8073/Excuse me - Is This Superman's Bar

Excuse me - Is This Superman's Bar
Date of Scene:	01 October 2021
Location:	Ace of Clubs Pub
Synopsis:	It isn't. (Ruby chats with Meggan for a while about the local area and some questions about the nature of the human* heart.)
Cast of Characters:	Ruby Lasertrava, Meggan Puceanu

---

Ruby Lasertrava has posed:
The woman called Ruby Lasertrava - or known to some as the STAR SAPPHIRE (although this is not really a title she puts her hand on because she has not yet acculturated to these titles and their roles in the exciting diversity of Earthling metaculture) - walks into a bar.

She does not hit her head. She has, tucked into the crook of her arm, a bag from an office supply store. Inside of it, several folders. Inside the folders, paper. Purple in one, white in the other. It is held close.

Ruby is wearing a somewhat mismatched combination. High-waist blue jeans. A top that threatens to bare the midriff. A purple ring on a chain around her neck. Big round camp sunglasses. Uncomfortable-looking plastic white heels, which are being compensated for with camp socks, which are also helping with the heels being somewhat off-size.

Ruby clicks inside, as the door swings shut behind her.

She scans the place - looking upwards - left - right - around. She takes it in in meditative silence for about five or six seconds, long enough to start being awkward.

"Excuse me," she calls to the nearest person - who may just so happen to be a travelling young woman, like her - "Do you mind if I ask you a question?"

"Is this Superman's establishment?"

Meggan Puceanu has posed:
Here is a pleasant watering hole, one of Metropolis' many, many such places secreted away beneath the shining towers shrouded in glass and sheathed in glittering displays of order and opulence.

Bibbo makes sure of a welcoming environment, as long as someone doesn't speak ill of the hero in blue. Meggan would never consider that, a girl with white-blonde hair arranged in a charmingly messy bun and the rest of it spilled down her back. After one too many oversights, she has finally come to see what the Ace of Clubs is all about.

The many excellent qualities aplenty cause her to pause for a moment, drinking in the quiet hubbub that comes inevitably on a Thursday evening. Empath to the core, she drinks in the camaraderie, the peace of companionship, the particularly enthusiastic takes that some have. Meditative silence isn't quite her nature, though she breaks into a smile as soon as she's in.

"Not at all," she chimes in. "This *is* a place popular with Superman!" See, the English girl has totally read the guidebook. Her accent betrays her origins somewhat, the lyrical lilt of Welsh and Gaelic braided in for good measure. Lifting her pale jade eyes, she glances over that fascinating set of sunglasses and then up. If someone else was meant to answer, too bad! Now she has.

"It's a very friendly spot, isn't it?" For all five minutes she has been there, this is a certainty!

Ruby Lasertrava has posed:
Ruby is giving off an optimistic and hopeful air, fundamentally, together with some other stuff; she is pleased at this answer, stepping forwards. (The ring on the chain on her neck feels weirder, but not bad-weird.)

"Oh good," Ruby says, approaching the Englishwoman. Her own accent sounds like it could have come out of a 1940s film, made in America naturally enough, but wih some sort of underlying quirk, as if she's dividing up words a little too finely and then carefully pressing them back together.

"Then he comes here often?" Ruby asks Meggan. She proffers her hand a moment later, lips pulling back into a smile. "I'm getting ahead of myself, do forgive me. I'm Ruby and I'm trying to drum up business, but I didn't want to risk aggravating Superman or hurting his feelings or anything like that."

"It DOES feel friendly in here," Ruby says, looking around. "Is there a fare card? Excuse me, menu."

Meggan Puceanu has posed:
Transparent delight shines in Meggan's eyes, her smile purely content with itself in this moment, this hour. That ring probably embodies in high principle what's watercoloured through her presence in general warmth.

