[Video] un: spanglethesestars

[ukase]

[Rumlow had just woken up after been sent back to the cryostasis tubes for a time. He was paler than usual, still shaking off the effects if the way he had to clench a hand around his thigh was any indication, but he was as presentable as one could be with a shiver or two.

And maybe - just maybe - the fact he had gone back to cryo once shifted a little of his cocksure attitude when it came to his place.]

Cryostasis the second time round isn't nearly as fun as the first. Makes me sympathetic to someone I used to know who spent too much time a popsicle. And I heard there was a dragon that showed up? I'm not used to missing out on the action. Anyone care to give me an update on how that went?

[He sat up straighter suddenly, his nose twitching and then he sneezed rather violently into a hand. Normal stuff, really. Except that the little bits of spittle that landed in his hand apparently had solidified into what looked like shards of glass that jammed into his hand.

Needlessly to say, he dropped his communicator.] Son of a bitch...!

[Guess who discovered a new power that came with the new wakefulness from cryo.]

Comments

un: avreya; private audio

[krasnaya_vdova]

Are you okay?

[It's her first question, even as she wants to ask him where are you?. She's sure that she's not supposed to miss him, feel lonely, but he was gone and she couldn't help her awareness of it.

However, that way that he sneezes glass shards into his hand? That sort of takes priority.]

private audio

[ukase]

...well, I'll live. This is probably just some weird cryo side-effect... I think.

[He sounded off a sigh, but she was a familiar voice and that was nice.]

You at the station? Seems awful crowded up here.

[krasnaya_vdova]

Well, I've got a first aid kit, if you want me to take a look at it.

[She keeps it mostly casual, but Rumlow's probably sharp enough to tell that she wants to see him. She's just glad that he's awake again, that he's not another face she walks past and can't touch.]

Yeah, everyone is, I think? With what happened with the dragon, the Natha froze time down on the planet, and they pulled all of us refugees back to the station until they can fix it.

[ukase]

[He can tell that she's worried; she's not that great about hiding her feelings, especially with someone that knew her well.]

Might not hurt. There's some blood, but it's mostly the surprise. [Act cool. Be cool.

He wanted to hear more about the dragon issue. He was so mad that he had missed it!]

So... all the refugees are up here, but the native population is still frozen down on the surface?

[krasnaya_vdova]

You think you can make it to my room, or should I come to you?

[Her tone is a little bit teasing, trying to cover over the worry and just how glad she is to see him again. And she will happily tell him all that she knows about the dragon, even if she hadn't been entirely useful in that regard, mostly doing what she could to help the people.]

Yeah, that seems to be about the size of it, as far as I'm aware. General plan seems to be clean things up and fix the mess in the meantime. Seems like things are going to get messier once it all comes out, though.

video | un: BishopRunout

[poolhall_killer]

[At first, Venom's about to respond regarding the dragon and the anguish it caused. But then he hears the curse and sneeze... and glass shards?]

Rumlow? Are you all right?

[ukase]

That depends. You haven't told me where your room is, but if you do, I know how to navigate well enough.

[He was picking glass out of his hand, dropping each shard in the trash and wondering how the hell any of that happened. Of course, removing the shards made his hand all bloody and that was just a completely different mess.]

Kind of interesting they can freeze the natives in their tracks and make them way for a clean up. With that kind of power, one would think they would do something more useful.

[ukase]

I've been better, but I wouldn't say I'm terrible.

[He's more surprised than anything. This... wasn't what he expected when he staggered out of the cryo area. And now here he was trying to pick glass shards out of his hand.]</small.

[krasnaya_vdova]

[She'll send him her room number, and some reference points, just to be sure.]

There you go. I'll be waiting.

[Her tone is a little bit playful, even if she's clearly given up any pretense of not being glad to see him.]

And you have a point- though I think one of the more interesting things about the Natha is the strange limits there seems to be on their power. It almost answers the question of why they'd need people like us.

[She's even wearing the hair clips he got her for her birthday. She maybe even gets a little cleaned up before he gets to her door, though she'd never admit to it.]

