revivalproject | 09 | Somebody Could Walk into This Room and Say Your Life is on Fire

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09 | Somebody Could Walk into This Room and Say Your Life is on Fire

WHO: the Soldier (

sinistral) and you
WHERE: the Peanut Party, Noth, the Agrii ship
WHAT: new tick tick tick BOOM
WHEN: from boarding the ships on the 9th through New Tick to the Agrii ship visit
WARNINGS: none anticipated

PEANUT PARTY
→ Before New Tick;

Being compelled to the ships while disturbing from the point of view of the compulsion nevertheless meant a better workout schedule for the Soldier. He would not have anticipated the Agrii to supply such well-equipped exercise areas, but he certainly did not mind it. For someone with his particular enhancements, equipment that could hold up to him without breaking was rare and he fully meant to take advantage of it.

Most often he could be found taking advantage of the heavy bags for sparring, or the climbing wall. Sometimes he worked with the weights, or gave what appeared to be lessons to Billy Kaplan. He wouldn't object if someone asked to rotate in on any of the equipment; likely he'd even act as spotter, if asked.

"You want next?"

→ After New Tick;

The workout habit by necessity had to change a little — frequency no; form yes. He didn't know whether or not he appreciated the Agrii's little gift, but it did require practice. Even if he ultimately decided not to keep it he'd have to figure out its best use, on the chance he'd have to fight with it.

Sometimes he really hated this place.

His preferred to work on this particular practice late at night or very early in the morning; when most people were still asleep and he could have the gym facilities to himself. He had thus far refused to put on the uniform, but he could be found throwing a distinctive shield over and over again until he could reliably hit his desired target and catch it on the rebound. Sometimes the wall near the door was a rebound point though; one might want to exercise caution if also looking to work out in the off hours.

Or perhaps this encounter wasn't in the gym, but rather in the hallway before or after. That shield was kind of large and conspicuous; it wasn't like he could carry it unnoticed on his way to or from his designated room.

NOTH
→ Fireworks;

The Soldier had no illusions about being anyone's idea of good company for things like fireworks shows. His training ran too deep, and the explosions of fireworks spoke too much of gunfire. It was worse if he didn't watch though; at least through observation he could correlate each explosion to its end result, count and catalog and track it all to convince himself that he had no need of retaliation. All in all, it was going quite well.

And then the glitter happened.

He cursed under his breath (in three languages, which would be fun for anyone relying on the Agrii translation technology) before tugging his own jacket off to wrap around his left arm and hand. Glitter played havoc with the mechanisms and the last thing he needed was to spend the next month trying to remove it all. Again.

→ Babysitting;

Saying that the Soldier didn't trust Agrii treats was one of the biggest understatements one could make. He avoided the generously-supplied chocolates like the plague, especially once it became clear that they had certain side effects.

His avoidance, however, didn't transmute itself to others.

The Soldier looked down at the child who had just come careening around the corner, right into his legs. Reflexively he'd reached out to prevent the younger one from falling into the snow, but he had a feeling he might not so easily be able to just brush off the encounter and go about his day. The look on his face simultaneously expressed the thoughts of why me and now what.

"Are you lost?" Good enough, right?

AGRII SHIP
→ Unintentional Popularity;

The bad part about being not only a resident of Temba but also one of the few brought from the Drift Fleet was a certain level of popularity. Quite possibly the Soldier's generally poor attitude contributed to it as well. Perhaps the Agrii were just that friendly with all their visitors. Whatever the case he found himself more and more often resulting to his stealth training to move silently and avoid detection when he had to move about the ship.

The end result was that, despite his careful attempts to slip along hallways relatively unnoticed he still managed to attract one or two followers from time to time. Perhaps some kind of monitoring system contributed to his ill luck, his brain suggested. He tried to quiet those thoughts even as his hand strayed out of habit to the knife at his side.

"Do not," he cautioned without turning around, "attempt to touch me. It will not end well for you."

The Agrii might find the prickly attitude endearing, however; the cautionary statement probably had as much of a chance of encouraging the hug as it did dissuading the determined alien. Perhaps it was time to jump in?

WILDCARD
→ Network;

Want your character to text or call this guy? Drunk dials? Really bad memes that you've made? Consider this your free for all invitation.

→ Something Else;

Have another idea? Come at me, or hit me up at

sometimesamuse or via PM. Want a more specific starter for your character? Let me know, I got you. Want to handwave something? I'm fine with that as well, let's hash it out. And while I write starters in prose I'm happy to match brackets if that's your preference.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

The Soldier had a feeling that the conversation wasn't over. Something about the kid's expression told him that there was a recalculation happening, and that another approach would occur. He watched the youth fiddle with the cabling behind the panel wondering how much of it was a desire to fix things and how much was needing to keep the hands busy.

