10068/Drinking Your Worries Away

Drinking Your Worries Away
Date of Scene:	17 November 2019
Location:	Josie's Bar, Clinton
Synopsis:	When drinking your troubles away, you sometime meet people with more trouble, but then there's usually a friend that surfaces sooner or later. It's that kind of night for Jessica Jones.
Cast of Characters:	Jessica Jones, Phantasm (Drago), Emma Frost, Daredevil

---

Jessica Jones has posed:
Jessica is a regular in most NYC bars, but when she's around her home neighborhood, more often than not Josie's does the trick. Mostly a result of Murdock introduces her and getting her a 'friend discount', something that really made Matt Murdock's stock soar in Jessica's eyes.

At the moment Jessica is set at the bar, a half empty bottle of Four Roses infront of her, as she keeps pouring herself whenever her glass empties.

Phantasm (Drago) has posed:
Having moved to Midtown years ago, Nick has pretty much surrendered any form of regular status he may have built up in the kitchen during his early years. But, he did promise a friend to keep a low profile a few days, so what's more low profile than going to a bar that he's not known to frequent? To those who may have been in the area nine years ago, he doesn't look that much different. Dressed for the cool weather and discretion, a knit cap hides his locks. Drab drab neutral tones.
As he reaches the doorway, he glances back, making sure that the suit that's been tailing him is maintaining his distance. Not quite satisfiled with the situation as a whole but not willing to be deterred from going out, he continues into the bar.

Emma Frost has posed:
    The White Queen has been in the news lately for the worst kind of things and so she's kind of stressed and trying to find the best ways to relieve her stress and so she's made her way into Hell's Kitchen, wearing some clothes she 'borrowed' from Rogue. A flannel top and some gloves to fight against the cold and a pair of long and ratty jeans that have been shredded either via time or from the store Emma doesn't know and a pair of boots that thankfully fit.

    Emma steps into the bar and having used her telepathy slightly to protect herself, she's got brown eyes and has some wavey brown locks of hair to those that would look at her. Emma Frost sits at one end of the bar and holds up a finger asking for a single domestic draft. Yeah, she's really lost emotionally and physically for now mostly as that's what she desires to be.

Jessica Jones has posed:
Jessica looks towards the door as newcomers arrive, Nick gets nothing but a quick glance, but Emma gets a more lingering look as she approaches the bar. Is it because Nick is a guy and Emma isn't? Nope. It's because Nick is just a person who walked into a bar, and Emma has 'potential customer' all over her. "So what's the story? Abusive boyfriend? Abusive boss? Just a random asshole on the street...? If you got trouble, I can solve it, I'm a professional," she offers to Emma while extending her hand, "Jessica Jones, the princiapl PI of Alias Investigations."

Phantasm (Drago) has posed:
Not realizing til the last moment that his lingering in the doorway could have caused a bit of a roadblock, Nick shifts over to the side allowing for the disguised Emma to head to the bar before him. With the bar area starting to fill up, Nick heads over that way to grab an available seat. An idle thought hoping that someone takes the empty seat next to him to all but seal the fact that his shadow won't get to join in. "Guinness." He requests the moment his ass hits seat, hands folding together as they rest on the bartop.

Emma Frost has posed:
    Emma turns her face towards Jessica expecting her projections to be more than enough to prevent people from seeing Emma Frost the suddenly outted mutant and financial ruinner of many people's careers and jobs. It's been less than 24 hours and she knows she's in deep shit.

    "It's none of those things. I don't need a --- You're a private eye?" Emma asks with a furrow of her eyebrow and squitting of those sharp brown eyes. "You seem awfully familiar..." Emma states, taking the bottle of beer in hand and taking a quick pull before it's obvious she isn't a fan and yet is going to suffer through the swill she is not much a fan of. She looks over Jess's shoulders towards Nick, but finds no words needed for the musician.

