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This is the IC inbox for Bucky Barnes at Snowblind.

Network name: @bucky; formerly @j, @username, and @robertsmith

This is the place to contact Bucky over the Network. Contact by voice, text, or video is all perfectly acceptable, and there is no need to plot with me prior to posting in this inbox.

Any contact for @j following day 125, @username following day 190, or @robertsmith following day 224 will be met with the following message: USER NOT FOUND.

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[There's no response for almost a full minute as he thinks about how best to handle this. Logically, he might make the best questioner. He has experience with Watson, he has experience with asking questions of people who don't want to answer. But that feels like a disturbing potential step backwards.]

Tell me everything that was said.

You saw the information, right? After it went public, he was worried that the Avengers were going to

I don't know. Use that information for a manhunt? He said his friends had already been punished enough. He tried to convince me to let it all go. I don't know if he knows something more about everyone that he didn't write down or if he just knows

I did some things. I tried to

It was the right thing to do I just wanted to help us

I hurt people.

[And he might lose Bucky over this too. But maybe that's just fitting. The one at home forgave him. He should give this one a fair chance to decide his own course.]

[It seems strange that Watson might think the Avengers would go after his friends, even after what they had done, if he knows anything about the team. They're heroes, the good guys, not just wild vigilantes out to persecute anyone without thought or reason. So perhaps he does know more than he's letting on, perhaps--

Wait, what?

He frowns, not that Tony can see it, confused.]

What did you do?

[He has no idea what this could be about, and if Watson knows something potentially damaging - more damaging - then he needs to know it.]

I was only trying to keep everyone safe

I just wanted

We had to compromise. We had to. You won't understand. you can't because i know how it'll sound but i had no choice

they wanted to shut us down. all of us. everyone. like we were terrorists.

Tell me what you did.

[This time it's an order rather than a question.

Is this something similar to what Steve was talking about before?]

From the beginning.

I did it. I helped hunt them down.

We just wanted to talk. To get them to understand that people were afraid of what they could do. If we just cooperated, I thought I thought it would be temporary

jesus it was such a mess

I didn't know, Barnes. I didn't know it would be that bad. I thought I could control it. once they started coming in, i thought theyd see it wasamiftake

[There's a pause so he can stop shaking.]

II don't think he knows. If he did he would have hinted at it.

[What the hell is going on here?

He still has no real idea what Stark is talking about, but he tries to parse what he can from the information he's given. Helped hunt down people that others were afraid of - people with powers? Other Avengers? But then something went wrong, maybe those who were brought in were tested on or killed?

He still needs more information. He switches to audio, voice commanding.]

Who did you hunt down, Stark? What happened to them? Stop avoiding answering me fully.

[He doesn't answer at first. He just doesn't have the composure. Tony breaks down, so there's a few minutes where he has to put himself back together enough to reply.]

They were right. He's right.

You probably won't talk to me after this. For what it's worth, I'm sorry. I never meant for things to turn out that bad.

There was an accident. The details don't matter - just know that a lot of people died in it. Children. The cause was meta-human and could have been prevented. The government - everybody - decided that superheroes were too dangerous to be left loose with new powers showing up every other month in some incident or another. They wanted to know who we were.

They started keeping files on everyone. Identities; abilities. Everything relevant. People started running, because- because they were scared. Angry.

It was going to get worse. If I didn't work with them, it wold have been worse. So I signed on. I just wanted everyone to see we could work together. But then the resistance started and I could either lead the the containment efforts or watch it happen and I wasn't just going to watch.

So I led them. I did it to keep the escalation under control and I did it to help and I'm not sorry for that, but I'm sorry for all the people that got hurt in it.

Please don't tell anyone here about this. They won't be involved. It's already over. It's Avengers business. I don't want to cause a panic.

[If he needed any further proof that they weren't from the same world at all, this was it. None of these events mean anything to him, but he can see them unfolding so easily. It was how wars started, it was how atrocities got committed. Someone made a mistake, someone who thought they were doing the right thing, and then everything spiralled out of control.

He can see the logical steps that Tony took, even if he doesn't agree with them, and he can see what must have happened.

There's a long silence on his end also as he tries to work out how he feels about all of this. He's not as disgusted as Tony might expect him to be; perhaps because of all the wrong he's done himself, he knows what it's like to live with crushing guilt. He knows what it's like to be hunted too. It's not his place to forgive Tony, or to condemn him, not when he doesn't know the whole story. He switches back to text. Easier, less personal.]

I won't tell anyone.

[It's probably not the most comforting of answers, but he can at least offer that. He won't betray that secret to anyone else. Easier than figuring out the personal ramifications of this story is focusing on the immediate problems, the reason Tony's told him in the first place.]

You think Watson knows?

[He's actually surprised to get a reply.]

I don't know. Based on what he wrote I'd say no, but he was also keeping that much on file that we didn't know about.

And he was serious about not wanting us to chase people down.

[So he believes they are like that. At least some of them.]

It could be that. It could be any number of things. I don't remember everything I've done. Especially when I

I need a drink.

[He knows that not all the information was in the files, because his name didn't feature anywhere in them, so obviously Watson has left things out. He could easily have left out more pertinent things too.

He doesn't know Tony well enough to know if this version is an alcoholic too, but the press and magazines he's read about the Stark in his world clearly paint him as such.]

Bad idea.

[This is enough of a mess without adding in drunkenness.]

I'll find out what he knows. Don't do anything rash until then.

I haven't seen a single hard drink since I got here.

I looked. Sometimes. You know, just because I wasn't thinking.

[Well, no, he was thinking. But he wouldn't take it. He thinks he wouldn't.]

Me, rash? Never.

Don't look any more. You don't need it.

[Why is he giving Tony orders as if it's his responsibility of the man falls off the wagon or not? Maybe he cares a little, or maybe he's just trying to be that better man.]

I'm meeting Watson face to face, I'll find out what he knows then.

I do need it.

I won't look. I'll try not to look.

[He self-corrects because he knows he'll probably look anyway.]

If it feels off just leave, okay? I don't think he'd do anything but the people he's protecting might.

I can handle myself.

[That's an understatement, but he doesn't think even if Watson brings reinforcements that he'll be able to do much to him. He's not sure if that's a comfort or not.]

Don't drink.

[Yes, that is an order, before he hangs up abruptly.]

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