17595/Missed Your Birthday

Missed Your Birthday
Date of Scene:	07 April 2024
Location:	Sunny Rose Antiques <Closed>
Synopsis:	Having forgotten April's birthday, Vanessa makes up for it with pizza and beer.
Cast of Characters:	Vanessa Carlysle, April O'Neil

---

Vanessa Carlysle has posed:
It took Vanessa four days to realize she'd forgotten the birthday of her friend, April O'Neil. And then another day or two of guilt to work up to reaching out to her. When it happened, it was via text message.

> So I just realized I win the worst friend in the world award. I missed your birthday. If I can make up for it, I've got a free pizza on my bonus card from Angelo's. How about if I pick up a six-pack and order us up a pie and we can watch a movie or something and you can catch me up on things. I saw your report from the zoo. What they had on camera was wild. If tonight works, what toppings do you want? Your call.

Vanessa, April would likely know, had fallen back into her old life on the streets. April might have picked up on a few comments here or there that it wasn't going all that well. Those days of living in a billionaire's mansion are so far behind her.

April O'Neil has posed:
April had simply texted back: 'I barely even remembered myself. Pineapple and Pepperoni it is.'

And thus when Vanessa arrived, she found the stairwell door unlocked and April's Camero parked outside. there was no sign of the Hyenas, and thus there was a quiet element to the old antique shop when the visitor slipped inside the back of it.

By the time Vanessa reached the upper landing outside of the apartment door, she'd find its door was already open, and the television inside was on, playing some news station reporting on some incident in the city.

"I'm in here!" April called from the kitchen. "Just catching up on dishes." She states upon hearing Vanessa's footfalls and arrival.

"We had the guys here last night, and well... it left a mess." She speaks, of the Turtles of course, and glances over her right shoulder. "How the Hell are you?" She asks her good friend with her arms stuffed in a sink full of suds and water, wearing a white tanktop and blue jeans shorts.

Vanessa Carlysle has posed:
Vanessa Carlysle comes inside the door, carrying a brown paper bag that looks like it probably contains a six-pack of beer, and the pizza box held in one hand and resting against her side. Vanessa is wearing jeans and a blouse that leaves her midriff bare, her hair left to fall around her shoulders with a little bit more body to it than it used to have.

"Pizza's here. And the beer!" Vanessa calls back as she comes inside. She heads for the kitchen and sets both down on a counter. "The Turtles? Or other guys?" she asks, glancing about and expecting to see empty pizza boxes if it was the former.

Vanessa walks over to slip an arm about April and give her a side hug. "Oh I'm surviving," she says. "Bank account is nearly empty and we have a new landlord who is a real work. But I've got a friend, whose birthday I forgot, and my health. So I'll just focus on those, right?"

Grinning, she lets go of April and heads back over to the door. She closes it, and locks the locks on it, then removes her purse and sets it on a counter.

April O'Neil has posed:
April is attempting to finish up her dish washing, and reaching for a hand towel to dry off her hands when the side hug comes. She shoots a smile over to Vanessa, and nods her head a few small times. "Mikey, Leo, and Donnie. No Raph. He's mad at them, again." She grimly notes of the four brothers and their ever tumultuous interpersonal affairs. "I thought you were making better money these days?" She asked as Vanessa moved to do her routine with the door locks, something April was all too familiar with.

Once she had her hands dry, she dropped the towel on the counter, and reached for a couple of freshly washed dishes, as well as paper towels.

"You know that Harley and I are always here to help you, if something comes up and you need it, right?" She asks, seeing the other woman stride back in to the kitchen, as April leans back against the counter for a second, showing the other a soft smile rooted in just being happy to see the familiar face again.

Vanessa Carlysle has posed:
"Things got a little rough during the winter. A few new girls at the club, less tips to go around. And, well winter is always kind of down with other work," Vanessa says without going into many details on the latter point.

She rests her hands on her hips looking thoughtful for a moment. April might notice that Vanessa is looking really good physically, despite the mention of rough times. She's more fit and toned than she used to be. Her hair has a nice highlight to it. Far better shape than she used to be.

"I do know," Vanessa says, flashing a bright smile and April. "And when the AC dies in the worst part of summer like it always does, I'll no doubt come begging some cool air from you," Vanessa adds with a goofy grin a self-deprecating roll of her eyes at herself.

