driftfleet | mission 02: voice, action

Entry tags:

mission 02: voice, action

Who: ~~Steve~~ Rogers (AU)
Broadcast: Fleet
Action: Heron or Iskaulit; Work, Art Therapy, Gym
When: During drift

broadcast
If you could have any name, would you keep your own or pick something new?

action
[ If you're looking for this former star-spangled menace, he can generally be found one of two places. On the Heron, attending to his ship responsibilities, or on the Iskaulit, tentatively settling in with newer responsibilities. He can often be found in the gym, preferably at odd hours, and it's not inconceivable he might wander into the art therapy room to see what it's all about. ]

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There are times when I've wished to travel incognito.

[Booking hotel rooms with his fugitive girlfriend, cough cough.]

[ An eyebrow lifts. ]

Like that?

[ He raises a hand to wave around his face. Because, no, Steve is not aware of that fancy-schmancy holographic disguise thing. Cough. \

[He bites back a smile and glances behind himself, off camera, to see if anyone is watching. Seeing no one, he shifts his skin and all of a sudden there's a handsome fellow there who looks completely human.]

Like this, actually.

[And then he shifts back to his normal maroon-skinned self.]

It's a useful skill.

[ And now both eyebrows are trying to crawl straight up into his hairline. Of all the things he might reasonably expect to see today? That was not one of them. It takes a moment for Steve to remember to close his mouth. ]

Uh, yeah. I can see how that would be useful.

[ Vision makes a pretty human. Who'da thunk it. ]

[Judging by his expression, he's biting back a laugh at that expression.]

It's not what I'd call necessary - I could achieve a similar look with skilled application of cosmetics. But it is rather fun to play with.

[ :| ]

You like shocking people. [ it's more of a guess than a solid statement. ]

I like to observe people and their reactions to unexpected situations.

However, practically speaking, the reason for a disguise is to pass less noticeably in a crowd. My version of Earth is not quite as diverse as the population of the Fleet.

And you like to shock them.

[ He's not letting go of this, not after that poor attempt at concealing humor. Unless Vision asks him to drop it, in which case he will. There's a nod, too, at the mention of disguises. ]

Yeah, I suppose you'd stick out in a crowd, dressed like you are. With the cape and intricate robotics. Cybernetics? I mean, I know you refer to yourself as an android, but what designation do you give the physical form of your body?

[ Because he's been wondering about that and now seems like a good time to bring it up. ] Neither is mine. As far as I know, anyway. Apparently we've got aliens and gods and all sorts of beings, but I don't think I've met any of them yet.

[Now he's just trying not to let his smile show. Look, one of his creators was Tony Stark, self-appointed master of practical jokes in the lab.] As long as I judge they can handle it.

Ah, that is where it becomes complicated. Human cells infused with a special type of metal, and then constructed around certain circuitry and powered by this Stone. [He taps the Mind Stone, which briefly glows.] I am not a robot, as I contain organic material; neither am I a cyborg, which implies one that began as organic and had synthetic parts added later. Android is more ambiguous, and thus a better descriptor. Though I have also been called a "computer person".

I daresay most of the population hasn't, if it's like my timeline. More things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in your philosophy? It's more difficult to keep a secret when the population is armed with smartphones, though.

[ Steve is about to agree with the concept of smartphones and the overreach of government intrusion into people's lives - especially concerning secrets - but his attention is entirely, suddenly consumed with the yellow. He blinks, reaches up and rubs his eyes, and then stares at it again over the feed. ]

... I've seen that before, [ he offers, after scrabbling around mentally in pursuit of scattered, but vivid, memories. ] But it was blue. And a Nazi had it. [ It's the first solid memory he's had of anything before the long fall. After was ice and pain and endless training. But before. Sure, there are glimpses, enough to tell him that the Bucky of his world isn't lying. This is something else, though. A solid, terrifying weight in his gut. ] There was another name ...

[ But he can't recall it right now. Steve swallows hard, forcing himself to push away the memory until he's alone and can pick it apart. See if it leads to anything else. ]

Yeah, I can see how complicated description might be. Maybe the word hasn't been invented yet. [ and adds, ] And wasn't the original phrasing 'dreamt of in our philosophy'? Think I recall something like that in a textbook.

[Wha--no. Shit. Shit. Here he'd been thinking this whole time that this was just another face-twin, as he'd seen several times before. But he should have known better when Captain Barnes had shown up.

Hell, he'd told Barnes this was likely to happen. Wow. He feels like a total rube now.

So the Vision lets out a long, long sigh.]

It would have been the Tesseract, and while he may also have been a Nazi you are likely thinking of the founder of HYDRA.

[He looks upset, and it's entirely at himself for not putting two and two together before.] That would be why you are asking about a name? Because there's another one that you don't feel you have the right to anymore?

The Tesseract, [ He repeats, and almost winces when another slew of images promptly careens around inside his skull. It takes a lot of focus to ignore those images - at least as much as he can under the circumstances - and concentrate on what Vision is telling him. What he's saying. What he's infering. Steve may look, briefly, a little green around the gills.

And, frankly, it's only because the android has been kind to him from the moment they met that he actively makes the choice to answer at all. If it had been someone else, almost anyone else, the feed would be off and this conversation terminated. ]

I don't.

[ That's his opinion, and an underhanded admission that, yes, it is his main drive for asking about names in the first place. ]

[That wince brings back sharp memories of Wrath, his first supersoldier friend. She hadn't been a Winter Soldier, but there were too many similarities. And one of them was that his questions often brought her to a point of pain, which was the last thing he wanted.]

Ah, I'm so sorry, I didn't intend to cause you distress.

[But even if there hadn't been another Steve Rogers already here, this man is very clearly not the same person the Vision has known all his life. Enough so that he'd assumed it was just another one of those mysterious doubles that showed up from time to time, with the same look and sometimes the same voice and never the same personality.]

Is there--that is, have you come across anything you like yet?

[ Steve calls up what acting skill he remembers, or ever claimed to have, and settles his expression into something less distressful than whatever Vision is reacting to. It's a front, very clearly one, but maybe the other man will give him some leeway here. It's a hope, anyway. ]

You didn-- It's fine. It's okay.

[ Or something less than okay, but he's okay with just being okay right now. And a shrug accompanies his answer. ] There's already someone else with my name. Dunno, still trying to find something that doesn't sound. Fake. [ like he's appropriating someone else's life. ] Do you have any. Suggestions?

Edited 2019-05-22 17:44 (UTC)

[The world's greatest actor Steve Rogers is not. However, as was just pointed out, this is not exactly Steve Rogers, is it?

He'll accept the front. How not? He bites his lip and is silent for a moment.]

Anatole, for the dawn or a new beginning. Or Cassius, for emptiness. I suppose it depends which way you would like to go with the name.

[ He emits a huff of something that approximates a laugh. ]

With the way I tend to feel, Cassius wouldn't be a bad choice.

[His eyes widen a bit - is he suppressing a smile?]

That which is empty can be filled. You can draw whatever you like on a blank canvas. There are worse things to be.

[ Eyebrow raise. ]

Or left empty.

[ You know, just to be contrary. ]

There are. I just wish I could find something that feels right.

It's a rather Zen Buddhist philosophy, but yes. The absence of a thing can be art as much as the thing itself.

[But he nods, serious again.]

I hope you find something.

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mission 02: voice, action

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