riverviewlogs | exorcising the ghost

Entry tags:

exorcising the ghost

who: Bucky and TOTALLY OPEN
what: Some spying, some clothes shopping, some rescuing
when: Throughout August
where: Quarantine
warnings: None. If any crop up, they'll go in the subject lines

[A: Open; sneaking around]

[Pierce might be gone, but that doesn't mean that Bucky feels like it's safe to relax. The man could easily have recruited, could have left planted spies and operatives behind, or files that could be very damaging in the wrong hands. He needs to make sure for himself that any of these people, or any of this information, is weeded out and dealt with appropriately.

Which is why if anyone is working in, or happens to be at, the hospital, any of the laboratories in the city, any buildings that deal with high level technology, or the perimeter guard; there's a late night visitor who definitely isn't authorised to be there. Sneaking through the hallways in black combat gear, obviously armed, and hacking into computer systems.]

[B: Open; shopping and rescuing]

[He's really trying to make an effort to get involved in life again, not just surviving. And part of that means coming into the city itself even if he hates it, making the skin between his shoulder blades itch as if a knife is coming right for him.

He's decided his first self appointed mission will be to get some new clothes, because the ones he has are falling off him from the weight he's lost hiding out for months, and have got threadbare besides. But he's also keeping an eye out for any trouble, and so if he notices anyone in danger from anything - speeding car, mugger, oddly strong breeze - he'll drop all his bags to intervene.]

[C: Closed to Tony Stark; memories]

[He's not sure whether Stark will still be willing to help him, after he blew up at him the last time and then literally disappeared for weeks on end to hide from Pierce. He's also not sure why he feels guilty, and it annoys him that he does. He's even got an apology gift tucked awkwardly under one arm, because he can vaguely remember his Ma telling him that this was the polite way to do things, and he already deeply regrets getting anything in the first place.

Too late now.

He forgoes knocking and slips into the lab, as long as he finds it open, and will take a perch on any of the nearby tables to wait for Stark to show up.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Most mission reports are public and accessible to just about anyone. [ AKA if the guy had come to the guard during daytime and asked like a normal person, chances are someone would've gladly helped him. But Jim won't call him out on that, because if he's sneaking around in the middle of the night— well, he probably has a good reason for it. ]

If we do come across any classified information, then I'll let you know. [ He shrugs and gestures to the computer. ] I know my way around those logs pretty well, so. You want my help, or what?

[He's silent for a long few moments, clearly weighing up whether to accept the help or not. He so very nearly says no and melts away to come back again when the building is empty, but he's tired. He's so tired of being scared and paranoid of everyone. Pierce being here only made it worse, and he's sinking back into who he used to be, isolating himself and distrusting everyone on principle.

Maybe in order to become more like the man he wants to be, he has to take that leap of faith more often and, if it bites him in the ass, then take that as it comes. This stranger probably doesn't get what a turning point it is when Bucky nods, slow and hesitant.]

I need the logs of anyone who ran missions connected to the factories that operate in the quarantine zone.

[ It's true, Jim doesn't really grasp the real meaning of the moment. All he sees is a guy who was worried or even scared, but decided to trust him anyway. It's not exactly new to him. He tends to inspire trust in people.

Walking past the man, he slips into the seat in front of the computer, pulling up mission logs and using the search function to pull up any reports related to factories in the Quarantine. ]

Any specific factory? [ He looks up at him. ] Or any specific names?

Alexander Pierce.

[He watches carefully as he says it, looking for any kind of flicker that this man might already know that name, or what the implications of it mean.]

[ That gets a reaction out of him, alright. Not an openly noticeable one, but he does tense up, shoulders squaring as he looks at Bucky, eyebrows knit together. ]

Why? [ Pressing his lips, fingers still at the keyboard. ] You know him?

[There's a gun in his hand before Jim finishes asking the first question. It's not up and pointed yet, but the safety is off and he can be firing in less than a second if he needs to.]

How do you know him?

