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(no subject)

Who: Natasha Romanoff + various
Broadcast: N/A
Action: Starstruck, Heron, Vanquish, Iskaulit & Siourew
When: Throughout February

Visits - Starstruck & Heron

[Don't let it be said that Natasha Romanoff isn't good to her word. She's said she would pay visits to a couple of ships, and in early February, she proves good to her word.

First on the agenda, she stops in on the Heron. It gets priority because it's not just a social call. She said she'd help Barnes out with his hair—it's obviously been a while since anyone gave it a trim, and he's agreed to trust her enough to help him out. Hopefully Barnes is in. She didn't call ahead to check.

Later, she'll show up on the Starstruck. She's actually been here a couple of times recently, eating Wanda's cookies and stopping by to see Peggy, but she's trying to make more of a habit out of it. Steve clearly wanted her to. And she hasn't seen him on those visits, so here she is again.

In Starstruck's kitchen.

Making herself some coffee.]

Exploring - Siourew

[Natasha takes the opportunity to get down on the planet. Or around it, as the case proves to be. Either way, she's taking advantage of the opportunity to get outside, to see a real sky, breathe fresh air and stretch her legs.

If anyone wants to join her for a hike, she wouldn't turn down the company.]

Hallucinations - Vanquish, Islaulit & Siourew

[As the month wears on, the tone of things changes for the worse. Natasha hadn't assumed she'd escaped the glitches affecting various members of the fleet, but she had seemed no worse for them so far. That changes as the month wears on.

It starts with flashes out of the corner of her eye. Little girls who watch her with eyes too old for their faces. They stand in ones and twos, tucked around corners and in shadows, glimpsed in the reflection in a window, there for only an instant, then gone. It doesn't end there, though. After the flashes, aural hallucinations. Voices come straight from her memory, clear and distinct, speaking in any of half a dozen different languages. They bark orders. Praise her dedication. Quiz her on training. A few words, a phrase, and then they're gone.

Then the visions escalate. The girls stay are no longer just girls. They're ghosts, sporting evidence of the injuries that killed them—they're students she killed along the way, bruised or bearing bullet wounds. Sometimes they're missing eyes, missing mouths. They float in windows.

They don't speak, because the dead don't. They just follow her. Isn't that fitting?

Natasha tries to go about her days normally. She visits the shooting range, or bars. She makes her meals in Vanquishes kitchen and she stops into bars on Iskaulit. She even goes back planetside hoping getting away from the fleet will ease the glitch, but there's no such luck. By the end of the month, she might walk into a room and for five full seconds, it's as though she's stepped into the past, back in Russia, back in the Red Room, watching girls be winnowed away until only the weapons remain, or she might turn a corner and find herself standing face to face with the distorted face of one of her marks from her early days as an assassin. She tries to hide it, but as time goes on, even she can't entirely hide the signs of stress.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Kitty is out for a walk on the ring when she notices Natasha isn't far ahead of her so she picks up her pace.] Hey.

[Natasha had thought getting out would help, and she wasn't entirely wrong.

But she wasn't entirely right, either.

When someone calls out to her, she almost doesn't turn thinking it's not real. She's heard a lot of voices in the woods today. The voice is familiar, though, and cuts through the whispers and orders. She turns just a little late, obviously tired.]

Hey—Kitty. I wasn't expecting you here.

Edited 2017-02-13 03:20 (UTC)

[She notices little signs saying something's amiss, but she doesn't put too much into it yet.] Probably good for the crew to get used to a half absentee captain now. [And this place is beautiful.]

[Natasha smiles, a little thin.]

Already planning to be derelict in your duty?

[She might sound more serious than she intends, but even so there's no force behind it.]

[She doesn't react too much to that. She's harder on herself about it than most anyone else will be.] Planning to keep spending half my nights on the Tourist. [Which, no, she doesn't love that part after there was an attack, but she can't ask Winn to move. His ship means too much to him. And she doesn't want to sacrifice her happiness for a ranking that's largely arbitrary.]

That doesn't seem so far out of the way. It's not like you're completely out of touch and out of reach. They know where to find you, right?

Of course. I only have the one boyfriend. Though for Valentine's Day we're going to be somewhere i don't even know about.

I'm just saying, half absentee seems a little rough. Even captains get some downtime.

[Natasha hadn't really considered that Kitty and Winn would spend every night together, or even half the nights.

That seems like more trouble than it's worth.]

[She sleeps better beside him.] Okay. I'll be more forgiving of me. What are you up to?

Sleeping alone, for the most part. [Normally that would not be the direction she'd deflect, but she'd rather shift the focus to her sex life than admit to seeing things that aren't there.

Most people don't pry about your sex life.]

Otherwise, taking in the sights.

Right, right, I know the happy couple stuff can grate. He's just so cute is all. Okay, stopping.

Have you been to the Institute? And even as I ask I realize it's probably more nerdy than general interest.

Different people have different approaches to these things. Probably says more about me that it hadn't occurred to me you'd want to spend most nights together.

[She forces a smile, very intentionally not glancing to the side, where something certainly not there dances in the corner of her vision.]

I haven't yet. I wanted to get outside.

Sounds like you had a good time, though.

Like you say, different approaches. Nothing wrong with that. [And the fact she hates being alone so much even when she's sleeping is more a product of damage than anything healthy too.]

I did. I am stockpiling books for the library too. I'd been picking the science section clean. The engineering books might come in useful too.

I like being outside too though. Beats adventure land or whatever they called it in the hotel with all the fake nature. Kind of reminds me of the hand-holding planet. [Plenty of differences, but there are lush, open areas. Close enough considering the space stations, polluted moon, frozen planet, and creepy planet they'd been to. This was a good change.]

[Natasha isn't exactly the poster child for health and well-adjustedness either. They can both do what works for them best there, no judgment.]

I see. Sounds like you're making a lot of good finds. I might check it out if I get some of the restlessness out of my system before we leave.

[That, and the voices that aren't there. If she's going to lose her mind, she's rather not be around too many other people.]

Do you feel cooped up on the ships too? [That can be hard for Kitty. She needs more space, more activity, more stimulation.] Or is it more of a glitch? Seems like the augments are being extra active lately.

[Natasha's lips twitch at the question about a glitch. That's sort of a yes and no, isn't it?]

Mostly just feeling a little cooped up. Maybe like there's a little extra stress to burn off too, but it's not the augment making it so I can't sit still.

[At least it's true she's not hyperactive.]

[She doesn't seem hyper enough to be like the others to Kitty either.] Any new stressors or just the usual suspects?

About the same. [It's Natasha's instinct to front, hiding any vulnerabilities. It might not be the best impulse, but it's not changing today.

Still, she might owe Kitty a better answer than that. She's been a friend.]

Maybe more of the same.

They can get pretty heavy when they stack up. Anything I can do?

I appreciate the offer, but this is going to have to run its course.

Sure. Well, for what it's worth, I hope it runs quickly.

Thanks. That makes two of us.

[Natasha says that, doing her best to keep a straight face as for a moment she sees Kitty in step as a dancer. Easy to picture knowing her training nd the way she moves.]

[Natasha is pretty impressive when it comes to holding a cover, but between the glitch fighting her and Kitty dating an FBI profiler who used to teach her tips for reading people it's hard to cover all the odd bits happening. Not that she's sure what to make of it.] Are you sure you're okay?

[Kitty is an observant woman. Natasha doesn't want to insult her.She gives a slight, pained half smile as she's seen through.]

I will be.

I feel the need to ask if you want to talk about it even if every sign is saying you don't.