entrancelogs | are you going to age with grace? [OPEN]

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are you going to age with grace? [OPEN]

Who: Steve Rogers and YOU
Where: Throughout Wonderland
When: 03/17 - 03/24
Rating: PG-13
Summary: A "day in the life" scenario with the star-spangled man!
The Story:
I.
Steve's always preferred the diner to the dining hall. There's something about the personal touch that's put on the food. It's not quite like home, but it's definitely better than the formal setup of the dining hall, with its long tables and lavish decorations.

On any given day, Steve can be found camped out in one of the diner's booths, picking at an enormous plate of food while he works on one project or another. Depending on when he's found, he might be scribbling down names into a notebook (names like Black Widow and Hawkeye, among others), or reading a novel, or even doodling in his sketch book.

While he doesn't mind eating by himself and never has, finding the alone time to be relaxing, he certainly won't turn away anyone who might decide to join him, gesturing them toward the opposite side of the booth with a brief smile.

II.

As much as Steve enjoys jogging around Wonderland's grounds, particularly now that spring has sprung and the weather is so nice, from time to time he prefers to switch things up, which is how he finds his way to the swimming pool located on the mansion's second floor. As far as he knows, people don't often make use of this amenity, and so he usually finds it empty when he heads down in a pair of trunks with a towel in hand to swim some laps.

Steve's instincts might be good, but with his head mainly submerged underwater while he swims, he isn't likely to notice if anyone does happen upon him during his workout. On the other hand, he might be finishing up and pushing himself out at the edge of the pool to dry off as someone walks in.

Either way, it's going to involve him wet, dripping, and shirtless -- and who would want to miss that?

III.

With Natasha and Clint having arrived in quick succession, the pressure on Steve to restructure the Avengers is stronger than ever. He's been putting it off, which isn't like him, probably because it's another way in which he has to make a change because Bucky has left. That, and there haven't been any threats on the mansion as of late. Most people can put up with some talking plants without the aid of a superhero team.

Still, it needs to be done, and that means getting back into the swing of his title. He can't just be Steve here, not when he's got people relying on him, and so he's in full uniform as he takes out the robot drones that Tony set up for them in the training room.

He crashes into one with his shield, throwing it off balance, and then flings his leg up high enough to slam his boot into its head, which knocks it clear off the thing's shoulders and sends it rolling across the floor. Then he spins around and flings his shield out to clip two more of the drones, racing after it to slam into the metal dummies with all his strength. This is entirely different from watching Steve spar -- he isn't holding back right now because he doesn't need to, instead making full use of the serum.

IV.

Wildcard! Want to interact with Steve in some other place or setup? Go for it! If you need to check anything over with me, hit me up at

demonology.

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Alphys, by her own fault mostly, hasn't been out of her room much in the last couple of days. After finding the library, and the closets being able to provide her with food if she needed it, there hasn't been much reason to get out and see people. Alphys is aware, however, that she's falling back into old habits of disappearing, and she doesn't want anyone to be worried about her, so maybe it's time to at least get out and walk around.

She's got a volume of her favorite manga shoved in front of her face as she shuffles into the diner, unwilling to put it down long enough to look where she's going... causing her to trip and fall flat on her face, right next to Steve's booth. She's immediately mumbling her apologies to whoever she's just dropped herself in front of, trying to get herself up off the ground so she can scurry away in her embarrassment in peace.

Engrossed in his work, Steve doesn't pay much mind to the other people who come and go through the diner, so he isn't aware of Alphys' presence there until she's already in the process of tripping to the floor.

That being said, his reaction time is impressive. He's out of his chair and at her side in a matter of seconds, not giving her the time to get up or scurry away. "Are you all right?" Her appearance is hard to mistake. They'd only spoken by phone before, but it's obvious who this is. "Dr. Alphys, right?"

He reaches out for the book that had flown from her hands, some sort of comic from the looks of it, and hands it back to her. "You know, you should really watch where you're going..." At that point he straightens and extends his hand to her to help her up.

Alphys immediately blushes and almost can't look him in the eye when she realizes who's there- Steve was one of the people who responded to her when she first arrived. At least this wasn't a first impression, necessarily, but that didn't make it any less mortifying to land on your face in front of someone.