Jessica Jones has posed:
Jessica has no reason to concern herself with Nick, and so retains her focus on Emma, "are you sure...? You have a troubled face, I've seen that on many clients of mine," Jessica presses on, eager to get a payday out of this chance encounter. "I may have been on the news for one story or other, I featured on April O'Neil's 'Truth Seekers', so got a bit of a boost out of that...maybe that's why..."

Then, as if on a whim, Jessica offers quietly, "you wouldn't be that Emma Frost chick who got in serious trouble recently, would you...?" Sometimes a shot in the dark yields something, but Emma sure did look like someone who was trying to shy away from all attention.

Phantasm (Drago) has posed:
As Nick waits for his drink, there's little else to do except to just sit back and observe. Having a feeling someone is looking over at him, he turns his head, seeing the darker haired Emma looking back. His head tilts, giving her a slight nod of acknowledgement. She does seem to have one of those faces, but wh-

Nick's glance shifts over to Jessica as the PI seems to have placed the person's name. Ohhhh... The one that got hosed by the press recently. Yeah, that type of stuff does suck.

Emma Frost has posed:
    The woman's brown eyes flair open briefly before she squints fiercely and she slams the bottle down on to the bar causing suds to spew from the top. "Don't. Don't pretend you know me." Emma says with a glare towards Jessica before she calms herself and looks away, "What could you do if I was anyways..." The woman seems out of ideas and on the end of her rope.

    Then there's that second ping of recognition from Nick and then the bartender and she quickly reaches out to take Emma's beer from her. "I can't be serving no mutants here..." She says with a motion for Emma to get stepping towards the bar. "Especially with you fighting avenger's like that." The woman says pointing towards the door, kind enough to not be charging Emma for the booze.

    Emma gasps as this happens but then eyes Jessica with rage before she pushes off the stool and starts towards the door.

Jessica Jones has posed:
"I'm not pretending anything, lady," Jessica grunts as she reaches for a drink of whiskey, clearly not pleased with the insinuation that she's pretending anything. "You just look like you could use a hand, and I'm willing to listen to your case, give you some ideas maybe..."

"Sit your ass down," Jessica snaps at Emma as she starts walking away, as Jessica herself gets up and glares at the bartender, "you want me to tell Josie you kicked out a customer? You know she doesn't give two shits if someone is a mutant or not so long as they pay, right?" Jessica doesn't seem like she'll tolerate that kind of discrimination, and say what you will about Josie, the woman does have a good heart. She knows this bartender will get fired for this behaviour, and is willing to make sure it happens if there's no apology given real quick.

Phantasm (Drago) has posed:
Nick blinks at how quickly this goes south. After giving a glare to the bartender, he turns to look to the Emma on the move, "Come back. I'll get your next drink. You look like you need something a bit stronger."

Emma Frost has posed:
    Emma frows at the bartender and the two people know that knows she's here and ones at least offering a drink. "I could use something stronger sure." Emma says as she looks back to Jess and then the bartender throws her hands up in the air and huffs as she instead seems to just walk out into the backroom and the sounds of shouting can be heard.

    Emma sits between Nick and Jess and then looks to Jess. "So you know who I am and what's happened, again, how could you possibly help me?"

Jessica Jones has posed:
"I can still hear you, douchebag!" Jessica screams towards the back room, before shaking her head and pouring herself another drink. She then turns to look mildly disinterested when Emma addresses her again, "I thought you wanted me to stop pretending I know anything about you, right? I'll let you be..." she clearly wants Emma to really want it at this point, rather than pushing herself into something she may not necessarily want to be involved with. After all, she posed the question thinking it was a helpless woman in need of help. Emma Frost is far from helpless.

Phantasm (Drago) has posed:
Nick looks to the back room where the shouting is taking place and then looking over to the partially poured Guinness resting on the back bar. Such a sad sight. Yep. This bartender's probably not going to be here much longer.

Looking over to Emma, and in the process, Jessica, he stays quiet, listening to the small exchange. When it gets quiet, he clears his throat. "I don't think there's really a way to set things back to how things were" He comment, the volume of his voice only intended for the Emma, and if need be, Jessia, "Sometimes the best thing to do is take a break, look at the situation from another angle, and find a different path." This would be at the point Nick would be sipping his Guinness for a dramatic pause but tonight's bartender currently sucks. "But you probably already knew all this."

