#even if he is an mcu goon - that's okay - pretty in character for him to be a sellout actually

[hedonistbyheart]

I've been amused and annoyed by the 50-50 split of people gushing about the deadpool trailer and the people hating on that excitement, but the funniest thing to me is when the reaction of the buzzkills is "the dicksucking is off the charts" because, like, Wade would love that.

It's a homophobic insult used on par with bootlicker, obviously, but used against excitement about deadpool in particular it's just funny to me.

Ya I'm hoping for dicksucking actually, he's been trying to get that on screen for years!

[plaid-shirtsandvibranium-arms]

Nemesis: Retribution (5)

Summary: 10 years after the Avengers had left you for dead during a mission gone wrong, you unexpectedly re-enter their lives. Wholly unrecognizable from the person they used to know and now with a new team behind you, they ask for your help to stop a chain of syndicates who were manufacturing and peddling the super soldier serum. You were determined to say no until the chance at the vengeance you had been chasing for years was added to the offer.

Fandoms: Avengers, Marvel, MCU, The Punisher, Daredevil

Pairings: Female Reader x (Frank Castle, Billy Russo, Matt Murdock, Steve Rogers, Bucky Barnes, Pietro Maximoff)

Warnings: EXPLICIT SMUT. SHAMELESS SEXUAL BEHAVIOUR (18+ ONLY. I WILL BLOCK YOU), human rights violations, polyamorous relationships, reverse harem, blatant disregard for canon timelines and events, angst, Punisher canon level of violence and gore, strong language, mentions of trauma, mentions of character death, fluff if you squint,

A/N: Okay okay. I’m finally happy with how this turned out. Goddamn that’s a lot of words. I’ll see you all in the party in the comments and reblogs! I love reading what you think. Don’t be shy. Jump in!

No permission is granted to repost, steal, or translate my work. Not even a credit makes it okay. Tumblr is the only place I post my writing. If you see it anywhere else please report it.

[gif not mine. credit to: this glorious gif post.]

Series Masterlist | Full Masterlist

1:5 Lemons

2 missions.

A 50/50 chance of getting Salvacion.

Your heart was pounding in your chest and you were on the verge of getting lightheaded from the anticipation. A decade of chasing this bastard and this was the closest you had ever gotten to him. The man was not only deadly in skill, but always seemed to manage to give you the slip every single time. Forcing yourself to face the life you left was worth it if it meant finally avenging Lily.

The briefings the past week had been long, but they were important to make sure everyone was prepared to end this. You were minutes away now from shipping off to the mission and your whole body was buzzing.

This was it.

There were two locations that you had to hit at the same time. Two locations with large shipments that you had to stop from reaching its destination. The teams needed to be split.

"Let's go over this one more time," Steve started, fully suited up in black that was truly a far cry from his old blue and red ensemble. "I'll be leading a team into the shipment yards with Bucky and Nem at the front. Sam will be on air support. Billy will manage a team of snipers in the surrounding area."

This was the smaller of locations, but with the larger shipment. The location itself entailed a more strategic approach. You weren't happy that there was a chance that Salvacion would be at the other location, but having Frank on that team put you somewhat at ease. He understood more than anyone how important this was to you and he promised he would take Salvacion alive. He was yours to kill.

Frank always kept his promises.

"I'll be leading the other team into the industrial district," Frank continued, his signature vest strapped tight across his chest. "Pietro and Matt will cover the perimeter and I'll be charging in with Nat and Wanda."

Their location was more complicated. It was too close to the residential district and the warehouses there ran 24/7. There was a high risk of civilian casualty if they weren't careful which was why almost everyone who was powered was assigned to that group. They needed every capability they could pull to make sure no innocent blood was spilled.

"Good," Steve nodded. "We'll both have a group of agents with us too. They've been briefed and are prepping transport as we speak. We leave in 20 minutes."

Everyone nodded their understanding, grabbing their gear and heading down to the transport docks. There was a fleet of cars standing by that would be used, gassed up and ready to go. Your hands were drumming repeatedly on your vest, itching to just get on the road. Frank and Matt lingered with you before they joined the rest of their group.

The towering marine stepped up close to you and tightened the buckles of your bulletproof vest, wishing you would have accepted the offer of better gear from the Avengers but also knowing it was hypocritical of him when he declined as well.

It just wasn't your style.

It was his own damn fault for training you in his own combat style. He had no doubt of your capability, but still he worried about you. He always worried about you and he felt a sense of responsibility toward you after finding you tortured within an inch of your life.

"Stay close to Steve, sweetheart."

You snorted, but a glance back at Steve who was already looking at you with a raised eyebrow made you grumble and relent. "Fine."

"Good girl," Frank chuckled, before leaning in to press a firm kiss on your lips as he held you by the buckles of your vest. You smiled into the kiss, feeling the steady protection and reassurance that he always brings.

He stepped away for Matt to get his turn. This was a tradition that just developed naturally between the four of you. A kiss before danger. A promise to keep safe. A promise to come home.

Matt took your face in both hands and kissed the breath out of you as if he was trying to outdo Frank. It wasn't uncommon. He was always more aggressive with his affections, always as if he was scared you might suddenly slip away from his life and you were happy to reassure him every time that you weren't going anywhere. He chuckled when you bit his lip, beating him to it. He gave you one more peck before stepping aside.

Billy came closer to your side and slung his arm around your shoulders, chuckling as he nuzzled his nose against the side of your face. It was amusing him to no end at how easily you were folding for Steve. It was a nice change of pace from the three of them never being able to deny you anything.

Most especially Billy.

"We're definitely keeping Steve around. I think I like you compliant," he snickered, turning your head toward him with a finger under your chin. He planted a quick chaste peck on your lips. Your eyebrows quirked at the unusual behavior.

"What you're not gonna try to outdo me too?" Frank teased.

"Nem knows I do my best kissing elsewhere. Don't you, pretty girl?" Billy winked at you and you rolled your eyes. You smacked him in the chest but didn’t comment further. He wasn't wrong, but he was smug enough as it is.

You were about to turn toward the cars when you were knocked back slightly to the side by a sudden peck to your cheek. You couldn't stop the laugh when you caught Pietro's grin before he vanished again, a subtle warmth spreading in your chest. You were still smiling when you took your seat beside Steve who intertwined your hand with his and raised it to his lips, smiling that soft boyish smile against your skin that now made your stomach flip. He didn't let go of your hand throughout the ride, even as he caught Bucky's yearning gaze in the rearview mirror.

You were greeted by an ambush.

Somehow the syndicates knew that you would be coming, setting up a small army as your welcome party. A quick distress call through the comms from Frank confirmed that they were facing the same in their location.

But you couldn't focus on that.

You were too busy tearing through the goons that kept coming at you. Having two super soldiers and Sam in the thick of it with you was a blessing, but even with the other agents and Billy's sniper support you were severely overrun. You would just have to trust that the other team can handle their own.

You emptied the clips of your pistols as you trudged your way deeper into the fray, not bothering to duck or take cover from the onslaught of angry men. You tossed your empty guns to the side and drew out another, catching a few bullets in your vest.

No time to reload.

"I got you, Hedwig. Give 'em hell," Billy said in your ear.

The deadly smirk on your lips was the only warning the men in front of you got. You charged again as the adrenaline coursed through your body, bullets flying precisely into their skulls.

One. Two. Three. Four men down.

When your bullets ran out, you dropped the gun and pulled out two daggers. Your eyes narrowed as you took off into a sprint toward the closest target, weaving effortlessly through the oncoming fire.

A slice to the forearm to disarm.

A dagger up the chin.

Dead.

He dropped to the ground spluttering on his blood as you took the other dagger and sent it flying toward another's chest.

Dead.

Rough muscular arms caught you by surprise and gripped you from behind, caging you as you struggled. You saw the gun in his hand and reacted.

Break the wrist to disarm.

You smirked at the loud pop of his bones. You grabbed the gun before it dropped to the ground as you slipped a knife from your vest. The pain in his wrist caused him to loosen his hold on you, allowing you to turn to face him.

Blade to the gut.

Bullet to the face. Point blank.

Dead.

You didn't even flinch when his blood splattered across your face, joining the explosion of red already painting your figure. You could make out two more in your peripheral who dropped to the ground before they could advance on you, care of your guardian angel with a sniper rifle.

"Thank you, Blackbird," you said sweetly.

"Goddamn, doll," Bucky said, Steve stood beside him mirroring the same look of equal awe and fear.

This was the first time they had seen you in action. Hearsay and that little demo with Kim did nothing to prepare them for the sheer brutality you had when given the clear purpose to kill. You didn't hesitate. You didn't waste time. You didn't care that you were drenched in blood. You had a goal and you were going to meet it every time with ruthless violence.

This was who you were now.

"Are you hurt anywhere?" Steve came up to you looking worried after seeing you charging headlong at open gunfire.

He didn't like it. At least he had a shield. Skilled as you were, he didn't like that you were running every mission like you had a death wish. There was so much blood on you that it was difficult for him to tell if any of it was yours.

"None of the blood is mine," you dismissed, wiping your face with what was the only clean part of your sleeve. "Let's go. I hear more up ahead and Sam said that's where the shipment is."

Rounding the corner, you were faced with another cluster of goons with weapons aimed at your small group. They stood a good distance away in front of two shipping containers that were being readied for transport. Sam landed beside you along with a group of agents. Bucky pushed you behind him and Steve raised his shield to cover you both. Billy chirped in the comms that the snipers had repositioned and were ready. All of that barely registered with you, white noise against the rage that was brewing, because behind enemy lines was the goal you've been chasing for a decade.

Salvacion.

"I have to say," he drawled. His voice, the first you're hearing of now, sending a chill down your spine. "I expected more from the Avengers. You didn't even bring Iron Man. I'm disappointed."

"Give up the serum," Steve growled.

"No. I don't think I will," he answered. "Kill them all."

All hell broke loose once more; fists, bullets, knives, and a shield flying in every direction. Bucky and Steve kept close to you, shielding you from most of the shots as you advanced. You gunned down every bastard you saw but your eyes never strayed from Salvacion who was just standing there watching the clash.

Taunting you.

Something nagged at the back of your head as you fought. It was unusual for the syndicates to be deploying this many people to a single location even if it was for the serum. While you were thanking every god you knew for luckily drawing Salvacion on this mission, his presence was also peculiar. Something else was going on.

Something else was here.

The syndicates were pushing back on your team hard, but you were making a dent in their numbers. When you saw Salvacion start walking away, that was when you felt the panic stir in your mind.

"I can't let him get away, Steve!"

You ignored his and Bucky's calls for you as you made a mad dash straight through the fight, efficiently shooting and stabbing anyone who dared get in your path. You were consumed with the purpose of reaching him, of finally being able to end it all.

You left the larger fight behind you in favor of this more personal one, the noise receding as you chased him farther. You caught a glimpse of him making his way up stacked containers and you sped up your run. You didn't even think twice about climbing the height. Nevermind potential broken bones. Nevermind getting cornered. Nevermind that you had no backup.

Salvacion would die today.

When you reached the top, you were surprised to see him standing there waiting for you but also that he wasn't alone. You raised your gun to match the one he was aiming at you, but he merely tutted and smirked. His other hand also had a gun, this one aimed up the chin of the person he was holding captive in front of him.

