AU MCU or original zombie fic
May. 5th, 2014 02:25 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beccaelizabethJust some bunny rambling.
It occurred to me that the way I already set up my undead rules in the fantasy 'verse, with empty minded zombies and soul jar stones, is perfect for setting up the Winter Soldier. Because it would be really easy to raise someone who lost their stone, that's what happens to most of the countryside, the ones that were lost before the stones were even made. And then there would just be some kind of control zombies spell, or putting the wrong stone on, like a basic AI instead of a whole human. But that would make getting Bucky back be basically about finding the right shiny rock. Which seems to lack heart.
... did 616 pretty much do that? Find the right rock and make a wish?
In the movies though it's going to be all about emotions beating repeated brain damage, so Bucky knows Steve even though he doesn't know anything. Like Steve had Bucky when he had nothing. Feeeeeeelings!
If they were wearing someone else's stone then, under current rules, the occupant could try and possess them, so it couldn't be they swapped stones and that left him empty. Unless of course he had Steve's stone on the wrong arm. That would be the easiest way for Steve to get the stone without the rest of Bucky actually, he goes back for him and just finds the remains of an arm, with the soul stone all filled up. Dead best friend. Woe.
And then the zombie remains would be out there doing evil's bidding.
The other thing about the stones is they can't form any new memories or have new thoughts. They're a recording, a hard drive for the soul. They need a relatively intact brain to run on. You can communicate with them by touch, but doing so runs the risk of swapping drivers in your own body.
So if Steve had the recording, he'd have all their memories, all the things his best friend has ever said to him, but nothing new. It would be a horrible temptation to just live in the past with this very animate memory of his friend. But Bucky would never try and hurt Steve, so would he ever try and take the wheel? Well to protect him, sure, or to try and make him happier. Bucky trying to set Steve up with girls whilst currently possessing Steve's body. Awkward.
Especially if Steve is not into girls, and is in fact into Bucky. Because if he didn't tell him before he died, he could talk to his memory all he liked, the guy would never understand. Woes.
So if that's the middle of the story then that progresses through giving Bucky his memories back and then starting to get unexpected responses. Like, he knows the guy in the stone real well, but the guy he's walking around with now, that guy surprises him. And it's going to be tempting to think that's because he's not really Bucky, that the spells didn't go right, that there's stuff wrong in his head still. It's got to be tempting to try and keep fixing him. Make him like the memories. Maybe reboot him, take the stone off and put it on again, start him over.
Wow, that would be dark. Because the temptation would be to treat Bucky the way his keepers had treated the Winter Soldier, to try and get the good bits version back.
Or keep taking over his life to make things better for him.
That middle part would be about how being old friends can get destructive if you get stuck. Like, if neither of them updates their pattern, they can mess each other up.
They need to break a bit at the worst bit of the story. Maybe break up for a while? And come back with new memories neither knows about the other?
And after that relate as two adults with their own deals and stop trying to fix each other or fix each other up.
I've kind of talked myself out of the / though, that might not work out so well.
Like, if it's about romance and how Bucky hears but doesn't acknowledge that his best guy is in love with him, hence the fixing him up with girls, then when they put the pieces back together the main way new Bucky could be different is if he hears and is really into it. Like, he hadn't thought about it before, but now he does, and that sounds great. Because a nice and self sacrificing Steve is unlikely to consciously try and fix someone, push them back into a role, but if Steve thinks he's somehow changed Bucky for his own advantage, accidentally reprogrammed him while he kept him safe, then he'd feel guilty as hell and try and fix that. Like, Bucky would be having his own feelings, but Steve would tell him they weren't the right ones and they'd be all messed up at each other.
But that's the messed up bit of the story. So then they go off to have separate lives for a while, different assignments, and for Bucky it would be about establishing that he is in fact a person, and his own person, and his feelings are real fucking feelings thank you very much. I don't know what he'd do but it would be heroic and get him out of Steve's shadow and all that guilt spiral the guy was pushing on him. And Steve would be... if his problem is he thinks he accidentally ordered Bucky to feel a thing then he'd be having a problem with orders now? Like, he'd feel he misused his authority, and he wouldn't want to be the boss of people any more. So he'd have to go off and have a team and tell them what to do and get over that part.
