13944/Make me one with everything

Make me one with everything
Date of Scene:	11 November 2021
Location:	Mel's Diner - Breakstone
Synopsis:	Two paranoid people, one Diner, a whole lot of mutual assumptions. They'll be back.
Cast of Characters:	Winter Soldier, Sarah Connor

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Winter Soldier has posed:
    There's something invigorating about driving a motorcycle. The wind through the hair, if the rider is flouting state law about helmets, the feeling of speed, if the rider is flouting state traffic laws and speeding, and the thrill of passing by traffic as if it's standing still, if the rider is particularly foolhardy this close to a major urban area. It could never be said that James Barnes was reckless, foolhardy, or even used to flouting the law. Bucky Barnes on the other hand... different beast. James is a good boy from Brooklyn, Bucky went to war and never really came back. So who's riding this motorcycle? Well, by the time James Buchanan Barnes walks through the door of Mel's diner, his bike is on the kickstand, thereby negating a means of measurement through sheer speed (which is now zero if not counting the rotational speed of the earth), and he is decidedly without helmet. The man takes a moment to appreciate the homely smells, the uncluttered decor, and the slice of absolute Americana that is the diner, before making his way to the counter and finding himself a good stool to sit on.

    For some utterly unfathomable reason, this tall and confident man is not taking off his leather gloves as he starts to browse the menu.

Sarah Connor has posed:
Sarah had done a double shift and was just now getting off.

"One coffee for the road, Mary." And with that she took up a counter space that was pretty much right in the corner to see almost the entire diner from seat. She noticed the man, and his particular gloves. Mostly she noticed his keeping them on.

The hair on the back of her neck raised. Of course, she looked at him very carefully. After all, he could be a Terminator. You couldn't be too careful with those!

Winter Soldier has posed:
    The man, at the counter, seems incredibly at ease. On the surface. There is the occasional glance at a reflective surface to check over his shoulder without actually looking, the intermittent glance at other people to make sure they are still where they were when he last glanced. The telltale signs of someone newly on the run, looking for someone without trying to make it obvious, or some kind of government agent... which could, in theory, mean a combination of several.

    When Bucky orders, it's an archetypical road lunch he's after. Burger, fries, pie to follow, beer to precede. Nothing suspicious there. And then he glances at Sarah, nodding at her with a friendly smile, his icy blue eyes doing a split-second threat assessment before he glances forward again to sample the beer.

    Still, these gloves have not come off.

Sarah Connor has posed:
When he looked Sarah's way, she met his gaze. Not like most people, no. She was sizing him up. With those gloves on, the first guess was still Terminator. So far he'd done nothing to dissuade her guess, and plenty of things to cement it. Like the looking around.

Frankly, a terminator looked much like a secret agent, or a criminal on the run. Looking around. Counting the door - front and back. Looking over the people. All the same, but for different reasons.

Hell, Sarah was one of them.

Mary brought her her coffee. "Sure you wouldn't like a piece of pie, Sarah? My treat." Mary wouldn't have to pay for it, but it nicer in front of the other customers.

"Sure, apple." And Sarah slid on her seat so she could look at the customer without looking quite at him.

Winter Soldier has posed:
    Mystery Man Number One is simply enjoying his beer, or so it seems. There is a glance to a salt shaker on the counter when Sarah moves, his eyes seeking out the chromed cap which has given him a good view of his surroundings so far, and while a regular person might miss that the movement was spotted in the reflection, a truly paranoid person would not. This man has noticed that Sarah has moved, and is now keeping a closer eye on her. Or did he just find his target?

    Just before the burger arrives, Bucky leans back ever so slightly on the stool, turning a bit as if to give himself more elbow room at the counter to eat. But is that move so innocuous?

Sarah Connor has posed:
Fuck.

Well he's definitely one of the three of them, that was for certain. The way he had turned around the chromed cap of the sugar container was the kicker. And he was interested in her by the sound of it.

Double fuck it all. Her usual munitions were in the trunk, plus the one she carried in her purse while she worked. Well one plus..

When he stretched his legs, giving him all the legroom to get up at a moments notice, Sarah began to get nervous. "In fact, I think I'll pass on the pie and head home early."

Bullshit. But she wanted the tete-a-tete to be on her terms - not.. whoever he.. it?.. was. Besides if he was a terminator, she preferred to take it outside than inside where there could be customers.

She drank a little of her coffee and *stretched* as she got up.

Winter Soldier has posed:
    Do Terminators eat? Did the models get that sophisticated already? And is this man-seeming entity actually a killer robot in a very convincing skin suit? Whatever the reality of the matter, the man seems to be eating with some relish, as if a burger from a diner at the side of the road is the most delicious food he has ever tasted, or will ever taste again. To confuse the calculus slightly, he has now finally taken off a single glove. The glove on his right hand... the hand he's using to hold the burger. A very human looking hand. Human looking...

