Central Park - Manhattan

         Central Park is an oasis of green in the middle of New York City with over 800 acres of scenic views, playgrounds and ponds. It's a great place to take a break from the busy city, as there are bike and jogging trails, athletic fields, and even a boathouse. The recently restored Wollman Rink is the top choice skating environment. Bethesda Fountain is located by the Mall and near the lake, while the Water Conservatory also make its mark in the vicinity. The most esteemed place of interest though, usually is none other than the Belvedere Castle.

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If it was earlier in the day, one might suggest she's playing hooky, but it appears that the shadows are long enough on the pavement to suggest Laura's not in hot water for truancy. The older teen girl is dressed in pseudo ghetto-punk, complete with the scuffed combat boots and the thumb-holes in her shirt's long sleeves that have either been crudely cut out of the fabric or, heaven forbid, chewed out. Slouched forward on one of the benches, she sits with her legs up and crossed with her forearms resting on her knees. Periodically, she picks a piece of bread off of a half-eaten sandwich and tosses it into the middle of a grouping of madly cooing and fidgeting pigeons, despite the fact that there must be some rule against feeding them.

A rustling occurs in the bushes nearby, followed by some grumbling and the appearance of a man in a brown leather coat and blue jeans. Fox is poking around the bush with a frown on his face, bending down and looking between the branches. "Bloody brilliant, Fox. Bloody brilliant." He mutters to himself. His voice carries a distinct Australian accent, but some people confuse him as British. Fox is unhappy this evening because he lost something very important to him earlier in the day. Anyone who has seen him around before would notice that one ever-present part of his wardrobe is missing...His dog-tags.

For the most part, Laura has gone for the majority of her repose in the park without incident or interruption. People have left her alone and given her space, unlike where she lives. However, it seems that her solitude is not to last too long judging by the rustling and muttering coming from the nearby bushes. Toss the bread and ignore, her expression almost seems to say, though it seems that the more she hears, the more she has to concentrate on her peacefulness... which means she's rapidly losing her grasp on that. Sighing, she ends up tossing the whole sandwich in the way of the birds' pecking, causing the group of them to take to flight for a moment in agitation and then land again, all wanting a piece of the half-eaten food. Glancing over in the man's direction, she calls out in an anti-helpful manner, "If you lost something, you can pretty much kiss it goodbye in here, you know."

Fox perks up, looking around for the voice. "Er...'ello?" He backs up a bit and looks around, seeing a girl surrounded by a flock of squabbling beastly animals. "Well I certainly hope not." He frowns at the thought. He's fairly certain he was wearing them this morning, though he may have left them in his room somewhere. But just in case, Fox decided to retrace his steps and check out the park he had wandered through earlier in the day. "Um...You haven't happened to happen upon a chain o' tags, have you?" he asks, wandering a bit closer to the...pirate? Americans are weird. Why do they dress like this? The birds squawk and flutter about as he approaches. He just gives them a distasteful look.

Shrugging a little, the teen girl echoes him, mimicking his accent a bit, though it's a half-hearted attempt, "Chain o' tags?" Laura shakes her head then. "I haven't. But then I wasn't looking for them, either. The park's a big place. Sure you lost them here?" Though she's not sure what a 'chain o' tags' might be, exactly. "Sure someone didn't pinch them from you?" She's guessing maybe they're a keychain or something, perhaps, which would be easier to lose than dogtags.

Fox quirks a brow at the accent, but realizes that she is mimicking and that she is not actually one of his countrymen. He looks around again, crossing his arms over his chest. "Yeah, a set of Dog-Tags. Seem to have gone walkabout on me." He sighs and shakes his head. "Almost certain I was wearin' em out here earlier, but now I can't find 'em." He shakes his head again. "An' I doubt anyone'd try and take em from me." He smirks, puffing out his chest a bit, but then he deflates slightly after a moment. "Sure hope I can find em..." Not that they were actually HIS dog-tags, but they mean more to him that his own did when he still had them.

"Ah," Laura replies, making a bit of a face. "No, those would be harder to pinch, unless they were in a pocket," she muses with a shake of her head. Now how would she know that? Too much tv, maybe. "Did you run through the bushes or something where it might have gotten caught? Maybe you just left them at home?" she offers, trying to be helpful in a bit of a begrudging manner. She still hasn't gotten up from her spot on the bench, watching him look about.

