2014-03-15 - The Awakening: ...Soothed by an Embrace...

It's in the wee hours and Robinson Park is empty. Five to six A.M. it may get some early morning runners, but it isn't there yet. Currently, Red Hood is resting fully uniformed on some monkey bars, lounging really. He doesn't seem in a rush to be anywhere, though he is alert to his surroundings. This was the date, time, and location of the coded message. Considering he hasn't killed any of the Bat Family yet (note the yet), it is still a possibility Red Robin will feel threatened or confident enough to show up alone. Red Hood is actually counting on it.

"Don't you get helmet hair in that thing, Jay?"

The slightly amused remark comes from the shadowy area behind the gym itself. It only takes a moment for Red Robin to stride out looking bemused as she regards the taller Red Hood simply leaning there as she approaches. Once she's there her arms swing up to catch the monkey bars above her head as she leans forward to grin toward him. "So what's the mysterious shenanigans tonight? You keep running off with Batwing. Starting to think you might have a crush on him."

Red Hood nods slightly toward Red Robin when she appears, not tense in the least. "Hey 'Polly'," he states. He then shrugs, "Cute kid, if I was gay, he would totally be my type," cracking a joke with ease about that. "But the problem is, we would brawl each time on who got 'top'. Talk about a violent relationship. Though if you are wanting someone older and more experienced yourself girl....," mostly teasing Red Robin. Cause he wouldn't do that to Batwing, right?

Red Robin keeps hanging onto the bars only to swing one leg out aiming to kick Red Hood right in the rear at his offer of wanting someone more experienced. It wasn't meant to be a kick that could harm so much as a boot to the butt to give him a good push away and her leg falls back down after. "Ted gave me the name. It works," she explains giving a little shrug only for her to swing up and catch her knees on the bars so that she can swing down hanging there like, well, a bat. Smirking up toward him she points out, "For as much as you seem to have a hate on for the Boss, you're very interested in the rest of us."

Red Hood just barely jumps/slides out of the way as the kick lashes out, and grunts a bit as he surprise lands on his feet a little harder than he planned due to needing to use a quicker reaction time than he planned for. "I like your dyed hair, pity to see it gone." And he then shrugs, "I have my reasons for my interest. But Batwing, he's different." That is all he says on it.

Red Hood then twists about and steps back to watch you move on the bars with interest considering his body language. "You really don't seem the kid's type by far. How did that happen?"

"Because he's the Boss' flesh and blood and not adopted? Or because he's Talia's son? You move like him you know. When you tense up." Red Robin relaxes her legs only to drop down onto her hands in a handstand. Stretching her legs up she tucks them together and in to come into a graceful crouch which she then bounces up from on the balls of her feet. Green eyes peer from the green mask she wears--there was no lensing over them as many of the Bat clan had, or at least she'd opted not to tonight. "Whose type am I then? Dick's? Tim's?" An eyebrow arches, "Yours? You can take the helmet off, you know. I already know what you look like after all." Again she shrugs only to walk forward out from beneath the monkey bars to the open grass where she flips forward into a lazy cartwheel.

"I understand him and he's very sweet when he tries. Plus I'm capable. I've been teaching him some of what I know. Lots of reasons."

"Not my true face," Red Hood states. "There are many masks one can wear," he states. "The kid is more practical, you seem the type to try and restrain him or hold him back. I would think he would hate that," as he explains his own reasons back. "And you don't put out enough I bet for Dick." Awwww, ouch! Wait, did he just pun? Poor Grayson! But he doesn't seem the least bit surprised by the names, not surprising there.

"And right, sweet. I'll let him know that next time we hang," Red Hood states, as if there really will be a next time. "Is he still grounded?" He actually sounds honestly curious about that.

"Same with me and Polly... and it's hair chalk, it washes out. Kind of stand out with my hair color otherwise." Turning around she regards him, considering, before answering, "No, not any more. He's still in hot water with the Boss, though. Sorry for throwing the knife at you by the way--I suspected and needed to see how you moved."

A shrug at that, "You just moved up the time table by a few days is all, nothing I can't handle however. Actually, could work out for the best," Red Hood states casually. "Have to say, I had my suspicions, but it was the knife throw that gave you away," he advises. "Good 'mask' though."

Red Robin tips her head toward Red Hood still regarding him a moment or two considering his words. "How do you know this isn't the mask?" Even as she baits him with such a potentially philosophical question she flashes a grin. "I've got good aim. Wouldn't have hit you unless you moved really wrong. Ted's a good guy, though, and I do plan to keep going there. So don't screw that up, please. The Boss is too focused on other things and I need to keep up my own training." Nevermind she was rather fond of Ted--he was a good guy.

