16501/Invisible Forces in Gotham

Invisible Forces in Gotham
Date of Scene:	06 December 2023
Location:	Midtown - Gotham City
Synopsis:	No description
Cast of Characters:	Susan Richards, Miles Morales

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Susan Richards has posed:
    It's not every day that Susan Richards has a free moment, really it's not most days, or even some days. But rarely, the universe conspires between business affairs and world-threatening crises to quiet down and leave a gap in her schedule. This just happens to be one of those times where it does it in a fashion where she's not trapped in an interminably long spaceflight, or at home, or even /close/ to home.

    One meeting for the day in Gotham about a charitable endeavour down, and the next cancelled and Mrs. Richards finds herself with an open period of midmorning in a relatively unfamiliar city. Not normally a problem for most, but her constant drive to be doing something means she's thrown for a bit of a loop, and scrolling through coffee shop recommendations on her phone with a pensive little bite of her lower lip.

    Really, she'd blend into the hustle and bustle of the sidewalk, with the dark blue turtleneck sweater and snug black slacks, after all, without that iconic bodysuit, she can blend into a crowd even without her powers. But Susan's above all that.

    Actually quite literally, because she's standing on an invisible platform about fifteen stories up, foot idly tapping as she mumbles to herself, "No, I'm /not/ going to see if there's a franchise location of Coffee of DOOM, it's literally directly supporting a despotic dictatorship... besides, they're always out of ginger bread by now..."

    This. This is why Susan tries to keep too busy. Constant, unyielding momentum means none of these little moments of uncertainty.

Miles Morales has posed:
What's a free moment? Miles couldn't tell you with a straight face. Between University, being part of nearly every party his mother Rio throws in her attempts to run for governor, trying to be a full time student AND in honors, and of course...being Spider-Man.

You know, the second one. It's a lot of work! Even now, Spider-Man is swinging through the streets of Gotham City while trying to send text messages to Ganke. He's supposed to help him with a science project today and honestly, he's REALLY distracted today and might not even make it. But you, things might go just as-

"WOAH!"

So calls the figure in the mask as he nearly runs right into Susan Richards! He doesn't quite know /how/ she's standing so high off the ground without looking like she's flying, but he's seen weirder things! He barely manages to avoid her, his hands and feet landing against the side of a building as he sticks to it, the white lenses of his mask looking directly at her.

"Sorry about that! Say, how's the weather up there?" Because he's quippy. Not necessarily *funny*, but he tries.

Susan Richards has posed:
Sue's eyebrows pop up at that 'WHOA!', sure, she hears that a lot... but usually it's when she's in costume doing some sort of school outreach. Or appearing out of thin air. Floating up in the sky? That's... not as uncommon as it was when she first started the costumed adventure thing seven and a half million years ago. ...That might be a slight exaggeration. But that whoa's also not coming from hundreds of feet below, so it's definitely worth the eyebrow pop!

Her head tilts, bright blue eyes darting over the webswinging figure that's approaching, lips quirking in a wry but warm little grin, "Oh! It's... well, not my friendly neighborhood Spider-Man, but I'm sure strictly in that this isn't my neighborhood!" She chews her lower lip for a moment, "And look at me here, figuring I'd avoid messing up sidewalk traffic and managing to get in the way of... I'd say web traffic but then it sounds like I'm messing up the internet."

She can't hold back a soft little bark of amused laughter at the quip, before heaving out a sigh, "I mean, I'd say sweater weather..." She plucks at the collar of her turtleneck to prove it and casually strolls through the air to close in on the wallcrawler, "I have to admit, I've been meaning to meet you for awhile but somehow I have so many non-costumed outreach programs going on that my heroic PR project has fallen by the wayside." She frowns ever so slightly and chews her lower lip. "Also, I'll admit I haven't actually checked how the Gotham press is treating you... you're not clown-themed so I imagine they're a lot nicer on you than the Bugle is on our fellow acquaintance in New York, hm?"

