Downtime

[sand-hawkins.livejournal.com]

It was unseasonably warm for being just after Thanksgiving, but not THAT warm that the trenchcoat couldn't be worn.

For either of them.

Sand was trying to get one on one time with the entire team, so he agreed to meet folks wherever they were to kind of get a feel for them.

The bar wasn't quite his first choice - but he knew that this particular member had his own quirks.

Comments

[onthecase.livejournal.com]

The Chimp sits at the bar, a cigarette in one knuckle, and a glass in his other hand. He pops a couple peanuts in his mouth before he notices Sand coming in.

"Hey, Sand. Pull up a chair... I'll cover your first round."

Thankfully, this particular bar isn't one that looks askance at a talking drunken chimp. With the changes Sand has encountered recently at Enchantress's hand, it seems that he can find the bar too. Well. Good for him.

[sand-hawkins.livejournal.com]

Sand looks at the barkeep. "Vanilla Coke, double shot of vanilla." He turns to the chimp. "Where everybody knows your name?"

[onthecase.livejournal.com]

"Pretty much," he nods. "Most bars, someone like me attracts too much attention. Here, I'm just another regular."

A four-inch fiery pixie floats by, snags a few peanuts, and heads back down the bar to her shot glass -- which she promptly dives into, igniting the alcohol. The Chimp barely notices.

"What brings you here, Boss-man?" he asks.

[sand-hawkins.livejournal.com]

"Bonding." Sand says simply, taking a swig of the Coke as it's set down. Damn, that tastes good, right out of the fountain, no less. "When you go and form a new team of people of whom you don't know half of them, you go and meet and greet." Sand pauses. "What's your actual name anyways - or at least your first, if you're using "Chimp" as your last name?"

[onthecase.livejournal.com]

"Technically, it's not my last name. I guess you could call me Bobo T. Chimpanzee, if you want... but that's not my real name either."

[sand-hawkins.livejournal.com]

Sand nods. "There a particular reason you don't want your real name out there?" He says it deliberately in a non-accusatory way - the tone is more curious than adversarial.

[onthecase.livejournal.com]

"Well, first of all, true names can lead to trouble in the mystic realm. Plus, there's the fact that it wouldn't do you too much good, as it's not really pronouncable. But we'll just say it involves my skills at locating grubs." He shrugs.

[sand-hawkins.livejournal.com]

Sand takes another sip, then looks around. "They have food here?"

[onthecase.livejournal.com]

"You bet. Whatcha want?" He slides his glass forward. "Hit me again."

[sand-hawkins.livejournal.com]

"Medium done steak would be groovy." Sand says. "Of all the names you could have chosen for your 'street name' - why Bobo?"

[onthecase.livejournal.com]

"Hell, I didn't choose that one. That's what they chose for me when I was taken. Back before I gained the ability to speak to dumb animals like humans." He winks.

[sand-hawkins.livejournal.com]

"You've been talking to Power Girl's cat, haven't you?"

[onthecase.livejournal.com]

He smiles. "Oh, the dirt that kitty knows..." He grins and knocks back the shot before sliding it forward for another replacement. "So how about you... this sort of thing doesn't look like your usual scene. What do you do for fun when you're not strapping on a gas mask and beating on the bad guys?"

A demonic-looking creature looks over at that and hisses, but then turns back to its drink.

[sand-hawkins.livejournal.com]

"I watch movies. Hang out with Corrine and our mutual friends a lot." A pause. "Getting pretty good at sudoku, too."

"You're right - this isn't my usual scene. But it's yours, and your comfortable here, and what better place to get a sense of who you are?"

[onthecase.livejournal.com]

He shrugs. "Well, you could always look at my apartment and talk to my 722 roommates. But none of them pay rent, and I'd have to translate for ya." He nods at the barkeep as another shot is filled.

"Movies, huh? I like checking out the mysteries, myself."

[sand-hawkins.livejournal.com]

"Don't make too many good mysteries in the movies nowadays, but British TV has a couple good ones...check out "Cracker" sometime, I think you'd be impressed."

"Once the base is up, there's going to be living quarters for each of the teammates, FYI. Gotta be better than where you're at currently, by the sounds of it."

