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ysabetwordsmithThis story belongs to the series Love Is For Children which includes "Love Is for Children," "Hairpins," "Blended," "Am I Not," "Eggshells," "Dolls and Guys,""Saudades," "Querencia," "Turnabout Is Fair Play," "Touching Moments," "Splash," "Coming Around," "Birthday Girl," "No Winter Lasts Forever," "Hide and Seek," "Kernel Error," "Happy Hour," "Green Eggs and Hulk,""kintsukuroi," "Little and Broken, but Still Good," "Byzantine Perplexities," "Up the Water Spout," "The Life of the Dead," "If They Could Just Stay Little," "Anahata," "When the Wheels Come Off," "Against His Own Shield," "Coming in from the Cold: Saturday: Building Towers," "Coming in from the Cold: Sunday: Shaking Foundations," "Coming in from the Cold: Monday: Memorial Day," "Coming in from the Cold: Tuesday: Facing Fears," "What Little Boys Are Made Of," "Rotten Fruit," "Keep the Homefires Burning," and "Their Old Familiar Carols Play."
Fandom: The Avengers
Characters: Phil Coulson, Clint Barton, Bruce Banner, Bucky Barnes, Steve Rogers, Betty Ross, Natasha Romanova, Tony Stark, Maria Hill, Nick Fury, Sam Wilson, JARVIS, DUM-E, U, Butterfingers
Medium: Fiction
Warnings: Food issues, religion, past alcohol abuse, sparring, minor injury, insecurity, nonsexual ageplay, tactile issues, forgiveness, games, PTSD, boundary issues, HYDRA, teamwork, SHIELD, laboratory, messy medical details, facing the past, memory issues, frustration, interpersonal dynamics, emotional challenges, past abuse, and other angst.
Summary: Phil manages the household as Tony takes Steve and Bucky to a baseball game, and later spars with Betty and Bruce. Later that day, Bruce helps Bucky figure out some things about his body.
Notes: Team as family. Competence. Friendship. Comfort food. Emotional first aid. Nostalgia. Hot tub. Protectiveness. Hurt/comfort. Science. #coulsonlives.
Begin with Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5. Skip to Part 8, Part 9, Part 10, Part 11.
Warning: After the fluffy playtime, this post starts getting into the intense stuff with Bucky. If this is touchy territory for you, please consider your tastes and headspace before reading onward.
"Coming in from the Cold: Thursday: Digging for Answers" Part 6
There were several games with a military flair. Struggle of Empires was a strategy game that focused on civilization and territory. Shadows Over Camelot was a game of deduction and adventure, with a cooperative element. Both spanned 3-7 players. Conversely Saboteur was a card game focused on exploration and bluffing, with a wider range of 3-10 people. Phil bookmarked Struggle of Empires. Then JARVIS popped up a suggestion for Castle Panic, a cooperative defense game. It only worked for 1-6 players, but Phil liked it enough to add it to his previous list of games for fewer people.
Another set formed around mechanical concepts. PitchCar was not a boardgame but rather a dexterity game, in which players tried to slide wooden tokens along a track. RoboRally was a strategy game of minatures and racing which involved guiding robots across a dangerous factory floor. They both suited 2-8 players. Ricochet Robots seemed more like a puzzle, with a goal of matching robots to their same-colored targets. At 1-15 players, it had the widest range of people that Phil had found so far.
Then Phil noticed the little orange flag on RoboRally. Touching it brought up a note from JARVIS that read, Imagery of damaged robots may prove upsetting to Tony and Bucky. Phil deleted that game from his list of possibilities. He held onto PitchCar and Ricochet Robots.
"All right, I have a few options," Phil said, and summarized his results for Tony. "What have you found?"
"I've got some too," Tony said. He was working from a list of games for ten or more people. "I liked Catchphrase, where you give clues until people guess the right quote, but JARVIS says that's not really fair to Steve and Natka. There's Set, which is a matching card game kind of like Concentration, but based on speed instead of memory. It works for up to 16 people. Apples to Apples is another matching game, with words, but it only goes up to 10 players. Play with Your Food is a trivia game, but I think it's easy enough to work for everyone, and it plays up to 22 people." Tony showed Phil the screen where he'd the games. "I think Set and Play with Your Food are my favorites from this batch."
"Okay, let's save those two for now," Phil said. "Did you do more than one batch?"
"Yeah, I found another list that was all card games," Tony said. "1000 Blank White Cards is one where you make up your own rules on plain cards, not a game to buy."
Phil chuckled. "I'm sure Clint and Bucky would love that. We'll have to try it. JARVIS, make a note, please."
"Noted," JARVIS said.
"Viewpoint has a vision theme, that's another for Clint and Bucky but I don't know who else would like it," Tony went on. "Dixit O.D.Y.S.S.E.Y is about making up titles and matching them to picture cards, that has up to 12 players. Then LooneyLabs carries a couple games that don't say they're for so many, but I think they'd still work. UberChrononauts is two time-travel games stuck together, where you have keep the universe from exploding, and Nanofictionary is a storytelling game."
