CONFLUENCE 03

[metamods]

THUNDERSTRUCK

This time there was warning. Any being with precognitive abilities finds themselves brought to their knees a few hours before the event, plagued with a hazy vision of chaos and fear. There's not enough detail to say what is to happen, but at least they have the where and when.

Excelsior, Washington.

The people seem annoyed when they are told to evacuate. After all, Excelsior was built to last. This is a city exempt from the unpredictability of nature. They have weather control systems set up to ensure nothing disrupts their research. This a city built upon scientific advancement, with every inch of infrastructure reliant upon it, and they are confident that they are safe within its borders.

And even without the stubborn minority, the Alliance knows there isn't enough time for a full evacuation. But still, they try. They call upon every available hero to race toward whatever chaos may be about to drop over the city. The Society has sent a few faces too, more quietly. Whether to help or hinder is anyone's guess, as there's whispered encouragement to do both.

The city isn't anywhere near empty when the air goes very still. Everyone and everything pauses and looks skyward as a few drops of rain begin to fall, and the artificial sky fades to reveal roiling clouds.

The Confluence begins.

ITS RAINING (SUPER) MEN

Rain slashes sideways as the skies darken, taking unnatural colors with every flash of lightning. It's beautiful and awe-striking, but knowing that somehow this bizarre phenomenon is the calm before the storm keeps anyone on the ground from enjoying it. Even the those who lack self preservation in the scientific community don't want to investigate the cause of this.

There's a flash of light and a boom. Those still caught in the streets waiting evacuation brace themselves.

And then people begin to fall.

If you are one of these people, you awaken to find yourself hurtling towards the ground at breakneck speed. You come into awareness just in time to register you're about to make impact with the ground, or a car, a building, whatever is underneath you. The impact pulverizes the surface strike, leaving a sizable crater, and as you pull yourself up you find yourself unharmed. Yet there's energy crackling in the air around you. If there are bystanders near you they whip out cellphones to capture the occurrence for their followers or for scientific posterities, crowding around the craters a buzz of excitement. Some of the more fearful ones simply turn and begin running in hopes they can beat the storm.

CRYPTO OR CRYPTID

Confluences give people powers. That's part of the deal. And while those of you who just fell from the sky are discovering your new gifts, others are also suddenly uncovering their own brand new talents.

Excelsior isn't exactly known for natural superpowers. Most of its heroes are self-made geniuses, armed with metasuits or other augments. Those that do have powers got them from scientific accidents, transforming due to experiments gone wrong or accidentally tumbling into toxic waste. They have emergency medical protocols ready for that - not for random people on the street suddenly gaining abilities.

Newly empowered townspeople may jump in to help deal with the evolving chaos, but their lack of control of their powers makes them a bigger threat than whatever threat they were trying to stop. Others will shamelessly take advantage of the chaos to live their villainous dreams, robbing stores and taking revenge on their shitty bosses, landlords, or exes.

The reserve members of the Guardian Alliance spring into action. The heavy hitters are elsewhere, trying to deal with the loss of power and getting the city back online, and so you're left with the rookies trying to keep pace. Many of them are inexperienced and unable to keep up with the raw power and ruthlessness of newly awakened metas. Fantastic, an aerokinetic and one of the newer recruits, seems to be the only one even remotely holding his own.

It's clear they need your help to contain this!

The storm doesn't peter out after the new arrivals have all landed, either. The panic and chaos below seems to fuel it to a second peak. Clouds roil, electricity snakes, and the thunder builds into a deafening crescendo. Then with one final, blinding burst of light, everything goes dark and quiet.

The power is out.

More than just the power — Excelsior is out. The powergrid has been downed, its internal networks corrupted, anything that makes the city function is completely fried, that last surge of the storm apparently having acted as an EMP blast. All of Excelsior's internal systems are now offline. The lights are all out.

Vehicles are stalled out in the streets. And then comes the first crashing boom of a falling hover car. There are more still in the air, but anyone who might be in a position to save them will have only moments to do so before they smash apart on whatever or whoever is unlucky enough to be stuck below them.

And it's not just that. Hospitals are now without power.