Also there'd be a bit about how you can't order someone to be in love. You can order them to have sex with you and to act like they like you, but there's no magic nor law that can order up love. So Steve would need to believe he can't order it and Bucky would be finding a clear distinction in himself between any fake time or current not-love relationships and what he feels for Steve. Which probably involves shagging people outside the OTP, that's never popular.
(also might involve zombie sex; must specify these zombies to be non icky. or maybe find a resurrection spell? oh, someone's working on one of those somewhere else, yes, there's a way to unzombie the zombies once you have all the parts together. but once they do that they don't need the stones to do the thinking any more, so couldn't reboot him again.) (without zombie making him again) (which is darker than I'd go)
But then they'd get back together and Bucky would initiate things and sweep Steve off his feet. Because real feelings.
So that could work.
If it's actually Steve though I tend to OTP him with Tony. Not because I think they're the only ones that could fall for each other, lots of relationships could work if they were real people. More because of the metaphor layers, and how Steve needs to embrace the future and Tony tries to be the future. New shiny bright. Same way I ship soldier+scientist pretty consistently, not because two soldiers or two scientists wouldn't have more in common, but because there's more to resolve and reach for, to fit the two approaches together. Fight and build, talk and shoot, understanding for its own sake or to look for weak points. I'd be trying to fit a metaphor together as much as a relationship.
So then leaving Steve with the guy that loved him all along doesn't do anything to the characters or make them grow or change.
But that bit about power and expectations outlined above involves quite a lot to chew on.
In a straight up MCU fic the bit in the middle with Bucky memories pushing Steve into things would have to be a lot more metaphorical, because no little stone of mostly Bucky. But the fantasy 'verse with the stones in was trying to file the serial numbers off and be original ish fic.
I should stop getting stuck on ideas and actually write a thing. Anything. It has been a really long time.
It occurred to me that the way I already set up my undead rules in the fantasy 'verse, with empty minded zombies and soul jar stones, is perfect for setting up the Winter Soldier. Because it would be really easy to raise someone who lost their stone, that's what happens to most of the countryside, the ones that were lost before the stones were even made. And then there would just be some kind of control zombies spell, or putting the wrong stone on, like a basic AI instead of a whole human. But that would make getting Bucky back be basically about finding the right shiny rock. Which seems to lack heart.
... did 616 pretty much do that? Find the right rock and make a wish?
In the movies though it's going to be all about emotions beating repeated brain damage, so Bucky knows Steve even though he doesn't know anything. Like Steve had Bucky when he had nothing. Feeeeeeelings!
If they were wearing someone else's stone then, under current rules, the occupant could try and possess them, so it couldn't be they swapped stones and that left him empty. Unless of course he had Steve's stone on the wrong arm. That would be the easiest way for Steve to get the stone without the rest of Bucky actually, he goes back for him and just finds the remains of an arm, with the soul stone all filled up. Dead best friend. Woe.
And then the zombie remains would be out there doing evil's bidding.
The other thing about the stones is they can't form any new memories or have new thoughts. They're a recording, a hard drive for the soul. They need a relatively intact brain to run on. You can communicate with them by touch, but doing so runs the risk of swapping drivers in your own body.
So if Steve had the recording, he'd have all their memories, all the things his best friend has ever said to him, but nothing new. It would be a horrible temptation to just live in the past with this very animate memory of his friend. But Bucky would never try and hurt Steve, so would he ever try and take the wheel? Well to protect him, sure, or to try and make him happier. Bucky trying to set Steve up with girls whilst currently possessing Steve's body. Awkward.
Especially if Steve is not into girls, and is in fact into Bucky. Because if he didn't tell him before he died, he could talk to his memory all he liked, the guy would never understand. Woes.