"Hmm," Phil said, setting their Starkpads side by side. "We've got 1000 Blank White Cards already selected. I definitely want Play with Your Food, because most of the team members have some kind of concern there, so a whimsical approach would be helpful. How about we pick one board game and one other kind of game from the rest?"
"I really, really want to try UberChrononauts," Tony said, wriggling in place. "It's got a fun theme. The time span means that everybody will be good at a different part of the timeline, depending on what we've lived through. Plus there are things where you have to work together, and things where you're competing."
"Okay, I'm sold," Phil said. "Then I get to pick the board game, but I'll entertain input on which."
Tony leaned over the screens. "Clint, Natasha, and Bucky would love Saboteur, but Bruce and probably Steve wouldn't. Struggle of Empires isn't bad for a strategy game. I could build a better game than PitchCar, unless you want to go chasing the pucks under all the furniture."
"Preferably not," Phil said.
"Bruce and Bucky should like Richochet Robots. It looks like a good puzzle game. So, puzzle or strategy, maybe."
"Let's go with Richochet Robots," Phil decided. He used his Starkpad to order the games they had just selected.
Tony leaned close, watching as Phil's fingers moved across the screen. "I like that you do this," he said softly. "That you buy things for us. It shows how much you care about us."
Phil recalled how often Tony expressed affection through gifts, because he struggled with words. "I'm happy to hear that," Phil said. "I like taking care of people. Providing for you makes me feel good. I hope it makes you feel good, too."
Tony snuggled into Phil and nodded. "I think I'm okay now," Tony said. "I should probably get some real work done today."
"Okay. Help me tidy up, then you can change into your big-boy clothes," Phil said.
Together they put away the Gobblet game and straightened the room. Then Tony borrowed Phil's bathroom to change clothes. They hugged goodbye, and Tony trotted off to his lab or workshop or wherever else inspiration led him today.
Phil thought about going back to work himself. Then he decided that since he'd already done office work, exercise, and team maintenance today he could justify relaxing for a while. He ambled down to the common room, meaning to stretch out on the couch and watch a movie.
Instead he found Bucky idly sticking things to his metal arm. He had the skin sleeve off, and the surface gleamed under the lights. "Hi, Phil," said Bucky. "Check it out. Somebody left these on the coffee table. They're little painted magnets. Aren't they swell?"
"Swell," Phil agreed, looking at the fringe of red, white, and blue rods dangling from Bucky's forearm, held in place by shiny metal spheres. "Are you sure that's safe, though? Some electronics are not compatible with magnets."
"Yeah, I asked JARVIS first," said Bucky. "He said these aren't are strong enough to hurt me. I just need to stay away from really powerful things like a junkyard crane, and electromagnetic pulses would be bad too, the kind Tony puts in some of the Avengers' gear."
"I'm glad to hear that," Phil said. It's a good sign that Bucky is thinking of safety precautions more often now.
Phil couldn't resist poking at the pieces that remained. There were plenty of balls left. The remaining rods were mostly yellow, green, and black. The color combination reminded him of Loki. Phil started putting some of the pieces together. That made him wonder how Loki was doing. Probably not well, Phil thought sadly, which is liable to drag Thor down with him.
The colorful rods spun in Phil's fingers, almost as if they fitted themselves each against the other. First they formed one pattern, then another, complex abstracts. Then he realized that he was building a cage, and squashed it flat with his hand.
"I kinda wondered what these were really for," Bucky said. He picked off the rods and spheres one at a time.
"They were originally meant for modeling, I believe. Tony and Bruce use a variety of constructables for making everything from molecules to buildings, but also as office toys," Phil said. "One of them probably left it out."
"Yeah, I've seen them playing with stuff that way," Bucky said. "Say, did you come down here for something? I was just noodling around, really, didn't mean to be in the way."
"You're not in the way. I was thinking about watching a movie," Phil said.
"Sure, let's see what's on," Bucky said, heading for the big viewscreen. He still hadn't fully adapted to the fact that JARVIS could show pretty much any entertainment committed to electronic form, more or less on demand, and was only intermittently interested in remote control functions. Instead Bucky preferred the visual interface of the touchscreen function. He divided the screen into sections and used them to sort through different categories. "Any requests? Live action, animated, period, genre, mood ...?"
"Maybe something casual," Phil said.
"JARVIS, extra cheese," said Bucky. One section filled with tabs of westerns, another with contemporary satire and comedy. Bucky flicked through them, discarding some options and dragging others to a square for active possibilities.
Bruce strolled in and asked, "What are we doing? Or watching?"
"We haven't decided yet," Phil said. "Feel free to join us."
Bruce had paused, though, standing near Bucky. A faint line appeared between his eyebrows. He ducked a little, then straightened up. "Hm."
"What? I got sauce on my shirt or something?" Bucky asked.