VLOG SQUAD STRIKES BACK

In every disaster, the best and worst of human nature can be found. The best shines in every outstretched hand and combined effort, in every life saved. The worst is a gaggle of young adults that live together in the city's least favorite content creator house, known with equal parts irritation and secondhand embarrassment as The Vlog Squad. It seems five of the eight streamer/vlogger/influencers have developed meta powers, including one with the power to record, edit, and broadcast with her mind. The entire group made an on-stream pact to become (non-guild affiliated) supervillains, and their views are skyrocketing.

One of them jumps off a building to demonstrate how he can put holes in everything below him.

Playlist, the ringleader with a sizable following on Youtube and TikTok, has the ability to Freeze, Rewind, Fast Forward reality. Be unlucky enough to be caught in her gaze and find yourself frozen in place, talking in reverse, or zipping around faster than you can control. Good luck getting someone to understand you when you sound like a chipmunk.

Then there's there's the second in command, Filter, an up and coming Instagram star. Filter's powers seem to be tied to their phone. If they get a picture of you in the air - welcome to anti-gravity, you're now stuck floating like a balloon until someone can get you back to Earth. If they slap a sepia filter on an unflattering photo of you, you're now encased in stone until someone drops a compliment. Each filter does something a little different and the unfortunate effects are yours to find out.

The rest of their squad is less notable, both in terms of power and in terms of following. There's a young man who can project his voice for miles around. A young woman who can compel people to dance to the beats dropped by her literal soundcloud. There's one unfortunate fellow whose only real power seems to be to turn people's heads into emojis for 30 seconds.

They're targeting known heroes, but will settle for property damage if it means getting attention. New metas may find themselves accosted by a unpleasant young adult with a camera, mockingly asking if they plan to become heroes. No matter the answer, the result is the same - they'll mock your choice and reasoning and try to get away with a cruel prank.

POWER RESTORED

The power is restored. With it, a belated message makes it to guild and society phones: the guild says restrain the Vlog Squad however you can and await authorities.

Meanwhile a very different message hits the airwaves. Mechanima's digitized voice comes across official channels, torn between amusement and annoyance. He says deal with them, don't care how you do it, but start with the broadcaster.

Once that's done, the guild places a call back to its headquarters to bring everyone back with a teleportation spell. The spell reaches out for whatever metahumans it can find in the area and pulls.

All the metahumans who were involved in the Confluence — new arrivals and old — to a white training space that has already transformed into a luxurious waiting room.

Atomight arrives quickly and makes the following announcement:

Thank you for your help out there. The casualties would be so much higher were it not for those of you who risked your lives to save strangers. To those of you grappling with your new abilities, please rest assured that this room will give you a much needed reprieve. We have staff on site who can work with you to gain control of you new abilities, and nullifiers if you find it's still too much.

You are the third set of newly powered individuals this confluence has brought. Though many of you are native to this world, others among you have come from far off universes. To those of you who have been flung far from home, we'll put you in connection with the others. Many of them are here today and can advise you of what your new reality is here.

We of the Guardian Alliance are committed to doing everything we can to get you home, and to give you some time to get your feet under you. And as this may be your home for a while longer, I wish to formally extend an invitation to those of you who wish to use your powers to defend the innocent to join us.

They hand out cellphones to all present. Once everyone gathered has been looked over and attended to they're directed to the Diadem in and handed a credit card.

Later into the night, another message comes across those phones. The Society of Villainous Reformation formally extends an invitation to all those villainously inclined. Reply for more info.

IN SUMMARY

• New arrivals are falling from the skies. They're unharmed despite what should be a lethal impact. People in the city also begin developing superpowers upon landing.


• Players are free to create their own powered NPCs for these encounters and can use them.


• A notable group of online content creators called the Vlog Squad have developed powers and are terrorizing the city and are livestreaming every minute thanks to their powers.


• The Vlog Squad has declared on camera that they do not intend to join any guild and are already showing signs of disrespecting the code. For those already committed to guilds, this means:

  Atomight will ask player characters in the Guardian Alliance to deal with them peacefully.
  
  Mechanima demands that members of the Society of Villainous Reformation deal with them — whether this means incapacitating them, forcing them to join, or killing them is their choice.

• If anyone wants to engage Mechanima or Atomight, HERE is a top level where we will summarize their responses to PC questions and comments. Please also reply to this comment with what your character plans to do with the Vlog Squad. We encourage you to make posts on the OOC comm plotting out conflict and responses. You may also use this top level to ask event-specific questions about the effects on this page! (Please refer general questions about the setting to the FAQ, and refer any player plots to the PLOTTING page.)

