driftfleet | Video/Action- First Pirate Transmission

Who: Panem!Bucky
Broadcast: Yes
Action: The Bridge of the Wonderduck
When: Now

[The video opens with a view of Bucky's face, hair short, face scruffy and a steel determination in his expression as though challenging the very fleet to suddenly do something and prove all his paranoid assumptions correct.]

The last time I was on a show for other's entertainment, we were made to fight and kill each other until only one person was left. Supposedly that's not the case here. Yet.

I assume some of you have been making attempts to learn more about this place and the people behind it.

[A pause. 'What do you know' was on the tip of his tongue, but he was the offworlder now. He didn't hold a single damn card in his hand he knew it too well. He hated it. He'd have to change that.]

What do we know?

[Anyone on the ship itself for any reason will find Bucky at the comms station, waiting for responses and seeing exactly how far the system would allow him to hack until the firewalls caught him. Sometimes you had to test the strength of the bars when you were in a cage.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[He's surprised and pleased she answers at all. If she told him to mind his own business, she'd be well within her right.

But even if it isn't exactly what he'd wanted to hear, it was about as hopeful as he could have asked for.]

Good.

[There's earnest relief in his tone. Something needed to go right for Peg somewhere, even with everything he knew about what happened with her. It had to be better somewhere.]

Bleak or not, I know you'll probably kick the ass of anything that tries to bother you.

[There's affection in his voice similar to how he might talk about one of his sisters...but also more. But above all that is admiration and it was something he couldn't shake even while the soldier in him said he couldn't trust her any more than anyone else here.]

Thank you for answering. [God, why does this have to be so hard? He thought for sure he'd be better at this.]

Look, everything about this place feels wrong and, I'll be honest, there's not a damn thing I can trust yet. But...if you need anything, [He offers a wry smile,] I don't think I could say no trust or not, so let me know.

[ god, there's something tragic in it -- although she cares quite deeply for the barnes from her own world, from the one where hydra got its claws into him, there's no denying the winter soldier is different. and there's something in the open communicative way this barnes talks that...

well. he reminds her not only of jim but of the sergeant barnes she knew during the war. it puts a lump in her throat; she glances off-screen for a moment. ]

Of course. [ it's the easiest thing -- easier than it should be, maybe -- to accept his offer. ] I'm captain on the Starstruck. You really should stop by, only...

[ well. here it is. ]

Have you talked to Steve yet?

[He almost sighs in relief when she accepts. Maybe the line wouldn't be so hard to navigate as he thought. The same but not...he was pretty sure he could manage that.

Then she mentions the Starstruck and cuts herself off and he gives her a curious look.]

Not yet. Why?

[He's not even surprised Steve's here. He'd have been more surprised if he wasn't. But considering how he and Rogers had seemed to just dance around each other, if not outright avoid, it left a sour note in the memory. He was interested to see which Steve this one was closer to. About as much as he was dreading it.]

He's the Starstruck's first mate. [ he's much much more than that, of course, but peggy thinks that steve's usual dismay that she doesn't rush to call him anything more than that can be forestalled given the current circumstances. ] He's -- less accustomed, let's say, to the fleet's ability to draw in versions and variations on familiar faces.

[ a careful and pragmatic pause. ]

He might wear his surprise a bit more on his sleeve, is all.

[ understatement. peggy might be a temperamental creature, but by contrast to steve hers is the cooler head. ]

[He nodded. He could certainly understand. The first time they'd brought the first Bucky Barnes to Panem, Bucky himself felt panic and shock clawing at his throat from District 13. He'd been half convinced the Capitol knew he was still alive and plotting against them and was trying to make some sort of point. He'd had people reporting on his family back in District 10 near-constant for a month. So he could imagine not taking to seeing doubles so well.

When he'd first seen Rogers on Capitol T.V. he'd been sick. He doubted this Steve's reaction would be anything near that, but Bucky was also quite aware his general appearance wasn't one Steve would be expecting; the Bucky Steve would be used to wouldn't have looked like him in several years.

They'd deal with it. They had to.]

He always has. Steve's never been good at hiding his emotions, if he even bothered trying.

[Stevie had always been vitriolically outspoken against the Capitol despite the dangers, but he was sick five out of the seven days of the week and barely had enough muscle mass to actually help around the farm, he'd hardly been considered any kind of threat. Most of the 'outlier' districts were seen that way in general.]

I don't expect anything from him as much as I don't expect anything from you.

I'm a federal agent, Barnes. More importantly, I'm a captain in this Fleet. Now that you're here, now that you're part of it, you're one of us. No matter who you sound like or look like.

[ idealistic, maybe. certainly. but she's been sharing her time with steve rogers for over a year, now. some of the idealism rubs off. ]

[It takes the wind out of his sails as much as it releases a tightness in his chest. He shouldn't even be thinking about getting close to these people, his own Peggy was back home, Sam was back home, the entire movement to rebuild Panem was back home.

But home would always be a little bit wherever Peggy and Steve were too, no matter what corner of space that was.]

Stubborn as always.

Thank you. That means a lot more to me than you probably know.

You'll find I know precisely the value of being treated like a person in one's own right.

[ she can't speak for his peggy, won't dare to, but her own career has been a wild ride of underestimation and dismissal -- often purely because of who she was. how she looked. as odd as it is to see his face and hear his voice and come to grips with a whole other version of him, she's hardly prepared to undermine him for it. ]

[He nods. He can believe it, even if he wishes it weren't true for her. He knew enough of her world to know just because people weren't being forced to fight to the death for entertainment, didn't mean things were perfect. Sam had talked about wars and people's rights and what Bucky'd read himself gave him enough of a picture.

Funny how Panem could mess things up so badly and yet not have some of the problems other places did. He supposed there had to be some sort of balance.]

I'm sorry you had to deal with that. I'm sure the people who put you into that position ended up more sorry.

I'm afraid it's still very much a work in progress. [ a sardonic smile. ] But a few birds of twittered and told me secrets from the future; things, I hear, get better.

[ before they get much much worse. ]

Good.

[He seemed to hesitate, not quite sure what to say next. For a bit, he could just be Bucky, and it was a difficult thing to let go of. And there was a ridiculous part of him that felt, if he hung up, she might just vanish and he wouldn't get to talk to her again.

A silly sentiment.]

I should let you go, there's other things I need to look into and I've taken enough of your time for one day. We'll talk again soon. [He smiled.] At least, I hope so.

Video/Action- First Pirate Transmission

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