Tea and Talk (Senshuken)

She was almost one hundred percent sure that she was making herself more conspicuous while trying to be inconspicuous.

Wearing jeans and flats with a button down plaid shirt made her feel suspiciously uncomfortable, and tying her light pink hair back and tucking it under a hat started to make her feel shady. She couldn’t hide her pink eyes, either, and she knew she wasn’t fooling anyone. It was just something she was trying out, which wasn’t working. She was outrageously happy she’d had the good idea to bring her more comfortable dress and boots in her bag, because she was tempted to change right now.

She was supposed to meet him here. That was what he requested, but the stupid barista was taking far too long to make her tea. She rolled her eyes, realising that she wasn’t as easily recognisable dressed like this (or maybe she was just trying to convince herself), and sighed, heading to the bathroom and changing.

She was entirely sure, when she re-emerged, she’d fooled no one with her costume. No one looked shocked to see Jinx emerge from the bathroom, and the barista still dawdled making the tea. She guessed her downtime had paid off, because people didn’t seem so scared of her any more. In some ways, that made her sad. She wasn’t sure why.

She took the tea from the incompetent barista and headed to a table in the corner, bringing out her book of Poe’s works. She remembered when Wally had suggested she become best friends with Raven and almost laughed. Even she wasn’t that depressing, though some of these short stories were.

The tea was cold, but she couldn’t be bothered to go back and complain to the dumb barista. How hard was it to boil water? She sighed again, turning the page before looking up as the door opened. She kept suspecting him. Maybe he’d forgotten and she could go back home and return to being a recluse. But no, she was never that lucky.

Looking up at the clock, Senshuken let out a small sigh. As far as first dates went, the other person not showing up was pretty awful.

It wasn't often that a demonic entity of Senshuken's field was able to find the time to show interest in something that wasn't directly related to their work. At least, any of them that took their jobs seriously and didn't just sit on their butts having their favorite slave of the moment feeding them grapes. But with the recent amount of free time that had come about due to the increase of productivity and efficiency in his networks and information gathering systems Sen had began to let his mind wander around on something else. Something he hadn't really paid attention to until he noticed it.

He was lonely.

His mind kept thinking about the relationship between his mother and father and the happiness that they shared for centuries before they were both murdered by zealots and he couldn't help but wonder what that would be like (Being in love with someone and having them love you back, not being murdered by zealots. He had been through that already more times then he cared to admit and it wasn't fun the first time).

He wasn't completely ignorant of courting rituals or 'dating'. Part of his job was keeping tabs on politics and marriages had always been a major part of that until the turn of the century. Knowing if a relationship was going well or not when the two involved were crowned princes and princesses of different counties was important information to know. Plus his sister's career as a lust demon demanded that he at least understand some of the things she was talking about whenever they met up to check in on family.

It was just... he never had a reason to partake in the field of dating personally before. It had taken him longer then he cared to admit to anyone to even ask a girl out to a coffee house; the fact that two hours had gone by and the girl was still a no show didn't help his confidence any. Giving a small sigh again, he turned his head at the sound of the bathroom door opening out of a habit of knowing who is in the room at any given time. While the woman with pink hair had seemed familiar before, the truth of Jinx's identity hadn't made itself known to him until she had changed into a dress. She looked great in a dress...

Noticing that she had taken a table two tables away from his own and the lack of people present in the building, Sen glanced down at what he was wearing: A brand new pair of jeans, a white t-shirt and an unzipped black hooded jumper. Judging that he at least looked presentable enough to be seen with a female, he turned his red eyes towards the pink haired one and merely asked "You got stood up at well?" with a warm and friendly smile.

Jinx jolted back to reality, her finger holding her place in her book as she looked around. This was not who she was expecting, but nonetheless it was nice to have some form of human contact. She recognised the red eyes (they weren’t exactly common), and she smiled a small, wry smile and nodded. It was time to admit that no matter how many times she responded, she would always get shown up.

