Windrose June Mingle!

[passingthrough]

Who: SS Windrose + Visitors
Broadcast: Unlikely
Action: SS Windrose
When: June — anytime!

[Now featuring bathroom rank II for all your bathtub and and additional ten minutes of water per hour needs! We also have more and faster shuttles! Just last month we made it to actual double-sized beds for all your double-sized fun. Special features include a hanging medicinal herb garden in the cargo bay complete with bacon-flavored kelp and Officer Snuggles the resident security fox!

Please enjoy your stay. Unless you're The Stalker. There's a sandwich bag waiting for you.]

Comments

[reconstitution]

Good. [ He nods. ]

See? Can't be all them. Just like how enjoying reading and The Beatles and hating gel protein are things I learned here.. Useless things like that are for people, not weapons.

[ Do you see, Wrath? Well, they're not useless to normal people, but soldiers had no need for things like that. Pointless when put next to martial arts or weapons knowledge and training. ]

[pain_train]

[He's right. He has to be right. Because... how would knitting and poker and chess make her a better officer? Well, chess, maybe. But painting? Stupid unicorn shoes? He has to be right.]

Yeah.

[Her voice is a bare whisper. She licks her lips and tries again.] Okay. So... I'm a person. [Winter's a person. So she is too, right?] Like you.

[reconstitution]

Yeah.. We're people. People who weren't allowed to be, before.

[ He shakes his head slightly, hair obscuring his face. ]

We're entitled, aren't we?

[pain_train]

[She wishes she could move enough to brush the hair away from his face. She wants to see him. Because he is a person, and his face looks totally different now than when he hadn't been at home.

But.]

I want to believe we are. I think... I know you are. [She knows enough about him to be comfortable saying that. But is she the same? If she was made, it was to--protect the city? Protect the corporation? One of those seems good, one of those isn't, and it's all mixed up in her head if that's even her own thought or not.

Softly:] I don't know about me. Maybe I was anti-social or something. Maybe I deserved it. It's like... This thing in my head telling me I did, and I try to believe it's wrong, but...

[She doesn't know. At least Winter has the advantage of having met Jim and knowing he was a good man who didn't deserve to be made into a tool. And she's so glad for that. He deserves better. He's the best friend she has even if he doesn't realize it.]

[reconstitution]

[ God. She thinks she deserved all that? It's hard enough for him to admit that what Hydra did to him wasn't fucking right. He exhales a little shakily, but dammit, he won't confess to doing it. ]

If you deserved it, then so did I.

[ Go ahead and tell him he got what he deserved. ]

That was the rudest tag ever

[pain_train]

[Wrath looks up at him, feeling sick. She wants to laugh, but it comes out in a weird, wry smile as she grips his hand. Her voice is husky, but she's not going to cry, dammit, Winter is tough and so is she.] That was a dick move, Winter.

you're welcome

[reconstitution]

[ He's not going to get emotional, either. They're soldiers, dammit. Soldiers don't cry. But people do, so it's a really fucked up loophole. Gently, ]

I'm an asshole, remember? [ Honestly, Wrath. ]

h d u

[pain_train]

[She laughs, and a few tears spill down her cheeks. Just ignore them. Everything is fine.] You're my best friend, you asshole.

[reconstitution]

Yeah, you too..

[ It's scary, having attachments to this place. Fuck, he tried not to care, and he should try harder now, because all he does is hurt people. ]

[pain_train]

[Good luck with that, Winter. She's never letting you go again, ever.

She takes a careful, steadying breath.] Okay, together or not at all.

I'll... talk to Charles.

[reconstitution]

If you want me there when you do.. I will.

[ It's a scary thing, giving someone consent to meddle with your head. So many things can go wrong, but she trusts Charles, and now so does Winter. ]

[pain_train]

[That feels like a big offer. She can't imagine what it would be like, sitting around with someone while they got their brain... whatevered. Would it be boring? Scary? Who knew. ]

Thanks. I'll talk to Charles and...

[She doesn't want Charles to think she's afraid of him. She's not, really. She's scared of what's in her head. What's going to happen. At the idea of someone changing something in there, if not Charles specifically. She swallows, mouth and throat dry.]

I might need you.

[reconstitution]

[ He'll do whatever she needs him to, because she's his friend. While he can't say the same for others, he'll jump through fire for Wrath. ]

I'm here.

[ She'll be fine. Hell, maybe she'll wise up and find better friends than him after her head is straightened. God, he hopes that's not the case. ]