16265/Catching up with a Ghost

Catching up with a Ghost
Date of Scene:	06 November 2023
Location:	Apartment 3A (Phoebe's Apartment)
Synopsis:	Phoebe's ordered Thai, and Robbie is on the couch. The two catch up on what's been going on in their lives, and Phoebe makes an offer to bring Robbie 'round to Stately Wayne Manor to meet the Family.
Cast of Characters:	Phoebe Beacon, Robbie Reyes

---

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    Robbie had shown up to Phoebe's apartment, seemingly out of the blue earlier, and though it had been a surprise, it had certainly been a welcome one to see his face, rain-soaked as he was.

    So now in the apartment 3A, Phoebe's 'home away from the manor', the couch was occupied by the pair.

    Thai takeout occupied the coffee table, along with lemon fizzy waters and a couple bottles of some craft lager beers. Phoebe has rebraided her hair into a pair of dutch braids, and the TV was set to a LoFi Urban Beatz bannel, thumming away with vocals underneath the white noise of the falling rain.

    Phoebe had applied a hoodie between re-aquainting herself with the scent of Robbie's motor-oil-and-burning-cities self. Her ears and cheeks were still darkened, and her Halloween Vampire Llama socks poke out from the blanket she's cast over her lap.

    "So... how's your brother doin'?"

Robbie Reyes has posed:
    There had been a certain degree of pleasure Robbie had felt at seeing just how welcome his reappearance was. He imagined there might have been not so fond of a reception, given the manner in which he had left, but...he choose not to dwell on it, and just accept his fortune.

    Legs extended out, boots left near the door, he was allowing himself to relax with the once again familiar senses of being in Phoebe's presence. He leans back into the couch and glances over towards her face, a smile resting upon his face. Even as the topic turns to something that is always a mix of emotion.

    "He's doing good," he says quietly, spinning the bottle of beer in his hand a bit. "Keeping spirits up, even if the technique didn't work."

    Robbie had explained earlier that his sudden absence was due to a promise of a new technology that would help his brother walk again. He had rushed off, as he was demanded, to bring his brother there, and do what he could do for him. But in the end, like so many other attempts, it had resulted in failure.

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    Phoebe gives a nod. "Yeah, I can understand that level of disappointment. There's only so much even magic can do for an injury that's so old." Phoebe replies. Three weeks was usually her limit for fixing injuries. Even greivous ones. And the older an injury was, the larger toll it took on Phoebe to heal it.

    "I'm glad that his spirits are keeping up. You both got those dimples, you know?" she gives a small smile, her eyebrows rising up as she tries to look serious, but fails. "Light up your faces when you grin."

    She leans back against the arm of the couch, facing Robbie as she stirs her noodles with chopsticks.

    "I know one or two of the Bats have had bad back injuries over time. I could do some research and see if there's something we could do?" she asks gently, not wanting to butt into too much of the Reyes brothers' life if not welcome. She was already aware neither of them wanted to be a project.

Robbie Reyes has posed:
    There is a slight shrug from Robbie. "Maybe," he says, noncommittally. He knows that there can be some benefits for his brother to his relationship with Phoebe, but he has yet to sort out how HE feels about that, let alone his brother. A topic for the future, perhaps.

It was complicated.

    "How are they doing? The Fam? Keeping busy?" He swirls the bottle around a few more times before taking a drink.

    Catching up conversations always seem a bit awkward for him.

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    "Bats are trying to track down some metahuman pharmaceutical dealers who keep trying to set up shop. There's some shady stuff going on behind the scenes trying to take down Harvey Dent for his run for DA." she purses her lips.

    "Phillip Cupp's running for the position as well." she states dryly. Robbie may remember the very punchable face of the blonde-haired, blue-eyed All American Square Jaw who had given Phoebe so much trouble -- until Robbie broke his nose for insulting Phoebe and the Hellride in the same breath.

