reflectedlight | 🌙 Inbox - Marc Spector's Dead Drop

hey man you want to run around a crazy obstacle course for a while? I could use some potential competition and Yelena's busy

[Also he thinks it'd do Marc some good, after that conversation with Yelena and Kyler. (Yes, Yelena told him about it, at least some of it.)]

[Marc just... pops out of nowhere about twelve hours later. He's lying in wait in a stairwell or something.]

Hi.

[he is so good at having a normal social interaction.]

B stops at the sight of Marc in the stairwell below him. He blinks once. Then he pulls up a grin. "I guess that's a yes?" he guesses, calling back to the text message. Either that or Marc actually wants something else, and he has a hard time imagining him asking for something.

He turns himself around, beckoning for Marc to follow him back up. He'll send a text to Steve that he'll meet him later. "C'mon. Tell me on the way whether you'd prefer something outdoorsy, a city-scape, or something super sci-fi."

Marc nods.

"Can't get into the Enclosure on my own. Appreciate it. Whether I can keep up with you as just a normal guy, eh -" Marc smirks. "We'll see."

He is excited to try.

"City. Anywhere but Chicago or London."

He is trying to avoid his problems, not constantly be reminded that they are unavoidable.

Don't worry, B got most of his frustration out yesterday. He won't be sprinting through today. Marc... might be able to keep up. Maybe.

"I've got a great one I made of New York in the thirties, only it's all-- warped around so it's got buildings on the ceiling and stuff," B offers. "Absolutely no connection to wherever you're from."

Which is apparently Chicago and London.

"Sounds perfect."

He's got a gym bag over one shoulder; water, mostly, but he's not a super-soldier and he's almost 40, so there's stuff to treat a sprain on the spot in case he rolls an ankle or something stupid. Can't depend on the suit for that kind of thing, and cannot have it carry over to Steven.

"Buildings on the ceiling. Trippy, alright. I'm game."

B steps out onto the deck and towards the upper deck with the enclosure on it. "I've got like seven courses I use regularly, five of them designed by me, and half a dozen more I'm still tinkering with," he admits. "Climbing on weird shit is one of my favorite hobbies."

Marc follows, laces his fingers and pushes them away from himself to stretch out his arms. "How d'you design em? Just improvise and tell the Enclosure what to do?"

"You can give it parameters in voice or text. I mostly use text, so I'm not talking out loud like a dumbass to a magic computer. Sometimes I'll give it references like pictures of a place I want to base it off of," B explains. "A lot of it's just me making shit up, though, and seeing what the enclosure does with it. If I don't like what it generates, I tweak it until I do."

Hunh.

"Generative AI but for a holo deck. Guess that's the only way it'd have worked in Star Trek, too. Not like a person's going to sit down and build the - trees, or whatever."

Starktech has had Turing-capable AI since Marc was in high school, running on a server the size of a hockey puck that's powered with clean energy. No way the Admiral is literally using Stark stuff, that's from Earth, he's got some space thing, but that's still something Marc can easily get his head around as just Something That People Use.

"I mean, honestly that's what the holodeck did, too, if you've seen the episodes where they change whatever shows up until they like it," B says. "It's pretty much what it is, except I'm pretty sure it's magic rather than tech. Or some unholy mix of them both."

He climbs the steps onto the upper deck and stops in front of the enclosure door to flip through his files for the right one.

"Has to be some magic. I still don't know -"

Marc huffs.

"I mean, I'm dead. Has to be magic, I don't think tech can do that."

"Eh." B waffles a hand briefly at him. "I've died a couple dozen times, technically, and was medically revived. More, if you count being frozen for a time as dead. I think if HYDRA got a hold of me before the Admiral did, when I died to come here, they could've done it. But that requires the serum, and that's not really easy to get."

He steps back, in front of the doors, and they slide open. The scene on the other side is indeed based on New York City in the 1930s, but it's like what would have happened if Escher got ahold of it. Or maybe Inception. The tenement and office buildings jut out at right angles from each other, with windows, uneven bricks, and fire escapes to leap around to. There's the occasional stretch of street with cars to bounce off of. There's not an obvious route through it, like it's meant more for exploring and running through than actually beating.

It takes a lot to impress Marc. Gods show up and he's kind of just like this shit again.

This, though? This is really cool.

He steps forward just enough to be immersed in it, past the threshold. Listens to the odd way the city noises echo with everything doubled in on itself. He huffs in amazement, and there's even a little hook of a smile. VERY RARE!

"You're in here all the time?"

What a cool life. What a weird, cool life they're both in right now.

"Mostly when I'm stressed or need to get some energy out, but yeah, often enough," B agrees, pleased he's made a good impression. "Sometimes when Yelena or Steve want to do something fun. I made this one during one of the more recent floods. Aerith wanted something that was a city but didn't smell like her city to parkour around, so I came up with the bones of this."

