snowblindrpg | [network] @username; text; night 164 [open]

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[network] @username; text; night 164 [open]

[It's all over.

He's almost glad that he has John and his grief to focus on right now, because otherwise his paranoia would be burning a hole through his head. His username is out there, linked with his real name, linked even with photographs. They're public, anyone can see them, so many people already have. He has to do something about this, stop people from coming after him. Not that he doesn't deserve their anger, or their revenge, but it will just lead to more people getting hurt.

There's only one thing to do.

He can feel fear twisting in his gut as he picks up the tablet and sends out probably one of the shortest messages that's been broadcast.]

My name is Bucky Barnes. I'm not safe to be around. Stay away from me.

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[ In an almost angry voice: ] Knock it off, kid. You're not making my job easy, here.

What? I had to put up with him looking at me like he wanted my shit kicked in for two nights and a day between, learned he lied about Watson—which you didn't correct either, by the way—and then the whole mess with Charles. I'm not just gonna shrug and not bring it up ever.

I already intend to keep as far away from him as I can, but he's not telling me to shut up here.

I didn't know the details when I was talking to you! And you didn't need to make this public! There was no reason for this to happen on the goddamned obituaries.

So he lied to you too and you're still saying this needs to keep secret?

Charles asked if we'd spoken before. I answered. You want to get mad at me, then take some to him, because he's the one who told me that maybe he didn't want to avoid bloodshed after all.

Edited 2016-10-02 20:11 (UTC)

[ Snapped out: ] No, I'm not saying it needed to be kept a secret, it just needed to be said in a way that wasn't going to bring the walls in down on everybody. You bringing this up is gonna cause a panic, people are going to flip out and scream for his head on a platter or something.

We're already taking care of it, Nat and Tony and I are all heading to go get him and make sure he doesn't hurt anybody else, he asked us to help him, and look - he doesn't need any fuckin' help making himself look bad. He leaves stuff out to make himself look as awful as possible. There's something good in there.

And another thing - what if this gets his beacon turned on, huh? Now that it's public knowledge, what if someone reports him and he gets that turned on? You know what that does, right? People think it makes you get anomalies more often. So what's that gonna do to a group of four people, huh?

That's not what I want, Clint. I want people to avoid him; that's why I was warning them. You're on the way, I already know that, but people could still run into him by accident before you get there. What if they didn't know what to expect and raised a weapon on him like Charles did? What if Watson wasn't fast enough the next time, or no one else was there to hear and run in to try and stop things?

[But the beacon thing... That hits harder and sticks at him ~~like an arrow point~~. He'd heard of it and the trade-off of increased anomalies, but the rest is new and distressing in what it imparts.]

I—I didn't know, okay? I don't want that either. Do you really think everyone losing their shit and getting hurt is what I'm after?

[ Clint takes a couple of deep breaths. Rubs at his face. Calms down, before he comes back to this. He's really, very close to his breaking point, but he keeps falling back right before he gets to it. It's how he works. ]

No, I don't think that's what you're after. I know you're trying to protect people. And really - really, that's good, that's a great thing you're doing, okay? Thank you. For real, sincerely, whatever - I know.

But people didn't know who he is. He's been doing whatever he can to stay away from other people so he doesn't have to hurt them. And now he's a target. You see them talking, right? About using him as a guinea pig?

He's my friend. I'm trying to help him, I don't - I don't want people to futz him up further than he already is. I just - there was a better way to go about this.

[More than whatever Natasha or Watson have said, this is where he's starting to feel like he actually fucked up, rather than giving in out of exhaustion from the argument.]

What do you mean, guinea pig? Because no, I haven't seen that. I've been—I've had my own conversations to worry about. What happened?

Edited (html!!) 2016-10-03 22:36 (UTC)

[ Clint sends a link to Davesprite - it's an in-process conversation, at the moment, which is partially why Clint's responses take a little longer than normal. There's a bunch of things popping up all at once, and Clint is having a hell of a time keeping up. ]

Brian threw his name up there as someone the administrator lady can screw with mentally. I don't think it's going to happen, but - I get afraid, because Bucky's gonna do whatever he can to not hurt someone else after all of this. I don't know if he thinks this might help and I don't want him to volunteer, you know?

[Fuck.]

[Davesprite takes a long moment reading through everything, then thinking after. There's a whole mess of feeling like shit that's starting to sink in. It wasn't enough that people might be idiots and go after Bucky, even when he wanted to warn them so they could keep away from him. Now Brian—god, Brian...]

Why does Brian have to make literally everything worse?

[He sounds tired again, but terribly frustrated over that.]

If I'd known he was going to go fucking this up worse I wouldn't have said anything. I...

[No wonder Natasha was mad at him. No wonder Watson's upset. And as much as Watson told him not to get sucked in by the guilt, this is making it unavoidable.]

How do I fix this?

You didn't know. [ Clint sighs heavily for the millionth time. ] You fix it by being careful with what you say. Right? Next time, we don't make a huge fuss on the public network and get everybody all riled up.

It'll blow over this time, I think. The situation with the Joker? That's - that's gonna get more people's attention.

Don't let this get under your skin. Feathers. Whatever. Okay? You messed up. You learn from it.

[This was all a lot easier when it was just John being a dick over him not being Real Dave. Him not being Real Dave didn't have consequences where people go trying to find Bucky or get their brains messed with because some whackjob idiot tried to put in his two cents on the situation.]

[It's already under his feathers and the skin beneath, and it's going to stay there.]

But what if someone gets hurt?

If it wasn't you that did it, someone else was gonna get that out in the open. You're not the only person Bucky's scared.

People get hurt. That's just - it's just the way it is. You gotta do whatever you can to help them, but you can't take it all on you when it happens, or you burn out faster than a firework. You wanna help? Keep telling people they can trust us to make sure Bucky's not gonna hurt anybody else. Okay?

[He makes a noncommittal 'mm' noise. He's feeling a lot more reluctant to open his mouth about this at all at this point.]

[Which is why, after a moment, he hangs up.]

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[network] @username; text; night 164 [open]

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