[Open] Sometimes with turbulence

[aboveangrybees]

Who| Steve & Anyone
What| It's been a crazy couple of weeks.
Where| A little bit of everywhere
When| After Cruentus' announcement, but also backdating welcome.
Warnings/Notes| There will be mention of: Arena Death, the District 3 Tragedy, and the Abuse of a Punching Bag. In one tag, which will be marked, there will be mentions of Nazis and the Holocaust.
You can date anything as far back as two weeks ago when Steve got out of the arena, but for time reference: The Training Center is Anytime Post District Three Announcement and the Speakeasy is Anytime Post Quarantine.


1. Roof:

[Up here on the roof, the air feels fresher. Away from everything, up here it feels like a small escape, even if he never can. His mind is always going over plans and ideas for how to take this place down, going over maps Lonestar shared and ideas for communication - especially after learning about the chip and it's upgrade.

All of it being thought out as his hand flies across the paper sketching - people, places, memories, the plant to his left, nothing anyone could look at and see any of his thoughts. If anyone is up here too long with him, he'll end up sketching them too.

But even if he's drawing or looking out at the city on thought or reading, Steve looks up when people come too near and acknowledges them with a nod.]


2. Training Center:

[It isn't as if he thinks his slight change in routine will go unnoticed, how after what happened to District Three he could be found down in the training center more often, but he keeps what he does down here varied. Hopefully to keep them thrown off to precisely his reasons for being down here more often.

Working at multiple stations, using them to practice skills and to gain new ones. Not just things like making a fire or fishing hook, but also his body in all aspects, especially his parkour training and stamina. Sometimes beating the snot out of a punching bag.

The frustrations of what happened and being helpless to act now is what's driving him into the routine change, but it's also to keep in shape and his mind sharp for the day he finally gets to take on the capitol.]


3. Speakeasy:

This is a good place; yeah it's useful, but more than that, it's got an atmosphere he can appreciate. A reminder of the days before blood and ice and war. Even the name feels right to him. Everywhere in the Capitol is behind enemy lines, so he'll never forget his situation or be properly comfortable, but it's nice to have that moment of memory.

So, he's not surprised to realize he's coming here whenever he feels like meeting someone. Maybe make connections, find people with similar goals against the capitol - a task too big for even him to take on alone.

He greets anyone who approaches him with a nod and if they are familiar a hello along with it. The company is welcome, he doesn't come here to be alone with his typically non-alcoholic drink.


((OOC: Prose or Brackets work fine by me! I like both.))

Comments

[Private 616!Bucky: Backdated to after Bucky's arena death]

[aboveangrybees]

[News of Bucky's death came with cold announcement at the end of the day with a short clip of what happened, not enough to really understand what happened, but enough to see him die. It was uncomfortable. It shouldn't be said with less emotion than a weatherman announcing sunshine tomorrow.

Regardless, Steve went to find Bucky the next day, check in with him. Maybe he was being a bit overbearing in his concern for his allies and friends, but he felt loyalty for them and also responsibility. He's the one who should know how to stop all this, right? But instead they are all dying only to wake up again after. And he's only baby steps closer to stopping this cycle.

Shaking his head, he knocks on the door and hopes for an answer.]

[Private to Jolie]

[aboveangrybees]

[He wants to know what it is with Natashas and their insistence of setting him up with people. Because this is a theme now. Sure, he knows this date was more trading him for something, but still, it's a Natasha setting him up on a date. A pattern is showing up.

Not one to be a bad date though, Steve spruced up enough to be presentable, especially knowing his date is a stylist, but nothing extravagant. He even let his own district stylist freshen up his look a little, though he constantly had to keep curbing their enthusiasm. It's really the first time he willingly let the stylist at him, so he's glad he doesn't have blue hair and glitter by the end.

Once he frees himself from his suite, he waits downstairs for his date to arrive. He's doing his best to keep his nerves under wraps, but it's hard. He's done a couple mild dates since he woke up from the ice, but that doesn't mean he's in his element here. Facing down the Red Skull was easier than going on a date.]

