[ OOM ] paint me in a corner and my color comes back

[from_the_outside]

Are we okay? he'd asked, there by the sunny shore of the impossible inlet, and the truth is: she's not sure. 

Something is still gnawing at her, sharpening her temper and setting her on edge. It knots in her stomach, unhappy and annoyed, and kills her appetite, leaves her preoccupied. The only way she can keep from brooding or snapping at him or picking another fight is to simply remove herself from being around him so much, and thankfully she has a ready-made opportunity: the office she plans to set up in what was originally her rooms at the Citadel. It gives her something to focus on, something to do, and it keeps her away from the hut by the lake for large swathes of the day and into the evening.

There's zero chance he won't notice she's avoiding both him and a replay of their fight, but Bucky won't push. He's not like her. And probably they both need some time to think about things. Besides, withdrawing a bit is better than getting into another argument, right?

(She's conscious of how different a call she'd have made when she first got here, but all it does is annoy her further.)

But there's a lot of work to do if she's going to set things up to work more effectively with Fury, and there's nothing like setting up a series of internal security measures to distract her from her thoughts. Also distracting: M'Baku's here, somewhere, and it would be nice to catch up with him before he heads back to Jabariland. But first things first.

Comments

[marvel_npc]

He likes T'Challa and the man's spitfire of a tradition-breaking younger sister, not that he intends to make it any easier for them while they all feel their way around what the relationship of the Jabari is to the other tribes of Wakanda. Besides, this kind of mutual testing is fun. But of course that means certain kinds of things are a little more tricky, such as anything that might be perceived as a request for assistance.

(It is not that T'Challa wouldn't gladly do so. Especially with their history. It is that he doesn't want to have to ask. Or to admit why he would.)

With all of that in mind, it's very convenient that there is a friend of the Jabari here in residence in this very Citadel of theirs, isn't it? M'Baku watches with amusement as his escort trades an expressive look with each other when he suggests that they bring him to Sharon Carter, wherever she may be.

Where she is, is not the fields near the lake where he has seen her before with the White Wolf. Good. That will be much more convenient.

Humming to himself, he raps on the door with a heavy fist before the guards can announce him. "Snow Leopard! Are you still sleeping? It is late! Are you ill?"

[from_the_outside]

Her head jerks up at the pounding on her door, before her mouth twitches into a smile. Sharon goes to open the door, lifting her eyebrows at the man on the other side.

"Who could sleep when the Great Gorilla makes so much noise?" she wonders, as she steps aside to invite him in. "Come in, come in. Welcome to my lair."

[marvel_npc]

"Lair, hm?" He strolls in with the confidence of one who belongs and looks around with interest. "What is it that you do here?"

[from_the_outside]

"Oh, this and that. Just indulging some personal interests."

She keeps the door open in deference to the guards, then follows M'Baku into the room, watching with amusement as he looks around. "To what do I owe this pleasure? If you're looking for the Wolf, he's not here."

[marvel_npc]

"I do not seek T'Challa's Wolf. Not today." He bends down to examine one of her little screens, then slants a sideways look at her. "Can I not just wish to visit a friend?"

[from_the_outside]

"Sure." She leans back against a table, arms crossed, and crooks a grin at him.

"Is that what's happening? A social call?"

[marvel_npc]

"Mm. You malign my manners. My children would be distressed," he drawls. M'Baku straightens and grins widely back at her.

"I am here to extend an invitation."

[from_the_outside]

"An invitation?" That's interesting. She considers him, one finger tapping the opposite elbow. "Does D'Jarra want a rematch?"

[marvel_npc]

Booming laughter fills the room. "A very good question! You should come and ask him."

[from_the_outside]

Her lips twitch again, and her eyes are dancing.

"Well, if it isn't him... what exactly are you inviting me to do?"

[marvel_npc]

"Another good question." Casually, keeping himself positioned so that the guards in the hallway can't see his face but that she can, he glances over his shoulder at them and back to her.

"I am inviting you to visit."

[from_the_outside]

Her gaze flickers only slightly, and her expression doesn't change as she notes his hidden glance toward the guards. "I'd be honored to visit your lands, Great Gorilla," she tells him. "They're beautiful, and I enjoyed my time there earlier. When should I plan to come?"

[marvel_npc]

"You may come with me now if you like," he says, expansively. "I have been too long in these lowlands and am heading home."

[from_the_outside]

The Jabari are brave, masterful fighters, but they've been approaching this problem all wrong. The people trying to force their way in are expecting a straightforward battle with brawlers; they planned for it. Success – particularly the sort of success M'Baku is after – has to come from a different quarter.