Kim.

The amount of irritation this woman was bringing into your life was starting to get on your nerves. She was delegated on your team for this mission and you stifled the aggravated groan as you noticed that she was bleeding heavily from both shoulders causing her to not be able to fight back.

Top agent my ass.

"Hello, Nemesis," Salvacion grinned at you. "Or should I call you Y/N? Much more personal given our history, don't you think?"

Your name on his lips caused a wave of nausea and a sneer to grace your lips. You raised your gun higher, narrowing your eyes as his own pressed harder against Kim's skin. It wasn't an idle threat.

"Nice of you to show up for once. Was beginning to think you were avoiding me."

"Come now. Don't you enjoy our little game of cat and mouse?"

A game.

This was all a game to him and the malevolent smile on his face confirmed that. The fury in you burned, almost making you physically shake. Killing Lily was nothing to him while it had completely consumed your life. It had become your driving force while to him you were merely entertainment.

"You're going to let me go," he declared, fully confident.

"Is that so?"

"Yes," he dragged out. "Or else your teammate here will die."

"What makes you think I give a shit?" you scoffed. "Go ahead."

The way Kim's eyes widened in terror brought a sick sense of pleasure in you that you shouldn't be proud of. Salvacion let out a low laugh, amusement clear in his tone.

"Oh, dear child. No matter how much spite you wrap yourself with, you are the same naive hero wannabe you always were," he snickered. "Self-sacrificing. Even at the expense of your sister."

"You don't talk about Lily, you bastard!" you screamed, your grip shaking slightly on your weapon.

All of a sudden it was hard to breathe and your heartbeat was hammering in your ears. You didn't expect that finally facing him, hearing him talk about Lily like she was inconsequential, would shake you to your core. This was what you have been waiting for. This was what you have been building up to for the past decade. This was your purpose for living.

What were you waiting for?

"I am feeling generous today. Consider it my gift to commemorate our first official meeting," he said.

"What the fuck are you on?" you growled.

"Open the containers," he smiled. "See you soon, Y/N."

He abruptly tossed Kim to the side, pushing her off the ledge of the containers you were on and bolted away with a mad cackle. You shot at his retreating figure, desperately trying to aim through the turbulent emotions he inspired in you. You were going to chase after him when a yelp of pain caught your attention.

Kim was hanging by one hand off the edge, obviously struggling to hold herself up with her busted shoulders. You were too high up for her to survive the fall and she was too injured to help herself. Her grip was slipping.

"Y/N! Help me please!"

A dark shadow passed through your features. Saving her would mean Salvacion would definitely escape. Again. You didn't know if you would ever get another chance at him or when that would be.

You didn't like this woman. You never did. She tormented your youth, took joy in it even and as you reunited nothing changed. She was the same egotistic bully she always was. This was a dangerous mission. People die in the line of fire.

It happens. No one would blame you.

"Please!"

"Fuck!"

You dropped your weapon and clasped both hands on hers to pull her up. You strained with the effort, Kim being a deadweight adding to the struggle. You let go when half her body was safely on top, her legs swinging up to roll herself flat onto the surface. She was crying and whimpering from the fear and pain. You couldn't help the anger that bubbled to the surface.

You slapped her face.

"Get your goddamn shit together," you roared at her. "I don't have time for this. Call for evac, princess."

You ran toward the sound of helicopter blades, jumping onto crates and jolting your bones at the impact. You didn't care. The renewed rage had steadied you, calmed you almost to the point that the only thing you could see in your mind was taking him out. You had faltered and you would beat yourself up about that later, but you couldn't let him slip away again.

The helicopter was already starting to take off, Salvacion clearly visible through the open door. You cocked your gun and fired away. Empty. You slipped another gun out and fired. Empty. You kept running toward him, drawing and firing every last bullet you had as you screamed your frustration with every shot that missed.

You noticed that you managed to get a few through him by the way his body jerked. You were feeling optimistic until he reached around and pulled out a rocket launcher. You saw the sinister grin before he fired.

"Nem!" You heard your name being called, but you were too stunned by the horrible realization that you had failed today. You watched the helicopter slowly make it's way farther and farther behind the rocket that was hurtling toward you.

Even if you ran, the area of impact would still tear right through you. You were frozen in place, unable to process that this was how it would end. That it would end in you dying by his hand as well. That it would end without you making it up to Lily.

Your internal struggle was interrupted by a large body completely engulfing yours. The impact of the rocket threw you both to the ground and the loud explosion accompanied by ripping metal deafened your ears.

You struggled with your vision, the ringing in your head was painful and your body sore from crashing down. Oddly, your skull itself didn't feel injured. All of the pain seemed to be concentrated on your torso. You blinked a few times to focus the blur of your eyes as the repeated chanting of your name became louder.

"Are you okay, doll? Answer me, Nem! Come on."

"Bucky?"

Your sight finally focused to find that it was the brunette super soldier on top of you, covering you from what would have certainly been your death. The dread on his face gave way to a tired relief at you finally responding.

He pressed his forehead to yours and closed his eyes, taking deep steadying breaths. You noticed now that he was wincing and that his flesh arm was underneath you, supporting your back and cradling your head. His metal arm was detached, a mangled mess of forcibly severed wires and metal plates sticking out from his shoulder. Your eyes widened in realization.

"Bucky, your arm," you started to struggle underneath him, knowing he must be in a world of pain.

He shushed you by rubbing the tip of his nose against yours. Your eyes met icy blue ones and you saw him smile weakly, as if telling you it was worth it. He wouldn't hesitate to catch a missile with his arm again if it meant protecting you.

The rest of the boys reached you shortly after, Sam took Bucky and informed you that evac and medics were here. You were still in shock from what just happened. Billy took you gingerly in his arms, endlessly fussing at you and apologizing for not being able to do more even if you understood it was impossible for him to have tracked you through the chaos. Steve stood to the side, obviously furious at himself for not going to you even if you understood it was only right that he led the main fight.

Your body felt like it had gone through a war and you were too emotionally distressed to address anything else. You felt defeated. You felt at a loss. You failed Lily again today. Suddenly, you remembered what he told you.

His gift.

"Steve, Salvacion told me to open the shipments. He said it was a gift from him."

You didn't wait for them to respond, dragging your battered body limping across the yard to the crates. Billy recovered first, quickly jogging up to support your battered body straight with his. Steve followed closely behind, the uneasiness clouding the three of you. The locks were easily broken by Steve's shield and soon your gift was revealed.

What you saw drained the blood from all of you and caused your skin to immediately chill. It was the most sickening thing any of you have ever seen in your lives and that was saying something. How anyone could do this was beyond comprehension.

People. Dozens of people.

Crammed inside the steel box were dozens of people in various states of distress. All of them had barely any life left in them, barely sustained by the various IV bags hooked on their bodies. They hardly reacted when the doors were opened, too spent by what they had been made to go through to even blink. You suspected that a good portion of those who were not moving at all were dead. The smell was horrendous and this was coming from people who were about to be shipped to god knows where.

The horror you felt heightened to epic levels when you noticed that some of the drip bags held a different colored fluid, the distinct color of the super soldier serum. Then it clicked and the nausea finally overcame you. You poured your guts out onto the pavement, your stomach heaving violently as the truth made your vision spin.

Human testing.

Human experimentation.

And you had let the bastard escape.

Steve was going to approach you, clueless as he was on how to help you at that moment, but you had scrambled out of reach and ran out of the shipment yard. He called after you readying himself to go to you, but Billy's grip on his forearm stilled him.

"We're not who she needs right now, Cap," Billy shook his head. "Right now these people need us more."

"Where's she going?" Steve asked, swallowing hard on the lump in his throat and reluctantly agreeing.

"She'll be fine. Matt will find her."

Matt found you hours later. He had returned badly beaten and bruised from their own mission, but upon receiving word from Billy he pushed aside every painful injury he felt and rushed to where he knew he would find you. His chest tightened when he was told what you had seen. It was bad enough that you were carrying the guilt of your sister's death, but now you had the weight of all the lives that were victimized by these sick people too. It was too much for one person to bear.

He found you in the confession booth of the church on the corner of a quiet street and he couldn't see the broken look on your face when he opened the door, but he could feel it. He heard it in your unusually slow heartbeat, as if your organs were trying to give up. He heard it in the shallow breaths you took, as if the act of living was a betrayal in itself. He heard it in the cry that was begging to break through you throat. He could almost taste your despair.

He slowly knelt in front of you and pulled you urgently into his arms, squeezing himself into the tight space. He held you against him, clutching you tight and rocking you gently back and forth. This was an open secret shared between the two of you. When the darkness was overwhelming, you turned to each other and confessed. He pulled away after a long moment, cradling your face firmly in his palms. His thumbs brushed against your dry cheeks. Of course you hadn't been crying.

There were no more left to shed.

"Talk to me," he muttered, pressing his lips softly against yours.

"He experimented on a lot of people," you muttered. "And I let him go, Matty. I've been letting him carry on for ten years."

Your tone was almost a hoarse whisper, devoid of much emotion apart from a cold defeat. This worried him, but at least you were talking. You had known when you were being tortured that they Hydra hadn't perfected the serum. They kept torturing you in the hopes that they could get you to reveal anything about the formula, Steve and Bucky's abilities, or where samples of their blood were stored. You didn't talk.

Maybe you should have talked.

When the syndicates got their hands on the incomplete formula, they were faced with the same problem. A problem they apparently decided to solve by trial and error on actual people. You knew this. At the back of your mind you knew this, but it didn't register until you saw it for yourself tonight. Somehow you had ignored that fact because you had only been focused on your own grief.

"I let him go. I did this, Matty," you breathed, the guilt clear in your voice.

"No! You did not let him go. The bastard got away," he insisted. "And this is not your fault. I won’t let you think that this is your fault."

"No," you argued weakly. "I let him go. I had a shot at stopping him tonight and I didn't take it."

"Steve told me. You stopped to save Kim." The movement of his thumbs on your cheeks changed to soothing circles. "You stopped to save a teammate. That was a good thing."

You scoffed. "I wanted her to die."

"What?"

"For a solid moment as she was hanging on for her life, I wanted to let her die."

"She's alive now because of you, Nem. You fought it. You're strong. You didn't give into it."

"But what if that's what I need to do? If I did I could have ended Salvacion tonight."

You could have ended it all tonight.

Salvacion's words tonight plagued you. if you didn't try to play the hero then this whole twisted operation could have been stopped. If you didn't try to play the hero then you would have gotten your revenge for Lily. If you didn't play the hero then Lily wouldn't even be dead. You had wanted to save people so much, make a difference in the world, that you didn't stop and think about how that would impact the people you held most dear.

"You don't honestly believe that, do you?" Matt asked cautiously, he knew more than anyone the struggle you faced. All of you were just a bad day away from completely snapping.

"I don't know," you admitted in defeat. You sounded so tired and confused that it broke his heart.

He held you for a moment more, waiting for your heart and breathing to return to normal. He didn't know what else to do or what else to tell you. He didn't know how to help you this time. Just then, he sensed the arrival of a Maximoff twin.

