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Who| ALL Y'ALL it's a ho down
What| A catch-all reaction log for the plot developments. Saves you from making 5 logs each tbh.
Where| All around the place
When| During and post lock down, 3am~ sunday onward
WARNINGS| Panicking, talk of murder and violence. Singing the songs of panem.

When things like THIS and THIS are going down it's probably a good time to touch base with one another. Face caressing, crying and meaningful stares abound as the Tributes and Staff drag their knuckles hopelessly in an effort to figure out what the fresh hell is going on.

Make your own prompts, feel free to make them closed to specific people.

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"You fought them."

This observation was brought to Tony courtesy of the Bucky from his own world, moving like a shadow from the corners of the room as he notes the presence of someone who counts as much as ally as he is able to understand right now. Or at the least he is Steve's ally and that counts for more. Observing and keeping track of those people is the most he can do right now.

Steve had also meant to fight the peacekeepers who took a girl from D9 and he might have ended up like Tony or worse had Bucky not been swift enough to stop him. It reminds of Hydra, swift and cold and brutal, with no explanations offered to their pawns except submit or suffer. In that scenario he had known which choice to make.

"Familiar?"

"What?" Tony raises an eyebrow at Bucky as he makes the statement at him. The action causing a twinge in his head politely pointing out what he was talking about. He brings his fingers to the temple in question pulling an unimpressed look at the sting.

"Ah, yeah. They came after three of my, uh. Floor mates? I guess." He wipes his hand on his trousers to get rid of the blood on his fingers but seems less than interested doing anything else to it, partly due to him not realising how bad it was.

He gives Bucky something close to a sideways look.

"You know. The screaming, confusion, and pained looks. I mean it's a different feeling to actually be a part of it. But still familiar enough."

It's bleeding a lot by Bucky's estimate. He has some knowledge that this is common for wounds on the head but little on the ways of dealing with them, other than pressing some kind of cloth to the cut. In the field the Winter Soldier's own enhancements largely took care of smaller wounds and were enough to get him back to the extraction team and medics on those occasions where he suffered larger ones.

So, "It should be looked at." is all he can offer in this situation, nodding in understanding as Tony explains his reference. "It is."

Tony waves a dismissive hand about being treated.

"I've survived a gaping hole in my chest, I can live with a bump on the head."

Like with all things he talks about that he doesn't think is a big deal he sounds dismissive, like he's talking about something no more important than having to get a hair cut. Speaking of hair cuts.

"Didn't you used to look like a mop? I remember a mop."

At that Bucky's eyes flick down, looking with scrutiny at the mentioned area, not that he can see anything since Tony is wearing a shirt. Gaping holes in the chest normal humans didn't have a high rate of walking away from, if that was true then perhaps Stark is stronger than his first estimation of him.

But a mop? "No." he said pointedly at first, displeased with the comparison. Tony's talking about his hair, something that keeps gets a surprising amount of reaction from everyone around him. Bucky had never thought his appearance was something so attention-worthy until after the haircut happened. His fingers twitch to reach up and smooth his hair back but remain stubbornly down at his side.

"The Widow did it."

Tony's expression doesn't change as he sees the eyes refocus their attentions.

"Really, could you be more obvious? It was only a gaping hole for, like hours. Also, years ago." As he gets informed of who unmopped him, Tony frowns a little. "How come she does your hair?"

Not that he was feeling a little sulky that she hasn't tried to play with his hair. Not that he admits he likes people playing with his hair though.

Bucky scowls at him, drawing back a little at being caught out. Well, it wasn't as if he was trying to hide it, he reasons with himself, though is still put out professionally.

"She said it needed to be done." Though it was actually a little more complicated than that. There had been talk of what the stylists might do to his hair if he did not submit to Natasha's suggestion and the distinct need to keep him from killing any peacekeepers at the time.

"It was a liability."

