4587/Celeb is as noteriety does

Celeb is as noteriety does
Date of Scene:	03 January 2021
Location:	Carrol's Mad Tea, Greenwich Village, NYC
Synopsis:	Terry O'Neil and Allegra Caradenza meet at random in a Mad tea Shop. On brand, oddly, for both.
Cast of Characters:	Alexis Carr, Terry O'Neil

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Alexis Carr has posed:
    So, as far as teashops go this one wasn't too bad. It kept the kettles going at decent temperatures, provided you with a smaller dish for your spent teabag, and at your request would give you a little thing of honey, and of course it was some local, organic honey.

    It also had a variety of *actual* tea snacks, like cucumber sandwiches, Welsh rarebit, and the perfect little tea cakes that were not America-sweet.

    Americans put too much sugar in *everything*.

    And so, Allegra Caradenza, dressed down in a nice jacket in red, a pair of jeans and a baseball cap with her long hair casading down in a ponytail behind her, perched a pair of aviators on the tip of her nose as she hummed some little bit of music stuck in her head.

    Though it'd been a significant amount of time since she and Power Girl faced off, and there had been whispers that she was involved with the very Faustian look of Club Purgatory, she has largely stayed out of the limelight.

Terry O'Neil has posed:
Ever since his transformation, Terry O'Neil had found his tastes changing a little. Sugar was, indeed, in everything, and something that he wasn't finding much delight in anymore- it was still useful for the occasional rush, but so was coffee.

Every now and then, however, tea was just what the Mad Doctor ordered. Especially when it came to taking time to think and figuring out how you are going to deal with the potential horror scenario that your friends and people you trust and love have been replaced by evil doppelgangers from another Earth.

Because of /course/ that is a thing that just happens. It is happening, right now.

The red-headed teen sits down at his spot, idly taking bites out of his cucumber sandwich and staring into space, his mental wheels turning a little. He had come to the shop because of the name, of course. Some things are obligatory. It is, therefore, a great injustice that he's letting his tea grow as cold as the leads in his mind.
He sighs a little and sets the sandwich down, and rubs his eyes before coming back to the real world. Out of habit, he looks around at the occupants of the shop, realizing that there are new faces (are they doppelgangers?).

Alexis Carr has posed:
    There were a few new faces. Some of them look quite evil -- that guy in the corner is either *the* most pretentious hipster, or he's evil and has a soul patch.

    And there, enjoying a cup of tea and having light conversation at the end of the counter, was Allegra. Who couldn't remember the face of meta-human hatred that got splattered up on the hall as a 'show stopping sensation'?

    She doesn't seem particularly hateful or evil right at this moment as she scrolls through a tablet, humming a moment.

Terry O'Neil has posed:
There was, of course, the moment of recognition. A face that in his mind was part of the archive of 'the before times', the times when he was just pursuing stories and not spandex-clad wackos across rooftops, or space, or whatever. Allegra. He remembered Power Girl's fury, Alexa's own volatile response, and then the rain of...

Yeah.

This was the balancing point of Terry, as he had come here to think about superhero business, and yet his Planet loyalties demanded that when a story crossed his path, he should do his best to sniff it out.

In his mind, he sighs because he is going to have to be /that guy/, but he nevertheless slides across the counter until he's close enough to be heard without raising his voice, "They've got quite good tea, here," he says by way of the lamest icebreaker on Earth. In his defense, inoffensive small talk often worked in unexpectedly beneficial ways... as long as one took precautions. Such as, for example, the rainbow bracelet at his wrist that might potentially dispel the suspicion that he could be a creeper approaching a lovely young woman. Potentially only, as innately suspicious people would see it as an attempt at disguise (though in Terry's case, it wasn't). And there was nothing to be done about the impression that, from that lame line, someone might decide they were talking to a dork.

Alexis Carr has posed:
    "Mm. They do." comes the distracted reply from Allegra, who draws her dark eyes up to Terry O'Neil. There's the barest flash of recognition, and she takes a deep breath, rubbing at ther wrist a moment as she turns to face the man properly.

    "Do you happen to have a favorite? This is my first visit; my normal hang out is..." she drifts a moment "... under reconstruction." she finishes awkwardly.

Terry O'Neil has posed:
"Not particularly, nowadays I don't get to hang out in public places as much as I used to..." he says, taking a sip of his tea, which has gotten a mite cold. "So I cherish the times when I get to be here by myself without random strangers jutting in with lame openers. Don't you just hate that?"

