i_seeall [Challenge #1: Babs and Desire]- The Gift
Who: Babs and Desire What: Desire wants to give Babs a gift, which doesn't exactly sit well with Babs When: Thursday Evening
Barbara - Babs was used to working at night. Even on nights when she shouldn't have been working. She knew she should have been home by now, asleep and letting her body rest up for the mounds of work she had to do in the 'real world' tomorrow. There was paperwork and a meeting with a few of the school board members. It was going to be a long day.
Yet here it was, two o'clock in the morning on Wednesday and Babs was still in her clock tower. She'd finally gotten her files from Arkham at eight that evening, and it had been with a girlish excitement that she'd turned around, gone straight back up to her office, and commenced in reading and entering data onto her computer. Her computer which was working now. Babs almost didn't want to leave its side. It had been working since Saturday evening, really, but one never knew what could happen.
Time flew by, and it wasn't until she glanced up at a clock by accident that she actually realised it was two in the morning. She wasn't even really that tired. She didn't start packing up to go home upon realising the late hour or anything like that. She simply pushed back her chair from the desk and moved over to her coffee maker. A little caffeine and she could make it 'till five, no problem. Then, a two hour nap and she would be ready to face the day. That was what the couch was for, after all.
Desire - Desire draped himself over an extra chair nearby where Babs had been sitting. A cigarette hung from pouty lips. Cat ears rested on a head that carried red hair. Desire's new favorite color for hair. She looked at Babs.
It was easy to know what the woman in the wheelchair wanted the most. It floated on the surface of her thoughts. But ... well. What kind of fun would that be?
Instead, Desire turned himself into what Babs desired most in the way of people. That was more fun. In her would be reflected the face of the one that Babs would be most likely to fall for. To lust for.
Barbara - Babs nearly spilled her coffee when she turned around and saw Dick laying back on her chair. She hadn't heard her come in, which for Babs, was unusual. She hadn't even left the window open for him, not expecting him to drop by tonight.
"Dick, this is a surprise," she smiled, and settled her coffee mug on the table. "What's the occasion?"
Desire - "Hmm. No occasion, none at all." He smiled at her, brightly. One leg and then the other moved catlike to prop themselves on things that likely shouldn't have feet upon them.
"Just missed you is all." He looked at himself, as if seeing for the first time. "This is what you want? Really?" There was a sneer to his lips.
Barbara - She'd opened her mouth immediately to scold him for laying his feet down on her desk. It was habit by now, she was used to scolding him, but that didn't mean she liked it. He was always doing things like that, and she suspected it was specially to annoy her. He probably took pleasure in it.
But then his face changed and Babs frowned after he spoke, not liking or recognising the look on his face. Sort of like he'd seen something unpleasant. "What are you talking about?"
Desire - He twirled a lock of hair around his fingers and took the cigarette from his mouth. "You could do oh so much better, Babs. I think you know that. This one is so... young... and ... underdeveloped."
Desire shook his head. The facade of the boy Babs desired was lost and he took upon his own favorite look again. He couldn't play very well while wearing a face he didn't particularly like.
Barbara - Babs shook her head. Blinked once. And then shook her head again. Dick was definitely not sitting on her chair anymore. She didn't recognise the man who'd replaced him at all. Couldn't even recall passing him on the street. Why he would be interested in her, she didn't know. It could have been a guise, she supposed, as he'd just done with Dick.
"I'd disagree with you there," Babs said, backing her over to her desk again. Her eyes didn't leave the man. "Who are you?"
Desire - "Desire, Babs." He said simply. There was a small shift and he became a she. "I know everything that you want. Even the things you lie to yourself about. I can be anything you want."
She shifted her position and turned to face Babs completely. "I know your heart. What's in it is mine."
Barbara - "Desire?" Babs couldn't help but look at now female skeptically. Of all the things she'd been expecting to hear, it hadn't been that. And she never had been comfortable with people who claimed to know everything about her.
