February 2023 Test Drive Meme

[folkie]

FEBRUARY 2023 TDM

INTRODUCTION

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Welcome to Folkmore's monthly Test Drive Meme! Please feel free to test drive any and all characters regardless of your intent to apply or whether you have an invite or not.

All TDMs are game canon. You can choose to have your TDM thread be your introduction thread upon acceptance or start fresh. Each TDM will provide a scenario for how characters arrive in-game that particular month.

Playing TDMs will allow characters to immediately obtain canon items from homes especially weapons or other things they may have had on their person when they were pulled from their worlds! There will always be a prompt that provides some sort of "reward" to characters who complete certain tasks.

Current players are allowed to have in-game characters react to TDMs via the Network or make a log with the prompts. Current players are always encouraged to tag new people on the TDM!

TDM threads can be used for spoon spending at any time by characters accepted into the game.

[ Prompt One ★ Prompt Two]

SPRING BREAKS LOOSE

Content Warnings: extreme weather

the time is near

The earth is awakening.

You are aware of this fact before consciousness truly returns. One minute you were a falling star but as your body reforms you can sense the freshness of spring just around the corner. In your minds eye you can see circling birds in the sky, feel the first warm breeze of the season, and hear icicles melting into crystal puddles.

But something isn't right.

The moment you are truly awake you find yourself in what could generously be described as a shack built in the snowy wasteland of Wintermute. You and another Star Child are at least being kept warm by an electric heater, but there really isn't much in the way of amenities otherwise. More disturbingly, the entire shack has a deeply oppressive aura to it, encouraging the pair of you to leave as soon as you can.

But where can you possibly go?

Stepping outside reveals the answer, as parked not far from the shed is a dogsled, complete with warm winter gear to protect you from the cold.

The dogs themselves are the real marvels; not flesh and blood, the sled dogs are in fact automatons. The winter sun reflects off of their silver and copper bodies and the steady tick of their inner workings breaks the chilly silence. Each dog has a key sticking out of its back, turning slowly.

The oppressive sense you felt in the shack continues to grow. Your thoughts begin to turn negative: sad, paranoid, fearful. It is quite unbearable... until your eye falls on a delicate splash of purple against the snow.

Close to the dogsled, a single crocus pokes out of the ground.

The very sight of it calms you down. Picking it will make you feel happy, and you will find yourself blurting out the first pleasant memory that comes to mind.

The robodogs bark, delighted, encouraging you to climb aboard the sled and look for more of those flowers!

Every crocus you collect will make you feel positive emotions and the urge to share good personal moments with your companion. The more you find, the happier you will be... and you might get quite close to a total stranger as a result as well!

in from the snow

While you are out and about, you'll want to keep an eye on your team of dogs - they can and will lose power after a point. Your job as a good dog driver is to keep them wound up! Yes, you'll have to stop and physically wind the dogs back up when they lose steam.

You are likely to discover weapons jutting up from the snow. These are all unenchanted items, basic swords, guns, shields, etc., but the second you pull them from the snow the weather will take a turn for the worse. You may even be subject to a sudden avalanche! Hopefully you got the dogs wound up enough that they can get you out of there without any damage!

Eventually the dogs will choose to take you to Akhlut Station in Wintermute where you can catch the train somewhere a little warmer.

BUT SO DOES FEAR

Content Warnings: Fungus, spores, live burial, mental confusion and hallucinations.

putting roots in my dreamland

Willow is definitely warmer than Wintermute. The tail end of winter means that while much of the farmland is still blanketed in snow, the more wooded areas have large clear patches beneath the conifers. The ground here is damp and rich smelling. Poking out of the soil are tiny white mushrooms. These fungi glisten wetly, strangely compelling in their little rings of earth. You just want to take a closer look... maybe have a seat under the conifers and listen to the snow melt...

The mushrooms enchant anyone who gets close to them into simply staying put. They cloud the mind, leaving you in a dimly pleasant haze, while your body sinks slowly into the earth. The longer you stay, the more you sink - maybe a passerby can come and pull you out! If you don't wind up suffocated by dirt you will find that your head clears on its own once night falls. You will probably still need a hand pulling yourself out of the ground, but at least now you know what's going on.

