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mariana-oconnor · 1 year

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The Stockbroker's Clerk pt 1

I don't know if the title of this one just never stuck in my mind, or if I have never read it. It's not the most inspiring title ACD has ever written, so maybe I just forgot about it.

...which saw Holmes and I leave the comforts of London to visit the city of Birmingham...

Oh hey! It's Brum. That's kind of cool. If I did read this as a kid it probably wouldn't have meant much because I'd been to London but I hadn't been to Birmingham. However, now having spent a not insignificant portion of my life living not too far from Birmingham and a year working there (for no money, ask me my opinions on unpaid internships, I dare you), this definitely means more to me. I'm not super familiar with Birmingham, but I am familiar-ish.

Shortly after my marriage I had bought a connection in the Paddington district. Old Mr. Farquhar, from whom I purchased it, had at one time an excellent general practice; but his age, and an affliction of the nature of St. Vitus's dance from which he suffered, had very much thinned it.

Not to try to deskchair diagnose or anything, but does Old Mr Farquhar have Parkinsons? Is that what he's saying? I guess there are probably other illnesses that manifest as involuntary motion, but that was where my brain went.

The public not unnaturally goes on the principle that he who would heal others must himself be whole, and looks askance at the curative powers of the man whose own case is beyond the reach of his drugs.

Yeah, this sucks. I mean, surely if your doctor's still alive they must be doing something right. Also, this reminds me of that old brainteaser about the two barbers in town. Do you go to the one with the good haircut or the one with the bad haircut. Obviously the one with the bad haircut because he doesn't cut his own hair. Doesn't really work for doctors, I suppose, but that was my immediate thought.

I heard a ring at the bell, followed by the high, somewhat strident tones of my old companion's voice.

Oh wow. Holmes came to Watson. On his own two feet. He didn't just send a letter. Watson didn't show up on the doorstep of 221B at a loose end because his wife was visiting her 'mother'. Holmes actually walked right into Watson's house.

And inquires after their health. He is doing all the socially correct things. He is getting an excellent score in being a house guest.

“To-day, for example?” “Yes, to-day, if you like.” “And as far off as Birmingham?”

I actually went and looked at a Bradshaw's guide to look this up, because I was interested in knowing how quick a train to Birmingham was in the 1890s. About 3 and a half hours, apparently. These days the fastest train from London Euston to Birmingham New Street is about an hour and a quarter. If HS2 (ugh) ever gets finished, they say it will take 49 minutes. But yeah, 3 and a half hours is a bit of a trek for a spontaneous trip (in the UK, I know in the US you think that's a perfectly normal amount of time to travel to get breakfast, but these stories are set in the UK so I'm keeping my UK expectations glasses on.)

“I perceive that you have been unwell lately. Summer colds are always a little trying.”

Holmes hasn't seen his bff in a little while and needs to show off. Perfectly fair.

“I am afraid that I rather give myself away when I explain,” said he. “Results without causes are much more impressive. You are ready to come to Birmingham, then?”

Hence why he hasn't explained why he's going to Birmingham. I love that Holmes is always eager to show off his working and teach Watson, but then we often get this little 'oh, I shouldn't have explained, it's so much more impressive if it's a mystery' moment afterwards.

“Ah! Then you got hold of the best of the two.” “I think I did. But how do you know?” “By the steps, my boy. Yours are worn three inches deeper than his."

I was confused by this because I was thinking 'surely the best one is the one with the best doctor, so that's more on Watson than the building.' Then I realised that Holmes is talking from Watson's perspective, so the best one is the one that came with the most patients. So yeah. Pre-NHS medicine was wild. 'Oh a new doctor just bought my practice, so you're his patient now. Also he believes in Miasma theory. Good lu-u-uck. Toodles!'

The man whom I found myself facing was a well built, fresh-complexioned young fellow, with a frank, honest face and a slight, crisp, yellow mustache. He wore a very shiny top hat and a neat suit of sober black, which made him look what he was—a smart young City man, of the class who have been labeled cockneys, but who give us our crack volunteer regiments, and who turn out more fine athletes and sportsmen than any body of men in these islands.

A yellow moustache and a shiny top hat. That's very distinctive.

Getting a bit condescending and classist again at the end there, Watson.

a half-comical distress

Dude. 'Guy looks so sad I almost laughed' is such a thing to say. Is this supposed to indicate that some of his distress is exaggerated, or is Watson just laughing at him for showing emotions? I guess it's not very stiff-upper-lip of him, what what.

"It is a case, Watson, which may prove to have something in it, or may prove to have nothing, but which, at least, presents those unusual and outré features which are as dear to you as they are to me."

Holmes is really there saying right in front of this guy that his case is so weird he just had to tell his friend. This is so unprofessional, I'm laughing.

Imagine someone coming to you with a problem that's really upsetting them, and as soon as you hear it you're like, 'we have to get my bff' and then after you've dragged your friend in as well you say ''OK, so bestie, this might be pointless, but it might be super weird, and I know you love the weird ones. Listen to this."

Oh god... Watson is like one of those nurses who posts weird cases on tiktok. He really is. Oh no. Now I've thought that I can't unthink it. No!

“The worst of the story is,” said he, “that I show myself up as such a confounded fool. Of course it may work out all right, and I don't see that I could have done otherwise; but if I have lost my crib and get nothing in exchange I shall feel what a soft Johnnie I have been."

OK, so when ACD said cockney he meant 'hold my beer, I'm doing slang.' Right, gotcha. This is going to be a thing.

Also, I love this man already. This is such a me thought process. I hope he doesn't turn out to be a dick. I will feel so betrayed.

I'm not going to quote the entire next passage, my tl;dr summary of it is:

Mr Pycroft used to work for a company that had a financial crisis and had to let him go. He got a good reference, but because so many people were let go, they were all trying to get the same jobs. He's running out of money and applying to every job he can find, but no luck. He saw an ad for a job at literally The Best Company, but they only accepted applications by post, and he got the job. And he's getting a 33% rise on his last job.-

I'm already getting bad vibes about this. 'only apply by post'?? No in person interview? Job seems too good to be true? Getting paid more than in his previous job when clearly there's so much competition for jobs at the moment that they wouldn't need to do that to attract applicants?

"...up came my landlady with a card which had “Arthur Pinner, Financial Agent,” printed upon it."

If he has it on a card then it must be true.

“‘Well,’ said he, ‘the fact is that I have heard some really extraordinary stories about your financial ability. You remember Parker, who used to be Coxon's manager? He can never say enough about it.’"

Look, my company gives me security training like... constantly. I have seen so many videos about phishing and spear phishing and smishing and all other ishings that some of it was bound to stick and this. CLASSIC fraud technique. Name drop someone official that the mark will know? Classic. Establishes a false connection and a false sense of authenticity. Oh well, if he knows Parker he must be alright.

Also, appealing to Mr Pycroft's ego... this is absolutely and totally not a scam. Can't you see how he's got 'Not a Scam' written on his forehead?

“‘Now that shows real application!’ he cried. ‘That is the way to prosper! You won't mind my testing you, will you? Let me see. How are Ayrshires?’ “‘A hundred and six and a quarter to a hundred and five and seven-eighths.’ “‘And New Zealand consolidated?’“

Yeah, he doesn't know what any of those things are. He's not checking anything. He's just asking you questions to seem real and like he knows stuff. He doesn't know anything.

"'My boy, my boy, you are very much too good to be a clerk at Mawson's!’"

Oh boy... is there a scam within a scam happening here? Like, I was already suspicious about the job he got at Mawson's, and now there's another layer to it? What convoluted webs are being woven here.

“‘Ha, ha! I think I would risk a little sporting flutter that you don't go there at all.’"

Ah, well that explains the answer to 'what's going to happen when he turns up to a job that doesn't exist.'

“‘No, sir. By that day you will be the business manager of the Franco-Midland Hardware Company, Limited, with a hundred and thirty-four branches in the towns and villages of France, not counting one in Brussels and one in San Remo.’ “This took my breath away. ‘I never heard of it,’ said I."

“‘I must be frank with you,’ said I. ‘Mawson only gives me two hundred, but Mawson is safe. Now, really, I know so little about your company that—’ “‘Ah, smart, smart!’ he cried, in a kind of ecstasy of delight. ‘You are the very man for us. You are not to be talked over, and quite right, too. Now, here's a note for a hundred pounds, and if you think that we can do business you may just slip it into your pocket as an advance upon your salary.’

Aaaaaaand there's the convincer.

Oh boy. Mr Pycroft was being smart about the thing and then they come in with the £100 note and he's lost.

“We picked him out of the gutter, and he won't leave us so easily.” Those were his very words.’ “‘The impudent scoundrel!’ I cried. ‘I've never so much as seen him in my life."

Yes, that does seem weird, doesn't it. Why would a person you have never met who offered you a good job be so insulting about you? Hmm.

“It was a quarter of an hour before my time, but I thought that would make no difference. 126b was a passage between two large shops, which led to a winding stone stair, from which there were many flats, let as offices to companies or professional men. The names of the occupants were painted at the bottom on the wall, but there was no such name as the Franco-Midland Hardware Company, Limited."

I just have this image of Leverage in my head of Sophie talking through the comms to Nate:

"We have a problem."

"What kind of a problem?"

"He's early."

"What do you mean he's early? He's not supposed to be here for another fifteen minutes, the sign's not up! Hardison isn't in position!"

"Well, I suppose when you convinced him this job was important you convinced him a bit too well, Nate. I told you 500 a year was too much."

"He wouldn't have quit Mawson's for less."

"Well now he's fifteen minutes early and he's looking at the companies in the building and We're. Not. On. There."

"Stall him!"

"I'll do what I can, but even I can't convince a man he's seen a sign that doesn't exist."

"Yes you can."

"Well yes, but I shouldn't have to. And that was an entirely different situation, Nate. You know that... You've got five minutes."

"Give me ten."

“‘This is a directory of Paris,’ said he, ‘with the trades after the names of the people. I want you to take it home with you, and to mark off all the hardware sellers, with their addresses. It would be of the greatest use to me to have them.’"

Well, at least it's not copying out the encyclopaedia Britannica this time? And this time the dumb task at least seems partially relevant.

But unlike Mr Jabez Wilson, whose shop was next to a bank, Mr Pycroft here doesn't own property, so why would anyone need to get him out of the house? Especially all the way to Birmingham? Obviously there's got to be a lot of money involved as they gave him £100 as a convincer. (About £10,300 in today's money). That's a hell of a lot to toss away on a whim. There has to be a massive payout.

"'Don't overwork yourself. A couple of hours at Day's Music Hall in the evening would do you no harm after your labors.’ He laughed as he spoke, and I saw with a thrill that his second tooth upon the left-hand side had been very badly stuffed with gold.” Sherlock Holmes rubbed his hands with delight, and I stared with astonishment at our client.

I've got to assume that this means Holmes recognises the tooth (It's a very distinctive tooth) and that's why he's so excited about dentistry.

Also, getting the impression that this work is not very urgent.

“You may well look surprised, Dr. Watson; but it is this way,” said he: “When I was speaking to the other chap in London, at the time that he laughed at my not going to Mawson's, I happened to notice that his tooth was stuffed in this very identical fashion. [...] I could not doubt that it was the same man."

Oooh, yeah. That makes sense. It also implies we're working with a single antagonist rather than a crew. Unless all the other members of the crew are either easily recognisable criminals or just terrible at acting. But it being the same guy totally makes sense.

"Why had he sent me from London to Birmingham? Why had he got there before me? And why had he written a letter from himself to himself?"

I mean... I honestly don't have a clue about this one. Clearly there must be money involved, or else giving away £100 would be ridiculous. All that Mr Pycroft has done so far is go to Birmingham and read through lists of French retailers. It's got him away from London.

UNLESS... the job offer from Mawson's was real? I mean, it had red flags all over it. But if they're planning to do some sort of stockmarket crime with the Best Stockbroker in London then convincing him not to go to work and then sending an imposter in would work. And there is at least one other person involved, but they were needed to pretend to be him. That seems to be the only logical explanation at the moment. So he really did get a job at the best place in town without an interview?

Sending him all the way to Birmingham seems a little excessive, but I guess he'd know all the other places in town and Birmingham is the next biggest city in the country. Finance is pretty centralised in the UK, and I can't imagine that was different in the Victorian era.

Mawson's needs a better hiring policy, though, if that's the case. First they don't even know if the person who turns up is the person they hired. Second, someone managed to get information about a new hire from them before that new hire even had their first day.

If that's not the case, and the Mawson's job was also fraudulent as I initially believed, then I have no clue what's going on.

#Letters from Watson #Sherlock Holmes #The Stockbroker's Clerk #long post

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idledreams4 · 3 months

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I cut my hair last night

The look my mother gave me when she realized (which took *several hours*) was completely unwarranted. I'm adorable and she looked at me like I was absolutely hideous

Sure it's a little choppy and rough around the edges, but I still plan on making that undercut happen, so it will get cleaned up when I get the chance.

Also: she needs to stop acting like I'm always going to have the time or money to spare to got to a salon or a barber shop and get it cut properly. Being able to cut my own hair saves on time and money, plus it's just a good skill to have and it means I'll actually be happy with how I look.

Now instead of fighting with hairdressers I can just keep going until I'm happy. I almost called it quits sooner but then I looked at it and realized I was doing exactly what the hairdressers did.

I really tried to argue "but it's going to look boyish if I cut more"

Bestie that's what we're going for. Quit trying to be a hairstylist and start being a closeted trans teen who can't afford a proper haircut. Who cares if it's bad? You'll get better if you practice, and since it's officially summer vacation you have all the time in the world to practice.

Then as we were leaving for the cottage I looked in the mirror and realized I had basically given myself Charlie's haircut, which both made me sad (because I miss her) and incredibly happy (because it's Charlie)

Then I stopped caring what my mother would have to say, if anything, because I was happy with it and could not care less :)

Only difference is her hair is curly and parted on the other side

#idle speaks #I match Charlie 💖💖💖💖

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citrinemystic · 2 years

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Correspondence Spotlight: Lavender

Lavender is definitely one of my go-to herbs for magical spells and workings. It's fairly versatile since it can be consumed (typically in tea or syrup form) and frequently features in perfumes, lotions and other cosmetics, as well as candles and other smelly things.

Lavender, genus Lavandula, is a member of the mint family. Etymologically speaking, its name derives from the latin "lavare", meaning "to wash", and it was frequently used in the laundering of clothes. This is both interesting and unsurprising since lavender is frequently associated with cleansing in witchy spaces.

Quoting directly from wikipedia now, just because I love one of the price comparisons: "During Roman times, flowers were sold for 100 denarii per pound, which was about the same as a month's wages for a farm laborer, or fifty haircuts from the local barber." (Because that is a logical measurement of how much things cost)

But more to the point, looking at the fact that it was so pricy, it can easily be associated with wealth and luxury.

Historically, the color Lavender has been associated with the queer community.

Lavender has been shown to help with insomnia, anxiety, and headaches, as well as hair loss and soothing various skin issues such as acne and eczema.

Lavender is quite strongly associated with soothing and calming, and it tends to be my go-to for workings that involve peace.

Examples of how Lavender can be used in magical spells and workings:

💜 Leave jewelry, tokens, or other small items in a small amount of dried lavender to infuse that item with lavender's attributes

💜 Make a simple syrup with it and intentionally use it in coffee, lemonade, spritzers, cocktails, and anything else that could use a bit of sweetness (There are also syrups that you can purchase to do this with)

💜 Fill a sachet with the dried buds and leave in dresser drawers to infuse your clothes with both the scent and your intention

💜 Use it in protection and justice workings for the Queer community

💜 Keep a sachet under your pillow for aid in sleeping and to keep your dreams peaceful

💜 Drink an intention-infused lavender tea when you need the calming or soothing attributes

💜 Grow a lavender plant and work with the spirit

💜 Use in a cleansing bath (you can either use a product such as lavender bubble bath or bath salts, or you can put the buds in the water (I would suggest using a linen bag or something similar to contain it so you don't have a mess to clean up afterwards))

💜 Make a spell sachet or jar to carry with you into stressful situations

💜 Use in money and prosperity workings where the goal is excess and luxury

#lavender #magical correspondences #magical herbs #witchcraft #witchblr

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honoredsage · 2 months

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Ponder

This week just got me thinking about my career and life, and lowkey it makes me sad.

One of my officemates will now be resigning since she got a plantilla position at another agency. Her last day will be at work will be at August 9. I was the one who brought her into our office as we were orgmates back in college. She's younger than me by almost two years. I'll really miss her when she's gone.

Last Friday, also one of my officemates was assigned to be an OIC of an office. He's also younger than me by a year.

The officemate that got the position that I was applying for is also now a unit head. At least he's older than me.

Still, it got me thinking that after five years of working here, I still haven't got a permanent position. Granted, I generally like the work doing here, but it just worries me how I feel like I'm stuck here for so long.

Doesn't help that I have this lingering feeling that I won't get the position that I applied for, and the one that I may get is the position with a much lower salary grade.

There's this feeling that I need to have more money but I just can't for some unfortunate circumstance.

A few days ago, I also just randomly thought the money I would need if ever I would need to buy an engagement ring and for the wedding. Those plans are for the far future yet, but not too far I guess. I don't know, it just worries and pressures me.

Doesn't help the fact right now that my barber was not at his barbershop today so I was forced to have my haircut from another barber.

It's meh. Could've been worse. A spot in my nape is stinging since he shaved it hard.

Another Monday tomorrow which looks like to be a busy day. At least we have returned the money we needed to return for our liquidation from that damned Tawi-Tawi trip.

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whereareroo · 7 months

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BZZZZZZZZ

WF THOUGHTS (2/27/24).

I just paid $25 for a haircut. It was a disturbing experience.

The last time I paid for a haircut, a few weeks before I stopped working, was in May of 2009. In mid-June of that year, a few days after I stopped working, I bought a cheap hair clipper and gave myself a buzz cut. In my new liberated life, I didn’t want to spend time or effort on my hair. I can buzz my head without an appointment, and it doesn’t cost me a penny. I don’t like to pay for stuff that I can do myself. Over the years, my DIY buzz cut program has saved me an enormous amount of time and a good bit of money. And, if I do say so myself, I look stunning.

I’ve become an expert at cutting my own hair. It takes about 10 minutes. When I’m done, Mrs. Barberlady fixes any spots that I’ve missed. My DIY buzz cut looks just like the $25 cut.

