Summary:Alison picks on Chris mercilessly, and they go dancing. Log Info:Storyteller: None |
Related LogsTheme SongNone |
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Often splitting his time between HQ and his own home with his mom and twin brothers, Chris is sometimes in, and sometimes out. Today, he seems to have been haunting his room at the Baxter Building, perhaps getting some quiet time away from the twins. At the moment, he sits on top of one of the black granite counter tops in a pair of faded jeans and bright red chucks along with a red t-shirt with a black biohazard symbol on it. In one hand, he has a bowl of cereal, in the other, his phone, which he has to set down occasionally in order to spoon some of the cereal into his mouth.
Alison lives in the Baxter Building these days - the room with 'Dazzler' on the door. Humming to herself, she pads out towards the kitchen in bare feet, leg warmers, gym shorts, gym top, earphones in her ears, her pale skin glistening with a light sheen of perspiration - someone has been working out. A grin appears as she sees Chris. "Hey! How you doing? Haven't seen you since you left me on that rooftop." She doesn't seem bothered by this. "How's the cereal?" An apologetic expression as she realises he is on the phone before heading for the fridge.
"Figured you'd find a way down. Sorry. Had to go take care of something," Chris says in a kind of half-hearted apology way late after the fact. There's a glance down at the cereal and he shrugs his shoulders, "It's uh.. cereal-y." He shakes his head though when she looks apologetic. "Just talking to my brother. He's got a school project and was asking some questions." He shrugs his shoulders. "But he's done now. How you been? Anyone tried to hurl hunks of highway at you lately?"
"Shouldn't your brother be doing his own project?" Alison asks with a wry grin - obviously not someone who got a lot of help in the past from anyone. "It's okay about the rooftop. That's why they invented fire escapes. Riri couldn't carry us all. Did you take care of whatever it was?" She finds some juice from the fridge and drinks down a few mouthfuls from the bottle. Once she is done, there is another apologetic look. "I should probably put my name on that now." Still, she puts it back in the fridge without marking. "I've been good. Getting used to the same roof over my head every night. No one has been throwing concrete. Did you manage to catch them?"
"I mean sure, yeah. He's doing all the work. I'm just sitting here giving him some advice," Chris says as he glances over at his phone. It has stopped beeping with text messages for the time being. "I'm not doing it for him or anything." He nods when she asks if he took care of what he needed to. "Yeah, just, my mom, you know? Family stuff." He chuckles and shrugs his shoulders. "Unless you've got something contagious, I doubt anyone cares." When she asks if they managed to catch them, he shakes his head. "No, they got away. That fucking disabling stasis whatever shit they can do is brutal. Never run into something quite like that before, that I couldn't somehow break out of."
"You're all super strong and stuff?" Alisons asks while organising some of that cereal for herself. At least she doesn't drink from the milk carton. "Your mom okay? Oh, if I'm being terribly nosey and inappropriate, don't be afraid to tell me to step off. And I don't think I have anything contagious…but you can never tell these days. I mean, do we even get the same things everyone else gets? Can't remember the last time I had a cold. That wasn't the first time you encountered these Nothings?"
Christopher Powell wobbles his hand a little in the air back and forth. "It's complicated." He eats a bit more of his cereal, only speaking when his mouth isn't full. At least his mother taught him some manners, even if he leaves girls on rooftops. "Yeah, she's alright." He shakes his head then and says, "Nah, you're fine. I mean, if you consider that nosey or inappropriate, I don't think there's going to be any problem." He chuckles. Then he says, "No, that was the first time I've seen them. I didn't even know what they were called."
"One of them called themselves the Nothing…or something. Well, not /something/ since they were the Nothing. Really silly name, don't you think? Imagine them trying to threaten people. 'We threaten you with the biggest danger ever…Nothing!'. No one's really going to be bothered" Alison muses as cereal is assembled and she joins Christopher on the bench. "Oh, I can get nosier. How about…got a girlfriend? Boyfriend?"
"Yeah, I think they might want to rethink their PR decision there," Chris agrees before shoveling another spoon full of what appears to be honey nut cheerios into his mouth. Dinner of champions. He chuckles at the question and then shakes his head, "Nope. You?" He glances over at her sidelong between bites, apparently not minding the question.