The woods at night are not still - there are mice and owls and the usual nocturnal critters. There is also something else, something that moves slowly beneath the trees checking the mushroom traps. About eight feet tall, this lanky creature resembles a human skeleton held together by muscles and tendons of moss and fungus. Its head is a huge mushroom cap, underneath from which glitter a pair of bright blue eyes. If it finds any unfortunates stuck in the traps without anyone to help them, it will push their heads beneath the soil and hold them there until they die.

The sight of this creature inspires feelings of disorientation and hopelessness. These feelings are lessened when you are in close physical proximity with another Star Child, so it is to your advantage to stick together. The mushroom creature's objective remains the same: to feed the living earth with your body.

The creature is not particularly tough - its flesh is soft and gives way easily. You can defeat it easily with weapons or even your fists provided you can get close enough without succumbing to the disorientation and hopeless feelings. Oh, and you may not want to hit it on the head...

The mushroom cap, when struck, showers spores everywhere. These spores burn if they land on your skin, and if they get in your eyes they cause vivid hallucinations of ghostly figures reaching for you, trying to immobilize you. These hallucinations are so real that it is likely you will act as if they are real, standing still as if you are restrained.

If you defeat the mushroom creature, it will dissolve into the ground and leave in its place a wooden chest. Inside each of you will find some canon clothes and/or an item from your homeworlds.

coast is clear

Not far from the forest treeline, a bonfire burns merrily in the center of a circle of light green tents. The tents are kept warm by portable heaters, with some containing food and drink, and others offering small packs of seeds as gifts. These seeds are for common earth flowers and vegetables. One of the tents provides first aid supplies, in case you got roughed up fighting a giant mushroom or something.

The tents are staffed by squirrels and chipmunks. Just plain old ordinary squirrels and chipmunks. They don't speak - only chitter and occasionally screech - but they will help as best as their tiny paws allow.

This is a good time to recover, and also to talk to any other Star Children you may see.

Comments

Steve Rogers | Marvel What If? | Legend

[mightysmall]

Spring Breaks Loose: The Time Is Near

Steve scrambled awake getting to his feet so fast that his bad hip protested loudly. He braced a hand against the nearest wall and looked around, breathing hard but there wasn’t the familiar burn of an asthma attack. This was just plain old confusion and panic.

He remembered the sensation of falling, fast and hard, like the Hydra Stomper had lost all power. The sensation of hitting the ground had never happened. There was falling and then he was awake, shivering in the cold.

The cabin was held together by nails and a dream. It reminded him of the tenements back home with their cracked walls. The cold raced through them, sharp and biting. He had on his flight suit which provided some warmth but not enough given the way another shiver wracked his slim body.

“You know where we are?” he asked the stranger as he pushed away from the wall.

Steve limped his way towards a window and looked outside. This place had a bad feeling to it. He was restless and anxious. Confused as hell too. How the hell did he get to a little cabin in the middle of the woods in winter when last he remembered he was in the barracks in London?

Another, deeper sense of foreboding fell over him and Steve scanned the world outside looking for a threat.

“We should get out of here,” he suggested, turning back towards the stranger he was stuck with. “I can see a dog sled out there. Might be our only way out.”

Where they would go… well they’d have to figure that out once they were going somewhere. All Steve knew for certain was he didn’t want to stay here where it felt like the walls were closing in and something was going to come out of the darkness for them.

—

But So Does Fear: Putting My Roots in Dreamland

The hand around his wrist pulled hard and Steve kicked the dirt around his legs. He came free from the earth with a gasp of breath. His hip ached and his muscles were sore from trying to struggle free himself but he was out of the dirt. That was a relief.

“Thanks,” he breathed as he used a tree to help himself get to his feet along with the help of the stranger. He pushed his bangs back with a hand and grinned ruefully. “I don’t remember how I got like that.”

