Summary:Julia needs some down time to maintain her cover. Kian just needs some down time. Log Info:Storyteller: None |
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The Social Distortion and Flogging Molly concert is sold out, naturally, and The Rooftop down at Pier 17 is packed with punk fans. It's a far cry from the place's ritzy cocktails and suits opening back in December but the open air venue on the Hudson River is just too good to keep for high class parties, right?
Kian Allard-Liao is actually kind of a fan, not of punk in general but of the special celtic flavor of Flogging Molly's music. There's something about the instruments and scales that remind him of more traditional Asian music and while most of the people he grew up with would find that utterly laughable, it doesn't stop him from enjoying the music.
He's drifted slightly away the stage during a break in the sets to find something to quench his thirst. He's not exactly punked up right now. The shirt and jeans are all well and good - but he hasn't gone all out for the leather and spikes and piercings and other assorted things associated with the punk crowd. Though the row of lights down his back showing through his shirt certainly make him look sort of unusual.
"Beer." He calls out to the bartender at the side of the crowd. He HAS to be a bit loud about that.
"It's warm." The bartender warns.
"That's fine. It's also wet and I'm thirsty."
Clint had great timing in getting nosey about Julia. While she knew the concert was coming up she hadn't planned to be free but what do you know, suddenly she needs to make like the normal people and avoid spending all her 'free' time around the Bats. Or, well, the Batcave at any rate.
While the bartender is talking to Kian, Julia's East London accent cuts over the din. "Oi! What's a gal gotta do t' get a pint 'round here!" There's a light manner to her tone, the demand more festive than annoyed.
The mocha-skinned woman has let down her hair, literally tonight. It's free of the tight braids that keep it close to her head, pulled up into a bit of a pouf on top and left to fall about her head in tight, kinky waves. She got one of the band's T-shirts on along with some spiked bracelets and distressed jeans and broken in combat boots. It's the accent that gives her away as 'not from around here' though.
"Show me my favorite color!" The barkeep grins even as he's filling the pint. He sets it down next to Kian because, well, there's not a whole lot of room on the bar. And at least the asian guy in front of her shifts away slightly to make it easier to get to the beer. The warm beer.
"Heya." Kian says lifting his own glass. At least he hasn't complained about the warm beer like a typical American. "You with the band?" She kind of sounds like she could be and there REALLY aren't that many people with that accent on this rooftop. In fact ALL of them are up on the stage. Well, not right this second but they were a few minutes ago.
"Or have you just come a long way to see 'em? Not that I'd blame you. They're pretty good."
His accent is… well. American. Not New York though. Some place further west.
Julia flashes the bartender a grin in return and pulls out the cash to hand over. She definitely doesn't complain about the beer being warm. She steps on the runner at the bar so she can lean over it enough so she doesn't need to yell. "If we were back in England where money's got proper colors you could try t' upsell me for your tip with your pretty smile and silver tongue!"
With a laugh Julia rocks back onto her heels, worn boots hitting the floor again and she's taking a big swallow as Kian asks her if she's with the band. She almost spits her beer all over him. "Y' can't tell the bloody difference between Irish and English, mate? Maybe the music's busted y'r hearing." She chastises him. She might be a bit buzzed, or she might be just an outgoing sort of individual. She pulls back a bit to give Kian a long look-over, brows winging up a bit as she does so, before finally meeting his eyes again. "This ain't y'r regular scene, is it?" While he might not stick out, he also doesn't quite fit in.
"I'll stick to green thanks." The bartender flashes a grin but any more banter is cut off by his attention being urgently required elsewhere. Julia and Kian are not the only thirsty people here, it seems.
"Not so much, no." Kian flashes a small smile. He doesn't have many 'regular' scenes that are in any way, er, 'regular' but this comes the closest.
"Just been following their music for a while. They were in town, I was in town, so you know."
He really doesn't look like he 'belongs'. And he's definitely not old enough to be someone's dad or something like that.
"Sure as hell looks like yours though. And, uh, no. I mean sort of. If someone sounds real Iish I can tell but sort of hard when they're singing, in my defense?" You can just about call what they do on stage singing.
"I mean, I at least know you're not Aussie? Or Canadian?" Now he might be teasing slightly. "Or at least I'm mostly sure you're not one of those." Definitely teasing. "Name's Kian, by the way. Mind if I ask you what brings you out in these parts?" Since it's really sort of unlikely that she just followed the band to New York.
