Participants:
| Scene Title | Unless You're Batgirl |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | …you shouldn't perch on roofs. Such is the advice Barbara gives Nora when she lends the girl a helping hand. |
| Date | June 22, 2011 |
It's been some time now since Barbara last made a trip out to Grand Central Station. Too long, in fact, in her opinion. She had been on the mainland anyway, so now seemed as good a time as any, particularly with word of things such as the paintings that had recently found a home within the terminal. Which is exactly what she's coming from looking at when she steps frither into the ruined terminal, hands in pockets and looking around for anything that she can do to help, as usual. And when she spots Nota, she slows down a bit - she's still used to the idea of having to help the young woman, engrained after several months of knowing her as being blind. Sometimes, she's just slow to adjust.
Her turn and approach is slow, the dyed redhead giving a small wave in the younfer woman's direction. "Hello, Nora," she starts as she steps towards her, a small smile on her face. "It's been a while. I hope you're doing well?"
The teen might actually admit to needing help today. Standing as she is, it's hard to tell she's injured as she rifles through a box of supplies. She comes up with a roll of surgical tape, some gauze, tweezers, and a plain white cloth, before hopping away to sit on a bench once used for waiting train passengers.
"Hey, Barbara," she says with a smile, wincing as she brings her foot up to rest on the opposite knee. The ankle is an angry red, swollen and scraped, and bearing what look to be splinters. "Been better, I guess," she says wryly. Nora is a bit thinner than the last Barbara saw her, dark circles beneath her eyes suggesting the girl isn't sleeping well, but the more immediate concern is the ankle.
"How are you? Everything all right up north?" she asks, setting the other items down and wielding the tweezers for self surgery.
An eyebrow is quirked a bit as Nora brings her ankle into view, and Barbara can't help but wince when she gets a good look at it. "Been better, indeed," she muses a bit quietly, frowning. "I hope that didn't happen in the tunnels. Though I suppose I wouldn't be surprised if it did. The mangled mess out there can get awfully dangerous at times.
Hands with draw from pockets, and one is offered out towards Nora. "I can help, if you like. That seems like it might be awkward for just one person to do." Fingers curl in and out, saying hand me something, I can help~ just as much as her actual words do. "We're doing… well enough out there. No more viral outbreaks, no recent runins with authorities. It won't last, but for once things are actually fairly nice out there. It's a nice reprieve from the winter months."
Nora's jaw twitches at the words 'viral outbreaks,' and it's not hard to know what's on her mind given the last meeting at Pollepel, but she simply nods. "Help would be nice," she manages in a small voice.
She sets down the tweezers to unlace her Converse, pulling it off her foot and letting it drop to the ground below. "It's just a sprain. I put it through a roof in Staten," she explains, picking up the tweezers to get the splinters she can reach easily; her hand is steady despite the fact each pull makes her face crinkle into a squint as she bites her lower lip. "This hurts more than when I actually did it," she adds with a humorless smile Barbara's way. Finally she can't reach and she hands the tweezers to the councilwoman, angling her foot where the other woman can reach easily.
"Some guy negated me. He kinda put out feelers for Ferry but I didn't know if I could trust him. I called it in," Nora adds. "It was coincidence, though, I'm pretty sure. I don't think he followed me. Just dumb luck."
"A sprain or not, that still looks rather bad. I wonder if there's any ice or a heating pad that can be warm up to help with the swelling," Barbara muses, watching Nora as she works, only moving again when offered the tweezers. Smiling, she carefully kneels down so that she's more level and picks up where Nora had left off as she removes the splinters she can see. "Splinters are always the worst," she offers, laughing a bit. "At least these are all ones we can see, as far as I can tell."
She listens a moment longer, frowning a bit at the story that Nora tells. "I hadn't heard about that yet. Shame you got hurt, but if you didn't tell him much, you did the right thing."
Now that she's not the one with the tweezers, Nora's hands curl around the edge of the bench, tightening at a particularly painful tug before relaxing again. "Thanks," she says quietly, eyes on the impromptu "surgery."
"Moral of the story is houses on Staten have rotten roofs and don't make for good perches?" she quips, then she shrugs. "Anyway, I was trying to throw a little misinformation out on the radio waves, make them think that we're closer than we are. I didn't hear anything too useful to use, though. Just standard stuff. I'll head out and do it a couple times a week, maybe, random times, random locales within the vicinity."
"I think the moral of that story is to not go perching on roofs," Barbara replies with a laugh. "Unless you're secretly Batgirl, in which case…" Well, she doesn't have a good way to finish that, so she just shrugs, continuing to pull out splinters, careful not to move Nora's foot too much."
"LIke we talked about at the meeting a month back, yes?" she remarks at the mention of teh misdirection. "A very smart idea, I'm glad you suggested it. Keeping them confused and off our backs a bit is always helpful. But if you need any help out there - particularly if you're falling through roofs - just ask. I'ms ure someone from special activites would head out there with you."
