worthallthis: (scared)
worthallthis ([personal profile] worthallthis) wrote in [community profile] apocalypsehowcomm2022-05-04 10:10 pm

Fear Upon Fear [Log]

Who: Winter (Bucky Barnes) and OPEN
When: May catch-all
Where: Medical, the ADI apartments, the library, and the train
Summary: A modified daily routine, book fair, and then the awfulness of a train
Warnings: Continued struggles with personalization, PTSD, medical phobias, catatonia


I. Anti-Medical

After the assault on the circus, Winter spends all of one day in ADI's medical wing, and he spends it alternately flinching and huddling as far from any person as he can get, or completely unresponsive, staring blankly at a wall and letting the doctor poke worriedly at him and his burned leg.

Then in the middle of the night, he flees. Find him outside the the ADI apartment complex at dawn, huddled miserably on the lawn against the bars while waiting for the gates to open.

After that, he spends a few days recovering in his apartment and limping restlessly around the buildings even if moving around is clearly a bad idea, or sitting in whatever common room has the best light, trying to do repairs on his damaged left arm. It creaks and thunks rather than whirring like usual whenever he moves it, and the plates, though cleaned, still show scorch marks.


II. (Not) Well Read

Winter is the opposite of well-read. He has read exactly one book since stumbling into freedom from HYDRA, and he didn't even finish it. So he isn't even particularly interested in the book fair. It's only when people at ADI mention something off about the "quizzes" that he thinks he ought to at least drop by.

He looks distinctly out of place, even uncomfortable, in the library. Something about all the shelves, all the tables, the over-abundance of things to look at and choose, makes him feel off-balance and nervous. It's bad enough that being told he already has a library card elicits growls that make the librarians quail a little. "I have never been in this building before," he hisses at her. "I have never read a book."

Someone might want to distract him.

He doesn't even touch the computers with the quizzes on them, though he does eye them warily, and maybe hovers a little whenever someone he knows is using one. He doesn't trust anything about this. Honestly, he's gotten to the point where he doesn't trust much of anything.


III. Training Wheels Not On

He's not entirely recovered yet, and his arm is still maybe a little glitchy-- not a lot, just a little, and it looks repaired, anyway-- so Winter signs on for the away mission. All of his people are going, anyway, so of course he has to go and protect them. Besides, he doesn't need a working leg to shoot people. There's a rifle with a good scope in his bag, after all.

He makes it all the way onto the platform, but then he's confronted with... a train. The shape of it, the sound the engines make, the steam of it-- he freezes. He can't make himself move closer. Anyone looking close will even note him shaking a little as he stares at it.

And he has no idea why. Which actually makes it worse.


IV. Training Wheels In

Winter makes it on the train. Somehow. Maybe someone coaxes him, maybe someone drags him, maybe he just disassociates right out of his head and follows someone blindly. But now he's on this train, and it is not better. The motion of it makes him feel sick. The sound of it. The smell of it. Looking out the window is impossible. Moving from car to car isn't happening at all.

He spends most of the trip huddled in one of the sleeping cars, sitting on the bed with his arms wrapped tightly around his knees, wedged into the corner it makes with the wall so the motion doesn't rock him more than necessary. He sleeps when he passes out (which isn't often). He eats when people bring him things. He does occasional washcloth baths because he can't bring himself to use the on-car shower, so the stink of fear clings to him most of the time. He picks compulsively at the remaining bandage on his leg or at the plates in his arm or at his hair.

He does better with company. Please keep him company. He leaves the door halfway open at all times, even when he's asleep, in the hopes people won't leave him alone. But he can't quite bring himself to get up and seek people out, either.
abrightboy: (regretful)

[personal profile] abrightboy 2022-05-21 11:00 am (UTC)(link)
“That’s okay,” Malcolm assures him. “The existence of a list for you proves they’re not genuine. That’s evidence on its own.” He gestures to where people are seated at the computers. “What’s going on there?”
abrightboy: (counterpoint)

[personal profile] abrightboy 2022-05-23 12:43 pm (UTC)(link)
"Personal questions... do they follow a particular theme?" Malcolm asks curiously.
abrightboy: (figuring you out)

[personal profile] abrightboy 2022-05-24 11:47 am (UTC)(link)
Angry or upset. Invasive personal questions then.

"It does sound like a Fear thing," Malcolm agrees. "Has everyone you've seen take one had an adverse emotional reaction?"
abrightboy: (explains)

[personal profile] abrightboy 2022-05-30 09:33 pm (UTC)(link)
"Interesting," Malcolm remarks. "They're not usually so... direct and obvious about feeding the Entities." He looks at Winter. "Have you seen anyone you know well take the quiz?"
abrightboy: (face shrug)

[personal profile] abrightboy 2022-05-31 05:21 pm (UTC)(link)
"Do you think they just have less trauma than ADI people?" Malcolm asks him.
abrightboy: (counterpoint)

[personal profile] abrightboy 2022-06-06 08:50 pm (UTC)(link)
"True, but most of us brought a bunch with us to start with," Malcolm points out. "Listen, are you sticking around here for a bit?"
abrightboy: (fond contemplates)

[personal profile] abrightboy 2022-06-10 07:38 pm (UTC)(link)
"For as long as you do stay here," Malcolm says, "maybe you can let me know if anyone has an outsize reaction compared to everyone else you've seen. And get me any details about it that you can. Can you do that?"
abrightboy: (wants to help)

[personal profile] abrightboy 2022-06-20 12:28 pm (UTC)(link)
It was meant more to ascertain whether he was willing to, but it did come out badly.

"Thank you. I really appreciate it."

There's other weird stuff going on and he wants to look into that too.
abrightboy: (counterpoint)

[personal profile] abrightboy 2022-06-27 09:04 pm (UTC)(link)
"We can meet at the coffee shop, if you want. Hot chocolate's on me," he offers, offering his hand to shake as well.