The smiling brunette gives the bartender a wink and lets him escape with his green and the compliments and then turning back to Kian. She didn't come with any friends, not even coworkers (apparently none of them were Flogging Molly fans, go fig), so having someone to chat with is a bonus.
"I'm gonna assume you mean the city, an' not th' concert." She specifies, her grin teasing and then she gives it an idle shrug. "Work loaned me out, so I'm here on an indefinite sorta thing." Julia keeps it very vague. No need to drag SHIELD into things if she can at all help it.
"City. Continent. Country." With an accent like that and being playfully prickly about being English and not Irish, calling her not being American wasn't too hard.
It does take a moment for Kian to process what she says though. Not because what she said was difficult but because it is still really loud here and he's watching behind him. Literally. With the eyes in the back of his head he doesn't have. Also, more pertinently, because he's slightly buzzed so concentrating on the conversation with all the distractions going on is a tad bit more effort than it might otherwise be.
"Yay? At least I hope yay. New York's a decent enough city. I'm here on sort of an indefinite basis myself." Meaning he is also not from around here. The natural next question would of course be something like 'Do you mind if I ask what you do?'
Instead he glances over at what certainly looks a bit like a dart board. "You do darts?"
No that's not a street name for a drug. "I think there's a few before the next set."
He's noticed that he didn't get her name but he doesn't push. Not quite yet. If she's not going to fade back into the crowd he'll probably ask again.
"That shirt. It's from the 2016 Salt Dog Cruise isn't it? You at that one?" He might be slightly jealous if she was.
"C'mon now, Brits know how to travel too!" Julia says, defending her countrymen from any idea that they may cling to the motherland.
As Kian points out the dart boards, she has to bounce up onto her toes a bit to try to see over the top of the crowd, but then nods over to him, gesturing for him to lead the way. He's bigger. She can follow in his wake.
"I was!" She says, voice rising to be heard as they dive through the thick of the crowd to the quieter area of the boards. "Had to sneak off for it too! Aaaand then call in sick the next day." Because oh. That hangover.
It's perhaps an interesting thing that the very obvious asian is taller than the very obvious Brit. Of course she's darker than most Brits but makes up for it with that accent. More than makes up for it.
Anyway, he does leave a wake for her to follow. Just so long as she follows his wake and doesn't try to attend it. Which given the band here would possibly be on the table should the unfortunate happen.
It's every so slightly less loud here if only because the hubbub isn't pointed at them and Kian picks up the darts - two sets even - and hands one to Julia.
"Okay, see, now I'm jealous. I'd wanted to go to that but unlike you I wasn't able to get away from work. And no one AT that place appreciated Flogging Molly." Past tense but that might not be that odd.
"Didn't quite catch your name, by the way?" He says as he takes up a position and makes a toss. Thunk. Not bad. Inner ring.
The lights on Kian's back flicker a little, changing colors slightly. Ugh. He needs some carbonate at this rate.
Maybe they have pickle's. Or… pickle juice.
"So what do you do when you're not working or doing this?" He's very clearly trying NOT to come off as someone creepy but hey, HE appreciates the conversation too. It's not often that he gets to have one. Ever.
Even buzzed, Julia's more perceptive than your average bear (just maybe not your average Bat), and the glow of light from beneath Kian's shirt gets her attention. She can't just go tugging his shirt up to get a peek though, but she does keep an eye on it. It's unlikely it's ornamentation, because he would have put that a bit more on display. It could be a mutation, but a mutation doesn't mean he's good or bad so she'll just keep an eye on that for now.
Taking another drink of her beer, she keeps it in-hand as she accepts the darts. At venues like this, women learn quick to police their drinks. "Then you should learn to be sneakier." She advises when he says he couldn't get away.
"Julia." The ease with which she gives him her name might mean she missed the cue earlier. Her brows go up a bit in appreciation as he makes his toss, waiting for him to finish his turn. It puts her a bit behind him, and she sees those lights flicker.
The question gets a chuckle, which is only heard because it's quieter here. "If I'm not usually doin' this, I'm usually doing work of one stripe or another. Been tryin' to free up a bit more time, though." At least until a certain SHIELD agent stops sniffing around.
Kian steps back to watch Julia go and when it starts to look like she's actually going to be pretty good at this he smiles a bit. It's been a while since someone could challenge him at all on this score.
"Nose to the grindstone? You kind of seem like the play hard type - no offense - so that kind of surprises me."
