OPEN | the waves still crash on the bonfire ash.

[evite]

who: skye & you, hopefully.
what: getting settled? getting hype? what's soon to be the usual, probably.
when: throughout the month of may.
where: city-wide!
warnings: none yet.

✈ in memoriam.

( she doesn't want to mourn. not like this, anyway. skye has too many guilt-laden memories that hang off her ribs to let them free into this city yet; she's half-convinced she'd light too many lanterns and burn the place down. so, instead, she opts to observe. she finds a quiet place off to the side where she can draw 8-bit patterns across the lantern someone had so helpfully placed in her hands and thinks back to all the people she'd left behind.

she draws a pattern on one side, jagged lines that don't quite meet so much as attempt to cross each other out, and hides a name in the blur of ink in the middle. trip, four letters, but they're hard enough to write as it is. another side depicts the layout of the bus, a messy blue print from an untrained hand. the lines are thickest for a square off to the side; not her bedroom, but the sparring room. a place that left her mourning for something that had never been real in the first place. ward. what could have been.

at one point, someone approaches her, lighter in hand and ready to help lift the lantern up into the sky. there's a beat of hesitation before she shakes her head, fingers clutching reflexively over the paper between them. )

No, I think I'm going to keep it, actually.

( is that weird? it might be weird. )

Is that okay?

✈ in officio.

( they offer her a job. well, to be more specific, they tell her to find her own work, which seems a lot more real than anything else thus far. she's not used to having things handed to her, anyway; the idea of having to find her own work seems much more skye than playing cheerful worker drone and just going where they tell her to.

not that she really has to try, anyway. the city seems more than happy to request software codes — mostly inconsequential things, housekeeping projects that likely are a little too blase for anyone they might keep on staff full time, but skye doesn't mind. it puts money in her pocket and boredom on the back burner, the former of which she prefers and the latter of which is probably better for the city.

as a freelancer, though, skye doesn't have an office. there's no official place for someone to meet her or come calling; ultimately, it means that everywhere becomes her office. depending on the day or her mood, she calls a few places "home away from home" — the coffee shops, of course, with their comfortable seating and plentiful selection of baked goods; the local university's library, naturally, and its expansive collection of quiet working tables and reference materials; and in a twist, the local gym, where skye can scout for someone she might want to approach after hours, in the hopes of filling up all that precious free time.

she thinks may might even be proud of her for that. sparring voluntarily? who would have thought. not skye, that's for damn certain, but she's trying new things. like talking to people, for one. such as: )

Hey — ( hey you, no, that's rude. ) — listen, can you hand me that?

( "it" could be anything. a lamp, a book, a muffin someone dropped on the ground. go crazy. get weird. make things happen. )

✈ wildcard.

( y'all probably know the drill. if you want something particular, please shoot me a pm and let me know! ♥ )

Comments

in memoriam

[holds_up_walls]

[Lyle happened to be passing by during this. He had done up his own lantern, full of the people he'd lost during his life. He had more done it just because, but it had felt oddly good... to just let it go at the end of it all.

So now he was just enjoying the sights when he saw someone working on one of their own, offering his lighter if she needed it. Then she said she was going to keep it. He did raise a brow but then shrugged]

Hey, it's not a problem with me. Entirely up to you if you want to release it or hang onto it.

[He blew out his lighter and put it back in his pocket]

People have different ways of working through things. If that's what you're doing.

[evite]

( is it? working through things. she probably could stand to work through a whole mess of things, but this probably isn't the time or the place. skye shrugs, fingers smoothing out a little flatter over the lantern as she peers up to get a better look at the man stopping by. )

I don't totally know what I'm doing, to be honest.

( both with the lantern and here in the city, if she's honest. she hasn't been here long, certainly not long enough to get her bearings, but she can't help feeling like the other shoe's about to drop. it can't just be that easy — people don't just get summoned to strange places where they get to live and work and survive without fear... do they?

granted, they probably don't wake up with sudden and uncontrollable superpowers, either. the world is a weird place. if skye would only just admit it to herself, she might feel a little better. )

I don't even know what I'd do with it. Like, just tack it up on my wall, kiss it goodnight?

[holds_up_walls]

[Lyle decides at this point it is better to sit rather than stand, sitting down nearby. He hasn't seen her around before so he has a thought that she's might be new. Of course the fact that he hadn't seen her meant nothing really. There were a lot of people here, both natives and arrivals]

I guess that's up to you. Would it make you feel any better to put it on your wall where you can see it?