[reallynow]

[Steve isn't the only one feeling the nerves, but Trey is used to the buzz of it all. He wouldn't have proposed the idea if he weren't invested in seeing it through, after all. It had been worth all of the five seconds it had taken to get Stephen and Natasha all set up. There's always the small, vulnerable concern that Steve will find him insufferable or it will be awkward, but Trey is confident enough to believe he can charm his way out of any of those issues.

He's dressed pretty casually for a stylist, but he's accessorised enough to feel confident in his abilities remaining unquestioned. He's figured out by now that most tributes prefer a more understated look, so he likes to adhere to that for their sake.

Once he's ready, he's practically bouncing down the stairs like an excited child, the smile on his face is so wide and bright you could probably check your teeth in it. He strides over to Steve with the smile unwavering, lifting his hand in a small wave when he steps into his line of vision.]

You look like you could use a drink. [He crinkles his nose with the tease.] Look at you all dressed up, it's like my birthday all over again. [A beat.] I'm Trey, by the way. Trey Pierce, Red might have called me Jolie.

[aboveangrybees]

[Steve wasn't entirely sure what to expect when told he was set up on a date with a Capitolite, especially when Natasha mentioned his name was Jolie, but so far this seems normal enough. The guy thing is new, well for someone setting him up that is, he's always been pretty open about gender - not that many people know that.

Doesn't make him any less nervous about this date though. A drink is sounding good at this rate.]

Uh, yeah, she did. A pleasure, Trey. [You're supposed to call your date by their first name, right? Seemed weird to call him Mr. Pierce.] I'm Steve Rogers, [he offers a hand to shake] though, I'm sure you knew that. [Steve gives an awkward smile, he's so out of his element when it comes to this aspect of socializing.]

You look nice tonight. [Most people from the Capitol he's met, well more seen, are... extravagant. Trey's relatively normal in comparison and that Steve appreciates that.]

[reallynow]

Of course, I definitely know you. You don't have to be here long until everybody at least knows you as that tall blond guy or the man in the dress. [He gives him a knowing smile, taking his hand and shaking it with enthusiasm. He gives it an affectionate squeeze, but not so tight as to be aggressive.]

You think so? [He looks down at himself like he forgot what he was wearing.] I made it myself. Your Stylist did a pretty good job too, but I think it might be easy when you have a good canvas. [He winks good naturedly, looping his arm through Steve's affectionately and leading him forward like he's used to this sort of thing.] I thought we might go to my usual place. It's nothing super ritzy but the booze is always good.

Roof; After Creuntus' little video greeting

[arrogantalloy]

[ Tony's becoming quite a regular on the roof, if for no other reason than because it is the only place where he can almost fool himself into feeling free, the kind of free only his suits could ever offer.

As always now his hand has a tumblr of liquor in it.

He glances at Steve as he walks past heading straight to the ledge, he rests his hands on the wall surrounding the roof and closes his eyes for a moment.]

Let me guess, they threatened you with bag abuse?

[aboveangrybees]

[When Stark arrives, Steve watches him move across the roof and settle at the ledge. He sets down his pencil and waits for the man to inevitably speak.

At least when he does, Steve gives a smirk.]

Not my fault they're so punchable. Though, I think they're more getting tired of me trashing them.

[No shame there, if he costs these people some extra money, then he's pleased to do it.]

Catching an early start? [He looks at the tumbler of liquid before looking back up at the man. No judgement, he can understand why this place would drive anyone to drink. He just hopes Stark gets his head back in the game and out of the bottle soon.]

[arrogantalloy]

[ He gives an amused noise as he breathes out at Steve's comment on the punching bags, before looking at his glass thoughtfully. ]

That assumes I've slept.

[ He punctuates this by drinking from the glass. ]

[aboveangrybees]

[The comment makes Steve feel concerned for the man. They might not be friends, but Steve and Stark are still teammates.]

You need to sleep, Stark. Do I need to tuck you in and read you a bedtime story to make sure that happens?

[He uses a little bit of a wry tone, but he's still serious about the fact that the man needs to sleep. Self neglect doesn't get anyone anywhere.]