Those blinky lights on his back do seem to have a pattern. For just a moment there's something that happens out of the corner of Julia's eye. A quick scuffle that looks like it might get bad for a moment, but folks get pulled apart and separated too quick for it to be anything. And the observant if somewhat buzzed Brit might note that Kian tensed for a moment even though he could not have POSSIBLY seen what happened. Sort of like he had eyes on the back of his head.
"Hey you're not bad. Wanna make the game a bit more interesting? Ten, twenty bucks? Just a way to spice things up a bit." It's a pretty mild spice but stakes always make games like this better.
"Eh I'm hit or miss on the sneaky truth be told. And some of the folks at my last job were real hawks." Okay he's actually pretty good at the sneaky but there are certain things that make that difficult.
"You can go first this time if you like? Trying to free up more time though, mmm? Got any hobbies that aren't having a pretty good taste in music? I do radio, sometimes. As in mess with it, not star on it. Though folks say I have a face for radio sometimes."
"See, t' me, you don't get one without the other. How can you appreciate the downtime if you're not givin' the job your all?" It's not a stance that most of the corporate drones take, certainly. Maybe things are different in the UK. Of course, the UK is also home to things like the original Office series and the IT Crowd so… probably not.
Even buzzed, Julia is pretty good at the game. She's better with a firearm, certainly, but she's still good. "Sure nuff then, we can go twenty quid. Then my drinks'll be on you!" She says with a playful, cocky air.
Stepping up to the line, she takes a moment to focus, shaking her head to push back the buzz a bit before tossing the darts at the board. The last goes a bit wide and she curses creatively, looking back at him with a smirk. "The darts are shite." Suuuure they are.
Julia gives him a grimce at that last, stepping back as she sips her beer. "Well that's right unkind of 'em. I play around with puzzles a bit. I like to fly, but don't get much chance to do it these days."
"Heh. Thanks." It's kind of a compliment to say that he DOESN'T have a face for radio. Kind of. Kian will take it.
"Fly? Planes or choppers?" Kian knows enough to know that there's a big difference between the two. "If you've got a license I know there's a few places that rent planes out. It's not exactly cheap but for renting a plane it's not exactly expensive either." He figures that's not her work. If it were she wouldn't talk about not getting to do it much.
Returning that smirk, Kian steps up to the line. One. Two. Oh, two's not so good. Outer ring. Well. Three. That puts him… er… tied. Right. Well. Tiebreaker round.
The darts are quite good for a public place but Kian doesn't say that. "Yeah I think the weights are off." Suuuuuure they are.
"So work hard AND play hard then, mmm? I get that. My other hobbies aren't quite so, er, sedentary. Bit of martial arts. Bit of street racing." Beat. "Don't tell the cops that one." After all it's hardly fair to ask her questions about what she does if he's not willing to give up a little on himself.
Julia Pennyworth clucks her tongue and tsktsks him on the street racing, though she's grinning as she retakes her place on the line. "What do you drive?" While not something she's got an extensive knowledge about, it's big enough in the Asian underground circles that some familiarity often helped. The upside of being a spy. A little bit of knowledge about a lot of things.
"Planes. I get to mess with some pretty slick drones from time to time, but it's not the same." Julia *does* make a mental note to steal the Batwing (err, ONE of the Batwings) sometime for… research purposes. Yes.
Julia does better with her placement this time. Must have been the fidgeting with the fletching. "Sounds like we have a shared appreciation for things that go fast, though."
"Bikes." Kian says tapping his nose. "I'm a pretty fair hand at most of them. There's one or two that I can really toss around though." Like the one he JUST got back from the NYPD, thank you very much Nightwing. Jerk.
"And there's nothing like zipping through a city like this one at night on a bike at top speed. Or, er, at completely legal and sensible speeds." Because of course that's what he drives at. Legal and sensible speeds.
"Is it the speed, though? Or the way that they just do what you want when you're in the zone?" Kian watches her throws and… oh yeah. She's on form. He replaces her on the line and eyes the dartboard like it killed his father and should prepare to die.
"Photography drones or that new drone racing stuff I see folks doing sometimes?" Because that is totally a thing and in truth sort of fun looking though he can see how it would still possibly be more fun to be IN the aircraft rather than just remote controlling it.
He tosses. One. Two. Three. Annnnnd. No bullseye for him. Which puts her ahead but only by a couple of points.
With a grin he takes his wallet out and gets a $20 for Julia. "I think you earned that. So do you do all of your speed demon-ing in the air? Or do you ever come on down to earth?"