He sighs, looking to the backroom. "You know, in order to fulfil the drink promise, we might just have to find a package store. This is just ridiculous."

Emma Frost has posed:
    Emma sighs and looks to Jessica and rolls her eyes. For a telepath, people that TRY to read minds and faces are absolutely annoying and yet Emma stands up nearly the same time Jessica does and stares at the PI, "I'm one of the wealthiest women on the East Coast, and I just had myself outed by some weirdo that looks JUST like by attacking someone I had considered a friend." Emma says exaccerbatedly as she moves around behind the bar and looking at Nick she points at a few bottles until she finds the one he feels comfortable paying for and she reaches forward to place it next to her spot on the counter and then she reaches up and finishes pouring his drink. "Tell me what you would do in my shoes as it seems you already have an idea and I'm pretty much on my last leg before snapping into insanity."

Jessica Jones has posed:
"You think...?" Jessica scoffs at Nick's 1-800-Dial-A-Therapist advice, clearly disagreeing there, as she downs another drink. Then again, maybe someone who drinks as hard as her shouldn't be dissing other people's attempts at sensible advice, as she pours herself another drink, the Four Roses bottle down to about a quarter left.

"Hold up," Jessica notes at Emma's tone, "are you saying that wasn't even you...?" She looks very interested in Emma's story now, and at the same time, exasperated upon what she thinks she just heard. "Are you seriously telling me that someone wore your appearance to go public with that stunt to hurt you?"

Phantasm (Drago) has posed:
"Thanks." Nick mumurs to Emma as he inadvertently caused for someone worth more than whatever he could ever possibly cram into his bug out fund to serve him his drink. But then again he's buying some higher level alcohol than he'd normally purchase for himself so guess that balances things out.

The possibility of a shapeshifter causing the problems doesn't surprise him like it probably should. With the amount of people concentrated in New York, the presence of several of them in the area is not far fetched. The story has merit.

The musician looks to Jessica's alcohol consumption. Hmm good thing he didn't offer to pay for HER drinks.

Emma Frost has posed:
    "NO. That wasn't me." Emma says as she steps back from behind the bar and plops herself back down on the seat and sighs as she breaks the seal and opens the top and reaches for the nearest glass, uncaring of if it's the correct shot glass or some stein, Emma pours herself a drink. A heavy drink.

    She takes a sip and has to smack her lips a single time. "Damn."

    The White Queen looks back to Jess and frowns, "I wouldn't do anything like that to Rogue. Not ever. Now what that thing actually was... I don't know." She doesn't tell them that she has the body back in the basement at Xaviers.

Jessica Jones has posed:
"Lady...are you freakin' kidding me?" Jessica groans, reaching to press at the bridge of her nose as if to stop a headache, before doing something counter-intuitive and downing another glass. "This should be a no brainer...especially for you, with the means, and I assume the contacts?" Jessica offers with an arched brow, as if waiting for Emma to state the answer herself, like some teacher in elementary school trying to encourage a student to provide the answer without help.

Phantasm (Drago) has posed:
Nick takes his long delayed dramatic sip of the Guinnness. "So, what's your play?" Nick asks, "Public address or wait the story out of the press as it eventually gets replaced with an even bigger one?" New York. People are fickle. This will be old news in a week.

Daredevil has posed:
Enter Matt Murdock, lawyer, (secret) vigilante, giver of bar discounts. Dressed in his customary suit and tie, with the red shades and white cane, steps inside the bar, after giving the man outside in the suit a once over with his senses. Scanning the bar, he makes his way towards Jess, contriving to tap her stool with his cane, commenting, "Sorry to bother you is there an empty seat around here."

He knows it's Jess, but his blind man act demands he go through the whole show.

