Owner	Pose
Colette O'Connail	Students are beginning to flood out of the halls of Metropolis University at the end of the school day, currently little more than a gentle trickle flowing down the storied steps to the campus green beyond, but soon to become a torrent.     Colette is early to avoid the flood, leaving the building with a backpack heavy with books slung over her shoulder, and stopping only briefly to exchange farewells to fellow students. She makes her way down the central path of the gardens, detours down a side path and stops at a park bench to enjoy the pleasant weather of a late spring afternoon.     She settles down and unslings her pack, rooting through it to fetch out a bottle of soda and her laptop. The bottle is opened with a satisfying >psssht< and drunk from. The laptop is opened and she begins tapping away, getting an early start on her homework assignments.
Carol Danvers	Carol is keeping half an eye on the campus as she waits, watching the kids and everyone going about there busines. One part of her is curious how school life has been impacted by the sudden Dinosaur and Gorilla issues. Seems mostly serene here on campus for now. She has on her usual non-work attire. Flight jacket. Ballcap of the yankees variety today, sunglasses which are aviators of course, AC/DC shirt of course. Doing her best at a physical appearance of 26 to blend in on campus and not appear to be obviously someone super famous. I mean her gait is even different and body language. At least until she leans against the bench and looks sidelong at Colette "Sup Trouble."
Colette O'Connail	Colette looks up curiously, then gives Carol a nod. "Captain Danvers. A pleasure to see you again, though I'm sure the feeling isn't mutual. It would take a heroic effort to pretend I was exactly surprised to see you, so I hope you'll forgive me if I don't bother. "     She finishes up the sentence she was on, then hits save and closes her laptop again. A small group of students walk past, one waving to Colette and glancing curiously at Carol. One of the group is a currently a gorilla, but seems to be doing a decent job of fitting in. He has been banned from playing football for the duration though.     Colette gestures to the bench beside her. "Take a seat?" she says. "I'd offer you a drink, but I only have one bottle. I don't mind sharing though. I don't have a cold or anything." She opens her bag again, and slips the laptop back inside. "What can I help you with today? More birds fell into the sea? Some journalist-slash-coffee boy causing you trouble? Or is this concerning something beginning with 'S' and ending with 'amuel Morgan'"?
Carol Danvers	Carol seems content to lean ovee the back of the bench and chat with Colette while watching the Gorilla kid go back. "We really need to get that fixed. Active investigations that aren't on my plate today though." she muses to herself and then shakes her head. Her attention and a sidelong look returns to Colette "No birds. No reporters. The last though spot on." she considers. "Why would that young man accuse you of working for mythic lizards though Colette. I ... am staggered on a regular basis how often you pop up on things."
Colette O'Connail	"Well honestly, if you think I'm a touch paranoid, you should try him for size." Colette gives a grin and takes another swig of her soda. "I'm more familiar with the mythical lizard than I am the subject of Sam's interests. I had to look it up. Apparently they were active during the second world war, which is slightly before my time. There were a few claims they are still active, but I didn't find anything on a website I'd exactly consider reliable, unless you're trying to source the instructions for an aluminum foil hat."     Colette leans against the back of the bench, stretching her legs out and looks up at the sunny sky. She doesn't seem terribly bothered at having Carol hovering behind her. "As for why he'd get that impression? Honestly I'm not sure. He said I showed three quarters of the signs of being a member of his lizard society, but as I don't know what those signs are, it's rather hard for me to guess. I find his logic rather flaky though. He seems to think that if you tell him something is true, that makes it more likely it isn't. I suspect if he ever stopped a stranger in the streets for directions, he'd immediately turn and walk the other way."     "I'm not an agent of mythical lizards or anyone else, Captain. I'm fairly sure you know that already. Sam at least claims to have seen the error of his ways too now, but I don't know whether to believe him or not."
Carol Danvers	Carol is watching Colette pretty closely, but then she has a seventh sort of sense for things and it isn't doing anything alarming as she inquires about the altercation really with Mr. Morgan. She sighs and looks back at the campus and students going this way and that. "Some days I really miss the airforce academy. Well the parts I remember clearly." Glancing back to Colette. "I do not believe you are part of the mythical lizard society or a lizard person. Mr. Morgan is a fairly special case who has a lot he has to work through." she frowns. "Your name popping up again though on the alerts I have analysts watching is always notable though. You seem to be neck deep in a lot of interesting people's business. Why is that."
