Tina Cohen-Chang. (queent) wrote in valloic, @ 2021-07-05 13:00:00 |
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Entry tags: | !: action/thread/log, ₴ inactive: bucky barnes, ₴ inactive: tina cohen-chang |
Sure enough, one by one the insanity started to vanish. Things went back to normal. Tina didn’t worry at first when she didn’t. It was going to be an extra-long trip for her, that was fine. But that calmness didn’t last. Eventually, it became very clear that most of the wishes were done. A few still remained, from what she could tell. But the ones that did were ones that weren’t terrible.
Some people would classify gaining powers as not terrible. But Tina had always been very, very, very human. There was nothing special about her and she had managed to survive nearly a decade in a world of insanity like that. She knew who she was in this place, and she was secure in that. She had somehow managed to find her place. Some people might like getting powers, but Tina did not. It upturned her entire life. She’d managed to break so many things recently, from doors to her cellphone, to her dishes. She’d been nervous all through her classes for fear that she might damage something in front of students, or accidentally hurt someone. It had been fine because it wasn’t going to last.
But now it was lasting. Which was why Tina found herself at Bucky and Nyx’s house, gingerly knocking on their door and praying Bucky was home.
Bucky was well aware that something was going on. By now, the latest Vallo shenanigan was seemingly reverting back to normal and, yet, whenever he checked in with Tina, she remained the same - a super soldier. She was faster, stronger, healed quicker...and while a very large part of Bucky was relieved about this because that meant that she was less breakable than normal, he knew she was upset about the whole ordeal. More so, as time passed and everything else went back to normal.
There was a very real possibility that she might never, by this point, and he had no idea how to comfort her about it. Except, he had no choice, because when he heard the knocking on his door, he knew who it was.
Opening the door, he smiled at Tina, hoping other than the obvious, that nothing was wrong. “Hey,” he said, opening the door wider so she could come in. “You know you don’t have to knock, the door will let you in.” All of their family members had the same deal. The tech and the magic that protected this house allowed their loved ones free access to the house. “What’s up?”
Sometimes you didn’t want to just walk into a house, you never knew what you might walk in on. Not that she was doing a great job at rational thinking at the moment. She mostly ignored that part of what he was saying because that was not the important part.
“It’s still here. she said, holding out her hands as she stepped through the doorway, as if this was something can be seen. “It’s not going away, Bucky. Most people are back to normal and this is still here. It’s supposed to be temporary, they’re always temporary.” Never once had any sort of powers stuck around long term. She always found her way back to her human self, with her very human skillset.
What if she really was like an actual super soldier now? She wasn’t meant to be anything other than human. Her world didn’t have anything otherwise, and she was good with that. “What if it’s just somehow changed my DNA because it just chose to, and there’s nothing I can do about it?”
She hadn’t signed up for this. She hadn’t even had it forced on her like Bucky had, it was just magically there, with no explanation and she hated it.
Okay, so Tina was spiraling a bit. Bucky knew what to do in this situation, had been through it countless times with the kids over their multiple universe jumps. Had gone through it himself, occasionally. So he held out his hands and gestured to the living room. “Come on, sit down,” he said, instead of addressing anything she had just said, for the moment. “Let me get you some water and we’ll talk, yeah?”
He waited until she was agreeable to the idea, before leaving her in the living room to make herself comfortable. It wasn’t long before he returned, with a pitcher of cold water and two glasses, as well as some cookies. Conversations like this always did better with food.
When he had everything settled and they both had some water in their hands, he said, “Alright, so we’re afraid this is permanent. Can’t do anything about it, so let’s figure out what’s so bad about it, yeah?”
She followed Bucky’s suggestion, heading into the living room, but she didn’t sit down as he went off to the kitchen. It felt like she was crawling out of her skin. Whatever this transition was from her normal self to magically induced super-solider, she could feel the difference. The strength she didn’t normally have, the lack of aches and pains she would normally have. She felt foreign in her own body and she did not like it.
When Bucky came back, with the water and cookies, she forced herself to sit down, accepting the glass of water. Having something in her hand might help, at least she handled glasses just fine again, as long as she didn’t let herself get too stressed. “What’s bad about it is that it’s not me,” she said, looking down at the glass in her hand. “The world I come from doesn’t have things like super-soldiers, or aliens, as far as I know, or other supernatural creatures. I’ve managed to survive for nearly a decade in these places just being me.” And now she wasn’t herself, she was something different.
Bucky would not lie. The thought of Tina permanently having enhanced strength and healing made him relieved. Whenever something happened, his worried thoughts were always on her. She was the most breakable out of all of them and one of his deepest connections. Tina was his little sister and the thought that she could throw a tank to defend herself if she needed to, was great.
What was less great was how she felt. "I know what it's like to have your very being changed at a fundamental level without your consent," Bucky explained, reaching out to put a hand on hers over that glass. It was a delicate balance. "The only thing that made it something I could deal with was my family and friends, just being there for me whenever I needed them. That and time, Tina."
