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Whatever you do it's all good
Who: Steve Rogers + assorted others
Where: 5031, the sheriff's station
When: Backdated to the night of the 26th and a couple of days after.
What: Wayward Pines' rendition of Weekend at Bernie's, i.e., transporting a dead body.
Warnings: The corpse-related grossness that's par for the course of this event; feel free to use headers liberally.
[Closed to various]
For all his experience with all of the ways a body can fail, it's always been something he's resisted down to his bones, trying to shrug it off even as it's lodged itself there like frozen winters and gunshot wounds. He's always just figured that as long as he had a chance to keep ahead of it, he wouldn't slow down long enough to let it catch up to him. Watching someone else die, though — that's a different story. A familiar one, maybe, but he's not any more interested in getting used to it now than he was when he watched his mother coughing herself to death. (Or Bucky falling, or Peggy's mind failing her.) So he doesn't. Instead he carries Natasha to the car, stumbling as he goes like he's ninety-five pounds soaking wet again with two left feet. It occurs to him he's still never danced. He doesn't count memories of things that never happened, and he knows she wouldn't either.
After two days of sitting in an uncomfortable hospital chair, he's almost relieved when Bucky tells him he's needed elsewhere. Somewhere he might actually be able to do some good.
He knows now that the cameras get replaced when no one is home to see it, so Steve leaves them for the time being, and he and Bucky drive towards the water, first making a pit stop to pick up Prompto and his camera. When they get closer he's careful to leave the car where it won't be seen, well back from the cordoned off section of the river though it'll mean a longer trek back with the body in tow. Still, he and Bucky have both recovered somewhat just in the day since they stopped drinking the water themselves, and between the group of them (and one fairly loud explosion, which he imagines he'll hear about later), they're able to wrangle the body into a tarp in the rear of the station wagon.
(Part of him can't help but regret that they had tarp in the garage at all, but he grabs it anyway out of some residual gratitude for the car's last use in getting Natasha to the hospital.)
Steve goes ahead of the group into the house to break the cameras along their path after telling Izumi he can lead the way a few seconds behind him, up the stairs to Bucky's bathroom. The cameras in the living room and kitchen are left alone, however, so once the body's settled and their motley crew begins to make their way back downstairs, any conversation about it must still remain hushed. There are, however, safer spots for such conversations thanks to Natasha's careful angling, so anyone who seems inclined to do so might find themselves nudged in that direction by Steve. It's not the only thing he's learned from her, and he knows it will only look more suspicious if they all leave now, looking various stages of wet, muddy and exhausted. ]
Can't get that kind of workout at the gym. Who's hungry? Pretty sure we've got bottled water in the fridge, too.
[ Yum. ]
At least it gives him a chance to visit Ibaraki at the station after he gets home from school to find the tub empty. He's not worried; if they were planning to arrest him, they would've done so already. He's been in the same place all day, so it seems they're more concerned with keeping things quiet than exposing him as a troublemaker. That he holds himself stiff and straight while the officer at the front desk inspects the tin of cookies he'd brought with him has little to do with worry for himself and more to do with the fact that they're keeping a young girl locked up in a jail cell. He doesn't necessarily mean to be imposing but can accomplish it without much effort when he's unhappy, and the officer seems only too glad to hand it back to him and point the way through.
Steve heads in that direction and peers inside at the sleeping horned girl; there's some faint sense of recognition for her that probably precedes the last couple days, but he can't place it beyond that. He taps the tin once, lightly, on a bar to announce himself before speaking. ] Ibaraki?
Where: 5031, the sheriff's station
When: Backdated to the night of the 26th and a couple of days after.
What: Wayward Pines' rendition of Weekend at Bernie's, i.e., transporting a dead body.
Warnings: The corpse-related grossness that's par for the course of this event; feel free to use headers liberally.
[Closed to various]
fellow lawbreakers at the rogers-romanoff-barnes residence; the 26th[ Bucky's been keeping Steve briefed and in the loop ever since Nyx brought him in on what they found in the river. While the body is certainly a mystery, it does confirm one thing Steve's suspected since he'd first started to wrap his head around the dichotomy of memories here — that whatever lies have been put in their heads by the people who don't want them asking questions, those same connections can only work against the powers that be in the end. For his part Steve is glad to let that happen.
For all his experience with all of the ways a body can fail, it's always been something he's resisted down to his bones, trying to shrug it off even as it's lodged itself there like frozen winters and gunshot wounds. He's always just figured that as long as he had a chance to keep ahead of it, he wouldn't slow down long enough to let it catch up to him. Watching someone else die, though — that's a different story. A familiar one, maybe, but he's not any more interested in getting used to it now than he was when he watched his mother coughing herself to death. (Or Bucky falling, or Peggy's mind failing her.) So he doesn't. Instead he carries Natasha to the car, stumbling as he goes like he's ninety-five pounds soaking wet again with two left feet. It occurs to him he's still never danced. He doesn't count memories of things that never happened, and he knows she wouldn't either.
After two days of sitting in an uncomfortable hospital chair, he's almost relieved when Bucky tells him he's needed elsewhere. Somewhere he might actually be able to do some good.
He knows now that the cameras get replaced when no one is home to see it, so Steve leaves them for the time being, and he and Bucky drive towards the water, first making a pit stop to pick up Prompto and his camera. When they get closer he's careful to leave the car where it won't be seen, well back from the cordoned off section of the river though it'll mean a longer trek back with the body in tow. Still, he and Bucky have both recovered somewhat just in the day since they stopped drinking the water themselves, and between the group of them (and one fairly loud explosion, which he imagines he'll hear about later), they're able to wrangle the body into a tarp in the rear of the station wagon.
