bucky with the good hair (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
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meadowlarklogs2020-11-02 12:54 am
deadthenred) wrote in meadowlarklogs2020-11-02 12:54 am
Entry tags:
fear itself
WHO: Bucky Barnes + ???
WHERE: the dreamscape
WHEN: vague pre-event beforetimes.
WHAT: three nightmares.
NOTES OR WARNINGS: feelings of inadequacy, vampires
[ In his dreams, it's 1943 again. ]
[ Maybe you've had this nightmare before. Like showing up to take a final for a class you've forgotten to attend the whole semester, this is one that repeats.
There's a podium, a microphone— one of those old-timey, radio looking pieces. Behind the podium is an enormous star-spangled flag. There might be cameras in the audience, too, but the people out there are dark, nebulous, hard to see. One thing's for sure, though: they're all watching.
You gotta make a speech. ]
[ The signs on the buildings here are all in French, but the soldiers are speaking English. They're crowded around their jeeps, mostly, biding time until reinforcements arrive and they can follow Patton up to the front. The only electricity right now is coming from batteries, and there are still holes in all the buildings from when the Germans blew right through, and the roads are still more mud than pavement.
Winter was unkind, in this part of Europe. It's still cold.
In fact, Bucky's teeth are close to chattering as he approaches the dark house, the street illuminated by memory, if not by lamplight. Some part of his subconscious knows what he's gonna find here. ]
Look. [ He turns to whoever's he's walking with, younger than usual, the cold snapping in his voice. ] Maybe we shouldn't go in.
[ A lot of people in this town have died, recently. Not all of them have stayed dead. ]
[ The picture is black and white, but you can tell that the man's uniform is red, white, and blue. Captain America, the name blares in the tin of a radio announcer. He has the strength of ten men, the speed of ten horses, and the heart of a can-do patriot. He's the latest miracle of American engineering, and he's fighting on the side of freedom! So look out, Hitler and Hirohito—
And then the man smiles like a poster, except he's not a poster anymore, everything's all in living color. And he looks straight ahead, and says: ]
What makes you think you could ever keep up?
WHERE: the dreamscape
WHEN: vague pre-event beforetimes.
WHAT: three nightmares.
NOTES OR WARNINGS: feelings of inadequacy, vampires
[ In his dreams, it's 1943 again. ]
1)
[ Maybe you've had this nightmare before. Like showing up to take a final for a class you've forgotten to attend the whole semester, this is one that repeats.
There's a podium, a microphone— one of those old-timey, radio looking pieces. Behind the podium is an enormous star-spangled flag. There might be cameras in the audience, too, but the people out there are dark, nebulous, hard to see. One thing's for sure, though: they're all watching.
You gotta make a speech. ]
2)
[ The signs on the buildings here are all in French, but the soldiers are speaking English. They're crowded around their jeeps, mostly, biding time until reinforcements arrive and they can follow Patton up to the front. The only electricity right now is coming from batteries, and there are still holes in all the buildings from when the Germans blew right through, and the roads are still more mud than pavement.
Winter was unkind, in this part of Europe. It's still cold.
In fact, Bucky's teeth are close to chattering as he approaches the dark house, the street illuminated by memory, if not by lamplight. Some part of his subconscious knows what he's gonna find here. ]
Look. [ He turns to whoever's he's walking with, younger than usual, the cold snapping in his voice. ] Maybe we shouldn't go in.
[ A lot of people in this town have died, recently. Not all of them have stayed dead. ]
3)
[ The picture is black and white, but you can tell that the man's uniform is red, white, and blue. Captain America, the name blares in the tin of a radio announcer. He has the strength of ten men, the speed of ten horses, and the heart of a can-do patriot. He's the latest miracle of American engineering, and he's fighting on the side of freedom! So look out, Hitler and Hirohito—
And then the man smiles like a poster, except he's not a poster anymore, everything's all in living color. And he looks straight ahead, and says: ]
What makes you think you could ever keep up?
no subject
Nile Freeman. Used to be a corporal. [ he doesn't offer his hand, so she doesn't push for it either. ] I'm not. Probably won't get much older for a while either.
[ in theory. but she doesn't know how it works on this earth, given none of them heal here. ] This is World War II, right? You an old man now?
no subject
Depends. When's now? [ It's a very sarcastic teenager voice for an old man. Bucky still feels old, even if, physically, he isn't. He's confused about modern music. His bones hurt. ]
We dealt with Baron Blood a couple years back. [ 'Cause when you think "Nazi vampire" you think Baron Blood. ] Made a couple calls, when this started, but what's left of him's still in that crypt back in London. Could still be this is the remains of somethin' he started.
no subject
Baron Blood? [ "are you for real?" ] That should have been a dead giveaway for vampire. You gotta take care of his real corpse eventually too?
no subject
Later we'd find out the Super-Axis resurrected him, somehow. Some kinda creep-o vampire science. [ Typical, right? ] Anyway, this isn't him. At least, not directly. [ He's sure of that. Part of him's sure of what has to come next, too, but he doesn't wanna go there, so he adds: ]
It was 2019 for me.
no subject
[ nile pauses. he said he's not normally this young, but - ]
So you are an old man.
no subject
Hey. Don't rub it in.
[ It'd make sense, though, if an old man was young again in his dreams. Probably. ]
no subject
You brought it up first. Besides, I know some very old men who look pretty good for their ages. Not sure age means much anymore.
no subject
Of course, Bucky knows a few other ways. Hell, Bucky knows Thor. Still, the thing he says has nothing to do with that. ]
It meant a lot to me, back then.
[ As in, the time he's dreaming up right now. ]
no subject
What did? Stopping the vampire?
no subject
[ And maybe that was a childish thing to worry about. But he was young for this war. They all were, really. ]
no subject
[ but it's not like she was much older when she joined the marines either. there are so many children fighting in these wars, no matter the decade. ]
no subject
But the thing about dreams is that surreal never occurs to them. They feel well-worn, unremarkable. Like rain on a grey day, or a town full of Nazi vampires. ]
Wasn't why I enlisted, though, so don't go gettin' the wrong idea.
no subject
[ a beat. ]
It's a lot different now. [ not for everyone. but for some people, it's less about patriotism and more about x other awful factors. ]
no subject
[ That was never a life he could see for himself. ]
What about you?
no subject
[ people have all kinds of reasons. ]
I wanted to go to college. It's one of the ways they get you. [ a beat. ] Plus, my dad was a marine. I kind followed after him.
no subject
[ Well, he wasn't a Marine, but. Same reason. He wanted to carry it on. ]
no subject
[ and then she also went on to die in combat. and then die again several different times. it just never stuck! ]
no subject
[ The dead father and the dying both, if we're honest. ]