#here's her (maria) official design guys

[snowsdelulusketches]

Uhhhahah, projecting, yay. I like, felt so numb earlier. I was at a friend's house, just petting his cat, and it was the most relaxing kind of numb.

Now, I drew this with my head clouded whilst it felt as light as a balloon. This is not the yummy numb feeling. Not the yummy numby way. How did I think that completely seriously? "Yummy Numby Way."

"Why are they in the rain?" I'm so glad you didn't ask. Uh, because when I'm in pain, I sit/stand wherever. Imagine she (Catalina) was coming home with groceries and then - boom! - misery. Maria I-risked-my-life-and-position-to-see-you-one-last-time de Salinas grabs the closest jacket and an umbrella from the supply closet and sits outside with her.

[slothpower-central]

Oh yeah remember when I posted about my fan branch for Limbus from like.... a while ago? Yea, they have advanced. I have many more sinners to show (In various degrees of being finished) So I wanted to show off some of the new crew, as a refresher, I showed off the manager, Dorothy, Chaplin and Judy and mentioned Kane and our guide Glinda...Well, I slightly updated Chaplin and Dorothy's art(Mainly just background and doodles but whatever) I'm working on redrawing Judy tho and Kane is uh.....Still not done(He is giving me a damn battle in the art department because I am not good at drawing men) I still don't have things like weapons done for most of the sinners but I just wanna share the lil guys

And I've officially drawn Glinda! She's the guide of the branch and she's a color fixer. She's pretty hands off and is pretty apathetic to a lot of the City and the cinema branch since her "Very good friend" was killed... too bad Glinda has no idea who did it tho.... Glinda has elements of both the Wizard of Oz and Wicked for her character, so I have a bunch planned for her. Here she is, I mainly took inspiration from her Wizard of Oz design while incorporating some stuff from Wicked and Oz: The Great and Powerful in there too

Next up we have our Bus Driver, Maria! She's based on Maria from the Sound of Music, she's an ex-Deici association member who has way too much positivity, like toxic levels. She's probably one of the like, actual nice people on the bus. Her outfit is very much based on the beginning of the movie. She may not have the Von Trapp family to take care of, but she has the idiots of the Cinema branch to drive around.

Next up I'm we have Norma, based on Sunset Boulevard!! She's a fixer who used to be like, big in the limelight but fell to obscurity, she's now extremely delusional that her fans are waiting for her to make her grand return to the world (spoiler: No one remembers her) I may redraw a few aspects of her but here she is!

Okay next up we have quite a few sinners who I don't currently have any reference images for since I'm either drawing them or in one case, I am fighting the good fight at thinking of a fun way to adapt the source So next up is actually my Sinner based on West Side Story! I couldn't tell ya much about them because i don't know who the hell it is, I went with Tony initially but then I didn't like it so I'm changing it up

Sinner #6 is Truman based on the Truman Show! This is the first of my sinner sources to be based on a movie that wasn't in my film class. In the branch though unlike the movie where Truman is a guy who is unknowingly living in a TV show, Truman sees the world as a TV show, everyone dying? nah that's special effects. Why is this the case? you'll just have to wait and see (I know why but I'm not telling you) His design isn't done yet so no art for him

FINALLY, a sinner with art and an actual weapon decided. I'm gonna be so for real, this is probably my favorite sinner of the bunch I absolutely adore her. Sinner #7 is Ripley based on Alien! Basically, I mixed the plots of the first two Alien movies to make her backstory (I'll make a bigger lore post on the cinema branch later) Her weapon is a flamethrower, based on the first movie. She's pretty wary of the company and she definitely has her suspicions that her crew is expendable just like her last job where she was the only one to make it out. She's overprotective of the manager and she slowly forms bonds with the crew (Her and Judy have something going on) Oh and how could I forget she has an ESA in the form of Jones! Yes, based on the cat from the movie

Sinners 8 and 9 are a pair, since they both come from the same source! Sinners 8 and 9 are Thelma and Louise based on Thelma and Louise. These two are basically on the run from one of the high up groups in the City and are laying low in Limbus since no one knows they committed the crime that caused this mess. I'm being vague since I'm not quite done with them, yet I only have like, Thelma's design done but not Louise's, so I'll wait till they're both done.

Sinner #10 is Princess Ann, also known as Anya, based on Princess Ann from the movie Roman Holiday! She's the daughter of a CEO of a wing and she runs off one night from all the pressure and joins Limbus to go on an adventure and see how life is when you're not y'know a sheltered little princess. I actually have to rewatch this source so she's definitely no done, though I am almost done with her design.

Finally, Sinner #11 is Satine based on Moulin Rouge! Interesting choice I know but I think she would be fun. I have nothing to give you right now for backstory because I am majorly changing up the plotline for her. I will say she is interesting in the way of being my one chronically ill sinner. Satine, like in her source has Tuberculosis meaning Manager Dorothy is the only thing keeping her from death. Her design is like mostly done, done enough to show at least.

And That's everyone for now! I know most of them aren't done yet and I have like no weapons for anyone, but I just wanted to show off how far I've come since the original idea. I love my lil guys and I'm gonna keep working on them since I love thinking about them! So yea I hope you enjoyed the Cinema branch update

[logo-comics]

Fortune Lover By Ai Fortuna Software

Coming Soon

Welcome to the Sorcier Academy of Magic! Amongst the magical nobility, you play as a commoner born with a rare gift. Can you win the hearts and minds of the Capture Targets?

Pictured: Maria Campbell and the main cast of Fortune Lover.

As promised, fandom response, early theorizing, and a couple of memes under the cut.

PirateKing-Fan Martin?! whitebishop1252 I knew I wasn't the only one who saw it! That's our King! the-fortuna-amata Guys, I know we love him, but what if they wanted to make a new game? whitebishop1252 These are the finalized designs, but did you forget that the original design for "Maria" that they released was dressed like Captain Natalia. And that is obviously Martin's floofy hair! That is totally Martin! This must be some sort of midquel. the-gentleman-pirate What if this is how he came to be able to lead people the way he does? fortunesfavoriteson ...Wait. The floof. The eyes seem lighter based on the setup on the black and white we've got here.... What if they're blue? whitebishop1252 ...No way. No way. MY OTP HAD A BABY!

CaptainNatalia9430 Top left! Look at her! I know which route I'm going for! kingbishop2014 Same! Maybe she's the Princess? martincampbell2012 What if she's a Terni? Maybe they're childhood friends? Golden Sands is Martin's main port of harbor. martingiulia-otp But Martin had to end up with Giulia! How else would he be able to keep staying in Golden Sands? kingbishop2014 Because as Natalia's heir, he's official considered the Trusted Friend to the Barony? It's not like there was an arranged marriage or anything. Besides, she had that prince she was writing letters to all the time.

jeomaria-stan1123 So, top right boy is apparently named Prince Jeord, bottom left is Noel Flores, bottom right is Prince Alan, and furthest right is Nicol Ascart. I couldn't find a name on the girl Capture Target, though...

Pictured, Left To Right: Sophia Ascart, Tatiana Terni, Mary Hunt

martincampbell2012 TERNI CONFIRMED! LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, WE HAVE CONFIRMED TATIANA TERNI! BEST GIRL NOW HAS A NAME! CaptainNatalia9430 ...Can we talk about the fact that ghosts are canon in the setting as of Pirate King? Now can we talk about how Sophia Ascart looks just like one? commonpirate1123 Are we getting a murder mystery? Or is it a revenge story? fortunesfavoriteson I swear, they just keep building up the anticipation! When are we getting the game?!

queenmaryhunt I keep seeing all these theories about Tatiana being half-pirate, Sophia being a ghost, why G-boy's name keeps changing between reveals, and that Noel's disappearing glasses are proof that he's going to be a sweet shy good boy, but everyone is sleeping on the real best girl. Look at all those flower themes my girl Mary is packing in her look. Look at that cool expression! I'm telling you, Tatiana isn't going to be our female love interest, that's going to be Mary. fortunesfavoriteson People. People...

mariaxtatiana9430 So, has anyone noticed that Noel had his name changed? martingiulia-otp Yeah, what kind of name change is that? Noel to Keith? What kind of slander...? queenmaryhunt My guess is that they don't want to confuse him with Nicol, but why change his name to Claes? geomaria-stan1123 I wonder how that would feel. that must be so annoying. fortunesfavoriteson Pour one out for those brave souls that love Prince G-Boy.

Pictured: Katarina Claes

mariaxtatiana9430 Guys, I'm not gonna lie, I've got a bad feeling about this... martincampbell2012 What do you mean? mariaxtatiana9430 Keith's setup seems to be that he has a dark and troubled backstory. Given that he's Keith CLAES and Tatiana has been turned into Katarina CLAES... fortunesfavoriteson

nicol-ascart-lover

queenmaryhunt

I would love to romance Mary, but it doesn't seem like we're getting it... martincampbell2012 But... Tatiana... marikata9430

[artifeast]

kingmaker episode 25: dog and pony show liveblog time!!! beware SPOILERS below:

i'd always wondered just how many government officials were lost in the explosion. also OMG lore!!! minister of CHARMS AND CURSES??

HOLZMANN lore!!! and ooooh shittt.... the man is SCHEMING

I FORGOT ABOUT MARGOT i had to pause and refresh myself on her initial appearance

IW&C please scam this wretched man out of everything he owns

OMGG THEIR SCHEMES 🥰 AND JENNY'S IN ON IT TOO?? pleaseee i missed herrr

also scamming techniques are such a fascinating craft honestly. love seeing them in fiction

obsessed with colette practicing her joke delivery

AND MARIA IS HERE?!?! OMG HIIIII <3

omg the joke was for maria... and colette's been foiled. so sad

AWWW THAT LIL BIT TELSIE ADDED AFTER THE TELEGRAM THAT ISN'T IN THE TRANSCRIPT... <3 <3 <3

colette is such a mood. ohhh the awkwardness is potent

dogy :3 with... perhaps... nonspecified alien creature in its pedigree? or a fleshcrafted breed?

colette's big brown eyes are famous now. also it is ALWAYS fun to see new types of magic in action!!!

ohhhh i am SO excited for their fake-arrest scam to turn into an actual arrest

eisen and telesphore goofing off mocking rich people with their richsonas 100/10 so funny so cute

telesphore's surprising capacity for pity as a man that makes his living stealing from and scamming susceptible people continues to be so charming. lol

telesphore CONTINUES to not have a specified eye color within the podcast! HUGE potential for fan designs not based on the official art (though i'm too fond of the snakeberry comparison to indulge, myself... <3)

COLETTE WATCH OUT

"you can't be a day over 25" technically she is ~275 days over 25, my guy

EUCH! colette i am sure you are doing your best to get your point across subtly but EUYUCK! HVFSVFJ

so funny how they get caught doing a crime and mr. chief inspector doesn't even care about that... they've got Bigger crimes

CONFIRMED animals count for stopping good neighbors from teleporting!!! (unless they actually bred the dog to have human eyes. /j. sorry)

praying colette doesn't get bit again

is that... jenny...? YESSSS IT ISSS!!!!

the role reversal of telesphore siccing colette on the dog

rip admiral :( well, when circumstances must... it was a scary beast

eisennn ily but THERE IS A TIME AND PLACE LMAO. he's too funny

wowwww jenny is sooo cool 🥰 her ACTING

YESSS JENNY ROAST EISEN

"someone close to you may not be all that they appear" >:3c

colette's joke foiled yet again

ohhhh fuck. VERY fun to hear what's common knowledge about valorian history in the historian's time. EXTREMELY fun to hear how his fictional audience should in fact know some of the events that he's about to cover. that little layer, like... idk if i'm explaining it right but it's just so cool to me

OHHHH SHIIIT!!!!!!

amazing amazing AMAZING episode. i'm osmosing it. the voice acting SO GOOOD

[wannabe-fic-writer]

Natasha Romanoff x Reader : Prove Me Wrong

Summary: She can trust you, even if she doesn’t know it yet.

Warning: 18+ Mental Health, Mentions of Death, Mentions of Violence, Smut

Chapter 10

* * * * * * 

Eyebrows shoot up into your hairline. E/c eyes blinking in surprise.

Across from you stands the entire team, in front of them is a large breakfast spread, and balloons. 

You smile with a shake of your head,“ what is all this for?” 

Tony smiles, rounding the corner to stand at your side. His arm circles your shoulder,“ as of today, you have officially been with us for a year.”

“Awe, guys this really didn’t have to be celebrated.” You tell them, once again looking at all the food on the counter. 

All of them instantly wave you off a layer of replies rolling over you varying from “you deserve it” to “Tony just wants to party” which makes you laugh. 

Said billionaire picks up two champagne flutes and hands one to you. 

