A Covert Operative's day off. (Mockingbird and Chelle)

Victoria's less than saint-like work had taken her to the big apple, which she had been several times before. It wasn't one of her favorite cities though the hustle and bustle did remind her a bit of London ,which is perhaps the closest thing to a hometown she had. At least she was largely ignored, no matter what she was wearing or doing. In any case she'd gotten the information she needed, and with no other assignments took the chance to indulge in her, at least to her, more exciting hobbies.

She walked through the streets in her signature white coat, brown boots hiking up into a teal dress that matched the oversized bow on her chest. A gloved hand held tightly a shopping bag as she walked down the sidewalk of the nicer part of the city. Anyone looking, as some did considering she was constructed to be very eye-catching, just assumed she was another wealthy yuppie buying designer clothes. This was close to the truth, although her bags actually contained the raw materials to make clothes. She was headed back to the temporary quarters she'd secured, a nice hotel room, excited to begin work on her latest design.

As she was walking a drunken and disgruntled man approached her, given her the usual less than generous offer that those types do. When she gave the typical decline and quickly resumed her pace he got grabby and forceful. Unfortunately the poor drunken man was getting into more than he could handle, and with a swift motion of her free hand Victoria struck the man behind the head with a burst of speed and he crumpled to the ground unconscious. Some people muttered among themselves, a few even cheered for her "girl power" but such things didn't concern Victoria. She had just removed an obstacle in her way, she merely wanted to get to her room.

In the short tussle, however, she failed to notice a small item fall out of the jacket the man had been roughly handling. A very nice-looking silver pocket watch, with an ornate but wordless design featuring a horse on the faceplate. The inside featured an antique looking watch with a picture of a fairly unremarkable gentleman on the back of the cover. It fell to the ground, lost in the sounds and crowd, waiting for any greedy passerby to lay claim to it.

Andree had planned this trip to New York a few weeks prior. She was only here for two days to pick up some materials for the next stage of her suit. Though she had just finished a new one, she liked to have some kind of project going at all times so she could take her mind off things if she needed to......like Nathaniel.

It had only been 2 days since they broke up, in which Andree had spent most of her time playing sad music on a violin out of boredom. If Scar hadn't have been there, she probably would have just sunk off into her room again. She knew that she broke up with him for the wrong reasons and couldn't stop thinking about it, keeping the necklace made of his feathers that he had given her as a reminder that she needed to fix this.

Said necklace of feathers hung around her neck as she slipped out of Scar's apartment. Before leaving Chicago, Scar had told her to use her apartment instead of a hotel. The apartment was much nicer than a crummy motel, which was all she was willing to pay for for such a short trip. She made her way out to the streets of the city. The pickup for the supplies was tomorrow and she had just arrived today, she had some time. Dressed in a baggy black t shirt and a pair of jeans, she wandered down the street.

As she made her way to the end of the block, she caught the end of a fight between a drunk man and a woman. As the fight wrapped up, the crowd vanished. The silver, ornate pocket watch was noticeable against the pavement as Andree moved to pick it up from it's current resting place on the concrete. It obviously belonged to the woman in the fight, the man wouldn't have something like this. Picking it up, she jogged up behind the lady and tapped her on the shoulder. "Excuse me? I think you dropped this." She said, holding it up for her to see.

Victoria's steady pace was interrupted for the second time since finishing her shopping. A young woman behind her addressed her, presenting a pocket watch to her. Victoria quickly recognized it as her own, a gift from Charles. She reprimanded herself for being careless enough to drop anything without noticing, it's not as if she could say her powerful mind was preoccupied.

"Oh my, thank you young lady. That is indeed mine." Victoria said in a gentle voice. "I'm grateful you saw fit to return it. It has a bit of...sentimental value that can not be replaced." She took the small watch in her gloved hand and replaced it in her jacket, in a more secure pocket this time. She began to reach into her jacket again to fetch some currency for the lady. "Please, allow me to give you something as a show of my gratitu-" Before Victoria could finish, her phone started ringing. She produced her phone to see it was someone she hadn't heard from in some time. She apologized to the woman in front of her and answered the phone.

