trans_9 | A (not so) Quick Work Out [open]

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A (not so) Quick Work Out [open]

When not working a particular shift at a department, and when taking a 'break' from work in general, Tim was prone to doing some working out and training. If he was going to be out of any one of his departments, for any given time, he might as well spend it keeping himself in shape and his body honed. It was productive and sometimes it could help him think. And it was certainly better than spending any pauses he had by idling. He couldn't afford to do that.

As Red Robin, it was easiest to just work out in Hydroponics, if he were doing straight up working out, practising with his staff and enjoying the more open feeling. He'd set up training runs and he could work with weapons in relative seclusion. In those instances, he would focus more on balance and take a calmer, slower route, using the lesser muscles and doing more work with the finer aspects of martial arts.

But, from time to time, the simpler ways to work out (as opposed to running simulations of gang wars, target practise, weapons training, etc) had a lot of merit themselves. Plus, sometimes it was nice to work out without being weighted down by leather and kevlar, which was a luxury he couldn't always afford on the ship. In those cases, Tim would be brought to the Sensoriums, where he could use the simulations to call up a virtual gym. Plus, the locale had the added bonus of him being able to use the illusory capabilities to hide that he was maybe a little too well muscled for a teenaged social worker, and it could cover up any questionable scars that showed. He could play the role of a normal, active teenager, there, easier than elsewhere.

For the time being, Tim had called up the scene of a gym, sports equipment scattered for him to use as he might. And it was good that, in a moment's notice, he could change it all over again-- to an ice rink for a more literal cool down, or to a field, for instance. A little lonely, playing alone? Tim certainly didn't mind. It was an effective enough workout, if nothing else. Tim stretched whilst he ran over the options in his mind.

((ooc: Feel free to join him as either RR or as Tim. c: And if you want anything in specific, just let me know!))

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Tim smirked faintly-- because her offensive tendency gave him a strategic opportunity. Instead of ducking back to avoid her attack, like he had earlier, he pressed forward. Staff shooting up and towards her, he aimed to catch her attack with his own defence, lodging it in the opening she had left. He turned it in a violent twist, one end pressing her arm down while the other forced her weapon up and to the opposite side.

SHIT.

And he had her, just like that. It did have her at a disadvantage to put herself out so much, and eventually Robin was bound to catch her off guard. She struggled, then sighed, putting the staff down.

"Still good," she said, shaking her head. Though she DID wonder when he adopted the whole "Red Robin" thing. "I guess you practice often."

"Still?" Tim echoed, raising an eyebrow under the cowl at her. Little details like that were important. He pulled his own staff away, and shifted into a much more relaxed position. Still, despite the casual pose, he looked a little smug. "Practise makes perfect-- or near enough," he said. "You're pretty damn good yourself. Better than I expected." Not that having his expectations proven wrong was a bad thing. "Been taking advantage of Morgan's training, I imagine."

Edited 2011-11-11 21:20 (UTC)

"Nevermind," Hit Girl said, catching her breath. "I was thinking about something else for a moment. Been in more than a few fights, which I'm sure you pretty much figured out. I'm pretty much training on the ship all the time though. I knew I didn't have a big chance."

She grinned. "Not just him. I had a little training session with a woman during the break too. Hell of a swords woman, and I held her at bay for a little bit with a short sword. So I know I'm getting better."

The girl kipped up flawlessly, catching the staff in her hand. "As I said, my name is Hit Girl. And you're Red Robin. You're a super hero, right?"

"I can tell," Tim said with a half laugh at that. He was recovering slightly, too, though he was good at hiding the fact that he was breathing any differently from normal. Still, she'd been more of a challenge than he'd anticipated.

"Good." He nodded. "It's good to branch out, get training from multiple teachers, and to develop different skills. While it's good to train regularly with those you know and who have more to teach you, variety is crucial."

"Hn. More or less," Tim tended to avoid the word 'super' but it was the default, he supposed. "You as well, then, provided I'm not totally off base."

Hit Girl felt a slight ache in her back, and her hands were pretty banged up, but she was happy. She had gotten to spar with Robin, and she had't done to badly.

She nodded. "I got better because I train with so many people. Learn a lot of new stuff. It's the reason that I'm so fast. When I was in my world, I could only go half this fast."

She knew he technically didn't count as a superhero, she just wanted to make sure he didn't think she was the same person, or that she knew him. "Just a hero. No powers or anything like that."