Alison has to consider the question when it is sent back her way. "I don't think so" is her slow response before she shrugs the dilemma away and eats some cereal instead. "I'm a pop star…well…will be one day. I don't think I'm 'allowed' a boyfriend or girlfriend for a while yet" she smirks. "I mean, there's some hot people around here that I wouldn't kick out of bed, but nothing official."
Christopher Powell lifts both brows and asks, "You don't know? Isn't that the sort of thing you should know one way or another?" He smiles a little in amusement over at her before taking another spoonful of cereal and popping it into his mouth. He then shrugs his shoulders, "You're a person. You're allowed whatever the hell you want. People dig celebrity romances. Don't let some PR dickbag tell you that you need to be single so that people can see you as 'attainable' because that's some bullshit, right there." He then chuckles a little bit at her last comment. "I see."
"Maybe I'm just commitment shy but sex enthusiastic?" Alison offers deadpan before a grin breaks out. She leans over to nudge him with her shoulder. "I am my own PR. Though I wonder if Sarah would be interested in that too? You know the Sarah here? Beautiful Native American. She's now my manager. And trust me, celebrity relationships aren't relationships at all. They're temporary publicity alliances. But enough of my private life when we should be talking about yours." She looks him over. "Don't suppose you can dance."
"Nothing wrong with that," Chris says between spoonfulls, waving his spoon in her general direction when there's nothing on it. He gets nudged, and then nods, being familiar with who Sarah is. "Yeah, I know who she is. I mean, I don't know her personally." Of the group, he's kind of the quiet one, largely on the outside most of the time. Particularly when there are far bigger personalities in the room. He snorts a little then, and says, "I don't have one, so there's not much to talk about." Though when she asks if he can dance, he nods. "Yeah, I can."
"Hmm…interested in being a back-up dancer for me? I already have Kori and she is quite the dancer. Have you seen her? A six foot tall Maltese woman is quite the sexy sight when she gets going" Alison grins between mouthfuls of cereal. "You know this shit is bad for you, right?" she notes before another mouthful. "You should eat more fruit. You should hang around more. Get to know people. We're all nice. Well…Rose in her own way. What's your superhero name?"
"Uh, I'm not like a professional dancer," Chris laughs, "And I'd never get up on stage and dance in front of people. But I appreciate the thought. I just dance at clubs sometimes. And yeah, I saw her dance at your show before things got weird." He laughs and says, "Who says I don't eat fruit? Are you seriously monitoring my fiber intake?" He then says, "I like Rose," apparently not put off at all by her demeanor. He shrugs his shoulders though when she suggests that he should be around more and get to know people. "I've been around. I've gone out with some of the folks here a couple of times." There's the faint hint of defensiveness in his tone. But when she asks about his superhero name he says, "Darkhawk."
"Then we should totes go clubbing" Alison grins. "It's Saturday night tonight, we should be out there now. Getting you someone to cuddle for a couple of hours." A pause. "It would be a couple of hours, right?" She holds up her hands in mock surrender. "I promoise not to monitor your fiber any further. That never ends well." Her eyes go wide in pleasant surprise. "Wait, you've gone out with people here? Gone out gone out? Do tell. You can't drop that bombshell without going into details. Darkhawk? Sweet. Bit…dark. Did you come up with that yourself?"
"We can go clubbing if you want," Chris says, not having had any other plans for the evening that were keeping him busy, it seems, other than sitting around eating cereal at the moment, which he finishes. Both brows raise and he says, "Uh.. probably not," on the cuddling. Though he does laugh when she surrenders on becoming his new nutrition coach. "No, I mean, I went out for pizza with them, and to the concert, and stuff.. just group stuf with the group.. in a group thing," he clarifies a little bit awkwardly. "I haven't gone out with anyone." Though when she asks about his name he shakes his head, "It was kind of a.. joint thing.. it's hard to explain. But you know, the armor, it's uh.. a hawk.. and dark.. so it's kind of self explanatory. Kind of like Spiderman with the webs and all."
"You could have called yourself 'Steel Man'" Alison suggests. "Or 'Hawk Man'. Or 'Armored Bird'. It's not that self-explanatory" she teases with a grin. "Okay! Sounds like we're going clubbing!" Alison puts down her unfinished bowl before slipping off the counter. "I better get changed. Hey…looks like you're going out with me. Alone." A teasing wink before she skips off to get changed. "I'll only be a couple of minutes!"