VLOG SQUAD ENCOUNTERS

For each event with a clear antagonistic NPC force — such as the Vlog Squad, in the February arrival — interested players can pitch their characters' encounters with those NPCs. Whether characters are heroic and suited to the role or not, the aim is the group effort of pitching in, so we highly encourage collaborating on these encounters. Once enough NPC encounters have been submitted, we'll determine if and how the trouble has been addressed, and select one of those encounters to be the final, conclusive one in the game. Everyone else's encounters will also have taken place, but may have been temporary stopgaps in addressing the conflict rather than a conclusive blow. For this Confluence, we are asking that submissions be finalized by 3/5.

How it works:

• Reply to the relevant top-level comment with an encounter and/or questions about the encounter. The mods are happy to go back and forth with before locking in exactly what a character or group of characters does. Any conversations between characters and NPCs will most likely be happening prior to combat unless specified by the players.


• The mods ask that players present two options. In one version, the character or group of characters kills, immobilizes, or otherwise apprehend the villain(s). In the other version, one way or another, the villain escapes or overcomes the character or group of characters. Players who wish to have a specific spot in the timeline (near to the beginning or near to the end) should make this request explicit, and the mods will make efforts to accommodate this.


• The mods will RNG the results for the final encounter. For all other submissions, the escape/overcome option is selected. Open calls for collaboration which result in multiple player characters contributing to an idea or solution (see: Kamala Khan's solution to the Cerberus fight) have a much higher chance of being the final encounter, as we want to reward player collaboration and innovation. Please be sure that after everyone has weighed in you return to the top-level comment to report exactly what is happening and who is doing what.


• The mods will reply to player submissions with a brief outline of how all of the run-ins go, whether it's a fight or a slapstick series of hilarious accidents that involves the character(s).

Request NPC encounters using the following form —
<B>Characters involved:</b> Name (username) <b>Details of the encounter:</b> What's the plan? <B>How might the villain escape or overcome the player character(s)?</b> <B>How would the player character(s) kill, immobilize, or apprehend the villain?</b>

EXAMPLE—

Character(s) involved: The Iron Giant and Hank Hill
Details of the encounter: Hank will ride in Iron Giant's hand as they search the city for the Vlog Squad, eventually spotting them in a public park. They land explosively in the middle, throwing all of the squad off of their feet while the Iron Giant sends out a signal to scramble their livestreams and begins trying to catch the offenders up in both hands. Hank will try to tackle at least one of them.

How might the villain escape or overcome the player character(s)? Playlist slow motions Iron Giant and they easily duck its grasp, and Filter leaves Hank floating upside down as they make their escape.

How would the player character(s) kill, immobilize, or apprehend the villain? Iron Giant grabs Playlist before she can slow it, then picks up and captures all but Emoji; Hank throws a branch and beans that guy right in the head. Iron Giant gathers him up too, and they turn them in to the first batch of emergency responders they find.

Comments

Bucky Barnes | MCU

[sinistral]

Crypto or;
The whole being hurtled through the sky thing was getting really old. Bucky had pretty strong feelings about it the first time around; he definitely didn't need a second experience to know he didn't like it one bit. But once more with feeling or something like that; Bucky pulled himself up off the ground and then had to quickly duck a bolt of lightning coming from someone's eyes.

What the hell. Seriously, world? Seriously?

He rolled behind a car that had thus far escaped most of the mounting chaos caused by Lightning Eyes Dude. Sounded like the guy was panicking pretty badly, so perhaps the damage wasn't intentional. Or it could all be an elaborate charade, that possibility hadn't escaped him. But no one actively seemed to be doing anything useful about it, which just made Bucky sigh. This crap had gotten old, fast.

"Close your eyes!" he yelled, leaning out from the cover of the car just enough to get a better look at the scene. "Close your damn eyes!" Maybe not the best plan, but certainly worth trying.


Vlog Squad;
Maybe a guy who was once known as the Winter Soldier shouldn't critique other people's names. Glass houses, blah blah blah. Maybe Bucky was finally showing his actual age and far too much of the kids-these-days attitude.

Or maybe this Filter person was just a prick.

