I Moderate (i_moderate) wrote in we_archive, @ 2006-01-01 19:01:00 |
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Entry tags: | barbara gordon, death of the endless |
i_seeall Seeking Death
At first Babs had assumed the fuzzy glimmerings appearing on her screens were just natural glitches stemming from bad equipment. After all, the equipment wasn't hers, nor did she have any real control over it and therefore could be flawed. It began to appear in more and more instances though, usually next to people whom usually appeared to be talking to thin air.
Someone was tampering with her tapes, either that or they had some sort of scrambler attached to their person which distorted their image on camera. It was very frustrating to say the least. Sometimes Babs thought she could see at least a body shape... some sort of figure. But any recognition slipped away quickly and she was left wondering yet again.
She didn't like not knowing, especially when it came to her surveillance footage. It was important and not knowing something could cost someone their life when it came down to it, so Babs set to looking back over her tapes. The connection she was looking for came rather quickly, whoever it was spent a whole lot of time in and in the area around the City's main hospital. Babs immediately cleared the rest of her afternoon schedule and headed out of her clock tower. She would need a cover, but that could be easily thought up on the way to the hospital.
It took a little longer than she would have liked to reach the hospital, but it didn't take as long as it could have had it been bouncing around like the other buildings. Babs parked in the visitors lot and exited her van with a purse holding a few supplies, most importantly her laptop and a small camcorder. She wouldn't know the person she was looking for if she saw them in plain sight, but using her cameras she'd be able to track any shimmering that appeared.
From: [info]i_amjustme Date: 01/01/2006 16:46:48
Death was a commmonplace here, especially lately. The trauma and surgery rooms were her usual stops, though now and again there was a quiet trip to the ICU or the maternity ward.
She had other places to be, often enough, but hospitals were always a place where she was needed. Welcomed at times, warded at others, but needed, always.
She moved down the halls, nodding casually to a few of the nurses and aids who had become accustomed to the presense of a pale, dark-haired young woman. She was friendly, often helpful, and polite, so they never troubled about her. They called her Didi, though none of them could remember who had started that or if it was even truly her name. She had simply become a presence. It was generally felt that she had a loved one in one of the rooms, though again, no one could pinpoint exactly who.
Didi was stepping off the elevator as a nurse was approaching a woman in a wheelchair. "Do you need help with anything, dear?" asked the nurse, looking at Barbara, barely registering the black-clad girl turning the hall away from them.
From: [info]i_seeall Date: 01/01/2006 17:05:08
Babs glanced up from her laptop. She'd taken up a spot in one of the waiting rooms where it looked as if she was simply entertaining herself while waiting for news on a family member of friend. If one had spotted the camcorder peeking out of her bag, or had seen the screen of her computer displaying six windows of different video from around the hospital, they might have worried.
As it was, Babs just tilted her screen before looking up to keep it from the woman's view. "No thank you, I'm just waiting for my boyfriend's doctor to come back out. He took a nasty fall off his motorcycle." She smiled sweetly, waiting for the nurse to walk off before looking back down at her screen.
There it was. Babs touched the blured figure on her screen and then looked with narrowed eyes down the hallway next to the elevator. She flipped her computer closed, put it back in the bag, and then started off. She was not going to miss the figure.
There were two people in the hall, a doctor carrying several clipboards and rushing past her, and then a young woman dressed in black heading in the other direction. Babs was almost sure the person she was looking for wasn't the doctor. She took her camera out of her bag and held it up to her eye. Nothing. The girl had disappeared from view.
"You know." Babs set the camera back in her lap and spoke up, though the girl had yet to turn around. "Scramblers like the one you're wearing are illegal."
From: [info]i_amjustme Date: 01/01/2006 17:11:35
Death turned, pausing for a moment, and saw Barbara. "Scrambler?" she asked, furrowing her brow. She looked over herself - black jeans, black tank, boots, ankh... nope. No scramblers. "Well, unless someone stuck something on me that I can't see, I'm not wearing any scrambler. Why are they illegal, anyway?"
From: [info]i_seeall Date: 01/01/2006 17:19:46
"Why? Because they prevent me from seeing you." It all became even more annoying when the girl turned around. First she claimed not to be wearing a scrambler, and then...
Babs stared hard at the girl. "Are you from Gotham? I know you." She prided herself on never forgetting a face, just another useful skill picked up from Bruce. This one though, it escaped her. Babs was pretty sure they'd met at some point, but when, where, or why, she couldn't remember. She wasn't even completely sure it was the same person.
From: [info]i_amjustme Date: 01/01/2006 17:28:50
She frowned at the explaination. "Why would it be illegal to not let you see me? And why would I hide myself? Everyone sees me. At least twice."
At the question, she nodded, and shrugged. "I've been around Gotham." It didn't answer the question Barbara was asking, but gave the information the girl wanted.
