riverviewlogs | stars and no stripes

who: Bucky and OPEN
what: Various prompts
when: Throughout December
where: Around Quarantine and just outside the perimeter
warnings: None yet, any content warnings that crop up will appear in the subject line

[i: Around Quarantine; OPEN]

[Ever since Steve went home, making the decision to leave him behind, Bucky has regretted how he behaved. He should have made more of an effort to work past his fear and paranoia, be more of a part of Steve's life. Not just Steve's life, the life that's bustling around him all the time. The people that he's met here have, by and large, been good to him. He has to stop hiding.

It's not exactly stopping hiding, but it's a step in the right direction when he decides to start prowling the streets looking for crimes to stop, or people to help. Has your character been set upon by a mugger? Got hit by a car? Accidentally dropped their ice cream? Never fear, for a threatening looking man in a ratty hoodie and torn jeans is coming to the rescue!]

[ii: A series of rooftops around Quarantine; OPEN]

[Ever since receiving an old record from Ava for Thanksgiving, an unexpected present, Bucky has felt like he should be doing something with it. It feels wrong to let a present, one of his first proper ones in a long time, just languish and gather dust in his backpack. So he's taken the second hand gramophone he got his hands on up to a variety of flat rooftops over the first couple of weeks of December, and started practising dance steps.

They're rusty. Very rusty. But they're not all completely gone, as he feared they might have been, so anyone drawn by the sounds of old 1940s music might catch sight of a man in jeans and a hoodie swing dancing on his own.]

[iii: Mission report, December 16 1991; CLOSED to Tony Stark]

[The significance of the date has passed him by. He's from before when Zemo came to drag all of that out into the open, and if he marked every day that he murdered someone then he'd do nothing else all the year round.

He's just scavenging out in one of the buildings outside of town, looking for anything useful or interesting to gather up. It's an unstable building, but he's being relatively careful as he prowls through the gloom, but he has no idea that someone else is also in the building. He climbs a set of stairs and as soon as he puts his weight on the new floor it combines with the weight of the man already there, and the whole thing cracks and collapses.

Well... great. Just great. Now he's trapped under a bunch of rubble with someone he didn't even get a good look at before everything went dark and slightly painful.]

You alive?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

It's not about you, Stark. I trust you more than I trust a lot of other people here.

[Maybe that's a surprising revelation, but he's earned it in helping out with his arm and by how he dealt with being in his dreams.]

I just don't trust anyone easy, and I sure don't trust technology that's attached to my brain.

[There's a moment of silence, Tony clearly taken aback by the comment. But he rallies quickly enough, because of course he does.]

Okay fair, but the point stands. I don't know how else to do this, other than with tech.

How sure are you that the tech will even work?

[The trigger words aren't something he's keen to mess with, not if there's even a chance something could go wrong.]

[He turns an affronted look on Barnes at the insult, but honestly it's not a bad question and Barnes can't even see it anyway. Tony will just magnanimously ignore the insult to his abilities.]

If it doesn't, we keep trying until we find something that does.

[He's not a damn lab rat to keep testing more crap out, especially not with something so delicate. But he can at least tell that Stark is genuinely trying to help, so the least he can do is try not to be a raging jerk about it.]

...we can maybe try it. Maybe. I'll be in contact in a few days.

[This would be the point that he'd run away, if only there wasn't a lot of rubble above him.]

Okay. Great.

[And like he doesn't want to be stuck in this conversation any more than Barnes does, he turns his attention back to the ceiling above them, frowning a little.

He walks towards the wall, eyes still up like he's studying something, then presses a hand against it.]

Hey, c'mere. You think you could punch right here?

He taps against a very specific spot.]

[He falls silent again, just watching as Stark moves about the gloom. He wants to be out of here right now, being trapped is just increasing the itch under his skin the longer it lasts.

If punching the ceiling of rubble will help, he can do that.]

Sure, you might want to stand back.

[He curls his metal fingers into a fist and lets fly, vicious and hard.]

[It cracks the wall, but as Tony had hoped it also shifts the rubble above them slightly. Not a lot. Just enough for a beam of light to shoot down and nearly blind Tony for a second as his eyes try to adjust to something other than the dark.

And for one metal gauntlet to slide through. Even with his eyes closed, Tony puts his hand up to let the gauntlet settle in place and wrap around his wrist.

Now that's better.]

Okay then. Who's for getting the hell out of here?

[Perhaps being an engineer is useful in situations like this. Bucky could have punched his way out if he'd been on his own, but he'd not have been able to identify the exact right spot to do it in, so it would have taken longer and probably ended up with some damage being done to him in turn.]

Dumb question.

[But there's the faintest hint of a smile there, he's so ready to be out of here.]

Hurry up, Stark.

Can't rush art.

[He does honestly feel a whole lot better with even part of the armor on. Enough for him to be cheerfully sarcastic again as he herds Barnes a little farther back then turns to fire at that same hole. It blasts it wider, a bit of debris coming down around the edges but nothing to worry about.]

Can you jump for it or do I need to build a stepladder?

[Seriously?

He doesn't even bother to answer that, Stark must have seen what Steve can do and know that he can jump that sort of distance no problem. It doesn't take Bucky long to launch upwards and pull himself up and out by the crumbling edges, face appearing back at the hole after a moment.]

Can that get you out?

[Or does he need help?]

This? [He holds up the gauntleted hand.] No. The rest of it, yes. But I'd also just accept a hand up.

[Look, if they're working on this whole trusting each other thing, might as well start small.]

[This is such a weird situation, but he gets down flat on the ground and reaches down with his metal arm towards Stark.]

Hold on, I've got you.

[This is so weird.]

[He does pause to give Barnes an amused look -- he knows, okay -- but Tony doesn't hesitate at the rest of it. A few steps back for the run up, and then he kicks off the wall to get enough height to grab Barnes' outstretched hand.]

Ah, teamwork.

[And still time to be sarcastic as he uses their grip to haul himself up and grab the edge of the hole to pull the rest of the way.]

[When was the last time that he used this arm for anything other than destruction? He feels oddly light when he stands back to let Stark get the rest of the way up himself, but he doesn't know what to say. Now that they're out of the darkness, no longer trapped, it seems like everything he should say is wrong.

Stark came here to be alone on the anniversary of his parents' death, he shouldn't have to spend longer than necessary with their killer.]

...I'll be in touch. A week, maybe two.

[And with that, he turns and walks very quickly away.

Except that he won't get in touch, though Tony is welcome to hunt him down.]

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