2389/Justice League

Justice League
Date of Scene:	09 July 2020
Location:	Ace of Clubs Pub
Synopsis:	No description
Cast of Characters:	Arthur Curry, April O'Neil

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Arthur Curry has posed:
    Another long night, another nice haul of cash from the punters. Bibbo's doing well for himself. Sitting back behind the bar, counting out the drawer for the evening. One of the locals pushes himself up and away from the bar, then starts to shuffle towards the door as he mumbles a farewell to the tender.
    Bibbo offers back, "Seeya 'round, Manny. Keep it cool."
    The answer given back is just more muttering even as Bibbo counts out the twenties, then starts to get to the smaller bills, stacking them up and putting them in a large grey pouch. The door jangles off to the side as it opens and is held open for a time. Over to the side Bibbo calls out, "We're closin', five minutes fella!"
    "Double B." A gravelly voice is heard, not entirely pleasant but not entirely annoyed either. A rough sound coming from a rough man as he walks in and when Bibbo looks up his eyebrows climb.
    "Oh, heya Art. Have a seat, Stella will be witcha soon."
    "Thanks, man." Says the disheveled man. Rough is a good word for him. Long hair tied into a pony tail, a wild beard, blue jean with holds in them and a chain hanging from his belt to his back pocket. He's got a brown t-shirt on that almost matches his dark skin tone, and the over-shirt is black matching the hue of the many tattoos he's wearing. Definitely not your average Metropolis citizen.
    Though for now all he seems interested in is going and getting a seat at one of the high tops at the end of the bar.

April O'Neil has posed:
April was given a remote piece for Channel Six to go to Metropolis and try to get an interview with 'anyone' from the Justice League to find out what the League's status was, to get a generalized update on the situation with the League, with Superman, with Wonder Woman 'just do it!' her boss had told her.

So, being issued a ticket on the hyperloop, and met in Metropolis by a local branch of the same network news, April made her way to the Hall of Justice only to find it a veritable ghost town. "Great." She'd said to the cameraman who'd been assigned to her.

"Guess we're camping out." She said to him. So the two were doing just that, sitting outside the HoJ all day.. into the night. They'd played card games, played cell phone games, talked about each other's lives a bit. She'd gotten to know who his family was, his wife, and more, even shown some pics of them all.

But when they were starting to pack it up, April's perceptive peripheral vision caught sight of a man walking past her. "That was Arthur Curry." She says to her cameraman who was in the driver's seat. "Stay here, I'm gonna go try and talk to him."

So this is the young reporter's quest, and shortly after Arthur enters the bar, she does too!

April's dressed in a white tshirt with a picture of The Dude on the chest from the Big Lebowski, and over that is a black leather motorcycle jacket, blue jeans and black leather ankle-high boots with short two inch heels on her feet. Her auburn hair is losoe around her shoulders and her blue eyes are scanning around the bar as she strides in.

"Still open?" April asks the room, with a happy, feminine, hopeful-filled voice lacing her tone--entirely intention in pitch and flavor.

Arthur Curry has posed:
    Looking up from the pile of twenties, Bibbo shoots a glance over at April, then up towards the clock, then back down toward her. His brow furrows as a pained look of annoyance crosses his features, but he says. "For another five minutes, sure." Though she does get a heaving helping of stink eye for her efforts.
    But he calls back over his shoulder, "Stella, get your butt out here, you got customers!" And then it's back to the counting.
    Which leaves the room in relative peace. She'll be able to scan the room, to see the handful of townies parked over in a couple booths, the tender, and then... yeah that's the guy. Arthur Curry. The Aquaman, sitting at that high top with his back toward the door and digging into the bowl of peanuts that are set before him. His attention, for now, seems to be angled upward at the LCD screen up on the wall that's showing the local news for a moment then some local commercials advertising a few shady looking law firms.

April O'Neil has posed:
"Five whole minutes?" April asks as she takes a few more steps into the room with a smile blossoming across her lips. "Hows a girl supposed to get her 'drink on' in that kinda time!?" She says that with the delivery of making it as corny of a joke as she possibly can. "Guess I'll do my best..."

She wanders toward where Arthur is, conveniently, and ends up sitting down right beside him of all places. Her elbows are planted on the edge of the bar and her eyes are up on the LED tv as well. April sits quietly for a second, letting her fingertips wrap-a-tap on the sides of her cheekbones before her blue eyes turn and her head tilts to look over at Arthur.

"Lemme guess." She says to him. "Football player? Mmm, or Rugby?" She asks him then, clearly speaking of Arthur's build and over all 'stature'. "Or pro wrestler?" She then asks, adding a slow and playful grin.