"Does it stay still so you can learn it, or is it new every time?"

Both could be kind of rad.

"Both. Sometimes I'll ask it to randomize, sometimes I want something familiar. A couple of them have random changes built into them, with platforms moving or pop-outs changing position. The one Steve made me has random gravity changes if I turn that feature on," B says with a smile.

Marc almost-smiles again, shakes his head.

"Think I'll work up to the, uh, supersoldier level training. Start with something easier."

B chuckles. "Yeah, no worries, no tricks on this one that require super strength or reflexes. Just knowing how to find good jumps and hand-holds." He claps Marc lightly on the back. "C'mon, let's see what you got."

Marc snorts, tries to hide a pleased little glow.

He doesn't suit up - it's not challenging in the suit, everything's easy, nothing's earned. He just throws himself around as well as a baseline human in fantastic shape can; no enhancements, no secret government training, just someone who has honest to god been out here either free running or normal running at 5AM every single day because if he doesn't have at least one thing that's a routine he will go off the deep end. It might as well be exercise.

He likes to take leaps that are just a liiiiiittle too far to be safe, but he's very good at this: he never quite falls, and he's uncanny at finding handholds that look like they should be invisible.

B follows, or rather climbs and jumps around in parallel, usually taking different roads through the more literal concrete jungle, sometimes close by and sometimes a little ways off. There's plenty of room for both of them to create their own obstacle courses in here, whatever best suits them, and B keeps mostly out of Marc's way since he doesn't think they're friendly enough yet for a teasing competition or amiable jeering.

Neither of them can be hurt here more than bruises, the Enclosure setting is set too low for that, but he keeps an eye on Marc just in case as well-- and also to watch how he moves. He notes what risks he does take, whether any tension comes down from the activity, and when he looks like he might be ready to stop. Or when his body looks like it might be ready to stop, because he knows the tendency to push yourself too much, especially after some stressful days.

Marc is comparing them anyway, but it's a sort of absent catalogue of just in case we end up trying to arrest each other at some point.

Conclusion: not a surprising one. Marc could not catch B if it was a pursuit, B would easily catch Marc.

Eh. It's not likely to happen, these are just the things he thinks about. He's secure enough in his own abilities that he's not angry about it, just a little rueful.

This is something he's good at, and finds fun; he is relaxing, there's a kind of runner's high going. It's very easy to turn off your god awful loud evil brain when you are firmly grounded in your body. It's not as fun as fighting, but he's also pretty glad to not be doing that here on the ship, because it's completely pointless to kill people that just come directly back, angrier.

But also? That felt more real than here. All the interpersonal drama about who-even-cares makes Marc want to zone out, let the extroverts handle it, and wait for something he's good at to start happening.

He winds down for a water break about twenty minutes in, checks his watch.

"I think I needed this," is Marc's very seriously meant review, if B stops along with him. "The ship's too small. Too much talking about stuff, almost no actually doing stuff."

B does stop. He settles on the edge of a rooftop that's perpendicular to the ground, feet dangling down. "I get it," he nods. "Steve's the same way. Hell, so's Yelena, I bring her down here every time something blows up and she needs to let off steam." And hell, so does he, or he wouldn't have so many programs.

He holds out a hand hopefully for a sip of that water, too. He doesn't need it, really, but he also didn't exactly mean to come here right now or he would've brought his own. "If you ever wanna come down here again, consider yourself having a standing invitation. I can let you in whenever. Middle of the night, if that's when it is."

Marc did mean to come here, and actually goes into his bag for an entire second refillable bottle and hands it over. The Enclosure has climate controls, but he hasn't been in it often enough to break the habit of bringing a lot for summer months in deserts.

"Thanks. I run ... every day, but it gets monotonous just looping around the deck. And I got temp paired with my sparring partner and I think he lost a lot of respect for me."

Which sucks. He has to figure out if he and Kylar are still cool.

"Try going up and down the stairs between decks if you get bored with the deck, if you can't get ahold of me to let you in," B suggests. He isn't a huge fan of Kylar right now, so he's not going to comment on the lack of respect. "Me and Steve do that some mornings if the Enclosure's not free. You shouldn't lack for other sparring partners, though. I'd recommend Yelena, she's in the gym pretty regularly and will be a challenge. Or if you wanna have a go against a supersoldier, I do know how to pull my punches."

And that's one thing Steve won't do with him. Not that he blames him: Steve's fought a version of B so many times under such awful circumstances, it only makes sense that he wouldn't want to do it for "fun".

🌙 Inbox - Marc Spector's Dead Drop

Text, day after the Yelena/Kylar convo

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so sorry for the delay, vacation led to sick :(

dude np stuff happens. i hope youre recovering <3