worthallthis | Apocalypse How: Application

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Name: Gail

Age: 40

Contact: cacopheny @ plurk or PM this journal

Character(s) in game: NA

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→ CHARACTER INFO

Character Name: James “Bucky” Barnes AKA The Winter Soldier, the Asset

Age: 98, looks in his early 30s

Canon: Marvel Cinematic Universe

Canon point: The end of Captain America: The Winter Soldier, after dragging Steve out of the river but before finding the museum exhibit

History: MCU wiki

Personality:
The deepest and strongest trait he has, the one that defines who Bucky Barnes is, is his protectiveness. He has a habit of peering down alleyways, looking for people (Steve Rogers, in particular) who need rescue. He stayed in the war because he had people (again, including Steve Rogers) who needed looking after. He has three younger sisters who he looked after. It was this very trait that made it easier for HYDRA to manipulate him into serving them: with his memories gone and loyalty compromised by the trigger words, all they had to do was turn his protective streak onto the wrong people. Even once he starts coming back to himself, the first thing he does is save a life.

Once won, Bucky's loyalty is not easily shaken. Steve, for example, is a frustrating little punk but Bucky refused to give up on him. It took years of torture, conditioning, and finally a literal mind-wipe before that loyalty could be turned around to someone else, and even then all it took was seeing Steve's face and hearing his old name to start to reinstate that allegiance. No matter how annoying, how stupid, or even how dangerous someone is, if that someone has won his loyalty, Bucky will probably put up with it. He might snark at them about it, or do his level best to keep that person from tripping themselves up, but he won't abandon them.

Of course, some of that comes from the fact that he is monumentally stubborn. It did, after all, take all those years of torture and finally a mind-wipe to get him to turn. He refuses to give up on Steve in no small part because he's already made up his mind and isn't about to go back on it now. Even in smaller, day-to-day issues, he doesn't easily change his mind on things, even when he’s wrong. This also makes recovery a little more difficult, since he'll stubbornly cling to the things he’s known in the past.

In return for his devotion, Bucky engenders loyalty, right back. In Brooklyn, he was popular: he had friends, he had dates, he could convince his dates to go out with a grouchy Steve too, and it's clear he had a strong rapport with his unit in the army beyond that. Even when brain-fried and confused, even when ostensibly acting on the side of the villains, there's a certain charisma to him. There's something about his lost puppy demeanor and his rare smile that wins people to his side. He doesn't necessarily know how to exercise it intentionally right now, but with more time spent among friends than enemies, some of his extroverted nature will come back to him.

Finally, after years and years of being controlled, hurt, confused, and downright tortured, Bucky carries with him a lot of fear. While this is not a personality trait per se, it still deeply affects how he interacts with the world and with the people in it. Small spaces? Automatic fear response. Electricity sparking? Automatic fear response. Medical devices or the smell of latex? Automatic fear response. Human-shaped people approaching him? Automatic fear response. He is excellent at hiding it, basically able to mask the symptoms of an anxiety attack for hours on end as an extreme adaptation to not being allowed to show emotion, but it's still there. Nothing in the world is safe, at least not for a long time until he learns to trust again. This is going to make him practically a feast for the local Entities all on his own, honestly.

Suitability: Coming from his canon point, Bucky is aimless and uncertain in who he is or even what he is. He needs structure and direction, and will gravitate to what the ADI provides in the form of missions and routine while he tries to work that out. Plus, he's not used to having to actually earn money, so jobs that cater to his specific skillset in the beginning will be a good idea for him. As his memories start to return and his personality starts to reassert itself, this may change, but by then he'll probably have CR he cares about and won’t want to abandon them, or might believe in the cause enough to stay.

Powers/Abilities:
* Super-soldier serum, the evil version: Not quite the kind that was given to Captain America, but rather one that's gone through some variations and remixes due to lack of resources, creative thinking, and indifference to the suffering of the subject. This increases his metabolism to the point where he heals from damage in about 1/4 the time of an unenhanced human and gives him increased strength, speed, and stamina. His memory has improved to the point of being nearly edetic and he has slightly enhanced senses of sight, hearing, and smell. Drugs in general do not work on him except in large doses and he can no longer get drunk. That last one is not necessarily a benefit.
* Advanced training: Bucky Barnes' trained skillset includes basic army training and advanced sniper training, as well as an understanding of guerilla tactics and some mechanical expertise, and a lot of trial-and-error scrounging for food in Europe's forests. The Winter Soldier's skillset is much broader, including advanced hand-to-hand techniques, proficiency with firearms and close-combat weapons of an incredibly wide variety, fluency in multiple languages, enhanced bodily control and flexibility, subterfuge, stealth, and standard mission skills such as looking after the basic necessities, obtaining supplies, and seeking out intel. He has crazy-high pain tolerance, a damn good poker face, and can do basic maintenance on the mechanical arm.
* Pre-War skills: Some simple mechanics, for fixing up old-timey machinery, and mending clothing. Bucky spent time both working in construction and on the docks, so is at least passingly familiar with building things and ships.

Entity Affinity: The Stranger, in the sense of losing one's identity or sense of self. As of his canon point, Bucky has no real sense of self beyond "HYDRA's Asset". There's the inkling that maybe there's more, that he's forgotten: knowing that Steve saw him as a friend means he has an identity, a self that used to exist long, long ago and no longer remembers. The idea of rediscovering that terrifies him, but at the same time losing the budding identity he builds in-game will also terrify him. What if he isn't who he thinks he is? What if he isn't what he thinks he is? How will he ever even know? He may be a stranger to himself forever.

Inventory: Bucky comes in with his combat uniform (pants, boots, armored vest, weapons harness and belt), his Glock gun, and two combat knives.

Samples: Spam thread for dialogue, such as it is... Log thread for thought processes