2010-02-04 - So Close, And Yet
From JLU MUX
| The information contained within this log is to be considered information gained Out of Character (OOC) . This information may not be used as In Character (IC) knowledge or in roleplay unless it has been learned in-game or permission has been granted by the parties involved. Questions should be directed to staff. |
| So Close, And Yet | |||
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| Summary: Lex and Tala plot with Scandal about their upcoming scheme, while Star Sapphire begins to foment plans of her own. | |||
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The RecRoom has undergone a quick makeover in the past few days. The pool-tables have been momentarily displaced in favor of a large, enameled hot-tub cut into the floor deck. The constant burbling of water is drowned out in favor of Puccini's Tosca, played over the base's concealed loudspeakers.
"Mnn.." comes the contented groan from Lex Luthor's lips as he leans back against the edge of the hot-tub. His head tilted back, resting against a rolled up towel as the tub's jet works its magic on his bare shoulders. Wine, whenever he so desires, and a morsel of food or two is kept well-dry by an attending Angle Man.
Scandal was coming into the RecRoom to process some reports or something, she's in costume (as she usually is at the Legion HQ, that's the uniform) and has a clipboard with a sheaf of papers attached. Stepping into the room gives her immediate pause, however, as the air is all steamy and there's--there's Lex in a three hundred dollar purple and green speedo. She turns right back around and leaves without a word.
Of course, this is only a temporary absence. Her uniform is mostly leather, you see, and the humidity is not good for it. She went to change into her little silver-black bikini, still carrying the sheaf of reports attached to her clipboard, because that is the kind of bureaucrat-misanthrope she is. She has a towel draped over her other arm, and her labrys-suggestive tattoos are visible. "Do you mind if join you?" She inquires of Luthor with an eyebrow raised.
The mere fact that the Legion of Doom -has- a rec room is kind of bizarre and a little bit funny, but the weird dramatic irony of supervillains lounging around a hot tub is apparently lost on Tala, The Queen of Evil, who is just outside with a towel over her shoulder. Her swimsuit -- if it can even be described as such -- is so scanty as to almost defy description. Indeed, it is probably held onto her body with magic. But hey, at least it covers everything Rated R. That's Tala's way. When she enters and sees Scandal already in Lex's presence, she is filled with ELDRITCH RAGE until she remembers that Scandal is a total gayfer. "Hello eweryone!" she purrs.
Star Sapphire is not exactly the most sociable animal in the Legion. Sometimes it seems that she is dealing with a barely-surpressable disgust with some members, and other times it's just the opposite. As if to further confirm she's volatile, she spends little time in the base proper. She has that whole secret ID thing going for her, after all. Let everyone else assume she's a little loose in her mental state if they want. But she knows that sometimes she needs to put in an appearance. Seeing some filter into the rec room she followed, though she was not dressed for dipping into the hot tub.
Wine. Women. Excess. You can take a Luthor out of wealth but you can't take the wealth out of a Luthor.
Lex's closed-eye reverie is broken by a string of requests and exclamations. He promptly opens his eyes and tilts his head forward, his brow raised at Scandal and Tala alike. At least it isn't Toyman screeching in his ear. Or in a bathing suit decorated in red rubber balls and tinker-toys. "That better be good news in your hands, Scandal. I'm in no mood to have 'pamper' night interrupted." Lex reaches back for his glass of wine, which Angle Man promptly hands to him without a second's worth of waste. He slings a sip past his lips before turning his raised-eyebrow look at Tala. "-Well-?" he asks with some irritable expectancy. "I have shoulders that require your attention!"
"Well, it's at least moderately good. Penetration of the Asian cartels continues apace, though not as quickly as we might have hoped. If we were able to secure an enforcer with knowledge of the region we might speed things up, but Cheshire and Shiva are both fairly unstable as you well know." Scandal flips through some papers as she slides into the hot tub with nary a cringe at the sudden searing heat. She does sigh a little bit and settle into the soothing suds. "I won't trouble you with further details on that front, however. 'Pamper night' it is. Sapphire." Her last of course is directed at the recently-entered Legionnaire.
"Vhy do you tink I am changing into ze new bathing costume?" Tala does a little twirl, as if to show off her ridiculous outfit for Lex. "I am zo excited about zis renowation, I am not playing billiards wery well."
SOME TIME AGO:
Tala leans over the edge of the pool table, cue aimed improperly. She pauses... bites her lip... and smacks the cue ball right off the table and into Dr. Spectro's eye.
NOW:
Slinking into the hot tub, Tala drapes herself around Lex like a fashionable scarf and begins kneading away at his shoulders with her long, pointy-nailed fingers. "Ztar Zapphire, is good to see you in headqvarters."
"Tala," the fuschia-clad woman acknowledges, nodding her head. Behind her mask, an eyebrow arches at the sight of Lex and Scandal. "Am I intruding on a... party?" she asks, arms crossing. She looks at the water with vague disinterest. No, hot tubs aren't something she's going to be delving into tonight.
