You only live forever in the lights you make

[unshielding]

» WHO? Steve Rogers and OPEN
» WHEN? the next 48 hours
» WHERE? all over
» WHAT? Steve wakes up tiny and he has no idea how long it will last
» WARNINGS? none so far

Steve goes to sleep in a bed he just fits in and wakes up swimming in it. His first thought isn't that he's smaller, but there's a disorientation to his movements that he doesn't catch onto until he's sitting up in bed and he catches sight of how skinny his arm is and come to think of it, his breaths aren't coming as easy as he'd like.

Someone else will need to take over any training I was overseeing for the foreseeable future.

It's a quick message sent out to anyone he normally trains with. He doesn't know how long he'll be like this, but one thing is for sure: he can't fight. Even his newly regained uniform won't fit him now and he's back in the jumpsuit, but he's swimming in it.

1

With a sigh, Steve heads out to the mess hall to eat and hopes that if he keeps his head down that no one will notice him. It's a tall order, though. Half the teenagers here are bigger than he is now. With a much smaller plate of food than he's used to, he sits himself in the corner alone.

The food tastes different now, like even his taste buds don't work right, but he eats anyway, because the last time he'd been this size, he'd been eating a lot of boiled potatoes and he knows he needs to keep his strength up even more like this. He can't afford to get sick and be a burden on others when life here is already so precarious and dangerous.

Maybe that's why he looks so angry and determined as he eats.

2

Steve can't just sit idle like this, but he also doesn't want to show his face at the fitness center yet, so he finds a corridor he knows leads to a dead-end locked door. Not a lot of people wander this way, so it's a good place to try to work on his own fitness. If he's going to be stuck like this, he'll find a way to stay useful.

It's an easy routine he's trying, something he'd help someone else with if they were just starting out, but he can barely manage the first push up before his arms are aching and his shoulders cry out in protest. He tries to squat, but ends up having to do a wall-sit and he falls trying to stand afterwards.

He's already a little out of breath and he knows if he isn't careful, he'll have an asthma attack, but he can't help the aborted kick he levels at the wall from his seated position, boots hitting with a dull thud. This is so frustrating after everything he's been through.


[ Feel free to handwave that your character has trained with Steve and received that text. If you want to do something not mentioned on here, just ask! I'm happy to write closed starters for either during or after the effects. ]

Comments

For Daisy

[unshielding]

Steve spends hours struggling his way around the station, trying to go about a normal day with a very harsh disadvantage. His normal day is for someone with a much healthier body and by what counts as mid-afternoon in space, he's already exhausted and a little scared about what it means to be like this in such a dangerous place. It's not even that he's scared about what the dangers that might be thrown at him, but what risk it poses when others start trying to take care of him. That worry is even more palpable after the war. Bucky seemingly died protecting him and he wasn't even small then.

Finally, he's worn through and he knows he has one friend on this station who at least has an idea of what losing something like this is like. He knocks on Daisy's door, looking pretty unsure and a little like a kid wearing his dad's jumpsuit.

"You get one joke. Make it good."

[morethan084]

[Daisy is going over the map of the station, again, when she gets a knock on her door. Closing out of the map on her device, Daisy gets to her feet and opens the door and immediately looks down to see--]

Steve?

[She doesn't even register what he says right away because she's so taken aback by the complete and utter transformation. Moving out of the way, Daisy gives him space to come into her room.]

What the hell happened?

[On top of just how much smaller he is, well, all over, he looks ill.]

2

[embersofjustice]

People may not come near this area often, but Toshinori is new around here, so he's still exploring, and doesn't know what's common foot traffic areas and what's not, so he just happens to be in the area when he hears the noise of feet on wall.

He comes to investigate, all scrawny and swimming in his oversized suit, not quite sure what to make of the scene he's stumbled upon. He does keep his distance, raising a hand in hesitant greeting. "Ah, everything okay down here...?"

» 1

[theycalledmeacurse]

Life on the station has seemed a bit hellish of late. Between dying and waking up again blind, all that insanity with the music, and her friends being tortured by this damn place, Rogue is basically always on the lookout now for the next thing to go wrong. It could be anything at all, the gravity going or the food going off, ghosts in the hallways or their emotions being toyed with -- what comes their way, she's trying to be mentally prepared to deal with it.

Perhaps that's why she notices the man sitting on his own. There's something familiar about him, a resemblance that takes a moment to register, but then her eyes widen and she and her tray of breakfast make a beeline to that table, plopping down in the seat directly across from him.

"Steve, sugar, what the hell did this place do to you?"

[unshielding]

Looks like you're not the only one who's missing powers.

[ He crosses his arms, trying not to look sullen and failing miserably. This whole situation makes him so mad. How is he supposed to protect people like this? He needs to find a way to get everyone home. This isn't going to stop him, but he knows it will slow him down. ]

Can I come in?

[morethan084]

[Daisy knew he didn't always look tall and built like a brick, but to see it in person? Well, that wasn't something she ever expected.]

Of course, yeah.

[Did he really need permission at this time? Probably not. Daisy can't quite hide her concern because this seems to have happened so quickly.]

