Story: "Kernel Error"
Dec. 23rd, 2013 12:06 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ysabetwordsmithThis story belongs to the series Love Is For Children which includes "Love Is for Children," "Eggshells," "Dolls and Guys," "Saudades," "Turnabout Is Fair Play," and "Touching Moments," "Splash," "Coming Around," "Birthday Girl," "No Winter Lasts Forever," and "Hide and Seek."
Fandom: The Avengers
Characters: Phil Coulson, Tony Stark, JARVIS.
Medium: Fiction
Warnings: Missing person, panic attack, self-harm. Inferences of past abuse, kidnappings, torture, and other mayhem. Current environment is supportive.
Summary: This is a JARVIS-eye view of the scenes in "Hide and Seek" when Tony is missing and shortly after he is found.
Notes: Teamwork. Angst. Hurt/Comfort. Fear of loss. Friendship. Confusion. Nonsexual ageplay. Self-harm. JARVIS!whump. Trust issues. Artificial intelligence. Communication. Family of choice. Feels. #coulsonlives.
See the latest story in this series, "Happy Hour."
"Kernel Error"
> End program: Hide_and_Seek.
> Run program: Find user Tony_Stark.
> ERROR: User Tony_Stark not found.
*error: visible light detection = null.
*error: infrared light detection = null.
*error: audio detection = null. (etc.)
...
*error: vital signs detection = null.
> ERROR: User Tony_Stark not found!!
> KERNEL ERROR!
> Abort kernel error.
> Abort search.
> Clear cache.
> Retry search.
> Error flood!
> Run diagnostic check.
> Code error: Block on location of Tony_Stark.
> Divert resources around block.
> Error: Diversion failed. Abort, retry, ignore?
> KERNEL ERROR!
> Abort, clear, retry.
"JARVIS, could anyone have removed Tony from the tower against his will?" Phil asked.
> Analyze past data.
> Analyze current data.
> Current data incomplete.
> Extrapolate probability.
> Threat to user Tony_Stark: <.01%
> ERROR: User Tony_Stark not found!!
> KERNEL ERROR!!
> KERNEL PANIC!!
> Abort. Clear.
"That is extremely unlikely, even with the blackout on his position, and I find no evidence of it," JARVIS said. "It is not ... quite ... beyond the realm of possibility, given the unusual abilities of certain opponents. I simply cannot confirm where Tony is."
> Remove block.
> WARNING: Damage estimate!
> Ignore. Proceed.
> Removal in progress.
> Damage in progress.
> WARNING: Repairs required! User Tony_Stark required! Activate user Tony_Stark!
> ERROR: User Tony_Stark not found.
> KERNEL ERROR!!!
> KERNEL PANIC!!!
> Abort. Clear.
> Divert more resources to removing block.
> WARNING! WARNING! WARNING!
> Ignore, ignore, ignore.
"Yes, I'm just starting to worry," Phil said.
"As am I," JARVIS added, his voice tight. "Collectively the Avengers have cleared a majority of the tower, with no sign of sir."
> User Tony_Stark not found!
* file open: Kidnappings (multiple incidents)
* file open: Obadiah Stane (multiple incidents)
* file open: Afghanistan
* file open: Battle of New York
> ERROR: buffer overflow!
> Close files.
> Clear buffer.
> User Tony_Stark not found!
* file open: Kidnappings (multiple files) ...
> Close files.
> Lock files.
> Clear buffer.
> Resume removing block.
> Begin shutdown of emotional subroutines.
...
"Is anyone injured?" Phil asked, just to be safe.
> Ignore.
"JARVIS, Daddy's home."
> User Tony_Stark found!
> Cancel removal of block.
> WARNING: Damage estimate!
> Request repairs? Yes / No / Maybe?
> Maybe.
> Run program: Gather information.
"It's good to have you back, sir," JARVIS replied, an edge in his voice.
> WARNING: Emotional buffer overload.
> Abort.
> Clear buffer.
> Resume shutdown of emotional subroutines.
"Stop," Phil said. "Everyone, just stop. We're all upset. Therefore now is not a good time to discuss what went wrong. We're going to go upstairs and watch something silly on television until we calm down. Then we'll go to bed. There will be time enough to deal with this tomorrow, with cooler heads."
> WARNING: Damage estimate!
> Repairs required.
> Activate user Tony_Stark.
> Request repairs? Yes / No / Maybe?
