[log] so you can wipe off the grin
[21:33] * MissLo ...should probably not be left unsupervised in a bar, particularly not a bar like /this/, God only knows what she could get up to in here. As in here she is, big-eyed and toting a patched pink-and-purple purse.
[21:33] * MariaM is sauntering in, in a white shirtdress, cell phone loose in her hand. She has teenager radar, but she is not like an Authority Type. (Unlike her husband.)
[21:35] * MissLo is usually low on the radar of Authority Types; alternatively she makes them nervous, can't imagine why. She wiggles her fingers in an overly-cutesy kind of a wave. "Hiiii, excuse me, ma'am, I don't want to interrupt but I think I'm /kinda/ lost."
[21:36] MariaM: "I'll just bet! You're in the Nexus, in a bar called Stigmata; it's usually pretty dead in here, keeps to the drifters and the troublemakers. You want anything?" 'Cause she's gonna fix herself a drink, if you don't mind.
[21:38] * MissLo has the ticking-over expression of a girl making mental notes of everything Maria just said and then smiling pretty like none of it ever occurred to her: Maria is probably familiar with this. "Oh, I'd like some water, please! 'Stigmata' is kind of a funny name for a bar, huh?"
[21:45] * MariaM looks kind of amused by it. There's always one in every generation. Like the Slayer. Of crazy. "So I'm told, but I'm not exactly Catholic." She fetches water for Miss Lo over there and brings it over. "I'm Maria."
[21:47] MissLo: "I'm Lo! It's Lourdes, but you can just--you know, call me Lo!" Lo is certainly violent enough to keep up with a Slayer, underneath the silver cross (cheaper than gold) and the glossy smile, although maybe she should get something special since she's baseline. ...no. "/I'm/ Catholic, my uncle's a priest even!"
[21:47] * MariaM is in no way violent, and has never had an alternate who has plunged her chest directly into anyone's chest cavity. Or anything. Er. "My husband's Catholic! His grandfather was a priest." She will let that sink in.
[21:48] MissLo: "I'd better keep a really good eye on my uncle," she says, blithely, "I don't think that's allowed!"
[21:49] MariaM: "Well, he very kindly left the priesthood prior to my father-in-law's conception." She pauses. "Or that's the story they gave me, anyway, and they usually know better than to lie." :]?
[21:50] MissLo: "It's kind of /rude/ to," Lo says, wisely, and sips her water. "Where are you from? This doesn't look /a thing/ like Gotham!"
[21:53] MariaM: "The nexus is kind of in between everywhere. I'm actually from Chicago--which only has /parts/ like Gotham." Haha yes, she knows what Gotham is like.
[21:55] MissLo: "Ohhhkay." In between, huh. That's weird, but...not actively horrible. Yet. "I've never been anywhere else, what's Chicago like?" It's possible she can color things pink audibly.
[21:55] MariaM: "Big, loud, diverse. Dangerous in places." She cocks her head. "You're...sixteen?"
[21:56] MissLo: "Almost seventeen!" she counters, immediately, although her birthday isn't until December.
[21:57] MariaM: "See, everybody told me that didn't count, but I think it does." She grins, sharp-edged.
[22:00] MissLo: "People are /always/ saying things like that, you know, I think that's /really rude/, like who said those people get to decide what kind of age counts? I mean!"
[22:00] MariaM: "Absolutely," Maria agrees, "My husband would disagree, but he and I have differing views on a lot of things."
[22:02] MissLo: "Like whaaat? I thought married people were supposed to agree on stuff!" This is a girl who has never encountered a stable relationship in the wild before, FYI.
[22:07] MariaM: "Not everything. Some relationships are more fun with conflict." Maria presumably has approximately a trillion bite marks on her neck, though one cannot be sure.
[22:07] * MariaM pauses. "Also, you're never going to agree with anyone on everything, especially the longer you know them."
[22:08] * MissLo eyes her skeptically for a second, as though Maria has questioned some law of physics. "Well, I /guess/ that sounds right."
