Everybody's made of clay, that's what they used to say.

[manwithaplan]

Steve Rogers is entranced. He doesn't know how long it's been since he stopped to watch, but his guess is that he's been standing in place for at least ten minutes by now, and he has no intention of leaving any time soon. In that time, the artist squatting down by the edge of what becomes the pier has created three works of art, each more masterful than the last. The man has splayed a trash bag over the ground and works only with sheets of glossy white poster board and cans of spray paint. With these, he creates scenes of far off worlds from his imagination, places that resemble the distant ends of the universe and ancient kingdoms found only in storybooks. Places like Narnia and Middle Earth, the surface of Mars, the byfrost leading to Asgard. The man appears to have unrivaled imagination, and an even greater drive, for he doesn't appear to be stopping any time soon. He's selling them for ten bucks a pop and already Steve is certain he'll be buying at least one, but for now, he can't bring himself to stop watching the artist's process unfold. He knows his own way around a pencil and sketchpad, but it's nothing compared to the creativity and ingenuity displayed here today.

It takes a moment or two, he's so engrossed, for Steve to finally realize that he recognizes the face belonging to the blur of yellow hair hovering in his periphery, and he turns to his right with a smile. "Hi," he smiles. "We've met, haven't we? In the library, I think it was. You're a fellow New Yorker."

Comments

[makeithome]

Gwen glances over when she hears the man speak, a bit surprised he's addressing her until she realizes what he's saying. "Oh, yes," she says warmly, smiling. She only stopped to watch the artist at work, enthralled by the way the process unfolds. She knows beauty of a different kind; art has never been her strong point, and she can't help admiring anyone who can make it, but this is something else altogether. "That's right, I remember you. I'm sorry, I don't think I caught your name."

[manwithaplan]

He nods, understanding. He's not sure he got hers either, but he remembers being thrilled to meet someone from the neighborhood, so to speak, even if it is less of a rarity around these parts than he first thought. "Steve Rogers," he offers, smiling as he extends a hand.

[makeithome]

Gwen reaches over to shake his hand, firm as her father taught her. "Gwen Stacy," she says. "It's nice meeting you, Steve." She's never entirely certain with adults, whether she ought to call them by their first name or not, but it seems sort of silly to call the guy Mr. Rogers, even if it is his name. "We're, uh, kind of a rare breed around here."

[manwithaplan]

"Likewise, Gwen," he smiles. "That's a firm shake you've got there. And indeed, that we are. All the more reason to stick together." Truthfully, he's met more New Yorkers in Darrow than he ever hoped, but perhaps that's indicative of his own changing luck more than anything else. He can't imagine it to be indicative of any actual population of emigrated New Yorkers, everyone he's met from the city has been similarly trapped here against his or her will. Which makes perfect sense, because who would ever leave the Big Apple, much less for a place like Darrow?

[makeithome]

"I kind of feel like that about everyone who's not from around here," Gwen admits with a laugh. "But I guess I have a special place in my heart for fellow New Yorkers." There aren't too many of them, as far as she's aware, but she loves her city something fierce. There's Kaine, anyway, who's been really good to her since she arrived.

She nods toward the artist at work. "It's really something, isn't it? I've never seen something like that."

[manwithaplan]

"Neither have I, and I thought I'd seen it all." The artist's work, however, falls firmly in a category entirely separate from most of what Steve has seen and struggled to accept, for which he is definitely grateful. Despite his best efforts, Steve lacks imagination when it comes to the catastrophic; he assumes he's seen the very worst of it but Darrow likes to surprise, and surprise it does. It's no easy feat, edging out competition like Nick Fury, who introduced Steve to aliens from outer space and gods from Norse mythology. He ought to have learned by now to expect the unexpected but he's invariably appalled each and every time. But perhaps that's not such a bad thing; he worries about the day when he finally becomes numb to all this. He's glad for today's distractions being relatively harmless in nature, though no less awe-inspiring for it. "It's magnificent work. A part of me is kicking myself for not finishing art school, but the rest is so intimidated, I'm almost glad I didn't get to pursue it all the way." He turns to Gwen, smiling. "What about you? Do you draw or paint?"

[makeithome]

"Oh, neither," Gwen says, shaking her head. "The closest I get is sketching the occasional diagram." She has a deep-seated admiration for people who can achieve more, but no aspirations of her own. In the end, the doodles of her kid brothers are as much art to her as this anyway, though for very different reasons. On her own, she manages as best she can for notes, but she wouldn't call any of it art. "I'm, uh... more of a scientist. You shouldn't let yourself be intimidated. If you love it, you have to give it your best, right? Nobody's as good as that when they start out."

