#different vacuum

[punk-lucifer]

something im really appreciating, watching the olympics, is that while all the athletes are demigods that are absolutely at their physical peaks for each sport NONE OF THEM have instagram face. despite the homogenous nature of social media that’s been creeping into all media since the late 2000s all the athletes look so different. noses! jawlines! lips! eyes! everyone i see on tv looks like a real person and i am LOVING IT

[matrixx-level]

if steve came out of the ice different (part 1?)

Bucky almost crushes his phone in his grip when he gets the call.

It takes him twenty minutes total to get the rest of the necessary information he needs from the phone call, hang up, call everyone else as he flies out of the building, hop on his bike, and drive all the way to SHIELD headquarters. 

He runs through floors, flies up stairs, pushes people aside, crashes through glass windows, and breaks down doors until he finally finds the area he’s being kept in.

70 years, it’s been. 70 years, and they finally found the love of his life.

���Mr. Barnes! Wait! Let us explain to you first- he’s not the man you knew-“ someone in a white lab coat hurriedly tries to tell him, grabbing his wrist as he’s about to break into the labs where they’ve apparently defrosted him (they waited only until after he was defrosted to call Bucky. They waited this long- God- Bucky could kill them all for hiding Steve from him-)

“Let. Go. Of. Me,” Bucky grits out under his breath, his voice a dark, ugly thing full of bitter rage and unimaginable disappointment. The lab coat immediately releases him, taking a fearful step back before they catch themselves and take back their composure. Bucky doesn’t wait around to see it happen - he slams his metal shoulder into the doors holding him back from seeing his other half and-

Bucky has been recovering from being the Winter Soldier for years now, two decades at least, and even though he has been healing and re-finding himself and making Bucky Barnes anew, making new friends and mourning the old, moving on with his life and not taking this second chance for granted - there was always something missing.

And that something, was Steve Rogers.

They told him how Steve had been lost in the Arctic, and that Howard had been looking for him ever since - and while he hadn’t believed Steve to still be alive (hadn’t wanted to get his hopes up only to find the dead body of his best friend), he hadn’t discouraged Howard from his searches. He’d comforted his old friend, and they had grown close, and Bucky hadn’t turned away whenever Howard had begun to rant about the expeditions to recover Steve - how they had covered a lot of ground and still had a lot left to go, how he theorized this or that, how he could feel that he was getting closer I’m tellin’ ya Bucky, he’s right around the corner, I can taste it.

Bucky was afraid they’d find him, and all that would be left would be an ice cold, frozen skeleton.

But as Bucky physically screeched to a stop in front of a thick, glass-looking wall (though Bucky doubted it was measly glass - SHIELD doesn’t slack on security), the wide open, empty room on the other side holding only one thing, he could officially say his fears were unfounded.

“Stevie?” he breathes out, his breath stuttering in his chest and his heart skipping a beat before giving out. 

Steve. He was right there. He was right there.

Steve stands in the middle of the room, back facing the glass and Bucky, and he’s completely, unnaturally still. Like, Winter Soldier level still. He’s wearing his banged up, singed suit from the war, because of course he is, and not a single blonde hair is out of place on his head. His fingers don’t even twitch at the sound of Bucky’s voice.

Bucky moves closer to the glass until he’s pressed up against it, his hands flat on either side of his face as his eyebrows pinch, calling, begging, “Steve? Stevie, it’s me, it’s Bucky! It’s me, sweetheart. Could you please turn around, doll? Please Stevie, let me look at you.”

A long, drawn out moment passes, no response coming from Steve as the tension slowly begins ratchet up higher and higher, Bucky tensing as the hairs on the back of his neck start to rise. An uncanny, uneasy feeling shoots through his stomach, and he swallows, uncertain and a little scared.

“Stevie? Baby, please-“

Bucky suddenly cuts himself off as Steve turns around lightning quick, and a loud gasp rips out of his throat as Steve’s eyes light up with a bright blue glow, his body beginning to glow just the same - blue steam seeming to raise off of his suit and swirl through his hair, making it flutter as if in a breeze.