He smirked a little. "There's one benefit at least for being on a multidimensional refugee ship-- you can't get this much variety of skills anywhere else, I'd bet." Look on the bright side, right?

Tim stretched out again at that, and nodded. "'Super' does tend to be used a bit broadly, I find. I suppose it's a matter of perspective." However-- though he had anticipated it-- the fact that she was without powers was a point of interest. "You've been training from a young age, then, I assume?" Carefully avoiding implications about how young she was, though he figured she'd heard it all before.

"Exactly." Hit Girl said, following up with a smirk of her own. "That will just make the enemies at home scared shitless when they see me in action...well, if I were going back."

Hit Girl nodded. "Since I could walk. Vendettas against evil crime lords, you've probably heard it all before. Granted, not too many little girls go Charles Bronson on the criminals, 'specfially if they call themselves heroes. Unfortunately, criminals in my world tend to make sure they kill you pretty thoroughly, and make you pay before that happens. So we have to be just as vicious."

"If we get everything back, then we'll at least be stronger for it. So, at least there's that as a plus side," he laughed faintly. He nearly said 'what doesn't kill you makes your stronger' but thought better of the turn of phrase.

To all of that, though, at first she got little more than a 'hn' from him. He disapproved, of course, of being 'vicious' to criminals, or to that specific level of violence. But it was also not exactly an area where getting preachy had been very effective on anyone. "We had a fair few criminals who fell under 'ruthless' in my world," Tim said instead. "I've been training for years in order to fight against them, myself. Not so much because of vendetta, though-- more an inclination towards justice."

Hit girl shrugged. "I don't really have a lot going for me, but I guess making sure some of you guys get your worlds back is enough, right? It's not like anyone really wants to be lacking the world they live in, right?"

Yeah, she knew all about an inclination of justice, how he lost his parents and all...of course, in her world, there were no heroes, so if a fuck killed your parents, all you had to help you was THE LAW.

Heh. Funnier when she imagined those words spoken by Sylvester Stallone.

But she expected him to not like it, of course, he WAS Batman's protege. "Where I'm from, corruption runs deep, and there's no heroes, All you have is law enforcement, and I'm sure someone like you knows how easy they can be bought and sold."

He didn't have to approve, just understand WHY.

Tim eyed her curiously at that. "Right. If nothing else, we do have a duty to try and save as many worlds as possible, I think." Even if it was a task against the odd, it was still highly important, obviously. "Not exactly looking forward to the potential of returning to your own world, then?" He might as well ask.

Honestly, Tim understood a little better than he wanted to. He understood 'unfair' and 'corrupt.' He nodded faintly. As much as he was big on justice-- sometimes it was hard to ignore the thoughts of things a little darker than that. "Understandable. My world diverged enough to have the heroes rise, largely, in response to that where it was worst. But that can hardly be the case for every world. Sometimes options are limited." His tone made it clear he didn't want killing to be one of those options. But it was becoming harder to condemn people for that.

"Universes, different dimensions, yeah," Hit girl said, shaking her head and looking amused. "That's the funny thing though, isn't it? Of all the things we have to deal with: aliens, zombies, ghosts, attacking factions and all of that shit. but different dimensions and time and space? Somehow that manages to faze almost no one."

She shrugged. "I love the City, but there's nothing for me there, not anymore. That's the thing about extra dimensions: once you know they exist, why would you want to go back to your world?"

Hit Girl knew how little there would be waiting for her, and she didn't want to be another passing face or statistic for people to take for granted. Those days were over.

She knew what he was driving at. "You work with the options you have: if you were someone like me, BEFORE getting on the ship, would you take the chance of letting some violent fucktard into a system that's corrupt? You might as well give him the keys to your house, because he'll find you and take everything you care about. You don;t take chances where I'm from."

Tim laughed weakly at that, and nodded. "It's all about degrees. Plus, my own world had its fair share of complexities; I can't say much has surprised me here." He shook his head at that. "At least there's been scientific theories behind multiple universes for years, at least in my timeline, whereas things such as ghosts, for example, have never really had an explanation."

But honestly, Tim felt that there were a lot of reasons to go back to one's own world, even if you realised alternate timelines and worlds existed. He'd experienced things like that before, heard things about them, and yet he still wanted only to return to his own world. "I suppose it makes a pretty big difference, yeah."

The fact that she didn't want to go back was actually very telling about her.

With a grimace, he said, "Right. I'm a pretty strong believer in options-- not 'chances'. But yes, I would absolutely want to prevent that situation." not for his own sake, though. It was bigger than that.

