1575/Birds of a Feather

From United Heroes MUSH
Jump to navigation Jump to search
Birds of a Feather
Date of Scene: 21 July 2017
Location: Gotham City
Synopsis: Summary needed
Cast of Characters: Red Robin, Nightwing




Red Robin has posed:
Every member of the Batfamily handles patrol a different way. Many like to stick to the rooftops, running from spot to spot while monitoring police channels and other frequencies. Some roar down the streets and alleys in specialized vehicles, or sail ths skies in the same. Tim, however, likes to take up various positions around the city and patch into and monitor surveilance cameras, official and unofficial radio frequencies, social media, news reports, and everything in between with the aid of a nifty little program he modified from existing code on the Batcomputer.

Tonight he's located one of his favorite spots littered about the city's skyline, and perched upon the roof, both he and his program filtering through all his sources, looking for some sign of danger or criminal activity anywhere in the vicinity or across the city.

Nightwing has posed:
    It's a good place to observe, the sight lines are clean, elevated enough to give a good angle, strong spot for reception, and one bat-cam and you've got the approaches covered coming and going. It's a good haunt, and Nightwing may have actually used it one or two times before. But Tim, he takes that to an artform with that steady data feed combining all the elegance of an Oracle approach, to the practical application of the Bat.
    So from his position of observation, Nightwing can't help but smile. There's a moment as he makes sure the situation is clear. A glance at the travel patterns around, then he breaks from cover and makes his approach. Stealth is the name of the moment, and he'll try to make it a clean infiltration. If he's lucky, it'll just be a few moments before he'll land some distance behind Robin and lift his voice to the other young vigilante.
    "Robin,"

Red Robin has posed:
Tim's immersed, though whether it's his duties that hold his focus or some inner monologue is unclear. Either way, it doesn't go a very long way to helping him notice Nightwing's approach, so when the ex-Robin greets his younger counterpart, Tim nearly jumps a half-foot in the air. He rounds on Dick, batarang ready, and breathes a sigh of relief when he realizes who it is, slotting the non-lethal weapon back in his belt before settling back onto his perch. "Hey, Nightwing," he returns after he's settled himself, "Don't uh... Don't tell, Batman you caught me off guard, alright? He'd have me doing the obstacle course until my next patrol." Just the thought causes Tim to rub his temple in subdued horror.

"He rope you in for patrol, too?"

Nightwing has posed:
    "No problem," He steps out of those shadows, some of them sliding over his features as he emerges, but it's only when he's clear of them that the young vigilante will see the smile. "Nah, he's got me working between here but off in Bludhaven too." A hand is extended towards Robin, and if it's accepted he'll pull the younger vigilante into a small hug just long enough to /whap/ him on the back twice with a fist before stepping back.
    "How's it going?" He looks off across the way towards what would be his primary zone of observation, but he knows that Tim... Tim tends to keep on top of things. A few steps carry him in that direction and then he'll kneel to the side in a place that his silhouette can't be observed from below.

Red Robin has posed:
Tim returns the brotherly greeting easily enough and in kind, whapping Nightwing's back once with an open hand before settling back into a more or less identical kneeling position as Nightwing, a consequence of their training. Grayson's question isn't answered for a bit, a long silence drawn between the two as Tim considers his response.

"It's... been well," he finally answers, though unconvincingly. Realizing how that sounded, Tim glances over towards Nightwing and insists: "It really has been. Fairly quiet. Nothing disasterous or devastating. At least not by our standards... I've just been... thinking, you know?"

Nightwing has posed:
    The lingering delay, the hesitance, it all gets Dick to cock his eyebrow curiously, but he lets Tim set the pace, tell what he wants to for now at his own speed. Then the last few words roll about and he offers a nod in answer. "Well, that's good. Better than the alternative." His lip quirks a little as he leans to the side, resting an arm on that small wall that lines the rooftop, providing them that bit of cover.
    "But about what?" He cants his head to the side curiously, "Girl stuff, work stuff, or family stuff?" He offers that out there to perhaps spur the words, knowing it's usually one of those or some combination thereof.

Red Robin has posed:
"Girl stuff?" Tim asks with an incredulous tone, "What am I sixteen? I can handle my own girl stuff..." His offense is the short-lived stuff of teenagers entering adulthood, and he easily moves on. "Family and work stuff," he answers after another moment's hesitation, "I'm thinking about... leaving."

"Well not leaving, leaving," he rushes to clarify, turning to put up a hand as if to reassure Nightwing, "I just... I want to do what you did, you know? Things are going well with the Titans. I'm in New York most of the time anyway... Batman's got Batgirl, now. He doesn't need me anymore like he did when..." He trails off, deciding not to delve into the complicated matter of the black sheep of the Batfamily.

"I just thought it was time, but I can't... You know..." He pauses, then in a rush finishes his thought: "Figure out how to tell Batman."

Nightwing has posed:
    The elder Robin frowns for a moment as he listens to Tim and he can tell partway through where it's going. He draws his lower lip between his teeth and worries at it for a moment, even as he takes a deep breath as if trying to steady himself for the young man's words. At the end of them he gives a small nod and then flares his hand slightly, domino mask shifting slightly as his eyebrows lift behind it.
    "That... is going to be hard, Robin." He looks to the side, gaze distancing as he walks down those memories, then tries to bring them to the fore to at least help the other vigilante to some degree to deal with what's to come, what has to be said. "I mean... with the Bat and me." He looks to the side, then back. "It was different in a lot of ways."
    A small smile comes to the fore, "I mean, he likes you. You both have a strong relationship. He respects you. When I left... it was... adversarial. In a lot of ways."

