i bring a sort of "this character is canonically malnourished and would gain at least a couple pounds during their hypothetical healing arc wherein they get better" vibe to the function that people dont really like
The Con and the Corporation: Roxanne and Boss Finn as Parallels and Foils
AKA "I'm trying to finish getting down a lot of the Potionomics character analysis that's been knocking around in my head."
Two Non-Humans Walk Into a Market Economy
Roxanne and Boss Finn are, structurally, the same character. Both are outsiders navigating a human-dominated world. Both begin as antagonists to Sylvia through business rivalry. Both are defeated and humbled. Both are reformed through Sylvia's influence. Both end their arcs directed toward legitimate ends. The game even mirrors their post-defeat trajectories: each moves from antagonist to reluctant dependent to genuine ally, learning from Sylvia while teaching her something in return.
But their surface similarities highlight a deeper divergence in how marginalized people respond to systems that weren't built for them, and what it actually takes to change when your worst traits are also your survival tools.
(rest of big ol' essay below)
The Foundational Split: Image Is Everything vs. Changing Is Losing
At the core of it, we have two lines of dialogue, delivered under similar circumstances, pointing in opposite directions.
Roxanne, explaining why she disguised herself as human to run her potion shop: "First rule of business: Image is everything." She studied human beauty magazines as a girl, absorbed their standards, and used her illusion magic to reshape herself into something the surface world would accept. When the disguise falls, she frames it as a strategic loss, not a liberation. Her cover is blown, and now she has to start over.
Finn, when Sylvia suggests he's too abrasive and could stand to soften up: "Changing for other people's tastes? Usually a losing proposition." He knows people find him scary. He knows that his appearance reads as dangerous and risky. Rather than hiding the teeth, he leans into them. Be the shark. At least then you're the one doing the eating.
Both are survival strategies for non-humans who've (correctly) identified that the world will judge them on sight. But Roxanne's response was to disappear into the system's expectations—to pass, to perform, to become the magazine image she once coveted. Finn's was to weaponize the system's fear of him; to take the dangerous-shark stereotype and make it profitable. Roxanne hid her horns. Finn sharpened his teeth.
The tragedy is that neither strategy lets them simply be. They've both built identities centered around threat assessment. But the specific shape of their armor determines everything about how their arcs unfold.
The Harm They Do: Snake Oil vs. Corporate Stranglehold
Here's where the parallel becomes a foil, and where Potionomics gets genuinely clever about types of mercantile villainy.
Roxanne is the game's first boss encounter, and a relatively easy opponent in mechanical terms. Her business poses no serious structural threat to Sylvia's operation. She's a small-time con artist running a "potion" shop out of charm and illusion magic. When she loses, she loses everything and ends up in Sylvia's basement. In terms of pure business competition, she's not that scary.
But what she's actually doing is horrifying. Mint comes to Sylvia with the warning: a guildmate bought healing potions from Roxanne, and when he tried to use one on an injured colleague, "it didn't do anything at all." Roxanne's "potions" are, by her own cheerful admission, "little more than water and dyes." The bottles are enchanted to look and feel magical, but they contain no actual medicine. She's selling fake health potions to adventurers who go into life-threatening situations. A hero relying on one of Roxanne's potions in a real fight could die.
Roxanne never grapples with this directly. Mint spell out the stakes—"a faulty Health Potion is a big deal, it could have been really bad"—and the game moves on. Roxanne's confession about her fraud is delivered with theatrical flair, as a funny anecdote about her cleverness. She treats her marks as rubes who deserve what they get, right up until the moment empathy blindsides her on the street.
Now contrast Finn. He's the third boss encounter, and a significant difficulty spike. Unlike Roxanne, his threat to Sylvia's business is structural. He doesn't sell fake products. His potions are real. What he does instead is use magical patents to claim exclusive selling rights over entire categories of potions in Rafta, creating an artificial monopoly. Heroes are forced to buy from him at inflated prices. Other vendors can't sell competing products. Baptiste confirms the entire guild is suffering under his stranglehold.
