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(no subject)

Who: Natasha Romanoff + you?
Broadcast: Fleetwide, text
Action: upon request
When: now

[If Natasha thought she escaped the rumors, she's going to be disabused of the notion. The notes start appearing here and there—short and anonymous. Things like:]

Natasha has a cat named Boris.

Natasha Romanoff once killed a man in Vegas just to watch him die.

Romanoff has been lying about about her age.

[And—]

Nataasha is a lingerie model.

[That last one, it seems, comes with some evidence. Sponsor drop? Either way, a few files seem to have been uploaded to support the case.

file1
file2
file3
file4

She shouldn't be surprised those came back to haunt her, should she? The real question is if anyone will dare to comment on them.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Any particular reason you're so curious?

I'm always keen to learn more about how SHIELD operated. And in what pies it kept its fingers.

You don't approve?

Of your honeypot? Quite the opposite. I'm sure it worked admirably well. [ that's about as oblique a way to say 'you're hot' as they're ever was. ] But given its fate, I can't help but be suspect of what SHIELD had been up to.

[Oblique, and at the same time, complimented her honeypot. Which sounds much more explicit than it is.]

Can't say I blame you. It puts some missions I've had in a different light. Hard to trust after that.

And I'm certain it wasn't easy to trust to begin with.

Apparently easier than it should have been.

You certainly weren't the only one hoodwinked.

That's not really the part that bothers me.

It's certainly the part that bothers me.

[ not that natasha & co were hoodwinked, essentially. but that well before them she'd built something with a shoddy foundation. somewhere along the line, she got had. ]

Agent Fitz. Over on the Bishop. Have you talked with him?

We've talked. Maybe we should again.

Face to face next time, even.

He seems to think there's something in SHIELD worth saving. We've met a few times in person -- he's a very bright young man.

I don't doubt it. SHIELD recruited a lot of good people. And a lot of good people think it's more than the parts that were hijacked.

I hope he's right.

Time will tell for sure on that one. Don't think some of us are going to ever be quite as trusting again, though.

[She's thinking of Steve, but she could mean herself as well. It's a strange place when you can't trust your own judgment and you can't trust institutions for guidance. Natasha's still navigating where she falls in that world.]

Just as well, really.

Is it? You saying you wouldn't be a part of SHIELD if you had it to do again?

[ heavens, no. ]

I'm saying all worthwhile lessons in being too trusting come with an appropriately steep cost. Otherwise, I doubt anyone would ever learn.

I don't think anyone's ever called me too trusting before.

Perhaps they never had the guts. [ ... ] We all end up with a blind spot from time to time. Even if it's only a sparse few.

Harsh.

[Especially when it wasn't a lack of suspicion Natasha would call the problem, but a lack of perception.]

You're not wrong about blind spots, though.

Of course I'm not. [ ... ] But only because I've had a fair share of my own.

Of course.

Including an entire agency. Or so I've got to assume --
otherwise I don't see how SHIELD gets started in the first place. The SSR must get disbanded for one reason or another.

[ and she's starting to suspect why. ]

Things change. The world was evolving fast after the war, and agencies had to change too, to keep up.

[Whatever Natasha knows, she keep the details to herself.]

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