"Pietro's outside. I'll ask him to take you away for a while," he shook his head when he felt you were about to protest. "You need a break and you need some peace."

He led you outside, his pace slower than normal as your shoulders slumped lower to the ground in resignation. He exchanged a few words with Pietro before he pressed a kiss to your temple and pushed you toward the other man.

"Come with me, little star. I'll take care of you."

The next thing you knew, Pietro had lifted you into his arms and asked you to close your eyes. You buried your face into his neck as you felt the world around you dissolve in a blur, your hair whipped around but you weren't scared. The steady grip he had on you assured you that you would be safe. When he told you to open your eyes, you had no idea where you were or how long you had been traveling.

"Where are we?"

He gently set you on your feet as you looked around the area. It was beautiful. A dense lush forest that opened up to a lake with a small cabin. Isolated. Quiet.

Peaceful.

Immediately you felt your body relax in the new environment. It was so far removed from anything and everything that it allowed you to let go of the tight hold you had on your life. It allowed you to let go of the rage for a moment.

"Sokovia," he answered. "This is mine. When Wanda and I were little, even before the enhancements, our connection was strong and can be overwhelming. I needed a place that was only my own."

"Wanda doesn't know about this?"

"No, it is the only secret I have ever kept from her. I've never brought anyone else here."

Turning to him, you could see the shy smile on his face. There was a reluctance there, as if he was nervous that his little hideaway would not be good enough for you. You were quick to shoot that thought down.

"It's beautiful, Pietro. Thank you for sharing this with me."

His smile brightened as he approached you and held both your hands in his. "We can stay for as long as you want to. I can go into town and get us more supplies. We can swim in the lake if you like and I can cook you paprikash. You'll love it."

He was so excited. So happy to be able to spend time with you. Elated to be able to share this sentimental place with someone else, but he saw the sadness in your eyes and it made him force himself to slow down. The smile on his face dimmed.

"Do you want to go somewhere else? I can take you anywhere you like."

The heartbreak and disappointment in his voice alerted you. You hurriedly wound your arms around his shoulders and forced his eyes to meet yours. You recognized the way he looked at you, but it was only now that you really noticed that he has always looked at you that way. He was so pure. So honest. So good.

He was too good for you.

"No, Pietro. This is perfect. You're perfect." You tried to smile up at him. "I don't deserve you."

Just like that he understood you. He drew you closer by the waist and pressed a soft kiss at the corner of your mouth. When he drew back, his smile lit up his face again.

"Why do you need to deserve me, little star?" he chuckled at the puzzled look on your face, finding it adorable. "Can I not just choose to love you?"

You frowned and he just laughed more. He shushed your protests by pulling you flush against his body, lowering his head to hover his lips mere inches from yours. He left this small distance as your choice to make just as he has made his.

"Let me choose to love you."

You could feel his breath on your face at this distance, see the sparkle of anticipation in his eyes, and his tongue darting out to wet his lips.

You made your choice.

Kissing Pietro has to be the most comforting experience that you had ever felt. He tasted like hot chocolate on a rainy day and you felt your body melt when he returned the gesture. You were sighing against his lips when the now familiar feeling of him dashing turned it into a surprised squeal. You blinked and you were lying down on a soft mattress with Pietro grinning down at you.

You laughed as you shared more kisses, hands giddily exploring each other and tearing away pieces of clothing until nothing lay between you. For the first time in a long time, you felt insecure about your scars. For the first time, you were reluctant for someone to see them. Again, just like that he understood you.

"You're beautiful, little star. You have always been beautiful to me."

He kissed you again, deeply and full of emotion that you melted into the bed. His lips traveled down your neck, your chest, your stomach. He stopped to nip and suck at the inside of your thighs causing you to involuntarily moan his name. Lower he went until his mouth was working gentle swirls on your sensitive bud. Your hips grinded against his tongue, desperately seeking more.

He pressed his mouth fully on you then, adding a finger much to your delight. He ate you like he worshipped you. Like he was blessed with the opportunity to bring you pleasure. Your body sang his praises, reacting with equal enthusiasm by soon reaching your orgasm. You shook beneath him as he allowed you to ride out your high, soothing you with gentle hands rubbing circles on your hips. He was smirking at you when he crawled up, satisfied that he had made you cum but clearly aiming for more.

He kissed you again as he lined himself up against your core, sliding it against your slit to coat it with your slick. He wasn't even inside you yet and you already felt like you were ready to cum. He held your gaze, silently asking for permission that this was still what you wanted. Instead of answering, you moved your hips to slip his length inside causing him to drag out a hiss and capture your mouth again. The groan you both let out when he bottomed out vibrated through your fused lips.

"You feel incredible," he whispered. "You feel so good wrapped around me. Just like I always thought you would."

"Pietro, please."

His strokes were slow and deep, hitting that special spot inside you that had you panting with want. The smooth roll of his hips was quickly driving you higher and higher toward another orgasm. It was so gentle. So sensual. So personal.

"Tell me what you want, little star."

Everything about Pietro's life had been one big event after another. Rushed decisions. Angry fighting. Missions. Even his very enhancement relied on speed.

He didn't want that with you.

With you he wanted to slow everything down. He wanted to savor every moment. He wanted to stop time if he could, keep you in his arms for as long as possible. Freeze you in this exact moment when all you felt was pleasure.

"More," you pleaded.

Maybe he could speed up just a little bit.

His strokes gradually hastened and he glowed with satisfaction at seeing you delirious with desire because of him. He palmed at your breasts, nipped at your neck, and bucked his hips just a bit harder.

"More."

He smiled. How could he deny you? He lifted you up until you were seated on him, holding you firmly with an arm up your back with his hand fisting in your hair. The other hand he slipped between the two of you to rub against your clit. You saw the wicked glint in his eyes before he dipped his head to lave at your breasts.

You felt like you were going to explode from the different sensations. That was until he decided to move your body to bounce on his cock, his own hips thrusting up to meet you and his hand on your back guiding you to wind your hips as you came down. Your clit hit his pelvis each time and another wave was added onto your building climax. You whined, moaned, and pleaded his name. Begging him to grant you release.

“Let go for me. I have you. Let go.“

He growled against your breast and pounded up into you until you screamed and shook above him, clenching him so hard you pulled his own orgasm out of him. He spilled into you, crushing you against him as you continued to flutter around him.

You fought to catch your breath and when you caught each other's eyes, still hazy from lust, you laughed. You felt free. You felt renewed. You kissed him then.

"I love you too, Pietro."

He looked at you with unrestrained adoration. He had been chasing after you for so long that he could hardly believe that he had finally caught you. That he was finally yours.

"What? You didn't see that coming?" you teased.

He chuckled and pulled you in for another lingering kiss. You felt so good in his arms that he has completely forgotten how it felt to not have you in them.

"I meant what I said earlier," he murmured against the skin of your shoulder. "If you want to we can runaway. I can take you away from all of this. We can stay here or we can go anywhere else."

He smiled warmly at you and pecked your lips when he saw the internal conflict flash through your features. Again, without a word he understood you.

"But I know that is not what you want," he reassured you. "I just wanted you to know that you have that choice if you should want it."

Tempting as his offer was, you knew you couldn't let go of Lily's memory. You would never truly be at peace until Salvacion was rotting six feet under and his whole operation was blown to bits. You couldn't leave your mission unfinished. And you couldn't bear to leave four other men behind. Looking back at the events of the past night, it felt more accurate to say five. Still, there was a sense of security from knowing you had that option.

"Let's go home."

------------------------------------------------

A/N: Okay let’s take a vote. Should we forgive Bucky now?

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[revchainsaw]

Bumblebee (2018)

Good Evening worshippers, and welcome! Today the Cult of Cult goes a little more mainstream than usual. It's been a while since i've tackled a big Hollywood superhero film. But I do believe that these sorts of films will be remembered fondly my small groups of people in the future, especially the smaller films that are being overshadowed by the big bad MCU, films like 2018s Bumblebee.

The Messsage

Bumblebee was originally released as a prequel to the Transformers franchise that had started all the way back in 2007. However, reboots had really hit the market as a way to breath new life into struggling franchises, and the Transformers series had already gone to just about every absurd extreme you could imagine. No changes were made to the movie as it was released, but with it's more childish and heartfelt tone, and a new aesthetic that was softer, smoother, and all around just generally more pleasing to the eye, I think it was a wise choice to rebrand Bumblebee as a new beginning.

Our story is of two friends from two very different worlds and how they came together. Our first character is Bumblebee, then known as B- number sign/it doesn't really matter. Not yet Bumblebee is a soldier set with securing a safe location for the Autobots to regroup and make their home as they suffer a pretty serious defeat on cybertron at the hands of the tyrannical Decepticons. Optimus Prime, here again voiced by Peter Cullen and looking so much more like himself, assigns this task to Bumblebee promising him that they will meet him there when the time comes. Then Optimus fucks off for the rest of the run time making way for our little hero.

Bumblebee lands on Earth and is immediately set upon by John Cena and his military goon squad. It probably would have been wise for Bumblebee to avoid John Cena but in his defense, he couldn't see him. Hardy har har. In his attempt to flee his voice box is damaged, he seeks sanctuary by taking the form of a run down little VW bug, and suffers from amnesia.

Then we have Charlie. Charlie is not like other girls. She likes cars, all the retro music, which wasn't retro when the movie takes place, so I'm supposed to just think she's a rocker but it kinda seems like she'll listen to just about anything. I think in 2018 liking Motorhead and The Smiths (who are used ad nauseum in this movie) is perfectly common, but I feel like in the 80s that was a much different and much older attitude to take.

Anyway Charlie's poor family lives in a super fucking nice house and are poor because the dialogue keeps insisting they are so it must be true despite all the shit they have that actually poor people would sell blood and teeth to attain, but hell, this is Hollywood and Hollywood poor is like regular people upper middle class. Charlies family is so poor that instead of giving her a one time graduation/birthday present to buy a part for a car she already has, they just give her a moped, She also spends all her time at a pull apart where the manager (who might be her uncle that wasn't super clear) is willing to just give her a Volkswagen so I don't understand why she didn't already have the project car up and running. Whatever, it's a plot contrivance. All you need to know is that Charlie is tenacious and hard around the edges cuz her dad is dead and she's not yet mature enough to process that in a healthy way. Maybe her character arch will teach her to let others in, we'll have to find out.

There's also a wacky nerd named Memo, and some bad guys, and John Cena. They are all also pretty archetypal and contrived and don't really do anything of note that isn't just filling a beat that this kind of movie needs to walk. Charlie starts Bumblebee up, discovers he's a robot and the two begin to bond. Charlie learns to make a friend, and bumblebee is learning about himself. They get into hijinks and get revenge on a bully girl who makes Regina George look like a saint, she pretty much only picks on Charlie exclusively for having a dead dad.

The moment Bumblebee is woken back up, some technology goof em up that both he and Charlie are unaware of brings two Decepticon baddies into the picture. I don't remember their names, but since I love The Venture Brothers let's say they can be "Jet Boy and Jet Girl". Jet Boy and Jet Girl are sometimes cars, sometimes various flying military vehicles, and they make friends with the deep state and plan to get all the adrenochrome from all the orphans, or just to go find Bumblebee and beat his ass good cuz their bad guys. Let me tell y'all though, Jet Boy and Jet Girl are so bad that they don't even care that the government is listening when they reveal that they are planning on bringing a Decepticon Invasion and after they rough up Bumblebee real good they are going to destroy all life on this planet. So they start by killing a military scientist.

