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theasset
Name: Ramen
Contact Information: socalramen / plurk, legalgargoyle / aim.
Personal Journal:
blackswanevent Age: 27
Characters Played: Just Bucky
Who Referred you: Era
Name:James Buchanan "Bucky" Barnes
Fandom: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Age:96 (biologically 27)
Canon Point: Post TWS!Alternate Universe
Original Universe or Alternate Universe? Alternate Universe
Alternate Universe
Personality:
PRIOR TO TRYING TO BURN DOWN THE KREMLIN?: To discuss Captain America is to discuss the history of America through an idealized American viewpoint. To discuss James Buchanan "Bucky" Barnes is to discuss what actually happened from beginning to end.
Bucky circa 1940 was a warm and friendly man born with a soft spot for the weak and a willingness to help. Defined by a proverbial big brother complex Bucky Barnes grew up happy. He didn't have a lot materially but he had friendship, family, and love, the three lines blurring together to give him a very clear definition of what was important in life. That definition was enhanced by his father, a military man who raised him to defend what was right and protect the people that matter to him. Made the man of the house at a young age, he took what his father said to heart. Kind to women - but interested in them (considerably so), he protected dogs, cats, puppies and lost little kids including one Steve Rogers who he had a lot in common with. He unofficially adopted Steve, and much like the frogs, bugs, stray cats and even puppies that he found and tried to return to their rightful owners (or tried to keep to his mother's chagrin.) he fed him, protected him, and tried to keep him safe.
It was easy to justify that, Steve weighed 95 pounds soaking wet and was frequently sick, but he had an unstoppable drive that Bucky admired. He reminded him of everyone from his heroes to everyone that adults were trying to encourage him to be and Steve - looking up to him encouraged Bucky to try and live up to those expectations. They were inseparable, brothers bound in bond if not in blood. It's because of Steve's drive that he joins him at college, and that he eventually ends up enlisting - joining the army is the embodiment of everything that he's spent his life trying to live up to and be. There's a part of him that's glad Steve can't come along, he doesn't want to see him hurt or killed and perhaps he attaches naivete to the excursion. When he's seen in the film his uniform's clean and pressed and he enjoys being a soldier and what it means.
What it means, not what it is. No one is ever prepared for war, even someone who's spent their life trying to believe that the world might not be good but can be fixed. Shipping out wears on him and he goes from being a realist to being a pragmatist, and a cynic. This gets worse after he and his unit are captured by Zola and Hydra, put into captivity and forced to build weapons to kill allied troops, he gradually wears down and ends up getting sick. This leads him to be singled out for special services - and Zola uses him for everything from testing Hydra's vita-rays to new concoctions to his own version of the super soldier serum. Bucky feels none of that, demoralized and feeling inhuman.
Until Steve comes out of the darkness like a hero in a Disney picture to save him. Getting the short story, he still tries to put himself in front of Steve to save him before Steve has him step back and fight. Bucky has a long time to think about where he stands with Steve and he feels genuine pride in his friend and also concern. Knowing he could have been sent home easy, he now had no option but to stay with him. His brother, his best friend had come here, home had arrived and he had to stay to protect him. Even if he really couldn't. He loves Steve as much as he can love anyone, and he refuses to leave him alone. As Sebastian Stan says, (paraphrased) "He's like a parent or a big brother figure who's watching their charge grow up for the first time."
Bucky becomes second in command to Steve and a member of the howling commandos. He's the person that does what Captain America can't - and it begins to wear on his soul. The warm and funny man who went over is gradually becoming a hardened soldier - one of the lost members of his generation. The person who can bring him out of it is Steve, the paragon of virtue and the light in the tunnel that he's followed forever. The problem is that he no longer believes that thing can be fixed. In fact he no longer believes he's a good man period, Steve keeps him going. Bucky's confidence is broken. Continuing to live in war he's shattered. The only thing that keeps him from never coming home is Steve and his friends.
The sad truth however is he'll fall to his doom and learn that some men can never really leave the war.
