WHO: Mr. Mistoffelees & Bucky Barnes WHEN: February 5th WHERE: FNRB WHAT: Mr. Mistoffelees arrives in Tumbleweed and basically plays 20 questions with Bucky Barnes. TRIGGERS: No
______________
He didn't understand.
When he'd disappeared, his final bout of theatricality while all of his brethren had their eyes cast upon him, he'd reappeared precisely where he'd intended to; as though his magic was actually at his command and being wielded like a master. It was a nice, confident boost to emerge from the end of the junkyard back towards the tribe, smile on his face and seeing his leader safely among the number. There'd been no swirl of blue light so he knew that whatever he'd just come out of was not an accident from a failed vanishment. It must be something else. And he couldn't recall anything past his gaze being focused upon Old Deuteronomy.
Had he been chosen?
Was this what it felt like to be reborn and come to a new Jellicle life?
He turned, spotting someone across the way. He stilled. If this was a new Jellicle life, he'd be unable to see, would he not? He frowned. Perhaps they misunderstood some of the mechanics. Perhaps new memories of a new life would become more apparent as time went on. He gazed upon the man, backing away from him, and in doing so, he caught sight of his own movement. His coloring was off...eyes cast down.
The frown grew larger.
Gaze shot back up towards the man, confusion displayed visibly but he dared not speak yet.
Arrivals had started to become fairly routine for Bucky. Usually there were two types: the ones who freaked out and then the fighters. Less common was a third type: the free-of-clothing. As the alarm flourished its warning of a new arrival, Bucky was braced for one of the first two types. What he was greeted with was, as luck would have it, the third type.
Bucky exhaled, releasing a sigh as he grabbed the emergency clothing kit before heading for the portal room. He was about to offer the beginning of the tried and true Fort Neill script, but recognized the look in the newly-arrived man’s eyes as something swiftly approaching panic. He raised his hands to show he wasn’t here for a fight.
“Relax. I’m going to give you clothes, okay?”
His brows came together. In the quick glimpse at himself, he'd been able to recognize that, well, he wasn't exactly as he expected. If this was the new life, this made sense, but he wasn't supposed to come back as anything but a cat, was he? And he knew, it was sinking in rather swiftly, that he wasn't one.
He was human.
And the man was speaking to him. Humans did speak to his kind regularly but they never expected to be spoken back to. He wondered...
"Clothes," he repeated, hearing the word perfectly fine in a language he understood but had never spoke. His face seemed to look even more distraught from the sound of his own voice. "Clothes...like yours?"
Patience wasn’t really one of Bucky’s virtues, but he found he could exercise it as needed. Afterall, when he’d arrived, he’d thrown down with the portal guards. That this man wasn’t seemed to indicate that as kind an approach as he could manage was best.
“Like mine,” Bucky replied with a nod, trying his best for an unoffending cadence. He lowered his hands slowly and held out the fabric items. A shirt, a pair of sweats. The most generic type of underwear that could suit a range of bodies -- perhaps not well, but adequately enough for the interim.
His eyes dropped to the items in his hands and his brows came together. "These look strange," he told him. The family he'd stayed with hadn't ever worn such garments. He gave a heavy sigh before stepping forward to reach out and take the items.
Once in hand, he held them, thinking back to times he'd seen the family put on clothing. The pants made the most sense and so those were what he went to step into first, bypassing the underwear entirely. He made an immediate face of discomfort before holding the shirt out in front of him, turning it a few times, as if he wasn't sure how it was supposed to work. "There's no buttons."
There was a thought to correct the order or operations here, but who was Bucky to judge a man’s choice to go commando? Besides, more pressing was the fact that this guy didn’t seem to get how a t-shirt worked.
“Arms through the big opening in the bottom, find the arm holes, then pull it down.” That was enough to go on, right? “They don’t have these where you’re from?” A possibility. The man was speaking and understanding English, but who the hell knew what his world was like.
