ADRIFT

dawn is more than an empty promise.

[starignite]

indie, headcanon based, canon-divergent cluster of Graysons, as penned by Micki, she/her, 1995.

about/tag page. rules.

you can also find me at:

Jason Todd ( @sonburied ) Kyle Rayner ( @lifebleeds ) Tim Drake ( @birburger )

[robstaryeah]

Nightwing and Starfire with Mar'i Grayson

Art by Pico

Commision by @Ngtwg_Strfr_Fan

[starignite]

if mark invincible and mar'i nightstar had a kid which set of genes win

[oftroia]

#OFTROIA — indie & selective rp blog for Donna Troy / Troia as written by Hope

[relicfound]

@starignite said: an adrenaline-fueled kiss while standing on the ledge of a rooftop. / nightwing smooches for vanny—

There were few things as exhilerating as getting chased all the way to the rooftop of some big corporation, jumping across seemingy endlessly deep chasms and evading a rather grizzly end all with the knowledge they were about to get away with something no sane person ever should. They were still chasing after them when Vanny proposed they should split up and reconvene LATER to shake them off before they would enjoy their spoils. Her mysterious partner, one she was perhaps stupid to trust this much, hardly seemed convinced that this would be a good strategy right now but with gunshots continuing to ring behind them, they had to do something. And sooner rather than later too. Vanny's suggestion was the only one on the table right now.

No time to really do more than agree on a meeting place once this chase was over, even less time to try and BARTER for each other's trust and so when they were about to part ways, her ready to bolt to the left, Nightwing prepared to do what she did best which was jump off the next best rooftop — she held the woman back for a moment, pulling her closer just for a second to press her lips against hers, short but teasing — promising more should they get another chance. " Gotta make sure you have a reason not to ditch me. " As if Gotham's self proclaimed heroes would not keep their word. No, perhaps the kiss was more for the fun of the game than anything else. She had to have her fun in this city somehow.

[starignite]

"As if I needed another reason—" Broad grin follows her words, tossed after the fleeing netrunner even as Nightwing takes one more step back, foot dangling over nothingness before her weight tips her back the rest of the way, dropping into freefall off one of Neogotham's highrises.

Bullets streak past, just missing bright hair and blue fingerstripes as she tosses one hand up in a crooked wave. Catch me if you can.

The rest of the escape almost seems inconsequential, mind distracted by the lingering sensation of Vanny's lips on her own, of what it could promise at their rendezvous. Still, it doesn't prompt her to be reckless when making her way to the agreed upon meeting point — it was a hell of a lot of sensitive information stolen, and there's no way the injured party wouldn't keep hunting, especially since they'd gotten a relatively positive ID on Nightwing.

Which means her approach was silent as ever, despite the rubber-soled boots and height packed into the suit.

Lights ahead. Nightwing paused, listening, watching the flicker, before softly calling ahead. "V?"

Last thing she needed was to get shot. Wouldn't do more'n pack a nasty bruise, but bullet-bruises weren't any fun either.

[oftroia]

Good, so she could defend her team and more importantly she KNEW them well enough to defend their actions even when others might not see the full picture. He let out a non committal hum at that. " Yes, I suppose if you can place that much trust in your team mates you have nothing to worry about. Still, I hope they also learnt to respect your leadership. "

Young teams always worried him. They had a tendency to bite off more than they could chew. Where older teams had a habit of growing complacent with their work to the point of negligence, the kids were almost TOO excited to get involved and often lacked the ability to work as a proper team. It was a skill that needed to be learnt, it needed to be practised.

And at the end of the day he had always hoped there would be an end to the younger teams eventually, that there would come an end to the need to FIGHT at all. " Wise words, Nightstar. Perhaps I have been too harsh on you. I shall leave any final judgement for after this situation is resolved. "

[starignite]

"They listen." When the stakes called for it. Most of the time. They were all their parents' children, and it showed in varying ways. And perhaps it helped their ability to enmesh by the pure fact that most had known each other since they were old enough to talk, sons and daughters of previous teams and incarnations.

( it was still a different kind of pressure when one found themselves responsible for lives instead of a skinned knee or sharing toys )

"If that's all you wished to discuss—?" The plan was laid out, the roles assigned, the trust laid bare... no plan survives contact with the enemy. No matter how well laid. Kid Flash's ability to stop and pivot on a dime had been an asset in the past, and Mar'i trusted her friend would be able to make reasonable judgement calls.

[stlwrt]

there's a million reasons that flew by in the second aiden stops to think about how his pantry got to... this state. none of which adequate. he chooses, instead, to answer with a non-committal grunt. "i'd planned to have a look at it." the important part is the planned. past tense. and for someone like him, stuck between all these half-projects and would-have-beens and the actual, important work, something inevitably ought to be missed.

lord. it smells like a fire hazard in here.

he turns his heel to pick up the trash bag, shuffling to make sure all the bags of flour settle nicely inside instead of threatening to tumble all over his floor. god forbid it's already a coat of it as is. "i'm going to have to make another trip to the groceries tomorrow." he's not exactly happy about all his nice flour having gone bad. he was gonna make his next batch of cookies with those!

