The Samhain Ball - Come as You Aren't

[u_can_have_it_4_a_song]

A woman strides through the Nexus, garbed in royal finery of a distinctly Elizabethan style. In the crook of her arm, she carries an ebony scepter shod and capped in silver. There may be something familiar about her confident bearing, her angular features, her mismatched eyes. When she pauses to speak, the cadence of her words might spark recognition--is this Schön?!

"People of the Nexus, friends, in the world from which I hail we stand on the cusp of a special day, a harvest-fest when the walls between worlds grow thin, when masks and costumes are worn to frighten away the wicked spirits--or to invite them in on more congenial terms. So on this day, I invite you, each and every one of you, to join me in a revel to bid farewell to Summer, and welcome with fire and song the coming dark! Join me, won't you?" Letting her gaze sweep the crowd, she raps the heel of her scepter once against something solid, vanishing in a flash and leaving a sparkling trail for the curious to follow.

A cool wind herds dry, crackling leaves through the gathering gloom. On the cusp between the parklands and the residential district, darkness and cloudy skies have been slowly coalescing for days around a stately house of Gothic style, ivy-encrusted and showing its age somewhat. A square tower stands vigil over the entryway, tall windows overlooking the flagstone drive looping around a fountain gone dry. The house’s angular wings stretch to either side, the windows dark save for occasional glints and gleams of colored lights bobbing within. A glow does creep over the line of the roof, however, and the faint throb of distant music hint at something happening behind the house. The door stands open, a silent invitation to every brave soul who passes by.

((Happy Halloween! Enjoy the festivities. All LOLs are optional. Threadhopping is encouraged. Backtagging is forever, so don’t worry about missing out: we’ll still be here when you get back from your more mundane ghosties and goblins.))

Playlist
Visualosity
The Entrance
The Ballroom
The Banquet
The Bonfire
The Corn Maze
Dark Corners
Costume Icon Requests
The Photo Booth

Comments

[fightlikehell]

His brow furrows a little for a moment before the smile bounces back. "Yeah, really. It's not Buckingham Palace, sure. It's on the up and up slowly but surely." Matt says with a full confidence. Some days it seems better than others. There are still plenty of Irish immigrants. Probably a Murdock or three.

"I'll be sure to keep that in mind." Not going back home, the one he was just very fondly talking about, seems impossible. "What are the chances of not going back?"

[juststeverogers]

"Oh hell. My own place ain't exactly the Ritz either." Steve chuckles, because really, their tiny apartment in Brooklyn is not in the best neighborhood either, but it's all they could afford. Well, before Bucky got drafted and Steve got stuck here. it's probably a blessing, since he didn't know how he was going to pay the bills without Bucky. "But it's home, and I know that makes it special. No matter where it is."


"Oh uhm, not that high I guess. Like I said, most folks can come and go from their world as they please, and the person running this place is very good at finding people a way back. just..." He shrugs his tiny shoulders, making the straw in his costume rustle again. "...mine's not..there...anymore. Apparently."

Taking Steve Rogers out of his world changed more than Steve could possibly imagine.

[fightlikehell]

"Yeah." For all of the problems and bad press it's a good place, there are good people. And no one should be able to take that away. It's what Matt fights for. For all he hears, Steve is just a depreciating man. Non-natives assume that New York is either a slum, upstate or Broadway. There's so much more. "That's exactly how I feel." He would be smiling there after but the subject matter is a little more serious.

"I'm so sorry to hear that." What can be said to that? Matt swallows. "You know, maybe there must be an important reason that you have to be here? I'm not saying that as a consolation, just a possibility."

[juststeverogers]

"It's a weird question but uhm...When are you from?" He's not sure how to ask that without it sounding kind of strange. "It's December, 1941 back home. I'd love to show it to you sometime, when I figure out how to get back, that is." A lot of the sounds and atmosphere is exactly the same, even back then.

Steve thinks Matt might enjoy it. He'd even be happy to take them to his version of Hell's Kitchen if he wanted. Though that might end in trouble, but he'd watch Matt's back for him. It's the friendly thing to do.

"No it's..." It's not fine, and Steve doesn't try to pretend it is. "It is what it is. I'll keep looking for a way back, and try to help who I can while I'm here."

[fightlikehell]

"When?" That is a weird question. Matt's eyes aren't concealed by shades with his Waldo glasses so he blinks. "Uh Fall 2015." He tilts his head to the side. "Wait so--" Several decades in the past. "I'm sure there's a hell of a difference."

To put it mildly. It would be amazing to see the city as it was for his grandparents. Damn. That means though that Steve is significantly older. Hah.

"I'm still sorry to hear that this has happened. You seem like a nice guy, Steve. That's a good perspective to keep."

