Free Starbuck Writing Prompts ♥

ANGEL STEVE

I don’t know if he even knows? Maybe it’s a world where all the angels are fallen, or maybe Steve just chose to go to Earth? Erskine in this scenario is likely also an angel, a high ranking one who may have been Steve’s boss in heaven. Bucky is just a regular guy. Although it would also be cool if he was a demon who is choosing to do good. This could be one of those scenarios where angel magic isn’t supposed to work on fiends or creatures of evil but it works on Bucky. Bucky is something other than just a regular demon, he is a special, unique creature entirely of his own making. Lotta options here!

CAPTAIN AMERICA IS A SPIRIT

I'll be honest, this one is lowkey inspired by Yu-Gi-Oh! but has nothing in common with it aside from the idea of two guys who look nearly identical except one is a powerful, ancient force and the other is a small nerd. “Captain America” is some kind of timeless spirit who took a liking to Steve, came to him in a magic artefact, or simply was attached to his body at the time of his birth. Whenever he’s needed he possesses Steve’s body and gives him abilities. Although calling him a “him” might be going a bit far, when Steve probably experiences it more like some kind of wordless alien force.

CONEY ISLAND TIME TRAVEL

Steve is on the Ferris Wheel at Coney Island, when he is taken back to the past. He can only stay there for a limited amount of time, and no time has passed in the present when he gets back. There must be something in the past that’s important, something that he needs to know, but what is it? (How to find Bucky, obviously.)

Maybe after Bucky was brainwashed by Hydra, they used Coney Island as a location to condition Bucky not to react to cues from his former life. So Steve in this little window of the time passes a carriage where Bucky sits stone-faced, surrounded by Hydra goons. Steve is like Oh Fuck. He rides the Ferris Wheel until he fully figures out what’s going on.

This could also be very surreal, a sort of liminal space where Bucky and Steve can see each other, but nobody from the past can see Steve and nobody from the future can see Bucky. So Bucky just openly talks to Steve, maybe thinking Steve is a figment of his imagination.

TIME TRAVEL PILOT BUCKY

What if instead of the army, Bucky joins the Air Force? And the Air Force gives him a top secret plane which is a time machine, possibly created by Howard Stark?

And Steve and Bucky didn't grow up together and have never met. And the first time Steve meets Bucky in Howard Stark's presence, Bucky is a few years older than him and flirty and seems to know like, everything, and Steve thinks Bucky is so knowledgeable and self assured. And then he goes to the front, does his Azzano rescue mission, and meets Bucky again. But now Bucky looks weirdly young and has never even met him before. Steve is like… but I know you? And Bucky is like… the hell you do, pal.

Eventually they get to a place where their timelines match up, and they each remember all the encounters they had together even though they were out of order. And finally they can be together.

(I'll be real, this AU is inspired at least a little bit by the aesthetic of vintage pilots. It's the leather jackets and the goggles. Bucky could totally rock the look of a dashing airman.)

WORLD-HOPPING WINTER SOLDIER

The Winter Soldier finds a way to break into other universes. He does whatever he can to give himself in those universes the best possible life. He’ll murder people threatening or bothering Bucky and make it look like an accident, maybe drag his ass to therapy, provide materially, whatever it takes to get his soft and squishy alternate universe self to have a good life. He takes away little lessons from each version of himself that he meets in return. He meets a few Winter Soldiers and doesn’t know what to do with them at first. Eventually he begins to figure out how to help the Buckys that aren't just ordinary (if traumatised) people, that have been taken by Hydra and brainwashed. It's through helping them that he's able to grow into himself, becoming less angry and violent and more wise and ready to heal.

BUCKY INSPIRED BY THE WINTER SOLDIER

Bucky gets a glimpse into another world and sees the Winter Soldier being extremely badass. Or, maybe a world-hopping Winter Soldier saves Bucky after the train fall. Awed by the brief glimpse he saw, Bucky sees the Winter Soldier as a hero and decides to become like him. So he does, becoming extremely badass with a similar energy, skillset, and fighting style to the Soldier, though it is all by choice and he remains himself.

