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Post by Ray on Jan 18, 2021 21:02:51 GMT -7
"General Leia, I can explain," Caesar blurts out, turning immediately towards the older woman standing stoically in front of him, knowing damn well that he couldn't. Of all the random surprises that could have happened to him today, meeting Emily galaxies away from where she's supposed to be was not one of them. It was bad enough living two separate existences, but the one thing that made doing so possible was the clear uncrossable divide between them. There was never any chance of mixing up where he was supposed to be, or who.
"I sure hope so," Leia responds, and there's nearly a trace of humor in her tone.
"She's from my world," he responds, quickly, feeling a bead of sweat rolling down his temple, "How she got here...I don't know. Maybe another gateway."
"How many of these gateways are we expecting, Commander?" Leia scoffs.
"Well...until this very moment, I thought there was only one." He admits, swallowing the lump in his throat.
"Clearly," Leia mutters, "For goodness sake, help her, she looks whiter than the snows of Hoth." She says with a sigh, motioning towards Emily who had staggered back a step in the few moments Caesar was trying to wrap his own mind around what the hell is happening. He turns towards her, and startles foreword a step, catching Emily gently by the arm before she can turn tail and run god knows where. Digging into the pocket of his trousers, he pulls free a slim, square key to unlock the binders holding her wrists in place behind her back, fumbling to do so in his startled confusion. "Get her somewhere secure and away from prying eyes. We'll," Leia continues, her tone turning pointed and demanding, making Caesar glance briefly back to her, "Speak later."
"Yes, General," he mutters, tossing the binders onto the table before looking back to Emily, "Follow me. Please." He urges, voice low and soft, as he guides her towards the stairs with a soft hand at her elbow.
They climb the staircase back to the hanger bay, Caesar stopping abruptly to let a repair droid rove quickly in passed them, its quiet robotic chittering sounding annoyed by the near collision. Huffing out a breath, Caesar begins his quick pace again, leading her towards the back of the deep hangar, walking along the wall to keep out of everyone else's way. He stops at a doorway, and bangs a fist against the sensor button at its right. With a creak and a woosh, the door splits open diagonally across the center, revealing a lift inside. He steps in, leading Emily in as well, and presses a button on a pad along the wall. A series of alien characters blink and flash, nothing resembling the familiar digits from home.
"They didn't hurt you, did they?" He asks once they're alone, glancing at her through the corners of his eyes, panic still deep in his bones.
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Post by Snowglobe18 on Jan 18, 2021 21:19:39 GMT -7
Emily wished that someone would explain it to her because she wasn't sure that she wasn't in that coma right now, she did have a pretty bad headache and hitting her head on whatever it was that had taken her was a huge possibility right now. He stepped forward to her and she wanted to take another step back but he held on to her arm and that stopped her from moving because her eyes watched him as he got the key out of his pocket and then she felt the binders click open and she brought her arms forward and rubbed at her wrists.
It was then that she noticed that the blood on her palms had dried and but that didn't mean that they weren't sore because they were and with the feelings coming back in to her wrists she could feel the pulsing from the cuts.
Caesar or Poe or whoever this guy was urged her to follow him and then his hand was at her elbow and she felt it so familiar in the touch. It's what he did at home when they couldn't touch each other because of the team. Though Poe was very much against them being together.
Emily follows after him and looks around at how different all of this was and she couldn't even imagine this in her head let alone it actually being real but it's the robots and then the -not Caesar?- was leading her to the back of the hangar but she could feel stares on her and she wasn't sure if she liked it especially when the word lurking had been thrown about back there like she was a Spy, which incidentally she was but she wasn't going to be telling the General -Leia- that because how the hell could see even explain SHIELD to these people.
They got in to a lift and her eyes widen at the characters that were blinking at her because she has never seen anything like this before. He then asks her a question and she slowly lowered her eyes away from the characters and over to him. "No" she said quietly but looked forward.
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Post by Ray on Jan 18, 2021 21:38:31 GMT -7
"Good," Caesar nods once. Because from the looks of her, he wouldn't have been surprised if the guards roughed up a strange mystery woman they found wandering around the base. Hell, its what they did to him. But back then, there had been no one else to try and stumble their way through an explanation. Instead, he'd had to sit and endure hours of interrogation, until he could no longer feel his own face. It was a miracle Leia believed him in the end. But it took a long time to get there.