“Y/n, this is to a year of being the greatest of friends, a shoulder to cry on, and pretty much the most important member of this team.” Tony holds his glass up and everyone follows in agreement.

Most important member is a stretch in your opinion but they all seem to think so. 

Taking a sip, you realize this orange juice is mixed with champagne. Which you should’ve expected from Tony. 

Everyone starts to dig into the breakfast, chatter filling the room like it usually does throughout the facility. 

“Y/n, congrats!” Peter exclaims, happily wrapping you in a hug that you return.“ I can’t believe it’s been a year. It’s like just yesterday I was learning your name right? And now we’re like best friends.” The boy rambles.

Chuckling, you give him another one armed hug,“ I was starting to see you as more of a little brother actually.”

His brown eyes light up, just like they had on Christmas.“ I’ve never had an older sister before.” 

“I know.” You chuckle again.

He smiles brightly once again and gives you another hug,“ I’m glad we met Y/n.” 

“Me too Pete.” You rub his back and then pull away. The both of you then going to fix a plate.

Setting your overflowing plate(thanks to Tony’s persistence) on the table, you move to pull your chair out, only for a certain redhead to pull it out for you. 

“One full year huh?” She winks at you and sits in the chair next to you. 

One year with the team and six months with her. 

All that time seemed to fly by in the moment but looking back on it now it’s like more than a year. A year of building these incredible friendships and the most important relationship you’ve had. 

“Crazy right.” You breathe a laugh.

Natasha leans towards you, arms supporting her on the table,“ call me corny but, this has been the best year of my life.” 

Your hand reaches up to cup her cheek,“ I couldn’t agree more,” the two of you meet for a short sweet kiss,“ also you are corny.” 

Laughing, the woman rolls her eyes and kisses you again. 

“As cute as you two are, I’d rather eat my food without all the PDA.” Wanda’s voice invades the small moment. 

“Sorry Wan.” You smile softly at her.

The younger woman waves you off,“ I was only joking. Partly.” 

When the rest of the team sits at the table, you take a moment to thank all of them. Not just for the breakfast but for being so welcoming and just incredible in general. 

All the relationships you’ve built wouldn’t have happened without them. And you wouldn’t have been able to help them if they didn’t trust you. 

They raise another glass to your thanks and Tony tells you it’s only the tip of the iceberg since he’s throwing you a party later. You’re quick to tell him that’s not necessary but he informs you it’s all planned already. 

There hadn’t been a “Stark Party” in a while according to the team. Sam and Peter were quick to thank you, saying they didn’t think there’d be one if you hadn’t showed up. 

You hadn’t been to one of Tony’s parties in years. Since long before both snaps. 

So you are, admittedly, excited for it. After you’ve gotten dressed you wait an hour after the party had started, as Tony asked you to, before heading out. And even though you were expecting the surprise, the number of people that shout “Happy One Year!’ to you startles you.

An excited laugh leaves your lips and once again Tony approaches you first. 

“Okay,” you nod,“ I’ll admit this is pretty great.” You smile at him as the two of you hug. Pulling away you then look to his wife.“ Pep, it’s great to see you.” 

She squeezes you tightly,“ I hate that you’ve been here a year and we’ve barely spent any time together.” 

Your eyes widen in agreement,“ I know. It’s been way too long since we’ve had a wine night.” 

Together the two of you quickly plan a night to do so. Pepper then urging you to go mingle. And you do, making your way through the large crowd of people, those you’ve met and others you’re positive you’ve never seen before. 

Until you approach a pair of both someone you know and someone you’ve only heard of.

“Y/nn!” 

A smile bursts across your face the second she smiles at you. The blonde woman’s energy contagious. 

“Carol! I missed you.” You hug her close, reminded of the months it’s been since she was last here.“ You didn’t have to travel all the way through the galaxy for this but I’m glad you’re here.” 

Her hands rub your arms as she pulls away,“ me too. I’ve missed you.” She then steps back, hand resting on the back of the woman you assume to be her girlfriend,“ Y/n this is Maria Rambeau. Maria this is Y/n.”

Maria smiles at you, holding her hand out,“ Carol’s told me a lot about you, it’s a pleasure.” 

“Oh, the pleasure is all mine. This one doesn’t shut up about you when we talk.” You say teasingly, chin nodding to Carol who’s cheeks tint pink. 

The smile Maria sends to Carol is full of nothing but love and adoration. And if there was ever any doubt that Carol loved her, the smile she returns throws it out the window. But you knew.

Your body stiffens in shock when a hand presses to your lower back and you quickly relax once the familiarity of the soft skin and cold temperature hits you.   

Your girlfriend smiles over at you and you don’t even fight the urge to place a kiss to her cheek. Afterwards looking back at Carol and Maria.“ Maria this is my girlfriend Natasha. Tash this is Maria, Carol’s girlfriend.” 

“Nice to meet you. Carol’s told me a bit about you.” Natasha nods to the woman.

All the while Carol is smiling proudly at you, which you shake your head at in amusement. 

The blonde quirks a brow,“ girlfriend huh? And how long has that been going on?” Her tone is teasing and curious. 

Brushing a strand of hair behind your ear, you mumble,“ six months.” 

Carol’s proud smile becomes knowing and you swear the heat rushing to your face could be felt around the room. 

Natasha, being the god send she is, excuses the two of you. Gracefully pulling you through the crowd to the designated dance floor. 

She pulls you to stand in front of her. Those cold hands circling your waist, hands locking behind you at the dip in your back. 

Focusing on this moment, your eyes scan her face, taking in her perfect lips, her cheekbones and those tiny dimples, and those eyes. God you swear those eyes were the start of it all. 

“You’re so pretty Natasha.” Your hands grip her hips a little tighter.

A smirk curves her lips,“ and you’re beautiful.” 

Despite your blush, you jokingly add,“ well you’re gorgeous.” 

She laughs, forehead resting on your shoulder,“ getting competitive are we?”

“Maybe a little.” You kiss her temple just before she lifts her head.

The two of you continue to sway to the lowly playing soft music, completely entranced by each other’s presence. 

For the last six months the two of you have reveled in these moments together. Some days you could spend together completely. Others you had to steal minutes throughout just to see each other. But it was all perfect.

Learning about Natasha has just proven to make you fall for her more and more. You could safely say your list of reasons why you like her has become reasons why you love her and it’s definitely grown longer.

As all good things come to an end, you’re pulled from your moment with Natasha, by the hand on your shoulder. It’s unexpected which startles you but you’re further startled by the force of the emotions hitting you.

You spin around and lock eyes with Bucky. The anxiety you’d just felt from him is hidden in his eyes, had he not touched you, you wouldn’t have known. 

His jaw clenches,“ can we talk?”

“Of course.” You nod, hand squeezing Natasha’s waist as you mumble an excuse me, and walk away with Bucky. 

Once in an empty hallway he turns to you, his feelings now showing. Fingers wringing together, his teeth abuse his bottom lip, and his eyes remained trained on the ground. 

Knowing not to touch him unless told to, you choose to speak softly,“ Buck, I can tell you’re incredibly anxious. What’s going on?” 

“I-” he swallows and when his eyes meet yours there are tears welling in them,“ I saw someone. Someone from HYDRA. I- I don’t know if I’m seeing things or if they were actually here.” 

This was a recurring problem with Bucky. One you’d discovered while taking him and Steve to the mall one day. Being in such large crowds overwhelmed the man, triggering his anxiety which in turn triggered hallucinations. 

When you addressed it then he revealed that he’d been experiencing these highly anxious moments for a while. The first time the hallucinations had him was months before you’d gotten there while he and Steve were out together. 

At that point you’d begun working him through breathing exercises. Coming up with ways to help him cope with the anxiety so that it wouldn’t reach a point where he hallucinated. 

“Bucky breathe. Five seconds in and out.” He starts to do as instructed. 

You then walk him through his five steps. Listing five things he can see, four things he can hear, three things he can feel, two things he can smell, and one thing he can taste. 

He’s calmed down but you can tell he’s still anxious.

“Hey,” your hands rub his arms,“ I’m gonna make it go away okay?” 

Brown eyes look into yours and he nods. 

Taking a deep, stilling breath in, you take away his major anxiousness, and project the happy excitement you’ve been feeling to him. 

Bucky brightens instantly, giving you a small smile, and squeezing your arms.“ I- thank you Y/n.” 

“Anytime Buck.” 

You wait for the man to disappear around the corner before collapsing to the ground. Your back presses to the wall as you breathe heavily. 

“Y/n?”

Overly anxious, you involuntarily jerk away from the redhead beside you. 

The woman’s heart races as she looks at you, eyebrows pinched together,“ Y/n what’s wrong?” 

“Just- hold on.” You speak through deep breaths. 

Natasha waits with you until you calm down. When your body finally untenses and you sag against the wall, your girlfriend moves to kneel in front of you. 

Fingers grazing your legs she asks, with a soft demanding tone,“ what was that?”

“It was nothing. I’m fine I promise.” 

“That wasn’t fine. When you left you you were fine. Just now, you looked like you’d seen a ghost.” She presses. 

You push your hands up your face and through your hair,“ I didn’t. I was just-”

“Using your powers on Bucky.” She finishes, an almost hard look setting in her eyes. 

Her words take you by surprise. 

When she found out about your powers is lost on you. And what did she know about them? 

Eyes wide, you can barely ask what she’s talking about before she speaks again.“ Have you been using your powers on everyone this entire time?” 

“I- yes.” 

“And you weren’t going to say anything?” She stands. 

Following suit, you stand as well,“ I was going to tell you but I didn’t want to worry you. And I didn’t want you to think I couldn’t handle it-”

A deep frown covers her brow,“ you never even gave me a chance. Am I correct in assuming you’ve been lying to me then? All those times I came to see you after your session and you told me you were fine?”

“That wasn’t necessarily a lie. I was fine it just took me a minute.” 

“Necessarily?” Green eyes narrow at you.“ Lying is lying I don’t care how technical you want to get about it. I do care that you’ve constantly been telling me to trust you and be honest, yet you’ve been lying since the beginning.” 

You open your mouth to protest or object but she’s right.“ Tash I’m sorry okay. I swear I was planning to tell you.”

“Planning or not, you lied. You could’ve just told me you weren’t ready to talk about it. How was lying the better option?” A deep sigh leaves the woman’s lips and she runs a hand through her hair, before simply turning to leave. 

“Wait Ta-”

She holds her hand up,“ don’t follow me Y/n. I need a minute. Just go enjoy your party.” 

With that she leaves you in the hall alone. And you can only blame yourself.

* * * * * *

taglist: @username23345 @muffliat-o  @aaron-despair @natasha-danvers​ @wildhoney32 @criminallyhamilton @fayhar @nat-km-mh @chicken-wang09 @trikruismybitch

[tvkla]

IMPORTANT OOC NOTE: dming people wore me out. if your country hasn’t been a war aggressor (defence is fine) and you want it to be involved in the conception of this re: cooperation/building/funding/participation, you can assume so! war refugees in war criminal countries, are not being shut out, but for optics this just won’t happen in the first games ! & now onto the article!

DENMARK, COPENHAGEN: HRH Tekla Croÿ Glücksburg addressed the media, in conjunction with the official launch of ELUCTARI Games, a multi-sport event for war refugees that will take place once every two years. Amidst unrest around the world, the princess explained the lack of motivation and opportunities to encourage war-torn families and individuals to rebuild. Sports forges camaraderie, community, routine and structure. Through collaboration with other nations, provision of facilities to train and play, the Princess hopes the Games will use the power of sport to inspire recovery, support rehabilitation and generate a wider understanding and respect of all those who have been victimised by senseless war violence. She credited HRH Viggo Glücksburg as CFO, for his work in the business and financing aspects of the project, and making the vision of the games a possibility. 

The media also saw building plans for a massive arena and complex with state of the art facilities to house the first Games. Its exteriors will reflect Greek columns, and a sculpture resembling the Glücksburg crest. Designs are said to be released to the public in the coming months. The facility is expected to draw renowned athletes who will volunteer their time to help train, and train alongside the teams formed by the ELUCTARI movement. While the cost of the building’s monument is being shouldered by the royal family, facilities and equipment are being funded by Danish-owned sports corporations, and notable names from around the world who have released statements to pledge their support. If successful, an event like this will generate an influx of revenue from business, advertising and tourism into the country.

Prince Viggo and Princess Tekla named HRH Olimpia Croÿ of Hungary, the project’s Pioneer Ambassador, who has been “instrumental” in garnering interest, securing sponsorships and encouraging her generation to get involved. Every two years, a new ambassador will be appointed.

