Summary:A random visit at starbucks turns into a gathering of 3 to five heroes. Log Info:Storyteller: None |
Related LogsTheme SongNone |
     |
Being so close to Mutant Town means that the kind of looks Jennifer gets when she's out and about don't happen quite as much. The tall green lawyer had visited NYU's library to hunt down a few books that could help her in one of her cases.
Not having to be anywhere for a while, Jen finds herself a Starbucks, and has settled in at one of the tables, books open and notepad out so she can scribble notes. A tall (or grande, or vente or whatever they call the extra large cups) of coffee sits with her, steaming away and adding to the delicious smells of the place.
One of NYU's top students happens to be at this very same Starbucks. The young Latina, a senior undergrad, recently gained a bit of fame when she displayed some tech she's developed for her senior thesis at the NYU booth in a recent High School Science Fair Contest. Anya Corazon has an entire table to herself, which is something of a feat, and has managed to stave off any complainers by way of very, very mean looks, combined with her edgy appearance.
The table has a whole bunch of papers on it, each of them containing various drawings and schematics of an electrical and circuitry nature. A beat up, old, and heavily modified laptop is with her, and she's splitting time between the notebooks, the laptop, and a huge mug of something with a crap ton of espresso in it.
Speaking of edgy? She's got spikes in her ears today, her hair has been shaven across one side to create something of a mohawk, and her eyes are painted purple. An oversized MOTORHEAD t-shirt reveals a black sports-bra beneath, and she's wearing ripped up skinny jeans with fishnets visible where denim has been so shamelessly destroyed.
One of the downsides of having a public identity is that, well, you get recognized. A lot. So Carol sometimes goes a little out of the way to get a cup of coffee. In this case, a Starbucks in Mutant Town. Wearing a brown flight jacket over her T-shirt, as well as sunglasses, the jeans-wearing heroine queues up to the counter and orders a venti chai latte, under "Carol".
Which will no doubt be transformed into something unrecognizable when she picks it up.
For Junko Saito, the afternoon is rther lazy. Slipping into Starbucks for a quick coffee, she lines up to order. Not that she is one of the top lawyer crowd, or top students, or even its resident heroes. Nope, just another young woman that has inherited a cushy position some years ago and can live of the reaped benefits. Dressed in a firey red blouse and blue jeans, the long ponytail hanging over the back of her jacket. Just a couple of people behind Carol, she orders herself a Venti White Chocolate Mocca, and after trying to spell her name to the barrista two times, she sighs. "Foxy. Just use Foxy, ok?"
Jennifer Walters looks up from her studies to spy a familiar face. "Carol!" she calls out, waving her hand, bringing perhaps unwanted attention to both herself and the Avenger. Jennifer, herself, has something of a public persona as well, having frequently appeared on television as a spokesperson for the Anti Registration League, one of the major organizations that lobbied against the laws.
"Oh, no no no no!" Anya is talking to her laptop. "No, dammit, dammit!" She scrambles with the trackpad and keyboard, fingers dancing around much faster than they should be able to. She doesn't notice that it's happening, because frankly, she's been doing a very poor job of keeping her, well, talents private. After a few moments of rapid fire key-clacking and some choice vulgarities uttered in Spanish, the young woman leans back and breathes a deep sigh of relief. "Thank… fucking… JESUS," she says out loud. Only then does she realize that she just had something of an outburst in public, at which point her eyes begin darting around while self-consciousness is displayed on her face and body language.
The espresso probably didn't help, Anya.
She's about to look back at her work, when she does a double-take to Jennifer Walters. Her eyes squint at the green woman, and then they widen. "Oh my god," she mutters, and immediately begins saving files and cleaning up her stuff into neat, orderly stacks.
Carol blinks as her name is called, but she looks relieved when she sees it's "Jen!" She grins and makes her way over to the table, "How's it going? Haven't seen you since that squid-thing in the harbor." Which was a mess, but fortunately Kree tech means her suit cleans itself with nanites..
