Michael Guerin is a (miserableliar) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2019-06-09 09:57:00 |
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Michael usually ended his day with a nice cold beer. Sometimes whiskey but usually just beer. Though lately? It had been a lot more whiskey. Which wasn’t exactly helpful when he had to get up and go to work - doing manual labour every damn day. But that was what coffee was for.
Michael walked into one of the many coffee shops on the way from his airstream to his place of work. Sunglasses on, dressed in jeans and a t-shirt. The cross burn on his arm had faded, but it was still visible. He didn’t take his sunglasses off until he was at the counter, hanging them on the collar of his shirt. “The largest size coffee you got,” Michael order. “Black.”
All things considered, Iris was doing okay. She wasn’t letting what had happened the previous month keep her from living her life. No. There were still stories to investigate and write, truths to be told. Honestly, she just wanted to live her life and pretend it hadn’t happened. It didn’t matter. Thankfully her Dreams hadn’t really done anything to mess with her. Well, besides the Barry revelation and not knowing what to make of it, if it mattered here and how similar things were between the Dreams and here and what that meant for her. But besides that, as well as getting a picture she’d managed to get of the Flash on her phone? Pretty normal. And normal was good.
Like most mornings, Iris needed coffee. She basically mainlined it. So she’d already ordered and was waiting when she noticed Michael order his largest size of black coffee. The barista just went with it, no questions asked. It wasn’t like that was an uncommon request. Even so, Iris remembered the days of being a barista and so once Michael moved over to wait for his drink?
“Rough night?”
Michael turned toward the voice of the woman talking to him. He knew her. If he wasn’t hung over he probably would have remembered how right a way. But as it was it took him a moment. Iris. She had gone to one to the same high schools as him, of the many he attended. And more recently took her car into the shop, which was where he remembered the whole high school thing. Well at least it was someone he sort of knew and not a complete stranger asking him that.
“You could say that,” Michael replied forcing a smirk on his face. “Iris, right?”
Iris was outgoing, she wasn’t that outgoing. She wasn’t going to strike up a conversation out of the blue with someone she didn’t even know. So instead she just gave a slight nod at the comment.
“Got it.” And as for who she was? “Correct.”
Michael was actually quite proud of himself for remembering, especially given his current state. But even without the hangover there were so many people Michael briefly went to high school with, so many people that brought their car into the shop. Michael couldn’t always remember them all. “How’s your car doing?”
It could definitely be difficult to remember people if you dealt with them a lot. It was something Iris was good at though. So she just nodded at the question.
"It's doing well. Thanks again."
“No problem,” Michael replied. “It’s my job after all.” Not exactly science which he had excelled at back in high school, well he had excelled at almost everything back then. But he wasn’t able to afford college. But he loved cars and his job. Life was simple now which was what Michael needed after the insane childhood he’d had.
“What do you do?” Michael asked realizing he never had before.
“Touche.” It was a valid point, even if Iris still felt that she should have thanked him again. Her dad was happy with it and that was all that really mattered to her. As for what she did? “Investigative journalist.”
Which she did love herself. Finding the truth, exposing corruption. Even with the Hydra setback and the stories she wouldn’t be able to publish thanks to the risk it would pose those in Orange County. There was still plenty going on in the world that it wasn’t as if she were hurting for stories.
“Intense,” Michael commented with a smirk. Though he wasn’t completely joking. It did seem like an intense job. Uncovering the truth and then writing about it. It also sounded like long hours which Michael wasn’t a fan of. He liked going to work, fixing cars, then going home at the end of the day and just being done.
“That is definitely one word for it.” For making her career in writing, it was also hard to find a word to describe what it was that she did. Nor did she really want to. But intense was definitely one way of putting it. Some stories were easier than others to write. Others? Well, there were twists and turns and high risk involved. But the truth has a way of getting out all the same.
“I guess someone’s got to do it,” Michael said with a shrug. There seemed to be a lot of things that got covered up. Not just in Orange County but in general. He never really gave much thought to the people that were out there trying to get to the bottom of it all. But the fact that there were, and that he knew one? Well he found that somewhat comforting… Unless of course it turned out he was an alien. That might just be the one secret Michael actually wanted to stay secret.
“Yes, they do.” And it was something important to Iris. The truth always would be. Cover ups and lies…. The damage a lie could do or a conspiracy of lies was astounding. Oh, she knew things were different in Orange County. Things that needed to be covered up - metas and people with abilities and the like. It just meant that Iris focused on the stories that wouldn’t put people in danger as opposed to certain truths in the area. No matter how much it went against who she was. “And if I can help people by exposing corruption or the like? Then I’ve done my job.”
“I’m sure you have your work cut out for you,” Michael said with a smirk. It seemed like things were only getting more corrupt these days. Because yeah, Michael paid attention. He may seem like just your average mechanic that spent most of his nights at a bar, but he was smarter than he looked. And cared more about things than he let on.
Never judge someone based on their appearance. That was Iris’ belief. Just because Michael might seem a typical mechanic didn’t mean he didn’t pay attention. Or that mechanics didn’t pay attention. While she had always needed to be twice as driven, twice as accomplished to be taken remotely seriously thanks to being a black woman in America, she knew that things like paying attention to what was going on really wasn’t regulated to any one group.
“Again, that’s an understatement.” And with Sinclair taking over a lot of news organizations and the push for online articles and the use of headlines to get ad revenue….. There were institutional challenges on top of typical stonewalling she would otherwise get, “But I’ve never backed down from a challenge.”
“I do remember that from high school,” Michael replied grinning a bit. Their science project hadn’t exactly been an easy one. He felt a little bad that he had kind of bailed on her in the middle of it. But that wasn’t exactly his fault. He was moved to another home and another school. Still he didn’t exactly like leaving people hanging.
That got Iris to laugh some. While the science project had definitely been a challenge, Iris had been determined to make sense of it and not just hand it off. Though that was probably one of the challenges her dad at least didn’t get a headache from, “What can I say, some things don’t change.”
“Clearly,” Michael said with a grin still on his face. Even if he felt like shit running into Iris was brightening his day at least a bit. He got so wrapped up in his own shit sometimes he forgot there were actual decent people out there. Though just then his coffee was ready. Oddly long time for a plain black coffee, but the wait wasn’t so bad since he ran into Iris. He grabbed his drink turning his attention back to her. “Well if you ever want to stop by the shop or get a drink or something…” Michael offered his voice trailing off a bit. “Properly catch up on the past ten years.”
It definitely was a bit long for getting a black coffee, though it was probably a matter of needing to brew a new batch. But still, catching up - even briefly - made the wait go by quickly enough. Especially as it seemed her own coffee was ready as well.
“Yeah? I think I’d like that.”
Catching up with people, feeling normal? Definitely a good thing. And much better than being set up on blind dates.
“I’ll see you around, Michael.” Smiling and giving a small wave, Iris grabbed her own coffee and then left. The news never sleeps after all.