James Buchanan Barnes       The Winter Soldier     Pretty Hate Machine
BASICS name. Sgt. James Barnes nicknames. Bucky codename. The Winter Solider age. 97/27 date of birth. 10 MAR 1917 occupation. Assassin circa. 2014 hometown. Brooklyn, NY nexus room #. 107 height. 5'11" hair. Dark brown, cheek-length (see gif below) eyes. Blue-green defining characteristics. Mechanical left arm with red star on outer bicep TROPES → Back From the Dead → An Arm and a Leg → The Brute → Cold Sniper → The Dreaded → Human Popsicle → Older Than They Look compiled from tvtropes.org OUT OF CHARACTER dropbox. here permissions. here pb. Sebastian Stan gif credit. one | two grimvisaged at All Inclusive PLAYLIST ♪ More Human Than Human - White Zombie ♪ Breathe - The Prodigy ♪ Killing In The Name - Rage Against The Machine ♪ Head Like A Hole - Nine Inch Nails NOTES ☭ He will not respond to "Bucky." Eventually he will respond to "James," but unless you're Steve Rogers, you're unlikely to be allowed to call him Bucky at any point.	Scratch off the broken skin, tear into my heart, make me do it again PERSONALITY Ironically, one of Bucky's defining characteristics at this time is his lack of defining characteristics. He has no concrete memory of his life prior to HYDRA, and for the past 70 years his identity has almost entirely been shaped by the horrific missions they assigned to him. (Although it should also be noted that Bucky remembers little of these, as well.) For a very long time, having been repeatedly brainwashed, he has been operating with the blind belief that his "work" for HYDRA is of greatest importance for the good of the world, despite not fully understanding why. HYDRA, however, made a critical error in assigning Bucky to a mission which might involve Steve Rogers, as the memories of their childhood friendship proved even more potent than a lifetime of repeatedly wiped memory and brainwashing. Bucky knew Steve, was certain of it, and now that he's out from under HYDRA's thumb, he's determined to find out who exactly James Buchanan Barnes was, and whether any part of him lives on within the Winter Soldier. As dangerous a foe as they come on Earth, Bucky is wicked savvy at virtually every aspect of espionage and combat, exempting those requiring honed interpersonal skills. His skill at what he does belies an often childlike view of the world; he is unused to complicated emotions and has virtually no coping mechanisms against them. In effect, he does not know how to deal with everything that has lately been revealed about his past, or the overwhelming emotion that has accompanied those revelations—For the first time, he's confused and afraid, and in ways that are entirely unexpected. As such, Bucky can be exceptionally volatile and unpredictable. Well-intentioned people probably won't be hurt on purpose, but it's possible if they get too close and something triggers him. He is in desperate need of patient, good-hearted people to help him through this difficult period, but it's going to be rough going, probably for quite some time. As far as he knows, he's never had a friend, and has to learn what that means. POWERS&SKILLS ★ Super strength, speed and agility (This wasn't overtly stated in the film, but it has been confirmed in the cast interviews that Bucky was given a super soldier serum similar to what was given to Steve.) ★ Massively powerful cybernetic left arm ★ Expert marksman ★ Expert at clandestine operations ★ Epic sad puppy eyes HISTORY Once upon a time, a bouncing baby boy was born in Shelbyville, Indiana. Not long after a family move to Brooklyn, New York, the boy found himself an orphan, but miraculously, not alone.1 Through his best friend, the boy found a new family, one which he would follow through a childhood filled with back alley brawls and big dreams, then into a world turned entirely on its head by Hitler and the Super Soldier program. Only death was capable of separating them. Fallen, his body made sturdier by experiments he could not recall, he was recovered by scientists who would replace what was left of his left arm with a mechanical substitute, empty his mind, and train him to become the world's most efficient assassin. Put on ice until needed, he would be repeatedly thawed, rebooted, and brainwashed into believing his missions were helping mankind. For seventy years this cycle went on, his legacy one of fear and disbelief, his identity fleeting, a ghost. Until the day he found himself faced with his forgotten childhood friend, and a single name threw his entire world into a tailspin. Bucky? And now the ghost is searching for the boy he was, and the man he ought to be. 1Choosing to ignore the details of the flashback scene in Captain America: The Winter Soldier, as it directly conflicts with information given in the Captain America: The First Avenger tie-in comics which myself and MCU!Steve's player were using for background.
code by wearestardust @ supersuits

The hotel, he finds, is home to an inordinate number of mirrors. This was not something he had taken particular note of before unless it helped in surveillance, but now they seem inescapable, tacked upon every wall and rising up to assault him around every corner. He has changed, and now he cannot get away from himself.

It is not Barnes nor the Winter Soldier who stares back at him now, but a grim and sleek hybrid, the place where light and dark meet. He has no opinion on his newly-clipped hair, apart from acknowledging that the style is sufficiently enough removed from both of the people he used to be. Falling in a dark sheet to skim his freshly-shaved cheeks, it would make him look like a wayward college student were it not for the hard line of his mouth which serves as accompaniment.

