10663/Moment of Respite

Moment of Respite
Date of Scene:	07 January 2020
Location:	Den and Study, Avengers Mansio
Synopsis:	Jessica Drew tries to boost Janet's spirits.
Cast of Characters:	Wasp (van Dyne), Spider-Woman (Drew)

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Wasp (van Dyne) has posed:
The Den's been converted into a crisis room with the disappearance of several high-profile team members. Nominally suited for just one person, it's been emptied of everything not mission-essential in order to create a small command office for whomever's monitoring operations in the larger crisis room nearby. Good leaders learn early on not to look over their subordinate's shoulders constantly, and the crisis room makes it entirely too easy for the peevish and irritated Janet to constantly do that.

So in exercising some restraint and clear-headedness, she's moved into the den and continued to direct studies from there. The hourly reports still roll in and she's sending out a constant stream of information, often contacting allies and Reserve members often to ensure they're moving in productive directions with assistance or intelligence.

The last call ends and Janet turns off the holoprojector. The brobidnagian desk makes the tired Wasp look even more petite and overwhelmed by the scale of the rescue effort. Janet allows herself a moment of respite, balancing her elbows on the desk and putting her face in her palms to massage the headache nestled between her eyes.

Spider-Woman (Drew) has posed:
"Wow. You look rough." Jessica, ever a font of charm and tact, arrives with a paper bag held in front of herself in offering. "//I// was going to swing through a burger place on the way, but whoever you've got manning the phone just about cried at the thought of how you'd react, so I pulled the tabloids and swung through the last place they got your picture and told them to give me the last thing they served you."

See? Sometimes the spy skills come in handy.

Triumphant, she sets the bag down on the nearest piece of desk real estate that doesn't look like it'll topple over. "Janet. Trust me on this one. You've gotta take a break. And eat."

Wasp (van Dyne) has posed:
Janet looks up and smiles. It's a bleary, wan expression, and she smirks a little at Jessica's gesture. "Har har. You've been talking to Steve too much," she says. But she accepts the food all the same, cracking the bag open and examining the contents. Without much enthusiasm she starts unpacking it-- the sort of gourmet cuisine that makes New York the gastronomical capital of the world.

"I don't need to eat. I've got energy drinks and nose candy. It got me through grad school, it can get me through this," she informs Jessica. With a tidy sense of decorum Janet starts setting out the flatware for herself and unpacks some Vietnamese food that recently won an award for 'best food outside of Hanoi'.

"Here, have some of the snackbread. I don't need the carbs," Janet advises Jessica. She slides one of the appetizers towards the dark-haired Avenger.

"I'm about to go to Wakanda myself and kick T'challa in the jewels. All I'm getting is the run around from his people. Is it so hard to pick up a fucking phone call?" she inquires, peevishly.

Spider-Woman (Drew) has posed:
"Wow," Jessica deadpans. "I missed out on //so much// of the college experience." Still, she takes a perch on the edge of the desk in the smallest footprint imaginable, going straight for the carbs.

"Nobody picks up a phone, Janet," she points out, helpful. "Especially not monarchs. Sitting monarchs," she corrects herself. "I did meet an alien princess in the park the other day, because of course I did." She chews for a moment, then softens. Just a little.

"I'm sure everyone's doing what they can. I looked at the data I could get to, but..." Trailing off, she shrugs awkwardly. "If they'd disappeared in a //car// or been taken captive by someone here, sure, I could maybe find them. But poof out of thin air's not really my strong point, you know?"

Wasp (van Dyne) has posed:
"Can't swing a dead cat without hitting alien princesses lately," Janet says dourly.

"I'm kind of in the dark here too." She nibbles at her food without any appetite, but only when Jessica's looking right at her. "You can only threaten Hank and Reed with so much violence before they can't produce results any faster. Everyone's trying. I just wish we had *something* to go on. Just--" She snaps a finger in the air over her head. "Poof. Gone. No trace, nothing. Steve is *so* dead when I find him."

"Stupid... Carol and Steve, probably ran off to Whore Island. Banging each other and drinking pina coladas right out of coconuts."

Janet's slender jaw fixes and she breaks a pencil between thumb and forefinger. It goes right in the bin with a few dozen other broken pencils.

Spider-Woman (Drew) has posed:
Jessica quirks a brow, chewing on carbs. "Yeeeaaaah. Because when I think 'eloped to Whore Island,' the first people that come to mind are Carol and Steve. C'mon, Janet. This is not the first time someone has disappeared from this place. In fact, if we go to a rolling year instead of year starting in January, I'm pretty sure it's not even the first time this //year//."

She leans over, starting to rifle through the papers on the desk. It looks aimless on the surface, but there's focus underneath it all. "Plus they've got Tony, right? When have you ever seen Tony go for more than a week without making a public statement of some sort? He'll find a way to get a signal out for the sole purpose of tweeting if he has to. And once we've got a signal, then we take action."

Wasp (van Dyne) has posed:
"That only validates my theory about Whore Island, to wit: Tony would never leave such a place." Janet upticks a finger with meticulous correction. "Fine, at best they're all just hanging out somewhere warm and sunny and having the tiiiime of their lives. Just... relaxing on white sandy beaches."

