Flying Without Wings Is Cheating [Diana]

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Tim's Tavern is a very small, out of the way bar in central Gotham - close and probably too close to the city's east side. Some would say that the place is poorly located or poorly maintained because it doesn't get much business. The bar's loyal regulars, on the other hand, would adamantly insist that it's perfect just the way it is. Perhaps partly because it tends to attract loners and drifters, who would quickly find a new place to drink if the place ever started to get popular. Tim himself doesn't care how much business he gets as long as it's enough to cover the rent.

Shayera isn't really a loner or a drifter, at least not by nature, but she does appreciate anywhere she can go be in public without being mobbed by the public. A quiet bar is one such place, but it has the additional advantage of also serving alcohol so that she can relax and try to forget things for awhile. But though she does drink on a regular basis, she never drinks to excess. Or at least, never to excess for her - it takes a lot more alcohol to get her drunk than it would a human. Right now she's only on her second beer of the evening.

And she's seated at the bar on the barstool that's 'hers', if it's available - the one on the very end near the back of the bar. There's a number of reasons for this to be the best spot for her: barstools, especially backless ones, are very wing-friendly and booths are not. And being in the back of the bar not only makes a certain paranoid strategist in her mind more comfortable because it would be much harder for anyone to sneak up upon her, it also gives her an easy view of the entire bar while making anyone just entering it have to actually look around to spot her in spite of the very obvious wings on her back. It helps that the walls are covered in novelty knickknacks, most of them western themed in keeping with Tim's tastes, so it's easy for the eyes to get distracted by this or that bauble.

Slowly working her way through her glass of beer, she's now winding down after a long day of patrolling the skies. It wasn't an abnormally difficult day, but the days are long this time of year and she's still not sleeping well. She's mentally going over the things she has left to do before it's time to sleep tonight when her thoughts are interrupted by the sound of someone coming into the bar - an unnoteworthy sound at most establishments, but when people only come in or out at a trickle every entry is worth a bit of curiosity. Or at least it would be if the person who just came in was anyone that Shayera cares to see right now.

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The person that walked in was a larger man with broad shoulders. He pretty much covered the entry of the two women that slipped around behind him and walked toward the bar that was closest to them.

Diana was different then Shayera would have remembered. She wore her hair a little differently and her clothes were starting to fade into what would be considered contemporary although she still didn't wear make up. She ran a hand through her hair as she looked to her friend Julia who, with the way that Diana was leaning over, was hiding her face. She was smiling at the woman that loved her heels and her tiny dresses and her men. It was an odd experience but she was teaching her things about Man's world. It was interesting learning how much women controlled the world through subliminal means even if Men still ruled overall.

It was a crafty sort of lying.

“So why are we in this place again?” Diana asked the other woman as she looked to the bartender and asked for a beer, whatever he had on tap.

“I'm meeting my online date.”

Diana raised her brow at the woman as she sat up a little, the top of her head raising over her head but not much more. “You gotta explain it to me again. I really don't understand what sort of kick that you get out of seeing all of these men. Most of them are real jerks and they don't deserve you,” she advised her friend for about the millionth time. She had no idea why she went on these adventures with her. She was pretty sure that she was Julia's safety net.

“You don't get it but it's nice being loved by a man. It feels good and I like when someone tells me that I look good and they make me feel like I'm pretty.”

Diana rolled her eyes and took in a breath as the bartender handed her, her drink. She sat up straight, finally giving Shayera a view of her face that she may recognize. “Thank you,” she said as she looked at the bottle before she took a drink. And looked to Julia.

As Diana's eyes passed to her friend she saw the familiar winged woman at the other end of the bar. She stopped in her look to her friend as she waited to make eye contact with an old acquaintance.

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Seeing the man coming in, there's a moment when Shayera begins to turn back to her drink in disinterest. But though she's somewhat more known for her eyesight, her hearing is quite acute as well and they tell her that three people just entered, not one. The other two are simply less bulky than the first - women probably. That alone isn't enough to catch her attention, but when they start to talk one of the voices she recognizes instantly. What is Diana doing here? Is she finally coming to talk? No - their conversation indicates that them being at the same place at the same time is an accident.

