3034/Finely Roasted

Finely Roasted
Date of Scene:	02 November 2017
Location:	Unknown
Synopsis:	Summary needed
Cast of Characters:	Wonder Woman, Shatterpoint, 87, 300

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Wonder Woman has posed:
It was a cold day in Manhattan, 31 degrees outside and the long winter seemed as though it would be a very chilly one.

A coffee house on the upper east side of Manhattan, it was filled with the casual afternoon crowds. The place had a nice soft ambience with dark natural earth tones to its decore.

The location of the store was across the street (and down a few doors) from the Themysciran Embassy, and because of this it was a rather popular place for Diana Prince to visit when she had a moment. The employees of the facility where always pleased to have her and they never made her pay for anything she bought.. though she put all the money into their tip jar so that probably helped too.

Diana was seated at a high table near the back corner of the store, she was wearing a deep red turtleneck that clung to her upper body and pair of black slacks on the lower half, her hair was tied up into a bun on the crown of her head and she had a pair of black rimmed glasses on mostly just for fashion than actual need of visual aide.

She quietly sat with a cup of coffee in front of her and an old fashioned leather bound book in front of her, it was a story about American pioneers blazing a trail westward through the harsh wilderness. A friend had INSISTED she read it.

Shatterpoint has posed:
    Caroline Ramsey made her way into the cafe, mostly on the insistence of the other patrons of the Hall that she should... Go out during the day. She's quite a stirring sight, appearing as if someone artsy had taken a photo of the woman in black and white, and then superimposed her onto the surrounding environment. Clad unassumingly in a black sweater and jeans, eyes hidden behind a pair of sunglasses that do nothing to obscure the otherwise porcelain of her features.

    Into the cafe she walks, somewhat unaware of anyone present, and, indeed, unaware of something that probably takes more tact than just showing up in the same place- but she's been touring the cities nearby, Gotham, Haven, New York and Manhattan. When you don't need to stop for sustenance or sleep, and never get tired, you can walk... Basically anywhere.

    Today, however, is an experiment. She has not had to eat, or drink... But on the same token, she has not even -tried-. Can she even still taste? She's about to find out.

    It takes her a moment to order, mostly because she doesn't actually -speak,- but also because prices are a little... Different now. That takes a little getting used to. Once she's ordered, she'll try and avoid anyone's gaze as she just tries to get to a seat, by herself.

Vorpal (87) has posed:
It hadn't been a good week, let's put it at that. Being broken up with is a level of suck in of its own, but then also realizing that you need to find a new job because it would be //terribly// awkward to work for your 'ex' is just sprinkles on top of the poop donut.

Vorpal doesn't bother to disguise himself with an illusion. Suddenly there's a Cheshire cat walking into the coffeeshop. He's wearing a sweater and jeans, and carrying a thin laptop under his right arm, looking like he could be just one of the many students floating around, freaking about their grades and not getting enough sleep. Except, well, Cheshire cat.

Not really noticing anyone right away due to the storm cloud that seems to be hanging over his head, he orders a croissant and a hot chocolate, and makes his way to the nearest table that sports a wall plug so he can plug his laptop in, open it, and begin job hunting.

His ears flatten against his head occasionally as he taps furiously away, filling in a couple of work search engines at the time.

Sassa (300) has posed:
    Sassa, was already here. She'd been here, and been attempting to be as incognito as possible the entire time. She sat in a corner table on the other sie of the store from Diana, dressed much the same with different colors. She wears a nice, grey, form hugging long sleeved turtleneck sweater and a pair of black, and very much tailored, boot cut slacks. As normal, the boto cut slacks are slide over top what are obviously a pair of black, real leather, boots. Boots designed to make the already tall woman appear even taller.

    For now, she's just people watching while sipping on hot coco and munching on a blueberry muffin.

Wonder Woman has posed:
Diana continued to just read her book with her elbows on the edge of the table and her hands/forearms together in front of her. She moved her right hand to turn the page and then glanced up to the counter. She took note of the Cheshire Cat man who she seemed to recognize from past events, and then to Caroline who... also seemed familiar, except quite a lot more familar.

Diana would slightly tilt her head in curiosity and she'd reach up to remove the glasses from her face and set them down between her book and tall coffee to look at the woman.

She'd not yet taken notice of Sassa from the night before in Central Park though. For now, her attention was Caroline... she was sure it was just her own imagination running away from her though... right?

Shatterpoint has posed:
    She had never looked so... Grim. Maybe, too, she was a little bit more muscular than she used to be. That is all somewhat inconsequential, as that's mostly hidden by the sweater. The issue with colloquial "dopplegangers" is that, while everyone on Earth seems to have an almost identical clone... There is nobody this identical. It might just be a coincidence, but she looks -exactly- like the woman Diana is thinking of. More than. It'd be impossible for someone to look this exact, because it stretches to the way she -moves-, too.

    It's like looking sixty years back in time. Like watching a ghost, or a nightmare. Diana's had that long to consider how things would have, or could have, gone differently. There's no telling how she'll react to this, really, which is why Caroline's arrival probably required a degree of greater tact than simply... Showing up at the same cafe. Someone ought to have warned her, but there was really no way to do that.