"No," Bruce said slowly. "Would you pause that for a moment, please, and turn to face me?"
Bucky obeyed, but now he was frowning too.
Bruce repeated the same motions, more emphatically this time, bending his knees and then standing on tiptoes. He leaned in, almost touching Bucky.
Bucky leaned back. "Could you, um ... this is creeping me out."
"Sorry," Bruce said at once, shaking himself. "I didn't mean to bother you. It's just that ... I think you may be growing. You seem more taller than me than you used to. I'd estimate you've gained almost half an inch, maybe a bit more."
"JARVIS, can you confirm that?" Phil asked, sitting up straight.
"Yes," JARVIS replied. "While my sensors in this room are not as precise as those in the labs, Dr. Banner is correct. Bucky has grown between one-quarter and one-half inch since his arrival in the tower. For an exact measurement I would need to use more comprehensive equipment."
"If you come down to my lab, Bucky, we could look into this further," Bruce invited.
"I-I don't ... I have a lot of bad memories of ... I don't know what's going on," Bucky stammered, looking more anxious by the moment. "Why is this even happening to me?"
"Well, I've got a theory," said Bruce. "Steve got bigger. So did I, if you count Hulk. We don't know exactly what happened to you in that HYDRA camp, or after, but it made some changes. Now think about the fact that you never got enough to eat growing up, probably not in the Army either, and your captors sure as hell didn't feed you right. After your capture, you spent most of your time in stasis, which could also have slowed down the effects. When you came here, all of a sudden you had as much high-quality food as you could eat." He gestured at Bucky. "Maybe your body is taking advantage of the improved materials to make up for lost time, and missing height."
"God, I hate not knowing what they did to me, what it's still doing," Bucky whimpered. He wrapped his arms around himself.
"I can help, if you let me," Bruce said. "I'm really good at deriving answers from available information. That's my dayjob, after all, I'm a scientist. I could look at what your body is doing now and extrapolate what set that in motion. I might not be able to figure out all of it, but I can almost guarantee you'll come out knowing a lot more than you do now."
"You sound pretty sure of yourself," Bucky said.
"This is ... familiar territory for me," Bruce said. "It would be nice to get some actual good out of that instead of just ..." He waved a hand at his own body. "... this mess."
Bucky took a slow, deep breath. "Okay. I guess I can try it."
"Would you two like a spotter?" Phil offered.
"Yes, please," Bruce and Bucky chorused.
"Ideally, I need JARVIS too," Bruce added. "He runs a lot of the high-end lab equipment. Okay, Bucky?"
"Yeah, I'm fine with JARVIS," said Bucky. "He's all over me anyhow, because I can't keep track of stuff without him. Just don't ..." He trailed off.
"Don't what?" Bruce asked gently.
"I don't want ... it was like being ... I felt so naked," Bucky whispered.
"With HYDRA? Department X?" Phil said. "That's natural after what they did to you."
"Them and ... and SHIELD too," Bucky said. "Could you maybe ... not tell them anything else?"
"Medical privacy applies," Bruce assured him.
* * *
Notes:
Among the best board games recommended for 7+ players are Struggle of Empires, RoboRally, PitchCar, Shadows Over Camelot, and Ricochet Robots. This list of top picks added Saboteur.
Castle Panic is a cooperative game for 1-6 players.
Games for 10+ players include Catchphrase, Set, Scattergories, Take It Easy, Apples to Apples, and Play with Your Food.
Among the card games mentioned are 1,000 Blank White Cards (any number of players), Viewpoint (2-6 players, more with expansions), and Dixit.
Looney Labs makes a number of exemplary games including Chrononauts and its derivatives. Although not explicitly described as such, UberChrononauts and Nanofictionary readily expand to more players.
Check out the magnetic construction kit that Bucky is playing with. A good one like this can be used for practical modeling as well as amusement.
(These links are intense.)
Trauma-informed care accounts for the fact that many survivors of trauma don't tell about it and require careful handling. They are prone to self-destructive behavior, rages, and other negative coping strategies, which further complicates care. TIC also recognizes communal trauma and offers interventions, a key issue given that most of the Avengers have gone through wars or other mass-casualty events. Compared to canon, LIFC makes better use of evidence-based care, and has higher standards of defining best practices. Here you can see that Bruce, while he has no training for this, has lots of personal experience and good instincts for handling survivors gently. Phil is his usual brilliant self. Sam, in the glimpses of him at the VA, is also adept in this regard. There are tips for trauma survivors, therapists dealing with traumatized clients, and parents of traumatized children.
(So are these.)
Human trafficking is a serious problem, more in some countries than others, which leaves survivors with devastating mental and/or physical scars. It also impairs access to care. You can see reflections of this in Bucky, Bruce, and Tony all of whom have been passed around as property. Know how to help stop human trafficking.
(And these links are basically nightmare fuel.)
