August Catch-all

[worthallthis]

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?

Comments

[worthallthis]

For a moment it doesn't look like Jon's getting an answer, eyes not even moving up from the unfocused stare into the middle distance.

But then the pacing man slows, and gives a short nod. "Tried. Didn't stick." Sometimes, just sometimes, he misses cryo. Usually nights like this, after they've come a few in a row and he feels gritty with the lack of sleep.

[the_archivist]

Jon flicks the lighter open, then closed again, hands running mindlessly over it. He doesn't even notice that it's there for the most part. He hums in agreement at the man's words.

"Yes, I know the feeling. Being here isn't exactly helping."

[worthallthis]

Being here isn't helping his sleep, either, but then-- cryo. Being forced to sleep, or to be frozen, means not having to get to sleep. It just happens. Or what passes for sleep, anyway.

Maybe he's too warm? Too comfortable? Maybe he needs to sleep in the bathtub. With some ice. Ugh.

"Why for you." It's a question, honestly, even if it's missing the characteristic tone of a question.

[the_archivist]

Jon shrugs. "I get nightmares. And I have spent a lot of time avoiding sleep. Being here is... unsettling."

He's waiting for things to get worse again. He can feel Beholding at the edges of his mind, and he hates that he misses it.

[worthallthis]

"Nightmares from being here?" Well, the kelpie incident might have been frightening for civilians, he supposes. Especially if he was one of the seals.

[the_archivist]

"Oh, no. From home mainly."

Actually being able to experience the nightmares he hadn't had for several years. It's a lot.

[worthallthis]

He considers that, then nods. "Here has not been nightmareish," he allows. Not for him, anyway. "Same as always. Just stranger targets." And less of them. And no cryo. (God, he shouldn't miss cryo.)

[the_archivist]

"Here is more... pre-nightmare. I'm sure things will get bad soon enough." There is bitterness in his voice.

[worthallthis]

He tilts his head a little, looking maybe more in Jon's direction. Around the edges of his face. "What do you think will happen."

[the_archivist]

"Nothing good thats for sure," Jon says. "Entities of fear... How would you go about feeding yourself if you fed on fear?"

[worthallthis]

"You think there will be more events to breed fear. Like the kelpies with their seal shape things." He wasn't ever afraid of those, himself, not more than he's afraid of everything, but the mission itself was familiar enough. Track and kill.

Trying to hold a conversation is more unnerving than that was, frankly.

But he knows he's different, there. People have told him how afraid they were, in the seal shapes. Of the attackers.

[the_archivist]

"Yes, I do think there will be more. ADI has mentioned enough of these things that it seems ridiculous to assume they just won't bother."

They want to feed. They're always hungry, always singing to their followers.

[worthallthis]

"Why here. Why not somewhere with more people." More people to frighten seems much more efficient. This town is tiny.

[the_archivist]

"I'm assuming this is just an easy area to keep an eye on. We have no idea what's going on in the rest of the world."

Maybe there are other branches. Maybe they just don't want them near population centres.

[worthallthis]

It's a thought. It's illogical, though. "We would be more useful defending people in large population centers. There would be more targets to deal with to protect a greater number of people from fear. Also we would blend in more easily than in a small town." Even though he has been making almost no effort to blend in, himself, he still knows how.

[the_archivist]

"I don't think it's the kind of thing you can just fight physically. People will still be scared. The fears in a big city might just skew different to the fears people feel out here."

[worthallthis]

"Possibly." It still seems inefficient, to someone steeped in the "acceptable losses" calculations of HYDRA. "Why would it be easier to combat fears of a small town compared to a larger one. It is still a greater number of people at risk."

[the_archivist]

"I'm not sure they're as interested in saving people as much as they are learning about what's going on." Or maybe Jon is a little biased and Eye-aligned.

[worthallthis]

And this guy is, at heart, protection-motivated. "They already know what's going on. Fear-based entities trying to gain more control in the physical world." Right? They'd both gotten the orientation, surely.

It doesn't really occur to him that there's more to the situation that requires additional learning. It's a straight-forward mission.

[the_archivist]

"That's a very... well, it's not exactly an in-depth understanding if that's all they have."

He shrugs. "I think they're possibly more interested in research and experimentation. And the acquisition of power."

[worthallthis]

He hesitates. That... does not sound like what he'd been told. It sounds like HYDRA. Research and experimentation. Acquisition of power. "They want to stop the fear-based entities," he says, sounding less certain.

[the_archivist]

"They say that they want to. But some people will do a lot for power. Even if it means giving themselves to one of these entities."

[worthallthis]

"That's what the ADI is supposed to stop," he protests, frowning more. He's starting to think this guy is actively trying to make ADI look bad, here. There's been no sign whatsoever of the ADI handlers aiming to actively aid the fear-entities. (Yet, anyway.) "That's the whole point. To stop them. Why would their purpose be one thing and then they do the opposite of that thing."

[the_archivist]

"Because some people are like that. And it sounds like there are rivalries between the followers of various entities," Jon points out.

"Get people to collect information for you, and use it against others."

[worthallthis]

He scowls at Jon for a beat. "Then we will stop ADI, too. If that is in fact the case." His purpose in the past has been murder, sabotage, assassination. His purpose since coming here has been closer to protection. He likes that better.