#except also a bunch of the people who already know each other are fucking

[violetclarity]

god grant me the strength to get through divorce party dinner at a bougie taqueria with my friend and most of her polycule, amen

[gremlingottoosilly]

Cabin in the woods (yan!slasher!Konig x fem!Reader x yan!slasher!Horangi) part 2

You listen to the story about those woods. Turns out, real life is way, way nastier than any of those stories. Don't lose your head.

TW for the chapter: Blood, gore, dead bodies, slut shaming(usage of outdated horror tropes), knife play, blood play, mentions of STDs

— Do you know what animal is this? 

The body of a small creature – rodent, probably, you don’t think there could be any other animals around – was lying on the road near the place you decided to stay for the night. The “Coolest fucking thing in the world that is also just a few hours from here” was still a few hours from here because it was fucking dark and you already left your car on the sidewalk, hoping no one would steal it because honestly, why would anyone need this pile of burning crap. 

— According to the “Basic Bestiary of Austrian Animals” it might be an extremely rare Austrian Marmont.

You fucking hated Max. Mostly because his form of being different was “being an intelligent asshole” and also because he would never forget to rub the fact you were behind him in the grades into your face. 

— Waaaaaaait, a mamont? But it’s small! You have to give Karen – blonde, tan, tall, straight C everywhere except for her chest (then it would be D everywhere) – credit. As adorably silly as she was, she was still the only person you could have a meaningful conversation with. Except for the times when she was fucking your boyfriends. Or when she forgot that you don’t have a boyfriend so he doesn’t need to fuck random people just to spite you.

— Perhaps, if we are extremely lucky, a European edible dormouse, also known as…

— Fuuuuuck, people eat this thing? Yuck! Austria is like, literally the worst country EVER!

You feel like every second of this conversation, even though you are just listening to it, is going to take 10 years from your life span. You never knew why the two got together – maybe because Max loved fucking someone dumber than he is, and Gretchen loved placing the responsibility for her actions on her beloved sociopathic boyfriend. 

You wanted to say that this was literally a fucking squirrel, but you know better. Not like anyone is going to listen anyway. 

You get to the supposed location a few hours – already deep in the night, everything that you hate about forests – unkept environment, horrible living conditions, mosquitos, and occasionally wild animals are making you squirm each time your butt switches the place and you involuntarily sit on the cold, damp ground. You lick your lips, trying to adjust in the position in front of the fire. Fire that you probably shouldn’t be making in the middle of the private territory, but Chad said the place belongs to some weird hillbillies who wouldn’t care about a bunch of college grads having fun. 

You just finished the last of your coke – mixed with cheap whiskey and rum you got back at home, you feel just buzzy and fuzzy and relaxed enough to at least try to engage with people around you. Just didn’t want to make Jenny embarrassed – she was the one to vouch for you, even though you didn’t want to go camping with them. 

— I heard there is something happening in these woods. 

Everyone around you groans and you comply, groaning too. Chad has the worst storytelling voice and even Marty – the resident stoner of the group – is visibly unhappy about having to listen to his dumb jokes. Brace yourself for at least twenty minutes of dumb story with a cheap attempt to scare you. 

— You talk like those locals. What can be here except for drunkards? 

— Very fucking funny, Marty, I hope you laugh at people’s death too. 

Everyone groans again. 

— Shut up and let me finish! So, there is something hiding in those woods…legends…

— What legends? This place was built like 20 years ago. 

— Shut the fuck up, Max! It’s the legends before the town even was built. In those very forests…

— Forests? I thought it was like, just a suburban area. 

— It’s wild Austrian woods, why I would put you to adventure in the fucking suburbs? 

— You’re a suburb baby. 

— Shut it! God, I hate you guys. Alright, so…these woods are populated with…creatures. 

— Ooooh, like the mammoth we saw! 

— Karen, seriously, what the fuck? These woods are filled with motherfucking human-eating killers, not just some animals! 

— Then why do you say “creatures”? — Because it makes for a good fucking story! God, everyone, this is why none of you are studying creative writing! 

— Only your parents have money to pay for it. 

— This is why you all are fucking losers. Alright…god, I hate you. People went missing in these woods. Mostly tourists, never the local population – this is why police don’t care about it. Bodies were found, half-eaten, rotting under that very tree! 

— Which tree? There are like 10 of them just here. 

— More like 100. 

— Under every fucking tree! — That’s a lot of bodies. 

Chad groans, visibly aggressive. You just tilt your head to the side, only talking to him once before taking the last sip of your Coke and standing from your place. You wanted to take a chance to see those woods before you’d be going even deeper the next night – Chad was planning quite an adventure in the wilderness, to your dismay, and you wanted to have a chance to see the cool part of nature before you would grow tired of it. 

To your surprise, Karen was nowhere to be seen. Knowing the girl, she is far too innocent and dumb to be here – probably ran away to not listen to scary stories or got lost while trying to find a good place to pee. You sigh, feeling that it is your responsibility to pick her up – she is Marty’s girlfriend, but he is too stoned out to notice her disappearance yet. 

You stumble on your foot – alcohol makes you dizzy, makes you relaxed and smiley. You don’t even care that no one came to ask what the fuck you are doing – as far as you aware, they all can go and fuck themselves while you have a lot more fun things to do. Like searching for a drunk girl in the forest in the middle of the night…yeah, you really should work on your definition of fun. 

You already a good few minutes into the forest. Nothing but trees, not even a squirrel or a wolf pocking around to feast on yummy bodies. Not like you wanted to see a wolf, of course, but meeting with the wild life could be fun. You’d like to see a bear, for example. 

(And you will – just a bit later) 

— Karen? Karen, are you alright? You decide to scream for her once you are far enough from your friends that they won’t question why you are so concerned for her. Poor girl was obviously scared and you didn’t want to embarrass her even further, so you stroll through the woods, an empty bottle of coke in your hand – not sure why you didn’t threw it away. Littering isn’t nice, after all. 

— Karen? You’re scaring everyone, come out! 

You scream some more – she is probably lost, deep enough that she can’t even hear you. You try not to panic, try to be the reasonable friend – it’s usually Jenny’s task but here you are, trying to be the cool one of your friend group. You yell for Karen some more, listening closely to every little sound that could be easily taken as her whimper or cry for help. 

Nothing. 

Just how far can a scared drunk girl go? Probably not further away than you – you’re already starting to get tired and you knew that Sidhey got far drunker than you are. Which means she could lay here, somewhere, passed from the exhaustion, freezing, with forest animals feasting on her…no, no, you can’t think like that. She is fine, she has to be, or you are going to get into so much trouble with the police and her parents. You never told any of your families about the trip, so you wouldn’t want to get in trouble what ould require their assistance. 

You take a step into deeper part of the forest – and you think you saw a glimpse of…something. Metal, probably, might be her phone or that atrociour hair dye she is using to stop everyone from calling her a mouse. You also think you could hear a sound of someone breathing – heavily, gruffly, definitely a male, but you don’t really know how. You squint, trying to see through the trees. 

You see Karen. 

— Karen? God, you scared everyone…well, me. Where the fuck have you been? 

You smile and wave at her, your drunken state isn’t allowing you to see that, for some weird reason, she isn’t waving back. Or moving, so to speak. She stared at you with that terrified expression of hers and you tilt your head to the side, not udneratanding why is she like that. Something happened between her and others? 

You take another step back and Karen falls. 

Well…her head falls, anyway. 

There are a lot of feelings right now. Panic, panic, panic, a little bit of panic and, oh, who could have guessed, another riel of panic which makes you freak the fuck out and sprint – towards her. Maybe she will be alive if you could put her head back on her neck really-really fast? 

— Is it too late to convince you this is all a dream? 

The voice. 

You don’t recognize it – it’s distorted and quiet under the mask and you don’t know anyone int his fucking place anyways. The voice is weirdly happy, weirdly laughing and you want to vomit from how easy-going it sounds. Like the corpse of your beheaded friend is nothing, like it’s a fun pun, like…

You laungh forward, trying to, maybe, get revenge on your not-really-a-friend. Guy lets go of Karen’s body, allowing it to fall down, her head rolling to the nearest creek and tumbling into the water like a sports ball. You can’t even sob – the situation feels too unreal, too shocking, you are still very much drunk and when the guy simply wraps his hands around your waist, not allowing you to move even an inch, you fall limp in his hold. 

You sob. 

His hand goes to grasp your face in a tight embrace, making you gag from the smell of blood splattered all across his hand. You hear chuckle. 

— Didn’t want you to see that first. Wanted to play hero, yes? 

You sob, you tremble, you can barely master a few words out of your mouth. You want to scream, but it’s like all the air just decided to disappear from your lungs. So, you cry instead. How brave of you, Karen would be so proud of her friend not even trying to avenge her death. 

— F…fuck…you. 

You master with all you strength. Guy is laughing again – his other hand goes to squeeze your waist even more, pushing you against a tree. He wears a full mask with some red drawings on it – a satanic cult, really? You thought about serial killer, maybe, but definetly not about crazy cult maniacs running around. The more you know. 

— Oh, kitten, I’d love to fuck myself. But you’re here for this, no? 

He called you kitten – you squirm in his grasp, not wanting to give him the easy way to kill you. Something pokes you to the side – it’s a knife. Large, sharp, military-issued, you saw it in movie and action TV shows – and now the bloody razor almost grazing over your skin, through the thing fabric of your open jacter and a simple T-shirt. 

— Wh…who are you? 

Stpuid question, really. 

— Why does everyone wants to ask who we are all the time? Would you die happier knowing my name? Would it help you escape knowing how many beauty marks I have?

It would certainly help the police if you were to survive the encounter. Even though you are certainly going to die right next to Karen over there. 

He pushes a knife towards your side, the blade cutting through fabric easily, You brace yourself for being gutted alive. 

— I don’t like stupid questions. Ask something wrong and I will see if you are as pretty on the inside as you are on the outside. 

In a normal situation, you would punch him for such a corny joke. But you’re too drunk for this, but you’re too exhausted for this, but you just want to curl away in some nice place and fucking die, but not because he was the one to kill you. You certainly do not want to give him the satisfaction of being the one for you. 

So, you feel your cheeks heating up with the faintest of blushes. 

— What are you going to do with me?

He pushes the knife deeper, sharp edge cutting the thin line into your side. You sob immediately, tears filling your eyes as you almost feel blood – not a lot of it, just a tiny sharp streak – fill your shirt. You want to vomit, hate pain, and everything that is related to it. Thinking that the knife is dirty already and he would probably infect you with whatever one of the 13 STDs Karen has if he were to proceed. He stops right before the blade can penetrate your skin. 

— I’m a serial killer. What do you think I will do with you? 

You shake your head, trying to search for the question that won’t make him plunge a knife into your body. 

— W…what is your favorite color? 

Good job. Amazing job. Let’s hope you don’t like your liver all that much because he is definitely going to cut it out and eat it. 

— Red. I like you. 

Suddenly, you are being pushed to your knees. Suddenly, he is standing right in front of you – he is tall, of course, bulky and big, and he seems even bigger from this angle. Your face is pressed against his crotch and you can feel the dread slowly filling up your weins. Is he going to…

He presses a knife against your lips – you part it obediently, nervously, you feel your face twitching with disgust as your mouth immediately fills with the metallic taste of Karen’s blood. You really need to vomit right fucking now, but he is petting your head with his other hand like someone would do to a dog or a cat, and you sob. Too scared to do anything and here you thought you would finally stop letting people walk all over you. You thought it would start a journey of self-actualization and finding your own priorities, but…

He presses the knife a bit deeper. 

— Someone here has manners. Your friend here was trying to fuck me until she saw a knife. 