Floating — stuck — in midair and wearing a flower crown, Bucky Barnes was not feeling very generous at all. While he very much didn't want to fight, the inclination to give that particular nuisance a punch with the metal fist grew with every moment he had to wear the silly thing. When the flower crown started creeping down his left side, vines twisting and winding around his arm, was when he almost lost it. "You've got to be kidding me!"


Power Restored;
Teleportation? Bucky decided he was over that as well. At least this time it didn't come with rain and explosions and jackass vloggers. It did come with a speech that offered far less information than he would have liked, but Bucky would take what he could get. Importantly for now were food and shelter, and dry clothing. Or the first two at least; he'd have to see about the third on his own apparently, but at least the credit card could probably cover that need.

But first? Food. And what was even better than the idea of a meal? A coffee shop right by the hotel. Caffeine would more than suffice as a first stop, and Bucky wasted no time in procuring the largest, blackest brew the shop had. Unfortunately for him, on his way out of the shop he bumped into the person coming in and while his reflexes were fast enough to mostly catch the cup, he also ended up crushing it in the process. Coffee, meet floor. And clothes. And probably other person's shoes too.


Wildcard;
Your choice; you're welcome to contact me if you want to plot something out. Your character can totally recognize Bucky from the original TDM and wow look at that, he's been yanked through time to now, isn't that weird. Wanna be roommates? Hit me up and we'll chat. Wanna get into shenanigans? Come at me bro. Please feel free to use brackets if that's your preference and I will happily match style. As far as timeline is concerned, Bucky is early Civil War and my only request is for no spoilers for the latest Spider-Man as I haven't yet seen it.

Crypto or; i have this icon so i had to

[fastandcurious]

Drift had come to a rubber-burning, tire screeching halt in his alt-mode when some poor guy was suddenly shooting arcs of electricity from his eyes. Thankfully, he hadn't look in Drift's direction yet--but Bucky yelling from behind him might well change that.

"Don't attract his attention, idiot!" He protests, voice heavy with electronic alteration. And then the guy is of course, looking towards them.

"Close your eyes--!" Drift says hurriedly. He has two choice here: get hit by the lightning, or move out of the way and let the tiny, fragile organic get hit by lighting.

He's pretty sure he can take this.

He hopes. So he lurches himself forward with a roar of his engine and a rumble of tires on pavement to try and create some space. No need for anyone else to get zapped, right?

"Get back!"

i mean, why HAVE the icon if not to USE the icon, right?

[sinistral]

What.

The.

Fuck.

Was that—

How did——

You know what? Bucky decides in that moment that he doesn't care that there is a freaking car and it's talking at him. What next? Coffee maker judging him for how he brews his morning cup of Grumpy Old Man Coffee? He's not anywhere near ready for that so if the alternative is car, well, beggars can't be choosers.

One day though. One day.

"You got a better—" He doesn't finish the sentence because Eye Guy looks over in their direction and the thing Bucky hates more than anything else, more than strange places and teleportation and talking cars, is electricity. He forcibly ignores the shiver that wants to run down his spine because he has to move, now.

Or maybe he doesn't, considering that the car puts itself between him and the guy. That goes so beyond the whole talking thing that Bucky's brain just nopes out for a fraction of a second. (Later, he'll think it's cool. Right now? What the hell even.)

But as long as the car seems willing to help — and Bucky is totally willing to look past the weirdness of that entire situation, yes he is — and Bucky's own brain is telling him that he shouldn't just slip away, maybe a different kind of escape could work. If the guy wasn't going to close his eyes — or maybe he couldn't, who knew? — then perhaps knocking him out is the best course of action. So with great personal conquering of demons (talking cars!!!) Bucky crouched down in That Pose That The Hero Uses When He's About To Duck Into The Fight (you know the one).

"I need to get behind him!"

Re: i mean, why HAVE the icon if not to USE the icon, right?

[fastandcurious]

Well. This guy looks like he's willing to put up a fight, so that's a relief. Sort of? He'd been hoping the guy would run for it and then he could get the hell out of there. At least he seems to want to help. Drift winces--it's kind of weird seeing a car wince--as a blast of lighting slams into him and sends a scent of ozone and heated metal rolling into the air. The electricity rolls across him and Drift really doesn't like it. That one hurt but more might overload his systems entirely.

Better act fast, carboy.

