Bucky Barnes | The Winter Soldier (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
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farsickness2020-04-01 09:35 pm
ostavil) wrote in farsickness2020-04-01 09:35 pm
001. Longing
WHO: Bucky Barnes & You
WHEN: 1 April
WHAT: Arriving
WHERE: Edge of the forest, Gazin
WARNINGS: An Intro thread, which is its own warning.
the forest
Plenty of things have prepared Bucky for situations like this. Both in the war and later, as HYDRA's asset, he'd been dropped into the middle of the woods and given little more than his own innate sense of direction and the stars overhead to guide him to his target or back to civilization, whichever the case may be. These woods, though, shouldn't be here.
He's been running. He's good at running. He's been running for a year, maybe more, but the land beneath his boots now isn't the land he's used to. He'd been weaving his way through city streets the last time and now he's here with a chunk of memory blank in between. Had he been conditioned? He tries to remember if he'd been activated, racks his brain to see if there's any target he'd taken out or any mission he'd accomplished, and he comes up with nothing. It's disconcerting. At least when he's under, he remembers everything even if he wishes he hadn't. The not knowing sometimes is worse the bloody memories he carries along with him of murders he'd committed as a hostage in his own mind.
He picks a direction and starts walking, deciding to stick with it until he comes out into some sort of field. Forests end, eventually, and he's good enough in the woods to survive a long hike. He keeps his tread soft and when a branch snaps, he goes stock still and slowly turns his head to see if he's been spotted.
gazin
It's a long walk until civilization but Bucky eventually finds it in the form of a small village that seems like it's been lifted from some sort of fairy tale. There's no internet, no phones, no electricity but there's what seems like a bar that has food and drink. He's aware he has literally nothing to trade with and nothing of value but he goes to the bar anyway and asks the barkeep if he can trade labor for food; he's got the strength to do anything the man wants but he's going to need food if he's going to be capable of doing it. It's a good enough prospect, apparently, because a few minutes later Bucky has dark beer and some sort of meat pie in front of him.
He's picked a table sort of in the back and while he can't hide in the shadows completely, he's far enough back that no one is behind him and he can see the door and the rest of the room from where he is. He doesn't have a knife and the food had only come with a stubby one. Bucky pockets it anyway, choosing a weapon over no weapon.
He doesn't have a glove to cover his left hand and he tries to obscure it, tries to keep candlelight from glinting on the bright metal.
WHEN: 1 April
WHAT: Arriving
WHERE: Edge of the forest, Gazin
WARNINGS: An Intro thread, which is its own warning.
the forest
Plenty of things have prepared Bucky for situations like this. Both in the war and later, as HYDRA's asset, he'd been dropped into the middle of the woods and given little more than his own innate sense of direction and the stars overhead to guide him to his target or back to civilization, whichever the case may be. These woods, though, shouldn't be here.
He's been running. He's good at running. He's been running for a year, maybe more, but the land beneath his boots now isn't the land he's used to. He'd been weaving his way through city streets the last time and now he's here with a chunk of memory blank in between. Had he been conditioned? He tries to remember if he'd been activated, racks his brain to see if there's any target he'd taken out or any mission he'd accomplished, and he comes up with nothing. It's disconcerting. At least when he's under, he remembers everything even if he wishes he hadn't. The not knowing sometimes is worse the bloody memories he carries along with him of murders he'd committed as a hostage in his own mind.
He picks a direction and starts walking, deciding to stick with it until he comes out into some sort of field. Forests end, eventually, and he's good enough in the woods to survive a long hike. He keeps his tread soft and when a branch snaps, he goes stock still and slowly turns his head to see if he's been spotted.
gazin
It's a long walk until civilization but Bucky eventually finds it in the form of a small village that seems like it's been lifted from some sort of fairy tale. There's no internet, no phones, no electricity but there's what seems like a bar that has food and drink. He's aware he has literally nothing to trade with and nothing of value but he goes to the bar anyway and asks the barkeep if he can trade labor for food; he's got the strength to do anything the man wants but he's going to need food if he's going to be capable of doing it. It's a good enough prospect, apparently, because a few minutes later Bucky has dark beer and some sort of meat pie in front of him.
He's picked a table sort of in the back and while he can't hide in the shadows completely, he's far enough back that no one is behind him and he can see the door and the rest of the room from where he is. He doesn't have a knife and the food had only come with a stubby one. Bucky pockets it anyway, choosing a weapon over no weapon.
He doesn't have a glove to cover his left hand and he tries to obscure it, tries to keep candlelight from glinting on the bright metal.
Forest
The day is turning out to be a decent one. Winter was giving way to Spring and the snow was practically gone. The walk she decided on taking about an hour earlier had her outside the gates, past the arrow sign where most arrive and within view of Vasari forest.
That's when she noticed someone approach and as they get closer, Claire is pretty sure she knows he's brand new to this world.
Slowing to a stop, Claire offers a smile. "You must be new. Did you just arrive?"
no subject
"New enough," Bucky says. He doesn't want to reveal he is absolutely new and expose a weakness and fairly new implies he knows how this place works and can handle himself in a fight. He usually picks up on the local customs quickly and blends so he hopes he can here.
"If you gave me directions, I'd be grateful. I haven't gotten my hands on a map yet."
no subject
"Gazin is that way," she answers, taking another step forward, encouraging the new addition to the World to join her. "That's where I'm headed, too. I can show you where things are if you want."
The invitation is there, though Claire is quite aware that some people prefer to deal with new changes on their own.
no subject
He nods, content to follow for now. "Show me in. Better to go ahead and know what I'm dealing with up front than to find out later and end up with it blowing up in my face."
He prepares for everything, true, but it'd be nice to know what to prepare for up front.
no subject
"That won't happen here," she says, proceeding to walk. "I've been here a few weeks now and people here aren't really like people in the bigger cities on Earth. Like New York."
She purposely looks his way, that little smile still on her lips as she tilts her head his way.
"Speaking of, that a Brooklyn accent I hear?"
no subject
"Brooklyn, yeah. Haven't gone back in a while, though. You said New York...you gotta be from the city to peg me so fast. What neighborhood?"
no subject
"Harlem, originally," she answers casually as they walk. "But I've lived in Brooklyn and the Bronx and now I'm in Hell's Kitchen. Or was before landing here."
A pause and Claire looks at him curiously.
"What made you leave?"
no subject
"It's a long story but I've just been...busy. Unable to go back." It's not really the best explanation but Bucky isn't as good a liar as he wishes he was. It'd been easy as the Soldier. The Soldier had no past, no future, only the present. The Soldier only had muscle memory and a target - no more and no less. Bucky has more blanks than pieces and putting his mind back together has been arduous.
"Not getting back any time soon, either, if I wound up here." This looks like it's on the other side of the world from New York and he doesn't recognize it from any of the other places he's landed over the years. It looks utterly foreign to him and he has no memory of it.