Clearly attempted distraction was the way to proceed. "So your dad is over a thousand years old, huh? What does that make you?"

It made perfect sense that his dad was incredibly old, and Tony didn't know what that had to do with him, so he had to stop what he was doing again to give the man another stare of confusion, this time searching his face for some indication of what he meant. There was one phrase that Tony had already been furnished with, maybe it was the one the man was looking for, so Tony provided, "His latest project."

It was not at all what the Soldier had meant.

"I meant age but. Okay." Okay that was a lot to unpack and the Soldier absolutely was not the one to do it. He pinched the bridge of his nose, having the feeling that all of this was going to lead to a headache.

"How old are you," he tried instead, "and can you tell me your name?"

Oh, that wasn't a good move, Tony had really miscalculated. His brow knit anxiously and he waited for permission to correct his mistake, making him hopefully alert when the man started talking again only for his hands to flex in frustration, because the mistake had actually happened a long time ago. He was slightly hurried then, to do what he should have done before, shoving a hand out to shake as he greeted, "Tony Stark. It is a pleasure to meet you," the words clearly rote and a few years from developing his sly smirk. Right now, he very seriously announced, "I am almost seven."

Of course. Of course. He should have guessed. Someone somewhere in some universe was laughing at him, the Soldier knew it. Why else would he be here in a corridor on an alien ship with a seven year old Tony Stark?

(He'd ask himself what he'd done to deserve this but realistically he didn't have the time to go through his extensive list of misdeeds.)

After a moment's delay he took the offered hand for a brief shake. "I see," he replied; seven years old and the kid was attempting to rewire a panel on an alien space ship. What next? "You don't have to pretend it's nice to meet me though. Better to just be honest."

Perhaps this existential punishment was simply for the fact that he would say something so profoundly weird to a seven year old, making the kid more ready than he should have been to take his hand back then hold it by the wrist like the man might have also done something strange in the shake. That the man didn't volunteer a name in return wasn't so far outside the familiar; plenty of Tony's parents' friends didn't feel the need to introduce themselves, and that was Tony's fault for not reading the news more carefully. Maybe he could find this man's picture in a magazine somewhere around here.

What was strange was that, while Tony had a few things he could be more honest about, this interaction thus far had not been unpleasant to him, so he could only conclude, "Sorry. I won't follow you anymore. I shouldn't have done that."

You ain't wrong...

"That's not..." He sighed, looked down the hallway to make sure the Agrii weren't coming back, and slid down the wall to sit on the floor. May as well settle in for a bit. "When I came upon you, you jumped and tried to hide that panel. I wouldn't describe that as a 'pleasure to meet' anyone. You looked more like you wanted me to go away."

It was the reaction the Soldier expected out of everyone, honestly; he knew he wasn't good company. "Curious about why you were, but you following me was better than those aliens. It's fine."

While Tony tried to keep his gaze respectfully averted, even his work with the wiring couldn't hold his focus enough to stop the intrigued tilt of his head at this posture that he had never seen in anyone taller than himself, and he had to glance up at least once to make sure it wasn't some kind of test. "I thought you would be mad at me," he said, because people usually were, but more importantly, "You were going to stab the aliens." This he said matter-of-factly, not so nervous now that he had eluded an initial stabbing, and the man hadn't otherwise raised a hand or voice. Presumably, his preference for being followed by Tony over the aliens meant that Tony wouldn't be stabbed for the same reason.

"I thought you had Captain America's shield," he explained, feeling a little embarrassed by that now that this man was convinced the 'original owner' was around, so they couldn't have been talking about the same thing. At least Tony had his work to focus on so he could try to focus his nervous excitement as he said, "Do you know who that is? Captain America? He's a hero. One time, he punched a tank so hard, it exploded."

"The aliens like to touch and hug me without my permission," he pointed out, watching Tony and making no secret of his observation. "Nothing short of a threat has stopped them. But you're not trying to hug me, so I don't think I need to threaten you."

There was probably a lesson or two in there. (The lesson: do not let this man near children, ever.)

"I'm not mad, either," he added as an afterthought. Probably good to make that clear, if the kid was anything as jumpy as the adult version.