So if that's the middle of the story then that progresses through giving Bucky his memories back and then starting to get unexpected responses. Like, he knows the guy in the stone real well, but the guy he's walking around with now, that guy surprises him. And it's going to be tempting to think that's because he's not really Bucky, that the spells didn't go right, that there's stuff wrong in his head still. It's got to be tempting to try and keep fixing him. Make him like the memories. Maybe reboot him, take the stone off and put it on again, start him over.
Wow, that would be dark. Because the temptation would be to treat Bucky the way his keepers had treated the Winter Soldier, to try and get the good bits version back.
Or keep taking over his life to make things better for him.
That middle part would be about how being old friends can get destructive if you get stuck. Like, if neither of them updates their pattern, they can mess each other up.
They need to break a bit at the worst bit of the story. Maybe break up for a while? And come back with new memories neither knows about the other?
And after that relate as two adults with their own deals and stop trying to fix each other or fix each other up.
I've kind of talked myself out of the / though, that might not work out so well.
Like, if it's about romance and how Bucky hears but doesn't acknowledge that his best guy is in love with him, hence the fixing him up with girls, then when they put the pieces back together the main way new Bucky could be different is if he hears and is really into it. Like, he hadn't thought about it before, but now he does, and that sounds great. Because a nice and self sacrificing Steve is unlikely to consciously try and fix someone, push them back into a role, but if Steve thinks he's somehow changed Bucky for his own advantage, accidentally reprogrammed him while he kept him safe, then he'd feel guilty as hell and try and fix that. Like, Bucky would be having his own feelings, but Steve would tell him they weren't the right ones and they'd be all messed up at each other.
But that's the messed up bit of the story. So then they go off to have separate lives for a while, different assignments, and for Bucky it would be about establishing that he is in fact a person, and his own person, and his feelings are real fucking feelings thank you very much. I don't know what he'd do but it would be heroic and get him out of Steve's shadow and all that guilt spiral the guy was pushing on him. And Steve would be... if his problem is he thinks he accidentally ordered Bucky to feel a thing then he'd be having a problem with orders now? Like, he'd feel he misused his authority, and he wouldn't want to be the boss of people any more. So he'd have to go off and have a team and tell them what to do and get over that part.
Also there'd be a bit about how you can't order someone to be in love. You can order them to have sex with you and to act like they like you, but there's no magic nor law that can order up love. So Steve would need to believe he can't order it and Bucky would be finding a clear distinction in himself between any fake time or current not-love relationships and what he feels for Steve. Which probably involves shagging people outside the OTP, that's never popular.
(also might involve zombie sex; must specify these zombies to be non icky. or maybe find a resurrection spell? oh, someone's working on one of those somewhere else, yes, there's a way to unzombie the zombies once you have all the parts together. but once they do that they don't need the stones to do the thinking any more, so couldn't reboot him again.) (without zombie making him again) (which is darker than I'd go)
But then they'd get back together and Bucky would initiate things and sweep Steve off his feet. Because real feelings.
So that could work.
If it's actually Steve though I tend to OTP him with Tony. Not because I think they're the only ones that could fall for each other, lots of relationships could work if they were real people. More because of the metaphor layers, and how Steve needs to embrace the future and Tony tries to be the future. New shiny bright. Same way I ship soldier+scientist pretty consistently, not because two soldiers or two scientists wouldn't have more in common, but because there's more to resolve and reach for, to fit the two approaches together. Fight and build, talk and shoot, understanding for its own sake or to look for weak points. I'd be trying to fit a metaphor together as much as a relationship.
So then leaving Steve with the guy that loved him all along doesn't do anything to the characters or make them grow or change.
But that bit about power and expectations outlined above involves quite a lot to chew on.
In a straight up MCU fic the bit in the middle with Bucky memories pushing Steve into things would have to be a lot more metaphorical, because no little stone of mostly Bucky. But the fantasy 'verse with the stones in was trying to file the serial numbers off and be original ish fic.
I should stop getting stuck on ideas and actually write a thing. Anything. It has been a really long time.