Owner	Pose
Natasha Romanova	It's been however long since the incident that has given even Natasha a headache and disorientation. After having dropped by to have a quick discussion over with Nadia, in turn Natasha has gone to talk with the only person present that might actually have idea as to the mechanics of what happened, and for the wary confirmation that it was not a group hallucination. She's coming with some datapads that have what few files the Avengers database and SHIELD's do on the Temporal Variance Authority, and the even fewer ones on the Time Stone - or the Time GEm, depending on how one referred to it.
Jane Foster	However long; if you ask someone of a more cautious disposition, 'all too soon' may be a banner statement. But Jane studies astrophysics, and space-time doesn't follow rational rules. In case anyone was asking. That R&D is busy is an understatement, though finding Jane is a matter of confirming she emerged out of the WAND offices holding a box clamped by a cage of leather and iridescent chains, off to be incinerated. It's probably better not to ask her why she tells two people literally wrapped in fireproof clothing, "It should be fine, remember to feed it anthracite after hatching." They have to trundle off with their box. She is easily intercepted by or intercepting the red-headed assassin, glancing askance. Gems, stones, they're all a day's pleasure for Russian masterminds. "It's far too early to be up."
Natasha Romanova	Natasha Romanoff would nod over at Jane, "Yes, it is." For some of them. Natasha probably really doesn't need to sleep that much. "So on a purely theoretical level, can you generally confirm that this is to some degree legitimate?" Time travel was well beyond her theoretical basis. Even it was something that Nadia had done little analysis on. That left Valeria, that's.. Enthusiasm Natasha was quite wary on at times that would be doing the solid lifting of it. "I'm still not sure what the Variance Authority -is-. Whether they're some sort of multiversal temporal agency or network or merely focused on a single plane o freality."
Jane Foster	"Always a problem on a Friday. Mine's over or begun. I have yet to decide." The irony of that isn't lost on her, the colour of her tone dry and a soft blue. She inclines her head at Natasha, then waves off an approaching agent. Having 'deputy' scary person as her titled rank now has its advantages; put her together with the Lady Murderess, and they probably can clear a room faster than Fury carrying a lunchbox into a break room. "Confirm legitimacy for?" The path taken by the brunette guides them into one of the unused lab rooms. Six swipes of a card doesn't get her access; the fingerprint reader is bitching. Beep-Boop, nope. Natasha won't have the same issues unless she too is in a state of suspension between realms and other trials. Gods help them all, the Vision isn't around to blink owlishly at her state and compute it's all messed up. Theseus' Jane. "As I'm guessing you aren't talking about the likelihood of Fitz bringing us a proper English breakfast, you're either discussing the problem that pulled you out of whatever and me from a podcast, or the transcursive relays coming out of the Kepler crater."
Natasha Romanova	Natasha Romanoff would follow along after Jane Foster to the more secure area and look at Jane over with just the smallest amount of analysis. The woman's reaction makes her curious, but she doesn't push it over on the matter. "Time travel exists on a practical level, at least we've seen numerous examples. The existence of an organization self-declared to monitor it also makes sense on a theoretical level. And like any bureaucracy.." There's a rarely shown bit of annoyance from Natasha. At both the ease of their transition, the way they were treated.. Also the paperwork. ESPECIALLY the paperwork. She would glance over about Jane for a moment thoughtfully and analytically. Evaluating if the wsoman -had- the memories or not of the experience.
Jane Foster	"Time travel." Jane utters a low laugh. "You know, I ought to raise that as a podcast topic or hold a seminar at the Hayden on it. We get a lot of questions." The gesture to one of the seats invites Natasha to flop down as she does, though probably infinitely more graceful about it. "The answer is itself complicated. Time travel using a big blue box, no, functionally it doesn't work that way. However, since Einstein developed the theory of general relativity, the possibility of time travel has existed. Primarily when you approach light speed or near light speed, wherein you incrementally age relative to a fixed point, like people on Earth. You'd unsync yourself relative to that fixed point, such that those people exist in the past while you exist in their future or vice-versa. You could still communicate with them, though understand the further they are, the more challenging that is. All this without compensating for people like the Flash, who have tapped into something that modern science barely scrapes the surface of. Theoretical forces that function outside gravity, nuclear forces, or electromagnetism are reshaping our definitions of how this all fits together. So you have something or someone who could move against the collective perceived flow of time while staying in the same position as us -- a Flash, basically -- or you can get really weird. That would be through enormous amounts of energy used to manipulate space-time. Space and time are... for these purposes, anyway, functionally the same thing. You can move from point A to point B on a flat map," she explains, spreading her hands out. A couple gestures finally bring up a holographic interface. She hates this, she does. A few commands later, and the better-than-Alexa/Siri pops up with an image of New York. "You can walk from Times Square to Central Park. The further you go, the more energy you need. Same principle works in theory for space-time. I can get here to Central Park. Why can't I /also/ go from here, September 30, to yesterday? Or September 29 in Central Park? With the right amount of energy and bending a bridge to the same location, by time /or/ space, you could do it. Albeit the theory has long been doing so requires you to either be a single particle or pure energy, but we've proven a few times that we can move particles back a few seconds. Forward is harder, much harder. We don't have a map of space ahead, we can guess, but it's not truly fixed until you get there. That's what science says." Her mouth tightens a little, breaking back on the grin. "Then there's magic, which screws up the whole ensemble but basically, immense magic can shift time with deleterious effects for the most part. We understand it's forbidden or frowned on, since it often and typically goes badly. I'm not sure if the office of doesn't-like-time has intervened before. By the sounds of it, they have more agents than..." She waves her hand at Natasha. Them.