John Cena is after Bumblebee and he's homies with Jet Boy and Jet Girl until the military scientist butt dials him and he hears the evil plan. John Cena goes from heel to face and helps Bumblebee and Charlie save the day. It's a giant CG clusterfuck climax a la any superhero film in the last 10 years and I basically stopped watching. BumbleBee pulls a Hellraiser on Jet Boy, and then he hits Jet Girl with a freaking boat. Charlie uses her diving skills do dive down and save him, but he's a Giant Robot and he was okay and it was literally pointless for her to to except as a way to show that her character has completed her arch by doing the thing that was representative of her connection with her lost father.

Bumblebee turns into the Camaro from the first movie, meets up with Optimus prime, and the stage is set for this prequel to squeeze more prequels out. So it wasn't very creative, but was it bad? Let's find out.

Please Stand to receive the Benediction.

Best Aspect: Transform the Franchise

Bumblebee was directed by Travis Knight of Laika fame and it shows. This movie marks a stylistic change in the transformers franchise, as in it doesn't look like utter dog shit, but it also represents in many ways a tonal shift. It does hold on to a lot of gross sleaze that has unfortunately been forcibly jammed into the DNA of the franchise but it also attempts to be a more heartfelt entry. The characters of Bumblebee might all be sort of a waste of time, but at least they are doing something with emotions, even if the emotions of the characters are only explored as deeply as a children's cartoon I'm glad they are there. In the previous installments the only thing the characters did between running from action piece to seizure inducing action piece was drool over underage girls like a bunch of chimpanzees at the facility where they test experimental E.D. meds. It was nice to see that at least somewhat tampered. This transformers movie feels more like it's for kids and young teenagers, and strangely that more friendly tone makes for a much less juvenile product.

Worst Aspect: Remember I Love the 80s from the 2000s

I hope you really like Stranger Things. I do, but because Stranger Things was so successful it' s going to be everywhere. Not true Stranger Things just 80s nostalgia porn. This 80s nostalgia is going to be forced on you whether you like it or not, and it's not going to be fun. It's gonna be in your shows, in your music, in your Sunday like Bacon in 2010. It's that or Marvel Franchise Brand Whedonisms. Bumblebee is that brave movie that says, "Why not both?" It would seem fitting that a property as quintessentially 80s as Transformers should feel completely comfortable doing a period piece set in the 80's but it's so fucking half hearted it's depressing. It wasn't done to appreciate the roots of the IP, it was done to cash in on a trend and it feels it. All they did was throw up a date and insufferably force an 80s soundtrack down your throat as if that was enough to convince you that this movie needed to be set during this time. Other than that you could have told me this film was set in 2007 and I couldn't tell you any different.

Best Character: Charlie's an Angel

I liked Charlie. Sure her Arc is predictable, her taste is dumb, and she isn't exactly a master of her own destiny to any degree. But at least she is a woman in a transformers movie who's got something going on. Sure she's defined entirely by grief, but that sure is better than pretending that being able to work on cars is a feminist character trait instead of a weird fetish thing. They certainly do that thing with Charlie, but at least it's not the only thing they throw at the wall. Bumblebee is by no means out of the woods in this department, but it garners a lot of goodwill for trying. Like a racist uncle who just started his journey out of ignorance, but hasn't yet realized he has to stop asking mortifying questions to the barista at Starbucks. Okay, maybe that's an extreme metaphor. I'm saying that perhaps Charlie is not a great character but she's a great character for a Transfomers movie.

Worst Character: It's JOOOOHHHNNNN CEEEENA!!!!

Why is John Cena in this movie? I don't hate the guy, but his character seems pointless. You could remove him from the movie completely and replace him with any one of the random military goons at any point and it changes nothing. What was with that dumb salute at the end? It seems like they put him in this movie in post and it was just to pump up cast list. I wish he was given anything to work with. I can't remember his characters name, and it's not like John Cena did a bad job, I was just annoyed every time they kept giving him hero shots. I felt like I was watching a trailer for a different movie.

Best Actor: Optimal Primo!

Every time Peter Cullen speaks I want to listen. There's a reason they haven't had Chris Pratt or somebody with a bigger name come in and take over the role at this point. He's why the audience keep coming back. Peter Cullen IS Optimus Prime, and there's no changing that. He also wins twice. He's the best actor in the movie AND he's barely in the movie. Good call Peter.

Worst Actor: Mean Girls 2, Meaner and Girlier

I don't want to be cruel so I'm not going to go into to much detail, but there's an actress in this film who's performance is so mustache twirlingly evil and stupid that it ruined my suspension of disbelief when i knew going in that i was about to endure a 2 hour toy commercial about robots that turn into cars. Beldar Conehead was a more convincing human being than Tina.

Best Effect: Goo Be Gone

I really appreciated when the bad guys shot the government nerd into a blast of snot. That was pretty fun for me. Best part of the movie hands down.

Worst Effect: Live Action?

Bumblebee is a cartoon. It's a great looking cartoon but it doesn't sell itself that way. If we were doing a Roger Rabbit thing I'd have no gripes. However, I think CG is just getting worse. I'm criticizing this and it's still lightyears better than the previous entry's on the franchise. No transformation or fight sequence in Bumble Bee had me straining to make sense of what I was looking at. I think it was a great idea to start using some basic shapes and outlines to these characters, and return somewhat to their 80s designs. But at certain points, especially when there were no humans in the shot, i was pretty convinced I was watching Clone Wars. There may not be anyway around this, as the Transformers concept might not be able to be pulled off in any more effective manner. It's a minor gripe, but I just didn't think it looked like anything other than a very expensive cartoon, and in this franchise that's a compliment, because it least it looked like SOMETHING!

Best Scene: Space Opera

I am not a Transformers fan. I missed the boat on the cartoon as a kid. I would sometimes catch it at friends houses but I was more into Batman, Star Wars, and Ninja Turtles. By the time I came onto the scene the world had moved on to Beast Wars. I did one day arbitrarily decide that my favorite Transformer was Sound Wave. He looked great in this. I am a big fan of the return to form with a lot of the character designs in this. They really did keep the things that worked from the other adaptations, and they are steadily removing the things that didn't. For this reason, the scenes on Cybertron, particularly the battle with Soundwave (i prefer for personal reasons) looked great and were exciting to watch. I remember thinking Cybertron used to look like a Marilyn Manson shot a music video from inside to dumpster. This is so much better.

Worst Scene: Blocking the Box

There's a scene in Bumblebee where Charlie's family decides the best way to save their daughter was to cause a pile up of vehicles in an intersection, and it's pure contrived writing that saved any character in that sequence from being killed in a horrific traffic accident. It was stupid, played for laughs, and it wasn't exciting as much as it was anxiety inducing. I also thought that there was no reason the covert military group covering up extraterrestrial life wouldn't just disappear this family of fucking morons in their little piece of shit car. The logic of the scene was just so childish like, "No they won't hit me, I'm a good person."

Summary

Bumblebee may be remembered fondly in a decade. I think especially if the Transformers franchise were to end here. It didn't get the publicity of the other films, and that really is a shame. For my money, this was the best Transformers movie so far. I was very tempted to give Bumblebee a C, it does just enough to right what was wrong from the other movies to make me appreciate all that work. This movie has heart, and if you are at all into Transformers then l think you should see it. It's still pretty stupid, and pretty basic. It's not offering anything new to the genre, and it feels like a commercial for more movies. I really wish we could just get movies that want to tell a story. I thought it over and decided that it wasn't fair not to grade Bumblebee on it's own merits. Bumblebee is substantially better than the films that preceded it, but that's not saying a lot, when the films that preceded it are joyless exercises in self abuse.

Overall Grade: D

[fieldbears]

Washed-Up Stucky MNF/Fic Writer Provides Endgame Opinions

I’m going to try to tackle this linearly, at least to begin with:

I am very much Team Bored With MCU Hawkeye, but I want to give sincere props for the cold open, which I think accomplished several things simultaneously: recapped the consequences of the last film (since, hey, it’s been a fuckin while), set the tone, and began Clint’s narrative arc.

That said, jesus, I’m still irritated by the shoe-horned family to begin with. First they were invented for convenience and narrative stakes, and then their final, ultimate reason for existence was to be temporarily fridged. Take a moment to imagine a world where Clint was the circus runaway loner he was supposed to be, who only had his coworkers as found family, who either responded to The Snap by throwing himself harder into his teamwork work OR went rogue because his sense of justice and agency was so fucking destroyed by what happened. He didn’t need a blood family to have the arc he had. And he didn’t even need the arc he had. But this is a bitchfest about a choice made many years ago, not made in this final movie.

The first third of that movie was rough. The whole thing had the narrative flow of “A Series of Related Short Stories Played One After the Other”, but the first third seems to be Failing To Establish the New World and then Clumsily Establishing The Emerging Situation.

The establishing shots and scenes to show the audience what The Snap’s consequences were worldwide were... lacking. It’s dark? No more baseball? People are relying on natural light instead of interior lighting, but this is also happening at Avengers HQ, where they clearly still have power and internet access to work their tech, so... was it just an aesthetic choice? I feel like the film tried to spend time showing us what the consequences were for the average New Yorker, but instead we get a weird Canonly Gay Russo Character who gave a good performance that tells us about the human loss but not about the mechanics of this new world. We get the ‘no baseball’ shot and all we get afterward are ‘people miss the missing people’. But restaurants still exist? Businesses are functioning? (Wouldn’t New York run kind of smoother if it wasn’t overpopulated?) I feel like we were invited to start thinking about how this dystopia works, but were never given answers. (There are so many interpretations of how things could go wrong if certain people just disappeared, and their knowledge/access were suddenly unavailable, and none of it was explored, even briefly, outside of establishing shots.)

The Garden Planet - it’s discovery, the traveling to it, the fight there - lacked emotional grounding in a way I find hard to explain. The audience was excited for Brie Larson being a fucking boss, and the quick execution of the grab-him-and-cut-his-arm-off plan was satisfying, but the twist and subsequent letdown was just a weird beat after a slog to get there, after waiting on a deep letdown beat from the last movie.

Last thing about flow and emotional beats, because I want to move on to character analysis, and this is a huge one for me: Clint’s fight in Tokyo and Steve’s fight with himself were some of the biggest missed opportunities in the entire film.

Not counting the football field brawl at the end, which I don’t count as a real fight scene, these are the two major fight scenes of the entire film and as far as I can tell, there was no effort made to make these showpieces. They went to the trouble of bringing Clint to Bladerunner Central, and pit him against the last bastion of aesthetic-obsessed mafia in the world. The panning camera in the interior as Hawkeye fought goons brushed past lazy fight scenes that only showed who was winning, not the brutality that Clint was supposedly falling into, not the grit of this new awful world, just... shapeless dark bodies getting thrown through windows? And on top of that, they could have made up (or picked from canon) any Big Bad to pit him against outside in the street, and we get an Orientalist sword fight that could have fit in nicely on a CW superhero show, and some of the most unnecessary exposition dialogue I have ever heard. Someone bothered to weave Clint’s arc in earlier, with Rhodey explaining to Natasha that Clint’s gone International and also Worryingly Dark. Why the fuck do we have the ‘I’ll give you anything you want’ line, on the rotten cherry on top of ‘stop being mean to the yakuza, we didn’t start it’? You already covered his motivations with the cold open.

