i put one foot in front of the other today, i stretched my arms out wide and it felt real strange (♫)
[ The world is different now. Even more so than in the days after the Battle of New York, everything feels like it's changed. Irreparably so in some cases. The governments of the world are struggling, forming coalitions and offices to deal with these changes, and all of it seems to be going pretty damn horribly.
One small benefit of the Earth being too caught up in its own problems, at least, is that no one seems to be paying much attention to what SHIELD is doing. They've been able to ramp up their recruitment, finding the best new faces to fill their own newly established offices and teams to deal with the threats that are still out there in the universe.
It's those efforts that give Daisy the idea that nags at her for weeks, especially as she looks more into the situation and becomes increasingly concerned at the possibilities. But when she talks to Mack about it, he supports her, giving her the official Director's stamp of approval.
Which is why she's sitting in a coffee shop in New York City, plenty of people around but not so many that it feels crowded. It's comfortable, the table tucked against the wall between two doors, two cups of steaming coffee waiting to be enjoyed. She just hopes she won't be drinking them both.
The invitation left in his mailbox had been clear. Handwritten in her slightly sloppy script and paperclipped to the top of a folder filled with files, she had an offer to make that would be best given in person. By way of introduction, she'd given him a copy of most of her SHIELD file, with some of the more interesting mission reports included. When she'd learned she was Inhuman, the battle with Hive, Aida and the Framework, traveling to the future and then back to change it... And there were scans of newspaper articles as well, all from her time as Quake when she'd been a vigilante and on the run.
It wasn't the normal way of asking someone out for coffee, but since when did normal play any part in their lives? ]
my hands, they started quaking 'cause things just take longer to heal these days (♫)
[ Daisy Johnson has experienced her fair share of surreal moments during her career as a SHIELD agent. In the early days, her life had seemed like one non-stop surreal rollercoaster of weirdness. This, though? This might just might knock out all the others for first place.
Meeting Bucky Barnes is crazy enough in itself. She'd spent years listening to Coulson's stories about Cap and his Howling Commandos, her interest gravitating to Rogers' best friend who spent 70 years being tortured and controlled by HYDRA. Hearing that he'd been given an official pardon and was fighting with Steve's other best friend who had taken up the shield — she couldn't have hoped for a better outcome for him.
Sitting next to an injured Bucky Barnes after a mission gone wrong? That knocks a normal meeting right out of the running.
It's been a few hours since SHIELD had picked up both men, stepping in to help with the situation that had spiraled out of control. Barnes has been in a healing chamber ever since, the advanced tech helping to speed up even his own considerable healing ability to get him back on his feet. He'd been pretty banged up though and the chamber could only work so fast, so it might be hours more before he's good as new.
They'd just arrived at a SHIELD facility in the city, transferring Barnes to a private room at Daisy's insistence. She'd also insisted on staying with him with Wilson left to take care of business — she knows all too well how terrifying it could be to wake up in a strange place filled with strange people after the kind of shit they'd both been through. So she sits next to the open window the chamber is facing, watching the light of the chamber pulse above him, and fiddles with the edges of the bandages wrapped around her forearms. ]
i didn't think i'd get back up, i didn't think i'd be alright again (♫)
[ Delacroix, Louisiana is like a foreign country compared to New York or LA. There are similarities to River's End but it's mostly the size of the town. Small, where everyone knows everyone else within the community. It's like nothing Daisy's ever experienced before, people smiling at her as she walks the streets, welcoming her as she arrives at the dockside celebration. The case of beer she deposits on one of the tables probably doesn't hurt — it certainly earns her some cheers from the nearest group.
She's immediately pulled into conversation, a string of questions launched at the welcome stranger while a plate of cake is shoved into her hands. Before long, she's laughing at stories being shared of Sam Wilson as a rambunctious youngster, because if she's Sam's friend then she simply has to hear them, and correcting that assumption isn't something Daisy even considers. She's here on behalf of SHIELD to extend friendship, after all, so it's not a stretch by any means to call herself Sam's friend.
She's a new friend who is there congratulate a man on a rightfully-earned honor that she and most of the others at SHIELD would fiercely defend his right to. It's an honor that Walker hadn't earned — soldiers are heroes, she'll never deny that, but being decorated and applauded for your many achievements isn't the same as fighting the good fight when no one's there to give you a medal for it. There's simply no comparison to continuing the fight in the face of insurmountable odds, knowing you likely won't make it through this one, and willingly charging in headfirst.
Looking around at all the happy people gathered to celebrate together, it strikes Daisy how nice it is to be there. It's so very nice, reminding her of the old days with her team before everyone had gone their separate ways. There were still good days with other agents, celebrations when they survived another day that might have been their last, but it just wasn't ever quite the same. It wasn't ever like this. ]
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— nyc, post-fatws
— nyc, post-fatws
— louisiana, post-fatws