8533/Sentinels: Only the Good Die Young

Sentinels: Only the Good Die Young
Date of Scene:	27 July 2019
Location:	Recovery Room 02, The Triskelion
Synopsis:	Skye talks to May about a potential plan for dealing with the Sentinels.
Cast of Characters:	Quake, Melinda May
Tinyplot:	Sentinels

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Quake has posed:
Skye hadn't slept after the Sebastian affair. She'd been too wound up and upset to. Nor had she accomplished much the next day either, puttering about on her systems, pretending to do work, all the while going over the events of the night past and trying to make sense of them.

In the end, though, she still couldn't. She still felt sick to her stomach when she thought about it. The thought of Sebastian himself near revolted her, and then filled her with guilg for that very same emotion. She couldn't distance herself enough from the matter to make sense of it all.

Most of all, she felt respsonsible for what had happened.

So it was, that late in the evening of the day following Sebastian's leaving SHIELD, Skye hunts down Agent May.

And in the tradition of Chex Miscreant, even if she were not meeting May there, Skye brings coffee and tea. Plus a small bag of old fashioned plain donuts.

Melinda May has posed:
May has already been over the reports received thus far regarding this most recent incident involving the Sentinel Sebastian. She's currently seated and looking through whatever data they'd managed to gather on the individual, though for what reason she might not even be able to quantify herself.

Or maybe she knows that Skye is going to be seeking her out and is thus staying in one place so she can be found easily enough. Either is equally likely.

Quake has posed:
It isn't so much that Skye is predictable as.. well, when shit hits the fan and her faith is cut off at the knees.. Okay, at those times, Skye might be a little predictable. And given she'd not run from SHIELD yet, that left only a few options.

"Hey," Skye mutters from the doorway. She'd hoped May was around. It made things easier. "Needed to talk. About last night."

Her mouth settles around an awkward grimace, lips pursing up as she tries to keep herself and her emotions in check. It works other than those who know her can read that little facial gesture like a book. This isn't happy Skye. This isn't even I fucked up Skye. This is I think something is wrong and I don't know what to do Skye. "Guess you read the AARs?"

Skye's is, notably missing. Not late. Just, with others filed, and her here 'to talk'.. it's noticably missing.

Melinda May has posed:
May looks over at Skye and promptly sets aside what she'd been perusing. And yes, the absence of Skye's AAR had been noticed. But she's not going to remark on that when 'lost and dismayed' Skye is here. "All right. Let's talk."

For anyone that doesn't know May well, the lack of overt reaction might be worrying, but to sharper eyes she's definitely not angry. She's patient, at the very least.

Quake has posed:
Skye comes and sits down, closing the door behind her. The bag of donuts is put on the desk, and a large tea as well, done the way May likes it - it's from the little Chinese takeout that SHIELD tends to frequent on breaks and late nights. Skye figured they might know how to make a proper cup of tea. If not, well, she tried. As for her own coffee, it was as much crutch and security blanket than necessary as a beverage.

"I don't think I should work with Sebastian anymore." Not the Sebastian case. Sebastian. A nearly moot declaration given he's not precisely their guest anymore. "And I wanted to say that whatever Coulson said, it was a lie. We were going to let him go anyway. All Coulson did was agree to stop a huge fight from happening. He'll say it's his job to accept the fallout because of his rank, but I wasn't going to listen to him anyway. So. Just thought you should know."

Melinda May has posed:
Accepting the tea, May can already tell by the smell that it's respectable stuff. The doughnuts can wait a bit. She listens to Skye's words without interrupting or commenting, and nods when the younger woman is done speaking.
"You want off the case, you're off." No questions, no judgements. She can tell something about the whole thing upset Skye, and THAT she has every intention of ferreting out. "It had been my intention from the beginning, to let him go at some point. I would have preferred that we chose then when and why, but," she shrugs faintly. "It happened as it did. All that's left now is to pick up the pieces and move on." Both metaphorically and literally.

Quake has posed:
"Wait, just like that?" Oh, that didn't sit well. So she wanted off, but she didn't want off. Or something like. Skye knows it's a trap, she knows it. She just can't avoid it. There isn't a way to avoid it, and isn't it why she'd come to May in the first place? It was like that moment on the rooftops so long ago, where May had offered to let her go. Make it happen. Clear her record. Skye could walk out the front door a free person.

And Skye couldn't.

"He.. we were wrong. I don't. Maybe we weren't wrong. I can't figure it out. He didn't kill Tony, even if Tony was interferring. And he thinks I'm good... only he thinks they're all evil. And it doesn't bother him. I don't get it. I thought he understood. I thought that look on his face.. I.."

At the time she'd not though any of this other than Sebastian had been sympathetic to her, and was happy someone understood him. She'd not realized he'd been sympathetic because he was classifying her as human. That somehow she'd passed the grade.

It was a revolting thought.

Skye might not have been a powered person for very long, but seeing what she had, and the process she'd gone through and been forced to become one, she had vast sympathies and support for other Powered sorts. Felt protective past the point that might be good for her health, or within her abilities to back up. Being classed as 'human' above and beyond others of her kin - or what she thought of as her kin? It sobered her and left her lost and confused. Angry even.

Melinda May has posed:
"Just like that, if you truly want out." And there's the qualifier from May. "You have to remember, Skye. Most of Sebastian's thought processes were programmed into him by the Sentinels. Think about how some people grow up in narrow-minded and abusive environments and end up narrow-minded and abusive themselves. Now, seeing as he'd been programmed this way, I'm not entirely sure he's even aware of that unhelpful mindset. Or if he is, he likely doesn't know how to remove it from his core programming."

She sips at her tea. "Either way, all we would ever have been able to do was give him examples of why these pre-set notions are wrong, and keep reminding him to work toward changing his outlook on the world and every sentient being who lives here." She shakes her head. "Now he'll have to figure that out on his own." The IF is left unspoken.

Quake has posed:
Skye shakes her head. "Not all we can do. Not really."

Everything else, though, is nothing more than she's been stewing over herself, trying to find a way to make everything fit in her head so that the horrible ick feeling in the pit of her stomach would go away. "Jessica - Agent Drew - she said something. She said he thinks she's a mutant, but she's good too. He means not needing to kill her. That she's not evil. He thinks we're all evil. Only I'm not evil because I don't happen to be a mutant. Only how am I any different? Like.. what if the only reason they aren't after people like me too is that they just didn't know we existed."

And there's the crux. Like people throughout the ages who passed for not being persons of colour or of a particular race, Skye had slipped through cracks on this one, and she didn't know how to feel. If she wasn't supposed to cross the picket line and step in front of the firing squad too.

"I think I know a way we can change things."

Melinda May has posed:
"I'm open to suggestions on what else we can do to try and change things."

That is, after all, one of the biggest reasons why May (and likely Fury as well) has given Skye so much latitude: she doesn't think like most SHIELD agents. And her unique perspective on things is something that the agency has honestly needed ever since people with powers started appearing. The status quo will not work anymore. A new status quo needs to be figured out, and old guard like May herself won't be the ones to do that.