"Oh, hello Chelle. It's been some time"

"Hello old friend. Are you interested in becoming my Princess for the Resurrection of Thrones?"

"Oh, of course. I always keep my promises." Victoria replied, discreetly assuring the caller that she maintained her loyalties. Rather than give a meeting place, Chelle requested Victoria's location which she divulged. The phone call was quickly over, and Victoria returned to the woman in front of her. "My apologies, an old friend is trying to get in touch with me. Now, where was I? Ah yes, your reward." Victoria said as she moved to get something out of her jacket, and removed her hand with a single 100 dollar bill fold. It seemed like a lot for a simple thank you, she was sure, but she may as well be generous. After all, her work a good flow of cash, and aside from expensive equipment and repairs she really had no need to spend money. Even a place to stay was only necessary for privacy, it wasn't as if she needed to sleep.

"Well, it is yours. And where would we be if everyone just took what wasn't theirs?" Andree replied to her comment about it being sentimental and that it was nice that she returned it. Rolling one of her shoulders back, she felt the shirt ruffle in the breeze that was picking up. "Uh, yeah, no problem." She told the woman as she apologized for having to take a call. Andree didn't want a reward for it, but it would be rude to just walk off on the lady midway through her sentence.

Rocking back and forth on her heels, Andree waited for the woman to end her call. Her fingers were raising and falling in a synchronized pattern against her thighs as she did so. Both of these were habits of hers. She stopped the rocking, but maintained the raising and falling pattern with her fingers against her thighs, as the woman wrapped up her phone call and returned her attention to her.

"No, no, thank you, but I can't take that from you. I only returned your watch, really, it's no big." She said to the woman as she brought out the hundred dollar bill for Andree to take. There was no way she was going to take the money from the woman for a deed so small. She had recently stumbled upon a fair bit of money, though, she had spent most of it on the materials Gracie and Nate's birthday presents. She'd just have to sell some more stuff sometime soon. The offer of one hundred dollars was tempting, but, no, she would not take it.

"Please, I insist. I have very little to spend my money on, this watch and a spot of decency are both worth at least this much to me." Victoria said, continuing to try to push the bill onto Andree. During this short time, Chelle appeared and seemed to recognize the young lady who had returned Victoria's watch. She met her surprise with curiosity. A small world indeed. She turned to answer Chelle's first question.

"Oh, I'm here for pleasure at the moment. Even something like myself has her hobbies." She said, lifting her shopping bag. "When I'm working, I like to consider myself something of a seamstress. I am Victoria by the way. Forgive my atrocious manners." She said towards the woman now identified as Andree. She then turned back to Chelle. "I'm free to indulge in any such activities, and would be happy to include this young lady. I owe her a debt of gratitude, it would seem. A shooting range might be a bit unfair, though I'd be happy to watch you two enjoy yourselves."

Andree was still trying to avoid accepting the money when a woman walked up to them. Thankful for the interruption, she hoped that the woman would just forget about the money. But, this short moment of thankfulness left her when she saw the woman's face. Chelle. It was Chelle. The whole reason she had broken up with Nate and was now trying to bury herself in work. Of all the people in the world she could run into, it had to be her. She wasn't sure whether to be mad or upset or just leave at this point. Part of her was wanting to hurt Chelle right now, for working for that monster. The other half just wanted to ignore her and walk away. Unable to decide which side to go with, she stood there and just glared at Chelle. "None of your business." There was a noticeable hint of spite in her voice as she said this.

"I don't drink coffee." She replied to the first suggestion, indifferently, before allowing Chelle to continue. When Victoria turned and told Andree her name, Andree simply lazily shrugged in reply, as if silently saying "whatever". "You owe me nothing." She said in reply, waving off the thought. "What do you mean by unfair?" Came her voice once again, raising a question for Victoria. If she was saying that she could beat them easily, Andree suddenly wanted to go to the shooting range and prove her wrong.

Victoria regarded the interaction between the two, and the sudden change in conversational atmosphere. It seemed she had misjudged the relationship between the two. She begrudgingly put her bill away, feeling the offer was refused and she could do nothing about it.

"What do you mean by unfair?"

