InsaneJournal

Who: Sharon Carter, brief special guest star Remy LeBeau
What: Checking in on interests
When: August 23 - August 28
Where: Madripoor
Warning: Low/None
Status: Completed via Gdoc


It wasn’t a secret that Sharon dealt in art in Madripoor. She had her own, private gallery, and had clients all over the world. In fact, the majority of her income came from the gallery and not her other activities. It was above the table, mostly legal, and on the up-and-up. Sharon had employees who took care of the operation when she was unavailable. She was known. She was reputable. She had established something of a name for herself in Madripoor as being a woman who could make connections, a woman who got shit done by connecting people, convincing people, using her words as weapons.

The Powerbroker, on the other hand, was known for a completely different set of weapons. Blades, blackmail, and bullets, among other things. In her capacity as the Powerbroker, Sharon collected information, used it to her advantage. Sometimes she got her own hands dirty, but the majority of the time she had other people do her bidding for her--either because of something she could offer, or something that was held over their heads. Carrot or stick. She had both.

The plane ride was long. Sharon used her above-the-table contacts to get a chartered flight, so she didn’t have to worry about bothering SHIELD for use of a plane. And she could stretch out the whole way there, relaxing and sleeping off her hangover. Even after the sleep, she had time to answer work emails and text messages for the gallery. She used her burner phone and encrypted email to reach out to some contacts, get some information flowing.

At the gallery, after she landed, Sharon found a package from one of the thieves she’d had dealings with. She’d read his name on that network that Tony Stark introduced her to back at the Avengers Tower in New York. He’d just thrown them all for a loop. With a little smirk on her face Sharon carried the package into her office and opened it carefully, then shook her head with a little chuckle. This wasn’t something she’d been expecting.

She pulled out her tablet to access her encrypted email and shot off a message to Mr. Remy LeBeau:
Give me two days, then check your account. -SC

The return message was short but sweet:
Much appreciated. Saw you arrived in the Tower but didn't want to rock the boat. Kept my distance. Little too well, non? Going to use this as vacation money.

After that, she spent some time setting up appointments and arranging meetings during the day for Sharon, and at night for the Powerbroker. Things hadn’t transpired in Madripoor the way they had in her timeline, and then things … changed. It didn’t seem like the people who were native to this world caught on that not too long ago Madripoor was smaller, less dense, with a lot fewer problems. And now it was packed, far more crime-ridden, and the Powerbroker’s hold was quite a bit more tenuous. That part made Sharon nervous.

Being in Madripoor was kind of like a breath of fresh air, though. She found herself falling into old habits: checking the burner phones frequently, keeping up appearances in the gallery, communicating via video call with others all over the world. She lost track of the time, and didn’t make it back to her flat until late into the night, when she decided to take a long bath and think. After last night she decided not to have a glass of wine with her bath, but she lit some candles and relaxed. Her mind drifted. Last night was amazing, but… but what? That was it. Amazing. Not repeatable--he had plans to go out with someone else. She had plans to go out with someone else. No one had made any promises, no trust had been broken. Speaking of those plans to go out with someone else… Sharon closed her eyes and thought about that, too. She wondered if he was really interested. She wondered if she was really interested. When she was good and pruney, she climbed out of the tub to get ready for bed.

Before sleep, she sent off another text to Remy.
Already interest in the item. Should have more definite terms tomorrow. -SC

Remy's reply was short, offering no details and no initials.
I knew you'd get it offloaded fast. Looking forward to whatever you can arrange.


The following day she wired the money into his account. The item had gone quickly--actually, quite a bit more quickly than she’d anticipated. Actually, that was the way it went for the rest of the week: as soon as an item made its way into her hands, it left again, leaving considerably more cash than she expected to get. It kept Sharon busy, and busy was a lot better than bored. Gave her things to do, things to think about.

The other aspect of her persona was equally occupied. There was a criminal empire without leadership that was floundering. Sharon was not impressed with the way her second, third, fourth, and fifth in commands were handling things. By the end of the week, she only had a second and a fourth in command. She put out feelers for new officers to take their places.

On Friday morning she climbed onto a chartered plane to head back to San Francisco. While it’d been a very prosperous week, it was also an exhausting one. Sharon was looking forward to going back to her glorified hotel, looking forward to seeing the friends she was building there, looking forward to working for SHIELD--blast from the past.

She wasn’t looking forward to how much she was going to have to lie.