04 | I Need A—

[sinistral]

WHO: Bucky "Captain America" Barnes (sinistral) and you
WHERE: In and around Superhero City (or, you know, whatever we're calling it)
WHAT: Shenanigans. No seriously there's some SHIELD stuff but then also some open stuff
WHEN: At the start of the event so this is going to be a little low key to be honest; I went for light and a little campy in places but if you want to hit the ground running with the heavy stuff, you know I'm all in and I will absolutely bring the pain
WARNINGS: None; will update if that changes the thread with Poe gets a little bit racy...ngl, I'm as surprised as you are

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SHIELD
→ Interior/closed to SHIELD members;

Bucky strides into the meeting room, shield at his back, rolling his shoulders and tossing his head from side to side to work out a kink in the neck. He's not quite all smiles because this is business, but it's not doom and gloom either.

He turns a chair around and straddles it, arms crossed over the backrest. Will the action cause eyerolls? Possibly. Will it be the day someone tells him to sit properly? Possibly. Will be listen? Well, that depends entirely on who's asking.

"What've we got?"

[Anything from run-of-the-mill meetings to post-mission debrief to planning an appearance at the local fundraiser are fair game! Also SHIELD peeps can use this as a mingle with each other, I'm cool with that.]

→ Lobby/Outside/open to all;

Business done there's no further need to hang around headquarters. He's traded uniform for jeans and a leather jacket; the shield is still at his back and a mostly-finished coffee in his hand as he walks through the lobby. Most people get a smile or a nod of the head, but if anyone looks really determined to get his attention he'll stop, or at least invite them to walk with him to the parking garage where his motorcycle is stored.

Or perhaps he's already on the bike and has eased it out of the garage, one foot propped up on the curb as he talks to you. Did you flag him down for a little conversation or to ask a question?

CITY
→ Crime;

Bank robbery? Hijinks at a local school bake sale? A bank robbery with deadly baked goods? Brownie bombs?!? This is the obligatory Super Heroes Being Super Heroes™ prompt. Or perhaps you're the villain and Cap has just thwarted your plans? Or did you escape with what you really wanted, and all this is just a distraction? Perhaps you're an innocent bystander, or someone needing rescue. Either way this is the shield-throwing, bad guy punching, action scene option.

Pop up fight words are entirely optional.

→ Coffee;

Maybe it's a trendy, hip coffee shop. Maybe it's a corner bodega. All that matters is that it sells good, strong coffee — for Bucky and his heightened metabolism, coffee is more about the experience than the caffeine content anyway.

"Coffee, black." Whether he's been here enough times for the barista to know his order or this is the first time, it doesn't matter; he'll slide a few bills across the counter and tuck another one into the tip jar, then shuffle off to the side until his drink is handed over. Time for small talk?

→ Up a Tree;

The obligatory my pet cat/snake/robobird is stuck in a tree. Maybe it's full Captain America gear, maybe it's just jeans-and-tee Bucky Barnes, but either way he's jumping to catch the lowest branch, swinging himself into the tree and starting to climb.

"What's its name?" he calls down as he climbs. Hopefully the thing isn't too scared or injured and thus in a lashing out mood, but he won't be able to tell for sure until he gets closer to it.

ELSEWHERE
→ Wildcard;

Got an idea? Drop something below and I'll roll with it, or hit me up here or at sometimesamuse or Discord for more in-depth plotting. Note that while I write starters in prose, I'll match brackets if that's your preferred style. Bucky has no secret identity; he's Captain America, he's from the 1940s, and a decent amount of his history is probably touted in a museum somewhere (he hates that exhibit). So feel free to have your character recognize him, know things about him (and make assumptions based on those things!), and generally give him a hard time. Villains and heroes: whether or not he knows your secret identity is up to you, but if it's a secret and you've told him, he'll keep that secret.

Comments

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[sinistral]

Bucky wasn't going to judge anyone's caffeine indulgences; he'd too often been on the receiving end of some very creative threats and death glares. News flash: SHIELD runs on coffee and spite more often than not.

