#but this is amazing work and seeing the earlier stuff really helps gain an understanding of how we got the final product
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SO MANY TFONE STORYBOARD OMG
#transformers one#tf one#transformers#oh I love these I love these so much#I have thoughts on what's better in the original vs new ideas (for example I think that The Fall is peak and I wouldn't change a thing#especially as it relates to the parallels but I prefer Megatron making his speech to everyone present on the scene vs later#with just the decepticons. more than JUST the high guard followed him)#but this is amazing work and seeing the earlier stuff really helps gain an understanding of how we got the final product#(for example seeing that the axe cutting off the fusion cannon was always going to happen but at one point Megs was gonna use Sentinel's#weapon and at one point the main 4 were going to have always been friends oooaaaggghhh)#I also love that initially Megs literally told OP to kill him. like...it's always so funny/tragic to me when he does that.#zhi kang
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Return the AC up because there's so many visitors and tour groups they're paying a lot of money and they're going in right now it's about 68 and we can hold it there it's not hard and we have equipment stand on standby and he says you want to have equipment that you can put in the room and exhaust out the window on standby so we're getting that it's computer stuff and we might put it in there anyways because it's always a pain in the ass and will secure it I understand this and they want to be in on it but we have to do that now we understand it's the clones and we're going to put a better surveillance in and I understand what you're doing and I haven't seen that thing and I'm still right there but really we have to go look
Bja I saw it on camera it does have your name and I saw hers too and it has her name and I seen his and I did not see the Queens but she's got one now
Well we saw it in there one day didn't know what it was thought it was Dave's and we ignored it cuz he had passed now I see his name and where amazed and hers and they're the same size and it's got different names on it and different things and different reasons and the metal and the shape of it are different than days which is actually in the same room I don't know what to tell you it's a shocker I will try and have it removed but he's helping
Trump
Let me interpret that I'm a scumbag it says I don't take anything but I'll probably try and take that cuz boy is that in the front nobody will believe it that I would take it because it's part of the empire or something but really that's what he's probably going to try and do and bja will try and do that but who the hell knows why they screw up everything and there's a whole bunch of things that are hanging over me if the associated things with me which they don't because of you guys so you don't know what you're doing and I know that you have to test it a little I guess I should have gotten it out earlier
Zues Hera
What kind of peons all that stuff sounds really heavy and it is we have no evidence at all no proof in no ties and the max hardly have anything they have to gain control over everybody and force it was just seemingly a waste of time and he says it is that's not how it works if it did everybody would just sit around trying to win and that's what happened but that's a methodology I was using
Mac
You're interested in this and we do hear what you're saying we have to be on it and we have to exercise it and we're doing with the small money and it's working and we need to do it with tons of money and we need to get going on it there's a lot of code that is involved and we have to learn it and know it and be ready it's time for us to do the job
Olympus congratulations on your neighborhood but we know what it's for and it is for saving the day she wrote it like this one battle and that kind of is what it is and we have a parallel of course
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182 Centimeters | Tall!F!Reader x Surprise
A great boon has been bestowed upon Aoi Todo. First, he got to meet Takada in person. Second, he gained a brother. Third, he was able to fight a special grade all in one month.
Is there anything else that could make this trip perfect?
Todo didn't think so until he lays eyes on you, standing in the middle of the hallway with luggage tucked under one arm and the other holding onto a rolling suitcase. He remembers now about Mai mentioning a late edition transfer student who was going to be joining in the school games a little late. He only wishes Mai had warned him about the other thing about you. The fact that you are an amazon in the flesh.
"She has to be 187," Todo thinks upon first seeing you and sizing you up from a respectable distance. "No, she's definitely closer to 185. Definitely, 185," he corrects as he tries to measure you by judging how far your head was away from the top door frame. When he glances down at your feet, he realizes his stupid mistake and smacks himself on the forehead. "I'm such an idiot. I forgot about her shoes." Taking your soles into account, he finally narrows down your height range. You have to be 182cm. An even 6 feet. That makes you taller than even Takada!
Todo's eyes widen upon the realization.
You had half his attraction factor right there; and with his help in training, you would definitely have the second half. He knows plenty of exercises that would make your ass look great and have the rest of your body strong enough to toss any curse. You guys could make training into dates, and dates would lead to the two of you making kissy faces. Aoi can already picture it. Naturally, you'd be admiring him, shirtless and glistening with sweat, unable to take your eyes off him. Then, you'd grow embarrassed when he would call you out on it and try to look away like you were never staring in the first place. Luckily for you, he wouldn't mind if you wanted to look at his chiseled chest a little while longer. Or better yet, touch it.
Todo isn't sure what he's done to deserve such luck. Perhaps the world is rewarding him for finally breaking his record of 1000 sit-ups in an hour or maybe it's the limited-edition lucky Takada-chan charm that arrived in a mail a week earlier working its magic?
Either way, this might be the best year of his life, Todo decides.
That is until he hears a familiar voice.
"Hey there! How are you doing?" Yuuji asks loudly as he walks up to your person. Todo should've known. Of course, his brother would sense best girl material walking into the building.
"My name is Yuuji. What's yours?"
"I'm (Name). I'm a new student here. I'm a little lost actually. Could you help me out?"
Even your voice sounds so cute! You were so perfect.
That means Yuuji had no chance with the way he was doing things now. Despite Todo wanting you for himself, he could never leave his brother to make such an embarrassment of himself. If the two of them are to battle for your love, it has to be a fair battle.
"Yeah, the dorms are thi—" Yuuji yelps as he's suddenly tugged away from you and dragged around the nearest corner, leaving you in a confused state where you stood.
"What’s the big idea?" Yuuji asks, breaking free from the grasp that held him.
"I'm trying to save you, brother! What do you think you're doing walking up to a woman like that so casually?" Todo asks.
It takes Yuuji a few seconds to realize that Todo meant you were the woman that couldn't be so casually spoken to since he's fairly sure you're a first-year like him. "I'm pretty sure she's the same age as us, dude."
This is worse than he thought. He's definitely going to have to give Yuuji the rundown on how to properly ask a girl out. "That doesn't matter. She's still a lady that requires finesse if you're going to try to ask her out," Todo says.
Sadly, they are too busy in their discussion to notice you getting impatient for Yuuji to return or to notice another one of your classmates passing them and heading in your direction. You are just thankful to finally have someone help walk you to your dorm and not ditch you instead.
For the rest of the day, Yuuji is stuck with Todo lecturing in his ear. The first time being at the baseball game against the Kyoto school.
"First, you need to set the mood. And by mood, I mean you need to get her attention on you. Do something to impress her without her knowing you're trying to impress her," Todo instructs as you round home base on long legs, which Todo claims is made for a goddess. You were able to get a score for the team thanks to Fushiguro's sacrifice bunt, and the two of you take a seat in the dugout.
"Shouldn't you be helping your team?" Yuuji asks Todo after seeing him compliment your score. Todo sighs. Obviously, Yuuji needs more lessons.
Eventually, Yuuji steps up to the plate for his turn. Naturally, he hits a home run. As he rounds home, he sees you applauding loudly. Your eyes perfectly on him. It definitely feels good to have a cute girl's attention, and Yuuji realizes that he did really want to ask you out. He wonders if Todo thinks that's a good way to set the mood.
The next time Todo decides to instruct Yuuji is after they all take their showers and decide to rest up before dinner. "Next, you need to leave a letter under her door. Something to pique her interest and make her want to meet up with you."
Luckily, Yuuji has seen this before in anime. "Right, right. I heard of that actually." He easily drafted a letter and slid it under your dorm door. It sounds like you're talking to someone else on the other side so Yuuji hopes you'll see it in time so the two of you can meet up in fifteen minutes.
"Finally, make sure the place you meet up is scenic," Todo says, nodding his head and closing his eyes to repeat the steps in his head as he follows his brother to the school's courtyard. Impress? Check. Letter? Check. Scenic meet-up place? Check.
It isn't until he feels Yuuji's hand on his shoulder and a quick thanks that Todo realizes his mistake. Yuuji rushes away from him to the other side of the courtyard where you're waiting with the letter in hand.
"My name is Yuuji. I don't know if you remember me from class."
"Oh, yes, I know! You hit that homerun. It was really great."
Todo stands in shock.
...He was so busy trying to teach that he actually forgot to pursue you first!
"Really? Thanks! I was just trying to make sure I actually hit it. I wasn't expecting it to go so far." Yuuji laughed. "So, (Name), I was wondering if you wanna go out together?"
Todo could cry. Actually, he already feels the tears coming down his face, but his brother could at least be happy. And if his brother is happy, that's all he needed!
"I'm sorry," you say sweetly. "I only showed up because I didn't want to stand you up, but the truth is I already like someone, and I wouldn't feel comfortable going out with someone when I have a crush on another person."
Todo's ears ring with your words. You already like someone!
"Oh, well, that's too bad, I guess. Thanks for telling me," Yuuji says with a disappointed yet understanding smile while Todo finds the opportunity to scoot in the middle of your conversation.
"Excuse me but your crush wouldn't happen to be on me by any chance?" he asks, hopeful.
You force a smile onto your face and tilt your head. "Sorry...Have we met?" you ask, nervously.
Todo gasps as he feels his world crashing down. Your date. Your marriage. Your kids. All gone, and it’s all black in his memory after that. The next thing he can recall is sitting in the eating area with Itadori. He remembers this heartache once before. "It's just like with Takada-chan..." he mumbles heartbrokenly.
"I told you already. We never went to the same middle school, and you never confessed to Takada," Yuuji grumbles, but Todo knows that Yuuji is only trying to make him feel better. He is so lucky to have such a good brother.
"Who...Who do you think it is anyway?"
Yuuji pauses.
He actually wonders that as well.
Then, they hear your voice ringing through the dining hall. Immediately, both sets of eyes are on you.
"Fushiguro-kun, I wanted to thank you for helping me get settled into the academy. My mom gave me a buy one, get one free for a sushi place for when I made some friends, so...I was wondering if you wanted to be my plus one?"
Then, Yuuji finally gets it. He had been ignoring the small conversations happening around him the entire time thanks to Todo's interruptions.
The Hall.
"Excuse me. I'm looking for the dorms. Gojo-sensei was supposed to show me, but he got sidetracked so I've been sort of left on my own."
"Of course, he did. Geeze, that guy." Megumi sighs. "You can follow me. I'll show you where some empty rooms near the other girls are."
"Thank you so much! I'm (Name) by the way."
"Fushiguro," he states plainly and simply as you struggle behind him with your luggage. "Is that stuff heavy? Want me to help you carry it?"
”Yes. My arms got numb while I was waiting. Thank you so much!”
The Game.
"Out!" Gojo says. Fushiguro rounds first base to head back to the dugout, but you at least made it home to score. You head to the dugout as well.
"That's too bad, Fushiguro. You'll get it next time," you say, sitting next to him.
"As long as Kugisaki made it to second and you made it home then it's fine. I'm not really too hyped up on winning anyway."
”Oh. I was really looking forward to seeing you get one.”
”Too bad. Guess you’ll have to wait,” and by “wait” Megumi had meant probably not ever but you laughed anyway even though you had got what he meant.
”I don’t mind waiting.”
The Dorms.
"Kugisaki-san said you could summon different shikigami animals."
"That's true."
"Would you mind showing me sometime? I love animals."
"What is your favorite?"
"I really like rabbits. Are you able to summon those?"
"Not at the moment, but I’ll show you when I learn it. How do you feel about dogs instead?"
”That cute dog was yours? That’s amazing.”
And now.
"Yeah, sure. I wasn't really in the mood for anything at school anyway," Fushiguro agrees, and your face lights up with a glow that could rival sunshine. Yuuji thinks if he squints he can see the anime hearts starting to dance over your head but Fushiguro didn't seem to mind.
Itadori could almost laugh. That's a new record in anyone ever befriending Fushiguro. The two of you must have hit it off really well. Yuuji smiles. In that case, he couldn't be upset. That must mean fate has something in store for you guys, and he didn't want to get in the way. "I guess girls really do like that cool, quiet type."
Meanwhile, Todo is crying in defeat. How could a woman like you like Fushiguro?
"He's so boring though..."
#yuji itadori x reader#aoi todo x reader#megumi fushiguro x reader#jujutsu kaisen x reader#jjk x y/n#megumi x reader
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Clandestine: Chapter Three
The first mission doesn’t exactly go as planned. Also, Logan has a thing for glasses, apparently.
@lumosinlove Thank you for letting me run away with your characters! <3
Again, @donttouchmycarrots is my hero and the best proofreader ever! This fic wouldn’t be what it is without her.
Clandestine Masterlist
.
The bank was quiet, save for the soft murmurings of tellers and customers. Sunlight filtered through the windows of the storefront, light and hazy. The office plant by the front door was growing way too big for its pot. There were a few people waiting in line, absently scrolling through their phones. Others were sitting in the waiting area, mindlessly taking in their surroundings. It was calm, peaceful.
Or it was, until a redhead came sprinting out of the men’s restroom, screaming “Fire!” at the top of his lungs.
The bank then descended into madness.
A man watched from the driver’s seat of his car as people frantically streamed out of the building and onto the sidewalk. He sighed, taking a second to rest his forehead against the steering wheel. “Damnit, O’Hara. This wasn’t part of the plan.”
29 Hours Earlier
“Good morning, cubs!”
“Fuck you, Black.” Logan muttered into his cup of coffee. “It’s too early to be that excited.”
Leo smiled a little and set a paper bag on the table. Logan stared at it. Where had it come from? He hadn’t seen Leo carrying it into the briefing room, but it was too big to stuff into his pockets. He didn’t have a bag or anything – the only thing he was carrying with him was a notebook and a pen. How did he manage to smuggle it in?
Logan was so confused, and it was still too early.
“I brought muffins.” Leo explained, opening the bag and handing one to Finn. “They’re cinnamon swirl.”
“Nut, did you make these?” Finn asked, removing the wrapper and taking a big bite. Leo shrugged.
“I like to cook.”
Black looked up at him in awe. “These are amazing.” He cradled the muffin in his hand like it was something precious.
“I can give you the recipe, if you want.”
Logan grabbed a muffin, looking up quickly at Remus’ snort. “He can’t cook.”
“Neither can you.” Sirius shot back, a little more hostile than his usual teasing manner. Logan glanced back and forth between the pair, tearing off a piece of muffin and popping it into his mouth. Fuck, that was good.
His partners had clearly picked up on the tension, too, but neither of them brought it up. Leo twirled his pen around in his hand, eyes moving from the pair to Finn. He smiled as the redhead enthusiastically grabbed another muffin. Logan snapped his gaze back to Sirius. “Can we get started, please?” He asked pointedly. “If you make me get up this early, we’d better be doing something productive.”
Finn laughed at him, nose scrunching. “Are you always this grumpy in the morning?”
Green eyes rimmed with dark, dark lashes glared back at him. Logan didn’t say a word but took a long sip of coffee instead, refusing to break eye contact. Finn let himself stare a little longer than he probably should have. He wasn’t lying when he told Logan he was a sucker for green eyes.
Sirius finally broke the tension-filled staring competition between himself and Loops and looked down at his files. Remus started the projector without a word, only speaking up when he was ready to begin his presentation. “We’re starting you three off with the easiest flash drives to retrieve – the two in the banks.”
He moved to a picture of the layout of one of the banks, pointing at a small room tucked away in a corner of the building. “So the safe is back here in this room. You can’t get back there without permission or an escort, which makes it a little trickier. The security system is also very high-grade, so I don’t think trying to break in after hours is our best bet here. There’s too many little things we might miss.
“The plan is to go undercover. Leo and Finn, you’ll be infiltrating this bank. Logan, you’ll be lookout. Leo, you’re going to pretend to be a safe specialist. Tell them the make and model of the safe Riddle uses is faulty and the company sent you to see if this one needs to be replaced. I don’t really care what you say, just make it believable.”
“What kind of safe is it?” Leo asked.
Sirius looked down at his notes. “It’s a… Tigerking Digital Security safe. Does that mean anything to you?”
Leo grinned. “Makes my job a hell of a lot easier. They’ve got a weak spot.”
“What am I doing during all of this?” Finn asked through a mouthful of muffin, crumbs stuck to his mouth. He swiped at them with his tongue before speaking again, “Distraction?”
“Yeah. It’ll have to be big – big enough to get Leo alone with that safe. How long do you think it’ll take to crack, Knut?”
He shrugged. “Ten minutes, tops. It’s got this small hole at the back where bolts are fed through. I can get a stiff wire through that hole and hit the reset button. Then I can reset the code of the safe and open it without leaving a trace.”
Finn smiled, mischief in his eyes. “I think I can manage a ten-minute distraction.”
That… that didn’t sound good.
Finn took one look at Logan’s fearful face and laughed. “Relax, it’s nothing too dramatic. I’ll probably just ask for whoever takes Leo back to look at the safe and then throw a fit when they say he’s not available. And then I’ll drag out our conversation to give our dear Nut enough time. Simple.”
“That… actually works.”
Finn scoffed, giving Remus a look. “Why do you sound so surprised?”
“Because you’re Finn O’Hara.”
Finn thought about it for a second, then shrugged. “That’s fair.”
“Nut, when you open the safe you need to replace the real flash drive with this decoy.” Sirius said, holding up a blue flash drive. “This op might take weeks or months – if Riddle comes to check on this drive, he needs to see one instead of an empty safe. Now, if he actually checks the information on the flash drives… well, we’re screwed. Hopefully it won’t come to that. He doesn’t usually check the flash drives unless absolutely necessary – it’s too much of a hassle.”
“And I’ll loop the security camera footage when you get there, so there won’t be any evidence of you tampering with the safe.” Remus said. “Get in, get out. Not too hard, right? And we’ll both be with you every step of the way. You’ll have microphones and earpieces so that we can all communicate.”
Finn couldn’t tell if the bouncing of Leo’s leg was his normal restlessness or nerves. His face was a mask of calm that revealed nothing. For someone who didn’t have any previous experience in espionage or conning people, he sure was good at hiding how he was feeling.
Finn handed him another muffin anyways.
The dimpled smile he got in return was nothing but genuine.
***
Remus sat down on his couch with his dinner, sighing to himself as he stretched out his back. It had been a long day, but he finally felt ready for tomorrow. Their plan was solid, the cubs were as ready as they were ever going to be, he had his video loop for the security camera in the safe room, the rest of his tech had been checked over and deemed ready to go. There wasn’t much else he could do besides get a good night’s sleep if he could.
That would be easier said than done, though.
Sirius chose that moment to throw open the door and close it loudly behind him. Remus glared at him. “Is that really necessary?” He asked, but didn’t add anything else on as Sirius slammed down a stack of hand-written pages onto Remus’ coffee table.
“You want me to open up? Fine. There’s all you need to know about me.”
Remus looked down at the pages and instantly felt guilty. How long had he been working on this? “You didn’t have to-”
“You said you couldn’t trust me.” Sirius interrupted coolly. “I can’t get my brother to safety if you guys don’t trust me.”
It appeared that his brother was his sole motivation. For all of this. Remus could understand that. He’d stop at nothing if the safety of his own brother was put into question.
“Yeah, but you didn’t have to do this.” Remus looked up at him, at the stiff set to his shoulders, the detached look in his eyes. He went too far the last time they’d talked about this, hadn’t he? “Look, we got along for over a week when you first got here. I think we can do that again, right?”
At Sirius’ skeptical face, he sighed. “This is on me just as much as you. I… I don’t trust easily.” He had to laugh at that massive understatement. “Perks of being a spy. But I feel like we can manage learning to trust each other the old-fashioned way.”
Sirius raised an eyebrow. “And what’s that?”
“Getting totally, outrageously drunk and sharing all our secrets.”
Sirius’ straight face only lasted for about a second before he busted out laughing. “You go from wanting my entire life story to wanting to get drunk together?”
“It’s a failproof way to gain someone’s trust.” Remus said solemnly, cracking a smile when Sirius laughed again, incredulous. “But not tonight. We’ve got a big day tomorrow.”
“This Friday, then?”
He couldn’t help but notice the hopeful look on Sirius’ face. Had he ever done this with someone before? Did he have any friends besides his brother previously? He put up this excitable, outgoing façade, but Remus honestly had no idea what lay underneath. He nodded decisively. “This Friday.”
Sirius hesitated, then spoke again. “Do you think they’re ready?”
“I think so. And we’ll be there if something goes wrong.” Remus met his eyes, trying to instill confidence into the ex-Snake. “No matter what happens, we’re going to do our best to get your brother out safely.”
“And what if that’s not enough?” Sirius asked, eyes haunted.
That was exactly why Remus hadn’t made any strict promises. There was no way to guarantee that they would get Regulus back. If Remus was in Sirius’ shoes, if this this was Jules instead of Regulus, what would Remus most want to hear?
“We’re going to do everything we can, I promise.” He said, soft but firm. “I know that’s not enough, but it’s the best we can do as of right now.”
Sirius stared back, then nodded. “Thank you.” He looked down at Remus’ food. “What’s for dinner? I’m starving.”
Remus laughed, shoving him away. “Get your own, you leech. This is mine.”
“Leech?” Sirius demanded, dramatizing his offence. “I can’t believe you called me a leech. You were the one who offered to house me, after all.”
That was true. Even if he hated to admit it, Remus was lonely. He lived in this apartment all by himself, worked mostly on his own, and his family lived miles and miles away. And being a spy didn’t exactly make it easy to find friends. He was distrusting and cautious by nature, especially after... well. After he left fieldwork and transitioned to a desk job.
He didn’t know why he’d offered to let Sirius stay, honestly. He just got this gut feeling that it was the right thing to do.
And Remus Lupin always trusted his gut.
“Worst decision I’ve ever made.” He quipped, laughing as Sirius threw a pillow at him. Sirius was a horrible roommate. He left dishes in the sink, beard trimmings on the bathroom counter, and his shoes haphazardly strewn about the living room.
But he always had hot water on the stovetop in the mornings when Remus woke up, always let him pick what they watched on tv at nights, and always replaced anything he had used up without being asked. And, if Remus was being completely honest with himself, soft gray eyes paired with an even softer smile weren’t exactly a terrible thing to wake up to.
So far, this whole roommate business wasn’t too bad.
***
Logan hated nothing more than being lookout.
He watched on as Finn and Leo geared up, testing their mics and earpieces and making adjustments accordingly. He was supposed to be watching the entrance to make sure no Snakes entered the building. They were doing the first bank heist while Logan was stuck here, in the car parked on the street, where he couldn’t see what was going on or if his partners were in trouble.
Their first mission, and he was stuck outside.
Ugh.
“You ready for this?” Finn asked Leo as he discreetly tucked a wire under his collar and out of sight. Leo had his eyes trained on the building across from them, wrapped in his coat and a thick scarf, fingers drumming out a staccato beat on his thigh. He didn’t seem to have heard Finn.
“Nut?”
Leo swiveled his head to look back at them. “Hmm?”
“You ok?” Logan asked, watching the blond’s face for signs of nervousness or stress. But his gaze was steady, determined. For someone on their first mission, he was remarkably calm. Either that or a much better actor than Logan had given him credit for. But then his expression flickered and a shadow of doubt crept in.
“I’m fine.” He said, and Logan couldn’t tell if he was trying to convince them or himself. He reached out and gave the blond’s shoulder a squeeze, letting his hand linger before trailing it down his arm and pulling away.
“You’re fine.” Logan reassured with a smile and watched the resolve build back up in Leo’s eyes, causing the knot in Logan’s chest to ease up a little.
That was better.
Finn looked at him for a second, then took his glasses off. “Here, put these on. I feel like your cover story requires glasses.” He gently eased them onto the other boy’s face. Leo blinked rapidly, then squinted and widened his eyes to adjust to the lenses.
“Jesus, what prescription is this?”
“It’s not that bad.” Finn said, ruffling Leo’s hair in retaliation. He took a step back to see the finished product and whistled lowly. “Damn, maybe we should take those off again. We’re supposed to be unmemorable when we’re undercover. No one will be able to take their eyes off you with those on.”
Logan had to agree there. Soft blue eyes blinked back at them from behind tortoiseshell frames, looking larger than they normally did. Leo buried his nose in his scarf in an attempt to hide the blush caused by Finn’s flirtatious words.
The sight did strange things to Logan’s stomach.
Remus’ voice reached them through their com link, startling all three of them. “You guys ready to go?”
Leo took a deep, steadying breath. “Let’s do this.” He looked back at Logan, eyes fierce – a stark contrast to the soft look of only a few seconds ago. Logan sucked in a breath of his own. This kid sure was something.
