[video]

[velocette]

[He's been mulling this over since he met Hannibal, really.]

What was the first turning point in your life? Do you even remember who your real heroes were, when you were a kid? Or maybe some people do actually idolize their parents. For me, the only idols are the ones who can't become real, but it's been pointed out to me before that it's possible to worship someone in spite of their faults.

Comments

[routemistress]

When I were a little girl, there was - 'is name was Dick, and 'e was a highwayman. And I'd've done anything. Anything. To convince 'im I were worth keeping around. To let me follow 'im. And I did, 'cause I'm better at convincing than I knew back then.

Dick turned out to be... well, a bit of a dick, in the finish. But the things I loved in 'im; the freedom and adventure and the way 'e smiled. Well. Some things stick a long time, don't they?

[velocette]

It's almost a question of nature and nurture: were you after him because of things you saw in yourself? Or did he create them?

[He's pretty sure it's the former, and his tone says as much.]

[routemistress]

[She snorts.]

That little tit never created anything. I just didn't know enough to know pink slime from steak. Dick were the most alive thing in my universe, back then, though.

[velocette]

[It strikes an uncomfortable chord in him--'the most alive thing.' But he isn't one to duck and run from discomfort, even if he does fall silent for a full minute, and then two, seeming to forget she's even there. Two minutes can be a long time to wait, and most people hang up on him when he does that, but he starts talking without checking to see if she has.]

What did you do when you realized he was just more of the slime?

[routemistress]

[She's talking from the lab, her communicator propped on the beetle tank where she can look into it while she fiddles with chicken genome data; so it's not switched off, though Iris startles pleasantly to hear the Boy's voice.]

That were when I found the bus. I started the engine and never looked back.

[She says this with a particular knowing grin, fairly certain he'll recognise that coping strategy.]

...'Ave you read Gormenghast, at all?

[ichoosefight]

Superman.

My parents were pretty crappy.

[velocette]

[He smiles a bit.] That's sort of why I liked the Flash for a while. Then I discovered motorcycles, of course, which are as close as I'll get to being like him.

[ichoosefight]

Yeah... I climbed trees. Got on the roof more than a few times. Like if I got high enough in the sky he'd show up.

[velocette]

[He nods slightly, studying her like he can see through her to the point in time she's talking about.]

Do you still like heights?

[ichoosefight]

Up to a point. The point where I'm pretty sure I'm not gonna fall to my death.

[ For example: trees are safe. A gargoyle on the top of Wayne Enterprises, not as much. ]

[bodilesswarrior]

I made my own heroes. My friend and I. [Her smile is soft, and wistful.] Rocketgirl, Amazogirl. Supergirl, too, there wasn't one back then.

And Batgirl, of course.

[velocette]

We didn't have a lot of women heroes back home, but things were starting to change. I mean we had Wonder Woman comics...but she always seemed like kind of a parody to me, an inversion of the mainstream fantasy.

Seems like you became your own kind of hero, anyway, from the way everyone around here looks at you.

[bodilesswarrior]

There weren't a lot when I was a kid, either - Wonder Woman, yeah, and the first Canary. Strange to think of them as fiction, though.

[Her smile deepens, a little.] I certainly tried. I think most anyone can, if they have the opportunity.

[velocette]

I'm not sure fiction is the right word. Maybe they weren't as physical as you knew them, but they saved lives. Well--maybe not Canary, I've never heard of that one.

You don't believe in fate?

[bodilesswarrior]

After your time, maybe.

[Her brow furrows, slightly.] I think certain events are meant to happen. But we choose what to do with them.

[soliterraneous]

There were none.

[velocette]

No guiding lights?

[It doesn't seem farfetched to him, not here of all places.]

What about molding influences, then?

[soliterraneous]

My entire society, everything...I was surrounded by. There was one thing to be and one thing only.

[velocette]

What was that one thing?

[soliterraneous]

A good soldier.

[no_talent_hack]

I never idolized people... or not exactly, anyway. It was a place, for me, and the people who got to be there.

[velocette]

What kind of place?

[He can understand to a point, but this is the first he's heard of someone idolizing something that wasn't technically even alive.]

[no_talent_hack]

Just-- think of it like Hollywood. Or Mount Olympus. Someplace you have to be really special to belong.

[velocette]

[Yeah that gets him to light right up.]

How did you get in?

[no_talent_hack]

I... didn't say I did.