"I know....Jesus, I know you have questions, and I'll try to answer them, but..." He shakes his head, going quiet as soon as the lift comes to a halt and the doors split open once more. A relief, really, because he wasn't sure what else he could have said at that moment. A stretch of hallway greets them, empty thankfully, and Caesar steps out to walk a short distance. They reach the third door on the left, and Caesar uses the same key that unlocked her bindings to swipe across a sensor lock on the door. It opens, and he steps aside to let Emily in.
It's a small room, barely big enough to fit a cot and a locked trunk of clothes and personal items. A couple notebooks and his helmet sit stacked on the made bed and a blaster rifle hangs on a hook by its shoulder strap on the far wall. There is no window, not down here several meters beneath the planet's surface, and humid air desperately trying to be cool pumps slowly through the vents in the ceiling. It's certainly not a comfortable space, but he counts himself lucky considering the circumstances. There are far too few beds on this base for the number of people here, and General Leia pulled too many strings to grant him this much.
He steps in and grabs his helmet from the bed to set it atop the trunk, giving her a place to sit. She looks like she needs it. "Here," he murmurs, motioning towards it.
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Post by Snowglobe18 on Jan 18, 2021 21:50:08 GMT -7
Emily looked down at herself and saw that her black jeans were torn at the knees, her boots were scuffed, her hands had dried blood on them and her coat, that surprisingly didn't have SHIELD written over it like the rest of the stuff she owns back in DC, was torn too and she looked a right mess that she wasn't sure she would know herself if she looked in the mirror. She stayed quiet when he said about the fact she might have questions and honestly she wasn't sure what she should say because while this looked like Caesar, sounded like him she couldn't get her aching head around the fact that this was him.
So when the lift opened and they both got out she didn't walk as fast as she probably would have normally to keep up with him, no this time she made sure to take as much time as she could to get to the room that was his and when she went in first, her brown eyes looked around it. It definitely wasn't like the apartment that she had dragged herself out of this morning. No this looked like a prison cell, hell that was probably bigger.
He moved his helmet off the bed and he motioned to her to sit down and she would've said no but her legs were unsteady so she moved over and felt herself pretty much fall on to the bed. "Why did she say your name was Poe?" she asked and looked up at him. Emily had many questions but at the moment that's the only one that came out of her lips.
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Post by Ray on Jan 18, 2021 22:04:45 GMT -7
It took Emily a moment, each one of her moves cautious and wary like a trapped animal. He understands, probably more than she realizes, but it still twists his gut to see her look at him like yet another strange thing in an even stranger world. And she's barely scratched the surface of it all.
When she finally sits on the edge of the bed, still looking like she might run at any given moment if her legs will allow her too, he slowly takes a seat himself upon the edge of his trunk, pushing the helmet to a side. Her first question is not the one he expects, and it takes him a moment to register what the hell she's talking about. But it clicks, and he takes a deep breath in before standing again.
"When I got here," he begins to explain, popping open the metal trunk and rooting through the things he's collected, "I was wearing this," he pulls a familiar jacket free and turns to show it to her. The brown leather is worn in most places, looking like its seen far better days even years before finding its way here. Its red patches on the shoulder and chest are aged and weathered, and there's a few new singe marks that Emily may have never seen before. But the one real defining feature, is Poe's nametape stitched on the left chest pocket. "I had so many other things to explain, that trying to tell them my name isn't Poe just...never came up." He admits.
Actually, it had helped. Like the definite line between this world and theirs, separating Caesar from Poe made it easier to come back and forth. Two separate galaxies, two separate identities, no mix-ups.
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Post by Snowglobe18 on Jan 18, 2021 22:21:23 GMT -7
Emily watches as he stands up and goes through the trunk that he had been sat on and then she sees the familiar jacket that Poe -the other Poe, her head was getting confused- wore all the time when they started out on the team, in fact she remembers him taking it off a few times to actually impress Simmons. She saw the name on it and she now understands the mix up in the names.
She leans her elbows on her thighs and puts her head in to her hands, her blonde hair trickling over her knuckles and she closes her eyes for a moment. Emily tries so hard to take it all in but at the moment the only thing she feels is the pounding in both her hands and her head. She hadn't eaten since the night before and she was running off coffee that she's sure had lost it's appeal when she went through the monolith in Puerto Rico.
