5201/Changeling: What Happens in Markovia...

Changeling: What Happens in Markovia...
Date of Scene:	19 August 2018
Location:	Unknown
Synopsis:	Skye and May return from their mission in Markovia in a bad mood with stories to tell. Most of them bad.
Cast of Characters:	Hawkeye (Barton), Quake, Melinda May
Tinyplot:	Changeling

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Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
Due to the wonders of time zones, it wasn't terribly late when the Birds returned home from Markovia. Clint, blissfully unaware of the chaos is at home, sitting infront of the Starkbox, playing some sort of shooter game.

"Damn it," he says. "This is way easier in real life."

Off-duty, the agent is in shorts and a purple t-shirt, with his feet up. Naturally there's a beer can wedged between him and the arm of the purple couch.

"Come get some!" he shouts at his virtual enemies as his bit unloads with a sci-fi looking machinegun.

Quake has posed:
Skye, who isn't usually a chatterbox after a mission, makes her usual self seem postively talkative when she arrives home, walking in through the front door, leaving it open behind her, and marching straight into the kitchen for a beer. Frou-frou, of course, but a beer.

There's the sound of the crack of the tab opening the can, and then a slam of the thing being slammed down on the counter.

Melinda May has posed:
Follows Skye nearly silently, though that's rather the norm for her. She closes the front door, the soft click of the latch possibly being drowned out by Skye in the kitchen or Clint's game noises.

She's got her own demons to fight back at the moment, so she doesn't even try to get Skye to talk. Instead, she just stands in the entryway as if trying to decide whether or not she should just go home and make sure her ficus was watered.

Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
The game is paused as soon as Clint hears the door open. "Hey, Keyboard, fresh beer in the fridge..." he says watching as Skye heads into the kitchen directly without a word. He stands, catching his beer before it falls and follows after only to see Skye come in behind her. "Hey, May, what's up?" he asks, noting her own grim expression. "Something happen?"

Quake has posed:
Skye, meanwhile, paces the kitchen, her beer sitting untouched in a puddle of foamed over beer that's resolved back to liquid, marking the counter. "Who? Who does that? Should have ICED him." Followed by a soft moan of disbelief, and calling out, "Did May follow me?"

Because it occurs to the young woman she didn't stop and check. She's been rather wrapped up in her own thoughts and crisis.

Melinda May has posed:
The entire op was a mess. She doesn't even know what ultimately happened with the people they left ICED unconscious in that building, and that's not at all like her. And the other mutant, the one that had been yelling. She KNOWS she missed something imporant there involving Skye, but she's in no frame of mind to tackle that. Not right now.

Clint's greeting shakes her out of her own dark thoughts and she looks vaguely in the direction of the kitchen. "Hey. Just making sure Skye made it home." She turns and opens the front door again, clearly preparing to leave again.

She's got a ficus, some tea, and about eight migraine pills waiting for her at home.

Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
"She did," Clint calls back from the entryway. "Want her to stay?"

When May moves to leave, Clint sets down his beer and throwing caution into the wind and puts a hand on her shoulder. "C'mon May, don't leave yet." Or at least that's what Clint is planning to say if he's not thrown to the floor or screaming in pain part way through.

Quake has posed:
Skye pauses. Does she want May to stay?

It's in the back of her brain that something had gone terribly wrong there at the op, and it hadn't just been the startling revelation of her father, or the fact that she'd stood there and screamed for them not to shoot him, when shooting him was exactly what she should have done. He wasn't just a hostile, and barging in on their mission, but clearly if she wanted answers - any answers - about her past, politely asking for them wasn't working.

He'd. Walked. Through. The. Wall.

She should have shot him...

Skye's lips press over a tight line of seeming indecision before she grabs up her beer can in frustration and marches back out into the livingroom. "Damn straight I want her to stay," Skye mutters, eyeballing May as it happens, who is still standing in their livingroom. "What the hell happened back there?"

Melinda May has posed:
May's shoulder under Clint's hand flinches, but she manages to NOT lash out at him though it was a close thing for a second there. She pushes the door closed again at hearing that Skye wants her to not leave, and looks at the couple for a moment.

"I'll tell you what I know, but first I need about three bottles of excedrin, and whatever brandy you have stashed away." Her voice is flatter than usual, something Clint might recognize if he was around just after Bahrain.

Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
Clint let's go of May's shoulder when she pushes the door closed. "Thanks," he says stepping back when Skye comes into the room demanding answers from May.

Though when May makes her request, "Sure," he says pushing off from the wall to raid their supplies of pain killers and rifle through the old bottles of booze Lara had left. He was pretty sure there was brandy in there.

"Need anything?" he asks Skye since he's on fetch and carry duty, while he eavesdrops the shit out of the conversation down here.

Quake has posed:
The beer in Skye's hand is looked at, and she nods. "Whatever we've got that isn't this frou-frou shit." Which leaves a lot open to the imagination. Their friends have brought many bottles and left without taking the leftovers. Skye and Clint have quite the collection of alcohol going. Most of it hard enough to cut steel.

Skye abandons the frou-frou beer on the nearest flat space and heads into the livingroom proper, such as it is. "I don't get it," she says to May. "Everything was going fine" - for some value of fine - "And then I don't know. I could hear yelling. And you were.. And she was.." And he was.. her brain screams. He being that feral looking, yelling beast of a man who'd stopped in his tracks and looked at her like he'd just been delivered a sucker punch to the gut. "What happened?"

Melinda May has posed:
"I'll be honest, most of it was kind of a blur when that mutant started trying to mess with my head." May doesn't know that he'd been trying to do the same to Skye at first. "I had to focus on taking him down fast, and I kind of blocked out what was going on with all of the yelling."

She settles into the softest seat in the living room, now that they're in a safe space moving as if in pain. Which she is, and not just from the headache. She can feel the bruises on her back forming from where that mutant shoved her into a wall, and it's going to make wearing her usual collection of armaments uncomfortable at best for at least a week.

"The other person with us, J. She was ... mildly unusual." She's not seen anyone willing use a kunai since...

Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
Clint nods, their collection of booze is wide and far reaching and mostly unopened since they tended to reach for a beer in all but the darkest of moments. Clint listens over the sounds of shifting bottles as he sorts through their liquor cabinet. Okay op went bad, and someone named J... huh.

"Found it," Clint says producing the brandy bottle, he takes it and hits the kitchen for a glass and a couple of bottles of pain killers from the we're too tired to go upstairs to the main bathroom drawer, and makes his way to the living room.

"So, what happened? Am I cleared to hear any of this? Who's J??"

Quake has posed:
Skye sinks into the nearest seat. She's really less concerned with comfort than the sudden realization that her legs just won't support her anymore. "I don't know a lot about her," Skye confesses. "She's vouched for." But she nods.

"Everything was fine up until that.. the one you were hitting. Until he started with the pressure in my head. I couldn't hardly think, but I should Lumley so they'd have a harder time moving him. Thought we could buy time. We had the upper hand. Then.."

Then what? Then her father crawled out of the walls screaming bloody murder, looking like to rip Lumley from limb to limb until he'd caught sight of her?

Skye avoids looking May's way, looking over to Clint instead. "You're cleared for enough." Neglecting to say it wasn't a SHIELD op. Neglecting to say a lot.

Melinda May has posed:
"So he tried to get into your head too." That explains a bit to May. When she sees that Clint has returned, she gestures at the pill bottles and points toward Skye, indicating that the younger woman needs them as well. She can wait a minute longer. "He won't be doing it again." Her words have that tone of finality to them. He really won't.

"Did you get a look at the person that was doing all the yelling? I didn't."

Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
Clint's wearing a frown when he comes back into the room. "Good," he says of being cleared but it's clear he finds little good in what he's hearing. Spotting the gesture he brings a bottle of pills to Skye. "Here you go," he says before moving to where May is sitting and delivering the brandy and a glass.

That done, he recovers his beer then plunks himself back down on the purple couch turning to face the others.

There's a look in Skye's direction when May mentions someone being in her head. A worried frown goes with it, and a look that asks 'are you okay?' Even with all of that he catches the finality in May's tone and flinches for whoever that was. Not like his hands were clean, but he'd developed a distate for killing.

A swallow of beer is had.

Quake has posed:
Skye deftly twists open the bottle, tossing a few pills into her palm before putting the lid back and tossing it May's way. That Clint has missed her request for alcohol that isnt frou-frou beer from Gino's is missed, she takes in hand, getting up and heading to the liquor cabinet, grabbing a bottle in each hand. She's not made it as far as a glass yet. She's made it to all the numb at this point.