He gives her a commiserating smile, in case he read that twinge of recognition correctly, "I used to hang out at a bookstore called Malaprops... best bagels in town, but it sort of got demolished during the Warzoon invasion." He takes a bite out of his cucumber sandwich, "Along with my car. Nobody died, miraculously. Well, except my car."

Alexis Carr has posed:
    "Alas, poor vehicle. You knew it well, Horatio." Allegra smiles, and she breathes out.

    "It's only really recently that I've been able to wander about on my own without fear of being... waylaid, I suppose would be a good term for it. It's nice. Most people don't recognize any sort of classical entertainer. It's quite refreshing." she states quietly.

Terry O'Neil has posed:
"Well, unless you're Renee Fleming, but that's just because she keeps doing these farewell concerts even though she's come back more times than Cher," Terry says with a little smirk, "Fortunately I seem to have the Tony Hawk effect. People tell me I really look like 'that guy who works at the Planet who is that cat on the Titans', and most of the time they go away when I take the compliment but tell them they're wrong."

"You've been out of the public eye for a while... and I guess I don't blame you. For a long time it seemed like you couldn't open your mouth without someone deciding to shout /at/ you..."

Alexis Carr has posed:
    "I never understood the appeal of endless farewell concerts. It just seems like a shallow moneygrab. Retire and teach, or do *something*. Good God, my grandmother retired and founded a *Classical Music Institution*... as a hobby!" she states with a rueful grin at the idea of an endless farewell.

    And she turns back to the counter, drawing up her teacup, holding it in hands and warming her palms against them.

    "Aah, so it's true, you are the man who works at the Planet, and who is the cat on the Titans... who's Tony Hawk?"

Terry O'Neil has posed:
"A professional skateboarder who is constantly being mistaken as a guy who looks like himself. I mean, there are worse things, my mother used to tell me a story about Carol Channing losing out in a Carol Channing lookalike competition... to a man in drag."

"But yes. That's me. You probably remember seeing me in passing at the gala. I was talking to that really cute blond who then went and joined you after the... incident." He taps his finger on the counter a few times, looking at Allegra. "I never had the chance to follow up with you on everything that happened because..." he hehs, "Because I suddenly became The Cat On The Titans, which is the worst possible Dr. Seuss book title you can imagine."

Alexis Carr has posed:
    "Yes, I recall the quiet comparrison to past soprannos, which is understandable. NOt everyone gets trained from birth in violin, piano, and voice." she states quietly, and she breathes out a moment.

    "Not... precisely my highest performance, but I'm sure you'd be pleased to know that there are no remaining hard feelings between Power Girl and I."

Terry O'Neil has posed:
"That's good to know. Power Girl is kind of terrifying when she's angry. You have some serious coraggio standing up to her the way you did..." he tilts his head, "So now that all of the sound and fury has subsided, I wonder if you don't feel as if your persoal story got sidelined by a lot of anger and... misunderstanding." He takes a final sip of his teacup before refilling. "I hear there have been a lot of changes. Maybe a time for calmer voices to prevail and set the record straight?"

Alexis Carr has posed:
    "I promise you I would rather perform endlessly without tire unknown music than face off against POwer Girl again. That was particularly stupid of me." Allegra admits, and she gives a smile.

    "Are you coming to me as an interviewer or as a potential friend?" Her smile falters slightly.

    "The last time I tried for an interview to 'set the record straight', I was attacked. I never did hear from the young man with the Daily Bugle if his computer was returned to him... but Spider-Man had stopped the attack. It seems that I may never be able to escape the shadow of hatred."

Terry O'Neil has posed:
"I don't see why one should be exclusive of the other," Terry says, finishing off his cucumber sandwich, "The thing about public interviews is that they can be a good PR stunt, but they also attract unwanted attention. I won't advertise anything about your interview until /after/ the fact. Then people can come and attack /me/..."" and then he grins, "But let's be honest, I work at the planet. That place is villain central to begin with, you get your minor grade of Superman rogues stopping by to see if they can draw him out by threatening Lois." A beat, "Nobody will insure us."

He chuckles again and shakes his head, "I can do you one better, we can do a double-team sort of thing... you probably have heard of my cousin, April O'Neil? She has a podcast aside from the stuff she does at Channel 6. I can see if she'd be up to doing a joint podcast interview with me to help get your story out and set the record straight. The benefit of this is that we can go anywhere you want to do this. And... well, what with me being the Cheshire Cat and being able to go anywhere via Rabbit Holes, we really can go anywhere- even the Dordogne. Have a little sit-down at a rented cafe, whatever. I'm a firm believer in giving people a chance to say their peace without the noise and the distraction of other... sources."

