Participants:
| Scene Title | Who's Your Daddy? |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | Alice, Leandra, and Danny meet up and have a discussion about their parents. Lame flirting ensues. |
Greenwich Village - New York City
The Bohemian center of the city, Greenwich Village is the place to be for artistic enlightenment. Several book stores and coffee shops can be found here. Also the home for many of the city's struggling writers and musicians. The streets are relatively clean, the atmosphere humming with the pulse of New York's underground. At night the Village comes to life. Many of the shops host poetry readings and college students from New York University flock to the coffee houses once the sun goes down. The Village is now such an in-demand place that most would-be world-shakers simply can't afford to live there. Greenwich Village is also the center of New York's gay community, especially in the area around Christopher Street, which, like San Francisco's Castro Street, has become synonymous with those sporting an alternative lifestyle.
It's around 7:30 PMish. The place is crowded as usual, with the exception of one of the coffee shops. Alice can be found inside, standing at the counter, obviously waiting on an order. Strapped to her back is a large gym bag, stained and dirty. In her hands, Alice is turning over a silver pendant in the shape of ankh over and over again, spacing out as she looks at the jewelry.
Walking through the Village, Danny spots the coffee shop and smiles. Coffee would be nice. He heads over and enters the shop, moving toward the counter. He offers a friendly smile to no one in particular as he looks around before giving his order.
Alice glances upward as Danny approaches. She looks him over carefully before returning to the ankh. "I recommend the chilled mocha." She offers him, as her own coffee is delivered. She bows her head in thanks to the barista, peeking into the cup warily before she takes a smalls ip.
"Chilled, you say?" Danny asks, then nods and orders the same. "Thank you. I'm afraid my coffee experiences are primarily limited to 'black' and 'with milk'."
Alice smiles, though she puts her hand over her mouth as she does. It's a practiced motion, clearly something she does often. She looks up at Danny as if evaluating him for a moment — though she seems to do this with almost everything around her. The silver pendant is tucked into her pocket, and she offers Danny a hand. "Alice. Pleased to meet you." Her words are soft spoken and almost even timid.
Leandra moves in briskly from outside, not pausing at all as she heads for an unoccupied table next to the one Danny and Alice sit at before she then hooks out a chair with her heel and smoothly settled down. Eyes close a moment, then she turns her focus to watching the nearst server as she waits for her turn.
Danny shakes Alice's offered hand firmly. "Danny Ogden. The pleasure is mine." He grins easily. "Are you a native? I'm fairly new to the city, myself." He looks around, smiling. "It's quite different from Kansas, I'll tell you."
"Kansas?" Alice asks with slight amusement. "I'll refrain from any corny Wizard of Oz jokes, then." She shakes Danny's hand just as firmly, nodding to him. "Born and raised here… it's a lot to adjust to, even having lived here your entire life," Alice says, her eyes flickering over to Leandra briefly. She smiles at Leandra quickly, without too much tooth.
Leandra looks over as she is smiled to, returning the gesture, then a slight nod to Danny, before the server gets back and she looks away again to place her order. "A large white coffee please, no, just whatevr your standard is. Thank you."
"Indeed," Danny replies. "Not a horse or cow in sight, except for those mounted policemen you see once in a while." He sips his coffee. "I had always planned on visiting. You know, see the shows, visit the landmarks. Unfortunately, my trip was fairly short-notice, so I didn't have much time to prepare."
Alice can't help but grin a bit widely at Danny's words, revealing the slight gap between her two front teeth. Her bottom teeth are a bit crooked. She takes a sip of her coffee, giving a quiet slurp before nodding. "I'm sorry to hear you didn't have more time to plan. There's a lot of things to see in this city. The museums are worth it. Just be careful on the streets."
Leandra looks across at that while she waits for her coffee, noting. "It is a lot less dangerous than it used to be though, under normal circumstnances at least. The crime rate has dropped right off over the last decade or so anyway. Recent events.. Well."