Fox gives the girl a ponderous look. Stolen from a pocket? He sure seems to meet people in the higher echelons of society. He studies her for a moment, giving her a suspicious look. He does an unintentional pat down. Wallet, pager, keys...everything's still there. Then again, this girl hasn't moved at all...And he has no reason to suspect her of being a thief...other than what she had just said...and her, in Fox's opinion, pirate-like appearance. "Um...Well I was over here." He gestures vaguely toward the path near the bushes. "And I dropped me keys over there..." He points to the bushes "And I bent down to pick them up...Guess I thought maybe my chain got caught on the branches while I was stanin' up?" He frowns at the foliage. It'll be dark soon.

No, she hasn't moved a muscle save to turn her head so she can face in his general direction. If he finds anything missing, it's certainly not her doing. Finally, with a sigh, Laura heaves herself up from the bench in a resigned manner. Good Samaritan Goody Two Shoes... that's the reputation she's going to get if people hear about this. Or they'll gush all over her and she doesn't want that. But... if she can help, why shouldn't she? Moving over toward the indicated path, where he apparently lost his keys. Standing in that spot, she glances around in the failing light. "If we're lucky, I'll catch the light off of them," she explains, taking a second to amend with, "I'm... I'm just known for decent eyes. Guess I can pick things out that others miss." As she says this, she turns around once, then twice, then squats down to change her angle...

Fox watches the girl begrudgingly get up to help. He didn't ask her to help...exactly...But he isn't going to discourage her if she wants to take a look. "Yeah, if we're lucky" is all he says in response to her eyesight. He doesn't find it all that strange a thing to say. Eyesight deteriorates with age, especially night vision. Laura seems to be about ten years younger than Fox, so it's likely that she can see better than him. "Um...thanks for the help." He says before walking over and looking under the bush to her left. "Name's Fox, by the way." He mutters out a greeting, slightly distracted by his search. If the tags are found, however, they will not read his name. They are instead inscribed with the name 'Jack Boomer'.

Moving around a bit on her hands and feet in a half-squated way in a sort of perimeter around the indicated spot, Laura replies with a one-shouldered shrug, "Yeah, whatever. Not like I've got anything better to do right now anyway." With a bit of a grunt as she moves aside some foliage, she adds, "Laura." And that's about it. Finally, she moves in a decisive manner, snatching something out of the bushes about ten feet away. It's silver in colour with a chain, as indicated. What's on the end, she keeps in her shelled hand as she examines it. "Huh... what did you say your name was again?" Maybe it just seems like an odd name to her, unless she's seen the X-Files. She's not straightened up yet.

Fox bends a branch out of the way and frowns at a bottle cap he had mistaken for his precious tags. "Laura, eh? Nice ta meet ya." He looks around a bit more, shifitng his gaze upward to look in the branches of the bushes. "Fox. Me name's Fox." He looks over to her for a moment then back to searching. He does a quick double take. Laura appeared to have found something. "Erm...But that's not what the tags say...The tags say 'Jack' on them." Fox frowns. He probably should have used an alias when introducing himself, but he sees no danger in this girl knowing his real name. "They uh...Did you find them?"

Slowly, the girl stands up, focusing on whatever it is in her hand. "Jack Boomer?" she asks, opening her hand to let the tags fall out as she holds the chain between pinched fingers so he can see it dangling there. "Guess they're yours, then. I mean... the chances of another set of dogtags out here in this exact location are remote, but..." It's always good to know that loot's going back to the right person. Otherwise, maybe it's 'street rules'... dogtags would look good with her 'look' over all. Extending her arm in his direction, she waits, however, for him to take them back. "Belong to a buddy or something?" she asks, making the logical assumption, though she somehow manages to keep her tone quiet and respectful, in case said buddy is dead.

Fox Grins broadly "Ohmygodyes! That's them alright!" he stands up quickly...a bit too quickly and ends up smacking his head on a branch. This elicits a rub on the head and a muttered "Bugger" before he lunges forward, snaching the chain and clutching the tags to himself. "Oh thanks so much, ma dear.!" He nods. "Yeah, they were me mate's. Same unit ani all that in the RAIC." He holds them up, examining them before rubbing some dirt off on his shirt. The chain seems to have snapped, he'll have to replace that. He's just happy to have them back. He places the tags in an inside pocket of his jacket before fishing out his wallet and offering the girl a twenty. "I gotta thank ya fer your trouble." He holds out the bill, smiling broadly.

