#and that works for emotional stuff i think but for plot points you kinda gotta go by vibes

[katerinaaqu]

Have you seen the new epic saga, it's something alright lmao

Of course I haven't seen it given that I never followed the live streaming to begin with not even in the first two sagas that I genuinely liked, much less now but a friend wanted to fill me in and since you asked and I wanted to be accurate, I tormented myself for almost 16 minutes to listen to the plot changes that I was told there would be and I am like

WHAT THE FUCK DID I HEAR?!!!!!!!!

I am sorry but again speakig purely on plot of course because honestly the music is really solid as always and the singers were amazing to transfer the emotions they wanted to transfer. Loved some of the melodies given, for example the intro of Charybdis was my favorite part I think but I am like HOW IS IT POSSIBLE THAT ALMOST ABSOLUTELY NOTHING OF THE FREAKING ODYSSEY IS IN THIS SAGA?!!!!!! Like he just kept the bare minimum again!

Sorry for the runt but yeah here goes:

"Not sorry for loving you"=> After all that backlash that song got even from the most loyal Epic fans he still kept it. I mean I admire his loyalty to his ideas but like he should have known that the song was not a good idea. I mean it was almost clear from the song's ideas that Jorge would dodge the subject of SA and that he would leave his fans guessing (smart move gotta give him that) at first given the suicide attempt Odysseus make but now it seems almost clear that he would want to dodge the subject just like he dodged the Circe thing it is just that right now he couldn't do it as blatantly because Calypso was an infamous moment of the Odyssey And of course the "I love you" Odysseus said...I said it before and I say it again it reminds me a blunt way to translate the reconsiliation of Odysseus and Calypso in the Odyssey. Okay even Odyssey was interesting in that (see my other analysis) even Homer uses the phrase "they rested by each other's side enjoying their closeness" so in one way even Homer seems to be implying that Odysseus forgives her and even tries to see it from her point of view but honestly what else could he do? Hold a grudge? A day before he would be FINALLY given the tools to make a raft? I think not. It almost felt like Odysseus felt sorry for Calyspo for one second in the Odyssey, when Calypso, a literal goddess, compared herself to his wife. It was an almost pity move on his part at that moment. Dunno what the musical wanted to do with this but this was not the way to do it! All the context of their talk and all was lost! If anything he tried to use a made-up thing, AGAIN to show some compassion for Calyspo. Calypso was already a lonely deity. That tragedy was enough for her. She didn't need any more tear-jerking stories for people to feel for her more in my opinion (kinda like whatever PJO did if I am not mistaken...either way yeah...)

"Dangerous"=> You know...at this point I am not even surprised that he made Hermes and Odysseus interract....like that would be my least of my problems. He does make Odysseus interract with all the gods under the sun in the musical even if Odysseus only interracts with is Hermes at Circe's island ONLY and Athena in the Odyssey and that after he has been through everything! Either way of course we would have Hermes there but like again with all the things we have from "video game logic" or whatever he wants to do...Hermes gives him another bag?! like I have no idea what is going on here! The only thing I would praise here is the emotional preparation for a possible reunion with Athena given how Hermes doesn't tell Odysseus who helped him so maybe he has an emotional load there.

"Charybdis"=> Okay for starters.....WHAT THE FUCK?! What is Charybdis doing AFTER Ogygia?! Not even a flashback!? (and I was wondering where the "Hermes told me" thing came from in that preview) Like where is that damn desperation of Odysseus having to face Charybdis right after he lost everyone?! Alone and hungry in the sea after a terrible storm that took away his men?! I also love it really how everyone thought originally that at least Charybdis would be accurate to the text and everyone was making their analysis and "look how fighting he is here compared to after when he wants to throw himself in the sea in Ogygia" and now it is clear that this thing came AFTER Ogygia for some reason. Like I am not even surprised anymore that some of the most iconic moments of the Odyssey were twisted. It almost seems deliberate at this point like "yeah let's change exactly the most iconic parts" that's why Circe was changed, Sirens were changed, Skylla was changed, Charybdis was changed...even the storm after the Helios island... The intro slaps no lie there but honest I have expressed my opinion on that before and got in trouble but I think that moment of desperation shouldn't be a fucking epic song. It was a man hanging for dear life from a tree! Trying his best not to die! (made also one small thing here) And like I get it, if someone sees that escape as "epic" for being so dramatic and impressive, I get it. have epic music in the background but what on earth with the lyrics? Like "destroy you"?! Really? or "bring it on!" like the last thing Odysseus wanted in the Odyssey was Charybdis to...bring it on! Lol! You may as well speak on the "I'm still fightng here" thing, I totally get it why, but to actually challenge the beast seems totally random. But then again I guess it fits more with THIS context given how he thinks he is now favored by the gods? In the Odyssey he was alone abandoned by all and everything with no hope left so I guess...

"Get in the Water"=> Like okay I have seen this in more replays than I can count from the very beginning from the demos till now. Ironically out of this whole thing it could be lowkey my favorite! Lol! Mainly because it fits the Odyssey PARTIALLY (yeah again Poseidon never wanted to kill Odysseus. That was written straight out in the freaking Odyssey! Even 1997 version that was inacurate as hell in many things did that right!). I would have loved it if this song was Poseidon having a monolog and Odysseus having his cries like "oh no!" or prayers as a second monolog. Like not actually interracting but have two parallel monologs! This trope is not used much and I wish I saw it more. Like Odysseus praying to Poseidon but Poseidon doing his thing alone and the two not having a dialog to each other. Apart from that the song was as we expected so far. Maybe the last part had me a bit iked but again I feel like it would be massively fixed if the two characters had parallel monologs and not actually interracting. I also love it how casually we have Odysseus accuse Poseidon in this saga for destroying his men while he CONSCIOUSLY killed the last of those himself.

"600 strikes"=> I'm sorry but....WHAT THE HELL DID I JUST SEE?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!??!?!??!?!?!?! Like I am sorry never felt like good music was so wasted in my entire life ever since the Siren fiasco! Like the song is amazing musically but what the hell did just happen?!?!?!?!?! For starters the underworld has a bus service apparently and all come up... I feel like Jorge uses this as a pattern at this point. When scenes like the underworld attracted so much fans and emotions from people who praised his choice to bring the ghosts and the voices up he wants to use it every time to focus on emotional load in a similar manner (like I said never followed him for real so I am not sure how much of it was planned before and how much of it was done on the way). But yeah of course we would expect the appearance especially with the hype at Love in Paradise. But excuse the fuck out of me WHAT!? Odysseus beating up Poseidon with his FUCKING TRIDENT with the power of friendship?! LOL! I have no idea what to take of this! We do know humans fought gods before (Diomedes looking at you) but ironically to my knowledge NEVER THE BIG THREE! Like you know...fucking ZEUS POSEIDON AND HADES?!? The three main pillars of the world (Heaven Earth Underworld)?! I don't think I ever loved a lyric so much (Odysseus admitting what he became from his trip) and so cringe at the same time (Fucking POSEIDON begging for mercy?! and calling him "monster" for fighting back?!" I am not sure to which to cringe first). Is this supposed to be the part where Odysseus redeems himself against Poseidon?! To dodge the fact that Tiresias DIDN'T give him instructions to break the curse?! So basically Odysseus redeems himself for what he did...by stabbing a fucking god?! Like...remember how Diomedes was cursed by the narrative for stabbing fucking Aphrodite after fucking ATHENA ordered him to?! Yeah right that works! What the hell?! And the final part was supposed to be some sort of redemption from the pattern "All I hear are screams"?! Like "how will you seel at night?" and the response "next to my wife"?! Is that supposed to be the last of the "all I hear are screams" pattern?! Is this supposed to be the ultimate "monster move" of Odysseus or something?! And of course we had to have an encore from the previous bag of winds scene as well like yeah once more the god Poseidon the fucking literal god of seas and land inhabited by humans, the guy who has the epithet Προσκλύστιος (Prosklystios)= the one who strikes against (to imply the waves) was taken down by a bag of winds?! I mean yeah makes total sense!

You know...it almost feels like Jorge read my fanfiction with his men supporting him against the Trojans! Looooool just kidding I just am too shook by the random things that come out of that magic hat! Like yeah Odysseus swimming, literally SWIMMING for two days in a fucking storm to reach Scheria was not epic enough apparently...we needed some sort of final boss god fight here...like Hades game or something like yeah...what's next?! Odysseus will shoot fucking ZEUS with his bow with the blessings of Athena to get even in thenext saga?!

Also of course we have sped up plot again because screw the Phaeaceans, the very reason Odysseus even TELLS HIS STORY! The one we could have his redemption, his cry and the move of compassion from them (not to mention it makes so much more sense than someone traveling on a freaking RAFT from Calyspo's island all the way to Ithaca since the Phaeaces gave him a ship and all) unless they somehow pop up later which I doubt... I also heard that the storm or whatever is signifying Penelope the coming home of her husband? Not sure again not following but yeah

To conclude as always music-wise really solid work very good harmonies and by n large very good intros

Plot wise

WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK?!?!?!?!?!?!?

Again I deeply apologize on the Epic fans out there and even to the creator himself if I sound harsh! I know but still...I just cannot anymore...the plot is like killing me!

and these are my PERSONAL OPINIONS! If you love it good for you guys! I just had enough of it really. Is it impressive? HELL YEAH is it creative ABSOLUTELY!! is it good? To me absolutely not! Honest never expected to say that but I think the "Get in the Water" is the song that makes the most sense out of it.

PS: I am sure the animators did a FANTASTIC JOB in their work too! And I believe I will see impressive stuff from now on! The same good job as the singers did!

[rynnthefangirl]

I loved the list you made about the things that Stan and Ford can and should or can't and should not be accountable but like there are somethings I don't get and I hope you could help me see things from your perspective. Like, the majority of people agrees that Ford has the right to hold a grudge at Stan for him breaking his machine since he did not apologize to Ford and time is not an apology. Ford also thought that Stan would be fine on his own and that was the reason he never checked on him. Also, Bill is a master manipulator, so Ford believing in him is more about Bill being good at manipulating people than Ford's ego.

I also think you forget to add some things, like, Ford didn't explained to Stan the situation that he was in, he just shoved the Journal 1 on him and ordered him to hide it without even saying if he would contact him to come back or not. He also brought up their childhood dream while doing that and later said to Stan that did nothing worthwhile with his life until that moment. And he also burned and branded Stan. While Stan called Ford selfish for not using his grant money to help their family and later tried to burn Journal 1 out of spite. He also messed up with Ford's infinity sided dice, which put him and Dipper in danger.

Thanks for the ask!

Regarding Ford not checking on Stan, I think you are correct that he figured Stan would be fine… but I also think that Ford believed this at least in part because he doesn’t want contend with his mixed feelings about his brother. He just wants to feel justifiably angry, so that he can forget about Stan and focus on himself and his future. Knowing that Stan was suffering would force him to confront how he does still love and miss his brother (but his aim is getting better), which would burden him and put him in a position of having to choose whether to make a sacrifice (whether it be time, money, emotional effort, part of his career goals) for Stan’s sake. Which he doesn’t want to do. Ford isn’t a bad guy, and he does love his brother… but he is really good at believing things just because he wants to believe them. I don’t think this is a reasonable view of reality though. Stan was kicked out at 18, with no money to his name, no friends, no family, no home. Ford should have considered the possibility that Stan may be suffering and need him. I certainly don’t blame him for being upset with Stan about the project or even necessarily for holding a grudge about it (especially given how terribly Stan handled that confrontation), but we know Ford cares for his brother despite that, and he doesn’t really show it when he chooses to never check on him for 10 years.

As for Bill and Ford, well I think it’s both Bill’s manipulation AND Ford’s ego. Like yes Bill was a good manipulator, but it worked because there was something for him to target. Ford was so desperate to believe he was special and important, which goes back to Ford being really good at believing things that aren’t actually reasonable just because he wants them to be true. I’ll link a more in depth post that I made that is kinda on this same topic, if you are interested :)

Then for the other points you bring up, you are right that both of them did a lot to escalate that situation into a fight. I will admit I am extremely lenient towards Ford in this situation because he was in the middle of a mental breakdown. I mean he’s been essentially tortured for days on end, I don’t blame him for being a bit thoughtless. I think the onus was on Stan to see that and realize he needs to be the bigger person in that moment. As for the infinity sided dice though, gotta disagree about that being on Stan… who puts an incredibly dangerous object like that in a cheap plastic case in a little sack? 😂 but to be fair, that dumb choice was more just for plot purposes so the episode can happen.

Here’s a link to the post I mentioned:

And thanks again for the ask, I love the Stan twins and talking about their relationship!

[evienyx]

im not too sure how to ask this, but i'm reading the first book in the fractures series, and really enjoying it, and you said that you started it when you were 14. i'm 14 at the moment and am thinking of writing a fic and was wondering if you had any tips on how to plan a longfic or for writing in general

Oh my god this was asked back in August I'm so sorry anon.

As it is, I can still give a pointer or two, regardless of how late it is.

So, as much as anyone hates to hear it and I hate to say it, the best way to get better at prose (as in sentence-level writing) is just by writing. You gotta train it, develop your own style, figure out what works.

I have a tendency to be very flowy and long-winded, often to my own detriment, which is something I'm working on trimming down in the Fractures Rewrite without sacrificing the emotional weight from the scenes.

When it comes to planning a longfic, generally the most important first step (for me at least) is figuring out where you want to end it. Anyone can write a fic whose plot goes on and on for eternity, but if you want your fic to kinda be a classic, having an idea of where it's going to end up will immediately help you.

After the end, the hardest part for me tends to be the middle. It is just as important as anything, and you want it to stay just as interesting. The middle part of the story is the plot, the beginning and end are just vessels for it.

Oftentimes, the earliest form of my outline is literally just a document with the entire plot written out. I don't care for length or details, I just sit down, write the beginning, and then write how the story gets to the end. From there, I clean the outline up. I figure out what makes sense to use and what needs to be added or taken away. I start separating the stuff into possible chapters and outlining those chapters to figure out what they will include.

As I'm doing this, I also write out (smaller) outlines for the arcs of individual characters. Depending on the size of the fic and what the focus is, I might do this for dozens of characters or only for a handful. Regardless, I need to know where they start, where they end up, and how the plot changes them to get them from point A to point B.

If you're ever struggling with coming up with a plot that flows well with good tension, one that feels like it's building to something satisfying, you can always just use a plot template from online somewhere. Even if it feels rudimentary, Exposition-Rising Action-Climax-Falling Action-Resolution works for a reason. It's often how I outline stories of my own that aren't related to fanfiction.

One more tip: Read. And I don't just mean fanfiction. The best fics are often compared to published novels, with some even being considered better than them. One of the reasons these stories are so good is because they don't flow like many fanfictions do - rather they flow like published novels, with a proper plot, arcs, prose, and a satisfying ending.

[splinteredsweets]

im bored and i don't wanna sleep yet but i can't seem to write today so i'm just gonna start rambling a little bit about my felix + turbo (i say it like this bc it's not inherently romantic the point is moreso that they're close in some shape or form) fic i'm writing bc as awkward as i feel about it i just think i'd feel weirder dropping it completely out of nowhere whenever i do finish it sooo

rambling go !!

it's essentially about that one headcanon where they exchange awards bc i love that hc c: the entire fic is gonna be made up of 5 different scenes - the first two are showcasing how the initial trade-off came to be , the next two are about them reminiscing about each other , and the last one is after all the sugar rush stuff happens

i don't really wanna give toooo much away mostly bc i am a very secretive person and i like being weird and vague about the stuff i'm working on bbbuuuuuttt i am veeeerrrrrrryyyt close to being finished . i think . pretty sure ? ive been working on this for almost a month already and i pretty much have the first three sections done with constant editing and small changes here and there , im currently finishing up the fourth , and i need to start working on the fifth ... which the latter is gonna be tough bc ... im not even entirely sure how it's supposed to play out yet ive kinda been putting it off entirely until i had everything else written since it depends a lot on what happens before then so im still trying to figure out what exactly im trying to get out of the scene .:. i'll get there eventually tho no idea when

oh yeah btw . i hope you like angst . bc i LOVE the stuff and there is a loooooot of it . like 8k+ words of it hEhEheHeGe ok like tEchNiCallY the first 3k or so are mostly fluff the first 2 parts are kinda sweet i think but there is an overhanging feeling of dread for the pain that is to come ... c:<

ig that's enough rambling about the premise for now , although i'll share just a few out of context authors notes unfortunately i don't have very many bc i was way too worried with how everything was turning out so most of it was like 70% worrying and 30% plotting

'what actually is on felix’s medal like … is it a number one … or his name … or a hammer … why is it both the latter in the movie … that doesn't make any sense … i can work with any of these i just need to know which one it actually is …IM ORETTY SURE ITS BOTH ugh im going to scream … ok i think like on the screen it's his name but in the actual game it's a hammer .. ? kill me what the fuck do i go with ' (decided to go with the name bc i had more to work with)

'one of the nicelanders is like ‘you have a visitor’ and he's like ‘wow already .. ?’ and there's like only one person he can think of that that's fast . SONIC SPEE- no '

'to roadblasters or not to roadblasters … that is the question ..'

'he can get a little overwhelmed by emotions right as a treat ?'

'ppffftttt i was just thinking random thoughts and my silly brain thought of that one thing that's like 'annoying gay couple + annoyed lesbian' with fucking hammertastic and gene pppfpfffftttt that's so stupid lmao'

'feel like this is kinda sweet ... this looks like a good spot for my roller skate and my marbles ... it's just such a shame i'm going to RIP IT ALL AWAY HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA i love angst <333 you gotta have some lovely happy moments to maximise the pain'

'... i do not know a fucking thing about clothes is what kc's wearing under his tailcoat a waistcoat or am i stupid ... is it a normal shirt idk ... is that immersion ruining if i just keep it im going to die' (didn't end up using it)

'i really love it when my brain gets excited and goes hehhehehehehahahahahahHhdeHgff do EEEEAAAAA i don't know if i can utilise this power properly tho :C i can try tho … hey looks like the worrying is back on yayyyy (boooo)'

'fuck it we ball we go into the liiiIIIIII'

there is also a whole bunch of evil laughter in the notes and i noticed i use a LOT of italics especially when it's from turbo and especially especially during king candy's section lmao ... he just feels the need to be very expressive and emphasise the way he says and thinks things lol

yknow what just for fun - and bc i have no idea where else to put this - i did once have a very . interesting . bunch of authors notes i wrote a few years ago for something else but i never ended up writing it . it makes absolutely no sense at all and it's completely out of context so hopefully it's still kinda funny

'pictures of giirrrllss are noooot for meeee you seeee

she be down in hollywood (that's not the words) (idc)

ur actually insane yeah thanks i know

WE GET GIRLS !!! WE ARE CUTE !!! WE ARE COOL !!

dom

i eat sand

shut up

metroman finally starts falling for megamind but oopsies poopsies it's too late he's already fallen for the hot reporter roxanne (what the fuck why did you make this comparison) (also that just sounds like a normal megamind fic)'

i would draft similarly to ^that in school too with my boring essays and once i accidentally submitted one of those drafts and i got sent to the counsellors office for 'concerning behaviour' lmao

anyways i might maybe perhaps ramble some more and let loose some more details perhaps maybe another time dunno uhh but i think that's enough for now ... bonus rambling in the tags

[oneclickangel]

okay. i finished the 2.0/floor it! to the golden city event story. thoughts/ramble under the cut bc spoilers

i feel like. the plot is kinda all over the place ?? it starts off with this legers dude wanting to meet with j for "a slice of that new age market pie" which means .... what exactly? am i just dumb?? i still dont get what he wanted from j that has to do with the new age market and/or manus vindicslay. i'd appreciate it if someone can explain to my dumbass. but then, understandably so, the j gang sees legers and his cronies as a threat to haight street. and then it leads to ... j wanting to visit his sister paulina/polly at the foundation

i feel like there couldve been a better lead-up to this other than "man we shouldve left like polly did but now we gotta deal with some baddies". like idk it feels abrupt to just cut to them visiting the foundation. but then theyre like oh polly couldnt have died bc her hand doesnt match this old pic we have of her and it's kinda silly and they raise a commotion and bla bla bla the foundation chases after them bc of it (i find it funny how thats how they get the foundation in on the bigger problem thats brewing underneath everything). matilda is tasked with catching the men and then through matilda's diviner skills, they confirm that polly's dead. manus vindicslay comes to stir shit up again so matilda's like okay fine i'll help you guys

fast forward they stumble upon the underground market blah blah blah mercuria is evil ⁉️ except i actually. dont understand what her role is here. like at first i thought that might be the point of her character bc she never stays in one place so she never stays in one role but idk. for someone who seems to be so important in this event, her motivations are unclear. but anyway

i dont understand the whole "oh we planned this all along" think they pulled either like??? what. did they plan exactly? the ambush and j faking a death and working alongside legers?? none of this was explained properly right??? or am i dumb???? ngl when i was playing through that scene i was like "are they expecting the audience to be smart enough to piece everything together?" my mind started to wonder like if they pulled a persona 5 and have a whole scene explaining their plan, would that be underestimating their audience? MAN IDK BUT THEY DIDNT SAY SHIT ABOUT THIS PLAN UNTIL THAT SCENE PLAYED. i definitely related to matilda in that moment 😭😭😭

but anyway what i liked and not-confusing about this event is the characterization of the characters (aside from mercuria). everyone feels consistent, from j all the way to eternity. im glad the quality of the character writing is still intact at least, for the most part

the character dynamics are also quite well-written, especially between j and polly. it's as heart-wrenching as i expected it to be. thinking about it actively gives me emotional damage. the fact that it took me more than a dozen chapters for me to realize that j sees polly in matilda. seeing his friendships is also heartwarming and it showcases j's personality quite well. his dynamic with pioneer is also cute. theres always something funny coming out of their dialogue when they interact

the setting is an interesting choice, it's enlightening to see how it impacts the worldview of the characters and their motivations. the poverty, disease, crime, and neglect of it all. the new age market is intriguing is a nice choice to get a lot of people of different backgrounds and stuff to gather in one place. not much to say beyond that

tldr: i dont know what the hell happened story-wise but it Happened but i truly love all the characters in it and how they interact with each other and their environment. this event story brought me Massive Pain™️, especially when paulina is on screen

not my fave event (which may be surprising bc j is in this event, i know), rayashki takes the cake for that, but i would be lying if i said i dislike this event. in fact, it's made me want to cry a few times. if it wasnt for the confusing pacing, i wouldve been more moved

[cainightfics]

hello.

Hope u r doing well! I love ur fics!

In one of ur asks u mentioned that you read Manga for fun. So any mangas u like or recommend ( besides berserk, already read it)?

thank u! hope ur doing well too

i haven't been reading "good" manga much recently. i read random yaoi for a laugh or easy entertainment, same with fic, but it's been a while since ive really dug into something. a lot of this has to do with grad school killing my creativity, tbh....

but to answer ur question, i really like naoki urasawa, i think hes written the most "literary" manga out there. everybody knows about monster, but 20th/21st century boys and pluto are also worth checking out. urasawa has the most consistently good body of work ive encountered from a mangaka. like, i would say fullmetal alchemist probably has my vote for manga that remains strong throughout and is just undeniably a classic, but urasawa has so much breadth across his body of work. there's shit in monster and 20th century boys i still think about, and i read them like 13 years ago.

i am keeping up with the summer hikaru died, though the plot is at a bit of a lull and i get the sense the author isn't completely sure what to do with their own success. i absolutely love the concept nonetheless though, and think the first few chapters are great on their own.

a lesser known, cult favourite of mine is homunculus. really really different than most manga you've probably read already. can't say much more than that without spoiling.

i think vagabond is worth checking out, even though the story is probably akin to many things youve already read, and it remains unfinished. same with the climber. not super unique stories or themes, but generally well executed.

my guilty pleasure manga is kuroshitsuji lol. its my opinion that yana toboso is kind of a genius but.isnt even really aware of it bc shes cursed with gooner mentality. the story really really sucks right now and has for the past 2 arcs lol but i could write an entire thesis on my various marxist readings of kuroshitsuji. and im not even joking. it's sooooo stupid but it's fascinating to me bc yana is making this like insane pastiche of victorian literary conventions AND contemporary victorian anachronisms that is honestly really camp and interesting but it's just like. FULL of her weird fetishes. not even the obvious pedo stuff but like once you get into it you start seeing her vomit fetish and foot fetish and dollification fetish and it's just really interesting to analyze 😭 like i wanna put her in a lab and study her idk. a little known fact to u all about me is im like obsessed with ppl who are weirdly horny and i conduct what i call "goonvestigations" on them and to me yana toboso is like a top tier gooner to investigate. omg notice how this is already the longest paragraph in this reply... i wouldn't say i recommend reading it lmfao i just think it may be hilariously shocking to you all that i follow that slop. not even just follow. i read the LEAKS 😭

anyways. i would also say oyasumi punpun and blood on the tracks (moreso the beginning bits, it does kinda fall off) are things u might like if you were into the "darker" aspects of berserk (and im not talking the shitty rape scenes, moreso the emotional toxic entanglement of fucked up characters). obviously ya gotta read junji ito too.

i also read saiki k, one punch man, and mob psycho 100 for fun. i think when you read enough of the same thing, eventually you get to the point where all you wanna read is parodies of the genre lol. i read sooooo much manga when i was younger that now its all the same to me, and i just wanna see people make fun of it. that's kinda where im at with manga lately... none of the new stuff interests me unless it's self reflective satire of its own principles. this is why i like mr robot too btw. it functions as satire of both online political movements and their material impotence, and how they are shaped by 90s american capitalism-critical media like american psycho, the sopranos, fight club etc that are about protagonists essentially so caught up in themselves their worldviews totally occlude reality. but don't get me going about mr robot or ill go on forever...

[uraniumnm333]

back on the vocal synth/bsd au i've got going on. first of all more vocaloids

VFlower - Abnormality Dancing Girl and she basically has these. Big metal pins she can summon. Kind of like pins you use to pin up a butterfly. But also only three at a time

Kaai Yuki - Ikanaide and she can freeze moments in time. These frozen moments can be accessed through her memory

GUMI - Disappearance Addiction she can erase people's minds and will them to do something, but only for 8 minutes

also time to start explaining my ideas !!!

Crypton Detective Agency: Kaito, Meiko, Luka, Rin, Len, Miku, Teto

basically the armed detective agency yeah. they solve crimes uncover secret gov't plots and point n laugh at people. :skull:

Miku: Miku is 16 and basically a fill-in for dazai tbh. so basically i go back on what I said earlier bc i decided it would be MUCH cooler for her ability not to have a name. and basically her whole disguise thing comes from her going into other realities and borrowing the "other" her's appearance. kinda like beast. so she knows all these crazy wacky things n knows she isn't real and there's all these other realities n whatnot. but instead of telling len that servant of evil was given to him because he dies or that teto isn't even actualyl a vocaloid or that she and luka have had very intimate moments, she instead makes it a running joke n everyone else thinks she just gives these wacky disguises of hers origin stories. > Miku: "And the reason I look like THIS is because we were all in an evil circus and got experimented on so we all suffered horribly at the hands of others." > Len: ":thumbsup:"

Rin & Len: Twins who were more or less sent to the agency for their rather disruptive abilities. Also I changed my mind AGAIN Rin and Len are Servant/Daughter of evil bc yknow matching. and Rin's ability is that she can grow roses n stuff but she has to prick herself so it'll work. basically they came from bouncing around homes before landing at the doorstep of CDA bc they didn't want to be separated. no this is not a tanizaki siblings moment.

Luka: She's fucking normal !!! my girl enjoys painting and drawing and carries around a sketchbook with her and you can see where she has trapped people in paintings (girlboss). anyways she also works at a cafe bc girl's gotta make a livin. she is honestly the mose well-adjusted out of them and also co-runs the company. also rin and len live w her

Meiko: She has a hard time controling her ability when she's feeling any sort of intense emotion so she'll be scrolling on her phone during work and then randomly set the fucking desk on fire bc she saw a vaguely funny minions meme on her facebook. she works for the agency bc she was in kahoots w the authorities (smh... hate to see a girlboss commit arson on accident) and was hired and put under protection. so she doesn't set people on fire [at least not anymore] lolzies !!!

Kaito: Changed my mind bro is Doctor=Funk Beat now.

Teto: changed my mind about sound and smell bc i think it would be sillier if she could make a small bubble where time stops, and use an umbrella as a weapon. anyways her hashtag backstory is that she used to work with an underground gang of sorts (vippaloids LMAOO) before leaving them behind and joining the CDA. miku was the person who kind of got her out of there and has been sort of mentoring her since then.

other thoughts lmao:

everyone in the CDA is hoping and praying kaito and meiko get together because it is so terribly cringe watching them pine after each other

piko's ability is Chelovek and he can manipulate mannequins.

i got nuthin else for rn i just wanna get a post out for today

[grubliinu]

Hello, apologies if this is interrupting your day but i absolutely in love with your writing which is very immersive! I want to write like you. Do you have any recommendations for sources and tips of writing for beginners? Also thank you so much for all the fics. Love them <3

Aaaa oh my gosh this comment just made my day, thank you so much I'm really flattered you think so highly of my writing skills! Sorry it took me a while to reply, I have been busy and wanted to take my time writing a reply. Hopefully, you'll find this useful!

I can't think of any specific sources I have used but my tumblr should have some stuff if you search the ''writing'', writing stuff'' and writing reference'' tags (I think those are the ones I use but man, I really should organize them better lmao) But here are also some other tips I use frequently while writing that I can think from the top of my head:

1) Make a separate document to ''doodle'' on This is a big one for me. I'm not quite sure what kind of writer you are (are you the type to meticulously plan everything before you start writing, or do you go with the flow?) so I don't know how useful this is for you, but I am strictly the former. When I start planning a fic, I make two files – the actual fic, and a separate document that is basically a sketchbook but for writing. There, I write down everything, from ideas to random bits of dialogue that I thought sounded cool and could be used in the future.

Another thing this doodle document is super useful for is creating summaries. Since I write a lot of angst, I often have to write scenes that deal with the character's emotions and inner thoughts. While I like writing that type of stuff, I often struggle to articulate my thoughts and interpretation into something coherent that I can put into words and I have discovered that simply writing a short breakdown essay of every aspect I want to explore in that particular scene. For example, in chapter 4 of Lungs Full of Roses, when Childe destroys the hilichurl camp, in that scene, I wanted to establish how he views his relationship with the tsaritsa and family, as well as reveal how he really feels about Zhongli, so I wrote separate sections for Tsaritsa, Childe's family, and Zhongli, and how Childe feels about them using very simple terms.

I also tend to never erase anything from those documents so that I can revisit an idea in the future. Instead, I just make the font smaller for those parts!

2) Balance between purple prose and ''pragmatic'' (idk what to call it really) This is especially related to your question since this is something that is constantly on my mind as I write – I love using a poetic style of writing full of words that I think sound pretty. However, I personally can't read writing that only consist of that type of purple prose, so I often have to resist the temptation to add more poetic flair to the more mundane parts. But honestly, sometimes you just gotta focus on making the plot move from point A to point B and that's okay! Every sentence doesn't have to be a work of art – in fact, I personally think (or hope in the case of my own writing) that saving the poetics for the more emotional scenes makes them hit even deeper.

3) Use gestures to convey emotions This is like an actual tip from writers but it's also something I try to be aware of when I write. Instead of using something like 'he felt angry', try something like 'he clenched his fist' etc. to convey the anger. The Internet is full of lists of body language and gestures that are created for writers and I recommend checking those out! You can also use metaphors to convey emotions – using the example above, you could write something like ''anger surged through him like a wave''. I like to mix gestures and metaphors.

You can also use the structure of the sentence to convey emotion. For example, if the character is angry, use short sentences. If they're panicking, convey that panic by using a longer sentence that just kinda spirals into panic. (I don't know how to explain so here's an example from Lungs Full of Roses where Childe is both angry and panicking lmao)

[Childe breathed in. Out. He felt trapped, like a giant beast in a small cage, and Archons how he hated it. Hated how his skin crawled with the need for action, hated how his instincts were screaming at him about nonexistent eyes watching his every movement even though he knew that he was alone. A part of him, the part that had been forged by the suffocating mists of the Abyss, itched to destroy his room, no, actually the room wasn't enough – destroy the hotel, the city, the whole goddamn region that prided itself on the fictitious freedom and cloying wine until nothing but ashes remained.] 

As you might have noticed, I wrote ''he felt trapped'' – which is what I just said to avoid. However, I remember thinking that the scene needed something short and simple and I figured that this was the way to go – which goes to show that the rules of writing aren't set in stone and you can absolutely break them if you want (imo the only rule I think everyone should follow is to USE PARAGRAPHS if you write fics, it is really hard to read fics that don't use them)

Annnd that's about what I can currently think of, hopefully, there was something that you find useful! My writing style is something that has been developing for over ten years so it is hard for me to like actually explain it so I'm really sorry this is so disjointed. Again, thank you so much for your kind words, I'm so glad that you sent me this message anon!

[castlebyersafterdark]

the kali episode is so divisive. i saw a YT reaction where the person was so so so excited and tearing up when el mind-searched and found mike and hop, like YES! theyre who you should be with! go home go home! and it made me wonder whether the entire point of the episode was to make you desperate to see el go back to hawkins, back to the real vibe and tone of the show. if so, a wild move, making viewers sit through THAT much lame-ass superhero big city stuff - that's almost an avant-garde thing to do, making the audience literally feel as fish-out-of-water as El did. if so, respect.

but if the writers actually thought the whole kali storyline was actually badass, then... yeah it's a total flop. im sure many viewers skip that ep on rewatches.

considering most people think they genuinely forgot will's birthday and it wasn't an elaborate plotline like we bylers believe, then maybe its skeptical to think the duffers' intention with the kali episode was so artistic. but theyre pretty good at pulling emotional punches in other ways, including getting us super invested in these characters within the first few mins of episode s1e1... so i like to believe that the kali episode was a deliberate macguffin. after all, how could anyone prefer that tone to the cosiness of hawkins?

even s4 itself was meant to make us itch for the gang to get back together. people hate russia, nina, even california storylines... but clearly youre meant to! i mean, theyre compelling viewing, but youre meant to want the gang to get back to hawkins (which would also make the ending where they potentially leave in s5 even more bittersweet). hawkins has become home from home for the viewer, too, which makes the danger people like eddie, will and hellfire club face even scarier, because it will feel like our very homeostasis has been disturbed too - as though WE, too, are on the run from witchhunters and the law.

for a show that requires emotional alliance with our beloved outcasts, this sense of danger is essential for the stakes to be high! i think lots of fans here seem to want a viewing experience where they witness will etc in danger but don't actually experience any discomfort themselves, which... well, i don't know how that would be possible in a way that would still make you invested in the show.

This is an interesting take and one I ne er honestly considered? Taking you to this unfamiliar location to feel the same way El did. I mean, effective if intentional? Season 4 certainly worked, to that same point. I enjoyed the Cali plot line but very much the whole endeavor was overall "we gotta get them all back to Hawkins" as an undercurrent to the whole thing. So yes, agree with your points about the stakes and relating to the feeling of Hawkins as home, which makes emotional connection to what's going on very effective. Agreed.

I am, admittedly, one of those audience members for format TV who doesn't jive well with a location deviation. It disrupts my brain. Like, anytime the FRIENDS characters left NYC whether it's London or Vegas or the beach... I kinda wished they were just back at the city, even if important or interesting plotpoint arose. Which is wild because in the city - what does it matter? It's most filmed in the setting of apartments anyway. Other examples, but that's the easiest that comes to mind. When the setting's such a part of the show, feels weird to depart. People are thrilled season 5 is contained back in Hawkins, for understandable reason.

I do wonder how intentional things certain things are. It puts the Lost Sister episode into new context if it was meant thematically to be that jarring for narrative purposes. Because the writing was so odd, there was a lot of weakness in that episode where otherwise the season is so strong otherwise. I guess for me, I didn't gain enough connection to what El was dealing with and working through there just to reach her outcome and decision by the end of it - evident by how I've skipped it during almost every rewatch. Controversial, but I've done that. So, perhaps it very much was intended the way were conjecturing, but even so it didn't work for everyone watching.

Despite their insistence it wasn't a backdoor spin-off pilot they scrapped after bad reception, I will always have my doubts. If Kali doesn't return but all the other threads are addressed, it might put it into that context as you suggest - such as Birthdaygate and for me the biggest thing they need to convince me of is the Henry/Vecna plot line being planned from season 1. THAT'S where I'm waiting to be completely sold on regarding the writing of the series being incredible or circumstantial. A couple things need to happen and I am hoping will happen, otherwise I learn towards certain things being made up as they went along. We shall see.

[artficlly]

hey so i think i'm in love w you. this is my confession of love. holy shit ??? i'm gnawing at the bars of my cage, positively crying in the clurb reading this oh my god?? i love when i get reblogs like this i'm actually??? sobbing. SPEECHLESS. this fic took me like 4 days of fucking mania to write, like genuinely i was going crazy. at one point in ending near the end i just got up and went for a walk for like 40 mins and looked at some trees i was actually going fully insane.

anyway pls keep all limbs inside the vehicle bc i am about to drive the yap train bc omg. i am not beating the i am going to be so normal about this allegations.

my reaction to the beginning was me just marveling at how well done the dialogue was and how real the exchange between reader and Yelena was as friends. You also communicated the sharp and intentional movements we've seen from Yelena very well.

oh my god tysm?? i love writing yelena, she's my fave girlie. i'm so happi happi that you thought that !?!? i always fear that i have over-exaggerated her character or whateva. i'm so bad for like... not being normal when it comes to one-shots. i can't just write a scene like a normal person. must establish a whole lore and how the reader interacts with the other characters. this fic could've been so much shorter, but it also could've been so much longer because i cut myself off writing more unplotted scenes after about 8k words. no more world-building! bad!

