InsaneJournal

LOG | Danielle, Tyson and Bart
SUMMARY | Bart shows up to visit Danielle, only to find she already has company. Tyson and Bart catch up while Danielle is all kinds of unamused, and then Bart and Danielle talk League business.

BART | With his characteristic lack of advance warning, Bart West suddenly appears at the door of Danielle Ricker with a bag of Chinese food and a six pack of beer. Just as he arrives there, he hears a loud bang and crash along with the sounds of possible pained people, and just like that, he is inside the apartment.

He bolts at high speed to the source of the sound, and the sounds immediately change to shouts of surprise. Bart comes zipping back out of the bedroom and into the living room, calling back. “So! Not sounds of a struggle then! Good to know!”

DANIELLE | That was -- not expected. Not unsurprisingly, a night out patrolling the city had resulted in a run-in with Red Arrow - and the usual argument that led them back here, venting their frustrations with each other in the other's flesh. It hadn't been something Danielle had wanted to be public knowledge, but --

She appeared a few moments later, having thrown on a pair of jeans and found a shirt to pull on. The shirt wasn't quite buttoned up straight, but Danielle hadn't noticed that in her hurry to get out of her bedroom to -- apologise? She wasn't entirely sure whether that was the right choice here.

"So. Uh. Sorry about that." Danielle ran a hand through her hair once she joined Bart in the living room.

BART | “It’s fine? Or --” Bart tries to say something in response but has trouble due to not really knowing what to say to someone apologizing for an awkward situation that didn’t really need to be apologized for. Also, he is interrupted.

TYSON | Tyson Harper exits the bedroom just a moment after Danielle, only he’s just covering himself with nothing but a strategically placed pillow he’s holding. He responds immediately to the look he gets from her. “My fucking pants are out here somewhere.” This is his only option.

“Hey Bart,” he says casually as he moves past Danielle to search for his pants.

BART | “Hey Ty,” Bart says back, not put off at all by Tyson’s nudity. He has lived in more than one nudist colony. It’s nothing to him. “Sorry about my timing.”

TYSON | “Yeah, yeah.” Tyson moves around the couch, looking around. “Weren’t you seeing some girl in Fawcett?”

BART | “Oh, that. No. Evil robot,” Bart explains, having a conversation with a naked guy in Danielle’s living room.

TYSON | “Seriously?” Tyson looks up at Bart. “Wait -- again?”

BART | “Yeah, I know.” Bart shrugs and grins a little. “I made this joke awhile back about evil robots, and now I’ve run into two of them.”

TYSON | “Weird.” Tyson resumes his search and finds his pants, picking them up. “So you and her...?” He gestures between Bart and Danielle, implying that something is going on as the purpose of Bart’s visit. That probably also implies Danielle would do something like that with multiple partners.

BART | Bart shakes his head. “No. League business. The unimportant kind. I bring food so they put up with me.” He gestures at the beer and Chinese food he left on the coffee table.

DANIELLE | Danielle looked between the two guys for a few moments, listening to the conversation and getting more and more annoyed as she went along.

"You know I'm right here," she said as soon as she could get a word in, resisting the urge to put her hands on her hips. "Or would you two boys rather I leave you alone so you can keep catching up?"

TYSON | Tyson rolls his eyes and makes his way back toward the bedroom so he can get dressed now. “Didn’t you hear? We just did.”

BART | Bart looks toward Danielle and shrugs as Tyson disappears into the bedroom. “It’s a guy thing. We keep communication quick and simple.”

DANIELLE | "Does it also involve talking about someone like they're not even in the room?" Because honestly, that was... rude. And unpleasant. And Danielle was tempted to kick them both out for it.

BART | “If they’re female. Because -- guy thing.” Though to be fair, it was Tyson who acted like Danielle wasn’t in the room. Bart was just apologizing and answering the questions.

DANIELLE | "It's moments like this that make me consider lesbianism." She liked girls, it wouldn't be too hard. Ignoring the existence of men sounded like a good plan right now. She moved around to investigate the food Bart had brought, grabbing a box of something and a beer before taking a seat on her couch, curling her legs up underneath her.

"You said you had League business?" Yes, she was going to ignore the fact that Tyson was still around. He could let himself out.

BART | “That raises some confusing questions,” Bart remarks after Danielle’s comment on lesbianism. His understanding is that she has already done more than just consider swinging to that side of the fence.