Julia Pennyworth gives a bit of a snickersnort as Kian 'adjusts' his answer. "Yes, of course, completely legal." She's grinning, white teeth bright against her dark skin.
As to the drones? Well, she needs to be a bit evasive. "Little of column a, little of column b. Sometimes I need the pictures but I don't do that for fun." Honestly, she doesn't do the 'racing' for fun, either. That would be the support platforms. "And I think the speed sort of peels back everything so you *need* to be in the zone or it'll all go belly up. If you're not a breath away from loosin' everything, you've got all this clutter in y'r head distracting ya."
When he offers up the bill she gives him another grin, taking it with two fingers before waggling it at him. "Double or nuthin'?"
"Completely legal and entirely sensible. But you're right about the speed. Once you're going that fast all there is, is the drive. You've got to entirely focus on it. I'd say it's almost zen but I wouldn't want to come off as pretentious."
Koa places the bill down between them and returns the smile. "I'm game. Double or nothing it is then. Since you won why don't you lead off."
He steps back from the line to make some room. This is, honestly, more actual fun than he has had in a while. And it's different from the thrill of evading death or the stillness - weirdly - that comes with riding his bike at top speed.
"If you're ever into entirely legal races I might know when and where a few of them are happening." He suggests. "That is, if you're not tired of me before we're done here."
That last is accompaned with a good natured wink. "How'd you get into it, if I may ask? The drones and the speed, I mean."
Julia Pennyworth steps back up to the line, smoothing the fletching back as she listens to him. There's a pause as she considers that. And then a nod. She's likely looking at a few weeks where she's got all this extra time on her hands. "That might be fun. I can't ride myself but could still be fun to watch." Definitely DON'T tell him you're a SHIELD Agent, Julia.
Pulling her arm back, Julia throws her darts at the board, and her exceptional aim might be explained as she replies with a chuckle: "I was in the Army." Presumably the *British* Army. "I've got good hand-eye coordination and they'd have me run some of 'em. Don't ask what kind. I'd have to use you as m' target." She says, flashing a grin at him.
"That doesn't sound like quite as much fun as playing against you so I won't ask what kind. I'm more of a dedicated hobbyist myself." Which might go some way toward explaining why he can just about keep up with her but honestly Julia's abilities are pretty exceptional. That's WHY she got into the SRR to begin with. And that's WHY she wound up working for the Bats. Neither of them are known for accepting anything or anyone sub-par.
Her throws done - and well thrown - Kian steps up to the line and tries to smooth the fletching back himself. "But it all sounds very, uh, what's the word my army friends liked to use? Secret Squirrel. So pior military then? My hat's off to you."
He cocks his arm back and throws. Bullseye. One in the inner ring and one in the outer. That bullseye will help, though.
"Active duty, I'm going to guess? Middle east? Central Asia and all that? Sorry, I'm asking a lot about you and I don't mean to pry too much. Was there anything you wanted to know about me to balance it out?"
Julia Pennyworth gives a nod at the question. "More active than I'd like some day." She says, her tone a bit 'too mild', but that's softened with a small smile his way.
Eyeing the excellent throws, she steps up next to him, but not quite to the line yet. She glances at him, her manner very relaxed in that manner that's a front for being prepared. "You could tell me why you've got a lightshow under your shirt." She says it so casually, but her attention on him is sharp.
Kian's eyes sweep down to hers and then glance over his shoulder as if he could look at his back and see 'oh, those lights.' He also seems relaxed. Mostly relaxed. There's a slight tensing when she starts her question but it quickly goes away. Almost as if he were expecting something that didn't happen.
"Experimental bio-medical device." Now… that's interesting. Not what he says it is. But the fact that he isn't lying. Oh sure, he may not be telling her the entire truth but he's got none of the tells for someone who is trying to pull off a deception or even misdirect. And 'experimental' would be a bad misdirection anyway. And on top of that he doesn't seem like he interacts quite enough with people to be that practiced at the fine art of pulling a fast one.
"Not many people would actually ask about that, so good eye. I got it in Taiwan as part of a clinical trial." Taiwan. Not exactly Hong Kong but easily in her area of expertise.
"Gets me beeped at airports all the time…" He adds with a slight smile. Okay, that might be a little bit of misdirection… but is probably ALSO true.
Julia Pennyworth hasn't quite stepped back up to the line, and now that she's brought it up, she leans to the side as he tries to look over his own shoulder. "Medical huh? What's it for?" The question is only a *little* invasive. He must be more interesting than the prospect of cold hard cash! "Hopefully th' flickering isn't a bad sign?" Because it's been doing that. Like something that's battery is getting low.
