002 VIDEO LIST TWO

[deadliestviper]

[This time when the video turns on, Beatrix is well-groomed and polished; she's dressed in a very feminine suit with a nametag reading BETH S. on the lapel, is wearing makeup, and her hair is pulled back in a ponytail. Her smile is bright, easy, and full. In both name and deed, she's here on Official Business.]

Ahoy! – That's the right terminology, right? I've never been on one of these things before. [She winces, a little self-deprecatingly.] Uh, anyway, hello there, I thought I'd better introduce myself since I'm going to be working with a few of you. My name's Beth Solberg, I'm a social worker, and I'm just here to check in on the staff and residents, ask a few questions, basically make sure everything on the Barge here is up to snuff.

So yes, I'll be speaking with a few of you. Let me assure you, you don't have to answer any questions you don't want to. I'm not here to interrogate, I just want to get the gist of the situation. And it is an unusual situation here, so any comments, complains, you've got about the place, this is the time to talk.

I'm setting up shop in the – what's this place called? That's it, library, no special term? Okay – I'm in the library for the next day, just stop on in. [She pauses, lifting a pen to her lips as she consults a clipboard.] Oh, and I've got a couple people I need to check in with – newer ones specifically. If none of you mind doing this in reverse alphabetical order, may I speak to a... Ms. Reese?

[OOC: So since I forgot to say earlier, this flood B.B. got marginalized. Beatrix still got pregnant, still had the baby, just never hid her pregnancy from Bill or ran away to Texas. As such she's still very much an active member of the Assassination Squad, with the events of the movie never happening. The social work thing? Just a ruse to get in the same room with her current target Natasha.]

Comments

[spam]

[persuadeyou]

[Still hard enough to make her grunt, to make her struggle to force her body to draw in another breath. She bares her teeth and puts her weight behind her pen arm, angling for B's throat. She shifts her legs in the process, bringing one knee up to pound against B's side, her leg, anywhere she could hit before slamming her heal down toward her instep. Anything to distract her.]

[spam]

[deadliestviper]

Bitch! [She growls as Natasha knees her thigh and yells when that heel slams down on her foot. She can't evade without losing a fistful of hair or wrenching her neck – all she can do is twist Natasha's wrist with one hand, trying to jerk her hand down and drive the point into the hollow of the other woman's throat. Her other hand's still fisted, hammering rabbit-punches wildly against Natasha's chest, frantically trying to shake her off.]

[spam]

[persuadeyou]

[Between the punches and the angle, she's losing altitude with the pen, she can feel her hand slipping, and it's for that reason that she snarls and drops the pen.

She was pulling her head back to try headbutting B again when the flood very abruptly ended. It didn't kill her adrenaline, though, and she didn't just go slack when she came back to herself (but those memories, God, she wanted to scream, almost wanted to let B kill her, how could people deal with this on a regular basis, it was a nightmare). Instead, she went very still, eyes moving to the blond's, searching her face for the same realization.]

Let go. [She's sliding her for away from B's, to show that she wasn't going to attack anymore - but she doesn't put any weight on that foot, either, just in case this fight isn't over.]

[spam]

[deadliestviper]

[She dropped the fucking pen. Bitch, she thinks again, Just couldn't take the heat. B's fist stops in midair as if it had been grabbed and she quickly loosened her hand, reaching up to wrap it around Natasha's throat when something... shifts.

Her eyes are watery when the realization hits, but not from the pain. The memories flicker back through her head as false as they'd always been but this time she doesn't believe them. Still Bill's woman, still a Viper, still a mother but Jesus Christ she couldn't think about that, not now.

Her hand is shaking when she straightens and withdraws it though she still maintains the stiff-lipped poker face. She'll deal with it later. For now she just watches the woman she knows as Nicole step away, sure they've both come to the same conclusion.]

Nothing personal.

[It's as close to an apology as she'll get, and as near an explanation as she needs to give.]

[spam]

[persuadeyou]

[No, nothing personal. Natasha might have laughed, if she was a little less in control of herself right now - but she couldn't afford that. She felt surreal, like maybe all this was just another nightmare; she'd had plenty, when she first joined SHIELD, when they first ripped her mind apart, stripped her of everything she was, everything the Red Room had made.

Natasha swallowed, and nodded. Nothing personal. She drops a hand to her thigh, probing to see just how bad the wound is; not very, and not bleeding too badly. She can limp out of here and get to her room (though it's the last place she wants to be, even the thought of it makes her skin crawl. She lets on none of this).]

Right. [She couldn't bother herself to say more than that, just headed for the door - though she never quite let B out of her sight.]