sorry, goop.

[manwithaplan]

Books were always there for Steve when he was just a helpless kid in desperate search of an escape, whether it was after they got news his father had been KIA, during the worst of the depression, or when he refused to leave the side of his mother's death bed. Now, Darrow offers all of the escapism a man could want, but he always was a sentimental one. For too long, books and Bucky were his only friends. There was nothing he could do about missing the latter, but far be it from him to abandon the former. Besides, he had time to spare these days.

After milling around the shelves for a few minutes, Steve came across a table display that offered staff recommendations. He amused himself by trying to to match each book to its recommender, starting with the girl with braces behind the cashier who couldn't be more than seventeen, which was pushing it. Hers, he decided, was Unremembered, the thrilling tale of 16-year-old Seraphina, who survives a deadly airplane crash without a scratch. He wondered if the word unremembered would pass the spell check on his city issued cellphone. Next, he picked up It's All Good: Delicious, Easy Recipes That Will Make You Look Good and Feel Great, which the dust jacket informed him was written by an Academy Award winning actress named Gwyneth Paltrow, who also happened to be a bestselling cookbook author. She was pictured on the cover smiling in front of a crate of cucumbers, and Steve was surprised by the striking resemblance she bore to the woman Tony Stark had appointed CEO of Howard's empire. He'd never been formally introduced but they had exchanged looks across a busy room during one of the many debriefs at S.H.I.E.L.D. that followed the battle in New York, and in that one look she had managed to convey that she shared his own exasperation with the younger Stark. This selection he attributed to a young man who looked as if he spent more time at the gym than he did here at work and whose skin was inexplicably tanned for the weather they had been having. Just now he was chatting up a pair of well-dressed women who seemed even less interested in the merchandise than he. Still, they hung on his every word.

Setting the cookbook down, Steve moved on to The Devil in the White City, and despite his best efforts, he could feel his eyes growing wider with every line that he read from the synopsis.

Comments

[wishesandsmoke]

Eden doesn't expect to see Steve here. She barely knows the guy, not enough for her to try and call him up or anything, though she's thought about it once or twice. Spotting him in the store, though, there's no way she can just keep to herself.

She crosses the floor to his side, arms crossed, her smile friendly. "That's a good one."

[manwithaplan]

Despite himself, Steve is so engrossed in the book's description that nearly misses her approach. But although Darrow isn't a warzone (not today, anyway), it certainly is hostile territory, and he won't allow the occasional quiet stretch to lull the soldier within into hibernation. For her benefit, however, he looks up from the book as if surprised, which isn't difficult to sell given how appalled the book in his hands has left him. Born a little over two decades after the gruesome events, Steve has surely heard of H. H. Holmes, a killer so disturbing that his deeds were spoken of for years and years after the fact. Never in great detail, though, and now Steve can see why.

"It looks like an interesting read, I'll give you that," he says with a soft laugh, humorless but not unkind. "It's great to see you again. How are you today? "

[wishesandsmoke]

"Oh, I'm very well, thank you," Eden says. "Working, actually." She smiles, nodding back toward the counter. The way he looks, she gathers he's a little less intrigued by the macabre than she is, but that, she supposes, just comes along with a life like hers. "Maybe I can help you find something."

If nothing else, she thinks, she'd like the excuse to stay and talk with him.

[manwithaplan]

Steve nods, what seems like a natural response, though he's surprised he didn't notice her uniform until Eden mentioned that she's at work. Holmes has left him off-kilter. He's not sure if her offer of help is strictly professional or more friendly in nature, but he thinks and hopes it's more of the latter, as he thinks he'd like very much to have her for a friend.

"Actually, I'm not entirely sure what I'm looking for," he admits, shrugging. "Lately, the only books I open are about principles of art or war strategy, and some history both, too."

[wishesandsmoke]

"War strategy?" Eden echoes, laughter in her tone though it never quite comes out. "That sounds very serious. We're going to have to find you something a little lighter. You know, so you can trade off back and forth." She can't imagine why he would be reading something like that, particularly when he seems like such a sweet, peaceful guy, but then, it's probably interesting stuff. There are all kinds of things she likes to read about that she wouldn't necessarily want to take part in.

[manwithaplan]

"Well, I'm a boxing instructor here in Darrow, but I did my best work in the war as a tactician," Steve explains. He's been better about sharing lately, since the first time he did so, when he realized how much it could helpin terms of keeping his hold on reality. It's a shame that it's a struggle at all, but after a certain amount of time passes, one learns to focus on adjusting rather than fighting change. "As for the history books, I've been trying to catch up on what's happened since I left off. But you have a point; if nothing else, it can get monotonous after a while."

