The Silence of the Storm

[shardofwinter]

Rations have been cut. Again. Everyone is on one bowl of watery soup a day. Sometimes with crackers, sometimes not. Most people are too tired and weak to do much more than sit around and talk, and nobody discourages them in the slightest. Work has to be rotated constantly as people weaken quickly, but the fires still need to burn, people still need to guard the cooks and rations, and the sick still need to be tended to. Soon the hardest job is keeping up morale while the big expedition comes back. All the gods and heavens of the multiverse help them if they don’t come back with supplies, and soon.

The boundaries have tightened to an almost suffocatingly small space. It doesn’t take much to imagine where they will be by the end of Winter, which at least makes planning a little easier. People are already relocating to deeper in the Plaza. Unfortunately it means that those who have enough energy to often end up fighting with their neighbours, as the close quarters tests everyone’s patience. There are a few spaces carved out for like minded people to shelter from the dreary situation. Mechanics and those like them have set up a nice little place close to the Crossroads Café, and a break area for those helping the sick is sheltered in a room behind the injured and ill. Zandros moves from groups to individuals, looking for help in creating some form of morale boosting display that will adhere to Isidor's instructions. People are surviving in whatever ways they can, but it's reaching breaking point.

((It's the Final Event Post, everyone! OOC Post is here! This is for those stuck at the hub while the Main Expedition is going on. There will be a second part to this post for the Return of the Expedition. In the meantime, have fun!))

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[he_put_the_devil_in_me]

Now that the adrenaline has worn off, Matt is tired and sore, his broken bones throbbing uncomfortably beneath his skin, and he's only accepted the weaker painkillers to take the edge off rather than the heavier-duty drugs. Still, it takes him a moment before he realizes he's not alone, and he tilts his head a fraction as he listens to the cadence of her heartbeat, her breath, takes in the subtly foreign scents he's begun thinking of as Asgardian. And there's only one that he knows personally, so far.

"Hey Sif," he says, his voice sounding rough with fatigue.

[lady_sif]

"Matt," she says in return, her voice warm. "How are you feeling?" He looks terrible, not that she'd point that out. There's a girl going around purposefully, healing people as she can, but that work seems laborious, and she's tending the most grievously injured first.

Sif doesn't withdraw her hand, but lets it rest fully on his arm if he'll allow. "I had hoped to speak with you."

[he_put_the_devil_in_me]

He sighs, sounding more tired than angry. "I've been worse," he says, which probably isn't the answer she's looking for, but it's still true enough. "I'll heal."

Matt doesn't pull away from her touch, though, turning his head in her direction a little more. She sounds a little hesitant to his ear, careful, like she's not sure how he'll take it. Not really what he would've expected if she was going to yell at him for being reckless. "What about?"

[lady_sif]

Anger is unwieldy and prickly, but tired she can work with. Tired is to be expected after the horrors of the night. Since he doesn't pull away, neither does she, and maybe the warmth of her hand is a comfort in some small way.

"I wanted to say... I hope you are not cross with me." She squeezes his arm very gently when she says this. "I do not regret what I did to protect you, but you are a man grown, and a warrior moreover. Every warrior has a right to decide what battles are worth dying for, and to an Asgardian, there is nothing more glorious than death in combat.

"But," she quickly goes on, "that does not mean we yearn for death--only that we do not fear it. And I am selfish, perhaps, in that I do not want you to die. You are my friend, and you are young, still. You ought to live to the fullest while you can.

"That is why, if we ever fight side by side, you must know that I will always protect you, even if that means protecting you from your own impulses. If... if that is not acceptable to you, I will understand."

[he_put_the_devil_in_me]

It's such a different thing than he's expecting to hear - Foggy and Karen have lambasted him more than once for putting himself in danger, especially once they'd all had a taste of how deadly serious the consequences of being Daredevil could be - that Matt is visibly taken by surprise when she tells him what Asgard thinks of such suicidal career choices. Even if she does follow it up with her own personal wish that he doesn't get himself killed.

He's quiet for a long moment, ruminating over his words before he responds. "It's not that I wanted to die, this time." He's been in darker days where that hadn't been the case, and not all that long ago. "But we all went out there knowing we might not make it back. That getting the supplies back was the only priority. If they hadn't made it because I hadn't done everything I could've..."

But they did, and between that and the post-battle fatigue, it's cooled his temper a fair amount, leaving him with more guilt than fury. "I wouldn't have ever forgiven myself."