I had to do Team Batgirl. Babs is Oracle, Cass is Black Bat and Steph is Batgirl as per pre-New 52. Remember, the core drive of each emotion is benevolent, no matter how bad they feel. Sadness is responsible for empathy, sympathy and asking for help; Fear wants to keep us and what we care about safe; Anger wants things to be fair; and Disgust wants to protect us from physical, social or moral contamination. They're all the basis for more complex emotions and processes, e.g. Fear enables forethought and common sense for risk evaluation, Anger inspires courage and bold, direct action and Disgust is highly involved in meeting social expectations.
[Babs's Headquarters has a similar professional atmosphere to Bruce's. The walls are dark grey. Behind the immaculate main office, a few closed doors partition off other spaces, probably more personal ones. The memory shelves are longer than average and have additional walled channels beneath them to store memory orbs that fall from overflow, and the memories glow unusually bright; there are no windows and the room is lit by overhead office lights, the sight screen and the memory orbs. Her emotions are also in wheelchairs and wear glasses, with individual styles and decorations. Her console is a large, angular, intricate control panel of gleaming silver metal, elegant and futuristic, at which sit Fear at the helm, Anger at her right hand and Joy at her left, then Sadness and Disgust next to them.]
Fear: We’re scanning our entire surveillance network, but the Joker is still unaccounted for. We should check in with Cassandra and Stephanie.
Joy: I’m so proud of them. Permission to verbalize that to them, ma’am?
Fear: Don’t know if we’ll have time.
Anger: Yeah, expressing vulnerability takes a lot of energy, and we all agreed to divert 75% of it to single-minded fixation on justice until Joker is back in Arkham. Preferably via ambulance.
Fear: I’ll schedule a tight smile for when the girls get back, but no guarantee Babs will remember it then. Our short-term memory bank is already full to bursting.
Disgust: (under her breath, annoyed) As always.
Sadness: So, um… Dick hasn't called us back yet, but I think he wants to. Maybe we should call him.
Fear: No, we’re both busy. We can catch up tommorow.
[Cass's Headquarters is largely a fusion of a dojo and a gym, a wide open space with mats, punching bags and other exercise and martial arts equipment. The walls and floor are made of wooden boards. A set of floor-to-ceiling windows at the back and sides shaped like Bat symbols make the space light and airy. There is no console. Rather, an elevated black stage with yellow curtains is before the screen. Sadness is centre-stage, flanked by Anger and Fear, then Joy and Disgust. The black surface lights up with squares of the emotions’ respective colours under their feet as they dance in a graceful, perfectly coordinated ballet routine to classical music. Until Fear makes a different move to the others. An alarm beeps, cutting off the music, and everyone freezes. The others stare at Fear. Anger is offended, Sadness and Joy are intrigued and Disgust is confused.]
Anger: (folds her arms, raises an eyebrow and puffs out her chest at Fear challengingly)
Sadness: (gently holds Anger in place with a hand on her shoulder and nods to Fear)
Fear: (cringes, but cautiously makes the move again)
Anger: (clenches her fists and gestures in outrage to Sadness)
Joy: (steps forward and holds Fear’s hand in support, making unintimidated eye contact with Anger)
Disgust: (looks ahead through Cass’s eyes, unlike any of the others are, due to boredom with the dispute)
Disgust: Ugh. More henchmen.
[The emotions reshuffle so that Disgust is centre-stage. She dances alone to simpler music with only one instrument. The others retreat upstage, Sadness between Anger and Fear and Joy as she tries to mediate.]
Joy: (stands protectively in front of Fear and beckons for Anger to bring it on, balancing her weight)
Sadness: (shakes her head disapprovingly, unseen by anyone)
Anger: (yells wordlessly and punches Joy)
[The four break into a fight, tumbling offstage onto the mats. Disgust rolls her eyes.]
[Steph's Headquarters is furnished much like a mundane living room, with white walls, a purple sofa and carpeted floor, cluttered coffee table, lamps emitting warm light, windows and a comfortable atmosphere. The doors to ancillary rooms are open. Tucked away by the memory orb shelves, two cardboard boxes of purple, blue, red and green memory orbs marked ‘Trauma - FRAGILE’ remain unpacked. Her console resembles a video game controller, being white, rounded and covered in colourful buttons, switches and joysticks. It has a single chair, a spinning black one made with purple cushions. Joy is seated, gleefully wiggling a joystick. Anger is on her right, excitedly watching the mission, and Sadness is on her left, concerned. Disgust is hovering at the side of the console, not very interested. Fear is on the sofa, quietly writing in a puzzle book.]
Joy: We’ve got this in the bag. None of these bozos even know we’re here.
[She reaches to press a yellow button. Disgust notices, abruptly invested, and pushes past Sadness to grab Joy’s hand.]
Disgust: But they will if you quip from so near them. And then we’re gonna fail and Babs is gonna make her disappointed face and, like, never trust Steph with a stealth mission again.
Anger: There’s the ringleader! Aw, Cass is already beating him up.
Sadness: (sighs and leans on the console, turning it partially blue) She was a way better Batgirl. We’ll never come close and everyone knows it.
Joy: (batting her arm away) Sadness, we’ve talked about this. Steph earned her place and has nothing to prove. Everything's gonna be fine. Okay, let’s just sneak past and get out with the intel -
Fear: Hey, guys, do you ever think about how Steph’s daughter could die at any moment and we wouldn’t even know?
[The others tense and flinch. The console lights up purple and fades to blue.]
Disgust: So not the time!
Sadness: (crying) I am now!
Anger: This is why we never listen to you!
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