Action | Who needs a gosh dang drink??

[brooklyn_boy]

Who: Steve and everyone else who just needs to get drunk. One closed to existing CR
Broadcast: No
Action: The Iskaulit/Space Bar
When: Post Calibrations/Bombing the eff out of Marsiva


[OPEN]

Tony would probably be proud of Steve, if he were able to see him right now. He'd slap his back and welcome him back to the world of inebriation while ordering shots for everyone in the bar to commemorate the day. As it is, though, Tony isn't here and, without him, there's not a damn person who would feel proud in this entire bar. That's part of it's charm.

Steve sighs and swallows his fourth drink. It's strong and alien and somehow enough to give him a strong buzz but not enough to really get him drunk. Not yet, at least. But he's not a quitter, so bottom's up! He hisses a little at the burn of it and feels, not for the first time, like he was being a coward. He saw some stuff in those rooms, sure. But other people had it so much worse. Saw so much more. He should really be thankful, actually.

But he's not. And this is a 30's approved way of getting over trauma. There were worse ways of coping, he was sure. So for now he's just going to stay in his seat and keep ordering drinks until that elusive drunken state hits him once more.

Should only take another hour or three.


[CLOSED TO EXISTING CR]

No one could blame Steve for starting. He'd messaged his friends about fifteen minutes ago, telling them to meet him at the bar for some drinks. But just sitting here, waiting? It was done better with a drink in hand to look social, at least. And it's not like that one is going to be his last. No, after Calibrations he can imagine himself coming over here quite often. He can imagine all of them coming here quite often, in fact. But maybe tonight (today? Space was hard to judge) would help take some of the sting off. Or at least some of the awkwardness. 

But it wasn't as though they <i>chose</i> to share all of that. Loki, Steve is sure, would have preferred to keep his death to himself. And Thor? I am sure half of those memories were things he'd rather not have replayed over and over again. And <i>Hux</i>. God... That was just what Steve knew of. Who knew what other people had put his friends through? What they'd been through themselves? 

Steve preemptively orders another drink for whoever shows up first. Whoever it was, he's sure they won't say no. Not now. 

First round is on him.

Comments

[brooklyn_boy]

He barks out a laugh, shooting a smile at his friend. "Hard question, Wanda." But still, he's free now and the worst seems to be behind him. Now they're drifting again and he has time to talk to his friends. Deal with everything he's seen.

He reaches out and pats Wanda on the shoulder.

"How was it for you?"

[seeingscarlet]

She shrugs. "It could have been worse. But no one got hurt." Her fears and self-doubt may have manifested as the most horrible people in her past, but Koschei-Ultron at least hadn't been able to get out of control. She doesn't know if he could have. But Natasha had disarmed him by refusing to engage and Vision had instead applied gentle logic to talk her down.

"What about you?"

[brooklyn_boy]

"It wasn't the best thing but it could have been worse." He remembers most of it. Not everyone does so Steve counts himself lucky in that regard. It's better to know than to not. Otherwise you could just get blind-sighted by someone knowing you better than you realize.

"Another Bucky is here. I also got to poke around my first officer's trauma." He blows out a breath. "It wasn't all bad but still. It wasn't fair to be flayed open like that."

[seeingscarlet]

She glances away. It's not like they really have any secrets from her anymore, so it had seemed only fair for the Avengers to take their turns poking around at whatever they wished in her head. But for everyone else to be aware of it happening again...she can only imagine.

"I see why you started early," she says after a beat. "Will you be all right?"

[brooklyn_boy]

"Yeah. Yeah, I'll be fine. Been through worse." He smiles and debates a moment telling her something that she might not want to know. But...really. It wasn't a bad thing. Not entirely.

"The...dream you gave me? With Peggy?" He doesn't know if Wanda actually knows what the dream was or if she just triggered it. Still, "It was in my room. Locked up in a box with one of my favorite memories of Bucky. It was...a wish I never got to come true. Even if it was fake... It is special to me."

[seeingscarlet]

Wanda bites her lip and continues studying her drink. That time she hadn't made the entire vision up, but she had guided it to steer it away from Bucky, the same way she'd steered Thor's vision away from Loki and Frigga. Some kinds of losses cut too deeply.

"...I'm sorry."

[brooklyn_boy]

"No. No, don't be..." He reaches out and takes Wanda's hand. "Don't be sorry. I know...why you did it at the time, but it is the only chance I got to dance with Peggy." That he remembers, anyways. "There's a reason I guard that memory. It might have been fake but it felt real in the moment." And when you live with the ghosts of what might have been, that is the best you could ever hope for.

[seeingscarlet]

Wanda manages - but only barely - not to jump. She knows Steve well enough to expect that kind of reaction from him, but it's still weird. "I am...good at what I do, even if what I do isn't good. I had a terrible teacher."

She straightens, shrugs. "I have wondered why my powers became like this. Pietro was always proud that he had been so quick to save us, but this...I think maybe I spent too much time wishing things were different."

[brooklyn_boy]

It's an interesting question; why did Wanda and Pietro's powers develop so differently? Was it random or did it have something to do with who these people were? Steve's not sure that there will ever be an answer to this but that doesn't stop the questions.

"How would you have wanted it to go?" The question kids ask themselves: if you could pick any power, what would it be?

"Growing up...all I wanted was to be healthy and strong. I might have overshot the runway a bit with the serum but..." He shrugs. Spilled milk. "What would you have wished for?"

[seeingscarlet]

Wanda smiles a little at that. Steve and Pietro both really managed overkill, didn't they? "I don't know. I used to read a lot of stories when I was little but after my parents died...what good were they?"

To two kids struggling to stay alive? Nothing at all but something to help them sleep at night.

"I saw it, in the Calibrations dreams. It wasn't part of me, it was a large red dragon."

[brooklyn_boy]

[Curious, Steve shifts closer. A dragon? Was Wanda saying that was what her powers had manifested as? A large, red dragon? Or was that something else entirely?]

Did it want to hurt you? The dragon? Or....did it...do anything?

[seeingscarlet]

[She shakes her head.]

It got upset when I did, but it didn't hurt anyone. In our stories, dragons are usually not evil. They're protectors. But I was still afraid.

Vision helped me see that I shouldn't think of it as something separate from myself.

[brooklyn_boy]

That makes sense. If anything, you're a protector.

[Steve smiles, imagining it. It suits Wanda more than he would have thought.]

Maybe it's time for a change of hero name...

[seeingscarlet]

[She laughs.]

I can't actually turn into a dragon, Steve.

[brooklyn_boy]

Not with that attitude.

[He laughs too, liking the sound of Wanda's. He never heard it enough.]

Sounds like you made peace with it. With yourself. That's a powerful thing.

[seeingscarlet]

It's...it is not so simple. There are still things I can't forgive myself for.

But trying to keep my powers so separate from myself doesn't help.

[brooklyn_boy]

There are things all of us hold onto. But you're right: you need to know that's part of you. It's a process, though.

I'm glad you have the Vision to help you.