Journal

Happy birthday, old man

2021-07-17T21:51:21Z

[ooc: Backdated to July 4th.]

The weird part about having a birthday on a national holiday is that you can never forget that it's happening. No matter where he was in the States, there were parades and fireworks; even in Europe the Howling Commandos always made a big deal of the twin occasions, even if it meant embarrassing Steve.

Especially if it meant embarrassing Steve.

So the weird part about being on the run in Morocco on the Fourth of July is that it's just another day. Steve wakes up in a quiet, mid-grade hotel, gets breakfast at a side-street cafe, and passes some time writing and drawing and watching the city pass by.

(The drawing is Bucky, T'Challa, Shuri, and Sharon -- cartoon versions of them, like T'Challa with panther ears and Sharon as a slinky vixen -- in front of the panther statue in Wakanda's capital.)

When he gets back to his hotel, ready to siesta out of the heat of the day, the door doesn't open to his room.

Milliways. It always makes him smile.

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OOC: back like a bad penny

2021-06-29T18:37:29Z

So, I missed the big fella, and he's back. He's vaguely the same timeline as Bucky and Sharon, which is to say pre-snap, and basically the same Steve as before.

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The Adventures of Bucky and Steve (or, Bucky's Christmas present)

2015-12-23T05:02:10Z

The book is hand-drawn, its pages bound in an office-supply folder like a term paper. The label on the front (printed in Steve's big, friendly handwriting) reads, The Adventures of Bucky and Steve.

Inside are several pictures in colored pencil, with captions hand-written beneath them.

The title page shows a Bearcub-Bucky -- snub-nosed, in short pants -- and a Bearcub-Steve, small, skinny, and freckled, with The Adventures of Bucky and Steve framing the two cubs. By Steve Rogers is in much smaller letters below the title.

The next page is a note.

Bucky,
When I realized I'd have to start over with the story of the Growling Commandos, I decided to start over completely--start at the beginning, in fact. So here's a story just for you. (Maybe some other people later, if you're okay with that.)

Most of this is true. Most of this is mostly true.

Merry Christmas,
Steve

[Page 1: Bearcub-Bucky and bearcub-Steve sitting on a fire escape, legs dangling through the bars.]

Once upon a time, in a city called Brooklyn, there were two boys called Steve and Bucky.

[Page 2: Bearcub-Bucky and bearcub-Steve sharing a bag of popcorn in a movie theater, both their eyes wide with wonder at the film.]

Bucky was clever and kind and fun. He was Steve's favorite person (after his ma).

[Page 3: Bearcub-Bucky playing stickball with some other cubs while bearcub-Steve watches from a stoop.]

Steve and Bucky didn't do everything together, but they did as much they could.

[Page 4: Bearcub-Steve in bed with a cloth over his forehead and a thermometer in his mouth, Bearcub-Bucky sitting close by, animatedly talking.]

Steve was sick a lot, which made some people not like him. Bucky was never one of those people.

[Page 5: Bearcub-Steve with a shiner, getting his face washed by Bearcub-Bucky at a pedestal sink. Bearcub-Bucky has bloody knuckles.]

Steve was very bad at keeping out of trouble. Bucky often had to go in after him.

[Page 6: Bearcub-Steve at a dinner table, surrounded by Barneses: Papa Barnes, Mama Barnes, and all the Barnes cubs. Steve's plate is piled high with food.]

Even so, Bucky's ma never told Bucky to stay away from that Rogers boy.

[Page 7: Bearcub-Bucky and Bearcub-Steve passing notes in class while the nun's back is turned.]

They never got into too much trouble.

[Page 8: Bearcub-Steve and Bearcub-Bucky whispering to each other behind their hands in church as Mr. Barnes reaches for their shirt collars, preparing to knock some heads together.]

Probably not as much as they should have.

[Page 9: Bearcub-Steve and Bearcub-Bucky walking up a Brooklyn street, their backs to the viewer. Bucky's arm is around Steve's shoulders.]

Sometimes Steve was afraid Bucky would find other friends that he liked better, and leave Steve behind.

[Page 10: Grownup Bear-Steve and Grownup Bear-Bucky in their Growling Commandos uniforms, posing like the Smithsonian exhibit with the other Commandos around them.]

Bucky never, ever did.

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OOM: Orpheus

2015-12-11T22:50:00Z

"Should we have made a libation with this before we started drinking?" Steve asks quietly, smiling, as they climb the stairs.

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It's quiet...too quiet.

