bakerstreet | I am Jack's screeching regret.

[ So new to the character, I’m not even sure who I do and don’t ship him with. Generally I write M/F, but I’ll give anything a try. ]

[ Pretty sure I can come up with something for a starter if you have no objections to a little 616/MCU influence. ]

[ I trust anything you want to try. <3 ]

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[ Totally willing to give it a try.

Just for my own clarity, because it’s been a while since I watched End Game. Did Gamora come back when everyone unsnapped or would this be younger outside of the timeline Gamora? ]

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[ Things had gotten quite a bit complicated since he had left Wakanda, but then, could James have expected anything different? They’d fought and nearly died trying to stop Thanos. Steve Rogers, who had given up so much for his country, had gone back in time to live the life he never got to have — and then he’d named his successor, not his old pal Bucky, but Sam Wilson.

There had been a lot feelings that he’d dealt with in the aftermath of that moment. His friendship with Steve had been a source of strength for him and it was hard to feel anything other than the fact that he was losing his best friend, when he’d lost so much already. When he could feel something other than that grief, he felt a little angry that the shield had been left to Sam. It wasn’t that he felt like he was a better fit to be the new Captain America, he knew that he wasn’t, but there were moments when it felt like a snub all the same.

Anyway, it had positioned Sam to be the go-to guy for matters that needed a heroes attention. He was a good guy and had been hanging in battles with people who had real super powers for years now and Bucky was ... the former assassin that people weren’t too sure about. The Winter Solider’s job offers didn’t come from the government, they came from people who had a lot of money and they weren’t the kinds of things you asked of a superhero. He passed on many of the offers, but the dossier containing Gamora’s info caught his eye.

A victim of experiments himself, he hated the way this job sounded. SWORD wanted to study her, but what did that mean? At best they wanted her abducted so they could perform all kinds of scans and tests on her she would have agreed to if they just asked (or offered to pay her). At worse they’d hurt her or cut her open to she how she was made. He hated the thought of it. So he “took” the job if only to have the chance to warn her and maybe tip her off on how they were searching for her.

She had given him a hell of a chase. He’d been briefed on all her enhancements, but it was one thing to read about them and another to see her in action. She was like the sword she carried, attractively fashioned but also hard and ready for battle. She could run as fast as he could, but she seemed to tire out sooner. She was breathing heavy and adopting a threatening stance, while he had only barely broken a sweat. Stamina had always been the greatest gift he’d gotten from all of Hydra’s enhancements ... ]

I was. I’m sure you’ll find this hard to believe, but I’m not here to fight.

Edited (Sorry. I’m an editor. :/) 2021-04-29 20:32 (UTC)

( hi there! how do you feel about a wanda? and, if you're a-okay with it, just wanted to check if you had a timeline preference. i myself finished wandavision and fatws and i'd love to focus things post-those. let me know your thoughts! and no hard feelings if it's not your thing. )

[ I’ll try anything, pretty much. After the shows are definitely my preference because they’re most fresh in my mind.

Is she having an ‘it’s complicated’ with Vision? Or is this just an attraction that isn’t gonna get acted upon situation? ]

( good question! i'm not averse to wanda and vision, though realistically i think she'd eventually be able to come to terms with the fact that she needed to move on, and it's what he'd want, etc. it's a bit difficult to take wanda from post-wandavision without incorporating them, but i'm also willing to dim it down slightly enough that it's not totally unrealistic to think wanda could hold other attractions.

if that's alright? like, not discrediting them, but not making it her focal point, either.

i thought i could toss her into something in louisiana, maybe she's staying with bucky and he offers the couch, she insists otherwise and eventually offers to share, it turns into a limbo over a few days & musters up some tension? )

[ Yeah, that’s definitely cool.

It’s just considering how much of Wanda-Vision was ‘the ship’, I felt like I had to ask. I feel like there’s a lot of things I would want to touch on after the show, too, if I was a Wanda player.