"I'll keep him distracted then--" And then the car peels off towards the poor guy with lightning eyes with a screech of tires. As he closes in, it seems almost certain that the car is going to slam into the guy who's still panicking, half turning away from the oncoming vehicle--and then the car lurches upwards twisting and well, transforming into a massive humanoid shape that launches itself over the man and then lands into a skidding crouch on the other side with a terrific crash that sounds like a multiple vehicle pileup. The terrified newly powered metahuman turns his head to watch the spectacle (and to blast Drift with another burst of lighting).

Hopefully it's enough of an opening. You know, as long as Bucky doesn't stop to gawp at Drift, too.

[sinistral]

Look isn't a car supposed to be a safe place in a thunderstorm? Something about conducting the charge to the ground but the tires are insulators? Whatever the case Bucky's not so sure the strike should smell quite like that but it's already a weird day, so why not?

Of course, then the car not only drives at Lightning Dude, it does... whatever the fuck that just was. And you know what? Bucky's sorry he ever grumbled about the talking car in the first place because what. Even.

Too bad alcohol doesn't do much for his metabolism because Bucky needs a very stiff drink.

Still, there is Lightning Dude to worry about and the guy's attention is firmly on the car-turned-giant-robot. Good. It gives Bucky the opening to run up behind the guy — a full super soldier speed run, because he had spent a moment to try to process what he'd just seen — and clamp an arm around his waist. The other hand goes under the jaw, to force the guy's face skyward. Hopefully no low flying birds (or planes or supermen) get caught by the lightning blast.

"Close your goddamn eyes already!" Will he? Hopefully. But if not Bucky's prepared to try knocking him out.

[fastandcurious]

Wanting a drink after watching a car turn into a twenty-eight foot tall robot is pretty normal, Bucky. Drift would probably want one too if he's honest. Drift is flinching back, ready for another lighting blast, but thankfully Bucky is on the ball despite his surprise. The lightning guy is yelling and flailing, panicking even as Bucky grabs hold of him.

Thankfully, it seems to come to him that maybe he should listen and he finally closes his eyes, temporarily removing the danger of random lightning taking out either of the two.

"Oh, thank God--" Drift groans and slumps down to sit in the middle of the street.

"Thanks." That to Bucky,

[sinistral]

Look, Bucky has no illusions about the fact that he can't trust his brain sometimes. But honestly HYDRA had never come up with transforming robot cars so the weirdness is kind of a relief.

The other relief comes from the guy closing his eyes, finally. Look at that, common sense winning the day. Who would have thought? Bucky doesn't know how long it'll last though, considering that sight is pretty natural. He should probably come up with a way to make sure the guy doesn't have another incident.

He'll answer the car first though. Car-robot-thing. Whatever. "Yeah, you too." Team effort and all. "Hey, see anything that might be useful as a blindfold for this guy?" Because Bucky's not letting him go until he's more sure they're not gonna get accidentally zapped.

vlog squad!

[monomachy]

It's a miracle Diana hasn't gotten lost in this strange city. She's been running around for a while now, soaked to the bone from the rain, though it doesn't seem to bother her much. At every corner, she sees something that takes her a few seconds to process: a new type of car, a neon sign, a man hanging midair with a metal arm--

A man hanging midair with a metal arm.

That takes a little more than a few seconds to comprehend, but his yell snaps her out of her circling thoughts. Diana rushes towards him, one hand resting on the Lasso at her hip in case whatever or whoever did this to him is still around. As she gets closer, she can see that there are... flowers? Wreathing his head and arm? This is almost too much. But she manages to keep a hold of her wits, and jogs to a stop in front of him, brows drawn together. He doesn't look injured, but still she asks: "Are you okay? Can you... come down?" He probably would have already if he could, but this is still quite the scene to digest. She doesn't see Filter lurking nearby, watching the scene.

😍

[sinistral]

Yup, just a man hanging in midair with a metal arm and a flower crown. Just another day ending in Y, right? At least the latest newcomer seems interested in more than just taking pictures and laughing. Small miracles.

Bucky manages to resist rolling his eyes; if he could come down, he would have already. But sometimes he remembers the manners he'd been taught ages ago so instead of snapping something snarky at her he answers plainly. "Nope, stuck. Haven't figured out how— look out!"

Behind her, Filter ducks out of the shadows of an alley, phone raised and ready.