There's an odd sort of freedom which comes with looking different, however—A feeling of having firmly planted his flag in a place of his own choosing, of asserting that he need not be one or the other. This third option is a buoy, a brace, and it pulls him away from his reflection to find Rogers again.

He's stopped looking for Barnes, but he cannot stay away from the man who was his best friend. The thread which connects them is an invisible but unrelenting tug at his heart.

She's good.

This had been the sum total of his report on Natalia Romanova, teenage prodigy and assassin-in-training. From anyone else it was a scant accounting, but from him, notoriously skilled and still taciturn, those two words contained volumes.

In truth, Romanova was better than he'd anticipated. She was far from the first student he'd had, but she'd been the first to come close to holding her own. When playtime had finished and he'd stopped pulling punches, she'd refused to back down. He'd given her bruises for her trouble, but she'd earned his respect—Something none of the others had managed.

Also unlike all the others, he found himself actually looking forward to their sessions together.

Today, he was waiting for her in the rafters. Cloaked in shadow and perfectly still, he kept a sharp eye on the door and his muscles poised to spring.

There are things which he knows, and things which he remembers, but they are seldom both at once. This is the way that it has always been

(no)

understanding kicking up sparks in the empty corners of his brain, woven with instinct to inform him what's true and what isn't

(wrong)

memories distant and unformed, hazy smeared images, impulses that pop and fade like a flashbulb, leaving him dazed, spots in his eyes.

This place he doesn't remember, but he remembers her in it. A cockeyed smile across a tabletop, perfect teeth skimming against a plush bottom lip. When he first sees her here, that shock of fiery red hair brushing a pale cheek, he remembers her through the sight of a rifle and isn't sure why.

He knows who she is, in the obtuse sense: Romanoff, Natasha. Colleague of Rogers, Steve. She's changed her name, and he isn't certain why he knows that, either.

He thinks, maybe, she knows he's there the second before his left forearm presses against her larynx; she's that good. Silently, swiftly, he pulls her from the carpeted hall and into the shadows of an alcove, dragging her back against his chest, arm firm across collar and throat, the soft scrape of metal plate beneath the soft fabric of his hoodie. She could break free if she wanted, and he thinks he'd let her.

She's that good.

"Explain," he says against the warm shell of her ear, voice low and velvet-rough from disuse.

He can smell her shampoo.

He's been here before.

There are spoilers below.

CHARACTER NAME: James Buchanan "Bucky" Barnes, aka The Winter Soldier
CHARACTER CANON: MCU

OOC

Slowtagging: Oh yes.
Canon-puncturing: He will eventually be aware that he was fictionalized in comic books during WWII for the purposes of propaganda, but apart from that, please do not canon puncture him. He's got enough to deal with right now.
Offensive subjects (elaborate): None, although if you think a subject is offensive to begin with, it's probably best to talk about it first just to be safe.

IC

Hugging this character: No
Kissing this character: No
Flirting with this character: You can try, but it probably won't have much effect.
Fighting with this character: Yes, but we'll need to talk, as he's pretty formidable.
Injuring this character (include limits and severity): Yes; again, let's talk.
Using telepathy/mind reading abilities on this character: Oh lawdy. This is okay, but I do ask that you not make ANY assumptions about ANYTHING, even based on previous gameplay. Bucky's poor mind is a quagmire, and his memory is vastly unreliable, both because he has been brainwashed, and because he's had it altered so many times. So what he fully remembered a week ago, he might have trouble with now.

General Warnings: Just going to C/P from the meme.

Bucky (who will not respond to that name at this time, for the record) is in an extremely precarious place when it comes to his personal development and identity. For the last 70 years, he's been in a loop of being cryogenically frozen, thawed, given forced amnesia, and then brainwashed into doing horrific things. Lather, rinse, repeat; over and over and over again. What memories he's had of his previous life have been fleeting, murky, and quickly dispatched by the people controlling him. As it stands, he has virtually no identity apart from the horrible things he's done, although he doesn't remember all of those, either. For a long time, he's been a machine—Nameless, unquestioning, efficient, obedient. Out from under Hydra's thumb, he's learned who he used to be, and while anger is perhaps the most present and familiar part of this revelation, he's struggling more with the other emotions it's prompted, as he's not accustomed to feeling sympathy, compassion, curiosity, or confusion. He has virtually no coping mechanisms. He's volatile, there's no doubt about it, but he's also largely adrift and looking for answers—Not just to who he used to be, but to who he can be now. He might not directly admit it, but he wants to know what it's like to be a real boy—To finally feel and think for himself, now that he knows he can. And a big part of that is going to be interacting with people. This will likely be a slow and painful process—He's got little experience with social interaction, and he's not good at it. But he has to learn how to be something other than a blunt instrument, and the only way he can do that is by being around other people, particularly those who won't judge him too harshly, ask too many questions, or try to manipulate him. (That last? NOT going to go over well.)

Godmodding

Right now, no one. We'll get there eventually, but it might take awhile.