i am bad at titles.

[deadthenred]

Who| Bucky and ??? (it's an open log)
What| Exploration and paranoia
Where| Around
When| Week 3, backdated so this is earlier
Warnings/Notes| None right now!!

*

1. (TOMORROW LAND)

Disneyland Park— the real one, was built in 1955, from land Walter E. "Walt" Disney bought in 1953. He'd met his wife Lilian in 1925, and they got married the same year. That was the year Bucky was born. Snow White was just about the first movie he ever watched, or the first he could still remember. The first that counted.

He didn't recognize this place.

Bucky was pretty sure this was all a Nazi trick. That'd— alright, it didn't make sense, but it was the best sense he could make, so the idea found roots and grew within him. Bucky was used to a strange sort of sense-making, anyhow. He didn't listen to anything they told him, not when he woke up and not when they stuffed him into new clothing and sent him out to die. And because he was so intent on not listening Bucky did something he didn't usually do. He ran away from danger, instead of straight toward it.

And that was how he found Tomorrowland. Bucky was a fine sneak: he knew how to move when you didn't know what to expect. He recited lessons from the Parachute Regiment under his breath, figuring every other noise for something sinister. The more he wandered alone, the more his paranoia grew.

*

2. (TOON TOWN)

By the time he got to Toon Town his stomach was stabbing at him. It didn't make the place seem any more friendly; Bucky was beginning to think this place wasn't a Nazi trick after all. (But you could never tell, with them.)

The hunger made the colors of the place seem bigger than they were, less faded, more true. Or maybe that was something else: he hadn't slept in a while. Bucky'd tripped a few hours ago and the bottom of his left foot winced a little whenever it touched the ground.

So against some of his better (or worser) instincts, he sat down. Fifteen minutes of rest wouldn't kill him. He told himself this, and got angry. Because being angry was better than being scared.

Comments

2

[pursuitofcappiness]

I have no idea why Steve is in Toon Town, and quite honestly, he probably doesn't either. He made a wrong turn somewhere, so he might as well take this shortcut back where he's going. That might be dangerous, but there's plenty around here to hide for. He grabbed some fruit in Tomorrowland's orchards, and is planning to take it all back to Avengers camp.

Dodging around, he spies someone lying there, someone he hopes isn't dead. He goes over to check, kneels down in a position where he'll be fast to jump away in case the kid pulls out a knife. He doesn't know why, there's something uncanny about him that makes him seem trustworthy. But Steve's always kind of a sucker for kids.

"Son," he says, after checking to make sure no one else is around. "I've got a less dangerous place for you to nap."

[deadthenred]

Bucky didn't sleep much— he'd never been good at it. Meanwhile, life had been pretty good at handing him reasons not to sleep. Back on base, he dealt cards, long enough into the night sometimes that it curved around til morning. Here, he just jumped himself into a fighting stance, one leg back and his hands close to fists in front of him.

After all, this guy could be a Nazi. He didn't look like one, though. (That was silly, the guys they stuck on their posters were all tall and solid and blond, like this guy was. But still. He didn't look much like a Nazi.)

"I wasn't asleep." He'd moved too quick for that. "And I ain't a kid." Bucky said this with the full force of nineteen years. He was enough of a kid that he felt he had to prove that he wasn't.

But he didn't strike, or even move to. For all that some of his muscles and all of his training were whispering to hit the guy and run, something even louder was telling him to hold back.

1

[pinklady]

She planned on going out of Tomorrowland again. Unfortunately, she overslept.

Hence, there was a bleary-eyed girl with...abnormally pink hair quietly walking, carefully looking left and right as she slung her bag on her back. After all, one couldn't be too careful, and outside of Fantasyland, she was at a severe disadvantage. So she left, hoping to find her allies elsewhere. Doc, maybe. Diana. Maybe even Sandy.

Whether or not she realized Bucky was nearby, well...she wouldn't have let on either way, but she was getting the feeling that the sooner she left, the better.

[pursuitofcappiness]

Steve reacts immediately, dropping into a defensive stance in case Bucky means to hurt him. Luckily, it looks like he won't, so Steve slowly moves back into a regular stand, although he's very conscious that this kid's trained.

"Alright then, but a couple people got long-range weapons and you probably don't want to be resting here." Oh, he'll understand the irony of that soon.

He offers Bucky a hand. "I've never seen you before. Are you new? I'm Steve."

[deadthenred]

"I know how it works." He didn't, actually, but he didn't expect to go anyplace without people shooting at him. The tiredness and hunger was wearing him close to raw, so he made up for it by acting tough. What he thought tough should be.

It startled a bit to hear the name Steve: that was who he was supposed to be looking for. Cripes, what if they'd dragged him into this, too? Bucky asks himself what Steve would do, and decides that he'd shake the guy's hand.

So that's what Bucky does.

"Barnes," he says. "Bucky Barnes."

[pursuitofcappiness]

Steve smiles from the absurdity of it, not sure whether this guy's serious and it's a coincidence, or maybe he's just a big fan and recognized Steve from his movies. Still, for some reason, Steve wants to trust him. It's almost like he is Bucky, except that's kind of crazy, isn't it? "You don't say. My best friend's a Bucky Barnes."