“Yep. Time to admit that they’re not coming,” she stated, trying to ignore the small blush that accompanied her embarrassment. She closed her book and placed it on the table, gesturing to the seat across from her. “Take a seat, if you want. Make the most out of this situation,” she said, with a shrug.

“So it’s been a while,” she began, placing her elbows on the table and resting her head in her hands. “Since that last fiasco, I tried to keep off the radar a bit. Destroying public places never gives me a good reputation, no matter how many times I try it.”

“Take a seat, if you want. Make the most out of this situation,”

Considering her invitation for a moment, Senshuken couldn't help but smile a little as he got out of his seat and slowly made his way over to Jinx's table. "Why not? I had set up this little day off for myself to spend some time getting to know a cute girl in a coffee shop; Apart from a small minor detail nothing from the original plan has changed. " Taking the offered seat, he allowed a shy little smile to cross his face as he looked away, unable to meet her eyes for a few moments.

“Since that last fiasco, I tried to keep off the radar a bit. Destroying public places never gives me a good reputation, no matter how many times I try it.”

Rallying his confidence a little, Sen was able to look at something that wasn't just the table. "Maybe you're just not destroying the right public places? I'm pretty sure that there are a couple of mansions that belong to corporate executives that people would praise you for removing from the landscape in a explosive and sudden manner. Give me enough time and I could set up a medal and a parade to be held in the honor of the heroic avenger of the middle to lower classes. How does that sound? " It was a joke of a offer and the cheeky little grin on Sen's face gave it away the moment anyone saw it, but it would hopefully serve it's purpose as a way to break the ice.

Jinx raised an eyebrow at his first statement, saying nothing but allowing a little smile to grace her thin lips.

Jinx shook her head, shrugging. “Oh, believe me. I’ve destroyed almost every kind of building in my time, including multiple people’s houses. No one ever throws me parades,” she said, with a mock sigh. “My Robin Hood style deeds never seem to impress. I guess stealing from the rich and giving to the poor only counts when you don’t pass yourself off as ‘the poor’,” she sighed again, before grinning. “Besides, I think Green Arrow already stole the Robin Hood costume, and since I’m the bad guy, they’ll just call me a terrorist. If Aquaman destroyed the houses, he’d have done it for a good reason. Alas, the prejudice on us bad guys,” she said, spreading her hands. She knew most bad guys didn’t class her a bad guy, but she skated over that.

“So exactly what kind of parade are we talking, and how long will it take to plan it?” she asked, taking a sip of her tea.

"Taking into account the kind of people that most corporate executives are like, something small and fast moving with several body doubles of yourself standing on the float with you. Make the snipers earn that paycheck. " While he meant it in a joking manner, there was a look in Senshuken's eyes that suggested that such an outcome might actually be a very real possibility.

With the talk of 'Heroes' and 'Villains' Sen couldn't help but shake his head and sigh in a rather tired fashion. "Don't get me started on the whole 'Heroes and Villains' thing. I've seen far too many self righteous twats claim to be heroes and even more sore losers who couldn't take some from of rejection well claim to be villains. The standards just don't seem to be there anymore."

Taking a moment to look in Jinx's direction, the smirk on his face returning as he cupped his chin as if he was in deep thought. "You know, I always got the impression that Aquaman was on someone's payroll. I've never been able to prove it, but I suspect Japan pays him to leave them the hell alone. It would example a couple of things, such as why he seems to avoid intercepting their whale 'research' boats and why the rest of the Justice League seems to be embarrassed to go anywhere near him..."

"For what it's worth, I never really considered you a 'bad guy'... or bad girl, come to think of it." He stated with a small chuckle, smiling at her warmly as he put removed his hand from his chin and returned his arm to rest on the table. "You were more of a mercenary that favored taking things that you felt would be better off in your ownership back in the day. You did what was in the best interests of you and your crew and I respect that. You even had that rather exotic witch theme going for you which I can only assume got better with age. "

Glancing at the tea cup in her hand, he simply asked "So what blend is that anyway?"

