4236/A Quiet Walk in the Park

A Quiet Walk in the Park
Date of Scene:	28 November 2020
Location:	Strawberry Fields
Synopsis:	Karolina has a second encounter with the pantless arctic ninja. Her life is never going to be the same again. For Gwen, it's just another Tuesday.
Cast of Characters:	Karolina Dean, Gwendolyn Poole

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Karolina Dean has posed:
    A mix of being free from classes due to it being Saturday and a love for the park itself has Karolina out of doors. Despite the cold she seems chipper and exploring the grounds of her favorite section. She always finds time at least once a month to visit the memorial area, and oftentimes has music on her phone plugged into one ear. She's humming along to 'While my Guitar Gently Weeps' as she sways her hips, slowly dancing her way through wind-swept leaves and things.

Gwendolyn Poole has posed:
    It's so nice and quiet here. Birds chirp, and people wander among the flowers and trees, enjoying a peaceful day at the memorial.

    Somewhere nearby, however, Gwenpool is fighting ninjas. Ninja? Whatever the plural for multiple ninjai happens to be. Her katanas clash with ninja-to as she backflips over a chair, letting out a happy WHOOP as she lands. Her free hand dips to the assault rifle slung across her shoulder (Painted with chibi versions of various heroes and villains fighting), and she opens up with an echoing RATTATATATATATATAAT. Ninai fall about her, and the pink and white clad 'heroine' grins manically to herself. Then, however, she smells the gas leak, and sees the flames from a burning drape. "WELP, TIME TO GO!"

    She sprints up the stairs in an attempt to outrun the coming explosion, and yet she is caught up in the eruption. While the flames don't hit her, she is tossed out a window and high into the sky. She sails through the New York air, doing a saumersault before she straightens out and peers down at the world below. The pink and white blur slams into one of the trees in the Quiet Space, shaking it as she OOF OUCH ACK's her way down the leaf pillowy branches. She finally hits the grass below, landing in a jumble of limbs. Some blood shines on her freshly split lip, but other then some scuffs and burn marks on her costume, she seems fine. She lost her fun in the fall, though! She lets out a shakey laugh before she sits up and collapses back.

    "...Nailed it. Owie."

Karolina Dean has posed:
    Pure chaos meets pure tranquility. While Karolina's ears aren't sharp enough to hear the explosion from however far off... her one open ear does catch the sound of... falling. Branches. Thud thud thud crunch thud. Her head turns this way and that, blonde hair fluff out everywhere until she sees the pink and white-clad form of someone... semi-familiar on the ground. Regardless, though, she hurries over, gasping. "Oh my goodness are you okay?!"

    It takes a moment, but she remmebers the costume under the rather bad disguise, back at the karaoke bar. She stares at Gwen, and then her cheeks turn a light shade of pink now. "It's... it's you! Is it you? I think it's you! Are you okay?"

Gwendolyn Poole has posed:
    "I'm fine!," she says, flashing a slightly bloody smile. She wipes her lip and turns to spit to clean her mouth, and then she begins to stand before falling back to a sitting position again. "Okay. Maybe not -fine-. I'll live, though." She reaches up and tugs her cowl back, letting her tangle of blonde and pink poof out a bit before she smooths it back down. The girl clearly doesn't wear her costume as an actual disguise. More like branding.

    "It'sa me, though," she replies in a Mario impersonation. Her bright blues slide up Karolina as she considers the taller girl standing over her. Then it clicks. "OH. You were at that karaoke bar, right? Fancy meeting you here. Almost like it's destiny. Or pre-planned for a fun storyline." She flops back onto the grass and stares up at the girl.

    "I dig you're..." She gestures vaguely. "...Everything, bee tee dubs."

Karolina Dean has posed:
    "Oh thank goodness..." Karolina sighs, dropping to sit on the grass once Gwen tries to get up, but flops back down, and just... lays there. She watches that hair floof out, though, and just continues to stare. It gives Gwen plenty of time to talk, though she nods dumbly at one thing and then tilts her head. "...wait... destiny? Pre-planned?" she asks, confused. "I mean, I'm not going to lie, I was hoping I'd run into you again..." she taps her fingers together a couple of time.

