10818/The Last Name is Wayne

The Last Name is Wayne
Date of Scene:	18 April 2022
Location:	Wayne Estate - Bristol Township
Synopsis:	Damian and Phoebe become closer and hang out as siblings. Idu Wayne is a good boy. Damian absolutely does not smile, smooch noses, or performs belly rubs.
Cast of Characters:	Phoebe Beacon, Damian Wayne

---

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    There's an out of the way place in the woods that surround the Wayne Estate that Phoebe has begun hanging around in, since weirdly, the rooftop is sometimes occupied by other denizens of the manor. Today, she had set a bright colored hammock up that was slowly swinging as she examined a particular beech tree that seemed moderately out of place, its roots having grown over a very large rock, which made the tree slightly curved like the belly of an old lord or the curve of a bow about to loose.

    And here, Phoebe was tracing over the rock on some chalk, her head in her palm as she remarks in a rough sounding language to someone within the bright colored hammock. Her braids were currently bleached and dipped red at the tips, though the natural dark color of her roots was already beginning to show. It's a new look for her.

Damian Wayne has posed:
    Not too much happens around the estate that Damian doesn't know about. He's a watcher. He observes the various comings and goings of people. He tells himself it's so that he can accumulate intelligence files on members of the household in case of emergency but that doesn't really feel like it rings true. Maybe he's just...more lonely than he lets on.

    *Nobody* is around Wayne Manor today for whatever reason. It's one of those rare days when everyone -- even Alfred -- is off doing something. After stalking the empty, echoing halls for an hour, Damian decided to go to what his file on Phoebe refers to as "the cool tree." It's a...um...property security inspection. That's why he's going out that way. It's definitely not to see if Phoebe is there because he hasn't spoken with another human being since yesterday afternoon.

    "Why are you putting graffiti on that tree?" he asks casually as he pads ever-so-silently closer.

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    A pair of ears -- one red, and one white, rise up out of the hammock, followed by a red liver nose and a soft snuffle of the air as Idu's tail gives a soft 'whupwhupwhup' against the fabric of the hammock.

    Phoebe looks up, as if startled by Damian's presence, and she blinks owlishly at him from her orange-colored acetate glasses, and then she gives a smile.

    "Not graffiti, and it's chalk. It'll wash off in the next rain, which might be any minute now." she replies to him with a gentle voice. She hops up, and brushes off her wet knees a moment.

    "Working up something. What are you up to, Damnian? Grounds patrol?"

Damian Wayne has posed:
    Two seconds ago stern, hard Damian was standing here. Frowns and glares are that Damian's business, and business is good. But the moment the dog perked up, that Damian vanished and was replaced by this new version, who *instantly* drops to his knees in the grass and pat-pat-pats the grass. "You have a dog!" he exclaims...dare we say it...gleefully? Thanks God Tim or Lonnie or Jason or Dick aren't here to see this shit show.

    "What's his name? Wait is it a he or a she? Maybe is *her* name? It looks like a boy. C'mere, boy! But sometimes a dog *looks* like a boy but is really a girl. What is his *or* *her* breed -- you can't use 'they' and be grammatically correct because that's a plural pronoun. Duh. Do they know any tricks? What do they like to eat?"

    Oh this is...this is horrific.

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    "They is perfectly acceptable singular pronoun when you don't know the gender of the person --" Phoebe begins, but Idu, recognizing the signs of someone recognizing his awesomeness, lazily lopes out of the hammock and comes closer to Damian, sniffing at him, ears alert, whiskers a-twitchin'.

    "His name is Idu." And as the dog lopes, yep, definitely a he, but a younger He. He's maybe forty-five pounds and skinny, like a greyhound, but he has a friendly expression and blue eyes.

    "He knows pretty much every trick in the book, he's a very smart boy. Idu, this is Damian. He is family." and then she speaks in the odd tongue again, and Idu seems to understand, sitting, head canting to one side, his red ear flapping a little as he looks up at Damian... but his tail wags hard on the forest floor beneath him.

    "He'll eat pretty much anything, but I have some treats in the front pocket of my backpack, right over there." Phoebe motions to the leather pack. It has a very large, thick knife sticking out of it.

Damian Wayne has posed:
    Reaching out his hands slowly, Damian presents them to Idu to sniff. But once they get past the Doggy 101 Introduction stuff, Damian starts stroking the animal's fur. Probably Phoebe has *never* seen Damian behave anything even close to this -- few have. "You're a good boy, aren't you? I can always tell a bestest boyo, and you're definitely one," Damian confides in Idu. "Phoebe says you have some treats! Does the bestest boyo wanna treat?"

