001 ✯ open } { hey so glad you could make it

[captain_marvel]

Who: Carol Danvers + YOU
Where: Outside the mansion + other areas + network
When: April 1.
Rating: PG probably
Summary: Carol crash lands in Wonderland, as she do, and is trying to learn her way around.
The Story:

Comments

[outstandingbalance]

[Natasha arches an eyebrow, her lips twitching. She can't know what's under the surface, but she has a good sense when she's not getting the whole story.

There's no way this is even scratching the surface.]

Kinder, gentler warlike aliens?

[captain_marvel]

[She snorts.]

The Kree are all about control. In the beginning, war-like dominance worked for them, but when a planet as ineffectual as Earth managed to push them back they had to start playing the diplomacy side. Renounced the Accusers, all that. Now, they don't support their war mongering ways, but they don't really do much to stop it either.

[She pauses.]

No offense intended to Earth. I'm from there, after all. But in terms of the galaxy, Terrans are kind of small fish.

[outstandingbalance]

I won't take it personally. [It's a joke that has the benefit of being true. Natasha has bigger problems than what the rest of the galaxy makes of Earth.

And she's used to being underestimated.] We have enough problems without more aliens thinking we're trouble.

[captain_marvel]

More?

[She seems a little confused at that because she hadn't gotten a page.]

Did the Kree come back?

[outstandingbalance]

Not on my watch. [Which isn't quite the same as ruling the possibility out.] But there's been incursions.

Mostly, though, we have plenty of problems of our own.

[captain_marvel]

I think a lot of planets have those issues, but the Kree tend to come in and make things worse.

[Because they want to control everything like the controlling control freaks they are.]

[outstandingbalance]

Other planets have genocidal robot swarms? [She doesn't mean to sound skeptical. Or bitter. But that seems like the kind of thing only a few people were the right balance of insanely intelligent and insanely ill advised enough to do that.

Tony and Bruce fit that list.]

[captain_marvel]

[There's a long pause as she processes that.]

Other planets grow their people in pods to make sure they have pristine genetics. Does that count?

[Also wtf Fury, why was she not called sooner? Maybe there was a bet involved.]

[outstandingbalance]

[Fury must have felt like they had it under control. No idea why he'd think that, but for the most part he hasn't been wrong.]

That's different. Sounds less fun than the usual way.

[captain_marvel]

You would think. But they're all massive snobs, so really it's best if they just keep to themselves.

[She avoided them, it was for the best.]

[outstandingbalance]

I can only imagine. [Buck she'll accept it. Why wouldn't she? She shakes her head.] You have talking Raccoons in space too?

[captain_marvel]

I haven't met one yet, but probably.

[There's a lot of weird stuff in space.]

I wouldn't be surprised, anyway.

[outstandingbalance]

Might run into him. He's around here... or he was.

[Natasha hasn't seen him for a while.]

Allegedly he's from our universe.

[captain_marvel]

Huh. He got a name?

[Just so she makes sure she's got the right talking raccoon. There may be more than one.]

[outstandingbalance]

Rocket. You can't miss him.

[captain_marvel]

Duly noted.

[She files that away for future reference.]

But no other aliens have shown up here while you've been here? It's all been mostly Earth people?

[outstandingbalance]

Oh, I didn't say that. He's just the only other alien who I have reason to believe comes from the same universe or timeline... whatever dimensions Wonderland mines to bring us here.

[That is a very important distinction to make.]

[captain_marvel]

Huh.

[She considers for a moment.]

So what? We're like the loose change that fell behind the dresser of the universe?

[outstandingbalance]

[That gets a shrug out of Natasha.]

Oh, your guess is as good as mine as far as that goes.

[And does that ever rankle.]

[captain_marvel]

[Oh, they're definitely on the same page on that one.]

How long have you been stuck here?

[outstandingbalance]

Way too long.

[With some feeling.]

About a year and a half.

[captain_marvel]

[That is ... way too long.]

And no way out at all?

[outstandingbalance]

Not that we have access to. It's not something we accomplish. People leave, but not because they solve the puzzle.

[captain_marvel]

[So people do leave, but it's because something takes them away.]

How do we know where they go when they leave?

[outstandingbalance]

Not really. Sometimes people come back. Sometimes when they do, they have memories from home, but... it's complicated.

[Complicated, and there's a lot of room for suspicion.

Natasha has never had a lot of trouble being suspicious.]