#and accidentally (unintentionally) shooting you down in the process

[glambots]

I was re-reading your valentines headcanons and for the glams they get love letters sometimes and it makes me wonder on the topic of people having crushes on the robots..okay so you know how when you bring your boyfriend/girlfriend home your younger sibling develops a little puppy crush on them, okay this but some 1st grader has a lil crush on sun or moon. This makes me laugh for some reason because all I see is sun and moon trying to gently explain to them how that shit would absolutely never happen and not work out in the nicest way possible.

He's more used to it than you would think. (It never fails to take Moon off-guard though. He's not used to people liking him at all, much less thinking of him in a romantic sense.)

[whiskehorange]

How the Slashers Would Treat Your Stuffed Animals

literally pissing and crying writing this right neow.

Also, Happy New Years Loves! I wish everyone and myself a better 2023, I couldn't ask for better supporters ♥♥

Michael

Stabs them repeatedly when youre not home until theyre nothing but a shredded mess like an untrained dog and when you confront him he denies it like you've accused him of murder.

Wait-

Jason

Kisses each one on the forehead goodnight like he's going to be deployed in the morning. Comes home the next day with glass display cases for you to put your favorites/ most valuable in. Even buys them personalized stickers and trinkets to but in and on their box like he's assigned them their own personalities.

Freddy

Punches each and every one of them in the face as hard as he can like they all own him a grand each right in front of you, laughing until he violently shit himself while you scream at him to leave them alone.

Bubba

Gives each one their own day to help/follow him around the farm (carrying them around in one arm or aggressively stuffing them down his pants when he needs to use both hands) while actively getting them dirty with blood, dirt, and shit or tearing them in the process of being so unintentionally violent.

Thomas

Gives them dirty looks when they touch his stuff but actively grows very fond of them and shares all of the family drama and tea with them when they are alone. The dirty looks shift to you when you walk in on a heated tea spill session.

Brahms

Steals them from you.

Humps them.

Cries and denies taking them if you find them before he's able to "sneakily" put them back where he got them.

Billy

Refuses to acknowledge them and absolutely refuses to touch them, but buys you more and more whenever he's out by himself. When you leave the room he apologizes for ignoring them all day and adds the new friend to your collection. Has to turn them away when the two of you do the dirty.

Stu

Gives them all government first, middle, and last names and doesn't forget them either. Also constantly buy you new ones whenever he sees them and issues them names, social security numbers, and jobs before he even gives them to you. Makes them beef with each other.

Norman

Dresses up and has tea parties with them. When your not home. Writes and prints hand made name tags, name plates, bibs, and beautifully crafted invitations with their own messages for all of them. Spends hours making real treats for said parties.

Hannibal

Quietly passive aggressively threatens each of them that if hey even think about getting closer to you that he'll destuff them and use their skin as pillow covers, and will do so in front of the others. Insists that he loves them when you ask, shooting them dirty looks after you've turned around.

Bo

Crop-dusts them if you keep them waist level and will even grab them and purposely rip the fattest, wettest, most gut wrenching, stomach rumbling, room clearing, radioactive, leg lifting fart you've ever heard right in their face and throw it at you, flipping you off as he walks away.

Vincent

Makes them all their own little wax sculpture the same color as their fur and keeps them on a shelf above where you keep yours. Still doesn't have the heart to tell you that he stole one from you once to sculpt and accidentally dropped it in a vat of wax and had to dump the whole basin because it was ruined. Claims you must have just misplaced it.

Lester

Makes you homemade, roadkill fur stuffed abominations that smell like the wettest of shit and will set them right next to yours on your bed/shelf. Can never remember the names of your stuffed ones and called them something not even close to what they are, thinking he's 100% right. Pets them unconsciously if he's standing next to them and just mindlessly talking.

[idolish7imagines]

I adore your blog ^^ thank you for keeping the i7 fandom alive! May I request a scenario of how Banri would care for a sick S/O still pushing herself to work despite likely not even able to think in coherent sentences due to a high fever among other flu-like symptoms? Some type of flu just ripped through my household, taking down roommates left and right and I'm hoping it won't take me out 'cuz I can't afford 3-4 days off from work -_- Currently wondering if Banri would be the stern type to order a sick S/O to rest or if he'd be out of his element or figuring out ways to help her complete her work-day despite the sickness.

Ogami Banri x Reader :: Fever

A\N: i hope you're better now anon! I do enjoy writing for banri ^^

::

"Let me feel your forehead." Your boyfriend asks before proceeding to do so without really waiting for a response. The bed slightly shifts at his weight as he presses a knee onto it, leaning over to get a better look at you.

You honestly hadn't even gotten enough sleep through the night, yet you were adamant on getting to your shift at the usual time. Banri had spent the night (he does so at least once a month despite his also busy schedule) and was ready to start his commute to work as well before seeing the state you were in.

Despite the room being at a decent temperature, beads of sweat still piled up on your face, a noticeable glisten on your cheeks and forehead that you wouldn't have been able to hide even if you tried.

A bit of nervousness wells up in you spotting the subtle furrow of his brows after feeling your temp, expression nearly unreadable as he stood back up straight.

"Do you think you can stomach some breakfast?" He asks.

You hardly process the question before running it through your head a couple more times, before giving a slower than usual nod.

"Just something light, before I go to work." You mutter, a slight crack in your voice coupled with your throat sounding dry.

Ban stares at you for a moment, before letting out a short sigh. "I'm not sure if you'll be able to make it to work like this, but we'll see after breakfast."

"Whaat...but..work...have to be there." Unintentionally, you sounded like whining more than an assertive statement.

"I know..let's just see after breakfast okay?" His tone was gentle. Ban was no stranger to tough love when it was necessary, but he didn't want you to be upset when you're already like this. Not like it was your fault anyway.

He disappears into the kitchen, leaving you by yourself for a while to attempt to get ready for your shift.

--------------

Needless to say, getting ready didn't go well.

Once Banri had returned, to his absolute shock, you were on your knees on the bedroom floor in front of your closet. A bin was toppled over, probably from your trying to grab some clothes before you fell, he assumed.

He exclaimed your name before going to help you up and back onto the bed, checking to make sure you hadn't accidentally bruised yourself.

"Ban..I just tripped..not a big deal.." You sniffle, tiredly looking in his eyes as his arms cautiously held yours.

"(Y/N)..you fell because you're weak." He tries to explain. "And you're weak because you're sick."

Your lips purse at that word, staying silent for now. Sick is the last thing you needed to be, especially to this extent.

Your boyfriend hoists you up and places you further back on the bed to properly sit on it.

"I don't think you're making it to work like this." He states.

"But Banri-"

"No buts." He was far too used to these kinds of conversations after becoming MEZZO's manager. He didn't like shooting other people down, but their health and wellbeing comes first. "I'm going to get your phone so you can call in."

Your eyes follow him going for your phone and unlocking it. Again, you were weak so you couldn't grab it from him or anything similar. And protesting against it wasn't going to work either.

The man had you to ask if there was anyone to cover your shift and notify them in advance you may have to take off for a few days (or thats what he wanted you to say at least, but instead you said you should be fine by tomorrow).

After that, he goes back to the kitchen to prepare something a bit lighter for you to handle in your current state after tucking you back in.

As much as you wanted to cuddle him as thanks, you were afraid he might get some of your symptoms, and that would make matters even worse.

The food he brings back is vegetable soup and crackers, with water. He offers to feed it to you, but you insist you're not nearly frail enough for him to have to do that.

The two of you eat together in your bedroom, and after finishing your soup, your heart nearly leaps out of your chest at a sudden realization, whipping your head to him.

"B-BAN! WORK!" You exclaim with wide eyes, words still slightly slurring.

"Eh? We already took care of it.." He blinks, startled by the outburst.

"No, your work!" You clarify.

Your partner stares at you for a beat of a moment, before chuckling and patting your head.

"Even your sense of time is off. I still have quite a bit of time to make it there." He gives a smile you can't be mad at.

Letting out a quiet 'ah...', your head hits the pillow once more.

"I should get going though, you're right." Banri stands up, taking the dishes. "I wish I could stay. Just don't push yourself alright? I'll call on my breaks, and help you figure out some plans to catch up on your work once you're feeling better."

His lips press against your temple. It was quick, but you cherished it, giving a slow wave of your hand as Banri headed out for work.

[httpswwwtbhkcom]

How Will They React to You Overworking Yourself

[Oneshot/Imagine]

Pairing: Katsuki Bakugo x Reader, Monoma Neito x Reader, Denki Kaminari x Reader, Eijiro Kirishima x Reader, (Separately)

[@httpswwwtbhkcom’s masterlist]

Summary: You weren’t hanging out with them that much, making them worried. Whenever they see you, you were either passed out on your desk or studying.

Warning: Swearing, grammar errors, overworking thingies (I forgot what’s it called..)(A few days later after I made this: I have no clue what I meant by overworking thingies no more.)

Genre: Fluff,

Keys:

Y/n- your name,

Reader: Neutral

☽✧ ✦ ✧☾

Katsuki Bakugo:

He frowned when he saw you working on today’s homework which the due was next week. Even though he was strict in doing his work, he also takes breaks.

“You should take a rest, Y/n.” He gruffed. You jumped at the sudden noise, not hearing anyone come in the room. You looked at the person who scared you, sighing. “You scared me!” You spoke, dodging his statement. Bakugo’s eyes softened then looked away, muttering an apology.

“As I said earlier, you should take a rest. You look like shit.” He remarked. You rolled your eyes. “I’m fine, Bakugo. I take rests too-” As if on queue, you yawned. You immediately covered your mouth to muffle yourself but one look at Bakugo, you could tell he had already have heard it.

“I can’t Bakugo! I have so many things on my plate! I can’t just rest, I’m busy everyday!” Bakugo scoffed, went towards you and carried you to your bed. “Wha- Hey! Bakugo!!” You whined, hitting him with all your might (You were tired, so it wasn’t that strong.) Bakugo was unfazed by your attempts and threw you to your clean bed which looked like it wasn’t used.

You stiffened at the touch of the soft bed. It was so soft you could just drift off. ‘But what about my work? MY WORK?!’ You thought, that was enough for you to squirm and try to get out of bed. Bakugo blankly stared at you. ‘Are you not giving up already? God...’.

“Stop squirming and try to rest already, idiot. Take a rest.” His eyes giving you a hard glare. “But my work-” “Continue your work tomorrow or something. It’s fucking Saturday, you should ease up a bit.” Finally, you slowly drifted off to sleep. Your eyes fluttering slowly as you let sleep consume you.

Once Bakugo thought you were sleeping. He muttered a ‘fuckin’ finally.’ and tucked you to bed properly.

He glanced at your messy desk and stared at it for a few seconds, taking in every detail on the desk. There was the homework due next week, a book about math, an open comic book, papers scattered everywhere, and your computer still on with the tab of youtube with your favorite song on it (It was paused).

Bakugo looked at you once again, and sat on the edge of the bed, and did not leave. He had the feeling of you waking up and getting out of bed to do your work once he leaves the room. Or so he thought was his reason for staying for a few hours.

He stayed there beside you, glancing at you every now and then. After an hour, Bakugo found himself drifting off to sleep beside you.

☽✧ ✦ ✧☾

Monoma Neito:

Monoma frowned when he saw you passed out on your messy desk. It wasn’t his first time seeing you like this. His dorm was beside yours so he always gets to see you study when he needs to go to his dorm because your door is slightly open (You should close your door properly next time.).

He sighed, thinking if he should go in your room and put you to bed since he felt a ‘tinsy bit’ of concern, or if he should just shrug it off and go continue his day. Monoma took one glance at you and went inside your room. “You should stop overworking yourself, Y/n...” He murmured.

Monoma went to you and slowly and carefully carried you bridal style. He walked towards your bed and tried to carefully place you on your bed without waking you up. To his dismay, you were waking up.

The first thing you saw was Monoma silently panicking. “Monoma...?” You groaned, confused and tired at the moment. Taking a breather, He calmed down. “What are you... Where am I? Wait- I’M SUPPOSED TO FINISH MY HOMEWORK!” You exclaimed once you were fully conscious.

You looked around you to finally notice that Monoma was carrying you. Your face dusted pink while Monoma blushed in embarrassment. “C-calm down.. The deadline’s next week, remember? You need to take a rest. You look like sh- I mean, You have bags under your eyes.”

“But, I have so many things to do..” You tried to reason with Monoma but failed. “You can do it tomorrow, take this as a day-off.”

You pouted “A day-off? I can’t have a day-off now! If I do, then I won’t have a day-off tomorrow- or the day after that.” He carefully placed you on your bed, having a bit of trouble since you were trying to go back to your desk. “You never rest, Y/n. During lunch, you were reading a book, barely eating your food!” You quietly listened as he kept ranting.

While he was ranting, he stopped when he noticed you were starting to drift off to sleep. Instead, he slowly took the blanket underneath you and gently placed it on your body, also making sure it doesn’t cover your face.

He sat beside you and gently massaged your head, Earning a moan from you. Monoma stopped and tensed at the sudden sound. His face was red. He took a glance to see you still unconscious and sighed in relief. After a few minutes, Monoma finally calmed down a bit, though his face is tinted pink.

He decided to leave you alone, but before he left, he kissed your forehead.

“Good night, sweetheart.”

☽✧ ✦ ✧☾

Denki Kaminari:

Kaminari was just passing by your dorm when he noticed your door slightly open. Curious, he slowly opened it, not making a sound. His eyes landed on you taking notes from your computer. ‘Again?’ He inaudibly sighed. He welcomed himself in your dorm.

He snuck up behind you while you were going to the next page of the file. Kaminari grinned as he planned to scare you.

“Boo!”

You shrieked in surprise, accidentally ripping the paper a bit. “Kami! My notes!” You exclaimed in despair. “Sorry Y/n, But you could print it out instead right?” He tried to assure you. You only responded with a glare and a small yawn. “Tired?” Kaminari teased, leaning closer to you.

Your face tinted light pink, but your tiredness didn’t fully process of how close you both really were. You dozed off a bit, accidentally leaning closer to Kaminari’s face. He noticed this and froze. Kaminari didn’t know what to do, should he back away? Should he let this go and get his first kiss from you?

But before he can even think, your lips met his. Kaminari didn’t move for a few seconds, but then he backed away, completely taken aback. He held your shoulders when you were almost going to collapse from your seat. You were conscious again and slightly jumped. “H-huh?”

“Oh... Hey..” Kaminari said awkwardly, backing up a few steps. “Hm...?” Then it clicked. You first thought about your work. “My notes... I need to finish it..! Then I need to read the next chapter!” The more you talked, the more you realize that you haven’t finished anything yet.

You took Kaminari’s hands from your shoulders and went to your desk to finish your work. He frowned. “Y/n.” He called sternly, taking you by surprise at the moment. Kaminari forced you to look at him. You noticed how serious he actually looked, despite your state. “Hm?.... Make it fast, I need to finish my schedule.”

“Y/n, please stop doing this to yourself and calm down! Look at you! You’re tired. You keep overworking yourself!”

You responded with a frown, shaking your head. “I have too, Kami. I have to if I want to keep my grades up..” “BUT YOU DON’T HAVE TOO!” You flinched at his outburst. Kaminari took notice and apologized. “Your so smart already, Why do you even need to do this to yourself?” You couldn’t say anything to shoot back because Kaminari didn’t let you. “Don’t say that you’re doing it to be the star student or something. You already have high grades. Your grades are higher than mine. Please.. Please don’t overwork yourself. It’s bad for you!”

You unintentionally yawned, Luckily, Kaminari thought nothing bad of it. “See? You’re even tired! Let’s take a rest okay?” You finally nodded after a few moments, wanting to sleep on your bed. While standing up, you almost stumble but was caught by Kaminari.

“Don’t worry, I’ll carry you there instead k? Just go sleep.” He hushed. You slowly nodded, as he carried you bridal style to your bed. As he was walking to your bed, you leaned your head on his chest and felt his heart beats. It was fast but it somehow soothed you.

Unnoticed by you, Kaminari was panicking internally. His face red, his heart beating rapidly. He looked at you, who were already sleeping peacefully. ‘Calm down, Denki. You’re going to wake them up if you keep this up.’ He took a breath.

