nysalogs | closed; a man walks into a bar

TJ's invitation was like a medic's way of asking if any of his bones had accidentally flew from his body. He suspected she wanted to look at him for the anomaly that he had become, but so far, he had managed to keep everything that was supposed to be inside of him exactly in that place. Nothing untoward, nothing out of the ordinary. Maybe she wanted to break clearance protocol and regale him with wild adventures that came wherever she was from.

If they were going to be giving and taking on that regard, this would likely be the last time that he saw her. Most people didn't like to hear about some of the shit that he had been up to after all, even if they were military types.

Still, he showed up right on time, wearing something as close to military garb as he normally did. It was all black, of course, though his winter jacket was plainly white to allow him to blend in. He shook off the coat and wandered over when he saw her, sliding into the seat nearby and pulling off his gloves to tuck them into the jacket pockets before removing that as well.

"Lieutenant," he acknowledged. "Oh wait, was I supposed to salute and parade rest before sitting down? I can get back up, you know." He was teasing, little cheeky grin on his face.

"Corporal."

Honestly, if he was going to start with the ridiculousness this early, there was no way she was going to last an entire evening. Very tempted to make him do just what he'd offered, she raised an eyebrow, eyed him carefully, then shook her head.

"I have a feeling that, if I'd said yes, you'd have done it," she told him, utterly serious. And while she was completely serious, she wondered just how much he took seriously, aside from his new hobby of letting his bones play around outside his body.

To that end, she let her lips curve up in acknowledgement of his offer and then held out her hand. "First? Let me take a look at your hand. I want to make sure that nothing out of the ordinary grew back in place and--" Her expression turned curious. "Has anything happened since?"

Rumlow most definitely would have done it because he was about the follow-through. He didn't offer things, even in jest, that he wasn't willing to actually do if push came to shove. If anything, it was just another little dare, and he rather enjoyed that currency when it came to betting. No pain, no gain.

"You can still say yes and I'd do it. You are a higher ranked officer," he said, though he was shifting to let his hands rest at the back of his head. He was perfectly comfortable where he was, but he was also perfectly comfortable forced to pander with rank.

He dropped his hand from behind his head too her, and the skin was knit and healthy, no sign of the previous incident at all. Not any new scars. He flexed his fingers too in order to show that all the bones were where they should be. "Nothing seems out of order, and I haven't had any new incidences to report. Of course, I've been a bit more careful with my hands too."

"Don't worry, I'm not going to pull rank. Apparently, it's not something that's done here."

From what she'd determined over her conversations with the other military personnel that she'd met from Earth, it wasn't a formal kind of situation. They much preferred being casual, though TJ herself couldn't resist calling the Colonel she'd met just that. Rank, for her, was a serious thing, though she wasn't going to hold the Corporal to it.

Taking his hand in hers, she ran her fingertips over where the skin should have been broken and yet wasn't. She furrowed her brow for a moment, then took a breath and let go.

"Interesting," was all she said about it before lifting her glass and taking a drink. "My suggestion would be to do what you've been doing. Take it easy until you know how or why it does--" She motioned to it. "What it does."

"Some people don't value the difficulty of becoming an NCO, or on the other hand, of being handed that rank because the previous person died and they thumbed the best candidate in the field," he said airily. He wasn't one to hold on rank, but he also wasn't one to discount that it was important. The rank system was there for a reason and as long as it was earned, he would respect it.

He flexed his hand under her touch so that she could feel how the bones moved, how the tendons worked with muscle to flex and extend his fingers. It was still strange, thinking that a wrong move would push his bones from his flesh or if he sneezed too hard, it might come out as glass. Such oddities happened to other people.

"Or I could experiment and see when it does what it does?" He tapped his finger lightly on the top of the table, tracing a pattern. "If this is going to happen to me, it could be dangerous not to learn what it's about. I don't exactly know where to start that won't involving something totally strange happening." Or not. He wasn't aware why or how it began after all.