"You know, you need to train those guys to clean their plates themselves," she says of the Turtles as she goes over to the pizza box and opens it. "I flirted with the guy at the counter and we got extra sauce and cheese on it," she says, moving to let April at the pizza first.

April O'Neil has posed:
April shows a smirk at the mention of new girls at the club. "I hope it's not annoying 21 year olds. We're not getting old, are we?" She asks, worried about being replaced at a place she doesn't even work at!

A laugh is uttered when the mention of teaching the boys how to clean up after themselves. "Leo does. The rest are not even sure what the word clean means." She fires back, as she steps to the table to set the plates down, and then moves to the box to grab herself a couple of slices of the pizza. "You probably blew that poor kid's mind, whichever one was working. Paul is the one I have wrapped around a finger." She dryly jokes before settling down at the kitchen table chair beside her chosen plate. She reaches for one of the drinks from that six pack. "So how is your place, anyway? I need to bring over a gift, like a new rug or something. I dunno, something to make a mark beyond just a box of scented candles." She states with a grin before she indulges in a bite of the tasty hot food.

Vanessa Carlysle has posed:
"Either I keep getting older, or the new ones keep getting younger," Vanessa says with a shake of her head. Then continues in a sharper tone as if daring April to say otherwise, "And I'm sure it can't be that I'm getting older!" She flashes a grin over to her friend then, grabbing her own beer and adding pizza to her plate.

"The apartment building is continuing to deteriorate. We got together and replaced a couple of steps in the stairwell that were going to cause someone to get hurt. After weeks of complaining and no action."

Vanessa opens her beer and takes a long, slow sip from it. It's nice and cold already and it results in a sigh from the brunette. "The place is rent-controlled, yet the new landlord managed to get a rent increase through the city," she says, shaking her head. "I don't know how the laws work, but there has to be some bribery going on there." She exhales, blowing a wisp of hair away from her face, then takes up a slice of the pizza. "Happy birthday," she says, lifting the slice like a toast, and giving April a warm smile to go with it, before she takes a bite.

April O'Neil has posed:
As Vanessa replies, April puts her right foot up on the edge of her chair, leaning back in to the chair's embrace whilst sampling the tastey food. She smirks at what she hears Van say back, gently shaking her head softly at some part of it. "I'm the one getting older, you're looking better than ever." She fires back, smirking again. "I mean, seriously, did they put a gym in your apartment building? Or are you doing some kinda extreme yoga class that you didn't tell me about? You look amazing, van." She says, before another bite is enjoyed, followed by a sip of the beer.

"I uh... recently brought home a folder I printed out at work, of apartments in Manhattan that I wanted to show Harley. I've been doing pretty great between the tv gig, and the podcast. It's within my reach to get a place in Manhattan, and maybe rent this one out to someone... I dunno. Harley thought I was telling her I was moving out and leaving her behind, she practically broke out in to a sob. I had to tell her I planned to take her with me, even if I decided to do it... which I haven't yet." She huffs out softly. "Not a lot of places are open to two Hyenas living in the residence. Bud and Lou too." she states, smirking at her own joke at she and Harley's expense.

Vanessa Carlysle has posed:
Vanessa Carlysle gets a smile at the compliment from April, and glances down at herself briefly. "Been having to try to keep up with those younger girls at work. Wish I had a gym to work out at, but I have been doing situps and things like that in the apartment," she says. "But thank you." The big smile is flashed over at April as Vanessa begins to wander about the kitchen as she eats her slice of pizza.

She stops and looks at some of the things stuck to the fridge door with magnets. It doesn't take long for her wandering to make it back over to the door, which she quickly and quietly unlocks and locks again before moving on, with the same aimless stroll she used to get to the door.

"That would be great. You really deserve to get somewhere nicer than here," Vanessa says with a glance towards a window that looks out at New Lots. "I'm not sure this area doesn't just keep getting worse." She hesitates as if deciding if she should say something, before finally asking, "I know this was your family place. Are you feeling like it's time to move on from it and all, now it's not a function store and all?"

April O'Neil has posed:
April stands up from the kitchen table chair, taking her plate and beer to walk in to the living room to join Vanessa. She steps over a few items by the coffee table, a couple bags and some of harley's toys, before she sits down upon the well worn sofa. She watches Vanessa, some part of her curious by her friend's old nature coming back through in her actions again.

