Mermay!!

[pursuitofcappiness]

WHO: Steve Rogers
WHERE: all around
WHAT: MERMAY
WHEN: MERMAY
WARNINGS: ....MERMAY

darling it's better

Steve can be found on his now early-morning swim around town, zipping past anyone. He'll happily deliver anything to anyone within the confines of Temba, for any reason, in the early morning, since he makes a whole loop around. He's faster than a shark, but he's got a rather ostentatious blue tail, with red and white striped fins.

He seems to be in a decent mood, if only because he's having trouble with a lot of his memories of the past that don't reconcile with his ones of being a merman. Anytime he tries too hard to wonder why there's a lack of water if he thinks too hard, the memory disappears like seafoam.

He's having one of those such moments, paused mid-fin flip, eyes in concentration as he starts to sink, but then, he shakes his head, and keeps swimming. That was weird!

down where it's wetter

Sitting on a rock somewhere, Steve's drawing things into the sand. If you ask, he could make a whole series of drawings, each of them replacing the last, ephemeral in nature, washed away by the waves.

"I can try drawing you next," he offers. He's not sure how portraits will work out in the sand, but he'll give it a good college try.

take it from me!

[ cw: injury ]

Having swum through a whole nest of sea urchins in order to grab one, somehow Steve'd accidentally loosened a whole bunch of them, and they'd fallen, mostly on his tail.

He swims out of there quickly, but he has lots of barbs sticking out. He pauses to pull one out, only to manage to accidentally shatter a few of the ones in a cluster and leave them further embedded into his tail. Trying to violently flip it doesn't really help, either. He needs to swim somewhere he can sit down and address this as best as he can.

"Tell me you have tweezers on you," he requests of the nearest He-Row that he finds.

Comments

[sinistral]

He doesn't really answer the question, because what answer can he give? He can't tell Steve what he should or shouldn't draw. He can't tell Steve what he should or shouldn't find a good subject, or interesting, or pretty, or whatever.

"Got nothing better to draw?" It's not a challenge, more an idle question as he comes out from behind the rocks, finally. It's not a straight path to Steve's side but more of a meandering thing, flesh-and-blood tentacles shifting from their rock-colored camouflage back to deep red, metal appendages moving a little more stiffly. Like this he's very visible against the pale sand, but he doesn't exactly need to hide from Steve, does he?

Finally making it to Steve's side, he looks at the sand but the previous picture is largely washed away. "What were you drawing?"

[pursuitofcappiness]

The previous drawing has already washed away from the sand, and so too will the portrait of Soldier. Though Steve hasn't seen him, and though he can't remember all the other metal limbs he has, he isn't surprised for some reason. But he is confused how he'd forget that detail.

"Why don't you guess what it was, while I draw you?" he suggests, swimming around him to check out the lighting. When he's satisfied, he takes the stick, and starts up his drawing.

[sinistral]

He gives Steve a flat look at the suggestion of guessing. How is he supposed to know what catches Steve's fancy at any given moment? But at least he stays relatively still while Steve studies him, though the tips of two tentacles sort and shift through the sand, always moving. Textures are curious to him like this, and he doesn't know why that should be such a novelty.

"A fish," he replies, deliberately vague. Something tells him it's a little bit normal to be obstinate with Steve, at least in a joking way.

[pursuitofcappiness]

Steve shakes his head as he starts drawing, for some reason, with Bucky's tentacles. It's probably because those are the most unfamiliar to him, but also because those are the most kinetic thing about him.

"Not a fish, try again," he says. He doesn't think Bucky really wants to play this game, but, one of them is at least having fun with it.

[sinistral]

Kinetic, dynamic, just plain twitchy. Some part of his lower body is almost always moving, turning over a rock here, picking up a piece of shell there. Sometimes one limb passes something to another, as if he needs to explore with more than one touch. It's all in contrast to how still his upper half can be, how patiently he can wait. That's probably good for Steve's drawing study.

"Seahorse," he guesses again. The drawing in no way resembles a seahorse now, but maybe before the waves washed over it? Or probably not. But he'll keep up with the game for a while.

[pursuitofcappiness]

He keeps messing up parts of the tentacles, but it's alright, because they keep disappearing in the waves anyway. It's almost like having a whole animation of walking, only, the movements are a lot jerkier.

"Not a seahorse," Steve answers, though, he could've drawn one of those next. He's surely seen one in person before, but for some reason every time he sees one, he feels a little bit of satisfaction.

[sinistral]

As long as Steve is happy, then it works. The art isn't permanent anyway; that makes it somehow easier to look over at it. He doesn't know why that is either. But Steve looks relaxed and that helps some of the tension bleed out of the Soldier's shoulders — tension he hadn't realized he was carrying.

"Sand castle." A ridiculous thought; how could they possibly build one under water? But somehow he has a firm picture in his mind of what a sand castle looks like.

[pursuitofcappiness]

Steve narrows his eyes at that one as if trying to discern what a sand castle is. But then he shakes his head no. "I could do that one next. I like castles." He's not sure he's ever seen a castle. Maybe in a book.

