apocalypsehowcomm | 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?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"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?))

August Catch-all

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