[monomachy]

Diana blows out a slow breath, hand still resting atop the lariat. It begins to glow a soft gold, but she doesn't yet pull it from her hip. She's pretty sure she can reach him from where she's standing. "Let me--"

His warning comes just before she finishes her thought, and she whirls in time to see Filter behind her, phone raised. In the moment it takes her to turn, his camera finger is faster than her; before she's even taken one step, she feels herself floating into the air as well, and something spreading through her hair. A laugh, a few more camera clicks, and the rogue vlogger dashes back into the safety of the alleyway.

Diana narrows her eyes after him, then turns her attention to the equally unfortunate man in the air beside her. Incredulity paints her face. "This place is very strange."

[sinistral]

He hadn't meant for her to fall into the same trap he did, and it likely shows on his face. Of course it was Filter's fault more than anything, but that didn't make being stuck in midair while flowers twisted into their hair any easier.

"That's an understatement," Bucky grumbles, then sighs. She hardly deserves his grumpiness when she'd only stopped to help. "I'm sorry I got you stuck up here too. But maybe together we can figure a way down."

[monomachy]

His irritation is understandable, and her own is mounting. This isn't the first time she's been caught up by one of these vloggers. Their abilities aren't like anything she's ever seen before, and it's difficult to get a grasp on what, exactly, they can do.

Diana exhales slow, gathering her thoughts, and shakes her head. "It isn't your fault I was slow to react." It shames her, and she has no excuse to make; Antiope had taught her better, would have expected better. She feels more vines creeping through her hair and reaches up, plucking an aster tangled up in some laurels from her head. She smiles a bit, and puts them back in her hair.

She scans the area, looking for anything that might help them. She's still able to move her arms, and she thanks Zeus for that; her earlier encounter with Playlist left a sour taste in her mouth. Her hand hovers over the lariat once more, and its glow intensifies, a soft golden light cutting through the rain. "I could try to pull us back down to the earth, but I need an anchor."

[sinistral]

"Well, I don't know where you're from, but I'm not exactly used to people who can do all these crazy things. I think you have a fair excuse." The are some pretty crazy abilities back home, but Bucky's managed to steer clear of that kind of thing for a couple of years now. He's not exactly thrilled to be thrust into whatever this is now.

He pushes his own crown of petunias and black dahlias back from his face; between the flowers and the wet hair, Bucky's getting pretty tired of water trickling down his forehead and cheeks.

"I was thinking something similar, but I don't have a rope." She does though, which brings the idea into the realm of possibility. He considers their surroundings, then points to a street sign. "Think you can hook that? Get yourself down, then worry about me."

Power restored

[portolan]

Spending far too many hours using magic during the Confluence has left Balthier with a throbbing headache -- nothing so dehabilitating as the migraine he accidentally healed by taking on himself a few weeks ago, but still generally miserable. He's also bruised and sore from being thrown from his bike during the encounter with Filter, and he slept poorly through a night filled with night terrors. He finally decided to leave the Diadem, just to try to clear his head, so brought his laptop case to the nearest one he could find.

But he's distracted. He sees someone on the street who looks like his father, looks like Fran, looks like Filter. He stares a second too long and walks straight into Bucky.

Coffee splashes across his shoes and up his pants. The boots are leather, they'll be fine, but this is the second pair of pants he's ruined in less than a day.

"I really thought staying clean would be easier here."

[sinistral]

"I didn't think it'd be this hard to get a cup of coffee." Bucky shakes his head, looking from crushed cup to coffee-wet clothes to the other guy. Not someone he knows but that's saying little enough considering he hardly knows anyone.

Anonymity, finally! But at the cost of being in what is apparently an entirely different world; Bucky hasn't decided how he feels about that.

"'m sorry," he says, even though the other guy walked into him. But Bucky had been holding the coffee that they're now wearing so he's not entirely innocent. "Shaping up to be one of those days."

[portolan]

"And here all I wanted was tea." There's another biting remark on his tongue, but the gentleman is shaking his head and apologizing; this was an accident. Balthier could easily be rude, but to what end? He's been having better luck -- and a better time -- here being kind.

He sighs. "No, it was my fault. Let me buy you another cup. Although I warn you, it is certainly one of those days, so I am relieving myself of responsibility if the next one's lid isn't placed on properly." He holds the door open and forces on a small smile. Maybe if he acts pleasant he'll feel less irritable today.

