5912/Changeling: Old Friends, Old Friends

Changeling: Old Friends, Old Friends
Date of Scene:	04 December 2018
Location:	Unknown
Synopsis:	Skye and Matt catch up before she leaves to go up North. She leaves him with a Christmas present: gathered memories of Elektra growing up. Happy tears are shed. That's what old friends are for.
Cast of Characters:	Quake, Daredevil
Tinyplot:	Changeling

Quake has posed:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BPTOY8FrvNw

Skye had been so caught up in her own problems that she'd forgotten Matt's. And now that she was heading off into the wilderness, so to speak, she'd made time for a last minute visit to the man to express her sympathies... and maybe to get some advice on her own problems.

She'd offered to bring lunch, his choice: Ramen, or Gino's.

Thankfully, all involved had agreed she could slip her leash just this once, and visit the man.

Daredevil has posed:
Matt had sensed something was off with Skye when he'd come to the Triskelion as Daredevil, but with inheriting Elektra's fortune and the war with the Hand, he hadn't had time to follow up.

Indeed, he'd forgotten all about it. He felt guilty as hell about once she reached out, and was happy to clear his schedule to meet with her.

>> Ramen

He'd replied back. Followed by:

>> See you soon.

Then he threw on a jacket and made his way out to Hell's Kitchen park. Despite the name the place lived in the shadow of Holy Cross Church and Saint Agnes orphanage, it was a little oasis of calm and green in the middle of riotous concrete jungle surrounding it.

Finding a bench with his cane, Matt takes a seat and waits.

Quake has posed:
Ramen was easy, especially as Skye could bribe Clint (who got suckered into detail.. though neither of them believed he was her only detail on this little outing) with his own, as well as a chaser of Gino's for later this evening, and made her way to the meeting place.

She found Matt there, already sitting upon a park bench under a tree that was delightfully devoid of any foliage. Naked as it was, it was both a forlorn thing, as well as beautiful in its own, stark way.

The afternoon was, as it happened, unseasonably warm. At least warm enough to sit upon a bench in the middle of a December afternoon; but not so warm that there would be many interrupting them, if any at all.

Perfect for what was otherwise something of a clandestine meeting.

She sits beside him, knowing he already knows she's there, and settles the take-out bag between them. "I got a deal. I told them to make me something special, that I was celebrating with a friend I hadn't seen in a long while. This is all off menu. Or course," she grins as she tears open the bag and takes out the two containers within, "It does make it a lot harder to order this again."

Then she pauses and looks at him, a container in each hand. "I'm so sorry, Matt. I heard. I couldn't come. Things.." She shrugs. That was why they were meeting to talk, after all.

Daredevil has posed:
Matt could only get a vauge sense of the stark beauty of the tree but December in New York had its own impact on Matt's senses, the sounds of the last leaves blowing along the concrete, the smell of winter in the air.

Though as Skye approaches other things fill his senses, of course there was the smell of ramen with soy sauce in the broth, *sniff* and pork as well as other smells he couldn't place, though that was the least of it. As Skye drew near there was a hum to her, like tuning fork, something that hadn't been there before and raised a ton of questions.

None of those questions are voiced when she sits though, Matt just smiles, "There's a beauty to a one off," he says of the difficulties of ordering the soup again, "Smells good though."

Then it comes times for the condolences, he nods, "Thank you," Matt says earnestly, even as he fights back the sensations of Elektra's death that rose up everytime he thought of her. "And don't feel bad about not reaching out, I've meant to call you for weeks but never got the chance, so you don't own the Monopoly on not reaching out. Just glad you're here now."

Quake has posed:
"They know me there," Skye explains. "I bet they'd make me another bowl. They're just not always so generous with their takeout." She smiles as she says it. "Well, we take it out all the time now. Especially since I've been pretty much confined to the Trisk for my own safety. Long story there. But go on, eat before it gets cold."

In truth, Skye was getting used to the hum that was always in her background. Just as things had been *so* loud and bright at first, she'd slowly come to accept them as the new normal, and unless she actually thought about things, she hardly noticed anymore. And as long as she didn't let herself get upset, things were.. well, pretty good. Or at least as good as they could get for the moment.

