Sentinels and Guides Shipping Meme

[memester]

Sentinels and Guides Shipping Meme
A Sentinel!AU Meme

There are special people in the world: Sentinels--whose five senses are incredibly enhanced, sometimes to the point of overwhelming and who can easily lose themselves in fugue states--and Guides, the empaths with the ability to ground a Sentinel and focus them. Meant to be the protectors of the Guides, for every Sentinel there exists a guide that is their perfect match. In some universes, when matches are made, a Sentinel and Guide form a soulbond to fill the feeling of emptiness.

How easy was it for you to find yours? How are Sentinels and Guides treated in your universe? Or maybe you're one of the normal, unremarkable people. Do you fear Sentinels and Guides? Despise them?

Rules

1) Post with your character/canon in the subject header.
2a) Choose whether your character is a Sentinel or a Guide
or
2b) If you don't know or don't care, just leave it blank!
3) Information about Sentinels and Guides can be found here and here. Information on 'The Sentinel' which this meme comes from can be found here.

4) All the tagging! Have fun 8D

Prompts

oo1. The Meeting:
How did you meet? Was it at an event organized specifically for finding your other half? By accident? Did you follow a mystical calling to them? Some other way?

oo2. The Bonding:
Do Sentinels and Guides in your universe soulbond? How does it go down? Is there a ceremony or do you just retreat to the bedroom?

oo3. Rejection:
Sometimes Sentinels or Guides propose a match but it's just not perfect. You don't feel the pull or maybe you think there is someone better or maybe you're already claimed. Maybe you were claimed and someone better came along?

oo4. Protection:
Sentinels are meant to protect Guides, any Guides, but it's even worse when they feel their Guide is in danger. They go feral; blind to anything but stopping and killing whoever threatened their Guide or the bond. Maybe someone attacked your Guide or you haven't bonded yet and you feel threatened or maybe you're the one doing the threatening. Whatever the reason, Sentinels in a feral state are dangerous and only their Guides can stop them.

oo5. Lost:
Sentinels often lose themselves in their senses. Either you're a Sentinel who has lost themselves or a Guide that has stumbled on one or a friend trying to draw them out. Unbonded Sentinels will find it hard to escape without a Guide. Or maybe you're bonded already which means you just need yours to come home.

006. Persecution:
Sometimes normal people or the government fear the power of Guides and Sentinels. Guides are empaths, feeling the emotions and sometimes passing thoughts of others and it can make people feel violated. Sentinels often have enhanced strength, which can make them dangerous. So they scorn them, hurt them or in the case of governments, regulate them.

oo7. Death:
Unbonded Sentinels and Guides eventually lose themselves to the empty cavern inside them. Torn apart from the inside by the feeling of something missing. Breaking the soulbond of a Sentinel and Guide is agonizing and horrifying, leading quickly to death for the remaining partner.

oo8. Old-School:
Guides used to be treated on the same level as slaves. Unable to work unless their Sentinel said. Not allowed out on their own. They used to wear collars and couldn't own land or inherit money. Maybe the old ways haven't completely fallen out of style.

oo9. Unbonded:
Nothing is worse than being an unbonded Guide or Sentinel. Always looking for your other half to fill that empty feeling but you probably have friends that aren't your match or who are trying to set you up with someone. Maybe you're skeptical about the whole love at first sight thing and haven't been looking.

o10. Wildcard: Some mish-mash of the above or anything else you can come up with!

Comments

Bucky Barnes | MCU | OTA

[staring_problem]

[Could go either way, honestly. Only current through F&tWS]

[dysmorphics]

[ oooh let's? :3 ]

[staring_problem]

[yeah, I'm game, throw me something]

[dysmorphics]

[ got a role preference? i think they can go either way depending on canon point. i'll write up a starter when it's not 4am lol ]

[staring_problem]

[Haha, yeah that's my problem, it all depends on canon point, and like, I feel like the serum(s) probably swapped them? Or at least swapped Bucky, because while a Guide is (arguably) easier to control, they needed a Sentinel for the Winter Soldier.
And no worries on time! Whenever works for you!]

[dysmorphics]

[ yeah i was thinking along those lines too, that the serums literally create sentinels and the whole thing is originally a military project as part of the supersoldier program instead of just something that happens in their world. kind of like a WS/handler setup. are you comfortable with playing in pre-WS times? because yeah him being shaken out of his WS programming is always good, but reverse uno: what if she wasn't dealing well with the serum during the war? peggy was supposed to be her guide, but they're the ones out there fighting together and actually they already have that bond, they've just been too dumb to realize it hahaha with a side of "this is going to ruin this friendship" when intimacy comes into the picture lol

i had to feed the baby and now i'm like, i can't sleep, but also not awake enough to tag oops hahaha ]

[staring_problem]

[I'm cool with Howlies as a time frame, yeah!
And yeah that sounds good, Bucky like, at least three flavors of jealous about the Peggy suggestion and not at all sure why, only to get smacked with it later.]

yesss ♥ let me know if you need anything changed!

