17690/Appalachian Atrocities: Camping at Blackstone.

Appalachian Atrocities: Camping at Blackstone.
Date of Scene:	18 April 2024
Location:	Blackstone Woods
Synopsis:	Bucky tells Steve his story of Blackwoods Hollow and gets him up to speed on current events in the town.
Cast of Characters:	James Barnes, Steve Rogers

---

James Barnes has posed:
It's late afternoon. The afternoon sunshine beating down between the trees is warm, countered by a light breeze. It's really the perfect afternoon. While a few others are chatting up the locals in the tiny little 'town' of Blackstone Hollow, West Virginia, Bucky and Steve are stuck in the woods. Blackstone doesn't even have its own post office, let alone a hotel or the like. They could have found an abandoned barn or something, but why not just take advantage of the situation and turn it into a good old fashioned camping trip.

Steve's face is just to familiar to put a town of backwards coal miners at ease for questions and Bucky? Well there's a reason Bucky doesn't want to go into town during the light of day.

He'll get to that in a minute. Right now he's busy getting a tent pitched just in case this becomes an all-nighter.

"Steve, can you toss me that other spike?" he asks while he wrestles the blasted thing into something resembling submission, kind of... it might look like an actual tent when he's finished.

Steve Rogers has posed:
The spike gets tossed in a gentle arc that anyone, let alone Bucky, would be able to snag it out of the air. Soon after there's the sound of an axe chopping through wood, as Steve has quickly cut through a dead log and is now quartering it for firewood. While it is spring already, the weather can still get kind of cold at night. Plus there's food to be cooked.

Steve Rogers glances off towards the direction of the nearby town, but doesn't ask about it, knowing Bucky has a reason for the location that he'll get to whenever he does. "I'm not sure what all the Mansion's kitchen staff put in the cooler. I got pulled away and they ended up filling it up when on their own. Was going to be a burgers and brats though," Steve says before splitting another piece of wood.

James Barnes has posed:
Bucky snags the stake out of the air and drives it into the ground. Hammer? Nah. "Seriously, Steve? You had one job," he returns. But he's smiling as he says it. It's not a smile everyone gets to see. It's mostly reserved for two people, Steve Rogers and Opal Moirai. "I hope the staffer that packed it isn't a damned vegetarian. I really don't want my 'meat' to be plant-based."

He didn't miss that glance in the direction of the town and his own blues follow along. "Everyone knows," he begins as he finds the last stake and drives it home - looks like the tent will at least stand up for a little while. "... that I have flashbacks, nightmares that fill in some of the holes in my head. Sometimes though, the holes aren't filled with bad sh... stuff."

Bucky already owes one dollar to the swear jar for 'damn', barely save himself another buck on that one. "Anyway, Blackstone Hollow, it was one of the better times."

He leaves it there for a minute while he checks the cooler. He's pleasantly surprised to find that the only questionable contents is a jar of guacamole. "Never got this, looks like baby sh..." ... "...like they pulled it from a baby's diaper." Saved another dollar.

Steve Rogers has posed:
Steve's lips quirk in a slight grin as Bucky tries to watch his language with him. "Probably some amazing cuts of steak or something," he says, as the staff tend to provide them better food in moments like this than Steve himself would usually choose. Even though it's there for the taking in the Avenger's kitchen.

"That should be enough," he says of the wood, carrying it over to stack it near to the firepit. Not that there's a firepit, but it's near to where he starts setting up a firepit.

Leaves and anything else that could catch are cleared away, and then Steve goes back and drags the rest of the log over to serve as a seat. The wood of a size that it would normally take two or three people to move it. Or one Winter Soldier or Captain America. Not even a focused one of them.

"What kind of good memories?" Steve asks, not having failed to pay attention to what Bucky is sharing of the town.

James Barnes has posed:
"Still some holes there," Bucky admits as he goes about rooting through the cooler a little more carefully. Steaks, yes, but he actually by-passes those in favor of the plain old burgers and hot dogs at the bottom of the thing. There was a time when the two of them might have pitched tents in an empty lot or a backyard as kids - it definitely wasn't steak they were eating then.

... so, it's not steak Bucky wants now. They just don't line up with the 'good memories' moment.

"I got free..." It's how these stories always start. "... I ended up here, in West Virginia. I'm not even sure how. I just knew I was running from something. I needed supplies and was looking for work." Now that the story's started, he has a hard time shutting it down. "I ran across a man, Isiah Forester. I think he took one look at me and knew I was in some kind of trouble. It didn't matter to him. He took me home, introduced me to his family. Barely a pot to piss in.." Oops, swear jar. "...but they made sure they had room at their table for a total stranger. That one meal turned into three months."

Once he's gathered what he needs for a good old fashioned, blue collar cook out, he sets the goods on top of the lid of the cooler to wait for the fire to get just right.

Steve Rogers has posed:
"A lot of good people in a place like this. People grow up having to look out for each other," Steve says with a glance around the woods.

There are also often a lot of not good people in places like that too. Though that's no different than New York really. Just they can be a little more openly bad people, in some ways.

The firepit ringed with stones to help make sure it doesn't start an unintended fire, Steve begins adding kindling in a teepee shape, and some larger wood then above it. Building fires is something they've done hundreds of times during their time in the war, not to mention before that. It isn't long before it is lit and the flames start to catch.

