[He careens back at the hit to his face and staggers, shaking his head a bit to try and get the spots to stop dancing in front of his eyes and trying not to fall over, but he goes down on one knee. He doesn't seem to notice the blood flowing down from his nose, but his skull is intact, good job.
The hit throws him off enough to pause his racing and jumbled thoughts and he looks up at Dagger, more confused than anything right now.]
Who- ... chto- .. what? [The phrasing of that question might need to be adjusted especially since you just literally rattled his brain.]
[ We can't all be Steve Rogers with the kid gloves, now. ]
Who messed you up. What happened? Rogers? The metal can? I'm not having fun
with this fight, it's very emotional. I don't like emotional.
[ All that said, Dagger does crouch down to Barnes' eye level,
completely unconcerned. Barnes is flesh all over and has a metal arm.
Dagger is literally ice. Worst that happens, everyone gets to chisel frozen
Barnes bits off him. ]
[Indeed. Kid gloves aren't that helpful most of the time anyway. He spits some of the blood that got in his mouth onto the snow and goes through the question, putting it together.]
He didn't lie.
[He snaps half to himself. He doesn't like emotional either, which is part of why he's so pissed off. Part of it is just frustration at the feelings. But the statement is his way of trying to reason out how he's supposed to answer. Someone "messing him up" implies to him that they told lies to toy with his head. So if Dagger is asking what started all this, the answer is Jack, but the things said were all true things he already believed, hence the confusion and increased angry frustration that results.
When Dagger offers to keep fighting, he posits a question in return after a tense pause of dangerous staring, looking like he's about to answer with another hit to Dagger's face, but blows to his own face historically have the effect of rebooting him.]
[ The staring, for some reason, reminds Dagger of a description of
hunger that a human from the distant past described it as - an intense
feeling of drowning, but from the stomach. Though, Dagger can't drown
either, so it's not as descriptive as he expected it to be. ]
Do you want me to answer you, or is that rhetorical?
[ Hey, you never know with humans. He does sheath his lone blade for
a moment, because it's tiring to keep carrying that heavy thing.. ]
[A pause as his eyes flicker a moment, unsure. Dagger's more or less replaced Pierce in his head, he represents the same source of authority and also reinforcement, hence the instinct to not only try and kill him but seek validation from him. He's not used to being asked something like that. He's always just been appeased like a child when he becomes erratic.]
... An answer. [He wants and answer, he thinks. But there's still an unsure and guarded element to the response.]
[ This feels like parenting. All of Dagger's education on what
parents do have always sounded like particularly involved version of the
job he currently has, and he's not sure he wants more of it. Can he be a
parent? Technically he already is, because his whole team is a bunch of
whiny babies who need headpats and food 90% of the time. Barnes didn't seem
to be like that, though. ]
To make sure this crew succeeds. You do what I tell you, and you succeed at
that, we win. If you fail - if anyone in Red Team fails - then the whole
team fails.And then everybody fails and we all die.
You want a purpose, share mine - we keep the captain alive, and we keep the
crew intact. That's what Red is for. That means if someone screws up, we
get rid of them, or we make them stop screwing up. We root out the spies,
the double agents, the soon-to-be insubordinators, and we destroy them
before they make a mess. We make sure we don't become Almina.
Not on my watch. Which is yours, because . . . you know. Red Team. Stuff.
[He blinks and then glances down, seeming to take that in with a bit of effort, but his mind doesn't outright reject it. He'd always been a killing machine with a higher purpose to protect the world from itself by inciting chaos and manipulating the people to believe they couldn't have freedom. This was killing with the purpose to protect for a different reason that feels familiar in a way he only half places, but doesn't disagree with his instinct either.
There's a certain blankness that seems to start to flood over him. It's an answer that's only just good enough to keep him going forward with a direction and a reason to exist. But there's a hollowness to it, something that leaves him feeling more empty while simultaneously satisfied. Then he nods once in a detached way.]
[ Dagger's pretty sure there's something wrong with this situation,
but he doesn't know if it's his problem or someone else's. People's
feelings are dangerous things, and Dagger doesn't like to meddle with
those. ]
[Probably best not to dig too deep into things you don't yet understand.
He looks over at him, seeming a bit confused and then takes in the damage of the area and Dagger's exposed face like he's just realizing what he did in a detached daze. Then he looks down again, expression and body language shifting a bit like he's ready to take any kind of punishment he knows he deserves.]