Straightening in her seat, she stares over at the women, but they're too occupied with their conversation to have noticed her yet - in fact Diana is turned exactly the wrong way. She frowns, considering what to do here. On the one hand she's been attempting to move beyond what happened with the others that had been involved in her... mistake. She'd most certainly like to walk over to Diana and beg her for her forgiveness. On the other hand, though, she has her pride. And while she can't justify all of what she did, she does believe that she deserves a second chance - though she does recognize that given the rather extreme nature of her mistake that's asking a lot.

And here we have Diana - who doubtlessly knows that she's been in Gotham and yet hasn't taken the few moments it would have taken to find her so that they could have a chat that they obviously need to have. Instead she's been quite blatantly not speaking to her, which can only be intentional since she's been patrolling the skies for pity's sake - she had plenty of chance to come talk to her! So no, she's not going to beg. She isn't even going to start the conversation - she's angry now and Diana owes her an apology.

Perhaps fortunately, before Shayera can decide what she's going to do if she's not going to start the conversation, Diana abruptly spots her. When their eyes meet, Shayera gives her an expectant look, her eyebrows raising as if asking a question.

In the time since they've last seen each other, Shayera has changed a lot too - especially on the surface. From the time of her arrival on the planet to the time of her disappearance after her last mission with the Justice League, she almost religiously wore her Thanagarian helmet at almost all times - now she's bareheaded. And in casual clothes herself instead of her old uniform. This outward change reflects an internal change, or at least an internal change that she's attempting to make. Abandoning the trappings of her old culture is only one step - she's also going by Shayera now instead of Hawkgirl.

Though at the moment, the lack of a helmet is probably the more obvious thing to Diana, as Shayera has a rather intense stare - her eyes are sharp and seem to see right through what she's looking at. Many things may have changed about her recently, but she always has and she always will regard those around her with the same intensity. And though her helmet made her appear to be quite ferocious, it also shielded everyone somewhat from the focus of her eyes and Diana isn't getting that buffer now.

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The eye contact was brief as Julia made a sound. "There he is," she squealed happily. She looked to Diana with that 'wish me luck' look before she set down her drink and approached the man.

Diana watched her friend momentarily before she returned to her beer trying to shake the feeling that the bitch down the bar was staring at her. She took in a breath as she considered what she would do and eventually came upon the desire to go and confront her even though she was in her guise she felt like it was a necessary step forward. As she set down her drink Julia came back and grabbed Diana by the arm more roughly then she had ever felt her friend do.

"I want to get out of here," she whispered to Diana.

Diana glanced over her shoulder at the man then looked to her friend. "Alright. Lets go," she said as she paid the bartender in cash and moved with her friend out of the bar.

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When Diana responds to her look by avoiding further eye contact, to say that this annoys Shayera would be putting it mildly. Very, very mildly, in fact. It's a well-known fact that in spite of the side that Hawkgirl fights on, her temper is something else. Not that she's ever done anything horribly regrettable simply because she was so angry, but she's certainly wanted to - really wanted to. Right now is one of those times, though she has the self-control to remain seated and silent as she feels the tension building in the air between them.

A tension that's disrupted for Diana, not for Shayera, when her friend returns. What breaks it for Shayera is that the moment that she sees that Diana is going to leave again without a word to her, her anger reaches enough of a boiling point that at least some of it has to reach the surface. Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately) it does so to the sound of shattering glass. Her eyes finally leave Diana to focus on the source of the sound, discovering that where once she was holding a glass of beer, now she's holding shards of glass with the beer spilling over the counter. She scowls at it, as if blaming the object for not being constructed with the grip strength of an angry Thanagarian in mind.

Putting the bits of glass remaining down on the counter, she glances at her hand - scratched, but nothing to worry about - and then pulls out her wallet. Glancing at a frowning Tim, she places a bill of a large enough denomination to more than compensate him for the broken glass and the time it'll take to clean it up next to the mess as she simply says, "Sorry." This is a good place for a drink and she doesn't want to sour Tim to her presence, after all.

But now she's not really interested in staying either, so she gets up to leave herself. Sometimes upsets are soothed by alcohol, but this one seems more the type to be remedied by a long flight.