Natasha Romanova	Natasha Romanoff would let out a sigh, "So it's happened and it's possible." She's been broadly aware of that, so having it confirmed with specific examples is something that she's not particularly happy over nor is she surprised. It just gets her going thoughtful. "So specific individuals have the ability to, whether it's generating the energy necessary for it or simply linked enough to it to map it out." Again, not happy, but something to be expected. And of course magic breaks all teh rules anyways. So that makes sense as well and something that she's unhappy, but also expecting it. "And the Time Gem? As far as anything. It's something that can casually bypass these limitations as well?" Theoretically at least. "And this particular agency.. Why are they insisting we have exposure to it, aware or not, and yet have large numbers of them that are fully depowered, according to them?" She's thoughtful over and tapping at her chin. "Understandable. If they have their own self-declared mandate, the technology to do so.. They can recruit from essentially anywhere in theory. And likely aren't reliant on it. There's no reason they cant make large numbers of clones, automotons, or other entities that they can use to fill a variety of needs and fully recondition them as necessary."
Jane Foster	"Stephen Hawkings used to say the definitive proof for no time travellers was their failure to show up to his party," says the brunette, crossing her fingers into a laced bridge. She extends her hands to wrap around the sharp bend of her knee, hauling on her leg enough to feel the stretch in slim muscles that won't ever lose their tone or shape. Nor will she age. Suspension in time, the hourglass stalled, has limited benefits, such as they are. Oh, but to breathe again and /need/ it. She nods to the inquiries, approval for Natasha's acumen shining in her eyes. "Exactly. You need a colossal energy source, the innate ability -- very rare -- or the knowledge and technological or scientific wherewithal to make it happen. We can speculate several alien species who can approach light speed or achieve FTL are able to harness this. It's another factor entirely to mess with a wormhole, which by their nature aren't stationary, stable or even long-lived." Her expression remains pretty blithe, though the tightening around the corners of her eyes speaks to a greater distraction and discomfort both. Hostile presences from HYDRA teach them all to be careful, but so are soul-devouring monsters part of her canon of trouble now. Information is easily abused. "I've never heard of the Time Gem exclusively. Our writings simply don't have anything, though I may be able to ask an asset of ours about it. I suspect the answer won't be kind; it will be thrown out on my ass. But I will be honest, so we are clear." Her gaze lifts to Natasha's, and if the absolute lack of threat is clear, she still has a terrifying intensity that sometimes comes out, the kind owing to a woman who is very thoroughly dead and still walking around. One inspired by protection, not by malice. "I've watched someone stop time. Completely, for a few seconds, and that level of power /cannot/ belong to anyone casually. Casuality is not anyone's toy, and not trifled with lightly. That we've got an Avenger able to demonstrate this fundamentally is reason for consideration." A sigh comes so quietly it's probably missed, her thoughts mined on a compromise of politeness and necessity. "This agency is messing with humanity, in some fashion, and possibly other societies. Whether or not you disagree with the ethics -- and I do, in many places -- we can't deny they are /someone/. Are they an appropriate someone? I don't know if they are a rightfully appointed police agency or not, but we both know what happens with agencies that are corrupted or overly reaching. I don't like being on the wrong side hurting people."