Do you want to do write the starter? ]

( oh, there absolutely is. i don't want to write her utter devastated just because of vision, but he was and will always be a strong thing for her, so that of course doesn't go away. maybe it just adds to the inappropriateness of it all, but since it's been awhile that she's actually been with him, she at least will start to recognize she can't cling to that forever.

and i'd love to! you're okay with the louisiana idea? if so, i'll start it off! )

Edited 2021-04-29 23:25 (UTC)

[ Please do. I’m never very confident in my starters. ]

( when was the last time she had been inside a home?

something honest, a sincere warmth that greeted you at the door, bit at your cheeks like the remnants of that louisiana sun. it's a sticky sort of heat that turns to a soothing night-breeze, laden with salt water and far off barbecues, embers left to settle and eventually snuff out beneath a fire. she doesn't know what's brought her here, why now, what'd been the driving force in deciding to reach out when for so long she's wanted nothing more than to remain hidden, tucked away where no one could find her. she hadn't called, and somehow still she'd known where to find him, right along that pier with sam none too far behind.

they'd idled on conversation — it wasn't meaningless, but it didn't reach to the heart of the matter, either. where she's been. how she's been — but it's a question she assumes is no easily answered by him. it's not the sort of thing to ask beneath daylight, not without some sort of cocoon, some semblance of safety, a hushed surrounding. and maybe she'd come because she doesn't feel it's a conversation they need to have, not right away. because she can fall in line beside him as if nothing's changed, when really, everything has.

she's in tatters, a fragmented war of a girl, and yet he'd still taken her in; him and sam. she doesn't know how long bucky's been staying, how long he will, but he's insisted two nights in a row to take to the chair and offer her the couch — wanda doesn't intend to allow a third to happen.

tonight, they find themselves in that small, dark kitchen, both cradling a beer — more for the comfort of it than anything else. like it stands for some sense of normalcy she hasn't had in far too long. sarah and the kids had long ago turned in, and the two of them are familiar enough with sleep treating them none too kindly that they're left oscillating one another, speaking in hushed tones, as not to wake anyone. he'd told her about the boat, how he was sticking around to make himself useful, and she's smiling against the mouth of that bottle, the gleam of teeth sure to be seen even with only the moonlight between them.

they're close, not quite touching, but the space is quaint enough that it doesn't afford much room, and she's tipping her beer back for another hearty swig as she revels in him — the way his freckles nearly disappear without the sun dappling across him. )

And when she's back up and running? ( a tip of her head — she'd never been out on the water. )

Where's the first place you'd go, if you could pick?

I don’t know if I’d trust this boat to go anywhere.

[ It was an admission that he wouldn’t necessarily have made in front of Sam or his family, but considering how much work it had taken to get the boat functional? Let’s he wouldn’t try to take it half way around the world. Yet as soon as he said it, it made him feel a bit callous and he ducked his for a moment, breaking their gaze. ]

I guess I’d start with some place that wasn’t too far. You could probably get to Costa Maya and back without any trouble and see how that went. Try to plan a longer trip after. That will get you Mayan ruins, Mexican food, clear blue water and sandy beaches.

[ ... which he had to admit sounded pretty fun. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d traveled anywhere for fun, but then, those weren’t the kinds of things that stuck out among his memories. He was more sensitive than most to the fact that not people might not be interested in sharing everything. He had plenty that he’d rather keep to himself. ]

They say Macao is beautiful. [ He said, raising his head up again with a slight smile. ] I don’t think I’ve gotten into any trouble there, either, so that’s a plus.

Where would you want to go?

( she marvels at the tiniest details of him, of everyone; the way he bows his head, and how desperately she wishes to know what he's thinking, when he does that. what he isn't. and when he speaks again she hangs wistfully on the image he colors for her, listening to him — just listening to him. like a child soothed by a story they're not even paying much mind to, just the inflections of the voice telling it. )

You, getting into trouble? I couldn't imagine.

( it's a tease, a long-abandoned playfulness blooming there.

where would you want to go?

she doesn't know what he's heard of new jersey, sparing her the same way she was him, a past better left buried than an unstitched wound. and one might think she'd known what she wanted, at least had some sort of idea with the town she'd painted — westview, all summery tones and trimmed lawns, brimming smiles and every house boasting a family. but what about sinking her toes into the sand, where he's described? letting the sun burn at her shoulders, the bridge of her nose, carrying it with her to bed. there was so much out there, so many places she'd once thought of but never seen — but she doesn't know if they're for her. doesn't know what she wants. can't answer a question as soft, as hypothetical as this.

she'd once known what she wanted. it's been quite awhile since then. )

Anywhere. ( she knows it sounds like a cop out, but it's honest. ) The first place I find. Stay for a few days, maybe even a few weeks, and then see where I find next. ( her shoulder lifts a little in the dark, toying mindlessly with the label on the body of that bottle, twirling it slowly in her hands. ) I have this... idea of the world, but there's so much of it I haven't seen.

Maybe I'd eventually end up somewhere I'd want to stay. I think I'd know it, when I got there.

