( open ) I knew the waiting had begun

[rightly]

who: Steve Trevor & YOU!
what: Steve's arrival at the Quarantine.
when: August 20th-30th
where: all around
warnings: none expected
note: feel free to poke me @ extreminator or PM if you'd like a more specific starter or have another idea for a thread!


I ▹ ARRIVAL & RECOVERY ▹ HOSPITAL

[ It's a sudden feeling to him, like being pulled violently by a rope tied around his neck. Steve finds himself gasping for air and choking on the first breath that fills his lungs. Feels like a very first breath too, it hurts and makes his throat and lungs burn, his vision blurring as if confronted by light for the first time too.

It's not heaven, he reckons that much. No sort of afterlife, period. Everything here is far too overwhelming, confusing and painful for this to be supposedly what comes after death, and after he's revived and tended to, put back to sleep again so he can have some rest, only to wake up later on, mostly alone on a bed in a communal room, he soon realizes where he is.

A hospital. He's not a stranger to them, even if everything in here is completely foreign to him. The furniture is strange, the windows and the sight beyond them boggling, the various machinery and wiring too confusing and overwhelming. There's a box by the corner with moving pictures, with the very faint sound of voices and music filtering through, but it's nothing he understands.

Honestly, he doesn't understand anything at all, ranging from what this place is, to how did he even get here. But it's not like he can do much more than just lie and wait for the doctors to let him leave— well, he could leave, but at least for the first few hours, any attempts to even get up aren't very successful, and he ends up stumbling until he's leaning against the bed, finding himself forced to sit back down on it. ]

... crying out loud...

II ▹ EXPLORING ▹ STREETS

[ To say that the city's foreign to him is putting it very mildly. Once he's released from the hospital, and is actually capable of standing on his own two feet, he immediately decides to explore the Quarantine, as if that alone will suffice to learn everything he must about the city.

He's soon proven wrong, of course. Between the cars and bikes driving by too fast, the overload of information at every corner, and the odd fashion choices of almost everyone walking up and down the streets, it's not long until Steve looks like a headless chicken walking about, looking this way and that, stopping every so often and just standing in the middle of the street, staring at a screen playing out some moving picture on a store window, or a woman's skirt that just happens to be a little too short.

It's not particularly difficult to bump into him when he's out and about, and he'll immediately turn to face the person who's just walked into him, lifting up his hands to help just in case they lose their balance. ]

Sorry— sorry, my fault. Are you alright?

III ▹ GETTING LOST ▹ STREETS

[ It's also not too terribly surprising that, after long periods spent roaming the streets and parks outside, Steve finds himself losing his way on more than one occasion. As the days go on, he starts to memorize some paths and is able to place himself a little more easily, but he still realizes he needs some help to find his way back a few times, and although his pride keeps him from reaching out immediately, he eventually accepts defeat.

Approaching anyone who seems at least vaguely friendly, he smiles, tipping his head slightly. ]

Excuse me. I was wondering... could you point me in the direction of the community housing?

IV ▹ WILDCARD ▹ ANYWHERE ELSE

[ Between looking around various places for a job, having to look for shops where he can buy a few new clothes, or simply relaxing or settling in for a quiet night reading at the balcony of the 7th floor, feel free to bump into Steve or cross paths with him just about anywhere! ]

Comments

iii

[first_summers]

[ After a long day at the community center, Buffy is looking forward to putting up her feet with a bottle of wine and pretending she isn't exhausted from doing almost nothing at all. Well, it's not nothing to act a mentor for young girls, but compared to the life she'd led as the Slayer... But that's not her life anymore, she reminds herself for the ten thousandth time, so she just has to get used to things here and deal with it.

It's automatic to offer the handsome guy a smile, but she isn't really paying attention to what he says and so it takes a second for the question to sink in. Oh. ]

Yeah, of course. I'm headed there myself, we can walk together. [ She points in the direction they should be heading, then offers him her hand. That she's at least gotten used to. ] I'm Buffy. You're new here?

[rightly]

[ Oh, good. She seems friendly, that's nice. Not that most people here aren't friendly, mind, but it's still something of a relief. It's also a relief that she's not dressed in something terribly revealing— not that Steve would ogle, but he'd likely be a lot more embarrassed right now. ]

Really? Perfect. Shouldn't stray you from your path, then. [ He smiles, faintly surprised that a woman would offer a hand for a proper shake. Right. Social norms change. Evolve, in this case. That's not so bad.

He takes her hand, giving it a firm shake. ] Steve Trevor. And yes, I've only just arrived a few days ago. I'm still getting my bearings.

[first_summers]

[ There's something about him that strikes Buffy as adorable. Maybe it's the politeness that he's practically oozing, but not in a creepy forced way that would usually mean someone's about to hit on her. It seems natural, like it's second nature for him, and there's something in the way he speaks... Hmm.

She tries her best to keep her super strength in check for that handshake, she really does, but he'll still probably notice it's not a normal handshake. ] It can take a while. I've been here a little over a month and I still feel that way sometimes. You'll get the hang of it, though - you look like you can roll with the punches.

[rightly]

[ Well, it's not his first time meeting an unusually strong woman, so even though he does notice, he says nothing about it. Having seen Diana flip over tanks singlehandedly and practically shove him across a room with a light push, it gets easier to take these things in stride.