[dysmorphics]

[ The raid had gone without a major hitch, so the Howlies had reason to celebrate. They also had booze; they'd chased off some Nazis from a village they'd passed by and the townsfolk had sent them off with food and drink along with their gratitude.

They're gathered around the fire, several bottles of drinks in, when it happens. Steph excuses herself quickly, barely hearing herself as she mumbles that she's tired. She avoids looking at Bucky, who's seated across from her, while doing so; she's an awful liar, but she still hopes to get away with her flimsy excuse. If the boys are worried, they say nothing as she leaves.

Instead of her tent, she rushes into his, laying down on the cot and wrapping his blanket around her and over her head. Something about him has always comforted her, and she figures that if anything would work out here, when she has her episodes, it's him. So she closes her eyes, takes in his scent, and imagines him wrapped around her, in a way she knows she can never ask him to be but has dreamed of a thousand times. ]

Still me! This journal's got the historic-type icons is all

[iknewhim]

Bucky was still getting used to this new version of the girl who'd been all knees and elbows and he'd pulled out of a statistically improbable number of fights and who had, a very few weeks previously, pulled him out of a literal hellhole only to be told that he was better suited as her Guide than the woman who'd been earmarked for the position. The one who was now something like the manager for the team, and that was just fine with Bucky, as he actually liked her, Ms. Carter was no-nonsense in a way he appreciated, and the fact that she didn't take any shit from them was incredibly attractive.

For the time being, however, it was time to celebrate, chances to just relax, even for a few hours before being right back to it in the morning. So when Stephanie made her excuses to leave the circle of firelight, Bucky wasn't far behind, finishing his drink, enduring the gentle ribbing, and heading off to his tent, only to freeze when he realized someone was already there, though it only took him a moment to realize who it had to be, "Steph, you okay?"

i wish i had historic icons for my girl but alas

[dysmorphics]

"No." She shifted the blanket enough to show her face and peer at him, but she didn't make any indication that was going to get out of the cot. "Sorry. It's just... too much sometimes."

She almost looked like she was sick again: face paler than usual, pupils blown wide, gaze unfocused. She was also shivering, but she tried to combat it by curling into herself even more. "It's the serum," she mumbled. "It makes everything... too much. Loud. Bright. Cold." It was better in the thick of battle, on the move and adrenaline pumping. Downtimes, however, were harder to deal with, and some moments more than others.

"Sorry," she said again. "Can I stay for a while?"

[iknewhim]

"Nah, I'm going to kick you out in the cold to deal with those hooligans when you're already off-balance." He snorted, clearly not serious, but still quick to add, "Of course you can stay." Just in case that hadn't been clear in the state she was in.

He tied the flap of the tent closed, sure he knew what the regulations were, they both did, but he also knew the rules in general were a little different for the two of them, she was Captain America, and he was the one keeping Captain America from overloading or collapsing in an insensate heap or whatever else.

There was a little twitch of a smile, "You can stay, but no looking while I get changed." As if she'd never seen him stripped down to his skivvies before, or sometimes further when they were both just trying to survive a heat wave.

[dysmorphics]

"What's there to look at, anyway?" she managed to tease, a smile in her voice despite everything. This was easy. Comfortable. Second nature. And she didn't actually need to look because she'd already seen enough that she could draw him from memory, in ways that he'd give her hell for if he knew.

Feigning nonchalance, she pulled the blanket over her face and rolled to her side, giving him enough room to slip next to her on the cot if he wanted. Which... where else was he going to go, anyway?

"You sure you don't wanna go back out there, have some more drinks with the boys? I'll be fine here." She always did that, push him away, but not because she didn't want him with her. Oh she did, desperately, and for a long time now. She just didn't want him to waste his time on her, especially when he could be enjoying himself. In fact, she wasn't really sure she liked this new arrangement, if only because she didn't want him worrying about her.

[iknewhim]

He pressed a hand to his chest at that initial remark, doing his best to actually look wounded, "Ow, Cap, that's just cold." He was struggling not to laugh as he said it however, just stripping down to his long johns, leaving the uniform where he could scramble back into it at a moment's notice, hoping he wouldn't have to.