When confronted, Finn's response is a masterclass in corporate deflection: "Have I broken any laws here? I don't actually know the answer to that, but I've got some really good lawyers on retainer. The kind of guys who just love to drag out the proceedings." He doesn't need to be right. He just needs the legal process to be more expensive than anyone can afford to pursue.
So you have two villains: one who is personally dishonest but structurally insignificant, and one who is personally honest (at least about his intentions) but structurally devastating. Roxanne lies to individuals. Finn exploits systems that affect everyone. Roxanne's victims might die from a fake potion. Finn's victims are bled dry by a market they can't escape.
I think of it like the difference between someone selling you a counterfeit EpiPen at a reasonable price and a pharmaceutical corporation selling the real thing at a sky-high markup. Both are evil. Finn's monopoly gouges people and restricts access… but at the end of the day, the potion you bought from him works. You overpaid, and the system that let him charge you is rotten, but you walk into your next fight with actual medicine in your pack. Roxanne sold you something that looks right, feels right, and costs a fair price. But when you reach for it in crisis, it's water. You think you have a life-saving potion in your back pocket. You don't.
Lovely choice, huh?
"Nothing Personal" vs. "Nothing But Personal"
Finn's cruelty is casual and systemic. He visits Sylvia's shop and cheerfully informs her he's going to destroy her business like a neighbor giving you a heads up about road work. There's no individual malice. To Finn, driving Sylvia out of business is just the market working as intended. "Dry your tears and figure out how to work with what you've got." Nothing personal. Sharks eat small fry. That's nature.
Roxanne's cruelty is intimate and surgical. She doesn't attack Sylvia's business strategy or product quality. She attacks her appearance: the bags under her eyes, her exhaustion, her clothes. "I only mean to say you look utterly haggard." Her insults are specifically gendered, targeting Sylvia's failure to perform femininity correctly. When she sizes Sylvia up at the competition, her barbs are about sweat and body odor; the body itself as a site of failure. It's all personal. Every word is a scalpel.
The reasons for this difference track back to their foundational strategies. Finn doesn't need to make it personal because his power operates at a systemic level. He controls the market. Individual feelings are irrelevant to a monopoly. Roxanne has to make it personal because her power operates at an interpersonal level. Her weapons are charm, intimidation, and the ability to find exactly the right insecurity to exploit. She can't patent-troll Sylvia out of existence, so she tries to get inside her head instead.
But there's a deeper layer. Roxanne's appearance-based attacks are personal because appearance is personal to Roxanne. Sylvia gets to be messy and still be legitimate. Roxanne has never had that luxury. The cruelty is an attack, yes, but also a kind of displaced anguish: I had to be perfect, and you get to just... not care?
Finn has no equivalent internal anguish driving his business practices. He predates because the system allows it and because he refuses to be prey. And his arc is better off for not having tragic backstory because it tells us a person can wind up on a bad path without trauma and still deserve understanding, can be shaped by a system and still learn to fight it.
The Crash: Exile vs. Identity Death
Both characters hit rock bottom after losing to Sylvia, but what they lose, how they process it, and how they relate to Sylvia in the aftermath are juxtaposed.
Roxanne loses her cover. Her demon form is revealed, her fraud exposed, and she's forced to abandon the identity she'd constructed. But she still has her skills, her confidence, and her sense of self. She moves into Sylvia's basement and, crucially, she does this whether Sylvia wants her there or not. "Sincere apologies, but it's a done deal. I moved my things in overnight." No matter which dialogue option the player picks—"Forget it!" or "Knock yourself out"—the result is the same. Roxanne has already broken in and set up shop. She frames this as taking Sylvia up on her "offer" of help, which Sylvia barely remembers making. It's charming, it's funny, and it is also, flatly, breaking and entering followed by a unilateral redefinition of their relationship. Roxanne's first post-defeat move is to take someone else's space without asking. (Roxanne, I love you, girlie, but you gotta stop doing crimes.)