[starignite]

"you actually gonna use it this time?" Rani's words aren't accusatory so much as barely hiding an eyeroll. fingers flip down a top flap, exposing the best-by date on the next thing in her hands. nearly 10 months ago.

"you know, the best-by date's only a suggestion, but pretty sure these are rancid." there was no 'pretty sure' about it. if she opened the bag ( and she was so so tempted to do so ), the smell alone would confirm it with no additional help.

and it wasn't as if the flour had... exactly... gone bad. bugs skitter in the bottom of the bag Aiden found himself fluffing. "most people don't want to eat bugs in their flour, Aiden."

[relicfound]

" Good, " came her sparse answer, unwilling to waste time arguing with these do gooders of Neo Gotham — she doubted he would stick to his word. Not getting involved? These bastards couldn't HELP themselves but to get involved and to argue about everyone's methods. She was just waiting for it. The moment she pulled out her gun was the moment he would try and lecture her about the blood on her hands. As if she didn't know.

With the little ants scattered around, she could finally take a rough count and revise her strategy. Normally she would have simply sent a few daemons straight to their heads, make their cybernetics overheat and explode in their faces — unfortunately for her this damn city had avoided jumping on the trend of using cybernetics and so the damage she could do to them with her usual set up was MINIMAL. A frustrating reality of taking on jobs in this place. It meant more ... rough violence would have to do the trick.

" Could be enough. Depends, really. You're not gonna start cryin' if I begin to shoot these guys, are ya? "

[starignite]

There it was. He'd been expecting it at some point or another — he wasn't blind, and neither was the little 'deck at his hip. Jake winced, glancing sidelong at the 'runner. "Try not to kill them, at least. Lot of them are stupid kids."

Just barely his age, if not younger.

Not all of them, though. And of that he was painfully aware.

His own 'runner's suit, cropped jacket, and mask leave little room to even consider he might be carrying heat of his own. Like most other Neogotham vigilantes. Armsless, but not harmless.

Fingers tap idly on the 'deck still sitting at his hip. Still signal-blocked. Jake had suspected as much anyway, but felt it was still a good idea to check. He, like Vanny, was limited to the local subnet, and cut off from the Bat's adhoc network.

"If we're lucky, they won't even know we passed by."

[stlwrt]

he feels like he's going to have a fucking headache. or an aneurysm. somewhere between both. the whole area around his pantry looks vaguely like it's been blurred by particles of flour just hovering about, disturbed by rani's shuffling.

aiden decides it's better to stop looking and start cleaning, either way—half-damp towel hanging loosely on his shoulder tossed unceremoniously onto the couch nearby before shuffling over to grab the two containers of sugar nearest on the floor, moves them out of the way before either of them accidentally kicks something. "long enough that there's an infestation, apparently." a grimace crosses his face. he takes a peek into the pantry through rani's shoulder. "how bad is it?"

[starignite]

how bad is is it? Rani gestures at the expanse of scattered pantry items, separated from anything still fully sealed and unopened, save for paper flour sacks. "you tell me."

a grimace crosses her face in return as she reaches past Aiden to deposit another, half-used bag of all-purpose flour into the trash bag sitting on the countertop. "I don't know how you missed any of this before it got like this." which. pot calling kettle black, maybe, but she was built like her father, always catching things that were out of the ordinary. things that didn't add up.

[relicfound]

" Uh huh. " Unimpressed would understate her reaction to that explanation. Sure, territorial. As if that would justify jack shit. It had made her work harder and told her nothing she didn't already know so why was he here TELLING her these things? Surely he didn't think she'd accept that as a reasonable apology for the shit she'd been dealt by these people? It would be a piss poor apology, that was sure. The only reason she was sticking around long enough to even listen to him was to find out WHAT kind of tech these gonks were sitting on and if it was worth her time to take a look at it or not. And to hopefully manage to get paid for cleaning the place out.

She wordlessly took the shard, sliding it into her port without taking her eyes off of the path ahead, just in case. Shard was clean, more than that, it had an impressive amount of information on it. She let out an impressed whistle. " Alright, can't deny you guys do your homework. Doesn't mean I like working WITH you on this though. Supposed to get paid for this gig by the way, you better not try and stop me from making some money today I'd hate to have to shoot you. " A warning. This was her job and she wouldn't take any arguing about how she proceeded with it. " And do try to keep up — " And seemingly without moving a muscle, she set off something in the distance, trivial, but enough to hopefully make some of them poke their HEADS out without immediately suspecting they were under attack.

