metalogs | OPEN | This is his equivalent of meeting at Starbies and the mall.

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OPEN | This is his equivalent of meeting at Starbies and the mall.

Who: Tim Drake

mostdangerousbird and Open
What: Some vigilante has to patrol the city. Maybe you're one of them.
When: Like 2 AM January 7th.
Where: Mid-rise rooftops, D'Amicos territory
Content Warnings: Violence is likely.

2 AM Lunch break

Hey, ya gotta eat. Tim's favorite late night Chinese food place (across the Central City General Hospital) is the unofficial hospital nightshift cafeteria. He can get anything there - turnip cakes, fries, egg rolls stuffed with pizza, or tonight, an Italian sausage on a bun. It's a weird spot, with a takeout window that makes you wait in an alley, but that works for him.

He's only in the alley 10 minutes, while he waits for his order, but he's oddly approachable as he sits on a pile of pallets texting. It's like an art project, "Vigilante, Paused."

Stake(out) for Dinner
When the greasy paper bag is handed over, the hero melts back into the shadow. He's already on the roof, racing a few buildings over before unwrapping the bag to settle in to watch through telescopic lenses while he munches.

He's only checking in on a longtime problem, as it's so close to his snack. Rook wasn't expecting the mob clubhouse to have so much activity at this time of night. Before he's done his sandwich, he's counted 8 arrivals, including a plain white box truck, and only two departures (who left in 1 black sedan).

In the morning, he'll check if Jason knows what might be going down. Robin's intervened with Red Hood and his rivals once, but as Rook, he's tried to stay out of it -

At least he hasn't lit any warehouses on fire -

Two more goons come out of the building. Pause at the doors to the truck's cargo. They open the door and examine the dark interior. Too far to make out any detail, but there's movement in the truck.

He'll have to get closer. Polishing off his sandwich, Tim folds the tin foil and bag down to a neat and tiny square. Tucks it away into his belt.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

( jason has many hobbies. he cleans his guns, sharpens his knives, works on his favorite bike, and then the rest of his hoard. he drives dickie to and from school some days, packs him lunches, snarks with the hoard of soccer moms who fuss over goddamn high schoolers like that's normal - and puts on his mask and gear to come out in the middle of the night to fuck with junior's rival gangs.

not because he's helping. he's never helping. but stalking them down and figuring out what they're up to is plenty useful for nonhelping reasons, like figuring out what the hell central's underground is getting its sticky fingers into this time.

which also has rook's attention, it seems. jason spots him from a few rooftops away, crouched down low as he watches tim start to fold up his garbage. lets the barest hint of a smirk curl up the corners of his lips as he drops down from the rooftop, careful to keep his steps as silent as possible as he approaches from behind and--reaches out once he's close enough, to grab onto the back of his shirt. )

Have I told you how much I hate your new color scheme? I miss the red.

[ The hand at his back and Rook tenses up, but Red Hood speaks up - no need to fight. This is just Jason putting a notch in his belt for catching Tim unawares. He'll make it up to him another night.

He glances down at his chest, where the most noticeable red has always been. Shrugs.
]

Red's good in a crowd to draw the eye. This is better for detection, and it gives the others space.

[ Gives the other Tim the space he needs to just be Robin, without TJ doing to him what Damian did to TJ.

(There's more reason to it, now. He wouldn't take the old costume back if they shoved it on him. Red and black were his colors.) ]

I've still got the green. Green's only crowded in Star City.

Aww, but now we don't match.

( red hood and red robin, a duo no one would have anticipated happening a few years back. even if neither of them are using those monikers anymore. now? here he is, squatting down on the rooftop close to tim to check on who, exactly, he's keeping an eye out for. the truck, which jason notes the movement inside just before the cargo doors shut.

he reaches for his belt. pulls off the half-mask that covers the lower part of his face and puts it on. it overlaps with the domino mask a little, but that's the point. so. )

What's the plan, Rook?

( tim was here first. he'll follow his lead. )

We don't match; we compliment. Which is better, anyway. No one aiming at me will shoot you by mistake.

[ Tim's on his holo display, shutting down the trackers he has on Jay and interfering with the trackers that he knows Jason and Tiny Tim have on him. Going dark near the D'Amico location is suspicious enough. Going inside would probably set off alarms in Jason's place.

(He's not completely stupid. Any of Dick's or Barbara's are left alone.) ]

My dear Kestrel, the plan is that I want to find the quietest little corner to slip inside and see who's having a slumber party. I want to know what's in the truck, and I want to know why you're here about it too. I also don't want Junior to know that I was here - or them to know I was here - because I told him the last time that I wasn't getting pegged by the D'Amicos as "in league" with the Red Hood.