The commotion started by Jennifer and Carol - or rather the attention they grab - includes the one of Junko, turning to the two friends meeting as she waits for the coffee while Anya makes a different distraction. But she waits for her coffee for the moment, finally getting it and taking it with a smile.
As soon as Anya is finished 'securing' her stuff, she bolts up from her table and is halfway across the cafe, only to see that someone is already confronting the green-skinned lawyer. Her excited expression suddenly becomes defeated, until she recognizes Carol as well. Her eyes widen once more, and she finds herself standing there, in the middle of a Starbucks, looking and feeling all sorts of things that she can't easily process.
Someone needs a mental defrag, it would seem.
Jennifer's eyes dart towards the young woman at the laptop who is clearly having problems, and when their eyes meet, she gives her a warm, inviting smile. Turning back to Carol she wrinkles her nose in distaste at the memory of the squid thing. "It took me a week and a half to get the smell of that thing out of my hair," she says. "And a gallon of mouthwash to get the taste out. How are you doing?"
*
What is 'incognito'? Thor understands the purpose of it, but always fails to properly execute it. He's outside on the sidewalk, referring to a small object in his hand. And frowning. Well. Here somewhere.
"CAROL," Thor finally just booms. Few can project like the thunder god.
"CAROL."
Thor's drawn a lot of attention to himself. And his attire, of a brown leather jacket, ponytailed blonde hair under a cap, jeans that are holding on for dear life, some camel yellow hiking boots - he's fooled exactly nobody.
Thor frowns at the object, shoving it into a back pocket, and strides into the caf%<233> in his grand way, door flung open with a glass-rattling sound, and gets stuck open. He stops, attention on the door, apologetic, trying to fix it.
*
Junko takes her coffee, into the right, her left searching for a pen in the pocket of her jacket before she moves to the pair of Carol and Jennifer, smiling as she closes in. "Excuse me, but you are Jennifer Walters and Carol Danvers, right? The She-Hulk and Captain Marvel? May I ask for an…" That's when a certain god of thunder yells for one of them, drowning out the word autograph.
together with most people, the young asian woman turns to the door, looking at Thor… "Is that…"
Carol grins wryly, "Doing o…" She pauses, as that's when the Thunder God shows up. And well, she doesn't literally facepalm, but the consternation on her face shows that it's probably exactly what she would normally do.
Instead, she takes a sip of her chai latte, counts internally to ten, then glances over towards Thor, "Um, yes?" Well, if the cat wasn't out of the bag before, there's not too many Carols that would have the Lord of Thunder shouting for them in New York City. She does look slightly amused at the problems Thor is having with the door, however.
Jen's encouraging smile and the fact that she actually met her eyes prompts Anya to take another step toward the table, but she comes short when Carol's name is being thundered from outside.
At which point her jaw drops. Yep, that's Thor, dressed like something and fuddling with the door.
The door. What the…
"Dude, you jammed it." It just gets spurted out, and without even thinking, Anya is moving over to the door, shooing Thor away. "Back off, big guy, I got this." She wedges her leg between the door and the wall, then reaches around it to find something on the joint. Her face gets all screwed up for a moment, teeth borne, and then with a mighty heave, the door is popped back into place and starts swinging again.
Its only after the fact that she realizes what she just said, and did, after which she just looks at Thor with a stare. "Uh, yeah. So, there's that."
Jennifer is about to answer Junko's request for… something when a certain Norse God bursts into the establishment. She bolts upright, her chair falling back behind her as she stands up. "THOR!" This isn't a shout of familiarity. Rather, it's the same kind of shout if you were to unexpectedly find a bear in your living room.
*
"My apologies to you and your patrons for the disturbance," Thor says formally, and loudly, to the employee — Well, Anya, but he THINKS she is an employee!— that comes over to deal with him. If there was question about it being Thor or not, his speech style will cement that. Somebody in the stock room probably heard both the disturbance AND the apology.
