6245/An Interview with...no, no interview

An Interview with...no, no interview
Date of Scene:	17 May 2021
Location:	Shadow Manor
Synopsis:	Bella hires a reporter, best reporter, Clark Kent. Bella also doesn't know what a reporter is!
Cast of Characters:	Bella, Clark Kent, Jon Kent

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Bella has posed:
Shadow Manor is the unofficial, official name, of one Bellatrix Lestrange, who for more mundane affairs attempts to go by Bella, raises less questions. Her abode is the very peculiarly addressed 666 w 53rd st, in Hell's Kitchen no less. Must be a weird coincidence, nobody with anything to hide would pull something silly as this. She has been wondering about an old acquaintance due to some meeting that recently happened, and seen that this one reporter Clark Kent is quite famous for getting the 'scope', whatever the hell that was. She assumed it meant he's good at scooping people out of obscurity, and so she called the Daily Planet to arrange a meeting. Due to her connections with the affluent and well regarded Hellfire Club, her request was actually followed upon.

Time of the meeting, and Bella is sitting in her drawing room, tea properly prepared along with some scones for the guests. She occasionally looks at an old pendulum clock, frowning, "...I hope he's not late..."

Clark Kent has posed:
Superman (and son) landed in New York some five minutes ago. It takes about that long to change, grab a soft pretzel, and find the 'manor'. The Sanctum Sanctorum, Clark thinks, it isn't. Clark is here because, well, his editor owed someone a favor so this bizarre request ended up across his desk, and he saw the name of a man on Clark's Hellfire Club conspiracy board at home. And the idea of someone who literally thinks reporters are, what, private detectives?, being that well connected was an interesting opportunity.

Clark brought his son because the boy has to start somewhere. "Alright, Jon. Remember to keep your eyes open; if your vision powers get overwhelming, shut them down, but try to use them at least a little. You never know what might happen in a spooky apartment complex in New York." Clark winks at his son, and knocks carefully on the door.

"Ms. Lestrange?" Clark calls out, "It's Clark Kent, Daily Planet."

Jon Kent has posed:
     Jon luckily still had his glasses in his hoodie when he got thrown into this timeline, and of course he had long since learned how to blend in out of costume.

  "Okay pop." He said, looking to the door they were about to go in. Though he didn't try to extend out his vision yet, he figured there would be enough time for that in a bit.

Bella has posed:
"Finally," Bella calls out as she walks up to open the door, revealing, a rather impressive collection of antiquaries, old world weaponry, and quite the old school design, all with dark tones, and somewhat bleak honestly. "Come in, come in, the tea might have gone lukewarm, but that's on your dalliance," she snorts, eyeing Jon for a moment, "oh well, I guess the younger gentleman is welcome as well," clearly she was only expecting Clark. She waits for the two to come in, before closing the door with a sigh, "into the drawing room we go."

She leads them over towards the room, across some peculiartieis, including an curiously lifelike statue of an owl along the way.

"Please, have a seat," she invites them, pushing the tea cup meant for her towards Jon, "that'll do. I've already had a few glasses anyway, because I couldn't wait, proper human tea is quite delicious."

"I'm told you're quite good, Mr. Kent, is that so?"

Clark Kent has posed:
Clark nods to Jon. He's still getting used to the whole...teenaged son from the future thing, but what else can you do when high strangeness calls? At least this one isn't trying to kill him.

Clark takes in the old world culture with a reporter's practiced eye. Despite the farmboy facade he still uses on the job, Clark's seen and experienced a great deal of the world, and beyond, and quietly notes the make and age of most of the relics he can identify. He uses his Super Vision a little, half expecting a trap of some kind.

Instead he gets bad manners and lukewarm tea. Warming it back up with a flash of heat vision, Clark's ears perk at 'proper human tea', but decides to see if his son notices. "Well, I do have a few awards on my wall, Miss Lestrange."

Jon Kent has posed:
     Jon takes a seat where he was offered, staying out of the way mostly, but it was interesting to see Clark work, even if he wasn't quite yet his father. "Oh, thank you." He comments, receiving the teacup and saucer. Had he been a little younger, he'd think it a little funny all this old world decor and 'funny people talk'. Well, the last fact was still a little funny, which contributed to his genuine smile.

