HEY MISTER CAGE MAN

Trouble's Brewing

"I … I interviewed..? A..and I b..borrowed someone’s identity.. I’m sorry… I’m sorry but I c..couldn’t give them mine.."

A human would have rubbed the spot on their neck they’d been restrained. Germaine simply stayed pressed back against the concrete wall. Taking solace in the chill seeping into his spine. He tried to be strong. Tried to be stoic, but he was, as Ellis had been so quick to remember, Germaine was still a child.

"I..I didn’t know ..where else to go. I don’t know who else t…to trust.. I knew you c..couldn’t be.. and they’ve been ch..chasing me. I don’t… I don’t want them to make me a weapon… they’d make me hurt people and I don’t want to.. "

Germaine’s chin quivered softly. Sniffed. “P.. please don’t let them take me…”

Hydra.

If they were on Germaine's trail... Christ, he was going to lead them right to him. And that was his first instinct. Say no. Tell him he had to grow up, he had to learn to fend for himself. He was powerful -- if he so wished, he could take out any agent which came his way with as few as one well placed movement. He wasn't stupid; he knew Germaine could've easily overpowered him before. He knew he was stronger than a mere mortal man. That could keep him alive.

But he wouldn't. Because he was young, and gentle. And the power he had... was not for gentle souls.

"What do you want me to do? Take you in? Hide you in my bloody closet? Because juvenile tactics always work for the best." He rubbed his face. What was his other option? Leave the kid to the sharks? Hydra could not get their hands on technology as advanced as him. Something as close to human as one could get, but machine. It was big. They'd have a field day with it.

And he'd be the guy who betrayed his friend for selfish reasons. Because his own security was more important.

He let out a breath. Finally, the gun lowered, returning to its original place in a hidden inside pocket of his jacket. "Just for tonight. I'll find you somewhere you can lay low, get you out of the country if need be. But that's it."

; behind a shield of dreams

She would have been amused if it didn’t feel so inappropriate to do so. Ellis was obviously… scarred from his time during the fall, but to think you could just walk away from this kind of life forever was naive, even by her standards.

But she wouldn’t give him grief about it.

"Understood, Ellis."

#xaedificare #ic #v: main

But he'd always been that guy. The man who wanted the best of both worlds. Who wanted a life. He'd been respected within SHIELD. And that respect had given him the confidence to want more. To believe he deserved more. A family, perhaps. And he'd been so ready. Find someone. Settle down. Have mini beanpoles of his own.

And then SHIELD fell. And he was back at square one.

"Thank you." Cue awkward silence, and he found himself avoiding Ariadne's gaze, as if he'd disappointed her somehow. Everyone processed in different ways, he supposed. Just like him.

yeahniall

#re: this is my kingdom come #i have papa ellis feels #i miss when he used to have kids fml

Trouble's Brewing

He was strong enough to crush the barrel of the gun in his hands. Strong enough to easily overpower Ellis and throw him down the length of the alley. Strong enough, even, to lift the huge, metal trash bin next to him and bury Ellis underneath it.

But he did none of those things. He grunted as he was thrown against the cold concrete wall. He swallowed hard - adams apple scraping against the palm of Ellis’s hand. His eyes searched Ellis’s, but he was terrible at reading people and he couldn’t find anything there to reassure him.

"N…nob..nobody s..se..sent me. I… " He whimpered softly, trying to hold back the first burgeoning tears. He didn’t have the liquid to spare. "Ellis.. " He croaked past the choke hold, " Ellis p..p…please…I didn’t know who else t…to.."

It was too easy. And the more he searched for something -- a tell, something, God, anything -- the more he came up with nothing. He was terrified. He'd terrified the kid. Because he was a kid. Not physically, of course not, but mentally... God, mentally he was a child in an adult world, with no idea how to adapt or how to fit into society, and he knew that when they were colleagues, when they were allies. Super spy was not his game. He was a weapon, but out of that he was learning what everyone else had figured out years ago. Germaine did not have the capabilities to play games.

And he wanted help.

"Jesus Christ..." Slowly, Ellis let go, running a hand through his hair. Pacing. He didn't know what was going on any more. What if he never knew the android? What if Hydra had gotten inside him somehow, changed his programming? What if they made him capable of such cruelty? What if this was all just a game, getting him to drop his guard, and he had at first sight of those God damn doe eyes, like a helpless fucking puppy.

He thought he was stronger than that. Better, somehow.

"You can't be here. What are you doing here? Do you even work he-- how did you get a job here?" His head felt heavy, all these questions weighing him down, trying to understand, trying to think of a plan, trying to work out how the hell he got dragged back into this. He didn't want it. He didn't care for it. He wanted to live. Even if he wasn't really living, not truly. He didn't want to die. That far outweighed what he really wanted.

