logsinthenight | Routine Adjustments, Catch-All Log for February [Open+Closed prompts]

Entry tags:

Routine Adjustments, Catch-All Log for February [Open+Closed prompts]

characters: Soldat etc, open and closed prompts
location: Various, see each prompt
date/time: February 4 - 15, non-event stuff
content: Some new additions to the usual routine, some quiet grieving, and some dancing
warnings: Just the usual Bucky shit

I. Expanded Patrols, All Over + Invincible [Open]

With downtown open, and so far away in the snow, patrols take a little longer. Soldat spends a week in early February balancing locations until they find the optimum route for the morning and afternoon patrols (or, the 0500 and 1600 patrols, since there's no real morning or afternoon in a world of endless night). After that, snow and ice or not, they can be found reliably following one looping path or the other, depending on the time of day. Sometimes with company, sometimes not. Sometimes stopping at the scrapyard to give the dog-spirit a treat and sift through the junk in search of something useful. Sometimes wandering the halls of the school, wondering what it would have been like to attend one. Sometimes glowering at the mall downtown with the stupid crocodile spirits in the lower level.

And after, lingering in the warm Invincible tavern room and kitchen, listening to people, playing music softly on their tablet, and munching idly on sandwiches or whatever Midge has made that day while they play a newly remembered boredom-dispelling game: solitaire.

They're willing to segue into poker, should anyone come to join them before they get up to clean their dishes in the kitchen and go home to sleep.

II. Expanded Hours, Gym [Open]

Wednesday and Friday, like clockwork, after the 1600 patrol along the downtown loop, Soldat is at the gym with Javert and Jason for weapons and survival lessons or, if no one shows up for those, sparring and practice. Because practicing outside is kind of dumb when it's freezing, and because the trees behind Aziraphale and Crowley's cabin are starting to look rather worst for wear, Soldat winds up adding another day during the week-- sometimes Monday, sometimes Saturday, whenever they have time. They just show up at the rec center and throw knives at things, slash at imaginary opponents all across the gym floor, and hit things with the flesh fist (the metal one doesn't need to practice; it's a machine).

Feel free to join in. Or watch and wolf-whistle. Whatever.

III. Fading Hope, Church [Open]

Between actual routine activities, Soldat has spare time. They don't normally like spare time, and try to find useful ways to fill it, but the first week or so of February, it's good that they have it, because they spend most of it in the church.

Scarlett, their very first friend since Steve Rogers, had an obituary. Scarlett has been gone for possibly weeks. Scarlett might still come back, and Soldat wants to be there when she does. Or at least find her as soon after as possible. Make sure she's all right.

So they sit in a pew near the back, feet propped unrepentantly on the pew back in front of them, and hold a notebook over their knees, sometimes writing (slow and halting, occasionally hasty scribbles), sometimes just staring at the blank pages. Waiting.

IV. Buck Up, Sad Boy [Closed to Misty]

Scarlett is gone, apparently for good, but. Well. They're not. And other people are not. And they can only wallow in Sad for so long before the Sergeant nags them into doing something they enjoy, even with the Asset apparently enjoying the mope. So after clearing out Scarlett's things from her old room (boxing up the more personal effects in their own room, distributing her canned food supply to the store), they head to Misty's.

They have a plan. This will cheer them both up, they hope. So they knock, tablet already out and clutched to their chest, and hope she's awake.

V. Dragged Along for Research [Closed to Sora]

The library is not really Soldat's favorite place, but here they are anyway, trailing along behind Sora, looking around at the books in a somewhat blank and lost manner. There's so damn many. How do you even know where to start.

Thankfully, that's what hyperactive teenagers are for. Start them in the right direction, Sora. Or at least start them somewhere.

VI. Wildcard

Got an idea not on here for something you'd like to do with Soldat before the memshare event? Hit me up, I am open to p much anything and everything.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

A sigh, and a salute. "Yes sir."

And this, oddly enough, triggers another echo for him? This is the first time he's ever saluted at an authority figure overseeing his training even as a joke, after all. His eyes go a little unfocused for a few seconds, then he relaxes, putting down his hand at staring at it uneasily. He wishes it was just as easy for them.

Which is, actually, what Sora comes back to in the conversation - how hard this is going to be. "It can't be all that far away." Sora makes a fist. "I mean, even if this doesn't work, we can always just go somewhere else and try again. And the work we put in here is important too!"

Sometimes it is. When they aren't expecting it. Just not when they're hunting for it. They start to swat the flesh hand in his general direction (not close enough to even brush him with it, of course) at the salute-- that's wrong, no one should be saluting to them, they're just a Sergeant-- but pause and drop their hand when Sora does his now-familiar moment of zoning out. Do they look like that, when they get caught up in internal conversations, or their own memories?