Despite this, she takes his hand to help her to her feet, and takes the comic back from him, pressing it tightly to her chest. She looks at first glance like she might be crouching or slouching, but no, she's just actually kind of small. "Y-Yeah, that's me! Uh, s-sorry about this." She can't quite meet his eyes. "I mean, uh, I'm fine! That, uhm, h-happens sometimes. A-And, I mean, I should, uh..." She stops for a second, tries to get her thoughts together. "I, uh, w-was really excited to finish this c-chapter. I hadn't been, uh, a-able to get this volume b-back home, and... y-yeah. I'm sorry for, uhm, b-bothering you!"

She manages to flash him a smile. "B-But, uh, thank you for h-helping me out."

It doesn't look like Alphys' stuttering is clearing up, which probably means that it's a speech impediment. Steve doesn't want to make her feel bad about it, so he does what he can not too focus too hard on it, even if it's tough waiting for her to get all her words out.

Now that she's standing he can get a better look at her, and there's no doubt that she's a walking, talking, yellow... lizard. It's hard to say if that's stranger than a talking skeleton -- Steve's not sure there's any one way to measure these things.

Still, he knows what it's like to get completely engrossed in a book. "You're welcome, and it's fine, you're not bothering me." He nods toward the comic book in her hands. "So what's it about?" Steve has to accept that there's a decent chance the answer will be "superheroes."

Possibly luckily for Steve, Alphys is one of the only people who doesn't actually know almost anything about superheroes. Or at least, not about ones like him. Nevertheless, she blushes a bit, moving it so the title can be seen more clearly. Possibly unluckily for Steve, Alphys will always talk about her favorite comics, though it becomes less 'talking' and more 'words overlapping just enough so they're still understood'.

"It's, uh, a m-manga adaptation of my favorite anime, uh, Mew Mew Kissy Cutie. It's, uhm, a-about this girl with c-cat ears and she has magical kisses t-that can control people! But, uh, s-she doesn't like using them, but sometimes she, uh, n-needs help to fix her problems! B-But really it's, uh, about friendship and acceptance a-and y'know, f-feeling good about yourself." She looks a little bashful by the end of it, catching up with herself; she knows she tends to ramble. "S-Sorry, uh, I didn't m-mean to talk so much. I, uh, c-could never find this issue back home, so I was, uh, r-really excited to see I could get it here."

Finally, she meets Steve's eyes, if only slightly. "Do you, uh, r-read comics, too?"

It's instantaneous, the shift in Alphys' demeanor. She might still stumble over her words somewhat, but she's enthusiastic about this particular subject, passionate in a way that Steve's seen in other contexts. Some people get this excited about the Avengers, for instance.

Steve's not sure there's ever a situation where it's justifiable to use an ability to control someone else, but he also realizes that it's a particularly sore spot for him and that Alphys is talking about a work of fiction, so he doesn't need to overreact. Especially if the comic apparently has such good overall themes.

"You don't need to apologize." Steve enjoys hearing people talk about things that mean a lot to them, even if it's something as seemingly trivial as a comic book. "I would read comics sometimes when I was a kid, but I haven't really had the time lately," he admits. Plus, there are comics about him now, which is all kinds of weird. The Captain America that they put into comic books for kids is a propaganda tool more than anything, meant to promote good morals and a sense of wholesomeness.

After moving back to the booth and settling into his spot, Steve gestures for Alphys to take a seat across from him.

Alphys can't help but smile when Steve speaks- he's just so nice about everything, and not in a way that feels patronizing, but just in a way that makes you feel valued. It's sweet, and something she doesn't really expect out of people. Then again, she also sort of expects people to bully her, so any kindness is a step in the correct direction.

Still, she accepts Steve's invitation, sliding the book down on the counter and out of their way.

"What, uhm, k-kind of stuff did you used to read? I, uh, h-haven't actually read a new title in, uhm, a w-while... though I guess being here, uhm, offers m-more time than I would've expected. T-Then again, everything had just about, uhm, s-settled down back home... b-but I guess it's probably, uhm, n-not like that everywhere." She's fidgeting, just a little, but that's pretty normal for her. Mostly she's trying to make herself look non-threatening, despite being, you know, a freakin' lizard person. She's learning through the human world that she might actually look intimidating, and she'd like to downplay that as much as possible.

