001 | Phil Coulson | [Audio]

[theshield_agent]

This is Phil Coulson. In an effort to keep organized and assess the situation, I'd like to try to get a rundown of everyone here. If I could get everyone to check in with me and let me know what sort of skills they might have, I would really appreciate that. Anything from medical knowledge to combat to cooking or carpentry could be useful and I would love some help with all this clerical stuff.

I'll be in the general store taking inventory if you prefer that to these communicators.


((ooc note: He is compiling a list that will be shown to other characters.))

Comments

[indiscreet]

[ The reply comes late, about a half hour after sundown. ]

A pleasure to meet you, Mr. Coulson. I'm Anna Demirovna; I believe you were speaking with Jones?

I'm by and large a dancer by training.

[ then, a long pause, as she debates ]

But... if it's really needed, I can assist in...combat of both the normal and the...supernatural variety. I can also help with... tracking. And hunting.

[theshield_agent]

Thank you, Ms. Demirovna. It's good to know it won't just be my people who are prepared for anything that might not be quite... human or animal.

[indiscreet]

(( whoops, ooc note: that initial reply should have been listed as private; this also applies to the rest of the conversation ))

...Indeed. [ She's still rather intensely hesitant about the whole thing, about what it even means to acknowledge these abilities as her, but then, this is who she is now, what she asked for. Even if she didn't realize what she was asking. ] However... for now, I'd prefer that you keep that aspect to yourself, if at all possible. Understand, I only share the information because of the...unusual nature of the circumstances we all find ourselves in.

[ But apparently he, and others he knew, associated with the supernatural; that was interesting in its own right. And reassuring to know that she hadn't just made a terrible mistake by mentioning the supernatural at all. ] "Your people," though? You have...seen things yourself, then?

[theshield_agent]

((ooc: No worries! Glad you caught that early.))

I understand. I'll keep it to myself. It's just good to know there's some backup I can call on in a pinch here.

[He hums in agreement, then.] I work for a government agency that's had to deal with a lot of out-of-the-ordinary problems. We've had our fair share of non-human threats lately.

[indiscreet]

...Of course. It is a rare person these days who even knows that there are non-human threats to defend against. [ Because of course she is also human. Haha. Ha. Ha. ] I suppose I rather risked sounding like quite the fool for even mentioning it — but as I said, desperate times.

[ In point of fact, the idea of a whole agency devoted to the "out-of-the-ordinary" and the "non-human" is nerve-wracking. It's one thing to believe in the supernatural when you've just been suddenly and mysteriously kidnapped, and with the revelation of different worlds, but what Coulson is describing sounds uncomfortably like Hunters. ]

An agency, though. Incredible. [ She lets herself sound wide-eyed with admiration. ] What sort of "non-human threats" have you been fighting?

[theshield_agent]

Oh... you know, just your garden variety radiation monsters, gods and men in mechanical suits. [Just a day in the life lately.] The last few months have been colorful where I'm from. We just try to stay ready to defend people against whatever threat might get thrown at us next. We're really just equipped as a national security agency, but we've had to get creative.

[Phil's about as far from a hunter as you can get. Hell, he's happy to work with and respects Doctor Banner and that's coming off of recently watching him flatten a good chunk of Harlem. Phil only cares if people are getting hurt and then it doesn't matter what the threat is. He's taking care of it.]

Knowing about this stuff is a little less rare, though. There've been some major visible attacks on the public. We've just been lucky enough to have some heavy hitters on our side, too. [Not that he intends to out any of them.]

[indiscreet]

...My. [ Coulson's list has impressed even her, and that's coming off of a city full of sociopathic reality warpers. ] That is certainly quite the list. And... your "heavy hitters," are they not human either?

It's also strange to think that everyone where you come from knows about these things. For me...well, the skills I [ a tiny pause, as she searches for an appropriately ambiguous phrase ] picked up only, ah, came about as a result of the city I came here from being under attack by, well, things only a very few of us could see, and it was all very much so downhill from there. How different things might have been, with a group like yours... [ Of course, "different" might just as easily have meant the extermination of all Kindred too as far as she knows, so there is that. ]

[theshield_agent]

Some of them are human and some of them aren't. [And some of them are human lab rats, but Rogers and Banner are welcome to their privacy.]

It's pretty new, so we're still feeling our way through it, but it's better than being entirely unprepared, right?