The way you write is so fucking good, I’m literally in awe. You have one of the most immersive writing styles I’ve ever read I'm not fucking kidding. And I've been reading Bucky for literally ever bro. He's my bottom bitch fr, and I think I'm hailing you as the best Bucky writer I've come across-like ever.

hey so i'm crying rn. sobbing actucally?/ what the hell. thank you so much?? i've been trying to improve my writing a lot recently so it genuinely means sm to me. i've been enjoying writing more modern stuff recently where i can be kinda unserious about it. i sit down with legit the vaguest of vague ideas, maybe some dialogue and then just kinda word vomit on the doc until it works out. like i'm legit attaching u a screenshot of my plotting for the beginning of this fic so u can understand how whimsical and barebones my plotting is. 80% it just ends up being dialogue bc i write it in my notes app when i cant sleep looool.

The other thing I love about your writing is how colloquial it is. I don’t even know if that makes sense, or if that's the best descriptor but I'm gonna use it from now on. I just mean you write the same way I think. It’s quippy, it’s funny, it’s evocative, it’s clever, and it makes perfect sense.

i'm glad u enjoy it bc i worry so much some times that it's too unserious LMAO. i mean, it's fanfic, how serious does a bitch gotta be ?? i also struggle a bit reading flowery language at times or finding the meaning or theme in something bc i'm stupid so i fear my writing is just a string of thoughts somehow made into a story lol

The way you get the MCU. Except the erection comment—disney wouldn’t like that one lol but I loved it—this sounds exactly like some idle conversation Natasha would make in a cap movie as she decodes shit on a computer.

i hate brutalism <3 i'm sorry i just do and EVERY MOVIE THE HYDRA BASES ARE JUST A CONCRETE BOX AND I'M LIKE PLSS?? they must have more money??? show me HYDRA biblical greed plsss

Maybe one of the funniest bucky-centric lines I’ve ever read in a bucky fic. Idk if that makes sense but it's a fucking funny quip that only works in a Bucky fic because this bitch knows no other emotion than: brood.

glad u enjoyed that line, it was a last second addition as i descended into mania <3

It feels like he wants to be punished.

hehe <3

I FUCKING KNEW IT. I FUCKING KNEW IT. I CALLED IT. THAT DIRTY FUCKER. SLY MOTHER FUCKING COPING PICK ME. Also, fabulous way to convey that plot twist <3 I wonder if it would be too far to theorize that she became his mentee under the same circumstances. Idk, it’d be embarrassing to theorize that and then be blatantly wrong when I finish the fic lmfao. 

hehe i'm so glad u liked that twist. it came to me while i was toasting a bagel and i was like on god what if he requesTED TO BE PAIRED WITH HER SO HE COULD 'PROTECT' HER BUT ALSO BE NEAR HER AND anyway if the reveal had been that he requested to be her mentor would've also been crazy. i think it's more fun thinking about him suffering being paired w her and panicking, yet still denying all of her mentor transfer requests. i also fear that mayhaps bucky was secretly pleased about and liked training her, not only bc he could be around her bc he's in looooove but also bc he knows that she can defend herself? teaching her skills to become better? bc he's protective like that i think it would bring him joy knowing that she could take down a mf using what HE TAUGHT her.

Holy shit, do I wish I could be a fly on the wall for that shit show. Also, he relayed like three separate sentiments from the slut shaming debacle and I’m sitting here like, ‘okay, one was enough lmfao. I get the picture. Thank you. They think I’m a slut, got it.’ Just gut punch after gut punch after gut punch LMFAO

he was festering on that FOR SURE. i also think the reader would've been mad if he didn't explain the full severity and extend of what they said yk. ALSO i did have thoughts about her witnessing him going off on them etc, but i decided it was kinda more impacyful to be an off-screen thing? idk.. just smth about him silently defending and protecting her without her knowledge is sooooo... ugh idek the words. like theres no tryna prove himself or having an ego about it (maybe only internally lol) but just genuine care for that person.

Although, I would like to point out: Bucky made a comment earlier about how she’s always bouncing between men. I’d like to know what his thinking is there. Other men can’t call it out but he can? I’m not actually criticizing him (and definitely not your writing-I'm not trying to poke holes or anything, I firmly trust everything was intentional and am taking it as such-bucky be a complicated bitch) because I love complicated men and messy drama

okay so, i did have some thoughts on that 4 u. i can understand it is kinda confusing and weird but in my mind while i was writing, from HIS perspective i don't think he realised he was slut shaming. from his perspective he was critcising the men, maybe even trying to draw attention to it bc he's a jealous, whiny bitch who wants the reader for himself. i think in his eyes he was just trying to point out the obvious, while also struggling to navigate these concepts of modern dating etc.

he's like i would NEVER call you a slut. you're just a BEAUTIFUL AMAZING WOMAN who is a VICTIM TO THESE EVIL MEN. i am NOT an evil man. pls pls pls pls. honestly, I should've made him beg in this fic. ON UR KNEES SIR! BEG FOR FORGIVENESS!

OOP! Gag it. I forgot to say it somewhere earlier but he so badly wants to be more for her. He wants to be her peace. He wants to be the last guy she dates, because this time it won’t end in a shit show. He wants to show her what real love is from a real man. Oh he’s so rotten and evil I love him.

u got it spot on there. he doesn't think she's a slut, he just thinks all the men around her suck bc he's OBVIOUSLY the one for her and could do sooo much better and treat her right etc etc blah blah blah this man is down so bad and also full of himself LOL/

I’m so glad smut didn’t ensure right after the confession because one) it adds more drama and two) I think it aligns better with the story, the flow, the pacing, and also how you’ve written the Reader so far 

i def wanted the reader to think about it for awhile and kinda weigh up the situation in her own time. also bouncing on it when bucky has a bullet wound (super soldier or not) does not seem healthy loool.

I don't even think I'd give him props for caring about her reputation despite him lumping her in on the fear of embarrassment from colleagues comment. I think he's solely thinking of himself and how vulnerable his feelings make him. He's an exposed vein and she's poking and prodding at him for fun in front of everyone, loving the way he bleeds for her. I think your choice to write that comment in gives such a great insight into how insecure and mad he is over her. He's dealing with such confusing feelings, not to mention he can't stop berating himself for them, he's just a huge complicated ball of exposed nerves.

once again, hit the nail on the head! he's so shy <3 i think he knows the reader would be confident and chill enough to rock them having a relationship, while hes all like oh god oh fuck what if people know i have feelings?? not to angst this bitch up but a lot of this could be traced into the whole fear of HYDRA getting control of him again and exploiting those feelings/memories/relationships. he's so used to positive interactions and relationships being used against him that he fears getting close to people. plus consequences of what could, not only happen to him, but to the people he cares about if they are used to hurt him.

i didn't really get much into his trauma throughout this one-shot because on god it would've ended up like 20k words and i feel like i would be repeating a lot of things i've tied into my series lessons in lovemaking but trust me it was on the brain while writing.

SHE KISSED HIM DURING GROUP SPAR ARE YOU FUCKING JOKING ARE YOU JOSHING ME RN

i think if i had the patience i would've had her beating theo & co's ass first, then all sweaty take down bucky with a kiss but i was fully manic and insane and way over my usual word count so i didn't end up doing that. pretend i did, that wouldve been fire. 'i can look after myself bucky xoxox'

You can't just kiss me and then walk away (wants more), you kissed me to mess with me (wants her to divulge her boundaries and finally reject him)

hehe <3 man is shook to his core and desperate! wdym if i just communicated like a normal person we wouldn't have needed to do this dance and i could've been with you a lot sooner???

Oh fuck I love him and I love you for writing this masterpiece. I'm in awe of your brain and all the little intricacies you've added. I'm a fic writer myself, so I think it gives me an even deeper appreciation for the world and story you've built here. Everything was carefully thought up in your gorgeous brain and you executed it so well.

SOB tysm??!?! i hope i haven't ruined the magic w my ramblings in this reblog.

But also you’re crushing this fic. So many things are happening that I wouldn’t have expected, such as this sequence right now. You’re really drawing out the impending climax, building really fucking good tension. It’s so delicious how she’s making him wait. Holy fuck the way she’s just stripping in front of him and he’s too busy bitching oh hes so dead.

hehehe when i started plotting this fic, the only concrete scenes i KNEW i wanted was a. the intro scene where she's slamming back shots and everyone is horrified and b. bucky too busy bickering while she's stripping and getting in the shower. i had the "i think you need to cool down :)" ENGRAINED into my BRAIN.

Fantastic fic, you always come through in that department. This is going under my fav tag

thank you so so soooo much <333 literally have experienced every emotion reading ur comments. im like so emotional fr deadass. theres just something so sweet about having someone care that much about your project to break down their thoughts on it like i genuinely appreciate it so much, tysm for reading my silly ass fics <3

the art of pretending [one-shot]

marvel au bucky x agent!reader

being mentored by bucky is nothing short of torture; he’s cold, infuriating, and impossible to please. but when a mission gone wrong leaves you stranded in a freezing safehouse together, you start to wonder if all that supposed hatred has just been hiding something else entirely.

Warnings: 18+ content minors dni, smut, shower sex, unprotected sex, fingering, forced proximity, one bed, kissing, enemies to lovers-ish?, sexual tension, sparring, mentor bucky, bickering, insults, violence, bit of blood/gore/wound descriptions, bucky has issues, protective bucky, slut shaming (not from bucky), no use of y/n, lmk if i've missed anything

Word Count: 12.4k

A/N: hi! this is for some requests i received (one and two). i combined two of the requests because they were pretty similar, hope thats okay and i hope you enjoy! this took me... so long to write. i hope it doesn't flop <3 sorry for any typos - not proof read.

main masterlist

You had two goals for the night: get shitfaced and get railed. So, catching your asshole boyfriend wrist-deep in some girl’s panties, doing the kind of finger work he never even bothered to learn for you, wasn’t part of your itinerary.

You could’ve cried, you could’ve begged, or collapsed into a sad cliché with a tub of ice cream and Sex and the City reruns. But no, you had a mission, and one mission alone. Get so unbelievably drunk on whatever you could get your hands on, so drunk in fact that you wanted to black out before midnight and preferably unconscious until sunset the next day.

Tony’s penthouse parties weren’t usually your scene. Too many sleazy rich men with superiority complexes, trophy wives sipping champagne through botoxed grins, and a carousel of extras that Stark always vehemently denied were hookers. What you did know was that, being an agent for S.H.I.E.L.D., your name was always on the list, and tonight, free top-shelf booze felt like divine intervention.

You just had to get in, get drunk, and avoid eye contact with your co-workers long enough to pull off a quiet mental breakdown and ignore the fact that you were rather underdressed for the type of party Stark was hosting. Scantily clad club clothing clashed hard with the pearls and Prada crowd.

A few raised brows and vague greetings followed you as you slithered through the gathering. 

But you held back a groan when you spotted the trio parked at the bar: Yelena, Steve, and Bucky. Great. The Greek god chorus of shame, in all their sculpted, judgmental glory. They looked just as uncomfortable as you felt, loitering by the bar instead of mingling with Stark’s circus.

You ignored their stares and made a beeline for the shelves behind the bartender—some poor kid who looked far too green for this gig. He gave you a look of dismay as you grabbed a bottle of tequila without asking. Slamming down a shot glass, you poured with shaky hands and knocked it back with the elegance of a car crash.

You barely registered the silence that followed until you glanced up and saw the stunned expressions staring back at you.

Yelena was the first to speak. “What happened to you? You never come to these things.”

You poured another shot. “Free drinks,” you muttered, then downed it, already lining up the next. No salt. No lime. Just pain, raw and unfiltered, sliding down your throat.

“I thought you were going out with your boyfriend?” She continued to press, while Steve looked rather scandalised as he watched you swallow back your third shot in a row with a shudder. 

Yelena reached over and snatched the bottle from your hand before you could pour again. “You should slow down.”

​​You blinked at her, teeth gritted, blood thrumming loud in your ears. She meant well. Of course she did. You’d always gotten along—ever since she’d been assigned as your mentor in your early days at S.H.I.E.L.D. You two had clicked effortlessly. It was all a part of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s long-term strategy to make field missions run smoother and reduce casualties. Avengers were paired with up-and-coming agents to pass down their experience and training, with the hope that one day, those hard-earned skills would save lives.

But everything changed when they reassigned you.

You’d been told it was to ‘broaden your skillset’, that it was about growth, adaptability, and learning from different leadership styles. What they didn’t say was that it would mean training under James Buchanan Barnes, aka Mr. No-Praise-All-Pain.

You’d tried. Really. At first, you gave it your all. Took his criticism, bit your tongue, pushed harder. But Bucky didn’t bend. He didn’t compliment. Didn’t guide. He just judged, cold and final, like every failure confirmed whatever low expectations he had of you.

Five months of that, and you were drowning. You begged for reassignment—back to Yelena, to Natasha, to anyone—but were denied every time. Some higher-up probably thought your mutual disdain was ‘motivating’, like locking two angry wolves in a cage and expecting them not to rip each other’s throats out.

And now here he was. Bucky Barnes. His suit jacket was slung carelessly over the back of his bar stool, his tie loosened just enough to reveal the sharp line of his collarbone. His dress shirt clung to his muscular frame, sleeves rolled to his elbows, exposing those unfairly defined forearms and the gleam of vibranium wrapped around a bottle of beer. His expression was stony, but familiar—stern brow, mouth set in a tight line, like he was already displeased with you and you hadn’t even said a word yet.

That look. That look you couldn’t stand.

Disappointment, or maybe pity. You couldn’t tell. Either way, it made your skin itch.

You wanted to punch him in his sullen, pouty face.

Instead, you laughed bitterly and reached for the bottle again, only for Yelena to hold it further away, firm.

“I said slow down,” she warned.

You made a face at Yelena. “Uh, you can’t talk. I saw you do shots out of a candle holder once.”

She didn’t even blink.

“Yes. And you called me messy. So I stopped.” She turned away just long enough to vanish the tequila bottle from sight like some sleight-of-hand magician. “This is me returning the favour. Stop it. You’re being messy.”

You barked out a harsh laugh and rubbed a hand down your face, smearing frustration across your cheeks. “You know what’s messy? My boyfriend. Well—ex-boyfriend.”

Across the bar, Bucky shook his head and muttered something low under his breath. You didn’t catch it, but you were sure it was vile because even Steve glanced over at him in disbelief, his eyebrows climbing high. Great. Judgment from Captain Morality and the Tin Soldier. Just what you needed.

Yelena sighed, already exhausted. “What did he do this time?”

You could tell she was reaching the end of her patience, and honestly, it was fair. She’d been your reluctant witness through the entire tragic saga of your love life. Two and a half years of emotional landmines and loser boyfriends who all somehow managed to be worse than the last. It was impressive, in a bleak kind of way.

You gestured vaguely, your expression somewhere between rage and disbelief. “I was supposed to meet him at some sleazy club downtown, his buddy was DJing—-fucking terrible DJ by the way. I’d barely walked in the door when I caught him in a back booth, fingering some girl who wasn’t even trying to be subtle about it!”

Yelena’s lips pursed. Steve stared like he’d never heard someone use the word ��fingering’ out loud before.

“What did you do?” Yelena asked, her voice low, careful.

“Oh, the usual,” you said sweetly. “I punched him. Hard. He hit the floor like a sack of shit. Then I stepped on his hand until I felt something snap.”

Steve choked on his beer, coughing violently into his elbow. Bucky just watched you with the world's best poker face, a slight clench in his jaw muscles. 

You smiled at Steve, feral and unbothered. “Don’t worry, Cap. He won’t be playing DJ with anyone’s body parts anytime soon.”

Yelena gave a low whistle, somewhere between impressed and alarmed. “You actually broke his hand?”

“Felt like justice.” You shrugged. “Plus, he was always texting with that hand. Two birds, one stomp.”

“That’s assault,” Steve managed, his voice slightly strangled.

“Oh, please,” you said, rolling your eyes. “We’ve all done worse.”

Across the bar, Bucky finally spoke, his voice gravel-edged and unimpressed. “And now you’re here, drinking like a lunatic in front of half the team. Real graceful recovery.”

Your shoulders tensed, that familiar heat creeping up your spine.

“I’m not showing up for training tomorrow,” you said flatly. “Hell, I don’t plan on being conscious tomorrow.”

Bucky didn’t miss a beat. “It’s going on your report.”

Your mid-year report. Just another excuse for Bucky to publicly drag you, whining to the higher-ups about what a terrible mentee you were. How you needed to ‘apply yourself’, ‘show initiative’, or whatever corporate nonsense they lapped up. And of course, those same higher-ups were always looking for a reason to cut dead weight. One misstep, and you were done.

“Of course it is,” you snapped, spinning on your heel. “You miserable, ancient cunt.”

Steve choked on his beer again.

Without another word, you reached behind the overwhelmed bartender, who looked about five seconds from quitting, and grabbed the nearest bottle. You didn’t even look at the label. You stormed off with tequila already burning in your veins and spite lighting the way. 

—

You were leaning casually against the wall outside the gym’s changing rooms, dressed in workout gear that was probably a little more flattering than necessary. Tight enough to flatter your waist, breathable enough to pass as practical. Around you, the low hum of chatter buzzed from a small group of fellow agents. You were killing time before your dreaded one-on-one training session with Barnes.

Theo leaned a shoulder beside yours, towelling sweat from the back of his neck. He’d been an agent about as long as you had—charming, competent, and a little too easy to get along with. The two of you were part of that unofficial after-hours crew: drinks on Fridays, complaints about the job, stumbling home tipsy and hungover texts on Saturday mornings.

“You’re on sparring duty all week too?” Theo asked, glancing at you with mock pity. “I swear Rogers gets off on making me eat mat.”

“I know what you mean. Barnes definitely loves making me suffer,” you replied with a grimace. “That man has a personal vendetta against me.”

Theo grinned, tossing the towel over his shoulder, and he gave you a playful sidelong look. “When I get knocked on my ass, promise you’ll kiss it better?”

You arched a brow, but the smirk tugging at your lips betrayed your amusement. “Careful. I’m starting to think you’re flirting with me.”

“Starting to?” he shot back, unfazed. “Let me make it clearer. If I don’t get my ass handed to me by Rogers, I’ll buy you a drink Friday.”

You leaned back against the wall, arms folding over your chest. “And if Rogers wins?”

Theo leaned in, voice low and smooth as his fingers brushed a stray strand of hair behind your ear, lingering just a moment too long. “Then I’ll buy you two,” he murmured.

You opened your mouth to respond. Flattered, a little surprised, already mentally debating whether it was worth shaving your legs, when a voice cut through the hallway like a blade.

“Agent. You’re late.”

You didn’t have to look to know who it was. That gravel-edged tone, sharpened with disapproval, could only belong to one man.

