entranceway | 002 ✦ Video/Action for Coffee Shop

Ok, I'll try and keep this short and sweet. There should have been a little gift outside your door in the form of chocolate with a nifty logo on it.

[A task that would have been ridiculously annoying if she hadn't had help in the form of one Percy Jackson.]

Since I've been here for like 6ish months, and it's clear I'm not going home any time soon - I figured I might as well do something semi-productive.

[No, this has absolutely nothing to do with her recent death - nope. Not at all.]

Coffee shop's open for business on the 1st floor. You can't miss it - it's right next to the training center so stop in and get your java fix sometime. Also, I guess if people want to help out, I def won't say no.

[It's not like it's a legit legit business with paperwork and things like paychecks. Makes things way less messy that way.]

One more thing before I forget - if I'm not around, I don't object to people doing their own thing as long as you don't burn it down or break everything and leave a mess in your wake. That happens and I'll find you and I will kick your butt. Don't think that I won't. Because I will.

[Or she'll call for back-up to do the butt kicking. DETAILS.]

I'll be here hanging out so stop in and say hi. We also have pie courtesy of Ned, so that's a thing. There's also non-caffeinated drinks like tea and decaf if caffeine isn't your thing.

Oh!If anybody's up for it, I'm totes looking for guinea pigs to test coffee things out on so just let me know if you're game.

[And with that that, she ends the feed and returns to setting up various colored coffee mugs behind the bar.]

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Hey.

[ Is it insensitive to say she looks like she’s seen a ghost? Will wouldn’t know the first thing about his Mirror paying her a visit from beyond the glass this morning, but he wouldn’t blame her for hesitance from this alone, seeing the spitting image of her murderer half-heartedly admiring some decorations.

As if caught, Will lets his arms hang stiff at his sides and takes a few slow paces toward her, delaying. ]

It’s a nice place. I never was much for the new age style of coffee shop, but this is -[ Glossy? Edging toward Baroque levels of intricacy? ] - cozy.

Thanks - I was going for cozy. Can I, uh, can I grab you anything?

[Her voice hushes a little, the paleness of her skin not easing up. She needed to address the elephant in the room - never having really been all that great at doing the whole awkward small talk let'spretendwhathappenedactuallydidn't type of thing.

Deep breath. Start small.]

So... Do you - do you know what happened during the whole crossover thing? What your mirror - do you... On the -

[Ok.

Maybe that wasn't quite as small as she should have gone for. And if she'd been thinking she'd have probably moved the conversation to the little back room to give them a little more privacy. But her brain had pretty much abandoned her when she saw his face.]

[ Can’t go wrong with that. For Will, who is no decorator but knows the hallmarks of someone wrapping herself in comfort and his quarters are example one. The option to leave is a window swiftly closing, trapping him in with his own (perhaps poorly employed) resolve and the strain he can feel press close to his own skin and leave a red impression. Will feels like he was entrusted with a priceless vase and threw it onto the concrete, then trying to walk around the mess but keeps stepping onto small, easily crushed pieces. ]

Ah, just a black coffee. One sugar. Please.

[ He takes a seat in one of the firmer-looking couches and folds forward almost in half, fingers threading between his knees. An inoffensive distance, he hopes. Safe, so she can leave the coffee somewhere and he can collect it independently. ]

I heard.

[ There's only so much to be said for his Mirror taking that kind of liberty at the expense of her trust. Not that killing is a liberty, but it happened initially because Will had built trust with her to enough of an extent that she let her guard down and could be taken advantage of, violated, displayed. There aren't enough apologies that he thinks will be heard. ]

If you want me to go, I will.

No. No - it's...

[Ok. No, it's really not - but it wasn't his fault. She needed to think about him in the same light as Natasha and Bucky. Their mirrors actions weren't their own. It helped that she's had about a month to process it all, get a little further out of the dark hole she'd fallen in.

