[OPEN] back home for the holidays

[anotheroldsoldier]

who: Bucky Barnes and OPEN
what: Catch-all log for the month, including Search and Rescue stuff.
when: December
where: Around the Quarantine and beyond the fences.
warnings: Possibly some monster fighting or something.


[A. Early Dec., Around Town, OPEN]
[Bucky slips back into town like a ghost, almost. One minute he's gone, the next he's back. It's easy to lose himself in the Hygge shuffle, though he doesn't participate much in any of the local traditions. What family he has, is small, and he's still not sure if he's on any of their good lists; he did sort of bail on everything last month.

He's easy to find if you know where to look for him, though, or he's easy enough to bump into if you're not. Bucky browses shops some afternoons, looking for gifts to make it up to the people he cares about, hands in his pockets and a little too quiet to be holiday-cheerful. Or he drops by the skating rink once in a while, to watch Yuri practice. He does the household grocery shopping to take the task off Steve and Ava.

After the time he's had, though, he also frequents his favorite bar in the evenings. He never gets sloppy drunk, it would take a lot to break his careful control, but some nights see more empty glasses on the counter in front of him than others.]

[B. Early Dec., Perimeter Guard/Gym, OPEN]
[Bucky is a little bit 'on notice' at work. While some of his time spent out in the jungle in November was in an official capacity, mapping some trails and checking out some potential dangers, for a lot of it he was incommunicado. Needless to say, the higher ups were a little tetchy with him upon his return. Part of his so-called punishment is mandatory time spent in the Perimeter Guard gym, available as a sparring partner to both new and seasoned recruits.

He's on the mats, barefoot and in loose workout clothes, moving through a series of almost-painful looking stretches when he glances up at whoever might approach,] Need a partner?

[C. Mid-Dec., Winter Rescue, OPEN]
[As a Squad Captain with Search and Rescue, the moment the blizzard starts and traps a bunch of cadets in their camps outside the walls of the inhabited city, Bucky is called in. His experience in Siberia certainly helps with something like this; snow is a pain in the ass, but he knows how to work through it. He's checking the equipment, a small sled with emergency supplies - first aid, battery powered heaters, blankets, and his own cold-weather gear when someone else approaches.]

You about ready to head out? The faster we get these kids home, the better.

[D. Mid-Dec., Snowed In, OPEN]
[He's on his way back home, taking the path along the riverbanks, when the snow gets bad, kicking up flurries and dumping white powder from the sky like a dumptruck. Visibility shrinks to nil, and it's just by luck that Bucky manages to fight his way through the flurries to one of the Hygge cabins. Stumbling through the door, snow falling off his head and shoulders, he curses loudly, not totally dressed for weather quite THIS bad. He barely seems to notice the other person who has taken up shelter here.]

Shit. I hate snow.

[E. Wildcard]
[Either ping me at nekky for a custom prompt or throw something else at me! Bucky is actually around this month and trying to be a little more cheerful, but he also hits up the bar more than usual.]

Comments

[ragnarsson]

Careful. That's how you get old and haggard before your time while I remain young and good-looking forever.

[Feel free to smack him on the head for that one, Bucky. Honestly, he's a terrible little troll.]

I had something very good happen to me. Part of my family showed up here. My sister and then my father.

[Y'know, the father he's repeatedly mentioned as being dead.]

[anotheroldsoldier]

I thought I was already old. [Ivar was pretty fond of saying that about him, after all. He signals to the bartender for another couple of drinks.]

Really? I didn't know you even had a sister. And your dad, that's great.

[ragnarsson]

Yes, but you can always get older, and become an ancient crone.

[See, Bucky, isn't it delightful having this young companion around?]

I never got to know her. She died four years before I was born. My father seems to have come from around the same time.

[He looks happier talking about them than he's looked in months, probably since before Letha left.]

[anotheroldsoldier]

I'll take it as a compliment that you think I might survive to become an ancient crone. [Even if he knows he won't, because he has maybe a handful of years left back home before he dies, alone and possibly betrayed. La la la not thinking about that.]

It's kinda wild how this place works. It's good you get to see your family again.

[ragnarsson]

Well, you could always die magnificently in battle, and then end up in Valhalla. Fighting, feasting, and drinking all day sounds nice, doesn't it? [For a Viking, there was no better way to go out than surrounded by half a dozen corpses and taking out just one more before succumbing to their fatal injuries.]

It is. [They would keep Ivar a little bit more stable than he had been. His family had always held something of a leash on him. This would last all the way up until his father inevitably did something stupid and Ivar heard about it. Then the city might see the Viking more out of control than he ever had been before.]

[anotheroldsoldier]

I'll have to ask Thor if that's a thing. Never really believed in an afterlife before. [Despite growing up in the 30s and 40s, he was never particularly religious, beyond the basics. You went to church, because that was what you did. An Army chaplain oversaw his father's funeral. He doesn't remember much of it.

He lifts his glass in a toast.] To family.

[ragnarsson]

It's real enough. [Ivar's got the conviction on his side that comes from a lifetime of unshakable religious faith indoctrinated in him. He's a firm believer in the Norse gods and all that they stand for

He raises his glass in turn.] Skoal.

[anotheroldsoldier]

Maybe so. It sounds nice. [Nicer than what a traditional Christian upbringing tells him he has in store after death. A death that is too uncomfortably close, these days.] I guess I'll find out. [It just sort of comes out, but he says it casually, figures it'll come off in the 'all men must die' kind of way.]

Skoal. [His accent there was pretty bad.]