Honest to god, I'm not even sure I deserve this reputation.

[ Bucky's mind is a landscape of sadness, fear and more anger than even he realizes is there. The thoughts are more complete then they had been before he'd been extradited to Wakanda for rehabilitation, but it's still not an organized place in there. He worries a lot more than he tries to let on. In the farthest recesses of his mind, before he'd been experimented on, before he'd enlisted even ... he could recall a time when he felt a lot more confident having a quiet drink with someone.

It's not to say that the only thing that was attractive about Wanda was her hair, but he had a weakness for red-heads going way back. The waves that she had took on recently, whether they were natural or if she was just styling that way looked really good to him -- and he'd be lying if he said he wasn't trying to think of a way to sneak in a touch without being too awkward. ]

... I sometimes talk myself out of seeing too much or going somewhere new. I feel better with the familiar. I trust myself to handle it, you know? But then I have moments like this when it dawns on me that I'm limiting myself quite a bit.

[ Bucky raises the drink to his lips to take a slow pull. Thanks to the super-serum that he'd been dosed with, he can't get drunk, but at least it gives his lips something to do. ]

Edited (fixin' my italics) 2021-05-01 13:15 (UTC)

( some part of her splinters at those words.

he'd been given another chance, a pardon for actions that were by his hands, but in no way by the man he truly was. wanda knows better than most the wicked hand hydra could play, how they left you less of yourself than you were at the start. she's still trying to find the pieces that are rightfully hers, what's real and what'd been fabricated from that mind stone. only, it's all threaded through her just the same; the same bones, the same sinews, the same flesh — attempting to pull away the overlayers to find the girl she'd once been would only strip away more of her in the process.

she likes to think she remembers, being good. trusting her hands for warmth rather than this unyielding, ever-humming power.

after westview, they'd just... let her go, let her hide, despite knowing what she was capable of. it's unsettling — knowing she deserves far worse. some sort of punishment. anything but nothing. )

You're a good man, James.

( it burns with sincerity, and she's searching for his gaze in the velvet-black of that space. again she feels that little tug at her ribs, like a thread bound between them urging her closer — but she resists. doesn't quite trust herself to give in to something she can't quite define. she does set that beer off to the side, stale and warmed, and when she finds her tongue again it's still hushed. )

You adapt better than you think. Out there... ( the pier, the boat, the mouth of trees surrounding the home. ) You look comfortable. Happy, even. ( it's not envy that finds her, there, but longing. a taste of what it was like to belong somewhere she didn't create. )

But I understand. Holding on to the familiar, something you know. ( all too well, it seems, tucking her lower lip in beneath her teeth. ) Doesn't always work out the way you'd think.

[ It’s hard for him to accept those reassurances from people. That he is fundamentally a good man that ended up in a bad situation, but he doesn’t feel that way. He can remember accepting orders without question and taking lives without hesitating. It’s not something he pictures of a good man and ... though he hasn’t been punished in a direct since, the weight of his guilt is heavy. ]

I feel good when there’s something to do.

[ He doesn’t know if he’ll stay in Louisiana, but Sam was absolutely right about the people in the area. The care about each other. Look after one and other. He likes that, at least. Sometimes it feels too small and the pace of life too slow — whether he’d get used to it or whether he was the kind of guy that needed city life, he wasn’t quite sure of yet.

Then, seemingly spontaneously, Bucky reaches out for Wanda’s hand. If she accepts it, it would be a loose grip, with his fingers only partially laced between hers. ]

It’s supposed to be a clear night. Let’s go sit on the roof. You can see the stars and some of the boats that are coming back late to the harbor.

( ultimately, wanda knows what she needs to work on is the way she feels about herself. an intrinsic healing, something far more selfish than she's used to, but then most wouldn't think of her that way, would they? not after the stunt she'd pulled, that she'd had it within her to tuck that awareness back that people were trapped merely to appease her inability to let something go. it's still a sharp pang, right in the centre of her sternum — she'll never stopping living as an apology, but everyone was safe, now. free to be themselves, only she's not quite so sure how to do the same.

she understands, that itch to keep busy, but what an exhausting life it'd be. never quite being able to slow down, never being able to appreciate that stillness that often offered the richest feeling.

callous, warm fingers entwine lazily with her own, and she can't help but to glance down at where they're twined, the way it looks — digits crossed like a promise, and one by one her own reinforce that hold, an warmth kindling to her cheeks. real. so often she has to remind herself he's real.

finally her gaze lifts to find his, chewing at the inner of her cheek with a smile that's almost childlike. )

Okay. ( a subtle nod, a quiet: lead the way. )

Edited 2021-05-02 17:12 (UTC)

[ Bucky’s fingers have calluses that formed through training with Hydra — apart from having a mission for The Winter Solider it was the only reason they ever took him off ice. If she dares to wander with her touch she’ll find some places where his hands hand is less rough. His touch is gentle, even if his hand is hard.