The launch comes after much excitement on social media in the last few months and has reignited conversations around the vitality of diplomacy and the need to end war atrocities.

Notable names involved in the project include, Athletes: Lewis Hamilton, Max Verstappen, Fernando Alonso, Maria Sharapova, Venus & Serena Williams, Roger Federer, Andy Murray, Daniel Wass, Simone Biles, Virat Kohli, Sachin Tendulkar, Allyson Felix, Ronda Rousey  etc etc Coaches: Michael Laudrup, Morten Olsen, Marcelo Bielsa, Zinedine Zidane, Jürgen Klopp, Ted Lasso (: , Mike Krzyzewski, Natalie Nakase, Jennifer King etc etc Celebrities: I don’t wanna accidentally name future fcs in the group you guys can namedrop as much as you want! ( Dibs on Daniel Craig & Rachel Weisz, Danai Gurira though xo ) Foundations: Jelani & Kendrick Lamar’s Inuku Foundation, insert-your-char’s-foundation here. Corporations: Some Really Recognisable Ones I’m so tired. ( Emerson Whitmore running point maybe? )

[thelordofdarkreunion]

Magnificent Scoundrels: Welcome Aboard

I was going to write a second part of “The Team”, but it ended up being extremely long-winded and boring, so I decided on this instead.  Hope you like it.  

Despite his apparent oddness, it must be said that Drake didn’t waste any time.  Already, he had a job for the team, now called the Magnificent Scoundrels at his insistence.  They were to rendezvous around a planet on the outer edges of Drake’s home galaxy, where he would inform them the rest of the details.  For those who did not own their own starships, accommodations were provided by the members of the team who did.  Jack Cooper, who was introduced as the lone military-looking man at the back of the room, would be traveling with Drake, as Drake’s ship, called the Apocalypse, was the only one with enough room to transport Cooper’s Titan, a monstrous twenty foot tall piloted robot designed to crush anything it would possibly face.  The elaborate-uniformed man, as it turned out, was a commissar (Author’s note: Commissar definition- a political or morale officer) attached to an entire regiment of soldiers.  The only ship that was equipped to fit an entire military regiment inside was Adam Vir’s, and as such, Commissar Ciaphas Cain and the Valhallan 597th of the Imperial Guard were put aboard his ship, the Omen.  Master Chief was a singular person and thus did not require much room, and so Kirk volunteered to transport him aboard the Enterprise.  And so, it was now that welcomes were issued, people and supplies were loaded, and mooring lines were cast off, figuratively speaking.  

Aboard the Omen

Adam Vir sighed contentedly as he settled into his command chair.  It was good to be back on board his ship, and definitely good to get away from maniacal mercenaries and people who he wasn't sure were hallucinations or not.  Speaking of which, he glanced around his shoulder.  Commissar Cain and the commanding officer of the regiment, Colonel Kasteen, were standing ramrod straight, hands behind their backs, at the back area of the bridge, apparently wanting to see takeoff.  Cain’s elaborate uniform was drawing rushed glancines from the bridge crew, several who gawked at the newcomers before Vir snapped at them to get back at their stations.  Sighing again, this time in annoyance at his crew’s lack of social skills, he stood up, put on his best diplomatic smile, and walked towards the duo, arm outstretched.  

“Commissar Cain, Colonel Kasteen, I trust your soldiers have made themselves comfortable.”  Kasteen looked bewildered at the outstretched hand for a moment, then shook it and gave a rather sickly smile.  

“Er, yes they have, Admiral.”  Her grip noticeably weakened as Sunny, the ship’s eight foot tall four-armed Drev weapons officer brushed past.  “All the Guardsmen are secured for warp jump.”  Vir nodded appreciatively.

“Excellent.”  He then turned and shook Cain’s hand, which on second glance, had several cold metal prosthetic fingers.  Cain had a warm smile plastered on his face as he shook Adam’s hand.

“A pleasure meeting you, Admiral Vir.”  His smile grew larger, and Adam couldn’t help but smile back in genuine amusement.  

“And a pleasure meeting you, Commissar Cain.”  He turned back to the bridge crew.  “When are we ready to jump?” he asked.  

“Three minutes, sir, came the reply from his first mate.  

“Excellent,” he replied.  Kasteen cleared her throat behind him.

“Admiral, would you like the Guardsmen to their battle stations?” she asked.  Vir turned around in puzzlement.  

“Battle stations?  Why?”

“Well, some Imperial Captains like the Guardsmen and naval provosts at battle stations when in warp transition.”

“Uh, no.  Don’t bother.  Alright, all hands prepare for jump!”  Little did he know, but this was to be the first, and smallest, of many misunderstandings to come.  

Aboard the Apocalypse

Already, and astoundingly for someone who had never seen a Titan before, Drake and his crew had already stashed Jack Cooper’s Titan, BT-7274 into the cargo hold, and were preparing for takeoff.  Currently, Drake was leading Cooper through the labyrinth passages of the Apocalypse, headed towards the cabins closest to the bridge where Jack was to have his quarters, Cooper’s measured military stride contrasting remarkably to Drake’s confident swagger.  They passed through the well-lit uniformly grey hallways of the ship, and as they went, Drake flippantly introduced passing crew members.

“And, of course, there’s Maria, very handy with a knife, laughs like a chipmunk when excited.”

“Hey!”

“It’s true.”  Jack nodded at a disgruntled looking Maria as Drake continued his grand tour without pause.  

“There’s Ziwazzi, a Gunleron, who keeps pretending he’s tough, but he’s actually quote sweet; was kicked out of his planet’s premiere military school for stealing an actually astonishingly impressive amount of stuff.”

“Hey!  Captain!” replied an offending looking reptilian alien.

“Ziwazzi, you ought to know me by now,”  Drake turned to Cooper, “I am a firm believer that when meeting someone new, you should know their best and worst traits.  For instance, I am a rather nice person if you get to know me, have an excellent taste in fine arts, and donate a lot of the money I make to help orphans, but I am a shameless thief, a pyromaniac, and a massive playboy.  See?  Now you know everything you need to know about me.”  He spun on his heel dramatically and continued walking.  “If you ever need advice on fine arts or romance, I’m your guy.  Don’t hesitate to ask.”  They passed through more identical hallways and into the crew’s cabin section.  A door popped open and a woman stepped out from the cabin beyond, holding two dresses in her hands.

“Er, Captain, uh, I was wondering...well, you give good fashion advice-”

“Blue dress.  It highlights your eyes perfectly, is made of light synthetic silk with a cooling texture, so it will be more comfortable than the cotton one, and Jackson likes blue better, so it’ll be better for your date,” replied Drake without pause.  The woman turned bright red.

“How did you know that Jackson and I were-”

“Please.  I’m the Captain.  I know everything that happens on this ship.  I won’t tell anyone, though, unless it threatens security, everyone already knows, or you want me to.  Have a nice night.”  Cooper hurried to keep up as Drake started down the hallway again.  They reached another section of the ship before Drake stopped abruptly, almost making Cooper bump into him.  “And here, finally, is your cabin,” Drake gestured with a dramatic flourish.  “Pleasant dreams, try not to die.”  And, just as quickly as he had led Jack there, Drake vanished.  

Aboard the Enterprise 

John-117, more commonly referred to as “Master Chief”, was currently sitting in his new quarters aboard Captain Kirk’s ship, the Enterprise.  His helmet was on, of course, and a data pad, which the crew had called a “first contact package”, was in his armored hands.  It contained all the information regarding the species and governments within Kirk’s home galaxy.  Master Chief had found Kirk and the entire crew to be most agreeable.  They were all friendly, helpful, and normal, especially compared to the oddly uniformed commissar and the slightly looney Drake.  It was refreshing, really.  He hoped that this group, which he had been ordered to join to gain a better picture of the new galaxies, wouldn’t take up too much of his time.  It was, in the end, his job to prevent the collection of hostile aliens known as the Covenant from overwhelming humanity.  But such thoughts could wait.  He busied himself in the pad, learning as much as possible about his new reality.   

One Week Later

Aboard the Enterprise

It had been probably the best space voyage that Master Chief had ever experienced, although that wasn't saying much.  Most of the time, if he was in space, he was killing Covenant or on his way to kill Covenant.  But this...this was positively relaxing.  He had little to do, as the crew kept the ship running smoothly.  He spent most of his time reading up on the history of the various new galaxies that had appeared seemingly overnight next to his own.  The first contact package from Kirk was exhausted, and now he was perusing through an absolutely massive information report compiled by Drake.  Curiously enough, many of the files there were from official government sources and marked “classified”, several of which he recognized as top secret from his home universe.  He did wonder where Drake had gotten his hands on those.  Or perhaps, it was better not to know.  Speaking of which, he started to consider:  how was everyone else on the different ships of this makeshift fleet doing?

Aboard the Apocalypse

Jack Cooper stared, shell-shocked, at the wall of his cabin.  The past week had been probably, no, scratch that, most definitely, the most bizarre he’d ever witnessed.  The strangeness of it all was such that he had been like this, staring at a slate grey wall, contemplating life, for the past five hours.  Inevitably, the weirdness of the voyage all boiled down to one individual: Thomas Drake.  The man was, to put it exceptionally mildly, eccentric.  It had started on the tour, and only gotten worse on the first day of the tour; Drake had given Cooper free reign of the ship, and thus, like any other over curious human would, he had decided to unobtrusively explore, starting, of course, with the bridge.  It unfortunately coincided with Drake’s arrival to the command deck of said bridge, which was herald by several disco balls dropping from the ceiling, the playing of an altogether too cheerful tune for the time of the morning, and Drake himself disco-dancing his way through the bridge.  And, while Drake was actually quite a good dancer, it was much too strange for Jack.  Regrettably enough, though, it turned out that this was Drake’s morning routine.  A song, completely random, was chosen, and Drake would enter the bridge every morning with his characteristic dramatic flourish.  The second day Drake was to enter the bridge to a military march, his hands clasped behind his back, while he waved to a non-existent crowd as if he was in a parade, much to the delight of the bridge crew and the bemusement of Cooper.  The day after that he quite literally waltzed into the bridge to the symphonic melodies of some classical song that Jack was sure he had heard before, but could not put a finger on.  Drake had sat in his command chair and grinned at Cooper.

“Like it?” he asked.

“Uh, yeah.  Your dancing is..quite impressive.”  Drake gave a strange, wheezing laugh at this.

“My dancing is quite impressive, yet my habits are quite strange.  Yes, yes, don’t be surprised,” he dismissed Jack’s glance and him with a wave, “I can see it in your eyes.  You’ve never seen anyone do this before.  ‘Why?’  I’m sure you’re wondering,”  Drake leaned forward on his chair, “The answer is quite simple.  Because I can.”  Cooper was about to interject, wanting to ask a question along the lines of “But why though”, before the ship itself was wracked by a massive force, causing several panels above the crew’s control stations to spew sparks.  

“What the hell was that?” asked Cooper.  Drake leaned back in his chair, unconcerned, and waved a hand dismissively.

“Something exploded.  It’s probably fine.”

“Probably?  What do you mean probably?  And shouldn’t that not happen, though?  I mean, I’m not an expert on spaceships, but isn’t stuff blowing up on your ship not a good thing?”  Drake shrugged.

“Eh, it’s fine.  If it were really a problem, the alarms would go off.”  As if on cue, the ship's alarm system started flashing red and emitting an ear-piercing shriek.  “Alriiight, now it’s a problem,” Drake said with a sigh.  “And I was just getting comfortable.”  He grabbed some sort of portable communication device and walked briskly for the door.  “Richter, what the hell happened?”

“Try and guess,” came the voice on the other end.

“Muelka?” asked Drake as he and Cooper half jogged through the hallways to the wails of the alarm.

“Yep.”

“I should have known,” replied Drake with a sigh.  They traveled through several more decks of the ship, going at an uncomfortable half-walk, half-jog, and finally reached an open area in one of the lower decks where several crew members were hosing down tiny fires with foam suppressant.  The area held quite a lot of what appeared to be chemistry equipment, and what looked like but Jack fervently hoped were not bombs.  One of the countertops, identical to several others throughout the room, was a scorched mess, with blasted and melted shards of glass scattering the floor around it.  And, in the middle of all the chaos stood a sheepish-looking woman with frazzled hair wearing some sort of protective apron, and an average-looking brown haired man with a scar across his forehead, who was currently busy staring at the destruction around him.  

“Right.  What the hell happened?” asked Drake briskly.  The man answered.

“Muelka was mixing chemicals, again, and they exploded, again, and the resulting shockwave loosened some wires and set off the alarm system.”

“Sorry, Captain,” the woman muttered.  Drake rubbed his forehead.

“Muelka, while I do love your work, you need to take better safety precautions.  You’re on censure, again, until I come up with something else.”

