He had to get out and look at things. Lincoln felt most comfortable in his room but the warmth of the sun on his face and the fresh air beckoned him out, and he took to walking around when he wasn't feeling too overwhelmed.
He found his way to a very very big tall building with a light at the top, and he looked at the big water, and then he went back toward the rest of the people and where they were. All the buildings, the stores and restaurants and offices.
He found an open door and peeked into it. The place felt familiar in a strange way, more than a lot of the other places did. Something about the style of it felt right.
He stepped in, looking around with his eyes wide and curly hair incredibly fluffy. He still wore his Vault suit, his Pip-Boy. He didn't feel comfortable without it.
He didn't see anyone inside, but that was okay. He was still looking at everything.
Bucky yawned as he pulled into a parking spot near the club. Thank god it wasn't street parking- Bucky wasn't feeling quite up to parallel parking today. He and Zemo had been up late working, then he'd had two classes this morning. There were a few projects he was still working on with the MIST updates, and he wanted to make the gaming room nice, so he circled back to the back of his truck, picking up his tool box and slinging the strap over his shoulder. Lumber and paint was already inside, and he made his way in.
He'd been there for about fifteen minutes, getting changed into work clothes and prepping for the game room when he realized he'd left a bag from the hardware store in his truck. He jogged out to his truck, returning inside a moment later, pausing when he realized he wasn't alone. "Hey," he said, tilting his head as he took in the stranger. "We aren't open right now, but if you need the bathroom or something, you're welcome to use it. Or is there something else I can help you with?"
Lincoln jumped when someone spoke behind him. He turned to look, his eyes widening a little more. “Sorry,” he said, glancing around quickly. “I didn't know you weren't open. I was just looking,” he told him, taking a careful step back toward the door.
He didn't want to get in trouble for going into off-limits areas. Not again.
“Sorry,” he flashed a nervous smile. “Didn't mean to.”
"Whoa, hey-" Bucky held both hands up, the bag looped over one elbow. "It's okay. You can hang around if you want, I just don't have the bar open or any of the food if you're looking for something like that. I've got a couple hours before karaoke opens, so people will start trickling in before then. I was just working on some stuff upstairs."
The boy looked nervous, though. "Are you alright? Are you still new to Dunwich?"
“What's karaoke?” Lincoln asked, almost reflexively. If he had to count and do a tally, he thought he'd maybe asked more questions than he'd said sentences, since he'd gotten here.
“Yeah, I'm new,” he agreed, shifting to look at his Pip-Boy for a second, setting a little marker on his map. He'd put the name of the place in later.
“I'm Lincoln, I've been here for a couple of days,” he told him. “I don't mean to keep you, if you're working.”
"Karaoke? It's..it's singing along to music for people. Usually your friends? There are different kinds, I guess- instrumental music plays and the words come up on a screen to show you when to sing 'em. I'm not great at it, but people seem to love it here." Bucky shrugged.
"Oh! I think I talked to you the other day. I'm Bucky. And you're alright. If you're just looking for company, you're welcome to come hang out. What kinda food did you get the other day?"
Friends. Lincoln knew what those were but he'd never really connected with anyone in the Vault after his sister. He’d worked on his vocational training and his first aid.
“Singing,” he repeated. “I didn't know that was such a popular activity.” What did he know about what was popular in the past?
He nodded. He remembered talking to Bucky. Burgers and pizza and grocery stores. “Soup broth,” he answered him. “I tried a piece of an apple too. Just a little,” he held his fingers up, a fraction of a fraction of an inch apart.
"Yeah, it seems to be. You can share a lot of feelings through a song. Dancing's popular, too. That's what this club's for." Bucky gestured around them, then adjusted his hold on the bag. "There's a dance floor downstairs. Bar here, and karaoke on the stage, or we have private rooms for smaller groups if some people are too shy to sing for people they don't know as well."
He grinned. "How did you like it? I remember when I got here- everything felt like so much. I was a soldier in the war before I got here. What kind of stuff did you have back at your home? Starting slow probably ain't a bad idea if you didn't have a lot of variety or very large portions."
Lincoln looked around like he was trying to map it all out. Bar, dance floor, private rooms, karaoke. He couldn't imagine most of it. “What’s this kind of bar?” he asked. He'd heard of bars, like metal bars or wooden bars, but those were usually called beams.
He nodded a little at the question. “Yeah, the apple was good. It was… a lot. It smelled like it tasted. We just had the gruel at home,” he said. “Thin, watery. It tasted the same every day. Room temperature.”
Maybe starting very slow was the best course of action.
“You were a soldier?” he asked him. “Do you want help with your bag?”
"I remember stuff like that out in the field. MREs, stuff that was dehydrated and then supposed to be mixed with boiled water. Sometimes we didn't even have fresh water to do that." Bucky scrunched up his nose, pulling a face. "There's so much more good stuff here. Way better than that."