Steve had been walking through the woods looking for some sort of shelter and then there were mushrooms. He remembered the mushrooms but after that everything was fuzzy and strange and he came back to himself getting yanked out of the dirt by the stranger.

He’d worry about that later. Much later.

The sudden snap of a branch made him look over. Some sort of creature was coming towards them. Steve’s heart beat hard in fear instantly. Even though his legs were a little shaky he wanted to bolt. Fight or flight and for the first time in a long time Steve wanted to choose flight.

“We gotta…” The feeling settled down some when he looked at the person who had rescued him. Steve’s brain went from blind panic to focused panic which was a lot easier to think through. “I think we should steer clear of that thing, circle behind it, and take it by surprise. My chances of running far and fast aren’t great.”

His left hip could give him a lot of trouble. While he had survived the gunshot it had really done a number on it. Steve managed but he knew running for a long time was out of the question. As much as his body screamed to run, he knew he couldn’t. That left one option: fight.

He raised an eyebrow at his companion, waiting to see if they had any input.

—

But So Does Fear: Coast is Clear

Steve sat in front of the bonfire, his left leg stretched out in front of him. He had his flight suit open and rolled down to the waist but he had a winter jacket on, both hands wrapped around a steaming hot mug of tea.

He was reminded of being in the field with the Commandos. He almost expected to look over his shoulder and see the Hydra Stomper parked nearby waiting for him to climb in and set off. Or for Peggy to sit down next to him. Or Bucky.

Someone did sit down next to him, though. Steve glanced over as they joined him in front of the fire and offered them a little smile and friendly toast with his mug.

“Did you fight the giant mushroom too?” he asked, a little curious what sort of trouble they might have gotten into out there in the woods before they found their way to the same safety and shelter he had found here.

Oh, and woodland animals that tended to them. Like a Disney cartoon. Steve kept expecting them to talk but they just chittered as they came by with more tea and some cookies.

“Thanks,” he said to the chipmunk. The chipmunk squeaked back and then off they went to the next person.

But So Does Fear: Coast is Clear

[demonicbeauty]

Bonfires were something of a paradox for Ariadne. They meant warmth and comfort and usually good stories or songs. But they were also fires, which, by nature were deadly and bit. Burned. Destroyed. Folkmore had helped to ease her fears considerably. She'd gotten more comfortable walking toward a fire, instead of away from one. But she never forgot what they were. And when she approached, it was always with caution and respect. Like greeting a king.

Whatever her caution, though...it was quickly dismissed when she picked up the familiar scent of her friend Steve.

Steve always meant a smile.

She followed the scent, but was surprised when she saw what looked like half of Steve, battered and bruised. Had he lost his abilities again? That had happened once, in the early days of their friendship. It had been awful. She'd had to save him from some kind of giant squid.

...or mushroom.

"You look like you've been through a war, Steve," she said, sitting down beside him.

[mightysmall]

Steve blinked at the woman he didn't recognize. "Um, have we met?"

She didn't look familiar. Steve had been sort of paying attention when he found the camp but the squirrels had quickly herded him away towards the tents for medical attention. Maybe she had seen him but he hadn't seen her?

But then how would she know his name? He hadn't introduced himself to anyone. Unless she overheard him talking with the woodland animals about his hip and other injuries?

[demonicbeauty]

Her expression puckered in surprise for a moment, eyes widening until the whites could be see all the way around her gray irises. It wasn't like her to reveal too much surprise, though. And she quickly schooled her features.

Serene and calm. The face of an idol.

The spy she used to be.

"Steve," she said gently, "it's me...Airy. Ariadne?" They'd shared a drink the other day. He'd revealed so much to her, and she'd worked hard to restore his hope for a better future.

[mightysmall]

"Miss, I think you're confusing me for a different Steve," he said kindly, smiling softly. "I just got here today."

That was a weird sentence to say but it could be true. Maybe she hallucinated it? Those mushrooms in the woods really messed with people's brains. Maybe they made her think that.

"Why don't you tell me about the Steve you know?" he suggested, turning slightly to face her on the log. Steve was careful with his left leg and hip, trying to keep them steady. He did not want one of the nurse animals to make angry noises at him.

