13159/Quiet Playground Nights

Quiet Playground Nights
Date of Scene:	24 October 2022
Location:	Hangar - Playground
Synopsis:	It's a quiet night at the Playground. Jane returns with tea and coffee. Kora and Jane finally talk about what happened, what's happening, who it's happening to. Perhaps also something about communicating like an adult.
Cast of Characters:	Kora Johnson, Jane Foster

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Kora Johnson has posed:
The hanger is empty. Once upon a time it was filled with quinjets, the bus, vehicles, personnel. Now the base is quiet. It's new occupants - the Secret Warriors - do not have anywhere near the degree of equipment that all of SHIELD had in here.

Kora is sitting in the empty spot in the middle. Above, large doors that open and close for entry/exit from the hanger. They're closed right now. She knows it's night time regardless. She knows that where ever the secret warriors quinjet is they're probably off trying to help an Inhuman. That's an idea she could get behind. It's not something they ever did much of in Afterlife.

Cross legged, hands on her knees. She's meditating as they did in Afterlife. Well, trying to anyway. She's never been that good at it. Her eyes keep prying open as she hears the creaks and groans of the old SSR base around her. Like ghosts tiptoeing around from an era long past.

Jane Foster has posed:
The Secret Warriors all have their lives. Some move in the mundane circles of the world, professions that pull them away from bloody boring Delaware to such nuanced locations as convenience store clerks, mail delivery people, or internationally famous astrophysicist. Most owe their day jobs and their stipends to the Triskelion, going wherever their betters assume they ought to be. Women who plumb the secrets of the human condition, men who dissemble engineered objects from alien locations, and the occasional outlier cannot be on site twenty-four hours a day.

Morning brings an unwelcome length of a trip since the Playground isn't next to the hyperloop by any means. The connecting busses prove pretty limited, so Jane's left to hire a car as the parlance goes. Getting an uber from there to here isn't much of a thrill, but she manages to get work done before hiking in the last mile or two on foot. This street has bad memories, that patch of woodland or farm darkened by the memory of an attempted murder. Of a furious cry from the deep Underworld where there was not a whit she could do but refuse to take a soul.

Different in daylight; different, now, without SHIELD hiding from HYDRA in the place. Different even when the stars twinkle overhead, and the shadows don't hold the secrets they used to. Besides, hiking in the dark is only troublesome if the things that go 'boo' out there want you, which they don't seem to. She's neither insect or floppy fish or meal for an owl. Reaching the base isn't tough, though getting through layers of security always will be, malfunctioning until prayed to, sworn at or threatened adequately. Plus, there's always another agent to swipe for her.

"Any changes?" begins a brief assessment from other observers, trusted sentries, in lieu of actual sentries. No robots; mechanical creatures like that strike way too close to her near-death experience on Genosha.

Kora Johnson has posed:
The rumble of the big elevator from topside has Kora give up on trying to meditate and opens her eyes. It's Jane Foster. She doesn't actually know the name of the woman - but she saw a little too much of her when she was interned in the cell.

They went to such trouble to contain her energy not realise that like her sister she could tune it. Well, sort of the opposite really. Still, it was a good thing they didn't know what she could do. Being caged freaks her out too much.

Still, she burned off the woman's clothing and melted her tablet and who knows what other beloved mundane objects she destroyed. In Kora's head, the woman must be an Inhuman with a gift that makes her immune to such energies and damage. She doesn't know better but she does know that these people helped her despite her gnashing teeth and cutting claws.

Now that she knows they're not Afterlife, that they're not HYDRA, she has relaxed a little. Also, they're not trying to lock her up which also helps. SHIELD.. whoever they are. It's the awkward glance she gives to Jane that tells all. She thought Jane was going to be yet another of her accidental victims.. ~I'm sorry~. She meant that. A cold comfort that she wasn't doing it all deliberately.

Jane Foster has posed:
Jane isn't wearing asbestos-infused clothing, but she looks reasonably set up for someone who proxies as a real-life astrophysicist instead of merely a spy in a division of spies, most of whom wield weird abilities. How she falls between necromancy, alchemy or wizardry remains an open question. Clearly, she holds down the big D in Division. Math skills represent... which is probably why she's holding a tablet the size of a big calculator.

The clearance gets her into Kora's vicinity, holding a cup of coffee. Better than the trash they serve in most abandoned bases, anyway. "I thought you might be thirsty," she begins as an opener. "Not sure about a preference for cream or sugar, so I've got both if you don't take it black. And about twenty-five tea bags." Because Jemma Simmons isn't the only tea drinker or tea snob in the vicinity, but their guest at least deserves the options between green, black, and a couple herbal varieties. She nods to the side, setting down the basic kit of coffee-making accommodations that come from basically any halfway decent chain. In this case, it's from a cafe. Still hot, thanks to three thermal sleeves. Hey, it was a long walk.