"I was.. okay. I wasn't around when she died. I read about after." More, she'd read about his inheriting her money. It had been sobering. But then again, at the time, she had her own problems.

She still did.

"And yeah. Figured I should make an effort before I disappeared. Oh, and invite you to our place at the Trisk for Christmas. I think we're having it? Darcy thinks we're having it. It's really simpler if we just agree and hold it. She'd just hunt us down and bring everyone with her otherwise." Skye laughs softly at the thought.

Daredevil has posed:
"Sure, boss the blind guy around," Matt jokes lightly but that doesn't stop him from digging taking the top off his ramen and digging in.

"Mmm, okay, you're going to need to tell me where this place is," he says about the ramen shop. "Though if they could move to an unscented soap when they wash their hands, it'd help the flavour." Why yes, Matt is showing off a little. Not that it wasn't true.

He sobers some when talking about Elektra again, "You hear about the money?" he asks. It was a safer subject, plus, he knew she'd understand why he had so many problems with it. This was not something they thought about where they came from.

"And dissapear?" he says, that and her talk about being confined to the Trisk, raises Clint's curiosity. "What happened Skye?" he asks turning his head her way. "Something changed, didn't it? You buzz now and you didn't before."

Quake has posed:
"You can tell them that," Skye says of the hand washing. "I would like to eat there again." And well, her tastebuds didn't reach to that level. Which might explain the cup'o'ramen. "Show off."

She's smiling, and as it happens, happy to see him smiling too.

"Me first, huh? Guess that's what happens when - hey! I am not bossy. Why does everyone say I'm bossy?" Skye makes a face, though it's only a half-hearted one, and not meant at all seriously. "So. Mean."

Noodles are slurped. "MM-hrm. I heard about things after. Mostly the repeats of the obituary with the articles about all the money you'd inherited. And hey, what's with your new girlfriend, huh? That threw me for a loop." While Skye really wasn't the Entertainment Nightly sort, it had come up while she was looking up things about Elektra's death before meeting Matt today.

Skye avoiding talking about herself much? No.

Daredevil has posed:
The smile lingers as Matt asks oh-so innocently, "What? You can't taste it?" he says taking another bite and chewing thoughtfully, "I think they use Dial." That part he was making up!

"Guess, so and I'm so not mean," Matt says falling into the easy cadance of their childhood 'debates' during those years at Saint Agnes. "I am just pointing out an uncomfortable truth," he says, teasing.

Matt takes another bite nodding about the money. "Yeah, that was less fun than it reads, the money, and the company. More like a whole bunch of problems I didn't sign up for."

When she brings up Kate, Matt smiles, "I think we're getting off topic," he says with a faint smirk on his lips.

Quake has posed:
"Fine, I'll get back on topic, but I'm not forgetting that bit." Kate, no doubt.

Her bowl is lifted to her lips to slurp up some broth before answering him. "I hum? Wow, see, here I thought everyone else was humming. Well, everything else." She frowns slightly.

"Remember the things we were talking about before? About my parents, and how I might not be really human? Turns out that was right. I'm.. not, I guess. And it's not even my dad who is the weird one. I mean, yes, he is weird, and still on the loose, by the way, but he's just, well, he's human."

She protests, then, "And I am not bossy. I just happen to take charge. If you'd done it, would that make you bossy? No. So why am I bossy just because I don't happen to have a dick? I just don't get that double standard.:

Daredevil has posed:
Matt makes no comment about her remembering or not, he just slurps his noodles.

"You do, it's faint, but it's there, like someone hit a lightly tapped a tuning fork," Matt explains after swallowing down the noodles.

He takes a sip of the broth next.

"So, everything hums? How? What does it sound like?" he asks lowering the bowl turning his head towards Skye.

"Heh, not sure what dicks have to do with that, but yes, it would have made me bossy," Matt says, with a smile. "And for the record, I said 'sure boss a blind guy around' which was more a self-depricating joke on my part than remarking on you taking charge."

