driftfleet | 084.1 Video

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084.1 Video

Who: Lance Hunter and yourself, should you choose to engage!
Broadcast: yes
Action: Marsiva
When: no time like the present!

[ the comm seems to be haphazardly leaning against something, and the image you get is crooked. a sleeping man, who almost instantly awakes with a start. no scream, mercifully, he's quite over screamer videos, and besides, it wouldn't really be that surprising under the circumstances, now, would it? his eyes dart around the room, his feet flying off the cot and touching the ground. the moment he speaks, his accent undeniably and unapologetically identifies him as an englishman. ]

Not again - [ he groans, looking around him. the first time he was knocked out and kidnapped happened because he was foolish, he trusted a friend when clearly he had overestimated the bond, bloody spies, he's had his fill of bloody spies. but this time - he has no idea what happened. one minute, he's in a pod, sailing to freedom and the next - he's in this bed. he must not have deactivated something. do they have a blasted tracker beam on these things? so paranoid! ] Oi, @therealshield, you forgot to paint your eagle - I'm gonna have to deduct your merits - [ no answer. the room really doesn't seem like anywhere his previous captors kept him in, and that's rarely a coincidence. he gets up, and the comm seems to slip off whatever it was leaning against and end up in a new position, one that shows the back of the man, as he walks towards a window. ] ...you have got to be joking.

[ and a moment later ] Bloody aliens!

[ the man comes in and out of the frame, as he's clearly examining his surroundings, before he heads back to check on what he's got by his cot, and notices the comm. picking it up, you now get a close up of his face - ] Little red light - you're either going to explode or - [ that sure looks like a camera, doesn't it? he holds it directly in front of his face. ]

Take me to your leader.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ the way she says the accords make it seem like they should be instantly recognizable. and ominous. what happens to shield under these accords? things do have a tendency to go from bad to worse as time progresses, but how bad is worse? and which shield triumphs and endures to see their arrival? ]

Depends on the accords.

[ he will say nothing regarding dc. does he really need to, anyway? ]

[Confirmation she's not wrong.]

The Sokovia Accords. No bells?

An entire orchestra, but that might just be the headache.

[ he's getting a massive one. why is everyone allergic to clarity! ]

[Surely at least Natasha has an excuse. But she's not entirely without pity.]

In reaction to some very public disasters, the UN drafted the Sokovia accords, insisting on oversight for enhanced individuals, including the Avengers.

[That's the elevator pitch, at least.]

Maybe especially the Avengers.

[ she does, but he's had his fill of spy excuses.

headaches, he is getting so many of them, all at once. yes, let us put the world's most powerful weapons in the hands of one of the most inefficient, financially and politically motivated hodgepodge of intrigue the world has ever formed. let's put veto power over avengers missions in the hands of leaders who are supported by the very people they are meant to stop. that can't possibly go wrong, now, can it? ]

And how exactly do they mean to enforce that? [ because he's seen some enhanced people up close and stopping them is - well, it takes more fire power than the UN is normally willing or able to utilize. ]

Let's call that part a work in progress.

[Her lips twitch a little, and she gives him the slightest shrug.]

So now you're up to date. Which I would say puts me at a disadvantage.

Does it? Well that was remarkably easy.

[ so dry it swallows the pools of sarcasm right up. he has hearsay about a likely futile future accord, she has actual futuristic life experiences. he's say the advantage is still very much hers. ]

[The smile he gets is one usually reserved for Tony, one that says he's not half as cute as he thinks he's being.]

You know who I am, and what I'm working with. I'd call that a disadvantage.

[ he wholeheartedly agrees - he isn't half as cute, he's at least doubly so. ]

So does most of the world nowadays, sweetheart. [ he can almost physically feel bobbi glaring at him. and throwing a button at his head. ]

[And yet, here they are.]

All right. [She says the word slowly, as though letting him consider if this is a game he really wants to play an instant longer.] And you are?

[ he is lance if-there's-a-bad-choice-to-be-made-I'm-going-to-make-it hunter, so - actually, yes, yes it is. but he's also alone and looking for allies here. what to do, what to do, the struggle is real. ]

Beyond description, really. But if you're looking for a name [ since he already gave it publicly to fitz. if peggy nabbed it, he finds it hard to believe romanoff didn't do the same. ] it's Lance Hunter. Lancelot, really, but a man can only be so charming before it becomes too unfair.

