10469/Bat-maintenance In The Batcave

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Bat-maintenance In The Batcave
Date of Scene: 17 December 2019
Location: Batcave - Wayne Manor
Synopsis: Barbara and Stephanie work on the latter's Batcycle while catching up.
Cast of Characters: Spoiler, Oracle




Spoiler has posed:
Stephanie Brown is out of uniform. Changed back into her jeans and t-shirt, she's currently over in the vehicle bay. Her Batcycle is before her, cover taken off the engine. Her fingers are greasy and one of them must have itched at her cheek as there's a smear of the stuff there too, as well as a couple of marks on her jeans and shirt.

She looks at one of the components up close, peering it at it and then over to a monitor nearby. "Is it supposed to look like that?" she says aloud, peering between the device and where the manual she's displaying is showing a photo of it. She gets a rag and wipes it clean, looking at it speculatively again before replacing it back into the engine. Thankfully the devices are not only designed for performance, but for ease of maintenance. She doesn't even need to do this herself, much of it is automated. But then knowing how to do it by hand is part of the training.

Oracle has posed:
The familiar whine of the Babs' high powered Ducati Shadow cuts through the silence of the cave as she comes in through the long, winding entrance off the side of the mountain and squeals to a halt in the vehicle bay. This is her personal cycle, but she's been using it for Oracle as well. Pulling off her helmet to free her braided red hair, it's left behind on the seat when she jogs towards the stairs leading up to the main floor.

She's wearing tight blue-jeans, a long sleeve shirt with a rainbow across the chest, a members only jacket and a pair of black/white running shoes. Turning a little in Stephanie's direction when the blonde speaks up, "Huh-hey Steph, what are you doing?" Squinting, sliding over to look at the manual, "Oh sweetie... ooooh sweeetie... no.. That engine isn't the same as that manual anymore..."

Spoiler has posed:
Stephanie pops up, recognizing the sound of that particular vehicle even before she looks over to see who it is. A great big grin fills the blond's face and her eyes are something akin to a puppy who hasn't seen her human in what feels forever, but suddenly there she is!

Not that Stephanie is a dog, but if she had a tail right now, it would be wagging.

She grins and moves over, about to offer Babs a big hug, when she notes the state of her hands. She backs up a little bit from the attempt, holding the greasy hands up to indicate why the attempt was aborted. "Sight for sore eyes," she says. "Which really doesn't make a lot of sense. If my eyes were sore I'd probably want them closed. But you look good, any state of eyes," Stephanie tells Barbara Gordon with a warm laugh.

She turns to look towards the engine. Towards the manual. Towards the engine again. "Uh. Oh. Hrm. That might explain some things," Stephanie says, scratching at her jaw and adding a second, smaller mark of grease below the first. "And I thought I was doing so well," she says with an exasperated huff. She wipes her hands and then goes back to the list of manuals. "How have you been doing?" she asks.

Oracle has posed:
Babs sees the jubilation in Stephanie's eyes and can't help grinning. Not that the redhead isn't a grinner, she's a grinner, but she doesn't look like she's in a particularly grin heavy cycle right now. Regardless, she side hugs Steph and looks back down at the cycle that's more or less been gutted. "I'm okay." She's not, but it's a clear not want to talk about it answer that's applied by most humans, "Why are you taking apart the batcycle?" She wonders with a furrowed brow and a smirk.

Kneeling down on her heels to rest arms across her bent knees so she's at the level of the work already been done. When she reaches up to slide off her jacket, it's clear she intends to get her own hands dirty, and even pulls up her sleeves to mid-forearm. "And how are /you/?"

Spoiler has posed:
The hug is accepted if not given back just for not wanting to get Babs's clothes dirty. Steph's going to have to wash what she's got on, already, but then thankfully this is the place it's easy to do that. The answer and tone from Babs is noted by Stephanie, but she doesn't pry, just follows Barbara's gaze to the Batcycle. "Just doing some maintenance on it. Getting familiar with it while it's working. Just so, you know... if it takes a hit while I'm 100 miles away, and I have to make a repair myself, I'm up to the task," she says.

She picks up a wrench and says, "I cleaned off the... things. And swapped out the... ah..." she pulls back up the wrong manual. "Brushes," she says of the electric motor. Then goes to find the write manual, skimming along. "Whew. Ok, used the right ones there anyway," Stephanie says after checking.

