recolle | the only comics characters who stay dead are b̶u̶c̶k̶y̶, ̶j̶a̶s̶o̶n̶ ̶t̶o̶d̶d̶, and uncle ben

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the only comics characters who stay dead are b̶u̶c̶k̶y̶, ̶j̶a̶s̶o̶n̶ ̶t̶o̶d̶d̶, and uncle ben

WHO: James Barnes and YOU!
WHERE: All over town
WHEN: 11/18 onwards
WHAT: James is back from the dead, freed from prison, and 20 years older! If this sounds like a shitshow, that's because it is.
WARNINGS: mention of suicide in the cause of death snippet

11/15: reports and posts on James's death (cw: mention of suicide, suicide note)

I. you could argue he is wearing a crop top (11/18 - 11/21-ish)

[ When most people move to a new city, it's kind of hard to tell--after all, with so many people around, it's easy to blend into the crowd.

However, this man....does not blend in at all. He wanders around, unevenly shaven and scruffy, wearing clothes so comically ill-fitting it almost begs the question how he even put them on. The way he ducks his head and tries to curl into himself as he walks makes him look suspicious.

What might be even more suspicious is the moment he pulls his hand out of his pocket for a brief moment to scratch at his jaw. The hand looks shiny and metallic. Maybe it's just something he's holding, maybe it's a trick of the eye--but it's definitely a strange one.

Eventually, though, he does need to ask a question, so he begins asking (either you or another stranger near you)-- ]

Hi, I need some help finding something.

II. neurotic coffee spinning (11/22 onwards)

[ By now, James has at the very least acquired a jacket to stand out a little less. He stands at Zee's ofrenda, studying every inch of the table like there's going to be a test on it later. He leans in to get a better look at some of the items, but doesn't touch them. And after a while, he places the coffee drink he'd been holding this whole time on the table, rotating it to try to figure out what angle it should be at. ]

III. your one-stop shop for impostor-ghost confrontations (11/22 onwards)

[ Is this actually the ghost of James Barnes? One might think so, with the way he keeps haunting all the places he used to go. He's spent hours going around the beach, the neighborhood just outside Fort McCoy, the buses he used to take to school, over and over again. He even used to loiter around by the high school sometimes, before he realized how bad and suspicious that looked. So now he hangs around the university instead, glancing over at the high school from down the block when it lets out every day.

The more he does it, the more he does actually start to get treated by people (and even other ghosts) as one of the dead himself. He's been trying to figure out how to get people to realize no, he's actually alive, but what is he supposed to do? James Barnes did die, and he doesn't know if he can go back to being that person.

While he's contemplating this one day, he finds a flyer posted up on one of Recolle U's bulletin boards advertising...a show being played at a tiny local venue by A Lyrical Assassination. ]

What the fuck?

IV. wildcard!

[ HIT ME WITH YOUR BEST SHOT. or hit me up over plurk to talk other prompts if you want! ]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

And now Togusa has to explain himself. He makes an uncertain sound and his hand automatically goes to the back of his head. His speech is just as hesitant as James' right now, just as unwilling to admit to some things. "I've, never been that angry in my life. Even more than when you lost your arm."

"No convenient Retrospec people around to point the finger at, so," his arms limply raise in a shrug. "I took it out on whoever I could blame. Not at all saying my suspension is undeserved. Just that it's where I am right now."

"I agree that you shouldn't go back," Togusa shakes his head. "I don't want you to." Understatement. He's desperate for James to not vanish again. "I understand where your head was at, and the need to do something to make it up. To try to do it the right way. I can't truly fault you for that."

Unexpectedly, he laughs.

"See? That! That's what I was looking for! Actual consequences, or--penance, or something." He sounds a little foolish saying it like that, talking about these big abstract ideals when he's just one asshole kid.

"But...I don't think that's what me being in prison actually was. It was just a way for me to feel like I was doing something important. It didn't change anything for the better." He kicks at the sidewalk, aiming for nothing in particular. "I still want to fix things. Make up for what I did. But I just...don't know how."

Especially now that he's miraculously out of prison somehow, even if it is by some inexplicable fluke of cowardice. He has all the options in the world, now, and no idea where to even begin. Is there a better solution to just throwing himself back in jail?

Togusa can't believe he's laughing along. He actually can't believe it, after he had been so destroyed only moments before. Just the reaction to how the conversation is going. His head shake is entirely at himself this time.

"I didn't voice my main objection earlier, because 1, I didn't want to speak for a dead man, and 2, I realized that over-riding your own agency in this was the worst move I could make. But, Zee had all those months to turn you in and he didn't. Either to me, or to the Sleeper cops. From a strictly legal sense, it should have been on him to press charges in the first place." He shakes his head.

"But you directly said you didn't want to find a loophole out of it, so I kept that one to myself. It might- bring you some peace, now."

Togusa sighs deeply and runs his hand through his hair, like he's brushing his hood back again. "And my other piece of advice is to tell everyone who is going to jump on the wagon to tell you how stupid a move going to jail in the first place was? To go to hell. You felt it was the right thing to do, stand by it. If you don't feel it's right now? Then stand by what you're going to do from here."

