15583/Arrow for your thoughts

Arrow for your thoughts
Date of Scene:	09 August 2023
Location:	Shootin' Tootin' Archery Club, Metropolis
Synopsis:	Kate and Jinx catch up over nachos, beers, and archery
Cast of Characters:	Jinx, Kate Bishop

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Jinx has posed:
Is Jinx good at archery? no. Not in the slightest. But what if she cheated with magic. May be then she could keep up with Kate. It was worth an experiment and apparently this was the best place to shoot arrows, eat nachos, and listen to country dance music.

What a weird combination. But some parts of Metropolis are simply like that. The guy behind the desk has a big smile on his face and an even bigger Texan hat, "Howdy Pardna's what can I getcha for?"

Jinx stares at him for a moment trying to gauge if this is just his job talking or if he's really that kind of person. "60lb bow and some arrows and a target." She thumbs to Kate, "She has her own stuff."

"Well alrighty then!" says the clerk excitedly and gathers up the equipment for Jinx. "Target 6 is all yours."

Kate Bishop has posed:
    There is little chance Kate Bishop would walk around Metro with a bow, but Hawkeye sure. She has her bow slung over her shoulder and her sunglasses pushed up to perch on her head.

    "This is definitely an odd combination." she muses looking around, head tilting as she take in the music and decor. "I will admit, those nachos do look good."

    Her attention drifts back though and after the guy heads off to get your gear. "That is a pretty hard draw for a beginner... I realize I have no idea how strong you are though?" she grins, a bit crooked. Then gestures almost sweeping towards a range.

Jinx has posed:
Jinx turns and comes face to face with a moose head on a beam. She glowers at it, "Ughk. This place." She turns back and calls out, "And nachos. Lots of nachos." Because why else would you come here than to have nachos and shoot arrows.

"60lb is too much? Hm. Well I'm not -that- strong, but I'm no wall flower. And no, I don't have super human strength." She smirks and suddenly wonders if Kate does. This entire trip so far it's almost like Jinx is trying to hustle her. "Hey can you remind me how to strap on the arm protector thingy again?"

There is nothing innocent about Jinx's casual glance over at Kate. Gathering up her stuff she walks over to target 6 and dumps it on the couch. It's like they blended bowling with archery. There's even a score monitor above playing an animation.

It's of Hawkeye. Not Kate, but the old one. Doing a silly dance. It's not really him but a CGI model of him. Decent likeness. The word START bounces around behind him.

Kate Bishop has posed:
    Kate turns and calls "Can yuo bring a 30lb draw as well please." then she turns back to Jinx and grins. "Aw come on the moose adds character. Imagine if it was an animatronic moose that said Howdy Pardnars..."

    She is probably kidding.

    She adds the 30lb bow though when it is offered up to pile of gear and then reaches down and snags the arm protector. "Lemme see." holding her free hand out for your arm, looks like she is willing to show you how to strap it on.

    If it is a hustle, well Kate seems to be strangely fond of the Villainess. One eye turning to the arcade score monitor. "Aw come on, get with the times... this is Metro.. I operate here.. the old guy is New York!" there is a sigh "Fucking Starks marketing department.... licensing..." she eye rolls "Oh did you know we have Titan toys... superheroing is strange..."

Jinx has posed:
Jinx offers up her arm to Kate, "Money rules the world Hawkeye." Look at Jinx, protecting Kate's sicrit identity. "The other benefit of this place is it's stupid cheap. What with them not doing any safety standards at all. 'Merica."

"Titan toys? Yeesh. Just shoot me if they - oh wait, no, there are Jinx toys out there. Because villains can't have the rights to their imagine without going balistic on corporate America. They're from the movie with me in it. Me as a character, not me me. I'm bald in it for some reason."

She opts for the 30lb bow and draws one of the arrows. Clearly she's had lessons but they were a while ago. She's rusty and she lets loose, the arrow misses the target. "You missed out on going through Nadia's portal in to the alternate timeline I accidentally made."

Kate Bishop has posed:
    "That movie...." she shakes her head very slowly. "We need to get that cleaned up and your image rights back once we finish clearing things up for you." she shifts resting her hip on the barrier off to the side watching you and your form.

