riverviewlogs | music and mayhem

Entry tags:

music and mayhem

who: Bucky and OPEN
what: A variety of prompts, serious and more light-hearted, for existing and new CR
when: The month of September
where: Quarantine and the ruins
warnings: Minor injury/blood discussion

[i: thief at the hospital]

[Bucky has used the last of what Steve brought him on the night he was pulled from underneath the girder and patched up, but the wound still isn't completely healed and he doesn't want to risk it getting infected from substandard care. The bastardised serum he has might help keep infection at bay, but he's still human and he knows better than to risk it.

So clearly the best thing to do is head on over to the hospital, right?

Anyone passing by the hospital on a few days throughout the month might catch sight of a man subtly climbing in through one of the upper windows, and then climbing out again a few minutes later with his hoodie noticeably more full as if he's been pilfering supplies... mostly because that's exactly what he's doing.]

[ii: a stitch in time]

[Following the hospital raids, Bucky can be found out in the ruins tending to himself.

He has his shirt off, meaning that his metal arm is exposed to view for once, and is dealing with a nasty looking gut wound. It's already been stitched up, he's not in danger of keeling over any more, but he's cleaning out the dried blood and wrapping with fresh bandages.]

[iii: kiss and tell]

[After the disaster with Obi-Wan, Bucky has been keeping a very close watch out for those stupid little lights, determined not to get himself trapped under someone else's influence again. But they're more numerous than he'd like and sometimes one doesn't get seen until it's just a bit too late...

A warning to anyone getting themselves caught with Bucky in the kiss and tell, he may not react well and it could lead to fighting rather than kissing.]

[iv: songs from the old days]

[Bucky doesn't have much of a solid base, more a few bolt holes that he uses in a random pattern to keep him from being easy to track down, and that means that he doesn't have much in the way of possessions. It has to be easy to carry and flee with at a moment's notice, after all. But he has one or two indulgences that he's picked up on a whim, driven by half remembered days from before the Soldier.

He has a kite that he can sometimes be seen perched on a rooftop flying in the breeze, looking unaccountably peaceful. He also now has a record player. He found it in a little curiosity shop, a proper old one with some vinyls to go with it. He doesn't play the music too loudly, but anyone passing by some of the abandoned buildings or ruins might hear the quiet strains of the Andrews Sisters.]

[v: wildcard]

[Bucky can also be found at nights having nightmares, skulking around at the gun range watching others play, or generally observing the world around him. If you would like to play any of these, or have a completely different idea for a prompt, just go for it and I'll follow your lead! You can also hit me up on

bibbety for plotting.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Now that's a damn lie. [Accompanied by a look of greatly exaggerated offense. Mostly to cover up his own uncertainty about the situation, but still.]

You're the one who decided to take me home. Or do you only like me when I'm drunk?

[Sadly for Stark's uncertainty, Bucky's expression is pretty much locked forever in a slightly menacing frown.]

I didn't like you then either.

Way harsh, Tai.

[Part of Tony does genuinely want to ask what the hell that had all been about, but the rest is pretty sure that he doesn't want to know.

But it seems like they're locked into an impasse here, Tony lets out a sigh and lowers himself to the ground to sit with his back against the bubble wall. It's a little weird, leaning against something invisible, but not too uncomfortable.]

You owe me for all those drinks I apparently bought you, incidentally.

[He has no idea what that reference is, though he can at least assume that it is a reference, so he just lets it flow over him.]

I warned you what would happen.

[He does, however, pull out a sheaf of vouchers for free food and drink and holds one out.]

[Tony just snorts at that, though the pages of vouchers get a much more bemused expression.]

Where did you even get all that?

[And why was he holding it out? Tony gestured vaguely between them.]

I thought you didn't want me to come any closer.

You can take one and back up again.

[Don't be pedantic, Stark.]

Some people like to keep giving them to me, seem to think I won't eat otherwise.

I cannot imagine why people might think you need to be coaxed into eating.

[Considering the semi-feral hobo chic thing Barnes has going on. And absolutely no acknowledgement of the fact that people tend to do the same thing to Tony himself. That's completely different.

But he arches an eyebrow as he leans forward to pluck the thing out of Barnes' hand.]

Y'know, I don't really get this whole acting like I should treat you like a bomb thing. I've worked with bombs, they're much less touchy.

[He pushes the rest of the vouchers back into one of his many pockets. If he's looking closely, Tony might see the glint of something metal in that pocket too, but it's covered over fast.]

You worked with a bomb that has a broken detonator?

[Because that's more like what he is, a bomb that could go off at any moment whether he wants to or not. He still doesn't know all of the stuff that HYDRA put inside him and what might set it off.]

As a matter of fact I have.

[Because Tony can ruin a perfectly good metaphor if he feels like it.

Not for the first time, he finds himself wondering where exactly this Barnes is from in the timeline. The man he'd met in Siberia -- for as short a time as it had been -- hadn't been anywhere near this jumpy. Though maybe that was just Cap's presence smoothing him out, who knows.]

I'm just saying, treating yourself like a land mine probably isn't helping anything.