Sounds like Karen. You still remember her fucked-out face when she happily stumbled out of your room, with your boyfriend that you thought was never into cheerleaders. She had her urges and it was normal until she started to get off with those urges on everyone who liked you, or who you liked – and with such an innocent smile that no one was ever mad at her. 

He presses the knife against your upper jaw, laying it flat on your tongue – you sob, trying not to shake your head too much as he wipes away your tears and pushes your throat even deeper on the blade. You don’t know how it still hasn’t penetrated you yet. 

— Squealed like a fucking pig, not even fun anymore. I assume she was the whore of your group? 

You shook your shoulders, not wanting to give him any answers. He laughs, pressing the blade down and slightly turning it to the side. You feel the string of saliva running from your open mouth – he wipes it with his finger, leaving blood stains on your face. 

— Clean the knife for me, okay? I might leave you live if you would be good for us. You launch onto the opportunity to save your life so quickly, that you don’t even register the word “us” slipping from his tongue. 

You suck the knife obediently, carefully holding your tongue from the sharp edge so you won’t cut yourself, trying so desperately not to hurt yourself on the blade, that it’s almost adorable, He looks at you, the way you even fucking hollow your cheeks to clean it more efficiently, like you were sucking a cock and, with every passing second, he doesn’t really feel like killing you anymore. 

He feels like keeping you bound to him – maybe cutting your ankles so you would never run away from them, maybe tying you up to the body of your friend and holstering you both to the house, making you watch him gut Karen so you’d know not to run away from them. 

He pets your head like you were a cat – and, god, he always adored cats. 

You hear the noises from the side – your gaze darts to the nearest bushes as the guy waves his hand to someone gigantic sitting down at your side. Two pair of hands are now petting your head like you were a fucking animal – and you’re still sucking on his knife, feeling the pressure on your lips. You want to die, but there is no choice but to keep living. 

— Scheisse, what do you have here? 

A hand goes to cup your face and turns you to the side, to meet the giant, bulky figure fully wrapped in camo gear. His face is concealed with some sort of hood, which makes you shake even more. They both look like soldiers – or soldier-cultist-butchers from a horror movie. But, then again, you are in the fucking horror movie, since the big guy has Karen’s head in his hand, holding her by the hair. You sob even more. 

— Stumbled across me as I was gutting the slut. 

— Is she a smart one then? 

The guy with the knife laughs, yanking the blade from your mouth. You want to close it immediately, but the second guy pushes his finger between your lips, keeping them apart – and you are too scared to even try to bite him. Instead, you sit here, obediently, feeling the alcohol in your system working its magic. Again. Making you drowsy and relaxed, panic drained so much energy from your body, that you genuinely feel horrible. 

— No, wouldn’t say so. Obedient, more like. 

— Not a cool one either. Are you a virgin, Schatz? 

You want to lie, just so you won’t feel so fucking embarrassed because of it – but something in the brutality of what they did to Karen made you reconsider. You just shake your shoulders, not wanting to give a definitive answer. 

— Cute. Been some time since we saw a cute one like this. 

Your sobbing intensifies and the big guy suddenly yanks you on your feet. You immediately feel ill, pressing your head against the tree and emptying your insides – mostly because of the panic and partly because of the amount of alcohol you drank. Their touches are surprisingly soft on your skin, gently removing any stray hairs from your face and holding a firm hand on your back, rubbing the blood and grim into your jacket. 

You stand like this for a few minutes, choking on your own tears, vomit, and blood. They coo at you, gentle hands on your body guiding you towards them just so the second guy – a smaller one, relatively of course – could get a hand in your hair and yank it back. Hard. 

— Calm the fuck down. 

— You’re scaring her, Tigeren. 

— Aren’t we here for this? 

— Thought you liked this one. 

— I do. But…

— But? 

— Not fun to take her just now. She can help stir her friends a little. Make them run a little. 

They fucking killed Karen and they want to…let you go? They made you clean their knives, stand on your knees in front of them, and then gently helped you empty your insides – just to let you go when you could run into the nearest policeman and destroy their whole little game? Are they dumb or overly confident? 

— She could run. I would rather keep her with us. 

— They won’t get out of these forests without phones. And their car is already…shit. Spoilers. 

— Alright. But I would be the first to take her next time. 

— She won’t be any good after you, Ko. 

— Our Kleine Hase has more than one hole, ja? 

This is it. 

You take the opportunity – they are distracted by their little conversation, so you duck under the hand of the bigger man and run in the close direction to where the group is sitting. You are covered in blood, and dirt, you shake like crazy and you can barely even run straight without getting right into the various trees, but you don’t care. You aren’t strong enough to sit here and listen to their conversation – not when the self-preservation makes you forget about Karen. Not when that feeling in your chest can only be described as “She got what she asked for” – because she was a bitch, but not nearly enough to deserve being beheaded by two psychos. 

They laugh as they watch you run. Horangi smiles, nudging Konig to the side – you’re not a fighter, but still interesting enough. Adorable and obedient, just vile enough to suck on the same knife that killed your friend – interesting mix, to say the least. Hongjin always wanted a cat, but never got the time on the various deployments – and you behave like a perfect mix of a kitten and bunny. 

Konig tilts his head to the side, watching you, this pathetic little thing, run like the devil was after you. He was, of course. and he came in double, but it was still funny, how a city girl like you seriously thought you would be able to get away if they weren’t allowing you to. You’re cute, for a tourist, and he wants to hunt you some more – perfect foreplay before destroying you with either his cock or his knife. 

One down – and both of them couldn’t wait to finally get to you. 

[missvelvetsstuff]

No Benefits

Bucky Barnes x Reader

Summary: Reader and Bucky are best friends until a drunken hook up. Bucky wants a friends with benefits situation because he doesn't feel ready for a relationship but reader knows that will lead to a broken heart.

Then Sharon Carter comes to work with them.

Notes: Steve and Tony are around but retired, everything else is mostly canon

Chapter 8

Warnings: swearing, angst, references to sex

The compound was tense the week after Cookie left. Tony was still pissed that she was gone and he couldn't get his favorite cookies. On top of that, fixing the Avengers gym was a major undertaking thanks to the holographic projectors that were used for team training simulations. Tony stood and watched as Bucky did most of the clean up before the tech team went in to replace everything he had destroyed.

Everyone was walking on eggshells as they waited for Nick Fury to return from off world. Of course he already knew what happened but was looking forward to bitching out the people who pushed her to leave. He was due sometime this week.

Sharon tried to get close to Bucky but he wanted to wallow by himself. He also shunned Nat who tried to distract him with her Widow seduction techniques. Anytime they were in the same room with Bucky, they were trying to get his attention. They would flirt, wear sexy and revealing outfits, act helpless so they could turn to him to open a jar or reach a higher shelf or something equally dumb. Bucky didn't really see through their efforts like the rest of the team did, he just didn't care what either of them said or did.

One morning Nat slid up to Bucky and started rubbing his arm as he drank his coffee. He looked at the hand on his arm then picked it up and pushed it away from him like it was diseased. Sharon stepped in and tried to get between him and Nat but he rebuffed her as well. It ended in a fight in the common room, both women ended up in medical, Sharon had a broken nose while Nat had cracked ribs and both had various scratches and bruises.

Bucky had just turned away from them and leaned on the counter to finish his coffee, seemingly oblivious to the women fighting right behind him.

Tony had enough and had Friday lock both women in their own rooms until Fury returned and decided what to do with them. He snapped at Bucky "I'm getting really sick of your little harem with their attempts to seduce you and fighting with each other. You need to find a way to convince them you aren't interested."

Bucky shrugged "I don't know what you want me to do, Stark. I don't speak to either of them, except to tell them to leave me alone and I don't do anything to encourage them. I don't want either of them and I keep telling them but they won't stop." He sighed "I just want Cookie."

The morning after Cookie went to the Harlan Thrombey book launch, Bucky was sitting next to Steve, both eating the omelettes Sam made for them, when Nat entered the room "Gee Barnes, looks like your precious Cookie has moved on already."

Bucky sighed and shook his head but didn't say anything.

Nat took that as a sign to keep going "She ended up in the gossip pages, seen leaving a book release party with Boston's most eligible, and notorious, bachelor." She smirked when she heard Bucky's breath catch "Ransom Drysdale has a different debutante, model or actress on his arm every week but this new woman is a mystery." She quoted the article she was reading on her phone. "There's a bunch of pictures of him with other women. Cookie was definitely a step down for this guy."

She snapped at Bucky "Why are you pining for some dumpy little analyst when I'm right here?"

Bucky could feel his control waning he turned and snarled at her "I don't fucking want you! Leave me alone. What the fuck are you doing out of your room?"

Nat shrugged "I have my ways"

Tony skidded to a stop, out of breath "There you are, Romanoff. Do I need to put you in a holding cell? The big guys room? Stop trying to stir up more trouble and leave Barnes alone!"

Nat scoffed "Fine, I'll go." She rubbed her shoulder against Bucky and purred "You know where to find me."

Bucky pulled away from her, then looked over at Tony in shock, he never imagined Tony would stand up for him. He softly spoke "Thank you, Tony."

Tony nodded "I think we need to have Romanoff and Carter checked by medical again."

He looked at Bucky and smirked "You're not hideous but they have a level of obsession with you that doesn't seem natural. I want to be sure they are both completely clear of that serums influence before we even consider putting them back out in the field."

Bucky nodded, thinking "It's interesting that I'm fine and we haven't had any problems with Yelena, maybe she'll know something more about that serum and the 'cure'."

Tony hummed "Well, you have the super soldier juice and they mentioned having to dose you repeatedly but yeah, maybe Yelena can shed some light. Friday, where is Miss Belova?"

"She's in her quarters, boss. She hasn't left since returning from kidnapping Cookie."

Tony nodded at Bucky "I'll let you know if I find anything. If Romanoff bothers you, tell Friday and we'll put her in a holding cell until Fury returns."

After talking to Yelena and consulting with Bruce and Dr Cho, And a trip to Antonia's holding cell, Tony discovered that Antonia had used an updated version of the serum after Yelena released all of the widows. The cure worked but only partially, and it seemed that the orders that Sharon and Natasha had been given were still floating around in their heads, making them act out. Yelena had voluntarily locked herself in her room after all the drama with Antonia, as she took being controlled again very hard and didn't trust herself.

Tony called the team to move Nat and Sharon to holding cells since Nat had escaped her room once but when they went to find the women Sharon was still in her room but Natasha was nowhere to be found.

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

That same morning, outside of Boston...Cookie woke up, closing her eyes as quickly as she opened them. Too bright, the room was all windows. She groaned as she became more aware, she felt some new aches in her body, most noticeably between her legs. She also felt an arm around her waist and that she had no clothing on.

A warm body behind her moaned "Relax. It's early and Sunday." Pulling her closer.

Cookie turned to look at him, in the early morning light and with his messy bedhead, she realized the man looked a lot like Steve Rogers. The thought made her giggle, until he turned her so she was facing him and pulled her close until she felt his morning erection pressed up against her "I know you're not laughing at me, sweetheart." He started kissing down her neck and grinding up against her until they were caught up in each other again.

A few hours later Cookie felt her stomach grumble "Ransom" she whispered with no response "Ransom."

She pushed on his shoulder and he groaned "nooo"

She started tracing down his side until he choked back a laugh and grabbed her hands "What is it, Cookie? I'm tryna sleep here."

"Ransom! I'm hungry so you need to feed me or I need to go home and get some food."

Ransom started pushing up against her "I've got something to feed you, right-"

Cookie elbowed him in the ribs "Really Ransom? What are you, 12? I need some food." She sat up "I should get home, I've got chores to do"

Ransom scoffed "Chores? That's what maids are for."

Cookie got up and found her clothes "Yeah, well not all of us have trust funds so we can afford to hire help."

He sat up and watched as she dressed.

