InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "It's all in the reflexes."

Dr. Stephen Strange (doctor__strange) wrote in avengers_logs,
@ 2018-08-27 14:24:00

Entry tags:

-gamewide plot, -open thread, bucky barnes, drax, hope van dyne, nick fury, peggy carter, pepper potts, peter quill, stephen strange, wanda maximoff

Open! - Soul Dimension
Who: Open to all Soul Dimension dust-ees.
What: a safe harbor for those in the Soul Dimension.
When: sometime after Wanda sending out a mental lure to anyone nearby.
Where: The Soul Sanctum.
Rating: ?

'Wish You Were Here.'

waiting with Wanda

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Bucky/Open

vibraniarm
2018-09-01 03:22 pm UTC (link)

It was liking blinking into another bad dream. Only this time, the terror of watching Peggy wither away and the horror on Steve's face were real. Another nightmare to add to his list of others. At least this time, he wasn't waking up in a freezer.

Bucky immediately went into defense mode as he took in the odd realm he found himself in, removing one of many hidden knives...just in case. He'd called for Peggy, maybe she would be around but no. It was like a desert purgatory.

Until he felt something touch his mind. That, he didn't like. Especially since it was so inviting and becoming. Needless to say, Bucky didn't care for things messing with his mind. But having no other leads he followed the signal to what he could only assume was a trap. He wasn't surprised to find 'the Sanctum' at the end of the rabbit hole. As he entered he awaited the danger that was more than likely expecting him, imitating something familiar, with the shiny steel of his blade and the vibranium in his arm.

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Bucky/Wanda

witchiest
2018-09-01 07:55 pm UTC (link)

Wanda set down the book she was reading when she saw Bucky, standing, her skirt fluttering gently - and she sensed the discomfort rolling off of him in waves, of course. Essentially everyone else here, she didn't mind giving them a little mental nudge - some, messing with their heads wasn't something she could bring herself to feel guilty for. But him? That one particularly stung.

Oh, guilt. You were an old and familiar friend.

"Hi," she greeted, baby blues falling toward where he held the knife in his grasp. Then she looked back up at his face, wringing her hands - one of her silver rings was twisted up and down along her finger, either a thinking or an anxious gesture. There was no relaxing in this place, so it was likely the latter. "I'm sorry. I did not mean to startle you. The doctor wanted everyone here, gathered. So we may all leave together soon, I am hoping."

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Bucky/Wanda

vibraniarm
2018-09-03 12:11 am UTC (link)

Unfortunately Bucky had remembered many of the torture tactics HYDRA had put him under. He was strong enough for all of them, save for brainwashing. This didn't feel like that. He and many others dreamt of fading away--to what, none had known. But he wouldn't be so easy to trust.

He took in Wanda's appearance carefully. Not that he'd be able to distinguish magic or any other higher being nonsense that was just out of his control.

"Where is here?" He asked pointedly, the stiffness in his stance nor the blade in his hand moving. Not even a little blink.

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Bucky/Wanda

witchiest
2018-09-03 12:25 am UTC (link)

"It is a recreation of the Sanctum in New York," she said. "I do not understand how everything works, exactly, but....we are not dead, even if everyone left behind thinks we are. Those of us who were turned to dust, we came here. Our souls and bodies."

So if he stabbed her with that knife, she'd feel it - though what that would do to her physical body, Wanda didn't know that either. Maybe she'd just fade away into the ether for real this time. Maybe she'd finally catch up with her brother - the thought was almost laughable. As if she could ever catch up with Pietro, even in death.

"We are going to get out of here." That she could promise - it might involve her brain exploding since she didn't often push her telepathy to its limits, but what did that matter in the scheme of things?

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Bucky/Wanda

vibraniarm
2018-09-03 12:46 am UTC (link)

There was a lot of emphasis on 'getting out of here'. The Doctor and Wanda would be the key people in order to find such a way. And the little bit of helplessness in her voice made Bucky frown. He would keep his guard, but open himself to the idea of this being real since he hadn't exactly been able to deny fading away from himself.

"You look tired." He commented more softly than he had before, hand flipping the blade back into his palm and returning it to his belt. It was also the first thing Bucky had told Wanda when she had invited him to the diner. But this time, he was certain it was from other stresses. Probably trying to use her abilities to help Strange. "How are we going to leave? I don't fully understand how we got here in the first place."

