(no subject)

[mememaker]

the alignment switch meme

well, it looks like your characters have all switched alignments. could be by choice, or it might not be. but now good characters are becoming evil, and evil characters are becoming good. the question now is why?

→ post with your character, fandom, and preferences.
→ wait for someone to reply or tag around.
→ pick a scenario or test your luck with rng.
→ HAVE FUN.
 

good characters are now evil because...
one | evil laser beams. or evil gas. or evil potion. or maybe you just ate some bad shrimp. silly puns aside, your character now inexplicably evil due to this event, and the only way to change them back is to hit them with the same thing a second time. that is, if your character can be stopped long enough...

two | deal with the devil. your character desperately needed something done, and the only person capable of getting that something done is their nemesis. the problem is, he wants something in return -- and no matter the details, the end result is the same. your character is going to be doing some pretty evil things to fulfill their end of the bargain...

three | brainwashed and crazy. someone used the activation code, put a chip in the brain, plunked on the brainwashing hat or just did it the old fashioned way with a watch while saying 'you're getting sleeeepy.' whatever the case, your character is completely under someone's thumb, and what better way to use them then to use them to cause havoc and chaos?...

four | a monster am i. they've been infected with the virus, given a syringe of mutating agents, or suppressing their primal side for too long. but your character's reluctance to reveal the truth to their allies will cost everyone dearly. because your character can feel the transformation start, and only seconds remain until they're little more than a killing machine...

five | watch out for pea soup. your character's been possessed by something malevolent. a ghost, a god, a puppet master, or whatever else might want to possess them. maybe they know they're possessed and maybe they don't. but one things for sure -- their loved ones are about to find out because nothing short of death or an exorcism is going to work against your character now...

six | amnesia makes everyone evil. your character bumped their head somehow and have completely lost their memories of being the good guy. their enemy has thus managed to trick them into believing that their allies are really the enemy and that they have to fight them to save the day. and being the amnesiac, good-willed sap that your character is, they believed the bad guy...

seven | ... wait, that wasn't you?! your character's evil twin has arrived! or maybe it's a clone. or a robot. or an alternate reality version of them. or their disgruntled reflection in the mirror. whatever the case, they've managed to sully your character's good name while they were away on vacation. or maybe the evil twin was holding them hostage all along!...

eight | this just isn't working. being good just isn't cutting it. no matter what your character tries, their methods aren't working to prevent whatever problem is happening. or maybe they've had a falling out with their allies, or said did something that crossed a line. in any case, its time to make a decision. and your character has decided that they're better off allying with the bad guy, now the lesser of two evils in their eyes, after all...

nine | evil all along. your character was evil this whole time. they're just a damn good actor, if they might say so themselves. maybe they were working as the bad guy's spy, or working toward their own evil ends. still, their allies have now outlived their usefulness, and its time to crush them. like they say, keep your friends close and your enemies closer...

ten | wild card. it can be any of the above, or something else entirely!

evil characters are now good because...
one | good laser beams. the opposite of "evil laser beams." it was likely an accident with actual laser beams (your character was evil, after all), but in any case your character is now the nicest and most selfless person to ever walk the face of the planet. and the only way to change them back is to -- what else? -- hit them with whatever turned them good a second time...

two | brainwashed and... nice? the opposite of "brainwashed and crazy." it may or may not have been the doing of the good guys. but now your character has become nice as pie. not only this, but they'll obediently follow any order given, because they're just that nice! heck, they're so nice it might actually start getting on the nerves of the heroes as to just how nice they are. or, well, maybe your character's evil allies might want to un-brainwash them too...

three | i have a good twin!? the opposite of "... wait, that wasn't you?!" your character's insufferably good clone/twin/alternate self/mirror image/etc. has just made a complete mess of your character's image and life. now its up to everyone else to solve it while your character's gone. or, maybe they're supposed to rescue them from whatever horrific imprisonment the good twin put your character in back when they first arrived...

four | amnesia makes you good. the opposite of "amnesia makes you evil." now its the good guy's turn to use amnesia to their advantage. they've convinced your character to help them with something -- likely an evil scheme your character perpetrated -- because, according to them, your character's a good guy and they just don't remember. and all the while they're praying your character stays not remembering long enough to finish the job...

five | being good isn't so bad. the opposite of "this just isn't working." maybe it started with an unexpected act of kindness from the other side. or maybe its from breaking free from years of misguidance. or maybe it was falling in love with an enemy, or getting older. but something has happened and now, looking back your character's started to have scruples about what they're doing. maybe the good guys were right -- and maybe its time to start doing some heavy-duty soul-searching and genuine penance...