Bucky stood at the end of the corridor, arms crossed, jaw set like granite. His black compression shirt clung to every sculpted line of his chest, joggers slung low on his hips in a way that really shouldn't have been legal. He looked like he’d just stepped out of a combat simulation and into a fitness magazine.

But the expression on his face? Full-on battlefield.

That signature scowl was locked in place, thunderclouds brewing behind his eyes as he stared straight past you, straight at Theo. Typical. You hadn’t even done anything, yet somehow, he already looked pissed.

“Training doesn’t start for another twenty minutes.” You reminded him.

He didn’t seem interested in whatever argument you were about to make, and he turned on his heel without another word.

You sighed, uncrossing your arms as you pushed off the wall and flashed Theo an apologetic smile. 

Jogging to catch up, your boots thudding against the hallway floor, you called after Bucky. “You know, there’s this really neat thing called a schedule. Maybe try sticking to it?”

He didn’t even glance over his shoulder. “You could use the extra time.”

You scoffed in disbelief at his audacity. Classic Barnes, gruelling, joyless, always ready with a critique and never a compliment. He’d made it his mission to grind you down, one scathing remark at a time. And yet, you knew you were one of the top agents. The higher-ups had told you as much in your mid-year review, even going so far as to say that your mentorship with Barnes was working brilliantly. You hadn’t bothered correcting them, though it irritated more than you liked to admit. All your hard work, and somehow, he got the credit.

Bucky didn’t stop until you were both inside one of the gym’s private sparring rooms. The door clicked shut behind you. No audience. No distractions. Just him and you and the electric tension that always seemed to spark the moment you were alone together.

“Seriously, Barnes, what’s your problem today?”

Bucky stepped onto the mat, gesturing for you to follow.

“You’re here to train, not flirt in the hallway.”

You barely resisted the urge to roll your eyes. Bucky always had a problem whenever your love life even breathed into the conversation. Said it was irrelevant. Unprofessional. A distraction.

Back when Yelena was your partner, the two of you used to spar and gossip at the same time, her dodging your punches while you gave dramatic play-by-plays of whatever your latest fling had done to you in bed the night before. She lived for it. Bucky? Not so much.

He’d cut the conversation short every time. Couldn’t even stand the sight of you laughing a little too long with someone else. He’d yank you away with some bullshit excuse like, ‘distractions on the field will get you killed’, or ‘do I need to report you for slacking off?’ Like you were breaking protocol instead of just being a human being.

You stepped into position across from him, tightening your stance, heat already prickling beneath your skin. From the glare he was giving you, he looked ready to fight. Good. So were you.

“Are you always such an asshole,” you said, voice flat, “or is that just a special little treat you save for me?”

He gave you a look, deadpan and infuriating. “Only when I’m working with someone who’s constantly late, distracted, or hungover.”

You let out a sharp breath through your nose and threw a lazy jab, just to shut him up. He deflected it with a flick of his wrist like he could’ve done it in his sleep.

“And yet,” you muttered, circling to your right, “you wrote me a glowing mid-year report.”

His hand faltered for a split second. It was brief, but you caught it, a crack in the armour he hid behind.

“So you read it,” he replied, already shifting back into motion.

“Hard not to. Maria practically quoted it word for word at me in the hallway.”

His mouth flattened. “It was accurate.”

You scoffed and came at him again, this time with more force, a blow aimed at his jaw. He blocked with ease, catching your wrist mid-air and twisting just enough to tip your balance. You staggered, caught yourself, then stepped back with a glare.

“‘Most adaptive mentee in the current program,’” you quoted, circling him again.

A jab. He blocked it.

“‘Performs under pressure.’”

You followed up with a low kick aimed at his calf. He side-stepped like you were moving in slow motion.

“‘Good instincts in the field.’”

Another punch, this one he met palm to palm, stopping your momentum cold. You grit your teeth and shoved him off.

“‘Promising.’” You swept your foot in a feint and then struck at his ribs. He pivoted out of reach, breath barely changed. “‘Capable.’”

He lunged this time, arm out, trying to lock your elbow, but you twisted under it, ducking away, the mat skimming under your feet.

“‘Excellent recall.’” 

You squared off again, eyes locked on his.

“Why the hell,” you asked, low and angry, “are you always such an asshole to my face when you’re singing my praises behind my back?”

He didn’t answer right away, moving like a shadow around you, eyes locked on yours. 

“As much as it pains me,” he finally spoke, tone flat, “you are my best mentee. Even if I dislike you personally, I felt your report should reflect that.”

You blinked, momentarily thrown. That was… probably the most praise you’d ever got from him—buried beneath the usual bullshit, sure, but praise nonetheless. On a good day, you might get a grunted ‘good’ if you were lucky. Most of the time, training with Bucky was just an endless list of everything you were doing wrong, punctuated by a jab to the ribs for emphasis.

“Do you always make your compliments sound like insults?”

“It wasn’t a compliment. Just the truth.”

You threw a kick toward his side, fast and impulsive. He caught your ankle and held it, grip firm around your calf for a second too long. His vibranium fingers were cold, even through the fabric of your leggings. You could’ve sworn they tightened around the muscle just a fraction as your eyes swept up to give him a look of disbelief. But instead of pulling away, you leaned into the moment and used the hold for balance. You pivoted hard on your grounded foot, letting the captured leg swing inward. Then you launched yourself forward, hooking your other leg around his waist, aiming to bring him down with you.

For a half-second, it worked. His balance shifted. Your hips were flush against him, legs locked tight around his torso as you twisted your weight, trying to drag him off his feet.

With a grunt, he straightened, twisted, and you suddenly found yourself airborne.

You hit the mat hard, slamming against it with a thud that knocked the breath out of you. The ceiling lights above blurred for a second as the impact rattled through your spine. His shadow hovered for a beat, chest rising with exertion, jaw clenched.

He didn’t smirk. Didn’t gloat. Just stared down at you, maybe it was the oncoming concussion you probably just suffered, but you could’ve sworn there was a flash of concern in his eyes.

“Next time, I won’t let it slide if you don’t turn up because you’re hungover.” He wiped a forearm across his brow.

“How do you know my heart wasn’t broken?” You asked, shaking off the blow as you rose to your feet once more, feet finding their usual stance.

He arched a brow, unimpressed.

“Don’t you have sympathy for me?” you asked, somewhere between a joke and a challenge.

“I wouldn’t call it sympathy,” he said coolly. “More like pity.”

That stung more than you cared to admit. You rolled your shoulders, stepping in again. Your guard was up, but there was a crack in it now, frustration flaring under your skin.

“I can’t imagine you were actually that sad about it.” Bucky bit out, not even bothering to hide his annoyance now. “Don’t you have a new fling every other week? Sure sounded like you were lining up another one in the hallway.”

“Oh wow,” you drawled, voice harsh. “Slut shaming? This isn’t the 1940s, Barnes.”

“It’s not my fault who you choose to date.”

You exhaled, long and low. The tension between you had teeth now, gnawing at the air. “Y’know, for someone who hates me, you sure pay a lot of attention.”

He didn’t respond. Just stood there, fists flexing at his sides, poker-faced.

You waited, ready to shoulder any insult he laid on you. You could see irritation simmering under his skin, jaw ticking, knuckles white.

“I think you should take a lap or two around the room.” He huffed finally. “Your blocks are late, your punches are soft, and your stance is a joke. Try warming up before you embarrass both of us.”

You grinned back at him, though it was closer to baring your teeth than a show of amusement. “But I’m still your best mentee, huh?”

“Let’s make it five laps then.”

You gave him a lazy salute and turned for the edge of the mat.

“Whatever you say, Sergeant.”

As you jogged the first lap, footsteps echoing lightly in the private room, you could feel his eyes on you, tracking every movement and watching you like a hawk, like a fuse lit, waiting.

And damn it, you ran a little faster because of it.

—

If you’d known how this mission was going to turn out, you would’ve called in sick. Faked a family emergency. Broken your own damn leg. Anything to avoid being stuck alone with Bucky Barnes in a freezing H.Y.D.R.A. bunker from hell. You’d even considered whispering a desperate prayer to whatever all-seeing god might be listening—or hell, maybe begging Stephen Strange to yank you into an alternate universe where this wasn’t your reality.

Gunfire rattled somewhere outside the cement walls, and you imagined your fellow agents in the middle of all the fun, chucking grenades, dodging bullets, living the dream. Meanwhile, you were practically glued at the hip with Sergeant Sunshine, babysitting an ancient Soviet-era computer that looked like it still ran on dial-up.

You were perched on the edge of a desk, legs swinging, having shoved aside a mountain of dusty files scribbled in Russian. All completely useless to you.

“What is it with H.Y.D.R.A. and brutalist architecture?” you muttered, eyeing the thick ceiling. “Why does concrete get them so hard?”

“I can’t concentrate with all your whining.”

You raised an eyebrow. “That’s literally the first thing I’ve said in ten minutes, Barnes.”

He didn’t respond. Didn’t even throw you one of his signature grunts. Just kept clicking away like the keyboard had wronged him personally, eyes narrowed at the screen as if trying to decode the goddamn Rosetta Stone.

You groaned and rolled your head back, staring up at the ceiling.

More concrete.

You weren’t usually this unbearable on missions, but this? This whole situation felt like a personal attack. You’d been mid-flirt with Theo on the quinjet (who had been very committed to making bedroom eyes at you) when they’d called out team assignments. The second you heard your name paired with Barnes, tasked with data extraction while everyone else got to blow things up, you’d spun around to glare at him.

He’d been sitting there in his usual cold, statue-like stillness beside Steve, as if this wasn’t a death sentence. You’d stormed over, demanded if he knew anything. He just shrugged and muttered something about ‘higher-ups’.

The walls shook suddenly—another explosion—and dust drifted from the ceiling. You blinked it out of your lashes and slid lazily off the desk, sauntering over to where Bucky hunched at the terminal.

“Can you hurry it up? At this rate, they’re going to bury us alive in here.”

“Give me a second,” he muttered through gritted teeth.

You leaned in slightly, eyeing the screen. A wall of Cyrillic met you, completely unreadable. You couldn’t help the exasperated sigh that left your lips.

“Remind me again why we’re the ones doing this? Wouldn’t it have made more sense to send someone who actually speaks Russian to help you? Or, I don’t know, someone who has the patience to teach you how to use a flash drive?”

He didn’t answer, just kept typing and clicking, as if the keys owed him money.

You crossed your arms, scowling. The only thing more miserable than being stuck in a concrete crypt was being stuck in one with him. When he was distracted, like now, he forgot to wear that usual look of thinly veiled disappointment. His brow furrowed in focus, lips twitching as he muttered to himself in low, clipped Russian. He looked—God help you—human. Not like the cold-hearted pain-in-your-ass who’d spent the last six months tearing you down. But like someone thoughtful. Careful. Quietly brilliant.

And stupidly, stupidly attractive.

You hated how your eyes lingered on the way his rolled-up sleeves hugged his forearms. The way the shadows danced over his cheekbones and the little groove between his brows. The way that little furrow deepened when something didn’t go his way, like he was trying to wrestle the entire world into submission with sheer concentration alone.

It would’ve been easier if he were just awful. Easier if you didn’t catch glimpses of something else beneath the gruffness. Something that made your chest tighten a little when you weren’t focusing. 

You swallowed hard, forcing your eyes to the screen. What was wrong with you?

The download bar finally appeared on the screen, crawling forward at a snail’s pace. You exhaled loudly, half in relief, half in impatience. 

“About time,” you muttered.

He shot you a look, cold and flat. “You wanna do it?”

You turned your back on him, pacing the room. Your nerves were coiled tight, the distant sounds of gunfire and explosions growing louder. The base was a pressure cooker and the damn download bar still hovered at 34%.

While you were busy taking your own turn brooding, the heavy metal door at the far end of the room slammed open with a deafening clang, nearly launching you out of your skin. Three armed H.Y.D.R.A. agents stormed in, rifles raised, eyes locked on target.

So much for the diversion. Clearly, it hadn’t been enough—or worse, H.Y.D.R.A. had seen through it. They must’ve realised it wasn’t a full-blown William-the-Conqueror-style invasion, just a cleverly dressed-up distraction.

“Company,” Bucky muttered, pulling his sidearm in one smooth motion.

You were already moving, instincts kicking in before your brain could catch up. You dove low, sliding across the slick concrete floor as a hail of bullets tore through the room. You grabbed the nearest overturned chair, dragging it into place just in time as metal pinged and sparked against it.

Bucky didn’t hesitate. A single, precise shot rang out, dropping the first H.Y.D.R.A. agent without a flinch. You didn’t stop to think. You surged forward, catching the second agent by surprise, your knee slamming into his gut with enough force to knock the air from his lungs. He doubled over, right into the crack of your gun butt across his temple. He crumpled, unconscious, before he hit the floor.

Then you saw the third.

Rifle up.

Aimed right at you.

“Get down!”

The shout was raw, sharp enough to slice through the chaos. You barely had time to turn your head before a body crashed into yours. His arm slammed into your torso, hurling you sideways just as the trigger was pulled.

The shot cracked like thunder.

Your back hit the ground hard, skidding across the floor. Pain flared along your shoulder, but it was nothing compared to the sound that followed, the harsh, guttural grunt that tore out of Bucky’s throat.

You twisted around.

He was down, gasping, clutching at his side and blood already soaking through the black fabric of his suit.

You scrambled back to him just as the final agent aimed again. Snarling, you fired three quick shots into the bastard’s chest before he collapsed in a heap.

The air went still for only a moment, then the ground trembled violently before you had a chance to assess the damage done to Bucky. Chunks of the ceiling cracked and began to rain down. Concrete groaned like a beast waking from a long sleep.

You turned to the computer, some unreadable symbols flashing across the screen, but you were quick enough to decipher that it meant the download was complete. Snatching the flash drive, you spun back to Bucky, who was trying to sit up, blood spilling between his fingers as he pressed them hard against the wound in his side.

“Get up,” you barked, crouching beside him. “We need to move, Barnes!”

—

The two of you had spent nearly two damn hours stumbling through the snow-blanketed mountainside, following the rough coordinates burned into your mind from the mission briefing. By the time the cabin finally came into view—half-buried in the snow, smoke long gone from the chimney—you were soaked to the bone and one more smart comment away from throttling him.

The escape had been messy, the H.Y.D.R.A base nearly becoming your tomb. You’d been forced to bolt through a collapsing back corridor, dragging the injured super soldier along with the last of your adrenaline. Between the debris, the gunfire, and the growing dark stain across his side, you weren’t sure how either of you had made it out. Worse still, you’d missed the quinjet extraction window by twenty minutes. The skies had turned black with storm clouds, wind howling across the range as ice and snow stung your cheeks. The base had finally picked up your call for aid on the mission-assigned satellite phone, but due to zero visibility and increased H.Y.D.R.A activity in the area, the replacement quinjet wouldn’t arrive until first light.

Which meant you were stuck together. In the cold. For the whole night.

The safehouse, at least, was still intact. A small timber cabin tucked between trees, barely standing but just enough. It had a lounge no bigger than a broom closet, a wood-burning stove long dead and cold, a bathroom you prayed had running water, and a single bedroom with a mattress that looked like it had seen better decades.

Your breath misted in the air as you slammed the door behind you, the wind nearly ripping the handle from your grip. Bucky collapsed onto the torn couch by the stove without a word, letting out a low groan that he probably thought you didn’t hear.

You should’ve made starting the fire your first priority. But one look at the blood soaking through Bucky’s side made that choice for you.

Now, kneeling between his legs with the remnants of the first-aid kit splayed out on the coffee table, whoever had been here last hadn’t restocked it properly. You glared up at Bucky as he shifted under your touch again. “Stop squirming.”

“I’m not.”

“You are,” you hissed, dabbing antiseptic across the wound with a gauze pad. “You keep flinching.”

“Because you’re digging in like you’re trying to punish me.”

“Oh, I haven’t even started,” you muttered.

He scoffed, muscles twitching beneath your hands as you pressed down. “Are you always this demanding?”

“Are you always this whiny?”

His glare was instant, eyes narrowed. “Is it your goal to piss everyone off?”

“I’m a fucking delight, and you know that.”

He gave you a deadpan look. “I think you’re mistaken. I definitely don’t like you.”

You lifted your brows, trying to keep your voice light despite the roiling mix of emotions spilling out. “You say that like you didn’t just take a bullet for me.”

You hadn’t even had the time to process it when it happened. The crash of his body slamming into yours, the sound of the gunshot, and the sickening thud of him hitting the ground. But now, with him sitting across from you, shirt dark with blood and a fresh gash still weeping crimson, the weight of it began to settle in.

He took a bullet for you.

You didn’t know what to do with that.

Part of you expected him to twist it somehow, to throw it back in your face as some kind of lesson that you were careless. That you’d left an opening. That he had to clean up your mess. You were already bracing for it, the sting of snide remarks spread over weeks like salt in a wound, little digs during training about how you ‘owe him one’ or how ‘distractions get people killed’.

And yet... he hadn’t said any of that.

Instead, he just shrugged, wincing slightly. “I heal faster because of the serum,” he muttered, voice gruff but quieter than usual. “I’ll be back on the field faster than you ever could.”

You stared at him.

At the stubborn line of his jaw, the tight press of his lips as he tried not to show how much pain he was in. The way his hand gripped his side was too tight. The blood beneath his fingernails.

Why had he done that?

You weren’t always the easiest to get along with. You’d spent months pushing each other’s buttons, arguing, fighting, constantly locked in a cold war of insults and bruises. So why? Why would he throw himself into a bullet’s path for you?

It was hard not to feel... something. Flattered, maybe. A little shocked. And, against your better judgment, grateful. You didn’t want to be grateful—not to him, of all people—but your stomach wrenched every time you replayed the moment in your head.

You didn’t ask him to do it. And yet, he did.

And now he was pretending it didn’t matter. Like he hadn’t made a split-second decision to put your life before his own. What if that bullet had hit a little higher? His heart? His throat? His skull?

“Sure,” you drawled, trying to cover for your sudden silence. “Great excuse.”

“It’s the truth.” He muttered. 

He didn’t look at you. Just kept his eyes on the floor and said nothing.

Which, somehow, said everything.

You stared at him for a moment longer, shaking your head as you tossed the bloodied gauze into the small bin beside the couch. The cold was starting to settle into your bones, your fingers stiff with it.

“Whatever. I’m going to try to find some firewood before we freeze to death.”

He glanced toward the boarded-up window, ice clinging to the edges. “You sure there’s any left out there?”

“Nope.” You pulled on your jacket. “But I’d rather get eaten by a bear than stay in here with you.”

You were halfway to the door before you paused, glancing over your shoulder.

“Can you get to that bed yourself, or do you need me to do that for you, too, super soldier?”

His answer came quickly, teeth clenched. “I’m fine.”

“Sure you are.”

You couldn’t deny the nausea in your stomach. Not from worry. Definitely not that. Just frustration. That’s all it was.

