Owner Pose
Booster Gold     It has been a few days since Booster Gold's last visit to Planet Herowood. Which is probably for the best. On his last, he had been coaxed into participating into the 3x3 challenge, and been asked to consume nine of their third pound burgers, a considerable feat. The prize? His photo being taken and hung on the wall. You would think that as a member of the Justice League and one of the many heroes who fought Doomsday, Booster Gold would not be concerned about appearing on the wall of a shlocky restaurant. And yet, he competed fiercely, and ultimately conquered the challenge. Well, as long as you don't ask the trash can in the alleyway where he emptied all of it plus his lunch mere moments after departing the restaurant.
    Now, he was here in search of the proof of the spectacle - the photo that was taken, presumably in a spot of honor on the wall, and the title of Conquerer below it. Much to his disappointment, upon his arrival none of the staff could answer for him just where that photo had been added, leaving a somewhat dismayed superhero to cast his eyes around the place, shoulders sunken in defeat.
Nia Nal     Fragile-hero-ego senses tingling! Well. Not really. She'd actually been been dozing off on the train, and is in sort of half-awake haze now, she follows that not-quite-sleepwalking instinct to pilot her way towards Planet Herowood. She doesn't quite remember changing into her costume because... well... minor somnabulence! Still, Nia wanders through the door, acquiring very little notice other than being shown to a booth. Where she orders two very strong coffees to start off, and two slices of pie.

    Still following some strong somnabulent instinct, she then flits through the wandering family members and restaraunt goes in the direction of Booster, and without saying a word, sleepily links her elbow around his arm and puuuulls him in the direction of a spot on the wall. Then she crouches down, picking a frame that had fallen off the wall, and puts it back up on the wall on its hook. Then, still half-asleep, she points back to her table, mumbling,"S' coffee, n' pie..."
Booster Gold     Booster Gold is certainly surprised by the sudden appearance of someone at his arm - let alone a beautiful woman, and a hero no less! He moves easily with her, resisting not at all as she drags him over towards the frame. "Oh, hey!" he says with a smile, as she somehow know exactly where his championship photo had gotten. Admittedly, his expression wasn't the best - you could almost see his cheeks chipmunking from the last burger. But it said Champion, nonetheless, and that's all Booster Gold cared about.
    While usually it takes him a while to pick up on things, the urging of coffee and pie is straightforward enough to do it. "Sure, thank you," he says, as he keeps his arm with Nia's and leads her back towards her table. "Room for one more?" he asks, nodding towards the booth as they approach. "I apparently have to wait to get my Champion's reward."
Nia Nal     The girl mumbles as she is led back to the table, flumping tiredly into the booth. Almost as if it had been choreographed, she gestures to the seat across from her, even as the waitress slides two coffees and two large cherry cream cheese pies on the table. "Coffee 'n pie..." A moment later, and the woman raises one suspicious eyebrow beneath her mask. She grabs the sugar dispenser and just begins to pour an absolutely dense amount of sugar into her coffee. In Naltorian, she murmurs,"Why is your future your past?"

    She doesn't even seem to realize she spoke in a non-human language, though. Instead, she shakes her head clear, takes a drink from her coffee, then sets the cup down with a 'woo!'. "Wow. That is... oh wow. That's awful, and it is all my fault. I regret... everything." Then she looks down, realizing she's in costume, and manages a moment later,"Nnng... Uuuuh..." She decides to introduce herself,"Dreamer."
Booster Gold     Following the instruction, Booster slides into the booth opposite her. He tilts his head somewhat in surprise as she seems to have already ordered not just a coffee but his favorite pie as well. "How did you know..." He lifts up a hand and points a finger idly at her, confused. The question, though, evokes a surprised sound from him. "Uh. That's a long story." He picks up his spoon to stir the coffee. Stalling. He does not seem to realize that she spoke in a non-human language either.

    He laughs at the sudden change in wakefulness. "What's your fault?" he asks, a smile on his face. "What is there to regret?" He seems confused by her confusion, and then he nods. "I can see that." A grin. "Booster Gold." He extends his hand across the table.
Nia Nal     The girl quirks an eyebrow for a moment. It is not even close to the first time the narcoleptic heroine has found herself waking up in strange circumstances. She taps the side of her head, and murmurs,"Dreamed it." A pause, and then she continues,"Everything's a long story if you tell it right. You look like an underwear model and you have a... well, not exactly a subtle costume. Your story is bound to be complicated whether you are or not."