[manwithaplan]

Steve laughs. "Then kicking myself for not finishing it is. Thank you, though, honestly. That's an excellent way to look at it." He's certain, too, that she knows something about intimidation, being something of a scientist. Even in the future he came from, female scientists are far fewer than male and it's due in large part because women are not made to feel welcome in the field. He admires that greatly; it reminds him of Peggy and all the hoops that she must have had to jump through, especially back then. "What kind of science do you study?"

[makeithome]

"Biochemistry." Gwen smiles, a little sheepish. She'll be the first to steel herself and defend any critique she receives on that front, but he seems kind and it makes her feel a bit dopey about that. Other girls are out having fun and enjoying the last weeks of high school, with next to nothing left to do, and she's flitting around a lab running errands. She wouldn't have it any other way. "All the chemical processes going on in living things."

[manwithaplan]

"Something I'm sure I oughta know a little more about, being a living thing myself." Though he never had much of a mind for it, science has always fascinated Steve, and he'd certainly appreciate a better understanding of what happened to him. He's not sure it would be prudent, though, to ask someone he's only just met, really, about how a man could survive for seven decades on ice and come out not only alive but in peak condition. Surely, it has something to do with Erskine's formula, but he'd like to know more about it all the same.

[makeithome]

"It always surprises me," Gwen admits, "how many people don't think that way." Now, she gets that not everyone has the time, the inclination, or even the proper mindset for it, but at least some people will acknowledge, as he has, that it matters. She's known people who just didn't care, and she can't wrap her head around it. This is the story of how they came to be, where they've been, where they will go, not just as a species, but as a part of this living, breathing world. It is the blueprint that explains the world around them even as it opens up mystery upon mystery, layer after layer. "I guess it's just not for everyone. But it can be really beautiful in its own right."

[manwithaplan]

It would be awfully hypocritical of Steve to discredit science simply because he hasn't the mind for it, though he's more convinced now than ever that there are things that simply cannot be explained, at least not with the tools and methods available to them today. He's also seen the dark side of science, horrid things done by Nazi scientists in the name of a greater good that would never come, but he isn't fool enough to blame the entire field and all its practitioners for the mistakes of those working under Hitler's orders. On the whole, the world is far better off today than it was back when Steve was growing up, and much of it is the direct result of scientific developments. When reading up on the polio vaccine, he was nearly moved to tears after learning that last year there were only 223 reported cases worldwide.

"During the war, I was part of the Strategic Scientific Reserve," Steve informs Gwen, confident in his right to be open about it now that he's checked and confirmed that the records were declassified years ago. They didn't call themselves S.H.I.E.L.D. back then, after all. "As a soldier, of course, not a scientist, but I learned a lot all the same. Enough to wish I had a mind for it, and certainly enough to marvel at those who do."

[makeithome]

"I've never heard of that," Gwen says, head tipping slightly to the side. She believes him, of course; she can't imagine a reason for him to lie. It's just odd to hear of something like that she doesn't know about, and to remember how narrow her focus is at times, and how much more she has to learn. Of course, it isn't as if the war is something that's been highly broadcast at home, more often swept under the metaphorical rug until people forget anything of the sort is happening at all. "That sounds really interesting."

[manwithaplan]

"That's entirely understandable; as far as I've been able to learn, the records weren't declassified until fairly recently." It makes him sad to think, now, that he never asked Dr. Erskine more about his field and his work. At the time, Steve was preoccupied with preparing for the procedure that loomed ever closer, but that's a poor excuse. The truth is, he had a one track mind in those days, and anything not directly related to getting himself sent overseas was reduced to second string.

[makeithome]

"Interesting and exciting," Gwen says. It sounds, in fact, like something she would be interested in, were they in their own world, a job that might bridge the gap between her ambitions and her father's career. Whatever she chooses to do going forward in the world of biochemistry, she wants it to be something that helps people. She's somehow been giving a chance to cheat death. It seems the least she can do to make her life count. "You were in the army?"

[manwithaplan]

"For what feels like much longer than it truly was," Steve admits. It is strange to think that those years, defining as they were, barely comprised a fourth of his waking life. Then agan, if surviving seven decades underwater with naught but icy nightmares for company taught him anythings, it's that time is abstract, the mind able to create the illusion of longer or shorter periods regardless of the actual minutes passed. "This was during the second world war," he adds for fear of being misleading.

[makeithome]

"The — oh," Gwen says, eyes widening somewhat at that. Being here has helped acclimate her to strange things — some of which actually give what she saw back home a run for its money — but they're still strange. She still defaults to the assumption that everyone's from the same time she is, even if she can no longer assume they all come from the same world. Whether he was in Europe or Afghanistan, though, she thinks it comes out the same, at least on an individual level. It's terribly brave no matter what. "I wasn't even alive yet. Does the... the Strategic Science Reserve, does it still exist then?"