9121/There's Some 'Splainin' To Do!

There's Some 'Splainin' To Do!
Date of Scene:	08 September 2019
Location:	Felicia's Home - Tribeca, Manhattan
Synopsis:	Felicia and Stephen exchange gossip. Stephen ends up needing a Vicodin, Felicia a hard drink.
Cast of Characters:	Black Cat, Doctor Strange

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Black Cat has posed:
It's a lazy Sunday in the Hardy household. 'Lazy' being defined as Felicia was definitely NOT out of bed anytime before noon and spent her early afternoon, post-coffee, working out in the small corner-room dedicated to her exercise equipment. A basic set-up, with machinery of highest compact quality, fills the airy, window-walled room which looks upon the grounds of her backyard. All of the windows are privacy-lined, of course, so no one gets to watch the Cat at work.

At least, from the outside.

At this point, she's in her cooldown phase. Yoga-like stretches are the task at hand and showcase her flexibility in a way very few things do. Her cheeks are pinked with health and her eyes serene as she considers the middle distance beyond the windows in her current stretch. 'Upwards-facing Dog', seal-like in display, has her lifting her stomach beyond the mat with her legs flat, elbows locked straight, and it's positively indulgent by her expression. A little shake of her head gets a stray wisp of hair back over her shoulder in its pony-tail and off from falling forward on her hot-pink sports-bra. Black leggings clinging to just along the meridian of her hip-bones leave feet bare.

This is where Stephen will find her if he comes searching.

Doctor Strange has posed:
    Stephen steps into the room without knocking prior and spots Felicia on the ground doing upwards-facing dog. He doesn't say anything as he enters and walks towards Felicia to sit down next to her and then, he reaches out to brush her hair out of her face. "Always stretching aren't you?" Stephen asks as he just sits down cross legged and releases the deep breath he's been holding in.

    Stephen looks awful, he has new bruises on his arms and is barely able to keep his eyes for the briefest moment as he sits down next to Felicia.

Black Cat has posed:
"Gotta keep limber if I'm going to run the rooftops," the young woman replies in a peaceful murmur. With her eyes shut, she leans into the brief touch of the Doctor's fingertips. The gut-deep sigh, however, is enough to make her glance over, her vision a sliver. That doesn't last long. Her jade-green irises get fully-displayed.

"Christ on a cracker, Copperfield, what happened?" With care, she drops to her stomach briefly and then swings her legs in to tuck her feet beneath herself as she rotates, hands moving to take up one of Stephen's arms with gentle caution. Now kneeling, she hisses at the bruises and gives him a sympathetic look. "Alright. Whose ass do I need to go beat?" It's a joke by the forced lightness of tone.

Mostly...mostly a joke.

Nobody puts Stephen in the corner -- or gives him contusions.

Doctor Strange has posed:
    "Well, I fought a man with four metal limbs and a bad case of wanting to be a crime boss. He seemed to recognize me from my surgery days." Stephen says as he sits lotus style and then laces his fingers over his lap as he takes another labored breath and continues his story. "Then I opened a hole in the floor and ran into a handful of vampires being chased by some vampire killer, who I bargained with to save their souls by turning them back into humans."

    Stephen takes another pause to catch his breath and lowers his chin against his chest for a brief moment. "So then I had to speak to some... people about the possibility of a cure for vampirism." To which Strange shakes his head weakly. "Not possible it seems, so I simply removed them from the earth where they can live the rest of their dangerous lives away from humans at least."

    As he speaks, Stephen seems to be releasing some mental energy and the holds the day had on him, and yet he's still bruised. "I then had to help Wanda as she was turned into a doll by her father, who I'm still not sure was her father, but she said he was so I left. After being attacked by furniture and that working with the Avengers can be a lot more problematic than anyone might expect." Strange notes before he looks to Felicia and frowns. "But seeing you like a beached seal, makes me feel like it's all worth it."

Black Cat has posed:
Felicia brings his hand to interlace fingers with her own, gingerly, and to settle partially in her lap. She winces appropriately at his seemingly unending litany of problems tossed rudely into his daily intinerary. Still, his last comment has her snort-laughing indelicately once.