    She plucks up a cup of coffee that causes her face to twist. Its steam stops rising, a detail difficult to pick out among the rest of her. Quietly, she takes a sip or two, and steps over to a secluded table, not completely opposite Diana, but not close.

    All of it adds up, though. It -can't- be her, but it -has- to be.

Sassa (300) has posed:
    There's plenty of good things about not being noticed, one of them is being able to watch people without them knowing it. That and the whole outside perspective thing.

    Sassa can't help it now, she eyes Diana, Vorpal and Caroline and keeps her set of emerald greens on them. For now, there's nothing else to do but sit, sip on hot coco and munch on a muffin and wait and see if something goes badly, if she needs to interfear, or if it's best that she packs up and clears out. There's still a desire there to talk to Diana, but it can wait if need be.

Vorpal (87) has posed:
With the Holidays just around the corner, there are plenty of job openings that will be left by students heading home for the break.

Amost the totality of them are, of course, in the food service industry. He grumbles to himself and stares out the window, nursing his cup of cocoa. Even in a moment of desperation he wouldn't be able to cut it in the food industry: he would have a very hard time explaining where the red and orange hairs that would probably get everywhere came from. He'd have to wear a hairnet the length of his whole body.

"Botheration. Botheration with it all," he mutters to himself. Instead, he decides to focus on the sounds of the coffeeshop. Having ehnahced hearing meant that he could just lose himself in the sounds, the conversations, the clinking of cutlery. It wasn't eavesdropping, you'd have to pay attention to what people were *saying* for that to happen. It was more like an ambiental meditation. White noise to take your mind off whatever it is your mind needs to be off off.

Wonder Woman has posed:
Diana would rise up from her seat and she'd move right over to the table that the other woman who'd drawn her attention sat down at.

It might seem to come out of no where, but the Princess would slip into the seat across from her. "Caroline?" Diana would ask, her voice not low enough to keep it from reaching the ears of both Sassa and Vorpal. "It is me, Diana." She said, putting her left hand against her chest bneeath her collarbone while her other reached out across the table to make contact with Caroline herself.

"You are... here!" She'd say then, positive that the woman that she'd lost contact with over half a century ago was suddenly, here, in the same little coffee shop with her.

Its entirely likely that this odd exchange might raise more than a few eyebrows within the quiet cafe.

Shatterpoint has posed:
    On contact, the woman is cold. That is something to consider when it's 31 degrees outside. Her coffee has gone cold just fom the touch of her hand. It's also pretty strange that she's got her sunglasses on inside, but that could just be the sign of someone who was out too late, or had a fun evening. Her expression remains neutral, though at the contact, and the... Something-near-reintroduction, she seems a little, visibly, troubled. Behind the glasses, she looks down and to the side, at the hand touching hers. There is silence.

    After all too long of this silence, she speaks. What comes out of her mouth is the stuff of horror movies and nightmares. It's something like a hoarse rasp, like the death rattle of a woman, twisted into words, that lingers and hitches on specific sounds and syllables. It sounds otherworldly. It sounds like Death.

    "You are... Confused. You have me confused, for someone else." It's easy to believe, admittedly. The woman Diana knew sacrificed herself to keep Earth's location out of Darkseid's grasp. The last thing Diana saw was the Boom Tube closing, with Caroline on the other side. Nobody could be alive on that planet for that long... But the timing is suspicious. The heroes of Earth fought off the forces of Apokolips, and Darkseid himself.

    Perhaps, this coincidence is too suspicious. That still raises the question of how she got here- or, in fact, what she even is.

Vorpal (87) has posed:
Normally, the Cheshire cat wouldn't pay attention to what was being said. That's a violation of privacy. But the *sound* of that voice brings up a horrible existential dread. Suddenly he felt as uneasy as a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs, that was a voice that Marilyn Manson would want to sample.

He snaps out of his reverie and, very discreetly, tries to find the source of that höllischestimme. Because that was a sound you could only describe in German.

Sassa (300) has posed:
    Seems like it's best for Sassa to take her leave, there's soemthing going on between Diana and this other, woman. What ever she is, so, maybe another time to talk will present it self. She'll make her way outside and be near by should anything go wrong.

Wonder Woman has posed:
Diana would draw her hand back when that voice, that wretched voice, made itself heard. She sat back in her cafe chair as well and her expression changed... flattened. She stared at Caroline for a lingering moment before Diana's eyes went over to watch Sassa leave and then over to where Vorpal was seated not far away, she knew that others in the cafe had heard it as well... and whether it was true or not, she didn't want to make a scene here.

Diana would show Caroline a flashed and faint smile. "My mistake." She told her in her Greek accented voice. "My sincerest apologies."

With that said, Diana would move to rise to her feet again, smoothing out her slacks and then pushing the chair she'd sat down in back beneath the table. She'd turn back toward her own table to retrieve her things... she felt it was time to go, return to the Embassy.