I blame Grandkid #4 and Grandkid #5 for my traumatic haircut experience. During our recent special assignment, it was decided that the boys needed haircuts. It became a field trip. In addition to me and the two boys, our group included their Mother and Mrs. Grandmother.

The young boys, ages 4 and 2, aren’t very comfortable with the barbershop experience. During their haircuts, their Mother and I kept them calm and held their heads steady. When they were done, I thought it would be a good “learning moment” for them to see me quietly sit in the chair and get my haircut. It’s their fault that I paid $25 for a buzz cut.

My haircut experience was weird. The haircut itself was fine. It’s easy to buzz a head. When he was done, without asking me, the barber also trimmed my eyebrows. Is that normal? After that, he put a big hot towel over my head and neck. While I sat under the towel, the guy massaged my head and neck. It seemed like an unusual amount of personal contact. I was confused. Was I getting a buzz cut or was I on a date? Was I supposed to hold hands with the barber? When I got out of the chair, I didn’t know if I was supposed to give him a little peck on the cheek.

Being a grandparent is a tough job. NOTE TO SELF: Be Missing In Action when the time comes for the granddaughters to explore shaving and/or waxing. I have my limits.

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robert-sims · 8 months

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The shaver worked great

The shaver worked great. It was fully charged out of the box. Only used it once and it shaved close with no irritation which is the reason I never use an electric or cordless razor. This does as it claims and moves with the contour of your head. Again only used it once and I hope it continues to amaze me.

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I am 47 years old & have been shaving my head since 1996. I use a straight razor and go with and the against the grain so even when pulling my skin back you feel no hair. I have tried so many different electric razors that I lost count. They ALL claimed to not leave stubble, rashly skin, small cuts, etc… after gaining a little weight over the years I’ve developed a few folds on the back of my neck and I have to be super careful now to not slice a chunk out when using the straight edge.

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The only downfall is that it didn’t get it as smooth at it does when I use my straight edge against the grain but that’s just something I like to do, or maybe liked to do because after using this and how fast and easy it is I don’t think it will even matter anymore. I can go this faster than brushing my teeth so an everyday thing will be no problem at all.

As a bonus it dud something else that was a very nice surprise. I was able to shave my face and neck (dry) as well. Every and I mean every single electric razor I’ve tried on my face and neck in the past has not only not worked but after just touching my skin felt like it was pulling each hair out one by one.

And when I did suffer through it hoping it might get easier it just left a nasty rash that lasted for days. So I was amazed when this working on my face & neck too!! Not a nick, scratch or razor bump came out of it. FINALLY!!! You also get a nice little face cleaner brush, massager and trimming attachments. I’ve seen others for 4,4 even 5 times the price of this and almost bought one of those on that itself.

How can something that costs so little act work so well, right? After the reviews on here and a few other places this is the one I had to try and I’m so glad I did. You will be too, I guarantee it. If you are a head shaver and/or have sensitive skin, stop looking and order this now.

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This is just do good and I’m so happy that I finally found something that worked and worked better than I could have ever expected that I had to leave this super long review. That part I didn’t mean but I just can’t stop. I guess I will now though as I’m sure you get my point.

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#haircut

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everafterkeiji · 3 years

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hi, can I request headcanons for baji, mikey and smiley getting an undercut? :) thank you

Helloo!! im so sorry this got piled at the bottom and it took so long but hopefully this is ok! have a fantastic day and stay safe always ^_^ <3 idk much abt guy haircuts pls excuse me-

𝐆𝐄𝐓𝐓𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐀𝐍 𝐔𝐍𝐃𝐄𝐑𝐂𝐔𝐓

CHARACTERS: Mikey, Baji, & Smiley with gn!reader

♡ 𝐌𝐈𝐊𝐄𝐘 could feel how hot it was even if his hair is constantly tied up so he realized he needed to lose some weight to his hair and relieve himself so he took the chance to get a proper haircut.

- He doesn't really mind what happens to his hair, as long as Draken can still keep it out from his face to avoid blocking his view then that's all good for him. He brings Draken to the salon or better yet—his best friend is cutting it for him, which would definitely happen.

- While he's cutting his hair, Mikey would fall asleep leaving Draken to be frustrated, holding onto his head to keep it in place and he's just hearing snores from the chair.

- When he wakes up he just likes how new his hair feels and he's thanking Draken despite the other blonde being stubborn that he had to go through such a difficult customer.

- Showering has never felt so money saving now that he has an undercut but he still needed time to adjust to it since it was the first time he'd gotten one.

- He would ask Draken about how long it takes for it grow back and how frequent does have to keep shaving it once it grows.

- He'd like to show it off to the others or sometimes to you, just casually lifting his hair to boast about cool it is.

- He'll also try to ask what other hairstyles he can have to let it show and of course that was helped by Emma and Draken.

- Mikey also likes to rake his hands through his hair, he finds it oddly satisfying so you'll see him with a hand to the back of his head, feeling through his hair.

- Bonus points if you're going to be the one to do that to him and it'll absolutely make him doze off after a few minutes.

"You like my hair, Y/N?"

"It feels really nice, Mikey."

"Mm, okay I'll get it often so you can do this every time."

♡ 𝐁𝐀𝐉𝐈, alike Mikey, also feels that he needs to cut off a few inches even if he likes his long hair. He has thickness to it and even if he can tie it, there's just tons of cons to having long hair.

- Taking Chifuyu with him to barber shop because he was always the one to get an undercut so it was just half convenient.

- After getting it, Baji feels a relief pass by him with how it just lessened that heavy feeling when he has his hair down now that's been cut.

- That same contentment is back when he's washing his hair. He feels bad at how high maintenance his long hair is especially when he has to stock up on hair products to keep it that healthy so he can relax for the mean time.

- When he ties his hair into a bun, he can feel how cool it is. He keeps looking at the mirror and admiring it from the view so when he's at home or during PE, he just likes to keep his hair up for the sake to showcase his hair.

"Oh, Baji that's nice."

"Thanks, Y/N, hopefully you don't fall in love with me too much!"

- Would also brag about it from time to time especially when he gets that one compliment and he'll just go with it for the rest of the day.

- Loves to experiment with his hair, tying it in different braids or updos.

- He'd do it again when it grows back, he doesn't like how awkward it feels so he'll shave it just to maintain the it's shortness.

- Just run your hands through it as much as you can, he'll never not ask for you to do it.

♡ 𝐍𝐀𝐇𝐎𝐘𝐀 would do it out impulsivity— a crave to try something new so he's just dragging his brother to join him through the process.

- I feel like he'd sometimes be conscious of his hair so he'd seriously request to not cut any more inches than the prior length because he definitely doesn't want his hair to look deflated or too short.

- He'd be picky at first wondering if it actually looked good but he just shrugged and went with it.

- When he goes home however, he starts to appreciate it more, loving how well it was done and how it suits him.

- He would call you, ranting about he's getting the hang of it instead of his usual fluffed out style, he'd even let you stop by just to gush about his new hair.

"You look really good, Smiley."

"No biggie, I'm always handsome anyway."

- He'd tie it or at least put a headband on and just smile his way through the compliments he'd get.

- He has curly hair so it's always going to look puffy even if it's tied but he'll be confident every time he does it because he knows he looks cool.

- He would also be a fan to just keep touching it because he's used to that usual curl texture so to have it razored down is definitely satisfying for him.

- Would also be the type to stick to his hair care routine, going through that shampoo, conditioner, leave in conditioner, extra curling formula—follows through it like any other ritual.

- He would be so frustrated when it grows out. When he ties his hair, he hates how there are some weird looking sprouts of little hairs that can't go along with the updo.

- He'd be used to that breeze part when the hair hasn't grown out much but now he's back to feeling that sweat all over again and he's faced to face with realizing how he has to keep shaving it.

- At the end of the day, he'll let his hair grow out, choosing to keep it that way so he doesn't have to worry about the process of it returning back to it's prior condition.

TOKYO REV : @strawberrieas @kwrg @raya-sano @kimrena-stuff @heavensbeloved @rosewood1999 @beezebub @l-luci @bekky06 @keiisukebaji @tomanjirouu @smileysmileysmiley

OVERALL: @stesphy @itsmeaudrieee @crapimahuman @meguroshi @floydenai @dai-tsukki-desu

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foster-the-world · 3 years

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No more curls

Warning: This is a lot of words about my son's haircut. Feel free to skip. It helped me to get my words out.

I had to take the girls to their activity so my husband took my son to get his hair trimmed. This was after I noticed he needed a haircut, found the barber and made the appt to fit my husbands schedule. He had them chop off all of his curls. I know it's absurd but I was really sad. I loved his curls. My husband has heard me say at least 500 times I love his curls. This is his third hair trim so he knows what it looks like afterwards. He was mad that I was mad. We fought. It was partially about the curls but of course in marriages its always the underlying things. How did he not know that i'd be annoyed? Does he not listen to me at all? He never ever would notice any of the kids need haircuts, or new clothes, or their face washed before they leave the house, or baths, or lotion every day because they have eczema. Let alone do the research to find the barber, find the lotion that works, etc, etc. In six years of having children he hasn't bought a single outfit. I've spent hundreds of hours on the internet figuring out how to care for black hair. We are white parents to black children - we cannot have them looking dirty/unkept when they leave the house. That is both of our responsibility.

