shieldborne | (no subject)

Currently being played as a de-serumed AU by default on memes/PSLs. Available in pre-serum and Big Steve flavors upon request. Big Steve/Captain America in Caldera

☄ First Impressions

⍟ VISUAL: Post-serum: Roughly 6'0", sandy blonde hair shading into light brown (natural) lowlights, blue eyes with a hint of green. Figure shaped like an inverted Dorito. Pre-serum: 5'4", around 95 lbs and pale. He looks a little delicate. His back is not straight; there's a little kyphoscoliosis, although it's hard to tell under clothes. Same hair and eye coloring.
⍟ DEMEANOUR: This is a little bit dependent on the period of his life you're seeing him in, but in general: Post-serum, he carries himself like a soldier or an athlete, often with a look of confident, self-righteous sobriety overlaying it--which doesn't necessarily match what's inside. He does try, very hard, to be gentle and nonthreatening when he's bumping into strangers or trying to persuade someone to stand down, but this can absolutely come across as speechifying, splaining, or mild condescension. It's unintentional when it does, but he's been known to irritate people. Pre-serum: Most of the time, he carries himself like he's got his back to the wall and he's ready to snap at any moment and throw a punch. That's...not entirely inaccurate. He's got a hair-trigger temper and a talent for reckless behavior. However, when he's ill or tired, he slumps a lot and comes across more as bitter, or sullen and sulky.
⍟ SOUND: Post-serum, his Brooklyn accent loses some oomph, but pre-serum it can be very distinctive. It always gets stronger when he's angry or worked up for some other reason.
⍟ SCENT: Idk, old spice? Pre-serum, he smells like pomade and asthma cigarettes--which do not smell the same as tobacco cigs, but they're still burning plant material so not fresh as a spring rain.
⍟ MENTAL INFORMATION: Honestly, he's probably more resistant to mental manipulation before the serum. All that's holding him together then is raw will, so he's got all kinds of defenses up he doesn't even know he's holding. Post-serum, he has an enhanced hippocampus and a brutally eidetic memory. He doesn't forget the details of anything, although sometimes he may be so focused on one aspect of a visual or memory he may miss something.
⍟ MAGICAL INFORMATION:
Well, he's not baseline, per se, but he is a nonmagical human. Post-serum, he might be a little bit resistant to some types of magics, but he has none of his own (unless we're doing some kind of AU).

☄ OOC

⍟ BACKTAGGING: I try to tag daily, but I almost never have the chance to boomerang, and will usually only do so for something like Word Association or TFLN. Occasionally, my tagging will slow down to a couple times a week, if my RL schedule is busy (I run, so if I'm training for a race, internetting may fall through the cracks). I will backtag for a long while, though, particularly if we have a plot going. I do tend to tag slower on smut threads than gen, because I try to toss in a lot of detail.
⍟ FOURTHWALLING: Pre-serum, he'll just think you're crazy so I recommend against it. Even if you're Deadpool. Maybe especially if you're Deadpool. Post-serum/post-war, he's used to having been depicted in comics, radio shows, and film, so he won't necessarily complain, but he may not get that he's being fourthwalled so much as 'goddammit did they publish something else I haven't heard about??'. And he will not thank you for bringing it up, in any case, but the player doesn't object.
⍟ PHYSICAL AFFECTION: He's fairly tactile, if he knows you. Back thumping, shoulder-checks, handclasps, etc. are par for the course. Hugging can happen, although he may be sheepish. Kissing from any gender will throw him off-balance a little, whether pre-serum or post-serum.
⍟ PHYSICAL VIOLENCE: Pre-serum, he might just throw a punch if you're bullying or mouthing off, at him or someone close to him. He doesn't hold up well in a fight, but he does fight dirty when he has to, so you might get bitten or spat at. Post-serum, he's unlikely to start something unless you're a villain or attacking him first, and if it's not life-or-death he may well be pulling his punches. If you have something in mind, ask me. There is a wide range of responses he may make to violence, and I do like action scenes, and I'm usually fine with any level of injury short of permanent mutilation.
⍟ RELATIONSHIPS:
First of all, I ship just about everything. I'll also smut just about everything, with a few exceptions noted below.

ALWAYS YES, No Questions Asked:
Peggy, Bucky, Sam. Poly-shipping with any of the above and anyone not in 'no' is very much yes and welcome. In the case of Stucky, I ship it pretty hard (with a special weakness for Shrinkyclinks), BUT I am capable of playing them as just fiercely co-dependent friends/adopted brothers, so if you don't want to ship but you want a thread with my Steve, please hit me up anyway. I usually default to UST when playing them in a thread that's not specifically for shipping or smut, but if you want it to be purely fraternal I can do that.
Just let me know.

YES PLEASE, but with logistics to work out:
Tony Stark: I love this ship a LOT, but I don't want to play the post-Civil War blame game too hard. Some aftermath discussion and angst is inevitable, and I'm up for it, I just don't want to play endless recriminations and angst and screaming matches with no resolution. On the issues, Steve will stick to his guns with respect to the Accords, but he feels deeply guilty about pretty much everything else and will not try to pretend he's blameless. They both screwed up, and bad things happened, and hopefully they can mend bridges with enough effort and time. However, I'm not into villainizing Bucky in order to get Steve and Tony comfortably together, so let's try not to go there.