One thing Steve will never do is bully anyone. Bullies have always earned his disdain at best and his fists at worst. If he ever catches anyone bullying Alphys, he'll be the first person to intervene.

Steve wouldn't say that he's intimidated by the way that Alphys looks. It's surprising and surreal to be sharing a diner booth with a lizard person, but it would be nearly impossible to be intimidated by someone as nervous and uncertain as Alphys.

But he hasn't thought about comic books in years, and her question causes him to exhale slowly as he thinks back. "I haven't read anything since the '30's, so I'm sure you're more recent than me," Steve remarks before he realizes that Alphys' world probably has a completely different calendar than his own. "But I read Krazy Kat, Popeye, Little Orphan Annie..."

He pauses and smiles crookedly at Alphys. "Any of that ring a bell?" He's guessing not.

She thinks about it, tries to pull the titles. Admittedly, she's read a lot in her life, not all of it manga or comics- but it is limited by how much falls down into the garbage dump, and is then still readable. It's why she takes to videos and DVDs more- the cases are more likely to keep them actually intact. She might've seen the titles, but they could've been too destroyed to read.

"I h-haven't, actually. But, uh, I used to get a lot of my stuff, well, p-pretty second-hand. Not a lot of books, uhm... s-survive, very well. So I might've, uh, s-seen them, but they weren't, w-well, readable."

She thinks about it a little bit, raising a hand to her chin. "T-Then again, I guess i-it's also possible they didn't, uh, e-exist in my world. I'm not sure, uh, h-how much pop culture transfers over, or, uhm, i-if it does at all." It forces her to consider a world without Mew Mew, for just a second, and she shudders a little at the thought. That's a horrifying revelation. Mew Mew is too important for other people not to know about it.

Steve wouldn't be able to say whether or not Mew Mew exists in his world, as he's not exactly up on Japanese pop culture. It's possible some of the other people from his world might have an idea, but it's not a question that desperately needs to be answered. (As far as he can tell, anyway.)

He works on his plate of food as they chat, keeping an eye out for one of the servers so he can call them over and Alphys can order. Steve assumes that she came in here to get something to eat, after all. Not that he has any idea what lizard people like to eat, but he's about to find out.

"Yeah, I think certain things transfer and certain things don't. I mean, in some worlds I'm just a comic book character, and some other people are book characters." It's almost like there's some resonance across worlds that allows for their real life stories to become works of fiction, but that's way beyond anything Steve could try to define. He glances up and studies Alphys, trying to train himself to look at her without outright staring. "Where do you get your books in the underground, anyway?" She'd mentioned secondhand, but that doesn't really narrow it down.

She considers the implications about pop culture transfer- it's weird to think that, somewhere, she's just a story. She offhandedly wonders if she has fans. She sort of hopes she has cosplayers. These are things she'd never admit, of course- she knows, through Mettaton, that being famous has it's drawbacks, and more than that she's sure that if Steve is aware he's possibly got a fanbase, he's dealt with his share of them. She doesn't want to bring up anything unpleasant, but... the thought is staggering, frankly. A thousand multiverses, where she may only exist as her, alive, in a few.

His question catches her slightly off-guard, but she's glad to be pulled back from being so engrossed in her thoughts. "W-Well, uh..." It's a little embarrassing, but she promised her friends she'd stop lying about who she was. This was as good a place to start as any. "It's, uh, the g-garbage dump, actually. Human garbage usually, uhm, f-falls into the Underground, because of uh, the r-river that falls through the middle of it. So, it washes down a l-lot of stuff, and if you're quick, and uh, c-careful, you can get, uhm, all kinds of things. Books, DVDs, circuitry, all kinds of spare metal and scrap parts... it's where, uh, I g-get a lot of raw material for uhm, my p-projects."

Alphys doesn't know anything about Steve, but she sort of assumes humans never have to want for new material- obviously, their affluence shows in their trash, because they can afford to lose so much. It seems humiliating, to have to admit that she digs the things she has out of the human's discarded wealth. Still, she manages a sort-of smile. "It's, uh, n-not so bad! As long as, y-you're fast, and pay good a-attention, of course."

Edited (sorry i don't know words i suppose) 2016-04-15 07:56 (UTC)

Well, that's not the answer that Steve had been expecting. Really, he hadn't know what to expect, but it wasn't that.