Red Robin has posed:
This was new territory for Tim. He wasn't around when Dick and Bruce split, and it wasn't a topic he ever felt the desire to broach with either. He looks to his elder with a slight frown, "Adversarial?" It's not what he was expecting. Dick seemed so easy going, especially compared to Bruce, Jason, and Cass. The whole lot of them had personality issues, but Dick was always the lively one of the bunch. "Are you sure?" he asks, though he immediately regrets it, knowing he likely sounds like an idiot. "I mean, I guess you were there, so you know, it just... It's hard to believe, I guess."

Nightwing has posed:
    A small nod is given as Nightwing looks to Robin and smiles faintly, one gauntleted hand lifting to rub at the back of his neck as he tries to summon those days back to the fore, memories not easily trod and that had assuredly left tracks in the mind, marking them both for their days since. He takes a deep breath and tries to explain, "Yeah, adversarial."
    "For us, for me. I was very young and angry. And to be fair so was he. Our relationship was..." He pauses and grins a touch, "Well it is pretty complicated."
    There's a shuffle of gravel as he turns to fully face Tim, leaving his back partially to the wall, though making sure to have the sight lines covered. "He's... my father in some ways. My best friend. My boss. My rival. Strong feelings all over the place and when you have two guys as stubborn as we are butting heads constantly..."
    He pauses to flare his hands to the side as if trying to just brush past all those words. "Thing is, when I finally had enough and I wanted to go my own way... I made the mistake of coming at it with arguments from the heart. Not the head. I tried to get him to recognize how I felt. Why I felt the way I did. Why I couldn't stand some of his choices."
    He shakes his head, "Things like that. It was a mistake. If I had to do it all over again?"
    He looks to Tim for perhaps a sign that he should continue, and if so he goes on to add. "I'd say have your arguments ready beforehand, use intellectual ones not based on feelings. And if you're seriously thinking about leaving and have been fo a bit, don't be surprised or rattled when he tells you he knows already. Because, well... he's the Batman."

Red Robin has posed:
Tim's trained in reading body language, but he doesn't need a second of it to recognize the difficulty in bringing up those memories. He seems vaguely apologetic, but doesn't interrupt. When Nightwing looks for some sign to continue, all he gets is the face of someone listening avidly, desperate for some sage advice on how to handle a very, very difficult discussion.

And, to Grayson's credit, he gets it. "Intellectual. Right," Tim repeats, trailing off, far from disappointed, but instead distracted as his keen mind gets to work putting some of those 'intellectual arguments' together.

The last bit draws him out of his mini brain storming session with a smirk. "Yeah..." he murmurs, then turns slightly with a crunch of gravel, his voice taking on a conspiritorial tone, "I've been thinking about it and... I think he might be a low-level telepath. Like maybe he's just always doing a passive scan of our surface thoughts, right? And he doesn't even know it. Just writes it off as intuition. Have you ever done a test?"

Nightwing has posed:
    A small laugh slips from him, but it's quiet and subdued considering their surroundings. "I don't think he is, I think there was a test but maybe he just tricked everyone about the results." That having been said, however, he takes another breath and seems to get serious for a moment.
    "Though, in all honesty, Robin... you should consider things really well before you take this step." He folds his arms over his chest and looks a touch pensive as he considers the young man who took his place, "If you do this, you may not have access to all the things that you have now. He also will probably enter into another phase of 'How To Teach Robin a Lesson' and embark on another round of mind games on you."
    He looks aside for a moment, then eyes Robin askance. "Though, to be fair, I didn't run into those so much as for the longest time... I wouldn't have anything to do with him. It's only now that we're actually on decent terms."

Red Robin has posed:
"I've thought about it. A lot." Tim rebutts, and the conviction in his voice makes it clear he's telling the truth. "I don't have his resources, obviously, but I've been working on several tech and suit designs of my own. I'll make most of it myself to save on production costs, and what I can't replace, well... I'll have the Titans. I may not be as effective on my own as him, but... I won't really be alone. Not right away, at least." He then shrugs, briefly turning his attention to his gauntlet which displays a read-out on a possible alert recovered by his program -- a purse snatcher, though he's three blocks away from Precinct 19, so Tim ignores it. "Besides, he's funding the Titans, and he's put me in charge knowing they're based in New York... I mean... I don't know. I /know/ I'm ready for this, and I think he knows it too. I guess I just needed to hear someone else say that I shouldn't be surprised if he's already aware."

Nightwing has posed:
    Rising to his feet, Nightwing nods. "Then you're set. I trust your judgement, Robin." Nightwing rolls a shoulder and tilts his head to the side, the joints crackling with the sound of aerated cartilage. He gives a nod to the younger vigilante, "Just remember. You don't have to follow in his footsteps. What you're doing, with the Titans, with your own way of doing things. You're making a difference. You don't have to make the same decisions he had."
    Then he smiles and smacks the younger vigilante on the shoulder, "Alright?" A glance is made down towards the gauntlet, then back up at him. "So c'mon, you want to go run that down for old time's sake?"

Red Robin has posed:
Tim rises as Nightwing does, ready to see off the man he considers a brother. "Thanks, Nightwing," he offers awkwardly but with clear sincerity. When his gauntlet is indicated, he looks at the alert with a raised eyebrow, about to protest that it was likely going to be handled any minute by the cops. However, a second later he stifles that response and grins. "Sure," he responds while composing himself before he suddenly turns and sprints for the other side of the roof, heading in the general direction of the purse-snatcher.

"If you can keep up!"