14253/DP Online: KiKiLuvs

DP Online: KiKiLuvs
Date of Scene:	02 April 2022
Location:	Food Court - LexCorp Tower
Synopsis:	Clark interviews Nikki for an online article about e-sports and eats burgers.
Cast of Characters:	Superman, Nikki Hawkins

---

Superman has posed:
The printing press has long been broken beneath the weight of digital distribution; in these cutthroat times, traditional media has had to evolve, and now even the great papers of old have a large online presence. The Daily Planet is no different -- while the paper itself remains a classic staple, DP Online has no lack of articles and editorials on current events, random social issues, and opinion pieces devoted to every print-worthy opinion you can imagine. So it is that, at the suggestion of one of his younger friends, Clark Kent has dipped his toes into the world of online gaming; it's a break from the more intense, deep-diving articles the journalist usually tackles.

It began as an email in Nikki's inbox from one clarkkent@dailyplanet.com. Subject: Interview Request.

Click, click...

Hi, Nikki (KiKiLuvs). This is Clark Kent with the Daily Planet. I've been looking into online gaming recently, and was wondering if you'd like to talk about the hobby, your history with it, etc? We could handle it online, but if you're near Metropolis and would like a free lunch, you can meet me at Dino-Burger, on the second floor of the food court at Lex Corp. If...

The message continues, there was a little bit of a back and forth, and the date was scheduled, which brings us to now:

The court is awash in a tide of humanity, the twenty-odd restaurants and eateries flush with business. The central court is packed with diners and the hum of conversation, revolving around the constants of life in a city -- work, crime, hobbies, and Superman, the ever-present icon of heroism. Earlier in the day, the gossip says, he sniffed out a gas leak in a Suicide Slums tenement building, and managed to evacuate the resident. Oh, and did you see the news, last week he saved that plane when its engine blue at thirty-two thousand feet. What a hero, that Superman. What a dream!

.... Nikki, of course, is not meeting Superman. Today, she's to meet with one Clark Kent: slumped, slouching, eyes murky beneath thick-rimmed glasses, his suit wrinkled and poorly fit, his jacket a little too big. He's built like a linebacker, but has none of the charisma an athlete normally does: for all his size and obvious muscularity, the bull's as meek as a mouse, self-conscious and awkward. He's waiting by a tall frond and checking his watch, a satchel slung over one shoulder.

"Oh, by all means, sir, go ahead," he says, lifting his head and snapping out of his reverie. An older man just asked if he was waiting in line. "I'm just waiting for someone, I'm in no rush."

Nikki Hawkins has posed:
Nikki's online presence is a bit different than her real one. For one, her brain can work and be grammatically correct when she's writing, and so her emails would have all seemed normal. The bundle of energy can be redirected when she's hyper-focused on something and that's who Clark Kent met via email.

In person, she's a bubbly young adult who looks like she just passed the drinking age a month ago. Her hair is down to her shoulders and dyed a turquoise blue. Of course, this is an interview, and so she wears her KiKiLuvs merch, which is an animated drawing of her giving a piece sign while popping out of the 'O' in 'Heroes' which is written across her shirt and she's 'cosplaying' D.Va. For once, however, she is without her robot companion - because when she's doing anything in the professional capacity he often times gets left at home so questions focus where they're supposed to be. Either way, she approaches the man waiting and checking his watch, tilting her head in such a way while she comes closer. "Clark? Clark Kent? Nikki is Nikki."

Superman has posed:
Clark's aware of Nikki's presence long before she might think. The incognito Kryptonian is the Panopticon personified; there is no hiding from ears that hear every beating heart in the mall, from telescopic eyes that can pierce matter with mere force of will, from a nose so refined it can track a human by scent through crowds and a tongue so refined it can taste particles of perspiration in the air like flavored cologne. He is inescapable; so it is that, as she rides an escalator up and turns and follows the second floor to the front of Dino-Burger, she arrives at the ideal time to see clumsy Clark Kent look around for her, one hand shading his eyes, see her, and lurch forward --

Only to step on his own loosened shoelace and suddenly arrest his own momentum, unbalancing himself and near topple. He catches himself with a hand on the lip of the barrier of the second floor, clearing his throat and offering a lopsided smile. "Ah.. ? Oh! Yes, Miss Hawkins, it's a pleasure to meet you." He offers a hand. It's a huge hand, all of him is huge, but he seems smaller than he really is; where some swell with exuberance and force of presence, Clark folds in. "Thanks for coming. We'll order and then find a seat, is that alright? It's on me."

