth blinks, then flashes a quick, toothy smile. ]

Then I won't worry about it. Hold on.

[ That's all the warning she deigns to offer. She drops quickly to a crouch, and from there springs into the air. Her wings beat hard at the air, struggling for altitude from a less-than-ideal takeoff point. It's gonna be rocky and unpleasant while they get started, hopefully he's ready for that. ]

[ He takes the point seriously, clinging studiously with both arms as she battles the air around them. As she start to rise somehow in spite of it all. She's magnificent. Powerful. He holds out for out nearly a full minute, dazzled and terrified, before he really has to whoop with delight. Nothing more amazing than this has ever happened to anyone. ]

Yes!

[ Honestly, the rush of flying is still as wonderful to her as it was the day she first really got it figured out. And as they rise above the treeline and begin to plunge forward, away from the city, she almost begins to forget she has a passenger. His cry nearly startles her, but a second or two belatedly she realizes it'd been a joyful sound.

Well. It's nice to see someone with good taste.

She angles her wings to take them a little higher, straining up toward the nearly full moon as the jungle below grows more and more instinct and shadowy. ]

You've hardly seen anything yet. [ She tilts her head just slightly, to toss her voice back at him through the rush of wind. ] We've only gone up, any hatchling can do that. How well do you think you can hang on when things get interesting?

[ Faster and higher than this. There's no way he can stop grinning now as he clings her neck, pressing himself as flat as he can, because he does get enough of the physics here to understand that a little less drag on the air can only help on the speed front. ]

Don't hold back on my account. [ An overconfidence he'll probably live to regret. ]

Let's do interesting.

[ Among what she considers her many and impressive skills, flight is definitely toward the top of the list. She's proud of her ability, hard-won and often practiced. She'll be happy to show it off.

They climb higher still, to where the cool evening air starts to feel cold and thin, and the lights of the Quarantine behind its two fences look faint and distant. Only then does she finally pause mid-stroke, hanging precariously for a few seconds. That's his warning to hang on again, if he'd started to slack at all. The instant before they start to fall she angles her body sharply downward, wings tucking into her sides — and then they do fall.

It's not straight down, not quite, but wind is deafening, more than enough to rip breath away. She angles them toward a natural lake formed by a tributary of the river, and they draw closer and closer. Only when it seems they must smash into the surface of the water does she finally flare her wings, throwing their speed into a horizontal dash across the still water. The tips of her wings scratch at the clearness of it whenever they dip down, and she gains altitude again just in time to clear the trees on the far side of the lake.

She's not quite done from there, showing off in a series of quick turns and graceful twists, even working up to a full nose-over-tail loop. Finally she settles down into a lazy spiral over the lake, satisfied with herself. ]

Still back there, I hope? [ (Kidding, mostly. She's pretty sure she'd have noticed if she'd managed to dislodge him.) ]

[ Probably he should be a little worried, outward display of bravado notwithstanding. He should worry about the very real possibility of falling. He should worry about ceding control to an unknown factor. He should worry about throwing up and ruining the moment.

Yet all the what-ifs seem small and irrelevent as she takes them up through the open air, Quarentine below them turning indistinct. He screams delightedly as they drop into freefall, bursting into laughter as they scrape the surface of the lake. The loop is just the icing on the cake, and by now he thinks he's getting the hang of this enough to know how to shift his small weight just so, helping the balance stay even in that precarious spot. ]

Man. [ Yeah he's a little breathless now. ] I don't know that I'd ever come back.

[ If he could do this whenever he wanted. See the whole world, and not just Quarentine. ]

[ She settles into her lazy circling; it's not much without the sun to send heat to lift her wings, but she prefers the night nonetheless. She can tolerate a little more flapping for that. ]

It's good, isn't it? [ She sounds a little smug about it. Still, though: ] But the people in the city are interesting. I might regret not learning what I can from them.

They're not so bad, I guess. [ He's not at all put off by the smug air; he'd be proud of himself too if he had the ability she does. Now that they're moving at a more sedate pace he leans his chin on one hand, turning on his infrareds to take in the view. ]

What are you learning so far?

[ He's curious too, after all. ]

[ So much. She'd not even made it into the human settlement she'd been aiming for in her own world, and the Quarantine had become her first experience with one. But if she had to narrow it down... ]

Meat is cooked. [ She doesn't sound disdainful, just bemused. ] Cooked and spiced — and I'm sure other things as well that I don't have a name for yet. Maybe the first lesson has been that humans like to complicate everything they touch.

[ He laughs at that, because of course she's right. And it makes him wonder what kind of place she comes from. ]

Heh. Yeah I guess we're alright at that. [ He sits up abruptly a new thought strikes him. ]

...Whoa. So you haven't had meatloaf yet?

What about meatballs?

With a thousand lies and a good disguise, hit 'em right between the eyes

closed to Khisanth

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and by moon in that tag i definitely meant planet*, oops

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