7299/May's Vacation

May's Vacation
Date of Scene:	10 August 2021
Location:	Afterlife Settlement - Nepal
Synopsis:	Bobbi is May's ride out to the wilds of Nepal so she can be alone for a vacation, to get in touch with herself and Afterlife. The quinjet, however, had flown its last leg and a crash landing in the Himalaya's means May and Bobbi must help each other survive in the harsh cold environment. They trek to a cave used by the Inhuman's of Afterlife and there they open up about their own self-loathing. Comforting each other, their Inhuman gifts take on a life of their own.
Cast of Characters:	Bobbi Morse, Melinda May

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Bobbi Morse has posed:
    The general noise in the Playground Hanger is the backdrop of many people doing many jobs. Mostly preparing for the big moving out day. When they left the Triskelion it was in a mad rush. Now people have found a home in this old SSR base, they don't have to bug out they can take their time. There's a lot of forklifts in operation, beeping, there's engineers working on quinjets and the Bus. There's a lot of chatter generally.

    Bobbi is still technically on vacation. She's not wearing her SHIELD uniform. She's not wearing her Mockingbird uniform either. A faded red t-shirt with the faded logo of some football team.. it's an old shirt, jeans, and a leather jacket. Sneakers too. She's not unarmed, just not carrying an ICER or a pistol.

    Pre-flight is what she's working on. Flicking switches, checking pressure levels in the hydraulics, letting the computer run its diagnostics. QF28 has seen a lot of action over the last few months. Many of the quinjets have - the ones that survived that is.

    Bobbi has left a regular mission go-bag in the back. For May.. the wilderness can be harsh and the mountains of Nepal even more so. There's no shelter left in Afterlife and the snow is persistent. As far as vacations go, it's a nice remote place where you can be alone with your thoughts. For May, also, alone with her emotions.

    Hearing the sound of boots on the ramp, she peeks back around and smiles seeing May there. Amidst all the emotions of being being busy filled with anticipation of coming out of the dark and back in to the light.. there is Bobbi. She feels serene and clearly has a disposition of friendship toward May. Unlike May, Bobbi's already been on vacation for a week. It's done wonders for her stress levels.

    "All fuelled up and just about ready to go." She's not going to try and talk May out of this. Instead, she's being a supportive friend. "Morse Airlines thanks you for your customer loyalty and hopes you have an enjoyable trip. Make sure all tray tables are in the upright and locked position and your seat is at its full forward position."

Melinda May has posed:
May brings her own go-bag with her. She left word with Peggy and with Phil that she was taking off for a couple of days to clear her head before their next big mission push, but that she'd be back before the week is out. Still, having the extra bag, just in case, isn't necessarily a bad idea.

On the whole, May is past the point of wanting to 'rough it' when she's on vacation. She's perfectly happy to sip mai tais on a beach somewhere, preferably catered by a cute cabana boy. She's *not* particularly happy to do the spa treatment thing, but a resort near some sort of 'adventure' attractions is thoroughly pleasant.

So, roughing it in the ruins of Afterlife is something of an odd choice for her.
That said, it really is remote. There should be *no* people there at all. That means it's an ideal place to be alone with her thoughts and, yes, her emotions, too. Figure out what's solely hers.

There's also the private fact she wants to see the place where all this mess, for her, started. HYDRA's attack on Afterlife started a cascade of events that has irrevokably changed her. She's still coming to terms with that. And sometimes, going back to the beginning is exactly what one needs to do to process such things.

At least, Andrew used to say shit like that. Sometimes, he was right.
She snirks softly at Bobbi's joke as she boards, moving to stow her gear in an overhead compartment. The only reason she asked Bobbi at all is because she knows Bobbi, being on vacation, is free and she knows no one is going to let her borrow a quinjet for an indeterminate length of time for 'personal use'. She'd be happier going into the mountain wilderness with more than just a sat phone for backup, but, well... It is what it is.

She moves toward the cockpit, fully intending to sit co-pilot. "Thanks for this," she says simply. "I appreciate it."

Bobbi Morse has posed:
    The rear door closes up when May is settled in and she flicks from pre-flight to flight mode and powers up the engines. The wings unfold and she smiles over to May. "It's my pleasure," Bobbi says earnestly. This time off she's had has done wonders for her stress and anxiety. She's like she was before she got promoted to level 7 even, all the way back to when she first became a senior agent. Then again, she is not only back with Lance but married to him now.

    The large hanger doors above them open up and the quinjet rises up from the ground and in to the sky. She flicks a switch and the quinjet's exterior flicks until every part of it projects what's behind it effectively cloaking it from prying eyes and inquisitive radar.

    "I've made arrangements to stay in Kathmandu for a few days while you do.. soul searching? unpacking? decompressing? vacationing in the snow?" She smiles raising an eyebrow. She's not prying, not really, just making light conversation as she heads out over the lands toward the ocean. It's a long trip.

    "We've adopted two puppies," Bobbi says extending the conversation branch. "Nona and Jacob. Adorable little monsters. They follow us everywhere while we're trying to turn the land in to a home."

    "Heh.. it's made me realise just how much of the framework was it telling us everything is normal, so that it didn't have to fill in all the details. Living out there, for real this time, everything is so... alive. The sounds, the smells, the sunsets. So much more so than in hydra's worst video game."

    Thumb plays with the ring on her finger, twirling it around with each little swipe. She smiles a distant little smile of love thinking about Lance. "Should be just about time to move in to the Triskelion when we get back too. Then.. I assume.. off to Colorado to check out the ol' Academy." An Academy that Bobbi went to in the framework. As Garrett's right hand gal that is. May was spared that humiliation at least.

Melinda May has posed:
"Walkabout," May says succinctly in response to the light question. It's as good an encapsulation of her reasons as any.

She watches Bobbi fidget with the ring, feels her fondness for her husband... and for the dogs. A faint smile touches May's lips. Surprisingly, Bobbi's emotions are about the most uncomplicated she's encountered recently. Even Phil's have started to jangle -- ever since Peggy's procedure. The weight of that concern, of leaving him behind even for a couple of days, settles across May's brow briefly.