Quake has posed:
"You don't get jokes, do you? People don't dig when you boss idsabled folks around." She holds up a hand. "Noooot that you're in any way shape or form what people think, but you get what I mean. And," she sighs. "You're not the first to say I'm bossy. I take charge. It's different. Bossy would be forcing you to eat it. And I'm worrying way too much about this, aren't I?"

She wasn't sure why it was suddenly a hot button with her, other than she was still feeling off kilter about most things since her change. It was an easy area she could control the anxiety.

"I don't know. Things just.. resonate? I can hear things humming away. At first everything was just loud. People were incredibly loud. It was like they were yelling at me, only they were really far away. I don't know. It didn't make any sense. It still doesn't make sense. But it's not just hearing? I don't know. It is weird if I say I think I can feel them?"

Which she hadn't admitted yet to anyone.

Daredevil has posed:
"A little?" Matt says of worrying about it. "For what it's worth, I don't think you're bossy, that honour belongs to the guy who trained me," he says with a private smirk. "He was a real piece of work."

He takes a bite of ramen and adds, "And yes, it's been said a time or two I don't get jokes," though there's a smile with that to assuage any idea he might be offended. "Guess it's part of my charm."

Matt sets down his bowl half finished, turning from Skye, when she talks about 'feeling' the hum, he tilts his head, listening closer to her hum along with her words.

When she asks her question he turns towards her and shakes her head, "Not weird at all, sounds like you picked up an entirely new sense, that isn't quite in line with the six we always learn about," there were more of course but those were the ones they keep teaching in school. "Something tuned to these vibrations. So, I'd say different, or a gift, not weird."

"So, if you're dad's human, then, your mom?" he says letting that trail off but meaning was she the source of these new powers.

Quake has posed:
"I'll say you don't get jokes," Skye returns dryly, poking back at her noodles. "It wouldn't have been funny if I said it." She gives a chuckle. "And yeah. I'm just a little on edge still. First there was being kidnapped. Then this whole change thing. And my dad. And being restricted to the Trisk. and okay, this one is good, but I got promoted. And Karl is being a problem we can't overlook anymore. And my dad is still out there on the warpath. And Christmas is right here. I don't know. It's a lot."

rThe young woman is quiet for a bit, listening to his conjectures about what's happened. "My father looked at it that way. He wanted it for me. I guess it must be my mom who wasn't human, only I don't know how. Just Simmons said my DNA wasn't normal. That it had gaps in it. The crystals... okay, you don't know about them, but there was this alien tech, and it was keyed to those gaps. They're what changed me. I.. I think I destroyed a whole base.."

She nods, and looks over her bowl of ramen. "I'm never going to be who I was again. How did you do it? I know you were like this when you came to the orphanage, but you weren't like it before. How did you make it through this?"

Daredevil has posed:
"Jesus, Skye," Matt swears when he hears all that she's been through. "I can get being on edge after all that, are you sure you're okay?"

As for the holidays, he nods, he had the same reservations. Though Foggy had been dragging him to his parent's place for the last eight years now, he still felt more comfortable at midnight mass, listening to the prayers of the people there with him than sitting around a table stuffing his face and trading gifts.

Matt listens in turn, about her mother, about alien tech, about all of it, and while elements were different, he could see some of his own story in it too. As did Skye.

"Stick," Matt answers. "That's how I made it through, before him I was where you were, maybe a little worse, afraid, trying to get control of my powers but not knowing where to start. I felt like you did, that I was never going to be the same, and that all of this was a curse, something that happened to me, like my blindness. Stick, for as much of a bastard as he was though, taught me, what happened to me was a gift, that it gave me things others didn't have. That even though I'd never be the Matt Murdock I was before I saved that man by jumping infront of that truck, I could use this to become someone even better."

There's a moment of quiet before he adds, "That was the start anyhow, the rest was a shit load of training. I can help with that, it sounds like some of what you got is similar to what I have."

Quake has posed:
"Yeah, well, you didn't blast everyone with something and nearly break medical by making it shake apart. And I don't know if I'm okay. Sometimes I think I am? But it's not been a whole long time. Mostly as long as I don't let myself get upset, things seem on a pretty even keel."