Sharon spends her first day with the Jabari deep in discussion with the head artisan and two of his assistants, along with several of the fishermen. Under her direction, they get to work, fashioning the things she needs while she updates M'Baku and spends time at the training yard. The warriors she'd met the last time are more than happy to help her practice, and after three days, she's confident that she's as prepared as possible. No one can call her reckless this time.

The fourth night is a moonless one. She spends the afternoon motionless in the trees, watching as the men work, and when they head back to their camp as the sun begins to go down, she follows them. The chameleon circuit on the suit is working better than ever, but even as she stays out of sight, she allows a branch to crack, here and there; leaves to rustle. A lingering worker looks around, uneasily, and she decides he'll be her first target.

At the core of her plan is this: that the men realize they are being stalked. She follows the man, flitting out of sight when he looks, allowing a flash of white here and there. His nervousness spreads to the others, even as they mock him for being afraid to go near the trees alone. He should have listened.

He's on his way to his tent when she attacks, chameleon circuit still running as she drops from the trees onto his back. He screams as she lands, the wicked hooks she'd had the fishermen make and which serve as claws curving from her knuckles sinking into his flesh. She slashes at him and is gone, leaving him bleeding on the ground, and when the men chase her she flirts with their vision, allowing them just enough of a tantalizing glimpse to keep them on her trail.

It leads them right back to the blasting sight, where they skid to a halt with uncertain cries. None of them are willing to get too close to the thing she'd had one of the Jabari place while she'd kept the men busy: a carved, wooden snow leopard, baring its teeth at the interlopers.

They destroy the statue. The next night, she leaves another one in the leader's tent, along with a bound and bleeding member of his team, once again slashed with her claws.

And this is only the start.

[marvel_npc]

"They are beginning to flock like sheep," D'Jarra reports. To M'Baku's eyes, the other man looks as if he's fighting to keep from a gleeful grin. "Clinging to each other in hopes it will keep the ghosts from tearing them apart. No one goes anywhere alone now."

"Hmm." That could be a problem, but he suspects that the clever and crafty Sharon Carter has considered this already. He slants a look at her. "What next, then?"

[from_the_outside]

Sharon shakes her head at him even as she makes a fist and checks the claws she's added to the suit. They're slipped onto her hands like another glove over the ones that belong to the suit itself; the vibranium fabric made it impossible to build them in. "Anything up to groups of five is still manageable. More than than and we might need to recruit another ghost."

[marvel_npc]

"That will be no problem," D'Jarra assures her. "There are many of us who would enjoy joining this adventure."

M'Baku grins at that.

[from_the_outside]

"I don't doubt that," she says, amused. "Let me think about it. In the meantime, I need to get a little shut-eye before the ghost rides again."

[marvel_npc]

"Sleep well, little snow cat," M'Baku tells her. "We will speak again when you wake."

[from_the_outside]

She lifts her hand in a wave and makes her way to her rooms, but once there, she doesn't go to get ready for bed, even though dawn is creeping over the horizon.

Bucky doesn't have a phone. But she'd sent a message to Nakia asking her to supply him with one, and it's that number she calls now, standing at the window and looking out over the Jabari homelands.

[nerves_of_ice]

It's been five days since he's heard anything from Sharon; five days since Okoye brought a sealed note down to him and asked why she'd left with the Jabari, if there was anything that they needed to be aware of. "Visiting," he'd said, and nothing more.

The note hadn't given him much in the way of answers, but he suspects it's a test. He doesn't intend to fail it.

Nakia had brought him a phone yesterday. He'd never bothered asking for one before; who would he call? He won't risk Steve or Natasha or even Wilson on any other device but Shuri's secured system. He'd kept it with him, waiting for it to ring, then set it on the table in the hut overnight, and finally brought it outside with him in the darkness before dawn while he sits and waits for the sun to rise, just in case.

The chime it makes is the loudest thing around. Bucky answers it on the second one. "Hello," he says, and waits.

[from_the_outside]

"Hi." Five days is too long. It's the longest she's gone without hearing his voice since he was in cryo, and for a second, her eyes close. She breathes. "Didn't wake you up, did I?"

No chance of that, really.

[nerves_of_ice]

"No." He listens to the sound of her breathing, trying to hear anything he can in the background, trying to tell if it's strained or not. "You didn't. What about you? Up early or late?"

[from_the_outside]

"Late. It's been all nocturnal business up here the last few days."

She turns from the window and starts pacing slowly across the floor, tired but still too wired to sit. "They've got a pest problem I've been trying to take care of."

[nerves_of_ice]

She might not want him to ask, but then she wouldn't have brought it up, right? He thinks so, anyway.

"How's it going?"