Summary:The Wayne family core has a breakfast meeting. Log Info:Storyteller: None |
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Against parental advice, Helena began attending SHIELD Academy. During the week, she's at the dorms. On the weekend, she gets to come home. Of course, she's insisted on keeping up with the cape life as well, which has meant a lot of late nights and a lot of spending those weekends at home just sleeping in her bed. But at least the Wayne household is no stranger to late mornings.
It's just one of those late mornings when she pads into the kitchen, her hair the image of bedhead and her plaid pajama pants and oversized SHIELD t-shirt more at home in a dorm than in the manor. It's coffee-zombie time.
Conversely, Bruce is already up. Did he not go out last night? It's hard to tell. But he's already dressed, in his business suit, tie not yet tied as he is at the kitchen table, a cup of coffee still showing steam from being freshly poured. The business page is opened as he's reading - still not willing to go digital. At least not up in the manor.
Lifting his brows behind the paper as he hears shuffling footsteps, Bruce glances up from his paper and gives his youngest a smile. "Good morning, Helena."
Selina Kyle, on the other hand, looks like a super model this morning, because justice is an illussion. Blowing gingerly on a steaming cup of coffee, dressed mostly in black eyeing a tablet on the table in front of her. Her look of sympathy when Helena enters her line of sight is wrestled into one of bemusement as - unable to help herself - she notes: "Well look what the cat dragged in~" With a little grin, and then that little glance to the side that more or less says 'that was fun, but probably not cool'; followed by her craning her neck in the general direction of the coffee pot and noting, "Left two and half cups worth since I figured you'd need it. And because…" Selina shrugs and gestures helplessly with her free hand, "Waynes."
Damian definitely does not look like a supermodel this morning, nor is he the prim and proper image his father sets, nor is he the get out of bed bird. Instead, he looks like he just got done doing a serious workout, wearing a black tanktop and black sweatpants. He has a white towl around his neck and he emerges from the Batcave.
Approaching his family, the green-eyed boy (in the literal sense) gives a nod to everyone present. "Good morning." Is all he says in greeting.
Helena makes a sound that…could be anything, really. Maybe it's 'brains.' But she's conscious enough to get down a mug and fill it with coffee before sliding into her seat at the breakfast table. There's just enough light in her eyes to scan the table for breakfasts to poach from. She knows better than to try to request anything from Alfred before she's fully verbal.
Bruce watches his daughter for a moment, then glances aside to Selina. "It seems that our creatures of the night are finally stirring, darling." he offers to her as Damian makes his own appearance. "Good morning, Damian. Please, feel free to join us. Alfred is making omelettes." Not waffles, thankfully. And he's not immediately looking for reports from everyone, so he's allowing them the chance to wake up.
Selina smirks faintly at Bruce and notes, "Did someone ring to churchbell three times? Oh dear." Over the rim of her coffee cup, nodding once as Damian arrives with a cordial "Good morning, Damian." She still hasn't quite cracked the egg on how to be comfortable around Talia's special delivery, but she's… trying! As much as a cat ever tries to adjust to new things.
Letting sleeping dogs lie, however, is not in her wheelhouse, and as Helena grumbles her way through the procurement of coffee, she begins to subtly rock back and forth until she can no longer resist prodding, "So, how's higher education treating you?"
You can tell she's being supportive because she didn't call it Facism University.
Damian doesn't speak to Helena because she looks like she's about to start eating people and causing a worldwide virus in the process. So instead, he looks to his father. "Hello, Father." with the permission, Damian joins everyone at the kitchen proper, taking a seat at the kitchen table. His attention then shifts to his step-mother. "Hello, Mother."
He can already tell this is going to be an awkward conversation between everyone and well…Helena.
Helena takes a sip of coffee, and then another, before scrubbing a hand over her face. "It's good," she croaks in response to her mother. "Found another spider. Someone found another spider. Pretty new to the whole thing, though, he's still learning to actually do things on purpose. I'm beginning to feel like we should fumigate the tri-state area before someone who doesn't have good intentions gets bit by one of these radioactive spiders, though."
Oh. Thank you for the segue, Helena.
As she brings up the spiders, Bruce clears his throat slightly and takes a sip from his coffee. "So. Who would like to start with the recent issue with Spider-Man and how we.." the Royal We is used here, because he's looking between children and erstwise wife as he sets down his mug. "…became rather involved in it all?" He's looking to see if there were any secrets shared - information he may need to consider for the future in dealing with them.
Because as Helena just said. Who knows when one will be evil?
Selina is about to ask how good 'good' is, under the circumstances, when the issue of Spiders comes up, and Selina frowns instead. She did sort of get her arm dislocated over a few of those guys. "Yeah, they're really coming out of the woodwork, aren't they?" She says, "They're not all gonna have good hearts." Selina looks over the rim of her cup and waits until Helena's drinking before adding, "OR good butts." Then closes her eyes merrily and sets her cup down. "Glad everyone made it out in one piece." She notes cheerfully, before opening her eyes to a more concerned look, "But this should probably stop before crazy people start seeing it as a social issue. City's busy enough with Spider-hunting robots or whatever."