"I could have," Chris agrees. But he didn't. And he doesn't look particularly enthusiastic about any of the other options. "Sure, sounds like a plan." He pushes himself off the counter and then grabs his bowl to rinse it off in the sink and put it in the dishwasher, cleaning up after himself. "You going to finish this?" he calls out after her. If she is, he leaves it, if not, he cleans up her bowl too before wandering off to his room to get ready to go out, not taking too long before he resurfaces.
"You can have it!" Alison called back about the food. True to her word, she is only a few minutes before she is back and ready to party. Now she wears boots, fishnets, short shorts, and a t-shirt. A denim jacket over one shoulder in case it gets cold later. "Looking good" she grins his way when he appears. "Do you know the clubs around here? Gosh, I never even asked if you were from New York. C'mon, got an Uber coming." A pause. "Unless you want to fly."
When he comes back out, he's dressed in the same jeans, though he's traded in the t-shirt for a white button-down with a charcoal grey vest over it, sleeves rolled up to his elbows, though, and black shoes, instead of his t-shirt and sneakers. He gives her a thumbs-up and then follows her toward the door, making sure he has his wallet and keys with him. "Uber's good," he laughs. "Less explaining to do. And I mean, I know of some of them. I admittedly mostly go to Therapy." Which is a gay club. "But there's others. I'm just not as familiar with them."
"My father wants me to go to Therapy" Alison sighs. She's only teasing, she knows what he means. "Therapy it is." Her grin back in full force. "I guess we're not going out then but I can totally be your wing man…woman…wing colleague?" Down through the layers of security before they reach the pavement and await their ride. "I'm not a stranger to the allure of Theraphy either…if you know what I'm saying."
Christopher Powell chuckles a little bit at that and says, "I bet he does," with a sidelong grin. Then he shrugs his shoulders slightly and says, "Yeah, I'm kind of into guys. Not that I'm dating anyone at all, or anything, but.. yeah. You can totally be my wing-person if you want to be." Once outside on the pavement, he slides his hands into his pockets and rocks a little bit. His brows raise a little bit and he says, "You're into gay guys, too?" He flashes her a grin.
Alison laughs about being into gay guys too. "Totally" she nods. "They have all the best fashion sense. They really like my music too. Most of them at least." The car arrives and Alison opens the door for Chris before scooting around to the other side to get in the back. "Therapy" she announces to the driver before relaxing into the ride. "You always been into gay guys?" She gives him a curious look. "You're probably into straight guys too…just don't do anything about it."
"Well, I like your music, so I guess that tracks," Chris grins and gives her a little curtsey when she opens the door for him before sliding into the car. He sprawls comfortably in the back, liking letting someone else drive so that he can just chill out and relax without having to worry about traffic or anything else — not that he has a car or drives, himself. He raises both brows and says, "I mean, yeah? Guys, in general. It's not like I can always tell just by looking at them. But yes, as long as I can remember being interested in anyone."
"Cool" Alison nods to Chris' reply, smiling happily for him. "You didn't say if you were from New York or not. And your…suit…" She's unsure how much she should say in front of an Uber driver - or behind them. "Make it or tailored?" It shouldn't be too long a drive but, hey, New York on a Saturday night. It could take days to get there. "True you can't tell by looking. I usually flirt like crazy and if they don't throw up, ask them."
"Yeah, I'm from New York. I was born here, but I moved away to California for a few years, and then I came back several months ago," Chris says, but pointedly doesn't comment on his suit at all other than to say, "It's custom." He's not about to discuss it in public, even if there's only the Uber drive present. "Are you looking for a tailor?" Because he definitely doesn't know one of those. He laughs then and says, "I mean, that's not a bad plan. I would generally take throwing up as a bad sign."
"Depends how drunk they are if I'm being perfectly honest" Alison muses about the throwing up. "I'm from New York too! Long Island girl. California, huh? Nice and warm at least. What did you go out there to do? Movie star?" It's only a half-teased question. "Nah, I don't need a tailor. Actually, maybe I do. At the moment I just go on stage in my usual clothes but I'm thinking of a 'suit' that I can use for that as well as…what else we may do." The car pulls up in front of the busy club. "Let's go rock and or roll! Oh…umm…can you get the fare?"
