807/Footholds are for Losers

Footholds are for Losers
Date of Scene:	27 March 2020
Location:	Rock Wallz Gym
Synopsis:	Lang and Barton catch up, doing some rock wall climbing.
Cast of Characters:	Scott Lang, Clint Barton

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Scott Lang has posed:
"I figure if it's boring, well, out the skylight we go," Scott Lang suggests to Clint with a grin as they sit on a long bench near the lower zone at the start of the large climbing wall. It's mid-afternoon, a comfortable Friday, and Scott's eye was caught on an advertisement for the Rock Climbing gym not far from the Avengers mansion. It might not be, say, like climbing the insanity of SHIELD: but it /is/ brightly colored and a change of pace. Plus, this type of climbing can be done in full daylight without helicopter search lights up your butt. Or maybe that's just Scott's experience...

Scott Lang's been away - a two week vacation with his daughter - but has come back as if he'd never really been gone. Except, perhaps, for being a bit more cheerful. Family does that. Scott finishes changing his shoes and rests, one arm hooked around his knee, watching Clint prep. Scott's dressed in simple athletic wear, and his high-grip gloves. A black cap finishes the look, assisting with anonymous quality: not that Lang really needs any. Nobody recognizes the low-key Avenger. Wishful thinking 'incognito' hat, maybe.

"By the way, I heard something interesting. Cap gave me some /news/," Scott adds pointedly. His words make it blatantly obvious this will be about Clint and Wanda being a thing. It's the tone.

Clint Barton has posed:
The two weeks felt like a lifetime without his fellow 'normal' on the team. Okay fine, Tony didn't have powers either, but he didn't feel normal the way Scott did. I guess money really is a super power! Still it was good to see Scott get some time with his kid, he definitely seemed a whole lot happier for it.

Clint sizes up the wall, and shakes his head, "Nah it should be good," he says. "Nice change of pace, nobody shooting at us or trying to lock us up." After all former criminals had to stick together.

For his part Clint's got the Avengers undercover uniform on, hat and shades, though he's switched up for a knit cap with an H on the front because why not be super obvious? Still he didn't tend to get a lot of fan recognition, which is part of why he wore the cowl. Give him a little bit of peace while he was out on the town.

"Oh yeah?" Clint asks about the news, reading the signs but not wanting to spoil Scott's fun. "What about?"

Scott Lang has posed:
Scott pivots on the bench to drop his legs off, hands to either side of his butt on the bench, fingers hooked around the edge of it. He's a bit too tall to swing his legs on the bench, though if he were shorter, he probably would have done so, maybe just one time. Scott's in a pleasant mood: and willing to infect others with it that allow. "Ouch, too soon, too soon," Scott squints in mock pain at Clint's joke about being locked up. He's teasing, though, and his smile flows back out.

Scott gets to his feet as Clint studies the wall, but proceeds to stretch. 'Normals' pull muscles. It's a real thing. "Yeeeeeah," Scott answers Clint's answer. "Sparks of romance?" Scott prompts, smile pleased. "Way to go, man." Trust Scott to be the cheerleader, like always. "How long've you two been a thing?"

Clint Barton has posed:
Clint drops down to do a bit of stretching. Because, yeah, normals needed that.

He looks over, "Hey, I did time too," he says, it's an old joke, he did a whopping 10 days until SHIELD came by with their offer complete with a get out of free card. Nothing like the time Scott got stuck with. Four years is no joke.

Shaking his head, he sticks out a leg and stretches out his arm to hook the toe and streeetch. "What? Who? You mean Nat and Tony?" he teases pretending not to know before he laughs. "I dunno, a couple of weeks now, a month maybe?" he frowns realizing he was going to need to work out the date for various boyfriendy purposes. "It's been great though," he says with a genuine grin. He seemed happy. "Kinda had a thing for her forever, like you know," he's sure it came up at one of their chats, likely after too much beer. "But yeah, just sort of worked."

He smiles, "So how about you, any ladies in your life? Besides Cassie I mean, how is she anyhow?"

Scott Lang has posed:
Scott chuckles at the comment about also having done time, lifting his shoulders. It's never a competition with Scott, though. Hard to compete when Scott's the one with the shitty hand dealt to him, anyway.

The tease about Nat and Tony causes a bleak strain to cross Scott's face, and a point of finger firmly towards Clint's chest, even while Scott balances during a stretch of a quad. Clearly CLINT's love life.

