kore_logs | [insert dated Frozen joke here]

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[insert dated Frozen joke here]

Who: Bucky Barnes and OPEN
Where: around some of the sketchier, dingier labs
When: Day 208
What: Bucky wakes up from one of those dreams where you feel like you're falling.
Warnings: the topic of death may arise

Bucky starts awake on the cold, hard ground of a dark lab in his uniform, foot knocking over a metal stool. As he comes to, he knows that it was just a dream, just like those countless dreams he's had of falling where he wakes up with the sensation still going strong.

He pushes himself up on his elbows in the dark, but what few details he can make out in the dark aren't the ones he's expecting. Shaking his head, he climbs to his feet and moves towards the one source of light in the room--a door with a small wire mesh safety-glass window set in it.

As he moves towards it, he knocks over equipment in the dark, jumping at the sound of glass breaking and metal clanging until he slips out into the bright, fluorescent lights of the hall.

He starts to move through the still halls with apprehension. Was he captured again?

"Hello?"

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Natalie's been keeping herself in the work station, mostly helping Tony out with his projects, grateful for the company and the chance to keep her hands busy, especially when the Machine clearly does not want anyone to go without sleep. It's impossible for her to find any sleep in a place like this.

Now by herself, she's fiddling with a printed circuit board, familiarizing herself with its parts and how one differs from the other. Motherboard, daughtercard, expansion board ...

The noise, as faint as it is from where she sits on a work table, catches her attention and she pokes her head out the door, looking left, then right, discovering a figure emerging from another laboratory further down the hall.

"Hey," she says hesitantly, still firmly standing in this room. "You lost? 'Cause I hate to tell you there's no method to the madness of this place. And by that, I mean there's no map."

He stops suddenly, his first thought that he's been caught in his escape, but when she's less than hostile, he stops to give her an appraising look.

"What is this place?"

It's probably not smart to admit that he doesn't know, but it's easier than stumbling around blindly in unknown territory, right? He hasn't seen any windows yet, so he's guessing they might even be under ground right now.

There's little intimidating about this particular teenage girl except for that very serious look on her face that never seems to leave.

"Cape Kore, uh, the science center. You've been brought here like the rest of us, assuming that you've just arrived, though you do look kind of confused about the whole thing," Natalie prattles on, "but so am I, honestly. I don't have this place figured out at all."

He doesn't like the idea of being stuck in a science center. It sends his mind reeling back to things he'd rather not think too much on, so he tries to set that piece of information aside.

"You know who's in charge?"

But maybe not entirely, because he has to know.

"Negative," she sighs, rubbing her forehead.

"Some Machine but that's all anyone will say and I am assuming that's all anyone knows. There used to be scientists here but they're apparently gone," Natalie continues.

"Do you need, like, any assistance? Are you hurt, I mean?"

"I'm not hurt, no."

With a smile, he holds out his hand. "Sergeant Barnes."

If she's going to be friendly, he can be friendly right back. There's no sense in being rude to a cute girl.

"Natalie Goodman," Natalie replies, instantly blushing the moment he smiles at her. Oh god, girl, get it together.

It takes her a moment to realize that he's holding his hand out to her and she does finally shake his hand firmly. "Sergeant," she adds with an amused little lilt to her voice. "I. Um. I'm not too familiar with the layout, like, I just got here recently. But I can try to answer any questions. It sucks, like, showing up here all of a sudden."

Leo is still lacking in the sensory department as he wanders the halls, still intent on either find a way out or at least find Tony's lab so he can talk to the guy about that nanotech stuff he was going on about. He needs to know more about it before they get into anything, mostly because he's just curious, but also to have something to tide him over until the machine actually gives his senses back, however that works. And that's assuming Tony's tech would even work the way Leo needs to it to, or can even be implemented in a halfway decent time frame. It's been, like, two days already, and he still isn't getting used to it.

Then the guy comes out of one of the rooms, and wow, does he ever look out of place. So of course, Leo decides to approach him.

"Yo! You like you've been to one heck of a party," he comments. "Why wasn't I invited? Or was it just lost in the mail?"

Bucky turns on his heel. The smartass routine is hardly a new approach for him. This place is strange, potentially enemy territory, but he somehow has just enough of his wits about him to give as good as he gets.

"What kind of party do you throw in dark labs?"

He stays where he is, keeping his distance in case he has to bolt.

“Only the best, obviously. With, like, black lights and questionable drinks and everything.”