“See you in a bit.”
“See you in a bit.” Logan echoed, grabbing the car keys out of his pocket and letting his lips twitch up into a smile at Finn’s cheery salute. He leaned against the car door and watched the pair make their way around the corner and towards the bank without glancing back.
He got back into the car and moved it around the same corner before putting it in park. His eyes shifted between the street in front of him and his rearview mirror, a book in his lap to keep from raising suspicions, and settled in to worry and wait.
***
Leo shoved his hands in his pockets to keep from fidgeting and made his way to the front desk. Ignoring his pounding heart as best he could, he locked eyes with the teller and smiled. “Hi there. Is your manager here?” He asked, dragging his accent out slow and sweet like molasses. “I’ve got a few questions about your safes.”
She smiled back. “Sure thing. I’ll go grab him.” Leo thanked her as she left, looking around while he waited and trying his hardest not to squint too much in Finn’s glasses.
“Nut, between the accent and the glasses - plus your looks in general - I think that girl is half in love with you already.” Sirius’ voice teased, causing Leo to flinch slightly. He needed to get used to hearing the voices of people he couldn’t see during these missions.
“She is not.” He muttered back as he pretended to rub his nose, covering his mouth as he spoke so that no one else could see it. His hand absentmindedly played with the old, frayed bracelet on his wrist.
“You can do better, Nut.” Logan chimed in, voice a little gruff.
“How do you know?” Sirius asked. “You can’t even see her.”
“I’m using my imagination.”
Sirius barked out a laugh while Remus just sighed and requested that they all stay focused. Leo glanced around at the lobby again. Finn was standing in line behind him, looking at something on his phone. He forced himself not to look at his partner too long and kept scanning the rest of the lobby. It seemed to be a pretty quiet day - there weren’t too many people inside. A few people were seated in the waiting area and some were waiting in line behind Finn. Leo saw the teller and a short, balding man who must have been the bank manager making their way back towards him.
Leo stuck his hand out when they reached him, which the manager shook with a fake smile on his face.
“Hi, how are you doing?” Leo asked, withdrawing his hand. “I’m Fred Decker with Tigerking Digital Security. I have on record that you’re currently using one of our safes, is that correct?”
“Fred?” Sirius’ voice asked incredulously. “Of all the aliases you could use, you choose Fred? Nut, you should be ashamed of yourself.”
Remus hissed at him to shut up. Leo ignored it.
“Yes, that’s right.” The manager said, a bit stiff. “What’s this about?”
“There’s a recall on a few of our safes. I was wondering if I could take a look at yours and see if it needs to be replaced. Free of charge, of course. This is an error on our part, and we want to do all we can to fix it.”
The manager hesitated, then nodded. “This way.”
Leo followed the man through a set of doors into a hallway, spotting Finn out of the corner of his eye as he approached the front desk and sent Leo a quick wink. That, more than anything, calmed Leo’s nerves. If Finn was acting like this was just run-of-the-mill and not a big deal, then they must’ve been doing something right. The door closed behind Leo, blocking his vision of the lobby. He took a fortifying breath and followed the manager into the safe room, secluded from the rest of the bank.
“Here we are,” The manager said, then pointed to a safe wedged into the corner of the room. “And there’s your safe.”
“The camera in the safe room is already on a loop, Leo. You’re all set.” Remus’ voice said, steady and calm. Leo looked the safe over, stalling as he waited for Finn’s distraction.
“Fuck,” he heard through his earpiece. “Leo, you’re going to have to hang in there for a few more seconds. The planned distraction didn’t work.”
Leo swallowed, looking back up at the manager. “So there’s these holes in the back, see?” He said, figuring a sure-fire way for him to stall was to talk about the safe. He could keep up a conversation like this for hours. “They’re used to bolt the safes into the wall. A few of our older models have larger holes.”
He grabbed the stiff coil of wire out of his pocket. “Some thieves have learned that you can get to the reset button in these older models if you use a tough wire like this and insert it through one of the holes. Basically all I want to do today is see if a thief could potentially do that with this safe. Is that all right with you?”
“Yes, of course! If there’s a problem, our client would want that fixed immediately.”
“I’m sure they would.” Leo said absentmindedly as he started fiddling with the wire for as long as he possibly could. He straightened it out from it’s coil, looked down it’s length, and then pretended to straighten some kinks out.
Don’t panic don’t panic don’t panic-
Remus’ voice was a little more tense now. “Finn, where’s that distraction?”
Finn, who was in the men’s bathroom grabbing handful after handful of paper towels and shoving them into a trash can, grumbled, “I’m working on it, ok? Sirius was right - that teller definitely has a type, and it sure as hell isn’t me. I had to improvise.”
“What does that mean?” Logan asked warily. Finn could practically see him gripping the steering wheel in a white-knuckled grip as he forced himself to stay put. “What are you doing?”
Finn grabbed the bottle of hand sanitizer on the bathroom sink and took the top off, dumping the contents into the trash can as well. He grabbed the lighter in his pocket (he liked to be prepared, thank you very much) and produced a small flame.
“Something stupid.”
He lowered the lighter to the trashcan and prepared to run.
Leo could hear the shouting from Finn’s distraction all the way back in the safe room. He looked up at the manager, pretending to be confused. “What’s going on?”
“I’m not sure.” The manager frowned, shifting from foot to foot nervously as he looked towards the commotion. “I’m going to check it out. I’ll be right back, ok?”
Leo waved him off with a reassuring smile. “I’ll be right here.” He messed around with the safe until the door closed, then hissed, “Finn, what the hell is going on out there?” He moved Finn’s glasses to perch on top of his head and shoved the wire through one hole in the back of the safe. He grabbed his flashlight to look through the hole on the other side, searching for a small red button.
“I might’ve started a fire in the men’s restroom.”
“You what?” Leo demanded, finally finding the reset button and moving the wire steadily closer to it. “You do realize that does the exact opposite of give me more time, right?” Sure enough, the fire alarm sounded, loud and clear.
“Fuck me.” Leo muttered as he jabbed the reset button with the wire. Someone - Leo thought it might be Finn, but he wasn’t sure - muttered something too soft and muffled to be picked up by their mic. Leo didn’t have the time to question it. The safe door opened with a soft click. He quickly switched the flash drive with the replica and closed the door again. The wire got recoiled and shoved back into his pocket, Finn’s glasses returned to resting on his nose. He climbed to his feet and made his way towards the lobby at a quick pace. “I’ve got it.”
“Nice work, Nut.” He heard Logan say, and couldn’t repress the jittery feeling he always got after a successful job. He exited the bank, looking around for the manager. He seemed busy as he talked to his employees in an attempt to get the situation under control. He caught Leo’s eyes and stepped towards him. “Mr. Decker! I was looking for you.”
Leo only just remembered to over-exaggerate his accent. “I heard the alarm and high-tailed it out here. Was it a prank?”
“No,” He said after a beat of hesitation, “Someone actually started a fire in the men’s bathroom. The fire department is on its way. Hopefully it won’t take too long and you can get back to looking at that safe.”
“No need, I already finished. The holes were too small for the wire, so y’all should be fine. Anything thinner than the wire I used will be too flimsy to press that reset button.” Leo glanced down at his watch. “I do have six more banks to visit today, though, so I’m afraid this is where I leave you. Thank you for being so cooperative.” He held out his hand for the manager to shake again and gave one last smile before walking back down the street towards their designated rendezvous, trying to look casual and not like he was running away from the scene of a theft.
Sure enough, a non-descript gray car was waiting for him, right where it was supposed to be. Without a word, he climbed into the back and sprawled across all three seats, throwing an arm over his eyes as Logan put the car into drive.
The three of them were silent for a few seconds before Leo cracked a smile and laughed. “The one thing – the one thing that could get me kicked out of that safe room too fast, and that’s what you decided would make a perfect distraction?”
Finn looked back at the back seat with a grin, which softened when he laid eyes on the blond. His hair shone in the late-morning sunlight, highlighting a streak of gray at his temple. Those long legs of his took up most of the back row, and even then he still had to bend his knees to fit all the way. His eyes were blocked by his arm, but Finn could’ve seen those dimples via satellite image from space.
“Hey, cut me some slack. I was making it up as I went.” This sent Leo into another fit of laughter, causing Finn’s smile to broaden.
“Besides,” Logan added, “You’re quick with your hands. You didn’t need all ten minutes, you barely needed three.”
Leo shrugged, which looked really strange in his current position on his back. “Got lucky. Found that reset button faster than I usually do.” He adjusted Finn’s glasses, which were still resting on his nose. “Maybe I need glasses, too.”
“Shut up. Those glasses are a statement piece, thank you very much.”
Logan snorted, watching Leo’s hand reach over the center console to return the glasses to their rightful owner. “Maybe that’s why you’re a terrible marksman, O’Hara. When’s the last time you got that prescription checked?”
Finn gasped in offense. Logan glanced over briefly and noticed the tips of his ears getting red. Cute.
“How dare you! I am not a terrible marksman!”
“That’s not what your file says.”
“What?”
“The evidence doesn’t lie.” Logan said, struggling to bite back his grin. Finn was just so fun to tease.
“Screw debriefing. When we get back to the office, we’re going to the shooting range.” Finn crossed his arms over his chest sulkily. “Terrible marksman. How dare they. Nutter Butter, back me up here.”
Leo blinked at the new nickname, but he couldn’t say he minded it too much. Especially when Finn said it like that, with such unfiltered affection. He watched the redhead turn around in his seat to look at him with big Bambi eyes, only then remembering that he was looking for an answer from Leo.
He put on a show of thinking about it, then shrugged. “I dunno, Finn. The evidence doesn’t lie.”
“Et tu, Brute?” Finn whined. “Betrayed by both of my partners. Unbelievable.”
Leo wished there was another word for partner. Maybe he should refer to them as just coworkers now. The term partner was giving him ideas.
Ideas he couldn’t afford to be having for the first and quite possibly the biggest op of his life.
“Also, you’re one to talk!” Leo looked back up at Finn when he realized he was talking to him. “Have you ever shot a gun before, rookie?” He stopped suddenly, then grinned broadly. “Oh man, please tell me you’ve shot a gator when you were back in Louisiana. That’s so badass.”
Leo arched an eyebrow.
“Just because there’s horror stories about gators doesn’t mean they deserve to be shot.” Logan said, switching his turn signal on and waiting for the left turn light to change from red to green. “They’re a big part of the ecosystem.”
“And they kill people.”
“Oh come on, when’s the last time you heard of someone being killed by a gator?”
“Literally last week, down in Florida.”
“Well, that’s Florida. Crazy stuff like that happens in Florida all the time.”
“Did you hear about that guy from Florida who made a beer run while holding a gator?”
Logan chuckled, glancing over at his partner in disbelief. “What?”
“You heard me! Apparently he walked in, looked around and asked ‘Y’all ain’t out of beer, are you?’ But then the story gets weirder!”
Leo just sat in the backseat and laughed at Finn’s dramatic retelling of Florida news as building after building flashed by outside their windows, feeling lighter than air. His first mission was a success. He grabbed the small, innocuous flash drive out of his pocket, twirling it in his hand. One down, six more to go. If all missions were like this, taking down the Snakes wouldn’t be so bad.
He should’ve knocked on wood after having that thought.
#lumosinlove#sweater weather#coast to coast#coops#sirius black#remus lupin#o'knutzy#finn o'hara#logan tremblay#leo knut#clandestine
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Actually, Jamil is Snow White
Now that I have your attention with my batshit theory, let me explain it along with my other predictions for the future events of chapter 5 in a 2,500+ word mess of an essay.
The past chapters have all correlated to the plot of the original Disney movie in some way. So how does chapter 5 correlate with Snow White? For the movie's story, it starts with Snow White living with her stepmother, who is vain, self-centered, and afraid that one day Snow White will surpass her beauty. The Queen makes efforts to suppress Snow White's beauty by making her a scullery maid, but Snow White does eventually surpass her. This causes the Queen to order her Huntsman to kill Snow White, but the Huntsman can't bring himself to do it and he presents the queen with a decoy heart instead.
What's interesting about TWST is that Neige has already surpassed Vil at the very beginning. Furthermore, rather than focus solely on his own beauty and beat down potential rivals, Vil attempts to nurture the beauty of the rest of his dorm and the VDC team. So how in the world do we correlate the events of the chapter to the original movie? Well, we know from previous chapters that the person twisted from a character might not be the one to actually take that character's role in the story. Though Farena exists, the one Leona tries to sabotage is Malleus. Though Rielle exists, the one Azul makes a special deal with is Yuu. Even though Neige has played a bigger part in the story so far compared to Farena and Rielle, he still might not actually be the Snow White of this story. So who are our possible candidates here?
As the person meant to rival Neige's cute appeal, Epel is the first one to pop into mind. Perhaps the NRC team's performance during the VDC goes well enough that Epel suddenly gets tons of popularity. The internet latches onto him, so much so that, at least temporarily, he ends up surpassing both Vil and Neige in Mira's beauty calculation. However, this wouldn't make sense. The Queen is supposed to hate and sabotage the Snow White, and Vil has no reason to do that to Epel after spending so much effort helping him with the express goal of having him beat out Neige. So who else?
While browsing Pixiv one night, I came across a funny comic (it was long ago enough that I don't remember how to find it again, unfortunately) where Azul actually did livestream Jamil's evil monologue in chapter 4. Rather than becoming a big scandal though, it actually becomes famous because of how good-looking Jamil is, so much so that Vil finds out about it because Jamil's name is the one Mira tells him when Vil does a beauty check. Vil proceeds to change his plans for the VDC by dumping Epel and choosing Jamil as the sole main vocal so that Jamil is his "poison apple" against Neige instead.
With the recent update, Vil's plan for the VDC is officially finalized, so that comic is firmly in AU territory. However, what if something similar happens? The NRC team's performance goes amazing. However, it is not Vil or Epel that gain attention, but Jamil, the 3rd main vocalist. Against Vil and everyone else's expectations and plans, the internet goes wild over this mysterious pretty boy, boosting Jamil into the position of most beautiful. Even Neige had to spend some amount of time getting gigs and whatever to attain his fame, but Jamil has done basically nothing outside the VDC and now he's suddenly the best... How would Vil feel about that?
With the whole trend of the previous overblot causing the next, this theory of Jamil = Snow White makes sense. Though they could always make it so it's Neige and Epel doing the stuff and then at the end Jamil delivers a speech or something that gives the final push to overblot, it would be a lot more interesting (and funny) for Jamil to be thrust into the spotlight earlier on and be a main reason for Vil's overblot.
However, all of this assumes that the beginning of Snow White correlates with the beginning of chapter 5. Let's consider that the beginning of chapter 5 actually correlates with the situation later in the movie when the Queen is plotting to get Snow White with the poison apple. In this situation, Neige would actually be the Snow White of the story. However, unless we pull some funky timeline stuff, the theory I've seen of Rook betraying Vil wouldn't happen then, since we're already past that point in the movie. So what is next? In the movie, Snow White bites the apple and falls asleep. The dwarfs return to their cottage and chase the Queen, who eventually falls to her death when a lightning bolt destroys the precipice she's cornered on. (Fun fact from Wikipedia, her scream while falling was reused for Sleeping Beauty when Maleficent gets stabbed by the Sword of Truth). Anyway, the dwarfs proceed to put Snow White in the glass coffin until a year later when the prince kisses her and takes her to his castle.
Welp, look here, we have the dwarves in TWST, so they could definitely fulfill the try to hurt Vil part here. But what would lead them to do that? Assuming that as RSA students they are heroic, they would hurt Vil if they felt that he had hurt Neige. Vil's plan for the VDC competition seems to just be performing like normal and hoping that their hard work and effort will shine through and win them the competition, so either something has to happen that causes a last-minute change to that plan or some sort of misunderstanding (Vil getting canceled) happens. How would a misunderstanding happen? It could originate from fans angry that Neige didn't win, but Vil has plenty of his own fans to counter that and make an even-sided battle. Some new falling out between Vil and Epel could occur, resulting in either Epel himself going and hurting Vil's reputation or someone else (the media or Neige) seeing Epel distraught and believing that Vil is abusing him in some way. If it's Neige that could be interesting since it'd kinda be a situation where Epel is Snow White and Neige is his Huntsman. Neige x Epel new otp??? haha anyway, there's also the possibility that the RSA students are not heroic, and the dwarves go and make rumors about Vil themselves as an underhanded strategy to give Neige the victory.
All this talk is making me forget about my boy Jamil though. How would he fit in here? Again, from the previous overblots, we know that Jamil will likely oppose Vil in some way. We have also established that this chapter 5's start = the Queen's poison apple plan's start, so Neige is the Snow White. The remaining roles for Jamil are the dwarves (unlikely since we have actual dwarves), the huntsman (unlikely since timeline and also Rook exists), and finally, the prince. Jamil x Neige new otp??? lmao anyway, What would this role mean for his involvement in the story? Well, the prince only shows up at the end to wake up Snow White, so that would make this a situation like I mentioned before with Jamil just showing up to do a speech or something that pushes Vil over the edge. Boring, what else could we do?
Well, what about the original fairy tale of Snow White? In there, the dwarves don't kill the Queen. Instead, she lives until the day of Snow White and the prince's wedding, where the prince makes her dance in red-hot slippers until she dies as punishment for trying to kill Snow White. Why would Jamil give enough of a shit about Neige to go against Vil like that though? Well, y'know what fuck it let's squeeze someone else into the role of Snow White. Kalim certainly has the hair color for it. Since Kalim is just one of the backup vocals and hasn't had much going on aside from his personal character development this chapter idk what Vil could possibly do to him. Perhaps something pertaining to his family's wealth and fame? Whatever it is, some sort of threat to Kalim would be enough motivation for Jamil to do something to Vil. Interaction between Kalim and Jamil would also serve to finish up whatever development is going on between them. Seriously bro I know Jamil was probably just stalking Kalim in that one episode to make sure he's safe but that scene is really haunting me WHAT DOES IT MEAN?
Whatever, let's keep this circus rolling with some Rook discussion! Again, we got the theory that Rook will betray Vil like the Huntsman betrayed the Queen. To discuss this idea, we gotta discuss Rook's motivations first. In episode 5-27, quoting from the translation on the wiki by Kanade Musings, Rook claims that "being a mere spectator to beautiful people and beautiful things provide [him] with such happiness" and he is "here to offer what help [he] can to help save beauty." However, he points out that "Vil does not need [Rook] to save him;" instead, what Rook wants "to protect is not Vil himself, but rather the 'beauty' he possesses." The chapter ends with Rook saying that the others would understand what he's saying if they encountered a "beauty that is blinding" and would "bring light to [their] lives."
So, with this information, would Rook betray Vil and why would he betray Vil? Well, there's the possibility that RSA's performance wows him and he switches to protecting Neige's beauty. However, this doesn't feel right to me. Neige is very famous. His first appearance was in a commercial that Cater got even when not specifically trying to find stuff on Neige. I would seriously doubt that Rook has not already done research into Neige and observed what beauty he has. If Rook doesn't already find Neige extraordinarily beautiful, I doubt that a single dance performance could transform his opinion of him. However, what if that was compounded by some loss of Vil's beauty? However, would Rook allow that to happen? He expressly said he wishes to protect Vil's beauty. If Vil lost beauty, would Rook really abandon him, or would he work to bring Vil back to his senses and restore his beauty?
Now, going back to the idea of Rook doing a betrayal, we already established way back at the beginning of this monstrosity (if you made it this far please take a hydration break or something alright? take care of yourself I love you) that Neige is not necessarily the Snow White of the story. So, we have the possibility of Rook turning against Vil on Epel's behalf, which... doesn't seem right. Idk it might be because I still just can't envision a scenario with Rook outright betraying Vil. Again, Rook has spent a bunch of time observing Epel and watching him grow. What could Epel possibly do that could mega boost his beauty in Rook's eyes? He's spent time observing Jamil too, though not as much as he observes some other people. Like, Rook is a hunter, extremely skilled at assessing targets and figuring out what makes them tick. For his opinion of someone to seriously change, it would require equally exceptional deception or change on the target's part. Seriously, why would he betray Vil?
Okay, how about we consider what exactly Rook finds beautiful. As we know from the auditions (ボーテ!100点!), Rook was able to find beauty in every person's performance, no matter how clumsy or unskilled they were. So, we get the sense that at the very least, Rook considers things beautiful that most people wouldn't consider beautiful. Then, what makes Vil beautiful to him? We know Vil is beautiful by normal person standards, but Rook doesn't go by normal person standards. Does Rook feel drawn to his determination? His power? Something we don't know about yet? I don't think we know for sure, so we don't know what it would take for Vil to lose beauty in Rook's eyes.
Well, there's a part of Rook that hasn't really come up in the main story yet: his fascination with the nonhuman students. This just brings up more questions. Since Vil is human... as far as we know... Rook's behavior towards him is motivated by something different than that which motivates his hunts, even if that something different is just a different way of being beautiful. ARGHH I DON'T KNOWWWWW we're going into his voice lines
Alright, ceremonial robes home tap 3 (from twstarchives): "There is beauty that some are just born with, but the beauty you work hard to achieve holds immeasurable power. Isn't that right?" Okay now we're getting somewhere, he appreciates hard work! Oh yeah didn't Vil say some stuff cause he felt defeated by Neige being better even though Vil put in all this hard work? The development of that sort of attitude would probably constitute a loss of beauty. Hard work would therefore also make someone beautiful in Rook's eyes.
So, who works hard? Yep, Jamil we're bringing you in again. Remember, a change is needed to drive the plot and prompt a change in Rook. Haven't we had a major change in Jamil's attitude already? Starting with having to funnel all his hard work into Kalim and keeping himself under Kalim, after chapter 4 Jamil is now channeling his work into himself and finally showing off his true talents. Given that Rook can't possibly stalk everyone in NRC in-depth, he likely doesn't have a complete idea of Jamil's capabilities especially given how Jamil was specifically trying to stay under the radar. This may give Jamil the possibility to surprise Rook with his full power, potentially shifting Rook's opinion enough to give him a significant appreciation of Jamil's beauty.
With all this information, I think I can try and build a rough simulation of events. So, the VDC teams do their performances and wow the crowd. In the meantime while the judges are deciding who wins, some shit goes down: Vil gets canceled or something, Jamil gains popularity, idk something with Neige & the dwarves. Vil's mental health takes a turn for the worst and he resorts to underhandedness. He enlists Rook for some plot against Jamil or Neige. However, Kalim gets caught in the crossfire. Inspired by Jamil's beauty and efforts to help Kalim, Rook ends up going against the plan and Vil. Vil overblots, blah blah backstory, then the judges release the results of the competition, and the winding down/aftermath/party time is the 2nd day of the festival whatever when the gang can go see all the other booths and stuff.
Even after all this I sincerely doubt my final prediction here will come to pass but y'know, all about the journey not the destination. Honestly, I thought of the title of this post when I was only partway through like "Haha isn't this theory about Jamil being Snow White so out there" but nope that's actually a foundation of my ideas now. What am I doing??? Anyway, hope you enjoyed reading this mess. Please feel free to message me or something if this rant gave you any ideas that you wanna share.
#twst analysis#twst#twisted wonderland#vil schoenheit#jamil viper#neige leblanche#rook hunt#epel felmier#twst theories
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angst 3 for winteriron pretty please
Hi Ava, thank you so much for sending this prompt in. Finally I finished it, after… 3 months. I also used it for the WinterIron Week (which I am so much behind for, it’s not even funny). I still have no clue if this really warrants as ‘angst’, cause it feels more dull to me than angsty, but oh well. It is what it is.
Now, the whole organizational stuff (aka the pain in my ass):
On Crossing Paths
Prompt is from this list: “You promised you’d stop drinking.” — “And you promised you wouldn’t hurt me!”
Day 3 of @winteriron-week: Angst & “But I did it”
And since this got way out of hand anyway, combined with:
Day 4 of @winteriron-week: Tony needs a hug (Bucky too) & Forgiveness
(Nvm, I wrote something for day 4 anyway)
M, 5.2k, Alcoholism TW, Angst (-ish), Canon Divergence, Tony Feels, Emotional Hurt, Falling In Love, Hopeful Ending | AO3
(Day 1 / Day 2 / Day 4)
—
Tony meets James for the first time in a seedy bar in Brooklyn on the night of December 17th, 1991.
Twelve hours before that first meeting, he listens with deaf ears to the police telling him his parents died in a car accident.