"Yeah. I got a good look," Skye answers May. "The other guy tried. He didnt' get far. You jolted him out of it or something." Nodding at the 'he won't be doing it again' that May offers so calmly.

"Yeah. I thought I saw that, too. I mean, I know why we were there, and.. you know, but.." She comes back and sits heavily in her seat. "That's not you, May."

Melinda May has posed:
May accepts the brandy, and ... misses the pill bottle, the thing rattling loudly as it bounces off of her hand and toward the floor causing May to visibly flinch. "Sorry." She moves to retrieve the pill bottle, and did not at all follow Skye's vague 'you know' because she's not parsing well in general at the moment.

"I /really/ don't like people trying to get into my head," she grates as she leans forward to get the painkillers, the movement digging the weapons at her back into those bruises. Again.

Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
Damn. He'd forgotten the hard booze for Skye.

"Sorry Keyboard," he murmurs quickly then settles into listen again.

Best he could tell an op with someone named J went bad, when they ran into a muntant and a screaming guy. The mutant was crossed off, that much he knew. The screaming guy, was a question mark.

Somehow he couldn't help but think of J as Will Smith, but then Men in Black had been on TV the other day so that might have something to do with it.

Then the impossible happens, May misses a catch, Clint blinks and shoots a worried look at both women.

"Okay, spill, what the heck happened to you guys? Because I am hearing a lot about mutants in people's heads and now May you're missing catches and Skye, you're drinking all the hard booze that's been gathering dust in the liquor cabinet since we got it. So, what the heck happened and why aren't you both in observation? That's protocol right, with psychic attacks?" he asks the two of them.

Quake has posed:
"Protocol for SHIELD," Skye murmurs quietly, realizing she didn't get a glass, and guessing Clint might have a herd of cows on the spot if she drinks straight from the bottle.

May missing the catch, though? Unheard of. May has lightning reflexes. She's as sure and secure as they come. May was who taught Skye to focus, and keep her heartrate steady and calm.

May missing a catch was..

Skye lets Clint deal with the questioning, and retrieves herself a glass, if only because it leaves her question free for the moment. It's a massive move of deflection.

Melinda May has posed:
May scoops up the pill bottle and straightens up again, not bothering to try and hide the wince that's as much from her back as from the headache. And since Skye basically just avoided explaining, she figues Clint's going to interrogate her instead. Great. Especially as she wasn't the lead in that clusterfuck of an op.

Spilling double the recommended dosage of pills into her hand, she tosses them into her mouth then chases them with the brandy, employing the exact same avoidance move the younger woman just did. She ups the ante, though, by then moving to try and take off her jacket.

Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
"Wow. With tight lips like those, you ladies should be spies," Clint snarks at the pair of them when they leave him with no answers.

He pushes his hand through his hair and sighs. "If you guys need me to go upstairs?" he asks looking between the two of them.

He frowns at himself then and lets out a breath. "Sorry, sounds like you both had a shit op and as long as you both aren't under some evil mutant mind whammy, it's none of my business, even if I'm curious as hell. I'll deal. So, if you need me to leave so you guys can talk things out, just say the word, I totally get it."

His expression is earnest, but yeah, he is still so, so worried and curious.

Quake has posed:
Skye returns with two tumblers. Clint might be drinking beer right now, but he might want to switch if they're getting down to business. "Nothing went right," she says as she sits for a third time. "We were supposed to have gotten there ahead of Karl's people. I can't figure out what went wrong. Our intel was good. We set up the trap perfectly."

Of course that was all by Skye's reckoning. Well, Skye's and the rest of the team. It had seemed sound on paper.

"We walked into an ambush in progress. The mutant May dealt with tried to blast us. I didn't know he had her too. I just wanted Lumley secured. So I shot him instead of worrying about the mutant. In retrospect, I should have shot him." She frowns at May. "You should have shot him. What the hell went wrong?"

And she's still not talking about feral screaming guy.

