AU Milliways: 2012 Captain

[therighttime]

The sun is shining, the grass is green, the lake is a gorgeous glittering blue...

And Steph is in the bar, curled up in a chair with a sketch book and a mug of coffee.

Increased energy aside, not everything changes when you grew up a sick, skinny kid in the city.

Comments

[missnicegirl]

A small child peeks up interestedly over the arm of the chair.

[therighttime]

Not quite a jump, but certainly a flinch from the tall blonde curled up in the chair. Catching sight of said small child, Steph laughs - mostly at herself - and unconsciously tucks the sketchbook closer to herself.

"Um, hello."

[missnicegirl]

"Hi!" she says. "Are you drawing something?"

[therighttime]

Steph grins back at her and glances down at the book, realizing how protectively she's holding it. "I'm trying to," she admits, pulling it away from herself to show the little girl. Steph prefers drawing people but that can get awkward. Luckily, across from her, there's a tired looking gentleman laid out on the couch and snoring.

And now, there's a copy in her sketchbook.

"What do you think?"

[missnicegirl]

"...Accurate," says Matilda, grinning. "I like it. You're pretty good."

[therighttime]

Most children her age would have had a more extreme reaction. Supreme excitement and praise, utter boredom for the subject. So Steph's smile is surprised, but it's also very pleased for the honesty of that response.

"Thank you. I don't have a lot of time for it anymore but I used to draw a lot."

[missnicegirl]

"Why don't you have time for it now?" she wonders.

[therighttime]

There's a pause. A brief one, since Steph neither wants to get into all of that nor dump it all on a child, but it's there just the same before she smiles. "I joined the army. I still like to draw on my own but I can't really take classes or anything."

[missnicegirl]

"Oh!" says Matilda. "I don't know anyone who's in the army. Well, except you, I guess." She smiles a friendly and slightly gap-toothed smile. "What's your name? I'm Matilda."

[therighttime]

Steph grins again, setting the sketchbook down on her lap so she can lean over and offer her hand for a shake, equally friendly. "I'm Steph. Nice to meet you, Matilda."

[missnicegirl]

Matilda shakes her hand with six-year-old solemnity and then pulls up an armchair and climbs into it, the better to have this conversation on level ground. (The chair moves a little more easily for her than it probably should.)

"Nice to meet you too! What's it like in the army?"

[therighttime]

Steph hesitates before uncurling from her own chair, holding onto the armrests so she can push it around and face Matilda. They could move to a different couch or a table, but these chairs are comfy and it's no trouble. Matilda is given a smile for her courageous nature, and her strength if she can move a chair like that.

"It's... it's pretty interesting," she decides on, her smile apologetic at the weak answer. "I started out in the army a long time ago and I guess now I'm more of a special missions agent? Of sorts. But they still call me Captain, I just don't have to live on base or wake up to trumpets anymore."

[missnicegirl]

"What kind of special missions?" she asks, bouncing a little on the cushioned seat. "Or are they the secret kind?"

[therighttime]

"They're mostly secret," Steph admits, sympathetic for not sharing national secrets with a little girl, nose wrinkled a bit. "But sometimes they're not. There was an alien invasion in Manhattan last year, and my team and I went in to stop it."

She's noticed that people she meets in Milliways tend to believe her when she says 'alien invasion,' with or without proof.

[missnicegirl]

"Whoa," she says, eyes wide. "Cool! Are you all okay? Did you kick out all the aliens? Why were they invading?"

[therighttime]

"Everybody's okay. We're a pretty special team, a few of us have some gifts that make it safer for us to fight. That's why we were sent out."

Not that the army couldn't do it, but that the Avengers were less likely to all die in the attempt. Steph's used to - and occasionally oddly flattered by - being the best weapon at someone else's disposal.

As for the Chitauri themselves, her smile fades and she shakes her head. "We won, yeah, but it was a pretty big mess. They're still doing some clean up, even now. I guess they were invading because they thought Earth was a pretty great place to be."

And humans would make some pretty great slaves.

[missnicegirl]

"Gifts like what?" asks Matilda, because that is definitely the most interesting part of that.

[therighttime]

Good! Because the rest is kind of messy.

Steph grins a little, thinking about it. She's not sure who would impress Matilda the most and frankly, every member of her team is incredibly good at what they do. Sometimes frighteningly so.

"Well," she says slowly, thoughtful. "One of my teammates is named Thor and he..."

He's not a god, thank you very much, but still.

"He can change the weather and he has this hammer, passed down through his family. He's the only person who can lift it, anywhere."

[missnicegirl]

"...One of your teammates is the Norse god of thunder?" she translates. "What are the rest of them like?"

[therighttime]

Oh, good, she's familiar with the legend at least. Steph relaxes a little and makes a face, amused. "Sounds pretty crazy, doesn't it? And Thor's one of the more predictable ones. He's not a god, though. I don't really understand it but I guess he's an alien himself and his people used to come to Earth a lot. That's where the stories come from."

[missnicegirl]

"That's kind of fascinating," says Matilda. "What language does he speak?"

[therighttime]

"He calls it Allspeak," Steph replies, frowning a little, "but it sounds just like accented English. But he can talk to anyone, no matter what language they speak, and be understood. It's pretty weird to see, but wonderful."

[missnicegirl]

"...I wanna learn it," she declares.

[therighttime]

Steph grins at her immediately. She really likes this kid. "I bet Thor would love to talk to you. He's a real nice fella."

[missnicegirl]

"Cool! I don't think I've ever met a god before. Does he come here? Do you know?"