"No obligations," she adds, gesturing at the table and backing off. Space, in so very many ways, is her expertise.

Kora Johnson has posed:
Kora's expression darkens in to confusion. How could she just so casually offer her coffee and tea after what she did? What is with these people. Alex.. nice. Jane.. nice. Daisy.. super nice. She stands up and her shoulders are hackled but ... coffee.

Kora isn't sure about all these preferences and options. Coffee is coffee isn't it? Tea on the other hand, that she gets. She approaches and picks up the coffee. A curious thermal cup; the future is filled with subtle little conveniences.

First Daisy with a burger and now Jane with coffee. It touches her lips and she sips. Her head rolls back and she stares way up at the hanger doors again. Caffeine. Her shoulders relax. She turns abruptly to size up Jane and presses her lips together stubbornly.

"SHIELD?," she asks Jane. Just to be sure. She doesn't dress like the guards who do the rounds. Everybody seems to know who she is at this point which is a blessing and a curse. Daisy is apparently a legacy and very well liked. And also apparently in charge. "Are you?" she rounds out the sentence.

Jane Foster has posed:
Coffee that smells pretty warm, though not exceedingly piping hot. Nothing an antiquated microwave with a dial handle can't fix. The hot drink still provides all the caffeine goodness without being entirely scalding. The little things in life count.

"I'm not sure we have an electric kettle around here, though we should. Something to add to the list, if not." Jane's mental note is added to an extensive to-do list, like 'lean against this wall' and nod to Kora as the Inhuman woman goes about enjoying the small comforts that most people mix into their routine. As it stands, sizing up the brunette doesn't take much.

She isn't horrendously tall, empowered by gills or prone to being 22 feet tall. Alas; she's not Kamala. Or Medusa of the magnificent mane. She tolerates the interest, well and truly informed by the absence of a noisy city around her. "Publicly, no. Privately, yes." The answer comes succinctly as such. "I study the cosmos and physics."

Kora Johnson has posed:
Kora has the dark almost brooding presence of Daisy many years ago now. Back when she was with the Rising Tide hacking away in her stinky van. Kora is taller though and no hacker. Still, no less haunted. The Johnson family must have been cursed to suffer this many of life's indignities. None of them spared: mother, father, daughters.

"Secret identity. Very spy," she says in to the cup and then her intense look returns to Jane. "Why would my sister need an astronomy physicist on her team?," she queries. There's a strange gap in her brain between baby in her arms and woman who sat across from her and bought her a burger. Far too big of a strange gap to fully reconcile.

Jane Foster has posed:
The stinky van would make the most saintly of people awful, terrible souls. The corrosive effect of a stench needs to be considered.

The Johnson family carries the curse far older than themselves, a genetic imprint passed down generation to generation over millennia. If that's a comfort Jane could give, she would, but her lips remain sealed on the matter. "No." She shakes her head, faint evidence of weariness printed in the hollows of her eyes and the glimmers at the edge of her expression. Hers is a weariness deeper than the bones right now. "You have no idea the energy you exude or manipulate? Not many people outside physicists, nuclear or otherwise, would be able to tell you the function or application. Even at a theoretical level, the knowledge is limited. Besides, I'm your sister's friend."

Kora Johnson has posed:
Kora suddenly feels less comfortable with the conversation. It's her own fault for being antagonistic but she can't help it. It comes naturally to her these days. Still, what's done is done and now the question is out there lingering. She does not know. The frustrated look upon her face tells all.

"Do you?," she asks back not expecting a yes. No one at Afterlife could explain it and the Diviner gave no clear answers just more vague confusing symbols that couldn't be properly interpreted.

But her sister has friends. Not just colleagues. Friends. Her gaze drops and she looks down at the coffee in her hands brought by her sisters friend. "Thank you," she says a little more quietly in case anyone else might overhear. The hanger being as empty as it is carries their voices far to a sum total of zero extra ears.

Jane Foster has posed:
Antagonistic or not, Kora doesn't have to feel like a cornered cat or a specimen. She clearly is neither, and Jane seems comfortable enough from her wall. That leaves the lion's share of the room for Kora to deal with.
RHer gaze flickers upward, sepia eyes slightly shadowed, but otherwise peculiarly clear. Grief remains in a box poisoning the well, but it's held at arm's distance for the moment. "Theoretically? Yes. Practically, not on the same level you do. Usually we send out satellites or use inference, considering the sources we find the energy from tend to be quite hostile. Maybe it's something to do with the energy and not the source." A joke? You bet your life on it.