[evite]

Uh. ( her default is obnoxious sarcasm, and the words really are lingering on the edge of her tongue, but there's something about the genuine way he asks the question that makes her hesitate. maybe she could opt to not be a total asshole just for funsies for once, that'd be a novel concept. ) Is that... a thing people actually do around here? I mean, I don't think it would really do anything other than tear off a chunk of paint on the wall.

( the lantern does look like it's too heavy for tape, after all. it'd probably need actual hooks, and she's not really feeling like better homes and gardens-ing her assigned living quarters yet. you know, just in case they change their minds and send her home. )

Sorry. I mean, it's nice, I guess. I don't really know what to do with all of this.

( all of this... being everything. the festival, the city, the weird alien planet she's wound up on. )

[holds_up_walls]

[If they both knew more about each other, they might find irony in the fact that they were both very quick to sarcasm when the moment called for it. Right now he was trying to be serious, but her comment did make him snicker]

Yeah, it might cause some damage to the wall. Could always try a hook... a shelf... a levitation spell.

All this? I take it you are new here? Not just the festival, but to Quarantine?

in officio

[11calls]

[Alex Reagan tends to haunt and collect coffee shops like some people collect actual cups of coffee. The one she's in now is currently her favorite for morning coffee: good and strong, but without the taste of being burnt that it can sometimes have later in the afternoon. Later in the afternoon would mean another place with an iced latte, but for now Alex needed the caffiene more than the sugar.

She's debating grabbing some pastries, because honestly, when isn't life better with pastries, and when the woman speaks to her, Alex grabs the muffin that she asked for with a quick smile, before handing it over.]

Sure, here ya go. In my opinion though, I would recommend the blue berry over the chocolate chip. I don't know why it is, but their blueberry muffins are a little bit like crack. I find that the chocolate ones always tend to up too dry.

[evite]

( skye's not overly particular about baked goods in general. the chocolate chip ones had simply been closer to her than any other variety, so it had been an easy choice to make when confronted with the strong need for sustenance. woman cannot live on caffeinated beverages alone.

but she's not above taking a clearly enthusiastic recommendation. she just... can't put the chocolate chip one back, because that's gross and she's not that kind of a slob. so two it is. ) Yeah? ( a considering tilt of her head, and skye points to the further end of the shelf. )

Alright then. I guess we'll make it a true Daily Double and get both.

( a beat, and then: ) Do you want to split the blueberry one? Or should I be worried you're going to jack my goods for your next fix?

[11calls]

Yeah, definitely.

[Alex agrees with a grin, and then she laughed quickly and easily. It was a good laugh, coupled with a shake of her head.]

I promise to contain myself around your baked goods. It may be hard, but I'll make it work. [She's clearly teasing, but she does offer:]

And I'll take one for the team and share the chocolate one too so you don't have to choke it all down, if it's okay. But I promise I'm honestly not just going to steal your food. It's on me. I can tell you're new and no one should need to pay in order to discover the goodness of blueberry or know the defeat of the chocolate chip. Also, hi, I'm Alex Reagan.

[evite]

( she's halfway to protesting — no, seriously, i can get it — but alex beats her to it, money exchanging hands with a bored-looking barista before she can so much as stammer out a full sentence. skye tells herself she's just out of practice. there's not much reason to pull out a wallet on the bus, after all, and she'd spent too many years dependent on the hackability of contactless payment systems to ever really fall back on cash in the real world. why bother with paper money when you can force generate a loaded starbucks gift card into your app? )

Skye. ( unsaid: a relenting, if not appreciative, agreement. ) Oh, and next time? No "welcome to the neighborhood" excuses.

( if she can't pay, the least she can do is try to be useful, so skye busies herself with gathering an obscene number of napkins, plastic cutlery, and individually-portioned condiment packets — half of which she drops casually into the bag hanging off her arm. old habits die hard, and there's nothing wrong with free shelf-stable strawberry jam if people are just going to leave it laying about. )

Do you have, like, a serious table preference to go with the muffin theories? Because that one's free.

( it might be bathed in an excessive amount of sunlight, but it's also close to a power outlet, and she could probably stand to charge up her gear while she's here. )

[11calls]

[What Skye doesn't know is that Alex is actually really good at sneak paying for things. Back home, it's not a huge deal because she just sticks everything on her company card, and here she's been saving money so doing things like this is never a drain in her resources. And she likes to do things like this, especially when people are new here. It just makes more sense.