"Did you come looking for me --?"

; behind a shield of dreams

"My coworkers tend to be a little hard to find. I’ve gotten good at that.”

#xaedificare #ic #v: main

"Well... be that as it may.." He spoke hastily. "I would appreciate it if we could just..." What? He wasn't sure he had the words to finish that train of thought.

No. Wait. Yes, he did. "I don't want to talk about SHIELD. Some things are better off dead."

Trouble's Brewing

It didn’t take long. Germaine’s sensors had kept track of Ellis from the moment he’d been recognized. He was aware that the man had taken the back exit, but he couldn’t know if Ellis was still there.

Germaine cleared up his station, filled a few more orders and in the next lull gathered up the trash. ”I…I’ll be right back.”

Toshiro beamed. Not only did Jeremy work efficiently, but he didn’t slack off and he kept a neat, organized and frankly pristine work station. “Don’t get lost!” Toshiro called playfully. Germaine’s confused and slightly concerned face gave Tosh pause. “Just kidding, man. It’s just a saying.. sorry.”

When Jeremy hesitated, Toshiro waved him on. ”You’ll be right back. Go ahead.” Jeremy’s head dipped, and with hands full of plastic bags, tightly tied shut, he headed out the back door.

Maybe he could get away with this. If he took Germaine out, he could stay, right? He could hide it, he knew how. Hell, an android may even be easier. If he fried the circuits in his 'brain' which stored data... The android could go on as if he'd never seen him. He could mark this place as one of the many he shouldn't go. New York was a magnificent, busy place; they didn't have to run into each other.

Could he do that? Betray that trust over a matter of identity? But then was there even any trust left? He could be playing for either team. He could be anyone. Germaine was not his friend. Not today.

Hear that? The sound of a door opening and closing. Footsteps.

He couldn't think any more; he had to act. Quickly, Ellis pushed himself out of his hiding place, his free hand going for the android's throat to pin him against the wall, while his gun hand move to aim upwards, at his jaw. He looked... different, somehow. Or perhaps it was just the way his mind had warped the memories of his image. It had been almost a year, after all. Had he always been so skinny?

"Who sent you?" Came the cold tone, words enunciated perfectly, crystal clear and in no mood to mess around. "Tell me who fucking sent you, or I swear to God, I'll melt you down."

choke-on-glitter

[ ♔ ] meet the puppeteer

hatefu:

name: louise height: 5’ 7”ish at a guess? eye color: blue favorite color(s): purple/red best school subject(s): english, graphic design current shirt color: grey with a white diamond on it. day or night: night pls. religion: atheist. gender: female. sexual orientation: heteroromantic asexual. single or taken: taken. celebrity crush: tyler posey. but more in like an 'i wish he was my bff he's so cuuute' kind of way? idek if that makes sense. coffee or tea: it's a tie between tea and cappuccino. favorite food: i'm really liking my home made chocolate muffins rn. c:

#outoftea

Trouble's Brewing

Serendipity must have been smiling on him - it had taken Germaine months of diligent work to track anyone from SHIELD down at all. Everything had gone dark.. but he’d concentrated on the one man he knew, without any doubt at all in his mind, was NOT possibly Hydra. And it had led him to this neighborhood, in this part of New York city just two months prior.

He’d been scraping by. Scrambling from derelict apartment to abandoned warehouse, from shelter to homeless tent settlement to park bench. He’d become a constant nomad - and the only thing that had kept him out of the reach of Hydra was his inexperience. Those in pursuit couldn’t guess at his strategy, because he simply didn’t have one.

There had been far too many close calls. Too many times he’d left one place mere hours or minutes before they’d stormed in looking for him - if he’d had to eat or sleep like his living, breathing counterparts, he’d have succumbed to starvation or insanity a long time ago.

His saving grace was that he wasn’t human. It was his greatest weakness, too. He had to have sources of energy. Somewhere to plug in and he couldn’t just pop his 3 prong out anywhere. He had to be discrete. He had to choose places to sit.. carry a dummy laptop so it looked as if he were charging that or scavenge electricity from external outlets behind apartment buildings and restaurants.. scurrying around in the dark like a giant New York Rat.

It hadn’t been easy. He was scratching by on pure luck when he found the ‘Hiring Now” sign on the cafe’ door. It was near where he’d seen Ellis walking, before with big picture windows facing the street. It was small - but always busy. And it was something he could actually do.

Germaine’s head snapped up at the familiar voice. Even disguised with weariness and perhaps a bit of a change in accent, the AI’s voice recognition software alerted him. Desperate eyes glanced over the patrons and landed on the man standing at the counter. Hunched and weary. Dingy colored clothes and hands stuffed in his pockets.

