paradisalogs | this one's for the faithless, the ones that are surprised

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this one's for the faithless, the ones that are surprised

Who: The Once-ler and Cassandra Cain
What: He's been inside way too much and she is going to change that.
When: May 24th
Where: The clinic, then OUTSIDE damn it.
Rating: PGish

Each time she's gone to visit him, she's found Once in the exact same place, doing the exact same thing, generally looking not all that happy about... well, anything. They sit and knit and talk and it's nice, it's fun, but when was the last time he even left the clinic? Has he really just stayed in bed since their horrible space adventure?

If that's true, it's not acceptable at all. It's also why when she comes to visit him today, she's pushing a wheelchair in front of her. There's a picnic basket sitting in it right now, so her intention is probably pretty clear: she's taking him outside for lunch.

Does he have a say in it? Not exactly. She smiles at him when she stops the chair by his bed.

"Hi Once."

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"Yes. He's sad, sulking." She goes over to pat Ace's head, smiling sympathetically when the dog looks between her and Once with sad eyes. He misses his owners and Cass envies him a little for his ability to show it in public. She's been keeping that to herself the best she can, but a week on her own after getting used to having Stephanie and Tim around is going to be murder.

"They'll come home, though. No more sitting on dog." She returns to Once now and turns the chair so he's facing her room. "You sit here, will go change." She starts off, then remembers the whole hospitality thing. "Um, want anything? Drink?"

"Ohhhh I see, I can tell by the sad, forlon look in his little doggy eyes," the Once-ler replies.

He was so busy with the dog, he missed the part about changing, or rather, let it slide right over his brain and let it settle in some dark recess where he'd no doubt remember it later. He doesn't seem that bothered about the hospitality thing either, he's the guy who has booby traps going to HIS room, after all.

"I'm pretty good right now, thanks."

"Okay, be right back."

And off she goes, remembering at the last minute to close the door behind her. She wouldn't bother normally, but the reveal will be better if he doesn't see her hopping around trying to pull her boots on. While she's gone, Ace slumps his way off the couch and over to the Once-ler to lay his head on his lap for attention. Poor sad dog with his sad dog life.

It's not too long before the door opens and Cass comes back out, dressed in her full batsuit complete with cape and cowl. She's smiling at him under it, but with the blacked out eyes and the covered mouth, it's probably not that obvious. And probably a little creepy.

"Tada. Batgirl."

The Once-ler had been patting the poor dog's head, understanding it's poor, lonely predicament. Life sucked when people just up and left you, while you sat there like an idiot, waiting for them to come back, knowing in your heart they never would. Poor dog indeed. He glances up when Cass speaks. And then stares.

Probably a lot.

Because wow, would you look at that outfit there. With all the curves and whatnot. Not that he should be paying attention to her curves and whatnot. Unless she wants him to? Does she? Oh god why are women so difficult to understand? He realises he should probably say something, given he's been staring for a good while. So, battling between his desperate need to be a gentleman and the fact he's still a guy, he scrambles for anything to say and blurts the first thing he grasps onto right out.

"That's pretty cool, the black and gold go well together...there."

...What the hell was that? What the every loving cat in the hat hell was that? And now he's blushing awkwardly. Greaaat. Can the world just swallow him up now? That would be cool.

Well that's... quite a reaction. It's not one she really expected from him either, though she's realizing now maybe it should have been a little expected after his guy thoughts comment.

And yeah the cowl is definitely helpful now because she's pretty sure she's blushing too. At least he can't see it? She looks down at where the gold is on her chest, the outline of a bat that's different from any of the other bat symbols. This one is just her, she's proud of it.

"You like it?" There, she'll just make it a little worse for him.

Oh wow, she had to ask that, didn't she? He;s still staring, so it takes him a moment to blink and look down, trying to keep the horrific embarrassment away and failing terribly.

"Oh yeah, it's great!," he manages in a pretty squeaky voice.

Trying again he clears his throat to bring his voice back at least to a marginally masculine level, hopefully with a touch less panic in it, too.

"I mean, it's great. I bet you blend in with the dark great in it. Great for fighting villains and...stuff. Really...great"

Wow he just said great way too many times in one sentence.

The only other color to her suit is the utility belt that matches the bat, so it's very true, she does blend in well.

"Better like this." She pulls the cape around her now, shielding all the things that seem to be giving him trouble. "See? Can hide completely, like this."

Huh, would you look at that. At least it hides her curves and whatnot enough time for him to try and get some sense of decency back and to stop his brain from screaming at him.

"So at night time you really are pretty much invisible. That's...that's really cool."

"Will come visit you, at night. So you can see."

There's nothing wrong with that, right? Her going to see him at night is definitely something that's entirely, one hundred percent normal, surely.

Yep. Nothing weird about that at all, not a single thing. He lets out a nervous laugh, because hey, he's used to having people just...show up in his room in the middle of the night, but Cass, well this was a different thing.