Nikki Hawkins has posed:
Nikki wouldn't know all these things about the Man of Steel, who is currently hiding under an oversized suit and clumsy demeanor. When Clark trips on himself, she almost goes to catch him before noticing he catches himself so her own momentum stops and she stands there looking him over to see if he's alright. At the hand offering, she smiles and takes it in a firm shake. "Nikki is happy to meet Mister Clark. Nikki's done some reading of Clark's articles in the Daily Planet. She likes his style. It's really good, so she's happy to do this for him." She says all this and then glances to the food place before looking back to him. "It's alright. Nikki's never been here before though. Has Clark? Is there anything he would recommend?"

Superman has posed:
Clark's got a gift for the written word -- he might not be as prestigious as Lois Lane, but his articles have won awards. He covers humanitarian efforts and superheroism most often; he likes to bring hope to the world. If Nikki has looked him up, she'll have found his writing stylish, witty, and memorable...

... and so, in a way, he too is different from how his online presence made him seem.

All the same, he comes across harmless, plain. His lopsided smile widens and his left cheek dimples and his grip is surprisingly delicate when she shakes it. When it becomes clear her speech quirk is persistent and not a one-time thing, his brow furrows and his eyes narrow in confusion. "Is that, ah, a gamer thing, Miss Hawkins?" He shakes his head. "Well, it's fine. I come here sometimes for lunch. I really recommend the 4B - the Big Barbe-Bronto Burger. Two quarter-pound beef patties, drizzled in a smoky barbeque sauce with onion rings and melted swiss. Though, erm, you might want the 3B -- the Barbe-Bronto Burger."

He gestures at her slighter figure. She doesn't look like she could handle that much meat.

"I can order, if you'd like to go find us a seat? I'll be right there. I'd hate to make you stand here."

Nikki Hawkins has posed:
"Is...what a gamer thing, Mister Clark? Nikki doesn't have an idea what he's talking about..." While Nikki is keenly aware of her speech quirk, and it's something that garners a lot of attention, she doesn't like to keep attention on it. As Clark mentions his recommendations, she makes a little bit of a face. "Nikki just wants a double cheeseburger with extra pickles and mayo but nothing else..." She pauses. "And a side of onion rings if they have them, or fries if not. Oh, and a soda. Like pepsi? Or do they have shakes. She could have a chocolate shake?" Then she flushes and shuffles her feet. "If that seems like a lot to him, she can pay for herself, of course. Or for both..." Then she beams a little smile. "Can go find us a seat sure! She'll see you in a few minutes..."

That gesture to her concerning her frame was completely lost in context. She has no idea what he was referring to aside from maybe just motioning to the tables in the main courtyard.

Then she's gone, turned and walking away to do just that. Find a table. Woman on a mission she is! Though she'll probably find one off to the side and not surrounded by people. Except a small group surrounds her after a moment asking for autographs - it's the shirt after all. Brings them in every time.

Superman has posed:
As a crowd of admirers forms around Nikki, Clark busies himself with the orders. "I'd like a 4B with extra cheese, a double cheeseburger with extra pickles and only mayo, nothing else, a side of large onion rings, and two large chocolate milkshakes, please."

"Alright, we'll call you when it's ready. That comes out to..."

It's a few minutes of persistent pestering later before Clark returns. One of the fans has been trying to lay the moves down on Nikki. He's a handsome enough dirty-blond fella, but his flirtation technique leaves much to be desired; it largely amounts to mentioning that D.Va is hot, and asking if she has an Onlyfans.

"You've got the looks for it," he mentions, looking her up and down like a piece of meat. "You could make way more money with some lewd modeling than on e-sports, anyway. If you want, I could -- ow, watch where you're going, you fuckin' gorilla, jesus!"

Clark has smacked into the young man in his rush to get to the table, squeezing through people and accidentally barreling into him; the size disparity alone is enough to knock him back a few steps and right down onto his ass with a loud thud. The reporter, for his part, goes wide-eyed, rushing to put all the food down on the table before Nikki and reach a hand out to the would-be Lothario. "Gosh, I'm sorry, man, I had all that food and I didn't see you there. Here, let me help you up. Uh, was I interrupting something, Nikki?"

He looks to her, leaving the ball in her court. He doesn't actually know if this guy was a pest or not, after all.

Nikki Hawkins has posed:
Nikki shakes her head at the one trying to suggest that she should do lewd modeling, especially on OnlyFans. She's about to even begin answering him when Clark sort of barrels into the man and knocks him onto his ass. This actually causes Nikki to giggle some before she looks up at Clark and shakes her head.

