closed

[deadthenred]

Who: Bucky Barnes(deadthenred) & various
What: Bucky catches up with old friends and acquaintances.
When: During the month of September, after the new kids get into town.
Where: Various.
Warning(s): Mentions of mind control, torture, violence, probably.



[ Starters in the comments, if you would like one feel free to ping me at lightfellows ]

Comments

[deadthenred]

[ Huh. He was in the Middle East in the 80s, after Karpov fell out of favor with the top KGB brass. Maybe he'll ask about that later. ]

Yeah, it's been a bit longer than that for me. [ Let's see if he can win all the understatement points. ] 2018.

[ Might as well admit it. Some people have already tried to explain to him what the internet is. ] People still call me kid.

[shashka]

Huh.

[ if he were still alive then, he'd be seventy-four. still younger than Bucky. which begs the question... ]

That makes you almost a hundred, doesn't it? I've known a guy or two that stayed active that long. [ a pause. ] They didn't look nearly as good as you, though.

[ there's a few things he could probably attribute his longevity to. ]

You know what they say. The more things change...

[ the more they stay the same... once a kid to someone, always a kid. Snake had still called him that, even if he was grayer than him now. ]

[deadthenred]

Yeah. Some people never grow up. [ He thinks about the soldiers he fought beside during the war, how many of them who had died, how many of them weren't much older than him, weren't older than him at all.

And, well. ]

93 by my math. [ Not by his count, or by his reckoning. ] I like to think I'm just old for my age. [ He doesn't quite laugh at his almost-joke, just an "aw shucks" chuckle. Bucky was never a boy scout, but there's still something about him that seems very American. It's why he was such a good Soviet agent. ]

[shashka]

[ see, now this is interesting. he's got a guess or two as to why he's so well preserved. but for now, he goes along with his casual attitude. ]

And I suppose it's your all-American diet that's responsible for your youthful glow? No wonder you ended up winning the Cold War.

[ he's heard enough about the future, and he knows enough in his own time to know what's coming. as much as world history changed from universe to universe, that was one thing that almost always seemed inevitable. ]

[deadthenred]

I dunno if I should spoil the ending. [ Something about the way Ocelot says "you"— the "you Americans" that it implies— makes Bucky feel self-conscious. Like an imposter. ]

As for the rest of it, I get a lotta beauty rest. [ He shrugs uncomfortably, knowing that's not much of an explanation, and gets to what he really wants to ask. ] You ever heard of the Winter Soldier?

[shashka]

Not like it makes that much of a difference now.

[ what with the world being destroyed and everything. ]

Can't say that I have.

[ which is definitely a surprise for him. after all, having been raised by a secret organization, and then founding another, he's kept himself up to date on most things. while he certainly wouldn't admit it, it somewhat annoys him, not knowing everything. ]

But, it sounds like a Soviet name.

[ after all, they did love their winter. ]

[deadthenred]

[ If the world's really been destroyed. ]

Really? [ Honestly, he'd never thought much about the name, what it really symbolized. ] You're right, though. Legendary Soviet assassin. They kept him in cyrogenic stasis between missions, which made him harder to track.

[ Most agents are someone else, too, someone besides the mission— fathers or sisters or friends. Not the Winter Soldier. ]

[shashka]

Sounds like us.

[ he can't help but laugh a little. ]

Of course, I was more familiar with the research we did into symbiotic parasites and ESP. But I knew more than a thing or two about most of what was going on.

[ it was something he prided himself on. ]

You have a run-in with him?

[ or was it... something more interesting? ]

[deadthenred]

Everyone's got a telepath division these days. [ S.H.I.E.L.D. had their psychics too. Probably the result of their own Cold War experiments. He hadn't looked into it too much. He wouldn't be too surprised if Empress Simwe had her own psychic spies. ]

And no. [ He winces. ] Not like you're thinkin', anyway.

[shashka]

Nice to hear someone out there eventually realized it was a legitimate field of study.

[ he still remembers grumbling to V, who insisted it had to be "Soviet Disinformation".

as he studies the other man's face, he hazards another guess. ]

...Does he have anything to do with your remarkable skin care routine?

[ after all, cryogenic stasis would be one way to explain why he's looking like a very young one hundred. ]

[deadthenred]

I wouldn't come lookin' to me for beauty advice.

[ He stuffs his hands in his jacket, forming something like a shrug. There's a "me" in that sentence where it doesn't obviously belong.

Bucky knows he should just come clean— say it out plain, like you would a picnic blanket.

But he hesitates. ]

[shashka]

[ he raises his eyebrow yet again. already, a few theories are beginning to form in his mind, from the likely, to the completely out there.

in his experience, the latter tends to happen more often than not. ]

You know, you always struck me as a proud American patriot.

[ an innocent enough comment, but there's a gentle pry underneath his words. ]

[deadthenred]

I am.

[ It isn't a defiant statement, or defensive. He's got different ideas about what it means to be a patriot than he did when he was twenty, sure, but he still wants things. For him and for his country.

But then, pitched a little lower, he adds: ]

It wasn't my idea.

[shashka]

I see.

[ he's looking at the other man's face, searching for a hidden story in what he isn't saying. still, when he talks, Ocelot knows exactly what he is referring to.

after all, manipulating the minds of others had always been his specialty. ]

Doesn't surprise me. We can be very persuasive when we want to be.

[ and truthfully, it sounds like he was "lucky", in a certain sense of the word. he still had his mind, his original personality. not everyone was so fortunate. and he'll say as much. ]

Looks like it didn't take.

[deadthenred]

Not for a while, no.

[ It's been years, at this point, since he got out. As out as you can get, anyway— not many spies ever really leave the cold. Sometimes the cold won't leave them. ]

I had a good friend.

[shashka]

[ his lips quirk into a smile. ]

Must've been some friend.

[ really, the fact his mind was completely intact was something else entirely. not that it was impossible with the right conditioning, but in his experience, near total destruction was what it really took for a new personality to take.

(it was almost a shame he couldn't outright ask about which methods were used.) ]

What was it that got you out?

[ a bold question, but he's curious, all right? ]

[deadthenred]

[ Bucky raises an eyebrow, just one. He wonders if this was a bad idea, talking here, asking these questions, and what good'll come of answering. But he's never folded easy, so what the hell. ]

The Cosmic Cube. It's a reality warping device. [ A simplification, but it'll have to do. What the Cube really is, is a curse. ] The Nazis were obsessed with it.

It could've made me forget, too. [ He thinks of Kobik, but that's a story he won't be telling. ]