[ukase]

[He checked the coordinates on a map and headed towards the room number that she had given him. He was a bit more careful when the urge to sneeze came up or even a cough, aiming away from himself but no more mishaps so far. Probably a freak incident!]

Sometimes get the feeling we're their little puppets on some kind of social experiment. They have way more power than they let on, and yet, we can't even mention them in public or anything when we're on the surface.

[He chatted to her as he walked, moving through the space station and looking for familiar faces. He found her door before he found anyone that he recognized in the halls.]

Knock knock. [He knocked on her door at the same time and shut off his communicator.]

[krasnaya_vdova]

[She gets ready in the background, though she does it quietly as she keeps up the conversation. Can't give herself away too obviously. And it's just nice, getting to talk to him again.]

Yeah, that's something I've noticed too. Although, I'm not sure they're going to be able to cover this up, so things could get real dicey once we get back down there. Better bring the popcorn.

[She's dressed fairly casual, just jeans and a form-fitting white top, but her hair is down around her shoulders with those barettes. There's a smile and a faint glow to her blue eyes as she opens the door, and gestures him inside. Her duffle bag is on a chair against the wall; she's lucky she had it with her.

Her fingers twitch a little, like she's attempting some sort of self-restraint, which she is, because she's trying to wait until the door closes.]

Looks like you made it alright.

[ukase]

Did you get to see the dragon? I mean, did it cause a huge stir that can't be covered?

[Maybe they could finally get some real integration instead of the Natha's attempt to keep things all smoothed over. Actually giving answers to the native population was likely to get as much fear as not telling them, and at least part of the truth was better than holding it all back.

He stepped inside when she opened the door, noting that she was wearing the birthday present that he had mustered up for her. He wiped his previously bleeding hand on his pant leg before he reached out to curl an arm across the back of her shoulders as he kicked the door shut.]

I am a professional. Making it alright is what I do. How you doing, Ava?

[krasnaya_vdova]

Yeah. And it kind of more or less ripped open the sky and darkness started to pour in like some sort of physical thing-- [The Storm, she guesses, but she shakes her head.] And the Natha seem to have people using robots to try and conduct clean up efforts too, so my guess is that this whole timefreeze thing? It's not going to go unnoticed.

[But he's here now, so she kicks the door shut as he steps inside, curling an arm around her shoulders after wiping the blood off, and that's all the invitation Ava needs to press in against his chest and wrap her arms around him for a moment. Doesn't really care that he might be getting blood on her top, if it means she gets to hold on for a few moments. It takes a few breaths before she lets go, stepping back and looking a little awkward for a moment.]

I was afraid you wouldn't wake up.

[It's raw, honest. But she smiles, shrugs her shoulders a little with a touch of a sigh.] So I'm doing better, now. Let me see what I can do for your hand.

[Not that he probably really needs it, but it's an excuse, and it makes her feel a little bit better. The prospect of bandaging his wounds, even if she knows that he's tougher than this. It's still a nice thing, a quiet sort of comfort.]

[poolhall_killer]

This is going to sound off, but did those shards come out of your hand?

[He doesn't appear to be bleeding, so he hasn't offered his healing services. That and he's still a bit hesitant to use them on people after the whole dragon thing.]

[ukase]

...er no, I think they came out of my nose...

[He's not entirely certain, but they definitely didn't develop out of his hand. There was some blood beginning to well up around the shards still literally stuck in his flesh, but not as much as one might expect.]

[ukase]

Sounds like quite the event, and now I'm extra sorry that I had to miss it. What a dumb time to be a frozen perogi. [He certainly wouldn't have missed the Storm aspect. It seemed to be unreachable in how much ferocity and destruction that it had. It reminded him how small they all were in the grand scheme of things.

He also very much recalled what it felt like to be pulled apart by it, to lose every aspect of himself to it. Of course, he might have forced himself to experience more than a person should, but it was his way.