[onthecase.livejournal.com]

"I tend to go with the older movies anyway," he shrugs. "Though even there, mysteries don't always keep me guessing. I figured Rosebud was a childhood toy of some sort." He takes another shot and automatically slids the shotglass forward again.

"The roommates will be happy to see me go, actually. Until they get a new guy who tries to exterminate the place. I can't bring myself to bug-bomb a place."

[sand-hawkins.livejournal.com]

"I can imagine to someone with Dr. Dolittle syndrome that'd be akin to Jonestown." Sand finishes his drink,then waves to the barkeep. "Another one, please."

"You'll like the place, I think. Only thing I'm going to ask of you is if you absolutely have to have alcohol nearby, please keep it in your private quarters. As I'm sure you're aware, we have a recovering alcoholic on the team, and as said person's significant other, I'd like to keep the term 'recovering' as current as possible."

[onthecase.livejournal.com]

He shrugs. "I'll try not to drink around her. She already let me know about her sitch over Thanksgiving."

[sand-hawkins.livejournal.com]

"Good enough." For now at least. "So how did you become a detective?"

[onthecase.livejournal.com]

The chimp shrugs. "It's an oft-told tale. Chimp is taken by a circus; chimp is trained to do tricks; chimp drinks from fountain of youth. Dunno how many times I've heard that tale told." He knocks the drink back, a little harder than before, and slides the glass back.

He's a little surprised that Sand changed the subject again... after all, he was expecting the team leader to bug him a little more about it, like Corrine had done.

"So how about you? Why'd you choose to lead a team of misfits instead of the JSA?"

[sand-hawkins.livejournal.com]

"You're not misfits - you just puzzle pieces that got scattered a bit too far from the table." Sand counters, very quicly. "For one thing, I don't lead the JSA, although I did for a time. Mr. Terrific, however, was born to that role."

"As to the why...well, when I was a teenager, Wesley Dodds decided to bring me into the life rather than telling me that it was 'too dangerous for a kid'. That's a mixture of trust and optimism that I like to think can translate into the Outsiders. Granted, it's EASIER to be a team when you like and trust one another - but there's no instant fix for that. It takes time, both in battle together and off duty together, to build that level of trust."

"Besides - I don't like people feeling as if no one gives a damn about them. Even if no one else does - that's when I tend to."

[onthecase.livejournal.com]

The chimp chuckles as he takes a few more peanuts. "Sucker for the hard-luck cases, huh?"

[sand-hawkins.livejournal.com]

"I think of it more as having a desire to see everyone reach the potential they were born with." Sand sips his Coke. "Why do you think you're where you are now...I mean in a grander sense, I know why you're here at the Floating Vagabond or whatever they call this place."

[onthecase.livejournal.com]

He laughs. "Because whatever big guy is upstairs has a messed up sense of humor. That's about it." He motions for another shot.

Yeah, best not to dwell on that one too much.

[sand-hawkins.livejournal.com]

"Doubt that." Sand said. He then pauses for a second, and his eyes kinda gloss over for a second, then stop. "What are you currently drinking, Bobo?"

[onthecase.livejournal.com]

"Whiskey doubleshots," he answers. He rolls his eyes. Here it comes.

[sand-hawkins.livejournal.com]

Sand puts his hand over the shotglass as the barkeep sets it down. "That didn't come from the same bottle the whiskey has been." He looks over at the barkeep. "Sir, double check this?"

"What the frak do you mean it'...oh geez." He looks a bit embarassed, then looks at the chimp. "Man, I'm so sorry. This was supposed to go over to the far corner. Geez, I coulda lost one of my best customers."
He looks at Sand. "This stuff's one of the best selling whiskeys we have for some of the more demonic clientele, but it's deadly to most known Terran species."

[onthecase.livejournal.com]

"Good catch, Sand." He looks at the shot. Huh. Would've been one hell of a way to go...

[sand-hawkins.livejournal.com]

"Actually, I had a flash forward of about six seconds where I saw you writhing on the ground in pain. Would've made for an interesting night, given that if I hadn't come by, you'd probably be doing the same thing." Sand said. "Look, by the roll of your eyes just then, you're probably waiting on when I'm going to drop the temperance lecture, and that's not why I'm here. I'll admit, you've got a taste for it that leaves Wildcat in the dust, but one, most gumshoes from my era had a taste for it, so it's nothing I'm not used to. Two, I have no idea of what your actual metabolism is, so it may not affect you the way it affect humans."