"I thought the human world and the underground were completely separate from each other," Steve remarks mainly to himself, thinking back to some of what Sans had told him about the relation between the two realms. His guess is that even if things can fall into the underground from the human surface, making the trip the other way around is impossible.

Alphys seems pretty embarrassed about it, but then again, she tends to seem vaguely embarrassed about everything. Steve realizes that it must be pretty crappy when someone else's trash becomes your treasure, though. Contrary to what Alphys might think, Steve grew up pretty damn poor and it had mainly been his sense of pride that had prevented him from taking hand-outs from other, more fortunate people.

"That can't be easy, rooting around in the garbage like that," he says with a frown. "Wonderland has a lot of bad parts to it, but at least everyone has easy access to things here."

Including food. The server makes their way over to take Alphys' order. Hopefully she's had a chance to look at the menu -- and hopefully the menu has something on it that she'd like to eat.

When the server arrives, Alphys hurriedly scans the menu and orders, deciding on a burger for it being simple and she's pretty sure it would be the same as she's eaten before. It's no Grillby's, but it'll do just fine. She tries to keep her words straight and as quick as possible with the server, as not to waste Steve's time, before turning back towards him.

"W-Well, uh, there are a c-couple places where things, uhm, e-enter, but it's impossible to get o-out of those areas. They're, uhm, t-too small for monsters, or too t-tall to climb out of... plus, uhm, t-there's probably magical barriers, uh, t-there too. It wasn't, uhm, r-really a functional way to g-go about leaving." The hole in the Ruins was too deep to climb out of, and the water had such a strong current, it wouldn't have been feasible to get back through.

"But, uh, it's a l-lot nicer to just, b-be able to ask for things, here. That's, uh, w-why I got so excited about, t-this book." She smiles a little fondly at the comic, set on the table to her left. "The, uh, v-version I had, the ending w-wasn't readable. So, uhm, it's really nice to have, uh, a b-brand new one!" She beams, still looking slightly embarrassed. "I, uhm, d-don't want to squander the, uh, r-resources here, but... it f-feels nice to, uhm, j-just be able to have things, when you need them, or w-want them."

Steve's a pretty big fan of burgers himself, so he approves of Alphys' choice. He's not sure if she picked it in a panic or if it's what she actually wanted, but that will probably become clear when the food arrives. For now, Steve focuses on what she has to say both about the Underground and how it relates to Wonderland. To switch from having to scrounge for everything to getting literally anything you wanted from the closets had to be a jarring -- but exciting -- change.

"It makes you a lot more grateful for even little things," Steve agrees with a small nod. "And I don't think you really need to worry about squandering anything. There are sometimes events where the closets stop working, but for the most part they're pretty reliable." Sometimes they spit out the wrong thing, but a few more tries will usually produce the correct item. Granted, it does feel like a waste when that happens.

"So, have you finished it already?" Steve asks with a small smile and a nod to the comic. From the way that Alphys talks about it, he finds it hard to believe that she would have put off reading the ending of one of her favorite stories.

She laughs, a little bashful, when he asks if she's finished. It makes her tripping over herself here seem awfully silly, since she has, in fact, finished reading it. "H-Haha, oh yeah. This was, uhm, my f-first full series read-through to the end, though. I mean, like, the whole t-thing in one go so I could look back for, y-y'know, context clues and foreshadowing stuff." Okay, so she does casual textual analysis of her favorite media, sometimes it happens. It's crucial to understanding the nuances of a text as complex as Mew Mew Kissy Cutie. "I mean, uh, j-just so I can understand the plot to the fullest! And, uhm, b-be able to formulate my f-fan theories correctly."

Even as it's coming out of her mouth she knows it sounds nerdy as hell, and she blushes a bit in embarrassment. "It's, uh, a-also been a long time since I had, well, the time to do a-anything like this. I was always s-so busy back home, working for the king, a-and running experiments... I guess it's nice to, well, f-finally have a little time to myself, sort of."

Alphys' passion and excitement is something that Steve admires. Even if it's about something as seemingly silly as a comic book, having an investment that great in anything says a lot about a person and their convictions. It probably means that Alphys would be similarly thorough about other, more important things too.

Besides, everyone should have a hobby. It helps to keep your head on straight.