    "Tim graduated, so we celebrated that. And the Riddler showed up, so that was interesting." she cracks a small grin.

    "Made friends with a werewolf."

Robbie Reyes has posed:
As Robbie listens to Phoebe narrate the recent events of the Batfam, he simply nods along.

    "Sounds about right." To whom would this seem normal? Not many, but then again, not many have the spirit of their uncle embedded in their soul along with a demon of vengeance. So normal is relative.

    "Who's the werewolf? Not someone I'm going to have to staredown, I suppose." He drains the last of the bottle before leaning forward and setting the empty on the coffee table.

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    "Nickname is Silverdane. I suspect she's in the Justice League Dark." Belinda Gutierrez. Phoebe gives a smile. "She's a good kid. Helped me out a time or two with some super-strength." she recounts as she leans back.

    And no. Nothing about their lives is normal. Except, weirdly, their relationship.

    Go figure how that works.

    "There's been an uptick in Crime in Metropolis though. Lot of villains working together. Had to track down Gorilla Grodd's hometown and that was a mess." she leans her head back, stretching her neck a moment and briefly showing the three claw marks from the demon that had stolen her voice last year.

    "But got to work with the Justice League with it." she blows out a breath, and then draws her gaze back down to Robbie.

    "So... we just... picking up where we left off?" she asks, "'Cause there's bound to be like, an invite up to the manor or something in your future. You get asked about."

Robbie Reyes has posed:
    Robbie tries not to show concern when seeing the marks on her neck. He does a decent job, but not perfect. It takes some getting used to, still, just how resilient she is. He is used to people being far more fragile than he is.

    "I mean, I guess, part of that is up to you, right?" The words aren't tentative, but they are a bit probing as he fixes Phoebe with a long gaze.

    "What do you think?"

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    Phoebe is not fragile like a flower. She's fragile like a bomb. Robbie's seen her fight Angels and come out on top.

    She takes a deep breath, and then she looks back to Robbie's mis-matched gaze, and gives a smile.

    "Picking up where we left off, or getting you into Stately Wayne Manor." she faux's a deeper voice and British accent on the name of the building where she spends most of her time sleeping.

    "I mean, pretty sure we established picking up where we left off. I thought maybe it'd be weird to be touched again but ah... yeah, had no problem with that." she grins sheepishly, taking up her lemon fizzy water and sipping from it.

    "As for the invitation? A lot of the siblings want to meet you and talk. Get to know you. I mean, some you've met." she considers. "And Damian -- that's the youngest, private-school boy -- he suggested a meet up."

Robbie Reyes has posed:
    There is a nod and a laugh as Phoebe affects the accent, and Robbie shrugs. "I dunno, do I have the right breedin' for such a place?" he says, putting on the worst cockney accent in the history of accents.

    "I mean, yeah, you and I are good." He gets a bit of a grin on his face. "/Real/ good." He laughs for a moment, stretching out on the couch. "But. If you..."

    He thinks for a moment. It had been a topic before. He had never quite really felt comfortable with the idea of her family, who they are, what they do, and him. The judging he expected. The attitudes. But Phoebe did not suffer from those, so...

    "If you think it's a good idea, then let's do it."

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    The girl with the pink hair across from Robbie almost chokes at his very, very awful Cockney accent. "Oh god. Alfred would... just... he'd probably try to fight you. Or just insult the accent but in such a manner that you don't feel bad until later." she coughs, a moment, and then she giggles, her nose wrinkling at the idea of the very British and Proper Butler-retired-secret-agent Alfred and Robbie interacting. Phoebe reaches to the coffee table to put her take-out box and her drink down. She stretches her arms, and considers.

    "... they all know about us. Both sides of my family. I had to tell them. I wear a tracker so they can keep tabs on me, and ah... one asked why I was being transported so fast." she gives a slight grin. "Had to tell them the guy I was seeing likes to drive fast." she explains.