> SAYING THAT HE HAS NO IDENTITY IS PUTTING THINGS SIMPLY You can't take away a sense of self, animals have a sense of self but no sense of how their actions impact the world around them. That is where Barnes is mentally. His identity is tied strictly to HYDRA, praise garners praise and failure garners failure.
> HE'S GIVEN IN His signs of giving in are included but not limited to self flagellation (desire to be wiped, desire to be frozen) as well as speaking in terms of endearment of his captors. The short and common vernacular would be "he's really fucked up". The long vernacular is that he's simply given up and given in and will "Hail HYDRA" with the best of them.
> BUT HE'LL STILL WIN The problem is that he does not function without an order system and he will naturally seek out order in structure. Without order and structure he will become confused, depressed, and practically physically sick. However he will naturally rebel against SHIELD. They are his number one enemy but he feels protective of Natalia.
Background:
This AU deviates from two standard Marvel Incarnations in two different capacities combining elements of comic canon before dragging it back on track into the marvel universe. In order to explain it it will require delving into a bit of some pretty intense information. The following application does contain mention of adult themes including but not limited to horror, torture, danger, mental manipulation and extreme physical abuse. The purpose of which is to illustrate how a character who in fact says very little comes to say very little.
It’s divided into two specific sections. Deviations from Marvel Comic Canon and Deviations into Movie Canon:
James Barnes MCU Canon - Falls off train instead of falling off a plane.
Deviates into:
James Barnes Comic Canon - found specifically by the Russians.
This is simplified into the following storyline.
> Post falling off the train, James Barnes is dragged to a Russian Base where he becomes the subject of Russia’s Department X, a fledgling scientific department trying to keep pace with germany’s HYDRA division and America’s OSR. He was given his first cybernetic arm, having lost his on the train. (Ed Brubaker Vol. #1 “Ultimate Collection).
> Initially retrained as a Russian operative HYDRA, in an effort to infiltrate all dangerous organizations took charge of the “Winter Soldier” program. James Barnes came face to face with Zola for the first time five to ten years post his initial fall. Further flesh was redacted and Zola’s experiments with the mind wipes as well as his “Infinity” super soldier formula were restarted.
>The initial plan was to eventually “buy” the soldier from the Russians who were suffering from the eventual collapse of communism, retrained as a HYDRA operative while having the Russians pay for money, equipment, and housing. A great idea right? (want to read the initial exchange?)
What’s the single flaw in the plan?
The following deals with the AU set up by the player
sklent. It also contains information on brainwashing which can be considered potentially triggering. Please be advised.ASSAULT ON IDENTITY
The subject is told they are not who they think they are, subjected to assaults on the individual’s identity for prolonged periods of time.
> Historically, brainwashing was first documented during the Korean War. In the MCU it is easy to consider Russia and other countries experimenting with rudimentary forms of the craft early on. James Barnes possessed no memory of his former life due to the extreme stress of the fall and his subsiquent revival. It was easy enough to convince him that he was an American who defected and in “retribution” of the crimes committed against the state had pledged himself to the KGB and Department X.
GUILT
The subject is made to feel that everything they do is wrong
> This is day to day life in the Red Room for the “American”, known only as the Winter soldier until he meets Natalia Romanova. Taken as a pupil, he trains her and eventually falls in love with her (concurrent with Brubaker’s storyline). The dilemma being that someone who treated him as human wa not allowed. At the same time, he seemed happy and was therefore left reasonably to his own devices until kindness began to throw the program off.
> HYDRA didn’t like that in the slightest and began to subject him to considerably more brutal testing, from continuous mind wipes to being subjected to the limits of the infinity formula (see, powers and abilities, mostly detailing what this is.) he began to miss classes, behave oddly, and function without remorse resulting in the death of a colleague and two students. Natalia reached out to him and the two came together - he began to get himself together and his original personality began to assert itself. Faced with humanity he began to do the unforgivable. ask questions
They slept together once. The second time they were caught.
