Participants:
| Scene Title | Who Watches the Watchmen |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | A gathering of five-oh's and a strange civilian in The Nite Owl |
| Date | June 28, 2009 |
The Nite Owl is a survivor from ages past - one of those ancient diners with huge plate glass windows, checkerboard linoleum floor, and a neon owl over the entrance that blinks at those entering. Inside, there's an L-shaped main counter, complete with vintage soda fountain and worn steel stools. All of the cooking is done on the ranges ranked against the rear wall. The outer wall is lined with booths upholstered in cracked scarlet vinyl, tables trimmed with polished chrome. Despite its age, it's been lovingly maintained. The air is redolent with the scent of fresh coffee, vanilla, and frying food.
Colby sits stretched out on a booth bench, her booted feet reached towards the aisle and crossed at the ankles. She spears her pancake lazily with a fork. Colby couldn't sleep lately, a growing anxiety knitting itself in her stomach. There was no need to bother Ariel with her jumbled thoughts, though. Colby looks down at her watch. Ten o' clock. Her Angel would be crawling into bed soon, anyhow. Her questions could wait till morning.
The Undercover officer gives a sigh and pushes her paperwork across the table, dropping her fork with a little clang in exchange for her mug of black coffee.
The wanderous soul that was Diogenes steps into the diner. Slowly, but surely. At first, though, he stands in the doorway, keeping the door open and quite possible letting in a breeze that some might find unwelcome; contemplating, he looks around the place, taking in the appearance and demeanour of its visitors, and then appraising the menu, provided the letters were large enough for him to read. If not, he would close the door behind him and approach the bar. This certainly wasn't a night club or a bar - people weren't rubbing themselves against the counter with a beer bottle in hand whilst making idiots of themselves and having a fun doing it, too. With a heavy sigh, he places both of his hands on the counter, and, the moment he'd get attention, inquire: "I hope none of what's on the menu is poisonous."
Once upon a time, in the distant days when dinosaurs roamed the earth, Felix Ivanov wore a uniform and walked a beat on foot. And one of those beats, those little looping paths of concrete and asphalt was in Chelsea. As a result, he's been dining at the Owl for many years now, and those staff that've been there for any length of time no him. He's right behind Diogenes, looking wilted and tired - still in his suit, but no tie,and the shirt's open at the throat, the jacket only partially buttoned. Just enough to keep from totally flashing the .45 under his arm at everyone in the room. "Food's great," he says, curtly, clearly patiently waiting for him to make enough room for Fel toscoot past towards his favorite booth.
Booooooooored
Boredboredboredboredbored
Bored.
Suspension sucks. Why did that fucking evo have to flame up on her day and right in front of her. It's all that damned Evo's fault of course. So since Aude lives alone, she's tromped through manhattan and stopped off at the usual cop hangout. Nite Owl. Dio as he takes his sweet time entering is shot a look of death from behind but as he moves, a withering look for Felix as he goe sin next and she's heading around them with her riot of tight black curls and cocoa skin to take up a seat at the counter. Dio's comment doesn't go unheard. Thank god Felix answers or there might be some caustic comment thrown back at the guy who can't be much younger than her.
Booooooooored.
"Depends on how strong your stomach is," comes from the Latina, her dark gaze still directed at her syrup-soggy, hole-ridden slop that had once been a pancake. Colby lifts her head to flash an almost charming smile, if her hard demeanor hadn't interfered. Still, her tone is low and pleasant, though, eased with a tiredness that almost leaves it soft. She turns her attention towards the other two. Aude is recognized more quickly, but largely outdone by the recognition of the more pleasantly disposition ex-officer in front of her. "Well, look what the gato dragged in…" She sits forward in her seat and nudges her chin up in greeting towards the two.
The young adult, having stepped from the doorway and stepped to the bar, opens his treasured bag, from where he digs out a wallet. His eyes land on the menu again. Instead of actually reading what's on it from the get-go, however, letters crawl to mingle together, and the text loses meaning. His thoughts are jumbled - a chaotic mess of questions and answers to them, but none can find its fitting pair. A clearly forced, but polite smile is squeezed out, and he asks, whilst looking at Fel: "Anything you'd recommend?" He seemed tired and downtrodden. Truth be told, he was both, and he certainly didn't like the trade-off of mingling in a crowd just to eat. But food-making skills were beyond him, and he wasn't up for sandwiches. Colby's remark calls Tom's attention to her, and for a moment, he actually regrets having quipped earlier. Attention. He didn't like it. "It's…" He falls silent, and, with the undercover officer seemingly recognising her buddies, Diogenes turns his gaze to Felix in anticipation of a recommendation.
"Meowmix, please deliver," deadpans the Fed with the nine lives. "You look like you're enjoying yourself immensely," Felix notes, angling away from his chosen booth to get close to Aude. "The turkey club is actually amazing," he says, in all apparent seriousness. Law enforcement officer, and food critic, who'd've thought?
"Cat's always dragging us in. Only thing better about this place would be if they have donuts" sliightly snarky, coming from the petite officer. She looks over to Felix when he aims to take up a spot. She turns in own seat to partly face him and Colby. Dio eye'd. "Chili burger"
Colby glances toward the kid at the bar once more, watching him with every expectation that he would finish his statement, only to frown when the boy abandons the effort. "Don't listen to either of 'em. The tuna melts, the way to go. Or, if you've got a sweet tooth like me - the chocolate chip pancakes." She gives an assertive nod and readjusts the mirrored glasses, useless at this hour, atop her head. She leans over her table and turns her attention back to Felix and Aude. "Hey… I heard what happened the other day. Here I thought all the action was out on the streets. How ya holdin' up?"
One vote for the turkey club, one for the chili burger, and one for tuna melts. Diogenes eyes both Aude and Felix more closely, now, and eventually his and Aude's presumably equally inspecting gaze would clash. Trying to shun the social awkwardness that was his eternal shadow, he offers a subtle smile, since the last one's been drained by his thoughts, and decides to try and jest: "Donuts? Why, are you five-oh?" He looks over the bar counter and heaves a ragged sigh. "Just… a couple of burgers, thanks. And a beer, if you have that in this place." He eyes the price on the menu, which suddenly is making sense once more. His fingers crawl into his wallet, in search of his money. He listens in on what was about to become a conversation, even if he doesn't grant it much of his attention.
Felix's grin is….more vulpine than feline. "Does kind of smell like bacon in here," he says, with mock-regret in his voice, as he gives up on his usual booth to take a counter seat near Aude. He drops heavily into the stool….and before he can order anything, the waitress, a matronly lady in her forties, hands him a piece of cherry pie. Felix looks momentarily nonplussed.
"Darn right i'm a cop. Pretty good one" But that's all she'll say to Dio, though she's eyeing his rifling through his wallet. "Natasha. I'll cover his food. He's too skinny. Vanilla shake and chilifries for me" before she looks over to Colby. "Tired of the shrinks and IA crawling up my ass. Like it's my fault the pyro decides to flame up while homesec is arresting someone. Suspension sucks. Biding my time tracking down some missing kid who's sudenly shown up in the park.
Colby tsks and shakes her head, swiping up her paperwork and folds it unceremoniously, tucking into the inner pocket of her ebon, leather jacket. "Ya never can tell, muchacho," she offers to Diogenes. "Unless one boasts about it," she offers Aude a pointed look. She abandons her mushy pancakes, but snaps off a bite of sausage as rises to her feet and addresses Felix. "Oh? Still remember that smell, old man?" she quips back, settling onto a stool beside the ex-officer and leaning around to address Aude once more. "Ya did the right thing, I'm sure. Don't let 'em ruffle your feathers too much."
The way Felix plays along with his joke causes Diogenes to smile a bit more genuinely than earlier. Since his idea of a police officer is an overly serious individual who would more than likely either flip out at any cop-related joke or otherwise show attitude - quite like in the movies - he doesn't even suspect that anyone present is a cop. He looks to the waitress once he has her attention again, which he would attract with a murmur of "Excuse me?", and changes his order: "Make that coffee. The stronger, the better." And then he'd give that nod of gratitude and a polite smile, as one would expect a well-mannered citizen. And then Aude's comment would greedily horde all of Tom's attention. Looks like the movies were right, in a way. "Thanks." That… was genuine. "That's appreciated." He doesn't say much, primarily because he doesn't want to interrupt the conversation. His wallet is shoved back into the bag. Instead, he pulls out a startlingly thick book on human anatomy.
Felix doesn't look like a cop, really. He looks like an accountant at the end of a very long day - the glasses don't help, either. The cherry pie is apparently a joke, because Fel doesn't refuse it, or ask why he's been presented with it. He merely notes, lazily, with a faintly impish cast to his gaze, "Where's my damn fine cup of coffee?" "Comin' right up," retorts the waitress. "Of course," he replies to Colby. "You young whippersnappers don't recall the fine old pre-Miranda days when our word was law," he adds, teasingly, as he props an elbow on the counter.
