driftfleet | Action + Video | Captain on the bridge. Sort of...

Entry tags:

Action + Video | Captain on the bridge. Sort of...

Who: Steve and you!

Broadcast: Video, yes: Fleetwide

Action: SS Bishop
When: Yesterday, after arrival

ACTION:
Steve has just about managed to acquaint himself with the strange, new idea that he is now in space when the next curve is thrown his way. One second he's standing in a hallway, just about to walk up and ask someone if they have any idea what he's doing here. The next, he's...on a bridge. With confetti? And are those pudding cups? What the Hell is going on? He blinks around, his first instinct to always look and see if there is some sort of fight about to happen. Hands are in fists and he really wishes his shield was somewhere around here. But he dropped that in the dirt a few months ago, so fat chance.

Steve will stand down slowly, once no one attacks him right off the bat. Sadly, he's been in this position before; in a strange place and time, not knowing why or how. His thoughts are back on Earth and with the friends he's broken out of their floating prison and now, seemingly, abandoned. Maybe there is a way out of here. Or, maybe, he's needed here more? Hopefully someone is going to be able to talk him through it all.

VIDEO:

Many hours later, Steve sends out a broadcast, finally understanding how and wanting to reach out to anyone else that might be here. Anyone else he might know.

"Uh. Hey. My name is Steve Rogers. Hopefully I'm doing this right and you can all see and hear me. I just arrived about..." He looks down at something and then scrubs a hand over his face as though in disbelief. "Two days ago. A lot got packed into those days, it seems. But I'm sure you all know how that feels."

Steve pauses, shifting a bit before getting closer to the camera, face serious. "I've met some people here so I know that what happened to me has happened to a lot of other good people. I have questions and a lot of things I want to look into. But first, I want to know who else is out there. Who else might have the same questions I do and who wants to start getting some answers."

He moves back and tries to smile. "Or who maybe just wants to talk? Anything. So, yeah. Thanks. How do I....um. Is it this butt-"

Video cuts off abruptly.

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"Glad to have you. On my way." Her feed cuts out then, deliberate. It's a lot. And there's a lot to catch Steve up on. Other people could handle most of that—Vision, Thor, Wanda. By and large, she trusts them to bring him up to speed on the basics. There's information she wants to make sure he gets, though.

And information she wants to be sure he's not alone when he gets.

It's not long before she docks. Bishop isn't a ship she knows well, hasn't been close to people on board enough to visit, but clearly that's going to change. She'll address how the crew would respond to spies sneaking onto their ship and stealing their coffee later.

Maybe fifteen minutes after the video, Natasha shows up on the bridge. Her hair's different from what he'd remember. Just recently dyed back to red. "Hey."

Nat is absolutely getting dragged into a hug from the super soldier. "Nice hair," he comments lightly, not really putting much import on it. She's the Black Widow after all.

His own hair is a little too long since he hasn't bothered cutting it, but nothing too noticeable. He still swipes at it a little, trying to look more like he would have, before. He knows now that people come from all different times. Who knew what Nat remembered from Earth, last.

"C'mon." He leads her off the bridge and toward the room he'd claimed. Inside, just as promised, is one of those welcome pudding cups. Steve tosses it over with a grin.

"How have you been?" He asks seriously. "I've already talked a little with Wanda, Loki, and a few others. This is...a lot to take in."

Natasha catches it easily out of the air, one brow quirked up with familiar humor. Steve's still Steve. There's a lightness to him that she hasn't seen in a while; not in her recent memories, at least.

It's nice. Comforting.

"Highs and lows. You know how things are." Avoiding a long story, answers she's not ready to give, things she's not sure he needs to hear. It's been a rough few months. A little of that shows in her eyes and her tone, a level of honesty she allows with him.

Natasha will tell him later, when he's had time to settle in. "They been bringing you up to speed?"

She looks tired and Steve isn't sure why. Wearing down Nat is a talent and he's worried about who or what was working on honing it. Seeing her like this at least tamps down his urge to start rapid-fire questions. Instead he starts eating a pudding cup of his own. Super-soldier metabolism. He's going to have to figure out how to fuel it.

"I've gotten a good amount of information. Once again I'm on camera for entertainment. Seems to be my lot on life." He smirks, teasing darkly. "I know there's a lot of us here. You, Wanda, Vision, Thor, and Loki. No word about Tony which is for the best, maybe. We don't need to be feuding on top of all the rest of this."