That much she'd figured out. When she got excited - happy, sad, mad .. anything, really that drove her heart rate up.. bad things happened. She'd been grateful for the things May had taught her, and had continued to work with her on since the change, but she knew that wouldn't be enough. She couldn't go her entire life worried about being a ticking timb bomb just waiting for the day she couldn't control her emotions. She needed to know how to.. well, use what she'd been given properly, and with restraints, so that she didn't hurt anyone, including herself.

"What was it like? Finally admitting to yourself that you had to embrace these things? I mean, you sense things differently, right? But you don't really make things happen." Unless you counted his fighting. That was a kind of making things happen. "I don't know how I made those things happen. That scares me."

Daredevil has posed:
"Fair answer," Matt says of her being okay. "And so that's what you meant about blowing up a base, huh? So, what else can you do? Besides feeling vibrations."

That was the question wasn't it? Matt reached back to those early days, those days where Stick showed him what he could use his powers to do. How he could just know things about people by what his senses told him.

"Terrifying," Matt begins. "I'd already been through so much change, I'd lost my father, I was alone, and then I had to give up who I was..." he shakes his head. "I almost tried to run. It was just too much, y'know? But when I got past that, and embraced my powers, it was increadible. It stopped being something that happened to me and became something that I was. It made the learning to use them easier."

There's a pause.

"That sounds like some scary shit, but I believe no matter what powers you have the first step in getting control of them is embracing them."

"So I take it SHIELD and the rest know? And are helping you, or at least trying to?"

Quake has posed:
Skye listens, letting her ramen be her focus, eating slow, careful mouthfuls while Matt speaks. "I don't know what else I can do. I just noticed it. It was much more chaotic at first. I had no clue that's what it was. And now it's just sort of there. Unless I get excited, and then things.. happen. They shake and explode. I don't know what that is. But I'm pretty sure it's me."

All of it had been a lot. First finding out what SHIELD knew about her, and then the crazy journey that had led to, including the fact that her father wasn't dead, and that she wasn't human, all the way into becoming whatever it was she now was.

"SHIELD knows. Well, Fury. May. Clint. There are some very scared people in medical who are wondering. A few have a good idea what happened. Not what it means, yet, but that it happened. And then, well, my dad is this psycho out there, trying to kill anything between him and me, so everyone in SHIELD knows that now." It was rather hard to hide that one. "Just how do you embrace something you don't even know what it is, especially when you've hardly had time to come to grips with the fact that you're not what you thought you were?" She gives a broken sort of wry laugh. "I was barely at the point I'd accepted I was a SHIELD agent, and they were my family, and then this. It's crazy."

Daredevil has posed:
Matt nods and picks his ramen back up to take a new mouthful as he listens. "Yeah, I can see where that'd be scary. Stuff just coming apart when you get upset."

There was a metaphor in there Matt reasoned, but he doesn't remark on it. He just returns to eating and listening. When she's done he speaks.

"That's one I don't have an answer for, when I embraced my powers I had them for about a year, I just shut them away, ignored them as much as I could, it wasn't until after my dad died and Stick came around that I was even able to get a grip on them. With your powers being more active, I don't know if you have the luxury of putting it off that long. You mentioned going away? Is it somewhere quiet? That might help, just stepping back from all the rest of it to focus on your powers. I know it was a relief to just set down the rest of my life to work with Stick, because yeah, like you, I was learning to get a grip on what I could do after a lot of change."

Quake has posed:
Skye nods. "Yeah. Somewhere up north. Where I won't hurt anyone if I lose control. I'm not really safe at the Trisk. And they're not really safe with me there." She gives a grin. "Not sure my crazy dad on the loose is safe for anyone, but not a whole lot I can do about that. I think, though, that once he figures out I'm okay, or something, maybe we can get him to calm down. Only I can't wait until we capture him to get a grip."

Yeah, she's already realized she's not got the time Matt had to figure things out. Much like the rest of her life had been, it's going to be all fly by the seat of your pants without a moment to catch your breath in first. Ever.

Even her relationship with Clint had been that to begin with. In fact, excatly like that. It was only now that they'd settled into the ease of what potential had always been there. That thought leaves her smiling deeply, and fondly. head bent over her ramen - ramen she knew he'd have had to scarf down carefully while making sure the pair on the bench were safe.

Daredevil has posed:
Matt nods, "Up north? Like how far up north?" he says picturing some far flug post in the frozen north. "Hope it has cell service at least," he says with a smile. Though the smile vanishes when her father's mentioned. "Been keeping my ears open about him, haven't heard anything, so odds are good he's not in New York, Gotham or Metropolis," then he smiles again, "Which just leaves about 99 percent of the world. Guess I need to get out more."

He gives Skye a bit of space with her thoughts, though when he senses her mood lifting, he can't help but ask, "What?" with a smile of his own.

Quake has posed:
"Uh, some place Fury knows," Skye says as to 'where' they are going. She's not sure if it's a secret base, or what, but whatever it is, it's likely not on the beaten trail, and quite possibly meant to be kept hush. "It'll be okay. And I think he knows me well enough to know no internet, and Skye's a cranky girl. Besides, it's kind of a working vacation. When I'm not figuring me out, I'm figuring out the answer to a problem we have."

She shrugs.

The smile returns when he asks about it, though. "Oh, I was just thinking about Clint. About us. How crazy it was at the start when we had no clue what we were doing because we didn't think we were people who did this. All the time we spent circling around getting to exactly where we are now. It's just funny. It could have gone so bad at so many places along the way and it didn't."

Daredevil has posed:
"Good, that means you can check in," Matt says when Skye says her northern hideout has internet. "And I remember what it's like when you don't have the net. Remember when Sister Maggie locked the computer room for the week after Jimmy Caldero got caught looking at porn?"

He smiles at the memory.

Matt had to admit he was a little bit jealous of Skye and Clint. The way things seemed to be working out seemed so easy, so natural. Not that he and Elektra... he has a flash of her death and blinks... didn't fit together, but things were never easy and light. They seemed to thrive on friction and pain.

"Glad it worked out," Matt says. "How's he taking all the changes?" he asks her.

Quake has posed:
Skye laughs and rolls her eyes. "I'd forgotten that. I wasn't even this bad back then. It was just something to do to not be where I was then. Now? Now it's..." She exhales. It was her life. It was what she was. Skye couldn't imagine not having that extension of herself.

"Clint's taking things well," Skye says carefully. At least she thought he was. The pair weren't really big on lying to one another. They'd always seemed to blurt out the difficult things and managed to walk the landmines left behind without destroying what they had. "I know," she says softly. "Not fair, huh? I can't figure out how we managed it, too. I thought we'd end up screwing and calling it a day. It wasn't so easy at first. All these things that continually threatened to be bigger than we were. I remember sitting up on the roof, probably around this time, crying my eyes out and thinking I'd leave SHIELD, and dump him, and oh, just everything."

Her voice softens. "Even then he was who I wanted to talk to about all of it, only I couldn't even text him to tell him I didn't know how to come down off that roof. I can't even remember how I got down off of that roof and back into my rooms. It was awful. We made a deal after that."

Daredevil has posed:
Matt chuckles, "Figured, but it was pretty bad back then too," he says holding up his hand and running a finger over a little scar on the meat of his palm. "I still have the scar from when we tried to jimmy the lock."

He listens to Skye's story, pleased but still jealous. "Glad he's taking it well, seems like a good guy." As for it being not fair, he shakes his head. "Given the shit you've been through, Skye, I figure a happy relationship is the least you're owed."

Not that life, or God, paid out regularly. Still, he couldn't be angry at Skye's happiness even in his own sorrow. When you grew up like they did, it was hard to begrudge anyone who'd been through it even a scrap of joy.

He smiles at the story, and can't help but chuckle. "So, you were mad at him and he was the one you wanted to talk about it?" he smiles at that. "Not like I can throw stones. Most of the time Elektra was the only one who understood me, so," he shrugs. "Who else could I talk to? Even when I hated her." The hate was just a smokescreen, an easier emotion to process than the hurt that hid beneath it.

"So, what was the deal?"

Quake has posed:
"I don't know about owed," Skye says thoughtfully. "I mean, when I was younger, I think I believed that." There's a chuckle. "Oh, wow, I'd forgotten about that." The scar that is. The thing emblematic of all the anger she'd had pent up in her for so many years, with its basis in that time in her life - old enough to realize how horrible things were, but too young to do anything about them.

After St. Agnes, it had been the group homes. And then running away.

Skye had been angry for a very long time.

"Yeah, totally was pissed off at him, and scared and all sorts of things and all I wanted was him to hold me and let me know it was going to be okay. Only, we'd hardly started dating then. I'm not sure we even admitted we were dating then. I had no clue what it was."

The deal makes her smile again. "We agreed no leaving without a time limit. You could walk, but you owned it. And if you couldn't say I need you, a text, something. No questions asked." She shakes her head. "We actually had to use that rule, too. So many explosions at first. Mostly because neither of us knew how to trust what was going on. And neither of us knew what it was that was wrong. Why it was so hard for us. It got a lot simpler when we admitted we loved each other."

She frowns at Matt. "It must seem really crass of me to talk about this when you've lost her, huh? You know, I never got to know how it was with you and her. I think I just fell into the same loop the others were in, how could you care about someone like that. Even if you weren't you. I never stopped to think maybe there was more there. I mean, it was you. You loved her. I know you. There had to be something."

A pause. "I'm really sorry I didn't stop to think about that earlier. You must have really felt alone and abandoned when things happened."

Daredevil has posed:
Matt chuckles again, "I haven't," he says about the scar.

He rememebred the anger too but didn't judge it. He was filled with the same sort of anger, then and now. It was a constant companion. One Elektra had understood.

"Sounds like love," Matt says about Skye and her reaction to that fight. "Even if you guys didn't see it at the time." He takes in the rest with a nod. "Good rule, doesn't leave you wondering if the other is ever coming back."

"It's fine," Matt says. "Got to say, I'm a little jealous of what you and Clint have, but at the same time hearing about it is a ray of light in a pretty dark world right now. My day is mostly training and trying not to think about her, then going out and fighting a war in the streets and alleys of the city, so I'll take all the bright I can get right now."

As for Elektra. "She saw me, Skye, she really saw me and she loved what she saw. How couldn't I love her for that? Yes, she did horrible things, but, knowing what she went through, and who she was..." he hesitates. "... It didn't matter, I still loved her. Those things broke us apart, but even when I was furious with her and thinking of going out to stop her, I loved her. "

He breathes a sigh. "And the beyond just knowing me, she made me feel alive. My day to day is spent hiding, behind these," he waves at his shades and his cane. "With Elektra I could be me without wearing a suit and a mask."

As to how he'd felt. "Yeah, I felt empty, like I lost a part of myself, I still do, but I didn't feel abandoned at least not by her, what happened, what she did, was for me as much as anything, and I couldn't deny that she loved me, even if we rarely put it into words."

Quake has posed:
Skye nods, and smiles as he talks about Elektra. "You make her sound different than what we knew, or saw. And I meant.. we abandoned you. You cared about her and everyone was down on you for it, instead of seeing you. You know? Like they're your friends, and they know who and what you are, so how does Matt Murdoch, mister nice guy, fall for someone like Elektra Natchios, leader of the Hand?" She shakes her head. "It doesn't sound like something that should happen, right? And even if, well, all we did was make it so you had nobody to talk to."

That was something she knew well. It had taken until SHIELD for Skye to find people she could turn to under any circumstance and trust that they wouldn't betray her.

"Yeah. We were stupidly in love. We just didn't know it."

It does have her tilting her head at him, though. "So Kate is just a cover, huh? Or did you fall for her out of all this. She probably didn't see all the things the rest of them did. Maybe it was different?" Skye had been trying to puzzle this out. She didn't think the way Matt talked about Elektra still, that he was over her, and yet, there were all those articles and sound bytes. Or maybe she just wanted him to be happy after all that had gone on, and Kate was maybe a chance at that.

Daredevil has posed:
"She was," Matt says. "She only took the deal with the Hand because they'd hit a stalemate and she thought she could maybe stop some of the damage they did if it meant she had to be part of the rest of it. It didn't work, obviously, it was a trap, but she tried."

