March Catch-All [OTA]

[worthallthis]

Who: Winter (Bucky Barnes) and OPEN
When: March catch-all
Where: ADI headquarters, ADI apartments, around town
Summary: Just working, training, and being a different kind of quietly creepy
Warnings: Struggles with personalization


I. Confessions - Closed to Close CR

There are some people who need to know that they might be at risk to continue associating with him: specifically, Kate, Meredith, Jaeger, and Malcolm Bright. Winter will seek them out one by one and... confess. Or, well, say, "I need to tell you something," and then shuffle around like he's embarrassed, angry that he's embarrassed, and afraid of what their response will be.


II. Study - OTA

So Winter needs to learn how to be a person. This requires... study.

Unfortunately, study seems to take the form of creepily watching people all over town. He no longer wears his mask and goggles unless he's actively on ADI patrol or a mission, but his face is not particularly expressive, and having a large guy in a dark coat and combat boots standing on street-corners or in shop windows or sitting on perch benches staring at people (and still not making eye contact when caught at it) is not particularly reassuring.

He also takes the dive (possibly suggested by one of his people) to try reading as another form a study. Fiction. He starts, perhaps stupidly, with romance novels, as this seems like a good way to learn human interactions. He sits in the cafeteria, his apartment, or in the cold in the park with a book with a pretty lady being leaned back by a shirtless man in floral pastel colors in his hand. Mostly when he's doing this, he's frowning.

Please be the one to almost get beaned by the book when he finally gets fed up and disgusted with what he's reading and throws it across whatever room, hall, or outdoor space he's in with an annoyed growl.


III. Prisoners of Consciousness - OTA

It happens when Winter is on patrol. The ADI hallway is broad, if a little dark, and the ventilation shafts are heavy in the ceiling. He's walked this hall for months, now. He knows it well.

So why does the end of the hall seem so far away? Why are all the doors along it-- why are they shrinking to a size he could barely fit his hand through? Where is that window he knows is on this stretch of hall?

It feels like... it feels like another hall, deep inside a concrete bunker in Siberia. That's what this is. He's owned again. He's a thing again. And he sure as hell does deserve it, for all the people he killed, for the Widows he helped corrupt, for the entity that he let attach itself to him somehow and the people he scared to unwittingly feed it.

Anyone else traveling this hall in the mid to late afternoon can find him huddled against the wall, hugging his rifle like a teddy bear, breathing too hard behind his mask. No goggles today, so it's just Winter's wide, damp eyes fixed on the floor.


IV. Trick of the Dark - OTA

Winter is often out and about after dark, whether staring at the shelves at the grocery store trying to make himself pick something out of the myriad of brands available for peanut butter alone, closing up shop at ADI after a long evening of practice or tutelage, or his nightly patrols of the ADI apartments. He does glimpse the strange woman once or twice, but he sees nothing amiss about another person out after dark. That sort of thing, this time? Does not scare him.

Once he does lever his gun at her when she appears too close, but she vanishes quickly after that.

No, mostly what he sees is people of the city, even friends, attacking streetlamps, rushing into stores to turn off lights, climbing up to try and smash overhead lights in the ADI halls. He follows in their wake, puzzled, repairing what damage he can and turning lights back on. If it gets too bad, he approaches the person in question. "Calm down. What are you trying to do."

Comments

1

[henchgal]

Meredith has been...off...since everyone was snowed in. It's entirely possible that Winter didn't see her that whole month, as she was fed on by Jeff and suffered a psychotic break that she's trying to pretend she's completely recovered from. She's throwing herself into her work, as usual.

But for Winter, she makes time now. He's her people, as much as her roommates are.

"Alright."

[worthallthis]

He's cornered her at work, yes, but in an office rather than out in the cubicles. He shifts from foot to foot, an unusual amount of fidgeting for him, and finally blurts, "I have an entity. I don't know how it happened or which one. If you don't want to be near me I understand."

[henchgal]

"Alright, say more." She doesn't immediately recoil or flee, so that's a good sign, isn't it?

[worthallthis]

Say more? Uh. He flails a little for an answer. A series of unconnected facts kind of tumble out, only somewhat coherently. "I don't know which one it is. I realized during the snow when I could actually feel it. Belova helped me talk about it." He's still for a moment, then adds, "It makes me mad. I don't want it."

[bossyboiler]

Kate is in the process of making brownies for desert after dinner. For a moment, she thinks Winter might want to ask if her if he can lick the spoon when she's done. It's the way he seems a little embarrassed. For the record, she'd let him.

"What is it, Winter?"

[worthallthis]

That's a valid thought. Winter would love to lick the spoon. Winter does not, however, deserve to lick the spoon. He stares at the floor, in a parade rest in the kitchen entryway.