[Because it's obvious that he does, and one wrong answer here is going to end with a bullet in the brain, regardless of how little he wants to kill.]

I don't, not really. [ His eyes stray to the gun, and he feels the hair at the back of his head raise. He has no real way to defend himself right now— it would take too long to get his own phaser out of the holster. All he can hope for is that this guy dislikes Pierce at least as much as he does. ]

He offered my boyfriend a job. Nothing good. We've been worried about what he might be up to. [ He pauses, taking a slow breath. ] But I haven't ever talked to him directly. I just keep tabs on him, is all.

[It could easily be a ruse, pretend to be against Pierce to get him to lower his guard, but he doesn't think so. Someone smart would pretend not to even know him at all, this would be a very dangerous gambit if he had even the smallest idea of who Bucky even was.]

What kind of job?

[This is what he's been afraid of, Pierce recruiting.]

Did he take it?

Couldn't tell you the specifics. The way Victor explained it to me, it involved playing with people's minds, changing them. Brainwashing, essentially.

[ Jim presses his lips thinly, looking down and away to the screen. ] And no, he didn't take it. He wanted to, so he could spy on Pierce, figure out what he was trying to do. But I convinced him it would be too dangerous. So— we've been keeping tabs on him since then, looking out for any red flags that might pop up.

[Every shred of Bucky's self control is going into not sticking a gun in this guy's face and demanding to be escorted to 'Victor' to get more detailed answers about this.

His expression has shut down completely, the blank mask of the assassin rising to the surface when panic threatens to shut him down. His voice is equally blank, cold and calm.]

I need you to take me to him, we have things to talk about. Now.

Absolutely not.

[ Victor's home right now, with their daughter. There's nothing this man can do or say to get him to take him there, and let a complete stranger, and an armed one at that, into their home. ]

You want to talk to him? Fine. I'll let him know, tell him what you want to talk about, and he'll get in touch with you. But I'm not taking you to him.

Sorry.

[He even sounds faintly sorry. He is, he didn't want things to go down this way, but he can't risk them potentially warning others and disappearing.]

Not a request.

[Though he does hesitate a moment before tacking on a kindness, to not invade this man's home. A return for the kindness shown to him so far.]

You can call him here if you prefer.

I don't really care.

[ Jim's jaw clenches nervously, arms stiff at his sides. He's risking a lot, he knows, but he'd rather have this guy attack him than call Victor right now, and potentially put him at risk instead. ]

He's home, probably asleep, or— [ He hesitates even mentioning Lucy, for fear that this stranger might try to threaten him by using her as leverage somehow. ] —looking after our daughter. He can't just leave her there on her own.

[ And quite frankly, the man's starting to look more than a little out of control. His willingness to help with anything at all is dwindling by the second. ]

You didn't even know about me, or him, until five minutes ago. What's so important that can't wait another day or two?

[Damn it, there's a child involved.

For just a moment his mind goes to a dark place, remembering how to extract information so quietly that a kid sleeping in the next room would never wake up. The shock of how quickly he's slipping due to his fear is what jolts him out of it, fingers trembling on his gun.]

You gave me confirmation that he was recruiting.

[That's what changed. But it shouldn't have changed so much. This guy is trying to help him, his partner apparently refused the offer, they're on his side. Sort of. Why the hell is he behaving this way?]

--sorry, I'm sorry. But I need more information .

[ The child isn't involved, actually, that's the whole point. Jim intends to keep it that way. ]

He was. And no, I can't tell you how successful he was, or if he managed to recruit anyone else. But he didn't get Victor working for him.

[ Jim's still frowning, his every muscle tense. He can see the man's resolve waver but that still doesn't do much to put him at ease. He feels threatened even when the man's hold on the gun weakens, and his posture changes slightly. ]

And I've offered to give you more information. I told you Victor will gladly answer your questions. But you're not getting those answers tonight, and the chances that I'll encourage him to talk to you are getting slimmer the longer you keep trying to threaten me.

