6867/Wasp/Shadowcat Crossover Event!

Wasp/Shadowcat Crossover Event!
Date of Scene:	12 March 2019
Location:	An Avengers safehouse
Synopsis:	Janet and Kitty get some face time and discover they have a lot in common.
Cast of Characters:	Shadowcat, Wasp (van Dyne)

---

Shadowcat has posed:
The three ladies are in the safe area now. Psylocke excuses herself to head back and deal with something. Shadowcat tells her, "I'm going to stay for a bit. There's something I wanted to talk to Miss Van Dyne about."

After Psylocke is gone, Shadowcat turns back to Janet. "I'm going to be over to visit you guys, the Avengers, hopefully in the next few days to talk about Sentinel technology. And... well, there's a number of us that your team know and you seem trustworthy with their identities. So, since we'd met recently," Shadowcat says, words trailing off.

The X-man reaches up and pulls her mask off. Revealing Kitty Pryde, the young woman that Bruce Wayne introduced Janet to at the charity ball just a few nights before. "My boyfriend, Mr. Wayne's son, knows my identity. But that's it. So please don't mention me in that regard to him," Kitty says with a soft smile for Janet.

Wasp (van Dyne) has posed:
Janet gasps and leans forward to swat at Kitty's arm with her fingertips and a featherlight impact. "Oh, you rotten thing! I *thought* you looked familiar but I just couldn't place it. Is it the mask? Is it some kind of psychic thingy that messes with people?"

She reaches for the mask and examines it, then applies it to her forehead. "Ooh, am I an X-man now?" she inquires, teasingly.

"Gosh, so you're dating that hunky older brother, huh?" she says with a nodding admiration. "Well, you go girl," she congratulates Kitty. Janet beckons her to find a place where they can sit, a low sofa. Janet seats herself and folds her knees sideways, hands interlacing atop her thigh. "Those Wayne boys, my god," she says with an eyeroll. "I had no idea Damien was fifteen. Hello, veal for one, right?" she inquires, and laughs merrily at her own joke. "How did you and-- it was Jason, right? How did you two meet?"

Shadowcat has posed:
Kitty Pryde laughs warmly and says, "While we're all mutants, I would be willing to argue for your inclusion if you ever wanted to join the X-men." Kitty gives a genuine smile over to the woman and takes a seat with her. "It was just pure chance. My old boyfriend is a painter and one of his paintings was offered at a Gotham art fair. It's a painting of his younger sister, who is one of my best friends growing up. So I came in for the day thinking maybe I could buy it. Little hope of that, the starting bids were out of my league," Kitty says with a shake of her head.

"But Jason was there looking at it, and ended up buying it. For decorating an orphanage that he and Mr. Wayne are rebuilding. He ended up talking with me about the painting. When he found out I knew the subject of it, he took me over to see the orphanage," Kitty says. Another woman can tell from the smile that Kitty has just what kind of feelings she has developed for the man in question.

"Which led to dinner that night. What was going to be a quick bus trip to Gotham and back turned out to be a whole, wonderful day. And I swear every time we get together it's better than the last," Kitty says, grinning softly. "And Damian, yes, great kid. He can be a little on the shy side, or at least he seemed that way when I met at first. I was really impressed by him at the ball."

Wasp (van Dyne) has posed:
"Oh, my gosh!" Janet murmurs shock and awe at all the appropriate moments and lays fingertips over her sternum when Kitty starts smiling fondly at her own memories. She reaches over impulsively and squeezes Kitty's fingers in a gesture of sisterly affection as she wraps the tale up.

"That is such a great story. And I got the sense from Damian that he's finding his feet," Janet agrees. "But you're so sweet to encourage him. So you and Jason are... I mean you're smiling like a fifth period girl getting a text from her boy. Things are that intense already?" She seems a little envious of Kitty's romantic success. "How long's it been, like, roughly?"

Shadowcat has posed:
Kitty squeeze Janet's fingers back as she smiles. She has a gentle and warm way about her, and responds well to Janet's own warmth and friendly exuberance. "It's only been weeks. A month. Which I know isn't the longest time. But, you know, I feel more serious about him than I did the previous boyfriend that I saw for years," Kitty says. She pauses, looking thoughtful. "We're not exactly the same sort of people maybe. Yet that seems to help us fit together. If that makes any sense?"

