12994/Autumn In Central Park

Autumn In Central Park
Date of Scene:	07 October 2022
Location:	Central Park
Synopsis:	An Autumn day in Central Park sees graffiti, a crashing skateboard, and Matt never does get to enjoy his PSL and bagel.
Cast of Characters:	Matthew Murdock, Monet St. Croix, Valerie Killmore, Joshua Foley

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Matthew Murdock has posed:
The soft, cushioned tap of Matt Murdock's white cane precedes him as it swings back and forth ahead of his path as he walks down a paved path in Central Park. The weather has turned cool enough people are in sweaters, sweatshirts, light jackets, or other clothing appropriate for keeping a chill off.

Matt is wearing a suit. It's not an expensive or well-cut suit. It's about what you'd expect for a lawyer who half of his clients pay in tamales, baked pies, bags of oranges, or rewiring the office's failing electrical system.

His dark glasses and the cane are enough most people can deduce his handicap. Though it doesn't seem to be slowing him as he makes his way down the familiar path and into a larger paved area. There's a small lake nearby, with kids doing RC boats on it, and people renting real small boats to float in the water. Vendors here and there sell just about everything one can imagine. Kids are playing. Adults are standing or sitting, talking. A few college students with ESU shirts are playing frisbee.

Matt makes a slight left, the course correction taking him over towards one of the vendors who has various coffees and snacks for sale.

Monet St. Croix has posed:
Monet St. Croix is currently making her way through the area and trying to enjoy herself. She's maneuvering in and out of passerby, in an irritable mood that has her towering just enough to showcase her height and be intimidating without actually getting people out of the way. Alas, one can't have everything and she's been lectured quite a few times on this sort of behavior.

Ah well, one cannot have everything. she's obligated to follow the social mores as one of the 'better' upper classes. It doesn't mean that she has to be particularly happy on it. Then again, that mood rarely seems to fit her.

She goes to wait while a gaggle of cheerleaders go past (or should that be a murder? Maybe an Unkind). Monet just waits for them to pass making sure to have as much space between her and them just in case whatever they have is contageious.

Valerie Killmore has posed:
"Oh come ON!" Hex lets out a loud and upset toned voice as she's shaking what sounds exactly like a spray paint can, with that hard metal ball bouncing around inside. She's shaking it again, a few more times. Nope, empty. "Quiet. You say ONE more word, and I swear! No more close to the thigh for you, you'll go STRAIGHT back to the shoulder holster. Is that what you want? Huh?!" Screaming, like one is want to do in Central Park, at absolutely no one.

Then there's the sound of the woman bringing her finger up to her mouth, and gnawing, chewing, grinding her teeth on the tip of one of her fingers. To those with eyes, that work, they can see she's wild animal attacking her finger with her mouth, till pop, and then she's scribbling something on the empty can, and voila! Soon enough, the shaking moves that little mixing ball through some liquids.

Then there's the spraying, right on the side of one of the vendors' walls, Sckkkkkkkksh, sckkkkkkshhh, skshsksh goes the spray paint as she's working with an intense look at her work as folks approach the vendor for food. Many leaving the crazy blue haired braided woman alone, while others quietly talk about if they should call the cops or not.

Matthew Murdock has posed:
"Matthew. Good to see you. The cool weather always bring you out," the vendor says to Matt Murdock as he walks up, stopping when the cane touches the man's cart.

"Mr. Vocetti. You know I can't stay away once the pumpkin spice comes out," Matt says.

This earns him the scoffing laugh from the Italian vendor. "People and their pumpkin spice. Whatever happened to good old coffee?" he replies. "You want a large?" he asks Matt.

"Yes, please," Matt's deep, somewhat gravelly voice answers. "And a bagel and cream cheese," he says, reaching into a pocket for his wallet and pulling out a credit card to pay for it.

Matt's head tilts just slightly as he hears the sound of a paint can being shaken over by another vendor nearby. It's difficult for him to tell exactly what's going on until he catches a pair of women discussing whether to call the police. The muscles of Matt's jaw tense a bit, but he's 'out of uniform' and probably not the best thing for him to get involved with.

Monet St. Croix has posed:
The sound of the blue woman monologuing over to herself gets an expression of distaste over from Monet St. Croix. Matt is not in costume. Monet is always there as M. She goes to stride over towards Valerie with total irritation on her face.

"You, there. You are making a spectacle. remove yourself from the area or at least ensure that you're not being so.. Irritating as you currently are. Yes, I'm aware you're American and you're out in public but there's no reason to act like a gibbering infant drooling about with snot rolling off your face."