[It's not enough, just a possibility that this man's husband, a total stranger, might contact him if he feels like it in the future. His instinct is to get the information tonight no matter what it takes, but he doesn't want to be that man any more.

The only way he's ever going to make it as a better man is by forcing himself to take the slower route, the riskier route, even if it terrifies him. He slowly, reluctantly, holsters his gun.]

He's from my world.

[He needs to impress how important this is, if he's going to have to trust.]

It's really important that I get that information, do you understand?

[ Jim's expression opens slightly, shoulders dropping barely an inch. That actually makes things a whole lot clearer, and the man's attitude makes much more sense now. Jim's only guessing here, but it seems likely that whatever Pierce wanted to do here, in the Quarantine, he's done before— to this man, specifically. ]

I understand.

[ He props an arm on the table, sighing quietly. ]

I take it he's done this kind of thing before— in your world. So, he was trying to replicate it here. [ He pauses a moment. ] I can show you the information we've gathered on him so far, but admittedly, it's not much. Maybe some of it will make more sense to you.

[He nods, he definitely needs that information. Especially because if he failed to recruit one, he's likely succeeded in recruiting others.]

Do you-- have you heard of the Nazis?

[If he's getting some information then he should give some in return, something to prove just how dangerous Pierce is and why it's so important that they find out if he recruited or not.]

Of course. [ Well, not that the man's wrong to ask, considering Jim could be from just about anywhere, and not necessarily Earth. ]

It's been over three hundred years since their party was dissolved, and the second World War came to an end. Where I'm from, anyway.

[Him having heard of the Nazis makes this easier in some ways, he doesn't have to impress on him the severity of what they're dealing with. But it also makes it harder in others, more personal.]

HYDRA were the deep science division of the Nazi Party, human experimentation, weapons, that sort of thing. When the war ended they pretended to die out, but they just went underground, spread, grew. Pierce was the head of HYDRA where we come from.

[ Jim hums. It does help in his opinion, knowing the background. It spares Bucky the trouble of having to explain something very complex and likely quite not doing it justice. As it is, Jim fully understands the gravity of an organization like HYDRA surviving the end of WWII, and thriving decades or possibly even centuries later. ]

And what year is it, where you’re from? [ AKA how long has HYDRA been around still. ]

2015.

[Though Pierce has been dead for over a year in his timeline at this point, and HYDRA has been shattered into fragments. He doesn't give over that information, though, he doesn't want to give the impression that they're any less dangerous for it.]

...Pierce was a very dangerous man, if he managed to recruit then I need to know about it.

[ Honestly, if anything the fact that HYDRA was over by the time Pierce got here would only worry him more. A man with no life, no future in his own world, would be all the likelier to want to build all his work from the ground up all over again, while he'd be more focused in going back if he had something to go back to. ]

We all need to know about it. [ Pierce has been here long enough. Jim dreads to think how deep the roots have gotten, how far his tentacles have reached. ] I think— we might find more information with the Prometheus Labs, I think that was his main base of operations. Around the guard, not so much.

[ A pause, ] I'd like to help, if you don't mind.

[There's a big difference between a tentative exchange of vital information, and accepting this guy as potential backup for what he's doing. He still has no way of knowing if he can be trusted, if he's a plant. He only has his own instincts, and he doesn't always trust those these days.]

Let me see your file. Then you walk away, let me do what I need to.

[He's asking for trust first, to be allowed to read private files and break in where he's not allowed.]

You don't follow me, I'll come back another time and we can talk about it.

[ Jim nods. Sounds like a pretty acceptable compromise to him, and given the circumstances, it's not like he's in a place to demand much more. At least he's not threatening him so he'll take him to Victor anymore. ]

I had no intentions of following you to begin with. [ He gets to his feet— the file's at his desk after all, so they'll have to head there. ] But be careful. If not me, then— talk to someone else. Someone you trust. I'm sure they'd be willing to help you too.

exorcising the ghost

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