She does chuckle while Skye grabs napkins and stuff, and she pretends she doesn't notice the extra going into the other woman's bag. Alex doesn't judge; if they didn't expect people to do that sort of thing then they wouldn't leave it out there like that. ]

My only caveat for a table is that it ends of being near a power outlet normally, but I'm not coming here to work right now so I'm free to go wherever you want to go.

[Did Alex have an office at the news studio? Yep. Did she use it? Pretty rarely. The coffee was better in places like this, and Alex worked better when there were loads of people around her to act as a buffer for her own head.

Leading Skye to the table, Alex sits further away from the outlet, just in case.]

in officio

[otherflash]

[ The gym seems like as good a place as any for Wally to work out some of his frustration at not being able to do anything while more and more people get sick by the day. Normally he would go for a run whenever he felt this way, but with the virus being unpredictable, venturing beyond the walls on his own doesn't sound like the best of ideas right now.

So he settles for lifting some weights, running on a treadmill that is incapable of navigating the time-stream like the one Barry Allen built back home, and throwing some inhumanely fast punches at one of the bags hanging up in a somewhat open display of his speedster abilities.

It's when he's finishing toweling off from the last activity that he hears a woman asking to be handed something, and after a moment of blinking stupidly at her, he realizes she is talking to him and reaches out for the bag that is sitting on the bench in front of him so he can give it to her. ]

Oh, here you go. [ His lips quirk up into a small smile, the time at the gym having lightened his mood a bit. ] Nothing like a good workout, huh.

[evite]

( she doesn't love the idea of hitting the gym, but it's something to do, something to fill the endless span of days that loom in front of her, an empty calendar that desperately wants for activity to be penciled in. she's spent most of the afternoon alternating between the treadmills and the bags; it's been hard to ignore the casual display of difference from the man moving faster than anybody else in the room.

she wants to talk to him. she wants to talk about what he's doing, find out the hows and the whys, but talking about it means talking about her own barely-repressed abilities, and skye's not sure she's ready to do that. she gets hungry, though; hence the bag, filled with snacks she's pilfered from welcome wagon meetings and public lounges — and, okay, occasionally bought from the local grocer. it's a good excuse, isn't it? she'd normally get up to get it... but when opportunity offers, why ignore? )

Thanks. ( from within, skye retrieves an apple and takes a considering first bite. not bad, really. not great, but it's certainly better than nothing. ) I'm still debating if workouts can ever really be considered "good".

( wiping whatever might have sprayed her cheeks in the process with the back of her hand, skye tilts her head up to get a better look at him. )

Do you always move that fast?

[otherflash]

[ Wally can't say that visiting the gym is something he does with any sort of regularity himself. It's not that he's adverse to physical exertion, he just has a job that provides him with plenty of exercise to go along with his own hero activities. He also happens to have a metabolism that's faster than most which helps with the whole staying in shape thing.

But, one of the downsides of that metabolism is hunger is always right around the corner, especially after he expends a lot of energy from say working out, which is why his gaze lingers on her bag of snacks a little longer than it should when she pulls out the apple to the point he misses part of what she's saying.

Luckily, he stops mentally kicking himself for not bringing at least a few protein bars with him to catch her asking about his speed and his eyes shift from the bag to meet her own as he sheepishly runs the hand not holding the towel through his slightly damp hair. ]

Well, not always. I think the best way to describe it would be to say there is kinda like an inherent switch I can turn on whenever I want to use my powers.

[ He shrugs, tossing the towel haphazardly in the direction of his own bag lying on the floor near the bench. He doesn't mind discussing his powers and what he can do with them as long as he doesn't have to mention the extra-dimensional energy known as the Speed Force that serves as the source of his abilities. ]

It's a good thing too because otherwise everything would appear to be moving in slow motion all the time and that's not as fun as it might sound.

[evite]

( skye's been around hungry folks long enough to recognize the look of idle wanting in his eyes. it's not quite starvation, not quite desperate, but there's enough hunger behind it to keep his attention while she talks. she might be a handful of years post-foster system, but there are some things that never quite go away; he doesn't have to ask for a handout to get one from her. without missing a beat, skye fishes out a small container from the inner pocket of her bag and hands it out to him. it's not likely to be enough to satisfy a speedster, but the nuts and dried fruit that were collected from snack-sized goodie bags at an open house event will certainly do better than his imagination. )

Here. ( just don't thank her. it'll make things weird. she doesn't take so much as a beat before moving on, anyway, adding: ) Tell me about the switch.