"Yeah," she says, turning her attention to the future. "Peggy and I were just chatting about that the other night. You and I should sit down and compile a list of HYDRA bases and assets from within the Framework. I can send pairs of STRIKE agents out on recon missions to see if they're actually in operation here. If they are, we can decide whether we need to take them out or insert a SPOT operative or two." It makes sense to her, anyway. "It can wait until I get back, though."

Bobbi Morse has posed:
    Bobbi nods her head at the explanation of 'walkabout'. That works for her. It's very May to be so efficient with words. As they fly along Bobbi thinks for a while and says. "I'd love to have started that already - but Talbot."

    But Talbot indeed. Now that Fury has made a deal with the President to allow SHIELD to operate on US Soil again.. and removed the wanted posters for that matter; SHIELD must work with General Talbot. Talbot insists on being brought fully up to speed first though.

    "That man is slowing us down and giving HYDRA time to scramble. Good thing they don't know how much we know. They still think they're sitting in a position of power and we just got lucky with preparation on Park avenue." She rolls her eyes.

    "Any way. Congrats you're now officially on vacation." She smiles over to her once upon a time mentor and adds, "You can rest your eyes, most of this flight is avoiding the weather. We're not crossing any borders that might detect us."

    Bobbi doesn't try to engage May in more conversation as they fly. Keeping her eyes on the instruments doesn't take too much brain power and it's a bit of a zen activity for most long haul pilots. Bobbi prefers combat flying to this kind of flight - but this is for May. And if she's honest, Kathmandu is going to be really interesting. She's yet to do any missions there.

Melinda May has posed:
As much as May gets a rush out of a good dogfight, she actually enjoys flying the long-haul flights. She likes the solitude, the wide open sky -- often with an expanse of clouds beneath. Most of the time, she's able to fly above the weather. Sure, there are inevitably air pockets along the way, but rarely anything she can't handle.

She gives Bobbi another small smile, even uttering a brief chuckle at the idea of being officially on vacation. It doesn't really feel like a vacation to her. More... an extended solo mission with an unclear objective.

Commercially, the flight would be about 16 hours. In a Quin, it's perhaps two-thirds that. Still quite the time in the cockpit. Thus, while she does rest some of the flight, there are other portions that see her staring serenely out the window, or automatically checking the instruments.

Occasionally, for brief periods of time, she even engages in casual conversation -- mostly about the dogs, Bobbi's new home, and innocuous things like that. She does offer a bit of advice about Kathmandu, having spent extensive time in Asia midway through her career. And she notes some interesting not-so-well-known sights the other agent might enjoy.

It's only as they begin nearing Afterlife, the scars still evident on the landscape, that she retreats back into herself again, eyes scanning the countryside as they cruise above it.

Bobbi Morse has posed:
    Flying across the mountains, Afterlife so close now. Or, what was left of Afterlife. Daisy travelled here with Agent Croft and they ended up spelunking inside a mountain and finding a hidden treasure vault inside a forgotten ancient temple. She wonders what May will find.

    One of the fault warning lights begins to flash and Bobbi glances at it. "May, what's the T-C-17?" Because of all the lights to flick on that had to be one of the most obscure possible. It's no answer, beyond 'serious' when the quinjet starts to list to the side and Bobbi has to fight to keep their trajectory.

    Three more lights start to flash red and Bobbi tries to keep them moving straight as one of the rotor engines shuts down. She flicks the switches to try and restart it but then it suddenly catches on fire. Thick black smoke begins to pour out of one of the wings.

    "May," she says with far more concern in her voice as she switches in to emergency mode. "May we're losing her. Parachutes..." She says and narrowly avoids hitting a peak as the fly out of control across the front face of the mountain that overlooks Afterlife.

Melinda May has posed:
"Not good," May replies. The TC17 is an obscure but vitally important controller that, obviously, has something to do with the VTOL system. "Glide us in, if you can," she tells the younger woman.

She's on her feet and grabbing two chutes and the two go-bags. She hauls them forward so Bobbi can shove into one of them. Given her choice, she'd sooner they try an emergency landing than an ejection, but beggers can't be choosers.

Then, she's turning to one of the back panels. "I'm going to reroute power. Hold her as steady as you can..." With that, she's peeling off a casing and starting to bridge control modules in a way that would probably give Fitz a heartattack, but that has saved her bacon a time or two in the past.

Bobbi Morse has posed:
    Bobbi continues to fight with the flight controls as they begin to spin and circle awkwardly around Afterlife, bleeding off altitude faster than either of them would like. She shrugs casually in to the parachute and clips the go bag on with one hand, then swaps to the other arm.

    The panels flash on and then off again as May reroutes power and she briefly gets green across the board. "That did it. Brace yourself!" Pulling the nose of the quin up and applying power just in time to slow their descent and sudden crash against the ground.

    The quinjet slides across the snow and barrels through trees, crashes against rocks until it finally comes to a halt. A whole wing has been torn away and Bobbi slowly comes too at the controls. Glass is broken and the winter has invaded the quinjet interior already.

    With a gasp of breath she sits upright and then pushes herself back from the controls and swings around to check the back of the quinjet, "May?!?"

Melinda May has posed:
As the quin lifts from the surge of power, May stumbles back, falling into a seat and grabbing hold of the straps. There's not really enough time to fumble with them, as they spin towards the ground at speed, but she clings to them nonetheless.

The result is that, when the jet does finally hit, she's tossed and bruised, but not seriously injured. She does end up stunned, however, and it takes her several long moments to catch both her breath and her balance before she can even think of sitting up.

"I'm okay..." she croaks, shaking her head very slowly to clear it. "You good?"

Bobbi Morse has posed:
    Being super strong and fast healing does not mean you automatically don't feel pain. Oh, she feels pain alright - but like most people on an adrenaline high it takes a moment for her brain to register the shard of bullet proof glass embedded in her side.

    It's when she lifts an arm up to lean against the wall that the agonising pain shoots up through her body and clouds her mind. Her vision sees double and she lets out a loud cry. She looks down to see it has pierced her clothing and her side and there's blood still dripping from it.

    "I think," she says with a tight neck and strained voice, "that's a no. Med-gel.. gotta pull it out. I'll heal in a few days time, .. just gotta... patch it up."

    All things considered, Bobbi's crash landing was spectacularly good considering how not-dead they both are. Though the electronics looks completely shot - including the radio array. This bird definitely isn't going to fly again, ever. Yet another casualty for the graveyard that is Afterlife.

