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[Carol is seated in front of her console, in civvies. Actually, sitting might be the wrong term. She's more floating a few inches above her chair, legs crossed. She does this sometimes without thinking when she's sitting. She looks mostly unbothered by this whole thing. A little frustrated maybe but at most it seems to be a minor inconvenience]

So. Alternate universes are a bitch, huh? Or whatever you'd classify this as. You would think whatever bigger power it is you believe in would have decided by now that this has happened to me enough but I guess not. Oh well, what can you do? [Said oh so casually like she has just seen way too much of of this shit. Which she has. Weird happenings are sort of a thing in her life ]

Anyway, alternate universe craziness aside, my name's Carol. Nice to meet you guys. Under the circumstances and all. I'm sure you hear stuff like this a lot but let's just get this out of the way first: What's the progress on not being here anymore?

And while I'm asking things, how many people here are from Earth? Better yet, who here has heard of the Avengers, the X Men or Captain America? Or who knows anything about superheroes at all, even if it's not any of the things I just mentioned? Let's just say I want to know for my own reference.

[She'd also like to see just how many people ended up here from her world. Or a world similar to hers. Having more superheroes around never hurt. She pauses and glances off to the side, looking at something intensely for a minute as if considering something very important before turning back to the console]

Unrelated but can the fires around here actually burn things? Just, you know, curious.

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[He subtly checks the encryption before he reacts at all; it's better than his, at least. Should suffice. He doesn't like being recognized - it hasn't ended well before now, not well at all... Is there even a point to pretending any more? She recognized him somehow. He isn't sure how, he doesn't know how she knows him, but it sets his teeth to grinding that it's not an uncommon occurrence. He just forces it through his head what he and Toro talked about weeks ago: no one else they really know is here, no one can threaten them.]

Impossible for a guy to lay low around here with you people carryin' on, y'know that?

Please. You gave me plenty of signs. Talking about Cap and the Invaders, saying you're a soldier during World War II, the whole not envying yourself thing...god, I even recognize the face. You're a lot younger than I'm used to but still. [This is weird. The last time she saw Bucky at this age, he shot at her. And then there's the fact that she just saw Sin killing Bucky at home. She's suddenly not sure how to approach this]

...I realize this is probably weird for you. I mean, some woman you've never met knowing you. Sorry about that. We know each other better in the future when you're older.

[He does grit his teeth a little, when she pokes at his story. Any soldier during the war would give the kinds of answers he gave, he doesn't see what's wrong with it - except this place only seems to bring the extraordinary, and the residents assume that holds constant. He doesn't have many options for changing it, though; he doesn't know enough about the modern world to pretend he's from that time. But she recognizes his face somehow, so it's not entirely his story.]

It happens more often than you'd think. [He says tightly, double-checking the encryption.] Nice try, though. I don't get older.

[Carol raises an eyebrow]

What do you mean you "don't get older"?

IF you don't know, then I damn sure ain't gonna believe you know Cap.

Wait wait...you're talking about dying, right? You mean no one's told you....

Holy shit, Bucky. Yeah, you die. But you come back. No one's mentioned that to you?

[As a matter of fact, no one has. Toro doesn't know and neither does Nita, and he hasn't really trusted anyone else here because of everything that's happened to him. The statement sends him reeling, though, turns his world upside down all over again, and god, this really gets old.]

...I don't think I want any of this on the network. [He sounds a little distant when he says it, though he clearly needs to hear more. He can't avoid it, people already know more about him than he does.]

...Yeah. Yeah, okay. [She's talking to this kid, can't be more than twenty, and telling him all this shit about his future. It can't be easy and she feels bad for putting this on him but he deserves to know]

Do you want to know at all? Because I can meet you somewhere if you do.

Not really, but people 'round here love tellin' me things about myself. Lies, mostly. Even got some creep running around calling herself my granddaughter. [Yeah, he's seen her talking to Carol, and he's making it damn clear right now that they are not in any way related.

He pauses for a second, glances off to the side. Does he want to meet with this dame? Not really, but at the same time, he hates being the last one in the dark, especially when it comes to this.] Wood Sector. [And then he gives the name of a little cafe there before he switches off the feed. She can come find him.]

That Rikki girl? Yeeeeeah, not sure what's up with that. As far as I know, you don't have any kids. Kinda impossible to have grandkids if you don't have kids first. [Shrug]

Wood sector. I'll be there. [She takes a deep breath when he cuts the feed, covering her face with her hands for a minute. God, how the hell is this gonna go? She doesn't think the answer to that is "well". But she gets up and wanders into the cafe a bit later anyway, looking for Bucky]

[He's not sure why it's a relief to hear that this girl doesn't know what the fuck that stalker dame is on either. He feels a little vindicated there, maybe. At least he can say for sure she's a liar now.

He's waiting in the cafe when she gets there, seated comfortably at a back table with a cup of weak coffee, wearing his uniform pants, boots, and a plain white t-shirt. The costume is a little conspicuous, he's saving it for a worthwhile occasion. He's sitting casually, but he's got a knife hidden in his boot, and he can easily bend over to get it if he runs into trouble.]

