Stuff [OTA]

[worthallthis]

Who: Winter (Bucky Barnes) and OPEN
When: September catch-all
Where: Various, see prompts
Summary: What Winter gets up to in September
Warnings:


I. Movie(s) - his apartment, close CR only

In the end, Winter chickens out on setting up another outdoor projected watch party for the movies he wants to watch. Instead, he invites people to his apartment sporadically, sometimes one at a time, sometimes in pairs. He always has food and cocoa for them while they watch The Wizard of Oz or Buck Privates or Snow White, all movies that apparently came out during the time he was supposedly living in New York being a normal person.

He watches each one with dedication, hoping for... something. He's not really sure what.

Buck Privates makes him laugh, at least, startling even himself-- even if it's also kind of uncomfortable. He remembers more flashes of the war during that one than he does the movie.


II. Weeding - in town, OTA

The lamb plants sprouted in one place: he and Yelena rooted them out, burned the remains, and salted the ground where they'd sprouted. Now he's prowling the town making sure there aren't any more around. Find him poking his nose into alleys around Thing of Beauty, haunting warehouses near the one they'd cleaned out, and glaring at the fences around Dogtown as if suspecting the things to be in there, lurking, waiting to spread outside the confines of the weird places.


III. Lost - Dogtown, OTA

Winter is... not great at simply drifting along and not thinking. He is not great at being careless. So when he dives in after some stupid kids late one afternoon, he finds himself soon hopelessly lost. He isn't afraid... but he is frustrated and that apparently counts as enough to keep him turning around on himself for hours. He misses dinner. He misses curfew.

Someone might have to come in after him and lead him out, or else let him stumble out whenever the woods simply get bored of him, in the middle of the night.


IV. Passtimes - around town, OTA

Even when not "weeding", Winter patrols the city on his days off, because he can't not work even when he's not on call at ADI. His patrols are, often, more of an amble than a stalk, hands tucked into his coat pockets and gaze roving around to interesting and familiar things about town rather than fixed and open to take in as much as possible at once.

He sits on benches in the (non-Dogwood) park and reads out loud to himself from whatever book he's working on that day. He checks the local papers on streetcorners (those he doesn't read out loud). He buys a milkshake at a little drive-through and looks surprised at how good it is. He looks for any sign that there might be an event related to swing dancing anywhere in town, and is largely disappointed at the lack.

A friend passing by might get offered a sip of his milkshake. A stranger paying any attention to the newspaper stand might get his newspaper offered to them, even if he isn't finished with it.

Comments

ii.

[setthetone]

It's been one of those months. Or, well, times of the month. Where things just happen and you should probably deal with that but there is no real way of dealing with that so Carter just cycles through coping mechanisms and hope something sticks.

Like going for walks. And pretending that did anything to clear his head.

When he sees Bucky, Carter slows, hands in his pockets, furrowing his brow as he approaches and peeks into the alley.

"Please don't tell me you're chasing anything supernatural."

[worthallthis]

"Okay, I won't," Winter says, voice dry as dust.

He can't leave it at that, though, because he doesn't want to spread fear himself. "It's not something that runs, though, if that makes you feel any better. It won't hurt you unless you run into it and do something stupid like touch it."

[setthetone]

Carter sticks out his lower lip, pondering that for a moment.

"You know what? It does."

It sounds a lot better than the encounters he's had over the past months. He really wouldn't mind a lack of being chased around for once.

"So what is this mystery thing?"

[worthallthis]

"Plants that look like sheep," Winter says. "They're stuck to their stalks until they're harvested. Then they look like weird skin phone cases." Carter may have heard about this, if he's been following along with Donna's list of previous Entity shenanigans. This was something that cropped up the previous year. "So long as you don't touch them, they can't hurt you."

[setthetone]

"I think I remember hearing about that..."

For a moment he stops and marvels how he doesn't even bat an eye at this wild combination of concepts - sheep plants with... yeah. It's almost like he can see himself from the outside, shrugging off supernatural events.

