closed

[counterstep]

Passengers: Bucky Barnes, Grace Gibson, Theo Crawford
Location: Around the Peregrine
Date: early March
Summary: Collective set of logs. Bucky holds hands with a ghost, Bucky giving an inmate a knife, and other stories.
Warnings: for Grace, nothing. for Theo, language, violence.

Comments

[expectaspectre]

[ Grace usually spends her time gently floating from spot to spot in the storage warehouse, reading books on her commlink, and pretending she's not avoiding Lucifer. Today, though, she has invited a friend, and it brightens her considerably when he shows up-- she straightens up, waves, smiling, and floats down from her current perch to meet him. ]

Manage to avoid the cargo pushers okay?

[counterstep]

( the sight of her smile brightens his own smile more, a pleased lean of his head as she approaches. )

Yeah. Something like a game, really, if you've got time to kill. ( glancing to the container she'd been on, bucky hums gently. )

Shall I join you up there? Easier to focus if we're sitting.

[expectaspectre]

You just wanna fly, huh?

[ She grins, holds out a hand toward him. ]

Not like I blame you... Alright, hold on, and don't let go until I do.

[counterstep]

( he belts out a surprised laugh because he genuinely is. ) Oh, I was just gonna jump it. But if you're offering?

( hand out hesitantly, he lets her choose between flying him up or watching him jump up himself. )

[expectaspectre]

[ Ooo. Tempting. She DOES want to see him do some super ability stuff... so far it's just been her showing off and him being overwhelmingly charming about it.

...Nah. Be more charming. She grabs his wrist and shifts, turning herself incorporeal... and taking him with her. Now weightless (and heartbeatless, and blinkless, and breathless), she flies them both gently up to the high-up container she'd been chilling on before, a big rectangular tank of what looks like some sort of alien fish suspended in gentle blue light. Once there, she sets them both carefully on the ground and shifts them back to normal, peering carefully at his expression. ]

You okay? Sometimes the process can be unsettling for people...

[counterstep]

( she takes his wrist, and he feels his body change. he's never felt so weightless, so unburdened, utterly free of corporeal burden, all the aches he's grown to ignore vanished in a single moment. though his eyes widen, mouth agape in shock, it's not fear in his expression but elation. were he more aware, and more importantly capable, he could genuinely cry.

none of this is easy to explain though, too much history and baggage. too much to put onto anyone. too much for steve. too much even for himself. when he shifts back, the long familiar pains return but remain forgotten, his heart pounding from gratifying pleasure of the entire event.

bucky smiles so wide his cheeks start to ache. )

O- oh my, God. ( a bright, delight-filled smile. ) That was so cool!

[expectaspectre]

[ she beams. ]

The best part is not having to breathe. I can stay underwater like that for hours. It's a good place to hide.

[ implying she's done that a lot. Anyway. What were they here for, again? OH. She is. Still holding on to his wrist, huh. With a little jump of realization, she quickly drops it and tilts her head apologetically, folding her arms against her stomach. ]

Sorry!

[counterstep]

Underwater? ( he laughs, surprised. having the luxury of not needing to breathe could benefit a lot of situations. while his mind wanders a moment, she reacts to having kept hold of his wrist, but he smiles gently and shakes his head. she's trustworthy. )

You're fine! ( and he shifts to stand properly rather than in a daze, when— ) Wait, wait, are you swimming in water, then? Or just flying through it?

[expectaspectre]

Huh? Oh... That's... a good question, actually, I think um... neither?

[ Don't worry-- she looks exactly as confused as you feel. ]

It's like you're there, but you're not there. Like you are where you are, but you're not a part of it. It's hard to explain... the water is there, it's around you, but it doesn't... matter? [ She shakes her head, lets out an exasperated chuckle. ] I'll show you sometime. It's easier than trying to use words. Like most things.

[counterstep]

It's awfully clever. ( a fond grin as he continues. ) I can't imagine how strange it must have been at first, but it's far more useful than any run of the mill power.

( none of his even matter if she can shift out of tangible space so easily. hell, that makes her all the more powerful in his eyes. )

[expectaspectre]

[ She shrugs, sheepishly-- it's clear from her face she doesn't exactly agree. ]

Less strange, more... terrifying. I was sixteen, and I didn't know what was happening to me. I thought maybe I was losing my mind. Sometimes I still wonder.

[ A bright smile-- clearly forced. ]

But that's the problem, right? I have to learn not to be so obvious that I'm basically always afraid here. Because there's no one to trust, really.

[counterstep]

( sixteen. how old was she now? it's something he should ask, but decorum makes it impolite. sixteen. fuck. not that the war wasn't hell either, but. but that was war. )

Anyone who says they're perfectly sane is definitely lying. Trust me. ( said one fool to another.

not that it ever mattered in the end. whatever made sense was never what happened. sanity didn't prove much use when thanos came barging in. )

There is at least on person you should trust, though. Yourself. Not the words but the instinct. You know?

[expectaspectre]

...Easier said than done.

[ She tries to shrug it off, with a well meaning little laugh, but it's clear that self-esteem isn't exactly high on her list of accomplishments. ]

Generally if I get the impulse to do something in the moment, it's the wrong thing to do. I can't react like normal people, because normal people don't react normally to me. I have to second-guess it all, so I usually end up doing nothing. Which comes across as... timid, I guess? And that, plus my whole thing, it makes people want to... I don't know. Hurt me. I suppose.

[ She's not really able to look him in the eyes, her gaze drifting around the storage containers in the distance. ]

I don't blame them. I just got real good at running away.