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Voices from Heaven ([personal profile] thespaceopera) wrote in [community profile] driftfleet2016-01-24 01:02 pm

Gumball Wishes and Taxicab Dreams

[On today's episode of the Drift Fleet:

The cargo holds are full of mysterious crates! The crews are filling beyond capacity with new faces! Official alerts are informing the passengers that they are signed to contracts that they've never agreed to! They are docking at the dazzling FS Starlight, but are flat broke!

What are they going to do!? Stay tuned to find out!


...Meaning, this is a kickoff mingle for you all to enjoy the beginning of the latest plot setting. This is a convenient place to start threads relating to the first week of the event-- meeting new crewmembers, reacting to the mysterious cargo, arriving on the station and discovering that you're all broke, etc.

Tag around, start whatever you'd like, have fun. And, as always, feel free to make your own posts and mingles from here on in, as this will be the only mod-posted one for this event!]
redactions: ([ tfatws ] 115.)

[personal profile] redactions 2016-01-27 08:09 am (UTC)(link)
Yeah, I know.

[ a huff. He ruffles Steve's hair. ]

What's the point? You'll just get miserable over it.
enshields: (pic#9423779)

[personal profile] enshields 2016-01-27 08:14 am (UTC)(link)
You might've gotten away with it if the first thing you'd said was no.

[He sighs, tips his head into that ruffling. He won't deny the misery - of all people, Jim's the one who best knows how he bleeds - but sometimes, the only way forward is through.]

Was it-- did it take me longer to find you? In '42?
redactions: ([ ca: cw ] 51.)

[personal profile] redactions 2016-01-27 08:19 am (UTC)(link)
I ain't that good a liar.

[ And it doesn't take an artist to notice the movement of his shoulder where the skin is scarred. There's muscle damage that diminish upper-body strength. No way it doesn't hurt. ]

No, it — I got shot by one of those ray-weapons they had. Whole arm just [ making a 'poof' gesture with his right hand. ]. After that they pulled me off the work line, sent me straight to Zola.
enshields: (pic#8428298)

[personal profile] enshields 2016-01-27 08:35 am (UTC)(link)
[He still remembers it. The first time he ever saw Zola standing at the end of a long hallway. He could have killed him then, without even knowing who he was or what he'd done, but he'd been so focused on finding Buck--

What's one more what-if? In the grand scheme of his life? Not much. He steps out from under Jim's arm and goes back to studying the prosthesis.]


Did the Army try to serve you a discharge?

[He's privately surprised, war hero or no, that they didn't just confiscate the arm under the thin veneer of it being enemy technology they needed to study and ship Buck back stateside. Captain America wasn't worth all that much weight back in '42, so what then? Phillips? How many strings did he pull? They had to fight hard enough to keep Morita and Jones. Arguing for an integrated unit - much less an international one - burned up every favour Steve's tenuous influence had accrued, and Philips always claimed he'd cashed in all his chips to allow it.]
redactions: ([ ca: tfa ] 66.)

[personal profile] redactions 2016-01-27 08:41 am (UTC)(link)
[ Obligingly, Jim turns, and directs him to replace the bicep plate, and remove the ones on his forearm instead. ]

No. The Colonel and Stark kept it quiet, if anyone asked we all made the excuse it was experimental. You'd covered it up before we joined the rest of the men marching home. Peggy and the other Commandos knew. Guess they all figured [ he grimaces ] they could look at it after the War.
enshields: (pic#8292702)

[personal profile] enshields 2016-01-27 08:48 am (UTC)(link)
Did Howard look after it? [A brief pause. Would he have trusted Stark with something like that? No. Quieter,] Did I?
redactions: ([ ca: cw ] 39.)

[personal profile] redactions 2016-01-27 08:49 am (UTC)(link)
Pal, [ he says, softly, ] you wouldn't let anybody near it. You fussed so bad sometimes I thought about socking you. I thought I was the worrier.
enshields: (pic#9957512)

[personal profile] enshields 2016-01-27 09:07 am (UTC)(link)
[He makes a hoarsely amused little noise as he sets the paneling to one side so he can see the arm's inner workings. Looks like it hasn't been cleaned in a while either, some of the gears and smaller pistons are starting to get gummed up. Jim's probably noticed the slow in his reaction time, so Steve reaches for the cleaning supplies almost absent-mindedly.]

You're kidding, right? I learned from the best.
redactions: ([ ca: tfa ] 11.)