[demonicbeauty]

Feeling more uneasy than she liked to feel, Ariadne perched herself on the log beside him, leaving enough room between them for what she considered a humanoid's comfort. Alastrians liked touch. Humanoids were weird about it.

Of course, this whole situation was weird.

Keeping her expression and demeanor as even and calm as possible, she still couldn't help it when a little line formed between her eyes. This was Steve. He smelled exactly the same. And even tinier than usual, he had the same sort of...presence.

She couldn't put it into the right words. Not that it mattered so much.

"Steve Rogers," she said slowly. "From a place called Brooklyn. A good man...a...a warrior." It just felt wrong to be spelling Steve's life story out for him. Unless.

Was this a trial? Maybe Thirteen had done something to his mind? It was more than possible, although it felt unnecessarily cruel.

roots in dreamland

[pursuitofcappiness]

When he gives the arm a tug, and pulls the guy out of the earth, he isn't expecting to see a very familiar face. He assumes that this one's a different instance than the one he used to know, because he doesn't immediately recognize that they've already done this before. Er, the meeting thing, not the creepy mushroom skeleton.

"Yeah, you distract it, I'll take care of it." He could easily pick Steve up and run him back to town, but he doesn't like leaving messes for someone else to clean up. He knows Steve doesn't either.

"Nice seeing a familiar face. I think I've got a lot to explain to you once we're done here. But first..." He slips away as quietly and as clandestinely as he can. Can skulls see? Can mushrooms... see?

[mightysmall]

Steve's hit by a strange sense of deja vu as he looks at the guy who pulled him out of the ground. There's something about his face that Steve could swear he's seen before. Now's not the time to worry about it because there's a monster coming for them but it sticks in the back of his mind.

The fear and hopelessness strike him hard as the other man ducks around a tree leaving Steve all alone staring down a walking mushroom skeleton. Which doesn't make any sense because mushrooms don't have bones.

He looks around for a moment then picks up a thin stick from the ground. "Hey!" Steve brandishes the stick like a baseball bat. He's never played a game in his life but he's watched enough to know how to hold one. "Over here! You want to put me in the ground? I'm right here."

This isn't the first time he's face down someone bigger and stronger than him. Steve's been there plenty of times. He plants his feet against the urge to run and waits, trusting the other guy to do his part.

[pursuitofcappiness]

He'd be annoyed that Steve is so loud, usually, but he knows he's doing the distracting. So he slinks over and jumps onto the skeleton, slamming his fists into the back of its head. He knows that he hits hard enough to crack a normal skull for sure, but a magical mushroom one?

He's starting to think it's actually the mushroom that has the power, so he attacks that too, but it appears to leak out some sort of spore.

"Steve, watch out!" he yells, covering his mouth even though most poisons don't really affect him.

[mightysmall]

Great. Mushroom spores. This can't be good. Steve drags the scarf out of his flight suit and over his mouth, backing away from the monster. It is strange that the other guy knows his name but that's something to worry about after the spores and the monster are done.

"Try not to hit the head," he calls out as he walks backwards trying to avoid the cloud of spores that's floating around them. The last thing he needs is to have an attack out here in the middle of the woods being hunted by a monster. "Aim for the legs. We can make a break for it if it can't chase us."

He really wishes his had the Stomper. This fight would be over if he was suited up but he's just got a stick. With the right opening, though, he could go for a kneecap.

[pursuitofcappiness]

Steve's right, but it's easier said than done. The bigger one hops down from where he is and tries to tackle the thing to the ground. Thankfully, it goes down easy, but it does kick up dirt, and oh, more spores.

"Sorry!" he yells, covering his mouth with a sleeve.

"Just get outta here!" he tries, as he engages the thing in fighting. It's really not a match for him, but like most Folkmore creatures, it just refuses to stay down. It's worse than they are, in that regard.