Kate, at least, has already done her confession. So it's maybe... slightly less awful with her. Slightly. "I." He hesitates. Makes himself say it. "I have an entity too. I didn't mean to. And I don't know which one."

[bossyboiler]

Oh boy. Kate leans the spoon in the batter against the side of the bowl. The brownies can wait. "Why don't we sit down?" This is going to be a conversation. However, it will be a conversation without judgement. She has an Entity of her own.

I

[abrightboy]

Malcolm is surprised, but pleasantly, to be approached by Winter as he heads to the coffee shop. He needs to talk? No problem.

"Do you want to get a cup of coffee?" he asks.

[worthallthis]

Winter pretty much always wants coffee, so he falls in beside Malcolm as he walks. "Yes. Thank you." He's trying to be more human-like. Honest he is.

Which means coming clean, dammit. It's hard. But after a few steps, he says, "I have an entity. I didn't know until the snow."

[abrightboy]

Malcolm looks a little surprised by that, though it's not judgemental.

"How do you connect to it? Do you have superpowers or magic or something?"

1

[bloodalwaystells]

Jaeger isn't always the easiest man to catch up with, but when it's important, he's happy to make the time. And what Winter has to say...sounds important. Without further question, Jaeger puts aside his phone and coffee, and gives the other man his full attention with the slightest tilt of head indicating he's listening.

He might not always be the best at Feelings and things like that, but he knows things have been hard on everyone, and only someone truly clueless would miss Winter's body language, the way he seems to want to hide from his own words.

"What's going on?"

[worthallthis]

Winter hesitates, then takes a seat wherever Jaeger is. He can talk more quietly if he's closer, he doesn't want all and sundry to know. Just the people he works with closely and who he expects not to rat him out.

He takes a breath, then recites quickly, "I have an entity. I don't know which one or how it happened. I understand if you don't want to work with me anymore."

[bloodalwaystells]

Jaeger makes room for Winter so that they can talk quietly, fully mindful of their surroundings and the chance of being overheard.

For a moment, he's quiet, only nodding his acknowledgement of what Winter's said. Silence could be taken the wrong way, but Jaeger is just thinking, right now- no particular shock or horror, just the same solemn demeanor he usually wears.

"I honestly believe at this point, more of us have 'Patrons' than don't," he says after a few seconds have passed. "Some of us are more successful at resisting than others, but it seems to be a function of this place. And I think ADI is aware of it as well."

2!

[lowficharm]

Alright, so a flying book is not what Martin expected for a walk in the park. Winter can be treated to the sound of the book being thrown, a rather high-pitched yelp, and then Martin coming around the other side of a tree clutching the aforementioned book like a vicegrip. His reaction time is good enough to have caught the thing, at least, even if it wasn't the most graceful.

"Uh, did you... lose this?" The look on Martin's face says he deeply does not believe Winter just lost a novel by the speed at which it came at him, but he's trying to be nice about the experience.

[worthallthis]

"You can keep it," Winter growls. "I don't want it."

What Martin would want with a bodice ripper romance novel, he has no idea. What anyone would want with a bodice ripper romance novel, he has no idea. But clearly someone must want them or it would not be an actual book.

[lowficharm]

Okay, but that provides him with many more questions, such as 'why did he have it in the first place' and 'why was it flying through the air'. Martin turns the cover around, looking at it curiously as those questions go through his head, and decides he will in fact ask them.

"Uh, okay, that's... fine, I guess? Did someone recommend this to you? It doesn't, uh... doesn't really feel like your style." Probably as evidenced by how mad Winter sounds and how the book was flying away from his hands.

[fightinginfinity]

➥ II

[ In his efforts to get back into shape, Tony has taken to jogging around town on occasion when he’s not elbows-deep in ADI work or his own personal projects (which are moving frustratingly slowly, but frustration is a great motivator when it comes to strenuous physical activity). And strenuous it is, which is also very frustrating, so there’s no winning here really.

Still, Tony is putting the work in because he’s sick of being sick. And frail. And more vulnerable than he already is without his suit. Yeah yeah, he’s not ‘nothing without the suit’, but God would it help him out right now, especially when the next creepshow premieres in town.

As it is, Tony needs to take frequent breaks to catch his breath, warm up and try valiantly not to pass out from the strain on his body. It’s annoying. He does notice something odd during one of these breaks, though, something that nearly makes him burst out laughing from what a bizarre picture it makes.

It’s Barnes, seated out in the frigid air, glower fully in place while reading what looks to be a romance novel. Wait, no, not reading, he’s chucking it through the air. That seems a bit more in-character to Tony.

