Agent Phil Coulson (
superagent) wrote in
entrancelogs2014-05-18 09:19 pm
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A Grand Scheme
Who: Phil and Natasha, later Steve and Bucky, too.
Where: Starting in the woods
When: 5/17
Rating: PG13
Summary: Phil needs answers about what's out there, so naturally he tries to go deep into the woods to see what's out there!
The Story:
Phil finds himself needing answers about this place and when turning the stupid pamphlet inside out and yelling Harry Potter spells yields nothing useful, he starts exploring on his own.
At one point, he finds himself trying to scale the outside of the mansion and at another, he climbs inside of a closet just to see if he can find what makes it tick, but it's when he sits and looks at the pamphlet again that he knows what answer he really needs.
Racing out of the mansion, he sets off at a steady jog towards the woods. He's in good shape and none of it really winds him, but when he hits the treeline, he slows down a little so he won't trip over roots or fallen branches.
There's something out there. There has to be and he's going to find it and then he's going to come back and get everyone home.
Where: Starting in the woods
When: 5/17
Rating: PG13
Summary: Phil needs answers about what's out there, so naturally he tries to go deep into the woods to see what's out there!
The Story:
Phil finds himself needing answers about this place and when turning the stupid pamphlet inside out and yelling Harry Potter spells yields nothing useful, he starts exploring on his own.
At one point, he finds himself trying to scale the outside of the mansion and at another, he climbs inside of a closet just to see if he can find what makes it tick, but it's when he sits and looks at the pamphlet again that he knows what answer he really needs.
Racing out of the mansion, he sets off at a steady jog towards the woods. He's in good shape and none of it really winds him, but when he hits the treeline, he slows down a little so he won't trip over roots or fallen branches.
There's something out there. There has to be and he's going to find it and then he's going to come back and get everyone home.
Phil no. -_-
It's why she's outside to see Coulson jogging towards the woods, the sight stopping her short as she watches him with a curious gaze. There's a hint of concern in her gaze, because it's not like Coulson to be hurrying anywhere unless there's an emergency, but she'd gotten no urgent summons from anyone.
Deciding that she better follow just in case something is wrong, she takes off after him, intending to catch up before he gets too far into the woods.
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Maybe the pamphlets are right and there's nothing out there but death, but that makes no sense. There has to be something doing the killing and he needs to know what that is. Besides he's moderately confident that he can take care of himself out here.
For someone always drilling it into others to have backup, he hasn't even bothered to tell anyone where he's going, probably because he knows that they would stop him. Or worse, they would try to go instead. If anyone is risking themselves, it's him.
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"Coulson! Slow down! What's wrong?"
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He stops and turns around to wait for her, but he's going to have to shake her somehow. He's not risking her life when they don't know what's out there.
"Nothing's wrong." He smiles, but it's not the most convincing one he's tossed out. "What brings you out here?"
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She slows to a stop beside him, not really winded, although her gaze narrows slightly in suspicion at his seemingly-innocent answer.
"You," she answers bluntly, propping her hands on her hips as she tips her head to the side to regard him. "If nothing's wrong, why are you here and heading deeper like you're a man on a mission?"
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He's actually a pretty good liar, but he knows that she's better at spotting lies than anyone and he's probably boned.
"I'll tell you about it back at the mansion later."
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No way is he letting her go out with him. If there really is something deadly out there, he's finding it by himself. Some part of him knows that this is utterly stupid and he's not letting that get someone else killed. Nope.
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"It's not like you to just give up on a hunch, sir."
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Because he definitely wasn't going far out into the woods on purpose just to see why he shouldn't. That was definitely not what he set out to do here. Nope.
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Consider yourself to have been appointed an unofficial bodyguard, sir.
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"If I order you back to the mansion, you're going to follow me, anyway, aren't you?"
His mind is whirring, searching for what damage control he can manage for this. Unfortunately, she's not stupid and they both know that she knows exactly what he's doing out here.
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Although she wasn't about to leave that open-ended either. She suspected the Captain would be very interested in hearing about Coulson's suddenly ingenious idea.
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She gets a false smile and a small shrug for her trouble as he heads back towards the mansion. He knows this isn't the end of all of this, but he's hoping he can cut it off at the pass and find a good excuse before she presses too far. She'll see through it, of course, but maybe he can tire her out with excuses.
