#fucking hydra man...

[inkblot-inc]

I kinda want to know more about what jaws was like back at hydra since they were basically raised there 🤔

Jaws Under Hydra

Summary: [JAWS AU] This ask was hiding from me, I swear! But it's here now *finger guns*. Anteeways, this is a pretty important cornerstone of Jaws life, to get a bit more on what they were like before they met earth's mightiest heroes and before they met they're redheaded paramour, so I figure I'd give it a proper heading y'know? But onward and upward!

[JAWS AU Masterlist]

Warning(s): Dark Themes; Mention of brainwashing, psychological conditioning/abuse, out of body experiences, and cannibalism (this is past jaws we're talking about here). Other than the obvious, if you think about the shit that goes on here for too long, its pretty angsty bud...

Note: I had to look back mad far in my notes to find the character profile mockup I did, but I did eventually find it, so I hope you enjoy :3

Word Count: Halfway to 1k

*squints* I give NO ONE permission to repost or translate my work. Make your own shit

I spoke briefly about Jaws' life under HYDRA in the very first part of the JAWS AU, but let's see here...

Jaws' life under HYDRA was a lonely one to say the least. They were basically alone and in pain for the first half a year post-first procedure while they got used to the adamantium coating their skull. We're talking consistent headaches and migraines. Like the pulsing in your face and teeth when you have a sinus infection but dialed up to eleven.

That being said, Jaws' life as a subject of HYDRA was still a lot better than a lot of others we know and are familiar with. They were fed regularly, had decent clothes, got a small semblance of an education (granted it was highly biased in favor of what HYDRA wanted Jaws to know and learn)... essentially the bare minimum. This is in part due to two factors: how young Jaws was when they were captured and brought into the facility, and also who was in charge of them. That being Doctor Faustus.

Johann Fennhoff didn't need to use torture or physical abuse to get Jaws under his thumb, even with their explosive temper. He was better versed in psychological warfare, and simply used methods of mental manipulation to condition Jaws to be complacent in following his instruction... with mixed results.

It was easier to control Jaws when they were younger and more impressionable. They were always a bit hardheaded, but they listened better. much like Bucky when he was under HYDRA, Faustus used activation words and repeated phrases to cooperate. As Jaws got older and eventually became an adult, simple hypnosis wasn't effective anymore and Faustus had to progress to using hallucinogens that were more and more potent. This worked better, but they made Jaws more irritable on the come down.

The final form of Faustus' hallucinogenic gas was one that left Jaws vulnerable to hypnotic suggestion. Same methodology as the old stuff, but stronger and more refined than the new stuff. Jaws wasn't fully aware of what was happening around them when the chemical invaded their system, but the rage fueled by the fear that gripped them when the foreign substance started to flush out of their system was not a pleasant experience.

Whether Jaws realized it or not, the longer they were exposed to the hallucinogen, the more they were growing immune to it's effects, which led to the break in control at the beginning of the JAWS AU when the Avengers encountered the tiger shark mutant.

Faustus kept Jaws in isolation the majority of the time while they were in the HYDRA facility. The most they got to see of the other agents and experiments was during missions, since even Jaws' trainings were privatized. In a lot of ways, Jaws was Faustus' cash cow; they got the job done efficiently, and at that moment in time, Jaws was satisfied with having their bloodlust satiated being their reward for a successful mission.

It was also Doctor Faustus that pushed Jaws to commit cannibalism while they were still young. Jaws was well fed compared to other subjects under the Asphalt facility because unfortunately disposable people are in no short supply among HYDRA. Be they failed subjects or experiments or hostages that had outlived their usefulness. For better or worse, Jaws didn't have any real moral hang ups about that until they left HYDRA.

It's fair to say that Jaws became a bit of a glutton during their time under HYDRA. The promise that they could inflict pain was their main motivating factor (their general distaste toward human beings was cultivated more into hatred as the years went by). Getting their lunch on top of it was just a bonus, really.

Jaws has always been averse to being around people for extended periods of time and was easily provoked, so they preferred to be alone to float in their saltwater tank most of the time.

Just alone with their thoughts. The water sloshing around them... in their soundproofed tank... with their eyes closed.

The few people that Jaws interacted with consistently were the scientists responsible for surveilling the mutant and reporting behaviors back to Doctor Faustus.

They were around a lot more when Jaws was just a kid and they were basically glorified babysitters, but as Jaws got older, they were stand-ins for guards/therapists/parental figures/friends/ whatever Faustus needed them to be for his haifisch to progress as he wanted.