Kitty laughs softly at herself. "Yeah, I'm swept off my feet, basically," Kitty smiles over to Janet. "So speaking of, I noticed your date for the ball. Is that just friends and coworkers going out for the evening? Or..." Kitty asks, giving Janet a hopeful look for the other woman. Kitty turns on her side to face Janet as they talk, smiling over and enjoying talking to the other woman like this.

Wasp (van Dyne) has posed:
Janet leans her ribs against the sofa and props her elbow on the ridgeline of the backrest, palm resting on her temple for support. She grins at Kitty's story and then laughs merrily at the 'opposites attract' comment. Fingers squeeze reassuringly to take any sting out of it and she brightens even more when Steve is brought up.

"Up until last night, I wasn't *quite* sure where we stood," Janet confesses. "He's so weirdly old-fashioned. I've been on eggshells the entire time with him, it freaks me out to think 'oh god don't talk about anything controversial'," she tells Kitty. "'Steve, what'd you do last night.' 'Oh, nothing, I stayed in and read a good book and had a warm glass of milk. What'd you do?' 'Uh, I absolutely wasn't getting wasted at the Rhianna concert afterparty'." Lips twist in opposite directions. "But," she says, waving it away. "We talked and he asked if he'd like to 'court' me." Eyes shut and she beams happily. "I don't think I've ever dated a guy who straight up asked me if we could start going out. It's a little surreal."

Shadowcat has posed:
Kitty Pryde's face breaks out in a huge smile. "Wow, that's amazing! I can see from your face what it means to you too," Kitty tells Janet. It probably looks a lot like what Kitty was showing, except maybe a thousand fold more! "I haven't had a chance to meet him, but... you know I believe there are certain just truly good people in the world. And it doesn't take long to spot them. Sometimes just a few minutes. Rogue, who used to be an Avenger? She mentioned you and she were on the team at different times. Anyway, she's one of them. And I see the same thing from you. And, well, I didn't see Captain Rogers enough to know but I take it on faith with him," Kitty says, laughing warmly.

"I'm really happy for you though. I mean, your face is just -radiant- so I can imagine how it feels for you," Kitty says, and is the one to give Janet's hand a squeeze now. "While my own romance has been whirlwind? I think slow build ups like it sounds like you must have had, are even better if that's how they happen, so... I really hope it works for you."

Wasp (van Dyne) has posed:
Janet somehow blushes modestly while looking eminently self-pleased. It's an artistic bit of social dexterity that comes from growing up blue blooded. "And I know Anna-Marie well. I miss her terribly, we've met a few times but yeah, never quite ended up on the roster simultaneously."

"Anyway, yeah, this has been the slow burn." Her eyes roll eloquently. "Emphasis on slow. Steve's entirely too self-controlled and patient. For weeks I thought he wasn't into me because he was hung up on an old war buddy. Turns out that... they really *are* just good friends. Go figure, right?" She laughs. "I'm pretty hopeful things will work out though. He's, uh... well, he's about as far from my usual Tinder dates as you can get," she admits. "Even inside the community. Plus, I mean."

Her head lifts from her hand, fingers curling upwards. "Beefcake, right?" she says, sharing an impish grin with Kitty.

Shadowcat has posed:
Kitty Pryde looks really pleased to see Janet and Anna-Marie know each other well. "It was her dress that I wore to the ball, actually. And, Janet she is such an amazing friend? Jason and I are commuting back and forth between Gotham and upstate. I don't have a car, so I'm trying to find some freelance computer work to buy myself something. I've got a Ph.D in computer science and I'm, well, I'm good. But anyway, so Anna-Marie offers to -give- me her Bentley. Just give it to me! I turned it down, just like I turned down Mr. Wayne on getting me a car. And a dress for the ball." Kitty gives a soft chuckle. "Though, like the dress, I agreed with Anna-Marie to borrow her car, but just until I can find a computer gig."

Kitty smiles then, resting her head on her hand as she listens to what Janet went through. "Yes. Total beefcake. I think you must be the envy of every woman alive right now," Kitty says, grinning at her. "It means a lot too, that you have a guy who can know what you do. As Wasp. Put yourself in harm's way, and he trusts you and isn't going to be worried and make you second guess anything. In our line of work, that's really nice to find, I think."