"Yes," Danny says, frowning as he sips his coffee. He looks between Leandra and Alice. "I've seen the news, of course, and heard the stories. Strange days, indeed. You might say that it's the reason I've arrived. There are, uh, certain interested parties looking to get to the bottom of things. My, ah, employer is one of them." He smiles. "Thus, my midnight phone call and hurried passage to the airport."
"Oh?" Alice asks with great curiosity now. She takes off her gym bag and moves into a chair, setting the large bag firmly between her feet. No stealing this, nuh uh. "That's interesting. I guess you could say we have similar priorities." She sips at her coffee again and crosses her legs, looking to Leandra curiously now.
Leandra raises an eyebrow now, a small nod given as her coffee is delivered before she then takes a small sip. "What kind of employer is that then? There are not many that would call you to the city with those kind of goings on then leave you with free time to sit around in coffee shops, at least not without a black suit and sunglasses."
Danny laughs and shakes his head. "I work for my father, actually, so I get a fair amount of leeway as long as I accomplish my goals." He shrugs. "And I'm still settling in." He looks at Alice. "That is interesting. I'm afraid I don't believe in coincidence."
Alice snerks quietly, taking a sip of her coffee. "Maybe you should, because personally there are more coincidences going on around here lately than is really healthy." She nods in agreement, however, with Leandra, simply sitting quietly to listen for the time being.
Leandra takes a longer sip of her coffee as she listens now then. "Who is your father if I can ask? It sounds like somebody interesting." Then she pulls a face to Alice. "I am not sure they are coincidences really."
"Oh, you've probably never heard of him," Danny replies with a smile. "He's kept a low profile since his younger days, though he still teaches occasionally. He has a true passion for learning."
"Try us. We may have heard of him," Alice says interestedly, brushing her hair out of her eyes — only to have it fall back in. Alice smiles at Leandra briefly, close-mouthed. "Me either. Too much weirdness going on recently. I want to know more. Maybe Kansas here can help," Alice says, tipping her head in Danny's direction.
"Referring to people by their state of origin is a touch mean." Notes Leandra there with a quirk of her head, then she nods to Danny. "Try us, even if I have no idea who your father is, it sounds like he might be an interesting person to know of."
Danny smiles mischeviously. "Does the name Ogma, ring any bells? He's also gone by Ogmios. You may have a spot of trouble getting hold of him, though. I rarely even hear from him unless it's terribly important."
There's a definite pause on Alice's end as she struggles to remember where she's heard this name before. Of course, the obvious is well… obvious. "She may have mentioned him at some point…" Alice says, the 'she' in that sentence not really elaborated upon. "I found another…" Alice says, looking to Leandra. "And what about you, who's your daddy?"
Leandra looks blank at Danny's answer, a small shrug then another sip of her coffee. "You are right, never heard the name." Then.. She peers intently at Alice for a moment. "That does sound entirely inappropriate you realize?"
Danny covers his smile with his coffe and takes a sip. "I had heard that New Yorkers were forward, but that is somewhat unseemly," he tells Alice. "Unless you two know each other? Nothing wrong with being lovers, especially not in this day and age."
Now it's Alice's turn to look wholly embarrassed. She turns roughly the same shade as her hair, clearing her throat. "I apologize, I shouldn't have said that." She looks to Leandra, but doesn't meet the woman's eyes now. "It /was/ an honest question though."
Leandra grins an amused grin as she leans back a little in her chair, legs stretching out, directed to Danny. "I have never met her before, so unless she is -very- forward…" Then a slight shake of her head as she looks back to Alice. "Honestly I am inclined to say none of your business. I do not know who -you- are."
Danny looks at Alice. "She's got you there. However, having told both of you my parentage, and opening myself up to both ridicule and doubt regarding my sanity, I will ask. Are either of you of divine parentage? Neither of your reactions to my deliberate slips are quite appropriate for mortals." He pauses. "Well, you could simply be outrageously jaded."
"Considering that we live in New York, yes. I once had a customer who thought that he was the reincarnation of Judas Iscariot." Alice takes a sip of her coffee and gives a shy smile, looking towards Leandra. "You don't need to be /ashamed/…" She goads playfully. "I'm Alice, Athena's… goddaughter. Technically sort of adopted."
