5466/Astral Flux: Message in a Bottle

Astral Flux: Message in a Bottle
Date of Scene:	29 September 2018
Location:	Triskelion, New York City
Synopsis:	Skye and Clint interview Aaron Grant.
Cast of Characters:	Shadow King, Quake, Hawkeye (Barton)
Tinyplot:	Astral Flux

---

Shadow King has posed:
    Months ago, the fungus was all over the globe. Trying to eat the planet and all things on it. Telepaths tried to control the fungus. Some of them came to SHIELD, offering to control the fungus for SHIELD, for a price. Some of the telepaths were shown to be very Bad People, or under the control of someone very bad. Paul Dannon was one such people. Taken into custody during a fungus battle, he's been a vegetable, his mind destroyed into pulp. Until he started to talk, a day or two ago. He was killed yesterday during an interview with Jessica Drew and Derek Khanata, while he appeared to be possessed by persons unknown.

    But Aaron Grant, while a telepath, has a stranger story to how he arrived at SHIELD. At some point just before the big end battle, portals opened up, and a lot of the fungus was relocated out of some other areas globally to Mexico. Superman pulled a man out from under the portals: this man, Aaron Grant. Grant was kept unconscious and sedated until after the fungus was destroyed. At that time, he woke up, but wouldn't talk about it, as if in deep stress, and has had panic attacks. He is known to be a telepath of some type, and most probably associated with the portals. He mostly ignores interviewers and watches TV, but hasn't asked to be released at all. He seems to like the SHIELD food, and consumes lots of it.

    Aaron hasn't talked much. However, just after Paul died, he spoke up. Paul had a message for Agents Drew and Khanata, he said. He was promptly and immediately sedated, for fear he was possessed as Paul Dannon had been. But what was that message?

    Aaron Grant is partially unconscious, but can be administered with a drug to bring him out of it at any time. Recommendation that they interview only by video is, of course, suggested. Talking to a telepath without that distance, after the strange disaster the day before, seems ill advised...

Quake has posed:
it had been Skye's idea to tackle Aaron. Word of Paul's death had filtered through. That Aaron wanted to talk to someone.. and Skye needed a distraction synced right on up. Grabbing Clint, the two of them headed to Aaron's holding cell to do the deed.

"I've eaten the food in detention." She had. She'd been there a couple of weeks post Tidepool. It wasn't pretty in her memory. "I don't get how he can eat the stuff and like it."

Unless he was getting cafeteria food. That wasn't so bad.

She thought she could understand why he hadn't asked to leave, though. To be released. It was safer here. Or at least as safe as a place could be made.

She and Aaron had that in common: hiding in a place of safety from the monster without. Only she didn't think Aaron's problem was his dad.

Nodding to the security in place at the cell, Skye waits for Clint to do their clearance checks. He ranked.

Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
Clint's mind was on food as well. That's why he came with pizza and pop. He'd have gone with beer but Aaron was being sedated and so, didn't think that'd mix well.

So, there he was with two pies from Gino's and a six pack of diet Soder Cola. He flashes his lanyard to the security team watching the guy waiting for them to scan it, double check the read out, then he hopes let him in.

If he's through the checkpoint he passes one of the pie and half the sodas to one of Aaron's caretakers. "Can you get this to Aaron for me? And where's our end of the video chat?" he asks with a smile.

Shadow King has posed:
    Aaron Grant is a young man, a bit surprisingly so. He's probably only about twenty in appearance. He isn't amazingly handsome, but he's above average, if he weren't drooling due to being barely aware. He has light brown hair, a little long. He's partially drugged, so his eyes are semi-open, a mild light brown as well. He's dressed in very calmly colored pale teal t-shirt and sweatpants, a side-grade from the detainment outfit. He's recently been upgraded from 'possible victim' to 'probably dangerous'. Or some official rank of those things.

