farsickness | February: For Love & Monsters

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February: For Love & Monsters

[A CATCHALL]

Who: Merlan and YOU
What: Feb. Catchall
Where: Gazin, Merlan's Clearing
When: All of Feb.
Warnings: Language, maybe.

❅ CHOP WOOD, BUILD STUFF

The trees are thick in her clearing, some need to be removed, yielding wood for cooking or for warmth and that means lots of chopping for her to do with an axe and a thick stump Merlin had felled himself for just such a purpose. It had been a large tree once that had become part of her main house and a tool shed. She could have used magic but the labour felt good.

Swing, crack, toss.
Swing, crack, toss.
Swing, crack, toss.

Eventually, she had enough to leave piles at the front doors of her residents to make sure they were warm and cared for. If they were home, she also had a basket with a knitted blanket, a scarf, mittens, a nice mug, and a hot beverage. No sense in people being cold.

"Good morning, wood and warmth calling," Merlan sang out.

❅ ON THE HUNT

Just because it was winter didn't mean the monsters stopped calling. Trapping them wasn't always an option, which she always thought was unfortunate. This time, though, something was eating a three-eyed crow who'd done nothing to deserve it and she'd been after the stupid bog wight for ages. Chasing it down had become an irritant to sat the least. She was sodden with snow, her horse was covered in mud, and she was miserable.

She nocked an arrow.

"Put down the crow," she grumbled, "or I'll put you down."

It roared at her and she sighed, releasing the arrow aimed for an eye.

❅ WILDCARD - Find her in Gazin, at home wherever, whenever.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Sam was sneaking around the back of the monster ready to nail the thing once Merlan takes the shot. He is dressed in his normal layers without a coat despite the cold and he still manages to swing true with his sword and wound the bog wright.

"Ugh this thing smells horrible."

"I know, right?" Another two arrows just to be sure strike true. "I was just going to let it be," she said, wrinkling her nose, "but it was just voraciously attacking my flock. A snack or two was okay but eight? No thanks."

It's not a creature of beauty, that's for sure.

"They'll eat anything not nailed down or protected."

Sam swings and smiles slightly as he wounds it and leaps back avoiding getting munched. "It smells too," he groans as he get splashed with something he hopes is blood.

"Yep, that's a bog wight for you," she says, pulling out her silver blade, the long sword ringing as she backs up and leaps, her colourful wings unfurling to give hr lift as she slices at its neck to sever its head from its shoulders. There's a horrible squelching sound and a half cut off roar of pain before it lies twitching in the slush.

She stares down at its still grasping fingers, her expression grim.

"I can't imagine it'll smell any better dead."

"I don't know vampire blood is pretty bad," Sam says pulling a bag out of his jacket pocket and pulling out some salt sprinkling the corpse with it. "Though this stuff looks like oil from a car that's gone off." He makes a face. "It's not gonna be fun to burn."

"Mm, probably not gonna be fun," she says, eyeing it. "But I think we can get it going if I can get some fire started. Vampire blood is pretty gross. I'm going to be soaking for ages."

Sam nodded. "I've got a flint in my pocket if you need it," he says, pulling it out and offering it to her. "Always prepared like a Boy Scout."

"I miss lighters," she said with a shake of her head, accepting the lighter and using her sword to start the blaze. Merlan watched it for a while and then turned away, flipping the flint back at Sam.

"I guess I could conjure flame but that just seems flamboyant as all hell."

Since Merlan always has good coffee, Bucky likes to visit occasionally to take advantage of it (and conversation, even if he does like to lie to himself and say he hates being around people and only does it as much as necessary.) He doesn't expect the woman to be out chopping wood, though, and he gives her a long look.

"You know, I might not be good at magic but manual labor is kind of my specialty. You could have asked. I owe you several."

"Look, sometimes you just need to chop wood," she said with a laugh. "You settled in somewhere warm?"

She's warm from all the chopping, which has been nice but gestures toward her house.

"I can make some coffee if you're up for it."

"I live in town," Bucky says drolly. "So I don't have to worry about keeping warm. But thanks for the offer. Next time you need the manual labor, though, you could really get me to do it. You fixed my arm - I could at least put it to use for you."

At the offer of coffee, he nods. "Why do you think I came all the way out here, huh? It wasn't just to lecture you about wood."

"Mmn, next time I'll think about it. I kinda like my manual labour these days. I'm strong enough for it, now, at least," she says, opening up her front door as they come to it.

Merlan moves easily toward the French press and then works on getting some hot water boiled.

"Last time I was here, I couldn't do any of that."

