Log Title:
St. Patrick's Day Nightcap
Characters:
Mike (Phantasm), Basil, Sandman
IC Date:
17 March 2012
Location:
Midtown
Brief log summary::
Basil is a Good Samaritan, He and Sandman gets free drinks, and Mike catches up with Sandman
Rating:
pg13
There is no TS in this log::
Yes
Post your log::
-==[ Midtown - New York ]==---------—
Midtown Manhattan is the single largest and busiest commercial district in the United States. The majority of the city's skyscrapers are located in these blocks, including the Empire State Building and the Chrysler Building, along with most of the city's hotels and not a few apartment towers. More than three million people work in this space; Fifth Avenue is here, with its famed shops, and so is everything from Grand Central to St. Patrick's Cathedral to the Daily Bugle to the Museum of Modern Art. This is how you get to Carnegie Hall.
With the excitement of the Fomor drop in at the St. Patrick's Day Parade having occurred in the morning, it is a testament to how easily adaptable New York residents are with such events. The streets have been cleaned up, the barriers have been removed, and people are moving about as if the parade in the morning went about normally. Instead they are going about their businesses, and for Saturday night on a holiday that highlights drinking in the US, the pubs are crowded boasting music acts to draw crowds in.
One such pub, has just finished one of their acts. Now freed up, Mike emerges from a side door, still dressed in his attire from the parade. An Irish cap, blue jeans, and a black tee with a simple shamrock in the center of the chest with some green musical notes splayed to the sides of it. He seems, quite sober considering the common pasttime.
Basil's actually off from work today. Not that he's particularly any more Irish than anyone else is in this city, but he does bother to actually wear a green sweater, at least, while he goes out for an evening walk. He had a few cases he was still in the process of handling, but he doubted terribly that he'd luck out and find one of his clients randomly stumbling out of a pub this early in the evening. So he just hums softly, ands in his pockets, and carries on along his way, roughly following the former parade route more as a matter of coincidence than intent.
NOT one of his clients, Mike comes to the end of the alleyway the side door had been situated in and soon steps onto the sidewalk, just in front of Basil. With the general mood of the people in the area, Mike finds himself immediately having to side step an arm being swung by another person who seems to have had enough to drink with the evening. Unfortunately, this also makes it to where Mike doesn't see the approaching Basil.
Basil steps back a bit to avoid getting run into. "Ah, 'scuse me," he murmurs, waiting to make sure that this wasn't going to turn into a fight right in front of him. He could always go around, if necessary. Always seems the way, on this day. Enough people use it as an excuse to get far worse sloppy drunk than they should, that it turns into a headache for the rest of the city.
At the request to be excused and once he's sure Mr. Flaily arms isn't going to hit him, Mike turns his head looking towards Basil, "Sorry. Was trying to avoid getting hit by that guy." He gives a tilt of a head in indication to the obviously inebriated man. There is a scent of alcohol upon Mike's breath but not in the overpowering sense, nor does he seem to be overly affected by it.
Basil nods and rubs the back of his head. "No big deal. Just letting you know that I was behind you, too. No harm done, right?" he says, and smiles weakly. "Accidents happen, though. People overindulge so much today… more than normal, anyhow." He shrugs, and eyes the drunk, and shakes his head. "Hope he's calling a taxi. Or walking."
Mike glances to the man staggering off before giving a nod, frowning as he thinks of another instance of overindulgence that ended badly, "Yeah, It'd suck if he got himself or someone else killed 'cause he thought he was good for driving."
Making his way back to Midtown after having defeated the Fomor King is Sandman. Dressed again in a green and black stripped sweater with green trousers, green sunglasses, and matching green hat. He makes his way to the bar. Some parade watchers from earlier thank him for saving them and snap pictures as he proudly brandishes his badge saying, "Kiss Me. I'm Irish…Lower." Once he signs a few autographs, he spots Mike the staggering man and shakes his head, "Lightweight." After watching the man go, he spots his buddy Mike. "Hey…hey…missed you earlier when you ran away and I had to take on the psycho Fomor king."
Basil nods. Even better idea. "…'Scuse me again for a moment." He heads over to the drunk, and pats him on the shoulder. "Hey buddy. I'll get you a cab," he says. He works on trying to flag one down, and hands the driver a $50 when he does. "…Take this guy back to wherever he says his home is. …And not another bar," he says, and grins. It might be early in the evening, but this one's done. And that's his good deed for the day, so there's that.