    The attendant looks skeptically at the food but nods. He uses a simple remote robotic tray to put it through on one end, and then takes them to where they can use the video chat. It's a comfortable conference area that looks in on where the subject is. "We'll get him woken up for you, then. Should just be a few minutes, if he responds well. You can toggle the feed on and off here; it's off by default, but you can see and hear everything," the attendant/guard says, indicating, leaving them to their room.

Quake has posed:
The lanyard, when it's pulled out, earns some eye-rolling from Skye. "Ugh, you actually like that thing. You're glad we're stuck in here so you can flash that around, aren't you?" She peers at him while the attendants deal with waking Aaron up. "Clint Barton is a secret desk jockey."

Which is a triffle humourous coming from her, given she's only recently become a field agent, and has otherwise only *been* a desk jockey. Albeit from the break room. She didn't even know where her desk was. She'd been here over a year and nobody had actually made her use it.

"Extra cheese and pepperoni?" she ponders. "Kinda curious how he eats if they keep him a drooling idiot." Then, "Think that would work on my dad?"

Otherwise, she's settling down, waiting for them to get the go ahead to start the interview.

Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
"Hey, it's shiny," Clint protests turning the orange and grey lanyard back and forth with his free hand so the relfective SHIELD logo flashes in the light. "And I am so not a desk jockey. I don't even have a desk."

Or did he? He had a locker and that was as much as he needed.

"Yeah, figured figured he'd enjoy it," Clint says of his choice of pizza. "And not sure, they might wake him up for it."

He pulls up the feed of the room, surpressing a shudder. "It might, depends on how much resistance his powers give him to drugs. Even so, I'd still want like ten feet of steel around him just to be sure."

Clint settles beside Skye at the video station opening the second pie, their usual, and setting down the rest of his diet sodas. "So, figure we'll play this easy, we're all friends here etc, etc, see if we can't coax what we need out of him. Sound good?"

Quake has posed:
Skye grins. "Are too a desk jockey." Teasing him. "And sure. We're all friends. It's gotta be better than threats."

Skye wasn't sure she could do threats today.

Shadow King has posed:
    Whatever they shot Aaron with, it's working to rouse him. He rolls over and ... off the bed.

    PHWAM.

    It wakes him up, though. Groggy and baffled, he climbs back onto his cot, looking around. He sniffs and spots the pizza and soda pop offering. He pauses, and looks at where he knows the video monitor is, squinting, but since it isn't on, he sits there a little bit, clearly trying to get his head on straight: he rubs his eyes and face with his hands, rakes his hair back, and sighs heavily. His expression is distant, perhaps sad.

Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
"Am not," Clint says with a smile. "Well, I did ride a desk down a flight of stairs one time, does that count?"

Then he nods, "Yeah, exactly. Back when he was my SO. Coulson told me about Hanns Scharff, he was a master interogator for the Germans back int he day, anyhow got the best results with kindness apparently. Taking prisoners to the park or to the zoo. So, same principle, just with pepperoni and cheese."

There's a flinch as Aaron hits the floor. He waits for the kid to get back into bed before he counts 1, 2, 3 on his fingers and turns the feed live.

"Hey man, that looks like it hurt. Good news, we've got you pizza and pop. Hope that balances out your day," he says with an easy smile.

Quake has posed:
"You are so terrible. We are never getting our security deposit back, I hope you know. And we both know whose fault it is." Skye points at Clint.

She's about to say more when there'd the thud of body hitting the floor, leaving her wincing. It's one of those dead weight sounds that you know sound worse than they really are, but still you can't help but feel like some grand injury must have followed it.

By the time the feed goes live, she's recomposed herself and forces a smile onto her features. "Good pizza, too," Skye informs. "Hella better than that crap they feed you in there."

Yeah, someone might still be a little bitter about her time in lockup.

Shadow King has posed:
    Aaron doesn't jump at all. He looks at the monitor in his own room. Which just probably proves that he's talked to this way a lot. His brows move a little, skeptical, but not unfriendly. "Yeah, a little." It did hurt. "...Hello," Aaron says, finally, after a pause of inspecting the new people.

    "I feel like shit; sorry. Thanks for bringing it, haven't had pizza in, I dunno, months," he says, with something very close to appreciation. He does look a bit like groggy shit. He rubs a forming bruise on his elbow from the floor, and looks again at the food. Hungry maybe, interested in it, but still dizzy. It'll take a minute.

    "Was I knocked out for some reason?" Aaron asks, trying to piece what happened together.

Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
"Says the woman who spilled beer all over our couch," Clint fires back good naturedly and pulls open the pizza box for them.

Once the cameras are on he nods, "Looked like it, and hi, I'm Agent Barton and this is Agent Johnson. We're here to see if you'd be willing to talk to us abotu what happened to you."

"Don't blame you, and figured it'd been a bit, so enjoy when you're feeling up to it, the pizza and drinks are all yours."

He nods to Skye's assertion that it's good pizza. "You from around New York, Aaron? Ever had Ginos?"

As to why he was knocked out, Clint smiles, "There were some complications with another patient," see patient, not prisoner. "We sedated you to be able to be sure you were going to be okay."

Quake has posed:
"Our couch," Skye points out, grabbing a slice, and taking a bite. "And the carpet in the Trisk suite doesn't count. Looks like they got that stain out anyway." Smirking as she remembers that fateful night.

"It's good pizza," Skye reiterates for Aaron. "If you stick around, we can get you more when we order in. But really you should try to get there yourself. If you do, tell them Hawk Guy sent you. You'll get a deal."

See? Skye could make nice. Very nice. She lets Clint handle why Aaron was sedated, though. At least for now.

Shadow King has posed:
    Aaron, like many young men of his age, can eat even when ill. He gets up slowly and fetches his pizza, bringing it back to his cot, and the drink as well. Even if there's a cup he won't bother with it. Not like he's sharing. "I guess you know my name, huh. Ginos? Yeah, love Ginos. Hawk Guy? Heh. Don't think they'd believe me," Aaron says, accepting his food with no suspicion. He'll start to eat it.

    He stops looking at them, though, as they mention the other patient. "I felt him die," Aaron says, a little quietly, but the quality tech picks up on every word.

    "So...." There's a pause. And he just eats his pizza, light eyes down. There's a resolved despair in it.

Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
"One benefit to our temporary digs," Clint says to Skye. "The facilities department."

The guys who cleaned up most of their messes and free of charge at that.

Anyhow back on task...

...Okay sort of...

"When did my name become a coupon code?" Clint asks Skye on camera, chuckling. He turns back to Aaron. "Anyhow, Gino will definitely believe you, I'll make sure to go by and let him know, when you're out of here, you're one of my friends. It'll be good for pizza, that beer his son makes, oh and if you're in Queens archery stuff."

He frowns.

"Okay maybe my name is a coupon code."

He gives a little shrug.

All the banter aside, Clint frowns with sympathy. "You did? That had to suck, but, and I know this is the last thing you're going to want to do, but can you remember anything specific about it? Anything at all would be helpful."

Quake has posed:
"Do not let Marta hear you talk like that. She's already too nice to us and might change her mind."

Marta, their poor maid. Clint and Skye might not be slobs, but their housekeeping skills were not only lacking in many respects, but the poor woman was left picking up after their various hobbies. Most maids did not get a lesson in how to treat bows and arrows before they got approved for the job.

"I don't know? Gino always gave me a deal because I was with you. He likes you." But it seems Aaron already knows about the place. "Gino will believe you. He thinks Clint is just some weird guy. Long story."

Frowning when he says he felt the other die. Her frown matching Clint's.

"That's.. horrible," Skye murmurs.

It wasn't helping her conflicted thoughts on her father to hear this and see how it affected Aaron.

Shadow King has posed:
    "Yeah, I remember he had a message. The /real/ him. Not the... whatever that was at the end," Aaron says, sighing. "He was never a really great guy but...." But that's off topic. And there's no need to speak so ill of the dead.

