milliways_bar | (no subject)

Well, you knew this was coming, Artemis. Have an Invincible, sitting at the Bar, drinking a Coke and contemplating his day. He looks up, and says, "Wow. That's stylish. Better than what passes for a masked archer where I'm from."

Artemis admits to nothing. Denial is also a river that runs past Arkham.

Her voice is a touch deeper, a little rougher than out of costume.

Mostly because, even as an archer, she's still from Gotham.

"Green goes with everything."

"It does," agrees Mark. "And it looks a lot easier to get around in than Shaft's outfit. He's got all these pouches in weird places."

(Why yes, Shaft is a Liefield character. Why do you ask?)

Mark sticks out a hand. "Invincible," he says, by way of introduction. "Are you new?" He shakes his head, answering himself, "Stupid question. You know the Bar, so you're obviously not new. Never mind."

Edited 2012-07-26 15:01 (UTC)

"But you haven't seen me before," she says, "This Shaft guy, any armor under all that? If anybody spots me I figure the fight is going to come down to not getting hit on my end."

He taps the Bar lightly. "Bar, could you get me one of Youngblood's overblown PR photos?" There's a pause, and an 8 x 10 glossy appears. "Behold," says Invincible dryly, "the face of U.S. government superheroes."

(No, the bow doesn't actually have a string.)

"They have a cartoon," he says, with a tone of distaste.

"I guess that's how you know you've made it into the big time.

"No, seriously, the government actually takes responsibility for them?"

"Yeah. Shaft is reputedly trained by the FBI. How archery figures into standard Bureau agent training, I don't know." He shakes his head. "The general opinion is that they're a public relations front for the government, since the Guardians and other groups don't actually work for the Feds."

Invincible shrugs. "They must be worth something, if Congress is willing to budget funds for them."

"How much you willing to bet it's a job for someone's nephew?"

Or an attempt to get a cousin a date. Something along those lines.

"Oh, God, that would make complete sense!" Invincible exclaims, laughing. He looks at the picture. "Badrokk's like seventeen, so he could totally be someone's kid," he says, tapping the image of the massive stone figure that looks like a badly plagiarized Ben Grimm. "I wonder if Shaft's some general's son or something...?"

"You can't follow the money, follow the relatives. Or the votes I guess for this one."

Those are generally public record too. Being able to meet people for the first time and just know things about them is hilarious.

Invincible shrugs. "They don't bother me, I won't bother them," he says. "Although, I would like to know why they bothered to make some sort of gauss gun in the shape of a bow. I mean, I would think that the purpose for using a bow is that it's quieter than a gun, and usually legal to carry around, right?"

"So, if you're a government agent and don't have to worry about gun laws, why not use a gun, especially if you're going to negate the silence of a bow by making it fire projectiles that break the speed of sound?"

"Wait, a gauss gun? I was hopping for some sort of energy construct arrows so he wouldn't run out of ammunition. That's nuts."

"Well, all they say in the public information is that it 'uses magnets' so he doesn't have to have a bowstring, so I think it's a gauss gun of some sort," says Mark. "I get that bowstrings are kind of a vulnerable point, being thin cable at best, but really, why not just use a gun?"

He cranes to the side a little, to get a look at her gear. "I'm guessing you use something a little more conventional. And reliable."