[sinistral]

"You don't have to." He doesn't want to dictate what shape Steve's art should take. "Should draw what you want."

Which apparently includes the Soldier, so maybe there should be some doubt around Steve's artistic choices. Still it seems wrong to try to direct the other man and he doesn't know why.

"Shark," he guesses, distracted.

[pursuitofcappiness]

"I wanna draw a castle next," he insists, as he continues the drawing of Bucky. It's been a long time since he'd let himself, since he thought it'd be weird if he did so, here. When Bucky doesn't want a name, even.

"Nope, not a shark," he responds easily.

[sinistral]

"Fine." But there's no heat, no annoyance in it. If anything, the response holds threads of amusement, like this is a shade of conversations past. Too bad the Soldier doesn't remember any of it.

"Running out of aquatic life here," he play grumbles, crossing his arms and trying to hide the hint of a smile tugging at the corner of hours mouth. A sand castle hadn't been aquatic life, after all. "What about...a squid."

[pursuitofcappiness]

"If I was drawing a squid, I wouldn't be having so much trouble with your tentacles," Steve says, smiling. "And I never said I was drawing aquatic life." Either aquatic, or life. "Do you wanna do twenty questions?"

Maybe that'll help narrow it down, but, he's sort of enjoying this game as it is.

[sinistral]

"I'm not a squid." It's not an excuse Steve!!! But he is almost always in motion, surely it's actually making Steve's job harder than it would be otherwise. "Would it help if I stayed still?"

The Soldier does make a face at the suggestion of the new game, because it feels like it might make things too easy. "If I get up to twenty guesses you'd probably tell me anyway. A boat." That's not really aquatic, for all that boats move through the water. The Soldier believes he's sunk a few.

[pursuitofcappiness]

"Maybe not, but you have tentacles," he counters. That part at least is true, and makes sense. It's easy to utilize one to draw the other.

"A boat," he responds, deadpan. "I guess that's closer, but no." There, he even gives free hints. Very generous of him.

[sinistral]

"They're different." Now he's just being difficult. On purpose of course; something tells him that this is the way he should be, that this is natural for interacting with Steve. He'll have to examine that more closely.

"You guess," he grumbles, in the tone of voice that asks does Steve even know?!? That too is part of the act; he really isn't grumpy at all but somehow letting Steve know he's enjoying the game doesn't seem quite right. "A c—"

He frowns and shakes his head. Car? That doesn't seem right, there are no cars under the water.

[pursuitofcappiness]

A c? What is that? Steve looks over and just wonders if maybe he's having an episode the way Steve does sometimes, grasping for a memory and then being unable to find whatever it was. Very strange.

He blinks at Soldier.

"Everything okay?" he asks.

[sinistral]

Oh. Oh, Steve noticed that. The Soldier tries to shake it off, he's fine, nothing to see here.

"Yeah. A crab, that's my guess." Because that's much more sensible than a car, never mind that it falls into the aquatic life category.

[pursuitofcappiness]

He did notice, but he lets Bucky let it go for them and moves onto finish the game. After all, he also doesn't like it when people notice.

"A crab," he says, and then says: "That's further away."

[sinistral]

Not noticing together, the true mark of friendship. But at least Steve lets it drop so neither of them have to focus on it.

"Seashells," he says finally, knowing it's probably not likely. But whatever it was is long washed away.

[pursuitofcappiness]

Not likely. But it might be a little mean not telling Bucky - the thing he'd drawn isn't something that exists down here, but that he'd seen in a dream that feels so real. He'd accept, however, the closest equivalent down here, or the general category it belongs to.

But he shakes his head no. "Not a seashell."

[sinistral]

"Could be a seashell," he grumbles, though it's just the way waves move the sand around forming those scalloped patterns. "What about..."

He has to pause and think. Not aquatic, not life. A boat was closest to it. "A building?"

[pursuitofcappiness]

Steve nods, delighted. "It was a building." It wasn't any of the ones down here, though, so he doesn't think Bucky would know what it was exactly. It was one of the ones from his memories.

But, as he says that, he finishes up his drawing. "Come look?"

[sinistral]

"See? Didn't need twenty questions." Took him longer than maybe it should have, but he got there.

He makes his way over to Steve's side, looking at the drawing. It's actually pretty damn good, for being drawn in and and likely to be washed away by the waves. But the imperfect medium also means that he doesn't have to dwell on those things about his anatomy on which he doesn't like to dwell. "Looks good."

[pursuitofcappiness]

Steve nods, rather proud of his piece. "Thanks," he says. Then, he offers Bucky the stick. "Do you wanna try?" This was a fun exercise, maybe he wants to play too.

[sinistral]

He shakes his head, leaving the sick in Steve's hand. "Never been an artist. Won't magically be one overnight." He knows he's not going to be any good at it. Even with the forgiveness of shifting sand he doesn't think he'd do justice to any kind of drawing.