"Not saying a word," he replies easily enough, shrugging one shoulder. "Would hate to be the one responsible for Crimson Speed's descent into super villainy. Today, kick me signs. Tomorrow, world domination."

[doubled_speed]

Yeah, SHIELD would run on that shit, wouldn't it? But Tommy wasn't about to join them. He was busy enough as it was, and they might not approve of someone his age joining, even if he was an adult. Nah, better to stay away from that, even if he considered some of their top heroes something like family.

Not that he ever let them KNOW who he was under the mask. Though there was probably a few of them who could figure it out.

"Nah, see the problem I see with world domination is that the you've got to be in charge of the world. I don't want to be in charge of people. Seems like work."

Crimson Speed definitely projected an aura of giving no fucks and being sorta lazy about responsibility. It was a deliberate choice given Tommy was actually nothing like that.

[sinistral]

SHIELD or not, secret identity or not, Bucky doesn't care. People have their own reasons for it, and that he can respect and support both. Then again, Captain America has a certain responsibility to be what SHIELD needs him to be, so it's a little different in his situation.

"No but that brings up an interesting question: if you're in charge of the world, who do you delegate the boring stuff to?"

It's a question Bucky usually tosses around on missions, with whoever else is on the job. All these villains with their takeover plans, and none with the foresight for what to do after. Go figure.

[doubled_speed]

"See, my plan would be to never be in charge of the world," Tommy answered. But he knew that wasn't going to work. So he instead offered a shrug with another answer.

"Are you familiar with the concept that those who wish to hold power are those least suited to hold it?"

Yeah, sometimes C.S. just said things that implied some level of classics training or reading.

[sinistral]

"So you do have a plan. Puts you at least somewhat ahead of the villain flavor of the week."

Bucky accepts his coffee when it's handed over the counter, shuffling to the side to continue the conversion. It's nice to take a break now and then.

"Mmmm, I've heard that before, a few times. Doesn't mean people take it to heart though." The City sometimes is proof of that concept.

[doubled_speed]

"Nah, not saying I have a plan. I just don't think that the people that grab for it are really right to lead. Like, look at major companies. Those people want money, they want power, not to help. And so they fuck shit up."

He follows Bucky, taking another sip.

"People never take shit to heart that they should."

[sinistral]

"A plan not to be in charge is still a plan." And more of one than most villains seemed to have (or seemed inclined to share). But the conversation is taking a more serious turn and Bucky considers this carefully before replying because, well, he has a point.

"Not disagreeing," he says, "but I don't think it's all that simple, either. Stark's been doing a good job of cleaning things up with the money and influence he has, for example." But he's only one man, only one company. A single whisper doesn't silence a thousand angry screams. "But I think that's the problem too: people don't want to admit that they have hearts. It'd mean that they needed to start listening to them."

[doubled_speed]

No it's not, and his eye roll clearly communicates that. But he takes another drink and tries not to flinch over his boss's boss's boss being mentioned by name.

"I think it's not fully that they don't want to admit to hearts. I think maybe the hearts aren't always in the right place. It's easy to just forget that doing nothing isn't your heart in the right place. It's your heart failing to beat."

[sinistral]

It's more of a plan than Iron Man had. And no, we're not talking Stark's bodyguard, we're talking the guy who wanted to take over the world with an army of robotic irons and clothing steamers. He was a trip.

"Good point, that." Inaction could be worse than action sometimes; so many problems could be lessened simply if someone had stepped in before they escalated. "It's a sad outlook though, sometimes."

[doubled_speed]

Yeah, Iron Man was a hack. But hey, his clothes were always pressed.

"All it takes is a good man saying nothing for an evil man to win," Tommy countered.

Come on, James, you fought in the war where that sort of thing had come up. And Tommy, with his heritage, was definitely one prone to sad outlooks.

[sinistral]

Couldn't argue that: the man was a sharp dresser.

