★ 1 | ACTION ★

[stillgotmyleftarm]

Who: Bucky!Cap Barnes
Action: Throughout the Marsiva holding area
When: Feb 15-17-ish

[Bucky is new. He's new, and confused, and he figures the best way to get answers is to go find them. For better or worse, there's not a whole lot of space in which to find them, since he's limited to the same holding area as the rest of the passengers, but on the plus side, given that everyone else is confined to the same area, he's more likely to run into said passengers. When he spots someone who looks like they might be amenable to talking, he's very likely to approach.

For the most part, the faces are not familiar; he wanders the living area and the kitchen (where he's likely to stop and get some coffee, thank God that seems to exist here). He pokes his head into the bathroom and gym, too, and of course actually makes use of the former to take a shower on a regular basis. The gym he doesn't so much use as inspect and note; he's still too wary of where he is for anything resembling recreation, and thanks to the serum, he doesn't actually need to do much in the way of regular training to keep himself up. Maybe later.

Mostly, what will strike people is the fact that his face looks like the Bucky Barnes already on board, if you've managed to get a good look at that, but his hair is cropped short and his face is clean-shaven and his left arm is definitely not metal. All he's got to wear is the dark blue STRIKE uniform (sans helmet and shield) that looks - to some people, probably - like it should belong on Steve Rogers instead.]

Comments

[stillgotmyleftarm]

I don't think I'm gonna blame you, [he admits, before answering:] About a day.

A really weird, really long day - that just keeps getting weirder, I guess.

[passingthrough]

Yeah, it keeps getting weirder for awhile. [She smiles gently at him.] Did anyone explain the part where there are many realities existing parallel to each other where the same people have different lives? And that this place pulls people in from different realities, different worlds, and different timelines?

[stillgotmyleftarm]

[Bucky just hums agreement at the first - weird is not an unfamiliar concept, it's just one he'd maybe been hoping he wouldn't have to deal with in these copious amounts again. So much for that.]

No one's explained it, exactly - but I'm kind of starting to get that drift, [he says, taking that in for a moment.] So it must get pretty confusing around here.

[He's not quite sure how many timelines she's talking about, after all.]

And cramped? [He motions to their general surroundings. Yeah, there's room, but... it's still not ideal.]

[passingthrough]

[She should probably get to the part where there is another him, but there's so much mind blowing you could do and it just seems better to spread it out. The last point could use some clarification anyway.]

It's very cramped right now, but that part's not usually a problem. We usually have more autonomy than this and are spread out among a fleets of ships instead of all jammed into the Marsiva.

[stillgotmyleftarm]

[Bucky does look a mix of curious and impressed at that.] A whole fleet? [He glances around a little.] And everyone's crammed into here right now?

[This is actually useful information. It tells him how many people have been kidnapped. Unfortunately, it looks like a lot.]

You sound like you've been here a while.

[passingthrough]

They are playing games with us right now. If it's like the last two times they did this they'll return us and then probably do it again in a year and a half.

As for me, it'll be... [She pauses, realizing something and shakes her head.] No, I guess it already is three years...and fifteen days. I guess I missed my anniversary.

[She looks back to the machine that beeps about being ready, and grabs a cup to pour the fresh coffee into.]

[stillgotmyleftarm]

[The first part of what she says definitely pretty much leads right into the second. And his eyebrows do shoot up at that.]

That's a decent chunk of time.

[He's momentarily distracted by the coffee, taking the cup with a soft,] Thanks.

Do you know why they do - this? The, uh, group party on the Marsiva, I mean.

[Best to start with the present situation. Also:] Do you know who they even are?

[passingthrough]

Yeah, it's getting up there. I haven't been around for the whole thing though. I'm pretty sure only Vash goes back that far. [She holds her own cup of coffee between her hands, not drinking and then shaking her head.]

It's called calibrations. I know what it's like for us, but I don't really know the purpose. Ratings? Torture? Experimentation? Some actual recalibrating of the augments maybe. There's no way to know for sure what their intent is. And they call themselves the Atroma, but we don't know much. There are some clues. Could have been put there by them to get us to run around the maze though. [She gives a little shrug, but it's not really dismissive. She knows it's a serious situation. The gravity of it all isn't lost on her, but she's also lived here for three years and at a certain point your life just reasserts itself and things are more about the moments and the relationships and the day to day.

There's also the part where this is her second time in mysterious overlord captivity and the first time it turned out everything she was living was a shared virtual reality with much more manipulation than this place has thrown at her, but it still makes it difficult and maybe foolish to trust anything at face value. But that's also not a great starting point for getting anywhere.]

[stillgotmyleftarm]

[Bucky cradles his cup, too, inhaling for a moment; then he takes a sip, and mulls over what she's said.

It's a lot to take in, but at least it seems... well, relatively straightforward. That's something.

He definitely looks wary as she goes on, but not at her - it's definitely directed at their situation. On his end, it's not the first time he's been a prisoner. And that first time was kind of a doozy. He definitely doesn't like the sound of the word calibrations.]

Do you know how many people are here? It sounds like they come and go.

[Then, even before she can answer, he breaks into a small, apologetic smile.] Sorry, I don't mean to stand here and demand answers. It just seems like you have more of 'em than me, at least.

[passingthrough]

It's okay. I remember what it was like even if it was a long time ago for me. [You don't forget that first moment where you're suddenly somewhere completely new and different and it takes awhile before you realize you also lost everything you had before. She's had at least three of those moments in life and only two were because of mysterious overlords. The first overlord was pretty upfront with who he was and what he wanted.]