Between one blink and the next, Steve winks out of existence, and reappears right in front of Bucky’s face. He slams his fists against the glass, and Bucky startles so hard he takes a stumbling step back, almost falling on his ass.

“Bucky! Buck…” Steve shouts, drawing out the ‘u’ of Bucky’s name as he bangs against the glass again. His head twitches wildly, the blue energy appearing to emanate from him pulsing in his veins, his eyes, and lighting up the whole space with bright light. He seems to glitch in place, winking out of place and showing up someplace else. 

“Buck…” he calls from the middle of the room again, blinking up at the ceiling as he paces back and forth, restless and twitching and glitching. 

Bucky gapes, his heart racing and the blood rushing in his ears as he just stares at Steve, not understanding what the fuck was happening.

“That’s what I was trying to tell you..” the lab coat from earlier whispers from behind him, cautiously entering the room as they studiously ignore looking at Steve. Bucky wonders if they’re afraid of Steve, and then shakes the thought away when it fills him with rage.

He looks at them over his shoulder, a scowl twisting his lips. “What did you do to him?” he accuses, his jaw clenched so tight it was a wonder it didn’t creak or groan.

The lab coat frowns and huffs out an offended breath, immediately saying, “We didn’t do anything to him!” in response. They quickly lost their bravado, though, as they stole a quick, fearful glance over at Steve before looking back at Bucky. “Not us, anyway.”

Bucky narrowed his eyes. “And what the hell is that supposed to mean?”

The lab coat gulps, shrinking back a little. “It- I- um-“ they look over at Steve again before sighing, and looking down at the ground. They clear their throat. “Do you remember the tesseract? The blue glowy cube that powered Hydra’s weapons back in your day?”

Bucky frowned, nodding in a bid to get them to continue.

They sigh again. “Well, after the mission where you were…lost on the train, Steve went on his own mission to stop Schmidt. While they fought on the Valkyrie - the plane that Steve had crashed - Schmidt had presumably died from the fight and got kicked off the plane, or whatever else theory exists. But the tesseract had stayed on the plane, and when Steve had put it in the water…” 

The lab coat winced, swallowing, stealing another small glance at Steve before looking up at Bucky with big, soulful eyes. “We believe it changed him. It stayed in close proximity with him for over 70 years, assumedly morphing him down to his very cells with just its energy. When we defrosted him, it refused to be taken by us and-“

They winced again, though this time it was closer to a flinch, and Bucky’s scowl only deepened as he barked out, “And what?”

They gulped. “And it…fused with him. Poof. No more tesseract. Only Steve - or, well, whatever’s left of him now that he’s been…possessed? Restructured? By the tesseract.”

Bucky reared back as if he’d been slapped, blinking rapidly and swallowing uncomfortably as he tried to make sense of it all, as he tried to process everything the lab coat had said.

A loud thump behind him made Bucky spin around, and he didn’t know what to feel as Steve stared right at him, his head tilted and his hair floating and his skin pale and lit up blue.

“Bucky…” Steve whispered, and Bucky let himself feel just pure and utter relief.

Why should he care that Steve was different now? That he was more space energy cube than person? Bucky had changed - fundamentally - and now he was navigating the world as best he could. If an ex brainwashed assassin could do it, why not Steve?

He walked back over to the glass, and pressed himself completely against it right where Steve was,  his hands aligning with Steve’s. He sighed out deeply, more relieved than he could ever say, and tears steadily filled his eyes and spilled onto his cheeks.

“Hi baby. I missed you,” he whispered.

And he swore. He swore, that Steve smiled in response before it was gone just as fast. Steve shook his head harshly, hitting himself in the head, and Bucky flinched and tapped against the glass. “No, no sweetheart, please don’t hurt yourself,” he pleaded, wishing he could gently hold Steve’s hands to prevent it himself.

And then he realized. Why was he just standing there, staring at Steve, instead of breaking him out? Jesus, he was off his game today.

“Let him out,” Bucky murmured, not turning to look at the lab coat that he could smell was still there. He was back to gritting all his words out between his clenched teeth, his voice more of a poison than a manner of speech. “Or I will break him out myself.”

