worthallthis (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
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apocalypsehowcomm2022-11-13 11:08 pm
worthallthis) wrote in apocalypsehowcomm2022-11-13 11:08 pm
Doppelgangers, dreams, and downtime, oh my [OTA log]
Who: Winter (Bucky Barnes) and OPEN
When: October and early November
Where: All around town
Summary: Catch-all for October and November because I am So Slow
Warnings: Ruthless hunting, doubles, depersonalization
I. Doppelgangers - Winter's
If you run into Winter and he gives you a cold stare... that might not be Winter. His gruff but generally helpful demeanor is nowhere to be found, and he stalks by you. Maybe bumps your shoulder as he passes. Maybe pushes you!
Try to talk to him and he glares in silence, or occasionally growls. Let him into his apartment at your risk, because he's going to punch a wall or break something with his metal arm.
Mostly, though, he stands and stares into the middle distance, in a stiff parade rest, tense and coiled like the worst version of himself from over a year ago. Try to talk to him. Go ahead. Give it a go and see how it goes.
II. Doppelgangers - YOURS
Winter figures out what's going on pretty quickly, works out code words with his closest people, distributes Yelena's trackers on some of them, and then goes hunting. He has his knives, and his handguns, and occasionally if he's tracked something out of the city proper, his rifle. He's looking for familiar faces acting strangely. Looking for people whose smiles are wrong.
Looking for himself, too, because he will not allow something with his face to hurt his people. To hurt any people who don't deserve it. Any of his friends who want to help him are welcome to try and detain his double long enough for him to come and try to kill it, if they can get a signal to him in enough time.
III. Dreams - Winter's
Winter's patron is the Stranger. For the past month, he has been stalking an Asset version of himself, and in his dreams that tugs at him again. He stalks through the dreamscape-- the helicarrier falling apart around him; the concrete and metal halls of a HYDRA base; someone's fancy home-- with his rifle in his hands, expression fighting with blankness. Anyone he comes across gets the barrel leveled at them without hesitation, but he doesn't shoot.
He's trying hard to remember why he doesn't want to shoot.
Eventually he wins against the Stranger, pulls himself out of the assassin's mindset, but that doesn't mean he's done. The doppelganger that he already killed out in the real world is here again, and its stalking him now, too, and whoever is in his dream with him. "Stay close to me," he says, and holds his metal arm around his companion.
IV. Dreams - YOURS
Did you want Winter in your nightmare? Did I not find it because October completely ate my brain? Feel free to link it here, or give me a summary, and Winter will absolutely slip into your nightmare!
V. Downtime
No doll parts are mailed to Winter this week, and he isn't affected by the need to eat things that aren't actually food, and no one in their right mind would put this man to decorating for a party... so the first couple weeks of November are pretty quiet for Winter. He does his patrols, he brings the team donuts a couple times in the morning, he sits in public places and reads out loud to himself or to anyone else who wants to sit with him and listen, and he actually visits a few stores to stare at clothing in an attempt to find something that isn't a black hoodie and yet doesn't feel awful to wear.
He might also be found prowling around the local neighborhoods, as if looking at... the houses? Weird.
If he runs into any friends or even NPCs having issues with any of the doll parts or the food cravings, however, he's happy to put his nose into things and try to make them stop....
When: October and early November
Where: All around town
Summary: Catch-all for October and November because I am So Slow
Warnings: Ruthless hunting, doubles, depersonalization
I. Doppelgangers - Winter's
If you run into Winter and he gives you a cold stare... that might not be Winter. His gruff but generally helpful demeanor is nowhere to be found, and he stalks by you. Maybe bumps your shoulder as he passes. Maybe pushes you!
Try to talk to him and he glares in silence, or occasionally growls. Let him into his apartment at your risk, because he's going to punch a wall or break something with his metal arm.
Mostly, though, he stands and stares into the middle distance, in a stiff parade rest, tense and coiled like the worst version of himself from over a year ago. Try to talk to him. Go ahead. Give it a go and see how it goes.
