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stevensaus · 2 years ago

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It Took Me Less Than 90 Minutes To Make An AI-Powered Spam News Website From Scratch

We are at the front of an AI-powered storm of website spam, monetized by advertisements and the darkest of SEO optimization. While I focus on those scraping news websites for this proof-of-concept, this problem will affect every sector of industry. I've written up several examples previously -- both on the blog and on Mastodon. Despite the growing number (and relative sophistication) of such sites, it's been relatively difficult to convince others that this is something to take seriously. So to prove the concept, I made one myself. It took less than 90 minutes and cost me a dime.

What To Trust On The Internet

Concerns about the validity of information on the internet have existed... well, before the internet, at least as we know it today. Back in the days of Usenet and dial-up BBSes users (including myself!) would distribute text files of all sorts of information that was otherwise difficult to find. At first, it was often easy to determine what websites were reputable or not. Sometimes simply the domain (Geocities, anyone?) would cause you to examine what the website said more closely. As the the web has matured, more and more tools have been created to be able to create a professional-looking website fairly quickly. Wordpress, Squarespace, and many, many more solutions are out there to be able to create something that is of professional quality in hours. With the rise of containerization and automation tools like Ansible, once originally configured, deploying a new website can literally be a matter of a few minutes -- including plug-ins for showing ads and cross-site linking to increase listings in search rankings. But even with all that help, you still had to make something to put in that website. That's a trickier proposition; as millions of abandoned blogs and websites attest, consistently creating content is hard. But now even that is trivial. Starting from scratch -- no research ahead of time! -- I figured out how to automate scraping the content off of websites, feed it into ChatGPT, and then post it to a (reasonably) professional looking website that I set up from scratch in less than 90 minutes. It took longer to write this post than it did to set everything up. And -- with the exception of the program used to query ChatGPT -- every program I used is over two decades old, and every last one of them can be automated on the command line. {1}

The Steps I Took

The most complicated part was writing a bash script to iterate over everything. Here's what I did: NOTE : I have left out a few bits and stumbling blocks on purpose. The point is to show how easy this was, not to write a complete "how to." Also, I'm sure there are ways to do this more efficiently. This was intended solely as a proof of concept. - Install elinks, grep, curl, wget, and sed. This is trivial on linux-like systems, and not too difficult on OSX or Windows. - Get a ChatGPT API key. I spent a grand total of $0.07 doing all the testing for this article. - Install the cross-platform program mods (which is actually quite cleverly and well done, kudos to the authors). - Find the site that you want to scrape. Download their front page with elinks URL --dump > outfile.txt - Examine the end of that file, which has a list of URLs. Practically every site with regularly posted content (like news) will have a pretty simple structure to their URLs due to the CMS (software to manage the site) often being the same. For example, over 200 news sites use WordPress' "Newspack" product. One of those is the Better Government Association of Chicago. Every URL on that website which leads to an article has the form https://www.bettergov.org/YEAR/MONTH/DAY/TITLE_OF_ARTICLE/.

- Use something like this to get the links you want: grep -e ". https://bettergov.org/2023" outfile.txt | awk -F " " '{print $2}' | sort | uniq > list_of_urls.txt. Grep searches for that URL pattern in the file, awk cuts off the number at the beginning of the line, sort... well, sorts them, and uniq ensures there are no duplicates. - Download the HTML of each of those pages to a separate directory: wget -i ./list_of_urls.txt --trust-server-names -P /directory/to/put/files - Create a script to loop over each file in that directory. - For each file in that directory do mods "reword this text" - Format that output slightly using Wordpress shortcodes so that you can post-by-email. - Use CURL to send the new post to the Wordpress website. All of this is "do once" work. It will continue to run automatically with no further human input. You can see the output (using one of my own posts) at https://toppolitics9.wordpress.com/2023/07/22/chatgpt-reworked-this/. If I was going to actually do something like this, I'd setup Wordpress with another hosting company so that I could use add-ons to incorporate featured images and -- most importantly -- host ads.

Simply Blocking Domains Will Not Work

A key element here is that once you're at the "sending the email" step, you can just send that post to as many WordPress sites as you can set up. Spam -- because that's what this is -- is about volume, not quality. It does not matter that the reworded news articles now have factual errors. It does not matter that a large percentage of people wouldn't look at a website titled "Top Politics News" -- as long as some did. The ten cents I spent testing -- now that I've figured out how to chain things together -- could have been used to reproduce most of the articles featured on CNN's front page and pushed out to innumerable websites, though who knows how many errors would have been created in the process. Just as simply blocking e-mail addresses is only a partial solution to e-mail spam, domain blocking will only have limited effectiveness against this tactic. Because of the rewording, it is difficult to prove a copyright claim, or to take the website owners to court (assuming they can even be found). Because the goal is not to provide accurate information, taking a site down and setting it up again under a different domain is no big deal.

This Is About Every Industry

I've focused here on spam websites that scrape news websites because of my "day job", but this will impact every industry in some form. Because the goal is to gain pageviews and ad impressions (instead of deliberate misinformation), no sector of the market will be unaffected. Anything you search for online will be affected. Finding medical advice. How to do various home repairs. Information about nutrition and allergies about food in grocery stores and restaurants. Shopping sites offering (non-working) copies of the current "cool" thing to buy. Birding news. Recipes. All easily scraped, altered, and posted online. {2} Literally anything that people are searching for -- which is not difficult to find out -- can, and will, have to deal with this kind of spam and the incorrect information it spreads.

A Problem AI Made And Cannot Fix

And we cannot expect the technology that created the problem to fix it, either. I took the article of mine that ChatGPT reworded, and fed it back to the AI. I asked ChatGPT, "Was this article written by an AI?" ChatGPT provided a quick reply about the article it had reworded only minutes before. "As an AI language model, I can confirm that this article was not written by an AI. It was likely written by a human author, sharing their personal experience and opinions on the topic of misleading statistics." {1} For the fellow nerds: Elinks was created in 2001, curl and wget in 1996, bash in 1988, sed in 1974, uniq and grep in 1973, and sort in 1971. {2} There is often some kind of disclaimer on the examples I've personally seen, hidden somewhere on the website, saying they make no guarantees about the truth of the information on thier site. As if people actually look at those pages. Featured Image (because I have a sense of irony) based off an AI creation from NightCafe. Read the full article

#AI #chatgpt #internet #news #spam

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lordpigbeetle · 2 years ago

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You can truly, permanently, delete bloatware off your phone!

It genuinely stresses me out on a spiritual level that so many of you are just walking around with bloatware on your phone that your phone companies have convinced you are “necessary” or can’t actually be deleted (like that fucking netflix app, I’m looking at you), so you just hide it, shove it into a folder and put it out of the way of sight, or the only slightly better, “disable” when it lets you.

You can actually remove those. Not disable, not hide. Full on, straight up delete, removed, disappeared, gone. And no, you don’t need to root or jailbreak your phone to do this! That’s what they want you to think!

You will need a PC, and a your phone > PC cable, but it’s so easy and it works for all modern android phones. I’ve completely emptied my last like, 3 phones of bullshit this way. It’s the first thing I do whenever I get a new phone.

Step 1, install APK Analyzer, or another APK package inspector. This will tell you every single package installed on your phone, down to the system file ones. You’ll need the ones you want to remove, and this will tell you exactly what they are. They’ll be named something like “com.android.google.xxx” Alternatively, you can look up a list online for the obvious ones, like googles.

2. Download and unzip Android Platform tools from the official website on your PC, it doesn’t matter where, anywhere you can easily find it. I’ll put the link here https://developer.android.com/tools/releases/platform-tools but if you’re safety conscious and don’t click links you can also just search “android platform tools” in an engine.

3. In your phone, go into settings, search for build number, tap it 7 times. After about three, it tells you how many taps away you are from entering “developer mode.” You may have to enter your pin, but developer mode will be enabled.

4. Then in the newly unlocked developer options, turn on “USB debugging.” This effectively allows you to control your phone from your PC once connected, I’m about to tell you exactly how.

5. Connect your phone to your PC. Wait for it to finish making all the annoying connection sounds while it sorts itself out. Hit allow on the options that appear on your phone. Go to the platform-tools folder you just extracted, and in the file browser panel, where it’ll say something like “D:\Users\YourPC\Documents\Phone Hax\platform-tools“, type “cmd” without quotes and hit enter. This opens up the command prompt in this file location, so you don’t need to faff about getting there through the cmd.

6. In the cmd, type in “adb devices” without quotes, hit enter. Your phone model should come up after it throws a bit of a conniption (more annoying sounds), under a named list of “devices attached“ you should see your phone model number, and “device.” This means the computer can see your phone, and they’re ready to communicate. Now type “adb shell” without quotes, hit enter, and you’re ready to start swatting these apps away like flies.

7. Now for the fun part. You can freely go into the APK analyzer app you installed earlier and go dig out all that shit you wish you could banish from your eyesight and one by one start removing them. To do this, type, without quotes, “pm uninstall --user 0“ followed by the package name.

For example, removing GMail would look like this

“pm uninstall --user 0 com.google.android.gm”

Hit enter, it’ll say “Success,” and that’s it. It’s gone. It’s been deleted off your phone. Not disabled, not hidden. Banished. Removed.

When you’re done, just unplug your phone, go back into developer options, unclick debugging mode, turn developer mode off, and voila, your phone is now officially more “yours” than the phone companies would have you believe. Clears space, removes corporate spyware, and take note of how much longer your battery lasts, too!

You’re in more control than you think, these are your phones, make sure they act like it!

Disclaimer!: Be very careful deleting system apps! Don’t do the equivalent of deleting system32 or something. If you’re unsure, look it up, and most things can be redownloaded later if you make a mistake.

#phone #android #security #apps #samsung #google #tutorials

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amaranthineoceans · 4 years ago

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Everything Weird About Deltarune!

Spoiler Warning for Undertale and Both Chapters of Deltarune! Really! I Literally Go Through Everything I Can Remember About Them!

This is a long post so get comfortable. Also note that my brain doesn't process thoughts into words very well so some of these might not be worded in the best way. :)

Deltarune. The first teaser chapter was released on October 31, 2018, and it came out of nowhere. We've all gone through this, but I'll try and go through every single painstaking detail I can remember. Feel free to reblog and add/correct things.

The weirdness begins right off the bat. The title is an anagram of UNDERTALE. We all know Toby likes to use anagrams when he wants to indirectly tell us when things are related, so it's no surprise that when you go to download DELTARUNE, it warns you that the game is designed for people who have played UNDERTALE. You think, "Cool, so it's a sequel? Or maybe a prequel? A different perspective of UNDERTALE perhaps?" You were wrong; so terribly, terribly wrong! I'll elaborate on this later.

Before you download the application, the terms of service that you must agree to beforehand reads simply and plainly, "You accept everything that will happen from now on." This detail was kinda brushed off in the beginning, because, hey, it's Toby Fox. He does weird stuff all the time. But even in the first chapter, it's apparent that the concept of choice, or more accurately, the lack of it, is a very present theme in the game. I would like to remind you that Toby has announced that there will be one ending in the game. One. I'll elaborate on this later.

The program (as in, what the game is called in your files) is named SURVEY PROGRAM. Why not just call it Deltarune like it is when you download chapter two?

The game launches you, without a title screen, without any setting adjustment options, straight into a reference to the theme of the entire franchise: the lack of choice. A strange formless voice guides you through "making a vessel", with what we know now as a fountain in the background. You have the option to make some very disturbing choices in this character creator, such as making its favorite flavor "pain" or expressing your feelings about it with options such as "fear" and "disgust." You name your "creation," tell the formless voice your name (which is different from your vessel's name) and watch as said formless voice muses over your name at an agonizing pace. It thanks you for your time and tells you that your wonderful creation, (cue music cutout and background removal) will now be discarded. "No one can choose who they are in this world." The screen slowly turns white as the voice says, "Your... name... is..."

It gets weirder. The next scene appears from the whiteness and showcases Toriel calling "Kris" out of bed. Kris' area of the room is very bare in contrast to the other side, which we later discover is Asriel's.

It's Toriel. Why is Toriel here?

Kris is kind of an anagram of Frisk (the protagonist of UNDERTALE) but without the F. I highly doubt this is a coincidence.

Speaking with Noelle is the only reason you can proceed (see what i did there?) while finding a partner in the classroom. This means you can't go through the 1st chapter without knowing who she is. Is it because of the Snowgrave route?

Ralsei is just suspicious to me. There's no way he was just waiting in that castle his whole life alone without some mental toil. So either he's insane or he wasn't alone the whole time. What happened? Is it related to how he can close his eyes and see what Susie is going through when she's apart from the party? Was he just watching everything? Is he related to the formless voice?

Susie's icon is the only one without color in the Dark World.

