InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "Wrong lever!"

james barnes (freezerburn) wrote in entrywaythreads,
@ 2021-02-25 12:22:00

Entry tags:

bucky barnes, jason todd

WHO Bucky Barnes & Jason Todd
WHAT Bucky's looking for a job.
WHEN Thursday, February 25, 2PM
WHERE Bruce's Best Weapons, Ammo & Indoor Shooting Range
RATING Let's just go ahead and say R for a lot of swearing

The auto shop was out. Though Bucky could fix a lot of stuff, the mechanical arm made some things dicey: he might get his arm stuck in the car engine and though he could get it back out, it would likely be at the expense of the engine. And that might not be so good for business. He could likely work at every shop this place had, but the one that seemed the most likely to need someone like him... well, that was Bruce's Best Weapons.

He'd dressed in his jacket, tucking his metal hand into the pocket of his jeans so that it wasn't easily visible to the public. A man with his hand in his pocket wasn't as immediately concerning as a man with a black metal arm. Bucky'd tucked his hat over his head, and then he'd gone out for a walk.

Calming his nerves was never a problem. Bucky had learned to be unblinking in the face of basically any threat, or if not unblinking, at least to keep moving. Keep responding. Keep active in any situation he was in.

Walking into a shop and saying, Employ me!, though...

He took a breath and pushed open the door, walking in to face a ton and a half of weapons. Bows and arrows, knives, guns. So many weapons that Bucky felt immediately at home.

He didn't even mind the fucking giant, lanky man behind the counter. He walked right up to the counter, trying to find words that didn't start with hire me because I'm a better killer than ninety percent of the people here. Technically, he wasn't wrong. But it wasn't the way Bucky wanted to start his employment.

What came out was, "I need to buy a gun."

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freezerburn
2021-02-26 01:57 am UTC (link)

So the kid knew who Bucky was. It wasn't like Bucky was even really trying to hide his identity these days. He shrugged the flesh arm. Melee was a strength, but it wasn't all the Soldier had been trained to do with no thought or question.

"I don't need weapons for melee," he said. "Or, rather, I could use them, but the skill and training I have makes weapons basically useless." He took his hand out of his jeans pocket, not to make a point about how deadly it was, but to scratch his nose. "What I'd like, if you have it, is a SIG-Sauer P220ST."

It was one of HYDRA'S weapons, but Bucky had learned to make use of it again and again. Why change what worked?

"I could find a use for a Ka-Bar, and I wouldn't need ammunition, but the gun is quicker, and also more final."

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abetterbatman
2021-02-26 02:33 am UTC (link)

Jason didn't generally judge a person on their weapon choice, not when he'd witnessed someone murder a room of burly attackers with a single ballpoint pen in his League of Assassins days. It was motivation that tended to interest him more. He might have come a long way from the days of filling duffel-bags with the heads of drug dealers and gang members but that didn't mean he was all that far past handing out a little retribution even in purgatory. That 'final' comment might have gotten a twitch of his eyebrow but he wasn't going to comment on it. Yet.

"German stuff is down this way." He said, tilting his head toward the end of the glass case, signalling him to follow. He briefly crouched down to unlock the case, "Have a few compacts in stock right now but if you give me some time I could get my hands on something that might suit you more." A moment later the case was unlocked and Jason was back up to his full height, placing both of the P220 compacts down in front of Bucky. One was a standard 6+1 capacity, the other had the adapter already installed and had the 8+1 capacity. "I can also do a fair amount of customization if you like but anything really unique I'll have to charge extra."

Not that there was a police force to speak of in Gehenna, but it was still better not to be connected to anything someone else might decide to get up to.

"You have to know though," he said, finally meeting Bucky's eyes. "No such thing as final here. You blow a man's head off down here and he'll just appear in the hospital tomorrow like nothing happened. Maybe you need a different tactic if you're having a problem with somebody."

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freezerburn
2021-02-26 02:53 am UTC (link)

"Final doesn't exist in a situation like purgatory," Bucky said. He rocked back on his heels as he examined the guns visually. He knew what they'd feel like—knew the exact specifications, knew what the weight would be in either hand. Kick harder to ignore in the flesh hand, and easier to forget in the metal one. He rubbed at his metal wrist for a moment, wrinkling his nose. He didn't need unique; he didn't even need the gun. He could make do with his arm and let that be it for most people; he wasn't worried about it.

He dropped his flesh hand and reached out, picking up the one with the adapter. Functional, plus an extra few bullets. He didn't point the gun at Jason, but at the floor. He also didn't get his finger anywhere near the trigger, because regardless of all the people who thought Bucky Barnes was a bull in the china shop of life, he knew his weapons.

