(no subject)

[the_man]

Fury swans into the bar sometime during the middle of the 'night'.

He picks up a note from the bar. Reading it makes him pinch the bridge of his nose and sigh.

The bar offers him a steaming cup of coffee, for which he pays in cash. Then he digs a battered paperback out of some mysterious pocket, and settles down to read.


[OOC: No more threads for tonight, please! I'm headed out. I'll hit up slowtimes tomorrow.]

Comments

[cutting_edgex23]

X looks up from her laptop (which is currently displaying several detailed maps of Southeast Asia), nostrils flaring slightly as she catches Fury's scent.

Then she turns to look at him, head tilting.

"You are okay?"

It is always polite to ask. Well.

Almost always.

[the_man]

"I am," he says, with great solemnity. "How are you, X?"

Fury stares at her laptop screen without bothering to hide it.

[cutting_edgex23]

"I am not dead."

Some days that means a lot!

"And it has been quiet. Here."

She also makes no move to hide her screen from him. Not even that the only location that shows up across all of the visible maps (or the visible part of each map) is an island called Madripoor.

[the_man]

After a moment, his attention politely returns to her.

"What's your definition of quiet, for this place?"

[cutting_edgex23]

"I have not had to arrest anyone. None of the buildings here have been destroyed."

Beat.

"Mike has not caused any more trouble."

[the_man]

"Mike. The head barman? He cause a lot of trouble?"

He doesn't question her other statements.

[cutting_edgex23]

X offers a shrug, one-shouldered and quick.

"For himself. Most of the time."

She is not sure whether to be thankful for this or not.

"I am responsible for his training. Combat is not only physical."

[thekidfrombrooklyn]

Steve greets him with a "Director Fury," and a friendly nod, and sits near him at the bar.

[the_man]

Fury puts down his book.

Very carefully.

He slowly turns to look at Steve.

"Captain Rogers," he says.

[thekidfrombrooklyn]

Steve glances at the cover. "Good book?"

[the_man]

"Very," Fury says, watching Steve with rather intense focus. "Published back in '32, actually. A reaction against the earlier utopian works."

[thekidfrombrooklyn]

"I didn't read it, I don't think," says Steve.

"Is everything all right? I'm lying low, as ordered."


[ooc: Sorry, I thought they were roughly the same time and forgot to check the entry where I asked everyone's timeline. Should he back off?]

[the_man]

[OOC: No no, by all means, he can stay. Fury is freaking out, it's good for him. He'll probably flee soon.]


"Sure," Fury says. He picks up his coffee cup and takes a big gulp. He waves a hand in vague assent. "No problems, Captain. I just wasn't expecting to see you here."

[katyafeline]

"Privet, stranger." She's let Bar make the sbiten tonight, since she didn't feel up to it - there's a healing, jagged slice down the left side of her face, disappearing under the neckline of her jeans jacket, re-appearing at the cuff of her sleeve. She taps the top of the Bar with her mug, and it obligingly re-fills, and a plate of pelmini accompanies it. Some nights need a lot of comfort food, evidently.

[the_man]

"Looks like I was right about the trouble," Fury says. "Say, does your face hurt?"

His face is perfectly straight.

Really.

[katyafeline]

"Like the fires of the allegorical hell." She grouses, though there isn't much bite behind it - she won that fight, and got her own back in spades. "Worse, my partner has become overprotective. So much Chinese food."

[the_man]

"I was wondering," he says, a shit-eating grin slowly spreading across his face. "'Cause it's killing me."

[katyafeline]

She favors him with a narrow-eyed glare usually saved for patrols in Moscow. You trying to say something, pirate-man?

[the_man]

The grin stays. "You give 'em hell back, then?"

[redintheledger]

Nina Nevzorova is a weapons dealer; prettier than most, honest and drives a good bargain. Not hard, but good.

She also wears thick, dark eyeliner in ways that Romanoff (or her civilian cover, Nadine) just doesn't, and her walk is different. Not harmless, but the quietly dangerous walk of someone who prefers not to make trouble, but can handle themselves is someone wants to get stupid.

She's also more than a little annoyed - this? is not her hotel in Florida. And if she happens to just take a seat at the bar near Fury, well.

Maybe they know each other.

Maybe they don't.

(mostly, Romanoff is trying to work out how to gel Nadine and Nina should anyone who has previously met Nadine bump into her while she's like this.)

[the_man]

"Evening," Fury says. He'll wait and let her clue him in, as well as set the conversational tone. "The coffee's good."

[redintheledger]

She shrugs her hair over her shoulder, and with the move her body seems to soften, a little. A little less shady lady, a little more civilian on a night out. A civilian talking to a friend, maybe, even if not a close one.

"Mmm, it is. I've been here a few times. Although not normally this late. Still," she adds with a small smile. "At least I don't have to turn up to the office tomorrow and have everyone be 'Nadine, do this, Nadine do that."

A) she's not in Chicago but out in the field, and b) it's 'Nadine' here. A little more blunt than she'd like, but most of the act is selling it.

She's very good at selling it.

[the_man]

Fury isn't quite dressed to be friends with an office worker, but he does conscientiously adjust his coat to make sure his sidearm isn't showing.

"How's the other half?"

[redintheledger]

And this is why she likes working for him! He's a thoughtful boss in an imperfect world.

Universe.

Multiverse.

(She likes multiverses to be in her books, not her reality.)

"He's good, last time we talked. Are you still insanely busy?"

(Robots and monsters, oh my - although mostly Natasha wants to ask about General Ross's career.

She has Opinions on people who fire at universities, and cause buildings to fall on her.

Very strong Opinions.)

[the_man]

"Not too busy I can't stop for coffee. Time stopping outside isn't much of an excuse, you ask me."

He gives her a look.