Thor manages to supervise Anya un-wedging the door, and dusts his broad hands off. Yes, good supervising was done. A wave is sent to Jennifer's outburst, entirely unconcerned about her assessment of his arrival or her leaping to her feet. Honestly, it happens to him a lot.
"I will buy a round for all here, of your finest…." Thor pauses, as if becoming aware he's not entirely sure what he's supposed to say. "Of whatever they are having already." With that amendment, Thor brightens, checking the faces of anyone around him to see if he did the proper Midgard social thing.
Thor lifts both hands to give Carol two very smiley thumbs up. It might be challenging to stay annoyed with the glowing smile Thor is wearing as he crosses towards her.
*
"Eh… I wanted to ask for an autograph…." Junko mutters lowly, the pen in her left, the coffee in the right. At which point she realizes she lacks something to sign on. She sighs a moment before taking a large sip of her coffee, trying to get it lower almost desperately. At least the barista was able to write Foxy right.
Putting herself together, she trues to explain to the godling. "Coffee. This place only serves coffee drinks, Mr. Thor. That is this black extract from ground beans."
Carol looks apologetically to Junko, "Um… yeah, just a second?" At least she doesn't look angry. Exasperated, perhaps, but not angry, as she goes over towards Thor, looking up at the Asgardian, "So, is this an alien invasion? Considering that you're interrupting my coffee run, it had better be at least that, right?"
Taking another sip from the cup, she looks about ready to invite Thor to join her with Jen, when Jen does her own exclamation, causing Carol to flicker a glance to Thor, then looks back at Jennifer, "Er… you two know each other already?"
"I don't work here," Anya retorts, her expression growing irritated for all of two seconds. It doesn't last, considering he's kind of adorable, and he's clearly taking care of her next round. Just what she needs!
That door's gonna come off its hinges in a few hours, unfortunately. The busted hinge is pretty much being held together by very small cobwebs. Not that it's noticeable without a very, very close examination!
The young woman eyeballs her table, biting on her lower lip for a moment, before going back to look at Jen. "I know you," she remarks, and just up and walks over to the table, booming with the same confidence that helped her go over and fix that door. "All that sh…" A brief glance to Thor, then Carol. "… stuff you did to rip apart that Registration Act?" She offers a fist to Jen for the bumping. "Solidarity."
Jennifer Walters blinks, and turns back to Junko. "Oh! Oh sorry. Sure!" Seeing that Junko doesn't actually have anything for her to sign on, she thinks for a moment, grabs her purse and rummages around in it for a second. Not really finding anything appropriate she pulls out a business card and flips it over to the back. "I hope this is okay."
Jen happens to look a bit embarrassed at Carol. "No. I just.. uh… Thor… here… in person," she stammers, blushing a darker shade of green. Fortunately, there's Anya to the rescue to pull her back to herself, and fistbumps her back. "Thank you. Somebody had to push back on that and there aren't that many powered lawyers so I did what had to be done."
*
"I am familiar with coffee and its make. It is purchased in the same manner as are other drinks, is it not?" Thor shrugs, thinking it over, his blonde brows furrowed for a moment at Junko. "Aside from that my name is writ upon the cup. That is an odd difference that I did notice." Thor doesn't seem to mind the correction that much, he brushes it off in his usual, pleasant way.
"Also, there is no 'Mister'. It is Thor, or Thor Odinson, or Prince, or God of Thunder, or—-" Thor was going to list more, but he's diverted by Carol's accusatory look.
"An alien invasion? No. If there were, I would be there," Thor says with certainty, and a sudden shift in mood to a serious, regal nod. "It is about your suite at the Avengers mansion, which was close in proximity to where mine was." Past tense.
Thor gives Jen a curious but open smile, assessing her, but there's nothing other than a sort of unfocused smile on his features. He MIGHT not entirely follow what's going on. "I am not the Avenger of whom is upset by foul language," Thor asides playfully to Anya. She can swear if she likes.
