Owner	Pose
Emiko Queen	Two trained and blooded assassins make for one intense training session! Live weapons are used (because safety weapons are for children and cowards), but care has been taken to not draw more than minor cuts or bruises, things that can be treated with some ice and bactine. The Danger Room is looking a hot mess for the moment, with the remains of bots and traps littered about. More bots will appear soon to start the cleanup, leaving the pair to hydrate and chat after a good workout. Emiko picks up a towel and tosses it towards Damian with a quick smile, then grabs up another and wraps it around the back of her neck, "That was a good session, haven't been put through paces like that in awhile. If you're game, we might have to make this a regular thing." She's dressed in in a simple black athletic tank and leggings, with the soft-soled shoes of their craft. Blue eyes lit up with the endorphins or a good workout, short black hair sweaty and sticking to her forehead in places.
Damian Wayne	For today's session, Damian actually wore his full Robin costume. He has been attempting to train more often in it. 'Practice the way you play,' Alfred has told him many times. There are a handful of people on Earth who can give Damian advice without getting a fat lip, and Alfred is definitely one of them.     He catches the towel as he tugs of his mask. He mops his sweat-soaked hair and face. "Yes, a regular schedule is certainly a good driver." So stiff...so formal. "Friday afternoons, then?"     Damian grabs the bottle of water he put on the floor prior to the sessions, opens it, and drains the entire thing in one long pull. "Your fighting skills are certainly within expected parameters." That...that is the Damian Wayne equivalent of gushing. He just gushed.
Emiko Queen	"Friday afternoons," Emiko gives a nod towards Damian with that quick smile. She moves to a small ice chest and pulls out a pair of water bottles, holding one out towards him for slower sipping now that he's chugged the first. She drains her own in similar fashion before fishing out another. "You should come out to the site soon and see for yourself how the construction is coming along." The site, of course, being the massive acreage they bought upstate for the animal rescue. About a thousand acres all said and done, including nearly 100 acres of river and lake that has an island that was once an old fort and still has some of the brick-and-mortar casements on the island, along with a bunker that will be good for inclement weather. "We have the power grid up and operational, and..." she cuts off mid-stream to look back at him, brows raising over his effusive praise. "Well... thank you. I will take that as the highest of compliments. You're exceptionally skilled yourself, not often I break a sweat." She dips a nod towards him before pausing and offering, "You should come over for tea sometime. It won't be the same as Alfred's, but I put on a traditional Japanese tea sometimes. Formal dress and all. You would be welcome." Then she's continuing on as if they hadn't had the small segue. "We have the power grid operation and buildings are underway for employee housing for the full time staff, as well as breaking ground on the buildings for medical and for the animals. We're going to try to pair together the animals that are able to live together, so they all have companionship. We're also going to have special needs animals in the housing with the full time staff to make sure they get the 24/7 attention they need."
Damian Wayne	Damian tugs off the tunic of his Robin costume, dropping it and the cape on the floor, leaving his torso covered in a sweat-soaked black tank top. There is some armor plating in that tunic, so it sort of thuds when it drops. He sits down on the floor and opens the cold water, drinking down a good half of it in one pull.     "Ace and Goliath would love to come out an inspect the site. It will probably be Goliath's only chance to see it. Once it's up and running, his presence would frighten the animals. Ace has gotten quite use to him."     The teen draws in a long, deep breath and lets it out slowly. "Is the funding holding up? I can ask father to write a check if needed." A frown. "It's the least he can do since he started dating a criminal."
Emiko Queen	"Well, once we have this rescue established, I'm hoping that we can quietly open a second location. One that will specifically house special animals. Namely, supervillain animal companions, non-sentient alien creatures, and super-powered animals that don't currently belong to anyone. That locatio, for obvious reasons, will not be advertised and it's location will be kept extremely quiet." Emiko looks back to Damian and smiles briefly, "Goliath would be more than welcome to visit there. And whenever you like, both Ace and Goliath are welcome to come visit the current site. I'm sure they'll both enjoy the woods, the river, and all the space to run around in. And you can meet some of the staff." She takes it a little slower with the second water bottle, drinking maybe a third of it in a single swallow. "The funding is doing fine, thank you. I made sure that we have a tema of cost analysts ensuring we're not going over budget. With Oliver off on one of his 'finding myself' solo quests, I've been forced to take a more active role in Queen Industries. Which means I have access to greater resources."
Damian Wayne	"Excellent," Damian says. "Can you buy me a motorcycle?" Did he just...did he just make a joke?     Damian drains the second bottle. "I like the idea of a second site for special creatures." He gazes off in the distance. Where the kid is going is hard to say, but wherever it is, it's quite far away. Several wistful seconds later, he blinks a few times and comes back to the here and now. "Yeah, I mean, some-someone has to look out for them." His gaze shifts to Emiko and he does *something* with his mouth that might be the Damian version of a smile?