It also adds another thing to the list of things I can't ask my husband to help me with. It doesn't help that I went to our rental home and found ten late payment noticed in our mailbox. It was for three bills that are overdue and we got several notices for each. One of which was our electricity bill on the rental house. It was ten days from being turned off. Rentals account for roughly 40% of our income. It's the only reason we can get by while I'm in school. We cannot afford for the lights to go out on a renter. Not that we didn't have the money to pay. He just doesn't organize himself to pay things on time. To him, it's not a big deal. You pay the late fee and move on. Not that we can afford late fees. Countless time we've talked about how paying bills on time and being financially responsible is important to me. I can't take over everything he does wrong. I already do much more than my fair share. I pay all of our city bills. He's supposed to handle the Upstate bills. The money comes from joint account.

Luckily, we communicate pretty well. So once we cooled down/put the kids to bed we had a decent conversation. I'm tired of being the competent one. He's tired of feeling afraid that I'm going to be mad that he's doing things wrong. I can understand his feelings and he can understand mine but we don't know how to get past it. He does want to do more but can't seem to handle more. But I don't want to get stuck with it because I'm competent. I'm exhausted. He's exhausted. Some things require money which we are short on these days. I know it's all relative and we are lucky to have all we do. If I wasn't in school we could hire out some of the things I take care of. Some of the things are hopefully related to this stage of life with young kids. We are both overwhelmed. A full time job for him, nursing school for me, a rental home to manage, three young children, foster care stuff. Again, I know some people do much more and have many more children but it still feels like a lot to us.

Anyway, call me superficial but I'm still bummed about his hair. The perfect curls may grow back but I'm not sure. I think his curl pattern may change as he gets older. In which case it would have changed anyway but the baby curls would have lasted for a long while. My husband said he didn't know that. Of course, he doesn't know that because he hasn't spent endless amount of time learning about black hair. Of course, baby boy is still very cute. He has a perfect face. He remains perfect. The older ladies at daycare were also not impressed. They understand my sadness - which made me feel better. They didn't even want me to get him a trim.

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yrbutchgf · 3 years

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do you have any tips for going to the barbers? I’m so nervous because I usually just go to a hair salon

it always helps me feel at ease with a new barber if i can find a portfolio of cuts the shop has done, so i can see what people they tend to service. sometimes you'll run into places that have a few women getting cuts in their portfolio, and obviously that's a very good way to get yourself comfortable by knowing you at the very least wouldn't be the first client that isn't your typical cishet guy. having women barbers at the shop has a similar effect on me, even if i don't end up getting my cut from them (though oftentimes ill try to book with them specifically).

at the same time, being as barbershops are pretty gendered spaces, you won't always see women in their portfolios or in their staff. in those cases, the best thing you can do for yourself is approach the situation with as much confidence as you can. i like to see if i can book an appointment in advance, just for an added sense of security in what im doing, though most barbers are usually cool about walk-ins. you'd be surprised the amount of barbers, especially those with younger staff members, have online booking available through apps like booksy. booksy is also a great app for looking through portfolios and reviews.

once you're there, walk and talk like you know you're supposed to be there, because you are. in my experience, many barbers (though not all) tend to be pragmatic shops that, once they know you're there to give them money, will just kinda roll with whatever you ask. in that way it can also help a lot in terms of comfort to know exactly what you want to ask for before you walk in. that might sound obvious, but having an idea of your aesthetic goal can be different than knowing the terminology. for example, my barber script these days tends to be something like, "just a 1-3 taper fade with an inch or two off the top." you'll also be totally fine if you just show a picture, but knowing the words definitely makes me feel more confident.

if you're feeling especially nervous, though, bringing a buddy, either to hang out in the waiting area while you get your cut or to book for a similar haircut at the same time as you, never hurts! it can be very relaxing to have somebody with you who will back you up if you need (though in all likelihood you won't).

at the end of the day, the important part is to build yourself a situation that will make you feel the most comfortable with being in it. if you think finding women in the portfolio, looking for women in the staff, knowing the terminology, booking in advance, wearing a nice outfit, or bringing a barber buddy will make you feel more confident walking in there, then that's what you should try to do. overcoming barber anxiety is really mostly a mental game. use your best judgement, and make it as easy on yourself as you can.

bit of a long answer, but i hope it helps! i was really nervous about barbers in the past, but it really does get easier the more times you go to them. these days id feel more out of place walking into a salon than a barber!

#asks #anonymous

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popculturebuffet · 4 years

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Justice League: In Blackest Night Review: A Case Study in Why John Stewart is Awesome

Hello my Green Lantern Corps and happy black history month! And happy 40th Anniversary Year to John Stewart. And let’s get this out of the way now not the one replaced by trevor noah who handed Tucker Carlson his ass on television and got his show canceled, please do it again John i’d be greatful, and has a weird obession with how Pizza should be. No i’m of course talking about the Green Lantern, the third from earth and the second to headline the book itself, John Stewart. But to me.. he was my first Green Lantern and one that gave me a deep and abiding love of the Corps since all thanks to this very episode. It’s thanks to John I’m the green lantern loving nerd I am today and without him I probably wouldn’t of found Guy, Jessica, Simon, Alan, and Kyle not to mention got into the varoius other corps. It’s thanks to this episode I wanted to seek out these wonderful characters eventaully and in part why I got into JLI, one of my faviorite teams, among many ohter great things and books.

So quite obviously both this episode, which I haven’t seen in probably a decade, and John have a great place in my heart. And thus it warms said heart to FINALLY see John getting the recogntion he deserves: he’s going to be one of the starring roles in the upcoming HBO Max series, he was on Scott Snyder’s justice league, and he’s now going to be headlniing the main Green Lantern book going forward under writer Geoffry Throne, who like me was VERY sick of the Hal Jordan show the Green Lantern franchise could become at times, and also like me gave out about it a LOT. The fact DC hired him despite a very public and easily accesable record of him slagging of their use of Hal instead of him ESPECAILLY in the new 52 reboot aka why Cyborg is in the Justice League movie as Geoff kinda shoved hal in there despite John being a more sensible pick and doing so not only shoving the Martain Manhunter, who this show also gave me a deep lasting love for, out of the team but forcing Cyborg onto the team despite fitting with the titans better and, AGAIN there being a black green lantern and given the New 52 kept the history of there being multiple lanterns, no reason Hal could’ve been SECOND instead other than DanDiDio’s bitchy habit of EVERYTHING WAS BETTER ON MY EARTH that poisoined the company for a good decade before recently.

And yes I felt the need to rant about that, yes Green Lantern the animated series is still good mind you, I just got tired of bland white guy over “Really awesome, really layred especailly thanks to this series black guy”, “stubborn asshole white guy whose hilarious and has a heart underneath the layers of douchebag”, “creative and imaginative white guy who has as personality and really uses the ring in fun ways”, and more recently “A muslim superhero struggling with his past who’se also really energetic and fun and has an intresting family life” and “Latnix superheroine who struggles with anxiety and actually struggles with constructs and once she gets past that has very unique ones”. In other words, yeah I’m bitter because everyone else was more intresting than Hal, and it’s only in recent years with Jessica gaining promience and John regaining it that DC’s finally broke out of that and is actually using the intresting ones, and again without John I wouldn’t be a fan, so they had no real excuse to barely use him outside of the comics if at at all after a while.

So yeah as you can tell by that rant and by how specific it got for each lantern, this is one of my faviorite franchises, as said this episode is responsible and so for Black History Month I felt i’d be a huge mistake on my part if I DIDN’T cover my boy John and this episode and see how it held up. The fact it’s his 40th anniversary wasn’t something I was aware of, but now I am, expect more Johncentric episodes from Justice League sprinkled throughout the year to celebrate one of my first and possibly best GL.

Naturally before we get to the episode we have to get to the series itself. The series was launched as Batman Beyond was winding down. Bruce Timm wanted to keep the crew together, something I could empathize with since Owen Dennis and JG Quintel have ran into that same problem lately, with most of their crews drifting off during the gaps in production and Owen desperate to get the show renewed before he lost everybody. A good crew isn’t had to find in animation but KEEPING them for multiple shows or seasons can be. And there was one project the fans wanted more than anything: The Justice League. After all BOTH Batman and Superman had had tons of guest stars, especailly the latter, with Batman having Zantana show up and Superman having the Flash (Wally West), Green Lantern (Kyle Rayner) and Aquaman all show up. There were seeds there.. but Timm was relcutant as he had trouble ballancing 2 or 3 heroes in a fight scene, wanting to keep them al lin focus so fans didn’t wonder where they were and they didnt’ have to cut back and forth, the idea of juggling 7 was daunting. So as Beyond was finishing production a few things happened: The first is that they did the episode The Call, focusing on a future version of the League, and while only a two parter, it showed Timm his crew might be able to juggle a team of heroes after all, and second was the pitches Timm made BEFORE justice league. Since Kids WB had been hteir partner for a while now they tried pitching both a batman anime, he did not provide many details, and in his own words a “Kidified” justice league, basically the justice leagued mashed with the titans including a female version of cyborg. It was the latter pitch, which was rejected by Kids WB, that finally convinced Timm they could do this, but if they did it couldn’t be half assed or having compromises. it had to be what it SHOULD be. So they went to somewhere new, if in the same family and asked cartoon network, who said...