[ Dagger pets Bucky's head (because his awareness of how to comfort humans is mixed with child education and pet care), and then gets back to his feet. ]
[His head jerks back slightly, startled but.. not as confused as he probably should be by that kind of gesture, though it's still unusual. He watches Dagger stand warily and-
He has no idea how to navigate something like this.]
[That's the best he can do. He has no idea how to gauge 'adequate comfort'.
So after a couple moments he slowly stands, steady on the outside, totally the opposite of that on the inside. A quick glance at Dagger and then a curt nod as he returns to avoiding looking at him.]
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no subject
The hit throws him off enough to pause his racing and jumbled thoughts and he looks up at Dagger, more confused than anything right now.]
Who- ... chto- .. what? [The phrasing of that question might need to be adjusted especially since you just literally rattled his brain.]
no subject
[ We can't all be Steve Rogers with the kid gloves, now. ]
Who messed you up. What happened? Rogers? The metal can? I'm not having fun with this fight, it's very emotional. I don't like emotional.
[ All that said, Dagger does crouch down to Barnes' eye level, completely unconcerned. Barnes is flesh all over and has a metal arm. Dagger is literally ice. Worst that happens, everyone gets to chisel frozen Barnes bits off him. ]
We can keep fighting if you want.
no subject
He didn't lie.
[He snaps half to himself. He doesn't like emotional either, which is part of why he's so pissed off. Part of it is just frustration at the feelings. But the statement is his way of trying to reason out how he's supposed to answer. Someone "messing him up" implies to him that they told lies to toy with his head. So if Dagger is asking what started all this, the answer is Jack, but the things said were all true things he already believed, hence the confusion and increased angry frustration that results.
When Dagger offers to keep fighting, he posits a question in return after a tense pause of dangerous staring, looking like he's about to answer with another hit to Dagger's face, but blows to his own face historically have the effect of rebooting him.]
... What's the point of me?
no subject
[ The staring, for some reason, reminds Dagger of a description of hunger that a human from the distant past described it as - an intense feeling of drowning, but from the stomach. Though, Dagger can't drown either, so it's not as descriptive as he expected it to be. ]
Do you want me to answer you, or is that rhetorical?
[ Hey, you never know with humans. He does sheath his lone blade for a moment, because it's tiring to keep carrying that heavy thing.. ]
no subject
... An answer. [He wants and answer, he thinks. But there's still an unsure and guarded element to the response.]
no subject
[ This feels like parenting. All of Dagger's education on what parents do have always sounded like particularly involved version of the job he currently has, and he's not sure he wants more of it. Can he be a parent? Technically he already is, because his whole team is a bunch of whiny babies who need headpats and food 90% of the time. Barnes didn't seem to be like that, though. ]
To make sure this crew succeeds. You do what I tell you, and you succeed at that, we win. If you fail - if anyone in Red Team fails - then the whole team fails.And then everybody fails and we all die.
You want a purpose, share mine - we keep the captain alive, and we keep the crew intact. That's what Red is for. That means if someone screws up, we get rid of them, or we make them stop screwing up. We root out the spies, the double agents, the soon-to-be insubordinators, and we destroy them before they make a mess. We make sure we don't become Almina.
Not on my watch. Which is yours, because . . . you know. Red Team. Stuff.
no subject
There's a certain blankness that seems to start to flood over him. It's an answer that's only just good enough to keep him going forward with a direction and a reason to exist. But there's a hollowness to it, something that leaves him feeling more empty while simultaneously satisfied. Then he nods once in a detached way.]
I understand.
no subject
[ Dagger's pretty sure there's something wrong with this situation, but he doesn't know if it's his problem or someone else's. People's feelings are dangerous things, and Dagger doesn't like to meddle with those. ]
Are you still gonna hit me when you get up?
no subject
He looks over at him, seeming a bit confused and then takes in the damage of the area and Dagger's exposed face like he's just realizing what he did in a detached daze. Then he looks down again, expression and body language shifting a bit like he's ready to take any kind of punishment he knows he deserves.]
No.
no subject
[ Dagger pets Bucky's head (because his awareness of how to comfort humans is mixed with child education and pet care), and then gets back to his feet. ]
So.
jfc dagger
He has no idea how to navigate something like this.]
Re: jfc dagger
[ Just relax. Or just try not to shoot anything. ]
Tell me when you're adequately comforted.
no subject
So after a couple moments he slowly stands, steady on the outside, totally the opposite of that on the inside. A quick glance at Dagger and then a curt nod as he returns to avoiding looking at him.]
no subject
So.
Let's never do that again.
no subject
Yeah...]