"Tony was here." Carefully. She's still not sure how much he knows and how much she'll have to explain. But Steve always caught on quick. "Been and gone, a couple of times now. There's no way to get out, but sometimes we leave anyway."

She opens the pudding and tastes it, giving a shrug. She supposes you could call it a food.

"It was messy, when he was here."

Edited 2019-01-12 06:06 (UTC)

Steve flinches a little, imagining how bad 'messy' could be. But then again, people seem to be taken from all sorts of timelines. Who knew when Tony was yanked from. Who knew how much worse things could be in a few years?

Steve exhales and shakes his head. "I imagine he still wasn't in much of a forgiving mood. Been a few months now and he still hasn't rang me up..."

He sighs again and turns to the 'pudding'. It's not great but be can't be particular.

"How've you been? Honestly, Nat. I've talked to enough people to know this isn't a vacation."

"I've been—" she starts, automatically beginning to brush off the question. She cuts off though. This is Steve. He'll know she's lying, dodging him. She wasn't exactly trying to hide it. And she owed him better. "I've been better."

The way he says that, that it's been a few months, that tells Natasha everything she needs to know about what time he's from.

"I've been here over two years, Steve. And in that time, I've remembered things from home twice." First the Avengers breaking up, then... somehow, something even worse. She won't elaborate on that. Not now. But he deserves to know at least some of where she is. "I've seen people come and go, and show up again, and it's not always easy. But here I am."

She suddenly treats the pudding cup like it's very, very interesting "But I'm glad to see you here."

Steve doesn't care about his pudding cup anymore. He sets it down and moves closer to Nat, resting a hand gently on her shoulder. Two years might have passed but Steve still knows her well enough. "I'm glad to see you, too. Last time I woke up in a new world, I didn't have any friends to help me through it."

He pats her once and then leans back again.

"I've talked to people. Some have come and left and then come again. Some are new like me. There doesn't seem to be a logic for it. But it proves it's possible. To leave. To go home in one piece.

"That's hope."

His hand is reassuring. She's missed having him around. Even with everything, it helps. There's always something solid about Steve.

Even if it's more complicated than he realizes.

She pivots then, because there's something else and he ought to hear it from her if he hasn't heard it already.

"Barnes is here." It's not just a report. She glances up, because she knows just how seriously Steve takes his friend. "He was here before, too, for longer than me. He was a good ally. But he came back without any memory of being here before. He doesn't remember Germany either. He seems... reasonably stable, all things considered."

Edited 2019-01-14 01:10 (UTC)

That just about sucks the air out of the room. Bucky is here. He's here, not frozen in a tube where Steve had left him. But also, apparently, not as centered as he had been back in Germany. Who knew where Bucky had been lifted from? For all Steve knew it was seconds after he was pulled from the river.

Which would explain why he hadn't reached out when Steve broadcast out. Bucky knew he was here, too. So he was still running in the wrong direction.

Steve exhales, exhausted all over again at the progress lost.

"Good. That he's stable, I mean. Not...not him being here..." He exhales again, shaking his head and closing his eyes. "You knowing what he remembers means you talked to him. Which...good. That's good. Good sign that he's talking to people."

"Vision's also made contact, some others. As far as I know, no incidents." Not just no incidents, Natasha is confident he doesn't want one. That he's avoiding them actively. But he's also not as healed as the Barnes who'd been here before had been, who she known so well.

One in a long list of reasons Natasha is tired these days.

"We've tried to make it clear to him that he's got resources here. Didn't exactly want to try cornering him, though."

Meaning Natasha was making a point of giving Barnes all the space he needed.

"Yeah. That's smart."

It stings a little, knowing that Bucky is avoiding him. But that only comes from the perspective of them being on firmer ground with each other. He can still remember the run-down room he found Bucky in. The notebook. The way Bucky had looked at him and said he read about Steve in a museum.

He needs this space and he needs time. Steve thought he was confused and lost here? Add in all of Bucky's other issues and Steve doesn't envy his friend at all.

"If you talk to him again, let him know I'm here. However he needs me to be, even if that means staying away."

"You're not going to tell him yourself?" Natasha asks it neutrally, clarifying a statement of fact. There are plenty of reasons for Steve not to go directly to Barnes. But there's plenty of reason for him to want to talk to him too. "Sure, if I run into him again, I'll let him know."

A short pause, then she adds, "He's on the Starduck."

"I sent out a broadcast and he didn't even send me a line. That tells me everything I need to know about where his head's at. He'll come to me when he's able." Hopefully, he thinks but doesn't say. It's probably written all over his face, anyway.

