Taking Things for Granted

[Heather Glass]

The weather was nice outside today. With the winter fading into memory and the summer fast approaching, many days like today were just at that perfect spot between too cold and too hot. Of course, many days this time of year are full of rain, which isn't exactly pleasant if you're unable to avoid being out in it, but today it is sunny. This is why, as she left her apartment to run a few errands, she found herself drawn to a little cafe she spotted on her way to her first stop. It had outdoor seating, a cute little chalkboard sign that announced a lunch special, and her stomach grumbled the moment she paused to consider how tranquil it all looked. Well, she didn't really have a good breakfast and wasn't pressed for time on her errands, so why not.

Not too long after, she was partway through a bowl of soup and a sandwich, half distracted by her phone. She frowned thoughtfully while she ate, looking through her recent text messages. A part of her really didn't like looking through them, because she always felt like she didn't remember sending some of them. Which is a perfectly normal feeling, she's aware - she's heard other people talk about it before - but it was a feeling she didn't like anyway. Still, it was important to make sure that she didn't forget to reply to anything important - she'd been accused of doing so before, but it was really because her app didn't always properly mark unread messages as such, so she was in the habit of double-checking. Better safe than sorry.

When she was finished with that, she set her phone back down on the table and then reached for her coffee. As it had been over two full decades since she had first learned to manipulate a cup, she took her ability to do so for granted, even making a grab for it while not even looking at it directly. But she was distracted by that feeling of discomfort during this moment enough that her confidence in such a simple gesture was a mistake. Her aim was slightly off, and instead of wrapping her fingers securely around the styrofoam cup she instead grazed the side of the cup with her fingertips, her thumb missing completely. This had the result of knocking the cup sideways. Sensing impending doom, she reflexively tried to catch it before it tumbled, but instead she somehow made it worse.

The nearly full cup ended up being flung unceremoniously to the ground, and because she hadn't bothered to put a lid on it the resulting explosion was uncontained, though it was angled somewhat due to the angle of its fall. It splattered, fortunately away from her instead of toward, but the outer edge of the splash zone reached an impressive distance. Helpless to stop it, she watched in horror, her gasp of surprise and dismay starting even before it landed. This was followed by a quick "Oh, crap..." when she realized that the drink was a total loss, and she'd paid good money for it.

[Roman Sionis]

A maroon colored 1962 Rolls Royce Silver Cloud classic pulled up in front of a cafe in Midtown Gotham City. Roman Sionis sat in the backseat of the luxury vehicle, on clean black leather seating that was extremely comfortable and extremely expensive. The female chauffeur looked back in her review mirror, "Sir. We have arrived."

Sionis slammed his electronic device onto the floor. "<Bleep>. Fine. Fine. You sure this is the place with the best coffee? That hazelnut crap at Panera was absolute $!#$."

Behind her dark shades, the chauffeur rolled her eyes. She was a tall woman from out of state who had experience as a trucker before coming to Gotham to work. "According to the reviews on YELP, this cafe has some of the best coffee n the city."

"Alright. If the coffee sucks, then it will be a mark on your card, and if you give me attitude for that. Then you're fired." In reality, Roman had been upset all morning. Janus stocks continued to plummet, mainly due to EXTREME's poor sales. Two things were helping him cope with the stress of the situation. The first was the use of drugs. The second is the recent memory of firing Pamela Isley over the telephone. What a satisfying experience. "Stupid dyke." Roman was referring to Isley and the chauffeur with the use of slang.  Killing two birds with one demeaning comment boosted his confidence. 

The chauffeur exited the automobile and made her way around the car in order to open her employer's door. No thank you was given in response to her action. Roman adjusted his weighted black gloves and stepped out of the car. It was a beautiful day, but Roman wouldn't notice. A cup of coffee and the drug known as Fever were his present focuses. Stepping out of the car, Roman adjusted his suit jacket and put on his gold framed sunglasses. On this date he was sporting his white suit with black pinstripes over a black shirt and silver tie underneath. He wore matching slacks, all of it custom tailored.

He hadn't taken more than 5 steps before a hot liquid splashed onto his left thigh, right along the adductor longus and the majority of his quadricep muscles. Very near the sacred groinal area.

