Characters in Scene (in Order of Appearance):
- Angela Hawkins (Phobia)
- Kara (Supergirl)
-----==[ Centennial Park - Metropolis ]==-------------------------------------
Centennial Park is one of the most beautiful parts of Metropolis. It's a noted tourist attraction, and its tall trees and man-made lakes are an iconic facet of the city. Forested acres give way to more manicured areas of the park with benches and bike/hiking paths, as well as trails for horseback riding. There is a stable where visitors can rent mounts for a few hours to ride under the trees. There are ornamental ponds with carp that attract waterfowl, and people often relax and feed the ducks when they tire of walking. One area has a carefully laid-out golf course, with a scrim of trees to help contain stray shots. The entrance to the Metropolis Zoo is here, as well.
Music from the Swan Carousel, restored from its original carving in the 19th century, can be heard through the trees. Elegant statuary and fountains decorate clearings with benches, ideal for relaxing or as picnic spots. The most notable statue is at the center of the park, depicting Superman; originally intended as a memorial when the Man of Steel was thought to be dead, it remains there as a tribute to Metropolis' most famous protector. Near the statue stands the Jurgens Museum of Metropolis Art and History.
It's a picturesque day. The sun is shining. The birds are chirping. Little white puffy clouds dot the sky. People are out jogging, walking, horseback riding, playing frisbee or flying kites with their families. In a coordinating tweed suit, remeniscent of what the british aristocracy wears, Angela Hawkins walks with an even measured gait through the park.
It's not that often that Kara gets to take a break. When she's not busy with school, chances are she's busy as Supergirl. But even a Girl of Steel needs to relax and unwind, so Kara's killing two birds with one stone, dressed up as Kara Kent with her brown wig done up in a ponytail and wearing a Metropolis U t-shirt & jeans. She's sitting on a park bench, one of the few with available spaces on this busy spring day, and reading a textbook for her psychology class. Sure, she could read it at super-speed and be done in a few seconds, but sometimes it's nice to take things slow and just pertend to be normal for a while.
The posh Brit clicks and clacks her way on her Louis Vatton heels toward the only available sitting spot. Next to the college student. Pleased that the bench is shaded, Angela moves over and settles regally onto the wooden and metal bench with a faint, "My apologies if I disturb you." She definitely has that upper class British accent.
Kara smiles and pushes her (fake) glasses up on her nose a bit more, nodding to the woman. "Oh don't worry. You're no where near as disturbing as studying in the commons would be. I'm really just going over material from today, so nothing needing serious concentration."
Phobia nods to that, her eyes peering at the book. "I had thought to study that, once," she comments haughtily as she settles a patterned bag onto her lap. It's about the size of bag as what one would carry a small dog in. With a metal click, she unfastens the magnetic closure.
"Well, I'm only studying it becase I'm a pre-med student, so it's a requirement." Kara closes up the book and sets it to the side. "Why didn't you study psychology, if you had an interest in it?"
"...Other things got in the way," Angela replies after a long moment's pause. Her manicured fingers dip into her bag to retrieve a pair of silver knitting needles and fine silk thread. She readjusts a few loops and sets to work, eyes only half watching waht she's doing as she glances at Kara again. "Have you plans to be a doctor, then," she asks with overt politeness.
Kara nods. "Yeah, I'm almost done with my pre-med studies. One more year to go. But yes, the goal is to become a doctor. General practitioner, most likely." She smiles and hold out a hand. "I'm Kara, by the way."
There's a moment that Angela peers at the extended hand as if it were an odd thing. But the moment passes, and she lets her knitting go long enough to reach out with her own hand. Her grip is dainty, delicate, and rotated slightly off the normal US version of a hand shake so that her knuckles are a little more 'on top'. "Angela Hawkins the third," she entones nobly. "A great pleasure, Ms. Kara."
"oooh. A third, even." Kara smiles in a freindly way, not mocking the suffix at all. "British aristocracy, then? You accent hints at that."
Huntress pages: I was able to get her to accept it as a generic easily. I just had her mention her other medicines, and pointed out how her Fosamax is now a generic. Please don't. Dad takes that shit out on ME when you piss him off.
Angela nods formaly. "Yes, quite so. And yourself," she asks, mildly curious. Afterall, this was but a colony. There weren't any true nobles here.