He didn't shoot it, because he didn't have to. He knew what it would do, knew it would behave exactly as he expected. He set it back down and nodded. "The adapter. Do you have an M1941 Johnson?" A rifle, and Bucky'd used that before he'd ever had the metal arm. Used it with the cold efficiency he'd had even before HYDRA had turned him into worse than a military man.

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abetterbatman
2021-02-26 03:26 am UTC (link)

None of the guns on display were loaded, this wasn't Jason's first day after all, but he did appreciate that Bucky clearly knew proper etiquette. He wasn't so concerned about getting shot and robbed, but he did have concerns about somebody putting holes in his walls that didn't need to be there, or accidentally shooting themselves. He was trying to get as much as he could out of the carpets before he had to replace them, blood was just so obnoxious to clean.

"Not in the antiques business." He said, tilting his head to the side, keeping a close eye on Bucky's expression. Something was off about all this, Jason just couldn't put his finger on exactly what. "Most of the old timers want the newest rifle they can get their hands on so that's what I keep on hand, or they want the much older enchanted pistols but that's something else entirely. I have a few semi-autos if you're in the market for a rifle, but if this a sentimental thing I could find something in the WW2 era."

Maybe this was all just sentimental. No one really needed weapons down here, it was either about causing somebody temporary pain or it was about feelings. Either feelings of safety or feelings of nostalgia. A man like the Winter Soldier, Jason had to figure it was something to do with needing that familiarity.

"Or we could just stop fucking around and you could tell me what's going on here." He said, bending to put the regular compact back in the case. Once that was done he leaned against the counter a little. "You were giddy enough to spill your guts online about your past and what you've been through, gotta figure if you were into hurting people for the sake of it you woulda let that slip too. It's unlikely you're working a job because you're still new and most of the long-timers know I'm the man to see about that. So, just between you, me and the Sauer, what's up, comrade?"

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freezerburn
2021-02-26 03:43 am UTC (link)

Bucky went eerily still, for a split-second. He tipped his head to the side, then, and he said, in an even, pleasant tone, "Call me comrade again and I swear to you, I will throw you through your own window." It wasn't a threat so much as a response, and an honest one at that.

He pointed to the gun on the counter. "I'm not here for the gun, not really. I mean, I can make use of it, but it isn't really what I'm here for. I need a job, and I figured 'hire me because I'm just as good as you are' wasn't the best way to get it." Bucky wasn't willing to say he was better than anyone here, not until he'd fought them, but he was more than willing to bet he could match anybody else.

"I have skills that make me... let's say 'uniquely qualified'. I know what I'm doing with every weapon in this room, except maybe the bows and arrows. Crossbows, though, those I can do with my right hand tied behind my back and a blindfold on."

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abetterbatman
2021-02-26 04:03 am UTC (link)

That was something he was going to keep in his back pocket for later, he already added it to the growing list of facts about Bucky Barnes he had started in his head. Maybe he was thinking like Bruce again but sometimes the old man wasn't completely wrong. Still he put up his hands and lowered his chin to show that he meant no real harm in his little attempt to poke the not-Russian bear. "You could probably do it too, but I'm not interested in a fight, at least not without my armor and certainly not here."

'As good as you are' would have been an interesting tactic but he understood why it wasn't ideal. Confidence was one thing but his history implied that he was at least good at what he did. He and Jason did different things though, at least in theory. He would have to look into that later if the man really was going to stick around.

"Eh, maybe older style bows would be beyond you, but these days it's all compound bows. Any idiot in a trucker hat could be deadly with one." He hoped somewhere Roy Harper found himself irrationally angry and didn't know why. Maybe Ollie too. Fuck Oliver Queen. "But no, I get that you're deadly. Figured that out by the way you walked in here. Also, you know, the metal arm. You get that this isn't just about selling a few weapons here and there, right? I tend to talk most idiots out of buying anything and offer them my services instead. Most of the time the only people who end up getting hurt are the people who deserve it. So it's not your skill I'm all that concerned with, it's your judgement. Your moral compass or the fuck ever you wanna call it. It's gotta be aligned to true north and all that."

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freezerburn
2021-03-01 05:02 am UTC (link)

"I've fired a few, but they haven't been entirely successful." Bucky flexed his metal fingers, considering. "I would imagine I could probably shoot them straighter now, but..." He shrugged a shoulder. "Not really as concerned with that as with doing what I need to do."

He drew a deep breath, straightening his shoulders. How to describe true north, without making it clear that Bucky knew right where it was because of what HYDRA had done, what they'd taken away, what his life had become for seventy hellish years? How did he define his moral compass without being too dramatic, or putting this guy off?

Finally, he said, "I came back in from the cold. I figured out who I was trying to kill, what he meant to me, so I stopped. I saved him from a crashing helicarrier, pulled him out of the river, and I vanished. I stayed gone for a really long time. I set up camp in Romania. In Bucharest. And I stayed there, and I didn't do anything. I didn't hunt down anyone. Until the hunt came for me, and then things changed."