"I uh," Chris starts to say when she asks what he went out there to do. "I'll tell you later." When they're not in the Uber, apparently. He flashes an apologetic smile, then. He nods then when she mentions using her regular clothes for 'performances' and he says, "I bet there's someone who could help with that. We can probably find something for you that'd be good for your shows and stuff." And stuff. "Yeah, I got it," he says and hands the driver the cash for the trip and a tip before hopping out and offering her an arm with a grin as they head into the club.
Alison happily takes Chris' arm as they head into the club. Will have to battle a snooty doorman? Will they even let in what looks to be a mixed couple! Of course they will. "Okay, we're away from the Uber now!" Alison yells over the thump of the music, though only Chris can really hear her. "So what did you do out west? I could always ask my manager about the clothes." Alison may hop around from subject to subject at times. And she also loves to dance. Hips swaying to the thumping beat as she drags Chris to the dancefloor.
They manage to sail right in, no problem. The two of them make their way out toward the dancefloor and it takes no dragging at all to get Chris out there. His head started bobbing before they even fully got in the door, and by the time they're actually on the floor, he's moving along to the music. And he actually can dance, too. He has rhythm and everything. He leans in so that he can say into her ear so that she can hear, "I joined the west coast Avengers. They helped me get things under control when I was first learning how to control everything."
"There are West Coast Avengers?" Doesn't Dazzler watch the news? "So, it just came up sudden?" Her brow furrows. If his powers are all in his suit, wouldn't he just need an instruction book? Alison can dance too, though she tries to keep her routines out of Saturday night fun. "Hey!" she yell-whispers to Chris, "There's a guy over there checking you out." A little wiggle of her eyebrows. "Oooh…I love this song!" Another level of enthusiam appears as the music changes.
"There are," Chris says and then nods at the suddenness of it, though he offers no further explanation on the dancefloor, at least. He doesn't seem unwilling to talk about it, but probably not in the crowded club. There's the faintest blush that touches Chris' ears when she mentions that there's someone checking him out. He glances over in that direction briefly, but not long, and then seems relieved as the music changes, and the song gives him an excuse to focus on the dancing. He grins broadly, "Yeah, me too!"
No more work talk tonight. Just dancing! And maybe a little drinking even though Alison is technically still underage. Her false ID is pretty good. She smiles at his blush - so cute - before getting down. Chris may only like gay guys but no reason Alison can't dirty dance with him? Right? They shouldn't get thrown out for that. "You dance great! You should totally do it professional!"
Christopher Powell is not only underage, but does not have a fake ID, which means he only gets drinks when bartenders take pity on him and look the other way. But that seems to suit him well enough. He's alright without drinking. He seems more than happy to dance close to her, draw her in against him, and match her move for move. It's a strange contrast, how easily he will dirty dance in the middle of a crowd, but blushes awkwardly when someone looks at him, and would be terrified of dancing on stage. He laughs and leans in to say, "I don't think they pay people to dance professionally in clubs." Then he flushes slightly again "I mean, like.. in dance clubs.. not like Noh-Varr mentioned.. uh.. at the concert." Then he remembers she wasn't there for /that/ bit of awkwardness and he flushes even brighter red.
A great dancer and terminally cute when he blushes - Chris will make some guy very happy one day. Maybe even more than one. At the same time. "I met Noh-Varr, didn't I?" she asks while twerking against him. "That blush tells me that you like him a little. Oops, meant to say a lot" she teases warmly, dancing the night away and glowing with the energy of the night. And then actualy lighting up the room a little too literally. Maybe it's just the club lights reflecting oddly, but Alison seems to be sparkling now as they dance.
"Yeah," Chris says. "He was at the concert too. He was the good looking white haired guy dancing near Rose." But then when she teases him, he blinks and says /very/ quickly, "No! I don't like him! He's.. he's.." He waves a hand, flailing a bit, faltering for the proper words to describe Noh-Varr in all his Noh-Varr-ness. "He was talking about dancing, in a club, for tips." His ears color at the memory of the conversation, and Noh-Varr's comment that Chris would be very popular there.
"I think you protest too much" Alison smiles, enjoying the blushing and flailing far too much to let up on the teasing. "I remember the guy with the white hair" she nods. "Is he in the team? I haven't seen him for a while either. Wait, club dancing with tips? Oh…a club like where Kori dances." A self-satisfied smile as Alison is convinced she has it right. "I bet he asked you to dance too, right? Want to get a drink? Looks like you need it."