"It must be in all the tourbooks, a wonder the locals don't get right sick of everyone flowing in and out," she enthuses, all wide smiles. "You look absolutely divine, by the way. That's such a style!" The corner of her mouth drifts a bit higher, snagging the whole kit and kaboodle, and indulging in warmth. "I haven't been here but once a while back, and he wasn't here then. Not to say he wouldn't be here, though! With someone that important, maybe finding the time to come have a pint takes second place to saving the world and being an all-round hero." Points for her, and she's not out to make them in the least. Nonetheless, she holds a warm spot for the Man of Steel when it comes to helping others. "You are not going to likely hurt his feelings unless you hurt someone, I would think? That's just a guess, though. It's lovely to meet you, Ruby. Meg. Meggan, if you want the whole of it." The other half of the mouthful is distinctive enough, though the girl with an impressive social media presence doesn't feel the need to expand too much on it.

She gestures to the little flippy plastic laminated drinks menu, and a bit of rustling gets the actual food menu, though the kitchen may not be that impressive. Comes naturally to her, as experience being a proper bartender will show. "What's the sort of business you do, if you wouldn't be offended by my asking?"

Ruby Lasertrava has posed:
"Why thank you!" Ruby says about the complement, putting a hand to her heart for a moment. (The ring is undimmed.) "I actually haven't gotten the guidebooks, can you believe it? What I have had to work with really doesn't know a lot about the area, and I've been going by what I can tell from the ground and from some old family stories."

At this point, Ruby moves to set down as Meggan explains. She rests her chin in her hand for a moment and then looks towards the flippy menu, moving it around and saying, "Oh, that's clever, it's like a little worm hooking it together. And it'd be easy to clean, too!"

"I'm in the business of love, in a manner of speaking," Ruby tells Meggan, quite forthrightly. "I've got a lot of advanced training in how to make relationships work better, to put it a little vaguely, and I had hoped to be able to put it to work here in order to improve things and support myself."

That's nicely vague, isn't it. "Do you really think it's likely he'll drop by? I've only seen super-heroes once or twice, really. It's a fascinating idea."

Meggan Puceanu has posed:
What a charming sight. Meggan beams that smile, wide enough to give the sun a run for its money in pure wattage and illuminating quality for her features. "You haven't? You must have heard quite a few stories then! I'd no idea that people outside Metropolis talked about this lovely pile of happiness, but they promise a good pint and a proper experience, so here I am."

Her hands extended, she offers the drink menu and the other one in kind, though her expression falters for just one moment when Ruby speaks of her business. With all the emotional transparency of a sheet of pristine Murano glass, the rolling wave of heartache mingled with that undeniable flame of love -- passionate to the pure -- collides with the emotional balance, and she's forced for a moment to steel herself to not be pulled under. That brightness dims for an instant, and she takes in a deep, smooth breath soon enough released after a count of five and a bit. "Oh my. You must get scads of interest, just heaps of it. Everyone nowadays seems to be looking for answers, and if you can provide guidance into troubled matters of the heart -- or maybe just relationships in general, well that's quite impressive. Wish I'd had the pleasure of your company like a month back, actually."

Her head given a little shake, she catches herself in midflow and neatly snaps off the conversation like a dry twig. Realign, and begin anew. "I haven't the foggiest of his schedule, but the Hall of Justice where the Justice League operates from is a couple blocks over. I bet if nothing else you could put in a word there?"

Ruby Lasertrava has posed:
"Ohh, I'm speaking casually," Ruby says, with a wave of her hand that briefly reveals that she has done something with her nails. It's not polish in the sense of color, but they are apparently treated SOMEHOW. Cut short and... burnished?

"I didn't know about THIS place," Ruby explains to Meggan, "but I knew about New York and Gotham and Metropolis and Boston and Washington and Los Angeles and so on and so forth." As she takes the drink menu, Ruby - pauses; looking at her own chest for a moment, then back up.

She speaks in a different, somehow gentler tone. "Well, less than you'd think. I've run into people who were largely humoring me, to be frank, although I didn't feel like pressing the point. I just have the feeling, between you and me, that you understand what that's like."

Ruby glances in the general direction that Meggan indicates. "Hm," she says.

Then back to Meggan. "I don't know," she says. "Maybe later. Here, while I unpack my 'flyers,' do you want to tell me what's on your mind? If you'd like I'd be glad to treat you to something to eat to go with it, or a drink. I'd love to meet Superman but ultimately, I mean, I'm certainly not putting him down, but unless he's having trouble with Super-woman or something, that's not something I can *help* with..."