Emiko Queen	Chuckling softly, Emi lifts a brow at him, "Foreign or domestic?" She may not be as well acquainted with his stiffly formal and grumbly sides, because she teases him right back, without hesitation. "So do I... and I think even the supervillains could appreciate their favored animals being kept safe in their absence. I know Harley would shit a brick if Bob and Lou ended up in some random shelter or zoo." She lifts a small shrug and smiles, "Besides, they all deserve a warm place to sleep and good food to eat. It isn't their fault they were improperly trained or abandoned or jettisoned or whatever." She offers her own smile back at him and adds, "The offer to join for tea still stands. You can meet Huginn and Muninn. I have rooftop access if you want to bring Goliath."
Damian Wayne	Damian's eyes open wide. "Oh that would..." He shakes his head. "No, Goliath doesn't fit in most places. He's..." The teen's lower jaw quirks first to the right, then to the left as he considers. "...immense."     "But tea does sound like a suitable activity. Is it...is it okay? I don't want that boyfriend of yours getting the wrong idea and then I have to put a valuable teammate down. It has been a tough enough year for recruitment without murders." He *might* have just made another joke, but it's so difficult to tell with Damian. He jokes and threatens with pretty much the same expression and tone.     Without even asking, Damian digs into Emiko's cooler and tugs out another water bottle. He cracks it open and drinks down a large drink. Exhaling a refreshed breath he says, "Foreign. For the motorcycle."
Emiko Queen	Laughing lightly, Emiko reaches into her bag and pulls out her phone. She flips through into her pictures and shows him the whole building rooftop. Certainly large enough to accommodate the bat dragon, "I reiterate. Feel free to bring Goliath. I'd love to meet him." The building is one of those older two-story buildings in Union Square, with the lower half having been a business and the upper half having been housing. Emiko, however, has clearly taken over the entire building, with the windows along the bottom completely blacked out and the upper half completely refurbished into a nice apartment. She lifts both brow at his question, then chuckles, "Hmmmmm, you have a point. I suppose I'll have to invite Bart along too, just to make sure he doesn't get any ideas. I'd hate for us to become sworn enemies so quickly after meeting and finding each other to be an acceptable training partner." Emiko doesn't hesitate to joke back with him, seeming unafraid of his 'wrath'. "Mmmmmmmm... a Ninja, then. Color preference?" Emiko responds without missing a beat, lifting her bottle for another swallow, watching him with the bright blue eyes so at odds to the rest of her.
Damian Wayne	Damian shift his gaze to Emiko. "What is your ethnic background? Is it Japanese? I don't know all of the cultures that do tea ceremonies, I'm afraid." A brief pause for a beat. "Father is white, of course, and my mother is from the Middle East."     He drains the *third* bottle of water then sets it on the floor next to him. One thing that can unsettling about Damian is that he's not a fidgeter. He sits almost completely still as he makes conversation with Emiko, moving parts of his body only when functionally required.
Emiko Queen	"My mother is... was... Japanese. My father was Caucasian, American. I was raised largely in Japan, however. I didn't come to the US until my late teens. I know who your mother, and grandfather, are. You don't move in the circles I did and not know of the Al Ghul's." Emiko lifts a small shrug, dropping down to seat herself on the floor, legs folding into a lotus position easily. "I was raised with the Arrow Clan until I was eight, then my mother claimed me to finish my training and have me start on contracts." She doesn't seem to mind talking about it, understanding that talking will help her work through it in some ways. "It was.. not a favorable time for me."
Damian Wayne	"I understand," Damian replies, staring someplace far away again. And he does understand. There might not be a handful of people who can say that and truly mean it. "The other Titans, they mean well of course. Most of them I'd gladly go into battle with. But they don't understand the toll of being raised as a killer, like you and I."     The teen is quiet for long moments, and then: "At an age when other children are being taught the moral strictures of their respective societies, I was being taught to kill or be killed, to win no matter what the cost. And then they tease me, call me uptight, tell me to loosen up, when it's everything in my power not to fall back on what I know."     Damian's gaze moves from that distant somewhere back to Emiko. His voice lowers to barely above a whisper. "It would be so easy to, you know? To just drop the act, and stop wasting energy fitting into society? It would be so easy."
