InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "Let me? He loved it."

killerofstars (killerofstars) wrote in snapthread,
@ 2019-08-13 23:12:00

Entry tags:

barbara gordon, galen marek (sw)

WHO: Galen Marek and Barbara Gordon.
WHAT: It's hot, and Galen seeks council.
WHERE: Barbara's place.
WHEN: Wednesday Morning.
RATING: Low.

It was hot. So unbelievably hot. To such a degree, that Galen had thought about going back to his sick days and find a cool spot in his house to lay down, just like a lizard he had been compared to previously. Instead, Galen took to having his Pokemon come with him, and seek out a friend. Friend was still a weird term for Galen to get use to, but it was still something he was striving for. Now having more friends, as was considering the dancing and the drinking with Miles a branch into friendship.

Looking up at the direction of the sun, Galen squinted some. How did it get so hot so suddenly. This was the worst.

Lucario and Galen walked side by side towards Barbara's place through town. He was actually taking notice of people, and recognizing more of them than previously had - possibly even waving to them or greeted as he passed by. The disgust in his stomach still regarding this. It really took a long time to rebound from being so hard up on the dark side of things. Not that he fully released it, just merely embraced the light side more to acknowledge he had more to learn.

Approaching the door of Barbara's, Galen didn't wait a moment before knocking on it. "Hey, it's me." He called out. "Please tell me you have something cool to drink. It's insanely hot out here."

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batgirlbabs
2019-08-19 06:02 am UTC (link)

Barbara caught the towel easily when Galen tossed it at her, folding it rather than snapping at him the way she was tempted to and laying it on the counter top before she shook her head. "Not forever, no." She told him. "But sometimes I am tempted." Not just because the men in her life could be idiots, but she'd met some women that she thought she might have worked well with. Dinah maybe. If she could ever get her friend to stay in one place long enough for something like that.

"Yes, they can." She agreed, pleased to see that Galen thought that way. She might not have been surprised if it turned out he wasn't okay with something like that, all things considered.

Laughing when he called school pointless and complicated she shrugged. "I guess it might seem that way to someone who has never done it before. It just the way we do things where I'm from. When you're about five or six you start elementary school, and then after about 6 years you move on to middle school where you spend three years and then on to high school for four more years before you graduate. From there some people choose to go to college, to study things more in depth." It was strange to think of a place that didn't have some form of school, but maybe where Galen was from there was school he'd just been denied the chance to go. It was hard to say really.

"It can be." She nodded, "A lot of people make friends there they keep for the rest of their lives." She told him. Not that she had done that, sure she'd met Dick when she was still in high school, but did that count? She wasn't sure. He didn't go to school with her. "There are clubs and things you can take part in, and dances and sports." All things that she hadn't really done either, but normal kids did. They had fun with them.

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killerofstars
2019-08-19 08:35 pm UTC (link)

Watching her fold the towel, he had to mess with her. Inching his finger forward and up, the towel jumped off the counter against her face. Okay, that was cheating. "Y'know, Sith believe in acting on feelings and temptation. It derives our powers. The good, the bad." Galen shrugged. "It's what you do with that power is the question." That was what Starkiller was learning now.

"So, I should let you know when I meet a ever so charming lady or man?" Galen inquired. "Because, whoever it is, they're going to need patience to deal with you." He winked at her with a smirk.

She would be correct, that Starkiller was denied the opportunity for education. Only being taught what was deemed useful for his skill sets regarding his hunting and killing of Jedi. Most of his training in any sort of education came from his droid PROXY that was the only gift from Vader. A great gift at that. Programmed to make sure he tried and killed him regularly. "I don't understand it." Starkiller shook his head. "All appropriate skills can be taught in the field where you can learn more life saving lessons than in any classroom." He frowned.

"I don't get it."

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batgirlbabs
2019-08-19 09:26 pm UTC (link)

Catching the towel after it seemingly jumped up off the counter under it's own power, Barbara gave Galen a clearly unimpressed sort of look at his antics but shrugged. "Yeah, power is an interesting thing, you can always use it for good, but just like there's the option for that, you can use it for ill too." She shrugged. "Sometimes temptations and things like that - they're nice to think about, but you don't act on them, it can be a greater show of power when you don't give in than if you did."

Rolling her eyes at him when he teased her about if he should let her know about any potential prospects. "I'd say the same for anyone who might catch your eye as well." She teased him with a smirk of her own.

"Where I'm from we tend to start with a basic education for most people and from that foundation some will go into field training with a trade job or something like that, and others will go to college and keep working on their education." She explained. "Most careers that people have require a certain level of schooling. And school helps with other things too." She told him. "It helps you figure out how to deal with people, how to work in groups, and how to work with deadlines and things like that."

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killerofstars
2019-08-21 04:29 am UTC (link)

"Power should be used.." Galen stopped and considered it. See the thing was this. He wasn't sure fully. What should power, or most importantly his power be used for? Saying power should be used for the forces of good for all the things that are good was naive and foolish, right? There was never going to be a world where there would be no evil. So where should power be directed. The internal strife probably was evident on his face.