Melinda May has posed:
May pulls herself to her feet more swiftly when Bobbi cries out in pain. The fusilage spins a little on her, but not enough to knock her off her feet. She pushes herself forward to see just how bad her companion really is. "Let me grab the first aid kit," she tells her.

The senior agent is a huge believer in the adage 'Any landing you can walk away from...' But that doesn't mean she *prefers* the ones that require climbing through broken wreckage to escape. She rummages around until she finds what she needs and then returns to Bobbi's side to help her extract the shard and dress the wound. She knows it won't take Bobbi overly long to stop bleeding -- an advantage over most agents -- but she's still concerned about the wound.

She's also concerned about the fact their electronics are in smithereens and they've got limited cold weather gear available. She did bring cold weather gear, despite it being August. But she wasn't intending on being quite so far up the mountainside.

"How does that feel?" she asks as she finishes the immediate triage.

Bobbi Morse has posed:
    The metal structure of the quinjet groans. Heat differentials as it settles in to its new powdery home. The wind picks up and snow puffs through the broken cockpit and in to the body of the quinjet. Bobbi can feel the cold right down to her bones. She packed for Kathmandu, not the Himalayas.

    A cry of anguish as the shard is removed and the medical gel pumped in to the wound. Bandages in place, she rests a hand on May's shoulder for support. "Motherfucker...," she says to the universe at large. It hurts a lot. That much is quite obvious from the look on her face.

    Of course, touching May, she gets a curious flow of information in her minds eye. It's been a while since she last touched May like this - not since getting out of the framework and having her own ability realigned. She had yet to tell May she intended to go through terrigenesis in the real world too.

    "I'll.. manage," she says with a wince and uses the wall of the quinjet for support to get over to her bag. Layers. She needs layers. She opens it up and starts taking out extra shirts and a jacket.

    "How screwed are we?" She asks as she focuses primarily on preserving her body warmth. One hand hugs the wound at her side. The bandages are bloodying a little but May is right - the bleeding will stop soon enough.

Melinda May has posed:
May guides Bobbi back into the aft compartment and wrestles with the door to the cockpit until she gets it closed. That, at least, cuts down on the wind. "Screwed," she replies. "But both Peggy and Phil knew where I was going and for how long. And Lance will be expecting you back, as well. So, really..." She looks around the compartment and grimaces, "if we can get enough heat to keep from freezing, we only have to last a couple of days. Not the end of the world."

She's not lying. But she is trying to remain positive. Especially given Bobbi's injuries.

She rifles around in her own kit until she finds a heavy jacket, which she pulls on. She then goes digging for the jet's emergency supplies and pulls out a couple of the emergency blankets. "Here," she says, tossing them at Bobbi. "Layer up. We'll cut a strap and turn it into a belt you can use to make a couple of ponchos out of those. That'll help." It won't be pretty, but it'll be effective.

She then starts pulling out whatever other equipment she can find to start taking inventory. Flares. Survival kits. First aid kits. Emergency rations. Fire safety equipment. Guns and ammo. There's actually quite a wide spread of potentially useful items.

Bobbi Morse has posed:
    Bobbi settles down on to one of the seats and watches with a grimaced expression as May becomes industrious. "We can't stay here," she states. No doubt the thought had crossed May's mind too. "There's a place we can get shelter though. Not far from Afterlife are a set of caves that they used for secret training."

    It was Matt who found them, following people in the night as they went to work on improving their abilities with their Inhuman gifts. Bobbi says, "I was keeping track of our location as we went down. We're probably an hours hike from them."

    She frowns, "If we're going to have any hope of staying warm, we will need to get to them." Already the metal of the quinjet is cooling rapidly.

    "Or may be it'll take it two hours with me walking slowly and all the snow out there," Bobbi revises the estimate. "I can carry a lot more than you. Fill up my pack extra. A bit of pain now is going to mean a lot more comfort later."

    She touches her wedding ring and shuts her eyes a moment. The inscription on the inside is particular poignant right now - Don't die. The promise the pair make to each other right before either (or both) go out on mission.

    "Odds are there's plenty of stuff from Afterlife left behind. Possibly even food and kindling. If we're really lucky may be even a CB radio.. but that's doubtful. Afterlife wanted to remain isolated. There was a small dam generator close to here too - but HYDRA blew it up."

Melinda May has posed:
May isn't keen on trudging 2 hours through the snow. But... at least it should mostly be downhill? Is that really better? Her face expresses her doubt more than any words could. In the end, she looks at what they've got, what's essential, and what's not. Flares, they're coming. First aid. Survival. Rations. Maybe only limited weapons and ammo, however.

"If we overload you too much," she says dryly, even as she's packing bags, "you'll still end up collapsing." Her eyes narrow. "How's your heart?" Because, if that's still a thing...

Bobbi Morse has posed:
    Bobbi pulls up her sleeve and checks the heart rate monitor on her wrist. "A little shaky but not spiking," she says with her lips twisted. Talking about her heart to people is one of her least favourite things to do. "Nothing's ever so straight forward is it."

    A hand pats the metal walls and she sighs, "With all the action we've seen over the last few months and not the time nor budget or personnel to keep on top of things... someone made a mistake with maintenance and we're paying the price."

    Her blue eyes look over May for a moment as she prepares the bags for the trip. She chuckles, "This is like the Canadian mission in British Columbia during winter.." She steels herself a moment and stands back up, "We'll just have to get through the bad part and hope the rest isn't a worse part."

Melinda May has posed:
"Pretty sure Canada was warmer," May says dryly as she hefts the heavier of the two packs and drags it over to Bobbi. She pulls it up onto a seat so Bobbi doesn't have to lift it quite so far, and adjusts the straps to make it easier for her to shrug into it. Slowly.

"You sure you know exactly where these caves are? Because, you know, the first rule of survival is usually 'stay with the wreck'. That's what people will be looking for." And she really doesn't want to walk around in circles through the Himalayas.

"This is *not* the vacation I had in mind." That's little more than a mutter. But an honest one.

Bobbi Morse has posed:
    Bobbi chuckles a touch and then with May's help gets the backpack on and secured. She takes in a deep breath and then nods her head. "Yes. Land scape is a bit different with all the snow - they had an Inhuman controlling the weather year round. It was very pleasant."