[juststeverogers]

"Oh! You and Miss Verity are from the same time then. And Clint too, I think." He hadn't ever asked Clint when he was from, but he also seemed to know Steve, so he just assumed it was around that time.

"She's also from Manhattan but.." Oh, yeah. "M..maybe don't ask about her world. It's...gone, too. Recently. She took it pretty bad." Hers is gone in a much more visceral sense than Steve's is. As far as he knows. He doesn't want to think about it very hard.

"That's why...I mean, if there's trouble getting back. I'd be happy to help you out. So long as you don't mind help from an asthmatic artist." He chuckles slightly.

[fightlikehell]

"Guess so. I mean, I've spoken with Verity." Clint he has not yet met. Matt still rolls with the facts, trying to catch up. It's a lot of time and space business.

"Gone as in-?" This is most concerning. Her Manhattan, Steve's Manhattan, Matt's Manhattan... they may not exist at the same place and time but surely that must mean something, something grim. "That's horrible." How could anyone take it as anything other than bad. His mouth sets to a grim line as he adjusts the glasses as a reflex. Those brown eyes of his blink as he collects himself for the next minute. New York is a place in the world worth protecting, worth saving. Someone fell on the job.

"Right. I'll be sure to let you know, Steve. Thank you. I won't mind as long as you won't mind helping a blind lawyer. The uh jokes write themselves."

[juststeverogers]

"Well, my door isn't there anymore. Verity could come and go as she pleased. But..." Steve shakes his head. "Boom. Like, gone gone." The atom bomb isn't a thing yet in Steve's world, but it's a pretty apt comparison, if not a monumental understatement.

They're both quiet and Steve kicks himself mentally for bringing this up with someone he's just met. He looks up again at Matt's stated profession.

"Wow, that's really something. There's no way I coulda made it in law school." Nor afforded to go. The art classes he took were already too much to spend. "You're pretty talented then, sir."

[fightlikehell]

"Thanks for telling me. I'll keep that in mind." For speaking to her for one, and for another being aware that he should move his awareness of his door up his list of priorities fast. A deep breath in and a deep breath out to get back into the moment.

Matt clears his throat. "Well, I'm a determined son of a gun. It wasn't easy. Anyone who tells you so is lying." The expenses were certainly softened by money Jack Murdock put away and scholarships without that he would still be swimming in debt. It's still something, just not quite so bad. "I'm pretty green as far as the work goes but I'm doing pretty well. What do you do for a living?"

[juststeverogers]

"Uhm." Steve flushes clear to his ears and looks the other way. "Odd jobs, mostly. Was taking art classes before the War broke out. Been trying to enlist, but...it wasn't working out." No one wants a ninety pound asthmatic in the army.

"Actually ended up here trying to get into another recruitment office." He looks down at the floor. "...might have resorted to lying on my forms. Still no luck."

[fightlikehell]

Matt can't see color but he can register heat. The raised temperature gives him a better idea of how Steve looks. "Freelancing then." The War? Well, with the time yes it makes sense there'd be a war. "Enlist? They say everyone can do their part to the cause."

What his part might be? That's not for Matt to say though he is sure that the recruitment centers can figure it all out from there. Maybe he is more than he seems. God only knows that Matt Murdock is not just a visually impaired person.

[juststeverogers]

"They wouldn't take me." Nor would the factories. There's a steel to Steve's voice that says he knows very well there should damn well be a place for him. Something he can do to help. It eats at him, being too weak to do what's right.

"I got no right to do less than the next person. ...No less than my friend." Bucky's probably shipped out already if his world isn't just gone entirely. He ought to be doing just as much.

[fightlikehell]

"You mean for now." Because there are factions in the military that aren't completely focused on fitness, that's what Matt believes. He wasn't a very apt student of history. And Grandpa Murdock never talked about the Great War besides making sure that little Matty always took off his hat and put his hand over his heart when a flag passed in a parade.

"Your friend was--uh--is in the service right now?" The twist in time trips him up.

[juststeverogers]

"..Well..yeah." And it's a moot point anyway considering he can't go back. But it still stings. They wouldn't even take him for communications, how sad is that. Even non front lines services have a baseline requirement. Steve doesn't even meet that.

"He is, yeah. We went to enlist together, the first time. He got in right away."

[fightlikehell]

Can't for now is Matt's logic because can't ever is impossible. The worst. Why would anyone do that? The reason is the same as why would there be a place that many people can go and meet from many places. Best keep these to himself. It seems Steve has his own coping skills put to enough test for now.

"That must have been hard." Before college, Matt had no real friends. He was friendly, as much as his upbringing got him to be. There's a handful of reasons why Foggy is his very best friend.