    "He wanted to say thank you, to them. For whatever it was that they did. He's dead, but. I think it's better than where he was," Aaron says, again, quiet. As if his volume might keep his words more safe. He eats the pizza. "Where he was, it was worse than dead."

    Aaron glances to Skye though, her tone rang something to him. He squints a little and then winces. He rubs his head with his non-pizza hand. "I don't want to go back there, either."

Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
"Who doesn't?" Clint boasts before they wade back into the more serious matters.

"Jesus," Clint breathes when he hears about the message. His lips perse and he nods. "I'll pass it on. I am sure that'll help to hear."

"So... you were there, the same place the other guy was?" Clint asks gently probing. "Can you tell us anything about it?"

Quake has posed:
Skye freezes when Aaron passes on the message, eyes widening in .. not panic, but sudden need. She leans in to the video feed - even though she knows it won't bring her closer to the man. The action is something of a reflex, borne of that need, that deep down desire to hear something - anything - that will help her.

"Do you think.. if it was you," she asks quietly, too quietly, "That you'd make the same decision? Was it really the right thing, putting him out of his misery?"

Clint would know she's not talking about Paulie anymore, but her father.

Shadow King has posed:
    "It's like... a place outside your body. Like a dream. But not. My-- one of my friends called it the Astral once. A place that's all thought. But it's not like a dream. It's just... being buried in your own mind, a personal hell of buried alive and not being able to wake up," Aaron says, starting to shake a little bit, color draining out of his face. He trembles, and tenses his hands, putting the pizza down, and looks aside and downward.

    "You're asking if I'd rather be dead than trapped there?" Aaron asks Skye, voice hitching high. "Not ... right now. If I were there for months, maybe I'd want that. Maybe. I'm not suicidal or anything. Just hiding out. That's different. I got out once. Faith, I guess."

Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
Aaron might be out of range to read Skye, but Clint understand exactly what she's asking about.

He rests his hand on her shoulder but doesn't stop the line of questioning.

Though Aaron's answers about the other place, the Astral plane, that gets Clint's attention. "A dark place, like a forest? With quick sand?" he asks remembering the dreams he's had off and on since the final battle with the fungus. Psych had cleared him, but just in case, he had to ask.

"Anyhow, sorry for the odd questions, when did you start getting pulled to that place, and how did you escape?"

Quake has posed:
"No.. not you," Skye murmurs. "Someone else. Just someone I know..."

She drifts off into quiet thought until Clint perks up and asks *very* specific questions about this 'place' Aaron is talking about.

"Huh? How do you know, Clint?"

Shadow King has posed:
"I don't know why I got out, or how," Aaron says. "I was there, and then... I was here," Aaron points around him. "Before that I was at school. I'm flunked out by now. I don't even know how long I've been here for certain. I'm not sure what day it /was/." Aaron's evading, there's something he's not saying. He does know a little more about where he was, or what he saw or sensed.

    Aaron switches topics slightly, "Quick sand? it's personal, I think. I had evil hungry things trying to eat me," he says, trying to laugh, but it isn't really funny.

Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
"Those dreams," Clint says answering Skye's question quietly.

Then he's nodding in reply to Aaron. "Where were you going to school? Because I am pretty sure we can get you a doctor's note," the delivery falls flat, Clint's heart's not in the joke. "Seriously though, don't worry we can get that sorted out for you."

The evasion is noticed, "You okay, man? If there's more you can tell us, it's like puking, better out than in," he says taking a bite of his pizza.

He nods, "Ah, I'd heard someone describe quick sand and clingy whisps of something, but if all of this is based on your mind, then, makes sense it'd be your own personal hell."

Quake has posed:
Skye half turns to Clint, and puts a hand on his arm, and flipping the audio to mute on their end for a moment. "Uh.. We don't want to drag him to that place. Not without someone on hand who can help him."

