4046/I Carry The Plague But Never Catch It

I Carry The Plague But Never Catch It
Date of Scene:	05 November 2020
Location:	Schwartz's Deli
Synopsis:	April and Edward meet to discuss a mutual rat problem over weirdly specific hoagie orders. They make plans to descend into the sewers on a hunt.
Cast of Characters:	Edward Nygma, April O'Neil

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Edward Nygma has posed:
GCN: After Dark might not be the best or most known show in Gotham, but at least their reports are factual news, if a bit odd or off here and there.

So of course April O'Neil, upon hearing about the Rat King being in Gotham for some reason, will have adequate contacts to figure out who the source of the sighting is.

One Edward Nygma.

If she knows anything about Gotham, it's well known that Edward Nygma is the Riddler, though it's also known that he's 'reformed', or as reformed as one of Gotham's Rogues can be expected to be.

Oddly, when contact is attempted with him, he texts her the information for a plane ticket, and the address of Schwartz's Deli.

He sits squarely in said deli, wearing a green suit but without his mask and such. He's simply reading a tablet and waiting in the middle of the afternoon, no food ordered yet.

April O'Neil has posed:
April is pretty familiar with Gotham's rogue's, consider she's roommates with one of them. She's done a lot of research on Gotham in the past year, which is why she interviewed Harley in Arkham asylum in the first place. It started her down this path of being loosely tied to Gotham now, as she is. Even Poison Ivy makes an appearance or two, now and then, in April's life. Rumor has it some of the Bats have been in and around her building too... but she hasn't interacted witht hem yet.

Arriving now, April is wearing a brown suede jacket, a black top underneath it, a pair of blue jeans and boots that match her jacket in hue and material. She strides in to the deli and looks around. He's not too hard to spot...

April approaches him, her hair loose around her shoulders. "Mister Nygma, April O'Neil." She says, showing a soft smile. Her voice is youthful, feminine and not at all intimidating, it makes people underestimate her a lot too because of it.

Edward Nygma has posed:
"April O'Neil. The only news worth watching." Edward compliments as he politely puts his tablet face down, then looks over to the chef. "Two hoagies. Avacado oil dressing, pickle chips, that new rabbit lunchmeat, and iceberg lettuce. You can also add some honey mustard, the good stuff with the real honey."

"Don't worry, I'm paying, so if you don't like it you don't have to finish." he assures, then sits back, watching her. "So, what brings you here? The rat news story, right?"

April O'Neil has posed:
April takes her jacket off and drapes it over the back of the chair across from the man, she slips in to the chair then and leans back against it with her hands on the table's edge. She has a smart watch on her left wrist, a braided bracelet on her right, her phone in her hands and a pair of sunglasses resting on her hairline of her forehead, holding her dark auburn hair back off of her face as she looks at him.

"I'm sure it'll be great." She says, not realizing he'd spelled her name out there... "And yeah, I'm searching for information on the Rat King. I want him arrested, and I'm looking for anything I can that will help me accomplish that..." She exhales softly, still settling in from the travel to get here. "Do you think you can help with that?" She asks him.

Edward Nygma has posed:
"His name is Ratcatcher." Edward is quick to clarify, staring down at her bracelet like one who thinks every minor detail is something to analyze. She's probably met plenty of detectives who get easily distracted by details and analyzing their surroundings.

"He's actually keeping me from solving something I've been hired to do, so I can't get into the sewers." He rolls his eyes, annoyed at the whole situation. "That idiot anchor changed his name because 'rat king' sounded better. Now the anchor's saying I assaulted him. First, if I did assault him he deserved it for being an idiot, and second, there's no proof that I assaulted him. Is punching someone in the face for being an idiot really assault? That's the true riddle."

April O'Neil has posed:
April's hands come together on the edge of the table as she listens to the man give his rundown on events that lead up to this. "I really don't care what his name is, to be honest." She initially replies. "And I'm glad you assaulted him, but that's just my personal vendetta against him. He hurt a bunch of people that mean a lot to me, and I want tosee him serve time for it. Justice needs to be served on this man, and because... he operates in the ... sewers, or underground, it seems he's not given much consideration by the police, or really any super heroes that I know of. He's hurting people, under the radar, so to speak, and needs to be stopped."

She seems passionate about this, almost even worked up about it. "That being said... you should be careful aruond him, he seems to be pretty capable of causing a lot of harm, if he wants to." She's sure Edward is too, based on what she's read of him, but she's also read he's trying to get away from that image.

Edward Nygma has posed:
"Oh, I meant I //allegedly// assaulted the asshole anchor, not the rat man. But either way, you live in New York, so if we have the same rat man problem, that means he's exceptionally mobile." Edward crosses his arms in thought, as he has no knowledge of //another// rat man in the sewers, so it's logical that it might be the same man with different names...

"Hmm... many need me, not everyone accepts. Some accept me, but it's not always good. But when I'm good, things are much easier." This is his second riddle of the meeting, but probably the first she's noticed.

The sandwiches are brought over to them, rather large sandwiches on trays, helpfully cut in half. "If we're having the same problem, I think we should help each other. You're clearly very passionate about it, so we can try to find a mutual solution."

April O'Neil has posed:
"Ah, well, as someone who works closely with anchors, I can sympathize. Most of them are a bunch of self righteous divas." April says with a smirk. Channel Six has some very snooty anchors, so it would seem.

At his Riddle, April tilts her head and considers it. She wouldn't claim to be an expert at such things, but she did know he was indicated as being prone to randomly talking in riddles, so she was prepared for it. "Hospitality." Is April's answer to this riddle. She doesn't linger on it though, and just sits up when the sandwiches arrive.

She's not a big eager, she knows for sure she can't eat all of that, maybe not even a quarter of it. She's tiny, after all. "Looks good." She says though with a faint smile. But her eyes look back to Edward.

