trans_9 | Summertime [Open]

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Summertime [Open]

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.

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"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."

"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."

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

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

"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.

"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."

"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.

"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 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."

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.

"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.

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."

"Bat... man?" Zouichi gave Tim a puzzled look. What was up with all these animals? "Sounds more like a tabloid story than a hero. In any case, I thought it was an endorsement sort of situation. Bat-man themed Auto Tune."

"That-- was kind of the point, anyway. Rumour, speculation. People not believing the stories." Intimidation and fear mongering. He cleared his throat quietly. "So public endorsement wasn't really possible, for a long time."

"You wanted people to doubt your existence? Sounds like an awful lot of work." And after all, how would someone know if they were dealing with the real Bat-man and not someone dressed up to look like him? Better to hunt down your enemies in the open... or keep them unaware of your existence entirely, if you wanted to play it that way.

"So you became more public over time?"

"Could be," Tim replied, a bit dismissively. "It was more useful than you might think." But he didn't feel much like getting into details there.

His normally fairly deadpan face faltered a little again, and he frowned considerably. "Right. There were some-- issues, and that ended up with evidence on film. Some still believed it a hoax, but it got a lot harder to deny after that."

"You were caught on camera? Unfortunate, though I'm surprised you went along as long as you did without someone aiming a mobile recording device at you." Cities, especially, tended to be rife with surveillance devices. Hence the advantage of having Fuyu around.

"Scrambled feeds," Tim commented. "And what did leak out was usually accused of fraud." So they had their ways of keeping a general lid on it. "This was just a bit bigger than that." News crews and all.

But Tim stretched out, and quickly said, "I should probably get back to work."

Oh? Was this a sensitive topic? Tim seemed to have an awful lot of them... but poking some more at this particular one could wait.

Zouichi nodded, but with the full intention of asking about the leak again later. ~~You can't escape Tim~~

For his own part, Tim was well aware that he'd messed that one up. There was no way Zouichi wouldn't be suspicious.

He half-waved, then turned and left without another word.

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Summertime [Open]

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