Taking Some Me-Time [Open Catch-All]

[worthallthis]

Who: Bucky Barnes AKA Soldat, and OPEN
Where: Each prompt will have a car listed
When: Kazoo 13 and 14
What: The Bottomless Pit has something to say about self-care, and Soldat comes back
Warnings: Amiable disassociation, possible discussion of trauma


I. A First Time For Everything - Kitchen Car, Kazoo 13

This is ridiculous. The Bottomless Pit (that is not their name, but they don't know their name anymore, so they have accepted it for now) is not having any more of this "not sleeping" and "not eating" and "not taking care of the body" thing that is happening. The Sergeant slipped away during the morning unconscious time, and the Asset is close but not interested in shooting anything, and the actual host is still hiding and it is entirely unacceptable.

So the Bottomless Pit is using the body. The Bottomless Pit is in the kitchen car piling a plate high with as much food (and some not food) that they can scrounge up, and the Bottomless Pit is going to eat it all.

Anyone walking in early this morning will find Soldat muttering to themselves under their breath, only it's not English or Russian like usual, but some kind of sing-song, tonal, almost grammarless language. "No caring, no eating, no comfort, no nothing," they say to themselves. "All idiots. All stupid. Too much thinking. No, angry one, I want that--" A pause. "--well, if angry one is certain. Not wanting to hurt the body."

They put the plastic ceran wrap away. They won't eat it. Fine.


II. Taking It For Themselves - Spa car, Kazoo 13

The plate is taken from the kitchen to the spa car. And they wait outside until they're certain it's empty.

Then they go inside, close and lock and barricade both doors, and finally strip down to drop themselves into the hottest of the tiered pools with a happy sigh. The Bottomless Pit is finally warm and comfortable and is going to just sit and eat in peace.

Anyone trying to get from the sleepers to the armory and beyond, or going the other direction for that matter, will have to bang on the door for a while, shove the heavy shelving and massage tables blocking the doors away, or teleport through. The Bottomless Pit will not help. The Bottomless Pit will yell in the host's stupid human voice, "Go away! We are having a bath!"


III. Waking Up Again - Kazoo 13, Sleeper car Lower 2:A, closed to roommates

The Bottomless Pit sent the body to bed after the bath, and they actually slept, and now... Soldat wakes up. This is why no one else had wanted to sleep. They stay in bed for a good chunk of the day, which is stupid, and means if one of their roommates comes in, they'll find them bundled under their bearskin blanket, awake but not wanting to move.

"Hi," they say wearily. "Sorry. I'll get up." They do not get up, at least not until evening, at which point they trudge into the kitchen for some dinner and then sit in the standard car listening to people, or music, or both.


IV. Back To Normal (?) - Wildcard me, all over, Kazoo 14

The next day Soldat makes themselves get back to work. They have meals to cook and prep, people to teach the basics of falling and fighting, people who probably worried about them. So it's back into their standard routine they go, from patrol to kitchen to afternoon nap to kitchen to training car to patrol. And squeezed in between, they seek out a handful of people to talk to.

The Asset needs apologized for. Some people probably need reassurance that they're okay after their day of being very much not themselves. A couple people need a proper explanation of what happened in the maze.

They can't seem to find Steve, though, which is... weird....

Comments

dining car probably late breakfast period 14

[morganizedchaos]

Ghost has been set up for maybe half an hour with coffee and psychology books once again - he's really trying to make progress through them at a decent clip, now - but as soon as Soldat comes within reasonable talk-to distance, he looks up.

"Welcome back." His phone is balanced near the edge of the table, along with the notebook filled with cluttered notes. Without really looking at the page, he scribbles out another line - something about the hypothalamus. "Feeling any better?"

[worthallthis]

Soldat sets a new coffee in front of him, though ostensibly they'd been coming in to deliver a fresh plate of cinnamon rolls-- a new thing they tried for the first time this morning; they may or may not be a little underdone, but they're still edible, and the frosting is tasty. "I don't know yet. But I'm out of bed. And out of my own head. So that's something."

[morganizedchaos]

The great thing about being a post-apocalyptic alien dude is that you aren't picky about cinnamon rolls being maybe not perfect.

And the best thing about telekinesis is being able to eat them without getting your hands sticky. Ghost floats one off of the plate and lets it hover near his shoulder, where he can take a bite out of it when he feels like it.

"It's a start," he agrees, with a slight smile and a nod. "Need me to catch you up on the last two days, or did the others handle it?"

IV

[bakegarasu]

Otoha wanders over to the dining car at around lunchtime. He's been... okay, but trying to deal with the shit in his own head.

It's not working that well. He's not sure how Soldat can do this with what, four people?

He's relieved to see Soldat back in the kitchen - Sarge told him he's no good at cooking, the Asset wouldn't bother, and... he hasn't seen the other one.

