002 -- text;

[aimlessness]

P I N G_
encrypted; user-id_001.005; 006.029; 005.027; 001.012

anyone wanna explain why the sit-rep didn't include a heads up on a loki being here?

Comments

ENCRYPTED (for clint's eyes only);

[widowing]

[ damn it. ]

that's something we're still trying to wrap our collective heads around.

he's not the one we're familiar with.

ditto

[aimlessness]

yeah, i got that part.
still something i should have been notified of so it didn't knock me out of the sky.

[widowing]

i know. i'm sorry.
there are more people of interest, if you're interested in a better run-down.

[aimlessness]

yes, i want a better run-down.

[ the have a lot of secrets, but it's...this is supposed to be different. things are supposed to be different with them. ]

[widowing]

be at your room in five.

[ she's screwed up. they all have, and she knows it, and she'd be kicking herself harder for this but feeling bad isn't going to change anything. all she can do now is try to repair the damage.

she arrives at his door within the promised five minutes and knocks with her usual code, stepping back and lacing her hands behind her once she's finished. ]

[aimlessness]

[ what he wants to do is text back fine but that's childish and childish antics are for when he's not keyed up and sunk into the sniper.

they didn't tell him. and it's his own failing as much as there, his own fault that he missed it when he'd been skimming (skimming, skimming, read the whole damn file, barton) but none of them had thought to mention it. maybe it was something like a compliment, to how good the front he put up was but.

but they hadn't told him and that post had knocked him out of the sky, blindsided him and loki is here. and yes, everyone's said they can't airlock people, but clint is thinking very seriously about ways to hide bodies. ]

Feeling chatty?

[widowing]

[ she just nods once, lets the comment pass because she knows she deserves it. she doesn't offer another apology, because it's not the time to if she's even going to. it doesn't matter how sorry she is or how bad she feels; it's not going to change that he'd found out the way he did, that she'd neglected to tell him (because this is on her more than anyone else, even if he's just as mad at the rest of them). she can't change it, she can only try to atone for it and hope that he accepts it and can trust her again.

she doesn't move to come in yet, just waits for his permission to enter, because this is more like the beginning of their partnership than years of camaraderie and having each other's back. whatever trust there is between them is shaky and uneasy, and however long that lasts depends on how this is handled. ]

Can I come in?

[aimlessness]

[ it's different with natasha because it's them. because they're supposed to share their secrets between them, not hold parts of them back. tony and bruce and steve, that was something new and untested and clint was furious with them all, but natasha...

he just looks at her for a minute before waving her in. he isn't a petty man, he wouldn't slam the door in her face. but he takes his seat back, and goes back to cleaning his gun. because that's what you do when a threat enters the scene. you prep your weapons and you hunker down in the nest and you wait for the shot. ]

[widowing]

[ she enters and watches him for a moment before pulling an extra chair out and taking a seat. there's a long moment of quiet before she starts talking. ]

The one we know has shown up twice. Once with Thor in the second jump, once on his own in the eighth. The first time, none of us knew who he was or what he'd done; the second, everyone had been updated on it. He disappeared after the next jump.

[ she pauses there, waiting for his words. if he has anything to say to her or if he's waiting until she's finished filling him in to say it. ]

permaencryption that was in the post

[starked]

you were whining, pretty sure all of are still a little boggled at that. i met a version of myself and- it was on the to do list.

we've- i've been watching him, i get a ping any time he says a peep. haven't exactly figured out how to deal with him properly.

fine hijack his encryption you guys

[aimlessness]

[ and this is where the line is drawn. there's clint in his off hours and there's clint in his own hours, and he hasn't downshifted from on since he talked to loki. ]

interrupt me.
this takes priority over banter.

how long has he been here?

look it's there and tony is l a z y

[starked]

a month, give or take some days because we're not on a jump day. he's 009. i don't know how much natasha told you, i'm going to give you the bullet points.

- second jump in before natasha and i knew who loki was he showed up, same time as thor.
- he left before thor did. but as you can tell, no big guy of thunder around here.
- eighth jump, loki shows up again, this time, we're all caught up and pretty sure there was a debate about tossing him out of airlock just because loki.
- ninth jump, this one rolls in.

as soon as he popped up, i set a ping for him. he doesn't breathe on this network without me and you know, the entire team, knowing it.

honestly, i figured natasha was going to tell you, because you two are whatever you two are, so banter it was.

[ and then a minute later: ]

getting anyone off this ship is nearly impossible with the fucking bullshit people want to claim otherwise we would have found a way to airlock him already.

yeah well maybe clint will take his encryptions and go play elsewhere!!

[aimlessness]

[ there's about a ten minute gap between tony's message and clint's reply. there's implication that there were two and of them belonged to them, so there's a frantic and frighteningly thorough search through the network, while clint simultaneously sets up his own system of pings. but he comes up empty-handed, which is probably a saving grace. ]

we could make it look like an accident.

you will not, you like them too much!!!

[starked]

[ tony's own morality takes turns he is shockingly comfortable with and if he was anyone else, he'd wonder what that says about him, but he honestly just writes it off as being something he does because he's not like captain america and he's not a shining beacon of morality and that's okay with him. ]

it'd be easier if he was our loki.

[ it's not a no, but it's not a yes either. ]

[aimlessness]

[ the difference between clint and natasha and their teammates is that their hands are seeped in red and when clint says, i'll make it look like an accident it's because he's pulled jobs like this a thousand times before, because he's a professional and if he wants someone dead it's usually only a matter of time. ]

doesn't matter to me.

[starked]

i know. i read the files. even the hacked ones.

[ it's, for once, a serious statement because he knows that clint and nastasha kill people and that's just what they do. ]

when/if you're killing him, call us all in before you do it.

[ because if they watch, clint can't leave again. they won't lose clint again and they'll be that much closer to having a full team. ( a full team that he's heading. him, the guy who out of all of them doesn't work well with others and yet. ) ]

[aimlessness]

[ there's a part of clint that isn't sure they get it. his hands are drenched in red, has blood spilling out of his ledger. clint kills people in cold blood. it's his job. it's been his job for a long time.

the avengers, this thing that he stumbled his way into, he doesn't know where that fits. but then tony says things like this, and it seems like it might. ]

that an order or a request?

all the permafilter

[aggressively]

...I'm just here for the science?

[ ...helpful, bruce. ]

LMFAO THE ACTUAL WORST REPLY.

[aimlessness]

and not for giving a decent debrief.
duly noted, banner.

SORRY CLINT

[aggressively]

To be fair, when Natasha came to get me I thought S.H.I.E.L.D. was there to kill me. I'm not yet well-versed in the song of your people.

[ clint can blame that turn of phrase on tony. also able to be blamed on tony: the gentle trolling bruce is getting into.

...tbh just blame everything ever on tony, it's a safe bet. ]

YOU ARE SO NOT REALLY SORRY.

[aimlessness]

it's not that hard to figure out.
i'll get you a recording.

NOT RLY NO

[aggressively]

Like whales?

[ tony is the worst influence and bruce really just doesn't feel comfortable broaching the whole 'loki possession' thing without clint initiating. ]

[aimlessness]

are you making jokes?

[aggressively]

...I think I was, yes.

[aimlessness]

i'll take a raincheck on encouraging that.