15276/The Spider On the Fly

The Spider On the Fly
Date of Scene:	01 July 2023
Location:	SoHo
Synopsis:	Miguel asks Mary Jane on a hypothetical end of what a vigilante might do with cash taken from the mob.
Cast of Characters:	Miguel O'Hara, Mary Jane Watson

---

Miguel O'Hara has posed:
The non-descript gent in the casual outfit - jeans, work boots, faded t-shirt advertising a cancelled performance schedule for a band called, "Billy and the Boingers" - was walking the street outside of the stores advertising smoking/vaping supplies, clothing, perfume, and other stuff. A metal briefcase was in his right hand, and he grasped it tightly enough to keep any enterprising snatch-and-run thief to get an unwelcome surprise.

The thick black sunglasses, picked up from a bodega after the first day, hid the crimson eyes well, but his lips were pressed together. He glanced down at the briefcase more than once, then back to looking around again.

Mary Jane Watson has posed:
Mary Jane Watson is currently jogging on past, phone being held at the side of her head with her shoulder, "Thanks, Aunt Anna. No, I really don't care. Please don't pass along anything from me. That just leads to them thinking they can get in contact with me and they start trying to coerce me to come back.. I'm happy how I am. I don't really care how they're doing. Thank you for trying. How is May?"

The non-descript man with the briefcase is not particularly noticed as Mary Jane jogs in his direction slowly.

Miguel O'Hara has posed:
Jogging outfit? No big deal. Smartphone? Millions of them in NYC.

The flame-red hair, though, is a pretty big tell.
After a few moments, he recognizes her and waves without saying anything. Lyla whispers to him about making her notice if the smartphone suddenly disconnected, but Miguel suggested it was a bad idea.

Mary Jane Watson has posed:
There's a moment over when Mary Jane goes to glance over her shoulder at the man that's waving at her.. There's no recognition in her eyes and she normally has a pretty good memory. But, the man might be another agent or someone she's seen about. Or he might be signalling her for something. "Anyways, thanks Anna. Love you, take care." Shutting off the phone, she goes to head over in the direction of Miguel.

Miguel O'Hara has posed:
No flash of recognition. Well, that's to be expected - he figured wearing the costume would triggered the memory synapse a little harder.
Miguel paused near a small shop that sold gourmet cookies, then pointed to the door as a suggestion to go inside.

Mary Jane Watson has posed:
Well, this is strange - if she was meeting someone here they'd want to go somewhere quiet - a shop selling cookies with nowhere to sit down wouldn't be it. But it's not a friend.. but she also doesn't get a sense of anything hostile from them either. And she's not exactly high up the pecking order for a hostile group to target her in person nor would anyone after Peter do so.

So curiousity wins over her, and she goes to head on in after him.

Miguel O'Hara has posed:
He held the door open for her, then stepped in behind her. He did say as she passed, "Sorry to meet out-of-costume like this," and hoped she would recognize it.
He realized he'd never been in this place before. Wow, those cookies were HUGE...

Mary Jane Watson has posed:
Mary Jane Watson would quirk and glance over at him, "So, what one do I know you as?" She would inquire over a thim. "Where we been in the same play before? Were you one of the leads in it? I'd have just been an extra." There's this thing called a 'secret identity' that she's trying to give him room to give her a cue on without exposing himself.

Miguel O'Hara has posed:
Miguel blinks a couple of times, and then the Clue Brick hits and he ohs.
"Uhm...I'm...oh! I was in that, uhm, play. I played that time-traveler character?"

SHOCK, but that was embarrassing. He just hoped it sounded too lame to be important to anyone else.

Mary Jane Watson has posed:
Mary Jane Watson would nod, "Yeah, I remember that one. Only time I've seen someone try to do Orson Welles and Cyberpunk before." Well, that's close enough (and weird enough) that anyone hearing would just blink and stare. "Didn't recognize you out of your makeup! It's been ages. So how goes things after it? Man, it's been awhile hasn't it?"