He crossed over to the bar, circling around it to pull out two water bottles, then one of the pre-packaged snack trays. It was basically a charcuterie board, with crackers and sliced meats and cheeses. "This is a bar that people come to drink at. Alcoholic beverages, usually, but I also do a lot of non-alcoholic stuff here too."
Bucky circled back around and climbed onto a stool, setting his bag down on the counter. "Come on. Have a snack with me? I need to eat some lunch anyhow."
Lincoln nodded at that, in total agreement. “It seems like there's a lot here. More than I'll ever have time to try.” It didn't help that he was afraid to try most of it, but he wasn't about to say that to anyone, least of all a soldier.
“I've never tried alcohol,” he said as he moved into a seat. “Okay. I'll sit with you while you eat,” he agreed. He found it easier that way.
He offered a smile over to Bucky. “What's this?” he asked about the food.
"I feel that way all the time. Back home- it was the 1930s and 40s? Food was scarce, and refrigeration was still pretty new, so there wasn't the variety that's here today." He passed a water bottle over to Lincoln and opened his own.
"This is a charcuterie board. There are a lot of ways to make them- they usually have cheeses, some kind of meat, and crackers or bread. Others have fruit and different spreads or olives or just..small bites- you can do whatever you like? But I just get these pre-made ones with cheese and meat and crackers. It's pretty simple, but they're good. Help yourself, if you'd like to try one."
Lincoln tried to follow him, but it was like trying to learn a new language. He only absorbed every few words. Charcuterie. He nodded a little but he didn't reach out yet, just leaned to rest his chin on his arms and watched Bucky.
“Thank you,” he was sure to say, even if he didn't take anything yet. Maybe he would, but he'd have to see how Bucky did it first.
“How long have you been here?”
Bucky picked up a cracker, topping it with a cheese slice and a pepperoni round. It wasn't fancy, but it tasted good and he popped it into his mouth. He nodded at Lincoln's thanks, then took a sip of water before replying.
"It's been…oh God, just over a year? I got here April of last year." Whoa. He hadn't realized until just now that it had been that long. A lot had happened in that year. "I didn't get this club until a few months ago."
“What else have you been doing? Before you got the club?” he asked him, watching him with interest. He reached out carefully to take a piece of cheese, drawing it up to his mouth. He barely nibbled the corner, took the smallest piece.
He chewed slowly, and let his eyebrows raise. It was good. “What part is this?” he asked Bucky, and he took a drink of his water. Water, he knew what to do with, though having it so fresh was very new.
"I worked for the university," Bucky replied. He picked up another piece of cheese and meat- salami? Maybe?- and took another bite. "A lot of facilities work- handyman repair stuff around the campus. And I started classes as a student in the fall."
He finished off that second piece of meat and cheese. "That's cheese. A..cheddar, I believe. There are a bunch of different kinds of cheeses here, too. More than I ever knew existed."
“Oh,” Lincoln brightened with recognition. “I was a mechanic in the Vault, that's what I got on my GOAT. Repairs and maintenance.” It was nice to hear about something that he'd actually heard of before, had experience with. Unlike cheese.
“I didn't know any cheese existed,” he said with a shrug, taking another tiny bite, barely a nibble. Just to taste it.
“What kind of classes are you taking?”
"GOAT?" Bucky asked curiously. "What does that mean? And if you're ever looking for a job, I can put in a good word for you at the university- they're always looking for people to fix stuff there." It was an old school, after all. Old buildings always needed work.
"Well, if you ever want to try more, you're welcome to come by and ask. I started trying a whole bunch of different potato dishes- that's a vegetable? And ranking them with some friends. I haven't done that in a while, so I should probably look for a new dish to try."
"A lot of the basics- math, English, a biology class? I haven't decided on a major yet, so I just have the core classes to start on. The general stuff."
“Generalized Occupational Aptitude Test,” Lincoln answered like reciting it, like he'd grown up hearing about it constantly. Which, he had. “It decides your job in the Vault, you take it when you're sixteen.”
He nodded a little at the offer. “Yeah, it's what I'm supposed to be doing,” he agreed. He should pick up with mechanics here like he had back home.
There were so many different dishes that they needed to be ranked. It was completely incomprehensible to Lincoln but he nodded a little anyway and nibbled his cheese.
“Oh,” he nodded. He didn't know what a major was. “Do you like it?”
"Ohhh standardized testing." He tilted his head. "What other job options were there? I'm still- what were these vaults like? If you don't mind me asking- we don't have to talk about it."
"Do I like classes? Most of them. I feel real old in most of them- I'm taking like. The freshman level classes, the real early ones? So a lot of people here start just out of high school, when they're eighteen or so. I'm nearing thirty."
Lincoln shrugged his shoulders. “Things that need to get done in the Vault and when the doors opened to rebuild. Construction, mechanics, cleaning, everything.” He didn't know how to describe the vaults, really. He thought about it for a second.
