8438/Who's Coming Where

Who's Coming Where
Date of Scene:	21 July 2019
Location:	Sanctum Santorum
Synopsis:	Summary needed
Cast of Characters:	Black Cat, Doctor Strange

---

Black Cat has posed:
It's summertime in New York City! -- and as such, all the ladies are flaunting their pretty. Bonus point multiplier for the rhyme, folks. Felicia has only just arrived at the Sanctum and let herself in. She's got a small plastic grocery sack on her arm containing none other than mint chocolate chip ice cream from a small parlor just down the way in Greenwich Village.

"Copperfiiiiiielllld," rings the call out into the vast airiness of the brownstone's foyer. "I've got ice cream, come on! Take a break and come have some with me!" The laughter in her voice is unmistakeable; here she is, bellowing like a Southern mother again, and it makes her titter to herself as she saunters into the kitchen. Her summery outfit today is a periwinkle-blue lace dress hitting just above her knees. The bodice is darted and the neckline of apron-strap to tie at the nape of her neck, hidden by the loose fall of her white-blonde hair. Beneath it, the sheath layering is one shade darker than her skin. Wedge heels of cream with cork soles give her another inch of height and make soft sounds as she meanders over to the counter to set down her gains. The cupboard opens and she rattles around in it for bowls. For now...she's not going to eat directly out of the ice cream container.

Doctor Strange has posed:
    "Felicia, must you yell every time you enter the Sanctum?" Stephen asks, as he walks out from behind the fridge, as if he was already there but there's no way, Felicia would have noticed the large wizard in his flowing cloak and thick wool gi. His wrists and ankles are bound in bandages up to and around his feet and palms. There rests on his shoulder a layer of frost and snow and a sheen of the cold still in his grey and onyx hair.

    "Oh wonderful, you brought more ice cream, Wong was complaining about the last jar and how he assumed it was you who finished it." Stephen says turning away from Felicia as he steps around the woman to open the drawer and pull out the spoons as well as the ice cream scoop and in a culinary ballet Stephen passes the scoop then turns to place the spoons in the bowls. "It's wonderful to see you again though." Stephen adds sweetly.

Black Cat has posed:
The good Doctor has the rare delight of having startled Felicia. There was no way she would have EVER guessed him to be behind the fridge. She jitters in place, the soles of her heels clacking on the kitchen floor, and she blows a chipmunk-cheeked sigh as she scowls at Stephen. "Ooh, you," she grumbles with a rueful smirk. The man's state of frostiness is noted and the Cat takes a side-step back in order to look him over once he's come closer.

"Um, Wong's not nice for assuming that," she points out firstly, followed by, " - and where on earth were you? Or wait...were you even ON Earth...?" Jade-green eyes twinkle even as she reaches up to fuss with his lapels. Fingers brush lightly at the deposit of snow and then tweak gently at the pointed collars of the Cloak. "Hey you," she whispers to the relic.

Doctor Strange has posed:
    The cloak slips off Stephen's shoulders and up and around Felicia's legs, before her stomach and finally to rest on her shoulders, with a full kind of an embrace that only a piece of living fabric could deliver. Stephen rolls his eyes and shrugs the at the snow, "Oh, I was in Tibet. At an... old home of mine." Stephen says, sounding a bit more distant than he usually does. The wizard turns and lifts his cold hand to brush at Felicia's hair and push it out from above her eyes. "Nothing for you to worry about." Stephen says, softly with a deep look from his grey eyes into Felicia's greens.

Black Cat has posed:
As a debutante might pet at a fur stole, Felicia indulges the friendly Cloak in gentle stroking as she stands there. Her smile is pleased. It's oddly humbling to have the staunchly-loyal relic showcase such affection towards her. At the vague answer given by Stephen, the curve of her lips takes on a knowing, patient cast, in a way she grants few people on the //planet//.