That's not good. He doesn't want to get desensitized or jaded about any of this but what can you do?

"Don't touch the creepy skin phone cases. Got it. What are you gonna do? Spray some pesticides?"

i. The Wizard of Oz

[bindlestifflost]

George for the most part isn't completely sure what to make of the movie. He's surprised and delighted when it switches to color. Visually, it's stunning. Thematically...he's less sure of where it's going. Now Lennie, Lennie would have eaten it with a spoon and begged for more but also not given either of them time to enjoy it with endless questions.

He sips his cocoa as he thinks and watches. Only when it's over does he turn to him and say, "Well, what'd you think?"

[worthallthis]

Winter's brows are together, like he's thinking hard. "The ending's wrong," he says slowly. "It's supposed to be real. A real other world. A nice one, not one like here." Baby Bucky Barnes might have read the original books to his little sisters. And Steve.

So while he's seen the movie, and it was familiar, there's a sense that it isn't quite right.

[bindlestifflost]

"Huh," he says thoughtfully. "I dunno if I like the thought a' that little girl gettin' stuck somewhere she ain't with her family. They'd a' been worried about her somethin' fierce, and she'd never have been able to tell 'em she was OK." He's glad that he didn't have anyone when he was brought here. No one to worry about him, no one for him to worry about worrying.

[worthallthis]

"I think she. Went back? It just wasn't a dream," Winter says, frowning, trying to remember. Then he makes a frustrated noise and rubs at his forehead. "I hate this. Not remembering it all the way. Just impressions."

[bindlestifflost]

"A little like tryin' to think a' things from when you was a little kid, maybe," he offers. "Where you get a feelin' or notion more 'n anything concrete?" He rubs his free hand down his face thoughtfully. "Sometimes I find lettin' it go in the moment'll get it workin' in the back a' your mind. It'll come out later when you's doin' somethin' else, like playing Solitaire, or takin' a shower."

III

[punched_hitler]

Steve is kind of bad at curfews sometimes. But Winter is, to his knowledge, not. At least, not like this, with no word, he figures. So when he tries to get ahold of Winter after curfew and has no luck, he doesn't really stop to think before heading out to try to find him.

He doesn't know what draws him to Dogtown; probably because it's the most interesting, dangerous, and likely place for someone to disappear, with nothing else seeming to take center stage at the moment. Or maybe it's luck. (Probably dumb luck.) But he's on the path (for now) with a flashlight, sweeping it through the trees and calling for Winter, because he'd rather make a ruckus and a fool of himself than walk right by his best friend.

[worthallthis]

Winter is prowling through the forest, getting smacked by branches he was sure weren't there when he turned that way. He stops at the distant sound of a shout. He can't make out what the person's saying, or who it is, but it's the first he's heard of anyone since he lost track of those dumb-ass kids.

He tries to turn that direction, but whenever he tries to go anywhere in here, he winds up going the wrong way. So he stops after a minute, remembering some old instinct to stay put when lost. "Hey!" he calls instead. Maybe this person can find him instead? "Over here!"

[punched_hitler]

Steve hears a voice - muffled, far off, to the... left? He swings his flashlight around. "Winter?" he calls, and yep, this is him, stepping off the path - or starting to, at least. He takes a half-step off, one foot still planted, trying to make sure he actually needs to go left. It's hard to tell. "Can you hear me?"

[worthallthis]

That sounds like... Steve. Shit, Steve is here? Oh no. No no no these woods tried to eat him once before, he can't let it get him again. "Steve! Stay there!" he shouts back, trying to plow through the foliage in that direction, instead.

[punched_hitler]

Steve can't quite make out what the shouted words are saying, but he starts by waving his flashlight beam overhead. The source of the sound is hard to pinpoint, like it's coming from everywhere and nowhere all at once. It's frustrating, and he's not the kind of guy to stand still when he could be doing something. But even he knows that if both of them take off in different directions, they'll never connect.

So, waving the light. For now. For however long his patience lasts. "This way!"

