[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

II

[bossyboiler]

She has made the effort to be available tonight. It is important that Winter does things that he likes because if he does, Kate believes that he'll feel more like a person. It is important to her that he feel like a person because he is one. She will take no arguments about it.

Kate is under the belief that people's memories are back to normal. "What do you mean? Of course you know how to dance." She looks at the entrance doors and can see people inside. Then she looks back and up at Winter. "Right?" Maybe he's trying out humor, she hopes.

[worthallthis]

He looks confused and a little unhappy. "HYDRA wasn't going to teach a weapon how to dance," he says uncertainly. Kate isn't the type to be mean like that.

And yet his feet knew how to take him here. And he knew he was doing this thing tonight. Just... not that it was dancing. Apparently.

[bossyboiler]

Kate is equally as confused. They are here. Where had Winter thought they were headed to when they had left the apartment? It doesn't make sense to her. However, there is one thing that she is certain of. "You're not a weapon anymore, Winter. You're a person who, up until this evening, liked to dance."

Maybe his memory has been permanently damaged but it seems very weird to Kate that it is only effecting the one area of his life. Well, weird until she remembers where they are. "Do you remember why we left the apartment?"

[worthallthis]

He jerks his head in a dismissal of the weapon thing, because he knows, he knows, that's not the problem. Not really.

"To come here," he says, answering her actual question. "Because I always come here this night of the month. But." There's something like horror slowly dawning on his face, roiling in his stomach. "I forgot," he says, voice thin. "I used to know and I forgot."

[bossyboiler]

She will fight him on that until the day he no longer says it.

Kate listens to him. She nods her head when he says that the intent had been to come to the rec center. That's good that he remembers that part, she thinks but is soon horrified to hear what he says next. Oh no. She reaches up and covers her mouth with her hand before then reaching out to touch his arm. She swiftly retracts her hand because she knows how he feels about touch. She simply could not help in wanting to provide comfort.

"That's not good, Winter." Which may be the understatement of the week. It is not good that this specific memory is gone. What to do? What to do? "Do you remember the last time we came to the rec center? Do you remember the steps?"

[worthallthis]

"I. No. I don't remember what happened last time," he says, clearly distressed, but it doesn't change any at the touch of her hand. He might even list her direction a little when she yanks it back again, distracted. He's not as bad about touch as he used to be. "I remember going in. I remember I was. It was good? It was a good time? But not what I did."

[bossyboiler]

"You are a very good dancer, Winter." She knows this factoid to be true. She has seen him in action. The crowd usually loves him. However, Winter is dead certain that he doesn't know how to dance. What could be causing this sudden memory loss? It's both puzzling and upsetting to her.

"Okay. Winter. Why don't we go back home so we can figure this out." Home where it's warm and Winter can feel safe.

[worthallthis]

Good idea. Home is familiar. Home is safe. He still remembers home. So after a beat, he swallows hard and says, "Okay." Then he turns away from the sign abruptly, shoving his fists in his pockets to keep them from shaking, and starts back for the apartments at a brisk pace. It's going to be quite a walk.

[bossyboiler]

Kate wants to reach out to him. She wants to link her arm through his so that he knows he's not alone. However, she refrains from so much as a pat to his shoulder because she believes that he doesn't like being touched. She's not going to further upset him.

When he turns away abruptly, her frown deepens. She quickly starts after him, keeping her pace quick so that she can stand next to him as they walk back home. "I don't suppose you've hit your head recently or injured yourself?"

[worthallthis]

He slows enough to make keeping up easy, but he's still not going slow. "No. Went into Dogtown for a little and came out with this shitty thing." His hand encountered the little metal pyramid with the Web designs on it, once again in his pocket, so he pulls it out to glare at it. "Maybe it's this thing's fault."

A pause, then the realization, "Cortana didn't remember me, for a while. She got better."

[bossyboiler]

"You went into Dogtown," Kate repeats. She's not expecting him to confirm his statement. "Again." A part of her can't believe what she's hearing. That place is dangerous and the odds of it holding answers seem unlikely to her. Can she stop them from going? No. Does she have to like it? Also, no!

"Winter, why are you keeping something you found in Dogtown in your pocket?" She feels this is a very valid question. "Did Cortana touch it?"

[worthallthis]

"Because every time I leave it somewhere or destroy it or give it away, it comes back," Winter says irritably. "Believe me, I don't want it, but it won't go away. ADI can't even keep it safe, I tried."

He glares at it, then puts it away again. "Cortana didn't remember me before I got this," he remembers. "So it can't be this thing's fault."

[bossyboiler]

"That's not good. If ADI can't keep it in their custody... Shit." It really isn't good if ADI can't contain the small artifact. That's what they're supposed to be capable of, to say the least. "Have you noticed it doing anything else strange?"

They continue to walk at a brisk pace. "It seems like everyone last month was having memory problems. Rue forgot about her fiancé. I forgot a date with my boy-I mean my friend. As far as I know, no one's been able to figure out what caused that."

[worthallthis]

Winter slides a look at her sidelong, and jumps on the distraction, at least for a moment. Something a little easier to think about. "I know what he is, Kate, you don't have to lie."

[bossyboiler]

"I'm not lying. I've just never referred to Adam as my boyfriend before. I don't know that it's appropriate yet." This is a conversation best to have with Yelena. With Winter it's like discussing her love life with one of her brothers.

"Why? Do you not approve or something?" He seems a little bit short on the subject.

[worthallthis]

"You can step out with whoever you want to," Winter says, first, a little defensively. But he feels he has to add, "I don't trust him, though. He lied to me. He isn't just a professor. He's something else, too. I don't know what."

[bossyboiler]

What? "Thank you for your permission?" What the hell is going on? Congratulations Winter, you've completely changed the subject. There is so much information to take in. She is completely flabbergasted. "I... When did you have this conversation?"

[worthallthis]

"A week ago. I followed him, and he lost me. Twice. Led me into an alley to talk. He knew I was there the whole time. That takes training, and experience at being followed." Winter glowers at the memory, because this is the worst part: "And then he lied to me about it. Tried to make me. Make me doubt myself. Like HYDRA did."

He shakes his head. "It might be fine. It might just be he was in special ops or something. I don't know. But he definitely has training and he definitely lied to me about it."

[bossyboiler]

Why are they having this conversation? Why do they have to have it at all? Kate reaches up and touches the side of her face. This conversation cannot be happening but it is.

She listens to what he says. She shakes her head. It's all terrible. "Why did you decide to take it upon yourself to follow him?" Let's get that question out of the way first.

There are a hundred explanations as to why Adam had eluded Winter. "It was wrong that he gaslit you. I am sorry for that." But she wasn't there. She doesn't know.

[worthallthis]

"You don't need to be sorry. He does," Winter shrugs. "And I followed him to try and learn more about him. It seemed the most efficient way." Without, you know, talking to him. Winter knows his social skills are not exactly up to snuff, and he had, at least at first, figured he would spare the man his blunt interrogations.

And then that went all to hell, anyway. He knows the situation isn't optimal, but he'd really, really not expected Adam to lose him that easily. Twice.

[bossyboiler]

"I'll talk to him?" She offers. Of course, she is going to talk to Adam regardless of what Winter says. She has to.

"You could have asked me or him outright?" Kate says as a suggestion. "It would be way less dangerous for the both of you. And besides, give me some credit, I wouldn't date just anyone."

[worthallthis]

He huffs a little sigh. At least this is distracting him from his disquiet about the dancing. That's something. "I am not good with people, talking to him would have resulted in. Something like what happened." And he was right, it sure did result in that.

He looks sidelong at her. "And you wouldn't know if he was making trouble. Because he wouldn't tell you. He wasn't supposed to know I was there. He shouldn't have known I was there." It takes training and experience to spot a tail like that.