It was a slightly rare occasion for Zora to be out of Markovia but whenever a good reason arises that might need her overview and whenever there were talks of a cease-fire, apparently the pressure her forces have been laying on has warranted enough for the Latverians to put a pause on the conflict, and no matter what, she felt like she needed to be involved in the talks somehow. The toll of the war hit both sides hard and she needed this as much as they needed it. Sure they crippled almost all of the Doom Bot production facilities, but not without cost and she lost a lot of good men doing it. Making a public appearance to the talks would possibly show that their side fully supported the cease-fire, but in case this was a double bluff and a way to make their side vulnerable, she had several strike teams ready to hit barracks, propaganda distributors and even a high ranking general who was in the Bahamas for ‘leisurely leave’. War was a bitch and so was she. She couldn’t show any weakness no matter the circumstance.

But she did enjoy New York. It was just so different then Markovia and the memories of the Markov Castle, it was more modern, felt freer and just felt so civilised. No war zone, no outer conflict, just people living their day to day lives… with armoured and super powered heroes flying overhead instead of helicopters, bombers and fighter jets. So, of course, she sneaked away from her bodyguards to just enjoy the city. She, of course, looked a bit odd. Just a simple black dress wearing no shoes. It might’ve looked odd but she could ‘feel’ the city. She could feel the footsteps of everyone in a 5-mile radius, the rumble of the subway. She could just close her eyes and sense everyone and everything happening. It was quite a stroll and way to live and observe the world.

Sure it wasn’t a good idea to be strolling through the city unguarded but she was certain that if something did happen there were watchful eyes all over. May it be Avenger, hero or secret service she could sense and feel watchful eyes on her. Ones that were more than the normally confused onlookers.

It might’ve been paranoia but she swore someone was following her, so she started calmly moving through the streets keeping to very open areas in case she lost the person when she still sensed the person following her. She then took a risk into a quiet alleyway and checked faked to check her phone before putting it away and continued walking. If the follower was a would-be assassin they would’ve struck already and have this over with so she guessed this was an extra level of protection given by her hosts or a bodyguard hired to follow her in case she did this. Either way, she didn’t like secrecy and not knowing the people who would put their lives on the line for her so she thought up a plan and made her way to Central Park.

When she got to Central Park Zora sighed and lied down on the grassy plain and closed her eyes. She sensed where the follower was again and quickly pointed in their direction.

”You there, by the tree.” she said with a calm voice ”I would like to speak to you. I could use some company.” She said patting the patch of grass next to her. "Come. Sit, Enjoy this beautiful day with me." she said with a smile on her face as she awaited the action her bodyguard would take.

Aileen was not a fan of shadowing people. It beat guard duty, but not by much. The only real difference was that rather than standing there and watching something, she was walking around a bit and watching something. Or in this case, someone. A rather important someone. A Very Important Someone, according to the mission statement. Zora Markov was young for a queen and young for a general, but was both and as such a target. Not much younger than Aileen, actually, and Aileen shuddered at the thought of running a country. She bet even Ada found it difficult. But still, as long as her job was to guard the people running the countries, that was better. Although not much, she still didn't like it. Aside from the boredom of it, it felt really creepy, following someone wherever they went. This really was James's sort of thing. Not Rupert, he was much too much of a by the book guy, but James seemed like he'd be good at following people.

So far, Zora hadn't done much with her day. Just enjoyed New York City. Which Aileen was sure was great when you didn't live there, but when you were a local and saw a lot of it on a regular basis, it got pretty dull pretty quickly. As usual for this sort of covert thing, she was in plainclothes, her only concession to her identity being a purple shirt - it's not like anyone taking a good look wouldn't recognise who she was anyway. She had a collapsible bow tucked into her belt and a bandolier of arrows wrapped snugly around her torso, hidden under a bag strap to avoid giving her away. If anything happened, Aileen had orders to do what was necessary to protect the Queen.

And then, with a sinking feeling, Aileen realised that the girl she was tailing was pointing right at her. She was seriously bad at this. The tree had seemed like a good spot to watch from. It was secluded and out of the way despite its excellent lines of sight, and she'd been doing a great job of pretending to text while actually scanning the area. Just not good enough, apparently. With a sigh and a slightly guilty smile, she made her way over to Zora, looking what she hoped was appropriately sheepish.
"Your Majesty," She said with a slightly awkward and very slight curtsey, "We thought it best to have you under watch while you were in the city. Enough crazies here without anyone who might be targeting royalty." She paused, and in a much less formal tone, said, "I kinda suck at watch duty, huh?"

Zora wasn’t expecting Aileen. Sure the person following her was light footed and walked more feminine so was expecting a female, but she definitely wasn’t expecting her. It might have been due to the fact that Zora envisioned some wearing all black and more official, or maybe it had to with that she was a cover girl of one the magazines they gave around to help boost morale with the troops. All in all, Zora wasn’t entirely too sure what to think of Aileen. Mainly conflicted on why they would send a model, one which regularly gets half naked, to be her guard. Maybe there was more a ‘than meets the eye’ type of person. Maybe she was like one of those Charlie’s Angels.

She chuckled slightly as Aileen called her your majesty and did the odd curtsey. She never really liked being called that. Or Princess. Or Queen really. Felt too odd, felt too strange. She just felt slightly unworthy of the title. But it felt even stranger when those words come out of somebody that wasn’t a countryman. She felt like she had so much to prove, to herself and her people and yet here was a foreigner calling herself that. With a curtsey no less.

She listened to Aileen’s introduction and couldn’t help try to stifle a laugh and not smile crazily. It must’ve been awkward for her to meet her seeing how Aileen was acting.

”Please, no need for such formalities.” She said smiling up at the purple clad woman. “And no worries. I understand. It must be hard to both be a model and a bodyguard at once.” she said with a chuckle to herself. ”And you don’t suck at guard duty or tailing people, call it my little gift. I just know when people are following me, or just always assume I am anyway.”

Zora sat up and took a look at Aileen. She wanted to formulate the words in her mind on how to ask the question without insulting her bodyguard.

”So.. Tell me… Model, bodyguard, lady. Sorry, I don’t quite know your name and in light of it all, how are you qualified to be my bodyguard? No Offense or anything, I do quite enjoy the company, but a model was not what I had in mind for this all.” she said questioningly. Sitting up and looking Aileen in the face.