Training center

[justoutrunyou]

[After the most recent broadcast from Penny Sandy has alot of anger in her. More then she's ever felt before in her life. Storming into the training center with a duck under her arm this young girl makes a B-line for the practice dummies. She sets her duck down on the weapons table and picks up a club. There is a deep breath and she lets out a scream rushing at the dummies and swinging the club wildly and with reckless abandon. Her face is red as she strikes again and again at the dummy, screaming the whole time till her eyes start to water]

I HATE YOU I HATE YOU! HOW DARE YOU HURT HER!!!

[Clearly someone has something on their mind. The duck doesn't seemed bothered as he sits on a shield and proceeds to preen his feathers.]

[aboveangrybees]

[Steve was down here for very similar reasons, having seen the announcement and needed an outlet for the frustrations he felt. It was sick what these people did and Steve wasn't yet in a position where he could take action, where he could stand up and fight back. He couldn't even say anything without risking so many more lives than just his own.

He's barely started in on the punching bag when his attention is grabbed by the young girl who arrived only moments after him. His heart hurts for her when her words make him realize she knew someone on that video, it was too coincidental to be anything else.

But he's worried she'll hurt herself with how she's going at that dummy and how she's seeming borderline hysterical with her grief. So, he moves over to her, hand catching the club in midswing and crouching down to her level at the same time.]

Woah, hey! Calm down, kid, just breathe. [He uses his most level and calming voice.]

[justoutrunyou]

[Her eyes flash with fury for a moment and then shock. She's so stunned her tight grip on the club loosens and her eyes almost seem to vibrate in her skull.]

I...

[She seemed to catch herself after that brief shock and stumbled backwards from him abandoning the club.]

I-it's none of your business.

[It's a stammer of a protest and she doesn't sound entirely convinced.]

[aboveangrybees]

[The shock surprises him some. He was expecting anger for sure, probably someone who would instead lash out at him - in some ways probably for the better - and a little shock, but the level of shock he got was something more than a strange guy stopping her from hurting herself.

He keeps his voice calm as he speaks with her, taking the abandoned club and setting it aside.]

I know, I'm not saying it is, but you're going to hurt yourself at this rate. [He gives her a sympathetic look.]

I don't want that to happen, can't imagine your friend would either.

3

[aintyourdad]

Joel might look and sound like the kind of guy who's a hard drinker, but that's not actually the case. Once in a while, sure. Back in the good old days, before the outbreak, he liked a cold beer or a shot of whiskey once in a while, same as any red-blooded Texan - though even then, with a daughter to raise, he practiced moderation and only drank socially.

He tends to prefer coffee, when he can get it, preferring the way it sharpens his senses rather than dulls them, helps keep him alert and on his toes. Alcohol is just dangerous where he comes from, slowing reflexes and reaction times.

But even Joel, even here, occasionally needs that dulling - occasionally needs to have a few drinks and let his brain turn to mush for an evening. Especially now, with an entire district wiped off the map, a plague that nearly did to this world what the infection did to his, Ellie still in the arena, and the news that Tess is alive and being held in District 5.

Yeah, Joel needs a stiff drink.

When he spots Steve, he's already had a couple shots, and now he's nursing a beer. He gives the other man a nod of acknowledgment - the least he can do, after their meeting in the arena.

[aboveangrybees]

Joel is hard not to notice, so different from everything in this city, which was refreshing in its own right. He debates approaching the man, he saw how he died, knows who killed him, and even if Joel doesn't know that Steve has a connection to the man, it still gives him pause. But when the man gives him a nod of acknowledgement, Steve moves to join him.

It probably wasn't an invitation, but that doesn't stop him. He'd like to know more about this man Clem stayed with.

"See you got a head start on me," he says it blandly. All he's drinking is beer, the one glass he's been nursing. The speed and quantity isn't nearly enough to affect him. Sure, he can get drunk now, but it's still an effort.

[aintyourdad]

"Been here a while," Joel says with a vague sort of shrug. Which is true, he's been here about an hour now - maybe a little more.