Emma Frost has posed:
    Emma isn't sure how she should respond to Jess. "It should be a no brainer, but how am I supposed to convince the public that 'Oh this person who looks JUST LIKE ME isn't me'? Especially after they've all seen footage of her fighting a former Avenger. I can't really sue someone I can't find for a deformation case..." Emma says with a frown and a shake of her head before taking another sip of her hard whiskey.

Jessica Jones has posed:
Jessica, who has not been talking to Nick to that point, assumes he was addressing Emma, and so doesn't say anything to him. But she does wait to see if Emma will take her prompt to snap out of her stupor like a proper rich lady like her should do. Of course if she doesn't, what Jessica was about to tell her, absolutely changed with the arrival of one Matt Murdock. "You're in luck, good sir," she answers Matt's question as they both know its nature, "there's one right here next to me. She even makes a show of helping Matt feel for the bar stool.

"Oh my god, how did you ever become so successful...?" An exasperated Jessica shakes her head at Emma, "but never fear, your answer is here," she snorts at her salesmanship, tapping Matt on the shoulder. "This here is Matt Murdock, Attorney at Law, and one of the best. He loves helping people who were wronged, and even though by my estimation you're not a typical client of his, nobody will do a better job clearing your name in this case...wanna hear her out, Matt? It's Emma Frost."

Phantasm (Drago) has posed:
Nick turns his head, already gesturing to the empty seat next to him before realizing the person asking would probably not noticing that. The arm lowers and the offer doesn't leave his lips as Jessica already offers the seat next to her.
He looks to the lawyer, some levels of recognition from long ago, but not fully placed. Life's been complicated. The name is definitely familiar. "Word of warning. Barkeep on duty is having a hissy fit."

Daredevil has posed:
Matt completes the little show, by exclaiming, surprised, "Jessica? Hey, fancy running into you here," the bad jokes were just part of selling it. "Thanks," he says as he's directed to the seat and settles onto it, calling out to the untended bar, "I'll have a glass of what she's having," he says nodding towards Jess before Nick warns him. "Huh. Thanks," he says to the stranger, "Jess, can you grab me something?" he asks, letting Jess choose which may be a dubious statement about his judgement.

A smile is given to Jess for the salespitch, "And here I thought Foggy was the firm's hype man, he's going to have to work hard to keep his title." Then he turns a bit more seriously, but still wearing a warm smile, "And I heard the recent news reports Miss Frost, if my firm can be of assistance we'd be happy to help."

Emma Frost has posed:
    Emma rolls her still brown eyes towards Jessica and Nick with a shake of her head, "Sorry... Mister Murdock, but I'm a seer not a believer," choice of words seems to be almost on purpose. "If you can actually help me with all this, then I'll be your number one client." Emma says, still sounding skeptical and as she looks towards Jessica, suddenly wondering if this was part of the PI's plan all along, and the musician gets another look before she lifts the bottle in appreciation towards Nick and puts it in front of him. "Thanks for the drinks and the ... hope." Emma says, reaching towards where her breast pocket would be if she was wearing her own clothes, but she's not... "If you both are as good as you say, you can find my contact info. I'll be waiting for your help." Emma says as she stands up and starts to march towards the door, leaving a rather large denomination of bill on the counter top as she just wants to be out of here.

Jessica Jones has posed:
"That's true, I don't always keep to the same bars," Jessica grins as she plays along with the act. "Hey, one good deed deserves another, and you've done me some good deeds, Murdock," Jess offers while pouring Matt a glass of Four Roses, which she slides along the counter until it bumps Matt's hand so he knows its there. Gotta keep up appearances.

"You know that Murdock has an office right here in Hell's Kitchen? He also is opening one in Mutant Town...for that matter, Alias Investigations is also in Hell's Kitchen. If you're serious about wanting help, you can lower yourself enough to come to one of our offices," Jessica offers, not keen of chasing after clients. But maybe Matt will, Jess never been that driven.

As Emma leaves, she sits down and pours the last of the bottle for herself, "can you believe it, Matt? She says it wasn't even her, and she's at a loss on what to do...I'm stunned."