Valerie Killmore has posed:
A quirk of her left eyebrow, getting raised, as Hex sprays something on the vendor's outer wall. It is a scratchy looking Cheshire Cat, in Hot Pink. And she turns a little to her right, away from Monet, "Did you hear something?" And then she shakes her head, "Me neither. I was just checking, you know, see if you were going crazy. Ha haha, very funny, no, it's not a short trip!"

Then she continues to work as if Monet wasn't present at all. Until, a few seconds go by and she stands upright, "Ta-DA, fini." Eyes blink and she startles herself when she is turning in Monet's direction to walk away, "Jesus fucking mary joseph and his son. You gotta SAY something to someone when you are that close, sister. Look, though. I'll forgive ya, cause ya look like yer lost. Maybe a bit upset, or something, about something. Maybe your poodle died." A pause.

"Yes, OF COURSE I'm being serious." Back to M, "Sorry about that, just ignore all the comments coming from the peanut gallery. Peanuts though, huh, you think they threw some away?"

Matthew Murdock has posed:
Mr. Vocetti runs Matt's credit card and hands it back. Matt slips it back into his wallet, returning the latter to his back pocket. Nearby a kid kicks a soccer ball and it flies over his friend. Right towards Matt's head. Matt's arm twitches as he immediately starts to move to deflect it, before he realizes he shouldn't react to it. A tiny sigh is given as he braces himself to get hit in the side of the head with it.

The vendor lunges at the last minute and punches the ball away like a goalie at the World Cup. "Hey you kids, watch where you're kicking that!" he says, shaking a fist at them and then kicking the ball hard back their way.

"Oh, thanks," Matt says. The vendor tells him, "No worries. Good kids I'm sure, just not paying enough attention. Here you go." He hands over Matt's pumpkin spice latte and the bagel.

"Thank you," Matt says, taking them in one hand and then using his cane to tap over to find a bench. That it happens to be close to where Hex and Monet are arguing is surely a coincidence.

Monet St. Croix has posed:
Monet St. Croix looks extremely irritable over at Valerie Killmore. The rapid chattering the girl does now makes some more sense. But it still gives M a headache. "There are a number of shelters available for those that are in need of mental health services. They can help you find appropriate long term care and if need be safe accomodations to stay at for treatment. They are easily contactable and one can likely find some representatives of them around the area."

Ah well, that explains it. M is at least trying here! Whether or not she's accurate in her assessment (let's be clear here, it's Vallerie, she totally is), she's at least making the attempt!

Valerie Killmore has posed:
"Great to know, did you need me to walk you there? Surprising, you don't LOOK like an old granny, but you might be. Were you de-aged by cows? I hear they can do that, making us all primed for the apocalypse and all that." Hex is talking over the part of the words Monet says that would allow her to understand that M was talking to Hex, and offering the shelter to her. Then she puts up a hand, in a 'wait' motion before taking two exaggerated steps backwards, long strides, and then leans backwards on one leg, way, way way back, until she's grabbing a duffel from a nearby planter, then back upright. Walking forward again, with long outstretched strides, "Ready. Unless we're going far, I got a lotta work to do."

Then she is taking a few steps forward, but is distracted by the click clackity clack clack of a stick hitting the ground. Her head turns, she squints, hunting for it. Listening, scanning the world, "Gotcha!" And she will hunker over, and stalk straight for the stick, at a quick pace, to try and grab it and stop it from hitting the ground as Matt heads to his seat.

Joshua Foley has posed:
Josh weaves lazily around a couple of people walking ahead of him. The wheels of his skateboard drone as they roll and clunk on the lines between sections of concrete. Another skater in skinny jeans and a Rage T-shirt ignoring the slow changing of the seasons.

He sees movement out of the corner of his eye and hears a shout at the same time. A soccer ball is flying towards him, deflected by a nearby vendor.

Josh ducks to avoid getting hit by the ball, but loses control and veers sharply off to the left.

"Oh shit!" Josh curses as he finds himself heading straight towards two women having a conversation. "Watch out!"

It is all curses as Josh veers to avoid hitting the younger woman carrying a duffel bag, tries to ollie the planter, fails, and goes headfirst into the foliage.

Matthew Murdock has posed:
Matt Murdock keeps an ear on the confrontation nearby with the graffiti artist. And glad it seems to at least not be turning into a scuffle or worse.

The blind man senses the imminent crash of the skateboarder happening, but there isn't really anything he can do to stop it without standing out in ways he seeks to avoid. He gives a little wince though at the crunch of breaking branches, glad if the sound is the planet and not the man.

Setting his cup and bagel down, Matt stands and taps his way over to the planter. "Are you ok?" he asks. The two women who just got missed have moved over to help as well. Matt lets them be the ones to reach out to Josh to try to help him extricate himself from the Central Park flora.