"Sometimes." Not all the time, but people could be willfully blind; Bucky knows that well. And it seems like the bigger the injustice, the more willful the blindness. But that's also why people like them exist, or so he likes to believe. "Sometimes it's a little more complicated than that. And sometimes all people need is a symbol, on either side of things."

[doubled_speed]

"Symbols aren't enough," Tommy insists, voice sharp. "Voices matter."

[sinistral]

"And when the symbol is what gives the person the strength to find his voice?" Speaking out isn't so simple as simply stated; if people need something to rally behind, some symbol, he can't fault them. And on the flip side, he knows how dangerous symbols can be, how they can come to represent something evil.

[doubled_speed]

Tommy rolls his eyes.

"People focus so much on the symbol, the person to give them voice, that it makes them scared to raise their own," Tommy shrugged. "There is more strength in a multitude of raised voices than in a symbol. And while we give the idea of symbol manifesting in people, we remove the idea of individual responsibility."

So he doesn't really think this is going to work.

[sinistral]

There's a whole world of expression in that simple eye roll, and Bucky doesn't want to get into it. It's already a heavier conversation than he'd wanted when the only goal had been coffee, and brings too much in memory to the forefront of his mind. Those thoughts are private, or meant to be so; at the very least, he didn't want to share that much of himself, when already so much of his existence is public domain.

"Guess we'll agree to have slightly different viewpoints," he says, finally. "'s not a bad thing. Sameness is its own danger."

[doubled_speed]

“Totally cool with that. Takes all sorts,” he agreed. Even in Tommy didn’t really think it was always true.

“Sameness limits growth of ideas.”

[sinistral]

"Exactly. If everyone had the same ideas all the time, no one would have invented the caramel macchiato." Which is the smallest, tiniest concern in the world, compared with more serious issues, but behind them is one of Those Customers who orders the low-fat, soy, no-sugar drink...with extra whipped cream and caramel sauce. Bucky doesn't understand those people.

"But no, it's one of the things I like about the city. It's so diverse."

[doubled_speed]

“Don’t even joke about a lack of caramel macchiatos,” Tommy hissed. That was a curse the world didn’t need.

“Diverse isn’t bad. I just wished it had less need for people like me.”

[sinistral]

"I surrender." Bucky holds his free hand up with a chuckle, shaking his head. "No joking. I promise." Might not be how Bucky takes his coffee, but it's a universally respected truth: you don't mess with another person's caffeine.

"If it was up to me, the world wouldn't need any of us." But it does, which is why they do what they do. Or it's why Bucky does it at least; he can't speak for the motivations of everyone else. "But as long as it does, here we are."

[doubled_speed]

“If it didn’t need any of us, would it account for those whose powers are inherent to them? Like you? Like me?”

Because he wanted to be sure there would be a place for him and his mother in such a world.

[sinistral]

Bucky decides not to pursue the correction; nothing that he is now, is anything he was born with. But it's complicated, and not something he likes to relive if he can help it.

"Ideally, we'd just be." He shrugs. "Pipe dream here, but it'd be nice to do what we can do just because, and not for stopping the latest villain of the week, for example."

[doubled_speed]

"I enjoy stopping the villain of the week sometimes," Tommy offered with a shrug. "And even if there weren't bad humans, there is always aliens, man."

So they'd always have work.

[sinistral]

"Depends on the villian. Remember the dude with the explosive flatulence?" That had been less fun (or funny) and more disgusting, but it takes all types, apparently.

And yeah, there's always aliens. "You're not wrong there."

[doubled_speed]

Oh god. Tommy couldn't help the sneer of disgust he felt from the reminder. That had taken days to get out of his clothes, the scent that was.

"Could you imagine it, dealing with aliens more often? Pass.

[sinistral]

Seriously. Bucky had ultimately just burned that uniform. Super gross.

"I mean, the odds say that there has to be a nice, friendly planet of aliens somewhere, right?" They couldn't all be bent on dominating the Earth. "What's it gonna take for us to meet those kinds of aliens instead?"