Finn, by contrast, loses his identity. His entire self-concept is built on winning, on being the apex predator. When Sylvia beats him, the framework collapses. "Didn't I put in the work? Didn't I visualize success? I deserved to come out on top." His venture capitalist friends abandon him instantly and he doesn't even blame them, because his own worldview says they're right to do so. The system he adhered to worked exactly as designed. He just ended up on the wrong side of it.
Interestingly, Finn doesn't impose himself on Sylvia. He wallows on the beach, wailing loudly enough to scare the fish, until Salt and Pepper ask Sylvia to deal with him. He waits for Sylvia to extend the hand because he literally cannot parse why she would help him. His worldview has no category for it. Much later, after she's spent real time mentoring him, his immediate reaction when she says she's taught him everything she can is: "You're abandoning me? And after you stuck around long enough to learn all my weaknesses, too. Guess feeding time's over, and you stripped me clean." He retroactively assumes exploitation because exploitation is the only framework he has for sustained attention from another person.
The result of identity death is a genuine existential crisis. "So what do I even care about, besides money? What am I good at?" Potions were "just another sprocket" to keep him afloat, and pep talks were the same deal. Everything filters through market logic, and he can't find substance underneath it. "I'm just a bunch of hot air in the form of a sexy, sophisticated shark-man." (Ego still intact to some degree.😂)
The contrast in their collapses mirrors the contrast in their strategies. Roxanne, who built her identity around control, responds to defeat by immediately seizing control of a new space, even if it's someone else's basement. Finn, who built his identity around winning, responds to defeat by losing direction entirely. Roxanne's crisis is about circumstance: she needs new resources, new territory, a new hustle. Finn's crisis is about substance: he needs a reason to get up in the morning that isn't "because I'm a winner." Roxanne has always known who she is; she just couldn't show it. Finn has never had to ask before, because winning answered the question for him.
The Reform: Reining In vs. Redirecting
Roxanne's reformation is about internal change. She has to develop capacities she genuinely lacked: empathy, moral reasoning, the ability to value people as more than marks. The baldness-elixir scene is the turning point. Standing in front of a former victim, she suddenly imagines their positions reversed, and the feeling is so alien she describes it with revulsion: "I felt... empathy." She doesn't act on it heroically (she lies and flees), but she doesn't take the money either. The moral muscle is new, and she's not sure she likes having it, lol.
Her growth is measured in restraint: choosing not to blackmail the exam proctor, choosing not to fleece the old mark, choosing to earn her business license legitimately even though she finds the process absurd. This is hard for her. Roxanne describes the straight and narrow as aggravating, and she jokes that "it's much easier to be wicked when [Sylvia's] not around." The temptation never goes away. The appearance policing never fully stops. She just gets better at catching herself. "Sorry. Old habits," she says, after getting another dig in at Sylvia.
Roxanne has to rein in the horses. She has to learn to not use power she has.
Finn's reformation is about redirection. He doesn't develop new capacities so much as discover a new application for old ones. The phone scam scene is his turning point. A stranger tries to con Sylvia with a broken phone, and Finn instantly reads the grift, identifies the forensic evidence (the crack pattern), and intimidates the scammer into fleeing. He did exactly what he's always done: read the situation, identify threat, deploy force. The only difference is allegiance.
His later insight crystallizes: "I can be confrontational. Aggressive. Intimidating. More often than not in my life, that's made me the bad guy. But it's good and useful when I use all that to look out for the little guy." He becomes a vendor advocate using his knowledge of predatory business tactics (which he perfected) to protect the people he used to exploit.
Finn doesn't rein in the horses. He steers them in a different direction.
This is why Roxanne's endpoint is "the satisfaction of having power over someone and not needing to use or abuse it." A statement about restraint, about the cultivation of moral strength through not acting. And Finn's endpoint is "I like the feeling of punching up." A statement about action, about redirecting existing strength toward better fights.