'Yeah yeah yeah, don't blurt it out that i'm a cop. But come on, 60 percent of the people who come to this diner, are cops" Not that she looks overtly coppish either. "No, I don't old man. I'm to spring a god damned chicken to know that" There's a jut of her chin to Dio. "Anatomy huh? Becoming a doctor?"
Colby gives Felix a firm nudge of her elbow. "All you cops are just trouble," she replies with a quick wink, pushing her braid back over her shoulder. Even she gives Diogenes's choice of text a good scrutiny. "Damn, muchacho. That ain't light reading." She plucks up a fork form the counter in front of her and oh-so-stealthily snags herself a hefty bite of Felix's cherry pie. "What," she says with a cheek-full, "Not like you can arrest me." She gobbles up the bite of desert as she watches Aude and the civilian from her peripheral vision.
"If by pyro you have in mind an Evolved who can manipulate and create fire", says Diogenes, belatedly addressing the issue whilst picking up the plate with his 'burgers and the cup of coffee, with the thick book pressed under his shoulder, "Then I'm sure it was justified. Similarly, a guy shooting his gun in a precinct would be put down, even if he hits no one." That's right, Tom, suck up to the nice cop. After a single side-glance sent to Felix, Diogenes looks for an empty seat. He is distracted by Aude, however, and even though that gargantuan book is threatening to slip from his grasp, he decides to reply to her. "No, I'm just fascinated with biology. Ordinary biology, which has been woefully abandoned after everyone started giving Evolved what they want the most - attention." He walks up to the closest table, which conveniently happened to be Colby's. "'Scuse me", he mutters as he sets the cup and the plate down, so that he could reach for the book. Absent-minded as he was, he pulled his Bible out before he should have. "Trust me, a few pages of this, and I'll be knocked out until noon", he comments, re-adjusting the book under his shoulder.
"I can, actually," Felix says, drily. "Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? Us," he says, answering his own question. "But it's okay. I actually like coconut cream. The cherry is…a gag, really." A glance at what Dio is working on. "Enh. I majored in Biology in college. And that does look like a sure cure for insomnia."
"Yeah, yeah," Colby offers back with a friendly, dismissive wave of her hand. She washes down the bite of pie with a sip of her coffee as she adjusts in her seat, turning to provide a good sociable angle for the boy that takes a place beside her. "What, not a fan of the supermen and women Evolved, muchacho?" she inquires, her tone presented and attuned to a pleasantly casual standing on her alto voice.
Before Diogenes picks up what he has ordered and rush off to a lone booth bench, he looks over his shoulder the moment he hears what he recognises as latin. "Who will guard the guard themselves?", he murmurs under his breath before a light chortle is heard from him. His hands slide under both the little plate under the cup and the plate home to both of his burgers. Lifting them off the table's corner where he had left them so as not to intrude on Colby's personal space, he answers her with a faint grin: "Give a man the ability to look through clothes, and he'll go to a women's locker. Give a man the ability to make atomic reactions, and he will nuke a hole in a city." With yet another sigh, he straightens out, looking down the column of seats.
There's a silent amen to Dio's words. But Aude outwardly just raises her brows at the non cop/federal officer. "Careful there buddy" Aude looks over as the vanilla shake and chili fries are deposited ont eh counter behind her and she slips money to the waitress, with a hefty tip.
Fel just grunts at Dio's assessment, but doesn't argue it. Because it is true. Super powers equals superdickery, let's be honest. "What?" he says to Aude, lip curling in none-too-kind amusement.
Colby lofts a dark brow at Diogneses's reply. "Give a man a gun, an atomic bomb…" She offers a slight shrug that allows those around her to fill in the rest, sipping her dark brew before pushing the mug out for a refill. "Can't say the regulars are any better than the super-powered. We're all just 'human', if you ask me - most of which are bound to mortal vices, including power." Yeah, she's smart beneath all that slang and whatnot. She waves a hand, as if trying to air out the atmosphere of the heavy topic. It was not something she needed on her mind above other things. Where had all the friendly chatter gone?
"Exactly. It's human nature. It's a metaphysical force you're in no position to change. Our primitive brain is laced with sophisticated thoughts, dreams and ambitions, but at the heart of it all, who we really are… Cavemen. Had the man not been inclined to test out the theory - what if I smashed that guy's face in with my club - would the police force require existence?" His musings come to an end, which most likely was fortunate for those who had to endure his philosophical monologue, weightily pressed underneath disappointment with all that's around him. "I hope you've enjoyed Humanity 101", he quips, and wanders over to the neighbouring seat that happened to be empty. "I'm certainly not the sort of person to talk to on a late evening after a hard day at work", he jests lightheartedly on the way.