And, while it was gratifying to Jack that Drake did have control of his crew, his rather flippant attitude was something he was slightly concerned about.  But, the main point was Drake's overwhelming oddness.  At lunch, just the other day, Cooper had the misfortune to be at the mess hall at the same time as Drake.  Due to the nature of the Apocalypse being a mercenary ship and having many different alien species on board, the food served at the mess was much more numerous and varied in nature than any military ship.  However, Drake was simply not eating a typical meal, or for that matter, any form of unrecognizable food.  Instead, he had a plastic container filled with cheese spread, the type one usually puts on crackers.  However, Drake was not most people, and so he was eating the cheese spread plain.  By itself.  With a spoon.  Wonderful.  The worst part was that Drake then proceeded to get a bottle of aerosol cheese and spray that on top of his other cheese, creating some sort of cheese soup.  Honestly, Jack found Thomas Drake more concerning than the aliens, which was a feat considering that aliens did not exist in his home galaxy, and these were the first he’d ever met.  He sighed to himself.  This was going to be a long ride.

Aboard the Omen

Admiral Adam Vir sighed and tiredly rubbed his forehead.  The last week had been extremely taxing, even more so than the time where he was forced to bring a civilian tour group on board the ship.  Hell, it was probably worse than the first time he met aliens, which involved miscommunications, lots of treats, and eventually him rolling over like a dog.  It was complicated.  But back to the matter at hand.  The last three days (or was it?  He seemed to be losing count) were filled with nothing but tension and problems.  The first, and least concerning, was that all the alcohol on board the ship seemed to be mysteriously vanishing.  

Even the drinks smuggled in by the marines that he conveniently (for them) overlooked were somehow gone, spirited away from their hiding places by an invisible force.  But, by far worse, was the hostility between the Valhallan soldiers and the crew of the Omen.  The Imperial Guardsmen were intensely xenophobic and openly belligerent to all aliens on board the ship, so much so that that many members of the non-aggressive races would flee at the sight or sound of an Imperial infantryman.  It also very much did not help that said infantry always seemed to travel in packs, which just seemed to escalate the tensions.  

The third problem was that the human members of the crew were not immune to this either.  The Imperials seemed to regard them as traitors of sorts, and whenever human crewmembers walked by, Valhallan mutterings of “heretic” or “Gue’vesa” could often be heard.  The only ones the regular Imperial rank and file respected were himself, as he was the captain, and the engineers.  A group of Guardsmen had gone to the engineering department, predictably sneering at anyone who crossed their path, only to be put in their place by the furious head of the engineering department, Nairobi.   Ever since that particular incident, any members of the engineering crew were either avoided by the guardsmen or were given grudging, but respectful, nods.  Adam had originally thought the Imperials might get along well with the Marines, seeing as they both shared the bond of being human combat soldiers, and so had organized a joint training exercise for both groups.  It had gone...well...horribly.  The Marines loathed the Imperials for treating the other crew members so poorly, and the Imperials despised the Marines for harboring and living alongside aliens.  Both groups were now furiously competing to see which was better.  Drinking contests, arm wrestling, combat training, weapon skills, you name it, there was an extremely nasty competition going on between the two rival groups of soldiers.  There were several fights, most notably between Maverick, the Marines chaplain, and Magot, a Corporal in the Guard.  That particular fight had seen the spectators get involved, and two Omen crew members, one Marine, and three Valhallans were sent to the infirmary with critical injuries, several of which might have been life threatening if not for the ship’s two excellent doctors.  The only reason that no one had died immediately in that fight was because Ciaphas Cain had interfered, attempting to pull people off one another, and, when that didn’t work, firing his pistol into the ceiling, which resulted in an immediate secession of hostilities.  Adam didn’t care much about the damage done to the mess hall ceiling, which could be repaired, but he was very much fed up with the entire situation.  In fact, come to think of it, the only thing that prevented the two sides from outright trying to kill each other was the fact the Valhallans had enough respect for Cain and the two battalion commanders, Kasteen and Broklaw, to obey them no matter what, and that the Marines had enough respect for him even though the Imperials were threatening their crewmates.  Speaking of Cain, Adam really did wish he would come out of his office more.  At the beginning of the voyage, Adam had given Cain a personal quarters, which had been promptly transformed into a combination living quarters and Commissar’s office.  The problem was that Cain always seemed to be holed up inside, and to get inside, one had to cross Jurgen, the Commissar’s malodorous aide.  Jugen was always extremely polite and to the point, traits to be commended, but his personal hygiene was terrible, and many would rather just skip seeing the Commissar rather than wait near him.  To Adam, though, there seemed to be something fundamentally wrong about Jurgen, although what he couldn’t really lay a finger on.  Jurgen did have terrible body odor and rather bad psoriasis, but that didn’t seem to be the problem.  The problem was that whenever Adam got close to Jurgen, an odd, creeping, chilling sensation would occur.  There was nothing specific about Jurgen that made Adam feel this way, and that was probably the most creepy thing about it.  But, for whatever reason it was, Cain’s callers never wanted to stay around long enough near Juren to actually get into his office.  The only two people allowed to go straight inside were Adam and his first lieutenant, Simone, but they were so busy running the ship and trying to prevent the Marines from murdering the Valhallans in their sleep that they rarely got the opportunity.  But, in the end, he felt as if he had no choice but to meet with Cain to sort out this problem.  And so, he and Simone walked through the decks of the Omen, the aliens skittering in front of them until they realized they were no Imperials, until they reached the lower decks and the quarters of Ciaphas Cain.

Cain looked up from his paperwork as Jurgen ushered Vir and Simone in.  Truth be told, he wasn’t really doing any paperwork, but appearances had to be maintained.  They were, inevitably, here to talk about the mess hall fight and the general situation.  Well, they didn’t really need to know that instead of heroically trying to pull people apart, he had been stuck in the middle and was trying to pull people off of him.  But they didn’t need to know that.  He was forging a reputation with these new people, and it wouldn’t do to seem cowardly.  And, of course, it wouldn’t do to insult the aliens, possibly treacherous xenos that they were, as, if he did, he would probably get shot in the back by one.  And, above all else, Ciaphas Cain wanted to not die.  

The Admiral and his first mate sat at the two chairs across his desk, ones that had been provided by themselves.  

“Admiral.  Lieutenant.  A pleasure to see you.  What brings you here today?”  He knew, obviously, but pleasantries had to be observed.  

  “Why we’re here is because your troops are way out of line!  It is completely unacceptable and against regulations to insult someone based upon species.  You-”

“Simone-” said Vir in a warning tone.

“That’s perfectly alright,” responded Cain, who flashed a smile that would have charmed a fish out of water.  “I believe, after reading all the reports,” which was a lie, but they didn’t need to know that he was pulling all of this out of his ass, “that what we have there is a failure to communicate.  I’m sure you’d understand, Admiral Vir, as your reputation for dealing with aliens and different cultures is legendary.”  Well, he did know that Adam Vir was the first to make contact with non-humans, and was quite good at dealing with them.  And, of course, flattery never hurt.  “You see, where I come from, every single alien race believes it is their divine right to rule the galaxy, and will try to kill you on sight.  Consequently, it is a part of our society to kill any alien on sight, before they kill you.”  Simone and Adam looked stunned.  

“Every...every race wishes to...eradicate you?”  

“Yes,”  replied Cain.  “That’s why we have the imperial guard.  Of course, I am but a humble Commissar.  It’s the soldiers who do the real heavy lifting.”  Modest hero; a strategy that most people fell for, and these two seemed to be no different.

“That’s disturbing.”  

“Well, we seemed to have misjudged you, but we still have a problem,” said Vir.  “How do we prevent our respective soldiers from killing each other?”

“Well-”

“I-I have an idea,” said Simone.  Both Vir and Cain looked at her with surprise.  “I can captain the ship, and you two can switch places.  You’re both good leaders, and if you can explain to each other’s soldiers why we should not fight, then we have a chance.”

“That’s actually a very good idea,” responded Vir.

“I concur,” replied Cain.  No, I most bloody well do not concur with that frakkin’ idea.  I would prefer my head un-squished by ten-foot tall four-armed aliens, thank you very much.  But, it’s the only way that we have a chance at not ending this voyage with people dead.

“So, it’s settled, then.  You are in command of the ship, Simone.  I will take control-”

“Er, my apologies, Admiral, but I believe you misunderstand,” said Cain smoothly.  “I am not the commander of the regiment.  I am merely an adviser and moral officer, although I do hold some sway.  So, before we switch places, Admiral, what should I know about the...Drev and Marines?”  

“Well...uh, the Marines are typical human soldiers, I guess.  The Drev are a warrior culture who place a high emphasis on personal combat.  Otherwise, they’re not that different from us.  And your troops?”

“Valhalla is an ice world, and thus soldiers from that planet are very comfortable in cold temperatures.  I should also inform you, that you are now acting Commissar.  You are in charge of discipline, morale, and combat effectiveness of the regiment.  You reserve the right to take any necessary steps to restore order, including summary execution.  You have the full authority of the Commissariat until otherwise dismissed by me.  The Emperor Protects,” recited Cain, as if he was quoting something.

“Alright.  Wait, you have the authority to execute your soldiers?”

“Yes.  Although, only a foolish Commissar will do so unless absolutely necessary.”

“Uh, that’s...alarming, to say the least.  Anyway, let’s get to it, before more people get hurt.”

That’s that.  If you have any questions, comments, criticisms, or concerns, feel free to ask.  

[lovelyirony]

Fic title meme : pulvis et umbra sumus (We Are Dust And Shadows)

On every single document, including the ones that show what actually happened to Howard and Maria Stark, Tony Stark is listed as dead among them. 

He is not. 

But in not calling in the accident on the abandoned road, Tony managed to find someone else to take his place and escaped. 

Tony Stark is dead. A whole family funeral and everything. Obadiah pretends to cry. Tony is at the funeral with shitty dye in his hair and sunglasses that he wouldn’t be caught dead wearing. Ha. 

The funeral is closed casket. All their faces are rumored to be impossible to fix with make-up. 

He makes new documents. Anthony Jarvis, from Boston. Airtight background. Likes puzzles. Scored damn high on the SAT, but not the perfect score. 

(Killed him to answer some of those questions wrong, seriously.) 

Anthony Jarvis goes to MIT and requests a single room. He gets one for one semester, and then the room next to his burns and destroys his as well. So he gets moved to Jim Rhodes’. 

Jim becomes Rhodey, and he is the first friend of Anthony Jarvis, and nicknames him Tony. 

He grins at that. 

There are plenty of times that Tony wants to tell him. The thing about secrets is that they need to be shared. No one really wants a secret, nor do they want to keep it. But he keeps his mouth shut and asks if he wants to go for Thai food. 

“This is the third time this week.” 

“Not my fault it’s good! I’ll pay...” 

“Sign me up.” 

Tony and Rhodey gets Thai food. It’s good. 

Rhodey lets him in on a secret that Tony had actually known about since his room assignment. 

(You remember that guy’s room that caught on fire? Yeah, he swore that his microwave hadn’t been on, and nothing had been plugged in. He was right. But Tony needed an accident.) 

In other circumstances, Rhodey would have ignored the offer that he had. He had had his heart set on Air Force. But there was something about the man who talked to him. 

“It’s a place called Strategic-Homeland-something I can’t remember,” Rhodey says. “Point is, they’re a big deal and kind of shady, but not in the government shady kind of way. The only thing I can find out about them is that they’re an international company who need engineers, pilots, and basically anyone like you and me. I don’t know how I feel about it.” 

Tony nods. 

“You want me in on this?” 

“I mean, you did tell me a couple of weeks ago that you weren’t sure what you wanted to do after graduation.” 

(It was two weeks, three days, and fourteen hours ago. Not like he was counting.) 

“...thanks. I’ll check it out with you.” 

Anthony Jarvis shows up in a nice suit, stupid sunglasses, and impresses the higher-ups by diagnosing a problem with the engine that others had previously marked as “impossible.” 

He’s hired on the spot, same as Rhodey. 

Tony Jarvis gets his own keycard, finds an apartment in New York that’s within at least biking distance, and gets started on inventing some cute little toys for the spies in Research and Development. 

He brings the laser-lipstick to life, poison-drop-earrings, spyglasses that actually work and have HD, and briefcases that use mirroring technology to change color. 

“How did you do this?” Rhodey asks, eyes wide. “I swear this is unreal.” 

“Aw,” Tony says. “You sap. I got some inspiration from some old comic book ads. I think I’m gonna try a ring decoder next, what do you think?” 

“Almost makes me want to go on missions instead of flying them.” 