That notion derailed when they embraced, the door shutting to lock them in together. He kept his potentially bloody hand away from her, only using the one to embrace her shoulders, but it was nice to in the presence of someone familiar.]

Were you now? There was that possibility, but I'm awake and that's what matters, right?

[He rubbed his hand on his pant leg and then raised it for her to see. He had wiped away most of the blood, and it didn't seem to be too damaged, not as much as when he was on the communicator. He really had no idea what was going on. Only a small amount of blood was beading from the holes in his palm.]

It seems like it is going to heal quickly. It looked a lot worse even minutes ago.

[krasnaya_vdova]

I knew you'd be sad about it.

[Just for the fact that she could totally see Rumlow wanting to fight a dragon, or at least be there for it. And honestly, she thinks she probably would have done more if he'd been there. If someone had been there. But it had reminded her so much of that night in Odessa, when Natasha had pulled her from the flames, and there was no one here to save her, not even to stand by her side. And that had been-- hard. So she did what she could, pretended she didn't want to curl up in a ball in a dark corner.

But it was fine. He's here, he's back, he's awake, and that alone eases that tension that had lingered in her shoulders. He hugs her one-armed, but it's enough.]

Yeah. You're awake again, so I'll take it.

[He lifts his hand for her to see and she looks it over clinically for a moment, a slight hum of consideration.] You're right. But I'd still like to at least clean it- did you get all the shards out of your hand?

[She's already moving for her duffle bag as she asks the question, ripping open a disinfectant pad that she can swab across his palm. She doesn't bother warning him that it'll sting.]

Well, that's a good thing. Though I'll admit that it's a little strange.

[ukase]

Look at all the excitement that I miss out on when I'm sleeping? It's not like we have dragons back home.

[Rumlow would one-hundred percent fight a dragon, though he would want to be properly planned and equipped for the job before entering into that deadly combat. He noted that she wasn't very talkative about what she had done when the dragon came and made a mess of everything, but he didn't ask about it. Had she really been that upset to find him in cryostasis again? She would probably be the first, maybe the last too.]

And I don't plan on going back to the freezer, but I guess we don't exactly get a say in all that either.

[He observed his hand and shrugged his shoulders. He had picked out all the glass shards; they had thankfully been big enough where there hadn't been tiny slivers of the stuff. He was still mentally questioning how all of that had gone down in the first place.

His jaw tightened with the sting of the disinfectant, but he otherwise offered no complaint. It was a necessary evil, and he wasn't about to risk an infection at this point.]

Everything about this is strange. I still don't actually know what happened. I mean, I sneezed and then there was this mess...

[poolhall_killer]

Out of your nose?

[That's disconcerting. Is there a disease that turns one's nose against itself, manifesting as glass??

There's no polite way of saying "ewww" so he holds back.]

Do you require medical assistance?

video | un: CherylBombshell

[sweetwater]

[ Cheryl regards him with wide-eyed bewilderment. ] That's not normal.

[ as if he might have thought coughing up glass was ordinary. ]

video

[ukase]

Ya think?

[Don't mind the sarcasm. It isn't personal; he just automatically flips to it when off his game.]

Any other detective details you'd like to share, Mr. Holmes?

[ukase]

Maybe? It happened a bit fast...

[Which was to say he hadn't entirely paying attention to a simple sneeze until it had resulted in this mess. Now he was trying to figure how what the hell had happened.]

Maybe this is some weird freaky cryo-thing? And I think I'll keep the hand, so surgery won't be necessary.

[sweetwater]

[ she deserved it, really. ]

I'm more of a Nancy Drew.

That didn't happen to you until after you went back into the pods?

[poolhall_killer]

It's possible.

Where are you, at the moment? I can stop by to take a look.

[And maybe help pick out the glass provided there's no blood on Rumlow's hand.]

[ukase]

I'm at the forward lounge on the space station, but I have enough first-aid experience that I can probably wrap it myself. You don't need to bother with me.

[This seemed kind of ridiculous, but Venom was pretty good at bandaging, so he wouldn't actually refuse the company.]