And while Steve’s fight ended in a FABULOUSLY HEARTBREAKING WAY, the fight itself was nothing - you can pick little character details out like how they both ditched their shields almost immediately, and it was funny that Then-Steve mistook Now-Steve for Loki in the first place, but it was still a completely lost opportunity to get one true superhero battle in this three-hour slog. Both Steves could have gotten up and carried out the rest of the narrative after a decent brawl, but instead they fall a great distance after some blocked shots and it... was nothing? Missed opportunity for some cool shit.

Okay, skipping to character assessments now:

Clint’s character has been mishandled from the beginning and this seemed to be the “better late than never” eleventh hour arc. Except the end of the arc is unclear - it made sense for him to fall apart after losing his Shoehorn Family, but how did Natasha’s choice to fall do anything but fridge someone else, with more agency this time? It makes Natasha noble, which she already was, and it made her win against Clint, which I appreciate, but Natasha didn’t need salvation through death and Clint learns nothing by getting them back, just experiences relief.

Bruce. I want to say, first, that I love Hulk in a Cardigan. Cardihulk can stay. I want fanart, I want t-shirts, give me all of it. But Bruce’s explanation of “I scienced it so I could get the best of both worlds” only gives us half of the acceptance that Banner’s character is already working towards. As we saw most explicitly in Ragnarok, the Hulk isn’t just a physical form, he has his own separate consciousness, originally defined by rage but revealed to be more complicated. Bruce merging into Cardihulk seems to have... erased Hulk’s separate consciousness without merging it into himself? If there had been some acknowledgement of a second voice still within him that shot out opinions or demands for certain menu items in the diner, this would have been a much cleaner end to his arc, which has been equally messy between actor and narrative shifts.

Speaking of Ragnarok... it’s time! Are you ready? Have you read articles about the Gambit Gambit too? Are you fucking depressed that a fat suit was used for comedy gags in the year of our lord 2019? Because I was. The Russos seemed to... not struggle with what progress Ragnarok had put onto Bruce and Thor’s characters, but reject it. This movie’s Thor was anxious for laughs, was desperate for easy answers to a a feeling of lost heroism, and it didn’t feel like a familiar character. The time-travel scene with his mother wrapped it up very elegantly, and was well performed, but that scene didn’t need to follow a series of “chunky drunk in sweatpants” jokes to show us that Thor was struggling. Everyone in the film is fucking holding on by their fingernails, but only one is played for cheap laughs.

At least we get the bisexual Asgard lady king we deserved.

Tony got the right death. He got a hero’s death and Pepper’s last lines of “you can rest now” were exactly the right lines to wrap up an arc characterized by fear and a desire to protect and control at any cost. I knew the MCU was never going to really acknowledge that Tony’s The Problem, even with lines like ‘you should have let me do the fascist robot thing, that was gonna work fine’ thrown around pretty much as soon as he touches down on earth again.

I’m not sure if there’s much to say about Natasha. It was fitting that she was running HQ, that she was struggling, that she was rejecting emotional help from Steve but clearly still close with him. Seeing her break down after hearing the report on Clint felt right after, I think, being told by several directors (or making the personal acting choice? idk) to just be as flat and as decolletagey as possible. And again, while I feel like she would be self-sacrificing on that cliffisde if given the opportunity, and that she would win, the narrative choice to place her there and have that be her end didn’t really give her anything she didn’t already have. She had nothing to prove.

I have a hard time really laying out my thoughts on Steve without launching into the pregnant absence of Bucky, but I’m going to try. Chris Evans did a good job being the emotional heart of a really fractured story with a lot of conflicting pieces. Seeing him lead a talk therapy session after The Snap seemed very out of character for him until one realizes that Sam isn’t there to lead it himself. His scene offering help to Natasha was another good scene between them proving that not every m/f relationship has to be sexual to be interesting or add to the plot. His leadership speech during the Stupid Fucking Slow-Mo Heroes’ Walk to the platform was well done and makes me think of what could have been for the MCU, if they’d ever just let them be a cohesive found-family team for twenty minutes and let them fight some doom-bots or something. Fuck. Imagine.

Something weirdly satisfying about the deceitful ‘hail hydra’ line in the elevator. Yes? Yes.

The hammer scene was satisfying to me without being too gratuitous, but I’ll acknowledge that some people weren’t into it. Having paid more attention to Steve’s arc than most, I’ll argue that he earned it several times over.

His ending - that is, the secret life he alludes to but doesn’t explicitly reveal to Sam - is earned too. I’ve read at least one thing saying that Steve’s arc was all about him learning to let go, but that’s... never what Steve does. Not at the end of any arc, of any comic story, does Steve let go. Not of his principles, not of the people he loves, he is always “Thinking... Thinking About Bucky!” and getting in fights he can’t necessarily win. So I don’t think his final ending is ever Learning to Let Go. I think it’s fair that it’s Just Once, Just This One Time, Getting What You Want And Getting To Enjoy It.

And now I’m backtracking to Bucky. I’ve read one article already that theorizes that Steve’s arc, which was highly prioritized, included literally as little direct interaction with Bucky as possible because... the MCU? the Russos? Marvel?...  is aware that Steve/Bucky is the most popular same-sex ship in the MCU. And that’s tiresome as fuck but I think there’s some truth to it. I wonder if, like in Civil War, we’ll hear later from the actors that a lot of contextual one-on-one scenes were shot and then mysteriously cut from the final edit.

I will say that in my head, Bucky is relaxed when Steve goes back in time for the final time, and lets Sam goes to talk with Steve one-on-one at the bench, because Bucky is not worried if Steve will come back, and does not feel a need to check on Steve on the bench. Because, like Peggy, Bucky has been getting secret visits too. Maybe as far back as during his time in Wakanda, but certainly since the final fight with Thanos. Bucky was calm because he already knew. He didn’t miss Steve because Steve hadn’t given him an opportunity to do so.

d

[mandowh0re]

Trust

CH 6

Requested: No

Fandom: Avengers MCU

Pairing: Bucky Barnes x Enhanced!Female Reader

Summary: Reader meets Bucky while on a mission with Steve and Natasha to bring him back to the States and makes an unexpected connection with him.

Word Count: 1870

Warnings: Some swearing, implied abuse/torture

Comments: I will be explaining past events as flashbacks for background as the story continues, this will be written in italics. Some details are purposely left out, but will come to light later in the story. Thoughts belonging to characters are written in bold. If things don’t make sense, you have an idea for the story, or a request of your own, please don’t hesitate to message me!

AGAIN sorry this story is slow with the updates. I’m working on it, I promise!

Happy reading!

Part 1/ Part 2/ Part 3/ Part 4/ Part 5/ Part 6/ Part 7/ Part 8/ Part 9

“I’m not making him sign this, Tony!” Steve shouted, slamming his fist on the table.

“I don’t think he should sign it either, Cap. But Ross is fighting me on this. I don’t know how to win this one.” Tony was frustrated, but not at Steve’s outburst. He knew how Steve felt. He had done everything in his power to keep Peter from having to sign the Accords.

“This is ridiculous,” Steve flopped back into one of the rolling chairs and leaned his head back, tangling his hands in his hair, “He’s not an Avenger, or even a superhero at that! Maybe one day, if he wants to. But right now, he isn’t in the right mindset. It took us two weeks to get him to talk in a room that had more than 3 people in it, and an entire month to get him to leave his room without looking for me or (Y/N). And we just recently got him to agree to see a psychologist.”

Tony sat down across the table, “I know, I’m sorry. I just don’t know how to convince-”

The door to the conference room swung open just then, effectively cutting Tony off.

“Hey guys! Natasha and I are taking Bucky to the city to pick Peter up from school, then Bucky wants to visit Times Square again. Do you want us to get anything while we are out?” You were practically bouncing on the balls of your feet with excitement.

Tony and Steve both smiled, but neither one reached their eyes, “No, thank you though. Make sure Peter gets back here before nine though, or May will have my ass.” Tony answered.

You nodded and began to back out of the room, “Okay, text us if you need anything, bye!”

When the door shut Tony turned to Steve, “How in the hell does Bucky keep up with her?”

Steve rolled his eyes, “Don’t ask me. And according to Bucky, they aren’t together. So watch it.”

It was Tony’s turn to roll his eyes, and he did it so hard that Steve wondered if he could see his brain in the process, “Oh please, Helen Keller would be able to tell that they aren’t just “good friends”.”

Another sigh, “Whatever Tony, can we just focus on the problem at hand?”

***

“... And then Ned was like, “I bet Peter would take you to the formal” and she just looked at me with the most terrifying stare I’ve ever seen so I was like “uh yeah sure, MJ, let’s go to the formal together” and then it was dead silent for a good thirty seconds before she went back to reading her book and was like “yeah sure, whatever, loser” so basically MJ and I are going to the winter formal together because Ned has a big mouth.” Peter finished his story in one breath and Bucky was wondering how such a small kid had so much air in him.

“Is this not the girl you have had a crush on for the last several months?” You asked.

“I mean, yeah, but I don’t want her to actually know that. She’s so intimidating. It’s scary.”

“Have you ever thought that maybe she’s like that as a defense, you know, to keep from getting hurt? Maybe she likes you too and wants to go to this dance with you.” Natasha offered.

The four of you were silent as you walked down Times Square, admiring the holiday decorations. You made note to bring everyone out here one evening for some holiday fun. Peter was obviously mulling over what Natasha had just suggested, biting his lower lip.

Honestly, it was a pretty uneventful evening. The three of you took Bucky everywhere he wanted to go, and then Peter led the way to a few places that were lit up for Christmas, but not overcrowded with tourists.

At some point in the evening Peter announced he was hungry, so you all stopped and got pizza for dinner. A slice of veggie for Natasha, a slice of pepperoni for you, three slices of meat lovers for Peter, and two slices of supreme for Bucky (he was still getting used to the fact that he was allowed to eat as much as he needed).

After dinner you all decided to head back to the car to make sure Peter got back to the compound by nine so Tony and May didn’t chew you out.

Bucky and Natasha were in front of the small group, discussing God knows what, and Peter was following along while also looking at his phone (if you even attempted that you’d fall flat on your face. Damn Spidey senses), and you were trailing behind them.

When you got out of the more populated area, a familiar voice made you stop in your tracks, making your blood run cold.

“Hello (Y/N).”

You looked around for the owner of the voice, but couldn’t find it. You saw the others were still walking, and obviously hadn’t heard what you did. Maybe you were imagining things? So you began to slowly walk in the direction you were originally headed when a hand covered your mouth and an arm wrapped around you, and you were tossed into a nearby alleyway.

“I see you’ve made friends with the Avengers. That’s going to make my life more difficult.”