Once she was somewhat respectable looking, for a walk of shame, Cookie turned to Ransom, who had started playing with his phone once she was dressed. After leaning down to give him a kiss she stood to leave "Thanks, Ran, I needed that. It was fun. Maybe I'll see you around."

Ransom looked up "Do you need a ride or something?"

Cookie smiled "No, my uber is almost here, I'm good."

He leered at her "I don't do relationships, baby, but you have my number if you wanna do it again."

She giggled "Yeah, sure. I'm going to wait out front for my car, so I'll see you."

When Cookie arrived home she took a long hot shower and went over her memories of the last 24 hours. She certainly never expected to meet Ransom Drysdale and spend the night with him. His reputation was justified, the man had a wicked tongue and impressive stamina for someone with no enhancements. He definitely satisfied but wasn't someone to get caught up with, as his reputation also warned. She wasn't in Boston to find a new man anyhow, she was getting over one. He didn't compare to Bucky but she tried not to think about him, everything was too confusing and messy.

Cookie sighed, she missed him and the friendship they had before Sharon showed up to ruin everything. Even though she knew it wasn't really Sharon's fault, Cookie couldn't help the anger that tried to bubble up. She pushed it back down as she dried her hair and went downstairs to find something to eat.

Cookie didn't feel up for cooking so settled for a bowl of cereal, sat at the dining room table and picked her phone up only to be hit with dozens of notifications. She felt her stomach drop, apparently Ransom was big gossip and the new unknown woman he left the book launch with was Boston's biggest mystery. Some of her coworkers were asking if it was her while Annie just tagged her with a winky emoji. Maria Hill texted a question mark and 'call me'.

Cookie's head fell into her hands, she knew she wasn't in any trouble but hadn't expected her little fling to get so much outside attention. This was a potential complication that she didn't need. At least she knew Ransom was on the same page and didn't expect anything more from her.

She jumped when her phone rang but was relieved to see it was Sam.

"Hey babygirl, sounds like you're having some fun in Boston. Don't forget us little people while you're hanging with the world famous writer and his family."

Cookie laughed "Please, it was one party. I'm still the nerdy intel analyst you know and love."

"Well I hope so. You didn't hear it from me but Robocop is turning green."

Cookie scoffed "Right, he has them to keep him occupied."

"Yeah, they are fighting over him and he's ignoring them. It's almost entertaining, at least until I had to help pull them apart. I got scratched in the face, those ladies are ruthless."

Cookie laughed "Poor, poor, Sammy. Beat up by those mean ol girls. I'm sorry I'm not there to stitch you up."

"Pffft, wasn't all that. Just annoying." Sam whined "I miss you, when are you coming home?"

Cookie sighed "This is my home for now. I miss you too Sammy but the compound was just too much. You should come here, there's lots of history."

They ended the call with Sam promising to visit when he could get away after Cookie told him she would make his favorite cookies.

After they hung up, Cookie started going through her mail. A plain white envelope with the compound as the return address caught her eye. The simple block writing made her heart race as she realized it was Bucky's writing. It was the first time he'd tried to reach out to her since the night they spent together and she was afraid he was finally rejecting her friendship outright instead of just ignoring her. Being ignored had hurt but there had been some hope, however foolish it might have been, especially after learning that he had been drugged, but if he told her he didn't want her in this letter that would really be it.

Cookie's mind came up with all sorts of awful things he could say and what his words could do to her and she felt a panic attack crawling up her spine. She dropped the letter like it was on fire and backed away without opening it. She wasn't ready to read what Bucky had to say yet and left it on the table as she started her laundry and straightened up her townhouse.

@erelierraceala @capswife @ozwriterchick @cjand10 @wintrsoldrluvr @mrsbuckybarnes1917 @browneyedgrli @greatenthusiasttidalwave @hhiggs @dontworryboutitsweetheart-blog @behindmygreyeyes @pattiemac1 @mrsbuckybarnes1917 @calwitch @mrs-bucky-barnes-73 @ordelixx @blackhawkfanatic @casey1-2007 @scott-loki-barnes @selella @hiireadstuff @winterschildren8

Every time she walked past the table she could see it out of the corner of her eye. It seemed to grow and catch her attention no matter where she went in the house but she just couldn't bring herself to open it yet.

Chapter 9

[sun-stricken]

Do you think Gray, Natsu , Erza and Wendy have accents like all came from different places and I headcanon Florian wasn’t any of their first languages so whenever they get emotional their accents come out and Lucy’s just like “ guys please I can’t understand what your sayin” but they can understand each other just fine.

Like that get ambushed on a mission and they all start swearing except only Lucy’s swearing in Fiorian and they get so angry after the missions complete and thier all complaining about it Lucy’s just completely lost because their accents are popping so hard.

i do think so actually

i mostly just played around with what their accents would sound like rather than what you asked, so sorry🙏

Almost no one outside of who she grew up extremely close with can understand Erza when her accent pops out. Erzas accent is a mash up of a bunch of different ones, being raised in the tower with a bunch of people from various linguistic backgrounds does that, you could not pin point where shes from originally from speaking alone. When her accent pops her words can go anywhere from a clear-cut and concise, to a rolling drawl, to fast and choppy, it will give you whiplash

Natsu and Wendys accents are harsh and makes their words slur together heavily, sounds like theyre short-cutting their words as much as possible. Its meant for fast speaking.

Wendys accent is a different dialect of the average Fiorian one, the rhythm/structure of it flows similarly, but the pronunciation of letters are fairly different. When her accent comes out, her words probably the easiest to make out since (after Grandeeney) she was technically raised in Fioré, although that isnt saying much when compared to the other three.

Natsu, now Natsus accent is practically unintelligible at best, by the time you process what one word was, hes already moved on to another sentence, he could not slow down if he tried. Even if hes speaking a language youre fluent in, if his accent breaks through it sounds like a different language altogether.

Grays accent is sharp and sounds a little awkward, it can make him trip up on his words since Florian languages are faster and the sounds are shorter and an Isvani accent will put stress in unneeded places and is more drawn out. His accent is very, indecisive? the way he says words will change depending on where in the sentence they are or how he uses them. very inconvenient for anyone trying to understand him.

All of this very inconvenient for Lucy. Her first language is Florian, she knows a couple different languages fluently but holy shit, she should’ve brought her flash cards with her when she ran away. Although none of them wouldve prepared her for this

Wendys accent is heavy when shes upset for any reason, while Lucy is okay at understanding her (even if the pace makes her dizzy sometimes) she absolutely cant whenever she cries. Or when shes yelling, or if shes doing anything actually, Lucy has to pay very close attention to understand

Natsus pops at any given time, no real reason, but its like he purposely uses it when hes cursing someone out, he thrives on their utter confusion. If Lucy thought Wendys pace was dizzying, Natsus makes her feel like shes in a tornado.

*Natsu and Lucy arguing and his accent comes out*

Lucy, nearing a breakdown: IDK WHAT THE HELL YOURE SAYING

Natsu, knowing exactly what hes doing: FUCK YOU

Lucy: FOR THE LOVE OF—PLEASE

they have fun🤗

Both Grays and Erzas come out mostly when they’re tired, during intense moments/emotions, or when they talk for a long time.

Lucy has given up on trying to understanding Erza, just sitting there in horrified facination as she successfully captured a part of every countries accent while also trying to use context clues because for some reason the others can understand her perfectly fine (so unfair)

Gray also sometimes uses his accent to confuse people, although he usually dabbles in the actual language than the just the accent cause its funnier that way. Lucy at this point has given up any sense of peace she’ll get to have ever, itll never happen around any of these fools

So far, Lucy thinks Wendys is the easiest to understand (which means its her favorite), Grays is the nicest to listen to (even if the sharpness of it makes it feel like hes about to yell), Erzas is the most confusing (literally what the fuck is it??), and Natsus pisses her off (she knows that mf uses it on purpose to make her confused)

Once they all started talking with their natural accent and Lucy thought she had a brain injury before staring blankly and wonder what her life has come to

[kkenma666]

(창빈,현진) changbin & hyunjin.. 7 minutes in heaven

...🐷🐰 (창빈) changbin!!

the both of you grunted as you felt your bodies being pressed against each other, the lack of space inside the closet being to blame.

changbin and you looked the other way, trying your hardest not to breathe in each other's faces. "uh well, ain't this awkward.." changbin joked, trying to ease the heavy tension in the air.

you nodded quietly as you leaned against the door, praying that someone will just open the door already.

just how did you get into this mess?

well, it all started with you being dared by your friend to stand inside the closet for seven minutes alone. you accepted the dare— thinking it was easy enough. i mean just stand in a closet, alone, for 7 minutes.

but oh boy were you wrong. you should have known it was suspicious when your friend randomly dared you to go into the janitor's closet for seven minutes with changbin nearby.

somehow your friends somehow pushed the almighty changbin and held the closet close, refusing to open it until the seven minutes were up. you tried yelling at them to open it but it was to no avail.

anyway, that was how you got yourself into this awkward position with your crush.

"um, sorry that my friends pushed you to this.. ugh i swear I'll kill them once I'm out of here.." you muttered an apology while looking down, failing to notice the smile creeping on his lips.

a cute snort escaped his lips making you raise your eyebrow at it.

"it's fine, plus it's not that bad being stuck with you."

you immediately looked up at him in shock, your ears already red. "i— uh. what do you mean by that?" you started fidgeting with your hands, trying to calm your flushing self down.

but it all went to waste as soon as changbin opened his mouth. "well, since i probably won't have another chance like this I'll just be honest. i really like you, yn. let me take you out sometime."

changbin's usual loud boisterous voice was surprisingly quiet, his tone gentle and loving. you could feel his true emotions.

you stared at him as if asking are you joking? to which he replied by only staring at you with his doting eyes. your eyes also bored back into his own as you try to conjure up a response.

you went into overdrive as the warm closet somehow turned into a sauna from how hard you were blushing. "i—uh i— um.. sure! would saturday work?" changbin nodded.

before any more conversation could start, the door suddenly opened— making you almost fall down head first but changbin's hand quickly sneaked its way onto your waist preventing you from falling down.

"see you at eight then, cutie" he helped you back on your feet and left you behind to process what the fuck just happened.

...🥟 (현진) hyunjin!!

your eyes darted everywhere except into his own, his eyes also following suit. you tried to push yourself as far back into the shelves behind you trying to make as much space between the two of you.

"you don't have to push yourself into the shelf, yknow?" your pupil blew wide as you apologized, retreating towards your original spot.

the both of you could feel each other hot breath's against each other, his breath fanning the crown of your head while yours on his chest.

just how did you get into this mess?

you, your friends, and a bunch of your classmates decided to play a silly game of seven minutes in heaven with each other. you could bet everyone was nervous about who they were gonna get stuck with.

one thing for sure was everyone wished that they could get stuck with hwang hyunjin, the class muse— and by some godly luck, you managed to get stuck with him.

you could tell a lot of people were jealous of you but they let it go, i mean it's just a friendly game between classmates.

god knows how nervous you are to be stuck in a room with him. i mean, people would fight for your spot right now.

"hey, you don't have to be so nervous... talk with me." hyunjin's smooth voice managed to ease you down a bit— your tense shoulder drooping a bit.

"yeah no sorry, it's just um.. awkward being stuck here with you!" you managed to squeak out a response, your voice higher than you intended. hyunjin laughed at this, easing the tense air.

without even realizing it, seven minutes passed by in a flash— the both of you doing nothing but chatting and getting to know each other inside that closet.

questions were bombarded your way to which you only replied with a we only chatted.

after the game ended and everyone headed their own ways, hyunjin called you over— earning looks from your friends.

you rolled your eyes at them and made your way towards hyunjin, a shy smile on your face. "um so.. i really enjoyed our time there." you also agreed, "yeah, i really got to know you a lot, hyunjin!"