The wind nearly ripped the door from your hands as you stepped outside. Snow came in sideways, biting at your skin the second you crossed the threshold. You tugged your jacket tighter and trudged into the blizzard, squinting against the blur of white.

The woodshed was exactly where the briefing had said it’d be, about ten feet from the side of the cabin, half-hidden by trees. Or at least, had been. What you found instead was a crooked mess of collapsed timber and broken beams. Snow had settled deep into the heap, and every piece of wood you managed to drag free was soaked, the logs heavy with ice and rot.

You swore, breath clouding in the air.

You searched anyway, fingers numb, arms shaking. You tried the back of the cabin. Nothing. Even the branches scattered beneath the trees were too damp. No kindling, no dry bark, not even a damn pinecone. The cold was sinking deeper now, crawling down your spine and settling like an anchor in your chest. You didn’t want to push further into the wilderness, not in this weather and not with H.Y.D.R.A. agents crawling all over the mountainside. 

By the time you stumbled back inside and forced the door closed again, you could hardly feel your fingers or toes. Every limb ached like they were five seconds away from turning purple and black from frostbite. The cabin felt just as cold as the outside, but it was a momentary relief to be out of the wind that cut through your thick layers.

Bucky was on the bed, half-sitting up against the wall, the blanket pulled low across his hips. His eyes flicked up as you entered, taking in your dripping hair and shaking hands.

"Let me guess," he muttered. "No luck?"

You didn’t answer right away, just peeled your jacket off and dropped it near the door with a wet splat. “Everything’s soaked. The shed’s collapsed.”

He exhaled through his nose, chest deflating with the effort. “You’re freezing.”

You ignored him, stomping the snow off your boots. “I’ll live.”

“Not if you keep acting like a damn idiot.”

You turned to glare at him. “I’m sorry, which one of us got shot again?”

You crouched down, your knees protesting as you bent to untie your boots, but your fingers were too stiff, trembling from the cold. The laces had frozen slightly, the knots tight and uncooperative. You hissed through your teeth, fumbling and cursing under your breath as you tugged uselessly at them.

Bucky watched from the bed, arms crossed over his broad chest. He didn’t move to help, but you could feel his eyes on you. He tilted his head slightly and gave you a look that was half-concerned, half-exasperated, like you did this to yourself.

With a final frustrated yank, you freed your boot and kicked it off, followed quickly by the other. A damp string of muttered profanities trailed from your lips as you scrambled back to your feet, wet clothes clinging uncomfortably to your skin. 

“Which one of us,” Bucky spoke pointedly, breath fogging in the air between you, “went outside to play in a blizzard and came back looking like a drowned rat?”

You were shivering now, teeth on the verge of chattering, but you still squared your shoulders and stared him down, as defiant as ever. A bead of melted snow trailed down your temple. He stared right back.

“Get over here,” he said finally.

“Excuse me?”

“You need to warm up.” His tone was flat, too practical. “And the bed’s the only warm place in this shithole.”

“Oh, now you care about my well-being?”

He didn’t dignify that with a response. Just lifted the edge of the blanket.

You hesitated, eyeing the small mattress like it might bite you. "You’re the worst."

"And you’re still standing in wet clothes. Take them off and get in."

Your mouth dropped open. “Excuse me?”

“Not all of them,” he said, eyes rolling. “Just the top layer before you die of hypothermia. Stop being dramatic.”

With a theatrical sigh for good measure, you peeled off your wet sweater, leaving the thermal shirt beneath and then your pants. You did not check to see if he was watching you shivering in your underwear, cheeks flushed. You padded toward the bed like it was a walk to your own execution, hesitating again at the edge.

You tried—really tried—not to let your eyes linger on the broad plane of his chest, but it was impossible not to. His shirt was rumpled and half-untucked, the hem tugged up where he’d peeled it back to expose the bandage on his side. The white gauze was already marred with deep red, blooming in uneven patches that made you pause with something halfway between guilt and concern. Your gaze drifted to the sharp curve of his waist, the ridge of muscle visible beneath the bloodied wrappings. 

It was distracting. 

He was distracting.

But what you tried hardest not to think about was the bed. Specifically, how absurdly small the mattress looked with him sitting on it, shoulders nearly brushing both edges. There was no way you’d both fit. You’d be pressed against him. Shoulder to shoulder, chest to back, knee to thigh. 

You swallowed hard and told yourself not to think about it.

But you were already thinking about it.

“Don’t make it weird,” Bucky muttered.

“I’m not making it weird.”

He let out a low, tired huff, the kind that told you he was in pain but too stubborn to say it. You rolled your eyes in reply, more at yourself than him, and climbed in carefully, slipping beneath the blanket with a reluctant shiver. The bed was warmer than expected. Or rather, he was. Bucky radiated heat like a furnace, the kind that seeped into your skin and made your limbs relax before your mind could catch up. You hovered near the edge of the mattress, body stiff, spine straight like it might help you keep your distance. But it was a hopeless attempt. The bed was tiny—criminally small, really—and with him taking up so much space, there was nowhere to go but closer. One wrong move and you’d be on the floor.

“God, you’re warm,” you muttered into the pillow, trying not to sound too affected.

“Serum,” he replied shortly, his voice rough with exhaustion.

Slowly, inch by inch, you gave in. The chill in the air made it too easy to justify. You shifted toward him, the blanket tugging between you as your arm brushed against his. Then your hip. Then your thigh. Until, somehow, your bodies were nearly flush. 

He didn’t move. Didn’t pull away. Didn’t say a word.

And that somehow made it worse.

The silence settled between you, heavy and warm and intimate, like the air itself had thickened. You could hear his breathing, steady, but a little too deliberate. You could see his chest rise and fall from the corner of your eye. And worse, you could feel him. Every inch of him. The solid line of muscle at your side. The way your knees had somehow locked together under the blanket. How your forearm grazed his with every breath you took.

You needed a distraction. Desperately.

Reaching over to the nightstand, you snatched up the battered satellite phone, almost too quickly. The cold metal was jarring against your palm. For a moment, you considered activating the self-destruct protocol and blowing both of you up to end your shared misery. You flicked it on, the screen’s pale light casting long shadows across the room and across him.

Your eyes flicked over before you could stop them.

He was already staring at the ceiling, the faint furrow between his brows still present even in rest. His profile was defined in the low light, long lashes, strong nose, and the stubble on his jaw catching just a hint of light.

You forced yourself to look back at the tiny screen to check for any new updates.

Nothing. You were well and truly in for the night.

You scrolled to the mission briefing instead, flicking through the files to pass time, anything to distract you.

And then you saw it.

There, buried under the pre-mission notes, weather expectations, and extraction protocol, was a small addendum in the personnel request section.

Operation HARVEST: Agent Barnes, James B.Requested field partner: Agent 00149. Request approved.

You stared at it, the room suddenly quieter than it had been all night. 

That was your agent number.

He asked for you.

The same man who had spent the last six months grunting his way through every interaction, who seemed perpetually annoyed by your existence, who had made a point never to give you more than an ounce of credit, had explicitly asked to be paired with you.

You felt your throat tighten.

“You okay?” Bucky asked, as if he could sense your world shattering around you. His voice was low, eyes half-lidded with exhaustion 

You didn’t answer right away. You sat there, still curled under the heavy covers. The warmth of his body was helping, yes—but your blood was starting to simmer for a very different reason.

You turned slowly, holding the satellite phone up between your fingers.

“You want to tell me why it says on the briefing notes that you requested me as your partner for this mission?”

Bucky blinked once. His mouth parted slightly, but no sound came out.

“I asked you on the quinjet if you knew anything,” you went on, voice harsh now. “You told me it was a higher-up’s decision. You lied to my face.”

Bucky sighed through his nose, already bracing himself as he sat up straighter against the headboard. “I didn’t think it mattered.”

“Didn’t matter?” you scoffed, pushing yourself to your knees to face him, ignoring the goosebumps that rose as the blankets fell from your shoulders. “You picked me. You had me assigned to a mission with you, just the two of us, didn’t tell me, and then lied about it.”

“I didn’t lie—”

“You did lie.”

He dragged a hand down his face, slow and weary, but there was tension in the movement, an edge of frustration barely restrained. “I didn’t want you partnered with the other guys, alright?”

You faltered, unsure if you heard him right. “Excuse me?”

“It doesn’t matter—”

“No, you can’t just say that and not explain—”

“Fine!” He groaned, exasperated. His eyes dropped away from yours, fixing instead on a knot in the cabin’s dark wood wall. “I heard them talking. Theo and a few of the other agents.”

“What?” you asked, voice tight. “What were they saying about me?”

He didn’t answer. The silence stretched, heavy and awful.

“Just say it,” you bit out.

He looked at you then. Really looked at you. And it hit you square in the chest, something dark and protective burning behind his eyes. But it was reluctant, too, as if he hated that he was about to say it out loud.

His voice was low and rough when it came. “That you’re easy. That it’d be simple to get you into bed because you’re always asking for it. That you’re a slut. I gave them a piece of my mind and reported them, but I still don’t want you around them.”

You felt it like a punch to the gut.

Your breath caught, the sting behind your eyes immediate and hot. You blinked once. Twice. The words echoed, raw and ugly, and for a second, all you could do was try not to let them settle too deep. Not to let them stick.

You weren’t naïve. You knew you didn’t sleep around any more than anyone else your age. You knew that if the situation were flipped, if you were a man, no one would bat an eye. And still, the weight of it settled heavy in your gut, all twisted up with something darker. Dread. Shame. Fury. And under it all… that sick, crawling feeling that maybe Bucky had said something. Given them reason to think they could say it. That maybe he thought the same thing deep down.

That, maybe, to him, you were just some mess he had to clean up.

The words came fast, your voice shaking. “And what, you thought you’d ride in and defend me like some white knight? You know I could easily drop Theo, I could easily drop any of those assholes!” Bucky blinked, caught off guard, but you were already going, bitter heat rising in your throat like bile.

“You thought that would make it better?” you snapped. “You think that helps? They’re probably all laughing behind my back about how I can’t defend myself—”

“I wasn’t going to stand there and let them talk about you like that!”

“Why?” you demanded. “Because you didn’t want to hear it? Or because you’ve thought the same fucking thing?”

His eyes flared with disbelief, maybe even insult.

“I would never think of you that way,” he barked, and his voice cracked like thunder. “Let alone say it out loud. Because I’m not an asshole. Not like those guys you date.”

You laughed, blunt and hollow. “Why do you care who I date?”

He opened his mouth. Closed it. For a moment, you thought he wouldn’t come up with any words, but to your surprise, he exploded before you. “Maybe because you deserve better!” he shouted, the words ripping out of him before he could take them back.

The silence after that was suffocating.

You stared at him, heart hammering in your chest, a strange cocktail of feelings in your stomach that you didn’t care to identify. He sat there, breathing hard, his hands clenched at his sides like he didn’t trust himself to speak again.

“Jesus,” you muttered. You weren’t foolish enough to believe him, to fall victim to whatever joke he was trying to play. “Give me a break.”

“I’m serious,” he mumbled this time. 

You turned your face away. “Oh yeah? Like you could do any better? Don’t be ridiculous.”

His breath hitched, like you’d slapped him. You could feel him shift beside you under the covers.

“You really think that?” Bucky asked in disbelief.

You didn’t answer. Couldn’t. But Bucky didn’t let it stay quiet.

“You want to know the truth?” he asked, voice low and rough, as if the words had been caged for too long in his throat. “Fine.”

You turned back toward him, uncertain what expression you were even wearing anymore.

“I’ve liked you since the first damn time I saw you,” he said. “Group training. You were paired with some agent twice your size, and you still knocked him on his ass.”

Your heart slammed against your ribs.

“I thought you were… brilliant. And sharp. And confident. And yeah, beautiful too. You had this way of looking right through people—through me—and it scared the shit out of me. When they assigned me to mentor you, I panicked,” he said, with a dry, bitter laugh. “I thought if I pretended, if I was distant, if I acted cold, I could make it go away. Trick myself out of it.”

“But it just got worse,” he went on. “Every time I saw you smiling at some sleaze who didn’t deserve to breathe the same air as you, every time I had to watch you flirt with some smug asshole agents, I wanted to break something. Because it should’ve been me.”

You shook your head slowly, stunned. “Bucky…”

“I hated watching you get your heart broken over and over again,” he said. “Hated seeing you walk into training after pretending like nothing happened. You didn’t deserve that. Not when I knew I could treat you better if I just had the fucking guts to say something.”

Your ribs felt suddenly too small for your body, bones pressing into your lungs.

“And now we’re stuck on a mountainside,” he said, his voice softer, hoarser, “and I’m here bleeding in a bed with you, still lying to you, still trying to act like it doesn’t kill me every time you look at me like I’m just your mentor who you hate.”

You gaped in stunned silence, heartbeat pounding in your ears. Bucky watched you expectantly.

No. No, that couldn’t be what he meant. Not really.

“I don’t know what kind of cruel joke you’re playing on me,” you finally said, voice shaking, fingers knotted in the sheets. “I don’t get it. You’ve spent this whole time being…”

“I’m being serious,” he said, eyes locked on you. “I don’t expect you to believe me. I’ve fucked this up too many times. But I swear on my life, I’m not playing a game.”

You stared at him, blinking hard. “So what, this entire time you’ve been an asshole because you were what, pretending? Pretending that you didn’t like me, pretending that you weren’t jealous, when you could’ve just talked to me?”

His silence was immediate. Heavy. It told you everything you needed to know.

Your chest rose and fell too fast. Your mind was spinning, flipping through every memory like a film reel: his cold shoulder, his clipped instructions, the scowls when you joked with someone else, the way he always hovered a few steps too close in combat zones. The way he always caught you when you fell. There had been moments. Tiny fractures in his mask. The way his gaze lingered when he thought you weren’t paying attention. The time he bandaged your hand without a word, but so gently it had made your throat tighten. The night you caught him staring at you across the gym like he was in pain.

How had you missed it?

“I need to…” You whispered, slumping back under the sheets, pulling the blanket higher around yourself as if it might guard you from the ache in your ribs. “We should sleep. It’s late. Evac’s coming once the sun is up.”

He didn’t protest. He just nodded once, jaw tight.

Neither of you said another word.

Sleep didn’t come easily.

—

You hadn’t seen much of Bucky since you were both airlifted off the mountain.

He’d been recovering from his wound, officially. But it didn’t take a genius to figure out he was avoiding you. No texts. No nods in the hallway. No eye contact across the cafeteria. Just cold silence.

Coward.

You’d spent the past week half-waiting for him to come to his senses. The other half had been consumed wondering what the hell you’d do if he did. Because yes, you found him infuriating. Yes, he was emotionally constipated and moody and had the charm of a brick wall. But he was also gorgeous in that tortured-soul, sharp-jawed, arms-too-big-for-his-shirts kind of way. He cared about you, in his own twisted Bucky way. He’d taken a bullet for you. Defended you. Chose you.

And now he was just… gone.

You were leaning against the wall at the edge of the main gym, arms crossed, purposefully not looking at Theo and the other assholes you had suspected Bucky had been right about, when you heard footsteps and someone cleared their throat beside you.

Yelena stood beside you, her smirk suspiciously wider than usual.

You turned, brows knitting in apprehension. “Hey.”

“Congratulations,” 

“For what?” You replied hesitantly, watching as her brows lifted in delighted surprise. 

“You haven’t heard?” Her voice was alarmingly gleeful, like she was especially thrilled to be the bearer of whatever news she was about to lay upon you. “Barnes finally accepted your mentor transfer request.”

Your heart flatlined for a second. 

“What?”

Yelena, oblivious to your distress, continued to dig further. “I don’t know what you did to him up on that mountain, but… damn. I didn’t think he’d actually do it.”

“I didn’t ask for a mentor transfer,” you muttered, dread settling in your chest.

Yelena’s expression faltered. “Oh. Well, you have one now. You’re with Thor. They tried to pawn you off onto me, but you know, got my hands busy with the new group coming in—”

“Thor?!” You snapped, interrupting her spiel, “He’s a drunk! And he’s not even here half the time, too busy in Asgard—”

Yelena gave you a helpless shrug, and that’s when the doors to the gym opened and in walked the ghost of your week-long frustration.

Bucky was in full training gear, black sweatpants slung low on his hips, compression shirt clinging to him like a second skin. His hair was ruffled, pushed back half-heartedly like he couldn’t be bothered to fix it, a few strands falling into his eyes. The corded muscles of his arms were on full display, the glint of his vibranium arm catching the light with every step. He looked unfairly good, carved from grief and sleepless nights. But it was the way he wouldn’t look at you that struck harder than anything else. His jaw was tight, lips set in a permanent pout, that brooding scowl etched so deep it felt deliberate. He looked everywhere but at you, like you weren’t even there. 

Your blood boiled.

Without a word, you peeled yourself from the wall and marched toward him. He spotted you mid-stride, his posture tensing like he was preparing for impact.

“Hey—” he started.

“What the hell is wrong with you?” you snapped, voice low and venom-laced.

“Not here,” he muttered, eyes flicking toward the other agents filtering in behind you. A few of them had already glanced over curiously, settling in for whatever show was about to unfold.

“Too late,” you hissed. “You requested a mentor transfer for me without even telling me?”

“I thought it was what you wanted.” You both knew he was lying, and he refused to meet your eye. This wasn’t about what you wanted. It was about him feeling embarrassed after his outburst on the mountain. 

“Oh, really?” You stepped closer. “Because I don’t remember asking you to make my career decisions for me.”

“I was doing you a favour.”

“Yeah? Maybe try talking to me like a normal fucking person, and then I’ll tell you what I want.”

His eyes flickered up, stormy blues locking onto your face. “And what is it you want?”

You stared him down, tilting your head slightly, weighing the war going on inside you.

You.

I want you.

The thought was immediate, impulsive, and so painfully real it made your chest ache. But you shoved it down, crushed it before it could breathe. No. That was stupid. Why the hell would you want him—this man-child who’d ghosted you for a week, who’d spent the last six months acting like every word out of your mouth was a personal offence, who seemed to find joy in making you feel like nothing?

But then again… maybe you both had been trying so hard to deny the truth, burying something under six months of thinly veiled insults and sparring matches that got too rough. Maybe he was pushing you away because he didn’t trust himself to keep it professional. And maybe you were just as bad, biting back, rising to the bait, pretending you didn’t notice the way his eyes lingered or the way his voice softened when you were actually hurt.

You had to know if it was real.

The shuffle of movement and muffled chatter around you signalled the start of group training, slicing through your heated stand-off. Agents around you began to pair off, leaving you and Bucky still locked in place, face to face, breath mingling.

You lifted your chin. “Be my sparring partner?” you asked, voice loud enough for the others to hear, but eyes fixed solely on him.

He didn’t argue. Didn’t flinch. Just nodded once, tight-lipped, like he’d been waiting for the invitation all along.

You squared off on the mat, bouncing on your toes, adrenaline already coiling in your veins. Bucky moved like a soldier, controlled, fluid, annoyingly graceful.

“You don’t have to prove anything,” he muttered as you circled.