Wasp (van Dyne) has posed:
"Y'know, that's one thing I do love about Steve," Janet remarks. She's thoughtful for a moment. "He's never once pulled one of those macho, bullshit power moves or told me where I should be or what I should be doing." She pauses. "I mean, uh, y'know, not *barring* that outside of some specific contexts," Janet says. She coughs delicately into a curled fist and winks at Kitty conspiratorially.

"Y'know, I thought your dress looked familiar. I might have made that one for Anna. She's got such a killer body, all those sweet Southern curves. God I love working with capes. You need to come by and let's get you one *made* for you," she tells Kitty. "Really wow Jason, leave his jaw slack for a bit." She upholds a palm to forestall any complaints. "I'm serious and no, I won't let you pay me. You couldn't afford my hourly anyway, I'm just gonna bill it to Bruce's account, and frankly I'm going to lose sleep imagining you running around in a dress sized for someone with twenty pounds and a few inches on you," she tells Kitty. Her tone is a little imperious, but playful. "Meanwhile I can ask around if anyone's looking for a technician. I have *no* idea what we do for electronics at my studio, I just know I call someone in India and yell at them until they call someone locally to come look at my computer. What do you do with a PhD, like, tech support for NASA...?" she invites, curiously.

Shadowcat has posed:
Kitty Pryde breaks out in soft laughter at Janet's first comment. "It's nice when they understand those contexts are ok," Kitty says. And her own cheeks flush just a bit as she gets dimples that only show up trying to suppress her biggest smiles.

"Right, so!" Kitty says, breaking out in laughter after the last comment. "Well, I'm more like... maybe picture Tony Stark but only with computers? Like... I hacked the Sentinel head we recovered, tracked their signals back to their base, broke their encryption and put together a map of all of the Sentinels in the area. That sort of thing," Kitty says. Before giving a little wave of her hand. "Which is hard to list on a resume. But the Ph.D from Oxford helps there. I'm hoping for a project like... ethical hacking. Like hack a company's computers and then show them all of the vulnerabilities I find, and show them how to fix them," Kitty replies. "Though I could also whip up a... online ordering system for a company or something like that, pretty easily, too."

Kitty bites her lip at the mention of the dresses. "Oh god, I would so love one of your dresses. But I'm a little hesitant about depending on Mr. Wayne too much. I mean... I love Jason. I can only imagine the women that chase his sons because of the family money. I don't want to give any reason for anyone to think that of me," Kitty says. "He actually offered some martial arts lessons, to keep me safe in Gotham. I've already had some, but in our line of work? Every bit can help save my life. And Jason said they'd probably be some of the best teachers in the world, at that. So, I am planning to take him up on that. I don't suppose your design house needs any computer work done I could trade for the dress instead?"

Wasp (van Dyne) has posed:
"No, I get it, honey," Janet assures Kitty. "Don't even stress. You're in a new relationship, and money always causes problems. Believe me, I went to prep school with the trust fund crowd. I almost brought a taser to the party just in case any of the old biddies here saw Steve and decided to set him up with their daughter or something."

"Didn't know about Oxford, though!" she says, flicking at Kitty's shoulder with her free hand. "That is so impressive. If you're up for it, y'know, why not come in and give us a tech assessment? I didn't want to outsource it overseas but my CTO was all 'We'll save a fortune!' Now apparently we're getting demolished on social media because the customer support has gone downhill. I'd fire him if I could but the board has to make that decision, and I can't do that until I show he's screwing things up enough."

She releases Kitty's fingers and digs a phone out of her pocket and taps on it a few times. "So what, two, three weeks of freelance work-- what would I owe you, like, thirty?" Janet inquires. "Or would forty-five be a little more in line with your hourly? I have no idea what it costs to do security whatever."

Shadowcat has posed:
Kitty Pryde's face lights up, not just happy, but touched that Janet is considering her for this. "Tell you what, because of the Sentinel work needing attention, let's say... three weeks of work but spread out over four weeks? For forty and a dress fitting?" Kitty asks, tilting her head with a smile as she adds the dress fitting part. "And I'll help work through the support bottlenecks and rewrite any problem areas. Take a look at your security too if you'd like," Kitty offers.

