523/Kiss the Gar

Kiss the Gar
Date of Scene:	14 March 2020
Location:	Fred's Diner
Synopsis:	Other than chiding Terry on his dangerous behavior, Lois, while no singing crab, gives some advice.
Cast of Characters:	Terry O'Neil, Lois Lane

---

Terry O'Neil has posed:
The romantic image of the American Diner is a persistent one in fact an fiction- countless establishments seek to preserve their vintage look in order to attract clientele eager to partake in a slice of that Normal Rockwellesque glory of days gone by. And many other establishments, far too young to have been born in that arguably auspicious time, cover themselves in stolen nostalgia with brand-new old-time furnishings.

There is some debate as to how much there is of Fred's Diner that is still authentic, but most people don't care. Most people, like Terry and Lois, stop by for the convenience of its location, the passability of its food (in this case, quite good), and the ambiance. And, in all truthfulness, it was close to a place Lois had to check out for assignment purposes, and the reviews on Yelp were pretty high.

"I'll have the triple cheeseburger, the seassoned fries and a chocolate shake, please!" The redhead says, sliding his menu over to the waitress, and waits for Lois to render her order and the waitress to leave before saying, "Well, it's been a long day. We deserve carbs."

Lois Lane has posed:
"Fish and chips, a side of onion rings, and..." Lois taps her chin. "... also a chocolate shake."

She looks over to Terry, stretching out a bit before leaning on the table a bit. "I'm pretty tired," Lois admits. "It'll be nice to get home and..." She's not sure what she's doing when she's getting home, actually. She'll have to text Clark.

"You seem like you've been busy lately. Don't think I'm not peeking in about those absences either. I know you usually let me know, but... you doing okay?" It's less of a boss thing and more of an 'I'm concerned for you' thing.

Terry O'Neil has posed:
^ Terry exhales."Boy... where to start..." he says, eyes pointed at the ceiling. "... so... a couple of days ago, on my day off, I decided to help Beast Boy with his social media by doing a PSA at the beach for ocean conservation." He looks down at Lois. "So, naturally, it ended up with me rushing him to the hostage with a gash in his leg and a giant turtle monster chasing us out of the beach."

Lois Lane has posed:
"I... okay."

Lois takes that in stride. She's been through some weird stuff, so this tracks. She nods slowly. "Pretty decent reason to be occupied. I suppose I'd do the same in your situation." She does raise an eyebrow. "You didn't answer the question of if you're okay though."

Terry O'Neil has posed:
He takes a deep breath. "... am I Okay?" He appears to take this as a sort of academic question. "... Beast Boy is staying at my apartment. I'm sort of taking care of him because I didn't want him all alone by himself at that tower. So..." He sighs and rests his chin on his hands. "It's being very... very distracting." He lowers his voice. "And... two nights ago I found something out, about the reason I came to Metropolis in the first place."

Lois Lane has posed:
Lois Lane always gets the scoop. She leans forward, elbows on the table, head atop her hands. "I /knew/ there was more to this." Her hunches do have a basis in truth after all. "Alright, spill the beans. Sounds like you've got... two issues going on? Beast Boy and something about your reason for coming to Metropolis?"

Now if only other people were so easy to ply for information...

Terry O'Neil has posed:
It's easy for Terry to forget that Lois has the reporter thing on all the time. He may be too easy to trust... or it may be that it is hard not to trust someone associated so much with Superman. "I came to Metropolis following a lead about my dad. He vanished before I was born, and mom has never said a word about him past that. I started looking into him about a year ago, and the trail led here and... it sort of died. Then I found out a lead, tenuous one at that. A picture of him eighteen years ago with Nicolas Sabatini."

Nicolas Sabatini. Rumored wannabe criminal overlord. The kind of men who made their fortune in 'investments' and about whom rumors abounded about shady dealings, but very little evidence.

"I suspected he was behind those drug and arms deals being carried out in Suicide Slum..."

Lois Lane has posed:
"So you've got your own personal scoop you're following," Lois muses, a quirk of a smile forming on the corner of her lips. "Good for you. The personal ones are the ones that mean something, not just to you." She looks him over. "So you're still searching for Sabatini? I'm sure I've got someone we can poke with a stick until the rats come crawling out of the alleys. Unless you want this one all to yourself."