There aren't many places he can go that make it easy to ignore the screens everywhere, playing and replaying news about things he's not interested in hearing anymore.

He's not sure how he feels about Steve joining him, which is why he doesn't just tell him to leave. Whatever - what does it matter? He doubts they'll talk about anything consequential.

"Been back in the city long?" he offers.

2

[shenunigans]

[Dave half considers walking on out of the training center when he sees Steve there, looking all impressive. However, he can't help hanging around to watch for a moment. Seeing one of your- well, a hero, he was always more of an ironette- A HERO in action is kind of awe inspiring.

It's only when Dave notices that he's working on parkour that he starts to get a little more excited. Before he can clock himself, he's slinking a little closer to the obstacle course. And then he's jogging, and then he's running and throwing himself over the damn thing with all of the finesse of a kid who has been doing this sort of thing his whole life. He can hardly believe it when he's swinging himself past Captain America and up the next obstacle. If there's two things he's good at in life, it's fucking up timelines and climbing really fast.]

On your right. [He calls out from his place, readjusting his shades as he does.]

[aboveangrybees]

[Steve is rarely unaware of people around him, so he knew Dave was there and watching him, but what he didn't exactly expect was the boy joining him. So, when the kid comes swinging by his side, he does a split second adjustment to his momentum, bending it away from Dave so they don't accidentally collide. He comes to a stop with an effortless perch on a ledge too small for most to catch their balance on, but Steve seems perfectly at home on.

Looking up and over to the boy, Steve gives him a raised eyebrow and an amused smile.] You part monkey or something?

[shenunigans]

[Dave surprises himself with it, honestly. He's not exactly Mr.Team-Player, but he has missed training with other people rather than himself. One is the loneliest number, one can only beat his high score so many times before he gets bored.

That and it's Captain America and who doesn't make excuses to hang around him? Nobody, that's who.]

That's evolution for you. [He perches on his own stop, raising a brow right back. He searches his mind for a better way to proceed with this conversation. What can he do? Boast? No. Tell him something interesting. What's interesting? He's training. What do people say about training? Ah.] Did you know we go right back to the physical states we arrived in when we come back to life? Makes bulking up pointless. I had guns before I went into the arena. [He flexes.] Honest to god.

[Roof and I am so sorry this is so late]

[silberfuchs]

High places are hardly where Albert wants to be right now, considering his death by cliff in the arena, but the roof of the tribute tower is shielded and he needs the air after the oppressive atmosphere of his district's floor. Everything is a mess and he has to wonder how much of this is his fault personally and how much is just collateral damage of others mouthing off and being generally defiant. For just a moment he wonders if they shouldn't all just behave, but he recognizes that tired thought for what it is and manages not to follow where it leads, at least for the moment.

Jet would never forgive him if he came out of the arena to find Albert drowning in his misery.

So the roof it is, face pale and drawn as he steps out into the air. He's not alone - it's never lonely up here, despite it feeling so secluded he always happens to find someone - but it only takes him a moment to recognize Steve and simply offer a small nod. He knows the man as an ally, at least from the arena, and he sees no reason why that wouldn't be true now.

He also doesn't know that they rerun those exposes. Nor that Steve is from around the same era as he is. If he did, maybe he wouldn't be so comfortable standing nearby and just trying to breathe.

It's all good! I'm super late myself

[aboveangrybees]

[CW: Nazis, the Holocaust, all that comes with it]

Steve had seen the expose and as much as he doesn't want to believe everything the Capitol said, from the reactions he saw to the ones that aired when he first arrived, they aren't entirely wrong either. It was dramatized for sure, but not totally false. Maybe he just didn't want to believe the person he thought was a pretty good guy was a Nazi. Or was.

Nazis in general set his teeth on edge. Having seen concentration camps? Seen hundreds of thousands dead? It's hard not to have that reaction.

So, seeing him now, nodding at him, Steve feels he needs to lay it out straight, because if he doesn't this could be something that goes sour later. No reason to avoid what's there in front of them. Besides, being buddies with a Nazi wasn't on his bucket list.