Kara smiles and shrugs. "Just a Kansas farm girl in the big city, I'm afraid." Of course, she can't tell Angela the *real* truth. "Are you gonig to be watching the Royal Wedding then? Kind of a big to-do over there right now."
Angela hmphs softly at that. "Most likely not. I expect that my family has already received their invitations," she comments coldly, accepting the farm girl story. Of course, everyone in America is a farmer. ;)
Well, that certainly calls for a change of subject. Kara rollse her shoulders to get more comfortable. "So, what brings you t America, if I might ask?"
"Estranged relations from across the pond," Angela replies, glancing down to her fingers as she turns her work around to start a new row. "Which led to estranged relations on the far coast. I find myself here, giving distance to it in an effort to... refind a focus." She hmphs lightly, almost grinning. "Odd, the things one says to a stranger studying to be a doctor, no?"
Kara smiles. "I take it as a sign that I'm going to be a good doctor. I tend to get people to open up to me." She shrugs a bit, looking at the other woman carefully. "I can understand about the focus thing. It took me a while to figure out what I want to do with my life." Well, what to do with her civilian life...
Angela lifts a brow, almost grinning again. With her work turned, she leaves off looking at it, in favor of keeping her eyes on the person she is speaking with. "You seem so young, if I may say so, to have found your focus already."
"Well, I guess I was focused on other things for a while," Kara admits. "Kind of a fun life, like any young person would be. But when it came down to it, I decided to go with pre-med becasue my mother was a doctor. So, a bit of family tradition."
"Ah, tradition. They keep that around here, do they," Angela asks, tone somewhat patronizing.
Kara arches an eyebrow. "Yes, we do. My cousin's family have traditions that go back a ways. Sure, they're mostly for holidays or recipies, but they're still meanignful to us. They give us a connection to our past, and that's what's important in tradition."
Angela nods. A bemused, slightly surprised expression on her features. "Quite so," she murmurs soflty, before falling into a moment of silence. "You and your family are.. close, then," she asks.
Kara nods. "We are, yes. I'm an orphan and my aunt and unclce kind of took me in. Then and my cousin and me, we're all the family we have now. So we kind of hang on and cherish the family stuff."
Angela's hand pause briefly. "My condolences," she offers with no real emotion attached to the words. She turns her gaze down to her knitting.
"It was a while ago, "Kara says with a shrug. "And I was older when they died. It still hurts, but I've moved forward." She looks at the woman's knitting. "Sounds like you have the opposite situation that I have."
Angela looks back up at Kara. "Does it now," she prompts questioningly, fingers never slowing.
"Sorry. None of my business, I suppose." Kara has an appologetic look on her face. "So, how long have you been Stateside?"
Angela grins thinly as she replies, "Several years now, though at times it seems like far less."
Kara nods thoghtfully. "This isn't exactly where you want to be though, is it? It's pertty clear that you're over here not totally by your own choice. Maybe that's why you're having difficulty finding your focus here."
Angela's hands pause, and a sigh rattles through her thin nose. "It's best this way. I've found a place that gives me what I need, and another that is quite the opposite. Hopefully, I'll find a happy medium in which to move forward from what my live once was." She considers this a moment, then shurgs and resumes knitting. "In so far as I will be allowed, that is. Reputations have a way of following one around, I'm afraid."
"Yeah. Unfortunately, they do." Kara nods sympatheticly. "I know a lot about moving forward and starting over from scratch. I know how hard it is. And the biggest thing that you need is someone to listen to your problems and help you through them."
This makes Angela stop knitting entirely. She turns her green eyes on Kara. He whole face is one of confusion mixed with relief. "Yes. I do suppose you are right," comments the Brit.
Kara smiles, warm and inviting. "So, care to lay your troubles on a complete stranger who's non-judgemental? This is kind of what I do, help people out with their problems."
Long moments pass as Angela considers. her hands pausing every now and again. Finally, hands resuming their work, she begins softly. "I was once a member of the Brotherhood, in San Francisco. I helped them by subduing various members of the Titans. One of their number, however, has made me...." She pauses, fingers turning her work around to begin a new row. "...reconsider. And yet, I find myself still needing the feel of what my powers do to people." She pauses and looks over at Kara. "What so many costumed super heros and villians in this world, I'm certain you know what I speak of. I am Phobia."