Then he gets another chance to meet the alternate universe Winter Soldier, and have a conversation with him. The AU Winter Soldier thinks Bucky will be horrified that the AU Winter Soldier was made by Hydra. But Bucky forgives and accepts the AU Winter Soldier. He tells the AU Winter Soldier that he was Bucky’s inspiration for a long time, and maybe now Bucky can be HIS inspiration. (Bucky being representative of a life full of love, support, and heroism.)

CYBERPUNK WARRIOR BUCKY

When Bucky falls off the train, he falls into a wormhole that takes him to an alien planet with advanced technology, perhaps even special abilities like psychic powers. He recuperates there, learning their ways and how to use their technology/abilities. They give him a special cyberpunk prosthetic arm made just for him. He probably spends at least a year and possibly up to five years there. It’s a good life, an amazing life that fulfils all his youthful sci fi dreams. The aliens don’t think he should go back to Earth because they are wary of humans after hearing about the torture Bucky suffered at the hands of Hydra, but the thing that sucks about being here is he can’t share it with anyone. Not Becca, not any of the Howlies, and not Steve. The aliens agree to let him check up on his loved ones and see if it looks like he should return to Earth. Bucky uses some of their magic technology to see Steve in 2013, lost and alone. He asks permission to go to him and is granted it on condition that he be the ambassador between Earth and this alien planet.

Optional: Bucky can't go to Steve immediately, because of the Chitauri invasion. His friendly aliens don't want their wormhole to get crossed with the Chitauri one by accident, so he has to wait until the start of the Winter Soldier movie timeline. Steve and Sam and Natasha only succeed in erasing the targets from the databanks of the helicarriers, and don't actually stop their launch. Steve, Natasha, Sam, and the other Avengers are either captured by Hydra or holed up in safehouses, trying to find a way to defeat Hydra even though they risk death every time they go outside. This is the situation that Bucky steps into, with his incredible technology and fighting prowess that he honed on the other planet. Steve doesn't even recognise him at first (so many identity porn options here; what if Bucky doesn't want to reveal his identity because he's not ready to talk to Steve yet, and pretends to be an alien or uses a nickname from the alien language?). Ultimately, Steve and Bucky and the other Avengers are able to get aboard one of the helicarriers thanks to Bucky's special tech and abilities and defeat Hydra.

BUCKY THINKS STEVE'S COMA GHOST IS A HYDRA OPERATIVE

After Bucky becomes the Winter Soldier and forgets his past, he sees this strange, skinny little ghost who accompanies him on all his missions. He thinks of the ghost as another operative. The other operative is really, really good, because no one else can see him. But Bucky knows he’s real, because he helps Bucky sometimes. He can warn Bucky of danger or point out evidence he failed to hide. Sometimes he conspires with Bucky to help bystanders avoid danger, ie creating a distraction so that people Bucky would have had to kill if they became witnesses never see him. Bucky notices the ghost doing this and indulges him, thinking that the ghost’s behaviour is strange but he must have his reasons. Bucky always prefers not to have any collateral damage, anyway, despite what his handlers think. If he wanted to be in the business of collateral damage, he wouldn’t be an assassin, he’d be a henchman.

Then the next time Bucky is taken out of cryo, the ghost isn't there. He's almost always the first face Bucky sees out of cryo, and Bucky feels unsettled and concerned without him. Even more disturbingly, a man who looks a lot like the ghost is assigned as the target, but this man is bulky and tall. Bucky wonders what happened to the ghost and if the reason he became big is the reason Hydra wants to take him out. But when he dares to ask when the ghost stopped working for Hydra, he gets a lot of very weird responses. Bucky realises that he almost trusts the ghost more than his handlers. The ghost was on every single one of his missions, having his back and being so in tune with him that he couls anticipate what Bucky wants to do before Bucky even knows he wants to do it. Instead of the showdown on the bridge, Bucky gets to Steve before then. (Canon sequence: Steve & Natasha go to Sam’s house, then they go to Fort Mead to get the Falcon wings, and then they go to kidnap Sitwell. Lots of room in there for Bucky to show up.) He wants to give Steve a fair shot to escape being assassinated by him.

