Dumpster #3: The Great Pacific Garbage Patch

[trashmod]

Holy shitballs, look at us go. Welcome to Captain America fandom's resident wretched hive of scum and villainy: ROUND THREE. AKA Bad Guys Do Dirtybadwrong Things To Your Faves, AKA the Hydra Trash Party kinkmeme. As usual, BLANKET NON-CON AND NSFW WARNINGS apply: just assume going in that everything in this landfill is unfit for human consumption.

Rules in brief: don't be a jerk except to fictional characters, warnings for particularly fucked-up garbage are nice but not required, thou shalt not judge the trashiness of thy neighbor's kinks unless thy neighbor is trying to pass off their rotting banana peels and half-eaten pizza crusts as a healthy romantic dinner for two, off-topic comments may be chucked out of the dumpster at management's discretion, management's discretion decrees that omegaverse, soulbond AUs, D/s-verse, non-superpowered AUs, and dark!good guys AUs are off-topic.

[Round 1] [Round 2] [Fill post] [Chatter post] [hydratrashmeme Pinboard archive (maintained by greenkirtle)] [Round 3 in flat view (comments in non-threaded chronological order, most recent last)]

Round 3 is closed; comments and fills in existing threads are still welcome, but all new prompts go to Round 4.

Comments

Re: weepiness, hurt feelings, inability to express emotion

[(Anonymous)]

I've done this once or twice, failed to notice that what I thought of as gentle teasing or lighthearted arguing was actually hitting some sore spots. And when they snap into "visibly upset" mode, it's such a shocking way to crash down to earth. It makes you feel like a bulldozer, or cruel.

In this case, there wouldn't be any social cues for Steve to pick up on, but that wouldn't spare him the pain and self-criticism; it would kill him to know that as he went jabbering on, every word was wounding Bucky further and he hadn't even noticed. Bucky's crying into his hands and Steve sits there, hating himself, looking back over the last few minutes to figure out how he injured Bucky this time.

That self-blame might make this a more difficult situation too, right? Steve won't fault Bucky for getting hurt. He places all the blame on his own clumsiness and inconsiderateness. It would take some effort to learn what hurts Bucky, and, furthermore, see past his own self-blame to the real issue: that Bucky won't stop Steve after he's fired the first shot, instead keeping his happy face on and letting Steve fire a hundred more, until Bucky can no longer take the pain.

until he breaks down sobbing like his heart's been ripped out because Steve is finally done with him.

it's raining on my face. I loooove emotional-agony!Bucky; BEST BUCKY

Re: weepiness, hurt feelings, inability to express emotion

[(Anonymous)]

Best Bucky, indeed. And desperate-to-help, horrified-at-his-perceived-incompetence Steve is a very good Steve as well. But he's got no good chance here - he'll learn very quickly not to tease Bucky, to treat him very gently but not like a little kid, not to ask questions he can't answer, all the obvious stuff. But the OP reminds us Bucky's trauma is hidden and unpredictable, because of course it is, after seven decades of globe-spanning Hydra shenanigans. Steve finds the cutest, funniest nature documentary for them to watch, and he's previewed the whole thing to ensure it's predator-free, and Bucky really seems to find it relaxing and charming until he's in a full-on panic attack because the opening narration mentioned these river otters live in Brazil and one of his most fucked-up missions/punishments was in Rio. If he could have said something, he would have just said "let's watch the snow monkeys instead" but of course he can't.

Re: weepiness, hurt feelings, inability to express emotion

[(Anonymous)]

In terms of problems for Steve: it's not like Bucky cries every time something upsets him. If it happens mostly when the button is pushed repeatedly or lengthily, then how many times has Steve, like, tapped the button, and because Bucky was able to smile through it, Steve will never learn to avoid that issue in the future? For example, what if Bucky hated being offered milk? Not milk itself, he likes milk and wants to drink it, but he can't stand drinking it out of a glass or being invited to drink it. Every time Steve offers him a glass, he gets that jolt of terror, but manages to casually refuse. Until one day Steve catches him chugging it out of the carton, which he has always successfully done in secret until now. Steve just makes a face and says use a glass why don't you, but then he stays in the kitchen, puttering around, so Bucky has to go and fetch a glass and pour milk into it and drink it, and halfway through he starts crying. And when the explanation comes out, Steve is remembering all the times he thoughtlessly offered Bucky milk with his cookies... what did he miss, how could he not have known...