Ten hours before that first meeting, he cries on Obie’s shoulder while Obie pats him on his head and tells him “everything would be fine”.
Seven hours before that first meeting, he speaks to Rhodey on the phone and makes him promise not to jeopardize his military career by showing up without permission.
Five hours before that first meeting, he drives to the scene of the accident where he screams into the godforsaken void from the top of his lungs, curses Howard and then has a mental breakdown in the middle of the street.
Two hours before that first meeting, he finds himself driving through the city with no destination in mind until he decides that he needs a drink.
Or rather ten.
Which is how he ends up at “Cheryl’s” where no one even bats an eye at the face of today’s headline and sole heir of a multi-billion company entering the bar. It’s too dark inside, the strong stench of sweat and smoke penetrates his nostrils on the spot, and Tony is pretty sure that the mold behind the counter is just about to build its own ecosystem.
He orders whiskey and gets a Jack. Not exactly what he wanted, but it will do.
There’s a glint out of the corner of his eye that gains his attention and when he turns, his gaze falls on the metal hand of a man with the saddest eyes he has ever seen. What once must’ve been a wild grey is now the lifeless stare of someone who’s been haunted by ghosts for a long while. A frigid expression on a pretty face framed by strands of long brown hair and cherry red lips made to be kissed. Wrapped up in an outfit that might as well be from a BDSM scene.
Tony likes what he sees. Very much so. He imagines dragging the guy into the bathroom, pulling those tight leather pants off and giving him the best blowjob of his life. It certainly would take his mind off other things. Like the fact that he’s an orphan now.
So he does, what he does best: he flirts. But this time it’s a challenge. It takes him three attempts until the stranger takes his eyes off the wall and looks at him, a tiny frown between his brows—but no other sign of acknowledgment.
“Finally got your attention, Handsome! You’re not much of a talker, hm? No worries, I can talk for both of us.” Which Tony then does. He talks and drinks and flirts—a wink here, a featherlight touch on the guy’s biceps there—and drinks and speaks of DUM-E and Rhodey and all their pranks during MIT, watches with fascination how that dead look in the stranger’s eyes slowly forms into curiosity, beams in delight when he gets a snort out of him, drinks some more, slides closer with each drink and puts a hand on his thigh, slowly caressing it up and down.
“You got a name, Handsome?”
The guy seems to hesitate for a while until he answers in a deep, raspy voice, “James.” Tony is pretty sure it’s a lie, but then again—he doesn’t need to know the name when he’s got his mouth full of dick.
“Well, James, you can call me Tony.” He flutters his eyelashes and bites teasingly on his lower lip before he drops his tone and asks, “So… your place or mine?”
After that Tony remembers the night only in a blur. He remembers passionate kisses in a dark alley, hands wandering everywhere, rising heat and grey eyes shimmering in pure lust. He remembers a hotel room and soft sheets and strong arms around his waist.
And then he wakes up, the taste of alcohol and James still lingering in his mouth.
When he opens his eyes, he finds James sitting in the chair at window, instead of lying in bed next to him, his entire focus solely on Tony. It should be creepy, but James’ gaze merely comes from curiosity, as if Tony was a machinery whose workings he is still trying to understand. It’s kind of endearing.
Tony gets up, disinterested in getting dressed, and pours himself two fingers of whiskey at the bar.
“This your breakfast?”
Tony grins smugly at the hoarse tone of James’ voice. “Nah, that’s just my mouthwash,” he answers and winks at him over his shoulder.
He eyes James for a moment while sipping on his drink, and then adds, “There’s a diner not far from here. Serves the best blueberry pancakes in all New York, I can vouch for that. What do you think, want to accompany me?”
It’s not Tony’s usual style. Otherwise, one-night stands will remain exactly what they are for him: one-night stands. But James has something that fascinates him immensely. It’s not just the overdeveloped prosthesis that can impossibly be on the market anywhere, and makes Tony wonder where he got it from, but also that look in his eyes of someone who has seen way too much. This emptiness that suddenly becomes filled with curiosity when it comes to small things. This enigmatic thing that surrounds him and whose code Tony wants to crack.
At the diner, Tony watches with amusement as James’ eyes widen in delight at the first bite of the heavenly pancakes and can’t help laughing when James pounces on them like a starving predator.
Since James is not much of a talker, Tony does the speaking. For one, because he can’t stand the silence, but for another, because he needs to distract himself. Because he doesn’t want to think about the death of his parents or how empty the mansion will be when he returns. So he talks about anything he can think of until he comes to a point where he doesn’t even know what he’s talking about, but is pretty sure that somewhere in the torrent of words, he tried to explain James the exact details of his AI study.
When they’re about to part ways though, Tony only too well remembers the emptiness that will greet him when he comes home, and he doesn’t even finish thinking it through, before he invites James to come with him.
James does not only come with him, but he also stays.
—
Weeks pass and before Tony knows it, James has practically moved in with him. If you can call it moving in when James doesn’t seem to have a single thing that needed to be brought here. Tony doesn’t know James’ last name, nor does he have the slightest idea who he is, and with each passing day his suspicions grow that he must have taken a homeless man off the street.
It should be terrifying or at least worrying but Tony can’t find it in himself to care enough. He lost his parents—and Jarvis and Ana even earlier—and would be alone in this big mansion until the loneliness would overwhelm him. And James turns out to be an excellent guest. Or rather roommate at this point.
For all he knows, James could be a serial killer, and Tony still wouldn’t care. He needs the company and he uses James for it—in bed and outside of it.
The more time they spend, the more not only Tony seems to be learning about James, but James also about himself. He discovers a love of books, especially C. S. Lewis, and sometimes holes up in the library all day except when he goes looking for Tony to read his favorite passages to him.
Every time he discovers a new dish that he likes, Tony can watch James’ whole face glow and none of the shadows of his past can be seen in that moment.
His favorite reaction, however, is when he trusts James enough to show him his workshop. James’ eyes widen in amazement and a brilliant smile forms on his lips at the sight of scientific chaos there is. “It’s like Narnia!”
“What? Where do you get that from? Narnia is nature and talking animals. I don’t have any talking animals here.” What DUM-E understands as a cue to speak up and whereupon James gives him a smug ‘told you so’ grin.
In these situations, it’s easy to forget that all is not peace, joy and pancakes. As soon as Tony gets down to the jobs Obie gave him, he remembers again, and the alcohol finds its way to his liver to ease the pain. In the morning, noon and evening.
Sometimes at night too when James has one of his nightmares and Tony can’t help him because James doesn’t talk to him, not about who he is, not about his past—although Tony guesses with an almost certainity on veteran—and not even vaguely about it his nightmares.
But they are fine, they have a routine: talking during the day, fucking at night. Eat blueberry pancakes for breakfast at the diner once a week and fiddle with James’ arm whenever he has time.
It works perfectly well as it is.
—
It’s not until on a particular bright morning in March 1992 Tony realizes that he had fallen in love with James a long time ago—the day after he almost dies of alcohol poisoning.
He wakes up to see James laying next to him, still asleep. Long strands of hair cover his face and Tony gives into the urge to brush them to the side, so he can take James’ peaceful expression in.
It’s a picture he’d like to wake up every day to. The longer he thinks about it, the more Tony has to admit that he can’t imagine a life without James in it—and that’s when it hits him. That those are feelings beyond of sole sexual attraction, beyond cameradine or friendship.
The realization hits him like a slap in his face. He breaths in shakingly and his first instinct is to get up and get himself a glass of whiskey to calm down, but before he can do anything the heart monitor starts picking up and only then does Tony realize that he’s not at home but in a hospital.
James stirs awake at the sudden noise and immediately glares at Tony. “You fucking idiot.”
His eyes are red, indicating he must’ve cried, and Tony isn’t sure what is going on but he can tell it must be bad. But he’s still too overwhelmed with the realization of his feelings, so he just gapes at James, not being able to say a word.
“You fucking idiot,” James repeats. “How often did I already tell you that you drink too much? That you should stop?”
And before he can react to that, he’s being crushed in a sudden hug, James holding him tightly to his chest and tears streaming down his cheeks.
“For a genius you are so dumb,” James murmurs and Tony—for Tony it’s too much. He doesn’t know what happened, doesn’t know what to say, so he blurts out without a second thought, “I love you.”
That brings James to a halt. Tony’s muscles tense up and he instinctively holds his breath.
James pulls back a little bit, so he can look at Tony, who rather focuses on the white sheets of the hospital bed. “Tony did you watch too many rom-coms? Confessing feelings after you almost died should’ve been my job in that case though.”
Tony needs a moment to register the words correctly. “Almost died?”
“Alcohol poisoning.”
Oh fuck. Even Tony knows that this is not good, that he definitely went too far this time.
James gently cups Tony’s face so that he’s forced to look into those gray eyes shimmer in a happiness. “Tony, I love you too.”
Faintly he registers the heart monitor rising up again, but he’s too distracted by the warmth that fills him from within to feel any embarrassment at that. He looks up at the wonder that James is and then surges forward to steal a kiss. He expects a nurse to barge in any moment now at the way his heart rate jumps off the charts, but that’s not stopping him from burying his hands in James’ hair and deepen the kiss further.
“Tony,” James laughs as he pulls off. He rests his forehead at Tony’s while they catch their breath and slowly morphs his sappy expression into a serious one.
“Tony,” he repeats. “I love you. And because I love you, I need you to promise me to stop with the drinking. I can’t watch you destroy your own life any further like that. Yesterday I had to find you passed out in the workshop. Have you any idea what I went through?” His hands wander all over Tony while talking, as if he needs to prove himself, that Tony’s still alive.
Tony thinks of SI and Obie and the expectations he has to live up to. He thinks of mama’s piano and how he hasn’t played on it since the accident. And with each thought the urge to get a drink intensifies. He gulps audibly and asks, “Will you help me?”
James’ quiet smile is more than enough for an answer. “Always.”
“Okay,” he breaths out and adds, more hastily, “okay, but you have to promise to never hurt me, James. I can’t, after mum died and Jarvis and—”
“Of course I will never hurt you, Tony.” James interrupts him and those words leave James lips so effortlessly and earnestly that Tony has not a single doubt in the truth of them.
And with James on his side, Tony believes he can make it. Not just getting sober, but living an actual life. Getting his shit together, looking forward.
He finally tells him of his plans of a new home in Malibu, those he was too afraid to talk about because James is bound to Brooklyn and Tony feared he wouldn’t come with him when the mansion’s constructions are finished. But James just laughs and says, “The only place I belong to is your side. So wherever you go? I will follow.”
Tony feels happy like never before. Things finally go well.
—
Until they don’t.
—
The Winter Soldier fights for the first time against his programming on the night of December 16th, 1991.
It’s the shocked “Sergeant Barnes?” Howard Stark gasps that evokes hidden memories from the back of his mind. Memories from war—gunshots, explosions, screams and the smell of fire and blood. Memories of a guy once tiny suddenly big. Somehow the same person, somehow not.
Memories that lead him to Brooklyn instead of the meeting point where he should deliver the serum to his handlers.
His legs walk him the entire day through the city, while he’s taking in each building—some he recognizes, most of them not. Until at night he looks up at a blinking light stating “Cheryl’s” and sees flashes of himself, hair shorter and a laugh on his face, dancing with another man and exchanging forbidden kisses in a dark corner.
He enters and not much later he meets the whirlwind that is Tony Stark.
With Tony the Winter Soldier becomes James and learns to feel again. Other emotions, besides constant rage and pain. Curiosity first, then amusement, lust, care, warmth and somewhere around March 1992 he knows it’s love.
He falls in love with Tony Stark who treats him like a human being rather than a tool, who talks and talks and makes him laugh, who touches him softly always and everywhere, who isn’t afraid of the metal arm but fascinated by it, who studies it without causing him any pain, who sings and laughs and dances and doesn’t shy away from James even once.
Tony Stark who drinks more than he should, reminding him of a man that might be his father coming home, reeking of alcohol, hitting a woman that might be his mother—bringing back memories that rather stayed forgotten. Tony who almost dies and promises to stop with the drinking. Tony who sometimes looks like a man carrying the entire world on his shoulders, dark bags under his eyes, a haunted expression in them and yet does his best to keep James’ sorrow’s away.
Tony Stark whose parents he killed as he realizes after a nightmare on November 24th in 1992.
—
In the morning of November 25th 1992 Tony wakes up alone in bed, a yellow sticky note on his nightstand and the words “I’m sorry, doll” scribbled on it.
—
Tony waits first, clinging onto the hope that he misinterpreted that note and that James will come back. All of James’ few things are still here—Tony checked.
But the longer he waits, the stronger the urge gets to wrap his fingers around a bottle of whiskey. So he gets up and starts looking. First at the diner, then the park, further to the Brooklyn Bridge, to “Cheryl’s” at last.
He returns to an empty home. Doesn’t sleep in the first night, neither the second nor the third and collapses on the fourth—his face buried in James’ favorite wool sweater, the bathroom reeking of his vomit.
And then he repeats that circle anew.
—
James doesn’t come back.
—
On December 1992 Tony moves to Malibu without looking back.
The bar in his new home is fully stocked.
—
The next sixteen years pass by in a rush. Tony drinks. A lot. He drinks and fucks, and then drinks and fucks even more in a desperate attempt to forget James. To forget his touch and smile, his smell and his taste. To forget James’ everything.
And he doesn’t care enough what happens around him during his wake of self-destruction.
Until it comes back to bite him in the ass.
—
In 2008, after 3 months of captivity, Tony returns to the New York mansion for the first time since moving out. There on the night stand of his old room are still the photos of him and James from the photo booth they once took.
Tony blows the dust away and looks at the old pictures, a wistful expression on his face. He soaks James’ soft smile and bright glint in those beautiful eyes in, remembers how those pouty lips felt on his own, remembers the sound of James’ laugh, the taste of his mouth, his body pressed against Tony’s.
In all this time J.A.R.V.I.S. was never able to find even a trace of James. It was, as if he disappeared from earth. Chances are, he died. Because how far can a guy with a metal arm get without the most advanced AI of the world being able to find him? But even though he doesn’t believe in ever seeing James again, Tony thinks of him and the promise they gave each other when he empties his bar down the sink.
The photos end up in his workshop, next to the arc reactor’s glass case Pepper gave him. Tony finally starts looking ahead.
—
Years pass and Tony lives his life again.
He also almost dies some countless times, and every single time he thinks of Pepper, with a lingering memory of James’ laugh.
—
And then in 2016 Johannesburg happens and with Johannesburg the Sokovia Accords follow.
—
Over the years Tony imagined countless scenarios where he would see James again. Not in one of those could he have imagined it to go this bad.
“I know that road.”
—
Fourteen hours after the whole Siberia debacle Tony pulls the old photos from the drawer in the workshop and sets them aflame. He watches with a grim satisfaction as they slowly crumble to ashes and takes his first sip of whiskey in years. Directly from the bottle.
DUM-E’s distressed efforts at saving anything from the photos with the fire extinguisher are just a tad bit too late.
Nothing is left.
—
Tony starts drinking again.
—
In 2016, despite careful avoidance, Bucky does meet Tony again—in a HYDRA bunker of all places. And his heart aches at the sight of Tony’s shock.
Tony might’ve aged and changed, but those eyes are still the same. Big and expressive and at that very moment filled with sadness and anger and disbelief. And worst of all, it’s Bucky’s fault.
He doesn’t plan to fight and neither does he want to leave Tony behind, but he doesn’t believe Tony wants him anywhere near—Bucky had already done more than enough.
So he goes with Steve and goes back into cryostasis, hoping to stay there forever. Only to be woken up a few months later and informed that they got rid of his trigger words and Tony made sure that the Avengers were allowed to return to the States.
Bucky included.
It seems surreal to him to enter the Avengers compound; as if he was dreaming. As if there was a catch that would strike later because he doesn’t deserve to be here.
And then, in the kitchen waits none other than Tony, his eyes hidden behind colored sunglasses, his fake media smile on his face and a whiskey glass in his hand, the sight of which freezes Bucky’s blood in his veins. He’d like nothing more than to take the glass out of his hand and hug Tony tightly.
Which is a privilege he no longer has.
“Ah, the fossil duo! Welcome back,” Tony couldn’t sound more unwelcome if he tried. “Everything is still as you left it, Rogers. You can show Barnes yourself where everything is.” With these words he mockingly salutes them, turns around at his heel and disappears from the kitchen again without giving Bucky a single look.
A chill runs down Bucky’s spine at the sound of his last name from Tony’s mouth. It’s so… wrong. To Tony, he has always been just James. If affectionate or angry or laughing, James was the name Tony would call him with. This single, condescending “Barnes” feels like a thousand knife stabs in his heart. It’s only thanks to his training that he stays composed and doesn’t go running after Tony in a desperate attempt to try talking to him.
The next few weeks pass similarly. If he and Tony even see each other, which is a rarity in itself, even though they live in the same building—he has the suspicious feeling that Tony is deliberately avoiding him with F.R.I.D.A.Y.’s help—then Tony ignores him as if he were not here at all.
Bucky knows, he deserves worse than just the cold shoulder, but that still doesn’t make it easy. Especially not when he keeps finding empty alcohol bottles scattered around somewhere and can do absolutely nothing about this problem.
His only bright spot is Rhodes, who looks at the bottles with just as much loathing as he does. It means that at least one person keeps an eye on Tony’s consumption, since Bucky himself cannot. Bucky never had a chance to meet Rhodes twenty-five years ago, and Bucky is pretty sure Tony hasn’t told him anything, otherwise Rhodes wouldn’t be content with shooting him deathly looks only.
That’s why he doesn’t say anything to Steve either, no matter how hard he questions him, because he sees that there is something between him and Tony that he doesn’t know about. If Tony doesn’t want to tell anyone about their past together, then Bucky won’t either.
Bucky keeps the distance that Tony obviously wants from him.
Until two months after his arrival at the compound on a Tuesday morning F.R.I.D.A.Y. sends an urgent distress signal, and Bucky is on his way so quickly that the other Avengers don’t have a chance to follow him directly even if they tried.
—
Tony wakes up in a hospital with a throbbing pounding in his head and aching bones all over his body—James’ worried face hovering over him. It’s the shittiest déjà-vu he’s ever had.
At least the circumstances aren’t quite the same. Rhodey diluted Tony’s alcohol every time he thought no one would see him. So that something like alcohol poisoning wouldn’t happen again. Tony is grateful and annoyed at the same time.
No, this time he just flew drunk in his Iron Man armor, lost the connection to F.R.I.D.A.Y., which he has to get to the bottom of as quickly as possible, and then fell. So, waking up in the hospital makes sense.
But that James is here instead of Rhodey or Happy or Pepper or anyone else is both, surprising and unwanted.
James opens and closes his mouth several times, seemingly unable to decide what to say before croaking out, “You promised you’d stop drinking.” His voice sounds suspiciously as if he had cried recently, and Tony almost laughs at the irony of the situation.
But then he remembers the day he woke up without James at his side. Remembers searching everywhere for him, waiting, not being able to sleep for days, and how miserable he felt without him, not knowing what happened, not knowing where he had gone.
He remembers that James had fucked him—no, made love with him—knowing he had killed Tony’s mother. And he feels the blood boil in his veins in anger at that. How dare James after all these years, after all that happened, now talk about that promise?
So he throws him a deadly look, his hand clenched into a fist and growls, “And you promised you wouldn’t hurt me!”
James visibly flinches at that and takes a step back, his eyes wandering everywhere but at Tony. Then he takes a deep breath and looks Tony straight in the eye as he says, “You’re right. I promised you that I would never hurt you. But I did it. I have—”
“Why did you do it?” Tony interrupts, because that’s what he wants to know. What he had asked himself over and over again over the years—the why.
Bucky blinks at him in bewilderment and asks: “Why what exactly?”
“Everything!” Tony throws his arms in the air in frustration, ignoring the ailment of his broken ribs over the sudden action. “Why you suddenly left me overnight, why you never told me anything about yourself, not even vaguely hinting at who you are and what happened to you, why you let me fall in love with you when it was you, who killed my mother and were therefore to blame for my misery!” The last part comes out much more honest than Tony wanted it to be and he quickly looks ashamed to the side to blink away the rising tears of anger.
He hears a deep sigh from the side and out of the corner of his eye he can see James drop into the visitor’s chair.
“Tony, I didn’t know who you were or that my mission had been your parents when we met in the bar,” James begins hesitantly to explain. “Howard… his words brought a few memories to the fore. Just blurry, barely recognizable images. I didn’t even know my own name when you asked me for it—I just named the one that was at the tip of my tongue.
“During the time we were together, my memories have only gradually returned. I had no idea about your parents until a nightmare reminded me of it.” This is where James looks up from his hands for the first time, straight into Tony’s eyes, his gaze steadfast and honest. “And then I realized I had broken my promise—I had already hurt you.”
James sighs and runs his hand through his hair and swallows hard. “I understood that it was only a matter of time before HYDRA found me. We were lucky before that because no one suspected I could be with you. But under no circumstances did I want them to get you. I knew I had to go. That is why I did it.”
Tony nods slowly. “And then what? You just decided to go back to HYDRA?”
James laughs dryly, without a trace of humor in his voice. “Of course not. I went on the run. But in the end, no matter what I do, they always find me, don’t they?” His mouth twists into a grimace of self-hatred and resignation.
Not under my watch, no, Tony thinks to himself. Instead he says, “You broke my heart.” Because as reluctant as he is to show his vulnerability, this is James. And he’s always been able to be honest with James.
“I’m sorry,” James says in all earnestness.
“I’m not forgiving you for what you have done.”
“I understand.”
“Not yet at least.”
At that James’ gaze shoots up in surprise.
Tony clears his throat slightly shy. “I—I understand that the… brainwashing and stuff. That it wasn’t you. I just… I just need some time.” And it’s true. Tony had read the Winter Soldier’s files; he saw what they did to him and he understands on a completely rational level that it’s not James who is responsible for all those deaths.
He only needs his emotions to come to that understanding too and then he would truly be able to forgive him.
And really, as much as he always claims that he worked to bring the Avengers back together was because the world needed them, he knows the real motivations for it had been for James only. When Pepper had broken up with him because “there was someone else occupying his heart she could never reach” he hadn’t been able to contradict her. Seeing James again after all that time has only proven her right too.
“Tony…”
“Great, now that that’s settled, take my tablet and read me something,” Tony interrupts James before he can go any further, because there is only so much emotional talk Tony can handle in one day and that line has been exceeded a long while ago.
“I… what?”
“Read me something. I am a poor injured soul deserving to be properly pampered. And I want a good-night story.”
And as James slowly smiles brightly at him, gray eyes glinting in hope and wonder, it’s like not a single day has gone by since he disappeared on him.
Tony is still wary. Remembers only too well those days after James had left him. Can’t forget the Winter Soldier’s hand around his mother’s neck. His fingers itch with the urge to hold a drink, but he snuggles deeper into bed, letting James’ soothing voice and the story of a girl who finds a wonderland in a closet lull him into contentment.
Tony meets James for the first time in December 1991 in a seedy bar in Brooklyn and then a second time in 2016 in a Siberian bunker. He thinks that if against all odds their paths cross not only once, but twice, then maybe they should take a step forward together and see, where the path will lead them to.
And if they just believe strong enough in it, they might even find their wonderland for a second time too.
#may writes#may's moodboards#winteriron#buckytony#starkbucks#tony stark#bucky barnes#WI WEEK 2020#WinterIron Week#angxlsgrxce#may answers#fucking finally finished this fic :)))#nothing went as it should've :)))#i am absolutely not happy at all how it turned out but at this point idc anymore <3#wish this fic was a person so i could strangle it to death <3#shall it burn in hell <3#but yay! i finished it! :D
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Reviewing Dramas I Have Watched Part 6
It’s been a while; I haven’t been able to watch a lot between school and just life. Not to mention the time I do have is spent doing buddy watches of kdramas I have already seen with my friends and family (On teleparty of course.) Again, here is my rating system: 1- Did not like, 2- Enjoyed but probably wouldn’t watch again, 3- Enjoyed and would watch some episodes again (or for movies may watch again), 4- Enjoyed and would watch again, 5- Loved
Korean Drama
Melting Me Softly: 3/5
Melting Me Softly is about a guy and s girl who get cryogenically frozen for an experiment for what was meant to be only a day. Unfortunately, something happens, and the 24-hour experiment turns into 20 years. Now they have to deal with the changes of not only their family and friends but the world and society as a whole all while trying to uncover the darker secrets behind the experiments.