"I know. I'm sorry, I know you want to help. We'll see if we can find anything." They pause, looking from Sora's face to his hand, too. "What did you see."

About half the time, Sora doesn't even have to go hunting, though! When it all first started, it was as easy as sneezing, and even since then, it seems like out of everyone he knew, he was always the one echoing something back. Back then, Skyler had hated it. Today, Sora wants the soldier to sneeze their way back to good memories.

If the soldier does zone out during their conversations, it's safe to say that they're impassive enough that Sora's never quite noticed the difference. Maybe when his observation-fu gets better, someday!

"Thanks for humoring me." It's a little wry, but mostly grateful that they are. They don't have to be here, and Sora knows it! It was always ever just a suggestion, and if the soldier were to turn around and walk out the door... well, Sora supposes he'd be a confused and disappointed, but more focused on seeing if they couldn't do something fun next. (The fun's the important part.)

Sora pauses, thinks back. Thankfully, it's not anything emotionally taxing. "There was a wizard named Yen Sid. He was in charge of... I guess everyone on our side?" Physical fingerquotes on "our side". As devoted to the cause of good as he is, his memories are patchy enough that he's not too certain that everyone that he was allied with was necessarily focused on doing the right thing. "We were talking about traveling between worlds, and what the bad guys would be up to. And how you can't actually break a connection between hearts, even if you're far away."

Hmm... there was one more thing. "Oh! They were called gummi ships!" Non-sequitur time? Non-sequitur time.

Doesn't help that Soldat's expressions are generally subtle, anyway; turning their attention inwards doesn't look much different from a standard neutral look. Misty recognizes it by now, but then, it happens more around her than Sora, and Misty is much more careful about their moods. Sora is still new, even with a month of intense conversations and shared activities behind them, and requires more energy and attention.

"Gummi ships," Soldat repeats blankly. For some reason that brings to mind... candy? "I'm gonna reiterate that your world is weird. I guess you must've. Saluted him? Yen Sid?"

Sora is very slow on the uptake! He's trying, though! Let it never be said that this boy didn't give it his all. "I... dunno if that's what they were. Literally. Maybe?" Sora scratches his head. "They were really, uh, bright, but I figured that that was just because everything was bright back then." Except Halloweentown and the Caribbean, but everything looked a little different in those worlds, including him.

"Yeah, I did. I remember people calling him Master Yen Sid. I think he might have been the leader of the people who had Keyblades. Well, the good guys with Keyblades, anyway." Boy, oh boy, he doesn't know much about Master Xehanort, but that guy had a keyblade and seemed, like, wicked evil.

Edited (formatting) 2020-02-06 04:16 (UTC)

"Well, don't do it to me again," they say after a moment to digest that. It's not an unhappy thing, just a thing that needs clarifying. To save them both some discomfort, maybe. "I'm not even properly a sergeant, and you're not in the army. Feels all wrong." They shake their head. "Come on, where are these books you think will help. It's my turn to get a memory."

Sora will note that! No confusion or bluster about what he meant, just acceptance of the world as it is. Extenuating circumstances aside, he's always been a rather accommodating kid. Complacent, even, especially when it comes to his friends. He just doesn't want them to hurt.

It is the soldier's turn to get a happy memory back! Which snaps Sora right back onto his original train of thought. "That's right! We gotta go fistbump the Librarian first, then I can bring you to the history and scifi sections. I have sweep up the study tables for a little while, but I can help you find stuff too after I'm done."

You're so good, Sora. Thank you for being so understanding. Soldat smiles a bit. "Okay. Librarian then history section. There's actually sections?" They'd always just kind of assumed the place was one big disorganized mess that only the Librarian spirit knew how to navigate. Then again, they haven't tried looking for anything, so maybe the Librarian does actually manage to keep things in some kind of order that Beacon residents can understand.

He knows what hurting looks like! He'd like to reduce the amount of it in the world, if he can. (Even if they're all dead. Dead feelings count too!)

Sora turns back and - aw, nuts, the Librarian's done the thing where they haunt the aisles super creepily again. They didn't even wait for the fistbump, huh? Spirits. Sora sighs. They can catch them later.

"Sort of? There's a lot of fiction here, so I had to ask the Librarian where to find stuff like cookbooks. Even then, it feels like things change here all the time?" Sora shakes his head. Time to get the Soldier to where he remembers the history section being last. "That's why I took pictures of the books I found. I was afraid they'd slip away again." Also, they're just nice to look at when he's trying to go to sleep. He likes to look at the pictures and imagine what the waves must sound like if he's walking along the short.