"Uh huh. Glad you got brave, made that happen," Scott replies. "As for the lady Cassie, we don't use lady anymore. She is currently the Queen of Arendelle, due to Frozen 2. Though we have wisely replaced all reindeer with unicorns. She's doing great. Except for being back with her mother, but nobody's life is perfect." Scott bounces on his heels once, springy, finishing his leg stretch. "Spent my vacation focused on her, so, no... no updates for me. I'll live vicariously on yours."

Clint Barton has posed:
Clint laughs when he's pointed at, "Fine fair enough," he says hands up in a surrender, giving up the details about him and Wanda willingly. "Still haven't talked to Pietro about it, I mean he knows, Wanda's told me she told him, but he hasn't talked to me about it yet. You know that feeling where you know someone is going to punch you, but you don't know when, so you just flinch forever until he takes a swing? That's where I am with that one." Yep. Brave Avenger is Clint.

"Noted, I'll update her titles accordingly," he says of Cassie, shaking his head. He didn't know how parents did it really, putting up with their kids flights of fancy. He nods about Cassie being back with her mom, "She gonna let her come out to the Mansion?" he asks. "Her mom I mean, she'd be a big hit."

Then moving on to other things as he changes up his stretches, "Cap tell you any other news? Or was it all my dating life all the time?"

Scott Lang has posed:
"I do," Scott says simply, with complete empathy, to Clint. "That is my perpetual relationship with Hank Pym." Scott smiles though; there aren't hard feelings about it from Scott's side. It's just a truth of his world. But worth it: much in the same way Wanda is likely worth it to Clint.

"Maybe. Not for a week or two. One vacation into another, for the Queen," Scott shrugs. "But Steve mentioned the toy lines, too. I have offered Cassie's truthfulness to tell them which ones are ugly. Blazing seeker of honesty, that one." And Scott is very proud of her for it. "What else... uhhh, I know there's some Genosha efforts in motion: Wonder Woman, Black Panther helping there.... I mentioned I'm here to help however I can. I mean, I'm not the ruler of a country, but." There's that power gap in there.

Scott sighs a little, smile softened, and the nods at the wall. "Feels kinda like cheating with the colors. But I also feel like blindfolded would make the staff here panic for insurance reasons."

Clint Barton has posed:
"Right," Clint says flinching about Scott's relationship with his crotchety mentor. "Yeah, Hank was around for a bit, judged us a bit, Tony ate his ant sandwich and Jan was well... Jan." Meaning a grown up mean girl.

"Yeah, Genosha," Clint says with a sigh, "It's been a rough go and a little chaotic there, I get a front row seat with Wanda. She was managing a lot of it for awhile before they found her sister," he says. "But hey, king of a country or no, you're sort of tailor made for search and rescue, small enough to search, big enough to rescue. I am sure they'd be glad to have you man. Me though? Sadly disasters can't be helped by arrows."

He 'hehs' about the wall. "Well, bet they can't tell if we close our eyes," he tells Scott with a grin as he gets up. "Wanna find out?"

Though he carries on with the Avengers gossip while waiting for an answer. "Obviously you know about Tony, but did Cap tell you about him and Asgard? I am not sure I fully follow it myself, but it's a little nuts."

Scott Lang has posed:
"I have also eaten an ant sandwich. As in, the sandwich intended for ants to eat, not made of ants. There's a pill for it," Scott supplies helpfully, in regard to weird sandwiches. "I got better."

"Sounds like you network just fine during the disaster. Bringing in folks that can search and rescue to the right place. Point it out, we'll do it," Scott says evenly, entirely serious, though his tone is nothing but pleasant, it carries a firmness. Heroing is not joke time.

"That is a good point. I do want to find out," Scott grins, offering a fist-bump as he follows towards the wall with his fellow climber. The wall won't know what hit it (and maybe them either, if they have closed eyes).

"Him and Asgard? Other than Thor being back, no. Not following, nuts -- Is Loki back too?" Logical question line, probably.

Clint Barton has posed:
"Right there was a bit of a debate about that. Did it have ants in it or was it for ants, but yeah, definitely one of the former," Clint says before making a face. "What did it taste like? Thouhg for the record, not asking to try, just curious for some second hand data," he says in case Scott has one in his lunch bag or something. Not likely but who knew.

"Good point," Clint says about his role in things, like Scott he's deadly serious when it comes to the job especially when innocents are at risk.

Liking his idea of blind climbing Clint returns the fist-bump and then closing his eyes feels for the nearest set of holds and starts hoisting himself up at a good clip. "Think I found the easy section," he calls to Scott shifting over a bit to find something more challenging.