    "Also not sure I agree with villains not having image rights, I mean documentary is one thing as a public figure but... like ... that is bullshit." she looks the watches the miss. "I read a bit about that, but I admit I don't have the details. What did you do exactly?"

    She steps in closer now and reaches out adjusting your grip on the bow and then offering you another arrow. "Ok ... like this... and breath in and release. Without a sight it is pretty much instinct so may take a few shots to zero in on where you are aiming."

Jinx has posed:
"Donna wrote a report up .. no, it would have been Nadia. Or may be both of them." Jinx rolls her eyes. "Well it started back in Pathstow and ended in Pathstow - the shitty little town where I was born. My parents tried to do some fucked up ritual to steal the powers of some witch named Kel. It failed and I grew up with the powers instead. Went back there with Harley for some closure."

She takes in a deep breath, relaxes, then releases. Loose, the arrow hits the bottom left of the target block. "Whole place was wrapped up in crazy. Did some time magic to see what happened and I changed stuff. Paradox left Pathstow and went in to me. I lost my magic. I'd created a parallel timeline diverging from the moment of my birth. Woo. Go me."

She smirks at Kate. "So Nadia made a science portal to take us there. Just the three of us. I got to see a whole timeline that I created by accident."

Kate Bishop has posed:
    "Going home for closure makes sense." she notes stepping back to watch the next attempt. She genuinely seems like she is trying to help you learn about archery. "Also... that definitely sounds like rituals and risk with what your parents did." her brow furrows. "What country was this in?"

    She grins when the shot lands. "Nice, good improvement, do it again but aim higher." which is straight forward but she is encouraging.

    "Huh... I would not have pegged you changing all of space and time and back to the futuring yourself like that. At least you didn't full on vanish yourself... what was magicless Jinx like.. or well I guess that was you. Also Nadia is getting a scary amount of experience with portal science..."

Jinx has posed:
Jinx gives Kate a weird look, "England." She adjusts her stance a little and nocks another arrow, draws, and fires. A little low still but in the rings this time. "Well I didn't exactly intend to back to the future myself. Time doesn't work like how I thought. It didn't change my existence, it just branched off in to another one."

"Problem was that other timeline carried my magic away with it. Kel lived in that timeline because I couldn't stand there and watch my father murder some rando witch. Can you believe she stopped Loki from ever invading New York by ... chatting with him?"

She scoffs, "There was a photo we found on their internet of her shaking hands with Loki. They seemed all buddy buddy. Anyway - back to the story. Their world was falling apart. Cracks everywhere. That timeline was tethered to ours because of Kel and I, so it, being a young reality, was crashing in to ours and cracking like an egg. Really messed up."

Kate Bishop has posed:
    "Look. I've never been to Pathstow." she notes defensive as she gets that wierd look. She did know that Jinx was from England "You could have been moved or something as a kid..." she mutters.

    She watces the shot though. "Much better." she notes with a grin. "Also the whole multiversal timeline thing makes my head hurt everytime someone explains it to me..." she nods lightly. "Huh... if the Loki invasion was diverted... there is a solid chance I wouldn't have become Hawkeye." she takes it a step further. "Fuck... there is a not insignificant chance the Titans wouldnt have gotten back together..." she had a lot to do with that.

    She offers another arrow to you. "Was it falling apart because we didn't get the band together... or your magic that fractured it?"

Jinx has posed:
Jinx nods her head, "Yep. Lots of differences stemming from that one little change. Me saving someones life. There weren't any Avengers. The Titan's weren't back together. La Ligue d'Heroisme was based out of Brussels and lead by Captain Britain. Kel was part of the league."

She chuckles, "Oh yeah and Red Skull, you know the creepy nazi guy from World War 2? he was president of the USA and while we were there, due to the ongoing fractures causing natural disasters, he closed the borders to the USA."

"So they weren't too happy when we turned up. Alarms went off. These fractures in their reality read the same way as a breach in to their reality through a portal. Donna was very cool headed when there were a lot of emotions flying about."

She raises an eyebrow and draws back the bow. Another breath in, then slowly out, she lets loose and gets up and to the right of the center target. Close. "And then lots of people died because of Kel..."