>Ashamed at the behavior of their own operative and appalled at the American’s behavior they turned both the Winter Soldier and Natalia over to HYDRA. Money changed hands and James Barnes became a HYDRA operative. Their own behavior was held up as a lesson to the rest of the red room.
(It’s here that Natalia’s own story deviates and we have to consider just what makes this James different from the james in the film.)
SELF BETRAYAL
The subject is forced to confess that everything they have previously believed was wrong. Faced with a loss of identity and a sense of shame the subject seeks to make amends for their previous behavior
> Zola spends two to three hours a day with his “Captain America” for almost a decade. He does this to encourage Barnes to associate him with kindness and leniency. Prior to his arrival he has his agents wake up the soldier and explain, point blank, that his actions have caused people to be captured and tortured. By fighting them he is responsible for everyone from Natalia’s current condition to every single daily human experiment. He is told by obeying them he can stop the torture from occurring. The beatings continue but he is no longer there to see them.
LENIENCY
The subject learns they can be assisted if they obey.
“You see that’s the one concept that most Russians can’t understand. Innocence.”
- Murder she Wrote “from Russia with Blood.”
> In between bouts of training he is put to sleep and they begin to break down not only his American training but his Russian training as well. He is told point blank that HYDRA is the only true country, and the only true salvation of humanity. He gradually becomes country-less, than identity less. All of these thoughts are bad, apart from his partner the black widow. The fact remains that he does not see himself as human but an extension of HYDRA’s will.
PHYSICALLY WHAT HAPPENS? ELECTROCONVULSIVE THERAPY Extensive therapy of this caliber can cause brain damage. Subjects have reported losing upwards of five to ten years of their lives.
COMPULSION TO CONFESSION
The target is encouraged to confess that everything that they have believed was wrong, in an attempt to reciprocate the kindness offered to them.
>Between the stress of losing a sense of identity, recognizing that he is responsible (in his mind) for the murders, torture, and experimentation on thousands of people he agrees to HYDRA’s will. However between repeated electrical shocks as well as the mind wipe itself, there is little left to remember of himself but vague ghostly images. This manifests simply as doing HYDRA’s will and in minor acts, no overt declaration is actually made.
> It’s explored through small glimpses mostly. James Barnes does not snap in half so much as he finally crumbles under the full weight of torture. Things like weeping at the news of Zola’s death, embracing the opportunity to be wiped as well as frozen, and initially punishing Natalia to his shame.
(It’s worth noting that in the film you can infer that the man was almost at that point? Born either of a desire to just “Get it over with”, Bucky is a fighter, that’s clearly illustrated in the first film yet he willingly accepts Pierce’s mind wipe and doesn’t contradict him (or even use a contradicting tone.)
RELEASING OF GUILT
Releasing of guilt: It's not me; it's my beliefs.The embattled target is relieved to learn there is an external cause of his wrongness, that it is not he himself that is inescapably bad -- this means he can escape his wrongness by escaping the wrong belief system. All he has to do is denounce the people and institutions associated with that belief system, and he won't be in pain anymore. The target has the power to release himself from wrongness by confessing to acts associated with his old belief system. With his full confessions, the target has completed his psychological rejection of his former identity. It is now up to the agent to offer the target a new one.
> In short, no new identity is offered save for the natural affection for HYDRA and his original captors. As opposed to the sheer elegance of previous brainwashing efforts (see: Clint Barton and Loki) Bucky is a hodgepodged mess, left without a new identity and a slavish animal loyalty to the people who had just begun to be kind to him and treat him with respect. Having unconsciously identified with HYDRA and it’s people, he feels loyalty to them but he retains no previous memories to comfort him.
Other Notables:
INFINITY SO MARVEL HAS A NUMBER OF SUPER SOLDIERS
It's never specifically stated that Bucky is now a super soldier, but it is heavily implied by both his actions in CA: TWS as well as CA:FA that he has been injected with some sort of serum that enabled him to survive the fall from the train. While this doesn't leave him a musclebound American Asgardian like Steve Rogers, it does mean he has unnatural healing. Previous experiments have also left him with considerable strength and speed at the cost of his humanity (and his memory)
but the biggest problem is (simply put) Bucky's superior healing. In a way they sabotaged their own program. In time, the physical damage to the human brain will heal. The mental damage is what makes him unreliable. Like a dog that's been trained to respond to a certain type of owner he firmly believes that he is the property of HYDRA. and he's happy to be the property of HYDRA.