    She shuts her eyes a moment. The mountain in view, the quinjet spinning. Afterlife is... that way, which means the caves are... that way. She nods her head, "Yes. I'm certain." All those survival training courses weren't just for nothing. This is the same Bobbi morse who survived in The Savage Lands too.

    "Yeah. Sorry. I know you wanted time alone, away from people. Now you're stuck with me." There's a pang of distaste when she speaks of herself like that. A complex bundle of emotions. Bobbi checks her side arm and knife and then nods her head, "Let's get moving. The sooner we're through this the better."

Melinda May has posed:
"You," May replies with a shrug -- one that helps her into her own pack, "I can handle. You've been pretty even keeled since your wedding." Yeah, okay. She wanted some solitude. It's not essential, though.

Really, it just means she won't get the chance to walk the ruins quite like she'd hoped, separate one set of memories from another.

Wordlessly, she passes Bobbi a scarf for her face, and pulls a toque down on her own head before she pulls up her hood and collar to take the place of the donated scarf.

"Might as well get this show on the road."

Bobbi Morse has posed:
    Even keeled. She frowns a moment as they head on out in to the gentle snow storm. There's a good foot of snow on the ground, so foot fall requires careful consideration. A sprained ankle could be very serious out here. With the heavy pack on her back, Bobbi notes the pains from her wound with each movement. The subtle taste of fear in her mouth she pushes aside as they push on down the mountain side.

    After a while Bobbi asks, "If the snow lets up - were you planning on exploring the remains of Afterlife?" The battle for Afterlife has two different tracks in her mind. The one where they beat Afterlife and she executed Jiaying.. and the one where they fought off HYDRA and saved a lot of Inhuman lives. She knows which memory she prefers.

    "I wouldn't mind joining you...," becuse odds are there may be fragments of terrigen somewhere in the rubble. May be she can experience terrigenesis here. It'd certainly fix her wound - but likely not her heart.

Melinda May has posed:
May stays close to Bobbi, though she tries to forge enough through the snow to make it a little easier for the other woman. Which, really, is a nice thought. But Bobbi's a whole lot taller than May is. So... maybe not entirely necessary.

"I was," she admits. "Let's just see how your wound is, if the snow actually does let up. If it's workable... yeah. That's fine."

She'd rather have Bobbi with her and know she's okay than leave her alone and injured for too long. As it is... she doubts there's really going to be anything left in Afterlife to find.

Not that she can even say what she's looking for.

Bobbi Morse has posed:
    The caves were closer than Afterlife. Afterlife is a little farther down the mountain. Not too far. The walk was slow going in the weather - the cold cold weather - and the cave they enter is not much warmer. It is less snowy though.

    The entrance gets dark quickly but it's clear that people have been using this cave for hundreds of years. There's sconces on the walls, there's steps, there's a common area with table and shelves and even some now rotted food supplies - nothing in cans. Afterlife grew their own food.

    There's a large open area where the Inhumans did their combat training and severa lother smaller cave passages that lead to who know where. Bobbi uses her phone as a flash light and searches the shelves until she finds matches and kindling. There's a cast iron cooking stove in th emiddle of the common area and she goes about trying to get it lit.

    "Daisy knows where these caves are. But we wwill probably hear the searfh pary and or quinjets long before they need her help finding us."

Melinda May has posed:
May knows they can trust Daisy to find them, even if no one else can. She also knows, single handed or not, Phil will be there digging right alongside her. Lance, too, for that matter. Snarking the whole while.

Still, as they step into the cave, she shakes off the snow that's accumulated on her shoulders and legs and looks around.

"Let's hope so," she says, dumping her bag beside the cook fire, since it seems to be the best place to camp. She watches Bobbi work on the fire for a moment and then flips on her own light to start searching for anything else that might help -- extra clothes and blankets, perhaps, since food is off the table.

Bobbi Morse has posed:
    Bobbi lets the heavier backpack drop from her shoulders and she lets out a small groan of discomfort from the jostle the motions gives her body. For a few Bobbi stays by the fire as it heats up the stove and the general area. Given they'll be sleeping here they'll have to re-arrange things.

    "There's plenty of snow outside we can melt on the fire here if we run out of water." It's casual chitchat. Usually with Lance it turns in to a quipage match but with May it just betrays the subtle fear and nervousness Bobbi has at their situation. It's not terrible intense - just the usual amount for when things have gone wrong.

    Her eyes scan the area and she sees a weapons rack. Training weapons. Full staffs and quarter staffs and staves. Staffs and staves have always been her thing. She smiles a moment and then presses a hand to her side. The pain is still there but it's getting duller.

    On the cave walls are chalk drawings done by the children. They depict people doing things like flying, or shooting fire from their hands, or building walls with their minds. It's endearing and speaks to the culture that once lived in this place. A far cry from a spaceship city on the moon though.

    "Kinda feels like sometimes the universe is out to get us, right?" She smirks. Heck, if fate had been a little crueler, ninjas would have stopped Lance and Bobbi from getting married. Her eyes shut for a moment and images of the incident at Park ave shoot through her mind. The man decaying the entire buildings foundations. Fitz and Simmons rushing to install the shielding. Lance shooting at HYDRA, Clint by his side. The big woman with the super strength punching her down hard. It all happened so fast.

    Strangely, though there's emotions from the memory of fear and danger, there's also this strong under current of love. "Could you hear it?" Bobbi asks with a slightly quieter tone. The sort of question she wants to know the answer to, "The building.. when it was singing?" Like a siren's song to every Inhuman in the city calling them to stand up and be heard. To not be afraid.

Melinda May has posed:
"Mm," May grunts as Bobbi suggests the Universe is out to get them. She finds a certain humour in that, really. She's believed that for quite some time. Doesn't change what needs to be done. Doesn't even change the odds, since, as far as she's concerned, it's no different than usual. Still, she can feel Bobbi's reaction to this place, to the history here, and even to her memories of New York. She can't read her mind to know that's what she's thinking about, can't even guess most of it. But she can feel it.

