2012-10-02 - Armwrestling for Fun and Profit

Even if she has a million dollars, an entire apartment building in Metropolis, and a house in San Francisco, Kara's still working at Jim's Diner. It's not like she ever -really- needed a lot of money in the first place - she did the job because of Clark once telling her that she needed a way to interact socially with humanity. He was trying to get her to adopt a secret identity. And while she since has adopted one as Kara Starr, sister of Karen Starr, she still uses her Kara Zor-El identity (ie, her REAL identity) as a waitress at Jim's Diner - the only Diner in the world with Supergirl as a waitress.

Unfortunately, this publicity has its problems - not supervillains attacking the diner - so far that hasnt happened at all. No... the problem are college guys who come to the diner to 'check out the hot blonde waitress who may or may not be Supergirl.'

Especially since Kara doesn't really do anything 'super' while working... except that one time that someone tried to rob the place. And one time where she used her x-ray vision to tell some college guys what type of underwear they were wearing.

Speaking of which, they're back. They actually come almost every day, and they even tip well, but every... single... day they try to get her to 'prove' she's Supergirl. And the x-ray vision example is just not enough apparently. Dedrick comes in to see her having to deal with them again, but a look from her to him signifies she really doesn't want 'help' with them. They're harmless college doofuses. Two are even wearing Superman shirts.

Guy #1: "Cmon... show us something you know like... lift the building over your head!"

Guy #2: "Dude, we're IN the building."

Guy #1: "So what, if she's Supergirl she can do it like without breaking it. I saw in a paper where she lifted an entire skyscraper!"

Kara rubs the bridge of her nose and asks, almost pleadingly, "How about instead you order. Is it the usual that you four always get?"

Guy #4: "Cmon... if I hit you with a bat?"

Guy 3: "Moron you're not hitting a girl with a bat."

Kara says, "You're not hitting me with a bat."

Guy #1: "See, if she was Supergirl she wouldnt care if you hit her with a bat."

Kara hangs her head. "No, I don't want you to hit me with a bat because it's a spectacle and someone can get hurt when the bat breaks. Plus ... YOU'RE IN A DINER!" she says, getting a teensy bit iritated. She closes her eyes and takes a deep, cleansing breath.

Guy #3: "oooh, ooh, I know! Fly around. That would prove it!"

Kara again rubs the bridge of her nose. "Spectacle..."

Guy #4 whines. "But that X-ray thing with the underwear, could have been a trick! Cmon you gotta do something better to prove it."

Guy #2: "Yeah prove it, please? We'll give you a big tip."

Kara murmurs, "I'm rich actually..."

Guy #1: "Huh? what was that? Didnt hear."

Kara says "Never mind."

Guy #4: "Cmon do ANYTHING super."

Guy #1: "Yeah do something super! Hey! Armwrestle!"

Guy #2: "Yeah do something super like superstrength. Arm-"

Kara throws up her hands. "All right already...." she says exasperatedly and sits down at the booth. "If I do this, will you PLEASE stop asking every time you come in for me to prove it?"

Guy 4 nudges Guy 3: "You do it, you're on the football team."

Guy 3 looks at Guy 4: "Dude you're on the wrestling team and lift weights all the time!"

Guy 4: "Yeah but that's real wrestling, not armwres-"

Kara interrupts, anxious to get this over with. "Look I'll let each of you okay? Just get this over with PLEASE?" she almost begs.

 Dedrick Jones wipes tears from crying because he was laughing so hard.

Dedrick Jones has been sitting quietly in his booth, watching all of this with an amused expression. Okay, so he really did want to toss these guys out on their asses, but the look from Kara is what's stopping him from doing it. He's been holding his menu for the last couple minutes and he's dressed for a day at the beach. Black shorts, black wifebeater, and a towel in the booth next to him, he was going to get some lunch, and hang around until Kara's shift was over so he could enjoy the rest of the day with her. He clears his throat lightly, "Kara, sweetheart. How about you hurry up and beat these guys so I can order?" He smirks a little as he pulls the menu up to cover his face slightly.

Kara Zor-El puts her arm up boredly with an exxasperated sigh. After some nudging, Guy 4 decides to go first.

Guy 4: "On three.... one, two, three!" And right away he does a quick jerk to try to win quickly, but (of course) Kara's arm doesn't budge. She doesn't look like she's trying, much less paying attention. In fact, while Guy #4 is grunting and pushing with all his might, Kara looks past the college guy and over to Dedrick. "Oh I'm really sorry that I'm making you wait. Tell me what you're wanting to order so that after I'm done I'll get get it right away"

Guy 4 is still trying really hard, red faced and straining. Kara sighs, "Use both hands okay?" Then looks back over at Dedrick. "We have a special of a turkey burger with home made cole slaw and steak fries on the side, it's actually REALLY good." She shakes her head. "But anyway what would you like to order?"

