OPEN - (1: Natasha setting up blind dates for Steve Rogers / 2: dates with Steve Rogers)

[krasnayapautina]

WHO ||

1). PART ONE is: Natasha Romanoff + any ladies in particular of the castle who are at least over 18. (Please read this for more details, including how to sign up.)

2). PART TWO is: Steve Rogers + his dates!

WHAT || If you specified that you wanted to play out the initial interaction with Natasha, this is what is happening in the first part of this log. The second part of the log is the actual dates!

There will be a thread starter (edit: here now! ) for the initial interaction with Natasha (I'd rather multi-thread this than have it single thread, for the sake of my sanity). Jesse, however, is the guy to talk to about starters for the dates with Steve.

WHERE || In and around the castle, with Natasha. For Steve, anywhere the date is happening.
WHEN || Natasha and Steve talked again at the April after party, so we can say this is ... May/June? I can adjust if needed, however.
HOW || Prose or action.

Comments

[disguised]

I can't even imagine -- [ sympathy flashes across her gaze ] Everything you knew, gone just like that. [ she seems to feel bad immediately for pointing it out, looking down. ] I'm sorry.

[recruited]

[ Steve shakes his head almost immediately when she tries to apologize. He doesn't want anyone feeling bad for trying to empathize with him. Or even asking questions. His life happened and he doesn't mind discussing it. ]

Hey. Don't worry about it. But yeah it was--it was a little hard for me to deal with at first. It's not everyday you wake up to find that everyone you were friends with has died of old age. Someone close to me--she's still alive, but when I visit her it's hard. She has Alzheimers. But she lived a good life.

[superswank]

[ wow that's SUPER DEPRESSING but she'll at least make a modest effort not to look like she feels bad about it since he asked her not to. ] I'm glad you could at least see her again.

[recruited]

[ Steve is excellent at dates and dating conversations. Aren't you super happy you agreed to come on this date, Sydney? Next he'll tell you about how his mother died from TB and his father from mustard gas. ]

Yeah. It's weird being the last one standing. But the world's pretty big and I've gotten good at making new friends. [ He smiles at her. ]

[superswank]

[ don't get syd started on parents ok ] Well, at the very least, let's hope you have one more by the end of tonight. [ she gives him a genial smile ]

[recruited]

[ They can just start a really sad parents club. Co-Presidents. ]

Wow. You don't think we're already friends? [ In comes Steve's mock hurt routine. ] I thought we were bonding so well. Telling you my sad stories.

[disguised]

Maybe I thought you told that to all the girls.

[recruited]

What? And let them know about my tragic past? No. I only tell it to the ones I really, really like.

[ He also has no filter sometimes. ]

I figured you would tell me some sad stories. We'd bond. It'd be fun.

[disguised]

[ her eyes tighten just the tiniest bit at the mention of her own sad stories, although her smile remains ] Most of my sad stories were from the other side of the Veil.

[recruited]

Mine too. [ He nods. ] I'm guessing that's a requirement for this place pulling you in. Have sad stories. Check. [ He grins. ] Hey. I don't think you can top mine though. I missed my one and only date opportunity back in the forties because I had to crash a plane. I dare you to top that.

[superswank]

[ what a shitty will save that was. sydney looks down, not meeting his eyes for a second as she tries to figure out how to say this. it probably doesn't sound as entirely detached as she's going for when she finally looks up with: ] I had a fiancee. His name was Danny. [ she hesitates for a moment, because a) this is way too much of a downer for a first date and b) she's still not used to being able to tell the truth about certain parts of her old life ] I worked for a secret agency at the time, and when he proposed, I finally told him the truth.

The organization I was working for wasn't actually part of the CIA like I'd always thought, and when they learned that he knew, they decided he qualified as a... a security risk. [ don't make her spell out the rest, steve ]

[recruited]

[ He knows exactly where this is going the minute she says I had a fiancee. Had was the keyword. Meaning he was gone. Likely deceased. That's how it was for people like them. People who wanted to do good. Someone always exploited the weakness. ]

Wow. [ Steve goes quiet for a moment as he thinks. Then he reaches across the table (are they at a table???) to take her hand. He gives it a reassuring squeeze. ] I think these days the government does more harm than good. I understand what it's like to be lied to. [ HYDRA secretly infiltrating SHIELD anyone? ] I'm sorry about Danny.

[disguised]

[ apparently she's really glad for the reassurance because she squeezes his hand back tightly, gratefully. ] Thank you.

For what it's worth, it turned out my unit wasn't even part of the real government. I wound up working with them - the real CIA - in part to take down the men responsible for his death.

[recruited]

I'm glad you got to get them back for what they took from you. [ Steve doesn't usually advocate that type of revenge, but he understood the need for it. Especially lately. Maybe the modern world is changing him more than he realizes. ] It's not always easy to tell who the good guys are and who the bad guys are these days.

[disguised]

Honestly, that's why I was a little uncertain about this whole vigilante organization at first.

[recruited]

I get you. [ He nods. ] You worry about what you're stepping into. Are you gonna become part of the solution or the problem? The people I worked for back home--they weren't what I thought either. They got infiltrated right under my nose. Infected basically. It's hard to know.

[superswank]

Did they do a lot of damage?

[recruited]

Yeah. They grew so big--they're basically global now. They're called HYDRA if that gives you any information as to how bad they are.

[ The fact that they named themselves after a Hydra. ]

They're a virus that just keeps spreading.

[superswank]

Do you know what they were after?

[recruited]

Domination. The usual. Taking over. Their MO hasn't really changed since they started back in the forties. They can worm their way into any crack or crevice. It's what they're good at.

[superswank]

You don't have to tell me. When I first thought about going after SD-6, I thought they were just a few cells, that the job could be done in a matter of months.

But they were everywhere. And growing by the minute.

[recruited]

That's pretty much HYDRA right there. They grew in the shadows. Out of sight. The used the darkness to mask their movements. We didn't even know they were there until they rose up and tried to take over SHIELD.

[superswank]

I'm sorry. It's easier to deal with an enemy on the outside. The opposite--

It's hard to explain, what that does to you.