soldieronwards | the heart of the matter

Entry tags:

aather,
ic

the heart of the matter

The ground falls out beneath you. You're in midair, you're surrounded by swirling clouds, and there's nowhere stable to put your feet. The space between your body and the turbulence around you feels poorly defined as well; where do you end and your surroundings begin? Is there a stable you in the first place?

But eventually--

[ Join channel #nobodystaysdeadincomics on IRC. ]

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[ Imma taking knives...

Also since the room is obscured, can he feel his way around. ]

Sure.

As you head towards the back, it quickly grows cold enough that you can see your breath, or it would if you had breath, whatever. The mist around you feels dry somehow, weighted more with a nebulous apprehension than with actual water vapor.

In this direction, the contents of the room grow grimmer--the knives have twisted blades, and the shelves are stocked with hollow-point bullets and vicious poisons.

You can make out the dim shape of a metal door on the far wall.

[ ~~I HAVE BREATH. I'm not dead! I'm another species or something spectacularly stupid like that.~~

Right... those things he remembered doing that were unlike him...

Going to try to pull on the door. ]

Once you push through the fog some more, you can make out a few details. There's no label on this door, only a large red hammer and sickle:

☭

Something dark and reddish stains the bottom of the door and seeps out a bit through the small crack there.

Unsurprisingly, the door sticks a bit in its frame when you pull on it. But you could probably get it open with a bit more effort.

[ So I'm a vampire. Is that blood? ]

It's totally blood.

[ Knew it. That's also disconcerting, as he's kind of sort of piecing together what this area is probably dealing with. But he also figures it needs the most attention, considering Bucky's issues... So yep, totally going to use his strength on the door. ]

[JOGGING OVER. maybe have grabbed some NONLETHAL WEAPONS along the way]

Thorn! Hold up a sec!

[ was backtracking from where she was before, carrying a possibly not entirely useful but not entirely fake gun and knife, and ended up coming down this way . . .

though she doesn't greet either of them, just kind of silently arrives sorry. ]

[ Looking over the weapons she brought with her. ]

Maybe you should keep to the back.

Hi.

[ she'll accept that. . . ]

Hey. We can do introductions later since we're short on time. We're probably going to be fighting an enemy of this heart. A very capable enemy. Be careful.

Okay.

[ Let's get this party started then. Though the door! ]

In you go...

[ You and your non-lethal weapons. I HAVE KNIVES. So many knives. ]

Bacardi-san?

[look, I'm Robin-Nightwing-Batman. I prefer to bludgeon my perps, thanks]

Well, you didn't holler but you might as well have.

[glances at the door, grimacing]

You really picked the winning door, huh.

I don't know if this really counts as winning. But it's probably something we need to deal with. My guess is whatever Bucky's worked up about doing in his past... under some influence.

Do you recognize the symbol?

[glancing over to the door and then over to silent girl before looking back at Thorn]

Hammer and Sickle. Symbols of the Soviet Union. On their flag it was red background with yellow hammer and sickle, but most everyone relates the color red to Communism, their form of government, and the Hammer and Sickle to the Soviets in particular.

Bucky was brought back from the dead, got his metal arm, and was mentally programmed to be a killing machine for them. They called him the Winter Soldier. And used him to kill people from his own country, going against probably everything Steve as Captain America taught him.

So yeah. Just a bit worked up over that.

[ Ugh, that hits too close to home. ]

... So that's what we're probably facing. This Winter Soldier within Bucky's heart.

And everything that goes with it. He's probably the one we heard at the beginning, for all we know. And might have the equipment we need to disarm the thing upstairs.

It's possible.

... do you know her?

Not a clue.

[looks to the girl again, lifting a hand]

Hey, there.

[LARGE SHEATHED KNIVES AS FIGHTING STICKS FTW]

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the heart of the matter

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