As Scandal speaks, Lex's eyes are drawn toward Tala's twirl. Then, the moment she finishes and slinks into the hot-tub, they slide right back to Scandal. "Business, Star Sapphire. As usual." The moment Tala is around his shoulders, he snuggles right up against her without hesitation. He stops her from tending to him for just a moment, bringing her pointy-nailed fingers past him to kiss her fingertips. "Project -Mytheme-, Scandal," Lex asks, his eyes never having drawn away from her. "How long until my -boat- is ready."
"You should join us. It would do you good. Certainly, not an intrusion." Scandal is avoiding too much notice of Tala's almost non-bikini, in part by talking to Star Sapphire--yeah, not much luck anywhere around in that regard today.
"The boat--well, we still need to acquire a proper.../figurehead/ as it were, though I have a candidate in mind." She murmurs, flipping to another page in her mysteriously-completely-dry clipboard. "Construction is the easy part, really. Why is tonight 'Pamper night', in particular?" She asks this question in a tone of extreme disinterest.
"Nyet, nyet, is normal day. Lex has been so wery -tense- lately, he thought it prudent to remodel for relaxaaation." Tala's big creepy eyes glow a little bit for no reason. "Also, it is nice not to wear so much clothes!" Referring, one assumes, to her usual skimpy evening gown. "Zkandal, Ztar Zapphire, you should be bringing zveethearts to relax, da? Knockout for you, Zkandal, and some fine alien person for ze Qveen?" She grins.
"I'm comfortable in my clothes," Star Sapphire replies, a kind-of-sort-of-protest. "And I do not have a sweetheart." The last part said with a certain tone of voice that would indicate she's not looking, either. Although Tala's statement makes her quirk a brow again, glancing at Scandal. "The big redhead's with you?"
"Because drinking a 1990 Pauillac in a cramped robotics laboratory that reeks of solder is an immense waste," Lex answers with a faint glare at Scandal's curiosity. He sniffs sharply, his eyes glancing aside as he takes a sip. "And I want to be well-rested before I wage war with the minions of lofty Olympos." Another sip he rolls around his tongue for a moment before swallowing. "Now what is your suggestion?"
Scandal snorts slightly. "Were Knockout not away on some business that cannot be interrupted, it would be difficult to keep her /out/ of this tub. She is fond of such things. Yes, she is with me." The latina confirms to Star Sapphire. Clears her throat, continues back on to New Business. "Name of Grace, apparently a half-Amazon bastard, lives in Gotham. I only recently found out that she is actually an Amazon with a capital 'A' and that it was not just something she is called for being seven feet tall." Scandal shakes her head a bit. "At any rate, she is an acquaintance of Knockout's, so arranging an ambush should not be overly difficult, and she is not, to my knowledge, able to call down a rescue or warning easily."
"She is really qvite impressive, Knockout. I imagine it is wery good in ze night-time, eh? Eh?" Tala is trying to be chummy and personable but it mostly comes across as weird. "Not zat I vould know, because I do not scry on teammates. Zat vould be wrong." If she is shifting her eyes back and forth nervously, it is all but impossible to tell, because they are blank white orbs.
"Waging war against the minions of gods?" It's not hard to guess at what Lex means. She tries hard to make it sound like she's just curious, but the war her voice rises as she asks the question... there's something more, there. Whatever it is, it captures her attention and focuses it on that subject and Tala's words pass right overhead.
Lex Luthor's lip curls up into a sneer. "Seven foot tall, covered in tattoos, with a fantastically annoying mouth?" he tries to complete Scandal's description of Grace Choi. His fingers tighten around his glass, threatening to compromise its integrity. He's about to bare his teeth when Star Sapphire gets inquisitive. "We have a new .. business partner, Star Sapphire, and it is within my-- our best interests to play along for the time being." On that note, Lex turns his head to the side. He is suddenly annoyed at this very moment, reminded of two women he has an extreme dislike for. Time for a diversion, like Tala's happy babbling about whatever the hell that will keep her entertained. "What is that -thing- you wanted again. Diamond shoes?"
"Yes, that is the one." Scandal confirms. Her cellphone, tiny thing, starts going off. It was clipped to her clipboard. She looks at it, checks a text message, frowns. "We shall be making war, and it will be a beautiful conflict." She confirms to Star Sapphire. "You should come." She half-smiles, then rises from the water. "Pardon me, all, I must attend to this." Dripping, she wraps her towel around herself as a makeshift sarong and heads for the exit of the RecRoom. Scandal's days are just packed.
"It vas a bracelet," Tala frowns. "I do not -vear- shoes." As if to demonstrate, she lifts one leg out of the hot tub and wiggles her toes about. "Anyvay I tink all proceeds apace. Ve are needing a few more signs in alignment, but all goes accordink to plan. I just hope I do not haff to help vit de ztables."
"...if you'll excuse me," Star Sapphire says, letting a little displeasure slip into her voice. She slips in front of Scandal without a further word and heads back out. Perhaps she has something more to attend to herself.