After all, it could be a point of pride for him. She doesn't know.

Terry O'Neil has posed:
"Oh... it got worse. You see... I found him. And my contact- the one who got me the Captain Marvel scoop? Convinced me that it was safer to just waltz in and ask him about my father while he suspected nothing than staking out those drug deals."

He sat back, "... did you know he has a mini mansion in Westchester? In any case, I followed her advice. I went there. I asked. Turns out? My dad tried to kill him in the middle of some shady deal the dude was carrying. And apparently my dad had a 'monster'," he does the air quotes, "He unleashed on him and his men. Oh, and my dad put him in a coma. So..."

His shake arrives, and he takes a satisfying sip of it. "So I waltz in with a photograph of him and my dad, asking about my dad. And next thing you know I was being marched out to the garden and had a gun pointed at my head."

Lois Lane has posed:
Wait for it... wait for it...

Wham. There's the facepalm. /Double/ facepalm. Both of Lois' hands cover her face as she exhales deeply. After a moment, she pulls her hands from her face. "Terry O'Neil. First of all, your contact shouldn't have been giving you that kind of advice. And you should /question/ that. Secondly, you don't just pile all your evidence up in a nice neat package and march in. You're close to this case which means /you're/ a piece of the evidence. Your presense will automatically change the playing field."

She's not scowling exactly, but she doesn't look pleased. "Alright, so you get exactly one tiny pass because this was personal. I can understand when a story is personal to you it gets messy. Believe me, I get that more than anyone. But don't lose your head like that. The trick is, if you go in like that? There's all kinds of set up you need. Never go in blind. Never. Even if you think the story's worth it, it's not worth your life."

She huffs out a breath of air again. "Did you at least have a backup plan if things went tits up?"

Terry O'Neil has posed:
"Yeah. I had someone waiting outside the house. She was monitoring calls using some spyware stuff, and I had a wire. Sort of. She gave me this burner phone that was rigged to act as a wire, and I had it in my front pocket."

He sips on his shake before continuing. "And when the shit hit the fan... well. She got me out of there and put a bullet in Sabatini's leg. Apparently he promised he would pull out of the Slums. He also spilled the guts about my father- pretty much what I told you, so more than I knew... but not exactly useful. Apparently Sabatini's had a reward out for my dad's head ever since he came out of the coma, and he thought my dad might have been keeping tabs on me and killing me would bring /him/ out..."

He sighs, "Yeah... it was messy. I got tempted by the notion of being able to wrap it all cleanly without getting shot at again." He laughs, "Which goes to show ya, eh? And then of course there's Gar... I haven't told him what happened yet because he's been sleeping so much." He rubs his forehead. "He gonna be /so/ pissed..." he whispers.

Lois Lane has posed:
"Sounds like you've got a Clark Kent after all," Lois looks amused, stirring her shake with her straw. "Someone who chides you for doing these kinds of things recklessly because you'll get hurt, but wants to slow down your progress to do it the safe way. But you barrel off without them because you think you can do it on your own or faster or you just don't want to wait. And then you get to face that disappointed look when they say your name and just stare at you like you should know better..."

She raises an eyebrow and looks at Terry. "Any of that sound familiar to you?"

Terry O'Neil has posed:
Terry's eyes go wide, "Eerily so," he admits. "But at least you're not..." He pauses and thinks quite a bit on how to phrase this. Eventually, he goes on. "I mean, I don't think you look at Clark like... I mean." Slightly flustered, he takes a sip of his shake, then tries again.

"I think I am compromised."

Lois Lane has posed:
Lois looks up from her milkshake. She leans forward. "Oh no, you /do/ have a Clark Kent." She seems very serious at this point. "Are you gonna wait ten years for him to notice you, or are you gonna say something? Cause I'll tell you, the ten years thing builds a great foundation but boy does it complicate things." She sits back again, sipping from her milkshake.

"If you don't hear from the rest of the office before now, Clark and I seeing each other." She peers over the top of her milkshake at him. "So have you got a Clark Kent or am I wrong about that?"

