kore_logs | What made you fall from grace?

Who: Anna Milton & Steve Rogers
Where: The Lighthouse ~~everyone loves it there okay?~~
When: Early day 18
What: Early morning company is never a bad thing.

The cold bite of the wind is a bizarre feeling for Anna. She remembers what it's supposed to feel like, in theory, and can almost imagine the goosebumps on her arms if she tries hard enough. The wind is the best way to remember, which is why she's even out at this time. That, and the lack of need to sleep of course. It's early enough that she risks flying, and she has to put a hand out to steady herself against the lighthouse as she lands. It's taking a little while to get used to freedom again, let alone flying, but she's getting there.

Drawing her jacket tighter around her shoulders out of force of habit, she walks around the base of the lighthouse slowly to where she can face the sea. It's a boring way for most to pass the time, but Anna is finding herself doing it more and more the longer she's stuck in Cape Kore. She'll never tell a soul, but she misses her old life more than she can possibly say. She's past resentment towards the angels by now, and although sometimes small reminders still leave a bitter taste in her mouth she's not angry about what she is. These are the cards that she has been dealt, she has to make the best until it's safe to take the risk of tearing it out again.

Until then, she has the cold wind on the edge of a rocky beach, the pointless habits of a life she's had to leave and the small, dwindling hope that maybe one day she'll be able to return.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"I do," he replies affirmatively. "And when we do, you can finish your degree." He looks back to smile at her as he continues walking up the stairs, and it's not such a bad trek. It looked bigger from outside. There's a little landing on the inside where Steve stops, because it looks like someone's been here already.

"What do you want to write about?" he asks, as he bypasses the room. It looks like it might belong to someone else, although he's not sure who'd choose to stake claim to it while it's cold. But he supposes that might also be a good time to do so. It'll be significantly windier and colder up there, Steve thinks. He should have put on one of the ugly sweaters he found in his house.

He looks over to check if Anna is showing any signs that she's colder than she lets on.

Finish her degree. It feels like decades since she last sat in a lecture theater, only concerned with her next paper or what her next grade was going to be. It may well have been that long, maybe longer. She has no real way of telling, no point of reference. All she really knows is that any chance she had of a semi-normal life was lost the moment that the angels found her again.

Still, Steve's so convinced and his smile is so genuine, what's the harm in pretending that he's right for a little while? It's what she's been doing all this time anyway after all, what difference will it make to pretend for herself for a little while too? It won't kill her to be Anna Milton - journalism student, just temporarily.

"The important things?" She follows him up, glancing briefly in the room herself, though it doesn't hold nearly so much interest as the view from the top to her. She laughs quietly as she rubs the back of her head, and when she continues it's almost a little sheepish. It's far too easy to pretend. "That sounds stupid, I know. I just never wanted to be one of the types that lie through their teeth to get to the top, I guess. I didn't care if articles about the latest hot thing in Hollywood sell better, I wanted what I wrote to matter."

Not that easy though, evidently, she's still talking in past tense.

"I don't think it sounds stupid at all," he assures her. "I think the world could use more people like you." After all, some of that media and that propaganda had really gotten out of hand. He knows a lot of those people were just trying to do what they thought was right, but he also knows that a few of them knew it was wrong and did it anyway, got caught up in patriotism and jingoism.

After a brief pause, he starts heading up to the very top, and it's a much narrower stair. If he was carrying the shield, he wouldn't be able to make it through. But still, he makes it to the top and steps out. It is really freezing up here, and he pulls his jacket tighter but so that Anna won't see, in case she's trying to be brave and tough it out.

He looks over at everything and... wow. Aside from the town, there's not much up here to be looking at. He's disappointed.

Anna's not used to this kind of encouragement coming from anyone. There was the brief period of time - brief to her, anyway - where she had parents who would do it for her, but twenty years is little more than a blip when you've lived as long as Anna has. It earns a surprisingly warm smile, and that's even the slightest hint of embarrassment as she ducks her head and just follows him up the narrowing stairs.

"It's not big or brave, I know, but it's just...always something I thought I'd end up doing, ever since I was a little kid." Why she's telling him this, she's not sure, but she can't help but give away all these little details about her human life. There's never been anyone to listen, really, so perhaps that's it.

She steps out into the air without so much as a blink though, and as she looks around at the place surrounding them, her focus is much more on the horizon than anything else. It fades out much in the way normal line of sight does, but there's definitely something about looking at it that makes her feel uneasy. There's something wrong here, that much is obvious, she just can't figure out what.

"I didn't realise how small this place is," she comments quietly, directed at Steve but said more under her breath than anything. "It feels a lot bigger."

"I think it's just because there's nothing around it," he says. And that's what makes him feel uncomfortable. There's no base in sight, unless it's underground or underwater or disguised as trees. There's just... there's absolutely nothing. He doesn't understand. It's surreal. He should be able to see the next town over, or grass, or anything. It's like land that hasn't been touched, which is absurd.

"I've never even heard of this place in my life," he adds, to add insult to injury. But everything around here looks like the splitting image of New England. The church, the schoolhouse-- Nothing about it from where they stand down in the town looks off at all. It's only when they get up here that it just seems like a false movie screen with a pre-recorded background on it.

He feels a great kind of dread and discomfort that hasn't happened to him for some time.

Anna silently nods her agreement, moving to stand next to Steve and looking around them again. It doesn't get any less foreboding the second time, and after a moment she has to tear her eyes away. It's very different seeing it there in front of her, intense in ways she can't quite comprehend, and more than ever she can't help but feel like they won't be going home after all. "I don't think anyone here has heard of it."

Which really is one of the strangest things about it all. They all seem to come from different worlds and different times, but not one of them has heard of Cape Kore? It's unsettling, and it has her frowning as she thinks about it all. Rubbing the back of her neck lightly, the shock has her completely unaware of the cold but also the expectation that she should be feeling it. She has far more to be worried about, and more than likely so does Steve anyway.

"You still think we're all going to get home fine?"

"That's the goal," he replies, looking over the cape like it's some sort of strange enemy. But he's no stranger to tackling that kind of thing-- it's just a new playing field and new rules, but he's got this handled. Or, he thinks he does. Like a group of reeds together, he's hard to bend and even harder to break. He won't give in.

"You don't?" he asks, like that's a valid question. Anyone would take at least a moment to let it sink in how doomed they are, but Steve is strong. Steve will be strong. "I'll sprout wings and fly us out of here if I have to," he jokes. But honestly, he thinks maybe he could get some attached to his cowl, if he ever gets a new one.

What made you fall from grace?

IT'S OK ME TOO

WE CAN FAIL TOGETHER

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject