nexus_crossings | Ho Ho Ho! Happy HP Holidays!

Ho Ho Ho! Happy HP Holidays!

There is something different about the Nexus this Christmas season. There is a light snow falling over the entire Nexus plaza. The snow is gentle, with no real coldness to the falling snow flakes. As one approaches the main gathering area, they will notice that there are many Christmas decorations, including garland hanging from the air, and there are twelve towering decorated Christmas trees, some sparkling with tiny icicles, some glittering with hundreds of candles. There are also thousands of floating tiny candles in the Nexus plaza, that gently move at their own discretion.

In one corner, there is an orchestra, directed by a Dwarf. All of the musicians are playing music on instruments made from ice. In the center of the Nexus plaza, is a huge banquet table, loaded with holiday foods and treats that showcases a variety of food from different cultures, and some of the different worlds that gather into the Nexus itself. The main delight of the banquet table is that magic can make the food replenish itself, meaning Christmas dinner never has to end. Most will be able to find something they would enjoy. With the added perk that the food is LOL-free.

There are some added little Christmas adventures, for those who get caught up in the holidays. Here are some of the extra options for the Holiday season.

Secret Santa!
There is an added bonus to the Secret Santa gifts this year. The presents will deliver themselves! There are tons of wrapped gifts floating through the air, destined to only drop when they reach the person to which they are intended. Please note that not all gifts will be given in the spirit of the season. There are a few prank gifts floating around too. Be sure to watch out for them!

Christmas Crackers!
There are Christmas crackers scattered among the tables, and in amongst the branches of the trees. They are decorated with festive paper that is twisted at either end like a sweet wrapper. Inside of the tube are prizes, and some contain Muggle prizes such as a paper hat, a plastic toy, and a slip of paper with a joke printed on it. But the rare person will receive a unique, peculiar magical prize, and will envelop everyone nearby in a cloud of blue smoke.

Weasley Sweaters!
Time to try your luck at the Christmas Sweater bin. There is a large rotating clothing rack that seems to have an endless supply of them. Each one more Festive than the last! Pick one and show your Christmas spirit for the rest of the day.

Enchanted Mistletoe!
Be warned Nexus traveler, the Nargles** have hung enchanted Mistletoe all around the plaza. If an unlucky person steps underneath the Mistletoe, they will find that they are magically stuck to the spot, until they can find someone to kiss them. Of course, the kiss can be platonic, familial, or even romantic. For a few unfortunate people, the kiss may be the last thing they would want to do... but it is that or be stuck in the same spot for the rest of the season.

**Nargle Wiki
[Click Here for information on the HP Holiday Event!]
[Your character is free to give other Christmas gifts to people they care about -- HOWEVER, please do not deliver your Secret Santa gift. That will be handled by the Secret Santa moderator. Please post details on your Secret Santa gift in this post please.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"I can't say I blame either of you. I...I don't know what happened out there, but I saw how it affected some of my friends. After. I'm just glad to see you here."

Steve's smile is small and he drops the subject there. He hadn't been able to protect anyone before, but he's done his best to make up for it since. The patrols are helping, he thinks. Helping people feel safe and secure in the Nexus again. He's not actually had to do anything more than help a few lost souls find their way around but it's the action that helps more than anything.

"Nat's taking a round while I come here. We'll probably swap a bit later." He pauses then, unsure how to start a conversation that isn't about topics Jim won't want to discuss. Or ones Steve himself won't.

"House hunting's going alright." Steve starts neutrally. "Hoping to get a place big enough to have my own training room. Then you'll really be able to go all out."

Edited 2017-12-16 15:53 (UTC)

Jim just nods a little, a noncommittal hum in his throat. The lack of prying questions is appreciated. Respect for his privacy, especially when it comes to this sort of shit, has been in short supply throughout much of his life. And sure, he might feel a little bad about leaving Steve in the dark with only his imagination to fill in the gaps, but not dumping this on other people has been his way of life for as long as he can remember. The less anyone else knows, the better.

The change in topic is more than welcome. Jim can do a better job of faking having a good time when it's not something too personal. "I had to get a new place recently too," he says, sitting up a little bit straighter, like he isn't just wallowing in his own thoughts. Good luck with that, Jim. "You looking for anything in particular?"

"House, this time. With three pokemon and my new body we just need the space. Plus, then I ca make a proper roost for Buck on my roof. Hoping to have a room for my art and a room for training, too so that's a thing."