"Hey can you get me a tracker or something?" she inquires, and leans forward to prop her chin on the heels of her hands. "I bet I could superglue it to Steve's shield or something. He's never far from that stupid thing." One hand absently toys with the slender length of gold chain around her neck; just below the hollow of her throat dangles a tiny replica of said shield. "Ooh, or I could just *keep* his shield somewhere safe. Then he'd never get disappared, because then he'd not have it handy."

Spider-Woman (Drew) has posed:
"I mean, if you want to track him, there are injectables for that," Jessica replies as if it were the most reasonable request in the world. "Pretty sure there's a bucket of them at SHIELD. Might be a //little// weird when he wakes up and asks you what the big needle's for, but I have faith in your ability to come up with a good excuse."

Papers on energy readings and scientific terms are discarded, but anything to do with what actually happened, eyewitnesses, and links to other events gets a close look as she reaches for me carbs. "Though." She looks up with a grimace. "Following that same logic, if we haven't heard from Tony, then either they've been separated, they're too far to get a signal back, or...I was going to say or the equipment's damaged, but I'm not convinced there's a level of damaged that makes it possible not to have heard from Tony due to damaged equipment."

Wasp (van Dyne) has posed:
Janet slides more food towards Jessica out of an act of comparatively staggering charity. Also, she's clearly lacking any appetite, and Jessica's eating the gourmet preparation readily enough to take the hassle off her hands. She cracks open an energy drink, pops two pills, and washes them down.

"I'm trying to imagine what 'too far' would mean. We've gotten messages from deep space before. Carol can *fly* from deep space in a few days if she has to."

Her arms fold and she rests her brow against her forearms tiredly.

"I miss Steve. I don't like this feeling," she complains. For a moment she sounds very small and very forlorned.

Spider-Woman (Drew) has posed:
"Maybe there's a weird...black hole...sort of thing between here and there," Jessica suggests, very scientifically. "Solar flares? Asteroids." Without even thinking about it, she takes a bite of the actual food, then promptly realizes this has entirely too much flavor and nutrition in it to be something she'd normally eat on purpose.

"Eat," she urges again, pushing the food back. "Seriously. This thing you're doing to yourself? It's literally an interrogation tactic we use to break people. Don't break yourself."

Awkwardly, she reaches over to pat a hand gently at Janet's hair. Though it's hard to tell if it's awkward because she's not used to the physical reassurance thing, or if it's because she has a fear of ruining the hairdo. Either of these could be true. "Hey, c'mon," she urges quietly. "It's Steve. He's been around since, like, dinosaurs. No way he's gone now."

Wasp (van Dyne) has posed:
"He's old. He's old and hates partying and I can't believe I'm this lovesick over a *boy*," Janet whines. The touch to her hair seems to calm her a little though, and after a few seconds she lets out a long, langorous exhalation of weary exhaustion.

She sits up again, slowly. Shoulders roll to her ears with the lazy slouch she permits herself. A few token bites of food are taken while Jessica's looking, but then she's reaching for her energy drink again.

"I told you. I'll be fine. This is nothing. Should have seen me during thesis week," Janet tells Jessica. "I lived off pep pills and caffeine when I was modelling. After getting the procedure done--" she gestures vaguely at her genetically-enhanced self-- "my perspective on 'discomfort' changed quite a bit. I'll be fine. Really." She forces a smile.

Spider-Woman (Drew) has posed:
"Uh huh." Jessica nudges the box over again, doing her best impression of someone with any moral authority whatsoever. "Just because you can doesn't mean you should, though. What if we finally hear back from them and we need to mount a rescue party but you're too weak from hunger to actually contribute? I can't take responsibility for my actions if Steve swoons into my arms if I've got to go rescue him," she says, holding her hands up in front of herself with a shake of her head. "I'm not made of stone, you know."

Wasp (van Dyne) has posed:
Janet's eyes widen a bit in reaction, and she grabs the fork off the desk. "Ooh, dead, you'd be /dead/," she says. The amusement catches up fast though and it turns into a few gentle prods into Jessica's hip to force her off the desk. "You better keep your stupid pheremones to yourself you Euro-slut, or so help me I will /cut/ a bitch."

She menaces Jessica with a spoon and reaches for the frozen dessert still frosting in a metal container on the desk. "Now get outta my office," she says. But she's smiling all the same. A little wan, still, but real and grateful. "I need to cry into my frogurt in peace and then make some awkward phone calls to Atlantis."

She glances down at her sleek black leotard. "Maybe I should put on something with more cleavage," she mutters.

Spider-Woman (Drew) has posed:
Jessica snickers as she pushes off the desk, stepping away with her hands in the air. "Hey, don't say I didn't point it out. I wouldn't worry too much though. Pretty sure being with Steve would give me //another// complex, and I've already got standing counseling sessions until the heat death of the universe, so we'd probably never even get to that topic."

Half-way to the door she stops, crossing her arms loosely over her chest. "Let me know if you need me for anything pre-punching-point. I'd offer to take that call, but..." She shrugs innocently. "Stupid pheremones don't work over the phone."