He carefully set you down on your bed, putting a blanket on you. He was going to leave until you held the side of his shirt. “Sleep with me, Kami.” You slurred, half-asleep. “S-sleep? With you?” He stuttered, his face and neck red. “Please? It’s so cold...” You pleaded, still holding the hem of his shirt.

Kaminari looked at you. You were looking cold. You wouldn’t mind it sleeping with him for a while right?

“Fine..” You moved a bit to the side to give Kaminari some space. As he wrapped his arms around you, he grinned. ‘This is one in a million! I’ll never forget this day! Best. Day. EVER!’ Kaminari internally cheered as he held you close to his chest.

☽✧ ✦ ✧☾

Eijiro Kirishima:

Kirishima was walking towards your dorm. He was worried since he didn’t see you in the common room. Plus, he wanted to hang out with you since he haven’t talked to you in a while.

Finally, he was at your door. Kirishima was going to knock until he noticed the door wasn’t closed. He wanted to take a peek but he stopped himself, telling it’s rude and unmanly to do. So he knocked on the door. “Hey Y/n? It’s Kirishima, can I come in?”

No response.

“Y/n?”

Still no response.

“Are you there?”

Nothing.

He was starting to get worried so he opened the door and went in the room. He sighed in relief when he saw you passed out on your desk, your computer still on.

Kirishima silently walked to you and turned your computer on sleep mode and carefully slithered his arms on your waist and your legs. Then carried you bridal style. As he was walking to your bed to set you down, you unexpectedly woke up and squirmed. Kirishima looked at you wide eyed and silently panicked.

“H-huh...?” You muttered, moving a bit to see Kirishima’s surprised face. “W-what are you doing...? Kirishima..? Wait.. I’m supposed to be...” You thought for a while, then it clicked on your head. “I’m supposed to be doing my work!” You exclaimed, squirming more but failing since Kirishima used his quirk to keep you in place and to not fall from his hands.

“No, don’t. it’s fine, you can do it tomorrow instead. The deadline’s in 3 days, don’t worry.” He reassured you. “But I need to do it! I have so many things to do soon after the homework Sensei gave us!”

“Chill! You can do it later. Take a rest first. You can’t do it now, you’re exhausted..” He told you. “You didn’t sleep in like, 4 days straight right? It’s going to be relaxing if you atleast take a nap.” Kirishima added. “But-” “No buts. Just take a rest. Please? For me?”

You both look at each other for a solid minute. Then you stopped squirming and sighed in defeat. “Fine.. I guess taking a short nap wouldn’t hurt.” Kirishima grinned as he hugged you tight. 

He carefully placed you on your bed and put a blanket on top of you while you stared at him with half lidded eyes. Your yawn caught Kirishima off guard for a second then he chuckled. “Take a good rest Y/n.” He kissed your forehead then left, but you stopped him halfway from leaving the room.

“Can you stay with me?”

He froze and looked at you with a red face. Kirishima then smiled and nodded.

“Of course, anything for you.”

☽✧ ✦ ✧☾

E/n: I did this all 4 at night so expect some of it to not make sense.

[be-the-spark-flyboy]

Strange(r) Encounter

Pairing: Santiago ‘Pope’ Garcia x GN!Reader

Warnings: Swearing, drunk!reader, brief mentions of past violence and minor character death

A/n: Request by @itspdameronthings way too long ago but I accidentally deleted my first draft :( and was too depressed to write it all over again until now :)

Word count: 1.6k ish

---

Santi woke up with the sun on his face, filtering in from the bare windows. He rolled onto his back staring at the ceiling. The apartment was decent, near enough to the security consultant agency he got a job at that he could just walk if he wanted to.

For the first time in his life, Santi had time to sleep in. There was no drill sergeant to bust his ass for being late, there was no life and death situation that needed his leadership, no missions to consume every second and every thought of his life.

There was still so much he wanted to do, so many people he wanted to help. Yet, between the royal fuck up of the Lorea mission, getting one of his teammates killed and the condition of his knees worsening, Santi finally took the advise of everyone who ever cared for him and finally settled down.

Suddenly, he had nothing but time.

Santi closed his eyes against the light of day progressively getting brighter, mentally running through the list of tasks he needed to get done by the end of the day.

Breakfast with the boys, then pick out furniture for his new apartment, maybe paint if he felt like it. Watch the game. Santi sighed heavily, rolling off the mattress onto the cold tile floor. Oh, and get a bed frame.

---

Pope was locking up the front door when he heard the thunk of keys falling and a voice loudly mutter a curse. He turned towards the sound to see you heavily leaning against a door, coat half slung on your shoulder, the other half dragging on the floor. Santi watched as you clumsily bent down to pick up your keys, promptly dropping it once again while trying to slot it into the keyhole. You glared at a set of keys laying on the floor as if it had insulted your entire lineage. Santi couldn’t help the amusement rising in his chest at his clearly drunk neighbour.

“Hey,” He interrupted your staredown with the keys, as if you were willing them to spontaneously jump into your hands. “You need any help there?” You jumped, as if you hadn't realised that you weren't alone.

“Nah, I got it,” you dismissed waving a hand and moved to pick up the keys again, but a sudden wave of dizziness and nausea made you back up and lean heavily on the door once more. “I don’t got it,” you whispered in defeat. “Shit, I think I’m still drunk,”

“Great party, huh?”

“Amaaazing,” your head thumped against the door where you tipped it back.

“Let me help,” in a few quick strides, Santi swiped the keys from the floor handing it to you. You awkwardly pat his chest.

“Thanks man,” Santi hesitated to walk away from you since the possibility of you tripping over your own two feet and smashing your skull on the floor was very real. Pushing yourself away from the door on your unsteady feet, you tried the door for the third time, whispering a little yay when you finally opened it.

Santi couldn’t help but shake his head in at your antics, but just as he started to leave, you gasped loudly, “You’re my new neighbour!” you exclaimed, giving him a two-finger salute as you started backing away into your own apartment.

“Welcome to the neighbourhood!” You exclaimed in your drunk enthusiasm. “Hope you enjoy y-” before Santi could even process what had happened, you were on the ground, groaning in pain. He quickly darted forward in mild panic.

“You okay?” He asked, checking you over. Thankfully you didn’t seem to have hit your head.

“Who left a shoe over there?” you groaned unironically, making no move to get up from the ground.

“No clue. You really should get up though,”

“Floor good. I’m just gonna take a little nap, don't mind me,” you smiled sleepily, much to santi’s dismay. He heaved a heavy sigh, looking skyward as if asking the gods why me?

“Alright, let's get you inside,” he slowly coaxed you up into a sitting position before managing to pull you up onto your feet. Your place was an absolute mess, riddled with the telltale signs of a workaholic. Santi would know. Empty mugs and paper were lying on every surface, the waste paper bin overflowing. Laptop was balanced atop a stack of books on the coffee table.

You released a content sigh when Santi finally lowered you onto the plush cushions of the sofa. Carefully navigating around your belongings, he made a trip to your kitchen, fetching a glass of water. Santi debated finding you some painkillers but decided it would be a bad idea to go rifling around into a stranger’s belonging. The water would have to do.

---

It was midday when you finally woke up to a hangover so bad, the first thing you had to do was sprint over to the bathroom in your delirious state and throw up. It felt like someone took a sledgehammer to your head the previous day but you made it back to the couch safely, on all fours. After shooting a quick text to your friends that you were still alive, you flopped onto the couch, rethinking all your important life decisions that led you to this moment.

Last night was well deserved, after working your ass off for an article, you wanted to celebrate. But maybe, you went a little too hard with it. You laid there on the couch, mouth dry as sandpaper, contemplating ways to get to the kitchen without throwing up another time. You tossed your phone onto the coffee table unintentionally knocking into a glass. Despite your lethargic movements, your hand whipped out just in time to catch it before it tipped over the side, a little bit of the water sloshing over the edge. Weird. You didn't remember leaving it there.

The memory of that morning came back to you all at once and you groaned into your empty apartment in embarrassment. Your new neighbor was fuzzy in your memory, but you remembered exactly how you thoroughly humiliated yourself in front of him. Oh what a great first impression that was. Nonetheless, you were really thankful for the water he left you. Quickly you drain it, laying back on the couch for another nap. The world could wait.

---

The sun had set when Santi got back home. Apart from the drunk neighbor incident, his day went by uneventfully. At least the boys had thought his recount was funny. The thought of you brought a smile to his face. Santi contemplated going over to check up on you, see if you needed help with anything. Would that be overstepping? Sure he was just being a concerned neighbor. Plus, amidst all the excitement of your unconventional meet-the-neighbor session, he didn’t manage to get your name.

Santi glanced around his apartment, at the bare, lifeless walls and boxes of unpacked shit lying everywhere. And thought he could put off unpacking for another few minutes.

He could spare a moment to go say hi.

---

When the doorbell rang, you almost didn't open it. Fearing it would be one of your neighbors coming to complain about some drunk shit you didn't remember doing. The sound aggravated your already throbbing headache. Then you decided, fuck it, you gotta deal with it sometime. Might as well get it over with.

So, needless to say, you were taken off guard when you were met with a handsome stranger instead of your nosey neighbour Carol. Like, a really handsome older man in a pair of jeans and t-shirt.

“Hey, I just moved in next door-” Panic hit you like a fucking bus, heat rising in your face. The words tumbled out of your mouth in a rush abruptly cutting the familiar stranger off.

“I’m so sorry about this morning, I swear I don’t do that often. You really won’t have to deal with that again,” an amused smile played at the corners of his lips at your sudden word vomit and you had to stop yourself from visibly cringing at yourself.

“It’s okay, don't worry about,” his smile slipped into something warmer, more inviting. “Just wanted to see if you were fine,”

“Fine is a bit of a stretch, but I’ll live,” you shrugged and to that, your neighbor, a bloody handsome one mind you, smiled widely. With his head full of curly salt and pepper hair. You weren't seeing stars, no way. Of all the people who could’ve made a fool of yourself in front of, it just had to be your sexy, distinguished looking neighbor. Hey, at least it can't get worse than that right.

“I’m Santiago, by the way. My friends call me Santi,” distantly, you wondered if you could get away with calling him Santi too. “Or Pope,” that made you squint your eyes at him. Then you opened your mouth, letting it run ahead of your brain, and stupidly asked him one last question that was going to make you want to hit yourself in the face with a flip flop whenever you thought of it.

“How do you get ‘Pope’ from Santiago?"

—-

[problematicfavesareproblematic]

Hiding From the War We Claim to Fight For

Dick Winters x Reader

Chapter 2- Like Darkness Drawn to the Night

Summary: Dick considers how to make ammends while you are reminded of your position in the Airborne

Warnings: ANGST AGAIN, some backstory, more internal monologue than any of you crazy cats asked or signed up for, nix being a smug little bitch, some wildly inaccurate and made up military rules, my usual nonsense

Title and Chapter name taken from The Hollow in Retrospect by Corey Kilgannon

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Dick’s fingers hovered over the keys of the typewriter, fingers starting to shake from inaction as he stared at the row of blank paper waiting to be filled.

How anyone could write reports all day was beyond him.

 He’d rather relive each and every scorching run up and down Currahee while under enemy fire than compose another sentence, let alone an entire document. More than anything, he wished he could just write in the straightforward, bullet point style that SInk and Nix’s intelligence reports came in.

Briefly, Dick wondered if it was this difficult for everyone else in the military, or if he was just uniquely inept.

 Whenever he saw you writing reports, your fingers danced over the keys like a concert pianist. You made it look easy.

The thought of you brings back the sour feeling in his stomach, an anxious nausea rolling over him like a rogue wave. His blood was both too hot and too cold in his veins, the sight of your heartbroken face carved into the inside of his eyelids.

 “You made me part of it…. You stood there and did nothing to stop it.”

 He couldn't deny your accusations of negligence, even though every fiber in his body ached to reject such claims. When had he lost that part of his humanity? Where had it gone? He’d had it in England, he knew he had still felt it in Normandy….maybe it was after Hall died? 

Had he left it on that hillside in Sainte Marie du Mont, as he watched the city down the way exploding in fire and fury?

 It scared him- to think that he hadn’t even felt the man he’d been slipping away.

Had it been obvious to anyone else?

Had it been obvious to you?

 Forcing himself to refocus on his report, he reread the last part he’d written and frowned. He’d reached the part in his report of the October 5th report that he’d been dreading: the part where you got hurt….

 When the men had brought Alley back from the Crossroads, Dick had thought them lucky that only Moe had sustained injuries- serious ones but non-life threatening.

It hadn’t been until Joe Liebgott suddenly looked around in fear and asked if anyone had seen you that Dick realized that this wasn’t just a matter of re-securing a border anymore.

It was a body retrieval.

 He hadn’t even had time to get angry or scared or confused as to why you were out so close to the frontlines before he’d gotten whatever men he could together to retake the Crossroads, his sense of duty and obligation taking over his more emotional mind and giving it a purpose by way of distraction.

You weren’t in the dike where Liebgott had assumed you’d fallen, something that provided little comfort for both Dick and the men who’d grown to love you like a sister. While no body usually meant that there was still hope of life, the fact that you could’ve very well been taken squandered any such optimism.

No body, no answers.

 When Dick had thrown himself off of the dirt road and slid into the dike for cover, it had been your whimper of pain that had brought life back into his body. Somehow, he’d managed to get his hand over your mouth before you could make much of a sound, your eyes wide and bright in the dark as he stared down at you in relieved wonder.

 You must’ve been laying out in the cold for at least an hour, your calf bleeding steadily as you shivered in the damp muck of the grassy slope. As carefully as he could, he’d rolled his body over yours in a desperate hope to offer you some warmth, his heart going a thousand miles a minute as he processed the fact that you weren’t dead- that there was still a chance of you making it out of this alive.

 “Are you hit?” he asked as quietly as he could, watching as his breath moved the hairs that had fallen loose around your face like some gentle breeze.

You nodded, knocking your left knee against his leg to indicate where you had been injured. He realized he still had his hand clamped over your mouth and lifted it up slowly, worried that you might make another pained sound and give away your position.

“Not bad,” you hissed, your jaw tight as you tried to keep your voice quiet. “Bad ricochet…. Moe? The guys—?”

“Safe.”

 You’d let out a sigh of relief, swallowing a few times before seeming to refocus and process what Dick’s being there probably meant.

“A truck with three men passed about six minutes ago,” you sighed, and Dick could feel your hands move from your sides to slide between both of your stomachs to start pulling at your belt. His face went red and he quickly rolled off of you, eyes wide at the insinuation of the act before realizing that you were trying to give him something to make a tourniquet out of. 

 He knocked your lethargic hands out of the way and helped you slide it from your belt loops, wrapping an arm around your waist to unclip your holster that was inhibiting the belt’s release. 

“Just you?” you had asked, exhaustion from blood loss beginning to stain your voice.

Dick sighed a ‘no’, looking back the way he’d come from before looking back down at you.

“I’ll be back,” he had promised, looping the belt around your leg and securing it just below your knee. “I’ll come back, okay?”

Your hands took the tail of the belt from his and pulled, your face drawing in pain as you nodded.

“Go, go!”

 He stops typing, his mouth feeling dry and his hands feeling clammy.

It made him uncomfortable to think that you’d been angry with him even then, that you’d been angry with him for a long time and he hadn’t even realized it. You’d been so brave, squeezing your eyes shut as he and Tab poured sulfa powder on the wound and muffling your cries of discomfort into the palm of his hand as you held it to your mouth.

Dick wondered briefly if you’d ever let him touch you again, even if it were only to save your life.

 You meant more to him than he cared to admit or think about. You hating him hadn’t changed that.

When you’d brought up the kiss you two had shared in England, you’d used the past tense- ‘the feelings I had for you’.

Selfishly, Dick supposed that he’d automatically assumed that you were still harboring your affections for him- that you would wait until he felt comfortable enough to share his own feelings of mutual admiration and that things would easily fall into place.

It made him feel stupid. It made him feel foolish.

He wondered if this was how you’d been made to feel after Alderborne.