Steve ponders a bit while he sips at his drink. Wonders just what else he could ask for in a place.

"Garage for my motorcycle might be nice."

Edited 2017-12-17 00:37 (UTC)

"Probably a good idea," Jim agrees. "Mine's hanging out in my living room right now. Not exactly ideal, but I don't want to leave it down on the street, or take up a hovercar spot."

"I bet the Pokemon will like having a bigger space to run around in." Well, maybe not Ethel. She hadn't seemed like the running type, exactly. Not like certain tiger-striped dogs he could mention.

He nods along with Jim's assessment. Might be more feasible in Jim's time, but with Steve's bike running on gas and oil, keeping it inside is a hazard he's not too keen about. Especially with Sarah's penchant for breathing fire when she gets excited or upset.

"I haven't brought it to the Nexus yet. Wouldn't be hard with my PINpoint, but I don't have anywhere to put it, so..." He shrugs. Watches Jim fidget with his beard while he's thinking. It's not a bad look really, and it would be warmer for winter. Hm.

Having electric motors sure does cut down on potential mess, it's true. Makes it easier to tinker with it when it needs maintenance, as well.

Now that Steve mentions it, Jim doesn't recall seeing many public parking structures. "This place is kinda light on vehicle traffic," he agrees thoughtfully. It makes sense. With PINpoints around, getting from point A to point B is a lot faster than taking a shuttle or something. And if you're exploring, you miss a lot if you aren't pounding pavement on foot.

"I think I might've seen more spacecraft around than atmospheric vehicles, actually." Hard to miss the occasional ship swooping overhead, like low-flying airplanes.

"It is, yeah. Considering how much this place shifts and moves around, there's not a whole lot of room for cars either. I've seen a few, usually from folks who tend to stay out in the wilds a bit as their home base. But not too many."

The spacecraft had definitely taken some getting used to. Steve is always amazed at technology he hasn't seen before provided said tech isn't for destroying things.

"Is that comforting to you?"

Jim shrugs, not really sure how to answer that. "It's familiar. There's always shuttles coming and going from Headquarters. I see 'em all the time."

There's a wistful look on his face, just thinking about it. It'll be a few months still before the Enterprise sets out on her shakedown cruise, and every day seems to crawl by agonizingly slowly. Especially with Remembrance Day coming up. If only he could just skip that entirely.

He internally shakes himself a little, giving Steve a faint smile of apology for letting himself space out for a moment. "I moved back to San Francisco. Commute's a lot shorter now."

Steve knows that look and patiently waits for Jim to come back to himself. He's been guilty of it more than a few times himself, when the dysphoria and the memories get to be Too Real. When he doesn't remember which time he's in.

And Bucky is even worse. Steve knows that look. He won't begrudge the captain the time he needs. Wishes he knew how to help other than to just be patient and accepting that it is the way things are.

"Well, you know where to come if you need to unwind a bit with all that extra free time you've got then." The bag's there and his door's open. Steve figures a safe place free of questions might be the best gift he can offer the captain.

It's a gesture that's definitely appreciated. Jim has always had a hard time sitting still, always needing to do something with himself, even when he doesn't want to be anywhere near the kind of crowds he'd surely find trying to seek refuge in a bar somewhere. Not that he can drown his sorrows so easily these days, anyway.

Speaking of which, Jim finishes off what's left of his mulled wine, resigned to the fact that it won't do anything for him. "Yeah, I probably will. You've got a nice setup." Sure, it's fairly simple, but there isn't much else that you need for that kind of workout. Jim looks over at Steve, gesturing vaguely with the empty glass. "Maybe you can show me some of those moves you talked about too."

"I bet your security specialists will lose their mind if I do. You gotta let me know the first time you pin one of 'em in a training."

Steve's grin is downright criminal. Anyone who says Steve Rogers is not a little shit clearly didn't know him that well before he filled out. He nods Jim's way.

"I'd be happy to."

Jim smiles a little in response, a little interested despite himself to find out what exactly Steve has in mind. "You sound like you've got firsthand experience with that." If there's a story to be had, he wouldn't mind hearing it. It's something that has nothing to do with anything that's bothering him, after all.

"We've got quite a few beyond normal people on our team, but I'm proud to say we've also got normal folks who have trained damn hard to be good at what they do. It always makes me happy to see someone who thinks they're better skilled than someone else get shown up."