At first Guy 4 grunts out "N-no, I got this... I....." Then decides he doesnt 'got this' and does bring both of his hands up to try to budge hers. But when you mulitply 0 by 2, you still get 0, which is how effective Guy 4 is at pushing Kara's arm even the slightest bit. It would probably not be as humiliating if she was at least bothering to tense her arm ... but she's not.

After another half a minute, Kara mentions, "Just to let you know, we'll need to speed this up a bit because I'm going to have a lot of backed up orders."

Not actually true, as most people are now just watching the armwrestling attempt.

Guy 4 grunts out, "I win, I get anything?" he says, nearly getting out of his seat to try to get additional leverage.

Kara rolls her eyes, "What... presents now? Cmon already, this is just to make you guys stop asking."

Guy 1 blinks and says, "Yo if he wins, you gotta make out with him. Stop playin' Gary." The other 3 guys are fixated.

Then Kara sighs. "Fine, you win we can make out. Whatever." She then looks back at Dedrick, waiting for his order.

Dedrick Jones grins as he knows exactly what these guys are going through. He had tried to arm wrestle Kara once at the beach himself. And if he didn't have a prayer, he knows they don't. "You know, the special sounds really good. Add a sweet tea with that, and a slice of that homemade apple pie with a scoop of ice cream." At the comment of someone making out with Kara, Dedrick's eyes flash solid white for about a second before he comments in a calm voice. "Guys, please stop hassling my girlfriend so she can get back to work."

Kara Zor-El nods a little. It's great to have an eidetic memory. Kara then asks, "Okay, yeah the pie's great today. Want a dollop of cool whip also?" she asks casually. The armwrestling basically an afterthought. If a thought at all. When she agrees about the making out thing to the winner, Guy 3 goes, "Oh cmon there's no way..." and brings his own hand up and tries to pull Kara's back as well. That gets Kara's attention, not because he's having any more success but because he was bothering to do that. "You know usually it's a one on one arm wrestling thing but if you want to all try at once I guess it'll speed things up." She shakes her head and looks over at Dedrick and shrugs a little.

Guy 2 says, "Hey whatever, you're not her boyfriend so knock it off." Then he starts grunting as well as he tries pulling down Kara's arm. Along with the other 3 guys. Using both hands against her one.

Where she still hasnt bothered to tense up or look like she's at least putting some effort into it.

Kara does smiles a little about what Guy 2 says and looks over at Dedrick. "He's right. I mean I think, to be honest, the only way I could let you consider me your girlfriend would be if you beat me at armwrestling. Fair's fair." She looks back at the 4 guys. "Oh by the way, instead of giving me a better tip, just give every waitress who serves you in this diner at least 30% okay? I'm good moneywise myself."

The guys don't bother to respond, they're too red faced and straining to budge an arm that just doesn't want to bother to move.

Dedrick Jones chuckles under his breath. "Alright. I want in on this action." He looks over at Kara. "If I beat you at arm wrestling, how about you make out with me, instead, eh?" He pauses to check the menu again. "Oh, and whip cream would be awesome." He idly flexes his muscles that are on display because he's wearing a wifebeater. "Beat these guys so I can have my turn, huh?"

Kara Zor-El smiles a bit at Dedrick. She might even have blushed a bit. "Um... yeah. Yeah okay. Same deal for you, guy." She looks back at the four guys who are all trying, with both arms, against her one arm. "Okay I'm pretty sure you guys are embarrassed enough. Gonna win now."

Now if Kara was not a nice person, she could push their arms down fast. Which probably would have resulted in at least 2 of them having broken arms, a broken table, two others flying over the table and across the diner, and all other sorts of stuff.

Fortunately Kara's a nice person. She slowly, rather casually pushes their arms down. The more they fight it though, the more painful it is - not that Kara's not trying to do it carefully so as to not hurt them. The two guys on the inside pulling basically get pulled over the table while trying to stop the downward descent, but they'd probably have more luck trying to stop an Abrams tank from moving forward.

When their arms are all down on the table, they're all gasping, out of breath, still red-faced, a couple of them look like they're drenched. Kara waits a few seconds, then lets go of Guy #4's hand, then looks at the other guys who are still holding onto hers. "Pretty sure it's over, I have another challenge apparently. You guys think of what you want to order. And remember the terms of the bet - you don't get to ask me anymore, and give every waitress that ever serves you here 30%% tip at least."

She then walks to the next table and sits down, smiling. Jim is watching also, and chuckling. He actually WANTS Kara to do super stuff in here too - he thinks of it as great advertising, despite KAra's insistence that she just be treated like normal here. She peers at Dedrick, smiling. "Still want to try for the prize?"