"A beached seal. Thanks." She still grins, her lips naturally pink today rather than cherry-red. It takes nothing from her beauty; it rounds it out into something gentler rather than sharp and bright, weaponized like a blade. "That...is hell of a run, Stephen." A kiss is pressed to his knuckles before she drops them into her lap once more. "I'd be equally as bruised if someone hit me with a table though, so don't feel bad if you haven't learned to duck yet." More teasing, trying to lift his spirits.

"You know what's great though? You saved people. You did." Her eyes look between his, those irises of indeterminable color even after all the time they've been a pair. "Vampires...yikes," she adds, now looking concerned. "Like, real vampires? For real?"

A beat. "...I bet they leave the worst hickies."

Doctor Strange has posed:
    "I wasn't hit with a table, I had a futon, an ottoman, and a chair and a few other pieces of furniture were animated and then attacked me. I wasn't hit with a table, I was hit by a table." Stephen takes another sharp breath as his hand is held onto by Felicia's the doctor stops talking with a deep sharp breath. His fingers are purple and slightly yellow from his injuries and then he frowns as he was trying to hold that in.

    "Oh, yeah, real vampires, real blood and real danger." Stephen says as he closes his eyes for several reasons, joy, pain, fear, and the tingle of happiness. "Felicia, vampire puns... I thought you were better than that." Stephen says, slowly turning his head in her direction and lifting a single eyebrow.

Black Cat has posed:
"Little did we know that I'm actually a //very// terrible person, with very terrible puns at my disposal," the Cat deadpans in retort to the lifted eyebrow. Her smile softens. "Given you got attacked by furniture, and I'm your doctor now: you either need some painkillers, some ice bags, a stiff drink, or any combination of those things. The best part is my office is fully-stocked."

Rising to her feet gracefully, Felicia encourages him to join her without tugging on him and unintentionally causing more winces on his part. "Come on, to the kitchen. Anything else you can think of before I tell you about my news?" Snagging the small towel she brought in, the thief dabs at her temples and across her face and then slings it around her neck before she saunters from the workout room.

Much saunter. What a view.

Doctor Strange has posed:
    "There is something going on with Loki, he's pulling magic from the earth for some reason, but ... I'm not sure." Stephen says with a frown as he's not sure what else to report on. He's not able to confront Loki, so his current mindset is, why bother. Strange stands up at Felicia's subtle tug and he looks down at her for a moment before limping behind her and towards the kitchen.

    "Okay, that's all I have, please, tell me about your day Blondie." Stephen says, trying a nickname on for size as he's always calling him Copperfield, and yet he just calls her, well, her name. Only way to grow is to try something new.

Black Cat has posed:
Paused in the kitchen doorway, the thief considers the nickname. "...I'll take it -- from you," she points out with a finger towards Stephen before she smiles to herself. She gets herself a glass of water. Another pint-glass is brought out and waggled at Stephen.

"You want anything hard? Because my news is about that tricksy bastard," she says on a sigh, her lips then pulling flat in displeasure.

Doctor Strange has posed:
    "I'll take whatever you give me." Stephen says, his hand going out to Felicia as he prepares to pick her up out of the door way and move her out of the way of his walking, as he's already decided that where he stops is where he'll be until the next sunrise. "If it's about Loki, either straight water, or the hardest liquor you have. I need to be clear minded or beyond this plane of existence in order to deal with him in any way."

    Stephen finds a spot at the kitched table and yet he leans against the counter top and leans heavily on his elbows, drawing another seething wince from his clenched teeth.

Black Cat has posed:
"Hrm." Felicia eyes the amount of pain on display and shakes her head. The ambient light gleams from her platinum-blonde hair as she then pulls out a small drawer hidden //beneath// another one. Inside: the good painkillers. "Water and a Vicodin. I'll carry you to the bed if you fall asleep at the table."

This she delivers to him, the glass brimming with cold, clear water and the pill settled in her palm. "So...it makes sense now, if he's drawing magic from the earth. Rude," the Cat mutters with a frown at Stephen's collarbones. She looks back up to his face. "He's trying to rebuild Asgard. I guess that's different than New Asgard, that place over in Europe."

What the Cat doesn't know is that Asgard itself is an entire //world//.