“And I did. Technically. Of the unimportant kind.” He glances toward Danielle’s bedroom and then gestures in that direction. “We’re ignoring the thing now, right? This is where I pretend nothing happened and tell no one later?”

DANIELLE | Danielle's sexuality was fairly... open. To put it politely. But it occasionally became very tempting to exclude anyone with a penis from it. She'd survive.

"Pretty much. I'm sure it'll let itself out." While Danielle was sure Bart didn't really mean to reduce Tyson to an 'it', she was okay with doing that. Or at least she was at the moment, considering how annoyed she was with him (and there hadn't even been the opportunity to finish venting her frustration).

BART | Bart was actually referring to the whole incident and the inherent revelations involved when he said the thing.

“All clear.” Bart is sure that Danielle having a thing with Siena Harper’s uncle-cousin is a juicy piece of gossip that several people would get a kick out of hearing about. He’ll let someone else have the fun of discovering it and spreading the word, though. It will inevitably happen, as these things always do. “I didn’t see what I just saw. Not my first time running in on this kind of thing. You’re actually now in the same club as most of the League.” Because as many other members of the superhero community can attest, sudden appearances at awkward times like this is a bane of knowing someone with superspeed.

DANIELLE | Danielle opened her mouth to ask, but then decided better of it. She really didn't need details about the sex lives of other League members. She really didn't. Instead she just shoved some food into her open mouth, chewing hurriedly so she could swallow.

"It hasn't even occurred to you to knock? Or call ahead?" Danielle grinned at Bart, a twinkle in her eyes. She was simply teasing, of course.

BART | Bart does have many sex stories involving people Danielle would know and hardly any of them would involve him as a participant. “No --” He appears sitting on the couch now. “-- seems so impersonal. And slow. Life’s too short for doors and appointments.”

TYSON | “Helps to be too fast to shoot at too, huh?” Tyson says as he emerges once again from Danielle’s bedroom. However, he is now dressed in his Red Arrow costume and snapping the buckle of one of his holsters. He comes over and leans on the back of the couch, closer to where Bart is than Danielle. “Hey, how’re Siena and Tay doing?”

BART | Bart lays his head back against the couch to look at Tyson. “They’re still doing the roller derby thing together in their apartment. Their doctors are about ready to okay them both to start physical therapy, though.”

TYSON | “Schway.” Tyson pushes off the couch and heads for Danielle’s balcony -- from which he will make his exit. He gestures at her as he collects his collapsed bow and quiver and refers back to their original argument. “If that fucker gets allowed back on the street on bail because your cop buddies can’t make the case, I’m getting involved.”

DANIELLE | "If you stopped getting involved, then maybe they wouldn't have trouble making the case," Danielle said with exasperation. Half the stuff he did ensured evidence was inadmissible in court. It didn't help, at all.

"I'm starting to think you enjoy interrupting people," she said, turning back to Bart to pick up their thread of conversation.

BART | “I don’t know about that. It looked like I was the one enjoying myself the least at the time.” This is considering that Bart was the one not having sex. He then reconsiders and gestures with a thumb back at Tyson. “Or were you talking to him?” Since Tyson did just walk in and interrupt for the second time.

TYSON | “Leaving!” Tyson calls out as he exits through the balcony door and closes it behind him. He can be seen out there launching a grapple line and swinging away.

DANIELLE | "Finally!" Danielle yelled back, rolling her eyes and going back to her food. "Nah, I was talking to you. Like he would listen to anything I had to say anyway." Which, really, was how things started. Less listening, more... well.

"Anyway. League stuff? Or was that just a flimsy excuse to stop by and say hi?"

BART | Bart turns back to Danielle after Tyson leaves. He now also has a carton of Chinese food and an opened beer next to him. “No, all I need to stop by and say hi is an address.” He stops in on people so often that coming up with excuses all the time would be an enormous hassle.

“But yes. There was League stuff. I was thinking -- these thoughts that I have. I wanted to bounce some ideas off someone. Someone who might listen. Nqambi’s in a mood. And it’s more administrative stuff anyway.” Finding someone who would care at all about that aspect is limiting. “I had some ideas for some outreach projects the League could do. Not for the public but more like other teams and heroes out there. And really -- you and Tyson? Interesting twist on the traditional Lantern/Arrow dynamic.”