Maybe she's an Amazon. The thought amuses him vaguely, though he keeps it to himself. ]

I do have plenty of experience with that. Though I would rather avoid any literal punches, if I can. [ He's had more than enough fighting in his life. ] Mostly I just feel dated here, between you and I. Things are very different back in 1918.

[first_summers]

[ Oh, please compare her to an Amazon sometime. She usually gets called such terrible things, hearing something nice like that would make her week.

It's a good thing that she wasn't drinking anything when he said that -- she would have spit it all over herself, and him too probably. Her expression makes it completely clear that that was not what she was expecting. ]

1918? Wow. Wow. [ Sorry, Steve. She's met people who lived through 1918, but never anyone straight from that era. ] Huh. That explains a few things though. You're way too polite to be from my time. Which is 2003, in case you were wondering.

[rightly]

[ He might just, if and when he sees her fight. It might even be a half-serious question, honestly. ]

Yes. [ He confirms with a nod, both unsurprised and amused by her reaction. 'Wow' has been the general consensus thus far, among the people he's met. Apparently he's a piece of past for most of the people here. Steve, on the other hand, has gotten fairly used to some people being from nearly a hundred years in the future— or more, even. ]

I'm not sure if to feel flattered that you called me polite, or bothered that it's so unheard of in the future. [ Time is no excuse to lose one's manners— and Steve isn't even the most proper and polite of people in his time, mind. ]

Is it very different here, compared to where you come from?

[first_summers]

[ Being an Amazon would be so much cooler than being a Slayer. Not as demony, and with much less wardrobe destruction.

If he'd said he was 2518, she'd have been so much worse, honestly. There would have been no end to the stream of questions. Are we in space yet? What's the food like? What's the fashion like? ...are there vampires in space? But as far as 1918 goes, she already knows a bit about that time. It sucked, really, with the war and the flu epidemic and the lack of women's rights. She enjoyed her right to vote very much, thank you. ]

It's... yeah, kind of. Not all the surface stuff -- we've got tall buildings and sprawling cities, but the architecture is different for the most part. There's shopping and apartments and movie theaters, we still have to work to make a living, but it was California. There weren't any fences keeping the dangerous things out.

[ That was her job. ]

[rightly]

[ Steve wouldn't say it's an ideal time either, and he agrees there's still a lot that can change for the better. But then, if not for the past there would never be a present, and will never be a future either. People would have no bad experiences or ill decisions to learn from. He doesn't know very much about how things are in the 21st century yet, but he's learned enough to know that there's plenty that's changed for the better.

That's a comfort, albeit small. Knowing that mankind changes for the better, given time. That it learns from its own mistakes. It gives him hope. ]

Maybe it'd come in handy. I hear it's been getting plenty of tourists these days. Well... my days.

[first_summers]

[ Some things have changed for the better. Some things seemed a whole lot worse, at least in her world. But she did tend to have a rather skewed view of things, living on the Hellmouth and all. ]

It has. I keep hearing about more new people joining the perimeter guard and sometimes I wonder if I did the wrong thing by taking a normal job.

[ Whoops, she hadn't meant to let her existential woes come out in casual conversation. ]

[rightly]

Why is that? [ Steve raises an eyebrow, glancing over at her. ] It's not wrong to not want to fight, even if that's something you've done your whole life.

[ He has, for certain, but he's not eager to get back to fighting, not unless he has to. Granted, if there were trouble and not enough people to keep the Quarantine safe, then he'd be the first to jump straight to the front lines, but he's not raring to do it. ]

[first_summers]

[ How do you explain destiny to someone who probably doesn't have any real concept of it? ]

I've spent the last seven years keeping people safe. I had to, it was my duty, it's part of who I am. [ Her voice quiets somewhat and she meets his gaze for a moment before looking away again. ]

I guess sometimes I just doubt whether I'm capable of having a normal life. Fighting seems so much easier than trying something new, even if it's what I want.

[rightly]

[ He does have some concept of it. Whether he believes it or not, or if it's real in his own world, that's a whole other matter entirely.

As for the rest, though, the words may as well have come from his own mouth. His expression is knowing, even if he doesn't say much in the way of explaining it. If she's bright and observant enough, she likely can figure it out on her own anyway. ]

No harm in trying. I'd say this is as far as you can get from home, so if there's ever a place where you can do it...

[first_summers]

That's true.

[ It's enough to leave her smiling again, because this is so far from Sunnydale and Cleveland that sometimes it makes her head spin. All she'd ever wanted to get to have a normal life, and now here she is. The place she's found herself in is decidedly not normal, at least not by the definition she's used to, but she'll take it.

She catches enough of his expression to have a hint that he understands from personal experience, though she's not going to pry. That's more second meeting material than first. ]

Have you thought about what you might do with your new life here?

[rightly]

[ Normal is a bit of a subjective notion, anyway. What's normal for him can be completely foreign to her, and the opposite can be just as true. It seems strange to think of this place as some kind of reprieve or a chance at normalcy, but that's what it is to some people. To him too, in a way. ]

Honestly, I haven't given it much thought yet. I'm just trying to get used to all this first, then I'll think about that. There's no rush, anyway. [ Everything seems to be fairly lax around here, something Steve welcomes. The lack of pressure to find a job and a source of income is odd, but refreshing. ] What about you? What job did you take?