"Nah, I suppose not," Hit Girl said, thinking of the Infinite Crisis part of the comics. "Well its sorta a big thing for my word, since the idea of aliens is kinda a big thing. There are scientists, but in my time, they're all bogged down by politics and the world trying to prove which stupid political party has more power. It's stupid: p[ower in politics is more of an illusion of control. People just buy into it, that's all."

Oh, it was more than that: the idea she'd have to go back from being Hit Girl to Mindy again, by herself, even if Marcus would provide. NO, she wanted to be by herself at this point, or at least go to the worlds of one of her friends. Without dad being there, there was really no reason to stay in the City for her. She couldn't give up the suit.

But he didn't know that, and it would stay that way.

"Options is also giving them an edge over you: that was something we tried to avoid. Give some scum an option, and it'll be to fuck you over. Every time you escape a near death situation, its reminded they happen because you aren't doing enough to stop that guy who did it from doing it again."

"We've come to accept aliens, in my world," Tim said with a mirthless laugh. "And political scheming and control issues still remain to be a big deal, even once we knew there was a lot more out there than we could see first hand."

He was certainly very interested in learning more about this girl. Figuring out who she was would be an easy first step-- and there were only so many girls who could fit the profile, as far as he knew. Still, no need to jump to conclusions yet. With the sheer number and the flexibility of the crew it was quite likely he'd not met all of the girls who could fit, either. He pushed that thought away for the time being.

"No," he disagreed. "'Options' means giving yourself room to manoeuvre. You can control and direct your own choices and, sometimes, the actions of those around you. You never let your opponent have real leverage over you; that's not an option, because it severely limits your freedom of choice on the matter."

"In my world, aliens are what not jobs and Scientologists believe in," Hit girl replied, not that she thought the two of them were mutually exclusive. "I'm sure on a broader scope, you could tell me how politics and control ply an issue in what heroes do, and how they react to the world bout them. But when I say my world, I'm also talking about what I seem and its been mostly bullshit. If politicians gave a shit, corruption wouldn't be rampant where it is, and I wouldn't have to be one of the few people giving a shit about making things better where I live."

She didn't doubt he would find out who she was eventually. It was Tim Drake after all, and he had figured out who Batman was himself. He'd already talked to her too: so maybe, in a way, she wanted him to figure it out.

"You don't always have the option of out thinking the opponent, not when they act swiftly against you, not when they use force. Things can come up, and even if you live, somehow someone ends up paying for it. Sometimes you get lucky, and sometimes it all falls to shit. Not that I'm knocking what you might do: anyone with staff skills like that is bound to have a trick or to up his sleeve. I agree with you a little, but ultimately, plans sometimes fall to chance, and when THAT happens, you'd better be ready to do what needs to be done, and quick."

"Of course. I'm no stranger to the concept of political corruption-- we were just fortunate enough to have a fair bit of good to counterbalance it." On the other hand, Luthor was elected once. That kind of put a damper on things. "It's unfortunate that your world had this problem to such a severe degree, though; but at least there were some who worked towards the goal of improvement." That would help, even if he weren't quite optimistic enough to believe that it was all that was needed.

He nodded. "You're a smart girl," Tim said, voice level. "I won't lecture you about my own methods, not unless you're looking for lessons in tactics as well as in martial arts. Our worlds are different, that plays a major role in anything we can discuss about our methods. But a piece of advice, all the same: accommodate for plans falling through. Don't factor in failure, but factor in risk."

"Good that you have that much faith in the system," Hit Girl said, shrugging. "That's a game that I don't mess around with if I can help it. My place is getting in dirty with the guys that fuck up the rest of the neighborhood. To me, its all buzz words and shit I can't touch, so I make a difference where I can. If that's here now, its pretty clear where I stand, right?"

She shrugged. "Smart enough to know that being a hero is not something you stumble into and hope for the best. There's going to be guys like you that have the brains and the brawn to fight crime without blood spilling. Hell, I had a lecture like this not too far ago, from a guy named Kon-el, you might know him. But the way I figure it, what I do and what you guys do is a system that ahs a way of balancing itself out."

Tim laughed bitterly. "I wouldn't call it 'faith,' exactly," he said. "But no, it's a system that can be used, if you have the resources." And of course the Waynes did have the resources to take advantage of political and social means of improvement. But her age alone was an obvious restriction on her. "But right, you have your own stand to make, regardless of where. That's the important thing."