He can't help but grin at Togusa defending his choices here. Even when he thought he was being a dumbass. He appreciates it, really--he thought Togusa had pulled that 'I'm not angry, just disappointed' act when he first landed himself in prison, even if he did let James sit there to stew in his own poor choices. This is a not-unwelcome change.

"That's just it, though. I don't know what I'm going to do from here. I still don't think I should just get off scot-free, even if it was technically on Zee to press charges. I still did it anyway, it still happened. But if prison isn't the right answer, and I can't go back to my old life, then...I don't know what else there is."

He'd entertained the thought of going home, maybe, but then he woke up looking old enough to own his own home, and that kind of threw a wrench into everything.

Togusa can, unfortunately, just see the line forming of people waiting to tell James what a dumb choice he made. A line he would have been at the head of, before any of this. And that's a pattern that has to stop, in his mind.

Togusa gestures for James to follow him. They really need to get off the streets. And Togusa really needs to sit down. "Put a pin in the thought of what to do next. Because what in the world? Did you just- wake back up like this?" Togusa waves a hand up and down to indicate all of James. "Older? And do you know how much older?"

He follows behind Togusa, wherever he's taking him, and shakes his head.

"No. I woke up like me--normal me. But I had both my arms. Then like a day later I woke up like this. I have no clue how old I'm supposed to be now, either." He assumes this is a Retrospec thing, and it's therefore connected to whoever other-him was, but he can't really pin down an age on him either. It's all a strange mystery.

That gets a troublesome frown out of Togusa. It's almost creepier this way, feeling deliberate on Retrospec's part. "We're all really familiar now with how Retrospec covers up their own changes. Everyone else acts like this was how it always was within a few weeks. But I've never seen an age change before."

Togusa is leading them back towards his apartment. Any distance between them and the Wiffle Waffle is a positive step, and pulls Togusa away from any consideration of just why he was drawn back to that place anyway.

"How did your family react?" The question comes out thoughtlessly. "I'd assume they'd know how old you're supposed to be now."

He hunches his shoulders, bristling at the question.

"Don't know. I haven't spoken to them in weeks. They haven't been visiting or answering my phone calls. And that was before I died."

Togusa actually stumbles, scuffing his foot when he turns to look at James so quickly. His heart sinks down to his stomach and he immediately chastises himself for asking.

"Sorry." It sounds like a pathetic apology.

"Uh. We could have someone else check in on them. I don't know if they'd be any happier to see me." Togusa shakes his head. "Just- if nothing else, for the sake of seeing if they've changed now."

James shakes his head.

"No. I mean--maybe it's for the best the way it is. They don't have to worry about the murder convict anymore, or what I must have been doing to their reputations." He doesn't know if his father ever forgave him--he never seemed to be less tense or angry during any of his visits. Becca had been nicer and seemed to actually want to see him, but...maybe not, if she wasn't visiting or taking calls either.

"And it'd be a hell of a lot easier than finding out the murder convict escaped and is also way older now." He can't even imagine the reaction he'd get, showing up on his doorstep again.

The look on Togusa's face falls, but he nods very sadly. "I get it. Retrospec didn't exactly make it easy for you to slide back into your life." Hell, there's so much that James is going to have to adjust to, and Togusa can start to see how big of a job this is going to be.

"What about- other people from school? People not on the app, or who've fallen off the app? People from the football team? They might be safer to approach?" His hands go to his hips. "Just- somebody to talk to, to see what the city thinks of you now?"

Togusa shrugs and lets his hands fall again. "My other option would be to just run a background check on you to see what comes up."

He shrugs. "Maybe."

He doesn't want to admit it, but the thought of reintroducing himself to anyone not on the app makes him want to shrivel up and hide. At least with people on the app, they can more or less understand the truth and what happened to him. He doesn't like the idea of taking that plunge with old friends, where he has no idea how they'll respond and might just burn bridges entirely.

(Although really, didn't he burn all his bridges when he turned himself in to the police?)

"What do you think you'd get out of a background check? It's not like my life is any different."

"Your age, for one?" Togusa says hopefully. "There's so much we suddenly don't know about who Recolle thinks you are."

"I've never seen a change like this happen. You can get some clues just by getting all your official papers replaced. But that'll take time, I might get information back quicker."

They turn a corner, and they're on Togusa's block. "So what were you looking for, in the first place? When you came up to me? You needed my help with something?"

He gives Togusa a skeptical look. "I think Recolle thinks I'm dead."

But he also reminds James of what he'd been looking for in the first place. He'd nearly forgotten, in all this. "I was looking for Zee's altar. Someone told me he had one, somewhere...I just didn't know where, or how to find it."

Togusa matches that look straight back. "But you're not dead, so what if they don't? If this change was waiting for you this whole time? Retrospec had to have a plan."

The answer makes Togusa almost stumble, scuff his foot, and look at James more seriously. "The- shrines that have been popping up," he confirms. "..Damn. I hadn't thought of that."

