The Park, Friday Afternoon

[shapethecentury]

Bucky had been doing a lot of thinking over the past couple of weeks.

... And Bucky was still doing a lot of thinking, so, you could tell just how well that had gone. But at least he'd braved the outdoors again today - actually in the daytime for a change - and even had a takeaway cup of (plain, black) coffee in hand as he made his way through the park. Until he came up to the pond, anyway, and saw the flamingos and the ducks hanging around there.

A very old memory in a long-forgotten part of his brain made him wish he'd brought something to feed to the birds. But maybe he could stay and watch them for a while, even without having anything to offer.

[ooc: Open! SP warning for a while as I try to wrap up my work for the day.]

Comments

[shapethecentury]

Bucky sipped from his cup.

"That a firefighter thing?"

[designateddadfriend]

"It is, yeah." Travis nodded. Shrugged. Tried to pull his sweaty shirt away from his chest so it didn't feel like it was clinging to him. "Our equipment ways a ton, and we need to be able to use it at a moment's notice, sometimes for hours at a time. . . . Unless you live here, apparently."

[shapethecentury]

And here Bucky was wearing gloves and long sleeves outdoors in late July.

(Not that he'd been working out just now, anyway.)

He offered a little shrug. "Don't recall many fires 'round here."

[designateddadfriend]

Travis let out a very long sigh.

"Yeah. I'm aware."

[shapethecentury]

Bucky glanced vaguely back towards the MCA before looking back at Travis. "D'you find out what caused all the alarms?"

He himself hadn't stuck around past figuring out nothing had actually been on fire (this time, either).

[designateddadfriend]

Another sigh, this one at least half-groan.

"No. And it's pissing me off. If the system misfires all the time, it's just going to make people more likely to ignore it."

[shapethecentury]

"Happened about a year ago, too," Bucky offered. "At some point you might have to accept it's just the island."

Not that Bucky would ever ignore an alarm, no matter how many times it happened.

[designateddadfriend]

"'It's just the island'," Travis said, not deliberately mocking, but . . . there was definitely a hint of that in his voice. "How is that an acceptable answer? How is 'the island likes to fuck with us' supposed to be reasonable or reassuring? Or 'things almost never catch fire'? For one thing, there's literally a guy here who just kind of spontaneously combusts sometimes. And for another -- it's like being on a boat called 'the Titanic' and hearing 'Oh, don't worry, it almost never hits icebergs'."

This rant had maybe been building for a little while.

[shapethecentury]

It sounded like it, too. Bucky's eyebrows crept up. Not a lot, but they did.

"Well," he said, once it looked like Travis was done. (For now, anyway.) "Looks like you got some feelings about that there, pal."

[designateddadfriend]

“Yes. Weirdly enough people telling me my job is meaningless here makes me a little bit testy.”

[shapethecentury]

"'Meaningless' might be a bit harsh, but..." Bucky shrugged a little. "They're not wrong about the fires."

A beat.

"Not a lot of cats in trees, either."

[designateddadfriend]

“Yeah oddly enough I have never rescued a cat from a tree.” Travis shook his head. “You all know just because something doesn’t happen often doesn’t mean it never happens, right?”

[shapethecentury]

Bucky raised his hand in a placating gesture.

"Hey, people'll be glad you're here if there ever actually is a fire. I'm not saying that."

[designateddadfriend]

"Yeah?" Travis looked towards the flamingos in the pond and shook his head. "Sometimes I wonder."

He visibly shook the thought off.

"What about you?" he asked. "What do you get up to, around here? I don't think I've seen you around much."

Because, you know, Travis himself had been such a social butter fly so far.

[shapethecentury]

Bucky nodded vaguely towards Loon Drive. "Manage the movie theater," he said. "Or at least tidy the manager's office, sometimes."

Ingrid did all the actual managing.

[designateddadfriend]

Travis hadn't entirely noticed the movie theater. He hadn't not noticed it -- he made note of all the buildings on the island, so he'd know where to go when alarms went off -- but he hadn't really processed that it was, you know, a functioning business he could go to.

"Huh," he said. "Sounds. . . ." He trailed off. "Low-key, I guess? Which seems to be how basically all the businesses around here run."

[shapethecentury]

Bucky shrugged.

"I'm in it for the movies," he said, with something approaching a convincingly light tone. Joking, even.

[designateddadfriend]

Which Travis returned with a chuckle.

"And the slightly stale popcorn?"

[shapethecentury]

Bucky managed a small huff.

"Can't let Ingrid know you said that."

[designateddadfriend]

"I'll be sure not to mention it if I meet her," Travis said. "I can be diplomatic when I need to."

Especially when he wasn't entirely fresh off a new and horrifying trauma.

[shapethecentury]

"Smart man," Bucky decided. "All the popcorn at the theater's fresh, anyway."

[designateddadfriend]

"Oh, of course," Travis said with a nod. "Around here, I bet there's spells to make sure of that or something."