"This would all be so great if so. I'm actually working on a third degree now. Astrophysics, because I seem to keep getting stuck doing the navigation when we're in space. Took this semester off to come back, and I don't want to leave Jason to go back to the UK. So I'm seeing if they'll let me finish up remotely since I'm just down to my dissertation now anyway. If not, I'll transfer to somewhere closer by," Kitty tells Janet.

Kitty rests her head on the back of the couch and asks, "So, how did you develop your amazing fashion sense? I'm great seeing someone else's work on a rack. But I'm utterly hopeless when it comes to putting together anything myself.

UTTERLY hopeless. Do not go look at Kitty's old costumes. It would kill Janet.

Wasp (van Dyne) has posed:
"Deal," Janet says, instantly. She turns her phone sideways and leans back to get a photo of Kitty's face. "Cheese!" she prompts. "Okay, give me your digits and-- PayPal okay? Your email."

Once it's relayed, Janet falls silent and her thumbs fly over the screen. "There, okay. Let's do twenty thousand advance-- sent-- and you can just reverse me an invoice when you get a chance," she tells Kitty. "And I'll tell legal to bang out a contractor agreement. Standard boilerplate stuff but we can throw in some riders about compensation if things go above and beyond. I'm pretty sure you're good for the work. Not like I can't find you." She winks.

"And a dress fitting," she promises. She shifts when Kitty settles back, giving the other woman's hand a squeeze again. Janet tucks her feet up under her, getting them off the ground as formality gives way to more comfortable familiarity. "God, a third degree. My MFA almost killed me. I don't have the focus for school," she confesses. "But y'know, it's not any different from doing science and space or whatever," she admonishes Kitty. "It's just art. I mean it's a lot of science," she amends. "Understanding how colors work in the human brain, patterns, and then, I mean, I'm super into metadata analysis, so it's looking at market trends and data analysis to try and predict the looks for the coming yeah. I'm the only fashion design corporation that has a full-time team of statisticians just crunching the numbers for me. But that's the production lines. I *live* for doing the custom work, y'know, draping the models, the haute coture stuff. Nothing as idiotic as putting, y'know, garbage bags on my models," she says, with an eyeroll. "I use lots of capes-- y'know, the meta community-- 'cause we're underrepresented and frankly you don't see a lot of us who don't rock that superhuman metabolism. My first show in... Milan? I showed up with *actual clothes* I inteded people to wear and they tried to laugh me out of the show. Next month I jumped up thirty ranks in the fashion house financial index and our stocks tripled almost overnight. Cha-ching," she says, pumping a fist with a grin. "After that, I do mostly what I want and the others grumble before getting in line."

Shadowcat has posed:
Kitty Pryde exchanges the information with Janet, and does a bit on her phone as well. "I'll have it all in by morning," Kitty agrees about the contracts and paperwork. "We should put in a 'should the signee be stomped by a Sentinel...' clause," Kitty jokes, though with a bit of a grim face. Still, you have to laugh about these things or they will make you cry.

Kitty settles back into the couch then to listen to Janet. She smiles at the mention of fashion working for Janet as a science. One that Kitty may have never mastered, and probably never will, but she appreciate how they are alike.

"I'm glad you were able to succeed, doing it your own way," Kitty agrees with a nod. "And I feel the same. Just because it is meant to be that extravagant, doesn't mean they should stop being actual clothes, too," the young woman says with a soft, warm laugh.

"We definitely need to grab Anna-Marie and all go out together some night. I'd have liked to get Jason out dancing at the ball. But I could tell he was ready to leave by the time the music started up," Kitty says. "Though, you know Anna-Marie's power. We have to be really careful if we take her drinking. Don't want anyone to get hurt if she forgets and takes off her gloves or something."

Wasp (van Dyne) has posed:
"God, I miss hanging out with her," Janet says wistfully. "She is such a hoot. Wish I could do something to help her manage her powers. I feel so bad for her, girl *desperately* needs some human contact and dancing's a great way to burn off that pent up touch starvation."

"Bring her to a rave and watch her dance her blessed little Southern heart out, twirling glowsticks until dawn."

"Tell you what, the Avengers are planning a little get-together at Mjolnir," she tells Kitty. "Not renting the place out, but we're gonna hit the club as a group. Why don't you come along? You're friends with me, you're friends with Anna-Marie; that basically makes you an Avenger by association."