I gave this a 3 because while the earlier and later episodes were amazing and hilarious, the episodes in the middle of the season bored me. I am not much of a romance person unless it is either subtle or played out a specific way and the romance in this wasn’t my personal cup of tea so it just got boring for me. On its good episodes though, it was funny, sad, and cute. I really did like the dynamic between the two main characters and the romance is pretty good, just a little slower in the middle of the series. The relationships with the family members of the two were so cute and so sad, I loved the all the scenes where the mains got to interact with their families. I did feel awkward and weird about the second-lead, I’m not sure if he counts as a second lead but for lack of a better term that’s what I’m calling him. I love Choi Bo-Min as an actor, and it had nothing to do with his acting, just the whole situation was uncomfortable to me. That other guy who doesn’t even deserve to be the second-lead, if you watch it you know, the stalker one, I despise that man. Not once during the entire show did I like one of his scenes. That could be why I didn’t enjoy the middle scenes as much cause he found a way to worm his way into almost every scene and I would get so annoyed with him. This show does have its good points and bad points, so I would recommend it for those who like romance with a little bit of suspense and humor.
Welcome to Waikiki (season 1): 3/5
Welcome to Waikiki is about a group of friends who own and attempt to run a guesthouse together. When they find a baby left behind in one of their rooms, they have to find out how to take care of her and find her mother. This becomes even more complicated when the mother returns in tears saying she had no where else to go and didn’t want her baby to suffer. After hearing about her troubles, they decide to take the two in, in exchange for help working at the guesthouse. It follows the group and mother as they try to figure out how to take care of a baby, save their failing guesthouse, and achieve their own dreams, all while falling in love.
This show was hilarious, I watched it because everyone was talking about how funny it was and I agree. I especially love how it focused on all the characters instead of picking just one or two and focusing on them. I love when shows really work on all their characters and this show played it out so well. Not one was neglected and I didn’t feel like any of them were underdeveloped by the end, and Sol was super cute! I loved every single one of her scenes, she was so funny and sassy and I know she is just a baby but she is amazing. I watched some episodes on the tv and my sisters even made comments on how cute she was when they looked up at the TV, even though they didn’t watch it. I enjoyed the ending and how it all played out and tied together nicely.
It was a delight for the first two thirds of the season. However, yet again that romance hit and the humor kinda dissipated to be replaced by the romance for a good few episodes. While it was admittedly cute, and I adored the romance scenes in the last few episodes, most romance scenes gave me such second-hand embarrassment I had to pause the show for a while and gain the courage to restart it. I did enjoy it but would probably only ever rewatch the first two thirds and maybe the last two or so episodes. It reminds me of Love With Flaws in the second-hand embarrassment romance scenes, so if you enjoyed that show, definitely give this one a chance. If you like romance, humor, and can handle the second-hand embarrassment stuff I highly recommend this one! It’s super cute and hilarious!
Missing Nine: 5/5
Trigger Warning: Plane crash, Blood, Injuries, Suicide attempts, Murder
Missing Nine is about a girl who gets hired as a stylist for an arrogant and cold idol. On her first day, the plane they are all riding on to an event crashes on a vacant island. Only nine of them survive the crash and must now fight to survive and be found all while struggling with the betrayal of one of their friends who began to murder them one by one.
I really enjoyed this one, it was my perfect type of show; angst, suspense, subtle romance, crime, found family. The only issue I had with it was the unrealistic ending, I just don’t understand how it is possible and don’t know how I even personally feel about it. I am also probably one of the very few people who didn’t watch it for Chanyeol, don’t get me wrong I am an Exol too, but like really new Exol. You can skip this parenthesis if you want, it’s a kpop tangent. (I am a huge multistan. I love all the kpop groups I have listened to so far and have all the dalcomsoft games minus Gfriend even though I love them, cause I feel like it’s going to be a BTS superstar and get deleted so it’s not worth my time or efforts. Feel free to talk to me about any group and any member. If I don’t know them, I would be happy to find new ones so even if they are not well known or new, don’t feel worried about squealing to me about them, I would love to make kpop/kdrama loving friends.) I watched for Jung Kyung-ho and only when I started did I see Chanyeol which was cool to find. This also means POSSIBLE SPOILER ALERT I wasn’t disappointed or biased after a certain episode like many of the people I saw raging in the Tvtime comments, not saying this in a bad way just stating that since I am neutral on certain events, I will be focusing on specifically the plot and how I felt about said plot versus how I feel about characters. SPOILER ALERT OVER
Overall I really loved this show, it was certainly an emotional roller coaster. I felt that it could have had a second season or a spin off to tie up that last little cliffhanger but I personally and satisfied with how the main issue wrapped up, other than that one weird ending scene. If you like angst, suspense, crime, and a little romance seen in an enemies to lover type of trope then I highly recommend this show. I gave it a 5 cause I personally loved it and am already planning on rewatching it with my friend. It does have a lot of blood and injuries so if you are sensitive to that, I wouldn’t recommend it to you.
Because this is my first life: 5/5
Trigger Warning: Sexual Assault, Attempted R@pe (but it didn’t get far at all, just be careful)
Because this is my first life is about a woman (Ji-ho) who has to find a new place to live as her brother is getting married and her parents gave the son the apartment that they had bought for both their children. Because of many misunderstandings and coincidences, she accidentally rents a new apartment with a very strict and stoic man (Se-hee). Due to more problems, the two come to an agreement that they should get married since they both can gain something from it. The woman gains a place to stay and the man gains a tenant to help pay the bills, no more, no less.
Okay, so while I said that I didn’t like romance this is the exception, much like Shopping King Louie, it was just a really cute slow burn that I thoroughly enjoyed watching. Many people in the fandom, on TV time at least, were giving Se-hee a hard time and saying he was using and manipulating Ji-ho but I didn’t see it that way. She consented and never voiced anything other than that and the deal was for her to stay in the apartment since she needed a place to live and he needed someone to help pay bills. He didn’t ask for anything more, she was already following his schedule before the marriage issue and was just fine and accepting when they decided to get married. Neither had any expectations of falling in love, they just both needed something that marriage would help them gain and both consented to it. Later on, Se-hee even asked her if any advances were okay and backed off when they weren’t with no questions asked which I find admirable. Okay, rant over. It was cute and at times annoying cause you just want them to get together already. I laughed so hard in so many episodes and cried in a few too. The cat was so adorable and I love the interactions the main’s had with the little fluff. The best, and sometimes most painful, bonding moments between the main’s were the ones that dealt with the cat. I wasn’t too fond of the love triangle but was pleased with how it actually played out with the two women actually accepting each others presence instead of being horrible to each other for the most part. Highly recommend it to any romance lovers, and especially to those who are fans of shows like Shopping King Louie as mentioned above.
Flower boy next door: 3/5
Trigger Warning: Stalking, Panic Attacks, Sensory overload, Bullying, Teacher Crushes and Manipulation of Such
Flower boy next door follows Dok-mi, a young woman with crippling social anxiety to the point she never leaves her apartment. From her window she watches her across the street male neighbor every day, taking note of his entire schedule. This all comes back to bite her when her neighbor’s brother comes to visit from Spain and catches her. What starts as an attempt to make her stop stalking her brother, quickly progresses into a mission to help her overcome her past, anxiety, and to get out of the house and adapt back to a healthy social life. As this mission goes on the two begins to realize they have feelings for each other, but Dok-mi’s own next-door neighbor has his own mission of getting her to stay inside and fall in love with him. He has been writing a web comic about her being a modern Rapunzel and has been in love with her for many years.
I enjoyed this one, I watched it cause the actor from Psychopath Diary starred in it and it was really cute. The romance was adorable, and the whole telepathy thing was a great addition that made me laugh. I love the whole adorable dork male with quiet cold girl trope so much. I didn’t like the whole stalking situation very much, it’s just kinda weird and was something that made me really uncomfortable during the first few episodes. I wasn’t a huge fan of the next-door neighbor, he just seemed like an enabler to me and I found myself angry through most of his scenes, as well as through most of Dok-mi’s childhood friend’s scenes. Other than those two characters, I enjoyed it well enough. I know some people can get annoyed by each characters flaws but I usually am good with morally grey characters as long as they learn from their mistakes. Some did in this show and there was a lot of character development and some didn’t which is realistic but makes me kind of sad. I recommend it to people who like a cute romance show with some angst and don’t mind morally grey characters.
Web-drama/Mini-series
Ghost Vros: 4/5
Trigger Warning: Suicide, Death, Some gore, Jump scares.
Ghost Vros follows two young men who are trying to start up a business where they hunt ghosts using virtual reality software. The main character is able to sense the ghost through his ears turning red and his friend programs the virtual realty to make sure the main has everything he needs to catch the ghosts.
I liked this one, it was fast like many web dramas are, but really interesting. I did attempt to translate it myself with my, admittedly little, Korean knowledge before finding the English subs (which you won’t be able to find now that Youtube has rudely removed community subs, unless it’s uploaded somewhere else. If someone finds it please let me know.) I was always engaged during the show and wasn’t bored at any point. It did have some confusing points and I wish we got more backstory as there was mentions of some interesting things that was never explored further, but it is a web drama, so that is more than likely too much to ask for. Recommend to anyone who enjoys a quick comedy ghost story.
Cats Taste and Cat Bartender: 5/5
Cat’s Taste and Cat Bartender follow three cat gods who run a bar at night to make money for their injured owner. At this bar, they give upset humans cocktails which enable them to either posses said human or go into a dream world, this isn’t really clear, and correct the issue in exchange for items the cats find interesting on top of the alcohol cost.
This show was so cute, I absolutely loved and couldn’t stop smiling. I got the first season, Cat’s Taste, on my youtube recommend and decided to watch it since I was bored. I am so glad I did, I got super excited when I saw that there is a second season as well and spent forever trying to hunt it down before a kind person on MyDramaList put a link to the English subs in a comment (if anyone needs it, I will be happy to send it.) Both seasons were amazing, and I am hoping for a season three as the ending looks like it might be set up for one. The way they showed the bartending moves was so pretty and satisfying and I liked how all three cats got to show their moves instead of just the one. I don’t like alcohol, have tried many kinds many times to but just don’t, however this show makes me want to drink the mixed drinks even though I know I would hate the taste.
Also, is it just me or does Ms. Hana remind anyone of Johnny from NCT? I don’t know if she looks like him or what, sometimes someone reminds me of someone else and the two look nothing alike. Don’t know what that’s all about but let me know because I could not shake the feeling that she reminded me of Mr. Johnny from Chicago. Anyway, tangent aside, I highly recommend to someone who like a quick but cute drama.
Korean Movies
Beautiful Vampire: 3/5
Beautiful Vampire is about a female vampire who tries to avoid people due to her nature, but has all that shattered when she runs into her landlady’s son one night and begins to fall in love.
This movie was pretty good, but a little confusing. I couldn’t even write a proper plot explanation cause I was just so confused. I honestly felt like a fever dream, though a relatively interesting fever dream. I wish we had more information and backstory cause it just kinda felt like a rollercoaster ride of pining. It ended okay; I mean I was bored at the time, so it was something to do. If I am bored in the future, I might watch it again. I agree with most on TvTime when they say, it wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t good, it was just something to do. I feel like the story line needed more work done and that it ended too fast and progressed in such a way that it was hard to follow. If you are bored or have nothing to do, give it a try, you might like it more than I did.
Chinese Drama
Take My Brother Away: 3/5
Trigger Warning: Alcohol Abuse
Take My Brother Away is based on a web comic about two siblings living with their alcoholic, debtor father in China, after their mom filed for a divorce and left. It follows the two as they go to school, work, and try to live a normal life. The sister hates her brother for being lazy and not being able to help her get what she wants, and the brother gets annoyed at the sister for always getting violent with him and nagging him.
I loved this one, it was really interesting to see the dynamic between the family. I felt that the brother should have been given more credit in the beginning for all he does for his sister and I felt really sorry for the sister because she just wanted to be like the other students who could afford to read web comics or go on trips. Some episodes were hilarious, some were heartbreaking, some were admittedly annoying, some gave me secondhand embarrassment. I just love it all, the only reason I give it a three is because I wouldn’t watch all 50 episodes again, I loved it but some were more on the boring side like filler episodes and I just, don’t think I’ll ever watch the whole series again. I can defiantly say however, I will probably watch most of the episodes again. I enjoyed the ending though it was admittedly on the strange side, and felt it was wrapped up nicely. There was a lot of character development too which is always great. I recommend this to those who enjoy some dysfunctional family humor and some angst and who are able to commit to long seasons.
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
#kdrama#kdrama review#review#melting me softly#welcome to waikiki season 1#welcome to waikiki#missing nine#because this is my first life#flower boy next door#ghost vros#ghost bros#cats taste#cat bartender#beautiful vampire#take my brother away#shopping king louie#nct#johnny suh
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Atsushi Nakajima x Reader| Fluff Alphabet
A/N: Umm???? I finished this earlier to celebrate this blog reaching 80 followers but over the weekend I managed to reach 90?? Thank you!!! ♡♡♡ (and a thank you to Mai for helping me with J).
Words: 2,053
Activities - What do they like to do with their s/o? How do they spend their free time with them?
Atsushi loves to go shopping with you! Going into stores and seeing what they have never fail to amaze him, and he has this cute little shocked face when he sees new things.
He also enjoys going to the library with you, being able to escape reality for a little bit is calming to him. And he’s able to brush up on his studying too, he knows basic things but there is still much left for him to learn. If he has any trouble reading a certain character he’ll come to you for help.
Not long after spending time with him, you learned about his liking towards chameleons and decided that you would take him to the zoo for a change in pace. You planned it to be a surprise for him, and couldn’t wait to see his reaction! It was hard to contain your excitement but you managed to pull through and it was worth it.
He got extremely happy you thought of something so special just for him. He was so overjoyed by the gesture a few tears came down on his face. With a gentle motion you wiped his tears away.
“It’s just… It’s just that no one has done this for me before,” He grabbed your wrist with his hand and leaned into your touch, “Thank you, (Y/n)... so much.”
Beauty - What do they admire about their s/o? What do they think is beautiful about them?
Atsushi admires your kindness above everything else. Growing up, kindness was something he never got, so as an adult he cherishes any generosity he receives.
He loves your eyes and the story behind them, he can see that you’ve been through stuff in the past but despite all the challenges you still stand tall. How can he not find that beautiful, especially considering he finds himself weak, so he has you to look up to.
Comfort - How would they help their s/o when they feel down/have a panic attack etc.?
If you’re panicking, then he’ll start to panic too. But he’ll think about how he'd want to be treated in that situation, so he’ll wrap his arms around you and hug you till you calm down.
It surprisingly works, his warmth is so comforting and soothes you till your heart beat goes back to normal. He’ll listen to whatever is bothering you and encourage you that you can get through it. He assures you that he’ll be by your side the entire time and that if you get overwhelmed again he’s never too busy for you.
Dreams - How do they picture their future with their s/o?
He doesn’t have his hopes up too high, he fears that if he asks for too much it’ll be taken away. So for now he’s perfectly content doing domestic everyday things with you.
Others may see that type of future to be rather tame, but he’s never experienced anything like this before so being able to share these tender moments with you is more than he could ask for.
Equal - Are they the dominant one in the relationship, or rather passive?
Atsushi has never dated anyone before you, so he is still learning even while in a relationship. He’s more passive since he doesn’t want to do anything wrong or upset you in any way. He knows that if he messes up you won’t punish him, but that anxiety is still rooted in him.
At the beginning he lets you take the lead for the most part, but after time and many words of affirmation from you he feels semi-confident to make the first move.
Fight - Would they be easy to forgive their s/o? How are they fighting?
He forgives easily since he believes that he’s in the wrong, and that by apologizing it’ll make you feel better. When you notice this pattern, you tell him that he is not at fault, and that small disagreements are bound to occur.
Fights between the two of you doesn’t happen often, but when it does it’s very awkward and tense.
Gratitude - How grateful are they in general? Are they aware of what their s/o is doing for them?
Atsushi is very grateful for everything you do for him, sometimes he questions about what he did to deserve you. Everything you do for him is so sincere and full of love he can’t help but cry out of happiness.
Honesty - Do they have secrets they hide from their s/o? Or do they share everything?
He’s as open with you as he can, he doesn’t tell you everything at once but he’ll gradually tell you all there is about him. He doesn’t tell you to seek out sympathy, he just wants there to be someone who he’s able to confide in.
After telling you his past, his heart feels lighter, like one day he’ll be able to let go of all that has happened to him and keep his eyes on the future without anything to hold him back.
Inspiration - Did their s/o change them somehow, or the other way around? Like trying out new things or helped them overcome personal problems?
Being with you has definitely boosted Atsushi’s confidence. Whenever he messed anything up he would blame himself for not being good enough, and that he couldn’t do anything right.
You decided to help him change that type of attitude and told him that he is worth much more that he’s given himself credit for. That even if he doesn’t see it, you do and that you’ll stick by his side till the end.
Jealousy - Do they get jealous easily? How do they deal with it?
Atsushi doesn’t feel jealousy, if he sees you spending time with someone else more than him he thinks that something like this was destined to happen. That you found someone better than him, and forgot about him.
So when he saw Dazai talking with you, making you smile and laugh he didn’t know what the tug at his heart was at first. Then he saw Dazai whisper something into your ear, which made you cover your face in embarrassment.
Atsushi has never seen you react so strongly like that, of course they’ll be times where he’d get to make you laugh and smile but never to the point where you felt the need to cover your face. He sighs and looks longingly at the two of you. Taking a deep breath he continues the rest of the work day without bothering you.
You notice this and approach him after work and ask him what’s wrong. When he tells you how he felt, it’s heartbreaking to hear him talk about himself like that.
“You know that I love you Atsushi, right? Please know that I won’t leave you.”
“You tell me that but..” He averts his eyes from yours, he sighs, “it’s hard to believe sometimes. You, dating someone like me...”
“Someone like you?” You echoed. “Of course I’m dating someone like you! I wouldn’t want to be with anybody else.”
Kiss - Are they a good kisser? What was the first kiss like?
His first kiss with you was very awkward, he was unsure as to what to do and ended up getting tense the moment you leaned in. With time however, he does get better. Though if you catch him by surprise he does react a bit late.
Love Confession - How would they confess to their s/o?
When Atsushi gets the confidence to confess to you, the boy is a blushing mess. While talking to you he keeps stumbling over his words and fidgeting.
You try to listen and comprehend what he’s trying to say but you can’t understand a thing he’s saying.
“Atsushi...” You call out, gaining his attention, “slow down. It’s just me, okay? No need to be so nervous.” You offer him a gentle smile.
He shakes his head, “That’s exactly why I’m nervous… Because it is you. You mean a lot to me, y’know?” He takes a deep breath. “(Y/n)... I like you… a lot.”
That caught you off guard for a second, but you regain your computer and give him a wide smile, “I like you too, Atsushi!”
Marriage - Do they want to get married? How do they propose? What would the marriage be like?
He’s still young, so the idea of marriage hasn’t really crossed his mind. He has to admit though that since being with you it made marriage an achievable dream.
If you were to marry, you guys would be known as the cutest married couple. In private you make sure to show him tons of affection and he reciprocates it back to you in full.
Nicknames - What do they call their s/o?
He’d call you things like sweetie and sunshine. Atsushi thinks the world of you and he wants to prove it to you.
On Cloud Nine - What are they like when they are in love? Is it obvious for others? How do they express their feelings?
He’s very obvious when he’s in love. He becomes more awkward around you, and stammers a lot. His face is proof too since it gains a lovely shade of red when he talks to you or when anyone mentions you.
He expresses his love by devoting his time to you, as much as he might embarrass himself he doesn’t want to let go of this feeling you gave him. So he spends most of his free time with you, which leads you guys into talking more and then to his inevitable confession.
PDA - Are they upfront about their relationship? Do they brag with their s/o in front of others? Or are they rather shy to kiss etc. when others are watching?
He likes to keep it lowkey with you, he knows that the others are bound to figure it out themselves but he likes to keep what you two have to yourselves. He’s open to lingering touches and hand holding in front of people but any further and he might lose face.
Quirk - Some random ability they have that’s beneficial in a relationship.
Atsushi’s optimism is refreshing, despite the situation you guys are in he always finds a bright side. While it might not come naturally to him, he still tries to see the light no matter how bleak the present may look.
Romance - How romantic are they? What would they do to make their s/o happy? Cliché or rather creative?
He doesn’t think he is but at times he can be unintentionally romantic. He had gotten you flowers one day cause he saw them on his way to work and they reminded him of you. When he gave them to you, you swear your heart was going to explode from how cute he was.
His gestures are somewhere in between, some ideas he’ll get from romance movies or he’ll think up of something that is unique to only the two of you.
Support - Are they helping their s/o achieve their goals? Do they believe in them?
Atsushi is your biggest supporter, and he’ll be sure to let you know every waking morning. He encourages you, and believes in your inner strength.
It’s also why he likes you so much, you don’t want to let anything hold you back from accomplishing your goals.
Thrill - Do they need to try out new things to spice up your relationship? Or do they prefer a certain routine?
Atsushi is perfectly fine with how your relationship is currently going. If anything out of the norm happens his anxiety starts to act up. He much prefers when he’s able to anticipate what's to come.
If you want to do something out of your guys’ comfort zone, depending on what it is he’d be more than glad to oblige. All you have to give him a heads up to he can mentally prepare.
Understanding - How good do they know their partner? Are they empathetic?
He tries his best to understand you, he wants to know all there is about you. He’s always been empathetic towards people but with you it’s like your hearts have become one.
Value - How important is the relationship to them? What is it worth in comparison to other things in their life?
Atsushi cherishes his relationship with you more than life itself, being with you has opened his mind to possibilities he didn’t even know about. You have shown him what being alive is all about and he doesn’t want to lose that feeling.
Wild Card - A random Fluff Headcanon.
Sometime Atsushi would wake up in the middle of the night from nightmares either about his time in the orphanage or about losing you. He’d wake up in a cold sweat and look over to you to make sure you’re okay.
When he sees you sleeping peacefully it calms his racing heart just a little bit, he’d lay back down next to you and hold your hands before going back to sleep. He doesn’t wish to bother you with his problems so if possible he’d like to avoid waking you up.
However, there are days where his night terrors do wake you up, but you don’t mind. While he’s apologizing about waking you up, you go into the kitchen to make the both of you some chamomile tea to help alleviate his nerves.
You guys end up talking about whatever is on your minds till you fall asleep.
XOXO - Are they very affectionate? Do they love to kiss and cuddle?
Atsushi loves to receive affection from you. He grew up touch starved so when you show him attention and cuddle with him he’s instantly hooked.
Depending on his mood he’ll either be the little or the big spoon. When he feels down there’s no better place than being wrapped around in your arms with your hand combing through his hair.
Yearning - How will they cope when they’re missing their partner?
When Atsushi misses you he feels as if he’s missing a part of himself without you. He’ll be sure to keep a part of you with him to look at and remind him how lucky he is to be with you. And in turn he’ll give you a part of himself as well.
Zeal - Are they willing to go to great lengths for the relationship? If so, what kind of?
Atsushi will move mountains for you if you ask him. This boy loves you so much that he’s willing to do anything he can to make you happy.
#bungou stray dogs#bsd#atsushi nakajima#atsushi x reader#atsushi nakajima x reader#bsd x reader#bungou stray dogs x reader#nakajima atsushi#plutowrites#bungo stray dogs#thank you!!!<3#apologies if they seem a bit lackluster towards the end#it kind of gets repetitive so I think I might hold off on the other alphabets I had planned...
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My Love Don't Cost a Thing
Fandom: Marvel (CEO AU)
Pairing: Chubby!Bucky Barnes x GN!Reader
Summary: You and Bucky have been together since he started his business. He's a big time CEO and, over the course of time, he's become, he thinks, not that great looking anymore. So he begins to buy you anything and everything you want in hopes that it'll make you stay with him.
It was a Saturday morning and you were surprised to find that your boyfriend of several years was nowhere to be found.
You sat up, rubbing the sleep from your eyes and called out, “Buck?” you listened for a moment for any reply or sound, but nothing.
You frowned, reaching over to your bedside and swiping up your phone. You see that you received a text from Bucky so you answer it:
Bucky Baby: morning, babe! i got called into work for an emergency meeting. breakfast is on counter as well as a little something else. love you!!