"My plans for that place have nothing to do with you," Red Hood states. "The fact we met there was coincidence." He then chuckles, crossing his arms loosely across his red bat symboled chest. "And I won't burn the place down if that is what you are worried about. In either case, I do hope you have thought up a question by now instead of being dazed and confused like so many of the others. Do you guys just not communicate with each other? Hell, I thought the Commish was going to piss himself if he didn't have balls of steel when he saw me."

"Commissioner Yindel?" The look of surprise that flits over Red Robin is hard to miss, though it's quickly blinked away as she looks to the side with a firm shake of her head. "I mean Gordon. And... I speak to some. I don't know who else you're talking about though. I only know that you've been harassing Batwing." Looking back toward him again she smiles faintly. "I already know who you are. So what else could I ask? If you really want a question, though..." Here she trails off moving from the remark of knowing who he is (does she really or is she bluffing?) to apparently thinking of a question. It only takes a minute before she looks back to him with a bright grin as her hands clasp behind her back. "Boxers or briefs?"

"Who the hell is Yindel?" Red Hood then shrugs, "Do you? There is so much left...to the...imagination...," did she just seriously ask that?! Because Hood's arms slowly unfold, and his head tilts slightly to the side, "Huh? Seriously? You are seriously asking that? And here I thought you were only interested in Batwing," he then teases Red Robin, getting actually flirtatious in tone for the first time.

"I've got a very good imagination," Red Robin replies with a laugh as she imagines just what his expression may be beneath that mask with such a question. A step is taken closer to Red Hood as she flips her hand up to lightly jab one green-gloved finger at the red bat symbol on his chest. "You're a Bat. Occam's Razor. When you eliminate the impossible, whatever's left, no matter how improbable, is the truth." She sounds so very sure, so very certain, and though he wears a full helmet hiding his face she tips her head up to regard him as if she were meeting his eyes dead on.

Then, rather unexpectedly, she gives him a tight hug unless he moves away from it. "Welcome home, Jason."

The rush for him causes Red Hood to tense up, but it isn't an attack stance that Red Robin has which confuses me. And when she hugs him? He is stiff as if unsure what is actually happening. There is a soft click sound, but it comes from his helmet, and then a gloved hand is felt on Red Robin's face as it is tilted upward. And if she isn't insanely careful, Red Hood will actually haul off and kiss her!

Red domino mask and a tuff of white hair for his bangs, Red Hood's mouth will slant over Red Robin's and kiss the hell out of her if she doesn't fight him. A vague taste of coolness let behind by the smokes. And if that kiss carries through and becomes slowly broken, he will smirk lopsidedly, "Give me till Sunday," which is Dick's birthday. "Then I will give the old man an invitation to end this damn game." His voice is a more like the man that 'Polly' spoke with outside and within Grant's Gym, not so warped like it was within the helmet. But it is not the face of the simply angry young man. This is a face of someone haunted, but the anger is still there. Weighted by the world, he has not dealt with it like the cheerful Dick or the dedicated Tim. Something broke this man, and there are fragments left behind. "Sunday."

The stiffness is taken in stride--Carrie was quite used to it from the times she had hugged Bruce, or Batman, and even Damian when he was still getting used to her presence in the first place. The hug is there though. Warm, strong, not attempting to unarm him though she could feel where weapons were hidden on him. The click of the helmet opening up confuses her at first until her head is tipped up.

It's her then that's surprised. A noise comes up in the back of her throat as she blushes, hard, unable to find her breath for a moment or even react. That was ONE hell of a kiss. As soon as she can she steps back still red-faced at having literally walked into that one. "Fine. You need to deal with things your way--I get that. He probably already suspects. Boss usually knows more than he lets on," she points out. Shrugging she smiles faintly at him only to add, "Sunday then. Don't do that again, though. I'm taken."

"I know," and there is a wide, lopsided smirk on Red Hood's face. "If it was by anyone else, I would take you. But the kid is the only one that hasn't let me down." The red hood is then lifted and replaced over the man's face, locking it away from view as it is reclipped into place. "It will get worse before it gets better," he does warn. "Anyway, tell the kid Jaybird said hi, and remember to spread his wings before the old man clips them forever."

Red Hood then turns away and starts to walk toward the shadowy trees to head northward.