Kate Bishop has posed:
    "Donna is fantastic in a crisis... we've seen enough of them... but Geeze... that sounds absolutely worse all said even before your last bit of lots of people dying." she puffs out a breath. "Red Skull running a Hydra USA is .. an awful thought." she looks a touch haunted.

    "Great shot Jinx."

    Another arrow is offered. She didn't hit start earlier, mostly because this is a warm up and she figures she isn't keeping score. "What did you Kel do to cause a lot of people to die?"

    "I wonder what I ended up doing there...."

    In Red Skull USA, well considering her dad is long time associates with Madame Hydra and other villains unbeknownst to Kate, fair odds she might have been a villain. Timelines are wild.

Jinx has posed:
Jinx glances over at Kate at her whimsical wonderings, "You're a delicate flower Hawkeye. You probably died fighting HYDRA or something heroic like that." A small shrug of her shoulders. "So - yes. Kel. That ritual my parents tried to do? two fancy flame shaped daggers and some classic greek magic."

She nocks the arrow and settles her shoulders. It's been so long since she's actually shot a bow. It's coming back to her but slowly - the hand eye coordination is so different compared with magic. She lets loose and it drifts off to the left of the target block.

"Kel used those daggers on me, stabbed herself and me in the heart. Zappy zap. Transferred the magic back to me. I didn't really understand it at the time but she was untethering our two timelines. Anyway. Kel died - lots of La Ligue were pissed off, Donna stepped in.."

"..and then some evil blood sucking sword that Kel had apparently put under a spell got free because Kel was dead and oooh boi.. it got real messy real fast. I don't think I've ever seen that much blood before."

Kate Bishop has posed:
    "I'd like to think I could give Hydra a run for their money. I mean I've given more than fascist goons a run for their money without failing." that bit is said dryly. "Also... delicate flowwer... you brat!" yeah that took a longer moment to really sink in.

    "Okay so she sacrificed herself to save her reality... and forgot she had a doom sword bound to her and it murdered lots of people. That... is an unfortunate outcome. How did you three escape the blood sword... and now I am picturing that seen in the shining with the hallway of blood river thing..."

    She tips her own bow off ehr shoulder and knock a range arrow in it not one from her quiver then takes a shot. She isn't showing off, not really, but she dead centers it.

Jinx has posed:
Jinx sits down on the couch as the nachos come out. She helps herself and watches Kate take a few shots down range. "Oh yeah - that's a pretty apt description of it once we killed the thing. Then this demon rose out of the blood. Oh wait, I forgot to mention at one point Nadia shrunk it with her shrinkeroos so it was tooth picked size sword of doom."

Nachos go in to her mouth. "I did some magic and summoned all the ghosts of the previous holders of the sword and they got it under control long enough for Donna to chop it in half and ruin her own sword in the process. THEN the rivers of blood and the demon."

A flick of her wrist, "Nadia stomped on it because it was tooth pick sized demon. Done and done. Head of SHIELD, Valentina Fury... don't ask I don't know. She was pretty much done with us at this point. I healed her after the sword stabbed her and she let us leave."

"Apparently the job isn't done yet - we're headed back to Pathstow to 'nudge' their reality away from ours."

Kate Bishop has posed:
    "Huh... well if I am free I would be happy to go with you to England." she starts to slowly and methodically shoot arrow after arrow down range as she talks.

    "I have a shrinkeroo arrow or ..well several of them. Pym particles are ridiclously fun to play with." she shakes her head "Also that seems like one of the weirder times with us, but not the weirdest...." her head tilts and another arrow is fired.

    "Did I ever tell you the time I saved the realm of dreams ... the lego movie sequence was trippy... I fought Lego Grodd... that reminds me... we owe the Lord of Dreams and Lady Delerium some favors still..."

    She sets her bow down on the couch leaving the smiley face of arrows around yours in the target. "How are the nachos?"

Jinx has posed:
Jinx pushes over the bowl of nachos. "Okayish." She rises up and scoops up her bow once more and waits until Kate is distracted with nachos before she does something her bio the Titans wrote up says she shouldn't be able to do. Magic without touching her feet to the Earth.

Inside this shooting range with foot in shoes and on cement, she does a little bit of magic to swap the fletching of the arrows around so that the target shows her with a smiley face and Kate's all over the place - terrible.