Nora smirks a little at the mention of Batgirl. "Not far off. When I was blind, I was starting to use radar. I might play with that some more, see if I can use it for some practical application other than simply making sure I don't run into people," she says, unwinding a length of gauze to wrap around her ankle.
"Usually I can handle myself all right. The guy I ran into had a gun. I made him walk to the corner until I knew I could get away all right," she says, with a shrug that speaks of her confidence.
She glances up to Barbara, and smiles. "Raith's one of the people who trained me when I was younger. And I was kinda raised by the future Special Activities guys. I can handle myself."
A wry glance is given to her ankle. "Most of the time."
"I'm curious as to how that works. Can you use it like Sonar? I imagine that could be immensely useful if we ever find ourself in a tight spot." Barbara's nearing done, and probably none tos soon judging from the way Nora cringes. "Raith must be a good teacher," she reamrks, letting out a bit of a sigh. Talking about some things in future tense is still rather strange, even despite her talk with Benji. "Well, it's good to know taht they did well. I guess your lesson is just one you'll have t' live by, then. Just don't forget t' bring someone if you think you'll need it."
"Right. Sonar. Radiowaves. Takes a little trial and error to figure out the distance and such, but I was getting the hang of it before I got healed," Nora explains, with a shrug as she finishes wrapping the gauze around her ankle. Breaking off a piece of tape, she wraps that around the gauze, then reaches for the plain cloth.
"Couldn't find an ace bandage. It probably got used and not replaced," she says, as she folds the white cloth into a small, thick rectangle. This she wraps around her ankle in a U-shape in a make-shift soft splint, then wraps more tape around that.
"He is a good teacher," Nora adds, returning back to the conversation. "The others who trained me are still a bit young to take with me." Her eyes sparkle at that as she looks back up at Barbara.
A moment later, her expression grows more solemn. "I'm sorry we weren't honest with you all earlier. Thank you for not thinking badly of us."
"Mm. I'll have to go pick some up, then. See what other supplies I can pick up while I'm here on teh mainland…" Supply running is something Barbara does an awful lot for someone on council, but she finds it to be her best way to conenct with other Ferrymen. The turn in the coversation gets Barbara to give Nora a bit of a look, tilting her head just a little bit.
"It's like I told Benji. I wish the group of you had been more honest with us from the get go. Maybe not about everything… I'm sure some of your parents were rather shocked. But I don't blame you for holding it close. It seems like we're all built on secrets, these days, of very kinds and weight.
Pulling the last little sliver that she can see out, Barbara rsies back up straight. "Either way, it's in the past. As long as you guys keep working with us, everything'll be fine, I'm sure."
It costs something, a bit of her pride, a bit of her armor, but Nora nods. "It might have worked out better if we had," she admits, "but while we know what's happened in the past, we can't see what would happen when we got here, not in a way we could rely on. Things got screwed up that shouldn't have been, and it's our fault. And I'm sorry. But we'll do what we can to fix it."
She reaches for her shoe, pulling it back on over the makeshift bandages. "Thanks for your help," Nora adds.
"I… don't really know much about tmie travel," Barbara admits as she shakes her head at Nora. "Just what I've seen in movies, and what I've learned from Richard Cardinal and from you and your friends. But on principle, it seems like it's the kind of thing that's a gamble anyway." She lets out a bit of a sigh, looking off to the side. "I think, as long as we all work together, and use what knowledg eyou ahve of teh future with our knowledge of everything happening now, that maybe things can work out fine."
Nora nods again, but there's something cynical that then makes her shake her head, dark hair falling across her slightly grimy face. "'Fine' might be a stretch, but I'll settle for better than the future I know, better than my past," she says, an apologetic smile for contradicting the councilwoman.
After lacing her sneaker, Nora stands, carefully, gingerly stepping down and testing the weight on her ankle. "Thanks again."
Barbara says, “Well, I guess fine is relative," Barbara replies with her eyes cast down a bit. "Either way, I don't doubt that it'll be better. Not while most of us are alive, now that we have an idea of how bad things go." Barbara lets out a bit of a sigh, fingers tapping on her leg. "And it's no problem. I'm glad to be of help. That's why I come around here, besides to check up on how people are doing." ANd never mind that the two typically go hand in hand.”
The teen offers another smile. "You're good at it," she says quietly, respectful of the councilwoman's quiet and easygoing manners, rather unlike her own. "Anyway, I should get going. I told the twins I'd run some supplies over to the Bay House, and it'll take me a bit to trudge out of the ruins on this foot." She shakes the offending limb with a wrinkled nose of disdain. "Let me know if you need anything of course. Just holler my name on a radio enough times, I'll pick up."
"The Bay House?" Barbara quirks an eyebrow, thinking back to those who are staying out at the Bay House now. "Say hello to the children for me. And if you see her, there's a newer ward there, see if she needs anything and relay it back here, if you don't mind?" She smirks a bit, sliding fingers back into her pockets. "Besides that, I think I'm fine for now. I'll be sure to contact you if you need anything. Be safe, Nora. And no more falling through ceilings."