15596/Sands and Bubbles

Sands and Bubbles
Date of Scene:	11 August 2023
Location:	Beach, South Bristol Township
Synopsis:	Tim and Phoebe (and Idu) enjoy some conversation on a lonely stretch of beach to the north of Gotham.
Cast of Characters:	Phoebe Beacon, Tim Drake

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Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    Sometimes, you just need to get away from the sounds of the city, and still be nearby to respond to any emergencies.

    This is a narrow stretch of rocky beach with some large boulders acting as breakwaters, with some patchy sandy spots. A shallow limestone cave acts as an amplifier for the sounds of nature as the tide ebbs back out to the gray Atlantic.

    This is, of course, a place Phoebe had 'bookmarked'. There was a fire ring here beneath the cliffs made of roughed over stones salvaged from some 1920's house that collapsed in last century, and unlike most teenage hang-out spots, it's devoid of beer cans, gatorade bottles, and the occasional pipe or pipe-like item.

    It's here that there's a couple of camp chairs set up, the fire is going with some sticks for marshmallows brought out, and a little LED lantern cheerfully providing additional light.

Tim Drake has posed:
    Leave it better than you found it is a maxim Tim grew up with. His birth father was an archaeologist after all, and ignoring some of the less scrupulous work Jack Drake apparently got up to during his career, he did seem to truly care about being respectful of nature.

    So Tim appreciates the cleanliness of the area as he sits down in one of the camp chairs, toes wiggling in the sand as he settles. There's a bag next to him, no doubt filled with beach camp accoutrements, but for now he just... sits.

    He doesn't even have his phone out. That's how committed Tim is to just enjoying the seaside ambience. He has a beach towel over his shoulders that he probably won't actually use for its intended purpose, and the same goes for the board shorts he's wearing. He hasn't taken off his t-shirt yet, but it's not like he's going to tan, right?

    Nope. Tim goes from white to crispy burnt and then back to white again.

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    Which is why it's evening. Unless Tim tans by Moonlight. In which case there's a whole new themesong that can be hijacked for his benefit.

    Tanning abs by moonlight
    Vid'ya games by daylight
    Involved in Gotham City's Good Fight

    He is the one called Red Robin o/`

    Phoebe sits in the other char, ruffling Idu's head as the sight hound wags his over-the-back curl of a tail, and then hops off to sniff through some of the tide pools. She's got shorts on herself, and a pull-over sweatshirt in a fading-to-dark-gray, pink hair braided as she looks out over the ocean, where the waning moon is rising. She's kicked off her sneakers, her feet with the scattered-over paler spots showing as she breathes out. It's an agreeable quiet kept between the siblings.

Tim Drake has posed:
    Tim cups his cheek in his palm, and truth be told he's near to dozing, lulled into a sort of in-between state by the slow susurrus of the waves. It's the closest thing to all defenses lowered that he'll ever get out in public, and it's mostly because he has Phoebe (and Idu!) here, knowing she has his back if something were to happen.

    But they're alone. It's a peaceful evening, and if the Bats have need of them, they'll call. No pressing social events that need their attendance.

    In fact he almost does fall asleep, but then he rouses with an inhale of breath, sitting up a little bit as he does so. "You know," he says quietly, "This makes me wonder if Bruce has a beach house anywhere we could use."

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    Idu passes behind Tim, gracefully loping in a flash of silver-white and red in the moonlight, investigating pools both for his reflection and for enemies. He is currently investigating some periwinkles and barnacles, just to make sure.

    Phoebe though, looks over at the intake of breath, and her eyebrows rise up as she forms a moue, her mouth in a thoughtful form as she looks up.

    "Pretty sure he owns whole islands." she replies after a moment. "I convinced someone that he owns part of the Moon."

Tim Drake has posed:
    "Yeah, probably," Tim agrees, his voice thick with sleep that almost had him there for a moment. He stretches out his legs in front of him and then sinks deeper into the lounge chair, so he's doing, yes, a proper lounge now.

    After that, he finds himself staring up at the sky, at the few twinkles of starlight that have begun to appear where the sun has departed.