"Not exactly." April states of the question. "I'm just sick of the commute in to the city, and people nearly killing me when I ride my bike in to the city. I got the car now, but I don't like taking it in to the city day after day either. Plus... I dunno... some of the apartments I found are just freakin gorgeous too. One of them even has a small pool and jacuzzi. But I told Harley it was just like window shopping, and imagining ourselves in a different life."

She pauses there, and tilts her head toward Vanessa. "You got some more heat on you?" She asks. "You're doing that thing again where you seem like you're sure someone is coming to beat you up..."

Vanessa Carlysle has posed:
Vanessa Carlysle grabs her beer again and carries it along with her plate into the living room with April. She glances at Harley's things, and then peers about in a way that probably suggests she's looking for Bud and Lou. But no obvious sign of them so far.

"A pool. Now that would be nice. I promise I wouldn't forget your birthday if you'd had a pool," Vanessa teases, her eyes flashing with the grin she gives April O'Neil.

Vanessa plops down on the couch and takes a swig of her beer bottle. "No, nothing specific. Just you know how it is. You get back on the streets and the old instincts come back to you."

Or you don't have the confidence of Oliver Queen's psyche in your head to overcome your own failings. She stopped messing with the locks during that part of her life.

"There's a guy putting some pressure on one of the newer girls," Vanessa says with a little shrug of her shoulders. "I'm doing my best to keep her away from him. She's not the best at listening though. You know how it is. Kids think they already know everything," she says ruefully with a shake of her head.

"Ok, enough depressing stuff though. So what all happened at the zoo? That looked, kind of terrifying actually!"

April O'Neil has posed:
For having two wild animals, and Harley, living here the place is in pretty good shape. A pair of pet hair cordless vacuums hanging from the wall beside the entrance to the restroom though, and are likely put through their paces to keep the place as nice as it is, one for each Hyena maybe?

"If you need Casey to rough someone up, let me know, I bet I could get him to look in to it." She states with a soft smirk for Vanessa before she leans back on the sofa with her plate on her lap.

At the mention of the zoo, April smirks lightly while shaking her head side to side. "Honestly, I don't even really know what happened there. Vernon and I were on a puff piece to help my new intern get a bit of field work under her belt, and after filming the piece we were on our way out... and everything just kinda went pure Jumanji on us. We're lucky to be alive. But there were some big names on hand, thank god. Black Panther, from the Avengers, and some others I don't know the names of... Really, we'd be Lion food without them..." She smirks. "though some of my podcast audience claims that the heroes are also the cause of a lot of these things, either directly or indirectly, and if we banished them all from our world, we'd be a lot better off."

She smirks again, and sighs softly. The pizza is picked at, another nibble had, and another sip of the cold drink. "I'm not so inclined to believe that, but then again, I have four Turtle friends who might qualify as ones who 'need to be removed' under that metric. So naturally, I refute."

Vanessa Carlysle has posed:
The cold beer is going down smoothly, Vanessa having already worked more than halfway through her bottle. She has to swallow a bite of pizza before she can reply, "Oh, I was watching the whole thing on TV. It was crazy. I was at No5 Orange but it was during the day so really slow, and every channel was running news on it," Vanesssa says.

She takes another bite of her pizza before continuing, "The Holland tunnel got bombed, and a bunch of trains lost control and were racing at each other. Channel 6 has footage of Captain Marvel stopping one of the trains. They had three different pictures on the screen at some points of it with so much happening. And then the attack at the UN was right after. The news anchors were saying it seemed likely they were connected," she says. Hydra was definitely behind the UN attack, though it's not been made known if they caused the other events yet.

"Damn, having a lion free like that? I can't even imagine what that would be like," she says, shaking her head and then picking up her beer to take a drink. She finishes it off. "Want another?" she asks as she rises to go get one for herself. "Or more pizza?"

April O'Neil has posed:
"Hydra..." April trails off, having heard of them, but they're like a mysterious online group name that gets tossed around in forums like reddit. She clucks her tongue before the thought of more pizza and another beer hits her mind. "Right, yeah, sure, I'll take another. I haven't eaten all day..." She says with a heavy exhale.

With another sip of the beer left in her hand, April leans forward to grab her phone off the coffee table. "I better text a couple people about that."

