Entry tags:

!: action/thread/log, temp character: agnes bohner, ₴ inactive: kara kent

WHO: Kara & Agnes (with a Richie guest appearance)
WHAT: First drinks free!
WHERE: Galahd!
WHEN: Backdated to Agnes' arrival
WARNINGS: Very minor mention of abuse
STATUS: Complete

Kara had always had a flair for making friends. Striking up conversation wasn’t always her favorite thing, but she was always willing to lend an ear and a shoulder and do her best to help. People tended to gravitate to that.

Being brand new in Vallo made making friends more of a priority. She adored Lois, of course, and she had her other self (still weird), Alex Danvers, and Ms. Luthor (Lena, she kept reminding herself) from another world to keep her from feeling completely alone. But she was a social person. She needed people. And that meant putting the lingering timidity from being a pre-teen alien on a new planet aside and reaching out to others.

Agnes — well, Kara hadn’t expected her, but she found it hard not to reach out to her. That story about the drive-in and the trunk? It was abusive, simple as that. She wasn’t the type to anger easily, but that sparked a little something in her. The non-reaction when she tried to, very gently, put out how odd that was to this woman didn’t do much to cool her down. The fact that this was normal for her was very, very concerning. For her safety, Kara hoped Agnes was among those who stayed in Vallo forever. She didn’t know this place well yet, but it had to be better than dealing with this Ralph guy.

She hadn’t expected that conversation to lead to agreeing to go out for drinks together, but she was game for it. Richie had super sweetly come by the farm yesterday with his promised cinnamon buns and told her all about it while they chatted. She didn’t usually drink herself, mostly because human liquid did nothing for her, but there were certain drinks she liked the taste of. She had planned to go down there tonight anyway and she wouldn’t turn down Agnes’s company.

It was just before eight when she arrived at Galahd, dressed in the same jeans she’d arrived in and a shirt borrowed from Lois. She tightened her ponytail, checked the time on her phone, then slid it into her back pocket. It took less than three seconds of scanning to spot Agnes and — yep, seeing her in person explained some things.

“Agnes? Hi.” She approached the other woman and offered her hand. “Kara. It’s really nice to meet you.”

This Galahd place was a scream, wasn’t it? Wasn’t on the same level as a seedy dive - you know, with sawdust on the floor and spilled pitchers of beer. It was more like the kind of place where you’d find live rhumba going on, and patrons would just wink at you if you slipped an ashtray into your handbag. That kind of classy joint. Agnes decided she liked it - and she was making friends already! It was great. A perfect night to wear a new dress, one she’d purchased for herself upon arriving - knee length and cotton, with big white buttons and a shirt collar; the skirt was bright yellow, the shirt top navy blue - and to top off the look she wore lipstick that was bright red, crushed velvet.

One always had to look their best. And she had plenty of money to spend, so she thought a new dress wasn’t hurting anything - neither was a drink or two, though she waited for her companion before ordering.

“Hi Kara!” Excitedly, she shook the other woman’s hand, handbag clutched between the fingers of her opposite hand. Agnes’s smile was red splashed on ice, such a tooth glimmer but what could she say - she was pleased to be invited someplace (or had she invited herself along? Who could say). “Boy, you’re even prettier in person! I wanted to wait until you got here, to see what drink you recommend. They have liquor I’ve never even heard of!” She’d gotten a little bit of information from the tall, lanky bartender.

Don’t worry. Richie (the aforementioned tall, lanky bartender), who was working tonight, was only amusedly side-eying this weirdness a little.

Agnes was a sight to behold. The bright colors — not only on the dress but on her lips, that ruby red was unmissable. She was pretty, really, like Kara had assured her earlier. But she looked very out of time in a way, kind of like she’d been ripped right out of an episode of I Love Lucy or The Donna Reed Show (both of which she’d eagerly devoured when she’d first come to Earth and hardly slept at all). Very 50’s housewife vibes, which probably explained why she was so casually dismissive of her husband’s terrible behavior.

“You’re gorgeous, too,” Kara assured her again with a chuckle, her cheeks pinking a bit. She wasn’t going to deny her own attractiveness; she didn’t abide by false modesty, and she knew she was kind of a bombshell. “I don’t actually drink too much, but I usually go for something sweet when I do. Let’s sit and see what they have?” She gestured toward two open stools and stepped forward to pull one out for each of them. She grabbed a little menu off the table and flipped it open, eyebrows rising because, yes, Agnes was completely right. There were some odd choices on here.

When she looked up and caught the bartender’s gaze, recognition lit her eyes and she raised a hand in a small wave. “Hey Richie! Good seeing you again.”

Agnes preened a bit, patting her dark brown coiff - she too enjoyed compliments (especially when they were directed at her). “Something sweet sounds delish,” she agreed, settling on the stool and adjusting her skirt - she sat like a lady, tucking one knee over the other. The menu was given a proper once over, long nails tapping on the laminated plastic. “Maybe the...shimmery liquor?”

It was a thing that existed. Richie was already grabbing for the bottle, because it tended to be a popular selection since it was the best of all worlds - vodka (for those who liked the hard stuff), a sweet Moscato wine (for the winos), and other sorts of fruitiness (for those who didn’t want to taste their alcohol when getting obliterated); also, if they wanted sweet, it fit the bill. Plus the color was a cool violet shade, neon, and swirling with sparkles - one of the more otherworldly liquors found at Galahd. They had a whole collection of ‘em. “Hey Kara,” he greeted, giving her a little wave in return. “Glad to see you came to hang out. If you wanna make your freebie purple sparkles, I can say firsthand that’s a solid choice.”

