red_detective (red_detective) wrote in newalliance, @ 2017-05-01 21:33:00 |
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Entry tags: | red robin, speedy ii |
Who: Tim and Mia, plus NPCs
When: April 28th (backdated some)
Where: Gotham University campus
What: Mia comes up to nab Tim spontaneously from campus and meets his friends there
Rating: Curse-happy post is happily curse-heavy!
“You are my hero,” George said. “...My very bent over hero.”
Tim heard a thump of flesh and George whining an “ow!” that told him that Tamera had thumped him in the shoulder on his behalf. He didn’t bother to stop what he was doing, which was currently unfastening the engine case off an older car so he could peer under it. All three of them were currently standing outside in the campus dorm’s parking lot, Tim’s car parked close with the trunk open so he could get to his tools and see why George’s was having trouble starting the vehicle. “We have an agreement!” George whined at Tamera.
It wasn’t a lie. George did have permission to flirt with him. Mostly it was just corny stuff that made people groan. “Yeah, we do, and, well, I guess it’s one way to make it happen,” Tim said distractedly while waving a hand at the dust. Where in the hell have you been driving this poor thing? Off road?
“He can flirt without being raunchy,” Tamera said. Then to George, “He’s doing you a favor. You could at least pretend to be interested in why your car’s acting up.”
“It’s all right, Tam.” Tim laughed a little, even while his brow was bent as he swiped at dust and wiggled at the top of a spark plug wire and yanked it upward. “Trust me, I hear way worse from the girlfriend.”
Then there was Mia’s voice approaching. “Yeah? Like what?”
Tim jerked, and it was only high control of reflexes that kept him from hitting his head on the hood or dropping his ratchet. He came out from under the car hood to look at her in surprise. “Oh, you’re early.” His two friends were staring at her even as he swiped his hands on his jeans to give her a hug (keeping his palms off her so he didn’t smudge her with dirt and grease). He looked to the others, feeling awkward but plunging on, experienced with making formal introductions go smoothly. “Everyone, this is Mia. Mia this is George and Tamera. I was just…” Tim motioned awkwardly at the vehicle. “This is George’s car. I was looking it over, because he’s hopeless.”
“So hopeless,” George agreed distantly. Then pointed at Mia. “This is her!”
Oh boy… “Uh, yeah.”
“This is the Mia’s Mouth tag! In the flesh!”
“Yes. See? She’s very real. And not Canadian.”
“Oh my gawd, gurrrrrl, can I hug you?!”
Tamera was smiling now, a little embarrassed. “Feel free to tell him no. It’s nice to meet you finally.”
~~~
She was a bit early. Traffic hadn’t been so bad. Even so she knew how Tim could get under the hood of a car. Chances were even if she was on time or even late she’d still find him under the hood of this car. He was being careful to not get his greasy hands on her, which was appreciated, so when he was pulling away from it, she gave him a quick kiss.
She glanced towards the engine, not sure what good her looking would do. She could fix her bike but that was about it. She gave everyone a quick wave before looking a bit confused for a minute. “Mia’s Mouth tag?” Confusion was evident in her voice as his friend George glomped her for a hug.
~~~~~
Tim had smiled at the kiss, then decided he could let them socialize (Mia didn’t need help fending for herself in meeting new people or carrying on conversation at all--she was better at it than he was). So he instead went to his car to get the 5/8ths and extension bar, returning under the hood to fish out a spark plug for examination.
George pulled out his phone. “Yeah, on Twitter!” He pulled the app up and swiped around till he had it pulled up. “It’s your quotes! Last one was ‘the whole right wing cabinet can climb up a dinosaur’s--’... um--cooter!” That was slightly edited from what Mia had truly said, and it didn’t matter. There were stars on the word anyhow.
Tamera laughed. “My favorite is still ‘He can outlaw my vajay when he stops wanking with the bill of rights.”
George pointed upward matter-of-factly. “Fucking pasty fascist puppy kickers.” He then reached over to scroll some. “I also like the drunken ones, too. ‘Jesus Christ, this is the right foot sock, not the left foot’s sock.’ I still don’t know the circumstance to that one, but I’m amused all the same.”
Tim spoke up while putting the spark plug back. “She had taken her socks off then decided they needed to be back on. She gave up on them. George, when was the last time you changed the oil in this poor thing?”
~~~
Her eyebrows shot up. “You’ve been live tweeting me?” She asked. She wasn’t angry, but she was a bit surprised by this. She smiled at his friend. “Cunt. You can say it. It’s probably my favorite curse, it’s just so harsh I very rarely use it.”
She snorted. “Damn, drunk me is a fucking toddler. I don’t even remember that.” She paused. “Not that it didn’t happen.”