The Nazis were infamous for human experimentation, but America has done it too, including the CIA. Psychologists have helped design and implement torture programs, after redefining torture, and that laps over into human experimentation because they were trying to figure out how to extract information. Here are some other examples. This kind of stuff is why Bucky panics over labs.
(So are these.)
Medical abuse has happened in concentration camps and secret prisons. Hence why Bucky is iffy at best when it comes to health care, even the helpful kind.
(And these.)
Torture produces terrible long-term effects. Torture survivors often have difficulty recovering, even with help. Bucky can walk, talk, put his clothes on, feed himself, and maintain relationships; that puts him ahead of many people who have come through that much torment. His severe memory loss is typical of torture survivors, even though the details are particular to mad science torture. There are ways to recover from torture and help trauma survivors.
[To be continued in Part 7 ...]
Fandom: The Avengers
Characters: Phil Coulson, Clint Barton, Bruce Banner, Bucky Barnes, Steve Rogers, Betty Ross, Natasha Romanova, Tony Stark, Maria Hill, Nick Fury, Sam Wilson, JARVIS, DUM-E, U, Butterfingers
Medium: Fiction
Warnings: Food issues, religion, past alcohol abuse, sparring, minor injury, insecurity, nonsexual ageplay, tactile issues, forgiveness, games, PTSD, boundary issues, HYDRA, teamwork, SHIELD, laboratory, messy medical details, facing the past, memory issues, frustration, interpersonal dynamics, emotional challenges, past abuse, and other angst.
Summary: Phil manages the household as Tony takes Steve and Bucky to a baseball game, and later spars with Betty and Bruce. Later that day, Bruce helps Bucky figure out some things about his body.
Notes: Team as family. Competence. Friendship. Comfort food. Emotional first aid. Nostalgia. Hot tub. Protectiveness. Hurt/comfort. Science. #coulsonlives.
Begin with Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5. Skip to Part 8, Part 9, Part 10, Part 11.
Warning: After the fluffy playtime, this post starts getting into the intense stuff with Bucky. If this is touchy territory for you, please consider your tastes and headspace before reading onward.
"Coming in from the Cold: Thursday: Digging for Answers" Part 6
There were several games with a military flair. Struggle of Empires was a strategy game that focused on civilization and territory. Shadows Over Camelot was a game of deduction and adventure, with a cooperative element. Both spanned 3-7 players. Conversely Saboteur was a card game focused on exploration and bluffing, with a wider range of 3-10 people. Phil bookmarked Struggle of Empires. Then JARVIS popped up a suggestion for Castle Panic, a cooperative defense game. It only worked for 1-6 players, but Phil liked it enough to add it to his previous list of games for fewer people.
Another set formed around mechanical concepts. PitchCar was not a boardgame but rather a dexterity game, in which players tried to slide wooden tokens along a track. RoboRally was a strategy game of minatures and racing which involved guiding robots across a dangerous factory floor. They both suited 2-8 players. Ricochet Robots seemed more like a puzzle, with a goal of matching robots to their same-colored targets. At 1-15 players, it had the widest range of people that Phil had found so far.
Then Phil noticed the little orange flag on RoboRally. Touching it brought up a note from JARVIS that read, Imagery of damaged robots may prove upsetting to Tony and Bucky. Phil deleted that game from his list of possibilities. He held onto PitchCar and Ricochet Robots.
"All right, I have a few options," Phil said, and summarized his results for Tony. "What have you found?"
"I've got some too," Tony said. He was working from a list of games for ten or more people. "I liked Catchphrase, where you give clues until people guess the right quote, but JARVIS says that's not really fair to Steve and Natka. There's Set, which is a matching card game kind of like Concentration, but based on speed instead of memory. It works for up to 16 people. Apples to Apples is another matching game, with words, but it only goes up to 10 players. Play with Your Food is a trivia game, but I think it's easy enough to work for everyone, and it plays up to 22 people." Tony showed Phil the screen where he'd the games. "I think Set and Play with Your Food are my favorites from this batch."
"Okay, let's save those two for now," Phil said. "Did you do more than one batch?"
"Yeah, I found another list that was all card games," Tony said. "1000 Blank White Cards is one where you make up your own rules on plain cards, not a game to buy."
Phil chuckled. "I'm sure Clint and Bucky would love that. We'll have to try it. JARVIS, make a note, please."
"Noted," JARVIS said.
"Viewpoint has a vision theme, that's another for Clint and Bucky but I don't know who else would like it," Tony went on. "Dixit O.D.Y.S.S.E.Y is about making up titles and matching them to picture cards, that has up to 12 players. Then LooneyLabs carries a couple games that don't say they're for so many, but I think they'd still work. UberChrononauts is two time-travel games stuck together, where you have keep the universe from exploding, and Nanofictionary is a storytelling game."
"Hmm," Phil said, setting their Starkpads side by side. "We've got 1000 Blank White Cards already selected. I definitely want Play with Your Food, because most of the team members have some kind of concern there, so a whimsical approach would be helpful. How about we pick one board game and one other kind of game from the rest?"