Melinda May has posed:
"No mind whammy," May offers while wincing her way through shedding her jacket, which she leaves on the floor next to her seat. It's dropped there with the interior exposed, the armored and pocketed inner lining showing, which is also very much unlike her. She then works at the buckles holding small blades and other items on her forearms. "No control. It felt like the mutant was trying to kill me by increasing the pressure inside my skull. I threw a taser at him and it only made him stop for a moment." She drops the two bracers onto her jacket, then bends at the waist and wraps her arms around the backs of her legs, stretching her back while staying seated with her feet on the floor.

"Then he started up again. Pain was worse than a gut wound," she continues, her voice muffled by the way she's folded up on herself. "I get mad when I'm in pain. So I stopped the source of the pain." She leaves it at that, as if that explains everything.

Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
The names bring it all together. Karl aka The Benefactor's errand boy and Lumley, okay that name takes a second to place but he gets there, "The missing agent," he says. He'd read the SHIELD file a few times and the name stood out. "Whoa, shot how? Shot dead?" he asks, he shoots a look at Skye before the worry drains from his eyes, no, things would be a lot worse right now if she crossed him off. "So, what he's stunned but you had to leave him?" he asks trying to get to what has Skye down. He leaving that connection to her past behind might just be enough to do it.

May's actions get a long look from Clint. He'd never seen her this rattled. The description of the pain though, that makes him pale and beckon for that second tumbler Skye brought. He'd never been gut shot, but he'd seen people who had. Hell he'd given a couple of people those shots in his darker early days with SHIELD so he knew that was no joke.

"Jesus," he says. "Sounds like an op from hell," he tells the ladies.

Quake has posed:
"No, he's not stunned and left behind. We dragged him out. He's safe." As safe as they can make him, that is. "And yes, that Lumley."

Skye pours herself a very large measure of one of the bottles - looks like she's grabbed vodka, and some almond based liquer. As it happens, vodka makes it into her glass. May is watched in fascination, Skye shaking her head - not at the arsenal that the woman unfolds in front of them, but that she's laying it all out there. Even if she's in pain, that May is being that frank and open with them is something of a shock, and a build upon that look she'd given the pair the other day. It wasn't something Skye expected, being let this far in.

"I didn't know," she says to May quietly. "There was too much going on. The men J was dealing with. The fact that nobody was supposed to be there at all. That Karl threw out mutant power of that level." She'd felt that expanding push in her head. "That my father showed up."

That last offered casually, like she's said it's going to rain today. Skye downing the glass of vodka in full, and pouring herself another.

"It wasn't supposed to be the op from hell. Fuck me. My ass is so buried."

Melinda May has posed:
May's arms drop to brush the floor as she relaxes but stays bent in half. "We're lucky J was there. Pretty sure she took the kill shot on the mutant, not me. I just hit him on the head as hard as I could."

She sits up abruptly and looks at Skye with narrowed eyes, one hand gripping at the edge of the sofa after the sudden change in posture. "Say that again. And don't try to deflect."

Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
When Clint sees their dealing with vodka and almold liquer he makes a face and gets up off his ass to grab one of the whiskey bottles for himself, and pick up that extra tumbler on the way back. He's mid pour when Skye drops her bombshell and he gets whiskey on the coffee table.

"Wait. No. How is that possible? He died at the village, right?"

At least that's what they assumed.

The rest, who this J was who killed the mutant. That's all secondary right now. His eyes are fixed on Skye.

Quake has posed:
Skye shrugs. "That's what we thought, right? Everyone died that day but me. Nope. Guess he packed up and left me there for dead. Couldn't be bothered to save me."

Her lips twist around a wryness of a smile. It's a grim thing.

"Big and snarly, the one who walked through the walls? The one I was screaming at everyone not to shoot? That was him." She makes a derisive noise in the back of her throat and takes another swallow of vodka. "You know something? He almost looked like he regretted what was going on there. Like he wished that hadn't happened." Quieter, "I don't think he was there as one of Karl's men. I think he wanted Lumley to find me. Karl wanted him to leverage me. And I wanted Lumley, ironically, to learn about my parents. I should have shot him."

Melinda May has posed:
May ohs faintly as the couple offer enough fragments of information for her to extrapolate from, even if she does so more slowly than usual.

"I didn't get a look. I was dealing with Mr. Migraine." She slouches for a second the straightens again with a wince. Damnit.

"If he left you there, why are you bothering trying to look for him?" Okay, not a whole lot of sensitivity there. Too bad.

Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
Clint can't help but feels Skye's pain. He knows all about parents that didn't want him. The whiskey is left behind and he moves to sit next to Skye and drape his arm over her shoulders if he can.

"Maybe he was looking for you there, maybe he was trying to make things right."

It was a long shot, it had been 20 years, but who knew for sure.

May's comment gets a roll of his eyes, "It's her dad, who wouldn't look?"

Quake has posed:
May gets a confused look. May was one of the first to support Skye when she'd revealed she 'wasn't quite human', and now this?

"I wasn't looking for him. I thought my parents were dead. I was looking for answers about me. About who or what I am. And I still don't know that. He walked through walls, May. Jesus, fuck. What the hell is this really about?"

Melinda May has posed:
"I don't know, Skye," May replies with a sigh. "But I do know that there are people out there who have experimented on themselves with very unpredictable results." Banner of course is the first one to come to May's mind. "Maybe something similar happened to him and that's how he walked through that wall." Or, he's actually the Kool-Aid Man in disguise.

May frowns faintly at seemingly nothing, and reaches to fill her own tumbler with brandy to toss back. Because that last thought was wrong on just far too many levels.

Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
The eye-roll had been knee jerk, a reaction of surprise, given time to think he frowns, nose crinkling. "Sorry," he says to May.

Something was up and he suspected whatever it was didn't need needling.

"Could be that, between the Avengers and SHIELD I've run into my share of people who tried to give themselves powers, let's just say results were mixed."

Clint gives Skye's shoulders a squeeze, "No idea Keyboard, but sounds like you were on the right track with this Lumley guy, sounds like he might have the answers."

He rethinks given how weird and wild things had gotten and amends with: "Or well, some of them."

Quake has posed:
"He left," Skye says blandly. "He was there. He left."

She shrugs like it makes no difference to her. "Whatever he is, whyever he's like that, it doesn't really matter a whole lot, now does it. Not sure Lumley will have any answers, but we can ask him."

If Lumley will speak to them.

She has her own shuddering little moment. What if she was like him? Walking through walls Looking like a crazed madman? Forgetting your humanity? What kind of future was that?

Melinda May has posed:
May would nod if she didn't think her head would fall off doing so. "Then that's our next step. There's no point in dwelling on anything else until we find out what Lumley knows. And we'll go from there."

She takes one last swallow of the brandy before wincingly picking up her jacket and accoutrement. "I'd better get going home." Or she'll never get there, she can tell.

Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
Clint doesn't buy the act, that this was just no big deal, but he doesn't challenge it either, not right now, he just squeezes Skye's shoulders again. "Then we'll talk to him and see what he knows, where do you guys have him stashed?"

May's impending departure is met with a frown, "Are you sure you don't want to crash here?" he asks. "We've got spare rooms," he offers. "You look dead on your feet."

Quake has posed:
"Lock the door, Clint. I'm betting she gives up trying to undo the deadbolt before she figures it out in tht state."

There's an almost laugh from Skye. "Stay, May. We have room. Everyone is too tired to be worrying about driving. Besides, you're wincing just sitting up straight. We insist."

Melinda May has posed:
May looks at the couple, then relents. "Okay." Though the thought of climbing stairs seems even more daunting than that deadbolt Skye teased about. Maybe she can just sleep here in the living room...

Wait, this is that purple couch that Skye mentioned a while back. Pass. Stairs, she'll totally deal with them.

Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
Clint nods, relieved. He gives Skye's shoulders a final squeeze, then stands. "Skye, if you want to help her get set up stairs, I'll clean up down here," Clint offers as he surveys the various bottles of pills and booze, it's like a flashback to his time as a carny, just with milder pills. "I should be up in a few," he promises with a shake of his head as he begins picking up bottles to take back to the cabinet.

Quake has posed:
Skye's answer is to stand, and offer May help upstairs. "Should be clean bedding already on the bed.. We've not really had guests." Except when they were gone, and the maid has been through since then. But actual, honest to god, overnight guests? Clint and Skye hadn't had any.

She'll take it as slow and as easy as May needs, see she has fresh towels, and point her the bedroom, complete with ensuite. No, really, Lara was insane renting her hours to these two. The bedrooms have ensuites. Clint Skye didn't even know that word before they moved in.