There's a humming in the restless summer air (open)

[tookthewheel]

Who| MCU!Bucky Barnes and OTA
What| Bucky's having issues, he deals with them by punching things
Where| The training level
When| Couple days prior to the jailbreak
Warnings/Notes| Violence, trauma stuff

Bucky is here under two objectives.

Practically, he needs to practice his familiarity with his body's limitations in this place, he must keep himself sharp and ready because there is a mission soon that will require him to be in top form. However there is a personal need beneath it, something new for a man like him. He needs distraction and rather than allow it to be given to him by others he has made another of his growing list of choices and come here of his volition.

They made him act to stop him thinking, then put him away into storage when those actions were done after a fresh wipe to ensure he remained in pristine condition, like a child's toy lovingly sealed into its wrapping. Though Bucky is done with wipes and cryo tanks he holds that first part to heart; if he acts he will have no time to think and there is a lot he would rather not think about. The things that are disturbing his sleep at night.

So Bucky takes to the training level of the Tribute Centre, making use of the many and varied options it offers. The training dummy's are mercilessly pummelled; various weaponry is put through its paces in expert hands; the holographic targeting practice is something he warms to quickly, throwing knives with deadly precision at multiple light-constructed opponents. If someone asks him, maybe he'll even agree to spar.

Comments

[silberfuchs]

Bucky's not the only one who recently feels the need to get his frustrations out through violence. Albert's been down in the training center for an hour already practicing various hand to hand moves with military precision and trying not too be too incredibly frustrated that making his engagement with Jet a pubic farce didn't save the two a drowning death in the arena. He'd never been afraid of that before, drowning, but now there's a new thing to add to the list. Moreover, snatching victor privileges away from those who actually won, especially someone as young as Clementine (who he's never formally met, but feels protective towards by virtue of age regardless), makes him hate the Capitol all the more.

Needless to say, the punching bag isn't a satisfying opponent for all that pent up rage.

He takes a break, wiping the sweat from his neck with a towel and moving away from the bag to watch Bucky for a moment. It's a little harder to tell them apart what with the haircut, but he thinks this is the one that was oscillating around Steve at Kevin's crowning. Not that he's terribly close with either Bucky, but at least he considers Steve a friend and that means he's a little more inclined to be somewhat sociable to those he knows are also in the American's confidence.

He waits until the round cycles through on the projector before approaching. "Want to try against something more challenging than holograms?"

[tookthewheel]

Every knife he throws hits a vital point. He might be slower right now but he is no less accurate. In the confined space of the range blades strikes through hearts, throats and eyes even when he ramps up the challenge to what would be insane difficulty for anyone else.

It's almost as satisfying as real combat and certainly beyond anything he's worked with before and it assures him that at the very least his skill in this area remains.

But... he turns his head as the range disengages, the glass door sliding open as the round ends. "Albert."

Bucky recognises this man from when shortly after he awoke in the Capitol, one of the time he went up to the roof and Albert mistook him for the other James Barnes. He leaves the knives for someone else to collect, exiting the range and approaching Albert instead. "What do you mean?"

Translation for yes, he would like to.

[silberfuchs]

At the mention of his name, Albert inclines his head to indicate that Bucky got his name right and that he takes it as a greeting.

"I mean would you like to spar?" He smiles a little, trying to be welcoming and treat it as more exercise rather than keeping themselves sharp for the next arena. Especially considering he intends to be better in this one, to not allow the gamemakers such easy sway over his mind through food or anything else and drive him to animal instinct. He won't be killing without provocation; he'd rather die first, but... self defense is something different entirely and if he can keep Jet alive long enough to win, he'll be sated.

"Hand to hand? Since you've already worked with the knives." Which Albert's still not particularly strong with. He can do alright, but none of those fancy tricks he saw Bucky pulling.

[tookthewheel]

"I am proficient." Bucky informs him. He says it matter as factly, without boast or bravado, it simply is what it is.

To the offer of sparring he is a little hesitant, uncertain of his own ability to hold back, to not go in for the final blow or to cause vicious injury. He needs... he cannot do this without boundaries being set. "What are the parameters?"