Well, Kara certainly wasn't expecting that. Good thing she's had some lessons from J'onn in controlling her thoughts and expressions in front of a telepath. "I see..." Kara draws out her response, knowing that she really shouldn't be around this person at all right now. But her desire to help is strong. "You're serious about what you just said? That you're a vill...a metahuman named Phobia?"
Angela's hand pause. She closes her eyes and pulls back on her mind's need to seek out fear when the hint of a person's anxiety teases at her the edge of her perception. "Yes," is the reply as green eyes open and turn to regard kara again. "I was a villian, as marked such in that I opposed those commonly seen as heroes. Though, as can be seen by the differing opinions of our countries' mutual history, the role of hero or villian is often a matter of which side one stands upon." And then she smiles softly, brows pulled a light tense in her efforts to keep her mind ot herself. "And if you are at all skilled in controlling your own thoughts and emotions, waylay your fears and anxieties. They serve only to fuel a thing that I would rather be elsewhere to do."
Kara nods, not really needing to act to convey a sense of anxiety. She takes a few deep breaths and forces herself to calm down. "Okay. I said I was non-judgemental and I meant it. So, semantics of good and evil aside, it sounds like you want to change your life. Maybe give it some meaning? And to do that, you're now moving towards wanting to help people, but you still have these cravings. Is that pretty much what's going on?"
Angela takes a deep breath, hands completely still on her knitting. She waits, willing her mind not to seek out those anxeities, waiting for the perfume of them to pass. Once Kara begins speaking, and the weight of the emotions is lessened, Angela nods lightly. "For the most part, yes."
Kara nods, slowly and carefully. "Then it sounds to me like you already knowwhat you should be doing. If you do good things, then the people who are good will notice and in time, will come to acept you. I mean, the Justice Leage let Hawkgirl back in after the Thangarian invasion, right? If you show your commitment, people like Superman will start to try and help you." And her cousin would, the big lug...
Angela can't help but snerk at that. "I rather think not. I have tried. Minding my own business, and doing what I must to keep my own mind and all manner of caped wonders come out of the wood work. "
"Because you need to feed on fear," Kara says with a nod. Rather than fear or anxiety, she's now looing at Angela as a problem to be solved. "Have you tried explaining that you need to feed on fear? Or is it more soemthing that you do that you could survive without?"
A light frown plays on Angela's face. "That I am speaking of it to you is quite the accomplishment, Kara." With Kara no longer feeling fear, the need to feel it is lessening, but much like a smoker trying to quit that's gotten a whiff of second hand smoke, the itch for fear begins a new. "I have done my best to find a location and a group of malcontent upon which to prey, but to no avail. As for surviving without it, from the moment I discovered this gift, I can not name a time when I did not survive without it."
Kara thinks for a bit before responding. "Well...and I'm not syaing that it's right to cause fear in someone jsut becasue they're bad, but if you're going with that mindset, Gotham would probably be the better city for you. Lots of whacked out criminals there."
A thin line of cold laughter drifts from Angela, the smile almost warm. "Yes. I've discovered this already. I've found Metropolis to be my bright and sunny resting spot between the times that I must... how did you put it? Feed?" She shakes her head, no longer laughing, but still smiling at it.
"Well, it's not going to be easy," Kara says. "You've set yourself a hard task. But if there's one thing my cousin always says, you have to do what's right, not what's easiest. In time, things will get better for you. You just need to hang in there until it all turns around." She gathers up her book, still smiling freindly, "I need to get going now. But it was really good to meet you and talk to you."
Angela nods, expression softing. "Yes. Likewise," she begins, faltering slightly before she regains herself. "i can't recall the last time I had so pleasant a conversation about so sensative a topic. Thank you. I..." She stops and presses her lips together.
For a bit, kara freezes. That pause from Angela sets her mind at unease. She goes back to calming her mind and putting on a better front. "You're welcome. And was there somethign else?"
For a moment, Angela opens her mouth, but seems to think better of it. "No. It would be far too improper. Thank you, Kara. I will not be forgetting our meeting easily." She smiles again, the strain of fighting her own habit evident in the tightness of her eyes.
Kara nods. "Okay. And I do hope things work out for you. Maybe I'll see you around the park sometime." She picks up her book and bows her head for a bit. "Good luck, Angela." She holds out her hand to shake it.
Angela reaches out her hand again, returning Kara's hand shakes. "Yes. Likewise. I ... I shall look forward to any future meetings we may have."
