entrancelogs | [Semi-Closed] Event Aftermaths

Who: Natasha Romanoff and various friends/teammates
Where: Around the Manor
When: The days following the Mirror Event and Hunt for the Sword
Rating: PG-13ish?
Summary: Catch-all post for Natasha touching base with the newly-returned people who got sucked to the Other Side
The Story:

With the sword handed over to the Queen of Hearts and the Mirrors now returning to their own side, Natasha's both a little relieved and more than a little worried about what this will mean for the returningReals who were trapped over there. The fact that she's one of the only few on her team that didn't end up transitioning over at some point is not lost on her, has her wondering why and for what purpose, but she suspect she knows all the same. Which is why she spends the immediate first few days once more combing the Manor, this time searching out her teammates and friends she knows were drawn to the Other Side and making sure they'd returned mostly unharmed.

And if she had to start composing apologies for what her Mirror might have done over there. At the very least, she wanted to know more, if they were willing to tell her.

[[OOC: This is a Semi-Closed log for some pre-arranged threads to deal with the fallout of encounters with her Mirror Side, or the visit to the Mirror Side in general. Interested in threading out something with her, feel free to ping me!]]

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And there's the words she was dreading, the slim hope she'd been holding onto that maybe this was one uncomfortable complication she could avoid, but no. Especially not after her encounter with James - a distinction she could make with ease, because the man beside her was definitely not him.

While he puts his glass down, she abruptly knocks hers back and starts wishing for far more alcohol than she's already pulled out. Suddenly escaping this topic and going skinny dipping instead sounded much more appealing.

She gives him the truth, though. because she owes him that, at least. Especially not knowing how much her Mirror had said. His had certainly had plenty he wanted to discuss.

"You could say that."

"He was that friendly, huh?" He says it lightly, giving her a moment before he tries to press.

The doubts he has about what her mirror said are slowly being replaced by a sinking feeling. The Winter Soldier isn't a surprise to Natasha. She's encountered him more than once, knows him better than Bucky does, so he doesn't expect that alone to be the reason she's shaken. She usually makes a good play at pretending to be invulnerable - at least in front of him.

"Turns out our mirrors share a past." He says, watching her face. "Did he -- do something? Say something to you?"

He remembers what happened to Steve, so he isn't quite willing to jump to conclusions or demand answers just yet. He wants to know what happened and see how she's handling this first, and not just the part of it that she wants him to see.

"It would have been a very short encounter if he hadn't," she drawls, and there's a hint of sarcasm in her voice that's more self-depreciating than directed at him. It had not been a short encounter. Or perhaps just not short enough for her tastes. Which might have been nonexistent actually, had she been given a choice in the matter. James was an uncomfortable shadow from her past that she still didn't know how to work around. Especially with Bucky sitting at her side and watching her with far more intentness than was safe for either of them.

"What happened to you on the other side? With my Mirror?"

There. Blunt and straightforward, because she needs to know. Anything and everything she can say in some way hinges on that answer. She wants to hope that perhaps he'll chalk up all the information given as something unique to their Mirror selves, but she's not the optimistic sort in general. Her luck never runs that way.

"Nat," He says. That wasn't an answer, and she knows it. She's stalling, and that only makes him worry more. He knows, like Steve, Natasha can take care of herself. That doesn't mean she should have to, when things like this come up. He looks down at his glass, but he doesn't reach for it. "She wasn't all that impressed with me, but I don't think I'm the one she was trying to hurt."

In the heat of the moment, he'd been... well, a lot of things. But he's had some time to cool off and think about this. And he's been thinking about it a lot.

"She mostly just talked; about you, about... us. If she was telling the truth..." He looks at her again. Natasha isn't particularly famous for telling the truth - only parts of it, enough of it to let her move, like the open joints in a suit of armor. "You're really missing out on a lot of good senior citizen discounts, you know.

How old were you when we met the first time -- the very first time?"

Edited 2014-11-05 23:38 (UTC)

Which hints at a lot of what her Mirror might have enlightened him on, much to her dismay. Although she's careful not to let her frustration with that show on her face. She does, however, look away. Her gaze moves to a distant point in the room, staring at nothing for a moment before she exhales softly and lets her eyes slide closed.

One answer, and a million more questions it unlocks the path to. Questions she's avoided with all of them until right this moment. She could lie. She has cover upon cover built into her files from SHIELD - some are hers, others were Fury's. They were a safeguard to protect who she was. What she was.

But she can't. Not when he's sitting there waiting. He deserves more than that.

"Sixteen." She speaks the word softly, still staring across the room. Not meeting his gaze right now because she didn't know how much this was going to give away. How much she should give away. it was a constant complication with him.

She does a good job of hiding any expression, any feeling she might have about what she says. But even her neutral expression, the way she looks blankly into the middle distance, speaks volumes for how uncomfortable she is.

"Sixteen." He repeats, taking that in. Sixteen when she met the Winter Soldier. Sixteen during the height of the Cold War. Sixteen and training to be an assassin. It seems too outrageous to be anything but the truth. "What did they do to you?"

What didn't they? That's a very broad spectrum right there. She tries to narrow it down.

"I was different from you. I was brought in as a young child, trained to it all my life. I'd already been on dozens of missions by the time they tapped me to train under you, but that was mostly as an informant. Or occasionally as bait. They wanted more than that, and you were one of the best assets they had. So you were tasked with picking one of us from our training program to instruct. You chose me. You said I showed the most promise."

What he knew about Natasha was limited mostly to what she or Steve had told him. It was easy to see she'd been at this a long time, but apparently he had no idea of just how long - and at just what cost her skills came.

Then there's the Winter Soldier's involvement. Steve had been adamant about how little of it was under Bucky's control, but he'd been cognizant enough to pick a sixteen year old girl to train. He doesn't know what's worse -- that he'll kill so many people for something he doesn't believe in, or that he'll teach someone else how to do the same.

"And what happened after that? She said you and I... did a little more than training."

[Semi-Closed] Event Aftermaths

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