6258/Catching Up On The Score

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Catching Up On The Score
Date of Scene: 18 May 2021
Location: Avengers Mansion - Study
Synopsis: Nadia walks in on Steve watching his Brooklyn Dodgers win game 7 of the 1955 World Series over the Yankees.
Cast of Characters: Steve Rogers, Nadia Pym-van Dyne




Steve Rogers has posed:
The room that is set aside for watching television, shooting pool, and otherwise finding some relaxing interludes between missions has the lights turned down low today. The brightest light comes from the big screen television mounted on the wall. Though the image on the screen is paused, the room itself is alive with the sounds of a crowd. The numerous surround sound speakers are creating a realistic audio recreation of Yankee Stadium, which is what the screen is showing as well in black and white.

Steve Rogers has just arrived back in the room, settling down into one of the couches. He has a foot long hot dog on a plate, a small tub of popcorn, and a mug of beer as he takes a seat. "Thank you JARVIS, this is perfect," he says.

The AI's voice rises just above the sounds of the crowd that JARVIS is piping in. "Thank you Captain. Enjoy game seven," he says, and then the TV starts up, showing a graphic indicating it is Game 7 of the 1955 World Series between the Brooklyn Dodgers and the New York Yankees.

Nadia Pym-van Dyne has posed:
For most people Avengers Mansion is probably not a place that would spring to mind for a relaxing getaway, but then Nadia Pym-van Dyne is not most people. With yet another supervillain group having launched a determined attempt to abduct her, utterly destroying her office in the GIRL building in the process, Nadia has chosen to unwind a bit at one of the most secure places in the Tri-State area.

Nadia wanders into the rec room, "Hey Cap!" She chirps, before flumping onto one of the couches peering at the screen. "What's a World Series? 1955... Game 7... is this the seventh game of baseball ever played?!" She asks curiously, not joking.

Steve Rogers has posed:
Steve Rogers looks up as Nadia comes in and makes herself known. The sound is set at a volume by Jarvis to make the replay as realistic as possible, plenty of crowd noise, but not so much they cannot talk over it easily enough. "Nadia," he says, giving her a friendly smile. "What's a World Series?" he repeats as if in surprise at the question. And he likely takes the following question for a joke at first, before noting her tone.

"No, baseball goes back to the late 1800s. The championship at the end of the season is called the World Series. First team to win 4 games. And the Yankees and Dodgers are tied at 3 games each going into this," he says.

"I'm just catching up on a bit of what I missed. I was a big Dodgers fan in my day. Though the team moved to Los Angeles years after I went into the ice. This was their last World Series game as the Brooklyn team," he says. "You're welcome to have a seat and watch it with me," he offers.

Nadia Pym-van Dyne has posed:
"Oooooh." Comprehension dawns across Nadia's face or at least seeming comprehension, "Baseball wasn't really taught in Soviet Bunker Assassin Girl School." She says perhaps a bit too cheerily. "Except that it was a pastime of the horrible Western Imperialists." She does her best grouchy Soviet old man voice for the last bit.

She nods as Steve explains his favorite Brooklyn team is playing, "So what country are they playing against?" He did say it was the World Series after all.

Steve Rogers has posed:
Steve motions to the sofa and slides the popcorn tub in that direction on the coffee table as if in invitation. "It's just American teams. There's an American League and a National League, and the teams who win them play each other," he says. "I don't know why they called it the name they did," he says with a small shrug, perhaps not having considered the question before.

The large blond-haired man leans back into the couch, one legs crossing over the other as he takes a sip of his beer. "This isn't quite the same as actually attending a game. But the sounds from JARVIS help. The crack of the bat hitting the ball. Smell of roasting peanuts. The crowd surging with excitement on a big play," Steve says in a fond tone. "It's definitely worth attending in person sometime."

Nadia Pym-van Dyne has posed:
"Isn't a National League and an American League the same thing if all the teams are American?" Nadia's logical science brain is full of questions about baseball, despite having been out of the Red Room for nearly a year (despite their best efforts), much of Western society still has elements of strangeness for her. She's learned a lot, but many gaps still remain.

"You know, with Jarvis' help, I could probably code and calibrate something for the training room to produce a full virtual stadium experience, if you really want to experience it just like you were there. The same way villain attacks are simulated."

Steve Rogers has posed:
"Really?" Steve asks after she mentions the possibility of creating a virtual version of the game. There's a little bit of interest in his voice, but then he quickly says, "That would probably be far more work than it's worth. The picture quality keeps getting better with the years. I swear that TV now, I can hardly tell I'm not looking out a window," the man born in the 1910s says with a shaking of his head and an expression of slight marvel.

A pitcher throws the first pitch of the game, the Dodger's lead off hitter watching it go past for a ball. "So, there were originally two different leagues, I think. Which is why they have the different names. And then they both became top level professional teams and they decided to have their winners play each other to see which was better. Something like that," Steve says to explain the naming.