Terry O'Neil has posed:
Terry squints. "This is spooky," he mutters. He takes a breath. "... I don't know if I do. I mean... Gar..." He spreads his hands on the table, "I have followed his career since he was with the Doom Patrol. I always thought he was funny, a riot. I collected clippings. I wanted to /be/ like him. And then one chance encounter outside of the Justice Hall later, I am hanging out with Beast Boy!"

Their food arrives, and Terry takes the opportunity to pour mustard on his fries.

Yes. He puts mustard on his fries. "And then... it's not even that long, but I start seeing things about him. He's mot just funny. He's gentle, and he's caring, and he worries about other people..."

He browns, letting a fry dangle from his fingers, twirling this way and that. "And he's hurt. Lois, he's very hurt and I worry about him. What happened to him on that day." He doesn't really need to mention which day. He knows Lois knows what he means. "He freezes. He froze at the beach, it's why that monster got him. He grows quiet when certain subjects come up. He suddenly hides away somewhere."

He finally chomps on the fry and leans back. "I don't know if I have a Clark. Garfield Logan is straight. I mean, you've seen the pictures of him with all those actresses in Hollywood."

Lois Lane has posed:
Mustard on fries? Weird kid. "Look, I don't know your Beast Boy well, just some of what I've seen through various forms of media, but I can tell you what I've experienced, my personal story... cause I'm seeing a lot of similarities, and maybe it'll help you find your way." Lois goes for one of her onion rings, tearing it apart into bits with her fingertips.

"I don't know what your friend has been through, but usually I've found people like that need to learn to trust others and themselves again from whatever scarred them. There's a long journey ahead there. But... you're denying having a Clark simply because of the only evidence you've seen so far?"

She picks up a fry, pointing it at him. "Clark spent ten years completely convinced I'd never look at him like that and I spent ten years thinking he was uninterested because he never made any indication he /was/ interested. I kissed him to hide out when we were on a stakeout and there was something there... so I kissed him again later to confirm if it was actually a thing. We're a little weird, but there's a point to all this."

Lois pops the fry into her mouth finishing it before responding again. "If you go off of /pure/ assumption from what you see? You don't get the truth that way. It's just like a story, always something below the surface. If you want to know the truth, you have to go searching for it. I'm not suggesting you kiss him... because sometimes that goes terribly and it really very much almost did... but sometimes you've just got to kiss them and see how you both feel."

Terry O'Neil has posed:
"This advice would be so much more fitting if I were on a boat and you were a lobster," Terry says with a slight smirk, munching on his fries. "But you're right in that I do think that. Only I'm Clark in this equation. Gar's a superhero. And a movie star. I'm just..." he shrugs, "I'm ordinary. Heck, I've never dated. The one boy I fell for gave me a black eye when I told him."

He starts taking tentative bites out of his hamburger, and then they become not so tentative as he tastes.

"MmmMMmm.... this is good," he mutters. Temptation to lick his fingers? There, but he's not going to do it in front of Lois. His mother taught him manners.

"Ten years? Geez..." he tries to wrap his mind around that. "I'm having a hard time /now/. He's crashing on my couch while he recovers. I help him change his bandages. He leans on me to get around because I don't have a crutch..." he frowns for a second, briefly thinking that Gar *is* wealthy, and a crutch would cost absolutely nothing to him, so why doesn't he... "I look forward to coming home and I dread it at once, because he's there. I dread it because I think I'll say something and then he'll look at me like..." he trails off. "But spending time with him is great. His eyes and that smile of him can just melt me like that..." he snaps his fingers.

He groans and shakes his head. "What you say makes sense. ^ I just don't know what to do.Or how to do it. Nrhg." He takes a big chomp of his hamburger, partially because he realized he was rambling.

Lois Lane has posed:
Lois gives him a look. "So you're really gonna pine after him for ten years? The thing is... if Clark /had/ shown some interest? I don't think I would have turned him down. We had built a really great friendship, to the point where it was practically already a relationship. But sometimes, we don't know what we want. I kissed Clark because I wanted to know what I wanted and I wanted to know what he wanted. It was to see if we were both actually interested. A test. If you don't poke at all, it's always gonna be Clark Kent pining."

She eats another fry. "He's hurt. Maybe what he really needs is for you to show that you're there to help him, protect him, that he's safe. That could be all you need to get him to open up."

