14529/A chat of relatives

A chat of relatives
Date of Scene:	29 August 2022
Location:	Backstage (Robin's Roost), Monarch Theatre
Synopsis:	Dinner and the night is saved
Cast of Characters:	Red Robin, Black Canary

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Red Robin has posed:
Tim Drake is back at it in the Roost, but tonight, he is actually sitting at a computer working on designing something. It looks rather indepth as he is moving parts around in the diagram.

Black Canary has posed:
If you want to test your ability to infiltrate, you infiltrate the best. And who's the best at security Canary knows? Oracle. But her cousin Tim is pretty good too and, critically, available, Oracle being out of town.

Thus it is that Canary's athletic form is progressing through one of the personnel tunnels that radiate out of Tim's domain, muscles straining to remain glued to the ceiling, creeping forward to spot and circumnavigate or circumvent the security.

Tim will likely be upset upon catching her, but hopefully the gift she's got stashed in her bike's seat case will make up for it when that happens.

Red Robin has posed:
Tim Drake is actually not to upset when he looks over at the alarm goes off. A few defenses go off nets, gas and such all non lethal. When he sees who it is, he will turn off the alarms and hmmms softly, as he realizes she made it past about a 1/3 to 1/2 his measures.

Black Canary has posed:
Canary expels a breath of disgust. "Dammit, cuz, that one is unfair," she mutters as she spots the telltale UV reflection of a lens at ground level looking up just a little too late. "What kind of paranoid jerk looks for people crawling along the ceiling!?"

Knowing she's been made, she sighs and drops to the floor, pounding the wall to trigger another alarm, just to be sure, calling out, "Hey, Tim! Beware of blondes baring gifts. I'll meet you at the front door."

And with that she turns back to the way she entered.

A short time later, her bike roars up to the front, with her dismounting and taking a package from the back.

Red Robin has posed:
Tim Drake will head up to meet her, and when he opens the door, he looks to her, and says "Have you met my boss, and the people he deals with?" To answer her question from earlier. He does offer a hug in greeting "How you doing?" He asks.

Black Canary has posed:
"Doing fine," Canary says with an impish grin. "I needed to test myself in infiltration, so I decided to go after the best. But Oracle wasn't around, so I went after you instead."

There's that backsliding-step out of reach.

"But pax, cuz," she says, holding out the package to him. "I brought you a nice plant. Hope you like it."

Red Robin has posed:
Tim Drake 's brow will raise a bit at a plant, but he will take it, and open it to see what she has brought him. "Well if you want I can set up a test for you sometime

Black Canary has posed:
"Nah, no need," Canary says with a grin. "I just got tested. Need sharper eyes to spot stupidly-placed cameras."

The plant turns out to be ...

An unimpressive little thing with silver-grey heart-shaped leaves with a pink underside.

"It's a string of hearts," Dinah says. "It's a trailing plant, so put it up somewhere high and let its stems grow down in a glorious waterfall of gorgeousness. I put a little card in the pot with instructions, but it's really low-maintenance and can make a room or hall pop."

Red Robin has posed:
Tim Drake looks over to her, and smiles a bit. ""I might have to put it down in the roost, see if I can get it to grow down to trail over multiple levels." He says of the plant. He does lead her into the kitchen where he gets a bottle of room tempature water

Black Canary has posed:
"Oh, if you want it to grow that big you're probably going to have to put it in a larger pot. The pot I put it in will be fine for, like a ceiling-to-floor in a normal room. Multiple storeys...?"

Dinah eyes the distance involved and does some calculations.

"Doable. Larger pot. Some ties to keep it somewhat organized. It would take a while to grow that far, but it would look spectacular when it does. Hit me up, cuz, when it's about a single storey long and I'll replant, trim, and guide it for you."

In the kitchen she looks around with a curious eye.

"Are you sure you're a bachelor, Tim? This is too tidy to be a bachelor's home."

Red Robin has posed:
Tim Drake looks over to her, and says "Well one, I lived with a woman for a while, but even before that I lived with Alfred. I mean yea he would pick up after you, but I swear you would feel so guilty for it, no need for Anyone to punish you, you would be punishing yourself. Phoebe was watching the plants, that are already added them originally cause one of my team member had a problem if a place looked to clinical.

Black Canary has posed:
"Ah yes. Alfred. That scary look of disappointment." Dinah shudders melodramatically. "Not a look you want to see more than once. At least not for the same thing twice."

Bypassing the room temperature water, Dinah goes straight to the fridge and rummages around.

"So what have you been doing lately anyway? I'm stuck in Canuckistan West, so I'm kinda out of touch with what the pals are doing here."

Beat.

"Got any beer?"