    Dreamer covers her mouth as she yawns, then grouses and works on downing the rest of her coffee. "Uuurg... the coffee... this awful coffee. That I ordered, and am going to finish. It is my fault, and I regret it, but..." She waves a hand as if waving off the thought,"Gotta make sure I've got enough caffeine to get home. Got work in the morning, you know." She takes the man's hand as he introduces himself,"Is this what you dreamed it to be, your life now?" It's not accusatory... just curious. "Has it worked out the way you hoped?"
Booster Gold     "Of course. Dreamer." Booster taps the side of his head, which perhaps surprisingly does not thud hollowly. He smiles broadly, his dimples appearing as she calls him a model. "Why be subtle, when you can be bold and memorable." He waves his hand forward to indicate hers. "Like yours! Who could forget you if they ever saw you?"

    "Couldn't you just..." He was going to say sleep, but then he realizes, that clearly is the problem. "I can get you home if you need it. I'm a hero, people trust me." He eyes her for a moment, considering her costume. "What sort of work do you do?"

    The question strikes him hard. He thinks for a moment. The voice that answers is ... different. Not quite as high voltage. Or confident. It's not the voice of a movie star, but of a person. "No. No it isn't." He sighs softly. "I was supposed to be a star athlete and take care of my mother. Instead..." He trails off.
Nia Nal     The girl waves her hand dismissively again. The smile DOES get a smile from her. It's a shy thing, but unrestrained for all that. "Well thank you. It has... um... cultural importance." Nia lifts her shoulder slightly,"Dreams are... mmm... they're important. Half-remembered experiences of our worst fears... and our greatest hopes. Passing ghosts and impressions of the best us we can hope to be."

    She opens her mouth as if to go on, before smiling softly and patting the man's hand,"Sorry. Secret identity stuff, with the job. Plus it's generally bad practice for young women to tell men they just met where they live. But it's a very sweet offer."
    She finally takes up some silverware as she helps herself to some pie, though she first points at him with a fork,"See..." She points at his head,"That... That right there is what matters. Intent. Will. And, sometimes... no, especially when you're terrified, some courage." She forks up a piece of pie, chewing thoughtfully for a while, and then goes on.

    "Mmm, I'm not talking about that true but hackneyed gem about courage being the will to act when you're afraid..." She shakes her head,"Mmm... I'm talking about that different... desperate sort of courage where you're pushed to move because as terrifying as acting is... the world that exists where you didn't is even scarier. Like... Say you're fighting a villain, Dr. Bazookahead... and you're super terrified he's gonna shoot you with his bazookahead, which is reasonable, right?" She holds out her hands, eyebrows raised as if to say 'she gets it'.

    "You're all ready to run away, and who would blame you... but in this hypothetical, you look over and you realize that if you don't let Dr. Bazookahead shoot you and you dodge instead, it'll hit your mom instead. So you take a bazooka to the face. Because your mom getting bazooka-ed is way scarier than the already very scary thing." She rolls her shoulders a little, and then says,"And then, in that moment... all you can really say 'Noone bazookas my mom'." She does a faux deep voice that time, before returning to normal.

    "With heroing, you get used to feeling that a lot, and you either just... crumble under pressure, or... you lean on the people you care about, and you let it give you strength. Don't get me wrong, I love it when a little kid says 'look mommy, she's a hero'.. It's just... you hero enough, and the number of people you're willing to faceblock Dr. Bazookahead for seems to grow. I mean... even if you're not following me, you KNOW what I'm talking about. You knew the first time you got badly injured while doing your thing, athlete or hero, and you decided not to stop anyway. That first time is... it's scary."
Booster Gold     "Must be quite the culture," Booster remarks. His smile is genuine, this time. It's different than what he had before, or in the photos. "

    He nods as she pats his hand. "Of course. I understand. Just an offer." He chuckles softly, listening to her describe the life of a hero.

    His face shifts as she starts to take about Dr. Bazookahead. There is a sadness there, a pain. His breathing starts to shift. He shuffles a little in his seat. He lets her get all the way through, without interuption.

    "I fought Doomsday." The monster that killed Superman. Temporarily. "We were trying to slow him down, you know, so the big guns could get there. Superman, Wonder Woman. They were on their way." His voice is very quiet. Shaky almost. "Blue Beetle and I were there. And he had knocked Beetle down. And I..." He takes a deep breath. "I got in the way. He grabbed me. Crushed my chest. Put my head into a car door." He closes his eyes, face turned down to the table. "He smashed it again and again until I woke up three weeks later." His hands shake as he recounts the memory. "You know. I tell everyone I'm fine, right?" He slowly looks up, eyes opening to look at Dreamer. He speaks in a near whisper. "But I still dream about him."
Nia Nal     Dreamer listens to that one, even as she reaches out to grab those shaking hands. She looks at him, eyebrows raises sympathetically,"Of course you're not fine. You'd have to be psychotic not to walk away from that unchanged. He got SUPERMAN. That's... that's big even on an already big day. But here you are..." She reaches up, to tousle his expertly done hair.