*
Carol looks over at Thor, "What do you mean wa… you know what, nevermind, I need that second latte first. But go ahead, sit down with Jen and I, we were just going to have a chat…" And with that, she goes back to the counter, shaking her head a little.
However, since she doesn't have something for Junko to sign, she does the next best thing. Namely, her casual attire transforms effortlessly into her costume as she approaches Junko. "Hey, sorry about that autograph offer, but you want a selfie instead?" She grins at Junko, giving her a slight shrug.
Jennifer's eyes light up. "Ooh! Selfie!" She quickly makes her way around the table to stand on the other side of Junko making her a superhero sandwich.
Junko Saito says, "I.. of course that works, though I had almost considered my cup…" Junko mutters, the card in hand and then starts to chuckle as carol offers a Selfie. "That… actually is kina even better… Mr. Odinson, would you join in too? I mean, Thor?" she asks, searching for her phone onehanded before waving anya over. "You wanted something like that too anyway, right? Mind joining? Like, a team-picture?""
"I went to a lot of the protests," Anya tells Jen, a very big smile growing upon her face. "Having you as an advocate was so invaluable!" She's flushing a bit as well; some people's heroes wear spandex. Hers, apparently, also wear 'Esquire' after their names.
Talk of the Avengers mansion has Anya suddenly feeling extremely self-conscious. Her body language shows it, in how her hands drop to fidget with each other again. Thanks to Thor, she's diverted a bit from that line of thought. "Ten bucks it's Captain America," she remarks, before turning at Carol's sudden costume transformation. "!Eso seria util!" she blurts out in Spanish, before immediately going red-faced.
Subtitle: 'That would be useful!'
Double-take to Junko, and then she's frozen again for a moment. "Oh, no, I'm not- I mean I can't- what if- but the-…" Deer, meet headlights.
*
"There is no need for Selfie, I am able to take pictures," Thor assures them with a measure of pride in his tone. He reaches forwards, snaring the phone, and then steps back, knocking a table a few feet out of the way with his butt. He then looks at the camera, expression puzzled, and pokes at it.
"It is facing me. These pictures are of me," Thor says, with mild frustration. Junko is going to get a bunch of bonus shots of Thor attempting to take pictures.
He does turn about and come around the group, to extend an arm for a selfie. He has massive reach, everyone will be in it. "Say 'Valhalla'," Thor suggests, upbeat, playful note to his tone. "—-I know it's cheese," he asides.
*
Carol grins at the camera, putting an arm around Junko and giving her a good hug for the picture as she says, "Cheese!" Once the picture gets snapped with Junko surrounded by everyone, Carol gives her a smile, "Thanks for being patient. I appreciate it."
Then Carol looks over at Thor, "Now, what's this about my room? It's still there, right?"
Jennifer Walters looks genuinely pleased at Anya's compliment. "Thank you," she says. "Did you want a selfie, too?" She works her way around the table to pick up her chair and sit back down in it. "Come, join me," she says, letting the Avengers deal with Avenging problems. She starts to pack up her books and notepads to make room for everybody who might join her.
Junko Saito chuckles at Thor's problems with the camera but cheeses into it finally. As she takes it back, she quickly taks a little to save them securely with a smile and a "Thank You." A moment later she gets out a couple of buisiness cards herself, deceptively simple unlike the one Jennifer had given her. Heavy white paper, the company logo of Saito Stationaries pressed into it while the main line only says Junko Saito, Yojimbo, and then two adresses - the company's office in japan and her private address. Offering them to the others, she smiles. "Your work, Miss Walters, is inspiring. While the protests were a big piece, I believe that your daily work of upholding the society is even more impactful."
"Okay, okay," Anya stammers, and somehow manages to join the selfie group with both reluctance and excitement… which is why the picture will show her grimacing with her mouth and absolutely beaming with her eyes.
It takes great effort not to blurt out all the things she really wants to say right now!
