002 ➳ audio + action.

[sinuosity]

​Who: Nyssa.
Broadcast: Fleetwide audio.
Action: On the planet.
When: When the Fleet makes planetfall.

[ Briskly, ]

I am leading a hunting party. One companion is ideal; I will take no more than three. Bring your own weapons and dress for the cold. We depart at sunrise, from the lodge at the foot of the mountains, and there will be trips every other day beginning tomorrow.

​[ Beat. ]

If you wish to come and learn, you are welcome, but if you cannot keep up, you will be left behind.

​[ ooc: action prompts in comments. let me know if you'd like a custom starter. ]

Comments

[enshields]

[He really wants to explain this in as few words as possible, so--]

Back home, to the public-- Captain America is not a soldier, he's the soldier. Emblematic.

[sinuosity]

If you had not been honest with me previously I might be inclined to wonder if I was being mocked.

[ Lightly said. They're walking side by side now. ]

There is little to romanticise about soldiers, let alone place them on such a level. Perhaps I will understand given time.

[enshields]

[He's inclined to agree. They did dirty things in a dirty war, some people came home, some stayed in the ground. There were plenty of heroes, but none more-so than those they left.]

People needed a hero. Turns out, a guy from Brooklyn at the right place and the right time who can lift cars over his head serves just as well as anything. Me, I'd kind've preferred the anonymity.

[sinuosity]

[ Agreeably, ]

It is better to act as such and remain unknown. Though — if you do not like your story, there are ways to shape it.

[enshields]

I'd be fighting seventy years of myth if I tried.

[And honestly, he doesn't care enough to correct it. It would give too much of himself, of Bucky, of Peggy away to even try. Let the media blitz keep their Captain America. What little he has left, he guards fiercely.]

[sinuosity]

My father was fond of saying: Nothing is too much for one with the heart of a warrior.

[ Matching his tone. She looks at him, curious, but not piercing. ]

[enshields]

[He gives her a bit of a smile.]

Guess that depends on the warrior.

[sinuosity]

[ She smiles. ]

By definition a warrior is strong. So they will prevail, regardless.

[enshields]

Ah-- I always figured there was more to it than that.

[Strength can mean many things, but it's nothing without compassion, without care.]

[sinuosity]

Oh?

[ She raises an eyebrow. ]

[enshields]

[He shakes his head.]

Can I ask what you mean by strength first?

[sinuosity]

That is a difficult question, Steve Rogers.

[ Several minutes lapse: Nyssa's gaze follows the horizon, their feet, and the wind rustles the grass. ]

Strength is many things. The keen blade. A merciful hand, for those with less. The ability to hope and endure when all else is lost. Perhaps above all, I would say it is the willingness to be changed by love.

[enshields]

[The canary. He remembers.]

I've known a lot of people who fit that description who still haven't-- [he trails off. The snow is bright and blinding at the angle of the sun overhead, he thinks about photokeratitis and what it did in Europe.] --who got tired.

[sinuosity]

[ Nyssa frowns, and after moments of consideration, ]

One cannot expect the path to be easy.

[enshields]

[Soft,]

No. But having a moment of weakness doesn't negate a lifetime of strength, either.

[Bucky carries on somehow, despite it all.]

[sinuosity]

I apologise, I misunderstood. That is not weakness, it is rest. We all need it. Even the wolf tires.

[enshields]

[He shakes his head, and a sweep of his foot knocks a few small rocks out of their way.]

What if all they've got left is being tired?

[sinuosity]

[ It already beat me, Caesar had said to her, in those strange rooms. He didn't know it was a lie until she said so. Steve does not know this is a lie, too. ]

Pardon me. Do you speak for yourself or someone dear to you?

[enshields]

[A bit stiffly,]

I don't see how that matters.

[sinuosity]

One is need, the other patience.

[ She tilts her head, lightly. ]

I will not presume to know what is true, but you ask a soul as adrift as yourself.

[enshields]

[He's never been a patient man. He snorts faintly.]

How far out is this thing we're hunting?

[sinuosity]

[ A deflection is a deflection, but Nyssa has no taste for his blood. ]

A half-day's trek, four hours if we go at speed.