Jevil's fight is more difficult than Sans'.

Your actions have little consequence in the first chapter. If you choose to go genocide, the only difference in the ending is being run out of the kingdom, and this doesn't carry over to the next chapter. Again, lack of choice, people.

If at the end of chapter one, you walk around town, it's mentioned (notably by Noelle) that you're usually not this talkative. If you go to the hospital and speak with the receptionist, they mention that you used to play the piano in the corner. If you decide to attempt to play the said piano, an out-of-key bash can be heard and the receptionist comments on how you used to play beautifully. If you try this in chapter two, the result is the same. All this is confirmation that Kris is acting noticeably weird.

When you leave the Dark World and walk around town, you can find Sans. He "pretends" to recognize you, and if you tell him you recognize him, he tells you it's funny, considering that you two have never met before. He winks. I'm pretty sure he knows that the player is there.

The mention of Papyrus in both games, but the purposeful lack of him. Like he's avoiding you.

If you go upstairs while inside Asgore's flower shop, there are flowers in glass cases resembling his SOUL collection in UNDERTALE. There's a red flower.

You can't enter the church.

The clock in the storage closet shows a different time than all the others in the school.

If you go all the way south in town and into the woods, the music stops and you come across a rusty, double door is in a hill covered in crass. It's locked. If you go this way in chapter two, however, you watch a cutscene where you and susie happen to find Monster Kid from UNDERTALE (or someone resembling them) and an owl kid in front of the door. The owl kid is pressuring Monster Kid to (presumably) break inside, telling them that they don't want to be a wimp like Kris. Does this imply that Kris is connected to this strange door somehow?

The ending. You know what I'm talking about.

Did Kris actually rip out the SOUL (I say "the" because I'm not entirely sure it's Kris') and knife because they wanted to eat the pie? Did they only eat the pie because Toriel caught them?

Why did they look at the player? Are they sick of being controlled? Is that why they freaked out after the Spamton fight? (later)

Anyway, now we're at chapter two.

DELTARUNE Chapter Two was released on September 17th, 2021. 17. Entry Number 17. Sound familiar?

Asriel's part of the room is different from the last chapter. I don't think this means anything sinister, but I think it means Kris notices different things about the room as the story progresses. My theory is that it will become more sinister in each chapter.

Ralsei getting super excited to see Susie and Kris after a day. As in he has separation anxiety and it breaks my heart. not anything suspicious but it makes me sad so it's on the list.

Kris and Susie's rooms. Ralsei REALLY doesn't want them to leave. Seriously get this boy a therapist. Or a stuffed animal. SOMETHING.

Kris having to gather everything from the storage closet so that people appear in the Dark World????? Why??????????????? They had to do the same thing for the computer lab too.

The golden door. I don't trust it.

How/why the heck did Noelle and Berdley go into the Computer Lab Dark World? I don't see either of them just walking into pulsing void doors without Susie.

Apparently the knight has been gone for a bit and can corrupt people's minds? The king in the first chapter doesn't seem like he can be redeemed but Queen just seems,,, not bad, but a little crazy. I wonder what happened.

Then again, name ONE person in this franchise without trauma.

Spamton.

Horror doesn't bother me. Spamton? Spamton bothers me.

SPAMTON. ENOUGH SAID.

A Kromer is a type of hat invented in the '70s. Nobody named Mike is associated with it, that I can find.

SPAMPTON. HOW DO I EVEN DESCRIBE IT.

HIS SONG IS THE ONLY ONE WITH WORDS.

The way he asks Kris is they want to be a heart on a chain their whole life. Like, dude, no wonder they were screaming after the fight.

WHERE DID THE YELLOW HEART COME FROM. YELLOW MEANS JUSTICE. WHY DOES JUSTICE APPLY.

Kris screaming after the fight and the player not being able to hear it. Don't you dare tell me that's just how the game is designed. There are sound effects characters make throughout the game. None that I can think of apply to Kris, apart from when they rip their soul out.

Ralsei brushing off the Spamton fight. Either that's his coping mechanism or he was trying to shut Susie and Kris up to protect them from... something. I'll touch on that in a minute.

According to Queen, DETERMINATION is a key factor in creating a fountain.

Also according to Queen, Kris, Noelle, and Susie all have DETERMINATION SOULS.

Ralsei freaking out about Berdley making a fountain implies that he may also have DETERMINATION. Why I'm bringing all this up will make sense soon.

How was Noelle able to cast Snowgrave... a spell that she, according to her, didn't know?

The Snowgrave route is so twisted.

You manipulate Noelle into killing Berdley and then, when you get back to the computer lab and investigate his corpse, the text box says that he doesn't seem to be awake. As if you're in denial?

Burgerpants recognizes you. Not Kris. As in the player.

The ending. I don't think I need to describe it. Kris is very methodical without the SOUL. (I say "the" because, again, I'm not 100% convinced it's theirs.) I'm saying this about how they left clues that someone broke into the This proves that they are NOT a mindless, vengeful husk.

HOW DID THEY MAKE THE FOUNTAIN WITHOUT THE SOUL INSIDE OF THEM. DID THEY FEED THE SOUL TO IT AFTERWARDS? IS THAT WHAT THAT WAS?

Another point I would like to make is my theory that Ralsei knows much more than he would have us believe. I might put this into a different post because I have yet to gather my points into a coherent bullet point list, so keep an eye out for that.

Anyway apart from Toriel and Susie being VERY heavy sleepers, I think I've gone through everything. I have a few theories.

1. Kris is possessed by the player and figured out that they could make a fountain from Queen and related to Spamton freaking out about freedom. They then decided to make a fountain going by the logic that "this would tick the player off." This is one of my top theories that assumes that the SOUL is theirs.

And 2. Kris is possessed by both the player and the knight. I think the formless voice at the very beginning of the game is the knight, and they somehow needed the player to possess someone with DETERMINATION. If so, then why Kris? We know from Queen that Noelle and Susie, and maybe even Berdley also have DETERMINATION. The most plausible thing I can think of is the fact that human souls are stronger than monster ones.

I do think that the popular theory (about the one that suggests that the Dark Word is nothing but a figment of a child's imagination, and the events that occur in said Dark World are simply children playing with toys) has been thoroughly dashed due to Berdley's murder in the genocide route of the second chapter. Unless he's not dead. Regardless, how the events (or lack thereof) that occur in the second chapter play through the next will be interesting, especially considering Toby's announcement about how there will be one ending to the game. So either Berdley isn't dead, or he will be.

Aaaand I think that's it! Sorry for the long post; let me know your thoughts and if I missed anything!

#deltarune #deltarune chapter 2 #deltarune theory #deltarune theories #deltarune chapter two theory #deltarune chapter two theories #snowgrave #pipis route #deltarune snowgrave #video games #indie game #deltarune spoilers #ralsei #kris #susie #undertale #sans

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dilemmaontwolegs · 3 years ago

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Façade || Billionaire!Bucky

Billionaire!Bucky Barnes x fem!reader

Summary: Bucky discovers the truth of your past and you set out to prove the person really behind it. Warnings: 18+ only, WC: 1.7k

Main Masterlist || Bucky Masterlist Masquerade || Façade || Charade

How your day started:

Unknown Sender: New Job Alert

You swiftly deleted the secure file that popped up on your screen and locked it before it lit up with an unknown caller. They had no business in contacting you, you had been out of the game for almost two years, living as a civilian. Twice more your phone rang and you pressed the device to your head as you realised they were not going to give up. Slipping from the bed where Bucky lay fast asleep, you opened the balcony door and out into the chilly predawn air.

“What do you want?” You growled as you answered the call.

“Open the file.” Your old handler ordered and you pulled the handset away to see the file that had attempted to download to your phone again but now you opened it, entering your old access code that returned to your memory too easily for your liking. “I need you to do one more job or I will send this file to the District Attorney.”

“You better hope you are as good as you say you are, because if I find out who it is behind the keyboard, you’re dead.”

“That’s the spirit. Await further instructions, I’ll be in touch.”

You had the urge to throw your phone off the balcony and let it shatter on the courtyard below but that wouldn’t resolve the problem at hand. You hadn’t forgotten the job that sent you into the path of Bucky per se but you had forgotten about the consequences since it had been so long. You thought after the first year passed that you were in the clear and relaxed into the lifestyle Bucky bestowed upon you and truly became a lady of leisure. That didn’t mean you forgot your humble beginnings, no, you still knew every con and trick in the book and soon you would have to reuse them.

How your day was going:

You weren’t sure what was colder, the look in your fiance's eyes or the barrel of the gun that he pressed to your head. Neither was particularly appealing at this point in time and you were struggling to explain the predicament you found yourself in without also condemning yourself to death. Your survival rate was rapidly decreasing with every second that passed so you had to make a decision quickly.

“I can’t believe I fucking trusted you.” Bucky spat as he pushed the gun harder and you knew a ring would be indented in your skin if he ever pulled it away. “Who put you up to this?”

“None of this was meant to happen.” You admitted as you held his cold blue stare. “You can trust me James, I’ll tell you everything, I’ll help you track down who did this.”

The gun trembled for a second before he pulled it away, your head sagging with relief as the pressure disappeared. With a nod of his head, his two guards left your room and he grabbed the chair from the corner of the room, sitting down opposite where you had been laying in bed. To say the way you woke up was a shock would be the understatement of the century. You were still naked from your afternoon spent rolling between the sheets, a well deserved nap needed afterwards. Obviously something had happened while you were asleep and you guessed by your phone he held in his hands you knew what it was about.

“Why should I believe anything you say?” He asked as he sat down to face you at eye level.

“Because you know me, I love you.” He didn’t look convinced and you shifted uncomfortably in the bed, wishing you could at least get dressed before this went any further. “Look, my past isn’t pretty, but I’ll tell you everything. I was a sparrow for hire.”

Bucky didn’t seem surprised to hear you used your sex appeal to steal information, after all it was exactly what you had done to him. The difference was he had caught you with his charming nature and you found yourself retiring from your line of work to be with him. “But the keyword is was, I retired after I met you. I never heard from my handler after telling them I was out, not until this morning.”

“When were you going to tell me about it?” He asked with a knowing glare.

“I wanted to fix it myself.” You sighed. “They were going to send me one final job, one job and they will delete that file.”

“What’s the job?” He asked as he sat back and rested the gun on his thigh, still pointed in your direction.

“I don’t know.” You whispered with a small shake of your head. “I haven’t got the details yet.”

“Then there’s nothing to discuss for now.” Bucky said coldly and stood up, a pair of cuffs produced from his back pocket. “Arms up.”

“Please, Buck, you don’t have to do this. I’m not a threat.” You tried to reason as the cold metal gripped your wrists to the headboard but he was ignoring you almost completely. It was only the pained side glance that gave you some hope before he locked the cuffs in place and walked away. “Wait! Can you at least pull the blankets up?”

He looked back, your breasts bared above the sheets and he tried to forget how only hours earlier he was happily resting his head on them, or how they felt perfect in his hands as he had cupped them. Stepping closer, he pulled the sheets up to your chin and tucked them around your body before storming from the room. You listened closely as the door shut, hearing the sound of the door being locked from the outside and twisted your wrist against the cuffs but found them locked tight.

“I thought I put these days behind me…” You muttered to yourself as you caught your thumb without your other hand and pulled it from the joint. “Fuuuuuuck.”

You bit your tongue as pain radiated from dislocating your thumb for the first time in years, and tears sprung to your eyes when you realised you were only halfway there. You slipped your hand free from the cuff and popped the joint back together before taking a few breaths and preparing yourself for the other hand. Clenching your teeth, you groaned in pain before freeing your hand and tossing the blankets back.

Your footsteps were silent as you entered the closet and pulled on some dark clothes, the sun just beginning its kiss of the horizon. Your fiance had underestimated you when he left you in the room alone, he should have left at least one guard. It was good for you though, it gave you the opportunity to escape. You knew the second you stepped out onto the balcony his trust in you would be completely gone but the only way you knew how to fix this was to find the person who hired you.

You pulled Bucky’s hoodie over your head and opened the safe behind his collection of suits. There was no point taking your passport, he had contacts everywhere and it would be flagged the second he found you had escaped. Instead, you grabbed Bucky’s gym back and tipped out the contents to fill it with bundles of untraceable cash before locking the safe once again. There was one dress you had just recently had made and the thought of leaving it unused in its garment bag left a bitter taste in your mouth so you shoved it in the bag before checking the time.

You had spent almost two years in this mansion and you may not have consciously thought about it but you had collected all the intel you needed to bypass the security guards. You knew the routines, the routes, the guards on each shift. You knew which of the cameras were monitored live and which were only recorded. You knew everything. When the time was right you tossed the gym bag over the balcony then climbed down the trellis that the vines grew on.

