043 VIDEO LIST EIGHTEEN

[deadliestviper]

So we're back to this again, are we?

[It's Bea's third time going through this particular snafu in the communication, and she remembers well the previous times. This time, however, she's not only prepared but looking forward to it. And this time she won't see Elle. She hopes, anyway -- she shouldn't.]

This is Beatrix Kiddo, alias Arlene Machiavelli, alias Beth Solberg, alias Rachelle Quinn, alias Black Mamba. If you know any of those names, I want to talk to you.

Comments

Big Steph

[ichoosefight]

Hiya Bea.

[ Steph waves. ]

Big Steph

[deadliestviper]

Steph? My Steph? Is that you?

Big Steph

[ichoosefight]

The one, the only, the apparently replicated on a younger scale.

Big Steph

[deadliestviper]

So you heard about that, and apparently it confuses you less than it does me.

Big Steph

[ichoosefight]

You know, after having a lengthy discussion about boys and waffles with a smaller version of yourself, you just sort of learn to accept these sorts of things.

Big Steph

[deadliestviper]

Speaking of boys, how are things with Kon?

Big Steph

[ichoosefight]

Things are great. We actually just finished unpacking our new house.

Big Steph

[deadliestviper]

I'll have to find a way to send you a housewarming gift. Give him a hug for me, okay? I miss you both.

Big Steph

[ichoosefight]

Oh, don't worry, you will. [ Time travel kidnapping for the wedding. It's a thing. ]

But I'll give him that hug for you.

Big Steph

[deadliestviper]

It's a promise. [It better be!]

Big Steph

[ichoosefight]

It had better be. [ Oh, it is. ]

So how are things with you?

Big Steph

[deadliestviper]

I found my little girl.

Big Steph

[ichoosefight]

You're kidding. Oh my gosh! How is she?

Big Steph

[deadliestviper]

Beautiful.

She's been better.

She will be better.

[ichoosefight]

If I weren't half way across the multiverse I could just hug you.

[theonlyresponse]

Bea.

[Just a Nod. It's how they roll.]

How've you been?

[deadliestviper]

Bruce.

[She nods back, not smiling but nonetheless looking pleased.]

Much better. And the same for you, I hope.

[theonlyresponse]

We get by.

[But she can see how much lighter he is, since he left the ship.]

Your daughter?

[deadliestviper]

Glad to hear it.

I found her. [And lost her again, but that's not the way she'll leave it. The memory of their years together is enough to keep her going.] Her name's B.B.

[theonlyresponse]

[Heartache over their children is never something that needed saying, and Bruce's expression flickers, commiserating with her, but then, he changes it up.]

I was promised pictures.

[deadliestviper]

[She smiles, for real, and turns the communicator around to show a row of framed pictures hanging on her cabin wall. There's B.B. at her sixth birthday, chocolate cake smeared over her mouth; there she is at age nine, wearing a riding helmet as she sits atop a horse; at eleven, pulling a funny face in a school photo; at fourteen, a portrait of mother and daughter, both beaming with their arms around each other.]

[theonlyresponse]

[They're pictures over the video feed, but his memory's always been excellent, and to see her like that is new... and good. She should have it, after what she went through.]

Bring her over. Alfred would spoil her.

[deadliestviper]

[The feed swings round to catch Beatrix again and her smile goes a bit sad, eyes dimming a bit, but she nods.]

I'll try to bring her around.

[silvestris]

How did you pick all those aliases? Or were they assigned at random?

[Codenames make sense to her, but there's something powerful in a name that makes it hard for her to imagine maintaining more than the two she has. (Then again, her code name has literally taken over her life.)]

[deadliestviper]

Some of them are names of dead women. Some are just back-up identities. Black Mamba and Beatrix Kiddo are the only names someone else has given me.

[silvestris]

Mm, I've wondered about that. Beatrix Kiddo isn't exactly a common name. Where'd it come from?

[deadliestviper]

You're going to laugh.

[silvestris]

If I do I'll let you whip me.

[deadliestviper]

I was named after Beatrix Potter, the woman who wrote Peter Rabbit. And I didn't shed that connotation until I was almost nine years old.

[silvestris]

[Okay. Picture someone like this Beatrix writing about fluffy rabbits and try not to grin. Selina doesn't have the self control not to.]

That's adorable.

[deadliestviper]

Oh, shut up.

[silvestris]

It's the cleanest misdirect I've ever heard; no one would ever suspect. Did you ever read the books?

[deadliestviper]

The Tale of Jemima Puddle-Duck was always my favorite.

[silvestris]

Because of the pictures or the characters?

[deadliestviper]

Both. But I just liked the name Jemima.

[silvestris]

Do I sense a new nickname coming on?

[mirabilis]

That's an awful lot of names.

[deadliestviper]

I get around.

[mirabilis]

Does each name have a story?

[deadliestviper]

Not the most inspiring of stories, unfortunately.

Do you know what my work used to be?

[mirabilis]

I don't. I don't believe we ever got around to that.

[deadliestviper]

I was a hired killer.

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[an_abomination]

I've also heard you go by mom and have the mug to prove it.

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[deadliestviper]

[She laughs, shaking her head, and touches the screen with one finger, tracing a heart on the screen.] Where'd you hear that from?

Hi, sweetheart. I miss you.

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[terminates]

For old time's sake, is it?

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[deadliestviper]

[There's a voice she hasn't heard in a long time. She holds her breath for a moment, arches an eyebrow, and replies.] Purely for the sake of nostalgia.

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[terminates]

It has its perks.

[ His way of saying he kind of misses you guys. Kind of. ]</small. How's the hellboat been treating you?

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[deadliestviper]

About the same as always. Life as a warden's pretty indistinguishable from as an inmate.