(no subject)

[deadandred]

Who: Bucky Barnes and you, probably.
Where: Around the temple
When: A few days after his arrival.
Rating G, probably
What: Exploring and getting used to people?



This place is new. That in itself is not surprising, most places he's seen these days are new, at least to him -- save for perhaps certain eastern European or Asian nations. It doesn't look new, but that doesn't bother Bucky any. He's laid low since arriving a few days ago, on the lookout for anyone he might know, or that might know him. He is less of a target, here, his magic serving to helpfully cover up that silver left arm of his, but he is still clearly recognizable as a soldier. Or ex-military, depending on the clothes he's wearing that day.

Thankfully, this new place doesn't seem to have any HYDRA operatives or other enemies that he's been able to see, so he has ventured out to look around the temple. He can be found wandering throughout the day, either poking around the temple or kitchens -- but generally he's somewhere around the fighting ring. It's familiar, even if it's not entirely necessary at the moment. (He has come to appreciate lying low, the past few months. It's a luxury rarely afforded to him.) After watching some people spar, he steps up to the ring himself, setting in to fight one or more of the dummies.

Comments

[hackedhistory]

Zari is not really a physical kind of girl, but given that she doesn't have her air totem anymore, she's got to pick up the slack somewhere. It's been a long time since she's favored her physicality over cleverness, but after their trip to Struxta, it becomes clear that she might not always have the skills to or means to use her usual life hacks.

Pun intended.

So she's trying to pick up some of the moves that she's seen Sara use in the past, but she's also reaching the climax of this stupid cold she's picked up, so one of her punches goes wide, she loses her footing, and she almost swings into a whole other person.

"Oh, God," she gasps, dropping her hands and stepping away. "I'm so sorry."

[resistivity]

( his life settles remarkably fast into a routine. he's got pages upon pages written, information about this place, the people, any past happenings he considers relevant, and. in the early morning before too many other people are up, he comes here.

the sparring ring is just a place to get used to earthbending. he loses himself in trying to master it, taking himself through the forms he once coached bolin in all those years ago. even with one arm in a sling against his body, he moves with power and surety, no hesitation. and the rocks, well.

they do what he asks.

it's not like firebending. but it's. adjacent to it. they both have the same sort of application of power, though the instinct of fire is to burn and the instinct of earth is to endure. mako shapes the earth with the movement of his body, rocks obey the curl of a fist or the outflung swipe of a foot. and he beats the absolute unholy shit out of the dummies until he's dripping sweat and the grounds of the arena are pocked like a battlefield, great spires of rock clawing up towards the sky, scattered columns littering the ground.

it's hours later when he decides he's done that he over to where he'd left a bottle of water and a towel. bucky gets a friendly smile, because mako is feeling loose and easy and maybe a little proud of the day's improvements. )

Hey, sorry about the mess. I just need something to drink, then I'll set the arena back to normal for you.

[weremongoose]

Hard not to get a soldier vibe from this man, though Barabas wonders a bit at that. Certainly the way Bucky carries himself, he'd fit right in with Jim's people. It's something in the posture, he thinks.

Barabas on the other hand, doesn't look like he's made for fighting. He's average height, built more like a dancer than a brawler (or built like a featherweight boxer), but that's deceiving. Or would be, if this strange place and its strange witch hadn't gone an interfered with his abilities -- he's quickly learning how much of his abilities were tied to his shapeshifting power back home. That's been changed now, and it's a steep learning curve. He's hanging around the ring as well, considering testing himself and finding out just how much has changed.

"You know, I've never understood the dummies," he remarks, conversationally, from nearby where he's been keeping watch. "But I suppose back home there was never a lack of sparring partners. Or actual fights." Bonus of growing up in the Pack, perhaps.

[valuedstrength]

Steve is too tired to train. Crazy as it sounds, his sickness is eating away at his strength. He just needs to catch his breath so he doesn't pass out on the floor. Again. Right now he's in the kitchen nursing some coffee and soup. It tastes weird together, but the warmth is doing him some good. He sees Bucky out of the corner of his eye, but pays it no mind. He's sick. To be fair, he sees things even when he isn't sick. The past is less a memory than a living thing that keeps creeping up on him.

Being sick inevitably makes him think of Bucky. What disturbs Steve is when he looks up again and the man is still there. He isn't the Bucky of the 40s even if he has both arms. The hair is too long. No, he's getting confused. He makes an effort to hold his coffee steady and not drop it to check his head. He is sporting a slight fever, but Steve didn't think it was this bad. He never was the best judge though as Bucky may or may not remember.

"Wake up, Rogers." He says to himself. Steve can't tear his eyes away even if this can't be healthy to stare at what you think is your hallucinated bff who tried to kill you recently.

[sassy_assassin]

As he steps up to fight, Sara nears the end of her practice. She has been focusing on hand-to-hand techniques with the dummies—quite capably. While she may not have the depth of experience that Bucky does, her skill level is extremely high, and she's completely in the zone. Which means when she kicks a dummy head directly toward him, she doesn't notice until it's too late.

"Watch out!"

if I'm not too late...!!

[cadeuces]

It's his bearing more than anything that gives him away, at least to someone who has worked with as many soldiers as she has, and she's quite sure she's not seen him around yet. She's good with faces and has done her best to keep an eye on everyone they were traveling with, whether she'd met them or not. Perhaps he's simply that stealthy.

Just not right now, it seems.

He might recognize her if he's poked around the particular corner of the temple she's been fussing in, building up what will hopefully be a permanent nook of an infirmary, stripping and boiling linens into bandages all while downing cup after cup of coffee, but this time it's Angela who finds the soldier near the fighting ring.

Don't mind her; she's only here for some herbs she thought she could track down. A girl's gotta experiment, after all. This isn't 2076 with all the world's bleeding edge technology at her fingertips, and she has no proper lab or access to the internet to order something necessary, no matter how far in the middle of nowhere she had been.

Except when we say "don't mind her", it's probably hard to ignore the way she eventually stops to watch him, gathering basket at her hip and a little smile on her face. It's familiar, watching him. She used to be part of an organization where there were men like him doing just this.

"Not going to find a partner?"