2015-07-22T00:40:09Z

Sam got some intel about a possible safehouse-slash-weapons depo that might be of interest to Bucky, so he and Steve head out to upstate Pennsylvania to check it out.

Steve doesn't have much hope for finding Bucky there--they're always at least two steps behind him, it seems, cleaning up what he leaves behind-- but sometimes standing in rooms he knows where Bucky has been is all the comfort he can find. Sometimes he feels like painting "BUCKY COME HOME" on the walls, just to see what would happen.

But Bucky won't be back to places he's already destroyed. Steve knows that.

Anyway.

The warehouse is on the edge of a small rural town that the economic crisis has hit hard. Most of the store fronts are boarded up. Some of the fields are bare, some are overgrown, and some hold the machinery of fracking. The warehouse itself looks rusty and abandoned, and Steve would pass it by if there weren't the hope of some sort of clue.

(Or the chance to bash some heads.)

It takes only a tap from the shield to break the padlock on the small door to the side of the building. No reason to break into the main security doors and draw attention to themselves. Steve eases the door open and steps inside, and nods to Sam.

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OOC AU week

2015-07-17T13:58:19Z

For AU week, it was suggested that Marvel should go noir, so Steve will be pre-serum (or more realistically, never-was-a-serum) and works for the Irish mob in New York City. He's basically the opposite fo the Steve we know and love: he is tiny, fierce, and dangerous, living on the wrong side of the law. His setting is post-Prohibition and pre-war.

As with many films noir, it's always night, and it's always raining :).

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OOM: Bucky, after the cells

2014-12-30T02:32:48Z

Steve isn't sure when Bucky will be released from the cells, and so is passing the time at the Caribbean inlet, wondering how to get Orpheus's boat here. If it's possible, which he isn't sure about at all.

(There are boats floating on the perfect blue water. That seems promising.)

Boots off, pants rolled up, face turned up to the sun.

(Remembering, too, days spent at the shore, drawing sunbathers and flirting couples and Bucky as a boy, as a young man.)

His sketchbook is tucked in his coat. He may take it out before much longer.

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OOM: Bucky. Christmas, 1940

2014-12-21T06:48:52Z

Steve gets home before Bucky does on Christmas Eve, and has just a few minutes to stash the little shopping bag away where Bucky won't find it. He wants Bucky to have a good Christmas this year, even if they have no tree and no cake--but Steve has beans soaking for a good stew, and there's a few potatoes and a little ham to augment it, and there are treats that Santa will bring.

They've had worse Christmases.

Now the question is, how to get these things arranged so that Bucky will actually be surprised Christmas morning?

Steve has never been too good at stealth, nor at inventing ways to get Bucky out of the house or asleep early.

He's checking on the beans when he hears Bucky's step on the landing.

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The File

2014-11-27T17:39:16Z

"Be careful, Steve. You might not want to pull on that thread."

Steve speaks six languages, though for some "speaking" is a generous way to put it. His Russian is slightly better than conversational, but not by much. So it's with a Russian dictionary, a notepad, and a pot of coffee that he sits at the kitchen table with the battered file. He pours himself a cup, takes a deep breath, and begins to read.

Doctor's Notes
Apparently Comrade Karpov believes it probable that he, like his partner Captain America, has the much-rumored Super-Soldier Formula flowing through--or rather, frozen inside--his veins.

Doctor's Notes
There appears to be considerable brain damage. The subject has no memory of his previous life.

SPECIAL SECTION - DEPARTMENT X
FILE: TOP CLEARANCE ONLY

It was our own experiments in Mental Implantation during Sensory Deprivation that provided the breakthrough. And because of the American's memory loss, it was quite simple. We were able to reprogram the American's mind.

We gave him a purpose, and we made him loyal to no one but us.

SPECIAL SECTION - DEPARTMENT X
FILE: TOP CLEARANCE ONLY

Project: Winter Soldier

Initial Mission Report

No difficulty encountered. Codename: Winter Soldier completed the assigned mission without error. All objectives achieved.

Details of intelligence given and ability to maintain cover tested jointly under duress with application of interrogation techniques and pain stimuli. Winter Soldier did not break cover nor vary from his report.

United Nations Diplomatic Negotiation Team. All targets eliminated.

NATO General James Keller. Target eliminated.

British Ambassador Dalton Graines. Target eliminated.

United States Colonel Jefferson Hart. Target eliminated.

Quentin Evans. Target eliminated.

