16378/The Set We're Dealt

The Set We're Dealt
Date of Scene:	19 November 2023
Location:	Recreation Lounge: Triskelion
Synopsis:	Yelena discovers the Charlie Brown holiday special and learns the deep, dark secrets.
Cast of Characters:	Natasha Romanoff, Yelena Belova, Richard Stadler

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Natasha Romanoff has posed:
It's a quiet evening over in the Triskelion. Some groups have just finished returning from deployments and assignments to the Hellicarrier, and are back on Terra Firma for an extended period for the first time in awhile. A mix of senior agents and junior are celebrating along the area.
    Natasha Romanova is not one of those celebrating, but she has joined over in a game of cards. Several decks have been scrambled together - quite literally as they're a mix of solid cards and randomized ones created by holo emitters and changing their display every thirty or fourty seconds to different ones.

Yelena Belova has posed:
When Yelena is feeling vaguely social and doesn't feel like spending time home with a smelly bear, or doesn't feel like having to deal with stupid, drunk SHIELD agents, she comes here. It has a wide screen television, comfy couches, and most importantly, a popcorn popper!

So, the scent of partially burnt popcorn is in the air, as well as a familiar cartoon on the screen: A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving. The Widow has booted feet up on the coffee table, a diet soda with a straw near her arm in a drink well built into the couch, and a hand that dips into the popcorn every couple of moments as she watches. With each motion of Woodstock, Yelena laughs, perhaps a little loudly, but she really doesn't care...

It's funny! And cute!

Richard Stadler has posed:
     Rick grimaces at each loud laugh, from a table nearby, but does work to keep his annoyance to just that. After all, he certainly didn't need to be here looking over a stack of biology journals. He'd stopped in, provided some information to the science team on a rather tricky bacteria some agent had brought back on a mission they simply stonewalled him on the details. He should be doing this research over at home, but he wasn't exactly appetized to head back through the cold weather and darkening sky at the moment; it had seemed like a good idea at the time to try to pick a different location and mix things up for studying.

It was rapidly seeming less so, and at the next laugh of Charlie Brown suffering the ignomanity of exisitance, he looked up.

"Don't suppose you might keep that down a bit?"

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
The drivel that goes up each year. And the boy that should have learned after decades and decades not to kick that football. And the annoying beagle needed to be kept focused and less randomlyu wandering around and causing chaos. Natasha is taking in another hand of cards even as three quarters of them flash and make what was a decent hand into something that was abysmal in nature. She would go to put it down to signal her leaving the game, uptting her winnings back in the primary pot for those that were still playing to keep at.
    "You seem to be enjoying yourself." Probably for Yelena the first time she had experienced something so important to American customs and traditions.

Yelena Belova has posed:
"Pah!" It's easy for a Russian to express disgust and annoyance; it's build into their genetic code. That, and a lot of other things. "I am watching movie here. You can keep your.." and she finally turns around in her seat to circle a finger beside her head, "..thinking quiet."

It's with a little bit of a bounce that Yelena turns back around, and gestures at the television, her hands throwing into the air, "Now I miss jelly beans."

Natasha's comment that rises has Yelena theatrically picking up the remote and pausing the action. "It has been very long time since I saw this. I had forgotten it." Holding up her bowl of popcorn, she offers, complete with, "Some? Is good. A little dark."

Richard Stadler has posed:
     Stadler sighs just a bit, taking a moment to lift his glasses up off his nose, rubbing and then adjusting slightly. "I am keeping my thinking quiet. Haven't said a word. But it's a bit tough to concentrate over with the rabble rousers over there, and this..." He notes, geasturing to the screen, "movie is fine. Just didn't think those parts were all that funny when they showed it on TV every year in homeroom." He notes, moving to stand up and approach the screen. "Though it's been a little while, myself. Was always partial to that one with the Great Pumpkin."

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
Natasha Romanova would glance over at Yelena, "Oh, you consider it dark? What makes you come to that conclusion?" That one catches her a bit by surprise. Yes, Yelena, like most who made it through the Widow program and training has a morbid sense of humor.. But she can't grasp what's making the connection here. But still, she's sure that Yelena has a reason for it and gestures at her comrade to make an explanation.

Yelena Belova has posed:
"Popcorn is dark. Not burned, so is still good." Yelena has the popcorn still held out for her sestra, though once refused by word or deed, she shrugs and turns back around to face the large screen television.

Stadler's addition has Yelena's attention again, and brows rise in askance. "What? There is cartoon for Halloween?" She doesn't look as if she remembers that one, not particularly. "And how can you sit and say that bird isn't funny? Look how he flies. In crazy circles."

Yelena is intrigued now, however. She sets her remote down and reaches for her cellphone, and with a couple of quick searches, she obviously finds what she's looking for, as evidenced by that barked laugh. "I see! Is very cute. Now I have to wait full year before watching." The phone is tossed to the side with mock annoyance before she picks up the remote once more, turning the movie back on.

Richard Stadler has posed:
     "Not that peanuts isn't dark, however. At least the comic, from what I remember of it. Never gave Charlie Brown a break, just kept giving him bad hand after bad hand." He says, before sighing again. "Not going to get any research done anyway. Yep. You can technically watch them any time, but it's a... seasonal thing. Like that elf who wants to become a dentist or Rudolph, or Jimmy Stewart."

His eyes move up to the movie in question once it's restarted. "And he's... amusing, but not laugh out loud funny, if I had to call it. Missing the football, that's a little more amusing."

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
Natasha Romanova would shrug, "It's a cultural norm." She's never found the way Americans celebrate Halloween to be that engaging. But still, it's to be allowed for a mass consumerism, capitalism focused society. If the Americans wnat to organize thier culture around making money for corporations and entertainment media, who is she to judge?

"So it seems oriented around making him broadly suffer and be constantly humiliated until he reaches a breaking point?" She would say with a smirk.

Yelena Belova has posed:
Yelena stops the movie again with that theatric lift of the remote, and the *poke* of the //stop// button. "Elf who wants to be dentist?" She's looking a little confused before pressing her lips together in the appearance of making a decision. "I will have to find these movies." See? Decision made.

"And Charlie Brown? I do not feel so bad for him; he looks like Russian Premier. Bald, big round head. No pity." Yelena finally looks back down at her popcorn, and the kernels are more than a little dark, even for her now. "This... this is mess. Time to make more. And to find all those movies."

Richard Stadler has posed:
     Rick pauses for a moment, looking between Natasha and Yelena. "Yeah... the... well. I might be a bit culturally myopic. Yes, it's the same sort with Rudolph... Hermey. That's it. It's all stop motion clay, came out in the 60s. Was on TV all the time when I was a kid. Honestly, one of the better parts of Christmas." He notes, with the wistful note of a man who knows that the past isn't something you can travel back to.

He gestures over to the kitchen area. "I'd grab the kettle corn bag if you haven't tried it already. And just because he's bald doesn't mean he should be shuned. He doesn't really break, in my experience. More like Sisyphus. I suppose some people find the perseverance through suffering admirable."

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
Natasha Romanova would glance at Yelena in light amusement. "It seems like you have things figured out. Will you be rotating in here for the holiday, Yelena, anda ny activities related? Or will you be on deployment duty? I will be on standby in the event a strike mission is required." Hydra never slept, and neither did SHIELD. Besides, Natasha wouldn't know what to do with off-time anyways.
    "And I'm sure that you can get yourself a large amount and a heating pan to keep it warm."