She gave you everything she had, but she was young and dumb

[selfmadehero]

Character(s): Stephanie Brown and EVERYONE ELSE
Location: Balamb Town
Rating: PG
Open/Closed/Finished: Open
Summary: One second she was in the cave, the next she was... where was she?

Comments

[bratbeyond]

Newcomers had been a part of Damian's new life from day one. Even if Damian remembered feeling lost and confused the first time he walked onto Garden's campus, he usually let other people give "the talk". (Not only were others nicer, they just knew how to handle newcomers better.) Damian knew he could probably give a decent speech if he tried, but it felt so... boring giving the same speal over and over again. Not to mention, people usually had the same reaction

[selfmadehero]

"Um, yeah," she mumbled, fumbling around for the letter and everything that came with it. Maybe she was pushing the act a little, but she really did need the help, and this kid seemed to know exactly what was going on.

"I got this letter? I'm just a little confused. Can you help me figure out where... geez, anything is?" She even held the papers out to him, an exaggerated show of putting herself in his hands. She was just helpless little Steph, all alone in a strange new world. That was probably worth mentioning, right? She wanted him to remember her like this, lost and confused.

"I'm Stephanie, by the way. Stephanie Brown."

[bratbeyond]

Damian only had to skim the paper to understand her dilemma. He raised an eyebrow - partially because he hadn't met anyone this confused in a while - and folded his arms.

"Damian Razem," He said after a moment, trying to figure out the "proper" words to say. What would Boss do? Besides act like a pretentious twip? He'd probably explain it to the best of his ability, so... Damian gave in to his conscience. Stay and help the dumb blonde. How schway. "I'm a Co-Ops major here.

Basically... I don't know what city or world you're from, but you won't be able to get home. Time Compression nixed that for all of us. I know 'cause I'm in your boat too. Until they - meaning the school - figures out a solution, you're kinda stuck here."

[selfmadehero]

She nodded again. What she really wanted was for him to hand her a map, point to where they were, and say 'this way is up', but she figured they were getting there.

"So I can't go home. Okay. That's... okay, so where exactly is this 'room and board'? Do I need to get a job? I'm supposed to go to classes or something?"

If this kid could make it as a Co-Ops 'major' then she should have it easy. She couldn't exactly hold back here, not if this was meant to help her be Robin, but at least she could throw any suspicion off her trail should she decide to keep working in the mean time.

[fierybluebird]

Marco wasn't the type to help people out. Being a pirate meant not really giving a damn about the rest of the world. Or maybe he'd always been that way which is what led him into piracy. Still, the kid looked about the right age to be in the Garden, and that meant she was sort of crew or allies. On top of which, after Bulla's last post, he was consciously making an effort not to further crush her faith in humanity, whether he considered himself part of that or not.

"Where are you looking for?" he asked gently.

[selfmadehero]

Score. This guy looked like he knew what he was doing. She made a show of fumbling around with the small pile of paperwork she'd received upon arrival looking for the right page, even though she had most of it memorized by now.

"I... I guess my dorm? I don't really know where anything is, and..." Of course her stomach chose that very moment to act up. That's what she got for spending the night being beat up, down and sideways by Gotham's worst. Batman could have at least given her a snack before firing her.

"Actually, I'm kind of hungry too."

[fierybluebird]

"Ah, you're from another world like me then, eh," Marco nodded. "Well at the moment you're not in the Garden proper. This is just the town we usually dock at. Come on, I'll lead you back to the cafeteria and you can ask me questions along the way. I'm sure you probably have a dozen." Really, the whole lost and confused student thing was getting almost casual for him it happened so often.

[selfmadehero]

Questions. She should have a million questions. There was no way that short letter and the little class catalog contained all the information she needed. What would Batman want her to ask? No, that was a stupid way of thinking about it. Just because he was her boss these days didn't mean she had to model her every move after what he wanted. What did she need to know? Best to go in chronological order.

"Thank you so much, I'm just hopeless with directions." Utter bull, but it couldn't hurt to make her seem just that much more useless, especially considering the stream of questions she was formulating in her mind.

"I got this course catalog, but how soon am I supposed to start classes? Like, right away?"

[iam_yourdagger]

Tandy had taken to wandering around the Garden to get to know it better. While some people had helped her become familiar with the map, she preferred walking around on her own to make sure that she knew the layout of the school like the back of her hand. Scars and all. Moving about, she noticed someone who looked as lost as she had been when she first arrived. Because she didn't see anyone as helpful as Tom around, she crossed the room to the person, smiling warmly.

"Hi there. Welcome to the Garden. Can I help you?"

[selfmadehero]

Her main interests right this moment were food and shelter. Food came first, but just for good measure she flipped through the papers she'd received looking for... something. Maybe a map. She didn't really think that far ahead.

"Hi. Um, I'm new here? I'm trying to figure out where food is." She coudl have found it easily on her own, but that would defeat the purpose of trying to appear totally harmless.

[iam_yourdagger]

"I can show you the place, if you'd like." Tandy didn't know the school that well either, but she'd been doing her best to remember mentally, rather than just using the map. After all, that was how she had gotten through New York and the slums. Constant re-work and constant returning.

[selfmadehero]

"That would be perfect, thanks!" She put the papers back in order and settled them under her arm. She could easily scope out the entire area on her own at night, but a tour would streamline the process beautifully.