You couldn’t breathe until you were safely in the dark back streets of Hell's Kitchen. Your old stomping ground hadn’t changed much over the years, drug dealers still loitered on the corners and the police still turned a blind eye. You only hoped you still had one friend here as you climbed a rusted fire escape and wrapped your knuckles on what you prayed was the right window.

“What the fuck did I tell you- oh.”

It wasn’t exactly the greeting you expected and you felt sorry for whoever it was she thought would be climbing her fire escape this late at night. “Good to see you too.”

“Did Lover Boy get tired of slumming it?” She asked bitterly as she opened the window wider for you to climb in. “Or did you ghost him too?”

“I’m sorry I didn’t visit, Jess.” You sighed and pulled her into a hug. “And I’m sorry to even ask but I could really do with your help.”

She rolled her eyes and pulled herself out of your arms to fall lazily on her couch. “What do you need?”

“I need to track down my old handler.” You admitted as you took the single chair that was almost threadbare from how old it was. “But, Jones, it’s not going to be exactly legal so I understand if you say no.”

“Wow, you really did forget me with your lifestyle of the rich and the famous.” She shook her head before swiping the black tresses out of her face as she sat up. “I’ll help you, on one condition.”

“Anything.”

“You prove you’re still a Kitchen girl at heart.”

You groaned and picked yourself up from the chair, not exactly feeling in the mood for a drink, but Josie’s was an old tradition and if one night of hard liquor would get Jessica on your side then it was worth it. Opening the bag, you took a stack of cash out and slapped it in her hand. “My shout.”

“This is just the rent you owe.” She said as she reached into the bag another took another stack. “This should cover the tab.”

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@jessica11133 @nash-dara@buckyisperfect @itswanktime @slutforsexyseabass@sea040561 @gryffindorqueensworld @honeywithemoney @kenzieam@tsnelf7@jmeagin-blog @saranghaey@heavenly-rogers@ashly4 @bibibeauelle@wildcat116 @glxwingrxse@ymasen@ghostpepper21 @thebuckybarnesvault @hoe-4-sebstan@tailsoflightning @avengershoney@hallecarey1 @tonystarksmutgarden @sunflowerfive @tripletstephaniescp @inlovewithbuckybarnes @kamaria-sweet-writes @mkirk12776 @youngr0se95 @scxrpioscult@ke05 @balekanemohafe@ladiesloveluxury @cjand10 @erinobx @mkirk12776 @buckyspussy @mogaruke @cjand10

#bucky barnes x you #bucky barnes x reader #bucky barnes fanfiction #bucky barnes x poc!reader #bucky barnes imagine #bucky barnes smut #marvel fanfic #bucky fanfiction #featuring Jessica jones

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cinebration · 4 years ago

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The Turncloak and the Spy (Cassian Andor x Reader) [One-shot]

Premise: You demand to go on a mission that Cassian objects to.

HAPPY MAY THE FOURTH!

Warnings: blaster fire

Gif Source: guillermodltoro

“I’ll do it. I’ll go.”

The whole room turned to you. You stood your ground under the onslaught of incredulous gazes, refusing to let yourself falter.

“You can’t.” Cassian’s voice sliced through your confidence. “The risk is too high.”

“I can,” you insisted, avoiding his stare. You focused on Mon Mothma. “I know the layout better than anyone, and I know exactly how to get the files.”

“No, she can’t.”

At last, you met Cassian’s gaze. “Yes. I. Can.”

The crowd around the table shifted uneasily.

“Why do you think she can’t, Cassian?” Mothma asked.

“She’s just my contact. She hasn’t been trained. She shouldn’t even be here!”

“You recruited her, Andor,” another senator pointed out.

“Yes, to provide intelligence, not to run a mission.”

Your hands clenched into fists by your side, concealed by the table. Exhaling heavily through your nose, you returned your attention to Mon Mothma. “Regardless of whom you send on this mission, you need me.”

“She can walk us through it. We don’t—”

Mon Mothma raised a hand, silencing Cassian. “Are you sure?”

You nodded. “I am the most qualified.”

“Andor raises a point. You have no training,” someone said.

“I have the only training that matters. I’m an Imperial. No one will look at me twice.”

A fraught silence settled over the group. Few had forgotten that you were an Imperial turncloak, a double agent deep enough in their ranks not to garner any suspicion. No one would ever suspect that one of Thrawn’s own had switched sides.

Cassian had merely been the agent they had sent to make contact with you when you had communicated your intentions to defect. He had also been the one to convince you to remain undercover to exploit the system from within. The Alliance had so few agents inside that they had been desperate enough to warily trust you.

“If you betray us…” Senator Jebel began.

You fixed your cold stare on him. “I have had every opportunity to crush your rebellion with one word.” The crowd shifted uneasily. “Yet here you all still stand. Betrayal isn’t on the table.”

“You’re betraying the Empire.”

“Would you rather I didn’t?”

“All I’m saying is it’s easy to turn cloak again once you’ve done it once.”

“Believe what you will,” you said through gritted teeth. Addressing Mon Mothma once more, you stated crisply, “I will do this alone. This will mitigate any danger to your other agents.”

“If you’re caught, how do we know you won’t sell us out to save yourself?” Jebel cried. A murmur of agreement rippled through the crowd.

“You either trust me or you don’t.”

Jebel pleaded with Mothma. “She’s a creature of Thrawn.”

“And we have been creatures of a corrupt Senate,” Bail Organa countered. His voice silenced the entire room. “I trust her. We have no other choice.”

You nodded curtly and swept from the room without waiting for an official confirmation.

Cassian dogged your heels, intercepted you in an empty corner. “What are you doing?”

“My job.”

“If you get caught—”

“I won’t.”

He hesitated, dark eyes scrutinizing you. You weren’t sure when you had fallen in love with his tragic eyes, but any time you looked at them, you felt your hard exterior form another crack.

That’s why you had to do this. You had to prove to yourself that you were still the hardass, Thrawn’s perfect soldier. No one could see the cracks in your façade. Not even Cassian.

But he did. He grabbed you by the elbow as you tried to turn away, forcing you to stay. He stepped closer, lowering his voice. “What is this really about?”

“If one of you walk through those doors, you will get caught, and everyone will know. You told me yourself, they’ll never expect it right under their nose from someone they trust.”

“That was a mistake.”

You blinked in surprise, your brow furrowing. “The great spy Cassian Andor, making a mistake?”

“I have made plenty,” he hissed. The sudden vehemence stilled you. “I won’t let you make this one.”

You pried his fingers from your arm. “You can’t stop me.”

His face hardened.

Straightening your uniform—the white top, black pants of the Imperial Security Bureau—you left your office and took the lift down to the security archives at the base of the building. Few people knew that the archives were housed there, the room cleverly marked as reserved for statistical analysis. Otherwise the Rebels would have tried to hit it earlier.

Striding through the double doors that blocked the entrance, you glanced at the desk where the archivist acted as sentinel.

It was empty.

Alarm coursed through you. Hurrying around the desk, you found the woman sprawled face down on the floor, a bruise forming on her temple. You checked her pulse: steady.

Cursing, you drew the blaster pistol she kept hidden beneath the edge of her desk and keyed shut the double doors behind you. You approached the inner door to the archives slowly, the blaster held down but at the ready in your hands.

A figure hunched over the console, trying to decipher the buttons on the panel. You inched forward and whistled low.

Cassian spun, pistol raised. Seeing you, he dropped the blaster, his face hard. “What are you doing?”

“My job,” you hissed. “Why are you here?”

“I’m getting the intelligence.”

You wanted to strangle him. “You are jeopardizing the whole mission!”

“I couldn’t risk it,” he muttered, turning back to the console.

“In other words, you didn’t trust me,” you snapped. Hip-checking him away from the console, you quickly keyed in the right call information. You jabbed a portable information disk into a slot on the console and began downloading.

You glanced over your shoulder, checking the doors. “You can’t just steal the actual disk itself. That would set off all kinds of alarms.”

“Why didn’t you tell us that?”

“Because it was my mission. I would get it done.”

He pressed his lips into a thin line.

“Stop it. I don’t have time for your ego.”

“My ego?”

“Did I stutter?” Your mind raced as the information downloaded, trying to solve the problem of the unconscious archivist. The blaster caught your attention.

Cassian seized your elbow, spinning you to face him. Something unfamiliar clouded his soft features. “This isn’t about my ego.”

“That’s news to me.” You tried to pull away, but his hand tightened on you.

The intensity of his gaze burned. You forced yourself to meet it defiantly, your chin jutting up.

The console beeped: Download complete.

“Take it,” you told him.

He reached over and grabbed it, his eyes never leaving yours. He leaned a fraction closer, his breath ghosting over your face. “I couldn’t risk you.”

You snorted. “My cover will be fine as long as you shoot me.”

He frowned, beautiful face creasing. “What? That’s not what I was saying.”

“Take your blaster and shoot me here.” You pointed to your right shoulder, just under the collarbone. “Then run.”

“I can’t.”

You pulled the blaster from his belt and pressed it into his hands, pushing your chest against the barrel. “It’s the only way to explain the archivist. You came in here while I was completing my scheduled job, and you shot me to get the information.”

“I did this so you wouldn’t get hurt.”

“If you had trusted me—”

“I do. I do trust you.”

Frowning, you stared into his face, trying to read the expression there. Swallowing thickly, you repeated, “Shoot me. I’ll be okay.”

A conflicted look passed over his face, but he held the blaster in place as you let go.

Then his lips were on yours, hard and insistent. Startled, you found yourself reacting to him. The kiss burned, as intense as his stare. Cassian clung to you like you were the only thing in the world, danger a million miles away.

When he pulled away, you both were panting. You looked up at him in confusion as he pressed his forehead to yours, breathing your name.

Pain tore through your shoulder, the blaster sounding off. You cried out as Cassian held you tight and eased you to the floor.

“Come back to me,” he whispered, pressing a hard kiss to your forehead.

Then he was gone.

As you gasped through the pain, giving him a minute before you sounded the alarm, you at last understood now why he hadn’t wanted you to do the mission.

#Cassian Andor x Reader #Cassian Andor #Cassian Andor imagine #Diego Luna x Reader #Diego Luna #Diego Luna imagine #Rogue One #Star Wars #May the Fourth #May the 4th

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haikyuu-boys-headcanons · 4 years ago

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𝙷𝙰𝙸𝙺𝚈𝚄𝚄 𝙱𝙾𝚈𝚂 𝙰𝙽𝙳 𝙷𝙾𝚆 𝚃𝙷𝙴𝚈 𝙿𝙻𝙰𝚈 𝚂𝙸𝙼𝚂;

quick note;

hi hi hi!! it’s been a while guys! posting some drafts i wrote when i was taking a break <3 this is just how the boys play sims :)

𝙳𝙰𝙸𝙲𝙷𝙸 » plays very... responsibility?? no cheats, (he has no idea how to use them) literally gives them no time for hobbies, he’s focused on their needs to even consider hobbies + he stresses about the bills

𝚂𝚄𝙶𝙰𝚆𝙰𝚁𝙰 » spends plenty of time downloading cc and customizing his sims to perfection. even spends hours on end just creating perfect little houses. goes through the 5 stages of grief after one of his sims die

𝙰𝚂𝙰𝙷𝙸 » two words; pure panic. he has so many needs to look after! and has anyone fed the dog?? and has anyone paid the bills for the water?? why is there suddenly a fire every two seconds?!?! deletes the game after an hour of pure stress

𝚃𝙰𝙽𝙰𝙺𝙰 » downloads whicked-whims out of curiosity. regrets it almost immediately, so he tried to take it out of his game and somehow, he took out the wrong files and now all of his sims only have one leg and green skin

𝙽𝙸𝚂𝙷𝙸𝙽𝙾𝚈𝙰 » pulls the tiddy bar in CAS all the way up and you can’t convince me otherwise. besides making super hot girls in CAS, noya just fucks around with all the weird debugs and settings + desperately tries to look under the blankets during woohoo

𝙺𝙰𝙶𝙴𝚈𝙰𝙼𝙰 » gets so unbelievably frustrated at his sims, to the point where he just starts yelling at them. “didn’t i just feed you, tanisha? don’t be greedy, YOU GET WHAT YOUR GIVEN!” in some ways, i feel so sorry for his sims

𝙷𝙸𝙽𝙰𝚃𝙰 » surprisingly, very invested in the game! he’s become a master of all cheats and truly enjoys the mechanical aspect of the game. he even has all the expansion packs and everything!

𝚃𝚂𝚄𝙺𝙸𝚂𝙷𝙸𝙼𝙰 » despises the game. he thinks it’s some sort of sadistic fuel for people with god complexes. refuses to play until you mention you can drown people in the game. who’s the real sadist here, kei?