[starignite]

"I'm not going to get in the way of that." Jake shrugs nonchalantly. Merc work was uncommon in Neogotham, but not unheard of. It just usually involved industrial sabotage more than it did putting dents in the local gangs. So if someone was willing to pay one of Waynetech's 'runners to also play crowd control on the local branch of Ts, he wasn't gonna get in the way. 'Course, good luck putting a bullet in him, either, but that was also not a topic for right now — or, really, ever, if he could help it. Most who tended to shoot at him also assumed it was the suit that kept him from bleeding. He'd prefer it remained that assumption even here.

A grin spreads across his face, echoing his sister's when she takes a leap off a high-rise. "Don't worry about whether or not I can keep up. Just... trust me on that."

Whatever she'd triggered, it got them moving, like kicking an ant pile that'd built up in the cracks of concrete, sending T-painted goons scurrying about with alarmed shouts. Good enough for his and V's needs. Probably.

Jake scoots off his perch completely, landing on the floor with a very soft rattle of the grate below and not much else. "Tell me that's enough to get us out of this closet, at least."

[relicfound]

@starignite said: this should be a wonderful opportunity for the two of us to get to know one another. / jake -> vanny :)

Eyes narrowed as she simply stared at the other for a moment, hesitation written ALL OVER her face. " You gotta be kiddin' me. First you guys try and get all up in my work and now you suddenly wanna be buddies? " They really thought she was stupid, huh — an easy target to rip off or use or whatever. Acting like she was born yesterday or something. She was insulted by the sheer audacity of it. He was damn lucky she couldn't exactly send him away given the precarious situation they had found themselves in. Cornered by a gang she was only vaguely familiar with and that he clearly had far more experience with, she would have to rely on HIS information to get the upper hand in a situation where the numbers were against her.

" You wanna get to know each other? Start talking then — I don't have time to sit around and tell you my sob story. " No, she was busy trying to find out how many people they were up against but the cameras weren't showing her much, not enough to make a good estimate anyway. They knew their placement too well of course. That was on her for trying to get to them on their home turf. Lesson learnt or whatever, now she'd like to SURVIVE it too.

[starignite]

"Batman's always been territorial." It's Eidolon's only explanation — and apology — the simple truth of it all. Territorial, and paranoid to a fault, most days. But he wasn't the Batman, and right now, he also didn't have an uplink to the 'Cave, either. The Ts seem to have found themselves a nice little bunker down here, insulated from the outside world. Normally that'd not be the worst thing, being a pushback against the Jokerz that they were, but they also couldn't be trusted with whatever old tech was down here. "The cams are hooked into the defense systems, and I don't think these bit-brains have figured out how to fully shut it down."

As if to illustrate his point, the lights flickered, dimming as the bunker drew power from a backup system likely not meant to support defense and normal operations. Swinging his legs over the edge of a storage container, he leans forward, a datashard offered between two gloved fingers. "Here. Layout of the bunker and some old schematics. It's a Powers design, suspect it wasn't used during the last war."

After a pause, he shrugged. "Did recon before coming in here."

[vhspositive]

[starignite]

[ @stlwrt ] rani stop cleaning out my baking corner i was saving those-

Blue light flickers from her hands momentarily, flashing sharp heat through the pantry, haloing the shape of her body from the other side. "You know you had an infestation, right?"

Emphasis on had.

Half-used paper pouches of flour slouch on the countertop, sitting in the middle of a plastic garbage bag. A paper bag of cornmeal swiftly joins it. The rest of the contents of Aiden's pantry was scattered about the kitchen floor, and any dry goods clearly sitting in some sort of purgatory.

"When was the last time you checked any of this?"

[relicfound]

ERROR: RELIC MALFUNCTION DETECTED!

indie Cyberpunk 2077 Multi Muse featuring Vanny 'V' Ray, written by Hope

No time to regret — no one will give you back what you lost! Do not turn around 'cause it's already too late!

[starignite]

anyway barebones ass cyberpunk verse because neogotham's ripe for it and easy enough to adapt + this is hope's fault.

neogotham, on the northeast coast, is thriving in a strange way unique to it, and attributed mainly to the aging force that is Bruce Wayne within Wayne-Powers, but a holdout minority also theorize it is partly to do with the lingering presence of The Batman. neogotham remains more of a retro city than the rest of the nusa, preferring hand-held 'decks to implanted 'chrome, though chrome isn't unusual to see within the city. most individuals who opt for body modification choose gene editing over cybernetic implants.

[oftroia]

#YOUNGHEROICS — comic multi muse featuring Mia Dearden of DC COMICS, written by Hope

"You gonna keep up the moody teenager routine? Because I just can't take it." "I won't if you won't."

[ruyeung]

Ryand'r (Darkfire) meets the baby.