She looks over to Barbara and gives a shrug to the question, but the smile she can't hide from showing in her eyes nor lips says more than her, "Doing ok too," that she offers back. Stephanie's in a good mood. Stephanie's almost always in a good mood, mind you, but this is a gooder good mood than normal.

Oracle has posed:
Babs adjusts her redframed glasses up on the bridge of her nose and chews her bottom lip while staring at the half disassembled engine infront of her, "Alright the thing is a fuel injector." Said sideways to Stephanie, "I know it's ane electric motor, I know, but it still has a small bit of petral gas which is what -that-" pointing to the component, "-Is.. I don't think you really need or want to know what it does, but I can show you how to put it back on. It's got a flood assembly line added after market, which is why it's not fitting like that picture." Babs wiggles her fingers and grabs a screwdriver to begin unscrewing the catty wompus seated plate.

Every so often she side glances at Stephanie while she works. Clearly the red headed woman doesn't have any problems getting her hands dirty, "Alright, spill it.. why are you smiling? You look like you're dating someone." Smirking herself, it's hard not to grin when around Stephanie and her never ending joviality. She's like Dick int hat regard, hard to stay in a bad mood when they're around.

Spoiler has posed:
Stephanie peers at the parts that Barbara is pointing out and following along. "Crap, I was sure this was the doojamahickey and it was wired into the... wompus... floo...zle. Wompusfloozle," she says, nodding with more confidence on her second usage of the term she just coined.

Stephanie pauses a moment, eyes drifting away in thought. "I bet this is how Dr. Seuss got his start. Naming engine parts. I do not like them, Sam-I-Am. I do not like the floof-ssembly-o-gram." She looks back to Barbara, grinning before refocusing on the engine with, "If the crime-fighting thing falls through, at least I might have a fall-back career waiting for me writing children's books."

Stephanie shifts over a bit, reaching up to an overhead light and positioning it to give Barbara some better lighting as Steph watches closely what she's doing. Steph stays silent for a few seconds before saying. "Maybe. Sort of. Yeah. Still really new. Let me... let me not jinx it just yet? But, we'll plan a bottle of wine and a long talk about it later. 'k?"

Stephanie's smile is still there, but it changes tone a little bit. "There was something else too. Bruce gave me my Christmas present early," she says, trailing off.

Oracle has posed:
Babs has her tongue poking out the corner of her mouth as she works to reconnecting the fuel line. Buending so far down it would be forgivable if someone though she had no spine for how much give it seems to have.. it gets her right up in the mix of the engine, screwing the line back to the injector. Snorting quietly at Stephanie's Dr. Brown rendition of Green Eggs and Ham. "There's a certain kind of relief that comes from knowing a job is waiting for you in the private sector, but you should really be /paying attention/..." She teases, glancing back with a brow raised and a smirk on her face.

"Hey, far be it from me to ask you to jinx anything." God knows Babs has her fair share of that. "Told Charlie and Damian about Kara and we were broke up the next week.. keep your secrets as long as you can, Stephanie Brown... for they will bite you on the ass.'

Spoiler has posed:
Stephanie gets a sheepish smile and gives a little shrug of her shoulder. "I just... yeah I don't want to mess this one up," she says. She hasn't really had a relationship since Tim. A date here or there. Second dates even rarer. Stephanie clears her throat a little bit, leaning her head over to get a better view of how Barbara is reattaching a hose.

Stephanie fiddles with the rag she's still holding. Fidgeting really. In a very quiet voice, Stephanie says, "So Bruce... he... ah... his present. Is to make me part of the family Trust." The sheer quietness of the spoken words might somehow seem to make them loom all the larger. There is definitely a lot of emotion inside of the girl who has been dirt poor her entire life. Who nearly didn't return to school this year for not being able to even make rent, let alone tuition.

Oracle has posed:
It would be a fair assessment to jump to the conclusion that Babs is aware of the transfer of shares to Stephanie, or at least that some had been purchases in her name. It's not secret that Babs owns a sizable (at least compared to some not in the family) stack in Wayne Tech, and that she's got programs on her computer designed specifically for monitoring stock options to further gain control of the company for Bruce...

But this is Stephanie's store and Babs grins slightly as she stumbles through telling it. Not even bothering to touch on the earlier mention of dates, second dates, and how important this current one might well be to her. "I understand that too." She does, she's got her own relationship she's trying to preserve.

