15709/A Lovely Morning For Patrolling

A Lovely Morning For Patrolling
Date of Scene:	25 August 2023
Location:	Exterior - Happy Harbor High School
Synopsis:	Crush finds The Amazing Scott performing on school grounds and is forced to protect him from teens trying to take back their tips. They share a conversation and she does not lose her temper over the mention of a certain Czarnian she loathes.
Cast of Characters:	Scott Free, Xiomara Rojas

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Scott Free has posed:
The Placard reads -The Amazing Scott. Scott does not look amazing. Jeans a t-shirt, a little taller than average, slim athletic build. then the rubber balls he is juggling turn into glowing orbs of light and the juggling accelerates until they become a ring of light. Scott stops juggling and the ring remains in place until he catches and disperse it to reveal the three ordinary balls in his hand. There's some clapping. Teens are notoriously hard to interest beyond their cell phones. Scott frowns as a phone beeps and a loud conversation starts.

That's when the rude caller's phone displays a line of flaming text. "SHUT THE HELL UP! THANK YOU!" She does. Scott takes a short break, he turns the placard around to say, "Back in five." He takes a sip of coffee.

Xiomara Rojas has posed:
As someone who doesn't need much sleep, Crush is already up to face the day. She wears her usual style of deep pink, almost red leather pants with thigh-high combat boots, an aqua short shirt that leaves just her belly exposed, and leather jacket that has the sleeves cut off. Wrapped twice around her waist is a black, thick link chain that seems to have to end or beginning.

Having already patrolled the back of the main building and football field, the white skinned Czarnian makes her way to the front of the building and notices the small crowd of teens hovering around some guy. Moving closer she reaches the scene just as the teens go quiet and the man switches his sign around.

A couple of the teens over Crush a wave then their attention goes back to their phones, after all the guy with the glowing balls was on break. She offers a nod back toward the teens before stepping up to the table.

"You aware you're on Happy Harbor High School grounds?" She asks as nicely as she can, but still there's something of a growl to her tone.

Scott Free has posed:
Scott Free finishes his coffee and smiles at Crush as the audience disperses to look at phones or discuss what the old guy did to Cyndi's phone. He looks her in her dark eyes and says, "Good morning, sunshine. Happy Harbor... School grounds?" Where's X-Pit or the terror booths or the whips?

Scott looks around,then back up at Crush and asks in a bewildered tone, "And?"

Xiomara Rojas has posed:
Absolutely none of those things were expected as part of the answer to the question, so Crush is forced to stare at the man and blink a few times. She had no idea what an X-Pit was, or terror booths for that matter. What whips had to do with anything, really, she didn't want to know.

"Riiiight..." she manages to breath out, brain working toward a new approach to the problem. It was part of her training after all, talk it out before resorting to violence.

"Here's the thing... the school's real careful about who it allows on the grounds," she explains bluntly. "We've had violent protestors tryin ta screw with the students in the past, so I gotta ask what you're doing here, and if you know where you are... that sort a thing."

Scott Free has posed:
Scott Free says, "I'm performing feats of illusion. I am the Amazing Scott, or Scott the Amazing. Kind of waffling on that. I must not be doing a good job if you had to ask. As for screwing with the students, I would never. They give me money... hey, put that tenspot back if you ever want a cell phone to work for you! That's a good lad. I may need protection from some of them. I'm glad you're here. I'm sorry I gave you my name but I didn't get yours." Scott walks over to Crush, not so much aggressively as to be ready to offer a handshake or hug as appropriate if she wishes. He extends a hand. "Asking the same questions must be boring."

Xiomara Rojas has posed:
Not having caught any part of the act, Crush accepts him at his word while watching his face for tell-tale signs of lying. Seeing none, she seems satisfied enough, and then he's walking toward her. Once again she reads the body language as he moves and seems contented by what she finds.

"Amazing Scott sounds better," is stated first and then she accepts the offered hand, carefully, to shake. So far it's been eight months since she accidently broke someone's hand, and she wants to make a full twelve.