"Ouuuuuuuuch!" Roman screamed in pain. Wrapping both hands around the entire left thigh, Roman flexed his hips causing the female chauffeur behind him to stop in her tracks. No doubt a first degree burn will be along his thigh.

"Hot! Hot! Hot!" Roman yelled.  The chauffeur reluctantly provided Roman with her handkerchief to wipe down the liquid. There was a stain of coffee with a decent sized radius along his designer slacks. "<Bleeeeep>! Second outfit this week!" Roman made reference to the suit he had stained at the Wayne Manor. He couldn't afford to keep purchasing new business suits of high quality. "What the heck happened?! Who is responsible?! Who can't hold a freaking coffee cup?!? Whomever they are owes me a new pair of pants, a cup of coffee, and an oatmeal raisin cookie."

[Heather Glass]

No sooner had she noted the complete loss of her cup of coffee, a shout attracted her attention to the fact that there was some collateral damage. She looked over at the well-dressed man who had happened to be walking past her table to get into the cafe with a somewhat embarrassed grimace, an apology about to come to her lips.

...Except then she heard the rest of what he was shouting and closed her lips with a frown. An oatmeal raisin cookie? Really? She'd believe that she might owe him a new pair of pants if they were honestly and truthfully ruined (though who in their right mind wears a white suit that isn't stain-resistant these days?), but a cup of coffee seemed like a stretch - maybe it could be argued that it was for the inconvenience? But adding a cookie just made it blatantly clear that she'd managed to upset one of those entitled jerks you read about on Reddit. She started taking mental notes of the details of the situation to include in the story that she'd be writing about this later - the cookie alone would probably get her a lot of upvotes.

Of course, that recognition did little to inform her about what to actually do about the situation, because all the little stories proved that there was no reasoning with a person like him. Well, she supposed that she should do 'the right thing' anyway - after she made the two required taps on her phone to set it to record. The video would just be blackness, but the upcoming audio might be a gem. "Here," she said, picking up the napkins she had on her table and holding them out to him, even as she stood up from her seat and then bent over to retrieve the fallen cup.

Doubting that napkins were going to be a sufficient peace offering, she glanced around for any employees of the cafe. Fortunately, the man's yelling was actually good for something - there apparently hadn't been any outside moments ago, but even as she looked she could see at least two of them leaving the building and heading quickly in their direction. Which was good because the second she'd stood up she'd realized that this angry, demanding man was like a head taller than her petite self, and with that level of rage he was kind of intimidating. Not that she was all that scared because there were enough people around that she was fairly confident that he would only yell, but it was something she definitely noticed.

[Roman Sionis]

Upon seeing the two employees enter into the scene, Roman turned sharply to them and began a tirade.

"Your dang coffee is to hawt! I'm going to sue your asses. Mom and Pop coffee shop is going to be gone. Erased from the Gotham yellow pages. The owners will be paying out to me for years. Heeeeee." Roman made a 'slit the throat' motion with his black gloved hand.

Roman was still muttering a few curses in more of a mumble then a shout. The combination of the napkins and cloth provided to him by the chauffeur were enough to clean up a portion of the coffee stains. The President of Janus Cosmetics looked over at his female chauffeur and said, "Well? Aren't you going to clean me up?"

The chauffeur bit her lip. Then she got down on one knee and began wiping her employers groin area and the other parts of the thigh that had been affected by the coffee. Roman seemed to be 'getting off' on what she was doing. "Do a good job and there is an extra 10 bucks in it for you. Heeee."

Roman looked around and heard someone say "Here." Then he saw the girl who was responsible for this entire fiasco stand up. She was roughly a few inches over five feet tall. A petite girl who might have been having as bad of a day as him. Roman snatched the additional napkins out of her hand like a greedy teen snatching a $50.00 bill from their mother's hand in order to purchase the newest earbuds. Roman dropped those napkins to the ground for his chauffeur to pick up and use.

"Well? Where is my <bleepin? apology? You're responsible for this mess and all you have to say is 'Here,'" Roman began making quotations with his fingers. "You're probably some spoiled millennial, mooching off mom and dad. Can't even hold a cup of coffee let alone hold a job. C'mon valley girl, lets see that gold credit card. You can afford to purchase me a new cup of coffee, designer slacks, and my yummy tummy oatmeal raisin coooooooookie."