TJ didn't actually want to discuss his particular thoughts on rank given that her rank was hers, but her position was given to her by default, more or less. Was it really her fault that the previous medical officer on base had been killed in an alien invasion and she'd been forced onto a ship a billion light years from Earth? She didn't think so.

Focusing instead on his hand, she finally let go only to hear him contradict her suggestion of playing it safe and immediately, her mind lit up with possibilities.

Only because his hand had healed at a very fast rate did she even want to put her ideas into words and, after running her fingertips over his knuckles one more time, she tilted her head to look at him. "Or." A breath, and maybe she'd blame this total unprofessionalism on the alcohol, "We could try closed experiments." Eyes wide. "You know, just to see what happens."

He leaned back in his chair, of the opinion that she wanted him to play it safe because she wasn't interested in dealing with the potential aftermath. The fact that neither of them knew exactly what the aftermath could be was curious, and he had to wonder when he had played anything physical safe much. He liked to push the limits, but more than that, he liked to understand where they were and how he could operate within them.

He raised an eyebrow at her 'or', and they only headed north toward his hairline at the suggestion. Reasonably, it was a terrible idea. One or both of them could be hurt. Hell, one of them could die by accident.

"Just to see what happens," he said slowly, as if trying to confirm the very idea had popped out of her mouth. She was a medical officer, right? "You done many closed experiments with your patients before?"

Medically and ethically, it was a terrible idea and sober, she wouldn't have dared make the suggestion. Something about his personality, however, led her to believe that he'd take it as a challenge and (likely) be up for whatever they decided to do in order to see what limits his body had.

Even with a drink in her, though, she was sure she didn't want to see him broken or hurt in a way that couldn't be fixed.

"I've never had a patient that spit bones out of his body and then healed like it never happened," she answered, not blinking as she watched his reaction. It wasn't a no, at least not yet.

It was a terrible idea, but it also wasn't without merit either. She was a medical officer, and she seemed as miffed and curious about his weird ability as he was. All plans went better when there was more than one mind to think about it, no matter how hair-brain it might seem.

He watched her for a long moment and had to give her the point. "That's... technically not the only thing I can do. I shot glass from my mouth and nose from a sneeze once," he said with a shrug of his shoulders. "I don't even know what this is, but if there's a chance it is going to happen again and I can control it... I'm game."

He was willing to put himself on the line. And she could put him back together if it went south.

"Did you cover your mouth when you sneezed?"

It was really a rhetorical question, but she asked it with a smile inching up the corners of her mouth because she couldn't help herself. She couldn't imagine what kind of mess that had made, whether he had or hadn't covered his face, but the idea was still fascinating. "I'm guessing it was bloody afterward."

Honestly, TJ certainly hoped she could put him back together if he did something that was beyond what his body could handle, but everything was pointing to new and exciting ways to test the limits and, after she'd done things she'd never thought herself capable of - including organ transplants - she had a feeling that she might actually be capable of handling whatever it was that he could do to himself.

"Anything else?"

"I did, actually. That's how the snot and saliva shards of glass were embedded in my palm and fingers," he replied with a smile of his own. That was the truth, and there was actually record of it on the network. His first post and that had happened, so maybe it was a sign to keep off and do his on set of experimenting.

It was rather bloody, but he had wrapped his hand and it had healed. He had gone on ignoring the possibility of it being a one-off occurrence until the bones fell out of his hand the other day. "I tended to the blood. I didn't lose a hand either. Isn't that lucky, right?"

Was there anything else? No, nothing he was willing to say over casual conversation.

"I'm not a big believer in luck," TJ confessed, still eying him contemplatively. For some reason, the man had pieces of him that didn't fit in with anything else she'd seen in all the different places she'd been. It was new and, while she liked new things, she still wondered if it was entirely ethical.

Her slightly tipsy brain continued to encourage her to pursue the line of medicine she seemed determined to go down.

"Okay, so." She paused there as the server came by and she ordered another drink with a smile. Clearly, this was all going to go well. "I have to ask. Before arriving, you know, here? Did you have any of this happen to you or were you just." It was such a weird way to phrase things. "A regular guy."

