Owner	Pose
Sam Wilson	It's so late that it's early. Or it's so early that it's late. Sam's not sure of anything except that he's completely dead on his feet as he steps out of the elevator and sorts through his keys.     Still, he manages an enthusiastic greeting for Lili, Bucky's German shepherd, and takes her out for a brisk walk around the block. She gets a treat broken up and added to her kibble mix for behaving herself.     Zemo gets a bacon egg and cheese from the corner bodega (which is not as good as the one they could've picked up back in Harlem, but Sam is only learning this now) and a begrudging thanks for the assistance he's provided.     There are still plenty of files to comb through, including the bulk of the ones on RABID--Sam's holding those back while Redwing runs through a sanitization script to remove any of the mentions of the Winter Soldier project--but both the Baron and Sam himself are regular people who need to sleep every once in a while, and Sam's not going to disrespect his friend or their neighbors by housing a wanted criminal there, so back to Greenpoint they'd come.     Honestly, if Steve's neighbors aren't prepared for these kinds of shenanigans, why are they living in the same building as Captain America? That's on them.     He shoves a pillow and blanket from Steve's linen closet towards Zemo and gestures him towards the couch. "Please don't make me regret being nice to you," he says with a weary sigh before leaving Zemo to it.
James Barnes	There hasn't been hide nor hair, seen or heard, in regards to Bucky since he left the pier with Steve. But he's with *Steve* so it's all good, right? But then again, it's *Bucky*.     Who knows what'll come through the door when his key jingles in the lock to announce his impending entrance.     He pushes through the door and drops those keys on the little table next to it. He's not obviously bleeding anywhere, no bruises and he doesn't really look any more tired than he normally does. But what ARE those things in his ears? Comm units? No. They look like...     OMG, did they deafen him and give him cochlear implants? It sure the fuck seems maybe. That's definitely what those things are, made even more evident when he pulls off his baseball hat to reveal the receivers attached to the sides of his head, just behind his ears.     He closes the door with a little too much force, not a slam but it's loud. Zemo on the couch does not deter him from moving right on toward it, shoving the Baron's feet aside and sitting down in 'his spot' on that couch.
Sam Wilson	For a long, long moment after Bucky comes through the door and closes it shut hard behind him, Sam just sits there, staring up at the ceiling. He'd crashed hard in one of the living room chairs, because if he's managed to retain one thing from active duty it's the ability to sleep absolutely anywhere.     Except when there are super soldiers with no common decency wandering around making noise.     He sighs, and the fingers of his left hand spread out on the arm rest of the chair before they curl into a fist. "Good morning," he says flatly, because there's definitely nothing good about it.     It takes him a few seconds to pull himself into an actual seated position, because sure, he can fall asleep anywhere, but that doesn't mean his body can handle the effects afterward. Oof. No, he's not getting old. It's just that his body is aching in places Sam didn't even know *could* ache.     "...Uh, Buck? What the hell are those?" Sam asks after a delay. The bleariness of sleep (all, what... twenty minutes of it?) meant that the fuzzy shape that eventually resolved itself into Bucky Barnes took some blinking and narrow-eyed looks before Sam was able to take notice of the new... tech?
James Barnes	By the time Sam wakes up, Bucky has one foot on the coffee table and his sketch pad in his lap. He's so caught up in what he's drawing that it takes a few for him to acknowledge the fact that Sam's talking to him. Is he DEAF?     Finally he looks up. "What?" Shit, he's half deaf? "Oh..." He actually smiles, a real one, genuine. He doesn't do that often anymore so it might be a nice change of pace. "Steve's friend improved a little on your idea. I'm not really sure what all the science shit means, but ... they turn *those* words into a bunch of loud screeching shit so they can't trigger The Winter Soldier."     ...he didn't say trigger *me*. Huh.     "They work like comms too and if I turn the setting right, I can hear shit better, like from further away."
Sam Wilson	Sam blinks once in that face-scrunching way of someone who was absolutely not ready to be awake and yet has to be, before he wiggles himself into more of an upright position.     Ugh, he misses his boring, normal life. And how messed up is it that he's considering his time as an Avenger 'normal' and 'boring' in comparison to this right now? At least he had a semi-decent sleep schedule. And a bed. He's come back around to beds-are-nice after not really appreciating them for too long.     As the great poet Bob Dylan once said, you don't know what you've got til it's gone.     The words take about as much time to get through Sam's brain fog as it took Bucky to notice he was being spoken to in the first place. "Oh," he says.     And then he's silent for a long while. Thinking.     "That's great, Bucky!" He stands up. "Have they been tested already? You know they work?"