Jinx grimaced. “Really? You think snipers would want me? Come on, Robin Hood didn’t ...” she trailed off. “I take it back. You’ve probably got a point,” she stated, before laughing wholeheartedly.

“Self righteous – ha! You’ve got a point. You sound like my own team, you should have heard what they said. Then again, they were mostly dumb – not that you’re dumb - but still – the standards are slipping, you’re right,” she said, shaking her head. “What is the world coming too?” she asked, overly dramatic on purpose.

Jinx laughed again, nodding. “Maybe he is. Maybe the Justice League don’t want to associate themselves with him because his outfit is stupid and his jurisdiction only lies in the water,” she reasoned, finishing her tea.

She grinned. “Oh, that’s very sweet of you. The Titans thought elsewise...man, people really hated me. Or maybe they still do,” she said, nodding. “You get it, though. I was entrusted with five other dimwit members of my squad, maybe excluding Kyd Wykkyd and See More. I had to keep them on their toes, and I only took what I thought we were due. No more, no less,” she reasoned. “Besides, if we stayed hidden away all the time, I couldn’t be held accountable for what that dummy Mammoth would have done,” she reasoned, before laughing again. “The witch theme? I’m not even sure if it’s a theme, or me. At least I didn’t give myself a completely impractical outfit,” she stated, resting a finger on her chin. “I guess it might have got better with age. I’m a bit rusty. I sort of became a recluse for the last few months,” she stated, shrugging.

She looked down at her now – empty cup. “I’m not really sure. I asked for Green, but this tasted like garbage. That barista couldn’t even make tea,” she complained, before smiling at him again. “Enough about me, though. We’ve run in to each other a few times, but I barely know you. How come you actually choose to stay in this dumb city?”

"It's kind of hard to take him seriously when all the plans he brings to the table involves the usage of whales." Grinning to himself, Senshuken forced his voice to become as whiny and needy as possible. "Come on guys. We can use whales. Whales!" Unable to help himself, he brought his hand to his forehead as he chuckled at his own joke. Shaking his head a little as he removed the hand. he quickly managed to return to normal. "In fairness, Aquaman redeems himself a little due to the location of his base of operations. The only thing anyone knows for sure is that it's hidden somewhere under the sea. Considering how much of the planet is covered in water and just how deep some of the oceans floor is, this gives him a whole lot of room to hide. The teen titans on the other hand... "

The sheer amount of stupidity that was the teen titans caused Sen to face palm. To not do so would have physically hurt him. "I wouldn't worry so much about how the Titans viewed you. They are not the greatest judges of wise decisions. Robin's uniform seemed to have been designed with the sole purpose of drawing gunfire; their giant 'T' tower was paid for by the government with funding they got by cutting their law enforcement budget to the point that their police forces are barely equipped to handle a jay walker, let alone a costumed nut job with superpowers or advanced tech... Speaking of their giant 'we're compensating for something' tower, one of the key stones of being a hero is preventing your enemies from knowing where you live. This is to prevent people who wish you harm from kicking your door down and spraying bullets all over the living room. How those morons weren't killed in their sleep confuses me to this day. Don't even get me started on how safe people must have felt, having a bunch of teenagers in charge of and more or less making up their law enforcement. "

His rant over with for the time being, Senshuken removed the palm from his face (leaving a faint red hand mark in its place) before letting his red eyes meet Jinx's pink ones. "Nothing wrong with getting out of the public eye for a while. Gives you a bit more freedom to walk around without having to worry about morons yelling at you to put your hands up and surrender. Anything that means you don't have to hide that pretty face of yours sounds alright by me." A small blush managed to force it's way to the surface much to Sen's surprise, causing him to look away for a few moments until the burning of his cheeks faded away a little.

There were many different ways that he could have answered her question about what he was doing in Jump. He could have simply said something along the lines of 'Business' and left it at that, but he rather liked Jinx. At least he liked her well enough to give her some of the truth anyway, even if it had to be a bit vague. "Right now I'm only in Jump because I had a business deal that needed to be closed. Some scientist wanted help tracking down one of his incomplete experiments that had escaped from him years ago in exchange for copies of his research notes. I helped him locate his experiment, only to have him tell me that payment wouldn't come until the experiment was completed. Sensing incoming betrayal, I had his research notes hacked and copied before the originals were deleted after they proved he was planning on testing out his experimental living weapon on me once he was finished."