He's got a lot to say about Bucky, how he always had Steve's back, how just having his name makes Steve want to protect this kid, as if that'll atone for the one time he couldn't save his Bucky. But that's a whole can of worms he doesn't want to touch, especially now. "I guess it won't be hard to remember your name."

[deadthenred]

He'd had it explained that everyone was trying to kill everyone else, but he figured that didn't apply to girls. (Really, he wasn't doing much in the way of figuring.)

So, he did the dumb thing, and called after her. "Hey, wait!"

[deadthenred]

It's funny, so he tries to laugh. "My best friend's named Steve, too." But saying that has a way of reminding him how lonely it's been, the past week.

[pinklady]

She stopped in her tracks. That voice...was one she never heard before. A new person. Someone who she didn't know was friend or foe. She gulped as she turned around to face the direction the voice come from.

"Hello? Who's there?"

[deadthenred]

"No one, I—" I what? But Bucky hadn't seen too many people since he started up with the running and hiding. He was changed, a bit, by the loneliness of it all. So he hadn't thought this one through. Stupid, stupid.

"I didn't know there was girls here." He finished sheepishly.

[pinklady]

"...There are." He didn't seem like he was after her, so Chibi-Usa's stance relaxed slightly as she walked towards the sound of his voice. "They've brought all sorts of people here male and female. Even people who aren't actually human."

[pursuitofcappiness]

"Yeah?" he asks. "I'd like to meet him anywhere outside of here." He can feel it getting a little uncomfortable, but he chalks it up to the current situation. "The camp I set up with some of my other friends isn't too far away, and you really shouldn't be resting here alone. I'll tell you more about my Bucky if you tell me more about your Steve." It's... it's an offering. He can offer food too, if Bucky wants to notice the cape-sling he's stuffed with orchard pickings.

[deadthenred]

"I can take care of myself." The best way to put Bucky off is to try and coddle him. Still, he feels a sliver of regret just then— he can't put a finger on why.

"I mean, aren't we s'posed to be killing each other?" He grins through that, like he does in the reels. It's a keen and bitter smile.

[deadthenred]

Not really human? Maybe they'd caught Jim. Or Subby.

"Does one of 'em fly around hopping mad without any pants?"

He figured if Namor was here, he wouldn't be subtle.

[pursuitofcappiness]

"Yeah, but I'd rather not," he replies, understanding fully well what that smile means. "I don't wanna kill anybody, if I can help it. And I'd rather work with you."

[pinklady]

"No." Chibi-Usa shook his head. "Or if he was, they put him into clothing like the stuff we're wearing now."

Of course, as she got closer, no doubt Bucky would notice she was Japanese. Not that she realized that could be a problem.

[deadthenred]

"You ain't a Nazi, are ya?" He says it like he's joking: and he's mostly joking. It's not like the secret Krauts come out and say so. But there's an edge of suspicion there, the wariness that doesn't go away.

After all, this doesn't strike Bucky as a place to be trusting. Steve was always better about that, he reflects. He saw the best in everyone.

[deadthenred]

Bucky can't actually tell the Chinese folks from the Japanese folks, and even if he could— he's worked with the 442nd, he knows they ain't all rotten.

A girl's a girl, anyhow.

"Why'd they stuff us into these, anyway? Cripes, it itches." Not getting much chance to talk had apparently turned him talkative.

[pinklady]

But loose lips sin--well, no, Bucky's got a point in this case.

"Its the theme," she replied. "This used to be just a theme park made by Walt Disney, a long time ago. So they dressed us up like princes and princesses."

At this, she sighed.

"Now its just a death trap."

[deadthenred]

"Walt Disney?" He knows that name. "It doesn't look like Snow White." But now that she said that, he turned a keener eye to his surroundings, desperately searching for someone familiar.

It hits him a bit later, the other part of what she said, the part that goes "a long time ago." His stomach lurched, and it might've just been 'cause he was hungry. But maybe not.

"I met a princess, once," he said, trying to swim away from the subject. He didn't want to drown.

[pinklady]

"...Oh?"

That might be the ghost of a smile on her face. Not that she was going to say that she was the second princess he's now met, of course.

"Yeah, this is no place for Snow White or Cinderella, that's for sure."

[deadthenred]

It was the Princess Elizabeth, and she hadn't done much but posed for a photo. He was stationed in London, when he kept to one place at all.

"I dunno. Snow White did spend an awful lot of time in the middle of nowhere."

[pinklady]

Not even any advice on how to maintain a Jeep on the front? Rude.

"Yeah, but she also had dwarves and singing birds and docile animals helping her out."

[deadthenred]

"They don't like my singing voice. Imagine that." Cracking jokes felt good, familiar to him. Like putting one foot in front of the other. He's still standing stick-straight, like someone at attention, but his face settles, a bit.

[pinklady]

"I'm not such a good singer either." She's definitely relaxing. It doesn't look like this guy's going to kill her, that's for sure. "So...I'm Tsukino Usagi back in Tokyo. But everyone calls me Chibi-Usa. What's your name?"

Hey, she wasn't lying. That was her name in the 20th century.