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Bucky/Wanda

witchiest
2018-09-03 01:02 am UTC (link)

Wanda chuckled softly. "You always say such charming things," she pointed out, since this was not the first time Bucky mentioned how tired she looked. After becoming a dust cloud version of herself, and being spirited away to a new universe, she supposed she really couldn't argue - it wasn't as if she felt fresh as a daisy.

She didn't need to sleep though, or eat. There was no hunger, no thirst, no fatigue - just her simply existing beneath a sky that looked like it caught fire, and being vaguely comforted by an illusion of her space at the Sanctum.

Sitting back down on the sofa, she scooted over to make space for Bucky if he wanted to sit too. "You remember fading away in your dreams too? I guess this is where we end up. Events must have crossed over, universes colliding. Stephen spoke to me about a plan," she added. "I will use my telepathy to make contact with someone, using the quantum realm. Send a message to the others, to at least tell them we are alive. We will go from there."

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Bucky/Wanda

vibraniarm
2018-09-03 01:27 am UTC (link)

"Just testing if I still had it." His eyebrow quirked. A fragment of anything unreal wouldn't notice a small little detail like that. It would have slipped up. Which meant all of this...whatever it was...was real.

Sighing, Bucky moved to sit beside her on the couch, slowly, so his weight wouldn't make a noise. He and Steve were unusually heavy and could smash things with a 'love tap' if they weren't careful. He'd had plenty of time to practice that. Sitting up straight, not letting his guard down, he listened to Wanda's explanation before his crystal blue eyes met hers once more. "I guess that's something. One plan is better than none...not that I fully understand what the Quantum Realm or this realm is either." In this situation, Bucky was a life sized paper weight that also knew hundreds of ways to kill a man with his bare hands. Just dust here.

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Bucky/Wanda

witchiest
2018-09-03 12:07 pm UTC (link)

"You still have it," she assured, finding that amusing for some reason. "Nothing quantum is my area of expertise either. But I have to do what I can to reach out." Wanda knew she was the only one here with the telepathic skill to actually be able to do that - and she wouldn't be doing anyone any favors if she hid away from everything. That was not what an Avenger did, and she continued to think of herself as one even if her team was in shambles. Even if Steve and Clint were probably the only ones who would even trust her to use her telepathy for this anyway.

She glanced at Bucky, her expression open and as relaxed as anyone could get here - not so tense, like when she was poring over books simply for something to do and to fill her mind with knowledge. "Mă bucur că ești aici. Nu că tu ești prins aici, dar doar ca să te văd," she explained and, for the first time (because she had no distractions, no books, no plans, just an upcoming task) she felt a flicker of...apprehension. That she wouldn't be able to make contact like Stephen wanted. That she'd just muck things up again like she usually did when she tried to help.

This place...it made her uncomfortable.

She wrapped her arm around his, and her head fell to rest on his shoulder. Wanda exhaled a biiiiig sigh. "Cel puțin nu sunt intoxicat," she snorted. That was probably a rule in the handbook - don't attempt to drink and telepath at the same time.

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Bucky/Wanda

vibraniarm
2018-09-04 04:34 am UTC (link)

It was easy to feel her own apprehension. Especially if it was more pressure on her to do this 'reaching out' with her abilities. A lot seemed to fall on her because of what she could do. All of the Avengers probably experienced this in their own way. And anyone else with extraordinary capabilities.

Bucky sighed ever so lightly, relaxing as much as he could when she started to speak her native tongue and rested against him--hand flexing instinctively and then relaxing. Something familiar. Anything to ease reality. At least it was his real shoulder with his real arm. Vibranium couldn't be that comfortable. "Cred că e mai bine să nu fim singuri dacă privim pozitivul. Dar nu sunt fericit că trebuie să fii aici."

No one should be here. He huffed lightly at her drinking comment. "Pentru o dată, cred că ar fi fost mai bine. Cel puțin tu și ceilalți s-ar putea mai bine."