Sionis bore a hold through her as he spoke. If it was legal and appropriate he would go up and slap the girl for the miscue in addition to having her literally pay for what happened. In due time perhaps this will occur, but for now, while he still held the title of President of a major company, Roman Sionis had to play by societies rules.

[Heather Glass]

When the man went off on the cafe employees, Heather kept quiet as they made random apologies. It caused her to roll her eyes because they'd obviously done nothing at all, but she supposed that it was easier to give a fake apology than to try to explain to an angry person that they were wrong, especially if you were minimum wage. At least it might make the yelling stop. But that whole mess was none of her business anyway - that was between him and the cafe.

That he also demanded that the woman with him clean it for him didn't impress her one bit either. In fact, she found herself easily coming up with terribly offensive cracks to make about that, but her goal here wasn't necessarily to make the situation escalate. Besides, how he treated other people who apparently worked for him was also none of her business, even if she wouldn't have tolerated such a thing personally.

What was her business was when he started throwing insults in her direction. Though she simply stood there with her arms folded and took it, letting him rant and rave all he wanted. When he seemed to be finished, she calmly stated, "Actually, I'm from a poor family in Kansas. My parents didn't give me a dime, but I came here and got my degree. Now I'm up to my eyeballs in student loan debt. So no, I'm not buying you a damn cookie."

She was further tempted to point out that he was the one wearing a fancy suit like it was everyday wear and she was in a T-shirt and jeans as evidence of what they could respectively afford to pay, but she held herself back on that too. The conversation was already petty enough. Of course, she didn't exactly look poverty-stricken - she was wearing a nice T-shirt with nice jeans, and her purse and the other things with her weren't the cheapest they could be, but that was only because she managed her money well. Unlike the guy she was talking to, who looked like he could just buy the whole cafe if he really wanted someone to give him cookies that badly.

Though she did add, "And I was going to say that I was sorry, but you insulted me pretty hard there, so I don't feel sorry anymore." If she'd known more about the man she was dealing with she might not have been so bold, but they were in public among many witnesses so she didn't expect him to do anything to her for her defiance.

[Roman Sionis]

"Eyeballs up in student debt?" Roman mocked while framing his eyes with imaginary glasses, "Your family should have worked the system valley girl. Applying for food-stamps, using food pantries, welfare, social security, you know all of those great benefits the democrats use to hold back minorities and people who live in poverty. Heck, there are even special scholarships for people like you that were donated by altruistic affluent folk like....Bruce Wayne.." Roman scowls before spitting on the ground at the mention of the name.

He wiped his mouth of any left over saliva with one of the coffee stained napkins. "But noooooooo. You decided to go to college, get an education, takeout student loans, follow in the footsteps of the Great Gatsby by pursuing he American Dream. What you should have done is married a rich man like me, had a kid, and then got divorced in order to collect child support. Rinse and repeat. That is, if you are smart and sly enough to convince the rich man to not sign a prenuptial. I'll give you this, you come across as someone who would be smart enough to pull something like that off. But not smart enough to avoid the subsistence farming lifestyle known as the American student debt system. Now, you'll be paying into the pockets of corrupt Republicans for the rest of your life. Don't get me wrong, Democrats are corrupt beyond belief too, the Republicans are just better organized and don't let emotions cloud their judgement. Unfortunately for you, the Axis power did not win World War 2, otherwise Benito Mussolini would have been given North American as his spoils of victory and we would all better off because of it! Wooooooooooooooooo. I'm on a roll right now!"

Sionis grabbed a glass of water and drank the entire thing in one slurping, like someone who had been thirsty for days.  He then placed both hands on the posterior aspect of the gluteus maximus in order to extend his hips forward. It was his way of helping the chauffeur dry the dampness that was still left on his custom designer pants. When Heather refused to apology, Roman merely chuckled.

"You have sass. I like that. You have gumshoe and at least are willing to peel off a part of the mask. I'll extend a hand of charity today. Would you be interested in modeling for my company, Janus Cosmetics? I'll pay you well and offer flexible hours. You won't be eyeballs in student debt for much longer. You're petite. You're a red-head. You represent a demographic that Janus has not fully tapped into. Whadusay?  You probably hate my guts.  You probably don't think much of me, BUT as my employee you'll always know where your boss is coming from.  You'll know what your boss is thinking.  You'll know where you stand in the company.  No games...well maybe a few.   Heeeee."