II

[musicdied]

It's near Dogtown that Yelena comes across him. It's her turn to patrol the fences, to chase off wandering idiots, or to dive in after the ones who inevitably slip through, whether lured by contrarianism, juvenile bravado, or some other, less inherent thing. She resents it a little - with music once again flowing from the graveyards, it feels like a waste of time to be stuck rescuing people from their own stupidity - but given everything Dogtown chooses to be, there's too much risk that anyone who spends too long inside the fence might come back as something else to shirk her responsibilities.

Veering a little off her path to catch up with Winter, however, doesn't count as shirking. She raises a hand in greeting as she lopes over, waiting until she's within normal conversational difference to say, "If you've come with orders to napalm the entire fucking forest, I might have to kiss you."

[worthallthis]

"Sorry, no napalm," Winter says, with clear regret. "Maybe somebody should bring that up to management, though."

Hard to have trouble with Dogtown when there is no Dogtown, right?

"Any trouble?" he asks, falling in beside her on what he assumes is her patrol route.

[musicdied]

"Just a few stupid children trying to sneak in," Yelena says, never mind the fact that she probably would have been one of those stupid children had she been permitted to have a childhood.

"So far, nothing has tried to get out this month. I'm trying to decide how much that should worry us."

[worthallthis]

"Things don't usually come out of Dogtown," Winter muses. "Usually things that start here mostly stay here, don't they?" Maybe the birds. But he never actually caught any birds leaving Dogtown; there just seemed to be watching birds everywhere, all of a sudden.

[musicdied]

"There was the horrible deer," Yelena notes. "And the other hand things that escaped while we were all away. That's why they closed it off in the first place, because things were starting to leak into the rest of the world. Which is why they should let us use napalm."

She gives the fence a brief scowl, as though doubting its ability to keep things penned in any more than it keeps people out.

ii!

[lowficharm]

Martin remembers those plants, and when he hears whispering that they've been seen around lately, he can't help but go and take a look himself. He's sure someone has dealt with it- if anyone knew enough what they were they certainly knew enough to destroy them- but still, he finds himself walking past Things of Beauty and just taking a (maybe paranoid) peek around. It's one such time where he rounds the corner and ends up facing Winter, suddenly feeling like he's been caught, but when the initial surprise wears off he greets the other man with a smile.

"Hey! Hey, good to see you, sorry, I-- didn't expect to see anyone else here? I guess. Not that it's odd you are."

[worthallthis]

Winter blinks at Martin's surprise, then holds up his hands as if trying to look non-threatening. It doesn't help a whole lot, given his whole vibe is kind of threatening when he's on the job. But at least Martin's familiar with his vibe, and hopefully won't take it badly.

"There were more sheep plants," he explains. "I've been making sure the problem's been taken care of. And no more start growing."

[lowficharm]

Martin is Very familar with the vibe, and honestly, this is probably the least threatening he's ever seen him (barring that bit where he was terrified on a train). Honestly, the admission that he's here to deal with the plants gives him a sigh of relief. He has no doubt Winter would be far more effective than him at dealing with them, after all.

"Oh thank goodness- not, not for them, I-I mean for you. Dealing with them. I, I had also heard they were here and I really didn't know how I was going to handle that but I knew someone had to, you know? Glad uh, glad it's you. Found any today?"

[worthallthis]

"Not today. Belova and I torched the only batch I've seen so far," he admits. He's just being cautious, really. Paranoid, even. But these are some of his least favorite things, and also one of the easiest to do something about. "Salted the ground there, too."

He might have a couple little baggies of salt in some of his pockets, and surreptitiously sprinkles them anywhere he thinks might grow sheep-plants.

[lowficharm]

"Okay, that's-- it makes sense maybe a couple of them, you know, got out somehow, but we don't need any more of those." He shudders just a moment in thinking about them, or where they might have been hiding. But actually, that brings up another question.

"Do you know-- I mean, why they're showing up now? Were they here and we just didn't know it?" That's a worse thing to think about, frankly, because then who knows how many are just around in places. "Has anyone checked the warehouse? Where they were, uhm, before."