random_cantina | (no subject)

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She did not expect to find herself in a cafe. She'd been chasing down a criminal, saw him duck into an alley and through a door, and followed him in. Wherever it had lead, it certainly shouldn't have been someplace like this.

And yet, she sensed that she wasn't really in any kind of danger. She was good at scoping places out, looking for threats, and she just didn't see that that. Slowly, she let her crossbow drop and hooked it to her belt.

"...Second time this kind of thing has happened. Just plain strange," she muttered.

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The place was filled with the evening crowd, most of whom had significant differences to their physiognomy from the norm, but who were speaking of everyday things like work and sports and kids. Over to one side a massive golden insectoid centaur was hugging a centaur-like woman with a horn on her forehead, while in the corner a small hairy man was holding court on the best way to program a vacuum cleaner while a tiny black woman looked on with fond amusement.

A female voice called from behind the double wall of people around the bar that she should grab a seat and a waitress would be over there pretty quick.

Even with her recent experiences in the Nexus, the number of strange beings is a bit overwhelming, though not terribly so. With the thief now probably long gone, well, she is hungry, actually. Had thought about picking up some Chinese take-out or something before heading back to her apartment.

With a shrug, she headed over to grab a seat at one of the tables.

A figure stepped through the door and froze, the face that showed beneath the domino mask creasing in a scowl as she realized that she was going to have to wait to hug her husband till his ribs creaked.

She turned, short cape swinging back around her tall, athletic figure and exposing a variation of the familiar Robin costume.

-Alright, God,- she thought grimly. -You've got me here. Who'm I supposed to meet? ...And where am I supposed to sit?-

Huntress had been heading to a table, but stopped and turned around when she'd heard the door open again.

It's not quite the costume she's familiar with--her own Robin had changed costumes twice since the short-pants--but it is similar enough to be recognizable. Not to mention it's fairly close to one of the other Robins she's met in the Nexus.

"You have got to be a Robin," she said.

She turned toward the voice and lifted a brow in a gesture that called Bruce to mind as she took in the unfamiliar costume and its occupant. "Who's asking?"

It was the Bat voice, only female.

Helena was beginning to believe there was something fundamentally wrong in the nature of several of the alternate universes. Nobody should be that upset just because someone recognized them.

"I call myself the Huntress," she said, evenly.

Not so much upset as insanely curious and paranoid wary.

Robin tilted her head, reading body language from behind the white eye patches of her mask. "You're from Gotham?"

Still with the disguised voice, though she was striving to appear non-threatening. It was hard when she was in uniform. Thankfully, the sight of a furry brown catlike waitress had let her know that uniform wasn't very important here, and that she was more or less safe.

Huntress nodded and smiled slightly. "A Gotham, at any rate. And from my experiences so far, probably one fairly different from the one--or ones--you know."

Huntress, on the other hand, is quite non-threatening and manages it much more easily even when in costume. After all, she's not chasing down some thug or fighting some super-villain here. Just like the League gettogethers, in costume but more or less off-duty.

-There's something familiar here, but this isn't an alternate.- Robin's face and body gave no hint of her thoughts. -And it's not Helena Bertonelli, either.-

She nodded toward the empty table, then turned and walked toward it.

Helena followed and sat down, first making sure she wasn't going to be sitting on her cape.

It amazed her though, how hard to read so many of these other bat-people were, how cold some of them seemed. And that female alternate of her father, who treated everything like it was some kind of test. Bruce Wayne had always encouraged her to think, but it had been more like it was a game, a puzzle to be solved, not like some contest to be one, some ritual for proving herself. Even Uncle Bruce, whose Gotham was slightly harsher than the her own, wasn't anything like that.

"That's an interesting take on the costume," she said, after a moment. "Not... especially colorful, though."

Robin looked down at her uniform, then grumbled slightly and set a holographic transmitter on the table before taking the releaser from her utility belt and using it to remove her mask.

She rubbed her face slightly, then looked up, icy blue eyes now studying the other frankly. "No. Colour makes it harder to disappear. And I believe you on the Gotham, I've never heard of another like the one I just came from."

She looked very young, but probably very familiar after that meeting in the nexus.

Very familiar indeed, though not necssarily worth commenting on just yet.

Helena removed her own mask, marveling a bit at her own ressemblance to these alternates. People had always told her she took after her mother when it came to looks, but there was definitely something of her father in her appearance as well.

For now, she's going to leave the "harder to disappear" comment alone. Her own costume is still colorful, while giving her some opportunity for hiding in the shadows. And besides, heroes weren't about hiding, they were about inspiration.

"Oh? What was it like?"

"Big, crowded, at right now bursting at the seams with Pain Children that've come in for their gathering." She glanced up as Jana came over and gave her a cup of coffee and a sandwich, then watched as the catlike woman gave Huntress a plate and cup as well.

"Thanks, Jana." She quirked a small smile that looked genuine.

"You're welcome." Jana returned it, then glanced at Huntress with a smile before she left.

Huntress's plate and cup would hold whatever she'd been thinking she might like.

"Thank-you," Helena said, after a moment's surprise at the arrival of food without actually ordering. Green tea and cashew nut chicken.

"Pain Children? Can't say I've heard of those before."

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