"Don't give me that look. You want to know something about Tony Stark you do one of two things: Ask someone who knows him, or just ask him." While Tony tries to avoid just offering up details about himself when asked he is usually very honest. He might talk in circles or deny some topics out right but he will always answer.

"Liability. Did she say that? Or did you assume she meant it that way?"

Honestly this haircut was a hell of a lot better than what he was working with before now. But Tony, while avoiding leting his hair getting even close to that long, knew that a hair tie or hair band would have kept it out of his eyes. Admittedly none of his own stylists went near his hair mostly because he made himself too hard for them to put up with, so they never even entered his mind.

"Then what happened to you?"

Bucky actually just surprised himself with asking that and being surprised whenever he's around Stark seems to be an emerging pattern, the man had a way of speaking that pushed buttons in the Soldier's programming (or more accurately, through the programming). It wasn't how people were supposed to talk to him.

After a moment of mulling over the question he thinks that maybe it was the latter but -- but... "It cost me a fight in the arena." So he wasn't unfounded in thinking it, was he? Experience had taught him.

"Took shrapnel, small enough to be hard to catch with basic medical tools, but still sharp enough to rip my heart to shreds. So we introduced electromagnets to my system to keep the metal back. Then. I improved it, became Iron Man, then... Took it out."

As much as Tony felt it was a good move for him, both for health, safety, and personal growth reasons. There was still a large part of him that missed the constant hum through his body and the light it offered at night.

He tilts head at the statement.

"How? You looked like a guitarist in a rock band, not rapunzel."

Luckily Steve had explained to him at this point that Tony also went by the name Iron Man and used a high-tech armoured suit to fight during his explanation of the allies Bucky was supposed to trust and not harm, and so saved him asking that particular question. The conversation had occurred shortly after he had first met the man on the rooftop weeks ago.

"Not many would survive that." He knows the pain of taking shrapnel, somewhere down the line of his long career, though he can't remember exactly when.

A slight frown comes over his face, "It was grabbed, used to hit my head into the ground. I was stunned long enough to be vulnerable." he won't mention the responsible party for the that, not without prompting.

"Not many happened to have a surgeon as a fellow kidnapee either. But then, they needed me alive so the chances of him being there as a coincidence probably aren't high."

Tilting his own head at the reply Tony gave another look to the new length.

"Anyone determined enough could still grab your hair. If you want to avoid that going bald's probably the best way to go. But this length, it'll get you the better kind of attention."

"I don't want to be bald." he says, almost immediately in reply. I don't want echoes back in his head as soon as it leaves his mouth. There's a bracing of his body immediately after, a racking up of the tension he often carries around with him as if some heavy hand is going to come down and punish him for expressing a desire.

But then he remembers where he is and that he's supposed to be allowed to have those thoughts now. There's no handlers here to correct their asset.

"...What do you mean?" he asks, attempting to push past what he just said.

Tony gives Bucky a strange look as he has something so very deep going on in his mind right now, there's almost the temptation for him to ask if he's okay until he pipes up again, Tony blinks before giving a facial shrug.

"You really want me to explain how to get better kinds of attention?"

He doesn't think he's ever gotten a question like that before.

Tony's look goes completely ignored if he even notices at all which, during these times when Bucky get's caught up in his own head, isn't all that unlikely. It's a problem, it's a vulnerability and he can't seem to stop it from happening if there's no task to focus on. It's sort of like the lockdown the Soldier would go into when he was waiting for a mission, waiting to report or being worked upon; the state when he wasn't actively required to respond but still be at the ready.

The difference was then he was empty, now he is increasingly not so. Things are changing, he is changing. His fingers tap a rhythm against his thigh.

"How does shorter hair make it better? Attention from who?" he says, remembering he must be exact with Stark.

Edited 2014-08-16 18:39 (UTC)

Tony watches the rhythm as he waits for a reply, thinking about if he's done that before or not, or if it's part of his Ariel journey.

"From everyone really. Shorter hair is easier to style, and people seem to enjoy playing with it more than if it's longer. It's an attractiveness thing."

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