Summary:Selina comes to Bruce on the recent revelations by Madame Masque. A plan is drawn. Log Info:Storyteller: None |
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It's been… a dreadfully long night for Selina Kyle, and she's spent a great deal of it fuming on a rooftop, and the last hour or so of it pivoting back and forth in Batman's chair in the cave. There may have been some rather harshly assaulted criminals in the process, but it's all a bit of a blur.
Regardless, when Batman returns to the cave, he's met with the relatively rare sight of Catwoman in her purple costume - long black gloves and tall black boots - her mask still covering most of her face as she turns herself back and forth slowly in the chair with one long heel on the ground. "… We really need to talk." She says rather stiffly. Usually when she's dressed like this she's in a more playful mood.
Coming in from his patrol routes, Bruce is in his current costume. He never goes back to an older costume - there may be alternates, depending on the mission, but never backwards. Though he is sure of the purple costume, and what Selina usually does when she's in that particular outfit. "Did a job go bad?" he asks her. There's a terseness in his voice. After all - in his mind, that outfit is /retired/.
And his first thought is that she backslid, as he moves to from the Batmobile, sealing it back up as he frowns, heading for the coffee pot first. "What's on your mind, Selina?"
Catwoman can't help but reveal the ghost of a tired little smile at Bruce's terse reaction. She DOES still like to wind him up, after all these years. But for once in her life, she's not in the mood. "Dooon't look at me like that. You know how hard it is to get out of this costume." She says tiredly, leaning her head on one hand, before frowning with a soft sigh at Bruce's question. "… You could say that."
She switches which leg she's crossing and fiddles with the envelope with her hand. "Got called out for a meeting. Old school style. Thought I might be able to get some information like back when I was on…" Catwoman makes quote marks with her fingers, "… 'probation'." Her little euphamism for when she was essentially working for Batman on the side to keep her freedom after Bruce learned her identity. She shakes her head. "Only that masked lady from the ship was there."
"I am well aware how easy you made it at times to get out as well." Bruce starts to respond, a fond memory there for a moment, before she takes out the envelope. His hand rests on her back. It's a supportive gesture. In times past, it may have been more - but it's restrained. "You arrived at the rooftop, and she was there, then what happened?" he asks her.
There's a slight snort. "Selina, you tightrope walk between things better than Dick does." he finds himself admitting. At least between her criminal and heroic activities.
Selina smirks a bit despite herself and shakes her head. "Well, you know me. Just need the right motivation." She says, though her smile sours a bit as that reminds her of exactly the predicament she's in.
In regards to tighrope walking, she says, "Well… not *that* well, as it turns out. She didn't recognize me from the boat. Justifies the different costumes, at least. But she had a job for me. Pays well. Easy work. She just wants me to… sell out each and every single one of you, or she'll release these."
Selina pulls the pictures out of the envelope and reaches them towards Batman without quite looking at you. They're pictures of… well. Them. Together. Very very close together, behaving in ways archenemies likely shouldn't. They're from a long time ago, taken by security cameras on some rooftop, long enough ago that the costume in the pictures is the same one she's wearing now, and wore for most of her criminal career.
"On the bright side… we photograph well." She says very flatly, closing her eyes.
Oh if Bruce could go back and just /shake/ his younger self. Then again, if it were not for those - indescretions, there would not be a Helena Wayne in the world. Removing his hand to push back his cowl, he drags his fingers through his dark hair. Then he blows out his breath. "And what was your response to her?" he asks, just to make sure he knows which way that he should be leaning.
"There has always been contingency plans." He doesn't know if he has one yet for /scandalous photos/. That is usually is about people learning his identity and such. Not.. well, what happens on the rooftops of Staten Island.
Selina, likewise, feels a bit like a useless amateur, albeit nearly twenty years after the fact. In general she's done pretty well at barely regretting anything she's done in her life, but even she kinda wants to tell Young Selina Kyle to get a god damned room. "Tried to play it cool." Selina crosses her arms. "Make out that I was some kind of evil master seductress having a good time at the hero's expense." She shrugs. "Didn't work."
One can imagine how Masque must have made her feel. Even if it was to keep her cover, it's not a stretch to assume Selina was only doing what she was doing to keep out of jail, and she must have insinuated as much. Selina worried about that herself once or twice back in the day. They were confusing passionate times for someone who doesn't tend to second guess themselves.
Selina lowers her head and opens her green eyes narrowly. "… Told her I'd do it. That I'd give her your locations on set periods. I thought… maybe I'd buy us some time. To come up with a plan to stop it, or at least…" She sighs, "… at least… get something done before they come out." She gives a rueful sort of smile and inclines her head towards Batman, "Either way… sounds like you won't have to worry about me mingling with criminals anymore."
There's a pause as Bruce considers what Selina is saying. In a way, he should feel some /relief/ that she's talkning about renouncing her ways. But then, he moves to take a seat in the chair and he folds his hands in front of the Batsymbol on his chest as he gives a frown of thought. "What is it that /you/ want to do, Selina?" he finally decides to ask her. He could give her answers, sure.
But then it would be what /he/ would do. And on this, this may be one of the few things that Bruce and Selina could not be more far apart on.
Selina smirks slightly and shrugs, "Live forever and never turn grey?" She says facitiously without looking at Bruce, but there's no energy to her cattyness, and her shoulders slump with a sigh. Instead she says. "… This damned costume's a part of me. All of them, the name, everything. I want to keep running above the city all night. The thought of giving it up… hurts." Her lips press tightly together. "… but more than that, I want to see our kids grow up strong. I want to be here for them. For you. With you. If that means I have be…" Selina grimaces, "… god damned…. Batgirl number Three, I'll do it. Doing what that bitch says isn't an option I can swallow. Not for real, anyway."
"Now, do you want my thoughts, or you want to keep going on about how horrible it is?" Bruce asks with a quirk of the corner of his mouth. "You're too old to be a Batgirl. And I don't want another Batwoman." he says as he turns his attention to the screen to pull up the information on Masque - as little as it is.
"I'll give you my patrol routes. Tell her that the others act independently." It's mostly true. "She'll have me - and you. But not the others." And for the moment, that's important. "Do your research. Find her weakness. Find something to even the field. Start with where she came from. Past appearances." he looks aside to his wife to be.
"We will figure this out." But for the most part, this is for her to figure out. That's punishment enough.
"Uhg…" Selina sighs harshly at your response and rubs at her eyes with both hands, giving a short sniff, and shaking her head. "Nnn… see me try to get sentimental again…" She mutters, but she sounds kinda happy, and some of the light's back in her eyes when she pivots to look at Bruce from the side. A little red around the eyes now, but. "… Double-agent, huh? Just like old times." She smirks. Right back on the fence. How peculiar. "I help you with shady information, and you help me find the zipper on this costume." She says, giving a little pose, before flatly adding, "Just… indoors this time."
It's good that she can still laugh about this. In her peculiar way. She grows a bit somber as Bruce tells her they'll figure it out and nods softly. "… I know." She smiles a little, "I know."
Whatever else happens, Catwoman's long since learned to trust the father of her child. It was a difficult change to make - putting her faith in someone else - and, it feels, it'd be ten times harder to change it back.