"I hate to be rude, but it's two am. What do I owe the honor of this visit?"
Desire - "Time has no meaning to the Endless, Babs. And you're up. So why the hell does it matter?" She rested her chin on her hand and looked at the woman in front of her.
There was another shift in gender. Desire had never been able to make up his mind. He liked them both.
"I'm here to grant you a gift."
Barbara - "A gift?" Babs didn't mean to repeat everything said, but she couldn't help it. This was just too curious, and there was nothing else to ask really. She turned her chair slightly so that she could look Desire in the eye. Her mug was set down on her desk. "In this line of work, accepting gifts from strangers never bodes well."
Desire - Desire smiled, but it wasn't a nice look. "No worries, love. I'm not even going to tell you what it is until I give it to you. You won't even have to worry about it."
Desire tilted his head this way and that. With each tilt came a new gender.
There was also the fact that this gift might not make Babs happy. But that didn't matter in the least. It would make Desire happy. That is all that counted.
Barbara - "Ah, that never turns out well either," Babs said, rolling her eyes. As if she really needed this, on top of everything else that she had to do.
Her own smile didn't reach her eyes. It was tired and impatient. "Do I get the opportunity to refuse this gift? I know you types don't often actually let that happen, but I figure it's worth asking. Because honestly, I have enough mysteries to solve right now." She pointed to her files from Arkham, the one project she'd wanted to concentrate on for the night.
Desire - "Oh, no, darling." Desire shook her head. "I've already decided to give it to you. I don't think I want to consider anything else."
And that was a nice way to put it.
Desire wondered what Dream would think of all this. Oh well.
Barbara - "Gee, I suppose thankyous are in order then," Babs gave a sigh and shook her head. Now was the time to take a sip off coffee. She actually needed it now. " And I don't get any hints, what so ever? You don't think that's a bit unbalanced?"
Desire - Desire shook his head and smiled. That unkind smile again. The smile that said he was fully amused with himself and that's all that mattered in the world.
"Life isn't balanced, my dear." His hair lengthened and darkened into the traditional black. A subtle shift in features showing more feminine instead of the previous masculine.
"I think we'll both have a lot more fun with it if you just have no idea at all."
Barbara - "I don't think fun is quite the word I'd use to describe the chaos I'm imagining right now." Babs had absolutely no idea what was coming, but her imagination was pretty good. Nothing that came to mind pleased her, and answers to soothe her mind were apparently not forth coming.
"Do I at least get to know what you are? A little more detail than just Desire would be nice." Maybe she could at least get a new file started out of this.
Desire - Desire put the cigarette back in between her lips. "Endless, darling. I'm an Endless. I think you already know my sister, Death? Dream is my brother. I'm not sure if you know him, but he's here as well. As is Delirium, my favorite."
She raised an eyebrow. "I am Desire. It's not just my name, it's who and what I am. It's simple, and I think you're making it too complicated."
Barbara - "Death is your sister? Huh." Babs cocked her head and looked at Desire for a moment before moving back towards her computer desk. Her hand groped around for a pencil and the other for a notepad. She found both easily on the cluttered desk, and began scribbling things down. It would go to her computer later, when she could turn her back without worry.
She didn't know of the Dream or Delirium who she mentioned, but they had to be somewhat powerful, if they were anything like Death or Desire. "Nothing's really simple, I've learned that. What do you do?"
Desire - "What do I do?" She laughed. Giggled almost. "Well, isn't it obvious, love? What does Death do? What would Desire do?"
Barbara - "Obviously you control desire in us mere mortals," Babs said dryly, tapping the pen against her chair. "You seem to know me rather well. I'm sure you know that I'd like more details than that. Specifics." Perhaps it would give her some sort of insight into what she wanted to give her.
Desire - Desire stood. It was a very catlike movement. Her lower limbs following her fluidly as she moved. And as she moved, she became male again.
