#ir beijing

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It's official-- our last job in Beijing will be...

...an info gathering op! It's going to be hectic, it's going to be exhausting, it's going to be irritating as hell, and it's going to be a genuinely fascinating professional challenge.

And since we're going airborne, and Royce and I will be on separate helicopters, this'll take two days, three at the outside. Then it's another week's worth of intel analysis training, maybe overlapping with debriefing, and then we're done, done, done! Okay, we still have to pack, but it won't be nearly as awful as packing up the apartment... which we'll still have to unpack.... Okay. Not thinking about that now! One thing at a time.

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➜Three things you'd find in your muse's refridgerator at this moment⬅︎

Ilona's kneeling on the floor, peering into their half-size fridge, and the outlook is... kinda sad, really. They're not in their room here in the rooms provided for them in the SHIELD base very often, really. Most of their meals are either hasty ones, grabbed from the cafeteria in between training and assignments, or (when they have time) eaten at local restaurants.

So the fridge is kind of empty, with only three things in it at the moment: a six-pack of Coke Zero (emergency caffeine), a half-empty container of yogurt (she really needs to finish that tonight), and a box of jiaozi (being saved for a snack).

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Assignment #6

Courier run #2, from Chengdu to Xining, is interrupted by conflict with a trio of HYDRA agents along Highway 214. It ends surprisingly well, mostly thanks to Agent Zhou's driving skills: the hostiles are taken into custody, the SHIELD agents are unharmed, and their data is uncompromised.

It's kinda nice when things go smoothly.

callmeroyce: Two courier runs. No problems. Now he's getting paranoid. But assignment #3 may not go as well. Luck never lasts.

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Top 10 hiking trails in Beijing

Plan your Beijing hiking tours? Here are the ten best hikes in Beijing, each with a combination of scenery and local culture that makes them well worth your going out of your way to enjoy.

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Dongjiaominxiang Hutong (Beijing Legation Quarter)

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It took four interviews with four separate therapists before Ilona met one she clicked with-- Dr Xióng. It wasn't that the other three hadn't been perfectly nice people, or that they hadn't had plenty of experience (she was pretty sure the second doctor had seen more combat than Royce), it was just something about Xióng that... well, that she couldn't define.

She knew that she wasn't considered to be at risk; she was still cleared for field work, and her recent screw-up had resulted in nothing worse than a written reprimand and a shitload of low-level jobs. She wasn't being watched (at least, no more so than anyone else), and she hadn't been flagged as a danger to herself and / or others, so... yeah, things were okay-ish.

Her first appointment was in two days, and she wasn't precisely looking forward to it.

It was stupid, she knew. The doctor was there, the whole Psych department was there, to help agents be agents-- and that translated to being functional (if flawed) human beings. These people were colleagues, co-workers. They knew what could go wrong, how badly things could go, they were there to help, not judge.

And still.

She leaned her head against the window of the little barracks room, looking out at Beijing, trying to see it as the vibrant, fast-moving city she knew it was instead of the trap her brain was making it.

Trying, and failing.

And that, genius, is why you're in therapy. It's time to get the world back.

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Night scene of Qianmen Street in Beijing

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Pause

After Assignment #3, Ilona and Royce have a fight-- a serious one. He's angry about her bad judgment in dealing with Mr L. She's angry because she's already accepted responsibility for her choice, and she feels like he's piling on the blame and guilt.

They don't really stop arguing; they're both tired and stressed, and they end up going to sleep (or at least to bed).

callmeroyce: He's angry because he expects more from her than what happened in Beixiaguan. More than that though he's worried. She isn't herself. He knows she isn't sleeping. And worse yet she isn't talking to him. Worst of all is that he doesn't know what to do.