Miguel O'Hara has posed:
Miguel nodded, then looked at the menu. "Salted-caramel...? Who puts salt on caramel?"
He shook his head, then said, "Well, I've been doing the whole day-laborer thing to afford food and such, but I'm still living at F.E.A.S.T. for now. I...may have another option, but I feel weird about it and can use some help..."

Mary Jane Watson has posed:
Mary Jane Watson would listen overk, "Yeah, it's nice to have some level of solid employment. That's a big part of why I can be kind of flighty in followups. I don't have a fallback thing so if an audition fails.. And keeping on going to them means that a long term place might nto want to have me if they can't rely on me. And go ahead."

Miguel O'Hara has posed:
Miguel nodded. "Well...there was something going on. A...scene where a vigilante stopped a bunch of mob guys. After the police left, the vigilante found...some money. It was left behind because it had gotten misplaced...during the scene...and the vigilante found it later."

Mary Jane Watson has posed:
Mary Jane Watson would nod over and would quirk her brow a bit, "I can see how that might be something you have to think about. Do you really know where that sort of money came from?" She would lean back over against the wall.

Miguel O'Hara has posed:
Miguel hmms. "The ones who had it...can't legally pay taxes on it. In fact, laying claim to it might be more trouble than it's worth. It's not a lot to them, I suppose..."

Mary Jane Watson has posed:
Mary Jane Watson would nod, "All right. Normally what happens in these sorts of situations where there's no immediate chain of custody or idea where the money went to, if it was stolen from someone in particular.. What happens is that the cops, or the feds, depending on who's jurisdiction it falls under, will keep it. Since ti's confiscated. Most often it will just end up being taken over as slush funds and put towards further activities. This si why you see a lot of issues during state and city investigations where someone suspected of a crime will have things confiscated from them and kept. It's really difficult it not impossible in turn for them if they're not charged with anything in turn for them to get thier property back."

Miguel O'Hara has posed:
Miguel nodded, listening intently. "But if the fed and/or police don't know about it...well, they still collected plenty at the...scene. So...if the vigilante got only a small portion of it, it would be...complicated...to try and turn it in?"

He pauses, then says, "If it's something like...say, just for the sake of conjecture...fifty thousand?"

Mary Jane Watson has posed:
Mary Jane Watson would shrug over, "Well, in that case.. Yeah. They'll in that case go ahead and try and say i was seized property. It wasn'tuseful as evidence as it wasn't picked up by the cops at the time so they have no idea of where to put it towards. At most for the vigilante it might lead to some level of charges depending on the law. So again since they don't exactly have custody, the cops will in turn keep it. Which just gives them however much said vigilante would as a 'donation'. Imight suggest in turn that it could be considered to take some and donate to wrothier causes than the police getting a new armored truck."

Miguel O'Hara has posed:
Miguel looks troubled. "So it wouldn't be too much trouble if the vigilante...appropriated it, say? To cover stuff like room and board? No reason to buy anything like a household fusion unit, I mean..."

Mary Jane Watson has posed:
Mary Jane Watson would shrug, "Well, that depends over on how the vigilante operates and what they believe in. On a personal level.. I think that a lot of them would do more good with it than just leaving it around or turning it in. At least not when there's no way to give it back to whom it rightfully belongs to. Given it's probably from illegal activities, there's no way to trace that back."

Miguel O'Hara has posed:
Miguel nods again. "I should...probably figure out what to do with it." He looked over to Mary Jane. "Uhm...would you like something here? I'm buying. I really want to try that salted-caramel cookie, now that I think about it."

He pauses for a moment. "Maybe one of those rent-by-the-week motels..."

Mary Jane Watson has posed:
Mary Jane Watson would smile, "Sounds good to me. And I might think that if you feel the organization you're with is doing right when it comes to helping people, that's a good wya to gift them back. Well, of course, for our mysterious vigilante. And sure, one of thsoe cookies would be great. But I know you're working as a day laborer and you don't have a lot of cash, unlike our vigilante who is probably figuring out what to do about it. So I can cover it."