"And would you prefer that I send my brave, stupid minions in your stead while we spend the night in a more... relaxed fashion?" Lex asks, his spirits suddenly lightened by the departure of a certain gemstone-wielding thorn in his side. Will she let slip a bit of crucial information to inform the heroes ahead of time? Or will she try to intervene on her own? Either way, a slow and sinister smile works its way across Lex Luthor's lips. What's one more of 'them' to crush under his boot-heel? "Tala, I feel like celebrating."
"Vell zat is good to hear. You are always workink too hard, Lex. It is making you cranky." Tala sinuously swoops from her position behind Lex at his shoulders to drape herself rather dramatically over his lap. She glances at Angle Man, narrowing her eyes a little. "Don't you haff someplace to be?" she asks him, pointedly.
"Er.." Angle Man blinks down at the Villainous Vixen. He looks to Lex, whom simply glares back at him.
"You heard the woman. Leave the bottle and get out," Lex adds weight to Tala's question. With the sorceress in his lap, one thickly-hewn arm circles around her. "I'm going to break her, you know..." he catches her chin with his other hand. "And then there will be no wonder left in the world. Then the gods will weep.. and it will be a close second to feeling Superman breathe his last breath as my hands tighten around his throat. There'll be an entire island of paradise for the taking. Just what treasures would you like, my dear?"
Setting the bottle down, Angle Man quickly makes for the door. Poor Angle Man, never respected.
He is Angle Man, what does he expect?
Tala smiles a happy little smile. Lex has not been this nice since that one time he was all funny and kind of immature for a few hours. "Ztar Zapphire is powerful, zo you must be careful if she moves against us. Her gemstone powers are formidable. It may be in our best eenterests to diskovver any veaknesses she may have." She closes her eyes a moment. "Ze Palladium. If ve are takink an item of powerr, zat is vhat I vould vant. It is an idol of ze goddess Athena. Powerful magic lies vithin it."
"Don't be -ridiculous-," Luthor sharply corrects Tala's fantasy. If she opens her eyes, he'll find him scowling. "That statue is the only thing on Earth, short of that grey-eyed olive planter herself, capable of obtaining a defense against that nymph bitch. She's sorely mistaken if she thinks she can get away with doing what she did to me."
Before she opens her eyes, Tala can -hear- the scowling. Which is why she lifts Lex's hand and nibbles on the tip of his index finger. "Shh, shh. I am only sayink, vhen ve take ze isle of ze Amazons, vhen ze Palladium is yours... I vould vish to have it for study. Who -knows- vhat powers it could grant us, if properly harnessed."
Lex's lips purse while Tala nibbles on the tip of his index finger. "Hnh," he just sort of half-grunts in reluctant acquiescence of her plan. He sets his jaw and diverts his attention back to Star Sapphire. "She's supported Sinestro in the past and they have near-exact identical powers," he thinks aloud. "Who in turn, shares the same near-exactness with Green Lanterns. Eminently powerful as long as they're in contact of their little baubles. Seperate them from it... and they're just little men and women in costumes."
"Zat is it, den. Ve make sure that vhen it is most vital to her surwiwal..." Tala sits up a little bit in Lex's lap, draping her arms over his shoulders. "Ve can znatch ze jewel right from her brow." She makes a little grabby motion with her fingertips, squeezing his shoulderblade. "I do not tink ve are having any serious competitors besides her. Who else vould take over Legion? Atomic Skull?"
"Don't be so short-sighted." With Tala's arms draped over his shoulders, Lex finds himself tempted to take advantage of it. Well, what Lex wants.. Tala definitely knows the rest of that story. "Grodd," he says with this kind of husky growl at that hard 'Grr.' Then, she no longer sees his face. He's between her arms, lips planting a kiss just above that bizarre tattoo on her sternum. "Though then his latest plans won't be so opaque for long. I keep my friends close and my enemies closer."
Tala makes a little noise in the back of her throat. It -is- a weird tattoo. It looks like a Space Invader. Or maybe Crow T. Robot. Or a rabbit eating a carrot. Or... really, it's best left unexamined, probably. "Trust me vhen I say that if Grodd were plannink anyting wery complex, ve vould know about it already. Subtle he is not." She hums a little bit to herself, one thumb brushing behind Lex's ear to stroke his bald head. "Do not let such tings trouble you, my loff. Ve are in ze final stages of your glorious plan."
"Yess..." Lex hisses as he tilts his head up, his lips running right up the length of Tala's throat. A kiss just underneath her jaw, followed by a brief ascent to her cheek. He's hooked onto her scent even through the burn of chlorine. "So close to what I want, I can taste it." Another kiss right against her jawline right behind a nip that borders on such hunger that he's just short of biting her hard. His hand is against the other side of her face, thumb against her lips. "So close.. and not a single one of them can lift so much as a divine finger to stop me.."
Just past Tala, something catches Lex Luthor's eyes. It is someone standing there, though no-one Tala could notice. Just as tall as he is, with a teal-hued head just as smoothly bare as his own. It stares back at Luthor, lips a straight line and devoid. Luthor smiles so wide between the kisses he lavishes on Tala's cheek. "And then it'll be out with the old.. and in with the new."