Dedrick Jones offers Kara a quick wink. "Of course. Who wouldn't want a chance to make out with Supergirl?" He places his hand on the table, elbow resting against the tabletop gently as he cants his gaze over to the college guys for a moment before wiggling his fingers. "I'm ready."

Kara Zor-El puts her hand up and locks hands with Dedrick. "On three... one, two, three, and... go" And at first, her arm is, like with the guys, utterly unmovable. She says in a hushed voice, "I wasnt being mean right? To those guys I mean. They're annoying but not like... jerks at least. Usually." She then says out loud to Dedrick, "Waiting for you to start."

Dedrick Jones shakes his head as he whispers. "You were much nicer than I would have been." He says out loud, "Okay, here we go." He puts real effort into moving her arm, his muscles bulge outwards as he takes on a look of concentration. Even with his considerable strength, he knew that he wasn't budging Kara's arm unless she allowed him to.

Kara Zor-El smiles a bit, especially when Dedrick really does start trying. Two of the guys are looking over at the new armwrestling match, while the other two are still holding their arms and rubbing it. Guy 4: "That really hurt...." Guy 3: "Well at least there's no doubt now right? Ow..." Guy 3: "Yeah .... well at least that other guy's gonna be feeling this soon as well."

And that's when Kara's arm starts going down!

Yep, KARA'S arm is going down. She even looks like she's trying, sorta. Maybe? Or maybe she's letting him win. Or maybe someone has gold kryptonite in the diner, who knows? Or maybe she lost her powers some other way. Or maybe she's not as strong as is commonly believed?

Whatever the reason, Kara's hand slowly gets pushed down, though Dedrick is definitely working to make it happen - it's not like he's not trying.

And it's down!

Kara smiles a little. "Well... um.... I guess you win. Victory is yours huh? I get off at 6pm, cutie." And gets up, giving Dedrick a kiss on the cheek before walking off to get people's orders.

Jim yells, "Awright, show's over, everyone back to eating!" as Kara heads into the back.

Guy 1, 2, 3, and 4 all look at each other with a 'WTF' expression. Now they really have no clue whether she's Supergirl or not. On one hand, she's clearly superstrong. On the other, it's pretty much commonly believed that Supergirl's the strongest girl, maybe the strongest person, on the entire planet. So they look over at Dedrick, and Guy #2 asks, "How the heck did you do that?" looking him over. Does this guy have superstrength or something maybe? If so, the hot waitress was really taking losing well. Or was she letting him win? Seriously.... wtf?

Dedrick Jones whews slightly and sits back in his booth, a satisfied look on his face. When the guys asks him how he did it, he replies. "It's technique, guys, not strength." He winks and then goes back to looking at the menu, even though he's ordered already. "It was difficult though. She's really, really strong." And he leaves it at that, for them to figure out. "Remember your promise though, no more harassing the waitress."

Guy #4 shakes his arm a bit, holding it. "Dude, my arm's like on fire from that. Seriously man, ow..." The guys go back to talking at their table, more subdued, although now not sure ... once again... if the hot waitress is Supergirl or some metahuman or a mutant or something.

In the kitchen, Jim asks Kara, "Girl, how'd that other guy beat you?" Kara just looks at him and smiles. "Have you gotten a good look at him? He's so cute...." with a wink, then heads back out to bring food to the tables.

Later that evening, at Dedrick's apartment ...

Dedrick Jones has been roped into another arm wrestling match with Kara. Over what movie to go to. You want an action flick with explosions and fighting, she wants a chick flick about a young woman coming of age with her 2 best friends, growing up in Maine and travelling across France. Lots of talk about feelings.

And now his entire body was sweaty, his eyes had gone red from effort, and still her arm is not moving an inch. He mutters between breaths. "This..is..so..not..fair.."

And on the other hand, Kara's in her civvies again, idly watching Dedrick try his darndest. It would help a lot if she was trying. Really. At least the mystery of how he won at the diner was solved definitively. Then again, Dedrick isnt using both hands at least. Yet. She doesn't really look like she's trying much harder than she was with the four guys. Then again, Kara's armwrestled Lobo - admittedly she let him win as payment for his help, but still...

Kara tilts her head. "Dedrick, what do you think I should do for a job as my secret identity? I mean once I have her finish college?" Gee, her voice isnt even sounding like she's trying either. Though her question does sound genuine.

The movie she wants to see is like 'The Lakehouse'... but not as action packed. It's like The Lakehouse meets the Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants. But more sedate.