    "...I don't often get... um... looks like that? Or maybe I do but they're not so overt? Or... I... yes, well, that's what I wanted to find you about!" she tugs the earbud out and stows it in her pocket. "...you do?" she finally recovers just enough to look bewildered and bashful.

Gwendolyn Poole has posed:
    She waves off the question about it being pre-planned. She's stopped trying to explain it to the locals. Just makes her seem nuts.

"That's crazy to me. You're peak cute. Main love interest material, even. People are probably too intimidated to approach you. I don't really have access to that part of my brain, for better or worse." She flashes another one of those grins from where she is laying.

    "Gwen. I'm Gwen Poole."

Karolina Dean has posed:
    'lina pulls her legs up and hugs her knees, still finding it hard to not stare at her companion. She'd just met her the other day and now something about main love interest? Not that it didn't happen the exact same way with Kori. Well. Not the EXACT same way, but... "...what? Like a video game? And... me? Intimidating? I'm just a normal college student..." she idly, maybe nervously fidgets with her bracelet for a moment, curling her fingers around her wrist to rub some.

    "I'm adorable. I mean. You're adorable. I mean. I'm Karolina. Karolina Dean. Hi," she verbally flails as her arms hug tighter around her knees.

Gwendolyn Poole has posed:
    Her brow furrows a bit, and she suddenly looks like she realised something. "OH. Karolina! Like, daughter of the Pride and all that? Parents were famous Hollywood types? Hid out in the La Brea Tarpits?"

    She leans over from her lieing position and pokes Karolina's leg. "Hmm. Looks like it. I don't remember a lot of...details. A lot is all fuzzy, like why you have your powers and the real identities of your Runaway buddies, but I definatly remember -you-. Might have had a bit of a coming out experience over you coming out to your...witchy friend?" So many details come and go. She sounds crazy but.,..weirdly prescient.

Karolina Dean has posed:
    Slowly, as all of that stuff comes out, Karolina's eyes just get wider, and wider, and wider. Eventually, she stares, and when she's poked, she just about jumps. She jerks back, flails, and ends up tumbling and scooting back against the tree trunk. She just keeps staring at Gwen, eyes wide. "I.... what?" she asks.

    "...how do you know all of that? How do you know -ANY- of that? Who are you? What are you? Can you see into my brain?" she's used to lots of weird powers, for sure, between the Runaways and now the Titans, but she's still... very, very, very much not used to having them shoved in her face so readily like this! "...that was, like, years ago... and... half the world away..." she mumbles, blushing -EVER- so brightly at the offhand mention of Nico.

    "Yes, and?" she finally gets enough cohesion to make a half-hearted attempt at being snippy. It doesn't come off very believably. "She's been back around..." she murmurs, a litle sadly. "..sometimes. We.. defintely grew super distant after that.." she sighs. Clearly it's something that's affected her quite a bit.

Gwendolyn Poole has posed:
    Gwen goes to chew her lip, but stops when pain shoots through her from her split lip. She grumbles some very un-Comics Code words under her breath at it and tucks a locke of blonde and pink hair behind her ear. She flops back onto the grass.

    "I'm a Mutant. Homo Superior and all that. I can...read people." She shrugs a shoulder before glancing over at the taller blonde from where she is sprawled. "Aw, sorry to hear it. She always seemed cool. Eh, no worries, though. Glad to see you're still kicking."

Karolina Dean has posed:
    Karolina sighs and just... lays back against the tree, letting her legs flop out towards Gwen. "...oh... some kind of... psychic mind-reading powers or something?" It can't be like, actual reading. As in comics reading, right? Because that would be absurd. And mind-reading powers aren't? Ok so some of these things DO go through 'lina's head but she just closes her eyes. "I was dating someone but we kind of... stepped back from that, too... we're still best friends but there's still kind of a sting..." she shrugs a little.

    "...and I think I like someone else? And you were flirting with me? Is that okay? What if I like more than one person? God I thought I had my stuff figured out but then something else happens..." she buries her face in her hands for a moment.