Nadia Pym-van Dyne has posed:
Nadia thinks about it for a moment, "Not really that much work, actually Jarvis would be doing most of the work, but he's far more powerful than your average learning algorithm used to digitally enhance and extrapolate, really it'd just be a matter of intergrating restored and enhanced images with the physics engine. Given what Jarvis is capable of, it probably wouldn't take that long at all."

"TV is amazing!" Nadia agrees though from a slightly different perspective. "We were never really allowed to watch TV, TV was only part of an advanced infiltration course that I escaped before going through. Though I was of course familiar with the technology. They gave me all sorts of things to work on."

"Huh, I guess they still haven't decided which is better then." Though her attention is back on the screen trying to figure out the rules of the game.

Steve Rogers has posed:
Steve picks up his hot dog as the game continues. It's not a particular fast-paced game, certainly not compared to some other sports that Nadia might or might not have seen before. The first batter eventually hits the ball deep, but the outfielder catches it.

"So, if the team in the field catches the ball in the air, the batter is out. Or if they throw it to the white bag there on the right, before he runs to it, then he's out. Otherwise he's on the base and can keep trying to advance as more batters come up. If he makes it around all three bases and back to the home plate where the batters are at, he scores a run for his team. If three batters get out, then the team's switch who is in the field and who is at bat," Steve explains.

Nadia Pym-van Dyne has posed:
Nadia watches the game progress, her eyes darting this way and that. "So they want to hit the ball at a low angle with maximum velocity that will be difficult to catch and the other team wants to throw it in a way that impairs that, likely by applying rotation to the ball as it is thrown?" Yes she is sciencing baseball.

She reaches over and takes some popcorn, "Did you ever play baseball Cap?"

Steve Rogers has posed:
"Exactly," Steve tells Nadia. "If the batter hits it over the fence in the outfield, then it's called a home run and he gets to trot around the bases uncontested. The ball has to stay between those lines on either side or else it doesn't count though," he says. "And the pitcher can put spin on the ball to make it curve or move in various ways," he says.

The super soldier gives a nod. "I did. Though we mostly just played in the street with a stick, and half the time our ball was something we made rather than a real baseball. I wasn't very good I'm afraid," he says with a wry smile.

Steve takes a bite of his hot dog. After washing it down with a sip of beer, he asks Nadia, "Do you find yourself wanting to get out and experience things like this, now that you're here instead of where they raised you?" he asks her. "Or is all of this just a little too unusual for you?"

Nadia Pym-van Dyne has posed:
Nadia gives Steve an incredulous look when he says he wasn't very good, "How were you not very good?! You're Captain America!" Her adoration of superheroes shows through, but she is clearly mystified by this, he's physically perfect after all and can do all of those acrobatic shield throws!

She considers his question for a moment before nodding emphatically, "I want to experience everything! All the things! That's what SCIENCE! is! Experiencing and observing and learning from it!" There is certainly no shortage of enthusiasm with her.

Steve Rogers has posed:
Steve Rogers doesn't encounter too many people who don't know his history. So Nadia's comment draws the briefest moment of surprise from him. "Well, I wasn't Captain America back then. I was just a kid. A skinny, undersized kid, truth be told," he tells her. He takes another bite of his hot dog, and the story is momentarily interrupted by the crack of a bat. One of the Dodgers hits a ball into left field, bouncing it off the wall. He ends up with a double, standing on second base by the time the outfielders have run it down and thrown it back the infield.

Steve looks back over to Nadia. "I was selected for a program during the war. A super soldier serum developed by Dr. Erskin. I grew nearly a full foot, and, well, like I said. Small and skinny," he tells her.

He smiles to the young woman and says, "Well, the Mets aren't quite as good as the Dodgers were. But if you'd like we can take in a game sometime. Maybe get some of the rest of the team out there as well," he suggests.

Nadia Pym-van Dyne has posed:
"Oh! Kind of like me! Though I didn't grow a foot ...I think, or I was originally going to be reeeeally short. The Red Room gave us all something based partially on Dr. Erskine's work created by Lyudmila Kudrin but it only works on girls when they're really young, usually infants." She smiles like serums and childhood experiments are a perfectly normal subject.

"I knew some of that from Red Room files that mentioned you but they didn't say you were small and skinny before, I figured America would use that sort of thing on their strongest soldier, not that you didn't become their strongest soldier, so I guess Dr. Erskine knew more than me!"

She makes an oooooh expression when Steve proposes going to see a baseball game in person, "That sounds great!"

Steve Rogers has posed:
Steve opens his mouth as if to reply, but then closes it instead. Maybe it's a story that Nadia will have to hear from Peggy instead if she's to hear it. Instead he just replies, "Excellent, I'll see if I can't set something up," he tells her.

Steve pushes the popcorn over towards her. "And we'll have to get some roasted peanuts while we're there," he comments. "The kitchen didn't have any," he says as the game play son. The Brooklyn Dodgers eventually take the lead and never relinquish it. Steve getting to finally see his team win the World Series against their crosstown rivals.