Take me down to the river bend [Open]

[tookthewheel]

Who| MCU!Bucky, Elsa and Anna, MCU!Bucky and the Signless, MCU!Bucky and OTA
What| Bucky getting his murder on and also roaming the mall, come say hi
Where| The Marvel store, Centurion Cineplex and other various locations
When| First half of week 3
Warnings/Notes| Violence, death, Bucky's issues

Prompt A: The Marvel Store

The Marvel store has become his home base. Bucky spends every night here, bar something unexpected forcing him to seek shelter elsewhere. He varies his time between resting, pondering over the curious merchandise or taking care of his numerous collection of weaponry, cleaning the knives and gun in a routine that has proven a reliable way to settle his mind, especially in the long inactive hours of the night when sleep often eludes him.

Mostly Bucky chooses to stay in the part of the store dedicated to Captain America though he can be found wandering through other sections. Sometimes, through morbid fascination, he moves to the merchandise dedicated to him, which represents both his past and his current reality. Blue jackets, an old fashioned snipe rifle, stretchy sleeves of ridged silver material emblazoned with a red star and replicas of the black muzzle and goggles he wore as the Winter Soldier can be found here amongst other objects.

Prompt B: Through the mall, specify your own location

Almost every day Bucky leaves the shelter of the Marvel store and ventures out in the mall, patrolling down the levels and then back upwards again. He never does the same route twice and varies the times he visits certain locations, including what part of the day he'll venture into the food court to stuff supplies in a bag to take back upstairs to his allies, in case someone is watching out for him.

He can be encountered anywhere from the locker room on the ground floor to tribute personalised stores on the third. The only place he may avoid is the bookstore, only passing by the outside because even though he and the other Bucky destroyed all their biographies (so he thinks), the place makes him too uncomfortable to venture back inside when he has the choice not to.

Comments

Prompt A

[privilegecheck]

After the explosions in the food court and seeing Kurloz's mangled body, Kankri can't stay in the bendy straw pile anymore. He knew one of them would likely see the other die eventually, but that doesn't make it any easier on him. It's always been people he met here before, never someone from his own home, and that's a new and very painful violation.

He wanders through the mall, searching for Venus, or Shepard, or someone friendly who won't mind if he just collapses for a while, but it's difficult to search when you know you may come across someone significantly less friendly.

At last he picks a store at random, curls up under a rack of brightly colored capes, and gets out his current sewing project from his bag. It's something to do. Kurloz's doll is mostly finished now. Morbid, perhaps, but he'd gotten so used to huddling together in the pile these past weeks that he hopes the doll will bring him some comfort.

He cries a little as he pushes the needle through the fabric, but does his best to keep the noise down, not wanting to attract attention. One of the worst parts of the Arenas is that there's so much time and yet there's no time to mourn without careful preparation.

[tookthewheel]

This store is a secure location. Not only does Bucky return here but so do numerous allies of his, Steve and the people who call themselves Avengers, Steve's team.

There are numerous pieces of merchandise in here which declare that.

So when he walks through here he is slightly more relaxed than he might be anywhere else in the arena, less keyed towards immediate aggression when he stumbles across a stranger hiding underneath a rack of bright fabric (OWN YOU OWN MIGHTY THOR CAPE). The sound that draws Bucky over is soft and distressed and he settles a safe distance back before crouching down to look at the origin of it.

"Who are you?"

[privilegecheck]

Kankri jumps, startled, and pricks his finger on the sewing needle. "Ow, ow, ow," he mumbles, sticking the bleeding puncture in his mouth on reflex as he looks up wide-eyed at the stranger who's found him. Human, as per usual. Surveying him with a cold, appraising sort of detachment.

"I'm Kankri," he says after a moment. "Kankri Vantas. I-I didn't know anyone was here, I just wanted to go somewhere not so...so open, for a bit."

He stuffs the unfinished doll in his bag and tries to dash the pinkish tears from his eyes, quiet for a few moments. Then, not meeting Bucky's eyes, he murmurs, "Are you going to kill me?" Because nothing about the man looks particularly friendly, but he's just...sitting there, watching. Kankri isn't sure what to make of it.

[tookthewheel]

He looks familiar, Bucky realises, from something he did recently. The assassin curls the fingers of his metal hand, thinking back to a couple days before. He killed someone like this one in the darkness of the cineplex.

A catlike tilt of his head accompanies this thought as he continues to gauge the person, Kankri, in front of him, thinking over the question he is asked. He could easily, maybe he should to get another tribute out of the way. Curiously though he finds he does not actually want to and decides further to allow himself to follow that desire.

It also occurs to him the others might not be pleased if he killed in here without need and Kankri did not seem to mean harm. Yet.

"Only if you attack."

[privilegecheck]

Kankri makes an offended little noise at that thought. "I don't attack people. I'm a pacifist. I see no reason to start playing these awful Games to win when I've been through two without shedding blood already."

