( picture prompt meme )

[socketeer]

the picture prompt meme I — Comment with your character. II — Others will leave a picture (or two, or three...) III — Reply to them with a setting based on the picture. IV — Link to any pictures that are NSFW, please. V — Be aware that this meme will be image-heavy. Link to an image: <a href=IMAGEURL>TEXT</a> Embed image in your reply: <img src=IMAGEURL> Image width and height: <img src=IMAGEURL width=500> OR <img src=IMAGEURL height=INSERT>

Comments

[redactions]

'It's a manual.' The base in Siberia might as well have kept nuclear weapons, the build and security level certainly had suggested as much. There's more than one, but this floating loose is the immediate problem, and a clearer purpose than heading for Wakanda is. James doesn't expect a safe base of operations, it'll be a temporary stop at best. He's not good at staying in one place, too restless, and too accustomed to the process of survival, Steve or no Steve. 'He used it to set me off. You think he'll tell anyone else how?'

Likely no, or Zemo would be in a very different place right now, but even so.

[withoutawar]

A manual.

The words make Steve's jaw clench. A manual is a set of instructions, a list of actions to take. Impersonal, technical, and mechanical, not something used to manipulate a person. He turns to look out the cockpit window, allowing the passing oceanic scenery to recenter himself. "From the sound of it, Zemo was waiting a long time just to get us right where he wanted. Guy like that doesn't just give away the intel he works hard to get. It was personal."

Which should probably trouble Steve more than it does, but this is the price the Avengers pay for their high-profile heroics: they'll make more enemies than they could ever know about.

"T'Challa didn't mention a book on him." T'Challa hadn't said much about Zemo at all, other than the fact that the prince had him in custody and the man would be extradited to Wakanda to face trial. And at the time, Steve had been in absolutely no position to challenge the fact. Or care. He had other things to worry about. "You think he stashed it away somewhere?"

[redactions]

It's quiet out there, but something scratches in his mind painfully. James reaches out for him, fingers resting on Steve's shoulder briefly. Sit down, it's okay, we're okay. He's not, and as long as this exists: the books, the brainwashing harness, the fucking chairs, it'll be a present fear. And after they're gone and no one alive remembers, it will follow him. But the we matters more than that.

'It's possible,' he says. It would be with the CIA. Carter seemed willing enough to help them out if Steve can place the call. If T'Challa has it, he foresees a very interesting conversation ahead of him. Steve's the one who did the talking there: James wasn't too keen on going back near a man who not a few hours earlier had been very eager to rip his throat out. 'Can we make that our priority after we break the others out of wherever they are?'