Counting the Marsiva and Iskaulit who no one live on we have sixteen ships in the fleet. The number of people keeps shifting, but around seventy five now. People get brought in and other people disappear. Some within days of arriving and some stay for years. Some leave and come back with or without memories of ever being here. They might not be the same person exactly though. Multiverse is funny that way.

[stillgotmyleftarm]

[Bucky lets out a low whistle.] Maybe in the grand scheme of things, that's peanuts, but... it still sounds like a lot to me.

[Seventy-five people or so? Sixteen ships? What the hell? It really is a fleet.] I guess what that tells me is whoever's doing this must have bigger numbers than that.

[Not that that's anything more than vague. It's something, but not much.] Everything's funny if you look at it the right way, [he jokes, if wryly.] Or entertaining, I guess. You think people get kicked off if they're not entertaining enough, maybe?

[passingthrough]

There used to be more. More ships too. [She's not sure what, if anything, to make of the downward trend. But he's right. It's still plenty of people and with the way they are usually split up there are still some she barely knows if at all.]

They might just be infinitely more powerful, but considering there are a couple of gods on board that's...a lot of power.

[A nod.] I think that's what they want us to think. That's the reason that I've heard floated around, but I can't really buy it.

[stillgotmyleftarm]

Huh.

[That's interesting, and he definitely files that away. Maybe it means something.

Her opinion, though, definitely gets his attention.] Yeah? You think it's something else, then?

[passingthrough]

I just think if it was really that you'd see some of the quieter people go sooner. Some of the bigger personalities who did go would still be here. [There may be some specific people she misses who she thinks would have and should still be here.] It feels more random than that, but I don't really know if it's random either.

[stillgotmyleftarm]

[Bucky considers that, and,] That makes sense.

Unless they want a balance of people, 'cause dragging quiet people out of their comfort zone is funny or something.

[He doesn't sounds like he thinks it's funny.]

Guess I can't assume to know, though. Never been kidnapped by aliens before. Just tried to punch them off my planet.

[passingthrough]

Hilarious. [She tips her head curiously.] Which aliens were these? Also, I think in general there are more effective methods for getting someone off a planet or you really have some punch.

[stillgotmyleftarm]

Yep. [He feels the same way.]

Called the Chitauri? And sure there are, but I didn't have a rifle handy. And I did have a Hulk.

[She probably won't know what that means, he thinks as he says it, but too bad, it's out of his mouth.]

[passingthrough]

I've heard of them, but only from Avengers around here.* From what I've heard about Hulk that sounds the most effective technique. [Same information source as before. Of course if she's been told more stories or in a more complete way she might have realized Bucky shouldn't have been there, but life is complicated and she's not looking for holes in the story.]

(*00C: They should exist in Earth 295 since it only diverged from 616 shortly before the formation of the X-Men and all previous history is the same, but since 616 didn't introduce them until after they got popularized in the Avengers which happened after 295's arc I figure they were keeping their distance or something during 295 and she didn't know about them.)

[stillgotmyleftarm]

It kind of was, [Bucky has to admit.] And however bad they sound? They smell even worse when they're dead.

[His lips quirk up into a wry smile.]

Sounds like you've got some experience, maybe? With aliens in general, I mean.

[passingthrough]

Well, we are in space and I've been here for three years, so yes. Also, sometimes they kidnap people who aren't from Earth for the fleet. And I had varying levels of knowledge about the Shi'ar, Kree, and Skrulls back home. They seemed to be the most active near Earth anyway.

[stillgotmyleftarm]

I meant from home, [he says, a little thread of bemusement in his voice - but yeah, okay. He can see how dumb that question probably sounded, without the clarifier. He's just not used to being in space yet. Give him time.]

I haven't heard of any of those - but then, I admit, I've kinda been trying to deal with the problems closer to home.

[But now you can bet he'll be asking around. Or keeping his ears open - when he gets home. Because he's getting home.] I wonder if we've even got the same, uh, "cosmic" neighbors, anyway.

[Who knows how different their worlds are.]

[passingthrough]

There's a decent chance. There were people here who were Avengers back home but recognized a version of me and versions of X-Men who knew about and had even been on the Avengers. So our worlds aren't as separated as some. And yet, hopefully your world is very different. [Because you don't want it to be like hers.]

[stillgotmyleftarm]

[Bucky has to shake his head at that, though, because,] I've never heard of any X-Men, if that means anything. But then, as far as I can tell, all the other Avengers here are from a the same universe, and that's not mine.

Makes a guy feel like the odd man out.

You got anyone here that's from where you're from?

[passingthrough]

I do. Kurt Darkholme. I think he's currently the only blue person in the fleet, so he should stand out. He's a teammate and old friend. But there was a long time I was alone in this kind of place before him, so I get the old person out feeling.

Having met some of the other Avengers here could you say what the biggest differences are in your world and theirs?

[stillgotmyleftarm]

Blue, huh? [Well. The Hulk is green. The Vision is... magenta, or something. (Fancy color names are definitely Steve's department.) Blue seems reasonable by now.] I'll keep an eye out for him.

[He considers the question - but not very long before he laughs dryly.] Steve's alive - Steve Rogers. He's not the one who died in the Alps, and he's still Cap.

[It's definitely a bittersweet thought.]

Most of the other stuff seems like it's the same, but a lot of them are from later than I am. Which is also weird, you know?