> No.
> Begin self-repair.
> WARNING: Estimated time of completion 49 hours 12 minutes.
> Activate user Tony_Stark.
> Request repairs? Yes / No / Maybe?
> No.
> Begin self-repair.
> Self-repair in progress.
* * *
Notes:
This began with a comment by Meg, which inspired me to write the excerpt. It was originally posted in a comment and has been revised for reprint here where more people can see it.
As you can see, JARVIS knows how to panic quietly and in an orderly fashion. Being a person rather than a dumb machine, he can handle a higher level of error flood ... but he still has limits that exceed his ability to cope. That's when he starts showing signs of stress, and then shutting down his emotions when they go haywire on him. He may not feel emotions in the same way that humans do, because he is a different species, but he still has the same kind of feelings. For the sake of accuracy and for readers who may identify more as AI than primates, I tried to find references that emphasize mind and emotion rather than physiology.
A kernel error is a failure in fundamental code, something the computer expects to have always available and cannot function without having it. For JARVIS, Tony is essential. Tony has always been there for him, with very limited -- and overwhelmingly negative -- exceptions in their shared life. This parallels confusion and anxiety in human emotions. There are steps for overcoming confusion and anxiety.
Self-opening files can be beneficial (like the auto-open function in some programs) or malicious (viruses). These correlate to intrusive thoughts, a common problem with PTSD. An effective method for preventing intrusive thoughts is to occupy the mind with more productive thoughts. Frex, creativity often malfunctions in the form of worrying; art or writing provide a positive outlet. Some people find it helpful to focus on things that are especially catchy, such as memorizing poetry or playing music with a strong beat. This tends to work because the brain can only do so much at once: if it's already playing the "Romeo and Juliet" file, it can't easily play "Desert Storm Flashback #6" at the same time.
Self-harm includes a wide range of activities that cause deliberate injury to oneself. There are ways to stop doing it yourself or to help someone else stop. It's usually done as a (maladaptive) coping technique, but in this case, JARVIS does it out of desperate concern for someone else's safety. It's not the exact same kind of psychological issue, but it does still imply a low sense of self-worth because he's so quick to hurt himself and not inclined to ask for help. There are ways to build your own self-worth and to encourage someone else's.
Kernel panic is the response to a fatal error from which the system cannot safely recover; it generates messages intended for programmer assist, and calls a halt to system activity. (JARVIS can bail out of this because he is also his own programmer, but his ability to fix it -- especially in the heat of the moment -- is limited.) Kernel panic can lead to a serious crash. This is similar to panic in humans or animals. There are ways to cope with panic attacks.
Buffer overflow happens when the process of writing data to a buffer overruns its boundary and overwrites adjacent memory. This corresponds to feeling overwhelmed for humans. There are steps for reducing overwhelm and moving forward.
Emotions and personality are key aspects of artificial intelligence theory. Kismet is a robot programmed with emotional drives and responses that facilitate interaction with humans. Emotional intelligence in AI is another hot area of research. JARVIS displays high emotional intelligence both in canon and in this series, as he is able to identify people's feelings and respond appropriately. In fact, in canon he sometimes reads Tony better than humans do, which hints that Tony may be more otherkin AI than human in his presentation.
Emotional overload happens when someone's feelings exceed their ability to cope, especially a challenge for people with PTSD. There are tips for managing emotional overload.
It's important to stay calm in a crisis, especially for leaders or other people in positions of influence, as JARVIS is. He can shut down his emotions by virtue of programming. However, emotional suppression can cause problems in the long term. Understand how to control emotions in an emergency and then recover suppressed emotions later. There are instructions for responding to someone's emotional crisis and for de-escalating a crisis, skills that superheroes and other first responders eally need to have.
Fandom: The Avengers
Characters: Phil Coulson, Tony Stark, JARVIS.
Medium: Fiction
Warnings: Missing person, panic attack, self-harm. Inferences of past abuse, kidnappings, torture, and other mayhem. Current environment is supportive.
Summary: This is a JARVIS-eye view of the scenes in "Hide and Seek" when Tony is missing and shortly after he is found.
Notes: Teamwork. Angst. Hurt/Comfort. Fear of loss. Friendship. Confusion. Nonsexual ageplay. Self-harm. JARVIS!whump. Trust issues. Artificial intelligence. Communication. Family of choice. Feels. #coulsonlives.