If so, he had more to apologize than he thought.

 Make amends the voice in his head whispered. Do your job and make it better.

He didn’t know what that meant, not really. He didn’t know how to even start.

What he did know? He couldn’t do anything until he finished this report.

So, leaning on his sense of duty, he brought his fingers to the keys and began to clack away.

 ~

 Dick’s report felt heavy in your hand as you waited for his orderly to alert him to your presence, anxiety churning your stomach like a storming sea. It took far too much effort on your part to maintain your professional facade these days, and judging by the noticeable tremble of the papers in your hand, your mask was starting to crack. Even Sink had made a remark about how on edge you seemed, doubt clear on his face when you tried to brush his concern off as nothing more than homesickness.

 You should’ve known better than to try and lie to Robert Sink, he’d known you too well and too long for you to get much past him. It didn’t happen often, but you could swear that there were moments where he looked at you like you were still the messy-haired little girl who played war in the woods with his children after holiday meals- his eager-eyed niece who would climb into his lap and beg for him to recount the far off adventures he’d just returned from.

 Now that you’d had a chance to share one of these adventures with him, you wondered if he regretted indulging your fascinations. You doubted he’d ever tell you either way. 

That was just the sort of man he was.

Those were the sort of men you now surrounded yourself with.

 When you tried to imagine one of your future nieces or nephews crawling into your lap and asking you for stories, you were alarmed by the fact that you had unintentionally imagined Dick sitting by your side.

 Before you fully process why that had been where your mind went, Zielinski returned and gave you the go-ahead to enter the office.

 You felt an instant shot of relief when you saw that Dick wasn’t alone, the presence of Lewis and Harry calming your frayed nerves significantly. While you knew in your heart that Dick was not a bad person, that he hadn’t done what he did maliciously, you still weren’t sure what to make of your anger towards him.

 The moment you step in the doorway, Dick shoots to his feet and for a moment you think he’s about to stand at attention. Briefly, you wonder if Zielinski had accidentally told him to expect Sink coming in- and if the way Harry and Lewis start to confusedly copy his formality, they are just as confused as you are.

 But you knew Zielinski hadn’t mentioned Sink. You’d been right next to him when he’d said your name.

That made your face feel hot for a reason you didn’t dare explore right now.

 Everyone in the room stands awkwardly and stares at each other for a second, and with a confidence you didn’t truly have you attempt to break the tension.

“Uh- at ease, gentlemen?”

 Harry snorts a laugh at that, plopping back down with Nixon following suit. You don't miss the look Nix shoots Dick’s way, but you aren’t able to decipher it. Maybe that was for the best.

 “Well, would you look at that?” Harry says with a beaming smile. “Look who’s decided to grace us with her presence this morning.”

You roll your eyes at that, giving Nix a quick nod in greeting before fixing Harry with a look as you walk further into the room. 

“Oh Harry, when I decide to grace you with anything you’ll know it.”

He shoots you a wink as Nix huffs a laugh at the interaction.

You can feel Dick’s eyes on you, and when you turn to face him you feel your easy smile tighten and you give him a nod.

 “Sir.”

“Y/L/N.”

 The air between the two of you is thick with unspoken tension, stained with guilt and frustration and the remnants of affection that made the feeling all the more painful. You could see a similar trepidation on his face, your throat feeling tight as you choke back all of the things you wish you could say.

 Lewis, clearly feeling the awkwardness as well but kindly not letting it linger, quickly breaks the silence.

“You want to sit, Y/N? Heard you got shot at the crossroads….”

 Dick’s eyes flicker to your leg and then he’s quick to reach over and rip his coat off of the wooden chair to the left of his desk. You sigh a laugh, mumbling a quick ‘thanks’ before carefully lowering yourself into the seat.

“I think I fall somewhere in between shot and grazed, but yes you heard right—”

“Oh yeah!” Harry adds, leaning into the sill of the window as he crosses his arms across his chest. “Lucky you weren’t at CP. heard they got hit pretty bad….”

You feel your mood darken slightly at the reminder of Holly’s death. He was a good man. All of the men who had died that day were good men.

“Yeah,“ you mutter as brightly as you can. “All things considered.”

 You clear your throat and look hesitantly at Dick.

“That’s uh, actually what I wanted to talk to you about.”

You hand him the file in your hand and give him a nod of thanks when he comes closer so you don’t have to get up. 

 “Sink’s hoping he can get you to rewrite the report on that—”

“Oh?” Dick’s pale brows furrow as he looks at the paper to see that it is indeed his report on the crossroads. “Was something wrong with it? Did I miss a signature? Was it too vague—?”

“No, no!” you interrupt, having heard through the grapevine how hard he’d worked on it. “Nothing like that! It’s um, the opposite, actually.....”

 Dick frowns at that, and you hesitate for a moment while you try to find the right words to express what Sink needed fixed.

“Sink, um, was hoping you could rewrite some of it. Specifically….” You look down to pick at an imaginary thread on your pant leg. “he needs a report that doesn’t include the fact that I was there—”

You feel his eyes on you, and the room is unbearably quiet as you clear your throat and continue to look anywhere but Dick’s direction. You catch Nix’s gaze, and you can tell he knows what you’re getting at.

“I…” Dick begins, his voice quiet. When you see Harry’s head turn to look in his direction you do the same and catch him looking at Nixon as well. “I’m not sure I understand…”

 Harry, never one to stay still for long, chooses this moment to pop to his feet and announce that he’s getting himself some coffee. You all mumble your own acknowledgments to his intention, and he saunters off like a kid who was just told he didn’t have to stay for detention. 

 When Dick’s eyes fall on you again, you begin to tap your fingers on your thigh nervously.

“Well, I’m still technically just an orderly, at least on paper, so—”

 “—So having you injured in the line of duty is a direct violation of your service agreement.” Lewis interrupts, saving you from your tongue-tied stupor. Dick’s frown deepens, and when he looks back at you you nod in confirmation. 

“What he said,” you say with a bitter taste in your mouth. “It’s just a minor adjustment, otherwise it’s a perfect report, Dick—”

He holds up a hand, narrowing his eyes as he processes what you and Nixon have just said. Once upon a time, you would’ve found the look on his face endearing and it would’ve made you smile. 

But not right now. 

 “That doesn’t seem right.” he finally settles on, smoothing a hand over his already perfectly combed hair before setting his hands on his narrow hips.

 You couldn’t agree more. It wasn’t right.

You’d implied as much to Sink when he’d tasked you with getting Dick to amend the report earlier than morning, a strange embarrassment bringing tears to your eyes at the notion that the simple mention of you ruined an entire report. 

 Were you such an intolerable figure that by simply being referred to in an official document brought into question the credibility of a successful engagement? 

 Sink, giving you a look that you recognized from your childhood moments of petulance, had clapped a hand on your shoulder and given it a familiar squeeze.

“It isn’t fair, you’re right about that. I wish I could tell you otherwise, but the powers that be just ain’t ready for someone like you- not yet. Don’t take it to heart. You’re smarter than the lot of ‘em.”

 “The terms of my service are pretty clear that I in no way should be anywhere near combat,” you heard yourself parrot hollowly. “Colonel Sink is just trying to keep me from getting sent home—”

 “But you were shot.”

 The ferocity in his tone surprises you, and when you see him angrily shaking his head from side to side you send Lewis a pleading look.

Taking the cue perfectly, Nix stands up again and clears his throat as he elaborates on your behalf.

 “If she’s shot back at CP, that’s one thing. It’s where she’s supposed to be as an orderly. But If she’s shot ‘in the line of duty’, she’s considered an active servicemember- and active service members who get wounded are eligible for a Purple Heart, which would make her a soldier—”

 “—and then you’d have the right to a soldier’s pension.” Dick finishes Nixon’s sentence, his jaw working as he looks ruefully at the report in his hands.

 Nix snaps and points a finger at him. “Bingo.”

 Your frustration from earlier has begun to boil your blood again, and your feet nearly itch with the need to leave the conversation and the suffocating feeling of the office.

As you push yourself up to stand, Dick and Nix move to help you- only stopping at your assurance that you’d got it under control.

Looking back at Dick, you fix him with a look that you hope conveys the importance of what you’re asking.

 “I was able to buy you an extra two days, but the sooner Sink gets it the sooner he gets off of your back about it.”

Dick nods, tossing the pages down atop all of the other paperwork on top of the desk.

“Yeah, understood.”

“Hey, Dick—?”

 Something in the set of his shoulders gave you pause, and you realize you aren't really sure what else you wanted to say to him. 

Sorry I called you a monster? I think I was angrier at myself than anything else? I don’t think you’re a bad person at all, and I am sorry if I made you think that I did?

 But you can’t say any of those things- not yet and not with Nix here.

So you settle on another tight smile and a nod.

“Thank you. I know it’s….you’ve got a lot going—”

 The strained smile he gives you back tells you that he feels it too, that he knows there is still an ocean of unresolved conflict between the two of you. That he is just as sorry about it as you are.

“Don’t give it another thought. I’ll take care of it.”

 With a final nod, you murmur a goodbye to Lewis and leave the office

~

 The moment you are out of earshot Nix smirks like the cat that ate the canary.

“Told you she still liked you.”

“Shut up, Lewis.”

 Dick hoped his friend was right.

~ ~ ~

HELLO MY SPECTACULAR STARFISH HERE’S SOME MORE NONSENSE AND FEELINGS FOR YOU TO DIGEST! I TOTALLY MADE UP THE RULES AS TO WHY READER CAN’T BE IN LE REPORT SO PLZ DONT YELL AT ME I’M SENSITIVE OK I LOVE YOU BYYEEE!!!

Taglist: @mrseasycompany​ @itswormtrain​ @mrsalwayswrite​ @happyveday​ @sunsetmando​ @teenmagazines​ @liebgotttme​

[shit-mcu-stans-write]

submission from anon: essay on rhodey

my apologies that this is so long. i had a lot more to say than i realised and this… just kind of happened.

so… lieutenant colonel james “jim” rupert “rhodey” rhodes… i have a lot of feelings about him and his character development and for once… i actually like what i see from the mcu. i love what the mcu has completely unintentionally done for him and i find it absolutely hilarious because i know it’s 100% unintentional, because they’d never purposefully make rhodey’s character development so anti-tony-stark. but that’s what we’ve been presented with. and i love it. hear me out:

in iron man 1 rhodey starts as tony’s babysitter. rhodey says so himself: “you don’t respect yourself so I know you don’t respect me - i’m just your babysitter” but despite the fact he knows tony doesn’t respect him, he’s still there for tony, still supporting him, still showing him as much love as he can no matter how little tony gives back. he puts it down the the fact tony doesn’t respect himself; he’s reckless and childish and doesn’t take responsibility for his actions. rhodey might be being sarcastic and snarky when he’s saying “when you need your diaper changed let me know and I’ll get you a bottle” but there’s some truth to it: he can’t help but mother-hen tony, because someone has to be responsible for the kid (he sure as hell can’t be responsible for himself!), and rhodey has put himself in that position.

i think a lot of that’s to do with the fact they both met really young in mit, with rhodey being a couple (?) years older than tony at the time. they stuck together because they were both in the unique position of being child prodigies, but because rhodey was the older of the two i think he quickly settled into a caregiving role. but by iron man 1, rhodey has emotionally matured, and tony hasn’t. he hasn’t needed to, being a white billionaire boy and all. so rhodey still sees tony as this kid he’s always been there for, always protecting, always giving and giving and giving to, and putting up with. they’ve been friends for so long that he’s used to it.

by iron man 2, rhodey is fed up. tony is being even more reckless than usual because he’s dying but no one knows, so rhodey is being pushed to his breaking point. there’s a deleted scene where rhodey says something which i feel says everything you need about what their relationship has become by now: “hanging out with you is bad for our friendship”. rhodey is starting to realise just how impossible being an actual friend - not just a yes-man and support staff - for tony is. and all that culminates in the fight scene where, upon seeing tony drunk and endangering his party guests in a WMD supersuit, rhodey reaches that breaking point. protects tony from himself one last time by fighting him, then cuts ties.

only, by the end of iron man 2, rhodey learns that taking the suit to the military and letting hammer get his paws on it was a bad idea, and that tony was literally near death the whole time he was being a dick, and then they have to team up to defeat vanko together. so despite having gone through all the shit tony’s put him through and realising how terrible a friend tony actually is, he chalks this all up to a mistake and a misunderstanding on his part. gives tony a second (or, more realistically, hundredth) chance. which is why in iron man 3 they’re best buds again. im3 is probably the healthiest depiction of their relationship tbh, and that’s on im3 tony being the least assholeish depiction of tony in the whole mcu (imo).

but tony’s character begins to sour massively from AOU onwards (not saying he wasn’t an… abrasive character beforehand, to say the least, but clearly all the guilt from causing ultron and inadvertently causing the mess in sokovia is affecting him and his relationships; pepper, another caregiving character that has put up with tony’s entitled, misogynistic bullshit for years, has left him, and i think that’s a massive sign that he’s spiralling in a similar way he did in im2. after all, the writers refuse to develop him as a character, which means he’ll never get help for his mental health and never learn healthy coping mechanisms. i honestly wonder what happened for pepper to leave - we’ve seen the breaking point for rhodey, so what was hers?)

so yeah, anyway, tony is starting to spiral again from AOU. civil war happens - he blames the team and latches onto the accords as a way to absolve himself of the guilt, bla bla bla, you know the plot. and, just like the others, rhodey is given mere days to read, consider, and sign this life-changing document; not only is his best friend vehemently, vocally, and violently in favour these documents, they’re also coming from a position of power that he, as a military man, respects. so it makes sense he’d initially be on the side of the accords.

and then something even more life-changing than the accords happens for rhodey. sam accidentally shoots him down and he injures his legs so bad that he can’t walk without support. and rhodey’s response to that? i know we don’t get to see much of rhodey’s response and recovery, which is a travesty, but what we do get? really sheds some light on the kind of man rhodey is, and how he develops as a person by the end of endgame. 

for once in his life, rhodey is in the position of needing to be cared for - and on top of that, tony is the one offering. we also see that rhodey wants his recovery to be something he does alone as much as he possibly can, because that’s just the kind of person he is; we see the sheer amount of value he places on his ability to handle things on his own, and the skyrocket-high responsibility he holds himself to. and now all of a sudden tony’s actually trying to reciprocate the attention and care he’s shown him without reward for years (and only because of this guilt spiral he’s been on since AOU)… and that must have been fucking jarring for rhodey.

i think the sudden and strange role reversal probably helped him work out a few things about his relationship with tony a lot. which is why, when infinity war rolls around, they don’t interact. rhodey seems closer to and more in alignment with the “rogues”/“nomads” than tony. where once he agreed with the accords, he’s had some time to actually read them and reconsider them, and he’s against them now! he hates ross and greets steve with a warm hug!

and something i love so fucking much about infinity war (dispite all it’s other faults)? sam and rhodey’s relationship. sam shot rhodey down and disabled him for the rest of his life. and rhodey forgives him. first of all, because that’s the kind of person rhodey is (he’s had plenty of practice forgiving all kinds of shit with tony), and rhodey understands it was a mistake (and probably empathises with how horrible it must have been for sam; he’s military too, he understands that specific kind of guilt). interesting to compare rhodey’s response to the mistake with tony’s. and heartwarming to see that, for once, when rhodey forgives someone for what they’ve done, he is given gratitude and a genuine two-way friendship in response. i live for sam and rhodey’s every interaction in iw.

and then we get to endgame. know how many times rhodey interacts with tony in endgame? twice. first interaction: “okay, you made your point - just sit down, okay?” (read: “stop acting like a child before you hurt yourself”). second interaction: *sadly touches his face as he realises he’s dying before moving aside to let peter and pepper say their goodbyes*. what i love about these interactions - and the lack of any other interactions - is what it clearly means for rhodey:

1) tony still means a lot to rhodey. he’ll always mean a lot to him. they were best friends since they were literally just kids at mit. he’ll always, i think, love tony and want to care for and protect him (from himself, mainly). and tony, in his own way, will always love rhodey. but, 2) rhodey has still, nevertheless, cut ties with tony. i think the time away from action caused by the long recovery process he would’ve went through not only let rhodey reconsider his stance on the accords and his superiors in the military such as ross, but it also gave him time (and a wildly new perspective) to realise how toxic his relationship with tony truly is.

