12334/NEW FROM BLAMMO!

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NEW FROM BLAMMO!
Date of Scene: 13 October 2020
Location: Times Square, Midtown
Synopsis: Psylocke steals Steve's ticket and gets a book selfishly.
Cast of Characters: Psylocke, Captain America




Psylocke has posed:
The buzz was all over the news. A British publishing company had been given the rights to something truly spectacular. Many people had not known they existed. Yet, once found, those with a love of history were sure to sign up to pay top dollar. While the originals were given over to a museum, the documents had been recreated and bound together in a hardcover book.

Churchill's Newly Discovered Memoirs.

Being it was a British publisher, they were having a limited release in the United States. Certainly copies would be online or brought over from their island nation in short order but to own one of the first physical copies in this country had people lining up.

The publishing company didn't expect to have a line around the building, as the lobby only had room for about six people. They ended up using tickets with numbers on them as there were a limited number of copies available. People were limited to buying one copy, to try to get them to more customers. Which upset quite a few who had hoped to corner the market and resell them online later for a steep profit.

Some people were not those that were necessarily history fanatics, but those who happened to come from England. They had learned of Churchill's great works through their entire lives so it was impossible to resist a chance to read his own words about his life.

Elisabeth "Betsy" Braddock was in the crowd milling on the sidewalks. No need to keep a line since they would be entering based on number. There were 50 copies available. That was it. But the numbers had gone up to 200. That is when the publishers had cut it off. Just in case people could not pay, it gave a little sliver of hope to those with higher numbers.

She was dressed casually. Jeans, short heeled boots, a lavender sweater that helped bring out her eyes. Her dark purple hair was loose, falling to her mid back. She had on a pair of sunglasses since it was bright out here, albeit slightly on the chillier side as fall was making itself known.

She looked at her ticket once again, hoping the number had magically lowered. It had not. 103. The likelihood of her getting a book were quite slim. She weighed whether she should just go ahead and leave.

Captain America has posed:
    It was there in the crowd that the most unlikely of people's paths crossed, overlapping in the pursuit of the tales in those memoirs. The buzz online had been strong, exerpts getting posted over and over to social media and people laughing at the man's wit and the way he commented on his contemporaries. It is unlikely such comments would have been revealed in the past, but now with so much of the war off and gone, it likely seemed a good time for the Churchill estate to offer another glimpse into the man who so rigorously fought the Nazis.
    Which might explain that gathering of souls. A few older men were gathered near the publisher and were chatting amiably about history, comparing anecdotes and idly quizzing each other. Each of them were jockeying for position in the rough social hierarchy established for those wanting to get a look at the newly released book.
    Some of the customers were collectors, other scalpers, and others just curious people. But as Elizabeth Braddock stood there looking at her ticket, she'd hear a voice that she's heard before. Though the timbre was not as strong and determined as it was in those occasions she had heard him, commanding the troops and rushing into danger.
    "Miss Braddock," The speaker smiles at her, blue eyes barely hidden behind a pair of reading glasses, and a Dodgers cap on his head. His hands are tucked into the windbreaker he wears, looking entirely too at ease in that and his jeans as well as those white sneakers.
    "Seems we share an interest." Steve Rogers offers to her as he holds up his ticket as if to show the reason for his being there.

Psylocke has posed:
Hearing that voice, Betsy glances up in surprise. "Fancy meeting you here, Captain." Her smile is bright and welcoming as she motions to the wall she is leaning against at the moment. "Pull up a brick or three with me and relax. We still have about ten minutes."

She makes the tiniest of faces. "Some of use. I suspect many, like myself, are wasting our time. Hopefully some kind soul in the lower digits will allow us a glimpse of the cover before they dash off to devour the words of such a great man."

She flips her own ticket into the air. "I shall hope to see a cover. Maybe a page if someone is truly kind enough to tease us with a glimpse. Hopefully you fared better in timing?"

She pulls off her glasses so she can focus on him better, slipping them into her pocket for now. "Although, perhaps you actually met him and have some ideas if the tales are inflated."

Captain America has posed:
    "I'm curious myself, going to see what I can see." The Captain says as he holds up his ticket and shows it to her, and that son of a bitch has a ticket that's number is a single digit. '7' right there on the front of it. Some people and their luck. "He used to talk a little about keeping two sets of books." Cap's smile slips to a wry thing.
    "I thought he just meant embezzlement." Which might have some other British people taking such umbrage, but then again Steve isn't exactly known for fibbing.
    He does, however, accept her invitation. Settling back against the wall and propping his shoe against the brick, arms folding over his broad chest as he looks down the way toward the publishing house. "I thought in this day and age a limited release was a thing we wouldn't see anymore. But apparently some people still go for it." Himself included.
    "Are you a history buff, Miss Braddock?"

Psylocke has posed:
"I must admit that I am not. However, he is an iconic figure in my country's history, I have always found him captivating. I've read everything I could find on the subject. My father was more the history buff. Though, sometimes flavored with a large amount of mythology." Although honestly, knowing Avalon was a real place as was the Lady of the Lake, was it really that hard to believe in King Arthur?

