duplicity — inbox

[vestments]

Comments

[vestments]

Three of us.
We did our own thing for a while.

( including clint's ex-wife, so sure, have that conversation, natasha. )

It was complicated. Time travel, you know how it is.

[redhourglass]

i don’t yet
but if i ever make it back, i will

( with a less-than-ideal outcome for her. )

[vestments]

I don't recommend it.

[redhourglass]

i don’t think i will either
it’s a dead-end road

[vestments]

( ah—. )

Sorry to hear that.

Still, in our line of work, you never know.

[redhourglass]

no, you don’t
and at the risk of being cliche, it’s for a good cause

[vestments]

That's the point, right?

[redhourglass]

( the point had been bringing yelena back. bringing everyone back. it’d been the only thing she’d been focused on for five long years. but —

she’d always thought she’d be there to see it. )

if you believe in that sort of thing

[vestments]

In good causes? I've seen enough of the opposite to know that good ones exist too.

[redhourglass]

i think that’s the most optimistic thing i’ve ever heard you say

[vestments]

( he might be a sadsack piece of crap, but he has BELIEF in people! (most of the time.) (with monumental exceptions.) )

If I didn't, I'd need to rethink my job.

[redhourglass]

think there's a strong argument for all of us to rethink our jobs

[vestments]

( eventually— )

Which only works if you have something else.

[redhourglass]

you had to have had a life before this

( they both know she hadn't — or at least, she assumes he does )

1/2 (cw: ........moon knight being moon knight; cavalier attitude towards death/mh)

[vestments]

( he doesn't actually know if she means before the city or before moon knight. either way, the answer's (more or less) the same: no. )

My kid's mom lives half the world away so that Marc Spector doesn't fuck up their lives any more than he already has.

Before that, Marc Spector was a mercenary, and dying was the first good thing he managed in thirty years.

Moon Knight was a choice, and if I'd chosen differently, Marc Spector would still be dead.

Moon Knight is my life. I'm not like this just because we're here.

[vestments]

Not everyone in our line of work has a choice, but the people who do choose it

aren't choosing it out of the goodness of their hearts.
It's not the decision a healthy, sane person makes.

( a moment. concession— )

Or those with better options.

🤡 me when i get to slide in an mcu line

[redhourglass]

i don't judge people by their worst mistakes

you know i thought of getting out once
really thought i had a chance to go straight

( getting everyone out of the raft, then disappearing. ross would keep hunting, but she knew better than anyone how to disappear and burn a life to the ground. the red rooms had been destroyed. dreykov was dead. yelena was — )

sometimes this job needs to be done

me @ comic lines tbh

[vestments]

The sum of their parts, then.

( like, he gets it because he doesn't either, not really. one would think that's his thing given the FIST OF VENGEANCE and all that, but given the chance, given all else being equal, he quite likes giving second (third, fourth) chances.

which isn't to say there isn't a line — marc's well aware of it more than most. )

But then it's the question of who and what you're doing the job for.

( or, don't give him that shit, natasha. they're saying the same thing, just justifying it in different ways. )

neeeeeerds (you + me)

[redhourglass]

you don't think we do it so that one day it doesn't have to be done?

( peace — not that she's naive enough to believe that's really achievable but ... for some, maybe. if yelena could live the rest of her life as herself, not the tool they'd both been molded into — was it worth it? would it be enough? )

I MEAN was that ever a question (at least for me....)

[vestments]

You and I, or "we" as a collective?

So it doesn't have to be done by anyone, ever? No. That's idealistic and naive.
But individually, so that someone else doesn't have to make the same choices? Sure, some of us do it for that reason.

Which isn't as selfless as it sounds.

[redhourglass]

you and i
who knows about the collective

( steve would probably say 'it's the right thing to do' — but even he'd insisted that it wasn't always necessary. clint had his family back, if she'd done it right. tony was — )

it's never as selfless as it sounds

[vestments]

I don't do it because it needs to be done.
I do it because I need to do it.

[redhourglass]

that was steve's theory about me, too
he didn't say it outright but i know that's what he thought

[vestments]

Rogers is astute.
He was more blunt with me.

[redhourglass]

it was a tough time
pretty sure he was trying to avoid having a peanut butter sandwich thrown at his head, too

( which is probably different from how marc thinks of steve rogers )