Steve's blue eyes look back up across the firepit at Bucky as he continues to listen to the story.

James Barnes has posed:
"This was in '67. They had a little girl, her name was Ruthie. Over those three months, she must have climbed into my bed to tell me it was okay to be afraid in the dark two dozen times. Sweet kid. I think she was maybe twelve? Then there was Isiah, his wife Rose, their son Trip and his wife and their little boy Robert James. RJ was just a baby."

Normally, Bucky would be lending a hand, but now he's caught up in it, that little bit of peace in an otherwise horrible past. "I went to work in the mines with Isiah and Trip - Isiah the third actually. Trip was eighteen or nineteen. Just a kid himself really, but a man with a family of his own too."

The entire time he's speaking, the fondness for this family colors every word, fills his expression and even smooths out some of the lines there - he's actually not scowling.

But he gives it a pause, because like nearly everything that happened to him since he fell into the cold, the story probably won't have a happy ending.

Steve Rogers has posed:
Steve moves over to take a seat on the log. He's wearing jeans and a flannel shirt with a tank top beneath. Something warm as the temperature is falling with the evening. Steve rests his knees on his elbows, hands clasped lightly together as he listens.

"They sound like a really nice family," Steve agrees, in that tone he has that just lets one know they are getting someone's honest opinion.

And Steve seems to sense the story is bound to take a darker turn. His expression is supportive. Not sympathy exactly. Something more reassuring than that. Something that expresses that bond that the two old friends have, the kind of bond that had Steve vouching for Bucky even before he'd come into SHIELD.

James Barnes has posed:
Bucky's brow furrows slightly, those little lines between his eyes returning. "I figure you can guess that they found me. One of them was holding Ruthie's hand. I went without a fight to make sure she wouldn't be harmed."

Taking a seat on that log himself, Bucky picks up a stick and pokes at the fire, just to have something to do with himself as he continues. "I didn't remember any of this until two years ago. I dug into the memories, finding the town, them. Found out little Ruthie died of pneumonia a year after I left. The more I dug the more I remembered how much I grew to love them in that short time."

He takes a steadying breath before he turns his head to look at Steve. "I've been keeping tabs on them from a distance for two years. It was one of the things I checked on while I was out and about. Isiah passed away a few weeks ago, heart gave out when he found out that his grandson, RJ, was the fourteenth man go go missing in those mines in the past three months. Trip was the fifth. Rose just lost her entire family and I need to know why. If they're still alive, I need to find them. If they're dead? I still need to find them."

Steve Rogers has posed:
The fire continues to grow, the quartered logs catching, until Steve reaches out with a boot to give them a nudge, tipping the teepee over. He stirs the logs about to arrange them better so the fire can breathe, then adds another piece of wood atop it.

His eyes keep going to Bucky during the story, and at the mention of Hydra coming for him, a tiny nods is given at the inevitable happening.

He crouches by the fire, listening there as Bucky gets the more recent happenings. "Fourteen people and they haven't found anything? Law enforcement investigated it fully?" Steve asks. He doesn't need to tell Bucky that they are going to find them. Bucky will know that from Steve's expression. Probably didn't need to see that either. Just needs to know Steve as he does.

James Barnes has posed:
"Law enforcement doesn't give a ... patootie." That was a close one. "There's one 'sheriff' in the town and he spends most of his time sucking down moonshine from up in the mountains. Nearest big town doesn't even know Blackstone is on the map, or they pretend they don't. No one's doing anything. Steve, this town is *small*, those fourteen men are about a third of the able bodied male population. There's talk of closing the mine down and that'll kill this town."

When Bucky mentioned it was a backwoods town, he wasn't joking. In fact, he even brought a sat phone because cell service doesn't really exist out here. The 'post office' is some P.O. boxes in the county store that doubles as the 'saloon' that is also the barbershop. It's that kind of town.

"I *can't* get too close to town in the daylight. I mean, I guess I could claim to be my own relative or something, but I really don't think I can put Rose through it. All I've heard has come from second hand and third hand information from other little towns up and down this mountain ridge. One thing they all are saying is that men are talking about seeing shadow figures and hearing screeches from the depths of the mines."

Steve Rogers has posed:
Steve sets a couple of logs to either side of the fire for supports, and then goes to get the grill to lay across the flames as he listens.

"Don't worry Bucky, we'll figure out what's going on. Hopefully find them. If not, at least we'll give Rose some closure," Steve says in a reassuring tone. "I would probably have a hard time blending in too I imagine," he says, having surmised the reason for camping nearby instead of going in. "Though if need be, I could get Natasha to do a little disguise for me. Wig and a beard maybe," he says, running a hand through his short-cut blond hair. "But if others are able to go in instead, we can back them up here," he agrees.

James Barnes has posed:
"Only if the wig's orange and curly." Like a clown's. Despite the gravity of the situation and the sad ending to his happy story, Bucky grins at Steve and reaches over to 'bro punch' him in the shoulder. "Or she could dress you up like a dame? You'd be awful pretty."

With the story out and enough sad information dumping for the night, it'll be burgers and dogs, marshmallows and graham crackers and talking about two best friends who couldn't have been more different, hanging tough against the world to the end of the line.