In other words, Steve Rogers is a little shit who loves watching Natasha and Clint kick all kinds of ass despite not having any powers whatsoever. Couldn't be more proud to have them around, even.

"Normal...?" The word actually, genuinely puzzles Jim for a long moment before he remembers that right, Steve's used to dealing mostly with only ordinary run-of-the-mill humans. It's easy to forget sometimes, when you grow up in a multispecies Federation, that some people aren't used to being around nonhumans. Or at least, people who can do things most humans can't. "Ordinary humans still being the scrappy underdog, huh? Determination goes a long way."

"Determination and a whole lot of training."

Steve grins around his glass then. Sharp and fiercely proud of his team. Even though they're separated now. Steve still considers them his closest friends and allies.

"It never gets old."

That pride on Steve's face is unmistakable, and even though his team is much smaller than the crew that Jim has under his command, he has to admit he knows the feeling well. "I bet. Starfleet goes for the 'fight with your head first and your fists second' approach too. Works better for some than it does for others, but they've got a point."

He shakes his head a little, before he can follow that train of thought too far down. "I'm filing my final crew roster with Command next week. Trying to narrow down the list was hell." And he can't help but wonder how many he's going to lose, over the next five years. He'd thought before that he could avoid even a single loss of life, if he was careful enough, if he was smart enough, if he was good enough. What stupid, stupid arrogance that was. He should know better than most just how easy it is to die out in the black.

"How'd you pick your team?" Jim asks, hoping that's a safe topic. Not just for Steve, but himself, too.

"The only team I ever picked personally were the Howling Commandos."

That makes Steve's chest constrict painfully but his pride is no less in talking about them. They were the first, his first friends and allies. Closer than blood.

"During the war, er. Your World War II I suppose. The best of the 107th Infantry and most of whom I helped rescue from a HYDRA camp. They were the best soldiers, and the best friends a fella could hope for. After I....went under. I heard they did a lot of good even without me." And without Bucky. There's nothing Steve's read, no chatting with their children (or grandchildren even) that has ever made Steve regret signing them on.

He's proud of them. Happy to have served with them.

"When I was brought back in 2015, I was working for the folks who rescued me. Called themselves SHIELD. Was put on a team of specialists, made up mostly of folks who were like me. Not exactly normal. Son of an inventor I used to know, Tony Stark. Designed a mechanical flight suit that had on board weapons. Real fancy. Bruce Banner, the nicest man you'll ever meet, real real smart, and when he let loose the strongest beast you'll ever see. Thor, an Asguardian who they compared to a god. He's the one who gave me the drinks we shared at Halloween."

Steve turns the drink in his hands.

"Me. Physically enhanced soldier. Then there was Nat. Natasha Romanov, a spy by trade. Calm head and a great shot. Could sneak in and out of anywhere on the map. And Clint Barton, a marksman and field agent who worked with Natasha on their own special forces unit in SHIELD before my team was assembled. I'd only been awake for a few days and already I was getting pulled in to stop an Asguardian who stole a potential WMD and brought a hive minded alien hoard down on New York City."

Steve recounts the fight then, best as he can. Leaves out Loki's possession of Barton and the other SHIELD personnel, the death of Phil Coulson. They weren't a team then, really they didn't even like each other and that whole trip had been a disaster. Steve doesn't consider them a team until they stepped foot on the Isle of Manhattan ready to fight and die together for their country and for the world.

"We had to expand our roster eventually. Thor's not from Earth and Banner wasn't stable enough to stay on reliably. They both left. We took on a...I don't know how to describe Vision exactly. He's an artificial life form, and his mind was partially made up of a good friend of mine. Tony Stark's personal assistant was an AI named JARVIS and he...he was very kind and patient. Helped me come back into the world when I was staying at the tower with some of the other Avengers, before I found my own place. I don't really understand how it happened, but he ended up as part of the programming that became Vision. Wanda Maximoff is a very talented young lady who was experimented on by a HYDRA cell in Sokovia and given extra sensory abilities. All sorts of magic, I guess you'd call it. And Sam Wilson, a veteran soldier part of an experimental paratrooper division and someone I met while on a mission. The team's broken up now, but I'm proud to call them friends and allies."

Even the ones who won't speak to him now.

