15860/September In Central Park

September In Central Park
Date of Scene:	13 September 2023
Location:	Central Park
Synopsis:	Some random conversation in the park goes on.
Cast of Characters:	Natasha Romanoff, Richard Swift, Samuel Guthrie, Matthew Murdock, Jane Roe

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Natasha Romanoff has posed:
It's the middle of the evening. Natasha Romanova is currently over in plainclothes. SHIELD currently has the Central Park zoo under observation due to some warnings of a god-blessed supervillain possibly stalking the area with intent to nab the lions. Why such things are left to SHIELD to deal with rather than the Justice League is something that escapes Natasha. But, the night has been quiet, there has been no signs of a feral cat-goddess going through the area at speeds only a Kryptonian can match.. And the scenario is turning to a rather quiet stakeout in the eve as it nears time for the Park to close. Of course, an attack is just as likely after the place closes.. But, given the purported attacker's flair for the dramatic, something when the place has emptied out seems unlikely. So, Natasha has availed herself of some of her expense account, and is currently munching on a large mustard covered pretzel from a food vendor.

Richard Swift has posed:
The shadows coalesce into a shadowy figure. Central Park, a strange destination for Richard Swift, aka The Shade. Today was an off day, however. He was in New York on an antique hunting trip after certain distasteful "villany" things recently, and it was a chance to decompress and take in the sights.
Of course there were events happening in this city, but hopefully not in this park. After all, it was all about taking time away from it all.

Samuel Guthrie has posed:
Sam Guthrie is walking a beat in the park today. Sam is in uniform, not the X-men one, but the NYPD patrolman's uniform. He normally works for special units, but since he went to them right out of the academy, Sam makes sure to get a couple patrols in a week if possible to get some more on the ground experience. So this evening, he is walking the beat through the park keeping his eyes open for more normal neerdowells .

Matthew Murdock has posed:
Matt Murdock is walking along a path with Karen Page. The strawberry blond has an arm out for Matt to rest a hand on to stay with her, while his other is used to tap his cane back and forth in front of his feet.

"... and the appointment with Mrs. Gutierrez I pushed back to Friday morning so you have time to talk to the witness," Karen is telling him, navigating her phone with her free hand. Focused more on the calendar on the phone than on where she's going. "Oh and there's the initial meeting with Mr. Baxter about his worker's comp," she tells Matt.

Matthew Murdock rarely relies on a such visual based communication as a nod, instead telling her. "That sounds fine. Either Foggy or I should be able to get the deposition tomorrow," he says.

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
The man seeming to walk out of the shadows has Natasha Romanova's attention. Ever so passively. His presence is marked over in her mind even if it doesn't show in her body language or her facial expressions. She takes another bite of her pretzel, keeping her attention on the entire area. She can't identify the individual from her perspective, and she doesn't have reason to go out of her way to encounter them. But still..
    She goes to tag her comm with her tongue, speaking quietly and giving coordinates for Richard's location. "Drone, identify." Of course, those with incredibly enhanced hearing could pick it up.

Richard Swift has posed:
Now that pretzel that the assassin was eating...that was a good idea. The Shade takes a moment to lean on his cane, surveying the park. "So. A policeman on patrol. A fine pretzel being consumed. And a lawyer with his assistant. How...New York."

Lowering his shades for a look, the Shade sighs.

"Indeed. So American. Well now. I am here to watch and relax. I wonder what would happen next?"

The drone - if Richard did notice, he does nothing to prevent any identification.

Samuel Guthrie has posed:
Sam Guthrie will stop near the guy who sells the pretzels as well, but he is just getting a bottle of water, which he does pay for. He asks the sellsman if anything he should know about, knowing the vendors about have been watching things much longer than he has.

Matthew Murdock has posed:
Karen Page and Matt move to the side of the path to be out of the way while she digs deeper into the calendar on her phone. "And looks like that's it for the rest of the week," she says.

"Except for the stuff on the weekend," Matt says in his soft, deep voice.

"Except for the stuff on the weekend," Karen agrees with a grin.

"How is the renovation of your apartment coming along?" Matt asks the young woman as they start up again. Karen spots the vendor and leads Matt that way.

She tells him, "Good. I want to thank you and Daisy so much for putting me up."

Matt gives a little wave of his hand. "We were happy to help. And like I told you, I don't get to get immersed in all kind of super spy stuff. Pretty normal home life," he lies. Lies through his teeth. Lies lies lies.

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
Richard is tagged and identified by the drone. He's on an observation list, not a neutralize list. So upon that being passed along, Natasha's posture very slightly changes. Where she was shifting about just enough to be able to track him with her eyes if she had to, able to use a step forwarsd to lean a few degrees in his direction to veil her looking in his general area, now the motion goes complete and she goes to turn her attention back over to the central park zoo. Another bite taken over of the pretzel as seh identifies Matt.