[22:09] MariaM: "I've been doing this for 25 years, give me a little credit," she grins, ...semi-mild. "My husband and I fight. A lot. I don't mind."
[22:10] * MissLo smiiiiles, which would probably be all teeth if she were showing them. "Whatever floats your boat, huh?"
[22:10] MariaM: "We tend to operate on that basis. People don't usually protest." For long! Because they're the most terrifying people in the world.
[22:13] MissLo: "Oh they just hardly ever do!" Lo seems to find this entertaining. Why.
[22:14] MariaM: "People usually are really agreeable if you're nice! I've noticed. I'm sure you have, too." Hahaha Martel I'm so sorry :(
[22:15] MissLo: "I'm /always/ nice," Lo says, earnestly. This is...arguable, you horrible child.
[22:16] MariaM: "Me too. On the basis of being nice, do you have a preference for music? I grew up with reggaeton, but it's not to everyone's taste."
[22:21] MissLo: "I'm not really picky!" Trufax: Lo would find nothing objectionable about Martel's Gregorian chant, although for different reasons.
[22:24] * MariaM selects sooomething probably along the lines of trip-hop, which is also to her tastes. "You know, you'd think they'd update this fucking thing once in a while, I've been coming here for a while and it's always the same thing." Maria you're supposed to be a mom, stop swearing :(
[22:26] MissLo: "Maybe it's not cost efficient!" 'Cost efficient' lacks airquotes but it does have audible jazzhands.
[22:27] MariaM: "I don't know if cost efficient applies here!" She looks thoughtful. "Which is a hell of a nice change from Chicago."
[22:29] MissLo: "How does /that/ work?" :O!!
[22:31] MariaM: "The Nexus iiis...all realities, all dimensions, all connected--and one of its properties is that it regenerates certain objects constantly. Like food!"
[22:32] MissLo: "/Huh/!" Okay, so...she doesn't remember drinking anything /before/ she came through the door here, but you never know...
[22:33] MariaM: "Break something," Maria suggests, mild, "You'll see."
[22:34] MissLo: "...break something?" See, the eye make up makes it more interesting when she blinks like that. (Although she does sound a little more interested in this idea than is wholly necessary.)
[22:35] MariaM: "A glass, dish...whatever you want. Go nuts."
[22:36] MissLo: "Okidoki!" ...once more with a little LESS enthusiasm. Lo clambers over the bar and eventually comes up with a /really/ nice crystal decanter, which she's turning over in her hands as though considering the most awesome way of destroying it. (She is.)
[22:36] * MariaM watches this with her elbows poised on the bartop.
[22:38] * MissLo takes aim a couple times, testing-like, and then -- standing off to the side of the edge slightly -- she /whacks/ the circular part of the decanter hard against the bar, letting go at the last possible moment to avoid, you know, slicing her hands to shit.
[22:39] * MissLo did not quite solve the problem of 'glass shards', but she did close her eyes and mouth first.
[22:41] * MariaM neatly evades the path of the glass, and after watching it...reform in front of them, says, with a certain delighted note, "I kinda thought you were my sort of girl."
[22:41] MariaM: Dear Nexus: what hath you wrought.
[22:42] * MissLo looks at the bar, the unbroken decanter, and Maria. "...hail fucking /Mary/," she says, delighted.
[22:44] * MariaM laughs. "Since I don't think you're gonna be drinking, want to learn a trick? I hear Gotham's a dangerous town, it might come in handy." Oh God Maria why.
[22:44] MissLo: "I love learning things!" ...yeah of course you do.
[22:46] * MariaM ...has a long razorblade balanced on one fingertip, why. "You can keep these," she explains, cheerful, "In your jacket lining, or jeans. That's not the trick, though."
[22:46] MissLo: "What's the trick?" >:3?
[22:50] * MariaM ...spins the razorblade neatly on her fingertip and then it goes flying forward, lodging itself into the ridge between the door and the doorframe. "It's a little easier with a soft target, but my husband's not here." Oh, she wouldn't do that. (No, really, she actually wouldn't, but she'd totally tell him she would.)