Mike watches as Basil walks off to herd the drunk into the taxi and make arrangements. Mood brightening a bit, he starts to step towards Basil before hearing Sandman. He stops, turning his head to look over towards the Avenger, working to control the feeling of amusement to Bill's ignorance of his participation with the fighting. "Just doing what was helpful," he replies, giving a small smile, "You wanted people to leave the area, I left the area. One less person to worry about and stuff." He glances over to the direction of Basil once more.
"Yeah, I guess so. Sid and Phantasm showed up. It was actually Phantasm who saved the day. He literally pecked the guy's throat out." Stating it simply without any reaction, he watches as Mike watches Basil and the drunk guy. "Who is that?" He could mean either Basil or the drunk guy. "Friend or friends of yours?" Bill asks with a half-grin then turns to the bar, "And when are we starting to drink? Elathan ruined my buzz. I need to catch up with everyone else."
Basil heads back over once the drunk is safely away in the taxi, and shrugs. "…Just doing what's helpful," he says, and grins. "…One less DUI and one less car crash today, at least. Can't afford too many of those, but a night like tonight, well. Odds are he'd be in too good a mood and try to drive, right?" He holds a hand out. "So anyhow. I'm Basil. Nice to meet you." He might not have heard the whole conversation… or at least, was pretending he didn't… but he did hear the 'who is that' part.
"I had to finish up a performance so I haven't really started." Mike admits, "And just some guys I ran into just now." He lifts up a hand in a bit of a beckoning wave to Basil as the Good Samaritan turns around to actually see the gesture. "So, pecked the throat out? Sounds a bit gory." Upon Basil returning, Mike nods to the explanation, taking the offered hand to shake, "Mike Hannigan. Nice meeting you." He nods to Bill, "You probably already know this guy already. Bill Baker. An Avenger." There's an added emphasis to the label of 'Avenger'.
Waving in an introductory gesture, "Yep, though some people call me Sandman." He looks to Mike, "You finished a gig, huh." He looks to Basil, "Mikey here is a rockstar." Smiling, he then extends his hand to Basil, "Nice to meetcha and good deed there helping that drunk out…Not that we should end up like that, but why don't we all have a drink." Noting the bar they are by, "We might as well end the night on a drink." Back to Mike, "It seems that is the only way to beat those guys…When you are in the mood for true gore, I'll tell you what happened in England with the rest of his lot."
Basil nods and shakes Sandman's hand. "Nice to meet the pair of you, then. And I think one or two wouldn't hurt. I don't have to be to work until Monday, but I'd rather not end up needing to call a taxi for myself as well, huh?" he says, and nods. "Don't have anything else planned for tonight, anyhow."
"None of the tour dates lined with this weekend so I got booked for an acoustic performance at one of the local joints," Mike adds in explanation to Bill before looking back to Basil, "I'll get your first drink." He nods towards a pub. One of the ones that wasn't advertising a music act tonight which might cause for slightly less of a crowd. "If you want, you can tell over the drinks. Kind of curious to what was going on to the area we were advised to stay away from."
Leading the men into a bar, Sandman gets a few looks as he heads to a table and plops right down kicking out the chairs for the other two. A waitress comes by to take their orders and adds, "On the house for your heroics today, Sandman." He smiles, "Why thank you, mam. In that case, I will have a bourbon and coke." Allowing the other two to place their orders, he looks around making eye contact with some people who stare and then he waves at them.
Basil just orders a margarita and sits down in one of the chairs. Hey, at least they were green. "Least it isn't too crowded, huh? And I sort of missed all the excitement earlier. Rather on purpose, really. No sense just getting in the way, when I can't do anything to help. Never understood the need to rubberneck at dangerous situations."
Mike ends up getting a bottle of Guinness, already setting out the money to pay for his and Basil's drinks. "Yeah." Mike agrees, "If you can help, help. If you can't, then get the hell out of the way, you're just hurting things." As the bottle is set before him, the musician grabs the bottle and takes a swig of the contents. He sets the bottle down, glancing over to Bill. "So, what happened in Europe? I know there was some weird shit going on during promotion time but not much more than, 'don't go there'."
"Well, I always appreciate people wanting to help, but really in most situations with powered super villains, it is best they leave it to the heroes. Plus this guy in particular was more powerful than the average villain running around New York." Sandman offers to Basil's comment. Taking a big swig of the bourbon, he then nods to Mike, "Well that psycho from earlier Elathan, is the king of a race of former gods called the Fomor. The Avengers beat their asses awhile back and then again after this whole crap with red doors." He hmmmns, "Well, quick rundown, mysterious doors starting popping up in England. These creatures would come out and hunt and kidnap kids and innocent people. Turns out the creatures were the Fomor. We got called in to investigate. Turns out the whole person behind this crap was an old witch, Morgan Le Fay. She tricked them. We all fought. " He shakes his head, "Let me tell you it was one of the tougher fights I have had. Um…once we freed the Fomor from Morgan's spell. They freaked. Ripped her throat out and she got swallowed by a 100 ft tall bull, that is the Fomor death god."