Giving yet another small sigh, Sen shrugged as he offered "Even with the terms of our original agreement met, I did try to tell him not to taunt the girl he had dedicated his life to ruining for his experiments, but he didn't listen to me and simply continued his insane monolog. The girl grew mad enough to break loose, I shot the scientist in the leg then proceeded to leave him to work out the disagreements that he had with his test subject on the grounds that what happened between the two of them wasn't any of my business."

Finding his left hand rubbing the back of his head, he managed a rather shy little grin as he added "While I do have things that need to be done in the future, I do have a bit of free time on my hands. So maybe... you would like to catch a movie with me... or something?" This... was harder then he thought it would have been.

Jinx nodded, smirking at his impression. “That’s very true. I don’t care who he is, but whales? That’s a little lame, come on,” she stated, before nodding again. “Gotta give it to him, that’s better than a giant T,” she stated, listening to Sen’s rant before laughing.

“If only they’d listened to you. There was this time, me and my team just waltzed in and kicked them out. For a giant T, it wasn’t even that great. There was a lot of wasted space, you know, design flaws everywhere,” she said, overdramatic again, “I wasn’t even that upset about getting kicked out again. They really should have hired some better super-teens though. One or two were pretty adept, but the rest...eugh. No wonder Jump City has so many issues,” she agreed, shrugging.

She nodded, ignoring the compliment. “Yep. That, and I got to catch up with seasons 1-7 of Supernatural, though I like people to think I was plotting,” she mentioned. Jinx’s eyes grew wider as he explained his reasons for staying in Jump, and all she could would squeak was a little, “Oh.”

She cleared her throat, trying to sound a little more distinguished. “So you’ve been busy,” she stated. “Do any of us need to worry about said girl?” she asked, knowing that angry girls with powers were never a good thing, herself included.

Jinx had to suppress a sigh as he asked her out. It wasn’t that she wasn’t flattered, nor that she didn’t want to go. She’d just been asked out more in the last week than she had in the last month. She smiled though. There wasn’t really a downside to this, and she needed to get out more, anyway. She nodded. She could see he was finding this hard, and she didn’t want to make it any more complicated. “Sure. What were you thinking?”

Nodding his head in agreement, he couldn't help but smirk a little. "Sometimes, when your hiding out or recovering it's better to bluff your way through then to admit weakness." He learned that lesson all too well...

Understanding her concern about the situation and how bad such a thing could turn out, Sen merely waved it away with a small hand gesture. "Don't worry. The matter is more or less settled. If it wasn't, we would all know about it by now." Giving a small, somewhat dark chuckle at the poor application of dark humor, he quickly returned to normal. "The girl was only interested in getting revenge on the man who ruined the lives of herself and her family. If he had escaped and she had been forced to chase him down things might have gotten ugly. She might not have been actively planning on hurting others but there would have no doubt been collateral. Thankfully, it ended at the beginning. I think we're all better off this way. Besides, I have people trying to locate her brother. I suspect she will make contact with me any day now in order to find out where he is anyway so might as well find him now."

Deciding now might be a good time to change the subject a little, Sen took a moment to try and remember all the movies that were playing at the moment off the top of his head. "Well, it depends. I know tradition demands a romantic drama or romantic comedy but I'm new at this so tradition can take a hike. What do you want to go see? Sometimes brutal honest was the way to go.

Jinx nodded in agreement. "Exactly. I like to let them think that I've got something planned. Just so no one will try to mess with me."

Jinx sighed in relief, leaning back in her chair. The coffee house had grown suddenly busy, so Jinx had to raise her voice marginally so she could be heard over the din. "Good. I just wanted to be prepared in case some angry super powered girl started ripping up Jump City. Hopefully it'll all smooth out soon," she said, stretching.