"yeah so a new cafe just opened up nearby and i was wondering if you were free this saturday?"

dear god you feel like you could faint at this very moment. your ears immediately went red as you tried to remember your own schedule. "yep, I'm very much free! does three pm work?"

hyunjin's dimple made you go into overdrive as he winked at you.

"see you at three then, cutie."

should i make the rest of the members?

[sky-kenobye]

Fic idea that I've been obsessing over in the last couple of days:

TLDR: Obi-Wan gets dumped on his wedding day, Anakin suggests they get married instead to save Obi-Wan the humiliation (and money), he agrees, they get married and nobody realises the stunt they pulled (except for the few people they told), and they both realise that actually it's great to be married to each other and that they wouldn't have it any other way, and probably get their happily ever after.

(A lot more details under the cut for those who are interested!)

Obi-Wan is getting married to someone (I was thinking Satine at first but I don't want to bash on her just because she's in the way of my ship so let's say an original character 🤷), Anakin is his best man, and it's a kinda big and traditional wedding and they did the 'you can't see your bride until the ceremony' stuff, so Obi-Wan is already at the city hall(?), while the bride will be coming later, just before the start of the ceremony.

It's less than an hour before the start and some early guests are already getting there. One of the bride's guest (Padmé?) is arriving when she gets a phone call from the bride, telling her that the wedding is canceled, sorry for calling at the last minute but she had to call all the guests and she was the last one. At the same time Anakin is coming out of the building for whatever reason and Padmé is like 'wdym it's canceled? The best man is here, and I can see other guests!'. The bride kinda panicks and hangs up, and Padmé flags Anakin down to ask what's going on.

He's also baffled because Obi-Wan didn't say it was cancelled, he's ready to get married and everything and he saw him about 10 seconds ago. They try to call the bride back but she doesn't answer, then they try to call another guest of the bride that Padmé knows. She answers and they learn that apparently the bride called in the morning and said that Obi-Wan had cancelled the wedding and dumped her at the last minute and they were each calling their half of the guests to tell them not to show up (which is clearly a bunch of lies from the bride).

They go and explain all of this to Obi-Wan who's confused and angry and heartbroken. He manages to get on the phone with the bride who properly dumps him, and by that time there's very little time before the ceremony was supposed to start. Most of the (Obi-Wan's) guests are there, and it's kind of (very) humiliating to have to go in front of all these people that he knows and tell them "wedding cancelled, I've been dumped, you can go home", and on top of that it wasn't a super cheap wedding so that sucks, and the catering is already ready so he'll have to throw away a ton of food? Not a great situation.

So Anakin has an idea: what if they get married instead? It's crazy so Obi-Wan tries to argue against it:

We can't get fake married! Then let's get real married!

People will still know I've been dumped and I'm pathetically trying to save face! None of the bride's guests will be there so i doubt it.

It was still her name on the wedding announcement. Okay then, maybe she dumped you like idk a month ago and I took the opportunity to declare my secret love for you!

And we got married less than a month later? It's hard and expensive as shit to cancel a wedding on such a short notice so we took the opportunity! It's not so unrealistic for me and I could probably convince you to do it.

But then we'll be married. Yeah, so? There are worst things in the world.

Obi-Wan is skeptical but not saying no yet, and Padmé is like 'honestly coming from anybody else I'd think they lost it, but from you two? I can see it. Not even sure I'd be all that surprised tbh'.

Obi-Wan's not having a great time and getting married to Anakin sounds a thousand times better than telling people what actually happened so he says fuck it let's do it.

They form a quick battle plan: Obi-Wan will go talk to the officiant to change the bride's name to anakin's (is it legally possible in any country? Probably not but let's pretend it is and that the marriage is still valid), Anakin will find them new best men/women (probably quinlan for obi-wan and ahsoka for anakin? Or padmé since she's already in the loop) and brief them on the situation, and Padmé will find a ring that fits Anakin (she borrows one of the guest's, maybe Owen Lars'?).

Only a few minutes late, they come out in front of all the guests, do a quick speech explaining the unexpected change (with a few lies of course), and the ceremony begins. Everything goes smoothly, Obi-Wan improvises very moving (and actually 100% honest) wedding vows, Anakin is crying and forgot they needed wedding vows but manages to put a few sentences together which are equally as honest as Obi-Wan's and make people cry too (they think he forgot his vows because of the emotion). They put the rings on each other, kiss and all of that, and when they leave the building they're both beaming so wide that it doesn't occur to anybody to be suspicious, the grooms look so happy and in love!

Then it's time for the reception and everybody has a great time, the grooms have a very sweet first dance, and they're all over each other the entire evening, how adorable! And if they disappear for a little while (Obi-Wan may be happy to get married to Anakin but he still just got dumped, so he may want to have a few minutes to breath in a quiet corner and get a good hug) then everybody assumes they're making out in a closet or something. Owen laughs at them for forgetting the rings (which is what he assumes is the reason they needed his ring), and they get a lot of friendly ribbing for 'keeping their wedding a secret' from pretty much everybody.

And maybe after a few drink they do really disappear to make out and decide that marrying your best friend that you've always kind of been into without ever admitting it is pretty amazing actually.

[animentality]

the fun thing about durgetash for me as far as definitely toxic ships go, is that gortash and durge, as individuals, are toxic. but the ship itself? not toxic at all in my take. because as horrible as they are as people, the love they have for each other is actually very genuine. everyone else in the world is dust under their boots except for each other. they truly respect each other and get along frighteningly well and listen to each other and support each other’s atrocities and so, if you ignore the screaming of their victims in the background, their relationship is actually kind of healthy.

to be fair: this is with my version of them in mind lol i know other people have spicer takes where they ARE actively toxic to each other and such, and those are fun too but ive gotten so into the version of them where they both just exude toxicity to everyone in their lives EXCEPT each other. it’s already a trope im very weak to but its especially crazy with them. its like they cancel each other out somehow lol

like i think it takes a while to get to that point of course, to build up actual trust enough to feel even slightly safe around each other, but once they open up to each other the affection-starvation just jumps out. and then despite everything they manage to actually be gentle with each other. and neither of them deserves gentleness of any sort, but they get it anyway, from each other.

so for me durgetash is “toxic” only by virtue of the individuals involved being horrible terrible people, and because they gleefully support each other’s evil plans, and not because of how they actually treat each other, which is actually the closest thing to “normal” either of them will ever experience (and it is still so, so far from “normal” lol)

but it’s still also nice to be in a ship where the discourse is so obvious we don’t even bother lol. yes gortash has a list of human rights abuses longer than he is tall. yes he’s gonna have an evil cuddle with his evil partner-in-crime in their evil bedroom after a long, hard day of being evil. and i’m gonna be thinking about it <3

Anon, you get me.

I think durgetash just works because...they are so blatantly evil.

Gortash tortured a bunch of people trying to figure out how tadpoles worked, and the evidence of his crimes is in the mindflayer colony beneath Moonrise and in the Steel Watch Foundry. His Steel Watch guards literally kill children and innocent families.

The Dark Urge mentions killing (eating?) a BABY. They have killed thousands. They eat human meat. They torture people.

They both started the entire plot by being total pieces of shit.

So what are you going to do?

Cancel them???

The game cancels them.

Gortash literally got cancelled so hard his brain popped.

The Dark Urge dies in most playthroughs. They only become redeemable by literally dying and becoming a new person. Plus their life is so fucking awful, that it almost cancels out how bad they are, because they're a vessel of Bhaal, who can either choose obedience or death.

They are both so outrageously evil, you can't even be outraged.

No one on the entire planet is defending either of them.

It almost defeats itself as an argument, like, you say Gortash is horrible, and I say yeah, man. You say, the Dark Urge is evil, and I say absolutely.

But that's kind of why...a relationship between the two of them IS so good, though.

Sure, there have always been villainous ships, but...something about these jagged creatures having a soft spot for one another...

It just works.

It's...it's taking two wretched beasts, and giving them something human to hold between their claws.

How can you support them being together, but how could you deny them this?

They're so horrible, they don't deserve love, but at the same time, seeing profoundly evil people are still capable of love, and humanity is inescapable, no matter how inhuman you are...

Hmmmm.

Yes.

The worse Dark Urge and Enver are, the better Durgetash comes.

That's the wonderful conundrum.

It's honestly such a SHIP, anon.

THE Ship.

[best-nun-tournament]

Round 1, Match 28

Sam and Dean Winchester (Supernatural) vs John Wilkes and Edwin Booth (US history)

Propaganda under break. Spoilers for Supernatural

Sam and Dean Winchester

Unlicensed and unregistered guns/vigilante justice

---------

they try to kill each other SO many times. well maybe not that often but more often that is emotionally healthy for both of them. dean tries to kill sam (4.14, 8.06, 10.03, 10.23) and sam tries to kill dean (4.14).

in s10 dean has this really shitty curse that basically makes him really violent and want to kill people. however he also wants to just try to deal with it instead of trying to remove the curse because they know removing the curse would cause something really bad to happen. they don't know WHAT the bad thing is but they do know it would be devastating. anyways sam goes behind dean's back and gathers a bunch of other people to try and remove this curse even though dean doesn't want him to AND even though he knows it would cause terrible consequences. eventually sam does get the curse removed and surprise! the bad thing that happens is THE FUCKING APOCALYPSE. basically.

in s9 dean lets an angel possess sam - something he knows sam would never consent to under normal circumstances - in order to save his life and then, when sam finds out and gets mad about it, dean basically refuses to apologize. and then he just never gets around to apologizing about it or even showing regret about doing it.

in s4 sam lies to dean continuously and works with a demon behind dean's back, and he's also doing the supernatural equivalent of drugs that give him powers. when dean finds out about this he locks sam up in a panic room to suffer through his (very painful) withdrawal completely alone. also sam is having hallucinations of dean calling him a monster. and when another character says that he thinks they should let sam out because sam is at risk of dying, dean says "at least he dies human." later sam gets out of the panic room, dean catches up to him, and they have this huge fight where sam just beats dean up.

honorable mention: in between s7-s8 dean dies and goes to purgatory. the concept of purgatory is previously mostly unexplored on supernatural so sam doesn't really know that dean is in purgatory in the first place but also he just straight up does not bother looking for dean at all and just goes back to living a normal suburban life for a couple months. and then when dean gets back he is SO upset about this and resents sam for it for basically the whole season. (this is also one of the reasons he tries to kill sam.)

also they continually try to save each other, at the expense of themselves + each other + everyone around them. they also treat cas (cas!! my best girl cas!!) really shittily on multiple occasions just because he's in the way of their goals.

ALSO. very important. sam & dean are, respectively, the vessels of lucifer & michael (like the archangels) and essentially they are destined to each get possessed by lucifer/michael and kill each other in the apocalypse (the 1st apocalypse, not the 2nd).

all this propaganda might be a little bit biased in favor of sam because i'm a samgirl but you get the point. they think they're so normal but they are SO fucked up. they hurt themselves AND each other in the pursuit of trying to do what they each think is best and they never ever learn from it. i don't even ship wincest i just think they are so interestingly fucked up AND that's not even going into all the stuff about their childhoods / pre-canon

John Wilkes and Edwin Booth

They were actors which is fine. Except. Edwin was better and John was bitter. And the John assassinated the President while delivering a line well associated with Edwin's Brutus. Edwin (already on the outs with John) disowned his brother after that.

Poll Runner's Note: Also their brother Junius Brutus Booth Jr was arrested because of John Wilkes Booth shooting the president. And the three of them had just done Julius Caesar in 1864 (John Wilkes was Mark Antony and Junius was Crassus), the year before the assassination.

One of Junius' other famous roles was as King John, also in this tournament!