The question of how to approach the shield thing wasn't as easy though. The Soldier debated with himself for a long moment, watching the movements of Tony's fingers in the wiring of the panel. "I do have Captain America's shield," he finally answered, deciding not to conceal that truth. "And its original owner is here." Steve was around somewhere, at any rate. Possibly still in pint-sized form, but that was a minor detail.

Punched a tank to make it explode? The Soldier filed that away for later. It sounded like something to tease Steve about, and something told him that Steve would appreciate gentle ribbing. He could consider it part of the Be An Actual Person thing that people seemed to expect from him.

Tony's fingers had definitely slowed down by then, because he had rapidly run out of things to do and he hadn't done so much damage in the first place, but under observation he felt like he was missing some important step and kept prodding with a few anxious glances at the man for some hint that he was doing it correctly. He didn't have such a strong opinion on the invasiveness of the aliens himself, so he only twisted his mouth to the side, not sure if he should accept the conclusion that there was no more reasonable way to discourage them.

That experiment was far less important than this man's claim about the shield's original owner, making Tony openly squint suspiciously at him. Now it kind of seemed like the man was teasing him. Needing more information without playing into this game that would embarrass him was going to take cautious work, like venturing skeptically, "You've had it this whole time?"

The Soldier would not be the one to ask about rewiring anything. He could probably assist, given direction, but it wasn't really his skillset. His observation stemmed more from casual interest, not that Tony would be able to tell. At least his expression remained neutral and his posture relaxed, where he had been tense around the Agrii.

Skepticism he could deal with though. Ultimately it would be up to Tony to decide what he believed, anyway. "Since the celebration on the planet."

The only logical conclusion that Tony could come to was, "So, the aliens had it." The 'why' was probably better directed at them, and it wouldn't be so hard to get their attention. Some other 'why's were more immediately applicable, like, "That's why my dad couldn't find it." As far as Tony knew, no one had checked space, the search for Captain America and his shield had been a fairly localized operation, based on some reasonable conclusions. "Why do you get it?" seemed like a question only this man could answer.

"I suppose they did." For how long? He had no idea. But as far as the Soldier could tell, it was the original; he remembered well the edge that had dented his arm to the point of needing to replace entire segments.

The sound he made at the next question was something between a laugh and a snort, and the Soldier gave up looking at the kid to thump his head back against the bulkhead instead, staring at the ceiling. Loaded question much? "Because I used to be Bucky Barnes."

If the man's intent was to convince Tony of something outlandish, he wasn't trying very hard. Used to be was such a strange thing to say about a whole person that Tony couldn't imagine what he meant, except that it was weird in a whole streak of weird, and Tony felt that he had to make it clear, "I'm not scared." Which was far enough from the truth that he was suddenly very aware that this man could have also been lying in its mirror, 'I'm not mad', and now maybe they both knew they were both lying, and that undermined Tony's intent to convey, You can't scare me, Don't trick me, Stark men are made of iron. He pushed the panel back into place finally, flush and flat, like nothing had happened, letting him turn with his hands on his hips and keep them still to better convince maybe himself that he wouldn't cry from anxiety. "Bucky Barnes was an Invader. He died in the crash, with Cap. Why would a ghost be on a spaceship?"

"Okay?" He wasn't sure what that statement had to do with anything he'd just said, but maybe their thoughts just traveled along two different trajectories. The Soldier could rarely follow the adult Tony's leaps in reasoning either. He wasn't quite sure what the kid wanted from him.

He probably should have expected at least some level of conflicting explanation for his past though, considering how many other versions of Bucky Barnes he'd met. It still ached, an old wound that never quite healed before someone cut into it again. And it underlined once more how he was never the version anyone actually had a use for, outside his HYDRA-given skillset.

"Why are you on a spaceship?" he asked in counterpoint. "Why is anyone here, and not where we should be?"

"I--..." Tony fumbled, not expecting the accusation to be turned on him, ghosts must have had more specific rules to follow, after all, and the matter of what exactly he was doing in this strange place was not something that he had a logical answer for and thus had tried to keep at the corner of his eye. Now that it was forcefully in front of him, he grit his teeth, brow furrowed with determination not to cry now, and tried his best to produce an acceptable answer that still started with the disappointing, "Maybe, I think--my dad sent me, like school." Dads were always sending their kids to weird places full of strangers, where they were supposed to get really good at understanding physics and toughen up. Like a spaceship.

"Huh. Seems a weird place to send your kid." He shrugged. "But maybe I don't know anything after all, since you think I'm a ghost."

