dadguardian | IC Inbox

[ OOC: if you prefer brackets, just switch and I’ll match. Also let me know if any of this needs to be changed. ]

Sometimes, Midge ventures out of Tides. She finds that the underwater city has most of what she needs, but sometimes it’s nice to resurface and see what else is out there. Cruel Summer isn’t a part of Folkmore that she frequents, but she finds the beach near Turtle Island to be full of unusual shells. With summer here, she decides to spend the morning beach combing before relaxing a bit on the sand.

Midge is wearing a bikini for the first time since she had kids. Frankly, the beach isn’t that busy and Midge has been feeling a lot less self-conscious about how she looks anyway. Accepting that she doesn’t have to look perfect all the time is a slow process, but she’s made progress. If all else fails, at least the high-waisted bottoms cover her stretch marks.

On top of the bikini, she wears a mostly sheer cover up which is open at the front, along with a floppy hat and sunglasses. Midge picks up a few interesting-looking shells before coming upon a huge man making a sand castle on the beach.

At first, she thinks he’s wearing an oddly-patterned shirt, then she realizes that he has tattoos all over his chest and torso. If he looks intimidating, it doesn’t really stop her; Midge still walks up to him and looks at him over the top of her sunglasses.

“Did you build that whole thing yourself?”

Maybe it's silly for a grown man to be building a sand castle all by himself. Second hand embarrassment comes rare to Alexei though, and by now he sees it as a personal challenge. If a couple of young spirits in Folkmore can do it, so can he. Bigger, better! Mostly bigger. It helps that he can reach pretty high, so by now the sand castle is up to his chest and still growing. It's not the prettiest castle by a long shot, nor even structurally sound. A few of those sides are steadily losing sand, like a mini avalanche is happening. Still, it's standing!

He looks up when someone approaches, going from a somewhat dazed expression (he was lost in concentration, there) to a proud grin. "Oh! Yes! No help whatsoever. What do you think? Impressive, yes?" he asks, and as always, his voice holds a thick Russian accent that he never bothers to hide.

Midge nods her approval. It’s more function over form, but it’s actually pretty tall. If she tried to build something that big, it would have fallen over by now.

When he speaks, his accent takes her aback for a moment before she realizes immediately who he is.

“Alexei? I’m Midge. We spoke on the relic.”

She speaks Russian. She’s sure he wouldn’t forget that.

He hasn't forgotten that! In fact, he's delighted by the memory, grinning even wider and exposing a few golden teeth in the process. His Legend alignment ensures that his eyes turn a warm yellow color to match. "Oooh, Midge! здрасте! It did not take very long for us to meet at all, did it?"

The golden eyes combined with the golden teeth give off quite an effect. At least he seems friendly, kind of like a big Russian bear. Midge feels tiny next to him.

“Nice to meet you,” she says. “Great, I’m going to have to test my Russian now, aren’t I?”

He laughs at the question, stepping away from the sandcastle and quickly wiping his hands on his swim trunks to get rid of any sand still clinging to his fingers.

"Only a little bit! But there will be pop quiz before I let you leave."

“Well, shit,” she replies. Based on the look of him, she might be scared to fail one of his quizzes. Fortunately, he actually seems like a huge teddy bear.

“Where did you learn English? Did you live in the States?”

Alexei's smile warms at her reaction. It's always fun when a lady doesn't censor herself and just swears however she wants. He does falter a little at the question, though.

"Well... I did live in the States, yes. But that is not where I learned English. I attended classes in military school, because English is a very useful language to know when you want to do international work."

He's softening a lot of the edges of that explanation, but it's basically what happened.

“What kind of work do you do?” Instead of waiting for an answer, she asks what’s on her mind. “When I’m from, it’s still called the Soviet Union, but I’ve heard that it ends and goes back to Russia. Are you from after that?”

He seems more like he’s from her future than being a contemporary of hers. Sometimes it’s helpful for her to place a person in time.

"Oh yes, I am from much later. Soviet Union is long gone. When I was in armed forces, it was still going strong, but that was when I was much younger man," he explains. In fact, the Soviet era officially ended just before Alexei went to America the first time. Funny, how that played out.