“I’m not,” you said, “Just testing a theory.”

He raised a brow. “What theory?”

You lunged, caught his arm, and twisted into a low grapple—just enough to draw him in.

His chest brushed yours. His breath hitched.

Then you kissed him.

Hard.

Your lips crashed against his mid-motion, stealing the next move right off his tongue. You felt him freeze, just for a heartbeat, before his hands twitched at your waist like he didn’t know whether to shove you away or pull you in. You felt the tension roll off him in waves. The way his body reacted was instinct. Shock. Hunger. 

His movements hesitated, and to your delight, despite the entire gym watching, he began to kiss you back. 

And that hesitation?

It was all you needed.

You shifted fast, breaking the kiss, then ducking low, hooking your leg behind his knee as you spun. In one fluid motion, you swept his legs out from under him and used the twist of your momentum to pull him down with you. He stumbled, off-balance, and you moved like lightning, hips snapping around his waist, thighs locking tight. You rotated with the drop, forcing him onto his back as you rolled with the momentum.

He hit the mat hard.

You were straddling him, thighs clamped around his ribs, palms flat on his chest. You smirked down at him, panting. 

Bucky stared up at you, winded, stunned, and very, very pinned. “That was dirty.”

You leaned down, your face just inches from his again. “So was your little mentor stunt. Call it even.”

Throughout the room, the entire gym was dead silent, staring. You gracefully dismounted him and marched off the mat, but Bucky scrambled up and followed you.

“Oh, now you want to talk?” you snapped as he caught up beside you.

“You can’t just kiss me and then walk away like that!”

“Why not?”

“You kissed me to mess with me.”

“I kissed you to see if you meant what you said on the mountain.”

The two of you burst through the gym doors and into the hallway. You didn’t look back. You didn’t have to. Bucky’s heavy footsteps were right behind you, his presence unmistakable, all coiled frustration and breathless anger.

A few agents stood frozen near the water station, others lingering by the mission board, all of them caught mid-conversation as they turned to witness the fallout. You were aware of the eyes on you, the awkward silence that followed, but you didn’t care. Let them stare. Let them gossip.

You stormed past them without pause as Bucky chased you like a dog on a leash that was just about to snap.

“You just kissed me in the middle of sparring,” he shouted after you, voice ragged and accusing. “In front of everyone. Is this a joke to you?” 

You didn’t stop. Didn’t slow. The elevator was too slow, too exposed. Instead, you veered to the stairwell and shoved the door open with enough force that it bounced off the wall. The clanging echo followed you as you started up, two steps at a time.

“Oh my god, would you just shut up already?” you snapped over your shoulder, breath catching as your hand slid along the metal railing, spiralling up the concrete stairwell. 

Behind you, Bucky cursed under his breath. “It was unfair.”

He reached for you and just missed your wrist. You yanked it away before he could try again, your skin buzzing with the ghost of contact.

“Isn’t that what you taught me to do? Use anything to my advantage?” you bit out, pushing through the next door as you reached your floor. The hall here was quieter and dimmer. You passed rows of familiar doors. Your apartment was at the end of the corridor, and every step toward it made your pulse throb louder in your ears. “What, you have a problem with me using my assets against you?

“Assets, huh? You know, you really are unbelievable—”

You let out an exasperated groan, cutting him back. “You kissed me back.”

That stopped him.

His boots scraped the floor as he slowed a few paces behind you, chest heaving, eyes wide with shock.

“What?” he asked, his voice barely above a whisper.

You turned your key in the door. The metal clicked, and you pushed it open with a little more care this time.

“You kissed me back,” you repeated softly, almost to yourself this time and stepped inside. 

Bucky barged in after you.

“You don’t understand—I’m… I’m trying to protect you!” His voice followed you into the room, desperate. 

You kicked off your shoes without looking at him. “I don’t need protecting.”

“Would you just listen for once—” he snapped, shutting the door behind him. 

You rolled your eyes and started pulling off your shirt, tossing it onto your bed and turned to face him, arms crossed. “I am listening, you’re the one not listening to me.”

Bucky stood just inside the door, like he hadn’t decided whether to walk out or burn the whole damn building down. 

“I shouldn’t have told you that on the mountain, it was unprofessional of me.” His voice cracked as his words poured out faster than it seemed he could stop them, emotion thick in every syllable. “I requested the mentor switch because I don’t trust myself to keep pretending. I can’t control myself around you!”

You padded barefoot across the room to the small bathroom.

“How am I supposed to go on training you?” He muttered, gesturing vaguely in your direction. He was repeating himself now, rambling like a crazed man completely oblivious to your actions. “You pull that stunt in the middle of training, humiliate both of us in front of the others, and then act like it meant nothing? Jesus, I can’t even think straight when you—”

You peeled your leggings off and let it fall to the floor behind you.

“—and don’t even get me started on that assets comment! What the hell does that even mean? You can’t just go around weaponising your—”

You unclasped your bra and bent to turn on the shower. The hiss of water filled the room, steam already curling up the mirror.

“—I mean, are you even hearing yourself? You just, what? Decided to tackle and kiss me like it was some kind of training tactic?! That’s not even…Are you using my confession against me? God, you’re impossible, I swear—”

He looked up.

And stopped.

Mid-sentence. Mid-breath.

There you were, back turned, steam catching on the bare curve of your spine and trailing over the lines of your thighs, standing in nothing but your underwear.

His words died in his throat like a car slamming into a wall.

Mouth slightly open. Eyes locked. 

You glanced at him over your shoulder, saw the exact moment it hit him and raised a brow, feigning casual curiosity as you stepped toward the open shower door, letting the foggy heat billow around your legs.

“You joining me?” you asked sweetly. “Sure sounds like you need to cool off.”

He said nothing.

Just stared.

Like you’d just knocked the wind out of him for the second time that day. Just that haunted, hungry look in his eyes like he was trying to figure out if he’d died and gone to hell. Or heaven.

His mouth opened, like he had something to say, some half-assed rebuttal, some snarky comeback.

But no words came out.

Only a low, helpless breath.

“I wasn’t using it against you.” You clarified as you dragged your underwear down your legs, tossing them somewhere across the room. “I was seeing if you meant what you said.”

You stepped nto the shower, leaving him stood stunned in the bathroom doorway. A soft sigh slipped from your lips as warm water poured down your shoulders and back, washing away the dull ache in your muscles. For a moment, you simply stood there, facing the stream, eyes closed, the patter of droplets against your scalp soothing like white noise in a storm.

Then came the soft rattle of the shower door behind you. You didn’t need to open your eyes to know it was him.

The subtle swish of movement was followed by the cool press of metal against your waist, his vibranium arm snaking around you, cool against the heat of the water and your flushed skin. Goosebumps prickled instantly across your stomach, nipples peaking at the contrast.

You turned slowly, steam swirling around you in thick waves as you met Bucky’s eyes. His wet hair was slicked against his neck, droplets clinging to the dark strands and sliding down his jawline. Beads of water traced the line of his throat and the rise of his Adam’s apple, disappearing over the muscle of his chest. His hands found your hips, warm and solid, the grip almost possessive.

You tried not to look down, tried not to let your eyes drift to the answer to a question you’d been too proud to ask. Instead, a smirk tugged at the corner of your lips as you stepped into him, letting your palms slide up the hard planes of his chest, past his dogtags and looped around the back of his neck.

“I think this is going to do the opposite of cooling me down,” he muttered, voice husky, half-lost beneath the steady rhythm of water hitting tile.

You let out a soft, breathless laugh, and then you kissed him.

It wasn’t gentle.

Your mouths crashed together like you’d both been holding back for too long. Hungry. Desperate. Sloppy. The water only made it messier, lips sliding, catching, breath hissing as teeth grazed. He kissed like he needed to claim this moment before the world snapped back into place. You returned the kiss with equal urgency, fingers threading into his wet hair, tugging, needing more.

His hands slid down your back, firm, sure, guiding you until your spine pressed against the slick wall of the shower. You wrapped a leg around his hip, instinctive, needy, and he growled softly into your mouth as his hand dropped to support your thigh, holding you steady. You ground your hips into him, once, twice. His grip tightened, and the next thing you knew, he was lifting you, hands firm on your ass as he carried you effortlessly from the shower. The bathroom was thick with steam, fog curling along the edges of the mirror and dripping from the ceiling. Water trailed down both of you, soaking the tiles as he strode across the room.

Your back met the edge of the counter with a soft thud, followed by the chill of the fogged-up mirror behind you. The coolness shocked your skin and made your spine arch sharply, drawing a low noise from your throat. Bucky didn’t miss a beat. He was still kissing you, still swallowing your gasp as his hands ran down your thighs and urged them further apart.

He stepped in, slotting himself between your legs, his body flush against yours. The sensation of him made your head spin. Water from the still-running shower continued to hiss in the background, steam billowing out and filling the room like a cocoon. You were both soaked, skin slick and glistening, lips swollen, breaths short. Your fingers found the back of his neck again, anchoring yourself as he kissed you deeper, slower now, like he was savouring every second.

His hands slid down your hips and tugged you forward until your thighs bracketed his waist. You felt his cock, solid and insistent, pulsing against the sensitive skin of your inner thigh, and your breath caught.

“I think I’ve dreamt of this moment.” He confessed between kisses, before consuming you again.

It took little resistance for him to push into you in one smooth motion. You weren’t just drenched from the shower. Your whole body sang from the shock of it, a strangled sound tearing from your throat as your fingers fisted in his wet hair. His mouth tore from yours with a ragged gasp, trailing down your jaw, your neck, leaving fire in his wake. Bucky braced a hand behind you on the counter, the other gripping your thigh, steadying you as his hips began to move precise and relentless.

“Do you know how long I’ve thought about this?” he muttered into the curve of your neck, voice wrecked. His lips brushed against your pulse, the edge of his teeth grazing the skin like he was half a second from losing control. “How many nights I told myself I couldn’t touch you... shouldn’t want you, couldn’t have you.”

You let out a breathless laugh that quickly turned into a gasp as his hips snapped forward again. 

“Keep going,” you rasped, one hand clawing up the curve of his back, the other buried in his hair. “Don’t stop.”

His only reply was a low, broken groan against your skin, like he was coming apart just from the feel of you wrapped around him. You locked your ankles behind him and rocked your hips forward, drawing him deeper. A spark of pleasure flared up your spine, making your head fall back against the fogged-up mirror..

“I tried so fucking hard to keep my distance.” He chuckled low against your collarbone, though the sound was strained, caught between shallow pants and a raw groan of need. “You have no idea what you do to me.”

His vibranium hand slid between your bodies. His fingers found that sensitive bundle of nerves, circling with gentle strokes, and your body jolted in response. An uncontrollable whimper left you as your thighs trembled around him.

“I’ve been dying to hear those sounds from you.” Bucky panted against your ear. 

You pressed closer to him, shaking legs tightening around his waist as you pursued his fingers. He chuckled at your poorly hidden desperation, chest vibrating from the sound. As his fingers swirled, cock pumping in and out, you felt your body clench involuntarily around him, drawing a moan from him. 

“Fuck, Bucky, ” you breathed, barely able to form the word as your pleasure surged, unrelenting and dizzying. “If I’d known this was what you were holding back, I would’ve pushed harder.”

Bucky’s rhythm faltered, his thrusts becoming uneven and desperate, chasing the high he could feel coiling tighter in both of you. Your raw moans echoed around the small bathroom, rising above the hiss of the shower and the frantic beat of the slap of wet skin. Your climax broke over you like a wave crashing against the shore. Your entire body arched, legs trembling as you whimpered, lips parted, eyes squeezed shut. Pleasure tore through you like lightning, leaving your nerves sparking in its wake.

With a guttural groan muffled against your neck, Bucky followed you over the edge. You felt him twitch inside you, warmth spreading as he spilt into you, his hips stuttering erratically as he buried himself as deep as he could go. His arms tightened around you, as though he needed to hold you close to keep himself grounded.

For a long, breathless moment, you stayed like that. Tangled together, trembling, the heat of the afterglow. The water still rained behind you, forgotten, as you both came down slowly, limbs heavy and slick with sweat and steam. Then, slowly, Bucky lifted his head to look at you. His hair was plastered to his forehead in wet strands, water trailing down the lines of his cheekbones and along his jaw. His eyes, dark and hungry, searched yours with a mix of dazed satisfaction and something else. A flicker of awe, maybe. Or disbelief.

You gave him a slow, wicked smirk and reached up to brush a dripping lock of hair off his brow, your fingers lingering just a second longer than necessary.

“I need you to pull that transfer request, by the way,” you murmured, voice low and rough with breath. “There is no way in hell I’m training with Thor.”

His lips twitched, a hoarse laugh escaping him, short and surprised. But the fire in his gaze didn’t fade. If anything, it darkened.

“I’ll pull it…” he said, voice thick with promise as his hands slid back down to your waist, “…when I’m done with you.”

From the way his fingers gripped your hips, you had a feeling that wouldn’t be anytime soon. 

---

hello! i no longer have a taglist because it got too long and was reaching the tag limit. if you want to be notified when i post please follow @artficlly-updates and turn on post notifications!

[somestorythoughts]

Narrative Role vs Personality

There was something that felt weird to me when I watched the 1st season of the clone wars, I thought I figured it out and now that I've seen a few more seasons and haven't changed my mind I'm gonna post about it and hopefully make some sense in the following ramble.

It feels like there's a bit of conflict between the writers giving the clones a narrative role and making them actual characters. Yes all characters have a role in the narrative that's not the point, the point is that, from the outside, the clones' role in the story is just to be an army. You need bodies to make up an army to show the audience that this a war, and the audience isn't supposed to really invest in them past wanting the good guys to win.

That's not a bad thing, it's normal when you have sci-fi/fantasy armies. That's the role these guys play:

We love the dramatic charge of the Rohirrim, we take a solemn moment to acknowledge the bodies in the aftermath, and that's it. We mostly feel actively sad for the characters we know, or sometimes background characters who are there for emotional impact. The role of an army in these shows/movies is to look good, die, and win or loose. It's the same kind of role characters in adventure movies like Indian Jones or the Mummy play, those people who get caught by lethal traps. You can expand that into "it's messed up that they're being used as test subjects for booby traps" outside the film but their only role in the narrative is to show that the traps are dangerous. Again, not a bad thing narratively. In a story, someone's gotta show that the 1000-year old knife trap is still sharp somehow and yes the evil scarabs are alive. And sometimes those are also minions or bad guys but it still applies.

I think horror movies do the same thing but it's not my genre so not certain how their deaths work.

And in aotc and rots, the clones are pretty much pure plot device. They've got a narrative role and they fill it. They're an army, they do the fighting the dying and the killing, we get very little personality out of them. Been a while since I've seen rots so I can't say if they get no characterization, but I'm pretty sure it's VERY low. We know the basics of their background, we don't know them.

And then the clone wars came around and it gave them personality. It gave them characterization. And sure the series seems to be largely focused on the Jedi, but they still took the time to give the clones some character beyond just being bodies to fill the ranks.

And it's not like you can't kill characters the audience cares about, everyone knows that isn't the case. But if you give characters personality, the audience is more likely to care. If the care, they might be upset that they're dying over and over so easily without much in story mention. And people really latched on to the clones.

It doesn't help that their backstory is kinda fucked up. I have no idea how much of the shit they go through on Kamino and in the wider galaxy in fanfics is canon and how much of it is fan-based (I haven't finished the clone wars series and I'm not quite invested enough to track down the comics right now) but even without that you're talking about millions of people cloned and raised for war by trainers that are at the very least unfriendly, a genetic donor that selected one for a son and does seem to care at all about the rest, and the war they're fighting is entirely engineered. They're made to fight a war and then wiped into blank slates by a bunch of mind-control chips (even if we look at the movies without the show since that was later, there's still plenty of messed up stuff in being bred and raised solely for war). It's messed up enough that people are gonna be interested in that backstory and that might be part of why people latched on to the clones in general instead of only individual troopers though I can't be sure. It's one thing if you've got people who's narrative role is to kill and be killed and look cool while doing it. It's another thing when that's their purpose in the story.

And the clone wars gives us these occasional episodes that show first that some of the clones actively don't want to be here and second that there are some even among the jedi that see them as inferior. Their reactions in the Umbara arc to Krell using numbers instead of names are strong enough that even without them saying something like "we don't like being called by numbers its dehumanizing" that idea still comes across clearly.

Umbara also tells us that they can be ordered to kill their friends, and they will have to comply.

One of the things the clone wars tells us is that this is a really messed up situation. That the story of the clones is a tragedy. But I don't think it always acts like it.

The thing that was bugging me was Plo Koon's declaration that the troopers mattered to him and Windu taking the time to rescue a trooper and later on Ima-gun Di's last stand with his troopers, juxtaposed with the casualness in the series as a whole with which entire ships are destroyed. And I know, its tricky to talk about this kind of thing when you're making a kids' show and you only have 20-odd minutes on top of that. I'm not really blaming them for treating the troopers the same way you treat an army in any fantasy war story. It's fiction. Explosions on a screen are fun. We all like a badass fight scene. I'm probably not the intended audience for this show anymore and that means my perspective isn't the one the writers are trying to hit.

I guess what I'm trying to get at is that it feels a little like the writers gave the clones too much character for their narrative role. And if you as a writer say in-universe that these people's lives matter, sometimes it might feel a bit weird when a ship full of them is blown to pieces and never remarked on again.

I want to end this by acknowledging that I am WAY overanalyzing a kids' show I KNOW so if you're going to criticize this analysis feel free but please criticize about a different point because I recognize the overthinking hell this took like three times as long as I expected to write I have no fucking clue where the time went.

[mysticalfairylamb]

Astrology Observations!!!

Musicians with water in their chart who make love songs , s3x vibes, or just songs for emotions specifically sadness hit different , and hit deep!!! Ex: Drake, Rhianna, Olivia Rodrigo, SZA, Doja cat ( scorpio venus ), the weeknd ( scorpio moon ), Billie Eilish ( pisces moon ), Ariana Grande , Selena Gomez ( I know more so of her old music like the heart wants what it wants, etc. ), Ari Lennox ( Cancer asc, moon at scorpio degree, mercury pisces degree), < i think it’s estimated. Summer walker ( Cancer asc) < i think one website says sag asc the other says cancer you get it though . Michael Jackson, Pisces moon Pisces ASC.

Musicians with air in their chart have such HUGE influence in the music community and in the public eye. Ex: Kendrick Lamar, Kanye West, Biggie, Tupac, Snoop Dog, The Weeknd, Doja Cat, Olivia Rodrigo ( libra moon ), Nicki Minaj ( aquarius asc ), etc. Even besides music air signs just are so known and receive SO much attention to the point where it would be kinda shocking if someone DIDN’T know who they are. like Kim K for example, Marilyn Monroe, etc. Air sign energy makes IMPACT 👏👏👏

Taurus moons tend to hold back on what they wanna say, find more comfort speaking up on their needs & wants if someone else already announced they have the same needs & wants. Some of chillest people I’ve came across. Their moon is also in my 1H. Can be pretty introverted and to themselves , the types to not show out & show off for attention , also may have trouble being direct & assertive. can come off super introverted and to themselves , sometimes may even come off secretive or mysterious cause of how closed off they are. The type you just wanna ask questions to, to find more about. What’s the truth type of question. 🤣 They hold water about themselves and it’s not easy for them to crack !!! They mask emotions well too.