and what’s great to compare the way in which and reasons why he cuts ties with tony after civil war compared to the way in which and reasons why he cut ties with tony during im2, is that rhodey hasn’t been pushed to his breaking point this time. he has way more agency in his choice this time. he’s not leaving because he’s been infuriated one time too many; he’s doing it because he’s actually being given the kind of support he himself has been dishing out all these years… and doesn’t want it. not if it’s coming from the place of convenience and guilt that it is with tony. he cannot be guilt-tripped into forgiving tony anymore because he is making his choice this time with clear-mindedness.

and you know what’s so great about him finally genuinely cutting ties with tony this time around? he’s no longer his yes-man. he gets space to breathe as his own character. he jokes around more. he’s not annoyed all the time. he gets involved with the rest of the team. as i’ve said, he interacts with sam and it’s beautiful. he interacts with nebula and it’s heartwarming and they form a bond so quickly. and in all the new interactions he gets you see he is receiving so much more respect and reciprocation than he’s ever experienced with tony. and it makes me so happy.

also i can’t help but think about how it’s also a pretty big deal for him as a black character to go through all of these revelations and developments; black kids are often encouraged/forced to mature mentally/emotionally a lot quicker than white kits, and take on responsibility that shouldn’t be their burden to bear from a young age (which i think was absolutely something rhodey experienced as a highly intelligent black child), and it’s not uncommon for black characters to be portrayed in these caregiving roles to Hurt White Characters. so for him to break out of that box is just beautiful.

tony, on the other hand, is a white billionaire who never learned how to grow up; he’s never had to handle the kind of daily-grind stress that non-billionaire poc like rhodey have handled since they were a kid. not saying tony hasn’t faced other kinds of stress, but for the most part? everything has been given to him on a shiny golden platter. so when responsibility is thrust upon him - when his faults are actually pointed out - he doesn’t know how to handle it. hasn’t learned. it destroys his mental health. he gets destructive in turn. irreparably damages his relationships. spirals and spirals and refuses. to get. help. (you’re a billionaire, tony - you can afford a therapy. and the idealisation/romanticisation of unhealthy guilt spirals and a mindset of powering through despite everything and without asking for help until you crash and burn is not good mental illness/neurodivergent rep, it’s just the only one the mcu knows how to write.) i despair at the loss of opportunity when it comes to tony’s character and what he could have come to represent, but that’s another essay entirely.

when it comes to rhodey, however, the mcu have accidentally created a wonderful character and a wonderful character arc. that’s not to say they deserve any praise though, because this was likely never their intention and it’s purely accidental (again, they’d never purposefully give rhodey such an anti-tony character arc, just like they’d never intentionally make tony a bad role model, but that’s what they did, completely accidentally).

not only is rhodey a character who is unwaveringly kind and forgiving (and is rewarded for these traits later down the line in his new relationships), but we also get to see him learn how his kindness and forgiveness shouldn’t be taken for granted as it has been for years of his life. we see him step away from harmful relationships. we see him take back his life for himself - refuse to be someone else’s nanny. we see his growth and his development, and it’s wonderful, and i love him.

in conclusion: war machine rox. 

[holdin-out-for-a-hero]

Desperate Measures- Carlos Oliveira X Reader

Warnings: slightly graphic, lots of blood talk

A/N: The lack of Carlos content on my own blog was disturbing, so I had to fix it. I’ve got a few more ideas for him as well! Also, I’m no medical professional, this may not be completely accurate.

The pain was burning, searing at your side like nothing you had felt before. You had trouble focusing on it though, on anything at all, because the loss of blood had made you lightheaded. You didn't want to die, not like this. Not when you were so close to making it out alive.

To think, in a city infested with flesh-hungry zombies, you were going to die by gunshot. Oh, the irony. Carlos's superior, Nicholai you think, 'accidentally' shot you instead of the zombie a few feet to your right. That was BS, and you knew it. You were there with Jill when he took out one of his own, surely he’d have no problem taking out you too.

Somehow, despite the pain, you managed to kill the creature that was after you. Nicholai was no help. He left you, all alone, hiding from the undead with a bullet in your side. Thank God Carlos had found you when he did, you didn't think you'd make it much longer if he hadn't.

The hands tending to your wound pushed down harder to slow the blood pouring out of your side, causing you to curse in pain.

"Could you be any more gentle?" You groaned. Carlos let out a breath he was holding; it had been a while since you last spoke and he was getting a little worried.

"Sorry, but we’ve got to stop the bleeding," was all he said. He was too focused on the task at hand to think of anything witty.

You didn't respond, because if you did, it would be something unintentionally mean and you didn't want to be an ass to the man who was saving your life.

For now, you focused on your breathing. In, hold, and out. In, hold, and out. Just like your therapist had taught you. You were gonna be ok, right? He was gonna save you... right?

You shook those thoughts away. Of course he was. And then you were gonna shoot Nicholai in the dick. You smiled at the mental image.

"I'm gonna lift your shirt up, is that ok?" He asked.

"Now is not the time to be respectful, Carlos," And there you were, being mean to the man who was saving your life.

He didn’t seem phased, though. He laughed, peeling up the bloody fabric from your skin. His hand stopped just above the wound, and upon looking at it, he shuddered. It didn't look good. You were losing a lot of blood, and it wasn't going to stop anytime soon. He needed to find a way to stop the bleeding, and fast.

Racking his brain for any solutions, he remembered something he was taught during his guerrilla days, way before he was recruited by umbrella. But it was a pretty drastic procedure, only to be used in dire circumstances. He looked back at your wound, watching the blood pool around his fingers. These were dire circumstances.

Looking down the alleyway, a fire engulfed one of your only exits. That would work for a heat source. Now all he needed was something metal. He pulled out his knife, still shiny and unused.

"How good are you with pain?" He asked.

"Why? What are you gonna do?" He didn’t respond at first. He kept looking at his blade, at your wound, and then to the fire. “Carlos, answer me!”

"I'm gonna cauterize your wound."

You had a vague idea of what that was, and the mere thought of it made you queasy. But you couldn't protest, you knew you wouldn't make it if he didn't do something drastic. You were already starting to feel dizzy from the lack of blood.

Carlos made his way to the fire and placed his blade into the flame, waiting for the metal to glow with its own heat. The crackling embers radiated across his hand, an almost unbearable sensation. He hesitated before taking the blade out, though; for when he did, he would have to press it onto your wound right away. He really didn’t want to do it, but he also didn’t want you to die.

"You got something to bite on?" He asked.

"What's that supposed to mean?" You replied. He smiled, for even in dire circumstances, you had the same attitude he had grown to love. He’d only known you for a few hours, but he knew that he wanted to keep in touch after this was over. Whether it was just as friends or something more. But in order for that to be a possibility, he’d have to really hurt you to save your life. Maybe this would make for a great story in a couple years, if you ever talked to him again after this.

He had a handkerchief with him, he realized, and with his other hand, he tossed it to you.

"You're gonna need it to bite on.”

Taking the blade from out of the fire, he approached your crumpled form. Your eyes met with the hot metal, widening at its dull glow. This was gonna hurt like hell, and you knew it. Rolling up the handkerchief, you placed it between your teeth. Still, you couldn’t keep your eyes off of the hot metal. The breath work you had just done was for nothing, because the object in his hands made your heart race and breath heavy.

"Hey, don't look at it. Look at me. Look into my eyes," Carlos said, and you did as you were told. He smiled at you, "They're dreamy, aren't they?"

Before you had a chance to scoff or laugh, the scalding piece of metal made contact with your skin and you cried out in pain. It had only touched your skin for a second before he removed it, but then he pressed into your skin again.

He continued this process a few more times, and it felt like each time was more painful than the previous. You couldn't handle it, there wasn't even enough time in between each contact for you to take an adequate breath and brace yourself. Tears pricked your eyes and your jaw was sore from biting down so hard. And though Carlos tried to comfort you, distract you from the pain with his words, you couldn’t ever listen to what he was saying anymore. Your dizziness was getting much worse now, as brown clouds settled over your vision; you couldn’t make out Carlos’s face anymore.

"It's almost over, Y/N. I'm almost done," Carlos reassured, making sure you kept eye contact with him. He noticed your eyes glazing over, though.

He peaked down at your wound, and with one more pulse of the knife, the wound was scabbed over. He put the knife down and looked back up at your face.

Upon seeing your eyes closed and head rolled to the side, his heart skipped a beat. He put his two fingers up to your neck. There was a pulse, thank God.

"Just scare the hell out of me, y/n," he said to himself.

Your face, though scarily pale, looked peaceful, Carlos thought. A few stands of hair stuck to your sweaty forehead, and he gently pushed them away.

"You're gonna be just fine." The words fell off of his tongue, though he knew you wouldn't hear it.

With the wound cauterized, he had to clean it up or else risk infection. With the first aid supplies he carried on him, he disinfected your wound and wiped your abdomen clean of dried blood. Then, he made quick work applying gauze to your stomach and then wrapping your side up in bandages.

You still hadn't stirred, and he just had to check your pulse one last time. Feeling the heartbeat under his fingertips, he gave a satisfied sigh, before slumping next to you against the brick wall.

He sat there a few minutes, listening to the crackling of the fire and the distant groans of the undead. Though it was nice to take a breather, he knew he wasn’t safe here. You weren’t safe either, and you were in no shape to fight off the creatures that filled the streets.

“Where’s Jill?” You asked. You had just regained consciousness, and your voice was rough and weak. He looked over his shoulder at you, taking your hand and squeezing it.

“Don’t worry, I’m gonna find her. I promise,” he said, “But let’s get you out of here first.”

He got to his knees, pressing and holding down the button on his radio.

“Tyrell, you still alive?” Carlos asked.

“Somehow,” a voice came through the static.

“Meet me up at the hospital. You’ve got some babysitting to do.”

“Babysitting?”

“Yeah. But I don’t think you’ll mind watching this lovely lady.”

“Is it Y/N? Is she ok?”

“She’s not doing to hot. Look, I’ll tell you more when we meet up.”

“Ok. Meet you there.”

Carlos let go of his radio, looking back at you. A pained expression graced your face as you fought back tears. The burn he gave you was still excruciatingly painful.

He moved to your side, sliding his arms under your knees and back, before picking you up with a groan.

“Tyrell’s gonna take good care of you, Y/N. Don’t worry,” he said, adjusting you in his arms so that he wouldn’t be aggravating your wound,

“How are you feeling right now?”

“Like hell.”

“Yeah, sorry about that.”

In your half-alert state, you found yourself curling into Carlos’s warm torso. You were so, so cold, probably because of the blood loss, and too out of it to be embarrassed. Carlos noticed it too, how frigid your skin felt against his own, and pulled you a little tighter into his chest.

“You owe me a drink after this,” your words slurred together a little. Carlos may have stopped the bleeding, but he was still scared to death of your current state.

“It’s a date then,” he said. Though he was worried for you, he didn’t let that show in his demeanor or in the tone of his voice. Because you didn’t need to see that. He didn’t want you to worry either.

With you in his arms, he looked around the corner and onto the Main Street. Bodies swayed under the city’s fluorescent lights, some groaning and dragging themselves along the concrete. At the very edge of the horizon he spotted the hospital. And to get there, he’d have to get past all the bodies. His hands were full, there was no way to use his weapons. That meant he could only rely on speed to make it there in one piece. This was going to be fun.

[steve0discusses]

Yugioh Ep 29 S4: Joey Wheeler, Dead Again

It took me kind of a while to get around to recapping again, been some drama on this end due to a couple natural disasters all happening in conjunction with eachother, but thankfully we are back in the green (sort of) there’s still wildfire smoke out my window but at least...at least the fires aren’t getting any bigger.

And it’s a shame we didn’t get to it sooner, because this episode has so many wild things in it, I don’t even know where to start. There was a lot of dueling, so I didn’t have to cap a whole lot...but even within such few caps, there’s some stuff to talk about. Like first off, the Kaiba’s inability to walk five feet without getting attacked by someone.

Seto still winning Brother of the year award even after nearly shooting his bro with real ass lightning. Because remember, this lightning is 100% real. None of these are holograms.

And by the way, a “hologram” just grabbed Mokuba with real ass hands and Seto was like “Clearly still a hologram!” Because that is how deep his denial runs.

Anyways, this is where the Kaibas will be until the remainder of this episode, so we’ll just leave them where they are.

(read more under the cut)

Back at the duel between Mai and Joey, we’re slowly working out what it is the Orichalcos even does.

We have had very little indication you can break the Oricalchos control on people’s minds up to this duel, but because Joey showed heart and bravery or whatever--he’s been slowly chipping away at Mai’s crusty, neon green, outer shell.

(I had a littttle bit of a hunger for some Taco Bell Baja Blast, not gonna lie. A little bit tempted because of that weird color. And now that I’ve eaten popcorn, I am 80% itching to drive to Taco Bell and make some mistakes. But I won’t.)

Comparing this to Pharaoh and Kaiba and their Oricalchos duels (even Rex and Weevil’s) it kind of makes you wonder why this never happened.......to anyone else? I mean, obviously it’s plot reasons, but it would have been a little neat to have some character development for the other villains.

But this unnecessary duel to the death between Joey and Mai spends most of the time screaming about how deep and real their love friendship is. Just a whooole bunch of aggressive friendzoning for the lady who just aggressively hates everyone.

(Haven’t seen much of Yugioh Abridged because it’s spoiler territory but everyone who retweets Joey stuff puts “Brooklyn Rage” in there so I have learned the lingo through osmosis.)

So because, someone’s absolutely going to die, lets start going through all of the flashbacks to remind the audience to feel something when they biff it. Lets recite the times we all spent with Mai.

Remember how they brushed Mai under the rug for 3 seasons, and now that they actually need her, they’re shooting themselves in the foot because there’s actually very little evidence that they like eachother at all?

But they do show those few times they hung out: the camping trip where they almost got burned alive by PaniK, that time that Joey caught her smelling her own cards, that time that Yugi had a panic attack because he was convinced Pharaoh would murder her during a card game, that time that she almost got hit by a fireball and then Joey jumped in front of her.

PS, that fireball scene--they keep going back to that fireball scene but they cut out the part where, yes, Joey jumped in front of her--but then Yugi jumped in front of Joey, and then Yami took over and was like EFF YUGI DAMN IT while he got pegged with fireballs. Like...c’mon, Yugioh, there was a lot of fanservice in that particular episode, and you’re leaving out a majority of the ships.

Partial truth, Yugioh--you’re telling partial truths. If we’re saying friendzoning is a good replacement for some sort of romance, then this show is just a giant geometric shape of “who might possibly like who if they weren’t so addicted to friendship.” This show has “friendship” as the underlying tagline of every episode with every person.

In the process of removing romance--they accidentally made SO MUCH MORE romantic implications in this show. I just feel like this backfired in so many ways. Or...maybe this was exactly what they wanted. And by “they” I mean that one writer who stans Seto Kaiba in the back--just sitting there in the corner of the writer’s room tapping his fingers together and cackling like an evil villain. He knows what he did. Genius mastermind, slipping in his favorite ships by making every ship Yugioh-legal.

And, also the Joey/Mai duel was a lot of this type of questionable content:

Joey Freakin Wheeler.

So I forgot if I mentioned this, but my bro had this friend in college who go struck by lightning not once, but multiple times in his life. He lived in like Virginia or North Carolina--one of the monsoon States, and he’d go on this hike to the top of this mountain--and on two different occasions at the same spot, he got stuck by freakin lightning. So like...Joey Wheelers do exist. There are people out there who just...

They’re just lightning rods wherever they go and their brain is somewhat scrambled eggs because of it.

(PS fun fact I googled just now because I couldn’t remember which state Virginia was, a Virginian by the name of Roy Sullivan was supposedly struck by lightning 7 different times and survived all of them. The more you know. ((PS still on the Google deep dive and the same guy also claimed to have been attacked by a bear 22 times (he’s a park ranger, so that checks) and once he was attacked by a bear immediately after he got struck by lightning which is like some pretty pro strats by said bear.)))