Soldat gets a small smile as he leans on the counter near him. "... Hey there. Uh. Welcome back?"

[worthallthis]

"Yeah, it's me." They offer Otoha a little smile, in the middle of mixing up a salad. The voice, body language, expressions-- all right for the guy Otoha got to know first. "Apparently it's been busy around here. I, uh. Hear literally every one of them took a turn with my body over the past couple days."

[bakegarasu]

"Yeah... even the uh... pit guy? I don't know, I didn't meet him. It? I don't know, sorry. Uh. ... Been kind of up in my own head in a different way."

Not that he minds the others, but he likes Soldat a lot.

IV. Back To Normal

[yondu]

Yondu's another person that could use the reassurance. He's actually in the library reading on one of Soldat's pass-throughs (a rare day of him not being in the music car) and he whistles a hello at him. Again the SCA dutifully translates the mood of it.

He looks a little more... normal, maybe? He hopes so. And hopes that he didn't mind all that awkwardness with Sarge.

"How you doin'?" he calls out with his regular raspy vocals.

[worthallthis]

The whistle brings a smile, and it's a proper Soldat smile: restrained but warm, clearly fond. They mimic the whistle back, near-perfect. "Back to actually being me. I hear everyone else in here has had a real field day while I was. Uh. Distracted." They wave vaguely at their head, looking maybe a shade embarrassed. "I do want to apologize for that. You should never've had to deal with the Asset. Or the Pit, if you ran into them." Sarge, at least, is friendly for the most part.

[yondu]

"I didn't mind dealin' with the Asset. I get where it came from. Didn't see the Bottomless Pit, but I was just worried about ya."

Everybody breaks sometimes, though. And he's done enough screaming about people being soft and being screamed at for being soft to judge someone for just needing a goddamn break.

"Where ya headed?"

III Roomie times

[controlsthedie]

Thanatos has been distracted and lost within his own head the past few days. He has noticed something off with Soldat, but he doesn't pry. Who knows what weird things become normal for a mortal when their soul is in a lantern. They seem to have things under control for the most part.

"It's fine. Do you need something to eat?" Soldat should already know that Thanatos will just shift over to the kitchen and back with something in tow. He just does that.

[worthallthis]

(Yes. Pit, you just stuffed us full just a few hours ago. That was then!) Regardless, Soldat is always hungry, whether they need something to eat or not. That doesn't mean they're going to ask for anything. They weren't a good asset the past couple of days; asking isn't something they get to do yet.

Soldat shakes their head a little against the pillows, knowing they ought to get up. This is being rude, staying curled up in bed with someone else in here. It seems like so much effort, though. Maybe Thanatos will forgive them for being a little rude. "Had a big breakfast. Apparently. I wasn't really there for it."

Just Roomie Things

[marvelous_murderbot]

She had, of course, been deeply concerned about him. She hadn't needed to stand watch, not really, but she had regardless. Whatever was happening to him, he needed both time, and defending. Just in case. She also has a box on her lap, which is the only part of the entire situation that seems to worry her.

She expressed her care and affection in odd ways, but this really ought to be expected.

"No," she says, when he stirs, "you should rest." She taps her hands on a tupperware in her hands, before pushing it on top of the blanket he's under.

"I have made you cookies. I thought you would require sugar-based energy when you woke up."

They are passable, even though she put significantly more chocolate in them than one really ought to. In several different colors, because she liked them.

[worthallthis]

Well, that is one way to get them to move at least some. Soldat lifts their head, blinking at her, then at the box. "Guri... you didn't need to do that."

But they do prop themselves up on the metal arm and push the bearskin blanket back some. The allure of cookies is a hard one to resist, and they feel kind of guilty, actually, for clearly making her worry enough to make them something.

II.

[vanity_fair]

"Yeah? Well, bath time's over, bucko," Tony bellows right back, annoyed and all too ready to pick a fight in the name of something extraordinarily petty this morning. It's been a Week, he had another shitty nightmare last night, his patience is thin, and his coffee is going cold.

"Put a sock on the cabin handle like the rest of us if you want a private jerk sesh."

[worthallthis]

"Do not be disgusting!" the Pit squawks back through the doors. They know what that phrase means. They know what the host has said about others and socks on doors. "We hate showers, and required a bath because no one has been taking care of this body!"

It sounds oddly like a whine. Super-assassins are not supposed to whine. The Bottomless Pit does not care.

1

[firewalled]

"Um."

Rich is usually quite happy to see Soldat in the dining car, taking the opportunity to chat with them about training or just make small talk, but today, he... appears to have caught them at a bad time. They seem a little confused, perhaps, and annoyed, and just very, very different to how Rich is used to seeing him.

So he hesitates, but eventually, he does approach the table Soldat is sitting at, snatching a banana peel off the top of his pile of questionably edible things.