MUTABLE moons and their laughs , pisces stands out the most to me. 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

Pisces mercurys can say the most random stuff during conversation , we can be talking about clothes then a couple seconds later “ Do you think dinosaurs even EXISTED? “ Funny ash though to see how our minds process things, can say random outbursts too, random noises, say something completely off topic. The fishy’s mind IS SWIMMING 😚😚💜

Taurus venus have really gorgeous voices and don’t like to yell a lot. I haven’t met a taurus venus who screams like a maniac. In arguments their voices probably have little to no hostility in it , or anger. Check mars sign too. Anyone I know with a taurus venus has a fire mars but they really don’t be loud. It’s very interesting 🧡🧡

Why are Gemini ASC , placements, either so nosy, messy, or they can’t hold their tongue back & gotta keep it real. Which i’m not surprised because mercury is the planet of messages & communication. Gemini/ mercury energy can get a bit messy & gossipy. Mercury is the planet of talk talk talk. It is pretty stereotypical but literally every gemini placement i’ve met INSTIGATES in arguments, or is like “ oooooou “ , it’s SOMETHING WITH THEM 🤣🤣🤣 whether it’s in public or in private but one thing about my good gemini placements is they ready to get down when it’s TIME. 🤣

Libra risings are so tall and slim. Especially with their sun being an earth sign.

Scorpio Venus and their seductive , HEAVILY sensual, “ I’m the best & everyone wants to kiss me “ music. Embracing that wild sexy feminine energy. Ex: Doja Cat, Nelly Furtado.

Aquarius moons just need a hug deep down, they probably will never admit it cause the way they just neutrally mask their emotions but trust they got a lot going on inside & can use work to distract themselves or to feel more productive.

Y’all !!! Watch out for the people who’s sun falls into your 7th, 12H!!!! Seriously, people don’t be lying when they say they the ones who be talking or plotting. Be safe & be AWARE ☺️

Scorpio placements and their tolerance to physical pain.

Scorpio energy & Psychology JUST GO ALONG.

Leo risings in whole sign have cancer in their 12H, these folks probably deal with their emotions and family issues on their own. Too complex or messy to talk about with just anyone sometimes .

Dear water venus <3 ( PISCES VENUS 111% ) please stop making false situations in your head I know you admire them and love them but sometimes always seeing the best in people only sabotages you. Yes, they have potential but where are they at NOW. In real life, in reality what’s the situation , stop convincing yourself other wise bby. ❤️

Squared Mercurys in synastry during arguments are so stubborn. Can end up going DAYS without talking after the argument from tension & the heat still being turnt up.

Practice embodying your solar return chart placements , i have an aquarius stellium and aquarius ASC and since practicing embodying the traits of aquarius since it’s super significant to me , i’ve been gaining tons of followings and views/likes on my social media platforms. Plus for me practicing the energy of the cosmos aligns me more with the universe , with my natal , solar return & persona.

Sun in the 12H can be confused about their personality , aesthetic , and being in stable in their “ presentation “ of themselves . Get told “ You don’t act like you’re a * enter sun sign * “. Sometimes these folks don’t feel like their sun sign either and resonate more with something else in their chart, or even don’t feel like ANYTHING 🤣🤣🤣 This doesn’t mean they’ll never feel stable in their identity but this is something they could struggle with in life at som point.

6H can show our animals , how our animals are with us, our bonds with our animals, and how people view our animals .

Detriment / Fall placements aren’t tragedy, domicile / Exalt placements aren’t heaven. 🤣

If you don’t feel like your natal chart, check your persona chart !!! I’m a Leo stellium in persona chart and everything in my persona resonates with me. I am a pisces stellium natal so that could be another reason why EVERYTHING resonates with me , feeling the emotions , and shapeshifting internally. Pisces isn’t just water BABY PISCES MUTABLE ALSAAKKAKA.

Wanna know someone’s Venus sign? Observe the colors that look really good on them or that they often wear. Mutable Venus may be a bit more harder to pinpoint. Also may cause confusion on the persons sun sign.

Venus/2H/7H can show the tattoo style someone likes. Or the placement/ body part. of the tattoo I’m a Scorpio 7H and I used to be attracted to crow tattoos, very dark , symbolic tattoos that have a story behind it. My moms a Sag 7H and has traveled good distances for her tattoos. My brothers a taurus venus and has a throat tattoo, taurus rules tongue, tonsils etc. My other brothers a Leo Venus and has a tattoo on his upper back of his zodiac sign, something that has to do with himself. 🤣

11H can show the genre of movies someone likes to watch. Check degree too, and whole sign. Or how they are when watching a movie, the scenes that stand out to them or make impact to them.

Gemini mars energy is very raw when they are irritated. Even when we’re quiet , our faces , tone our whole EXPRESSION shows. Get stimulated by hand activities , ( may apply to other air mars too ) cross word puzzles , video games, games that have to do with hand & eye in union. Check degree & house too.

Thank you for reading my loves !!! Feedback & constructive criticism is welcomed ! Please don’t be a d!ck. ❤️❤️❤️

[anime-grimmy-art]

Told you guys I’d ramble in due time.

I absolutely adore Bravely Default 2. It came at a really bad time cos I can’t waste 70 hours on a jrpg, but well, it’s too late to be concerned about that now. And as is tradition with me obsessing over a new game / show / whatever, you’ll basically find a fullblown review disguised as ramblings right under the cut. Be aware that I’m gonna talk about EVERYTHING, so spoilers are a given. Some maybe even for the previous Bravely Default games.

Also, if you wanna talk about this game in any capacity, hit me up, I’m DESPERATE to talk more about it.

Just for reference on how long this is gonna be, I made a voice recording while driving to remember all the points I wanna make, and that recording is almost 2 hours long. I did cut it down but still, this is gonna be a lot.

I’ll start off with the things that actually bugged me about the game, since there are only 3 things that really bothered me. First of, I really don’t like that you can name Seth. He has too much personality to be a self insert and player integration is not that big of a part in the game that this decision can be justified. It wouldn’t bother me that much if it didn’t leave a bad mark on the ending. First of all, we were robbed of Gloria desperately shouting for Seth, which makes the impact work less, and it’s just so prevalent that the name can’t be said because you have all the normal sound design going. If they’d just let the credits still play I wouldn’t have batted an eye, but because every other sound comes in it’s so obvious they’re just silently shouting in this scene, which makes it look silly. Like I said, this decision is more a detriment than an addition, and it’s a shame it casts a shadow on an otherwise heartfelt ending.

Speaking about lost potential, the other thing that really bothers me is the lost potential in certain plot points and character conclusions. I mainly mean Adam and Edna here. Both of them have been built up to be these formidable foes but they just, die. If it was just Adam I’d be fine with it, since you expect Edna to backstab him and be the actual big bad of the story, but I cannot fathom why they dropped Edna this HARD. If not Edna herself, I don’t understand why we don’t get more of a reaction from the Fairies and especially Adelle. I mean, Edna was her sole reason she left for her journey in the first place, then Edna dies and that’s it? No part where she grieves for a second? No concern from the others about Adelle? Mind you, I haven’t finished all the Sidequests, so maybe there actually is one in which this is addressed, but I think even just a Party Chat after Bad End 1 would have been sufficient to show how Adelle suddenly feels about the loss of Edna. It would have made Bad End 2 / The Secret Ending even more impactful, because, yeah, of course, you kinda know Adelle isn’t going to turn her back on fairy kind, but one of the reasons she doesn’t leave is because if Enda didn’t get a happy ending, then she shouldn’t either. It would have been amazing foreshadowing if she showed this sentiment before this scene happened. Other than that, it’s a shame that we know so little about Edna, or rather, how she became “bad”. I get she’s supposed to be corrupted by the Night’s Nexus, but how did it even come to this? It can’t have been a gradual thing, after all, Adelle says Edna was always good natured and then just disappeared one day. Really would have loved seeing more of that plot point.

Ok, last gripe I have, some choices in the soundtrack and sound design. Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love the OST, and I will get to that, but damn, whatever Revo used for the lead instrument in Wiswald hurts my ears. It’s a really good track, but I always have to turn down my volume because these high pitched sounds physically hurt. And for sound design. Dude, the Night’s Nexus is the least threatening, nightmare fueled abomination that ever existed. I get that its growl is kinda supposed to be layered with Edna’s or sth, but it, it just sounds silly. If they went the route of just swinging between different voices or began distorting it from phase to phase, it would have been fine. But the choice they made really made an otherwise creepy design just absolutely silly.

Ok, enough jammering, on to the good stuff. Like I said, there’s going to be a lot, so I’ll try to be brief in each aspect.

Gameplay

I honestly like the new battle mechanics more than the old ones. This individual, turn based system feels way more dynamic and it’s easier to strategies in battles. Because nothing made me more angry than setting up for a heal and the enemy suddenly being faster than me and killing my healer. Now it’s easier to plan ahead a bit.

I also found myself experimenting more with the jobs. Not sure what it really is, but none of the party members leaning more towards certain types of jobs and the job leveling being way faster probably helped.

And I know some people get up in arms because the boss sometimes can be a real pain in the ass (looking at you pope dude), I still found it very interesting getting around counters or even using these counters as a benefit. As an example, I made Adelle my main physical fighter and gave her lots of counter abilities to help her profit from being countered by enemies themselves. Now, she can attack enemies, get countered, automatically evade that counter and earn a BP at the same time. Made a lot of boss fights way easier and fun to exploit.

Music

Ok, I will try my best to be really, really brief, because in my recording this part takes up almost 40 minutes. Anyways, Revo might have just become one of my absolute favorite composers ever. I don’t know what kind of magic he used, but I initially wasn’t that impressed with the OST, but every time I listened to it, I just fell in love harder and harder. Before getting into specifics, I wanna highlight the two things that made me love this OST overall. First of all, this soundtrack almost seems like a refinement of BD’s. While losing some of that fairytale vibe, it sounds even more fantasy now. And in contrast to the original, this almost sounds more balanced? Like, BD’s OST felt high energy throughout, BD2’s on the other hand manages to find a good balance between high and low energy pieces. Like, the character themes or battle themes are absolute hype, but the overworld themes are a lot calmer and easier to listen to while exploring. Second big point that makes this soundtrack amazing is that Revo is an absolute god at using emotional progression/storytelling and leitmotifs in his songs. And heck, do I love myself my leitmotifs. You’ve got some obvious ones, like the final battle theme in which all the character themes and other leitmotifs are integrated. Then you got some maybe more subtle once, just like how the overworld themes are just the main theme, just a lot calmer and using the lead instruments of the towns of the areas.

But my absolute favourites gotta be the character themes and the main theme. I love how fitting the themes for the characters are and in general, each of them is such a bop. At first I prefered Elvis’, because I sure am a sucker for jazzy vibes, but over time Adelle’s became my fav. It’s just something about the trumpets, and how the theme almost sounds a bit melancholic and bittersweet, that drew me in. And considering her story, mostly her bad end, that the bittersweet tone really fits.

Then there’s the main theme. Just like BD’s it shouts “triumphant anthem” and it definitely gives you a very familiar vibe, but I’d argue it has even better emotional progression. Heck, the first time I heard the music start up in the reveal trailer, I didn’t have to look at the screen to know this is gonna be a BD game. Also, the credit song version had me weeping at the true end. I’m someone who’s very easily affected by music (if me shouting about soundtracks on this blog wasn’t proof enough) and just hearing that ending song, getting the after credits scene, just for the second credits to start as a freaking duet. Dude, at that point I just started sobbing, I’m not gonna lie. Just this little part showed how much Revo knows how to put emotion in a song and also write it in such a way that he can elicit strong, emotional reactions from you too. 

Story

People have been complaining how the story is too boring and kinda disappointing in comparison to the last one, but I just think the games tried to accomplish different things here. Since the BD series is a celebration of old, classic jrpgs, “cliche” storytelling is a given. Though, BD did throw a lot of meta stuff in there too. BD2 in contrast just feels like a direct execution of that initial idea. It feels familiar, it feels comfy and it feels safe. Except for the little things with the endings and then overwriting the Nexus’ “save file”, BD2 doesn’t really get that meta, which is totally fine. It doesn’t try to reinvent or innovate anything, it just wants to be a fantasy story, that might be cliche, but still fun and enjoyable in its own right.

I’d also argue that the pacing is a lot better than the old game, because with BD I sometimes found myself skipping through scenes to get on with the story. Not that this game didn’t have me rushing through stuff as well, but I found it kept my intrigue way better than the original.

Characters

Next to the music, this is the part that I absolutely love the most. While, yes, they did lose a lot of potential with some characters, mostly with the villains, the main cast is just so much fun. I love these 4 dorks so, so much.

I honestly can’t stand how much people compare them to the original cast. Yes, ofc, I’ve been doing my fair share of comparisons too, but calling these four a more boring version of BD’s party physically hurts me. Because except for some initial impressions, the Heroes of Light are completely different from our beloved Warriors of Light.

While yes, Seth and Gloria give off strong Tiz and Agnes vibes at first, they both grow into such different characters that they’re not really comparable. I think this shows with Adelle and Elvis even more. I do understand how people could compare Adelle and Edea, since they’re both the feisty girl type, but I can’t understand how people can see Ringabel and Elvis as the same character type. While those two are the “suave” party members, they act so differently from another. And that’s honestly apparent the first time you meet them. 

Anyways, I love these 4 so much.

We technically don’t know a lot about Seth at all, but they manage to pull so much out of just the fact that he’s a sailor, that it makes him really endearing, really fast.

I was kinda disinterested with Gloria at first, because again, the initial impression was Agnés2.0, but she grew on me a lot. Gloria is way more hard headed and honestly sassy in comparison to Agnés and I absolutely adore it.

Elvis. Elvis, my man. I love this fantasy scottosh wizard so, so much. He’s such a ridiculous character but so endearing at the same time. You got all this dorkiness, with him setting himself on fire as a student, him doing god knows what for a good drink or just laughing danger and prejudice in the face. But then you got his super empathetic and caring side. Mind you, most of his wise moments come from quoting Lady Emma, but still, as much as he’s hopeless with certain social situations, he’s actually still really good at reading the room and playing things smart. He’s a smart and powerful idiot, which makes him a danger to everyone and himself, and I love him for it. (I also can’t believe they called him Lesley I MEAN COME ON)

And then there’s Adelle. I liked her from the start, but I didn’t think she would stick out to me. I think now she’s my favourite character. Not even talking about all the stuff that happens in chapter 3 and onward, because these story threads are awesome in their own right, but there’s just something about her personality that’s interesting and appealing to me. Like I said, I’m not surprised people compare her to Edea, I did too at first, but while Edea walks very close to the line of a Tsundere, I was really surprised that Adelle is, well, not a Tsundere at all. Yeah, of course she’s putting Elvis down a lot, but that stems more from her preventing his ego from going to his head than her being all embarrassed. No, Adelle is actually really well adjusted when it comes to communication. While it’s hilarious that she and Elvis met with her chucking her shoes at him, the two just got along well right from the start. Adelle in general has this really open and helpful personality, but also doesn’t shy away from putting her foot down, even if that sometimes comes out as an embarrassed sputter. She’s also the mother hen of the group. She looks out for the other three and gets concerned about them real fast. 

I dunno, Adelle just really grew on me over the course of this game, and then her kinda being paired with Elvis too, as partners and as partners, makes me like her even more. Because as much as I like their personalities individually, I like their character dynamic even more. I honestly love the relationships between all four of them a lot. You really feel them grow closer as friends and all the little character sidequests just always made me really happy.

Conclusion

You might not believe me, but I really held back there. This could probably have been 3 times its length. As much as I love this game, it’s of course not perfect. It struggles and flails in some parts a lot and it certainly has some aspects that might turn people off. But for me, it was just a very familiar and comfy game that didn’t necessarily deliver anything new, but that told its story in such a way that it still got me excited to keep going. The soundtrack is absolutely amazing and the conclusion of the story actually got me to cry. While not groundbreaking, this game is highly enjoyable and leaves you absolutely satisfied at the end.

Also, I would like to iterate that I am desperate to get more content about this game, so if you wanna chat about it, hit me up.

Anyways, anyone else felt like having a fever dream when everybody in chapter 2 started talking fantasy scottish? Cos I sure did.

[saphushia]

would you be willing to share more about the character in the second pic? They seem interesting!

i assume you mean the most recent dump of dndverse stuff, tho i still don't know which you mean in that pic so i'm just gonna talk abt both of them lol

So that specific pic is a bi0shock infinite au of me and @fr1ndl3's D&D ocs, tobi (mine) and syl (fr1's)! they both have bios on my character page (desktop only, sadly), which has basic info abt them n info abt them in their normal dnd universe ((bi0shock infinite spoilers ahead i guess? gonna b talking abt the plot of the game in relation to the au. it is nearly a 10 year old game though, so idk why i'm giving a warning))

in the au, syl can open tears to parallel universes (like elizabeth), and they end up kinda stuck together trying to escape the flying city the game takes place in. tobi basically takes the place of booker, trying to get syl out and being the guy doing most of the fighting. me and fr1 both like inhuman character design aspects so that's why syl's glowing, and why tobi has horns n such- in the game vigors, which you drink to gain new powers, have slight physical manifestations, and that shit's hot. so i dialed it up for tobi.

the difference between the game plot and the au is that. the ending was kinda stupid and didn't have much emotional payoff for the characters, so we're basically ignoring the whole plot point that booker is elizabeth's father. because it's genuinely funnier if tobi is just Some Guy that's gotten stuck in all this shit. and since that means it doesn't work to have an alternate universe tobi be the bad guy (like how an alternate timeline booker turns out to be the villain in the game), we changed it so that it's an alternate reality syl (kaiser- a character that exists in dndverse canon and another of our favorite aus for the boys, and who we've really gotta work on detailing so i can put him on the character page) who's been pulling the strings the whole time- who lost his own reality tearing power and decided to use his past self to get it

we're also working on how to segue/alter the burial at sea dlc into linking into bi0shock 1- the general gist is that at the end of bi0shock infinite they do some universe hopping, and when they end up in rapture (the underwater city in the first game), tobi panics from seeing the water (boy's got a phobia), and becomes too unfocused on his reality for long enough that he blends into the reality of bi0shock 1, and syl (who doesn't have the same problems, because they're his powers) has to go looking for where the universe fit him in

and thats a basic summary! syl's got time-space powers and tobi's a dude who drank magic kool-aid and shoots guns! idk how clear any of that was, so feel free to ask more questions, i like thinking abt the boys :)

and again- || @fr1ndl3 | character page ||

[hamphobicbasil]

Could u elaborate about the dsmp story being bad? Not a rabid/brain dead fan, just genuinely curious and I enjoy reading people's rants lolol

oh you dont know the floodgates you just opened

a few things:

1. despite not liking the creators of the dsmp anymore, I don't actually hate most of them. [the ones that are particularly unsavory fall outside of this of course] so all that I'm saying i truly mean in a critical sense towards the story, its also just all purely my opinion as someone who enjoys fictional and fantasy stories and who like criticizing works to see what it does well and what it doesn't do well

2. for clarification I'm going to use the c![name] to indicate when I'm talking about the characters. Don't get me wrong, I think its annoying too but its the only way I'm gonna be able to write this thing without getting something across the wrong way yknow?