Your dear Kestrel now, is it? ( he snorts, but jason's pulling himself back up to his feet using the shadows of the building to keep out of the light. offers a hand over to tim. ) You know me, I just can't leave well enough alone. An' it's fun to fuck with that guy's shit. His gang, his rivals, his chopshops--y'know.

( a loose lift of his shoulders, hand still out. )

Slumberparty, or truck? I can't get you in, but I can get you anywhere I can see without making a ruckus.

( jason's not one for stealth when he can find more fun methods of getting what he's after, but stealth's never hurt. and he'd be lying if he said he didn't use his fancy new shadow-jumping ability to sneak up on people. )

One of us had to be Watson, and it's not me.

[ Jason makes with the guns and Tim with the fount of useless knowledge. They both fisticuffs.

(Although this does mean Tim is the cocaine addict.)

(Then again, caffeine is a stimulant.)

He looks from the truck to the building with a hum. ]

Party. We can work our way through and borrow the truck on the way out. The question is, do we start at the top or the bottom?

Fair.

( he almost, almost pulls out a line about how only one of them would make a convincing cocaine addict. decides two seconds after he doesn't like that trail of thought and leaves it behind.

there are people jason minds playing sidekick to, but tim drake isn't one of them. they're fine like this. he nods down to his hand, flexes his fingers. )

Top. Easier to get to. C'mere.

Easier to get too, but also harder to get out of.

[ Every goon on the lower levels is going to come running if someone sounds the alarm. They both know it. Oh well.

He takes Jason's hand with a raised eyebrow. ]

I can swing myself.

[ The idiot is implied. ]

I know you can, asshole. ( he's not stupid. ) But I ain't swinging in.

( instead, he's yanking tim backwards with him, into the shadows behind him. it's pitch-black for mere moments, before jason's pulling them on through to the other side, on top of the building but just behind the door that leads out onto the roof. murmurs a soft, )

High window to the right, if you wanna get in.

[ What in -

Teleportation. Tim has to take in the space, orient himself to where they are now. It felt like being teleported with Raven’s shadow self. He’d prefer being towed around by his belt. Beggars can’t be choosers.

Tim checks the window. The room inside looks clear. ]

Storage. We’re talking about metapowers usage later.

[ He pulls himself up to the window for a better look. He doesn’t see a sensor for an alarm, but starts cutting out the glass anyway and keeps his voice low. ]

You coming?

I can get you in without breaking glass.

( but no, he's not following tim since now they're having a discussion later. instead, jason slips right on through the floor under his feet, without tim. a flash of red is visible in one of the darker, unmanned corners of the club.

he may not be one for stealth, but hell. the ability he's had for the past almost - what, two years? sure as hell comes in handy for it. )

[ He left?! The talk just doubled in size. Tim will spell it out on his book covers one letter at a time because he’s not going to listen. ]

I put up with so much.

[ He barely breathes it as he slides the pane free and gently sets it on the ground.

He’s inside ten seconds later without a sound. The room is bigger than he’d thought, with a combination of partitions that don’t meet the ceiling and thick steel beams that had read together as walls from the high window. Not great.

- taking them so long -

Rook creeps further into the darker parts of the room, away from the snippets of conversation until he can see where they’re echoing from.

- I don’t want them here longer -

- no trouble -

Three men in suits are gathered around a table, staring at whatever’s on its surface. Awful late for a campaign meeting. The fishing expedition suddenly has a more defined purpose: whatever’s so important to keep the pinstripes up late.

It’s winter. Pipes freeze all the time. If he can get to a waterpipe and bust it somewhere else on the floor, he can snap some high resolution photos and make for the truck outside while they’re dealing with a burst pipe. Less obvious than a smoke bomb. ]

( he did leave, because tim's getting sassy. but jason doesn't intend to stay gone. he checks out a few corners on his side of the facility, dropping a couple of listening devices in extremely hard-to-reach places that jason can only get to because he can shove his hand through a shadow and get it someplace else. he knows these guys are fairly anti-meta, so he suspects they won't have someone like accelerator on deck who can feel out every radio wave known to... accelerator. jason'll have to see if he can find a limit on that later.

for now? he's focusing on keeping out of sight, steps quiet as he moves through the shadowy corners of the building - right up until he gets bored, decides it's time to fuck them up and take their shit, but instead tips his head back so he can figure out where the hell rook went off to. it's his play. jason may as well play nicely and make his way back over to him to figure out what rook's gameplan is here.

luckily, he knows what he's looking for. a step into the crates he's been hiding behind, and he steps out mere inches away from tim.

raises a brow at him. )

stakeout

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Lunch break

Re: Lunch break

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lunch break

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