But Babs is bad luck.

Spoiler has posed:
Stephanie clear her throat, as if some of that emotion got caught in it. "I was just talking to him and thinking..." she says, before trailing off and shaking her head a bit. "Well, anyway, I was seeing how he was and he gave it to me. And I... wow," Stephanie says, shaking her head. "I haven't done anything with it yet. I just... I can't even get my mind around this really, Barbara," she says.

Her eyes look away for a moment. "I don't know anything about money. How to handle it. And... I see what the boys have to go through sometimes," she says of the Robins. It sounds like she's making excuses, really, none of those seeming like things that should be a problem.

Stephanie clears her throat again. "How'd you get so good at engines, anyway? Didn't you have to learn a lot of this on your own? Your first Batcycle was your own, not Bruce's doing? Or did I hear that wrong?"

Oracle has posed:
"You have..." Babs finishes replacing the covering over the fuel injector and tosses the screw driver down in the tool box before wiping her hand with a rag, ".. There's very few benefits that come with doing what we do, Stephanie." She explains as she stands up, tossing the rag down on the toolbox as well, "Long hours, no appreciation, training... broken bones, scars.. emotional and physical.. I've been crippled, sat in a wheelchair for a year.. I've been tortured, beaten, broken, and ..." She waves her hands, it's a on and on motion.

"One of the few things we /do/ get out of of it, is financial stability. How could Bruce, a man who's wealth is measured against entire countries, justify putting us through that kind of laborous, dangerous, and often deadly-" Ask Jason, "-work if he's not willing to make sure we have absolutely /no/ need to ever work again afterwards?"

Babs smirks and shrugs her shoulder, "I never accepted money from him, I took stock options.. I founded a security company and let Bruce fund it... and now I'm one of the one hundredth wealthist women on the planet.." She's not flashy with it, keeps it all doing things, lives below her means... but she's got money and a lot of it. "You find something you want to do with that money and you do it.. but whatever it is-" Tapping Stephanie's shoulder, "-Don't let it define you. It's not who you are, it's what you get paid to be who you are."

Glancing at the cycle then, "I ... had to? Yeah, I designed my first batcycle, I designed that one too.." Pointing at Stephanies, "Now Tim could probably out engineer me, but that's besides the point."

Spoiler has posed:
The blond-haired young woman listens, though her eyes are drifted away from the bike now and focused mostly on her thoughts and reactions to Barbara's sharing of her outlook on their situation.

Up above, over where a natural section of the cave is still unaltered, there's a flutter of wings as the bats that have lent their name and image to so much, drop from their perches and take flight, heading out in a daily search for food. Stephanie watches the colony dart off, her thoughts seeming as restless as those dark shapes in flight.

She looks back to Barbara, drawing a deep breath. "I'm still just staggered by it a bit," she says. Stephanie clears her throat and then views the Batcycle again. "I should make my own," Stephanie decides quietly, her eyes drifting back and forth over the high performance bike, equipped with all manner of useful gadgets, sensors, and computer systems. It wouldn't be hard to see a bike like that is probably beyond Stephanie's skills.

Oracle has posed:
Babs didn't know jack or shit about motorcycles when she started converting her first bike either, so she's no doubt Stephanie will pick it up. They weren't born Batgirl, they were shaped into her. So in that same way, Babs has faith in her blonde counterpart to fill the boots, and all that comes along with it. "You'll do fine when you decide to. You've got a lot of resources to tap now." Her own dirty hand reaches out to squeeze a more dirty section of Steph's arm. "I'm gonna go get cleaned up and see Alfred. I think he has some leftovers for Charlie... I didn't realize feeding a teenager was so damned expensive." Said with a playful grin. Watching as the colony of bats disappear around a corner towards the massive cave opening they use to enter and exit the home of the Bats.

Spoiler has posed:
Stephanie smiles at the squeeze and she rises with Barbara, moving over to carefully slip an arm about her and hug her, sans use of her hand as she keeps the actual fingers and palm free. "Thank you," Stephanie whispers softly, the tone of her voice making it a show of gratitude for far more than just the help with the bike and the advice that was given.

Stephanie lets got, and flashes one of her big, goofy grins towards Babs. "And I'll be by with that bottle of wine, before long," she says. Then gives a reluctant shrug as if admitting to other possibilities. "Hopefully," she says with a little chuckle, and then a wink of her eye. Ever the optimist.