He regards Bucky curiously, relaxing slightly now that he has something of a reprieve.

"Who are you? I haven't seen you before." Not that that's a surprise, when he's been mostly holing himself up since his second Arena. "May I ask why you're here?"

[tookthewheel]

At that Bucky snorts softly with a minute shake of his head for emphasis. Pacifist, he knows the term, it means one who will not fight and therefore one who will not win. HYDRA had no love for them when he was theirs, they had stood in the way of the future order.

He rocks back lightly on his heels, perfectly balanced as he regards the creature before him. What Kankri is (beyond not human) he doesn't know, nor is he concerned enough to ask. "James Buchanan Barnes." he pauses, then adds, "Bucky."

The second question he debates over for a moment, May I ask seems a strange turn of phrase to him for the question is asked regardless. He decides there is no risk in answering, "I stay here."

[privilegecheck]

Kankri smiles, only a little shakily. "Pleased to meet you, Bucky." He scoots forward, resting his arms on his knees. "I've never seen a human with a metal arm before. Well, no one with one, really. I know- knew- someone who could make robotic limbs, but he wasn't very good at it just yet, and no one we knew needed a replacement limb in any case. Is it uncomfortable?"

He's babbling and he knows it, but Bucky seems to be very reserved and monosyllabic and it's kind of strange.

[tookthewheel]

Bucky bows his head as Kankri focuses on the arm, making a mental note that he should make more of an effort to cover it up. It was less comfortable but it did stop these questions if people couldn't see the cybernetic...

... and he knows no harm is meant by it on some level, as few know the story behind why he has it and who gave it to him. That doesn't stop the questions from making him uncomfortably though, especially after the incident with Tony Stark.

"There are few like me." he answers after a moment, "It doesn't hurt." not as it is now.

[privilegecheck]

Despite Bucky's expressionless manner, Kankri can tell from his reaction that he's said something wrong. He recognizes that uncomfortable glance away, the unwillingness to face a question difficult to have asked.

"Sorry," he says softly. "I- there aren't many like me either. Among my own kind, I mean, not just in Panem."

He considers a few moments, shifting slightly where he sits. He brushes against one of the capes, and then has an idea.

"I can make something to fit and cover it snugly, if you don't like it being looked at. I've been doing plenty of sewing of late, so it's nothing too difficult, and it wouldn't take long."

[tookthewheel]

"I saw one like you before." but that's all the information he offers. It had been dark in the theatre, unclear as he'd looped the fishing line around his neck--

-- he shakes his head, shakes the Soldier loose from trying to rise up instead of sitting underneath, ready and waiting.

Bucky looks up at the offer, his brow creases slightly. He is... surprised, to say the least. "You would do that for me?"

[privilegecheck]

"Oh. That would probably be the Signless." Kankri smiles. "He's...well, he and I are complicated, but we're still certainly quite rare among our kind. Perhaps the Capitol simply enjoys bringing the unusual to compete in their Games."

He reaches up, taking one of the capes off the rack and draping the fabric over his lap. "Of course. It'll give me something to do, and you've given me no reason to think you mean me harm. Would you mind coming closer so I can take measurements?"

[tookthewheel]

"No." he started, then paused. "Perhaps, we did not talk. I talked to one, he named himself Initiate." he thought they were the same species, probably. Bucky tilts his head in acknowledge of the Capitol's designs on their tributes, it makes more sense to him now the longer he's had to get used to the idea.

Bucky's eyes watch him avidly as he does so. "No." he decides, giving permission for Kankri to approach. Asking is an automatic way to gather good will from Bucky and he is also confident of his ability to stop this being should he attempt anything other than what he spoke of.

[privilegecheck]

"Oh, Fraysong! He's in my district. Er- I should explain, adult trolls are usually referred to by their titles. Though he's not quite an adult yet, particularly for his caste." He doesn't mention that he knows the Initiate's hatchname. It would be confusing now that his own Kurloz is here, and anyway hatchnames are far too intimate for strangers.

It's odd. Bucky is obviously far more capable than Kankri himself, particularly in the environment of casual violence they're in at the moment, and yet now that Kankri's had some time to observe he notices that Bucky seems to be far more nervous - almost scared - than Kankri himself is. So he moves slowly and with as little aggression as possible, like he's approaching an injured barkbeast, as he scoots himself forwards towards the human. He digs a measuring tape from his bag, very gently winding it around Bucky's metal bicep to start with.

"Have you been here for very long?" he asks quietly, looking up at Bucky.

[tookthewheel]

He keeps his arm very still as he listens, trying not to give away how nervous he is about the contract -- permitted contact, he reminds himself -- and failing more than he realises.

The species is called trolls. Prefer to be known by titles. It's examined and filed away.

"Three months. Approximately." A week over to be completely accurate with the measure. His eyes look at the tape as it is looped around his arm. "Two arenas."