[Log] Catch-All for February

[worthallthis]

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.

Comments

[worthallthis]

"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."

[punched_hitler]

"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.)

[worthallthis]

"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."

[punched_hitler]

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.

[worthallthis]

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.

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

[punched_hitler]

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.