Inventory: Sig sauer pistol, machine gun (no bullets) , cybernetic arm, uniform (dirty), bullets for sig sauer, medi-kit with sedatives. (two sedatives left)
NETWORK SAMPLE:
[Less then twenty minutes ago he pulled a half dead man from the river who made him uncomfortable, who sent a shiver through his subconscious and who he had done his best to murder. He's trying to cover that up with a misguided sense of honor - beating captain america hand to hand and taking his revenge would be better suited to when the man was at his full strength.
There was another reason, a weakness, the man had broken his arm in three places. He'd counted it, each snap and sprain. He needed to recover, take a week and perhaps some time in Stasis and a wipe...
Yes he'd craved that most out of everything. He wanted to get rid of the sense of darkness that the man who he'd saved unintentionally had brought upon him.
At least his arrival here had distracted him. He could focus on that. Do his best to ignore the pain in his right arm - part of his training had been tying one arm behind the other. He had to collect Natalia.
There's always the chance that this is an illusion. That this new environment is a training exercise.
He needs clarification. When he speaks he does so in Russian.]
This is operative 42WS requesting assistance codename Winter Soldier. I repeat-
[But no. What if this isn't a training exercise? His throat works and there's a very concerned expression on his face. He looks absolutely torn. He speaks in English this time.]
...I need help.
If you help me I promise not to hurt you.
[It's the biggest promise he can offer at the moment]
LOG SAMPLE:
He can taste the salt on his cheeks, the salt on his lips. Everything is harsh and cold and that's the first thing he's aware of, lying amid the stone. There's a song that he can't remember in his head and it's ringing, ringing...before he hears the first burst of gunfire. That wakes him up fast enough. There's pain in his arm that would be excruciating if he were anyone else.
The man did it.
He doesn't get up and charge toward the sounds, it takes every instinct to roll off the ledge he's landed on into the dirt and the concrete, holding his arm unaware of the low animal keening in his throat as he curls himself into a space that should within all rational reason be too small to fit him. He has to focus, amid the screaming and the gunfire outside. There has to be a way and a means to figuring out just how to survive all of this.
The man on the bridge. He knew him, but accepted that he was simply a leader who had gone rogue. He made his head ache in a way that the soldier didn't like. He was not supposed to feel. He was not supposed to recognize the pain in his right arm. He was not supposed to feel the encroaching foreign feeling in his chest and his heart.
He hated knowing that things were wrong and not knowing why.
However in these cases he always had Natalia, his curse and yet the one good thing he knew. his partner, his other half, like yin and yang, male and female, lover...more then lover.
She'd broken ground too when Pierce had made his play and...Pierce.
He starts to sob. Harsh racking things against the dirt once he's sure that no one can hear him over the sound of the sirens, the strange noises he identifies as gunfire. Everything hurts but what hurts the most, what makes him burn for revenge is the knowledge that logic is a part of him. Molds him. Makes him. And makes him aware that he is in fact, less then human and that the person who cared for him, one of the few people who mattered is dead.
Get to Natalia. Take a sit rep, then take revenge on Rogers. Remove the pain in his head and kill anyone who stands in his way. with one shuddering breath he silences himself in his cave, in the darkness, curled like a wounded predator before he reaches for the device ( and how did that get there? How the hell did that get there?)
And presses the call button.
Reality hit him hard in the face. This was sanctum. He was James - and Pierce had been dead for days. Weeks even. And Time, time outside the dome and inside the dome moved on. Reality broke around him and he moaned low in his throat before readjusting his glasses to make his call.
"Natalia? Can you come get me?"
Let the enemies come. If they dared.
Read it listening to this song
