Mission 01: Action

[unspangled]

Who: Steve Rogers (AU) + Open
Broadcast: N/A
Action: On the Marsiva; Around the SS Heron
When: February 26-28; March 2, post Shuffle

[ The Marsiva ]

[ This is not the Steve Rogers you are looking for. Unsettled, in completely unfamiliar surroundings, he spends much of his time lurking in whatever corner he can find, listening in on snippets of conversations that don't involve him simply to try and figure out what happened. Where he is. He wanders what limited space there is, exploring the confines of this strange vessel, making a mental map of where things are.

He does not voluntarily initiate conversation with anyone the first day, only taking care to note where the washroom is, where the recreational areas are, where he can find food. It's not until the second day, with the same faces and same smells and the same sense of solidity that Steve lets himself believe, just a little, that this might not be a HYDRA plot. That he hasn't been captured and dragged back to Siberia for reconditioning. That this isn't a complete mindscrew. Possibly. Hopefully.

Maybe it's shortly after that potential revelation that Steve starts looking for somewhere he can get a drink. ]


[ SS Heron ]

[ And then he wakes up on a strange ship for the second time. Because nobody seems to know what moderation means. Can't a guy be kidnapped in peace? Can't he have more than a few days to get aquainted with the idea of extraterrestrials and game shows and how GOD DAMN BIG space really is? No? Well, fine then.

The confetti burst outside his door is just adding insult to injury.

Pudding isn't the worst thing he's ever eaten, though. And he can't taste anything really off about it. (Like mind-altering or sleep-inducing drugs). That's a plus. So the next logical thing to do is explore this ship. You know, in case he has to break out of it in a hurry. For reasons involving intergalactic kidnapping. And other things. ]

Comments

[unspangled]

[ Well, maybe not for the Steve that she knows, but this is the standard operating procedure for him. Just maybe dialed back as deference to so many civilians running around. ]

Oh. [ He considers that for a moment, but can't detect a lie in her phrasing. ] I'm adapting.

[ Because settling is bullshit in a situation like this. ]

[outstandingbalance]

[She takes the correction with a slight twist of her lips, not quite a smile but something adjacent to that.]

Adapting then. [He might be surprised how many people do settle. Or maybe not.] Could be worse.

[unspangled]

[ His lips thin a little at the reminder. Worse, probably for them both, would be Hydra. ]

Guess I can't argue with that. [ Steve pauses, not quite sure what to say next, and searches around mentally for something worthwhile. Something tangible. Something, ]

Sorry for Odessa. [ Sorry about almost killing her the first time. But an apology is good, right? Baby steps. ]

[outstandingbalance]

[Honestly, that's better than she was expecting. The apology, small as it is, leads her to revise her mental calculus.]

Don't be. [Should she explain why it wasn't his fault? That it was because he wasn't the one who shot at her? Because he wasn't in control at the time? It raises the question of how much he knows already.] If I held a grudge every time someone shot at me, I wouldn't have half my friends.

[Seems like an easier answer for now.]

[unspangled]

[ He raises an eyebrow at that, but his face gives away very little now. Now that he's got himself under control. ]

You must befriend some interesting people.

[ It's a better tact than arguing that he should be sorry about it. It's still jumbled up there with everything else he did, but Natasha and her red hair are very hard to forget in normal circumstances. And taking out an enemy without any collateral damage, in this case anyway, wasn't normal.

The Soldier always had collateral damage - it just wasn't obvious. ]

[outstandingbalance]

You're not wrong about that. [Even if it is an understatement. It's interesting already to note the differences and the similarities between Rogers and Barnes in the same roles—first Barnes carrying the shield, now this.]

You'll meet a few of them, if you haven't already. Your captain's a very interesting person.

[unspangled]

Interesting bad or interesting good?

[ Overall it doesn't matter. Steve will decide for himself about the captain. He isn't relishing having to follow orders again, still doesn't really know why he's here in the first place. If this is actual reality and not a new mindfuck courtesy of HYDRA. ]

[outstandingbalance]

Guess that depends on you. I wouldn't call it bad. [Even if he is an outrageous flirt. She doubts Rogers will have to face as much of that, though; the Bull's made no secret of the fact he likes redheads.] He's reliable in a fight, though. Wouldn't mind having him watching my back.

[unspangled]

[ Steve Rogers didn't know how to flirt as a 95 lbs weakling, and he doesn't know how to flirt as a 240 lb brick wall, and he's more blond than redhead. So the flirting will largely be irrelevant. But any intel is good intel, so he files away Natasha's opinion for later musing. ]

Reliable backup. [ Right, got that. ] What would you call it?