As for the other, he nods, "Yeah, that part is true. Pretty much everyone was down on her and honestly didn't seem to care that she was dying so that they'd be safe. We could have run, or fought, but she and I both knew they'd kill everyone we cared about if we did, so what happened was the only way, and nobody cared. They just saw an enemy, a mistake."

There's a further nod. "I get the skepticism, but, yeah, it hurt."

He is more than happy to move back to Clint and Skye. "Heh, funny how it sneaks up on you, isn't it?"

Then there's Kate. Given how honest they'd been thus far he felt he couldn't lie. "Yeah, it something like that," Matt confirms. "But yeah, she doesn't judge, she wasn't there when it was happening as much as after the fact. It's been nice though, having someone who brightend things for a change. Maybe if I hadn't lost Elektra right before there'd be something, but right now, it is what it is."

Quake has posed:
Skye looks both sympathetic, and sad. She'd perhaps not been quite as vehement as his other friends, but she'd been on the looking askance and how could you train as well. It had taken till now for her to step back and see what she hadn't before.

"I'm sorry. I guess I was a crappy friend. And yeah, funny how it sneak up on you."

What he says of Kate rings true. As much as what she'd thought. "She likes Clint, doesn't she? I mean, he doesn't see it, and maybe it's that whole thing he and I had to work through, but she's like his little kid sister, and she doesn't think so. Am I right?"

the signs, Skye was pretty sure, were all there.

Daredevil has posed:
"It's okay," Matt says with a tight smile, trying to let her off the hook. "Can't say I'd have acted differently, not knowing all the facts."

Matt nods about the other, "Wasn't slow with me and Elektra, I think I knew the first night." He barks a 'heh' with a sharp exhale. "Leave it to me to fall in love at first sight."

"We really don't talk about Clint," Matt says casually, though that might be a tell of it's own. "But given how you two are, I don't think you've got anything to worry about, Kate's a big girl, if she's got a crush on him, she's not going to act on it. You and Clint are happy."

Quake has posed:
"No worries. I'm not going to press you for details, or may you spill her secrets. I don't think he sees it. I asked, once. He thought I was ridiculous. I kind of feel for her, though. And I wasn't worried. I trust him."

In fact, Skye had never worried about Clint in that way, oddly enough.

"Hah, you did not just make a blind joke. Oh my god. That's horrible Matt. Just horrible." She gobbles up the last mouthful of noodles and slurps the remaining broth and pork bits. "So it was like that, huh? Just knew somewhere that she was it." Skye nods. "I guess I should have known."

And the rest of what he has said falls into place. "So she was so much more. People just saw bits." He's smiled at. "Maybe a blind man was the only person who could see what they couldn't because they always had to look with their eyes."

"She really, just.. let herself die? What the hell happened anyway?"

Daredevil has posed:
"Glad, it sounds like he loves you just as much as you love him," Matt says, and he was glad, it gave him hope.

Then he laughs, "Yeah, it's sort of my thing," he says of blind jokes. "With new people it's a whole getting there before they do thing, with people who know me, I mostly do it for the groans."

He nods in confirmation. "Yeah, just like that, I was attracted to her from across the room, and yeah, I know how does a blind guy do that? It's complicated, but basically it was how she carried herself, her presence, it goes beyond seeing. Though I don't think I was in love until she shot me down. It was pretty brutal, but I rallied," he says with a smile that's faintly proud before turning into a smirk. "Then we stole a car."

"Could be that," he says of being the only sort of person to be able to see the real her. "And I think part of it two was we were alike, and somehow that came through loud and clear to the both of us."

He nods to the other. "The Hand wanted her to be their champion, she died so that couldn't happen. Well arranged to be killed. I was there, at the end."

Quake has posed:
Shekye giggles, "Oh, please tell me you drove, that is the only thing that would make the stealing a car story better."

She understand, though. Better now, so many things falling into place between the past, the present, her own recent story, and this talk now.

"So she just decided to not let them use her? Why'd she have to die, though?" Though she thinks she understands. You can't keep chasing down a dead person. The story pretty much ends there. "And they've left you alone now? I mean you and your friends are safe and all?"