Listen, Tony has thought about things a bit. He hasn’t had much time to reflect on his strange reunion with Barnes in the hospital, but when he does, he finds that he’s becoming less and less capable of accessing the hatred he’d felt toward the man back when they’d fought in Siberia. It’s like a JPEG image losing quality over time, or some other techy metaphor Tony is too cold and worn out to think of.

So...he reaches out. Why not? The guy looks deeply lonely, sitting alone in the almost empty park, and Tony finds he can access a sense of empathy for that. So he steps a tiny bit closer, rubbing his hands together to warm them and also to stem his anxiety. ]

Not your favorite genre I take it.

[worthallthis]

[Oh look, it's Red Bull guy. Winter has discerned from various network conversations that his name is Tony, and he's technically from the same world Winter is, given he knew Strange and Wanda. (He has not noticed the last name, nor has he cared to dig. This is possibly a mistake.)

Winter gives the book now lying on the snow a sour look, then points at it with one metal finger.]

The people in that book. Behave very badly. I am not modelling my behavior on them.

[This statement may be pretty baffling, given poor Tony is missing all the context. Don't worry, Tony, all you have to do is ask.]

[fightinginfinity]

[ Well...that's not entirely true. Tony had done his due diligence and researched Barnes quite a bit in his down time after their, uh, disagreement, so he's got the basics down. Sure he isn't fully up to speed on all the nitty-gritty details, but he knows the gist; after all, he'd heard Steve shouting about brainwashing, about 'it wasn't his fault', but rage had deafened him to logic that day the way it never had before in his life. That kind of rage, the sort that parts him from what he excels at--what defines him--is a place he never wants to visit again.

So yeah. He kind of gets what's happening here. Sort of. ]

Probably for the best you don't model your behavior on any fictional character, really. Especially not... [ Tony walks over to the book, picks it up and brushes off the snow before turning to a page and briefly skimming it:] Charlotte, whose 'forbidden love for Matthew consumes her thoughts and burns in her nethers'. Seems like she's putting all her eggs in one basket, y'know, which is a classic romantic faux pas.

III

[failedpromise]

Hacking things the organic way was slow. Cortana had done her best to write faster, more efficient scripts and tools for the job, but there was only so far she could go before hardware limitations became a bottleneck, and ADI didn't seem too keen about letting her plug herself into their systems to work in a more direct manner. True, there were things she could solve in an instant without having to be hooked up to anything, but there was still a lot of time just spent ...waiting.

Then again, there was a lot of time she'd had to spend waiting when she was able to be directly plugged into systems. At least now she was able to move around while doing so.

Still she-

Cortana stopped. Who was that? She's not afraid of people with weapons-side effect of being in the military. She also knows the look of someone in deep distress but having difficulty expressing it-a side effect of working with Spartans.

Another side effect: she can't bring herself to just turn away or ignore this stranger huddled in the hallway and clutching his gun like it's a lifeline.

And so, steeling herself, she approaches.

"Hey."

[worthallthis]

His eyes flick briefly, and belatedly, up to her face-- left cheek, or thereabouts-- before going back to the floor. He's aware of her. He doesn't actually know who she is, aside from someone he saw briefly while keeping watch over his people at their Ladies Night.

He has no idea what to say. After a too-long beat, he grates out, "What."

[failedpromise]

She looks a little different than she did then: without her human disguise, she's fully revealed in all her glowy blue glory.

"Are you okay?" Her voice is gentle. She knows the answer is obviously no, but he might not appreciate her saying so.

Wildcard

[musicdied]

Yelena's schedule is not quite so predictable as Winter's. She doesn't eschew routine, but neither is it something she finds a necessary touchstone. Today, however, she'd mentioned intending to make use of the training facilities at headquarters, and that's where she can be found when he comes looking, halfway up a climbing wall and contemplating just how many handholds she should skip on the next branch of her ascent.

[worthallthis]

Winter has taken about fifteen minutes to hyperventilate in a maintenance closet, to get that out of his system so he can at least be coherent, but now he's charging in to find Yelena. He's just glad she was easy to find.

He skids to a stop at the base of the climbing wall. "Yelena. Yelena, come down." There's actual tone to his voice. That tone is "urgent".

[musicdied]

As methods of getting her attention go, it's an effective one. First, because it's Winter, and while he's more expressive than he was when she's first arrived and encountered him in ADI's halls, his affect is still typically muted at best. And second, because this is Gloucester, and she's grown accustomed to urgency meaning impending blood, madness, or a combination of both.

And so it should come as no surprise when Yelena kicks lightly off the climbing wall, dropping hard and fast, only checking her descent at the very end before she touches down.

"What happened?" she asks, regarding Winter sidelong as she begins unclipping the climbing harness - strictly speaking, she doesn't really need it for such a low wall, but the familiarity is useful to maintain - motions brisk and efficient.