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Maybe they should go ask Steve. Somehow that thought made the guilt lift a little, because focusing on the Captain somehow made her doubts fade a little. If Steve thought Phil's plan of exploring the woods was a good one, then she'd go along with it.
"Maybe we should ask Steve," she suggested after a moment as they traipse through the trees and she's grateful when they start thinning, indicating they're nearly at the edge of the woods. She's not superstitious or anything but this place gives her the creeps. She doesn't like it.
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"I wouldn't want to bother him."
The last thing he wants is someone else--his personal hero--running out there in his place. He wants to get them all home safe. As far as he's concerned, he's already had his second chance. Their safety comes before his own.
"Maybe we should just go do something else."
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"Besides, he's very into this whole team thing. And like it or not, Sir, you are very much a member of the team now."
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"I am not."
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"Of course you are. You've earned it as much as any of us."
She means that too, just in case he's worried she's joking with him for mere distraction's sake. The distraction's a nice side benefit but it doesn't make the words any less true.
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"Don't be ridiculous. Even if I hadn't died, I wouldn't have been able to fight with you out there. I'm not on that level."
It's not that he doesn't have confidence or think himself capable in general, but he isn't capable of that. His skill set lends itself to a very different job. There's overlap, but he's no spring chicken and while he can handle hand-to-hand combat and firearms, fighting on that level is entirely outside of that. He does better being the brains behind the fighting--an eye in the sky that makes the tough calls, but not a fighter of that caliber.
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They're not like anyone else in SHIELD. Sure, a couple of them are agents, but they're exceptional agents to begin with and then you add to that several people who could run circles around most SHIELD agents. Phil can offer support, but that's really the extent.
As they come up on the hall where they're all housed, he stops.
"You weren't really serious about bothering Captain Rogers, were you?"
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At his question, she gives him a cheerful smile, because it's far too late for him now. "Serious? What do you think?"
And before he can answer, she lifts her hand and raps loudly on the Captain's door.
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Well, it's not that he had even done anything that dangerous, but Steve doesn't want him out of his sight, and so he's taken some measures to keep him safe, where Steve can keep an eye on him. Which somehow explains why Bucky is tied to a chair in Steve's room.
The knock is urgent enough that Steve stands immediately, glancing at Bucky over his shoulder as he moves to carefully open the door.
Two more of his team stand there, and Steve nods slowly to each of them. "Agent. Natasha. What's going on here?" He gets the feeling he's not going to like it, whatever it is.
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He jumps in before Natasha can answer, because he doesn't really like the answer that he's expecting from her. His stance is without much of its usual quiet confidence. His shoulders are tense and he's clearly uncomfortable as his eyes scan around looking for an out.
Really, if there's one thing he regrets most about today, it's Natasha catching him in the woods.
Peering into the room, he catches sight of what appears to be Bucky tied to a chair. Oh, okay.
"And you look... busy? We'll, uh, leave you to that."
His eyebrows raise as he indicates Bucky, still tied to the chair. Yup.
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The last thing he expected was Steve tying him to the chair the minute he sat down. It's frankly pretty damn embarrassing how easy it was, but at the time he'd thought there was some explanation, or some way to talk Steve out of it without either of them getting hurt.
He's definitely not staying like this for however long this crazy event lasts. When the guy -- Coulson, wasn't it? -- offers to leave, he leans forward as far as he can.
"Like hell you will! One of you wanna get in here and untie me already? Or talk some damn sense into Steve?"
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Of course, her arm is still firmly hooked with Coulson's because he's not getting away that easily, not after what she had just caught him doing.
"My. Did we pick a bad time to interrupt, Captain?" she asked, her tone deceptively light as she gives her boss a tug that should have him following her past the door and into the room. Her gaze holds a hint of humor as she meets Bucky's gaze.
"What did you do? And is this punishment or reward? Wait, forget I asked, I don't think I actually want to know."
And there were other reasons she was here that had nothing to do with what Steve and Bucky got up to in their off time. Her expression turns a bit more serious as she meets Steve's gaze, communicating that this was serious in a brief glance that her light tone didn't match. "Coulson and I bumped into each other out in the woods, actually. We thought it might be a good idea to get your opinion on checking out how deep we can explore before we're stopped."
