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

[She can see it in his body, the way he tenses, ready for a fight, and it takes all of her control to not let her body echo it. It's ingrained, that sort of battle math, judging distance and angles, but she doesn't flinch. Her eyes a little more focused on him, but her hands stay palm-up. Don't start a fight. Not what she wants.]

I saw the museum. And when the helicarriers came down, it was everywhere.

[It's not untrue, it's just not an answer to the question. Or why she cares.]

[True? Or not true?

He can't decide, but at least that means she's definitely from his world and it could easily be the truth. There are thousands of people who have seen both, who must have made the connections with who he was, it was what made it so hard to hide.]

I'm not either of those men any more.

[Not the Bucky from the museum, or the Soldier from the helicarriers.]

[ She nods at his words, and there's a soft twitch of her lips into a sad not-quite touch of a smile. When he'd answered her, she'd had a sense that he was different than the man she'd seen before. It was a good thing, even if there was a tragedy in the fact that he couldn't get the smiling man of the Smithsonian exhibit back. ]

Place like this, maybe you get to choose? And I'm pretty sure you're still Steve's friend.

[ She's not what they had tried to make her, either. What she is.. that she hasn't really figured out yet. Dangerous and a little lost.]

[His expression flattens, eyes hooded and dangerous. Is she really just someone who's seen the museum exhibit?]

Maybe you shouldn't make guesses about things you know nothing about.

[He's caught between fight or flight, he doesn't trust her at all but he needs to know all that she knows so that he can identify how big of a threat she might be.]

[She sighs, nods. You'd think that with everything she knew about Natasha it would make her good with people, but she always pushes a little too hard, wants to reach out too much.

But he tenses and she softens- with the places she's been, it's a silent answer. Unless she's looking for a fight; normally she wont run from one, reckless as she is, but this is different.]

You're right, sorry.

[She pauses, a tilt of her head as she looks at him, trying to see if she can take back her misstep, or if she's pushed too much.]

[Just because her stance reads as placating, it doesn't mean that she won't be dangerous, there's nothing that relaxes in his stance even after she's apologised to him. It's uncomfortable knowing that there are random strangers out there who have seen snippets of his life, who have their own theories about who he is now.]

What are you doing out here?

[He changes direction in the questioning abruptly, it's an easy technique for catching people off guard and perhaps getting a more honest answer than they could intend.]

[She doesn't push, just lets that hang, quiets a little as she watches him. The question he asks catches her a little by surprise, and she flounders for a moment.]

I-- [She shrugs her shoulders a little self-consciously; not exactly what she was expecting.] There's too many people. Feels claustrophobic, sometimes.

[The duffle bag near her feet holds her life, because she doesn't really trust herself. Sometimes she just needs to get away, feel like she can breathe without hurting someone. After the fire, that's been harder.]

[He understands that feeling intrinsically, but it's not a comforting answer. It means that she does have something deeper to her than just a random person from his world that's wandering out here, because that sort of feeling doesn't usually come from nowhere.]

What's your name?

[See if he can recall it at all.]

Ava Orlova.

[Russian. Which could mean nothing, but doesn't. Russian programs trying to make people into weapons; that same old song that hadn't ended with the Cold War.

She doesn't expect that he'll remember her, but she watches to see just the same.]

It's Bucky, right?

[She wont pretend she doesn't know his, but she at least cares what he prefers to be called.]

[That it's Russian just adds another layer of concern underneath the wariness that's already there, but even he's not paranoid enough to assume everyone Russian is a danger to him.

The name means nothing. It's not in his memory, faulty as it is, as any of the SHIELD or HYDRA operatives that he knew. Doesn't mean that she isn't one, but at least not one that he's familiar with.]

James.

[If she has to go with his real name, then he's not quite ready to reclaim Bucky yet, that still feels like a moniker that belongs to a dead man.]

You need to keep away from me.

[She nods when he gives her his name, and in truth it's easier.]

James, then.

[He tries to warn her off and she just sighs softly, looks up at him, a little overly earnest, perhaps.]

You're injured, there's blood on you. And there are monsters out here. If you wont let me help, at least let me watch.

[As if they're not the monsters.]

Why?

[It could be that she's really just a nice person who doesn't want to leave someone injured to deal with it themselves, but it all reeks of something more. She knows who he is, and that means she should at least be wary enough of him to back off when he gives the warning, not keep pressing to help.

Hell, most people thought he was a mass-murdering criminal... so why the gentleness?]

[He's right, she's not that nice. Maybe enough to offer to help, not enough to push unless she actually cared about their injuries. And she does. Her lips thin and she quiets for a moment. There's a half-dozen reasons, but none of them are things she really wants to bring up.

It's hard to find the words without giving anything away. She could make something up about it being because he's Steve's friend, but that'd be a lie. And she can't help feeling he would be able to tell.]

Because-- I don't think you're evil.

[Hardly the whole story, but a piece of it.]