(And so, Ruby Lasertrava tempts fate)

Meggan Puceanu has posed:
Speaking casually? Is there such thing as casual in this respect? Perhaps there is, and perhaps there can be. Nonetheless, Meggan lightly laughs.

"There are many fine places in those cities. I know more about where to go in New York and Boston and Gotham. But every city has its own special spots." A roll of her shoulder under that carefully cut shirt ripples with movement. "Here, though, you have the whole oyster of the Justice League and a place where saying you like them isn't going to get an odd look! Quite the opposite, really." She nods to the bar a moment later, taking Ruby's reaction in and then breaking into a softer smile. "The pool table's the place to be for socializing, not the bar, which is a lot different than some of the pubs I know."

So may it be, though the whole location carries a happier ambiance than some. It's not drink to forget so much as celebrate and be together.

The world's a strange but many-faceted place. Ruby receives her attention again. "People get uncomfortable talking about their feelings, sometimes. Others need help and don't want to admit to that. Hardly something to blame them for! Most cultures put more stress on mastering or ignoring feelings than actually acknowledging and sitting with them, sadly. Not much for their mental health. Having a go at someone instead of working through the tough bits is basically inviting trouble, innit?"

She puts her finger to her lips and then offers than wan smile. "It's not entirely fair to be squashing you when you want to work. Much less without a drink, which I can offer. I'm usually the sort to listen, you know? My problems, such as they are, are simple enough as a broken heart. And I don't think Superman has many problems. Not like that. Superwoman or Super anyone. If there was a threat he had trouble with, he's a good many people to fall back on. Wonder Woman, Batman, the whole of Metropolis it feels like sometimes."

Ruby Lasertrava has posed:
"Oyster?" Ruby asks. Meggan may be able to figure out a lot from that question.

She does listen, though, before glancing at the indicated pool table. It's like she's doing it on cue. (GET IT?) But she really is: she may have never seen one in person before. She then puts a hand on her hip, tilting slightly to the side as she holds the menus in her other hand. (inwardly, her attention rests on Meggan. The pain, once glimpsed, is hard to push aside.)

"You're certainly right about how most people approach their feelings. They actually had to break us of that a little, where I went to, school; it was kind of liberating, even if it's also one of those things where you can look back and... anyway," Ruby concludes, "it's not important."

"I do like that turn of phrase, though. 'Mental health.' That's a good way of looking at it," Ruby continues, before walking - not very quickly - towards the indicated pool table. She folds her arms before herself as she walks, attention remaining on Meggan. It's a 'walk with me' walk without exactly pushing that.

"You never know," Ruby concludes, on the topic of 'many problems; not like that.'

"So be that as it may, Meggan, why don't you tell me about how you play this pool game while I flip through this clever thing and pick out lunch?" Ruby then concludes.

Meggan Puceanu has posed:
She's used to having some of the slang second guessed. Americans speak English but not as the English do, and certainly not as they do in Cumbria or Liverpool.

Meggan utters a soft laugh. "The whole group of them. Lots of heroes there, real famous ones, like the Avengers. The Justice League being set up here is a point of pride for the city, I reckon."

The tables and barstools present a place where Ruby might sit, or the pool table in the corner vacant of players another spot she could set up. The blonde Tuath doesn't give indications one way or the other where she might care to land, happy either way to venture as it amuses them.

"Really? Was it that uncommon?" she asks the other woman. "Being a bit more honest and used to grappling with the feelings, and not being afraid to them, would help a good number of people round here. They seem to bottle it all up until everything breaks." Not speaking in deep specifics there, she is happy to give her two pence and let Ruby keep talking. Her eyes round at what is and isn't importnat, but she's too polite to argue it. Better to venture poolward, finding a cue and racking the balls with the accomplished ease that only comes from someone who was forced to spend a loooot of time around the snooker or billiards table at one point or another.