[wishesandsmoke]

"I'd offer to help with the playing catch up," Eden says, "but there's a pretty big gap there I don't know much of anything about." It isn't as if she didn't get an education or anything, but her schoolgirl days are long behind her and well-forgotten, her attention turned elsewhere in recent years. It's a shame, really. Steve is a nice guy, and she wishes she could help him out more than finding him some light reading.

[manwithaplan]

"How big a gap are we talking?" If he seems a little eager, simply imagine what it might look like if he weren't trying so hard to show restraint. Because it sounds like something he would say of the seventy years that he missed, and he wonders if something similar happened with Eden, though it seems highly unlikely. It's not every day that someone gets trapped under ice, after all, and Steve knows that it's too much to hope for that he meet someone else who endured the exact same thing. Perhaps, though, she knows what it's like to wake up in a world that she doesn't quite recognize. A coma doesn't seem so far from the realm of possibility, and though he hates to stir up bad memories for her if that's the case, he also can't let that comment go without asking her to elaborate.

[wishesandsmoke]

Eden feels awful for it when she sees the way he lights up, though she's not even quite sure of why. "Oh, I just mean, you know," she says, "between the war and when I was born." She's not sure off the top of her head how long that is. She's not even quite sure which war Steve means. From the way he talks and the things he's mentioned off-hand and the experiences she's had, she just sort of assumes he's not from her own time, highly doubts he's talking about Iraq or Afghanistan. Which one before that he might mean, though, she isn't sure. History's too fucking full of wars.

[manwithaplan]

Steve tries his best not to look too disappointed. "Of course, I assumed something like that." He's not technically lying; he knew it in his head, but his heart wanted to believe something different, something almost impossible. Maybe he shouldn't be so hard on himself for it; the impossible has certainly occurred before. "But there was also a significant gap between the time I came here from and the time I'm familiar with, and I wondered if you hadn't gone through something similar. It's all very complicated, though, so it was a real long shot."

[wishesandsmoke]

"Well, I was on an island for several years," Eden says, "between 2007 and last year. But I'm guessing you mean something a little bigger." She tries to keep her voice soft, gentle, just barely resisting the urge to reach out and rest her hand on his arm. She doesn't think he's really that bothered by the misunderstanding, but she still feels guilty for it. It gets lonely, she knows, being the only one around who's gone through a particular kind of complicated.

[manwithaplan]

"Bigger and longer," Steve gives a nod. That's when he realizes that he's going to tell her, making Eden the first person to learn about his experience from Steve himself; most of the people he associated with back in New York were already aware, either through debrief or the rumor mill. It may also be the first time he's felt like being this open about it since it all went down; even the S.H.I.E.L.D. psychologists weren't able to get more than the bare minimum out of him. This probably isn't the best place to get into it, but something about bringing it up in otherwise casual conversation, a conversation with someone he's only met a few times, makes it feel casual enough that it almost becomes bearable. He'll take it.

"During the war, I crash landed an enemy plane over the Arctic to keep what would have been a devastating payload from hitting New York City. By all rights, that should have been the end of me, but I wake up in a hospital and they're telling me I was found buried under the ice, still alive somehow. There's not a familiar thing in sight. Turns out, it's 2012 and I've been on ice for over seventy years." He laughs, not entirely humorless. "I told you it was a big gap."

[wishesandsmoke]

Eden draws in a soft breath, sympathetic, uncertain how to respond. From the way he talks and acts, she could have guessed he was from an earlier era, though she wouldn't have tried to pinpoint which one; that's just the way her life is these days and she's learned to roll with it without too many questions. It isn't her style to butt into personal matters. She knows damn well people will talk if and when they want to. This, though, is something more than she would have ever guessed. To come to a place like this and be uprooted from one's own time is one thing. To wake up in his own world decades later is something completely else, something she can't fully imagine.

"Steve, that's more like a canyon," she says. Her brow furrows before she can continue, something else striking her. Gaze raking over his body, she looks up at him again, frowning. There's no way in hell this man is anywhere close to ninety years old. "I had no idea being on ice could keep you looking so good."