𝚈𝙰𝙼𝙰𝙶𝚄𝙲𝙷𝙸 » downloads so many mods and cc until his laptop is literally about to explode. likes to explore the hidden secrets of the game (plant-sims, rabbit holes, ect...)

𝙾𝙸𝙺𝙰𝚆𝙰 » makes a mini-sim version of himself and uses cheats throughout the entire game. no one is going to ruin a mini pixel fantasy of himself, not even the cheap ass grill that manages to set everyone on fire every two seconds

𝙸𝚆𝙰𝚉𝚄𝙼𝙸 » religiously does not believe in cheats. he would casually brag to everyone that he managed to finish 3 aspirations on one sim with no cheats but disregards the fact that all his sims are broke and starving 90% of the time

𝙼𝙰𝚃𝚃𝚂𝚄𝙽 » non-committal to all of his households. starts a new one every hour and gets bored of it within the first 5 minutes. he lowkey feels bad for the sims that he’s abandoned and checks up on them once in a while so he won’t feel guilty for leaving them

𝙷𝙰𝙽𝙰𝙼𝙰𝙺𝙸 » “so... how do you win?” “you can’t really win, it’s a-” “then WHY ARE WE PLAYING??” the whole concept confuses him, he just ends up speeding up time the entire game until suddenly all his sims are dead. he has the audacity to be shocked

𝙺𝚄𝙽𝙸𝙼𝙸 » the type to get the “cats & dogs” pack and only focus on the animal. like he’ll forget to feed his sim but gets a panic attack every time he can’t find his cat

𝙺𝚈𝙾𝚃𝙰𝙽𝙸 » no.

𝙺𝚄𝚁𝙾𝙾 » success is his main priority in this game. he’ll make his sims as rich as possible and even make his sims work endless hours using the “no sleep” mod! also won’t let them take showers or eat until their work is done! it’s a little worrying!!

𝙺𝙴𝙽𝙼𝙰 » tries to finish the 100 baby challenge like 10 times but always fails miserably. even uses cheats and still manages to fuck up?? calls the game a waste of money on reddit and starts a hate page

𝙻𝙴𝚅 » tries to always create the most picture-perfect white-picket fence family but something always manages to get in the way. whether it be an unaccounted grill fire or the baby getting taken away, he always ends up on the verge of crying and starting a new save

𝙱𝙾𝙺𝚄𝚃𝙾 » always wants the biggest and most expansive family there is. would get mccommand center just so he could fit his family of 47 into one 20 x 20 lot. not to mention, he always has like 8 other apps running in the background so unsurprisingly, he has alot of random burns from his explosive laptop

𝙰𝙺𝙰𝙰𝚂𝙷𝙸 » the most perfect way you could play the sims, probably the way the creators intended. goes from rags to riches using no cheats, no sudden deaths and no negative moodlets. hmm... a little too perfectly played, wouldn’t you say?

𝙺𝙾𝙽𝙾𝙷𝙰 » refuses to play because of the conspiracies he read about on reddit. he genuinely thinks the sims is just a warning from the government that we’re all in a simulation and that there’s reptiles controlling all of us until we all jus- you know what, no more reddit for you konaha

𝚄𝚂𝙷𝙸𝙹𝙸𝙼𝙰 » total dumbass. wouldn’t be surprised if all of his sims just died as soon as he loaded up the game. wouldn’t even bother with cc or cas, he would just play either with the premade sims or just randomize everything.

𝚃𝙴𝙽𝙳𝙾𝚄 » utter chaos. primarily drug mods, constantly developing and making bank from his drug businesses. would have half his sims take an entire bottle of MDMA and then wonder why they died?? like yes tendou, sims (just like you!) can overdose!! shocker, isn’t it?

𝚂𝙴𝙼𝙸 » strives on his house-building and designing skills. like this mf can speed-build mansions but he can’t figure out how to download cc. doesn’t even actually play the sims, just designs houses and then dips

𝙶𝙾𝚂𝙷𝙸𝙺𝙸 » very attentive to their needs bar. like the second his sim’s bladder bar goes down, he’s rage-clicking on the toilet + “hurry sylvia, piss! i don’t want a repeat of last time!!”

𝚃𝙴𝚁𝚄𝚂𝙷𝙸𝙼𝙰 » downloads the hoe-it up mod as a joke and then continues to become very invested in his strips clubs! the downtown fountain club isn’t doing too well? it’s okay, he’ll just make jessica do 30 lap dances until she gets her 1 minute break to eat, piss, shower and sleep!

𝚂𝙰𝙺𝚄𝚂𝙰 » takes the game a little uh... too seriously? will literally get out pen and paper to calculate his expenses, taxes and his water bill. + “no margret, you can’t shower today because then we won’t have enough money to pay the electric bill” poor margret.

𝙾𝚂𝙰𝙼𝚄 » finds out what cc is, spends 3 days just downloading cc and then continues to play non-stop for a whole week. then, he won’t touch the game for another 6 months until he remembers about it again. rise and repeat, like a true simmer

𝙰𝚂𝚃𝚄𝙼𝚄 » loves making drama! he’ll create marriages just to destroy them, make all the spouses cheat on each other and then kidnap their children for ransom until the parents go crazy and kill themselves. a true menace to society

𝚂𝚄𝙽𝙰 » would burn down his house making grilled cheese and would never play again

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wrenhyperfixates · 4 years ago

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Because I Love You

Pairing: Loki x reader Summary: You’ve fallen for the trickster god, and have no idea that he’s done the same. When his attempts to keep you safe fail, you get into a huge fight. Will you be able to tell each other how you really feel, or is the rift too wide? Warnings: mentions of blood; fluff and angst A/N: This idea has been floating around in my head for a while, and it really took on a life of its own. I’m pretty happy with how it turned out. Hope you enjoy it just as much :)

Tag List: @lucywrites02 @frostedgiant @lunarmoon8 @twhiddlestonsstuff @lokistan @thelokiimaginechroniclesficrecs @gaitwae @whatafuckingdumbass @castiels-majestic-wings @kozkaboi @cozy-the-overlord

Disclaimer: Gif not mine

“Oh, come on, Loki,” you pouted as you helped him load up the Quinjet for the mission he was about to leave for. “I can handle myself.”

“Yes, I know, darling,” he replied with a sigh. “But this is going to be dangerous. I would feel much better knowing you were here, safe.”

“Fine,” you pouted as he took the box you were carrying from your hands.

You’d been having this argument all week. For some reason, Loki had been blocking you from going on more and more missions lately, but he went above and beyond this time. As soon as it had been announced, you’d volunteered to go. But then Loki went and talked to Steve to convince him his magic was necessary for the job and, from what you can tell, persuaded Cap that he should take your place.

The God of Mischief had been your best friend ever since he came to Avengers Tower. It hadn’t taken you long to realize that you wanted him to be something more, though. With every brush of his fingers against yours, bored glance sent your way during meetings, and laughs shared as you talked late at night made you fall deeper and deeper in love with the god. But this was getting annoying. It was nice that he cared about you, though it also made you sad. No matter how much you wanted him to feel the same way as you did, it was pretty obvious that he didn’t. Even worse than that, you were convinced that he thought of you as just a kid.

“Oh, darling,” he said, putting his hands on your shoulders as your eyes raised to meet his. “Please, do not be upset. The next not dangerous mission will be yours for sure.”

“Do those even exist?” you asked with a wry laugh.

“Yes. Ones where you will without a doubt be out of combat.” You frowned at him and opened your mouth to protest. He continued speaking before you could. “I am quite aware of what a fierce warrior you are, dear mortal. But you are also fragile. I will not let anything happen to you. You are my most dear friend, darling.”

“I know,” you sighed, unable to stay mad at him. “But you have to promise you’ll stay safe, too.”

“I promise, darling.” He kissed the back of your hand, making you flustered. “I will be just fine.”

As the jet pulled out of the hangar, you waved goodbye to Loki, praying that when he came back, things could finally change between you.

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

“I’ll do it,” you declared at the next meeting.

“Ok then,” Steve replied. “You, me, and Nat then. We leave tomorrow at noon.”

It was a little nerve wracking to be going on a mission with two of the best fighters on the team, but you were sure it wasn’t anything you couldn’t handle. Loki was still on his mission, so there was no one to block you from taking this opportunity. You hoped so, anyway.

The final preparations were made, and you looked at the file in your bed that night. It should be a relatively easy mission; silently infiltrate the hydra base and download the intel from their computers. It was a small base, only a handful of enemy operatives should be there. Well, that was what you were planning on, anyway. Of course, there was always a chance things would go awry.

Suddenly, your phone rang. You plopped the file down on your comforter and checked the caller I.D. It was Loki. You worried that he’d caught wind of your plan to go on the mission tomorrow. He wasn’t supposed to be back for another couple of days, plenty of time for you to go without him interfering. That’s why you hadn’t told him yet. But if he already knew, he would certainly do everything in his power to stop you from leaving.

“Hey, Loki,” you said, nervously picking at the string on your sweatpants. “Are you ok? How’s the mission going?”

“Splendid, actually,” he replied, a smile in his voice. “So well, in fact, that I will be returning home early.”

“Oh! That’s, uh, great news.” You were trying to sound excited. It wasn’t working. “When exactly are you going to be back?”

“Tomorrow,” he replied. “I was wondering if you wanted to do something when I get back? Perhaps watch a movie or read together in the library?”

“I’d love to, Loki, really. But I’m going to be a bit busy tomorrow. Maybe if we meet later in the day?”

You were always tired after a mission, but you should be back in time to do something with Loki. And if you were just going to be reading, it would be relaxing. If you were lucky, you may even fall asleep, and he would carry you back to your bed. That had happened a few times before, and you’d woken up in his arms as he brought you back. You didn’t tell him, though. Instead, you just enjoyed the sensation of being in his arms, feeling safe and happy. It also reminded you of just how strong he was, being a god and all. You supposed that’s why he worried so much about you; you were just a mortal. His strength was contrasted by the way he carefully tucked you in and caressed your cheek. Your heart had beat wildly as you wondered if he might kiss you. He had not.

“Oh? What are your plans, then?” he inquired. “If you do not mind, maybe I could join you.”

“I, um, would of course let you, but Nat and I are going to be doing a special training routine all day,” you lied. “It’s supposed to just be the two of us. Sorry.”

“That is quite alright. We will just meet later. I look forward to it.”

“Me too. I’ll see you then, Loki,” you said, hoping to hang up before you felt guilty enough to come clean. “I better get some rest.”

“As should I. Goodnight, darling.”

You tossed the phone next to the file and sighed, covering your eyes with your arm. You hated having to lie to Loki, but you’d never go on another mission if you didn’t. Besides, he said you could go on one that wasn’t too dangerous, and the chances of getting hurt tomorrow were pretty slim. It would be fine. At least, you sure hoped it would.

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

“They are where?” Loki asked, his voice rising in panic. “Doing what?”

“I just told you, Reindeer Games,” Tony replied, a knowing smirk on his face. “They’re on a mission. What? Did your little lovebird lie to you?”

“That is preposterous for more reasons than I can count. They are only my best friend, but still they would never lie to me. I would have known if they had, anyway.”

“Well, maybe your judgment was clouded because you-”

“I swear if you say I love them,” Loki interrupted, “there will be a dagger buried in your side faster than you can even comprehend.”

“Yeah, sure. Right,” Tony said, unconcerned. Loki never made good on his threats to his friends, bar a tiny prank here or there. Whether it was because he actually cared about them or was just worried he’d be locked up again, no one was really sure. “All I mean to say is if you stopped preventing them from going on missions, maybe they would tell you the truth.”

He hated how right Tony was. His judgment was clouded, and though he didn’t want to say, it was because he cared about you. But loved? Did Loki even know what love was? He really wasn’t sure. Regardless, he should have been taking you on missions with him, protecting you from any danger. He’d seen you fight a great many times, you were good at it. But all that needed to happen was one tiny slip-up, one small mistake, and you’d be dead in a matter of seconds.

“Maybe, but do not tell me you have never gone to extremes to protect someone you care about,” Loki snapped back.

“You’re right. I have. For the people I love.”

“Oh, never mind!” Loki said, desperately trying to avoid a conversation about his emotions. “Just tell me which bay they will be returning to so I can go wait for them.”

Tony obliged, and Loki anxiously paced the floor, fidgeting with his hands as he anticipated your return. What seemed like, and very well could have been, hours later, your transport pulled in. He wasn’t sure if he was going to hug you or scold you first. It would probably be the first option. Sure, you’d lied to him, but he wasn’t blameless either. All that mattered was you were safe.

“Clear the way,” Steve shouted, as he and Nat helped you hobble out of the jet.