"That, is gory." Mike replies, giving a solemn nod to go with the assessment. A finger taps alongside the glass of the bottle, frowning, "Were you guys able to get the kids back at least?"
"Yeah we saved everyone and we even tried to save Morgan too. You would be surprised just how crazy this universe is and how many people are out there 'watching' us? We had defeated Morgan and then Merlin and his crew stepped in and had us weigh judgment. The Fomor won out and got to eat her. It was pretty gross. Seriously." Sandman shakes his head and gestures for another bourbon. "In some ways we are puppets. Merlin and whoever else pulling out strings."
"Good." Mike lifts the bottle to sip before setting it back down once more, "Well, the rescuing bit, not the eating people and puppet stuff. That just sucks." The fingers of his free hand taps along the bar top, "So, we got the Fomor, plus we have that, uh. What was h- Moondragon. Yeah. What's she?"
"Moondragon? How do you know about her? She was an Avenger back in the day. She showed up to save my ass when I was all 'red'" Sandman frowns when he receives his bourbon and coke. He does not slam this one down, but sips it, "Some people have bad things to say about her. But she saved my butt. So I only got good things for her."
Mike's brow arches at the question. Oops? "Sue and Ben." Mike points out matter of factly, "Last I checked we were friends. I may not have been able to check on you but I did ASK about you," Mike grows quiet for a bit, sipping his beer for a few moments, buying a bit of time before glancing over to Sandman, once more, "Not everyone can be hero material 24-7."
"Wow, you are getting defensive…yeah we are friends and thanks for asking about me. Though I am surprised Sue and Ben mentioned Heather. She is not liked by A LOT of the superhero community. She just kinda shows up and takes charge. She did with me, which was cool, but most of the team donât like her very much." Sandman looks to Mike, "But kinda weird you would ask about her. As bad as she can be at times. She ain't nowhere near as bad as the Fomor." He hmmmns and remembers an Avengers file, "Well…"
Mike holds up a hand in surrender. "Well it's not like I got a overly detailed description of what went on. But Yeah they did mention she was there and kind of did a split thing with you?" Mike adds, "I was guessing there was more to it but." He pauses, waving it off, "It's nothing. End bit is that those who were there helped you out, and that made it to where you guys could help out with that shit in Europe, right?"
"Right." Sandman holds his glass of bourbon and coke out to tap against Mike's beer in a toast, "To helping out when you can…so how's the touring going? Any fun groupie stories or behind the scenes rock star celebrity gossip or anything?" Sandman laughs as he tries to change the subject and let Mike off the hook about Moondragon.
There is a clink of glass against bottle before Mike takes a final sip of the beer. The empty bottle sets down, "Tour's starting out alright. Not too many events have hit yet so it makes managing things well." The hand moves from the bottle, "Got to party with Boston Zombie and Excess Mortality a bit. Which is pretty fun. Also might get to have Wade play with us during the later half of the tour, also good."
"Oh that's cool for Wade. I bet he has been dreaming of that forever." Sandman offers as he takes a chug to finish the glass of alcohol. With the alcohol done, Sandman grins, "Wow, Boston Zombie and Excess Mortality, sound like a fun bunch of guys with names like that." He laughs.
There's a bit of a wry smile at the mention of dream. He glances towards the bartender, tapping his bottle in indication before responding to Bill. "I wouldn't be surprised. I'm sure if it hadn't been for the hand problem he'd never have left performing. As for the other groups, yeah, they are pretty fun." Mike agrees, "Kind of reminds me of what it was like with Greysong."
"Greysong? Was that your previous group?" Sandman also taps on his glass and gestures for the bartender who has the waitress bring them their respective drinks. "And yeah, that time I met Wade he seemed like a cool cat. Hey you ever meet Springstein or Bon Jovi? Now those are some rock idols. I wouldn't mind meeting."
Mike nods, not specifying which question that was in answer to. "Springsteen and Bon Jovi? Hmm. I'll try to keep that in mind if I should run into them. Which, probably wouldn't happen for awhile. Different touring circuits." When the replacement beer is set down, he reaches into his pocket to pull out the right amount of cash to pay for his drink.
And with that the friends continue drinking until they have had enough, but are not drunk and each respectively returns to their homes.