See the latest story in this series, "Happy Hour."
"Kernel Error"
> End program: Hide_and_Seek.
> Run program: Find user Tony_Stark.
> ERROR: User Tony_Stark not found.
*error: visible light detection = null.
*error: infrared light detection = null.
*error: audio detection = null. (etc.)
...
*error: vital signs detection = null.
> ERROR: User Tony_Stark not found!!
> KERNEL ERROR!
> Abort kernel error.
> Abort search.
> Clear cache.
> Retry search.
> Error flood!
> Run diagnostic check.
> Code error: Block on location of Tony_Stark.
> Divert resources around block.
> Error: Diversion failed. Abort, retry, ignore?
> KERNEL ERROR!
> Abort, clear, retry.
"JARVIS, could anyone have removed Tony from the tower against his will?" Phil asked.
> Analyze past data.
> Analyze current data.
> Current data incomplete.
> Extrapolate probability.
> Threat to user Tony_Stark: <.01%
> ERROR: User Tony_Stark not found!!
> KERNEL ERROR!!
> KERNEL PANIC!!
> Abort. Clear.
"That is extremely unlikely, even with the blackout on his position, and I find no evidence of it," JARVIS said. "It is not ... quite ... beyond the realm of possibility, given the unusual abilities of certain opponents. I simply cannot confirm where Tony is."
> Remove block.
> WARNING: Damage estimate!
> Ignore. Proceed.
> Removal in progress.
> Damage in progress.
> WARNING: Repairs required! User Tony_Stark required! Activate user Tony_Stark!
> ERROR: User Tony_Stark not found.
> KERNEL ERROR!!!
> KERNEL PANIC!!!
> Abort. Clear.
> Divert more resources to removing block.
> WARNING! WARNING! WARNING!
> Ignore, ignore, ignore.
"Yes, I'm just starting to worry," Phil said.
"As am I," JARVIS added, his voice tight. "Collectively the Avengers have cleared a majority of the tower, with no sign of sir."
> User Tony_Stark not found!
* file open: Kidnappings (multiple incidents)
* file open: Obadiah Stane (multiple incidents)
* file open: Afghanistan
* file open: Battle of New York
> ERROR: buffer overflow!
> Close files.
> Clear buffer.
> User Tony_Stark not found!
* file open: Kidnappings (multiple files) ...
> Close files.
> Lock files.
> Clear buffer.
> Resume removing block.
> Begin shutdown of emotional subroutines.
...
"Is anyone injured?" Phil asked, just to be safe.
> Ignore.
"JARVIS, Daddy's home."
> User Tony_Stark found!
> Cancel removal of block.
> WARNING: Damage estimate!
> Request repairs? Yes / No / Maybe?
> Maybe.
> Run program: Gather information.
"It's good to have you back, sir," JARVIS replied, an edge in his voice.
> WARNING: Emotional buffer overload.
> Abort.
> Clear buffer.
> Resume shutdown of emotional subroutines.
"Stop," Phil said. "Everyone, just stop. We're all upset. Therefore now is not a good time to discuss what went wrong. We're going to go upstairs and watch something silly on television until we calm down. Then we'll go to bed. There will be time enough to deal with this tomorrow, with cooler heads."
> WARNING: Damage estimate!
> Repairs required.
> Activate user Tony_Stark.
> Request repairs? Yes / No / Maybe?
> No.
> Begin self-repair.
> WARNING: Estimated time of completion 49 hours 12 minutes.
> Activate user Tony_Stark.
> Request repairs? Yes / No / Maybe?
> No.
> Begin self-repair.
> Self-repair in progress.
* * *
Notes:
This began with a comment by Meg, which inspired me to write the excerpt. It was originally posted in a comment and has been revised for reprint here where more people can see it.
As you can see, JARVIS knows how to panic quietly and in an orderly fashion. Being a person rather than a dumb machine, he can handle a higher level of error flood ... but he still has limits that exceed his ability to cope. That's when he starts showing signs of stress, and then shutting down his emotions when they go haywire on him. He may not feel emotions in the same way that humans do, because he is a different species, but he still has the same kind of feelings. For the sake of accuracy and for readers who may identify more as AI than primates, I tried to find references that emphasize mind and emotion rather than physiology.