"I really, really want to try UberChrononauts," Tony said, wriggling in place. "It's got a fun theme. The time span means that everybody will be good at a different part of the timeline, depending on what we've lived through. Plus there are things where you have to work together, and things where you're competing."
"Okay, I'm sold," Phil said. "Then I get to pick the board game, but I'll entertain input on which."
Tony leaned over the screens. "Clint, Natasha, and Bucky would love Saboteur, but Bruce and probably Steve wouldn't. Struggle of Empires isn't bad for a strategy game. I could build a better game than PitchCar, unless you want to go chasing the pucks under all the furniture."
"Preferably not," Phil said.
"Bruce and Bucky should like Richochet Robots. It looks like a good puzzle game. So, puzzle or strategy, maybe."
"Let's go with Richochet Robots," Phil decided. He used his Starkpad to order the games they had just selected.
Tony leaned close, watching as Phil's fingers moved across the screen. "I like that you do this," he said softly. "That you buy things for us. It shows how much you care about us."
Phil recalled how often Tony expressed affection through gifts, because he struggled with words. "I'm happy to hear that," Phil said. "I like taking care of people. Providing for you makes me feel good. I hope it makes you feel good, too."
Tony snuggled into Phil and nodded. "I think I'm okay now," Tony said. "I should probably get some real work done today."
"Okay. Help me tidy up, then you can change into your big-boy clothes," Phil said.
Together they put away the Gobblet game and straightened the room. Then Tony borrowed Phil's bathroom to change clothes. They hugged goodbye, and Tony trotted off to his lab or workshop or wherever else inspiration led him today.
Phil thought about going back to work himself. Then he decided that since he'd already done office work, exercise, and team maintenance today he could justify relaxing for a while. He ambled down to the common room, meaning to stretch out on the couch and watch a movie.
Instead he found Bucky idly sticking things to his metal arm. He had the skin sleeve off, and the surface gleamed under the lights. "Hi, Phil," said Bucky. "Check it out. Somebody left these on the coffee table. They're little painted magnets. Aren't they swell?"
"Swell," Phil agreed, looking at the fringe of red, white, and blue rods dangling from Bucky's forearm, held in place by shiny metal spheres. "Are you sure that's safe, though? Some electronics are not compatible with magnets."
"Yeah, I asked JARVIS first," said Bucky. "He said these aren't are strong enough to hurt me. I just need to stay away from really powerful things like a junkyard crane, and electromagnetic pulses would be bad too, the kind Tony puts in some of the Avengers' gear."
"I'm glad to hear that," Phil said. It's a good sign that Bucky is thinking of safety precautions more often now.
Phil couldn't resist poking at the pieces that remained. There were plenty of balls left. The remaining rods were mostly yellow, green, and black. The color combination reminded him of Loki. Phil started putting some of the pieces together. That made him wonder how Loki was doing. Probably not well, Phil thought sadly, which is liable to drag Thor down with him.
The colorful rods spun in Phil's fingers, almost as if they fitted themselves each against the other. First they formed one pattern, then another, complex abstracts. Then he realized that he was building a cage, and squashed it flat with his hand.
"I kinda wondered what these were really for," Bucky said. He picked off the rods and spheres one at a time.
"They were originally meant for modeling, I believe. Tony and Bruce use a variety of constructables for making everything from molecules to buildings, but also as office toys," Phil said. "One of them probably left it out."
"Yeah, I've seen them playing with stuff that way," Bucky said. "Say, did you come down here for something? I was just noodling around, really, didn't mean to be in the way."
"You're not in the way. I was thinking about watching a movie," Phil said.
"Sure, let's see what's on," Bucky said, heading for the big viewscreen. He still hadn't fully adapted to the fact that JARVIS could show pretty much any entertainment committed to electronic form, more or less on demand, and was only intermittently interested in remote control functions. Instead Bucky preferred the visual interface of the touchscreen function. He divided the screen into sections and used them to sort through different categories. "Any requests? Live action, animated, period, genre, mood ...?"
"Maybe something casual," Phil said.
"JARVIS, extra cheese," said Bucky. One section filled with tabs of westerns, another with contemporary satire and comedy. Bucky flicked through them, discarding some options and dragging others to a square for active possibilities.
Bruce strolled in and asked, "What are we doing? Or watching?"
"We haven't decided yet," Phil said. "Feel free to join us."
Bruce had paused, though, standing near Bucky. A faint line appeared between his eyebrows. He ducked a little, then straightened up. "Hm."
"What? I got sauce on my shirt or something?" Bucky asked.
"No," Bruce said slowly. "Would you pause that for a moment, please, and turn to face me?"
Bucky obeyed, but now he was frowning too.
Bruce repeated the same motions, more emphatically this time, bending his knees and then standing on tiptoes. He leaned in, almost touching Bucky.
Bucky leaned back. "Could you, um ... this is creeping me out."