    She stretches her legs out, and pokes at Robbie's leg with one big toe in her fancy llama vampire socks.

    "Alfred said I should bring you around for tea. Which means actually a light dinner. And is probably three courses." Phoebe purses her lips in a moue, and draws in a breath. "I still need to finish my ettiquite refresher too. Ugh." she wilts.

    "The hard part about having to play nice with the rich people is I have to act like them."

Robbie Reyes has posed:
    As Phoebe stretches out her legs, Robbie slips a hand beneath them and lifts them up, pulling them across his lap and turning her slightly as she rests against the couch.

    "As long as I don't have to pretend to like crumpets, I think I can manage." He lets his smile linger as he regards her, slowly shaking his head. "You don't have to act like them. At least, I'd hope not."

    He pauses. "Will /I/ have to act like them?"

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    "You know crumpets are basically tighter-crumbled English Muffins right? And who doesn't love an Egg McMuffin?" she gives a slight grin as he pulls her legs across his lap, and she's pulled down a little big from where she was leaning against the arm. She grabs up some throw pillows to bolster herself up. "I'd be more worried if he serves spotted dick, toad in the hole, black puddings, white puddings --" she considers "But it'd probably just be sandwiches and... y'know. Tea." she smiles, and she folds her hands over her stomach.

    "I mean... in the grand scheme of things if you have to start accompanying me to like, galas and have to make public appearances with Phoebe Wayne that's one thing, then yeah. You have to be extra polite, dress the part, but as long as maybe you talk high performance car stuff with the gear heads you'd be fine?" her nose wrinkles in thought. "I usually stick to asking questions about them. They love to talk about themselves and you get some good information. Every once in a while someone mistakes me for a server though, an' it's kinda funny to see how uncomfortable they get when they figure it out," she considers a moment. "It's as much as a mask as my domino is. You get to see all sides of me though."

Robbie Reyes has posed:
    As Robbie listens, he continues to tug at Phoebe's legs once she starts using the pillows. He seems to not be content until her legs are mostly hanging over the side of the couch and she is without any possible support other than laying her back out against the couch, to look up at him.

    "They will /never/ figure me for one of the family, chica. You and I both know that we could be together for thirty years and they'll still look at me as 'that Mexican'."

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    Slowly Phoebe is robbed of further back support as Robbie drags her further and further over his lap, and her legs are hanging off the couch, the blanket covering her legs hangs off the couch, and Phoebe's braids are trailing behind her as she brings her arms up and under her head so she can look at him.

    She's trying not to laugh at the action, and it shows on her face, with her dark, black-coffee eyes with just the barest red highlights when the sunlight hits them focusing on Robbie's mismatched eyes.

    "I don't care if the Gotham Elite ever see you as a /Wayne/. They... they clutch their pearls and shake their boots when I talk about having taken fourteen years of martial arts and how much I'm against anti-homeless archetecture. And besides in thirty years most of *them* are gonna be in the ground anyway." she pauses, and then she raises her eyebrows, her nose wrinkling.

    "And you're never gonna be 'that Mexican'. You're going to be 'That man Robbie Reyes who broke Phillip Cupp's nose.'" and then she grins.

    "Or, y'know, whatever you want to be called in thirty years time. They got used to me being a Wayne. They'll just have to be terribly polite since you're with one."

Robbie Reyes has posed:
    For a brief moment, Robbie seems like he is prepared with an earnest retort. Instead, he settles for a far simpler one.

    "I only need to be known for one thing."

    And with that, he bends down suddenly, his lips seeking out Phoebe's to steal another kiss upon his return.

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    "Your tendency to occasionally catch on fi--" Phoebe begins in a light hearted joke, though she didn't quite realize how much of her legs are over the side of the couch now, or that her face was within affection distance.

    Her gentle tease is lost in his breath as her eyes go wide, and then close, one hand drawing up to the back of Robbie's head and brushing fingers through his hair, nails against his scalp.