The Residue: What Doesn't Change
Both arcs are honest about their limits. Neither character is fully "fixed."
Roxanne's appearance policing softens but never disappears. Even in her most emotionally vulnerable moments, she can't resist the dig: "I mean, I must care for you a great deal if I'm able to overlook so very many shortcomings." Sylvia, who has learned to expect this, responds with a knowing "There it is." It's become a rhythm between them, affection expressed through the only idiom Roxanne has fully mastered, which is the language of aesthetic judgment. The internalized misogyny isn't gone. It's just been domesticated into something closer to teasing, a reflex she now recognizes and sometimes apologizes for without being able to fully stop.
Finn's market-logic brain never fully rewires either. His advocacy is still for-profit: "Oh, it will be [lucrative]. I've recently learned a thing or two about running a successful business." He still thinks in terms of profit first, good second. He still frames relationships through competitive metaphors: "usually can't have two apex predators in one place." When Sylvia ponders "harnessing [his] talents for good," Finn's honest response is that he'd "rather prioritize 'for profit' and consider 'for good' an optional bonus." The goodness is still incidental to the hustle.
But there's a difference in what the residue means, even if it's not as stark as it first appears. Roxanne's lingering appearance-policing is a scar, the trace of a wound that shaped her entire personality, a reflex born from genuine suffering that she's slowly, imperfectly learning to recognize. Finn's lingering profit-brain isn't quite a scar in the same way, but it's not neutral wiring either. It's a paradigm; a way of seeing the world that was built and reinforced over years of operating in a system that prejudged him as dangerous and rewarded economic aggression. You don't unlearn a worldview overnight just because you've found a better use for it. Finn's market logic is as ingrained as Roxanne's beauty-standard enforcement, even if it was forged by different pressures. The advocacy is real, but the old operating system is still running underneath, and paradigms of that depth take time to fully overwrite, if ever.
Sylvia as the Common Variable
One last parallel worth noting: both Roxanne and Finn explicitly credit Sylvia with their reformation, and both are slightly baffled by why she bothered.
But Sylvia's role in their arcs is more active than a simple "showed up and was kind" framing would suggest. She teaches them. Literally. Roxanne's study sessions, her business license prep, the flash cards; Sylvia is investing real time and effort into helping Roxanne go legitimate. And the dialogue options throughout both arcs are frequently moral choices: the player can guide Sylvia to tell Roxanne "you're better than this, blackmail is cheating," or to push Finn away from "sabotaging legitimate businesses." Sylvia doesn't just model decency by being decent. She actively calls out bad behavior, offers alternative frameworks, and holds the line on what she thinks is right.
Roxanne: "You saw me at my most vulnerable, Sylvia. My most petty! And you extended a hand."
Finn: "I appreciate that you came around when I was low. Still weird to me that you didn't gloat much."
What makes it work is that the moral guidance comes packaged with practical help and genuine investment. Sylvia isn't lecturing from a position of superiority. She's teaching Roxanne business administration while also suggesting that maybe blackmail isn't the answer. She's showing Finn her shop floor and sales technique while also steering him away from cutthroat instincts. The moral dimension is woven into the business mentorship, not imposed on top of it. That's why neither of them gets defensive the way they would with a pure sermon. Sylvia has earned the right to push back because she's also the person helping them move forward.
Roxanne names this explicitly: "More than once, when faced with a moral conundrum, I've found myself asking... what would Sylvia think?" That's not the passive influence of ambient kindness. That's the result of sustained, active engagement from someone who cared enough to both help and challenge.
Why Both
Finn's redemption was added in the Masterwork release, and it's addition does crucial work for the game's thesis and helps it earn that Masterwork designation (but really, the voice acting!!!).
With only Roxanne, redemption risks reading as exceptional, something she earned by being uniquely sympathetic, or uniquely connected to Sylvia, or uniquely deserving. You could walk away thinking: well, Roxanne was redeemable because she was wounded, because she had a tragic backstory, because underneath it all… etc etc.