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Bucky/Wanda

witchiest
2018-09-04 10:41 pm UTC (link)

"Mă voi relaxa când vom fi adusi înapoi de a nu fi ... morți," Wanda replied with a bit of a smile; it gave her something to look forward to. Something to believe in, despite the intricacies of their newfound dimension pushing and pulling at her deep-seated fears and making her question herself, in a way.

She wanted to do her part to help people get their lives back too. Especially Bucky. He'd already been through so much - get trapped in another world, away from Wakanda which represented peace and serenity for him, then get whooshed away as dust? It was horrible.

"Dacă aveți alții îngrijorați de dvs, puteți merge," she offered. "I just wanted to see you and apologize if I made things worse for you." A switch back to English, toggling easily. It felt nice to speak another language though - she didn't know anyone else who knew this one, and it made her feel a certain warmth to know he was willing to converse with her in something besides English, to keep the skills sharp.

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Bucky/Wanda

vibraniarm
2018-09-06 03:36 am UTC (link)

Unfortunately there were too many times Bucky already felt dead. In the mind and body. Sometimes he had small relapses of guilt, but Shuri and T'challa helped to reinstate the reason for existing. They weren't dead here. They were just trapped in some new war, with a new fight.

There was always a fight.

"Nu prea simt urgența de a fi oriunde în prezent." He was confused as to why she thought she had made things worse. As if this was her fault. Frowning, he turning his body to face her. "How could you have made things worse? This isn't your fault."

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Bucky/Wanda

witchiest
2018-09-06 03:46 pm UTC (link)

Didn't she always make things worse? Somehow? That was what she did. And besides all of that, Wanda knew she was sometimes tactless and prickly; she was wounded in places that no amount of physical fixing could get to.

And here, she felt like her deepest fears and darkest thoughts were being pulled to the surface in the soul world - but she wouldn't let herself cry or get upset. Nor would she talk about how, yes, she always mucked things up - she had even blamed herself when Pietro died, scared that her anger had been the thing which killed him in the end.

"I meant - I was the one who put out the call to get people to come here," she clarified. "It was...not exactly a mind trick, or maybe it was," she added sadly. "I'm sorry if I startled you. I would not be in your head even for the slightest minute otherwise." At the very least, she hoped Bucky knew that.

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Bucky/Wanda

vibraniarm
2018-09-08 12:24 am UTC (link)

Bucky did know that. He trusted Wanda, and Strange. Had he not had so much trauma with his mind it wouldn't have been as big a deal. It was just a little jarring after his therapy.

"You don't have to be sorry. You were helping bring everyone here and I understand that was the only way to do that." He took a deep breath to sigh. "I just have a bad past with...people getting into my mind. It's not my favorite place." He was stable but un-trusting when it came to that, obviously. Being brainwashed and used as puppet to murder wasn't anything Bucky could ever wash away.

He just had to learn to live with it, somehow, and he was trying. "I just didn't know what was happening. I'm sorry if I was being harsh."

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Bucky/Wanda

witchiest
2018-09-08 01:19 am UTC (link)

"I understand. I don't think anyone likes people getting into their mind," Wanda said - though with Bucky, it seemed to be extra contentious for reasons that made sense. He hadn't even been control of what he did with his own body, and that lasted decades. "You were not harsh though. Don't worry."

Even if he had been, she wouldn't have blamed him. But at any rate, they should focus on what they could do to get back to their lives - the ones they were so rudely ripped from. Back 'home,' she had just started to get used to working in the cafe and her long shifts. She had gone to that jazz club with Bucky too, and that was a high point. Wanda wanted to experience more of things like that.

"It's...going to be alright," she nodded. "When we get back, I will show you the guitar I found. I hope it is still in the secondhand store I saw it in. It needs some work, but..." That gave her something to look forward to. Some hope.

They all needed that.

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Bucky/Peggy

theagentcarter
2018-09-02 12:31 am UTC (link)

There were very few things that could break Peggy's heart in her current predicament. Watching Bucky walk through the door was at the top of the list. It was an instant cold, a dread, that Steve was alone. He had seen them both go, in front of his eyes. Even she couldn't imagine how deeply he had fallen at that. Losing Bucky was bad enough, and she was sure losing herself wasn't a picnic. But both? Together? Even a heart as strong as his had it's limits. As very talented as she was at keeping herself together, her bottom lip quivered as she approached him. Wordlessly putting her arms around his neck and pulling him into a hug slowly when he turned to see her, not wanting to startle him. "Oh Bucky."