As he lunges forward and snatches the chain off of her, Laura blinks and slowly pulls her hand back. "Relax... not like I'm going to take it," she mutters, rubbing briefly at her elbows before she moves back over toward the bench she had been previously preoccupying. She pauses in mid-trek back toward the bench as she sees him holding out the twenty toward her. If she were still on the streets, she'd have taken it in a heartbeat. But things change, don't they? Shaking her head, she moves back over to the bench without taking the cash. "Keep your money. It's not like you had me juggling chainsaws or belching the national anthem. I found your friend's tags... not a big deal."

You say "Alright, then. Thanks allot, though." He folds up the bill and slips it into one of his pockets before smirking. "And I'd hope you'd want more than a twenty to juggle a load of chainsaws." Fox looks around the park, then down at his watch. He heard that this place gets a bit unfriendly after dark...Not that he can't handle it...But his superiors would probably be quite unhappy with him if he ended up getting into any trouble...without their permission. He shuffles over toward the girl, looking up at the waning moon just now visible through the clouds. He can't think of much to say...So he mutters something obvious. "Birds seem to have left.""

Shrugging a little, Laura replies off-handedly, "Considering I can't juggle, I think you've got a point there." The park may get a bit unfriendly after dark but that doesn't seem to bother the girl as she parks it on the bench again. Glancing around, she nods a little and replies, "Yeah, well, the buggers took the other half of my sandwich rather quick... so there's no reason to stick around if they've got full bellies, I suppose." She pauses, then inclines her head a bit toward him as she adds, "Word of advice: try to watch your belongings a little better here. You're really lucky it was still here and that someone didn't find it and run off with it. The branch it caught on or whatever threw it quite a distance. You were lucky."

Fox nods and looks around. He hates birds...Hopefully they will get torn apart by raccoons during the night. "Yeah, well....They're filled with bread now. Whatever eats them won't have to add stuffing." He grins and nods in agreement as she discusses his luck. "Yeah, I'll re-chain these up. Definitely don't want to be loosin' them." he nods An' if anyone took them I'd just have to hunt them down an' skin them alive." He grins again...though it is severely unlikely that he would be able to find a person if they had randomly happened upon his chain in a park.

Smirking a little for the first time since they encountered each other, Laura replies, "I don't think anyone should be eating pigeons. I mean... aside from seagulls, I think they're omnivores. They eat -anything- they can get their grubby little beaks on." She crinkles up her nose a bit as she considers this rather unsavoury thought. "Well, I don't know if you realize how big this city is but the chances of you finding the culprit..." She then offers another shrug. "So, just count yourself as lucky and maybe... I don't know, tuck them in next time."

Fox ponders this for a moment before shaking his head. "Don't think I'd eat a seagull." He feels his chest again, making sure the tags haven't somehow fallen out during the past few minutes. He decides they're still there and zips up his coat. He looks around. "Oh I'd find them...Somehow." Probably not...But he seems to think he could. He looks around again and shrugs. "Well...I suppose I should be gettin' home before I'm missed." He looks back the way he came from, as if trying to decide which way would be the fastest way back. "Thanks again, miss Laura." He gives her a nod.

With a bit of a smirk, Laura replies, "I think I'd stick to something safer like chicken." Nevermind all the 'tastes like chicken' jokes, not to mention the fact that pigeon very much does not taste like chicken. Slowly, she nods, both eyebrows lifting up as he seems so determined that he'd be able to find one petty thief in all of Manhattan. "Uh huh.... riiight," comes her dubious response. "Well, okay, mister omniscient. Glad I could help." She's not rude enough to rush him off, but she doesn't seem too perturbed by the fact that he's leaving. "Yeah. Take it easy... and keep all your parts where you know where they are." A nod is given instead of a wave.

Fox gives her a slight bow, chuckling as she calls him omniscient. "Ah nah, just determined is all." He gives her a wave as he turns away from her. "But really, thanks so much. Don't know how much I 'preciate it." He walks back the way from which he came, one hand over his chest where the tags are.

Current Mood: grateful