“I liked me the way I was.” she said dejectedly. She’d worked really hard to get there. Living for years as the breakable one could give you serious self-confidence issues, but she had found a place where she was happy with who she was, and now what the hell was even the point of all of that work.
She knew what it was that was happening to her was nothing like what happened to Bucky. Not even close. The two weren’t comparable. “I did time. I did time accepting that I was a very normal person surrounded by a whole lot of extraordinary and I finally became good with myself and knew I wasn’t just a walking liability.” She set down the water glass before she got herself worked up again and gripped it too hard. Tina stood up, unable to really sit still at the moment.
“What if it isn’t permanent. What if it isn’t genetic. If it was caused by magic, maybe the magic can be removed.”
“I like every version of you, Tina, but I get it. This isn’t an easy change to deal with when you were happy with who you were before,” Bucky said, very much recalling the first time coming out of the fog of the Winter Soldier programming and realizing he was changed. Some days, he still forgot his arm was gone and replaced by a piece of very fancy tech.
“Okay, say it’s magic that’s responsible. Do we want to go to someone and see if they can reverse it? Or a scientist to see if your genetic material was fucked with?”
She stopped pacing, leaning back against a free space on the wall to first stare out the window, trying to organize her thoughts in the files, lists, and order she usually functioned on. She knew she was venting, and that it was going to get exactly nowhere. “I’m sorry, I know you get it, and this doesn’t compare what you went through.”
Did she want someone poking around her blood sample to see if it was different? Kind of, she didn’t think that posed any risk if something in it was altered, but she wasn’t sure. “I don’t know. Is that dangerous? Would you let someone poke at your blood?” The magic part was easier. “Checking for magic couldn’t hurt, right?”
"Not a competition to see who has the shittier situation," Bucky said immediately, eyebrows raised at her. "Your feelings on this are just as valid." Therapy had done him some good.
Chugging the drink in his hand and reaching for more water, he mused, "Me? Personally? Probably not. I've had too many evil scientists in my life to be comfortable with that. But you don't have the same traumas I do so that's up to you. I do trust Doc McCoy though, who would be a good candidate given his background in mutation. The magic thing I'm less confident in."
“I didn’t mean it like that. I just-” she really had no idea what she meant, it just seemed important to point out that she was aware that there were a lot worse ways to be screwed with. Taking a deep breath, she shook her head and decided she wasn’t going to be able to figure out the right words at the moment.
She knew who Doctor McCoy was, he worked out of STAR Labs, he was with Katherine Pierce, which in a way kind of made Tina twitchy out of solidarity for Tyler. At least it wasn’t the same Katherine. Or she didn’t think. But there was no point in complicating things.
Maybe if they promised to destroy the sample when they were done. “No, I don’t. But you probably wouldn’t want your blood hanging around in a lab for a good reason, right? Why are you less confident in the magic part?”
“Mind control bullshit residue, you know? Magic can be used to take over someone like that too and so I’m wary of it. That and magic has been controlling our lives for a decade now, sending us back and forth between universes,” Bucky explained, reaching for a cookie now. Talking about serious shit always made him hungry. “The only magic I fully trust is Nyx’s. If he can vouch for it, I’ll give it a shot. But if it’s his? Without question.”
Tina didn’t have quite the same feeling when it came to magic as Bucky. Yes, it had played the starring role of causing chaos in their life, but that wasn’t everyone with magic. She also had much less trauma regarding people messing with her, so that made a difference. “Can Nyx sense magic? Or would he be able to tell if I was still spelled or something?” She was only somewhat familiar with how Nyx’s powers worked, and had never asked too many questions.
“Maybe? His kind of magic is very intuitive, so there’s a good chance he could? We can ask him, see if it’s a possibility,” Bucky said, getting up and approaching Tina. “So how about we make that step number two. Step number one is sit down and have some of these cookies. I didn’t bake them, so you won’t die.”
What she wanted to do was go find Nyx, and if he couldn’t sense anything, go find someone else, and maybe message Doctor McCoy as well, and hope someone could give her a solid answer. She watched Bucky warily as he approached, before her shoulders slouched in defeat. “You’re really going to push the cookies aren’t you?” She knew he was just doing his job as the big brother of the family, and she was being massively impatient and wanted all of her answers immediately.
“I just want you to take a minute to go over your options and make decisions you won’t regret later.” It was so easy to give up blood or have some do magic to you when you were panicking over something. It was harder to take it back, after the fact, if you changed your mind later. “So, yes, cookies. Sit and eat and tell me what else is going on in your life, yeah?”
Why were brothers so incredibly annoying sometimes with their wisdom and advice. Ugh. “Fine.” she finally gave in, pushing off the wall and heading back to her original spot on the couch. She reached for her water with one and a cookie with another, before sitting back and crossing her legs in front of her on the couch to get comfortable. “The only other thing happening in my life is auditions for the Adams Family, and this theatre only ever thinks I’m good for playing old hags who don’t sing and supporting characters, which means there’s probably nothing happening in my life.”