[manwithaplan]

If Steve was chuckling before, he's moved to full-on laughter now, almost none of it nervous, though there is a hint of that for anyone listening closely enough. At heart, he's still that kid who could never get a date, and while he's not so dim or lacking in self-awareness that he thinks that is still the case today, he hasn't the first clue how to respond to such a remark. Of course, the secret is probably less to do with ice and more to do with an experimental serum courtesy of the good old U.S. of A., but most of that information likely hasn't been declassified yet, if it ever will be, and although he's far from the states now, he doesn't see enough of reason to break confidentiality just yet. They're just details at this point, anyway; the bulk of the tale has already been told.

"I had no idea being on ice could yield any of the results it did," he responds. "By all accounts, I oughta be long dead. But more and more, I'm learning that there are more exceptions to the rules of science than we ever thought, at least in the world I'm from, and certainly in this one."

[wishesandsmoke]

"Well, that's science for you," Eden says with a smile. "It's never an absolute." There are things that are almost always true, but so much of science is just true for now, constantly shifting. She's found it's better to remain flexible, the world too unpredictable for anything else. As she's gotten older, life has only gotten stranger. "I can see how there would be a lot to catch up on."

[manwithaplan]

"Where would you start, if you were me?" It's a question he hasn't thought to ask until now, though that may well be due to his past refusal to take about it at all. But it's just occurred to him that the best way to learn about the future, to really, truly grasp the heart of growing up in this era is to ask someone who did about their firsthand experience. And for whatever reason, Steve thinks that Eden's answer will be more interesting than most.

[wishesandsmoke]

Eden takes a deep breath, thinking carefully about that. There are so many places to begin. To narrow the list down to the sole thing she thinks most important as a starting point is difficult. So much of human history is interwoven; to understand one segment often requires knowledge of another and another.

"You know, I would start with pop culture," she says at last. "The most popular music over the years, the biggest movies and... and the most beautiful. The plays. It's in the seemingly frivolous and unnecessary you'll find the best understanding, I think, of who we've been and how we've changed over the years. It's a pretty broad sampling, but it's a start."

[manwithaplan]

Steve grins. He couldn't be happier with her answer, one tailored to him more than she can know. "That's an excellent suggestion, thank you," he says, the same grin expanding. "Before the war, I was an art student. I wanted to be a cartoonist, maybe work my way to comic books. Anyway, you can see why you wouldn't need to sell me on the seemingly frivolous and unnecessary. There's no better way to understand human nature than in those purest forms of expression."

[wishesandsmoke]

The way he speaks of it makes Eden smile, a quiet fondness creeping in. She's always had a soft spot for those passionate about what they do, and more so for those who understand the importance of the arts. Though she's taken scientists under her wing more often than artists, it all boils down to the same yearning to express and understand. "I agree entirely," she says. "I'd be happy to make some recommendations."

[manwithaplan]

Entirely against his will, Steve's eyes dart back down at the table display as if to question whether her staff recommendation is any indication of what's to come. When he looks back up at her, it's with a sheepish sort-of-smile that is more of a soundless apology than anything else; he knows it's not the most polite question to ask, especially when he's not really asking it at all.

It's not that he can't handle morbid: he's a grown man, one who has seen things that would make even the steeliest of men and women blanche, but if given an option, he would rather be prepared before facing the worst of humankind.

[wishesandsmoke]

Eden arches an eyebrow, trying not to let her smile grow any wider. She doesn't want to seem as if she's teasing him. It's only that there's something sweet about his trepidation; it's endearing, as if Steve Rogers is a man who needs help making people like him.

"But first," she says easily, "it'd help if I knew what you already know. Done any catching up on that front? Movies, music, literature?"

[manwithaplan]

"I've been catching Hitchock features at a local theater and trying to make a dent in Rolling Stone's list of 500 greatest songs, but otherwise, I have to admit that I'm dreadfully behind." Most references still go over Steve's head, and as much as he would like to put an end to that, he was so eager to occupy himself that he's ended up with a relatively tight schedule. His free time he dedicates to drawing and — "Oh, and art, of course. I've been educating myself on movements since the 40s and, well, I wanted to be an illustrator, so I've read quite a few comic books as well."

[wishesandsmoke]

"Oh, that's so cool," Eden says. "Well, good, that's one area we won't need to cover. Why don't we look at literature?" She gestures for him to follow, heading off amid the stacks. There's a lot of ground to cover, and it's really subjective, the question of what he ought to start with. So many of the book considered important or classic may not appeal to him, and that's just fine; she hasn't been able to get into some of them either. "I didn't know they showed Hitchcock around here."