"He was asking if Nikki had an OnlyFans, which she does not. He's being a bit more forward than what Nikki appreciates. So, no, Clark isn't interrupting anything." Then she glances to the man that Clark likely helps up. "Thanks for the support though!" She adds in before glancing to the table where Clark put down their food.

She does end up shffling her feet and then quickly using the distraction that is Clark's presence to hurry up and sit at the table.

Superman has posed:
"What the heck is an OnlyFans?" Clark asks, grasping the young man by the forearm and pulling him to his feet. "Oh, is that an e-sports thing?" Mild-mannered Clark proceeds to dust the younger man off, brushing the shoulders of his jacket. "Sorry again about that. But hey, if you all don't mind now, we'd like to eat. Got to get through this interview before the burgers get cold!" He flashes the group a grin, and then Nikki's chiming in dismissing the group.

"Oh, er... yeah, you have a nice time. You should think about it, though." The kid scowls and gives Clark a dirty look, but he's not willing to pick a fight with a man that even slouched has three inches and a hundred pounds on him. The crowd dissipates, and Clark settles down into this corner booth, partially obscured by a large plant with wide, leaf-shaped fronds. The court offers little privacy, but this is as close as anyone's likely to get to being alone. He squeezes into his seat and plucks out a napkin, folding it into the collar of his suit like a bib.

He's a very proper sort, you see.

"Alright. Double cheeseburger, extra pickles, mayo, nothing else. Onion rings. Chocolate shake."

Nikki Hawkins has posed:
"OnlyFans is a website where people like Nikki who have an online presence of sorts can go and...post pictures and videos of themselves naked. Or other things. Nikki doesn't do that. Nikki just plays tournaments or matches. But she finds that people can be...weird." She explains this after they've sat at the booth and he's sorted out their food. "Thanks for this. She really appreciates it."

Though not the proper sort, really, she does make sure she has a few napkins nearby and then gives a smile.

There's also a method she apparently has as she takes the top off her cheeseburger and arranges the pickles in a certain way - to make sure they're covering all the burger. This is why she asks for extra cause most places only give you a couple. Literally! This place seems to have done her well with the pickles, but she still has to make sure. "Are they sharing the onion rings? Just want to make sure. Anyway, thanks for this. Nikki will now answer...well most of your questions perhaps..."

Superman has posed:
Clark's mid-bite into his double-decker delight when Nikki explains the pornographic purpose behind the website. He near spit-takes and chokes on the burger, balling his hand into a fist and smacking his chest with a loud cough. After a moment, he manages to swallow it down, clearing his throat with a long slurp from his own chocolate milkshake. The cold, creamy shake soothes his inflamed throat, clearing away any remnants of his near-suffocation and tragic demise. All that remains is a dollop of barbeque sauce on his cheek.

"Oh, erm, that's nice," he replies. "I mean, I suppose that is what people do these days, and I try not to judge. I think I'd be a bit embarrassed, I never look good in photos, but... well, no one wants to see reporters taking it all off, anyway! We're not like firemen, everyone loves firemen." His cheeks are faintly blushing as he stammers in obvious awkward nervousness. He forces a chuckle through his strained, grimacing grin and lets silence reign for a long moment.

After she breaks the quiet with talk of onion rings, he waves his hand. "They're yours," he dismisses. "A burger and a shake is good enough for me." Though he does eye them with barely-concealed want. Truth is, he'd forgotten to order more, listening to the crowd talking with Nikki as he was. Then those eyes shift and flow over the girl's figure and outfit, arousing in his mind the phantom of a name that dances on the tip of his tongue. "That's cosplay, isn't it? Of, uh... Dove?"

Nikki Hawkins has posed:
"Oh gosh, is Clark okay?" Nikki asks as he near chokes on the burger, trying to dislodge it and all that. Swallowing it down with a couple drinks of shake. Nikki bites on her lower lip just a bit before she tilts her head and then points. "He has a little bit...here...on the cheek." She offers this, trying to mirror where the spot is on him by pointing to her own cheek.

"Nikki just isn't...she's not..." There's a shake of her head there and then she takes a breath. She's very inexperienced, and even though she knows of things, it doesn't mean she knows the first thing of anything about all that stuff on or offline. So she's now going to try dodging the subject altogether and this begins with onion rings. "Oh, please, that's a large order and Nikki thinks they could share them. She has plenty with the burger and shake too!" Then she smiles.

When he talks about her shirt, she looks down and then nods. "Yeah! Dee-Vah. She's a range fighter...and what is called a Main for Nikki. Which means she's the one Nikki plays most often and is really good at playing her. So she became Nikki's icon."