He was familiar enough with the house to lead them though it in the dark. He knew where the edges of the furniture was that was easy to walk in to and where Sam’s nephews had a habit of leaving their videogame controllers. They managed to weave through the small, densely packed house unscathed to make it outside where warm and humid air was there to greet them. He doesn’t let go of Wanda’s hand until he needs to carry the ladder that will get them on the roof.

He lets his left arm do most of the heavy lifting, between the glove and the long sleeve, only a small bit of metal is exposed at the wrist. He takes a moment, after propping it against the house, to make sure it’s sturdy — going so far as to toe his boot against the legs and bottom rungs — and then he offers the first climb up to Wanda. ]

Spent a couple of night sitting up here when I couldn’t sleep. [ He said gesturing up at the roof with a tip of his head. ] It’s prettier than you’d think.

( she trusts his guide, eyes having slowly grown accustomed to the dark mostly fixed on the sight of their hands, his forearm reaching back for her as she follows through the toy-infested home. there's that lived-in quality she appreciates, that makes her feel a little more held, a little more safe, and when the screen door creaks quietly to their exit, that balm of heat greets them familiarly. she'd once thought she preferred the cold — the cloud of her breath, the gooseflesh making it all the more tempting to hide out.

cicadas hum loudly in the nearby trees, and she's just as taken by the land around her balmed in night shades as she was with it's golden hues when the sky stretched above. she can't remember the last time she's done something like this, spent the night with someone rather than facing those ghosts on her own.

that palm slips from hers and she immediately feels it's absence, gaze scoring over the roof above them. she tries to imagine him there, perched up against the second floor panels, one knee up and a beer in his hands — it suits him, this life. seems good for him. and it almost feels as if she's breaching a spot he'd held secretly for himself, closing in on the latter he's steadied for her, and with a last glance up she makes her climb rung by rung.

by the time he's joined her, she's struck by the skyline around the home, the thick bed of trees, trekking up a bit further til they're on steady footing. when she speaks it's softly, skimming the treeline. )

It's different here, than what I'm used to.

[ assumed CR and AUs fine, though no blood relations or very underage characters, please! playing him at 19 years old. ]

[F/M, at least 20+. Canonmates are F/F exception

AUs and Assumed CR, yes.
Cross-canon, hell yes.
Canonmates, yes please (except for Mrs. Hudson because I truly cannot see them beyond friends)]

( m/f or f/f. with a preference for members of the sohma family or a tohru. )

Edited 2021-04-29 17:22 (UTC)

[ Care for a scene? ]

( oh i would love to! any ideas or anything you will like to try out? )

[ Since it’s an ‘inappropriate’ tension meme my first thought was in the middle of doing something superhero-y.

Or as they were debriefing, perhaps? ]

( oh we can go the debriefing route, that sounds like fun actually.)

[ One quick question, does Bucky have to worry about pheromones that some of the spider-verse characters have? (I figure you’d let me know if there’s something he’s supposed to be reacting to, but I was curious.) ]

Edited 2021-04-30 19:18 (UTC)

( oho so lovely of you to ask that, in short: she does has pheromones that can affect people, those are mostly mood & gender dependent, so it mostly goes: oh males attraction & females repulsion, though of course they also induce fear, I guess how he reacts depends on what you feel will fit best.)

[ Going with something Stikeforce-ish since Bucky and Jess were recently on this team together in the comics? I just wanted to get us going, but if you have any objections or want to rework it at all, please lemmie know. I'm happy to. ]

It's always early in the morning when these meetings take place. Hours after the fighting stopped and any investigating at the scene needed that needed to be done was completed. When the injured have gotten medical care and any leads that needed to be followed up on right away, have been. Sometimes a real debriefing never actually takes place at all -- they've all got busy lives and the next event often happens before they've had a chance to take things in -- but they make a effort. Most of them, that is. Would it surprise anyone that among superheroes, their own piece of mind gets put on the back burner for everyone else?