He flexed his hand, frowning down at the black metal. "But I didn't refuse to go after the people who hurt me because I felt bad for them. I didn't do it because killing them would have been perpetuating the stereotype of what they built me to be. A killer who acted without thought against anyone I was pointed at." He closed his fist and looked back up. "I know where right is, and I know where wrong is, and I sure as hell know how to navigate the space between."

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abetterbatman
2021-03-01 05:58 pm UTC (link)

Jason listened, knowing truth when he heard it, but also knowing there was far more that Bucky wasn't telling him. That was fine, he could keep those secrets until Jason needed to know them. As long as nothing followed him to Gehenna everything would be fine. It seemed like he wouldn't have to work too hard to get them anyway, the guy was clearly very fond of sharing. To be fair, so was he on certain topics. It was a wonder he didn't mention his death and resurrection a few dozen times a week.

He clicked his tongue, pretending to take some time considering hiring Bucky. He made snap decisions, it wasn't always a good thing but he knew better than to dally or waste time on second guessing himself in the moment. He'd decided to hire him on as soon as he'd asked for a job, if only so he could keep a closer eye on him if he needed to. But a guy like him, if he was willing to work and maybe show off that metal arm a bit more, would be good for business.

Eventually he nodded to himself and extended his hand to Bucky. "Flat rate of fifty coins a week for shop work, which doesn't sound like a lot if you're new here and didn't have to go through the currency exchange, but it's enough to be comfortable. For the rest you get everything on the jobs you work alone, if we need to work on something together we split it fifty-fifty. And you can have or use anything I get in, just don't start stockpiling, and be careful with the magic stuff. Fair?"

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freezerburn
2021-03-03 05:32 am UTC (link)

"Sounds good." Bucky nodded. "I don't stockpile, and magic is a little out of my comfort zone. Not entirely, but I don't know what I'm doing with it, and the thing I've learned is, if you don't know what you're doing, don't play with it."

He'd learned that a lot, actually, through several different sources, and only one of them was HYDRA.

"So when do I start, and what time do you want me here?"

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abetterbatman
2021-03-03 10:19 pm UTC (link)

"That's probably just a good way to live." He could call Constantine or visit that new magic shop if he ran into magical issues his blades couldn't handle. He vaguely remembered tacking up their numbers on the cork board in the back room but he would have to double check that, and maybe a few other things now that he wasn't going to be alone in the shop.

Jason always said he preferred to work alone but again and again he was proving that to be a lie. At least Bucky was less likely to need supervision than most of the people he'd worked with. He was fairly sure he wouldn't have to follow him around the city to make sure he didn't hurt himself or someone else.

"Saturday work for you? I've got a shipment coming in at nine that'll be quicker to deal with if I have a second pair of hands. We can make it a late morning, say about eight?" He wasn't going on patrol in Gehenna meaning he was less likely to be up all night, these days he was and on his morning exercise routine by five or six. It was an odd way to live but he was getting sleep and eating. Maybe he was smoking again but as always he was working on quitting. No one who knew him would have believed it.

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freezerburn
2021-03-07 02:12 am UTC (link)

"Saturday." Bucky nodded, tucking his hands into his pockets. He could figure out a job quick; it was one of the things they'd said was a positive trait of the Asset, a long time ago. They'd had a long trait list, and they'd sorted it into positive and negative, and like they were training a dog, they had rewarded the positives and brutally punished the negatives. And though it had been years, there were still things his hand quavered when he thought about. Still things his brain stopped just shy on.

Not always, but they were there, hidden in the back of his brain. He was getting pretty good at moving past it, though.

"Eight AM, right?" It wasn't like Bucky couldn't make it to both the morning and evening nine o'clocks, but knowing which one exactly he was supposed to be working at was sort of the whole point. Bucky didn't exactly sleep well, or for very long, but he could get himself wherever he needed to be at whatever time, exactly, he was supposed to be there.

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abetterbatman
2021-03-08 07:25 pm UTC (link)

"Eight AM." Jason nodded, "Time might not mean much down here but it helps to try to stick close to a routine." He wasn't sure how accurate the time keeping in purgatory was, apparently all the clocks were set to time at city hall but that could mean anything really. With no day cycle and no stars they could claim it was any time. He tended to think that time moved differently than the real world but that wouldn't be something he could really investigate until he found a way out.

He was still looking for a way out, sure, but that wasn't nearly as important to him as figuring this place out. If he was going to leave he was going to try to take as many as he could with him, even the troublemakers. He wasn't sure if Bucky felt the same way but he would have plenty of time in the coming days to get to know the guy better.

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