"So he's operating here in Gotham too? Do you think we could track him down?"

Edward Nygma has posed:
"Very close, almost the same, really. The nuance between hospitality and 'help', when you think about is, is a very thin one. I would even say that hospitality is a very specific form of help." Edward smiles, and then shrugs at her last question. "We could track him down, but then there's the question of, what do we do after that?"

"We need a method of driving him from the sewers, or at least disrupting his control over the rats. I'd need to mull it over with another expert who has some familiarity with his powers, perhaps." He isn't a particularly large man either, but the spectacle of trying to eat a giant sandwich is difficult to resist, and he grabs the Scooby-Doo size sandwich to take a large bite out of it. "If you find him, what do you plan to do?"

April O'Neil has posed:
April asks the server for a knife, while Edward talks, and one is soon brought over to her where she thanks them and smiles before looking back to him. She starts to cut her half of sandwich into a 4th. "My method of operation is observe and report, like a Mall Cop, only without the beer gut." April informs, and jests, with a faint smirk.

"What I want to do is track him down, get footage evidence of what he's doing, and expose it ot the world, let them deal with him there-after. These people operate in the shadow, andthat's their greatest shield. They hide behind it, and let it protect them from retribution. There are super heroes out there who'd stop him, if they just knew he was even a thing."

She pauses then. "I know a tech guy, if you need help from a literal genius." He likes purple. April picks up her smaller cut of sandwiches and samples it then.

Edward Nygma has posed:
"Alright, then we'll attack this from two angles. I have no eye, but when I'm whole, we do great work together." Edward clearly struggles with his large sandwich, but he refuses to make it easier, he just tries to maneuver his head at uncomfortable angles to bite the sandwich again.

"I'll help you get footage. I hope you don't mind guns, I'm not going into the Gotham sewers without a gun. And then after we have the footage, you can introduce me to your tech guy." He releases his hoagie and wipes his hands on a napkin before offering a hand to her. "You're very young for seeking out so much danger, but I was very young when I started all this too."

April O'Neil has posed:
April seems to be doing a lot easier now that she cut the sandwich down a bit, clearly more willing to adapt to the challenge than Edward is. She sets it down and and watches him as she takes a sip from the water that had been brought over to with it. She shows him a smile then and nods softly. "I've been immersed in weird stuff my whole life, so this isn't anything new to me. Sadly I'm not even remotely super powered, so I have to use my wits to get by. It's done well so far. And... guns... I'll admit, I hate guns, but maybe a little less so if they're used to protect me from Rat monsters."

She draws in a breath, then exchanges a hand shake with him. "Hopefully we get what we're after then, Mister Nygma. Ridding this world of this really ridiculous, and terrible, person."

Edward Nygma has posed:
"I don't have any powers either, other than my powers of deduction." Edward smiles, taking stock of the feel of her palm before he releases her hand. "I look forward to working together. I recommend bringing whatever weapon you feel comfortable with, and wearing very thick, covering clothing. Which, I admit, not my first thought when you walked in, but here we are."

April O'Neil has posed:
April had been mulling that last riddle over in her mind, but she couldn't come up with an answer for it. She clear sher palette with another sip of her water and then just shows a faint grin to him. "Yeah, that's not usually the direction people go with me and clothes." She says in a fairly grim voice, though she knows the game, knows how it's played. She samples a bit more of the sandwich before she nods her head.

"I have some body armor, and some heavier clothing, it should be good." It's an odd conversation for a deli, but hey, she's had stranger!

Edward Nygma has posed:
"You'll find another round trip ticket in your name. When it's time, I'll send a text with a street intersection where I'll meet you. I need to confirm his current location, and prepare a rat specific outfit for myself." Edward stands, holding a hand up to the clerk. "We'll need to-go platters. I think this could feed us for a week."

"Sure thing Boss." the man says as more a term of endearment rather than Edward actually being his boss.

"It's been nice meeting you." he offers to April, holding out another hand. Then he reaches into his blazer to pull out a green sphere with various mixed up shapes on it, offering that next. "It's a puzzle, almost like a circular Rubix cube. Very tricky, designed it myself. Pass it along to your tech guy. I'll know when he solves it."

April O'Neil has posed:
April sits up whne Edward stands, straighter in her chair she smiles at him as he orders the to-go bags for them. Her eyes go to the puzzle as he offers it and she stares at it a moment before reaching up to take it, then to shake his offered hand again. "Wow." She says, holding the puzzle. "Looks impressive. I'm sure he'll love it." She states with a soft smile before nodding once to him. "I look forward to hearing from you on this, Mister Nygma. I want this Rat King guy to really get what he deserves. What he did was..." She shakes her head side to side. "Just, awful. He needs to be stopped before he hurts others, like he hurt my friends."

April sets the puzzle down on the table, not yet standing up herself quite yet. She'd done a fair bit of traveling to get here, after all.

Edward Nygma has posed:
Edward sits the bag down for her, but packs his own food up, before he grabs his tablet and stands there, nodding to her one last time. "While you're in Gotham, I sent along a text of some places you might want to check out, and got you hotel reservations if you choose to stay the night."

April O'Neil has posed:
April's phone buzzes and she pulls it out of her jacket pocket, setting it down on the table beside her drink and the bag he sat down. She looks up at him and shows him a faint smile. "Thank you, Mister Nygma. That's very sweet of you. I might, I haven't decided yet. I do need to get back, and... well, Gotham is more than a little unsettling in my experiences here. But, we'll find out I guess. There's a million and one things I could myself in to in this city too, and very few of them would likely end well for me." The reporter says with a half-grin before she glances back to her food and starts to put it in to the to-go bag, because, wow, it is a lot of sandwich!