( which, on second thought, probably sounds more like an interrogation than a friendly conversation, so skye backpedals a bit. )

I mean. If I ever randomly got powers — ( which i obviously didn't, no way. ) — I'd want to know how to stop them. It's probably not something you can Google.

( she knows, because she tried. often. )

[otherflash]

[ It's a good thing for Wally that his cheeks are still a bit flushed from the exercise that it hides most of his embarrassment from being caught ogling the bag of snacks. He doesn't need to eat at the moment, the intense hunger pains among other complications no longer being an issue like it was in his younger days, but there is food, and his appetite has remained healthy all the same despite the potential consequences having fallen by the wayside years ago.

He takes the offered container from her with a grateful smile gracing his lips, but before he can give a proper thank you or an explanation, she beats him to the punch by expressing curiosity about the 'switch' for his powers. Which is pretty impressive considering he's one of the fastest people alive. ]

And here I thought Google had the answer for everything. But, really, there isn't much to tell. It's purely instinctive, I think. I just... know.

[ He wishes he could give a more detailed description of how it works because he gets the feeling this is more than idle curiosity on her part. ]

Though there are still times when I slip into speed mode without realizing it. Mostly when I'm under high duress or insanely bored. I believe it's something that simply takes people time to figure out. I'm still learning new things and I've had my powers since I was a kid.

in officio;

[neversurrender]

[In a not-so-surprising turn of events Steve happens to be hitting the gym at the same time. While he usually trains in the Perimeter Guard's training room, taking on his fellow Guards and trainees a like, there's something to be said for a normal work-out regiment where he only has to focus on his own limits and pushing them as far as they will go.

He's been at it for a good hour, traveling between machines from bench pressing to calf stretches and everything in-between, and he's even managed to work up a bit of sweat. Which is why he goes to a lower maintenance work-out next; hand held weights.

Grabbing up the heaviest set on the rack, he takes a seat on the bench and begins to lift. He makes it through one rep before a voice bursts through his concentration.]

Oh, yeah. What weight would you like? [He sets his weights down on the floor by his feet, freeing his hands to grab what she asks for.]

[evite]

( if anyone ever asks her, it was totally intentional. in the future where skye goes home and gets to brag to anyone she ever meets within the confines of the bus or the playground or the hub or wherever, she will one hundred percent tell them that she intentionally played dumb in order to have steven grant rogers pass her a set of weights. she will, however, be one hundred percent lying — because she hadn't had a damn clue who she was asking to do anything at the time.

isn't fate funny like that?

she'd been too distracted by the music pumping through her headphones to look up at whatever human being happened to be in the vicinity. she'd just called out under the presumption that, whoever they were, they'd help — and, naturally, they had, because people were predictable like that. it's only the sudden bass of a response that earns her attention upwards... to discover the gently perspiring face of one all too recognizable super soldier.

jaw, meet floor. maybe not literally, but close enough. )

The... fifty pound one? ( can she lift fifty pound weights? she doesn't know. honestly, she's just saying words that seem like they go together right now. ) Yeah, fifty pounds, totally.

( she's going to die, probably. right here on the gym floor. )

So, uh. Do you come here often?

( ....... skye, please. )

[neversurrender]

[She sure doesn't sound completely positive about her choice, and Steve hesitates a brief moment before grabbing the fifty pound weights off the shelf and holding them out to her. He lifts them like they weigh nothing, which, for him, is probably true. But it's deceptive.

He looks a little amused by the question, but answers easily.]

Sometimes. I usually go back and forth between here and the Perimeter Guard training room. But if you're a regular here you'll probably see me around quite a bit.

thx for your patience, you're a saint.

[evite]

Oh, right, the Guard. I've heard about that.

( she's half-convinced for a moment that he's pranking her. he'd lifted them so easily, skye had almost — almost — forgotten about that whole superhuman strength thing written on the back of her collectible captain america trading card. not that she had one of those or anything. definitely not here, anyway. she hadn't exactly been given the opportunity to pack a bag, and even if she had, a set of dog-eared 2.5-by-3.5 cards probably wouldn't have made the cut. probably.

in any case, she doesn't have the cards here, and he's definitely not pranking her. the fifty pound weight feels like a dumped boulder in her hands, and while skye manages to keep herself upright long enough to super casually drop it on the floor between her feet, it takes all of her inner strength to not curse herself audibly along the way. )

Damn. ( a beat to catch her breath, and skye quips: ) Guess my Hulk cosplay's gonna have to wait a bit longer.

