apocalypsehowcomm | August Catch-all

Entry tags:

August Catch-all

Who: Bucky Barnes (AKA the dude who doesn't have a proper name right now) and OPEN
When: August catch-all
Where: ADI headquarters, ADI apartments, around town
Summary: Just working, training, and being quietly creepy
Warnings: Internalized depersonalization

I. Patrols - ADI headquarters, ADI apartments

Working security is not entirely mindless, but it's close. Patrol around the outside of the ADI building complex, patrol through the buildings, prod the occasional air vent in the ceiling or panels in the wall just in case there's someone hiding in there, then repeat. It's familiar. It's comfortable. It's not quite mindless, but it's close enough to let him settle into diffuse focus where he doesn't have to worry about lack of orders and going home to not having anything to do there, either.

He's not averse to company on the job, but he's not... exactly chatty.

Sometimes he gets restless and repeats the process around the ADI apartment complex, too. Spot him at night, whether shortly after dinner or in the small hours of the morning, walking at a regular pace around the apartment complex fence, eyes alert but tired. He might be more chatty now-- maybe, a little-- looking over anyone who approaches and nodding in greeting.

II. Keeping or Offering an Edge - ADI headquarters

A lot of his spare time is spent in the target range and training rooms at ADI headquarters. Patrols are easy, but they don't keep you sharp. And he needs to keep sharp, especially as he's found his strength and speed... a little lacking, around here. So he can't depend on it without maintenance. Plus, maintenance helps with the pain from the arm.

So he maintains. Strength exercises, shadowboxing, practicing his aim with guns, flipping and throwing knives.

And if he sees anyone in either room looking lost or clearly struggling, he drifts over. Clasps his hands behind his back and ducks his head. "I can help train," he offers.

III. Exploration - Around town

He doesn't want to be taken by surprise by any path he'll be asked to take for ADI or for a person who needs rescued or killed, or ever be unaware of ambush points, so he does a lot of exploring around town, too. Poking his nose into shops, prowling around suburbs and apartment complexes, and looking up at trees in the park. He doesn't ever sit down in a restaurant or on a bench, but he loiters outside the former and watches the latter like he expects them to bite him, though someone could possibly convince him to try either one.

More than once he gets the cops called on him, because he does most of his wandering around in his full mask and goggles, face comfortably obscured. It helps him feel stronger, for some reason, and it means he doesn't have to deal with making eye contact or controlling his expression. Fellow ADI transplants might find him staring in stony silence at a well-meaning police officer stammering through a warning to stop hanging around residential areas.

Wanna help out?

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It has recently come to her attention that she is mostly defenseless. That fact is what had brought her down to the training rooms. She is currently throwing jabs at a punching bag.

On her own world, Kate had not considered all that her advanced healing rate did for her. It had been taken for granted. She never got sick. She never felt tired. Life's tiny maladies never seemed to have effected her. Kate had never been bothered by such a thing as a minor injury.

Now that it's gone, she misses it. That night on the docks, when she had been sent to retrieve a baseball for ADI, she had been sucker punched. It had been a one-two blow, the first to her eye and the second to her stomach. Whereas she normally would have been able to deflect one of those blows with a forcefield, she felt each of them.

Where are her abilities? It doesn't feel safe to ask about them because she's heard no one else asking the same question. If more people had them, Kate assumes that there would be more chatter. It seems like a logical assumption. More people would have mentioned it, she thinks. Maybe she's the only one? Should she ask ADI about it? No.

Kate's head tilts to the side and she pauses in throwing punches. She will not tell ADI about it. She will not tell anyone else about it. It doesn't solve her problem and in fact may create more. Kate is going to do what she does best, bury it. (And have it possibly blow up in her face at a later date but that's okay. That's a problem for future!Kate!)

At first, she throws proper punches at the bag. Her form is good. Kate has taken several kick-boxing lessons and practices it but she is so keenly aware of how ineffectual it really is. It makes her angry. She could have been studying something useful instead of using it as an excuse to buy coordinated workout gear and look cute. Then her punches turn irregular. She hits the bag with the fleshy side of her balled up fists.