And here we are. They took their time to work out the characters, apparently taking a lot of delbiration, mostly on which GL to go with, and if they were going to do a hawk wether to go for hawkman or hawkgirl. In the end the roster was the iconic big 7 one, in large part thanks to Grant Morrison taking that concept and reviving it in his run on the team, but shaking it up slightly: Barry was naturally replaced with Wally West flash as he was THE flash in the comics, gave a slightly younger member for the others to play off of, and was more popular.. something Dan DiDio plugged his ears and went LALALALALALAL about for a decade before FINALLY leaving the company so he could stop screwing with a character he hated for reasons that can be summed up as ‘MY FLASH IS BETTER. YOU’LL LIKE MY FLASH.. YOU’LL SEE I JUST HAVE TO MAKE THE OTHER ONE A MASS MURDERER.. THAT’LL SHOW YOU FOR NOT LIKING WHAT I LIKE”... I still have maybe a smidge of lingering issues over how wally was treated the last few years after his return. I do not apologize for htem or for doing a little dance when I found out Didio was gone.

Point is it wasn’t the only subsitution as Hal Jordan was replaced by John, obviously and rather than use Aquaman, they went with Hawkgirl, though Arthur still got an episode focusing on him fairly early into the series which has the iconic moment of him cutting his hand off to save his son. I dare you to find something more badass. Bruce both liked her deisgn better and felt it helped with the gender ballance.

So with all that set and with some growing pains to get through they had their show so join me under the cut to see how it turned out. Spoilers: It good.

We open INNNNNN SPACCCEEEEEEE, as a coaltion of neat looking aliens wants justice and has gone to a space court lead by three weird alien faces, likely inspiried by the kryptoian tribunal in the donnerverse superman movies, with their prosecutor sending a group of mysterious robots known as the Manhunters to go fetch the accused for a trial: John Stewart. Given he’s voiced by Kurtwood “Red Forman” Smith, i’m very surpised he didn’t order them to also put their foots up his ass. Maybe he’s saving it for the trial.

After the titles we cut to John himself whose in shades and trenchant for reasons.. I mean it looks neat, but he’s in his old neighborhood not hunting down his exes killer or trying to hide the fact he’s a ninja turtle. Why is he all disguised. I mean sure WE know people are coming from him and given what he thinks he did he knows.. but he has no intention of running from what he did. It’s just a weird stylistic choice. That said we do get a cool sequence when while casually walking he notices a robbery, and stops it simply by first stopping the wheel then levitating the car.. and while he does get a little showy shaking the guy upside down to return the money.. it’s all very controlled. It shows off how John works. While we’ve seen him at work as Green Lantern before this this small sequence says volumes about john in the span of a few minutes, showing that shilw he HAS immense power, he only uses the amount he needs, knows when to hold back, and only shows off a tiny bit, and even then he’s likely still keeping the theif absolutely safe. It also provides excellent foreshadowing for later as to why the League takes his side even when he refuses to defend himself, as it shows that John really is a professional true and true.

He runs by a basketball court and fails to make a basket when throwing a ball back to a kid before meeting his old gym teacher, who turns out to be the kids uncle or something like that, and invites John to join them as they go to the barber shop. The kid wants John’s haircut, his granpa says the usual and i’m wondering why as John’s haircut isn’t that radical: it’s a miltiary style cut, belying the fact that for this series, while it dosen’t come up in the plot here, John was a former marine instead of an architect. Honestly.. this wasn’t a bad change, giving us the deciated and measured john we know, to the point the comics gladly retconned it in. Not that it’s really a huge deal given it meelrly adds shades to the guy and dosen’t prevent him from being an architect. It just adds lairs by giving a reaosn he’s so focused and driven. He had it drilled into him and carried it with him.

Meanwhile on the watchtower The Flash clumisly tries to get to know Hawkgirl better and maunver into asking her out, though it’s clear sh’es not intrested. Still even if he can’t help flirting, and it sometimes gets creepily obnoxious, it’s still better than I expected remembering this running subplot, as he DOES try to get to know her and what she does in her off time, even if it’s to set up asking her out, and is trying to ask her out instead of just hitting on her or doing anything far more creeptacular. It’s still not great mind you and hasn’t aged well at all.. but for the time it’s not TERRIBLE and again it goes away pretty quickly in favor of the much more intresting John and Shierya relationship.

Flash accidently shoots himself in the foot.. conversationally though given how Wally is at this point in the series I wouldn’t be suprised, by asking the Martian Manhunter, who gives Hakwgirl an easy exit if he’s ever felt alone.. you know the guy whose entire race including his wife and child died horribly. He quickly apologizes though and John understands he just stuck his foot in his mouth at lighting speed. And it’s not the MOST insensitive he’s been about Jonn’s dead wife.

But things are soon interupted as Jonn notes “We have an incursion!”

But the Avengers are dealing with all of that so they can instead focus on the Manhunters shooting toward earth. I really like this as the primary reason Batman set up this station was to monitor for alien threats, it just because the Leagues base because superman had the idea to stay as a team and it was a good un, and given earth JUST had an invasion, as this likely isn’t too long after that given it’s only the second set of episodes, it’s understandable they’d be on high alert.

So our heroes move to intercept. As the first episode after the pilot this one also sets up a recurring part of the show and a necessary one: only a handful of Leaguers would feature in each two-parter, as the episodes for the first two seasons were essentially one hourlong story split into two episodes. The only exceptions were the three part premire, the three part finales for each season, and the sole solo episode comfort and joy which is fucking awesome and my faviorite christmas episode period. But even with the extended run time the crew simply felt i’td be unwiedly to juggle 7 characters eveyr episode, feeling it’d eventually get to original series star trek leevels of having one just manning a console or something. So rather than try and cram them all into every episode, they choose who they needed and gave valid excuses for the rest when necessary. In this case Batman and Wonder Woman have solo missions their busy with , as does Superman whose adressing an earthquake. Our heroes try talking to the Manhunters.. who refuse to talk to them and then also say their coming for John, and aren’t explaning why. So naturally a brawl breaks out as the League SHOCKINGLY dosen’t want their friend who as far as they know has done nothing wrong taken by a brutish paramilitary force who won’t actual talk to the citzens their policing or try and be coporative. More on this in a second. The fight itself is pretty awesome as our heroes fight as evenly as they can.. but it’s clear their outgunned outplanned outnumbered and outmanned, as while their you know the justice league and do their best and Jonn is in Superman’s weight class the battle makes it VERY clear their barely holding in there and that the blast from the manhunters rods are just too potent for them to stand up against.

But help and hope arrives and things get a bit less lopsided when Superman shows up! Unfortunately it’s season 1 superman, and something a lot of fans noticed but I as a kid didn’t and the crew themslves did not until it was too late to course correct for the season, was that Superman came off as a bit of a wimp in this series. See they had the good intention of having him struck down to show a threat’s serious, something TV Tropes calls the “The Worf effect” after the fact that Worf on Star Trek TNG would get knocked on his ass a lot for the same reason, but it has the side effect of making a character look like their made of paper mache if done too often. To the crew’s credit they realized this and not only made sure this didn’t happen as much in season 2, but dedicated the first episode of Season 2, twilight, to showing Superman as a badass by having him try and cave Darkseid’s skull in. Granted they overcompensated in places in that episode, but that’s a story for another day. Point is he had a habit of getting knocked around and it varied between really effective and overselling it. Here it works as the manhunters had already knocked Jonn around a bit, knocking him into some poor kid’s apartment whose really wondering what the fuck just happened too much to enjoy meeting the martian manhunter, so him not being too on top of them simply sells this threat is equal, and possibly past the League.

Meanwhile John is talking to his former teacher who says the kid reminds him of John... it’s not only a nice bit of depth to show the restrained John used to be a bit of a hellraiser before the Marines.. but also shows John’s guilt as he hopes not.. but before he can unload, he notices the fight and suits up to his old mentors shock and the kids joy, I mean I would too if a guy suddenly because a green lantern in front of me, and dashes off.. to surrender and break up the fight, handing over his ring and going with them and telling the League not to interfere. Their response can be summed up thusly.

To John, he’s peacefully surrendering for a crime he comitted to a bruitsh and unfair police force but one who is duly deputized and as an officer himself, for the unaware the Green Lanterns are space cops and given the reason rightfuly reconing on the police I will certainly be discussing this as we go, is trying to coparate and prevent any collateral. While LIKELY Bruce pays for any that happens, as beneath his batdick demanour at times he’s a very good man and if he has the pockets for a space station, space craft, commuincators and all the good stuff a superhero team has on hand, he probably has a dedicated fund set up to paying for collateral since insurance might not cover it, and not only that would likely give any impacted extra to do any upgrades they coudln’t before because he’s a philanorphist .. one who dresses up like a bat to punch people in the face, but that itself is still philathophy in a way.

