Open Starter
“If you’re scared for your life you will be safer sitting with me than ducking under that table.” The diner Fletcher had been lunching at with a client had now been shot to hell, along with all of the other businesses on the block. Only Fletcher remained seated at his table when things started going south, and the person he now spoke to was the only one to take cover in the diner rather than flee into the open streets. Smart move. “Their leader already saw that I am here and thus right here.” he tapped the table. “Is the safest place to remain for now. No one wants to accidentally shoot their lawyer in case the whole takeover thing goes south.” he sipped at his coffee dryly. “If you want you can have the cup my other client left behind, they left before drinking any. Waste not want not.” he tried to lighten the tone, even while continuing to look and sound like the very picture of stoicism, he knew anyone else would be rightly terrified in this situation.
The day had started so well, class had cancelled, her later shift was covered and they even gave her an extra pancake! But before she could even get a bite some chucklefuck opened fire in the streets, causing a panic and her ruining her lunch. Now she sat under the table, making a point to avoid the gum grossly stuck there.
She might have sat there for hours had another voice not caught her attention, in her blind panic she hadn’t even noticed the other, just calmly sitting as if nothing happened.
Heart still racing she took a tentative step out before taking a seat across from the man and examined the coffee. Still warm. “Thank you. What uhh, what were y'all talking about before all this?”
“That is a matter of client confidentiality.” Fletcher dusted some glass that managed to land on the little stack of butter cups on the corner of the table and grab one to dispense onto his customary everything bagel. “That client has nothing to do with what is currently-” a small explosion went off down the street, causing Fletcher to pause both his speech and his buttering. “-happening. If you are wondering.” he leaned a bit to get a bit of a better view of the street, then brought his attention back to the bagel. “If I had known something like this was going to happen I would have set our meeting somewhere else.” it wasn’t pleasant having to see Karla from behind the till making a run for it, but the knowledge that some of those nearby gun shots might be hitting some boys in blue took the edge off of that. “William Fletcher.” he offered his hand as though this too was a business meeting.
She added some sugar but otherwise drank the coffee black and almost spilled it everywhere jumping in shock at the sound of a nearby explosion. But never one to be rude she quickly lowered the mug to shake his hand.
“Riley Holt, it’s nice to meet you. I had a music teacher named Fletcher, he taught us how to badly play the recorder.” The casual conversation almost let her forget the chaos outside, she took another sip of coffee. “Probably unrelated-but it’s a small world after all,” she smiled to herself at her little joke. “You must be a pretty brave lawyer to work in this city.”
“I would be a lot braver if I was a bad lawyer.” Fletcher leaned back as the coffee spilled, retrieving some napkins from the dispenser on the table. “I was good at the recorder too, but you are correct, no relation.” he blotted at the coffee carefully. “The only person who could avoid a bullet in Gotham with one of those is probably the Pied Piper.” It would be easier to be a lawyer back in the twin cities, the Rogues were a lot less dangerous to the average person. “Did you grow up in Gotham, Ms.Holt?” small talk was the only comfort Fletcher could give at the moment.
She cleaned up the mess and sipped what little coffee was left. Nodding while she knew who he was referring to- couldn’t put a face to the name.
The image of a lawyer playing recorder crept into her heard and she struggled to keep a straight face for only a moment before answering with a shake of her head. “No, I was born in North Carolina, I came here to go to school. Its taking a while given-” as if doing a comedic bit, her sentence was punctuated by not too distant gunfire. “How about you?”
“I also came here for school, scholarship.” he said it not as a boast, but as an explanation for relocating here of all places. “I’m originally from Keystone. Go Combines.” Fletcher’s tone of voice stayed the same as ever, in contrast to his proclaimed affection for the hockey team of his home city. “What are you studying, if I may ask? As long as you’re not from the engineering department we’ll be just fine, assuming you go to Gotham U.” The in-school rivalry between the law and engineering departments at the university were well known, often pulling pranks on each other. Fletcher even took part in a few, he was a perfect lookout as no one expected mr. straight lace to get involved.
“I have a few friends in the engineering department,” some weren’t friends and just people she passed every day, but they nodded to her and she nodded back. It’s friendship enough in this city. “But it’s too much math for me, I’m studying chemistry, it’s at least a different kind of math that makes sense to me.”
There was a twirly ruckus outside as more pigs came rolling on to the scene, just late enough to avoid risking their own skin but with enough urgency to potentially be a problem.
She took another sip of coffee as some passed, careful not to catch anyone’s eye. “I like learning how chemicals effect the brain.”
“Math was one of my strong suits in school but-” he couldn’t help the pause in his speech as he stared down the officers until they passed by. “-it was never a passion of mine. So I studied law, the math of words.” his tone was no different than before, even as his focus left him.
“Are you interested in developing pharmasuticals? Or more into general research? I’m afraid I don’t know much about the topic, and learning from an expert-in-training wouldn’t be a bad way to spend a tense shoot out.”
She nodded, trying to relax her shoulders a bit, not always succeeding. “Yep, I was thinking of getting into pharmaceuticals at first, then forensic chemistry they’re both very competitive niches, believe it or not.”
There were more gunshots again, but this time a bit farther away than before. She didn’t jump as much. “But I’ve been thinking of switching majors to mortuary studies, with an emphasis on green burial. I think I would enjoy it more than my current track, even if some say I flip flop too much.”
“I would reccomend not working in forensics in Gotham.” he said darkly. “Too many people who would be very motivated to convince you that their versions of the facts are right. On both sides.” Fletcher wouldn’t recommend being anywhere near the legal system of Gotham to another person. “Mortuary studies is definitely the wiser career move. No shortage of corpses that need burial, and the eco-friendly angle is.. safe.” Poison Ivy’s methods could be criticized all people liked, but businesses in the city made a real effort to at least appear eco-friendly. You didn’t, see so many bold signs in store windows advertising recyclable packaging in Keystone.
Riley would never endorse eco-terrorism, at least not openly, but ever since she caught a glimpse of Poison Ivy ’s mugshot- well it made her more eco conscious to say the least.
The conversation around her major wasn’t new and she half-expected to once again hear about why switching would be such a bad idea for some reason or another.
Color her shocked to hear something close to, no- actual encouragement? “You’re the first person who hasn’t tried to convince me to stick with it, I appreciate it. Do you ever worry about the job and people trying to push you either way?”
“Unfortunate.” Fletcher was lucky he always had his parent’s support in all things, they had even gone out of their way to stress that he didn't have to follow In his father’s footsteps and study law. It just so happened that he thrived in it. “There is a certain level of protection that comes with defending a.. variety of clients. Even if one is less than enthusiastic about my job performance, they would be picking quite a few fights if they killed me over it.” he mused. “The same applies to cops going out of their way to make my life hell.”
