"I wouldn't think so." War is something that sticks with you, regardless of how much or little time you spend in it. Especially with Diana coming from what in many ways sounded like an island paradise, the shift must have been extremely jarring. And those smells, those sounds, they imprinted on a person. A part of you always stayed there.
That weak smile and the uncertain response from Diana only seems to clinch what Steve had already guessed at, which is that there is something about her return that's more complicated than it should be. Surely she should be welcomed back into her own home, and yet she makes it sound like this god would prevent that.
Steve doesn't get the chance to ask any more about it. Or at least, he's going to have to wait for another time, because they've found the glimmering crystals and they need to collect them and get out of this place as quickly as possible.
As if sensing that's what he wants to do, another flock of the shadowy birds flaps into the clearing, their beating wings somehow feeling like a cacophany of laughter above them.
And now? It's his turn.
First one voice, gruff and unkind: "I asked for an army and all I got was you. You are not enough.
Then another, heavily accented: "Your death amounts to the same as your life: a zero sum!"
A third, then, mechanical and distorted, which echoes unsettlingly in the small clearing: "God's righteous man. Pretending you could live without a war."
At that, Steve loses his patience. He pulls the round metal shield from his back and aims it in a skyward toss, intending to dispel as many of the birds as he can in one go.
no subject
That weak smile and the uncertain response from Diana only seems to clinch what Steve had already guessed at, which is that there is something about her return that's more complicated than it should be. Surely she should be welcomed back into her own home, and yet she makes it sound like this god would prevent that.
Steve doesn't get the chance to ask any more about it. Or at least, he's going to have to wait for another time, because they've found the glimmering crystals and they need to collect them and get out of this place as quickly as possible.
As if sensing that's what he wants to do, another flock of the shadowy birds flaps into the clearing, their beating wings somehow feeling like a cacophany of laughter above them.
And now? It's his turn.
First one voice, gruff and unkind: "I asked for an army and all I got was you. You are not enough.
Then another, heavily accented: "Your death amounts to the same as your life: a zero sum!"
A third, then, mechanical and distorted, which echoes unsettlingly in the small clearing: "God's righteous man. Pretending you could live without a war."
At that, Steve loses his patience. He pulls the round metal shield from his back and aims it in a skyward toss, intending to dispel as many of the birds as he can in one go.