From: [info]i_seeall Date: 01/01/2006 17:37:28
"Not just me, everyone with a camera." She pointed to the one in her lap. "Hospital security included. You're always here and they don't know it. I don't know why you're hiding, I'd expect you know the answer to that." Babs said, still looking at her closely.
"We've definitely met before." Babs wasn't one to give up on a topic. "Somewhere in Gotham."
From: [info]i_amjustme Date: 01/01/2006 17:52:05
She chuckled. "The hospital staff always knows I'm here. I see them every day." She waved at one of the nurses even now.
The nurse smiled and waved back. "Hi, Didi. You doing okay?"
"I'm fine, Jenny. How is Mister Hayden?"
The nurse shook her head, her smile turning sad. "All we can do is make him comfortable right now, honey. I just hope his angel comes soon."
Didi nodded. "Good luck today, Jenny."
Jenny smiled. "Thanks, Didi. You too."
She smiled back at the nurse, then looked back at Barbara. "Oh, yes. Gotham. I saw you there... well, a few times. In passing."
From: [info]i_seeall Date: 01/01/2006 18:01:19
Watching the exchange, Babs noted everything. The girl knew the names of patients and nurses, and obviously patients status. Though she very obviously was not a doctor or a nurse.
"Didi, is it then? Well Didi, I'm afraid you're going to have to refresh my memory? Which times in passing?" She liked to hang around hospitals, that much was apparent, so maybe they'd met while Babs had been laid up? Though the only time she'd been in the hospital for anything major was for her back. Bruce, Alfred, and Dr. Tompkins always patched everything else up.
From: [info]i_amjustme Date: 01/01/2006 18:15:07
Didi started ticking off items on her fingers. "The day you were born. In the hospital, when your mother was sick. I saw you that night about six years ago, when there was a shootout on the street. Judd killed a mouse in your apartment one night, the one you flushed down the toilet? Saw you then. Had to pass you by once when Bruce saved you. And I was there on the night Jack Napier shot you. I told you that it would be okay."
From: [info]i_seeall Date: 01/01/2006 18:31:33
The girl spewed out the information faster than Babs would have been able to pull it up on the computer. That was disturbing. Impressive, yes. But moreso disturbing. She even knew the name Jack Napier. That alone would have told her something was odd about her.
She knew Bruce too. And Judd, her old tabby cat who she hadn't seen since she'd gotten out of the hospital. And that her mother had been sick. And Jack Napier. Jack... "The Joker," Babs muttered to herself. Until then she'd been quite sure that she, Bruce, and Dick were the only ones who knew his real name.
The wording the girl used gave her a few clues as to what she was dealing with, but nothing that her analyitcal mind could actually believe right away. "Who are you?"
From: [info]i_amjustme Date: 01/01/2006 18:39:12
Death looked back at her, and smiled, the soft smile of an old friend. "Barbara. You know who I am."
She turned her head away for a moment, glancing down the hall, and then looked back. "Listen, I need to go see Mister Hayden. You can come if you want, but he needs me right now."
Tucking her hands into the pockets of her jeans, she turned on one heel and headed down the hall.
From: [info]i_seeall Date: 01/01/2006 18:47:26
She hadn't introduced herself. With that in mind, Barbara wheeled her chair around and followed after the girl who she, for now, refused to acknowledge as Death. Babs had seen weirder in her day, but this was something her mind just did not want to accept.
"He needs you?" Babs asked after catching up with her. "That seems a little... well if you are who you're claiming to be, I doubt the man needs you. No one needs you."
From: [info]i_amjustme Date: 01/01/2006 19:06:27
"I don't claim to be anyone or anything other than who I am," she said. "And if you think no one needs me, you're a lot less intelligent than I thought."
She pushed open a door. They were greeted by the beeping of machines, by the wheezing sound of labored breath. A man of perhaps forty lay in the bed, hooked up to several machines. Pale hands clenched the bedsheets, and his eyes were bright, feverish, and painfully aware. There was a patchwork of gauze and tubes over his chest, which was rising and falling with breath after breath.
"Hi, Ethan," Didi said warmly, smiling at the man on the bed. "It's nice to see you."
The man peered at her, then his eyes softened. "Is it..." His voice caught, and he coughed. "It's time?"
Death nodded. "Yeah. It's time."
From: [info]i_seeall Date: 01/01/2006 19:17:27
Babs gaped slightly at the surrealness of the conversation, yet even in the oddness of it, it somehow sounded familiar. The words had never been said to her, but just the placing and timing of it all made it seem like she'd been here before. Possibly after she'd been shot if Didi had been telling the truth in saying she'd been there.
"I suppose the staff doesn't know about this part." She stopped by the door, giving Didi her space.
From: [info]i_amjustme Date: 01/01/2006 19:31:42
"Of course they do. They just don't let themselves fully understand it."
She moved closer to the man in the bed, and placed her hand on one of his. "You can let go now, Ethan."