But So Does Fear: Putting My Roots in Dreamland

[forcedbonding]

Rey had seen a hand sticking out of the ground and she couldn't just leave it that way, even if it was nothing more than a dead body. It was harder than she'd expected, using the Force here. She still felt connected to it, but its response was sluggish, far more so than it had been since it had first awoken in her.

"I couldn't leave you there," she replied with an accent one could almost call British. She honestly wasn't sure where her accent had come from, no one had spoken like she had in Jakku. She assumed it had to be something she'd learned from her parents.

The parents who were nobody. The parents who were in a pauper's grave in Jakku. If she believed Kylo Ren.

At least he'd kept his word about sparing the remaining Resistance transports in exchange for her staying with him.

And Rey nodded at the stranger's plan. "That could work. This place feels strange, I can't depend on the Force here." At least that was what she was afraid of. But she didn't have her staff, she didn't have a lightsaber, all she had was the Force and it already wasn't responding the way she wanted it to.

But she couldn't let her nerves show, so she smiled at her companion. "I'm Rey. Let's go...I can't call you 'you' all the time, what's your name?"

[Rey is an AU version, details of which can be found here

[mightysmall]

Steve had no idea what she was talking about so he focused on the important part which was getting away from the monster that was coming towards them.

"Steve, nice to meet ya," he said quickly, glancing over his shoulder at the monster. "Look, you get behind it. I'll keep it focused on me. Just take out a leg and then we can make a break for it."

He won't be able to run for long without his hip acting up but Steve knew this was the best plan of action. Steve grabbed a stick up from the ground. It wasn't much but it was something to defend himself with.

"Go." He jerked his chin towards the right. "I've got this."

Steve wished he had the Hydra Stomper but he didn't so it was time to improvise.

[forcedbonding]

It was fine, part of it was her explaining how she felt to herself. Ever since she'd been awakened to her Force abilities, it had been second nature. Now that nature felt strange, sluggish.

But without her staff, her lightsaber, she wasn't looking forward to facing whatever it was which was chasing them. But she did what she always did, covered it with a layer of bravado and another layer of stubbornness. "You're wounded already. I should face the creature, I'm stronger than I look."

And for once, she was glad she didn't have a coat of some kind, her wiry muscles showed through her arms above her wraps and and her leggings couldn't conceal well-muscled legs.

But she needed something, something like she'd had at home, so she focused on a straight enough branch in a tree, focused on feeling it through the Force, and wrenched.

The branch was torn from the tree and shot straight into her waiting hands.

And she still hated the idea of leaving this clearly injured young man to stay as bait when she felt it should be herself, so she couldn't help pressing the matter one more time. "Are you sure, Steve? I should do it, face the creature head-on"

Just as Rey wished she had her own staff, something which felt like another limb, or her lightsaber. She was angry that she didn't have it, something which had seen so many battles and came out on top.

[mightysmall]

"Yeah, you keep saying that." Steve ignored her and adjusted his grip on the stick, holding it like a baseball bat. He'd never played a game in his life but he'd watched enough to know how to swing. "But I'm not going anywhere."

He didn't run from any fight even against opponents bigger than him. They were all bigger than him. Not once had he run and he wasn't going to start now even with a giant monster mushroom.

"You want to take it head on? Okay. I'll go around." Steve nodded to her and then he went to duck behind a tree. He was small and quiet, even though he was limping a little. Steve was very good at ignoring his own pain.

He found himself a decent hiding spot and waited. He was certain Rey would give him an opening. He only had to wait for the right moment.

[forcedbonding]

Rey felt her cheeks burn with a blush. She's reminded of trying to convince Master Skywalker that she wasn't there on some silly whim, she wanted to be a Jedi. "I wasn't expecting you to," she said in an a half-awkward, half-conciliatory voice. And she tried to smile, but she was afraid it looked more like a grimace than anything.

Funny, she could say the same. She'd grown up having to fight for survival, never knowing for sure if the scrap she brought in would be worth a day's portion of food. Or a half-portion towards the end.

"Yes. Please. I think that would be best," she said, hoping she didn't sound as stiff or as stuffy as she was afraid it did. "I know you'll be a lot of help," and that sounded (at least to her ears) a lot less stiff. But all she could think of was the snow covered ground of Starkiller Base, watching Be--Kylo Ren carve his way over Finn's back.