Ahh, Daisy's significant other. Not one she's had an opportunity to meet with beyond perhpas in passing. She also identifies Karen from having what file SHIELD had on him. Because of course she's going to keep tabs on whom a senior special agent spends her off-duty time with. Stalker.

Richard Swift has posed:
Richard listens absently to the conversation between the lawyer and the assistant. Orders a pretzel from the suddenly apprehensive preztel maker at the dark tuxedo suited gentleman buying the pretzel (me), a nod to the policeman in acknowledgement.

Then a cold, almost frigid smile to the lady eating the pretzel that put the need into his head to buy a pretzel.

One hand accepts the pretzel. His left. The other hand, holding his cane, uses it to tap his top hat towards Natasha in a salute of respect.

Ah the people you meet in a park on a normal day.

Samuel Guthrie has posed:
Sam Guthrie nods to the vendor, and then offers both Richard and Natasha a nod and greeting of "Sir." and "Ma'am." given to each in turn. The cop has an odd accent for this area, the southern drawl still present in his voice even after years living in the area. He will pause there sipping his water a bit longer watching folks as he drinks his water. He does reach to his microphone on his shoulder and calls in "All clear." And his current location and call number.

Jane Roe has posed:
The internet is for... you know what its for, right? Cats. At least that's the family friendly version. But then again, that's also the ad for the Nexus S 4G Google phone from 2010. "A phone this powerful can do almost anything, so now we can fill the Internet with even more cats!" And Google is the most used site of the internet, so they have a point: The Internet is for Cats. Cat pictures (2015 count: 6.5 billion), cat videos (2015: 2 million on YouTube alone), a museum exhibit and dozens of books on the topic. Oh, and a Wikipedia page on the topic. Unlike dogs. Those are only relegated to one meme: "On the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog".

There's something about Jane as she walks through the park slowly, the eyes raised above the skyline to a clear spot of evening sky where others might stare onto their phones instead. But the pace is eerily similar to those that have their visual sensors glued to tiny screens while trying to get entertainment from the cat empire of the internet as they hussle and buzzle through the park. But unlike the average cat-video watching teen or young adult, Jane wasn't just consuming cat funnies. Maru's exploit of the day was Miri's 3rd Birthday party - the fat old Scottish fold being viciously attacked by a green flower decoration falling off the place it was affixed to and getting stuck in the cake box. Typical. But to the eye of the Cyberpath that was just one small area of the sky. Next to the cat exploits was a map of central park with each cellphone and headphone and other EM emitter neatly marked out by strength and triangulated position, tagged with the SSID and UUID where possible. Then, overlayed on that, she saw a reading of the network traffic passing through the spot she moved through, in real time. Hovering at the hight of the skyline was a command prompt informing about a terminal she had opened to some Hong Kong network, and there also was the radio buzz of the NYPD visualized... but all that stuff was promptly not put any more attention to than to the mere fact that she was walking...

...and then directing the eyes to the drone that was hovering over the park, the EM signature of it giving it off as something not exactly ordinary. NYC was supposed to be a Drone-Free Zone, so whoever owned it...

Matthew Murdock has posed:
Karen and Matt wait in line behind Richard. She glances over to Matt and asks, "The usual?" The young lawyer gives her a verbal affirmative which causes Karen to shake her head. "I don't know who even does that, surprised they have it," she tells him.

When it's her turn, she orders one salted pretzel, and one dipped in cheese. The latter order just makes Matt give a small smile. He notes Sam Guthrie's accent, just as Karen's phone rings. "Let me answer this," she says as she checks the caller id. She steps away, leaving Matt to reach for his back pocket. "Just in time for me to pay," he says, though it's in a joking tone. He was going to pay for it anyway.

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
Things seem relatively peaceful. Natasha Romanova takes a moment to sweep the area and sees nothing of immediate concern. A supervillain, a lawyer, and an intern stand in line to get pretzels.. All it needs is somehwere to get alcohol and one has the leadin to a joke, if Clint were here.

Natasha gives them all a quick and quiet once over, finishing up her pretzel. Then goes back to take her place in line. Because why not get another if hse has to spend a few more hours here anyways?

Richard Swift has posed:
Taking a bite of the pretzel, the Shade nods respectfully at Sam. "An American with a modicum of respect. I am honoured sir." He taps his top hat in an appreciative return of the respect. Acknowledging Matt and Karen with a nod, he moves towards the shade of a tree. With a look, he nods, and then is gone, absorbed by the shadow...

...appearing 13 steps behind where Natasha was located on her bench. "I am honoured you took an interest in me madam. I am Richard Swift. The Shade. It is truly an honour to meet you."