Steve held his gaze with something like amusement in his eyes, his expression full of the most awareness Bucky had seen from him so far. Steve tapped against the glass in a merry little tune, bopping his head to it, and he smiled a little, like Bucky was the most marveling thing he had ever seen. “Bucky,” he whispered. “Bucky…I’m with ya ‘til the end of the line, pal…”

Bucky almost choked at those words, at finally hearing those words for the first time in 70 years, but before he could respond, the lab coat shakily replies to his threat, “Sir, we can’t do that, he’s dangerous and completely unprecedented with whatever powers he has now-“

Bucky listens to Steve hum under his breath, and sees him twitch and listen to things no one else can hear and seem to move through space like an anomaly, sees his best friend in the whole world, alive and here in the future with him, and he knows there’s nothing he won’t do to protect him. 

“Let him out…or so help me God, you will meet your maker today,” he spits out, and he means it more than he’s ever meant anything else.

Needless to say, Steve Rogers was released from his SHIELD imprisonment, and Bucky Barnes had never been happier.

(inspired by cascades. by orange_crushed on ao3)

[professor-doc-emeritus]

I love the dichotomy we get between jinshi and the emperor that shows off how the traits that make jinshi a great prince, boss, friend (husband 👀👀👀👀) are the very same traits that will make him a terrible emperor.

His hard working streak that lets him handle his weird assignments with grace and manage the clashing egos of the inner palace is what will get him killed by overwork as emperor since he has no real head for delegation. It took 11 volumes and the intervention of most of his immediate family just to get jinshi to hire a secretary. The emperor always being free to host parties, sleep with the consorts, and bust jinshis balls in-between it all is, much like lakan always being free to annoy maomao, actually a sign of him being god-like at delegation and organizational management.

His lack of ego and willingness to look the fool if it gets the job done is great for avoiding political snafus and getting to the truth of things. It's genuinely the thing that makes all his expeditions to the western capital so wildly successful: he really doesn't gaf about how he's seen by the public, so long as the job gets done and his friends aren't in immediate danger. It's also the exact opposite of what you need from a head of state who's legitimacy is not-insignificantly based on the public perceiving you as an instrument of the will of heaven. The emperor being willing to kill people and their families over slights jinshi (and most sane human beings) would be willing to let slide is cruel and inhuman, but it's also what keeps the populace at large from being able to organize against him and challenge the imperial power.

Jinshis compassionate streak, his urge to save as many people he can and find the best solution for everyone possible, makes him great to work for. He'll give you assignments that match your hyper fixation, work around your crippling social anxiety, give you a post that just-so-happens to involve you staying with the love of your life for a few months. More over, he isn't gonna risk his life and your position over petty ego or greed when he can find a peaceful solution instead. But the hesitation he feels at using people like tools, and his unwillingness to act if it means throwing people under the bus, is what will lead to death and destruction if he's the emperor. Especially in a time of war. The current emperor is willing to ruin lives and crush nations if it reaches a goal, advances an agenda.

Finally, jinshis loyalty, I'd say even more than his looks, is what draws people to him. He loves his toys, can't stand to give them up. It makes him a great romantic figure. But when you're the emperor, and you need to be willing and able to marry someone for political ends, produce as many heirs as possible regardless of who with, and set aside the feelings of those women for your own sake, that loyalty is poison.

Idk, so often in stories with these systems they sorta follow the logic of "if he's a good person he'll be a good leader." I think it's cool to have a series talk about how being a leader involves being EXTREMELY comfortable with being an asshole, for a myriad of reasons, and how someone being pleasant to work for wouldn't make them an effect monarch.

[sunshine-zenith]

Random thing that just hit me — wouldn’t Peri’s birth year actually be 2002 in universe, not 2001?