It lends her a sense of depth in this space she wouldn't have had alone. A connection, perhaps, she really doesn't feel on her own. This place, to her, might as well be a cave on Mars and the pictures on the wall fanciful depictions of ancient buffalos being chased off cliffs by neanderthals -- interesting, even charming to look at, but without personal resonance.

When Bobbi speaks of the singing building in New York, she pauses. "I heard it," she admits. She was in a haze of Rage Staff fury at the time, however. So, that significantly changed her impression of the song. It did make her bolder, though. Gayle Trueshot died as a result of that boldness... as a result of that song, then.

Bobbi Morse has posed:
    Bobbi settles down on a table top near the stove. Crossed legs, hands in her lap. She watches as May goes about searching for blankets and whatever else. "I haven't told anyone else this yet. Only Daisy.. she asked the question after all."

    "Before she went outside to hold the building up with her quaking... I touched her and I just sort of knew what to do, instinctually. I buffed her ability. Or, I guess.. I aligned it?" She twists her lips in confusion. "I see all this Kree language in my head whenever I touch someone Inhuman now. I can't read it, I don't understand it. There are some patterns I'm picking out.. but this.. what I did to Daisy.. that was instinct."

    She goes silent for a moment as she remembers more and the feelings of concern and love are evident once more, "And that wasn't the only thing that happened that day. This Inhuman, Alaris. I remember meeting her here in Afterlife. She's big, she's strong, she's fast. The Inhuman version of Steve Rogers you might say."

    "She was mind controlled by HYDRA, that was obvious, and she wasn't going to stop until I did something. I tried fighting her - she was far stronger than me." She lifts her eyebrows. It's good to know there are limits that aren't just her heart. "I could feel my heart starting to fluctuate badly.. and then I caught her punch and just let it go.. flow through her."

    Bobbi looks over to May and her shoulders slump a little out of defeat that she is not in control of her abilities like she wished she would be. "I turned the volume down on her. She got weaker and I knocked her out. Instinctual. But... But I figured out how I did it. I now know what lets my powers go.. _out_ instead of stay _in_ and hurt my heart."

Melinda May has posed:
That captures May's attention. She looks up from the remarkably nice chest she's managed to pry open. "So... your heart problems are like Daisy's fractures." That's good to know. It makes her wonder, though, what her power is doing to her. Her brows draw together faintly at that thought.

She grabs an armful of light, finely woven blankets out of the chest to bring them over. "How did you do it?" She's curious, yes. She doubts it will help her, specifically, but she's willing to listen. And Bobbi seems to want to speak.

She sets the stack of blankets on the table beside Bobbi, pausing there for the answer.

Bobbi Morse has posed:
    Bobbi chuckles in an almost sarcastic kind of way, "You're going to think this is really dumb. But when I touched Daisy I was feeling fear. But from that fear grew a desire to protect someone I loved dearly in my heart. Daisy. I love Daisy. She's family."

    She looks at the blankets and nods her head, "They look nice. And with Alaris? I wanted to save her - from the mind control. I've been there, I know what it's like. I've had .. we've had our minds messed with by HYDRA. I remembered her kind smile and I cared. I guess. Love? Love is my trigger?"

    She raises her eyebrows up and then shrugs, "I could probably help you too now that I've figured this bit out. Though, it seems like you have this whole empath thing under control. Rage staff and apparently magic?"

    Bobbi plucks one of the blankets off the pile and pulls it around her shoulders, then moves over to make more room on the table top for May to join her if she wishes.

Melinda May has posed:
Love. May arches a brow faintly at that. It's not skepticism. It's more an odd surprise. Like that's something she'd never have thought of -- ironic, since Bobbi's reactions closely mirror May's own whenever she's effectively being The Cavalry. That, however, doesn't occur to her. That's just something she does. It's intrinsic to who she is. So, it's obscured by familiarity.

"Unless you can dial it down so far as to turn it off for me... I don't think it will matter." She sounds fairly flippant when she says that. Flippant and snarky, though it's not directed at Bobbi. More that uncaring universe that seems out to get them.

She snirks softly at the comment about the staff and magic. "I'm good at anger," she says, sitting heavily beside the blonde, now. "I have been, all my life." But, particularly after Bahrain. "I know how to control anger."

She bends over, her foot on the bench beside the table, and digs through her pants until she can free the small blade from its sheath against her ankle and pull it out for Bobbi to see. "This is mostly the key to how I don't go absolutely nuts."

She lays it on her open palm, holding it between them. "It mutes my power. A little. It used to mute it more. That new kid in WAND. Abcde. She made it for me. It's supposed to gradually stop muting everything, so I can slowly learn control."

She looks down at it, running a finger over the center of the blade. "I actually don't know if it works anymore or not. I think so. I think it had almost stopped working before the Framework. I think it's kicked in again now, though." Because the Framework nearly killed her, emotionally.

Then again, given how magic works, it's entirely possible that it's responding to her desire not to feel everything all the time, more than actually working to help her gradually build up her own control. She'd hate to think of it as a crutch. It could be, though, even if she doesn't realize it.

That might also explain why she's not quite having the same physical problems both Bobbi and Daisy have had. She hasn't actually been 'alone' with her power long enough for that to happen. She's had this support almost since the very beginning.

It's also possible that the shape of the talisman -- the fact it's a weapon and not a wedding ring -- is also affecting her in ways none of them could have predicted.

Bobbi Morse has posed:
    Bobbi thinks for a bit and says, "I don't know that my heart condition is like Daisy's fractures. Or, perhaps Jacob pumped the volume up on that side effect. He was trying to stop Whitehall from using his DNA to make super soldiers after all."

    She shakes her head, "No I have a theory. Emotions drive us.. humans that is, or Inhumans I guess. I remember Jiaying talking about the purpose of the second life, afterlife, was to let go of all the things that hurt us in our old lives."

    She goes quiet for a moment. Her hands rest in her lap. "I probably could turn it all the way off - but it's instinct driven, I don't have that kind of control yet. I'd sooner give you the whole Empathic deal than turn it off." She eyes the knife as it's presented and shown.

    "I'm not going to pretend to understand magic knives May... but if it's muting your power, don't you think that might be doing you harm? When Daisy came to Afterlife she was wearing those gauntlets and shaking herself apart projecting her power through her own body."