six | healed in the name of the moon. the truth is stranger than fiction sometimes. it turns out that you weren't always this evil, but rather you were forced by a spell or curse to become an evil monster, and its been so long you forgot all about who you once were. but now, your character's enemies have found the magic or the machine that will turn you back into your long-forgotten self. And they've just activated it...

seven | spy for the rebel alliance. the opposite of "evil all along." they pretended to be evil for the sake of truth and justice -- and now your character is a close ally of the enemy. so much so that your character has gotten rid of some bad guys by faking them being spies -- and they have even fooled the good guys into thinking they're completely evil. but the time has come to discard that evil persona and to reveal to the enemy just why trusting your character was really a bad idea...

eight | wild card. it can be any of the above, or something else entirely!

Comments

Lemme know if anything needs to be changed.

[yourmove]

Bucky's mistake was visiting the Smithsonian's Captain America exhibit.

It takes awhile to comb the CCTV footage. As Mr. Barnes is known to be constantly on the move, that means Hydra needs a mobile unit to respond to any new blips on the radar. Real-time threat assessment and the capabilities to bring him in (mostly) one piece. With the advances in robotic prosthesis, Alex Murphy has a decidedly lenient definition of "one piece". Standing orders are to pacify, detain, deliver to the nearest Hydra agent. Accompany until Mr. Barnes is given what Alex already has: state-of-the-art neurosuppression by going in and adjusting dopamine levels until he's battle-ready again. None of this outdated electric shock therapy business. It's not the 1940s anymore.

Alex agrees. It's the very definition of humane. And he agrees, too, that Mr. Barnes is a valuable Hydra asset: it would be a waste of that asset to kill him after all those decades of service.

He finally tracks down Mr. Barnes in Detroit. OmniCorp trots Alex out as the "newest tool" for the police force, a prototype they showboat on their tour of the major cities, but the reality is where Mr. Barnes goes, Alex goes too. Why Mr. Barnes picked Detroit of all places doesn't matter.

The kid manning the Motel 6's lobby doesn't look up as Alex steps inside. Instead he slides a piece of paper with Mr. Barnes' room number and an extra key, and puts on some headphones.

Alex opens the door of 113, his wrist whirring on its socket. In his other hand is the taser pistol, set to a high setting. He steps inside and in one motion, he targets the dark shape on the bed and fires.

Nah, it's wonderful!

[bondorblood]

What is a man with no purpose to do? Especially when that purpose is suddenly snatched away, a foul thing with spines and snares and made of lies. He couldn't be that anymore, not when he knew what he did now. Not when he had heard a name, his name, rolling off the lips of someone who knew him. He wasn't just a tool, he was a man, a human who had a life before this-- something other than the little box they had put him into. Not just a weapon to be put back on the shelf when all was said and done.

The man who has no purpose, but has to act, acts to destroy others. He remembers seeing that somewhere; scribbled on a wall, dirty like the rest of the scrawl that colored once clean walls. Things were different, the city itself was littered with unfamiliarity. He had expected so much change, yet was not prepared for it-- this was not the home he knew, the facilities he had lived in. He could not remember much, but he remembers the composition of steel and concrete; the chill and pain, the cold of winter.

He may not have the purpose he once had; but there was already sparks of a new one. HYDRA remained, for all the pain it caused, and Bucky was not a man above revenge. Especially not now, because what better to kill a beast with than the tool it used to kill so many others?

So it doesn't entirely come as a surprise that they would come for him-- and he waits for it. Expects it at every turn because exhaustion is a companion he knows too well. Sleep is fitful and short, unable to relax, unable to sleep outside of the freeze. Bucky doesn't sleep on the bed, not anymore, it's too soft, to forgiving and everything aches when he does. So even when slumber claims him, he's hidden, ducked down between the filthy bedding and the wall. He may not have heard the attack coming, but he heard when it starts.

HE doesn't expect a man like this-- or a machine-- whatever he may be. More one than the other, worse than Bucky, clearly. But there's no reprieve to be offered, because if he is being hunted he needs to defend. Fear isn't an option in a firefight, but fleeing is-- there is a difference between the two and he's walked that fine line before. Blade flung toward the metallic silhouette, body already launching from the floor and forward from the floor to the thin door that divided his room and the next.

did you want to do a short fight and then Alex capturing? can always timeskip if needed

[yourmove]

If Alex had been the man he was months ago, he would've keeled over with that knife jutting out of his chest.

