[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]

Winter takes a couple judicious steps back, just in case the silvered metal explodes and goes flying. "Don't burn your hands again," he warns, as if Steve has any actual control over that beyond not using lightning this time. "And you should protect your face."

[punched_hitler]

Steve sighs, as if very put upon; it's unclear which statement he feels that way about (maybe both), but he does pull out a pair of safety goggles he'd swiped from the lab. "You're no fun," he points out, even as his tone has an undercurrent of unease, because he doesn't like the way this thing keeps following Winter, and he wants to take care of it. He wants to stop it.

So he puts on the goggles, then hefts the hammer, swings it high over his head, and brings it down -

And staggers a little, though he stays on his feet.

[worthallthis]

The pyramid shatters into a dozen, maybe a hundred shards of silvered metal under the hammer blow. It always does. It's not hard to destroy, it just keeps coming back.

Winter approaches again, eyeing the remains, then eyeing Steve. "Did any of it hit you?"

[punched_hitler]

It is very satisfying to see the thing reduced to slivers, though Steve's admittedly distracted by the way he's feeling decidedly woozy.

"No, don't think so," he says, taking a careful step back from the spot without tearing his gaze away, like the pyramid will reconstruct itself if he blinks too slowly. "Just - feel a little lightheaded, that's all."

And achey.

"I'm fine. What do we do with it now?"

[worthallthis]

Winter is not exactly missing it, himself, because for some reason he knows exactly what Steve's face looks like when it's unsteady in specific ways. But the pyramid comes first. "We bury the pieces, separately, on different sides of the clearing. Worked for avatars."

Might as well give it a go here.

"You aren't allowed to touch any of it," he adds, waving Steve back a few steps so he can get at it. "In case it decides it likes you instead of me."

[punched_hitler]

Steve rolls his eyes (which admittedly doesn't help much with the dizziness) and pushes the goggles up on his head and can't really argue with that logic, even if he doesn't seem happy about it. "Let me help you dig the holes. And if you find any pieces that seem kinda big, I should make 'em smaller."

He will smash this thing into atoms if it seems like it'll help.

He'll even start moving toward one end of the clearing. In a second. He's got to catch his breath.

[worthallthis]

"Sure, go dig something," Winter agrees, but he's watching Steve rather than the slivers of silver. He's still not liking what he's seeing. "What's wrong."

[punched_hitler]

"Nothing," Steve says, in a tone of voice that he probably hasn't used since the early 1940s, while insisting he was not getting sick for the four thousandth time. "Just got a little dizzy for a second. Like I said."

Honestly, it feels like the move has sapped his strength, in some weird way - like he went to the gym and worked way too hard. (Something he is now familiar with, after a few poor starts at trying to figure out said gym with his big - but now just normal human - body.) "Took a little more outta me than I thought, is all. I'm fine."

And to prove it, he starts shuffling toward one end of the clearing to help dig that hole. "How's it looking?" he asks, wanting to turn Winter's attention back to the matter at hand.

[worthallthis]

Winter squints at him for a moment, but lets it slide for the moment. If he's still acting weird when they've got the slivers of silver buried, he'll bring it up again.

"It's looking the same," he grouses, but he's burying a few of the shards where they landed, rather than trying to pick them all up. "Don't fall down or anything. I don't want to carry you back to the apartments."

[punched_hitler]

"I'm not gonna fall down," Steve insists, though he winces - in a direction Winter can't see, he's got experience - as he gets to work when it makes his joints crack uncomfortably. But he can dig just fine, so he gets to it. It's just unreasonably exhausting, is all.

"How deep should I be digging?" He doesn't know if it really matters, but he'd rather opt for too deep than not deep enough, if he's being honest.

[worthallthis]

"At least four inches," Winter says, digging his bits a little lower, too. "A little more if you can. Something it won't be easy for someone to kick dirt off of to dig it up again on accident."

[punched_hitler]

"I'll aim for six," he says, because yeah, he doesn't think you can really go too far when it comes to something like this. "Here's hoping this thing doesn't decide to make all our work for naught. How long's it usually take to reappear?"

How long do they have to be on edge, wondering, is what he's asking.

[worthallthis]

"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.

[punched_hitler]

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.

[worthallthis]

"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."

[punched_hitler]

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.

[worthallthis]

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."

[punched_hitler]

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."

[worthallthis]

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.

[punched_hitler]

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.

[worthallthis]

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.

[punched_hitler]

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.

[worthallthis]

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."

[punched_hitler]

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.

[worthallthis]

"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."