Phantasm (Drago) has posed:
Nick head tilts, glancing to the bill before looking to Emma, Fishing out several bills he drops one on top of Emma's pile before dropping down money for his own drink. A glance to the door and the suit on the other side slows his movement a little. Oh right.

He quietly downs the remainder of his beer before standing up, sighing. "Evening." He says in fairwell as he ends up following after Emma briefly. The suit follows after him.

Daredevil has posed:
Matt definitely notices Emma's choice of words, quipping dryly, "I see what you did there," he says before reaching into a coat pocket and sliding a card over as Emma slides hers. "My number is on there if you need to get in touch," he says, doubling down on Jess' stance of you come to us, we don't come to you. There might have been a day where Nelson and Murdock had to chase clients, but it wasn't today, not with X-Corp as a client. Though Matt does add, "I would be very interested in hearing your side of the story."

When the others have left, Matt takes the offered glass and takes a solid gulp. "Really? I haven't seen the tape, it look like it's really her?" he asks Jess knowing if there was bullshit afoot Jess was going to be the one to spot it.

Jessica Jones has posed:
"Don't mind her, Matt, maybe she's a stuck up bitch who has it coming..." Jessica clearly had no patience to the kind of treatment Murdock and herself got from Emma, doing them a favor in thinking about accepting their help, and having them chasing her down? No thanks, Jess got other things to worry about. Besides, Emma just gave her the impression of the least capable business woman she ever met. Jerri would have eaten that kind of case as a snack. "Basically it looks like she attacked someone, I don't know who the fuck Rogue is, but she's the one she attacked..." she then stops a moment, and looks at Matt with a stunned expression, "wait a minute, isn't Rogue the person who met us at the school we did an 'undercover' job at?"

Daredevil has posed:
Matt nods, "Yeah, not going to go running after that one for sure," he says. "Besides I got a pretty huge case dropped on my desk a couple of days ago," he says as if he doesn't choose what cases he works. "Class action against the US government and Trask over the sentinels. Probably going to need an investigator on retainer, if you're game. I can pay you in really good scotch if you prefer."

Then that realization hits, "Shit you're right," he says about the name. "That was her name, the girl with the accent."

Jessica Jones has posed:
"Yeah, if she really wanted help, she'd have bothered...I think she's just playing us for attention," Jessica gives her two cent about this entire encounter. She does turn to listen in on the real offer made, "that's one I'd love to take, Trask is a first class S.O.B."

She nods at Matt's realization following her recollection, "see? Maybe we did miss out something about that school, either way, that case already been closed...but I wonder if Frost has anything to do with that school as well. You think it's even worth pursuiting? Nobody will pay for it anymore...besides, there's never any bad news coming from there."

Daredevil has posed:
"Yeah, who knows what those rich socialite types will do for a bit of attention," Not that Matt would know from dating one, though, Elektra wasn't exactly the typicall rich socialite. As for the Trask case, Matt says. "Great, Jess, I really appreciate it, this case is going to need some serious digging and well, that's what you do," he says before grinning. "Plus figured you'd enjoy throwing a few Trask or Friends of Humanity types around if they happened to get in your way."

Matt really never identified himself by his powers, they were just a thing he could do, but still, he had no love of bigots of any stripe.

"Yeah, I mean if this Frost is a mutant, and Rogue as well, there might be more to the place than we caught on our trip. I'd be game to look into it, though." Not like he didn't have a million things on his plate, but, he hated to leave a job unfinished.

Jessica Jones has posed:
Jessica nods at Matt's words, punctuating her distaste of their vapid lifestyle with a drink. "True that," she mutters under her breath, "all about publicity and social media hits." She smiles at Matt's quip about throwing some of those assholes around, "you know me so well," she says with a wink. "I'll think it over, specifically if that client ever comes back to me."

But who knows, maybe, just maybe, she'll get curious.

Daredevil has posed:
Matt nods,"Don't get me started, I had enough of all of that fake dating Kate," he says with a shake of his head. Thankfully with Elektra they both had their reasons to stay out of the public eye.