"Who are you?" she asks through her hands before she slowly opens her eyes and moves her head from her hands, her brown eyes looking up at him. "Because I'm pretty sure that I woke up with you this morning, in DC" Emily wasn't sure about any of this and more so when she had woken up with Caesar this morning, he had offered her a coffee and she had left his apartment in such a hurry that she didn't even have time to eat and there's a part of her that's glad that she didn't because she's pretty sure that travelling through the monolith was hell enough and would rather have left any breakfast down that she had eaten -though she hadn't eaten any, the curse of working for SHIELD-
Plus he had teased her about her Spanish.
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Post by Ray on Jan 18, 2021 22:36:21 GMT -7
There's some recognition in her face, but it quickly disappears behind her hands and disheveled blonde hair. He clamps his mouth closed and exhales a slow breath through his nostrils, letting her take the moment she needs. Letting her take as many moments as she needs. But even still, he's blindsided by yet another one of her questions. A slight frown tugs at the corners of his mouth. He folds the jacket over his arm and holds it towards his chest as he slowly takes a seat back upon the trunk.
How the hell is he supposed to answer that.
He gets it. Or...part of it. The disorientation hits like a semi the first time, and the few times after that until its just a headache that goes away after a while. But they've been together long enough that he would hope she recognized him out of all the unfamiliar things surrounding her. But maybe its too much.
Of course its too much.
"Time is...odd. Here." He admits. "I can spend weeks on this planet and only a few hours have passed back home." It's easier figuring out the oddities when its just him experiencing it. Just him who has to wrap his mind around it. Just him having to live it. "For me, I left DC uh..." he pauses to grab one of the notebooks from the bed beside her, thumbing through the pages upon pages of notes he's taken to the last page. "January third." He answers, glancing back up to her. "But I'm guessing its later than that for you." Its the only guess he has, which only makes his calculations of time more convoluted and fucked up. "You must have...somehow...jumped through both streams of time."
The more he speaks, the more he knows how crazy it all sounds. How confused she must be. He sighs heavily and tosses the notebook to the ground just to run both hands vigorously over his face and into his hair.
"Alright. Here. To prove its me. Really me." He drops his hands back to his lap and clears his throat. "Lo importante en una familia no es estar juntos sino estar unidos." He says, keeping his dark eyes locked on her face, hoping that stirs at least the faintest memory.
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Post by Snowglobe18 on Jan 18, 2021 22:57:27 GMT -7
She puts her elbows back on her thighs and then links her fingers so that her mouth is against her hands and when he started talking about time being different here there was this odd feeling in here that he had left DC, hell the planet and she didn't even notice. Sure there were times when he would- Emily was now starting to put all those times Tripp would fly the plane for them in her mind and all that time he was here.
Emily moved one of her hands and reached towards the back pocket of her jeans for her cell phone and then remembered that she had been trying to use it to contact the quinjet because her comms wouldn't work and with that she moved her hand up to her ear and pulled out the little black comms device that she had put in her ear before she had left the quinjet. She then remembered the date "It's January 18th" she muttered up at him and then put the comms device in to the pocket of her jeans, it wouldn't work even if she tried to call for home. "Puerto Rico" she admitted. "I -we- ended up in Puerto Rico"
She watched as he ran his hands over his face and in to his hair and then started to speak and the last words that came from his mouth was something that he had told her. Caesar had never told anyone else, or at least that's what he said. Then she remembered him translating it for her because she had looked confused at what he had said, he had given her a soft smile and then spoke the words "The important thing in a family is not being together, but being united; it was the last thing your Grandmother ever said to you"
Emily's heart pounded hard in her chest at the thought that this, this, guy was really Caesar.
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Post by Ray on Jan 18, 2021 23:17:03 GMT -7
"Yes," Caesar nods, feeling relief bubble in his chest knowing that she remembered. He had told no one else about that. Not even his own mother. At the time, it was difficult forgiving his own willful separation from his family for so long. He had already missed so much by then -- birthdays and weddings and all the big moments that come with life. Yet nothing hurt quite as badly as missing the last days of his grandmother's life. If it hadn't been for that conversation with his grandmother, that final conversation though he could not have known that at the time, he might have left SHIELD there and then.
"Puerto Rico?" He repeats, getting back to the issue at hand. He shakes his head and looks down, trying to make sense of it. "I should have known about this, then... It would have all already happened for me. Unless..." he closes his eyes tightly for a moment before looking up to her. "What was in Puerto Rico? How did you get here?" He asks, pointing a finger at the ground.