But like...kinda weird that Joey’s now kinda into this, and got super into it during a lovers friendship quarrel.

Anyway, all things come to an end, so Mai decides after enough cards have been played and Joey is clearly about to die...maybe it’s time to just accept not being 1st in the world in cards. Which...would have meant she should have been playing Yugi during this duel but, wtv. She clearly wants to be mad at Joey, specifically.

And I think the show didn’t do such a good job explaining why she was focused on Joey and not any of the other duelists until the very end, but we’ll get there. We’ll finally get to an explanation of why she was so fixated on Wheeler, we just have to wait for him to die first.

Because after the lightning strikes, and after putting so much effort into punching Valon right before this...Joey is too sleepy to continue.

So he’s just gonna die here instead...

2nd time he’s passed out in a duel by the way. Remember that Joey almost beat Marik, but was too damn sleepy after the electrocution? Same situation here. Look at that parallel.

Reminder that Joey STARTED this duel.

It’s like when you’re playing a game with a toddler and then it just passes out halfway and without any warning with it’s face just flat into the carpet.

Anyway, Mai grabs him in her arms sobbing all over him like she just did with Valon and it’s like...damn, this girl can just turn it off and on huh? Like she’s only 100% or -100% when it comes to the relationship meter, huh? No in between?

Mmmm cue that irony that Yugioh loves so much, this entire duel was unnecessary, because all you had to do was yoink that necklace.

Really the solution to dealing with a lot of assholes in Yugioh, to be honest.

This really is what Seto says in the show, by the way--a glitch. I like that Seto does not accept that dragons can feel sadness, and is just ITCHING to patch that out in the next release of duel monsters. I imagine that he’ll make a meeting once this is all over with his code team and at the top of the list will be the demand “Make The Dragons Stop Crying.” triple underlined, bold, and in bright red font. The entire code team will side eye eachother, unsure if this is a literal bug or something that Seto just hears all the time but no one else can hear.

So back at the Joey death fort, Mai decides to finally illustrate with words why she had to go so hard on killing Joey wheeler.

It was because she saw his kindness and his help as a weakness and a failure on her part. Mai, who always wants to be independent and in charge, could not accept that someone else had saved her or would want to save her. Which was apparently why she decided to peace out back at the end of the Marik arc.

It’s a bit of a complicated character for a kid’s show, I’m not sure how many kids understood the pride situation here, but it’s nice they stuck in something that wasn’t just “I want to be the best.” It was more that she didn’t want to be helped in order to become the best.

(PS, there’s this flashback scene where Joey’s like “bye” as she drives away and it was unintentionally a very awkward and funny cut and I may grab that little quip. I have to cap a couple of animations, tbh, I haven’t done that in a while)

So, now that she is fully recovered, she decides to complete the parallel of when Joey saved her in a death coma and now she will do the same (although it is SLIGHTLY different since in this version she kind of absolutely killed Joey Wheeler but...still works). She decides to do the job these stupid boys have not been able to do for the entirety of this season.

(these boots are REALLY well drawn, by the way. OBSESSED with Mai’s boots.)

If only she swooped up Pharaoh and just stuck him on the back of her bike to get this final fight going.

But Pharaoh’s too busy getting lost in San Francisco, and stumbling upon Joey’s dead body.

That this is the season where Yami can do nothing right and it just keeps happening.

No idea how we’re going to resurrect Joey in so short a period of time, but we’re completely out of spooky necklaces, so I guess we can’t do the Pharaoh solution to just...stick him back in there.

Anyways, I’m off to recover from the trauma of my house burning down last week, so I’m gonna go eat a pint of ice cream while I dream of a life before quarantine (was there a time before quarantine? I honestly don’t remember)

If you just got here this is a link to these in chrono order.

https://steve0discusses.tumblr.com/tagged/yugioh/chrono

[soyeahitsmiddleearth]

Return Her pt. 3

The Company (and friends) x Reader

Bard the Bowman is quite accommodating (and cute too), but how will the others feel about you clicking so easily with him?

No amount of words or hyperbolic phrase can express the joy you feel when you see Bilbo coming in clutch with a ring of keys and a big smile on his face. 

First he releases Thorin, and then you.

When he sees your disheveled appearance and swollen face he falters and looks as if he wants to say something. Bilbo says nothing, but his eyes linger on you as he goes to free some of the others.

Thorin immediately approaches you to you while Bilbo frees everyone else, his hand reaching up to lightly press against your warm cheek. “I told you Master Baggins would have a plan." 

You nod your head once, a smile brightening your features, "You did, and you were right.”

Once everyone is freed from their confines Bilbo ushers you all down to some sort of cellar, kitchen thing.

The first thing you notice are the unconscious guards - passed out drunk - behind the large shelf the hobbit snuck you behind. In front of you all is a huge pyramid of barrels and you can’t help but to stare at it with confusion.

The others speak in hushed whispers when Bilbo tells everyone to get into the barrels, and though a bunch of them protest Thorin shuts it down and tells them to just trust him.

Everyone files into a barrel each, and while you have to bend your legs awkwardly in order to fit into your own, you end up fitting rather well.

Bilbo stands a few paces in front of everyone and you find yourself wondering what he’s going to do next.

Suddenly there is shouting that comes from somewhere else and the guards start to stir, and right away Bilbo rushes over to a lever just out of the way and pulls it.

The next thing you know, your stomach drops and the barrels drop into a large body of running water.

Your head goes under and you breathe in the water unintentionally, panicking internally before your head resurfaces.

When you break the surface of the water you gasp loudly, pressing your hand to your chest as you hack and cough up the water you accidentally choked down.

You don’t have much time to recover before your barrel begins to drift away, like everyone else’s.

There’s a splash from behind you, and when you look back you see that Bilbo has jumped in.

He flails and grabs at air, trying to find something - anything - to hold onto.

You lean over the side of your transportation and grab for him, getting a hold of his hands and hauling him closer so to try and pull him up. “C-Climb in!” You cry.

Your efforts to hoist him up don’t do you any good, though, because he can’t get enough momentum to pull himself in nor do you have the upper body strength to lift him.

When you realize that you cannot keep ahold of him anymore you pass Bilbo along to a dwarf much stronger than you so he won’t drown, and the relief is instant. 

A lot happens between escaping and getting in the water, and when the Orcs try to kill all of you because they decided now was a great time to show up, you found hopelessness seeping into you.

Even worse? The water gates are closed and now you’re all stuck, barrels bumping into each other as Thorin yells his internal distress.

Kili decides to play hero and jumps out of his barrel, running up to pull the lever while also fighting orcs on his way, when suddenly an arrow shoots through the air.

At first it seems like Kili doesn’t realize what happened, but then he collapses with a cry.

“Kili!” Fili yells in anguish.

You begin to try and get out of your barrel, yelling his name as well, when an orc gains on him with it’s weapon raised. Another arrow splits through the air and this time it’s from an ally, for it kills the orc and Kili is out of harms way.

Your gaze snaps to the source of the projectile and see the red-headed elf Tauriel. 

As soon as you see her you whoop and pump your fist in the air, “Yes!" 

Her gaze slides over you and an expression akin to relief passes over her countenance, but you don’t get long to think on it for abruptly the gates open and everyone starts to flow out of the underpass.

Kili flops over the side and lands into his barrel, a gross snap resounding as the end of the arrow breaks off and flies in some random direction.

The expression on his face is pained, but when you try to inquire on if he’s okay the roaring of the water drowns you out.

Things move very quickly after that.

You grip onto your barrel for dear life as you fall down a short waterfall, head going under again, and when you resurface you splutter and cough loudly, your eyes and throat beginning to burn.

You’re vaguely aware of Orcs being killed around you and the elves chasing after the foul beasts, but you’re too dazed from the fast pace of things to properly process anything.

When an arrow pierces just under your hand, though, you sober up.

Since there isn’t any way that you can help anyone against the Orcs attacking you all, you begin to try and steer your barrel as it swerves left and right so they don’t have to worry about your safety.

The elves kill the orcs along the way and, probably unintentionally, keep you all safe. The blond-elf Legolas, who separated you from everyone at the beginning, gets saved by Thorin while he’s distracted with some other orcs.

You would’ve liked to see how the rest of it plays out, but one of the beasts jumps onto your barrel and swings it’s long sword seemingly out of nowhere; and to avoid losing your head, you duck down further into your barrel.

You vaguely make out the sound of someone calling your name, but the rushing water is so loud you can’t decipher who it is nor how close they are.

Something whips through the air as it tries to stab into you, and  when you look up there’s an arrow sticking in its head.

It falls back and when you poke your head back up you see Tauriel looking at you with her bow still drawn. 

You cup your hands over your mouth and yell, "Thanks, hot-stuff!” And then go back your barrel steering.

—

Many different things transpire after all the excitement.

For example Kili had to be tended to, Thorin started to be pushy and complain about losing time, oh and a bargeman is now smuggling you all on his boat for gold after threatening to kill Ori.

Everyone is now huddled together at the front of said bargeman’s boat, and after Oin took a look at the bruises so unfairly inflicted upon your arms and face he leaves you to your own devices at the back of the ship with the bargeman you now know as Bard.

They are all discussing the payment they owe, but since you have nothing to offer up (other than yourself which, I mean hey this guy is pretty good looking) you stay out of it. 

Bard looks on ahead at the waters to avoid killing you all in a crash, though his gaze flickers down to you ever so often with curiosity sparkling in his lovely greys *I have no freaking clue what color his eyes are*.

He then speaks softly, “This companionship you have with the dwarves… is it mutual?”

It takes you a moment to figure out what he’s implying before you realize how this all must look. A battered human girl quietly tagging along with a group of male dwarves, disheveled, bruised, and being timidly quiet away from the others curled up on yourself (for warmth, but he doesn’t know that).

Your face heats up and you nod your head frantically, “A-Ah, no… Er, yes. It’s mutual. I’m fine. They’re my friends, I just… ah, ran into trouble with the elves is all…”

His eyes look out over the water again and he nods his head, “I don’t doubt their honor, I am only making sure… But I never knew elves to be violent like that.” He looks at you again and you can see that he doesn’t completely believe your words.

“I know… The elf king, Thranduil I think, wanted me to tell him something but I didn’t wanna. I guess he’s just not used to someone telling him to screw off.” You smile cheekily (ignoring the throbbing that takes place when you do), and Bard seems taken aback before a smile of his own works its way to his face.

“I suppose,” he pauses for a moment, then muses, “The way you speak is odd. I’ve never heard someone quite like you before.”

Ah shoot, you forgot that you’re supposed to be blending in better. 

“Oh… yes. Um, I come from a place where.. speech patterns are much different. You see-” You’re cut off by one of the dwarves calling your name.

You sigh dramatically and stand, offering the bargeman a kind smile, “Forgive me. I have to see what those brats want.” Without further chit chat you turn and approach them, hands on your hips while you look down at them expectantly.

“What is it?”

They all stare at you for a few moments before Thorin speaks, “Why do you talk to him so? You’re not giving anything away now, are you?”

You just stare at him quietly with annoyance clear on your face. Like, did he really just ask that? After getting hit around and stuff for them you’d think he’d trust you a bit more.

“Of course not! After taking all of this”, you gesture to your face and arms, “to stay silent from that elf guy, for you, do you really think I’d go blabbing off to some man we all just met?” That sure silences them. 

“Maybe you shouldn’t talk to him so much. We don’t know him.” Dwalin grunts out earning an eye roll from you.

“I’ll talk to whoever I want thank you very much. I don’t need permission from any of you, I’m a big girl and a big girl can have friends.”

“Male friends?” This time it’s Fili, and you sigh loudly.

“Oh, you too? You’re all men! And you’re the only friends I have. How must that look?” Everyone goes quiet again, and this time you smile triumphantly. “That’s what I thought. Now… Bard, our host, is awfully lonely over there and I’m going to speak to him again- and you won’t say a word about it.” And you leave before anyone can say anything else. 

Dwalin grumbles something under his breath, and Thorin simply rolls his eyes while Fili mumbles his discontent to his agreeing brother. Even Bofur, Nori, and Dori are sneaking glances over at the two of you conversing every so often. 

It’s safe to say that they are rather jealous. 

[classic-laugjhing-hollywood]

The Adventurer (1917)

This film starts with a man-hunt, where the police are hunting for an escaped convict (Charlie Chaplin) who has cleverly eluded the guards so far. One police officer (Henry Bergman) is told to guard the beach in case the escaped felon came within sight again. However, unbeknownst to the officer, Charlie is actually under a load of sand, buried right next to the officer.

Fully aware of the danger, he is very cautious regarding his escape. He unburies himself very cautiously, however, Bergman is asleep, and he falls back on the hole which Charlie created while un-burying himself. Of course, Charlie makes a run, but it is too late.

The officer fires, luckily missing Charlie by an inch. Charlie hurriedly climbs up a vertical wall of mud and stone, with the officer giving chase. Charlie, however, finishes Bergman off by throwing a rock at him. In vain, he shoots, but it misses Charlie's head by a mile.

A few seconds later, however, it seems Charlie is finished when a policeman stealthily creeps up to him. He steps on his hand, presumably to not let him escape, presumably as a reminder that his time is up. However, Charlie thinks it's a stray stone and covers it with mud. When he looks up and sees the officer, however, the chase resumes. With sheer athletic abilities and presence of mind, the Tramp eludes the officer. Charlie runs, and runs, and runs, and runs, and runs...and runs ker-plam! into a bunch of officers.

Charlie runs all the way up to the top of the dusty cliff. Just when it seems like Charlie is free, another officer leaps in out of nowhere and shoots Charlie. However, the shot missed its mark, and Charlie, feigning death, fools the officer successfully. In the middle of the check-up to make sure the convict was dead, Charlie kicks him down the hill.

He takes the officer's hiding place (a very cleverly-masked hole in the rock) while Bergman and his companion come to that same spot looking for Charlie. Charlie sees them and makes a stealthy escape -- however, not stealthy enough to alert them at the last moment.

Charlie comes through to the other end of the hole, grabs a police officer's gun, and uses this to threaten the police. All the while, he tiptoes backwards, and, unbeknownst to him, he's heading toward the deep seas. He, of course, trips against a stray rock and accidentally fires at Bergman. Luckily, the shot wasn't fatal, but it was painful enough to piss him off.

Helpless, Charlie swims towards the deep seas. The policemen give chase with the help of a boat. Of course, they are unprepared for the high tide, and a huge wave knocks them over. Charlie swims over towards a boat where a man is desperately trying to take out his wet shirt.

The scene cuts towards a girl and her lover (Edna Purviance and Eric Campbell). They realize Edna's mother (Marta Golden) is drowning. They go over to help her. Edna begs Campbell to help, but he refuses because of his fatness. She jumps in, while Campbell leans against the fence and hawks at her. However, this man's sheer weight contributes to the fence giving away, and, of course, Campbell goes ker-plam! into the water.

Hearing the chaos ensuing between Campbell, Edna and her mother, Charlie, who had just found some dry land, decides to investigate. He jumps back into the water and swims over to where he thinks the chaos is taking place. He finds Edna on the shore, frantic, and Edna, seeing Charlie, begs him to save her mother. Charlie, instead of saving her mother, who was in dire need of help, swims towards Campbell instead, and swims circles around him.

Finally, he takes his beard, and with the help of that he pulls him back to shore.

He rescues everybody else, and then lets them get warm. The authorities arrive, and Edna's unconscious mother is the first to go into the ambulance. However, she soon gains her consciousness, and Charlie serenades her with lies ("I heard your shout from my yacht!" "I couldn't turn down two people shouting -- you, my lady, did not deserve drowning!") and then heads back to rescue Campbell, in the process carelessly (and unintentionally) tossing him back into the water.

When he discovers his blunder, he goes back and rescues the man. However, in the process of the rescue, Charlie hurts himself and lies down on the shore, helpless and unable to walk. He writhes and groans in pain helplessly. Luckily for him, however, a policeman saw him, called Edna, and rescues the injured Charlie.