She grabs the coffee for him, adding one sugar before handing it over.]

Do you - [Hmm...] Do you wanna talk? There's a little room in the back, we can... We can talk.

[If he wanted to. It'd be a good way for her to move forward somewhat, maybe even get some insight into his mirror - if not for her, then maybe for the others because Steve and Bucky definitely wanted more info.]

Yes - [ But

Their Mirror actions aren't their own, but that doesn't mean exposure therapy is the answer. ]

You want to put yourself into a small room with me?

[ She's a lot braver than she gives herself credit for if she's ready to pick at the differences between Will and the one that used his face to get close, a betrayal from a friend. Will has some experience with that. ]

[No. Yes? Maybe? She'd handled her time with Bucky and Natasha pretty well, ignoring the meltdowns that accompanied them with how soon it'd been after everything. This was how she coped, though, chucking herself into it and seeing how badly she sank.

He wasn't his mirror. And honestly, his mirror had killed in right out in the open - it wasn't gonna make a lick of difference in the long run.]

Would you rather talk about it out here?

[Around other people? There's no way it's gonna be easy, but she knew for a fact that he was his real. And as long as she kept that in mind, she'd make it through.]

[ ...Well spotted. But Will's done due diligence, he supposes, levering himself out of the couch with what feels like ancient sands grinding his joints. The coffee might be needed if he's about to help chuck her out into the deep end. ]

Not particularly. [ he concedes, coming around the bend. It isn't as though being out in the open saved Darcy. ]

[Good thing she's a pretty good swimmer. It's just kind of the way she functions, seeing how far she can run before she needs to turn herself back. Or how far before someone else pulls her back. Since her experience in dealing with chatting with the real version of the guy who killed her is kind of non-existent, proper protocol is being made up as she goes.

With a nod, she wordlessly leads him towards the back room, taking a steadying breath as she steps through the doorway. The room feels surprisingly smaller than before, sure that has something to do with the emotions coursing through her.]

[ Good swimmers are a requirement with Will, who is often spilling over his own brim or bringing the flood down around him. Darcy's struggle isn't a blip on the map, but she is one of many that's brushed shoulders with Will and become collateral. It's part and parcel with Wonderland that he sees the past and present differently and overlapping, the cognitive dissonance of knowing Beverly Katz died and hasn't died, knowing that Darcy was eviscerated and is leading him into her private room, two deaths that weighed, weigh, and will weigh.

Will observes as he follows, the subtle rise and fall in her shoulders, and falls back crossing the threshold, wandering deeper into the room at a slower pace. ]

Is there anything I can offer outside of apology?

[Collateral comes with the human job description back home, especially when aliens and gods get involved. It's a bitter pill to swallow, but an honest one.

It's hard for her to find the right words, almost tempted to ask if he knew the details of her death - of what had happened after... What had left her clothes in such a state.]

Do you know - Do you know why he did it?

[Was there anything that she needed to do to stay off the radar to be more accurate - make sure the message she'd had in her mirror wouldn't ring true...]

[ It doesn't have to be gods, just men who think they are.

But the truth is that there isn't an explanation for it that doesn't reflect on Will as well; if it is in his Mirror, it's in him, and pushed in just the right way over the course of weeks and months, who's to say it wouldn't have been aside from Will's own morality, screaming in the dark? ]

Because it made him feel powerful. More so when we are all powerless in this place.

[She's not going to judge him for his mirror's actions. If she did that, she would have to judge Bucky and Natasha as well. Their mirror's were far closer to a truth than she wanted to accept - especially where Bucky was concerned. If she started down that path, she'd never feel comfortable being alone with any of them ever again. Even the best people were capable of horrible things.]

Makes sense... Or as much sense as is possible with this kinda crap. I -

[Hmm. Nope. Over-thinking it won't help. Didn't help a month ago - won't help now.]

He left me a message on my mirror earlier today.

002 ✦ Video/Action for Coffee Shop

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