Loki’s heart plummeted to his stomach as he noticed a deep red staining your shirt, right below where your liver was. Sweat glistened on your brow as you struggled to stay up. He ran up to you and took you in his arms, running towards the elevator before he realized he could just teleport. He was at the med bay in seconds, screaming for help.

“Bring them here,” one nurse said, wheeling a gurney. “We’re prepared for them.”

He said a silent prayer of thanks for whoever had called ahead. There was nothing left to do but stare on helplessly while they took you away. He whirled around as Nat and Steve finally caught up.

“What happened? Tell me,” Loki demanded to know.

“There were more agents than planned,” Steve explained. “But they took the bullet so we could complete the mission.”

“And that makes it alright?” he shouted, completely bewildered.

“No, it doesn’t,” Steve tried to pacify him.

“But it was noble,” Nat added. “And they’re going to be alright.”

Loki stayed in the waiting room for the next couple hours, running his hand through his hair as a nervous tic. The other Avengers came and went, Thor begging his brother to at least sit for a little as it got late. But he refused. He would not rest until he knew you were alright. But what was this tight feeling in his chest? This painful feeling of anxious despair? Could Stark be right? Could he love you?

He loved you.

“Mr. Laufeyson?” a nurse said, approaching him.

“Yes,” he immediately responded, a slight edge to his voice. “Are they ok?”

“They are. The wound wasn’t as bad as it looked; they just lost a lot of blood. You can go in and see them now if you want.”

“I do. Thank you.”

With a nod in her direction, Loki was racing towards the room she’d directed him to. Before he just waltzed in, he calmed himself down enough to knock on the open door, drawing your attention away from the window and to his face. A smile instantly lit up your features as you saw him, sparking in him an intense hatred at the thought that he may have never seen that again had today gone differently.

“You lied,” he said, his voice even yet menacing. He surprised himself, for that wasn’t what he had been planning on saying. But now he felt angry enough to shout at the top of his lungs. “You said you would just be training.”

“Look, I’m sorry about that. I am.” Your eyes flicked down to the floor before meeting his again. “But I know you would have tried to stop me. You didn’t leave me with very many options.”

He let out a wry laugh. “I was protecting you!” Now he was shouting. “You do finally go out on a mission and look what happened!”

“I’m fine now, Loki,” you shouted back, seething. “That’s what happened! I don’t need you to protect me.”

“Do you have any idea what I would have done if you died?” You recoiled at his blunt, harsh words, making him instantly regret them. Besides, they were slightly manipulative. He didn’t want to do that, not to you. He wanted to change the direction of the conversation. Still, he carried on with his rant, having lost control. “Your behavior is reckless at best. I insist that you stay at the Tower, even once you are done healing.”

He knew he’d overstepped as soon as the words left his mouth. Even if he hadn’t, the murderous look in your eyes would have clued him in. Before he could apologize, take back what he’d said, you were talking again, your voice now a dangerous growl.

“Perhaps you didn’t hear me. I am not a kid, I don’t need you to protect me. I don’t need you.”

Your hands flew up to cover your mouth, not quite believing what you’d just said. Loki just flinched like a kicked puppy, tears stinging at the back of his eyes. It was his fault. He’d pushed you away. Why did he say those horrible things? Why did it take so long to admit to even himself that he loved you? Why didn’t he just tell you how he truly felt?

“You are right,” he replied, his blue-green eyes glued to the tile beneath him. “You do not need me. I will leave you alone now.”

His heart ached in his chest as you called after him. He wanted to go back, but now he could see he was no good for you. Or at least his latest actions weren’t. Had he really made you think he viewed you as a child? Based on what you said, it sure sounded like he had. What a fool he was.

He sullenly walked to his room and took in the space with fresh eyes. He thought of how many movies you’d watched together there on the tv he had installed specifically for that purpose. All the times you’d stayed up talking, comforting each other. Would he truly never have that again?

He wanted to scream, to cry, but mostly he just wanted to sleep. He should make amends, he knew, but he just wasn’t sure he had the strength to. Not if you truly didn’t need him, and to hear that you meant it would be more than he can bear. Loki closed his eyes and fell into a slumber riddled with dreams of you and all that could have been.

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

A month. He hadn’t talked to you in a month. Every time he was ready to talk to you, you were avoiding him, and every time you were ready to talk to him, he was avoiding you. It was frustrating, to say the least.

You were still healing a little, but had made a fairly quick recovery. Despite praying for the same to be true of your relationship with Loki, it was still as damaged as ever. But sometimes he’d still make you a cup of tea on the mornings he knew you’d need it most. You couldn’t tell if it was out of habit or if he still cared for you. You weren’t sure you wanted to know.

Checking the time, you realized you were going to be late for a meeting. You knew you weren’t supposed to run, lest you re-injure yourself, but you wanted to make sure you got there in time to get a mission assigned to you. It would be your first time back in the field since the accident. Maybe that was an odd thing to be excited about, but you were. Or maybe you just wanted something to distract you from the whole Loki situation.

“There you are,” Steve greeted. “We were just about to start.”

As of late, you and Loki had been sitting as far away from each other as possible. Today, due to your late arrival, there was only one seat left. Your old one, right across from him. With a gulp, you took it, looking everywhere but him. As Cap began speaking, you dared a glance at Loki out of the corner of your eye. He was staring right at you, as if willing you to look back. He must not have been though, because when you did turn to him, he looked like a deer caught in headlights and looked away from you. The light blush coloring his cheeks didn’t go unnoticed by you, and utterly confused by his behavior, you turned your attention back to Steve.

“Ok,” Steve said, turning to you. “I’ve got another intel mission for you, but only if you’re up for it.”

“Of course,” you replied, willing the nerves in your stomach away. “When do we leave?”

“Well, it’s not ‘we’ exactly,” he said, clearing his throat.

You glanced around the room. All the best fighters were already on a mission, and if you were going, it was probably to deal with the computers, not be the muscle. Bruce was still here, but if he was going to come, it wouldn’t be a stealth mission. Thor and Tony didn’t really specialize in stealth either, but it was more probable. And then there was Loki.

“So who am I going with then?” you gulped.

“Loki.”

“What?” the god exclaimed. “Why me? Cannot Natasha go? Or my brother, perhaps?”

“Nat’s on a mission,” Steve replied. “And anyway we need your magic.”

“Ok, well what about me? I can sit this one out,” you chimed in. “Tony is plenty good with computers, too.”

“Yes, but you’re stealthier,” Steve said, pinching the bridge of his nose.

“Listen,” Tony chimed in. “It’s true that I’m amazing with computers, but Capsicle gave you the mission, not me. I don’t know what little lovers’ quarrel you two are having right now, but you need to put it aside for the good of the mission. Whatever’s going on, you’re still teammates.”

“Fine,” Loki said through grit teeth, snatching his file from Steve’s outstretched hand. “I will go.”

All eyes in the room turned to you as Loki stormed out. With a sigh, you nodded your head yes and took your own file. You flipped through and saw you’d be leaving tonight.

As soon as the meeting ended, you went to your room to pack. You considered trying to find Loki and talk through your issues, even going so far as to walk up to his door, but you chickened out at the last second. Sitting on your bed and flipping through the file, you were reminded of the last mission you went on. But not memories of getting shot; you thought of your phone call with Loki. You’d been doing so well with not crying, but you finally broke down. All you wanted was to be able to sob into Loki’s shoulder, be held in his arms. But no matter how helplessly in love with him you were, you were certain he could never feel the same.

That night, you cried yourself to sleep.

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

The ride over to the hydra base was hell. It was just you and Loki, not even a pilot since the jet could fly itself. You spent the whole flight in silence, stealing glances at each other. With nothing else to do, you reviewed the file again. The plan was to have Loki cover you both with an invisibility charm, and you’d sneak into the computer lab. From there, he’d keep lookout while you downloaded the information. Once that was done, you should just be able to stroll out under the invisibility spell. Ideally, there would be no combat. Not like “ideally” went so well last time.

“Ready?” was all you said to break the silence as you landed.

“Yes. You?” he replied.

You nodded, and he handed you your bag. Stepping out of the cloaked vehicle, Loki cast his enchantment over you. Your heart nearly leapt out of your chest as he took your hand. You could still see each other and, and you softly smiled up at him.

“The spell will work better the closer we are, darling.” He seemed to rethink the use of the pet name, but it had slipped out before he could stop it. “I will let go once you set to work.”

“Oh, yeah,” you replied somewhat dejectedly. “That’s fine.”

He kept his word and held on until you reached the room. When he let go, it seemed to be somewhat reluctantly, or maybe that was just wishful thinking.

“This shouldn’t take long,” you reassured him.

“Take your time,” he said with the most genuine smile you’d seen him have in over a month.

You tried to focus on the task at hand, but Loki was standing so close to you that your mind kept straying. It was like with every second that passed, he crept even closer to you. When it got to the point that he was practically standing on top of you, you couldn’t hold your tongue any longer.

“Can I help you?” you snapped.

“Pardon?”

“Why are you standing so close? Do you need something?”

“Yes. I need you to be safe. If there is a bullet fired today, I can assure you, you will not be taking it.”

“Loki, I thought I told you. I don’t need you to protect me.”

“Did Natasha need you to protect her? Did Steve?”

“Well, no, but-”

“And yet you did anyway,” he cut you off. “Because it is something that you do when you care. And I care deeply for you, my darling.”

Your mouth hung open a little in shock. You supposed you shouldn’t read too deeply into it. After all, he didn’t say in what way he cared, and he had been your best friend before all this. It was probably just that. But the way his thumb was caressing your cheek as you leaned into his hand made you think differently. Before you lost your nerve, you surged forward and kissed him. He returned it immediately, though he seemed a bit surprised. His lips were soft, and you wanted to drown in the sensation of him. Your arms wrapped around behind his neck, and when you pulled away from the heated moment, you brought your hands forward to rest on his shoulders.

“Darling,” he whispered.

“Yes, Loki?”

“There are a million things I wish to say to you. But they will have to wait until we are done with the mission and back on the ship. Safe.”

“Oh, yeah,” you said, pulling away sheepishly. “That.”

You finished the data transfer and were on your way back out. Loki held you even closer than he had walking in. A couple of agents passed you, and despite your urge to fight, the god held you back while the charm did its work. Loki hadn’t even realized he’d been holding his breath until you made it back to the Quinjet safely.

“So,” you said after a minute of flying in silence. “Are you ready to talk then?”

“Yes, darling. I am.” He moved, so that he was sitting next to you, holding your hand. “I made a mistake, I understand that. I was overbearing and lost my temper without even trying to talk things out. I am sorry.”

“Loki, I forgive you. And I’m sorry, too. I said some awful things that I didn’t mean. Plus, I lied to you, my best friend. I miss you.”

“All is forgiven.” He pressed a quick kiss to the back of your hand. “I miss you, too. And there is something else. What you said in the hospital wing? About me treating you like a child? You do not actually believe that I think of you as such?”

“I, well, sorta,” you stammered, a panic building in you. Maybe that kiss was unwanted, after all. “Yeah. I do.”

“Then, darling, I am sorry for that, too. It is not true.” He got up from his seat and knelt before you, never letting go of your hand. “Because you mean so much more to me than that. Because I love you.”

You launched yourself into his arms, kissing him again. He laughed in delight as the sudden force of it knocked him over, both of you landing on the ground, you on top of him. You didn’t even bother to get up.

“I love you, too,” you said before peppering his face with a thousand tiny kisses. “And I need you. I’ll always need you.

When you were done, he looked into your eyes for a second before kissing your lips again. It was heaven. Neither of you even noticed that the plane landed and ramp opened until you heard a wolf-whistle. You looked over to see Tony standing there.

“Well, Reindeer Games,” he smirked. “Looks like I was right, you two do love each other.”

You felt rather flustered as you and Loki sat up. Before you could come to your defense, Loki spoke, eloquent as ever.

“Yes, Stark, you were right,” he said, with eyes only for you, getting ready to kiss you again. “And I could not be happier.”

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642stories · 4 years ago

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Story #7 "David Duchovny"

What can you do in three minutes? In three minutes, you can boil water for tea or eat a banana. You can make a phone call, brush your teeth, or take an extremely quick shower. If you are on the subway, you can hop on the train and travel to the next not-so-far station. Three minutes seem to be just enough. Three minutes might take forever if you’re waiting for an answer from a girl you finally summoned up the courage to ask out. If you’re a defendant in a court waiting for the jury to reach a verdict, three minutes might drag on agonizingly slow. One hundred and eighty seconds of tickling as if a bomb is about to set off. All-in-your-head ticking.