Red Robin has posed:
Tim Drake nods, and says "Should be a couple in the back." He does not drink often so a couple bottles probably been in there a while, and the room temp water is opened but it is not for Tim or Dinah, it is for the plant, he sets on the window sill and gives it a drink to let it get used to the place. "Can order some with some food if ya want."

Black Canary has posed:
"How 'bout I cook us something up?" Dinah asks instead, grabbing one of the bottles at the back and casually opening it with thumb and forefinger. She hops up to sit on a counter, hunching down to avoid her head hitting the cabinet above her, too low for even her form to fit in properly. "People have commented on my paella."

Tim has heard the comments. Apparently Dinah hasn't. Or is overlooking them.

"So I'll cook us up a paella, we crack open some brews, and just go to town on a good home-cooked meal. Gift from the girl to the bachelor."

Red Robin has posed:
Tim Drake looks to her and has heard a bit but says "On one condition, you don't use any of the same peppers that Ollie uses in his chili." He aint going to tell his cousin she is a bad cook, he will suffer through it, if need be and with a smile. "I might let you have the beer, I don't think I have that many and beer is ehh for me."

Black Canary has posed:
Dinah grins happily and starts rummaging around the kitchen, asking scattershot questions. "Where's the large pan?" "Do you have any...? Never mind, found it." This continues until she has everything she needs out and ready for use.

They seem to be the right ingredients for a paella at least. Well, a baroque paella, not the Valencian ones.

"OK, got it here. Now first step is prep. That's the key to all great cooking."

It might be hard to keep from laughing at Dinah giving instructions for great cooking. Her Birds of Prey teammates were pretty unequivocal that she's a terrible cook whose meals aren't inedible, just so uninspiring it seems almost deliberately mean.

And so far her prep looks fine. Evenly cut. Appropriately sized. Perhaps his taste buds aren't due for abuse after all.

Then she gets started and the first thing he might notice going wrong is that she uses one of the bottles of beer to make the sauce. The whole bottle. As in more beer than any other liquid. The rice is being cooked in beer. The vegetables and sausages and such are being cooked in beer.

"I try to mix it up a bit instead of being boring and following the recipe," she says cheerfully as she cooks, putting enormous effort into making her monstrosity.

Red Robin has posed:
Tim Drake nods his head a bit to this and he may have brought the recipe up to see what is supposed to be in it, and what is supposed to be done compared to what she is doing. He will be glad he did not have more beer. "Remember you want to save some of the beer to drink with the food." He offers trying to help guide things subtely

Black Canary has posed:
"That's what this bottle is for!" Dinah says, winking. "You think I'd forget about a cold one with the food?"

She stands back from the stove, having set it to low flame and covered the purported food.

"OK, now we wait for the rice to cook, which is about 20 minutes. And if you eat up all your paella, we can have ice cream for dessert!"

Red Robin has posed:
Tim Drake chuckles a bit and says "Well, that sounds like a plan." His mind is working for a moment, and say "Want to pick out a movie, we can watch something while we eat, I am going to hit the restroom right quick.," He says and he will stand to head to the restroom, once in there, he will use his tablet to check the camera and waits to hopefully see Dinah head to the living room, and if so, he will sneak in to swap out some of the beer for water trying to help save the food but without her knowing.

Black Canary has posed:
"Great plan! Nothing beats a good home-cooked meal in front of the boob tube watching something goofy. I heard tell of a monster flick that's really funny for those of us who fight actual monsters. I'll see if I can find it on that fancy Netflix thing of yours."

Danger Will Robinson! Danger! Danger! Dinah is going to try to use something modern!

Save the food? Or save the set-top box? Food? Set-top box? It's a conundrum.

Red Robin has posed:
Tim Drake can fix the box easily it is technology and if he needs to he can stream from another device or something. His stomach and hers both will feel better if he helps the food. He swaps out at least half the liquid, adds back afew spices and then heads back into the restroom, and makes sure he is seen coming out of it.

Black Canary has posed:
Tim's machinations appear to go unnoticed. The changes he makes to the food do seem to improve the smell coming from the stove. Dinah's playing with the Netflix interface eventually manages to get a movie called "Sharkula" (a film about Dracula accidentally infecting a shark with vampirism) selected and running. And if Dinah notices anything different about the food she is blithely unaware of why.

"Wow! I outdid myself this time. I'll have to remember this way of cooking it!"

Luckily she won't and her next time will be a different kind of disaster. But she's not the kind to give up, now is she?

Red Robin has posed:
Tim Drake smiles and has dinner and cheesy movie time with family. He smiles and actually enjoys himself, and spends the evening as normal people, and gets a reminder of what real life can be.