[Heather Glass]

Rolling her eyes slightly, she replied, "My family was poor, not in poverty. There's a difference. Not that someone like you would know anything about it." It was somewhat of an irritant to her, actually, because her family's income had been in that extremely unfortunate spot of being just barely too high to qualify for any of the things he'd listed. Not that she would have wanted her family to have had to use those services - she'd have rathered that they'd simply had more money - but it might have made things a little bit easier.

And maybe if things had been a little bit easier her father wouldn't have been such a nasty person, but that was just speculation. But she wasn't interested in sharing any more of her sob story with this guy, especially since she didn't really see her upbringing as a hindrance. Paying off her debt would only seem like it would take forever, but at the rate that she was going she'd be richer than her parents in about fifteen years and it would be pretty sweet to rub that in their faces - she was looking forward to it.

But in the meantime, she was having to deal with this guy, and her expression got more and more incredulous the more he explained what she should have done instead. "Yeah, I see nothing wrong with that plan," she said, just letting the sarcasm flow out. Was he even being serious? He couldn't have been serious. Could he? She wasn't sure, honestly, because what he was saying was completely ludicrous and yet it seemed to fit in nicely with everything else that he'd said so she couldn't be sure.

When his ranting then started to turn into a job offer, her eyebrow raised. Was this seriously happening? Apparently, yes. She suppressed the expression of disgust that was threatening and instead forced herself to remain composed. "I don't want or need your charity. I also don't want or need a job that only cares about my looks. I'm a journalist. Besides, I've seen how you treat your employees and I have too much self-respect to stoop so low as to work for someone like you - I don't care how much money you'd pay," she stated firmly.

But then her expression twitched with a realization, and she looked over at his chauffeur and said, "No offense intended. But... you can quit at any time, remember." She looked back at the man, though her expression had suddenly gotten puzzled like she was trying to remember something. Janus Cosmetics... Didn't she hear something about that company recently? Which was weird, because she wasn't so into makeup and such that she thought too much about particular brands. She couldn't really afford to buy the good stuff, even though she had quite the collection back at home because she liked to experiment with her look. But yes, the name did ring a bell about something she'd run into recently, though she couldn't put her finger on it.

[Roman Sionis]

Her name is Candace Lyons. She is a 42 year old single mother from the state of Montana. Her daughter was born when she 16 years old. The father was an Iraq War Veteran, only one of the few to be killed during the second Gulf War. Her daughter is now 26 and has her own life in Gotham. She is doing reasonably well, living a lower middle class lifestyle and has a family of her own.

Candace spent years working as a trucker in the Central and Mountain time zones. She especially loved trips along the Rocky Mountains through Colorado and then down to the New Mexico mesa. She came to Gotham to help her daughter with martial problems, a second career, and taking care of newly born grandchild. That was 6 years ago. Now, her daughter did not need her as much. With no where left to turn her focus, the old demons of the past began to resurface. The bottle. The bottom of the bottle.

Earlier in the month she discovered that Janus Cosmetics was hiring. Hiring deliver truck drivers. She signed on and got the job within a week. She kept away from the bottle. Two weeks into the job she had an opportunity to earn triple the pay. A personal chauffeur position opened up to drive Roman Sionis, CEO and President of the company. She decided to apply for it. And what do you know? Landed the gig. A week into the job, and she was already hating it for a variety of reasons. The worst of all, the way Sionis talked down to her and the way he treated her.

So when Heather made the comment about being able to resign at any time, it caught Candace off guard. The chauffeur looked up and stared at Heather. Studying the young girls face, Heather reminded Candace of her own daughter. What would her daughter think if she saw her bending down and cleaning this man's coffee stains? What would her grand child think?

Roman stood dumbfounded, "I c---ca---can't believe it! You really are stupid valley girl," Sionis's volume increased. "Rejecting an opportunity to work for Roman Sionis? Rejecting an opportunity to work for me!? No one does that! NO ONE!" Roman slammed his gloved left hand on a cafe table causing another beverage accident. "$!@&!*. You!" Sionis pointed at the chauffeur once again. "CLEAN THIS UP RIGHT NOW! Don't listen to the valley girl. I own you. I pay you well. You can't afford the lifestyle you have without me."