Tony Jarvis is known for working odd yet long hours. He comes up with results. And he keeps his head down and minds his own business. 

This is all to find out exactly who killed his parents. As much as his and Howard’s relationship was...interesting, he still wanted to know. 

His desire to know the truth leads to somewhere he hadn’t thought was possible: Hydra. 

His hands freeze as he looks at the paper file with thick, black lines all over. The information there was sparse. Howard, Maria, and Anthony Stark all died. It was ruled: 

And there’s nothing there. 

It wasn’t an accident. Sure he knew that, but there was something far more sinister at play. Why wasn’t it an accident? 

- 

He gets Alexander Pierce in his apartment with a man in the corner. His arm gleams in what little light from the lamps outside give off. 

“Why are you searching for the Stark files?” He asks. 

“Why didn’t you just schedule a meeting? I’m available tomorrow at three,” Tony jokes. “Who’s your friend here?” 

“Someone you wouldn’t want to shake hands with,” Pierce answers. “You need to stop looking into this before you find yourself in a situation you don’t want to be in.” 

“And if I don’t?” 

“Accidents will happen,” Pierce says. He gets up from the table, to the counter. Gets out a glass. And makes himself water. He smiles as he looks to the man in the corner. “Do you want any water, Winter Soldier?” 

Winter Soldier remains impassive. 

Tony stills. 

“So, the legends are true. And Hydra is still around.” 

“And if you aren’t careful, you won’t be,” Pierce says. “Don’t bring any of this up. Or this won’t be the last time you see Winter Soldier. I know your moves, Jarvis. Don’t think you can surprise me.” 

They exit the apartment. Tony realizes that Pierce took his glass. 

And he laughs. 

Because this? Not according to plan, but god he’s gonna have fun with it.  

It starts with telling Rhodey who he actually is. 

It does not go as planned. 

“So let me get this straight. I’ve known you for years and you just. Never told me?” Rhodey asks. “Why not?” 

“To be completely fair, no one knows besides a man in Wisconsin, and he’s from Wisconsin,” Tony says. “Also I was drunk. Drunk me is a terrible person who would sell me for a buffalo nickel.” 

“I’m still mad, even if that’s funny,” Rhodey says, trying not to smile. “So. Why tell me now? I’m assuming you need something.” 

“I would like your help,” Tony says. “It is not required but I am toppling a secret organization living in SHIELD and I think if I get your help, I will most likely not get fired by the end of this. Fury likes you, he hates me.” 

“False, he mildly tolerates you. You’ll be fine. Probably. Who else should we get to help?” 

Tony had originally planned for no one. 

But then there was Pepper Potts. 

She had been deemed by the media as “crazy” for accusing Obadiah Stane, longtime-CEO of Stark Industries, as ordering a hit out on the Stark family. 

She had been booted from the company--anticipated--and then Hydra had ordered a hit on her. 

Slightly unexpected. 

Point is, Rhodey brings her into the apartment and tells Tony casually that the grocery store had run out of his usual hummus brand, was the generic okay? 

“That’s like asking if I’m okay with blue pens,” Tony curses. “Also, is that Pepper Potts? Why is she here? Did you run into her at the grocery store?” 

“No, as I was coming back. Did you know that she has a hit out on her? Fun times.” 

“Oh my god, will someone explain to me what’s going on here?!” Pepper seethes. “I was just trying to get my yogurt without anyone taking a picture of me and some random fucking guy had a knife thrown at me and then this guy took me to your house!” 

She then rants for ten minutes about the “questionable design choices going on in this establishment, who honestly thinks shot glasses are a decoration?!” 

“Are you done?” Tony asks. “Because if you want to help with a conspiracy plot, you need to be done.” 

She is. 

Pepper does not get a job with SHIELD. In fact, she mainly just decides to take care of the redecoration in Tony’s apartment. 

“You will be paying me for this.” 

“Why would I do that? You’re using my money to buy everything. You’re living here rent free for now.” 

“Because I’m helping you make better life choices. I also want new shoes.” 

What Pepper does is provide very valuable access to Stark Industries: she knows the ins and outs, what employees do and don’t do, and also is very helpful in telling Tony what he needs to do when he takes the company over. 

“Who said I was going to take it over?” 

“Me,” Pepper says. “Also because I reviewed every single old document and the company was specified to go to next-of-kin. You are. And you’re not dead.” 

“My death certificate is literally framed,” Tony says, pointing to his graduation photo that Rhodey took. He had swapped out his official diploma with it as a joke. No one had seen it. He thought it was hilarious. 

“Yeah, but they can do DNA testing,” Pepper says. “This is like the twenty-first century Anastasia except this time they don’t find you with metal detectors!” 

“I don’t like that you know that story as well as you do,” Rhodey says. “But I’ll leave you a credit card for furniture and groceries. If you get rid of my drinks in the fridge I’m literally never forgiving you.” 

“Noted, and I don’t need forgiveness,” Pepper says. “But they’ll stay there.” 

So begins the plot. 

Pierce doesn’t know three things, which is a lot of things not to know: 

1.) Tony Jarvis is not Tony Jarvis. 

2.) Rhodey actually likes Tony and most of the time him saying that he would “kill Tony in a variety of ways, starting with sporks and moving forward...” is mostly (mostly) a joke. 

3.) Pepper Potts resides in their apartment and is having fun telling Tony she bought new silverware. 

“Why did you buy new silverware! It was fine!” 

“I recognized all of these forks and knives from restaurants. Why did you steal them from restaurants?” 

“They can replace them!” 

“Don’t. Anyways now your spoons match and you don’t have the shitty ones from different places. Also I painted the bathroom.” 

“My landlord is gonna kill me.” 

“I made her cookies and discovered that she likes going to concerts. You’ll be fine.” 

(Pepper is a goddess. You can’t convince them otherwise.) 

Pierce doesn’t know any of this, but he still holds a key piece of blackmail: Tony Jarvis shouldn’t know about Hydra, and he’ll do anything to make sure that he doesn’t lose his job. 

Tony has been recording their conversations for weeks. 

(Pierce thinks he doesn’t design things to get around the available technology. Pathetic.) 

He also has bugged Pierce as well as his house, and figures out that Winter Soldier is going to be on assignment within the DC area in an effort to kill some higher-up on the foodchain that was SHIELD. 

Well. 

Tony has always wanted to go and see the cherry blossoms a little more up close. 

Pepper, of course, doesn’t like that they left his boots on. 

“This couch is new and red,” she says. “Take off his boots!” 

“He is unconscious and probably won’t be in the next fifteen minutes,” Rhodey says. “We are not touching him and possibly shortening that fifteen minutes.” 

Winter Soldier wakes up to three faces staring at him. 

“Mission failed?” he asks, voice robotic. 

“Nope, you just got a new one,” says the man on the right. He is wearing a t-shirt. Winter Soldier thinks that in this situation, a t-shirt is not the best option. 

(Of course, he’s not supposed to think. But they don’t have to know that.” 

“Can you take your shoes off?” says the woman in the middle. “Please. You’re getting germs on the couch.” 

He’s confused. 

“Who am I killing?” 

“No one, yet,” says the man on the left. “Do you know who you are?” 

“Winter Soldier.” 

“No, like a name? I’m assuming you’ve had a name at some point.” 

“Someone has called me Mr. Freeze before.” 

The man on the left snorts. Man on the right taps his arm lightly. 

“Well, um, okay then. How do you feel about the name...aw shit. I can’t think of a name for you when your mask is on. Can you take the mask off?” 

He takes it off. It’s nicer to breathe. 

The man in the t-shirt pauses. 

“Okay. So your name is Bucky Barnes. Do you know that name?” 

Something clicked. But he doesn’t know what. 

“Sounds...familiar.” 

“Cool! So that’s your name now, do me a favor and don’t google it. I’m Tony, this is Rhodey, and this is Pepper. If you don’t take your shoes off, you’re going to be scared of her.” 

Newly-named-Bucky highly doubts that he will be scared of Pepper because she is built like a twig and she is wearing high heels. 

(He is wrong about ten minutes later when she forcibly throws a fork at him.) 

“Why am I here?” he asks. “Should I be checking back in with Handler Pierce?” 

“No,” comes the consensus from everyone else in the room. 

“Technically, he thinks you went rogue and went back to Russia. He’s organizing a team to go get you. We hired an actor to play you. It’s been entertaining. He got some plums. Do you like plums?” 

“Why is that relevant?” 

“It’s vapid and not interesting at all, Tony loves questions like that,” Rhodey says. “Now come on. We need to get you actual shirts. Also some body wash.” 

Bucky Barnes learns how to be a person. He stares at himself in the mirror for an hour and smiles slightly when Pepper calls him “vain” and pushes him aside to grab her hairbrush. 

He then learns that Hydra is trying to overtake SHIELD and they have a slight window with Pierce out. 

This involves two things: 

1.) Tony Stark coming back from the dead. 

2.) SHIELD panicking that they didn’t know this secret and taking another look at the paperwork, in which case Hydra will be found out. 

These are both easier than anticipated. Tony can act like a showman better than anyone, and has been carefully growing a goatee that is eerily reminiscent of his late father’s. Of course he’s had to switch it up. 

The media is going crazy. SHIELD as well. They’re scrambling to find paperwork that proves that it happened, and they find that the “accident” was no accident. That Howard hadn’t been working for the “enemy” at the time. 

The enemy was in the building, and they had blended in seamlessly. 

This all happens on a Wednesday, by the way. Pepper has it marked on the calendar and everything. Rhodey made his coffee. 

Bucky is busy slamming people into drywall and listening for any word from Rhodey, who is also slamming people into drywall. 

“You know, you’d think we’d get something like a suit of armor for this,” Rhodey pants out, slamming another guy out of his way. 

Bucky nods. 

“Best I can offer is a grenade.” 

“Where in the fuck did you get a grenade?!” 

“Supply closet. Second floor. What, you didn’t check?” 

“No sorry must’ve missed it--of course I didn’t fucking check the second floor closet!” Rhodey yells. 

Bucky says he’s stressed. He should calm himself. 

Rhodey chucks a particularly nasty Hydra agent out a window. 

(Bucky thinks Rhodey is probably the coolest person he’ll ever meet.) 

Tony is fashionably late to the take-down of the century. He’s already foiled a lot of plans, and taken a key-card for Project Insight to work. 

He waltzes in and nearly gets hit by a mug. 

“So, how’s the party going?” he yells over to Pepper. Pepper is still in her heels. She looks like a goddess still, as usual. It is a Wednesday, after all. 

“As fine as it can be,” Pepper says. “We’ve met some resistance. With Pierce gone there’s little infrastructure. You got his plane delayed, correct?” 

“Even better. Got it sent to London. Motherfucker is gonna be there for a while,” Tony says. “Also may or may not have said that he was a threat. SHIELD branch there will investigate, find out some questionable things in his file that he will swear up and down were never there.” 

“Good,” Pepper says. She launches a stapler at someone’s head. “Do you think we’ll have time to pick up takeout for dinner?” 

“Depends on whether or not Deputy Director Hill is Hydra.” 

They see Maria Hill pass by in a blur, yelling as she jumps onto a man and sends him crashing down over a railing. 

“Lovely, she isn’t!” Pepper cheers. “By the way, I was thinking about redoing our kitchen.” 

“‘Our’ kitchen?” Tony says, ducking a bullet and drawing out his personal lipstick-laser, firing it with expert precision. “I told you the living situation was temporary.” 

“Oh please, you have an extra room.” 

“Which was an office!” Tony tells her. 

“Like you can’t have your office at Stark Industries,” Pepper says. “I expect to hear how the reveal went over dinner. Also, please hire me back. I don’t wanna be your interior decorator for forever.” 

“Neither do I, you like modern art. Disgusting.” 

And so the fighting resumes. 

It is done by five-thirty-two, with an official surrender from Pierce. 

“Thank god, I already ordered Chinese and they said it’d be here at six,” Rhodey says. 

They all sit on the red couch. 

Shoes on. 

Tony tips four hundred percent. 

-

“So what are we doing tomorrow?” Rhodey asks. 

“I am not moving for six hours,” Bucky answers. “Also maybe getting a library card.” 

“This is the first thing you want out of the icebox? A library card?” Tony asks, laughing. 

Pepper laughs. 

“I have errands to run. You can come with me and we’ll swing by.” 

“What are the errands?” 

“Getting a kitchen mixer and also making sure that my plates match my napkins.” 

“A travesty if it doesn’t happen,” Rhodey deadpans. “Pass the lo mein, Tony. You’re hogging it.” 

“I had to fight on a Wednesday and run,” Tony says. “Today isn’t cardio day.” 

“Literally hate it when you speak,” Rhodey says. “Absolutely abhor your language.” 