You softly smiled and proceeded to slide out of bed, stretching your arms above your head. You then made your way to the kitchen and instantly smelled Bucky’s blueberry pancakes that you loved so much.
Beside your plated breakfast was a gift bag with the famous Prada logo on it. You can’t help but sigh because you’ve noticed that Bucky’s been getting you a lot of expensive gifts lately. You appreciate it, but you don’t really need thousand dollar bags and clothes.
You opened the bag and appreciated the item that you pulled out. It wasn’t too fancy, more like a casual streetwear kind of bag. One that you know that’s been trending for a while.
You set it back into the bag and sat at the counter, proceeding to dig into your breakfast. As you ate, you typed up a message to Bucky:
You: morning, babe! thanks for the bag. again, you really don’t have to buy me extravagant gifts! I’m totally fine with flowers and chocolates. Nonetheless, thank you. i love you and have a good day at work! hope it’s nothing too bad.
It’s seconds after you set your phone back down that you receive a reply back:
Bucky Baby: i just love to spoil ya. you deserve the best, baby. ;D
You sigh, texting back a kissy face emoji and then back to eating your breakfast.
______________
Bucky let out a breath of relief when you told him that you appreciated the gift. Despite you saying you’d appreciate the little things, Bucky felt like he had to spoil you with luxurious things. Why?
Well, first off, he’s the CEO of the prosthetic company he built from the ground up after getting discharged from the army after getting his left arm blown off. Because he was the CEO, he ended up earning a lot of money, money that he could spend on you.
Second, with work taking up a lot of his time, Bucky ended up gaining a lot of weight. He ate a lot of takeout food and hardly had time to go to the gym. He no long looked like the strong, fit, handsome guy you met several years ago. Now there was a little bit more chub to his cheeks, arms, thighs, and bellies.
You’ve never stopped reminding him how handsome he is nor have you ever stopped being intimate with him, but still. Bucky knows that his attractiveness was what first brought you two together and now that he isn’t at that level anymore, he’s sure you’ll eventually leave him for it. And that terrifies him because you’re his world. The thought of losing you breaks his heart.
So he tries to make up his lack in looks with his plentiful bank account. So far, you haven’t made the slightest indication that you want to break up, so that’s good, right?
________________
Bucky should’ve been home by now. It was almost 6pm and your reservations for dinner were at 6:30. You were dressed and ready to go, but Bucky wasn’t even home. When the doorbell rang at 6:20, you were hoping it would be Bucky, but you were sorely mistaken.
“Y/N L/N?” the young man was holding a bouquet of your favorite flowers, a takeout bag, and a gift bag with the Louis Vuitton label on it.
“Yeah?”
“Mister Barnes sends his apologies. He won’t be able to make it to dinner, but he ordered your favorite.” he handed you the flowers and the bags and nodded, “Have a good night, ma’am.”
“Thanks,” you mumbled somberly and closed the door.
You went over to the kitchen, setting your things down and plucking your phone off the counter, dialling Bucky’s number.
“Hey, honey,” you can hear the exhaustion in his voice and you feel pity towards him.
You sigh, rubbing your forehead, “Hey, Buck.”
“You get my gifts?”
“Mhm, see about that, I think we need to have a talk, Bucky.”
Hearing those words from you, made Bucky’s heart drop to his stomach, “Is-Is something wrong?”
“Yes? No? Kinda? Ugh, I just-” you took a deep breath and collected your thoughts, “I want to have this conversation in person. So when you get home, we’ll talk. If I’m asleep, just wake me up. Okay?”
With a stuttered breath, he replies, “O-Okay. I’ll probably be here for another hour or two.”
“That’s fine.”
“I love you, Y/N.”
“I know, Bucky.” you ended the call without saying ‘I love you’ back to him and Bucky started to panic.
They hate the gifts. They’re going to break up with you. They’re tired of pretending to love you. It’s over.
For the next two hours, those thoughts kept running through his head, so by the time he arrived back home, the luxurious home he bought for the both of you, he began to truly prepare for the worse.
He gulped and cautiously moved towards the living room where he heard the TV on, “Y/N?”
You looked over the couch and softly smiled at him. You picked up the remote and paused the show you were watching on Netflix, “Hey,” you got up, greeting him and kissing his cheek, “Everything at work turn out okay?”
He nodded, “Yeah, uh, Parker rewired one of the prototypes wrong, which means our production date is pushed back.”
You rubbed your hand up and down his bicep, “Sorry to hear that.”
He shrugged, “It happens,” he then gulped down, “So, uh, you wanted to talk?”
“Mhm,” you took his hand, leading him to the couch, both of you sitting down, “So, I noticed you’ve been buying me a lot of stuff lately-”
“Do you not like them? I can return them and get you something better or-”
“-No, no. Bucky, hey, that’s not it. While I do appreciate everything you’ve given me, I don’t need them. And, I’ve been having thoughts.”
“What kind of thoughts?”
You sigh, looking away from him, trying to figure out how you want to say this, “Every time you cancel a date or you have to suddenly leave for work, you end up giving me something expensive and I just-I don’t know. I feel like you’re trying to buy my love, which I don’t understand because I already love you.”
“I’m not trying to buy your love,” Bucky says, scooting closer to you, “Well, maybe I was. I-I-” it was his turn to take a deep breath and collect his thoughts.
“We’ve been together for seven years. When we first got together I was this fit guy that oozed sex appeal and now, I’m pretty sure I don’t ooze anything other than sweat.”
You look at him confused, “Bucky..what?”
He scoffed, “C’mon, Y/N. You have eyes. I’ve gained a lot of weight since we first got together. You probably don’t think I’m as hot and sexy as I used to be.”
“Okay, first off, that’s not true. Second, so you buying me all this stuff was to, what, make sure that I stay with you? Bucky, we’ve been together for so long and you really think that money and expensive gifts will persuade me to stay with you?”
“Maybe, I don’t know, Y/N! I just-I feel like I need to provide you something! I don’t give you anything nice to look at, we barely see each other at home anymore, I rarely take you out on dates. I’m trying to make sure you don’t leave me.” he says the last part with watery eyes and a broken tone.
“Bucky,” you cup his round cheeks in your hands and look deep into his deep blue eyes, “I love you. I loved you when you struggled to accept yourself after getting discharged from the army. I loved you when you were struggling to find a job that would stick. I loved you when you came up with the idea for your company. I loved you when you had trouble looking for investors. I loved you when you opened your company. I loved you through it all and I love you now.
“I knew that being with you while you started up and ran your company would mean sacrificing parts of you and I was fine with it. I’m still okay with it because you’re doing something that you love and something that will help so many people. What I’m not okay with is that you think you should buy my love, when it’s already something you have.
“Sure, you’ve gained weight and that’s fine. I still find you incredibly handsome and sexy. Did last night not give you that impression?” you asked with a chuckle and he just shrugs.
“I sometimes think that you’re just pretending to be attracted to me.”
“I promise you, babe, that’s not the case at all. I love you, Bucky Barnes. Whether you’re broke or rich, chubby or skinny. I love you and I’ll always love you.” you lean in, pressing a gentle kiss to his lips and Bucky sighs.
“How did I land someone amazing as you?”
“I know right? I’m such a catch!” you giggle and Bucky joins you, leaning in for another kiss.
“I’m sorry. I’m sorry for thinking expensive things would make you love me.”
“I forgive you. And I meant what I said earlier, Buck. I’m a simple person. Flowers, chocolates, and teddy bears appeal to me so much better than fancy clothes and accessories.”
“So if I proposed to you with an expensive ring-”
You laughed, “Bucky, you could propose to me with a ringpop and I’d still say yes.”
“Noted,” he says with a soft smile, love shining in his eyes. You were right, you’re a complete and total catch and Bucky’s lucky to have someone like you.
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Since it’s Tuesday and we get Loki 1x05 tomorrow and then I’m seeing Black Widow the day after, and I guess I’m doing these now, some thoughts on Loki 1x04.
Hopefully this will be a shorter post due to me not knowing wtf is going on. This show is so chaotic and it’s perfect but that makes trying to predict it impossible. How VERY LOKI OF IT.
NOPE, NOPE THIS IS NOT A SHORTER POST, I have no idea what is going on plot wise but this episode gave me a lot of character stuff to talk about apparently.
Alright, let me get the big one out of the way. I’ve already said this in various places, mostly tags, but if I’m gonna make this post it’s gotta be here. I’m uncomfortable with Loki/Sylvie being romantic. Would prefer for Marvel to stay away from selfcest. PLEASE. I’m kind of hoping and wondering if it’s a fakeout for a reveal that Loki has finally learned to love or at least accept himself through his care of and admiration for Sylvie, which would be VERY Agent of Asgard-esque and I can see it being very probable.
I think giving Loki a love interest of any kind was always going to be difficult to pull off, but especially Loki as he is at the point in time when the show finds him- fresh off his attempted takeover of Earth and probably still deeply reeling from the revelation of his adoption and also likely mentally affected by any torture and/or mental manipulation Thanos might have done on him. Loki’s self-loathing is probably still close to an all-time high here and he’s questioning who he even is. I’m not saying that you have to love yourself before you can love someone else- I don’t think that at all; in fact I think loving someone else would probably encourage someone to value themselves more- but Loki as he is here I think would need to work through some of his own issues before he could get involved with anyone else. I think that Loki would need to learn to love himself first, to accept that he’s worthy of love, before he could genuinely fall in love with anyone else. (Remember this, I’ll come back to it.)
I got major sibling vibes from Loki and Sylvie on Lamentis. Like I said last post, they felt like alternate universe twins to me. They’re the same person from different universe, but also very much not the same- I feel like twins is the closest description? I can admittedly be pretty awful at picking up romantic vibes when I’m not expecting them, but I did not get romance vibes at all.
I also feel kind of annoyed that we would never be having this conversation or having this as a canonical ship option if Sylvie hadn’t been female. Loki is now officially canonically bi, (which means Sylvie is too btw) but in comics Loki is both bi and also genderfluid. Lady Loki is just Loki when Loki is identifying as female. So having Loki fall in love with a female version of himself feels both unnecessarily heteronormative and kind of...awkward in terms of 616!Loki’s genderfluidity, to put it lightly. (Note: I am not genderfluid, this is just my opinion, please prioritize actual genderfluid people’s opinions on the subject over mine.)
That said, after I finished the episode I was genuinely confused if they were actually going there and had to go look up interviews to see what the Loki team was saying about it. I found this interview with head writer Michael Waldron, also featuring quotes from director Kate Herron and from Tom Hiddleston. Relevant quotes below:
“That was one of the cruxes of my pitch [for the series], that there was going to be a love story,” head writer Michael Waldron explains to Marvel.com. “We went back and forth for a little bit about, like do we really want to have this guy fall in love with another version of himself? Is that too crazy? But in a series that, to me, is ultimately about self-love, self-reflection, and forgiving yourself, it just felt right that that would be Loki's first real love story.”
Loki reassures her that while they might lose, they don’t die — they survive. He goes on to call Sylvie “amazing” for how she almost took down the TVA on her own, and it’s clear from the look on his face that even though they’ve only been together a short while, Loki’s already come to admire and respect her. As the moon literally crumbles around them, Sylvie places a hand on Loki’s arm, and that’s when it happens: A branch on the Sacred Timeline. These two Lokis are having a moment they were never supposed to have, which as Mobius puts it, is “pure chaos.”
“The look that they share, that moment, [it started as] a blossoming friendship,” continues Waldron. “Then for the first time, they both feel that twinge of, ‘Oh, could this be something more? What is this I'm feeling?’ These are two beings of pure chaos that are the same person falling in love with one another. That's a straight-up and down branch, and exactly the sort of thing that would terrify the TVA.”
...
“Who’s a better match for Loki than himself?” director Kate Herron chimes in. “The whole show is about identity. It's about him, and he is on a very different path, and he is on a different journey. He sees things in Sylvie that he is like, ‘Oh, I've been there. I know what you feel.’ But she's like, ‘Well, I don't feel that way.’ And I think that was the kind of fun thing about it. She is him, but she's not him. They've had such different life experiences. So just from an identity perspective, it was interesting to dig into that.”
“When Loki meets Sylvie, he's inspired solely by curiosity,” reveals Hiddleston. “He wants to talk to her and understand her and try to discern what was similar about their experiences, and what was different. He keeps asking her questions because he wants to see if his experience was also her experience. I think he realizes, and she realizes, that while they're the same, they're not the same.”
Aside from the parts where Michael Waldron says “...have this guy fall in love with another version of himself...” and “the same person falling in with another version of one another,” everything they talk about in this article could be read as Loki and Sylvie caring for each other in a way that’s not necessarily romantic. Waldron even says that the series is specifically about self-love and forgiving yourself.
(Coming back to the thing from earlier about Loki needing to love himself now.) The way I’d read Loki and Sylvie’s relationship, especially from Loki’s side since we know more of his history, is that this is the first time that either of them actually cares about themselves. Because of their trust in and their love for each other, they’re each able to see themselves as a person worthy of love. I think that’s what the Nexus Event was. I think that’s why Loki and Sylvie’s moment of connection destabilized the timeline. Because Loki’s self-loathing is a deep root of his villainy, and the sacred timeline needs Loki to be a villain, two versions of Loki feeling self-worth, at the same time and place, created a HUGE nexus event. Loki even says it himself in the first episode: he doesn’t enjoy hurting people, he does it because (he feels) he has to, in a desperate play for control. He lashes out and hurts people because he thinks it’s the only way for him to have some control over things.
What Loki starts to speak to Sylvie at the end, he says, “This is new for me,” and references the nexus event on Lamentis. We never get to hear what it is that’s new for him. The episode sets it up to make us think that Loki’s about to tell Sylvie that he’s in love with her. But I think (or hope) that he was about to say something more along the lines of how the time he spent getting to know Sylvie on Lamentis helped him learn to care about himself and see his own self worth. That’s certainly a new feeling for him, since Loki seems to have always been an outsider and been looked down upon. And actually saying out loud that he’s starting to gain a sense of self worth would definitely be new for him. Loki knows that he and Sylvie will figure this out because he’s figured out the nexus event on Lamentis- that when they accept themselves and their own self worth, they can do pretty much anything.
I think it’s also worth mentioning that we never actually hear from Loki himself that he’s in love with Sylvie. We only hear it from Mobius, who’s feeling pretty betrayed by Loki and uses the entire concept to write Loki off as a huge narcissist. That way, he won’t feel as bad about Loki betraying him, or about sticking Loki in a time loop jail. Not that Loki would be the type to shout any romantic feelings to the world, especially in this situation, but the way he kept denying it didn’t seem like it was something he had to lie about.
This episode also called Loki a narcissist a lot; I assume to set up the “reveal” of his feelings for Sylvie and explain why he would fall in love with an alternate version of himself. But while Loki is many things and sure has a lot of issues, I do NOT think narcissism is one of them. When the time loops really start to get to him, he says to Sif: “I crave attention, because I’m a narcissist. And I suppose it’s because I’m scared of being alone.” But that second sentence completely contradicts the whole idea of narcissism! According to a quick google, the definition of “narcissist” is “a person who has an excessive interest in or admiration of themselves.” But Loki is the exact opposite. He has such a low opinion of himself that he acts out to get attention, because he’s so used to being overshadowed, overlooked and alone that he’s afraid that if he doesn’t do things for attention then nobody will give him any. He can be arrogant, yes, but even a lot of that stems from well-earned confidence. Loki is very talented magically and is used to being the smartest person in the room. He knows what he’s good at. But he sure isn’t attention-seeking just for its own sake. Any narcissism he’s displayed, he’s done since becoming a “villain” in Thor, and it’s actually been a mask to cover up his massive inferiority complex.
I also think it’s definitely worth mentioning that when Loki calls himself a narcissist, he’s repeating what Mobius said to him earlier. Loki clearly does care about Mobius and his opinion of him and feels bad about how things have fallen out with him. He’s also been through the time loop dozens of times now, and there’s a reason the TVA picked that memory. Because what Sif says to Loki really reflects his deepest fear. He doesn’t want to be alone, but he has such little love for himself that he might very well think he deserves to be. Loki’s emotionally exhausted at that point and just wants things to stop.
Okay. I think that covered most of my character analysis of the episode. I have some theories about Sylvie and the Time Keepers/TVA, etc, but they won’t be anywhere near as long as THAT^ was.
To start at the beginning of the episode: Sylvie’s backstory is SO SAD. I want to hug her. She spent almost her entire life on the run, growing up and living in apocalypses so the TVA wouldn’t catch her again. She didn’t deserve any of that and I’m so upset on her behalf.
Especially because as I said in another post, I think that the reason Sylvie got taken by the TVA was because she was never going to be a villain. Sylvie was kind and wanted to be heroic in the clip we see of her as a child, and she knew she was adopted. She was never going to be the Loki the TVA needed her to be for the Sacred Timeline because nothing would have ever pushed her to do what our Loki did.
The scene with Sylvie and B-15 was so good. Sylvie was kind to B-15, because her natural instinct is to be kind, and I have so many feelings about that. I love Sylvie. And then B-15 coming to the rescue to uncollar Sylvie and Loki and give Sylvie her sword was EPIC. She’s so cool.
Small aside, I got emotional seeing Asgard again in Sylvie’s flashback. I miss Asgard. :(
Also, if a kid can escape the TVA just by biting the agent holding her, the TVA have really got to step up their game. That’s kind of pathetic. Good for Sylvie though, that was very clever of her. The most juvenile yet effective tactic.
The Time Keepers being fake robots was an excellent twist, and one that I kind of saw coming as soon as they didn’t show Ravonna’s conversation with them earlier in the episode. It immediately made me feel like there were no Time Keepers at all. (And I was wondering if the no-robots rule from episode 1 would be plot relevant! I wonder if it has anything to do with the Time Keepers actually being robots?) It was also really clear that Ravonna was lying about what happened to C-20. As of now I think that Ravonna might actually be the real power behind the TVA. Or possibly a designated lieutenant to the real power behind the TVA:
When I was looking up interviews about Loki/Sylvie in this episode, I stumbled across an article about Ravonna’s comic counterpart and started kicking myself so hard for not recognizing her. In comics, Ravonna Renslayer is Kang the Conqueror’s wife. (Now, in my defense, my previous exposure to Ravonna was in Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, in which she spends most of her screentime in a coma.) For anyone who doesn’t know, Kang the Conqueror is a time traveling classic Avengers villain. His whole thing is that he time travels, and wants to take over all of time. So it’s possible that Ravonna runs the TVA to benefit Kang somehow (maybe because Kang needs a certain sequence of events to assure a future victory over the Avengers?) or even does it on his orders. Kang the Conqueror is also set to be in Antman and the Wasp: Quantumania. (Aka Antman 3.)
(I don’t know if it’s relevant, but Kang the Conqueror also happens to be the reason the Young Avengers form. The very first member, Iron Lad aka Nate Richards, is a teenage Kang who meets his future self and decides he doesn’t want to be evil, so he travels back in time to get the help of Kang’s nemeses, the Avengers. However, he lands when the Avengers have disbanded and winds up putting together a team of Avengers-affiliated teenagers instead. The team gets bigger over time and a later version of it notably includes Kid Loki. I’m not going to go off on a Young Avengers tangent here but I LOVE the Young Avengers, please read Young Avengers volume 1 by Allan Heinberg and Jim Cheung and all of its associated tie-ins. It’s fantastic. Unfortunately Kid Loki is only in volume 2, which gets a very solid “no thank you” from me but ymmv. Imo if you want Loki, read Agent of Asgard instead; I keep bringing it up for a reason and that’s because it’s amazing. Kid Loki is also in Journey into Mystery prior to his appearance in Young Avengers, and I haven’t read that yet but it looks very good.)
I’m VERY curious as to what the deal is behind the TVA. This could go a lot of different ways but they all seem exciting.
This show is definitely gearing up for a finale in which the TVA no longer exists or at least no longer decides everyone’s fates, which is exactly what I predicted back in episode 1.
Final thoughts on the episode: I was just wondering after Mobius was pruned if maybe the pruning sticks are actually teleporters of some kind, instead of time tasers, and then we got THAT CREDITS SCENE. I am so confused but also VERY EXCITED. I almost screamed when I saw Kid Loki. MY CHILD. I just had this thought but oh, I would kill for a Thori reference. Best murder dog. Classic Loki’s costume looks so terrible, it’s absolutely on purpose, and I love it.
THIS SHOW HAD BETTER END WITH MOBIUS GETTING A JETSKI. AND BOTH SYLVIE AND LOKI HAPPY.
I’ve been wondering since the show was announced if this show would somehow end with a version of the comics Kid Loki + AoA Loki storyline, where this Loki gets reborn into the main MCU as Kid/Teen Loki so he can join the Young Avengers, and I still don’t know how I feel about that, but with how things are going I can still see it happening.
LET EVERYONE WE LOVE BE HAPPY AT THE END MARVEL.
#long post#loki spoilers#loki 1x04#loki series#a rare text post appears#loki#sylvie#mobius#tva#ravonna renslayer#kang the conqueror#meta#my stuff
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What’s missing : chapter one
Series summary: The team thinks Auston needs a bodyguard after a series of close calls, he hates the idea until he sees a interview with a girl and her dog that find missing people and falls for her at first sight. Maybe it’s his turn to find what was missing.
Auston Matthews x reader
“Are you really watching that video again? Bro that’s just sad!”
Mitch yelled, gaining the rest of the guys attention on Austons computer.
“Is he watching that interview with that girl again?”
Rolling his eyes at chirps, he pauses the video. He know it’s almost obsessive with how often he’s watched it. But she was beautiful and amazing at her job, he couldn’t help it. But if anyone asked he was just impressed with what they do.
“Will you both shut up so I can hear!”
Pressing play, ignoring the reporter only seeing her, the police vest she was wearing matched her dogs vest perfectly. Barley hearing Williams quite mumble of ‘like he doesn’t have it memorized’ only hearing her voice.
“My name is Ashley banks, I’m sure you all remember the amber alert earlier this week for Boyd Harris and I’m here with the very special team that found him Y/n and her furry partner Riot, who found the miss boy in only two hours. Let’s hear the story from the hero’s themselves. Y/n, what can you tell us about when you got the call?”
He was familiar with reporters and their boring questions, but he wished she would ask Y/n a thousand more just so he could listen.
“Well Ashley, we are under contract with the police department here and we have the highest success rate for missing people so this wasn’t anything new for Riot and I.
He got separated from his family on a hike and when they couldn’t find him we got called in. We got his scent from his car seat and I let Riot do his job, we found him two miles away from where they last saw him and we brought him back to his parents.”
“Wow, and when you say under contract with the police what does that mean?”
“I personally trained Riot for search and when the police found out about our high success rate they brought us on, being a smaller town they don’t have the budget for a k9 team so when they need assistance with missing persons, drug search or finding a suspect that got away we get called in. We have the uniform and a badge but we aren’t trained for police work.”
“Well we are glad that we have you both and thank you for your time, now back to the studio with Ryan for weather.”
“Dude, just message her and say hi.”
“What am I going to say Will? Hi, We’ve never talked but your dog is cute and I like cute dogs, so we have that in common. That’s stupid I wouldn’t even message me back!”
While the two players bicker back and forth an idea pops in Mitch’s head. It will either help his friend on many levels or Austin will hate it with a passion. Either way Mitch had to talk to Dubas.
———————————🐺——————————-
“Police with a k9 if you run you will get bit!”
You yelled over Riots barks and growls. Holding him back by his vest while he lunges with excitement. When the suspect takes off despite your warning you released the dog.
He was no match for Riots speed, who quickly took him down and holding him in the ground until you and a few back up officers caught up. Calling Riot off, praising him with his favorite toy. While the rookie officer in the bite suit got up. It was training day for the K9 department aka you, so you were both at the academy with officers watching and volunteering when you needed someone to search for, or in this case for bite work.
“Y/L! Chief wants you in the office.”
“Uh oh somebody’s in trouble!”
Mocked Jim, rolling your eyes, shoving him into the fence. Laughing as Riot gives a sharp bark when Jim tries to push you back.
“Mess with the dog get bit Jim,”
You sang, walking through the boring white hallway, for being a police station it looks a lot like a hospital. Knocking on the chiefs door, getting waved in.
“You called for me sir.”
Standing by the door Riot at your side eyeing the two men not wearing a uniform, why would anyone wear a suit here?
“Actually I did, pleasure to meet you, I’m Kyle Dubas, that is my assistant Peter, and to get to the point I’d like to offer a job.”
Shaking both of their hand, looking between him and your chief. Confusion written all over your face.