Jaws didn't have many personal belongings and had virtually no sense of self when they were fully sentient. They functioned solely off of the pursuit of survival, and because Jaws wasn't around people long enough to care about them, they were a million times more apathetic than we're more familiar with them being in current days. It was less from a place of "I don't care what you have to say, I'm gonna do what I want" and more so "Meat sacks shouldn't talk so much."

I can't say that Jaws forged any meaningful connections while under the New York Asphalt facility, and they weren't fully aware of what was going on around them half of the time. It was a blurred cycle of sleeping, killing, testing and improvements over and over again.

I think the culture shock Jaws had after leaving HYDRA should be studied actually. Jaws didn't have too much of a clue what was out there in the world (having only faint memories of their life back on Enoka as an infant at this point), but there had to be a latent yearning for more than what their life was for them to actually try and adjust to "normal" society after being freed.

[august-parker]

*Both laying on the floor*

Bucky: "they used me as a weapon"

Peter: "cowa-bummer dude :( my parents are kinda dead as hell, we match freaks like that"

Bucky confused: "thank you??? I dunno how to respond to that"

[lexxieena]

I have a probably whump and kinda slow burn Hydra-Spider/Deadpool fanfic in my mind but I have no guts to write. If I ever write it, would anyone wanna read it?

[eccentricallygothic]

why does it look like they are gonna fuck up buckys progress in thunderbolts? 🥲😔

[gossippool]

rewatched origins so kayla and wade moon parallels are in order. full legend under the cut

this will come back around later on because i love repeating motifs they are my source of air

maybe i'll be able to finish this chapter before my flight... maybe... but idts tho bc it's gonna be LONG and i might want to write some of the next chapter before publishing this one to ensure Continuity or whatever. i am rambling but i haev nothing fucking else to do

[murdrdocs]

the bucky should have steve’s shield argument is so fucking dumb. u want a guy who just got pardoned to be captain america. alright.

[pandagirl45]

Tony: *staring at bucky fangs* sooo

Bucky: I already gave three hickeys

Tony: *huffs laying on his back* you don't want to bite near my arc reactor?

Bucky: nnn tony... don't *bright red*

Tony: come on, I'm the brightest thing in the room and I know you love a good *blows on his ear* hunt♡

Bucky: *stares at him* 3 minutes, now

Tony: *laughs hurrying off*

Bucky: three!

[thecrispier0nion]

im going to kill

[widowlurker]

rambling about catws!Bucky because time is a flat circle

Lowkey tough being a Bucky stan (hehe) out here bc atp the mcu just doesn’t know what to do with him and it’s absolutely tragic because catws is a great movie and a huge part of that is how beautifully they presented the Winter Soldier. Like he is undeniably (personally don’t @ me) the best part of that whole movie. Last time I went this insane over analyzing actors’ facial expressions was the hunger games and that’s basically the peak of fiction for me. So, here’s me doing exactly that

warning: no beta we die like my vocal chords watching catws for the first time

Something that sits at the forefront in my mind abt Seb’s acting as the Winter Soldier is how good he is at being blank. Normally when I think of blank, no thoughts head empty acting it’s just a completely unmoveable demeanor and from what I see in fics it’s a common interpretation that the Winter Soldier is just an empty husk. And while he’s definitely a lot less sentient than he seems to be in the comics I don’t think he’s as robotic as people like to write about (and how I like to read abt so dw this isn’t me trashing on that).

I read a post on here that was either a meta or rant that I def reblogged but don’t feel like looking for that was either or about or mentioned how the Winter Soldier is def a powerhouse but that’s just a building that was made from the frame of Bucky’s own combat skills from the war.

I think his sentience is somewhat similar to that in how he isn’t so much as an empty bodyguard and more like a tunnel-visioned fighter. His mind isn’t a blank slate in a body that’s blindly committing violence but a constantly calculating fighter (a trait I also think was just built off of Bucky’s own violent skills derived from the war) whose mind is occupied only by whatever violence he’s committing.

Seb’s facial expressions as the winter soldier present this well. Again, when you think of the empty husk the Winter Soldier is you’d expect little personality and emotion to be acted out as that character. The thing is, he’s not an empty husk. Seb does a good job at having existent and moving facial expressions without any real human emotion being shown by them. When the Winter Soldier furrows his brows as he fights or thoughtfully looks offscreen when he pulls off his goggles(?) in the lead up to the reveal he’s only expressing the slightest bit of acknowledgement to whatever is happening. Particularly, usually in fight scenes when people do the former it’s to make the character look mad or determined. When the Winter Soldier does it it’s just there. Sebastian manages to move his face in ways that should indicate fully-felt emotions but still only add up to a blank face.

