Summertime [Open]

[zouichi.livejournal.com]

Zouichi sat by a the mirrored black water of a small pond. Nearby, a wisteria plant was coming into bloom, dangling its delicate, curved violet flowers toward the earth.

As promised, a tray of chilled watermelon slices was set to the side, near the wooden steps leading down to the garden and free for any passersby to take. For his part, however, Zouichi occupied himself with feeding a small group of googly-eyed baby goldfish, who darted back and forth through the water to gobble up stray flakes of fish food.

It was nice to take a break from exploding ghost wolves lions once in a while.

Comments

[battorch]

Well, he did bring it up. He hesitated for a moment, wondering how much he should tell Zouichi, but the man already knew about his own secret ID. And it wasn't like he was going to be giving personal details about Selina and Bruce, or anything absurd like that.

"The city I lived in was a minefield of costumed heroes and villains," Tim explained first. "One such person was Catwoman. Her theme was built around the concept-- catsuit, cat puns and all. Even her work was often framed around the cat motif, at least in her earlier days. And I'm pretty sure she owned a dozen cats at any given time."

[zouichi.livejournal.com]

"Wait. Cat puns?" Tim... your world was weird. "So she was some kind of cat hoarder? Why all the animal motifs?"

He didn't care about the heroes and villains thing. What he did care about was why grown people were running around in animal costumes beating each other up. EXPLAIN YOURSELF, SIR.

[battorch]

"Sometimes," Tim said. He had, of course, been victim to a fair few bird puns as Robin, for his own part. He paused again, then said, "She was a cat burglar. Pun only sort of intended. The motifs... varied. Sometimes it was done as a symbol. Sometimes it was more an issue of psychosis." The last part is referring to the villains only. Honest.

[zouichi.livejournal.com]

Suddenly it all fell into place. The late nights, the seclusion, the secrets... TIM WAS A BIRD HOARDER

"Oh, of course. Perhaps she and that Cazali would have gotten along. ...But you're talking about it like it was a widespread phenomenon."

[battorch]

CURSES. You have discovered his secret!

"Perhaps," Tim agreed, though he didn't know much about Cazali in the first place. Then he let out a half laugh, and said, "It... was, sometimes. Gotham had a high crime rate, and a fair few criminals took on a motif. The heroes did the same. 'Red Robin' isn't the first name I worked under, and I worked with a number of others there." And that was only Gotham.

[zouichi.livejournal.com]

"If there were so many of you heroes running about, why was the crime rate so high? Were these criminals all psychotics?" Zouichi tried to imagine a cityscape filled with people dressed as animals and disguised and found it all rather bizarre. And of course, he wondered how many of those heroes slipped into villainy and vice versa.

[battorch]

"A matter of proportions and persistence, in part," Tim explained. "They weren't all psychotics-- but the ones that were inevitably got out onto the streets again and weren't prone to giving up. Some had specific motivators." One of Tim's own rogues was out for vengeance on Tim himself. "Some others did it out of fear-- coercion. Some may have felt it was necessary; Gotham had a lot of rough times."

[zouichi.livejournal.com]

"Wait, if you captured them, how did they keep getting back out onto the streets? Their motivations shouldn't have mattered if they were imprisoned." This sounded like a very inefficient system to Zouichi.

[battorch]

And Zouichi hit one of the biggest problems right there. "Sometimes rehabilitation, sometimes breakouts were orchestrated, from either side of the gates. It was a major problem."

[zouichi.livejournal.com]

Zouichi wasn't going to ask then why didn't you just kill them?, but he was thinking it. Oh boy, was he thinking it.

"So your criminal justice system was basically a revolving door."

[battorch]

Tim frowned. This was definitely something that bothered him. "Sometimes, yes," he said. It was hardly in good shape. "There were certainly flaws. But that was part of the reason why we operated. To take care of any corruption the police couldn't get to, and to be equally persistent as the crooks could be."

[zouichi.livejournal.com]

"Right, but the criminals you brought in just went right back on the streets. Wasn't there a better way to deal with them?"

Like killing them okay no.

[battorch]

"Rehabilitation, with varying results," Tim grunted faintly. "Efforts were made to solve the problem, not the cause. My own work, though, was mostly focused on the more direct-- actually stopping the criminal acts themselves."

[zouichi.livejournal.com]

"Doesn't sound very effective," Zouichi said, going back to watching the baby goldfish zip around their new home. "Stop someone from committing a crime only to have them tossed right back in the water."

[battorch]

"It wasn't, sometimes," Tim sighed faintly. "It kept them off the streets for a time, and we did what we could both in and out of costume, but it could be an uphill battle."

[zouichi.livejournal.com]

"But you kept at it anyway," Zouichi said. It was part observation, part question.

[battorch]

"Of course," Tim said, voice going completely serious. "It's not like there was an option."

[zouichi.livejournal.com]

"Lobbying to get them transferred to better-equipped criminal justice systems? Improving rehabilitation services? Improving security for imprisoned criminals?" Anything other than just sticking those dudes right back where they were, basically.

[battorch]

"I did say out of costume, too," Tim assured with a grimace. "No other facilities would take the worst of them. But my... family had a habit of pumping money into the right places to fix what we could via influence, as well. But no one denied that Gotham was in awful shape."

[zouichi.livejournal.com]

"Hmm. Even with all those heroes running around." It was more of a statement than a question.

"About your family. I assume you belonged to a rather influential one? Your manner from earlier suggested you were used to..." Zouichi paused, trying to come up with the right idiom. "Rubbing elbows with the upper class," he finished.

[battorch]

"Hn." Tim was going to let that drop. There was no use arguing things like that, not when their worlds were so different. He knew they had done a lot of good, and he didn't need Zouichi to validate that. Not to mention potential of hurt pride.

"Old habits die hard, I guess," Tim commented sheepishly. He wasn't sure how much detail he should give Zouichi. After a moment, he said, "We were wealthy, yes. And one of the bigger names about town." No need to give the scale, though. "Made expensive gadgets a little easier to come by."

[zouichi.livejournal.com]

Zouichi figured that someone who who had that kind of political influence, donated to penitentiaries, and had the funds for all those neat gadgets was probably either the recipient of an extraordinarily generous inheritance, involved in industry, or both. After all, Toua could only produce all the neat toys it did because they did well. Had done well.

"And I'm sure Bat Auto Tune was a big hit. I hope you made it commercially available for aspiring music producers everywhere."

[battorch]

Tim was, at first, glad for the end of that line of questioning, even if he didn't have particular reason to hide the information. However, that only last for a second-- because that was when Tim lost his composure for a brief moment, something he rarely let happen. He fought to regain his regular straight face right away.

He didn't really remember making that joke very well. Oh god had he really said that?

"I-- well." Tim choked for a second, then said, "Can't market things with 'bat' in the name, you know. Bad for PR." Okay, that was a dumb explanation, but Tim was a bit flustered right then.

[zouichi.livejournal.com]

"What's wrong with bats?" asked Zouichi. What, indeed. Just think of those cute little white fluffball bats that had been so ubiquitous on Geartopia. "In any case, there are worse devices to invent than gadgets that allow you to sing on key."

P.S. yes, Tim, you really did say that.

[battorch]

Right, Zouichi didn't actually know about the 'Bat' thing. He wanted to let it drop, but he offers a quick, "My boss is Batman. Not the one on the ship." The last part being an afterthought. He shifted slightly, then said, "Auto Tune was kind of already a thing anyway."