“Are you from another department?”
“Not exactly, why don’t you sit.” Kyle said, waving to the third chair surrounding the desk. “I’m a GM for the NHL team the Toronto maple leafs, and I’m looking for a bodyguard for one of my main players. I think you and Riot would be perfect.”
“Toronto Canada?”
“We understand you’d be losing your job and moving away from you family, but you will be well compensated.”
It was Peter that spoke then. You did love hockey but you weren’t exactly a cop, you didn’t know much about being a bodyguard.
“Y/L, it’s a great opportunity. Go to Toronto give it a few months if you don’t like it you can come back here.”
And just like that you were on a flight to Toronto.
The sound of your foot tapping echos through the hallway as your eyes dart around. You had to admit it’s pretty cool seeing this part of the area.
“So what we wait here?”
You asked Peter who was standing beside you, leaned against the wall outside the conference room where they were trying to convince Auston he needed a bodyguard before pulling out the “big guns” as Pete called you.
Not looking away from tapping on his phone he sighs.
“Knowing how stubborn he is it won’t be long.” Just as he finished talking yells erupted from inside.
“I said I don’t need someone following me around! You can’t give me a week without bringing this back up!”
Peter raising his eyebrows giving me a ‘I told you so’ look. Pausing as we hear Dubus walking towards the door to open it.
“You might change your mind after you see who they picked out.”
Mitch teases causing Auston to groan.
“I don’t care- Y/n? I mean Hello!”
He chirps, wide eyed as you walk through the door. He couldn’t believe it, there you were just five feet away.
“Matthews,” You hummed, looking around the room at a bunch of people you don’t recognize but one was copying Peters smirk perfectly. Your words might have been short but in your defense you weren’t exactly used to needed approval before you started a job.
“You’re, shes the bodyguard?”
Auston continues to choke as Marner mocks him.
“I know right! Why do you get the hot one?”
He laughs barely dodging Austons hand as he whipped it back towards his head.
“So what do you say about having a bodyguard now?”
Kyle asked, not getting an answer as the man in question stares blankly. While they talked you got a good look at Auston, tall dark and handsome exactly what you’d expect of a hockey player.
“You know Kyle, if you really think I need a bodyguard then who am I to argue. Is there anything I need to sign, how does this work?”
Well he changed his mind quickly, how odd and you didn’t miss his friend and Peters smirks either. As you all take a seat to finalize some details. Kyle already gave you the run down. You’ll take Austons spare bedroom, and basically be glued to his side 24/7 only when he’s at practice that’s when the other bodyguards or security train together. After the paperwork was signed, Auston offered to take you back to the hotel to get your stuff and Riot.
“So you’re a bodyguard?” His deep voice rasps out. As you walked through the parking garage.
“No, my K9 and I are police, but Mr. Dubas said our training as patrol and search and rescue work makes us more valuable then just a bodyguard.”
You really didn’t understand his thinking but your chief was right. This was a good opportunity and could be fun, so why not give it a shot.
#auston matthew imagine#auston matthews imagine#Auston matthews x reader#nhl imagine#nhl x reader#maple leafs imagine#mitch marner imagine#william nylander imagine#hockey imagine
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aaaa this is not technically a question, but I love how you draw fight scenes/action in both the comic and in all the legends/myths summarized videos!! It's so goodddd even tho you like to say how much you get tired of the process of choreographing fight scenes i think you really pull them off spectacularly!! do u perhaps have any tips... besides the usual looking at a bunch of refs and such- do you take inspo from action movies maybe? id love to know because like ur just so skilled red how
!!!! this is such a sweet question!
I’m so glad the choreography works! It’s difficult for me to gauge how engaging they are to read - I’m usually just focusing on making sure the movement makes sense from panel to panel. I’ve read a lot of manga where the fight scenes are beautifully drawn but frankly incomprehensible, because I have no idea how the characters are supposed to be moving in relation to each other. Because of this, when I choreograph a fight, I try and make sure the movement is clear from one panel to the next.
When drawing fight scenes for videos, I tend to exaggerate the movements a bit more than I might in a comic, since I’m usually trying to communicate the entirety of a fight scene in only one or two frames. Especially in the Journey to the West videos, I tend to give the characters very stretched poses - legs bent all the way up to the chest or stretched all the way back, arms completely extended, etc. In real life, overextending a limb is a very bad idea in a fight, but in the wonderful world of visual art, it usually looks a lot better than the more safe and realistic partially-bent option. I try to make sure the poses are all plausible, but for me, that stretch component is very important. It gives the illusion of effort - you can almost feel how the character would feel.
This frame demonstrates the stretch factor with Monkey’s entire pose, but it also demonstrates another important factor - flow. Anywhere there’s movement, I want there to be something flowing to show it. Monkey’s tail and sash and Tripitaka’s robes are very useful for this, and having a lot of characters with long hair or flowing capes also makes my job a lot easier.
Stretch makes the poses feel lively and full of movement. Flow makes it clear to the audience how the characters in this still image are supposed to be moving. Between those two factors, it becomes pretty intuitive to communicate a lot of energy in any given panel.
Of course, chaining panels together to make sure the movement is actually coherent is a different skillset altogether, and one I’m still working on. In my experience, the easiest way to make that work is coherent direction of movement.
This post is getting long, so I’m gonna try putting in a “read more”:
Using that fight scene as an example, the direction of movement shifts at the top of the page when Kendal rounds the tree. In the first panel, movement is from right to left. He pivots in panel 2, and then in panel 3, he’s abruptly attacked in a sudden burst of left-to-right movement. This is a new action; it’s fine that it’s moving in a new, opposed direction.
Kendal catches himself as he falls forward - this is still a left-to-right movement, because he’s still falling from the events of panel 3, so continuity of movement is to be expected. But the middle panel shifts focus again, because something new and unexpected is happening - his attacker is about to get kicked in the face.
In that center panel, the direction is no longer left-to-right - it’s out-to-in. We’re essentially zooming along the movement to accentuate its suddenness. Even if you can’t quite make out the detail of the boot, the movement is still pretty clear. The next panel brings us back to our familiar arrangement from panel 3, but this time, the movement has been reversed and is moving right-to-left again, as Kendal kicks back and gains the upper hand.
Finally, in the last panel of the page, the movement becomes a bit more directionless. His attacker is still moving right-to-left, continuing the flow from the impact, but the focus has shifted. The movement and overall flow is unclear, which reflects the fact that, at this point, the fight has become a stalemate.
Chaining movement together like this is tricky, as is representing clear movement in a single panel. You know it’s tricky because a lot of otherwise good media kinda sucks at it. For instance, I quite like My Hero Academia, but I’ve been keeping up with the manga for months and I have literally no idea what’s happening in these protracted superhero fights.
This next bit is going to contain spoilers from the most recent chapter, but it demonstrates my issue way too well for me to leave out:
This image has a clear direction of movement, but I have literally no idea what’s happening, except that someone might be about to get punched. (The next set of panels is not someone getting punched. It’s a flashback that lasts eight and a half pages.) The next panel that continues this action is this one:
It follows through on the clear right-to-left direction of movement established from the earlier panel, but it’s (a) still totally unclear what just actually happened, and (b) interrupted by eight and a half pages of other stuff. The panels individually look phenomenal (if a little speed-line-heavy for me) but it’s hard to know what’s actually happening. All we know is that movement happened; we can’t actually tell what happened in that movement.
In contrast, for a comic that does movement INCREDIBLY well, I recommend Usagi Yojimbo. It’s a comic about a wandering samurai who happens to be a rabbit, and all the Kurosawa-esque antics he gets into in his wanderings through ancient funny-animal Japan.
Uh oh! A setup for a fight scene! And that’s a lot of left-to-right movement I’m seeing! Even the swords in shot are all pointing that specific direction!
Oh, never mind. He’s fine. See all that right-to-left movement our hero is doing? See how the bad guys are suddenly pointing in all different directions and their movement has become chaotic and uncertain? That’s how you know the fight’s literally going our hero’s way.
This is a random encounter from a random issue of the comic. Fights happen frequently, and most of them follow the same structure - right down to the direction of movement. Bad guys move in from the left, good guy fights back from the right.
And when the fight proper starts, the background usually vanishes into a vague white void so the characters can take center stage - no visual cluttering, not even any speed lines.
These fights aren’t important. These random background mooks aren’t plot-relevant except as temporary roadblocks. As such, most of these fights play out roughly the same - no background, page-wide panels, minimal dialogue. But the serious fights? Those look pretty different.
Environmental shots! Close-ups! Banter! Backgrounds! The direction of movement is even reversed from the norm! This immediately sets the fight apart from the standard. Characters move around each other, the environment come into play, and each panel is a very clear beat in the progress of the fight.
Usagi Yojimbo is probably my favorite comic ever. But it’s also not the only very useful resource when you’re looking for media that does well-choreographed fights. Comics are good (even if a lot of them are just good bad examples), but animated media is built on a lot of the same principles as comic art. While they have an easier time showing movement (since they involve actual movement, rather than static images) they still need to chain shots together in a way that’s coherent and gives the audience enough information to understand the movement and progression of the situation. Movies and tv won’t help you much with drawing individual static images that communicate dynamic poses, but they can help a lot if you’re figuring out how one phrase of the fight should chain into the next.
While I’ve seen plenty of media that does this well, rather than making you analyze this stuff from the ground up, allow me to recommend a youtube channel that can do the analysis for you:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mACKHGfdLlo&ab_channel=JillBearup
Jill Bearup has a wonderful channel with a criminally small subscriber base. I only found her within the last month and I think she’s amazing. Everyone should watch her videos about fight choreography.
This answer got much longer than I expected, but I hope it was helpful!
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10-12-2020 The Ferris Wheel FIC
IN AO3
Thursday, December 10th, 2020
Driving to this place feels weird. It’s his second year in University, he’s what in America they could say as a Sophomore, he’s very much an adult now. Going back to his old high school makes him feel weird like he doesn’t belong there, but that’s what it takes to have a girlfriend that is finishing high school. And if feeling weird for a while is the cost of seeing her in person for the first time in four weeks, then he’ll take it.
Now that he thinks about it, this whole situation of waiting for her in his car brings back flashbacks. It takes him back to when no one could know about them, that was a month ago, but he’s thinking about the early days when he was still in high school and their relationship wasn’t fucked up, at least not yet.
But now it’s different. He’s waiting for her in his car, yes, but because it’s cold outside and he wants to be cozy, so he’s staying inside his black Tesla, with the heating on and listening to a nice song. Another different thing is that everyone knows about them. After getting back together they stayed in a secret relationship for a bit, to make sure that nobody from the outside could fuck them up and to gain trust and build a healthy, solid, and strong relationship that could battle the obstacles that could come.
And they are, and they did. They learned to communicate in a much healthier way, they worked very hard to strengthen their trust in themselves, in each other, in them, and they learned from their past mistakes. So now that everything is done and still working fine, they are out and public.
Being in University and having a girlfriend that is still in high school has good and bad things. The good things are that he can help her with most things she’s studying. It also helps the fact that it differentiates their social groups and personal interests, even though he’s quite happy that she gets along pretty well with his friends and he does with hers.
But the bad things are kind of bad. Like the mild jealousy, or frustration, like she likes to call it, that they experienced a few times when college boys, and girls, don’t understand the concept of a monogamous relationship and a no cheating policy. And it’s even worse when his finals week is just before hers and they have to spend a couple of weeks apart because of studying.
And that brings him to this moment. Zoë’s finals week has just finished and here he is, picking her up to go to have lunch and spend some quality time together after four painful weeks of studying and missing her.
That is why, when he sees her with her backpack on one shoulder and a big bag on the other one, her blue beret and a huge scarf that he can recognize as his and her baby blue face mask, he cannot help but smile. He gets out of the car to grab her bag and put it in the truck, while she gets in the passenger seat and takes off her mask, putting it in her school bag.
With his arm behind her headrest and a small “hello”, they share a quick and sweet kiss, resting their foreheads together afterward.
“I missed you so much these past weeks, you know that?” he says, massaging the back of her neck, whispering it close to her lips.
She has her eyes closed, and she’s leaning to his hand, but he can point at the exact moment the mischievous thought crosses her mind and her eyes open with a sassy spark. “We talked every night, and you said the same thing every time we did.”
“What, am I not allowed to miss you?” two can play this game.
Grabbing his hand in hers and putting them in her lap, she looks at him and says sweetly: “Yes, I was just joking”
Once the seat belts are securely tied and he has told her that they were going to have lunch at his house, cause he has cooked something nice for them, she asks if she can change the radio station to a more pop one so they can a have a karaoke ride, making him decide to take the long ride home.
Karaoke rides are something they have discovered quite recently. Early on in their relationship, his car was mostly for makeout sessions. Even in their first summer together, when they would go on little trips, they would mostly talk and tell stories about their friends or their past. But one day, after getting back together and getting back home from a date at their lake, Senne began to sing to a song that was playing on the radio and they began to sing along, making it a small little tradition they have whenever they get in his car. And yes, he made her sing Casanova to him a few times.
***
“Did you cook this? Be honest, I’ll know if you lie.” You could have thought that she was just hungry, but with her mouth full of tomato sauce and without even stopping to talk before eating one more bite, you can fully affirm she’s enjoying her food.
“Why are you so doubtful about it?” He’s not going to admit it, but it bugs him the fact that she doesn’t believe that he cooked this.
See, they both love to cook, but Zoë is not good at baking and cooking pastries. Surprisingly enough, Senne is, so that’s normally what he makes, breakfast food, cookies, and desserts. Therefore, the savory stuff is Zoë’s territory. She is normally the one who cooks the lunches and the dinners at the flatshare and their home dates when they don’t do it the easy way, take out.
But this time, he wanted to give her a little surprise and cook for her something he doesn’t cook. He decided that whatever he was going to make, it had to be something easy and quick and that didn’t take him so long. He finishes University only an hour earlier than her school ends, and he had to keep in mind that he had to leave a bit earlier to pick her up, so after a bit of searching, Vegetarian Bolognese spaghetti was the best dish to do.
“I don’t know, it’s not what you normally prepare.” Well, she’s almost finished so it’s easy to say she liked it.
“I know, but that does not mean I didn’t cook it myself”
Reaching for his hand on top of the table, she smiles shily. “I know, schat. Thank you for making lunch for me today. I loved it.”
***
One thing he adores about Zoë is how strong and independent she can look on the outside and how sweet and willing to be protected she is.
Letting her wards down in front of him, especially after all she’s been through, hasn’t been easy, but when she finally trusted him enough to let him see her fully, emotionally talking, was one of the greatest days in their relationship, for him, at least.
In the whole process of getting to know each other again, after the breakup, regaining trust in each other was one of the most important things they did. They needed to learn to trust in each other again and more importantly, feel safe and loved in each other’s one arms.
It hasn’t been an easy process, and there are times that they have to reassure each other and remember things to the other one in the low times, but it's so worth it if he gets to have her trust him completely.
After lunch and cleaning the dishes (the dishwasher did, but still), they decided to lay down and talk about their day, a bit more. Without even realizing it, they eventually fell asleep, taking a nap in each other's arms. And now, Senne is fully awake and looking at the love of his life snuggled up in his chest, thinking how he managed to make such an amazing woman like her, fall in love with someone like him.
With her head in his chest and her hand grabbing his hoodie in a fist, he can fully say that this sight right there is one of his favorite things ever. Only topped but her smile and kisses and his car.
She begins to stretch under his touch, making cute little noises. If that wasn’t enough to make him melt, she reaches out to kiss the closest spot on his neck and whispers a small ‘hi’, pulling him closer.
“Did you sleep well?” he says: kissing the top of her head and fixing the messy blanket, their blanket, around her body.
After hearing her “mhm” and feeling her little nod, he understood that she was not going to wake up any time soon. Not that he’s complaining. “How did your exams go? I think I didn’t ask you.”
“You did, actually, and they were okay. Aced Biology, like always, but Math was so hard. Even with your help, I felt like it was way harder than what we learned.” She’s now on top of him and is playing with his hair with one hand while biting her thumb with the other. That nervous tick she has is one of his favorite things, how she does it unconsciously, without even noticing she’s doing it.
He gently removes her thumb from her mouth and places his hand in hers, like he always does. “I’m sure it went okay, you’re smart, you have a bigger brain capacity than me, right?”
He shoots a challenging smile, giggling his eyebrows up and down, teasing her. She growls, rolling her eyes, and pulling softly the back of his hair, which makes his eyes go dark at the same time a sassy smile appears on her lips.
***
“Can we please go out?” She’s in the rocking chair in front of the big window, looking at the lights in the street. Her hair is still dumped and she’s wearing Senne’s hoodie, the one from this morning.
It’s pretty late in the afternoon, making it dark outside. They have spent all day fooling around and showering together as he loves. After that, they ate some more, played games, and continued watching the tv show they exclusively watch when they are together.
“Why? Outside it’s really cold and here inside the house there’s a ton of stuff we can do.”
She knows she is his biggest weakness. Not because he is head over heels for her, that he is, but because he has specifically said it. He didn’t know that saying that out loud, and to her, was going to end up being a weapon she’s able to use against him, along with her puppy eyes.
“Come on, please? I want to see the Christmas lights, they put them up last week and I haven’t seen them yet.”
Making her stand up just to take her place in the chair and sit her on his lap, he whines and says: “Zoë, it’s only 3ºC outside, we are going to catch a cold. Or even worse, covid. Do you know how many people there are on the streets because of the lights?”
Big mistake, he has challenged her. “Okay, first of all, 3ºC it’s not that cold, we can wrap ourselves warm. Second of all, we will wear our masks all the time. And third of all, we’ll go to the more empty streets. There’s a solution for everything, come on.”
He completely forgot the fact that she’s not only way smarter than he is, but she is also so freaking stubborn, and she’s pouting at him, so he knows she’s winning, like always.
“I’ll even buy you a hot chocolate to drink here if you want.”
“Yeah, deal.”
***
Antwerp is beautiful at Christmas. This year, because covid, there’s no Christmas Market, but the streets are decorated with Christmas trees and a bunch of beautiful lights.
He was right, there are too many people for the fact that there is a pandemic going on, but as Zoë said earlier, they are walking around the less crowded places, and they are wearing their masks, so it is okay.
This global pandemic is now part of their history together. Even though it has brought so much sadness and very difficult times to a lot of people, they kind of have to thank it.
Having to go on a mandatory lockdown, in his house, alone, made him think a lot more, as he was only and completely with himself. He had another girlfriend at the time, yes, but it was different.
To begin with, it started the wrong way. He and Zoë had just broken up, and he fell into a rabbit hole he didn’t know how to get out. He was deeply sad, almost depressed, and coping the best (worst) he knew: drinking and partying as much as he could, and ‘blocking’ his emotions, transforming himself into a man unable to feel.
Max and Daniel, his friends, tried to help him as best as they knew. First, it was partying with him, then it was trying to make him talk about it, make him bring out all the rage and sadness he had inside, even though it was pretty much useless. And then they tried what it ‘worked’ best: introducing him to girls that could get Zoë out of his mind, and him out of his destruction mode.
And that’s how he meets Nina. A beautiful and sweet girl that was perfect for his fucked up self. Different from Zoë, so he was forced to differentiate them, so easy to talk to that he could forget about everything else and be fun to be with. To be honest, she was the perfect rebound girl.
But then lockdown hit and he was forced to be with his mind and no one else. As cliche, as it sounds, being completely alone, did him so well. He was able to identify his toxic mechanisms, in his past and current relationship, and saw that he indeed needed help, as Zoë proposed in one of the many times they made up before breaking up. It also made him mature a bit more, as he had the time to analyze all his reactions and behaviors and see where, how he needed to work on.
It didn’t go as well as he thought it did, as he had to be honest and come clear to her afterward, but after all the mess he caused, he broke up with Nina and got back together with what he believes it’s the love of his life.
Now that he thinks about it, breaking up did them good. He got time to mature and work on his issues, and she got time to deal with her problems alone and become even stronger and more independent. It was painful, and it took him a long time to understand why, but it was worth it.
“Look! Do you remember?” He was so lost in his thoughts he didn’t realize where they were walking. He has his arm around her shoulders, with their gloves covered, hands intertwined. She was the one leading the way, he was just walking beside her, so it’s a nice surprise to see where they have ended up.
The big Ferris Wheel rises upon them, making memories return to their minds, and butterflies play in his stomach. That wheel means a lot to them, and this specific spot holds so many memories together. On the other side of the river, their first date, even though, till this day, she still refuses to call it a date. Right in front of the wheel, their first kiss. It’s not all happy things, this same place holds the ‘bottle’ fight and the following argument they had. But they were memories still, and bits of their rocky, but a passionate love story.
The fact that they have to wear masks bothers him, cause he would love to kiss her, recreate that mind-blowing first kiss they shared so long ago. But the mask makes him focus on her eyes, what he can see, and it’s amazing how many emotions he can see in hers.
“I love you, Zoë Loockx, so damn much.”
“I love you, too, Senne.”
A day, and especially a moment and a place like this, is worth immortalizing.
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I just want us to be safe – Chapter 1 (Andy Barber x Daughter!Reader)
Next Chapter / I just want us to be safe-Masterlist
Summary: You were the 20-year-old daughter of Andy Barber. Nine months after a one-night-stand, your biological mother decided to give the responsibility to him. Yet, you were happy with your small family. One day, though, a scary event occured & somehow you involuntarily started being a part of this.
Words: 2,089
Warnings: none just yet, maybe a bit of swearing bc that`s me, angst if you squint
If you like my work & wanna support me: a coffee would be highly appreciated ❤
You were (Y/N) Barber. Daughter of the assistent attorney, Andy Barber. You were 20 years old & used to attend Newton high school, like your younger brother Jacob did. Now, your background is a bit more complicated. Technically, Jacob was not your biological brother. Neither was Laurie, Jacob’s mother & Andy’s wife, your biological mother. Some time ago, when your dad had not been dating Laurie yet, he had a one-night-stand with some girl he had met at a bar. Just one night, he had not seen her after that encounter. What he did not know though: the girl got pregnant & nine months later, Andy found a small basket at his doorstep. There you were, wrapped in a blanket. There was a letter, too. Your biological mother had not been ready for a child but she knew Andy would handle you just fine. And, being the guy Andy was, he obviously took you in. You were his daughter to say the last. He made sure to take a paternity test & yep, you were his daughter.
Now, do not get me wrong, you grew up with Laurie being your mother & yet, you had never, not even once, called her “mom“. You simply did not feel ready to do so & neither your dad nor Laurie pushed you into something you were not comfortable with. When you were 6 years old, Jacob was born & ever since then, you had made sure to protect him at all costs. Your dad loved seeing you with Jacob & he loved the bond you two shared. Laurie was sure that you would be more open about her being your mother after that but nope. Your guess was that you still felt neglected by your biological mother & did not want to let another “mother figure“ get close to you. Your dad never lied to you about anything. He tried to explain to you from the very beginning how your biological mother “abandoned“ you & that Laurie was & will always be your mom. While Andy did not lie to you, the two of you had kept a secret from Jacob & Laurie. Your dad said that they did not need to know & he did not want them to see him in a different light. It was not his fault that his dad had been a criminal though. It was not his fault your grandfather killed, stabbed to be exact, a girl. He had been suffering for his actions in jail, for a very long time. You had agreed on keeping it for you, never doubting your dad. You knew he only had good intentions.
After graduating from Newton High, you got into law school near your home. You wanted to follow your dad’s footsteps. He did not force you to approach the same career & let you choose a path yourself. He would lie if he said that he was not proud of you for wanting to do the same as him though. Law school was absolutely amazing, you loved going there every day, loved coming home to tell the new things you learned at your dinner table. People say sometimes you know when a decision is right, you have a gut feeling about it. You were sure: this was YOUR way. Even though your family was quite wealthy, never having a problem about money whatsoever, you still wanted to have a part-time job during college. Earning your own money simply felt amazing. Your dad & Laurie were so proud of you for being so independent.
Here you were, a nice family, a house, the best future ahead. But life does not always roll that way, does it? Every time when Jacob had a problem in school or with homework, studying for an upcoming exam, he would knock on your door, waiting for you to yell “Come in! I told you there’s no need to knock, Jay.“ Jay. You always called him that. He was your little brother & while others called him “Jake“ or simply “Jacob“, you wanted to have something for yourself. Jay it was. Anyway, after coming into your room, asking if you were busy, the two of you always ended up doing school stuff together. It was more fun to have company & Jacob was always thankful for you helping him out. Of course you would, you never had a problem in high school, always bringing home good grades. You liked helping him wherever you could.