He shook his head at the rest, "And nah, they're winding down out there." He replied easily as he shook out a second blanket, giving them a little extra insulation before stretching out alongside her, not as easy now that she was taller than he was and not a Thumbelina anymore, but he was going to make the most of it even though the cot wasn't really built for two.

There was a brief hesitation before he draped his arm around her waist, almost cautious with something he'd always done freely before, "You okay? Need me to do anything or is it just a wait-it-out kind of situation?"

[dysmorphics]

"Your charms ain't gonna work on me, Sarge," she further quips from beneath the blanket, glad that he can't see her face because she's a terrible liar.

She relaxes almost immediately when he slips next to her, though at the same time she's hyperaware of how their bodies don't quite fit anymore, at least not in the way she's used to. Bothered by that, she rolls over toward him, and shuffles toward the foot of the cot so her face is tucked against his chest. There. Much better. She doesn't even feel awkward that her feet dangle over the edge.

"I don't really know. It usually just passes after a while, but..." But she's never been alone with him like this since having gotten the serum. The serum, Dr. Erskine had explained, would not only heighten the senses and improve one's physique, but it would also amplify what was inside. And she harbors a lot of... feelings, inside.

"I should probably get out of the suit."

[iknewhim]

He couldn't help the near-bark of a laugh that escaped him at that statement, "You're still wearing it?" She'd already been bundled up in the blanket when he'd arrived, and without turning on a lamp -no need to waste the fuel when he could see just fine from the glow of the fire outside- he hadn't noticed.

He gave a gentle nudge with the back of his hand against her side, "Yeah, you should do that." The smile was still in place, crooked as ever as he added, "Promise not to look. S'only fair, right?" There was an easy teasing in the tone, the same as there ever had been back home before all this started, any of the times he'd hauled her out of a fight, or mostly-joked about someone making an honest woman out of her if he couldn't.

The kind of teasing tone he hadn't had much chance to use out here, just some flavor of those charms she said weren't going to work.

[dysmorphics]

"Wasn't sure you'd appreciate strange women showing up naked on your bed." Well. Not naked, but close enough. Which wasn't the point of her teasing, really, but as always she let her mouth run faster than her brain. Thankfully it was dark enough that he couldn't see the flush of color on her cheeks.

She got up and stripped down to her undergarments, leaving her suit next to his uniform. She wanted him to look, but at the same time she was oddly self-conscious. Maybe because she'd yet to really feel that this body was hers.

Then she slipped right back in. She even grabbed his wrist to guide his arm back around her waist, though instead of letting go, she let her fingertips trail upward, across his skin. In the dark, underneath the blankets, it was easy to pretend that nothing was going on. That she wasn't brushing her toes against his foot and slowly lifting her leg up to drape over his.

[iknewhim]

"Doll, you are the furthest thing from strange." He replied, not even thinking twice about the nickname, especially when she was right back against him again before he could, and he nodded, settling in easily enough.

Maybe it was the whiskey, maybe it was the dark, maybe it was the way she hadn't immediately gone to being professional, maybe it was a lot of things, but he just continued with, "Just because you're, you know, this" -a tentative trail of his fingers along her side- "now, doesn't mean you're not still my best girl, that's not going to change."

There were things he had considered wanting to change, but they didn't have that kind of luxury, and more than that, even if they did, the fact that she was his best girl wouldn't, that was a constant, no matter what else happened.

[dysmorphics]

It was strange, how she felt relaxed and electrified at the same time. He was her anchor, the stabilizer of her senses, and his presence did just that — but then he was also holding her close, running his fingers along her body, calling her sweet names, telling her the things she'd always wanted to hear. How else did he expect her to respond to that?

Probably not by her daring him to, "Prove it," and pulling back enough to tilt her face up.

It was not unheard of for Sentinels and their Guides to grow intimate with each other over time, or at least that was what some of the stories said. But they were friends. That was a line she'd never dared to cross with him; she wasn't even sure he felt the same.

[iknewhim]

A string of expressions crossed his face, because no, that was definitely not the kind of thing he'd expected to happen, though he also wasn't really as surprised as he felt he should be, if only because he knew her, and that was the kind of thing she did, though generally it was the kind of thing she did to other people and not to him, and definitely not about something like this.

He knew what he hoped she meant, but if he was wrong and overstepped she'd be fully justified in kicking his ass and demanding Carter as her Guide instead, and as much as he knew the other woman would look out for her, he also didn't want to risk that happening, so he just said: "I'm still here, aren't I? Keeping you safe With the rest of these knuckleheads."