[tossawary]

Needing something to play in the background during the day, I have started watching Transformers G1 and have now finished the first season. It is very funny to visit the original after getting most of my information through Fandom Osmosis and passing acquaintanceship with more recent Transformers media. I decided to start at the beginning (terrible decision, I know, I will not be changing it) because I have like 40+ hours per week that need background sound and I like studying adaptational choices over time, so I intend to progress through a bunch of Transformers shows in chronological order.

It's kind of like Star Trek: TOS (Star Trek is better) in that I find parts of it very charming, there are plenty of aspects that are even compelling in their potential, but it's also... bad. A lot of it is Very Bad, sometimes in a very funny way and sometimes in a way that is just Not Good and even Problematic. I cannot possibly recommend it.

The animation quality is understandably very low due to the context of its creation (television show from the 80s made to sell toys). I like a few of the Cybertron background paintings, but it still takes me a second to tell a lot of the characters apart, partially because there is a revolving door for supporting characters. The writing quality is even worse. The physics is all over the place. The powers and abilities are completely arbitrary. None of the science works. No one can decide what body parts the Cybertronians actually have. There is way more mind control in this show than I ever expected there to be. This is apparently an alternate universe where the Earth has various types of energy crystals. The Idiot Ball trope is flying all over the place like dodgeballs and the characters are repeatedly hitting themselves with it constantly. Some of the accents are quite silly, yeah, but it still doesn't justify how some people type them out in fanfiction.

And yet I am still mildly entertained, probably because I am already partial to both animation and space opera with robots. And I recognize enough of the characters to find these early versions of them very funny. And some parts of this extended toy commercial were very clearly Done With Love.

Megatron and Starscream are like two halves of a whole idiot. The Decepticons are incapable of not betraying each other for more than a few episodes. Except for Soundwave, who is the MVP of the Decepticons, and yet also does nothing to stop any of the drama. Both sides can just Make New Guys at any time apparently and the Dinobots should unionize. I think Optimus Prime essentially "ok boomer"ed Megatron in the second episode and it was justified. I can't believe that Shockwave didn't just straight up stage a coup or otherwise move on in 4 million years, like, man, DUMP HIS ASS already. Bumblebee has apparently always been Very Smol and Just A Little Guy. Because this is a kids show, all these giant robots are constantly calling the Mortal Enemies They Want Dead "dweebs" and "nerds" and "twerps" and it's Very Funny. And I'm just going to assume that Sparkplug is a nickname and not an adult human man's legal name.

Also, I know the reason that the human kids are in the show is so that the show can go, "Look! This could be you! Being friends with all your favorite giant robots!" But it very much comes off as the Autobots having no real context for Spike's age or squishiness, probably because their own newborns are already able to fight. And Carly's introduction involving renting scuba gear and breaking into the Decepticon base makes her look (and I mean this with bewildered affection) fucking nuts, girl.

[findafight]

STOBIN AS DRIFT COMPATIBLE BESTIES FIGHTING KAIJU!!!

OKAY OKAY BUT. post canon au where the Breach opens in the early nineties instead of 2013, and eventually when the Jaeger Program is just in the fledgling stages, right at the start when they figure out the drift and sharing the load, some American government goon looks at another, and they're both thinking the same thing. They know a couple chucklefucks who are scarily in tune with each other that already have monster fighting experience. The problem is of course the chucklefuckery and also they. Hate the government.

But they figure yknow. May as well try to get the actually very good at killing monsters the military can't clowns. They need people willing to go into deathtraps and fight giant monsters, and those two have done that a few times before. They need people that can connect to each other while also fighting without dying, and figure those two are a prime example. So after a lot of government groveling and Robin and Steve slamming the door in multiple suits' faces, they eventually agree to at least...see what it's all about. Because they heard about the attack in San Francisco on K-day, about Manila and Cabo San Lucas and Syndney, and it was all bad, and as much as they dislike and distrust the government and military...they do want to help (and the pay is...good). It was probably only a matter of time before their luck in avoiding monsters ran out anyway. At least this way they had some control of how.

So Steve and Robin are in the Jaeger Academy almost as soon as it opens. It's...an adjustment. They're obviously not the regular type to join, mostly its a bunch of men who were maybe ex military or something, and they stick out. Training is a pain in the ass, they've spent the years between the upside down closing lounging and working and starting to relax, and so there's the expected heckling.

(I want them to meet Newt and Herman so bad like. they'd be around the same age as them (because we are bumping everything in PR canon back for this) and I think the combo punch of Newt and Robin being themselves would be hilarious. They're all kinda outsiders in the macho militarism of the Academy and i think the chaos would just be. unimaginable. )

But anyways. I think during the testing to see drift compatibility, Steve is called up and looks the scientist/military guy (because it's early days there aren't really "instructors" yet) and says "If you even think about putting me in one of those fucking things with anyone other than Robin, you've lost your mind and forgotten we're only here because you asked us to be together." Everyone is like ooooooh but then he squints at them and they shut up like oh damn okay sorry yeah.

And that's the end of that discussion.

There's something about being in the drift with each other that makes all that complaining and speculating and wishing to combine when they were teenagers seem half-assed. It's...not like anything either of them can describe. It feels right, like they were always meant to be that way. If they lived in each other's pockets before the Drift, they're in each other's skin now. Silent communication is expected for long-term drift partners. Residuals of the bond, dream sharing, but Robin and Steve, even among other pilots are exceptional. There's entire discussions happening in brief eye contact. They move in sync outside the Jaeger just as well as if they were still in the Drift. They've only had one RABBIT incident, and they pulled out of it fine. It's...eerie for some people to watch them, even other Pilots. (also the fact they'll casually mention shit like "well at least the air isn't toxic" or "hey. don't call this torture, that's offensive. I've been tortured!" or even "can't believe i survived evil bats for this shit." which is mildly offputting)

They end up on the Pacific northwest and into southern B.C. with a Mach 1 called... something like Midwest Deluge or something idk. They're media darlings the first Kaiju they kill two fifty kilometres off the coast of Washington. Robin is quirky, and Steve has all his midwestern boyish charm, and together they entrance people with the Drift. There's interviews and talkshows and then at some point action figures? (Dustin does not let this go. By this time he's also working in K-sci. [obviously??] but he's still annoying little brother shaped.)

Steve is usually one of the first quoted to describe the Drift, in his first interview having said "When I first met Robin --became friends with her--it felt like we'd known each other our whole lives. Now we have." Robin is also sometimes quoted with "There's probably nowhere I'd rather be, than in Steve's head."

Of course, with them being in the media, being kickass, and also being part of a program that emphasizes compatibility, there's questions on whether or not they're dating. Because while the Drift isn't romantic by nature, my god people would romanticize it. And when two hot people of opposite genders that are not related to each other in any way are piloting the Jaeger, and are just *gestures to all of stobinisms* assumptions abound.

They're in an interview after their third kill when it happens. It's a few years into their tenure as Pilots, maybe '96? (if the Breach opened in '91 and they were recruited in 93?) The host asks "So. romantically. You two have always denied that attraction, but working so close together, literally in each other's heads, isn't there a chance that has blossomed into something else? Something more?"

They roll their eyes. Steve says "there's nothing more than what Robin and I have. Romance isn't more it's just something else."

Robin goes "Plus..." Before Steve looks at her, eyebrows raised. "I think so" she says, obviously to a question Steve asked that only she heard. "What are they going to do? Fire me?" they both laugh.

He shrugs. "if you're sure..."

Robin hums. "Yes, well. I agree with everything Steve said. The Drift isn't romantic, it's connection. It's knowing. All sorts of relationships can be Drift compatible. Steve's and mine is Platonic. Capital P."

"You gonna actually say it anytime soon?"

"Shut up."

"I dunno it seems like you're stalling."

"Christ, Steve. I'm getting to it. Let me tell the world I'm a lesbian without nagging, goddamn." She turns to the interviewer. "anyways yeah I'm a lesbian so it was never going to be romantic between me and Steve. I'm just obsessed with him."

There's a pause, before they lean into each other and giggle. Steve whispers "good job" that's barely picked up by his mic.

They get a stern talking to by their Marshal but Robin was right. They can't get fired for it. They're too good and pilots are too valuable for plain ol' homophobia to get in the way. (It's seen as a cornerstone moment in queer history, a Jaeger Pilot, someone the world can do nothing but respect, came out! casually. with an already supportive loved one sitting beside her, ready to laugh with her.) And while some people act weird or distant about it, most move past it pretty quick, considering the Midwest team is well respected and there's obviously the bigger problem of underwater aliens trying to kill everyone. You either get over it and work with them or you leave or get people killed.

By the time of the events of the movie, they're old-timers. They've upgraded once to a Mach 3 after a brutal fight with a high category than expected made Midwest Deluge inoperable. They're in Hong-Kong because where else would they be? They need to end this. Just like they needed to see the Upside Down to the end. Their whole lives have been dominated by fighting for their lives and to protect their home and the world. One last push. They aren't even forty yet.

and then the breach is closed and the world is saved and they can retire with their massive pensions from being the best monster killers ever <3

[xo-lesserafim]

FALLING FOR YOUR SMILE AND EYES

EPISODE 2. WTF

author’s note: Episode 2 , LETS GOOOO! But thank you for reading<3. But i make each chapter or “episode” while watching the actual one so thats why I’m word for word<3

Bold: Korean

Italics: Over the phone

Both: Korean and Over the Phone

Back to masterlist

“KITTY” I yelled trying to find her.

“Kitty! Are you okay?” I asked once I found her.“

No, I just found out my boyfriend is cheating on me” She says almost bursting in tears.

“ Hey, it’s okay. Don’t cry.” I said.

“Just Stop trying to comfort me Andrea.” Kitty said.

I felt hurt but she didn’t mean it, right?”

But I still stood, maybe to still comfort her.

“Dae, I don’t wanna talk to you. Just leave me-.”

“Sorry, I’m just looking for the loo” A guy says.

“I’m Alex Finnerty from Melbourne, Australia. I’m a new teacher here this year.”

“ Why are you not Dae?” Kitty asks.

“ You mean the guy you don’t wanna talk to?” Alex says.

“Are you all right? Can I get you anything?” Alex asked.

“ Never mind.” Kitty says. “ You’re American, right?”

“ Yea” I said. “ I really admire you guys over there.” “…… also very loud.” Alex says.

“ What?” Kitty says.

“ I just notice that Americans speak louder than everyone else.”

“Forgot everything that just happened.” Kitty says.

“ I am going back in there and I am not leaving without answers. Let’s go Andrea.”

“ Excuse me” I ask.

“ Those two girls treat Korean Guys like Pokémon. They are trying to catch them all.” The guy said.

“ Not interested.” “ Get over yourself. I’m trying to help her find Dae.” I say.

“Okay, who are you?” Q asks.

“I’m Andrea Song Covey.”

“ And I’m Kitty Song Covey.”

“ You’re Kitty and Andrea?” Q asks.

“ Wait are you Q?” Kitty asks.

“ Track Star, fellow American, heart of gold?” I finished.

“ Guilty as charged. I feel like we should hug right now. Should We?”

“ Maybe later. I need to find Dae.” Kitty says.

“ So you’re the pen pal?” The other guy asks.

“ So you’re Minnie Mouse?” I reply back. “

If he’s Q, then you must be Min Ho.” Kitty says. “ Of course you are. Where’s Dae?”

I followed Kitty to find Dae.

“ What the hell is going on?” Kitty asks.

“ It’s not what it looks like.”

“It looks like you’re a cheater. Are you not upset? He’s been cheating on both of us.” She says to Yuri.

“ No he’s been cheating on you. I already knew about you already. Dae’s American pen pal. I just didn’t know you were you until a few moments ago.”

As Kitty crash into the dessert tower, I fell into the cupcake so she wouldn’t have to be alone.

I mean this dress isn’t my best dress at-least. “ What? Never seen a girl crash i to a dessert tower before?” Kitty says.

“ And never seen a girl fall into a bunch or cupcakes before?” I say.