3. I stopped watching the streams after November 16th, [save for one Techno one but I closed out after a particularly bad story beat lol] and so all information coming afterward is all second hand from either me seeing people on twt talk abt it or people dming me. All i really know is up to dream's imprisonment and some stuff past that.

4. This is mostly aimed towards the "main" story, so stuff abt the badlands, eggpire, and whatnot are briefly mentioned.

anyways uh, i'll try to be brief but also include enough information to get why i feel the way i do on some stuff across

A. Performances Alright obviously these people are all streamers, so obviously they might not be the best actors, and hell no one is even asking that of them. However, when you're telling a story that's based on the audio with the visuals kinda coming to a second, it's gotta be pretty strong. I will say, some of the best actors in my opinion are Wilbur, Tommy, and Tubbo. I would include Ranboo but I never watched any of his story bits or story streams so I can't say much. Wilbur and Tommy are excellent in selling their character's emotions and feelings, when I watch the stream I don't feel like I'm watching an rp but an actual thought-out story yknow? And one of my favorite Tubbo examples was in the Hog Hunt video whenever Techno attacked him, he sounded genuinely afraid and I believed everything his character was feeling.

However, unfortunately, not everyone is gonna be that good. And I'm gonna say it; Dream and Techno have to be the worst out of the entire cast. I understand Techno's whole character is this monotoned badass, however, when really emotional moments hit I feel like he never lets that fall, and a lot of intense moments just ring hollow. And I'm sorry but Dream's attempts at being intimidating leave me laughing whenever I watch them. It feels like he watched that one scene from The Marriage with Adam Driver and Scarlett Johannson and said "Oh this is what good acting looks like! Just yelling." His whole "I don't give a FUCK about Spirit!" speech isn't as great as people keep making it out to be. And whenever he tries to act coy when being a villain it feels like a guy reading the script for the first time, a bit like he's trying too hard. I have more problems with his character but his portrayal certainly doesn't help.

Everyone else is fine, and I don't feel strongly either way about a lot of them.

B. The "Lore" Okay first off, I can't be the only one who thinks it's silly that people are calling the dsmp's story "lore" when it's not, it's the fucking story. Lore indicates backstory to either the world or the characters, which a lot of the streams don't really pertain to. This is a really petty section but god it's a weird pet peeve of mine.

Other than the misusage of "lore" vs "story", the actual lore and world-building of the world are so lackluster that new elements can be introduced whenever and it often feels cluttered or not well thought out at all. And here's the thing, I feel like if the writers sat down just for a few minutes to establish world rules and general history, a lot of this could be solved! but so much is made up on the spot that it starts to feel like they're grabbing at straws to keep people invested, trying to reach that next high and intense story beat without actually earning it.

C. The Egg / Eggpire This is a pretty minor note since I was only invested in the Egg storyline for a little bit, but god it's so underused that it's almost embarrassing. Bad has provided this super interesting antagonistic force that's infecting the SMP, can control people, and who one of our main character is immune to, and it's just never used or even talked about again? Now I understand if he wanted to keep it to a side storyline only, however, to introduce this borderline eldritch creature and force within the world and then never have it dealt with is so weird.

D. The Writing Oh boy this is. kinda a big one. Now I'm not gonna lie, it's pretty obvious I have a bias for the Wilbur writing over the current team [that consisting of Dream, Quackity, and Tommy mostly]. I don't this his writing is perfect by any means, the characters constantly bringing up traitors got obnoxious after a while, and writing Hamilton but in Minecraft really isn't the modern Shakespeare or anything. However, I think his exploration of characters and plot progression was a lot more thought out and well planned, like he actually had two brain cells behind the story yknow? The current team I think fails to be as emotional or even impactful, things happened too fast and my god was everything drowned in angst for so long.

Don't get me wrong, you gotta have your characters face hardships to make them reach their goal believable, but some of the shit they put the characters through just felt like too much. From c!Tubbo's constant comparison to c!Schlatt [who btw, fucking ordered his death and kept him from his friends in a nation he felt trapped in] and on a side note, i kinda really fucking dislike the "c!Schlatt dad!!" au's or the au's where c!Tubbo inherits some of Schlatt's features, it would be like c!Tommy getting a c!Dream mask after his exile, it's feels so weird yet people eat that shit up for some reason.

But god, did c!Tommy get the brunt of it all and in retrospect after his final death, it kinda feels really fucking gross. Now obviously, I'm not trusting any of these people to write decent mental health representation, but c!Tommy's PTSD and how it was explored was just degrading. [Specifically the scene in that one Techno stream where he saw the final control room from the first war, and had a flashback / panic attack where he started calling out for c!Dream. I understand this is an actual thing people with PTSD will experience, but it felt so fucking stereotypical it got on my nerves. I actually had to close out of the stream because it made me feel sick, fiction shouldn't leave you feeling that way.] And don't get me started on how they basically reused the formula from the previous arc. [Problem introduced -> Tensions rise as things start to fall apart -> Big confrontation -> Exile -> Return from Exile -> Blowing up L'Manberg, again.]

And speaking of characters-

E. Character Arcs, or the lack of them In my genuine opinion, some of these characters' arcs are so disappointing. Especially c!Tommy's. I'm not one to believe that he was a "selfish" character or anything, however, his goals were simply set on his discs and maybe c!Tubbo, he didn't have much outside that. However, L'Manberg gave him something to care about, he gave up his discs for it and he fought for it tooth and nail, I think it taught him to open up to others and trust more. It was a great character arc for him to have, seeing him still fight even after his first exile alongside c!Wilbur, to return safely to the nation that he and his found family had built.

But then his second exile happened, and I feel like all of that was undone.

c!Tommy's exile genuinely pisses me off for so many reasons. It's not that characters can't have their low points after reaching a major change or feeling like they've "completed" their arcs or anything, but it's more of the fact that it seems like he's never going to heal that feels like a spit in the face, especially to people who might have had setbacks like that before. Progress isn't linear, sometimes things happen and you get knocked back down, it can take a while to get back up, but I don't think c!Tommy's character is ever going to be allowed to get back up. From c!Dream, who pretty much was a constant abuser in his life, killing him then reviving him, and his still fractured relationship with c!Tubbo, which by the way I have a had time believing they would still be friends after all that happened, it feels like he can never get a win and it's generally kinda a shit way to treat your characters who have been abused. Of course, not all abused characters are going to get happy endings, I'm not trying to dictate that they all should, but c!Tommy deserves one and the fact that it's so obscure feels shitty.

Side note: we still don't have a canon reason to give a shit abt the discs. Like I'm sorry but without some sorta connection to the MacGuffin why should we give a shit about him getting them other than "he wants them lol". Like hell, I would even accept the classic "they were the last gifts from his parents" or something, but we still don't have a reason.

c!Tubbo also lacks a fulfilling arc as well, from someone who started out as a yes man, he has progressed a bit into having his own interests first, but besides that sometimes his character makes me so. depressed. He's easily one of the most pushed around and hated characters within the story, all for being a kid who didn't know what to do and he's in the same vein as c!Tommy; these kids can't get a break. Also, his anti-violence beliefs morphing into the "lets kill c!Techno lol!" bit was so out of place and without proper build-up it was like. what. And now he's building nukes?? god c!Tubbo makes me so sad because he's kicked around constantly and never given a chance to grow.

Another small note, I also don't really enjoy c!Techno at all. Besides the previously stated reasons of lack of emotions when they're really needed, I find his character to be weirdly pretentious. He talks as if he's constantly been betrayed and hurt but I personally, don't see it? Like, I think one of the main examples was the Pogtopia vs. Manberg war, yknow he wanted to end the government but they just reinstated it after they won = c!Techno upset. But this doesn't make sense to me because why did he think otherwise? The entire time c!Tommy had talked about taking back their nation and starting again, so the fact that c!Techno suddenly thought there would be a sudden change is, to put it bluntly, kinda fucking stupid. I don't want to say that he "plays the victim" or anything because that feels a bit harsh, but his character feels so far up his own ass that I can't enjoy him.

I have a major grip with c!Dream as well, but that's getting it's own fucking section.

F. L'Manberg This is a quick note before we get into the, forgive me for this, endgame, of this entire rant, since the next two sections are tied together. But god, L'Manberg makes me upset because it feels like they gave up on it.

Don't get me wrong, I understand that it is supposed to be c!Wilbur's "unfinished symphony", the thing that destroyed a once charismatic and widely loved man, his attempt at power that utterly ruined him. But the fact that it just got blown up in the end after everything and left to rot felt like such a waste of time. From the first war, to Pogtopia, to even c!Tommy's exile, it all felt fucking worthless in the end, and the story is actively closer to how it was when it started now more than ever. I wished it was actually allowed to exist and continue to be a peaceful place in what is a chaotic world, but no it was just snuffed out because why dedicate to this concept of finding others you can band together with and feel safe. fuck that noise apparently?

G. The Villains Now villain-wise, I'm only talking about c!Dream [during the first war], c!Schlatt, and c!Wilbur. And believe it or not, this is actually mostly positive.

Now I'm not gonna lie, c!Dream as a staring antagonist wasn't bad actually, he posed a genuine and threatening opposition to L'Manberg, even if we didn't know his real intentions or motivations as to why he was against it. He's lucky in this sense because he didn't have to be good, he had to be passable. If anything, he felt more like an anti-hero than a tyrant or traditional villain, and my god do I wish he kept this theme going forward.

Now quick disclaimer, I don't like JSchlatt as much as the next guy, he's an adult man who should know better than to joke about some sensitive topics and act the way that he does. But the one thing I'll ever give him is that damn, was he a good actor for his character.

Now here's the thing, c!Schlatt wasn't particularly deep at all. He had no real motivations behind his exile of c!Wilbur and c!Tommy other than getting competition out of the way, had no reason to act the way that he did and yknow? that's fine. The reason why he worked was from his performance alone, he was actually intimidating. When he came onto the stream and was doing his typical bad guy stuff, it was actually intense to see what he would do. Whenever he would almost catch c!Tommy back in Manberg, whenever he would begin to pressure c!Tubbo, it put you on the edge of your seat and it felt like everything would change at the drop of a pen. He's a villain to be a villain, and this works out because he's just charismatic and well put together enough to make it interesting, even without the backstory or motives.

c!Wilbur however, is much more tragic, and the best villain of the story. He essentially was the "mentor turned evil" trope and it felt terrible watching him descend into madness, unable to trust barely anyone except for c!Techno and c!Tommy. Hell, in the end I think he still cared about them both, despite losing everything. Sure, he blew up L'Manberg, but there was still a smidge of the old c!Wilbur in there made everything he did feel melancholic. His death at the hands of his father after achieving his final wish was chilling, and something I still think about.

Until yknow, Ghostbur came back way too soon to let people feel his loss as a character within that world. And then he got revived, pretty much-undoing everything that moment meant for his character lol.

And then there's the worst one:

H. Dream. I'm going to be completely honest, c!Dream is one of the main reasons why I dislike the current dsmp stuff so much. Outside of his actions as a person, the way Dream decided to write his character as this overpowered madman of the dsmp really just. destroyed any intrigue that he could've had. Perhaps this is from my growing dislike towards him, manifesting into a bias towards his character, but god I cannot fathom why people try to insist he's interesting when he has as much depth as a fucking puddle.

And here's the thing, I'm not even entirely against c!Dream being a villain, hell I think he would've been great as an anti-hero if anything. Make him sympathetic but not through c!George to get your precious "DNF" points or anything, but show him actually caring about the people within the dsmp, including c!Tommy and c!Tubbo. This would make his rival status with them just a bit more complicated, sure they're enemies, however, he doesn't want to hurt or kill them, and there's still a level of friendship there that keeps them bonded when things get super bad. This could've been super interesting to see, the first villain of the story receiving a sorta redemption arc then descending into madness as he started to fixate on being a god. This is all how I feel personally, but god do I feel like it would've been better than his current character, and hell would've worked with how he was during the Pogtopia arc, before the war that is. I'm not trying to tell Dream how to write his own character, but there are so many other ways he could've done the madman seeking to become god rather then. whatever the hell we got.

Because instead, we got this power-mad asshole who does things... because he can? And that's one of my major issues: he tries to surround his character in mystery to make him "intriguing" but it's kinda like c!Techno, it comes off as pretentious. Not only that, but you cannot keep waving around this mystery of a backstory without ever actually revealing it. I know the story isn't over, but c!Dream is effectively at his lowest point, now would be the time to reveal his backstory. But no just keep it in the dark and keep everyone guessing, that's totally fun and not at all tiring and annoying. (sarcasm, if anyone needs it)

And back to his performance, he doesn't sell this aloof, cynical and strategic warrior that has perfected the blade or some shit, he comes off as some angry guy yelling on reddit. which i don't need to tell you, isn't intimidating. It feels like he's trying to have c!Schlatt's intimidation combined with c!Wilbur's depth, but instead he's like a little brother who's trying to hard to mimic his older brother and is kinda embarrassing himself.

but other then that i dont feel too strongly abt the dsmp lol

but seriously, these are the main complaints I have abt the story tbh, I could probably talk about more but I wont because man. this is probably gonna get me in trouble if any of the hyper-dsmp fans actually read it.

[korra-the-red-lion]

Supergirl 6x13: The Gauntlet.

Hey everyone, Korra here! I actually watched this episode the other day, but I had some home stuff going on and didn’t have time to do my write up. It’s good for now, and here I am! So after the amazing episode last week, how did this one do? Let’s see what I think, and as always, SPOLIERS AHEAD.

Mitch (this is the blue alien guy whose name I literally didn’t know until recently) and Nyxly are going to be together this whole season it seems, and honestly? I’m here for it. They balance each other nicely.

Okay, so Kara has been down in the dumps for the past couple of episodes, and literally when Lena walks into the room she gets this massive smile on her face and runs up to give her a hug. Looks like we’re in for a Supercorp episode and I am here for it.

Kara and Lena head to the Fortress of Solitude, and get to work by speaking to a Kryptonian Witch. Lena is very skeptical of magic, and believes that it’s just energy. Clearly my homegirl was not paying attention to the fire she summoned last episode.

Also remember that Sam was Reign because of these witches, which I guess was never brought up during Sunday brunch.

So I guess there’s this random C-plot about William having PTSD from getting shot from Eve. Look, I guess it’s fine, but why bother? You can do something that was never mentioned until literally this episode with a character that most of us just tolerate at this point, but you can’t do the same for your lead character? Like Kara is still pretty messed up from the Phantom Zone, right? I just...ugh. It’s a waste of time.

Anyway, so the Nyxly literally breaks into the museum in board daylight to steal the totem from there, which had me cackling. Superfriends all arrive in a very stellar fashion and then stand around, which had me laughing for different reasons. Anyway, Nyxly stands around long enough for Kara to go “eff this noise” and blast the totem in half, causing everyone to get whammied by the magic inside, except for Kara cuz she’s just that boss.

Brainy being possessed by Vita was amazing. “Are these my nipples?” and Nia freaking out was so funny. Also, Jesse is such a good actor. He really pulled that whole impression off.

Kara and Nyxly both fail their first Gauntlets and chaos ensues. The poor lady with a dragon lizard just cannot catch a break. Also, great callback to the pilot episode? I loved that so much. Kara is so much more confident in her abilities now.

Alex is over confident, J’onn is willing to be open with his feelings, Nia is a sleepy girl which is a BIG MOOD, and Brainy is willing to fail. I honestly thought this was all great stuff. My favourite is when Kara goes “but Alex is a glass half empty kind of pessimist!” which is how she knew something was up. That was very funny.

Lol, Mitch straight up is like “try killing your bro” and Nyxly is just like “ex-cuse me???” I love this pair.

Lena comes out to find Kara on the balcony, wondering why she failed. She first says one of the softest “hey” I have ever heard in my life. My Supercorp heart melted. Then Kara says, “do you really not believe in magic?” which Lena, being in love with Kara, responds with “I believe in you.” Then adds after one of the most pregnant pauses ever, “and I believe in all of us.” A) Lena, darling, that didn’t answer the question, and B) EEEEEEEEEK. Very good Supercorp moment for this gal right here.

So Kara fails again, whereas Nyxly succeeds this time. Nyxly passed because she had the courage to be emotionally vulnerable to her brother, neato. The show is doing a really good job making her a sympathetic villain. Add her to the list alongside Reign and Agent Liberty.

Oh, so I didn’t mention but there was this scientist lady who wanted to harness lightning and that didn’t work, so she went mad with courage and somehow caused this insane storm. That part wasn’t super clear but who cares, it looks pretty cool. Also, Lena didn’t get affected by the magic blast because she’s a witch. Lena is pissed but she’s got no choice but to believe it now.

So, against her very better judgement, Kara takes the Superfriends to fight off this massive storm that is going to blow out the city. After struggling in vain because J’onn is trying to reason with Dr. Lahr and Alex is saving William’s ass because he’s randomly on scene, Kara just tells Lena to let the totem go. Makes sense, honestly. Gotta do what’s best, which isn’t always what’s right. 

KELLLLLLLLYYYYYYY. Kelly saving Alex is so sweet and amazing. 10/10 amazing entrance, love it.

Supergirl and friends stop the lighting storm in a honestly cool way. Kara makes a quip before she passes out because her and Nxyly are now connected a la Harry-Voldemort style, where they can feel each other’s emotion.

Kelly and Alex have a very sweet Dansen moment at the beginning of this episode, and to finish it as well. Kelly saying she likes scars while making eyes at Alex is everything. I love these two.

The we get a domestic Supercorp moment as well. People, us Supercorpers are being fed tonight! Lena opens up to Kara about being a witch after Kara still is struggling to figure out why she failed twice. Lena says to Kara “you are the epitome of courageous” because she is trying very hard to flirt again and Kara is just missing it. But the two share a very sweet moment where Lena offers to learn magic just to help Kara and Kara accepts it, but declines it as well because like Harry, she thinks that this could be very useful to have.

That’s it for this week. Overall, very happy with this episode. I think besides the kinda useless William C-plot, everything else was great. Great Dansen and Supercorp and even Brainia moments. Next episode, not sure how it’s going to go truthfully but I’m hopeful! Also, Kara is bullet proof and she looks so done with whoever is shooting her haha. It does sounds like a Lena-centric episode, but William also seems to be a focus, so yay-ish I guess lol. Until then!