Colette O'Connail	"I guess I just have a thing for trying to help people. I must be a nice person." Colette smirks to the sky. "We kind of talked about this before. I am concerned about the world's future. I may not be able to fly, but that doesn't mean I can't make small efforts to try to help steer things in a more rational direction."     Colette bends her head back to try to see Carol where she leans. "You /can/ sit down you know. I'm not gonna bite. And if I was, I can assure you it wouldn't be someone who could kick my ass as easy as you could." Colette grins a little and shakes her head. "Sam's an interesting guy," she says. "With a lot of problems."     "Honestly Captain, truth is I know some things I don't really have any right knowing, and some of that kind of came out with Sam. Unfortunately he sees the world as a spy novel and thought that meant I must be some kind of spy."
Carol Danvers	She just sighs for a long moment there. She shakes her head. Then she finally comes around to sit on the bench and look at Colette. Sort of that half turned towards arm over the back of the bench facing her move. "He definitely has a long list of problems. His world is a spy novel Colette. What exactly did you do to or with him to try to help that backfired like this?" which is probably the root of why she is actually here.
Colette O'Connail	"His world, maybe. Not the world he's trying to be part of. I was trying to help him find a way to be part of the real world and still find an outlet for his idealistic side, which I consider worth cultivating."     Colette gives an easy shrug of the shoulders, and smiles at Carol now she finally sits down. "He's way too open with his secrets. I tried to warn him not to be, but I was probably too subtle. And explaining my reasoning may have left him rather wondering why a TA would talk that way, so he jumped at what seemed to him like the obvious answer if everyone did live in his spy novel."     She looks at Carol speculatively for a while, then nods her head as if coming to a decision. "Captain... Carol. I like you, and I promised I'd try to trust you. But if you want me to explain things any more clearly than that, you'll have to answer a question of mine first, and the question might startle you a little. And I'm going to ask you to stay seated while I go stand underneath that tree just there, which sounds weird but makes perfect sense. Because there is a tiny but non-zero chance that three of the words I say will make you try to kill me, and I'll have a lot better chance of escaping if I'm not sitting right next to you. Agreed?"
Carol Danvers	"Sam should probably not be as open with people, though if you are going to TA at a school for special kids that are trying to lay low you may want to also be on the level with them so they don't flip." Then Carol blinks and looks at Colette again. "I... really don't think there is much you could say that would cause me to try to kill you Colette?" she says that very honestly there. I mean hell. Even if the girl is actually Hydra should definitely try to take her in alive for Nat or someone to question. So Carol is puzzled. Still she waves a hand over towards the tree now. "Sure go for it Ms. O'Connail. If it makes you feel any better."
Colette O'Connail	Colette nods her head and stands up, leaving her backpack on the bench. She walks to a tree about ten feet away, standing in the shade of it, and turns back to Carol. She raises her hands, making a frame with the fingers and lining it up through one eye, as if she was framing Carol for a photograph. Then she lowers her hands and grins.     "Okay, so it's like this," she says. "I /do/ know things that I don't really have any right to know. So. That interview you did with Terry? You talked about having been kidnapped by 'one of the many alien empires out there', right? One that's involved in some big war. And you said that you escaped after there was a disaster at the facility. "     Colette shifts about on the spot, a little like a runner doing a pre-warm-up. "Anyway. I have a good ear for languages. When we first met, and you were speaking to Kian? I noticed something interesting about his language. It uses simple morphemes. Consonant-vowel pairs. That's why he always puts these little gaps between consonants when he's speaking English. Or 'in'g'lish'. See what I mean? But there was a word /you/ used when you spoke to him through your translator which didn't fit that pattern. Which means it wasn't a word in his language. It stuck out. "     Colette watches Carol's body language very carefully, and tenses visibly. "So my question is, Carol. How do I know you are not a Kree sleeper agent?"
Carol Danvers	"Well, that may be why I am not at my old rank in SHIELD, people with concerns just like that one." she keeps her arm over the back of the bench and studies Colette. "I'm not, they just have a hard on for whatever is going on with my powers and genetics. The Kree Imperium or Empire believes everyone with Kree genetics is Kree, no matter how little the genetics may be. So my being half-kree and half-human.. well they firmly believe I have to serve the Supreme Intelligence and the Kree Empire." She wobbles her hand "We had a pretty violent disagreement everytime they have tried to enforce that on me, which does not stop them from trying at every opportunity ... which unfortunately the young mutant terrorist gave them." she smiles a bit sad at that thought. "It backfired though and they bit off .. much more than they could chew trying to experiment on me. My powers are... supercharged now. That is probably the best word for what I can do. The Kree would call it the power cosmic in their tongue." She shrugs again. "Why me I don't know Colette. It just is. My life is not something anyone should aspire to really but I try to do the best with everything that has been put on my plate. SHIELD Though is fully aware of everything I do know and knows a good deal about the Kree. Honestly if I was worried about Sleepers I would worry more about the Skrulls or some of the other empires out there really. Like why there were Thanagarians causing trouble on earth earlier today of all things." This manages to get a deeper frown from Carol. "Okay your turn Trouble. How do you understand his language and how do you even know so much. It isn't normal."
