Sample scene flavor two for marvel_universe

[cold_shoulder]

He was standing on the roof of the building.

He knew he should go downstairs and knock on Steve's door, the way a civilized person would. The way he should have a long time ago, when he first remembered. But he couldn't. Facing Steve with what he had done, in a place where they could actually talk? Knowing the look of disappointment that would inevitably cross the familiar blue eyes?

It wasn't any easier knowing that he wasn't Steve's partner, after all, not really. Nothing was easier.

But running hadn't really changed anything, had it?

He looked out over the street once more. In a moment, he'd go down.

In a moment.

Comments

[cap_a]

He considers. Jim's had a... long and complicated run.

"Let's see... he sacrificed himself back in the 50s to save a city. But a villain named the Mad Thinker revived him and sent him against the Fantastic Four. He broke free and seemed to die again. A time-master named Immortus split him into two bodies, but we didn't find out about that until much later. The genocidal android Ultron changed one of those bodies into a being known as the Vision, who was sent against the Avengers, but he broke free of that control and joined us. His wife, the Scarlet Witch, later found the other Jim, unaltered, and revived him."

He looks at Bucky to gauge how well he's taking how insane some of this life in the modern era has been. "Too much? Should I slow down?"

[cold_shoulder]

Bucky's eyes cross for a moment. "Wow. No, I think I followed that. Man--" what kind of stuff one misses when asleep for a few decades...

Except it's too soon. The joke is at the tip of his tongue, but it still cuts, and if it cuts him, it'll probably be worse for Steve. One day. Not yet.

"He all right? ... and if she's married to Vision, why'd she bring Jim back, too? Not that I think it's a bad thing that Jim's alive and himself, not at all, but..." Shrugs. It does seem kind of weird, when he's missing the details.

[cap_a]

"That's... a long and complicated story, involving Immortus. I can get you the full Avengers report later. I'll get you whatever Avengers files you want to look at."

In theory, that's a big risk. There are many people who would be angry at Steve for that. But his trust for Bucky is complete.

"Namor... spent several decades wandering the surface with amnesia. But he's still around. His cousin just revived, and her daughter's a hero, too."

There were other Invaders -- Miss America, Whizzer, Silver Scorpion -- but they came later. That just leaves one last one of the originals.

"Toro... retired a few years after the war. A few years back..." He pauses. "The Mad Thinker killed him. Namor was there."

[cold_shoulder]

"... oh." Nope. Sometimes it doesn't matter at all that he knows he wasn't the person who coaxed Toro to a Christmas dance and then pushed him into the girl he liked. News like this? Still feel like a punch in the gut. The kind that hurts. "This Mad Thinker character seems to have merited some... attention. Both for Toro's and Jim Hammond's sakes. Was he stopped?"

As to the offer... "I... probably should catch up with the reading. You wouldn't believe the degree of information control was exercised back there, and I was only out of stasis for short periods of time." Beat. "Although I'm sure missing Namor's cheerful reaction to remembering who he is... well, I wouldn't change that part. Unless I got a good seat at a very safe distance."