You looked up from where you were on the ground on all fours, only to see him standing in front of you.

“I must admit, losing you was a deep emotional loss for me. We’ve been searching for you for quite some time now.”

“Papa, please.” You stood up to get away from the man, only to be restrained by two hands wrapped around your biceps.

“How long have you been hiding with the Avengers? You’ve been gone a long time now. That’s a bad girl.” He took a step towards you.

You closed your eyes and tensed. You had associated pain to the nickname he used when you disobeyed.

“Why don’t you come back with me? If you don’t put up a fight I’ll lessen your punishment.”

You took a breath. You were stronger now. Much stronger than you were when you escaped. Your powers had developed beyond what even Shuri could comprehend.

But you were scared. Panicked. Papa had found you and knew where you were hiding. There was no stopping him.

You remembered your watch had a built in panic button, and you moved to press it when Papa began to speak again, “Let’s go now, pet. You belong to me. You always will. Do not kid yourself.”

Instantly your panic was replaced with seething anger, “I. Belong. To nobody!”

Quickly, you reached up over your left shoulder and grabbed the shirt of the man holding you, bent forward, and flipped him onto his back. Now that you were free of his grasp, you switched into a defensive stance, your irises lighting up that brilliant emerald green, and your hands engulfed in the flame like energy that came from your body.

Just as quickly, Papa and his goon whipped out their guns and had them trained on you.

But before anyone could do anything, you heard a voice come from behind you, “What the hell is going on??”

You didn’t turn your head, keeping your eyes focused on the two men in front of you.

Natasha and Bucky were in the opening of the alleyway, Natasha with a gun drawn to the two men in front of you, Bucky ready to jump in front of you at the slightest movement of a finger.

Papa spoke first, his eyes narrowing, “You should keep your mutants in line, Widow. The devil tried to attack us first.”

You wondered for a moment if Papa had a death wish, speaking to the Black Widow like that.

“I highly doubt that’s what happened, Ethan. She doesn’t attack anyone unless provoked. And from what I know about you, you’re quite the provocative type.” Natasha raised an eyebrow.

Papa sneered, but before he could voice his reply Natasha continued, “Besides, if she had actually attacked you, there’s a high probability that you wouldn’t be standing right now.”

That made him grimace, probably at the memory of all the dead lab workers you accidentally killed in your escape, and he shot you a brutal look.

Bucky stepped forward, “Put the guns down, before I make you regret ever breathing.” He growled from behind you. You flinched, having never heard him speak like that; cold, harsh, and calculating. It scared you.

And suddenly Papa’s whole demeanor changed, like he just realized the Winter Soldier was standing in the alleyway and was definitely not on his side.

You thought that maybe he did have a death wish.

Reluctantly, they put their guns away, but you didn’t let down your guard.

Natasha stepped forward and rested a hand on your shoulder, “Come on, (Y/N). Stand down. Let’s go.”

But you couldn’t move from where you where. Couldn’t stop the energy that was emitting from your body. Couldn’t stop looking at the people who had caused you so much pain. The people that you thought you were finally safe from, only to be fighting again.

“(Y/N)?” Your line of vision was obstructed as Bucky stepped in front of you, “Look at me.”

Slowly, you raised your head to look into his slate blue eyes.

“I need you to stand down, okay? You’re safe.”

You shook your head violently, then looked at Bucky with pleading eyes, “Papa. Bad men.” You whispered.

He furrowed his eyebrows, face contorted in confusion, “Bad men?”

You nodded, looking into his eyes, silently begging him to please understand I can’t say this out loud or they’ll start shooting.

“Bucky,” You heard Natasha whisper from beside you, “We need to go. Now.”

His head snapped to to look at her, “What’s wrong?”

She didn’t answer him, “(Y/N), I need you to understand this question. Blonde or brunette?” Keeping her voice low.

“Blonde.” You began to shake, the fear beginning to take over again.

“Christ. (Y/N), we won’t let them touch you. You’re safe. But you have to move so we can leave. Right now.” She spoke urgently, still barely above a whisper.

You complied, though reluctantly, pulling in the radiating energy back into your body, stiff muscles now relaxing.

“I hope you don’t make it a habit of this. It would be a shame if we caught you aiming a gun at our friend with no witnesses around.” Natasha nodded in Papa’s direction, then wrapped an arm around your shoulders, leading you out of the alley, as Bucky backed out, making sure neither of the men tried to pull a stunt.

Peter jumped back into the group as you rounded the corner, but kept quiet as he heard the entire exchange due to his enhanced hearing.

The entire walk to the car and the entire drive back to the compound was unnervingly silent.

In the heat of it all, it completely went over your head that Natasha had addressed the man, who once treated you so horribly and still believed you to be his property, with a name.

--------------------

Tags: @cutiepiemimi13 @serenity-schuyler @animegirlgeeky

[taaroko]

Post-IW MCU Rewatch: Ant-Man

Yay, time for Ant-Man! This one has rather grown on me over the last couple of viewings (not that I ever didn’t like it).  

Hi middle-aged Peggy! (Isn’t it great how many times Hayley Atwell managed to get herself into these movies beyond what the original plan was, out of sheer enthusiasm? Yeah, I’m still bitter Agent Carter got cancelled.)

The music for the logo is awesome.

My killjoy brother says the main reason he dislikes this movie is that he doesn’t think it makes sense that Hank would ever trust some stranger (Scott) with his tech. Um. Hank has been protective of the tech because he doesn’t want it to be abused. But Scott proved he wasn’t a corporate goon by going to prison for screwing over a corrupt corporation. He’s proven himself. Also he doesn’t have the knowledge to make more of the particles, so he can’t steal any of the secrets himself. 

Luis is probably my favorite sidekick in the whole MCU. He’s irrepressibly cheerful, he compulsively makes delicious-looking waffles, he’s a refined wine man and fan of neo-cubism yet also steals two smoothie machines, and when he goes into ramble mode it’s the greatest thing ever.

Anyone who has ever worked food service has met an idiot like Scott’s customer. Also his boss is basically David Brent. Trying way too hard to be cool, but kind of a git and a coward.

Scott’s attitude is super endearing. Very chill, understated reactions to things that annoy him. You get the impression that it’s not so much that he’s a very patient man as that he’s just so used to stuff like Luis’s antics that he’s become kind of inured to it. He’s also able to roll with the punches. Getting fired from Baskin Robbins could’ve made him bitter and angry, but instead he just kind of shrugs and takes that Mango Fruit Blast. He’s not prideful at all. 

I called the tank being real by the second time the keychain appeared onscreen. Chekhov’s Tank!

Hello, Darren Cross, dude who is only not the worst MCU villain because Malekith exists. (How did Malekith manage to have less of a personality than Darren? It’s absurd.)

The ad video for the Yellowjacket is horrifying. Do people actually make ad videos for advanced weaponry? Do they narrate them with movie narrator voices and tidy up the diction to make them sound like wonderful good pieces of technology, but in a not-entirely-convincing way?

How is a hand on a shoulder such a sinister and obvious sign of impending murder?

Cassie is the most adorable little girl ever, and the kid playing her is a really good actress. I love that Scott is a dad. It makes him much more interesting. (Also is he the only divorcé in the entire MCU? Wait no, May is too. I think he’s the only one in the movies, though.)

“He’s so ugly! I LOVE HIM!” AAAAGH. SO CUTE.

I love that all the little details keep coming back. (The tank, the “La Cucaracha” horn.” Just lots of really good callbacks. It’s hard to believe this movie had production issues with changing directors.)

The way Darren kills that guy by shrinking him, and then wipes him up and flushes him, is ridiculously horrific. And the way he looks in the mirror after that is probably the most interesting he ever is in the movie. He knows the path he’s going down, and he’s not stopping.

So it’s not entirely clear. Is Hope dating Darren? Are they living together? Or are they just business partners? I’m confused.

YES LUIS STORY TIME. This is like Kid History, and it’s my favorite thing. Please please please make an MCU recap narrated by Luis, Marvel.

This music is weird and fun. I love it.

Scott parkouring is great. I wonder why he developed that skillset when he was just an electrical engineer. Has he been doing it since he was a kid?

Scott is like the midpoint between Tony Stark and Peter Quill in almost every way. Good at outside-the-box solutions, has engineering skills (but not at Tony’s level), a sense of humor that’s more self-deprecating than Tony’s but less wide-eyed dorky than Peter’s, etc. That’s awesome.

Could you be more transparently evil than using a bleating white lamb for your ill-fated lab experiments?

Huh. There’s a moment where Scott looks in the mirror too. Is that meant to be a contrast with when Darren does it? For Scott, it’s a moment where he resigns himself to failing, even though he caved and did the burglary. I don’t really see the connection, emotionally, to the way Darren looked in the mirror, but I guess one of them is the apprentice Hank rejected, and the other is the apprentice he ultimately chose. *shrug*

Ant-Man perspective is great. The encounter with the rat is terrifying.

You broke Scott’s chill, Hank!

Okay, so Scott’s actual superpower is changing his clothes at the speed of light. It was entirely unnecessary for them to give him such a small interval of time to get the suit on.

“What happens if I throw up in this helmet?”

There were zero bullet ants on the floor in the initial wide shot of the room. Also in the second wide shot. Which takes place two seconds before Scott tries to put his foot on the floor. Did they...forget to render ants in those shots? Or did they forget there were going to be ants there when they filmed from that angle? Gonna count that one as a mistake, because they could not have gotten all over the floor that fast.

They really needed to do more to explain about Darren’s brain chemistry getting messed up by the particles, because as far as I can tell, the first time he ever shrinks himself is on the helicopter at the end. How do these particles make him evil/crazy, exactly? What was he like before? What have the particles done to Hank?

Also they shouldn’t have explained the particles as changing “atomic relative distance” without also explaining that the suit allows you to control your weight relative to size. Because sometimes Ant-Man appears to weigh as much as he looks like he should, but the rest of the time, he’s clearly still 180 lbs in that tiny space (with the reverse problem when he becomes Giant-Man). If he always weighed 180 lbs while being the size of an ant, he would constantly punch through surfaces by walking on them, and if he was always the weight of an ant, he’d be powerless to do anything except be sneaky.

The montages in this movie are great.

Scott uses Hope’s move later. :D And she was totally checking him out.

Huh. Hope and Scott’s conversation in the car happens exactly halfway through the movie, and it’s the turning point. This is when they start being on the same team.

Hank’s revelation about Janet comes rather out of nowhere. I feel like they could’ve woven that in more effectively. It’s also a little exposition-heavy to entirely work on the emotional level.

This gesture by Scott is one of the best things.

I love the crossovers. Crossovers forever! (Seriously, put Thor cameos in future GotG movies and Loki cameos in future Doctor Strange movies. No, I don’t for a second believe Loki is really dead.)

Poor Sam. He missed out on Sokovia just to get trolled by this rando in a shrinking suit.

Hope saw Scott use her move! Hee!

Sinister hand on shoulder!

Okay, Hope’s “I’m at home” line is why I was confused about whether she and Darren were dating and living together. But it occurs to me now that there’s not really an implication that it’s his home too. So I think they’re just business partners. Good. Because Darren being double-crossed by his girlfriend and failing to react on that level would have made him a much worse character than he already was.

