+ Wanted to get it real home-like... +

[vitaelamorte]

Who: EVERYONE!
Where: EVERYWHERE!
When: ANYT-- Friday, February 20 to Monday, February 23
Rating: An average PG-13? (Consider warning for explicit sexual or violent content in your thread's subject line)
Summary:
For the duration of this event each character will discover that their room has been replaced with one of their own memories, one that they find themselves particularly happy or "at home" in. More information can be found here.

This log is an opportunity for your characters to describe the memory playing in their room, so that other characters might visit, and watch the scene unfold. To help browse the collection better, please include your character's name, and their room number in the subject line (e.g. Seta Souji - 100, 6th floor) of your top-level comment.

Rooms/Comments may be locked to certain people, or be available for all to see & visit. Log participation is completely and entirely voluntary.

Have fun!

Comments

[assembles]

Curious as Steve might be, this isn't the time or place to be asking about Tony's past breakdowns. It's not for him to know, it's not his business, and he's seen enough of Tony's fraying, both during the Battle of New York and here in Wonderland, to have an idea of what Pepper's had to contend with in the past.

Pepper's ready to go, which really isn't any surprise. She's now aware that anything she feels while in this room will be broadcast right to Steve, so it makes sense that she'd rather leave it behind, at least for now. Steve nods and climbs back up the stairs toward the interior of the plane, although that instantly warps into the seventh floor corridor in Wonderland.

It's a little disorienting, but he adjusts quickly enough.

"The feeling is mutual," he says in reply to Pepper, reaching out once she's close enough to lay a hand on her shoulder and give it an encouraging squeeze. There's actually a moment of relief shared between them, which is nice. Steve takes a look around, though, and makes what should have been an obvious observation, though it only occurs to him right then.

"We're gonna have to figure out where to sleep, seeing how Wonderland abducted our beds," he points out with a sigh.

[handing]

She knows part of him wants to ask, and she’s thankful when he doesn’t. Instead he leads her out with an agreement that this partnership is one to be thankful for, and a reassuring touch once she reaches the top of the stairs. It’s the very reason why she feels that gratitude, and for a moment, their emotions sync. Such a small thing, and yet having that emotion layered within her has Pepper smiling perhaps a bit more brightly than she normally would.

At least until Steve points out that now, neither of them has a place to rest. But there’s an easy enough solution for the problem. “I have the gallery. It wouldn’t be hard to put a couple of beds in there.” Provided, of course, that Wonderland doesn’t have another surprise waiting there as well. The thought gives her reason to worry, and she glances over at Steve. “I should probably check to see if that room’s been changed too.”

She hesitates then, conflicted over whether she should ask him to come with her or stay behind. Either way, what Pepper feels Steve will share—and this time, she’ll go in fully aware that whatever she’s facing isn’t real. That more than anything else sways her decision; in the end, Pepper doesn’t want to face another phantom of her lover alone. “Would you come with me?”

[assembles]

They should be able to find a vacant room that has a working closet, he figures, and they could drag some mattresses out of it. While they could just sleep in one of the unused rooms, that might cause it to transform on them, and Steve figures that using a communal area like the gallery might be easier in this case. He doesn't think that the gallery will be changed the way that Pepper's worried about, but then again, they can't be sure of that, and so he doesn't mind going with her to check it out.

She wants the company, even though she isn't sure what to expect from the gallery. It means that she values his support more than she's concerned about him being present when she stumbles in on another memory. It will probably be a moot point, but Steve doesn't mind making the trip with her. At least if he's in Pepper's company, he can be more easily clued in to what she's feeling, rather than being hit with unexpected emotions at random. Which is going to happen eventually, but he'd like to get the hang of it first, now that he knows what's going on.

"Of course," he replies. They've got to head down a few floors to make it there, but it isn't too far, and so Steve starts for the stairs without any further delay.

[handing]

Pepper’s come to expect the worst case scenario when it comes to dealing with Wonderland. While it doesn’t typically negate the shock of just what this world manages to do to them on any given week, she at least feels a little more prepared to face it. Maybe Steve’s right to think the fact that it’s a public space means it won’t be altered, but Pepper doesn’t want to simply bank on that. Far better she walk in expecting another memory put on display, another moment of potential heartache.

It’s easy enough to fall in step with him, but silence only leaves her time to think. Of course she has her own lingering emotions, but there’s also Steve’s, thoughts of Bucky still floating through her mind. “He’s come to see me a couple of times. Bucky, I mean.” The change of topic might be a bit jarring, thus the clarification. “He’s helping me learn to fight with Extremis—and he asked me out for coffee not long ago.”

[assembles]

It's not as if Steve minds the silence that much. He and Pepper are almost in each other's heads now, at least when it comes to what they're feeling, if not hearing each other's exact thoughts. (Which would be even stranger, and Steve's glad they've been spared that, at least.) He doesn't mind when Pepper speaks up either, though, because Bucky is pretty much always a relevant topic for him, as she must know now.

The fact that Bucky has sought out Pepper instead of the other way around is good news, but Steve also realizes that they'd been close here in Wonderland before he left, and he's still got all of those memories intact. Including the ones that involved coffee dates between them, which had been routine at one point.

"I'm glad it's going well." Bucky can definitely teach Pepper a few things about control in a fight, though they won't get into the why. "I think it helps, that he can still remember everything about this place, even if he still feels kind of disconnected from it." Steve hadn't been sure if that would make things better or worse for Bucky, but it seems to have worked itself out. "By the way," he continues, sending her a glance as they move down the stairs, "if you need more help with combat training, I'm good for it too." Both he and Bucky can handle any issues that might flare up with Extremis, so it's worth it to offer.