Oh, I wouldn't worry about that. [The real question here is whether he wants them to have the kind of relationship where he tells her things, and she pretends not to know them already, or if they want to have the kind of relationship where she finds out the answers to her question herself.

The second way involves a lot more hacked emails and being dangled in front of oncoming subway trains.]

Lancelot. [Quite pointedly.] Not exactly standard issue, are you?

[ he would prefer to keep the hacking to a minimum, but would still assume it's going on. he'd rather cut the pretense completely out but spies never seem to have that option. ]

I am one of a kind.

[ he will take none of the jibs as anything but compliments. ]

You are aware I did psychological evaluations for SHIELD?

[Which means she's writing one internally for him as they speak. Just as a point of interest.]

Your point being?

[ people have been telling him what they think is wrong with him for years, natasha, get in line. ]

[Oh, if Natasha was going to start telling people what she thinks is wrong with them, he'd be low on the list.]

My point being that if you're insecure enough to waste both of our time parrying perceived threats to your ego, I can excuse myself and we can try talking again when you've had some time to get you've had some time to process the situation.

There are no threats to my ego, love.

[ it's self sustaining. really, insecure, we're going with that cliche? he's not that easy to rattle. there are simply things he will not talk about on a public frequency on live television. ]

Right. I'll give you some time then.

[With men, it's always a threat to their ego. She's not trying to rattle him, but for a guy who wants to cut the crap, he's full of it.]

When you're ready to talk, I'm not that hard to find.

[Not when she doesn't mind being found, at least.]

[ that's sexist. and true to an extent, his ego is feeling a touch bruised from being abducted twice in a row. but it's more anger that's driving his purposely insufferable behavior, anger and suspicion and anger at having to be suspicious all the bloody time - it's exhausting! ]

Then perhaps I don't have that much of an advantage after all. [ because that sure sounds nothing like the romanoff he's heard of. when spies do anything, there's always a hidden agenda. the question is, will it benefit him or harm him?

it could also just be another one of those goddamned holographic masks. he wonders, how badly does she want to hear what he has to say? is it enough to prove her face is her own? ]

[Not sexism. Experience. Women in their line of work aren't allowed to let their ego get in the way.

But while Natasha isn't known for being merciful, she's also not without understanding. Instead of ending the communication outright, she switches to a private channel. It hadn't been a priority for her before. She knew she wasn't saying anything that wasn't already publicly available, and she wasn't worried about her own comportment.

The same might not be true of him.]

Do you always take idioms so literally?

[Because no, he never had her at a disadvantage. Natasha was trained to be the most dangerous when she appeared to be the most vulnerable.]

[ there are some things he wouldn't say even on a private channel. not even to fitz, who's supposed to already know them but doesn't because things can never just be that easy, can they? the switch to private does at least reassure him that she listens in on his other conversations as he expected, as she has the frequency peggy and fitz asked for before they could encode their own little chats. at this point of today, anything going as he expects is a relief. ]

May as well with your kind, I have enough of a headache without trying to decipher your meaning.

[ it has as much of a chance to be true as anything else out of the lips of a spy. it does not take a psychological genius to figure out that that particular aggression is not aimed at her. he's still reeling from the magnitude of the secret bobbi has been keeping from him. he should be used to it, really, he should have known better. you don't pet the hell beast, it will bite your hand off. ]

Have you considered that you're making this more difficult than it has to be?

[She doubts that. Or else, he figures it's worth it. Which is his call to make, if that's where he falls on it.]

It's in the job description.

[ things are difficult anyway, he may as well be the cause of some of it, have some measure of control, take out some frustrations by causing someone else to experience them.

but, since she's as close to an ally as he's likely to get in this place, if she's who she says she is, he may as well offer an olive branch. ]

As you well know. [ it's - olive adjacent? ]

I don't know, I seems like a big part of my job is not over-complicating things.

[She has teammates, enemies, politicians and friends all doing their very best to make things as complicated as they can.

A lot of what she does is figure out how to cut the crap.]

But I get what you mean.

[ sometimes, it's cutting the crap that complicates things. and sometimes, you just have to complicate things so you're not suffering alone. ]

Cheers. You said not a lot of SHIELD talk in these parts - what about ours? [ tell him his fortune natasha, who wins - which shield? ]

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