12 / 23 / 08 - Brian, Pepper (NPC), Stark, Yuriko
"Sir?" The waitress tapped Brian's shoulder. The restaurant was warm, a blessing compared to the chilly bite of the outdoors. The warm air was filled with the chatter and noise of customers complaining about their hamburgers, customers ordering assorted foods and drinks, and waiters and waitresses bustling about taking and filling orders. And snoring. One booth of the restaurant was occupied by a man, face down on the table, next to a half-eaten cheeseburger. "Sir? You need to wake up, sir." The waitress bothered again.
Yuriko putters in. Or drifts. Or -- no, she wafts. Like a spring breeze, which hasn't quite made up its mind whether it will eventually grow up to be a real wind, or perhaps a /zephyr/, which is like a real wind except with teeth. She has teeth. They are omnivorous, which is splendid because she is an omnivore. She shows them to the glass door, so it can see how straight and even her teeth are, and then dri-- /wafts/ in and finds a stool at the bar. She climbs onto the stool. It requires all her concentration. Her little brow furrows, like so. And now she is on top of it, and very proud of herself. Hurrah!
Oh, the bar. Well, then. Now we know where to place our last player in this little scene: Stark is leaning against the bar, rather than seated at it. To his left, a certain redhead, fatigue leaving even the irrepressible Ms. Potts looking worn; to his right, an empty stool, no longer empty, and thus, he regards Yuriko with a moment's curious study. He tips his head to her in acknowledging gesture and then looks over his shoulder toward the waitress attempting to rouse a man. They are Waiting.
"Sir!" Brian picks up his head, eyes pinched from sleep. "Yeah..Wha?" The waitress looks at him warily, unsure of what he is going to do. "You were asleep, sir." He shakes his head, and scratches the back of it. "Yarg...Uh...sorry...I'm not quite finished yet, I'll get the check in a minute." The waitress nods, and walks away. Teale leaned back in his booth chair, and looks at the sad display of a burger in front of him. He picks it up, and grimaces when he feels it. It has hardened. "Yech.." He stands up, and stumbles to a counter stool. He looks at the server, and says, "Gimme uh...a cup o' coffee...please." He turns to his left, and nods to the man. Then the other man. Then the woman.
Yuriko can wait. She balances her elbows on the bar counter, leans over them to inspect the floor hidden by the counter, then sits back to regard Ms. Potts. "Your hair, it is almost red," she announces, in case the esteemed Ms. Potts is somehow unawares. Her glossy head tips slowly to one side. "Is it," she asks, "red all over?" Brian's nod towards her inspires a slow blink and inspection. "Hello." She is polite!
Pepper promptly goes red all over: pale, freckled skin shows a flush like nothing else. "I'm sorry?" she asks with a tiny smile, restraining the twitch of her eye toward Stark and Brian to focus entirely upon Yuriko.
"Long day?" Stark asks Brian in mild fashion. A hiccuping shrug of his shoulder, a glint in his eye -- those are the only signs he's paying attention to Yuriko and Pepper.
Brian rubs his eyes, attempting to make the world clearer. "Longer night." He removes his hands to stare, mildly surprised, at the cup of coffee now placed under his chin. "Mmmph." He picks it up, takes a sip, and nearly spits it, realizing how foul late night restaurant coffee is. He winces as he swallows, and looks over at the man talking to him. "But yes, long day."
"Like--" Yuriko's delicate hands wave in a descriptive flutter. French-like. "There is a doll," she explains earnestly. "It is red. Like -- Eleph-- no. Elmer. No." Elmo. Her eyebrows twitch happily upward. "Elmo. It is an odd name. Red. Everywhere. Also he has no teeth." Suddenly suspicious, she tips her head a little further, her attention focusing on Pepper's mouth.
Though Stark fails to flinch at the potential spray of coffee, Pepper leans over anxiously to check to make sure that Brian hasn't splattered the suit. She uses the fussing to stall, and looks up at Yuriko again somewhat belated. "Yes, but he is a muppet," she says, with a small, white-teethed smile.
"Ah," Stark says to Brian, checking his watch. Stunning conversationalist? Yes.
Brian turns his eyes toward the waving woman, slightly confused. He shrugs, and forces down another gulp of stale coffee. His Canadian accent rich in timbre, he glances over to the 'red' woman, and says, "What, ma'am, is a muppet?"