And when the creature finally appeared, it was a lot taller than Rey had bargained for. And with its unnerving appearance brought...feelings. Loss. Desolation. Watching the Resistance transports being blown out of space before she made her bargain. So Rey did what she did best.

She repressed her feelings, letting loose with a loud war cry as she charged the creature, her make-shift staff aimed at its legs, intending to try and knock it off its feet.

One leg went down, but she hadn't hit the other one hard enough, so it staggered in its path towards her, brought down on one knee, but the other leg trying to bear the weight.

Her eyes flicked briefly to where she'd seen Steve disappear as she readied herself for another pass at the creature.

Spring Breaks Loose: The Time Is Near

[ferrokinetically]

"Wintermute." Lorna had her arms folded tightly over her chest in a vague attempt to keep a bit warmer. The leather jacket with it's many metal spikes that she wore most days lately was decent enough for normal wear. When it came to the snowy wasteland of Wintermute though something with a little more padding might have been nice. Oh well, beggars could hardly be chooses in this place. That was something she'd learned over her many months here. At some point one just had to start accepting that you sometimes had to just learn to let go and go with the flow. Not a particularly easy thing for someone as distrusting and paranoid as Lorna Dane.

Everything here was a work in progress though, wasn't it? That was the entire point of the place. Or so they said. Whether or not she believed that, well, that was up in the air.

"Not very specific but," she walked up to the window next to him and immediately spotted the warmer clothes. "I like the idea of getting out of here for two reasons. One being that gear," she pointed straight at the warmer gear. "Don't know about you but what I've got on isn't nearly enough." Two was something she wasn't going to immediately talk about to a stranger. This place was extremely wrong. In the best of times she was paranoid, anxious, depressed, but this was making her skin crawl and more than anything she wanted out.

Out was exactly where she headed too. Flinging the door open and letting a flurry of snow rush in. She shivered and looked back at him. "Guess we'll find out where we are along the way? Maybe they'll actually just take us somewhere. Sometimes this place does shit like that."

[mightysmall]

The flight suit he wore for the Hydra Stomper was designed to keep him warm at higher altitudes. He also had a nice thick scarf wrapped around his neck. He still felt cold though. Maybe it was colder than the upper atmosphere but it cut through his flight suit like it was nothing. His hands especially felt the cold which made his joints hurt.

"I'm with you on that." He followed her out into the cold and grabbed a jacket to throw on. It was almost the perfect size for him which he was surprised by. Nothing was ever his size unless it was custom made. This place was getting weirder by the second but after seeing tentacles emerge from an interdimensional portal he could handle weird.

Steve went to investigate the 'dogs' next. They barked in a weirdly mechanical voice but he couldn't help but think of the Hydra Stomper when he looked at them. Steve had to pet one on it's metal head, smiling a little.

"You know where to go?" He asked the woman with him. Her hair was such a startling color and her clothes were definitely not what a woman of his time would wear. It would be scandalous if anyone back home saw her like that on the street. Steve was adjusting. "Or do you think the dogs know?"

Because Steve certainly didn't. She must be familiar with the place. She knew the name of it, at least.

[ferrokinetically]

There was always something a tiny bit weird about how well Thirteen actually knew them. From their past, their memories, their feelings, all the way down to their clothing sizes, she seemed to know it all. Spend too much time thinking about that and it could really get to a person. Which was why Lorna was happy to just slip the jacket on, pull it's hood up over her hair, and then she turned immediately to check the 'dogs' out. There was something oddly hollow about it that made her pause and tilt her head slightly.

"Mechanical dogs. Why not," she shrugged. It was about as weird as the rest of this place. Honestly, it was probably weirder. Seemed like mythological or fantasy creatures were more common than automatons. They started to bark more and she patted the head of one. "I might know the way if we catch a landmark. I'm hoping they know the way. They seem pretty eager for us to get on."