He's on his feet and approaching the man, face stern. "Listen up," his voice is hard, but even, "we're all in this shitshow together, I'm not here to make enemies, but I sure as hell don't tolerate Nazis. So, you get any funny ideas- do anything to anyone I care about, that does make you my enemy, got it?"

[silberfuchs]

[CW: panic attack]

"What?" It was vas? in his head and that only served to make him feel just that much worse. He'd had a translation system in his head for so long before ever coming to Panem, or even being revived at Mocawa, but after nearly a year without he'd fallen into being able to speak his own language without thinking about it at will. No longer, thanks to the Capitol. It's all automatically filtered.

"Where did you get the idea I was-" It dawns on him after a moment; the exposé, the lies the Capitol had spun to defame him and make him seem an inhuman monster he wasn't. Or maybe he is, now, after this last arena. Maybe he'd always been on some level. It's what Jaden had tried to show him, how broken and absurd his existence is, trying to stand for what's right when he only exists to do wrong.

But whatever Jaden said or didn't, Albert is no Nazi.

"I was 12 then, I never-!" It's all he can choke out through his tightening throat. He didn't even realize how shallow his breathing had become, how his hands are shaking. Killing, dying, watching friends die, knowing an entire district's worth of people are dead likely because he couldn't keep his damn mouth shut and had to speak out against the Capitol. And that's all just this week. The sheer amount of other terrible experiences, other dead and absent friends, loved ones, entire parts of humanity all gone without his ability to stop it. It's an avalanche of everything he's ever felt responsible for and it threatens to crush him.

Suddenly he's on his knees, struggling to breathe around his own constricting throat and heaving lungs, one hand curled tightly on the railing at the edge of the roof and the other pressed against his forehead. No more words come from his mouth, only choking gasps.

[hiccup1puberty0]

It was the funniest thing but Hiccup had come up there to get away from it all, too, and, in fact, still had his notebook and pencil from home.

When he saw the man sitting there, sketching, a little smile quirked at the corner of his mouth, and he edged closer. The clink of his prosthetic likely gave him away first, but he gave Steve a heads up before he got too close.

"Hey there, you mind some company? If not, I can settle somewhere else - plenty of roof - but this side's the one with the best view."

It wasn't just the view he wanted, though. He had Ruffnut and that was actually very comforting even if she was a handful, but without Astrid, his mom, Gobber, his friends - he had a feeling things were going to get pretty lonely.

And without Toothless, let's face it, he was going to be lost.

But maybe if he looked around to find some good people to become friends with, it wouldn't be so bad. Maybe being friends with some of them would help them be a little less lost, too.

Someone looking out on it all, finding the beauty in what he could, that was perhaps someone worth talking to.

[aboveangrybees]

Steve is very aware of anyone near or coming near him, but still waits until the newest arrival speaks before acknowledging him. The art wasn't really distracting him, but there was an air of being approached and he decided to gave the guy the benefit of doing so uninterrupted.

With one movement, Steve both looks up and closes his sketchbook as if they were connected action. It's not about caring if anyone sees what he's drawing, he doesn't really mind that at all, but a gained habit from years of drawing wherever he could and being asked to move after sitting in one place for too long.

"You're fine, I don't mind at all," he looks amused but welcoming. Company is nice to have at times. Plus, he wouldn't be on the roof if he didn't want any.

"Wouldn't want to hog the best view all to myself," the tone is gently wry.

[hiccup1puberty0]

Despite years of being respected by his village having helped him lay a lot of his old insecurities to rest, Hiccup still got a slight thrill over people wanting to be friendly with him. Fifteen years of being left out and treated like a perennial pain in the behind had still taken its toll.

That was why he practically bounced his way over to take a seat near Steve. He took out his notebook and pencil, making it clear he'd had the same idea as Steve.

"My name's Hiccup. Are you one of those people that does that handshake thing to say hello?"

He held out his hand hesitantly.

Vikings were more about the battle buddy hand clasp than handshakes for greetings. Simply not tossing an ax at someone was considered an acceptable gesture for a friendly hello.