"What do you believe in then?" She clearly had to believe in the value of science and medical advancement, but did she had scruples? Were there aspects of it that even she would turn her back to, or were they going to go on a merry chase of whatever was wrong with him for the sake of just knowing?

He declined a drink of his own. He had been drinking a lot less since Jones left, and he was less inclined now that that weird fling was over.

"I was a regular guy," he said with a shrug. "I was well-trained, hard-working, but all the special abilities went to other people, and I didn't care. Even when I came here, nothing changed... it was just after this last episode in cryostasis that seems to have done something."

"What do I believe in?"

Her first inclination, after discounting luck the way she had, was to continue being cynical but that was no way to make friends. Instead, she went back even further in her life and, taking a breath, decided to start at the beginning.

"I believe in things I can see," she said honestly, watching him for a reaction. "Things that happen or exist are real. Medicine, science, math... things that are proven. And just because someone says something shouldn't happen or shouldn't exist? Doesn't mean they don't. Believe me. I've seen some--" TJ huffs a laugh and shakes her head. "Really incredible things."

Focusing on him again, she has to ask. "What kind of special abilities went to other people?"

He was waiting for her to let him have it with whatever it was that she thinking she might believe. Most people he found would either evade, become sarcastic or they would preach about simple nonsense like God or religion or some kid next door.

Yet, she actually gave an answer that he could understand and agree with. He nodded his head in agreement, leaning his arms on the table. "Oh yeah? What kind of incredible things? Like paranormal events?"

He shrugged. "Super-soldiers. Not-gods who wield magic and stuff. Telepathic aliens from space. You know, stuff you find in comic books mostly."

It was a time honored tradition of those who held classified materials to deflect from questions that they didn't want to answer and so, when he asked what she'd seen - and gave his own examples - she took a sip from her drink to buy time and then raised her eyebrows in genuine interest at what he'd said after.

"I would have said you were the super soldier," she laughed, then added, "But wait. Real magic, or that 'pull a quarter from behind your ear' kind of stuff, because my dad taught me that when I was ten." Okay, so she might be a little bit of a skeptic, but she's always up for a good story. "And you can't deny that aliens from space can be kind of cool. As long as they're nice aliens. Right?"

Maybe she's playing along, maybe she's not. Who knows? RIGHT?

Rumlow barked at laugh at the insinuation of being a super-soldier. She had clearly never seen one, let alone had to fight one in an elevator and be picking glass out of their back for hours after. Maybe he would someday introduce her to Steve and let her see what the real thing was like, though so far the super-soldier was a bit too passive for his liking. Must have been the lack of shit to do.

"I'm not. I'm not even close," he replied with a faint shrug. "And yeah, real magic. The guy called down lightning from the sky with his magical hammer and everything. I mean, it was elemental shit, but it looked like it hurt all the same." He hadn't been allowed into the area for the Battle of New York. SHIELD hadn't been allowed to mobilize for alien invasion, but he had seen the footage enough.

"They were blowing up a major city and rather bent on murdering everyone or enslaving those that survived the initial assault. I actually don't know which since they didn't speak English," he said and grinned at TJ. "You ever seen an alien?"

"Magical hammer..." TJ's eyebrows furrowed and she shook her head. "Sounds like Thor, the God of Thunder. Now that'd be impressive."

Using her drink as emphasis, she took another small sip and decided that, if she was going to have this conversation, she was going to stop drinking for the time being. It was better, even though she barely felt tipsy, if she was going to spill these kinds of secrets.

"Yeah, I've seen an alien. I've even seen space aliens," she told him, matching the way he grinned. "Not on Earth, though, on another planet. That's my job, or it was. Travel through a device known as a Stargate to other planets and meet different aliens."

She tossed him a wink and sat back.

"That's exactly who it was," he replied, his eyebrows rising on his forehead. "You know Thor? I guess all the ladies love him, all tall, blond and handsome."

As far as he was concerned, there was no need to stop drinking. She might embellish any tales she told, but they were more likely to be the truth. Not that he considered her a liar, but this was coming from him who knew how the lie as well as he knew how to tell the truth by this point in his life.