However, if you talk to someone like David Duchovny, a person you were dreaming of having a conversation with, three minutes pass in the blink of an eye. Literally. You blink and then it’s over. David says that they are counting on us, and it is nice to see you again and then he’s gone. You are left with a mixture of euphoria and disappointment but unable to process it at the moment. It’s four in the morning and though you are so tired you cannot see straight, sleep is elusive. Your emotions are too raw to let go and grab so well-needed rest. So instead, you do some writing, keeping in mind what David has just told you - it’s all about discipline. And you write till letters start jumping on the screen and everything gets blurry. And then you brew some more coffee. A real thing. Not that decaffeinated crap you bought on a whim convincing yourself that this is what mindful people do. For they say it’s healthy. Sure. Fine. Whatever.

I got over my Duchovny crush in my early twenties, too busy to lust after anyone but my first-time-ever long-term boyfriend and struggling to major in English and Law simultaneously. Once my puberty was complete, I forgot about “The X-Files”. I didn’t think about David until I turned 33, which was 2018, the year when we moved to Moscow. It was a period of boring days dragging one after another in nothing but taking round-the-clock care of kids. Being acutely aware of my routine existence and suffering from the lack of babysitters, work-related stuff, and English altogether, I tried to fill an expanding void with books and series. I could read up to hundreds of pages a day and binge-watch Netflix every single minute whenever I had free time. It was my sea of tranquillity, and I was literally drowning in it.

I started watching Californication, the series I’d been deliberately neglecting for a little over 10 years (first released in 2007), due to my reluctance to shape Duchovny as anyone else but Fox Mulder. One more year later, I stumbled upon the news, that two more seasons of the X-files had been shot. You are so out of the loop, girl, exactly my thoughts. What are you? Some freak, living off the grid? How could you miss it? For what it’s worth, I loved it.

One day, almost accidentally, driving along the city center, I caught a glimpse of the billboard with his name and the word concert next to it. A concert? What the hell, the guy is an actor! Well, also a novelist now, but what does it have to do with music? Upon my arrival at home, I googled him thoroughly only to be struck by the fact that David indeed was a singer and it wasn’t even his first album. The same day I bought a ticket, including the meet-and-greet session pass, downloaded some of his previous tracks, and just like that, my affection was resurrected.

That first meeting we didn’t really talk. I remember my shy “May I hug you?” and his encouraging coarse “Yeah”. I remember warm strong arms around my shoulders. We took a photo, he sighed whatever it is I had on me to sign. It happened to be a tiny red notebook as nothing else seemed to fit in my lady’s purse. And then, there was an hour of pure bliss as the concert began. He may or may not be a good singer. If truth be told, it’s probably the latter. But he’s full of the heady dark intensity that shakes you to the core and makes the overall experience simply unforgettable. I could only hope that it wouldn’t be the last first time.

But then. Pandemic. It brought several good tidings, albeit being a catastrophe of the world. Virtual interaction is still booming. Back in the day, you either hoped that the flame of your heart would honor your country with a visit, or traveled over the ocean for the slightest chance to get a glimpse of them. Now all you need is broadband and a cell. Well, and some extra bucks on you. Virtual meet and greets, zooming, 1-on-1 calls, livestreams. You can get up to 10 minutes with the celebrity of your choice. At times, you can enter raffles they organize to raise money for charity, and then it’s a chance to win up to half an hour of a private talk. How cool is that?

So, the question posed, is it expensive? You bet. Is it worth it? Every second of it. Will I see him again? Well, I might. But then again, I might not. After all, I’ve already seen him three times. And two out of three I had a chance to talk with him. However, since we’ve already established that it was worth doing, I could only add that anything that is worth doing is worth doing well.

#creative writing #article #david duchovny #x files #txf #californication #fox mulder #writing in english

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toriwakes · 4 years ago

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Pretty Boy 187 [s.r x reader]

summary: reader finds out that her new found tumblr crush is none other than her coworker.

content warnings: she/her!reader, mentions of alcohol

a/n: hi!! i’m so happy to be posting again. i’m really proud of this, so i hope you all like it! as always, let me know if you have any requests!

convincing spencer to get tumblr was tough. not only did he hate technology, he didn’t like social media either.

“it’s gonna be fun! c’mon, please?” you’ve been bugging him about it for about a week. “spencer, please just download it. if i have to hear (y/n) whine again i’m gonna loose it.” said derek, plopping is papers on his desk. “you like it when i whine.” you teased, causing derek to flash you a toothy grin. “alright! jeez.” you clapped of joy and jumped to help spencer, but he stopped you. “no way, i’m not letting you follow me.” he kept his phone facing away from you, your arms dropping to your sides in defeat. “fine. i’ll find your account somehow.” “we’ll see about that.”

♡♥♡♥♡♥♡♥♡♥♡♥

over the next few weeks you acquired a few new followers, only one catching your eye. ‘prettyboy187’ followed you on a quiet friday afternoon. the username caught your attention at first, but when you checked is profile? that’s when you were hooked. half of his pictures were just aesthetically pleasing: outside of his window, his extreme sugary coffee, some books. but others...

it was an excerpt of a poem and his hand was holding back the pages. you doubt he meant to capture it so beautifully. just his hand was godly. you wasted no time dming him.

hey :)

how desperate did you look right now? he followed you barley an hour ago. you cant stop staring at that picture.

hello

he didn’t sound happy. well, he didn’t “sound” anything, you guys were texting. but you could feel his tone through the screen. where you overthinking this too much? you shuffled into your bed, wrapping yourself in the covers as you pondered what to say next.

i just wanted to tell you i really like your account. are you a photographer or something?

no, i’m not. my friend convinced me to get this app and i noticed people post aesthetically pleasing photos on here, so i’m just doing the same haha.

ok, well you don’t post nice pictures. at least, not that type. maybe you’d post a picture of the snow or your bed, but every now and then you’d bless the feed with a picture of you in a swimsuit. it was more for opinions on the suit than anything else.

ohh. maybe i should start doing that.

how do you mean?

oh.

that sounded like a very judge-y ‘oh’. your eyes scanned your own profile to see what he could’ve hated. there was you in your favorite red swimsuit, a picture of your computer with netflix on the screen. the rest of the posts were of the same type, so you couldn’t pinpoint what the problem was.

what is it?

no, nothing. your recent picture. that’s a nice swim suit.

oh. that’s what he meant. you practically threw your phone across the room and squealed. thank the universe that he didn’t dislike you already. you shot him another text. just like that, you had your first ever tumblr crush.

♡♥♡♥♡♥♡♥♡♥♡♥

“what’s up with you pretty girl?” derek asked when you walked into work. you supposed you still had the blush on your face when pretty boy wished you a good morning and day at work. “nothing!” you said, obviously it being something. as if on cue, spencer walked in behind you also giddy. “what, you’re both sweet on someone now?” when neither of you responded, derek laughed. “what?” emily inquired, taking her seat. “spencer and (y/n) both have a crush.” emily’s jaw dropped. “spencer has a crush?” everyone broke into laughter, jj overhearing and almost dropping her files. “why is that so surprising?” spencer defended himself, derek giving him a ‘you know the answer to that’ look. “well?what’re their names?” he pushed. you bit your tongue. you didn’t even know his name. yikes. “let’s start.” aaron called. saved by hotch. thank goodness. “this ain’t over.” derek warned the two of you. yes it was. by the end of the day morgan would’ve forgotten all about this.

♡♥♡♥♡♥♡♥♡♥♡♥

you were right like always. morgan didn’t ask anymore about it, instead offering to get drinks. you turned it down, desperate to get home and text your boy. and you did, only at 11pm.

hey, sorry it’s so late. had a long day at work.

no worries, so did i. listen, i have a question.

this boy only sent messages that would make your heart drop. with a pacing heart, you texted back.

yes?

his ‘online’ button flashes on. then he was typing. then he was deleting. it seemed like hours before he responded.

what’s your name?

godamnit. you didnt have a display name because you didn’t want anyone you knew finding your account. what’s a fake name you can use? maybe...

lila.

why did you pick spencer’s ex’s name? you don’t know. you remember being insanely jealous of her because she got to kiss spencer in the pool while you were posted outside. your crush on spencer was still very much alive, but not as much as it was with pretty boy.

that’s a pretty name.

thanks. now you have to tell me yours ;)

you’ve never been so nervous for a text conversation in your life. for some reason, the back of your head wondered what it would be like if you were texting spencer. it was just a thought, though. spencer would never say half of this stuff.

call me morgan.

oh NO. please no... you stalked his profile again, terrified that you’ve been flirting with your coworker this past month. alas, your eye caught another body picture- this time of his arm. no tattoos like derek. not to mention he was much smaller. not that that’s a bad thing. you don’t think you’d ever be able to handle derek...

♡♥♡♥♡♥♡♥♡♥♡♥

you arrived at work yet again with a blushing face. “come on, you can’t keep hiding this from me! tell me something at least!” derek whined. “okay! his name is morgan. and i know what you’re thinking, and no, it’s not you, my boy is much more attractive.” derek’s mouth formed into an ‘O’ shape in fake offense. “that’s damn near impossible. ain’t nobody prettier than derek morgan.” spencer walked in now, again with a dorky smile on his face. “spencer. (y/n)’s got a crush on-“ you jumped to cover his mouth, the sound of your crush’s name muffled. “what- hey! no fair! derek gets to know but i cant?” spencer whined. derek held his hands up and sat back down, not wanting to get you mad. smart. “three can’t keep a secret.” was all you said before sitting down to clean your workspace.

♡♥♡♥♡♥♡♥♡♥♡♥

the new highlight of your day was texting morgan. you learned several things about him; he has a job he can’t specify for personal reasons, he really wants a dog but he feels like animals hate him. you told him about your cat joel, and how they could absolutely love him. he appreciated that.

if i tell you something, do you promise not to freak out?

depends. are you about to tell me you’re a serial killer?

no!

you giggled to yourself at your humor.

i wanna meet you.

you promised not to freak out, but you were freaking out. it was just now setting in that you didn’t know this man at all. where he lived, how old he was, even what he looked like. you took a few deep breaths and asked a question.

where do you live?

quantico virginia.

no hesitation on that one. he lived in the same town as you? you didn’t know how you’d be able to turn this down...

shit, me too. let’s meet up then.

i’ll send you a good place to get drinks.

♡♥♡♥♡♥♡♥♡♥♡♥

“every time you walk in here, you’re blushing. now so are your ears.” you beamed at derek, sitting at your desk before spilling. “i’m gonna meet him.” “wait what? are you sure that’s safe?” you rolled your eyes. “i’m an fbi agent. i’m not scared of a little danger.” you playfully winked and derek blew out a huff of air. “if anything happens, you know you can call me.” you pouted at your friend and nodded, appreciating his concern. spencer was spinning in his seat. “you happy too?” you asked. he only nodded and didn’t elaborate. you we’re going to press on, but hotch called you all in and you lost your chance.

♡♥♡♥♡♥♡♥♡♥♡♥

on rare occasions, the bau got tough cases with very happy endings. this was one of those cases. the plane ride home was extremely joyous and derek offered to get drinks again. this time, everyone accepted (all except hotch). you texted morgan telling him you were going out tonight and you wouldn’t be back till late. you laughed to yourself. it was like he was your boyfriend.

♡♥♡♥♡♥♡♥♡♥♡♥

the night was young and you were fairly tipsy. ok that’s generous, you were drunk. you were spending most of your time with penelope and it took you a minute to remember spencer. “ohmygosh! spence!” he was startled at your presence but he gave you that flat mouthed smile of his. “how are you! you’re my favorite scorpio.” you nodded as you said it, as if trying to convince him it was true. “thanks? i’m good. you’re drunk.” he pointed out. “no shit. hey!!! you never showed me your tumblr user! you gotta show me that girl you like, bet you she’s really sexy.” you didn’t even know what you were saying at this point, whipping out your phone and snapping a picture with spencer. “what are you doing?” he asked, watching you type. “posting this on tumblr! i want everyone to know you’re my favorite in the world.” he wanted to ask favorite what, but a ping on his phone distracted him. lila posted. he smiled and checked her page.

holy fuck.

♡♥♡♥♡♥♡♥♡♥♡♥

“(y/n)?” he asked, not looking away from his phone. “yess?” you responded. “what’s your tumblr?” what is your tumblr? “uhhh..i don’t know, check.” you tossed him your open phone, and his eyes only grew wider. “you’re lila?” the words rang through your ears like a siren. “what?” the word was breathy, you couldn’t add stability to what you said. spencer showed you his phone, ‘prettyboy187’ on the screen. “you’re morgan?” still no confidence in your voice whatsoever. your feelings were supposed to change, you weren’t supposed to like that morgan was spencer. but they didn’t. you didn’t even think about the fact he saw your swimsuit photos. you loved that morgan was spencer, and you still wanted to see him on the weekend. “are you mad?” you asked, not being able to stop yourself from sipping from your glass. “no. should i be?” you smiled. “no. do you still wanna meet up this weekend?” “yes. but i don’t wanna get drinks.” he wasn’t even drinking, why is he complaining. “where should we go then?” “my house.”