"The game, if you've not played, is pretty easy. You hit the white ball into the solid or the striped balls, and sink them into the pockets. Least that's the most popular way of playing. We take a set each, either solid or striped. If you miss, my turn to go. If you get a ball in the pocket, then you continue. You always hit the white ball, and you can't move it. That make sense?" she asks, tilting her head.

"Sounds lovely to me, otherwise!"

Ruby Lasertrava has posed:
"Oh!!" Ruby says, laughing. "I get it now. You mean if I was interested in *seeing* them, just, as a tourist! I understand completely. I'm sorry, the threads were getting snarled in my head; I've had a couple of people say things that were a *little* rude that were a little bit like that, so, well, not fair to you OR to them - they meant well - mm, anyway."

Ruby makes for the pool table and ends up leaning a hip against it.

"And yes! I mean I imagine it's the same for everyone the world over. Being completely honest with yourself all of the time, or trying to be... it's work, and it's difficult, and it can be unpleasant. You can find out all sorts of awful things about yourself. You stop being able to tell yourself the same stories - or at least as reliably. Sometimes you find out there's a lot less to you than you wanted to think."

"At the same time," Ruby continues, "it's good to be able to touch there. To visit, even if you don't live. There's some things that you HAVE to do from that kind of a place... I have done a lot of things, mostly with marriages, because people were lying to themselves *and* each other."

Ruby then attends to the pool game.

"Hmm... could I ask you to take a couple of strikes, just so I can see how it's done? I'll sweeten the bowl after that, if you're interested in betting. This seems like a good game for betting," Ruby continues, fingertip to her lower lip.

Meggan Puceanu has posed:
"People were rude to you?" Meggan's concern isolates on that sonar ping and with almost lethal ease, she centers around that point with a softened concern gentle to her feature. "I wasn't sure whether you wanted to meet them properly or hope to catch up with them. But easy to confuse me compared to some."

The shy arc of her smile stirs in no doubt of that flaw, exposed with a deft play of her hands. Gathering up the fifteen balls to put them in a neat triangle rack isn't particularly time consuming. Taking time to do it is unneeded. "Complete honesty can definitely take others aback. Have you found that to cause more trouble than good, ever? I don't know that everyone wants to hear the bad about themselves, and they might be too prone to turning a blind eye to the flaws internally or externally. Hearing those truths is not easy, is it?"

Contouring the statue from the verbal dross takes a bit of time, for the concepts they speak of are like breathing or the colour blue to someone with a limited vocabulary of adjectives.

"I can show you, of course!" The question isn't too much and Ruby needs to see. She removes the frame, putting it back on a hook on the wall. The cue she holds up, giving a little chalk block a pat. "Put a bit of this on the end, not too much." Then setting the cue against her hand, she rolls it until it feels roughly in the right spot. Lining up the white orb before a constellation of tightly packed rainbow planetoids is easy enough. Slipping her hand back, she twists the cue and snaps it. "Aye, pretty good for betting. You can totally bet from every direction; how long the game is, who wins, who gets the most balls pocketed in however long. All that fun." Pale hair holding shocks of silver and gold slips off her shoulder as she sends the balls scattering before the cue ball like a hail of butterflies. "Married people lying to one another and about others? That must be saddening to deal with, now and then."

The gulf of an ache breaks.

Ruby Lasertrava has posed:
"It was a... social kind of rudeness," Ruby says. "Well meant. I could tell. I just smiled at it, because really, what can you do? I could stand on my honor but sometimes it's hard to do that when you're just coming in the door. You just remember it," Ruby says, "for later."

As the balls get gathered up, Ruby says "oh that's clever" parenthetically, watching this practice with rapt attention. And also, she's listening.

"It's hard to say. I think that it hurts to do, but once you do it the first time... well, either you can stand yourself, and you can learn to live with it, or you can't, and you don't. I think most people, most beings really, can deal with it... maybe they have to take some time to really chew it over. You know?"

"how do you do that with your hair," Ruby asks, also parenthetically, briefly enchanted by the sparkle. She runs fingers through her own shorter hair, with perhaps a mote of wisfulness.

