Vacation Day (for Myra)

[evillurks]

The appointment has been set for very early in the morning, a reminder that he keeps all hours, not just the late ones. The coordinates he's sent Myra land her somewhere that the very first and overwhelming impression is one of fog. In her day and age, only a daring pilot would dream of taking off in it, but this is a modern airport with a very small, if often unmanned control tower, from which it's already clear this is simply a low-lying and temporary blanket of mist that will burn off quickly once the sun is truly up. Already a watery light is filtering through.
The building at her back is a shabby hangar, and is no different from any she's seen in her own time, if just a little more weathered. On a private airfield, not much changes but the planes.

The Shadow, dressed in a button-down shirt, light jacket, and jeans, is holding two thermoses. It should be easy to guess the contents, but he looks fairly alert already. "Morning." He has either slept a little better, or is simply covering for it well. Possibly there is some combination of the two.

Comments

[myra-reldon.livejournal.com]

"Thank you." Myra accepts the hand and works her way up to the cockpit, sitting in the co-pilot's seat and strapping her bag to the back of the seat as well. She picks up the map and very quickly starts to inspect it for landmarks and also, updating herself in case something were to happen and the plane took an unexpected landing.

Standard worst-case-scenario work that was automatically ingrained in her mind, even though she was certain The Shadow would be far more prepared for such a situation if it were to arise.

"Not too much change, from what I can tell. Once we're in the air I'll probably change that assessment, though."

[evillurks.livejournal.com]

Once the door is shut he comes around to take the pilot's seat, and worries briefly about what she might see on the map, but as he has brought her here there are some things he knew could not be avoided. Having considered things long and hard, it has occurred to The Shadow that she will likely be drawn to visit his world sooner or later, and it will most likely be in the midst of a crisis. This way she'll have a more pleasant memory beforehand, and perhaps a hint or two on the workings of modern things before she's thrust into something ugly.
He is unlikely to share that motivation with her, but it is a factor that lies behind the trip.

"It's... more built up. I expected you to anticipate that anyway. Where we're headed hasn't changed much." Strapped in, he starts the propellers and checks flaps, and leans forward to peer through the fog as the roll slowly forward and along faintly visible painted lines to the runway proper. A faint static crackles on the radio, but this piece of airfield is used only by private pilots, and there's little in the way of air traffic control.

[myra-reldon.livejournal.com]

After recent events, such considerations are completely reasonable in Myra's mind, and she's trying to take in as much as she can, without overwhelming herself. At the same time, it's a new place of sorts, and she is trying to have fun.

"I haven't seen much of Upstate from overhead, so whatever I see I really only have my experiences on terra firma to compare to. Most of my trips are between San Francisco and New York." She goes quiet now, listening to the thrum of engines and watching the foggy runway in earnest. It's almost as if the plane is taxiing in a dreamworld, and she's mesmerized as the Shadow jockeys around the runway, preparing to take off. How he's going to take off in the minimal visibility is beyond her, but she trusts his skills, and is not afraid.

[evillurks.livejournal.com]

A long-standing familiarity with the airport is of immense help in the fog, and he has already been up in the tower this morning. There are a handful of people around, despite the sense of desolation, and as they line up between lights that blink faintly in the fog and pause there, a voice comes suddenly through the static.
"That you, Raptor?"
The Shadow answers calmly, making a last check across the gauges of the plane. "Lined up and ready, Roger." It's not 'Black Eagle', but there's very few people who'd connect a man that appears to be around Seventy with the would-be-Ninety-something Kent Allard.
"You're clear, all empty this morning. Full visibility at one-hundred."
Invisible to the man in the tower, The Shadow nonetheless gives a mild nod, and click a few switches. The purr of the engines increases to a roar, and they roll forward with rapidly increasing speed. A small plane, it does not take much runway to get airborne, and then they're climbing at a fairly gentle angle of attack.

Thick white air swirls around the plane, too dense to see anything through, and then in a matter of seconds the world is a brighter place. The tips of trees show as dark spots in a blanket of white below.