Miles Morales has posed:
In her defense, there's people like Superman and the Fantastic Four running around fairly regularly and with mutants and sudden metahuman abilities popping up all over the place? Her reaction makes a lot of sense. Why would people say WOAH that profoundly like it was the first time anyone had taken to the skies?

Probably because she almost got ran over by a cool dude in a sleek black suit with red webbing on the upper chest, mask, and fingers with a red spider-logo! We can't all be winners man. But she recognizes him! "Oh YES! I'm getting famous. But uh, I'm bad at interviews so I hope this isn't recorded." He teases. "But sorry about almost running into you. Gotham is pretty good about the lack of flying thing, so I wasn't really expecting it. Say....you look really familiar. Have I seen you on TV before?" He laughs at her web traffic joke. "HAH! I see what you did there."

Wait, she laughed? He's funny! WIN! "You know that's fair. I can't remember when it WASNT raining in this town. But there's always a nice cool breeze. I'm a winter fan." Though she starts to close in and he lifts off of his hands to keep the flat of his feet against the wall. "Meet me? I'm not really that important, I just like helping out."

He shrugs. "I mean, Batman is WAY higher in the polls, but I think I'm...not hated? Unless you ask Jameson, he's all like 'if it's a spider, it's a menace!'. I even tried making him flaming hot Saganaki while he was on air. He didn't like it."

Susan Richards has posed:
Susan snorts softly and rolls her eyes, "Oh, I'm not great at interviews myself..." Which, really, is entirely a lie. She's done hundreds of them. Possibly thousands. She just doesn't like them. The workiest part of work as it were. She shakes her head with a grin, "Oh, no problem! I mean, honestly I just forgot that other people wander around up here.... truthfully, I was expecting anyone who /did/ wander by would be in a bat-shaped jet or something. I suppose I should add 'concept for mid-air traffic lights' to my list of things to work on... some day we're going to need them."

Susan shakes her head and sighs out, "To be fair, I think Jonah hates everything. I mean, I'm sure there's some article in the past couple decades calling me a menace. Or Ben Grimm! Ben Grimm is the least menacing rocky guy I've ever met! Jonah's just a /grump/."

She tilts her head and narrows her eyes, "You know, I bet you could help me out! I've got time to kill and honestly the only coffee I know of in Gotham is the stuff they serve at charity galas. ...Okay, I also know one fellow who makes very good tea. But... I think going to someone's house to have their butler make me tea would get me cancelled because... like... that is just /terribly/ bougie."

Susan sighs softly, as that rapid-fire mind of hers immediately runs off into a tangent of thought about how she's not so much part of the one percent as 'So ludicrously wealthy that she's not actually sure what her net worth is anymore'. But that's okay. The guilt will transform into another charitable endeavour, another plate to spin.

And then Susan realizes she completely skipped over his question, "Oh! Jeeze! I'm Susan Richards. Uhhh... the Invisible Woman? Fantastic Four? You know, the superheroes so old your parents probably had a lunchbox of us when they were kids?" She lifts a hand to peer at it and frowns, "Hm. I was expecting to turn into dust when I said that."

Miles Morales has posed:
Spider-Man's lenses seem to narrow ever so slightly. She liiiieeed!! But honestly, it doesn't matter, it's so small and she's being so humble that it's a strangely attractive trait! No worried there! "Heh, you're probably insanely good at interviews! You look like you're very photogenic and you're nice. At least nicer than most folks are to me. In their defense, I leave webs everywhere I go. In my defense, it's biodegradable." He starts to laugh though. "Should've been here yesterday, one of the jets came through and was like weaving between buildings! It was really cool!"

"Mid-air traffifc control would destroy operation! I mean, drones are already encroaching on the business." He jokes, just endless with him! "And you're right. I think he said he hated a hospital because they made him wear a gown." He shrugs. "I think he just needs a really good hug and some heart medication. I feel like he's gonna collapse from a stroke or heart attack any second. Worried about that guy." He smirks. "The Thing?! That guy rules. I'd love to meet him. Yiu know, clobberin' time!"