Her shoulders draw a neat line, and she nods. "Are you comfortable? I know this isn't the penthouse in London or a sprawling manor in the country that some people like."

Kora Johnson has posed:
Kora stares in to the milky coffee as Jane answers her. She knows what it is - may be she can help. She dares not get her hopes up though. But on a very personal level she talks about it - the practical. "Sometimes it feels like I have a grasp on it - then it jumps away from me, turns on me like a wild animal and anything or anyone in its path gets annihilated."

She goes quiet too, even though the joke was a good one she's not quite there for it. It's ruminating in her brain though. When asked about how she's finding the playground she looks up searchingly in Jane's eyes. "It's better than my last two homes." A joke. There's a soft underbelly after all. "I've never actually been to a penthouse or a sprawling country manor. I've only read about them."

Jane Foster has posed:
The quiet interludes aren't faked; not exactly comfortable, but somewhere in between. Jane remains alert, if not on high alert. "Any kind of energy manipulation brings its own specific challenges, as I understand. Having a scientific background isn't necessary to understand or control it, but I believe that empowering yourself with knowledge helps put your abilities into perspective. If you were manipulating a particle subconsciously or consciously, that makes a difference for control as opposed to thinking you're just leaking and pushing around something. We use equations to determine where we throw things into space, rather than hoping they might be shot like an arrow at a target. Without the understanding, it's blind luck sometimes."

She gestures easily enough to the table. "I can bring you something to read, nothing too intense. We've got very good astrophysicists who do shows and a couple lovely podcasts about the topic. Recorded, so you can listen or watch, and it's much less dry than listening to a professor lectures on and on." Her tone rises a little into a ghost of a laugh. "This place is significantly larger than anywhere I've lived, either, except the one time I went on an exotic holiday. Then, I knew the owner, so staying at a fabulous property..." She grins.

Kora Johnson has posed:
Kora folds her arms as they discuss her powers. She's uncomfortable with it but unlike others who wanted to know she's not being poked and prodded. It's a significant improvement from the past. Recent past for her. She nods her head slowly. "I wasn't particularly good at science but I can try," she says.

The heavens knows she's tried and even when Afterlife gaslit her, claiming she was messing up deliberately, she kept on trying. Perhaps a bit more knowledge will help in the long run. It can't hurt to try.

"You're not what I imagined an astrophysicist to be," she comments with an almost smirk. "Hey, question kind of late to the party here but what is your name?"

Jane Foster has posed:
"Sometimes, changing the approach or the language makes things click. I don't believe one size fits all when it comes to learning, certainly for complex topics. What works for me might not work for you, but that doesn't mean you are bad at science. You only need something different from what I do." Jane smiles slightly, warming a little to the element. She reaches back, tracing a curl drawn against her neck. "Finding what works for you is half the fun, besides."

Fun? Learning? Apparently so! A proponent of education over there, one who tackles the topic with both hands to find a solution. Basically sums up Jane Foster, educational podcaster.

"Didn't I introduce myself with Daisy? Where is my head? Jane," she offers in a greeting. "I hope you'll overlook that in the excitement of bringing you coffee. And tea." Because tea is also tasty. "What did you expect for an astrophysicist? Labcoats, beehive suit in a hermetically sealed chamber to avoid xenobiological contamination?"

Kora Johnson has posed:
Kora nods her head and sips the coffee a bit more. "Jane. You already know my name," she says and then smiles ever so slightly. "Labcoats. Boring old men. Professor Ga..." she pauses and shuts her mouth. "A guy who lived at Afterlife was a physicist and tried to teach me science. Labcoat, boring old man."

Outing someone to a near stranger is not the Afterlife way. "Your gift. You're Inhuman right? You survived my energy when I lost control. That's a wild gift. How long have you had control of it?"

Jane Foster has posed:
Jane makes a soft 'ah' sound, nodding to some dismal colleague. "Had a few of those in my time. Would that we all had more energetic instructors, but they're already saddled by so many other tasks. Lots of innovative ways to introduce topics and teach people hopefully engages better than before." Her mouth lifts up in a smile at that, probably musing on a few options. "If you're interested, I'm sure we can find something that hits the spot for you and that's what you would like."

She's probably as far from boring old man in Afterlife as one can get, given she globetrots and... well, space-trots.

"It's complicated. The medical analysis has taken the better part of several months, involving a team more experienced in genetic sciences than myself." She shakes her head to the question, less out of denying the topic than to bridge the gap. "The preliminary results are too early to be conclusive. At this point, would you settle for I don't exactly know? I assure you, I'm the anomaly to the norm."