Another spider, huh? Despite Damian's dealings with the Spider-Clan as it were, Damian only became involved once he checked in on his sister. But since Bruce is using the good 'ole Royal tone of We, Damian simply looks at him. "I found that the tracking device that was planted in Helena's motorcycle had recorded that her vehicle had not moved for a long period of time. I decided to investigate. When I arrived, Helena, Spider-Man and friends were facing off against a powerful entity."
He apparently deems fit to let Helena speak for herself.
'Well, Dad, the thing is, Spider-Man is actually that really nice Peter boy I've been dating.' Is what Helena would say if she wasn't part of a family whose number one rule is never reveal the secret identity. Instead, she takes another sip of coffee before raising one hand. "I'm looped in on the Spider-Comms, since the whole Nightfall thing," she explains. "And since I helped Spider-Man with the costume redesign."
Another swallow of coffee, as she starts to actually wake up. Enough not to cough on the coffee at her mother's comment on butts. "Mmph. Speaking of spider-butts," she drawls, dry, with a look at her mother. "Apparently someone's stealing your schtick. Spider-Man mentioned there's some Black Cat cat burglar character out there claiming - at least to him - to be stealing for good and the like. With the hots for him, no less," she adds with a wrinkle of her nose.
"Anyhow, after we ran into that Morlun thing, I called Zee because there was clearly some juju going on and that sort of thing is best left to the professionals."
"And what did Zatanna say, and what has happened since then?" Bruce asks as he draws from his coffee again. As he waits, Alfred comes out to bring the man and woman of the house their meals, before waiting to see what the two youngsters want for breakfast. "It has been handled, I hoped?" comes the curious question. "Especially as Selina is able to get into the field again after her dislocation." Oh, he knows about that. He saw the bruise.
"I have a couple of things I want to have looked into, for those that may be interested. First, it seems that we have a new company trying to set up shop in Staten Island. Barbara has interest in the owner of the company, Ken Harada. I plan to reach out to him through Wayne Industries to see what support we can offer. He says he has a problem with.. competition, though."
The second, he's looking to the two women. "The other is that I have met with one of the owners of RESCUE. It's a female run company, they seem to have a technical lean. But they also have a side organization that they call GIRL. Apparently it is for gifted young women."
This time Selina gives a muffled "gurmph?" mid sip and has to hastily set the mug down as she looks at Helena with exhausted disbelief, "Another one? Is it November already? I-" She stops when Helena decides to mention her crush on a hero and just looks… explosively indignant. "That's… my…" Selina covers one eye with one hand, "*Entire* *BRAND*."
She slumps her shoulders, "… I don't know wether to kick her ass or hire a lawyer."
In regards to Damian, Selina's still sulking a little when she mumbles, "Who put a tracking device on Helena's bike?" Before she perks up a little as Bruce speaks, giving an experimental roll of the offended shoulder as if reminded of it. "… So how shady are we talking, here?"
Selina asks how on earth there was a tracking device on Helena's bike, Damian just stares at her. "I had a hand in that." aaaand thats all Catwoman needs to know, apparently. Then he looks at Bruce when he automatically starts getting into 'assignments' as it were. "I met one of their number. Toni Ho, at one of the charity galas some time ago. She seems to be very firm in her belief of her ocmpany's mission." Then he turns his head to Selina. "Looks like you may have competition in your field, mother."
Damian being a little shit as always even when he's not trying to be a little shit.
Then to Helena, apparently with a tilt of his head as to who this 'Zatanna' person is.
"Yeah, I told him rooftop liasons are how you end up with unplanned kids, and he can't afford the child support," Helena drawls, dry as the Sahara. She has a whole list of food for Alfred. Eggs, bacon, toast, some avocado…
Damien gets a look at the tracking device, but there's not much force behind it. If there's a tracking device on her bike that she doesn't know about, it's her own fault. "RESCUE and GIRL, huh?" she echoes, a faint smile quirking. "Well, it sounds nice."
"Kitten, you didn't exactly copyright the cat burgular look. Or flirting with your adversary." Bruce points out to Selina gently as she mentions the lawyers. "Now, if you want to talk to her directly.. then.." he shrugs his shoulders. He can't keep his cat from going out if she wants to go mark her territory. His attention swivels to Helena and he responds just as dryly, "I'm sure he's more responsible." And he's going to leave it at that.
Then comes the comment from Damian. Apparently he has no remark on putting a tracker on Helena. After all, he's done that more time than he cares to count. Especially to Selina, in the early days. "I'm not sure if they're shady. But I am always curious." That is always how he's going to be on these things. Though he does add, "I wouldn't want to interrupt your studies, Helena. Is there anything I need to know about in the city?"
Selina just squints at Damian, a big 'why' written all over her face. She's a little less apt to roll with the 'earned failure' mindset than her collective family is. Though before she can speak, Bruce speaks to her and Selina heaves a sigh, before smirking a little, "I like to think I perfected it~" She says despite her irritation about the subject.