Adding Finn says: No, the guy with no tragic excuse gets the same shot. Redemption isn't exclusive. It's not a reward for having suffered enough. It's available to anyone willing to do the work.
Giving redemption arcs to two antagonists creates a pattern that adds up to more than the sum of the individual cases. Because the result isn't only two better people. It's a better town. The reformed shark and the reformed con artist don't simply stop doing harm. They become load-bearing members of the community they once exploited. That's Potionomics' thesis about kindness and community building elevated!
The path from A to B may be as individual as the damage that made the journey necessary, but I'm really glad they both got to make the trip.
Second Huevember,,, and I’m still in Quinn’s brainrot. I really love the idea of a grumpy witch as Quinn slowly falling in love with a peppy witch like Sylvia. Lyrics are from the beautiful song “Cornflower Blue” by Flowerface.
I’m attempting a 10 days version of the Huevember this year, and I’m currently obsessed by Quinn from Potionomics… They’re just so cool. ;___; I have a lot of wips of OG art or Fanart t hat I needed motivation to finish so I’ll use this challenge as a prextext. Wish me luck!
Thinking about this art from the official potionomics twitter (I refuse to call it X) looks like the same artist who did the end credit art but I might be wrong
(in the middle of a heartfelt conversation, with concerning sincerity) and dont forget that I am evil, and that my death will be announced with singing in the streets
These are pictures I drew in June. (Mostly Quinn/Sylvia, though...)
I think Tumblr will be a place where I post a month's worth of illustrations all at once, so I may post again around August.
In addition, I added an English transration of the dialogue in the second illustration to the image description. From now on, I plan to add English transrations to works with dialogue as much as possible.
Celebrating 10 Years of CA:TWS — A Stucky Rec List
Rec list for the CA:TWS 10th Anniversary Event @catws-anniversary (thank you so much for organizing this event! 💙) | Prompt: Memories
10 years, huh? 10 years of Captain America: The Winter Soldier. 10 years of what many—myself included—still consider to be the best MCU movie ever made.
But also 10 years of post-TWS fanfiction. 10 years of Bucky Barnes Recovering and Steve Rogers' Sadness Errands; of Up All Night to Get Bucky and Revenge Road Trips; of Winter Soldier Trauma Umbrellas and Everybody Needing A Goddamn Hug; of Good Bros and Soft Epilogues. 10 years and tens of thousands of Steve/Bucky fics later, here we are.
So, to mark the occasion, let's take a trip down memory lane and celebrate the movie and the stories it inspired: One fic from each year since it all began:
There's really only one rule here: All fics are set before, during, or after the events of CA:TWS and/or reimagine its plot in interesting ways. Naturally, many of the fics on this list are post-TWS canon divergent, but I tried to go for a nice variety of length, genre, and popularity to keep it interesting. Speaking of popularity, this is very much not intended as a round-up of ‘most popular fics of each year’ because—and I say this with all the love and respect in my heart for those stories and their authors—nobody needs a rec list for that, and I believe in spreading the love. Here we go:
Poltergeists by enemyofrome | 17K, T
Author's summary:
When the helicarriers blow up and the Winter Soldier goes on the run, he takes Steve with him. He's got a name written in Morse code on the inside of his arm, a ton of questions he doesn't know how to ask, and now, a new handler with absolutely zero sense of self-preservation to contend with. Life is hard.
In which Bucky tries to figure out whether he's a human being, Steve does everything he can to keep from losing him again, and there are lots of explosions.
Starting off with one of the best versions of the 'Bucky didn't leave Steve, he took him with him after the Potomac' fics that were (and still are!) so popular post-TWS. This one stands out because of its fantastic beginning, its interesting take on how Bucky was broken and remade into the Winter Soldier, and because it allows both characters to be messy. It's a popular fanon trope that it's Steve who brings out a ruthless, almost vicious streak in Bucky, but here it's emphasized that this is very much a mutual thing. Just like Bucky, who's often afforded the "excuse" of still figuring out how to be a person again, Steve gets to be difficult here—without ever turning him into a stubborn asshole. They're both traumatized, and they're both allowed to show it and to lash out, including at each other. Also, this fic will give you capital-F Feelings about morse codes and apples. Believe me.
sleepwalk back to the battle site by ftmsteverogers | 22K, T
Author's summary:
“I’m going to track down every HYDRA agent that’s left,” Bucky says, buckling his gun deftly to his belt. “And then I’m going to kill them.”