"Sorry," Bruce said at once, shaking himself. "I didn't mean to bother you. It's just that ... I think you may be growing. You seem more taller than me than you used to. I'd estimate you've gained almost half an inch, maybe a bit more."
"JARVIS, can you confirm that?" Phil asked, sitting up straight.
"Yes," JARVIS replied. "While my sensors in this room are not as precise as those in the labs, Dr. Banner is correct. Bucky has grown between one-quarter and one-half inch since his arrival in the tower. For an exact measurement I would need to use more comprehensive equipment."
"If you come down to my lab, Bucky, we could look into this further," Bruce invited.
"I-I don't ... I have a lot of bad memories of ... I don't know what's going on," Bucky stammered, looking more anxious by the moment. "Why is this even happening to me?"
"Well, I've got a theory," said Bruce. "Steve got bigger. So did I, if you count Hulk. We don't know exactly what happened to you in that HYDRA camp, or after, but it made some changes. Now think about the fact that you never got enough to eat growing up, probably not in the Army either, and your captors sure as hell didn't feed you right. After your capture, you spent most of your time in stasis, which could also have slowed down the effects. When you came here, all of a sudden you had as much high-quality food as you could eat." He gestured at Bucky. "Maybe your body is taking advantage of the improved materials to make up for lost time, and missing height."
"God, I hate not knowing what they did to me, what it's still doing," Bucky whimpered. He wrapped his arms around himself.
"I can help, if you let me," Bruce said. "I'm really good at deriving answers from available information. That's my dayjob, after all, I'm a scientist. I could look at what your body is doing now and extrapolate what set that in motion. I might not be able to figure out all of it, but I can almost guarantee you'll come out knowing a lot more than you do now."
"You sound pretty sure of yourself," Bucky said.
"This is ... familiar territory for me," Bruce said. "It would be nice to get some actual good out of that instead of just ..." He waved a hand at his own body. "... this mess."
Bucky took a slow, deep breath. "Okay. I guess I can try it."
"Would you two like a spotter?" Phil offered.
"Yes, please," Bruce and Bucky chorused.
"Ideally, I need JARVIS too," Bruce added. "He runs a lot of the high-end lab equipment. Okay, Bucky?"
"Yeah, I'm fine with JARVIS," said Bucky. "He's all over me anyhow, because I can't keep track of stuff without him. Just don't ..." He trailed off.
"Don't what?" Bruce asked gently.
"I don't want ... it was like being ... I felt so naked," Bucky whispered.
"With HYDRA? Department X?" Phil said. "That's natural after what they did to you."
"Them and ... and SHIELD too," Bucky said. "Could you maybe ... not tell them anything else?"
"Medical privacy applies," Bruce assured him.
* * *
Notes:
Among the best board games recommended for 7+ players are Struggle of Empires, RoboRally, PitchCar, Shadows Over Camelot, and Ricochet Robots. This list of top picks added Saboteur.
Castle Panic is a cooperative game for 1-6 players.
Games for 10+ players include Catchphrase, Set, Scattergories, Take It Easy, Apples to Apples, and Play with Your Food.
Among the card games mentioned are 1,000 Blank White Cards (any number of players), Viewpoint (2-6 players, more with expansions), and Dixit.
Looney Labs makes a number of exemplary games including Chrononauts and its derivatives. Although not explicitly described as such, UberChrononauts and Nanofictionary readily expand to more players.
Check out the magnetic construction kit that Bucky is playing with. A good one like this can be used for practical modeling as well as amusement.
(These links are intense.)
Trauma-informed care accounts for the fact that many survivors of trauma don't tell about it and require careful handling. They are prone to self-destructive behavior, rages, and other negative coping strategies, which further complicates care. TIC also recognizes communal trauma and offers interventions, a key issue given that most of the Avengers have gone through wars or other mass-casualty events. Compared to canon, LIFC makes better use of evidence-based care, and has higher standards of defining best practices. Here you can see that Bruce, while he has no training for this, has lots of personal experience and good instincts for handling survivors gently. Phil is his usual brilliant self. Sam, in the glimpses of him at the VA, is also adept in this regard. There are tips for trauma survivors, therapists dealing with traumatized clients, and parents of traumatized children.
(So are these.)
Human trafficking is a serious problem, more in some countries than others, which leaves survivors with devastating mental and/or physical scars. It also impairs access to care. You can see reflections of this in Bucky, Bruce, and Tony all of whom have been passed around as property. Know how to help stop human trafficking.
(And these links are basically nightmare fuel.)
The Nazis were infamous for human experimentation, but America has done it too, including the CIA. Psychologists have helped design and implement torture programs, after redefining torture, and that laps over into human experimentation because they were trying to figure out how to extract information. Here are some other examples. This kind of stuff is why Bucky panics over labs.
(So are these.)
Medical abuse has happened in concentration camps and secret prisons. Hence why Bucky is iffy at best when it comes to health care, even the helpful kind.
(And these.)