James Barnes	"Oh yeah, they work," Bucky replies just as his phone starts buzzing. He picks it up and fires off a one handed text, since that left one - all better now or not - just doesn't register on touch screens.     "It's not perfect, it hurts like a bitch and if it gets set off, I probably won't be much help in getting me out of there, but it's better than what we did have, yeah?"     Really, he does look TIRED, it took all night to get everything done that needed to be done. But... he also looks what? Lighter? Fucking younger even. It's like the weight he's been carrying around for the past three years is at least halved.     "Why the fuck couldn't SHIELD do this? Or something like this?" he asks, his tone a touch angry, but there's more... there's hurt underlying that anger. "I mean, this was seventeen year old kid that did this, in one night. Did they *want* to keep me under their thumb by not addressing this shit in THREE years?"
Helmut Zemo	"Because it sounds like you would be tortured regardless." Comes the formerly sleeping Zemo from the couch. "I understand you wanted it to go away. But you drilled into your skull...by a child." He sighs, completely, and utterly disappointed.   "My files...Nevermind." Zemo stands up, and walks to a nearby window.
Sam Wilson	"It hurts?" Sam comes around the couch to peer at one of the implants, not close enough to really be in Bucky's personal space, but close enough that he can examine the implant site.     Because he knows very little about cochlear implants but he *does* know that it has internal parts, which require surgery for implantation. Hence the name.     "Do you mean just when it gets set off or all the time?" The medical (ex-)professional in Sam is concerned, because obviously this is something that's happened recently enough that Bucky was without the implants all of... what, twelve hours ago?     Man, Sam has completely lost his awareness of the passage of time.     He drops down onto the chair nearest Bucky, rather than being in the one on the opposite side of the couch. "I don't know. I only came up with the basic idea recently and it's not like any of the techs are--well, were--in a position to run with it, I guess."     And it's not like Sam's attempt even *worked*.     Sam leans back and watches Zemo's path across the room. "If it works, even if it's temporary, then it's worth it. At least for Bucky's peace of mind. We're not giving up on finding a way to permanently removing the trigger words but in the meantime, while HYDRA is basically running the country..." He sighs and scrubs his face with both hands. "What a mess."
James Barnes	"Just when it goes off," he explains. "Leaves a wallop of a headache."     Then the Baron is running his pie hole and Bucky's mood goes from 'tired but relatively content' to Danger Pit Viper Incoming' in 2.2. "Nah, man, Zemo, you don't get to do that," Bucky replies flatly. "No one does, fuck that..." A little more heat that time. "None of you, nobody, knows what it was like, what it *is* like to live life looking over your shoulder every single day..."     He pushes himself up from the couch and starts for the bedroom. "You know what," he says along the way, "No, I don't owe anyone an explanation for doing something that makes *me* feel just a little bit safer in this HYDRA cockroach infested world."     He turns at the last minute before stepping into the other room and points at Sam, BINGO, at least that man gets it.
Helmut Zemo	"Let me posit. You hear the words, and the results are actually worse than you admit. Because that is the kind of person you are." Zemo turns from the window, before he continues. "So though you have peace of mind, you harm yourself more every time that you hear...them." He crosses his arms to his chest. "I understand the want. I do." So he just blinks resignedly, tossing the keys to the Ural back to their owner.
Sam Wilson	Well, that's a relief. Though Sam would have understood if Bucky was willing to subject himself to constant pain for this, it at least puts Sam at ease to know he hasn't.     "Look, Bucky's right," and Sam has no choice but to make a face at that, because those words just should not be coming out of his mouth, "What he does with his body is his choice and no one else's. And I've seen a lot of folks make much more drastic--much more final--decisions to deal with their pain."     Sam's expression closes off when Zemo mentions, or maybe just alludes to, potential side effects. He looks over to Bucky, but apparently Sam decides on presenting a united front in front of the Baron, so he just shakes his head. "It won't come to that," he says.     He gets up on his feet and follows after Bucky. "If Steve let this kid cut into your head I'm going to trust that they knew what they were doing. We'll monitor it if it gets set off, make sure there aren't any issues, okay?"
James Barnes	"Just *stop*, Zemo. Do you have any *idea* how many times I thought about driving an *ice pick* into my own ears? But didn't because Steve and Sam would have blamed themselves for not being 'good enough friends' to stop me from doing it." The keys hit the palm of his left hand with a *clank* and he curls his fist around them hard enough that he bends both the key and the metal keychain.     "This isn't about self-flagellation," big word that, for Bucky, but really... people tend to underestimate the 'smart' of him all the time. He probably reads more books in a month than most in a year when he actually has time to read. "...this is about them, what they did to me and the fact that I will do *anything* to keep it from happening again, anything."     His hand relaxes around the keys a little and he turns his attention to Sam. "Sam, I don't care if their *are* issues. She completed the entire sequences last night, every fucking word and... when the pain stopped? I was still *me*. Do you know, have any idea, what that felt like? No, you don't, you can't possibly."     He sighs, deep breath in and back out again before, "I... do a lot of things because I feel like I deserve whatever happens next. If we're out there, in the thick of it, I will put everyone else before me, every single fucking time because all of you are more worthy than me. I know you don't agree with that, Sam, but it is what it is, but this? It isn't *that*."     A beat, another breath and, "This is about *me*, Zemo, so opinions to your fucking self until there's another, better option."