Arthur Curry has posed:
    As April addresses him, Bibbo doesn't even look up but he does start counting /louder/ as if to admonish the reporter girl for interfering with his closing ritual. But, perhaps luckily, he's saved when Stella comes out of the back and greets April, "Hey darlin', what can I git ya?"
    But as soon as she asks that she espies Arthur and hollars back, "Hey, Artie, how are you doing sweetie? Boilermaker?"
    "You know it, Stella." The tall man looks away from the television and gives her a smile, a nod. With the smile he doesn't look quite that rough, more roguish than anything else. But then he pops a few more peanuts into his mouth.
    That attention had wandered back up to the television though when April took her seat beside him and she might catch him giving her a glance sidelong. A glance that lingers when she asks him his profession. Slowly chewing that last peanut he swallows then shakes his head, "Nope."
    A beat.
    "Fisherman." He replies, leaving it at that.

April O'Neil has posed:
April offers a smile to Bibbo and to Stella when she comes up to ask for her order. "I'll have a beer, whichever is your favorite is fine with me." She states with happy smile for both of the bar's employees/owners. Her eyes glance up to the television again while Arthur speaks to Stella, then she looks back over to him when he replies to her.

She drops her hands down to the bar's edge and sits up straighter then on her stool. "Really?" She asks, sounding almost to be in disbelief after hearing that response. "Impressive amount of work must go into that then." She adds with a grin. She looks away from him then, not wanting to ogle him of course! "My dad used to watch fishing on television, and it just seemed like a bunch of middle aged out of shape men with far too much time and money on their hands to buy all that equipment, the fancy boats, the sonar systems, just to catch a few fish."

She clearly is referencing a different kind of fishing from what Arthur is speaking! Maybe purposefully! Who knows?!

"Did you name your boat?" She then asks with another grin showing upon her visage.

Arthur Curry has posed:
    Doesn't take Stella long, she comes back with a pair of mugs, though a shotglass for Arthur as well. She sets them down and gives the tall man a wink, then a smile to the reporter girl. She heads back towards the bar and leans over to murmur something to the bartender which makes them both smirk for some reason before she heads back into the kitchen to finish her cleaning.
    Arthur though, when she goes on about the type of fishing she's used to he shakes his head with a small snort of a chuckle, shaking his head as he drops the shot glass into his mug of beer then starts to drink the thing, taking a few long chugs as he tilts it back, then thumps it onto the bar. Some of it is in his beard, some on his lips, but he clears it off with a wipe of his forearm.
    "Not quite the same sort of fishing I was meaning." He eyes her sidelong then answers, "But no, didn't get to name any of the boats I worked on."

April O'Neil has posed:
April watches him drop the shot glass into the beer and drink it combined like that. She flicks her eyes from that, up to his own eyes when he responds to her and she shows a hint of a grin. "Oh." She says at first. "My mistake." Her gaze goes back to the beer and she scrunches up her face for a second showing that she's got something to say...

Finally she says it. "Why do they do that?" She asks, pointing at his glass now. "Why not just pour the shot into the beer and then drink it?" Her left elbow is up on the bar with her left hand pointer-finger still lazily pointing at his drink. "Surely that'd be the same thing, and you also void the germs that are definitely all over the shot glass that you just poured into your mouth now."

She glances back up to him with a slight smile, her pearly white teeth showing just a bit from behind her pink lips. "I'm coming across as super naive right now, aren't I?" She then asks in a softer tone.

She offers him her hand then. "Hi, I'm April O'Neil. I work for Channel Six News, and I run my own site with a podcast all about superheroes, and the drama the surrounds them. You're ... Aquaman, right?"

Arthur Curry has posed:
    "Taste," Arthur says at first, as if that would be enough of an answer. But then he eyes her sidelong as he draws his fingers down along his beard ad straightens it to a point. One scarred eyebrow is quirked as he peers at her and then he elaborates. "Just tastes better, doesn't have a time to diffuse as much. But mainly?" He asks as he takes the mug back up and takes another swallow.
    "Tradition." And, for some reason, that makes him smirk. Then another snort, "Liquor tends to kill the germs, though." Perhaps that's true. Perhaps not. Maybe they'll have to google it afterwards.
    She tells him she's coming across as super naive and he offers a small snort, then a wink that's more good natured than flirtatious as he murmurs, "A bit." Super naive.
    But when she introduces herself his eyebrows climb upwards as he nods to himself, as if this was the missing piece to whatever mystery was plaguing him.
    "Ah," He says succinctly, "I'm Arthur. You people call me Aquaman." He points at her, perhaps meaning reporters. Perhaps meaning surfacers. Perhaps both.

April O'Neil has posed:
April shows a quick grin at the explanation on the drink, all of that had been genuine in her curiosity and everything he says back to her makes sense, to her at least. She doesn't question that! She does focus on the rest of what he says though and as her forearms come together in front of her on the edge of the bar she seems to loosen up a bit as she's transitioned into being 'herself' and no little games like she'd 'sort of' been doing previously.

"I'll call you whatever you want me to call you." She says then, which -- well it is a little flirty -- but she didn't entirely mean it that way. He's a good looking man, of course, but she's more just trying not to upset him him and make him tell her to get lost, or run away himself!

She flashes a quick smile then. "Stuff like that probably does get annoying. It's not quite got the same glamour as 'Super' man, or 'Power Man' does it? I imagine you're deserving of something more akin to those, but that's just based on about two minutes of conversation thus far."