"Control it. Know it. Am it. I am the embodiment. I know what's in your heart, Babs. I know what you want, what you need. And what you'd like to have. But I'm just not in the mood to give you any specifics. That's boring. I like to have fun."
Barbara - Great. A powerful being who liked to be kept entertained. That never quite turned out well either. "I'm noticing that you lack some of the... self control that your sister, Death, seems to have."
Desire - "Well. I wouldn't quite put it that way. I'd say more that I indulge myself in the things that make me happy. Death restrains. She knows what she wants, but she keeps herself from it most of the time. Me? I don't see the point in that at all. If I want it, I should have it. Simple."
Desire raised a brow. "The world is my oyster. I shall make a necklace of it's innards if I please."
Barbara - "And step over everyone else as you do it, right? Maneuver them for your own pleasure as you plan to do with me. Free will must not mean much to you." Babs looked at Desire curiously.
Desire - "Not yours." He stated honestly. "What are you to me but toys? You certainly won't outlive me. I have already outlived you a hundred times over."
Barbara - She shook her head. "That doesn't give you the right to see us as sub par. If you've been around for so long you've seen what humans can accomplish... and what they can become. It shouldn't matter whether we'll outlive you or not." Surely Desire knew about those humans who'd gotten around evolution, built themselves up to be more... the heroes. "We're not all toys that you can just bend to your will."
Desire - "Aren't you?" The smile didn't drop from his face. He walked to Babs and leaned in close. "I could make you fall in love with your own foot, should I choose to."
Barbara - "Please don't." Her voice had a biting edge. Babs met his eyes, her lips pursed and definitely not smiling. She looked away after a good long moment, and scribbled onto her pad again. "I'm just saying that you might want to change the way you go about treating humans. Especially being in this city, where who knows what the backlash could be."
Desire - "Oh, I know the backlash, my dear." His eyes twinkled. "I know just what it will be if I do anything too terribly wrong. My big bad brother will seek me out and punish me."
A pouty lip. "What a pity that would be. Yes. A shame, really. How I would so loathe for Dream to punish me."
Barbara - "And exactly what would that entail?" Babs couldn't exactly say that she would feel sorry if this did indeed happen.
Desire - "Oh who knows what delicious torment Dream would... dream up." Desire stood and struck a pose that was too natural for him to be of any sort of effort. "I never do know until it's already about to happen."
Barbara - She didn't like it when Desire stood, not that she would ever admit it to the... woman ?...man? The changing of genders was another thing Babs was trying to work out in her mind. But whatever he was, Babs didn't like it when he stood. He was much taller, and ended up with the advantage should he actually need one.
"Then wouldn't it be easier to avoid punishment altogether, and think about not bestowing your 'gift' on me?"
Desire - "Oh no." He tilted his head. "My gift will be well worth anything Dream decides to do to me. Besides. It's n nothing awful. It's a gift I think you'll enjoy. Granted, it's not the use of your legs back, but it should certainly make you feel more womanly."
Barbara - "I don't need the use of my legs back," Babs shot back. It couldn't be helped. She was self-admittedly defensive about it. She hated it when people pitied her or asked her if she wished she could walk again. It only brought up unwanted feelings that she'd worked hard over the years to push back. "And, sorry, but I think I'm feeling womanly enough."
Desire - "I said nothing about need, darling. I spoke of desire. And I know that you want it. I know that it's the one thing you want more than anything else in this world. You'd give up other things for it. There have been thoughts in your head, once in a while, in your darkest moments, that you might be willing to kill for the use of them back."
He turned his back on her and roamed around the room. His reflection in a surface caught his attention and he stood there looking at himself, ignoring completely that she was still in the room.
Barbara - "I've come to terms with the loss of my legs and my chair. And what I do now." And what she did was probably semi-obvious what with all the computers around, if Desire didn't know already, that was.
Her eyes grew serious, and she focused them on Desire's back, though he was paying little attention to her now. She noted he had, possibly, a slight case of narcissism. "And I don't know where you're pulling that last thought from, but I wouldn't be willing to kill for it. Not after what happened to me."
