They have the good coffee in the cafeteria today, and I need some company.
[That - isn't exactly true. She'd really rather hole up for a little longer, until she doesn't feel so much like setting the entire Barge on fire for shoving her into a cloyingly candy-coated version of her actual shitty adolescence. But she doesn't need to be a spy to know he's lying.]
[There's a long pause before he responds. But finally she gets:]
ok
see you in a few
[And he'll splash some water on his face, comb out his hair, and slump out in search of Yelena and coffee. He's glad, now, he hadn't given in and taken one of his pills. He'd been tempted.]
He hadn't said where he was, so instead of bringing coffee to him, she's waiting outside the cafeteria when he gets there, leaning back against the wall in a hallway that still smells faintly of smoke from someone's tantrum on the floor below the previous day. It makes her regret, a little, not venting her own displeasure.
"Hey," she says when she spots him, rocking away from the wall and then checking herself before she gives in to a lingering impulse to hug him that is absolutely not her own.
Oops. Well, the dining hall is pretty much where he was going, so his lack of info won't get in either of their ways. He has his hands in his pockets when he approaches, maybe possibly for similar reasons. "Hey," he answers.
Then, after a pause that's just short of awkward, "So. That was crazy."
"I would say you get used to it, but I try not to tell lies that are that easily disproven," she says, and turns to open the door to the dining hall to let them in.
"This one let us keep our own shapes, at least. Trying to sort out your real life from the fake one is even less fun when you are also trying to remember how to balance without a tail."
Bob blinks at her, following in her wake. "You had to be a-- an animal? Or some kind of alien?" With a tail, at the very least. "What was that breach?"
"A fox," Yelena confirms, shooting a weary little smile back at him over her shoulder. It doesn't come anywhere near her eyes. "Did you ever see that old Robin Hood movie? The cartoon one, not the one with the guy from Princess Bride. It was a little like that, except the biggest threats were pirates, not a lion whose crown was too big."
"So you were Robin Hood? Or Maid Marian?" Bob asks, trying to tease a little, because she's definitely more the Robin type. He's not sure if it will land, with both of them being... weird. Well, he's being weird, mostly. He should get over that, Jesus.
"Maid Marian," she deadpans. "With the pointy hat and everything. --Oh, good, there's still coffee in the pot."
Once they both have a cup poured, she picks up again. "I was - a little bit Robin Hood. I had a little band of animals with shady pasts dedicated to righting wrongs and everything." She pulls a little face at that - ridiculous, right? "And a little brother to take care of, which was very weird. I am not really the taking care of people type."
Bob gives her a surprised little look, because that's either a very twisted self-image or a straight-up lie. "You've been taking care of me since I got here. Before, the other you from my timeline, she tried taking care of me, too."
Even if he was obviously not having any of it at the time. He's a little embarrassed at how he'd acted-- not the actual saving her part, but insisting so hard that he could help when, before the distraction, he was actually pretty useless.
Yelena shakes her head slightly. "I tried to help you find your feet, that's all. This was- He was just a child, when our parents died. The person whose life I borrowed in that breach, she all but raised him." A pause, and a brief grimace. "There has only been one breach where I was not an orphan. So probably I contributed that to the mess we just left."
"Yeah, well, the whole foster care situation and running away to live on the streets probably came from me, so," Bob shrugs, as if it's no big deal to have been in an abusive situation and then homeless. Or rather, that he's trying to make it seem like it's no big deal. "Who was the brother? An actual, um, person here? Or-- I guess if that's too personal, you don't have to say."
"I think we both can take a bit of the blame for the shitty foster care part," Yelena says, reaching out to lay a hand briefly on his arm. It had been one of the ways Dreykov's people had obtained their recruits, after all.
Well, at least she didn't ask him about it. That's nice. "Is there a lot of... matching up people who know each other, in breaches?" he asks instead, because that's two of her (maybe) friends who have been brothers. Should he expect to wind up related to Skye next time, maybe? Or Jedao?
There are things you don't ask someone when you're both still raw from a breach's manipulations. 'Tell me about your shitty, traumatic childhood' is one of those things.
"It is a small population," she notes. "But the answer to that is 'some of the time'. Chase has been my brother twice, and the first time is actually how we became friends.""
Bob pauses with his coffee mug halfway to his mouth. "The guy who took us in isn't somebody here, is he...?" He doesn't think he knows everyone here yet, but he definitely doesn't recognize the face, looking back.
"I did not recognize him," Yelena says, expression hardening a little. "But I will be keeping an eye out, in case he is someone new."
Not everything that happens during a breach reflects who someone is in real life - but someone whose breach identity would bind a pair of orphans to him in order to train one as his own personal spy and assassin bears watching. Just in case that part is a mirror.
"I haven't seen anyone who looks like him, so maybe not... I, um, don't think I'd probably wind up friends with that one, even if he turns out to be a nice guy normally," Bob has to admit. There's enough lingering feelings there, at least right now, that it'd be hard to be fair.