Are you okay?

[unshielding]

Steve looks up sharply when he hears the words. He'd forgotten how bad his hearing had been before, too, and he hadn't realized he wasn't alone. That's going to be great to get used to.

"As okay as it's going to be." He pushes himself up to his feet, brushing his hands off on the jumpsuit once he's standing. It's hard not to feel defensive like this. He remembers all too well the way most people used to treat him and looking up at everyone is bringing that out in him again, but he shoves that down with a sigh.

"Thank you. This place isn't--I'm not normally like this."

[unshielding]

Steve puts his fork down, maybe a little harder than he means to and it clanks on the table. He feels clumsy and awkward now, even more than he'd been in the first place when he'd been like this because he's not used to it.

"Rogue." He tries to smile, mostly fails. "It looks like this place didn't like the changes that were made to me, so it wound the clock back."

[unshielding]

I'll be fine.

[ the answer comes quick and defensive as he steps past her.

The thing is that he's never really felt useless, not exactly, because he wants to do things and he knows he can. No, he's not useless, but he's always had to fight to prove that to everyone. People treat him like he can't do anything when he's like this, like he needs to be protected. Even Bucky used to protect him and he'd never had to prove much to him.

By the time he's turned around, some of that has dissipated. He's here to ask for help. Sort of. ]

[morethan084]

[Shutting the door once he’s in, Daisy stays quiet for a moment. This place has done a lot of messed up things to the people on board, and yet, Daisy never expected to see Steve like this. She assumes there’s a reason he’s here, which is why she moves to take a seat on the edge of the bed. She leaves him space too, unless he would rather stand.]

Do you want to talk about it?

[unshielding]

[ Steve would certainly rather stand, especially right now, but his body isn't on board for that preference at all. He takes a seat next to her and looks at his hands. They're a smaller, but still big for his small size. He'd always been good with them, even when the rest of his body had protested, drawing as easily as most other boys had played soccer. ]

You know what? I really don't.

[ He shakes his head, almost laughing through the words. ]

But I'm going to need to figure out how to fight like this until I can fix it.

[ Maybe it's foolishly optimistic to assume that he can, but Steve's not the giving up type, even when his back's against a wall. ]

2

[lostsymmetry]

"<Damaging hardware is not advisable.>"

The voice is crisp, tinny, and possibly familiar—depending on Steve's memory of a certain network chat a while back. It comes from a panel halfway up the wall he kicked. As the speaker activates, a blue logo comes to life across the screen, flickering and glitching sideways into a hash. The next words to emerge are much more natural. And concerned.

"Whoa. Are you okay?"

[theycalledmeacurse]

"Lord, what's it gonna do next, eat one of us?" Though the walls had already tried, so perhaps that wasn't the best speculation. Still, the sentiment is clear as she gives him a look of sympathy. Sympathy, not pity, because she knows all too well how awful this place can be to them.

Not giving him time to reply to her mostly rhetorical question, she continues with another, concerned one. "How are you handling all this?"

[morethan084]

[And while he's distracted with looking at his hands, Daisy's eyes roam over his body. She knew he was small before the serum, but this was a whole other level. He looked like a gentle breeze could knock him down.]

Fix it?

[Was that possible? With the way things went around here, all odds were against them. Except...]

There's this guy that I met here. He uses a serum to keep his power under control, maybe he can help do the opposite.

[unshielding]

What's his name?

[ Maybe Steve's met him already. He doubts he should really let anyone throw random things at his body. Trying to recreate the serum that made him is how Banner would up with the Hulk. He can't just sit back and do nothing, though. ]

[unshielding]

"I'm fine." It's the quick, defensive sort of answer he used to give Bucky or his mother after a fight, shrugging off help to clean up his own split lip. Neither of them ever really let him get away with it, though.

He can't help the defensiveness. Like this, he knows how people see him. It's the way they've always seen him. To just about everyone, he'd been a poor dear and someone in need of protecting and coddling from the world. It's hard to go back to that after he'd finally gotten a taste of being treated like he's capable of taking care of himself.

[unshielding]

Steve sits up straighter, looking at the console with curiosity. His memory might not be enhanced right now, but remembering people is important to him.

He moves closer, partially because he doesn't want to yell across the hall and partially because his hearing isn't what it had been. "Are you inside the system?"

[lostsymmetry]

He hadn't been sure, just by the visuals. But that sure is srogers's voice coming from this scrawny body formerly sprawled across the floor. The unhindered movement is somewhat reassuring, as is the question—no immediate distress. Hank still counts himself concerned.

"...that I am." The blue flicker stabilizes, display settling on an odd, corrupted image. "Captain Rogers, right? You made the security post awhile back."

[morethan084]

Hank. He's kind of hard to miss when he runs out of his serum.

[What? It was true. Maybe she was pushing it, but she was sure Steve was stressed beyond belief. So without really thinking it over, Daisy reaches out around him to rub his shoulder in an attempt to comfort him.

She doesn't say it, but he definitely feels fragile under her hand. No wonder he took the opportunity to change that.]

We'll figure this out, okay?