"Anyway, first I was soldier, then I became super soldier. Hero of the people! I was very famous for many years."

“Oh,” Midge replies, surprised. “You mean like Captain America?”

She doesn’t realize that she’s just said the magic words.

Magic words, indeed. Alexei brightens up like a Christmas tree- or like a kid looking at a Christmas tree.

"YES!" he exclaims, pointing a finger at Midge. "Yes! Like Captain America! I was made super soldier because Russia wanted own Captain America. But I was not Captain Russia, I was Red Guardian!"

“Right…” She nods, smiling. “So they picked you.”

Midge isn’t trying to be mean, because the guy seems gregarious and friendly, but she’s trying to picture him about 30 pounds lighter and with maybe half the tattoos. She still doesn’t see it, at least not compared to Steve fucking Rogers. Here’s living proof that everything is shittier in the USSR.

But, he’s excited to be mentioned with Captain America, and she can’t stomp his joy. Plus… the whole big teddy bear thing he has going is working for him.

“So, do you have super speed? Things like that?”

Alexei's not picking up on any skepticism whatsoever. There's a lot about himself to draw into question, but his super soldier abilities are never really one of those things. The serum's never failed him before.

"Oh yes! The speed, the healing, the raw strength! You could get in car and I could lift it up over my head, no problem," he proclaims proudly. ..... Well, maybe some problem, little bit of muscle fatigue afterwards, but he could do it! He cocks his head to the side, still grinning. "Like I said, I was famous for many years. Prison sort of... put damper on reputation for a while. But I am back on the rise now!"

“Oh,” she says when he tells her he could pick up a car. That’s kind of hot. Midge, you’re a taken woman. At least he’s honest about the after effects of it on his body. Growing old isn’t for wimps.

Prison explains the tattoos. She doesn’t know enough about Russian prison tattoos to interpret any of them, but they look like the sort of things that were done by non-professionals. “May I ask what you went to prison for?”

'Oh' is a minimal reaction, but Alexei thinks it's the good, impressed kind of 'oh'. Yes, that's got to be what it is, because lifting cars is cool. Throwing them is even cooler, but that's a waste of a perfectly good car, so he tries not to do that unless he has to.

"Of course you may ask," he says, because he doesn't mind talking about it too much. It's only when the emotional details are tapped into that he might get uncomfortable, but the overall story is one that puts him in a relatively good light.

"For years, I was loyal dog to Soviet Union. Loyal tool. But then I started seeing superiors for what they really were, so I started saying things they did not like. You know how it goes in Russia- you say bad things about people in charge, they find a way to silence you. But they could not kill me, because that would be a waste, so they put me away instead."

It’s an impressed ‘oh’. Midge doesn’t know many people who can pick up cars.

She nods, having heard many things about Russia. At least he didn’t go to jail for killing someone. Though he’s probably killed a lot of people.

“They couldn’t just make a new Red Guardian? Did they lose the super soldier recipe?”

Alexei would like to think that if he'd suddenly been replaced with a new Red Guardian, people would start asking questions. Unfortunately, he's not that sure it would play out that way. Any questions might not be voiced out loud. That makes him glad it was never an option.

"Something like that," he says, a light note of discomfort in his voice. "Super soldier serum is very difficult to make, and even more difficult to survive. I do not think the investment was worth it anymore."

They might ask questions, but not out loud. The Soviet Union is pretty notorious for not allowing anyone to question anything.

Time to lighten the mood again.

“But,” Midge smiles, “you survived, and you’re out of prison, and now you’re here, making a sandcastle on the beach.”

Oh good, yes, change of topic. And a much more positive, bolstering one. It takes the tension out of Alexei's posture and he smiles.

"Exactly. Just goes to show they cannot keep real heroes down! I think magical fox knows that as well, and that is why she brought me here."

Can’t really blame him for not wanting to talk about prison or the Soviet Union in general.

“Maybe so,” Midge replies. “We’re supposed to be here so that we can reach our full potentials, but I’m not sure if I believe that.”

IC Inbox | Folkmore

Action; beach episode

It's perfect!

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I can't stop laughing at 'everything is shittier in the USSR'

she calls em like she sees em alexei

rip........

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