But to the League? Their friend was taken by a bunch of shady paramilitary robots who didn’t bother talking to them, is trying to keep them out of it and for all they know only surrendered to prevent a fight, and even if he had valid reasons, as his friends-ish and teammates, they have a right to answers. So while John sits in his cell completlating his apparent crimes.. the JL have taken off in the Javelin, the spaceship I mentioned batman funding. And of course Batman has both spaceship money and had a design for one so ready it likely took a month at most for him to get it up and running, if not less, and only didn’t have one in the batcave because he hadn’t neededed it yet and likely didn’t want to embezle more money than he has to from his company. Jonn uses the stars John saw, say that three times fast I dare you, to find a location and our heroes head there. Our heroes arrive.. and are attacked by the local security despite Superman geninely trying to hail them, the Javelin not firing back and our heros only going out to intercpet personally so they don’t die, and even then making careful certainty not to attack. So we get another thrilling battle, with our three flying heroes all pitching in, and the flash realizing he dosen’t know how to fly the thing and me cursing out bruce in my head for you know, not either forcing flash to learn the stuff, or having the forsight to put a manual on board for any members who forgot something, aka so when Wally inteivibly goofs off and eats candy instead of reading it the first time, he can speed read it and at least retain it long enough to land the thing in a crisis. If it were anyone else i’d be understanding but this is the guy who again, either had spaceship plans lying around or could get one together in the span of a month or so and while not thinking of the ship in terms of a team, still also paid for and likely created the commuincators they used, so he’d know his team well enough to know he needs this.

My nitpicking aside, our heroes land, make quick work of the locals, and then crash in on John’s trial after he’s escorted in, passing his fellow lanterns who rightfully treat him with disdain.. but for the wrong reasons as we’ll see. John gives groaning “oh no” , like he’s embarassed. When REALLY..

Seriously John, again you were as far as they knew kidnapped, and the way the manhunters acted, they had no reason to think they were legitamate, and you didn’t take five minutes to tell them, “They have every reason to be takning me” or “I blew up a planet I deserve this” . They still would’ve came mind you, they just might of realized this wasn’t a traditional rescue mission and actually tried to use some subtly. You also COULD have told the manhunters they might show up so the security wouldn’t attack them. They probably woudln’t o LISTEND or attacked themselves, so i’ts a damned if you do damned if you don’t situation, but you still did absolutely nothing. It’s the one mistep with John here and even then it has the justification of his self loathing at the moment being so high, he assumed they’d rightfully write him off without question.. not to mention given the team is mostly white guys, two aliens and a princess who woudln’t know better, he probably assumed like most white dumbasses they’d assume the police were correct and not give him the benifit of a doubt. To their credit, especially since you know one of them’s superman and the other one’s a professional dumbass, they didn’t think that for a second. Some would not be such a good person.

But Prosecutor Forman and the big giant heads aren’t much better than the manhunters, so Prosecutor Forman sends some orange guys to put foots up their asses.. and since unlike the manhunters their just... some ambigiously gendered aliens with no powers, they go down quick and before the manhunters enter, superman RIGHTFULLY calls them out, as he points out they just wanted to know what the hell was going on, didn’t throw the first punch, and have been under attack since, and the heads admit this IS a public trial, and they kinda overreacted so as long as the superfriends don’t do any other antics and watch like anyone else, their good. Superman has his team play it safe for now as they really don’t know what’s going on and given they could only stalemate the manhunters on even footing, they know they can’t take them on their home turf.

The trial is soon underway, and Prosecutor Forman calls the witnsees.. Kanjar Ro, also voiced by Smith. This is neat little bit as Ro was one of the first foes the League fought in the comics, a space pirate, and while he originally was just going to be some random asshole, someone brought up the idea of him being Ro and the crew really loved it. It’s a nice nod to the comics and honestly if you have a vast superhero universe with decades of continuity to draw from for your show, why NOT make the secondary villian of the episode be someone from the comics.

Ro is, like the comics, a pirate and seemingly came forward because what John did was so bad even he can’t stomach it and has to say something. So we FINALLY find out what John did.. well okay the audience as a whole does I remember this from being a kid. He and Ro had a routine cop and robber interaction, Ro was smuggling shit, and John was doing his job as GL of Sector 2814 and stopping him and cut out his engine.. but seemingly said engine drifted off, and destroyed a planet as result via chain reaction, and thus the debris right outside the planet John’s being tried on are apparently thsoe of the planet he accidently killed. The court takes a break and while the League, understandably, assume that the obviously shady man was lying John ends part one by confirming that no he did it. And this is why I put a pin in things... because the episode being about a space cop being arrested by worse space cops and dealing with his friends in the badge turning on him while some of his other friends try to prove he’s innocent, and the man in question being an african american... tackles some very loaded issues that, givent he writer and most of the staff, Dwayne McDuffie accepted, were very much white, i’m thinking they just kind of fell backward into and it only came out as good as it did either do to McDuffie or just blind luck that it didn’t turn out entirely awful in hindsight.

And if anyone is complaning: “Wait you dont’ need to get political leave politics out of this”.. please leave my fucking blog. For one, the recknoing with the police was long overdue, I feel ashamed for not having it sink in how fundementally broken the police were and not realizing it for my whole fucking life, I knew some cops were bad but I hadn’t realized the institution was inherently racist and bad and feel so much deep and lasting shame for that, and for another again it’s a story that at it’s core is a black police officer being arrested for doing something wrong, taking full responsiblity for his actions like a police officer SHOULD, and having friends of his try and prove he didn’t really do it, while his fellow officers, rather than find the act itself abohhrent, come out as either being loyal to john no matter what (kilowog) because fellow officer, or assholes who ONLY are upset because it makes them look bad, and are ONLY distancing themselves because of that, and not because you know JOHN MAY OF CAUSED A GENOCIDE BY INCOMPETNECE. So yeah, i’m not ignoring the real world implications, I couldn’t and wouldn’t if I wanted to, and i feel if done right ANY medium, animation, comics, what have you, for kids or not, can tackle such issues and should be able to.

So i’m not ignoring the elephant in the room, and as we get into part 2 we get the good and bad of this in full: Superman feels something’s off about this whole thing, a hunch admitely but given an engine falling in a crater seems a bit too convinent, he has a right to investigate and takes MM to do so, while he leaves Flash and Hakwgirl to stall. Both take diffrent approaches: Flash signs on as GL’s lawyer.. and it’s an awesome scene as we find out, in your standard evil lawyer joke, that the tribunal of faces solved this by simply having the lawyer share the punishment.. but it also shows Flash’s loyalty and faith that his friend did not do this and something worse is at work, as he still agrees after learning he’ll probably die if his other friends don’t fix this.

And now we have full context i can get into where this episode really does the issue justice for the most part: John is presented as the model of both what the GL Corps and what police should be: He’s professional, uses minimal force despite having a weapon that can do anything, and when he THINKS he did something horrible, he dosen’t run from his crime: the most he does is go back home to see it once last time, simply waiting for someone to come and get him for what it did wether it be his own brothers in arms or as we saw the manhunters and he doesn’t defend himself because he dosen’t feel he should as he screwed up, got an entire planet killed, and rightly thinks he should pay for it. He’s likely, as a black man in the early 2000′s, been falsely accused, pulueld over and fucked over by police and seen people in his community he knewe and care about die because of shit like this so when given the chance to take responsibility, even from a clearly broken system, he does. Because in the same situation a lot of officers back at home would not and would walk away clean and that’s not who John Stewart is, how he was raised, or what he or the corps stands for.

But the episode gets to have it’s cake and eat it too, as the League does belivie John didn’t do this on purpose.. and the blind faith they especially superman did come off as wince inducing.. until I realized it’s not because of some “brotherhood of the badge” bullshit.. but because it’s Superman. He belivies in the good of most people. In this very series despite Lex Luthor having tried to kill him dozens of times at this point, he STILL shows the guy empathy when he finds out Lex is dying of cancer. Lex spits at the notion of course and dosen’t take it seroiusly.. but Superman is just that good a person, so if he has a hunch somethings’ wrong.. it probably is. And even if he and Jonn found nothing... it’s the right thing to do. A crime should ALWAYS be properly investigated to make sure someone dosen’t hang for something they did not do. This is what I meant by have it’s cake and eat it too: the episode tackles police brutality.. but the accused is also the victim, and it thus tackles the unfairness in the us courts, how black people are often assumed guilty when that’s horribly racist and biased as fuck and how Police are assumed correct. Our heroes are assuming john is right based on optisim but are not wrong for wanting him to at LEAST get a fair trial and full investigation that clearly was not done. It also covers, again probably intetioanlly, how some are often not able to get proper representatin, with this court outright getting rid of it, which is wrong and bad, and the flash being the best John can do and not very good at it, mostly stalling for time. It shows the system’s brokena nd soemtimes you have to directly fight iht and can’t just take it , and even if your convinced your guilty and want to rightfuly take the blame for something your sure you did... you still deserve a fair trial and a compitent one.

It’s not all good: as said the gl’s are portrayed as bad for not wanting anything to do with john, and in order to make them unsympathetic they care more about their rep than the fact a friend may of comited genocide and kilowog showing up and providing character witness is seen as a good thing, even if he provides no actual character evidence other than “Johnny’s a good guy” and that’s not ideal. It’s not perfect and again it was writtne by an old white guy so of course it isn’t but the fact it gets so much right the more you dig in despitei t’s awwkardness and being written and aired 20 years ago... that is nothing to sneeze at.

