A warning to the people, the good and the evil: This is war.

[usavatar]

When Captain America broods, everybody notices. He's short, distant, uncommunicative. Some would even say rude. Fortunately he has an excuse, for the first few days - his arm, still healing. But once it's back in working order (he misses two missions in the four short days that it takes), there's no reason for him to be acting like this. At least,

Comments

[tasering]

"You're sulking."

So Darcy totally followed him. It's not like it was hard to do, considering he sticks out like a sore thumb on the best of days. But put him in dress uniform and aviators and he doesn't even need the costume for people to realize that something is amiss with him and his life.

But she's concerned about him. She's never seen Cap sulk or brood or do anything like this before - if there was anyone that should have been hiding from the world after recent events it should, by all rights, be her. After all, avoiding people named Steve Rogers means she doesn't get the questioning look or the conversation she knows should be coming.

Instead he's sulking. And Darcy wants to know why.

[usavatar]

Steve jerks away from the plexiglass and his hand moves down as he lifts one knee. The .20 from his calf holster is in his hand and leveled at Darcy's head when he registers who she is.

Then he just about drops it. "D- I'm -"

He's in the middle of a museum with a gun pointed at Darcy Lewis.

Steve braces his foot against a rail and tucks the weapon away, not looking at her. He shouldn't be blushing, but he is, and just thanking whoever's up there listening that no one else was in this hall when that happened. "I'm sorry," he says, with a glance at her face.

[tasering]

"Woah." She throws up her hands and takes a step back the instant the gun goes up, "Hey, hey. I come in peace?" Not that she can blame him for being trigger happy - it's a common side effect of the entire... taken totally unawares by evil people. Thing. Right.

But then he looks sheepish and shy and, yeah, she kind of feels bad about that. "Look, it's totally cool. No harm done." Her eyes flicker to his shoulder and there's that guilt again. She's silent for a minute or so, staring at whatever exhibit caught his interest. But that only lasts for a bit because she's not one for quiet when there are things to be said.

"You... wanna talk about it?" God knows he's had enough crazy within the last few days that she might have a chance at getting him to actually open up about... whatever it is.

[usavatar]

He gives her a blank, confused look. "My gun?"

Steve can't think of what else she might be talking about, except maybe the fact that he just pointed it at her head. "I just figured... after last time, if I'm not going to carry the shield around, I should probably have something."

[toseethesunrise]

Quorra is naturally stealthy and naturally observant. Not that it was hard to realize something was bothering Steve, nor was it hard to follow after him silently. She debated making her presence known for a while, but she had followed him, right? Why keep hiding? She could leave just as easily as she'd arrived.

She steps closer to the display, from the opposite side, peering at him through the plexiglass over the weapons inside. "You shouldn't threaten JARVIS," she says quietly. Not that the computer had told her anything, but she'd overheard their brief conversation, and no other words came to her mind.

[usavatar]

He looks startled, both at her presence then at the words, and then feels immediately guilty. Steve ducks his head, focusing on a twin-barrel revolver instead of on Quorra. "No," he says. "No, I shouldn't have, I just-"

Excuses. Steve stops himself. "I'm sorry," he says quietly. "I'll apologize to him when I get back."

[toseethesunrise]

"I'm sure he'll understand," she replies. She'll help to explain if the computer didn't, but Quorra knows it was mostly out of whatever was bothering Steve than legitimate threat. She gets along pretty well with JARVIS and could probably sway him either way.

She glances down at what Steve is staring at. "Do you know what they all are?" Neutral topic. Start with that.

[usavatar]

He nods. "I've tried most of them. That's an M1 Garand-" he points to the nearest rifle "-and that one is a M1911 Browning, the handgun there. I used that one a lot."

Steve manages a tiny smile. "Not as much as my shield, but a lot."

[gammapulsed]

Even Bruce notices it

[usavatar]

He looks at Bruce, his hand still on the case, with a sort of disconnected surprise. He saw the suits. He just assumed they'd followed him. "Wh..."

Steve stops himself from asking what Bruce is sorry for a second before it comes out. He shakes his head. "You didn't do anything to apologize for." And then it registers that Bruce is well outside the mansion and apparently on his own. "...You're here," he says, surprised.

[gammapulsed]

"W-well, that's-- I knew you told J.A.R.V.I.S. to kind of keep a lid on things, and it's not like he just up and told me, I had to toss a few logic bombs at him and tweak a couple of things so he'd get around the parameters of the request so it's not really his fault, and I know if you wanted company you'd have said as much and instead I..." Bruce pauses in the babble to take a breath or two before finishing it off with another, "Sorry."

Ducking his head a little so his eyes hide under the brim of his baseball cap, hands shoved deep into cargo pockets. "Ye- Yes, I'm. Here. I mean, obviously so, and obvious not alone, they're just being all, you know. Covert. The agents, that is. Which is how they're supposed to be, I guess."

[usavatar]

Steve grins, genuinely if tired. "No, it's good to see you outside. This is a nice place for it. No one really comes here during the summer."

He knocks on the plexiglass with one knuckle and turns away from the display. "No one local, anyway, and they're mostly the people who recognize me without the uniform. The... other one."

[farsees]

When Cassie Holmes broods, it's a day ending in -y. It's nothing out of the ordinary for her, and so she hardly pays it any attention as she stalks through the halls of the Harbor Defense Museum. She doesn't know why she's here, only that she had a vision that made no sense, and a drawing of what could be a ship to go off of. The only disappointing thing about following up on a vision that makes no sense and seems to have no real meaning is that everything is jumbled and aimless, and she's left wondering if she's wasting her time

[usavatar]

He looks at her and startles, more at her hair and her clothes than the expression. He'll get used to all the... colors and short skirts eventually, though whether he ever gets used to young girls wearing them he doesn't know.

Which is something that these days makes him sexist, or chauvinist, or misogynistic - he doesn't really remember. He just tries to be polite, regardless. "It hasn't stuck yet."

Steve flashes a tiny smile, his glance going briefly over her head looking for a class or parent. Of course, it's equally possible she's here on her own - something else he has to get used to. "Uh..."

He probably shouldn't ask though.

[farsees]

"Uh?" She questions him, opening up her sketchbook to flip through it. Something in the display might possibly be drawn on the last filled page, and she squints down at the image before glancing up at the guy finally. Before, he had seemed familiar enough to randomly go up and speak to, but now that he was looking at her, she was left a little awestruck.

"You can't be him." She whispers, reaching up to poke at this look alike's arm. Whoever this was, it wasn't Nick, but he was almost identical. They even sounded alike.

"Okay, I think me seeing this place has a reason now. Maybe not a sane or good reason, but I'll take what I can get these days." She's still awestruck as she stands before him, and once again reaches up to poke at him, this time his face.

[usavatar]

"Um," he says, which isn't much of an improvement on "uh," really. He lets her poke him, standing with the patience of someone who's been through this a few times before. Usually from younger kids. "Did you... want me to sign something?"

That's what mostly gets asked for- that and pictures, which he doesn't mind, if she doesn't mind a somber looking Captain America instead of his usual poster-perfect smile.