6234/Walking is the real Punishment

Walking is the real Punishment
Date of Scene:	16 May 2021
Location:	Brooklyn
Synopsis:	April meets the cowboy medic Jacen who helps her get her bike back after Punisher through her in the van and then dumped her off in a random part of the city.
Cast of Characters:	April O'Neil, Jacen Knight

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April O'Neil has posed:
April had been unceremoniously shoved out of the back of the 'Battle Van' on their escape from the gang shooting several blocks tothe north. She'd huffily watched as the Punisher peeled out and burned rubber away from where she was. Now she's stuck here blocks away from her apartment,a nd her bike...

She's taken to just walking, her yellow leather jacke tis off now and she has it tied around her waist, a Star Wars tshirt on her upper body and her sunglasses on over her eyes as she's walking...

Frank had tossed her phone out of the back of the van too, so the Reporter is left to just walk, her arms swinging at her sides as she moves down the sidewalk in front of a hospital here in Brooklyn.

Jacen Knight has posed:
Out of the hospital walks the most unlikely of sorts. Full blown cowboy look in the middle of New York? He must be lost. Settling his hat on his head he looks each direction of the sidewalk and steps out to start in the general direction April is coming from. Is he for real? A bright orange trauma kit hangs loosely in his left hand, swinging with is arm as he walks.

April O'Neil has posed:
April's eyes are covered by her sunglasses, but they're forward and alert when she sees the cowboy medic up in front of her. She starts to slow her steps and raise her hand up to lowe rher sunglasses to peer over them at him. He's cute, she's no stranger to looking at cute guys after all. She takes her sunglases off and holds them in front of her as she approaches him and offers him a smile.

"Excluse me." She says to him then, putting her weight on her left booted foot. "Have you heard anything about a shooting near here? I'm not familiar with this part of town and... I was there, I got taken away by... the guy who started it. Frank Castle." He's notorious in Manhattan. "I'm trying to find my way back there cause I left my bike, I'm hoping it hasn't been stolen yet..." She shows a faint frown after saying that to the medic cowboy.

Jacen Knight has posed:
His stride slows a little as she addesses him. He considers her, he likes looking at the cute women as well, and stops to hear what she says. The questions spark him back to the now as opposed to staring at her,"Yeah I heard 'bout th' shootin'." he replies in true cowboy form,"Missed that call. A few minutes back fr'm a prior run."

He thinks about it a second and cites off the address,"Yeah. That w's th' call." Pretty lady needs help getting somewhere. He's nothing if not predictable and encouragible,"I gotta a ride 'round th' corner'n could take ya by there. It's on my way home anyway." He does have a trauma kit and even a lanyard with with his face and the hospital name on it.

April O'Neil has posed:
April is looking off in the other direction toward the city when she hears him offer to take her there. She cracks a smile then and nods her head to him. "That'd be wonderful." She tells him. "I love your accent too. You don't hear those very often around here." Of course she has one to him too, but... she's in her home turf.

She walks to where he's going then, and offers him her hand. "I'm April O'Neil by the way. I'm a reporter for Channel Six News out of Manhattan, you might've seen me on tv in the really early hours of the mornings." She says with no small amount of spite toward her job. She grins at him though.

Jacen Knight has posed:
"Be my pleasure." he tells her, noting the extended hand and he smirks a little,"Yeah th' accent kinda follows me everywhere. Really makes folk 'round here look at me funny." Shaking the hand offered he nods,"I have seen ya on th' tv on th' nights we ain' runnin' th' streets. I'm Jacen Knight. Mighta seen me on TV, but I kinda doubt it."

Introductions aside he starts towards the alley and a late model, black Ford truck,"Somehow I doubt too many folks'n New York care 'bout rodeo or take th' time ta watch jeans commercials." Of course he's wearing Wranglers, what else would he be wearing so there is always a chance. Unlocking the passenger door he motions her inside.

April O'Neil has posed:
April puts her designer sunglasses up on her forehead as her long dark hair flows about her shoulders over the white Star Wars tshirt she's wearing, a picture of Han and Chewie holding guns up on the chest of it. "You were on tv?" She asks, looking over at him as he explains. "Oh, an ad?" She asks. "That's awesome. I've been offered a few, but I've... well I'm just too busy. I focus mor eon my internet presence than the television gig. They just... work well together, sort've." She seems to not like her job too much based on what little she's said already.

When the truck door opens, she steps up to it and pops the handle then slips herself up inside of it with the use of the handle on the doorframe.