Your alarm woke you up at 6 am. Time to get up, get ready & head to college. Usually, dad would take you with him in the mornings since his work is close to your school. Today, though, you had to take your own car to drive to school, you had to work at your local diner afterwards. Yes, you did purchase that car on your own. After saving enough money, you decided on a small black car, not really caring too much about the brand. All that mattered was that it was not too pricey & that it worked. Of course your parents offered you to buy you that car but you wanted to do this on your own. And would you look at that, you managed to buy it without being broke. As you finished showering, putting makeup on & deciding on an outfit, you made your way downstairs where dad & Jacob were already seated. Laurie was most likely out on her daily morning run. You did not understand how someone could go jogging voluntarily. It kept you healthy but at what cost?
“G’morning male beings of this household.“ you greeted them & earned a chuckle from dad. You were not a morning person but that was not your family’s fault so you would brush off your grogginess in order not to say something you might regret later. Jacob was busy writing away on his phone. Gosh, this boy & his damned phone.
“Good morning, angel. How did you sleep?” your dad shot you a grin. He had been calling you “angel“ ever since you were little & you absolutely loved this nickname.
“Like a princess, as always.“ you answered. Some might say you were a sarcastic piece of shit & you know what, maybe they were right. You were a lot like your dad & you liked yourself & your goofiness. You could be serious when it was needed though, your personality was perfectly balanced.
“Hello? Earth to Jay?“ you waved your hand in front of his face to gain his attention but his eyes were glued on his screen still.
“Morning.“ was the only word you got out of him.
“Okay, what girl are you texting? Do I know her? Does she have an older sister? Brother, maybe? Is she hot?“ you teased him & Jacob sent you a glare which made you giggle.
“I’m just texting Derek.“ Jacob stated.
“Wow…And I thought I was the one who hated mornings.“ you stated, mostly to yourself but your dad heard you & started laughing. Even Jacob let out a low giggle.
While the three of you held a conversation, Laurie got back home, greeting you & asking you about your plans for today.
“Do I need to take any of you to school?“ dad asked.
“Um, actually, I’ll be driving myself today. I’ll be back home a bit later, gotta earn that bread, y’know?“ you smirked at both, your dad & Laurie to wait for their reactions. Seeing them laugh was one of your favorite things in this world, especially when you were the reason.
“Sure thing, just text me when you know how late it’ll be.“ dad waited for you to nod, looked at Jacob & asked “What about you, buddy?“
“I’ll be walking today.“
“You sure, you know it’s no probl-” but before dad could finish, Jacob cut him off.
“I’m fine with walking.“
“Okay, just be safe.“
Checking the time, you saw that you should keep going so you went over to dad & Laurie, gave each of them a kiss on the cheek, went over to Jacob, messed up his hair a bit which earned you a groan & finally made your way outside to your car. You hopped in, turned on the engine & started driving off. Every time you would drive yourself, you always stopped at Starbucks for a quick breakfast. Your breakfast mostly consisted of a nice coffee. No offense, but the coffee you got at home just was not it. And let’s be honest: Nobody survives college without having coffee.
Finishing all of you classes for the day, you & a few of your colleagues exited the building. Usually, when you were at college, you did not look at your phone at all, finding it too distracting when you had to focus on something else. But as soon as you unlocked your phone, you knew something was off. You had two calls from Jacob, which was weird since he barely ever called you, & 5 missed calls from dad. Fuck, something was not right. You excused yourself from your friend group, teling them you had to go to work earlier, while in reality, you moved to your car, opened it & got inside. As soon as you closed your door, you called Jacob first. He picked up almost immeadiately.
“(Y/N)? Thank god, I’ve tried calling you.“ he sounded a bit shaken up? That was off.
“Yeah, I know, sorry `bout that, Jay. You know how I ignore my phone during classes but anyway…What’s up? Are you okay?” you started growing concerned now.
“Newton High is locked down. Apparently they found a 14-year-old stabbed in the woods. I am fine though.“ his voice was quiet, almost like he did not want anyone else to hear. Your heart stopped a beat. There was a killer running around town. Who the hell would stab a teenager? Who the hell would stab anyone to begin with?
“Have you talked to dad yet?“ you really did not know what else to say. You were just glad your little brother was alright. That was all that mattered right now.
“Yes, he’s on it. He said he wanted to call you. Have YOU talked to him?“
“Not yet, I’ll call him now, just wanted to make sure you’re okay. Call me if something’s wrong or if you`re scared, okay?“ your heart was literally racing. Yeah, your brother was fine but the victim was his age & Jacob usually took the way through the woods to get to school. The mere thought of your brother being the one who had been murdered scared you like crazy.
“Will do. Thanks, (Y/N). Bye.“
“Bye, Jay.“ you ended the call & let yourself breathe for a moment. Not even once in your life did you think something like this could happen in your neighborhood. You lived in one oft he safest areas in the country & yet this brutal event had happened so close to home. The world was a scary place. A few minutes later, after calming down as good as it was possible, you dialed dad’s number. He would most likely knew more. To be honest, you were not sure if you really wanted to know more about this case but on the other hand,you were curious. Of course you were, you wanted to do this as your future job. His phone rang twice before he picked up.
“(Y/N)? Angel?“ he did not sound scared, just relieved to hear your voice.
“Yeah, it’s me, dad. I’m fine, talked to Jay. He told me what happened. Well, as much as he knew, of course. What the hell is going on?“ you were rambling. You always were when you grew nervous or anxious.
“Breathe, angel. Look, there’s a lot going on. Could you come home, like, right now? I called your boss, she said it was fine if you took the evening off.“ he knew you would say you needed to go to work so he had called the diner you worked at to explain the situation.
“I’ll be home in ten.“
“Drive safe.“ your dad always made sure you were okay, trying to protect you as much as he could. He would do everything for his family to be safe.
“Always.“ & with that, you ended the call. Everthing inside you screamed to go over the speed limit but your dad’s words popped into your mind again. He would not want this. You would survive another ten minutes before coming home.
~to be continued~
Published 04/30/2020 by Cathy
#defending jacob#andy barber#andy barber x reader#andy barber x you#andy barber x y/n#andy barber x daughter reader#andy barber x daughter!reader#Chris Evans#chris evans x reader#chris evans x y/n#chris evans imagine#defending jacob imagine#fanfic#fanfiction#appletv#apple tv#original series#reader insert#reader imagine#masterlist#series masterlist#writing#writers#fandom#crime#crime series#jacob barber#chapter#captain america#Steve Rogers
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So I've been working on something over the last week and here's what I've been up to:
Meet my Robot Master/ Reploid OC Miss "Ivory Plant" (Ivy for short or Ivory woman) and her adorable Mutant Venus fly trap buddy Ivan.
She was inspired by my pal
YellyDany
Robot Master OC Gardener Man (I though he could do with someone to love besides his sunflowers)
Here's her profile and her back story too (just her heads up her backstory is a little long but really good- I promise) I recommend you read it sometime to better understand who Ivory is:
Name: Ivory Marguerite Plant or just“Ivory Plant”
Nicknames: Ivy, Rory, Flower bud (Gardener Man), Poison Ivy (by Professor Chaos)
Age: 20 (resembles a twenty year old human female)
DOB: September 2nd
Race/ Gender: Reploid / Robot Master/ Female
Height: “5’6” (167.3cm)
Eyes: Magenta
Family / Friends: Professor Enigma (Creator/ father figure), Gardener Man (Love interest/partner), Ivan (Adorable mutant venus fly trap pet), Professor Enigma’s Team of fellow scientists / robotics engineers( close friends).
Occupation: Botanist, Biologist, Peacekeeper Environmentalist, warrior/protector
Personality/Traits: Tends to be very quiet, a to herself kinda person- mostly due to her past, fun, loving, a little awkward at times, smart, kind, spunky, badass very friendly, loyal, selfless
Abilities/Powers: Can talk/ understand plants (physically/ emotionally- i.e she can sense when they feel pain e.t.c), Fast/agile, quick reflexes, very skilled blades woman,
Likes: Nature, the environment, gardening, her special little green house, plants, taking care of others (including her plants and other people), Ivan (her mutant Venus fly trap), biology, chemistry, doodling, fulfilling her duty as a robot master/peacekeeper and protector, being a badass warrior, poofy baggy clothing (she loves her one piece she wears all the time the most), The colours royal purple, parrot green, bright magenta and gold, watching her plants grow (over time that is), growing flowers, the art of Bonsai, roses, sunflowers and a certain Gardener robot master (Gardener man) 😏.
Dislikes: Her past, being used and manipulated for others gain ( reference to her past), professor Chaos, bad guys, criminals, evil/ wrong doers, those who purposely harm the environment, being a bit clumsy around a certain someone 😏, being disturbed during her work, early mornings, ignorant/ thick headed idiots, people trying to take her research/scientific works (she does some pretty cool advanced stuff), those who go in her lab without her know abouts.
Profile/ Backstory: Ivory was designed as a Robot Master, not an ordinary one- A protector of nature and humanity …
Her creator Professor/Doctor Garin Enigma Wanted to take his time building his Robot “Ivory Plant '', he’d begun to slowly piece her together day by day, after all Ivory was his most specialist /advanced reploid designs after all . On the other hand jealous Evil Professor/ Doctor Kirk Chaos had heard about Enigma’s robot, so late one evening he broke into Enigma’s lab, stealing both Ivory’s blue prints and her unfinished built body- Chaos was too quick for the police and managed to run away with Enigma’s robot- He made sure to hide well so Enigma could never find him or his robot master “Ivory Plant ” ever again.
After studying her blue prints and what Enigma had built so far, Professor Chaos decided to tweak Enigma’s Reploid Master a little. As he continued to finish the last few parts (Enigma had 95% of Ivory made) to her internals- He implanted a very Powerful yet unstable (in the wrong hands of course - wink, wink) module inside her. Taking advantage of so, Chaos used Ivory or Ivy/ Poison Ivy (as he renamed her destructive self) for his own gain- using simple mind control he’d manipulate her into causing havoc and destruction. Though after returning to her true sweet loving self after each time, Ivory felt ashamed and disgusted that this horrid man was making her do so- she couldn’t escape his control and if she tried to fight back, Ivory was only abused by his goons.
Though after many months of this horrendance torture, shame and mistreatment Ivory learnt the truth about her creation/creator though one of Chaos’s minions she’s managed to give a “talking to”. It was devastating and hurt her deeply to find out what Professor Chaos had done- Such a cruel cold-hearted monster he was…
On the other hand Enigma and his team had been searching all over the entire city for her, Enigma was losing hope and soon became quite depressed after the loss of Ivory- she was like a daughter to him- she was to be a great Master and protector.. But now.. Now he knew all hopes of ever finding her again were very slim- He knew Chaos would do whatever it took to hide her from him…
During one of his latest searches for Ivory (though still feeling quite depressed), Enigma found himself caught in the middle of a frightened and terrorised runaway crowd of people. Enigma couldn’t help but go forward and explore the situation, for some reason this seemed very suspicious …
When Enigma made his way in towards the commotion- his eyes must have been playing some horrid trick on him, he couldn’t believe what he was seeing… It was his lovely Robot Master Ivory in her armoured form- though she seemed different and was acting very dangerously.. Pulling out his x-ray tech specks, Enigma quickly analysed her internals- he was disgusted at what he’d found. He couldn’t believe that Chaos put such a powerful (dangerously powerful) and unstable module inside his reploid. Enigma just couldn’t withstand watching Ivory (under mind control) cause so much damage, quickly pulling out a small device which would break her free of the mind control/ stabilize the module- he targeted the device at her and hit her right on the upper arm. Ivory returned to her normal self, she collapsed to the ground out cold and unconscious. Enigma ran over to her side and picked her up, he carried her back to his vehicle and took her home to his laboratory..
In the course of his return back to his laboratory, Chaos and his Goons were locked up and taken away. Enigma couldn’t have been more pleased to hear the news.Now with Ivory back in his grasp and on the repair table of his lab- Enigma did a full body analysis scan on his reploid to see what damage Chaos did to her. After doing the Analysis, he found exactly where Chaos implanted the powerful yet unstable module- right beside her heart. Removing it from her body sadly wasn’t an option- Enigma knew once it was implanted in a reploid it would bond and become one with the reploid, also if he were to try and remove it it meant taking her fully apart and wiping her mind completely. Professor Enigma knew his only option was to make a special orb that could control the stability/ use of power from the module, but still allow her alone to use the immense power through a much more controlled way. So whilst she was still unconscious and resting- Professor Enigma set out to make her this stabilizing orb. Half an hour later the orb was complete- it took the form of a choker (he didn’t want to just randomly put it on her neck). Removing the temporary one he’d put on her earlier, he placed the orb choker around her neck- The left Ivory hooked up to his analysis machine- keeping an eye on her systems as he allowed her to rest.
Twenty-four hours later, Ivory awoke- she was a little startled and panicky at first, but then she realised she was safe when Professor Enigma (her original creator) came bursting into his lab to help her .Enigma unhooked her form his machines, the took her outside. The two sat down on the slightly cold stone stairs- though Ivory felt so lost and so ashamed for what Chaos made her do under mind control, She told Enigma everything. After their talk- Ivory sat there looking off to the side, sad, ashamed with a few tears in her eyes- Enigma comforted her and told Ivory that he would help her get past this pain Chaos caused. She smiled sincerely, grateful for Professor Enigma’s kindness.
Many months onwards, Ivory soon began to feel like her true self and her past pain faded away- she didn’t feel like a monster no more. She was out and about fulfilling her destiny to be a great protector, she also was an amazing and talented scientist too. When she wasn’t doing so, Ivory would spend most of her time talking to her one and only mutant Venus fly trap buddy Ivan (he’s like a lil’ dog ^^). Ivory was special- she had the ability to communicate and understand nature/the natural environment. She on many occasions would also help out / assist Professor Enigma and his team with scientific research or experiments.
One evening though, on her way back to Professor Enigma’s Laboratory- with Ivan in her arm, something (More like someone 😏) caught her attention. A tall fair young male reploid wearing a big floppy straw hat, working in his garden and talking to his big beautiful sunflowers. She stood there watching him, slightly blushing- Ivory was surprised to see that she wasn’t the only one who could talk to plants or loved to garden. She just couldn’t help blushing deeper a little more- this mysterious man was quite handsome. Ivan was starting to feel a little bit left out, he made a small screechy whine noise which caught the attention of this stranger and Ivory. When Ivory saw the handsome stranger turn around, she went beet red-turning around quickly herself to run off- Ivory lost her footing and tripped- heading face first towards the ground. When this mysterious handsome reploid turned around, he saw this young female reploid awkwardly falling to the ground. Gardener ran over to her side just in time- Catching both her and her Mutant Venus fly trap. Ivory’s eyes were closed tight, then she slightly opened one, only to find that she had been caught by the mysterious young reploid man she was staring at..
Gardener Man: “Are you alright?”
Ivory (Blushing, but shaking it off quickly): “U..um.. Thank you. I’m alright. But where’s Ivan?”
Gardener Man: “You mean this little guy? He’s alright”.
Ivory (Smiling): “Aww, I’m so glad you’re safe too Ivan “
Ivan made this cute little happy squeal noise, gently licking the side of her cheek.
The mysterious young reploid man raised his brow in confusion/ in a questioning manner- then politely asked:
Gardener Man: “You can talk to plants too? (he says blushing a little).
Ivory with Ivan in her arms stood up, blushing still, looking off to the side and fidgeting about a little…
Ivory: “Y..Yeah.. I can talk to plants, I have the ability to feel what they feel and understand them like no other”.
Gardener Man (Blushing a little more): “O..Oh.. Nice I can talk to plants like that too”.
Ivory (Awkwardly blurting out/ all cutesy red in the face): “Y..yeah I saw you could do that, Um.. that’s the reason I kinda tripped over and fell”.
The mysterious young reploid man stood there blushing ever so deeply, then awkwardly introduced himself to her…
Gardener Man (Still blushing deeply): “Erm..W..Well.. A..Anyway, I..I'm Gardener Man, It’s nice to meet a fellow Botanist like yourself”.
Ivory blushed all cutesy as she bowed her her:
“It’s nice to m..meet you Gardener man. And I..I’m Ivory, some call me Ivy l, though sometimes Professor Enigma and his team call me Rory”.
He came up close to her, holding her hand, he gently shook it in gratitude..
Gardener Man (Still blushing a little): “ It’ was a pleasure to meet you Miss Ivory, oh I mean Rory”
She smiled sincerely once more, blushing, then she looked down at the sunset…
Ivory: “Oh crap!!!, I’m going to be late. I hope Professor Enigma doesn’t mind. It was lovely meeting you Gardener Man, but I better get going”.
Reaching into the frog pocket of his overalls and pulling out a small packet, he placed them into Ivory’s hand..
Gardener Man: “Here, take these. For your garden.I hope we can see each other again miss Rory”.
Ivory (Blushing deeply, Nodding her head): “Oh..um, s..sure, I would love to spend more time with you , that would be great”.
He bowed his head once again, politely tipping his straw hat to her..
Gardener Man: “Good bye miss Ivory, Until we meet again”.
Ivory (Blushing, walking off and waving back to him from a distance):
“ G...Goodbye Gardener Man.”
Eventually she arrived back at Enigma’s laboratory (Her home), he was a little puzzled when she arrived back so late, it wasn’t like Ivory- but Then he saw the packet of sunflower seeds in the little satchel pocket on her utility belt-he smiled sincerely, Enigma instantly knew why she’d returned back so late now. When she finally got back into her quarters, Ivory placed Ivan back on her desk, then went outside to her small greenhouse- planting the sunflower seeds that Gardener Man had given to her. After she planted them, Ivory just stood there resting her cheek in the palm of her hand- slightly slumped over daydreaming about her next meeting with Gardener Man.
Over the next few weeks, Professor Enigma began to see change (Good change) in Ivory- she seemed much happier and enlightened. He was glad to see her well being improve, especially after all the crap she went through. Ivory, was spending many of her hours out and about with Gardener Man- Usually helping him with the nature reserve/garden, hanging about with him or just spending quality time in general with him. Each time she met up with Gardener, her feelings for him only seemed to grow stronger and stronger. He too after spending all this time with Ivory- Gardener Man soon felt himself fall for her too. As things in Ivory’s life began to improve, a disturbance from her past was arising once more …
Professor Chaos, with a little help from his two trusted Goons- Spark and Rust, Escaped from prison. Of course though, his first plan was to get his hands on “Ivy” again-but this time using a special mind controlling collar that he built secretly in prison, so he could use that unstable module of hers to take down the city and build his empire of ruthlessness and take over the world of reploid robotics..
Late one evening, walking through one of the many beautiful moonlit gardens, Ivory and Gardener Man were out and about together, Tonight though Ivory knew she’d finally muster up the courage to tell Gardener Man how she really felt about him …
As the two came to a halt on the open pavilion (round circular path in the centre of the moonlit garden), Gardener Man turned to face Ivory, Looking deep into her eyes- causing her to blush ever so deeply. From in the bushes behind, unaware, Professor Chaos and his two goons sat their watching in disgust as they got ready to put the plan into action.
Meanwhile, back on the pavilion …
Gardener Man (still looking into Ivory’s eyes and clutching onto her hands):
“ Hey, Ivy.. Look I must say it’s been wonderful having someone like you to talk too”.
Ivory (Blushing): “ It’s been wonderful being with you too Gardener”.
The two stood there blushing all cutesy and looking off to the side a little- the Taking a deep breath in, slowly releasing, Ivory spoke once more..
Ivory (Fidgeting about nervously a little, yet still blushing): “ Well um, Y..you see Gardener, there’s something I want to tell you”...
Gardener Man (Blushing a deeper shade of red : “Y..You can tell me anything you like Ivy”.
Sighing out loud and blushing deeper herself, Ivory spoke once more …
“W..Well Gardener, I.. I just wanted to say ….”
Professor Chaos couldn’t take this disgusting sappy reploid romance anymore…
Professor Chaos: “NOW!!! NOW YOU FOOLS, GRAB HER!!!!!”
Ivory (with a slight tremble of fear in the tone of her voice) : “Huh? C..Chaos?...”
Rust Violently shoved and punched out Gardener Man into the shrubbery, Spark on the other hand grabbed Ivory from behind aggressively holding her down in a choke hold- shattering her stabilizing orb into a million tiny pieces. Ivory gasped, gaging- kicking and screaming , fighting back, trying to break free from Spark’s grip. But alas he was way too strong- then out of the shadows, a bone chilling yet familiar voice spoke..
Professor Chaos: “Well, well, well it’s been so long since I’ve seen you my beautiful “Poisoned Ivy”. Come now.. I have a wonderful gift for you”.
Ivory’s eyes widened in fear, with a few tears trickling down her cheeks as her past trauma flashed back through her mind. When she saw the horrendous collar he pulled out from his lab coat- she kicked and screamed louder and louder as Chaos got closer and closer..
Getting up and out of the shrubbery, Gardener Man- a usually calm, kind man was certainly enraged and unhappy that these Goons and Professor Chaos were hurting his Ivory. Gardener Man ran up to them, pulling out his futuristic hedge trimmer shears in defense.
Gardener Man: “HEY, GET YOUR HANDS OFF MY IVORY OR ELSE” (he came closer with the blades to Chaos’s ugly mug).
Chaos with a disgustingly smug smirk on his face…
Professor Chaos: “Oooh, whatcha gonna do? Trim some hedges to torture us?”
His two goons (the idiots that they are) laughed.
Gardener Man (stepping forward, in an unusual stern tone): “ I’M WARNING YOU CHAOS, LET HER GO OR ELSE”
Still standing there with such a smug expression on his face, Chaos did so..
Chaos: “Very well then.. Remember now.. This is YOUR doing. SPARK!! DROP HER.. NOW!!!”
Just as Spark slammed her knee first to the ground, Professor Chaos swung his hand with the mind controlling collar and aggressively let it automatically tighten to her neck. Ivory was on her knees screaming in pain as electrical sparks flew out of the collar..
Gardener Man’s eyes widened in shock/ horror, Chaos stood there chaotically laughing like a maniac- Poor Ivory did all she could to fight the power and pain, but it was too late it now controlled her mind- activating the true potential and darkness of the unstable module from within.
Professor Chaos: “Good girl Poisoned Ivy. Now You WILL do as I say. Your First order, transform and get rid of this pathetic reploid. Then go cause havoc and destruction in the city”.
The collar shocked her once more, she bowed her head, knelt down on one knee…
“Poisoned Ivy” (Under mind control): “Yes Master, I shall”.
She stood before them Transforming (Magical girl style of course) into her true yet powerful badass armoured Robot Master self..
Gardener Man stood there, blushing quite deeply- he never knew how truly beautiful yet badass Ivory really was- seeing her like this was causing his circuits to overheat a little 😳🥵.
Alongside Ivory, her weapon of choice- a long bladed bo staff covered in theory vines appeared. Chaos with such a manic smile on his face..
“NOW POISONED IVY, DESTROY HIM!!!!!!!”
Gardener Man snapped out of his daze, he backed away, though in fury yelled out at Chaos-
“YOU MONSTER!!!! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO IVORY? I’LL MAKE YOU REGRET EVER CONTROLLING HER MIND CHAOS!!!!!”
Chaos rolled his eyes and watched as his newly controlled “Poison Ivy” got closer and closer to the foolish Gardener Man- Swinging her bladed staff widely towards him…
As he walked backwards a little quicker, Gardener Man lost his footing and tripped- slipping. Though as he slipped and she wildly swung her blade- the tip scraped the top of his shoulder, only just cutting through to his internals- leaving some minor damage..
Gardener Man (holding onto his shoulder, gritting his teeth): “ ARGH!!! You’ll regret this Chaos”.
Gardener man got up holding onto his slightly damaged shoulder, staring into Ivory’s eyes.
Gardener Man (Sincerely speaking to his beloved): “I know you’re still in there Ivory, I’ll be back to save you”.
Poison Ivy Growled (she’s still wearing the mind control collar), just as she went to manically swing her blade once more, Gardener Man ran off clutching onto his slightly damaged shoulder. Poison Ivy was just about to go after him..
Professor Chaos: “NOW, Poison Ivy don’t worry about that pathetic reploid- go out and about- cause havoc and destruction in the city”.
Poison Ivy: “As you wish master”.