Ah Loki, that's another thing he's deadly serious about. "Yeah," he confirms coldly. "He's back," that cold isn't aimed at Scott but at the frost giant dickbag of mischief, wherever he was. "But just because Odin sending Loki to Earth for a time out wasn't enough, he also made Steve the king of Earth or something." Honestly he started to tune out this Asgard stuff after Loki's return. He wasn't objective about any of it after that.

Scott Lang has posed:
Scott begins to climb as well, picking an area that won't cause him to directly run into Clint's path. "My area's okay," Scott reports, in terms of difficulty. He isn't feeling like he's going to take a header into the pavement off a building, so it's an okay zone! His voice is loosely to Clint's right, as they navigate the wall. They don't know it, but they are being observed: it's fairly apparent to the beginners nearby that they're going to see some professional climbers, with the immediate show of speed and agility.

"Tuna Fish: if Tuna didn't smell like anything." That's that, simple assessment of sandwich funk.

"Cool, so Thor is hitting him with thunderbolts now, right?" Scott suggests. That would be nice, if the gods could handle each /other/. "King of Earth? Naw, he failed to mention that in the list. But he's pretty humble. How'd THAT come about? I didn't even know we had a king. Does that make Tony one of his minions? That was probably an awkward conversation, I'll have to ask JARVIS to play it back."

Clint Barton has posed:
Clint shuffles a little further to his left and finds something more his speed, moving quickly along the wall more or less at pace with Scott, even though neither of them have anything to voice to go off of for that. Honestly though the whole process was pretty zen, just closing his eyes and feeling his way along. It was nice.

"Okay I think I can sort of conjure that," he says of the sandwich. "Weird."

"I wish," Clint says as they swing back to Loki, as they climb. "I believe the team responded by sending a strongly worded letter to Asgard." It's impossible to hide his hurt and anger at that. "I almost walked, took Thor, Nat and Wanda to get me not to try and kill him."

As for King Steve. "Not sure, they visited Asgard about the Loki thing, trying to make Steve's Earth's ambassador to Asgard but when they came back he was king, or thane or grand poobah, whatever they call it in Asgard. Apparently Odin thinks that's a call he gets to make."

He shakes his head. "No clue, where that puts Tony or the President, but tell you what man, Tony taking this all without planning to blow up their fancy rainbow bridge or even make a real stink about things, is when I decided I'm voting for Lex Luthor."

Scott Lang has posed:
"Okay, so wait," Scott asks. Even if his eyes are shut, there's a squint in his tone as well as his voice. "So Steve went to Asgard to try to complain that we don't want Loki ... but ended up as the new Earth Prison Warden?" Scott assesses. One of Scott's super skills, like Clint's accuracy, is to cut things down into what exactly they are at the core.

"That kind of feels like entirely the opposite of the objective. It's like going to complain to the manager that your fridge is broken and being hired to sell broken fridges."

Scott fell back a little while he talked, but he does a little surge of motion to catch up, eagerly putting in a spurt of speed. Scott likes activities like this a great deal, right up his alley.

"Yeah, I'm kind of forced to the Lex vote, too. Enough on that. So let's not talk about it?" Scott suggests. Topic change!

"Well, can /we/ do something about Loki? I mean. I don't have ideas yet. Wanda could maybe help, with the magic part? An attractive ticket to some other planet maybe? Sometimes known as kidnapping, except for awful gods of asshattery?"

Clint Barton has posed:
Clint carries on up the wall, still blind, still zen. "Exactly," he says. "Must have been a hell of a meeting, is all I'm saying to get Steve to agree to that."

"Good plan," he says of the topic change.

Clint lets out a breath, casually hanging from one of the handholds like it's no big deal. "She could, I haven't been wanting to involve her, but yeah, sending him off to some planet, maybe the Microverse? That could be fun. Sorry, Odin, no idea where he went, should turn up again, you know how he is..." he smirks, and starts to climb again. "I did have one thought, what if he could fix things, what if he could bring back the people that he made me kill. I don't know if it's possible, I don't think Thor could do it, or I'd ask him, but dunno, Loki seems like he'd be the guy you ask for something like that. I mean, if I can't kill the guy without starting an interstellar war, maybe that's the next best option to I dunno, get some closure."

Scott Lang has posed:
"Huh," Scott says, thoughtful, about the idea. "To fix what the war did. Yeah. All of those people," he says, sorrow in his tone. He remembers the mourning of those related to the seige of New York. The vigils. At least, he saw it on the news. Convicts don't get to go to vigils.