"Was it a monolith? About...eight feet tall? Black as night, carved with..." He cuts himself off to grab the notebook he'd thrown to the ground. Determined, he flips through the pages until he finds the one he's looking for, and holds the notebook out towards Emily quickly. "These symbols." Alien lettering covers the page in neat lines, his attempts at translating them scribbled into the margins hastily over weeks at a time with no real avail. Not even the general has any idea what they may mean.
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Post by Snowglobe18 on Jan 18, 2021 23:32:05 GMT -7
Because it literally just happened for her she remembered those things a little bit more clearly than she had the man she loved but she pushed that to the side for one moment because once she had really come to terms with this being Caesar she knew that things were messed up in time and space. Caesar started speaking again and she was about to tell him what had been in Puerto Rico and how she had got here when he went on to the next question and asked about the monolith.
Emily looked at the notebook that he had hold out towards her and she took a long look at the symbols "Yes, Simmons took pictures of them and one of them, I can't remember who, said that they had seen things like these before but couldn't remember where and as for getting here I was the last one to leave the cave because this thing was huge and we were getting in another team to take it back to HQ and I radio up to the quinjet but I can't get hold of you or anyone for that matter and it's only as I start to leave that" she took a deep breath because she realised that she had been rambling and just needed to take a moment before she carried on "I hear the monolith start to break apart and the black sludge or whatever it is, grabs my legs and the next thing I know I'm being asked for my weapon, which is my favourite gun by the way" he would know how much she loved that gun. "and well" she indicates him sitting across from her saying that he's been here and at home.
"I remember that Fitz couldn't get any readings from it at all, it was like there was nothing there but it was the carvings that made us decide to get it back to HQ, I don't know if they -you- will do that now"
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Post by Ray on Jan 19, 2021 14:28:37 GMT -7
Caesar isn't entirely sure if it's relief he's feeling when she confirms the existence of a second monolith. It explains everything -- her confusion, the strange time inconsistencies, how she's even here. But up until this moment, they had only believed there to be one in each galaxy. If there's more... well, then SHIELD really does have cause to be concerned about this rebellion.
With a slight sigh, he pulls the notebook back to himself and turns to a blank page. He tugs a charcoal pencil from the slim arm pocket of his black canvas jacket -- a red and yellow patch of this organization on the shoulder, rather than the usual SHIELD she's used to seeing on him -- and begins jotting down everything she's said so far about Puerto Rico. "They discovered another in Egypt last year," he begins to explain, "Back when there was all that hub bub about a sealed sarcophagus filled with black sludge." She might vaguely remember his momentary absence from the team at that time, the first solitary mission of many that would follow throughout 2020 into this year. Though they've become more frequent lately. "Fury sent me out there to try and piece together what happened. Who left it there. What it's for. And..." He doubts he needs to explain much else, considering she made the same unfortunate jump through space herself. "Ended up here on D'Qar."
He glances up to her as he finishes writing, one brow cocked upwards. "That's where you are, by the way. A planet in the Ileenium system some.... hundreds of millions of lightyears away from Earth."
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Post by Snowglobe18 on Jan 19, 2021 14:44:47 GMT -7
Emily recalls having to get Tripp in to help out. She remembers the grin on his lips when she came begging for a pilot and the first time it had been because Caesar had his own missions and then after that Tripp became part of the team without actually being on the team. Though she has had him asking when he's going to be flying the Playboy Jet again so who knows whenever that will be.
He then says where they are and she looks around at the small room and it's mostly because of the fact he was talking to a High School drop out that ended up in juvie,and then Japan, because of something she didn't even do. Emily didn't even know the stars let alone be able to point out where Mars was in the sky. Or she just lived up to the stereotype of being a blonde who just had no idea about things.
"Well at least I can escape Poe's names for a little bit" she said in a soft tease before looking down. Her thoughts turned back to her team back on Earth, were they looking for her? Was the Caesar that she had woke up with this morning worried about her?
Emily cleared her throat softly before bringing her eyes up to look at him. "Is there any way that I can.." she held her bloody hands up to ask whether or not he had something to clean the blood off with because it was dry and crusting and the last thing she wanted was to get an infection in her palms especially when she wasn't on Earth which was still baffling to her and if it wasn't for the pounding in her head she might actually be able to think a bit more better.