[sinistral]

Accidents do happen. And this really is an accident, not one of those accidentally-on-purpose things.

"Maybe it's some kind of coffee shop conspiracy. 'Meet someone new by spilling your drink on them!'" He rolls his eyes at his own tone, clearly not believing in the conspiracy he'd just voiced. Then again, anything seems possible in this crazy place.

He indicates that the other guy should get in line in front of him. "At least let me buy. No reason for you to pay for two drinks, when mine caused the problem in the first place."

[portolan]

"You know, I've seen weirder, and it's generally worked out in my favor." That eases his mood some; David hadn't spilled coffee on him, but some sort of love-god-spell conspiracy had led him to a coffee shop with a person he now held dear, so maybe he could be pleasant to this person, who clearly had not meant to spill coffee on him.

"Before we descend into a never ending 'no, me' gentleman's battle, I will cede, because I do think I'll have to get these cleaned, so we'll call that even." He steps into line at the gesture. The pants will be fine in the wash, and talking to someone who isn't insufferable is easing his irritation. "I'm Balthier, by the way."

[sinistral]

"Let's go with your luck instead of my own then," he suggests; Bucky's had far too much of piss poor luck lately. He's definitely tired of being on the run and while it feels like being here should be a reprieve, in actuality it's been anything but.

He relaxes minutely when the other man cedes; it's hardly a battle but it still feels good to win at something. Even better at it being something inconsequential, something normal. Normal like a coffee shop encounter; normal like an introduction. "Bucky," he offers, along with the offer of a handshake. "I will try not to spill more coffee on you."

Power Restored;

[howlett]

The stocky man looking at these brand new coffee stains on his boots looks less than impressed, but generally too tired to make something of it.

He sighs audibly and gives Bucky a long suffering look. "Add that to long list of things you owe me," he grumbles.

It's not merely complaining though. His narrow, suspicious eyes are looking for something. A glimmer of recognition maybe.

Sorry for so late...

[sinistral]

Truly, in this day and age, how many of us don't look unimpressed and too tired to do anything about it? Maybe Logan represents us all...

But metaphors aside — and lack of a movie-style voiceover — Bucky lets his gaze travel from coffee boots to face. There's no familiarity on his part, and he doesn't bother to hide that lack of recognition.

"One thing makes a poor list," he replies. "But if it'll make you feel better I'll buy you a drink."

no worries!

[howlett]

Truly a mascot for the weary. Logan's eyes become markedly less narrow when he spots that lack of recognition on Bucky. He frowns a little. It hardly seems fair that he should have to remember everything between them and this man with the familiar face may never know of it, but the universe is annoying like that.

"Sorry, bub. Took you for someone else," he says. "You heard a lotta that around here or what?"

"Take you up on that drink though."

[sinistral]

If there's one constant in life, it's the general unfairness of the universe. Maybe one day Bucky will remember. Or maybe the other man really never existed for him. Either way hardly matters in the doorway of the coffee shop, and Bucky looks over his shoulder before taking a step back, still holding the door.

"Heard it a few times," he answers. Maybe he just has one of those faces. Or maybe he really needs to sit down and consider the whole multiverse thing. "I'd say the coffee here is great but I don't actually know yet."

[howlett]

"Hm," it's a small dissatisfied little noise but it's not without a note of sympathy. "Sorry, bub. It doesn't get less annoying— running into people you got no memory for who know all about you. If Hallmark made a card for the occasion they'd make a mint off guys like us."

"Let's find out. Colombian. Black. And whatever this guy wants," he says to server and seems to have credits enough for the both of them despite Bucky's offer.

"We met in the 40's," he says blowing steam off the top of his cup. "I was with the Devil's Brigade when I met you and Steve."

[sinistral]

"Hallmark holidays are just a scam anyway." Another moneymaker, but hey, someone's making a mint. Good for them. Bucky's not likely to see that kind of money in his lifetime but whatever; at least here no one's tried to kill him yet.

Sadly, he expects that the yet in that sentence won't last.

Still there's coffee, something plain and dark for him because if you can't drink plain black coffee then why bother? Bucky doesn't put up a fight about the payment, just going with the flow; it seems easiest.

"Don't recognize you," he reiterates, "and I'm not sure I recognize that unit either. Are you sure I'm who you think I am?" He's not going to touch on the whole Steve thing because that's complicated and honestly, he's still pissed at the man.