"I'm called Crush," she then says, taking her hand back but making sure he stays a certain distance from her. Without warning she looks to the crowd of teens, "Hey, back off the donation hat... dude earned your tips, so ya can't have em back. Buskers work hard for their money."

Looking back to Scott as the teens back waaaay off now, she offers him a half smile, half smirk and a slight shrug of her shoulders, "There, you're protected."

Scott Free has posed:
Scott Free looks back at the kids. "They're scared of you. DON"T PISS HER OFF!!" he yells, suddenly annoyed by something in their attitude. He looks back to Crush. "I mean why are you scared? Are you up to something? Is she prone to acts of violence? <If you are let me know sweetie!>"

Scott shakes his head. "So I was going to present you with your watch to amuse the crows but, this might be taken as undermining your authority, and I don't want to make more work for you, you being so nice and friendly to me. I apologize on their behalf." He goes to grab his hat and placard. "You free for breakfast?"

Xiomara Rojas has posed:
Clearly half of what just happened confused the hell out of Crush, her facial expression revealed that, but she shook it off and raised a brow.

"I used to go to school here," she explains. "And ah... I used to have... anger issues." Sure, anger issues was the perfect way to explain Czarnian tempers.

"But uh... you don't have to apologize for them, or breakfast... wait," she starts blinking, even tilts her head. "Did you just call me sweetie?"

Scott Free has posed:
Scott Free seems taken aback. "... only if you resolved the anger issues and otherwise don't mind." His stance becomes more neutral. Hug offer is withdrawn for the moment.

"I'm sorry if that was not what to call you. You just remind me of my wife. The kindest, warmest person I've ever known. He pulls out a very large cell phone of himself, arm in arm with a woman who's hair is cropped off by the picture border. He recenters it. "This is Barda. You should meet her. She doesn't have a lot of friends. She's... kind of shy. People make assumptions about her... think she has no feelings... or she's dangerous. People can be scary without being a physical threat."

"Actually she can be very dangerous, but she usually isn't."

Xiomara Rojas has posed:
Crush isn't entirely certain about his excuses until she sees the picture of the wife. With him in the picture as well, she can get an idea of the woman's size... likely around the same size as herself. She wasn't at all used to that, and she most certainly did not look anything like the woman other than size.

"I'm no sweetie," she offered in regards to the use of that nickname. "But... I'll forgive it this time cause I'm working on my temper."

Canting her head a little, she continues to study the picture until he takes it away. "Humans make assumptions about everything, and everyone, cause they fear what they don't understand," comes her next blunt statement. "Don't matter if you're a threat or not, they assume it because on a number of things... size, not from this planet, a mutant, etc.. As an alien like myself, you learn ta suck it up, or get angry... thus learnin to control my temper."

Scott Free has posed:
Scott Free ahs. "An alien! Why didn't you say so? Join the club. I mean I /look/ like them but put me through Mount Sinai for tests... I could make some doctors retire, I'm pretty sure. You... I didn't want to assume, and DNA scan would just be rude. But if I had to hazard a guess, Czarnian-human? I only know of one true Czarnian and he's infamous, even where I'm from. I'm a Forever People person, also called a New God. Not an Eternal. Source no. Completely different evolution back story, though many similarities."

"Listen. I already like your non-sweet self. Here's my address and number. Give me a call sometime and drop in. Please. I'll make coffee!"

Xiomara Rojas has posed:
First Crush takes one slow step back, then a second step back as her eyes go from a pale pink to bright red. Her breathing speeds up even as she shoves her hands into the pocket of her jacket and just stands there, seething and breathing. Closing her eyes she has to take another few minutes to argue with herself, to shove the rage back into the box, to remind herself that although Lobo was the sperm donor, he was not and would never be her father.

The seconds tick by, and the tapping her her right foot goes from insanely fast, to fast, slower and finally stops. Letting out her breath she opens her eyes and once more they are just pale pink. In regards to anything Czarnian or Lobo, she only says, "Half-Czarnian." and nothing else, the tone indicating its not something she will talk about again.

She accepts the address and number however and even offers him a smile, "I like coffee so uh... I'll think about it."