Colette O'Connail	"I don't understand his language," Colette says with a slight shake of her head. She is still watching Carol /very/ closely. "Apart from a few bits I've picked up talking with him. Maybe a dozen words. I do recognize patterns though, and the word 'Kree' is not a word that could exist in his language, but it's a name I've heard before. And I wouldn't put it past them to have implanted an indoctrinated personality in your mind, and /faked/ whatever the incident was at that facility, so you only thought you escaped. They are good at that kind of thing."     There is a visible easing of Colette's body language, and she walks back over to the bench, sitting down again. "However it's unlikely that if that was the case, being presented with a question like that in such an unfamiliar and unlikely setting as this wouldn't have triggered off some kind of a response, if not an immediate reversion to the indoctrinated personality. I can't read your mind, unfortunately. Anti-telepath, remember?" Colette flashes her a grin. "But I didn't see anything that looked like a reaction to psychological dissonance. Maybe a small amount of distress, which is natural. So I'll take the chance, and go on trying to trust you."     Colette leans back, picks up her soda again and takes a long swig. She stares out at the grass. "I told you, I know things I have no right to know. And I'm going to ask you not to repeat any of this. This is me trusting you. Some time ago, and I don't know exactly how long, an alien died and in some weird psychic fashion I can't explain, managed to preserve her memories in a kind of... mental ark. They drifted through space for oh, hundreds of years. Then I was born, and they found a place to reside. That's why Kian's revelation I had a psychic barrier in my mind was news to me, but not wholly surprising news. "     Colette sighs softly. <<So, there it is. I know things I have no right to know. It's honestly annoying. I... remember... another person's life. Someone who spent time travelling out there. Who knows about Kree, and Skrulls, and Thangarians. Who has seen how hard and how dangerous the universe is, and who would know just how vulnerable our world is, now that it has come to the attention of the galaxy. Someone who has personal experience in protecting a world from such dangers, and who would think that our world is not taking the right steps to protect itself. I'm trying to do something, in the small ways available to me, to push things in a more... useful... direction.>>     It might occur to Carol that about half way through that speech, Colette switched to Interlac.
Carol Danvers	Carol listens, though yeah she does shift and tense some but not in a hostile manner when her translator implant kicks in and starts to translate Interlac. She narrows her eyes and then sighs and relaxes back once more. <<Well. Of course that is what a Skrull infiltrator or something else would say to throw someone off the trail.>> Honestly Carol seems to find a great deal of irony here in this encounter at this juncture. I mean really this is a loop and how are either of them evidently supposed to trust other than just try to trust. <<Well. That wasn't really what I was expecting. As to the Kree. Yeah they are really good at it. When they took me the first time they did that whammy. Had me thinking I was Starforce even. Kree elite soldier. When I came to earth chasing Skrulls during the Domitor Invasion in 0'12 though it kicked.. it wasn't easy but I basically had to tell the Supreme Intelligence in the control chip to go fuck herself.>> Which is odd since the Kree Intelligence is an AI and all, Carol was being applying gender to it though for some reason. Drifting back to english. "I'm really pretty stubborn to be honest. So do you know what species left you with this legacy?"
Colette O'Connail	Colette slumps slightly in her seat, her eyes a little wide. "Ma'aleca'andran. Martian, that is." She gives a small half-laugh. "Funny. You came to ask me why someone thought I might be a secret HYDRA agent, and I end up asking you if you're a secret Kree agent." The irony is not lost on her, either.     "There's a Martian on earth. In the Justice League. Martian Manhunter. If you like I will give you a short text written in the Martian language that you can show to him to check my story. Or... ask him how much he misses the touch of the uh... the 'Great Voice'. Anda'ar kheyin. How hard it is to live on a world without a thoughtstream. He'll know what the question means, and nobody who isn't Ma'aleca'andran - or has the memories of one - would be very likely to bring that particular question up first thing. Just don't tell him where you heard about it, please. It would be really awkward. He'd probably want to speak to me and... It's not me, Carol. I'm not the Martian, I just have her memories."     Colette puffs her cheeks and blows out a long breath. She turns to Carol, looking slightly stunned. "I've never told anyone that before. I figured if anyone would ever understand, it would be you. And I kind of like... your attitude. You're okay, Carol."