SPECIAL SECTION - DEPARTMENT X
FILE: TOP CLEARANCE ONLY

Project: Winter Soldier

Most in the Science Team believe that his mental state is becoming unstable. In the years since he was awakened from stasis, it appears his ind is seeking to fill the holes in his memory...

Another theory, which is more disturbing, is that he may actually be remembering his previous life, though in small pieces only. It is therefore our recommendation that Codename: Winter Soldier be kept in statis between missions, and that he undergo Mental Implantation at every awakening.

SPECIAL SECTION - DEPARTMENT X
FILE: TOP CLEARANCE ONLY

Project: Winter Soldier

Primary scientist reassigned to deep-cover operation. Project: Winter Soldier continues unaffected.

French Defense Minister Jacque Brugière. Target eliminated.

Algerian Peace Conference Envoy. All targets eliminated.

Senator Harry Baxtor. Target eliminated.

Cleo A. Noel, Jr. George Curtis Moore. Guy Eid. Targets eliminated.

From the personal journal of General Vasily Karpov

Let us see what kind of damage he can do to his country's efforts in the Middle East. These next few years should be amusing.

SPECIAL SECTION - DEPARTMENT X
FILE: TOP CLEARANCE ONLY

Project: Winter Soldier

Final Report

Transfer complete. Price paid in full. Codename: Winter Soldier is no longer property of Department X.

There, the record ends.

Steve closes the folder and pushes back his chair from the table. The coffee pot is empty, his last cup only dregs.

For a moment he doesn't move, and then he buries his face in his hands.

The gentlest, most generous, kindest person I ever knew, my friend, my friend...

When he finally moves again, it's to tidy the folder and set the Russian dictionary on top of it; to fold back the pages of his notes (of names and dates and words, until he couldn't bear even to take notes anymore) to a blank page; to write, Sweetheart, I know more of Bucky's story now. I'll be in the bar, wishing that I didn't. Love you. S.

He picks up his jacket with the Milliways matchbook in the pocket, and goes through the door.

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Winter Soldier - aftermath

2014-11-26T03:22:09Z

For the first day or two, mostly Steve sleeps.

But sometimes he surfaces enough to hear the TV he asked one of the nurses to leave on for him.

"I think the wreck in the middle of the Potomac made his point fairly eloquently."

Really, you have to feel sorry for those committee members, trying to best the Black Widow.

"If you want to arrest me, arrest me. You know where to find me."

Smiling wryly to himself, Steve gropes for the remote and changes the channel.

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thekidfrombrooklyn @ 2014-11-22T00:15:00

2014-11-22T07:31:25Z

It's a long drive to New Jersey.

"Army regulations forbid storing munitions within five hundred yards of the barracks. This building's in the wrong place."

Dust and memories. More loss. More secrets.

"Shall we play a game?"

It's more like a horror story, the tale of the disease that has been growing inside SHIELD all these years, told in Zola's calm, precise voice. So much suffering, so much death, all in the name of control.

"We won, Captain."

Steve's rage builds with every word -- why did this man survive when Bucky did not? -- until he can't stop himself from punching Zola right in the smug monitor.

Not that it does any good.

"We are both of us...out of time."

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I come up hard but that's okay

2014-11-22T04:18:03Z

'Cause trouble man don't get in my way

The shield is found in the river by a salvage team. The man who finds it knows it should go right back to the Captain, but he can't help himself--he takes a picture of himself holding it, and snapchats it to his family and friends with the caption, "I believe in the shield."

It's reblogged hundreds of times. Then thousands. People start adding their own pictures, with homemade shields or Captain America memorabilia, captioning them things like "I still believe in the shield" and "I stand with the Captain."

The shield itself ends up at the Smithsonian, at the Captain America & the Howling Commandos exhibit. There's a note attached: "Please make sure this gets back to the Captain."

It does, of course. Of course it does.

Don't care about trouble, sugar, I'm moving down the line

In his hospital bed, Steve hears music.

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Shadows and Light

2014-09-22T03:19:39Z

Steve's sleep is troubled tonight.

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Winter Soldier - "Even when I had nothing, I had Bucky."

2014-08-18T17:17:20Z

"SHIELD, HYDRA--it all goes."

Battle plans formed, Steve stands on the dam, watching the sun come up. This early, and this far out of the capitol, the world is quiet. Peaceful.

Somewhere, a church bell is ringing, carrying through the stillness.

It gives a man time to think.

To remember.