She gently took his friends phone and then pulled out her own so she could find it on her own twitter feed. “Thanks,” she said handing it back to him. “Hey hon, when the hell did I just yell, ‘Fucking fucker who fucks.’” She was referring to a tweet that was all caps and a multitude of exclamation points. Not many people could make her that idiotically random even while ranting.
“Maybe if I just posted this myself people would stop calling me a commie bitch on twitter.” she joked.
~~~~
“I try not to say it,” George said. “They might say I’m not lady-like.”
“You’re entirely not lady-like,” Tamera muttered. George took mock offense at this, though it was obvious by his over-played gasp and touching of his chest he was not offended at all.
Tamera ignored him, looking at Mia with admiration. “But man, Tim wasn’t kidding. You talk like in his tweets. I love it!”
At Mia’s question, Tim lift his head, thinking. “That was… 17th? It was a video posted on facebook about the politician who told a woman to calm down.” He screwed the bolts back into the engine cover. “George, try to start the car so I can hear it again.” He then looked to Mia while putting away the ratchets into their case. “... You didn’t know I was tweeting these?” Cautious sounding, one brow bent uncertainly.
~~~~
“No one should give a shit about being lady-like. Anyone wants you to be a lady is essentially telling you to sit down and shut the fuck up.” Whenever a woman was told she wasn’t being lady-like it was usually because she wasn’t in the kitchen making her man a sandwich. “Last person to try to tell me to be lady like got a slushie in the face.” Which was true. It had been awhile since her war with Iris Hamilton had died down.
She still only barely remembered the incident with the politician. “I say shit like this so much that I don’t even remember half the time. I have no self control.”
She eyed him back. “No idea. I don’t care really.” He didn’t need to worry about her getting angry. “If it teaches some people to get creative with their cursing then awesome.”
~~~~
“...Oh my god, can I marry you? Tim, can I marry her if she says yes?”
“No,” Tim said flatly while fetching his multimeter out of the car and digging around in his toolbox to pull a small, white plastic thing out. “Start the car.” George had barely turned it on when Tim shook his head. “Okay, turn it off. Turn off your dash light. Shut all the doors.”
“Geez, he’s bossy,” George muttered with a playful wink.
Tamera pointed at the small tool in his hand. “What is that?”
Tim looked surprised, held it up. “Fuse puller.”
“You… have a fuse puller.”
“I, um… It’s handy.” He returned back to the car, started placing clamps on the battery.
To Mia he pursed his lips, nodding. “Okay. Sorry, I would have said. Just thought you knew.”
Tamera laughed, pushing at her glasses. “What, you thought she stalked all your media feeds?”
“Yes? Actually.” Tim stalked everyone’s media feeds. But then, he was trained to always find the nuances of why people’s behaviors might change. Mia wasn’t like that, so he was mentally kicking himself some for just assuming it happened.
~~~
Mia couldn’t help but smile a bit at that. “Yeah, sorry, taken. But flattered.” She watched closely as Tim bent and listened to the car. It wasn’t like she would be much help.
She snorted a bit when he said the fuse puller was handy. “Dork.” She said hitting him slightly with her hip. But she glanced at Tamera. “You’re surprised?” She asked sounding a bit amused. “Because he’s extremely prepared for most things.”
The issue was that twitter wasn’t the place Mia tended to look at her friends feed for. She did a lot of PPL outreach there and had a lot of followers so some of it got lost in the confusion. “Facebook. Instagram. Yes. Twitter?” She made a face. “My twitter is a convoluted mess. Too many followers and people I’m following.”
~~~~
Tim might have smiled a lot more at that while watching the multimeter while pulling fuses.
“I dunno,” Tamera said with playfulness, tone hinting at a subject that had already passed between the three, especially with the conspirative look she gave Mia. “Sounds like dibs.”
“Hey,” Tim said while waving a fuse her direction without looking up. “The possessive language use is only to denote connectivity of relationship status, not actual ownership. Until there is better way to articulate relationship statuses among each other, we’ve established we have to put up with the possessive forms to deem people’s significant others.”
George leaned over to whisper at Mia, “Yeah, but I’d belong to you. Just say the word!”
“In case it’s not obvious,” Tamera said with a helpful smirk. “George is in theater.”
George set his fingertips to his own chest. “That’s right. I’m go-ing to be a famous act-tor!”
“Or a comedian,” Tim suggested.
“Same difference?”
But Tamera was more interested in the media. “Oh, I agree Twitter is a mess, but that’s the thing. It’s a media format that is meant to be a tangle of sentences, short spurts of thought. It’s not meant to be organized. It’s meant to be spurious and whimsical or to say something quick and profound. It’s a shame it’s actually become such a serious thing. Which is why your cursing is probably on that format and not on facebook.”
