THE STAR SPANGLED MAN WITH A MANPAIN [open]

[usavatar]

who ; Steve Rogers
what ; Steve set up an obstacle course for himself in the junkyard to try and get away from people for a bit and get out of his own head.
where ; THE JUNKYARD \o/
when ; Right. Now.
warning(s) ; FEELINGS.... This happened sooner than expected, but he's starting to wrestle with his own uncertainty re: his political position in

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[usavatar]

He doesn't miss her discomfort, or the confession - though he has to focus past the resounding silence in his ears to catch everything.

"...I don't miss everything." Steve hesitates. No one outside of Peggy knows what happened to Bucky just before he landed himself in the junkyard, and telling George means telling Shaun. Steve knows enough to realize that the two are bound to share as much as he does with Peggy. "My best friend is here. Back home, he's. Well, he's dead. And I guess technically so am I."

It's too complicated to explain the rest - how he's supposed to be frozen, then found, join team that goes by something else in one world and doesn't exist at all yet in another.

Besides, he wants to get her out of here. It can't exactly be pleasant to remember how she arrived.

"Um. Walk with me to the exit? I should be getting-" A rumble overhead snaps his attention away from her, enough that he steps protectively into her personal space without a thought. "Down!"

He can't tell what's coming down on top of them. Just that there's no way they'll get out of the way before it hits.

Steve brings up the shield and braces himself, not for impact -the vibranium takes care of most of that - but for the weight of whatever-it-is. Stone, it looks like, chiseled in places, like it's been ripped out of a hundred-year-old wall. He slams aside the first block, the largest, and takes the impact of two more on the shield.

It doesn't matter if he can hold out- they're going to get buried alive. He half-turns, seizing George around the waist, and runs for it, keeping the shield between them and the fresh avalanche. "Sorry, sorry!"

[feedislive]

Georgia flinches a little as he steps toward her - where she's from, people don't just invade other people's space without specific invitation unless they want to either being infected or being shot out of simple twitchy reflex - but his order to get down preempts any attempt to back away or punch him in the kidneys. She ducks, even pressing herself a little closer to make sure the shield covers both of them, and flinches again at the sound of the impacts on his shield.

Huh. Guess that thing's good for something after all.

And that's really all she has time to think before he picks her up and starts running. She lets out a startled, indignant sound somewhere between a yelp and a growl, nearly elbowing him in the side before she manages to turn the impulse into a flailing grab at his shoulder, like she doesn't entirely trust him not to drop her.

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Steve staggers to a halt once they're out of the danger zone, setting George down at once, and flailing one hand in a gesture that means 'Give me a second' but looks more like a muscle spasm. "Sorry," he manages again. "I didn't really- I didn't know if you could. Keep up."

He's going to sit down now. He'll be fine within five minutes, but running for your life after fighting a small avalanche can take it out of a person.

[feedislive]

She punches him in the side, hard as she can, before he can actually sit. Sorry, Steve, but saving her life gets you no gratitude from Georgia Mason. At least not in this case.

"What the hell?" she snaps, slamming her glasses back up the bridge of her nose - they'd slipped down during the run - and taking several quick steps back to regain a little of her personal space. "I have two legs, and they work just fine."

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Fortunately for him, her punch doesn't hurt as much as a giant falling boulder. He pokes the place she hit him experimentally before looking up at her. "Sorry. I am - I kind of stopped thinking and just..."

Another little gesture. "It won't ha- well, I hope it doesn't happen it again."

He looks up at where the rift must be and frowns.

[feedislive]

"You're forgiven," she says flatly, and a little resentfully. "I guess. Just don't grab me again."

Yeah, he had a valid reason. She gets that, and she appreciates not being flattened, but that doesn't mean she has to like physical contact with people not her brother.

She follows his gaze to the the rift, and grimaces a little. "Can we get out of here already?"

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"Oh, sure." He winces a little as he gets up, resettles the shield, and leads the way out into the garden zone. The morning light and open air - simulated open air, whichever - are like a double slap after the noise and shadows of the junkyard. His one eye is still blurry with blood. Steve blinks a few times to try and clear it.

"Where's Shaun? I was starting to think you two never did anything on your own." It's not judgmental in the least - from art classes to back-alley fist fights, he and Bucky are and always have been the same way.

[feedislive]

"On very rare occasion, we manage to not be attached at the hip," she says with a faint smile. She's not exactly relaxed out here in the garden zone - open air and fields full of fucking llamas are not exactly reassuring for someone who grew up post-Rising - but it's better than the junkyard.

"He and Buffy are doing some construction-rewiring-I don't even know what in what was briefly Buffy's room. The noise was getting to me, so I thought I'd get out of the house for a while."

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He nods, walks in silence for a long moment, and then - with a tone of utter innocence - says, "I did say the shield comes in handy."

[feedislive]

She shoots him a look that might be an attempt at a glare, but there's too much amusement creeping in around the edges for it to be believable.

"I guess it's not bad."

A pause, as her eyes flicker over the shield - scratched, scorched, but not even dented.

"It still looks ridiculous, though."

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"No it doesn't." It's quiet and sharply defensive. "It looks like the flag of the country I put my life on the line for. What's ridiculous about that?"

He runs his hand over the edge of the shield, coming away with dirt smeared across his fingers and leaving a bright clean stripe of red behind. "My title isn't stupid, my shield isn't ridiculous - I'm not ashamed of who I am."

[feedislive]

Georgia eyes him for a second or two, expression thoughtful. Finally she smiles, and shakes her head a little. "Ryman would have loved you. He was too good to be real too."

That was... kind of an apology. If you squint. And speak Georgia.

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"...Tell me about him?" He can't help it - he's curious. The longer he's around George and Shaun and the S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents and everyone, the more curious he gets. He's also somewhat mollified by the comment, seeing it for what it - well, what it sort of is.

[feedislive]

She blinks, a little surprised by the question, and then answers, "He's a good man."

Georgia veers sharply in her path, clearly expecting Steve to follow. She drove her bike here, and left it tucked away behind a nearby tumble of rocks, where no one would bother it. A dirt bike might not be the most efficient form of transportation here on the station, but she's attached to it - and she trusts it a hell of a lot more than the station's systems, though she can't exactly avoid the teleports.

"He's kind and intelligent and he has a good sense of humor. He cares about his people and his country, and he's not afraid of the truth. I believed in him. I trusted him, which isn't something that happens with me and politicians... ever, really, but he made himself an exception. Could've had better taste in running mates, but Shaun tells me that worked out for the best."

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"I'm glad." He is glad, actually. He's very glad. Just hearing that someone like that exists, is a Senator, was running for president - it cheers him up immensely. When they reach the rocks and the bike he stops for a half second and then has to keep himself from running over to it.

"Is that yours? I've never seen a bike like that. I had a custom that Mr. Stark built for me based on Harley-Davidson Knucklehead design - I had to blow it up, actually, but it was a fantastic machine."

[feedislive]

"Yeah, it's mine. Shaun found it in the junkyard. I had one at home - not just like it, but close enough. Really good for field work, considering most of the roads in zombie territory aren't exactly well maintained."

Georgia stops too, but not because of the bike itself. A small group of llamas have congregated to investigate the machine, and all her instincts protest the idea of walking into the middle of them to shoo them off. So she's just going to stand here, glaring at them.