( 1936. )

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Winter Soldier - the Smithsonian

2014-08-18T17:03:00Z

"This isn't freedom. This is fear."

Once he's returned from rescuing the Lumarian Star and debriefing with Fury, Steve needs... something. He's not sure what--a reminder, maybe, of what he's fighting for. Who he's fighting for.

As soon as he's changed into his civilian clothes, Steve calls Orpheus.

"Sweetheart, can you meet me at the Smithsonian? I think I'm ready to see the exhibit now."

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The Winter Soldier - "Before we get started, does anybody want to get out?"

2014-08-08T03:20:58Z

"Somebody murdered my friend. I'm going to find out why. Anyone gets in my way, they're going to regret it."

( Before we get started... )

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OOM: afternoon coffee

2014-06-15T00:25:22Z

Even people who pride themselves on supporting independent shops end up at Starbucks sometimes.

There's one within walking distance of Steve and Orpheus's apartment -- there are more than one if you're up to walking a bit more -- so Steve brings Felix there, so he can see what it's all about if nothing else.

It's a quiet Sunday afternoon. Steve has his sketchbook, but he hasn't opened it yet in favor of looking through a copy of the Express someone left on the table instead.

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OOM: Peggy Carter. London, England, 1944.

2014-04-11T22:15:31Z

The local pub has an influx of Howling Commandos tonight. Steve doesn't always accompany them--beer tastes better here than it does at home, but that's still not very good--but tonight he has, and is smiling as Jones and Dugan compete in a darts contest that is not getting sloppier no matter how much they drink.

He glances at the door sometimes, just in case every new patron is a familiar face.

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OOM: Orpheus

2014-04-07T04:18:27Z

Steve keeps his hand on Orpheus's back as they go upstairs -- to a new room, unused by either of them. He's quiet, too, his thoughts still on the Russian-speaking man downstairs.

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OOM: Nick Fury

2014-02-17T21:53:44Z

There are few things that make Steve's courage falter, but sitting outside Nick Fury's office, waiting for his assistant to let him in, makes Steve remember waiting outside Sister Mary Carmen's office while Bucky was scolded inside for whatever fight they'd gotten into this time. You'd think a fella would get used to something that happened at least twice a month, wouldn't you?

Steve amuses himself with naming all the presidents in the portraits that line the walls (still hard to believe that Ronald Reagan the actor was ever Ronald Reagan the president, but that's the modern world for you) when he notices that Fury's assistant is watching him. She glances away as quickly as he notices.

Hm.

He shrugs it off. Ever since the Chitauri invasion and all that's followed, Steve is recognized every day. At least he's not giving his address on national television. (Tony.)

He takes out his sketchbook to pass the time drawing. That's much better than twiddling his thumbs.

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OOM: Orpheus

2014-02-10T05:14:08Z

Steve keeps his arm around Orpheus until they're well into the apartment. "Keep me company in the kitchen?" he says, sliding his fingers just above the waistband of Orpheus's jeans.

[ooc: Adult shenanigans within.]

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Halloween [Orpheus]

2013-11-06T04:10:39Z

Steve carries Orpheus into their room, nuzzling Orpheus's face and paying little attention to the path he takes.

He sets Orpheus carefully on the bed with one more long kiss. When he pulls away he whispers, "Gosh, you're pretty, sweetheart."

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OOM: Orpheus, the bar

2013-09-02T04:30:36Z

The room is comfortable and pretty, shades of red and cream and brown, with a coffee pot and a TV. It's perfectly adequate.

Steve misses his room anyway.

But if Orpheus isn't comfortable there, he's not going to insist.

Of course, all of his clothes are in the other room, which he remembers after he's pulled off his sweaty T-shirt.

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OOM: Orpheus, NYC

2013-07-29T04:08:53Z

Now that Steve has a more solid vision of the place he'll build with Orpheus, the utilitarian apartment feels even less like home. He gives the plain walls an impatient look as he and Orpheus walk through to the bedroom.

"I'm itching to get started with renovating," he complains, "and we haven't even found the right location yet."

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thekidfrombrooklyn @ 2013-07-14T13:16:00

2013-07-14T19:39:39Z

After this conversation with Orpheus, Steve figured it was only a matter of time before he'd have a chance to actually tell people. And so it's only a few days later when he's in another TV studio, getting ready to go on camera.

The big difference is that for the first time, Orpheus is with him. It's hard to keep his eyes off him, and the makeup artist has to remind him once or twice, "Chin up, please, Captain."

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