    She folds her legs beneath her on the seat as she forks up more cherry goodness, and plops her jaw down on her free hand, elbow resting on the table, the absolute rebel! "But I can promise you this... Tonight... when you dream... When he reaches for you, you'll blast him away. And you'll stop him. And then the next night... you won't dream of him again. Or the night after. And in time... the times you dream about him will be so rare, you'll forget about it sometimes."

    "You can't get the you you were before Doomsday back. That person doesn't exist anymore. But... you can decide to move on as the person he became and work to be the best you that you can be..." A pause. "Or you can put up your costume and train for the olympics..." Another pause, and then she continues,"... or heck, get a job at a convenience store. They're all fine choices..." Finally, though, she finishes, saying,"But what you absolutely MUST do... is ask yourself before you make those choices... if the path you're about to walk is something you can live with."

    She dabs at her mouth with a napkin, before saying,"I'm sorry you hurt. If this world had justice, we wouldn't need heroes, because noone would need rescuing... But take pride in the fact that you stood up to something that felled even Superman, and you're still here. Against all odds. That's pretty..." She pauses, and looks over in the direction of the 'champion' photo,"Champion-like behavior, isn't it?"
Booster Gold     Booster Gold squeezes those hands as soon as she takes his, as if needing the support. He closes his eyes again, leaning in as she tousles his hair, sighing deeply.

He listens to her speak. He nods. He wants to believe what she is saying. "How?" he asks, voice cracking a bit.

    He takes a deep breath, as she lays out options. "I still want to be a hero," he murmurs. He nods, adding to the conviction. "I mean, when I came here, it was to be..." He sighs. "Not as much a hero, to be honest. A bit of a fraud, if we're being honest. But now..." He looks around for a moment. "Sure, I like being famous. And all of that. But..." A shrug. "I like helping, too."

A deep breath. He nods. "I can't argue with that." His lips twist into a smile. "Dreamer."
Nia Nal     Dreamer smiles at Booster, a wink escaping her,"How? Because I'm Dreamer... It's... kind of my thing." She looks around for a moment, then holds her hand low over the table. A softly glowing, purple-ish construct of dream energy, almost a cartoony figurine of Booster punching out Doomsday ripples into existence on the table top. It stays there for a moment. "You don't have to trust me. But I know for a fact." Mainly because she's going to take it upon herself to MAKE Booster's dreams behave for the next few days. It's in the name, after all.

    "In the end... there's no BAD reasons to do the right things. Just less good reasons." She finishes off her last bit of pie, then goes fiddling in a pocket for some cash. "It's only a fraud if it was never real. Don't let... don't let anyone make you think you're anything less than you really are. Be the best you, you can be. Make Booster Gold into Booster Platinum."
Booster Gold     The expression on his face is pure joy, followed by relief. "I hope so," he says, sighing again, contentedly this time. "I will choose to believe you, and hope that you are not wrong."

    He laughs softly at that, shaking his head. "I'll stop at Gold, thank you very much." He grins. "Anything else would be pretentious."

    The smile lingers for a moment, and then he reaches out to take Dreamer's hand again. "It's Michael," he says, in a very quiet voice. "My name is Michael." And Dreamer may very well be the only person in this century that knows that.
Nia Nal     The girl squeezes the man's hand as he takes it. A wide, unrestrained smile breaks out on her face. She speaks softly to him, then,"It's a pleasure to meet you properly Michael. I could just give you my name. Or..." She fishes with her free hand for a pen in one of her pockets, then writes on a napkin which she folds over and slides to him.

    "You can call me this weekend, and we can hang out. And I won't be in costume." A pause. "I'm not from New York, so you could pretty much throw a rock and hit somewhere I've never been if you feel like impressing me." The figurine fades by this point.
Booster Gold     He nods slowly, his smile warm. "The pleasure was mine, Dreamer," he says, not yet glancing at the napkin. Hoping, of course, that it's what he thinks it is.

    He nods quickly. "I will," he says, whether that is to the call or being in costume is unclear. "Well. There are tons of places. We can definitely find one. " His smile broadens even more. Genuine.
Nia Nal     It's her civilian phone number, because, well, of course it is! She rises then, and streeeeetches, cracking her back. Her head twists this way and that, and then she informs him,"For now... I... need to find a place to change, and then make my way home. IIII... still have work in the morning." She checks to make sure she's left enough money for her bill and a decent tip, and then offers,"I really need to learn to fly sometime. Just running away from a scene lacks the flair when you're not like... super fast or made of energy or anything."
Booster Gold     Booster glances at the napkin before stashing it, smiling even warmer as he sees that it is, in fact, what it is. "Well, uh." His cheeks flush slightly. "I can fly. If you want me to, I can fly you home." He glances around, and then back to Nia. "Maybe save that for a second date?"