Aude just turns away. He gets a free meal. But that's about as much of her as he'll get. She just shoots a look at Felix and a shrug of her shoulders so she can start picking at her fries and shake. A couple napkins are also grabbed from the holder because Chili can be messy. Yes indeed.
"You make me glad I'm long past the philosophy courses I had to take in college," is Fel's only reply. Busily dumping unholy amounts of sugar and cream into his coffee.
"Aw, come on!" Colby suddenly gives herself back over to the topic, waving her hands up and leaning back in the same manner that a man is given to when his favorite team gives up a point to the opposing side. "You know Ariel has been working with some of those Evolved?" She lofts a brow as she looks to Aude and Felix. "Really misunderstood kids, I'm tellin' you. They dunno what they're doing, half of 'em. She's turned over a good fifty percent of her psych practice to helpin' 'em out. Working with 'em just like everyone else, even helping a few to learn to control their ability. That's what needs to be done. Control. Let these people know they aren't freaks or criminals." She sighs and rubs at her brows, trying to massage away the growing headache. She usually tried to keep her nose out of this business in public, but Ariel's passion to help people was contagious.
The undercover woman puts up her hands in surrender. "That's all I gotta say. Anyway, isn't there some game we can talk about? Damn, even the weather." She sticks out her tongue, only to flash the waitress a grateful smile when her mug is refilled with fresh java.
The book is tossed unto the table and then pushed aside with his elbow before his meal and his still hot beverage are put down. Diogenes sits down, opens up the book, browses the contents, looking for the pages that touch on the matter of the human's spine and the many functions it's responsible for. "The weather is pretty nice. Certainly nicer than where I am from", he murmurs, encouraging to stir up a conversation which he so skillfully drowned in his loud ponderings. He takes his first bite of the cheesburger and the first sip of his coffee which causes him to frown and wrinkle his nose. Far too strong. But it will have the job done.
"Well, that's good for your partner" It comes out sounding sincere but thank god for lack of telepaths. She picks at her fries once more before the bored feeling is striking her again. Extra tip is pulled from the wallet in her jacket and wedged beneath the plate. "Hope she's successful with the others, and at least better than the precinct shrink. I gotta go. Stay safe on the streets" THe petite woman leverages herself up from the stool, a tip of Aude's head ot felix and Colby, a minimal one for Dio.
Diogenes looks behind him at Aude. He would gaze at the officer for quite a while until offering a nod in the way of a farewell. "Don't get the shrinks get to you. Just mess with them and tell them you're having nightmares involving making out with the 'pyro' on a grassy field", he remarks jokingly before his attention would return to his meal, which he is dealing with rather swiftly for someone as skinny as him.
"I'll think on that there kid" And with that, Aude is out the door, off into the evening air.
Colby snorts, lifting a hand to pinch her nostrils closed between her thumb and forefinger for fear that coffee might make take a wrong turn. She clears her throat with a quick cough and laughs more freely, turning her dark gaze to Diogenes. "That's just sick, muchacho." She shakes her head disapprovingly despite her amusement.
It's true. Shrinks rarely give you something you want." Then why did you sign up for one, huh, Diogenes? Really? "On the other hand… Some shrinks actually manage to focus on something other than mommy and daddy issues." He finishes one of his burgers and takes a lengthy sip from his coffee cup before closing the book. He sure as hell wasn't going to read it properly, given the conversation. Which was rather awkward, considering his back was facing Colby's.
"Hey, careful what you say." The threat is offered in a playful tone. "My Angel is one of the good shrinks." Colby chuckles and presses back to her feet, tipping back the rest of her coffee before fishing out a few bills and laying them upon the table. She steps away then, giving Felix a quick pat on the shoulder. "Good to see ya, old man." She then nudges her chin in Diogenes direction. "Keep safe, muchacho. And, uh… hey, couldn't hurt to be bit more open minded, yeah?" She tugs her jacket closed around her, offers a quick wave, and heads for the door.
Diogenes looks behind him, his eyes searching for the woman of exotic origin. Once his gaze fixes on her, he nods lightly. "I hope he is", he answers, adding: "You take care, as well. Many creepy guys like me roaming the streets at this hour." With that, he turns his attention back to his other burger. With it lifted off the plate, he opens up his book with the other once again. Although the curfew is about to take effect, there was still some time for him to read and finish his meal before he'd run off, as well, to his shelter.
Colby pauses in the door, resting a hand upon the frame. She glances back over her shoulder, canting her head to the side to banish a few errant strands of dark hair from her gaze. "She. Ariel. My wife." With a final, firm nod, the undercover turns back about and slips out the door. Protective much? Don't mess with the wife, man.