Gwendolyn Poole has posed:
    "Eh, I'm too awesome for just one person, so I wouldn't expect someone else to stick to one person, anyways." Gwen shrugs and then winces, sitting up a bit again. "Besides, I was too shy and awkward to flirt with anyone before, so I'm making up for lost time." Before? Perhaps she means before becoming a costumed...whatever she is. Pantsless arctic ninja.

    "But we're getting ahead of ourselves, right? We should do something together and make sure it isn't just raw animal attraction, anyways." She flashes that battered grin and brushes her fingers back through her ruffled hair. "Like...dinner or something sometime?"

Karolina Dean has posed:
    "First I'm an alien... then I'm a lesbian... now I'm.. what is it... polyamorous? ...was I always the first two? I was always an alien..." Karolina mumbles to herself, voice soft as her face is buried in her hands. Then she looks up as Gwen begins to speak, unable to keep from blushing--and laughing softly. "...you um... the whole..." she gestures with a hand, just kind of wiggling her fingers vaguely at the other girl. "...beat-up superhero thing... is... kind of cute. I love your hair, too. But.. yeah.. dinner? Lunch? Do your weird brain powers tell you I'm vegan though?"

Gwendolyn Poole has posed:
    "I won't hold that against you, don't worry," she says with a lopsided grin. "I'm sure most places in New York have vegan -and- non-vegan stuff, right?" She glances down at herself, and Gwen smirks.

    "Thanks. Gwenpool. Awesomest Gen-Z Merc at most people's price range." She pulls herself to her feet finally, and groans. She stretches, which causes some audible popping noises, and rolls her neck. "That hurt more then usual. Last time I landed in a truck full of duck pillows..." She peers up the tree and spots her katana stuck into the side of a branch. She sighs and begins to clamber up the tree after it.

Karolina Dean has posed:
    "I'd hope not...! Vegan food is delicious. I was raised on it. And I'm an amazing chef, too," she beams. "Yeah, there's a lot of places that have it. You wouldn't believe some of the technological advancements in vegan cheese substitute technology... to say nothing of eggs. I make the most out-of-this-world breakfast burritos..." Karolina nods matter-of-factly.

    "Oh? You're... a mercenary?" she asks, watching the pink ninja move and then follows her eyes to the sword in the tree. "I'm... usually mostly sometimes always a college student..? But.. I like to help when and where I can. When... do you want to do this... sort of date thing?"

Gwendolyn Poole has posed:
    Gwen jumps from a branch to catch the haft of the katana, and she grunts as she wiggles it a bit, her bare legs dangling. Finally it comes free and she falls back down to the grass. She lands with an OOF beside Karolina, and groans a bit.

    "Uh. I dunno. Give me your number and I'll call you when I'm free? I'm -technically- on the clock right now but kind of got into a fight with some ninjas. Ninja? Ninjai."

Karolina Dean has posed:
    Karolina winces at the hard landing and reflexively reaches out to gently rub Gwen's shoulder to soothe her. "Oof.." she says quietly, sympathetically. "Oh, um, sure. Here..." she fishes her own phone out of her pocket and flips to the screen that has her own number on it. "This good or do you need me to write it down? Do you have a phone on you?" she looks Gwen over, though might also be checking her out slightly. "I have classes and... other duties.. but.. I can definitely make time."

Gwendolyn Poole has posed:
    "I left my bag back at the job-site. You kidding me? I couldn't fit a phone in this thing!"

    She climbs to her feet and wipes grass off herself before she leans in to read the number and nods to herself. "Mind like a steel trap. But my M14 landed soooomewhere in this park, and I should find it before some rando does." She winks and tugs her cowl back up into place. "Call you soon!"

    With that the troublesome merc slides her blade into its scabbard and sprints off into the park!

Karolina Dean has posed:
    "I notice that..." Karolina says off-handedly, regarding the lack of space for a phone. It's definitely an... appreciative sort of gaze. Which she snaps out of quickly. "Hey... wait... are... you going to be ok?" she calls out, concerned for Gwen's injuries. She sighs and slumps back against the tree before looking at her phone. "...why must my life be so weird?"