Blue eyes glance up at the clock and he sees that it's one fifty-seven A.M., eastern standard time. He hasn't taken off his gear yet and Bucky has a cup of coffee curled into his right hand that he hasn't taken a sip from. Blade is nowhere to be found, which, didn't particularly surprise him. Angela had joined them which kinda does surprise him. The team is assembled around a circular table and while he hadn't gone out of his way to side beside Jessica, he's happy that it turned out that way.

Monica was the most passionate that the debriefings take place, when possible, so she often led the group though them. It always began with a more tactical discussion of the events -- which he was thankful for. James had been through a lot of therapy over the last couple of years, but he still went into these things cold and with a touch of skepticism about just how useful it all was. Starting by talking about the mission and not feelings made it easier for him to wade into it. He still wasn't the most talkative person at the table, that honor belonged to Billy.

He was unusually restless tonight and had trouble paying attention. Rearranging his chair and the way that he was seated had resulted in his steel toe booted foot grazing against the side of Jess'. His eyes flicked over to hers to see if she had even noticed.

( sorry for taking so long, after I came back from my trip, work went crazy and my laptop was being looked at to get some things fixed. )

If there's anything, granted among many things she hates, is the insistent need to have meetings happen at the ass-crack-of-dawn, surely it wouldn't hurt for the meetings to take place just a bit later, after all, the outcome was not going to change regardless of the time. The mission had been completed, successfully and they could surely afford to let it happen later or at the very least just have one of them be there, wasn't that the main reason they were forced to make post reports as well? But being a super meant being cool with this -no wonder she briefly left this life.

The only thing mildly cheering her up is the generously sized cup of expensive and fancy imported coffee she's holding, if there's one thing to be thankful is that they are given the good stuff here. She would have appreciated a chance to at least take off her costume fully -as it is only her face is uncovered. She was taking a sip from her coffee, and nearly moaned at how good it was when Barnes settled beside her and didn't put much attention to it, since it wasn't the first time it happened.

With all the respect to Monica, because she liked the woman's enthusiasm, she's just not paying attention to the meeting as much as she should. As it is, Jessica is way too used to the way these meetings go and those tend to respond automatically when she's asked for some input, which she nails as none on her team corrects her.

Being honest with herself, she was falling asleep -oh so very unprofessional of hers, when she felt the light grace against her and she blinked a bit, the touch kickstarting her mind and ohh she doesn't turn to look at him, nope, she just subtly nudges back and hides her smile on her cup of coffee when she takes another sip.

He’s always been somewhat fascinated by Jessica. It’s not just that they have a similar background — although how many other people could he potentially meet that gained superpower though HYDRA involvement, that also spent a majority of their chronologic age in stasis — but he liked the fact that she was real. She had lots of interests outside of superheroing that was willing to talk about. It might not seem like much, but spend enough time around certain Avengers and you too might be longing to hear about the new coffee place that Jessica had found on her last day off.

He had to admit that his own coffee was mostly for show (he didn’t respond to caffeine, that he’d noticed) and it didn’t smell as nice whatever Jessica had grabbed. James was just a little irked that she hadn’t turned too look at him when he made the subtle nudge. He knew she noticed. He knew she didn’t particularly want to be here right now. Yet, there she was, being just slightly aloof or coy or … something. It was the kind of thing that drove him crazy, but in a good way. She had a way of bringing that out of him.

“You know, it was hard to keep focused on everything happening at once.” James chimed in when he detected their briefing had shifted from the unit of Super-skrulls that had been fighting to the effort of keeping the civilians safe in the area. The battle had erupted in Central Park of all places and there had been several people injured.

[ up to date! ]

{ yes. prefs in journal. }

I am Jack's screeching regret.

Cloud Strife // Final Fantasy VII // OTA 18+

James Barnes/The Winter Soldier || MCU

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hopefully this is alright!

It’s lovely. Thanks for starting.

things i never knew i needed: these two traveling

ngl, I fell down a rabbit-hole of wistful day dreaming.

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excuse my boomerang tackling you, this made me so soft

I’m just happy to come up with something people want to answer. <3

without question. i had a long week so comfortably curls in this

keiichi maebara | higurashi no naku koro ni | m/f

Molly Hooper | BBC Sherlock | OTA

sohma akito | fruits basket

jian yi | 19 days | m/m

mantis | mcu | ota

kurama ● yyh

peter parker, marvel

sansa stark | asoiaf/got | ota

ruby lucas/red | ouat | ota

Yugi Mutou | Yugioh! | M/m

jessica drew | marvel | f/m

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lucien | critical role

nier | nier replicant | ota

will graham ; hannibal