"Then I guess I won't worry about a thing. You're a big boy, you can tie your own shoes and everything." Of course, Stephen gets a wink. Reaching up and from within the confines of the hugging Cloak, she steals his hand and presses a light kiss on the scarred lines along his tendons. "Let's have ice cream. I have something to tell you so it doesn't surprise you." To the Cloak, she adds fondly, "Alright, back to the boss, shoo."

She takes to dishing up the mint chocolate chip ice cream and gestures with the dessert-slopped scooper towards the table, as if she could direct him to set settled.

Doctor Strange has posed:
    "At least don't worry about that." Stephen says with a note of dryness that is his humor and then he grabs a bowl out from in front of Felicia and starts to scoop it full. Three large balls of ice cream sit in the ceramic bowl that Stephen then extends to Felicia as he makes hers first, and then he worries about making himself a bowl, only one scoop though, as he's not much for ice cream and sweets of any kind. Not any more.

    As Felicia gives the verbal command to the cloak, she'll feel a resistance, as if it prefers to be on the slenderer shoulders of the thief. "I think it prefers you Fee." Stephen says with a lift of a black eyebrow towards the pair. "Plus it looks better on you anyways." Stephen winks playfully before he sets the ice cream into the 'second' fridge he has in the kitchen, an old yellow frigidaire from what looks like the 70's, before the sorcerer turns to take a seat at the table next to Felicia. "Okay, what do you have to tell me that's going to surprise me?"

Black Cat has posed:
The Cloak gets a light kiss upon its nearest collar-piece. "Then I guess we can hang out," she jokes lightly about the relic and its weight upon her shoulders. "I do wear it well." A spin in place attempts to cause it to fluidly shift around her in a liquescent swirl of crimson fabric. She giggles, delighted in the most simply-gratified way. Then, taking up her bowl, she joins Stephen at the kitchen table. They're close enough for elbows to bump and she gives him a purse-lipped side-glance.

"I hope you're going to help me finish this, Copperfield, I'm not a bottomless pit," she murmurs with a lean-in to touch her shoulder to his own, his being much broader and well-muscled -- frankly, a visual delight to the Cat. "But since you have enough surprises in your life, let me beat you to this one. Sooooooooo..." A bite of ice cream is spooned up and she nibbles the corner of one red-red lip briefly. "I, uh...met the Winter Soldier. Do you know who that guy is?" Her green eyes look to Stephen again.

Doctor Strange has posed:
    The cloak twirls beautifully and fancily as it's not something Stephen has ever done with any garment, and so the cloak is going to ham it up a bit, it is a living garment afterall, why wouldn't it love to twirl and spin as much as the next dress or cape? The cloak then clinks to Felicia again and it even shifts slightly to be a bit more /her/ style, the colar not quite as extreme, but a bit more glittery and gilded as well.

    Stephen keeps his face straight and clean the whole time as he does shave off a bit of ice cream with his spoon and slowly and quietly forces it down, hiding the fact he's forcing it down. "The Winter Soldier? I'm not really familiar. I know about the Snow Men of Tundaria, and that ilk, but I'm not familiar with the Winter Soldier... Should I be?" He asks finally.

Black Cat has posed:
"I don't think I've heard about the Snow Men of Tundria either, so you'll have to tell me about those guys. But this guy I'm talking about...yyyyyeah, you're gonna want to know about him." Felicia indulges in a big spoonful of ice cream and does a roll of her eyes up into her skull that's borderline lustful. "Mmmmm, god, this stuff is good," she says around the melting mouthful. A quick swallow and she glances over at Stephen again.

"Okay, so, the Winter Soldier is basically the scariest guy I know in the underworld. Take, like...the Terminator and make him more human and then make him supernaturally old -- and stuffy. I think they took away his sense of humor when they did whatever they did to him..." Even as she says it, Felicia frowns down at her bowl of dessert. "He was Captain America's best friend. I thought he was dead, like everybody else did. He fell to his death in the Alps back in World War two, but HYDRA found him and...I guess made him into a killing machine. He's an assassin." She shakes her head and makes a small frustrated sound as stirs the melted ice cream at the bottom of the bowl. "He //was// an assassin. I guess he's not anymore. Anyways..."