Shadowcat has posed:
Kitty Pryde smiles at talk of Anna-Marie and says, "She's really the best. She just cares so much about seeing her friends happy. The night she let me try on her dresses to find one for the ball, we were talking about being able to touch people, if there was some kind of inhibitor that would work better than what she'd tried. But you know, even then it's... trusting the tech to keep people safe. Even if that's an option it has to wear on her I'm sure."

Kitty sighs and nods. "I try to hug her, squeeze her shoulder, give her as much contact as I can. I can tell it's appreciated. Still not the same thing as it is for the rest of us though," Kitty says sadly. "But, yes, I'd love to, and I'll ask her and I imagine she'll love to come," Kitty says warmly.

"So what is it like, being an Avenger? We do our best to be utterly secret. Scrub every reference we can. Even fuzz memories where needed," Kitty says. "Do you find the celebrity of it a positive thing or a negative? And what about the rest of the team? I don't know Captain America, but he seems like someone I could imagine wanting his privacy when he goes out in public?"

Wasp (van Dyne) has posed:
Janet sighs and squeezes Kitty's fingers reassuringly. Even that seems to provoke a wistful expression as if recognizing that such a simple act of human contact is largely beyond Anna-Marie.

"Gosh. What's it like." She diverts to the second line of thought, finding it preferable to the first. "Y'know, I mean, I was in the public eye since I was fourteen. I mean, I was a hellraiser as a teenager. The van Dynes are very old blood, we came over on the Mayflower. Or thereabouts. So I of course hated it and rebelled all I could. Daddy wanted me to learn the piano ,so I learned the drums. Wanted me to speak French, I took Spanish. Got caught smoking pot and partying with college guys enough times that I got sent to a girl's academy for my last two years."

She seems to be working around to a point, however laboriously. "Then after commencement I went right back to rebelling. Fell stupid in love, married at nineteen-- don't do that, by the way-- and it went tits up six months later." She sighs. "Then daddy died and all of ... this kind of happened." She gestures at her attire as if the summation of her metahuman life is expressedd by it.

"So for me it's nothing new. I go from work to home to the Mansion and it's all the same to me. The press doesn't bother me and I'm used to the gossip rags. Steve's not, though. He likes to be working and if not working, then yeah, he likes his privacy. But I mean, me and Tony?" She presses her knuckles to her golden-plated sternum. "We're used to it because we've been in the public eye for a long time. Money kind of brings that sort of attention. For Jessica, or Vision or Wanda, or Steve, it's... I think they get a little overwhelmed."

Shadowcat has posed:
The slow nod that Kitty gives suggests that what she is hearing is what she kind of suspected. "I think I would have difficulty adjusting to attention like that. That was really about the only thing about Jason's family life that gave me a moment's pause. But so far it seems like most all of the attention focuses on Mr. Wayne," Kitty says.

She looks thoughtful for a few moments. "I suspect, maybe some of that is intentional, even, Mr. Wayne drawing the attention to keep it off others. I don't know. I don't know him very well yet. But I liked hearing some of the stories from them, after he adopted Jason."

Kitty falls silent. "Sorry, my thoughts diverged there, didn't they?" Kitty says, laughing warmly. She leans over and if Janet allows, she gives the other woman a big hug. "I love talking with you, Janet. I'm really glad we had a chance for this," Kitty says. "I should probably be getting back though. I'm coming back in a few days to share results on the Sentinel technology. I don't know if you were going to sit on it. If not, maybe we can catch up more later? And I'll look forward to Club Mjolnir. I'll be getting to work on your computer systems tomorrow, as well."

Wasp (van Dyne) has posed:
Janet leans forward and embraces Kitty firmly, smiling with sincere affection. "Honey, this was wonderful. It's always nice to meet another girlfriend in the world of capes," she reassures the X-woman. She slips smoothly to her feet and plucks at her black leotard so it clings properly without wrinkling. "So *I* will see you at my officers tomorrow and get you through HR for a badge, then-- yes, Sentinels, and *soooomeday* we can all go clubbing," she says, rolling her eyes theartically and leaning heavily on Kitty's shoulder.

"C'mon, lemme walk you out," she offers, and the two of them head for the mansion's exit.