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[outstandingbalance]

[The woman who appears on the feed might be familiar to a few people. She's sitting at a table or a desk and facing the camera, composed, but a little worse for wear. She looks tired.]

You sure know how to make a girl feel at home. [Not that she's faced frost giants or dark elves before, but dropped into the middle of a fight she wasn't expecting and wasn't prepared for? One that probably should be left to gods and super soldiers? That is familiar. The last two days haven't been boring] Is that normal?

[Natasha taps the table in front of her twice, drawing a slow breath as she considers how she's going to play this. If putting her face on the network is a mistake, then she's already made it.]

I think I'm ready for the welcoming committee now.

Comments

[outstandingbalance]

[Natasha considers leaving it at that, but it's safe to assume that the truth will come out eventually. Better to control how that happens.]

I know who you are. [She says it professionally, no song and dance, no ma'ams, and no reverence in her tone. Respect, but no reverence. A pause.] Should I have mentioned that earlier?

[mucked]

[ oh bollocks. ]

No, no -- [ but it's clear she's buying herself a scrap of time to puzzle out this fresh reaction. it's different than the others. no less jarring, perhaps, but certainly less chafing. ] By my clock, this is still early hours. Let's call it under the wire.

[ but she does sigh. ] It seems that once again someone has me at a disadvantage. 21st century, I take it?

[outstandingbalance]

[There would have been smoother ways to reveal that, probably, but Natasha opted to play her hand close to her chest too.

She nods slightly at Peggy's reaction.]

Most recently. [Which, Natasha realizes, could be taken as an allusion to time travel rather than light sarcasm, but she lets it ride.] I worked with SHIELD up until a couple years ago, if that helps put us on more even footing?

[Doubtful.]

[mucked]

I've heard of SHIELD. [ which is her way of suggesting she'd heard of it here. ] So I suspect that puts us somewhere even enough. As even as can be found under these circumstances.

[ or far from it -- but she's being polite. she doesn't know who this woman is, who she knows, or which pathways might find them familiar. ]

[outstandingbalance]

[Natasha can follow the hint, and it gives her more of a sense of just women Peggy is coming from.]

I ran into one of the agents here, out getting readings on the frost giants. R&D type. Sounded like he wasn't the only one.

[So not a friend of Natasha's, but confirming that Peggy would have heard of it. Guessing at the source.]

[mucked]

There are a few running about. Yes.

[ and all of them unsettle her to varying degrees. but at least agent fitz has managed to mitigate some of that behaviour -- or so she hopes. their most recent conversation had been a good one, if a bit rough-going in the middle. ]

And few others with far less to do with SHIELD. I take it it's not much in favour these days.

[ so! she understands why natasha might be speaking of a past-tense association. ]

[outstandingbalance]

[Natasha hums, vaguely affirmative.]

Things got complicated there. [A shrug then; if Natasha is philosophical about it's in a particular, pragmatic Russian way. It also seems like risky topic, talking too much about the future with someone from the past.] Like they tend to, eventually.

[mucked]

'Complicated' seems to be a watchword of late. [ and it leaves a bilious taste in the back of her throat -- perhaps because of how often it's been knit into her experiences with steve since she's arrived. even so, she irons out her frown. ]

I won't be asking, incidentally. [ about the whys and hows and whatfors. ] I can't help but suspect I've learned far too much already.

[outstandingbalance]

Professional hazard. [Knowing too much one way or another. And usually a way to complicate things further, even if having more information meant more leverage and better perspective. But Natasha caught that frown, quick as it was.] How's that going for you?

[mucked]

[ your profession or mine she wants to ask -- before reminding herself that if the woman has worked with shield it may very well be that their professions are one and the same. something like it. quite possibly.

well, then. ]

It's not been ideal. [ and that's the honest truth. ] But I do believe you're the first who's actually allowed me to properly introduce myself, first. So that's lovely.

[ dry dry dry. and a good indication of how the others have reacted to her -- barring the two she'd known. but steve and barnes are their own conundrum. ]

[outstandingbalance]

[The implication, not unintentional, might be that there's significant overlap at least.]