(Not to apply a coherent timeline to a franchise that literally has two of its main characters go on a ten thousand year long vacation, casually has dinosaurs be electricians, and had that one seemingly controversial episode dedicated to using magic to hand wave the floating timeline in universe, but the ANW did it first by having Cosmo canonize 2001 as when he and Wanda became Timmy’s fairies)

There was that entire special in the original series where the entire plot was kicked off by Timmy having Cosmo and Wanda for an entire year — Abra-Catastrophe. If Timmy got them in 2001, had a fairy-versary, and a hand wavey amount of time later wished Cosmo and Wanda could have a baby, that would logically put Peri’s birth in 2002, even with the timeline breaking/fixing magic the from later in the series

Putting aside the in universe weird ways fairies age and time passes in Fairy World and going off in universe birth year to in universe current year, that means Peri is 22, not 23. Not a big difference at all, but still neat to think about

[the-tortured-fangirl-department]

Pre Lester Apollo is not one dimensional and is already complicated and I’m tiered of parts of the fandom pretending he’s just selfish, self-centred and loves himself more than anything (this things are true but also not it’s complicated ok?)

[witchofthesouls]

Unicron being earth also explains why cybertronians can't handle earth cold but are okay with Space cold

Unicron a fridge comfimed

Cybertronians and humans enjoy snipping at each other because of that.

"Oh, I'm sorry who's the one that can't survive Anartica even with proper provisions?"

"My species had been traveling stars before your own ancestors crawled out of the primordial soup!"

"At least my people aren't a walking, talking version of the Titanic! Boom, iceberg dead ahead!"

"At least, my people aren't blobfish when taken off their planet!"

[velvet-games]

viktor what did they do to you

[cupidswurld]

‘bloodlust’ supernatural s2 ep3 / david hume / c.s. lewis / ‘braciole’ the bear s1 ep8 / anne carson / ‘motion sickness’ phobie bridgers

[margindoodles2407]

riyo and thorn's friendship is something that can be so personal to me

@whyoneartheven @seeking-elsewhither @jessicalled @griseldafury21 @cheerfullycatholic

@kommandantpinks @turdofanerd @seaotter-17 @majorproblems77

[leahthedreamer]

My hope for next season and leading into the Olympic season is that the ISU somehow revives womens skating cause yes it’s beautiful yes it’s lovely but is it exciting? Ehhhh.

In my personal opinion it’s the discipline that’s stagnated the most post Covid. You can argue that the crown goes to ice dance in that regard but even though the judging is shitty and the ISU insists on ridiculous themes for the rhythm dance we’re still getting quality and creativity through the bouts of corruption.

I just feel like women’s choreography has plateaued, it’s become uninteresting, very little memorable programs. Same elements same ordering same music like it’s becoming a by bland to watch. And my honest wish for the future is to reignite the spark it once had.

[mabaris]

another thing that i just noticed is that the dwarves have now had done to them by the elves what we’d thought the elves had done to them by humans, at least before inquisition. cut down in their peak and permanently ruined, left to scrabble for the broken pieces of their history

not to say it’s an inherently bad choice because oppression isn’t that straightforward, but it sure was an interesting choice to shift the “they destroyed our way of life and fractured our society and we ARE allowing ourselves to feel angry about it and reclaim our history and maybe use that to rebuild what we once had” narrative from the elves to the dwarves. like if that’s the story you really wanted to tell, you could have also given it to like. bellara

[revvethasmythh]

it happened to me: i cleaned my room and it made life feel a hundred times more livable

[menlove]

okay actually no I'm NOT done bc so many people on here will hear someone say "men are an oppressive class who hold social power and privilege" and SCREAM bioessentialism but literally no part of that is bioessentialism in fact it's LITERALLY the opposite. like no men ARENT biologically oppressive and evil or whatever. they aren't biologically superior or stronger or more violent or anything. SOCIETY put them in a position of power and based all our gender norms around that. this is such basic shit it's actually exhausting.

everyone wants to parrot "gender is a social construct" until you actually start talking about what that means and who that construct is benefitting and why

[lady-raziel]

Would you rather have future generations, who can and should judge the decisions of those who came before, view you as a person who thought the right way or as a person that actually did the right thing

[cat-with-a-keyboard]

how common is it to feel a visceral Need for physical touch, im curious because i personally feel it to the point it makes me s little insane sometimes but then i also have siblings and friends who do Not like to be touched at all

[galactaknightyaoi]

making a fankid but shaking my head the entire time so people know i'm against the societal belief that everyone's goal and only purpose in life should be to have kids and form a family