They go to bed, although it’s more of laying on the floor. 

Sure, Tony will have to deal with retaking a business that he knows a bit less about and Pepper will have to be trained (again) and also fight against being made CEO (but she won’t fight much). Rhodey will get a new job with SI because it’s not like Tony will let him work at SHIELD (Rhodey tries, Tony will get him fired at some point). Bucky just...he needs to get a bit more than a library card. 

But that’s for tomorrow. 

[theycallmebecca]

How about 30. “Hear me out: a marriage pact.” with Steve? ❤

My original plan with these drabbles to keep them short and sweet and fluffy… this story blew that plan to smithereens. 🤷‍♀️ Oh well. It is what it is. I got the idea for this, @nomadicpixel encouraged it and here we are.

Title: Insightful Evening

Pairing: Steve Rogers x reader

Rating: PG-13

Prompt: #30 - “Hear me out: a marriage pact.”

Warnings: some language, drink responsibly

Note: Not Endgame compliant, everyone is happy and they’re one big happy (slightly dysfunctional) family. Also, I’m just playing with some of my fav characters.

Disclaimer: This work of fiction is not to be reposted, used or translated without my permission.

Because of how tumblr can be silly about links, I will reblog this post with links to the masterlist and the prompt list.

Steve surveyed the atrium of the Avengers compound, which was playing host to yet another Avenger family wedding. He took a sip of his drink, trying to count the number of weddings that had taken place after Tony and Pepper’s nuptials a year earlier. He knew of three for certain, Maria and Sam’s, Wanda and Vision’s, and, now, Clint and Natasha’s, but he knew there had been others that he just hadn’t been invited to or, rather, hadn’t attended.

Who would be next? He wondered as he eyed his friends. Thor and Jane? He looked at the table they were sitting at and nodded to himself. It would likely be Thor and Jane getting married next, but would they get married here or someplace else?

His eyebrows rose when he saw his best friend Bucky sitting at the table with them talking to Jane’s friend Darcy. There was something in his friend’s body language that told him that Bucky was interested in the brunette. Steve didn’t know Darcy well and didn’t consider himself knowledgeable in women at all, but she seemed to return Bucky’s interest.

Something in the corner of his eye caught his attention and he turned just in time to see a beautiful woman stumble and start to fall. Darting forward, he caught her. It wasn’t until he helped her right herself that he recognized her and realized that she was more than a little drunk.

—–

The room was still spinning around you as you held onto the forearm of your guardian angel. You’d thought for sure you were going to smash your face on the floor thanks to the fucking heels your friend had insisted you wear tonight, but then, you hadn’t.

When the world finally righted itself, you found yourself looking up into the concerned face of Steve Rogers. Aka Captain America. While you worked with the Avengers in a minor capacity, you weren’t on a first name basis with them all, but you and Steve had bonded over old movies a few months back.

“You ok?” he asked, genuine concern etched into his handsome face.

“I’m fine,” you assured him, only realizing then that you were still holding onto his arm. Judging by the feel of it, he really was as muscular as he looked.

A soft chuckle came from the man in question and you looked up, confused.

“Yes, I really am that muscular,” he explained.

You might have been embarrassed to realize that you’d spoken your thought aloud, if you hadn’t had so much champagne. Instead, you shrugged it off and took advantage of his sizable strength to take off your heels. Or at least that had been your plan, until you nearly fell again trying to take off one of the awful shoes.

“Let me help,” Steve offered. He wrapped an arm protectively around your waist to keep you upright and then he somehow managed to get your feet out of the heels with the other. Once your bare feet hit the ground, you couldn’t care less about how it had happened.

“You’re a personal superhero tonight,” you told him once the shoe removal business was finished. “And now I’m going to go to my apartment and pretend I won’t be horribly hungover in the morning.”

—–

Steve cringed as he watched her making her way towards the elevator. He glanced over his shoulder at his friends and decided he couldn’t let her go up there by herself. Especially after a waiter had to do a fancy spin to keep her from nearly taking out a tray of finger cakes.

He hurried after her, stepping between her and another waiter to guide her out of the way.

“Rescued again,” she said with a relaxed smile. “We’ve got to stop meeting like this, Steve.”

“I’ve decided to turn in for the night as well,” he told her. “Will you allow me to escort you back to your apartment?”

“Are you sure you want to leave the reception already?” she asked, nearly taking them both down as she turned to look.

“Clint and Nat have already left, now it’s just a party,” Steve pointed out as he took a firm hold of her. In all the time he’d known her or even just been aware of her, he’d never seen her this far gone before.

“It was a beautiful wedding wasn’t it,” she said almost wistfully as he led her to the elevators.

“It was,” he agreed in all honesty. The wedding itself had been outside in the gazebo in the compound’s gardens. It had just been Clint and Nat with Pepper making an appearance or two to act as the officiant, but they hadn’t wanted anyone else involved in the ceremony.

Hearing the elevator ding, he led her into the empty elevator and automatically pushed the button that would take them to the floor where the private apartments were.

—–

You allowed Steve to guide you into the elevator as you felt the sour mood that had hit you halfway through the reception coming back. Everyone was getting married or having babies and you weren’t even dating. Tonight’s wedding was the tenth you’d gone to in the last year and your group of singling women was dwindling down. You’d been sitting with Darcy and then Bucky had come over and asked her to dance.

Looking up, you saw Steve’s reflection in the elevator and saw that he was looking back at you. Had you spoken your thoughts aloud again or was your sadness just that obvious? His lips quivered in slight amusement, giving you your answer. This was why you didn’t drink.

“I’m sure tomorrow morning will remind you of the other reason you don’t drink,” he mused.

“How do you do it?” you asked him. “I haven’t seen you date anyone, either. Or are you just one of those people who prefer to be forever alone?”

“I don’t think anyone ever prefers to be forever alone,” he replied. “But it’s a little harder for me.”

“Why because you’re a 100 year old man with the body of a Greek God?” you asked.

“Something like that,” he said with a chuckle.

“We’re good friends right, Steve?” you asked even though you were sure ‘good’ was a stretch on what your relationship with him actually was. Yeah, you spent a few hours every week with him in the dark, but it was to watch old movies while you both stuffed yourselves with popcorn. And yeah, you guys had conversations, but they were never about exciting things. Nothing like the conversations your friends claimed to have with their significant others.

—–

“I think we are,” he said, still talking to her reflection in the elevator doors. It was only as the elevator came to a stop and the doors opened that he realized his mistake from earlier. Instead of being on the floor that had the skywalk to the support staff apartments, he’d taken them to the floor that had the skywalk to the executive apartments.

Turning to study her, he decided that he didn’t like the idea of her being alone tonight. The relaxed look that had been on her face early was gone now, replaced with a pensive one that he didn’t like the look of. Add to that her topic of conversation, he really didn’t want to abandon her.

“Change of plans,” he said as he took her hand and led her out of the elevator. “I can’t remember which floor you live on, so you’re going to crash at my place.”

“I am?” she asked. “Are we going to watch Casablanca? That’s the next movie on our list.”

“You are and we aren’t,” he told her. “We’re going to go to my apartment, I’m going to make you drink a glass of water and then you’re going to go to bed.”

With her shoes in one hand and his other arm wrapped around her waist to help keep her upright, he led her over the skywalk and down the hall to his apartment. Some of the executive units were over the top, but he’d designed his to be a comfortable escape from the world with just one bedroom. Until tonight, it hadn’t been a problem, but he’d give her his bed and sleep on the couch.

He let go of her for a moment to unlock his door and then led her inside.

—–

“I’ve always liked your apartment,” you said after he saw you safely to the couch and made you sit down. “It’s just so… you.” There was no other way to describe it. The apartment, like Steve, was homey but in a sexy way. It was the kind of place that you wanted to come home to after a long day of work. And his soft leather couch, it was the kind of couch that you wanted to be laid back on and kissed senseless. Or at least, you wanted to.

Returning with your water, Steve cleared his throat and held it out to you. Looking up, you saw that his face was slightly flushed and knew you’d fucking done it again.

“Clearly my brain doesn’t work when I’ve been drinking,” you muttered before you took a sip of the water. You didn’t want to drink the stuff, but you knew it was a good idea. Not that he wouldn’t let you not drink it.

He chuckled.

“Fucking hell,” you whined setting your glass on his coffee table before buring your face in your hands. “You probably regret ever becoming friends with me.”

“Assuming I heard you correctly, I don’t regret it at all,” he replied. “In fact, this is a refreshing insight into your mind. You, like me, tend to keep things to yourself more than sharing them out loud.”

Feeling him press the water glass against your hand, you took it from him and sat up straight. He was right, you weren’t normally the type to say whatever came to your mind. Especially when it came to the thoughts you’d had previously while sitting on this very couch watching movies. You stole a glance at him over the rim of your glass, wondering for the hundredth time if his lips were as soft as they looked.

He cleared his throat loudly and stood up, making the way back to the galley kitchen to get himself something to drink.

“Do you want to get married someday, Steve?” you asked him. You weren’t drunk enough that you wouldn’t remember this conversation in the morning, but you were going to take advantage of the liquid courage running through your veins. The fact of the matter was that you did want to get married, but if he didn’t want to, then you needed to know.

—–

What a loaded question that was. The short answer was, yes. But it was complicated. As she had already pointed out, there was a significant age gap even if he didn’t look or feel his actual age. It was likely that it would all catch up with him at some point. The serum didn’t stop him from aging.

“Nevermind,” she said softly.

“Drink your water,” he told her as he came over. “The easy answer is yes I want to get married. It’s just there is a lot to factor in.”

“Isn’t there always?” she asked after taking another sip. “Everyone comes into a relationship with their own baggage.”

“That’s true,” he conceded and then shook his head. “In some ways, I’ve thought of myself and, well, I guess, Bucky, as different from the rest of the world. Not because of the ‘superhero’ part but because of the serum. It changed a lot of stuff and it makes things different. But you’re right, we all have things that make us different or special.”

“Like my inability to think silent thoughts when I’ve been drinking,” she stated.

“It’s been an insightful evening,” he said in agreement. He definitely wouldn’t be able to look at his couch without picturing her laying there waiting for him to kiss her. He cleared his throat and let silence fall between them.

Or at least until she started thinking aloud again.

“I want to get married, too,” she said. “I always thought I’d get married young and have kids. And now, I’m not young, but I’m not old either. But there aren’t many options.”

“Any guy would be lucky to have you for a wife,” he stated.

She turned her eyes on him then, so he’d know she was talking to him, and said, “This is probably the craziest thought I’ve ever had -”

“You sure about that?” he asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Shut up and hear me out,” she said, waving him off. “A marriage pact. Between us.”

“A marriage pact,” he repeated.

“Yeah, like if neither of us are married in a couple years, we’ll get married to each other,” she explained.

“You’re right, that is the craziest thought you’ve ever had,” he told her. Not because it was crazy, but because after the revelations of the evening, he wasn’t going to let her spend the next two years trying to find some other guy to marry. Obviously, she, like himself, had been suppressing her feelings and now they were out there.

“Oh,” she said, softly.

He set his glass on the table and then took hers from her and set it down too. He sat down next to her on the couch and then took her hand. “We’re not going any further than this tonight,” he told her. “In fact, as soon as I do this, I’m going to make you go into my room and go to bed -” She opened her mouth to argue, but closed it when he pressed a finger to her lips. “- a lot has been revealed tonight and we both need to think, but I want you to know where my brain is at.”

Pulling his finger away from her lips, he leaned in and kissed her.

—–

God, his lips were as soft as they looked. And he was an amazing kisser.

Then he was pulling himself away from you and laughing when you tried to wrap your arms around his neck to keep him put.

“We’ll do this again,” he promised. “But right now, you need to get some sleep.”

“Where are you going to sleep?” you asked him.

“Right here?” he said, patting the couch. A pained expression crossed his face and before you could ask about it, he explained, “Doubt I’ll get much sleep out here knowing you want to be laid against it and kissed. Especially now that I have kissed you.”

“I’m sure the bed is big enough for two,” you stated. You weren’t ready to go that far with Steve, not tonight, but you wouldn’t mind some more kissing.

“Not tonight,” he said firmly. Then he stood up and he helped you off the couch. He led you into his bedroom and opened a drawer in his dresser, pulling out a shirt. “Here, you can sleep in this.”

“Thanks, Steve,” you said, accepting the shirt.

You watched him cross the room and he gave you one last smile before he pulled the door closed. Sighing, you undressed, only stumbling once in the process, and pulled on his shirt. It smelled just like him. So did his super comfortable bed.

Closing your eyes, you breathed him in and knew you’d have the best dreams tonight. And maybe in the future, you’d share them with Steve and the two of you would be able to act them out.