“Oh,” Steve says.
“Come with me?” Bucky asks, dangerous hands tucked into his pockets.
A classic post-TWS fic that picks up right after the movie ends. Equal parts Revenge Roadtrip, Bucky Barnes recovering, and Steve Rogers being in urgent need of a good hug. This starts out intensely melancholic—Steve's despair and helplessness are palpable and there's a scene involving a drinking glass that still brings tears to my eyes just thinking about it. Halfway through, the story changes pace and becomes much more action-heavy, but it still manages to allow space for the quiet, intimate moments between Steve and Bucky. They have both become sharp and deadly men, but they're also allowed to be soft with each other. Their coming together feels sweet and inevitable. I also really enjoyed the Steve characterization here. His absolute conviction that Bucky is still Bucky at his very core and always will be, but also his emotional and intellectual flexibility to adapt to this still-new-to-him, changed version of Bucky rang very true to me.
Surveillance by Sproings, 7K in 2 parts, G
Author's summary:
If there are ears everywhere, that means it's somebody's job to listen.
I hate my job.
Do you ever think about how SHIELD bugged Steves DC apartment and how horrible that was, but also...you're kind of curious what they might have overheard? Do you ever wonder about the people who listened in on his sad, lonely life? Well, here you go. An outsider POV fic told "through the ears" of an unnamed SHIELD agent assigned to spy on the private life of a man who doesn't really have much of one. The story begins just before IM3 and takes us all the way through the events of CA:TWS and beyond. It's clever, original and told with great empathy for both the subject under surveillance and the person carrying out that surveillance—who increasingly questions its purpose. Here's a small snippet to give you an idea of the fic's style:
He got a phone call, once. He put it on speaker, too, which was very exciting for me at the time. It was from an archivist at the Smithsonian. They seemed really surprised that he answered his own phone calls. The two of them talked for a long time about an exhibit the museum was planning. A very long time. As if one of them was starstruck, and the other was desperate for any kind of human interaction.
What Gets You Through by velleities | 12K, M
Author's summary:
For Steve, getting through each day is a process – one he’s currently failing at spectacularly. Feeling out of place in this brave new world, he hopes to find a home in Bucky, and looks for him with everything he’s got.
But Bucky doesn’t want to be found, and when he does touch base with Steve, he never sticks around for long. Bucky has embraced the modern age, leaving Steve lagging behind – or so Steve believes, until Bucky shows him otherwise.
This post-TWS fic revolves around five encounters in liminal spaces, and each time Bucky has pieced himself back together again just a little more. Despite their increasingly longer and more honest conversations, and Bucky's incremental progress, he always disappears again, leaving Steve to grapple with his heartbreak. There are quietly gorgeous moments in this fic (the bus and the church in particular were my personal favorites) as well as wonderfully crafted characterizations. Bucky is initially portrayed as somewhat feral in some ways yet surprisingly well-adjusted in others, and I love that Steve can't help but be a little annoyed at that. However, it quickly becomes clear that, in good old Bucky Barnes fashion, much of it is really just a front put up for Steve's benefit...
A Real Boy by itsnotbleak | 5K, T
Author's summary:
It took the Winter Soldier three weeks to remember that human beings needed to sleep and eat.
It took Steve far too long to realise the Winter Soldier was sleeping in his bed.
