Eleanor Shellstrop is (teamcockroach) wrote in madisonvalley, @ 2018-03-31 20:05:00 |
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Entry tags: | !closed, !completed gdoc, !log, ~2018 april, ~25 points, ~~eleanor shellstrop (teamcockroach), ~~steve rogers (neverdanced) |
WHO: Steve Rogers & Eleanor Shellstrop
WHAT: An April Fool's Joke? Mistaken identities, bad flirting, and a welcome
WHEN: Afternoon of Sunday, April 1.
WHERE: Random street
RATING: PG, nothing bad but Eleanor is a dirtbag, so.
STATUS: Complete Gdoc
It had only been a couple of hours since Steve had seen Veronica, but he was never going to be anything but happy to see her face. So when he was out wandering the streets and saw her stopped right there in the middle of the sidewalk, Steve didn’t think, just smiled and crossed the road to come up behind her, hand lifting to brush against her back when he joined her. He didn’t think twice about it despite generally keeping public displays of affection to a minimum. She was his wife and he was glad to let everyone know it.
“What are you doing down here? You could have just called.”
Not texted. It was never text with Steve. He wasn’t the world’s biggest fan, appreciated the convenience of it, but kept his own use mostly when he needed to. Which most often was to communicate with the kids. The girls pretty much had their phones glued to their hands. Steve preferred to talk, preferably face to face if he could, though. Texting felt so impersonal.
But if Veronica had just called for whatever errand she was on, Steve would have just done it for her.
***
Eleanor had no idea where she was, at all. The last thing she remembered was Michael and Janet showing up and claiming that they could send the group “someplace else”...and now she had to wonder if that was what had happened. Just as she was about to seek out Chidi and Tahani and Jason, a hand touched her back and the blonde nearly leapt in the air, arms lifting to wave.
“Whoa, hey, personal bubble man!” Side-stepping quickly and turning to face the guy, Eleanor’s shock quickly warmed to something a little nicer, and she gave her version of a ‘come hither’ smile. “Or...not.” Reaching out, she poked at his bicep just to make sure he and it were both real, and then smiled a little more.
“Tell me, dead ringer for Chris Evans - are you a mail man by any chance? Because I want to chase you around and bite you like a dog.” Sure, she was in love with Chidi, not that she’d probably admit that ever again - but a girl could dream, right?
***
For a moment, Steve just smiled, even laughed softly. For a moment, she sounded very much like Veronica, enough that he didn’t clue in that she might not be. Then she was poking him and very obviously not recognizing who he was, calling him some other name and his smile faltered, brow creasing.
“You’re not Veronica.”
Or was she, and the dome was just toying with them again. Steve looked her over, took in her clothes, the absence of her rings, and was pretty sure that she just wasn’t his wife at all. Which meant someone new. He’d have known, someone would have told him at least, if there had been a face twin. To avoid exactly this situation.
***
Okay, that wasn’t what she’d expected to hear first. If this was her own personal Medium Place, it was already pretty weird. “No, I’m Eleanor,” she replied, a little disappointed he wasn’t going along with her bad pick-up line.
“So. What’s the deal here? To each their own, or what? Is this your Medium Place or mine, or am I still in the Bad Place?” Turning back to the guy, she snapped her fingers at him.
“C’mon, man, inquiring minds wanna know these things, and it’s not like I’m getting any younger. Ever, since I’m dead, but still.”
***
Steve had heard more than enough bad pick up lines to give them any attention. If he even noticed them. More often than not he didn’t; Steve was never going to come to understand that people were actually attracted to him now. A lot of people. The few that he cared about were the only ones that really mattered to him.
Straightening up, the easy smile and the familiarity gone, he shook his head. “I’m not sure what you mean. This is Madison Valley.”
That wasn’t much of an answer, and he knew it. “Not where you expecting to be, I know. It’s a kind of...catch all, I guess you’d call it. People from all kinds of universes.”
Not much better of an answer but at least there was some information.