"Pft." Galen waved off his thoughts and went to the point of - "I'm a catch for anyone. They just have to be able to keep up with me." He commented. Starkiller needed someone was able to keep up with him in every way, otherwise it would just not work.

As Barbara went on about the education system of her world, she was met with dead and confused eyes. All of this made little sense to the young man. "That," He shook his head. "I don't know what to do with that. It sounds so rudimentary and pointless." Of course this was coming from the guy who was basically home schooled.

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batgirlbabs
2019-08-21 10:31 pm UTC (link)

"Sure, power should be used." Barbara agreed, because she understood that, power that you didn't ever use was pointless, if you had power you had a responsibility to use it - it's just that people often had different ideas about how power should be used. "It's all a matter of what you do with it though. I mean I can use the power I have in my world and create something that only benefits myself. I built something that could very easily have been used to make a bomb - which could have made me a lot of money, government contracts, things like that. But I know how something like that would be used, I changed the plans when I realized what it was, and I used the same plans and created a clean energy generator." She told him, using an example from her own life that she hoped would be easier for him to understand rather than talking about it vague ways. "So the machine I built now, helps to create clean energy for part of the city where I live. It helps the environment and it has created a lot of new jobs for people. You see?"

She just grinned when he assured her that he was a catch, that someone would just have to keep up with him, rather than the other way around. And sure he was different and he needed someone who saw that and liked those kinds of qualities, she wasn't sure that translated directly, but she let him have it.

Laughing when he said that the education system where she was from sounded pointless. "I'll be honest, it sounds like what you've done from where you're from would be pointless to me too." She shrugged. "We come from different worlds, so what we have works for us, it sounds like they might not cross over from one place to the other." Still she thought there were bits and pieces of both ways of life that could be a benefit if they managed to trade back and forth.

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killerofstars
2019-08-22 04:51 am UTC (link)

When Barbara started talking, it dawned on him that he had left his statement unfinished. Right. Talking with other people. "Right." Galen commented while he listened to her story about her power at hand. This raised a question in his head that he needed to know now. Most people here had something extraordinary about them. This sister figure of his, tried extra hard to seem incredibly normal.

"You..." He straightened himself some. "What is it you do?" Galen asked probably for the first time. "Other than that machine you created. That does not sound like your normal gig." That was when he felt out with the Force, not to read her thoughts or make her talk - but to get her feelings on the surface. "You're hiding something from me." Starkiller called out. "Tell me.

"Valid." Starkiller would concede to. There was differences between the two worlds, and this was just another among the many. Though, he much rather his worlds compared to her one Earth. "We'll just have to educate each other as time goes on." Starkiller commented.

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batgirlbabs
2019-08-22 07:18 am UTC (link)

She was very nearly surprised when he just agreed simply with her story about using power, and then he began asking questions. And Barbara wasn't sure how much to tell him - because she'd done a good job since she arrived of keeping her alter ego to herself. Dick and Jason had known of course, but she hadn't shared with anyone else and she hadn't felt like she needed to either.

"Well I used to do some computer programming, I was paralyzed for a while." She explained, hoping that this would be enough for him. "I couldn't walk so I started working with computers. I don't do a ton of that anymore, but I've still got the ability to do it." She admitted lifting her shoulders in a slight shrug. "The plans for the machine came from that point in my life." She explained, she'd seen the designs when she'd gone digging and they just stuck in her memory and she was able to recreate it later and make it something for good.

"I have kind of moved past a lot of that, I've been trying to be more ... involved?" She tried to find the right words to talk about her life without revealing too much. "So I don't do as much with computing as I used to, and I was going back to school before I started working on a political campaign." She shrugged. "There's not a lot about my life that's normal, so it's hard to really say one thing is what I do."

Barbara didn't know why she was so eager to keep her identity hidden, probably years and years of keeping it secret, not even telling her own father who she was. Her brother had found out and that had gotten her handed over to the Joker for a second time, she didn't think she could chance that again, even here in this place where people were so open about their alter egos.

She did smile a little though when he agreed that their worlds were different. "Yes, there's probably a lot we can learn from each other." She agreed, her world seemed painfully normal compared to his, but his seemed so much colder than hers. There could be a lot that they exchanged in time.

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killerofstars
2019-08-24 03:47 am UTC (link)

Galen listen to her story and how it panned out, and the thing was simple. She was lying. Well maybe not lying, but he could feel more than what she was telling. Not that it was painted on her face or anything. Because she was incredibly skilled at hiding this secret, as it was old as time with her. Which was also incredibly interesting to Starkiller.

"How did you get paralyzed?" Galen asked as he used the Force to pull him a chair to sit on, so they could continue talking about these items.

