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

text, un: jb.barnes / pretend this is backdated oops

[anotheroldsoldier]

What the hell, Barnes?

un: user.name

[advanced]

How the hell did you get this username?

[He's been so damn careful not to attach his identity to it at all, barely using the network other than to stalk it.]

[anotheroldsoldier]

Who else here wants to be anonymous so bad they'd call themselves user.name? Besides, I have resources.

[He'd seen it on Tony's post, and it had seemed a little odd at the time, when everyone else had been using their names or quirky little nicknames. Now, it just makes sense, after meeting this other version of him. Back when he was still underground, he might have done the same thing.]

I haven't told anyone else. That's not what I wanted to talk about.

[advanced]

[That makes an annoying amount of sense, and he'd probably have thought the same thing if he'd known his other self was trying to hide.]

Have you told anyone else?

[Still not yet interested in why he's actually being called.]

[anotheroldsoldier]

I said I haven't. You want your privacy, I get it.

But you won't get it for much longer if you keep throwing fifteen year olds against bookcases in their own apartments.

[advanced]

[Ah, so that's what this is about. He wonders who else has been told.]

I didn't mean to, it was instinct. He grabbed me as I was leaving, I threw him off.

[anotheroldsoldier]

You broke into his place and stole his groceries. Of course he tried to fight you. But you're a hell of a lot better than him and you need to rein yourself in around civilians who can't defend themselves.

Guys like us can't just use 'muscle memory' or 'instinct' as an excuse. We don't get that luxury anymore. [After all the innocent people we've hurt, is heavily implied there. Look, this Bucky has guilt issues too!]

He's under my wing now. Don't let it happen again.

[advanced]

[He's right, of course, there are no excuses and he could seriously have hurt that kid. He hadn't had the right to be in his place or take his food, and definitely not to fight back when Yuri tried to stop him.

There's a long pause before he sends any sort of response.]

It won't happen again.

[anotheroldsoldier]

[There's an equally long pause as Bucky debates internally with himself. He's not here to lecture him, honestly, he just put the warning out about Yuri. Eventually, he settles on something he hopes is practical, and not pitying.]

If you need anything, you can get in touch with me. It can stay between us.

[advanced]

I don't need anything. This username won't be in use again after today, don't try to find me.

[At least, he hopes he can grab a new phone and input a different username.]

[anotheroldsoldier]

Don't let something like this happen again, and I won't.

[Whatever his new screenname is, Bucky figures he can figure it out. Or have Stark figure it out for him, if he needs to. Just because the other Bucky wants to be left alone doesn't mean James won't keep an eye out.]

[advanced]

[He doesn't bother to reply to the threat, it doesn't need it.

Instead, he hangs up and immediately goes about trying to change his username.]

voice; (@ellie)

[pundemic]

[she sounds bored.

and very much like she's been at this for hours.

look, running through the entire list of everyone in this fucking place and asking all of them are you Mark? has gotten old fast.]

Hey. If your name's Mark, it's Ellie. Meet me at the place we made arrows. It's not urgent, just. Something you should know about? Thanks.

[She's been saying that to all of them, because she knows he's a dude that appreciates his privacy and it prevents him from needing to reply. Sooner or later she'll hit the real one.]

@user.name; text

[advanced]

[Of all the people he might not mind having this name, and who he doesn't think will tell anyone, she's on that short list. Which is why she'll get a reply not long after she's sent that.]

I'll be there. Thirty minutes.

[pundemic]

[oh good because her next person was going to be tony stark (no, not that one, the other one) and that was sure to end in disaster. She does smile though, at the unexpected reply, and switches over to text,]

k c u then.

[enjoy her teenage grammar. Half an hour gives her time to grab some decent food, too, which she bets he could use. Annnnd then off she goes!]

[signifies]

[ Clark doesn't get occasion to use his super-speed often. He listens to Bucky every day, however, he's rarely tracked him.

When Bucky steps out of his safe house to go for groceries or another errand, one Kryptonian tries his hand at being sneaky. He nearly trips an alarm. There's so many of them and probably a few motion sensors. Clark hopes he hasn't made Bucky feel threatened by his intrusion: he came here to leave some freshly baked pie and home-cooked food. The post-it note stuck to it is signed with the S

You're friends now. Deal with it. ]

[advanced]

[He's there in the next fifteen, but that's good because it gives him time to scout out the area and make sure that he's not walking into a trap.