A white chocolate Mocha was not what the man got. Germaine went through motions.. but when Ellis… because that was most definitely Ellis.. took the first tentative sip, what he would find dancing across his tongue was the old familiar taste of tea and milk - made just the way Germaine had been taught to make it. At just the right temperature and strength.

Scrawled in Germaine’s perfectly even handwriting, in place of Ellis’s alias name, were the words “HEllo, Lovely Pyjamas.”

Change was pushed across the counter, hands stuffed unceremoniously into his jacket as he waited, playing with his phone. There was no internet in his apartment yet -- or potentially ever, why waste money on luxuries if it may not even be long term? -- so he was stuck searching for Wi-Fi in public places, trying to gain scraps of information on the latest saga in the manhunt for SHIELD agents. If someone was coming for him, he wanted to be kept in the loop, after all.

But when he got his cup, when he sat down, took his first sip... perhaps they already had.

That... was not a mocha. That was...

He stared at the handwriting on the cup. Perfectly even calligraphy, beauty no human could pull off so neatly.

That was...

If he was a less experienced man, the cup may have crashed to the floor in shock. He would've unintentionally created a scene in his panic, drawn attention to himself. But this was him, and he was... skilled. Carefully, his eyes glanced up, just for a second, to the counter. Taking note of the barristers on the other side. That face. That face he knew.

His location had been compromised. He had to go.

He stood up. Back exit, like he'd figured. Waited until he was certain no one was paying attention, then quickly slipped through, pulling the hood back over his head. A million different thoughts ran through the man's head, trying to theorize. There were two possibilities here, that much he was certain of. One: the android had managed to escape like him, found a new identity, blended in, somehow. And this was all some crazy coincidence. Or option two, the one he hated the most: Germaine was Hydra, or potentially working for the US government. Either way, he'd been planted there on purpose. For him. He was being targeted.

But the message. The message on his cup. Help? If he was being controlled...

He didn't waste any time. Rounded the corner quickly, into an alley, back pressed against the wall, hand reaching for the emergency gun he always kept on his person, fingers curling tight around the grip. And waited.

steppingonyourmoment-moved-blog

"Everybody here wanted something more."

"— I’m sorry I can’t be of more help."

"I’m not looking for help, I’m looking for you to stop moping. We all got screwed over; you’re not the only victim here."

#widowmxker #ic #v: main #answered #re: meme

"-- I'm not moping. I lost my job, and with it my life as I know it, and my identity. So I found a new one. I adapted -- I thought you of all people would get that."

#widowmxker #ic #v: main

"Everybody here wanted something more."

"— I’m sorry I can’t be of more help."

; behind a shield of dreams

“Have things settled down? I kind of expected another shoe to drop sooner or later.”

#xaedificare #ic #v: main

"Trust me, I'm as much in the dark as you are. I've been keeping to myself a lot. Speaking of which, how did you even find me?"

Trouble's Brewing

“Tall Soy Mocha Latte, 120 Degrees, room for cream..”

“You gotta shout louder, Jeremy. They’ll never hear you over the Espresso machine!”

“..r..right..” The scruffy-haired new-hire dipped his head and adjusted his green brimmed hat. “sorry..”

“Don’t worry… You’ll get the hang of it!” Toshiro clapped him gently on the shoulder. “I was shy like you, once… job like this will cure you. Come on… Try again. With Diaphragm.” Toshiro straightened his back, patted his stomach. “Like this…”

The tiny, flamboyant Asian took a deep breath, “TALL SOY MOCHA LATTE!”

‘Jeremy’s’ cheeks colored softly. Toshiro had to resist the urge to ruffle hair or pinch cheeks – but he happily admitted he’d never seen someone with so much skill at what, essentially, was non-alcoholic mixology.

“okay.” Jeremy mumbled as he went to work on the next two orders simultaneously.

It was obvious that the new hire knew his way around a coffee bar. Jeremy might have been painfully shy, but he was a magician with the espresso machine.

One of the waiting patrons surfaced from the crowd and took his drink with a nod and a smile for the ‘new guy’. “Don’t ever let this one go Tosh! Yesterday, I had the best Latte I’ve ever had in my life.”

Toshiro was well known and well liked among the regulars. The young Japanese-American had a personality big enough to fill the whole room and had a habit of taking the less fortunate under his wing. There was always at least one ‘charity’ case working behind the counter. Someone who needed a leg up. Someone who needed a skill, or an income, or a safe place to sleep at night.

On a chilly December afternoon, some two months prior, the bell on the door jingled in the quiet lull of the mid afternoon, between the chaos of the morning wave of Salary Men headed into work and the evening rush of nearly all of MidTown New York heading back home again. A ‘Help Wanted’ sign had been posted on the door for almost a week when Jeremy had come wandering in, looking like a little lost kitten in the great big woods. All doe-eyed and wringing his hands.