“ Nothing to see here, people!” We both say.

As she fell down, I was to kinda catch her you could say.

“ Fine, maybe there something to see.” Kitty says.

“ Kitty are you okay?” Dae asks.

“ Get away from me.”

“ And me.” I said running to catch up with Kitty.

Back in the dorms, we were packing up because I don’t wanna be here with Kitty and I feel so bad for her.

When we heard people coming she went to the bed, I went to the door to listen.

“Spill it! When did you get with Yuri? And Where? And how far?” Minho Asks.

“ And most importantly, why?” Q says.

“ Dae you little scammer. What did you convince Yuri to buy you that suit?” Minho asks.

“ How do you know I didn’t buy it?”

“Because it costs 5k.”

“Seriously” Dae says.

“ I don’t know, I feel bad for Kitty.”

“ I don’t.”

“ Thats cold, Min ho. Breaking up with someone is brutal.”

“Except it wasn’t a breakup because it wasn’t a real relationship. No one’s gonna blame you for upgrading a pen pal for an actual girlfriend.” Minho says.

Kitty scoff -shouts.

“ KITTY SHUT THE FUCK UP!” I said whispering.

“Marius?” Q asks.

“ No,no,no!” Kitty says.

“ Your fault kitkat!” I say as we run to our bed to hide.

“I thought Marius went back to Greece?” Q asks.

“ Maybe he changed his mind.” Dae says.

“ Hmm” “Oy, Marius. Wake up! Time for Class!” Minho says as I shush Kitty.

As they were pulling on the blanket we were pulling back to prevent them from pulling off of us.

Once they got it off, I screamed my voice out of me.

“AHHHHHHHH” I screamed.

After screams later the boys went into the living room.

“ Dae’s crazy ex pen pal and her sister broke into our dorm to murder us!”

“ This is our room.” I said.

“ You guys are listed as Song Covey” Q says.

“ So?” Kitty asks.

“ Song can be a guy’s name. That’s why they assigned you guys to the guys dorm.” Dae says.

“What?” Kitty and I say.

“They did this on purpose.

So Kitty could be closer to Dae and Puppy here could get closer.. to me. Plus I thought the little pup knew how to speak Korean.” Min ho says.

“ I told you she was hitting on me on the plane ride over.”

“ I was not hitting on you. But whatever you say Minnie Mouse. And I can speak Korean, I was just blanking out on the time!” I say.

A few seconds later. “Kitty” Dae says. “ Can we please talk?”

“ No, I never wanna speak to you again.” “ Kitty.” “I want my necklace back.”

“ Your necklace?”

“ Yea, the one I gave you when your mom died?”

“ Yea, I have it around somewhere.”

“ Somewhere?”

“ I’ll find it”

“ You don’t even know where it is. Dae, that belonged to my mom.” “

I’ll bring it back to you, Kitty. I promise.”

“Your promises are literally worthless.”

Kitty and I went back into our room. “

All of Dae’s stuff is in the room. Where is he going to sleep?” Min ho says.

As Min ho was saying that Kitty threw a pillow in his face.

In early morning, when Kitty and I were ready to leave for the airport, we had to snuck around Dae.

A few minutes later , Dae was coming over to talk with Kitty.

“ Kitty! I’ve been all over campus trying to find you. Listen, what you saw yesterday me— Sorry. Umm,. The Truth is that— Why is she calling me?”

“ Cause she’s your girlfriend.”

“ No. Just let me explain Kitty.”

“No. After everything, there’s nothing you can say that’s gonna make me stay.”.

“ Maybe there’s something I can do.”

As Dae and Kitty were about to kiss “Dae Heon!” I heard, Dae’s dad was Yuri’s Driver?

As Kitty and I were going to the dorms I heard Q and Min Ho say

“ Dae, have you seen this video of Mr. Han? It’s kind of blowing up.” “ I bet Yuri loves the drama.”

“ I don’t particularly care.” Kitty says as I’m walking to see the video.

“Kitty. Andrea.” Q says.

“ I thought you guys left.” Min ho says.

“We did, but we decided to stay.” Kitty says.

“ And not that it’s any of your guys business, but it isn’t about a boy.”

“ Oh, sweetie” Q says.

“ Our mom went here and being here makes me feel closer to her than I ever have been.” I say.

“WAIT! Dae is on TV?” Kitty says as she pushes me to Min ho and makes me fall on top of him.

“Get off me Puppy.” “

No, MINNIE MOUSE!”

“Guys, shush” Kitty says.

“ so lettuce move on” Gosh I wanted to scream and punch the kid. “

Well played” Q said.

Yuri had tried to hole Dae’s hand, but he wouldn’t let her. “

Oh my gosh. He’s faking it. That’s a fake relationship.” Kitty said.

“Are you sure Kitty?” I said.

“Yes, I’m sure of it.”

PREV EPISODE MASTERLIST. NEXT EPISODE

TAGLIST: @chaewon-slays

Copyrights © 2023 xo-lesserafim. All rights reserved. I do not own XO, Kitty , Netflix does<3 do not copy, translate, or repost anything without my permission.

[bury-me-in-potatoes]

14 Days of MHA: Day 4—The Ladies

My contribution for day 4 of @pikahlua's 14 Days of MHA challenge is just a bunch of my favourite moments from each of the class A girls and Toga lol. While Horikoshi definitely isn't the best at writing female characters, he does at least manage to make them have distinct personalities and unique designs, and I do really love most of them.

Hagakure Toru

I think this is the moment I started liking Hagakure lmao. Although I do like Aoyama and I sympathized with his situation, Hagakure's got a point. He sat in class with them every day while knowing his actions could potentially lead to their deaths, and I'm glad she called him out on it. Also, she was a badass in this scene lol.

Hagakure's quirk is super cool, actually. I love the whole "light refraction" part of it, since it's otherwise kind of just a generic invisibility power. I also really like how it's implied that she's been waiting for Aoyama to resolve to be a true hero and "shine from deep down within his core", even though she was angry before.

Ashido Mina

She was literally so brave here; her collapsing right after probably means she was terrified the entire time, but she still jumped in to save her friends. I already liked her before, but she probably shot way up on my rankings after this. Something about characters resolving to do something despite being afraid really gets to me, man.

I LOVE HER. I can't believe she really just said "friendship is magic, right?" lmao. I'm glad we got to see more of her, and it's interesting to see that there's a reason for her extroverted behaviour beyond it just being her personality. Mina might not get a ton of focus, but she's honestly one of my favourite students.

Asui Tsuyu

This speech makes me feel a lot of emotions lol. I know Tsuyu kind of faded into the background a little after the beginning, but I do really like it whenever she gets a moment like this. The part where she says that they'll tremble and cry together is just so!!!! Good!!! They're better together instead of apart. 20 quirks is better than 1.

Tsuyu is seriously underrated when it comes to the Togachako arc. I've always really loved it when characters grow to accept that the world isn't as black and white as they'd thought, and this is no exception. Her speech is so earnest and doesn't shy away from admitting that their efforts to understand Toga are arriving late, but she still implores Toga to at least listen.

Jirou Kyouka

It's so refreshing to see someone just. Not give a shit about what AFO's saying lmao. Like, who cares about who's weak and who's special right now? AFO made her friends cry, and that's why she's fighting. Also, the heartbeat monitor effects around the panels in the first picture are super cool, and I love it when Horikoshi plays around with stuff like that.

Jirou's quirk is literally so cool and I love the names of her ultimate moves. Also, it's really funny how the other guy made a huge thing out of being the first to pass the exam and everything, and Jirou just does this lmao. Good stuff.

Yaoyorozu Momo

I THINK ABOUT THIS MOMENT ALL THE TIME I'M SORRY. fdaskl;fjdasfjkl;dfj that smirk. That confidence. THAT GIANT ASS CANNON. She's literally come so far and I love her so much. There's very few ultimate moves that can top pulling a literal cannon out of your body, and I'm so glad she did it one more time in the final battle. Momo, you fucking rock.

Momo canonically being the person people look to in times of need is amazing and I love her. I realize I've said that before but it needs saying again. I like how this moment kind of parallels the final exam where she starts to spiral in the same way, but manages to pull herself together and come up with an amazing plan that does ultimately take down Machia.

Uraraka Ochako

Honestly, I could probably just put the entirety of her final confrontation with Toga here and call it a day lmao. I think about these chapters all the time, and it's crazy how they made me love Ochako so much more in such a short amount of time. I really, really love that Ochako emphasizes that while she doesn't think Toga's actions are okay, and that she can't just wipe her slate clean, but she'll listen anyway. She still wants to understand—to touch the sadness within her. Also, her quirk awakening is long overdue and it definitely delivered. She's basically unstoppable now lmao.

YOU KNOW I HAD TO INCLUDE THIS!!!!!!!! THE CUTEST IN THE WHOLE WORLD!!!!!!! I really love the Togachako fight. I love how empathetic Ochako is the entire time, and keeps fighting to understand Toga's feelings even through her injuries. I love that Ochako acknowledges that there's no replacing the League in Toga's heart, but she can still tell her what she truly thinks. And that hug!!! As they fall through the sky!!!!!! fjkdlsa;fdk anyways this chapter made my day.

Ochako gets three moments because I love her. Throughout the manga, Ochako makes a point of saying that she's putting her feelings away, or that she wants to get rid of them entirely, so seeing her finally fail to do so for once is...kind of a relief?? Her arc kind of has this subplot of shutting your feelings away versus letting them out, so seeing it come to its natural conclusion is satisfying. I like that her grief over Toga is so much, she just can't keep it in anymore, and I'm glad that in chapter 429 she finally gets to break down and let her true emotions spill out.

Toga Himiko

It's hard to choose exactly what panels in chapter 395 I like best, but I narrowed it down to these four. Although Toga's sacrifice definitely is a tearjerker, I think it's a fitting conclusion to her story; instead of taking blood from others, here she's willingly giving up her own to save someone she loves. It also shows that she's learned to express her love selflessly, instead of selfishly. Also, I genuinely think this chapter is one of the prettiest ones in the entire series. If you disagree, just take a look at Toga lmao.

This moment kind of makes me sad, because here, Toga's genuinely trying to connect with Ochako, but she gets shut down completely because Toga's a villain, and Ochako is a hero. Eventually, Ochako reciprocates the desire to understand her, but it's pretty clear that this moment devastates Toga, and solidifies her resolve to destroy everything alongside the League. Honestly, I love that Toga even tried to have this conversation with Ochako, knowing that they're on opposite sides. She's also completely right about the fact that shutting away your feelings only makes it worse, and this is something else that Ochako calls back to in their final fight, because Toga is kind of right about a lot of things, actually! Just not the murder parts.

[aza-writes]

Blood Red : Chapter 14

Doodles of Saturn

WARNINGS: MENTIONS OF BLOOD AND VIOLENCE AND PAST SEXUAL ABUSE

Hell's Kitchen : 2016

Aleksandra's POV

A euphoric feeling lingers as I ride my bike to the meeting. I weave in and out of cars in a rush to get there, worried I'll crash if I ride on this high any longer. I've never had to ride my motorcycle or drive a car while my head remains stuck in this haze, but I kinda like it. I like the absence of worry and strategy; I like the recklessness.

Tonight's meeting is at the Ranskahov garage, where they stash their taxis. It's a typical meeting spot, unassuming. You wouldn't question a bunch of cars going into a garage. That would be a ridiculous thing to be suspicious of.  I'd almost feel bad for the idiot who thought, "Huh, I wonder why cars are going into a garage?"

I don't slow down as I navigate into the opening of the garage, allowing the ramp to pull me down even faster than I was going, adding extra adrenaline to my already excessive-high. My heart is going incredibly fast; I fucking love it.