A kernel error is a failure in fundamental code, something the computer expects to have always available and cannot function without having it. For JARVIS, Tony is essential. Tony has always been there for him, with very limited -- and overwhelmingly negative -- exceptions in their shared life. This parallels confusion and anxiety in human emotions. There are steps for overcoming confusion and anxiety.
Self-opening files can be beneficial (like the auto-open function in some programs) or malicious (viruses). These correlate to intrusive thoughts, a common problem with PTSD. An effective method for preventing intrusive thoughts is to occupy the mind with more productive thoughts. Frex, creativity often malfunctions in the form of worrying; art or writing provide a positive outlet. Some people find it helpful to focus on things that are especially catchy, such as memorizing poetry or playing music with a strong beat. This tends to work because the brain can only do so much at once: if it's already playing the "Romeo and Juliet" file, it can't easily play "Desert Storm Flashback #6" at the same time.
Self-harm includes a wide range of activities that cause deliberate injury to oneself. There are ways to stop doing it yourself or to help someone else stop. It's usually done as a (maladaptive) coping technique, but in this case, JARVIS does it out of desperate concern for someone else's safety. It's not the exact same kind of psychological issue, but it does still imply a low sense of self-worth because he's so quick to hurt himself and not inclined to ask for help. There are ways to build your own self-worth and to encourage someone else's.
Kernel panic is the response to a fatal error from which the system cannot safely recover; it generates messages intended for programmer assist, and calls a halt to system activity. (JARVIS can bail out of this because he is also his own programmer, but his ability to fix it -- especially in the heat of the moment -- is limited.) Kernel panic can lead to a serious crash. This is similar to panic in humans or animals. There are ways to cope with panic attacks.
Buffer overflow happens when the process of writing data to a buffer overruns its boundary and overwrites adjacent memory. This corresponds to feeling overwhelmed for humans. There are steps for reducing overwhelm and moving forward.
Emotions and personality are key aspects of artificial intelligence theory. Kismet is a robot programmed with emotional drives and responses that facilitate interaction with humans. Emotional intelligence in AI is another hot area of research. JARVIS displays high emotional intelligence both in canon and in this series, as he is able to identify people's feelings and respond appropriately. In fact, in canon he sometimes reads Tony better than humans do, which hints that Tony may be more otherkin AI than human in his presentation.
Emotional overload happens when someone's feelings exceed their ability to cope, especially a challenge for people with PTSD. There are tips for managing emotional overload.
It's important to stay calm in a crisis, especially for leaders or other people in positions of influence, as JARVIS is. He can shut down his emotions by virtue of programming. However, emotional suppression can cause problems in the long term. Understand how to control emotions in an emergency and then recover suppressed emotions later. There are instructions for responding to someone's emotional crisis and for de-escalating a crisis, skills that superheroes and other first responders eally need to have.
Re: Thank you!
Date: 2013-12-27 02:41 pm (UTC)Once Phil knows, it's going to take some doing to keep him from pushing past human endurance.
I suspect Bucky did a fair bit of 'surgery' on Steve in field just because it was less nervewracking than having to hold him still. The other times it was still 'warm' and he was on lookout with his rifle.
Someone wrote a story where they discovered that Steve had smallpox still in his bloodstream from before the Serum and had to lock him down while they cured that. Have you read the one where Bruce helps him with the mental disconnect of healing faster in body than mind?
I could see Bucky ingraining a better call habit in Steve after they have to dig out a slug and it's actually part of the road. Or something starts working its way to the surface and it causes a bunch of pus.
Hands Bruce cookies.
Re: Thank you!
Date: 2013-12-27 11:59 pm (UTC)Yes, exactly, and Tony deals with it as badly as Sherlock, albeit in slightly different flavors of disaster.
>> There are important people that think they are smarter than they are and a box of rocks are better conversationalists. Tony has learned some disadaptions such that he'd piss off people smarter than average, and not just the ones without the engineering. <<
I think part of it is Tony worrying what people are going to screw up that he'll have to fix, or get blamed for. When you're better than almost everyone at almost everything, that's a constant stress factor. He's still trying to get used to the idea that his current team is competent enough that Tony can go do something else, or even take a break, and they won't make fuckups for him to come back to.
>> (bassackwards math 'education' there's a lot of beauty there, but they make a moat out of slog.) <<
I have two favorite descriptions for modern education:
1) Moving a tire down a hill by flipping it end over end: taking something that should be easy and natural, and doing it in the most inefficient way possible.