Treat it like a mission, he decides, learn what he has to do and follow it.

[silberfuchs]

"Pinning ends the match? Try for no serious injuries, but I understand that can be difficult," he motions to Bucky's left arm. "We can get patched up easily enough though. As I understand it, Capitol medicine is fairly advanced."

The fever pills had worked almost immediately on Jet in the arena, and the salve for burns and bruises takes nearly no time at all. He's not worried, and in fact moves to square off with Bucky, standing across the floor mat from him and rolling his shoulders to loosen up a bit. "Let me know when you're ready."

[risewithit]

At first Skye had been unsure how to approach the Training Center; she needs to keep up her training with or without her SO, but she doesn't want to show off what little she can do and what the limits of that are. In the end, the arrests made her decision for her. She's going to be in the field whether she consents to it or not. She needs to be ready.

When she gets there she notes Barnes (no, not that one, the other one) out of the corner of her eye, but she's got a lot to do and not a whole lot of time to do it in. Even if she's curious about how some of the dummies look as if they've mauled by orcs.

There's only so much she can do on her own, without May here to partner with her, but she can at least go through the basics she's pounding into her muscle memory. She wraps her hands, goes through her warmups, then sets in to work the bag. Her hits are solid, steady, and she settles into a rhythm. One, two three. Jab, cross, jab.

[tookthewheel]

It's surprising what he can pick and realise that he knows how to use without remembering how and when he learned it. Maybe it's instinct and a general programmed in sense for efficient killing or maybe Hydra really did decide to account for every possibility. Seventy years is a long time after all, even if he spent most of it in cold storage.

He looses the spear with skill an Olympic competitor would envy and watches as it skewers a dummy completely, feeling pleased with the result. Bucky flexes his fingers afterwards and turns for another when he notices Skye over at the punching bags.

It's a small surprise given their first meeting that she is not without some skill at what she's doing. Clearly she's practiced before and that gains his interest. He almost doesn't think about doing it as his feet carry him her way, moving quick and quiet to stand nearby, so quiet in fact that she might get a surprise to suddenly find him there observing her.

[risewithit]

It doesn't take long for her to realize she has an audience. She's always been aware of her surroundings, but lately that sense has been growing even stronger. And here, she's even more guarded.

"You could say hi," she says when she pauses to steady the swinging of her back, "instead of just standing there staring."

[tookthewheel]

He considers for a moment before doing just that. "Hi."

Bucky takes another few steps forward, resting the palm of his metal arm on the back of the punching bag she's been working with. It's a small gesture, putting possible the deadliest part of himself there. "You fight?"

Not expertly he thinks, there's something raw in her movements, it speaks of someone still in the process of learning. Possibly she could be faking that, laying down the groundwork of deception in the arena but it would take someone very skilled to do so for one as experienced at reading combat body language as he is.

[risewithit]

"Hey," she tosses back as she shifts her gaze to look at him. Her eyes catch on the arm, widen in open, unmasked shock--and it's Mike she's thinking of, Mike lying in a hyperbaric chamber, Mike waking up and slowing being turned into more machine than man. The craftsmanship of Barnes's arm is different, though--she can tell that much without an engineering PhD and a stint through SHIELD Hogwarts, thanks--but that might not mean anything.

She knows a weapon when she sees it.

But she nods in thanks, settles back into her stance, and returns to hitting the bag. Her movements are slower, more concentrated this time. "Sort of," she says in the breaths between punches. "Trying to, at any rate."

[metalicarus]

Jet was also leaning more on the side of distraction these days. He didn't want to worry Albert--and he knew he would if he slipped up and got caught staring off into space or fell into a bottle again--so he went with training. Training was innocuous enough to not draw attention and it did actually make him feel a little better.

Of course, once he made it down there, it was to the sight of someone familiar laying waste to the area. His name was Bucky, he was one of them, anyway. Bucky Barnes, the same Bucky Barnes Jet had admired when he was little. Something, again, he decided would be better to keep to himself.

Of course, he'd found that out after the arena, but he didn't intend to act like it. He'd told Bucky to tell him his name once he'd figured it out and Jet intended to stick to that; names were a big deal, it wasn't his place to just take that step himself.