"So I take your space alien didn't try to rip you a new asshole?" So, she had actually been to another planet. He had no idea what Stargate was, but he figured it was like what SHIELD had been trying to accomplish with the Tesseract. "So you space jumped and hoped for the best? I mean, how did you know what planet was safe to even go to?"

What?

"No, I don't know Thor," TJ says like he's the one that's been drinking. "He's a myth." Pause. "Unless he's not." Beacuse all the ladies love him? Clearly, his version of Earth and hers are vastly different. Thinks the woman who travels through round things to visit different planets.

In answer to his question about space aliens, though, he gets another grin, this one bigger than the last. "We had robots called MALPs, that's a mobile analytic laboratory probe, go through and test atmosphere and everything first. If it wasn't underwater and had oxygen, we went." She shrugged. "I actually hadn't done that in a while, though. My last trip through the 'gate left me stranded on a ship heading billions of light years away from Earth."

"Thor was a myth, but he's definitely real. He's an Asgardian from one of the Nine Realms or some such. He came to Earth and he's part of the Avengers," he said with a raised eyebrow as if he were waiting for TJ to clue in on what he was saying. Of course, different worlds and all that, so it might not be a thing in her world.

Huh, that was very interesting, and he rested his forearms on the table and leaned forward to show that he was definitely listening to what she had to say. "How many planets actually have oxygen? I mean, where I'm from, we're basically looking at Mars trying to figure out if we can jump hop there and survive. So... you're on a space shift but not doing what you originally set out to do?"

"I've never heard of the Avengers. Or met a real life Thor." Her expression is apologetic and she decides not to mention the Thor that belongs to the SGC legacy; an alien that was small and very reminiscent of those that seemed to belong at Area 51. "But, I left the planet in 2009 and haven't been back since. I mean, the last I heard, it was 2011."

Which means she's at least seven years behind some of the people she's talked to and quite a few years ahead of others. She has no idea what year it really is anywhere anymore.

"A lot of planets have oxygen and I was on one where we'd established what we called the Icarus Base before it was attacked by a group called the Lucian Alliance. I'm sure they're around here somewhere, but the planet itself was dangerous and, just before it exploded, we dialed the gate to a place none of us had been before. None of us knew the ship existed and there was no way to turn it around or go home again. Ever."

"Earth's mightiest heroes? Yeah, they do sound kind of lame when you don't have a basis of reference for what they've been up to," he remarked and had to shrug his shoulders. There didn't seem much of a point of trying to explain it either, since many of the members came with their own unique histories that were ground into the very fabric of their timeline. "So you're a little out of touch with the happenings, it seems. It's 2014 for me."

Huh, well, that was something interesting to know, not that it would make much of a difference to him. He doubted his feet would ever leave the planet long enough to be shot into space, and he was kind of a worldly homebody anyway. He wanted to fix where he lived before running off to some other place to get himself into trouble.

"Sounds like quite the adventure to me," he replied, nodding his head in appreciation. "Except it seems that it ended with you and your team being literally fired off into the edges of space with no way back. Am I right?"

TJ almost asked what they'd been up to, but really? Earth's Mightiest Heroes sounded a little much on the ego for her and she still felt bad for being gone for a few years before he'd disappeared. She left that where it was.

"So, you're 2014, I've met someone from 2018, and no one really knows what year it is. Interesting." That actually required another sip of her drink. "But, yeah. You're right. I had a feeling I was gonna die out there. Was sure of it, actually, given what we'd found in the outer reaches of the planets we'd seen and the people we'd met."

Actual ancestors.

He knew that there were many people from quite a span of dates, but he figured that was par for the course of being dragged in as the planet was being consumed by the Storm. It didn't seem like things lined up in the same way for anyone, but he also wasn't big on interrogating people for their histories. It was life experience he was far more interested in.

"So you kind of just lost track of the date? That seems a little odd." And what kind of sudden jarring adventure didn't involve being in a near-death situation. Some people would thrill at it honestly. "You met people on the outer reaches? Like actual humans?"

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