Helmut Zemo	Zemo has no more words. Just distaste. Not believing a word of denial Bucky just said regarding the self-harm. And it shows on his face.   He extracts a phone from his coat, and checks it. "The sooner we get Nagel, the sooner you can be rid of me."
Sam Wilson	The thing about the ice pick makes Sam go still for a long moment, his mouth pressed into a thin line.     It looks like Sam is in physical pain, not addressing that. But Zemo is in the room, and Sam flicks his gaze back thataway before he takes a breath and shelves it for later.     Later, Bucky. Don't think Sam is gonna just drop it.     "Well tough shit, because I do care. I'm not saying we rip the things out of your head if they don't work perfectly, but you don't just install new tech and ignore it," Sam says, hands held up in an attempt to be non-threatening. "It's the same as anything else. If it starts bugging out, you take it in for the Geek Squad to look it over."     In this particular instance he has no idea who the Geek Squad is, but again, 'friend of Steve' is all the info Sam needs to know.     He looks back at the Baron. "We're working on it. In the meantime the more intel we share with each other, the harder it'll be for HYDRA to pull their 'cut off one head, two more shall take its place' crap."
James Barnes	"Yeah, about that, we move on it tomorrow," Bucky offers. "I wish we had more time, but... time got away. Opal's not sure he's going to stay put, so... it's crunch time." Not to mention that Steve is still, currently, a ticking time bomb.     "That kid wants to put lasers in my arm." It comes out with a little bark of a laugh as he's making his way back to the couch to settle back with his sketching. Somewhere along the way, he does flip Zemo the middle finger. Why? Why is this so damned irritating to him?     Because in a way, Zemo's right. It's not what HYDRA did to BUCKY that has him willing to do anything to stop them from doing it again. It's that HYDRA used him to hurt Peggy, Steve... Itsu... and he'd do anything to keep that from happening again, to keep everyone safe from him.     He'd go back to HYDRA *willingly* if it meant those fuckers didn't touch another of his 'people' again, ever.     "Safehouse he's in is in Delaware." Go figure... "He's under pretty heavy guard, our best bet is to strike before they know we're there. Being loud going in won't work in our favor."
Helmut Zemo	"Good." Zemo counters, very to the point and without much else. No-selling the being flipped off part. No satisfaction for Bucky.
Sam Wilson	Sam's eyes roll upwards and he looks away from both Zemo and Bucky for a moment, just long enough to pinch the bridge of his nose. Why is this his life? What could he possibly have done to deserve this? He's not the type to believe in karma except that this is just beyond anything a normal person should have to deal with, so maybe it was him in a past life.     Maybe he was evil. Serial killer? Scummy corporate lawyer? Audio engineer that puts police sirens in the background of radio commercials?     "Lasers? It's your *arm*, what the hell, why would it need lasers?"     He sighs as he slumps back into one of the chairs and kicks both feet up onto the coffee table. Sorry, Steve. At least Sam always uses coasters for his drinks! That makes up for it, yeah?
James Barnes	Bucky's phone buzzes and blurts out: It's your sister, put the porn down. Apparently he's taken it off silent and he's learned how to assign contact message tones.     He sets the sketch aside in favor of the phone. Something he reads makes him chuckle a little before he's one-handing a reply. Another alert, a frown and a reply.     "Uh... to shoot shit with them?" he replies with a 'duh' implied and without looking up from his phone.     Because really, Bucky Barnes needs MORE things to use to deal death with?     He is *pointedly* pretending that Zemo doesn't exist now. "Go to bed," he tells Sam. "It'll all still be here in the morning, nothing's going to explode, not even me."
Sam Wilson	Sam looks sharply over at Bucky's phone when it goes off and just says "What the fuck."
James Barnes	"Sharon," Bucky replies as he holds the phone up a little. "Just checkin' in." Which, despite the inappropriateness of the message tone? Is... Bucky's 'checking in' with someone?     Maybe that's not really him? Maybe Steve's friend is really a HYDRA plant that cloned Buck? Because when the FUCK does he EVER just check in?     Progress.
Sam Wilson	That is somehow both reassuring and concerning, but Sam is willing to admit that he does not understand Bucky and Sharon's relationship, like, at all.     And he's not looking to change that fact.     "Yeah. Okay. I'm going to bed. Don't wake me unless it's an emergency, so please don't shoot Zemo."     Sam trudges off into the bedroom and shuts the door behind him.     A few hours later, both Zemo and Bucky get a strange text about polar bears and the vitamin A content of their livers from Sam's number.
James Barnes	Half the time? Bucky doesn't even understand Bucky's relationship with Sharon. The 'It's Complicated' status on Facebook was made for them, really.     He spends a little more time completely glued to his phone, one text after another before he finally sets it aside.     "It's the best I fuckin' got to keep them as as safe as I can... until we find something better," he snarls in Zemo's direction, unable to drop the whole 'defensive' tone, but... in his own twisted, fucked up, emotionally stunted fashion... conceding that the Baron wasn't *entirely* wrong.