So he stood a little to the side, arms crossed as he leaned against the wall, watching. When the other man finally seemed to reach a lull in his actions, Jet smirked and spoke up.

"Hey, save some for the rest of us, huh?"

[tookthewheel]

Bucky's aware of himself being watched, even identifies the one responsible. His memories of that period are hazy but he remembers this man, Jet, the one who bandaged and cleaned his wounds in the arena when he had barely been able to stand before walking away and leaving him with his life.

Now he understands how someone could do that a little better; many people seemed given to acts of kindness with nothing expected in return here. The memory of that day is enough that he nods at the call and strides over to him. "There are replacements."

For the dummies he means, avoxes are already hurrying to take care of that very issue.

[metalicarus]

"Good. Then maybe we can cost them a little more money and take out their whole supply. If you don't mind the company, anyway."

Jet shrugged like it didn't matter to him one way or another--although that friendly little smile was still in place--but he was on edge and needed to let off that steam that was desperately clawing to escape. Worse-come-to-worse, he could always go for a run, but that wasn't nearly as satisfying as ripping something apart or breaking it.

Breaking the dummies at least wouldn't get him in trouble like breaking one of the commons lamps might.

[tookthewheel]

"If you want to." he says neutrally.

The facilities are meant for all of them after all. While they wait for the dummies to be reset he twists and flips a knife between his fingers over and over again (the repetitive action is soothing). He's watching Jet and thinking, remembering back to that day in the arena.

He has said he would tell him. "I know my name now."

[metalicarus]

Jet, in turn, watches the movement of the knife for a little bit. It's impressive. He thought pretty highly of his own knife work since he'd been the best with it since he was a kid, but he'd never tried that kind of fancy handwork before. It kind of made him want to try and spar with Bucky. But the comment about the name thing drew his attention away.

He smiled. "Yeah? What is it? It'll be nice not to have to think of you as 'that one guy' from here on."

[designatedfreak]

Routine. Max knows they have her down as a girl who follows a routine. It's not where near as hard as when she first arrive, all freshly escaped from Manticore and believing this was freedom, but it's still more than any sane person would attempt in a week, let alone day after day.

In the back of her mind she runs over plans on how to get into the prison and then get Courfeyrac out. The Capitol likes to get physical, so there's every reason to expect her friend to be more than a little worse for wear. She memorizes the faces of Peacekeepers and Avoxes as she runs through her rotation of weapon skills.

It's hard not to think about what Courfeyrac might be going through. She knows better than to let her mind be over run by her emotional attachment to the Frenchman. What she needs is a better workout than what the training dummies are giving her. Grabbing a pair of short bamboo sticks, she makes her way over to the guy training far too hard to be ignored.

"Hey, wanna go with someone who'll fight back?"

[tookthewheel]

Bucky stops immediately though he doesn't instantly turn, listening and considering first instead. When he does finally face the woman who hailed him his head is canted in a way that denotes interest.

There is a flicker of his eyes, enough to take her in as a soldier would, nothing but cool assessment in his eyes. Whatever he was looking for he obviously finds acceptable enough to agree.

So he nods, sharp and ready. "Parameters?"

He was never taught to hold back, after all. It's better he have the boundaries set out.

I hope this is okay? LMK if I need to fix things

[biomechatronic]

Dennett has no idea why he comes to the training center. He steels himself with the idea he's going to practice...something, or at least get in some kind of physical shape, but he always gets disheartened when he arrives, watching everyone who is, to be mild, vastly better and more suited to the act of killing than he is.

Dennett's the kind of guy who scrapes spiders up on index cards and gently relocates them outside.

He's sure a lot of the others here could critique each other brilliantly, know the names of fighting styles, or punches, at least. He can't. But there is one thing he knows, and that's cybernetics.

And if he's not wrong--which would be quite a change in this place--that is a cybernetic arm. And it's not long before he goes from staring to sidling closer, trying to get a better look. If only the other man would just. hold. still.

It's totally fine!