He kept his eyes trained on the kid though, watching his expression. The Soldier was the worst at interpersonal interactions; how was he supposed to navigate the tricky waters of dealing with children? Especially children who looked like they had something unhappy lurking at the edges of their expressions.

"Let's try a different question. Now that you're here, what do you want to be doing?"

Somehow, it seemed as though this man had played his trick on Tony anyway, making him cross his arms with a frown and keep his focus pointedly anywhere else instead of succumbing to the instinct to argue. This guy was the one that had said he was a ghost.

As mean as that was, he responded to Tony not answering correctly much more gently than Tony was used to; it was clear that Tony hadn't given the right answer, but this redirection was better than strict correction. He ventured a sidelong look the man's way again and tried, "I want to know why this ship is so funny, and why no one seems to know how it works, and I want to see the shield."

He never said ghost. He just said he used to be Bucky Barnes. If Tony drew his own conclusions, whose fault was that?

"Can't tell you any kind of satisfying answer to the first two," he replied finally, because he didn't have any satisfying answers. The most he'd been able to get from the Agrii was vague and didn't really explain anything. "That shield means that much to you, huh?"

The man's question hadn't sounded like an offer in the first place, so it was surprising how annoying it was to be told he wasn't going to fulfill it, leaving Tony glancing around impatiently like he really needed those answers now that they had been vocally denied. The shield wasn't so much of a denial, though the way it was presented definitely felt like on hanging over Tony like a sword if he made the wrong move. He really needed to see that shield, because he was sure if he touched it he would be able to tell if it was the real thing, and that would mean he was touching the shield. That was probably clear enough on his face that he didn't really have to answer, "It doesn't to you?"

"It's complicated." And definitely not something that he wanted to try to explain, to anyone. He hadn't truly sorted out all of his own feelings about it. "It probably means something different to me."

Why the hell had he even admitted that much? Sighing, he got to his feet finally; clearly all the sitting around and talking was getting to him. "Well, come on then."

This man (or ghost) could not have truly understood what he possessed, if it really was the shield, and he was lucky that Tony was there to help. The kid readily fell into position just behind him, where he struggled to maintain that respectful distance because he had to keep coming up close to the man's leg where he gestured erratically and had to make sure he was being heard as he explained, "There's nothing else like it. It's made of a vibranium-adamantium alloy, before they even knew what either of those things really were, the scientist, his name was MacLain, he had to invent adamantium, he had to prove the theory first, and he couldn't have even known how it would react with the vibranium and how hard that would make the shield to study, to replicate, because of the vibration, it's so unstable it should be degrading but it's not, it's throwing protons but it's so dense they just don't go anywhere..." This journey would not be long enough for Tony to come to a natural end in his lecture.

Honestly, the Soldier tuned most of the technical details out; he couldn't follow the explanations and wasn't really sure if he wanted to. At least it kept the kid engaged, which he considered a good thing. His own skill in small talk was all but nonexistent, and conversations with the adult Tony usually ended in disaster. But the kid seemed content to just go on and on about the science and the physics and the whole nine yards so if all the Soldier had to do was interject the occasional polite question, it would hopefully work out just fine.

At least there seemed plenty of journey to accompany the lecture, between walking through the Agrii ship and returning to the Soldier's own. That had to be better than awkward silence, right? And once they arrived on the Peanut Party, the Soldier led the way toward his quarters, pausing outside the door.

"If I ask you to stay in the hallway, are you gonna listen to me?" The Soldier still felt uncomfortable with having people in his private space, not that he claimed much space as his own. But even for this version of Tony, it was hard to tamp down his own paranoia.

Tony did not need to know this man's name to be sure they were best friends now, since he listened so attentively to Tony's incredibly important explanation of the molecular details of Captain America's shield. This singular status might have almost been enough to earn some respect for his telegraphed boundaries, except that he presented the idea in a confrontational enough way that Tony's already difficult to control curiosity had him fidgeting before slowly answering, "Yeee-es, sir." If this had any chance of being convincing, that was probably ruined by Tony's eager stare at the door, like he could see through it to whatever secret was being kept from him inside.

The Soldier sighed. "You're not, are you? Just tell me so I don't turn around and stab you because I'm not expecting you there." Really Tony had the worst taste in trusted adult figures. But at least the Soldier wouldn't stop him from following through the door.

Inside, the room was spartan and painfully clean; in fact, nothing in the living area would indicate occupancy, being bare of decoration and customization both. And if Tony actually did follow him inside, the Soldier would point him toward an armchair. "Sit. Or I kick you out right now."

09 | Somebody Could Walk into This Room and Say Your Life is on Fire

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