    Damian lithely hops up and smoothly moves toward the backpack. "That's a cute little knife," he says with a smirk. Okay, there he is: asshole Damian makes a showing. But he unzips the described zipper and plucks out a few treats -- not too many, don't want to make the cutest widdle doggy sick!

    Dropping back to his knees in the grass, Damian says, "Can you sit, Idu?"

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    Idu is, indeed, a good boy. His tail sweeps the ground as he sits pretty for Damian, and seems content to let the other teen scritch and pet on him.

    "Thanks. It was used to inscribe a curse on a skull in France. I inherited it." Phoebe replies distractedly -- though if she's being honest or not with Damian could be anyone's guess as she works with the chalk.

    The zipper on the front of the leather backpack gives way, and there's a bag full of what look like dried meat jerky treats -- and Idu pads over, sniffs at Damian, and then sits down, looking at the lad expectantly.

Damian Wayne has posed:
    Damian gives Idu a treat for sitting so perfectly. As he kneels there in the grass he idly strokes his fingers through the animal's fur. He watches for several moments as Phoebe does her thing. "Are you doing magic? Why are you drawing on a tree instead of a piece of paper?"

    He leans to give Idu a smooch. "Does the bestest boyo wanna smooch?" Damian. Wayne. Just. Gave. A. Smooch. To. The. Bestest. Boyo. The bestest boyo then gets another treat.

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    Phoebe promises herself to never breathe a word of this to anyone. Ever. It's actually kind of endearing to see Damian so... casual.

She gives a sidelong look to Damian, and her lips curl into a smile as Damian strokes the the wiry, white-and-red fur of the hound, and then smooches the dog. Idu happily attempts to paint Damian's face with his own tongue, and takes a treat, happy for the attention.

    "I'm making something like... a book mark. Or a landing pad." she states, and she draws back.

    "... sort of to save time, effort, energy if I need to get somewehre quick. I figure this close to the mansion, but far enough away from the laser grid, someone's bound to get an alert if a bunch of people show up at this spot."

Damian Wayne has posed:
    There is some noise from behind Phoebe and somehow Idu ends up on his back, his tail thump-thump-THUMPING on the ground excitedly. "Who's getting his tummy rubbed?" Damian asks rhetorically as he glides his hands back and forth on Idu's tummy. Everything about the kid -- body language, facial expression, demeanor, tone of voice -- screams animal lover.

    Then he switches to his talking-to-Phoebe voice. "So wait, you can teleport? Like magically teleport?" This idea interests Damian so much that he stops belly rubbing. A less-than-happy Idu starts giving reminder licks to Damian's hand, which results in the teen resuming Operation Rub Best Boyo's Tummy.

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    "In theory. I have used portals before, but they're exhausting to upkeep." Phoebe explains, and then she sits down, and she leans over to scritch under Idu's chin, the tail thumping even harder now as both Damian and Phoebe pay attention to the lanky hound, who is all elbows and knees and long legs. "Most of the time when I have portaled somewhere, it was to someone or some place I had a very strong emotional attachment to. Zatanna was working with me on it before... stuff happened."

Damian Wayne has posed:
    Damian quietly listens to Phoebe while he idly runs his fingers through doggy fur. He is careful to keep his hands away from Phoebe's hands while petting Idu. ~Does not like to be touched~ says an entry in Damian's intel file on the young healer. And, in truth, it isn't his favorite thing in the world anyway.

    "The Grand Master Assassins on Infinity Island can teleport short distances, mostly to quickly move on a battlefield." A small shrug. "I left before I learned those secrets." He cants his head a bit to one side. "Are you powerful for your kind?" he inquires. What an odd question.

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    "'For My Kind' is... kind of a complicated question." Phoebe admits quietly, and she cups her hands beneath Idu's chin, leans forward, and also gives the dog a smooch on the nose.

    "What do you define as 'my kind'? Black kids? Public school educated kids? Adopted siblings?" she jokes on the last one.

Damian Wayne has posed:
    "This middle one," Damian says *absolutely* deadpan. "Public school educated kids."

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    "Probably." Phoebe replies with a smile to Damian's deadpan. "I got expelled from school for breaking a cheerleader's nose and then busting the collar bone and shoulder of a couple of football players." she replies. There is absolute truth behind the statement. "You run into a bit of everything in a public school."

    She leans back on the balls of her feet a moment.

    "But I'm sure what you wanted to know is 'how strong of a magic user am I'."

Damian Wayne has posed:
    Damian is trying really hard to be stern right now, perhaps to atone for melting into mush over the dog. But when Phoebe mentions breaking the collar bone and shoulder of some football players, an amused light glimmers in Damian's eyes.

    "Yes," the teen agrees. "That's basically what I meant. Are you David Blaine good? Or Doctor Strange good?"