*
"In a manner, you could say that it is larger. More spacious, with improved air flow," Thor answers Carol, with a pause and squint of his eyes. He clearly feels some measure of discomfort or guilt, and is trying to be tactful with his answer. "It has accidentally been merged with mine. I will relocate until the proper separation is restored. But apology is in order. I hope you will accept. I am quite sorry for disrupting the wall."
Thor takes a seat at the end of the table: snaring a chair with one hand and flipping it to sit astride it like he would sit astride a mighty Asgardian war goat.
Thor picks up on Jennifer's name from Junko, and follows with an interested question, "I know not of your work, Miss Waters. What is it that you do that so inspires?" Thor asks. It isn't judgmental in the least: somehow Thor can ask a weirdly pointed question and mean it only in the nicest and best way.
*
Carol takes the second selfie with a smile, then takes Junko's card. Then… she looks at Thor. "You broke the wall? Oh geez…" Probably a good thing she doesn't have to do any more selfies, as she puts her hand on her forehead, "Do I even want to know how this happened?"
"Walters," Jennifer corrects gently. "I worked for the Anti Registration League while the registration acts were still in effect." Worked for is putting it mildly. "I'm also a lawyer who's moved her business here, and I work almost exclusively with powered individuals because the law is… lacking in that area."
She gives him something of a coy grin, "And before all that I was something of a superhero down in California." There's something in her voice that's wistful about it, like she misses doing that kind of thing.
"Worked for," Anya scoffs. "She practically ran the thing." To Jen, she asks, "Got any more of those cards? I'm totally gonna add you on LinkedIn." She suddenly realizes that, amidst all of the brain fragging and overall excitement, she's completely forgotten to introduce herself. Abuela would have a thing or two to say about that.
"Oh, I'm Anya." She smiles at Jen, then a bit wider to Carol, even wider at Thor (perhaps it's his muscles?), then finally at Junko, her safe space. "Hi," she adds again, feeling entirely silly about the whole affair, but chewing on her lip nervously nonetheless.
*
"I did break the wall, yes. I can describe the tale if you wish, but it is not as good as many other tales I have of battle and adventure. Accidents often do not make the best of stories without a great deal of embellishment."
"No 'Miss'? Of course." Thor's got it. Maybe. "The law should be reviewed if it is not in the best interest of all of it's people," Thor says in a proper imitation of Odin, supportively, to Jennifer. It isn't mocking: Thor is following a positive part of his father. There's a heaviness to the words, as Thor moves from his sort of bright easygoing manner into one that, someday, may shape worlds.
"Where is the coffee for everyone?" Thor suddenly asks at full volume, puzzled, slapping one palm down on the table. BAM. "I have a card of plastic payment," he adds. That was to Anya at first, but then he recalls she's not an employee. "Anya, whom does not work here; hello!" Anya got a new title. AND a smile from Thor in happy response to her big smile. He doesn't process 'why' he earned her smile, just smiles back openly.
*
Carol shakes her head, as Thor has the rather annoying trait of being impossible to stay mad at. "Well, since Chewie didn't eat you, it seems like there's nothing really damaged in my room, I guess."
Then she glances over at Jen, "Well, why don't you do the superhero thing here? I mean, if you miss it that much…" She then chuckles, "Or did you mean missing California? Because I can totally relate to that."
Jennifer Walters makes something of a sour face at Carol. "It doesn't pay the bills, unfortunately. It was a struggle trying to balance my careers and keep a roof over my head." Not that she has many paying clients currently. Her heart is too big to turn people in need down.
She nods at Thor, though. "Exactly. The law has to evolve as society evolves and as… well.. people evolve apparently. Our current court system just isn't equipped to handle the influx of powered people that's popped up over the past half century or so."
Jen sighs, leaning back in her chair. "I want to do both. I *like* doing both."
Unforgotten, Jennifer pulls out another business card and hands it over to Anya. "Here you go. I'll keep an eye out for your LinkedIn."