[She spots Bucky at one of the back tables and carefully approaches, giving him a little wave. She has no idea how to approach this without making it more awkward than it already is]

So. Hey. I'm here like I said I would be. [He looks so young. How can this really be the Bucky she knows?]

[He just quirks an eyebrow at that greeting and nods once, taking another sip of his coffee, watching her over the rim of the cup. He's wary, cautious, but it's all hidden beneath a casual air.] You are. Sit down, I guess.

You wanna tell me why you're the next in a long line of people playin' sick jokes on a dead guy here?

[Carol sits down across from Bucky, running a hand through her hair and trying to seem like she has any idea what she's going to say to him. Which she doesn't. At all. She's really bad at planning]

Sick joke? Why would I do that? I've got better things to do than tell someone he's alive when he's not. I'm telling you the truth.

My alleged "granddaughter"- [And yes he's using air quotes.] -said the same thing. Forgive me if I don't believe it, considerin' my best friend says I've been dead for four years.

Yeah, Rikki. I've got my doubts on that too. I guess she's from some alternate universe so not really your granddaughter. Because the you I know doesn't even have kids so it's kind of impossible to have a grandkid. [Waves a hand]

Toro, right? Because I've talked to him and he's from like 1950 something so from his point of view, you are dead. You haven't come back yet for him. But I'm from 2011 and you're definitely back. I just saw you not that long ago. [When Sin killed you. MOVING ON]

Either way, she needs to stop runnin' around telling people that. We're not related, she's just delusional. [And his tone implies 'not very smart', considering who she's pissing off.]

'49, actually. And frankly, ma'am, that's impossible, considerin' I went down in an explosion over the water. It's not the kinda thing you walk away from.

Have you told her that? Because she's like sixteen. Chances are she just doesn't know it bugs you. [Wow you are even grumpier than the Bucky she knows]

Yeeeeeeah, here's the thing though. Science is weird. The world we come from is weird. People come back from the dead, there are aliens living on Earth, mutants, people with superpowers, alternate Earths...all that crap. I mean, look at Cap. He's not exactly a normal human, is he? I've exploded before too. I came back.

From the conversation we had when I got here, right after I learned I'd been dead for four years, I'm pretty sure she got that. [He was not happy to be talking to her and he was not happy to hear what she had to say.] Age is no excuse. [Hell, he's only 20.]

Cap's a super-soldier. I'm not. [Which he's had rubbed into his face way, way too many times in the last four years with the Invaders.]

Yeah, well, maybe she'll back off eventually. I don't know. I've never met the kid before now but apparently she knows some of the same people I do. Like I said, alternate Earths are weird. [She could tell Bucky about meeting him and see if he remembers but.....]

I know that. Lots of heroes don't have powers. Doesn't mean they can't do things. [She sighs and runs a hand through her hair] Look, let me just......okay, would it help if I tell you how you come back? Or maybe show you my superpowers, so you at least know I'm telling the truth about that?

If she doesn't, she's gonna regret it. [Yeah he's really never going to like her.]

And I also know that better than anybody, lady. The point is, I'm not a super-soldier, or an Atlantean, or an android, or a guy with fire powers, and people like me don't walk away from point-blank explosions. [Basically, 'I'm a regular human being, so I'm not going to believe I'm alive through what I went through'.] So yeah, I'm not gonna believe it until you tell me how the hell I managed to survive that and why my best friend doesn't know about it.

Yeah, yeah. Don't ask me. I seriously don't know what's up with the kid. [Shrug]

Okay, fine. So, the explosion. You were blasted into the water. The thing is, the water was freezing cold. You were frozen and the ice preserved you. Years later they pulled you out of the ice and thawed you out. [Wow that sounds like bullshit. Marvel universe why the fuck do you exist] Which I know sounds stupid but it's what happened. There's probably some crazy scientific explanation for it but I'm not a scientist. Anyway, after you were thawed, it turns out you were alive. The ice preserved you. The explosion blew your arm off so they gave you a cybernetic replacement. [Just gonna....leave out the whole Winter Soldier thing]

And the reason Toro doesn't know this is because it hasn't happened for him yet. He's from way back in the past. They don't find you for...a long time, from his time point.

[He just kind of listens, holding a cup of coffee, looking a little distant while she goes on. Normally? He'd call bullshit. But Nita had said the same thing had happened to Cap, just about, and they'd gone down in the same waters... Still, Steve had the serum. Bucky had nothing but a lot of training, which wouldn't save him from ice. He's just going to ignore the twist in his gut at hearing that he loses an arm. He's seen it happen to other soldiers, but the thought of it happening to him...]

...The same thing happened to Cap, right?

[She's sort of glad he's heard about Steve]

...Yeah. Same thing happened to him. They found him a little before you. Now you're both members of a team of heroes called the Avengers. Actually, Cap was one of the ones who built the Avengers.

[That jives with what Nita told him, for the most part. He didn't see them conversing on the consoles, so maybe it's not a coincidence...]

How long before? Namor's cousin Nita knows about Steve but not me, and I got the impression he'd been around as far as she knew for a while already.

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