And she's not meaning knocking him out. Every time the man is brought back to those memories is one step closer to leaving him there, trapped in his own mind. She thinks she understood exactly why Paulie was thankful.

"We have someone like that?"

Shadow King has posed:
"It isn't like I just /chose/ to go for a walk in the Astral thing. I've never been there on purpose. I'm not even that good at that stuff. Something PUT me there. I know some shit went down. I've been asked the questions about what I was doing. I can't tell you about what I was doing because I wasn't /there/. I'm not stupid; I've been asked about the portals, I know there were portals. But I was under that quicksand, being eaten, okay," Aaron says, frustrated and freaked out, shoving the pizza box back away from his leg (but not enough to actually knock it anywhere), and pulls his legs up, wrapping his arms around them, chin on his knees, glowering. The upset is coming from a fear reaction, extreme anxiety. He's just afraid. He's still ghostly pale. He doesn't know they shut off the audio, and was looking at Clint primarily.

Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
Weighing his options, Clint finally gives a nod to Skye, "You're right, we can't push him back there." It was all mind, so memories could well be as good as being there.

Damn it, he hated this psychic shit.

"We've got a psi-division, but not sure if they can cut it, the X-Men though had a heavy weight psychic with us in Mexico. Might be we need to reach out to them."

He unmutes the audio, "It's okay man, just breath deep, you don't have to go back under the sand, just relax, okay?" he re-mutes their mic. "Figure give him a second and then ask him about the portals, if he knows where they came from."

Quake has posed:
Skye shakes her head once Clint remutes. "No. You see him. He's terrified. He told us what he knows about the portals. We don't do anything else without someone who can keep his mind in place."

Frowning, Skye unmutes, and turns back to the video feed, speaking softly. "Hey, Aaron, can you do me a favour? I'd love to hear about your favourite childhood memory. You know, the kind of thing that made you smile as a kid."

She allows herself to smile and fall into the beautiful lie she's going to tell him. For all she was or wasn't, Skye understood a lot more about people than she was often given credit for.

"Mine is of growing up in China. I was born there. Hunan Province. In this little village. And in the spring, the cherry trees would blossom. We'd open the windows up at night, and all you could smell was the blossoms on the wind. I liked to walk barefoot through the blossoms. They were so pink, and delicate." She gives a soft laugh, as though she truly has had this thought, "I always wished my name hadn't been Daisy. They're so practical. Yingtáo. I thought that was the prettiest word when I was a child. I'd pretend it was my name.."

While she speaks, her voice is evenly cadenced, and her descriptions of the village are all gentle and quietly given. Much like someone talking on a mediation tape. You half expect to hear a babbling brook in the background, and that very breeze she speaks of.

Shadow King has posed:
    "My dad and I used to make pizza. He could throw it up in the air and everything. Sounds lame I guess. But that's what I remember," Aaron says. He's not very detailed in his descriptions, not like her: there's no scent of pizza dough in the air or anything like that. He probably thought of the memory due to the pizza right in front of him. And he actually starts to eat again. It's sort of aggressive.

    He's got very little else in this containment: eating is a comfort. It's showing, suddenly. He's not lightweight, either, so he'll put that food away. The food helps perhaps just as much as being talked to by Skye.

Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
Smiling, Clint says, "That's pretty good, I tried that once, ended up wearing the dough, it wasn't pretty." He chuckles. The story was a lie, but he was definitely going to have to try tossing pizza now...

"Me it was walking around the circus at night, everything was closed down, and quiet, with the smell of sawdust, grease paint and cotton candy in the air, it was magical, especially in the moonlight." The memory makes Clint smile. The story was mostly true, just idealized.

"Anyhow, are you sure you've said all you can about the portals? I won't push, but the people we report to really want to know."

Quake has posed:
When Clint asks about the portals, Skye gives a small nod. She might have told him not to, and meant it when she did, but there was something organic about how it flowed out of the casual. She thought she could help keep Aaron in the now, even as he spoke of the portals. After all, now they had pizza. And Aaron had been to Gino's.. Skye had no doubt she could sell him Gino's if she needed to calm him down again. She hoped.