Kora Johnson has posed:
Kora nods her head, "Sure. Though. I'd really just prefer to be safe. It's..." She looks slightly pained. "With Daisy around it seems she can contain my energies. It's actually the first time I've felt safe to be around in years." Her neck cranes as she looks around. Clearly she's nervous without Daisy nearby now.

"It'd be nice to know I am in control of my abilities. To know I'm not going to..." She twitches a little and goes quiet.

A slow nod is given though to the nature of her gift. "At first I thought you were a hologram..." she says with no small amount of amusement in her eyes. Apparently her education in Afterlife was quite good. The coffee is sipped again and she leans back against the table a touch. "This is .. look everything is weird for me, right now. I am eager to see my mother again. Daisy was very.. hesitant to talk about dad though."

Jane Foster has posed:
"She represents stability. Her abilities being able to intersect yours suggests your energy streams could be self-generated along a particle spectrum. The good news is, that's one of the better understood processes and therefore possible to contain for. Daisy's own abilities had some help with engineered refinements, things that made it possible for her to safely interact with others. It may be an option for you, too, so you don't spend as much conscious effort in worry about accidental discharges." Jane's trying to be circumspect about that without triggering a frightened response. "Something like a comfortable pair of gloves or a coat, perhaps." Comfortable things, by any other words.

"I'm not a hologram. The expense needed to generate a moving image like that would be far more difficult than anyone wants to allot resources to. Instead, billionaires throw money away on much more important frivolities." Her smile cracks wider. "Like the one who tried to make a banana currency. Don't ask me why someone thinks bananas are the way to go for digital money laundering. Irony? Anyhow, I'm afraid I don't know much about your father. Daisy would know more about your mother and how she's doing, though. That's something to look forward to. I'm certain you have many questions."

Kora Johnson has posed:
Kora places the now empty cup down on the table top and lets out a small sigh. "I doubt it. May be I'll talk about it with you some time. I know Daisy wants to know more - but you saw it up close and personal." She presses her lips together, clearly still sorry about that.

"I.. don't know anything about banana currencies. And yes. I have SO many questions. And a few people, if they are still alive, who I want held accountable for my incarceration." She frowns and her expression darkens. The idea of meeting Afterlife folk again clearly not sitting well with her.

Jane Foster has posed:
Jane nods and raises her hands. "I'm not in the habit of disseminating other people's abilities freely, and I adhere to the minimal need-to-know basis unless there is compelling reason otherwise. When the time comes to discuss it, then we can review where everyone's comfort levels are with that talk." Adult communication isn't necessarily fun, though a necessity in this case. She still has things to work around.

Her movements are few, listening to the unease in Kora's voice. Interpreting that, perhaps, as something like thin ice. "You won't be rushed back into things. That approach may be unhealthy by needlessly exposing you to stress. Something probably best to talk to Daisy about and let her know what your priorities are, what you would like to do or not do. Nothing wrong with saying you aren't up to meeting a particular person or being dropped into a large city isn't quite something you're up for. She's genuinely good at heart."

Kora Johnson has posed:
Kora twitches her lips a little and pushes off the table. "Well. Now you're suggesting it's easy to just talk to people about issues." She smirks a touch derisively. She missed the whole era of learning to talk things through, consent, and social movements.

"I think I'm going to go back to the bed they assigned me. Thank you for talking to me. For bringing me tea and coffee. For being so understanding. That seems to be a common trait with people here. Everyone is walking around with kit gloves on in case I explode."

A small roll of her eyes, "Or may be everyone in the future is just ...nice." She starts heading to the airlock that leads in to the base proper. "But, really," she says walking backwards to look at Jane, "Thank you."

Jane Foster has posed:
Jane chuckles softly at the back of her throat, the only interruption where otherwise she's evidently not the type given to tics or distraction much. "We all have to confront it at one point or another. I don't see value to burying my head in the sand, for the most part. I'm sure more sensitive and socially astute individuals can offer you good suggestions if you're interested. This rather treads too close to telling you what to do instead of offering alternatives." She can take a hint, sometimes.

Her fingers sculpt a figure eight as she moves into action. "Fundamentally most people are good. They want similar things to one another. Give us a chance, you may be pleasantly surprised. But the future is your oyster, Kora, however you want to approach that. Remember that we're here for you and your path doesn't need to be alone if that's not what you wish."

She offers that smile and waits for Daisy's sister to tread a path back to slumber, or at the very least, a comfy hamster bed of blankets, pillows, and contraband matcha Kitkats. Because no doubt a pack of those will find its way in, some way or another.