if you build it, they will come. hopefully.

[abyssum_invocat]

So. Replicators.

They take some getting used to for a child who's never come across technology even remotely similar before, but after a few wrong turns and a bit of confusion over how what it spat out at her was supposed to be decent clothing Sinthia got the hang of it. Enough, anyway, to order food and drink, and a modest bunch of parts to make something.

A something which, if the instructions are anything to go by--thankfully they're pictograms as well as words, in case the passersby like the mun don't read German--will be a quite pretty little mechanical tellurion.

She's totally interruptable while building this, yes. Periodically she needs breaks.

Comments

[bestpal]

"I almost killed her." Now she's out of sight, Bucky's temper cools and he's left feeling cold and empty. He barely feels any pain left by Steve's grip; he deserves any feeling of pain. It won't make up for the pain he's caused countless people. Slowly he turns to look at Steve.

"She wouldn't be the first kid I've killed." He looks like he might throw up. "I'm remembering more and more. I've forgotten how many people that I've killed I've killed for Hydra....I...she is the first chance I've had to strike back at Hydra."

[stark_spangled]

"But you didn't," he replies, without hesitation. He doesn't stop to think about what might have happened if he hadn't stepped in. Bucky was a precision fighter during the war, great with a rifle, but thinking of him as a killer is something Steve won't allow himself to do.

He meets his eyes, pained by the tortured look on Bucky's face. They haven't gotten far yet, there's still a lot Steve doesn't know, but he knows whatever Bucky's been through has left him deeply scarred. "You remember the war, Buck? Kid's shoes burning in the streets, the only thing left from ... "

He swallows.

"HYDRA did that," he says. "I don't blame you for wanting to strike back. That was the mission. But we're not fighting a war, not here. You and me, we'll figure this thing out together. I've got your back. You are not HYDRA, and you're not a killer. No matter what they did, you're still James Buchanan Barnes."

[bestpal]

Steve uses his name every chance he gets. Slowly it is becoming less alien and he feels less disconnected to the name. His eyes flicker uncertainly and for a moment he is standing in a city in the far east, bodies strewn around him. He can almost taste the ash from a burning building.

"For years," He says hoarsely as he tries to clear the vision. "There has always been a mission. How do you sit still on this ship and do nothing?"

[stark_spangled]

Steve sets his jaw, lips pursed.

"By finding ways to do something good," he says. Like rescue a scared kid, or give somebody directions. Like give comfort where it's needed, and tell your best friend it's all going to be OK. "It's not exactly the same, but it takes the edge off."

Being stuck on this ship is driving Steve crazy, little by little. He played the boy in the bubble once, and he has no desire to do it again. But he has no choice in the matter, which means he just has to be a good man when a good man is needed. That's the heart of a decent soldier.

[bestpal]

"Like what?" Bucky looks up, and for a second he looks like himself, looking to Steve for leadership. "People are fed. They've somewhere safe to sleep." There is no war. Bucky's shoulders set miserably.

"I don't know what to do.." He doesn't want to talk to more people than he's got to. He is still struggling to form full sentences. His conversation with Sinthia is proof he doesn't know to talk to people normally. He wants to be like a ghost.

[stark_spangled]

Steve's not going to let him fade away.

"Do you remember basic training, Bucky?" he asks, squeezing his shoulder. He realizes his memories, or rather the lack thereof, can be an upsetting topic for Bucky to muddle through, but Steve doesn't know any other way of reaching him. "Before they shipped anybody out, they made sure you could pass muster. You can't fight a war without training, and you can't save lives until you figure out how to save your own first."

Bucky knows how to fight, that much is obvious. He knows how to make his body a weapon. But Steve isn't sure he remembers how to live inside his own head anymore, and that makes him dangerous. "Maybe your mission now is to figure out who you're supposed to be."