"Good on you t' be nice and compliment my eye when truth is that most folk are just more polite than me. I figure I spent too many years in the service and learnin' to be polite ain't quite caught up with me again." Julia says easily.
Finally, she steps back up to the line again, her attention on the board as she makes her throws. "Spend much time in Taiwan, then?"
"Oh it's low on juice. I'll get it charged up a bit later." So yes. Low battery or something similar. There's a display that goes with it. And it's possibly a good thing that Julia can't see it because she might recognize it.
He DOES stand still and let her look at it. "Well it helps me get around, that's what it was originally for. There was a later part of the trial to see if the prosthetic could actually boost things like neuron-transmission speed and such. For you know, quicker reactions and the like. Mixed results on that one." Taiwan has pretty decent medical testing laws but they're not Western by any stretch of the imagination.
It IS fused to his spine or that's how it certainly looks.
"Yeah. Taiwan. Macau. Hong Kong a bit. Japan. China. Good chunk of my life spent running around there." He gives her a slight smile and switches to Mandarin.
"Doing, you know, perfectly legal and reasonable racing, amongst other rather more sensible things."
He was on the Tokyo circuit. Is he an underground racer or is that a hobby? That question might occur to her.
"Anyway, I figure it's only fair. I did just ask you like forty questions about yourself. You just happened to pick a good one to ask me."
"Do you have one of those new USB-3 connections like an iPad?" Julia asks with an impish grin, stepping off the line for him to take his spot again.
She's having to stay away from the Batcave and it's computer, but she's definitely taking mental notes of things to look into. Even if there's nothing curious about Kian himself, finding out who is doing the bio-med experiments is always good knowledge to have. "From there originally, then?" Kian's got enough of a distinctive accent that he's also likely Not From Here. "Work take you around or did the high life of 'perfectly legal and reasonable racing' take you from circuit to circuit?"
"It catalyzes chemicals from my blood. Calcium carbonate mostly." Kian says as he steps up to the line. "Which mostly just means I ahve a very careful diet. But sometimes it means I need to drink some pickle juice." He makes a face.
"I don't much like pickle juice, as an aside." Aim and… toss.
"Originally born in Hong Kong. Dad was English, mom was Taiwanese. Split a lot of my time between there, Taiwan and Japan. Lots of my parent's work. Some of my work too as I got older. The perfectly legal racing circuit was more a side thing though…" He flashes a bit of a smile. "I'm pretty good at it, so maybe I did that a biiiit more than other things as time went on. Never made it my whole life though."
If he's good enough to continually compete on the street circuit and not lose his bike that probably means he's more than just 'pretty good' as a driver. But dual British citizenship? That's definitely possible. He looks old enough to have been born before Hong Kong reverted, to be sure.
Another toss. And another. These throws not quite so good. But he might still be leading unless Julia does really well.
"Now that… is an odd diet." Julia says with a grimace of her own. "I *like* pickles and that sounds right nasty." She gives a shake of her head, and decides not to comment on the fact he didn't actually say what his job was.
As she steps up to take the last round in darts, she doesn't manage to beat him out and curses up a blue streak though she's still got a smile on her lips. Finishing off her beer she makes a 'gimmie' motion with her hands. "Lemme get your number, and I'll let you know when the next good concert is. Or you can let me know where the next good race is." She can text herself from his phone and then they'll both have each other's numbers.
"Sure thing. Actually just let me…" Kian takes his twenty and takes out his phone and passes it near hers. There. Phone number given. Ah the joys of modern technology.
"Now. Since this is my twenty again…" Kian grins. "How about I buy you a drink before you go on your way. Or, you know, if you don't mind standing next to someone who clearly doesn't look like punk rock is his scene while the band deafens me, you don't have to go on your way."
But either way, he's offering the drink. He hasn't had a decent time like this in… well. It's been a couple of years.
As the head back to the bar, Julia nods her assent and then laughs as he asks if she'd like to listen to hang out for the rest of the concert. "Alright, but if I get too into m' cups and I try t' climb you f'r a better view, you've got my permission now to dump me on the floor." As implausible s this might sound… it also sounds like it might have happened before. Should make for an interesting night.
That gets a snort-chuckle from Kian. "So noted." He says as he moves back over to the bar. More warm beer before more loud music. It sounds like a good way to spend a night to him.
"So what was that you were doing to the fletching…"