Dedrick Jones continues to try. It wasn't fair, he didn't want to see the stupid chick flick, darnit. So, he had to at least move her arm a little. Just a little. He reaches up and uses both hands now, almost laying on top of her arm with his weight trying to get it to move.

"Something..in..science..lab.." He suggests. If he keeps this up, he'll fall asleep at whatever movie they go see. Though it looks like the blonde bomshell is going to get her way..again.

Kara Zor-El shrugs a little, not really taking much notice of Dedrick using both hands, although at the start she did say he could if he wanted to. "Yeah... I mean.... I think doing something in science would be expected of me, but not sure if that would jeopardize the whole secret identity thing if I start inventing stuff that's too advanced for the planet. Then again after this merge with the other world, there's all sorts of advanced Earth technology. Like that Reed Richards guy. He has some pretty basic but still very on-point ideas on dimensional science which are almost like how Kryptonian technology on the phantom zone were when the Science Guild first started experimenting on it. I was actually thinking of paying him a visit to let him know about the Phantom Zone. Wouldnt want him accidentally freeing a bunch of Kryptonian criminals after all." She pauses. "I was actually sort of thinking of having my alter ego be an artist. Maybe sculptures. My dad would have loved that. He wanted me to be in the Artist Guild. His own Guildmaster said I had real talent in it."

Kara pauses while you're using all your weight and both arms. She temporarily changes subject. "It's a good movie you know. It has this woman called Bette Midler as the authoritarian mother, and Hillary Swank and Gina Sustrin as the older sisters of the main character. I think the main character even has a cat!"

Dedrick Jones groans loudly. Either from the description of the movie or because he was about to hurt himself from trying to move her arm. In the end, he gives it up and falls to the floor, lying on his back while gasping for air. "Jeez..I've lifted freaking planes and subarmines, but I can't move a stupid arm.." He flings his hands out to the side as he looks up at Kara. "Not all science deals with inventing things. You could be a veternarian...a biochemist..or yeah, you can be an artist. My life is pretty much laid out. After I finish college, I go work for my dad, and eventually, I take over his company when he's ready to retire."

Kara Zor-El smiles a bit. "It's not a stupid arm you know." She tries to stifle the giggle, especially since she knows how embarassing it can sometimes be for a guy to get beaten by a girl. Fortunately, Dedrick is a much more enlightened guy. Although apparently not enlightened enough to want to watch 'Beach on the Waterfront - The Story of Anne.' She tries again to play up how the movie would be nice to watch. "The main character gets a job as an artist and wants to hitchhike across Europe to see the world." She's not doing a good job at convincing Dedrick. "I mean... don't you get tired of movies with lots of explosions and scantily clad women and fighting? I mean.... we do that REGULARLY in real life. How often do we get to grow as people emotionally?"

Oh god, this movie is going to be torture.

She sighs. "Well we are going to see it, you'll like it." she says as she finally decides to push his arm down down about 90 degrees. She hasnt just 'won' right away because of the hope that she'll be able to convince Dedrick to go to the movie willingly instead.

"Do you like the idea of working for your dad then taking over the company? I mean... it does sound intellectually stimulating. Sort of like 'Beach on the Waterfront.'"

I mean... cmon, even the name doesn't make any sense!

"I think it even has subtitles when she goes to France, so it's not like you need to know more than one language."

OH god. SUB-TITLES!

Dedrick Jones sighs and relents. "Fine, fine, we'll go see the movie. But you owe me some serious kissing time after this." He smirks at her faintly. He really, really didn't want to see this movie, but this is one of those things that boyfriends do to keep their girlfriends happy. He comments, "Okay, so we get to do that stuff for real, but don't you know that's why it's so appealing? To see the hollywood interpretation of how we live our lives." That and you can never go wrong with scantily clad women. Good thing Kryptonians weren't telepathic. "I guess I'll shower and change, then we can go." He walks towards his bedroom with his shoulders drooping slightly. Defeated. Flawless Victory goes to Kara.

Kara Zor-El puts his hand down to the table, happy when he relents. She leans over the table and gives you a quick kiss before saying, "I like movies to be like a escape from reality, which means not having to deal with fights and ninjas and giant robots and battles and shooting all over the place."

Yeah, Kara's 'escape from reality' is apparently 'boring.' There's a rumor her favorite hobby is actually KNITTING even.

She watches as her sweaty, exhausted, strained boyfriend heads off to his bedroom to change. "And yes, I owe you major kissing!" she calls out to him as he heads to the shower to get changed with a very happy smile on her face. She does exert some effort at this point to NOT use x-ray vision.

Dedrick Jones sighs. "Yeah, but why does escape from reality have to be so BORING?" He asks softly, knowing that she could probably still hear him while he gets in his shower and dresses for his date.