Instead it bounces off where his heart should've been with a sharp ping, the knife clattering to the floor as Alex steps further into the room. The visor glares red as his head turns to track Mr. Barnes breaking cover. He hadn't been on the bed, like Alex's simulation predicted. Clearly still armed, clearly not fitting into civilian life. He'd do so much better with neurosuppression, really, and if Alex had it in himself to feel sympathy, he’d be mentally rooting for Mr. Barnes to run into his taser and get this over, fast. The faster he’s pacified and delivered, the better. It’s peaceful. Lower probability of collateral damage. HYDRA prefers to keep civilian deaths to an acceptable low – too many and people like Captain America start snooping around – and Alex agrees because his capacity to go “hey, I’m not cool with this” is shot.

That said, he’s been authorized to clear out the Motel 6 if necessary.

The door Bucky throws himself at folds easily under his weight, snapping clean off the hinges. Alex comes in after, servos and stabilizers purring, his footsteps a steady, loud tread that rings of inevitability. They hadn’t built his chassis for stealth because he’s supposed to be in the public eye at all times: there’s a reason they want the Winter Soldier back, even with his various…issues. He’s not built to replace Mr. Barnes, despite factions of HYDRA whispering he could.

Alex fills the doorway, all stealth-bomber black graphene plating, his targeting systems fixing on Mr. Barnes again. The taser pistol rises to point at the man’s chest. Pacification by taser is preferable to the other alternatives, such as shooting at the knee caps and see how well he moves without use of his legs. Going for a major artery, let blood loss slow him down.

In a move that will send him back to the drawing board after this, Alex actually tries to reason with Bucky. Must be a leftover from his old days as a cop.

“Mr. Barnes, you’re advised to stand down. Civilian casualties and injury to yourself can be minimized.” Alex’s voice comes out bland, deep with a double-tone. “You have a choice. I urge you to take it.”

man i am just going to skip a fightscene altogether

[bondorblood]

Once the moment of surprise wears off there's only instinct. Bucky isn't used to being on this side of the game, he's always been the hunter never the hunted; at least that's what training tells him. Glimpses he can remember, that moment in the helicarrier. He was a man built to track others, a well defined tool for a specific sort of job-- but his experience was also with humans. His arm had been such an oddity amongst HYDRA; not privy to plans or movements, he had no idea they were building an entire man, somewhere down there. Not that he's surprised-- though it takes quiet a bit for him to really be surprised.

They call it a choice, but he knows it isn't, with HYDRA there are no choices. He'd go back to being a weapon-- a man who wasn't really a man, someone like this. He may not be the Bucky he was, but he didn't want to be the asset they had made him into either. He wasn't sad, he didn't feel sorry for himself, that range of emotions was long since past; he was bitter, he wanted revenge-- he wanted to cut off as much of HYDRA as he could before they killed him.

He jerks his arm up to block himself, as instinct tells him to, but it's not gunfire he clashes with but lines of electricity. It shoots a pain through his body, radiates from his arm and, as he's experienced so rarely, disables it for the duration of the shock. It's painful, extremely, radiating across the spiderweb of scarring, enough that one of his knees gives in because his body is forcing him to react even when his mind demands he ignores the pain.

There's no real answer to this, nothing besides the pained noise that barely manages to make it out because he needs to fight; even if fighting isn't working.

[yourmove]

Unfortunately for Mr. Barnes, Alex came prepared: he didn't make the mistake of assuming the standard voltage would be enough to put him down and keep him down because he's been briefed on what exactly this man is capable of. Alex hits him with enough juice that if he was Joe Average off the streets, he'd be very, very dead. There’s no hesitation. The likelihood of Mr. Barnes cooperating and walking out that door was small enough that he didn’t want to chance it. This was easier for everyone. He wouldn’t even have to pacify the kid in the lobby.

When Bucky comes to, he'll find himself propped up against the armored walls of a moving vehicle, his arms restrained by a set of magnetic cuffs. Alex sits across from him, the visor tilting toward him as his HUD reads a change in the man's biometrics. Should be waking up.

"Mr. Barnes," Alex doesn't exactly straighten up like most people would. He doesn't pick at his clothes or nervously swallow or try to look into Bucky's eyes for some connection between them. He's immediately down to business. "Good morning."

Another Alex would've layered on the sarcasm thick. This one means it literally: Mr. Barnes has been unconscious for awhile and sunrise is only minutes away. So far they've made good time.

The visor finally hisses back to reveal the rest of Alex’s face. It looks human. Average white male, average brown eyes that look black in the red light of the truck. There’s something about his face that looks almost masklike.