It takes her a few seconds to do just so, as her texting skills are damn near unparalleled. When she drops her phone beside her, she dabs at her lips with her napkin. "But, like, I was looking over some of the charts on my podcast the other day. How the instances of stuff like you said, the trains... or the zoo, have gone up so much since the number of public heroes have risen. It is kind of concerning, in a way. We're all trained to really idolize them, ya know? The Avengers, the Justice League, but before there were hordes of them... these kinds of things didn't happen as much. We're being conditioned to accept how things are now, that we need them... I dunno how I feel about it, but I'm getting a lot more messages lately from people who aren't very thrilled with it all."

"Not that there is a lot anyone can do about it now." She adds with a grim tone. "Especially with aliens coming to Earth regularly, seeking our freaking help, as if we can even take care of ourselves."

Vanessa Carlysle has posed:
Vanessa Carlysle heads off to the kitchen. While she's out of April's sight, she turns those locks as quietly as she can, completing the third time that reassures her that the door is secure. Then she grabs more peer, and slices of pizza and returns to the living room, setting one on April's plate, and a fresh drink.

"Right," Vanessa agrees. "There isn't anything that can be done really," she says. "Like on the Wire, the police get their new fancy wiretaps. And the drug dealers up their game and start using burner phones. There's always going to be bad guys out there. And they are always going to be doing what it takes to keep doing their crime. Or their crazy."

Her eyes might dart towards Harley's room. She's never grown as comfortable with Harley as April has, though Vanessa keeps it to herself as best she can.

Vanessa is about to say more, but stops herself. Not only can she not reveal her own time as a superhero, just remembering those days brings a pain to her heart that sends her reaching for her beer and an extra long pull of it. Instead she says, "I think Hydra are like Nazis and they are... when was World War II? It has to be like sixty years?" Vanessa says, exposing the failings of the Cleveland public schools. Or at least herself as a student. "Things are just higher profile now I think. I'm sure the heroes would rather not be needed."

April O'Neil has posed:
When April heard her phone buzz beside her leg, she picked it up again to check the message she got back from one of her work associates. She clucked her tongue again, and set the phone down when Vanessa returned with the resupply. 'Thanks.' she said quietly to it before noting the glance toward harley's room. "Harley went to get some clothes for her OnlyFans channel. She does clothing modeling for it, and is making way more money than I'd care to even say outloud." She notes, as she raises the pizza slice up for another small bite. "She took the Yenas with her, as she says they help her buy the best stuff." She smirks at that idea.

"You're probably right. The rise in super heroes has also risen with social media, and technology in general. thus the eyes are on it more and more, as the world has started to shrink, so to speak."

She huffs out a slight exhale, as she drops back against the fluffy embrace of her sofa. "I dunno, Van. Why don't we just quit all this shit. We can open up my mother's antique store again, and just sit on rocking chairs out front, like a couple old biddys, waiting for our next big sale. Stay away from the internet, and trains filled with lions barreling toward a school of disabled kids lead through the city by Nuns."

It is possible that April is getting a bit jaded, but she's attacked by Ninja on the regular, so how could she not?

Vanessa Carlysle has posed:
Vanessa Carlysle sits up straight as if excited at this notion of April's. "And we could have lemonade," she says primly to contribute to the dream. "That would be the life. I know things probably sucked as bad in the past as they do now, but it's easy to look back and feel like it was easier than what we're dealing with today."

She slouches back against the couch back again, crossing one foot over the other as she takes a sip of the beer. Vanessa just looks ahead of her, not really at the room, but lost in her thoughts.

"I'm glad to have you. I really felt like a louse for forgetting your birthday," she says with a soft sigh. "I know everyone does sometimes, but you deserve better."

She finally turns her eyes over to April and gives her a smile. "So, want to watch a movie? Empire?" she asks. Her and Star Wars.

April O'Neil has posed:
April is grinning at the mental imagery of them both running an antique store with lemonade and rocking chairs. "Someday, maybe." She says back over to the woman on her left.

Her eyes drop back down to the food in her lap, and she is chewing on another bite when the suggestion of Empire comes up. It causes her to laugh, and after a few seconds she shrugs her shoulders. "I'm more of a Phantom Menace kinda gal, but I acknowledge that Empire is the better made movie." And thus the fight of originals versus prequels begins again, with sequels not mentioned... as this is the way.