[myra-reldon.livejournal.com]

Myra listens quietly, and lets the Shadow take the plane up above the fog before she speaks. She squints as they break through the fog and she smiles broadly as she leans to look out of the window down at the scene below. Her stomach drops at the height, but it's a novel sensation and she welcomes it.

"The famous 'Black Eagle' is 'Raptor' now?" She speaks while she watches the ground pass by; she's not making fun of the name, merely stating her observation. She realizes, especially since he didn't show up as Allard today, that he would have been unlikely to use the call-sign anyways.

[evillurks.livejournal.com]

After a brief word to the tower, he clicks the radio off. "On the ground, they mostly know me as James Rettigue." They still believe him to be a war veteran, but of a different war, and he's hardly about to go into that. A mild frown crosses his features, although the plane continues to climb gently. "The trouble with aging a little too well is that the older aliases are... outliving their usefulness."

The fog is very low, and lies in pockets between hills and trees. As they climb she can see hills that rise up out of it, clear and quiet in the early morning. The more distant terrain has a very misty look, but somewhere off in the distance are mountains, a muddy sort of green and deceptively small from the air.

[myra-reldon.livejournal.com]

"I would imagine. That's, quite an inconvenience now that I consider it more carefully." She looks out of the front window now, watching the approaching scenery with wide, excited eyes. "So, you mentioned you did some flying during your so called retirement. Where did you go?"

[evillurks.livejournal.com]

"One of a few, but yes..." He murmurs, banking slowly to turn them toward the more distant catskills, too far off to be more than a dark blue line on the horizon.
"All over. I didn't just fly, I took cruises, safari trips... anything to keep myself busy. keep moving. After a while it was more grueling than my work has ever been. But I did take a long trip West and back."

[myra-reldon.livejournal.com]

"Really..." She cracked open her thermos and took a small sip. "Visit old haunts? Explore new places you'd considered at one point or another?"

[evillurks.livejournal.com]

"Mostly exploring. I was trying to avoid nostalgia. There's some beautiful country to fly over, and it's nice to land near a small town and be anonymous without even trying." He gives the faintest of sighs, suffering a brief fit of nostalgia for that portion of his retirement, but having done that trip the once, a second time somehow lacks the same allure.
"I should make myself do this, though, maybe once a year. Your head feels clearer up here... and I don't mean from your ears popping." He flashes Myra a brief smile.

[myra-reldon.livejournal.com]

"That's why this is called a vacation." Myra grins back at his smile. "Day trips like this are severely under rated, I think." She stretches in her chair, finding a comfortable position and taking another sip from the thermos. "By the way, I don't think I ever properly thanked you for inviting me along."

[evillurks.livejournal.com]

"You're welcome. I'm not used to... socializing, but it's nice to talk to someone as myself instead of as an alias." The Nexus has introduced him to that pleasure, and he's still adjusting to the idea. "I also knew if I made myself obligated to take someone along at a specific date and time, I wouldn't put it off for work..."
That may be slightly unflattering, but tact is not his natural forté.

[myra-reldon.livejournal.com]

"At least you know yourself well enough to realize that." She nodded. "Most people can't discipline themselves even for a vacation. I definitely rank among that majority." Her cheeks faintly glowed the slightest shade of red at the admission.

[evillurks.livejournal.com]

"Self discipline is, by definition, difficult." The Shadow's calm air of self-control is striking precisely because he does not come by it without effort.

As the plane begins to level out, his pose in the pilot seat grows more relaxed and he puts the thermos between his knees to unscrew the cap. "I can't promise not to bring up something about work today, though." After all, he has little else in his life.

[myra-reldon.livejournal.com]

"It's hard to talk of anything else." Myra screwed the cap onto her thermos and then unscrewed it. At least it was a silent fidgeting, unlike tapping her nail on a cup. "My dinners with Lamont are hardly more than a casual business meetings. There just isn't much else to talk about. Besides tea, I don't do much outside of work myself."