"You made the right choice,” Alex goes on, blind to the fact he hadn’t really been offering Bucky a choice at all. It was either take him in with minimal casualties or kill everyone in the Motel 6 trying to capture him. “I’m Murphy. I’m your handler until you’re fit for duty again.”

[bondorblood]

The first thing he does is test the cuffs, on instinct, pulling against them with both arms and feeling the heavy pull of resistance. It's a more subtle sort of movement, but probably not lost on the man-machine seated across from him. Bucky straightens himself up, more instinct than anything else, pressing himself back against the metal walls and letting his gaze slide over what he can see. A truck, probably heading to the closest facility, he doesn't know which it would be (he never gets to keep that kind of information) but he doubt it's far. They seemed to have bits and pieces of themselves in everything, it's how he could accomplish so much with ease-- besides being a predator in his own right.

"Handler." He knows that word, or his body does, the tension in his shoulders comes back. Bucky remembers enough to know that this isn't a good thing-- that handlers were for those who couldn't follow the rules. Bucky knows this means they have every intention of trying to put him back into that same spot he had been in before, of making him as lost as he had always been. Of course, there isn't much to be done about it trapped in the back of the truck, but if they think someone like him is going to give in that easily, they would be wrong.

Murphy. A name, as if he was any more a person than Bucky had been-- cogs in the machine that was HYDRA, each pushing little parts to make the world kowtow. "Right."

[yourmove]

Alex doesn't seem to sway with the motion of the truck like he should, his internal stabilizers quietly kicking in as he studies Mr. Barnes.

"If you have any questions that I'm authorized to answer, ask. As an asset valuable enough to be given neurosuppression, you're entitled to certain rights now." At least until they get Mr. Barnes in that stainless steel cradle and begin giving him the treatment. Alex has seen some of the old footage with the shock therapy. He can promise the new treatments are perfectly painless. "You'll find the new HYDRA is a different entity these days."

Alex doesn't think about smiling to show that he's on Mr. Barnes side. There's no one to play good cop/bad cop. There's only HYDRA. There's only carrying out their goals and as far as he knows, his own handler is pleased with his performance: he'd muttered something about "winning the bet" before cutting off the feed. Alex hadn't asked what that bet was, exactly. He assumed it was who was going to kill who. Many still had certain nostalgic feelings toward the Winter Soldier, so they must have bet on him getting away (again) as he's managed to evade the net so far.

sorry i am so goddamn slow :(

[bondorblood]

Bucky lets himself sit in silence; the man turned machine a thing of interest if only in the vaguest of ways. There's an absence of familiarity, and he knows what being close to that void is like but he's never been completely in it. He was an asset, but in battle he made all his own choices; he was trained and skilled, a tool that could run himself. He wasn't sure the same could be said for the one across from him. He isn't bitter, surprisingly, but perhaps that's simply an understanding of how HYDRA worked-- men or machines did as they were told, worked toward that future that they weren't promised to continue existing in.

"What's next?" He won't ask questions he doesn't think he'll get the answer to, wont plead or nap or beg. He's been here before; or something like it. Being a prisoner is nothing new.

It's cool!

[yourmove]

Alex pauses almost imperceptibly to consult his authorized questions and came to the conclusion that yes, he was allowed to answer that one.

"Delivery to a secure location. You undergo a physical to see how much damage you've done to your body by being...off-duty," Alex almost sounds disapproving. He equates "off-duty" with lax and maybe even a little lazy. "Then we meet up with an agent, she gives you the green light, and we head to the facility to fix you."

Alex makes it sound so routine, like it's getting some cavities filled instead of taking a man's life away - again, as if the last seventy years weren't bad enough. If you ask him, they're giving Mr. Barnes a huge chance instead of liquidating him like any other defective agent.

c:

[bondorblood]

"Fix me?" The words are dangerous-- because all the implications they hold now and all they have ever held are painful. He's bitten down on rubber, tasted the flood of blood in his mouth and felt the burn on his skin. Fixing him implied taking him apart, till he was nothing but a shell. He knew, he had done it-- it hadn't stuck, but he had spent decades in and out of a freezer for it. He had read that he "died", so long ago, in a place he doesn't know for a man he doesn't remember. But at least he had a purpose, had a name, something that he can barely grasp onto now.

His options were limited, he could die a man or live a machine. He's done both once already.

"Like you?"

[yourmove]

"Basically," Alex says. "After your defection," there's the slightest, barely-there tone of distaste, enough that his handles watching his real-time feed won't notice it: they would have immediately recalled him if they had, "HYDRA reviewed procedures and replaced electroshock therapy with neurosuppression."