"There's not much else I can do here," Bucky points out. "My power is essentially being stronger than everyone else and being able to shoot anything from a distance. I can't do either of those things in this place."

Gazin had taken his guns, again, and there's odd jobs, yes, but there's not so much crime that he has to defend anyone. He's retired, more or less, and it feels...weird.

"Then you should live here, help me out when I need it," she says a little airily. "I have a few more places built, warm and cozy. You get wood delivered, sometimes coffee if it's a good day. Your labour pays for your keep and there's actual showers in those homes."

Merlan looks super satisfied at the last.

"Showers, magic, work," she waves her hands a little as she gets down two mugs. "Not a bad gig. Especially if you want to earn a little coin and slap bad monsters with me on the side. Some of them can get a little frisky."

"I'll have to consider it. My best friend showed up," Bucky admits. He's happy about Steve being there and even though this Steve has been through some shit Bucky hasn't it almost seems as if they get one another more. They've been through places like this, things like this. It's helped to bridge the gap that got forced in by HYDRA all those years ago.

"So if he wants to move out here, you might have two guys around to help you haul things. He's as strong as I am." Thanks serum.

"I don't want to leave him, though. We've spent too much time apart and I'm...I've missed him."

"That sounds like fun, two haulers," she says with a grin. "You should talk to him about it, bring him by. This place needs some new faces in it. You shouldn't have to leave a friend, anyway. I have enough cabins for both of you or I can make a bigger one come spring or summer when the ground isn't solid."

Magic could help that if she concentrated but the weather was its own entity when it came to things like building. She got bored, she built, or hit the weapons at the anvil, or found something to fight, people to save.

Bucky laughs softly at that, just a huff, and wonders how he got to a place where a magic woman is offering him and Steve a place to live. It's not Brooklyn, that's for sure, and he thinks it's a hell of a lot better than some of the places he's been recently (and not so recently).

"It's appealing. I'd better present it to him before he decides to take someone else's offer," Bucky teases. "We're very sought after."

"Mm," she says, pressing the first of the coffee out into a cup. "I'd hate to lose such lovely people to someone else."

Merlan sets the cup in front of him and then turns back to empty the grounds before pressing the next cup out.

"I miss coffee makers," she says with a sigh, settling in at the table.

"Modern world is wonderful," Bucky agrees. "Of course, we made it like this back in my day. You ever make coffee in a sniper's nest? Tastes like shit. Of course, I don't technically remember it but people tell me I ought to so I've kind of made myself a memory."

It's easier that way, to make memories to replace old ones, and eventually the stories become true to him. You say it enough to yourself, it becomes your truth, even if it's just a fabrication to start.

"You mean you can't invent a coffee machine? What kind of witch are you?"

"Give me parts and I can make one," she said with a laugh. Merlan sipped her coffee and sighed.

Excellent and hot and everything coffee should be.

"If making memories like that helps, then it's a good thing and keep at it, I say."

"There's some stuff I remember," Bucky admits. "I remember how to dance even though I don't remember going dancing or any of the girls I went out with when I did. I remember all the steps."

He remembers the smoke in the dance halls too and when he listens to Glen Miller or any of the other standards, he remembers all the moves. It's just he doesn't remember the people.

"I think I was pretty good."

"Maybe you need to start dancing again," she says around her mug. "Been ages since I have. I used to be good but dancing is easy when you let go."

Merlan smiled into her coffee as she took a sip.

"I have the sense we don't dance the same way," Bucky says, laughing softly. "Unless they have Glen Miller in your world. Then, we might be talking. It's funny. I don't remember any faces or anything but it's like my body remembers how to do things."

Dancing, driving - all of it seems to be there with no real memories attached, just gossamer nothing he has to chase.

"Ellington, Armstrong, Shaw, kinda partial to Woody Herman, myself. Count Basie?" Her grin is a flash and a lift of her eyebrows. "Catchy stuff. Yeah, we have Glen Miller in my world. Big Band and swing might have died down after the war but it's not completely dead. Aussies had it, too. And jazz. Rock, too. I have eclectic tastes when it comes to it."

She waggles her mug at him and grins.

"Betcha I could learn your dancing if you taught me," Merlan murmurs from somewhere in her cup. "Let's make some new memories with some old moves."

Edited 2021-02-26 02:12 (UTC)

"You know all the good ones," Bucky says, dually impressed. "I bet you know all the steps too and I won't have shit to teach you. You have to be careful around girls like you. You're like four steps ahead of me at all times."

He drinks his coffee and thinks about it. "If we could get the music, I could try to see if there's literally one thing I'm better at than you are. Otherwise, maybe we're a draw and evenly matched."

On the Hunt

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chopping wood

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