His grip on the sheets loosened, and his hand curled itself over hers. "Thank you."
She nodded, and placed her other hand on his forehead. Both closed their eyes, and for a moment, there was a sound echoing in the room, like the beating of mighty wings. The beeping of the heart monitors slowed, then emitted a single soft and hanging note.
Death opened her eyes and released the once-man on the bed. Turning back to Barbara, she said, "Let's go outside. The nurses will be along in a moment, and they'll see you."
From: [info]i_seeall Date: 01/01/2006 19:44:27
Babs raised a hand to the doorknob, wondering if she was doing the same thing the nurses were. Not letting herself recognise what was happening-- what had happened. Right in front of her. It all left her with an feeling of deja-vu, which in a way was reletively disturbing.
She waited until both she and Didi had completely exited the room before starting in with her many questions. She couldn't help it, it was just her nature even when encountered with something like this.
"We've had that conversation before, or something like it," Babs stated finally. "Yet I'm still here. Where do you take them?"
From: [info]i_amjustme Date: 01/01/2006 19:50:59
"Not quite the same. You're still alive," Death answered simply. "And I don't 'take' anyone anywhere. I let them go. They find the way after that."
She looked down at Babs's equipment. "How long have you been looking for me?"
From: [info]i_seeall Date: 01/01/2006 20:02:29
"Since the gunfight a few weeks ago. You don't show up on screens and it always looks like people are speaking to a giant blur. I got suspicious." Babs said. "I wasn't expecting to find Death."
She didn't know exactly what she'd been expecting. Something simple, easily fixed possibly. This was neither.
"You most caught my attention when I saw you talking to my mentor." A meeting which she hadn't been able to ask Bruce about yet. So soon after that she'd witnessed his meeting with Jason, and there was no way she could speak with him about Death without Jason being brought up. She was avoiding that conversation. "I suppose I should be glad it was just a pleasure visit on your part and not business."
From: [info]i_amjustme Date: 01/01/2006 20:48:44
She was intrigued. "I never expected anyone would try and track me down from not being able to see me. But I suppose my kind isn't exactly techno-friendly."
She only smiled when she mentioned Bruce. "He's a good friend."
From: [info]i_seeall Date: 01/01/2006 21:44:16
Bruce was a good friend? She didn't know whether to be worried or not.
"Tracking you wasn't necessarily as easy as I made it sound. I didn't know who I was looking for and there was of course the chance that I wouldn't catch you here. I assume that when people die elsewhere, you go?"
From: [info]i_amjustme Date: 01/02/2006 11:23:22
"Of course. I'm always there, for everyone." Death smiled. "But this is a place where I'm most needed, mostly familiar." Soft dark eyes met Barbara's. "You see now, that I am needed. Right?"
From: [info]i_seeall Date: 01/02/2006 11:34:54
"Yes," she could admit, now that she was fully accepting the fact that this was indeed Death.
"Can you leave The City?" Was the next question that came to mind. No one could as far as she knew, the wall the surrounded them had no obvious or discreet openings, and she wasn't gifted with flight so she had yet to see above them.
From: [info]i_amjustme Date: 01/02/2006 12:32:19
Ah, see? That was the million dollar question, the one everyone wanted to know.
"I think, for now, we're all kind of stuck with one another. So should we break out the popcorn and punch, have a great big ol' 'getting to now you' party and make the best of it?" She grinned. "Sounds like a good idea to me. I love parties."
From: [info]i_seeall Date: 01/02/2006 13:01:31
Death had a sense of humor. Funny. Or well, not so much.
Still, she know had good piece of information. Death couldn't even leave the city, which probably meant that there was no one outside of it to die.
"I'm afraid I'll have to take a raincheck on that," Babs said with a small smile. "Your not the only one with a hefty workload."
From: [info]i_amjustme Date: 01/02/2006 13:13:37
Death held up a hand. "Hang on. Don't start thinking that I'm not where I'm supposed to be. I'm still out there. I have to be. But I'm here, just like everyone else."
From: [info]i_seeall Date: 01/02/2006 14:46:01
"Oh, I believe you, it's just an observation." And as long as the observations kept yeilding answers, she would keep noting them. "When did you arrive?"
From: [info]i_amjustme Date: 01/02/2006 17:52:58
"Half a year, give or take. There wasn't all that much here then."
The City hadn't drawn very many until later. But she was everywhere there was life, and so she had been among the earliest to arrive.
"Are you getting along well? Any problems?"
From: [info]i_seeall Date: 01/02/2006 22:48:23
The city was possibly less than a year old, then. Babs filed that away as well.
"Quite well considering the circumstances. I was only here for a month before people that I recognised began to show up. I arrived with my house fully intact, and a few of my supplies. Everything I needed to start working." She neglected to mention any of the feelings of anxiety, nervousness, or fear she'd experienced upon first arriving. They were past. Irrelevant.