Jim listens, nodding along, connecting a few of his own dots as he goes. He may have only met Natasha once, but her complaint about 'cheating' with his alcohol tolerance makes a bit more sense once he realizes it was this Steve she was talking about. Nor does he ask too many questions about the fight in New York. He understands enough, from an unfortunately personal perspective. He may not have been drawing breath when Khan crashed the Vengeance into San Francisco, but he lived through the whole awful mess leading up to it, and he's seen the devastation firsthand. And then there's what happened to Vulcan, the year before that.

"They sound like good people," Jim says, once Steve's story draws to a close. "Going through that sort of shit makes a bond you can't get any other way. Getting my senior crew was kinda similar."

"They are. Mostly. No one's perfect."

Though when you're so much more than ordinary it means your mistakes can be that much more impactful too. There's been more than a couple instances of cleaning up after those but that's part of their jobs. Taking responsibility when things don't go according to plan.

"I'm sorry you had to go through something like that to forge those bonds, but I"m glad you have them at your side Jim. Hold onto them."

He nods slowly, the words echoing his own thoughts, the way his crew - his friends - have so quickly become this important to him. He wouldn't be here now if it wasn't for them, in so many ways.

"That's the plan."

He finishes off what little remains of his food, picking up his glass before he remembers it's empty. "You'd think a place like this would have stronger drinks," he says, covering up the momentary error with a weak smile. "Guess they don't count on people like us."

Steve watches Jim and quirks a bit of a smile. He still hasn't fully begun to paint a picture of just how much is troubling the captain but he knows more than enough to make mention of it. Instead, he'll get up from the table and make a point of slipping his shield back across his back.

Time to go.

"Come on. I know just the thing."

Really? Jim looks up in actual interest and curiosity. Yeah, this is probably enabling bad habits, but fuck it, he knows when to stop and he doesn't particularly want to be stone-cold sober right now. Even just tipsy would be better than this.

Besides, he could do with getting away from the buffet tables anyway. Seeing that much food just sitting around is making him antsy.

"I keep meaning to explore this place more," he says, as he gets up to follow Steve. "Things... keep coming up."

"Well, the last time I was there I wasn't really able to imbibe. All the stuff there probably would have killed me at the time."

Steve snorts slightly as he leads the Starfleet captain through the plaza at a leisurely pace. His hands have slipped into his jeans pockets as he walks in a small attempt to block out some of the cold. It hunches his shoulders up a bit.

"Blaze-37 and Ghost showed me this place a while ago. Good friends of mine and with constitutions human can only dream of, usually." The name of the little tavern isn't in any language Steve can read but judging by the vaguely risque image it's printed atop of, it's probably dirty.

Most of the patrons are decidedly Not Human but it's quiet tonight for whatever reason. Steve is careful to ask for a recommendation that would be acceptable for an organic to consume and is met with a decidedly electronic laugh before the waitress disappears. When she comes back it's with a pair of glasses containing a bright red liquid that smells strongly of....not quite cinnamon but close.

Steve picks up his glass and clinks it against Jim's.

"To adventure and discovery."

Jim tugs the collar of his jacket a little higher around his neck as they leave the relative warmth of the decorated area of the plaza. At least there's no wind howling through the area at the moment, so a brief walk to this tavern is not too much of a hardship. The inside of the building is a welcome refuge nonetheless, and Jim gives the room a visual sweep as they enter. It's a lot less rowdy than a lot of the bars he used to frequent in his younger years, but there's a certain vibe they all seem to have, the familiarity putting him a little more at ease.

Now that he can see what kind of patrons this place tends to draw, he can understand why Blaze and Ghost would be the ones to introduce Steve to a tavern like this. And when the drinks arrive, he takes a whiff of his own glass. It certainly smells drinkable by human standards, and Steve doesn't seem to have any concerns about its safety, so that's good enough for him.

He taps his glass against Steve's. "To better days ahead." He hopes, anyway.

The liquor tastes much like it smells, a smooth burn with odd spices he can't quite identify, the sharp bite of alcohol layered under the initial taste. "Not bad," he decides, after taking a moment to mull it over.

"If it gets the job done, I won't complain about the taste. This is pretty alright though."

Jim gets a sly grin from Steve before he takes another bigger sip of his drink. Sets the glass down. Offers a content sigh. He won't have too many out here tonight. Steve wants to be on guard if something comes up.

"I think you made yourself a fan back at my place. Sarah gets excited anytime I even mention you."

Ho Ho Ho! Happy HP Holidays!

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