Here we have options: One, Steve planted a trigger word to undo the Winter Soldier conditioning, says the word, Bucky is no longer hostile. Two, Steve realises all of a sudden that the things he saw while asleep in the Arctic were not just the fever dreams of a comatose mind, but completely real, and uses them to talk Bucky down. He tells Bucky that they used to work together before Hydra, and he never betrayed Bucky by leaving Hydra; Steve (and his ghost) were never meant to be part of Hydra in the first place. Bucky realises he trusts his ghost more than Hydra and defects to Steve's side, still not knowing exactly what happened but trusting that Steve will lead him in the right direction. And he's right.

ANCIENT WARRIOR BUCKY & STEVE

What if Bucky and Steve are a pair of warriors from like, ancient Rome, who have been travelling through time together for millennia? And they go where they're needed. They could even be demigods or mythical warriors from Atlantis or something.

GOOD OMENS AU

Honestly fuckit, Good Omens AU. Bucky and Steve would make a pretty good pair of demonic angel and angelic demon. Probably Bucky as the demon and Steve as the angel. It just fits with the canon scenario where they always come together at different points on the timeline, skipping years and then coming back together. Fated to be together no matter how long they live and where they go for decades before meeting up again. Having each other's backs even when it's just team Starbuck against the world.

BOKU NO HERO CAPTAIN AMERICA

AU where Captain America is like All Might from Boku No Hero Academia. He is normally a scrawny guy with health problems but when he uses his quirk he becomes huge and powerful. Bucky could be a civilian who finds out Captain America’s secret and helps him when he transforms back into a skinny guy who pukes blood. He finds he actually likes this skinny guy a lot, even starts falling for him. And it might be fun if Bucky has a quirk of his own, but one that is completely useless if it were used on anyone or for anyone except Steve.

SUPERHERO SQUAD HOWLIES

AU where each member of the Howlies has a superhero ability, making them the OG hero squad prior to the Avengers.

• Steve could have his Captain America powers, or he could have something else related to his small!self's abilities, like magic drawing, magic imagination, extra powerful brawling abilities, even inflicting diseases or paralysing people with disapproving glares.
• Dernier would definitely have some kind of pyrokinesis, maybe be a phoenix in some sense.
• Monty is canonically part of a parachute brigade, so he could be some kind of Falcon precursor.
• Gabe could have some kind of super intelligence, like the ability to speak any language, or telepathy, or magic charm.
• I think Morita would be a good shapeshifter. It's kinda thematic based on his sociocultural experience as a person of Japanese descent in America at the time of World War Two. On the one hand, he could chose to turn into a fox/kitsune and unleash kitsune powers on his enemies. But on the other hand he could also turn into a bald eagle and shit on the racists literally.
• Dum Dum sort of has the same energy as the Thing from the Fantastic Four, but without all the angst or the lack of ability to change back into himself. He just seems like he'd have some kind of earth, rock, strength-based ability. Or something to do with cannons. I can see him with arm cannons.
• If Peggy is involved (she should be) she could have some sort of Black Widow deal, maybe with real invisibility.
• And lastly, Bucky. Fuck if I know what Bucky does. You could definitely play on his sniper abilities, the metal arm thing, etc.

And then the plot for this concept would just be the story of how the Howlies met and formed a team together. Maybe experimentation by Hydra at Azzano gave them these powers, or maybe it's an X-Men situation where they always had them but were afraid to reveal them due to mutantphobia. Maybe they were already sort of a team but they weren't really a team team until Steve rescued them. Who knows!