DANIELLE | "Hmmm?" Danielle shrugged. "I'm fairly sure there's no way Ollie or Roy were ever that much of a pain in the ass. He - bah!" Danielle could feel herself get annoyed all over again. He was more of a pain in her ass than Rex was, and honestly, that was saying something. Attempting to change the topic, she veered back to the subject of the League.

"What sort of projects? More collaboration, or did you have something else in mind?" Danielle was definitely interested - she was fairly sure she wouldn't have made it through her first few months as a Lantern on Earth if she hadn't had the support of people like Superman - sorry, J'onn - and Kyle, and the friendship of Charlie and Margie.

BART | “I have it on pretty good authority both really, really were,” Bart interjects as Danielle changes the subject away from Arrows and their effects on asses.

“Yes? No. All of the above. There are many ideas bouncing around in my head right now. Like we have this new guy in San Francisco. Jericho. Deathstroke’s grandkid? You remember him. We found him in a boat, and Artemis hit him in the face.” These are the memorable things. “He’s spent the summer becoming a superhero. I was thinking rather than just waiting and seeing how new heroes turn out we could keep tabs on some of them. Help out. Maybe offer membership. Or just try to watch their backs when they need it. I guess it would be a case by case sort of thing. Whatever works best.”

DANIELLE | "I remember him. I met his dad," Danielle commented. "I think it's a great idea. I know the help and support I got in my first few months was invaluable, it's not easy when you're starting out. Especially if you're doing it by yourself." A lot of the people in the League had had the support of various family members when they were starting out. Not everyone had the same sort of opportunity.

BART | Help, support, steady lifelong pressure to live up to a predetermined role. Superhero families are great. “There you go. Exactly what I’m talking about. Nqambi wouldn’t get any of this. He’s very survival of the fittest about it. He also doesn’t like new people. We end up having to tip delivery people huge at our place.”

“So let’s use Jericho as an example since you know him already,” Bart says from behind the couch, where he is now standing with an old fashioned binder of papers. He does things old school, because computers are still too slow. The benefit of this is that he is one of the rare people in the world with really nice handwriting. “Artemis had her boyfriend vet him. He’s genuine but maybe doing this as a shortcut for coping with all that went on with him in Markovia. I guess we can’t all be motivated to dress up in colorful costumes to fight crime by peer pressure and an intense, near crippling need to validate one’s own self worth. So I noticed he’s mostly targeting Markovian organized crime in the area and this summer has seen a spike in metacriminal activity in San Francisco since he started.”

DANIELLE | "A spike?" That was unusual. But then metahuman activity tended to attract metacriminal activity, didn't it? "That's pretty ambitious of him. Not surprising, but ambitious." She smiled a little at Bart. "I wouldn't be surprise if there was a little bit of that crippling need you mentioned. Wanting to prove himself despite who his grandfather is." If it's not about proving to your family that you can carry on the legacy, it's about proving that you won't.

BART | “See -- I knew you were the right person to brainstorm with about this stuff. Too bad I didn’t know it wasn’t the right time, though. Remind me to ask Ty about that new tattoo later.” Bart is sitting right next to Danielle on the couch now, eating from one of the Chinese food cartons. “Oh, wait. The spike. Yeah -- there’s been that. I don’t think San Francisco usually gets much metacrime. Quiet place besides the giant spiders. It seems to have gotten less quiet over the summer. It’s probably escalation. The Markovians have to deal with a superhero now, so they hire on some supervillains. I haven’t pieced together a whole lot about them yet. You’ve got better police department access than I do out here. The S.F.P.D. may know more about it all.”

And so it goes with Bart talking away at his usual fast pace with a heavy helping of non sequiturs. He and Danielle don’t stay on the topic for Jericho for very long before getting into more broad terms about helping out the superhero community. He has suspicions there may be a new Firestorm and has been toying with the idea of taking another shot at Shazam. He’s going to talk with Nqambi about tightening up League security too, because they’ll want to be more careful with people’s secret identities better if they start taking chances on new people. There’s also some vague, early planning stages talk of some kind of network with other superhero teams out there. It’s because things have gone so well for Bart with the Great Ten. August General in Iron almost doesn’t hate him now.

Someone who knows Bart better could have warned Danielle about what is happening here, but they clearly have not. When Bart finishes all he has to say -- and then some -- and takes his leave, the small binder of notes about the situation with Jericho in San Francisco remains in her apartment, because somewhere in between all of Bart’s fast talking about it and a non sequitur about his own tattoos and experiments with body piercings, she may have hurriedly agreed to look into that further for him before quite realizing it.