Looking at the others present, Swift says, his voice cold, as though wreathed in darkness, "It seems the park has several interesting personages today. I am impressed at how many of "you" are in New York. (Heroes) It is always fun to visit this city.

The Shade allows himself a true smile. His almost final thoughts of Jane, as she arrives. "It is so...now." The darkness starts to congeal around the man, as he absently takes another bite of the pretzel. "I am sure we will meet again. I owe you thanks for the simple pleasure of the subliminal suggestion of the pretzel." With a final salute, the Shade is gone, into the darkness, enjoying a pretzel of all things.

Samuel Guthrie has posed:
Sam Guthrie looks over a blink as the man disappears and reappears elsewhere. Sam instinctively prepares himself for the smell of brimstone but at none, his brow does raise a bit. He body language does change as he moves to put himself between Shade, and the blind lawyer and his assistant. But as there seems no attack Sam relaxes some.

Jane Roe has posed:
Somehow, Jane seems to notice the person shifting through the hadow despite the almost blank stare to the skyline, that only to her showed cats having a chicken and heavy cream cake next to various informations about all the network traffic around her, a cracked article from 2013 about "5 Horrifying Details Hidden in Classic Children's Cartoons", including the Carebare surveillance state, burning of stuffed animals and of course, the Disney world being the worst: Donald Duck serving roast duck to his nephews, and sidenotes like "(Goofy, on the other hand, only pulls that shit in fanfic)". Yes, the Internet is a weird place. Still, Jane notices the shadow teleport and vanish, the head tilting before focussing on Natasha, who the strange man had vanished next to.

"Drone sweet Drone..." she mutters as she realizes something about the redhead, the eyes darting back to the drone, then to Natasha. Pulling her messanger bag to the front and then a hardcased laptop out - Panasonic Toughbook 55, a quite recent model even - she flips up the screen, which to a mindreader woudl look very much like the sky for the young woman - but then again, she was tabbing through windows in mere seconds to get to a program so she coukd try to decode the message stream between the drone and its owner. More out of interest for why he had a drone in the park in the first place than to mess with SHIELD

Matthew Murdock has posed:
Karen Page misses The Shade disappearing and reappearing as she is intent on her phone call. Matt likely doesn't miss it between his 'radar sense' and his proximity to where the man had bent. Though Matt doesn't notice everything around him, people suddenly being displaced stands out. Though Matt doesn't react to it in any kind of noticeable fashion. Though his senses are piqued to pick up the sound of the man's voice coming from another direction now.

"Thank you," Matt says to the vendor, having his hand with his card guided to the machine. He takes his pretzel and Karen's in one hand, and moves away from the cart, tapping his cane quietly in front of him as he moves over nearer to Karen as she is finishing up her call.

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
The laptop might as well get gibberish - it's just using old ham radio frequencies, and the things it's sending might as well be just hexadecimal. And even if her laptop is capable of picking that up (which it likely is) it would just read over as being sent back and forth nonsense, like someone was chattingw ith a trucker late at night while trying to stay awake. There's no rhyme or reason to it. Jane's shifting to her laptop does catch Natasha's attention then as she goes to step out of line and goes to approach her.

"Y'all lahke pokin at mah toys?" She would go to speak with a very, very deep Louisiana accent, inflicted in the ways that only someone that came from the swamps could manage.

Samuel Guthrie has posed:
Sam Guthrie will look over to the ladies a moment, specially upon hearing someone who sounds like Remy. He will finish his water before looking about and putting it into a recycle bin. He looks over to the lawyer, and lady "Do you need anything?" He offers to them.

Jane Roe has posed:
Jane Roe says, "Your toy?" Jane asks as the screen switches almost seamlessly back to the triangulated location map of the park, the green eyes on the black haired young woman training to Natasha. No, she didn't press buttons to tab over to the display. "You got FAA clearance for it? Just asking, because they hate stuff in the air inside NYC."

There's a lukewarm smile as she eyes over Natasha, the screen, without key presses again, starting to get back the cat video (Maru and Hana eating the food that Miri didn't want), though for Jane it's not just a small frame on the screen, but hovering quite mid air next to Natasha and getting a fraction of attention, just running in the background, right next to the nonsense communication of the drone. "In any way, that's a neat encode you run for it. Almost feels dynamic.""

Matthew Murdock has posed:
Karen finishes up on her call and takes her pretzel from Matt. The regular salted one. Leaving Matt with the one dipped in cheese. It's not the easiest thing for a blind person to eat, being rather gooey, but he manages a bite, wiping at his mouth after with a napkin.

He turns towards the sound of Sam Guthrie. "I think we're good," he says. And then Karen adds, "Officer," to the end, to let Matt know that is who they are speaking too.

"Officer," Matt adds after the verbal cue. "Just enjoying a walk in the park instead of taking the subway," he says.