[neversurrender]

It's impossible to escape hearing about in this place.

[He smiles, but it quickly falters as she immediately leans over to set the weight back down.]

Are you alright?

[He places his own weights to the side and turns to face her fully. He's been in enough gyms and training spaces to know the signs of someone who has tried to test their limits and maxed out. He's almost impressed that she had been able to hold on long enough to set the weight back down.]

Maybe you should try a lighter weight...

in memoriam.

[bythehand]

[ Finn experiences what the kids would call an "oh worm" moment. He sort of ended up doing the same thing with his at the last second. Maybe not for all the same reasons-- it's hard to be sure with these things.

Mourning is new. He's not sure if he really feels it yet. He just knows he looked down at his lantern when someone offered to help send it off, and everything on there didn't feel like enough. Maybe it never will. ]

If it's not okay, no one's told me that.

[ Finn hovers in kind of a weird vicinity. Like a 'prepared to help ward off a mob of people who for some reason have suddenly decided that no, all the lanterns need to be lit Right Now' vicinity. Even though everyone is either wrapped up with their own thoughts or respectfully backing up to give her more time already. There's no way that PVPing is gonna be necessary. ]

[evite]

( so he doesn't know what the rules are either. she's grateful, at least, for that. in a city where the answers seem to be obscured, everyone seems to be — if it's possible to be — just about as messed up and confused as skye feels. which is, if nothing else, a small consolation prize. nobody thus far has given her any real answers, anyway, which makes her feel a little bit better about not having a fucking clue most days of the week.

like now, with the seemingly mission critical lantern mix-up. which is important, too, since mourning seems to be a collective thing here. more so than in the almost sterile world of the bus, anyway. there, everyone around her had been so much better at compartmentalizing and containing and generally Dealing With Shit. it's kind of nice to not be the only confused person in a literal or metaphorical room every now and again. )

Yeah, I kind of got the vibe that full explanations aren't exactly a thing here.

( which isn't his fault, by any means, so there's no real bitterness to her tone. instead, it's punctuated by a quiet, almost sardonic laugh that just barely passes for genuine; after a moment, skye shakes her head and tucks her pen into her back pocket for safekeeping. )

So. ( she could sit here and continue to dwell on all the reasons she decided to etch out her recent life story... or she could not do that. guess which option skye chooses? ) Want to swap sad stories, or... is that too much for a first date?

( she's kidding. unless, you know. he wants it to be. )

[bythehand]

[ The city's not a particularly terrible place. The people are friendly enough, the holidays are... interesting. There's an awful lot that gets left up to figuring it out as you go, though. Finn still can't say he feels like he's got the hang of it. He offers an amused huff, a brief smile. ]

I may not get out much, but even I know a bad date idea when I hear one. [ No wait. ] Not that I'm saying. I mean, you know. [ He clears his throat and makes some kind of floppy hand gesture, which he's pretty sure has never necessarily emphasized whatever point he's making. It just makes him feel more like he knows what he's about. ]

Most of the stories I've heard have been pretty complicated.

[evite]

( she smiles, despite herself; it's the soft quirk at the corner of her mouth that betrays her amusement. it's the backtrack, really. the gentle fumbling over words is human, and skye appreciates that little bit of humanity. it makes her feel at home — a feeling she definitely doesn't take for granted. )

It's okay. No offense taken. ( a brief pause to let the smile bloom a bit, warm and reassuring in his direction, and skye continues. ) Kind of nice to not be the only person not totally Mission Ready, you know? Like it's okay to just be figuring it out.

( her fingertips trace over the lantern, following the path of her pen; there's a lot of stories intertwined in those tracings, but she's not sure they're really anybody else's idea of a good time. )

You're not wrong, though. Avril Lavigne basically wrote my soundtrack.

[bythehand]

[ He doesn't know who Avril Lavigne is, and it probably shows. But the overall spirit of what she says, he finds pretty relatable.

Feeling alone's never been his forte. ]

City's not a bad place for figuring things out. I'm still figuring out most things. [ Does he know anyone who he believes just... knows what they're doing all the time? He doesn't think so. ] Especially this stuff.