I can't help it, man! I'm all about stupid!

[onteamdyson]

Who: Kenzi Malikov and EVERYONE?!
Where: The nail salon, Rumlow's gym, Steve/Nat/Bucky's house, Main Street
When: April 1st to 5th
What: Catch all log for shenanigans, bonding, mischief, and conspiracy theories
Warnings: Will update as needed.
[Open]

I will match your tag style, prose or action! Either is fine!


Getcho nails did

Work for a living? Does she look like a chump?

...Apparently the answer is yes, because she DOES have a job. She doesn't remember ever applying, but she also definitely remembers working here and doing peoples nails and actually having fun most of the time. It's a creative outlet and it gets her off the couch and out of the house. Working doesn't give her time to mourn the loss of video games she thought she had and ... a person she just can't quite remember. Plus, she's got actual bills to pay now. She's not squatting in a crack shack with--... SOMEONE! Who is it?

It's fine. It's probably not important. She's got a life to worry about. A fresh start. Who needs to steal and con when you can apply rhinestones to peoples fingernails for eight hours a day? Hard work. Honest... work.

Whatever. It's fine. Come on in, sit down at her station, and let her rescue your cuticles. Damn.



He's never coming out.

Kenzi is starting to think she married a workaholic. Which is honestly hilarious considering she is the exact opposite. Of course, it's not all work for Rumlow. He gets to do pretty much his favourite thing ever, which for some reason is lifting weights and getting sweaty and teaching other people how to lift weights and get sweaty until everyone is just lifting things for HOURS! It smells like gym class in there. Probably because... it's a gym. A gym that is open FOREVER which means he leaves the house early and doesn't come back until late.

Eventually, it occurs to Kenzi that she actually misses her husband when he's not home, and that leads to her either visiting him while he's at work and she's on lunch or waiting outside until he's done work so they can head home together.

Watching people get buff gets boring after a while. Seriously, there's only so much ogling a girl can do before she starts to get antsy. Rumlow's busy. There's no way she's gonna touch the equipment when she could just be sitting around instead. The railing out front is a good a spot as any. Fresh air, peace and quiet, lot's of-- UGH, it's boring out here TOO! Someone please talk to her before her eyes roll out of her skull.


How do you even neighbour?

Knock Knock! Now that everyone's no longer dying, Kenzi finally got to bake a fresh batch of cookies to deliver to her neighbours. Okay, mostly they're for Steve, but she knows Bucky's probably going to inhale a few and she'd be super stoked if Nat had some. She hasn't actually talked to Steve since the "accident" and she hasn't seen Bucky or Nat since the party.

Enough of her memory is back that she's... conflicted... about things. Some stuff just doesn't add up, some stuff feels too real to not be true! It's hard to sort out. Kinda makes her head hurt. What she does know is that Steve was super freaking nice to her and she didn't even recognize him and she needs to do something nice to apologize/pay him back. She also knows that she really does care about Bucky, even if he's mad at her for a stupid reason.

Even if he might not actually... be...

No. Nope. Don't go there. Shake it off, Kenzi. Smile.

She continues to wait patiently with the container of cookies in her hands.


Choose your own adventure!

Not feeling any of the above? Hit me up with something else!

Comments

[onteamdyson]

For a guy that's been onto them from the get go, literally tipping her off as soon as they bumped into each other, Steve's pretty freewheeling with the real talk out in the open. Kenzi raises an eyebrow, eyes flitting around as if scanning for a hidden lens that shouldn't be there. Maybe he found a way around that type of surveillance.

"Hey, that's not even fair, Nat's dangerous everywhere, why you gotta pigeonhole her like that, Rogers?" She smirks, following behind until something VIOLENTLY SNEAK ATTACKS HER LEGS WITH IT'S ENTIRE, SMALL, BODY OF DOOM! Oh. My. God. It's a CAT! A KITTEN! A tiny fluffball of fur and CUTE!

Kenzi almost misses Steve's smile and the compliment because she's too busy bending down to scoop up the kitty and befriend it!

"I'll know if you spit it out into a napkin! Who is this lil, squiggly котёнок?!"

[paragon]

Maybe he did — or, more likely, maybe Natasha did — or maybe it's less that he's freewheeling with the open talk than that he's not always willing to bite his tongue. It's a conscious decision he makes every time.

Her reaction to the cat doesn't exactly fade the smile any, slight as it is, if she happened to miss it the first time around. "Liho." Лихо, though he won't mangle the Russian by trying to pronounce it the way his housemates do. He's learning, because it's hard not to considering the people he loves (though Bucky's no more Russian than Steve, really), but he's far from an adequate conversationalist.

"Nah," he says. "Nat hoards any cookies that make it into the house, so I have to take what I can get." He's teasing; he seems perfectly happy to take another bite before sitting on the edge of the coffee table and nudging the tin toward her. "You can see for yourself."

[onteamdyson]

"That is a purrrrfect name. Get it? Perfect? See what I did there?" Can he still smile after her lame-ass jokes? Probably. She's not the only person he hangs out with that cracks them. She's just likely the worst at it.

The Slavic name is incredibly fitting for the feisty, little ball of fluff. Kenzi's content to snuggle him and pet him and shift him to one arm so she can grab a cookie before flopping onto the couch to release the kitten onto her lap. Sooooo cuuuuuute. Something tells her she'll be visiting the house a lot more, and it won't be to specifically see any non-furry resident within.

