(no subject)

[flippity]

[ so, later sunday evening after the execution, papika is gonna be poking her head into her hotel room. she doesn't go in right away as she seems to be checking... for... ]

Robin?

Comments

[bittybat]

[He gives her a mildly flat look.] Look me directly in the face and tell me you have fifteen fingers without making it sound like a lie.

[flippity]

[ welp. with that, she slides off her bed and walks over to him, and stopping once she reaches a respectable distance to properly look at his face. ]

I... have fifteen fingers?

[ she mostly just sounds confused ]

[bittybat]

Fail. [He doesn't even have to wait very long right after she finishes to know.] You would be their next target. You can't even believe your own self; how do you expect anyone else to believe you?

[He stares at her. Nothing about him wavers in the slightest.]

I have a giant, red bat beast as a pet.

[flippity]

[ she... squints at him... ]

Do you...?

[ in her defense, she is used to weird stuff so she wouldn't write that off as a complete impossibility?? ]

You're really good at this.

[bittybat]

I'm not telling. That's the point. They have to believe it's a truth.

That's why you can't be so open with your questioning, or people will know you're hiding something. You can't tell everything you know.

[flippity]

I've been pretty open so far... would it be weird if I suddenly stopped?

[ she has not been very shy about running her mouth. but she sits in silence for a moment now, thinking. ]

I won't mess up when it counts.

[bittybat]

[Oh Goddammit. PAPIKA.

His sigh is exasperated.] Yes, it will be highly suspicious if you suddenly stop being so open. But you can talk as much as you want without telling anyone else everything you know. Conversationalism doesn't mean important information.

Don't act different. Just don't tell everyone you meet what you've heard or found unless you think they can help you.

[flippity]

I can do that! I might not be the best liar here, but that might not matter if I just say things in a certain way.

[ she then shrugs. ]

I don't think people here take me very seriously though so they probably wouldn't really expect me to have any important information.

[bittybat]

That's their mistake. Never underestimate your opponents. Especially the ones that seem least likely to cause harm.

[flippity]

[ she nods her head. after all, damian is like the youngest one there and look at everything he can do. ]

Are you going to tell anyone else?

[bittybat]

[He pauses in consideration.]

Todd... possibly.

[flippity]

Do the two of you know each other from before here? Your clothes were kind of alike.

[ she spoke to jason during the first week, but hasn't really since then so most of her opinions on him are "the guy who was in the stocks that one time" ]

[bittybat]

[An accurate description of Jason Todd, tbqh.]

Yes. [It sounds like he hadn't planned to really admit that so freely so soon to her. So how does he say this without sounding mushy???] We are a part of the same... organization.

Batman is the leader, and my father. There have been five Robins. Todd was the second. We work with Batman to stop criminals the police aren't equipped to handle. We apprehend them and turn them over to the legal system.

Batman sometimes works with a bigger organization, the Justice League. They stop global and interdimensional threats to the earth.

[flippity]

So you're like... like superheroes!

[ papika looks really excited at the thought? her eyes are practically sparkling in amazement. ]

No wonder you're so smart.

[bittybat]

[Oh... God.]

I guess. We're not really superheroes. We're just doing what's right.

[flippity]

It's very super and heroic!

[ so. superheroes. ]

... if you're on the same team though, why didn't you tell him before me and Percy?

[bittybat]

[bittybat]

[STOP!!!!!!!!!!!!!! PAPIKA IS AS BAD AS PERCY!!!]

I--because I didn't know whether to trust that Todd was capable of handling that information. He could have used it to be an idiot.

[AKA: "I may give a tiny toot about Jason Peter Todd and don't want him to be stupid and get into trouble."]

[flippity]

[ she notices that he faltered there for a second, but she is nice enough not to point it out. then again, it also made her smile even more, so that is practically the same thing as verbally calling him out on it. ]

If he's your teammate then he has to be okay! You're very capable.

[bittybat]

One of the few. [It's grumbled. It took him a long time, but he realizes, deep down, they're all capable in their own ways. Even if Jason is still a giant idiot in his timeline.]

I'll tell Todd later. If he knows anything important, I'll tell you after.

[Maybe.]

also important but they are gonna have a big ass bean bag chair bc she put it in the suggestion box

[flippity]

If you want to.

[ she knows damian well enough to at least know that he isn't big on the whole trusting thing, so she wouldn't be too surprised if decided not to share the info. she does not look too bothered by it though. ]

LMAO oh my god!!!

[bittybat]

If it's important. [Which is at least a promise that he won't withhold it on the account of not thinking she would be worth it.

At the door, something begins scratching. Then, slowly, a little white paw eases curiously under the space at the bottom to dig at the air.]

they are gonna have the COOLEST room now

[flippity]

Pennyworth!

[ she almost immediately hurries over to the door to let the most important character in whole ass into the room. ]

Um. I'm a member of a group called FlipFlap. We're not... superheroes or anything, we were just trying to collect fragments of something to get a wish.

[ since. damian told her about himself. ]

i'm ready

[bittybat]

[True to the exclaim, it's Pennyworth. The cat trots in and leans heavily into Papika's legs after a meow of greeting, and then he stretches his front long over her foot, spreading his paws.] A wish?

[More importantly: the fuck is a name like FlipFlap?? Says the boy named after a bird with a father named Batman.] Like a djinn? It's dangerous.

[flippity]

[ she kneels down to scratch pennyworth behind the ears.

also like. is it really a surprise that someone like papika would work for something called flipflap. ]

Not exactly like that. It's, ah, complicated to explain? But something bad happened to a friend of mine and I'm trying to get her back, and collecting all the pieces is the only way to do it.