Because she strongly suspected he'd have an opinion. And it was obvious people were acting a little... strange today.
Unless this was a regular thing she'd interrupted, of course. Maybe she'd been setting Steve up with the wrong people.
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Besides, this is for Bucky's own good.
"Not a bad time. Just had to make sure Bucky stayed somewhere I could keep an eye on him." This is the best place for him at the moment, plain and simple. There's been talk of murder making its way through the mansion and Steve doesn't want Bucky anywhere near that. He's not losing him again, even to a temporary death.
When Natasha gives him that look, Steve instantly picks up on it and then sends a concerned glance Coulson's way. "You were trying to test the borders of this place? I thought we all agreed that was a bad idea."
Can none of them be trusted to take care of themselves? Steve sighs and steps forward to take Coulson's arm. "Natasha, I'm gonna need another chair."
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"That's not what I said and that's not--it's more complicated than that. I was just looking into something. I wasn't going to go that far."
He rolls his eyes, trying to cover up what he knows is likely an obvious lie to Natasha, though he's still not sure how good Rogers is at reading people.
As Steve comes towards him, he pulls his free arm back and tries to twist out of Natasha's grip.
"You're not tying me to a chair."
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Then she goes on, explaining why they're here to begin with. Bucky settles back against the chair, the ropes momentarily forgotten as he watches the three of them. Steve is overly paranoid about him for a number of reasons, most of them imagined. Coulson, on the other hand... Wandering off into the woods is actually pretty serious.
He doesn't interject. While their attention is on Coulson, he starts testing the ropes. They're not tight enough to be uncomfortable, which means he might be able to slip them.
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She paused there a moment, blinking down at it with a puzzled frown, as if wondering why she'd agreed to this, but she shook it off, glancing back over at where Steve and Coulson were standing - Steve with that frown of his that makes you feel like you've been caught with your hand in the cookie jar and Coulson... well, she'd have more sympathy for him if he hadn't been trying to give them all a heart attack all over again.
"Will this work?" she asks simply, arching an eyebrow in patient stubbornness, even though she already knows the answer to that question.
Although standing where she is, it's not hard to spot the way Barnes is testing the ropes and she makes a softly chiding sound, amused, as she comes to crouch behind him, his position in the chair bringing her head just below his and just barely within his line of sight. She lets the fingers of one hand reach out and trail down his arm before coming to test the ropes for herself.
"And what bad idea did you have?"
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He'll hear Coulson out, but not until he can be certain he won't rush off again and try to do something reckless.
As he pulls him over to the chair, using his strength much like he did with Bucky to ensure that Coulson doesn't try to make a break for it, Steve glances over and realizes that Natasha's testing Bucky's restraints. They should hold, Steve had been careful with how he tied them, but Bucky's also pretty resourceful. At least he has Natasha to help keep an eye on him now.
Steve drops Coulson into the empty chair and then crosses his arms over his chest as he sizes him up. "So what were you looking into, exactly?"
He exchanges a glance with Natasha and then nods to the closet. He needs more rope.
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He's really got to work on his reaction time and he's not sure if he's more embarrassed that he hadn't reacted fast enough or that it had happened because he'd been somewhat distracted by the whole childhood hero thing.
In the end, he just stammers a little and puts up a minimal fight, stumbling a little on his way to the chair and then sitting down to glare back at the two of them.
With a sigh, he looks back up at Steve. "Uh..."
And then he makes what could likely be another mistake and tries to bolt as Steve's attention is on Natasha, pushing out of the chair with practiced speed and moving towards the door faster than even he'd thought himself capable.
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He tenses, turns away, and grits his teeth just to keep himself from trying to lean into her touch. He's mostly successful. Any other time, sure, he wouldn't worry too much about it, but this is -- this isn't him. Just like this whole setup isn't Steve. He wonders if it's effecting Natasha, too. If he can reason with her.
"This isn't about something I did recently." He replies, looking back at her again. He doesn't expect this conversation to get past Steve and his super hearing, but he's got Coulson to deal with at the moment. "Nat, come on, please."