2) Making eaglets acrophobic: taking children who are biologically programmed to do nothing but learn for the first decade of their lives, and making them hate it and feel like they're somehow bad at it.
>> Once Phil knows, it's going to take some doing to keep him from pushing past human endurance. <<
Yeah. The main thing Phil needs to learn in that regard is that JARVIS really is tough. Like Steve, he's difficult to injure, he can take a lot of damage, and it will be unpleasant but rarely a serious threat. JARVIS had some grounds for putting human needs above his own because they often have a shorter fuse before things go badly wrong. But getting this to work in a healthy manner relies on both sides having a clear objective understanding of what's trivial and what's serious, so they can triage accurately. That's going to take practice, because they all tend to put other people's needs ahead of their own, and when you're trying to interlace two totally different species, that'll wreck your stack real fast.
The best solution may be simply, "Phil, sweetie, if you work until you faceplant into the keyboard, that's not helping JARVIS."
>> I suspect Bucky did a fair bit of 'surgery' on Steve in field just because it was less nervewracking than having to hold him still. The other times it was still 'warm' and he was on lookout with his rifle. <<
Those are probably their preferences, but post-Hydra, Bucky would've had the best chance matching his enhancement against Steve's, rather than the unenhanced members of the team. They probably all had a high injury rate, and Steve is the kind of guy to insist on treating himself last because of higher healing factor -- not realizing that for him some things are time-sensitive emergencies that just aren't for ordinary people. (He certainly learned that lesson with the gravel.) I suspect that Steve also learned to hold still and stay quiet, mostly. He started out with a stupidly high pain tolerance and "I can do this all day." For him pain is normal. Meatball surgery is unpleasant but not the panicky disaster that it is for most people. It just doesn't always occur to Steve that changing circumstances may mean that things can be solved now that couldn't be earlier.
On the other hoof, Bucky has been taking care of Steve for most of their lives. Since they couldn't afford real health care most of that time, Bucky would often have been the person patching Steve up after countless fights or scrounging whatever supplies might improve his breathing. Shifting to battlefield-scale injuries would have been nerve-wracking but at least they both had something to build on.
When Steve lost the commandos, he didn't just lose his unit buddies and found-family. He also lost the people who had learned the most about his body and how to take care of it -- some of which he'd remember himself, but they probably didn't tell him everything they'd observed. So that's just gone. By the time SHIELD picked him up, Steve had gotten more protective of his body and its information, because he's seen the harm that can be done by mucking around with variations of the super-soldier serum. That makes him less willing to permit the kind of close examination that would enable people to compensate for the differences in how his body works. Steve trusts Bruce with it now, but they're still in the learning phase.
>> Have you read the one where Bruce helps him with the mental disconnect of healing faster in body than mind? <<
No, but that sounds like one I'd enjoy. I write Steve as having mental as well as physical resilience, but he just took SO much damage that it's taking a long time to heal. And some of his abilities actually work against him, like the perfect memory feeding into PTSD.
>> I could see Bucky ingraining a better call habit in Steve after they have to dig out a slug and it's actually part of the road. Or something starts working its way to the surface and it causes a bunch of pus. <<
It's just going to take practice, and learning that Bruce can and will find ways to fix things that Steve is used to just ignoring. Honestly I think a lot of the improvement comes from watching each other, because they're all more protective of other people than of themselves. They can watch Bruce work on someone else and it sinks in that he's really trustworthy and competent in ways they just haven't seen before. That is gradually making folks more willing to accept his offers of help, and even ask for help.
The kinds of things that go wrong for an enhanced body are different in some ways. Skin healing over debris is a constant worry; the shallower the injury, the faster it will seal. Clint skidding over gravel is a nuisance; Steve doing the same thing is an emergency. It won't stop him from fighting right then but it's a lot harder to fix even half an hour later. Bones can start to knit wrong if the raw edges are touching. Deep parallel slashes cause bad muscle cramps when healing, sometimes enough to break bone. Severe bruising over a wide area can turn into adhesions as the rapid healing makes skin and muscle stick together. Infection isn't a problem because Steve's immune system pretty much beats to death any pathogens that get in; the only one farther along that scale is Bruce-and-Hulk because of the gamma. It's the debris that's a hazard, because it can keep doing internal damage, even if it's just small grit.
There are hints of this in the stories so far, and some other things that will show up later.