The conversation between Carol, Thor and Jen has Anya lost in thought for a moment. She double-takes back to Jen when the card is offered, then snatches it up eagerly. "Awesome," she says, and tucks it into her palm. "Be right back, okay?"
Palming the card, she hurries back over to her table, while fishing a phone out of her back pocket. She plops down in her seat for a moment, tapping away at her left hand on the phone while writing something on the back of Jen's business card.
*
Thor listens to the conversation, with only a sort of bemused, shit-eater smile in regards to not damaging Carol's room too badly, much like a cute dog that knows it did a bad thing, but is relying on being charming to get him out of it.
Still. DRINKS? Thor didn't forget. "I shall find out about the coffee," Thor declares by way of 'excusing' himself. He pushes to his feet and heads to the counter to sort out what happened to those. It's around that time he realizes he didn't actually order something for himself, and ends up with ordering a big frosted mocha dessert-like thing. They don't ask his name.
"Drinks on me," Thor reminds the whole of the place, to the now-overwhelmed staff, while he's given instruction that he can get his drink at the other counter in a minute. Thor hangs out over there, resting his forearms on the counter and leaning into the area behind the counter, chatty with the staff about how much he does like whipped cream on his.
*
Carol grins, "Well, yeah, tell me about it. Can definitely relate to that Jen." She nods, "But well, at least with the Avengers the room and board is covered. Um, as long as you don't mind the occasional unplanned renovation." She gives Thor a wry look, then shakes her head.
Jennifer Walters nods at Carol, as the others from her table depart momentarily to do their things. "I'd think it's a small price to pay." She waves a hand. "Anyway. I'm not an Avenger but now that I think about it…" She takes out another business card, flips it over and scribbles something on the back before offering it to Carol. "That's my personal number. Call me if you need a Hulk."
For a moment, Anya seems distracted by her organized pile of classwork. She then reaches up to fix her hair a little, and wanders back over to the table bearing Jen and Carol. "Is he always so… bumbly and adorable?" she asks quietly of Carol, while eyeballing Thor with a sideeye. "Not what I expected."
She then slides Jen's business card right back to her, face up. She's already got a LinkedIn invite, from one Anya Corazon, NYU Senior, double majoring in Computer Sciences and Electrical Engineering with the most awesome profile pic of all time.
However, on the back of that card is scrawled a tiny little message: I'm Spider-Girl - don't tell the big guy followed by a little spider-web.
Hey, if there is someone safe to willingly expose yourself to, it's the lawyer who understands confidentiality and metahuman rights.
*
Thor continues to rest his forearms on the counter, leaned over to peer sideways into what the baristas are doing. "Yes, thank you!" Thor says loudly to a question that was at normal conversational levels. Thor projects.
He finally stands back up fully to accept his drink and try it, while then getting approached by the various other people in the caf%<233> who got free drinks, to answer their thank-yous with a humility and grace.
*
Carol takes the card, having changed back from her costume to civilian clothes when no one was paying too much attention. "Thanks Jen, if we need a hand, we'll definitely give you a call. Or if I need to talk to someone about speeding tickets." Look, Carol might have a bit of a lead foot, okay?
When Thor gets back, Carol gives him a grin, "So when are you going to help me fix the wall there? I have some ideas on improving the room, now that you wrecked it." There's definitely no if Thor is helping, just a when.
Jennifer looks at the card that was given back to her and flips it over, eyes crinkling in delight at the message and pockets it. Then a chime goes off on her phone. When she looks at it her eyes go wide. "OH Crap! I'm supposed to be meeting a client in ten minutes!" She quickly rushes to pack up all her stuff. "Hopefully I can avoid getting a speeding ticket. It was great seeing you again." To Thor she calls out, "It was great meeting you!" and to Anya she gives her a knowing wink. "Be seeing you around." And with that she rushes out the door.
Smirking at Jen, Anya glances toward Thor and says, "Thanks for the coffee. I'm gonna need it to deal with this damned thesis!" She then rushes back to her seat. You know… so she can post an IG about how Thor bought her a cup of coffee.