"The Starduck. Weird ship names." He looks up. "And he's good? Got a good crew around him? Healthy?"

"It used to be two ships. When they combined the two, they smashed the name together too. It used to be the Starstruck." Less weird. And explaining that seems like the gentler option than talking about Barnes' mental state. "It's where you and Sam were when you were here last time. There's been a lot of turnover with the crew, but... there's some good people over there. They'll watch his back."

"Good." And it is, even if the word comes out flat. "I'm glad there's good people. And that it's my old ship. If it was good enough for me and Sam then...I figure..." He shrugs instead of finishing that. A moment later he's pasting on a smile and kicking his foot out to knock at Nat's calf.

"What about your crew? Got friends here?"

"I have you now." She says it sincerely. "And there's Vision, Wanda, Thor... My ship is all right. I'm the first mate on the Vanquish; works pretty well, we tend not to pry too much in each other's business." Not the closest of crews. That doesn't really bother her.

"But I have some friends, I guess. Not my idea, but..."

"This is a strange situation. We need allies wherever we can find them. I've actually met a kid named Red Robin who's from an alternate reality. Smart kid. Crime fighter like the spider boy."

Steve smiles encouragingly. Friendship isn't exactly Nat's forte but that doesn't stop her from accumulating a few.

He has to ask, though:

"No Bruce or Clint, huh?"

"Bruce was here for a while. Not long. We only had the chance to talk a couple of times." It was as awkward as you might expect considering the last time they talked before that. There had been a lot to work out. And Bruce had been Bruce.

She shakes her head. "Clint... that's a weird one, actually. Clint hasn't been here. Now our Clint, then guy I've known for years. But there was a Clint, and he was still kind of Clint. He had a protege with him. She was cute."

It had been comforting in a way, and even worse than not having Clint around in another. She could have used her best friend a time or two. But here they are.

"Things get real interesting around here."

"I heard about that. Different versions of us. Different universes. I haven't encountered it yet, but I bet it's... confusing. To say the least."

He picks up the pudding and finishes it off with a few large bites. It gives him time to process everything he's now learned.

"What's next here, then? I heard about planets and...reality shows and all that. Is there a schedule? TV Guide for our lives in this place?"

"Not exactly. Not sure if it's really a TV show like that, or more of a streaming situation. Either way, it's safe to assume that more or less anything we're doing is being watched. Allegedly there's some privacy, but..." Natasha shrugs. She trusts that about as much as she trusts any shady organization full of faceless interests that she knows nothing about. So not even slightly.

"We're about due for another planet, I figure. If not that then a space station or a pirate fleet or something. We don't usually go more than a couple of weeks without something interesting. They mix up just what it is. Could be a tourist trap, or it could be a planetary war. Don't expect too much warning."

"I heard about cannibals from a kid, here. And...hotel planets. All sorts of strange things. There doesn't seem to be a rhyme or reason to it." Which Natasha supports with what she's saying. Planetary war. Steve remembers the armory he was shown to. Hopefully, at least, he won't have to fire on other people in the fleet.

"While we have some time I'm thinking about getting all of us together for a dinner. Someplace for us all to talk and maybe plan a next course of action. Talk about what has already been done?"

"That's not entirely true. They don't do the same thing too many times in a row." That's the closest Natasha's come to a consistent pattern. They might be at an abandoned planet one month, in the middle of a war the next, then at a resort the week after, then somewhere more blue collar, but it's unlikely they'll do the same thing twice. Even if they hit a couple of rough worlds in a row, they'll be rough in different ways.

"Dinner, huh? Should I bring something?"

"Any chance of an alcohol being found here that works on a super metabolism?" He's mostly joking. Mostly. But he smiles all the same, settling down just a little. This at least feels normal even if it really isn't. The space is different and the situation uncertain but, in the end, it's them against something bad. That's as familiar as it gets.

"Nah, just bring you. I'm gonna figure out how to make a pizza with these...weird gels that we're saddled with. Nothing can be worse than boiled cabbage soup ala Depression."

"Oh, I bet I've had worse." Dryly, not assigning much weight to the comment or elaborating on it further. Cabbage soup isn't high on her list of hopes and dreams, but having it with friends... she can find some affection for that.

"And I can't guarantee something that will get you drunk, but in my experience, it always works better when you don't drink alone." Whether at dinner or on the Iskaulit, or down the line when they stop in at the next planet, Natasha has no problem volunteering to be a drinking buddy.

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