“Exactly why,” Tim agreed. “Besides, if it’s about spouting off what’s on you mind that instant, well, that’s where Mia’s a viking.” He straightened to give her a look, using the back of his wrist to rub at an itch on his cheek. “I mean that as a compliment!”
“Hey, it was Mark Twain who said there was relief found in cursing you couldn’t find in prayer, and with the politicization of twitter, I’m glad someone can formulate what is going on in a lot of our heads.” A pause. “Even though most of us would not come up with ‘ignorant shit-cicle licking nazi-monger.’”
~~~~
She quickly caught on that Tamera was setting Tim up for a rant of his own, and he delivered. Mia watched him when he said it and she couldn’t help but laugh a little. She nudged him slightly. Show a bit of solidarity since she had kind of giggled at him.
“But it does make it easier for things to get lost in the ether.” She pointed out. “That’s why I never noticed this whole thing.”
“I’ll take viking.” She responded cheerfully. “I just have to find all my beers and wenches.”
“That one was one of my favorites.” Tamera replied with a snort.
“I’m pretty sure that one was describing Iris Hamilton.” Mia said. She wasn’t sure that they knew about Mia’s insane dislike of that woman. Parts of that had gone a bit viral, but it had also been a while. “I hear her name and my ass just clenches.”
~~~~
“You’re thinking pirates, hun.”
“Vikings were pirates,” Tamera pointed out.
“Oh!” George pointed both fingers at Tim. Not that he could see it. “She got you there, man.”
“Yes, but in old Danish society… Never mind. You definitely have a short that draining your battery, but I might need to pull your dash apart to get to it.”
George hurried over to the edge of the car. “My baby! How long will it take?”
“Um… Well, I don’t have the tools with me to get into it properly and it can take a while. Plus you kind of need a full tune up.”
While they were meshing that out, Tamera was joining into full rant with Mia. “Iris Hamilton? Fuck that woman! She’s a conceited bitch with a right-wing stick up her ass and is constantly slaughtering the facts!”
~~~~
She shrugged not caring if it was vikings or pirates. “All I know is that I was probably a lesbian Viking in a past life. A fact I only just now decided.”
George seemed a bit distraught over his car, and Mia knew it sucked, but luckily it didn’t seem to be anything that needed huge machinery (and thus a tow to a shop) to fix.
“She’s the worst.” Mia agreed. “I’ve met her in person, and it’s not better in that context either.”
~~~~
“Well, that would explain a lot.” Tim bumped her with his hip though to show he was teasing.
Tim was fishing his keys out and handing them to George while motioning to Mia. “She got arrested for dumping a slushie on her.”
George looked awed. Tamera squeaked. “She was the slushie incident? Oh my gawd.” She fished out her phone. “I’m texting my boyfriend. I’m going to run off with Mia to be a lesbian viking in modern times.”
“Hey!” George stamped his foot. “If I can’t marry her, neither can you!”
Tim shook his head. “I believe this is their way of saying they’re charmed by you. Anyhow, can you follow me to the manor? Not sure how far I’ll get in this poor car. Someone doesn’t take good care of it.”
“Shops cost money,” George whined.
“You think I’m fixing it for free? You have to finish that essay by Friday or I’m not giving it back… And I’ll still take my car back.”
“Speaking of school…” Tamera thumbed over at Tim. “Can you convince him to attend grad ceremony? He’s insisting on not going and he’s the Magna Cum Laude.”
~~~~
“Well, she made me mad, but getting arrested wasn’t any fun.” Well, it hadn’t been the first time she’d been arrested and might not be the last. “It was satisfying at the moment, and I guess it’s a victory that you can see it happen on youtube. Granted it’s grainy security cam footage.” Also, you couldn’t really tell it was her, since it was mostly of the back of her head.
“What do you think lesbian vikings would do in modern times?”
“I’ll follow you.” In the grand scheme of things she really didn’t think they were that far out anyway.
She felt a little crappy because she hadn’t actually asked Tim what he’d been planning to do for his graduation and it was fast approaching. She glanced over at him. “I can’t make any promises. His life; his choice.” Mia also hadn’t really cared one way or another about her own graduation. She mostly went through with it because she was fairly certain that Ollie would love to see it even if he would have agreed with whatever decision she’d made.
~~~~
“It’s hard to not see red every time she opens her foolish mouth,” Tamera stated.
George piped up at the note on what lesbian vikings would do. “Sail the seven seas of the internet, plundering the patriarchy and making off with the memes!”
“Pretty sure that’s on her agenda already. Probably tonight even,” Tim said with a laugh.
He was putting things away, closing the hood of the older car. “Appreciate it.” The road to the manor was a boring walk, so if the battery didn’t last at least he could ride on the bike. He pointed at George. “No picking up hot boys and joy riding.”