Seven. Lucky number seven. She looked down at her pitiful 103 again then tucked it into her pocket alongside her sunglasses. "He would have loved to read this, were he still with us."

She glances at the many types of people there, shaking her head. "Seems there are a lot of us from all walks of life. It is amazing what little things can be in common amonst such diversity."

Which is when a car backfired as it passed. It caused a bit of commotion as people ducked and covered. Betsy tensed but instead had opened her mind. If she were going to be hit by a bullet, she wouldn't be able to avoid it at that point but she might know who the source was if she managed to survive such an attack. After all, thought was faster than bullets.

Finding it was just a car, as nervous laughter was heard from many people on the sidewalk at the same time, Betsy quickly shut her mind back behind the barriers she held there to keep out the hundreds of mental voices in range of her.

Unfortunately, she got a glimpse of some minds of buyers in line as well and was not pleased with what she had seen.

Captain America has posed:
    "Well Winston..." Cap says with a small smile, "He was always a controversial figure. But he was also a rare wit. So if nothing else I'm trusting this will be an entertaining read. And I think..." Steve looks down the line at the myriad of people gathered there, settled against the wall or under the lamppost, some having a breakfast sandwich or burrito. It does seem an interesting cross-section of history buffs.
    "If he was here, he'd be tickled to imagine people standing out in the chill of the morning waiting to read his scribblings."
    That said, Steve chews on his lower lip for a moment, gaze distancing likely in lost memory. Then he shakes his head a little, "Though more I think about it..."
    The old soldier looks at the ticket in his hand and flips it over, then lifts his arm to extend the ticket toward her. "Why don't you go ahead and pick one up for both of us. I'll take a look at it after you've finished."
    Then he cocks an eyebrow, "Deal?"

Psylocke has posed:
"I couldn't possibly do that. You woke up earlier than I, brought yourself here and got your ticket. You were one person shy of ending up in the lobby, where there happens to be a few people who have no right to be here."

She makes a little face, realizing she has let the cat out of the bag with her annoyance. "Number six is a gentleman who had intended to buy all available copies for resale through his online company." He already knows she's a telepath so that won't come as a surprise she knows. The fact she looked might be more suspect so she elaborates.

"When the car backfired, I lowered my mental shields and could hear everyone in the entire three block area. But upon picking up that tidbit, I admittedly snooped. Since he feared that limitations would be imposed, nineteen others in the line with numbers ranging from fifteen up to forty-three are his employees. Thus, allowing him to still turn a large profit by keeping others from obtaining a copy who truly wish to have it for other reasons. Thanks to their ploy, twenty people will not get a copy. Including one of those gentlemen." She nods to the old soldiers gathered sharing war stories.

She looks back to him, anger evident in the tightness of her jaw and the hardening of expression. "There are times I feel it is only proper to teach such people a lesson but I know it is morally wrong. Yet, I find myself unable to simply stand by with such knowledge."

Captain America has posed:
    "Mmm," Cap says with a small smile, listening to her tirade for a time and then looking down the line. "That's why we have laws. And why sometimes we let society shake out as it can. Sure what he's doing isn't exactly moral depending on how far you step back while looking at it. But it's not illegal, and it doesn't make him a criminal deserving of some ninja justice." That's right, he knows her and remembers.
    But his lip curls up, "It just makes him a jerk." He looks down the way and then renews his offer, "Here, take it. You'll be doing me a favor, and I'm running late as it is. I'm late for a meeting I should've taken half an hour ago. So please."
    Those blue eyes meet hers and he opens his hand, his smile a pleasant thing, almost boyish in some ways.

Psylocke has posed:
"I would much prefer to march into that office and reveal his plan to the publishers. Since I am not allowed to simply make him remember he left the stove on and rush out the building while handing his ticket to that gentelman over there on his way out. Then have all his employees remember the same event then give their tickets to others in line. You are a far kinder person than I, Captain."

She eyes that ticket and frowns. About to decline again when she hears the announcement from the door of the publishing house. The release was being delayed by thirty more minutes. She frowned and look at Steve, knowing from the few glimpses she'd have of his most intimate self--his thoughts. He wasn't lying. He wasn't just being kind. He did have somewhere he could be and he did genuinely want her to have the ticket. "Thank you. I will pick it up for you but you must read it first. Deal?"

Captain America has posed:
    "We'll see," He says with that small smile even as he steps back once she has the ticket in hand. "If we can't meet up I don't want you sitting there with it burning a hole in your pocket, denying yourself the enjoyment of reading it."
    As he says that he grins and walks backwards a few steps, "No spoilers though!" He points at her as he retreats another few steps, then adjusts his cap with a sweep of two fingers over the brim as if tipping it to her.
    "Take care of yourself, Miss Braddock." As he says that he turns and starts walking on down the street, moving through the flow of the crowd. Not too much longer after that and he's out of view.