What black lights? He doesn’t know and that’s beside the point, anyway. But thankfully, he isn’t on fire as he takes a few steps closer, careful to stay just far enough away in case he does go up in flames. Giving the guy a once-over, Leo comments, “Looks like you might’ve had one too many of those questionable drinks last night.”

Another time and place and Bucky might toss back a joke, but he didn't just wake up in a strange woman's bed here. He woke up in a strange science lab. That seems like more than a few too many drinks.

"Can't really say that I'm sure I know how I got here."

"Welcome to the club. Seems like no one does, aside from 'the machine'," he says with a roll of his eyes. Leo still has his doubts on that, but then, it did take away one of his most crucial senses one way or another. You'd think it was some sort of god, though, the way they talk about it here. It's kind of annoying.

He looks around almost nervously.

"The machine?" Sounds pretty ominous to Bucky. As if this place wasn't uncomfortable enough on its own.

"Yep, the machine," Leo confirms with a nod. "Don't ask me, but everyone blames it for pretty much everything that happens around here. And it did take my sense of touch, so there's enough standing evidence for me."

"Sorry, your sense of touch? Were you dosed with something?" Some sort of nerve poison, maybe? What else could do that?

His eyes widen, eyebrows hopping up in surprise. "I... I don't know. I hadn't thought of that. Everyone just says it's the machine." It's a good point, though. Who's to say the machine can't strike back that way? And he doesn't have any ambrosia or nectar on him to see if that would fix it, either.

Christine is so, so hungry by now. She's not exactly done well in the kitchen - only managed to find oddities she hopes aren't meant to be food, but she's got to eat something. She's on her way there - walking slowly, now, to save her strength - when she hears the clanging and the door opening to the hall. Turning around, she sees the man in uniform and hopes that he was the only source of that noise.

"What happened in that room?"

"Kicked a couple of things."

He's not sure if he should hope he did or didn't break anything, since he's still got no clue whether this place is friendly or not, so he's just going to set the thought aside for later. If it turns out it is enemy territory, he's trashing a lot more than a few glasses, though.

Getting your bearings wasn't easy when the place often changed - when the hallways moved. It wasn't much of a deterrent, not when you were determined to either find something about the place or something new.

It seemed that today would land on the something new part. Maria had seen some of the labs before - she'd been to Bruce's and had found another when the blobs had attacked, but these ones looked a little different - either disused or not used for the same sorts of science.

Regardless of the reason she quickly discovered she wasn't alone, the voice echoing down the hallway as the man moved through them. A turn around the next corner brought Maria to the hall with the man. He was about halfway down but knew who he was.

Barnes. The Winter Soldier.

But there was something off about it - a few things. Things that she wanted to say meant that he was from an earlier point - that he was still Bucky Barnes. He had his old uniform on and there was no metal arm in sight. That and the way he carried himself... she'd take a guess, and quickly duck if she was wrong.

"Sergeant Barnes?"

Hearing his name like that has him standing just a bit straighter as he turns to her. Finally, someone who might know what's going on. He wants answers.

"Ma'am." He smiles, turning up the charm that comes so naturally to him. "I'm sorry, but I don't think we've met."

He resists looking around and keeps his attention on her, but he's still trying to figure this place out.

"Do you think you could tell me where we are?"

"We haven't." And likely never would, not like this. There's so much that's going to happen to him, so much that isn't wonderful and Maria hopes that he won't have to find out. Right now he's not going to.

She'll step closer, close the gap between them a little now that she has his attention, and make it easier for them to talk. Easier in the distance aspect, at least. He has the questions that everyone has - that she had. Questions that here are not easy to answer.

"My name's Maria Hill. I'm a friend of Captain Rogers." Hopefully that would explain (for now) her familiarity with him.

"We're in a science facility. I don't know its name but there are a few others here - some that have been here a while." But no scientists, not anymore. Just a sentient machine.

Okay, so she knows Steve--or she says she does--and he'll make sure Steve can confirm that before he really believes it, because since when does Steve know attractive women other than Peggy?

"So it's our facility, then? Not a German one?"

Because if nothing else, she is clearly American and maybe this place is just some center that their army built. Still doesn't explain why he was dumped on the floor in there alone, but maybe she can explain that, too.

Bruce has had to explore other labs after the one that he'd made his home base turned into a home base for... jello monsters. The lab he'd found is nice enough as it is, but Bruce always manages to want something that he can't find in that lab, so he has to go on a supply hunt. Really, he doesn't mind; scavenging is fun and keeps him from sitting in his lab long enough to feel frustrated that he can't figure out what's keeping them here or how to escape or wish he could do some really serious science.