II. Doppelgangers - YOURS
Winter figures out what's going on pretty quickly, works out code words with his closest people, distributes Yelena's trackers on some of them, and then goes hunting. He has his knives, and his handguns, and occasionally if he's tracked something out of the city proper, his rifle. He's looking for familiar faces acting strangely. Looking for people whose smiles are wrong.
Looking for himself, too, because he will not allow something with his face to hurt his people. To hurt any people who don't deserve it. Any of his friends who want to help him are welcome to try and detain his double long enough for him to come and try to kill it, if they can get a signal to him in enough time.
III. Dreams - Winter's
Winter's patron is the Stranger. For the past month, he has been stalking an Asset version of himself, and in his dreams that tugs at him again. He stalks through the dreamscape-- the helicarrier falling apart around him; the concrete and metal halls of a HYDRA base; someone's fancy home-- with his rifle in his hands, expression fighting with blankness. Anyone he comes across gets the barrel leveled at them without hesitation, but he doesn't shoot.
He's trying hard to remember why he doesn't want to shoot.
Eventually he wins against the Stranger, pulls himself out of the assassin's mindset, but that doesn't mean he's done. The doppelganger that he already killed out in the real world is here again, and its stalking him now, too, and whoever is in his dream with him. "Stay close to me," he says, and holds his metal arm around his companion.
IV. Dreams - YOURS
Did you want Winter in your nightmare? Did I not find it because October completely ate my brain? Feel free to link it here, or give me a summary, and Winter will absolutely slip into your nightmare!
V. Downtime
No doll parts are mailed to Winter this week, and he isn't affected by the need to eat things that aren't actually food, and no one in their right mind would put this man to decorating for a party... so the first couple weeks of November are pretty quiet for Winter. He does his patrols, he brings the team donuts a couple times in the morning, he sits in public places and reads out loud to himself or to anyone else who wants to sit with him and listen, and he actually visits a few stores to stare at clothing in an attempt to find something that isn't a black hoodie and yet doesn't feel awful to wear.
He might also be found prowling around the local neighborhoods, as if looking at... the houses? Weird.
If he runs into any friends or even NPCs having issues with any of the doll parts or the food cravings, however, he's happy to put his nose into things and try to make them stop....
no subject
More importantly, though, he says urgently, "Steve. We need to go. Will you come with me?"
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He shoves at Winter's arm angrily, though it's not very effective. "I know you never wanted me here. Well, too bad. I can do it. I'll do it on my own."
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no subject
"If this is a dream," he points out, clearly disbelieving, "then where are we supposed to go?"
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Winter shakes the confusion off. "To look for Ava," he repeats. "She might be in this dream somewhere. Or she might be in another one. But staying shut up in your apartment isn't going to get us closer to finding her."
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He goes to one of the drawers and pulls out a kitchen knife. Then, he glances at Winter and pulls out a second. They're much bigger and deadlier-looking than any knives they might have actually owned. He holds the second out, handle angled toward Winter, looking almost reluctant. "Might as well go armed."
no subject
And he really doesn't want to see Steve die in this dream. He really, viscerally doesn't want that.
no subject
So. We'll see if he actually takes that advice.
He hefts his own knife, only a little inexpertly, and glances at the window one more time, almost longingly, before heading toward the apartment door, assuming Winter will follow.
It opens onto a cold blast of arctic air.
no subject
He follows close on Steve's heels, and winces at the cold air. "It was not that cold in the hall a minute ago," he complains. Stupid dreams.
no subject
Steve raises his arm, trying to block his face even just a little as he blinks in the cold and takes a tentative step through the door - and sliding on the snowy mountainside it leads to, instead of the hallway he'd expected.
"It was also a hall a minute ago," he calls back, but that doesn't seem to deter him. "If somebody doesn't want to be found, they're sure sending us a message."