George made a huffy sound. “Dude, please… That car scares me.” He pointed at the porsche. “It’s got weird buttons and the radio is all computery… You have full insurance for sure, right?”
There really wasn’t anything special about the car (its wasn’t his patrol car). That was just George not driving around anything new.
“You’ll be fine. Skinny pedal on the left is still the gas. It’s been a bit since I’ve pulled the electronic guts out of a car. Should make for a fun evening.”
“Yours and my idea of fun? Worlds apart.”
At the graduating he shrugged, shifting uncomfortably. “Just don’t see the point. You guys will be fine without me. Trust me.”
He then turned to Mia. “Want to go pick up some spark plugs and wires?”
~~~~
“That’s my agenda every night. Nothing particularly gay about it. Although I usually plunder the patriarchy with memes.” Really she did this most days she had spare time. If someone was wrong on the internet, Mia was going to snark at them.
She was filing away this talk of graduation for later. She hadn’t lied. His decision was his decision, but she wanted to be sure that he was sure about that. “I had fun at mine.” She admitted. “Well, fun right after all the pictures and hat throwing and shit.”
Well, they were officially in the run boring errands together phase of their relationship. “Depends.” She said with a smirk. “You going to show me how you’re fixing whatever the hell you’re fixing?”
~~~~
“Our favorite type of plundering. Mocking politics with Tumblr,” Tamera said.
Tim had a gleam in his eye when he looked at Mia. “I expect you to help me tear the car apart and put it back together, so yes. Finding a battery drain can sometimes be a pain.”
George looked at Mia. “You do that kind of thing?”
“Mia learns everything she can get her hands on,” Tim said, with no small amount of pride.
Tamera grinned. “Oh, so that’s why you like her so much.” She looked to Mia. “Run, honey, he only wants you for your brains.”
“Hey, I just need you two to be nice to Marietta!” George leaned on his car, petting its hood. “It will be her first time with a girl. Don’t worry, baby, they’ll be gentle. Right?”
“We’ll bring her back a new woman,” Tim promised.
~~~
She couldn’t help but grin back at him. This hadn’t been her plan, but it looked like she was going to end up with grease all over her hands tonight. “I mean, I know how to change oil and basic maintenance shit.” She pointed out with a shrug. “Also, my bike. I got it as a present, but I had to build the damn thing…. With help. So not a complete noob.”
“Yeah, I guess I just couldn’t find one of those guys who just want to grab my ass all the time.” She lamented.
Mia looked back and forth between Tim and his friends, and it was suddenly obvious the type of people that Tim attracted and who were attracted to him. These two were extroverted, good people with a healthy sense of humor. Mia approved.
~~~~
“This will be fun for you. It’s electrical on top of basic maintenance. Just hope the computer isn’t shot in it. Those are spendier to replace than a wire.”
Truly, the two had sought him out. He would explain their histories later when they were elbow deep in car innards hunting down an awry wire, but Tim hadn’t sought out friends at college. George had needed tutoring in math and science. Tamera was the chess champion and had challenged the fellow top classmate to games until he had finally sat down at the table with her and played in the food court. Both were from poorer backgrounds and minorities, and both caught on really quick that he wasn’t fazed by either.
There were other people, too, that had found a connection with him. The skater kids for instance, because he rode his board around campus and could do a few tricks on it (though not near what he was capable for doing trick wise and he’d fumble some moves on purpose). The science technology kids liked to try to pick his brain. He tutored because he could after class. He’d put so many hours into classes here and…
That was ending soon unless Bruce was okay with him just getting even more bachelor degrees. He would soon have the Masters of Business Administration, and he only had a few more credits for the Bachelor’s in science, and he still wanted to pursue a full Masters there as well. But he wouldn’t need to focus full time in classes for that.
Now he had no idea what he was supposed to do next. Every time he thought about it he just felt uncertain, and that made him feel weighed down. It was in the back of his brain to talk to Bruce, but…
But that was a matter for another day. He shrugged at Mia’s comment. “So sorry. We can’t all be interested in only one asset,” he noted playfully about booty grabbing. “...Though not saying I’m never interested in that.”
Tim flipped the keys in his hand, heading for the driver’s side. “All right. Let’s hope this makes it all the way. I did just jump it for a while, so wish us luck.”
“Good luck!” Tamera said happily while George looked to Tim’s car with some trepidation.
It wasn’t until they were driving off that Tamera nudged George. “Well, that explains why he’s come out of his shell a lot more, doesn’t it?”
“Yep. Not nearly as worried about him now.” Then he clutched her arm. “Oh my god, Tam, he left me his car! Who does that? What if something happens to it?”
Tamera looked deadpan at him. “Just sunk in, did it? Come on, let’s get it into the right parking place.”