April glances to her drink, still untouched, she puts her left hand around it, then looks back to Arthur without raising it up yet. "I don't mean to bother you, I just... came a long way to speak to someone from the Justice League, I thought maybe you'd be up for a small chat? Nothing overly invasive."

Arthur Curry has posed:
    Above them the television flashes over from the weather forecast and once again there's a bad CGI mascot for some ambulance chasing law firm offering people a way to get theirs. It gets a small sour look from Arthur before he turns his attention back on the reporter beside him. He meets her eyes, gives her a once over glance, then he holds up a hand as if to stop her.
    "Alright, alright. You're pickin' up the tab though." As he says that he grabs his drink and starts to step away from the bar, over toward one of the tall table that usually bracket a bar, he calls over his shoulder. "Hey Double B, lady's picking up the tab."
    "Right, Artie." Bibbo says even as he continues counting up the bills and the credit card receipts now.
    But that's enough of an excuse to step to that tall table with its stools, one of which he eases onto and sets his mug down on, leaning forward upon the tabletop with his elbows and nudging out the other seat for her with the toe of his work boot.
    "We talk until you annoy me. Got it?" Which, really, not likely anyone has any idea how long that'll take.

April O'Neil has posed:
April is poised on the edge of her seat until Arthur comes to that decision to accept her terms. As he moves to get up, she grins and sits up taller on her stool. "Perfect!" She mutters as she looks down at her lap and reaches her fingertips into her right front pocket of her jeans. She pulls out a roll of bills and counts two of them out, two $50 bills. She drops them on the bar top and smiles to Bibbo before she turns around on her stool-grabs her drink--and follows after Arthur.

As she walks, her full beer glass spills just a little down the outside and on to her hand, so when she arrives at the table and sets the glass down she's shaking her hand and wiping it on the outside of her left hip against the denim of her jeans. When she slips on to the stool across from him--underneath the light over the table--she smiles across at him.

"I talk every day until I annoy myself, so I understand entirely. I promise." She says then, folding her hands in front of her. "So... do you have any thoughts on the world today? On Superman or some of your fellow League members? Things seem kinda quiet for the League... People talk about that quite a lot in fact. At least to me."

Arthur Curry has posed:
    A sniff is taken as he rubs at the bridge of his nose with a fingertip, perhaps to hide the small smirk that slides into place on his lips. He squints sidelong at her, but then reaches a calloused hand out to grab a handful of peanuts and start to chew on them.
    A few moments longer then he shakes his head, "We're all doing our things still, just not quite as loud and bombastic as all that." He answers her questions then with a sort of flippant response in those words before he eases to the side, resting his shoulder against the wall and leaning comfortably upon the table.
    "Superman, Diana, they're doing their thing. Me, yeah well, did the Eastern Seaboard get wiped out in a giant tsunami lately? No. You're welcome."
    He takes another pull of his drink.

April O'Neil has posed:
April finally does raise the beer up for a dainty sip from it, taste testing it like she's not that great at drinking beer--which is true and not true at the same time. She lowers it down and dabs at her lips with the back of her hand before she smiles at him again. "You prevented us from all being washed away by a tsunami?" She asks. "That's refreshing to hear, thank you very much. I mean, that is some pretty big news in and of itself. I can't imagine how often you, or your colleagues, do things that never even go recognized..."

She glances to her left at a bar patron who's stumbling out of the bar now to presumably walk home, then she looks back over at him to make eye contact with him. "Are there any plans for the League to ... jump back in to the thick of it?" She asks then. "There's quite a lot of need for the power levels of you all together again, I'd say. What with aliens falling out of the sky, with some serious chips on their shoulders twoard us!"

"I was trying to get in to the Hall earlier, but it looked pretty closed-up, no visitors allowed." She adds then. "I'm not from around here, I'm not sure how long that's been going on."

Arthur Curry has posed:
    A small chuff of an exhalation comes from him, almost a laugh but not quite. He waves a hand slightly as he murmurs, "It could have been a tsunami, there was some earthquakes that build up strength from the harmonic properties of the Marianas. Bleed off some of that energy now and then, you don't end up with so much build up. But you see what I'm saying?"
    Arthur tilts his head to look at her and perhaps can see that maybe she doesn't and he says, "It's not exactly heroic, preventative maybe. Other things..." He seems about to say something else but instead just shakes his head and takes another drink.
    "I'm not trying to look for thanks. I don't think any of us are." His lip twists, "Despite what I said a second ago. More, I think if something is severe enough we need to get together then..." He leaves it at that, finishing his answer with a wave of his hand to the side.
    "Anyways." Topic change. "Yeah. The world's suddenly a lot bigger for all of us." The aliens, the Brainiac situation.
    Then she shifts the topic towards the Hall and he murmurs, "It looks closed up because it _is_ closed up."
    That said he sets his now empty drink upon the table then his hands flat upon its surface. "In any case. Nice talking to you, O'Neil." And with that said he slides off of the seat, and starts to walk to the door.