He figures the labs that seem to have been used less might have more supplies than the ones he's been frequenting, so he's in that area when he hears the shattering of glass and feels a vague sense of movement and life. After the incident in his own lab, he's a little more cautious, and he creeps out into the hallway holding a pipette. If needed, he can smash it and stab someone with it.

But thankfully he's more of an ask questions first type.

"Hi. Are you new?"

"Guess I must be, but I'm thinking it's this place that's new."

He can't just believe that he's been pulled from the middle of the war and stuck in... whatever this place is. It makes no sense at all. It's like he was staying still and the whole thing just popped up around him, because he's not even sure how he got here. What was he doing last? It's still so fuzzy.

Holding out his hand, he offers a smile.

"Sergeant James Barnes."

Bruce's eyebrows just about disappear into his hairline. Talk about a blast from the past, literally. It's one thing to see people he knows here, but another to see someone out of the history books. Bruce didn't do an extensive amount of research on what Steve did after he took the serum, but he read some files and knows who Bucky is, as just about most everyone who isn't culturally ignorant does.

"You're definitely not in Kansas anymore." Oh, if Bucky only knew that that might be the last of the references he'll be understanding. Bruce shakes his hand.

"Dr. Bruce Banner. You might be in for a bit of a culture shock here, Sergeant."

"Why's that? I've spent plenty of time in Europe."

And it's not as if this guy's speaking German, so that's a good sign, right? Whatever this place is, it's probably not some German center.

He's not sure what any of this has to do with the Wizard of Oz, but he assumes that it'll be explained in time. More than anything, he simply wants to know where he is and then he wants to know where Steve is.

Ha. Oh, ha. Oh, no. Bruce struggles not to laugh because it's not funny; it's pretty heartbreakingly sad, actually, but in the face of heartbreaking sadness, sometimes you have to laugh. Okay, no, that's an assholish reaction, and once that initial feeling fades away, and he looks Bucky in the eye and realizes what he's going to have to explain, he feels less like laughing.

"You're not in Europe. Sergeant, you're in the future. About seventy years into the future."

For a moment there's no reaction at all, save for an incredulous stare, because that's a load of bull if ever he heard any. That's like a line out of some pulp novel.

"How do you figure that?"

"Because I was born in 1969, for starters." Oh, no. He really doesn't want to have this conversation, and then he starts to wonder: who broke it to Steve? How? At least here, everyone's left their lives behind.

"If it helps at all, you're also not in Kansas anymore, metaphorically speaking. None of us are. We're being held here by a -- well, by a machine that wants to keep us here. An alien machine."

Tony's off doing whatever...Tony does, when trapped in a place like this, and Steve's left mostly bored because he's been here weeks and hasn't found a way out of here, yet. Not for lack of trying, but that doesn't mean anything, these days.

He takes to patrolling the halls, instead, trying to make sure that he keeps a watchful eye on what he can as that's the most important thing he can think of doing, honestly. With the kinds of things that go on here, maybe he'll be able to stop it if he's around.

And, like clockwork, he hears a clatter and crash down the hall, and starts picking up the pace, the piece of steel he'd basically peeled off a wall acting as his shield for the time being. What he expects, is Tony, probably, but what he finds-

(this can't be happening.)

Steve's whole body locks up and he stares, mute and shocked, the words dying in his throat.

"Buck?"

"Steve?"

His face breaks off into a grin in a split second. Whatever this place is, friendly or not, the two of them can get out of anything, right? They'll be okay and that doesn't have him dropping his guard, but it does set him at ease.

"I had the weirdest dream, but I can't remember most of it now."

Just the long, deep sensation of falling farther than a man could really fall.

"You figure out where we are?"

He's dreaming.

This is some kind of joke, some sort of trick, a hallucination or something played on him by this place.

He's hallucinating.

"Bucky?"

It's everything all over again, and Steve hates that he shifts his weight just a touch, prepared for him to lash out even if he's not acting like he's going to.

"Who else would I be?"

He shakes his head with a light chuckle and moves closer to his friend.

"What did they do to you? You look like you've just seen a ghost."

Leaning to the left, he peers around Steve to see if there are any clues down the way he'd come from, but the hall is empty save for a few scattered pieces of dusty furniture.

That's the question, isn't it.

Steve sucks a breath in, steadies himself as best as he can and tries not to lose his shit over his best friend who apparently doesn't know any of what happened.

"Somethin' like it," Steve agrees uneasily. He's seen a lot of weird stuff - a lot of impossible stuff, lately, and he doesn't want to think that this is one of them, but it doesn't seem any sort of possible, no matter how badly he wants it. "What do you remember?"