Emiko Queen	"No, they don't. They try, and I appreciate that they do, but there's such a gulf betwen 'understanding' and 'experiencing'. Even the ones trained as warriors... there's a marked difference. They were treated as... people. They had value and worth beyond what they could do for someone. They don't understand what it is to be raised as a tool in someone's arsenal." Emiko draws in a deep breath and lets it out slowly, keeping her breathing and heartrate down through force of will. Her eyes refocus on him and she gives a nod, "My first kill was at 8 years old. I didn't even hesitate, because that was exactly what I'd been raised with. Death, killing, was as natural as breathing. And it astonishes me that for all my intelligence, the questions that never even occurred to me to ask until much later..." She frowns faintly. Straightening, Emiko pauses, breath held, then giving a small nod. "It would be so... so easy. To drop the mask, to slip back into old habits and just... be what I was raised to be." She meets his eyes, "But we know better, Damian. We know that even if it would be easier, it would be wrong. That's why we're here."
Damian Wayne	Damian keeps his gaze locked on Emiko. He's a master tactician, an unmatched chess player. He listens closely to her words, and it's possible that maybe Emiko has never been listened to like this, has never had her words completely absorbed by someone who *literally* knows what she has been through.     "My mother ordered my death so many time, I lost count," Damian says matter-of-factly, like he was talking about the weather. "The warriors came for me. It would have been an incalculable honor gain for them to shed my blood for Talia. But none of them *could*. I killed them all first." A shrug. "When most kids were learning how to ride a big wheel, I was killing to literally survive."     "I'm not looking for sympathy, and I know you're not either," explains the teen. "Our friendship is a good opportunity to keep one another on the right path. Because you're right, it's so easy to fall back. The hard part is *not* falling back. I don't want that life for myself."
Emiko Queen	Nodding, Emiko murmurs, "I know the feeling. And how.. oddly welcome it feels, to make the kill and please your mothers. To get that grudging nod of approval." She looks back to him, blue eyes to green, "The need to chase that approval. To get the validation of what you understand intrinsically to be wrong." "I killed my father figure at eight. That's when I found out that he wasn't my real father, as he'd told me all my life. That he'd been raising me to kill my father," Emiko holds no regrets on that kill, still believing it to have been a justified killing. She shakes her head, "My mother claimed me then, and it never even occurred to me to balk at that. She'd clearly known where I was the last eight years, but she'd willingly left me with the man who raised me." Giving her head a sharp shake, she looks back to Damian, "I agree. And I would like to continue our friendship, both as a means to provide a check and balance for one another... and to perhaps find some peace. Someone that we don't have to pretend in front of."
Damian Wayne	"It would be agreeable to have someone with whom I can be completely candid about my murderous urges and my battle to contain them, someone who will understand their origin and won't get freaked about them," Damian confides. And *that* was the Damian Wayne version of a hug.     He nods once to Emiko as if to say 'Well that's that then.'     There's a brief sparkle in Damian's eyes. "Q and A. You first. What was the first weapon you mastered?"
Emiko Queen	Nodding, Emiko offers, "I would be glad to be that person. And I would appreciate being able to do the same with you." She lets out a low breath, "All this Wonderland business has been.. difficult. It will be welcome to have someone that I can be... me, around." She lets out a brief laugh at the question, "Bow and arrow, naturally. Then kunai. What about you? I'm assuming sword? Longsword, or the equivalent thereof?"
Damian Wayne	"I wasn't allowed to touch anything with a blade until I mastered blunt weapons," Damian replies. He leans his head back against the wall in a relaxed posture. You can count on one hand the number of people who engender that sort of response in him. "My first weapon was a bo-staff. I practiced with it until my hands bled and the blisters calloused over. The first time I complained about the blisters, I was beaten into unconsciousness." A shrug. It's a thing that happened. Whatever.     "But yeah, when I got my first katana I knew I found a friend," the teen murmurs, a small grin -- a real, *actual* grin -- forms on his lips. "It will always be my go-to."
Emiko Queen	"You would think that would make sense? But... Arrow Clan. Bow and arrow came before -anything-. Then kunai, because thrown weapons. After I'd learned the ranged weaponry was when hand-to-hand weapons were taught. I favor the yawara in close quarters. Harder to determine cause of death," Emiko offers a quick grin before settling back against the wall and giving a nod. "I do like a good katana, though." She sips on her water and murmurs, "It's been said that I might even be a better archer than Oliver... though I don't think he would ever admit to having said it."
Damian Wayne	Damian shakes his head lightly. "I never met Oliver. I mean, obviously he's legendary. But we both know that legends are sometimes just that. Father, of course, lives up to every ounce of his legend." There is no familial pride in his voice or expression. He's just stating what he believes to be a fact.     "Okay you're in a close-quarters fight against a dozen attackers. Which weapon do you choose?"
