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[stillgotmyleftarm]

OUT OF CHARACTER:
Name/Handle: Ali-chan
Contact: antipositional or pm my character journal!
Reference: N/A
Other characters: N/A (new player)

IN-CHARACTER:
Character name: James Buchanan “Bucky” Barnes
Character journal: stillgotmyleftarm
Series name: Marvel Cinematic Universe (AU)
Canon notes: This Bucky is from an AU of the MCU where Steve, not Bucky, fell from the train, and Bucky took over as Captain America. He is from early 2014, pre- the events of what will be his version of Captain America: The Winter Soldier. No other previous game or PSL canon.

Species: Human, albeit one who received a slightly less-potent version of Erskine’s super soldier serum.

History: Bucky is from an alternate Marvel Cinematic Universe that is exactly in line with the canon one … until instead of Bucky getting blasted out of the train during the mission in the Alps to capture Dr. Zola during Captain America: The First Avenger, Steve Rogers was the one who took the fall. Immediately after that mission, Bucky was able to gather resources and search for Steve’s body in the ravine below, but no evidence was ever found. The Army (though understandably disappointed they’d been unable to recover the body of the only successful super soldier serum recipient) ultimately concluded he had been killed and swept away by the river. Bucky unhappily agreed. As a result, Bucky was immediately and publicly given a promotion and handed Steve’s shield and suit, and served as Captain America (with the public’s knowledge, because who better to stand behind than the grieving best friend of the national icon killed in action?). His career as Cap didn’t last long, though - only a few days, until the assault on HYDRA’s last base and his pursuit of the Red Skull in the Valkyrie, during which the Red Skull disappeared and Bucky put the plane into the water to prevent its contents from reaching America’s East Coast.

Sixty-seven years later, the plane and Bucky’s body were recovered. Given that everyone had assumed Bucky was simply a normal human, they certainly didn’t expect to find him alive in some kind of suspended animation. During the thawing process, SHIELD ran extensive tests and discovered that Bucky had received a version of the super soldier serum - Bucky himself had previously suspected this, given things like changes in his appetite and healing rate after his capture at Azzano, but he’d never told anyone (not even Steve) and had assumed he’d take that secret to his grave. SHIELD has kept that particular tidbit a secret from the public, though Bucky’s return to life and the role of Captain America went public during his universe’s version of The Avengers, when he returned to active duty to stop Loki and his Chitauri army. Following the Battle of New York, Bucky moved to Washington, D.C., to work for SHIELD as Captain America. He has been in this role for nearly two years; it’s now early 2014, prior to the events of what will be his version of Captain America: The Winter Soldier (and in this universe, the Winter Soldier will be a Steve Rogers who was recovered from the Alps by HYDRA before Bucky could muster the resources to look for him).

For the most part, the details of his post-train mission history are identical to canon MCU Steve Rogers’; because Bucky is not exactly Steve, some of the decisions he’s made and tactics he’s used are different - for example, he still carries a sidearm, which Steve had stopped doing after World War II in canon - but for the most part, despite minor differences, the major events that have shaped his life and his universe are the same as those that happened to Steve Rogers in the MCU canon timeline. Prior to the point at which the two canons diverge (the train mission), Bucky’s history is exactly the same as canon MCU Bucky Barnes’. (Reference: MCU Wiki)

Personality: Bucky Barnes is essentially Steve Rogers’ more reasonable half. He is, in no particular order, charming, loyal, intelligent, and protective. Bucky’s got a good head on his shoulders. He’s also a skilled combatant and marksman. He doesn’t like to fight, but he does understand it’s often necessary. And while he’d generally prefer to follow orders, he is also more than capable of giving them and stepping up as a leader when needed. His protective nature extends beyond just friends and family to those under his command and civilians he’s trying to protect, even when it’s at his own expense.

One of the most defining things about Bucky is his friendship with Steve Rogers, which has shaped his life since childhood, ever since he stepped into an alley to help a small, skinny kid who was losing a fight against some bigger bullies. That alone is a good example of the kind of person Bucky is: He knows the difference between right and wrong, and while he may know it’s not always smart to put your foot in the middle of it, he will absolutely step up regardless, and he won’t regret it in the end. Steve Rogers was the guy too dumb to run away from a fight; Bucky Barnes was the guy who’d step in and make sure they won that fight, or gave ‘em hell trying. Where Steve Rogers steps into fights indiscriminately, Bucky knows how to pick his battles. It’s not so much a question of whether he’ll fight, but more a question of when and how. He can step back from a situation and assess it for the right time and the right way to strike, and more rarely lets his emotions drive his actions. That isn’t to say he’s always smart and calculating, but he generally uses good sense whenever possible to make sure that when he steps into a fight, he’s going to finish it.

Since Steve died and Bucky took over as Cap, he’s tried to follow the mantra of doing as Steve would do. Of the two of them, Bucky always knew Steve was the better man. Where Steve is pure light, Bucky has a dark side, and he knows it; he might have tried to hide it from Steve, keeping it wrapped up and shoved in a corner, but he’s never pretended to himself that he doesn’t have it. Bucky can be brutally honest with himself in a way that not many men of his era can. As Captain America, he is more reckless with his own life and welfare than ever before, partly because he’s trying to follow in Steve’s footsteps, and partly because he’s still in mourning for the best friend, the family, and the world he lost in the war. Since coming out of the ice, he’s been simultaneously entranced by the world around him and done his best not to truly become a part of it. As far as he’s concerned, he’s living on borrowed time - time he owes to Steve, and so he owes it to Steve to be a man worthy of the mantle Steve left behind.

What’s more, Bucky’s first instinct isn’t to be Cap. He never wanted the spotlight, and he’s uncomfortable with it in a different way than Steve was. Like the sniper he used to be, he’d rather be serving his country from the shadows, out of the spotlight and able to utilize some of the darkness inside him for good. But now that he is Cap, he understands the weight of the choice and won’t go back on it for anything, no matter what he wants or would prefer. Like Steve, Bucky is a man that history placed into a role he might have never wanted, but he’s also one of the few men who can handle the job. He may have never asked for the part he’s played, but he will play it to his absolute last breath, because it’s the right thing to do.

Abilities: Bucky received a knockoff version of Erskine’s super soldier serum. With the serum, he has slightly enhanced muscle mass and increased strength, speed, and stamina commensurate with some of those that canon Bucky has (minus, of course, the metal arm and any refinements the canon version received while with HYDRA post-fall): (Reference: MCU Wiki)

• Enhanced/superhuman strength on par with canon MCU Captain America
• Enhanced durability and healing (such that he could have survived a fall from a train into a ravine/river in the Alps - which canon Bucky did - and in his universe didsurvive a plane crash and freezing in suspended animation for nearly 70 years), as well as an above-average immune system and general resistance to disease; however, drugs (perhaps in slightly higher doses than normal) do affect him, including alcohol
• Enhanced/superhuman speed, agility, and reflexes, superior to that of Olympic athletes and again on par with canon MCU Captain America
• Military training and expert marksmanship, given that he served in the Army and with the original Captain America of his universe as a sniper until Steve’s death
• Proficiency with Captain America’s shield, including as an offensive and defensive weapon

Augment Skillset: Pilot
Sample: Prose thread