We have more to dig into here too with the manhunters but first moreof the plot: While the other stuff mentioned happens, Superman and Jonn investigate as said.. and we find out WHY superman was supscious: while it was part hunch.. he did in fact have valid reason to suspect something was off, and as we saw actually heard the case against his friend first, and only went against it because the evidence was off.. in that the MOON of the planet is still there and should’ve flown off. He and Jonn soon find a MASSIVE device that John identifies as a bigger version of a toy he had as a kid, something that created images... and again shows whya PROPER investigation was needed. Had the court actually looked into it instead of presuming John guilty, they would’ve found this thing too. Naturally though Kanjar Ro has followed them and wants to kill them.. but with her subplot wrapped up Hawkgirl went to seei f they needed backup, stealing one of the guard ships which given they attacked people on ap lanet iwth a PUBLIC TRIAL going on without haling them yeah don’t blame her, and kicks his ass. Our heroes find out the truth as I mentioned earlier: Ro was paid to lie and be in on things for an assload of money.. byt he Manhutners.. who at the moment are plotting to strike while Oa, the home of the green lanterns is weak, as the Guardians who created them and monitor them mostly left to go to the trial.

As we catch up with them, THe guardians speak on each lantern being trusted with the ring and given little oversight.. because they pick wisely. The prosecutor just wants John to hang, calls for a sentence, which is death and John and Flash nearly die, in case you thought I was pulling those parallels out of my ass. But Superman rushes in, and in a small, subtle gag he and Jonn do so thorugh a small pain of glass put over where they enterted last time, fight off security and save them, and before prosecutor foot in the ass can harumph about it more.. Superman claims jonn’s innocent..a nd has Shiera smash the generator, showing he indeed is, getting John aquitted. John also attacks Ro, who they brought along as a witness, rightfully so, but the League get him to stop as they don’t have time for that: the Guardians are strangely leaving after that, the manhunters are clearly doing something given their asbent, so John retakes his ring, restored to who he was now knowing he truly WAS innocent and was simply set up.. and he wants to find out why.

We soon get the why as the Guardians explain the manhunters after the League won’t let them just.. brush by after they aburbtly tried to leave. They AREN’T behind the current attack.. but did create them, feeling robots would be better policeman. They were wrong, with the manhunters lacking empathy, being far too military in their job, and generally not being up for it so they simply gave them smaller jobs as bounty hunters, court balifs that sort of thing ans assumed they were fine because they didn’t say anything. As John puts it perfectly “Not outloud. “ And this itself is the other thing that makes the episode work as an allegory, if a very unteitonal one: The Manhunters are the police as they are now, violent brutes with way too much power, no restraint in using it and no ounce of mercy or sympathy for those they protect. And the Guardians rightfully removed this system, and replaced it with the corps. And while the Corps STILL have a lot of leway and power, being free to investigate on their own provided OA dosen’t call them to do someting specific, and given a ring that can do anything within corps guidelines, which basically means “don’t kill” and “don’t be a dick with it”, the guardians still watch them, do not interfere in trials and choose very wisely. not only that ther’es only one officer per sector, each sector being galaxies wide.. but that’s because that’s only what’s NEEDED. One Lantern with the power to take on entire fleets if needed, which is a fair amount of power given the scope of the job, and come in as requested by the people themselves, honestly isn’t a bad system. Granted the corps is wonky from time to time in the comics as are the guaridans depending on the writer, but at it’s core the corps really sounds like a more responsible versoin of the police: given just the gear necessary, the men necessary, and only called in when truly needed or if they spot a crime in process. THat’s what the people protecting us should be like and that’s why this episode still works.

Obviously though I was aware of none of this as a kid, and the real reason I loved this episode is this climax. The League arrives on Oa just in time to provide backup. Presumibly the guardians there and incoming with the league simply dont have the power to spare to call for reinforcments. Which is weird but fair enough drama wise and our heroes storm the planet , with the corpsmen from before all showing up to pitch in. But John gets there too late as the head manhunter drains the central power battery, the source of the lantern’s powers, and declares I AM THE POWER, refusing to accept he’s out of date.

And this, folks is the moment that made me love the lanterns for life. John is outgunned, the wise old wrinkled blue men who gave him his powers drained of there, starring down a massive monster planning to subjigate the universe... and he does not blink. See lanterns are picked for their willpower, their abliity to stare down things like this, and fight anyway, their very rings controlled by this, by their own force of personhood. It’s another reason besides logistics why theires only one per sector: it’s that hard to find one. Earth is so remarkable because , even if it’s simply so we could have more stars in the books over time in real world, we produced not ONE person capable of this.. but 7.. Alan Scott whose not in the corps but whose powers stll work on will and could probably use a regular corps ring very much included. John was chosen because he simply won’t give up. He gave up before.. but it was the right thing to do and ultimately biding his timea nd accepting his trial.. gave his friends time to aquit him and prove he was framed.

But now is not the time to back down.. now’s the time to stand.. so how does John win? By USING his will, by using the reason he was chosen coupled with ihs own personal dedication and concentration, he grabs his ring as it floats toward the guy, takes it back.. and starts reciting the lantern oath. And since the Manhunter is indeed “The power”.. it means he too can be controlled like any lantern energy. and thus with every bit of willpower he has, struggling all the while but not moving a damn inch, John recites his oath and shoves the monster that framed him, and the power he stole, back into the battery, all while saying an oath so badass it has been etched into my head since thanks to this episode. Say it with me now..

In Brightest Day, In Blackest Night No Evil Shall Escape My Sight Let Those Who Worship Evil’s Might BEWARE MY POWER, GREEN LANTERN’S LIGHT!

And the credit goes to phil lamarr, who delivers the oath with all the gravitas and awesomeness it’s first delivery in this continuty it deserves. It was this that made me a lifelong fan: one man with the power of anytihng using PURE MENTAL STRENGTH AND DETERMiINATION TO SHOVE AN EVIL ENERGY BEING IN A GIANT LANTERN WHILE RECITING A BADASS AND AWE INSPIRING OATH. And if that dosen’t sell you on the Green Lantern’s being awesome I can’t help you and don’t know why your here.

So wrapup time: The Guardians genuinely thank john, saying they choose well, and John brushes off his fellows corpspersons as they should’ve belivied him and thanks the League for having faith in him even when he didn’t. And while the former part has some.. bad implications we’ve gotten into already, I also can’t entirely blame him given they did it not because he might’ve killed someone but again, because

Precisley. So our heroes prepare to head home, cue the credits.

Final Thoughts:

So how does this episode hold up 20 years later? As should be obvious, damn well. It’s a good introduction for the corps, if showing them to be kinda assholes in places, and a good spotlight episdoe for John showing who he is what he stands for and again how TRULY MONUMENTALLY BADASS the man is. And lest you think the comics versoin is any LESS badass, he once got into a sniper duel in with Bedovian, a member of the Sinestro Corps and a crab person.. who was as I forgot till looking it up, THREE SECTORS, which i’ll remind you can comprise entire galaxies, away, with a ring made sniper rifle. In one shot no less. Point is even with some.. wonkier aspects, and ones that aren’t intetnional, it still works and is a shockingly relevant episode 19 years later and the fight scenes, as are standard for the series, are overwhelmingly awesome. Check this one out, and the series as a whole. With its great animation, character work and general badassery this one’s worth a few watches. And obviously given my love of this seires, and it’s 20th anniversay next year, and my love of John, check back here for more John-centric episodes throughout the year as we celebrate the guy. And I will also celebrate the green lantern NAMED guy eventually too, and jessica.. and all of them ebcause I love them all. Yes.. even Hal. As for which John episode i’m doing next? Easy, one that intorduces me to a character I love who dosen’t get used near enough, Metamorphisis. The when I can’t say QUITE yet as my March schedule is full and most of my ongoing projects are on the backburner so I can tackle two arcs of ducktales, which coincidentally happened to be in time for the finale. That wasn’t planned AT ALL mind you, it just ended up working out really well that way. For now though tommorow I begin my coverage of the final 4 episodes of ducktales with “Beaks in the Shell” and later this week finish up black history month with blacksad, continue my Lena retrospective with a money shark and some pr work, cover the second season of close enough, celebrate Tex Avery’s birthday and also celebrate the new Tom and Jerry movie.. with the OLD tom and jerry movie. Until then, see you next rainbow.

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stressisakiller · 4 years

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A Moment of Peace

Bucky Barnes x Reader Soulmate AU

(Hello Sunflower Part 12)

Summary: You finally get a day to rest after the craziness of the past week

Warnings: None really, fluff, like one cussword a little bit of spice

Word Count: 2.6k

A/N: Small Edit 3/18 Fluffy chapter yay! Let me know what you think and if you have any requests for future chapters! Thank yall for reading!’

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Between being kidnapped by Hydra and worrying about the trial, there hadn’t been much time in the last week for you to relax. So after the final trial and final decision of not guilty you felt like you were going to collapse. Everyone was happy to be back at the tower but you all decided that celebrating could wait. The week had worn down on everyone. Leaning on Bucky as you headed to his room, your legs felt like lead, and the moment that your head hit the pillow you were out.

You were a little disoriented as you woke, it was dark in the room and outside, your eyes still felt heavy and there was a weight on your waist. Shifting to look to your left you found the weight to be your soulmate's arm flung over you as he slept, mouth open and small snores slipping out of his mouth. You couldn’t help but giggle at the image, in that moment it hit you that you are free. The government isn’t going to come after you and Hydra is in hiding again, at least for a little while. Allowing yourself to relax again you shuffle closer to Bucky, pausing when you feel him stir. He simply turns to his side and pulls you closer in his sleep resting his chin on top of your head as you bury your face into his chest. Breathing him in, you soak in the warmth of his chest and arm. Even with the super-soldier serum flowing through you, your body still runs a little cooler and you always enjoy the warmth that your space heater of a boyfriend gives off. You smile to yourself as you allow your body to drift back off to sleep.