[louuieferrignojr]

title: pumpkin spice and everything nice (ao3)

summary: when kyle suggests pumpkin picking and couple pumpkin carving contests, things get competitive 

author’s note: thanks to @haloud for the fic title :)

“Do you think this one is okay?” Isobel asked Gregory, picking up a pumpkin from the ground. Gregory raised an eyebrow at the question, looking at the seemingly normal looking pumpkin, before looking beyond Isobel to see his younger brother and Michael in their own little world.

Michael had his arm around Alex, while using his other arm to try and get the beanie to stay atop his own head. Greg could hear Alex’s laughter as the curls made it impossible before Michael instead placed the beanie on Alex’s head.

Watching as Alex turned to look at Michael with a grin, he was interrupted by someone clearing their throat.

Isobel.

“They’re sickenly cute aren’t they?” She asked, before she pushed the pumpkin she chose into Gregory’s arms and he took it without complaint.

He could only shake his head softly before looking at his girlfriend.

“Just haven’t seen my brother this happy in a long time.” The statement was relatively true. Alex had been happy with Forrest Long a few months ago, but they broke up amicably when Forrest realized his time in Roswell writing his book was up and he left the town looking for a new muse.

Now though, Alex was so happy that his older brother didn’t know what to make of it.

“Well let’s go get the lovebirds. My feet are killing me.” The expensive boots she was wearing were not ones you’d wear to a pumpkin patch, but the glare Isobel gave him when he suggested different attire made that attempt pointless.

“Where are the rest of the gang anyway?” He asked, noting that Max, Isobel, Rosa, Maria and Kyle were nowhere to be seen in the huge field of pumpkins they were currently in.

“Gift shop,” she stated, before pulling Gregory along to where the two men were.

“Michael, I’m not that cold,” They could hear Alex say as they watched Michael zip up Alex’s hoodie. It was only 50 degrees out, but there was a strong wind coming in that day and Alex kept getting the chills as they walked through the pumpkin patch.

“You keep telling yourself that, because I can feel you shivering.” He pulled Alex into his arms and kissed him on the forehead, before making his way down his face, kissing his nose and each cheek before finally getting to his lips.

“Okay, break it up.” Isobel said, a smirk appearing on her face as they broke apart. Michael looked affronted, while Alex just shook his head.

“Did you two choose your pumpkin?” She asked, before taking notice of the huge pumpkin on the ground beside them.

Michael picked it up, “Yep. We are going to kick everyone’s ass at this couple’s pumpkin carving contest.”

“Yeah, yeah sure. You haven’t seen what Rosa can do when she gets creative with her art. We’re definitely going to lose to her and Maria.” She saw what Rosa could do the few times she visited her in rehab and she was impressed.

Also incredibly disappointed that she was also going to lose this contest.

“We’ll see about that,” Michael muttered, grabbing Alex by the hand and walking towards the gift shop and cafe that the farm had. They could faintly hear Alex ask if they had hot chocolate and Michael hurriedly agreed to buying him one.

“We’re really going to lose aren’t we?” Greg asked, turning towards Isobel.

“Afraid so sweetie,” and gave him a peck on the lips.

------

“Kyle, she’s cheating!” Michael exclaimed a few hours later at Alex’s house. His entire living room had the furniture and his guitar case moved to one side so they could put newspapers down on the floor as they carved their pumpkins. Kyle came up with the idea about a month prior, after everything with Mr. Jones ended, the alien no longer in the picture. Alex suggested his house as it wasn’t as far out of the middle of town as Max’s or as clean and pristine as Isobel’s. The idea of having pumpkin all over Isobel’s floors or table nearly gave her a heart attack. She readily agreed to Alex’s house and the date was set.

Kyle was the only one standing as he walked around to see how everyone was doing. Isobel and Gregory were doing terribly, as their design they were carving came out more deformed than they expected. Kyle could barely contain the grin that appeared on his face while Isobel gave a long sigh as she sat next to Gregory as he tried and failed to make it look presentable.

Max and Liz were doing a bit better, but Michael’s note about Liz cheating did hold true as she tried to ask Max to use his powers to mess up everyone else’s pumpkins.

No matter how much he wanted to win this contest with their giant pumpkin literally referred to as the “Big Max,” by the people at the farm, Max himself declined that suggestion, not ready for Michael to yell at him. Their relationship was getting better and not even a pumpkin carving contest was going to ruin it, no matter how childish the fight would be.

“Michael, calm down,” Alex suggested calmly, grasping Michael’s hand gently and Michael’s grip on his knife loosened as he finished carving. He looked proudly at his work before Alex gave him a kiss on the cheek.

“You did great babe.”

“Not as great as us though!” Rosa exclaimed, turning her pumpkin around to show everyone.

Their mouths dropped open as they examined her carving and Kyle let out a laugh.

“Michael, we totally lost.” Alex stated, looking down at their own pumpkin.

Rosa’s E.T. carved masterpiece was on another level and Maria smirked beside her, proud of how talented her girlfriend was.

“That’s my girl,” she stated, giving Rosa a quick kiss before looking up with a raised eyebrow at Kyle for the results.

“Well, let’s start with last place. In last place, we have...Isobel and Gregory,” Isobel pouted, before noting that Gregory was still trying to fix the carving, “We lost sweetie.” The older man grumbled, dropping the knife. Isobel could hear Rosa laugh in the background as she looked at their pumpkin.

Kyle took a step towards Liz and Max next, “In third place, we have Max and Liz. Not bad, but not great.” Max and Liz both sighed, and Kyle noted that Liz turned to glare at her boyfriend. Kyle could see that Liz would never grow out of her competitive nature. Michael snorted, “Guess Big Max was no match for Little Max’s carving skills.”

Taking a step towards Alex and Michael, Kyle spoke, “In second place, we have Michael and Alex. Great job gentlemen, but well...you know.” He could only gesture towards Rosa’s alien inspired carving to show them why they didn’t win.

“In first place and receiving a $50 gift card to the new incredibly expensive Italian restaurant in town...Rosa and Maria,” He handed them the gift card and Rosa held it proudly while Maria laughed at the sad reactions from everyone.

“Come on guys,” she got up and grabbed Rosa’s hand and waited for her girlfriend to pick up the pumpkin. “Let’s put the lights inside them and put them on display outside.”

As everyone got up and did just that, Kyle was left alone to start cleaning up everything. After watching him nearly slipping on the newspapers, Michael let out a laugh, “Think fast Valenti,” the words came out of his mouth as a beer came floating towards the doctor.

As he got stable standing on his own two feet and grabbed the beer, he looked at the curly haired alien who was dating his best friend.

“Thanks,” he opened the bottle and took a swig.

“Thanks for this idea man,” Michael looked from Kyle to the front door where Alex was coming in with Maria and Rosa, laughing along to something they were saying. “We all really needed this, but especially Alex. This level of normalcy, we never had it before.” He played with the beer bottle in his own hand before he continued, “Now that we’re officially dating, just hanging out with friends is nice. Before it was always a secret and no one really knew and we never had a real definition to what we were.”

Kyle looked at Michael, seeing a whole new side to the mechanic he never saw before and never expected to, before shrugging. “Not a problem Guerin.”

“Hey, what’s up with you two?” A new voice joined the conversation, and both turned to see Alex standing next to Michael.

Michael shook his head, before grabbing Alex’s hand. “Nothing to worry about. Just thanking the good doctor over here.”

Alex looked between the two of them, before shrugging. Kissing Michael on the cheek, Alex let go of Michael’s hand and set off towards the rest of the mess that was being cleaned up in the living room.

“So….we’re watching E.T. right?” Rosa asked 10 minutes later, as she planted herself on the couch that has now moved back to its original spot.

“I think I have the DVD,” Alex muttered, going through his extensive movie collection. Michael could only laugh as his nerdy boyfriend started pulling out his DVDs.

“Ah ha!” Alex exclaimed, pulling the movie out and Michael used his telekinesis to open the DVD player for Alex to put the movie in.

Each couple took a spot in the living room and as Alex got up to sit next to Michael on the couch, he turned to look at his boyfriend. The alien turned his head to look back at Alex and smiled softly at him.

“Happy fall,” he whispered, as the movie started playing in the background.

Alex kissed him on the lips before he spoke, “Happy fall.”

“Some people want to watch a movie, boys,” Rosa stated, glaring at them as she threw popcorn at their heads.

One piece of popcorn got stuck in Michael’s hair and Michael grabbed it before throwing it in his mouth.

“Delicious,” he stated before turning to capture Alex’s lips on his own.

[danwhobrowses]

One Piece Chapter 997 - Initial Thoughts

Well okay then! May not have arrived early but Chapter 1000 is getting closer and closer Though that also means Xmas is getting closer and I have a lot of stuff to buy... For now though, let’s get through Chapter 997

Spoilers for the Chapter, Please Also Support the Official Release

A Sanji cover page is cool, the Zen life is not for this Simp XD I wonder what the Shirt Pun is though ‘4 Bear Mire’ or ‘4 Kuma Mire’ or ‘Yon Kuma Mire’ - jp translator says Mamire means ‘Covered’ and Yon Ku could be Yonko...

And it transitions to the story itself as Sanji’s simp radar sets off, seeing the shadows of a man undressing a lady

Through all that stuff about the translations maybe hinting at Ivankov and it turned out to be the original thought I had. Occam’s Razor and all that

Sanji jumps in to White Knight and falls into Black Maria’s trap, spider webs do imply that she may have a Jorugumo DF but damn Sanji got hit hard by these no-names

At the very least he is confident he could bust out if he got violent, it’s just that matter of if

Because Black Maria is there in her giant glory flirting with Sanji, noting that she doesn’t want her stage to be a battleground. I think those figures behind her with the smoke covering their faces are a bit unnerving too

And then Sanji goes from serious to simp again. NOW IS NOT THE TIME TO BE A SIMP SANJI!

And of course the irony that he tagged with Luffy to stop Luffy from getting distracted and ended up getting distracted himself

To more SMILE Atrocities and Mizeka definitely had a rough hand, but I kinda like Poker’s design. This one is telling though since through them we learn that Kid is now officially ahead of Luffy in the tower climb

But alas poor Poker, you will never get to fight when the chips are down, because the samurai made a ladder for Luffy through a hole XD It got a smirk out of me but I wonder if that hole is the same as the one Hatcha made last chapter

Few things can make Zoro stop in his tracks though, and what fell from the dome flipped a switch in him

Sir, SIR! Roronoa ‘Get Shit Done’ Zoro right here, Shishi Sonson-ing Apoo right under Drake’s nose, grabbing the antibody as well all in a fell swoop. You love to see it!

And then back to Soft Zoro putting all trust in Chopper’s doctoring by giving him the antibody

Because our little reindeer boy has already figured out how to stop Queen’s magnum opus. Of course Fire would be key to it, but by promising to make an antibody for everyone via the Hippocratic Oath

But before Queen can strike Zoro is back to his Take No Prisoners Anger, the tirade on this man to tell Kaido’s No.2 Guy that he’s come here to get a slice out of his boss and have Queen shook

Oh Oda, you little troll you, he sees our Zoro having Conqueror’s Theory, dangles it then makes it clear it’s something else

We see what set Zoro off though, Kiku’s arm and yeah that’ll do it. Not only from a standpoint that Zoro has gratitude for Kiku helping them out before even knowing they were with Kin’emon but also as a Warrior and an Ally it’s pissing him off that his allies are getting hurt while he’s stuck down here

Funny Zoro notes he’d like to fly up there because a Pineapple has just flown in. We need all them Straw Hats to reach the dome somehow and Marco could fly Zoro, Robin and Brook up while Chopper helps the Ice oni below for a bit

The quakes are being felt by all areas the crew is on though, Law’s crew being cut off from Law’s small party does make it worrisome for me while it’s also surprising that they didn’t show Law’s reaction at all. Only Black Maria bemused by Kaido’s impatience

Yamato sees it to know though, it’s the clouds dragons produce

Kaido, the crazy motherfucker now having defeated all the Scabbards, is using clouds to LIFT ALL OF ONIGASHIMA, which he plans to drop on the Flower Capital!

I mean, WHAT!? Forgetting for a moment that Big Mom should be there unless Kaido has left the Dome, W H A T!? I did not expect Kaido to levitate an island to drop onto the capital, not many will even survive that! It also puts more stress now because the moment Kaido reaches landfall you will have to deal with ‘how do we stop this island from falling?

I don’t think Law can Shambles it, Momo is nowhere near skilled enough to use his clouds (yet maybe?), Robin will likely not have the strength to hold it even with several giant hands, I don’t think there’s enough metal in the world for Kid to hold it. Big Momo could hold it with a gigantic Zeus but would the weight be too much?

