grab your hat, get your coat, the cellar door is an open throat (open/closed)

[overlyprecocious]

Who: Tim Drake overlyprecocious, others
What: catch-all post for late April/early May. some post-Jason fight things.
When: late April, early May
Where: Dick's apartment, other places tbd
Content Warnings: dissociation, references to childhood neglect and abuse, (so far) light reference to food insecurity

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[overlyprecocious]

"Yeah. I'm new to it."

Seeing as how he finally let himself be caught. Bruce would probably not be proud of that. (Would Bruce want him going to the school here? Maybe. He's pretty sure Bruce would at least sympathize with his reasons to be suspicious of going. It's not just paranoia if the suspicion is reasonable, he's pretty sure.

[demigoth]

“I’ve been going since September.” He says this like he’s comparing their sentences.

It should also be noted that, for someone 8 months into the school year, he’s not carrying a backpack. “Summer break is less than two months away, and the Starfallen kids are okay.”

[overlyprecocious]

"I don't really like the idea of going somewhere I can't leave in an emergency."

There's things that are smart about putting your school in an undisclosed location in the sky, he can admit that. But those same things mean you're trapping the kids, too. So.

[demigoth]

“So… leave?” Okay, Nico doesn’t fly, but a lot of the kids do. It’s not like he doesn’t have his own escape route. Shadow travel, teleportation spells, flying staves, Dylan could probably rappel down a tentacle. “It’s an entire school filled with kids with powers. You’d have to be crazy to attack it. Half the school would fight you, and the other half would just leave.”

[overlyprecocious]

"I don't have a power that would make that easy. Maybe I could arrange it, but it would probably require more non-Guild resources than I have right now."

Would anyone notice if he carried a parachute to school? Though statistically speaking, since no one knows where the school actually is, it's likely to be over a large body of water. "I was mostly trying not to get caught for now."

[demigoth]

“Good thing you’re sitting next to someone who can teleport?” Nico grins at him. This is gonna be fun, if it ever comes to pass. “If anything happens to the floating school or if you want to cut class, find me. I’ll get you out. It’s that easy.”

[overlyprecocious]

"Really?"

It's not like they've known each other that long. Admittedly, if Nico had come to him and said I need to get out of this situation ASAP, help, he'd have probably helped, but that's kind of his job as Robin. It's not like Nico has any obligation to him.

[demigoth]

“Why would I waste time saying something that’s not true? I’d just ignore you. It’s easier than talking.”

Nico doesn’t have to know someone long to want to make a minimal effort to help them. He didn’t ask his friends to audition to fight those machines when they got chased together in Excelsior. You just do it. “Besides, then I ‘get out of class early’ to take you home.”

[overlyprecocious]

Well. He's sure not wrong about that.

"How do they handle class-skipping? They've been pretty persistent about getting me here."

And he's heard some horrifying things about the Guild! So. Could be worse than your usual school punishment.

[demigoth]

“You get a demerit.” Nico shrugs at this least penalty. “3 demerits for a detention, 3 detentions for a suspension. In school, so don’t get your hopes up.”

The invention of in-school suspensions was a nightmarish revelation. “I’m at 1 and 1, so I’ve got room. They drop off after 90 days. I keep track so they don’t call my guardian.”

[overlyprecocious]

"But nothing else... weird?" he can't help but ask because, well. You can do a lot of crappy things by gathering all your meta kids in one place.

[demigoth]

“Like turning into a manticore? No. They’re all human or metahuman or whatever. Not Starfallen. I think they’re all from this place?”

He’s less concerned with what they are after ruling out monster in disguise. “I don’t cut class off campus so I don’t know if that’s a full detention? Worst that’s happened to me is they sent someone to make me get on the bus the first day of school, but I had told the social worker I wasn’t going and posted online about it too.”

[overlyprecocious]

"There's been an officer after me for a little while. I was doing a pretty good job of avoiding him, but I guess I lost concentration today."

It doesn't help that he still feels kind of. Shitty. After the other day. So.

[demigoth]

"I can only shadow travel so much before I just can't do it anymore. He caught me, and it sucked to get through the day. Fell asleep in my first two classes. I had detention by lunch."

Nico considers Tim for a moment. "You going to be okay in class today? What year are you?"

[overlyprecocious]

"Ninth grade. I'll be fine," he says because that's what he usually says. He's fine, don't worry, he's always able to handle himself. Please forget about how freaked out he looked when Nico first started talking to him.

[demigoth]

Yeah, he's not buying it. Nico knows what trauma looks like, okay, and maybe he doesn't know what the root of this is, but Tim was spooked when Nico showed up. And it wasn't because of Nico.

"I'm in 10th grade, but they put me in the 9th grade English class, so you'd have at least one person you knew in one class." Probably not enough to get through the day, if it's that bad. "Why didn't you get your guardian to call you out sick?"

[overlyprecocious]

"I don't have a guardian on file with them."

Yet. He suspects there's going to be a lot of paperwork happening the first day, and he's not exactly looking forward to that, either.

[demigoth]

So he’s… what would that make him? At the mercy of some social worker? Who checks if he’s sick?

Nobody, probably. Same as it is with Nico. The only reason people now something’s wrong is if he tells them.

It’s hard to ask for help, too. Nico hates it, even if it’s a friend. What if this is the closest Tim can get to asking for help? What if he’s like Nico and will take on the entire Legion before he asks for help?

“There’s still time for you not to go to school.”

[overlyprecocious]

"I'll be okay."

It helps a bit, knowing that there's someone he could potentially go to in order to get out of the school if he needs to. It still sucks, but there's an exit strategy in place. So that's good.

[demigoth]

Sincerely, this Tim kid is pushing his luck with these weak responses, like Nico doesn't know what 'I'm fine' and 'I'll be okay' really mean. "Even if I bail right now?"

Because he will.

[overlyprecocious]

He can't quite stop himself from stiffening, even if he feels kinda shitty about it. Nico doesn't need some kid he only kinda knows wanting to use him as an escape hatch. "I - wouldn't be able to stop you," he says, which is sort of neutral even if his body language says please don't.

[demigoth]

Nico holds out his hand, his other making a shushing motion.

"I'm not asking you to stop me. You're going to freeze up in the hallway if you go in like that." Because he's going to leave, and he doesn't want to kidnap Tim. The guy's gotta make his own mind up. "The native seniors will shove you in a locker."

[overlyprecocious]

"If you're going, take me with you," is what he ends up saying (although he objects to the assessment that he'd get shoved into a locker; he might, if it came down to it, but only for the purpose of Maintaining His Cover). Because when it comes down to it, he Doesn't Want To Be Here, and if his one way out is threatening to leave without him -

[demigoth]

That's enough of a yes for Nico, who takes Tim's hand before sliding quickly down to the floor in the gap between their seat and the one in front of them.

Or - it looks like that's what he's doing, at first. Tim might have just enough time to see the shadows there start to enfold Nico before he's drug down into the shadows.

The sensation isn't pleasant. It's been described as freezing and melting your flesh from your bones at the same time, but it's mercifully quick, with no lingering side effects for anyone other than Nico.

He looks around, blinking at the canals. "... sorry about this. I wanted to go home, and I did but... the wrong one."

Welcome to Venice?

[overlyprecocious]

Tim’s experienced a few different types of teleportation in the past, so the good news is that - while Nico’s method is somewhat unconventional and a little bit painful - he adjusts pretty quickly. The location, however?

That’s unexpected. He didn’t think Nico would take them this far. He wasn’t even aware Nico could take them this far.

“This is… impressive, actually. What’s your range like?”