Charlie now wakes up in the house of Edna, the woman he loves. However, him wearing his striped prison uniform makes him think he is in prison, which is cleared when the butler enters with a towel. The scene then cuts to Charlie walking down the stairs with the glamorous party attire of the time, "dressed in somebody's best", according to the intertitle cards. The butler comes over with the drinks, and Charlie takes a glass, hands it to the butler, takes a beer bottle and pours the drink, initially on the floor.

Then he tries to hand the butler his cigarette, and seeing a bewildered look on his face, waved at him to get out. Edna sees him, of course, and much to the rage of her lover, goes up to him. When he sees her, instinctively he goes into the "attention" position to greet her, which resulted in the open beer bottle to go upside-down, and the beer sloshing down.

Edna and Charlie go to the balcony to socialize, where Charlie accidentally kicks Bergman. Bergman thinks it is intentional, however, and kicks him back. They go on kicking each other for a while, till a lady intervenes between Charlie and Bergman. Since Bergman and Charlie had their backs to each other, Bergman couldn't see the lady intervening. Therefore, he kicks her butt, thinking it's Charlie's he's kicked. He goes red when he realizes his blunder, but the damage is done -- Edna is disgusted at him, the victim weirded out, and Charlie feigns calmness and glares at him.

Inside, while Edna plays the piano, Bergman tries getting revenge but to no avail. Charlie sloshes a whole lot of beer on him, and he retreats. However, when he does, he sees Charlie's face on the newspaper, under the headline "Criminal Escapes: Convict at Large".

Of course, this was a good way of getting revenge. Therefore, when Charlie talks away with Edna's dad, who was Judge Brown, the man who sentenced him to prison, Charlie is scared. But he acts calm, going under the alias "Commodore". However, at the worst possible moment, Bergman barges in, shoves "Commodore" out and tells him all about Charlie and his face in the newspaper, and how he was the escaped convict. When Charlie comes across the headline, he is scared stiff and nervous. As a last resort, he takes out his pen and draws a beard, so (hopefully) Judge Brown thinks he is Henry Bergman.

Of course, Brown falls for the trap. When a determined Bergman stalks in with the judge, he grabs the paper and shows it to Brown. Of course, Brown thinks that this man has got it wrong, and shows it to Charlie. Charlie looks at the paper, and looks back at Bergman. "You need a shave!" he remarks, and goes back in to socialize -- not before kicking Bergman in the crotch, though!

He talks to everybody inside, trying to blend in after that near brush with Judge Brown. He talks to everybody, including Edna, and then decides to go to the kitchen with Edna.

But in the kitchen, a policeman and his wife are making love to each other, so when the knock sounds, the policeman hurriedly goes towards the closet. Charlie and Edna enter just as she is closing the door, so Charlie is secretly curious. He opens the closet, sees the policeman and, in an instant, closes the door and darts out of the room.

What follows is a nerve-wracking chase with some slapstick overtures. Several times, Charlie comes close to getting caught. Several times, he survives by the skin of his teeth. And, in the end, one police officer corners him. It looks like the end, like Charlie will finally be apprehended -- until Charlie outwits him. He introduces the policeman and Edna, and when the policeman is taking his police hat off, Charlie breaks away from his grasp and runs away, the police hot on his trail.

[rottmntquotes]

The Turtle, The Skeleton, And The Monster Hunter

“Hey Cantaloupe? Do we have any heavy duty band-aids?”

With a raised brow, Donatello turned to look at his twin brother, confused and a bit annoyed by the question. “Nardo, why would you ask such a dumb- OHMIGOSH!”

Leo chuckled nervously, a hand held over half of his face, which was cut with a burnt outline; he was soaking wet, and behind him stood Hueso, who was just as soaked. In almost half a second, Donnie was at Leo’s side, looking over the wound and speaking his typical jargon worriedly. When Leo then complained about a pain in his side, Donnie led the Slider over to a medium sized cot.

“Come on, let me see; let me see it.” Donnie instructed softly, searching Leo’s side for any sort of injury. Eventually, Donnie came across the side of what looked like a broken harpoon, which had lodged itself right into Leo’s side. “Oh Pizza Supreme, how did this happen?”

“Well...” Leo muttered, turning his attention to his leg and pulling out a thorn.

“Nardo...” Donnie said in a warning tone, gripping Leo’s chin and forcing Leo to make eye contact. “What. Happened?”

A strained whine was let out before Leo started to explain how he had gotten himself so beaten up.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Come on Hueso! You have to have something to help me!”

“I am sorry Pepino, but it would not be fair if I decided to give you such help and then deny it to any other customer.”

Leo whined loudly, walking around in a circle anxiously. Not even fifteen minutes ago had Leonardo raced into Run-of-the-Mill, begging Hueso for any sort of free pizza to make up for something stupid he’d done to make his brothers upset with him. Of course, Hueso gave Leo an unimpressed glare, knowing very well that helping Leo would only make things worse.

Despite what many think, Hueso cared immensely about Leo, so much so that he- secretly -considered Leo a son. Not only that, but Hueso had admittedly found himself accidentally referring to Leo as “The son I have at the restaurant who can’t tell the difference between humility and entitlement.” The skeleton Yokai had spent enough time helping and disciplining Leo to the point that he now just decided that the best way for Leo to learn was to let him deal with the consequences himself.

“But Hueso, please! My brothers won’t talk to me, and I really do feel bad about what I did!” Leo cried, getting onto his knees and tugging at Hueso’s shirt. When Hueso said nothing, Leo sobbed dramatically and plopped down onto the floor face first. The teen’s next words were somewhat muffled, but Hueso was able to make out most of the words. “My brothers are mad at me, and you won’t help me! You helped me last time!”

“Pepino, you are causing a scene.” Hueso announced quietly, crossing his arms with a slight smirk. “Need I remind you that you are a teenager?”

“Could you at least come with me and help me apologize?” Leo requested, looking up at Hueso and pouting.

“I am genuinely confused as to how my presence will help your brothers forgive you, but fine.” Hueso agreed, watching Leo stand up in a flash. With a soft sigh and a slow head shake, Hueso followed Leo out of the restaurant, instructing the assistant manager to look after the restaurant for the time being.

On the way to the lair, Hueso took notice of how Leo’s demeanour started to change immensely. The Slider’s pupils constricted, his upper lip pulled back to reveal his sharp teeth, the scales on his neck seemed to raise up, he started to hiss, and his hands started to flutter rapidly. Hueso frowned, furrowing his brow bone in concern.

“Pepino? What is wrong?” Hueso asked, reaching out a hand and putting it on Leo’s shoulder. Shockingly, Leo replied with a defensive growl, gripping Hueso’s hand and throwing Hueso into a nearby tunnel that led away from the lair. In a hushed voice, Leo instructed Hueso to stay close and follow Leo farther into the tunnel. Hueso nodded and complied, deciding that he should push back his confusion in order to stay safe. When the duo stopped, Hueso took his chance to ask what was wrong.

“Someone’s following us.” Leo whispered, looking around the corner for any sign of another presence. Much to the dismay of both males, Leo’s decision got his face just barely grazed by a burning arrow, leading him to screech in pain.

“I KNEW IT!” a voice cheered, and footsteps started getting closer to the two. “Prepare to be taken down and put down, reptile!”

Hueso gasped, urging Leo to stand and grasping the teen’s hand. In their hurry to escape, neither Hueso nor Leo took the time to think about the fact that they were leaving footprints that led straight to them.

“That’s right... lead me to your den...”

______________________________________________________________

“Hueso... I can’t see... I’m too dizzy...”

“I am sorry Pepino, but we cannot stop here!”

Soft whimpering nearly broke Hueso’s heart, but he had enough will left to keep from giving in to his fatherly instinct to stop and comfort Leo. First the two needed to find somewhere to rest and get away from the vile creature chasing them, then they could deal with Leo’s injuries. When the sound of footsteps got even closer, Hueso turned to find a camo dressed human chasing them with a harpoon gun.

“I got ya now, you freakish beauties!” The human shouted, pointing the gun at Hueso. At that point, Hueso was running on nothing more than instinct and adrenaline, and the sudden idea of jumping into the giant whirlpool came to mind. When the two disappeared into the water, the human groaned with exasperation, pointing the harpoon gun towards the water. When the human caught sight of a flash of green, he took a shot, cheering when he saw a sudden pool of blood.

Underneath the water, Leo screamed, trying to remove the harpoon in horror. Unfortunately, Leo was too weak and shocked to get the harpoon out completely, so Hueso snapped in in half, hugging Leo close and keeping a tight grip on the turtle as they got sucked farther into the whirlpool. For what seemed like forever, the two flew through the water, eventually ending up in a reservoir a good ways from the lair.

 Hueso instantly swam up to the closest ledge, dragging Leo onto the ledge and doing chest compressions. Only a few were needed, and Leo started coughing up water, along with a bit of blood. With a heavy sigh, Hueso helped Leo up, allowing Leo to lean against him. Before Hueso could say anything, a loud splash drew the duo’s attention, and out of the water flew the human, laughing darkly as he held up his weapon.

“Your time is up, freaks.” The human pointing his weapon at Leo and preparing to shoot the teen. Hueso- in a moment of intense paternal instinct -let out a loud shout, his eyes turning green as his rib cage shot out of his shirt, growing nearly ten times in size and grasping the human in a tight grip. During this process, Leo had been unintentionally tossed to the ground, and the next thing he remembers is blacking out.

“Pepino... Pepino, wake up... Pepino!” Leo shot up with a yelp, groaning and rubbing his head as it started swimming. Hueso apologized for the sudden wake up. “We need to get you home, little one. Your brother is better suited to deal with your injuries than I.”

Leo nodded slowly, standing up as fast as possible - which, mind you, was not very fast. The rest of the journey was a bit slow, but Hueso did all he could to keep Leo’s mind off the pain, telling horrible dad jokes and stories about Hueso Jr.

“You’re... a really good dad, Hueso.” Leo complimented, letting out a huff of pain and chuckling as Hueso stopped and asked if Leo needed to rest. “I’m okay, Bone Man. Or, with the way you’ve been looking after me, should I call you Bone Dad?”

“Absolutely not.”

“Well I’m going to anyways.”

“Of course you are...”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“And then we- ow! -walked for a little- OW! -longer until we- OW! OW! OW! -Donnie! That hurts!”

Hueso chuckled lightly, sitting next to Leo and clearing his throat. Leo turned to look at Hueso, who gestured to Donnie. Knowing what this meant, Leo sighed heavily.

“Uhh... Cantaloupe?” Leo asked, looking up at Donnie nervously. Donnie hummed in acknowledgement, running a hand over the broken harpoon. With a hiss of pain, Leo placed a firm hand on Donnie’s, earning him his twin’s full attention. “I’m sorry. For... for what I said, I mean. What I did was wrong, a-and I swear that I will never do it again. I was being a... being a... a... bad brother... again.”

Donnie smiled, placing a hand on Leo’s cheek. The two then looked at each other silently before Donnie smirked and slapped Leo out of nowhere.

“Yep. I deserved that.” Leo muttered, smiling widely. Next to the twins, Hueso stood up, announcing that he was going to go home and freshen up. The twins said their goodbyes, and Donnie- very loudly -called Raph and Mikey into the lab. After appearing, Leo was forced to apologize once again, and was so distracted by his brothers’ forgiveness that he completely forgot about the harpoon lodged in his side.

Donnie, of course, did not.

“Guys, I know that you GAH! I HATE YOU SO MUCH!”

“Now, now Pepino! Do remember what brought you to me in the first place!”

The rest of that night was spent tending to Leo’s wounds, forgiving Leo’s dumb decisions, and cuddling until they all fell asleep on the couch.

[my-personal-writing-wonderland]

Hardships - Jaime x reader

Pairing: Jaime Lannister x Queen!Stark!reader

Other characters: Brienne, Jon, Tyrion, Daenerys, Cersei, Podrick, Robb, Ned, Catelyn, King Robert 

Words: 1770 

Warning: mentions of war, death and blood, some season 8 spoilers 

Request: Hello!! Could you do a Jaime x Stark reader, where they have been through some hardships together but never admitted their feelings, but they both survive the battle of Winterfell and are really emotional. The rest is up to you! Have a beautiful day x

A/N: I loved writing this. I actually wanted to try writing flashbacks since a while, so be prepared for lots of them😅

Important: You’re the queen in the North in this story because Jon doesn’t want the throne and believes in you. 

Jaime’s POV: In the middle of the long night Jaime desperately tries to spot you somewhere but it’s way too dark and there’re too many people who are blocking his sight. Furthermore, the former knight is forced to fight countless of white walkers, he can’t spend too much time finding you. He has to believe you’re alright, no matter how hard it is to not worry about you. 

But sadly, that’s easier said than done. Jaime just can’t concentrate when he doesn’t know whether or not you’re safe and doing well. What if you’re hurt and need him? What if you’re already dead? He doesn’t really have the chance to scan his surroundings, Jaime only sees Brienne and Patrick one or two times but he already noticed the many corpses getting more around his feet on the ground. No matter how incredible your fighting skills are there’s still a huge possibly you’re dead by now. 

Despite Jaime’s worries and his recurring pleading you were determined to support your people in the front. You’re not Cersei, you won’t let others fight for you while you’re sitting around in a save room with all the other women and children. In your opinion, as their queen you can’t let them down. Sure, he cherishes your strong headed personality but in this case he wishes you would have listen to him and wait in the Scrip with the others. 