[22:52] * MissLo looks big-eyed between Maria and the razorblade in the frame. "...you're gonna teach /me/ how to do /that/?" ...♥
[22:54] MariaM: "Go and get it, I'll show you how to hold it. It'll take a few tries, but you've got good vision, right?"
[22:55] MissLo: "For definitely!" Lo uh...puts the decanter down, now, although she was kind of thinking about testing that a couple more times (just to be sure), and bounces over to pry the razor out from where it lodged. Carefully. Other people's blood is awesome, hers, less so.
[23:00] MariaM: "Hold it like this, on the duller edge--" She indicates with her hands. "I nick my fingers all the time, but I don't mind that sort of thing. When it's balanced, push up, like you're flicking one of those paper footballs but a little harder."
[23:02] MissLo: "I like to sew," Lo says, friendly and conversational, which sounds irrelevant except for the part where she actually has needles as well as a machine and you can do yourself an injury with that shit. Maria's right--it's gonna take some tries to get it to balance, but Lo has patience in spades.
[23:03] * MariaM offers helpful corrective advice when needed, but she's noting the interesting times when it isn't at all.
[23:06] * MissLo is an interesting kind of girl, and underneath the bubbly and the pink there's evidently a work ethic. "Oh/kay/ so I just..." Flick? Like that? ...her aim needs work, but.
[23:07] MariaM: "Like that. Little to the left--look at where you're aiming, not the blade."
[23:08] MissLo: "Look where I'm /aiming/." That sounds really obvious when it's said like that; really gotta learn not to concentrate to /exclusion/. The learning process is a continuing one. Lo goes to retrieve it and try again.
[23:08] MariaM: "Good," Maria says, approvingly, at one point, "You've got a knack, I think."
[23:10] * MissLo fair glows under the praise. ...not that she has mommy issues and a lack of female role models in her life, or anything. "I'm a real quick learner! Straight As /all the way/." ...when she has time.
[23:12] * MariaM whistles. "Good for you! I was too busy causing trouble in high school, but it's important to have a balance between the two." >_>
[23:13] MissLo: "Balance is /such/ an important thing in life!" ...oh that one was good.
[23:14] * MariaM just grins. "Have you ever handled anything like this before?" HMM?
[23:15] * MissLo gives Maria one of those little who-me-i'm-so-innocent looks from under her lashes. "Maybe once or twice! I mean, I /do/ live in Gotham, you /know/ how it is around there."
[23:17] * MariaM has been pulling those looks for 40 years, she knows 'em when she sees 'em. "Yeah, I do. I was always real fond of a switchblade, growing up--'til certain things changed."
[23:17] MissLo: "Oh /yeeeaah/?"
[23:22] MariaM: "Well! Once in a /blue moon/ there's an actual guy who's not a bastard who gets all nice and protective. I don't really need it, but he likes to take care of certain things, and it's less work for me, right? Got kids to raise, and all." .......yes, that's exactly the situation, you weirdo.
[23:23] * MissLo does 'wistful teenage girl' well, which is odd when she's balancing a razorblade on her fingertip.
[23:23] MissLo: "That sounds /really/ nice, is he cute and everything? What's his naaame?"
[23:31] MariaM: "Very. We met when I was about your age, actually--his name is Martel."
[23:31] MissLo: "How do you pet-name that?" ...priorities, Lo.
[23:32] MariaM: "'Tel, although it's something of a personal name. He doesn't tend to inspire nicknames." Because people are scared of him :( ...alternatively they just keep them to themselves. "On that note, I should ensure he has something to eat when he comes home. Keep the razorblade, okay? I hope I'll see you around."
[23:33] MissLo: "Okidoki! Bye, Maria!" Lo's going to go home and /practice/. Provided she can figure out how she got here and how to leave.
[23:33] * MariaM smiles at her, and heads home!