Doctor Strange has posed:
    Stephen nearly falls off the counter top at the news. "He's doing what?!" Stephens asks loudly, as though he was caught off guard and he has to catch himself on the counter top. After a moment he lifts his pale face and swallows at the fear clogging his throat. "He's. Rebuilding. Asgard." Stephens repeats mostly to himself before he looks back to Felicia, eyes suddenly clear and sober as he gets his umpteenth wind for this day cycle. "Why didn't you lead with that news!? Why did you let me talk so long?" Stephen demands.

Black Cat has posed:
"Probably because he's been trying to kill me on and off and I had to be sure that's what was going on. Like I was going to tell you before it was confirmed, since you're reacting like this," Felicia replies calmly, a little coolly, in the face of his insistency. "Imagine if I'd been wrong, hmm?"

A deep sip of her water and she sets aside, still leaning on the counter as well, her expression concerned. "Look, at least we know about it. I don't...look, so, don't hate me for this, but...he said, back at the Sanctum..." Her jade-green eyes fall to one side. "He wanted to save his people. It sounds like he wants to give them a home. I don't want to hurt his people if we have to hurt him. Believe me..."

Her gaze rises to him again and it's hard and cold as gemstones in the snow. "I owe Loki more than a slap at this point."

Doctor Strange has posed:
    Stephen can't believe Felicia as she's almost allowing this, "Felicia." Stephen begins firmly as he closes his eyes to gather his words. Then he opens his color changing eyes to stare into Felicia's greens. "What happens when you use something to create something else?" Stephen asks before he is standing up and moving around the kitchen, looking for something when it clicks and he takes the water and the vicodin from Felicia. He drops the pill into the water. "The original thing is destoryed in the process." Stephens says, waiting for it to click.

    The wizard seems to have new vigor and is full of it. He's pacing even.

Black Cat has posed:
"Well, yeah, that's basic physics." With her arms folded, the thief watches the man begin to move with alacrity about her kitchen. "Energy is transferred from one form to another, but never destroyed." Somebody did like her physics lecture back at university after all. "I can't believe that works with magic. Wow."

Fretting at her lip, she frowns. "You're telling me he's going to completely drain the magic from this world? Like, all of it? Would it take ALL of the magic to make his plan happen?"

Doctor Strange has posed:
    "With Asgard being as mystic as it was, It's likely he'll use more than half, and if I know Loki, he'll use everything he can get his hands on." Stephen says and with an image of a rose in his hand, glitering and appearing to be magical, Stephen places it down in Felicia's hands, and then with a flick of his wrist. "No more magic."

    Stephen turns around and gives a tight snarl to the cabinetry and with a look over his shoulder... "Tell me I need a nap before doing anything. Tell me I'm in no shape to do anything in my current condition." Strange requests of his girlfriend.

Black Cat has posed:
It's a beautiful rose, in passing, with lustrous, richly-hued petals and leaves so green to give pine trees their own shade of jealousy. Felicia blinks down at her empty palms after Stephen's secondary gesture and then up at him, her brows drawn.

"Stephen. Honey. Your bruises look like Escher took a baseball bat to you while smoking crack and you just took a Vicodin. What you are in shape for is a nice bit of sleep and maybe more water later." Stepping over to him, she cups one of his elbows gently, trying to get him to meet her gaze. "There's time to step in and help the earth," the Cat reminds him softly. "You and me both, we'll help."

Doctor Strange has posed:
    "I didn't take any vicodin." Stephen says before he takes the water and takes a quick drink from it as he's trying to calm his nerves and then looks at the pill still in his hand and shrugs. "Okay Felicia. We'll save the world, but after I at least rest." The wizard says as he lifts a hand to pat Felicia's cheek and then his hand slips to her neck. "You're scary when you're serious." Stephen says before he lets go of Felicia's skin and turns around to begin to walk in no particular direction again.

Black Cat has posed:
"I should be scary when I'm serious." The thief smiles until Stephen turns his back. Only then does she allow her dismay to fully show in a grimace and knuckles brought up to her mouth. She bites them lightly before glancing up to him again.

"Alright. Take your Vicodin and come on. Time to rest, like I said. I'll shower real quick and join you, okay?" Felicia shows up at his side, apparently intending to chivy him off towards the bedroom like a collie with its errant ovine charge.