juststeverogers | Evening of the First Night--- for heirtothearcane and westfallcorndog

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Evening of the First Night--- for heirtothearcane and westfallcorndog

Steve is much more careful in the way he eats than Harrow was, mostly because Viatorus' clothes are very nice and he doesn't want to make a mess of them. The soup is as good as it smelled, and Steve is glad Harrow liked it. Having working taste buds again must be weird for him.

When he's finished, he looks between Harrow and Viatorus carefully. They have a point. It has gotten rather late since all of this started. Between the panic and the running around, Steve hadn't really noticed it. But it was already dark when he'd gone to get the udon.

"What would you prefer I do?" He asks Viatorus quietly. "If it were my body, I'd grab a shower and get to bed, but...is that allowed? Would you rather I didn't?" To Harrow, Steve nods.

"You don't get a choice in the matter with all the soup. You need to give my body at least a wash." He's laughing while he talks though, so it's clear Steve isn't upset.

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Viatorus can't help but sigh when he sees the text. It seems like everyone is having bad dreams tonight... But, wait... Steve drank the tea... he shouldn't have had any dreams at all. Unless... he didn't drink the tea.

Instantly, he feels a rush of panic and hastily types back: I'll be there soon. Stay awake until I get there.

He definitely won't be too long with these long, strong legs.

"...You..had the same dream I did?" Steve stops pacing the apartment and slowly takes a seat on the couch on the other end from Harrowheart. "If I'm being honest, that was one of the better dreams I've had in a long time, if not somewhat sad at the end."

Still, he feels bad for dragging Harrowheart through his dreams unintentionally.

"...I'm glad I was able to show you around, at any rate. It's my home, you know?"

"The sa–..." Wait a minute. "DREAMWALKER! So that's what it means!"

Somehow all of that is a huge relief. He laughs, and he's grateful for the way it washes away some of the tension and frustration inside. The back of his hand wipes away imagined sweat from his brow and he takes a moment to breathe.

"Shoot, Steve. It's still kinda weird. We were in the same damn dream... And all that stuff with Bucky, and – Ah, shoot... The stuff I said there at the end about..." A heavy sigh. "Shoot."

Time to turn the tables here. He's got to put the burden of shame on someone other than himself.

"Why do you imagine him like a sad jungle man with a metal arm? Not that I got anything against folks with metal arms. My brother's got one. Lost it in a harvest golem accident. But I don't figure you see a lot of folks losin' limbs in farmin' accidents in Brooklyn..."

If it weren't for the fact he has to unlock the door, Viatorus would come bursting into the apartment. As soon as he enters, he looks frantically between the two of them. "Are you both alright? Were you on the bed? Were you under the ward?"

"What the hell?!" Steve still looks startled by Viatorus' rush and concern. They ere sleeping, for crying out loud, not fighting bears. "Calm down Viatorus. We're fine." He has no idea Harrow texted the other in the least. He's on his feet, ready to...he doesn't know what. but his fight or flight response is very much triggered right now.

"Nothing happened. I had a dream about my home and accidentally brought Harrowheart I think. We couldn't really figure it out. Calm down, you're freaking me out here. What's going on?"

Harrow chokes on his spit at Viatorus's unexpectedly explosive return, but as soon as he gets a clear breath of air he starts to laugh! He claps his hands like a fool-ass circus seal and looks between Steve and V over and over.

"I forgot to say I texted! V, Steve dreamwalked! It was weird and sad. We were on the bed! We were under the ward. I don't think any demons or nothin' got in."

Oh, wait. Suddenly this isn't so funny. He's gravely serious in an instant. "What... What woulda happened if we weren't under the ward?... Not demons for real, right?..."

Harrowheart's question isn't one he wants to answer, so he frowns and glances at the currently short man, before turning on his heels to go back to his bedroom. He hesitates in the doorway before he steps inside, leaving the door open as he just... stands there. It takes him a minute to realise that... he's not going to feel anything. Even if something was there... everything's distanced. Harrowheart's dead body isn't connected to the world the same way his own is. Before he can help himself he hisses a quiet and worried, "Shit. Shit, shit, shit..."

After a moment to stress, he grabs the teacup, now stone cold, and brings it out. "You were supposed to drink this. You c-can't not drink this." Then he moves to the kitchen, setting the cup down and coming out with a bowl of salt, a couple of bay leaves set in it. After he's set that in his bedroom he comes back out to root out a funny looking bundle of dried up leaves. Suddenly he finally stops all his rushing as he blinks at the thing in his hands. "Oh. I... I can't use magic..." He runs a hand through his hair as he tries to think. "Matches... matches... where would I have put them..."

"Viatorus." Steve moves to get in front of the frantic dream walker. He needs to calm down before Harrow gets into a panic too. Steve can't corral both of them at the same time, especially when his own nerves are fraying spectacularly toward panic himself. "I'm sorry. I feel asleep before you even brought it back. I don't remember you even leaving. We didn't have nightmares, we're both fine. Tell me what we need to do now, to correct whatever I've inadvertently done. I'll apologize as much as you want me to later, but for right now....let's just deal with this calmly and rationally."

He shoots a look to Harrow to make sure the other isn't losing his mind either.

"Okay?"

For his part Harrow's doing just fine. If anything he's quietly curious! Magic, demons, this is stuff he's vaguely familiar with, and it brings him a sense of He inspects the salt and the bay leaves and doesn't say anything until Viatorus is complaining about having no magic.