So the only alternative is to beat Kaido before he makes landfall, which is looking nigh impossible thanks to Oda’s storytelling. I will say though, given what we left off on last week it’s a little disappointing to see Sanji so easily played again. I guess there is still chance for redemption but the early thoughts are that Sanji completely took his eye off the ball and let another part of his body do the thinking. Considering how few allies there would be on this floor, crashing through blind on a dude undressing a woman in the midst of a raid against one of the most deadliest pirate crews today was such a daft move, especially given how strongly Sanji started. Queen seems to be immediately intimidated by Zoro though, which is weird given his billion bounty but I guess it’s not too much given that a 150 berry Chopper outwitted his strongest virus while being infected by it.

King was shown for a panel doing nothing too, gotta wonder, we haven’t seen Hawkins or Who’s Who in a while as well...and the absence of Law, Carrot/Wanda/Peros and BM’s reactions were missed. But at least this kinda means that there will be no other outside interference, good or bad, unless they can fly. It does make you wonder if Tama’s 3-minute plan is still active too. I wonder if it reaches the Flower Capital (which I’m guessing it will) how the reactions would be, I mean Orochi is dead and if Kaido does fall too then there’s no hiding from it

Gotta tip our hats to Zoro though, he had been quiet for quite a while in this raid but now we’re getting some Zoro stuff we wanted (minus the hopes of his ancestry connecting to Wano and all)

But Sadly a Break until 998 One positive though is this: if Oda intends to finish 1000 by 2020 then he can only do it on one day The Christmas Day Chapter 1000 Train is in the Station!

[psyga315]

Some Roses Will Never Bloom: A Rewrite Of Volume 8, Part 1

Never before have I felt so disappointed with the turnout of a RWBY Volume. It had the potential to be extremely good, but it chose mediocrity. Again. It felt like Volume 5 all over again.

I know I should probably wait for the final two episodes, but let’s be fucking honest here. Atlas is done. The plot is finished. These two episodes, if people are to be believed, are to hype for the next Volume and even then, given how RWBY did its “hype” and “payoff” in Volume 8… No, fuck that noise. Those last two episodes will get their own segment called the Volume 9 Character Short. If anything, only scenes with Emerald from those two episodes will be brought over to Volume 8 and if they’re big scenes, like her interacting with Cinder, I’ll make an addendum.

Before we begin, keep in mind that this is not a complete rewrite. If there’s a scene I haven’t mentioned, that’s because it’s good as is and can be left in. Length wise, I’ll try to aim for the same 14 episodes, but minutes wise… Who even counts these anymore?

So, let’s get into the meat and potatoes with a Meta-Rewrite. If this does not interest you, skip ahead to when I start talking about the episodes.

Grimm Expectations

Let’s rewind the clocks back to the hiatus of Volume 7-8. Rooster Teeth is proud to announce a new contest where Grimm entries are submitted and the winner would receive a prize. There was controversy the minute it began and it only got worse when the finalists were called.

So, let’s fix that. In this Meta-Rewrite, Rooster Teeth decide to instead broadens the prize pool to include five winners instead of the one, with no popularity contest to determine the winner. Of course, this doesn’t fix the contest results, which includes a controversial figure. However, because there is no voting involved, it instead becomes a flame war over the design that, let’s be honest, wouldn’t have mattered in the grand scheme of things.

So, yeah, RT uses all five Grimm winners, disregards any fucks that the fanbase has (again) and the only thing I could see happening is if the artist personally reached out to Rooster Teeth and requested it to be removed, to which RT will word it so that it doesn’t backfire in their face.

Alright, now let’s do it.

Divide

We’ll start right where the show left off, with Oscar witnessing the Whale arrive onto Atlas. However, curiously, it is stationary. Oscar asks what’s up with it before Ozpin cryptically tells him that’s what she wants it to do. We don’t need to see a huge montage of Oscar getting to the Crater, but just enough to know how he got there.

We cut to RWBY and co discussing what to do now, especially with Salem making good on her threat. Ruby tries to contact Qrow and Oscar, but she can’t reach them. Pietro and Maria pilot the aircraft down to the same discreet spot they parked in Volume 7. However, as they get off, they’re ambushed by soldiers. Just then, Johanna, May, and Fiona barge in and beat them with an ambush of their own.

“What the hell just happened!?” Johanna barked at Ruby. We’ll cut to fifteen minutes later where they all discuss what happened

“So, Ironwood’s finally lost it.” May mutters. They hear the news and see their wanted posters. Most notably, they see that Robyn and Penny are added to the list and that she and Qrow have a big “ARRESTED” sign over them. However, with Oscar, there’s a clear big red X over his face, causing Ruby to fret. Jaune gets upset and punches a wall, blaming himself for leaving Oscar behind on both occasions.

I don’t think Jaune would blame Ruby at this point, since 1) he, at this point, knows better than to point fingers and 2) it’s more his character to beat himself up rather than someone else.

It’d still be Yang, but she’d be joined by Ren. Yang brings up how Ruby’s leadership led them to this situation and Ren mentions how they destroyed Ironwood’s trust, not knowing what was really said up there back in “Gravity”. Ruby told Yang about how they not only went behind Ironwood’s back but also theirs by telling Robyn about the Amity Tower and thus burned their bridge with Ironwood, only for Blake to go on full blast and say what Critics have been saying for the entire hiatus:

“YOU GUYS ARE ACTING JUST LIKE THE WHITE FANG!”

She explains how they’ve done the exact same things that the White Fang had done, taking lives, stealing vehicles, but she adds the extra caveat of bringing up how they’ve also borrowed from Ozpin’s playbook. She confesses to being the one who planned on telling them about Amity.

However, Johanna breaks up the fight and tells them flat out: doesn’t matter what they did, they need to worry more about what to do. This is when they argue more about what’s important: Amity or Mantle. The team splits up the same way, since it is integral for their arcs to be like this and not go with the obvious “Ren cared about saving the world so he’s going for Amity and Nora cared about Mantle so she will help Mantle.”

Ruby frets more, since “this is what Salem wants”, only for Yang to retort: “well, she’s already getting that right now…”, which stings Ruby since she feels like it meant her splitting off with Ruby while she actually meant what happened with Ironwood. We’re not gonna do the “future” stuff. I feel like that should happen naturally instead of confusing people.

Just before they go, though, Ironwood calls Penny and tells her that Salem is here. Penny is about to answer when Ruby takes the phone away and tells him to fuck off, only for Ironwood to go “hey, people are going to die if you’re acting like a doofus about it!” Ironwood tries to talk more, but Ruby hangs up on him.

We smash cut to Ironwood growling in frustration, looking at the arm he lost in order to stop Watts. He gets a solemn look, pondering to himself about how far he must go in order to save the world. His arm trembles and thinks back to shooting Oscar. He begins to have second thoughts about what he had done, though they’re brief as the Councillors came in. During their rant, Ironwood grabs Sleet by the throat and drags his ass out to a window where they see the whale.

“YOU SEE THAT!? That is what we tried to protect the world from and now it’s at our front door. That’s why I’ve enacted Martial Law.” He then tosses Sleet to the guards and tell him to lock the Councilmen up. “You two have gotten in my way before. I won’t let it happen again.” As they get dragged away, he looks over to Winter and apologizes. Had he not arranged for her to be the Winter Maiden, she wouldn’t have been injured.

Winter reassures him and tells him that he was the only person who has given her purpose in life after her father ruined it. Ironwood is both touched and horrified with that comment, especially once the Ace Ops come, having done their grieving for Clover. Harriet also affirms her faith in Ironwood and tells him that Clover died for his Kingdom. Ironwood gives a moment to think… Closing his eyes.

“So… If I’ve led you all onto the path of hell…” He opens them as we see the light in his eyes disappear, followed by the sound of a loud, distinctive click. “Then there’s no other choice but to keep moving forward.”

And as we get our first official look at Mettle, the opening plays out.

Refuge

The villain scene from Episode 1 is moved over to here, but Cinder brings up why they haven’t made their move yet. Salem brings up that Tyrian’s report of the situation has confirmed that Ironwood has taken her bait and is now the greatest weapon they have. Let him destroy Atlas from the inside out and then clean up the mess. She then brings the relic to the Hound and has him sniff for Oscar’s scent.

The rest of the episode plays out like usual, with Ruby and Yang’s teams doing their thing, but with Oscar at the Crater, he’s not there for the scenes. He does still have his chat with Ozpin about how they’ll be one soon, however. He sees Yang, Ren, and Jaune arrive with people and he is elated to see them. He is elated to see them and asks what happened with the others. Yang sums up and then Oscar asks what happened to Qrow, Clover, and Robyn.

Cut to the jailbirds and Qrow saying how he wants to murder Ironwood. The Councilmen are tossed in while they extract Watts.

The Hound Scene gets changed somewhat, as we see it attacking Oscar in the middle of the Crater, bringing people to harm against the Hound. This furthers the reason why they couldn’t just shoot the Grimm, since the Hound threatens the lives of the refuges in the Crater. We end our episode there.

Strings

So, here’s where I think we’re going to make the big changes and axe a subplot. While the premise of Penny being hacked and her aura resisting it is good, I feel like, of the subplots that need to be cut, this would be the one. We can dedicate more of this time to her conflict with being the Protector of Mantle and now being the Winter Maiden, in other words being the Protector of Atlas.

Meanwhile, Nora, Ruby, and Blake all have their doubts. Ruby and Nora are obvious, but Blake has trouble deciding if she made the right call in returning to RWBY. Weiss, in a Tsundere way, brings up how she is a very integral part of the team. Blake then brings up how, if it weren’t for her, then they wouldn’t have had a hard time getting to Atlas, blaming herself for both their rejection at Argus and how Adam ruined their plans in the hijacking.

Weiss, however, wants none of that. While this was Ruby’s plan, Weiss takes charge of the operation due to Ruby being emotionally compromised. She gets a taste of being a leader in this episode, one she had wanted in Volume 1.

During this, Ironwood discusses matters with Watts, where they talk about the possibility of hacking Penny. For this rewrite, I think keeping the ‘Watts is working with Ironwood’ angle, complete with Ironwood having guns pointed to him, would benefit Ironwood’s arc and show how low he’s going. Not just working with one of Salem’s thugs, but also holding them at gun point. Ironwood justifies it by saying that this is Watts’s ‘punishment’ for the crimes he’s done. Watts, however, plays it by ear and waits for the opportune time for a backstab. That and he wants to stick it to Pietro.

The rest of the episode plays out like normal, but we get that ‘made a deal with the darkness’ scene as Watts is dragged back to his cell, Harriet has a hissy fit, and Robyn is like ‘you’re looking for someone to blame’. As the Ace Ops and Guards leave, Watts brings Qrow’s ‘we kill the man who put us here’ idea back to him and says he’s interested in his offer.

Fault

We open right where we leave off, as Watts reveals that he’s only getting close enough to Ironwood to acquire the right tools to escape. He then proceeds to dangle the carrot in front of Qrow.

“We’ve all been screwed over by Ironwood in one form or another. He disrupted your business, abandoned your town, betrayed your Headmaster.” The last part gets to Qrow and he lashes out. “We all want him dead, so… are you in or are you out?”

“Preposterous!” Jacques, to Robyn’s surprise, beat her to the punch. “Let’s not forget that you’ve done your fair share of screwing. Believe me, I had my experience. I know better than to trust you.”

“You’ve trusted Ironwood, right? And look where it got you. All of you.” That comment hangs in the air.

“We wanted Ironwood out for some time, but not like this! Are you mad?” Sleet asked. Robyn is visibly horrified at what Watts is suggesting and is the next to speak up.

“Jacques has a point for once in his life. Why should we trust you when you’re the reason Mantle is in this mess in the first place?” Then Qrow raises his hand.

“I want to hear him out.” Qrow said.

“What? What do you mean? You realize he works with-”

“I know! But remember who we’re dealing with. This prison… It’s not like the kind of prisons I’ve seen, especially in Atlas. No other people but us, only the top of Ironwood’s army are allowed to check in, and I’m pretty sure the guards aren’t allowed to give you that shiner. No… This isn’t our holding cell. It’s an execution cell, and we’re just waiting for Ironwood to drop the axe.”

We end on that implication as we see the episode play out like normal. While I like to have Ren bring up Pyrrha, I think the “cheated into Beacon” thing is big enough and we’ll need to unravel that bundle of worms. Instead of the “yeah, Ruby” scene, we could have Yang ask Jaune what he meant and Jaune reveals his fake transcripts. He also reveals that, for a time, he blamed Pyrrha’s death on his inexperience and that he knew about Pyrrha using her Semblance on his shield some time later. