Log - Early/mid-June

[musicdied]

Who: Yelena and open
When: June 9-15
Where: ADI headquarters and housing, around Gloucester
Summary: Preparing to part ways.
Warnings: N/A

Headquarters
The dust settles surprisingly quickly, all things considered. It doesn't take much longer for Yelena's desk in the investigations department to...not quite empty, exactly. Her terminal is still there, the files she's been working on, a slim stack of research material. It's the personal items that vanish, the amusing mugs, the sweater she's kept draped over her chair, the little plastic dinosaur statue, the carefully kept notes.

For a little while, at least, she's still there - her reports continue, she remains a presence in the training gym, she eats the occasional meal in the cafeteria. If she's a little distant with most people, less quick to crack a joke or share a theory, well. She's hardly the only one.

Housing
At home - at what has been home for nearly two years now - the change in her demeanor isn't nearly as pronounced. She's still willing to joke and gossip with her roommates, and pull out a film for movie night. But here, her preparations are more obvious. Bit by bit, her belongings vanish into cheap plastic totes, neatly organized. She doesn't even need those - there's a duffle in her closet, packed with everything she absolutely requires.

She may intend to stay long enough to see to it that Zyrian Steel never has the chance to use another young girl as a cat's paw. She's prepared to vanish in a heartbeat, if she needs to.

Around Town
It's possible, now and then, to find her in a coffee shop, reviewing notes or photos - of aging buildings, mostly - over a cup of black coffee. It's possible, more rarely, to find her standing at the edge of the churchyard that once held an Eye cult, frowning to herself, apparently lost in thought, or prowling the perimeter of Dogtown.

Searching for more roaming signal towers, maybe. It's hard to trust that they're truly gone.

Comments

[worthallthis]

The same expression flickers over his face again. "We still have people here," he says after a pause. "What if we can't. Get to them to help them. If they need it. Because we're too far away."

[musicdied]

"You still have people here," Yelena corrects, not ungently. "My people who aren't you and Steve and Kate have all gone. And Kate - I think if we left, she would come with us. ADI doesn't hold her loyalty that strongly."

[worthallthis]

"Steve has people here, too-- Mercy and Rue and Cortana," Winter protests, though weakly. "And you like Rue and Cortana well enough." It seems like she does. He had read over the conversation with Cortana before, but Cortana had backed off in the end, too. Right?

[musicdied]

"I like Rue," she allows after a moment of heavy silence. "And I do not like the thought of them here alone, surrounded by the likes of John Sheppard."

Whom she also likes, much to her own regret. She just doesn't trust him - or any of the others so willing to support an avatar - to make choices that won't get people killed out of sheer pigheadedness.

[worthallthis]

Sending a crack in the argument, Winter tries again, "Then we should stay close enough to make sure they're safe. And to stop ADI if they're doing something too bad. To. To mitigate the harm." The words are difficult in his mouth. It's not a thing he's ever had to think about, doing less harm.

[musicdied]

Yelena snorts quietly, and suggests, with the faintest twitch of a smile at one corner of her mouth. "And to blow it up. If we have to."

[worthallthis]

"Exactly. I will keep a good supply of grenades, just in case," he promises. "And the last of Cortana's special C4." Yes, he will literally blow up ADI if it comes to that. But only if Cortana and Rue and the rest will be okay. "Can we stay in town, Yelena? For now at least?"

[musicdied]

She's silent for a long moment, weighing her urge to go to ground outside of ADI's reach, to begin building a fallback they can't touch, against her loyalty to him and the nagging sense of dread at leaving anyone trapped in this particular net.

"For now," she says finally. And then, "You and Steve and Natalia are a very bad influence."

[worthallthis]

He smiles, sudden and relieved and brighter than usual, and puts his arm around her shoulders. Not for long and not hard, just giving her a little squeeze, but he still does it. "Thank you. We can make plans for a real escape, too. I promise. Just-- just not yet. Once we're sure ADI isn't going to hurt anybody still working for them."

And, hopefully, they can get the people trapped there, back out again.

[musicdied]

"I think as long as there is an ADI, they'll be hurting the people who work for them," Yelena says. "Or using them to make sacrifices to the Hunt, which isn't much better."

Her hands clench at her sides, and it's a moment before she can force her closed fingers loose again. She doesn't regret the kills she's made, or played a part in making. The circus avatars, Ava, the cult rooted into the Church of Holy Light, Ren and her victims, beyond saving - they had been necessary. But the thought that the blood might have fed Nia, fed her patron...

Being a tool with which someone else cemented their power, again. The thought makes her want to break something.

"But we can get our people out, the ones who are willing."

[worthallthis]

"Well, then we'll take down ADI, if we have to." He notices her tension, of course he does, but for once, Winter feels a little optimistic. Just a little. Steve took down HYDRA without any more backup than they have, now. Surely ADI can't be harder than that. And they're not the only people leaving.

So maybe he leaves his arm around her shoulders a little longer, wanting to transmit a little of that hope. "We know what was going on now. That's a lot better than before. Can't fix it until we know what there was to fix, right?"

[musicdied]

She snorts softly, and tips her head to rest against his shoulder for a moment.

"Steve is rubbing off on you," she says, but it's gently teasing, not worried - not the way it would have been a year ago, while he was still just finding himself. "I don't think I know how to be hopeful. But it looks good on you."

[worthallthis]

He wrinkles his nose at her, rubbing her shoulder gently. "You have to have hope in there somewhere. You believed in me, when I was just. A weapon. Maybe it's just very hard to see," he suggests, only about 80% serious. "Or for very specific things."

[musicdied]

Yelena huffs a quiet laugh at that. "Is being very stubborn when I know I'm right the same as being hopeful?" she asks.

"I think I'll be better at making plans. And finding us a new place to get explosives."

[worthallthis]

"I'll help with the plans," Winter says, tentatively. He likes having plans, but he's not entirely sure how good he'll be at making them. "No idea how to get more explosives, though. That's all you. You're the who knows how things. How things work." More than him or Steve, he suspects.

[musicdied]

"How things are supposed to work," she counters, grimacing a little. "But that part is the same, mostly. I think it would be close on every world - there's always someone who need to fence things, or get specialty equipment, or commission a job they aren't willing to do themselves. But you are always welcome to help with the planning. It's good, having another set of eyes."

[worthallthis]

"So there will still be work to do," Winter guesses. "More than just fixing up a house and keeping an eye on ADI." That's... a relief. Work that he understands, even. He's been trying not to think too hard about how to fill the hours previously spent patrolling ADI, working in the gym, and practicing in the firing range.

[musicdied]

"More work," Yelena says, head dipping slightly in a nod. "We'll have to keep ourselves sharp, so we don't miss trouble. It will be harder - but we'll be able to see the smaller disturbances, I think, closer to the ground."