    The thing about the moon makes him snort. "Yeah, probably," he repeats for humorous effect, and then his head lolls to the side so he can look over at Phoebe. "Think we could convince *him* to take a vacation to his beach house? There's no way, right?" He mulls on that thought for a little bit, gaze returning skywards.

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    "Yeah, probably not." Phoebe replies, giving a slight smile as she leans back in her chair, bringing her arms up and over her head, and folding them at the elbows so that her hands are at her neck. "Somebody needs to supervise us so that we don't go completely off the rails. I mean, our lives are so crazy that you date super-genius bad guys and my latest was an Avenger and it hardly even shows up on the radar of 'stuff that happens'." Phoebe replies, as she gives a soft snort.

    "Maybe if Alfred helps we can convince Bruce to take a vacation. Maybe ask Clark's help. Can we reverse kidnap him or something?"

Tim Drake has posed:
    Tim goes pffft, just a huff of air, but he doesn't exactly disagree. In fact he just lays there for a while, silent, until he sighs. "It's weird. I guess I was expecting it to be a bigger deal, but I don't know why I thought that. Bruce is always going to be Bruce... he probably knew about me and Lonnie before I even did."

    He stares out at the water, his mouth fixed in a thoughtful line. "We could so reverse kidnap him. It'd be fun... we could even call it training. Of course we'd have to coordinate with the rest of the fam, but if there's anything we can do it's keep a secret, right?" That makes Tim smile. "He'd totally freak, though."

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    "I bet you he has a plan for 'in case the little bats kidnap me.' Taking us all down one by one until we're all locked in the ballroom taking refresher courses on etiquette." Phoebe replies, and she leans back in her chair.

    "He only cared about me and Robbie so far as the demon was concerned. Otherwise it was just 'ugh I can't fight crime as effectively since I have the flu'." Phoebe then throws her hands up in the air "WHICH I COULD HAVE FIXED FOR HIM. Or he could have gotten the flu shot! Wayne Enterprises had like EIGHT CLINICS in the span of a week at all locations through the city!" she protests further. She purses her lips then, and leans forward.

    "... a week without Batman in Gotham City... what's the protocol for that? Does someone like, put on the suit and try to sound like him while he's out of action?"

Tim Drake has posed:
    "That's why we'd have to do it as a team. Overwhelm him with numbers. There's so many of us, it has to work." Tim's brow furrows with sincerity, and the gears are definitely turning in his head. He'll probably have an entire scheme worked up by the end of the night, knowing him.

    But that goes on the backburner for now, since he'd like to have his computer at hand for that kind of planning. And he'd promised himself he'd go no-tech for a while, to just relax with Pheebs. "He's a stubborn man," Tim points out with a smile at Phoebe's fervor.

    He rubs a hand against his eyes, an only mildly successful attempt to scrub the sleep from them. Why is he so tired? "But that's the only way he can do the things he does. I don't know what we'd do without him."

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    "There are an awful lot of us." Phoebe agrees thoughtfully. "So many bats. And birds. And Cass." she tilts her head back as she looks at more stars coming out in the gloaming above, and she cracks a bright smile.

    "Tim, we are *all* stubborn. Oh my god, can you imagine if any of us were agreeable and not ornery sometimes? Dick's stubborn. Jason's stubborn. You're *extremely* stubborn when you want to be. Steph? Cass? *Babs*? Austin, Duke and Harper? Carrie? Kate and everyone else because I know I'm forgetting at LEAST six people?" she pauses "And Damian I think is the most stubborn of everybody, except maybe Bruce himself." Phoebe gives a laugh, and she looks back over to the dark-haired, newly-minted graduate.

    "I don't think we'd be here without him. Not just you and me here in this moment -- 'cause if he hadn't insisted I leave the Jay-Ell-Dee totally, I might have hurt myself worse than just getting some scarring on my throat." she replies, and then looks out over the ocean again.

    "Without Batman being around, Gotham might not have been the city my uncle chose. I would have never met Chuck and Caroline Beacon. Would have never met you and Gabby and Con, Bart or Diana or anyone else. THere might not be a Justice League without him. A World Without a Batman." she frowns a moment.

