apocalypsehowcomm | [Log] Catch-All for February

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[Log] Catch-All for February

Who: Winter and YOU
When: The month of February
Where: Locations in the prompts
Summary: Winter deals with the aftermath of his latest explore and the TDM prompts
Warnings: Various attempts at destruction, memory loss, mold

I. How Many Ways Can I Smash This - Outskirts of town, ADI headquarters

Two days after making a very satisfying crater out of a clearly Web-aligned artifact in Dogtown, Winter finds that same artifact in his pocket. A little silver triangle covered in etched cob-webs that fits easily in his palm.

Annoyed, he goes to the outskirts of the city-- not Dogtown side, the other side-- and hurls another grenade at it. It's back in his pocket the next morning.

He talks somebody into snitching him some highly corrosive acid from one of ADI's labs, and watching over him for safety purposes as he pours it all over the damn thing.

He has Steve smash it with Thor's hammer.

He finally returns from a meeting with ADI, disgruntled, and tells whoever's waiting for him outside, "They can't keep it, either. You're just supposed to watch me and make sure it doesn't make me do anything stupid." He sounds extremely displeased with this situation.

II. No More Dance Steps - Closed to CR, at a local swing club

Once a month, there's a swing dance club in the rec center in town. Winter always goes with whichever of his friends happen to be free that night (or more likely, those friends who make an effort to be free that night). Today is no exception.

Except today he's standing outside staring at the sign with a confused frown. "Why am I here?" he asks hesitantly. "I don't know how to dance."

III. One Fear - Around Glaucester and ADI

After that horrifying realization that he's truly forgotten something, Winter keeps stopping in the middle of whatever he's doing and pulling out small hand-sized journal from his pocket, flipping back through it to find something and double-check it, or hastily scribbling something new.

And he seems to have multiple journals in multiple pockets, when he's wearing his outdoor coat that has pockets big enough for them. "Wait," he says in the middle of a conversation, and fishes through pockets until he finds the right one and can double-check something.

IV. Safe Place Gone - outside the ADI apartments

One chilly morning, Winter is outside the ADI apartments, sitting on a bench in the snow, wearing his sole secondary pair of shoes, scrubbing vigorously at his combat boots and looking distressed.

There's a stack of other belongings on the bench beside him, blankets and clothes and a handful of books, all in various states of... grossness. Some of it is moldy. Some of it is damp. Some of it is crusted in something that looks like blood. Winter is trying to clean it off, to the best of his limited cleaning ability.

Come help him out? Or just be grossed out by what happened to his stuff.

V. Wildcard

Winter still does all his usual stuff: he patrols regularly around the ADI compound and the Dogtown fence. He eats lunch in the ADI cafeteria when he's on the campus. He reads out loud there, or in the park, or on a rooftop if he gets bored of (or paranoid about) the sidewalk. He practices with people or gives lessons in self-defense in the evenings at the ADI gym.

He's around, like always.

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"If it comes back, it will be back by morning," Winter says. It will come back. He's still not extremely hopeful that this will work, but he has to keep trying. He pushes back to his feet after burying the first slivers, and moves over to Steve's hole to see if it's ready for a couple more.

Steve's hole is coming along, if slowly; it's just about deep enough, though, to satisfy him. He glances up as Winter approaches and puts a little more effort into it, scooping away the dirt and sitting back a little stiffly on his heels so Winter can inspect his efforts.

"Tell me if it does," he says. He knows he won't be able to do anything about it. If this doesn't keep the damn thing in pieces, he's just about out of ideas. But still. "I want to know."

He wants to try to take it off Winter's hands, but he doesn't say that.

"I'd say we should set up cameras, but I'm guessing that's not gonna make a difference, either." Nor does he know how, though they can certainly find someone who does.

"No, the cameras would glitch. Or the pieces would just disappear from here and reappear back in my pocket. Or the pieces would stay here and it would be a new one in my pocket." He sounds resigned, tipping the slivers into the hole Steve dug and starting to push dirt over the top again. "Or maybe it will work. Who knows."

Steve huffs. "Well, we don't need any more of those things." If it's going to re-form, he'd rather it just do it from the same pieces. As if he has any kind of say.

"Hey," he adds, softly. "I know this is..." What is it, even? "Stressful." Well. That's one word for it. Probably too mild, but he pushes on. "We'll figure it out, okay? Even if this doesn't work."

He has no idea how, but if destroying it doesn't work, they will figure something out. And it isn't just Winter's problem alone.

Winter slides him a sideways look, torn between dismissive of the need for the worry and kind of weirdly... pleased? At the reassurance. He thinks that's some kind of happy, anyway. "I already belong to the Stranger. I don't think whichever entity this belongs to--" The Web probably, given the motif. "--can steal me. So it's just whatever effects it would have on anybody. Probably better it's me than. Kate. Belova. You. And you can all look out for me."

Steve makes a noise that's maybe partway between a scoff and an unhappy sigh. "Hey, maybe it'd have trouble stealing me, too. You don't know."

He can't exactly pretend that he doesn't know there's an entity that would let him use the strength he's choosing not to. Trying to choose not to.

Although, "Of course I'll look out for you. We all will," he confirms. "I just wish you didn't have to carry it alone."

Winter cocks his head a little at that, then says, "I'm not. You're all looking out for me. That's like carrying part of it, too." He's not so much a lone wolf anymore, these days, is he. He has his people. Just like that have him.

It's nice.

Steve can't help the soft little smile at hearing that, even if he huffs something like a little exasperated noise, too. It is a nice thought, even if he'd maybe meant more literally.

