6631/Undead Common Courtesy

Undead Common Courtesy
Date of Scene:	23 February 2019
Location:	Unknown
Synopsis:	Summary needed
Cast of Characters:	Red Hood, Zombie-Girl

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Red Hood has posed:
A few days ago, Red Hood came across a vigilante with a rather unique issue.

As if being dead and resurrected is a unique issue.

But the fact that the young woman could be hurt and bring herself back together again did get Jason's attention - and so he sought her out. She didn't exactly leave him his phone number. Not the first time a pretty girl didn't leave him her number, but that's how it goes, so it took some old-fashioned detective work.

After doing some searches on the internet and the community to do some legwork, a picture turned up in the database from the image in his helmet's internal cameras. That lead to more research, and he ended up in the Bronx. The late night waterfront is the most crime-ridden area, so it is there that Red Hood makes his.. well, non-appearance. He's stalking and searching tonight. Which means he's staying to the shadows and rooftops. It didn't take long for him to find a mugging that she had prevented - but he doesn't immediately interfer. Instead he follows her. Shadowing her, he's intent on following her to her base of operations.

Zombie-Girl has posed:
Zombie-Girl is walking down the sidewalk. After a fruitless night trying to find more information on the infernal street cult that she's been investigating, she decides to return home. A stone cathedral stands next to an abandoned lot filled with garbage on one side, and a crumbling apartment building on the other. Known as Saint Joseph's Cathedral, the aged structure has seen better days. Its mostly broken stained glass windows are covered up with boards. Inside a flicking light, very faint can be seen.

Red Hood has posed:
Following after Zombie-Girl in the shadows as he crosses over a rooftop, he knows the run-down area well. While he may not have visited here before, he's seen plenty of run-down areas. He grew up in one. It helps that his own base of operations was once in the ruins of a church as well.

Glancing up at the gothic architecture of the building as Zombie-Girl enters, he gives a little snort inside of his helmet as he looks at one of stone gargoyles that stands 'guard' over the decrepit church.

More a Dick than a Bruce.

Making his way along the side of the building, he finds egress in one of the broken windows, pushing aside a few boards that were loosen from time and neglect as he makes his way into the church's rafters to take in the interior, though the smell of must, ruin, and the lack of proper sanitation is immediately obvious.

Zombie-Girl has posed:
Zombie-Girl looks around her when she steps up to the weather beaten double wooden doors that are set in the front of the building beneath a stone arch. She makes sure that no one is around to see her enter, or worse that anyone's followed her. But she's not so attentive that someone trained by The Bat could be detected by such a cursory glance. She pushes her way in as she unzips and shrugs off her hoodie.

  "Any luck?" A deep male voice comes from the area of where the pulpit once stood. Now there's a large wooden desk covered in book and loose papers. An old african-american man dressed in ragged clothing is writting with ink and quill on a piece of paper. His long white beard and white dreadlocks brush over the top of the desk as he writes. Looking around there are similar pieces of paper with some kind of arcane script on them plastered seemingly randomly on the walls everywhere, hundreds of them.

  "Nah," she says yanking off her dark goggles to reveal her glowing green eyes that seem to lick with a peculiar flame.

Red Hood has posed:
After an initial assessment, Red Hood considers his courses of actions available to him. Finally, he decides on a more congenial approach. His voice modulator changes his voice just slightly - he may not have the guttural growl of his more famous guardian, but Jason's fearful in his own right. Even if it's because most people believe he's bat-shit crazy.

"Has seeking absolution in a church that is no longer a church worked for you? I find that it didn't do shit for me, except maybe piss people off more."

Dropping from the rafters, the Hood lands on the pulpit in a crouch, before slowly rising to his feet. "Ayla Braun, it looks like you haven't had a meal in a while." There's a glance to her companion, and a tilt of his head. He wasn't expecting her to have company. His helmet takes in the man's picture and starts to run it through the Bat's criminal database to find a match.

Zombie-Girl has posed:
Zombie-Girl briefly gets into a fighting pose before she sees who it is, at which point she (mostly) relaxes. Her look of surprise turns into a look of puzzlement at why The Red Hood would follow her home. They parted on good terms, so surely it couldn't be something she did wrong.

  "I find it humbling to look after the forgotten people of my city from a forgotten place young man," the older man replies, not seeming at all upset by the sudden interruption. He places his palms on the wheels of his wheelchair and rolls himself out from behind the desk and to the edge of the raised platform where his desk is. From the way his left pantleg is tied in a knot just below where his knee should be, it doesn't take a detective to figure out he's an amputee.