Monet St. Croix has posed:
There's rising irritation over in MOnet St. Croix as she resists the urge to pick up and throttle the woman. There's no need for her to debsae herself down to the level of the lesser after all. One doesn't need enhanced senses to pick up the sheer arrogance rolling off her in waves.

Her attention is over at the impact of Joshua, she misses for just a moment Valerie rushing towards Matt's cane. She turns around but just a hair too late to interpose herself. Instead she reaches over to try and if she can stop the blue haired woman from running. "He needs that to maneuver, You --" her phrase is extremely impolite, let's leave it at that.

Valerie Killmore has posed:
"Hah... hahahahaha. Hahahahaha." Hex is starting to laugh, she's stopped from hunting after Matt's blindman stick for the moment, as she falls backwards onto her rear. Which only leaves a braid in reach for Monet, which she can certainly grab, they are definitely long enough. "Oh, hahahaha, that's so, wow. Did you see that? That guy tried to FLY!" A quick shake of her head as she is laughing harder, mouth wide open, as her laughter gets so bad she's starting to tear up and those water droplets run down her cheeks.

With that laughter continuing, in interruptive staggered amounts, she is just sitting on the ground, "Just, boomph and then wheewwwwwwwwwwwwwwsh, hahahhaha. And kerplow bomp crush." She states as she uses her hands to mimic the flying crash, crumple, and then her hand that is 'Joshua' is just lying there. And she looks at it, blinking a few times, "Aw, come on. It was funny. Get up, come on. You can do it, get up. Why won't you get up?!" Looking around quickly, startled, "Help, HELP!!! HELLLLLLLLP! Someone, is there a doctor?!"

Joshua Foley has posed:
Josh pushes himself up and crawls backwards out of the mangled decorative bush.

"Yeah, I think so," Josh answers Matt. "I just..."

Josh turns his head and spits out some dirt. The front of his shirt, his hands and his left cheek are dirt-stained now. He looks down at himself and his face turns red.

"Yeah, I'm fine, nobody saw that..."

Josh belatedly realizes the howling laughter was at his expense and reddens even more. "It's okay, I don't need a doctor," he says to the young woman who was literally ROFL. Taking in Hex and Monet at a glance he manages to find another, yet deeper shade of red. He tries to run a hand through his blond hair, but ends up coming out with twigs and a leaf instead of nonchalance. A line down the dirty side of his face is fading from blood red, to gold, to deeply embarrassed red as he does.

Josh bends over to pick his skateboard. "Um, I didn't hit anyone, did I?" he asks Matt.

Matthew Murdock has posed:
Matt Murdock listens to Valerie's reaction, his brow furrowing just a slight amount. But Josh's question about hurting anyone else draws his attention back. His head swivels, but more like he's listening than looking. "I didn't hear anyone else's grunt or groan," he says, as if that's about as much as he can contribute on that subject.

"Don't worry about it. I've had some spectacular collisions with things as you can probably imagine," he lies, holding up his cane as if to make the point.

Well he has spectacular collisions but usually more from a bad guy ramming him with a vehicle or the like.

Matt turns back to where Valerie is. Or where a truly blind man would have heard her last. He reaches out a hand, though not so far it would bump into her. "If you're still there do you need a hand, Miss?" he asks.

Monet St. Croix has posed:
There's a highly irritable look over from Monet as she resists the urge to grab the girl by the scruff of her neck and slam her head down into the ground a few times to hear the sounds of a pair of coconuts thwacking together. One can't have everything. There are more muttered insults of the girl of a very, very not nice nature but she's not attempting to get in the way of Valerie so long as the other girl isn't attacking anyone else.

Matt seems to be taking this in stride and Joshua doesn't seem here, merely frazzled. And that just leaves Valerie.. That Monet goes to surreptitiously shift a few inches away from.

Valerie Killmore has posed:
By this point, Hex is breathing into the tip of her middle finger on the hand that's 'dead'. She is breathing out in rhythm, and then using her other hand to do ... compressions? "Doctor!!!!" Screeching out as tears are now rolling down her face, "Quick, quick, someone?! Oh... oh, wait, hold on." Turning her head, she puts her ear right up against her hand and is listening to it, "False alarm, everyone. You can call off the emergency!" To her hand she says, "I thought I lost you. And you have my favorite trigger finger, plus, no one laces fuses like you." To her other hand she glares, "Don't get jealous, she almost died. But true, it takes two to blow things up."

With that she's reaching up to grab the hand she notices, and then is back on her feet with a quick hop up, landing softly from the few inch jump. "Oh, thanks mister." Tilting her head to the side, looking right at the red sunglasses, checking herself in the reflection. Then, loudly smacking her hands to her cheeks and rubbing away the tears there with rigorous energy, "Could be worse. Could be bleeding profusely from my eyes, that's no fun. You ever try it? I highly recommend."