"Shit." Leandra pauses in taking another sip of her coffee and seems rather annoyed at something. "Three of us in one place? I will bet a hundred dollars we get attacked by something horrible within the hour from the way things have been going."
"Perhaps," Danny allows. "Although I have met with others without being attacked, I'll grant you that it does often seem to draw Fate's ire when we gather in numbers."
Alice merely looks amused for a few moments, grinning like a Cheshire cat without her hand over her mouth for once. She sips at her coffee, contemplatively. "This is why I don't go out anymore than I have to… if you wanted to see something horrible, you should have seen the cat man that got neutered. Yow." Alice regards Leandra for a long moment, needling the woman with her eyes.
"There is only once I have met with more than one other Scion and not had something looking for a fight show up." Is Leandra's answer to that, then a shrug as she straightens up somewhat in her chair and lowers her coffee. "And introductions yes. I am Leandra, daughter of Zeus, adopted by Artemis." She grins to Alice. "I appear to be your aunt."
Danny chuckles. "Adoptees, eh? I've never quite understood the practice, at least among our divine ancestors. But allow me to state that it's my pleasure to meet both of you ladies. I'm afraid my own father's pantheon hasn't had very much contact with yours, but I know the common myths."
"They're a little more prevalent than the ones from your pantheon, yes," Alice agrees, looking to Leandra rather queerly. In the odd way. "My aunt." Alice looks Leandra up and down with a brief frown. "It's like if my grandparents had a baby after I was born…" The concept of it all looks as though it's going to make Alice's head explode at any second, so she murmurs a 'pleased to meet you both' and delves back into her coffee.
Leandra definitely seems to find the concept amusing. "My niece.. Huh. I guess I probably have hundreds of them at least given Zeus." She shakes her head slightly and takes another sip of her coffee before noting to Danny. "Well both of our adopted mothers are virgin goddesses, that makes having children the normal way a bit of a problem."
Danny nods. "An elegant solution. I'd wondered myself if the chaste deities participated in the wanton proliferating so common to the rest of the gods. Though some more than others," he adds, with a grin at Leandra.
Alice smiles softly. "I don't know who my /real/ father is… just one of Athena's brothers. Ma says he was a real douchebag," Alice says casually. She finishes off her coffee and pushes the cup aside, retrieving the ankh from her pocket and turning it over in her hands once more. "It's just as well. Growing up with two mommies works for a lot of kids these days."
Leandra pulls a face at that. "I do have two mums, but not in that way. My 'biological' mother is alive and sort of well, my adopted mother I of course only met the once and hopefully the two will never meet." Danny is peered at for a moment. "And she is not a fan of being thought of that way by men, as in she kills them. I am not sure what thoughts lesbian goddesses cause in a man's mind but the reality is not friendly to them."
Danny raises an eyebrow. "I was referring to your biological father, actually, whose exploits are so legendary that they form the primary genesis of his myth."
"My other mom turned someone into a spider," Alice says quietly, adding her own two cents in. "So, what's your dad god of?" Alice asks Danny curiously. "I must admit that I'm not as familiar as I'd like to be with the Irish pantheon. But please enlighten me."
"That sounds rather like Artemis, she turned some guy into a stag and hunted him because he saw her naked." Leandra pulls a face before nodding to Danny. "Right.. Hence my comment about probably being aunt to rather a lot of people before. I checked through a list once and found I have something like eighty siblings just taken the ones mentioned by name in ancient mythology."
"Quite," Danny replies, smiling, before answering Alice. "The Tuatha de Danaan aren't quite divided into 'God of Blank' like some of the other pantheons are, although some of them are easy to pinpoint. Dian Cecht is the god of medicine, for instance. The Dagda is a bit harder to pin down. My father, Ogma, is the patron of druids, or in modern terms, professors, students, and academics. In addition to being a warrior himself."
Alice looks positively enthralled with this idea! "Oooh, oh. Then we're almost like distant cousins or something, considering Mama's the goddess of wisdom." Not to mention that Alice herself is a gigantic dork, though she doesn't divulge that detail. Alice's eyes widen as Leandra talks about the sibling aspect of it all. Yeesh, keep it in your pants, Zeus.