A wonderful, short-but-doesn't-feel-like-it fic (in the very best way) set immediately after CA:TWS, in which Bucky secretly and then soon not so secretly visits Steve in his apartment. Follow along as Bucky Barnes argues with his brain about sandwich toppings, the importance of a good night's sleep, and the necessity of personal hygiene. Also: how to best go about becoming a real boy (again). And who the hell is that Bucky guy anway? This is as soft and sweet a Bucky recovery fic as you're ever going to find. It's funny but not silly; sad in a way that all of these stories inherently are—because, well, these are some tragic boys—but not super angsty or depressing. A beautiful story with a lovely, hopeful ending.
Savage God by PottersPink | 36K, M
Author's summary (abbr.):
Past, present, future, Steve knows Bucky Barnes. It’s why he recognized him when he found him in that alley in April of 1942, even though Bucky was older, stronger, wearier; he called himself The Asset, and had a metal fucking arm. He flinched when Steve tried to touch him, and when Steve told him he loved him, his first response was to ask why.
Seventy years later, Steve wakes up in the twenty-first century, and he doesn’t know whether to be heartbroken or hopeful when some of the things Bucky revealed to him in 1942 start falling into place.
An absolutely riveting AU that will have you on the edge of your seat the whole time. I'm itching to talk about it more but I cannot since it would mean spoiling the hell out of it. What I can say is that it's a very intriguing and clever exploration of what would happen if Steve knew about the future but without really knowing any of the details. How would it change the events of CA:TFA and CA:TWS, and how would it change Steve himself? I so very much appreciate this characterization of Steve as smart, competent, and unwavering with a hefty dose of no fucks left to give. This fic features some really nifty time travel and plotting, great action sequences and a very satisfying ending where certain people get their much-deserved comeuppance. Plus: Bonus Shrinkyclinks (kind of)!
Charlie Lock by seapigeon | 105K, M (hard M)
Author's summary (abbr.):
The Winter Soldier knows that sometimes, in order to make the kill, you must destroy what the Target lives for.
Steve Rogers knows that he can't fight his captors. If he fights, they'll kill Bucky. But the price of his life is steep.
Tony Stark has nothing left to live for, but he's needed. So all these miserable motherfuckers better stay alive, too.
Clint Barton never expected to be a leader. But a leader he is, and no one else is going to die on his watch.
---
A story in which the first wave of Project Insight succeeds, and the Avengers must pick up the pieces and find a way to stop Hydra from completing its work with Zola's algorithm.
This is not only the longest fic on this list, but also the angstiest one—by a mile, so please heed the tags. It's dark, disturbing, and brutal. However, it is neither relentless misery porn nor is it shocking for shock's sake, where everything is magically forgotten and/or healed the moment Steve and Bucky start kissing. Instead, the author puts these characters into an absolutely horrifying situation and then slowly, gently guides them out of it and into the light.
It's a Stucky fic but it's also a multi-POV ensemble piece featuring all the Avengers and other familiar faces. If you are someone who'll always be a little bitter about the unfulfilled promise of an Avengers found family, then this is for you. In this AU, they do not only fight together, but grow together in every way. They truly become a team, not just co-workers barely tolerating each other. The story takes its time exploring the characters and the group dynamics. Steve and Bucky are definitely at the center of the narrative but there is space here for every member of the team to grieve and adjust to the new reality and to find at least some measure of healing. It's a story about the meaning and the consequences of revenge, about hope and resilience, and about love in all its many forms. It also has one of the most satisfying title drops that will have you pump your fist in triumph when it happens. It's a tough read, but ultimately a very rewarding one.
SPELEVINK by Ginny_Potter | 10K, G
Author's summary:
Bucky’s back. He’s leaving me messages through IKEA plushies, Steve texts Sam.
jesus christ, rogers, Sam texts back.
Or, Bucky lives in an IKEA Tiny Apartment, Steve is a dancing monkey once again, and somehow they find their way back to each other.
This is an absolute DELIGHT of a fic that will have you alternately laughing out loud and crying quietly into your SVARTFIBBLA blanket (super-soft, recycled polyester, 47x63"). It's ‘crack treated seriously’ at its very best and a clear homage to the fandom classic Infinite Coffee… (that’s not a dig or a spoiler, the author says so in the author’s note).