The pain is transparent to her. Was it a marriage, or something similar? Ruby wonders. It doesn't seem that way, and she SEEMS young - but who can tell, really? How old are humans, anyway? Grandmother was doing well but she also paid for that organ job back when I was a baby with that meteor windfall.

Aloud, she says, "It was saddening. A few times I wanted to say, -- fine, get a divorce! The problem I had usually was that these weren't people who belonged entirely to themselves, or just to their parents. There was usually money involved... resources... conflict. They had to make things work. One way or another. But even if it's tragic, they would often go with that attitude, and I think in some ways, they thrived."

After a moment, Ruby says, "But sometimes they'd lose something. Or they'd have that ardent flame again, but... well... not for each other, exactly."

"I'll buy you fifty chicken wings if you win," Ruby concludes. ("Unless that's a ridiculous amount. I see you can get a hundred at once if you want. Unless that's just an idiom for 'a bunch,' but then why fifty?")

Meggan Puceanu has posed:
Ruby gets a nod. "You're much kinder than some would be in your boots. Which are excellent boots, I might add, very interesting. In a good way though, as opposed to the 'uh, maybe not' interesting." Meggan underlines the fact with a little roll of her shoulders as she stalks the side of the pool table to better assess her choices.

Stripes, solids. Red striped will do, and it happens to be adjacent to a yellow striped ball, the better for her efforts as she leans over and tries not to knock anything askew. "It makes sense. Staring in a mirror with a clear view of yourself isn't always enjoyable. But how can you change if you do not acknowledge the faults or the better parts?" A sigh lingers for a moment, and she smiles, seeking that empty space where all there may be is action. Not a chance of finding it, but the next roll of the cue ball sends another solid green sphere bouncing off the rail and bumping along. "Was it easier to get used to yourself over time? Did you build a new story or were you often finding yourself revisiting the same chapters with an editorial red pen, I suppose?"

The circling around leads to another strike, smart and neat. The balls scatter. None hit the pockets, though they get close. "This would be your turn, if you like. I can gather them all up so you can break, meaning you have the triangle to work with." Her smile widens again, bright and clear. The cue is held to her side. "My hair sort of does what it likes, sometimes. When I'm happiest, it's golden blonde." Or flat out gold, but that isn't a shade everyone can believe.

How old are humans? How old are aliens? Age is an oddity with this one, whose skin bears no indications of scars or weathering, no wrinkles -- and never will. Youth begets youth when one's mumsy is a font of life and so is the child. To peer deeper is to find that brimming font: the broken heart, the love, the wider adoration of damn near everything alive. Not you, Ultron, you don't count!

"Ooh, that does sound complicated. I mean, fancy people with more to get tangled up could seem to have more material to lose and need help retaining their clarity." She leans comfortably against her heels, calm as they get. "Fifty chicken wings would be shared. I insist! That's an awful lot."

Ruby Lasertrava has posed:
"Am I? Well, I suppose that's just my luck," Ruby says, smiling as she says it. "And thank you! I'm fond of them, though I have the pair I brought from home. i got most of these in a fashion recycler. I thought it was a great idea... Where did you get yours?"

Clack, click. Click, clack.

"It's hard to say if you're asking me personally," Ruby says. "For me it was... well, I was upset, and after the first rounds of training I could go, well, that was the old me. I wouldn't have done that; wouldn't have believed... Anyway, it was growing up, I suppose. That was sort of just where things began."

"I'd appreciate that," Ruby muses. Goshhh her hair is pretty, she thinks. Darn my flat colored hair! (Ruby will become aged and gassy and retain bright red hair. Just her luck.)

"Hmmm... Well if we're sharing it," Ruby says as she picks up a queue and chalks it up, "then winner gets to pick the sauce. How's that sound?"

SOON ENOUGH: Click clack! Clack click!

"Wow," Ruby says. "I am AWFUL at this."

She does rally up towards the end of the supply of balls, but loss still comes. But in the end, there is a sweeter sauce to accompany the crisp, savory taste of defeat. And she seems to have money.

And a flyer.

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It looks like it was designed in 1937 and it has some sort of weird light lamp logo on it. "Take a couple with you, share them with anyone you want," Ruby insists. "Actually, take the one without the sauce on it."