| Midtown Train TK |
| Summary: | Jean and Vance meet on the midtown train. |
| Date: | IC Date (2014-09-05) |
| Related: | None |
| NPCs: | None |
| Scene Runner: | NA |
| Social/Plot: | Social |
| Players: |
 .. .. |
Aboard the midtown subway train during rush hour isn't the most comfortable or enjoyable of rides. Packed like sardine cans, the 8 cars travel from one station to the next to allow the mass migration of the human traveler. On this particular car, Vance Astrovik, astronaut, is found standing about and holding onto one of the many looped canvas hand holds. He wears colorful sneakers, blue jeans, a black t shirt with Star Wars printed on it, and a dark blue wind breaker. His blue eyes peer about through the crowd and seem to be in deep reflective thought.
The train comes to another stop, several people get off, others get on. Of the many others, there are a few teenagers being loud and obnoxious. Normal street kids with a ghetto blaster (what he calls it) and prepared to blast the ghetto with their beats. Yet, for this moment, the music does not play. The kids are dressed in various levels of punk attire and are loud and overt.
Jean is currently sitting in one of the window seats of the train, taking advantage of this instead of her motorcycle. Her thoughts are mostly focused inward, mainly because she likes to avoid migraines with all the different people coming and going. She does wince slightly when the street kids arrive with their rather large radio, making her look a bit surprised… though that seems to be more at the fact that it's still a "thing"… doesn't everyone have an iPod these days?
The train gets underway and Vance seems to pay attention to the street kids as if he's expecting something to transpire. As are many of the other riders on the subway car who feel that they just drew the short straw.
When the street kids start to rally for a flash mob moment, the one holding the boom box finds that the play button won't depress. He exclaims that it's stuck. His friends try to come to his aid. One such friend is wearing a baseball cap with a wide flat bill. The cap seems to have gotten knocked off his head so he turns to find who did it and finds only his friends nearby. So he moves to pick up the cap. Another would-be assistant moves in and falls foward to be caught by another friend. He looks down to find his shoelaces tied together.
Jean glances over at the street kids, and can't help but smirk a little as they seem to be having such problems. The smirk fades a bit, as it seems to process that someone /else/ is probably doing these things to them. Eyes drifting back towards the front of the car, she starts doing a bit of a mental 'search' on surface thoughts, seeing where this might be coming from.
One individual has a very strong psyche. One Major Vance Astrovik, astronaut who was lost in the late 70s into deep space and returned in recent times as if he were Buck Rogers. That's his claim to fame, but in reality, he's just a guy with a really strong brain.. no wait, he's also got the TK going on.
The street kids are turning on one another as they become more obnoxious. Onlookers are starting to get nervous. The kid with the boom box says, "Damn it Frankie, you bastard, you super glued my play button didn't you?"
Frankie replies, "No way man. I don't touch your stuff."
Frankie's hand then reaches into his pocket as if he's hiding something. The expression on his face is one of confusion and struggle.
Another of the males exclaims, "Who tied my shoes together."
One of the females stumbles and falls to the tied together shoes with an oof.
Jean blinks, and suddenly the radio starts playing as the power button becomes unstuck. However, it seems to be playing at a much quieter volume… and with a different station too?!? Or at least, it seems like it's determined to be the NYC Easy Listening station more than anything punk or rock. At that point, Vance would hear a feminine voice inside his head, » Cute. But you know you might be causing a situation to develop, right? «
Vance is caught off guard as his mind is invaded. He starts looking about for anyone who may be paying attention to him more than the situation. He also ceases any TK involvement. Until he finds her (if he does), he will respond, » I would have kept it on the comedic entertainment level only. Those kids need a little diffusing of their egos and humility. By the way, who are you and.. where are you? « the latter part of the sentence is more of an after thought of his own as he continues seeking the body of the voice.
Jean's chuckle sounds in Vance's head, » A little diffusing is fine, but they were getting to the point where they'd get violent, which is why their music is stuck on easy listening. « It's a bit hard to tell where that thought might be coming from, but it's got to be someone in the train, right? » You must be Vance. Courtney told me a bit about you the other night. «
» Courtney… «, Vance thinks as he begins to smile. » Now there's a girl in the know «. He steps from the looped hand hold and begins moving through the train carefully inspecting those who may be projecting their thoughts. He continues in thought, » What did Cupcake tell you about me? «
Another mental laugh, » Well, you use your spaceship to pick up women, for starters. « She sounds a bit amused, and just by coincidence (?), there's a seat open ahead, with a rather nice looking redhead looking out the window. College student, judging from the backpack by her feet, as she does look a bit too old for high school. » I helped out her and Jack the other night from some skrull bounty hunters. «
Spying the seat, Vance will begin to move toward it knowing that there's a reason for everything, especially when dealing with metahumans. He spies the redhead and would like to put two and two together but won't jump to conclusions just yet. » I wish I could have been there to set the story straight. I don't actually pick up women with my space ship, just my reputation as being an astronaut and a hero of the galaxy. «
Jean glances sidelong at Vance from her seat and murmurs, "Pity, I would love a chance to fly a spaceship sometime." She grins, glancing up towards Vance, "Call me Jean, if you like. Wasn't exactly expecting company of your nature on the train. Or theirs, for that matter." The street kids, for their part, seem to have given up on fixing the radio, and just listen to the smooth and soothing light jazz for the rest of their ride, until they can get off at the next stop to try and recoup some dignity anyway.
