Summary:Tim works on fake IDs while Selina and Helena discuss the latter's education opportunities. Log Info:Storyteller: None |
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Something just feels wrong about the sound of music and cheer coming from the Batcave. But there it is, Red Robin whistling while he works. He's in the engineering workshop. A laptop sits off to the side, a voice talking about engineering and science from a background tab. His focus is at work on small, laminated cards. Bank cards especially: none of them bear a face, let alone Tim's face. Nor his name: instead, they read 'Alvin Draper', an alias he hasn't used in years.
"Somebody's cheery." Comes a voice from the stairway leading to the mansion entrance to the cave, where Selina Kyle comes gingerly down the stairs; in costume, but with her cowl removed, and her goggles hanging from her neck in front of her. She smiles wryly and notes, "Not sure the cave can take it." before leaning forward against the handrail, propping herself up with her arms, peering curiously at Tim's work. "What have you got there?"
Helena has been scarce lately. Not because she's going to classes, which is its own issue, but more because she's trying to figure some things out for herself. But Sunday is a day for checking equipment, and whatever she's doing, she's going to be responsible about it. So she makes her way down the stairs, brow quirking when she hears the music. "So at least I know Dad's now down here."
She pauses to give Selina a brief hug before she's moving past and to join Tim at the table, setting down the small device that serves as her voice modulation. "Alvin Draper?" she reaches, glancing over to Tim. "Who's named Alvin anymore?"
Tim hears Selina's voice, and tenses just on pure reflex… okay, she's not teasing, he breathes a bit easier. Those reflexes are perhaps a bit over-honed. "A third option," he says, holding up one of the cards. "I can't out Red Robin as Tim Drake, not even to my closest allies. Too much chance people can track it back to the rest of us. I can't go on stakeouts or investigations as Tim Drake. I'm not Wayne-famous, but people might still recognise me. But if I have an alternative ID, then that gives me more options."
He taps his laptop, and the podcast pauses so he can focus on the others. "Helena, just the girl I wanted to see—" But then the question. He pokes out his tongue at her. "The same people who were named Alvin years ago. I found the old cards I used back when I had to infiltrate a weird summer camp, and I'm planning to revive it. Can I ask you about that holo-mask you use?"
It's Selina's fault, really. It's hard to find the off-switch, and if a young person can get PTSD from teasing, Selina can give it to them.
Believe it or not, she tries to reign it in.
"Ooooo~" She purrs merrily, giving Helena a brief squeeze and a purr as she passes. "Clever~. Complicated, but clever." She notes, and continues the rest of the way down the stairs, moving past where Helena and Tim meet to lean against the wall, observing for the moment. "I'd have done the same, but then I went and hooked up with a Wayne, and made all my costumes Cat-themed." She says, gesturing vaguely at rows of differently colored and designed Catwoman costumes. "Hindsight's twenty-twenty, I guess."
"Yeah, sure." Helena moves over to where the costumes are stored, pulling out a fine mesh that's neatly folded next to her hood. "Full disclosure, the closest I've come to testing it in plain sight has been with the Young Avengers," she says, starting to unfold it and pulling out another laptop from beneath the table. "So I can't vouch for how well it stands up to scrutiny. But. What do you want to know?"
Tim glances over to the racks of costumes, to Selina, thinks about Selina in costumes — no, no. I must not blush. Blush is the little-death that brings total humiliation. "J-Just means next year, we all get to look back on our choices with 2020 hindsight."
He looks over at the mesh that Helena brings out, peering closely. "Two main things, since I already know it handles skin tones well. One, do you have anything that can deal with hair? Spoiler's suggested I give Alvin a redhead look. Two, what can I offer you to get one of those masks for myself?"
Selina smirks to herself a little at that brief stutter. Tiny victories. But otherwise she lets the kids talk shop.
"Nothing that does hair like this, no," Helena shakes her head. "But a decent wig should do it all right. Benefit of the holomask is that you can put it on after the wig, and you don't have to worry as much about the edges. Though really, invest in a good wig."
She casts a brief look toward her mother at the stutter, lips twisting in a small smirk of her own as she shakes her head. "The mask itself I can make pretty easily, it's mostly fabricating. It's the programming that takes a little more work. I can pull your current facial readings from the security system, but there's a limit to how much of a change it can make from what it's over before the difference between the holomask and the physical structure under it causes some of that really uncomfortable uncanny valley thing. And it can only hold so many different faces, and if you want to change it, you've got to link it back up to the computer. No wifi on these things," she adds with a wry smile.