"Personally, I feel that NOT drinking would make your detective skills even sharper...but I won't be the judge of that. My only caveat is that when it matters, it doesn't endanger the team. If it does - then we have issues.

"My only other advice, as you've just witnessed - know what you're putting in your system. Don't ever trust that it's the same ol' thing. Primary rule of detective work - NOTHING should ever be done on autopilot." Sand smiles at that, and as the barkeep sets down the CORRECT shot, Sand pushes it towards the Chimp.

[onthecase.livejournal.com]

He shrugs. "It comes down to it, you guys have enough firepower on your team. One more set of eyes probably wouldn't make much of a difference." He knocks the shot back.

He may be getting a bit drunk by this point; he's being a little more forthright.

[sand-hawkins.livejournal.com]

"Yeah - but that set of eyes wouldn't be you." Sand says. "For one thing, none of us can talk to the animals. Tefe can talk to plants, and I can see occasionally flashes of what happened in a room - between the three of us, that's the best potential detective work on the planet. It's not always about the firepower - most battles are won because the winning side caught something the losing side missed."

He looks at the Chimp. "You really do believe no one gives a damn about you, don't you?"

[onthecase.livejournal.com]

He chuckles as he slides the glass forward for a refill and tosses back a few more peanuts.

"Look, kid, I may be older than you. I'm not some goth or emo punk, and I'd thank you not to talk to me like one." Despite the redressing, his tone is still friendly... though there's the hint of a warning edge somewhere in it.

[sand-hawkins.livejournal.com]

"I'd talk like that to my grandfather if I believed it to be true. But what I also know if that is the case...and I won't ask again tonight, out of respect...is that I'm not going to convince you otherwise in a day, a week or a month.

"Just stick around for awhile. If nothing else, you might actually have to pay American taxes for awhile. Speaking of which..." He goes into his trenchcoat and pulls out an envelope. "Consider this moving expenses. Your seven hundred some-odd friends will probably need help moving."

He pauses as the Chimp looks at an envelope. "I told you the night of the Enchantress fight you were going to be on the payroll."

[onthecase.livejournal.com]

He blinks. Huh. Right. Pay.

Guess that means he can afford to pay the tab. Watch the paycheck go away...

He gives Sand a small grin. "Thanks, boss-man."

[sand-hawkins.livejournal.com]

Sand's eye twinkles a bit, then turns to the barkeep. "Sign outside says you take over 900 known forms of currency and several thousand forms of credit. I assume you take Visa." He hands him a credit card. "Pay his tab off, and add...two more shots of whiskey to it, plus an actual meal, he plays with his nuts too much."

The barkeep smirks, then nods. Sand turns to Chimp. "Business expense. I'd rather see you spend that on new wardrobe, nice plasma TV for your new digs, etc. Being the person who will probably be at the complex the most, one of the things you'll be paid for is being the major domo of the place - everything from monitor duty to making sure the maids actually change the bedsheets."

[onthecase.livejournal.com]

He blinks. "Why me?"

[sand-hawkins.livejournal.com]

"Because you didn't fit the profile for bad-ass ninja warrior?" Sand says with a smile.

Then he turns serious. "You're not a field combatant. I wouldn't ask that of you unless you were serious about it enough to go into training. You will go on some missions, especially ones which require the use of investigative techniques - and I'm convinced you're going to save the team's life sometime in the next year - but primarily, you're also going to be the central researcher for the team from base." A pause. "You're good at finding information, one way or another. You're like the Oracle, only you use methods other than computer hacking as well. In many ways, you give us an edge the other teams don't have, especially if we're getting wrapped up in more mystical investigations."

[onthecase.livejournal.com]

He shrugs. "Alright..." He seems a bit taken aback by this. "Hey, once your steak is done, maybe we could get out of here and pick out the new plasma I'm gonna pick up for the base?"

[sand-hawkins.livejournal.com]

"Sounds like a plan." Sand says, sticking a forkful of steak in his mouth.

This is going to be interesting - but then, any investment is.

Besides, if it got him to stop drinking for awhile, so be it.