"Ah," says Yuriko, just like Stark except less sexy. She is more on the salt shaker end of the sensuality scale, and mouths the word 'muppet' without noticeable recognition for the word. "Like Kermit," she adds. Which just proves that Asians are impenetrable. In, again, a non-sexy way. She touches her forehead with her finger, and says a hopeful, "Hello. I am Yuriko Oyama. I am very pleased to meet you."
Pepper's expression warms slightly. "Kind of," she agrees, turning just slightly to face Yuriko more directly as she offers her hand. "I'm Pepper Potts." She looks over to Brian with widening eyes. "You don't know what a muppet is?" She looks shocked!
Stark looks impatient, and then tense, and then curious, looking at Yuriko again, longer. Oyama?
Brian shakes his head, then turns to the man. "You...I've seen you before..." Brian eyed the leaning man, mind searching for the location of this recognition. "I've seen you on the news...Tom...Clark?" He eyes his goatee. "No. Stark?"
Yuriko looks Asian. Which is her default status, so not worth mentioning, really. "Pepper Potts," she echoes, and takes Pepper's hand in a firm clasp of her own. No body parts are dismembered. She looks pleased. "Like shakers, yes? Hello. --Hello," she adds towards Brian for good measure, and another for Stark. "Hello." She is so friendly!
"Right," Pepper says firmly. The faintest hint of condescension touches her manner: open, warm, friendly, but touched a hint of patronization as she smiles at Yuriko. "It's a nickname," she adds, tipping her head in Stark's direction to indicate the name's origin.
"Yes," Stark adds, looking away from the Asian to the round-eye. "That's me. Stark." He thumbs his goatee with a hint of proprietary smugness, like he invented facial hair.
"Well. Pleasure, sir." He offers his hand. "Teale." He raises his eyebrows, and uses his other hand to take another sip of digusting coffee.
"Color," Yuriko identifies, on a happy roll. She says proudly, "And Stark is an aaaaadjective. It means to be naked." Which Stark's face is not. She says, "Pie, please!" in case anybody is listening and taking orders.
Stark watches to make sure that sip of coffee goes down before briefly clasping Teale's hand. "How do you do." He then leans over the bar: "An extra fifty if you get those burgers out here in a minute," he calls back, incurring a minor scramble.
"Does Yuriko Oyama mean anything?" Pepper asks, her lightness that of a stoic /trooper/ in the face of the bizarre.
Brian grins, raising an eyebrow, and returning his attention to his coffee. Wasted, that is. "Could I get some creamer, please? Or, you know, some coffee?" Instead of bile.
"Science," says Yuriko, taking the question less literally than she should. She is not dignified on her stool; having determined that she is too short to see as far behind the counter as she'd like, she climbs up further onto it with her knees. "Also technology, and genetic engineering. And metal--urgle," she finishes, gamely. Close, but no potato. "The military buys many things. Oh, like planes. And ... things."
Pepper begins to look a little glazed. The effort of being Up in the face of so much Weird is telling on her. "Oh," she says, a little weakly.
Stark, on the other hand, looks intrigued. "Yes, they do," he agrees. With an assumed casual manner, he adds, "What kind of science does the military buy?" just as a styrofoam container slides across the bar toward his elbow. He waves a Pepper to do the paying thing.
Brian's ears perk up, paying apt attention to the conversation. He concentrates deeply on his coffee, awaiting that oh so very needed creamer, but is afraid he may be out of luck.
Once more Yuriko's answer is absolutely truthful without being in any way helpful. "Expensive science," she says. "Pie," she adds sadly. "It is like an isosceles triangle with fruit. --You are very attractive," she directs somewhere between Stark and Pepper, her attention wandering away. And, oh /triumph/ of hooking, she informs Brian very seriously, "Coffee will stunt your growth and make you like Mr. Magneto."
Yes, they are. Exchanging a glance, CEO and assistant straighten and slide from the stool, respectively. Pepper gathers the food and Stark gathers -- well, nothing, so perhaps just his air of importance. "Right. Enjoy the rest of your evening, boys and girls," Stark says, shrugging back on his coat. "If you want to talk about science, Ms. Oyama, I'd love to hear it."
Brian raises an eyebrow, and sets the coffee down. He swirls the now cooling coffee about with his finger, and grins. He pokes his finger into the coffee cup, now empty. "No need to worry." He replies, smug.
"Okay," says Yuriko. To all of them. Brian and Pepper and Stark. All three. Okay. And she sits on her stool, crosses her legs, and looks Buddha-like. Which is sort of the anti-hook.
Stark and Pepper are outie. That is more an anti-hook.
Burgers.