"Arms through the big hole..." He repeated, turning it once more, before following the instruction as it was given to him. As soon as he had it on, he made the face once again. "I don't like this," he mumbled, more to himself, before shaking his head in disagreement with the entire circumstance.
He glanced to the man once again. "I've never seen the family wear these," he explained, before moving his hands up to brush down his hair. It felt uncomfortable sticking up in the way it was, like someone had brushed his fur in the wrong direction.
"Was I chosen?" He asked. Perhaps the man would know. Was it possible for a human to know?
Bucky raised a brow at the first answer, wondering to himself if the dislike was about the shirt or the clothes as a whole. He shelved the thought for now, assuming that the man’s family must have pushed a different sort of fashion if this was beyond his comfort.
“Chosen? In a way, sure.” Bucky offered a shrug. “That portal behind you decided it was your lucky day. I’m Bucky. You are?”
"Oh," Mistoffelees seemed disappointed by that answer. He hadn't actually thought he was eligible to be chosen. He had so much more he had wanted to do before his next life. The disappointment didn't seem to go away and his frown was growing but then he blinked, looking to Bucky with a confused look. "No. If I was chosen, it would have been Old Deutronomy's doing. He is the only one who chooses who ascends."
What was a Portal anyway? He turned to look over his shoulder. The blue lights? He looked back to Bucky. "I don't know my new name. Does the...Portal give you new names?"
Ascends? Wait --
“Wait. You think this is the afterlife? You’re not dead, kid, trust me.” Bucky stepped back slightly, waving his arm in a beckoning way and hoping the new arrival would follow. So far he seemed to be doing well on not freaking out entirely, which meant this could go smoothly. “And your old name is fine. So what’m I calling you?”
"Well, no..." He went to begin but he stopped himself. If the man didn't know about the ritual, and thought he was referring to the final life, then did it matter? It either was not that he'd been chosen or this man was unfamiliar with the ways of the Jellicles. It could be both.
He hesitated for a second before speeding up his steps, coming very close up beside Bucky. "Do you want the family name? It's the human one." He paused, making a dissatisfied face at the idea. "No. You said my old name is fine. Does this mean I can use whichever one I like best?"
The quick presence at his side made Bucky start only slightly -- nearly imperceptible to most, as he did still retain his spy training despite a lull in using it. At least compliance was happening. That should make the doc’s job easier once they reached that step of things.
“Ah… sure. Whatever name you like best.” A human name? Was that meant to distinguish it from a non-human one? “People around here are gonna need to know what to call you. If you prefer a nickname, that’s good enough for me.”
This was the first thing that Bucky had said that summoned a smile from the other man. In fact, he grinned widely before nodding his head. He extended a hand out to Bucky, coming to a stop to do so. This was what humans did, was it not? They shook hands. "Then please call me the Magical Mr. Mistoffelees!"
That was not how Bucky envisioned this panning out. He stopped just a half second after the other man had, trying to get a read on if this was a joke. The earnest smile and offered hand seemed to suggest it wasn’t. He reminded himself that he was here to help with the transition to Tumbleweed, which meant not outright asking what the fuck kind of name that was.
“The, uh… the whole thing?” Bucky took the hand and shook it, hoping the cool metal of his cybernetic arm wouldn’t alarm the Magical Mr. Mistoffelees.
"Mistoffelees will do," he said, still smiling widely. He gave Bucky's hand a squeeze, shaking it as he'd seen the family do many times before, and having never shaken a hand before, he didn't think anything of the coolness. Everything he touched now was bound to be cool, was it not? "Do you have more to your name? The family name?"
Mistoffelees was still a mouthful, but Bucky pocketed that one for now. “Barnes,” Bucky replied, taking a shot in the dark at what was being asked. “Bucky Barnes.” It was lackluster in comparison, but Bucky wasn’t about to get into personal details beyond that much.
Bucky turned, clapping Mistoffelees on the shoulder and giving him a quick head nod to indicate that they were going to keep this moving along.