"You practically can't get away from the things, but I hadn't realized we could go looking."

"I don't know if I even want my papers replaced. Maybe I'm better off just...getting new ones.

"Li-Na told me about Zee's when she visited me a few weeks ago. I wasn't going to go, obviously, but now that I'm here...I might as well, right?" And honestly, he kind of feels like he has to. It was a non-factor in prison, obviously, but now that he's able to go, it's the least he could do.

Finally, at last, returns Togusa's patented 'seriously?' look that seems to be reserved for James and a few others. "Can I at least check on what Recolle says about you before you jump straight to falsifying your identity?" He shakes his head. "Forget the legality, that can't be the easy option here."

But about Zee, Togusa goes quieter. He nods solemnly. "Yeah. Yeah. It's the right thing to do. Respect to the ancestors means everyone who's gone before you."

He sighs. "Alright, fine. But mostly to figure out my...new age." What a weird thing to say. "If this is an other-me thing, I don't even know how old he's supposed to be. I think there's something messed up with it."

James's brow furrows at the idea of 'respecting ancestors.' It's not the words he would have used--Zee is definitely not his ancestor, nor his relative at all--but he guesses the basic idea is the same. "Yeah. Especially if you tried killing them before. How do they work? The altars, I mean." He's not sure if there's some kind of protocol to this, or something magic about them.

Togusa can only nod in agreement. "You've mentioned. Best I can figure is that they were shoving two separate lives into your mind." He shakes his head. "I still don't get it."

"Even if you don't know the right words, it's the remembrance and veneration of the dead that counts," Togusa explains. "Some people bring their favorite objects, food and drink are especially sacred, or incense to burn. Anything that honors the memory of the person. There are enough others around that you should get the idea from them."

A pause. "Ordinarily, it's to help with healing, to know that the memory of the person and the things they've done in their life are not forgotten. But this month?" Togusa sweeps a hand around as if to indicate the city. "I wouldn't be surprised if there's something more to remembering the dead."

James shakes his head, looking a bit surprised. He's made his peace with this long enough ago that he's forgotten other people might not know it too. "No, I was wrong--it was actually the one guy this whole time. The World War 2 soldier, the Soviet assassin...it was the same guy. I just didn't know it until I remembered his trial too."

He glances at a ghost that passes by as they talk. "You think the offerings have something to do with helping the ghosts too? ...Do we know if Zee's ghost is around anywhere?"

"What." Flat and surprised and Togusa stops in his tracks to stare at James. How is that even possible?

"I've looked for Zee. Oh, it was one of the first thing I thought of, but trying to find one person in the whole city, when they aren't hooked up to tech, and it turns out I don't know anything about his habits?" Togusa shrugs. "If he's here, he might be keeping low anyway. Or maybe," Togusa shakes his head, "something about how he died didn't let him become a ghost."

"Yeah. He did die, right near the end of the war, but then the Soviets fished him out, managed to revive him and brainwash him, and then I guess they just...kept him frozen between missions. He didn't know or remember anything about who he was while they had him. So I know this guy was 20 when he died, but after that...I have no idea. I remember doing something in practically every decade since, and I think his trial was in the 2000s. Or, that world's version of the 2000s, anyway. But who knows how old I was by then."

Which, wow, when he says it all at once like that, it does seem like a hell of a bombshell, doesn't it? Not like you could tell from his voice--it sounds like he's narrating from a book, almost.

James sighs and makes a humming noise. "Well. Even if there is no ghost, I still just wanted to see it anyway. Like you said--honoring the memory."

The look on Togusa's face only gets more incredulous as James talks, until he is downright gawking at him. And he says it so normally. Togusa holds up a hand in a 'wait' gesture and shakes his head trying to get this all straight. "Hold the hell on."

"Can we start with 'managed to revive him?' There's technology to bring somebody back from the dead in that world? Vampires and pyrokinetics and casual resurrection? What the hell, Retrospec?" Togusa can't help but look around when he says that.

A hand goes to his head and he nervously fluffs out his hair. "And then they brainwashed the guy into working for his enemy. Great. Great."

"I don't think it was 'casual.' It's not like they resurrected anyone else. Just me. Plus they already had all the other tech to brainwash me. And give me the arm." He furrows his brow. "They actually did a lot. I think because I was a really valuable tool to them. They had me doing a lot of different stuff."

This is the point where Togusa has to decide between his instincts and what he thinks is being a better friend. The topic is pushing on every single one of Togusa's issues, and he doesn't want to envision James having to go through this. But on the flip side, has James been able to talk to anyone about this yet? At all?

He has to bite down on his own hesitation. "The arm came post-death, then, it wasn't from a war injury? I had the timing on this all wrong."

"Guess it finally explains," he gestures towards James' shoulder, "the symbol on the upgraded one."

the only comics characters who stay dead are b̶u̶c̶k̶y̶, ̶j̶a̶s̶o̶n̶ ̶t̶o̶d̶d̶, and uncle ben

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