  Looking around the room, Jon tries to find something interesting to look at, in order to cover his seeing farther into Shadow Manor.

Bella has posed:
If anything, Clark's supervision could probably ascertain nothing in this apartment is actually fake or made to look old, it's actually all legit, Bella must be quite rich and quite the collector with an astute eye for genuine artifacts.

"Splendid!" Bella sounds excited at the mention of awards, "in that case there's another award in for you, if you can track an old acquaintance from Hungary, he goes by Gebhard...I've heard he has made his way into the United States, surely you can find someone with as stupid a name as Gebhard." She neglects to explain he is actually called Gebhard The Undying and is very much an ancient vampire, older then her actually. But then why would she mention that, when she's trying to pass as a perfectly normal human? That would be dumb, and she is smart.

The Kryptonians and their sharp senses may not some lingering scent of blood, but it could also be from just about any human, right? Their senses were pretty sharp.

Clark Kent has posed:
If we wanted to get crazy about it, Clark could sense the altered beating of her heart, the unusual age of her damaged or magically preserved chromosomes, and, if you want to get metaphysical, her immortal soul of lack thereof.

Clark isn't going that hard right now, partially because he has no reason to, and partially because he wants to see how powerful Jon's vision and, more importantly, his instincts for danger have become. This parlor is weird, but he's been in a lot of weird parlors.

"Is there anything else you can tell me, Ms. Lestrange? A last name, maybe? Description? Gerhart is an unusual first name, but New York, let alone the rest of America, is full of unusual names. I'd need a little more information to make sure it's the correct Gerhart."

Jon Kent has posed:
     Jon took a moment to look towards Bella, a little perplexed at the question. Was she trying to use Clark as a private eye?

  Jon's gaze stayed on her while she talked, but there was a lack of presence there, he wasn't paying attention to the bulk of her words, he was trying to use his vision to inspect the areas around her, looking for anything untoward.

  But with this amount of concentration, he smelled...iron, blood, he didn't know the exact components that make up blood, but the whole scent was definitely familiar.

Bella has posed:
"I think part of the fun is to see how good you truly are...Award Winning Reporter," yes, Bella has no clue what a reporter actually does for a living. Someone clearly recommended her Clark for unearthing difficult to find information, and she figured that's what he does. "Gebhard is a bit of what you might call...a megalomanic asshole, you know the type," because everyone knows someone like that, right? "It's been so long since we shared tea..." by which she means attempts to stab one another to death, "I miss his face. Yes." She nods as if that somehow further cements what she said as obvious truthful facts. "He is from Hungary, he moved into the United States within the last ten years, and he is utterly loathesome."

Clark Kent has posed:
"That's..." Clark trails off, mildly wishing Lois was here just to see the look on her face at that cavalcade of useless information. "...interesting, ma'am." Clark makes a few notes, and frowns a bit, wondering if he is being used as more than a delivery boy. Could this be some kind of grudge? Maybe they're mutants, that'd explain a lot; get past the initial delicate years and you usually get a room full of treasure and a few grudges from the old world.

That's an unkind thought, Clark castigates himself, she could also be a wizard, or an alien, or just rich. There is another shoe here, and Clark decides it's worth putting up with talking to this woman to figure out.

"What do you think, son?" Clark asks, smiling a little, "Think we can crack this mystery?"

Jon Kent has posed:
     Jon's vision goes back to normal, for now, looking back to Clark. "We can try." He offers back with a smile. "A Hungarian named Gebhard, in the United States, and he is a...not nice man..."

  "Out of curiosity ma'am, if he is not a nice guy, why do you want to see him again? If he's a butt, excuse me, then why would you even want to see him again?"

Bella has posed:
"Yes, yes it is..." Bella says and one could almost taste how much this issued challenge amuses her, of course, none present would ever imagine she was a Baroness who fancied issuing impossible challenges just to punish people. There is no punishments, unfortunately, in how the world is run these days, but all the same, should be fun to see this valued reporter fail. Unless he succeeds, and then all the better!

Bella laughs loudly as Jon calls Gebhard a butt, and everytime she calms down enough to speak, she starts laughing again, "oh! Gebhard The Butt! That's hilarious! You're very talented, young man." She applauds, and then grins, "oh...it's been so long since I've last talked to him, I figured let bygones be bygones, I want to make friends with him again. Despite his being a butt."