Settling in inside she looks over at him. "I really do appreciate this. I have no idea where he went, he was taking lefts and rights like a mad man... but of course, I watched him kill like ten people, so... 'mad man' might be dead on. Pun, not intended."

April smirks and looks out the front of the truck then.

Jacen Knight has posed:
A moment to look at the shirt and he smirks,"Best characters of the story." he comments. He meant Han and Chewie right? Right? He nods,"Yeah paid pertty well. Able ta help me not build up a lotta debt'n my trainin'." He shuts the door and goes around to get in as well.

Once he's settled he starts up the truck,"No problem. Ain' every day a beautiful woman needs a ride 'cross town." He tosses the trauma pack into the back seat area and starts up the truck,"I heard 'bout th' Punisher guy. Soun's like he's a real piece o' work. What little I heard I kinda get what he does. Don' make'm right, just kinda get it."

April O'Neil has posed:
April is putting her seatbelt on when she glances down at herself. She laughs soflty. "Yeah, Calvin and Hobbes." She says about Han and Chewie. "Luke and Leia are my favorite, but... that shirt wasi nthe wash today." She glance sover at him and flashes him a grin. At the talk of frank though, she just huffs again and drops her hands on to her thighs. "Hew threw my phone out the back too. I'd ask you to look around for it too, but it... it's definitely kileld-in-action by now."

RIP phone, big sigh.

April looks out her passenger side window for a second before she looks back over at him to her left.

"I don't entirely disagree with Castle's ideas either, I just... god, seeing it happen in person? It's horrific. There has to be a better way."

She shows a faint smile then at him. "But yeah, if you're new to thisarea, which I'm guessing you are bythe accent and the cowboy styling, you've arrived at a really crazy place... New York that is."

Jacen Knight has posed:
While he is new to the area, Jacen seems to have a handle on the traffic patterns with only an occasional mutters four letter word. Looking towards the street signs he counts off the destination,"Gotta have Calvin'n Hobbes." he agrees and makes a little bit of a face at Luke and Leia being the favorite. He at that of course. Star Wars is cool no matter what.

"Way I hear it he's gotta nasty habit of leavin' bodies'n empty casin's wherever he goes." Jacen admits,"If ya gotta see that up close y'r gonna have't burned in there. Sounds like ya need a beer." OK. So for him beer is the answer to most things. He nods and admits,"Yeah. New York ain' dull f'r sure. Reckon I'd hat ta be bored after all." He turns down the next street.

April O'Neil has posed:
April's eyes are roaming around outside the truck, being that she does know /parts/ of this area, just not all of it. She has a smile spread across her lips as she hears his words about beer and it draws her eyes back over to him. "I do." She says about the beer idea. "But I need to see if my bike is still there. I'm hoping it got... I don't know, taken in as evidence or something, by the police. Or at least locked behind some police tape..." She exhales. "I've had that bike since I started college at Berkeley. I'll miss it if its gone." She glances back at him. "It's named Bumblebee, ya see. Even has a little sticker o nit. Of a bee." She smirks at him then.

"So do you have family up here? Is that what brought you up? Or are you trying to get your butt in to more television ads?" She shows the hint of a grin then next.

Jacen Knight has posed:
He nods and turns down the next street. Sure enough there is a bike up there and his lights hit it. Maybe she got lucky and cops haven't made it out here to add it to the list of evidence and crime scene type. He nods and asks,"That be th' Bumblebee'n question I reckon?" The truck slows as he pulls next to it and looks around,"Seems like at least th' Punisher made th' neighborhood quiet f'r th' moment. Wanna put it'n th' back of the truck 'r just ride it outa here?"

He shakes his head and adds,"No family." A laugh and adds,"Ain' got no designs on another display of m' butt right now. Just wanted a new start'n be somewhere that'd be interstin' an' I'd be useful. There's a shortage o' medics' even firefighters right now. If I went back home well..." he shrugs,"I reckon I need a little adventure in m' life."

April O'Neil has posed:
April does ethat thing that people do when he points out the bike up ahead and then she sees it and sucks in a breaht of air. It takes her a second to let the truck drive clsoer before she puts her hands forward to rest on the dash and she points. "Yes, that's it! That's wait---" She leans forward a little more than gasps again. "Yes it is!"

She looks over at him and does a giddy-laugh befor she claps her hands together two quick times. "I can't believe it." She says with another bit of laughter. Her eyes dart over to him then. "Would you mind putting it in the back? I hate to impose on you... My place isn't too far from here though, it's just five minutes or so. I can tell you the way. Basically you're headed toward the Brooklyn Bridge fromhere and its half way between there and here."

rShe grins at him then. "I'll owe you a beer for this, Jacen. Toast to adventures, or something.""