Jinx grinned, shaking her head. "I hate romantic comedies. Good thing you asked. Action? Thriller?" she asked, happy that she got a say. She preferred more casual outings, anyway.

"If you notice large chunks of the city freezing over in an unseasonal cold snap, that's the signal that things have gone wrong." Senshuken warned in a kindly fashion. Even if it wasn't the girl in question causing the sudden ice age, chunks of the city freezing over suddenly and without warning was generally a good sign that someone had thrown a stunned canary into a razor sharp fan and now you had to deal with blood, feathers and god only knows what else because of it.

Noticing the sudden amount of people that had entered the coffee house and the noise that they were all making, Sen took the time to consider what movie to go see. He wanted to avoid The Possession, on account of it hitting a lot closer to home then he cared to admit and wishing to avoid giving Jinx the wrong impression of him. Hope Springs and The Campaign might have been better but just sort of lacking when it came to a first date. Then it hit him like a well thrown brick. It was so obvious that he had almost missed it at first.

Smiling knowingly as he thought more about it, Sen knew that he had picked the right movie. Speaking loud enough to be heard over the din, he merely asked "Have you seen Lawless yet? I've heard that it is the true story of the infamous Bondurant Brothers; Bootleggers back in Prohibition-era Virginia. I just have this gut feeling that it's your kind of movie."

Jinx nodded. "Got it. Early winter, I'll panic and go to Metropolis. Because, you know, of course Superman could save us from all that, too," she stated, smiling. Though if there was an unseasonable winter at any point for any reason, she'd probably think that cause for concern anyway.

Jinx was thinking of the movies that were out, and in all honesty most were the kind of movies she would vow that she would never watch. They were either stupid, or another one of Meryl Streep's movies for the middle aged. She just couldn't deal with that. She'd rather have watched the entire Twilight series.

But Sen was way ahead of the game, and he'd remembered the one movie she had, somehow, forgotten. Jinx then grinned largely. "No, I haven't! I don't really go to the movies by myself. I really have wanted to see it, though!" she said. She didn't mention the part about her small crush on Tom Hardy, but despite that, she'd wanted to see it anyway.

"Yes but then you have to keep an eye out for abominations, aliens and random monsters that show up in Metropolis on an almost weekly basis seemingly on the grounds that Superman is there and they might as well get one of the harder battles for earth out of the way first. " he countered, finding it strange that no one else seemed to notice that pattern as well. "Personally, if you wanted to go somewhere safe I would pick Australia. They haven't had a local superhero team since the Southern Squadron and that was over fifty years ago. Everyone there with superpowers seem to come to the US for reasons I've stopped trying to explain. "

Feeling as if he had struck gold, Sen's grin rivaled Jinx's own as he stood up, offering the pink hair beauty a hand in order to help her up as well. "Well, I know of a theater that's only a few minutes away if we started walking now. It would also help if we left now before they try to charge us for overpriced garbage." He added a small wink, hoping she got his message. He had gotten a cup of peppermint tea earlier on; He might as well have gone to a household sink and poured himself a glass of hot water with bits of tea leaves in the glass... and it wasn't a good household either. He wasn't planning on wasting five bucks on this garbage when it could be put to better use, such as a few hours in the company of Jinx herself.

Jinx sighed. "Jeez. I just can't seem to win. Even if I fled to Metropolis...Gotham is out of the question. Is NOWHERE safe any more?" she asked, shaking her head. He had a very valid point. She should have figured that out. "Australia? What does Australia have to offer me? Heat. Snakes. I burn like a...well, like me. I refuse to go to Australia. They all come to America, dear sir, because that's where all the psychopaths hang out," she said, with a small grin.

Jinx accepted the hand up hesitantly, brushing herself off and picking up her book. "But of course," she stated. She'd learned that to walk out on a tab, all you had to do was walk like you belonged. No hesitant movements or shifty glances; you just had to stand up and leave. Simple as that. She hoped Sen was following her lead, because she didn't know where the movie theatre was at all.