Help out?

"It's part of my name! I'd love to help you out. There's a few coffee shops in Gotham, there's a Zen Coffee that's pretty good, a Stories Coffee...here, if you want I can even give you a lift! It's a quiet night and I think it's fun."

"Super bougie." He smirks. "I could just try my hand at web dresses. I can spin 'em!" another joke. "YOURE INVISIBLE WOMAN?!" He practically shouts it. "Huge fan! You're a big deal. Pffft, you're not that old, no way no how. You don't look a day over 21!"

Susan Richards has posed:
Sue's eyebrows perk up and she laughs out and smiles lopsidedly, "Oh, no one's wanted to do a photo spread of me in..." She mock shivers and shakes her head, "I'm not even going to do the math. Nope. Not doing it at /all/. There's too many digits." She sighs out and grins lopsidedly, "Yeah, I guess that's a bit of a hazard, huh? Swing around a corner chasing Killer Croc or whatever and smack face first into a drone, almost as bad as a CEO floating around up here being a menace!"

She snickers softly and bobs her head, "Oh! Well, I'll tell him he's got a fan! And you might be surprised how often he winds up clobbering things with random heroic folks... mostly because the poor guy's a walking trouble magnet. But he handles it pretty well."

She laughs and hooks an arm around Spidey's shoulders, "Okay, a lift to Zen Coffee it is! If anyone asks we can say I fell off a balcony and you caught me and dropped me off. Get you some good PR just to ruin Jonah's day a little bit."

Is she going to point out that there are multiple iconic photos of her brazenly levitating during dramatic heroic moments? Of course not! First rule of good PR management... don't remind people of the PR stunt being a stunt! She hums out, "Oh! You know, I think spider silk's the one fabric Janet /hasn't/ tried to convince me to wear for her... well, we might have to consider this! But first... coffee! I'll pay for yours, I owe you that much for the ride! ...And come on, my /daughter/ barely looks 21 and she's..." She chews her lower lip and trails off.

The Richards family, famously all so busy and juggling so many things that... well of /course/ they don't remember their own birthdays reliably, let alone one another. But she's pretty sure Val's... 22. Definitely at least 22. Probably.

Miles Morales has posed:
She's really overselling her age! She's gotta be. Miles certainly doesn't see it. "Why not? You look incredible, seriously." Spider-Man chuckles softly behind his mask. "I think you could be a model. Easy peasy! And if there were signs that said 'Killer Croc is over here', 'Clayface is underneath this'? I feel like doing this hero thing would be really easy." Spider-Man starts to laugh. "CEO?" He asks Susan. "Oohhhh you mean Iron Man? Yeah, I don't know how that guy lives life. It's wild."

He couldn't even imagine. If everyone knew Miles Morales was Spider-Man? Ooooh boy, that would be hell on earth. It would literally freeze over. Then they'd hunt down Peter Parker through him and anybody Miles cared about and...it'd be a whole thing. "You would?! Oh man, you're amazing. Thank you!" He chuckles. "I'm gonna have to try and catch him sometime. He doesn't really come down to Gotham that much, I don't think!" But hey, she's here, so maybe it'll work out ok!

He feels the weight of her arm around his shoulder and he wraps an arm around her waist to hold her close. "Holding on tight?" He smiles behind his mask. "I mean, you know you can fly, yeah?" He starts to laugh before he LEAPS off of the building with Sue in his arms, his hand extending as a web line shoots out of his wrist and connects to a building, allowing them to swing! "WOOHOOO!" He howls with a laugh.

"Spider-Silk is pretty tough material too! I don't know Janet, but I hear she's like a big time fashionista, right?" He laughs. "Aw, shucks. Thanks!" For paying for his coffee.

She has a daughter who's 21? Is it a bad time to tell her how old he is? Probably. "Beautiful like her mom?" He asks Susan, playfully flirting is part of the gig, right?