[Heather Glass]

When her rejection put the man into even more of a rage, she simply folded her hands across her chest and gave him an incredulous look. "You know, you're really convincing me to change my mind with all the insults and all the yelling," she said with obvious sarcasm, adding, "And I doubt that I'm the first to do it, but either way - yes, I'm definitely rejecting the 'opportunity'. Like I said, I don't care how much money you'd pay. I'd rather get paid less to work for someone who is actually nice."

And, having seen that the chauffeur seemed to be giving her words some thought, she cast the woman a significant look after saying that. She wasn't going to tell a complete stranger what to do about something as important as their job, but if reminding someone that they aren't a slave makes them question their job then maybe they shouldn't have that job. Though she supposed it was possible that the woman was in a situation that made quitting not quite that easy, so she wasn't going to push that idea too hard.

In fact, if the man was going to continue to stand there and yell, she was going to stop letting it interrupt her day so much. After all, her soup was getting colder - she sat down and started eating again. He could yell at her while she finished her lunch if he wanted to. To a certain degree, it might make actually make things better for her - she might even get Reddit gold for this one. And she did have some hope that if he saw that she wasn't planning on engaging with him further at this point then maybe it would help him focus on what he actually wanted rather than whatever came to his mind to yell about next.

Meanwhile, the cafe employees were standing around somewhat helplessly because they had an irate potential customer so they felt as though they should probably do something about that, but it was unclear how they could be of any help when one person was yelling at another for rejecting a job offer - that wasn't covered in their training. They started quietly discussion between themselves whether or not the coffee on the ground needed to be cleaned up, but because it was outdoors that wouldn't be easy and also might not be necessary - they could hose it down after the lunch rush. Though just as they were concluding that conversation one of them noted with relief that now their manager was heading in their direction.

[Roman Sionis]

Candace Lyons continued to look at Heather until Roman demanded that she clean up the new mess, then she shot a glare at her soon to be ex-boss. "You know Roman she is right and you are wrong. You don't own me. You don't pay me enough to put up with your attitude. I can afford to cut back, I've survived and thrived in much worse AND like she said, I CAN quit at anytime."

She took out the keys to the Rolls Royce and causally dropped them to the ground, "Clean up your own mess because I quit. Your company is going under anyway." With that the chauffeur turned towards Heather and softly said "Thank you," before leaving the cafe with her head held high.

Roman simply stood there, not sure exactly what happened. It took him at least 30 seconds to compose himself. A small crowd of people started to gather including passer buyers on the street, employees of the cafe, and now the manager.


Roman Sionis crinkled his nose and started to under bite with his teeth. The dullness of his eyes failed to display any emotion, but every other part of his being did. The president of Janus Cosmetics slightly flexed his right wrist and pointed a crooked index finger at Heather. She was already sitting down with spoon in hand.

"It is your fault. Its all your fault valley girl!" He took a step towards Heather and slammed both palms on her table. "Look up at me. Stop slurping the soup." Sionis inched his head closer to hers. "Listen to me and listen well. You have one more chance. You cannot afford to buy me a new pair of pants, so work for me. Purchase me a new cup of coffee and a freaking cookie. But most importantly say my name. Say my name with respect and principle. R-O-M-A-N S-I-O-N-I-S. Roman Sionis."

The entire situation was no longer about the cookie or the coffee. It was not about the pair of pants that cost over one hundred dollars. Now this entire fiasco was about letting this girl know who she was dealing with. It was about letting her know that his name is Roman Sionis, and that he should be the one the magazines write articles about. He should be the one that everyone talked about at the water cooler on a Monday morning. Not Bruce Wayne. Not Victor Fries. Not Salvatore Maroni. Not Malcolm Fontaine. Roman 'the Lord of Masks' Sionis is star of Gotham, and this girl will acknowledge that.

[Heather Glass]

Though she sat down and pretended to be focused on her soup, for a moment at least she had a show to enjoy with her meal. A quite enjoyable show, actually - there was nothing quite like the real-life drama of someone standing up for themselves. She was tempted to shout out her support for the woman as she told the jerk how she really felt, but she refrained - it didn't look like her support was need anyway and that was one fire that didn't need any more fuel.