"Uh... hey man. You seem hungry. Been fasting or what?"

[worthallthis]

The Pit did get a little waylaid on their way to the spa with their massive plate of morsels. They aren't even sitting down, just standing at the table plucking off interesting-looking pieces here and there to chew on.

They make an abortive grab for the banana peel, and give Rich a put upon sort of look when they miss, not comfortable moving this body around since they never have before. "Always hungry. We are always hungry. And no one has been taking care of this body."

... sorry, Rich, this is not a great way to get introduced to the idea of Soldat's headmates.

Kazoo 14

[knifewithnoname]

She's been watching them. She hadn't minded her conversation with Sarge but she had been watching to wait for when Soldat would come back from the emptiness in their head.

As useful as she thought that trick was they had to know that people might want to talk to them and not the other people who sometimes took over. She had spotted them in the kitchen briefly the day before but stuck around just long enough to realise that wasn't Soldat either. But not Sarge.

Maybe she should have asked how many of them there were. She is feeling a bit better now than when she had first came off the mission. Mostly.

She still hates literally everything that had happened. But she is dealing. Currently she is dealing by beating up a training dummy. She might mostly fight by taking her opponents by surprise. But it wasn't always possible. She had to get stronger.

When she heard the door slide open her attention went to the new figure, she saw them and took a moment to watch them.

[worthallthis]

The posture and expression, or lack thereof, is much more familiar than her time with Sarge. They spot her, give a little wave when they note her eyes on them, and wander to an adjacent dummy: close enough to talk, if she wants, without crowding. "Hi."

Then, after a pause while they slip a knife from its sheath, they add, "I need to apologize. For before. I never told you about Sarge or the others, and I should have. So you wouldn't be surprised like that."

II

[oceantier]

The spa has been Lapis' sanctuary as much as she can manage -- the only place with enough water to immerse, to retreat into underwater silence and block out the world. Right now, after the mission, that silence, that forgetting of self, feels entirely appealing. She'd stayed asleep unusually long after the train's mandated return of all not sleeping passengers to their rooms, worn . . . and now, with the return of consciousness, heads for the spa and the peace of the water.

But for the first time, the door seems to be blocked.

It's never been blocked before. She's always had access.

Is this some new trick of the train -- some new way to steal from her?

She paces outside a little, agitated, trying to determine her next course of action. Tries the door once, then again.

. . . Then feels out for the water she knows lies within the spa. The Pit will find it bubbling upward from one of the tiers that they aren't occupying, growing larger with startling rapidity as the tier's contents surge into a pillar. It forms a nub on the end, flat.

Then fingers.

And reaches out for the barricade in front of the door.

[worthallthis]

There's a startled squawk from the other side, a little splashing that doesn't come from Lapis's water, and a metallic clank as the metal arm hits the side of the spa. "What are you doing!" comes a demand. The voice is familiar, but the language (sung, not spoken, albeit still understandable thanks to train magic) and the amount of expression in it is not.

IV

[chalicejoker]

Hajime does not maintain a set schedule--he does what he wants when he wants, as much as the train allows. (Otherwise, he'd just go home.) So today, he's heading into the training room to do a little bit of working out. It's good to blow off a bit of steam, even if he's trying to limit himself to not doing anything too obviously inhuman.

...and there's the guy with the metal arm. Hajime gives him an awkward nod. He's trying to read body language, to see what..."mood" doesn't seem strong enough to describe it...he's in today. He doesn't think he'll be recognized as Chalice; he's aware his human form is a bit shorter and has failed to think his voice could give him away.

[worthallthis]

Hajime might be lucky in that the Asset hasn't shared that particular memory with Soldat yet... (Him. Him what, Asset? Bug-man. ... what? No.) Hajime might also be lucky in that the Asset is very bad at communicating when it's not actually using Soldat's mouth.

Soldat pauses in their work-out, flying through forms with a knife, and pushes a lock of hair that came loose from their tie. "Hi, Hajime," they say, noting the scrutiny. Then, feeling guilty still over the mess they made on the mission and guessing the scrutiny is because at some point in the past two days they acted out of character, they add meekly, "I'm me again."

II.!

[cycledsingularity]

[Unfortunately for the Bottomless Pit, barricades don't do much of anything against tiny beings that don't use doors. It's pretty impossible for Mono to not be lured closer when he sees a plate of food seemingly just left out in the open.

Naturally, all it takes is a familiar voice yelling to make him freeze up, even if the complaint appears to be at whoever is knocking outside and not at them.]

"...Soldat?"

[...Or is this The Asset?]

[worthallthis]

[The body gives a violent twitch at the voice so close, making a splash in the pool and a clank with the metal arm, and the Pit huffs at both it and Mono. Then they squint at Mono. Do they know this tiny thing? (Yes.) Hmm.]

Not at the moment, no. Nor am I the other one.