17873/No Choices Given (Alright, maybe one)

No Choices Given (Alright, maybe one)
Date of Scene:	07 May 2024
Location:	The Raven's Nest
Synopsis:	Sara drops by Corben's lab to inform him he's the third and final leader of the Justice League Dark. This is probably a terrible idea.
Cast of Characters:	Corben Kelly, Sara Pezzini

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Corben Kelly has posed:
Things are pretty slow at The Raven's Nest this time of night. Most of the patrons are here for the food rather than the drink. What does that mean? Well, Corben isn't anywhere in sight. It's Mac behind the bar, good dude if a little intimidating with his tattooed bald head and a few of the waitresses, including Molly - with so many facial piercings that it's difficult to tell where the metal ends and her face begins.

Sara Pezzini has posed:
Food would have been a nice reason to be visiting, even a drink would be better than the truth. Sara had reached her limit on dealing with crap from the JLD. Even with Mike, it wasn't the structure that was supposed to be in place and they lacked a lead who actually had a clue about magic.

Enter Sara to the bar, once again forced to listen to Witchblade scream about the wards. They don't really effect him, but they were so bright to his eye that really, he had to complain.

Taking a moment to glance around the room, she walked to the bar and addressed Mac, "Is Corben around?"

Corben Kelly has posed:
Mac looks Sara up and down a few times, but then glances past her at Molly - is she watching him check out another woman. Not this time, thank the Gods. Last time it got a little ugly.

"Uh, he's..." Mac gestures vaguely to the four doors to the right of the room, "...back there." So, he's either upstairs, in the bathroom or behind the mysterious door marked 'staff only'. Seems it's up to Sara to make her best guess?

Unless of course she's going to ask for more details or she's smart enough to ascertain from the vagueness that Mac isn't talking about the first two choices.

Sara Pezzini has posed:
Offering Mac a brief nod, she turns her attention to the doors and makes a decision. Crossing over to the door marked "Staff Only" she turns the knob and walks through it. Mac can attempt to stop her if he wants, but she figures he's smart enough, or disinterested enough, to not bother.

She doesn't go far into the room, she's not insane, but she does step in and close the door behind her. Witchblade starts listing off all the things in the room that could blow her up and offers to armor her up so what Corben gets as a greetings is, "Do /not/ ruin this suit, I'm perfectly safe right here."

Only after she says that does she say to Corben directly, "I'm not moving, I'm not touching anything... but I do need to talk to you."

Corben Kelly has posed:
It might come as a surprise that the room doesn't stink of rotten eggs and dirty socks. In fact tonight it has a nice spicy, almost clove-ish aroma filling the air.

Corben's perched on a stool in front of one of the work stations. Next to him is a small Bunsen burner - a beaker of something boiling softly setting atop it. He's using a mortar and pestle to grind something into a fine powder. At first he doesn't even register Sara's presence.

After he's ground the last little bit of something that was once a whole thing into a little fine pieces of that whole thing, he glances up. He's wearing those over-large round, amber-lensed glasses he's so fond up, but in this case they might be more for eye protection than anything else.

"Corbs, Corbs, it's turning blue," pipes up his 'assistant' for the evening, that adorable little slug-bat demon sprog, Kib-Kir. The little thing's sitting right next to that Bunsen burner, eye almost touching the glass - watching the liquid bubble.

Corben reaches over and turns the burner off. Apparently blue is the color its supposed to be, as he stares at Sara, expectantly, eyebrows raised over the tops of the glasses.

Sara Pezzini has posed:
Keeping her place by the door, Sara offers him a brief nod now that he's looking at her.

"Don't mean to intrude," she starts out. "I just don't have a whole lot of time, did you finish what you were doing there? I can wait a bit, don't want to screw up one of your potions."

Witchblade continued to list all the things that could kill her, including the slug demon, then openly admit in her head that he's rather fond of Kib-Kir and doesn't suspect it will attack.

Corben Kelly has posed:
It's almost dismissive, the way Corben looks back down at what he was doing, give one more crush and turn and then adds a small spoonful of what he crushed into what turned blue. There's no dramatic overflow of the beaker, there's not big 'poof' of a cloud. The liquid simply turns red while Corben mumbles something over it.

"Now I'm done," he offers once he's, well, done.

He gives the little demon a pat on the head and, "Good job, lil' dude."

Sara Pezzini has posed:
"Let me just get right into it then," Sara states bluntly, leaning back against the door behind her.

"The Justice League Dark is meant to be led by a triad, three leaders each with their own arcane knowledge to bring to the party," she continues, taking a deep breath. "Two of our leaders recently left, leaving me standing on my own to deal with all of it."

"I'm not magical in nature, I don't know shit about it to be honest, so I've been struggling. Mike recently agreed to take up one of the empty slots," she pauses there for the briefest of moments before continuing. "Mike is a good guy, capable, intelligent and has an area of expertise he's capable in, but that leaves one slot open... and that one is the most important."

Shifting slightly, she folds her arms across her chest. "You're the third lead, because you're the only person I know with the knowledge about magic that is required for the third position. Congratulations."

Only then does she wiggle her fingers in greeting at Kib-Kir and add, "Witchblade likes you."

Corben Kelly has posed:
Kib'Kir looks from Sara and then back to Corben, to Sara, back to Corben. It's as if its trying to digest what Sara just said. Finally, "Ohhhh, that's a terrible idea," it whispers - but not quite low enough - in regards to Corben taking up the responsibility of /leadership/.

"Wait a minute," Corben begins. "One - Kibs is not wrong. Two - wasn't this supposed to be a temporary gig?" Leadership isn't sounding very temporary to him.

He rolls his eyes toward the ceiling, perhaps not seen behind his glasses. "So, what you're telling me is that you need me because everyone else sucks?" That's what he heard anyway. How can a group dedicated to fighting the 'things that rip, rend and sneak' in the dark do so without an actual /magically/ inclined member.

"You never meant for this to be temporary." It's a statement, not a question. "Fine, whatever." He waves hand dismissively. "If I get everyone killed, it's not on me," he adds before lowering those glasses to look pointedly at the door and then back to the breaker filled with green liquid. 'I'm busy here' - without a single word spoken.

Sara Pezzini has posed:
Sara has to take a single moment to keep herself from losing her shit over being dismissed like that. She realizes she invaded his lab, interrupted him, and just gave him no choice, so she sucks it up.

"Thanks," she offers before turning back toward the door, but there she pauses.

"I'm sure there are others who could do it, but I don't know them. Nettie knew them, and she's gone... so sure, take on the 'everyone else sucks' thinking if you'd like, if it makes you feel important, but no... I never intended for it to be temporary."

Without another word, she opened the door and walked out. Once the door closed behind her she grinned broadly and thought to Witchblade, 'Got him.'

Corben Kelly has posed:
Corben adds a little bit of something else to the beaker as Sara walks out the door.

In unison, Corben and Kibs mumble, "This is a terrible idea."