"Not like you could keep the book, anyway. Pictures mean you can look whenever you want," Soldat agrees. It's what they'd do, in that situation, they're pretty sure, rather than risk the wrath of the Librarian spirit by keeping the book too long.

"So there are sections, they just move. And are arbitrary as to what's in them." That's closer to what they expected, to be honest. They don't lag quite as much as Sora leads the way through the shelves, unless the kid gets too bouncy again with energy Soldat doesn't share. They're watching titles that jump out at them as they pass by, just out of curiosity.

"Yeeeup." Sora will walk them to the aisle he remembers history being last, a completely unfitting place somewhere between romance and self-help. It doesn't seem to have changed too much from last week, thankfully, although it does look. Erm.

"I thought there were way more history books here." It's about half the size he remembers? He grumbles. "Man, where do these books even go, anyway? It's not like I've ever seen them change. I don't think the Librarian even does it."

"Doesn't the Librarian eat them sometimes?" Soldat asks, looking over the apparently-reduced shelf. It's possible, even probable, that the rest of the books are somewhere else in the library and they'll just have to find them. Or stick with what's here, if they can't. They run a metal finger over some of the spines, reading titles along the shelf just below eye-level. Nothing jumps out as being about New York, yet.

"They do?" They do, Sora. He just hasn't been in a situation to watch them chow down. Somehow, he totally missed that during his three week stay here.

Well... He takes a second to try and visualize it. What with the way they eat... "You know, I can believe that."

Anyway, he'll go to the other end of the section and start looking himself. He'll need to scuttle off in a moment to start sweeping, but he can at least get part of the job done. "What should I be looking for? Just anything from Earth, the 1930s? Just America?"

"New York," Soldat says. "The apartment was in Brooklyn. Or World War 2, I fought in that. HYDRA was the Nazi science division." Do they even write books about Brooklyn? They're pretty sure there are going to be books about something they called a world war. Especially if it was the second one. They pause, and have to ask, cautious and a little afraid of the answer, "There wasn't a third world war, was there?"

Sora winces. He remembers making a timid assumption in his head earlier about who HYDRA was, but the confirmation doesn't make that a whole lot easier. He... isn't sure if he wants to think about what the soldier's been through on that front. He can, but that is its own specific kind of spiral, its own kind of hurt, and it belongs to the soldier, not him. At some point, he needs to step back and let them have their own pain.

All he can do is be gentle. He's okay at that sometimes. He just hopes the soldier can forgive him if he's clumsy.

"New York, Brooklyn," he says instead, in possibly the broadest New York accent he can muster. Hey, when in doubt, regional accents are always funny. "Nah, no third world war. Not yet." He thinks about it for a moment. "I mean... where I was from - New Jersey - there was sort of an alien invasion thing going on, but it's not like world powers were going at it."

"Don't go yankin' my chain, kid," the Sergeant replies with a blatant eyeroll and a grin. Apparently this is what brings him out: making fun of the way he talks. "You're from fuckin' Jersey, you don't get to goof on my accent." He sounds amiable, though, as he picks up where Soldat left off, picking up another book. "Alien invasion? Seriously? Not sure if that sounds awesome or awful. Wish we were there." They'd be pretty good against aliens, they're sure.

Sora's squatted down to check on the bottom shelf when the accent change hits. He looks up from his position and spreads out his hands in both a welcome and a challenge, putting on an even broader Jersey accent. "Aay, look who's back! If I'm ever lost out in the forest, I'll start slanderin' all a' youse guys up there. That'll summon ya."

Anyway, he'll shake his head and look back at the books. (He may struggle to lose a bit of the accent for a short time, though.) "I wish you were there, too. Coulda used the help, especially when the soldiers started dropping." He pauses, then shakes his head again. "On the other hand, I guess if you're one of the guys from the past, then I'd only know you through someone else. Then I don't know if we could have been friends."

Edited 2020-02-09 21:03 (UTC)

The urge is there to just smack the back of Sora's head. Soldat doesn't stop him, so... there it goes. It's gentle, though, just enough to bounce his head forward a little. "Punk," the Sergeant says, but it sounds fond.

He pulls down another book, himself, making a face at the dust. The Sergeant's expressions are more open and readable than Soldat's. "Maybe. Maybe not. Got no idea what we'd be like if we were... somebody else. Shit, that's way too complicated for Soldat to wanna think about." They're still dealing with the personhood in general deal, without trying to imagine throwing in being someone else, too.