Zombie-Girl has posed:
Zombie-Girl arches a brow and asks, "Uh? A meal? What?" Although she can eat, she doesn't need to eat. Still she has no idea of what he's talking about so looks more perplexed at the situation than before.

Red Hood has posed:
"This isn't much of a set up for crime-fighting." comes the response from the Hood. He looks around the place. "So what's the story here? Outreach ministry with a side-order of street vigilantism?" It seems clear that Jason isn't here to fight. "Or is this only for your needs?"

He drags a pair of gloved fingers over the side of the banister as he walks forward, his white lenses flare between the two. "It's not every day that someone shows up that I have had something in common with." his arms settle loosely over his chest as he waits to get some more information. Now that he knows that Ayla's not doing this alone, he's changing his approach on things - and he's now seeing what the setup is.

Zombie-Girl has posed:
The computer in your helmet tells you that the man is Owen Smith. He was a veteran of the first Desert Storm. He was going to be the recipient of the Purple Heart after losing his leg trying to save the life of one of his friends. But at the ceremony he literally threw it back in the faces of those giving it. After that things got pretty rough for him. Drunken and disorderly, fights, petty theft. Things go pretty dark from there until he shows back up as a local fixture in the Bronx as a street preacher and volunteer at many local charities in the area.

  "Yes, something like that," the man says with a small flourish of his hand.

  "Yeah. Not exactly rolling in dough. All I had after I dug myself out of the dirt was the clothes on my back, ugly clothes at that." Her grandmother had her buried in a nice sundress, and the rowdy girl was never much of a sundress type. She looks back to Owen and says, "I thought that weird writing was supposed to keep us hidden?"

  He shakes his head and says, "It will keep us hidden from scrying and other mystical means of detection, not from someone using their own wits."

Red Hood has posed:
"Don't worry, I ain't a demon." Jason says with a small smirk underneath his helmet. He listens to what Owen says, matching it up to the data he's getting back. After looking around one more time, he makes a decision in the back of his mind.

"If you're serious about this helping out the neighborhood thing? Come up with a better plan than going out at night looking for fights. I'll be back in a week. Have a plan. Want to renovate this place, turn it back into a church? Tell me. Want an outreach? Tell me. I'll see what I can do."

He may not have Bruce Wayne's funds, but he knows how to get to the old man if he decides it's worth it. "In the meantime - you both look like you could use a place to shower and clean up." She can't really go to a local shelter and shower. She stands out too much. Moving over to where the other two are, he takes a pad of paper and a pen and scribbles down an address. "This is a hotel I know the owner at. He owes me a favor." After he got him out of Gotham with his life intact. "Tell Guido I sent you, he'll set you with room and food for the night. I'll let him know you're coming. Get cleaned up, get a warm meal in you. Then come up with a plan."

"This isn't charity. This has a price. You stay out of Gotham. If there's something.. whatever it is, that even thinks about dragging you into Gotham, you tell me first." There's the price. Jason knows how Bruce feels about interlopers he can't control or vet into the fold - and Jason's extending the courtesy.

Zombie-Girl has posed:
Zombie-Girl takes the paper and looks at it. "Sure. Thanks. Do they have HBO?"

  Owen sighs when she says that and rolls his eyes. "Miss Braun. You think that considering what you see on a daily basis that you wouldn't be so fixated on those horror movies." He bows his head to Red Hood and says, "She means thank you, and we will accept the terms of your agreement. We are investigating a cult. So far they are mostly sticking to New York, but there have been rumors as far as Gotham and Metropolis. We are trying to keep it contained. I believe that their leader wishes to merge Earth and Hell. If that would happen then the problems would escalate beyond merely Metropolis. But it hasn't come to that. We won't let it."

Red Hood has posed:
Jason considers for a moment, his head tilting in thought. "I know a few people that are experts on the occult. I'll see about them contacting you." he responds. "I'll be back in a week, and we'll see about comparing notes then." With that, he steps back into the shadows.

"I'll make sure you have time to binge 'Game of Thrones'." comes Jason's dry response to Ayla. And with that, there's the silent firing of a grapple gun and he's yanked back up into the rafters to disappear.

The hotel is only a few blocks from the church. If the pair arrives, the man behind the counter pales at the mention of the Hood, and immediately extends them every courtesy he can. Room service, fresh linens, extra towels. He had been waiting for this day - he knew eventually there would be a pay it forward moment.