[tookthewheel]

Dennet's completely correct and if the silvered metal wasn't enough of a the sound of it's inner workings when Bucky gears up for a particularly fierce blow with his left arm would fill in the gaps -- like when he knocks one of the dummies heads back so hard it almost rips clean off for one. To his consternation he notes that if his arm was at full operational capacity it would have flown right across the room.

The Winter Soldier wasn't one of the deadliest assassin's in existence in his world for nothing and it's not surprising that he quickly catches onto the presence observing him and, while he might have ignored it and carried on regardless, the sense that the man behind the gaze is trying to be covert about approaching him draws his attention. Bucky pulls his arm back and lets it hang by his side as he rounds on the man.

"What?"

[biomechatronic]

Dennett still has to learn that maybe it's not a great idea to be so obvious when it comes to staring, especially in a place where the odds are he'll have to face someone in a death match sooner or later.

And maybe, even, for once, actually try to kill them. He's still working on that part.

Still, however obvious his staring is, he's a little alarmed at the way the other man suddenly seems to whirl to face him. Dangerous cybernetics are much less intimidating when they're pointed toward someone else.

"I. Uh. I was looking at your arm. Who did the work?" Because it wasn't OmniCorp, that was for sure.

[tookthewheel]

There are few people who ever bring up the arm, or admit they were staring at it. He doesn't understand the hesitation on the parts of most, in small ways he likes those who are bold enough to tell the truth but in others it makes him wary. It's his arm, his weapon and he knows there are men here that could take it apart, Capitol or otherwise. There are men who would like to and only one he knows has said he wouldn't.

He doesn't fear this one immediately though, he can think of five different ways off the top of his head to kill him before he could get close, more if he put his mind to it.

"Why do you want to know?"

[fiercestwarrior]

She has been told that she will be expected to fight, and if that is indeed the case then she needs to make herself familiar with what sort of weapons she might be encountering in the arena, at least to as great an extent as the training level will allow.

She is surprised to find only one other tribute honing his skills at the time she chooses to go there, but it suits her well enough since that makes it easier for them both to stay out of each other's way.

She does not, however, ignore him completely. He is a potential opponent after all, and so she studies him while she makes herself comfortable with the weaponry available.

She is not, perhaps, as subtle about it as she could have been.

Her attention is however divided between him and the fact that she is frustratingly weak in this place. It shows in the way she becomes more and more tense, and how her hits get harder and harder and she still doesn't seem pleased by anything she is doing. She is clearly incredibly skilled and she is not doing anything wrong as such, and yet it doesn't take long before she is practically growling in anger.

What have they done to her?

[tookthewheel]

As he is observed so the Soldier returns the favour. He watches her from the corner of his eye, covert glances when a kick or a punch, a flip, puts his head her way.

Bucky doesn't miss then as her frustration grows. The woman's skill is unquestionable to his practiced eye, speaking of vast experience in her chosen areas but the performance she is demonstrating is obviously not enough for her. It gains his curiosity, strikes a match to a theory he finds he wants to confirm. It's he knows all there is to know of his potential opponents if he can.

If they still go into the arena after what's planned for friday night.

On silent feet, because he doesn't think to make noise, he approaches her position. He thinks of the ways people start these conversations, the things they say when they see someone in distress and ends up just cutting straight to the question he wants to ask. "What are you angry?"

[fiercestwarrior]

She very nearly flings a dagger at him as she spins around, startled by his silent approach and the suddenness of his question.

She manages to halt her movements in time, hand lowering and back straightening as she lets out a long, slow breath.

She is not sure whether or not it would be wise to admit to this stranger that she is not as strong as she could, should be. Then again he might have answers regarding why. She is not sure that it is a trade worth making, but after a long moment she does speak.

"Something has been done to me. I am weak."

[tookthewheel]

The moment she'd turned his eyes had tracked the lines of her movements, the threat of the coiled arm ready to throw and he'd moved, no longer where he was when he had originally spoken to her. Bucky is now a little more on edge in her presence. He thinks it was surprise, not outward aggression towards him, that almost caused her to loose the knife but he doesn't know her to say for sure.

Perhaps outside the arena he should make better efforts to be heard, fights that weren't sparring matches were not allowed.

"It's been done to everyone." Bucky replies to her answer. "Anyone stronger than human."