    "A couple of days with her mother and she made the far mountains shake and she started talking about the song of the universe. It was kinda annoying, not gunna lie there.." A small smirk creeps over her features.

    "The point is - she stopped being afraid of her ability and started to love it. The way she spoke about it, it was .. well .. I'm not sure how else to describe it but with extreme enthusiasm. Instead of all that dark talk about being doomed to break herself to pieces like she used to talk."

    She shakes her head, "I don't think love is _just_ my trigger. I think it might be every Inhuman's trigger." A dour smirk this time though, "Only one problem there." And she speaks the truth as she stares off to the dark corners of the cave, watching the shadows dance from the fire's light cast out through the iron door, "How can someone like me ever love themselves."

Melinda May has posed:
This is not the conversation May expected to be having with Bobbi. Neither of them, as far as she knows, have ever been given to the 'Love in the Answer' school of thought. They're fighters. They thrive in the midst of combat.

And, yeah. They've both done some pretty horrible things as a result.

May falls silent as Bobbi speaks. She doesn't know if the knife is harming her or not. She's also not sure she's ready to give it up to find out. *Her* mother is no Jiaying -- which is very likely a good thing. And while she and Jiaying did seem to reach a bit of truce the last time they met, May still doesn't believe the Inhumans of Afterlife have or will forgive her for the Belyakovs. And the fact Boltagon did actually didn't help.

Thus, May has much the same question. And she doesn't really know how to answer it.

The silence stretches out. She feels like she should have an answer. And she can feel Bobbi's silent misery as she searches for one. In the end, she sighs. "I don't know," she admits.

"All I know is that... if you're anything like me," and she suspects Bobbi is, "you did what you did because, even though it was the hard call, it was the right call. And if you were put in the same situation, with the same information, you'd make the same call."

She looks down at the knife in her hands, turning it over between her fingers, holding it lightly by the tip of blade and haft. "I would."

She glances over to Bobbi. "In the Framework, I knowingly and purposely killed my best friend's husband. The Framework wasn't real, but the emotions were. I felt everyone's emotions the whole time we were in there; I just didn't know that's what was happening." It nearly drove her mad. "So, I know those emotions were real. I also know, if I was presented with the same choice here in the real world... there's a very good chance I'd pull that trigger again."

There are some people she'd never be able to do that for -- or so she thinks. Daniel, yes. Peggy, no. Phil... never. But they are rare.

"I don't know how to reconcile that. But I do know that if it's the only way I can protect them from something even worse? I'd do it each and every time." A beat. She exhales softly. "It's those times I can't protect people that kill me."

That's a hard thing to admit.

"I suspect that's what kills you, too."

Bobbi Morse has posed:
    Bobbi is silent for a good while. She lets May talk. It's a rare thing to hear her speak at length about anything. When the shared silence returns, she lifts up a finger and wipes away a tear from the far side of her face. "They set the narrative for us. The only thing I can hold on to is that when we'd settled in to that place? we flipped the script on them. I've taken out a half dozen HYDRA bases. The biggest was Whitehall's operation - and then the framework Triskelion."

    She lowers her head, "It's what we do. They lied to our brains to make us do things we wouldn't otherwise have done." She shakes her head and wipes away another tear, "I figured out what changed. One little moment. In the Savage Lands. Chasing down Dr. Allen.. Paul. In the framework I saved his life."

    She turns to look to May, "I've never told anyone this before. Not even Lance. In the real world.... I let him die. I could have saved him, but I let Man-Thing tear him to pieces. I wanted Ted to get his revenge on AIM. On Paul."

    She looks away a moment. The guilt she's projecting. It's very familiar. It's just like Bahrain. "The framework can show me how what I did in the real world was ultimately better for everyone, but I still know it was the wrong thing to do. We live in a messed up world, one where HYDRA was pulling our strings. Doing the wrong thing saved me from them.. doing the right thing damned me to them."

    "How is any of that fair? And when we were walking to this cave I kept thinking to myself.. may be I can find some terrigen in there, or in the ruins. Reset everything, start fresh - a new life, just like Afterlife promised. But that's ... that's all bullshit too. Those people spend years in a new environment trying to forgive themselves for their past life."

    The image of Whitehall sitting at his desk, the crashing ocean in the large vista window behind him. He's dying before her. She's holding his arm tightly to stop him reaching for the syringe that contains the medicine that will save his life.

    "I do bad things May. I'm not a good person. When push comes to shove.. I'm not so different to that lie in the framework." The emotion as she watches Whitehall in her memory die, watching that monster perish is... delight.

Melinda May has posed:
May can't read Bobbi's thoughts. Only those roiling, all too familiar emotions. For a moment, her hand wraps tightly around the haft of her knife. "And I killed a little girl in Bahrain."

She lets that statement hang in the air, letting Bobbi understand the implication of that. Then, deliberately, she sets the knife down on the table behind them. "I've told precisely three people that -- including you. Boltagon, because he needed to understand why Inhumans here on Earth and I don't really get along, Peggy... because she needed to know I understood her grief about her own kid. About Daniel." She looks at her friend and risks putting a hand on her arm. "And now you."

"Andrew and I were planning to have a family." A small smile touches her lips -- reminiscent, sad, bitter. "We were *actively* working on it." She licks her lips with a small tongue tip. "Then Phil and I got called to Bahrain. We thought there was only one Index candidate there. We were wrong. The girl was dangerous and I did what I had to do. The men I rescued called me The Cavalry. There's a reason I hate that name."

Her hand, strangely, remains on Bobbi's arm. She may not actually be conscious of it, given she's not particularly fond of touchy-feely shit. It's probably that instinctive empath thing... just like Bobbi's instinctive understanding of an Inhuman's power.

"Everyone thinks of The Cavalry as the last minute heroes that sweep in on horseback and pull the infantry's collective asses out of the fire. They forget that the Cavalry was also responsible for the deaths of thousands of Indians in the Apache wars. And... You tell me. How can a woman who willingly murdered a child ever consider becoming a mother?" Her jaw tightens. "I destroyed my marriage because of that."

She snirks now, her hand tightening lightly on Bobbi's arm. "Do you really think I'm that different from how I was in the Framework. Every single decision I made in there came out of a desire to make things right in the world. I sacrificed my friends, my family, my very principles to hit back at people I saw as monsters... people who I thought had hurt me. I became the monster."