The sun is the first thing you notice as your body slowly comes to consciousness. You must have slept all afternoon and night. Can’t say you're surprised, you hadn’t been this exhausted since you disobeyed and got a tattoo to cover your soul mate mark at eighteen. A soft kiss to your forehead pulls you out of your thoughts and causes your eyes to flutter open. The sight you are met with makes your heart melt, Bucky is leaning on his metal arm looking down at you with a soft smile gracing his lips. His flesh hand is tracing random patterns on the skin of your hip. You sleepily smile up at him.

“G’mornin’ love, wha’ time s’it? Your words are slurred with sleep, causing Bucky to smile a little wider

“9 am, the day is practically halfway gone.” he jokes, considering you normally end up waking up closer to 5:30 in the morning 9 is surprising.

“No shit? I can’t remember the last time I slept in this late.” you giggle at the noise that your tummy makes at that moment “‘M hungry.”

Bucky nods and goes to get dressed, at least enough for the communal kitchen as you stretch out across the bed, trying to release those last few knots in your body before getting up and putting on your baggy pj bottoms.

You are surprised to see Tony cooking bacon and pancakes when you enter the kitchen. You walk up and give your brother a hug,

“I didn’t know you could cook.”

“There are a lot of things you don’t know about me,” he unsuccessfully tries hiding his smile as you raise your eyebrow at him, “and really, I’m only good at making a couple of things, breakfast being one of them.”

You give him a kiss on the cheek before you walk over to the coffee maker, pouring yourself a cup and making a fresh pot for the rest of the group. Sipping on the sweet nectar of life in your hands you hop onto the counter beside Tony, Bucky leaning on the island across from you.

“So, it seems like you’re the only one having to pay a fine for your actions, bro.” you make it into a joke but watch his face closely for any sign that he feels uncomfortable.

“Yeah, I get it though, I am the one with the most money and the one with the most agency to do whatever I want. So, I can’t really blame them for being a least a little frustrated with me.” You smile at his words, you wouldn’t say that they were only a little frustrated, but you weren’t going to say that to him. You sit there with your two favorite boys as Tony finishes with breakfast, helping set the table when everything was almost ready.

“Hey Jarvis,” you call out.

“Yes miss Stark.” You roll your eyes at the formal ways he addresses you.

“Could you please let anyone that is awake that breakfast is ready?”

“Absolutely miss.”

You nod satisfied as you pull some orange juice from the fridge and syrup from the pantry. You can hear voices approaching as you place them on the table. Sam and Steve walk in first, followed quickly by Nat and Clint whispering to themselves as they approach the table. Bruce slowly walks in from the lab, clearly lost in thought. Thor is currently off-world, per the usual. Conversation ceases as everyone stuffs their faces with the food in front of them, surprised comments at Tony making such a good breakfast are made and you could see the attention going to his head but you decided to allow it this one time.

Finishing up the food on your plate you lean against Bucky on your right, watching the people around the table as they begin to joke with each other. A sense of calm overcomes you as you allow yourself to realize that the people around you have become more of a family to you than your so-called dad ever was. Bucky looks down at you,

“You ok little sunflower?” you look up at him and smile,

“I have never been better, my star, I have my soulmate next to me and my family around me. And for the moment I have nothing to worry about except how I’m going to spend my day.”

His smile widens at your words, pulling you closer he nuzzles his nose against the shell of your ear,

“I think I have an idea about how to spend the day.” His voice was deeper and raspier than normal, sending a shiver down your spine as you smack his arm.

“James Barnes!” you threw your hand over your heart in mock outrage, “you kiss your soulmate with that mouth?”

“I want to kiss her elsewhere right now.” He murmurs, you just roll your eyes at him,

“At least let me finish breakfast first, yeesh.” Bucky laughed at your reaction, kissing your temple

“We don’t have to right now but I wouldn’t say no to later today.” shaking your head at his antics you smiled up at him, as an idea popped in your head.

“Sounds good love. Hey, wanna go to the farmers market today? We haven’t gone in such a long time.” Bucky’s smile grew at your request, he couldn’t say no to you, especially when you looked at him with those big expectant eyes.

“Of course Sunflower, let’s have a day out.”

After eating and getting dressed, and a couple of breathtaking kisses you both headed out for the day. Bucky insisted that you go back to the Farmers Market in Brooklyn so you piled onto the back of his motorcycle. The wind and sun on your face felt amazing as he weaved his way through the traffic, this, you think, is exactly what I was missing.

Walking towards the market you noticed Bucky glancing at some barbers as you walked past. You decided quickly to find out exactly what he was thinking about.

“Thinking about getting a haircut, handsome?” you tried to keep your tone playful as you asked. Bucky looked at you, eyes swimming with a thousand emotions.

“I am but I don't think I’m quite ready today.”

You just nodded and looped your arm through his, leading him to the market

While looking at some of the vegetables on display you decided to make a big super for everyone that night. As shity as the man you called father was, he had taught you how to cook traditional Russian meals. Mainly so that he could feel more at home, but you didn’t want to think about that right now. Right now you wanted to make a meal for your family that you remembered from your childhood.

You quickly told Bucky about your plan, dragging him around as you found all of the ingredients you would need for the food as well as stuff to make dessert. Luckily you were able to hold all of your groceries while on the motorcycle as Bucky drove you back to the tower after spending the majority of your day galivanting around Brooklyn. Pulling into the garage below the tower Bucky helped you take everything up to the communal kitchen so that you could get started.

You put Bucky to work as you cooked, having him peel veggies and potatoes so that you could chop them up and put them into the pot for the Borscht, a Russian vegetable soup. Also making some Kartoshka, Russian cake pops, for dessert. It took about 3 hours for you to completely finish cooking everything but you hadn’t felt so at peace in a long time. Cooking and baking had always been your escape from everything that was happening around you while at Hydra. Of course, your sexist father hadn’t minded, he enjoyed having a good little daughter that knew her place to cook for him. His duality always surprised you, he wanted you to be a typical girl while also making you into a super-soldier. You wonder how fucked up his brain had really been before your bullet went through it.

The cool feeling of Bucky’s metal arm wrapping around your stomach pulled you back to the present. Leaning into his warmth you looked up at him with a soft smile.

“Hey, lovie could you help me set the table? I need to finish this and I’ll tell Friday to let everyone know that it is ready.” Bucky left a soft kiss on your head before nodding and heading to the cabinets to grab everything.

“Hey Jarvis, could you please let everyone know that I made dinner and it’s ready?”

“Yes, miss”

“Thanks J, and you know that you don’t need to call me miss?”

“Yes miss.” you rolled your eyes, who knew that AIs could be so sarcastic, leave it to Tony to create one that was.

Everyone filed in, looking confused yet excited about the food on the table and absolutely shocked at Bucky’s haircut. They quickly commented on how good he looked before looking to you to explain what they were about to eat. You explained that it was a traditional Russian meal that you had been taught to make when you were younger. You didn’t miss the misty look in Nat’s eyes when she saw what you had made. She gave you a small smile when she noticed your eyes on her. You were proud to note that she had eaten three full bowls before leaning back stuffed.

Everyone was overly full at the end of dinner, shuffling over to the living room to watch a movie. Lord of the Rings was put on the table and you, Bucky, and Steve all looked at each other confused, you had never heard of that movie before. Everyone else looked at you in shock,

“You haven’t seen this?” Tony asked incredulously, “I mean I know you didn’t have a normal life but even I’ve seen them and I was in a type of jail for half my life.”

“Sorry, Stark but random movies weren’t high on my priority list as I tried to escape Hydra and then worked on getting my soulmate free.” The sarcasm dripped from your voice as you raised your eyebrow at him.

Tony was right, of course, the movie was amazing, you were hooked and by the end of it you couldn’t wait till you would get to watch the rest of them. But by the looks of everyone else they were ready for bed, and you could feel your eyes getting a little heavy as the credits rolled. You slowly stood, stretching out for being curled up by Bucky for the last couple of hours. He followed you to his room, since your kidnapping incident you spent more nights there than not.

Stepping through the door you were surprised to be pushed against the wall, door slamming behind Bucky as he crowded against you. His lips were rough against yours as he trapped your arms above your head and leaned his whole body against you. You couldn’t help the moan that escaped you at the feeling of him against you. Of course, he wouldn’t have forgotten your conversation and testing kisses from earlier. He pulled back panting slightly, breath fanning over your face,

“You looked so beautiful today, and then you made such amazing food that reminded me of the good things in my past. You are amazing and I feel incredibly lucky to have your mark on me.”

At his words, you couldn’t help but pull your arms from his grip and lift his shirt to kiss along his tattoo.

“You’re the one who looked distractingly good today and I’m the lucky one Buck. I don’t deserve you and your heart,” he growled at your words, not liking how self-deprecating you sounded. He lifted you easily and threw you on the bed, deciding that he would spend all night showing you exactly how much you deserve each other.

Tagged users: @calwitch @writerwrites

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