***
“Uh huh... still sounds like the afterlife thing. Just more of a waiting room. And if there’s been a waiting room kind of place all this time and Michael never told us, I’m going to wring that demon’s neck!” If she could reach him - because man, he was almost freakishly tall.
“Janet! Janet, where are you?” Eleanor looked around expectantly for either Good Janet or even Bad Janet to show up - or maybe even a Medium Janet who would be dressed...normal? Who even knew? When the perky robot-type woman didn’t appear, she frowned with uncertainty and looked at him again.
“Are you the guy in charge here?”
***
It did sound like an afterlife, she had a point, and for some people it was. Not for everyone, but for some. Steve wasn’t one of those people.
He didn’t really have a chance to say so, though, while she looked around, shouting like a crazy person. It wasn’t the most insane thing anyone had done around town, and after a flicker of concern he just waited patiently for her attention to come back to him, nearly burst out laughing when she did.
“Who me? No. Not a chance.” Some people might call him a leader of sorts but he wasn’t. He didn’t know if he’d ever been much of one but he definitely wasn’t now. These days he preferred a quiet, civilian life. “You’ll find that the people in charge don’t care nearly as much about you as the rest of us, though.”
***
She eyed him suspiciously, particularly since he seemed to be on the edge of laughing at her. “Uh huh. And that’s normal.” She waved a hand at his last remark, then crossed her arms over herself and let out a sigh. “Okay mister not in charge person who looks like Chris Evans - let’s get this over with so I can find my friends. What’s the deal with this place? And where’s my house?”
If she ended up with that stupid clown house again, she was probably going to scream. Or cry. Or both.
***
“Well first, my name is Steve.” So she would stop comparing him to this Chris Evans character. Steve had enough experience with men who looked exactly like him. “And as for this place…” he glanced around, gestured vaguely, “there’s not much of a deal to it. People just turn up, get stuck her for however long they’re stuck here. Most of us try to live a life while we can.”
He’d been here long enough that he doubted he was ever going home for good, and he liked it that way. He liked his life here, wanted to keep it. Wanted to keep building it with the woman he loved and with his best friend.
And if she didn’t know anything at all, then she was very new, and any minute someone from town hall would come running to welcome her. “If you want to just stay put for a minute or two, someone will be along to help you get set up.”
He’d stay with her, obviously.
***
“Uh huh,” she repeated, still staring at him. This definitely wasn’t quite like how she’d ended up in (what she’d thought was) the Good Place, but there were eerie similarities, enough for her to wonder if maybe instead of some Middle Place, she might still be in the Bad Place.
“And just what kind of torture do you have in store for me, Steve? 24/7 disco? Pulling my liver out through my nose? Forcing me to dance on hot coals? I want to know what your schtick is before I get set up with anything at all around this place.”
***
The very idea was horrifying.
“No torture.” There was no way anyone would ever doubt his sincerity. Steve didn’t hurt people without cause, and he didn’t stand for anyone else doing it either. With cause, he wasn’t against it, some people deserved it and he’d talked with Veronica about exactly that once, with Bucky several. “Just living. Most people ask that you don’t cause any trouble but beyond that...no one’s going to hurt you. I give you my word.”
Despite her having no reason to take him at that, Steve’s word meant a lot. It meant everything.
***
She frowned at that, still not fully understanding, then shook her head. “If you’re telling the truth, and it really seems like you are...does that mean I’m not in the Bad Place anymore? Did I actually make it to the Good Place?” Eleanor should have been ecstatic at the very thought - but the fact that her friends weren’t there meant that something was terribly wrong. While she’d passed the test and they hadn’t, there had been a deal.
Either they all go, or they all stay. This was wrong.
“Is Michael here?”
***
“You’re going to have to be a little more specific than that. Michael who?”
Steve didn’t know any Michaels, and he knew a lot of people around town. More than four years in this place and he’d seen a lot come and go and even then he couldn’t think of any. That didn’t mean anything, a lot didn’t mean everyone and a lot of the time Steve found himself getting along better with women.