"I got out just after everything started to get back to normal." Apologetic maybe, but nothing he could have done. "Are you, uh," Scott pauses. This is a tough question, and he waits until they get up out of the first climbing section onto a rest spot. "concerned he could dominate your mind again?" Scott asks, quietly, gently.

Clint Barton has posed:
"Yeah, that's what I was thinking, some actual good out of his time here rather than a glorified time out," Clint says, this was the first time he'd put words to that idea. Some genuine recompense for all Loki had done.

Clint had been at some of those vigils, some of the victims having died at his hand even if it hadn't been his will that guided that hand. He still felt the guilt, the helplessness.

"Fuck!" his concentration slips and so does he, falling a good ten feet before catching a handhold and wrenching his arm almost out of its socket. "I'm good," he calls up, his voice pained, as he grabs another handhold and braces his feet against two more. "Yeah, damn right I am, but maybe Wanda can help there, give me a bit of protection, hell maybe you could come in my pocket with one of those disc things to shrink him if he tries anything."

He frowns, as if trying to decide if tiny Loki was less dangerous or more dangerous than the full-sized one.

Scott Lang has posed:
Scott was half into yelling for if Clint is okay, leaning out over the area he's squatting on to look down in extreme worry. "You sure? Here, take a rest," Scott suggests, leaning to offer a hand-up to the slightly battered Clint onto where Scott had perched for a breather.

"We don't use the shrinkie-dinks on people," Scott answers, with a chuckle. "I /also/ won't crawl up his butt and go enormous. Because I am not a murdering villain. Makes us no better than him. But I will happily make his shoes enormous, or help you get him stung by fire ants in said pants. Or kick him across town with my own giant boot. Or throw Thor at him. ...Or back you up in any other way." That's a real promise, Scott absolutely will be back up, if murder isn't part of it.

"I really like the idea of getting Loki to fix what HE did, though. Optionally I can recommend a prison that isn't a lot of fun here on 'Midgard'."

Clint Barton has posed:
Clint takes the offered hand and climbs up to the perch with some help, rubbing his shoulder. "Had worse," he says of his arm. "At least it's not dislocated."

Though there is a much needed smile soon after. "You seriously call them shrinky-dinks?" Clint laughs. Before he considers all those options. "Wow," he says when they get to going inside a guy to blow him up. "Who knew your powers could get so dark," though he was glad Scott was the kind of guy not to use them like that. The other options had promise but the real takeaway was Scott's support. He offers a fist-bump. "Thanks for having my back on this, man. Other than Wanda, you sort of feel like the only member of the team that has."

"Then yeah, let's go for plan Fix-It. Figure we should grab Wanda, see what she can magic up for protection and then see if we can figure out a way to make things better for a lot of people." It wasn't revenge but Clint was sure it would feel better in the long run.

Scott Lang has posed:
"No, they're Pym Particle Discs or something like that," Scott answers, shrugging. "Please don't tell Hank I called them shrinky-dinks. It's already hard to get them," he says, but he's grinning. He doesn't /really/ mind if he's quoted. But he coughs into his hand once. Still best to not tell Hank things, in general.

"We've had some size-changing villain guys. Keep the suits out of their hands. For really good reasons," Scott explains about his dark 'powers'. "With great power comes great paranoia. Same with the Iron Man suits I'd imagine. Don't just let anyone fly those around." Scott accepts that fist-bump, WITH an explosion! Psshooo! Scott has fun.

"Hey, glad to. This is a horrible guy that can cause you and me to kill people. Not just /can/, but /has done it/, in an attempt to take over the city. I'm not okay with him loose either. Even house-arrest is too good for that guy, although if it can be done, I'd take it. So he can't hurt more people." Scott nods a little.

"Besides, I feel like he's the sort of guy that would hate to do plan Fix-it. Might make him see the people as /people/. Which makes it a really good idea."

Clint Barton has posed:
Clint grins, miming zipping his mouth shut. "Your secret's safe with me, man," he promises Scott.

There's a nod about the size changing villains too, "Yeah, that's bad news," he agrees.

Though when it sounds like Fix-It is the way to go, he nods, "There's that too. He'd hate it, which makes me all sorts of happy." He says with a bit of a smile. "Anyhow, let's finish our climb then we can head home and talk plan Fix-It. Sound good?"

Scott Lang has posed:
"Let's go with one-armed instead of blindfolded for the rest," Scott suggests smoothly, as if it were his idea, and not Clint's shoulder. Scott grins at his friend and fellow Avenger.

"Sounds great. See you at the top."