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    "Neither. David Blaine's an illusionist, and... tooo the best of my knowledge --" Phoebe wrinkles her nose a moment "Not a magus. My mentors in magic have all been pretty intense people." she explains, and she brings up her left hand -- the one with a leather dog collar and a webbing-like bracelet with little spiders and eight-point starbursts on it, and then with a click of her fingers she has a playing card in her fingers, and then she brings it down, and taps against it, and then hands it over to Damian.

    PHOEBE CHANDLER-WAYNE the name reads, and it lists the mansion's address and states that it's a transportation authority ID for inspecting train rides.

    "So I would say I'm somewhere in between. Definitely not Strange's level."

Damian Wayne has posed:
    Damian takes the ID card and examines it, turning it around in his fingers, before handing it back to Phoebe. His gaze moves over his newest stray, sizing her up. "How did you learn to do it?" he asks. His hand returns to the pup's tummy. Tummies are made for rubbing. It's just the law.

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    Phoebe gives a small smile, and she goes to stand, content to let Damian love on Idu -- who upset at the distraction of the ID card and the loss of hands on his chin, gives a grumble of a sound and rolls to his stomach, poking his nose at Damian's knee.

    "Well. Some of it I came by intuition. When I first met Tim, I already knew how to heal with magic -- myself and others. And then... I had a string of mentors. Some I was close with." she gives a small smile, and she sits in the hammock, a bit to the side in case Damian cared to sit in it with Idu.

    "I'm fortunate to count them as my friends."

Damian Wayne has posed:
    Damian seems to content to remain on the ground. He takes over head-rubbing duties on Idu. His sure hands are strong, trained to find all the soft, vulnerable places -- but not for this reason. Still, he's quite good at doggy massage.

    "What about the football players?" the small-framed, thin teen inquires. "Was that magic? Or do you have combat training?"

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    "Twelve years of aikido, and some mixed martial arts training. I'd been training with Tim for about... seven months?" she purses her lips a moment, rocking in the hammock.

    "Tim mentioned you grew up in the Middle East. I'm going to hazard a suggestion that the Master Assassins you're talking about are far more Alamut Novel and not Assassin's Creed game." she ventures, leaning herself forward, and curiously inquires "... was it terribly difficult, growing up in such a place?"

Damian Wayne has posed:
    "*Grand* Master Assassins," Damian corrects casually. "I'm a Master Assassin. The youngest to ever achieve the rank." Pride in his voice? He's a tough one to read. "It was not so bad. You knew what was expected of you, and what you had to do to avoid excessive pain." A shrug. "Some kids who grow up in the 'civilized' world don't have such clear-cut paths."

    "Why did you train in such serious fighting styles so young?" he asks. "And what provoked you to such violence? Breaking bones on football players isn't a casual act. It's a choice, an act of determination and drive."

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    "I apologize, my bad." Phoebe gives a smile, rocking with one foot on the ground. "So what you're saying is I should *not* pick fights with you, but sparring against you would totally be good for me." Phoebe points out, and gives a smile as she listens to Damian. "Well." she states, and wrinkles her nose.

    "When I was five, a boy pulled my hair so I slung him into a brick wall and broke his nose. He apologized, and when my dad -- that'd be Chuck Beacon -- enrolled us both in Aikido, we became best friends." she smiles at the answer, and gives a shrug.

    And then the reasons why.

    She frowns a moment, and rubs the back of her neck.

    "My house had been torched. Someone tried to kill my mom and me. Impulse got my mom out, but she was pretty badly burned. Arsenal caught the perp, and Wonder Girl saved my ancient dalmatian dog." Phoebe explains, "I was a black kid with white parents, so pretty much everyone in school knew I was adopted... but only a few commented on it. Those three happened to just ..." she trails off a moment, and it's clear that there's shame attached to the memory.

    "I never had a clear path. And it seems, whenever I think there is one... something happens to close it."

Damian Wayne has posed:
    "Provoking me into a fight is almost impossible," Damian says calmly, expert fingers finding all of Idu's good spots. His touch practically has the dog hypnotized. "But yes, it would be unwise." Bragging? He doesn't sound like he is. He answers in the same tone as if he was asked what his favorite flavor of ice cream is.

    "You were tough from a young age," Damian comments. "Even before the formal training. That sort of spirit cannot be taught and it cannot be learned. You have it or you don't. I see now why father adopted you and why Tim is so fond of you. Your skin color and ethnicity mean nothing here at Wayne Manor, but you already figured that out. You're smart. Here your spirit is everything. It takes a special, rare kind of person to be a Wayne. It's the path of pain and loneliness, but it's also the path of purest form of family you'll ever know."