When the chauffeur thanked her she acknowledged it by flashing a peace sign, wishing the woman well. That certainly wasn't something that she meant to trigger, but she can't say that she disapproved of it in the least. She can't imagine what it was like to work for this guy for however long she had done so - she doubted that she'd last a day herself. Either she would quit or do something to the guy that would land her in jail.

Speaking of him, now he'd charged over to her table and was yelling in her face again. Not even putting down her spoon, she said, "It's not my fault she didn't like working for you." She ate that spoonful and then added, "But why, though? Why should I respect you?" She looked back at him steadily, not intimidated, and actually asked it as an honest question. Because he hadn't done a single thing this entire time that she respected. She couldn't think of even one.

Even as they were having this exchange, the manager was quickly briefed by the employees about what was going on and, seeing that the situation looked like it was only going to continue, he stepped in. "Sir! Why are you harassing a paying customer? You need to calm down, leave her alone, and buy something. Or you need to leave," he said in that calm but firm tone of authority someone develops when they're a veteran at dealing with difficult customers, carefully explaining the man's options to him.

She remained silent at those words, though she couldn't help but give the angry man an innocent smile. Why yes, she was a paying customer and this Roman Sionis guy was not, at least for the moment. That actually gave her a privileged position at the moment, so how about that? She tried to keep her smug expression muted, however, because even though she was enjoying herself she didn't want to antagonize him much further.

[Kara Zor-El]

Kara had decided it was a good time to take a walk and get away from the campus, but she was too close to not go as Linda. So here she was going to take her lunch outside of the school zone. The campus was boring her today and she really wasn't forming very good aliases with her classmates. She had left her backpack on campus and was just in her school uniform. More so styled to her taste as she wasn't always for the neat and trim look. She wasn't Clark.

Her now long brown hair hung loose and she had ditched the glasses for the afternoon. If she could get a headache, she was sure those things would cause it. She looked down at her phone just to see a message from at least one classmate wondering where she had gone to. Ok maybe she was making a friend or two, but still she like a bit of space.

At the moment of the shouting going on about a girl saying she wasn't going or needed his charity. And the rant about owning someone and the woman who had been standing near him had gotten up from bending over to say she had quiet...Linda had walked into an interesting situation already.

She had a puzzled look as she heard a bit more of the conversation just as she walked in. She could tell that something had spilled on the man and he was angry about it. She'd like the girl was having an issue with him and it definitely wasn't someone she knew or he wouldn't be showing his own name and wanting respect. She could tell the cafe worker was trying to settle the problem by asking him to leave...well more so telling him to.

"Who the heck are you?" she said as she entered the door. She couldn't help herself. This jerk seemed like he might have all the power in his hands, but mostly in his head.

Linda seemed to recognize the girl who the guy was yelling at. She may be some teen, but sometimes it was fun putting someone in their place without using any powers. She couldn't stand such things and this jerk seemed to need a hard time. He didn't seem like he was going to leave anytime soon. His name didn't really ring a bell either. Her sharp blues eyes fixed now on the situation.

[Roman Sionis]

Roman was about to respond to his current nemesis but was interrupted by the manager. Even though the manager was a veteran of difficult situations, Roman was on the new drug called Fever. Roman had been picking verbal fights with board members, socialites, researchers, blue collar workers, and the latest was that so called botanist Pamela Isley. His experience in escalating and pursuing conflicts was like a maniac driver breaking speed limits and tailgating whenever possible...he wasn't going to stop until a major accident happened, and even then would fate allow him to cease there?

Roman Sionis shifted his attention to the manager, "Really?" Roman looked at the gathered crowd and pointed again at the cafe manager and spoke again "Really? A glorified barista is going to dictate what I do? A loser on salary is going to tell a president of a major company what they can or can't do? I'll tell you what, I'll buy the cheapest thing you have in the store that will make me a paying customer. But I won't leave this girl alone, or leave the cafe, or calm down until I'm ready!"

Roman considered spitting in the manager's face but barely refrained.

"Who the heck are you?"

Sionis turned to face the new voice.  He lowered his head in disbelief and then brought it back up in a quick motion.  Roman buried his face in his hands, before opening them back up and lowering them to his waist "Unbelievable!  Another person cutting in...and WHY DOESN'T ANYONE KNOW WHO I AM?!?!"