Natasha Romanova	Natasha has a sense of ethics. restraints. She's gone far, far beyond them over her lifetime. And the mere fact she's paying attention to them now over however long she has been with SHIELD and attempting to remedy her lifetime of pain and suffering inflicted for whomever told her is something she will never, ever make up for no matter what she does. She would nod, "The ethics of the situation aside, they are clearly capable of it, they have the ability to do so, and some sort of self imposed mandate for it." SHe's presuming that there's no sort of remote external force that has given the that. That level of egoism and bureaucracy can only come from someone taht's decided on their own and brought everyone else along for the ride. "If we give them the credit and presume this is not in fact some level of bluff then they can easily transit to a large number of different timelines." THey all saw numerous Time Gems; or at least what they said were them. Natasha doesn't particularly trust them, but part of contingency planning is asuming that it is true. "And no doubt numerous other species, if not the entire galactic cluster or however far existence and sapience goes." Worst case scenario again - they can do it in -any- reality they want to. "The fact that they specifically left us the memories of the interaction and told us to some degree implies something far grander than a little game. They could have theoretically just as easily taken us, put in a pre-programmed response if we encountered it and then controlled our actions. Or simply replaced us with more accomodating incarnations." Natasha's being point blank on that. Her life has been an existence of this. Preprogrammed conditioning. Massive numbers of clones. And to the one or two pepole seh might trust, unsurety if she was teh original.
Jane Foster	Capability versus ethics, never fun. Jane continues to pull on her leg just enough to feel the burn of the stretch, something to keep the fuzzy displeasure in her thoughts from becoming overly dark. Nothing like a good tug to pull her back to true. "The self imposed mandate may be the problem, don't you think? We don't have a good idea of who we answer to. What their intentions are, and whether this bureaucracy acts as a check or obfuscates a different purpose or person behind the throne. Let's face it, large organizations rely on obscurity most of the time for their own advantage. HR doesn't seem any more accessible there than in the United Nations." She taps her finger against her knee, signalling off the seconds. "I came back with the rock. I wasn't sure if it was wise to keep that anywhere, so it may be necessary to consider testing on them. I'm sure that can't go badly." Dark cluster of irony there, isn't it? "What do you feel about this? How would you proceed? If we fail to work with them, they can probably find someone who will. One after another until they plug that gap."
Natasha Romanova	Natasha Romanoff would nod, "Of course. All we have is merely what one of their agents said to us and we met over. I rather doubt that they're forthcoming in teh matter. And a large, sprawling bureaucracy often never tends to fully abide by things. They can be spouting out the company agenda, lying, or just someone down the chain that fully belives it." She would smile over. "And like any bureaucracy, that sprawling is a large weakness internally if one happens to know where teh weak points are and how to target them. So that's likely our best chance." However, that requires consistent access to it for research, and enough cover to push it. Neither of which was immedaitely accessible now. "We'll need outside help in analysis. There aren't a great many experts in the field or that have practical experience and understand the theoretical and applied aspects of it." They're likely going to be liimited to Richards. At least, if they wanted to limit the scenario to sanity.
Jane Foster	"When you want a solution, seek an expert. When you want to hide the answer, build a bureaucracy. The Czechs knew what they were talking when they coined something along those lines." The fuzziness pushed aside, Jane tips her head back. "Then we need to presume upon where the weakness lies. And expect one side doesn't have an idea of what the others do. Departments siloed for their own safety? Who knows, they might be better linked than we know." Her fingers race through her hair, and she gives a little shrug. "I have a solid understanding of aspects of time. I would think we need to talk to the Flash, or anyone associated with him. Them. There are a few. They could at least give us a starting point. We need to call in Doctor Strange, as well, since I'm not touching anything involving a wizard's magic without a twenty-foot pole." He can also yell at her for messing with rocks! It's a thing. "I'll make inquiries on the divine side. It's possible someone knows something up there."
Natasha Romanova	Natasha Romanoff would nod, "Good, we need to make a list of posibilities. Richards, Strange, the Flash.. With some rseearch I'm sure we can find others amongst our contacts. And between hte two o fus we can figure out where to brutalize the bureaucracy and set it to infighting." Because going for a PhD and getting tenure probably lead to just as brutal incidents as being a spy did.
Jane Foster	"Richards is a start. He's a solid player in the field. Otherwise... let's draw what circles we can from there." Jane rubs her fingers against her neck. "As for bureaucracy, look for the ambitious middle manager and the discontent department. You can accurately target them and tear the internal harmony apart by correctly motivating them to act out, as it's almost always been. Upstarts are a thing." Don't ask her how she knows that.
Natasha Romanova	That's the way the game is played no matter the species, the purpose, the department. It's just finding where the right place to apply pressure is and going from there. "Good. We can split up who we work with. I can speak with Richards and you can speak to Flash and Strange if that's viable."