KATE BISHOP (MCU)

"Yeah, 'course. I love starting over. There are so many things I wish I could start over." Peter paused, blinking a few times. "—what were we talking about again?"

"You okay there?" There seemed to be a weight to his words. Coupled with his pause, Kate wasn't totally sure what she was walking into. "Starting over. Which, I think, would probably begin with an introduction? I'm Hawkeye."

"You don't say." Stephen took a long sip from his mug of coffee before swallowing thickly. "I'm not sure where we were to begin with."

"I think I was very embarrassingly saying that I'm a big fan of your work while trying to introduce myself." Clint didn't let her mix with other heroes often. Her first shot had led to an awkward conversation with Doctor Strange of all people. "I'm Hawkeye. Hi."

"Sure, I'm Silk. And you must be the mini Hawkeye from Earth-199999."

"Am I mini?" She was smaller than Clint, sure, but Kate didn't find herself to be particularly small. "But yeah, that's me. Although, I gotta say, it's super weird to hear my home be called Earth-199999. Why are there so many nines? There's like, what, five of them?" Kate quickly counted on her fingers. "You know my reality, but I don't know yours. Are you from, um, Prime? That's this one, right?"

"Sorry, right--" Miles paused to hold a suited hand out while his other hand rubbed the back of his neck. "I'm Spider-Man. But probably not the one you're used to."

"You're actually my first official Spider-man that I've met." Kate reached out to shake his gloved hand. "I'm Hawkeye. Also probably not the one you're used to."

"Absolutely." Johnny smirked softly as he let his flames dissipate, leaving him standing there in his Fantastic Four uniform. "I'm the Human Torch. I dunno if I really exist in your reality. And you're... Arrow Girl? Am I close?"

"I don't think you do. No offense, of course. I just feel like I would remember a flaming guy flying around." Was this even going any better? Jesus. Kate paused. "Absolutely not Arrow Girl or Arrowette. It's Hawkeye. And no, I'm not a Clint Barton variant."

"do you think these say can manifest his reality?" billy took them off "--me either." he sighed. "God, Hot Topic has really gone down in quality these days, huh?" not that he would know first hand, but he's seen the photos.

"Idk. No. Maybe? Is that the look you're going for?" Kate had a pink pair of Hello Kitty sunglasses on. They were slightly small and pinching at her face. Taking them off, she carefully placed them back on the rack. "Eh, it was never my style to begin with." Eleanor definitely had never taken her there. "Why are we here again?"

"this is why i never come to time square--it always smells like urine, and scammers keep trying to lure you into their shops."

"The only time mom would come here was if we were going to a show. Otherwise, we'd avoid it like the plague." Rockefeller Center was an avenue away, but Kate had quite literally smashed it up while fighting Kingpin. She had spent the entire holiday season cringing at the tree they had put up.

"I greatly appreciate that. Thank you. Live and learn, right? Now I have learned."

"Good to know some things never change. Mutants are still going to be hated no matter the universe."

"There aren't mutants in my reality. Or, if there are, they haven't made themselves known. I didn't realize it was as bad as it is."

"Ever since this whole thing started, all we've been able to do is sit tight while we search for answers. I feel like I'm losing my mind."

"I never knew how bad I was at sitting tight before this." Stuff back home had been hard, but Kate would have preferred it to this. Her mom was back in her home reality sitting in a jail cell. Even if Eleanor belonged there, it was hard to not know what was going on with her own surviving family member. "I guess this means that you X-Men don't have any grand plans you've been cooking up?"

"Don't you touch that radio--" steve warned. It was playing some old blues song, everyone kept telling him to download an app but he liked the scratchy static that came through the speakers. it added a bit of character. sue him for being a little nostalgic.

"No radio touching. Got it." Kate sat down across from him, one hand gingerly holding the frozen pizza box to her temple. The music was a little loud for the concussion she was rocking, but she'd live. "Who's the singer?"

"witches have been surviving for centuries. it's what we do. so if one more person decides they want to remind me that my variant is dead, they'll be the next to join her. now... did you want a damn tarot reading or not? I take cash-app and venmo."

"You got it." Kate saluted quickly. She faltered then, eyes dropping to the cards. "I actually have no money, sorry. Maybe some other time when I'm not living on 99 cent pizza slices?"

"I hear someone say the word annihilation the other day. We're not actually thinking it's anything like that, are we? That's a lot. I mean, this already was a lot. That's just a lot a lot. I don't want to be annihilated."

"frankly, i think every one is a bit too casual about this. i've been alive for half a millennia and spent lifetimes studying the vast expanse of the mystic arts. Even I can't think of too many beings capable of this sort of multiversal feat, at least not any that bring comfort." "Plucking variants from one universe to the next and gathering them to another is one thing. It is another entirely to perform so against our will, in such a way that it cannot be undone. And, for what? Annihilation? Amusement?"

"I'm guessing you mean for their amusement, because I don't really find this amusing. Like, at all. I liked how things were." They had been messy and imperfect, but Kate had been finding her rhythm. She was just getting to a good place, and then this had happened.

"hi--welcome to the emporium! howcanihelpyou." the last bit rushed out of her. darcy totally hadn't been smoking in the back and barely heard the door open. not at all.

"You're open, right? I couldn't tell for a second."

"I thought y'all said it gets cold here."

"It's East Coast cold, which means it's colder than the West Coast but not as cold as, like, Wisconsin and the Midwest."

"Hey--you're the one thinking at the top of your lungs."

"I'm thinking at the top of my lungs?" Kate scrunched her face before shaking her head. "I think I really don't like this — or the thought of you reading my mind. Sorry I think loudly? I don't know how to change that."