Okay, good, Selina isn't pushing more. That gives Tim some room to breathe and focus on talking shop. "That's smart," Tim says, about the lack of wifi. "Requiring a direct link is much more secure." And who knows more about computer security than Tim Drake? …Barbara Gordon, that's who, but he's a close second!
"I can do the programming, and I've already been making plans for the look. Like… one sec, here, I have sketches." He pulls the laptop over and flips to an image program. It's a rough sketch — he's no artist — but it gets the point across. Tim with a slightly more pointed nose, more Vulcan arch to his eyebrows, green eyes, and a scattering of freckles across his cheeks. "I thought about going for a cleft chin, but I've had Red Robin's not-cleft chin out there for years now. It'd be too suspicious to change it. Would I need to work a wig for the eyebrows, too, or can the mask handle that as part of the facial pigment change?"
"Worst case scenario-" Selina notes, "You can always try drawing eyebrows on. But frankly, the make-up route might be more expensive than the spooky tech route."
"The mask can handle it, or you can just get some brow liner for fidelity. It's not that hard, girls in middle school are doing it these days," Helena teases, smile wry. "I'll send you over the framework from my program. A few tweaks and you should be good to go. Should be able to fabricate the mesh by the time you've got everything programmed." She taps a finger on the counter, pensive. "I just…Well, you know. User beware, it was designed more as a failsafe than as something meant to withstand full, daylight scrutiny."
Tim nods to Selina. "And needs more time to set up, which means more time every time I'm putting on the costume. When it's an emergency, those seconds count." He gives Helena a wry grin in return. "Oh? Sounds like we have a race on our hands." Can she finish fabrication before he finishes programming? DUN DUN DUN. "I understand. I'll be careful with it, and reinforce it with other things if I'm not wearing the full mask over it. Like if I'm using it for a stakeout, I'll give it the full 'hoodie and glasses' treatment. Maybe even a ball cap! On top of the hoodie!" Now that's just mad costuming science right there, especially in this universe.
Selina tilts her head to the side and turns her eyes upward thoughtfully. Would glasses make that good of a disguise? Hrm. "Our work's a little 'night oriented' anyway." Selina agrees with Helena. "There's a reason we don't tend to run with Captain America's crowd." Aside from them all being thieves and ninjas. "Honestly I'd go with something more tangible if you know you need to pass off as Alvin in advance, buuut…" Selina shrugs, "… we *are* a little emergency prone."
"Easy there, tiger. Hat, sunglasses, and a hoodie? You'll be functionally invisible!" No one does stealth snark like a bat. Helena taps a few keys on her laptop, sharing the program basics over to Tim's machine. "That should be all you need to get started. Mine's…yeah." She turns a faint smile on her mother. "I've usually got the holomask on under the face mask, the hood, and in concert with the contacts and the voice modulator. If the hood or the face mask fall, no one's going to see Helena Wayne. But I'd definitely want to test it more before I took it out on a face to face daylight mission. Which mostly means I just want to hear what you find when you test it," she grins.
Once it arrives, Tim immediately loads up the Fake Face API. No, he doesn't launch right into the 'type very fast' kind of programming; he looks it over for a while, putting half his brain on that while the other half keeps up with the conversation. "Mm," he says to Selina. "Some prostheses for the nose, contacts for the eyes, makeup for the skin tone and eyebrows. That's when I'm going all out with it. But for something to slip on under the cowl? This is perfect." He nods to Helena… well, he nods in response to Helena without looking up from the screen. "I'll definitely let you know."
Selina shares a smile with her daughter, but for now it seems like the pair are on enough of a roll that they don't need her interjecting right this second.
Selina matured a LITTLE, you guys. It's been eightteen years!
"Speaking of stealth operations…" Helena looks back up at her mother, sliding into a chair to start her scheduled check on the voice modulator. "I'm…I know Dad wasn't a huge fan of the SHIELD idea, but I was serious. I put a lot of thought and research into it. It wasn't a spur of the moment thought. How badly do you think he'd take it if I went through with it anyhow?"
Tim bows in closer to the laptop. His eyes have that look in them, as gradually more of his brain pours into this new task. Selina and Helena could talk about pretty much anything right now, and he wouldn't notice.
