maskormenace | 001

[Ward's throat still feels like shit and a half, but he's managed to process the following. He's no longer in jail (that's a plus), he's got super powers (he's unsure if that's a plus or minus) but he arrived and avoided the network for a few days out of fear of breaking the damn thing. He's decided long since then that he can't let Skye intimidate him.

She's here. And she's been here for awhile. She has home team advantage.

The only problem is they have a record of him. This whole registering thing was crap - what was the point of being given a second chance if he really couldn't leave Grant Ward behind? For the first time he wants to.

So time to test the waters. He's been to the ceremony, he's been sworn in, he's had a dramatic reunion with the woman he'd thought he cared about.]

New arrival here. Roomba salesman and repairman. Anybody else get a completely shit job? I know nothing about Roomba's. Assuming Roombas here are the vaccuum robots. Y/N?

Also feel like shooting myself in the foot here, but is there some kind of a "so now you have super abilities" support group? Any help or advice appreciated.

[Reading over it two or three times he nods, satisfied that it's not incriminating, that it's blaise enough that even if people decide to ask him questions he can think up enough to talk about without screwing up.

He'd been in worse situations.

His roommates might have noticed that his doorknob on the outside was significantly bent and someone has been closing doors in their apartment very, very quietly.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I still have to find him the job. This work requires various levels of followup, as long as he hasn't gotten so deep in a week that our window's closed.

I'll take that as a yes. Time to implement a nefarious yet practical plan: Warding Against Ward.

Protective spells on certain people might not be a bad idea, if you meant that literally. They might need to know about them, in case it may cause certain limits they'll need to work around.

But you may be able to help me with my main obstacle: trying to bug a spy in a way he won't catch. They might not have defenses against magic, if you have anything to offer on that line. But that has its own problem, I have yet to perfect a runestone-to-USB adapter to keep my own copy of the recordings.

O ye of little faith in Loki, I've perfected the art of sorcerous phone reception, I'm sure a small tracker won't be difficult to jimmy up for a trickster like me.

[ it did alert him to America's appearance. ]

Just the small matter of transferring data.

Okay, good. So we have a foundation. But I want more than a phone bug. With a situation like this, I want to go as heavy as we can. 24 hour surveillance.

Like one of those discreet ball caps with the equally as discreet recorder. What's his favorite baseball team?

Could you do anything remote? Crystal ball style?

A ball cap may be too suspicious, which is the problem I'd have with a technological bug.

I can put a SORCEROUS TRACKER on just about anyone. No muss, no fuss. The visual is a whole new can of worms- while I'm sure I could achieve it, I don't have access to a state-of-the-art-magic-satellite.

Though as a former supervillain I'll add my 2 cents.

If he's going to do something, he's going to want people to hear about it. No one like that is going to keep his big scheme a secret. Instead of the most obvious, we get him to be the most obvious-

Tracker in place, of course.

I think you may be focusing too much on supervillain than superspy. From what I'm getting out of both him and Skye, he was a sleeper agent for long enough to be trusted in SHIELD. I am missing vital information, like what made his position and how things went down after, but just due to the nature of the game, I'm thinking we should be prepared for something more subtle.

But if the tracker's the best we can manage, we'll have to work with that.

Superspy possible supervillain. What I'm saying is that if you want the right reaction, you just need the right provocation. Subtlety in different ways.

[ like using Skye, maybe. if you get his hint. ]

You misunderstand what reaction I want. I'm trying to prevent, not provoke.

While PREVENTING is all well and good and happy for all, it leaves a steady cycle of PREVENTION that will get redundant quickly. Keeping our finger on the big red button to be sure no one is hurt in the process.

Eventually the means of prevention may mean to make him crack in more unexpected ways.

[ he could also still do it. ]

I think you're greatly overestimating what we know about him. We need time to monitor and gather intelligence, that will give us a better idea of how to handle this going forward. Jumping the gun will only get people hurt, or worse.

The longer we wait the more we offer him unpredictable points of opportunity. Waiting may be worse.

We all remember Lucifer.

Lucifer isn't really comparable, the power levels are at an astronomical difference, and the approaches are nothing alike. If Mr. Ward were planting explosives on Roombas and letting them loose on public buildings as his way of greeting, then we might be looking at something similarly volatile.

We don't know what we're really dealing with here, and we shouldn't assume we do. Jump the gun, it'll only end up backfiring on us. If we wait, the worst that will happen is he'll have time to gather his resources, but if we're monitoring him, we should have an idea what those resources are.

This isn't just the better idea, it's the only responsible one. I'll see what I can't do about providing imaging. But knowing where he is will be the first step.

[ it's at least ten minutes before he replies, but you can almost hear the glee in it. ]

You're making the judgey face, aren't you?

Is rolling my eyes the judgey face?

[ he makes a lot of faces, loki, he can't be sure which one you've deemed judgey. ]

One of them.

[ ok, but like 80% of them are judgey in Loki vision. ]

[ that assessment may not be in any way inaccurate. ]

Let's just get this done, Loki.

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