Side-eyeing Steve with a smirk, she takes a bite. Thank god, these are way better than the batch Jefferson helped her with. That had been an actual disaster, partly because she felt like she was dying and partly because he wasn't even paying attention to the recipe. "Okay, I believe you. These cookies are hella decent. I can stop having a total meltdown over my apology going south."

Now she only has a few things to worry about when it comes to Steve. Like where she stands with him and how one might go about figuring out ... things... about... this particular place.

"What would you say if I told you I've been remembering more than just my life with people in this town? Because obviously we can't talk about it because it happened in the past way before.... " Super stealth, Kenzi. No one's gonna suspect a THING!

[paragon]

Steve watches her play with the kitten (and yes, the smile remains, though it's more: see icon), swallowing the second bite but not taking another one even when she does, though it's got less to do with the cookie than just waiting patiently for her to spit it out.

(Not the cookie. The reason why she's really here.)

When she does he leans forward to set the remainder of the cookie on top of the tin, brushing his hands together once absently to rid them of any crumbs left behind. "I'd say that's impossible if you've lived here your whole life." He spreads his hands on his thighs and stands up, glancing from Kenzi to Liho in her lap, pawing at the ends of her hair.

"He's got some squeakier toys in the bedroom." Yeah, he's not too great at stealth either. But he puts his hands in his pockets and tilts his head in the right direction, brow lifted just slightly in question. Asking if she's gonna trust him.

[onteamdyson]

Trusting Steve Rogers? It's easier than you think!

Even without the fake memories painting him as a trustworthy dude and a staple of her formative years via Bucky, Steve's got one of those faces, you know? Just one of those guys that you look at and say... yeah. I'm gonna put my faith in this dude. No way he'll steer me wrong.

Basically, he's pretty. Why would he lie?

Kenzi stands fluidly, cradling the cat that is bravely trying to defeat her hair. Good job, Liho! Get those locks! She'll follow Steve anywhere, honestly. Especially if it means getting to the bottom of this bullshit.

"The squeakier the better." Why is this suddenly so exciting!? Like she's about to blow a case wide open or something! What a rush! She can't wait to tell-- ... Bo.

[paragon]

Nothing more needs to be said on the cat toy front, so Steve leads them into the bedroom, pulling his hands from his pockets to close the door carefully and quietly behind them. He gives her an apologetic look for the secrecy as he does so.

"Nat got 'em to take out the cameras in here," he explains. "Bucky's room, too. But no one else is supposed to know or the deal's off, so we can't stay in here long if you don't want trouble."

No mention of his own trouble, of course. That's what he's here for — what he hopes he literally came here to do. Figure out what's going on in this town and put a stop to it. Not that he wouldn't anyway, but the latter option would at least mean this was his choice, and that he'll be able to get back home. Or the closest thing he's got to one.

It's sure not this place, even if there really is a basket of cat toys in the corner, and Steve bends over it to grab some toys for Liho for the benefit of anyone listening closely enough for a telltale jingle.

[onteamdyson]

"I CAN BE FAST!" She blurts it out, setting Liho down on the bed because she knows she's gonna be talking with her hands. Accidentally dropping the incredibly chill cat might not be the best course of action here.

Answers. That's what she needs right now. Focus, Kenz. There are a million things she wants to ask him, but she has to focus on what's most beneficial and what will keep her ahead of the people behind the cameras. It's serious Kenzi time! Something that doesn't happen all that often, to be honest...

"I'm not actually Bucky's cousin. I know that's fake." As much as it kills her to admit. "I also know I'm not from here. I'm not married to Brock. I'm not... like you guys? You all actually know each other, right? What I don't get is why I'm here. Why I'm connected. I'm literally... nothing special."

Bo's special. Dyson and Hale, Rrick, even Lauren! She's more part of their world than Kenzi ever will be. Why not take one of them?

"Is it aliens? Is this some kind of alien experiment? Or a secret government facility, like a training program? OH! Maybe it's some really intense reality TV show!" Those are her theories, Steve. That's all she's got so far. At least she was true to her word, all that came out pretty damn fast.

[paragon]

For what it's worth, she could drop Liho on his head and she'd be immediately forgiven, if he even remembered it at all five seconds later. Steve sits down on the edge of the bed to run his palm between the cat's folded ears, Liho collapsing, rag doll-like against his thigh at the spare attention from his owner (most of it for Kenzi as she speaks). He doesn't laugh at any of her suggestions, unless you count the brief raise of an eyebrow at the last one. Mostly it seems to segue into what he has to offer in return, which is all about the body they'd found: where it was, what it had looked like (Steve's not discounting aliens), that it had made them sick.

"It's not a lot," he concludes, like it's Steve's responsibility to have more for her. He wouldn't easily be convinced otherwise. If Kenzi's nothing special . . . well, he's supposed to be in a position to do the things other people can't, though he's not ready to discount her just yet. He is, at the very least, aware that there are people from different worlds here, and if Steve's people were the ones taken from theirs, he's got reason to doubt her claim.

"Where we come from, we're part of a team that protects people." Well, maybe Bucky's not technically an Avenger, but he can fight and is a good man, so Steve doesn't see any need to quibble. If he were to, there are a lot more complications than that one to contend with, including the fact that he's not really an Avenger anymore either. "I don't know how we got here, but I'm not sure it matters if there's something we can do about it."

Because there's no question that something needs doing.