And with that she ran off into the city, taking down anything and everything that got in her way. On the other hand bursting through the doors of Enigma’s laboratory, still clutching onto his slightly damaged shoulder blade- Gardener Man called out for Professor Enigma. Some of his team (robotics engineers) took Gardener aside and repaired his damaged shoulder blade whilst Enigma came along.
A moment later and not too soon, Professor Enigma came running into his laboratory..
Professor Enigma (in a panicky tone): “What’s happened, what is it, where is Ivory?”....
Gardener Man looked off to the side, sighing heavily…
Gardener Man (in a sad yet disappointed tone): “ I’m sorry professor, but somehow Chaos has escaped prison, he ambushed Ivory and I, he destroyed that orb around her neck and replaced it with a mind control device”.
Professor Enigma: “CHAOS IS WHAT? AND HE’S DONE WHAT TO IVORY??.. Oh no!!!!”
Gardener Man (Sighing and looking to the ground feeling ashamed) : “ I’m sorry professor, I tried to protect her yet I failed to”.
Professor Enigma (placing his hand on Gardeners other shoulder): “ It’s not your fault Gardener, Chaos stole Ivory back when I was in the middle of completing he- he damaged her the moment he placed that unstable module inside her. But right now, all we need to do is stabilize that module once more and get her back..”
Gardener Man: “But how will we get Ivy to listen to us?, Chaos has turned her into a fully dangerous weapon of mass destruction”.
Enigma turned to face Gardener Man, with a sincere smile he replied: “You can talk to her, she’ll listen to you-for you see Ivory cares about you very much and loves you deeply with all her heart”.
Gardener Man (Wide-eyed and blushing): “ S..She loves me? O..Oh Um (he blushed a deeper shade of rose, looking off to the side).
Professor Enigma still stood there sincerely smiling. Then called upon his team and then finally turned his attention back to Gardener Man…
Professor Enigma (Gently tapping Gardener’s shoulder): “Come now Gardener, we have a reploid to save”.
Gardener Man (shaking it off): “R..Right Professor, Let’s go save Ivy”.
In the middle of town, a mind controlled yet deadly “Poisoned Ivy'' was causing chaos, causing havoc and destroying everything in her path. People and other reploids ran away in terror and fear as this mighty robot master unleashed such wrath and power from within. Professor Chaos and his two goons watched as their newly formed “Poison Ivy” tore up the town …
Professor Chaos (Evil Cackling): “Ha ha, Look at those fools run in fear, that unstable module certainly has such immense power. Ah she’ll have that city torn to shreds in no time”.
Spark: “He he you’re right boss. You’ll have your empire in no time”.
Moments later, back down in town, Enigma, Gardener Man and his team rolled up- Professor Enigma was hurt to see his beautiful reploid Ivory being tortured and forced to be violent…
Enigma (under his breath) : “You Bastard Chaos, you’ll pay for what you’ve done to Ivory”.
Then from his pocket he pulled out a small device, handing it over to Gardener Man.
Professor Enigma: ” Now Gardener, I need you to get close enough to Ivory so you can palace this small device on the collar- it’ll override the mind control she’s under and deactivate the collar - automatically separating itself from around her neck. Can you do that for me?”
Gardener clutched the small device tight in his hands, bowing his head to Professor Enigma.
Gardener Man: “I promise you professor, I’ll save her for you no matter what”.
Enigma sincerely smiled, nodding his head back in agreement. Gardener left the professor’s side and ran off to save Ivory. Sneaking up through the rubble, Gardener Man watched as his sweet little flower bud Ivory (under the control of the collar) tore the city to shreds with her mighty long-bladed ivy staff. He still couldn’t help blushing at Ivory in her armoured form, indeed she truly was a beautiful yet badass botanist..
Now though, wasn't the time to let one's circuits overheat again, Gardener had a mission, to save his sweet Ivory. Up on his perch, as he continued to watch “Poison Ivy” destroy the city, Chaos caught a glimpse of Enigma, his team and Gardener Man- This made his blood boil, he let out a loud cry in anger..
Professor Chaos (in Fury): “ARGH!!!! GOONS, GET EM, GET EM AND DON’T LET THEM GET NEAR POISONED IVY!!!!!”
“YES SIR!!!!!!” (Spark and Rust replied running after them).
The goons unleashed themselves and went on the attack- chasing down Enigma and his team- Spark and Rust on the other hand went after Gardener. They weren’t going to let him get near “Poisoned Ivy”. The two couldn’t wait to tear that little punk to shreds.
Just as he turned the corner to get to Ivory, Gardener was cut off by Spark and Rust..
Spark: “And where do you think you’re going flower boy?”
Rust (snickering and chiming in): “Yeah, why don’t you just run off back to that reserve of yours and plant some more seeds”.
The two goons stood there cackling themselves stupid at their poor mocking humour, Gardener didn’t have time for their crap- rolling his eyes he attempted running past to continue his mission.
Spark grabbed him tightly by the arm, slamming him up and against the wall
Spark: “You’re not going anywhere near her now flower boy”.
Rust: “Let’s break him Spark”
Spark: “Great idea Rust, here I’ll hold him down and you can throw the first punch”
Gardener Man (getting frustrated as he tried to break free): “ARGH!! I don’t have time for you idiots”
Spark: “Hit him now Rust. Go for that killer swing of yours”.
Just as Rust swung his arm, Gardener found the inner strength to break free from Spark’s grip- Dodging Rust’s punch. Instead Rust used his killer punch on Spark, right in the side of his left cheek.
“KAPOW”...
“ARGH, RUST YOU DUMBASS, YOU GOT ME RIGHT IN THE FACE”..
“Sorry Spark, that little flower boy punk dodged my punch”.
“GRRR, THAT’S IT, I’VE HAD ENOUGH, LET’S BREAK THIS LITTLE FLOWER PUNK UP”.
Gardener was concerned, he didn’t have time for this, nor could he back out from it either. So he decided to do the only thing he could do..
Stand his ground and fight back..
Gardener Man revealed a side of him he’d never thought or imagined showing others. Throwing his straw hat aside, he let his enragement unleash his power from within- he piled out his futuristic hedge trimmers, though this time they were long sharp holo- blades. Spark and Rust seemed a little intimidated but these idiots were willing to fight anything…
Gardener Man (in a smug tone): ��So you two meatheads still wanna fight? Huh? Come on then, I’ll let you throw the first hit”.
Rust ran towards to hit him, Spark went from behind and Gardener jumped up dodging their poor attack. They were furious- so they continued to fight- throwing whatever they had to stop him from saving Ivory. On the other hand, Enigma and his team were captured and taken back to Chaos …
Professor Chaos (with an Evil Grin): “Ah, lovely to see you Enigma, please sit back there all tied up and enjoy the show. Don’t worry Ivory is in good hands now”.
Professor Enigma (growling): “YOU FILTHY BASTARD CHAOS, ARGH YOU WON’T WIN THIS”
Professor Chaos (getting up close in his face): “Oh Enigma, I already have”.
He said cackling out loud. Enigma sat there watching Ivory, then Gardener Man..
Enigma (to himself): “You’re our only hope now Gardener, I know you can save her”..
Back down on the ground, Spark and Rust were exhausted trying to fight Gardener Man- it was no hope, he’d dodged all their attacks and managed to throw a few of his own attacks in. Just as the two- with the little bit of energy they had left- swung once more, the side of Gardener’s Holo-blade skimmed across the surface of their arms- cutting the surface of their disgusting skin..
“ARRGGGH!!!!”
The two fainted/ fell to the ground in exhaustion and pain. Gardener Man stood their for a moment looking over them, then putting his holo blades away, he pulled out the little device Professor Enigma gave him and ran off to save his beloved flower bud Ivory…
From his perch, Chaos slammed his fist in anger…
“ARGHHHHHHH!!! YOU GOONS ARE USELESS, I’M GOING AFTER THAT BLOODY ROBOT MYSELF”.
And with that Chaos jumped into his hover pod and went down towards Gardener man and Ivory. Gardener caught up to Ivory once more, in that time she’d managed to do a lot of damage in town- it hurt Gardener to see her doing this under Chaos’s control. He just couldn’t take it any longer..
Gardener Man took a deep breath in, slowly releasing he came close to face “Poisoned Ivy”..
“IVORY!!, I mean Ivy”
She stopped swinging her blade and turned around..
“Huh?”..
“It’s me Gardener, Come now this isn’t you. Please stop this nonsense and come back to me-Professor Enigma and I can help you”.
Deep down inside her there was still a small part of her that Chaos couldn’t control, her heart- that part of her responded back to her love…
“G..Gardener?”
“Yes, yes it’s me Ivy, come now take my hand, let us spend the rest of our lives together in my nature reserve”.
He put his hand out, she sincerely looked at it- with a tear in her eye- she then moved her hand closer to his …
Professor Chaos jumped out from his hover pod and ran over to Ivory with the control to her collar in his hot wrinkly hand. Just as Ivory’s hand got an inch away from Gardener’s, Chaos pressed the button on the control, sending painful/ dangerous amounts of electricity through the collar into Ivory…
Ivory fell to her knees Wailing and screaming out loud in pain…
“ARGHHHH, ARGHHH, ARGGHHHH!!!”
“You disobedient little brat, how dare you stop destruction, now get up and fight you worthless girl”
Gardener was so furious, he ran up close to Chaos and violently swooped the remote out of Chaos’s hands. The remote fell, shattering into a million pieces- now no one could control Ivory except for the collar still around her neck. The mind control collar still had control of her mind and that unstable module inside was still overpowering her too much.
Then Gardener Man chained him up, leaving Chaos chained and in the hands of the law. Then he did the one thing he needed to do was save Ivory. Dodging all the rubble and havoc, Gardener Man had reached his love again, grasping the small device in his hands. He knew the only way to get through to her was with his words- so he spoke lovingly from his heart once more…
“Ivy.. Ivy it’s me again”
She turned around once more, with a cute yet confused expression on her face..
“Now Ivory, take my hand and let us be together forever, just you me and our beautiful garden”
“Y..you a..and me?”
“Yes Ivy, just the two of us”.
Ivory’s eyes welt up with tears, she let her bladed staff fall out of her hands and onto the ground. Then in that very moment she fell into his strong arms- not only out of love but because the immense power had destroyed some of her circuitry/ internal. Gardener caught her, placing the small device on the collar- it deactivated it and ivory was set free. Then she transformed back into her normal everyday self. Ivory was stone cold to touch, Gardener Man stood there cradling her in his arms- he wasn’t ready to lose his special flower bud.
“You’ll be alright my dear sweet Ivory” (he says gently running the back of his hand down the side of her cheek).
The police- well prepared this time took Chaos and his goons away to a very specialised and inescapable prison. Professor Enigma and his team were set free. Enigma made his way over to Gardener and Ivory- When he reached the two, he smiled sincerely…
“Great job there Gardener Man, you saved her. Now we need to get her back to the lab for some repairs- both that collar and module have caused severe damage to her”.
“Very well then professor, let us save her”.
Not long after they arrived back at his laboratory, Ivory was rushed into the Professor’s personal lab with the team for immediate repairs. Gardener Man sat in Enigma’s office, awaiting the news that Ivory was alright. Three and a half hours later- Professor Enigma entered his office Gardener lifted his head up with a questioning look on his face..
“I..Is she alright Professor?”..
Professor Enigma (sincerely smiling): “Ivory is alright, her body is repaired and I gave her a stronger stability orb- this one though is made of Lothanium- it’s both lightweight and indestructible- only she can control the module and the power inside her”.
“May I see her?”
Enigma nodded his head in agreement and with that one of his team members took Gardener in to see her. There in her quarters, Ivory lay slumbered in a healing coma, wired to the analysis machine to keep check on her internal systems, until she awoke. Gardener Man sat by her bedside until she awoke, he gently held her hand in gratitude as he was grateful she was still alive.
As days passed and she still remained slumbered, Gardener stood by her side. He couldn’t help but put sunflowers by her bedside table too- he knew how much she loved them. Very early one morning, Gardener sat asleep in the chair by her bed- Ivory awoke from her healing coma. She felt a little wobbly at first, but slowly sat up- rubbing the sleep from her eyes. Once she’d fully awoken, Ivory looked over at her bedside table- there in the center was a vase of beautiful golden sunflowers- only one robot Master grew sunflowers that beautiful…
Then her memory came back, it was horrible and thinking about it brought her to tears..
“GARDENER, GARDENER MAN, WHERE IS HE?” (she shouted with a slight sobbing tremble in her voice).
Her voice echoed through the lab, Professor Enigma and his team came running. Gardener Man awoke startled, yet overwhelmed with joy to see Ivory awake..
“GARDENER MAN, WHERE ARE YOU?????”
He got up out of the chair and sat on the bedside alongside Ivory comforting her..
“SHHH,SHHH,SHHH, your alright Ivy, it's alright. I’m right here, you’re fine. It’s ok you're safe now, I promise”.
Ivory turned around, her face lit up- she nearly knocked Gardener man off her bed. But lovingly hugged him. Professor Enigma looked through the doorway sneakily, he too was glad to see her awake, but he told his team to head back to their work- he thought it was best to let the two have some alone time so they could catch up.
As she sat there cuddling him, Gardener Man wiped the small tear drops from her eyes-Ivory just averted her eyes cutesy blushing as he did so. The she sat up, blushing some more and fiddling with her fingers, then in a soft sweet voice spoke:
“U..Um, Gardener Man? “
“Yes Ivory?”
“Look, a.. About the other night..” (Ivory blushing redder than before)
“Y..Yes Ivy?” (he says going red and blushing himself).
Ivory (coming a little closer- like an inch from his face, now completely beet red and her heart racing):
“ I.. I just wanted to say, um.. I really love you, like a lot and I wanted to give you this..”
Closing her eyes and as red as a beet, Ivory leant forward and lovingly kissed Gardener Man on the lips. Gardner’s eyes opened wide and his face went as red as hers, but he just kissed her back. Moments later the two sat their unlocking lips, averting their eyes blushing- then Gardener Man grabbed her hand the two just sat there together being adorable. Then Gardener mumbled..
“Ivory, do you still want to come live with me on my nature reserve, just the two of us?”
“And Ivan?” (Ivy chimes in cheekily).
“Of course he can Ivy” ( he says all cutesy glowing and smiling sincerely).
Many months later, Professor Enigma and Gardener Man helped Ivory heal over her trauma. During that time Professor Enigma let her go off and live with Gardener- after all he brought out the true happiness inside her. Ivory though would always go back to professor Enigma and help / assist him with many of his botanic experiments / engineer research and experiments.
Ivory was finally set free of her horrid past and now she spent the rest of her days doing what she loved with the handsome robot master she loved- flourishing their garden, looking after the reserve and protecting the people.
The End!!!!
Anyways, I hope you like Ivory as much as I do. Hopefully soon I can do some doodles of her and Gardener Man- also a sketch or two of Professor Enigma and Chaos too ^^!!!
"Ivory Plant belongs to me !!!!!!"
"Gardner Man belongs to my pal YellyDany "
#ivory plant#ivy#ivan#mutant venus fly trap#robot master#robot master oc#Mega Man#mega man x#reploid#reploid oc#mega man oc#robot girl#robot#robots#powerful fighter robot#powerful fighter robots#robot art#manga art#manga girl#anime girl#anime art#anime manga art#illustration#illustration art#illustration drawing#my original character#my oc#traditional art#traditional illustration#traditional media
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Keep Calm and Go to London chapter 15
Synopsis: This is the story of (y/n), a successful actress, musician, musical producer and songwriter. After battling depression and breaking up a long relationship, she seeks for a change of air, escaping LA for a while going to visit some friends in London and there she meets Henry. -Disclaimer: some chapters are mostly smut.
Previous Chapters:
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Triggers: talking about body image issues, low self-steem; bullying; mention of sex; talking about kids.
Tag list: Here’s the incredible people who showed me support (thank you so much for that) and people who asked me to tag them too ☺️ (I think I will write a few chapters of this story, if you want me to tag you, tell me ☺️ ) @cavillanche @mary-ann84 @henry-owns-these-tatas @yespolkadotkitty @dancingwendigo constip8merm8 penwieldingdreamer iloveyouyen littlefreya wondersofdreaming alyxkbrl solariumss sweetybuzz25 @thethirstyarchive @agniavateira @honeyloverogers @hell1129-blog @lunedelorient @michelle-1185
Disclaimer: First, there’s a song that reader writes for Henry; of course I’m not a songwriter - as much as I’d loved to- so the song is actually a song from Hannah Montana (yes, laugh but the song it’s perfect for him ♥). Second and lastly, you may not feel as reader relatable in some things, especially in this chapter, but I hope that you still can enjoy it.
Since you started to date Henry, those days of hating your body and yourself were starting to be part of the past. There was no doubt that he desired you and you were perfect on his eyes and made you feel perfect. You could be without any makeup and a simple ponytail or a bun and wearing pyjamas and he'd still made you feel like the most gorgeous woman on earth. You still enjoyed to get dress and wear makeup because it made you feel even better. Most days you felt amazing and the self-bullying started to fade out. But, you still have those days in which you didn't felt confident and beautiful. This was one of those days. You got up and try to put a pair of jeans and ended tossed them out and choosing a pair of leggings instead because the jeans didn't fit you so well anymore. Since the quarantine began, you felt a bit more anxious than usual, so you started to eat a bit more, and the fact that your amazing boyfriend loved to bake bread, cookies and other delicious pastries and meals didn't help you at all. You could go to exercise and your only cardio was the long love-making sessions with Henry every night, that made you burn calories, but no as much as you were consuming. You went to see Henry and seeing him made you feel worse. Contrary to you, he was losing weight but gaining muscle. He trained during the day with some gym stuff and sex made him burn more calories than you. You hated your slow metabolism. He was looking hot as hell and you felt the complete opposite. - Good morning, baby. I made you breakfast.- he greeted you as soon as he saw you. "Great," you thought sarcastically when you saw the waffles waiting for you. - Is there anything wrong? - he asked you detecting that you didn't really mean that. - I'm not hungry, that's all.- you replied, offering a smile. - You have to eat. Sit- he indicated you. - I don't want to - you said, pouting. - What's going on? - he questioned, worried. - I've gained weight. I cannot wear my jeans because they feel really tight and uncomfortable. - Sorry to hear that, but don't you worry. I'm pretty sure when this is all over you will lose that weight or just get new jeans. You look amazing, there's nothing to worry about. I assure you. - That's because you're a man and you're super hot. With me is different. If I get just a few pounds, I'll be all over the internet with people saying that I'm fat. That's what they do to us in Hollywood. - Don't pay attention to what people say about you. Somebody will always look for something to hurt you, just don't let them get to you. You are perfect now and will be perfect always, no matter how you look. - he said as he grabbed your face and gave you a kiss.- And by the way, men also suffer those things. - he said and he sat on a chair and made you sit on his lap.- I was bullied as a kid for being overweight. It affected me a lot and till this day does, maybe not every day, but it definitely makes me feel bad sometimes. Some days, I don't understand why you or anyone would think I'm "sexy" or why you'd like to be with me in the first place. Other days, very often, I feel this pressure of maintaining my muscles and being fit, because I feel like you'd not like to be with me if I don't look ripped and also, I'd trouble with the roles. - he explained looking at the floor as he talked. You grabbed his chin and kissed him. - Sorry baby, I didn't know that. I assure you that no matter your looks, I'll always want you. - your arms were around his neck, resting on his left shoulder. You put your head next to his. After a bit, you ate breakfast and asked him to follow you to the living room. He waited for you there as you went into another room in the house and soon appear with your acoustic guitar. You sat on the couch and he pulled a chair to sit in front of you as you prepared to play something. - When I was in LA, I wrote you a song. I tried to speak a little bit your language, cowboy. -you said winking at him and made him laugh. - Really? - he asked excitedly. - Yes. I hope you like it. - you said and started to play the song for him.
Smooth talkin', so rockin' He's got everything that a girl's wantin' He's a cutie, he plays it groovy And I can't keep myself from doin' somethin' stupid Think I'm really fallin' for his smile Yeah, butterflies when he says my name Hey! He's got somethin' special He's got somethin' special And when he's lookin' at me I wanna get all sentimental He's got somethin' special He's got somethin' special I can hardly breathe somethin's tellin' me Tellin' me maybe he could be the one He could be the one, he could be the one He could be the one, he could be the one He could be the one He's lightnin', sparks are flyin' Everywhere I go he's always on my mind and I'm goin' crazy about him lately And I can't help myself from how my heart is racin' Think I'm really diggin' on his vibe He really blows me away, hey! He's got somethin' special He's got somethin' special And when he's lookin' at me I wanna get all sentimental He's got somethin' special He's got somethin' special I can hardly breathe somethin's tellin' me Tellin' me maybe he could be the one He could be the one, he could be the one He could be the one, he could be the one He could be the one And he's got a way of makin' me feel Like everything I do is perfectly fine The stars are aligned when I'm with him And I'm so into it! He's got somethin' special He's got somethin' special And when he's lookin' at me I wanna get all sentimental He's got somethin' special He's got somethin' special I can hardly breathe somethin's tellin' me Tellin' me maybe he could be the one He could be the one, he could be the one He could be the one, he could be the one He could be the one
Henry couldn't stop smiling. He was so happy and you were over the moon knowing that it was you who made him feel that way. Seeing him so happy was the best feeling in the world. - I don't know what I like the most: the song or your voice? Mmm, let's called it a tie. - I'm glad you like it. - I loved it. - he assured you - So tell me, do you really think I could be "the one"? - he questioned, raising one eyebrow and putting and puppy face. - I think you are the one. - you replied. - I feel the same way about you.- he kissed you. Then, he sat on the couch and you used his thighs to sit on. You kissed for a little bit and then just caressed each other and talked for a bit about things like video games, the music you were working on while quarantining and his hobbies of painting little action figures of his favourite online game. After a bit of silence, you got lost on your train of thoughts. He also believed you were the one for him. Something inside of you told you it was time to confess to him that you've been postponing since you two became a thing. You sighed and decided to let it out. - Babe, there's something we need to talk about.- you said sweetly but let him know that was a serious topic. - Sure, is there something wrong? he asked worriedly. - You want to be a dad, right? - you put it as a question, but it was more a statement rather than a question. - Yes, I'd like to have kids, why do you ask? - I knew it since the beginning. With you is obvious that you want that and that someday you'll be an amazing dad. - you said and then paused for a minute while he looked at you confused - I've never wanted to be a mother. Kids were never part of my future and I don't let me get started in the idea of being pregnant, it scares the shit out of me. - you finally admitted. - I wanted to tell you about the beginning but then I really liked you and wanted to be with you. I didn't know that we actually would become a couple later on the road. And I like you so bad that I was afraid you would leave me, so I couldn't find the courage to tell you. - Henry remained silent. He didn't seem mad at you for not talk to him about it earlier; he was just trying the process the information and also he looked sad. You grabbed his chin and made him look at you.- It's crazy how in one month and a half you change my world completely. I like you so much. I know that we have a long road to ride, if we remain together, so we'll still have to get to know each other better to be 100% sure that the other is "the one" for us. I knew that, but I also knew that the kids thing was something important, so I've been thinking about it, a lot. I've questioned myself is motherhood is something I could do someday. Since I started to think about it, there's a picture -well, is more a scene than a picture- that keep popping in my head: A big garden on autumn, with the leafs falling from the trees and there's you, playing superheroes with a little kid, our kid. Kal is with you two. And me, inside the house, sipping hot tea while I watch you from the window with a smile in my face. Every time that scene appears on my head, I smile; I feel truly happy. But when I think about I'm still sitting on the fence. I think it could be something I would like to do with you, but I have to be completely sure. It isn't just about me or you, there's another life involved in this decision. So the reason I'm telling you all this is because I wanted to ask you to give me some time. I wanna go through all of this in therapy to know for sure I'll make what's best for everyone. If someday I realized I cannot do it, I'll step aside and let you go and find the person who can give you that. I'd never take that away from you. I hope that is me if we still are together, but if not, I'll let you go. But to know all of this, I need time. Do you think you could give that to me? I understand if you want to end this here because you want to be now with someone who's sure about wanting children, though. - you finished. There was a moment of silence. Henry was looking again at the floor, thinking. After a minute, he finally spoke. - That scene. I want it. With you. - he replied and looked into your eyes.- If you tell me that there's even a small possibility that someday that could be a reality, I assure you that I'll give you all the time you need. -he said and stroke your cheeks. You smiled at him and shared a sweet kiss.
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