"I can help train," Winter offers and Kate nearly jumps out of her own skin. Her entire body twitches as though it is going through a malfunction in deciding between flight or fight. The noise she makes echoes that same malfunction. Kate shudders, her dignity in ruins. WHERE HAD HE COME FROM?

"Winter, didn't hear you. Been there long?" She doesn't know why she's trying to play it cool now. Better late than never?

"I come here after work every day," he says solemnly. Which means: yes. He's been here for at least half an hour. He wasn't watching her the whole time, but from the weight machines on the other side of the room he could certainly see her if he kept his head tilted the right way.

Hence the offer. But she doesn't seem happy to see him, and it looks like maybe he'd startled her. So he adds, "Sorry."

It's not that she's unhappy to see him. She is embarrassed. It shows. Her posture is a little off and there is a slight redness creeping into her cheeks. He scared her and now she feels awkward about it. If these two people had been anyone else, they might have laughed about it.

"It's okay. I didn't hear you approach and you startled me." She reaches up and brushes her bangs back and smiles a little. It's not his fault. Kate really should have heard him.

"If you're offering, that would be great."

"I am unusually quiet," he agrees solemnly. "I will make more of an effort to make noise when I move." She's his roommate. He ought to not be scaring her. Probably. Right?

He looks her over with a critical sort of eye, not disapproving, but calculating. "You do not have any physical training. Yes?" He'll have to... start small. Like with Monika. Though she's in better physical shape than Monika, probably due to being an actual, y'know, adult who cares about fitness.

"Thank you." How is a man of his stature so quiet? It boggles her mind. Then again, the problem could be with her hearing. Maybe it's both?

"For my own benefit, let's just say no." It is probably the best option for the both of them. What works in a gym clearly does not work for her in the streets. "Consider me a blank slate."

That's easy. That, he can do. It's the same training he started Monika on. That he started-- someone else on. He doesn't know who.

So he nods, and moves to the mats laid out for wrestling or tumbling, expecting her to follow. He turns to face her. "First lesson. Learn how to fall without hurting yourself. So you get roll more quickly to your feet."

She does follow. Winter has her undivided attention.

Kate looks down at the mats and then back up to him. "Aha." There are two ways that she can fall. She can throw herself or he can push her. "Go limp or is there more to it?" Maybe there is more to it? She doesn't know. She's never practiced falling before.

It's all about landing on the right parts, in the right way. "Watch." He makes sure her eyes are on him, then promptly topples backwards, with no disregard for how he might get hurt in the landing. And he falls wrong, pointedly: limp, yes, but also a tangle of limbs and a head thunk on the ground. Thankfully, there's a mat.

Then he picks himself up, says, "That was the wrong way. See how it took longer to get up again. Banged the head, bashed the elbow. A bad fall."

Kate watches him fall and she winces upon his impact. She winces despite knowing that he is doing it on purpose and that there is a mat underneath him. It looks uncomfortable at best. She hopes that it is just uncomfortable.

"How do you correct yourself midfall?" The ground is so close. "How should you have fell?"

"Like this." And he shows her that, too, toppling backwards as if someone had swept his legs out from under him, but this time not banging anything, twisting his body around enough to protect his head and avoid any sharp edges hitting the mat.

He'll show her a few more times before he lets her try, answering any questions but not giving any actual verbal instructions. It's all demonstration and a little touch here and there to adjust her stance before she goes down.

And if she can't fall on her own, he will in fact sweep her legs out from under her, though he's ready to catch her if she looks like she might hurt herself.

Kate blinks. He had performed that move so deftly and quickly that Kate had to stand a moment in stunned silence. Winter had done this... a lot. Thy whys and hows aren't something she feels she should ask about. It's not her place.