Christopher Powell opens his mouth and wishes some sort of witty retort would come out, but instead just says, "No.. I .. I don't." Instantly, he frowns at his own sputtering, and then sighs. "Yeah, he's on the team. But he's also doing other stuff, too. He's like, single-handedly protecting our planet and allowing the rest of the world to help him do it, if you ask him." He looks confused, "I don't know where Kori dances. I thought she just did backup dancing for you?" That at least seems to shake him out of it for a moment before she mentions the dancing. He coughs and says, "He said I'd be popular there," which does nothing to lessen that blush. He nods when she asks about a drink. "Yeah, I think I could use one."
"I'm sure you'd be very popular" Alison nods. It's just way too easy to tease! "Oh, you don't know where else Kori dances? She invited the team around to watch her. Not sure when…I think I'll leave it to her to tell you where she dances." Good out, Alison. She leads him over to the bar, flashing her ID to get them a couple of drinks - she'll be having a strawberry margarita. "So your potential boyfriend has an ego?" she asks casually about Noh-Varr. "Where do these people get the time to do all these multiple jobs?"
Christopher Powell looks a little suspiciously over at Alison, because if Kori's dancing at amateur nights for tips like Noh-Varr, he's pretty sure it's not the sort of place that he would normally find himself. But he doesn't say anything other than, "Uh huh," because that seems a safe enough response. Once over at the bar, he just orders himself a seltzer water with lime. He's not drinking. "I'm pretty sure he thinks I'm way, way beneath him. Like not even a blip on the scanners. He's hot. He's a great teammate and fighter, and that's it. He's not my potential anything." He pokes at the lime in his glass with his straw. "I don't know. I had a friend I was doing some science lab stuff with, but that fell through. I guess he got reassigned to some other project." This, he seems genuinely bummed about. "Anyway, what about you? Why are we talking about me? Like I said, nothing to talk about. When's your next show?"
"He may be hot but he also sounds like a complete dick" is Alison's appraisal of Noh-Var. "No one is beneath anyone except when…well…no need to say out loud when it is sometimes okay to be beneath someone." No judgement on Chris' lack of drinking; it's good one of them is responsible. "He'll wake up to himself. Self-love ain't all that. Sorry about the science guy. Have you tried to get in touch with him?" A laugh about the spotlight being shone on her. "Very smooth, Chris. My next show? Dunno. Maybe something around Halloween but I'd like to get a couple of gigs before then. I should talk to my agent I suppose. I am a bit worried I didn't get anything for Independence Day."
"He's not," Chris says with a slight shake of his head, "I mean.. not deliberately so. Like.. it's weird. He's cool enough to hang around and fight with, and sometimes he's pretty funny. He's just… well, you'll see." He falters again, not at all sure how to describe just what Noh-Varr is like. "Fitz? Yeah, I mean, we shoot emails back and forth, but what he does isn't something we can talk about. So, all I know is he isn't around at the moment, and he can't tell me if or when he's coming back. It was nice having someone I could nerd out with, and design stuff with." Then he realizes he's rambling again and smiles apologetically. "You should do something for Halloween." He ponders "We should have a team Halloween.. party.. thing." Then he says, "You'd think Independence Day would be the perfect time for a light show. I'm sure you'll get something soon." He smiles genuinely encouragingly, "You're really good. Have you ever heard Dinah Lance? She's pretty good, too. Rose and some others and I went to a show she played at back in the spring."
"Yeah, you'd think" Alison agrees about the light show for Independence Day. "Though most people don't know that I make the lights. About 99.9 per cent of people actually think it is the show, not me. Let's keep it that way." A sip of her drink. "Team Halloween sounds great fun. I elect you to explain it to Kori" she grins before nodding. "I have indeed met Dinah. I haven't heard her /sing/ but I have heard her making noise. Work thing. Some clowns down on Wall Street. No, literally, clowns. Had really strange weapons. Dinah and I teamed up pretty well. I'd love to hear her sing. Okay, so what would your Halloween costume be? Inquiring minds want to know."
Christopher Powell winces a little bit and then asks "Do we have to explain it to her? Can't we just tell her to trust us and that it will be fun?" He grins a little lopsidedly then. "Strange weapon weilding clowns on Wall Street? That's.. new. I mean, there are a lot of clowns on Wall Street but they're usually in suits and not usually armed." He considers the costume question, something he hadn't given any thought to at all. "Um, I don't know. Maybe a pirate?" It's clear that he wasn't expecting to be asked.