Steve definitely understands being too busy to enjoy the little things, too. Work usually keeps him tied up back home, so there isn't any time for drawing or reading or the other things that help him relax.

"I didn't realize you worked for a king," Steve says with a tilt of his head. "What kind of experiments did you do, anyway?"

Alphys blushes a bit, remembering not everyone here knows about Asgore and the things she used to do in the Underground. The... not always so savory things, especially, considering her work was usually the worst part of her. But she doesn't have to get into the serious details, especially with someone she barely knows. Keep it casual. He's just curious.

"Well, uhm, yeah! I was, uh the r-royal scientist, for the Underground's k-king, Asgore. He was, uhm, really nice. I mean, is still r-really nice! He's just, y-you know, not here." How does she talk about people not in Wonderland? They're still there, just... not where she is? Oh, this is getting too complicated. "But, uhm, I was appointed to the role after I m-made a robot with a soul. And, uh, after that, I did, uh, w-whatever he asked! Mostly it was, uhm, trying to break the b-barrier that kept us trapped there, by studying the n-nature of human SOULs, and magic. So we could f-free everyone."

She fidgets, a little bit, looking at her hands. "They... weren't a success, t-though. Nothing good e-ever came of them. In the e-end I didn't really, uhm, help much at all."

As far as Steve's aware, anyone who's royalty and who's actually nice is a rare thing. Maybe he's biased because of how awful the queens here are, which is his main point of reference, but still. There's a reason that people broke away from the monarchy to settle in the Americas in the first place.

The mention of a robot with a soul causes Steve to raise an eyebrow, even as their server swoops in to bring Alphys her food. He happens to know someone who might fit that description.

When Alphys starts beating herself up, Steve quickly shakes his head, dropping his fist onto the table between them -- not with force, but to make a point all the same. "Hey, you still have experience with it, though. We're in a similar spot here, being trapped in this place. I'm sure the work you've done will be really helpful to our cause now."

As futile as it all might seem at times, Steve knows that they can't give up. Alphys will be a great contribution, if she decides that she wants to participate.

Alphys smiles at the server as they duck in, thanking them quietly as they disappear, still kind of trying not to take up too much space. The Amalgamates... they were worse than 'nothing good'. They were melted-together people. Just because everyone was okay with it in the end doesn't mean it didn't happen, doesn't mean that she didn't hurt people in the process, and probably caused them a lot of pain. It's still recent, and fresh, and not something she can really explain- if Steve knew, really knew, he'd hate her. Everyone should, for what she did. That's just how it is when you do bad things.

But when Steve brings his fist down, she jumps, just slightly, but it gets her to look at him fully, mouth slightly agape. He's... right, objectively. But she's afraid of messing it all up again. She tries to formulate a response, ends up mindlessly eating some fries off her plate. "I'm s-sorry, uhm. I mean, I hope there's something I c-can do. And that it won't, uhm, b-be like how it was before. If there's any w-way I can help, I want to. I don't want to b-be a burden on anyone, and I can't really fight, s-so... this is something I c-can do. I just hope, uhm, some g-good can come of it."

Giving up has always been the easy way out, for Alphys. Something to keep on reserve but not something to give into. But here she doesn't have that option- she has to be better. She has to do better. So she bites into her burger, tries to push herself past it, stops herself from rambling any further. He believes in her, or something like it. It's worth trying. It's worth fighting for.

Sometimes all anyone needs to succeed is for someone to believe in them, for someone to look them in the eye and tell them that they know they can do it. Steve has served as an inspiration to plenty of people, both through his legacy and through his own words. While his status as Captain America wouldn't mean a thing to Alphys, that doesn't matter in Steve's mind anyway. He can still try to give her that extra push.

"Believe me, there are already plenty of people here who can fight. We need more scientific minds working on how to beat this place, though." Steve and the rest of the Avengers can handle the fighting, along with every other person here who came in with combat experience. Which is a pretty large number as far as he can tell.

Pulling his hand back, Steve finishes the last few bites of his food and then sets the plate aside. It looks like lizards do eat burgers and fries after all, who knew? "Have you checked out the lab space in the basement yet?" He tilts his head at her, curious. She might not have gotten around to it since she's still so new, but a gentle reminder can't hurt.

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are you going to age with grace? [OPEN]

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post-hiatus tag, totally okay if you drop!

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