This is the first thing Yelena sees on the morning of August 9, with no context from Eos at all. She has no idea what she did to earn such apparent praise from the AI, but she’ll take it. She didn’t become who she is without being very good at subterfuge, and it really might have been more insulting if she’d failed somehow, even if she would never know the reasoning, or the criteria the grade was based on. All-in-all, it’s not the worst start to the day.
It is not long after this that she is ushered back to Etraya by companion bots with everyone else via a portal in the park.
As she makes her way through downtown, she can’t help noticing the near-eerie sense of calm around the city. She can’t quite place a finger on what’s wrong, but the feeling lingers in the air around her, heavy and hard to ignore even when she tries.
Her first act of business upon return is to regroup with Steve and Natasha at the compound. She’s sure that’s where their first stops will be as well, and Yelena had gotten busy with the mission. Lost track of her sister and wanted to catch up with her. And Steve has been so good to her since they first met in that awful drill room in the maze. He’s a little bit like having a golden retriever around, it’s nice.
What she finds once she makes her way through the city and down the winding path to the main door into the tower is… absolutely nothing. Near as she can recall, every single thing is where it was when they all left. The book on the coffee table in the living room that Steve had been reading; the blanket Yelena had been curled under during the last movie night she’d been so insistent on, even though all of Etraya’s versions of films were… wrong like terrible off-brand mockeries of the real thing; an abandoned mug of coffee on the kitchen counter from Natasha.
A wave of that same eerie feeling from her walk here passes over her and a knot forms in her stomach, though she can’t quite place why.
Calling out for either of them does her no good, gets her only deafening silence in return. Something almost like panic tightens her chest, but she pushes it down and continues about her day like nothing is wrong.
Morning passes into afternoon and still there is no word from either of them. Yelena decides they are simply catching up with some things outside of the house. Decides to start cooking dinner so there’s something ready when they both inevitably come back.
When no one has returned by the time the sun is setting and dusk is upon the city, Yelena feels something sink down into her stomach, which is churning not unlike a whirlpool of emotions now. “Drochily,” she mutters under her breath as she taps out a basic message to each of them to find out where the hell they are and when they plan to be back.
Both texts bounce back immediately:
ERROR. RECEIVER UNAVAILABLE.
She tries, frantically, a few more times to contact Natasha in every way possible on the Etrayan comms, private inboxes, a call, a video, anything, but every time she gets that same stupid message. It’s burned behind her eyelids and she sees it every time she blinks.
Maybe there are rational explanations for this. Maybe it’s something innocuous. But the growing tension in her stomach from earlier in the day is at its peak now.
There is a bright clarity in her panic, though, and she reaches out to the first person that comes to mind: Kate Bishop.
Her heart sinks even lower when the call goes through. Suddenly, her mind is blank, her voice is gone, and she disconnects the call after a few, confused moments on the other end.
{Alone again, naturally » CLOSED to Kate Bishop [Aug 9]; “wankers”
This is the first thing Yelena sees on the morning of August 9, with no context from Eos at all. She has no idea what she did to earn such apparent praise from the AI, but she’ll take it. She didn’t become who she is without being very good at subterfuge, and it really might have been more insulting if she’d failed somehow, even if she would never know the reasoning, or the criteria the grade was based on. All-in-all, it’s not the worst start to the day.
It is not long after this that she is ushered back to Etraya by companion bots with everyone else via a portal in the park.
As she makes her way through downtown, she can’t help noticing the near-eerie sense of calm around the city. She can’t quite place a finger on what’s wrong, but the feeling lingers in the air around her, heavy and hard to ignore even when she tries.
Her first act of business upon return is to regroup with Steve and Natasha at the compound. She’s sure that’s where their first stops will be as well, and Yelena had gotten busy with the mission. Lost track of her sister and wanted to catch up with her. And Steve has been so good to her since they first met in that awful drill room in the maze. He’s a little bit like having a golden retriever around, it’s nice.
What she finds once she makes her way through the city and down the winding path to the main door into the tower is… absolutely nothing. Near as she can recall, every single thing is where it was when they all left. The book on the coffee table in the living room that Steve had been reading; the blanket Yelena had been curled under during the last movie night she’d been so insistent on, even though all of Etraya’s versions of films were… wrong like terrible off-brand mockeries of the real thing; an abandoned mug of coffee on the kitchen counter from Natasha.
A wave of that same eerie feeling from her walk here passes over her and a knot forms in her stomach, though she can’t quite place why.
Calling out for either of them does her no good, gets her only deafening silence in return. Something almost like panic tightens her chest, but she pushes it down and continues about her day like nothing is wrong.
Morning passes into afternoon and still there is no word from either of them. Yelena decides they are simply catching up with some things outside of the house. Decides to start cooking dinner so there’s something ready when they both inevitably come back.
When no one has returned by the time the sun is setting and dusk is upon the city, Yelena feels something sink down into her stomach, which is churning not unlike a whirlpool of emotions now. “Drochily,” she mutters under her breath as she taps out a basic message to each of them to find out where the hell they are and when they plan to be back.
Both texts bounce back immediately:
RECEIVER UNAVAILABLE.
She tries, frantically, a few more times to contact Natasha in every way possible on the Etrayan comms, private inboxes, a call, a video, anything, but every time she gets that same stupid message. It’s burned behind her eyelids and she sees it every time she blinks.
Maybe there are rational explanations for this. Maybe it’s something innocuous. But the growing tension in her stomach from earlier in the day is at its peak now.
There is a bright clarity in her panic, though, and she reaches out to the first person that comes to mind: Kate Bishop.
Her heart sinks even lower when the call goes through. Suddenly, her mind is blank, her voice is gone, and she disconnects the call after a few, confused moments on the other end.