Mistoffelees nodded his head in recognition of the name. It flowed well and was sensible like he expected of most human names. He didn't seem to flinch or mind the hand being placed on his shoulder to guide him, allowing himself to be stirred ahead.
"Have you always been human? Or is it that the Portal makes everyone human? And where did these clothes come from? They aren't common in London," he explained, as he was feeling more comfortable as they shock wore off. Or at least, knowing that Bucky was willing to provide answers.
Okay, there it was. This wouldn’t be the first time the Portal had taken someone non-human and fitted them with a very human body. That would explain a little about the human name and maybe even about the family name…
“Me? Always been human. Sounds like you weren’t before now. That happens sometimes, couldn’t tell you why.” When they reached the medical examination room, Bucky gave a short gesture for Mistoffelees to head in first. “You’re in Texas now. United States of America. Hop up on the table, alright? I gotta let the doc on duty know you’re here.”
"So you've always been Bucky Barnes." This was less of a question and more of an understanding for Mistoffelees. If there'd been any chance Bucky had once been of the feline persuasion, it was put to bed now. He'd doubted it, of course, since he'd not known of the ascension but perhaps others had arrived and been forced to be human. "That is right. I'm brand new as a human."
He headed inside and did as instructed, leaping up onto the table, pulling his legs up and pressing his knees against his chest, arms wrapping around them. "America!" He gasped. "If one ever travels with their family out of the Country, it is rare they return, but I've heard tales before. Texas is part of the Frontier?" He paused, "A physician? What for?"
It was sounding more and more like this Mistoffelees might’ve been someone’s pet. That narrowed choices down, but Bucky -- possibly out of being sure the answer wouldn’t really help him to know -- left it at that. He paused at the door, giving the curled-up form of the new arrival a quick survey.
“Texas is part of the south. Don’t think anyone’s talked about any frontiers for a long time… kid.” It was an easier grab to just settle on ‘kid’ than ‘Mistoffelees’. “And the doc’s for making sure you’re healthy and fit to leave this place. You, uh… you ever been to a vet?”
"How long?" Tales of the frontier were quite popular from Mistoffelees recollection. It seemed as though many children were in love with the Wild West. He shook his head back and forth. "No, I don't know any cat who has. Well, possibly the twins, but that's because they come from a wealthy family. Victoria Grove and all." He shrugged his shoulders lightly before saying, "I know about physicians though. I understand the human ways." A beat. "Is it common for some to be unhealthy when they show here?"
A cat. Based on the way Mistoffelees was perched on the exam table, that checked out. Bucky guessed it was just as well that he got the former cat, and then spared a small gratitude for the fact that other cat behaviors hadn’t taken the forefront. Hiding under furniture, clawing. This could’ve been worse.
“Over a hundred years, easily. Sit tight. The doc’s just gonna give you a once-over and then make sure you keep healthy around here. I’ll be right back.” Bucky stalled just a moment, waiting to see if there was any change in what appeared to be a very understanding, overly mellow acceptance.
Mistoffelees nodded to Bucky in response to the commands while he was left to contemplate how much time had passed since the night before. That was well beyond the nine lives a Cat could live, wasn't it? He'd slipped off the table after Bucky left the room, moving around the room to examine the entire place, taking note of what artifacts of the human world looked familiar and which looked entirely new.
And once the doctor had finished the exam, he turned to Bucky. "Do we leave now?"
“You’ll need your identification card and a few other things before you get to the exit. Gonna be a little longer.” And that almost meant hunkering down for a few life lessons in being a human, Bucky knew. The doctor on staff had at least run through some basics, but that was more about how Tumbleweed was comprised of similar Portal arrivals. Did cats even understand keys? There were a bunch of things Bucky hadn’t ever considered working into the welcome wagon speech.
Bucky looked around, sighting one of the chairs in the room and moving to it. He swung it around and sat on it backwards, arms folded atop the back support.