"I'm sure we'll know if they have anything interesting, soon." She says in regards to the business at hand, before looking to Helena curiously when Bruce questions her.
Damian keeps his attention briefly on Helena before he looks over to Selina, his face practically returning a 'why not' kind of expression to her. Alas, it is what it may be. He looks back to Bruce as he questions Helena, but doesn't answer on that front since the question was not intended for him.
But he is intrigued by what Helena has been doing that doesn't involve the Spiders.
"Not that I've run into lately," Helena muses at her father's question, sipping at her coffee. "Sounds like the whole Morlun issue's been handled. That was the last big thing I knew about. They're not exactly reading cadets in on state secrets at the academy just yet." And hacking into their systems right now would be a good way to get caught at being way better at all of these things than she should be.
"The training is good, though. It's nice not to have to fit in four hours of training around everything else. It's just part of the regular schedule. Seeing the tech is interesting, too," she adds, smile quirking. "Haven't run into a lot that we can't match yet, but I'm sure it's there."
It's cute that Helena tries to frame her going to SHIELD Academy as a chance to spy on them and see what the tech level is. Bruce gives a little nod of his head. "I'm not against any of you reaching out to others and spending time with them, professionally or socially." comes his response. "I'm going to be going out on patrols again soon, and there's going to eventually be the wedding.." he trails off at that for just a moment.
Finally, though he starts tucking into his breakfast. "Selina, would you want to help with speaking to the women of RESCUE. I know Damian has made contact with one of them, so that would be a way to introduce. But I get the feeling that a different touch would get us further."
Selina smirks a bit at Helena and merrily notes, "Yeah, you seem so well rested." shares a bit of a fond look with Bruce for a moment, and then reclines a bit when he questions her, humming softly, "Hmmmm, shouldn't eat *too* much of my day, if I can get a chance~"
Damian looks upon Selina for a little bit, then he looks at Helena as she speaks. "A given advantage of your current situation." Damian agrees with her about the training. Plus it serves as a good cover-story for her current fighting skill. His attention though quickly falls on Bruce.
He could indeed do the introductions and his social skills as a whole has become a lot better! Though he does seem to narrow his eyes for a brief moment. Why isn't his approach a good one to follow up on?!
Clearly the coffee is doing its job, as Helena leans over toward Damian, picking up on those narrowed eyes. "They're women," she points out, taking another sip. "Ladies doing lady things. Oh, hey, speaking of. Peter's Aunt May was looking into starting to do some volunteer work, Mom. If you get a chance, would you mind maybe chatting with her?"
Bruce picks up on the look from Damian, and even with Helena running interference, he adds. "You can help with RESCUE, Damian, but I was informed that GIRL is purely female." he points out. Hence the change in approach. "So Morlun is handled, I'll talk to Mr. Harada. And it seems like someone will look into things with RESCUE. Anything else?" he asks, clearly ready to enjoy breakfast with his family. Then he pauses. "Ah. Yes. I nearly forgot. I was told that Stephanie is looking for an apartment and using it as a chance for her and Tim to live together." He leaves that alone. Because really - that's not anywhere near something he's ready to handle. And perhaps someone else can give advice.
Selina grins a little despite herself. "Oh, I heard. Tim even asked me for advice." A mouthful a food later and she sighs, "I buried him in it, too. He could still walk straight afterwards, though, so he SHOULD be fine. Might check in on Stephanie, though."
Helena quirks a brow at the news that Tim and Stephanie are moving in together. "Huh," she muses. "Well. I guess it'll be easier to get in touch with both of them." As usual, she splits the difference between her parents. She might have a few thoughts or reservations, but she'll keep it to herself and hope things work out.
With everything seemingly sorted, Bruce glances over at Selina, and there's a brief look of amusement. "Yes, he made it very clear. Also, it seems it was suggested and turned down that she move in with us?" he asks curiously, a lift of his brow. Not disagreement, just mainly a little surprise that he and Selina may actually be on the same wavelength when it comes to this.
"Well," Selina says merrily, "There's a difference between knowing where to reach them, and getting them to answer the phone, but~" Operation Make Helena Blush is a never ending crusade.
Selina looks to Bruce for a moment and considers. "I told them 'probably not', which isn't QUITE the same." Partly since it allows them to try again with Bruce, although that's a tougher nut to crack. "… But yeah. If I thought she really needed to live here, I'd have made it happen somehow," she says, presupposing that she could get around Batman - "… but I don't think she does. Not like Cassandra does. You can only fill up the nest so much before people start asking questions."
Selina sighs… then smirks a little, "Plus I like the quiet. Don't you?"
"On that note," Helena drawls, standing up to refill her coffee. "Alfred, I'll take that breakfast downstairs," she says, taking another sip. "I've got some reading to catch up on." She comes over to drop a kiss to each parent's cheek in passing - no hard feelings when it comes to their gross affection. "Gonna get in some training after, if anyone else wants in." Because while she may be tired, and she may be getting plenty at school, it's not like she's going to settle.