[juststeverogers]

Can't for now is the only reason Steve Rogers is still alive. He's been hospitalized for severe illnesses more than a couple times in his life, and Bucky reasoned often that stubbornness and spite were the only things keeping the feisty little guy going.

"...Hardest part was knowing I wasn't gonna be able to leave with him." Steve shrugs. "Before I ended up here....he was the only friend I got." He needs to stop gesturing because Matt can't see his nonverbal cues. It's jarring in some ways talking to him.

"Aww, man. But listen to me. This is supposed to be a party. You want to get a drink? I know my way to the banquet hall at least."

[fightlikehell]

Stubbornness, spite and circumstances that keep this crazy reality spinning wherever it may go. Steve doesn't seem to fit the expected specifications to be a soldier. Matt only just met him and his enthusiasm is undeniable. He doesn't have the heart to correct him.

"Hey, I wouldn't go saying that he'll be the only friend you'll ever have." To say more, to give false hope is another thing that Matt carefully avoids. He can hear his hands move and now and again the air change in the subtle ways it does when a person is gestating. Matt won't respond because blind people don't.

"It's all good. I'd love a beer or...whatever they got."

[juststeverogers]

"I've made a few friends already since coming here." Steve agrees. "It's been...strange. Different." Not bad, just different. It's not what he expected. "The banquet hall is down this way."

Steve will lead Matt to the huge hall, sound echoing slightly off the massively high ceiling. There are several long tables covered in various yummy foods and desserts. But it's the faint smell of cider that Steve will steer them toward, before choosing a small table near the bar.

"They might have beer? I know they have hard cider and wines. I've seen other people drinking those." He'll get a mug of the warm cider for himself. "I can get you whatever you'd like."

[fightlikehell]

"I can only imagine." Different time, different place... Different everything. And that's just the start of it. "Oh. Sure."

Matt follows the direction of his voice and the rustling straw. His cane taps not far behind. The place is huge, cavernous. Maybe a castle or at the very least it has some aged museum feeling. The food practically leads the way after a time. He follows his nose as much as Steve.

"Hard cider would be good. Festive." Like the whole shindig. "I don't think I've had warm cider in quite some time."

[juststeverogers]

"When I left it was December." Steve chuckles. "Warm drinks are about the only thing keeping me going through the cold. He'll get Matt a mug of the hard cider as well, setting it down with a distinct little thunk on his side of the table.

Steve goes one step further, gently moving the mug until it just barely touches one of his fingers resting on the table so he knows exactly where it is.

"Tell me about your world...and time? If you don't mind that is. I'm curious because it's...my world too, you know? I mean, sorta."

[fightlikehell]

"At least you get a little bit of a chance outside of freezing." Matt lives off of coffee even more in the winter himself. And central heating. Can't live without that. Hopefully Steve had some. The smell of the cider with the clink announces it's arrival. It's very considerate of him to be so careful with the placement. He can feel the heat radiating from the mug.

"Thanks." That's what you say to someone who's being helpful.

"My time. Phew. Uh." Matt grins a little nervously. He could start a million places but most recent history hasn't been that great. A battle in the streets for one, a terrorism attack for another... "You said you're from 1941, right?"

[juststeverogers]

Central heating is one of those things Steve will lose his mind over when he realizes it is a thing. No, no they did not have that in his old run down apartment in 1941. Nothing close to that.

"I am, yeah." Cider makes the shivers from being outside earlier go away. "Someone already explained tv to me. And I'm starting a list of all the things I have to catch up on."

[fightlikehell]

It is totally a thing that Steve can and will have. Central heating, heating blankets, thermal wear clothing made to keep in body heat, Albuterol inhalers... there are plenty of disadvantages for being out of time but it is not going to be a total loss.

Matt nods. Steve is a smart guy to be ready to leap into details and research. Maybe he'd feel differently if he were as old as the decades that separate them. "The United Nations started meeting in New York putting out what everybody knows is that it's a place for all kinds. Uh." He takes a sip as he thinks. Steve should know good things as well as bad. "The population is eight million now. Can you believe that?"

[juststeverogers]

Splutter. Aw, cider no.

Steve hurries to clean up the little mess he's made, which is a good distraction form what he would otherwise be doing, which is staring and gaping at Matt.

"No. No I did not know that. Holy...wow. That's....there's room for all those folks? I suppose, huh. That's crazy. How are we feeding that many people? Like, wouldn't we need even more space for farms and stuff?"

[fightlikehell]

Staring is a-okay. And really, what on earth was Matt expecting. Of course the guy would be shocked!

"Well, tons of apartments, flats, lots of land development. Farms are more Upstate now if they're even in the state. There's been a lot of redistributing." To put it mildly. Maybe he should have started with something smaller.