Shatterpoint has posed:
    Caroline watched this expression change with a neutral look of her own. She wasn't going to argue with it- she wanted this to go as smoothly as it could, and... Well, at this point, that was indeed as smoothly as it was going to go. She didn't speak anymore, instead just acknowledging what Diana said with a polite nod. She knew that speaking was probably the worst thing for her to do, in this instance.

    When Diana finishes collecting her things, her earpiece and her phone will light up with a somewhat delayed notification, about a new resident in the Hall of Justice. It's the name that's important. What Diana does with that information is up to her, though it essentially reinforces all of what she's taken in.

    Whether the woman who had made such a distinct, horrid noise one might call a "voice" if their understanding of the word was loose had noticed Vorpal looking for her was difficult to tell. She's still wearing her sunglasses. As a result, he can sneak up on her all he likes- but the only way to tell if she realizes he's coming is to try and -do- something. She doesn't look like she's going to speak.

Vorpal (87) has posed:
He can't stand it. He just can't stand it. To ask him NOT to say or ask something... it was inhumane. His curiosity couldn't last that long.

"I have a friend who sings death metal, too," he says as a manner of ice-breaker, walking up to her general area since he wants a refill on his hot cocoa anyways, "Got the nodules, too," he says, nodding.

Wonder Woman has posed:
Diana would pause in the spot where Vorpal was headed, to look down at her phone and read the message that just came across it while holding onto her glasses and her book (Clark was right about those glasses, they really do help hide your appearance!).

Once she saw the message she looked back over at Caroline and knew that it was her... but she had said otherwise. Diana frowned then.

At least until Vorpal spoke, then she looked to the Cheshire and at first wasn't sure who he was speaking to.

"The... 'nodules'?" Diana asked, a confused look on her face as she spoke to him now that they were standing aside one another.

Shatterpoint has posed:
    For the record, Caroline has been on an impossibly hellish world of combat and struggle for the past sixty years. Were it not for some level of detachment from the land of the living, she would be experiencing an extreme degree of culture shock at every passing moment, especially with the price and variety of coffee.

    Simply put, she doesn't even know what death metal -is.- It was invented twenty years after she was dropped into the nightmarescape that is the fighting pits of Apokolips. This is why her reaction is, as it were, poignant. Really, it's the same sort of reaction anyone ought to give to basically anything Vorpal does. It's just one word.

    "What."

    It's not pleasant to hear, but the fact that it's half-whispered means that it isn't as horrid to hear as the previous sentence. Speaking of which... It is likely that she was trying to spare Diana... Something. Exactly what, can't really be addressed.

    Diana would have to pry.

Vorpal (87) has posed:
The Cheshire grins. Something that he's very good at. "Nodules. You know. In your vocal cords? Injuries you get from screaming and stuff. Like singing death metal."

He's used to getting 'What'ted. He just rolls with it, really.

"I could give you the name of the doctor he sees. He can have that fixed in no time."

The cat nods in Diana's direction, his answer for her as much as for Caroline. Even if Caroline didn't exactly need that answer, and didn't ask that particular question.

Wonder Woman has posed:
Diana couldn't press the subject with Caroline here, it goes against her idea of keeping the public safe and happy, this place had a lot of customers in it and she wasn't going to turn the place into another bastion of civilians afraid for their lives. That happened enough in this power inflated world they dwelled within.

Plus... if Diana had just gotten this text and it was accurate... Caroline would come to her.

Diana showed a smile to Vorpal. "My apologies, I misunderstood." She said to him then. "If you will excuse me... I need to make a call." Her expression fell serious then as she turned and moved toward the exit, giving one more glance back toward Caroline as she went, this was all far too odd and she needed to go back to the Hall in Metropolis to discover some truth, if in any measure.

Shatterpoint has posed:
    There is another silence, as Caroline stares at Vorpal through her glasses. Really, there's only one answer to give Vorpal to any of this. It's also dreadfully simple- as anything more than a one-word response is going to simply egg the cat on, to be sure.

    "No."

    Short and sweet, and containing all the relevant information he needs to understand that she does not necessarily require that Doctor's services. After all, there would need to be a doctor that could repair a throat that was mostly scar tissue, and said doctor would need to be able to operate on beings physically tough enough to be punched through the heart of a dark star. That basically complicates a lot of things.

    She slowly moves to pull herself to a stand, and then, shortly after Diana, moves for the door. She is almost certain Vorpal will follow her, but it's the only gambit she, frankly, has.

Vorpal (87) has posed:
Vorpal watches the woman walk out and stands there, passing the empty cup from one hand to another. He's aware of eyes on him, but then again people always stare at him when he's out and about without his illusion on. Liza Minelli was wrong- life wasn't a cabaret, it was a carnival, and he was stuck in the freak show.

"Good going, Vorpal. That was as helpful as a screen door on a submarine."

He tosses the cup into the trash bin and quickly gathers his laptop. As he steps out into the street he gets a blast of Autumn chills and a face-full of tardy fallen leaves.

"Bother all of this," he grumbles and steps forward into a Rabbit Hole that appears, showing a tropical scene on the other side of ocean-lapped beaches and blazing sun. As far as he was concerned, the world could go to hell for all he cared.

He was going to Aruba. And to get properly and finely roasted.