5924/Changeling: Birdcall

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Changeling: Birdcall
Date of Scene: 05 December 2018
Location: West Chelsea Park, Gotham
Synopsis: Skye takes a side trip after her visit with Matt, and speaks to a fellow Bird, getting good advice and imparting some much needed information to be passed along to the rest of them. Predicatably, Skye's detail has a fit.
Cast of Characters: Quake, Shadow
Tinyplot: Changeling


Quake has posed:
Skye's visit with Matt Murdock had gone well, but it had left the young woman rather emotional. Which worked rather well with the other bit of the.. well, it was early evening now, and dark outside. Skye had, before leaving earlier in the day, sent word out to the Birds that she wanted a meetup. Just something quick to touch base. It wasn't that she couldn't send via Oracle, but she felt it was time that she were a more physical presence in the group, and her visit with Matt was the perfect cover.

Arrangements made, her visit with Matt over, Skye obviously emotional enough that asking for a 'moment or two for herself' was valid, Skye found herself a bench far from her meeting spot with Matt, a hot coffee in hand, and her detail at a far enough distance to make her meetup private, but not so far that she'd be overheard or interrupted, Skye sat and waited, hoping someone, anyone, would show up.

The trouble was, other than Barbara, the only other member of the Birds Skye had met had been a voice.

It was, to be sure, a typically Skye move to do this, and one that could easily backfire. There was, after all, a reason she'd been denied access to leave the Triskelion before now.. The last time she'd pulled this stunt, she'd been kidnapped...

Shadow has posed:
    To be fair, it /is/ a lovely quiet night, and the park is that perfect combo of just far enough off the main thoroughfares to appeal to those who like their privacy while close enough to easily get to, and the area is wide open enough that her detail can comfortably back off and give her space without losing sight of her or having to worry about not spotting a possible assailant. Not that there's much of any traffic right now, aside from the occasional cab or pedestrian.

    Of course, May has been putting the young Agent through a remedial situational awareness cram school, so even when she relaxes with a good coffee she is never /not/ paying attention, and the soft crunch of footsteps on gravel is easily heard in the quiet, all the more because there wasn't any motion in the corner of her eye to indicate someone walking -- although now that she looks more carefully, she /can/ see indentations forming where something unseen is placing their feet, and shadows of legs gaining definition as they move further into the pool of light from the lantern just overhead...

Quake has posed:
Skye is being put through a lot of everything right now, especially by Agent May, and most especially keeping her calm under any circumtances.

Not that Skye expects much trouble given her detail. (Or her own training, but she's supposed to be off duty right now, just some girl sitting in the park, right? Not that you can really turn things like that off like a light switch.) So, sure, she's aware of the approaching noise. And... it's more than a little disconcerting that she can't see much of anything to account for it. It leaves her on edge, a tension that isn't set to rest when she sees the sinking footprints. But, Skye also knows that if she makes a fuss, her detail will be on her so fast that if it is her contact, she's just lost a prime opportunity.

It's not a chance Skye is willing to take, so she forces herself to remain calm and hope her instincts are right: that this is her contact. Not that Skye knows how whoever it is is making an approach in quite that stealthy manner.

"Nice night for birdwatching," she says softly, blowing over the top of her now opened coffee. "You can almost hear the sparrows singing."

Shadow has posed:
    "Indeed," comes the equally quiet response from /somewhere/ in the general direction of where the footsteps have stopped, still several meters away from the bench and Skye's personal space. "Well met, miss Johnson. It is good to know that SHIELD deems you sufficiently recovered to be out on... /mostly/... your own..." It's interesting how even a disembodied voice can somehow emote body language, Skye's mind easily filling in the gesture indicating her handlers even if she can't see the person making it. "Your message said you wished to talk?"

Quake has posed:
The voice.. that is familier. And it draws a smirk to Skye's lips, head still bent over her coffee. "Oh, I'm still a danger to myself and everyone around me, but some allowances were made. I'd say sit, but I'm not sure that's your style."

Skye doesn't even try to turn to look and see who, or what, it might be who has stopped to talk with her.

"I did," she says of talking. "Things easier said and explained then sent over text. I'm guessing you know at least some of what happened to me?" An easy enough assumption given the first remarks directed at her. "I've not had much access to the outside world since my kidnapping." If by access you mean physical access. Digital? Oh, Skye had been all over the place. Physical, however, she was still under tabs. Free rein of the Triskelion, and that was about it.

Other than this outing, and, of course, her escape to the Canadian wilds.

Shadow has posed:
    "Knowledge /is/ within my remit," the Shadow points out with a hint of amusement filtering through whatever voice mask they're using. "The people who kidnapped you exposed you to something that they expected to interact with biological triggers in your heritage. I take it the groundquake that happened during your rescue was a result of that?"

    "Agent May also approached me recently to warn me about your father. My sympathies; I've not as yet uncovered any leads SHIELD hasn't already regarding his current location or activities..."

Quake has posed:
"Well, surprise," Skye says dryly, "It worked."

She mulls around a response by way of sipping her coffee. "Yeah. That was me. Whatever it was the did to me triggered something in my DNA. It's, well, it's permanent. Funnily enough, it's exactly what my father wanted to do to me. He's still on the run, though. So she was right to warn you. He's dangerous, but ultimately his heart is in the right place."

She looks up now, and over just enough to perhaps catch a glimpse of her companion. "I don't want him dead. I think he can be worked with, I really do. Especially if he knows I'm okay and I want to talk to him. But he's just a bit crazy, and dangerous, and... " she sighs. "I have to figure out how to control what it is happened to me. I can't do it here. You saw what happened to that base. Can you imagine?"

Shadow has posed:
    "Very easily," comes the wry response. "Although I personally suspect that unless you're put under extreme stress we won't see anything that drastic any time soon. But I see your point; you need to explore the potentials and the limits of your new abilities in order to learn to control them, and you need someplace to do it where you don't have to worry about potentially catastrophic results..."

    The shadows don't move, much, but when Skye looks from the corner of her eyes she can just make out a tall figure in a black coat and opera cloak, bright blue eyes looking down at her from under a slouch hat.

    "An artillery testing range might be ideal; after all, those locations are chosen explicitly because no one cares about the real estate in the area..." The voice trails off, and crunches of gravel are moving closer, and then shadows shift and stretch in a way that makes her eyes water, like a moving Escher painting where something goes from two dimensions to three, and the Shadow stands before her, looking down. "One word of advice from the voice of experience: Power reacts /poorly/ to being ignored. Let it loose or learn to control it as you will, but never try to suppress it or it /will/ rage against its leash until it breaks free."

Quake has posed:
There's a hint of a laugh from Skye. "Fair point. I guess you were there, then?" It's a guess, true and simple, but it would explain a few things. And opened up several possibilities in Skye's mind, but they weren't anything to worry about. They just gave her a direction, in truth. "We've got a spot. I think it's as much to give me time to come to grips with this, than actual concern I'm about to blow up the Trisk. But I can't learn there. If something went wrong? It would be ugly."

At least to start. To begin with, when she didn't have but a glimmer of an idea of how this all worked, she needed somewhere where *she* didn't need to worry, for precisely the reasons that her friend mentioned - whenever Skye tried to blunt her quivers and tremors in, they didn't. It was just a bit terrifying to have to calm herself down while simultaneously feeling like she was flying apart, but it had taught her that this wasn't a thing she could ignore.

The best, and easiest course, was to embrace it.

She looks up at The Shadow and nods. "Heh. Hi, I guess. You know that's going to bring them all running unless I do something about it. So either you want me to stop them, or you think we're done here." There's a nod from the young woman, who has already decided that the third option is actually more important. "So you decided I could be trusted, huh? Gotta love your timing, but I appreciate it."

She's actually sincere.

Shadow has posed:
    That noise was almost certainly a chuckle, and not entirely a nice one. "They can run all they like; the exercise might do them good," the Shadow replies with a casual dismissal that isn't even confidence anymore, just the rock-solid certainty that they have nothing to fear from the half-dozen SHIELD agents that form Skye's surveillance and protection detail.

    "If SHIELD is unable to provide a suitably... Resilient... location, I might be able to arrange something, especially if all you need is sufficient space where no one is going to miss the scenery. In the interim, my /second/ best advice would be to take up meditation, with the understanding that the point of meditation is not to suppress fears or emotions, but to make a quiet space in the mind to examine, process, and release them."

    A pause as the Shadow tilts their head, considering. "I suspect that might help a great deal; unless I'm very much mistaken, part of your problem with uncontrolled releases is the fear of what might happen when they occur, so when you feel one beginning the very fear of the outcome fuels it..."

Quake has posed:
"I don't know," Skye says impishly, "Some of them are pretty good."

It's a fair bet that Clint has figured out she's okay - she's not made any signals to suggest otherwise, and while they might not be the only people in the world who knew sign language, it was useful in situations like this that the two of them had their own signs. In their absence, Clint should be relaxing right about now.

Now, does he stop the others in time or not? There's a good question.

"May has me meditating. Does she know that you're.. that we're who we are. She's.. Oracle knows I want her in. She'd be good. I know her position might seem like it could be a problem, but I trust her. Implicitly."

A pause.

"Not everything that happened is on report. That's how I know." Not that Skye didn't know before now, but it was just another reason to believe her faith in her former SO wasn't misplaced.

"And yeah. I was kind of coming to that conclusion. I need some space to figure a few things out first. Then I guess I find anyone who can help me.. well, that I can trust." Because it was still not something that everyone should know, much as she believed herself part of SHIELD, there were always outliers who might not fully appreciate an Inhuman in their midst. The less fuss, the better.

There's another of those impish grins, "You wouldn't be interested, would you?" Ever so totally Skye.

Shadow has posed:
    "Agent May is a very intelligent woman and a highly skilled operative," the Shadow acknowledges. "She almost certainly knows more than she has told anyone, and likely suspects even more than I know. And when she contacted me she asked me to pass the message on to 'your allies'. As gestures of good faith go, that one was certainly appreciated."

    There are sounds of a mostly-whispered argument in the background. Clint is doing some persuasive talking, but SHIELD as a rule really doesn't like it when complete unknowns casually bypass a security perimeter to chat with the person being protected and none of them want to be the one who has to explain to Director Fury how this particular unknown got past them /twice/...

    There is another one of those chuckles, albeit a lot friendlier, at Skye's request. "I'm not sure what I'd do with a sidekick," they reply. "But I did promise I'd help however I could, and I dislike leaving a job half done..."

     The Shadow trails off, considering, then nods. "I've other responsibilities tonight - but when you have a spot where you're not afraid to practice, leave word with Oracle. I'll be there."

Quake has posed:
"She cares about me," Skye says simply, and leaves it at that. Touched that May had done that for her. Most certainly off of the books.

She's also smirking at the now too loud to ignore conversation (or is that just her? She has been able to hear things much more clearly since that fateful day) over whether or not to proceed with securing their detail.

"Go on," she tells the other. "Fury I'm okay with, but they're getting their panties in a wad. Not sure I'm good with them. You'll hear from me. And if you locate my father? Same deal. Wherever I am, if I can, I'll come."

And, as they say, is that. As simply as The Shadow had come, they are gone, and it is just Skye left, standing and holding up her hands (one of them still holding her now lukewarm coffee), reassuring, "I'm fine. I'm fine. And ready to go. Sheesh." Giving Clint a 'help me' sort of look, and being bustled off back to the Trisk, where all of them bar one (Clint) are grateful to sign off on their charge, perhaps the single biggest escape artist in SHIELD history given she's managed to escape that bastion not once, but twice, and somehow arranged this clandestine meeting for a questionable third bypassing of all that is SHIELD.

Skye, for her part is ready to curl up with Clint and unwind. It's been a long day.

Shadow has posed:
    Some of the agents are listening to Clint and nodding along grudgingly. Another agent is making sure Skye is okay, and the last one is talking urgenly on their comm to ask for surveillance data if anyone saw where the Shadow went. Unfortunately, the trail on the gravel ends at the pavement, and there don't seem to be any suspicious pedestrians walking away from the area, so they glumly resign themselves to once again having to explain this screwup to their superiors.

    And meanwhile, in the back of an utterly nondescript and unremarkable cab, Natasha shakes her hair out after removing her hat. "Home, Benny, if you would."

    "You got it, boss. The kid gonna be okay?" "

    She smiles to herself. "Probably. But who knows?"

    Benny chooses not to answer that, and instead chuckles to himself as he takes the next corner...