"You got a lighter in your shirt pocket, remember? My lighter!"

He takes a few steps back and prepares to watch whatever is about to go on. He's going to learn some Earth magic!

Lighter! Right. He fumbles as he searches the shirt he's wearing for a lighter. Then it's a matter of fumbling about until he manages to light the damned thing and set the sage smoking. It's a fairly strong smell and potent smoke. Tucking the lighter away again, he reaches over and waves the sage stick around Steve's head three times in a clockwise motion. It's much easier when he's this tall. "Tell me what happened. I-In your dream? Were you alone? Apart from each other, were you alone? A-And I don't mean dream-things. I don't mean the figures in the dream. I mean, were you alone? Or was there something else? Anything else?"

When he's done that to his own body, he moves to do the same motion around Harrowheart, who is even easier again in Steve's small body.

"We were." Steve confirms. He nods soberly along and holds still while Viatorus does...whatever it is he's doing. It's got to serve some purpose but it looks kind of silly form Steve's non-magic oriented perspective. "I showed him around Brooklyn. Bucky showed up, but...I almost always see buck in my dreams. He's the only friend I had for most of my life, so..." There's a shrug.

When you only know a few people, kind of hard to not dream about them if you're going to dream about anyone. Bucky and his Ma are the most frequent visitors when he sleeps.

"Nothing else. Nothing...outside of my dream, I mean."

Harrow covers his mouth and nose at the smell of the burning herbs and tries very hard not to cough when all the smoke is hovering around his head.

"Nobody there but us chickens," he croaks. Now is not the time to joke, and yet...

That's good to hear and he forces himself to exhale in relief. "Good. That's good."

He moves to walk around his bedroom waving the stick in circles at each corner before finding an ornamental dish and snuffing the burning sage and leaving it there. "Alright... Alright. I think it's alright."

"So..what was that all about?" Steve's got an eyebrow raised and his shoulders still tensed. He doesn't know what all just happened, and he's still on high alert in case he needs to run or punch out some demons or something.

Steve does not understand magic at all.

Harrow sighs in relief. At least he's not the only one who's curious.

"Yeah, man. If you're gonna do voodoo on us, you gotta tell us what you're keepin' out. Is it ghosts? You're in a necromancer's body, you know. You could just tell 'em to scram. Demons? Somethin' else? Are you even allowed to talk about it?"

"It's not voodoo. I don't do voodoo. That's a very specific traditional magic that I've never encountered in person." He's stalling now that he's reluctantly coming to the realisation that he sort of owes them both an explanation for his panicking. With a sigh, he sits on an armrest in a rather ungentlemanly move despite his posture. "Dreamwalking... If you dreamwalk and... and you don't know what you're doing, and you're tired... it can be dangerous. You can meet... entities. Beings. The ward... The ward keeps them out, keeps me- you grounded. It's better not to risk it at all. Not while you're sleeping. That's what the tea is for. No dreams, no dreamwalking. Double lock. Extra protection. Less risk."

"I'm...not sure I understand." Steve nods along with the explanation, but he still looks confused. "Granted, I didn't know what I was doing, and I didn't mean to do it...But how else are you supposed to dream walk if you're not tired? You have to sleep to do it, don't you?"

None of this makes any sense to Steve, but he's beginning to get the feeling they were both incredibly lucky.

"Sorry...I wasn't trying to ignore your warning or anything..."

Harrow nods seriously, slowly. He understands the notion of magic inviting in darkness. Come to think of it, that's pretty much what created him. And he's no strangers to truly evil entities from other realms. For the others' sakes he remains quiet on the subject. He's willing to accept the answer Viatorus gave them, however vague it was.

"Is it safe for me to drink some of that dreamless sleep tea? I don't really wanna stay up all night, but I don't really wanna have anymore dreams, either."

"There's a difference between sleeping because you can, and sleeping because you have to. When you sleep because you're exhausted, you don't have as much control... It... It doesn't matter." He stands up and moves to the kitchen. "I'll make you both some tea. Anyone can drink it if they can drink tea."

"I'll have some sure." Steve replies, feeling guilty for everything that's transpired here up until now. "I'm probably not getting back to sleep anytime soon unless this body really craves sleep. I've got too much on my mind."

He supposes he can find a quiet corner and read some more books off of his phone. Electronic readers are pretty neat that way. Though after this fiasco he's certain Viatorus will insist he do his reading in that bed, too. It was comfortable, but...well. No more buts.

That's what got them into this mess.

Things feel so tense suddenly. Harrow tries to smile for Steve, but he knows it can't be easy. Letting someone down, even if you didn't mean to, can be hard to bounce back from.

"We'll all just stay in together for the night, how 'bout that? No accidents that way. We can just chat. Chill. Drink some tea and sleep, and in the morning... In the morning we'll all be ourselves, or we'll get to see London on Earth, and it'll be good."

"I have books if you want them. Or things for sketching. Make yourselves comfortable and I'll bring out the tea in a minute." He's going to get them some biscuits out too. Really, it's the least he can do for worrying them like that.

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Evening of the First Night--- for heirtothearcane and westfallcorndog

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Steve's read Narnia he's not taking any chances with potential magic doors.

Steve actually came to the Nexus after some bullies dunked him in a trash can

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