[evillurks.livejournal.com]

"I assume you mean my alternate in the role of Cranston, rather than the actual Cranston? I do remember those dinners, though." He takes a long swallow of coffee, one eye on the surrounding air, before screwing the cap back on. He has kept a light hand on the controls throughout. "I'd ask if I've changed much, but I still can't be sure how close an alternate he is. He sounds like me."

[myra-reldon.livejournal.com]

"I did have a dinner with the actual Cranston once. The Shadow couldn't make it, so he stepped in. I let him regale me with tales of his adventures, but I really couldn't talk about much, so I just listened." Myra gave a half-hearted shrug. "As the Shadow, you're honestly very close matches, from my experience."

[evillurks.livejournal.com]

The Shadow smirks in private amusement, but does not quite laugh. Cranston's adventures have always paled somewhat in comparison to his own. "We're not as interchangeable as he might have liked to think."
He tilts the controls, letting the plane climb a little higher. There's more air traffic than there once was, and he has to adjust his altitude to avoid becoming a nuisance to commercial flights. "Have I mellowed, then? And is that good or bad?" It's nagged at him ever since Vincent said it.

[myra-reldon.livejournal.com]

Myra laughs gently at his question.

"Well, most of my time spent with you has been doing our usual work. I wouldn't say mellowed, but you're definitely a better conversationalist. My Shadow, if he's not filling the role as Cranston, I hardly get more than a 'Report!' out of him. Talking to him as Allard or any other guise is just about impossible."

[evillurks.livejournal.com]

"It's... a recent development, really. The Nexus encourages conversation, but I've never been good at it outside of my work." He makes a subtle shift to their course, at ease in the pilot's seat with the long fingers of one hand playing silently on the thermos cap. "And if I am more patient, that's probably a natural result of age. Priorities... change." His tone is as relaxed as his pose, contemplative in the peace of the morning air.

[myra-reldon.livejournal.com]

"All good things, in my opinion. Adaptation is a sign of wisdom gained; or at least, that's what my Father is always saying." Myra takes note of the relaxed posture of the Shadow and smiles, mostly to herself. She's never seen him honestly relaxed, and if anything, it's made him seem more human, and she finds herself more calm as a result.

"Thinking of the Nexus and its encouragements, who else have you found yourself talking to? Anyone besides the obvious?"

[evillurks.livejournal.com]

"Adaptation is just the alternative to stagnation." He shrugs lightly, a move which results in a wince as it reminds him of the bullet wound. At the least it is painless enough for him to forget it exists until he moves wrong. There is something about the pilot's seat that is so familiar it makes him at home, even if he did first learn to fly in an open cockpit with the wind blowing oil in his face.

"A lot of youngsters." The moment the words escape him, he gives a grimace. "I meant that without the bias of my own age. I've met some kids still in college, or at the age for it, but trying to fight crime in costume on the side. It's a little unnerving, I didn't start at that age. It's reassuring to see so many vigilantes around the place, though."

[myra-reldon.livejournal.com]

"I agree. Many of them are young, but there are quite a few of them. I don't know how they manage their flavor of double lives, but a few of them seem to have a reasonable handle on it." Myra smiles, aware of the irony of her own words. "It's one thing to assume an identity, but a whole different ball of wax to try and grow up in both of them."

[evillurks.livejournal.com]

"Hmmm. I seem to be in the minority for not trying to keep some kind of secret, normal life on the side. I already knew that was the case, but it's driven home by just how many people I've met there that keep double lives." When the truth of the matter is that he has no secret identity, then there's little point in hiding the fact.

[myra-reldon.livejournal.com]

Myra shakes her head.

"I guess I could be considered some sort of middle ground, but I really don't do much as Myra besides talk to my parents, and use it as a more secure avenue of communication." She shrugs. "I mean, I used it recently to follow around the errand boys from the alternate world, but that's one of the few times I've ever done that. I guess I'm just not as comfortable in my own skin, as I am as Ming."