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Post by Ray on Jan 19, 2021 15:39:38 GMT -7
He laughs a little, thankful for the minor relief in tension. Its good, her making small little jokes like that. The way she had been looking at him before, like he was the alien of everyone on this base, had worried him. Scared him, even. These circumstances were not something he had planned or prepared for, and he'd fumbled his way through trying to explain what had happened to both her and himself. But she's looking better. Less dazed. Less panicked. And his own heart rate is steadily returning to a normal rhythm.
"Yeah, yeah, of course," Caesar replies and pushes himself back to his feet. He drops the notebook on top of the trunk with the rest of his belongings and makes his way for the open doorway. A thought has him pause momentarily, and he clicks his together together as he turns back to look at Emily, "You're still new to all of this so...please don't scream when I come back with a robot." He warns, giving her a small and slightly nervous smile, before leaving the room.
It doesn't take long to find a medical droid in the infirmary wing of the underground bunker, though its haggard and rusty metal shell makes its oddly humanoid appearance even more unsettling to someone who is not used to used to seeing such things. Caesar has been hanging around in this galaxy long enough to gain some understanding of the expansive technology this side of the universe has to offer, but not enough to escape doing a double-take when he spies something else strange and new. Emily has no such understanding, and he doubts she's only going to stare. He leads the med-droid down to the barracks where Emily waits, the droid's gears grinding quietly and feet clunking heavily behind him. Upon reaching the open doorway, he steps out of the way to let the droid in, waving a hand to indicate it enter.
The droid shuffles its way in and lifts a metal hand to wave mechanically at Emily, "Please indicate injuries." It says, voice metallic and staggered like an '80s arcade.
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Post by Snowglobe18 on Jan 19, 2021 16:03:10 GMT -7
Emily likes his laugh, it makes her feel warm inside especially when he does because it's so familiar that she could hear it in her sleep sometimes. She watched him stand up and he moves towards the door before he speaks to her again. He speaks about bringing a robot back and for her not to scream and she scoffs a little when he leaves the room. She liked it when he jokes with her.
Her brown eyes look over the small room once more and down at the metal trunk that he had been sat on and in she's being honest the only thing she wanted to do right now was curl up and crash out because working back to back missions were tiring but she also had the headache that had caused her to forget for a little moment but she wasn't sure whether that was out of confusion or because of the fact that she was somewhere new with a man who is Caesar. Something that she's still going to have to get her head wrapped around.
Emily looks towards the open door and her eyes blow wide at the fact that Caesar wasn't joking at all. "Holy shit" she said and moves up the bed a bit that definitely wasn't what she had expected especially when the robot lifted it's hand and waved at her. She cleared her throat and actually wanted to wave back at it like it was the most normal thing to do, the quicker she gets back to Earth the better she will be because all of this was going to take ages to sink in. The droid then asks her to indicate her injuries and she dropped her eyes down to her dried and crusty palms and then down to her knees that were pretty much the same. "Cut palms and knees?" it might have sounded like a question but it definitely wasn't.
Now she was starting to believe that maybe she did hit her head and she's in the medical wing of the Triskellion waiting to wake up because all of this was strange, even for her and she's had a shit ton of strange.
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Post by Ray on Jan 19, 2021 16:28:24 GMT -7
"Don't be scared," Caesar reminds Emily, rising to his tip-toes to look at her over the droid's head, "This is 2-1B. He's just a little rusty." The droid turns full-bodied to look at Caesar, and despite the lack of facial expressions, he can just feel the offense that 2-1B has taken at that comment. They might be hunks of metal and wires, but droids are surprisingly emotional things. "Sorry." Caesar clears his throat and drops back flat to his feet.
The droid angrily whirs and turns back towards Emily, deciding to ignore Caesar completely. "Treating abrasions," it speaks, and lifts its left arm. Rather than a hand connected at its metal wrist, the droid has a large cylindrical attachment that spins once its held aloft in the air. Through an opening at the end, a small tube extends outwards and, as the droid approaches Emily and her scraped up palms, ejects a clear, cold liquid onto her skin. The dirt and blood immediately begin to wash clean, exposing the cuts underneath. Caesar has to bite his tongue to keep from complaining about the liquid dripping onto his bedsheets. But before it ever has the chance to, all the grime and wet evaporates into the air.
The small tube retracts back into the arm piece, and the droid reaches into its chest to pull free a roll of bandage. Working slowly and diligently, it begins wrapping her palms snugly. Then does the same with cleaning and bandaging her knees.
Within a matter of five minutes, her wounds are taken care of, the droid turns to shuffle heavily back through the open doorway.
"Thank you," Caesar calls after it.
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