Sora will smack both hands to the back of his head, wincing comically, then give the sergeant a bared teeth grimace before turning his attention to the books. There, his grimace quickly melts into a pink-cheeked pleased grin. The sergeant likes him, and the soldier was okay with everything that went down there! It's heartening. The extent to which they've grown comfortable with his company means the world to Sora, especially after how Skyler treated them a couple of weeks ago. They're in this together, after all. Any affirmation he can get that whatever they're doing is working is just more motivation for him to keep trying.

He rubs his nose with a finger and clears his throat, trying to put away that momentary euphoria so he doesn't just rocket away on the wings of his own enthusiasm. Work to do. (Also, is the sergeant calling the soldier Soldat, now? Hmmmmmmm.) "Yeah, maybe it's better that you weren't there. I only really remember there being one other guy in my heart - before New Jersey - and that was pretty complicated already. Don't know what I would've done if it'd been Skyler, and then me, and him in me, and another two people in me? I guess?" He shakes his head. That would've been way too much. "It'd be like, uh, what. Those Russian dolls? Starts with an M."

Why yes, the Sergeant is. Though there's been no official announcement or anything, that would just be weird. There's a pause, possibly longer enough for Sora to look up and wonder why no one has said anything. "Matryoshka." The Brooklyn accent is gone, and Soldat is staring hard at the book in their hands, frowning a little. It's proper Russian accent time. Also proper Russian language time, though auto-translate still works so Sora can still understand: "Not like that."

It is a bit of a weird pause, but Sora figured that the Sergeant had gotten lost in his book before the properly pronounced term comes in reply. Sora looks up to see the Sergeant glued to his book... wait. Nah, that's the soldier again. They both have their backs straight and shoulders back, but the way they look when they're focused is different. (Sora thinks he's getting it, but it's like telling identical twins apart, except harder because there's no way to put them side by side and compare.)

Well, if that them, that's how to get the soldier (Soldat?) back. Hm. He's going to have to start learning Russian. Just in case of emergencies! "Then how," Sora asks. He's sure that their words were shaped like Russian, but he could still understand it? Huh. Experimentation time. "Tell me," he says, only this time, he forms the words in Tagalog.

Well. Your'e half-right, Sora. It's not the Sergeant. Apparently you get the Sergeant by making fun of Brooklyn, and you get the Asset by asking about something Russian. Sora gets a sidelong look, not actually hitting anywhere but his knees, but clocking where he is, completely expressionless. Then the answer, in clear unaccented Tagalog right back: "Rough edges. No clear orders." Well. Clear and unaccented and more choppy than even Soldat usually gets.

(Holy fuck, the Asset has actual words and can converse with someone. Oh shit oh fuck Asset get back in here! You aren't supposed to do that! I'm pretty sure it's not gonna hurt anyone. I am not risking the kid on pretty sure, Sergeant!)

Edited (ugh I hate repeating icons on accident) 2020-02-11 01:04 (UTC)

That's. Not a very soldier-like answer. But Sora can't really place why that is? Sora will put the book in his hands down on the floor (he'll stick it in the shelving area later) and lean back on his hands really look at the soldier, trying to tick through what just happened. The Tagalog is perfectly understandable! Just. Short.

"No clear order, like... The way they're stuck in each other isn't right? Is there a better way to explain it?" No foreign language this time. Sora thinks he may have stymied the soldier a little, asking a question in a language they know but don't usually use (nice surprise, gonna have to save that for later). (Wait... also, where's the little grin they'd have when they know they've done something that will impress him?)

"No clear orders." Plural, Sora. The Asset switches languages again, but now it's back to Russian, while Sora is back to English. Russian is compliant. Also more comfortable. "Refusal of the mission."

(Get. The fuck. In. Here.) "No." (Are you talking back to me from out there?) "Yes." (Jesus fuck, that's gonna confuse the kid. Inside. Now. I thought you liked orders, you bastard. Follow that one.)

"Orders...?" Still speaking in Russian, too. Sora frowns, focusing a little, trying to put the pieces together in his head. Orders, refusing a mission, simple yes or no answers, the weird sterility...

Sora nearly drops onto an elbow as it all falls into place. Oh. The description from the week with the lantern. I used to be like that, was what they said. Oh. Oooooh.

"Hey, Asset." Said a little cautiously, but with more curiosity than fear. Sora wasn't around when the soldier was more Asset than not. "That's you, right? Hi." A pause, then a very embarrassed babble. "Sorry for telling you to go throw yourself in the trash. I meant it, but I don't mean it anymore."

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