[personal profile] redactions 2016-01-27 09:12 am (UTC)(link)
[ Smiling helplessly at him, ]

I wasn't that bad, was I?
enshields: (pic#9957498)

[personal profile] enshields 2016-01-27 09:15 am (UTC)(link)
[Gently, as he cleans one of the hydraulic ports that leads to the elbow--]

The worst. Some days I felt like I couldn't sneeze anywhere in New York without you hollerin' bless you.

[He huffs, half a laugh.]

I missed it, you know? After.

[He doesn't specify, after what.]
redactions: ([ ca: tfa ] 19.)

[personal profile] redactions 2016-01-27 09:20 am (UTC)(link)
[ He smiles, it softens. ]

I kept lookin' for you. You know. Felt like I wasn't walkin' right or something.
enshields: (pic#9957521)

[personal profile] enshields 2016-01-27 09:41 am (UTC)(link)
I do know.

[Rhetorical question, but. He rubs his forearm across his forehead to get his too-long hair out of his eyes and then glances out from under the mess at Jim properly.]

You were missed, pal. Just as much.

[Because he's come to the conclusion that somehow, Jim doesn't think an awful lot about his own self worth. In some awful, twisted-up way, Steve wonders if it's because he never did a good enough job of lettin' him know he cared.]
redactions: ([ ca: tfa ] 49.)

[personal profile] redactions 2016-01-27 09:52 am (UTC)(link)
[ Something vulnerable flicks across his expression, and he draws Steve close again, just listening to his heart for several moments. ]

Steve, it wasn't — you always did fine without me. I was the one aimless. Even when we were kids. It wasn't about you needin' to give anything back, you were there. That was enough.
enshields: (pic#9093090)

[personal profile] enshields 2016-01-27 10:05 am (UTC)(link)
[Gently,]

You thought I did fine.
redactions: ([ tfatws ] 138.)

[personal profile] redactions 2016-01-27 10:08 am (UTC)(link)
[ Funny, how he can think of a five hundred foot fall, then enduring seventy years worth of Hell in another world and barely flinch. But The ache in Steve's voice twists his heart and sends him crumbling. ]

[ Soft, ]

You were fine in the War.
enshields: (pic#8428231)

[personal profile] enshields 2016-01-27 10:19 am (UTC)(link)
Buck.

[It doesn't register, that he's using the name he'd been asked not to. It's natural, to him.]

Every second I was there, I was scared. I was gonna make some bad call and get one of our boys killed-- or you, or Peg. I-- a lotta good things came together for me over there, I won't lie about that. But I was never fine. I just-- I did what I had to. That meant holding it together, so I did.
redactions: ([ ca: cw ] 44.)

[personal profile] redactions 2016-01-27 10:23 am (UTC)(link)
Sorry.

[ For not seeing that. He always had a nose for Steve's wounds, and the instinct to help close them. Why can't he accept that losing him was the most painful one? ]
enshields: (pic#9423774)

[personal profile] enshields 2016-01-27 10:26 am (UTC)(link)
[Gently,]

You don't owe me an apology. Not for that, not for nothing. Okay?
redactions: ([ ca: tfa ] 34.)

[personal profile] redactions 2016-01-27 10:27 am (UTC)(link)
Idiot. It's my job.

[ To look after you. ]
enshields: (pic#9093046)

[personal profile] enshields 2016-01-27 10:36 am (UTC)(link)
You had plenty worries o' your own, last I checked. And... you know, it was-- [a helpless little shrug, he gestures the length of his body.] Easier, I guess. The Hell did I have to complain about, body like mine?

[So he just pushed himself to the end of every edge. It didn't catch up with him until they pulled him out of the ice, from a tomb he'd have not objected overmuch to remaining in at least at the time. Now, knowing Bucky's out there in the wind, he's a little more resistant to the idea. Getting to that point of self awareness wasn't easy.]

Look-- you never fell down in lookin' after me. You. [His voice pitches, it breaks a bit. He fusses with the arm a moment longer.] You're my best friend, Jim. How could you?
Edited 2016-01-27 10:37 (UTC)
redactions: ([ ca: tfa ] 49.)

[personal profile] redactions 2016-01-27 10:54 am (UTC)(link)
[ The silence acts as acknowledgement of their shared grief, and then Jim leans into his space, unwilling to move even when Steve steps away to fetch the plates to set them back. ]
enshields: (pic#8846349)

[personal profile] enshields 2016-01-27 11:01 am (UTC)(link)
Yeah, pal. I hear ya.

[Steve finishes tuning up the various bits of the arm as best he can, puts the plates back together in silence and starts hunting around for a cloth to wipe the grease and the red hydraulic fluid from his hands.]