“Big, I think. There were a few hundred of us. We each had a living quarters and there was a place to eat our gruel and a classroom and a gathering place. And a doctor's office. I don't know, your club kind of reminds me of it. It's… hard to explain. It's not as,” he didn't know the words, really. “Shiny? Plastic? Like other places in town, this seems like it's from the same time, almost.”
He tilted his head a little but he smiled. “I'm twenty and I think those classes sound like a lot of fun. I'd be old there with you.”
Bucky nodded slowly. "Did you guys do anything else? Reading, hobbies? Music, sewing, art?"
It sounded very different from the world he knew. But it also sounded somewhat like the prisons he'd been held in during the war? He huffed a laugh. "There's a lot of places here that seem plastic, I understand. Nothing's built to last anymore- people would rather throw stuff away to buy a new something instead of repairing what they have."
"You're still young, though," Bucky teased. He took another bite. "I like the history classes. It's interesting to see how perspective has changed since I took history."
“Yeah, some of those things. We didn't have a lot of books, but we had a few records. Some other things that didn't take up a lot of resources.”
He nodded in agreement. A lot of plastic. “We couldn't throw anything away in the Vault. There were incinerators but if there was any chance a thing could be fixed, you fixed it.”
His eyes lit up a little. “I loved history, I used to listen to my grandparents tell me about the Vault when they were younger and about their grandparents’ stories of before the war.” He smiled, remembering.
"I'll have to share some of my favorite books with you, if that's something you're interested in." Bucky smiled. "We could use some good workers here, too, if you want to learn some new skills. I can always use help with some of the renovations I'm doing here."
"Yeah?" Bucky was glad to see him light up a little. "I keep forgetting how far into the future you're from. I wonder if any of your world's history matches mine. Or even this one."
Lincoln smiled back. “Yeah, I'd like that. I can help!” he was happy to. “I learned first aid, too. Got in trouble for studying outside my GOAT results but I wanted to be able to help if something happened.”
He nodded at that. He was really far in the future. He hummed thoughtfully. “Salem witches?” he checked. That was pretty far back.
"Great! I was about to head up and work on a new game room upstairs, so after we finish this, if you aren't busy, you're welcome to help. I'll pay for your time and all, too. And we could always use people to help with first aid. Unfortunately, we've had our share of monsters and fights here, so you never know when it'll come in handy." Lincoln seemed like a good kid, even if he did seem a bit overwhelmed. Bucky motioned toward the square of cheese he was still nibbling on. "Do you want a cracker to go with that? They're made with similar stuff to what your gruel was, probably, but a lot less watery."
Bucky considered for a moment, then nodded. "Yes, that happened in my world. And this one, too. But it's probably a good thing those are over here now- I've got some good friends in town that are witches."
“Okie dokie,” Lincoln said cheerfully, and he shook his head at the offer. The cheese was plenty new. “I'm going slow with new things. In case something makes me sick.” He was still afraid of it, scared that he was going to not be and to handle something.
He blinked at that. “I never met a witch, I didn't think they were real. The Civil War?” They seemed like they were from similar worlds, maybe Lincoln really was just from the future.
Bucky nodded. "Makes sense. Have you had any trouble with that yet?" He'd probably look up ways to help later on- he remembered hearing about what happened to people after the war when they were fed too much too quickly. He finished most of the tray and then started to wrap it up again.
"They are here. I don't know if they are everywhere. Civil War happened in my world. World War 1?"
“Not yet,” Lincoln told him. “And a friend told me being sick here wasn't as bad as being sick in the Vault.” He still didn't want to. He took another little bite of the cheese, thoughtfully. He liked it, he was pretty sure.
“Yeah, then World War 2, the nuclear bombs, and then the reorganization into the commonwealths,” Lincoln agreed. “Yeah, it sounds pretty much the same.”
"I'd imagine it wouldn't be, depending on how limited your resources were down there." Bucky nodded, then paused. "I fought in World War 2. But..I don't think we've reorganized into commonwealths. Not that I've heard, at least, and there are people from my future here."
But that difference didn't matter too much in the long run- he'd just been curious how much overlapped. He moved to put the leftovers back in one of the small fridges and then picked up his water bottle for a drink. "You wanna come see what I'm working on?"
Lincoln squinted for a second at Bucky. “You're from the past?” he asked him. “Even from here? You'd be from the 1950s or 1960s at the latest.” If he fought in World War 2, that is. “The thirteen commonwealths, it happened in 1969. No? Did China ever invade Alaska, in your world?”
It was interesting. Lincoln looked history, though. He nodded quickly. “Yeah, show me.”
"Yeah- I thought I'd mentioned that?" Bucky asked. "I fell off a train in the Alps in 1945 and ended up here." He'd landed right on top of Steve when he'd arrived, but that was no matter.
"I don't think that happened. Or if it did, Natasha never mentioned." Steve was still Captain America. Would that have happened if things had been reorganized? He wasn't sure. He offered a grin, picking up the bag.