Selina's smile turns into a flat line, her brow raising and her eyes narrowing sympathetically to Helena. "I think…" Selina frowns a little. 'The dinner table will get very awkward' is probably not the response she should go with.
She sighs a little, "… I think he'll get really cautious around you, Kitten. I think Bruce will be… nice… but a little more 'public face' around you. I think Batman's not gonna talk to you for awhile. And when you start kicking ass in Shield, and really knock his socks off he'll just… start talking to you again like nothing happened. That's how I think he'll react."
Selina kicks off of the wall and strides over to Helena with her arms crossed. "Granted, I've never seen him go through this process with his own daughter…" she smiles a little, "… and I'll be poking at him the whole time. So I can't be totally sure…" The smile wavers and becomes sympathetic, "… But I'm not gonna pretend like it'll be easy. He's a stubborn guy."
Selina gives a bit of a helpless grin. "Part of why I love him; part of why marriage was a hard sell."
Helena takes a deep breath, letting it out slowly as her jaw sets in a way that reflects that very stubbornness. "Yeah," she agrees quietly. "Yeah, that sounds about right. But what else am I gonna do, Mom? Let him decide what I do with my life? You know he wouldn't respect that either. I'll never be the person he wants me to end being if I only ever do things when he's comfortable with them."
Tim has, apparently, surfaced enough to throw something in. "If you only do what you can do, you will never be more than you are now," he says, nodding to Helena. "Sounds like it'll be tough but worth it. You know, like everything else in this lifestyle. Plus, there's no telling what kind of special methods SHIELD might teach you that the Family just doesn't know yet. We learn from ninjas, we learn from assassins, we learn from thieves… why not learn from SHIELD?" And create the ultimatefrankenskills.
Selina can't hide a bit of a lip wobble at Helena's plight, looking down for a minute and closing her eyes as Tim talks, before she adds, "Or, to paraphrase…" Selina takes both of Helena's hands, lifting them up to about chest level and gives them with a squeeze with a bafflingly cheerful declaration of "Screw 'im." Her eyes open narrowly as she elaborates. "Screw him. Screw me. Screw anybody who tells you how to live. You do what you want no matter who likes it, or how it might turn out. We don't have to like it."
Which is as close as she's willing to get, at this point, to admitting that she doesn't want Helena to join Shield either, but that's not what she needs to hear right now.
"That's how I handled it. Worked out for me. Didn't land me where I expected to be, but I'm not complaining." She smiles a little, "… As long as you're somewhere you want to be, you're doing good. That's what I think."
A beat.
"… Though I'd *really* appreciate it if you didn't arrest us." She says with an impish smile. She never said she WASN'T a hypocrite! She's just… trying her best at this mom thing, like always.
"See? That's what I was thinking," Helena agrees with Tim. "Besides, Dick's a detective and no one's giving him crap for it. And I feel like we should give him more crap, because he's the one who started with the whole tights thing. He does not get enough crap for that." Her smile flickers and she reaches over to give Selina's hand a squeeze. "It's not a lifetime commitment anyhow, Mom. It's a few years. And that's assuming they take me, and that they don't kick me out at some point, which are both fairly large assumptions."
Tim completely pauses in his programming, to look across at the mother-daughter moment. He smiles, warmly enjoying the reflections of love. Perhaps there's a slight twinge behind the smile, as he remembers his own mother and how long it's been since she…
He shakes his head. Better not to dwell on that. Rather than intrude on the moment, he turns back to the laptop.
Selina smirks a little. "Getting kicked out of school is *also* a family tradition~" She says merrily, then steps aside, sitting down on the desk next to where Tim is working and crossing her legs and linking her fingers over her knee. "But yeah. A few years, a few decades… doesn't matter. Be stubborn. Change your mind at random. Be selfish~"
Selina has gotten by 'selfishly' wanting to take care of her family for years. It may or may not make perfect sense. Selina's not big on obligations. She just… wanted to. Kind of a lucky roll of the dice for Helena, really.
"Your father will come around, even if I have to badger him into it. Lord knows I have leverage over him."
Helena chuckles, shaking her head. "Yeah. Well. Not like he's perfect either. Thanks, guys. Let me know if you run into anything with the mask, Tim. I'll be glad to help work out anything you can't figure out on your own."