The blonde pauses and sits up a little straighter in her seat. "I..." The vowel lingers. "...sort of told him that you were a doctor and you could help him if he needed help, sooooooooo...he might knock on the front door." Strange gets an innocent look now.

Doctor Strange has posed:
    Stephen's eyebrows slowly lift as she says all of this. The whole quick and short summary of Bucky Barnes. "That's... Okay." Stephen says, his spoon coming back to life as he nudges the single scoop in his bowl while the thoughts bounce around in his head. "What kind of doctor do you think he needs Felicia?" The use of her first name fully might be a signal in and of itself, "Because you know I'm not exactly a -shrink-." Stephen says with a lift of his eyebrow towards the blonde.

    Looking back down into his bowl and over at Felicia's, he takes another small shaved bite for himself and savors it as best as he can (Not at all).

Black Cat has posed:
"Yeah, I know," Felicia grumbles to herself. Her own silver spoon continues carving out a small cavern at the base of one of her scoops of ice cream and she brings the recurved side of the spoon to her tongue to lick idly at it. "I meant well when I said it, but I realized later that maybe it wasn't such a good idea. It's not like I can take it back, so..."

She wrinkles her nose and sighs. "I feel silly now because yeah, you're not a shrink, and I would like to not have to open the front door and have him see me without my suit on. I like my privacy." Her shoulders wilt.

Doctor Strange has posed:
    "You open the front door?" Stephen asks seemingly switching the subject on a dime. That or he's going to deal with Bucky when he arrives, no sense in scolding Felicia for something that's already done. Plus she's a big girl. But Stephen is more concerned with her answering the door. "How many times HAVE you opened the doors when someone knocks, Felicia?" The wizard asks, taking up his bowl and spoon and playing with the ice cream for just a moment.

Black Cat has posed:
Felicia finishes another bite of ice cream and looks down at the bowl. Her eyebrows meet over her nose. "I haven't opened the door at all, Stephen. I know it's not my job. It's just..." She blows another sigh and takes a moment to move a loose strand of pale hair behind her ear again from where it slid over the fitted form of the Cloak still hugged around her body.

"I don't want to blow my cover. If he sees me like this..." Jade-green eyes find and hold those changeable greys, filled with concern.

Doctor Strange has posed:
    "Then don't open the door. Easy enough Felicia." Stephen says before he moves his bowl over her own and drops his barely eaten ice cream scoop into her bowl for her to enjoy. "I know you said you weren't a bottomless pit, but you've yet to proove that to me. Darling." Stephen says with a kiss of Felicia's cheek before he stands up from the table and heads over towards the sink. "I'll keep an eye out for Captain America's friend. And I'll do what I can. For you and your secret identity."

Black Cat has posed:
Oh man, another scoop of ice cream! Felicia sighs, the pitch of it wending around as she shifts her spoon out from beneath it. The impression of his kiss lingers on her cheekbone and she turns in her seat to watch him.

"Just...tell him I was wrong or something. He's kind of...painfully pragmatic. He won't bother you again after that." She dabs her spoon down into the ice cream with a silent 'splat', not hard enough to cause a spatter. "What are you going to say if he asks you about me?"

Doctor Strange has posed:
    "You mean if he asks me about the Black Cat? I'm not sure, but there was a reason you thought of me when he said something about needing help, so naturally I'm going to do everything I CAN do to help this man. That shouldn't have anything to do with you. Your dark secret is safe with me Felicia." Stephen says, tapping his nose before he starts to run the water and goes about cleaning out his bowl, even though he had barely two spoons of ice cream.

    Over the sound of the water Stephen asks, "Have you seen Jeremy?" A loaded question for sure.