He then looked back to the coffee spiller, "Hey soup girl! You're going to respect me because I'm going to purchase any private student loans you have.  Then I'll find a way to increase the interest rates on those loans.  Then I'll own you.  Then you'll work for me.  Then you'll do whatever I tell you to.  By the way you're more of a welfare queen."

Roman pointed at Kara, "THIS is a valley girl." He then looked at Kara from head to toe in disgust, "A valley girl who will become an overweight soccer mom in about ten years."  He had his hands clenched in a fist now.  "The name is Roman Sionis.  Google my name, then one thousand articles about me will appear.  If you haven't heard of me, then you must live under a rock or be another ignorant Generation Z kid with no hope or no future. Woooooo!  I'm on a roll times two!"

The president of Janus Cosmetics raised his arms in victory, cheering for himself in the process.        

[Heather Glass]

Letting the man have his moment to yell the manager responded back in the same tone as before, allowing the other man to see that he was unaffected by his rage. "Sir, you're going to calm down or you're going to leave, or I call the police and tell them you're trespassing and causing a public disturbance. Your choice..." he said, already pulling a phone out of his pocket - both to indicate that it wasn't an idle threat and because he could already guess that the man wasn't going to be reasonable about it.

Especially with someone else seemingly about to join into the fray - this was already getting out of hand! Unlike the customer the man had been yelling at, the manager had dealt with enough of the entitled rich folk who sometimes came by to know that there was something off about this particular man. Was almost acting more like the crazy homeless folk who sometimes came by... Either way, he didn't delay any further to dial the authorities. They could sort that out for themselves - he just wanted to look out for the best interests of his customers, if only so the cafe didn't end up with a bunch of bad reviews because of this guy.

Meanwhile, the angry man had accumulated enough people to yell at that the young woman who had accidentally drawn his ire in the first place had a moment to think about why some of the stuff he'd been yelling rang a bell. Wait, Janus Cosmetics... yeah, she'd heard about that! Skimmed through an article while she'd been waiting for a dental appointment to start, actually.

So when he turned to her to threaten her student loans, something easy for her to ignore because she was guessing he was all bluster, instead of responding to that threat, she said, "Wait... you're the guy in charge of that company making the face paint?" She only vaguely remembered it, but it definitely fits in with what the chauffeur had said about the company going under...

She spared a glance at the teenager who had arrived on the scene. Though she didn't know the girl, she was somewhat concerned about someone else walking into this ridiculous mess. Noting that his attention was on the teen, she silently gestured to indicate that the man was crazy, hoping that it would warn her off. Not that it wasn't made clear by the fact that he apparently thought that he was 'winning' or something instead of simply making a fool of himself.

[Kara Zor-El]

"Valley girl? What is that even supposed to mean," Kara question. In all honestly, she did not recognize the term. But she rolled her eyes at his next statement. As if she was going to be sitting around, she'd probably be a larger part of some superhero organization and maybe even a reporter like Clark.

She did really enjoy some of the taunting and researching that came with the territory of being a journalist. It would probably be a more relaxing but still entertaining career alongside the secret hero stuff.

"Boy, your assumption is way off this planet," she half smirk at this being rather true seeing as she was an alien. "I don't think I need to Google your name to know that you're rather entitled and have anger issue and then some..."

Kara tried to hide a laugh by giving a slight nod to the girl he had been showing at as she showed her the crazy sign. She nodded to show she didn't mind giving the guy a hard time. Kara recognized her as Nikki. Though she was puzzled that Nikki hadn't recognized her from the concert they had run into each other.

At the girl saying about a face painting company, her mind sparked back to remembering seeing an article in the paper over such a company. Hmm...there might be a way to scare him off if she played her cards right without revealing to much information on her connections to protect them as well.

She just needed to get the right angle on this situation. "Seems like the reporters like to pick up stories on you then," she said smugly.

It wouldn't take much for her to make a phone call to her "aunt" to let her have a bit of a scoop. Only problem would be that they would need evidence of the situation. It was going to take more than just eye witnesses. Kara new exactly what she should do, it might when scare the guy off if there was video evidence. She started to pull out her phone, but all she needed to wait for was the right moment one the guy took the bait. 

Think about it, even if she had a little bit of video of the guy threatening or taunting women half his age (at least) it would be enough to start a fire. And bad press could always damage investors' business in stocks. She at least knew that much from her useful history classes and economics.