IC Inbox

[advanced]

This is the IC inbox for Bucky Barnes at Riverview.

Network name: user.name

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

Note: As of the end of December 2017, Bucky has no phone, he has destroyed it. Consequently, this inbox can only be used for in person interaction. You are still more than welcome to post here without plotting with me first.

Comments

[signifies]

[ Clark will try to explain. He pauses to collect himself and choose his words wisely. ]

I can hear the muscles in your body moving. [ He can also see them, but he hasn't been looking without Bucky's explicit permission. ] It's not what I'm used to hearing from a soldier.

[ And his shoulder is a very grating noise. Clark can't always ignore it. ]

[advanced]

[It's always unnerving when he's reminded just how much Clark can see and hear of him, far beyond the natural order of things. But he still doesn't quite understand.]

How do you mean?

[How could even his muscles betray him as something more than a soldier?]

[signifies]

[ He swallows, a little frustrated with himself. It sounds different, but he can't illustrate that in a meaningful way for Bucky. ]

Should I demonstrate?

[advanced]

Yeah.

[He doesn't understand why Clark can't just explain, but he's willing to try and watch a demonstration, even if Clark said before that he wasn't particularly well practised in hand to hand techniques.]

[signifies]

[ Clark stands up. He chooses one of the soldiers who met him at the base and mimics him perfectly. He has a lot of control over his muscles, having spent his life suppressing his strength.

They are not only much slower but a lot less smooth than Bucky's movements. ]

Do you see a difference?

[advanced]

[Bucky watches carefully, but he still doesn't really see what Clark is getting at.]

You're slower, sloppier. It just means I'm better trained, but how does it show that I was conditioned?

[signifies]

[ Clark shakes his head. ]

You sound like a machine.

[advanced]

[That's not a nice thing to hear, but he can't exactly deny it as being true.]

So you're saying I need to fight less precisely?

[signifies]

No. I'm pretty sure only I'd notice something like that. Or someone as fast as me. [ He remembers what Kara said about the Flash. ] I was just trying to tell you that I see where you're coming from now.

[advanced]

[He nods, understanding, but it's still going to give him something to think about.]

I don't think I know how to move any other way.

[signifies]

That's okay. You do what you have to.

[ Bucky's survival instincts have kept him alive, like Ellie's. They need to do that to be safe. ]

[advanced]

I think I'd like to know how to move another way one day.

[To move like a man who didn't think danger was around every corner, that would be nice.]

[signifies]

It's okay to not be there yet, too. [ If Bucky lets him, Clark will reach out to squeeze his right shoulder warmly. ] This place is safer than where you came from, isn't it?

[advanced]

I'm not really sure, it's dangerous in other ways. Nobody's after me here, though, that's a nice change.

[Not one he's really got his head around yet, either.]

[signifies]

Let's hope it stays that way.

[ Hope is the key-word here. ]

[advanced]

[He raises an eyebrow, but just nods in the end.]

See what you can do about building whatever it is you need to build, and I'll teach you.

[signifies]

If I can't, do you mind if I watch you?

[advanced]

No.

[Weirdly, he even means that.]

If you wanted to kill me, you could do it without needing to study my fighting style, so I don't think it makes a difference.

[signifies]

[ Clark nods. ]

Okay then. [ He fetches the package that Bucky had given him for Ellie. ] I'll see you around? Come for coffee sometime.

[advanced]

Yeah, sure.

[Maybe. Probably not. He's still not up to going to coffee at someone's house, but he'll think it over.

He doesn't stop Clark leaving, disappearing himself in the opposite direction.]