I can imagine. [Only tangentially. Natasha's never been out of her time. Uncomfortable greetings, though, those she doesn't have any trouble picturing.] There must be at least three or four different ways those conversations get awkward.

[hypoxic]

[He blinks once, and then sighs. Oh, that.]

Events here -- like the one that was occurring when you arrived? They're designed based on out memories. There's speculation that the events might be symptomatic of whatever sort of digestion process Wonderland endures as it takes from us.

[outstandingbalance]

[That gets a long, flat look from Natasha before she says anything. The choice of the word digestion is particularly sits uneasy with her. It makes sense, based on the little she knows, but in another more visceral way, it doesn't make sense at all.]

That fits. [She allows slowly.] But there's no way to know what you've lost to see if I have too.

[hypoxic]

Typically, it's accidental. This was the second event I've experienced from our world, but I've not yet noticed tangible loss. We're aware of one of the Captain's missing words, and that's been the primary source of our available data thus far.

[outstandingbalance]

So you know for a fact that Rogers has lost something. [She frowns at that. She doesn't like it.] If it's giants and elves, things like that, seems like whatever's missing might not be as relevant as Steve's.

[She imagines they all of bits and pieces in their heads that no one would miss but them, especially not on the day to day.]

What happens when you lose one?

[hypoxic]

I don't believe that the things taken are necessarily related to the content of the event. ...But it's so difficult to track, there aren't concrete conclusions yet.

[And he'd prefer to converse in concrete terms, so he'll cycle back to her other question.]

There's no way to know if events are the only trigger. But when one comes from our world, we all feel it. There's vertigo at the start of an event day, and a temporary inability to gain one's bearings. That's normally when we'll begin contacting one another with regards to damage control, but not everyone is as experienced with crisis management. There are dozens of different dimensions represented here.

{ OOC: So I'm an idiot and ALL OF THIS should be replied to here. Ish. What am I doing even. }

[outstandingbalance]

Damage control. Damage control makes sense.

[That much makes sense to Natasha, at least.]

I can't say I remember anything like that when I showed up, for what it's worth. Though I guess I was struggling to get my bearings enough that I could have missed it.

[mucked]

At least.

[ she echoes the sentiment. heaven above, ms. romanoff has no idea -- and peggy will never be the sort to start describing the gut-wrenching epiphanies she's had to endure nigh-weekly since her arrival, and most of them nothing to do with the events on hand. ]

And yet I take it you likely already know as much as they do.

[outstandingbalance]

[And Natasha won't claim to—but she can see enough and imagine enough to conjecture. She can see that coming.

She knows how much she would hate having everyone knowing more than her if she were faced with the future too.]

Maybe. I can't say for sure what they know.

[mucked]

I've been informed my name crops up in a SHIELD handbook or three.

[ that's putting it mildly. but from mild seeds might come more telling fruit, depending on whether natasha confirms or denies it. ]

[outstandingbalance]

Wouldn't be surprised if it did.

[Natasha angles her head back just a little.]

I skipped a lot of the standard training, so I can't say for sure.

[mucked]

Headhunted, then?

[ it's a question. but it's also not a question. peggy's beginning to wonder whether the woman is a flipped asset of sorts -- it's not like she can ignore a name like romanoff. ]

[outstandingbalance]

[It's not a bad instinct. Hard to get more Russian than Natasha Romanoff, really. Even if the name Romanoff was far out of favor with the Soviets.]

You could say that. Independently recruited?

[mucked]

[ a name like that. hell, just the name alone might get her on a half-dozen watch lists back home. back in '47. unfairly or otherwise. she could've been a frumpy bank teller in the middle of nowhere, and a name like that would turn an ear.

it certainly turns peggy's. more so as the skinny details get added on. ]

But less so lately. [ as she'd said: complications. ]

[outstandingbalance]

Less so lately. [Natasha isn't sure how much Peggy's heard, or what might constitute telling her too much more, so she's light with the details. But f Peggy's here and Steve is...

Well.

She sacrifices a little more information on the altar pragmatism.] I left the same time Rogers did, for the same reasons.

[And mostly because he did.]