2012-06-20 Un-Conventional

With a sigh, Wally West is walking across the campus of NYU. He's finished classes for the year and done pretty well, especially with his intro to mechanical engineering classes. He loves the city life, having gotten a taste of the smaller stuff back when visiting his Aunt in Central City. This, though. This, as they say, is New York. The big one. He's walking with a bit of a twinge, having taken a pretty nasty punch last night. You see, by night...and by day during his free time...Wally West is the hero known as KID FLASH, who travels all over the country trying to fight crime. Yesterday someone got in a lucky shot. Today he's visiting the financial aid office trying to get a clerical issue resolved to ensure he's got enough money to live next year.

Barbara Gordon is not an NYU student. If she were, she'd be of the graduate variety. The wheel-chair bound redhead is on a collision course with Wally, as she exits the campus library. She's here for a convention of the book-shelving variety. Beware a lot of "shush"ing. She has a backpack slung over the handles on the rear of her chair, and is dressed in jeans and a light, cotton shirt.

Wally smiles as he sees her approach. Figuring her to be a student, he gives an upwards nod at the Library and a sign that advertises the convention. "Do they have food in there? They always have free food at those sorts of things."

Babs looks up and flashes her fellow ginger a smile. The flames and freckles set have to stick together, lest they be beaten like stepchildren. "Oh, they had some cookies and brownies. You don't stick a gaggle of Librarians in a room together without chocolate. We pretend our hatred of noise fuels us in our duties, but it's actually the sugar." She pauses her chair and folds her hands in her lap.

Wally raises his eyebrows, "Oh, I'm sorry. I thought you were a student here. You ...look...uh...young for a librarian. And your glasses aren't thick enough. And...well, you didn't tell me to shush." His lip twists. "Brownies?" He leans to the side, peering at the door before leaning back to face her. "My name is Wally. I go to school here. You probably guessed that." He offers her a hand.

Wally's hand is taken and shaken in a firm grip. "Barbara. Thanks for not just coming out and saying I don't look like a wrinkled mean old biddy. But yes, I'm here for the convention. I'm actually a grad student at Gotham University." She lets the hand go but her smile stays. "What are you studying, Wally?"

"Old biddy?" Wally chuckles, "Nah, you're like the hottest librarian I've ever seen. And I watch movies." Wally readjusts his backpack that he's carrying to keep all of his financial aid stuff together. "I'm looking into mechanical engineering. I think I'd like to be an auotomotive engineer someday, maybe. Not really sure." Pause. "Gotham, huh? How is that town? Is it as scary as everyone makes it seem?"

That might be a tiny little bit of a blush on Barbara's cheeks at the compliment. She grimaces a little at the question about her hometown. "It's rough, but it's getting better thanks to the hard work of the police department." And a few vigilantes. Ahem. "How about here? New York has a rough rep in parts too." She rolls herself back onto the lawn so as not to block the sidewalk.

Wally takes the cue and moves off to the side as well. "Well, I live in Harlem, so that has its issues. But overall I kind of like it. There are some rough areas, sure, but with the heroes coming around the city I don't think it's as bad as people make it out to be. Just a couple days ago I saw Iron Man fly by."

That was the secondary reason for Babs to come to New York, to suss out if there might be any potential operatives for Oracle here. "Iron Man, eh? Who else? We don't get a lot of the big guns in Gotham." Batman is pretty territorial.

Wally brings a hand up to his chin in consideration. Does he drop some pub for himself. Or no. Or yes? Or no. Or yes? Of course. But gotta do it real sly. Oh man, Barry'd kill him. "Well, just a couple days ago Superman was here. And then there's a new hero named Supergirl. Some warrior lady that no one has named. Flash. Kid Flash, but they're kind of all over. And then there was this other teen hero, but I don't know her name either. So, New York is pretty full of em. Even the visitors from Metropolis come here once in a while."

Superman and Supergirl are a bit out of Oracle's league. Flash is a pretty busy guy. But Kid Flash? He might be worth looking into contacting. "Wow, those are some impressive names. I have to admit I'm a tiny bit of a Kid Flash fan. Us redheads need to stick together and all that," Babs quips. "Is he here in the city often?"

"Really?" Wally regains his composure quickly. "I mean, he's kind of all over the place, but I've read about him taking New York as kind of his turf. But really he kind of goes all over the country. I keep up with him now and again because I come from that part of the country. I'm from Nebraska and the Flashes are from Kansas." Oh shit dude, don't give it away just because some bird likes your hair color. Sheesh.

"That's awesome. Maybe I'll get to run into him sometime and get an autograph. I come into the City now and then for work." Babs is talking, but it's just words. She's mulling over the best 10 ways to contact Kid Flash through Oracle's channels.

"Yeah, I don't really know what his opinions on autographs are. He's a cool guy, though, from what I've seen on the news. And my aunt even interviewed him a few times. He's like...well, there's the Flash too. But Kid Flash is swagg." Wally readjusts her bag, sensing he chick is sort of checking out of the convo on him. "So..brownies, you say, huh?"

"Yep, second floor of the Library in conference room B. Go on and help yourself," Babs says. "I need to head back to Gotham. Dinner date." Sure, it's with her Dad, but she's not about to admit that to the cute co-ed. "It was nice to meet you, Wally. Good luck with your studies."

"Hey you too," Wally says with a smile. "And good luck on your /date/." He gives a goofy mrwor and a paw swipe. "See ya!"