driftfleet | (no subject)

Entry tags:

(no subject)

Who: Natasha Romanoff
Broadcast: Fleedwide
Action: Iskaulit to start with
When: 16 Nov

Video

[The broadcast is brief and obviously accidental. A young girl's face appears on screen, confused and tense, then almost at once her brows draw down and together in an intense frown. Her expression is dark and thoughtful as the feed shakes, then cuts out entirely.

For those paying attention, the corridors off the Islaulit can be identified behind her before the transmission ends.]

Action

[When she wakes up, a young Natasha finds herself in what appears to be a small dance studio. Unfamiliar, but not too shocking. The mirror, the barre, the wood flooring, are all things she's accustomed to. It isn't where she expects to be, but it is somewhere she would expect to wake up in a general sense, in a general way.

Waking up somewhere strange isn't completely shocking either.

It's not until she ventures out into the rest of the Iskaulit that she starts feeling out of her depth. She can't place where she is, even where she might be. There's no outside. The structures are nothing like she's scene before. The computers are completely alien to her. The people are worse. She avoids them, of course. At least at first. Sneaking through shadows and hidden corners, in ducts if she's lucky enough to find access. She observes what she can, trying to work together the situation as she can, applying what training she can. But how much she can do is limited.

Tiny spy is out of her depth.

Which is what forces her to come out of hiding. (Maybe that was the point?)

When she finally lets herself be approached, she's already determined to put on a lost, scared face. It's for the best. That way people will underestimate her. Trust her more. It's a good plan.

The expression might not be entirely fake, though, and she can't entirely hide her suspicious skittishness. The end effect isn't entirely unlike a stray cat begging for food.]

((OOC: Augment glitch? Come play with smol murder ballerina.))

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

-- That was the agreement. [ but she's no authoritarian. calmly: ] Unless you're keen to renegotiate?

I'm not impatient. I just wonder how you intend to fill the time if you're not going to answer more questions.

I could always ask questions of my own.

[ -- peggy glances to the right, making eye contact. but only briefly. something in the ensuing beat of silence suggests she's not prepared to trust the girl to be honest with her. ]

If you wish, but you haven't offered anything in return for them.

How's about I give you piece of intel -- and you can decide whether it's worth an answer or not. Hm? I think that's pretty generous.

[ very generous. but then again, this is hardly anything like a normal interrogation. whatever similarities their roots might have, this girl isn't dottie underwood. this girl will (likely) grow up to be one of steve's dearest allies. that, alone, is enough to play outside the rule book.

no matter what the verdict, she wants to share bits of this place with the girl. explain them to her -- clarify their position in this larger fleet. ]

[This goes dangerously off script, and Natasha can't say just why Peggy would do that. She's trained well enough that she should know better.

If she had to venture a guess, Natasha would say that it's an attempt to build a greater report between the two of them, one which perhaps Peggy can use to her own advantage later on. If that's the case, then it comes with a great deal of risk.]

I accept.

[ for now, she abandons russian. ]

You understand English, don't you? [ easiest guess she's ever made. but it's not the main thrust of her intel. ] So this is merely academic. But any one of us can speak in one language and be understood in another.

The augment connected to our brains does the translation for us, [ she explains. but this time, in french.

of course, she suspect natasha understands french too. ]

Edited 2016-11-27 22:08 (UTC)

[Something like a smile touches Natasha's lips, automatic and disingenuous. She does understand all three languages. Her tutors had seen to that. She's also noticed the wrongness in language.

Peggy's explanation fits her observations. She doesn't like hearing it though.]

What do you want to know in return for that?

[ still forcing russian. peggy nods -- she can adhere to it, still. she does for barnes, sometimes. did. it's been a while.

coolly: ] ...Have you ever had your nails done?

[ off the rulebook, indeed. peggy's not interested in making a prisoner of the girl, despite the understanding that 'natalia' will likely view her overtures with contempt. primarily. but she's playing a longer game: it's about what natasha will remember, once things are set back to rights. hopefully, she'll recall peggy trying to treat her like a friend.

or something close to it. ]

Do you mean painted, or pulled out with pliers?

[Contempt is, indeed, what Natasha meets that question with. And her tone makes it very clear that the answer to these two questions is likely to be the same.]

[ her laughter is brittle -- not in the least bit happy, of course. but she can't help laughing. horror aside, the whip-quick return of the girl's answer impresses her. so, too, does its candid content. ]

The former. [ she drums her own red nails against the shuttle's piloting console. ] Although the hue remains much the same.

[Natasha snorts, though the fact Peggy laughs gets her a tiny bit more respect. If she had responded with horror or squeamishness, the girl would have been convinced that all this authority was nothing more than an act.]

As training, and for missions.

[Again the answer remains the same for both.]

Learning how to fit into a mold. It's funny, really, that whoever your handlers might be they expend an awful lot of effort to teach you what American girls learn as quickly as they learn how to breath: how to fit.

[ taught by mothers who learned from the mothers before them. taught by fathers and brothers and beaus with expectations. taught my the women who live next door to them in the lodging house -- and she thinks, again, on how she'd not been able to see through dottie's cover. so perfectly fitted to the world was she. ]

Not just American, I suppose. But I only ever saw the classroom for the girls who learned how to infiltrate America.

[ there. more information, really, than she's shared with natasha proper. a little easter egg for to remember when she's all grown up. a trail of breadcrumbs to lead her back to a conversation she may never want to have. her choice. ]

You saw one of the classrooms. You infiltrated one of the training facilities?

[Infiltrated, but not for long. She saw only the tiniest bit of the program. That much was clear.]

It's not so funny. That's just how it is.

Possibly. Possibly not. Would you like to ask that as one of your questions? We're nearly at the Starstruck; I'll allow it.

No. I know what my next question will be.

You may have time for another, though.

I may, may I?

[ a thin success, but a success all the same. ]

How old are you?

[...Good question.]

Eleven? Twelve?

[She shrugs, as though she doesn't know herself. Whether or not that's true... who knows.]

Eleven or twelve. Hm.

[ peggy watches as the starstruck comes into sight. the hatch opens -- and the auto-pilot directs the shuttle smoothly into the bay. ]

Which would you rather be?

[Natasha also watches all of this, hiding her discomfort with it behind a mask of indifference.]

Does it matter?

Not at all. Not one bit.

[ -- it doesn't matter which the girl prefers, but it does matter if she prefers. peggy probes the edges of her free will. wondering what's left of it, or what's been burned out and leaving only survivalism behind.

she'd done much the same with max when he first came to the starstruck. ]

[It's hard to tell with Natasha. If she does have a preference, she's learned very thoroughly to bury it.

But there's the sense that she's guarded, that there are things she doesn't share.]

It is my turn to ask you a question now.

[ she flicks the switches that kill the shuttle's engine. unbuckling herself, she also lets the hatch open. peggy gestures at 'natalia', in case she wants to disembark first. ]

What would you like to know?

[She taps the skin behind her own ear lightly, tentative about actually touching the augment.]

About this.

Ostensibly, the augments were put in place by the same body that keeps us here: the Atroma. You'll hear that name a lot, and they're to blame. Truth is, all we really have is guesswork.

[ the shuttle opens up on a wide bay. a few other shuttles are present, including one that appears to spend more time stationary than not. one corner boasts a gym-area, including a punching bag. oddly, perhaps, there's a record player present as well. peggy passes by them all. ]

Mine allows me to manage the communications equipment on this ship. Not all augments are the same, although they do all similarly handcuff us to the fleet. Effectively.