Victoria looked at the young woman. though she hadn't been trying to brag, it seemed like this girl's pride may force her to accompany the two. "I meant no slight by it Miss Andree, it's just that my accuracy rate is effectively 100%. So it's not really something I can take sport in. Regardless, I hope you'll accept my friend's invitation." She said, following Chelle to the door of her car. She ducked her head down and stepped into the rather spacious room of the vehicle. She turned and looked behind her, to see if the girl followed them.

Andree did not want to go anywhere with Chelle right now. She was furious with her at the moment. How could she work for that evil bastard? But, at the same time, she hated to be rude, especially to someone who hadn't done anything, which, in this case was Victoria. With a small, almost inaudible, groan escaped her throat as she slid into the limousine behind Victoria. Her comment about her one hundred percent accuracy rate made Andree want to see it anyway. Maybe she could show off a bit in the process.

During the limo ride, Andree remained quiet. Her eyes gazed at the New York skyline that was littered with skyscrapers and towers through the window. The collar of her black shirt was being put to use as well, as she nibbled on it out of annoyance. Really, it was all she was going to do to not snap at Chelle right now. She still had feelings for Nate but she couldn't be around him as long as Nightkill still knew where to find her now. As long as Chelle worked for that son of a bitch, Andree could not go out with Nathaniel. She didn't want that monster near more of her life, he had already had four years of it, so she was not going to be near those who worked under him. The necklace that Nathaniel gave her, made of his own feathers, still hung from her neck. The flowers were wilted right now. Chelle would be able to see that she was wearing the necklace still.

((any dialogue in a language other than English will be denoted with <>))

Chelle posed a question to Victoria in Italian, and she responded in kind. <"But of course Miss Chelle, combat is my secondary function after all."> Victoria responded not only in flawless Italian, but her entire voice changed. The English accent disappeared and she spoke with the voice of a native Italian, if one hadn't already heard her speak they would assume she was Italian herself. Then, the Italian woman disappeared and the Englishwoman returned to join into the conversation, one-sided as it was with Andree silent in the back. "For me, effort isn't a factor in something like marksmanship. I'm either capable of doing something, or I'm not. My limitations are a bit more black and white than they are for others."

Victoria grabbed her shopping bag, since she very well may not be taking the same car home and it would be a shame to be unable to attend to her hobby. Reading and sewing were just about the only things should could derive entertainment from, and it was easy to run out of books when you read and processed them at Victoria's speed. Her mind was on her next sewing project, but with her "brain" her mind was always on several things simultaneously.

The driver was dismissed, an odd role to Victoria. Even with her gained independence, she usually found herself carrying out tasks for others. She wasn't exactly subservient it's just that if it was just her, she wasn't actually sure what she would do. She had read every book of philosophy in a great number of libraries and yet, despite the fact that she could recite them all and could easily the top student of any philosophy class, the concepts just seemed beyond her understanding. She turned to Andree and spoke "Perhaps I'm calling the kettle black, but I wouldn't have guessed by looking at you that you were the type to visit the shooting range."

Andree listened quietly as her two companions spoke in Italian. They obviously assumed that she could not understand them. They were wrong. Ever since she got her memories back, she was able to speak and understand many languages. Italian was just one of them, the one she was most fluent in. It was her native language, after all. Just to have a little fun, she spoke. "Allora, che cosa è stato che circa il combattimento? Oh, sì, dimenticavo di dire che parlo italiano." Inside, she was laughing her ass off. Her Italian accent was flawless, as it was the first language she had learned, even before English. If they changed to another language, she hoped it was another one that she already knew. Russian, Latin, Spanish, French, something like that.

Andree climbed out of the car behind the other two, her mind thinking on what they wanted to keep secret from her that they had switched languages for. When Victoria turned her attention back to her, Andree replied. "I don't like using a gun. I usually use closer range weaponry, more of a challenge, especially against guns, you know? But, I can shoot and, not trying to sound arrogant, but I'd say I'm not half bad." Andree hated giving herself compliments, fearing that people would think that she is self centered, egotistical or arrogant, which was why she had added the small disclaimer before giving herself one.

(Translation: So, what was that about combat? Oh, yeah, forgot to mention that I speak Italian.)