Presuming that interaction over with, Sam goes back to frowning at his phone, but evidently he's mistaken, as a few moments later, the guy leans back into the space around his table, craning his neck to try and get a glimpse of the screen of Sam's phone. Sam doesn't go so far as to snap a hand up to cover it, though he feels the impulse. Instead, he just turns his hand to place the phone, screen-down, on the table.

'I'm doing some research,' he says, smooth as he can. It's the voice he uses when he's impersonating officials, really, though it probably doesn't have nearly the same heft with him looking like a lumberjack in a Tim Burton film. Carefully, he adds, 'I'm... new in town. Trying to find out what's, uh, going on in the area.'

It is, he hopes, the kind of statement that has the potential to sound entirely innocuous to a civilian, and also significant to someone who's been pulled through the rift too. Because honestly, if anyone might be, this guy doesn't exactly seem like a native.

So Sam lifts his eyebrows in an expression of neutral curiosity. 'What about you? You're obviously not a New Yorker by birth.'