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

[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.

[outstandingbalance]

It's a good start. [Spoken with the air of someone who's done some less than savory things to stay alive. And she knows it. But here they both are.]

I should probably let you settle in, but if you have any questions I'm around.

[unspangled]

It's a start. [ Jury's out on if it's a good thing. ] Yeah, I should. Keep exploring. I'll let you know if something ... if questions come up.

[outstandingbalance]

[All things considered, Natasha will call that a success for first contacts; she'll stop while she's ahead.

Even if she's not sure she believes him, it's not really about if he means it now.]