As to the job, he nods, "Hey, what we've been drinking buddies for how many years now? I figure I know you well enough to know who you'd like to throw around," he says, but of course by drinking buddies he means friends but none of them are really /that/ touchy feely to put it that way.

As to the Xavier mystery, he nods, "Let me know if she does," he says before taking a sip of his drink and shakes his head, "Can't believe I got our fake daughter's name wrong."

Jessica Jones has posed:
"Ugh...I don't know how you did, I would have gouged my eyes out," Jess says absolutely self aware of what she just said, smirking to herself, as she adds, "oh, you didn't really have the option, must have increased the suffering." Crass? Sure. Needless? Absolutely. But she drank a bottle or two, and she just pours herself the last of the Four Roses.

"Glad you remember it, I was going to remind you, but you beat me to it. Funny you made the mistake with April, and then I wound up on April O'Neil's show years later, almost like it was prophetic," Jess teases further.

Daredevil has posed:
Matt shakes his head at the gouge her eyes out crack, "Low blow," he chuckles, like he said he'd known Jess for years, if he couldn't take a few punches, he wouldn't have stuck it out this long.

He laughs, "Is it bad if I can't remember if April was the name we agreed on or the name I screwed up?" he asks her before nodding. "Definitely meant to be, still can't believe," he almost says I, "Daredevil's not your favourite superhero, where's your Hell's Kitchen loyalty." He says remembering that bit from the show.

Jessica Jones has posed:
"I'm sorry, that was mean, even for me..." Jessica relents, actually offering an apology for a change. Maybe she has been drinking a bit much tonight. Then again, it's not like the apology is heartfelt, it's spoken in a manner that suggests she's not sorry at all, and knows exactly what she said and to whom.

"April was yours, it was supposed to be Alice," Jessica reminds Matt, with a shake of her head. "Our fake daughter definitely has issues with her daddy." She laughs at that last bit, "so you have watched that episode, huh? Well, I'm sorry, but Doctor Strange was the one that..." she then slows down, peering at the bottle, suddenly unable to recall if Matt knows or not. Then she remembers the sword artifact Matt saw in her apartment. "Oh, you know, well...he enabled me to save the world, so there's that."

Daredevil has posed:
Matt snorts and gives Jessica's shoulder a little punch, "Right," he says to the apology with a grin.

"Right, Alice, was totally drawing a blank on that," Matt says, "Well can you blame her? I mean I may as well just start calling her 'you' or 'whatsyourname'," he chuckles before nodding about the episode. "To a certain value of watched, yeah." The explanation is met with a nod, "I remember, the scalpel, right? Still have that thing?"

Jessica Jones has posed:
Jessica actually laughs when Matt highlights for her how she missed out on another joke at his expense, by using a figure of speech at face value, "right...alcohol must be starting to affect me, maybe I should slow down," Jessica laughs at herself for once, before muttering, "I gave it back. Wong offered to let me keep it, but I thought it was a bad idea. I mean, all those books with heroes given magical items to complete a quest, end up with the item being returned...otherwise there's trouble, right?"

Daredevil has posed:
"I mean slowing down's a thought, but then I'm going to slow down so I don't feel like a lush and I don't think Josie's profit margins can take the hit, so we'll have to chance a few missed jabs," Matt grins, still laughing.

"Worried someone would ride up declare you the Queen of England and send you to find the Holy Grail?" he asks with a wry smirk. He pauses a beat before adding. "That would still not even be in the top three of weird shit we've seen," he remarks before looking at his glass. "And people wonder why we drink."

Jessica Jones has posed:
"You're such a sweetheart, Matt," Jessica laughs, while motioning for another drink, albeit this is where a line is drawn and she's only given a glass, not a whole bottle. But she's had enough to the point she doesn't even argue, "there's a fair compromise..."

"It did cross my mind as the logical next step after a Sorcerer Supreme enlisted me to save the world from a...what was it? Cosmic or External or Eternal Being? Whatever it was, it was fucked up," Jess concludes, before rising her glass to Matt's appropriate toast, "cheers!" She drinks without adding another comment.