Black Cat has posed:
Felicia's spoon is suddenly dug into the ice cream with a vengeful shove. She sits as primly as possible in her chair and interlaces her fingers with a pronounced precision to rest upon the tabletop, as if this might keep her from doing something...dare we say...impulsive.

"If you're asking whether or not I've buried him somewhere, no. Shammy is still mine. He's in my room, sleeping on a pillow. Why, are you looking to speak with Jeremy?"

Doctor Strange has posed:
    "You could say that." Stephen says softly before turning off the faucet and turning to face Felicia, his hands finding the counter as he leans his back against the surface. "I was curious if I was wasting my time looking for him for if you had already strung him up by his Achilies or not." Stephen sighs softly before crossing his arms. "I do start to worry this whole thing is starting to strain us." Stephen says rather forwardly.

Black Cat has posed:
"Strain us?" Felicia turns in her seat at the table, her body language broadcasting concern. "What do you mean strain us? I mean...I know I messed up, god...I know that. But he's a Trickster god and you said that's his entire existence. I plan to make him eat crow, don't get me wrong, but..."

Her voice falls to a tenative softness. Her jade-green eyes look between his own. "What's that got to do with us?"

Doctor Strange has posed:
    "We both seem a bit more... distant and defensive..." Stephen says, motioning between the two of them, and slowly the cloak seems to tighten around Felicia, as though it wasn't comfortable with the subject and wanted to hide with the thief at the sudden turn of the conversation.

    Stephen lifts his hand to the bridge of his nose. "I'm not blaming you, I'm just... I'm angry at him and I haven't been able to vent. I've been pulled in a million different directions by a trillion different problems." Strange sighs exaserbatedly.

Black Cat has posed:
"I get it..." Felicia pulls her lips to one side. She folds her arms and leans against the chair, her eyes sliding down and off to one side. "You're the Sorcerer Supreme. The head honcho. The big chalupa. The boss." Her smile is sad and disappears into a flat line about as soon as it flutters across her lips.

"You can vent at me if you want. It's okay. I'm better at listening that most people expect of me," she adds, her hand rising without thought to rub at the Cloak's fall over her bicep.

Doctor Strange has posed:
    At the first chance to really open up, Stephen does what he always does. The wizard takes a step towards Felicia, pulling at her chair with a spell, spinning the wood underneath Felicia, as it scoots under the command of the Sorcerer Supreme until Felicia would meet Stephen in the middle of the kitchen and his arms would wrap around her and he would burry his face into the crook of her neck and her hair.

Black Cat has posed:
"Eeee -- "

The sound of suprise ends abruptly as the seated Felicia does indeed collide bodily with Stephen at his spell-casted summonings. Boy, suddenly animated chairs are way more exciting in real life than in the animated films. Beauty and the Beast, eat your heart out!

Having remained seated, she returns the hug after a second of surprised pause. Her arms are warm about him and up this close, the scent of her golden perfume is present but not overwhelming in its caramel-vanilla note.

"I promise you've got this, Stephen," she murmurs. "You're stronger than any man I know. I'm here for you as best I can be, okay? I know I'm not perfect, but...you haven't scared me off yet. It's okay -- you can tell me things."

Doctor Strange has posed:
    Stephen knows he can tell her, in fact he knows he //should// tell her everything, but he finds the words impossible to form on his tongue and in his mouth. In this moment he finds any word impossible to speak and so he simply stands up right, his arms still wrapped around Felicia's shoulders and he holds the woman up in the air, lifting her from the seat as the embrace and the human touch much more important to the wizard than the comfort of mere words.

Black Cat has posed:
"Eeep!" Another little sound of startlement leaves the Cloak-wrapped young woman and now her heeled feet try to carefully curl about the backs of his thighs to keep herself steady. With her arms around his neck now, the thief clings to Stephen as well and sighs into the crook of his own neck in turn. Her cautious strength and his care will avert any instance of accidental dropping, no doubt.

"I know, sweetheart... I know," Felicia whispers against his pulse, empathetic to the amount of stress he is ever under.