For the rest of the battle, Jaime has to hope for the best and pray you’re alright. Right now, he can only try to stay alive. ♧Jaime isn’t particularly fond of traveling north to meet Ned Stark and his family. The Stark were never fond of Jaime and he wasn’t very fond of them either but as soon as he sees you the first time staying a little while in Winterfell suddenly doesn’t seem half as bad. Immediately, Jaime is fascinated by your beauty and your polite yet confident attitude. During the feast which is held because of the kings’s arrival Jaime decided to ask you to dance with him, beginning to smile when he notices a little blush appearing on your cheeks. Only two days after your dance together, the king decides to take Ned, Jaime, you and your brothers to a little hunting trip in the woods. You’re probably part of their journey because you remind Robert of your aunt, Lyanna Stark. Until today Jaime doesn’t know how Robb has managed it but during the hunting season somehow he accidentally shoots you with an arrow in the left leg.  Everyone panics and gets scared because you lose a lot of blood in a frightening fast pace, Jaime would love to stab your brother in this moment for doing this to you, unintentionally or not. Without hesitating he runs to you only to first give you a piece of fabric from his shirt (which he cut out with his sword) to minimize the blood flow. Then, he carries you bridle style to his horse, to get you to Winterfell’s maesters as soon as possible.  Once you two arrive at your home and the maesters guarantee you’ll be fine and it’s only a flesh wound everyone, including Jaime, is extremely relieved. The kingslayer doesn’t know why yet but he thought of you dying scares him to no end.  He already witnessed you’re very popular around your family and people, not that he’s very surprised. You’re nothing like Cersei, unlike her you’re a strong and independent but gracious and kindhearted person. In spite of the maesters encouraging words Jaime isn’t able to fall asleep because all he can think of his you not being fine right now for some reason. Maybe you’re in pain or your wound reopened and no one is there to help you.  In the middle of the night he makes to decision to visit you secretly (he knows your parents likely wouldn’t approve otherwise). Jaime doesn’t expect you to be awake when he comes to see you, he just needs to see for himself that you’re alright but actually, you’re wide awake when he quietly enters your room.  After apologizing for interrupting you to such an hour and making sure you’re not in too much pain, the two of you somehow start talking about anything and everything till the sun starts rising. During the whole conversation Jaime has a smile on his face, not his usual cocky smirk but a real smile.♧ The battle against the dead took the whole night. After every last white walker pulverizes at the same time, Jaime wastes no time to search you. It doesn’t matter where he looks everywhere he sees people dead laying on the bloodied ground. He makes sure to observe every corpse precisely in order to make ensure you’re not one of them. While trying to find you Jaime sees countless men and women he crossed path with only days before. Some of them he even notices from his arrival in Winterfell. ♧Jaime hates every single minute of being Robbs prisoner. Again the only glimmer of light is you accomplishing your mother to his cell one day, looking at him with pity. Even though he isn’t a fan of you seeing and pitying him like this, he’s glad to know you’re fine after everything that happened to your family. However, he wishes you would meet each other under different circumstances.  Apparently, you have talked with the so called ‘King in the North’ after your little reunion and begged him to let you treat Jaime’s wounds and wash him a bit, so he won’t die from an infection before you get your sisters back. The moment you take care of his many wounds the Kingslayer is sure he falls for you, deeply. For him you’re perfect in any way, he’s truly amazed by your forgiven but rational nature and can’t stop himself from developing feeling for you. You seem to take him for who he really is, something he only experienced with Tyrion so far.♧ Minutes passes and still there is no sign of you, Jaime only sees Brienne and Podrick again, both of them seem to be more or less fine and even through he’s glad they’re still alive, none of them is the one he’s worried about.  When he finds your half-brother Jon under the survivors, he hopes Jon has seen you somewhere. Much to Jaime’s dismay, the bastard isn’t able to help him. The former commander of the night’s watch hasn’t seen you since shortly after the beginning of the battle. After hearing this, panic once again rises inside of him like wildfire. You have to be fine.  There aren’t many options but to walk through the castle and to hope Jaime spots you among the living instead the dead. ♧ The next time Jaime gets to meet you, you’re the queen of the North, the she-wolf of Winterfell. You’re in Kinglanding for a meeting with his sister Cersei and the Dragon queen Daenerys to show them all the white walkers for the first time.  After the meeting of the queens Jaime luckily catches you while Jon speaks to the mother of Dragons and Cersei excuses herself. What you don’t know is that he stopped sleeping with Cersei because the knight just couldn’t stop thinking about you anymore after your last encounter.  For a long time he was afraid of meeting you again because he has only one hand left. He’s scared you won’t see him as the glorious golden knight anymore and label him as a broken man. But after all the time of secretly missing you, he has to take the opportunity to hear your voice again.  When you don’t even witness his missing hand like it’s not a big deal at all, Jaime admits how much he would like to just leave with you but he knows Cersei would never approve. Therefore, you have to say good bye once more.  Before you’re able to leave he hesitantly takes your arm, planning to finally kiss you. Jaime just can’t wait any longer. It’s now or never.  Unfortunately, his dear brother and your right hand, Tyrion manages to interrupt him in this exact moment, telling you it’s time to leave. ♧ After what feels like an eternity, Jaime finally sees you looking around with a stressed face. Clearly, you search your family and friends. He calls your name while hastily walking towards you. When you notice him a huge smile appears on your face, you appear so happy and relieved to see him.  Once he stands before you he takes you in his strong embrace, his arms tightly around you like you would disappear any second. In this moment he swears to himself he’ll never let you go again. Normally, Jaime doesn’t think highly about oaths of any kind but this time he’s certain he’ll keep his promise.  ‘I was so scared, (y/n). Please, never do something like that again to me. I can’t lose you, I love you so much,’ Jaime confesses, his desperation as well as his relief clearly audible in his voice.  He would have never forgiven himself if you died before he’s able to confess his feelings to you. Way too long he hid his feelings because he feared a reaction. Moment before, Jaime faxed the dead. Both of them could day any moment. He has to take his chance as long as he can.  Before you get the opportunity to response he takes your face in his good hand and leans in to kiss you with so much love and passion, none of you ever want to end the kiss ever again. Before you two start getting to heated Jaime leans back to end your kiss, looking deeply into your eyes with such a softness, only increases your beautiful smile in the process.  'Marry me, (y/n). Please I need you, you have to become mine.’ Jaime immediately notices tears forming in your eyes, for a second he fears you’ll say no but before he’s able to take his marriage offer back you spring into his arms and kiss his whole face with a huge smile.  'Yes, yes, yes. Of course I’ll marry you, Jaime Lannister. I love you more than you can imagine.’ After your wedding a few moons later the two of you reign Winterfell as King and Queen. At the beginning, your people aren’t pleased and very skeptical but you guarantee them you’ll make every decision alone, something Jaime highly approved.  It took so many years but after all hardships and troubles you two have found the loving and supporting partner you craved your whole life. And Jaime relishes every moment of his new found joy.  

[loki-sun]

Some Scott & Peter being roommates headcanons

A while I ago I stumbled upon a post or something which implied that Scott and Peter shared a room together after Apocalypse and I've thought that needed to be explored a tad. This almost turned into a fic whoa

Their first meeting after the whole Cairo and apocalypse crisis is less than stellar

When the mansion’s finally ready for students to move back in, Scott’s given his own room. Again, which pleases him. The company of other mutants doesn’t bother him, Jean, Kurt, Jubes even the newcomer Ororo, they’re all nice and great, but he prefers having a place he can call his own.

A day after that when he and Jean go for a walk she tells him she now shares a room with Jubilee and that it’s kinda cool she now has someone, so she’s not completely isolated, but she’s still afraid she’ll unintentionally hurt her in her sleep or something.

Scott playfully boasts that he still managed to keep his own room.

That doesn’t last long

That same afternoon there’s a knock on his door.

It’s the silver haired guy; the exact same one who saved almost everyone from the explosion.

At first he doesn’t say anything, just watches him coolly, leaning against the doorframe.

 Scott’s a man of action “Yeah?” “Summers?” “That’s me.” In a millisecond the seriousness disappears from the guy’s face and all of a sudden he’s standing in the middle of Scott’s room, buzzing around and he reminds Scott of some kind of a bumblebee that took a dip in a jar of silver color.

The silver guy scans the room “Kinda boring but it’ll do.” He points at the tidy desk by the window “You’ll need to move that tho, I’m gonna have my bed there.” “I’m sorry, who are you?” Scott rebukes at the stranger wandering in his room like he owns the place “And what are you doing in my room?” “Peter Maximoff.” The guy suddenly appears in front of him, a strange glint in his eyes “and I think you mean, ‘our room’.” “What?!” “Oh, I’m guessing Charlie didn’t tell you? Oh, this is awkward.” “Told me what?” Peter smirks “We’re roomies from now on.” Something inside Scott promptly dies.

 Scott goes to talk to Charles about it, who tells him that Peter, while no longer being a student, will be staying at the mansion and join their X-Men team. There’s a shortage of free rooms but Charles is sure that Scott doesn’t have a problem with giving half of his to Peter.

Scott, in fact, has a problem, but Charles doesn’t need to know that.

When he returns to their room, he notices Peter has already set up his stuff and oh hello, there’s even a bed there and a few video game arcades where his desk and sofa used to be.

At first Scott’s semi okay with it, because Peter seems like a good dude.

 “So, Summers, I’ve noticed that you don’t talk much, huh? That’s OK; I talk enough for two people.” Scott mentally groans. This will not end well.

He’s right.

He soon finds out that Peter, fucking Peter, doesn’t sleep much or at all. He can go days without even a little nap and while Peter’s totally okay, Scott’s bags under his eyes have bags because the speedy asshole is just not quiet throughout the night. He’s either loudly munching on food, listening to music at top volume, playing videogames, tapping his foot impatiently against the floor, shuffling around….he’s. not. Still. At. All.  Jean and others notice Scott’s exhausted appearance of course. “So, what’s like to bunk with Peter?” “I’m more likely to catch a unicorn than a good night’s sleep.” “That bad?” “I lost my peace, most of my room and my ability to sleep at night. What do you think?”

Jean suggests him to talk to Peter about this issue.

He takes her advice. Peter doesn’t really get it.

“Remember sleeping? Sleeping was nice.” Scott says to him when he comes back to their room ”Perhaps you should try it. When’s the last time you slept?” “When was the last time I slept? Well, let’s see…it’s a Thursday…so…” “Today’s Monday.” “Today’s a what?!” Oh boy.

Unfortunately, despite Scott’s best tries, It doesn’t go well at all. In fact, it all goes downhill from that point on.

A few days later Peter, high on energy, takes a good look at Scott, who’s barely standing on his own feet. “Jesus, what happened to you?” “You did.”

 Another thing Scott soon learns about Peter. He was right. He. Never. Shuts. Up. Seriously. He’s always muttering about something, singing along to a song, talking to himself, chuckling while reading a comic book…Scott feels a volcano of anger inside him ready to erupt. “Do you ever shut up?” “Do you ever say anything besides asking me to shup up?” Peter shoots back “Oh, sorry, I forgot that you’re shy.” “I’m not shy, I just don’t like talking to you.”

 It all goes to hell from then on.

Scott’s annoyed with Peter and Peter’s annoyed because Scott’s annoyed with him.

“I went from having an entire basement to myself to having to share a room with a fucking baby!” “I was here first!”

They both ask Charles to give each of them their own room.

Charles refuses.

One day Scott’s sugar drops and all of a sudden the currently abandoned box of twinkies on Peter’s bed look curiously inviting.

It was the last straw.

“You bastard!” “I’m not going to pick a fight with you.” “Well, too bad because I’m picking one with you. Square up, dipshit, let’s get rowdy!”

 “Asshole.”

 ”Dickhead.”

They use duct tape to evenly split the room in half. Peter even took the door. “How the fuck am I supposed to go out now?!” “I left you the window, use that! Be happy I didn’t take that as well.” “How generous of you.” “You know it.” “Seriously, you’re the human equivalent of those lumps that form in rancid milk.” “Wow, what the fuck Summers!? Rude?” “Yeah. It’s supposed to be.”

The tension between them’s obvious and it comes to a point when Charles sits them down and asks them to at least pretend to stand each other for others’ sake. 

They try but fail miserably. “You are a disgusting individual.” “I will not stand here and be lectured by a 12 year old.” “I’m 18.” “You’re literally a baby!”

“Hey you got an award in the mail.” “Really? Where’s it from?” “The National Council on Assholing. It says here you won Best Asshole of the year.” “...Why are you such an asshole? Do you like getting hit or something? Wait! Don’t answer that, I don’t wanna know.”

At one point even Raven asks Charles if putting the two of them together in the same room was a good idea. “They balance each other out. Trust me, Raven, they need this.

Turns out he’s right. 

It takes a while but much, to everyone’s surprise, they mysteriously, somehow manage to work it out without killing each other in the process.

A few days later Scott’s studying for one of his exams and his pen dies. He realizes he left the rest of his pen stash in Jean’s room and isn’t feeling up to go get them. Peter nonchalantly gives him one of his own. True to his poor luck Scott breaks it. “Hey, um...I broke your pen. Sorry” “That’s okay – I stole it.” Peter doesn’t even look up from his comic book. Scott blinks. “...Why are you Like That?” “Look, I have superpowers. That’s not going to change. What else am I supposed to do with them, sit in our room and watch tv? Don’t judge me.” “...I’m not.” Peter finally looks up from his comic and takes in Scott’s disheveled appearance.  “I take it studying isn’t going well?” A groan’s his only reply. “Dude chillax, you're more nervous over this stupid exam than when we were in Cairo. The fuck?” Scott sighs “If I have to choose between saving the world and passing my chemistry exam…the end of the world is bad and all, but McCoy is scary.” For the first time since moving in Peter laughs. Sincerely.

Scott fucks up then and accidentally hurts Peter’s feelings “You know, you kinda remind me of my brother.” “Should I take that as a compliment or an insult?” “Both.” Peter doesn’t take offense but just stares as Scott’s face crumbles. “Your brother?” “Alex.” Scott replies “You know, the one you left to die.” Scott doesn’t mean it literally, he knows Peter’s not responsible for Alex’s death, but his words cut the speedster like a knife. For the first time since he’s moved in, he’s quiet throughout the entire night. Scott doesn’t question it at first. He has an exam to study for.

Peter’s nowhere to be found in the morning. When he doesn’t show up for training, that’s when others take notice and become worried. Charles doesn’t seem to be though, but he’s sporting this sad smile and it’s not a good sign.

His disappearance bothers Scott more than it should because the room is suddenly too quiet, there’s no one to bother him. He keeps on waiting for a certain silver blur to come by but he. just. doesn’t.

During one of their many daily strolls around the mansion, Jean brings the topic of Peter up and asks him if perhaps he said something or done something that might suggest his whereabouts.

Initially, Scott shakes with head.

Until he finally realizes.

He feels like a dick.

Jean assures him he’ll probably return soon, but reprimands him anyway.

When it’s evening and Peter still doesn’t return Scott considers going to Charles, but just as he’s about to do it, there’s a knock on the door.

It’s Peter.

Scott is relieved and immediately starts apologizing. Peter tells him that it’s okay. 

Peter actually sits down and apologizes for not arriving in time to save Alex. 

It turns out Peter’s feeling extremely guilty over what happened to Scott’s brother.

Scott tells him that he doesn’t blame him and that there was nothing he could’ve done.

It takes a while for both of them to calm down after this emotional talk. Peter honestly appreciates Scott’s words.

“You’re not so bad Summers. You know, for a baby.” “You’re not so bad yourself Maximoff. For a grandpa.” “Oh, the hair, I get it.”

“So I take it you’ve missed me.” “Everyone’s been wondering where you were. They knew that if I’d killed you, I’d keep the body for display.” Peter snorts “As if you could catch me.”

“Sorry for fucking off by the way. I tend to do that sometimes.” “It’s okay. It was my fault anyway. Just...don’t do it again, okay.” “Can’t promise, but mmkay.”

Seeing Peter and Scott actually getting along for the first time since they became the X-Men is shocking. Jean’s a telepath so she kinda already knows why they’re suddenly on good terms. Kurt and Ororo are clueless. “Since when are you two buddies?” “We’re kindred spirits” “By which he means that we utterly disgust each other.” “Yeah.” “But you’re always bickering and fighting with him.” “Yes, and I would also die for him. Try to keep up, blueberry.”

They’re best buddies.

Peter soon figures out that Scott as this not so secret crush on Jean. He doesn’t bring it up though, waits for Scott to slip up or admit it out loud.

He does.

“Can you keep a secret?” “Sure, but why would I?” “I’ll ignore that.”  “So, what is it?” “I...kind of like Jean.” “Dude, I thought you said it was a secret.” “Is it that obvious?” “You need to stop making googly-eyes at her all the time. It’s weird and frankly, kind of creepy.”

“Scott I need to tell you something as well.” “Go ahead.” “...Magneto is my father.” Peter blurts out “Just thought you should know.” Scott stares at first and then burst into a laugh, thinking it’s another joke. He stops when he sees Peter’s serious expression. “You’re not kidding.” “I’m definitely not kidding.” “...You know that explains so much about you.”

Peter is slightly scared Scott will turn on him again because Erik was kind of involved in Alex’s death.

Scott tells him again that Alex’s death was an unfortunate accident and he doesn’t blame either Magneto or Ororo for what happened. He also assures him that he doesn’t care who his father is.

Peter’s relieved.

“Also my nameisnotPeteritsactuallyPietro” “...What?”

“Let’s just say I’m not a ‘you must reach friendship level 5 to unlock my tragic backstory’ person. I’m more like  ‘you have to reach friendship level 5 to know my real name’ type of a person.”

He prefers to be called Peter though so he asks Scott to keep that to himself.

Scott promises to keep it a secret.

Peter promises to help him win Jean’s heart.

Turns out he’s the best wingman Scott could ever have.

When they’re hanging out together, Peter mentions to Kurt that Scott has a crush on Jean and doesn’t know what to do. Kurt, ever the romantic, suggests him to write her a letter. 

“Blueberry, no, JUST NO. Bad idea. He has the artistic ability of a short-sighted mongoose.” “Thanks Maximoff.”

Peter comes up with his own idea.

“What do you mean you hit on Jean for me, what the fuck Peter!?” “SOMEONE HAD TO DO IT SCOTT!”

Peter succeeds and Scott gets the girl.

“Ok, Pete, I’m going to have Jean over tomorrow night, so if you don’t mind-” Scott begins one day, weeks after their first date. “I don’t.” Peter winks “Ohhh I see where this is going.” “Don’t tell anyone, you know Xavier has rules and shit.” “I won’t IF you don’t tell him about my hidden stash of stolen sweets and the arcades.” “It’s a deal.”

“Just leave my bed alone. It’s a sacred place.”

Peter spends the night in Kurt’s room who finally starts to understand why Scott suffered from lack of sleep in their early days.