"I also make a pretty okay friend. If you can excuse last-minute cancellations of plans because somebody decided that Central Park looked better with a forty-foot mechanical spider in it, that sort of thing..."

Alexis Carr has posed:
    "Or suddenly having to cancel plans because a giant space ship opened up in the sky and you get tagged in as a subsitute for someone." Allegra gives a subtle nod towards other happenstances, and she smiles. "I don't think anyone is actually interested in setting the story straight. It's much more *fun* for people to point out that I grew up in an ivory tower and have no concept of how the real world works, that you can't just hate on a bunch of people because they're different. I'm a very convenient scapegoat."

    And she purses her lips. "You really can go anywhere, huh?"

Terry O'Neil has posed:
"You bet! For accurate leaps I need an image of the place if I haven't been there before.. but with Street View apps, that's npt as hard, ecept for very far-off places. I can Rabbit Hole without knowing the place, but that makes it very imprecise which is acceptable when you only have to walk a mile to a town, but not so good when you're trying to pinpoint the one jutting rock over an abyss, that sort of thing."

"And you can't quite say that anymore, that nobody's interested. Obviously I am.Nothing gets me more riled up than an inaccurate story. Why, someday I might write my memoirs on how the book doesn't quite get Wonderland right, nor what /really/ happened over there." He grins, "It's been a hard sale for publishers right now, though," he jokes. "You don't need to give me an answer right away. We can trade numbers and you can hit me up whenever. We can hang out, listen to some Sarasate recordings, maybe play a board game with my boyfrend- you'd like him."

Alexis Carr has posed:
    "Oh? Does he enjoy tea and card games?" she gives a wry smile. "I've recently picked up a 'bigger blacker box' of a certain card game, and I'm not sure if my own boyfriend would be perfectly scandalized by it. He's a bit..." she purses her lips a moment "Traditional. /Not/ in the manner that my father is, mind you." she states, and she slips her hand into her bag and slides a little calling card over to Terry. It notably does not have her name on it, but does have an E-mail address and a phone number. It has a little, embossed shield with a sword and grapes growing over it.

Terry O'Neil has posed:
Terry produces his own, which discreetly reads 'Terry O'Neil' without alluding to his other identity. Not that it's necessary. Email and phone number are listed along the bottom. "Oh, he's not traditional, really. Although he is still adjusting a little to dating a guy publicly... I think he'd be perfect for the game, though raunchy topics stll fluster him..." he grins "So he'd be /perfect/ for the game. You can fluster Gar Logan, but you can't quite scandalize him without actually robbing a bank or something like that. "

Once his tea is done, he sighs contentedly, "So hit me up, or if you want to drop by the Tower anytime give me a ring, we'll give you the tour. I know the place looks like it'll just topple over with the first strong headwind, but it's much sturdier than that."

He gathers his satchel and starts putting his notebook inside.

Alexis Carr has posed:
    "And Sam would probably be unapproving on the grounds that there are children in the neighborhood." eAllegra comments breezily, and she accepts the card, slipping it into her billfold.

    "Oh, I simply couldn't rob a bank on the first outing. That's something that requires at least a week of planning and a summer outfit change." she jokes pleasantly. "Thank you, terry. It's been a while since I've had such a nice conversation."

Terry O'Neil has posed:
"Well, you can always bring Sam along on some of the outings and we will be on our best behavior. Probably not the bank heist, though." Terry grins, "Likewise, it's the first time in a while that I have had a nice conversation and the people involved weren't wearing spandex or battle armor."

He pauses and shakes his head, "My life is nuts. But take care of yourself... and if you see anything strange or anything out of the usual, just remember- I am a call and a rabbit hole away."

And with that, the redhead takes his leave, and as he makes his way out of the shop, a quick thought hits him:

Doppelganger, or the real deal?

"Oh god, " he whispers to himself, "We're going to be paranoid messes until this is over..."

Alexis Carr has posed:
    "... what a nice lad. Pity he's a bit mad though." Allegra gives a wry smile to the retreating cat, and she draws up her pack as well, checking for any messages from The Club, and she tucks her phone away, leaves a tip on the counter, and she brings her bag up over her shoulder to walk out of the tea shop.

    There's no one who looks quite like her, definitely no one who appears to be evil like her.