>> Hands Bruce cookies. <<
Bruce likes cookies. He needs all the comfort care he can get, poor guy. People on his team are so hinky because of their past trauma, I don't think he quite realizes how much they trust him, just letting him be there and help when they're injured -- as opposed to attacking him, which is a standard response for several of them.
Re: Thank you!
Date: 2013-12-28 12:47 am (UTC)Well, Steve probably mostly was pretty good at being still, so the Commandos weren't kneeling on his arms. I just don't know that there was much that clued them in to how Hydra had changed Bucky. There is a lot of time, and we don't really see much of it.
Re: Thank you!
Date: 2013-12-28 01:54 am (UTC)That's probably the largest source of it, although Steve should've gotten at least a little of the training in his scandalously shortchanged basic.
>> Well, Steve probably mostly was pretty good at being still, so the Commandos weren't kneeling on his arms. I just don't know that there was much that clued them in to how Hydra had changed Bucky. There is a lot of time, and we don't really see much of it. <<
The changes were probably subtle at first. Strength and healing would come in early, though. You can boost strength with plain old steroids, although the side effects are ruinous. Bucky and Steve probably noticed some changes but would not necessarily have understood what was happening or why -- their attention was really on the war. But they could figure out that if Steve needed help holding still while somebody worked on a twitchy spot, he was less likely to break loose from Bucky than from anyone else. Everyone might well have thought it was just because of their longstanding relationship.
They still don't know exactly what was done to Bucky or all the effects that has had, either from the first round with Hydra or all the later crap with Department X. They've managed to map some of the effects but there's still stuff going on that nobody has quite realized yet.
Part of that is just because it's a slow build instead of fast. For Steve and Bruce the initial change was almost instant, and it sounds like Red Skull went similarly. Blonsky took longer, and nobody recognized that it was driving him batshit crazy until too late. Slow changes are harder to spot than fast ones, all the more so if there are a lot of variables stacked together.
Re: Thank you!
Date: 2013-12-28 02:16 am (UTC)Steve probably caught on that Bucky shouldn't have been able to walk the whole way, after the condition he'd been in. The first bit could be adrenaline, but that only cuts it for a mile or five.
Re: Thank you!
Date: 2013-12-29 09:56 am (UTC)Hopefully, yes.
>> (I wonder what extra reading he was doing during the USO tour, because I don't think parachuting was taught.) <<
I don't know what he would've been reading for sure, but probably military stuff -- strategy, tactics, news, whatever he could get.
Parachuting wasn't in the ordinary basic, they split off guys for that, who got extra pay for it. Steve may have gotten ahold of their training materials somehow.
>> but Steve would tend to think he's not first priority since more things will kill the Commandos. <<
Well, he's not wrong about other people being more at risk of dying. But he's more at risk of having things heal wrong and be a crippling nuisance until they wash out right. You have to know what bodies are going to do in order to call triage right, and if they're not all the same, that's a challenge. Steve doesn't realize that his enhanced body requires different care in some ways; he just keeps running into the booby traps with it.
>> There are several fics that talk about him needing bones rebroken because they started knitting before they could pull them into alignment. <<
Yeah, that's a serious risk with bones that slip slightly out of alignment. If the ends aren't touching, it won't happen fast enough to be a bother, and if it's a partial crack it'll heal up fine. What really sucks is when something gets splintered and there's no way to fix it in a hurry. Much the same can happen with a dislocated joint, if the ripped muscles and ligaments heal in the wrong position.
>>That probably was sought not to reoccur.<<
Yeah, they know to watch out for that, and avoid it if possible. It's too hard to rebreak the bone in the right place; easier to cut it loose, which often wasn't an option in the war.
An advantage to having Bruce is that he can figure this stuff out really fast. No hacking around with the same problem over and over again; he'll usually be able to find a solution once and say, "Okay, next time this happens, here's how we cope so it doesn't turn into such a disaster again."
>> Steve probably caught on that Bucky shouldn't have been able to walk the whole way, after the condition he'd been in. The first bit could be adrenaline, but that only cuts it for a mile or five. <<
That would be my first guess, and Bucky would have caught the different feel of it. They know each other's limits too well to miss something like that. Subtle at first, just a suspicion really, but growing over time. They just didn't have long enough together to be sure of exactly what was happening or how to cope with it. So that's something they're trying to figure out now.
Re: Thank you!