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
Natasha would go on in a drawl that would fit to one of the rural areas by the standards of the deep south, "Well, y'all are the oine pointin' things at it. And ah don't think ya need one. They're flyin' plenty of other thins around." Then a hand would go to point up in the air over at several people that were flying kites. Which were.. Probably a bit more legal.

"And ah am good offisah." She would continue to speak in a heavy drawl. "The gel here is just askin' about mah flight remote." A very, very heavy 'remote' there.

Samuel Guthrie has posed:
Sam Guthrie nods a bit and says "Well, just checking things out around here, part of the job." He offers and then to Natasha he will ask "You'll find there folks around here are either friendlier than you have heard, or will pretty much ignore ya. There aint a lot of in between." He offers to the lady who he thinks is not a local obvious.

Jane Roe has posed:
"Well, if anything you have a neat firmware to keep it safe from hijackers running. Quite unique or so it looks. Did you write it yourself?" Jane inquires, the screen flickering a little as two new windows popped up with command consoles, one of them filled with commands within moments and then answering as some sort of... search was running, the other only starting to fill as the other one went to answer the inquerry. Just a search through some dark web database for known encryption specialists from the southern US on the one window, the other trying to match a couple indicatiors about the signal band with known experts in the field. Not that such searches might show up Nat or even Shield, but they were just indicators of where the mind of Jane was lingering a moment while Miri was playing with the hole in the airbed that Hana had made in the clip.

Matthew Murdock has posed:
Matt Murdock continues eating his pretzel, peeling off small pieces of it which leave his fingers smeared with cheese, but at least let him eat it in a more cleanly way than the first bite.

As they walk along, Karen's attention is over on the conversation about the drone. "I bet Foggy would love one of those," she comments to Matt.

Tilting his head as if to listen as to what Sam, Jane and Natasha are discussing, Matt says, "He probably would. And would probably get arrested for flying it by some woman's window," he says in a teasing voice.

"Well, of course," Karen agrees with a soft laugh.

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
And then Natasha looks a bit confused given her 'persona'. "Th' city is a bit strange. Ah can't get how y'all call this a park. It's nawt green. It don't even have a swamp or anythin. It's like someone took a lil plastic garden 'an put some flowers innit." Apparently someone rural didn't think that Central Park -quite- passed the test over of a real place in the woods.

"Ah dunno, ah got it from this guy that was onna street cawner." She very, very exaggeratedly says that. "He gave it to me fer lahke twenty bucks and a kiss. Real steal here. Ah bet ah can get nearly that much faw it back home!"

Samuel Guthrie has posed:
Sam Guthrie 's brow will raise a bit to this and says "You wouldn't remember what street corner it was on would ya?" He asks her as he steps over and does pull out his little pad and pen to write something down.

Jane Roe has posed:
"That's a hell of a street corner find then. Must have been a Blue Moon." Jane muses, almost chuckling as searches came up empty. "So Lucky are you, too bad I couldn't meet the programmer then. And 20 with a kiss sounds like a total steal. You should have a lot of fun with it for that price. Too bad I doubt they will have any more for that deal... Say, might you pass it to me for Franklin Twins?" Franklin was on the 100 dollar bill after all.

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
Natasha would make up a point of 'erring' in memory. "Uh.. Twenty.. No, twenty four, uh.. Twenty six stop lights that way." Her pointing west. "After the entrance by the subway.. No, the second subway on the right after you go out and take a left. Then ah think ah went back a couple times?" She goes to count on her fingers. "This city is really weirdly square'ish."

Samuel Guthrie has posed:
Sam Guthrie sighs a bit as he is pretty sure he won't get an exact corner, but does try to make a guess based on the info he is given. He writes it down and puts his pad away as he says "Well you should be careful when buying stuff from street vendors, some are selling things that are good deals and up and up, but there are some who you will find doing their best to get one over on ya."

Jane Roe has posed:
"Sounds like whoever sold it to you, you're the lucky winner tioday. Too bad, I'd liked one of those for my own... anyway, good plan. Being careful with the stuff before something is sucked into the rotor..."

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
Natasha Romanova would growl, "Ah am.. Uh.. As soon as ah remember where he was.. Am gonna beat it out of him. He had bettah give me mah twenty dollahs back too!" The small remote controlled drone, the likes of which could be bought off a shelf in a Kwik Stop, sputters and goes to crash.

Samuel Guthrie has posed:
Sam Guthrie looks over and says "Now, you don't want to start a fight up here, hate to make part of your sight seeing the inside of a cell." He offers.

Jane Roe has posed:
"Ahw, too bad that it didn't make it... Eh, mind if I take the wreck?" Jane offers to Natasha, shrugging a moment. "I might manage to get something done with th emotors, even if I can't salvage anything more."