Seriously love Luis, and the other two guys are great too. Excellent crew of wombats.

I love the wallpaper in Hank’s house. Also, just, all of Hank’s house. It’s so pretty.

Okay I absolutely believe that Luis was the only guy to ever knock out that huge dude from the prison. He’s been knocking people out with single punches left and right on this job so far. I love him even more now! That’s such a cool little bit of consistency for him.

Is it true that cops use Crown Victorias as their undercover cars most often? Because I’ve kind of assimilated that as real-life trivia ever since theaters.

What was the point of frying the servers if they were just going to shrink the building to nothing anyway?

Kurt and Tip are hilarious. “There was a black guy who looked exactly like me who attacked us and put us in the back of this disgusting van!”

So if the Avengers have spent the last year taking down Hydra facilities, how are there still people in Hydra who can spend billions for Yellowjacket suits?

I thought Hank was going to die the first time I saw this. Now I’m betting this will be a How to Train Your Dragon situation with Ant-Man and the Wasp, where not long after we discover the long-lost mom, the dad gets killed.

Darren’s villain music is the best thing about him. It’s very unnerving.

All the fights while Scott’s in the suit are so much fun to watch.

“Are we the good guys? Feels kinda weird.”

I don’t like that the chain attachment on the tank also gets huge. And how does a tank cushion a three-storey drop?

That Darren is able to shoot ants is very silly and weird. Would’ve worked better if there was buckshot or something. But still. This movie made me care about an ant dying.

Dangit, Darren, you just killed everyone else in the chopper. You suck.

Briefcase fight! I remember how hard everyone laughed when “Disintegration” started playing in theaters. So great.

All the abrupt cuts from epic to insignificantly small are what make these fights so funny and awesome.

Bug zapper! I watched this with my dad recently (his first time seeing it) and he laughed so hard at the bug zapper.

Another tased Avenger!

So I thought this movie was going to be stupid, right up until the trailer got to the bit with Thomas the Tank Engine. Then I knew it was going to be amazing. It’s still probably my favorite moment in the whole movie.

They kinda overdid it with the “back it up” bit.

Giant ant! Poor Paxton.

Did anyone not see it coming from the moment Hank talked about going sub-atomic that Scott was going to have to do it at the end?

The infinite shrink is mesmerizing to look at. I bet this movie was cool in 3-D. (I have glasses, so 3-D is not so fun.)

Hi Janet!

The bottom half of that face in the photo actually looks kinda like Michelle Pfeiffer’s face. Nice work!

Hahaha, I love that Cassie kept the ant as a dog.

MORE STORIES FROM LUIS! The way he blinks too many times after he finishes is what really clinches it.

So yeah, I like me a heist movie, and it was definitely a brilliant decision on Marvel’s part to go small (figuratively and literally) with the next movie after Ultron. It is a mistake to think you always have to escalate your threats in a series. That was the problem for a while with Supernatural, and it’s definitely a problem in shows like Dragonball Z and Naruto too. Ant-Man was the perfect way to scale back and remind us that these movies are a ton of fun. I’m so glad that they did the same thing with the scheduling of Infinity War and Ant-Man and the Wasp, and I can’t wait for July 6.

I really hope Ant-Man and the Wasp does the same thing Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 did, and goes deeper with the characters instead of just getting bigger in scope. Because Ant-Man is one of the more surface-level movies in the MCU. Scott doesn’t really carry a lot of angst, so even though his arc is about proving he can be the hero Cassie sees him as, it’s pretty chill, with just a couple of moments where he loses...hope...(dang it) in his ability to make this work and be the dad he wants to be.

The bigger emotional arc was Hank and Hope, because Hope absolutely carries her angst and bitterness in a big way. They’re kind of a representation of what Scott and Cassie could end up being if Scott doesn’t get his crap together. And Darren is an evil parallel for Scott, obviously. All of the different arcs probably would’ve worked better if they’d spent enough time and effort on Darren to make him interesting. But the lack of depth in all of the arcs doesn’t ruin the movie because it’s a comedy. This is deliberately a light, fun comedy action movie, and it’s great.

Also it has a good and memorable soundtrack, so bonus points.

[fadedtoblue]

so what are your thoughts on elektra's arc in defenders

Wow, no way to give a short answer here, so I guess I’ll just jump in haha. Spoilers abound, obviously!

Overall, and there’s really no way for me to be truly objective about this gut response, but Elektra’s arc kicked all sorts of ass for me and I was thrilled to see her be given this level of focus in the storyline. I have to admit it’s not something I ever expected from the series. 

That being said, I think there were some definite mistakes made and things I wish they had done better…so let me run through a quick list of those, and then follow up with my list of highlights :).

Things that could have been better:

No significant Black Sky payoff. This was one of my biggest personal disappointments with the storyline. The limitations of the way they set up the Netflix universe leading up to this team up show really showed in this one…I have a feeling whatever they were planning for the Black Sky and the Hand in DD S1 got totally derailed by the time they got to Defenders, what with all the retconning of the Hand mythology to fit the K’un-Lun storyline. I’m not sure if this is because the individual shows had too much leeway with how they set up their individual character origins and storylines or how much input they get from high up to keep the plotting consistent…my impression was the former, and as a result, it seems like the Defenders’ writers were tasked to pick up all of the disparate pieces and just try to fit it into one semi-coherent storyline, with mixed results. Given how much they leaned into the Iron Fist stuff as a huge part of the Hand stuff, I’m not sure why they didn’t just retcon the concept of the Black Sky into one where it’s the Hand’s own Immortal Weapon…that would have been pretty easy and at least lends consistency if you’re going down that route in the story. Ultimately though, if I could have done it, I would have done a flashback scene (or I mean, even just someone monologuing about it, whatever) to Alexandra’s past where she actually has the prophecy / vision of the Black Sky. Like, that tidbit in the conversation between Gao and Alexandra was SO intriguing and it’s like, what does that even mean??? It would have been a cool way to better establish both Alexandra – show us why she became the leader of the Fingers, let her do some cool fighting / getting her hands dirty, AND provide some context on why she’s obsessed with the Black Sky and what she intended to do with one once she got it – as well as Elektra’s role in the context of being a Black Sky – give us some clarity on what it means to be one, define her powers / abilities better, and maybe even shed some light on why she was able to break out of her brainwashing (like maybe the Black Sky was never meant to be a weapon, but was meant to be something else, I don’t know). But I don’t write for the show so whatever, lol.

Elektra’s motivations after she kills Alexandra were way too opaque. I think a lot of people were rightfully confused at where her arc was supposed to go, which is totally fair given how it unfolded. I feel like we could have used one more episode to flesh out what was going on but ultimately, I think there were two issues: the progression on the slow but steady turnaround on her character may have been too subtle, and second, there just wasn’t enough time in the last two episodes to properly map out a way to sensibly show what her real endgame was since they basically needed her to stand-in for the face of the other side and help get the story rolling on into the final act. 

Here’s my general interpretation of what happened…

We know she was brought back as an empty vessel to become the ultimate weapon / killing machine for the Hand…I read a great description of this that compares Elektra’s resurrection as the Black Sky as the same as if you were to erase and reboot a phone, except this time you’ve unlocked EVERYTHING…this is the same for Elektra…she has these latent abilities that allow her to be an incredible weapon, but it took a very purposeful reboot to bring it out. Anyway, all is well and good until Elektra encounters a glitch in the programming…this glitch, of course, is Matt, and this tiny little crack in her system throws open the door to uncovering a side to herself that she had thought was lost…basically, her humanity. As she’s remembering / recovering, she’s also remembering what happened in her past life – and that was also used and trained to be someone’s weapon. That back then, just like now, she had no control and no say over her own life. And what she ultimately wants is to wrest back control from people who never viewed her as anything more than just an empty vessel for their desires, and to finally be able to control her own destiny. 

So this is why it’s significant that she kills BOTH Stick and Alexandra – they may have both felt genuinely toward Elektra and treated her as a surrogate daughter, but they also made her do terrible things for their own ends. Killing them symbolizes her wresting back her agency and I think, to me, clearly shows that she is on no side but her own. Taking control of the Hand was really not supposed to be the main point or anything permanent aka ‘look I’m a bad guy!!’, imo…but I think it was both a self-preservation move (you’re not gonna kill the head of the ancient ninja cult and then try to take them ALL down without securing an out for yourself first and working with them guarantees you some more time to do that) as well as a bit of a lazy storytelling way to slot someone in as the leading antagonist heading into the final fight. I think her conversations with Danny clarifies that to some degree, but not as much as I would have liked. 

The jump from here to the last fight is exactly why I think we needed one more episode of screen time to bridge the gap, but as to why she’d suddenly go from ‘I need to get more substance’ to ‘Let’s die here together’ – well, the whole last episode is setting up an impossible scenario for everyone involved. So we know the stakes are high and people gonna die. A newly independent Elektra without her humanity would have gotten everyone neutralized as quickly as possible and hauled ass out of that pit with some dragon bones and called it day. And that was probably her goal. But once the Defenders take the fight to the Hand in the bottom of the pit, and Elektra is face to face with Matt again…well, things get a little more muddled.

At some point, it seems that everyone left in that pit knows that they’re running out of time – Gao herself is so pragmatic about the damn thing that she doesn’t even attempt to bother getting out. I imagine Elektra has this knowledge too, and we know that she the one thing she doesn’t want is to go back to that dark place, to death…but the one thing that is perhaps a saving grace for her is that Matt is there too. Someone who can face the darkness with her. She probably thinks the only way to keep him there is to fight him, antagonize him, lie to him, but what she doesn’t realize is that he’s been ready this whole time to stay down there with her…and GAH, okay I gotta stop there. 

SOOO yeah, basically, I think there was a plan there, but the writers didn’t do a super job connecting the dots at the end, mostly b/c of the limited time to get the last act rolling…this is my interpretation and I’m sticking to it :).

Okay, now things that were AWESOME:

All of Elektra’s fights!!! Omg so one of my major annoyances in DD S2 was that it really felt like they nerfed Elektra’s skill level on the show. On the one hand I understood that she’s a much younger, impetuous presence on the show than she is in the comics, but still, she should have been able to handle Yazuka goons with no issues. If it took becoming the Black Sky to activate OP Elektra mode then well, I’M HERE FOR IT!! She was such a badass and I loved every single moment she was fighting someone on screen. Of course there were inconsistencies with her level of Black Sky amplified abilities, but then again, that was an issue with all of the heroes. But ughhh she truly became the fighter I wanted to see on screen. And all of her fights with Daredevil / Matt were particular delights. I spar best with you!!!

Elektra regaining her agency!! As I mentioned above, I don’t think the writers did the best job they could in executing this storyline but all I wanted from this show was for Elektra to really take control of her life again and SHE DID IT. Just like I had predicted in this post here. It literally went down exactly as I had hoped it would hahah. 

