Amusing Redheads [Batgirl]

[Elenaphant]

It was now officially three o'clock, and Starfire was waiting in anticipation in front of the gates. There were two admission tickets in her hand, already bought. Since she had invited her it seemed only fair. Frequently she looked around for any sign of her teammate. This was thwarted by children who recognized her, and did Starfire love children! It was hard not to interact with them when she was doing nothing but stand there.  "Oh you wonderful little girl! You are so cute, I wish to consume and digest you all up~"  For some unexplained reason the mother was grabbing the child by the hand and hurrying away before they could properly say goodbye. It made Starfire frown. "Was it something I have said?" she asked herself aloud.

[Aly]

Batgirl had found a dark alley between the library and the boardwalk to change into her suit, but this time, she hadn't brought along her bat-cycle. How odd would it look for a regular teenage girl to be riding along on Batgirl's motorcycle? So now she was forced to leap from rooftop to rooftop in the light of day. Every once and a while, she had to use her grapple-hook to swing to the taller buildings. It took her longer than she had thought to get to the boardwalk, trying to stick to the shadows so she wouldn't have people pointing and such. If it were Robin asking her to the park, they would both have gone as civilians and not attract nearly as much attention. Perhaps she should have suggested a different location for her and Starfire's outing, not exactly thinking about how Starfire had no civilian identity, the orange-skinned and totally green-eyed girl sticking out of a crowd like a gigantic alien red flag. So, to Batgirl's annoyance, she had to wear her suit because Starfire did not really understand the importance of /secret/ identities. As she approached from the shadows around the shops leading up to the amusement park, she overheard Starfire exclaiming that she wanted to consume and digest a little girl. She didn't hide her laugh as she stepped out of the shadows and walked towards Starfire. "The term is 'eat you up'. Though I don't really understand the origins of the term, any variation seems like you will actually eat the child. I would stay away from that certain saying if I were you, Star."

[Elenaphant]

Starfire turned at the arrival of Batgirl, preparing to beam but it dropped into a curious, naive expression when she corrected that saying. Ah... So, there was a fine line between a compliment of adorableness, and cannibalism in American idioms? Strange, but she blushed and considered taking Batgirl's advice. "Ah, yes, I suppose..." Nevermind that awkward moment, she straightened and showed the two tickets. "I have taken initiative and paid the entrance fee!" In typical Starfire forwardness, she took Batgirl's gloved hand and tugged her enthusiastically to the gates. Jump City had a modest park, where there weren't too many rides but certainly the main attractions were there. The Tamaranean eyed it all, pleased to be back after such a long time. The team needed to plan a day to amuse themselves here together. She looked left and right, not knowing what she wanted to do first--gasp! It was the cotton candy! She dashed forward to the cart, pointing to the fluffy cloud on a stick. She purchased it in record time and zoomed back to Batgirl. "Please share with me the glorious cotton candy that is nothing like the cotton!" Poor Starfire had in her early days been unable to tell the difference between actual food and the inedible kind. True, some were obvious, but a cotton ball at the time. "Tell me, do you feel like games, or perhaps the rides?"

[Aly]

Batgirl looked around self-consciously as Starfire grabbed her hand and pulled her into the park. "You didn't have to--" Barbara didn't like other people paying for things for her, but it wasn't like she had all that much money. Yes, she had a little of the Titans spending money, but places large enough to fit any money in were few and far between in her suit. Again, she didn't have time to fish through her suit to find her money before Starfire came back with cotton candy. "Star, you don't have to pay for everything. I can do some." She smiled and took the fluffy pink stuff from the alien girl. She looked from the cotton candy to her yellow-gloved hand for a moment before taking a free finger to pull the glove off of her hand. "Next to you, I guess a little skin won't hurt." She smiled and laughed nervously before grabbing a pinch of the stuff and popping it into her mouth. Jump was much warmer than Gotham as well, but even so, she had Bruce's voice in the back of her head telling her to put it back on. Something about it being a necessity for her symbolic look. He probably wouldn't approve of something like this at all, either. Ruining the image or something like that. Letting people see that she was indeed a real teenager and not an unstoppable supernatural force. Whatever. She needed to get rid of that voice and rid of the cape hovering above her at all times. She was snapped back to the present with a loud screaming from the one rollercoaster the boardwalk had. "Oh, uhhh..." She looked down at her cape and up to Starfire. "I don't know if they'd let me on that with this. Maybe something less... I dunno, like that. Let's play the games for now."