Daredevil has posed:
Matt shakes his head. "I hadn't told her my secret then, so no, didn't drive. I've done it a couple of times though, it's...tricky, even with my senses."

"And yeah, they can't chase a corpse, and you don't need to threaten a corpse's friends," he says, as for the other question, there he smiles faintly. "Matt Murdock is safe, your friend Darcy is safe, but once I've gotten back to New York from the tourney, I've done my best to make Dardevil their number one enemy, I'm trying to capitalize on the information Elektra provided SHIELD, and make sure we drive them out of the city."

Quake has posed:
"SHIELD did a number of raids. I think our most current intel sweeps say that the bulk of their base has been dismantled. There are all the little bits, but those we have a lot less control over. There's only so much manpower we have to enact on street level cells."

It wasn't that they were abandoning things, but SHIELD wasn't equipped to deal with territory fights, or Johnny on the corner selling cheap drugs to school kids. That wasn't their mandate. Their mandate was the bigger picture - a picture they were still building with the people they'd taken down in the raids. People Skye hadn't been able to help with because of her recent changes.

Timing, as they say, is everything.

"You're okay, though? Anything we can do to help?"

Because while SHIELD didn't have the mandate to micromanage, they did often help facilitate other's actions.

Daredevil has posed:
Matt nods, "That's what the word on the street is saying too, their main base is gone, what's left are pieces, most of them scrambling to get out of the crosshairs of the FBI who are still launching raids."

It made sense the FBI was a step closer to the street than SHIELD with a mandate to get deeper into the details of crime in the city.

"As for us, right now the only thing we're having trouble with is making them talk," Matt says, everyone we capture either shuts up or tries to off themselves, and I hear the FBI is running into the same issue. It's a good tactic on the Hand's part, it keeps us from rolling who we capture up at the levels beyond them, but if we can break that discipline we may have a shot to do even greater damage ot the Hand."

Quake has posed:
"I think we have a couple of leads. I'll let May know? Would that help? See if there is anything we can do to get a conversation going." There were rumours that someone wanted to talk, if a deal could be made.

"Oh, I almost forgot," Skye says, handing him a thin, wrapped packed. "It's your Christmas gift. In case we don't get to see your smiling face on the big day. I kind of thought you'd want to open it privately anyway."

Daredevil has posed:
"That would work," Matt agrees with a nod. "Thanks Skye."

Though that's not all he has to be thankful for as she produces a gift. He takes it, letting his hand run along the wraping, trying to get a sense of what's inside. "I'll try to be at the party, but you shouldn't have," he says, though it was far from a heartfelt protest as he starts to tear into the packaging and open his gift.

Quake has posed:
Inside the packaging is a digital frame. Really kind of useless when you're blind, so it might seem like an odd gift at first, but this one is different: it's been set to play videos.

Now, she won't say how she got them (because some are clearly not out there in the public archives), but the frame's memory holds videos of Elektra throughout her life, from childhood, into adulthood - both in and out of the public eye (though fewer candid memories from her adulthood, of course), all of them with audio.

Elektra laughing at play. Asking her father to 'watch me, papa, watch me' as she paddles into the waters at a Mediterannean beach. A martial arts tournament she entered when she was 6. All the sorts of memories someone mmight have of the woman over the course of a lifetime, or at least as many as Skye could find.

All of them digitally timestamped, with a receiver that both broadcasts and recieves to take audio cues to move through the frames to particular memories.

"I thought maybe you'd like something to remember her by."

Daredevil has posed:
At first Matt doesn't know what to make of it, it's frame, or a tablet. Hey, he was supposed to be the one making blind jokes, but then he hits the play button and hears the voices.

It takes no more than 'watch me, papa, watch me,' for him to understand and for tears to start brimming in eyes. He listens for as long as he can stand before he presses the button again to bring them to a halt.

When Matt speaks, his voice is raw, "Thank you, Skye," he says blinking away tears. "There's no words."

Quake has posed:
Skye gets up, the gathered garbage back in the bag she'd brought, and she offers him a hug. "Merry Christmas, Matt. I'll keep in touch."

5912/Changeling: Old Friends, Old Friends

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