Just because they've had a few civil conversations doesn't mean he trusts her, and someone else could easily have got hold of or hacked her phone. But it seems like the area is clear, so she'll find him just sitting on a log near where the campfire had been before.]

[pundemic]

[She's early as well, though not by as wide a margin and she grins when she sees him, completely bright and earnest.

After all, she wasn't really sure he'd show up.]

Hey! Here, brought you something.

[She slings her bag down from her shoulder, pulls the fraying zipper open and pulls out a tinfoil-wrapped meal. Smells like meat and vegetables. Somebody's been learning to cook. It's a fucking joy, seeing all the shit they've got lying around here you can just... turn into a meal. Having food every day - fresh food, not shit that's been canned for so long you have to decide if the botulism's worth the risk - is so fucking weird to her.

She's actually grown about an inch since getting here just because of the damn nutrition.]

[advanced]

[It does freak him out when he gets back and finds a random pie and some food just waiting for him. But the S at least tells him who has come along and left these things.

He eats them pretty quickly, washes out the dishes, and leaves them in the same spot. They'll be there for Clark to collect whenever he wants, though Bucky will no longer use that safe house ever again.]

[advanced]

[He relaxes a little when he sees that it's just her, nobody else, though he can't help the confusion when she holds out that tinfoil wrapped meal.

It smells good, better than most of the stuff he's been subsisting on recently, and he can't help that his stomach rumbles loudly.]

You called me out here to give me food?

[pundemic]

[Oh for fuck's sake. Ellie rolls her eyes a little, marches over to where he's sitting and pushes the food right into his hands. Take it, jerk.]

Well, not just to give you food. Um, I wanted to let you know I have a roommate now. And I'm not really sure I trust her, [she's saying that mildly, but it's code for 'she keeps leaving my door unlocked and I'm paranoid as fuck so we are having Problems] so... just in case you were thinking about another shower my place is probably not a good idea.

[Which is sort of a silly reason now that she thinks about it. She scuffs the ground with her foot.]

Just thought you should know. You know?

[Ellie stop saying 'know'.]

[advanced]

[It's a mark of the tentative trust between them that he doesn't question if the food is a trap, or if it might be laced with something, he just pulls off the foil and starts to wolf it down like a man starving.]

You looking for someplace else to go?

[He can read between the lines there, a roommate who can't be trusted isn't a good thing to have in somewhere that should be a sanctuary.

He won't be going around there for showers again, anyway.]

There are other rooms that aren't being used.

[He knows, he breaks into them sometimes.]

[signifies]

[ Clark notices.

He feels he should have asked, because that was a good place for his paranoid friend to hole up. Now he's not there anymore.

He can try a different approach a few days later. When Bucky's on the outskirts of town, Clark comes down from the sky some distance in front of him and waves.

He has a backpack. Inside, he's packed fresh food that's high in protein. All the cutlery is edible after the meal: he got it from a special shop here that makes them out of rice. It saves Bucky from having to throw things away, and he can keep the backpack. ]

Hey.

[pundemic]

I'm thinking about it, yeah.

[The log is a bit too high up for her to scuff the ground with her feet, but she sort of swings her legs back and forth.]

I've got enough money saved up I could probably just... rent my own place, and then nobody gets to bitch about how many locks I've got on the doors.

[It's a bit of a self-deprecating poke at herself and her paranoia. She knows it's not healthy. Knows it isn't even necessary, here-- like, how many people have gotten killed over a can of peaches since she got here? None that she knows of.

She hesitates, and then sort of switches tracks.]

Do you know if... that's what people used to be like? Before-- [he knows her history now, so she just sort of waves her hand in a way meant to encompass its entirety.] Nobody caring about locks, people being friendly with their neighbors. That kind of thing.

[advanced]

[He's not about to tell her that she's not old enough to rent her own place, she's obviously used to being self sufficient and it would be better for her to be somewhere that she felt safe rather than being forced to live with someone else. So he just nods in approval at her plan to get a place of her own, with literally no judgement about how many locks she might want on the door.

The question, though, that stumps him.

He's silent for a few moments, though not in a way that says he doesn't want to answer, more making sure he has the right answer before he speaks.]

Not always, not everywhere, but yeah. I think I have a memory of coming home one day to find a pie on my counter from my neighbour, I don't remember her name, but I can remember she used to leave a pie maybe once a month or so.

[So that was a friendly situation, right?]