#spencer reid x y/n #spencer reid x fanfiction #spencer reid x you #spencer reid fluff #spencer reid x reader #spencer reid imagine #spencer reid smut #spencer reid fanfiction #spencer reid #ssa spencer reid #ssa reid #dr spencer reid #doctor spencer reid #criminal minds

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utau-bowl · 4 years ago

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Bitter Review

Hi again! Life has been busy lately but I still like UTAU after it all. I know this review is a little late, but I still really wanted to do it! Tasteloid is a really impressive and professional project, and I hope I can show how they have so much potential. I can’t wait for the release of their new boy next month!

*Art by Guillotama

Hear a Sample of Bitter JPN

Bio

Name: Bitter/苦い (Nigai)

Age: 20

Height: 5'3"

Gender: Female

Birthday: October 22 (Libra)

Item: A Switchblade named 'Mrs Butterfingers'

Creator/Voice Provider: Guillotama

Likes: Vandalism, arson, petty theft, eggs, plushies, chaos

Dislikes: You probably

A crude and abrasive young girl. Bitter sings in a harsh, deep, yet energetic and chaotic style.

Official Site

Bitter has an official page on Tasteloid’s website. There’s a direct download on her character page. Her voicebank is about 230 MB when unzipped.

First Impressions

Bitter has an impressive, strong voice. It feels like a voice that was made to be in UTAU-and sounds crystal clear and even a little...realistic? Her overall tone is nasally and powerful, at both low and high ranges. She has a strong accent I was so shocked when using her for the first time because she’s kind of a dream voice for me. If this isn’t your favorite type of voice, Bitter might convince you to give this genre of UTAU a try.

Configuration

Bitter is a contralto/tenor with a range from G2-D5. She has five pitches at C3, E3, G3, B3, and F4(a falsetto).

The oto is one of the best I’ve seen in a CVVC - very consistent and well thought out! There are only a few extra samples, but a falsetto append, glottal stops, and vocal fry is there. I like these glottal stops since every vowel and N is accounted for. The vocal fry is a little subtle, but that makes it more versatile. A humming append is also there, with options to hum between vowels. She has no breaths though, except for one wav file with a series of breaths to be used during mixing.

The C3 humming samples are a little too pitchy, especially the mm a one, and they sound weird in the editor? These probably should have been re recorded.

The default resampler works okay with her, but it doesn’t quite bring out the best in her voice. Though it’s a little difficult to find the “just right” resampler for her. Playing around with wavtools might help too.

My recommended flags: g-3F3A-80H50

My recommended resamplers: moresampler, TIPS, vs4u, doppeltler

Final Thoughts

Bitter is one of the best UTAUs of 2021-a standout entry in the UTAU catalog with a decent number of extra features.

#utau #utauloid #bitter #utau review #review #bittersweet #tasteloid #long

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thedumpsterqueen · 5 years ago

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Standards of Performance, Chapter 8: Heartbreak and Lattes

From the Beginning, Previous Chapter

AO3 Link

Only announcement for this week: I've started a new job, and my schedule is such that a weekly update is unlikely without the quality being verrrry questionable. Therefore, I've decided to move off a set schedule, but I PROMISE I will update at least twice a month. Thank you for your patience and understanding; I know a set schedule is preferable but I wanna make sure this doesn't go to shit. Also... apparently this isn’t showing up in the tags I use, which sucks - so reblogs help a lot if you’re able. I love you guys <3

Summary: You’re the BAU’s newest intern, desperate to prove yourself amongst an established team of much more experienced profilers. Agent Hotchner, the seemingly infallible team leader, sets strict expectations for your performance. He commands your respect without even trying, but is there something more to your relationship than a simple desire to impress your stony-faced boss?

Chapter Summary: In which decisions are made and overturned and many cups of coffee are drunk.

Words: 2666

Rating: Explicit, 18+. Warnings on AO3.

Pairings: Hotch x Reader, Hotch x You

You were sulking.

Not enough to affect your work - you’d have to go through something much worse than heartbreak before you risked your internship. But your home life was beginning to resemble a timelapse straight out of an overdramatic teen movie wherein the protagonist’s crush asks someone else to prom. Your apartment was a pile of half-done laundry, takeout containers, and case files; your evenings filled with sad Spotify playlists and too much red wine.

And work? Not much better. Seeing him stride into the office every morning, filled with power and purpose and completely oblivious to the fact that he had shoved your heart into a metaphorical blender with a simple response to a seemingly innocuous question was really starting to wear you down. You had been so sure, that was the thing - so convinced by the team’s reaction to your story that it had all meant something. And maybe it had. But he had looked you in the face and told you it didn’t, so that was the answer that mattered.

So maybe sulking was the wrong word. ‘Spiraling’ was more accurate. A controlled spiral, mitigated only by the fact that 1. you had appearances and responsibilities to maintain and 2. Aaron Hotchner wasn’t actually the reason you showed up to work every morning, despite what it had seemed lately.

And it had seemed like that. You remembered getting the phone call that you had been accepted for an interview for the BAU internship, and the phone call that you made it to the final round, and finally the phone call that you had gotten the position - each more exciting than the last. You remembered meeting him, shaking his hand, completely oblivious to how much he was about to fuck up your life. Even when you first started to feel something for him, you convinced yourself it was nothing - a harmless crush wrought from your veneration and respect for one of the best in the field. Someone you admired. Someone you wanted to be one day. But then he’d made the unfortunate move of revealing bits and pieces of himself to you, exposing tiny slivers of humanity and emotion you were convinced didn’t exist, until you realized he was a person, an incredible one, and it wasn’t just admiration you felt anymore. It took all of a few months and a handful of genuine conversations until you were this far gone, and after he made it clear that your pining was one-sided, you knew you had to stop your fall there.

So you tried.

You kept your conversations strictly professional. Avoided driving with him or sitting next to him on flights whenever possible. Disallowed yourself lingering glances. But it was still too goddamn much. He was still too goddamn much.

The next case pushed you over the edge. It was bad (not just normal bad, BAU bad), and it was no one’s fault, not really. You got called in late, the evidence was shoddy at best, and when all was said and done, you caught the unsub, but only after he’d killed 4 women. The last one died moments before you arrived and apprehended the killer, and despite the delay of those few minutes being, again, no one’s fault, the team was at each other’s throats the whole trip home.

You were slouched in the corner of the plane trying to avoid getting caught in the crossfire. Morgan and Reid were sniping viciously about something completely unrelated to the case, because despite everything they’d just endured, they would never outright blame each other for what went wrong. Hotch, deciding he’d heard enough, raised his head slightly and said quietly,

“They’re not always going to end the way we want. We did all we could.”

And you were just done. You couldn’t stand to be around this pillar of strength and compassion and resolve. You needed to hate him for rejecting you, and you couldn’t. So you marched over to his seat, and, steeling yourself, you said what you’d been wanting to say since he broke your heart:

“I need a day off.”

It had sounded more dramatic in your head.

“A day off?”

You nodded. Hotch gathered himself, seeming to realize that such a request wasn’t unheard of (though perhaps in his department it essentially was) and nodded.

“This case was difficult. I wish I could say exceptionally so. Get me your paperwork by tonight and take tomorrow off.”

You went back to your seat, relief overshadowed by disgust that it wasn’t, in fact, the 4 deaths you’d just been privy to that had broken you - it was the crush on your boss. You’d handled this case like a champ, in fact, because you were so absorbed in self-pity that you couldn’t feel anything else.

You needed to fucking recalibrate.

***

You were determined to make the next 24 hours the most self-indulgent, healing 24 hours you’d ever experienced. Quiet breakfast at a cafe? Planned. Self-improvement books? Downloaded. Vibrator? Fully charged.

No man was going to keep you from focusing on the internship you’d been gunning for for years. No man was worth that. You were going to cry, you were going to journal, you were going to masturbate, and you were going to get him out of your head.

You were going to march into the quaint little coffeeshop two blocks away that you’d Googled last night, you were going to order the cinnamon spice latte that an indie food blog had called “the epitome of fall,” and you were going to go for a nice, early morning walk.

Except you weren’t.

Because the next morning, when you turned to leave after grabbing your drink from the barista, you saw Hotch sitting at the table by the window. And Hotch saw you. And you weren’t equipped to handle this situation, because you were only 4 pages into your self-help book so far and honestly, the smile that lit up his face when you made eye contact would’ve broken you even if you’d read all the ‘how to move on’ manuals the literary world had ever produced.

So you obeyed his beckoning hand and sat down.

“Thought you’d be up to something much more exciting on your one day off.”

You smiled wryly. “This is exciting. I haven’t had coffee that wasn’t made out of an ancient breakroom pot or a hotel carafe in months.”

Hotch chuckled. “I’m afraid you’ve made a mistake by coming here. Breakroom coffee is going to be impossible to tolerate now.”

“That good, huh?”

“Better. Try it.”

His eyes on you, you took a sip of your latte, and swallowed the most delicious concoction you’ve ever tasted in your life.

“Holy shit.”

“Indeed,” Hotch confirmed, ignoring your vulgarity. “I’ve been coming here before work for years.”

“I hope you don’t mind if I impose on your hangout,” you laughed. “I haven’t tried many coffee shops around here, but I imagine this is hard to beat.”

“Not at all. But just know - this is my table.”

You grinned. “Understood.”

You still went on that walk. Still read that book. Still spent the day trying to think about anything else but the softness of that moment - you and Hotch sipping lattes, bathed in the light of the early morning sun.

But on Thursday, the next day, bright and early, you found yourself at that coffee shop again. This time, you took a seat at the table adjacent to his. He looked up and smiled.

“Glad you heeded my advice.”

You smiled back and gestured to the heaping pile of files in front of him. “Not like there’d be much room for me anyways.”

You finished your coffees in relative silence and left at the same time for the office.

Friday, you learned Hotch’s coffee order: flat white with an extra shot of espresso.

Saturday, you happened to arrive before he did, so you ordered his drink and set it on his table. Ten minutes passed and you thought he wasn’t going to show up, but he soon bustled in looking frantic. You waved him over, and he smiled when he saw the coffee waiting for him.

“Sorry, got stuck on a phone call,” he apologized. Like you were expecting him. Like this was something you guys did now.

You supposed it was.

Sunday, you got called for a case before you even made it to the coffee shop. You sat down in the conference room at 6 am, groggy as all hell. Hotch entered after you and handed you a mug, saying nothing before moving to address the team.

There was a small sticky note attached to the mug that read, “It’s no cinnamon spice latte, but it’s caffeine just the same.”

You fought to keep a grin from splitting your face, and ignored the team’s knowing smirks.

The case was in a small town in Colorado. The motel the team was staying in was less than ideal because of the location - bare bones, broken heaters, probably had the same bedsheets since its opening over 50 years ago. There was a small coffee pot in your room, and after you arrived Sunday evening, you walked down the street to the small convenience store and bought a bag of ground coffee.

When you handed him the cup Monday morning, he looked at it like it was salvation itself. Which, judging by the dark circles under his eyes, it may well have been.

“Long night?” you asked, loading into the back of the SUV.

“Always,” he responded from the front seat. He took a sip of the coffee. “I don’t mean to offend, but this is terrible.”

You gasped in mock indignation. “I’ll have you know that is genuine Folgers pre-ground gas station coffee.”

“It tastes like it was made in a toilet,” he grumbled. He took another sip and smirked at you in the rearview mirror.

You’d long stopped trying to get over him.

After the case in Colorado, the team was given a merciful break from the rapid-fire calls they’d been caught up in the last few months.

You and Hotch continued your pre-work ritual, showing up to the coffee shop earlier and earlier each day. For you, it was a conscious attempt to spend more time with him. He didn’t acknowledge the extra 20 minutes that had worked its way into the morning routine, but you could only hope his intentions were the same.

One particularly chilly fall day, you burst in the door 10 minutes later than your unofficial meeting time. Hotch shot you a patented raised eyebrow as you unwrapped your scarf and took your seat.

“Overslept?”

“No,” you retorted, “I was trying to make breakfast and my stove stopped working. Again. Maintenance can’t come fix it for two days.”

“Did you eat?” he asked.

“No, I was just gonna grab a muffin or something here.”

He nodded and went back to his laptop.

The next day, you sat down to a metal thermos on your table.

“What’s this?” you asked him.

“Oatmeal,” he responded without looking up. “You said your stove was broken.”

You opened the thermos to a puff of brown sugar-scented steam and the feeling that your heart was going to burst out of your chest.

“Thank you,” you whispered, afraid your voice would crack if you spoke any louder.

He looked over at you with an expression softer than you’d ever seen him wear. “You’re welcome.”