Shadow King has posed:
"I've never been to a circus," Aaron answers, following the conversation, at least at first, in that direction. He spoke while eating, so it was a little muffled. He gives them a skeptical little look, suddenly distrustful. "I'm not going to make any portals," Aaron says in a disgruntled way, as if dismayed his new friends were somehow berating him over having too much portal usage.

Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
"Yeah, there's not that many around these days, except for the frou-frou Cirque stuff," he gives a little eye-roll and a smile.

As to the portals, Clint holds up a hand. "Hey man, we're just trying to find out what happened, no judgemnts man, you've been through hell. Not sure I understood you though, did you make the original portals? If so, nobody's mad, we're just trying to figure out where they came from."

Quake has posed:
"I went to the circus once," Skye begins, but stops herself as she realizes the followup to that was 'they gave us free tickets once, at the orphanage' - and that story wasn't precisely cherry blossoms in a Chinese village. "Circuses are overrated," she finishes lamely, letting Clint fend the correction of Aaron's misunderstanding about the question. That they weren't accusing him, but seeking to learn more about the portals themselves.

Shadow King has posed:
"I don't remember making any portals!" Aaron argues, frustrated and spiking again emotionally. He's probably angry at himself, or the situation. He's having a hard time coping with that there were portals but he doesn't remember having made them. Because he may have done a bad thing, but he doesn't remember. He remembers being mentally tortured.

    "I /do/ make portals, okay. But I don't know about those. I woke up /here/," Aaron insists. The pizza is gone, most of the soda now drank. He puts the container down and starts to shift to lay on his cot, arms folded, defensively. "I didn't do anything."

Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
"Whoa, whoa, easy Aaron, we got you, you don't remember making the portals. It's okay nobody's blaming you." His hand reaches for the monitor on instinct, before lowering it, shaking his head at himself.

"There were other people who don't remember doing things, so you're not alone there, man." Noticing the pizza's gone, Clint adds. "Do you want more pizza? I'm probably not going to finish mine?"

He mutes the mic on their side. "Sounds like someone was borrowing his body while he was in dream hell, right?" he asks Skye.

Quake has posed:
Skye nods absently at Clint, any number of possible theories running through her head. She's not a magic user, or even remotely pscychically sensitive, and truth be told, she'd had her own worries over the past while and had missed a lot of the local news.. still..

"Using them. Testing out limits. You were saying about your nightmares. Actually, you said that lady used your mind - isn't that exactly what he's talking about?" Only maybe a little in reverse.

Shadow King has posed:
"I don't need to be drugged again. No portals, no tricks, no nothing," Aaron assures them both, clearly trying to downplay himself. He obviously wants to stay, for some reason, but prefers not to be drugged out of his mind or unconscious. He's laying on his side now, not quite fetal position, still talking to them.

    "I never wanted to do this in the first place. I'm not a stupid taxi," Aaron gripes, having seen Skye and clint appear to confer with each other, so he mostly was talking to himself. He starts to face the wall, expression closing off slowly.

Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
Clint nods, he can understand the concern, he wouldn't want to be drugged either. That said, his power made containment difficult while he was conscious. "We'll speak to the medical team about it. See if they're comfortable with leaving you awake."

As to the rest. "I know man, and we'll get you cleared as soon as we can."

Quake has posed:
Skye unmutes, and tells Aaron it's okay, they've got everything they need. "I'd like to come visit you, if you don't mind? I'm kinda stuck here too. Might be nice to have some company, huh? I can bring pizza. Maybe we can play some dumb computer game head to head, or something." It really doesn't matter what. She feels sorry for the man.

"Thanks. You helped alot."|

Shadow King has posed:
Aaron answers softly, sadly, as if suspecting he'll be drugged: "I /can/ leave. I'm not going to." He looks back to Skye, quietly looking at her as she offers, and then closes his eyes, laying back.