Torture produces terrible long-term effects. Torture survivors often have difficulty recovering, even with help. Bucky can walk, talk, put his clothes on, feed himself, and maintain relationships; that puts him ahead of many people who have come through that much torment. His severe memory loss is typical of torture survivors, even though the details are particular to mad science torture. There are ways to recover from torture and help trauma survivors.
[To be continued in Part 7 ...]
Apples to Apples
Date: 2017-11-28 04:21 am (UTC)*feelings*
Re: Apples to Apples
Date: 2017-11-28 04:41 am (UTC)Re: Apples to Apples
Date: 2017-11-28 04:43 am (UTC)A game for smaller collections is WFF 'N PROOF (up to three, teams might work)
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/5663/wff-n-proof You get to roll dice and learn logic. Some of the team will have an advantage, and others will catch on pretty quick. Bucky and Clint _might_ be at different disadvantages.
Re: Apples to Apples
Date: 2017-11-28 04:48 am (UTC)Yay! Thanks for sharing that.
>> A game for smaller collections is WFF 'N PROOF (up to three, teams might work) <<
Gyah. I like logic, but that presentation sounds like more work than fun.
Re: Apples to Apples
Date: 2017-11-29 12:55 am (UTC)I've not had anyone to play with since I progressed past a stymieing Piagetian stage.
(no subject)
Date: 2017-11-28 04:58 am (UTC)Thoughts
Date: 2017-11-28 05:06 am (UTC)Yeah, there aren't a lot of many-player games.
>> and since they already have Bausack Towers, Jenga probably wouldn't be very challenging.<<
Right. Jenga used to be one of my favorite games, but has since been eclipsed by more complex stacking-block games. One reason is simply that they're more interesting. The other is that because they tempt me to try outrageous moves, which often fail, other people will actually play Bausack Towers with me. Nobody wants to play me at Jenga because I almost always win -- my structure sense is too much of an advantage there.
>> Is this set before 'When The Wheels Come Off', since they play 1000 Blank Cards in that one?<<
Yes.
>> It's sweet to see Tony getting to participate in that side of game night, as well as getting the extra ageplay he needed after taking care of Bucky and Steve at the ballgame.<<
Yay!
Re: Thoughts
Date: 2017-11-28 02:46 pm (UTC)I have a question, though. When I was watching an older X-Men episode, there was one where it showed Wolverine and Captain America fighting together. I checked, and that's actually Marvel canon. I know the X-Men were mentioned once or twice before, so would Logan ever make an appearance in the story? He has memory problems in pretty much every version and he was apparently born in the 1880's, so he'd have something in common with Bucky and Steve. And it would show that not /everyone/ who they used to know is gone.
Re: Thoughts
Date: 2017-11-29 10:31 am (UTC)My sympathies.
>> I have a question, though. When I was watching an older X-Men episode, there was one where it showed Wolverine and Captain America fighting together. I checked, and that's actually Marvel canon.<<
Yes.
>> I know the X-Men were mentioned once or twice before, so would Logan ever make an appearance in the story? <<
Possibly. I have toyed with the idea, but have no active plans for it.
>> He has memory problems in pretty much every version and he was apparently born in the 1880's, so he'd have something in common with Bucky and Steve. And it would show that not /everyone/ who they used to know is gone.<<
Yeah, that would be good for all of them.
(no subject)
Date: 2017-11-28 05:02 am (UTC)LOL!
Cheesey popcorn? ;)
(Am thinking rosemary, garlic salt, and white Cheddar powder, adhered with the lightest spritzing of olive oil. But then that's how I roll... ;)
Oh, and cherry limeade.
Yes ...
Date: 2017-11-28 05:16 am (UTC)Today we sampled a cheddar-type cheese with sage, although most of the green color came from spinach powder. We didn't buy any, because the flavor was overwhelming, but I suspect a dab of it would be good in spinach quiche. *ponder* Or on cheese bread, which I did not think of at the time.
Re: Yes ...
Date: 2017-11-28 05:44 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2017-11-28 08:20 am (UTC)Like someone else said, Apples to Apples scales up VERY well. You just need more cards (expansions), and sometimes house rules (playing to a smaller number of cards, for example). And, it's a good game for mixed groups (age, interests, etc.), because there's a wide enough range of proper nouns that EVERYONE will be unfamiliar with some of the cards. (Our house rule is that you can discard cards you don't understand, but you have to do so face up, so others can take the opportunity to NICELY tell you if/what they know about the person, thing, or word on the card. You can also keep a card you aren't familiar with and gamble on making it work, because all of the cards have descriptive text at the bottom that can help you get a feel for the word on the card.)
I was actually going to suggest Dixit! The original game was/is for, I think, 5 or 6 people, but adding expansion packs makes it suitable for a much larger number.
It was interesting, as I read this, realizing just how many of the games I play frequently rely on temporary and/or shifting alliances, and how problematic that might be for this team that's still learning who and how to trust.
I loved JARVIS stepping in with advice, but doing it quietly, so as not to upset Tony.