[It's almost like something Clark has said, though that brings with it its own set of bittersweet complicated emotions. Some flicker of it shows on his face, regretful and lonely, but it's gone again very quickly.]

I've already stabbed someone here, hurt others, and held a gun to people's heads, you think I should treat myself another way?

I think you're a self-fulfilling prophecy. You expect yourself to lash out, so you do.

[Not that Tony is or should be the voice of reason on psychological issues. Not to this man, especially, and not to anyone else either.

But they're here, and they're apparently not going anywhere for a while, so what the hell. What's the worst that can happen?]

I've hurt you. Pretty literally. So what does that make me?

[Has he? Interesting, this must be from the nebulous point in the future that a lot of the others seem to be from.]

A grieving son meeting his parent's murderer.

[Fairly understandable in that situation, he's honestly surprised that Stark has left him alone as much as he has here.]

[One of Tony's eyebrows quirks as he fights down the roil of conflicting emotions. His jaw clenches for just a second before he forces himself to relax.]

Maybe so. But I'm as dangerous to you as you are to me.

No, you're not.

[It's said so flatly.]

If I really wanted to stop you from hurting me, then I could. I know how to work against things like your armour.

[The smile Tony gives him has very little actual humor in it.]

You'd think so.

[He'd managed it, anyway. But Tony just shrugs, a roll of his shoulders that's half a gesture, half trying to loosen them from the sudden tension.]

If I really wanted to do damage, believe me I'd find a way. [And then, because it probably needs to be said:] I don't, incidentally.

[He's about to argue against it again, but those last words take the wind right out of his sails. He shifts minutely, stance changing from defensive to wary.]

Why not?

[He doesn't get that. Stark obviously hates him, obviously blames him, so why not?]

[And Tony can't help but blow out a slightly frustrated breath. As little as he'd like to talk about this ever, it's probably something they need to deal with. And why not, when they're trapped in a goddamn bubble.]

Because hurting you won't change anything.

[Which is true, if not the whole truth. The kneejerk need to make someone hurt he'd felt right after seeing the footage faded pretty quickly, leaving behind something a lot more tired. An old ache, rather than a stabbing pain.]

And it...wasn't you. Not really.

[That's surprisingly mature and understanding, given what he knows about Stark from the research he's done on him. But then, a lot of the articles he found were older, pre-Iron Man, or just after he announced himself.]

You sound like Steve.

[Not that he's saying it was his fault, but-- it's strange to hear from someone who doesn't have a vested interest in him.]

[One eyebrow twitches slightly, but all Tony does is give him a dry look. ]

He does occasionally have a point.

[The fact that it wasn't Barnes in the driver's seat is never anything that was in question. The part where it was still Barnes' hands around his mother's throat is what Tony still struggles with. Maybe if he hadn't seen the whole thing...but too late to do anything about that now.]

But it's not anything you chose. So.

You're right, it wasn't.

[At least he's come far enough to say that and mean it. He knows it wasn't him, wasn't his actions, but he also struggles with knowing the blood is all on his hands. He can still see almost every victim, vivid in a way his own memories might never be again.]

I'm trying to be more than that weapon now. It probably doesn't help you to know that, but I am.

Does, actually.

[It's honest enough that even Tony looks slightly surprised by it. And not just because having someone with Barnes' capabilities and Hydra's programming around would be dangerous in ways Tony can barely quantify.

But that's a different kind of revenge, isn't it? Hydra's best weapon turning against them. Or it would be, if they weren't stuck on another planet. Details.]

So which part of trying to be more is helped by lurking in the shadows an avoiding people?

[Never let it be said that Tony can't still be an asshole.]

The part where I don't hurt anyone.

[He can be a bit more open about this if only because Stark already knows the basics, it's not like he's revealing anything new or potentially dangerous.]

I don't know everything that's in me, I don't know if I might snap, I'm trying to minimise that risk.

[There are other reasons, more personal reasons, but he's not telling those.]

So you could, I don't know, ask someone to work with you instead of squatting in abandoned buildings.

[Hypocrisy, thy name is Stark. But they're not talking about him at the moment. And even at his worst, he's never been as scared of himself as Barnes is. Scared of everything else, maybe.]

I'm just saying, there are options. And if you're taking me home again I'd appreciate better accommodations.

[They can joke about that now, right?]

[He can't explain why it's better the way it is, because perhaps a part of him knows that it isn't.]

I don't sleep there any more.

[Doesn't he know that? He assumed Stark would have scouted the area out once he remembered, not left it alone.]

Figured there was better than drunk and lost someplace you didn't remember. I've done that, it's not fun.

[Not the drunk part, the serum prevents that, but the lost without memories part.]

Yeah, but I bet you don't sleep anywhere better, either.

[He levels a knowing look onto Barnes, then almost visibly lets the matter go. It's not like he has anything better to offer here. Even if he was tempted to do so. Which he isn't. Why would he be.

Instead he shrugs slightly.]

I didn't remember anything about the entire city, so there's only so much that was going to help. I'll admit I've woken up in worse places, though.

[Having someone trying to look after him while he was drunk is probably the weirder thing about that whole situation. Well, someone other than Rhodey, at least.]

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