"Neither would I," Yelena says, matter-of-fact. "It is...not that unusual, for things that happen in a breach to colour the way you see someone. There are some people who claim to be able to throw it off completely after the breach ends, but they mostly are lying to themselves."
Well, she wound up friends with spider-guy because of a breach... she's talking to him now because of the breach. (Though he thinks maybe she'd do that anyway. She talks to him a lot.)
"Even the bad parts? Do people hold grudges after breaches for stuff we did when we weren't-- us?" He doesn't think he did anything to piss off anyone in the breach, he hardly talked to anyone at all actually, but it's good to know for the future.
She lifts a hand, waffles it back and forth. "I am sure someone has, because some people can hold a grudge over anything. But it is more...if someone hurts you in a breach, you still have the memory of them hurting you. Other things might outweigh that, but it is still there."
"Does that happen a lot, then?" Bob says thoughtfully, maybe a tiny bit guiltily. Not over the breach, but knowing about all those times he can't remember-- and some he can-- when he was definitely not... at his best, and might have hurt people. "Getting hurt by people we know when we're not, um, ourselves."
"It happens more with floods than with breaches," she replies. "Like the one I told you about before, where we all thought we had some other person's life." She takes a sip of coffee, weighing her words before she continues. "For the first six months I was here, I locked all of my weapons away when there was a flood, except for the one that only would hurt someone who was trying to hurt me. Just so I did not do any harm that I would not choose to do when I was in my own mind."
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timeasmymeasure
Text, the day after the breach
Date: 2025-09-28 11:14 pm (UTC)How are you holding up?
Re: Text, the day after the breach
Date: 2025-09-29 02:37 am (UTC)Yelena checking in on him is nice of her, though. He texts back the very obviously fake:]
im fine
are you okay?
Re: Text, the day after the breach
Date: 2025-09-29 03:39 am (UTC)They have the good coffee in the cafeteria today, and I need some company.
[That - isn't exactly true. She'd really rather hole up for a little longer, until she doesn't feel so much like setting the entire Barge on fire for shoving her into a cloyingly candy-coated version of her actual shitty adolescence. But she doesn't need to be a spy to know he's lying.]
Re: Text, the day after the breach
Date: 2025-09-29 05:31 am (UTC)ok
see you in a few
[And he'll splash some water on his face, comb out his hair, and slump out in search of Yelena and coffee. He's glad, now, he hadn't given in and taken one of his pills. He'd been tempted.]
no subject
Date: 2025-09-29 05:45 am (UTC)"Hey," she says when she spots him, rocking away from the wall and then checking herself before she gives in to a lingering impulse to hug him that is absolutely not her own.
no subject
Date: 2025-09-29 05:56 am (UTC)Then, after a pause that's just short of awkward, "So. That was crazy."
no subject
Date: 2025-09-29 02:20 pm (UTC)"This one let us keep our own shapes, at least. Trying to sort out your real life from the fake one is even less fun when you are also trying to remember how to balance without a tail."
no subject
Date: 2025-10-01 03:51 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-10-01 04:00 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-10-02 03:01 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-10-02 03:40 am (UTC)Once they both have a cup poured, she picks up again. "I was - a little bit Robin Hood. I had a little band of animals with shady pasts dedicated to righting wrongs and everything." She pulls a little face at that - ridiculous, right? "And a little brother to take care of, which was very weird. I am not really the taking care of people type."
no subject
Date: 2025-10-03 05:40 am (UTC)Even if he was obviously not having any of it at the time. He's a little embarrassed at how he'd acted-- not the actual saving her part, but insisting so hard that he could help when, before the distraction, he was actually pretty useless.
no subject
Date: 2025-10-03 06:06 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-10-06 04:07 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-10-06 04:20 am (UTC)"--And it was Chase, my friend with the spiders."
no subject
Date: 2025-10-08 04:51 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-10-08 05:06 am (UTC)"It is a small population," she notes. "But the answer to that is 'some of the time'. Chase has been my brother twice, and the first time is actually how we became friends.""
no subject
Date: 2025-10-11 02:48 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-10-12 02:52 am (UTC)Not everything that happens during a breach reflects who someone is in real life - but someone whose breach identity would bind a pair of orphans to him in order to train one as his own personal spy and assassin bears watching. Just in case that part is a mirror.
no subject
Date: 2025-10-14 02:34 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-10-14 06:29 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-10-18 03:27 am (UTC)"Even the bad parts? Do people hold grudges after breaches for stuff we did when we weren't-- us?" He doesn't think he did anything to piss off anyone in the breach, he hardly talked to anyone at all actually, but it's good to know for the future.
no subject
Date: 2025-10-18 04:57 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-10-22 02:40 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-10-22 03:03 am (UTC)(no subject)
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