    "I definitely would not have believed Batman brought gifts to good kids in Gotham rather than Santa."

Tim Drake has posed:
    One of Tim's hand sketches out a curve in the air. "It's... y'know, a gradient. Of stubborness. We all exist on it, sure."

    He falls silent after, because his thoughts turn to a world without Batman and that merits some pondering. His eyes get that sort of faraway look that anybody gets when they're lost in memories, though Tim is still aware enough to say, "Who knows what would've happened to us."

    Despite the way his fingers curl into fists on the arm rests of his lounge chair, there's no other sign of agitation to him. His breathing is even and his posture is still that slumped-back affect that suggests he's still contemplating passing out right underneath the stars, even though there's no way he'd actually do it. He frowns up at the twilight sky.

    "Are we really sure we know where he goes on Christmas Eve, anyway?"

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    "A gradient of stubbornness. Pretty sure all superheroes exist on that plane." she replies, and Phoebe looks over to Tim with a wry smile. She curls her fingers in the air, and leans her head back.

    "I mean, I could give you some morning glory seed extract and do guided meditations to peer into alternate dimensions, but aaaaah, sometimes it's bad. It's real bad. Oh man I had to stop people from drinking that stuff because it would have been *such* a bad time." Pheobe recounts. And then she looks to Tim.

    "Two years ago it was encountering Austin and me throwing Snowballs at Rhino."

Tim Drake has posed:
    Tim can't argue with that, so he just makes a low note of agreement. At some point his beach towel has become a blanket, tossed carelessly across him so it lays at a diagonal. It's not doing a whole lot to keep him warm, not yet, but the summer heat is still lingering in the air. For now, it's enough to keep him warm.

    "Aren't morning glory seeds poisonous to some degree?" he asks, though he knows the answer. It's the magical side-effects he has no knowledge of, of course. Tim frowns up at the sky, his eyes shadowed.

    After a beat, he exhales a breath he hadn't meant to hold. "No, I don't want to know. That seems like a good way to start an obsession and we both know I wouldn't let it go. Let's talk about something else. Like why you were throwing snowballs at Rhino."

    He smiles, though it's only halfway, but he's trying to drag himself out of the sort of melancholy that had fallen over him from the past topics of conversation. "Were there smoke bombs hidden in the snowballs, or what?" he asks.

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    "Anything that's going to make you hallucinate is poisonous to some degree. It's your body's reaction to the toxins that makes you hallucinate, or high, or drunk." Phoeb points out, and she tilts her head back, "that's why I have to take like, eight times the lethal dose. Otherwise my healing factor pbbbt." she draws her fingers up a moment.

    "Ah. Well. Batman had gotten thrown out of a window, and was pursued by Rhino. Austin and I had bumped into each other sooooooo we started slinging snowballs as fast as we could to distract him, since I wasn't about to start slinging magic."

Tim Drake has posed:
    "Well, people sure do like to poison themselves recreationally, don't they?" Tim says, with a little shake of his head. At most he has a few sips of champagne at gala events and then pretends to be tipsier than he actually is.

    He folds his arms over his chest (but under the towel, to stay warm) and closes his eyes. "Makes sense." He brings his feet up off the sand now that it's started to lose the heat of the day and tucks them up onto the lounge chair too. "You know, while we're out here, we should probably try to figure out his birthday gift. This is probably the only place in the entirety of Gotham he doesn't have bugged."

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    "Mmm." Phoebe replies, her eyes narrowing as she looks out to the sea. "Kidnapping." she replies, and gives a bright grin.

    "Jason's birthday's later in the week too." she mentions quietly. "Guh. And I'll start making Christmas gifts." she murmurs. "I'll still send one to Robbie and Gabe. Figure... maybe after things settle, we can take a look at it." she gives a slight smile.

    "We've got nothing but time." she states, and looks at Tim.

    "But right now? I think this is the happiest I've been in weeks. Just... here. With you."

    And Idu gives a YIPE, and starts running like mad, with a crab attatched to his nose, panicking.

    "... and the furry one."