“Why exactly are you here?” “You’re too pure for this, blueberry.”

In the morning Peter decides he’s done enough waiting and barges in their room, waking up both Scott and Jean.

“Don’t you knock!?” “Considering it’s my room as well...generally, no.”

“I brought you two breakfast by the way.”  “I, um…thanks.”Jean seemed to genuinely appreciate his gesture. “It’s no trouble at all! Well, as long as you don’t make noises swallowing that the same way you did last night.” “PETER!” “dO YOU EVEN HAVE AN IDEA HOW THIN THE WALLS ARE HERE!?”

He runs off to Ororo before Scott could test his powers on him.  “Hey ‘Ro, what do you think I should do if somebody told me they were going to peel me like a potato.” “And by somebody, I meant Scott.” “Honestly Peter, I thought I knew a lot of threatening words, but that one’s new.” 

Peter continues teasing Scott for the rest of the day. Scott thinks he’s a menace. “Sometimes I want to tell you to go find someone to date already so you’ll stop pestering me, but then I remember what an inexpressibly annoying person you are and how no one deserves to deal with you.” “Thanks Scott, love you too, buddy.” “You know what, maybe you should find someone.” “I would rather be tied up, covered in honey, and left near a hill full of red ants. Naked.” 

Scott decides to return the favor and find Peter a date.

Turns out Peter does have a tiny crush on Ororo. “No, I don’t. The only crush I have is the crushing weight of my existence.” “But it’s a perfect match! You’re single and she has low standards!” “Is that supposed to be an insult, you unimaginative dishrag?!”

Peter’s known for staying up late, disrespecting the few sets of rules Charles has given to them. He hates the confined feeling of the mansion and seeks the comfort of the outside world all the time. Thus, he always comes back sometime past school curfew. Usually, no one but Scott notices, but even he has come to his breaking point.Plus he’s still mad at him for the stuff with Jean. So one day, when Peter’s way past his curfew again, Scott absolutely refuses to open the door to their room. “Summers, it’s me, a shambling mockery of a mutant being. I know you’re awake. Open the door.” “Sorry, I can’t help you, we’re closed for the day.” “That’s very funny, Scott. I get it, you’re mad I stayed out past school curfew, but you’re not really going to make me sleep in the hallway, right?” He does.

[saltyteru]

First Kiss Pt. 2

| Soldier: 76 | Reaper | Reinhardt |

part one

Soldier: 76

You grunted as you lifted up the barbell, your muscles tending as you used your strength, testing out the new addition to the weights; going for 20 lbs heavier than usual. You held the correct foot stance as you did your best not to crumble beneath the weights. Sweat beaded at your temple as you lowered yourself into a squat before standing back up, repeating it until you were interrupted by your lover clearing his throat.

“What are you doing up so early?” Jack asked, leaning against the door frame of the gym, his face — surprisingly — not covered by his visor, his bare eyes lingering on you.

“Couldn’t sleep,” You said, “Figured I might as well pass the time with training.”

Jack noticed your struggle with the weights right away. From the awkward position your hands were in to the irritated expression you held as you stood up. He walked fully into the gym, taking off his signature leather “76” jacket, placing it on a nearby bench before making his way over to you.

“Let me help.” He murmured, rolling his neck.

You gulped as you looked over at him; the way his grey undershirt cling to his torso was mesmerizing — no matter how many times you saw him in a simple tank top, you were always flustered. The affect he had on you was powerful, unknowningly able to make you weak in the knees once you caught sight of him.

“Sure.” You smiled, accidentally letting the barbell slip from your grasp, sending the weights to the ground; directly onto your right foot.

You winced, trying not to show much signs of pain, playing it off as if it were nothing. Jack had questioned if you were alright, telling you to be more careful and that — if you were hurting — to tell him.

“I’m okay, don’t worry.” You forced your words to be clear, hiding the stinging ache in the top of your foot.

Jack gave you a skeptical glance, unsure whether to believe you — soon coming to the conclusion that you were stating the truth. He simply nodded before helping you lift the barbell. You bit your bottom lip, your teeth digging into your skin to distract yourself from discomfort.

“Go sit down.” Jack’s tone held a bit of authority in each syllable, making your shoulders slump in defeat; there was no way he’d let you continue training once he noticed your expression in agony.

“Fine.” You huffed, limping over to the bench where Jack’s jacket was tossed to, reluctantly sitting down, avoiding to put pressure onto your foot.

Your eyes followed Jack’s movements. The way his back muscles flexed as he lifted the barbell with ease, placing it away. He looked toward the wall beside the door, searching for the med kit.

“Be right back.” He mumbled before he disappeared from the room.

You let out the breath you unconsciously held, wiping the perspiration away with your wrist. How could you be so stupid to left the barbell fall? Especially on your foot directly in front of your lover? You were embarrassed, mentally kicking yourself for your faults.

You leaned back, your hands on the wooden bench, your shoulders raised as you calmed yourself down, your sight set upon the ceiling, not noticing Jack coming back.

“I’m back.” He announced, a med kit in his hands.

He knelt before you, setting the kit down beside you. With steady fingers, he gently took hold of your right ankle, resting on his thigh as he popped the kit open. The bruise on your foot because to swell and the dark purple and blue mark made your skin crawl. Jack took out the instant ice pack, shaking the package to activate the chemical inside to turn cold. He pressed it to your skin carefully, asking you if it hurt before moving forward.

“Thank you, Jack. I’m sorry for being so clumsy.” You spoke up once he finished wrapping the ace bandage.

“Don’t worry, (Y/n). You just need to be more careful.” He took your hand, placing a soft kiss to your knuckles, offering you a loving smile that caused the butterflies in your belly to flutter.

Without a second thought, you took hold of the collar of his top, pulling him forward so your lips connected. Shock was written across his features before it shifted to happiness, the tops of his cheeks coated with a faint blush as he returned your soft, but passionate kiss. His hand found home at your jaw, smoothing across your skin before you both pulled away.

“I love you.” The words unintentionally left your lips, causing you to stiffen with fear; had you just said that?

Jack noticed your building anxiety, “I love you too, (Y/n).” He said, bringing you into another kiss — this one more sweet and full of the emotions you held for one another, your heart skipping multiple beats in the process.

Reaper

“How could you be so stupid?!” Your voice was raised in anger as you blotted the open wound on your lover’s chest with an disinfectant-soaked cotton ball.

He rolled his eyes, “I had everything under control, (Y/n). You worry too much.” He looked away from you.

“‘Had it under control’?! This doesn’t look like you had it all under control! You were shot! You were acting too recklessly.” You scolded, tossing the cotton ball into the trash bin before picking up the healing cream, applying it to the wound, “Gabriel, you need to learn when you need to retreat. If you get surrounded... no one will be able to save you.”

“I don’t need saving. I’m fine.” He scoffed, adjusting his sore shoulders.

“Oh really? Then, I guess I can just do this,” You pressed down on the bruised skin surrounding the bullet wound, earning a sharp intake of air from the infamous Reaper as he snatched your hand, eyes glaring daggers at you, “Not so fine, huh?” You rose an eyebrow, irritating the man.

He couldn’t argue any further, unable to find the words to comeback with. He understood your worry and how much you cared for his well being, but he wanted to see his revenge on Overwatch through, seeing the organization fall apart once again -- taking the backstabbing agents with it. He was so blinded by anger in the moment that he ignored all warnings to retreat, disregarding it as his soldiers being too scared to engage in a fight.

“I’m sorry.” He murmured, the words foreign on his tongue, his hand moving to cup your cheek, taking notice of the tears that began to fall.

“I could have lost you,” Your voice was barely a whisper, muffled by sniffles, “I don’t know what I would have done...”

“But you didn’t-” You cut him off.

“That’s not the point!” You pulled away from his touch, eyebrows pulled together in frustration, “Your actions don’t just affect you! They affect me as well! You have no idea how terrified I was hearing that you were injured! Sombra had to calm me down because I thought the worse had happened. I thought you died out there!” You broke down sobbing, remembering the fear of losing him.

Gabriel gulped; he had never realized how much this hurt you. It pained him to see you cry -- his heart was breaking as weak whimpers escaped your lips.

He wrapped his arms around you, embracing you tightly, your face buried into the crook of his neck as your arms snaked around his torso, gripping him as if he’d disappear into thin air if you were to release him.

“Please... don’t go off like that.” You pleaded, Gabriel’s hand rubbing soothing circles into your back ,calming you down.

“I won’t. I’m sorry I made you worry. I wasn’t thinking right. Actually, I wasn’t thinking at all, I was just letting my hatred pull me along. God, I’m an ass, aren’t I?” He moved away to look into your eyes, his last comment making you laugh softly as you wiped a tear away with your thumb.

“A little, but don’t worry, I’ll still love you.” You smiled, your words catching Gabriel off guard.

You loved him? How was it even possible from him to deserve such deep affection from you? It was beyond him, but, nonetheless, it made his chest swell -- not due to the bruising skin.

He grasped your chin between his thumb and forefinger, his other hand meeting the back of your neck and pulling you into a kiss, pouring his unsaid emotions into it, his eyes shut as his lips danced in sync with yours. It was sweet and passionate, never edging on becoming heated, just enjoying your mutual love for one another. Your arms were still around his torso as you stood between his thighs as you hummed in satisfaction before slowly pulling away from much needed air.

“I love you so much. You have no idea.” He said softly, pressing a kiss to your temple.

“Oh shoot! I need to finish patching this up!” Realization hit you as your eyes drifted to wound.

Reinhardt

“Like this?” You asked, looking up at the much larger male beside you as you whisked the batter.

“Just like that!” His voice boomed cheerfully.

“Shh, it’s still early, remember? Everyone is still asleep.” You giggled, fixing your apron.

Reinhardt nodded silently, a big grin upon his lips.

It was a routine thing for Reinhardt to make all the agents of Overwatch breakfast on the weekends; his reasoning being “everyone deserves to have a treat”. Your heart warmed whenever you’d catch sight of him asking the agents what they’d fancy for breakfast, jotting down a quick list for the upcoming weekend.

Today, you had woken up early unintentionally and decided to make way to the cafeteria, figuring a few other people would already be awake and starting their day off with Reinhardt delicious cooking. As you entered, you saw Reinhardt pulling out ingredients from the cupboards and Jack leaving the room with a cup of black coffee in hand, saying how he was going to shower and come back for the meal when everyone was up. You had given Reinhardt a gentle kiss on the cheek, mumbling a sleepy “good morning” as you leaned against the counter, your eyes following his moves before you offered to help him.

“Perfect, meine Liebe.” He hummed as he also whisked a bowl of pancake batter, adding chocolate chips to the mix before pouring it into even portions on the heated pan, picking up a spatula.

Time passed by gracefully, allowing you and Reinhardt to enjoy your time together. No one entered the cafeteria as Reinhardt suddenly took your hand, pulling you away from the pancake batter. He placed his hand at your hip as you placed yours on his shoulder, allowing him to dance with you as soft music played through the portable speaker that sat on the counter. You laughed happily as he spun you around, the bow on your apron loosening, but disregarded. He hummed along with the tune of the song as he swayed back and forth with you, his eyes filled with nothing but all the love he held for you. His fingers patted your hip to the beat unconsciously.

Reinhardt loved to dance with you. On your first date, he had prepared a picnic under the moonlight, candles being the only source of light, besides the moon that cast down. He loved to pull you into his arms whenever a sweet love song began to play, twirling you around and hearing your laughter that was music to his ears; he wanted to spend the rest of his life doing this.

“(Y/n)?” He stopped as the music faded out.

“Hm?” You looked up at him curiously as he leaned forward, tilting your head up and gazed deeply into your eyes, making your heart flutter in anticipation.

“May I?” He asked, his other still holding yours.

You only nodded in response, but that was enough for him. His lips met yours gently, your eyes shutting in delight as you both relished in the kiss, savoring the softness of each other’s lips and how your lips melded together. Your hand left his shoulder, finding home on his chest as you tilted your head to deepen the kiss, which Reinhardt took no time to do, running his tongue across your bottom lip. You parted your lips for him, until a sudden cough startled you.

You quickly pulled away from Reinhardt, your face cherry red as your eyes met the brown ones of the youngest agent, who grinned evilly, her phone in hand.

“Oh, this’ll be great for the holiday cards.” She giggled, showing you the picture she took; you and Reinhardt sharing a innocent kiss -- before it evolved with more passion.

“H-Hana!” You cried in embarrassment, covering your heated cheeks.

“Don’t worry, I’m not going to do anything with it. You two are cute together, by the way.” She winked, “Well, I’m off. I’ll be back when breakfast is ready.” The Korean said before leaving with a wave, most likely going to play the newly released game she wouldn’t stop talking about weeks prior.

“I think it was a great photo. I’m going to have to ask her to send it to me.” Reinhardt smiled happily.

“Reinhardt!” You playfully hit his shoulder, earning a laugh from the German.

————

Masterlist

[asleepinawell]

What was your process for writing chapter 19 of STC (the one where Root is high and rambles on about AI)?

I write the vast majority of chapters linearly. I don’t skip around a lot or leave parts to fill in later. Also I don’t have much other than the big plot points planned out when I start. Sometimes I’ll have ideas for a joke or some dialogue but that’s about it. It’s mostly make situation, add characters, see what happens.

I knew I wanted to write a chapter where Root went off on an informational rant about artificial intelligence almost from the start of the story, but I was never sure where I was going to fit it in. It ended up in chapter 19 for three reasons.

1) Reese was actively questioning his own preconceptions about AI at this point (which became a big part of his story arc), and

2) Since it was right near the beginning of equivalent season 4 it was a good time to lay down some information/rules about AI and where that all stood in the story, and

3) it was written shortly after the unfortunate presidential election and I’d been doing a bit of reading on polling and predictions which tied into both the previous chapter (Prophets and Simon ‘Nate Silver’ Lee) and how the Machine might predict things. One of the interesting things I was reading about was applying context to poll data in order to get a more accurate prediction than was afforded by raw data.

This is getting long so I’m dropping in a read more line.

The AI stuff was mostly things I knew a bit about already, but I very definitely did some extra reading to fill in some gaps. I wanted to take a crack at explaining how I imagined the Machine saw things and made decisions. There’s a couple chapters later where you get more of this in TM’s own words, usually while she’s talking to Shaw. (The very next chapter is actually the first of those).

Since in the show most of the philosophical debates about AI were between Root and Finch, I had to find a different outlet for them as I accidentally forgot to write Finch at all in 300k+ words. Whoops. Shaw was the obvious candidate for Root (and TM) to talk to since, even if artificial intelligence is a bit outside her wheelhouse to start with, she’s fucking brilliant and can pick up on stuff really fast when given enough information to go on. And as the somewhat-reluctant leader of the group she would absolutely have to get more involved in that aspect of it (which later led to her and TM talking a lot). And Reese was the voice of concern and doubt, though in a very different way than Finch had been.

Having Root high as a kite was mostly just good fun. And Root was definitely playing it up a bit because she’s a dramatic binch and was enjoying herself. Also it let me show how Reese and Shaw each reacted to the situation. Reese was confused, concerned, and indulgent, and Shaw was exasperated, but unwilling to leave Root on her own, and (not-so) secretly interested in all the AI stuff Root was rambling about.

The last bit of it was the part near the end of the rant where Root started talking about what love and caring were to an Artificial Intelligence and unintentionally brought up the parallels with Shaw. It’s something I go into at various points over the course of the fic and got some things out in the open between everyone much earlier than they did in the show, which was definitely intentional. A lot of that tied into discussions I’ve had (mostly with other writers) about how different people (and AIs in this case) experience and enact love in different ways and how that’s healthy and normal. It’s one of the things that really drew me to Shoot actually. They were very outside the romanticized, unrealistic ideal of love and relationships that’s often shown in fiction and I appreciated that.

I didn’t have all those pieces in mind when I started, but I added each one in when it occurred to me to do so. A lot of how I write is setting up a situation with a couple variables and seeing where it ends up. I mean that’s basically how I wrote the whole damn thing. When I use outlines they’re very vague and broad and usually get thrown out within a chapter or two.