But they can't do it literally, so - it's the next best thing, he guesses.

And also, "If we're all looking out for you, then I think you belong to us. Not the Stranger," he points out, quietly.

He likes that, too. "If I'm going to belong to someone. I'd rather it be you," he says firmly, and pushes back up to his feet. "Come on. There's three more shards to bury on the far side of the clearing."

He offers Steve his hand to stand with.

Steve can't help but smile at that. "We are pretty great."

He doesn't hesitate to take Winter's hand. He wouldn't have anyway, but the truth is, he ends up putting more weight on it than he'd really like getting back to his feet, then has to stand still for a moment as his vision fuzzes a little. That... hasn't happened since he was small. But it used to happen a lot.

"Okay," he says, once the lightheadedness has passed. "Let's get that done. The sooner the better." As if racing the clock might keep the shards in the ground.

Winter watches him blink like standing up fuzzed out his brain with a worried little frown. "What's wrong with you," he says more than asks. "You're acting weird."

Steve huffs, his natural reaction to people worrying about him. "It's fine. I just got a little dizzy for a second. It used to happen all the time, I just - forgot."

Not that he really ever could, but it's still been a while. By now, it's a little unexpected. Although maybe around here, given what they're dealing with, nothing should be unexpected.

He does maybe have the terrifying thought, just for a second, that without the serum, his body's just... reverting, somehow. But that's - probably not what's happening.

Probably. This was awfully sudden.

He frowns down at the hammer, then at the churned-up spot where they just buried the shards.

"It happened before you got a big body that doesn't have asthma," Winter reminds him, which is new actually, he didn't remember what the wheezy lung problem was called before. He follows Steve's gaze from hammer to hole. Clearly Steve is thinking something, making some kind of connection, but whatever it is, Witner is not following.

So he asks. "What is it."

Steve is still frowning. "I don't know. I mean, the last time I tried to use Mjolnir, it was - kinda obvious something didn't want me to."

He hefts the hammer a little - still just as easy to lift. That's good. Right?

"But this is awfully sudden, is all. Maybe your pyramid's just pissed at me." He glances up, smiling lopsidedly. "Small price to pay, really."

That must be it. So he squashes down the deep-seated fear of getting even weaker, and focuses on the present. "If I know I'm gonna get dizzy when I stand, I'll just - y'know. Work around it."

The burns. Winter remembers. It makes a horrible kind of sense. Use the god-weapon, and something bad happens to you. "Anything magic has its cost, here," he says darkly. "Maybe we don't try to swing it at anything for a while." And hope that dizzy thing is temporary and Steve gets over it.

"Maybe the apocalypse could take some time off for a while," Steve points out, as if to say that it's not his fault he needs to use it sometimes, because if he has it and it's going to help, he's going to use it.

But, "If this damn thing stays in the ground, it's worth it," he adds, heading for the other side of the field. "Sometimes you just pay the price, pal."

"Not if it gets you killed later because you get dizzy in the middle of a fight," Winter counters. "That's not worth anything."

Besides, he doesn't think this thing is going to stay in the ground, even as he drops to crouch and dig the final hole on the other end of the clearing and tip the last shards into it.

"I'll make sure not to stand up too fast in the middle of a fight, then," Steve says wryly, which is not a No, I'll never do it again and he knows it (and he knows Winter knows it), but he hasn't managed to get himself killed yet. It'll be fine.

He follows to supervise, moving to cover the shards with dirt using his foot once Winter's got them in the hole. See? Not touching. Very helpful. "You know, I never was very good at the 'wait and see' part of plans." Even though that's what they have to do now.

"There's not much you can do about it right now," Winter points out. There's no way to speed this up, no matter how reckless Steve decides to be. He straightens up and steps back. "If you want a distraction. We can probably find something to do."

"I'm always in for something to do," Steve says, which is pretty much admitting that yes, he wants a distraction, without actually saying yes, he wants a distraction. "And I should return these to the lab before someone cares that they're missing."

Had he asked to borrow the safety goggles? Not exactly.

"But you let me know the second that thing reappears. If it does." (He still hopes it doesn't.)

"Yeah, okay." Winter shakes dirt off his hand and gives the hole a little glare, then gives Steve's shoulder a little poke. "Come on. I can read you something. Or we can hit things in the gym. Take your pick."

Steve would normally go right for hitting things in the gym. But - and this has nothing to do with how crappy he's feeling - his mind definitely catches on read you something and kind of won't let go.

So, "You can read me something," he says - not a question, but a decision. "That sounds nice."

Not exactly the best way to work off the way he feels about this damn pyramid, but it's something he wants more, just now.

The answer surprises him. And pleases him, he thinks. He even smiles a little. "Reading it is," he says, and steers them back in the direction of the apartment complex. It's a bit of a walk, but it'll be worth it to sit somewhere warm and comfortable and read Steve some of the book he's working on.

Well, that smile clinches it. Steve lets Winter turn them back toward home, such as it is, and tries to shove down the intense upwelling of nostalgia bubbling in his chest. It's maybe more intense, even, by the little aches and pains still making themselves known. And while it feels a little bit like giving in, it also feels familiar and maybe even a little bit like giving Winter something, and he's had it rough with that damn pyramid. The least Steve can do is give him an easy afternoon. And if it seems like it's even mostly his idea, it makes the feeling of weakness at least a little more bearable, somehow.

It might not last, but he'll at least be easy to handle for now.

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[Log] Catch-All for February

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We can wrap this one if this seems like a good stopping point~