    A pair of ice blue eyes look at Sarah when she begins to stretch, and the nearly fully eaten burger is slowly lowered towards the fries basket. Bucky's booted feet turn slightly to give him better leverage to dive away from his seat. There's something wrong with that woman, she'd been keeping an eye on him ever since he sat down. And that face looks somewhat familiar, he's seen it before. But where?

Sarah Connor has posed:
With restraint, Sarah carefully picked up her purse, and very carefully put her hand in and made certain her gun (s) were there. She might need them..

As she opened the door she used the mirror to keep her eyes on him.

~Carefully.. don't give him a reason to realize I've seen him and I am on to him..~

Yes, Sarah is paranoid. But as the saying goes, it's not paranoia if they really are out to get you. One outside the guns - for there are two of them (plus a knife on her leg, just in case) - were quickly taken out of the purse, and put them into their places on her persons.

Needless to say she felt so much better.

Winter Soldier has posed:
    Hmmm. Hand in purse. Weapon? Probably. For a moment, the burger was forgotten and Bucky's right hand strayed momentarily towards his jacket, until the woman makes her way outside. Huh. Now why would someone look more worried than a pogo tester in a minefield just for seeing him? It's a conundrum, and one that Bucky intends to solve. There's two ways this can go...

    And, since he's being a good boy for his friends and colleagues, he chooses the civilised way. So the burger is picked up, and the woman let go. Instead, he motions over to the server, Mary, who he'd seen talking to mystery woman, and turns the Buchanan smile on her.

    "Hey, don't mean to pry, but... is your friend alright? She looked like she'd seen a ghost."

    Outside, parked perhaps slightly ominously, was Bucky's Harley Davidson. No helmet.

Sarah Connor has posed:
"My friend?" Mary looks at Bucky confused. "Oh! You mean Sarah. She's a bit odd around people, but she does her job well, and when she is on the clock she is nice enough. She usually does the lunch crowd."^r
But now that he's mentioned it, she was extra paranoid tonight.

Too bad Mary doesn't see the connection of Bucky and Sarah's mood.

Outside, about a quarter block down, Sarah suddenly sees Bucky ride. Now, that doesn't prove that he waa not a terminator, but she was beginning to put two and two together and something didn't add up. If he wasn't a terminator, then what?

Someone on the run?.. someone from the future, like Derick?

Hell, he could even be a law man, like SHIELD (damn she'd been running into a lot of those!).. which put her back to paranoid.

Damn.

Winter Soldier has posed:
    "Guess it must be a crazy day then. Happens to the best of us." Bucky concludes with a smile, and slips Mary five bucks. "They work you all too hard."

    So, her name was Sarah? He's seen her before, and that name... ah. A mental picture emerges, ironically of a picture. A picture on a warrant, pinned to a notice board he must have passed by dozens of times. Now isn't that interesting? Time, it seems, to do some more digging back at the office.

    Leaving cash on the counter, James finishes his beer and stands, giving Mary a final wave. "Have a good one, I'll be back, you can count on that."

    And as he leaves, he stops just outside the door after it swings shut, looking around, scanning the area for someone who might be lurking with a pistol. And then, slowly, inexorably, like a slow motion avalanche, he starts to walk to his bike, pulling on his glove...

Sarah Connor has posed:
Mary likes the tip, very much so. "She goes by Sarah Baum. From.. actually I don't know. Sarah Baum though. She's always in here on Saturday."

Sarah was barely away from the bike. Like she'd put herself into an alleyway to see what she could see. Now, Sarah is good. Very good. But it could be that Bucky is better.

She watches him grow closer to the bike. Weird he looks like he's leaving. Definitely not a terminator. Unless he's staking the diner.

Winter Soldier has posed:
    With practiced ease, Bucky seats himself astride the Harley. For a moment he sits there, looking at the Diner, as if committing it to memory. Then, as if making a decision, he straightens the bike up, kicks the stand back up and starts the engine. Most people would do it the other way around, to let the first acceleration help them with righting a bike that heavy, but... he seemed to manage it by sheer muscle power. Now, there are of course people who are strong like that, but they're usually bulkier. Bucky looks to be in good shape, but not good enough to just manhandle a heavy machine like this.

    With a muted roar, the engine revs up, and Bucky pulls away from the Diner, driving past the alley on his way to the main road.

    Did he glance in Sarah's direction? It certainly looked that way...

    But then he's pulling away and accelerating, heading south towards the City.