[text] - anonymous

[brandingproblem]

[because listen old habits die hard and haha fuck the idea of blasting identifying information over a questionably secured at best network in a freaky mystery city!!!]

So we're all just supposed to lie back and take it like this is just where our lives are now?

If you consider this place home and are getting back to previously established lives, fine whatever. But some of us aren't exactly looking to start whole new lives in a supposedly sentient city in the middle of everywhere or nowhere.

How do we make this place hate us and spit us back out or however the hell any of this works? Who's got the brains and the lab tech to reverse the bridge that brings us in to take us back? What metaphysical bullshit needs done to fix everything?

Comments

[brandingproblem]

[It isn't as though he wants to leave her. Not after reuniting, playing catchup, seeing that she's got a life here. He's not going to take that from her. But if she could come with--]

Someone or something disagrees. But there must be ideas. Or plans that went wrong so we can make new plans. I met someone talking about Einstein-Rosen bridges like Dr Foster figured out. I don't know. There has to be something.

[iwasrussian]

[ She'd go back in a heartbeat if there was a way, but with her dead and him alive -- it would take more than finding the rest of the Stones or going back in time to fix.

Some things just can't be undone. ]

If it can take a 5-month break and bring back some of us while pulling new people in, there is a way. We just have to find it. In the meantime, you need to have a level head. Letting it get to you like this isn't going to help.

[ The last thing she wants to see is him do what he did and become what he did after the Snap. ]

[brandingproblem]

They're going to think I'm dead.

[What seemed like a tragic inevitability, fully prepared for, has been staved off time and time again. They'll be fine without him, but there will be questions with no answers.]

I've been on extended assignments, but I'm not looking to build something new. This isn't my life.

[iwasrussian]

They might not even realize you're gone. People who have left and come back have said they left and returned at precisely the same moment. Some live out a portion of their future from that point and then return here again.

It happened to me the couple of times I was here and came back.

[ it's information, if nothing else. not meant to be any kind of excuse to get comfortable, which she knows he won't do. she hasn't. ]

[brandingproblem]

Great, this sounds like some quantum realm bullshit now. But at least that's a little more comforting.

Guessing you didn't remember being here, though. Since you would've brought it up.

[iwasrussian]

If I'm being honest, I think it's far more complex than time or the quantum realm, or even multiverses.

And no, I didn't. But I also returned in the middle of a full-blown war with Thanos, so my attention was immediately on that.

[brandingproblem]

More complex than multiverses? Are you kidding me? How do you get more complex than that? Never thought I'd want Strange around.

[iwasrussian]

Now you know why it's been a bit of a challenge to get anywhere on things.

[ he'll note on his screen that for a good few minutes, she is 'typing', but when she finally replies it doesn't match what should be sent. ]

I can't promise how long it will take, but I WILL get you home.

[brandingproblem]

[Hm. That's potentially concerning. Sometimes it's easier, typing things out and deleting them and trying again. Than to just have everything tumble out with no way to stuff the words back in.]

It doesn't have to be on your shoulders.

[iwasrussian]

It won't be. It's too big for my shoulders alone. But I will have a part.

[brandingproblem]

We can try to figure out how to bring you home too.

[iwasrussian]

[ she has given the idea some thought, but it always seems to come back around to not getting her hopes up. it's one thing to know she can leave here with Clint. it's another thing entirely to know for sure that she won't disappear somewhere along the way because she's dead and going back isn't an option.

Even if the latter were the way it went, at least he wouldn't remember and wouldn't expect to see her there when he returned. ]

You're right, we can.

So just hold tight, okay? I have some people I can talk to that have been here a long time. Maybe they have an idea or know who we can talk to. We should talk to the Magistrates.

[brandingproblem]

Should we.

[Someone's a little skeptical of the local authority...]

They been helpful in the past?

[iwasrussian]

No. But those were the ones that were here before. There's nothing that we can't try that won't at least be worth a shot.

[brandingproblem]

I haven't been out of the game long enough to forget basic recon. Can't blame me to be itching to get out of here though.

You know I don't do well on my own.

[iwasrussian]

Well, it's a good thing you're not on your own then, right?

Clint, my door is always open. I have an extra bedroom and a lot of space. Come and stay with me at the bungalow.

[ All those times he let her stay at the farm to get away from everything. It's the least she can do. ]

[brandingproblem]

[At least if he decided to take up the vigilante lifestyle again, he won't be able to put thousands and thousands of miles between himself and anyone who's ever given a damn about him. Small mercies.]

I should talk to Steve. Figure things out. Maybe we'll start getting the band back together.

[He doesn't, at first, have any comment about staying with her. Would it help the ache of knowing she's here, alive in this weird city-singularity, and unable to ever actually go back home in spite of Clint's insistence that they try? Would it only drag her down, the way he's stuck in his ways and prowling around like a tiger trapped in a cage that's too small?]

Gosh but I have so much stuff I'd have to move.

[Make a joke instead. That's safer.]

[iwasrussian]

Yeah, you should.

[ she notes the independence and leaves things alone. if he's distancing himself to make it easier because she's dead and he's intent on leaving, she doesn't fault him for that.

it was just a suggestion. ]

I'll check back with you soon.