[There's not a whole lot of people these days that will have seen the footage, seen the released evidence from HYDRA, and come to that conclusion. It feels like an evasion, an itch between his shoulder blades like a sniper's scope pointed right at him. Maybe that's not fair, but he can't help it.]

What makes you think that?

[His tone is still level, but something in his eyes warns her that he's getting tired of half truths.]

[She sees the look in his eyes and she shifts a little, trying to decide where to go with this. It's not like she can just leave the subject there, dodge the question and not deal with the fallout. He's too sharp, and what skills she has in deceptions are better suited for picking out others' lies, or to draw someone in before slamming their head into a steel door; depends on the circumstances. She sighs softly. Nothing for it, is there?]

Because I know what those kinds of people do.

[Her voice is hushed, like someone else might hear. And it's still a half truth, but it's giving him something real instead of that implication that she might be normal.]

[Now that really is a revealing piece of the puzzle, but it still doesn't give a full picture. That she seems like she's trying to help might mean she's been a victim too, but it could be an act to draw him in closer.]

How?

[He knew the other Soldier candidates, she hadn't been one of them.]

[She pauses, considering as she looks up at him.] If I tell you, will you let me help you?

[It's a question, not a demand, but she's willing to trade pieces of the truth. Not the whole truth, because no one's gotten that from her. Too many different layers and different traumas, and it's easier to give them up in pieces.]

[Bucky can definitely relate and understand to not giving up all the pieces, there are things in his past that he will never divulge to anyone as long as he lives, not even people he trusts completely.]

That depends what the answer is.

[It's not a no, but he's not giving a promise that he might not be able to keep if her way of knowing this is not acceptable to him.]

[ She nods, accepting his answer. It's not a no, and it's honest, so that's something. She's not sure if she would be able to offer any better if their positions in this were changed. Because of course it matters what the answer is. ]

When I was nine I was picked up in the crossfire of a SHIELD op. They handed me over to some STRIKE agents who stuck me in an off the record safehouse. They made me think they'd saved me, told me they'd rescued me from the Russian mafia, and I couldn't remember anything different.

[ She thinks he's smart enough to pick up the pieces. Doesn't know if it'll make him trust her any better (there are things about herself she doesn't trust) but it seems better than her usual story about being in the SHIELD academy when Hydra had revealed themselves. It's also true, but it's not the answer to the question. ]

[He feels his spine tense so much that it almost feels brittle as she tells her story. He's not stupid, he knows that a huge majority of the STRIKE agents were HYDRA, and he knows that anyone telling that kind of story to a locked away kid wouldn't be on the straight and narrow.

So she had been raised by them? She was probably trained, then, likely messed up in a whole hell of a lot of ways. But had she converted to their way of thinking? Or was she being genuine with her sympathy?]

So you've seen me before. Not in the museum, not on the news?

[Does she know the words? If she knows the words, she has to die, there is no other option.]

[At that question she tenses, and there's a stillness. Her eyes briefly flickering to check the angles, distance, could she grab her bag and run? There's a moment where it seems a better choice than lying or telling the truth. There's that part of her that wants to get out, because she feels exposed.

But she stays.]

Just once. I didn't know who you were, then.

[Her voice is small and quiet, her hands curl in on themselves because she can't remember it without the way it curls in her chest. She thought he wouldn't jump to the right question so quickly, but she knew he was sharp.]

I didn't know SHIELD were supposed to be the good guys.

[It's her body language far more than her words that make him inclined to trust that she's telling the truth, that closed off and nervous energy that comes from being hunted by people you thought you were supposed to trust.

They probably hurt her, even if not in the same way as him. Training in HYDRA was never for the weak, and she had only been young.]

What happened? How did you find out?

[He knows that this is turning into an interrogation, that he's demanding answers without giving any, but he has to know.]

I got out, or I thought I did. I ended up in the SHIELD Academy three years later.

[She's aware in hindsight that if Natasha had been tracking her, it meant that sooner or later they must have had eyes on her too. Was that how Ivan had found her? Her whole life is tangled together in the worst ways, and she hates it, because it makes answering questions like these difficult.]

I put the pieces together when I was on the run.

[When the helicarriers came down and the Academy fell, she'd thought if she kept moving they couldn't find her. And if she's honest she'd been running from Natasha too. Running to keep Sana safe.]

[He has no way of knowing if she's telling him the truth or not, but he's inclined to believe her. Her body language and tone are all consistent with the story she's telling, and he knows what HYDRA is capable of.

So he finally backs up a step, still tense but no longer actively aggressive.]

Then you should know better than anyone to keep away from me.

[ Her lips quirk a little lopsidedly as he comments that she should know better than anyone to keep away from him. And he's probably right, but at the same time, she's never been particularly good at doing the smart thing. And that same history that means she knows how dangerous he is also means that she cares about if he's okay or not. ]

I guess you're right. I just want to make sure you're okay.

[ She could be reckless sometimes; and maybe this was too, but it didn't change that she found herself concerned about whether or not his injuries were okay. She doesn't push closer, though, just watches him. ]

Will you let me help?

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