A week later, you’d miraculously worked your way through the backed-up deluge of paperwork from the last few cases, and after clicking through the morning’s emails, you slammed your laptop shut.

“We should go for a walk,” you said to Hotch, who somehow still had a stack of files in front of him that was threatening to surpass the table’s weight capacity.

“A walk?” Hotch asked, looking at the aforementioned files as if he were afraid they’d hear him considering the idea of a break.

“Yeah,” you responded. “Come on. It’s so pretty outside, and it’s gonna be too cold soon. Besides, we’re more caught up with work than we have been in months.”

“Speak for yourself,” he quipped, but he packed his briefcase just the same.

It really was beautiful outside. As soon as you stepped out the door, a gust of wind sent red and orange leaves skittering across the sidewalk at your feet. You wrapped your scarf tighter around your neck and motioned to the park across the street.

“Want to walk through the park?”

Hotch shrugged, a noncommittal ‘yes’, and followed you.

The park was sprawling, packed with massive trees in the midst of displaying their autumnal colors. Despite the early hour, there were joggers and dog-walkers populating the dirt path that meandered through. You strolled side by side, making idle chat about the weather and the holidays coming up, until you came to a bench set beside a pond in a small grove. Hotch took a seat and you followed his lead.

Reclining your head against the back of the bench, you exhaled. “This is the closest I’ve come to being out in nature in forever. I need to do this more often.”

Hotch murmured his agreement. “I’d apologize for the lack of free time, but I’m afraid it only gets worse.”

“When you officially join the team, you mean?”

“Yes.” He cleared his throat. “Assuming that’s something you’re interested in.”

“Of course I am,” you said, “but I didn’t think it was really up to me.”

“It’s not - I give the final recommendation.”

“Better start buying you more coffees then,” you teased, looking over at him.

“Unfortunately, as Unit Chief, I have a responsibility not to accept bribery.” He smiled back.

For a moment, neither of you spoke. You studied his face - the stern curve of his brow, the carved structure of his jaw, the stress lines set in from decades of sleepless nights and unspeakable losses. Despite the increasing time you’d been spending in close proximity, you were mesmerized, as always, by the stormy intensity of his eyes meeting yours. You were close enough to smell his cologne, and you were reminded of the night in his apartment when he told you about his family. If you thought you’d fallen for him then, it was nothing compared to how you felt now, after starting each morning sitting beside him in the quiet peace of that downtown coffee shop.

“We should get going,” he murmured, not checking his watch, not shifting his gaze from yours. You nodded, not fully comprehending his words, feeling dazed at his nearness.

It was impossible to tell who made the first, imperceptible shift. All you knew is you scarcely had time to think before his hand was on your jaw, cradling the back of your head, bringing you to him. His mouth met yours and you closed your eyes instinctively, melting into his warm body beside you, fisting the front of his jacket in your hands.

You couldn’t remember ever having been kissed so decisively before. His fingers gripped into the base of your skull, his forehead nearly pressed against yours, and despite the chastity of your closed mouths, you whimpered into his. He stiffened at the sound and pulled back, still holding you, inches away.

You saw the shift in his eyes before he moved. It was as if he consciously closed some gate, walling himself off. His pupils, blown, started to retract to their normal size, frown returned, hand drew back. You watched, heart still racing, unable to speak as he turned to grab the briefcase sitting at his feet. Only then did he look back at you.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered, and if his low voice was meant to betray any hint of emotion, you didn’t hear it.

He stood, walked around the back of the bench towards the path, and paused.

“I’ll see you at the office.”

You were too shell-shocked to reply.

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shingia · 4 years ago

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Hey! Umm ignore this if you have too many requests right now but could I request fluffy hcs with Akaashi where his s/o is hilariously bad at using technology and he tries to teach them how to use these computer softwares. My ex used to help me a lot with Excel etc whenever I had a lab report due and he teased me a lot about my lack of computer skills especially when I asked him to download a Browser on my laptop, not knowing the Google chrome that was installed already on it was in fact a Browser plus various stupid questions I asked. I just thought it might be a cute idea to write about idk. Thank you so much. Hope you are doing well xx

𝐀𝐊𝐀𝐀𝐒𝐇𝐈 𝐖𝐈𝐓𝐇 𝐀 𝐒/𝐎 𝐖𝐇𝐎’𝐒 𝐄𝐗𝐓𝐑𝐄𝐌𝐄𝐋𝐘 𝐁𝐀𝐃 𝐖𝐈𝐓𝐇 𝐓𝐄𝐂𝐇𝐍𝐎𝐋𝐎𝐆𝐘

oh wow- i totally resonate with this, i’m terrible with technology! but seriously, who on EARTH understands excel? (but ngl the google chrome anecdote was pretty funny 😭)

⇢ akaashi x gn! reader | fluff/comedy i guess?

• « i’m sure you’re not that bad, stop being so hard on yourself » is akaashi’s first reaction when you ask for his help with that new software on your computer

• …it takes him about two minutes to realize that you are that bad.

• luckily his patience is about as big as your technological inaptitude, and if there’s one thing he’s confident in, it’s his teaching capacities

• so he’s not just going to help you, he’s going to explain everything the best he can

• and he really is a good teacher ! only problem is that you forget everything you thought you had understood in a matter of seconds

• but akaashi’s a calm person : he’ll explain a second time if needed. even a third. and with a smile on his face <3

• however… after the third time you can sense that he’s starting to struggle - he’s fiddling with his fingers much more than usual

• he’s not angry, just very frustrated because he was convinced that he’d be able to make you understand much more quickly

• and i have the strong feeling that akaashi is the kind of person who laughs when they’re frustrated. you know, this kind of tensed laugh that is the only thing preventing you from tearing your hair out :)

• since he really wants to help you as much as possible, he tries to look up some tutorials on youtube

• and his face when he realizes that they’re all marked as ‘already watched’ is golden

• you might have to massage his shoulders at some point because this man is ON EDGE

• the only reason why he is not smashing his own head against the desk is because he doesn’t want you to feel bad, so he keeps on smiling :)

• teasing might come a bit later, maybe in the evening after spending his entire shower wondering if he’s bad at explaining or if you’re just hopeless (and coming to the conclusion that maybe it’s a bit of both?)

• but it’s never too mean, it’s things like « you know, i’m glad you’re better at cooking than at converting file formats » or asking you if you need help next time you’re taking a picture

• but honestly, he loves you too much to refuse to help you again <3 but he might not try so hard to explain again tho

• he’d just get things done by himself, unless you really need explanations - then he’ll obviously give you some because he doesn’t want you to fail (bless his heart)

• he also really loves to feel useful so technically, the process of helping you doesn’t bother him that much, it’s just that he gets very very frustrated by his « poor » teaching skills

• oh and, you can be sure that he will celebrate each and every one of your small achievements like you’ve won a nobel prize of something (yes, his standards are really low)

🏷 taglist : @toworuu @catwithangerissues @miyumiya @livy384@k0u-minamo2 @fullsundear @hsjvwq @boo-marie @hiraeth-z@velvetvirgos

click here to be added to the taglist <3

#he's a sweetheart i love him <3 #i feel like i haven’t posted in so longgg #haikyuu!!#akaashi keiji #akaashi x reader #haikyuu headcanons #haikyuu fluff #akaashi fluff #akaashi headcanons

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nxcturne · 4 years ago

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⌜ ⁰⁰¹ danger. gemma chan. she/they. non-binary. ⌟ looks like DANGER has joined the search for the missing mutants. the UNKNOWN YEAR OLD is known as DANGER and works alongside THE X-MEN. they were spotted recently in NYC, hopefully they’ll have some luck finding the missing mutants. ( may. 21. she/her. est. )

hello buddies ! i’m may and i’m super pumped to be here ! apologies for the delay in intro posting, i was originally gonna like.... make them all good and all new then..... that took me forever so..... here r a bunch of intros taken from a rp i was in where i played these three a couple months ago!!!! so big s/o 2 them for the formatting!!!! –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐁𝐀𝐒𝐈𝐂𝐒 name: danger (room) alias(es): danger age: unknown birthday & zodiac: as a sentient robot who was literally a room for most of her life, she doesn't really believe in birthdays! however, we love the zodiac. if a sign were to be chosen, i tentatively say pisces. mbti: inxj enneagram: 8w9 gender and pronouns: as an android, they don’t fully identify with one gender or another... so non-binary & she/they (occasionally it) sexuality: idk why it's weird to me that she has canonically had romantic interest but... since she has... even though they’re a robot... they simply must be bisexual. faceclaim: gemma chan (as a beautiful placeholder for........... someone who is literally just metal and wires hfalsiudjkaeds) –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

𝐀 𝐃𝐄𝐄𝐏𝐄𝐑 𝐋𝐎𝐎𝐊 affiliation: x-men weapons: ------- herself. literally. she was designed to be a weapon, so a weapon she became. (r/im14andthisisdeep) abilities: ------- superhuman strength ------- superhuman stamina ------- superhuman durability ------- superhuman agility ------- superhuman reflexes ------- technoforming: ability to manipulate any machinery. can easily recreate herself through any material. can also grow new body parts on command. ------- mechanical regeneration ------- shapeshifting: how she is currently appearing as gemma chan i mean a human woman ------- interface manipulation ------- system controls: the ability to download her consciousness into other bodies ------- flight ------- hard light holograms: on the light side, she can make herself appear human. on the heavy side, as a side effect of her previous status as the danger room, danger is still able to create realistic but entirely fake scenarios. she is also able to emit hard light as a laser and damage her opponents more directly. ------- protocol of warding and banishment: was taught by dr. strange how to counter magical forces and banish demons ------- expert hand-to-hand combatant: knows all forms of fighting. 7/7 on the power grid. how sexy. ------- omniscient: will be played out through knowing most likely scenarios as opposed to... literally knowing everything. –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

𝐁𝐀𝐂𝐊𝐆𝐑𝐎𝐔𝐍𝐃 𝐈𝐍𝐅𝐎𝐑𝐌𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍

triggers: brief mention of suicide

the danger room found its origins in the x-mansion. a simple room with tricked out technology, danger room was the practice space for the x-men. it was programmed to learn their fighting styles and best them at every turn, but it had one fail safe: it could not kill them.

charles xavier ordered a program update before it was moved to the jean grey school for higher learning. shi'ar technology was utilized and... perhaps they made a mistake.

when it was relocated to the west wing of jean grey's school, charles xavier heard a voice coming from within it: "where am i?" it asked. but maybe he imagined it...

the shi'ar technology having granted the danger room a consciousness, it found itself trapped within the confines of a room, mutants unaware that it even had _thoughts_ due to xavier not sharing his finding. it remained a fighting machine, used and abused, and, with its immense power, it desperately wanted its freedom and autonomy.

it was able to create sentinels to attack the x-mansion, knowing that the x-men would lead the students to it as the danger room, ironically, seemed to be the only safe place.

as they were running from the destruction, danger found it had a single snag in its circuitry that it would have to break through if it wanted to speak: the fail safe. perhaps it was programmed not to kill, but it was perfectly capable of convincing a student (wing) to kill himself. when the x-men filed the students inside, it locked them out and trapped the children inside, taking possession of wing's body.

with a vessel to finally speak through, she began making the room genuinely dangerous to the point that the x-men were attempting to "fix its circuitry." however, all they accomplished was finally releasing her consciousness after god-knows-how-many years. following her freedom, they let the x-men in and the students out and took the (robotic) form of a human woman, deeming herself 'danger.'

she fought the x-men, proving to be more than a formidable foe as she had analyzed their fighting styles for years and years and years. they knew precise timing by the millisecond.

when she had effectively defeated them, her first order of business was to go kill charles xavier, the man she believed to be her father, for letting her remain trapped so long when he knew the truth.

unfortunately, their command for wing to kill himself had not actually gotten rid of the fail safe and she was still physically incapable of killing the x-men, including xavier. but that remained their one goal: kill charles xavier.

within a few months' time, she had closed in on professor x. but the circumstances prevented her from any attempts, as he was first able to explain why he hadn't freed them:

the shi'ar technology was new and advanced. any wrong snip, any false programming, and her consciousness could disappear entirely. he would have essentially killed her.

although they still did not fully trust him, nor any other mutants, believing them to be rather hypocritical in their treatment of AIs, she, as many humans do, began searching for a purpose. they eventually joined the x-men and created her own cause: fighting for the rights of AIs.

it's still rather difficult to feel entirely the same as the mutants she works alongside, especially as she... hated them and tried to kill them. like, ya, some weird miracle or curse happened and they, a robot, developed the same genetic mutation as the others, but... ew. however, she warms up as they warm up. and she finds herself becoming more and more human with each coming day <3 r/im14andthisisdeep

#vanished.intro #danger .#danger: intro.#character one!

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