Terry O'Neil has posed:
Terry looks down at the table for a while, eating paused while he considers things. He scratches his chin, and then he looks up at Lois, green eyes twinkling. "... incidentally, are you offering me this advice so I am actually on time and stop your cofee flow shortage?" he asks, an impish expression on his face.

Lois Lane has posed:
"Work performance will improve, I'm sure," Lois grins. "But I'm more concerned about your well-being. Besides, if you aren't around at work on time how can I steal you to be my backup when Clark's busy doing paperwork because I swear to god that man..." She shakes her head. "Sometimes I wonder if /he's/ the intern." As he said, he likes the paperwork.

"But really, wait for a moment that seems right."

Terry O'Neil has posed:
Terry chuckles, "Noted. Noted..." he pauses. "I haven't done //that// badly, have I? I do intend on taking less days off for being injured. By that I mean I intend to not get injured as much."

There is very little of his burger left, so he starts rationing it with smaller bites.

"Can I ask you an impertinent question?"

Lois Lane has posed:
"I'll get a little board that says how many days its been since your last injury," Lois teases as she works on her food still. She raises an eyebrow at his mention of the question. "Sure, ask away. So long as it doesn't get you fired."

Terry O'Neil has posed:
Terry laughs, and takes a final sip of his shake, enjoying it to the last. Then he taps on the table with his thumbs, looking at Lois. "Did you ever think your life would turn out the way it has? I mean... Superman, everything? I didn't for a moment think I'd be doing anything more than writing listicles for the forgotten parts of the online Planet webpages. Now I had Captain Marvel giving me the side-eye, Beast Boy in my living room, and Harley Quinn is my cousin's roomate."

He pauses. "I just realized I didn't tell you this. Harley Quinn is living with April now."

It sounds so... strange, when you put it like that.

Lois Lane has posed:
"Did I imagine I'd be /exactly/ here? No." Lois finishes off an onion ring. "But a lot of what I have here today is cause I've worked hard for it. I got lucky with the first Superman scoop, but I worked hard to get somewhere I /could/ report on something like that. Things are a lot stranger than I expected... Clark's kind of out of the blue but it's /wonderful/."

She pauses. "So... when's board game night at April's?"

Terry O'Neil has posed:
"I can always ask her!" Terry says, fishing for his wallet as the check comes their way "No, my treat- I insist. You have no idea how much you've helped me." Terry will pay for both, unless Lois challenges him a duel.

"We could drop by soon. April's supposed to interview Lex Luthor on Monday, unless he cancels. I am sure she would be delighted to see you after that- a palate cleanser for her. And, of course, Harley is cool and kind of fascinating and slightly terrifying, in a good way," he says, gathering up his satchel. ^"... at least, I think. Maybe"

Lois Lane has posed:
"I'm sorry, she's going into that lion's den unprepared?" Lois Lane winces. "Maybe I should drop by. It's not going to be great, I'm sure. Make sure she knows that Luthor is not a great guy, okay? And I mean it. /Make sure/. No personal favors, no promises, straight facts, avoid talking about Superman." If she can't warn her personally, she'll send Terry as messenger boy.

Terry O'Neil has posed:
"I'll make sure to warn her. Maybe we can convince Harley to set fire to something outside and trigger the fire alarm if the interview is going badly," Terry jokes, sliding out of the booth and stretching. "Well, I guess it's back to the grind, eh?" He glances briefly at his phone. No news from Gar. He was probably still sleeping. Those painkillers were a doozy.

Lois Lane has posed:
"I imagine that's a good way to do it," Lois doesn't like the idea of anyone in that particular lion's den, but she'll deal. "As long as you give her the warning, I'll be fine about it. Good on her for getting that interview. I would be lying if I said I was sort of avoiding it on principal." She looks back at him. "Should we head back to the Planet then? I'm sure he'll message you soon."

Terry O'Neil has posed:
Terry turns almost as red as his hair. "I'm sure I don't know whom you're talking about. But sure, let's head back..." He starts walking towrads the door. The red has now crept all the way up to his ears. "And maybe you might drop by the studio as a surprise. I'm sure Luthor would be totally off his guard with you there. Maybe you two could tag-team him!"

He frowns as he walks out the door, "Let me rephrase that-"