A Small Matter of Money [Open]

[Nina Stenet]

One thing that had occured to Nina at a very early age is that making money would never be a problem for her. However, whatever personality traits that others may have that would make them want to have large sums of money on hand are completely lacking in her. She's never seen the need to have more than she needs to sustain herself at the rather modest standard that she prefers to live at. And since she's never had a problem earning enough for that - at least not since she obtained her doctorate - she's never really had to think too much about money. Which means, in turn, that she actually doesn't know too many of the nitty gritty details about how money works in general.

And then she became a multi-millionaire. Something that she can entirely blame upon Edward, oddly enough. He's the one who showed her what money can do, and while she never appreciated the lavish lifestyle he prefers, there's things besides high priced hotel rooms and clothing that money can do for her. He also inspired her to take control of her research by starting her own independant company, and that's what put the money in her pocket in the first place. And then there's all the danger he's put her into - some of it more directly than others - which made her feel like it's necessary for her to set aside a very large sum in case she needs it. It's a 'rainy day' fund of sorts, only large enough to keep her going even if that rain is nuclear waste.

The main problem with hanging onto that much money, however, is that it must be managed. Of course the bank is all too happy to me more attentive to an account as large as hers so that she doesn't have to worry too much about the little details, but she still feels the need to give it some oversight - just to make sure that she's still happy to keep her money there. This is why she's come to the bank today - she has an appointment to review her account so that she can look over the numbers and ask a few questions.

Hope is driving her black Mercedes, and parks it in the open spot nearest to the door. In accordance with the standard procedure that the bodyguard laid out for her - which Nina mainly follows in order to avoid having the large woman grumble repeatedly about how difficult she is to protect sometimes - Nina waits inside the car as Hope quickly looks over their surroundings and then walks around the car to open her door for her. Then the pair proceed into the bank, with Hope carefully placing herself at an angle to Nina that she suspects has something to do with making it more difficult for someone to shoot her or something like that. But Nina tries not to think about that, and is instead mentally going over all the things that she's about to discuss.

OOC: This thread is completely open, and anyone's welcome to join it in any way they wish. I mean, you could run into her as a random passerby, have some banking business of your own, rob the bank, stop someone else from robbing the bank, or anything! You could even be the person she's there to meet if you can figure out how that makes any sense.

[Deleted]

"You ever see that movie Ghost with Patrick Swayze?  Sure ya have..."  These words were spoken by Leslie Willis as her way of launching into an unsolicited conversation with the helpless customer standing ahead of her in a long line at the bank.  If the poor old lady didn't want to hear the super-charged shock jock's review of a movie made twenty-five years earlier, she was going to have to get out of line.  It was a win-win situation for the spunky young woman who called herself "Livewire."  If the old bag left, then that would move Leslie one spot closer to being able to conduct her business.  If she stayed put, then Leslie would be able to practice one of her favorite activities: mindless chatter.  "If ya ask most people," she said as she laid on her New Jersey accent extra thick, "they'll tell ya their favorite scene is when Patrick Swayze and Demi Moore are makin' pottery together with Unchained Melody on the radio...  Me?  I like the part when Whoopi Goldberg is at the bank and withdraws a shit-ton o' money.  When the bad guy finds out, Patrick Swayze's ghost starts typing 'MURDERER' on the guy's computer.  That cracks me up every time!" 

Of course that was Leslie's favorite scene.  It closely mimicked some of the mischievous things she had done in the past.  That type of activity was fairly simple ever since she'd learned to control her transformations into "Livewire" and figured out how to manipulate computer records.  While her antics were well known in Metropolis, she was still a bit of a mystery here in Gotham City.  So she crossed her fingers and hoped that she hadn't been blacklisted by all of the local banking institutions.  After all, a girl needs some spending money for groceries and the like.  She needed a checking account and a debit card for the little purchases.  "You hack the system to steal a million bucks one time and no one wants to let you open a measly little bank account anywhere in town!" she once complained back in Metropolis.

So there she stood.  Standing in line at the bank, hoping to talk to a teller about opening an account for legitimate, day-to-day transactions.  "They better not eff with me..." she blurted out.  "Otherwise I might Swayze my way into their computer system."           

[Nina Stenet]

With all the ridiculously large numbers bouncing around in her head, Nina isn't paying very close attention to her surroundings. But that's a part of the whole point of Hope being around, after all. Since she has an appointment, and because she gets the VIP treatment in general from the bank - again, because of just how much she's entrusted to them - she starts to walk right past the line. And nothing at all around her really catches her attention until she suddenly feels Hope's hand smoothly shifting her position.

"Problem?" she asks quietly, as the very tall, African-looking woman is not in the habit of manhandling her without a good reason.

"Potentially," Hope replies, keeping her voice low as she summarizes the problem and guides Dr. Stenet further away while keeping herself between the two, "Acquaintance of Mr. Luthor's - electrokinetic. Unpredictable." Though she's keeping her voice quiet and meant for Dr. Stenet's ears only, she's less subtle about keeping an eye on Miss Willis even though her tone isn't very concerned. She's never actually met the young woman before, but Mercy had briefed her on Miss Willis in case they happened to cross paths. Mr. Luthor tends to cross paths with a lot of people, after all, and until her current assignment she was frequently called upon to be at his side. Right now she's more concerned that she didn't spot Miss Willis until they were already passing her, because the blurted-out comment had caught her attention and, though those words could just as easily be a harmless joke by any impatient customer, she recognizes the face from the file photo she'd been shown. The blue hair really helps for identification purposes.

Nina, meanwhile, has a rather mixed reaction to all of this. She's concerned, of course, if only because Hope is. But she's also curious - she's met a number of Lex's acquaintances, and they're all very... interesting. Though there's also some definite worry - an unpredictable electrokinetic? That sounds... well, like Hope said, potentially a problem. How does one protect oneself from such a person if one needs to? And then there's also frustration, because now Hope is completely blocking her view of this person, partly because she simply wants to see, and parly because if she does need to help defend herself it would be a lot easier if she had a line of sight - this is why she really needs to return to having a bodyguard she can trust to know about her own kinetic ability. In order to at least see who they're talking about, she's forced to crane her head over to one side.

But the glimpse she sees doesn't seem to be too concerning - all she sees is a young woman waiting in line. And while she knows that appearances can be deceiving, that doesn't appear to be anything dangerous at all, at least not unless you're the type to get paranoid about a person based purely on their extreme style choices. "Let's just get to that appointment," she decides out loud, figuring that everything will be fine if they just leave her be.