The question gives Bucky pause, brow furrowing. He's a little disoriented, if he's honest, and he can't quite remember what he was doing right before he woke up here.

"Were we fighting? Think I must've hit my head."

His hand comes up to his temple.

"I remember my dream better than I remember whatever was happening before I woke up."

Steve's gonna be sick. It's a passing thought, something intangible at first as he stares at Bucky mutely and tries to force his thoughts into some sort of coherency.

Think I must've hit my head.

Yeah. Gonna be sick.

Deep breaths in and out help fight back the nausea but it's a close thing.

"I think - we ought to head back to the rooms. It's- there's a long story, Buck."

Bucky frowns as it becomes more apparent that Steve just isn't okay.

"Hey, what is it? I couldn't have been out that long, right?"

He moves closer, hand going to Steve's arm to squeeze it. It's still so strange that Steve's arm is so big now. He remembers when Steve looked like a strong wind would blow him over and now... well, he's still wrapping his mind around the changes and Steve's new size doesn't make Bucky want to protect him any less. That instinct is still strong as hell.

He's not a spy - wasn't ever made for that, isn't good at it. He can hide his emotions well enough but the one person who knows him well enough to call bullshit is Bucky, always Bucky.

His hand reaches out and squeezes Steve's arm and something in him snaps; he shifts forward and curls both arms tight and hard around Bucky, holding him fiercely for a long moment while he reassures himself that it's real, he's real.

"It's a long story."

Steve's honestly scaring him a little, but he doesn't want to push for the reason when Steve seems so adamant that they go somewhere else. Maybe they're being watched here. Something is fishy, so he just hugs back and nods.

"Okay. We'll go to those rooms and you can tell me. I've got the time."

"Not like we can go anywhere."

There's the faintest note of irritation in his voice there, mostly masked by relief at the way Bucky's real, tangible. He slides back after a moment and starts down the hall again but can't help but keep checking to make sure Bucky's there. Like he expects him to vanish into thin air if he's not careful.

"Come on, it's down this way."

Following Steve is just as natural as worrying about him and Bucky doesn't put up any resistance as he follows him down the hall, practically on his side. He can't shake the feeling that something is going on that Steve just isn't telling him and he'd better get real answers when they get where they're going.

"What kind of rooms are we going to?"

"Bedroom, sort of."

More like the temporary place he's set up a sort of camp to try and figure this place out. He leads them down the hallways, only gets sort of lost once, and then opens the door for Bucky, watching every move he makes.

He doesn't want to believe it's not him, but there's this niggling doubt in the back of his mind that says it can't be, it's not possible.

Bucky knows Steve well enough to know that there are details he's leaving out--maybe entire things--but he's going to trust Steve to tell him when they're safe or to give him some clue that they're not, so while Steve is keeping a close eye on him, he's returning the favor with careful attention.

He walks into the room and turns as soon as they're both inside.

"So are you going to tell me what this is all about?"

"These days, I'm not even sure I know."

Which isn't a lie; he's got this place mostly figured out just based on what people are saying, sure, but at the same time he's honestly not quite sure if he's lost it or not. Bucky showing up seems to be a pretty good indicator that he is going at least a little crazy, these days.

"Buck, it's - I don't even know where to start."

"You could start at the beginning." He glances around at the strange surroundings. "Assuming we do have the time. I'm still not sure if this place is friendly or not."

Steve seems tense enough that they could easily really be behind enemies lines or in immediate danger. This isn't the sort of tension he's used to seeing in his friend and it's a little unnerving, because big or small Steve's always been pretty tough on the inside.

Yeah, the beginning makes sense except there's about three different ways he could go about that alone. Steve purses his lips a moment, considering it, and looks over Bucky one more time like he's having trouble believing that he's real, that he's there.

"It's - well, I wouldn't call this place friendly. Far as Tony and I can tell, everyone was dragged here, and while none of us were hurt during it, it's not harmless."

He explains what little he knows about the place, from some of the events he'd seen, to the people - not many, surprisingly. He warns him against wandering the halls, too, because Steve's wary of them and this whole place just seems wrong.

Bucky nods, interjecting benign comments, but it's at the end when he voices what he thinks are the most pressing questions.

"Okay, hold on. You've been here longer than me? Things are a little fuzzy right now, but I don't remember you being missing. I would've remembered that."

He's forgetting something important and he can tell that much, but it's not something about Steve. He's absolutely sure of that one.

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[insert dated Frozen joke here]

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five years later

worth the wait tho

weeps

manly tears, I assume

very

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