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[Elenaphant]

Starfire didn't understand what Batgirl meant by 'next to her' but she smiled and nodded, being glad to be of some help. Why a hand was meant to be concealed she couldn't understand; she assumed the constant need for gloves was for protection--being part of the uniform. Here she hoped there'd be no need of it, and even if something were to happen gloves or no gloves Starfire would be ready... unless it was an extraterrestrial probe coming for her, that was not the fun. The energetic alien tried to rein herself in, realizing she was probably overcompensating with all the purchases in the hopes that they might become better friends than they already... well, were not. 

"I do not believe you would be barred access anywhere. Cyborg has been able to go on the rides, unless the bar cannot accommodate his bulkiness, but that would not be the case with you," she tried to explain, not quite understanding what could be so impeding about Batgirl's uniform. They never required Robin or Beast Boy to change out of theirs, and Robin had a very long cape! 

"I do like the games, so I would not mind if we pursued them for now. There is one where we 'Whack-a-Mole' in order to acquire a prize. And perhaps they would let you do the test of strength--I unfortunately am not allowed since last time I had broken the bell," she admitted sheepishly as she listed off their option. Then, a thought hit her. "Oh! First, let us do the Hall of Funny Mirrors." They had the whole day, but Starfire had decided that would be a good place to start. 

She pointed in its direction and flashed another smile. "Shall we?"

[Aly]

She really needed more than teammates here, she was beginning to realize. They were too young to be so serious all of the time. Plus, it got boring very fast. "The mirrors sound great." Batgirl muffled between the mess of pink fluff occupying her mouth. She swallowed the candy down and started walking in that direction. Kids were pointing and waving, but she gave no mind. It was so odd to be out here without chasing some super-villain. The mirrors would keep her out of sight for at least a little while. She really needed to get out more. It just felt too weird to not be wearing her glove, so Batgirl relented and put it back on. "So Starfire, did you guys do this often? I mean, I know you used to go out for pizza a lot, but I didn't know that you guys just went out so much." She shrugged as they approached their destination for the moment. "It just feels so weird going from a cave hidden from even the sharpest of eyes to a giant tower and just parading around the city. But Batman's weird like that." They stepped inside, and around the corner was the first row of the mirrors. The first mirror made her look short and stocky, and with a quiet "Ew", Batgirl moved on to the next one. "That's more like it." She was taller and thinner, her womanly curves straightened out like a piece of taffy.

[Elenaphant]

Starfire delighted in the house of many mirrors, which was really only a long hallway with a few turns here or there to accommodate the different experiences of reflection. As they walked past the first set of mirrors, they were lined up in a way to dramatically alter from one to the next, so within a few steps Starfire went from having an elongated torso to being short and wide, to tall and wide, to having a large head. It was amusing, and ingenious in the alien's opinion, to use refraction for fun. Starfire was up close to one making faces at it as she had seen Beastboy do in his example of humour, with her tongue out, the tip of her nose pressed in, and one lower lid pulled.

“Mmnnnnn--mmm?” she stopped her silliness to properly address Batgirl's questions, and turned away from the mirror to face her. That was actually quite a good question. There were many instances in the past that she could recall them going on outings, with the full participation of the team. Even Raven used to be present, though she would often protest at least a little at the beginning, and remain resigned but exasperated for the rest of the duration.

“Recreation used to be a reward for training, or at least that is how I thought we justified it. If anything, it is the idea of constant vigilance that is foreign to me. We must be ready for anything at any time, but there is more to life than just waiting for trouble to strike. That is the surest path to losing sight of what you protect, if you cannot enjoy some of it. I thought this was something we all understood.”

That was changing slowly, and she could pinpoint the moment that started to change. Slade, the internal conflicts, the disorganization of the team, it brought consequences, and a feeling of guilt that accompanied 'fun time'. Or, at least the sense they should be guilty, under the strain their leader was in. “I am glad that we do not have to hide in caves—I had thought the 'bat cave' was a figure of speech like when we are said to live in a giant T, like the letter.” It seemed sad to have to hide from those you protected. Starfire felt as she was part of Jump City, invited and welcome, and not keeping it at a distance. She did not judge Batman though, for she was certain he had his reason... but she wondered if now, in surmounting uncertainty and stress, that it was his influence Robin drew on.

That was not a topic that she yet felt was a comfortable one between them; not that she faulted Batgirl's judgement and insight in any way, but because it did not suit their light-hearted day, and truly she wished to know about Batgirl, and see the person beyond the mask and connections to a seldom talked about place, only referenced to one person's history. “Although it is different, are you enjoying yourself with us?”