The interview had been going poorly - any time Toshiro asked for information, he was met with silence or what was obviously a fabrication. But when Toshiro had asked him where he was from, the young man hedged, saying only that he’d lost his previous job suddenly and had nowhere to go. Those hopeless, lost puppy eyes had Toshiro, hook line and sinker.

Against his better judgement, and precisely because it WAS against his better judgement, he hired ‘Jeremy’ right on the spot. Imagine his surprise when he found that the scruffy homeless (it was painfully obvious) young man could work miracles with a teabag and a little warm milk. It was fate, Toshiro told himself. The previous little bird had just flown the coop and Toshiro needed a new chick to fill his empty nest.

Every day, it was like chipping away little pieces of himself. He knew the best way to hide, and it was in plain sight. It was in big cities where people saw a million faces every day, where people were too self involved in their own lives to worry about those around them. He'd become too comfortable in New York, and it showed with an incapability to leave it behind.

But other habits? Others were easy to break. He made it his mission not to settle too much. He came to his new apartment with next to nothing, and in the months he'd stayed there, that hadn't changed. He didn't frequent the same restaurant twice in the same month. Logically, he knew he was out of the clearing. He knew no one was looking for him, or at him, he knew the colleagues at the shop Howard had hooked him up with bought his story, he knew for now he was okay. But he'd never been something of a comfortable person. And he was waiting for the other shoe to drop -- the one which led to dozens of soldiers kicking down his door and dragging him away, kicking and screaming. Branding him a terrorist.

He didn't want to make it easy for them. Anything which could potentially tie him to his old life had to go. The most insignificant of details.

A full eight hours of work behind him, and he was heading into a coffee shop. He'd only been once before, a few months prior, and he expected he wouldn't go back for a while after that. But it was cosy, in a way. Or, it had been. Arms folding tighter against his chest, sleeves stretched over his hands to avoid the winter air, the man headed inside, lowering his hood shortly afterwards. Some days, he looked barely recognizable. No expensive shirts. No fancy sweater vests or cardigans. No tie. He'd grown a small amount of stubble, wound up in an old shirt dotted with the odd grease stain, torn jeans, sneakers -- he didn't care for it. But his life had lately turned into something of a clearance sale. Everything had to go.

So he waited in line. Head instinctively went to the exits. Three; the main entrance, a door which stated 'staff only' very plainly, and a back door which said 'no entry'. For deliveries and what not, he imagined. He'd pick a table near there, just in case, out of caution.

"Uh... A white chocolate mocha, please." 'Keegan' muttered, barely looking at the barrister, attention divided between the board above the counter, and his wallet, as he tried to count his change.

sendathing-blog

１９８９ sᴇɴᴛᴇɴᴄᴇ ᴍᴇᴍᴇ

"Everybody here wanted something more." "I could dance to this beat." "Like any great love, it keeps you guessing." "Like any true love, it drives you crazy." "But you know you wouldn’t change anything." "I could show you incredible things." "I’m dying to see how this one ends." "I can make the bad guys good for a weekend." "So it’s gonna be forever or it’s gonna go down in flames." "We’ll take this way too far." "You’re the King, baby, I’m your Queen." "I can make all the tables turn." “‘Cause, darling, I’m a nightmare dressed like a daydream.” "They’ll tell you I’m insane." "Don’t say I didn’t say, I didn’t warn ya." "It all seems so simple." "The rest of the world was black and white." "We were built to fall apart." "People like you always want back the love they gave away." "And people like me wanna believe you when you say you’ve changed." "All you had to do was stay." "I’ve been picking up the pieces of the mess you made." "Did you have to hit me, where I’m weak?" "I wish you would come back." "I wish you knew that I’ll never forget you as long as I live." "I want you for worse or for better." "And you left her all alone, and never told her why." "I thought heaven can’t help me now." "I never dreamed of this." "I can hear them whisper as we pass by." "Love’s a fragile little flame, it could burn out." "They are the hunters, we are the foxes." "Let them say what they want, we won’t hear it." "Loose lips sink ships all the damn time." "I know places we won’t be found." "And they’ll be chasing their tails tryin’ to track us down." "I’m spinning out of control." "Didn’t they tell us don’t rush into things?" ”Didn’t it all seem new and exciting?” "And we pretended it could last forever." "But there were strangers watching." "I reached for you but you were gone." "We play dumb but we know exactly what we’re doing." "I could build a castle out of all the bricks they threw at me." "But every night with us is like a dream." "We need love, but all we want is danger." "He keeps the picture of you in his office downtown." "And by morning gone was any trace of you." "Just because you’re clean don’t mean you don’t miss it."

#re: meme

rpfunstuff

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