MCU Elektra inching closer to becoming comics Elektra. Okay so I had a lot of theories on how things were going to turn out for Elektra by the end of the show, my prevailing theories being based on what I thought I could expect from Marvel TV – either get the trite but not entirely unexpected ‘Elektra rediscovers her goodness and switches sides’ direction OR you get the ‘Matt angsting over Elektra but realizing she’s a lost cause and tries to kill her’ direction. My personal hope was that Elektra would wrest back her agency, ultimately survive the show (b/c killing her again would have been so dumb) and become a free agent, true neutral type of presence in the background of the Netflix Marvel universe, coming in to help bail out Matt’s ass from time to time on DD, but not necessarily having to operate in any romantic capacity, just a super skilled and reliable ally of Matt / Daredevil when he faces bigger antagonists. Given the unexpected level of Mattelektra in the show overall, I’m an optimistic fool and wondering if there may be more in the cards for them…but I’m not going to dwell too much on that now.

Elodie Yung!! The most awesome thing about Elektra’s arc was that we were blessed enough to have Elodie Yung cast as Elektra in the first place and the fact that she’s the head of the Mattelektra Protection Squad. I’ve always believed the role of Elektra could have become real hot garbage in a lesser actress’ hands but Elodie brings such thoughtfulness and presence to material that can sometimes be a little weak and potentially one dimensional. Her transformation over the course of the Defenders was such a treat to watch and I will love her forever. So yeah, I love Elodie as Elektra and I will love her as Elektra til the end of time.

AND THAT’S IT! Thanks for asking and making me write all of this out. This is a great way for me to continue emotionally processing everything that’s happened on the show lol. 

[andinewton]

Healing the Hurt - Avengers Redemption Series - Part Two - Chapter 27

Characters: Bucky Barnes, Amelia Richards (OFC), pretty much everyone from the MCU appears at some point!

Pairings: Bucky x Amelia (ofc)

Warnings:  Chronic pain, physical disability, implied smut, eventual smut, swearing, fertility issues, pregnancy, angst with a happy ending, Stark has a heart.

Word Count:  151372 (complete with additional epilogues added)

Summary: 
Everything is going well at Avengers Tower, Bucky is integrating into the team slowly but surely; he longs for his confidence back but knows it's going to be a long road, never more than when he meets the new secretary at his doctor's office.

Amelia Richards is a career SHIELD agent, recruited straight out of college into the "company" but now she finds herself passed around from department to department, her latest position as a secretary at Avengers Tower proving monotonous compared to her former life, but when James "Bucky" Barnes walks into her office one Friday evening everything changes…

Join Bucky as he rediscovers parts of himself he had thought long lost with someone who considered herself broken for a long time, helping one another heal in more ways than one…

Master List

Chapter 27

Summary:  Tony is a good boss and a nice guy, but don't tell anyone!

The next few days were a blur of activity. Bucky and Amelia agreed to Stark’s offer to buy out the restaurant and have it filled with staff, the rest of her belongings were delivered to her new room, and she had dredged up every little bit of information on Frederick White she could possibly imagine from around the world. The man himself had given nothing of discernible use and had been shipped off to a secure facility, along with the goons who had tried to grab Amelia off the street. Stark passed her a few small jobs he wanted her to look into, and she noted Nick Fury seemed to call by her room at least once a day to make sure she was settling in.

The room she had been designated was larger than her entire apartment had been on the temporary floor, and had a separate office, as well as a sizeable bedroom encompassing a fitted wardrobe and living area with entertainment system, the bathroom being larger than the living area at her previous place. It was Friday morning and she had just dressed, her hair still wet from the shower, when there was a knock on her door. She had already checked her laptop and set one of her programs running. ‘Here’s my little Trinity.’ Stark announced as she stepped aside to let him into the room. He kept stopping by too, and she was still unsure whether his attention was for her computer skills or her personal life. ‘Morning, Tony.’ She said as she towelled her hair. ‘Everything going okay?’ He glanced around, listening in case the shower were running and Bucky were there, as he hadn’t seen him that morning yet. ‘Happy with the room?’ ‘You know I am, you ask me every day.’ She laughed as she led him towards her office. ‘But the novelty of a walk in shower still hasn’t worn off.’ ‘A walk in shower is a novelty? What did you have before?’ He screwed up his nose and wasn’t surprised to see her laptop already running a series of programs. ‘Shower over the bath. Do you really not know what your temp accommodation floor is like?’ She had suspected as much but this was the closest to confirmation she had had. ‘No idea, maybe I should check it out.’ ‘Only if you want to depress yourself.’ She pulled a stack of papers off her printer and handed them to him. ‘The overnights.’ ‘Did you have breakfast yet?’ He asked, as he took the papers from her. ‘No, that’s my next job. I had a couple of cookies so I could take my meds but that’s only a quick fix, unless I feel like being ill later.’ ‘No, you’re not allowed to be ill, T800 is too excited for tonight for you to let him down. Come on, I’ll make you some toast, because if I leave you in here you’ll get engrossed and skip another meal.’ ‘I can make my own toast.’ She complained but let him guide her out of the room again with his hand on her back. ‘Yeah, but will you? I’m starting to think you’re more of a workaholic than me.’ ‘A lot of my work can be sit and wait. I prefer to do things when they need it.’ She argued. ‘Like at three am?’ He let her know he had checked the logs of when she had been working and she screwed up her nose. ‘That was just one time. Maybe twice.’ She argued. ‘Three times since you started working for me.’ He stated. ‘You’re putting in some eighteen hour days, and while I admire your dedication I am ordering you to take the rest of the day off.’ ‘The whole day?’ She said in surprise. ‘And the weekend. If I have to I’ll have FRIDAY bar your access, but I think I can trust you to do as you’re told. I can trust you do to do as you’re told, right?’ He looked down at her as they reached the common area kitchen. ‘Can I at least finish what I’m working on?’ ‘Nope. Monday. White or wholewheat?’ ‘Wholewheat. What if it needs working on?’ She went to the refrigerator and took out the butter as Tony put four slices of bread in the toaster. ‘If something urgent comes up I will ask you to look into it, but until then you are off duty and the only thing I want to see on your computer records is you playing The Sims or watching cat videos, understood?’ ‘I guess.’ She pulled a face, unsure how to argue further. ‘Good.’ Tony leant against the cabinet and folded his arms. ‘So, what are you wearing tonight? Something to make the old man’s ticker fail, I hope?’ She laughed as she went to the coffee machine. ‘Nat is bringing me a selection of dresses over later to try.’ ‘You mean you don’t know already?’ He said in surprise. ‘Don’t girls normally have entire outfits planned in advance?’ ‘I don’t have dress up clothes, just hang around the apartment or go to work clothes, none of which are suitable for a dinner date.’ ‘This might be a bit of a personal question, so feel free to tell me to shove it, but when did you last go on a date?’ ‘It’s been a little while.’ She admitted reluctantly, busying herself making coffee as she rested her crutch against the counter. ‘How long is a little while?’ Tony leant towards her, trying to get in her eye line. ‘A…while. I didn’t really want to get involved with anyone when I was in deep cover; being a HYDRA agent wasn’t really on my list of traits to look for in a boyfriend.’ ‘You mean, like, years?’ Tony said in surprise. ‘Do we have to discuss this?’ She looked up at him in exasperation. ‘I don’t know, do I have to have a birds and the bees talk with you?’ Tony was suddenly worried he might have dug a little too deep, and learnt more than he wanted to. ‘I’m not a virgin, asshat.’ She scowled at him. ‘Good, okay, well, that’s…good, I guess. I mean, I don’t need details.’ ‘Thank fuck for that.’ She muttered as she dropped a sugar cube into her coffee before automatically making Tony one. ‘But an actual date, it has been a while, but I think I remember how to behave.’ ‘I’m sure it’ll all come back, and Barnes hasn’t dated since he came to the tower, and who knows how long before that, so you’re probably still the more experienced.’ ‘Why all the interest in our date suddenly?’ She passed him the mug she had finished fixing for him. ‘Because it’s our first date and you seem more nervous than I am.’ ‘You’re nervous?’ He put the cup on the counter as it was still too warm to drink. ‘Of course I’m nervous, I’m going on a date with an Avenger when HYDRA are out to get me.’ She leant her hip carefully on the cupboard beside her. ‘I’m not too nervous about the date itself, Bucky and I get on really well, but knowing the place is full of people watching us, that feels a little weird.’ ‘Try ignore them. Gaze into his big baby blues like you normally do and you’ll forget all about them.’ ‘I do not…’ She started then conceded defeat. ‘Yeah, okay, I do do that. I like his eyes.’ ‘He seems to like yours too.’ Tony replied as the toast popped up. Amelia was quiet for a moment as Tony went about putting the toast on plates then passing her a knife for the butter. ‘I don’t want to be a disappointment to him.’ She said quietly and Tony stopped what he was doing to look at her. ‘What do you mean?’ ‘I mean I’m, well, I’m broken, Tony. I’m never going to get better and committing to someone like me, it’s not an easy ask. It gets tiresome for me, so it could get old for him too, and really fast. I actually thought I’d never find anyone who’d accept me for what I am now, but with Bucky I feel like I’ve been given hope, that maybe I’m not meant to be alone.’ She sighed and he saw for the first time just how afraid she was, how she was facing the unknown and had had no one to confide in. ‘It might be too much to ask.’ ‘Shit, kid.’ Tony held his arm out. ‘Come here, one time offer.’ He waved her towards him with his arm and wrapped her in his embrace when she stepped forward. ‘You seem to forget, just because he’s a super soldier doesn’t mean he doesn’t have disabilities of his own. I blew his arm off, for God’s sake, he knows what it’s like to be impaired more than anyone else on the team, and the way he looks at you is so genuine. He doesn’t see the crutch, or your pain, or all those times you’re struggling to get comfortable, he just sees you, the whole package, and he really likes what he sees.’ ‘But the shine could wear off.’ She argued. ‘If I become a burden, or bothersome…’ ‘You sure as hell aren’t a burden.’ He interrupted her. ‘You complain less than anyone I’ve ever met, and you have a lot you could complain about, but you don’t. I don’t know if you go home and cry every night, or bottle it up, or even if you don’t do either of those things, but I know that even in the short space of time I’ve known you that you’re one of the strongest people I’ve ever met. Barnes likes you, a lot, the whole thing, not just one but everything, even the thing you’re worried about. If it put him off he would have been out the door by now, but he’s not. He’s there every day, just because he wants to spend time with you, so don’t you for one minute think that something that’s intrinsically a part of you will make his feelings for you stop, you hear me?’ ‘I hear you, Tony.’ She murmured, swallowing past the lump in her throat. ‘Thank you.’ ‘Just make one another happy, that’s thanks enough.’ She nodded and he let her go, allowing her to step back and recompose herself. ‘Your own mind is always your worst enemy.’ She smiled apologetically at him. ‘And at three in the morning, when you can’t sleep, sometimes it’s easier to work than listen to your own thoughts.’ He pressed his lips together in understanding of what she meant. He worked his troubles away too, or at least ignored them by keeping busy. ‘If you need something to do in the middle of the night, work a little, I won’t admonish you too much, but when you do you, take extra time off during the next day. Work a set number of hours, don’t burn yourself out.’ ‘I’ll try not to.’ She smiled and resumed buttering her toast. ‘You’re a really good listener.’ ‘Don’t tell everyone.’ He replied with a small smile. ‘People will think I’m taking Steve’s place as resident agony aunt.’

Chapter 28