"Computers are interesting, for a brainy type." Galen muttered. "I just..." He stared at her. Yeah he just did things his way and it involved little finesse in the realm of computers or hacking. He just mostly just crushed and destroyed everything the came across.

"Well." Starkiller muttered. "You are.." He looked for the words. "Hiding something." He glanced at the counter as his hand drummed on the counter top as if he was in thought. "You know, that is quite the one way street if you think about it. I shared intimate details of my life and past." He looked to her with mock hurt eyes.

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batgirlbabs
2019-08-25 05:38 am UTC (link)

"It was -" She started and stopped, even now it was hard to talk about, but the way she was paralyzed was no secret, just a bad memory. "My dad he's the police commissioner in the city where I'm from," She explained, "We have a lot of criminals there, they don't stay locked up for long no matter what the police do, and one day when I was home on my own one of those criminals came to the house - probably hoping my dad would be there and instead he found me. And he shot me." She told him honestly. "He left me for dead, hoping that my dad would find me like that. I didn't die though, I survived it - but like I said - I was paralyzed because of it. They didn't think I would ever walk again." But her dad had been stubborn, "Dad took me half way across the world to get a surgery that would never have been allowed back home on the smallest chance that I could walk again." And that had put her short lived career as Oracle on hold, she'd been too busy focusing on relearning how to walk.

"I've always liked them, especially when I felt trapped in that chair." Again the truth - she had thought she might just lose her mind when she'd been paralyzed, stuck like that after feeling so free as Batgirl. But she'd found a different kind of escape there, a different sort of freedom and she could still help, just in a different way than she had before. "I'm just not certain that they're the sort of thing I want to devote myself to all the time." She could have made Gordon Clean Energy her full time job, devoted herself to the company, but she'd given it away - let her best friend take charge of it because she trusted her completely. And Barbara knew herself well enough to know she'd never be able to give herself to anything as much as she should as long as she was Batgirl.

What she didn't expect was for him to suggest that she was hiding something. And yes of course she was - she was keeping back a part of herself because she had to. You never told anyone who you were without the mask, it had been the first lesson she'd gotten from Bruce. They knew one another but well - things had always been a little complicated for the Batfamily. But everyone else? They didn't need to know. It wasn't safe. Even here.

"I think I've shared some pretty intimate details from my life and past with you too." She replied, fixing him with a level look.

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killerofstars
2019-08-25 02:44 pm UTC (link)

The story she shared though about getting paralyzed was a painful one. While listening to it, Galen couldn't help the fury that built up in his chest. Barbara was someone close and dear to him, and how could something happen to her.

That single thought snapped the fury into confusion.

She was near and dear. Galen's fury about what happened to her and the pain she went through at an earlier point in her life turned to something soft and almost confused. As he was figuring things out in his own head. That was something he would have to work out in his mind, and figure out what it could possibly mean. That was something he wasn't even sure he was ready to figure out on his own. He'd let it slide mostly.

Barbara was incredibly smart, and that was useful knowledge if something came to rise that needed that type of intelligence, because as he stated - he was a smash and destroy type. He was about the realm of destruction. Though with that level look he received, his eyes narrowed reading her. There was something about it, and he knew he struck a chord. One that she wasn't going to budge on. Well, yet. Galen smiled a soft smile and stood up. Glancing to the back of the house he whistled loudly for Lucario. Walking around the counter, he just approached Barbara and hugged her firmly. Something sweet possibly. "I like you. You're okay." Then he departed from the hug just as quickly.

Raising his hand to signify his departure. "Thank you for your guidance, Barbara." He said with a smile. "I'll be sure to tell you how it explodes in my face, but I now have preparations to make."

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batgirlbabs
2019-08-26 05:31 am UTC (link)

A part of her expected him to push, to demand that she tell him more - but he didn't do that, in fact he didn't press for more at all instead he looked like he was getting ready to leave, but instead came around the counter and rather than anything she might have expected he hugged her. It was brief, but it was a hug, a real one and Barbara felt a kind of sentiment that she hadn't fully been ready for and just when she'd been ready to hug him as well he was pulling back.

"I like you too, Galen." She said and rather than let him get away with that kind of quick hug and release she pulled him into another one, still quick and without lingering, but it felt important to her. And she gave him a firm squeeze in return. "Even when you can be annoying," She teased as she stepped back again.

She smiled when he thanked her and promised to tell her how it all went if it ended poorly. "I'll be fine, just trust yourself and have fun." She told him honestly. "Good luck!"

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killerofstars
2019-08-27 03:40 am UTC (link)

The hug from Barbara caught Starkiller off guard for a moment, before he touched her side lightly to reciprocate the feelings a second time. Sure, it wasn't very in his nature to show a nurturing love like that. Though, this specific woman had managed to put a soft spot right in his chest, to say the least.

"Pft" Turning from her as Lucario barked at Barbara also. "You're the annoying one, Babs." Starkiller decided to final use her nickname while waving his hand at her over his shoulder.

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