Perhaps in that way the Winter Soldier is somewhat robotic not in the way of an emotionless android but rather an intelligent algorithm.

so, blah blah blah Sebastian is really good at acting blank. But what about when the Winter Soldier does show emotion. Disclaimer that in my rewatch I only saw the highway fight/reveal and the helicarrier, not when Fury and Steve get attacked in his apartment. With this, the first time I believe we see the Winter Soldier breaking out of the emotionless mask is the cute little bout of panic he has shortly after the mask/muzzle comes off, when his eyes get big and be looks off in a way unlike before where instead of it being the slightest indication of thought and strategy it’s a genuine feeling of panic and confusion. This is very much in contrast to moment before after he asks who the hell Bucky is and shoots at Steve. He says the words, but that’s it. His face doesn’t move to accommodate any sort of emotion any normal person would be feeling when they said that sentence. His mouth simply moves as he asks (though the blankness is still broken by then because I have doubts the 100% Winter Soldier would ever take the time or express the confusion that’d come with asking that question). Immediately after he clicks back into reality and the mission at hand when he shoots at Steve he doesn’t return to his before blankness. His eyebrows furrow and this time it’s not simply an unconscious physical result of being focused or whatever but he’s genuinely confused and desperately trying to follow what he’s being made to do. Up until that point, not once does the Winter Soldier bother to halt anything he’s doing in a fight if not necessary. This is the first time he personally hesitates.

And then the helicarrier scene. Oh lord almighty the blessed helicarrier scene. By here the Winter Soldier is back to Winter Soldier-ing, blank and emotionless no matter what movement his face makes. And he stays like that for the entire pre-fight pleading Steve’s doing in that bridge(?) thing. UNTIL Steve says “please don’t make me do this”

Now I noticed this in my rewatch yesterday and then while I was rewatching the scene on yt to write this I fought for my life trying to figure out which cut to Bucky in that convo in which he does it, so I damn-near thought i hallucinated it. But I swear to god his head tilts down and his eyebrows go up. It’s similar to the facial movements he does before when he’s full Winter Soldier where his face moves but it doesn’t indicate any actual emotion being felt. This time however it just somehow does. He’s pleading, for what I literally cannot think of but his face moves only slightly and it somehow spreads the full feeling throughout his entirety. In the next cut after that he doesn’t have that same emotion, but it was there.

From then on the curtain is ripped. Now Bucky fights and he scrunches up his face and all of the sort and he’s not only expressing emotion but he’s doing it so blatantly. So blatantly in fact that I can tell he seems to feel almost desperate.

Remember earlier when I mentioned that not once does the Winter Soldier bother to halt himself unless necessary to survey the situation or something the sort. Yeah, none of that is here. He’s unbelievably sloppy, not as fast and hit-for-hit with Steve as he was during the highway/reveal. And throughout the fight he only gets slower and slower, his face scrunches and moves more and more., and he wastes more and more time talking and trying to make Steve suffer and feel how he’s getting hit as if to prove to something or someone that he’s not succumbing to the memories bubbling up inside him and straying from his mission.

Until finally Steve says “I’m with you til the end of the line” and fandom was never the same

and neither was Bucky, because despite the fact that his luscious locks are blowing all over the damn place, all over his face, we see down to the atom what he’s feeling. It’s the Winter Soldier’s end of the line, and now Bucky is here to get fucked over by the mcu’s writing.

Again, catws is my favorite mcu movie in terms of acting and writing and the reason why is because they did so well at writing such a horribly tragic victim. I stay saying that Seb is one of the best actors in the mcu and the reason why is because of how agonizing his performance of the winter soldier’s mental turmoil is. So why on God’s green Earth is the mcu so intent on making some bullshit atonement plotline (or a poor attempt at showcasing Bucky’s internal guilt that comes off as an atonement plotline, depends on who you ask) and throwing him in with anti-heroes/villains when it really doesn’t fit what his arc should be AT ALL???

anyway god bless Sebastian for being damn-good at acting out agony

[fridayiminlcve]

chat i’m going to kill someone

[liquidmagci]

Brock rumlow looks like he cries when he cums

[x1702x]

Fuck my stupid baka life they deleted the Egg! app

[proserpine-in-phases]

If I have one piece of advice when it comes to your personal but professional email is to recognize that it is going to be your personal but professional email sooner than i did and never ever give it away freely

And never. EVER. give it to a politician

[living-in-a-fantasia]

Castor and Pollux

[leviathanhomecooking]

typical Jack Rollins fit

[canireadinpeace]

They could never make me hate u Magneto ✊🏻😘

I KNOW HOW MY FILTHY MUTANT ABILITIES UPSET YOU, SCHMIDT. DON’T WORRY–

–YOU WILL DIE PURE. NO MAGNETISM 

JUST FISTS.