Jacen Knight has posed:
He takes the truck out of gear and sets the parking brake. Touching the pouch at his side, fingers reaching into it for a moment and steps to the bike and looks around the area once. No sense turning your back on potential trouble. Once he is OK with the surroundings he moves to get the bike and pushes it to the back of the truck.
Taking the tail gate down he nods to April,"I like th' way ya think. I could stand a beer'n someone else buyin's jus' that much better." He winks as he replies,"Ain' no imposition. Kinda likin' th' company." Most people would take the cables loose to make the lift a little easier. Instead, he picks up the bike like it weighs nothing and sets it into the back of the truck. Leverage right,"Not every night a beautiful, famous r'porter gonna show ya where she lives either." he teases.

April O'Neil has posed:
April unsnaps her seat belt and jumps out of the truck with him. She needs to make sure they're not taking someone else's bike after all, cause that'd be rude.

When she spies the sticker she claps her hands together again and smiles at him as he wheels it to the truck. "Ah, this is great. I care ore about this thing than I do the phone..." She does frown about the phone though. "You can tell Frank is old too, because the stuff I was recording wasn't even saved to my phone, it was saved to my cloud server... so destroying it... didn't do anything..." Another frown is shown then.

When the bike is put in the back, his words make her smile at him. "Sunny Rose Antiques is my building. Used to be a thriving place to buy old stuff, when my mother was alive. But it's... well, got an apartment over it and that's what I call home." She walks back to the cab to get back in the truck after the infamous Bumblebee is loaded up.

"You're a hero though tonight, Jacen,and I really appreciate it." She says, once back in the truck's cab.

Jacen Knight has posed:
Once the bike is settled into the back of the truck, he closes the gate and then goes around to get in the truck again. Once she is settled in he shakes his head,"I'm prolly just's computer illiterate as he is. I know how ta turn th' thing on'n maybe play solitaire."

He starts in the direction she instructs and drives back into the night again,"Apartment over a store. I've seen a few o' them 'round here since I got here, but I don' think I've seen yours." he admits. He shakes his head and adds,"Reckon if that makes me a hero I gotta pertty good gig'n th' hero biz. Lot easier'n gettin' shot at'r somethin'."

April O'Neil has posed:
April looks over at him as he talks of his tech issues too. She just grins at him. "Yeah, I'm one of those people who grew up with a screen in her face. My eyes are probably gonna turn in to mush by the time I'm 40. I started using blue lense glasses when I'm at home on my laptop in fact, they say those help..."

She looks forward again and gives him some directions on where to go. "I know where we are now. My parents didn't let me come over this far south when I was a kid, said the area was too shifty. Apparently they were right..."

She looks back to the cowboy medic then and smiles at him. "It's the little things in life that make the hero, in my book. I get myself in to trouble a lot, it's... part of what I do, I guess. I've been blessed to have a lot of good guardian angels looking out for me, some... a bit more unconventional than you might think, but all the same, I know a good person when I see one."

Jacen Knight has posed:
Driving according to her directions, Jacen watches the surroundings more or less in a passive way. Mindful of the surroundings, but still operating the truck safely,"Yeah. I know a lotta folks that use'm like it's an extension o' themselves, jus' a little too far outa my league. I'm just th' jock."

He considers what she says about her parents and laughs softly,"Yeah folks're real good't knowin' where th' bad things are. Kids're really good't ignorin' what th' smart folks like parents tell'm." He shakes his head,"Well. I'll do m' best ta live up ta th' label. As f'r th' good person. I'll hafta take y'r word f'r it."

April O'Neil has posed:
April grins over at him again as he drives. "I had a nice mixture, I grew up between here and our farm outside of Boston. My mother was from up there, my father from down here in the city. When they got married, he bought her the antique store, thought it would help her feel a bit connected to home in that she could collect a lot of stuff from back there and bring it here to sell it. So I was lucky to get a taste of both sides of the world. Rural and city life."

She looks forward again and gives more directions. "Almost there." She tells him. "Angelo's Pizza is right there, I give them about all of my paycheck." Which has her smirking. "The store is just up there, with the yellow awning."

She looks over at him then. "I'd invite you up for a drink, but I got a... weird roommate. She's uh, a bit famous herself. Infamous, really. I'll have to clear some stuff with her before I have guests over. She has two... uh, wild hyenas that live with us, they're a handful all in themselves." She grins at him.