She shakes her head. "And the worst part is that I know... one bad day is all it would take to turn me into that here, too. All these extra emotions? What happens if I lose control? Do you remember my doppleganger -- with the rage staff and the horrific empathic abilities? Because I do. Tell me how I'm any different from her... and I'll tell you how you're *not* Sky Commander Morse."

Her eyes fall onto her hand and her brows knit faintly. "Hell... I can show you." Not that she would, without permission.

Bobbi Morse has posed:
    The true nature of what happened in Bahrain. The source of many a story about The Cavalry, the legend that is Melinda May. A chill runs down her spine. The choice that May had to make. It all fits now. Both sides of the coin fall in to place - real life and the framework. One pivotal moment of sympathy lead to the rise of HYDRA. What kind of a life lesson is that for either of them?

    The way May describes her entire life unravelling because of one simple decision. Yet they know what happens if she didn't kill the child. So so many more people die - not just by the childs hand, but by the evil that rises up around that tragedy.

    Bobbi's head begins to shake in the negative and she touches her wedding ring. "I.. yeah. I know. I know what you mean." Her head dips a bit and she says almost softly, "It's the people. The people around us. The framework narrative could never work while-ever Lance was around because he'd always drag me back to doing the right thing. So.. the story had me kill him. That story was so fundamentally incompatible with who I am my hand would shake constantly. And you.. looking after Peggy and Daniel, the founders of SHIELD, protecting them from HYDRA while you were .. well."

    The swirl of information from May peeks and roils about in her mind, all those emotions and the strange connection to her as they happen. She looks a touch confused at that last statement and says, "What do you mean, show me?" She laughs derisively, "Show me I'm not the sky commander?" Despair sinks in to Bobbi's thoughts - this conversation has hit a low point and her side is aching. "Show me."

Melinda May has posed:
Bobbi may, in fact, be the only one who can truly understand the demons May wrestles with. Even Fitz, with that horrific Doctor persona, hasn't made the hard calls in his real life these two women have been forced to make. May knows *now* she made the right call in Bahrain. It hasn't made her feel any better about it.

Still, as Bobbi speaks about Lance, May nods. She understands that. Phil has always been her rock... just not in the same way Bobbi and Lance or Peggy and Daniel are. She and Phil, they're partners, not lovers. It's different, yes. But not.

She senses that despair, feels it running through her fingers and into her chest. Echoes it. "This... might be weird," she admits. "I'll try not to do it wrong, but I've not really purposely tried to do this before. Just..." She inhales deeply and sets her jaw. "I can't read your mind, but I know how you're feeling. I also know how other people feel about you. *That's* what I can show you." Well, what she'll *try* to show her.

She has to settle her thoughts to do it, push away her ingrained anger that has nothing to do with her friend. Thus, she studies Bobbi's face and thinks of the looks she's seen her and Lance share, the effervescent friendship she's felt from Daisy, and the great professional respect she's felt from Jemma. May's own emotions around Bobbi are difficult to navigate because of relationship the Framework pushed upon them. But if she thinks back far enough, really looks at it, she knows that every time she's been angry at Bobbi -- like the fact she's always dragging her off the field because of a cardiac event -- it's because she likes the woman and genuninely cares what happens to her.

Melinda May *hates* the touchy-feely shit. This is totally touchy-feely shit. She'd sooner hit things than do this sort of thing... But hitting Bobbi won't help her. So...

She mines that care and concern and pushes it gently toward the blonde. She tries to capture the feel of Daisy's emotional signature layer it in -- her hope and friendship. She tries to capture the cooler sense of Jemma, that bright inquisitiveness and enthusiasm, the way she profoundly respects all of them as agents and professionals. She even reaches out for the confidence Peggy feels in the Commander. Strangely enough, she is even able, partly because of Bobbi herself, to pick up Lance's unique signature and let his unfailing devotion (and aggravation) push through, too.

It's a strange mix of emotions, bouying and messy and tangled. May is trying to let the woman feel what other feel in relation to her, but she's never done this before. And she has to work hard to get out of her own way.

Bobbi Morse has posed:
    It comes on gentle. Bobbi looks back in to May's eyes and tilts her head just a little. It's there. She can feel it. She can also see May using her powers - the way they are all tangled up in her own emotions. Not exactly blocked. Her mind starts to wander as she looks at the way it struggles to move.

    Bobbi's heart is melting a little at these distant feelings of care and love and the corners of her mouth twitch up a touch. She says only one word, "Here.." and places both hands on May and shuts her eyes.

    It's that care she feels for May that allows her to do it, just like Bobbi claimed was the key to it all - love in its many different forms. Melinda May was a teacher of martial arts to her, and a field partner. The two have bounced off each other on and off over the years. It wasn't until Phil got that Bus in the air that they spent any real time working together though.

    Since Gonzales died it's been one crazy moment after another for them both. For Bobbi, ever since Toshiro asked her to stay with her.. why couldn't the Framework have chosen that moment to alter her path? But none the less, a warmth spreads through all the bits of May that make up her Inhuman gift, which is fitting given it's all emotion.

    Like she boosted Daisy, its instinctual. Like aligning a magnet, unblocking the flow. And the moment she does it.. the full force of all those emotions May is trying to give her hit her like a freight train. It's hard to accept self-loathing when so many people see you so differently to how you see yourself.

    Bobbi begins to cry in earnest, her tears flowing freely as those emotions reflect back to May - gratitude, caring, love. She's not crying out of sadness but out of happiness. To feel how Lance feels about her, how Daisy feels about her, even the memories of Gonzales.. of Hartley and Mac. Her old team was her life.

    "They took Phil from you too," she croaks through a small happy sob, "that's how they got us - separating us from our anchors."

Melinda May has posed:
May gasps as, somehow, Bobbi unlocks her power in ways she's *never* felt before. It also, however, unlocks a lot of emotions she's kept quite purposely and carefully locked down... for *years*. Decades, even. All the grief, guilt, fear, and loss. That profound sense of inadequacy, of failure. Not anger. Anger is a mask for those deeper feelings. Anger even masks love. Anger is easy. The rest... that's hard.