(Part of him can't help but regret that they had tarp in the garage at all, but he grabs it anyway out of some residual gratitude for the car's last use in getting Natasha to the hospital.)
Steve goes ahead of the group into the house to break the cameras along their path after telling Izumi he can lead the way a few seconds behind him, up the stairs to Bucky's bathroom. The cameras in the living room and kitchen are left alone, however, so once the body's settled and their motley crew begins to make their way back downstairs, any conversation about it must still remain hushed. There are, however, safer spots for such conversations thanks to Natasha's careful angling, so anyone who seems inclined to do so might find themselves nudged in that direction by Steve. It's not the only thing he's learned from her, and he knows it will only look more suspicious if they all leave now, looking various stages of wet, muddy and exhausted. ]
Can't get that kind of workout at the gym. Who's hungry? Pretty sure we've got bottled water in the fridge, too.
[ Yum. ]
ibaraki at the sheriff's station; the 28th[ The body disappears sometime late morning or early afternoon — hard to say and no one's fault, really. There was only so long they could expect to keep it hidden once the cameras were taken out and lives had to be gone about as usual.
At least it gives him a chance to visit Ibaraki at the station after he gets home from school to find the tub empty. He's not worried; if they were planning to arrest him, they would've done so already. He's been in the same place all day, so it seems they're more concerned with keeping things quiet than exposing him as a troublemaker. That he holds himself stiff and straight while the officer at the front desk inspects the tin of cookies he'd brought with him has little to do with worry for himself and more to do with the fact that they're keeping a young girl locked up in a jail cell. He doesn't necessarily mean to be imposing but can accomplish it without much effort when he's unhappy, and the officer seems only too glad to hand it back to him and point the way through.
Steve heads in that direction and peers inside at the sleeping horned girl; there's some faint sense of recognition for her that probably precedes the last couple days, but he can't place it beyond that. He taps the tin once, lightly, on a bar to announce himself before speaking. ] Ibaraki?
no subject
He stops staring blankly at the opposite wall when Steve approaches. Blinks up at him and debated the merits of a bed over the couch.]
Probably not a bad idea. Won't need more than a couple hours.
no subject
[ The command in his voice is mostly unconscious, though the part that isn't comes from the awareness that sometimes the conditioned response to it is all the tug necessary to get a resting man moving again. He lets go of Nyx's shoulder and turns around, starting in the direction of the stairs so that when he speaks again it's over his own shoulder. ]
Once you rest up I wouldn't mind you sticking around for longer. I need to get back to the hospital at some point.
[ Someone'll need to keep watch so Junyoung can get everything he needs. ]
no subject
Nat?
[He doesn't know her any better than he knows the rest of them, but her absence here is still notable. Was she one of the ones who'd gotten sick?]
no subject
[ There's nothing else to really say. He's not prone to voicing his fear, like that matters when she's the one in the hospital. Nyx is probably well aware of that by now.
Natasha's not why he's here — he would be here no matter what, and that was in his bones long before her, long before the serum — but if she dies he's gonna want to know who needs to answer for it. So there's a certain tension in his jaw alongside that answer, if Nyx can see it from his position on the stairwell.
At the top, he shows him to the door on the right. ]
There's another bathroom downstairs next to the kitchen. If you need a shower that'll be in the master bedroom. [ Given that the one upstairs is currently, uh, occupied. ]
no subject
He steps up and grips Steve's shoulder, lowering his voice.]
Someone did this. And they'll answer for it. All we need to do is find out who.
[It's something to focus on. A goal.]
You know where to find me when that happens.
no subject
Steve's gratitude for Nyx's words is visible on his face, and that will have to do if he doesn't want to have to speak of it past the painful knot in his throat. (And he very much doesn't.) He nods in acknowledgement of them instead and offers the gratitude a little more obliquely. ]
Thanks for bringing us in on this, Nyx.
[ Him and Bucky, he means. ]
no subject
I've been given reason, recently, to...be careful with what I trust. You get burned and you start thinking twice; start looking at people and seeing enemies.
[He looks at Steve again, gesturing between them. He doesn't know how much Steve knows yet, but if he's ever going to be honest it'll be now while they have some form of privacy from whoever's watching them.]
But this? Whatever this is...was...could have been? I can't deny this. I can't ignore that however it happened I have brothers here. And no matter how many of those connections turn bad it will never change the fact that I've known good men and good women who I would risk my life for again and again. It would do them a disservice to cut myself off now.
This means something. So until I'm proven wrong I'm going to believe in it.
no subject
Then we're on the same page.
[ From anyone else it might be considered dismissive or reserved in light of Nyx's speech, and maybe it is some of the latter anyway by dint of who Steve is, even without the cameras. But if it's reserved regarding his own experiences it's also said in earnest, without breaking eye contact. ]
You served, where you come from?
[ That Nyx has seen fighting he's got no doubt — it's something he knows when he sees it — but if he and his friends are any indication, that's not necessarily the whole story. ]
no subject
[He looks down at his scarred hand, clenching his fingers as if it's still amazing that they move at all. He keeps expecting the tremble, especially since he's so tired.
Nyx frowns, struggling to remember more.]
Here I retired, but there? You don't retire when the war's on your doorstep. Not unless you're dead.
[He'd been so certain he was dead when he woke up in the hospital, but he still can't remember why.]