driftfleet | (no subject)

I didn't realize it was like that for you. [Though it might explain some of the natural kinship she felt right away. Then again she did always feel like she fit with her team at home and more or less in the prison and here. But back home there was still the rest of the world who weren't teammates. It could be daunting.] That's hard.

Have you talked to any of them here about it?

[He grimaces, feeling his team deserves a better explanation than that - even though it's true.]

A bit. Wanda knows, and I've spoken with Natasha to an extent. [But not the others.] I--think it would be easier if Thor were still around rather than in Asgard, though I understand he has responsibilities he cannot lightly set aside. But when people have enough difficulty accepting even an enhanced human--[he gestures to Kitty, indicating her as an example---having someone entirely non-human is another matter altogether. And yet even on the Windrose I'm not the only one--Ordis is no more human than I am.

[She's heard a little about Thor. And "enhanced human" is a nice way of putting it.] This place—these kinds of places—can be surprisingly accepting.

I had a hard time with it in the prison. I spent so much time being hated for what I was without people caring about who I was and then suddenly no one cared. It should have been great, but I had a hard time trusting it. [She'd push people, demonstrate her powers by plunging her hand into their chests. She wanted the acceptance, but she felt like people were just hiding their true feelings. But when she did push someone too far and scared them it felt much worse.]

And it made it feel like everything that came before hadn't mattered. [Like it was erasing part of her identity. She's still struggling to find who she is outside of all of that.]

But you should be able to trust your own team at home. [If no one else. She doesn't mean this as a failing of Vision's but one of his team.]

I can understand that, I think. Do you know, it's part of why I appear like this - I could change myself to have standard human skin tones, for example, but I cannot shake the feeling that it would be dishonest to do so.

[Because he's not human, no matter how much he likes them. He'll never be human, no matter how much he pretends. And it's usually something he finds peace with.]

I understand that you're a mutant, and that it's a context my society lacks entirely. But that doesn't mean it doesn't matter, Kitty. We cannot deny that our pasts have shaped us into who we are, and that they will continue to shape our futures - even when the society around us changes. Whether we can change to match it or will fall behind and become a slave to our own expectations is up to us, but it's not a path we need to walk alone. I'll be here with you. Your friends will be here with you as well.

[He touches the tips of his fingers together in a thoughtful gesture.]

And I'd like to take my own advice as well, no matter how isolated I feel at times.

I get that. It's better not to get too attached until someone knows. [Her mutation isn't like Kurt's. It's invisible and so people can treat her differently until they find out. So many people would call her lucky, but she doesn't like the feeling of hiding it. Or the feeling of what people are hiding about how they feel about it.

But no one is judging her right now. No one is seeing her as different or less or dangerous or something to be used or controlled. There's this person who is hurting in his own, overlapping sort of way who has been nothing but great to her the entire time she's known him. She liked him immediately and has never had any reason to feel differently.]

You're not alone. Not with me around. [She steps in closer because hugs work better that way.]

[Of course he accepts the hug and hugs her back in turn, albeit awkwardly because what is physical affection even. But awkward or not, it does make him feel better, and he even gives her a little pat on the hair to express it.]

It's a comfort to me to hear that, Kitty. Thank you.

You know sometimes you sound much older and wiser than me and it's kind of annoying when you're still in the single digits of age. [She pulls back with a soft smile.]

[He smiles at her.]

Perhaps you should blame Mr. Stark, who decided his AI assistant should sound calm and cultured.

Maybe I should. I haven't had much of a chance to talk to him.

...Winter mentioned there might be problems with him now. [Is this going to make the smiling go away?]

He's not terrible personable, but he means well. If you've experience dealing with large egos, you'll do well.

[This one, at least, he can be firm about.]

He and I have come to an agreement; the trouble we were a part of at home never involved any animosity between the two of us. Whether the others will return home and feel the same, however, has yet to be seen.

Good. [She had all the faith that Vision would be okay with Winter. She would hope he'd help too.] He's been through a lot. Seems like he had his life stolen for a long time.

[He seems to relax slightly.]

Yes, in more ways than one. He's recovered somewhat both at home and here, but there are resources here that will help him more than what we have there. Charles is far more skilled at excising unwelcome programming than Wanda is, for example.

I hope Charles can help. I'm sure he'd want to. Is that already happening? I guess that's more a question for Winter. Or Bucky. I'm not sure if he still wants to go by Winter now.

[He nods.]

To my knowledge, it is. I haven't pried. As for his name--I asked, and he said he'll respond to either but that Bucky is more appropriate.

[Since now he knows he's not the only Winter Soldier.]

Good. I'm glad he's comfortable using it. Took awhile, but I realized I knew who he was. I knew Steve too. I mean, not personally. They were heroes lost before I was born. My grandpa used to read me stories about them.

[He looks a bit surprised, but it's hardly the first indication that their worlds are connected. He wonders, if the trouble in her timeline hadn't interrupted things, would they have still found Steve under the ice given time?]

As heroes of the war, you mean? Sometimes I wonder how things would have gone without them to help us fight.

[If she ever gets sent back and survives the first few seconds and remembers all of this. Then she'll definitely go looking.

She nods.] World War II. My great aunt died in a concentration camp, so it was important to my Grandpa to teach me about it.

Do you mean now with the Avengers or back then?

I'm very sorry to hear that.

Ah, back in that time, specifically. I know there are plenty of timelines that didn't have Captain America, but I haven't asked if they lacked Hydra as well. it was secretive enough that I doubt anyone aside from an historian could tell me, and I don't know that we have any of those aboard.

Thanks.

[She looks at him curiously because that name does ring a bell, but not from home.] I don't know anything about Hydra from my world if that helps. But I'm not a historian.

I have heard it mentioned here. By the man who looked just like Steve. He worked for them, didn't he?

Edited 2016-08-29 04:08 (UTC)

[The man who--ah.

Jim's counterpart. The other Winter Soldier, as Jim had been the other Captain America.]

He did, if it's who I'm thinking of as well. They developed a great deal of the forces the Avengers of my world have stood in opposition to. Wanda and Pietro gained their powers thanks to Hydra experiments as well.

Orion. [Confirming the name he went by ~~assuming Haunt's memory has it right~~. She thinks back to the things he'd told her. She'd liked the man easily at the time, but she wonders about his affiliations now.]

Did Hydra ever do other experiments on people?

[The Vision nods somberly. Orion and Jim had been their own special brand of pain and hope, and there's a part of him that wants to know how they would have handled the latest crisis - if it had happened at all for them.]

Yes. The Maximoff twins weren't the only test subjects in their group, just the only ones who survived the process. Prior to that, well, much of Hydra's work was secret but we do know they'd preserved the mind of a former Nazi scientist into a computer system, and one of their former members had had the same serum that Captain America did, reacting rather more poorly to it. And--there were others. many others, over the years.

...Those are the kind of people Orion worked for? [Looking a little stunned. None of that sounded good, but Orion seemed good. He, well, he reminded her of Steve. A more relateable Steve maybe. No childhood hero worship to overcome.]

Like with Bucky, I can imagine it wasn't exactly voluntary. It's a testament to both their characters that they managed to retain something of goodness under the stress of what they were forced to do over and over for decades.

He seemed to really believe in them. But... No, I guess that doesn't necessarily mean voluntary.