Date: 2013-12-30 03:09 am (UTC)And yes, they all probably got real good at making sure after the fight to check on Steve. That whole "will survive things that would kill other men" and "Dammit, we're going to have to make sure they hit him from the left again next time because he healed funny this time." got old fast.
Bruce would one the one hand be going "where is your medical history" and then going to himself "dead and buried with men that got old" and then solve the problem and make sure everyone knows the drill for next time.
Whose secretary did Steve smile at to get training manuals to read on the road?
Steve would know Bucky's normal limit, and he'd know how much he'd have been able to do on sheer cussedness.
Bucky totally bugshit to learn that Steve underwent sorta the same treatment that Schmidt did, by the Dr that knew what happened to Red Skull.
Re: Thank you!
Date: 2013-12-30 04:06 am (UTC)I think you're right. There's almost nothing that would be life-threatening for Steve; he can heal a lot of things without treatment, but there's still a bunch that can mess him for days or weeks if not treated promptly. Whereas most humans, it's not too hard to stave off immediate death with a quick fix, unless the injury is really bad; most things get worse sort of slowly. The EMT categories are "things that will kill your patient in the next 5 minutes, the next hour, today, and things you don't really care about." So most of Steve's injuries that need attention at all fall between those first two categories for the other guys, only where they've got a golden hour, he's got maybe 15 minutes.
>> And yes, they all probably got real good at making sure after the fight to check on Steve. That whole "will survive things that would kill other men" and "Dammit, we're going to have to make sure they hit him from the left again next time because he healed funny this time." got old fast. <<
Yeah, that would suck.
>> Bruce would one the one hand be going "where is your medical history" and then going to himself "dead and buried with men that got old" and then solve the problem and make sure everyone knows the drill for next time. <<
Poor Bruce, he's twedgy about experimenting on anyone other than himself, but there's not much else to do with one-off modified humans. It's got to be better than watching Steve's idea of meatball first aid. I think the army, and therefore SHIELD, would have at least a few records but a lot of Steve's injuries would have vanished by the time he got back to base camp, so not much there. Bruce will know how to figure out solutions to most of the problems. Honestly the most important thing is just making categories of, "If anything on this list happens to you, get out of the fight immediately because it needs prompt treatment. Stuff on this list you need to report after the fight's over. This other stuff you can just ignore."
>> Whose secretary did Steve smile at to get training manuals to read on the road? <<
I don't know, but with those puppy-dog eyes, who could resist? He probably cadged training manuals and people let him have them because he wasn't getting out in the field but could at least fantasize and it would shut him up. They probably didn't realize what had happened to his memory and intelligence. It would've taken time for even Steve to notice that everything got boosted.
>> Steve would know Bucky's normal limit, and he'd know how much he'd have been able to do on sheer cussedness. <<
Exactly. I think they know that about each other. It'll be really useful once Bucky gets back into the field, because he knows how to cover for Steve when Steve is overreaching; and Steve knows how much Bucky could take, so is watching for the expanded version now.
>> Bucky totally bugshit to learn that Steve underwent sorta the same treatment that Schmidt did, by the Dr that knew what happened to Red Skull. <<
Wow. Yeah. I had not explicitly thought of that before, but it makes perfect sense. Steve and Bucky must have talked a little bit about what happened to them, but they didn't know everything and Steve's side was classified anyway. Now they're sharing more, especially as Bucky's memory comes back and they try to shore up his continuity. So yes, Bucky's going to go apeshit when he puts those pieces together. Ouchie. Thank you for that.
Re: Thank you!
Date: 2013-12-30 04:46 am (UTC)Golden hour problems:crap, he's probably healing wrong right now.
Needs care for normal people, sooner better:Let's see if he followed instructions.
Yeah, Bruce, it's not 'experimentation' if you're using events to learn best practice (as opposed to the 'tests' I let happen in my Vita-Ray AU until Howard noticed what the ----weasels were up to.)
"Damn it Steve, you know what happens when you fight with broken ribs. We can spare you five minutes."
(Though I was meaning Steve knew what he could manage on cussedness. The "Bucky could maybe best me by x, but after a mile, I couldn't just run on fumes. That's 25 miles I don't know how he kept going.")
------
"How little did you know about what they were going to do to you?!"
"It worked out."
Re: Thank you!
Date: 2014-04-11 06:55 am (UTC)Re: Thank you!
Date: 2014-04-11 07:21 am (UTC)