The guy comes over with a pitcher of beer and some mugs, "Whoa. Now that's some fancy shootin'. Show me your form?"

Jinx nods her head, "Certainly." She pulls back the bow with arrow and the arrow is coated in pink magic for a moment before it shoots and splits the arrow dead center Robinhood style. Jinx smirks mischeviously at Kate and the guy wipes his brow.

"Wowee ladies. You oughta be them superhero types with fancy shootin' like that. I bet you could even take on my main man Hawkeye."

Kate Bishop has posed:
    Kate pops a nacho into her mouth thoughtfully "Not bad..." she agrees. Not amazing but definitely not awful.

    She misses the initial magic, not watching for it and well she shouldn't be able to do it right. Kate is pretty good at reading those dossiers.

    When the guy who works here comes over and compliments she looks up from more nachos. Then she blinks and squints at the target then at Jinx. The pink magic is caught the next time though. She doesn't get mad though, instead she just smiles bit crooked.

    That is until the guy says that. "Oh come on, I'm Hawkeye." she points out gesturing at her gear. "Clint is... a New York thing." she just sighs!

Jinx has posed:
Jinx nods her head to the guy, "It's true. She's Hawkeye."

"Then why's all her shots all over the place?"

Jinx shrugs her shoulders, "Off day I guess..." She snickers to herself and sits down to enjoy some of the beer as the guy walks away rubbing the back of his head and muttering about how HIS Hawkeye is BEST Hawkeye.

"Pssh. MY Hawkeye is BEST Hawkeye," Jinx says just for Kate, then drinks some of the beer. Clearly something happened when she got her powers back from Kel because that shouldn't have been possible.

Kate Bishop has posed:
    Kate stares after him with squinty eyes. "I should get Clint to come here and kick his ass in front of that guy." she mutters then shifts back on the couch turning towards you.

    There is a blink and then a genuine grin, not as crooked at the whole bit about being Jinx's best Hawkeye. "Why thank you." she notes amused. "Also it seems like My Jinx is the best chaos mage or something then.... you are going to surprise the hell out of the next jerks who try to mess with you." she considers "Did Kel having more time to get power do something when she transferred it to you this time?"

Jinx has posed:
Jinx enjoys the beer and nachos. "Ah. No. It's more magically complicated than that. I'm going to go talk to someone about it." She hand flicks dismissively. "But I guess in a very long about way Harley's therapy trip to where I was born has helped."

"Not that I'll ever be able to forget all that blood and death, but hey, I'm more used to that than most people. I mean, look at who I used to be on a team with. Bunch of complete psychos."

Jinx lifts up a hand and motions it to the target board. All the arrows pluck free and float back to them, falling neatly in to a pile on the table before them.

"Things are kind of looking up - well, they were until some jerk stole the device I use to track H.I.V.E. agents. Right in the middle of saving their lives too. I was on to something. Eh. Now that's a WHOLE other story."

Kate Bishop has posed:
    Kate sips her beer and pops a couple more nachos in as she watches the magic with the arrows. "Remind me to bring you on my next battle to speed up arrow recovery if Impulse isnt there." teasing.

    "I don't think it is just a villain thing to be honest, the getting use to gore. I know seeing it doesn't hit the same as when I first started after a couple of alien invasions and essentially full on war..." bigger sip of beer.

    "Can't we just get the divice back Jinx?"

Jinx has posed:
Jinx shrugs her shoulders, "Get it back from who? it's not like I put a tracker in the thing. It's just a fancy network scanner I came up with. I wasn't even sure it was working anymore - but right before this idiot attacked the charity gala I picked up a signal."

She sighs, "So it's possible HIVE has it and are going to change the way they do things so it doesn't work. That, or some asshat stole it and doesn't even know what it's for." An eyeroll. She returns to drinking the free beer.

Kate Bishop has posed:
    A slow sigh. "I mean... can we build a new scanner... if you don't know who the guy is.. why did he even steal your scanner. Like he wasn't even a HIVE agent or anything?"

    There is a long pause. "God HIVE is really really annoying.... these deep conspiracy villainy is the worst."

Jinx has posed:
Jinx lifts up her glass and tinks it to Kate's, "I'll drink to that." She smiles. It feels good to be back home and amongst friends.