Thoughts
Date: 2017-11-28 10:43 am (UTC)Yeah, the length of "Coming in from the Cold" has made the timing of other things confusing. I'm fey, I have only a passing connection with the consensus timespace continuum. I actually got farther in this series than any other before it started skipping around out of order.
"But I am really, REALLY loving this story!"
\o/
"Like someone else said, Apples to Apples scales up VERY well."
I appreciate the input.
"(Our house rule is that you can discard cards you don't understand, but you have to do so face up, so others can take the opportunity to NICELY tell you if/what they know about the person, thing, or word on the card. You can also keep a card you aren't familiar with and gamble on making it work, because all of the cards have descriptive text at the bottom that can help you get a feel for the word on the card.)"
That makes sense.
"I was actually going to suggest Dixit! The original game was/is for, I think, 5 or 6 people, but adding expansion packs makes it suitable for a much larger number."
Cool.
"It was interesting, as I read this, realizing just how many of the games I play frequently rely on temporary and/or shifting alliances, and how problematic that might be for this team that's still learning who and how to trust."
Yeah, it would be hard for them. I'm not keen on that motif either.
"I loved JARVIS stepping in with advice, but doing it quietly, so as not to upset Tony."
JARVIS is learning how to interact with the group better, and that's helping him find new ways to support Tony too.
codenames
Date: 2017-11-28 11:45 am (UTC)Re: codenames
Date: 2017-11-28 07:57 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2017-11-28 02:35 pm (UTC)--Laura G
Loving this, and SET!
Date: 2017-11-28 02:38 pm (UTC)I have to say that there's another advantage to Set that Phil didn't notice: it can be played as a solitaire game, or with just two players, making it a very good resource for times like Tony's arrival needing some one-on-one interaction with Uncle Phil. As a solitaire game, Hulk can play on a Starkpad, which will make waiting for decontamination routines much easier for him.
Also, my kids at three and five learned the rules in minutes and then promptly held their own against their parents. Hulk isn't at the same developmental level as an aged-down Bruce. It's harder to find things that can include Hulk as he is, and Set is strongly visual without being heavy on reading skills. I think it's a particularly apt choice for him.
Re: Loving this, and SET!
Date: 2017-11-28 03:00 pm (UTC)Re: Loving this, and SET!
Date: 2017-11-28 08:47 pm (UTC)(Although there is the issue where people with greater skill levels may need to nerf themselves if others can't keep up, because it's no fun if you can't ever find the sets before they disappear. I have some friends who add a delay between when they see a set and when they call it (e.g. count to 5 first) when playing with us slower people :p )
Loki?
Date: 2017-11-29 05:45 am (UTC)I liked how Phil was thinking about Loki, and subconsciously started building a cage. Did he really wonder how Loki was doing mentally and physically? Or was he more wondering "Did he get the punishment he deserves?" Or just wondering how the whole thing would affect Thor?
I never thought about how Bucky might change physically along with mentally now that he's no longer in captivity. Cool idea! I also like how Bruce is eager to get something good out of the whole super serum stuff.
I suppose somebody explained to Bucky about Bruce's experiment with the serum and how the Hulk came about? (That'd be an interesting scene!)
Re: Loki?
Date: 2017-11-29 05:45 am (UTC)Re: Loki?
Date: 2017-11-29 06:27 am (UTC)Players often make a differece in game enjoyment.
>> I liked how Phil was thinking about Loki, and subconsciously started building a cage.<<
Yay!
>> Did he really wonder how Loki was doing mentally and physically? <<
Yes.
>> Or was he more wondering "Did he get the punishment he deserves?" <<
Probably a little of this.
>> Or just wondering how the whole thing would affect Thor? <<
Definitely this.
>> I never thought about how Bucky might change physically along with mentally now that he's no longer in captivity. Cool idea! <<
I'm glad that worked for you.
>> I also like how Bruce is eager to get something good out of the whole super serum stuff. <<
Yeah, it's a touchy topic for him.
>> I suppose somebody explained to Bucky about Bruce's experiment with the serum and how the Hulk came about? (That'd be an interesting scene!) <<
I'm not sure exactly how much of that Bruce has shared. The other Avengers know that he was working with the Serum and it led to the Hulk.
(no subject)
Date: 2017-11-30 04:52 pm (UTC)I learned Fictionary in grad school, at a party hosted by a couple of our linguistics professors, George and Robin Lakoff. And boy, did they have dictionaries! We probably each used a different one. The scoring was as described in the article, but if nobody guessed the correct definition, the picker scored as many points as there were other players.
One daffynition from that game became part of our family vocabulary: scrat, defined as "excess or unwanted hair or hairlike substance". Many years later, when Ista (see pic) adopted us, we used it much more frequently. It was Robin who came up with that one (which nobody spotted); in the OED it's defined as "hermaphrodite"!
Typo: He said these aren't are strong enough to hurt me.
(no subject)
Date: 2019-02-05 05:04 am (UTC)