Doctor Strange has posed:
    Felicia can feel the tension release as he takes in a breath and slowly lowers Felicia down until she's able to stand on her own feet. He pulls back to look her deeply into her eyes, that brilliant green as much a beacon as they are living black holes of attention. "How was your day Felicia?" Stephen asks as if they didn't just share some sort of cathartic moment.

Black Cat has posed:
As she's set on her feet, Felicia resists the attempt to flatten down her rumpled dress. The fall of the Cloak is safety enough from any sight of revealed thighs as is and gravity plus some subtle shifting with let the lacy fabric slide back down above her knees once more. She holds his gaze and her red-red lips curl into an utterly couquettish smile.

"My day's been wonderful so far, Stephen. I slept in, my coffee had the perfect amount of creamer, my hair is behaving -- " She pauses to lift a hand from his shoulder and tuck it behind her ear once more. " -- and I got to share some ice cream with you. I'd say that's a pretty good day at this point, wouldn't you...?" Her shoulders roll under the Cloak in a charming shift of posture and she tucks her chin, fluttering her eyelashes shamelessly.

Doctor Strange has posed:
    The snow has sufficiently melted off his shoulders and hair, and Stephen smiles down to Felicia. "It's a near perfect day." The wizard agrees with a hand falling down with his finger tips scratching lightly as it moves from Felicia's shoulder down to the small of her back. "As good a day as we mortals can have."

Black Cat has posed:
"Near perfect? Hmm...that sounds like a challenge to me." Manicured fingers begin to walk up Stephen's sternum step by step. Felicia drags her gaze up him in turn until she looks into his face, still wearing the charmingly-crooked smile. "I bet I can make your day more perfect. I'm not going to tell you how either, so you're just going to have to come along and see for yourself..."

Her fingertip bips off the end of his nose as the Cat twinkles up at him. "I can finish my ice cream later."

Doctor Strange has posed:
    "You might want to bring it with us, like I said, Wong is a fan of the flavors you keep buying." Stephen says as he follows behind Felicia, lifting his eyebrow as the cloak is less cloak at this point and more a red and gold gown, wrapped around Felicia, but still hints of her blue lace dress is visible, so it didn't devour the clothes she's already wearing.

Black Cat has posed:
Felicia takes up her bowl of ice cream and slips it away into the smaller fridge. She knows full well not to tamper with the other blockier, more sturdy fridge, after all. Only the truly brave and prepared do such a thing -- really only Stephen, actually.

"He can have the rest of the container. I clearly licked the ice cream in the bowl, so he'll catch kitty-cooties if he does eat from that bowl," she says over her shoulder to the Sorcerer as she leads the way out of the kitchen. Her palms dance over the Cloak's cling to her person and she can't help the pirouetted turns across the beautifully-patterned mosaic of the Sanctum's flooring. No doubt it furls and moves with her. She pauses in the exact center of the foyer and offers her hands out to Stephen.

"I bet you know how to do some cool old dance like the waltz or the fox-trot," the Cat says to him, grinning like the troublemaker she's known to be.

Doctor Strange has posed:
    "I was always partial to the jitterbug." Stephen says, a hint of red growing across his cheek as the cloak keeps changing for Felicia, and as she spins, the bottom of the dress of levitation unfurls and is now a full gown of levitaiton, seemingly loving to play with the thief. "I can do most dances though. Is there one you'd like to do?" Stephen asks, stopping in front of Felicia and extending a single hand towards her, palm up.

Black Cat has posed:
Felicia frets at the corner of her lip as she thinks, hands momentarily clasped before her chest. Then, smiling, she brings one hand to alight upon Stephen's outstretched fingers as a bird might upon a branch, with delicate contact. She plucks at the hem of her Cloak-dress and curtsies before him, certain to lead the motion with her chest as she always does. Never dropping his gaze, she steps into his space and hums.

