001

[housepartyprotocol]

Who: Tony Stark and anyone!
Broadcast: Fleetwide
Action: Still on The Marsiva
When: Now

[ The video feed crackles to life, and on the screen is a man looking equal parts composed and annoyed. He settles into the frame and smiles wryly.]

I'm not going to waste time here asking where we are, since I'd like to think we can all recognize space, but fair warning: you've got about [ he looks at his watch ] 2 minutes before I start taking this place apart. Not a threat, just making you aware that without a pretty impressive explanation, I will cannibalize your lovely and expensive ship and fly myself home.

[ He smiles briefly and with no humor before sitting back in his chair and tapping his watch. ]

Comments

[mucked]

If I am, then it's not a very funny joke. Is it?

[ hmph. but she lets loose one wry smile. ]

[housepartyprotocol]

Horrible joke, actually. But I've heard worse.

[ He studies her for a moment. ]

I feel like 'how' is the next reasonable question, but I have a sneaking suspicion the answer is going to sound either ridiculous or impossible.

[mucked]

Or both. [ a shrug -- her area of expertise isn't, precisely, the scientific how of things. but she'll muddle as best she can. ] The word 'multiverse' has been thrown around in some circles. Timelines and alternate lives. Mine isn't the only circumstance marked by chronological displacement, at least.

[housepartyprotocol]

Sounds like a science fiction novel, and I think we can both appreciate how much that says coming from me.

[ Still wrapping his brain around this. Somehow time travel hit him harder than space travel. ]

[mucked]

Absolutely. [ ...hmm. ] It's only fair you be told that you were here once before. Do you not remember it?

[housepartyprotocol]

[ That gets a look. ]

Me. Here?

No, I think I'd remember that.

[mucked]

I would have thought so, too. But -- nevertheless, you were here. I've got no other explanation for how I knew who you were.

[housepartyprotocol]

[ Shrugs his head. ]

I'll give you that. Not sure if it was me though, multiverse theory is apparently no longer just a theory.

[mucked]

[ aha. ]

Has Jim Barnes been in contact with you yet?

[housepartyprotocol]

Big yes on that. Is it as weird to you as it is to me?

[mucked]

Tremendously so. Perhaps all the more, considering I vividly recall signing off on his MIA report.

[housepartyprotocol]

Yikes. You win this round.

[mucked]

In many ways, I fear it's the second Barnes who makes the most sense to me. [ the winter soldier. that one, at least, conforms to what her timeline would have had in store for him. ]

[housepartyprotocol]

The other one?

[ The 'second one' still hasn't introduced himself to Tony by name. ]

private.

[mucked]

[ thankfully, she's a communications officer. so -- without much delay, she locks down their conversation. ]

The one they call Winter.

[ it's information she shares with him only because jim's given her the new york incident report to read -- that hits home how much she can likely trust this man. ]

[housepartyprotocol]

[ This clicks easily, still deciding how to take it. ]

Explains why he contacted me via text.

[mucked]

He expects our discomfort, I suspect. He knows what parts remain to him that are recognizable, and he hides them.

[housepartyprotocol]

Well, he's not wrong. I've read what I can, but it's mostly redacted. Even from me.

[mucked]

Even from you? [ she almost smiles. ] In possession of a terribly high clearance level, are we?