Superman has posed:
Clark holds up a hand and nods. "I'm fine, just a bit of burger went down wrong," he explains. He then follows her movements and watches her poke her own cheek. There's a moment of confusion, and then he processes her words, silently mouthing 'ohhh!' and dabbing at his cheek with another napkin. "Thank you," he tells her, balling the little bit of paper up in his fist. "The best burgers are messy burgers. No denying it."

At her apparent discomfort with the OnlyFans subject matter, the mild-mannered reporter's gaze lingers a moment and then turns sympathetic. "No, hey, I get it. That guy was a real jerk coming at you like that. Between you and me, I'm glad I bumped into him." He flashes another half-smile and then plucks an onion ring from the now-shared bowl, ripping it in half with his teeth. "Dee-Vah. Alright. By main, you mean a main character? Your favorite? Good, good. Everyone's got favorites. What is it you like about her?"

Nikki Hawkins has posed:
"Nikki doesn't think Clark could have timed that more perfectly. She doesn't know if it really was an accident or if he maybe noticed that she wasn't comfortable. Either way, thank you." This is offered after a moment, having smiled when he found the sauce on his cheek and was able to clean it off. She actually takes a moment to take a bite of her burger while he sums up what she just said, a napkin picked up to wipe at her own lips because even simple burgers can be a bit messy.

"D.Va's a ranged fighter meaning Nikki can stay back and help set up strategical push throughs. She also has some pretty awesome skills like barrier, or she can even pull enemies away from her allies and just maim them good. She also starts out in a mech suit but can end up on her own two feet so it's kinda like she has extended playability..." A grin. "She was hard to figure out at first but...Nikki eventually cracked it and hasn't looked back really."

Superman has posed:
"I believe in providence," Clark mentions, shifting in his seat to get more comfortable. For all his slouched meekness, on a physical level he remains quite large: his hands are huge and veined, his forearms thick with muscle, his back and shoulders mountainous; even his thighs are pretty solid, to say nothing of his rear end. The end result is that, beneath that tan jacket, he's squashed rather uncomfortably into this corner booth. His knees hit the table's underside and the whole of him is pinched. There's a little thump as, in his shift, his knee bumps it once more. "I didn't plan it, but someone did, if he was making you so uncomfortable. It doesn't matter how pretty you are, no one ought to come up to you and bombard you with questions like that. It's just plain inappropriate."

He nods firmly, his voice thick with good country boy conviction.

"So she's more about thinking things through and protecting her teammates? That's awfully heroic of her, I think. I've got a good idea of what you play, now -- mind talking a bit about your history with gaming? How long has it been an interest of yours?"

Nikki Hawkins has posed:
Nikki just nods her head to that, and to the rest of what he says regarding the one who was making her uncomfortable. She'd much rather just let that topic sort of lie where it is and not be brought up again. Though she does like the whole homely hero type thing, defending the honor of the innocent. All with a country acccent and large frame.

She focuses more on the next question that Clark presents her for the whole interview he's doing for the article and smiles. "Oh, Nikki's been playing for... about ten years now? Though she started out as a casual gamer since she was still in school and such...but after she graduated...she was able to curb more towards the professional side. Got signed onto a team a couple years ago and...hasn't looked back since really." A pause. "...She got into it mostly because she didn't have many friends at school. People made fun of her alot...for obvious reasons...so she turned to gaming as an outlet." Another bite of her burger taken chased by a pull or two of shake.

Superman has posed:
Clark detects Nikki's discomfort with the topic through her body language and silence; after she nods, he's content to let the subject fade into oblivion, resisting any further urges to play the white knight. Instead, the man quietly listens as she speaks, though mistake not his silence for inattentiveness -- the full weight of Kent's focus is on the girl, nodding where he should nod, making little noises of acknowledgment. "So it's been a life-long hobby, more or less," he declares as she takes a bite and a drink, committing these details to memory. "I suppose you need to have that sort of love of something to get real good at it, huh? No one's going to master the piano if they hate playing piano, after all."

His gaze turns sympathetic once more, roaming over her as she alludes to her past. "I don't think there's anything about you that should be made fun of," he remarks, tone gentle. "I reckon it's just plain impressive to be as good at something as you are. Someone who can put their all into their passions, and really commit one hundred percent to a dream, whatever that dream is -- that's respectable, Nikki. I hope you know that. But now, what about the competitive aspect? I heard..."

The conversation will carry on for some time, Clark grilling her on her experience with professional gaming, her thoughts on it as a sport, and various other things, ending with an exchange of numbers (emails are already known) in the event further contact needs to be made.