She watches. She asks a few questions but when it comes time to actually throwing herself onto the mat, she hesitates. Kate is inside her head either too much or too little. From an outside perspective, it looks as though Kate is about to start break-dancing. This shouldn't be so difficult. She knows that she's flexible enough to contort her body.

"Okay. So I--" BAM!

It is a genuine look of shock that crosses her face when her legs go out from under her. Kate is flung towards the mat. She doesn't quite manage a roll but she does tuck enough and go limp enough that she doesn't feel any pain when she hits the ground. Kate doesn't get quickly to her feet either. She tries though, oh how she tries.

He steps back to let her get to her feet at her own pace. "Good. For a first try," is what he says. Not perfect, of course, but if that had been concrete, she wouldn't have knocked herself out or anything. "Again."

"Again?" No, no. It's okay. She nods her head. Of course, she should practice it. She should practice it multiple times because practice makes perfect. "Okay." It only takes her a few seconds this time to get out of her own head.

Kate flings herself to the ground. She doesn't hit her head but she miscalculates and lands right on her ass. However! She is quick to bring her legs up into a slight rotation that brings her to resting on her knees with her back to him.

"Somehow, I don't think that's right." Kate thinks she has just left her backside open to attack.

Good thing he's not actually here to hurt her. Or humiliate her. He could, he knows, send her sprawling before she could stop him, but he has no desire to. That's not how he teaches. "No," he says simply. "Not the correct way to get back to your feet. And the landing could have been better."

And he offers her his metal hand to climb up with, shifting so she can see him on her left side. "I will show you again."

Kate is keenly aware that the position she is in leaves her vulnerable. Her backside is open to attack. She knows that she didn't move quickly or turn around fast enough. If he had been her enemy, she would have been toast.

She accepts his help in getting to her feet. "Thank you. And thank you for training me." Once on her feet, Kate takes a small step backwards to give him more room. She is very focused on trying to pay attention. She wants to be a good student!

"You should stay alive in combat situations," he says firmly, which is the closest he'll say to potentially caring about her fate. Potentially worrying about her. "This will help."

And he proceeds to demonstrate falling again, and how to turn the landing into a roll back to his feet, several times, before positioning her with a couple gentle touches and making her try again.

Kate's response is a little slow in coming. "Thank you. I hope you stay alive as well." Maybe that is a language that he'll understand. She doesn't want to see him come to harm. Winter is her roommate which she thinks might mean something like friendship to him.

She watches intently. Pantomiming his moves while standing. When it's her turn to fall again, Kate flings herself down onto the mat. IT's the same as before EXCEPT this time when she lands on her ass, she whips herself around to complete the rotation. She is facing him. Her arms are up, fists balled while in a crouched position. "Better?"

At least this time he didn't have to dump her, instead. He watches intently, then nods. "Better." Not perfect, but better.

He touches the points where she could have turned her body differently while falling, then makes her do it again.

And again.

Even once she has it perfect, he makes her repeat it several more times until she either seems too exhausted to do it right, or seems to have it down automatically rather than having to think about it.

Kate throws herself and throws herself and flings herself onto the mat. With every toss she gets a little better but there is some backsliding as well. It's not easy for her, to get outside of her head and just do it automatically. It's only when she's starts to get tired that she gets it perfect. She's out of her head. Then on the next one she blunders and ends up with her back to him, again.

She lets out a huff. "One step forward, two steps back."

"You are tired," he corrects her, and comes around to help her to her feet again. While exhaustion doesn't affect him much, he's seen it in other people. "Walk around the room to cool down, then go home. Come back tomorrow and we'll practice again."

"I am." And it's a slightly weird feeling. Since arriving in Gloucester, she has found that she needs more rest. She's not nearly quite so energetic. It makes sense. She can't create her force fields. Kate can feel that she could have access to them but the cost is not something she wants to pay right now.

Kate nods her head. "Okay. Thank you, Winter. I'll see you tomorrow."

((OOC: Fin?))

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August Catch-all

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