worthallthis: (thinking)
worthallthis ([personal profile] worthallthis) wrote in [community profile] apocalypsehowcomm2022-03-13 01:23 pm

March Catch-All [OTA]

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."
musicdied: (smile)

[personal profile] musicdied 2022-05-22 03:07 am (UTC)(link)
"That will come with time," Yelena replies. "It's...easier, I think, once you have the basics for a benchmark. A lot of complicated emotions are really just a few simple ones mixed together. Like painting."

Or baking, she supposes. Which brings her to, "We'll help you, if we can. Kate and I."
musicdied: (downcast)

[personal profile] musicdied 2022-05-22 11:16 pm (UTC)(link)
"Maybe if you asked," Yelena says, head canting slightly as she considers the dilemma. "If you're comfortable with that, once you have the chance to get used to him being here."

Because all hope aside, she suspects that's the big hurdle right now, acclimating to a new and disquieting presence.
musicdied: (figure)

[personal profile] musicdied 2022-05-25 03:34 am (UTC)(link)
"Put a tracker on him," she suggests, only halfway joking.

It's like a cat bell, but for super soldiers.

She gives him a considering look, something in her expression relaxing a little. He's never the easiest to read, but he does seem to be out of the woods now - as much as anyone ever can be in Gloucester. "Are you going to stay around, or head back to the apartments for now?"
musicdied: (Default)

[personal profile] musicdied 2022-05-26 03:29 am (UTC)(link)
"If you need to burn off some energy, I'm done with my assignments for the day," she offers. Training, maybe not a good idea. Sparring with someone who's quick enough on her feet and knows him well enough to keep herself safe? It's worth making the offer, at least.

And it gives her an excuse to stick around long enough to track Captain Rogers herself, both to get a good read on him and to perhaps arm him with some of what the initial briefing doesn't cover.
musicdied: (encouraging)

[personal profile] musicdied 2022-05-29 04:30 am (UTC)(link)
She falls into step with him, an easy, familiar rhythm. When he speaks, she glances at him sidelong, then smiles. "It's what family's for."