Natasha: I also like this ship, but there are a few different takes on Natasha out there, and I see a lot of people playing her as unable or unwilling to form a romantic relationship. As I play him, Steve basically doesn't do sex without some kind of emotional attachment, except under extreme conditions. FWBs is fine, genuinely falling for one another is fine, oh-god-we-had-sex-and-I-don't-know-what-to-do-now is fine, but casual hookups aren't his thing, so unless you want to see him confused and hurt, not so much. However, I do enjoy writing nonsexual BDSM with him (more on that below), so if you're interested in a casual consensual power exchange thing with him and Nat, that he'd go for. He trusts her.

Loki: I mean, he's Loki. There are always going to be logistics to work out while we try to figure where his loyalties lie and whether he's a complete monster or just kind of a bag of dicks, but this is my guilty pleasure ship, so there. Genderfluid/nonbinary/agender Loki is always welcome here. I enjoy Loki in all variations on Amoral, Damaged But Maybe (?) Reforming, Not That Bad, and Total Bastard, although the latter may have to corrupt Steve in some way for a ship to work and that probably means entering dark dubcon/noncon territory.

Wanda: I love the platonic mentor/protege thing they have going in canon so damn much I kind of hate to spoil it with shipping and smut, but I'm not going to say no. It will just need careful buildup, and because of the age gap she needs to be the one initiating it. OTOH if you want non-romantic or queerplatonic fluff with them, please come to my arms.

Peter Parker: A special case, because as they are in canon, it's a flat no to shipping or smut, no matter how Peter is aged up. He just comes across as way too young; I can't see that as a surmountable age gap. That said, I love the character. I am open to shipping in AU situations or time displacement.

Brock Rumlow: This is a very gray area. I'm not all that interested in Good Guy!Rumlow AUs, but I'm open to gen with them, or maybe one-sided UST. I am potentially interested in terrible messed-up things where he's coerced or blackmailed Steve into providing sex or a boyfriend experience or something, particularly before the events of the Winter Soldier, or immediately post TWS where Steve wants nothing more than to find Bucky again.

DEFINITE NO:
Red Skull (but if someone is actually playing him, give me dark and violent gen threads), Zola, Ultron, Klaue, Thanos--in general, most villain types aside from Loki. I am open to Steve being the victim of captivity/torture/non-con for terribad villain types, but I'd view it and play it as horror and angst rather than smutty kink.

Rocket, Groot: I cannot tell you how much I want gen interaction with these characters. I'm not able to see any way that shipping or smut with either could be IC for Steve.

Everyone aged 25+ not mentioned above is a resounding 'Maybe. Probably? Yeah, let's try it!' and I am actively interested in Thor, Bruce, and T'Challa.

I'm always game for cross-canon. OCs on a case-by-case basis, and same for Rule 63s. I don't dislike them, but I definitely need a plot for any kind of chemistry to form.

⍟ SMUT NOTES:

I play smut on a regular basis, and sometimes seek it out specifically. I am always willing to keep things clean and platonic or to fade to black, however, so if a thread's going somewhere you're not into, please let me know and we can shift directions. (I mean, if you tag me on a smut meme, I assume smut is what you're going for, but even then if you'd rather change courses, I'm game.)

I don't have a kink list at the moment, but in general my hard nos are hardcore degradation, watersports, scat, mutilation, death. The usual. I won't play Steve as the perpetrator in a non-con scenario, but I'm open to him possibly being the victim, with some discussion. Likewise, I may be open to dub-con with discussion, but he's likely to be the perpetrator only if he's mind-controlled or there's some kind of outside coercive force or situation affecting both characters.

As mentioned above, though, Steve doesn't usually opt for sex without sentiment, so he'll prefer smut scenarios with love or strong emotion, and I will default toward writing above-board, consensual scenarios. I like to write ritualized, realistic BDSM scenes, complete with RACK or SSC, and they do not have to be overtly sexual. In this context, pre-serum Steve is much more likely to try to dominate, and he is more aggressive, too, because he's got something to prove. Post-serum Steve tends to be overwhelmed and need to be taken out of his own head, so he's inclined to sub. Either version can switch, though.

Where Steve's experience is concerned, I don't usually play him as a complete virgin. Mostly I have headcanon that he had one or two awkward near-sex experiences pre-serum and some encounters on the road with the USO show, whether with women or men or a little of both. Basically, I play him as pansexual but not all that successful.

I can also play him as a total blushing virgin. I'm not sure how realistic that is, but it's cute and I will play it out gleefully. The third experience level option is 'familiar with nonsexual BDSM from dalliances during the war' and probably won't come up unless there's a marked power differential. But it's available.

⍟ OTHER STUFF:

~~The player is cisgender, and will be playing Steve as cisgender exclusively because I feel like trying to play him otherwise would be a little like appropriation on my part, or I might eff it up.~~ ETA, a couple years later, lol: Actually, the player now identifies as non-binary, but I still don't want to be appropriative so Steve continues to be played as a smol cis dude. BUT I am interested in trans* or intersex headcanons, so don't hesitate to bring them my way.

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