    Damian studies Phoebe for long moments. It could go either way at this moment, emotionally balanced on a razor's edge. Then, finally: "I'm glad to have you as a sister."

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    Idu may be in love and questioning his loyalties. Damian gives *excellent* back scritches, belly scritches, ear scritches... his tail just keeps wagging heartily, and then he gives a great, big sigh, stretches all four limbs in the air and leans himself bodily against Damian, tail thumping on the ground, mouth nibbling at a shoe lace if he's got 'em.

    "I try not to provoke fights. Always ends up poorly for me." Phoebe replies, and she smiles as she looks at Damian, and she listens to him. She knows Tim and Her have a very special (nerdy) bond, and it's clear at every interaction they've ever been recorded at -- Outsider or Social -- that they know each other's movements.

    But when Damian says that... he's glad to have her as a sister?

    Phoebe gives a pause, her eyebrows drawing up, and then she relaxes.

    "I'm glad to have you as a brother. You're sharp witted, highly skilled, and for some reason me being magical doesn't weird you out in the least." she smiles.

Damian Wayne has posed:
    Damian's gaze rises and locks on Phoebe's -- the gaze of a 16-year-old teenaged Master Assassin, the gaze of a *brother* -- when she says her last comment. "Your magic is the least interesting thing about you. It's a tool like any other, and in the hands of a weak-hearted person it means almost nothing. Father didn't bring you into this rare environment because you can do supernatural things. That would be a reason to study and control you from afar. He brought you here because you're honest, brave, and honorable. You have the will to act."

    That's about all the direct eye contact that Damian can handle. For all his cool demeanor, there is a secret shyness inside that almost no male in the world has ever seen. Phoebe just got a glimpse of something that Bruce or Tim or Jason or Dick will never see.

    He leans in close to Idu and whispers, "You're very special."

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    Phoebe blinks a moment as she looks to Damian when he is surprisingly defensive of her... from herself.

    And she cracks a smile, and chooses not to argue with him -- after all, picking a fight with Damian is doomed to be a loser. Instead, she gives a nod in agreement.

    "Idu is very special, of course he is. He's a Wayne." she states in the hammock, and looks to Damian with a curious expression.

    "In a couple of nights, I have to make a supply run for investigating supernatural stuff. Want to come with me?"

Damian Wayne has posed:
    Somehow the idea of Idu being a Wayne seems to not have occurred to Damian. The mention of it brings out something else almost no one has ever seen from the kid: a smile. He bumps his forehead against Idu's. "You *are* a Wayne," he agrees.

    "What does 'a supply run for investigating supernatural stuff' mean exactly?" he asks. Now Damian's tone is all business. The animal-love Damian steps aside and the tactician Damian takes over.

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    Idu is in complete agreement if it means headbumps and attention. Phoebe gives a smile at Damian's grin, and the object of his affection tailwags even harder, and then attempts to paint Damian's face again with kisses.

    In spite of Business Damian taking over.

    "Trip out to a couple places I know in Gotham or New York that market to the supernaturally inclined. Sometimes it can get a little rough, depends on who recognizes me from where." Phoebe gives a shrug, and then a grimmace "The problem with having a bunch of mentors is you tend to get on hte bad side of a lot of people, and some of them very quickly."

Damian Wayne has posed:
    "One of the challenges of going up against people with supernatural powers is if combat ensues, I may be forced with employ lethal measures. I promised father that I would stop killing unless there was no other option." Stop killing. Sixteen years old with a body count.

    Damian contemplates for a moment before continuing. "What is the purpose of the investigation?"

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    "Supernatural, generally." Phoebe answers quizically, and then she pulls out from the pocket of her sweatshirt a leather-bound book. Looks like a journal.

    "When I'm not superheroing, I'm kinda... family-businessing from my biological family. Spirit investigation, hauntings, exorcisms of persons, places, things... and sometimes I need certain supplies. Some I can make, but some I wasn't taught how to make." she explains, and then wrinkles her nose again. This time in irritation. "And sometimes it's just easier to purchase the blessed beeswax candles than to go to Cairo."

Damian Wayne has posed:
    Damian tics one eyebrow up. "Cairo? You need something from Cairo? Happy Harbor High is taking a school trip there in a couple weeks."

    But back to the question at hand. "Yes, I will accompany you. Are you interested in bringing Damian or Robin?"

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    "Cairo was just an example. There's a certain spell in one of my books that needs beeswax candles with the sand of Giza in it, but it's related to the guardian spirit there and I'm not sure how great my conversational Middle Khemet is." she replies, as a joke, and looks back to Damian.

    "It'll be Damian. I don't think Bruce would want it to be official family business. Dress casual." she smiles, rocking in the hammock again.