"I know him, yes," Tim agreed, thinly. He wasn't all that surprised that Conner had been on her case, considering his similar values; even if they'd started to grow in different ways. But he nodded. "There's a certain balance, yes. And I'll make it clear, now-- in my own world, I wouldn't stand for vigilantism as violent as what you've alluded to. But this isn't my world; we're in a war, and if we have the ability to return to our own worlds later, we'll be parting ways. That limits the amount of lecturing I'm able to give you on the moral aspects of what you do or don't do. We should be avoiding killing, we still have some options left." The cultists, especially, should be left alive. "I know my own stand won't impact you a great deal-- but you should know what my own terms are, if we're going to be fighting together. Which we inevitably will be."

"It sounds like a plan, to try and exploit the system that constantly exploits all the people in it, but we never had that kind of power. It's not like we could though: there are some things, no matter how much you wish them, that just don't fly in my kind of world. the idea of a vigilante scares cops and criminals, once you get down to it. I bet if it were to get bigger in my world, cops would be coming after us. But that's people for you: glad you saved them, scared you have to exist in the first place. Kind of a vicious cycle."

She was glad he at least understood that much.

She really had to stop from chuckling. "Hypothetically, in another world, I might be able to look up to someone like you. If things were different, hell, who knows? I might even want to be your protege. But I know where my limits and where my talents are, just as I know what I do after this ends, if I'm still alive. The threat never stop, you know? Something out there wants to make chaos and end stuff, and I'm the kind of girl who can;t be tied down to just one place and wait for that to come, you know?"

"It does come with a certain amount of privilege," Tim admitted. The wealth of the Waynes had always been an advantage that not all heroes had access to, there was no denying that. "We had a sometime precarious balance in my own world, as well, though it sounds like it was still better off. Some, though, were more well accepted than others. Approval is a factor whether you want it to be or not, considering that cooperation can be a huge advantage-- just as resistance can be an obstacle." But yes, he understood how that worked. There were certain things that vigilantes had to deal with that would be common to all worlds; and not many people would ever be totally comfortable with normal humans doing those things.

He smirked, though, and nodded. "I'll take that as a compliment," he said, but then his expression sobered. "I understand. I've long since come to understand that there's only one path left for me-- and it doesn't particularly matter where in the worlds that heads." He paused, then said, "In the meantime, I'm obviously open to the idea of helping you train, and giving you tips as far as strategy goes, as well. Any edge can count for a lot."

She shrugged. That was more political BS, and she knew that had very little if nothing to do with her. She would worry about that stuff when she became an Overlord. Granted, at the point it would be more of a might makes right over anything else, but even she realized it would be important to have to take the right position when it called for it. For now, what he was talking about was out of her element, and she was content for it to stay that way.

"It is one," she said. "People can become infamous, and its possible some people even hear about others on the ship. There ARE a few people here who know you from your world: it was why I called you Red Robin t first. There was a kid named Beastboy who spoke pretty highly about you. I figured you'd be someone worth learning something from."

Tim watched her closely, a searching gaze under the lenses of his cowl. That was a likely enough explanation, he thought-- though he'd only interacted so much with the Beast Boy on the ship, being a different world from his own.

"There are a few of us who share the same of similar worlds," he commented idly. His best friend and brother were included in that, after all. "So that's unsurprising. Though I think most people on the ship have something worth learning from. Still, I'm certainly willing to oblige and teach you."

"Thanks," she said. "I'm pretty decent with the staff, but there's still a lot more that I could learn, you know? I'm pretty fast, and I can move pretty well despite the lack of reach, but I want to put more skill behind my attacks."

And more force, really, but that was why she was learning from Morgan: if she earned from him, it wouldn't be necessary to use force when you had martial arts to direct your movement in the best manner.

"I know people on the ship can be learned from. I've actually learned quite a lot from a few of them: I just wish some had stuck around."

Tim nodded. "You obviously know what you're doing," he said. "You already have a fair bit of skill, and you're right that you're fast. I'd advise continuing to take advantage of your size and the confidence of your opponents, where there's a clear difference." That was something that he'd had to learn fast, too; he was taller now, but even years later he wasn't exactly tall. "General skill and methodology are probably the best things for you to focus on working on."

Again, he nodded. "Right. It's unfortunate when you lose someone you've been working with. That's what we're hoping to improve with the training we're organising though; the structure should help."

A (not so) Quick Work Out [open]

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