bigapplesauce | Exploring the city [OPEN]

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Exploring the city [OPEN]

It's Christmas Day and Bruce could use a miracle or two. He doesn't know how he got here or how to get back. He can't find Tony or Avenger's Tower. To be honest, Bruce is a bit disgusted with himself at how easily he got used to having a team to rely on and a home to go back to. He's been living in a homeless shelter, looking for work. Naturally, he's missing some important papers, so he needs under the table work. That's all right. Bruce has experience at this sort of thing. Right now, he's heading for the docks, to see if he can get some work there.

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"Can you arrange a meeting with her for me?" Bruce asked.

The young man seems sincere and Bruce hates to doubt him, but...he is a young man. Bruce wants to speak to someone with clearer answers.

Blythe is all about clearer answers -- she's been documenting the reasons for rebellion since before there was a rebellion. Yuri nods. "You could come back to our base...?" Though if there was a chance Bruce wasn't going to join, that would be a bad decision for both of them.

Bruce has his own reasons for considering that a bad idea. Being allowed into a place isn't the same as being allowed to come and go freely. He smiles apologetically.

"I'd rather keep meeting on neutral ground, for now, if that's okay. Maybe you could arrange a meeting between us somewhere public?"

Not that meeting in public would prevent an ambush, but it would leave Bruce with more options, if things went bad.

Yuri sighs -- most people aren't this difficult. "Yeah, okay," he agrees. "What -- where do you come from? I mean, what's it like where you're from?"

Because obviously this man is paranoid.

"New York City," Bruce answered, shrugging. "It's a lot like this city, really. There are superficial differences, but not many. I guess if I ended up in another universe, at least its one where I know the language. How about you?"

"I don't think it's all that different," shrugs Yuri. "I hadn't been to New York before I ended up here, actually." So he's not sure what his New York had been like.

Bruce nods, not especially surprised.

"How soon can you arrange a meeting?"

"Uh -- well, she's working right now," says Yuri after a moment's thought. "Tonight, maybe? I can call her and ask." But he can't have Bruce show up to her job. Secret identity, etc.

Bruce nodded reluctantly. "All right. I'm staying at the shelter, three blocks from here. You can contact me there, okay?"

Yuri hesitates a moment, sucking on his teeth and thinking, then nods. "Yeah, I can do that." Though he'd rather have Bruce come in and get a real apartment instead of thinking of him being in the shelter.

Bruce smiles at the younger man.

"I appreciate that you're trying to help me, Yuri, really. I just have to be cautious."

At least he knows where Bruce is staying...if Bruce is telling the truth. Yuri nods. "Yeah, I get it." Though it hadn't taken him that much to decide to join the rebellion.

"Good. I really do need to look for some daywork, now. Thank you for speaking with me and explaining things."

Bruce stands, smiling awkwardly, and goes to leave.

Yuri offers him a somewhat forlorn smile and a little wave. "I'll see you around."

Bruce nods and leaves, wandering away to places that still might have a chance of work for him. He finds a day job, acting as a janitor at a motel, and spends the day working mindlessly, not letting his thoughts run in circles over what he has been told.

Towards evening, he goes first to a soup kitchen, where he eats, then helps cook and serve others. Finally, he goes back to the shelter to wait.

There'll be a message waiting for him at the shelter -- it's too late for her to be allowed to visit him at the shelter, but the next morning, bright and early, he'll have a visitor waiting for him outside.

"Bruce?" she asks when she sees someone likely-looking.

Bruce seems to fold in on himself a bit, when he hears his name. He wrings his hands, looking around warily. He sees the woman and gives her a nervous smile.

"Yeah, hi," he greets, softly, walking over to her. "You're...Blythe, I think Yuri said?"

"Blythe Summerset, that's right," she confirms with a little return smile. The man seems so upset already. She chuckles, as much to try to put him at his ease as out of amusement. "Yuri tells me you're a hard sell."

Bruce smiled, chuckling.

"He's not wrong. You're asking me to choose sides. I won't, unless I know exactly what those sides consist of. I need to know who I can trust."

Blythe nods. "I'd offer to show you our own records, but I hear taking you back to the base is also out of the question," she chuckles. "The library will open in a few minutes, though, and we can make do with what's been made public."

She's confident that will be enough.

Bruce smiled. "Sorry. I'm not trying to be difficult. I just have some experience with bases. I think the public record is a good idea, though. At least, it's a bit more easy to verify."

It also might--might--be a bit less biased, though Bruce knows journalism is rarely, if ever, truly objective.

Blythe is naturally of the opinion that the rebels' own records hold more truth than what's been in the papers, but she understands nonetheless. "Well, I don't mind doing a little research if it'll help a new rifty. Come on, we're going to have to take the subway." Because she isn't taking him to the library where she actually works -- too many potential questions from coworkers about who Bruce is.

"Um. I don't really have that much money. Is it too far to walk?" Bruce asked hesitantly. "I'm sorry. I've been doing day labor, but I'll have to get better established, before I can even think about getting a regular job."

That might have been the oddest part about all of this. Bruce was no longer on the run. He'd finally found a place, where General Ross and SHIELD couldn't track him.

"It's a little far for me," admits Blythe. "I can pay your way, though -- I'll take it out of the general fund. That's another thing; if you join us, you'll get an allowance. A job is still better, but we try to make it easy for everyone to transition."

Bruce hesitated, but then nodded, not wanting to be any more trouble than necessary. At this point, it probably wasn't even polite to argue.

"That's fine, then, ma'am, thank you," he told her, smiling a bit sheepishly. "I'm not sure about an allowance. I don't want to take money I haven't earned that could go to other things."

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