She fights the urge to pull away, to retreat. She tries to push her own emotions away, to focus instead on what it is she wants Bobbi to feel. But she can't have one without the other. She should be able to isolate emotions and make people feel only what she wants them to feel. But she absolutely can't make them feel what she herself cannot, does not, or will not feel.

All of which means that when Bobbi begins to cry, May's eyes well up entirely unbidden. Bobbi's emotions flood her as quickly as her power -- and it's those that keep her from retreating. Her forehead leans against Bobbi's, somewhat unintentionally, though gently.

"It's always how they get us," she says, voice unsteady, breath shuddering in her chest. "That's why it works."

Bobbi Morse has posed:
    Foreheads rest to each other. Bobbi can feel her heart beating fast but she doesn't care if it's struggling. Not right now. She doesn't want to look at the heart rate monitor. She is basking in the love of her extended family, of her chosen family. Which does include her biological family too. Her mother and father are still with her and have supported her all the time.

    All the time not knowing the things she's done, the people she's manipulated, hurt, killed, the things that Bobbi has never forgiven herself for. Despite the facts stating that if she hadn't - the world would be a far worse place. That the delight she took in those actions was not born out of a cold heart but out of satisfaction that she _had_ made the world a better place.

    No world needs Whitehall. No world needs Garrett.

    A soft sob escapes her lips and she says, "Thank you." The combined Inhuman powers bouncing off of one another. As May's own emotions feed back in to what she's doing with Bobbi, so does Bobbi's ability feed back in to mend her own ability. There it is.. what Jacob did. A little knot in the line, a deliberate sabotage to stop HYDRA. It was made out of love, out of a desire to stop the HYDRA hate. She plucks it loose.

    The warmth that is Bobbi's ability has run its coarse, done its job of unleashing May upon herself, unleashing Bobbi upon herself. She lets go and sits up, a hand wiping away the tears on her cheeks. A kind smile of friendship on her face. "Thank you for always.. *always* being there for me."

Melinda May has posed:
"Always," May says, giving a brief, affirmative nod. Framework notwithstanding. There's no hesitancy in it, even as she pulls back into herself and grinds her face dry.

She coughs lightly, clearing her throat, and trying to catch her breath. Her brows dip slightly. "How's your heart?" Physically, she means. She can feel the easement in the younger woman's emotions. She even reflects it... just a little, anyway.

If nothing else, Melinda isn't nearly as angry as she was before. And that fact means that the tension in her body, tension she never really realized she was carrying, has melted away to some degree. Quite suddenly, she finds herself exhausted -- though not in a bad way.

Bobbi Morse has posed:
    Bobbi chuckles a little and then pulls up her sleeve to check. She holds it up for May to see too. A steady line. Her heart didn't even twitch. A sniffle and a hand to her nose. She smiles, "I still don't know how to ready Kree but I am starting to understand myself a lot better."

    A laugh escapes her lips and she stares up at the cave ceiling, "Reina was right about us both." She holds out her hands toward the fire to warm them up a little more, "But she couldn't see past her own anger and hate. Imagine the future she could have seen if she'd been able to let that go..." if she's had May.

    A sly little smile over to May, "May be she would have seen this coming." Bobbi has had a few very emotional days since she got out of the framework. She figured out who she was quickly enough. She figured out what meant the most to her real quick too. What she hadn't figured out.. not until May's help just now.. was that it was okay to forgive herself.

    A hand dips in to her pocket and she takes out a bar of chocolate. She breaks it in two and offers the other half to May. "It's not ice cream, but it's close enough."

Melinda May has posed:
"Chocolate is just as good as ice cream," May says, a knowing smile on her face. "Not as good as whiskey, but I'll take it." There's actually a bit of a sparkle in her eye as she says it -- a hint of who she was before Bahrain. She takes the chocolate and raises it briefly, as if in a toast.

"I think I only met Raina once," she says, trying to remember. Raina called her the Caretaker. Perhaps Bobbi is right. Raina wasn't wrong. Certainly, it's a better name, still, in May's opinion, than The Cavalry. "I was only here, once." And HYDRA blew it up while she was here.

She looks around at the dim cave and the remains of the community that thrived here. And she falls silent again. Despite the breakthrough only moments before, it still seems to her that every encounter she has with the Inhumans of Afterlife leads to some form of destruction. Briefly, she wonders if she'll ever get a chance to change that.

Bobbi Morse has posed:
    It's not lost on Bobbi that this place was meant to help Inhumans find their way once they had crossed over in to a new life. And despite all of HYDRA's best efforts -- here they were, doing exactly that. "Yeah.." A feeling of loss. It's so crystal clear and doesn't demand to be May's primary emotion in the moment. All that practice? may be the dagger? or may be whatever Bobbi just did to her.

    "I remember." She remembers holding Nona's hand when the missiles hit. She was the only person in the whole village who could touch the poor girl. She'd lost everything and that day she also lost her life. A lot of people did. Raina included.

    "What was it Arturo said? you can't kill an idea," she says and slips off the table, walking over to the cave walls and peering at the drawings done by the children. A connection to a society that was meant to be theirs but was taken from them.

    "Well.. you can't kill Afterlife if that's the case. They're calling the area around the safe house New Afterlife. Some are just calling it Afterlife. Those Inhumans you rescued from that mind control? you should go talk to them. They're very grateful."

    "Once we're out of this mess that is..." She lifts up her ring finger and kisses the ring with a small smile. There's no doubt in her mind that Lance won't be coming for them. "We should probably try and get some sleep. Things'll be better tomorrow," she says. She can feel it in her bones. A weight is lifting from her heavy heart and she can't quite put her finger on the what, or why.. but she does know the how. May.

Melinda May has posed:
May sees their makeshift camp. She feels the easing of Bobbi's heart and it helps to ease her own. "Maybe I will," she says, with regard to the other Inhumans. Maybe taking a visit to see Jiaying and her people is a better idea than she thought before. She's not sure.

But she does know Bobbi's right about their needing sleep. She can feel the stiffness of the crash earlier seeping into her bones, compounding the emotional exhaustion that pulls at her. "Let's hope so," she says, sliding off the table to attend to the practicalities of prepping the space near the fire to be safe and warm enough for sleeping. At least, they're unlikely to be invaded by wildlife.

"They'll miss us, by this time tomorrow. It won't take so long."