"Long beards and robes not mandatory then?" Leandra drains off the last of her coffee before setting the empty cup aside, comment aside though, she mostly listens now, kicking her feet back under her chair as she does so.
"I take somewhat more after my father's warrior side than his teacher side," Danny confides. "I'm working to correct that, though. I've only spoken to him twice, but he did impress on me the importance of utilizing intelligence in battle just as much as strength of arm or fleetness of foot."
Now Alice just looks bizarrely excited. She brushes the hair from her eyes, smiling widely at Danny. "Ooooh, mama's big on that too. We should get together and… run battle formations with my little green army men." Alice realizes how lame that sounds and then just shuts up, looking to Leandra.
Leandra quirks her head slightly there, going from listening to Danny with interest to smirking just a little while she watches Alice. "Wow, I am not sure if you actually meant that literally or if it was a really odd euphemism for something."
Danny sips his coffee again to cover his smile. "I'd be delighted. I've been meaning to establish contact with the local Scions, so this works admirably."
Alice looks mortified once more. "No, I meant actual battle formations!" She snaps, frowning. "It helps me relax. Anyways, it's always good to have your head in the game… I need more practice as it is."
Leandra chuckles there.. Then digs out a wallet from her jacket as she rises to her feet. The money for her coffee is dug out before then another hundred dollars. "Well nothing horrible attacked us, and I need to go." She sets said cash by her empty cup before glancing back. "Nice to meet you both anyway, though I am not sure how I feel about being an auntie."
Danny whistles. "Nice tip," he says nodding to the hundred dollars on the table and offering a wave to Leandra on her way out. "And yes, I'd love to practice with you sometime. I wouldn't want to get rusty. That can be lethal with our lifestyle."
Alice can't help but gawk at the tip on the table. Her eye twitches a bit, though she doesn't reach out to yoink the bill herself. "Huh, so that was my aunt. She seems nice." Alice grins a little bit at Danny. "She's right, you know. Nothing did attack us. It almost makes me more weary than if something or someone had…"
"Perhaps Fate is tired and took a nap," Danny muses idly. "I am grateful for the break, although I look forward to testing myself further against the titanspawn that I hear infest this city."
"Mmm. To be honest, it's been a good long while since I've had a fight. Not counting the other night and the cat man." Alice taps her fingernails against the table, her other hand still clutching the silver ankh. She holds it up for Danny to see. "I made this for someone who went down during the fight. That cat was wicked mean. Took a hunk right out of the poor man's chest."
"Really?" Danny sips his coffee. "My sympathies. I've been wounded a fair few times myself, though never terribly. Fortunately, we heal much faster than mortals."
There's a slight pause. "Most of us, anyway. Athena's a goddess of many things. I'm not particularly fond of fighting, but the strategy of it all is quite fascinating. Athena was the goddess of crafts and weaving… I have a natural aptitude for jeweling and tailoring, myself. I've never had to concentrate on my fighting skills up until recently, really. At least not in depth." Alice pauses again, putting the ankh back in her pocket. "Thanks. But I didn't know him very well. At the very least maybe it'll cheer him up. After all, anyone who says 'no' to anything free is a bit dumb if you ask me."
Danny grins. "My pantheon is very big on hospitality. One of the minor quirks is that refusing a gift is considered extremely rude. Wars have been started for less."
"So, if I made you something, you couldn't refuse? Good to know," Alice says thoughtfully. "Anyways, I need to go and finish up some work." She produces a slightly ragged business card from her pocket, offering it to Danny. "There's where you can find me if you need help with anything. Try to be careful, alright?"
"Will do," Danny promises, taking the card and tucking it into a pocket. "It was a pleasure meeting you, madam. Perhaps our paths will cross again." He sips his coffee. "And do be careful yourself. It's a dangerous city, even for us. Maybe especially us."
Alice nods a little bit, grinning very briefly. "I'm sure our paths will cross again, whether favorably or not remains to be seen. Stay safe," She says as she picks up her gym bag, straps it to her back, and starts out the door.
Any additional notes fall to the bottom.