Now if you know me, you’ll know that angst o’clock is my happy hour and I’m usually not very into these heavy-on the-humor quasi-absurdist fics (because I’m super special and not like all the other girls, obviously). But. I LOVED this story so, so much. It’s such a fun read—even when it makes you cry—and it really became one of those ‘huh, I guess I’m into this after all’ moments of joyful (self)discovery via fanfic for me. I never thought a pair of oven mitts could move me like that, and I'll never be able to walk into an IKEA again without muttering "F******!" under my breath (iykyk). Absolutely fantastic.
a handful of dust by RecoveringTheSatellites | 20K, M
Author's summary:
Steve looks for Bucky for a long time.
But the thing is that Bucky doesn't get found, Bucky finds. Bucky always finds Steve.
This takes a hard left after the Potomac and stumbles through the dark a lot after. Take a bit of running, the occasional synaptic misfire, the resurfacing of old memories, a dash or two of PTSD, and (eventually) a nice dose of action, stir, and serve over some unresolved issues.
Honestly, the second paragraph up there perfectly sums up the story. It's a good ol' fashioned Bucky recovery fic with some angst, some action, and a whole lot of healing and devotion. Steve and Bucky get to be very sappy about each other, but also extremely Badass Battle Boyfriends™ when somebody threatens their hard-won happiness. Both are allowed to be messy, unstable, and very co-dependent.
This was the first time this author played in the Stucky sandbox and I mean it 100% as a compliment when I say that you can tell. This is someone with "fresh legs" diving headfirst and very deep into the Stucky trope pool and they're doing it with great relish and enthusiam. The result is a story that rejects some of the tried and true conventions of the post-TWS fanfic canon and lovingly embraces others, but that is definitely aware of and in dialogue with the body of work that came before it. Also, it's just a really fun read that gives these two the very soft ending they deserve.
Everybody is Supposed to be Dead by pollutedstar | 22K, M
Author's summary:
In 1944, Bucky Barnes falls off a train into the Alps, missing and presumed dead. Months later, Steve Rogers nosedives a plane into the arctic.
In 2010, the Winter Soldier project is uncovered by S.H.I.E.L.D., and Bucky Barnes is found alive. Three years later, Steve Rogers’ frozen body is found in the ocean.
A really interesting AU and a fascinating exploration of what could’ve been; the impact it would’ve had on the events and characters if Bucky had been the one to be “found” first. How would it affect Steve to come back into a world where he isn’t quite so lonely and adrift, and where he does have the relief and reassurance of having Bucky by his side and at his back? How would that have changed the way he acted and reacted to this strange new world and the people and organizations trying to recruit him to their cause even though the ice hasn't even completely melted off his body yet?
There are a lot of astute and precise observations about characters like Tony, Natasha, and Clint in this story, and on top of that, it offers up some very compelling insights into Steve's conflicted and difficult relationship with his role as Captain America.
it's never over (hey orpheus) by romcommie | 12K WIP, 2/?, M
Author's summary:
He remembers a song first and then everything else follows, burying him below.
Or, Bucky Barnes pieces a life back together with a few choice verses, some duct tape and seventy years worth of spite. Steve Rogers tries very hard to relearn there's a life to be lived in the first place.
Ok, listen up, people! This is a WIP and there are only 2 chapters posted so far, but I haven't felt this absolutely bonkers excited about a post-CA:TWS fic in a long while. We're talking frothing at the mouth here. I have such a massive crush on this fic, it's a bit embarrassing, really. It's one of those fics where you know after just a few paragraphs that you're in very good, very competent hands. The wealth of historical and cultural detail; the way the story shifts/flips/flickers back and forth between time, perspective and narrative levels; the Bucky voice—it's all so well done! I'm so insanely excited to see where the author takes this!
romaincrisis
yousharknotpass
baratheonpilled
theartofmadeline
origamiaround