"Show me your fanciest moves out here, Copperfield, and I'll show you some fancy moves elsewhere." The ridiculous waggling of her eyebrows at him is accompanied by the tiniest chuckle.

Doctor Strange has posed:
    Stephen takes her hand and without a motion from the wizard, the gi is gone, the foyer is gone and even Felicia's hair changes. Everything changes around the two, and they're in a large castle. Stone work and red and gold and green and black draperies with a cat face and a staff of Asclepius on the red and golds. There's a castle built for the two of them with a look out of the window towards a stary night with ... a blue green sphere just out across the horizon.

    Stephen's hand pulls on Felicia's arm and suddenly he's spinning with her in his arms in a sweeping waltz with music coming from nowhere and everywhere at once. A great band playing just for the two of them and Stephen silent except his eyes lovingly enraptured with Felicia's face.

Black Cat has posed:
Laughter bubbles up through the music and once again, as he always does, Stephen's managed to summon up the irrespressible gleam of adventure and mischief in the thief's jade-green eyes. She moves with him in a graceful patterning of follow to his lead.

"You know...some folks might say you're a romantic at heart, Stephen Strange," Felicia says softly to him as she holds his gaze. "I'm kind of a sucker for romantics."

Doctor Strange has posed:
    "I don't care what some folks say Felicia. I care only what you say." Stephen says between steps as he leads the glitering jewel of a woman through the lunar castle. He smiles greatly as the world feels so far away while he has her in his arms with her looking at him like that. Like nothing else in the world could possibly be anything as joyous or important as this exact moment.

    "I'm a sucker for you." Stephen says into Felicia's ear before he moves without warning into the next dance, as the lighting in the castle changes to something more upbeat and primal as he switches into a tango with the thief.

Black Cat has posed:
"Oh gosh, a sucker for me...? I never would have guessed, Mister Strange," the young woman replies with a provactive note to her voice. This is echoed through her entire body as she drops the stiff-spined form required for the waltz in exchange for the rolling sinuousness of the Latin-based dance. While she doesn't know the dance very well, she certainly appears to be able to fake it well enough -- at the very least, the smoldering and languid turns on the toe of her heels to set the Cloak-dress's skirt to twining about her as creeping roses might a trellis.

A heel rises slowly up the outside of his leg on a beat's pause and Felicia drags her gaze up him in tandem. "Mrowl," she growls at him teasingly.

Doctor Strange has posed:
    "Felicia!" Stephen says, sounding like he's scolding or offended by her brazenness. "We're in a public place." He says before looking around to his left, then her left, and smirks. Not a single soul around for at least two hundred thousand miles.

    Stephen places his hand upon her thigh before stepping backwards, dragging her extended down foot with the motion of the dance. "This may have been a poor second choice as I do not want to do any more dancing Felicia..." He says implying more intimate encounters.

Black Cat has posed:
With her body elongated along the balance point of his own strong thigh and with her arm curled up around his neck, Felicia simply grins as if she were his very own personal shoulder-devil: sly, knowing, beckoning.

"I suppose we'll simply have to go dance elsewhere then, Stephen. You've shown me your moves. Remember...I did say that I'd show you some of mine," she reminds him in a low purr.

Doctor Strange has posed:
    Stephen gets his own wicked grin and leans his face fowards past Felicia's to whisper into her ear. "I hope you're talking about more than that move with your tongue. Because I love it, but I always want more." He teases before nibbling on her ear lobe faintly.

Black Cat has posed:
"Woof!" Yes, a rather canine-like sound escapes the Cat at the goosebumps that sheet down her body. Fingernails curl up into Stephen's dark hair and she laughs, the sound hollow and breathy. "You're...you're the best kind of trouble, Copperfield." Her platinum-blonde hair catches the ambient light as she turns her head to offer up more of her neck to his perusing.

Felicia whispers, eyelashes fluttering, "Let's go back to your bedroom. I'll all for acrobatics in heels, but I'd rather be swept off my feet than be on them."