She stood up and took a quick glance around until her eyes landed on the crocus. "Huh, not every day you see a flower in the snow."

[mightysmall]

"It must be getting close to spring," Steve said as he looked at the little purple flower poking up through the snow. It would've made a great painting if he had the time to do something like that right now. He'd remember it though and maybe if this place had paints get to it later. Actually, the dogs would be a challenge to paint too.

He was about to get on the sled when he stopped. Almost impulsively he reached down and plucked the crocus from the ground. His smile was almost involuntary too as he was filled with warmth and a sweet rush of happiness.

"You know, it reminds me of a spring day in, gosh, must have been '31? I was walking home all beat up. Again. And I knew my ma would be real disappointed but this guy was selling carnations on the corner." Steve could perfectly picture that afternoon in his head and the man who had a whole bucket of pink, red, white, and yellow carnations. "He saw me and he gave me one. Said I looked like I needed it. I gave it to my ma when I apologized for fighting again. She put it in her hair and she looked so pretty. Happy too."

That was a good day, a good memory before his ma had gotten sick. It hadn't fixed everything for them but it was something small and kind he could give his ma to make the Depression just a little bit better for both of them.

He chuckled and looked at her. "Sorry, got lost in a memory there."

[ferrokinetically]

"Bought time. Getting pretty sick of this snow and slush that shows up everywhere." Except it just made her wonder what summer would be like if winter was this extreme? Droughts probably. That was what her money was on.

Before she could caution him to be careful with random things here he'd already reached down and picked it up. Not like she could really say much to people doing things without thinking (it was sort of in her nature to do just that) so she just closed her mouth. Then opened it right back up when he said '31.

"Wait, do you mean 1931?" Would explain a few things about him right then and there if so. She tried to look at him with the least judgmental expression she could muster but it was real hard to picture this guy in a fight. "Getting into fights was a regular thing for you then?"

She shook her head and gave him a gentle smile. "Nah, don't apologize. It's a sweet memory. Nice of you to do that for your mother."

Coast is Clear

[ironypoisoned]

"Oh yeah," Tony says, amusement in his voice. "Fought the mushroom." He laughs. "I think I'm still tripping a bit, if I'm honest with you, so I think the mushroom won in the end."

In the dim lighting of the bonfire, Steve just looks slightly similar to someone he knows, rather than outright familiar. He takes his own sip of tea after toasting with the cup some rodent handed him a second before.

[mightysmall]

Steve's eyebrows went up. "Are you sure you're okay?"

Look, the squirrels were really nice and helpful but it's hard to get a diagnosis from one when they didn't talk. The guy seems fine just looking at him but Steve's skeptical that mushroom spores from a creature are actually healthy.

"We could probably find a real doctor somewhere close by." Steve's pretty sure a chipmunk pointed him towards a train station when he asked about finding a town or city. There's probably a real doctor in one of those places who can talk.

[ironypoisoned]

He waves a hand in the air, trying to get the new person - seriously why did Tony recognize this guy? - to disregard all that. "Kidding, kidding." Not about inhaling the spores, but the fact that he was still disoriented from them. "No need to rush off into town." He was fine, probably. Plus he had it on good authority that the worst mushroom related thing that could happen to his very deceased self was probably just them growing out of his nose or something; Tony was in no rush.

"You look familiar," Tony finally says after a stretch. There's an accusatory question hiding in there: Why? He knew a lot of different people, in fairness, so initially he was chalking it up to that - but something about this guy was hauntingly familiar. Something about his tone of voice, maybe?

[mightysmall]

"Steve Rogers," he says, offering a hand to the guy after shifting his mug to one. "It's funny though, I was thinking you're familiar too."

There's something about the guy's face that reminds him of someone he knows. Steve's not sure why but he knows he's great with faces. It's the artist in him.

"I don't know why." He takes his hand back and wraps it back around the mug before it gets too cold and stiff. "I only just got here and you're definitely not made of mushrooms which is the only thing I met before making it to this camp."

The woodland creatures that are helping them don't really count as people he's met. They're great but they can't exactly hold a conversation. They make good tea though.