Alex pauses to stare at Mr. Barnes as if to assess if he's familiar with what that is. Considering he's been out of commission for a year, give or take (actually, it's a year and one week, going down to hours and seconds), Alex feels he might as well explain. It's not like the Solder's going anywhere. Alex shifts to lean back against the wall of the truck, probably out of some unconscious habit when he'd been a cop.

"Altering your dopamine levels in your brain. I promise it's nothing like the electroshock."

He can personally attest: he's seen some of the early footage, the grainy ones from the 50s and 60s. Mr. Barnes, screaming and drooling away in the chair until nothing was left. Recovery from the therapy could take hours instead of seconds.

[bondorblood]

It's a thought he doesn't like-- which is strange in itself, having the ability to like and dislike things-- but the explanation confirms it. The shock had hurt, he knows that now, remembers the way it burned against his skin, in his mind, ripped him apart and pulled the pathways in his mind to pieces. He had been implanted with a mission, with orders, obedience-- but over the past year he'd been free he found some shambling semblance of self and how he was being threatened with losing it again. Death was a secondary fear; to finding out he'd taken more lives he had no desire too. What he wanted...

What he wanted was to pull hydra apart, to tear into them like a beast and sever every head-- no matter how many threatened to return. That would bring satisfaction, purpose, and being claimed as a prisoner like this reminds him just of that.

"I'm not interested." A brief pause and a smarmy curl of his lips. "Thanks."

[yourmove]

Somehow the answer shouldn't surprise Alex but does. It registers as a faint flicker behind his eyes, as if he had expected better of the Winter Soldier and was almost disappointed.

"It's not up for debate," Alex dogs on the subject, expression so patiently detached that it looks like a statue's. He detects a certain level of sarcasm but doesn't see a point in a verbal reprimand or physical force. Starting this off with aggression will make the man less likely to cooperate, listen to reason. "You will receive it once you're primed to return to the field. I was..."

He pauses for a fraction of a second. Encouraging him? Explaining that the HYDRA he left has made some changes, big and small?

"...merely clarifying," Alex finishes. He leaves it at that.

[bondorblood]

He's been a slave before, maybe not in this same sense, maybe they hadn't broken him down completely when they played around in his head-- but he knows enough to know he doesn't want to go back to it. Knows he doesn't want to find himself pulled apart by the scientists. To have anyone tearing down who he was when he was just barely getting it back. It had ached so much to find out what he lost, to find out everything left behind. That he had been a man and not just a toy. He didn't know everything, it'd been to hard to keep away from HYDRA; but he knew enough to know he wanted to be something. He wanted to breathe free and allow himself some sort of peace, if only for a moment-- and he hadn't had that yet. Not with the machines and dogs hounding him, nipping at his heels to drag him back. To be an asset again.

It's a little grim, the expression that touches his face when he leans his head back. But he's thought about this before, what he would do if he was captured, of he was dragged back. He knows he won't let himself kill the people he cared about-- not again.

"There's always another choice."

[yourmove]

Alex pauses as if to process the assumed meaning. "That one is unacceptable, Mr. Barnes. You'll be monitored to make sure those temptations can't be carried out."

Although he's sure that Mr. Barnes might have learned some creativity while he was MIA. The old Winter Soldier had been a lot better at killing people than thinking about killing himself. Alex briefly wonders if he ever thought about it, or if this is a new development. Another sign that he desperately needs to be brought back into the fold. He has a vague, barely formed idea that he would've liked to see the Soldier in his prime - he might not have heard of him in his civilian life, but he's been cleared to see (some) of his missions now. It's not quite disappointment Alex is feeling.

The truck stops, makes a few turns, swaying over potholes.

"Are there any questions or concerns you would like to have on record?"

[bondorblood]

It's the arrogance of HYDRA of a conglomeration that's more man than machine, that eats away at it's own, that would believe they can claim whatever they want. Can take him in, turn him into a toy, a broken piece of machinery, welded over and shoved into a slot, just another gear turning the large fist that made up the monstrous creature. He didn't know how much of him was the Asset and how much was "James Barnes" but he knew there was enough of the latter of the two that he wouldn't give in that easily. It may not be that single minded nature he used to have, but he's pushed himself through worse, without a doubt.

He pauses, thinking the question over, and maybe some of that old fire rises in his arrogance, "I learned that to kill a hydra you just have to have a little fire.

"Interesting, I'd say." He doubts he'll get any real reaction, even when he raises an eyebrow, but his boots are already bracing as best they can against the floor of the truck.