"I...yeah sure. That would be. Well, that sure would be interesting."

Wow could he be feeling any more awkward right now? Probably. Maybe the universe was out to kill him today.

For a few more moments, she watches him and tries to think of something else to say, but she's starting to feel a little guilty. She doesn't want to make him uncomfortable but that's what her suit is for, it's for scaring and intimidating, being something that lurks behind Batman as a threat. Being Batgirl is something that just makes people nervous, so she's used to it, but it's never happened quite like this before.

"Will go change." She says abruptly, turning to go. Better to just be Cassandra in normal clothes than Batgirl in the suit if it makes him uncomfortable.

As terrible with empathy as he is, even the Once-ler can tell when he's put his foot in it sometimes. He reaches out to ~~touch her butt~~ take her hand.

"Hey, it's okay, sorry if I made you uncomfortable...what with the staring and all, you really do look good."

He pauses, before offering her a small, encouraging smile.

"Thank you. For showing me, and letting me know you do this. It makes me even prouder to know you, knowing you're going around doing good in the world."

She reaches up with her free hand to tug the cowl off so he's not saying all this to a stitched up mask and smiles at him, squeezing his hand softly.

"I'm fine. Probably should have... given more warning." Do you warn people about your curves and whatnot? It seems like a weird thing to do but maybe it would have helped. It's a little surprising to hear that someone would be proud to know her, but it feels good to hear it out loud. She can see Bruce's pride sometimes but he rarely ever said things like that with words. Until now, Cass hadn't realized how good it could feel to actually have someone put it out there verbally.

There is a moment when she considers not hugging him because it could make things more awkward for him, but it's not a very long moment. She wants to too much, so she just does, leaning in to put her arms around his neck and hug carefully. There's a lot of sharp points to her costume, from the shoulder spikes to the spines on her gloves after all.

"Thank you."

And now the curves and whatnot are all up close and personal, hopefully his brain won't explode because of it.

A warning probably would have made him even more panicky, the surprise has probably worked out for the best. He doesn't even seem to be panicking about the hug, probably because he wants it just as much. He returns it, giving her a gentle squeeze, taking care of those sharp points, just enjoying the closeness, as much as he knows he probably shouldn't.

"Hey, you're always welcome, Cass."

Hugging him feels very nice, so she'll just stay right there until his body language tells her it's time to let go.

"Maybe, when you're better, can get you suit. You can come... climb walls, play rooftop tag."

It'd be a fun thing to see, him jumping around on roofs with a cape.

Which won't be for a while, probably longer than you should hug a girl who's just a friend. Oh well. He does laugh at that mental image, though.

"I'm pretty sure all the lanky wouldn't look nearly as [attractive] cool in a suit like that," he says, amused. "And so long as you're there to catch me when I inevitably fall off the roof trying to leap across it gracefully, we'd be okay."

She's fine with it, physical affection is always something Cass wants more of as often as possible.

"You'd manage. Batman's really tall."

And she helped Stephanie to not die by knocking her into garbage cans whenever she'd miss her jumps, so there's always that option.

"Well, that's good to know, at least. So long as I don't make a complete fool of myself, I do that regularly enough anyway"

Garbage air bags, the safest option, clearly. Eventually he realises he should probably pull back from the hug, but he does it reluctantly. He even offers her a small smile. Normally he'd feel the need to babble, fill the quiet with inane words. But he didn't have to, with her, she could understand him without him even saying a word. There was something comforting about that.

"Should give yourself... some credit."

Of course the fact that he's here in a wheelchair doesn't really help with assuring him he won't get hurt leaping around on rooftops, but hey. She'll be there to save him if something goes wrong this time, so he'll probably come out of it without a scratch.

Hopefully. When he pulls back, she smiles at him. There's been a lot of that going on today.

"Not a fool now."

"You won't say that when I'm comically flailing about."

He sounds amused, at least. As for not falling to a broken heap, well, he can only hope, he's really had enough clinic time to last him a good long while. He trusts her not to let him come to any harm, something he doesn't especially give a lot of people.

"I don't know, I still have plenty of time to say something awkward or stupid."

"Don't have to... worry about that, with me. Will always see... what you mean."

Which can be good or bad depending on what people do or don't want her to know, but it's not hard to pretend she doesn't see everything. She's kind of used to that actually, it keeps people from getting too weird about what she does.

"I know. It's actually kind of comforting, knowing that."

He's so used to wearing a mask of indifference to the world, or to building his walls ridiculously high to prevent people from getting too close, denying himself the opportunity to hurt them, that he often struggles to show his real feelings. There's been a lot of hiding in his life, and for good reason. But even when he's hiding at his best, Cass knows what he's feeling. Some might find it disturbing or weird, but for the Once-ler it means one person he doesn't have to try to explain things to.

He belatedly realises this might make it easier when he'll inevitably have to push her away. She's already far too close. Maybe she might not take it personally. Maybe.

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this one's for the faithless, the ones that are surprised

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