driftfleet | Action | Who needs a gosh dang drink??

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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Of all the things he expected to hear, it wasn't that. Thor straightens up with confusion, staring at Steve for a moment.

"You what?" It's not so much Steve he's surprised about, but Loki. His brother has been so wilfully dismissive of all the Avengers in the past that he would have been less surprised if Steve told him Loki had tripped him in a corridor.

Even if that level of pettiness isn't Loki's style.

Steve glances up and then stares at the table once more, wondering if he's said something wrong.

"He and I were able to talk a bit. Understand each other better. I don't know what he'd consider me, but I'd call him a friend."

Frankly it's more than Thor would ever hope for. It might have blindsided him but he ends up grinning despite himself.

"Really! I'm glad to hear it - seriously," he adds, in case it wasn't clear. "He does need some, little though he'll admit it."

It's a genuinely nice surprise to find that Loki's making those kinds of steps with people, especially those from their own world. On another level, Thor files the information away for later. He may be glad for Loki gaining in friends, but he's still an older brother at heart: he's absolutely going to give him shit for it later.

Some of his good mood fades a bit as he remembers what else Steve had said. "Ah, but... you said you saw what happened."

He has a guess as to what Steve means, but he's not keen to say it.

It's almost funny how Steve could go from nearly hating Loki as an enemy to now getting a lump in his throat recalling the memory he saw of his murder.

"Yeah. With Thanos." Steve lifts his drink to swallow deep. "Loki seems to think, if he has an end, this is it."

It had been painful to hear. Steve remembers the way Loki had broken down. It's not for him to tell Thor himself but it is a big part of how their relationship got so close so quickly. He exhales and taps his fingers against the glass.

"I told him...if that was the end, he was definitely in Valhalla; no one was more Asgardian than he was. But. If we have a choice, I'd like it not to be. I'd like to bring him with us. He deserves better than that."

Thor thinks the same. Not that he ever thinks otherwise, vulnerable as he is to Loki's continual deaths. It always hurts no matter how often it happens, but... this had a sense of finality to it that had embedded its claws in him further than ever before. It's hard to breathe through it, sometimes.

It strikes him hard, when Steve mentions Valhalla. Hadn't he had a similar conversation with Loki, long ago in this place? And Thor hadn't had the answers for his brother then. Valhalla is something that's hung over them all their lives. Steve, well-meaning as he is, can't truly know the nature of the place. What it allows and doesn't allow. Thor's own father hadn't illuminated that much, when he appeared to him after his death. Still ... perhaps he should have said more.

Thor doubts he has the right to, though, when his own place in those golden halls seems seriously in question.

Making an effort to loosen his fingers around his glass, he takes a fortifying mouthful of the drink. "Make no mistake. I will not leave this place without him." Not willingly, or by force if he can help it. "I'll find a way to make it happen."

Steve reaches out and grips Thor's wrist. His eyes have a fire in them that burns with the fury he feels at injustice having been done. He hasn't even seen it all yet but he's seen and heard enough that he will do what he needs to. Whatever it takes.

"We will not leave without him," Steve assures him. And it's hollow because either can get plucked out without a moments notice, but it's also, hopefully, a comfort. If the worst happens and Thor is gone, Loki won't be abandoned. He has someone else here willing to fight.

"And I think the best place to start is probably that big ship half these people are afraid of attacking. Gotta be a reason we all wake up there."

Thor goes one better and moves to grip Steve's hand in turn. He can't deny he had missed the other man's steady nature while he was away. Even upon returning to Earth, he hadn't had the time to really talk to Steve - and then everything turned to dust. Likely there would be much to say when they got home and had to turn their minds to what happens next.

That's getting ahead of himself, though.

"You have my thanks, Steve." It's as sincere as Thor gets, which is always a lot. He's never been much for pretence. "And you have the right of it. I've encountered it enough times now to know it harbours more secrets than we can guess at. But we are starting to scratch away that surface."

And they'll crack through it eventually.

Action | Who needs a gosh dang drink??

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