Desire - "Deep inside of you, darling." He said, still looking at himself. He turned his head this way and that, looking at himself through different angles. A hand went up and he moved his hair around until it was perfect. Strand by strand.
"Don't ever forget that I know the things that you don't know yourself. Or the things you think are quite well hidden."
Barbara - "I wouldn't put myself in a situation where I would be able to kill--" She stopped short, realizing that she was on the defensive and not helping her case at all. "Suffice to say, it wouldn't happen. I don't believe you're as all knowing as you seem to think."
Desire - He smirked into the mirror. "You can lie to yourself as much as you want to. But your heart cannot lie to me." His eyes flitted to her in the reflection. "Are you telling me that if I were to take you back to that moment, that you would not kill Jack before he had the chance to do this to you?"
Barbara - "Kill, no. Disable him so that it never happened in the first place? Possibly. I... I wouldn't be able to just change three years of history. There's a lot of good that's come out of this too, if you look at it the right way. And I choose to, because it's better than self pity," she said. Their eyes met, but she was the first to pull back this time. She picked up her pen and pad again, looking down at the notes she'd made.
Desire - "Uh huh." Was all he said. It was enough. The face in the mirror became feminine again, the hair more red and slightly curly. Then changed again to fit something that was neither male nor female but both at once.
"In any case. I'm not giving you that anyway. That's boring."
Desire made a kissy face at itself in the mirror. Happy with this new look for the moment.
"Besides. The only way to truly disable Jack Napier to keep him from doing what he does is to kill him. You should know that by now."
Barbara - "We don't kill," Babs said simply. "Heroes don't kill. We catch them, we truss them up, we hand them over to the authorities, or we beat them into submission when we have to, but we don't kill them. We don't cross that line." So many times Bruce could have easily brought a gun along on a search for Jack. The battle would be over, and maybe she wouldn't have been in this chair. But he hadn't, and he'd taught her not to either. Even without his training, Babs liked to thing that she would be more than reluctant to do it on her own.
"Jack can, and will, be dealt with without killing him," she said. "Arkham's here now." As if Arkham, even Arkham under new ownership, would help solve their Jack problems. Somehow, he always escaped.
Desire - Desire laughed. Loud, riotous laughter.
"Oh, I do hope that sooner or later you people grow up and learn a thing or two from your past mistakes."
Desire laughed some more.
"My but you are some foolish fuckers, aren't you? Just think that everything will work out right in the end. This is the real world darling. How many times has Jack been put in Arkham before? Where is he now? How many lives has he destroyed because you won't kill him like you should? How many more will he destroy. He certainly did get a lot of pleasure out of pounding young Maxine against brick, didn't he?"
An eyebrow lifted. "It's sad really. Thinking good will always prevail. The reason it won't is because it has these childish ideals of what is honor and what morals should be. Those that are evil or bad do not care what happens to you. And that, my love, is why you will never truly win."
Barbara - That was certainly depressing. Maybe more so because it had more than a kernel of truth to it, truths that deep down Babs knew, but never let out or admitted. She'd heard the speech on Good and childish morals before, it wasn't new. Villains had delivered it time and time again, and each time it became slightly more apparent that they could be right. And each time Babs had to throw it away, shake it off, and focus on her job. Because if she let herself start thinking that way her job would suddenly become much harder.
She turned, finally allowing herself to face the computer and her monitors. With Desire's words it suddenly seemed like a good idea to pay attention to them once more. He was right. Where was Jack? She'd let him skip away the other day without consequence. Before that he's escaped unscathed from nearly putting Max in a coma. Where the hell was he now, and what was he doing?
"I have no clue," Babs muttered, answering her own inner musings. She didn't care whether Desire heard. He most likely knew the answer.
She glanced over her shoulder at her guest. "I don't know where he is. But I can assure you that when I find him, he won't die. Past mistakes or not. I have no right to make that decision."