Carol Danvers	Carol chuckles a bit there. "Thanks Trouble." she leans back looking up a the sky. "If I ask J'onn about that he will most definitely want to meet you. Are you prepared to deal with that Colette?" she looks sidelong to the young woman. "Also well you could even be martian. I mean they are really adept at changing shapes much like the Kree. Though if you were and in hiding J'onn would pretty much pick you right out now having told me what you have." She shakes her head. "The universe is a very large very messed up place. I've honestly heard wierder things in my time out there and even here on earth. It does afford you a lot of very .. valuable knowledge and it doesn't sound like you have the Martian gifts to protect yourself Colette. It is probably something you should be very careful telling people. Maybe J'onn is fine but not many you know." She smirks "Don't be Sam."
Colette O'Connail	"I'm no Sam," Colette says with a grin. "Like I said, you're the only person I've ever told. I'm not a Martian, either. My life is fully documented. I have a family. Baby photos, the lot. I mean yeah, I could be a Martian who decided to pretend to be a baby and live an entirely normal life growing up as a human for twenty years, but that would be... eh. Well I'm sure there are far easier ways to adopt a false persona."     She leans forwads, soda bottle clutched between her hands, staring at the grass. "I'd really rather not meet him, to be honest. It's... It would be awkward," she repeats. "Look, Carol. I have the memories of a whole other life in my head. It's wierd. It's /not me/, you understand? But sometimes it feels almost like it is. I have to try to keep those thoughts separate. But you can ask him about this... if I actually was a Martian, there is just no way I wouldn't already be in contact with him. His people died out at some point in the past, after... after my one left Mars. He must be incredibly lonely. For them... everything is in the mind. I don't have words to explain it, but he'd know. If there was one other Martian around, he couldn't resist wanting to talk to her. It would be like resisting eating or breathing. If I really was a Martian, I wouldn't be able to resist either. If he met me, he would be incredibly disappointed, because I'm /not/ a Martian, and I can't communicate telepathically."
Carol Danvers	Carol shakes her head "If you were a Skrull of a bad Martian you wouldn't have done that. You would have replaced a teenage or college age student. Right before you started meddling with all these heroes lives. You'd dump the real Colette in the ocean." she seems very serious about it really. Then shrugs. "It isn't a good defense. I either trust you or I don't at this point as much as I can." "That is all probably true but.. I stand by it. If I know J'onn... which I do... he will want to talk to you regardless. If only because you know his language and you have a mind in your mind that is like his own and his past. He does miss it severely." she looks up to the sky. "Well thank you for trusting me Trouble. Also ... next time. You need to be a whole lot farther away than that tree over there. I think I may be able to write my name on the moon from here if I really wanted to." she is teasing though. Well not about the moon part. Maybe.
Colette O'Connail	"There are no bad Martians. There's only one Martian left, and frankly no Martian who had experienced the Great Voice could really be bad. "     Colette stares thoughtfully at her bottle for a while before taking another gulp. "Actually there /were/ bad Martians. There was a civil war, oh... my timelines are kinda hazy here, but I'd guess about twenty thousand years ago. Modern humans were around at the time, but barely out of their caves. One faction was trying to manipulate them, turn them into a slave-race. The good guys won though, and the survivors of the bad faction were exiled to another universe. I guess it would translate to something like uh... 'still space'?"     Colette tilts her head sideways, looking up at Carol. "I'm not a Martian, but I know what being a Martian would be like. They kind of... share. A lot. The thing about Kian? The telepathy? It's more... intimate. It's like mixed up in /her/ memories, there is a sense of other Martian's minds there too, and it's kind of creepy to me. I don't know if he'd be able to resist peeking under that wierd psychic shield thing I've got, and I suspect he'd be able to. Honestly even the thought of that makes my skin crawl. If you can make him /promise/ not to do that, then if it really would make you feel better, I will agree to meet him, because he'd be able to identify the fact I'm telling the truth by just scanning the... it's technical. But I'm fairly sure he could detect the 'signature' of my mental shield. I would /really/ rather not though. I'd really rather you just trusted me. Like I just trusted you. Because I'm pretty sure that if I was a Pale Martian or a Skrull, I would have just /not told you any of this/."     Colette raises her bottle to her lips, and finds it empty. She looks at it with a sigh, and puts the empty away in her backpack, then picks the backpack up and slings it over her shoulder, then stands.     "I'm sorry Carol, but I'm feeling kinda... this hasn't been easy for me. I think I need to go lie down in a dark room for a little while and cry. I'm not gonna leave town or anything.     Colette starts to move away, then stops herself and turns again. She tilts her head thoughtfully to the side, then gives a small shrug. She holds her hand out to Carol. "Friends?"
Carol Danvers	Carol will slide up to her feet and stretch a little bit. "Friends sounds fine Trouble. I'll let J'onn know about you and see what he wants to do. Remember I gave you a number you can get a hold of me at if you need help." She considers "So try to do well on your finals, don't get turned into a Gorilla, and please try to not set off any of the metas you keep trying to help." she lifts a hand to Colette and then watches her go.