My bike comes to a skidding stop, forcing all the momentum to stop at once and forcing my bike to turn 180 degrees to avoid crashing into something or someone. Besides the usual people at Mr. Fisk's meetings, there were also the people the Ranskahov brothers employ. Bloodstained water covered the ground and slowly drained.

More blood.

This night keeps getting better and better.

The smell is dull, diluted with water. It doesn't matter, though; blood is blood.

Even over the sound of the power washer the Ranskahov employees are using to get Anatoly's head bits off the door frame of the car, Leland's voice echoes throughout the garage. Even though he is a loud talker, I cannot fully grasp what he's saying. There's a soft ring in my ears that, combined with the power washer, drowns out the actual words he's saying. I know it's his voice. I know he's speaking, but I can't register anything.

As I approach the group of mobsters and drug dealers, I take the helmet off; my mask and hair are still intact. The instructions for the meeting said to keep the blood on my face, so I do just that. I'm not complaining; I get to ride out my high for longer and relish in a well-done job. My eyes scan the circle, acknowledging everyone I see.

There are so many mobsters in one room. Harsh faces that have or been an accomplice in a murder or assassination. Except for one. In a sea of drugs, sex, and crime, there's an angel sneaking glances and smiles at me.

Under my mask, I want to smile back and let him know I see him, too, but would we risk being in trouble? In the Red Room, we would be punished for anything that indicated a connection, romantic or platonic. We, of course, cared for each other, but no one knew what was a genuine connection or simply bonding because they were there. Although I don't want to, it's the ladder.

Maverick's face melts away all of the other thoughts in my brain. Nothing else matters right now. I've just met him, but I feel like I've known him for years at this point.

Why am I feeling like this? I have been around boys my whole life, yet he makes me feel something. He isn't just an object; he means something. Fuck, I must be going crazy.

The illusion of it being just us is quickly fading. Our reality crashes back as Leland continues to ask questions. Gao just giggles at him.

Leland looks me in the eyes and says something to me. I can't make out his words, but I can sort of read his lips. He repeats the word "look" several times, but he mumbles so much that I don't catch the rest.

His eyes dart to something behind me that shuts him up immediately. I push my shoulders back, making myself look more intimidating as Fisk's car pulls up.

Fisk's car is silent; if you weren't completely quiet yourself, you wouldn't be able to hear it.

Wesley steps out of the car first, straightening out his suit jacket. Not even a millisecond later, Leland starts to run his mouth again.

"Why aren't we meeting in the usual place? And what's all this?" He gestures to the bloody cars and garage.

"An opportunity," Fisk's voice echoes throughout the garage, controlling the conversation. "for those willing to seize it."

Madam Gao laughs again. I can't tell if she's crazy or just a bitch. She is my favorite out of the group, though. She finally speaks up.

"最后，我们看到了主销。是什么花了你这么久." (Finally, we get to see the kingpin again. What's been taking you so long.) Her voice is very cheerful, with a hint of sarcasm. She truly is my favorite mobster.

Wesley turns his head to Fisk, not making eye contact. "She's happy to see you." His voice is quiet like it always is. It has a false calmness; if you weren't familiar with reading people, you would think it's true. He tries so hard to behave how mobsters do in the movies, but it seems almost too natural to him. He's still wearing a mask, though; he's not born for this like Fisk.

"My apologies," He leaves a long pause in the middle of his sentence, "for my absence of late." His voice grows louder, and he becomes more controlling of the situation. "And for calling you here on little notice."

"Where are the Smiley Twins? Sleeping off another kidnapping?" Leland, who had no impulse control, decides to interrupt Fisk again. As silence hung for a moment, his eyes drifted to me, then back to Fisk. "What's with bloody over there?"

That sentence caught Maverick's attention. He looked up a bit at me, then put his back down and continued to write. My eyes had to stay focused on Leland, not allowing me to see Maverick's facial expression without looking. Is he disgusted with me? Ashamed?

"The Ranskahovs are no longer a part of this organization."

"Since when?" Leland's annoying little voice butts in.

"Since I removed Anatoly's head," the silence was deafening, "with my car door."

I take a sharp inhale, the memories of blood and carnage rushing back. My brain goes fuzzy again. Madam Gao's voice becomes distant again.

The smell of the blood from last night still lingers in my mind, mixing with the scent of the blood on my face now. I want to resist getting lost in my thoughts, I really do, but it's hard not to. My brain is hardwired, too. Not just psychologically but biologically and chemically, too. I'm fucked in the head on a neurological level.

I want to move my head and look at Maverick and see his reaction to everything. In meetings like this, I feel sick to my stomach seeing his reactions. Today's worse than the others; I've never had blood on my face and clothes before. I've never been on a blood high around him before.

He seems almost unbothered by the meeting and the topic being covered. He's unfazed by the blood, talk of murder, and the mobsters surrounding him.

I allow my eyes to drift up and down, analyzing Maverick; his head is down, taking notes. His sleeves are rolled up to just above his elbows, and his tie is a bit loose. The paper he's holding isn't very big, but big enough for me to make out some of the things he wrote before Fisk came. Several long math equations are scratched on the paper, and next to them is a little doodle of Saturn.

He doesn't belong here. I need to protect him.

I've never felt this instinct to protect towards someone before. I guarded who and when I was told to, not when I felt it was right. Protecting Maverick feels right.

My view of Maverick is eclipsed by Fisk. He towers over Maverick. Maverick isn't a small man, but he doesn't compare to Fisk's colossal build. Although the most dangerous mobster in New York is glooming over not just Maverick but Leland, too, he doesn't care. He is unfazed, writing notes, equations, and the occasional doodle.

"The masked vigilante killed his brother."

I can feel my eyes dilate, the spike in my nervous system is evident, but no amount of blood-struck euphoria will make me lose my composure in front of Maverick. He doesn't need to see me this way.

"At least that's what Vladimir believes."

All eyes in the room turn to me. Everyone, except for Maverick's. His nose is in the notepad. Scribbling and scribbling to the point he needs to flip the paper again. His fingers are diligent. His hands are flexed, making the veins and muscles on his arms stand out against his rolled-up sleeves. Such strong arms for such a delicate person.

"Did your little widow-monkey-blood-girl do it?"

I know what my role is supposed to be here; say something intimidating to play into the part I've been cast in. Even though my brain is screaming at me to be the bad guy, I can't do it.

"You think I wear his blood for full day?" I tilt my head slightly, staring deep into Leland's soul "I'm not a monster." I relax my voice, creating a haunting whisper. I'm doing my job, what I'm doing is enough.

"Weren't the Russians terrified of you? I wouldn't exactly call you an angel-"

"I thought she was? Russia's angel of death." Maverick's voice cuts through like a knife. All eyes going from me to him. "I did my research. I do my job."

"Little sh-"

"That's enough." Wesley's eyes. "We came here to hear from our employer. Let him speak."

Fisk continues talking, everyone's attention turns back to him; all but mine. My eyes stay on Maverick. His eyes linger for a bit on me before returning down to his notepad. He flips it again, but very few notes are on the page. The majority of it is taken up by a doodle of an ocean wave, but it couldn't keep my attention. The opposite side of the paper had delicate angel wings and a halo. But between them, a little heart.

• • • • • •

Masterlists

[what-gs-watching]

"It said quarter to five, but it was quarter to ass…"

I’m sorry but it’s time for a quick appreciation post for Community’s season 5. I realize I shouldn’t be watching Community yet again since I was just into it like eight months ago and obviously wrote a love letter to it  but we’re here already so deal with it. 

This is an incredibly deep cut situation, but I don’t care. Season 5 has some of my all-time favorite episodes, even if it’s likely a lot of people gave up on the show before it ever came out because Dan Harmon had left for season 4 and there was always so much upheaval around it even being renewed and blah blah AND Donald Glover left that season.

Which, I admit, was devastating. But even so, there are a bunch of gems in the 13-episode run. 

Starting with "Basic Intergluteal Numismatics", wherein the study group tries to FINALLY solve the case of the Asscrack Bandit, a shadowy figure who’s running around campus dropping quarters down unsuspecting asscracks. Literally, that’s the entire premise. The episode is based on movies like Zodiac, it’s dark and brooding and it’s fucking hilarious because everyone takes it so seriously and it’s a perfect Community homage. They had BEN FOLDS do two different songs to include in it and they’re catchy as hell, honestly they fucking slap, and I’m still not sure who I think is the asscrack bandit, and I hope to never find out. 

Another pure favorite is “Geothermal Escapism”, which is Donald Glover’s final episode, and a perfect way to send him off. Abed declares a school-wide game of “the floor is lava” and it’s such a good replacement for the paintball game episodes. As usual, everyone in the school is completely committed to the bit except for Britta for once, who’s trying to force the group to properly deal with Troy leaving, she’s the surprising voice of reason throughout and the loophole they come up with to help Abed deal with losing his best friend is so Community. I cry everytime I watch this one - literally, their relationship is so pure and beautiful and sweet and the episode is simultaneously fun and bittersweet. 

Also, we can’t forget about "Analysis of Cork-Based Networking". The only reason I love this episode is like, a fairly small part of the entire story, but it makes me hysterically laugh every time. The group has formed a ‘Save Greendale’ committee and Annie is off navigating the labyrinth of bureaucracy which leaves Jeff, Shirley, Chang and Duncan to pick a theme for the midterm dance. After Chang has a meltdown, they agree to his pitch of “Bear down for midterms” which no one understands, but they commit to it. Eventually, they find out why Chang was so insistent on the theme, and it’s not great. I honest to god still yell “BEAR DOWN FOR MIDTERMS” when I’m dealing with something I don’t want to do. Like right now, with the case study I’m doing for an interview process. My husband always knows what I mean, and I love it.

Finally gang, "App Development and Condiments". Fucking Meowmeowbeanz. This is the episode where the entire school gets caught up in a social media app that lets them rate each other, and the entire social ecosystem falls apart. The important part here is that this episode was made BEFORE that Black Mirror episode you’re thinking about. Community is streets ahead, and always has been. The commentary is scathing, and fucking hilarious. 

I have no real point to any of this, I’ve just been thinking about it for the past two days and I had to get it out. I can never sing enough praises for Community. I’ve decided on this (10th? 15th? who knows) rewatch that it is literally my favorite show in the world. Like, it’s my desert island show and my comfort show and my comedy show and my sad show. It’s my every show.

Community, oh how I love you.

[feuqueerfire]

4Minutes Ep 1 - 4 Live Blogging

I’m in Chicago and hanging out with friends but also, I’m awake while the others are sleeping/busy. So maybe I’ll start watching this hmmm. Ideally I’d binge/watch each episode in one go, then go through archives and posts for that episode, then move on to next episode but the rest of the week once I get home is also going to be chaotic, so I don’t think I can watch the episodes with my full attention then either. I wanna be caught up for Friday’s episode, so here we go on my ipad. I saw a bunch of stuff for the first two eps and some stuff for the third ep; most of it was Fuaiz character with Bas or Jjay so I kinda don’t know what’s going on with our main couple except Bible’s character sees visions (including having sex w the other guy).

Ep 1 (Aug 11/12)

Great? in the hospital and dying. Tyme wandering around while shot and dying

beautiful shots

Korn works in his father’s company and has been given a new position… Investment but also referred to as “the secret operation” by his dad when he can’t hear

oh Great is gonna take over Korn’s old transportation overseeing stuff soon

Are Great and Korn cousins?

Great hit a woman while speeding in his car?!?!

hit and run?!?$?$?!!!!!

I heard some people say that none of the characters are good but I didn’t expect our main character Great to quite be this bad

ohhhh his first vision four minutes into the future, that was cool

the hospital setting does remind me of Triage - another Sammon creation. like the never saying free in the ER thing

oh Tyme is still a student? i mean med students get to be older toward the end of their studies. but he’s a doctor already i thought

the secret operation investment banking is online gambling done by a bunch of people on computers

who is that woman at the gambling place?

