001: Video

[bat_daughter]

[The face on the screen is of a pretty, dark-haired woman in her mid-twenties. But there's something serious to her eyes, a way she seems to be taking in every detail and filing it away for future use.]

I'm not going to ask any of the "who, what, where" kind of questions. Given the briefing and the fact that this place has apparently been doing this for a while, it'd probably be kind of pointless.

But I'm Helena. Helena Wayne.

And I've got to say... the super-powers thing is the most unexpected part of all of this. Never had much need of them before, though I can't say I wasn't jealous of Karen sometimes.. Still... definitely unexpected. Anybody else dealing with first time powers?

Comments

action;

[cassassin]

[ by the time helena arrives, cass is seated at a table in the corner, a dark overcoat hanging from the back of her chair. she's in black from head to toe--sunglasses, turtleneck and a suit, boots.

she keeps her attention between her phone and the door, sipping her drink and half-listening to an audiobook. ]

Re: action;

[bat_daughter]

[The supposed low light of the coffee shop drives home to her just how much things had changed. Her eyes adjusted instantly, letting her pick out details just as well as if the room had been brightly lit. Not even the best night-vision goggles would have done any better.

Cassandra is, honestly, smaller than she expected. Not that size is a limiting factor in their line of work--she knows Al Pratt, after all--but still.

She sits herself down across from Cassandra. She's dressed sensibly, if a bit outdatedly, being from the early 1980's.]

Miss Wayne.

action;

[cassassin]

[ cass nods to helena as a greeting, taking off her shades. the outdated fashion catches her eye--it might not have stood out to her back home, but she's had to become familiar with that kind of thing here. ]

Helena. [ a breath. ] Where do we start?

Re: action;

[bat_daughter]

That's... a good question.

[A breath.]

I don't... see anything of him in you. Were you adopted, like Dick?

action;

[cassassin]

[ and there's unspoken confirmation that she's bruce's child by blood, just like damian apparently ]

Here. He hadn't, back home. [ though bruce had treated her like a daughter there too, at times. there may be nothing of bruce in her features, but there's something of him in her posture now, the set of her jaw. ]

Wayne Enterprises is here. The cave. And safehouses. Funding, tech... everything we need. [ cassandra pauses, considering. ] I knew a Helena. A Huntress. She... helped. My first suit was... based on one of hers. But she wasn't... family, so this is...

[ she really wishes that she'd brought one of her fidget toys, this is awkward. ]

New. Weird.

Re: action;

[bat_daughter]

[The posture, the body language, Helena recognizes that. Her father had occasionally spoken of how, over the course of his career, he'd become pretty much everything from a terrifying night creature to practically a member of the police force. But the steel had always been there. The same kind of steel she sees in Cassandra.]

That's impressive. And it's... strange for me too. From the chatter when I first got here, it sounds like there's been or are a lot of Waynes here. My family's always been small. Just my parents... [She trails off for a second, there's pain there when she mentions them.] And Dick and Alfred.

[cassassin]

[ the steel is, in part, an affectation. but in her experience, projecting that image helps. she sees that pain, and... okay. there's nothing of talia on her face, so she's not like damian. and then she remembers the other likely candidate, and--oh. her expression softens. ]

Selina. Right? Bruce, the one who was here, he... said he planned to propose. Back home.

[bat_daughter]

[Helena nodded slowly, sadly. It had been the death of her mother that had prompted her to become the Huntress in the first place... followed all too quickly by her father's death.]

Right. Selina Kyle.

[In spite of it all, there was a slight smile.] It makes me glad to hear that, knowing there's other places where it might work out.

[cassassin]

[ she nods again, not sure what to say. it's obvious that she's hit something here, something she doesn't really want to dig into. ]

... I don't... [ cassandra sighs. ] The one I know, at home... I can't see him. Doing that.

I, uh... he got hurt, when he was here. Wasn't... able to do it, for a while. I... took the cowl. The name.

[bat_daughter]

[Either English wasn't Cassandra's first language, or she had learned the spoken form fairly later in life. Hard to determine, but plenty to suggest either. But her point was clear enough.]

That... doesn't surprise me. Dad wasn't always at the point where he would have either.

[She gives Cassandra a reassuring look.]

I'm not here to take that from you. I wouldn't even want to try. If some version of my father trusted you to follow in his footsteps, that's good enough for me.

[cassassin]

[ her words definitely come with the uncertainty of a non-native speaker, but there's no noticeable accent. still, cassandra smiles a bit at that, nodding. ]

Good. Just... thought you should know. So, your world... what year was it, there?

[bat_daughter]

I appreciate that.

It was 1981.

[cassassin]

[ that's a surprise. but it makes some sense. plus, jason and bruce's earth seemed to be further along, despite not being far in the relative "future" as far as...events go.

anyway. cass nods. ]

2006. Adjusting okay?

[bat_daughter]

[Things definitely got an earlier start on Helena's Earth than most, with Superman and Batman starting their careers in the late thirties and pretty much everyone following after that. Heck, Helena herself was born in '57.]

Managing. I've seen some tech like some of this before, or at least the 80's version... But it's a bit of a culture shock.