To make himself more comfortable, and appear such, he will shift slightly toward her and place his arm on the seat back behind himself and herself. He also switches to voice as he's very pleased with who she turns out to be. But before he speaks, in his head there's a little voice that says, .oO(Play it cool, Astrovik. She's not one of those chicks like on Starsky and Hutch)Oo.
"Hey Jean, good to meet you. I'm Vance. And I'd be glad to take you for a ride in my space ship." he catches himself and says, "Oh heck that sounded corny."
Jean snickers, "Only if I get to fly it. I am actually a pilot. Among other things." She glances curiously at Vance, "Though, if you actually /have/ a spaceship it isn't nearly as corny as it might sound otherwise." Her expression gets a bit wry, as she glances towards the window for a second.
"Well aren't you surprising. And yeah, I have one. She's a beaut. Not quite as…" and again he catches himself from saying something stupid. Instead he interrupts himself with a wholly new topic, "Hey so. What do you do?" and again, catching himself he corrects the question, "As in a job or maybe you're a student." noting her bag.
Jean grins, "Actually, I do a bit of both, I'm currently a junior at Empire State, while I also work for the Themiscyrian Embassy as an aide to Princess Diana." She nods, "Which is very interesting work, I have to say. It's been enlightening."
Surprised, and showing it, Vance notes, "That's pretty impressive. All that and looks too. Oh wait, you don't have some massive cyclopian boyfriend that's going to want to pulverize me for talking to you, right?"
Jean snickers, "Nope. I'm quite single at the moment. I did have a boyfriend, but his… work, interfered too much, so we had to call it off." She looks a bit regretful at that, but shrugs. C'est la vie.
"Oh." is said with rising curiousity. Vance hates barking up the wrong flirting tree. "Yeah, that's a downer. But, you've got an excellent job, aspiring career in your studies, and have an amazing disposition of beauty." he smiles, realizing that Huggy Bear would be proud of Vance's choice of words.
Jean grins, "An aspiring career in my studies… which were?" She glances sidelong at Vance, an impish expression in her gaze as she seems to have caught him. Because… well, she didn't /mention/ what she studied.
Vance smiles and slips back into supafly mode which he's going to regret, "I hope it's astronomy because I'd love to show you the stars." He cannot stand it and that smile breaks into a laugh with his ears turning red and his head shaking, "Oh that was bad."
Jean winces, "Oh, that was painful." She shakes her head, chuckling despite herself, "Pre-psychiatry, actually. Aiming for a doctorate, eventually. So even without telepathy you can see that coming."
His grin wider, Vance likes the answer, "Shrinking the heads inside and out. That sounds great. Especially for your uniqueness. Me, if the astronaut space cowboy guardian thing doesn't work out, I'll have to resort to lifting heavy boxes."
Jean chuckles, "I think there's always going to be a place for space cowboy astronauts, myself." She shrugs a bit, "There's definitely a lot going on out there, that's for sure."
A chime is heard from above indicating the next stop. Vance ponders the way to ask and says, "Can I get your number?" in an open invitation sort of query that implies (to him) that he'll call, act all super cool, and they'll go out.
Jean hmmms, "Well, I suppose… it would be better to help coordinate efforts after all." She pulls out a pen and a business card, scribbling her number on the back and handing it over to Vance.
There's a slight moment of confusion as he takes the car, "No I mean. Call you and we go out for a steak dinner." Yes, he still calls it that. Because that means a real high quality date. Not going out to the Dairy Queen or the Win Dixie fry counter.
Jean blinks once. Then she blinks again. Okay, she wasn't quite expecting that. "Um… well, okay, sure?" She looks a little surprised, "I mean, I definitely wouldn't mind."
He pockets the card as he stands. Vance then states as the train comes to a stop, "Looking forward to it." which is probably the best thing he can muster that's not another cheesy 70s line. He really needs to watch more current television and quit watching Starsky and Hutch, Kojak, or Buck Rogers reruns.
Turning on his heel, he gives a nod and will make with the crowd to leave the train.