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Bucky/Peggy

vibraniarm
2018-09-03 12:16 am UTC (link)

The startled portion of his visit was sunk much more into guarded. While anything could be used against him, like his innocent friend Wanda, seeing Peggy made much more sense. They'd only disappeared together.

Easing up a little, Bucky patted at her back. She was as solid as he was. Her demeanor a reflection of the last moments she'd spent before disintegrating. "You alright? Did you hear this...call too?" If it was a trap they were using the right people. But anything he would normally sense or see in such a thing would have made itself known by now. Or maybe not. He knew nothing of magic or soul stones.

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	Bucky/Strange doctor__strange 2018-09-02 12:13 pm UTC (link)
	Stephen watched from a distance as Wanda and Peggy welcomed him. It was probably better - since neither of them were great conversationalists - to let people that were familiar set any frayed nerves at ease. Once Stephen knew it would be seen, he gave Bucky a nod to say hello. (Replies frozen) (Parent) (Thread)

Bucky/Strange

vibraniarm
2018-09-03 12:19 am UTC (link)

If anything could give him the tiniest assurance from what the former Winter Soldier could gather, was that Strange was not quite as familiar as the other two in his company. There'd be no reason to try and poison his mind there. Though Wanda and Strange could easily do so, he was sure.

But if Strange and everyone who was dusted really were here, the real Strange would build something familiar. When he was finished making introductions and comforts with Wanda and Peggy, Bucky found his way up the stairs to the Sorcerer for some answers. "So..our visions came true. But we're not dead, just in another plane. Before that Thanos even made it to Earth...Is the alternate reality you created putting things out of time?"

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Bucky/Strange

doctor__strange
2018-09-03 11:50 am UTC (link)

As he silently absorbed what Bucky said, Stephen once again considered that his other counterpart might be in there with them, somewhere. He wasn't sure if it would create some sort of temporal paradox if they met each other. It was likely they weren't aware they had splintered things in two. It was tempting to reach out. To ask what that mysterious 'end game' was. It didn't matter, though. That endgame wasn't theirs anymore. They had their own path to follow.

He also knew it was better not to lie to Bucky Barnes. The man saw enough combat to want straight answers when he actually asked for them. And Strange had done enough investigating on how much had happened in this dimension, finding out what energies resided within, to give him his personal opinion.

"Time has moved differently. Our counterparts that turned to dust," he paused, thinking on what to say and how to say it, "the ones from that other universe we splintered from? I believe they really are dead. Our situation is different. It's vicarious. An overlap. Close enough to touch us, to recognize us and place us into a similar situation. Not enough to kill.

"Reason being, we're each a copy of someone who has already died," he explained. "Our endgame is different. We have a better shot at averting the disaster that happened over there. We can start to stabalize our universe in its own right, if we can get back where we belong. And if we can stop Thanos from gathering all six stones."

It wasn't without risk. Nothing ever was.

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Bucky/Strange

vibraniarm
2018-09-06 03:45 am UTC (link)

"That's a lot on your shoulders. And Wanda's." But just like Strange explained, the endgame was different. The dreams, them being here before Thanos even arrived? It meant something. Everything they'd been working for wasn't in vain.

And it was a relief to hear. As they said in Wakanda The moon that wanes today, was a full moon yesterday.

Things would continue in motion and it was something to work with. "She said you had a plan. If there's something I can do, let me know."

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Bucky/Strange

doctor__strange
2018-09-08 09:22 pm UTC (link)

"It is. Magic exacts a cost. The bill always comes due. Always," Stephen said. "Sometimes the cost is the risk to one's self. We both know it. The risk is worth getting us out of here, to help save our own universe."

He thought on that for a moment, since neither he or Wanda would be present. He hoped they would both make it back, but there was always a chance they wouldn't.

"Watch over everyone while we're gone," he finally replied. "If we don't come back, you're going to have to protect one another in here. Know that I wouldn't let anything happen to her."

He meant Wanda, of course. He saw the way that the two gravitated toward one another. There was absolutely no disapproval from the sorcerer at all.

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