[Linguistics] Phi, nai between Korn and Tonkla

everybody was awake and around by the time I got to Korn-Tonkla on the couch… will pick it back up when I’m alone again heh

Korn gives money to Tonkla (though Tonkla still works)

very explicit sex scene that goes on for a little too long for me, so I started skipping toward the end. but not bad yknow it’s just that i find it awkward looking at so much nakedness. my friends are on the other side of the room, so I’m also not fully chill

Also the “can you fuck me raw?” was indeed crazy. I think there’s supposed to be a “does it hurt?” but i missed that one probably bc i skipped some parts

Great and Korn are brothers. I thought Great was that aunts son but is the dad’s son actually

Great telling Korn about his future vision lol how would he believe you

ohhh okay the reason Korn called Great’s mother aunt is because he has a different mother but same father. I finally understand lol

Tyme and his grandma. also he will become a surgeon soon but isn’t one yet

going up the elevator is okay but going down is not

Bible giving flowers to a patient in a hospital reminds me of Vegas giving Porsche a flower basket

I wonder what the future vision’s purpose was this second time

so true, this is a BL where the main characters must meet. Almost forgot lol

heh visions of him making out w Tyme

hmm when the woman had a heart attack and was stuck going through her life so far again, she could see 4 minutes into the future. Is Great in that hospital bed at the start and is seeing 4m into the future for the past

Interesting first episode, lots of things happened and my interest is piqued. What’s up with the woman who ran in front of the car and her mysterious son that’s Great’s age? How are the characters’ paths gonna cross? What’s the 4 minutes thing even? exciting. Well shot and the sex scene going so far startled me even though I kinda knew about it. Gotta wait until Tuesday to watch eps 2 and 3 rip.

Ep 2 (Aug 13)

murderrrrr

kinda looks like Fuaiz face and the cigarette hmmm. I wonder if he’s killing his brother bc ik that happens from spoilers or if it’s a future thing

oh, son committed suicie. wonder if it has anything to do with the gambling

Title is so annoying and not in a fun morally gray way. he's just ewwwwww without anything interesting about him. Similar to the same actor playing Top in DFF actually

ofc and Great's just chilling with this weirdo kidnapper agh

Great literally just originally watched his weirdo friend beat someone to death with a rock wtf...

stupid... Tyme literally fixing his hair and clothes and flexing him arms to go check up on Great lmfao

Tyme practically flirting while Great experiences visions of them having sex

I wonder what about Great intrigues Tyme so much

oh, Title died? This is a field by the river where Great left Tyme right but he'd only hit Tyme once with a rock. I didn't realize he was the one who was Tonkla's brother who apparently died but whew, that's good, I don't wanna see his face bruh

Title is Tonkla's nong? that's wild

Why don't they show the brother's face? Is it not Title?

aghhhh ofc it wasn't Title, a misdirection. no wonder they've not showed his face at all. but did that mans die at the same place Title brought Dome to kill?

damn, Great is not good at fighting at all lol but that tracks

now where did Tyme come from?

The calculations going on in Tyme's head during this conversation with Great lol

everything is so 11:00 related

Did she crash the sites?

oof, Korn fucked up and was a reason a hacker could do this

yaas okay the het sex is way less explicit but still exciting. should've shown more kneeling from Korn imo

yaas one side of the couple cheating (though I'd guess that Korn actually with the woman/is expected to be with the woman/does this often and Tonkla is actually his side piece sugar baby) and another side being set up for the cheating later on (Win coming to see Tonkla)

hmm who is she working for and giving the information to? It looked like Tyme for a second but I doubt that doctor's involved in this. so idk. but that would actually make sense why Tyme was so interested in Great, especially after seeing his name (surname)

Ep 3 (Aug 13)

Last episode before I have to wait just like the rest of them :') Just 4.5 weeks or so until the finale though.

Two murders in a similar way... So somebody killed Tonkla's brother and Tonkla killed them with the stone similarly

We've moved on from 11:00 to 11:01 last ep and it's showing up plenty this ep. There were some theories that Great has until 11:04 in the current timeline where he's in the hospital bed to change the stuff in his past, which could be interesting

seeing 11:01 when it's actually 9:30 ahh. real time vs past

"Can you forgive me, Great?" visions hmm

Great smiling so much around Tyme hehe

[Linguistics] Going from Doctor -> P'Tyme

hanging out and doing claw machines, cute

aw poor lonely rich kid Great. but okay so is his dad his bio dad or his stepdad?

oh, almost kiss already?!

nooo she got captured at the gambling den. did she send that info to Tyme?

damn, the case got transferred to the corrupt chief

"Deep down everybody knows who did it" omg?

"I shouldn't do this. you must still be grieving" cut to them making out shirts off and progressing lol

Tonkla's so funny, asking Korn before and now Win to fuck him raw

skipped through this sex scene too ngl like it's too explicit for me T.T

Tonkla got off and is no longer into the kissing lol and also interesting how in Eo 1 he was all about pleasing Korn and being like oh i don’t need to finish while I don’t even know if Win came (Tonkla did though! jizz on his damn chest omg)

ah, Win saying Tonkla can call him anytime for whatever reason, a sharp contrast to how he still hasn't been able to reach Korn

okay, so this happened in Great-Dome-Title's school and year because the girl who commented about the dead guy was in their class. but nobody is currently dead in their class... so is this indeed in the future like some people were theorizing? like Tonkla's storyline and Great's storyline aren't happening simultaneously?

11:02 already

ohhhh I'd seen the gifs of Tyme taking off his mask but was so confused. I get it now. yeah it was Tyme that Nan was sending all the gambling evidence to.

but why are him and Nan doing so many scary things by themselves, no backup, no nothing oof

I'd seen the 2 timelines theory but I wasn't sure if that would actually work because Korn and Great were at that dinner with their parents at the same time. And I thought it was after Great started seeing the future and Korn got assigned to the new thing, which we had mentioned to Tonkla.

I wonder why Great had seen the 4 minutes future this episode? Usually it's a significant event, especially ones where he made a cowardly choice, but that time, his heart started hurting and he dropped his drink?

Ep 4 (Aug 16)

I just happened to be working from home today so I can start watching during my lunch hehe and not have to wait ~6.5 hours until its release

oh, Tonkla matches the DNA of fingerprints on the rock?

Dr. Den just giving away where Tyme is to Great while Tyme's in the middle of surgery lol c'mon

move in with Tonkla?! girl you're a side piece of the side piece, you can't move into Tonkla's place that's likely running on Korn's money

no way Tonkla actually brought Win home lmfao I thought the promo pic for this ep was Tonkla and Korn in bed, when's that gonna happen. and Tonkla is trying to get it on with Win again, I like the tension when he's dragging his finger over Win's clothed chest

...and Korn arrives right then lol

Win having to hide without his pants is killing me lmfaoo

agh, Korn not backing off of Tonkla until the 4th time he pushes him off with a lot more force D: he submits to the woman + the other higher-ups in the business, so he comes to throw his weight around with Tonkla

that's crazy, Win didn't even put on his pants this whole time lmfaooo

Tonkla's switch up in personality between Korn and Win and the way he has Win under his control is crazy. it's mostly because how much he loves/gives a fuck about Korn vs Win ig

oh, Korn and Tonkla are ~4-5 years apart since I'm guessing Tonkla's a freshman and Korn is a senior in this flashback. I thought they were a decade apart at first lol

oh yeah, Tonkla's parents are dead so his nong can't be Title.

did Tonkla's nong kill the cat?

also is this the black cat Tonkla saw in ep 1 or 2 that was eerie? ig because it's supposed to be dead.

ah, the start of Tonkla and Korn falling in love. their start is so much more romantic than I expected, like their first time seems so romantic, a stark contrast to how Korn was pressuring Tonkla today

"I love you" from Tonkla already?

oh, his parents were still alive back then and probably his dad killed the cat.

omg? Korn saying he'll tell everybody that Tonkla's his bf once he takes over the company?

oof, sad Win in the bed while Tonkla's sitting and thinking about how he met and fell in love with Korn but I mean you now know that Tonkla's with somebody and are still having sex and sleeping in the bed.

Ah, the brain can survive w/o oxygen for 4 minutes. Thus the fandom theory that Great's going through the last 4 minutes of his life right now in that hospital bed and making different choices and such, hopefully to change the future

oh, she saw Great in that room?

Den really is so endearing somehow

the cut to Nan being slapped startled me fr

ok at least Great deleted the msg from Korn's history bc I was like lol what if he doesn't

omg the guy actually killed Nan in the other timeline, that's crazy

lol in what world would Tyme not get shot on sight? They're already grabbing at and pointing guns toward Great, the son of their boss + that guy shot Nan through the head in the other timeline, Tyme should've been dead by now but it's okay ig. lol they're even letting Tyme just walk away and go, that's wild

lmfao please Great high on adrenaline rn after the rescue. hopefully some thoughts about how shitty his family is will come into head soon

[Linguistics] "Not yet": 'yang' ยัง at 47:38 at Great is smiling. anytime I hear this I'm reminded of Pete are you satisfied and Vegas from his chair, grinning wide, saying ยัง after having tortured Pete in the basement. similar ยัง with a wide smile from Bible but different emotions and vibes lol. pretty much every time I hear ยัง I'm reminded of Vegas, so it's funny that it's a different Bible character this time

Tyme and Great first kiss hehe and they're so cute

they talk and giggle so cutely as they're taking their clothes off ahhhh

so Dome is Tonkla's nong fr? but how does it make any sense? because Tonkla's nong died - Korn was thinking about Tonkla telling him to get out while he met Great which was in the present

ohhh okay two different timelines not in the future sense but in the sense of parallel universes where Tonkla's in the original timeline still but Great's actions have saved Dome but in... a different timeline. and they kinda merge... kinda don't....

heh, I'm so glad I got to watch this ep right after it aired but now I've gotta wait for a week + some few hours because I'll be at work on Friday next week :<

Some progress on the TymeGreat front but it feels a bit strange how shallow? it seems because they've hardly spent time with each other and know nearly nothing about each other but Great is betraying his brother for Tyme and risking his life etc. Maybe because he has the visions of the two of them together and so is trying to speed up the romance? it just feels like their relationship is unearned/lacking which is a stark contrast to how in-depth and complex they're getting with Tonkla's relationships. So is the TymeGreat thing on purpose?

I'm curious how they'll deal with the 2 timelines stuff because the butterfly effect is kind of happening but not really???? The merging of two timelines where Tonkla is in the original one and Great is in the redo one but they bleed into each other (or rather maybe the redo is bleeding into the original one?)

Also I was wondering if the cold opens are from the future but it seems not, right? So does Win know right know that Tonkla is a murder suspect as he sleeps with him after finding out he already has someone and Tonkla's cheating with him? Win grow a backbone and stand for something. Letting himself be used as a side piece by a murder suspect, girl.

Thoroughly enjoying this, need the next episode right now.

[andhumanslovedstories]

Also! Here’s a real complaint about scum villain, now that I’ve read I think all of it: I hate that the succubus short story extra would be very fun and charming except there’s the most casual transphobic slur tossed in there. Maybe it’s an addition of the translation but I also would very much dislike the sentiment the sentence was trying to get across, even if the language itself was different. There’s already a bunch of asterisks next to my recommendation for the series, but most of them are like…trashy fun disclaimers? Like before I handed these books to someone, I’d be like “you should know going in hoo boy there’s a lot of teacher-student age gap obsession kidnapping dub to non con stuff baked into the central premise” and most of the people who I’d hand these books to would probably be like “cool I love at least some of that” and then we’d give each other thumbs up like two little perverts who know the tropes they fuck with. Having to add “also in book four there’s a slur for truly no fucking reason” is not a trashy fun disclaimer.