“Purple sparkles sounds great.” Kara cast a sidelong glance at Agnes to be sure she was interested and turned back to Richie with a nod. “Let’s get some freebies.” The liquor looked otherworldly, very alien-esque. She started toying with the silver medical alert bracelet on her left wrist, a little concerned it might actually affect her. It usually didn’t, not even with her red sun emitters on. But what if it did? She had been pulled out of her world and dropped into a new one with no explanation and family that wasn’t quite family. If she ended up buzzed, so be it.

A literal thumbs up (plus a wink - Agnes was nothing if not flashy) was given to indicate approval, and Richie got started with pouring those drinks. He was quick about it, serving up the booze in record time - may they enjoy their glitter. “Here you go,” he said cheerfully, glad to do the bartender thing and appropriately fling a towel over his shoulder (he wasn’t planning to wipe down the actual bar with it, it was just for show because it was a favorite cliché along with listening to woes - and he listened to a lot of woes). “Let me know if you ladies need anything else.”

Agnes took her glass with an oooooh, a look of intrigue in her eyes - green, like the clover; they sparkled a little because she would never have a drink like this back home. At least she was pretty sure she wouldn’t.

“So Kara!” Was it time for gossip? Gossip O’Clock, perhaps? “Tell me all about yourself,” she encouraged. “What do you do for fun? If there’s any time for fun! I get so busy keeping house sometimes I forget what the meaning of the word even is.”

Another chuckle out of Kara. Agnes’ enthusiasm was a little much but not in a bad way. She enjoyed it, and it was nice to have someone to kind of just chill and chat with. That didn’t mean she would be out here dishing out her big secrets — she was still surprised, though not really upset, by how casually Lena called her a Kryptonian on the network.

She took a sip of her drink, eyebrows raising at the effect it caused, a kind of buzzing sensation in her mouth. Not numbness and certainly not enough to get her drunk, but it was interesting. “Well, I’m a scientist,” she said. “So I don’t always have a lot of free time, but I’m pretty tame when I do. I like being outdoors some days, indoors others, catching up on reading or TV shows.” She had chosen very purposefully to live a not terribly exciting life. She enjoyed it, but she wasn’t exactly a standout — she’d leave that to her brother.

A scientist, how fancy. “So you have looks and smarts!” Agnes deduced, obviously very impressed by the fact that she was sitting next to a Working Woman. Things were just not like that where she came from - in fact, the place where she came from was beginning to feel more and more like a black hole. Something she just wanted to leave behind, far away from the void she’d been sucked into - which was why it was so fortunate she ended up here, wasn’t it? Sometimes life was just real funny like that.

“You’ll have to let me know what sort of books and television shows gals like us are into these days,” she added, ice clinking in her glass as she took another sip and let the tingly sensation travel all the way to her toes. “I want to have something to talk about with all my new friends.” Clearly there was a lot of catching up to do - but that was fine. She could hold off on the boring stuff for awhile while she acclimated.

“Absolutely, I’ll give you a list,” Kara promised sincerely. “Do you like any specific genres? Fantasy, science-fiction, classics?” The culture in Agnes’ era was very specific and not very expansive from what she understood. TV, film, books, attitudes, and really everything in between had evolved quite a bit in the past sixty of seventy years. She wouldn’t be able to catch Agnes up on all of that, especially not all at once, but some preferences could help her carve out a path.

Agnes tapped her index finger against maraschino lips, thinking. This was an important question, so she didn’t want to give the wrong answer. “I like fantasy, I think?” she decided. Science fiction was a little too out there for her and the classics, from her time, were probably considered silent films in the year - what year was it again?

Oh, right. 2021 - that was so wild. “Yes, fantasy - creatures and magic and all of that. Which makes me also think I oughta fit right in at home here,” she laughed, a cheerful sound. “What are your favorites? Maybe you can show me some of them! We can have a girl’s night and make some popcorn.”

With some Jujubes, even. Or chocolate. Careful, Kara, now you had a new (nosy) best friend. How very fortunate!

“You have to start with Harry Potter.” That was a suggestion or a question, it was a statement of fact. If fantasy was your preference in this day and age, you started with Harry Potter no matter what age you were. “It’s this book series that were made into movies about a school for witches and wizards. It has a lot of fantasy staples in there, and it’s a really good story.”

There were a lot of incredible pieces of fantasy media out there, but Harry Potter was a rite of passage. They were still fairly new when she’d made it to Earth, not quite at the peak of their popularity, but she had ripped through them. She remembered checking the mailbox easily a hundred times a day in the summers when the new books came out.

“There’s The Lord of the Rings, too, but you might have heard of those.” If she remembered correctly, the books were originally published back in the era Agnes came from. “There are movies now, though, which a lot of people prefer.” Investing in The Lord of the Rings saga was more of a task than Harry Potter, maybe because it was written so long ago.

Lord of the Rings was - pretty new? Yes, pretty new in the time Agnes came from. Then again, she wasn’t sure if she knew much about it anyway - she didn’t think she did, because her life didn’t involve much reading for pleasure. She had far too much to do!

Harry Potter though, that sounded interesting. A school for witches? Why, she’d never heard of such a thing. No wonder why they called it fantasy. “If you recommend I should start there, then that’s where I’ll start,” she decided jovially. “Boy, I would just be lost without you - “ She patted Kara’s arm, ever so grateful, as she sipped her celestial beverage. “Whatever I can do to repay you, just let me know!” Because she would not let a debt go unpaid, naturally. That would just be bad manners.