Emiko Queen	"Ollie is every bit the archer his reputation would suggest. He just... came to it later than I did. He's had less time with it," Emiko lifts a shrug and smiles faintly. "And frankly his mother was kind of useless. I gained the benefit of both parents genetics." She gives a nod, "I know, I've met him." "Mmmmmm... traditional tessen fans made from 9260 spring steel, heat-treated and folded." She smiles faintly, 'You?"
Damian Wayne	Damian cants his head curiously to one side when Emiko mentions fans. "You're a competent warrior," Damian opines -- look at him gushing again! "For you to choose fans speaks well of them. Will you teach me how to fight with them?"     He contemplates for just a moment and then says, "Probably daggers for me. They're small, close-in weapons. They would allow me to leverage my small frame and quick reflexes. I've fought multiple attackers with daggers before. They are suitable melee weapons."
Emiko Queen	"Of course. There's an art to wielding a battle fan, asthetic I think you'll be able to appreciate more than most. They are about grace and balance... and strength. Disarming and dealing disabling or deadly blows. And excellent close quarters weapon, in part because nobody ever expects you to be able to use them." Emiko offers with a genuine smile. "Requires a strong and flexible wrist, but the acrobatic training your family is known for does as well, so I imagine you'll do just fine." "And there is absolutely nothing wrong with a good dagger. I keep at least two on me at all times, to say nothing of the shuriken and throwing darts." Sitting straight once more, she reaches up and over her shoulders, withdrawing a trio of throwing stars and pair of darts from somewhere along the edgeing of her athletic tank, laying them out along the floor, then reaching behind her back to withdraw a pair of slim stiletto daggers from the waistband of her athletic pants. They join the stars and darts. "There's more but things would have to get a little... intimate... for me to reach those."
Damian Wayne	Poor Damian draws in a deep, deep breath as he watches his display, and exhales slowly. "I..."     And we have come to it at last. The Son of the Batman and the Heir to the Demon is speechless, folks. He is without speech. He just blinks and watches.     After regaining his wits, he extends one leg. Imbedded in the armored side of his boot is an odd shape. He tugs at it, and a heavy-bladed, deadly dagger emerges. He sets it on the ground and retrieves the one from the other boot. Then he flashes Emiko a grin as he grabs his wadded-up Robin tonight from the ground. From each of the lower flaps of the tunics he tugs out three shuriken -- nine in all -- and lays them out next to the daggers. From the lower flap at the back of the Robin tunic, he tugs out what appears to be a metal rod. He flicks it with his wrist and the asp baton emerges. He sets that next to the other weapons.
Emiko Queen	Flashing a grin as she watches him pull out his own store of hidden weapons, Emiko gives a nod, "Very nice. If I can offer a suggestion? And this may seem inapporpriate so... apologies upfront." She taps low against her pubic bone, then along the crease of her thigh, "You are male. Keep something hidden here or here. Nobody, but nobody, thinks about when a man scratches himself. And -very- few men are comfortable enough with their own masculinity to do that thorough of a patdown on another man. Keep something near the groin and you'll always have something on you. Something they won't find." For her part, Emiko works her tongue around her mouth before coming up with a trio of tiny pins. Spitting them out, they stick into the floor in front of one of the throwing darts. One might think them too small to do any damage, but anyone that's had acupuncture done knows just how little pressure is needed in the proper place. "Since I'm a female and nobody is going to balk at a patdown, I have to be a little more... creative."
Damian Wayne	Slowly, Damian begins to put his weapons away. "If I were a typical gorilla-brained male, I would make the obvious joke about there not being any room in there for anything else," Damian says offhandedly. He's cracking all kinds of jokes today. Who is this guy, and where is the real Damian? "I'll have to work something out. Perhaps a small palm dagger in a sheath might be a suitable weapon to hide in my groin."     He gestures to the pins with a flick off his chin in their direction. "Those could also be valuable for picking simple locks or getting out of handcuffs."
Emiko Queen	"And I would say that you then lack the creativity required for the profession if you truly thought that," Emiko chuckles as she moves to gather up her own weapons, tucking them away against neatly. Even the pins are gathered up and tucked away inside her mouth once more. She glances back to him and grins briefly, "Now you're thinking." Nodding, she rises up to her feet without use of her hands, that single fluid motion upward before she adds, "They have been. Also opening a watchface, resetting electronics, and breaking connection on a security system."
Damian Wayne	Damian likewise rises. He grabs up his Robin tunic and slips it on, getting it all situated in place correctly. "Same time and place next week then?" he inquires as he affixes his mask in place. While he waits for a reply, he gathers up all the water bottles and carries them to a recycle bin.
Emiko Queen	"Definitely. And let me know when will work for tea. Or for visiting the site. Either way, you know. Keep in touch." Emiko lifts her duffel onto one shoulder and smiles towards him. "Assassins have to stick together."