He knew and was friends with a lot of women.
***
“He doesn’t have a last name. He’s an architect - and a demon. He was in charge of the place where I was and he said he was sending us all somewhere else and I really think he got something wrong. I don’t think I’m supposed to be here.”
Eleanor looked around again, hoping that Tahani or Chidi would suddenly appear and things would be okay again, but no one showed up deus ex machina style.
“Shirt!” Blinking after the word came out, she narrowed her eyes at him. “Shirt - hey! I can’t swear anymore. Are you sure I’m not in the real Good Place somehow? Or a Medium Place?” To be honest, he could be lying and she’d never know.
***
“Don’t know what you mean by that,” Steve admitted. “It’s just a place. A weird place, but just a place.” A pretty good place, he had to admit. He liked it there.
Their conversation was, pretty rudely but that was pretty par for the course with the town hall lackeys, interrupted by the usual arrival of a welcome packet and the usual spiel about the town and being stuck there, the phone and card and keys to an apartment and everything that Steve had once gotten too. A very, very long time ago now. The guy didn’t stick around for questions, they never did, so looking after him as he scurried on his way again, Steve just shook his head.
“That’s the kind of place you’re in.”
***
Eleanor stared down at the items she’d been given, mostly to hide the fact that she was in shock. “So this...is a real place? An actual town? I’m...alive?” Her eyes watered a little and she stubbornly forced the tears away. That was too emotional for her - and if it happened again she’d claim allergies, or her mascara or something equally trivial.
It was another moment before she looked back up at Steve, then broke into a slow grin. “So how’s the shrimp around this place?”
***
He noticed the tears, was sharper than people gave him credit for unless it came to flirting, wanted to reassure her but he recognized someone trying to push things down, and was respectful enough that he didn’t say anything, didn’t even acknowledge the tears.
“You’re alive as you were before you got here.” He had no idea if that meant she was actually alive. Or if she should be for much longer. Or what her circumstances were. She was there now and she was alive and apparently well.
“Shrimp?” he repeated, laughed in surprise. “It’s fine, but I’m no expert.”
***
Eleanor gave a short laugh. “I was dead before here, buddy. And between you and me, I didn’t exactly go -” she pointed up towards the sky, then shrugged. “But if I’ve got this second chance, I guess I should make the most of it, huh?”
Wait - that meant she’d have to be a good person all the way, right? It’s what Chidi would want her to do. And if Michael and Janet had somehow managed to send her here to give her a second chance to rack up the good points instead of the bad, then she’d probably have to start working on that.
This was so going to suck without the others around.
***
“You should, yes,” Steve said with a small smile. That was the kind of response he liked to hear. He understood that it could be difficult to accept, being told there was nothing someone could do and they just had to accept it didn’t sit well with him either even if that was the way things were, but it made helping someone a lot easier if they went along with the situation.
“Can I see you to your apartment?” he offered. The building wasn’t hard to find, if he just pointed her in the right direction she’d probably be fine, but he’d feel better seeing her to her door.
Even if she didn’t share a face with his wife, he’d have wanted to. That just made him all the more invested in ensuring she was safe.
***
Eleanor sent him a sly smile, more than happy to be accompanied by such a hot guy. Steve. It was still weird to disassociate him with Chris Evans, but really she figured that if it was Chris, he was just getting majorly into a character or something. It didn’t really matter. After glancing around one last time, she shrugged, trying to make the gesture as casual as possible.
“Sure - you can see me to my apartment and then straight to my bed. Even if you’re not a mailman, I’m okay with that. Lead the way, muscles.” Yep, Eleanor was utterly shameless.
***
That invitation Steve could not ignore, as much as he wanted to. At least he was good-natured about it, laughed lightly and just gestured in the right direction. “That’s a nice invitation, but I’m a married man.”
The front door was as far as she was getting him, Veronica’s face or not.
He’d still look out for her, protect her, was happy to be friends, but nothing more than that.