"Like I said, welcome to New York, land of crazy."

Jacen Knight has posed:
"I did th' small town with m' parents." he admits,"After th'...accident I went ta live with m' grandpa on th' reservation. He raised me up. Taught me how ta live'n that world'n then some. Then th' PRCA happened." Looking up the road he finds a place to take a parking area to get the bike out.

Once the truck is out of gear and the brake set he pauses and looks at her,"There's a pizza place not too far fr'm mine sees too much o' my money too." He pauses to take in the rest of it and looks at her a little sideways as he gets out of the truck,"OK I grew up 'round a lotta wild things, but I gotta say I ain' never had th' idea o' keepin' hyenas. Maybe another night f'r th' drink then." He goes to let the tailgate down and pick the bike up out of the bed of the truck and put it on the ground.

April O'Neil has posed:
When the truck is pulled over, April once more undoes her seat belt and moves to get out of the truck's interior. She meets him around the back again and smiles at him as he unloads the bike.

"Yeah, my roommate is just about as... unusual as they come. But she's a lot nicer than people think when they first hear her name."

With the bike brought out of the truck's back, April reaches out for the handle bars and puts her bike helmet over it that she'd had hooked to her belt. "Well, thank you, Jacen, I really appreciate all you've done for me tonight, like I've said... it's cool to see a nice buy out here on the streets. One that isn't, ya know, killing a church full of gangsters." She gives a grim smirk then.

"Oh, here." She reaches in to her yellow jacket tied around her waist and she pulls out one of her business cards that she offers to him. "I'll have a new phone by tomorrow." She states with a smile.

Jacen Knight has posed:
Once the bike is settled and she comes around to meet him, he leans against the truck bed for a moment,"Well maybe some night I'll meet y'r roommate, but I get it. I don' usually want jus' randome folks poppin' inta my place either. Well...ya know what I mean."

Once she's settled and getting things in order he smirks,"Killin' gangester's on th' schedule f'r next week. Takin' a break fr'm it right now." he teases, taking the offered card, smiling at it as he sees what she's offered. He winks and puts it in his pocket before indicating she follow him to the truck cab again. He hands her a card as well, this one advertising "Fallen Angel Ranch" along with his name, address, and phone number,"If ya find y'r way upstate, feel free ta drop in. I'll give ya call'n a day 'r two. Gotta work in th' mornin' an' sleep't th' hospital's th' night backup. Be ready f'r a beer f'r sure after that."

April O'Neil has posed:
April has a pretty happy air about her personality, even in the face of seeing the things she saw today. She returns his smile and walks with her bike toward the front of his truck again to accept his card as he pulls it out to hand it to her. "Awesome." She says at him. "And I'm all for the drink and such, it'll be fun." She holds the card in front of her for a second before she stuffs it in to one of the front pockets of her jeans.
"Nice sounding ranch name too, I dig it." She states with a quick grin.

She glances toward the store then. "Well, I better get inside, before my 'trouble magnet' curse has ... I don't know, Ninjas jumping out of the woodwork or something." She laughs a little then. But seriously.... April, Ninjas, it happens. A lot.

She offers him another handshake then before she'll put her hands on the bike's handlebars and start to push it toward the front of the store that has its curtains drawn over the windows and a CLOSED sign in one of them, slightly bent to one side.

Jacen Knight has posed:
"Soun's like a date then." he replies in regards to the all in for a drink. He smirks as she comments on the name and admits,"It ain' much, but it's home. Outa th' way'n quiet. City's good f'r adventure, but rather adventure ain' kickin' in th' front door middle th' night."

Shaking her hand again he tells her,"Yeah we don' wanna encounter no ninja's that f'r sure. Had enough o' that f'r one life time." Is he serious or just playing along with a perceived joke. Either way, he leans against the truck to watch her take the bike to the store. Yeah, so maybe he takes a long look at her departing form. He's only human right? His eyebrows raises and lowers back to normal and he turns to get into the truck once she's inside again,"Hate ta see'r go, love ta watch'r leave." he admits and then drives off into the waiting night.

April O'Neil has posed:
"You and me both!" April says about the Ninjas as she wheels the bike up to the sidewalk and bumps it up on to the curb. She makes it ot the front door and takes a second to jiggle the keys befor ethe door is seen opening up to show the dark interior of the store inside.

With the door open, she turns to wave at him then to signal she's all good and then she starts in to the interior of the store with the bike slipping in with her...