[outstandingbalance]

Interesting. [Reiterating her first observation. And if he was Tony, or even her Steve, she might leave it at that, sly and dryly sarcastic. But he's not, so she softens the answer some.] He's not from our world. Or a world anything like ours.

At least, no part of it I've seen. It takes some getting used to someone who talks about dragons like they're normal.

[unspangled]

Wait. Who talks about dragons like they're normal.

[ Somehow this conversation has gotten away from him. Does she mean the captain of his ship? Or someone else? Like, Bucky maybe. He kind of remembers something about the man reading stories with dragons in them, long ago. ]

[outstandingbalance]

Your captain, for one. His boyfriend for another. Everyone comes from their own worlds, and what count as normal is a grab bag.

[And maybe Natasha has no room to judge, considering their worlds.]

Plus, there's Thor.

[unspangled]

Oh. [ That knocks him back, mentally, for a moment, and he's silent for a little while. Just turning over the notion in his head until it maybe kind of starts to make sense. A little. ]

Who the hell is Thor?

[ Aside from the obvious mythical being from Norse stories. HYDRA was so goddamn fond of those. ]

[outstandingbalance]

Friend from home. If you haven't met him yet, then it's just a matter of time.

[And probably, Rogers deserves a warning. She'd be shocked if he hadn't met someone who knew him yet—but it's hard to say. There's also every reason to believe he's keeping his head down.]

The version of home he's from, you and him are on the same side.

[unspangled]

One of your friends [ Yes, it's an assumption on his part, but that's the way it sounds to him. And also he doesn't have any friends. Possibly barring Bucky, but that seems more like a situation where the other man thinks he has some responsibility to reach out.

He frowns, eyebrows knitting towards each other. ]

This companion of yours was HYDRA?

[outstandingbalance]

Other way around. [She says it like she's giving a report, keeping her tone neutral, simply giving him the facts.] He's an Avenger.

[unspangled]

[ The alarm recedes in short order, in that he's aware of who the Avengers are in his world, and his eyebrows settle. At least until the other part of what she's trying to tell him sinks in.

And then he literally just stares down at the redhead for a moment. ]

They let me on the ... on.

[outstandingbalance]

Oh. [She figured he'd catch on. For all his faults, the Steve she knew wasn't actually stupid. She didn't think this one would be either.

It's strange, though. Tempting to compare him to both her Steve and her Soldier, and he's not really one or the other. Not that it surprises her Rogers is entirely his own animal.] My world too.

[unspangled]

[ He looks away for a moment, staring into space under the guise of checking his personal space perimeter. Natasha might see through it, but it's doubtful anyone else will. ]

Was he a good man?

[ And be 'he', Steve obviously means the other guy carrying his name. ]

[outstandingbalance]

[She pauses, not entirely sure how to answer that. It doesn't exactly see a trap in it, but it's complicated.

After a moment, she shrugs.]

I think so. Better than me.

[unspangled]

[ He turns back now, expression skeptical. Visibly skeptical like he's allowing her to see this particular emotion. On purpose. ]

Debatable. Word is that you got out.

[outstandingbalance]

Like to think I did. It's a process.

[And when Rogers would have met her, would have remembered her, she'd just gotten a lesson in that. She traded he KGB for SHIELD, then SHIELD for the Avengers, and finally left the Avengers for whatever she was doing now.

Hard not to see the shades of grey there, morally speaking.]

[unspangled]

Everything is a process.

[ He remembers some things, a first-hand experience that only a few people would, like being sent after the only Black Widow to get out. He remembers almost all of his kills. He remembers the collateral damage too.

Where his immediate word was once shades of grey because HYDRA only allowed him monotone crayons to color in his world, he's starting to eschew the middle of the spectrum for each end. To narrow his focus a little. Black. White. Good. Bad.

To skim the surface of how deeply he fell. ]

You're a good opponent, [ he finally adds. Although Steve isn't sure, exactly, what he means by it. ]

[outstandingbalance]

Must be. If I weren't, doubt I'd have survived facing off against the Winter Soldier three times.

[But here she is. Might be luck as much as skill, and the fact that she hadn't been his—or Barnes'—primary target in Odessa.]

And you're not wrong about that. At least as long as we're still alive.

[unspangled]

Yes, I suppose. [ He huffs out something between amusement and a sigh. ] Being alive is the more important part.