Desire - "Well. Delly will be happy to hear that. He belongs to her, you see." Desire smiled at the reflected Babs and then finally turned away from the sight of himself.
"No matter. You types will continue to do what you do, and his types will continue to have all the fun they want to with little worry that there will ever be anything to stop them for long."
Barbara - Babs' eyebrows hiked, and for the moment she was willing to ignore the last part of his statement that sat heavily in her mind. "Delly... Delirium? Jack belongs to her, your sister?" She would take any clues to his whereabouts that she could get.
Desire - "Of course, love. Who else would somebody like Jack belong to? He is of her mind, her creation. We all have them. We all have those special ones that belong more to us than to any of the others. Sometimes we know them instantly when they are born, and others we find long after. Some of them we make ourselves."
Desire thought of Dream and the Corinthian. "Those are the ones you really must look out for. They hold something special that nobody else has. An unnaturality about them. Extraordinary luck in certain things. Abilities that they shouldn't have. Oh yes."
Barbara - "'Belong to us'... there you go again." But Babs just shook her head, and didn't say anything else. She was slowly becoming accustomed to his way of speech and thinking, even though she didn't agree with it. "I've never thought of those people as the product of something supernatural. Science and genetics usually explains those with powers or abilities."
Desire - A small smirk. He became a she again. "Do you really think that it's all so simple? There's something behind everything, my love. Jack belongs to Delly. He gave her that nickname, actually. She likes it quite a bit. There isn't one in this city that belongs to me yet. But I have quite a bit of those here who fall under my realm."
She looked softly at Babs. "All those in love, or lust. All those who have any want at all. There are two, specifically that stand out for me. They want something that they deny themselves and will continue to do so until May."
Barbara - Babs didn't think it was good that Jack was getting attached enough to someone that he felt the need to give her a nickname. She smelled a Harley Quinn situation brewing. "Watch your sister, that's all I'm going to say. Watch her." And if Desire knew anything about the way Jack had treated Harley, he would heed her warning.
It was only because of the talk she'd had with Jesse at Max's bedside that their names came to mind when Desire mentioned May. She wasn't jumping to any conclusions though, if only because she needed no more reasons to worry about Max. "Thank you for that," she said sarcastically, eyeing Desire. He probably knew exactly what she was thinking.
Desire - "Delly can take care of herself, and Jack can't hurt her. Not in any way you're thinking."
She flourished her hand around in a wave, the trail of smoke from the cigarette in her hand making a figure eight.
"Oh. I do know so much more about their little problems. And so many more will come of it. But that should be for all of you to experience, no? Come, my love, and look out the window at the glorious City with me. Think of what wonderful present you have in store."
Barbara - Babs bit back an automatic retort of 'I'm not your love'. Instead, she surprised herself by actually making her way over to the window. She was curious. "Problems? Is Max going to be alright."
She steadied her chair by the window and looked out as Desire had ordered. It was different. Not the view of The City, but the fact that she was looking at it through the windows, seeing it with her own vision and not through the camera lenses on her screen.
"What, are you giving me The City?" Babs said with a sarcastic laugh. She looked up at Desire and raised an eyebrow. "I still say I could do without a gift all together."
Desire - "The City is not mine to give, and Jesse and Max will both be fine."
The smile didn't fade from Desire's face, but she faded. Not as suddenly as she had appeared she was gone from Babs' side.
Barbara - Frustration welled up inside her as Desire started to dissolve and Babs realised there was no way to make her stay if she didn't want to. In fact, before on idea on the subject came to mind, Desire had vanished.
Babs was still getting her gift, and she still had no idea what it was. Just that she was supposed to look out over The City to see it. She looked once more. Nothing was different. She pushed back from the window with a frustrated sigh, turned and rolled back towards her desk. If nothing else, the visit had been a somewhat informative one.
Flipping open her laptop, Babs logged into her network. Death and Jack's files needed updating. Desire and Delirium needed creating.