Chapter Text
Duela had a thing for trying out all weirdly themed clubs in the city, just to see what they will come up with next. When she wasn’t doing jobs for a parent, of course. Tonight’s hit was place called ‘Club Angel’ fish, in the part of the city called Burnside. She went out of costume in civilian clothes, more specifically, a purple bikini top and black short shorts. Duela also wore a black cover up over it to mask her scars. She never did feel like swimming much.
She finally got inside, and at the sight of the giant fish bowl high in the air confirmed her desire not to swim even more. ‘I’m gonna need some drinks in me for this.’ There apparently some event also going on that night. There was always some event going everywhere in this place.
Duela got to bar and flashed the bartender a big old grin. “I’ll go easy on ya tonight, Barkeep. Give me a daiquiri.” The bartender narrowed his eyes at her, but fixed her drink anyway. “So, what’s this event for?” “Laptops for dolphins.” A female voice to her right stated. Duela made a confused face for second, she’s pretty sure she’s sober. “They’ll-”
“It’s lawyers for dolphins. Last week was laptops for Uruguay.” A man next to the woman beside her spoke up. “Oh, yeah. I’m so glad to work in an industry that’s changing the world for the better.” As Duela got her drink, she couldn’t help but listen in on these two people. “Maybe we could fix Burnside next. This morning a homeless person coughed on me.” The man stated. “Gross.” The woman replied with disgust. Duela clicked her tongue and tilted her head. “It’s like a safety hazard for them to lie around on the street.” “Yeah, the government should do something about that.”
Duela couldn’t stop herself from bursting out into laughter, that got the attention of all the people at the bar. “I know right, the government should round them all up and put bullets in their heads. Cremate the bodies and bury the dust in one huge unmarked grave.” Her laughter continued. “That sounds crazy, right? Well, that’s how crazy you guys sound to me. People like you are what makes me hate society. You brag about going to these events, and ‘working in an industry that’s changing the world for the better’, but you don’t give a care about the actual people.The actual people that were probably hurt by all these new industries moving into town.” She downed her drink and stormed off.
‘These are the people that make me want to kill.’ She thought to herself. “Excuse me! Please wait!” An unfamiliar male’s voice called after her. Duela turned to face a decently attractive guy. He almost looked like the most stereotypical white guy tho, it was a little too skinny for that. One thing Duela did like was his long thin neck, she could just picture her hands around it.
“What you said back there, that was something .” Duela supposed that was to be a compliment. “Ah, that was me being way too sober, cranky from the traveling I’ve done lately, and having zero tolerance for people like that.” She chuckled. “Where ya been traveling to?” Duela shook her head, we’re heading to the normal people small talk train. “Metropolis, Starcity, and Keystone City. I’m happy be back here, but I can’t say I care what’s been happening around here as of late.” “It’s all that new tech money.” He stated.
“You look familiar, do I know you?” Depends, how often do you watch the news? “Not sure, I get told I look familiar a lot through. Name’s Duela, I do work for some of the most powerful men in Gotham.” That technically wasn’t a lie. “You don’t say? I’m Ethan. I run an incubator called VICFORM. Our goal is to improve communities through tech. We find grassroots solutions to problems the government doesn’t have the resources to address.” Duela giggled.
That sounds shady as all hell. “That sounds pretty cool, Ethan. You must have quite the thing going then?” Somewhere in this conversation he got closer to her. “I’d love to tell you more about it. Over dinner, maybe? Saturday?” Duela shrugged. “Sure, I’m not one to turn down a free meal.” Ethan pulled out a green card. “Great, here’s my card.” She rolled her eyes as she took it, how romantic.
Mismatched eyes widen through at his last name. Her smile started to grow unnaturally wide as she felt her heart start to beat. “Cobblepot? Ya mean like-” “Oswald Cobblepot.” Ethan smirked as he started to walk away. “The Penguin?” Duela’s voice was giddy. “Mm-Hmm…” Cupid’s arrow shot her in several times in the chest. She was giggling to herself as she watched him walk away.