driftfleet | (no subject)

Who: Natasha Romanoff
Broadcast: video
Action: SS Vanquish
When: now or later

[Natasha's face appears on the video, looking tired but focused. Thoughtful. She also looks like the image she presents, insofar as she can control it, is intentional. She's in her quarters, but the camera is angled to reveal little aside from a blank ship wall and the edge of her bunk behind her face and shoulders. There's no fumbling.

When the video starts, she flashes a slight smile.]

As announcements go, this one's a bit late. As of the end of calibrations, I've been the listed captain for the Vanquish.

[It's not an announcement that comes with any pride, or any sense of authority.]

It has had me thinking. I know different ships treat the titles differently, take them more seriously—or less. Most of the time it hasn't mattered to me all that much.

Not like there's any qualifications for it.

[The 'but' in her words is heavily implied in the pause that follows, the slow way she sighs through her nose.]

I've been wondering lately how people would like it to be. If you had a say in it—hypothetically unless you're my crew I suppose—how would you like captains to treat their job? And what would you say their job is.

[She leans back a little, visibly waiting for a response before the video cuts out.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

It's always interesting, integrating new people in with the ones who have been there. Becoming captain was a pretty big adjustment, too, though I was already bossing everyone around.

So you weren't the first captain. You start out as first mate too?

No, we didn't have one. Well, I guess Gideon is like a perpetual first mate but she would be the captain.

We were recruited by Rip Hunter, so he was the de facto leader. His ship, his mission, yadda yadda. And then he went on to other things and I became the captain.

I'm familiar with him. He seems like he'd be... interesting in a position of authority.

It's okay, you can say "a hot mess".

I was not going to say hot mess. I was thinking it, but I wasn't going to say.

His heart was in the right place. Most of the time.

Oh, I believe that. It's more that it's hard to picture him as a leader.

It would've been hard to picture us as a team. We're not exactly "traditional".

Is there a traditional model for a team of superheroes?

I imagine one of the criteria would be "there would be consequences if they were removed from the timeline". But I guess I don't know for sure.

Sorry. I couldn't say for sure on that one.

That's kind of the paradox, I guess.

But in general, we're just kind of a band of thieves and losers who manage to not screw things up every once in awhile.