Joshua Foley has posed:
"That's something," Josh replies to Matt with some relief. Noticing everyone's attention has turned to Hex, Josh tries to surreptitiously wipe the dirt off his face with his shirt before following Matt.

Josh opens his mouth to apologize Monet, hesitates, intimidated by by the all too perfect looking woman in front of him then...

"What?" Josh looks in Hex's direction.

He blinks.
Josh looks back to Monet. "Ummm...."

Matthew Murdock has posed:
Matt Murdock's brow furrows a little bit at the exchange that Valerie has with herself. He heard how Monet's attempt to get the woman to some sort of therapeutic facility went. It was, perhaps a bit brusque, but still an attempt. He weighs whether he's likely to do much good. Though the talk of fuses and triggers tightens Matt's throat just a bit. Especially as he's already dealing with the arsonist plaguing Hell's Kitchen.

He does help Valerie to her feet. "Miss, are you in need of assistance," he asks slowly. "I know a few people who are good to talk to during... troubling moments," he offers, picking his words carefully.

Monet St. Croix has posed:
Monet St. Croix would just shake her head over at valerie, "I believe that she's in need of some immediate therapuetic help by those formally skilled in the treatment of those with severe psychiatric disorders." She would finally give in and go to openly snap at the girl. Which probably wasn't helping anything here! But she'd given the girl a chance and hse wasn't outright going to try and threaten her!

... Well, beyond the -default- version of 'M is annoyed by someone' which was about normal for her.

Valerie Killmore has posed:
Holding up both of her hands, Hex sort of pushes them in the direction of Matt, "See?" A pause, and then, she chuckles, with a big grin, "Guess you don't... probably get that all the time. No, I'm fine, it was a false alarm. I know, kind of worrying when you might of lost your hand to a 180 aerial off a rail to a handplant, just to end up on your backside, not breathing."

With that though, she looks up to Josh who called out a What to her, and she grins, "You know you almost killed someone important to me today. You better say you're sorry, real fast. Danger to society." Eyes a bit wide, "If you don't, I'll have this blind man kick your ass."

To Matt, she smiles and nods her head, tilting conspiratorially to whisper, "Thanks for the assist on this, skateboarders. Dangerous to take on alone."

Monet gets a little squint, "Alright, blind man, after the skateboarder..." She punches one hand into her other hand, "We take out... oh, I am SO SORRY!" Her eyes widen as she looks at her hands, just having punched the one that was recently dead.

Joshua Foley has posed:
"Ah... yeah, really sorry," Josh says to Hex and quickly glances in the direction of Matt and then Monet, hoping they know what to do. "It wasn't on purpose."

"Is she with you?" Josh asks Monet. "Should we like, call an ambulance or something?"

"For her hand..." he hastens to add. "In case it's. Hurt."

Matthew Murdock has posed:
Matt Murdock pivots to face Joshua more fully. "It's ok, it happens, just glad no one was hurt," he tells the other man. Matt turns back to direct his next words in the direction of Valerie then. "I think he sounds like he didn't intend anything. Probably no need for ass kicking," he says.

After a moment's thought, Matt asks Valerie, "Have you ever considered taking up boxing? It can be a great way of letting off some steam. There's a place I still workout that I could recommend," he tells her.

Monet St. Croix has posed:
The situation is handled and Valerie is aggravating. Monet St. Croix therefore decides it's best to depart before she tests more of her patience - but more importantly her personal time is far better suited to dealing with things she finds o finterest, and not these lesser things on the spectrum. So M leaves, almost to whistlings of the Wicked Witch theme.

Valerie Killmore has posed:
The apology comes quick enough, and Hex just eyes down to her hand, and then looks back up to Josh. "Fair. Thanks for the apology. I am SURE, she'll forgive in time." At which point she puts the hand behind her back, to say more softly, "And hey, sometimes I have to hammer it out with her, if I'm being honest."

It's the other comment though that comes to her, "Boxing? Steam boxing? That's such ... oh, I have to go. Nice to meet you all, Hex. If you see me on the news... I'm Hex!" She calls back, and has some kind of wild in her eyes as she starts walking away. Anyone with enhanced hearing can probably hear, "Of course! A boxing glove rocket! Why did I never think of this before?! That blind man sure has good ideas."

Joshua Foley has posed:
"Hex. Cool, I'll remember that," Josh says.

"So, you wanna go get a..." Josh starts, but stops when he turns in the direction of where Monet had been and sees she has already walked off.

Josh sighs.

"Some days, you know?" he says rhetorically to Matt. With a shrug, he sets off on his skateboard.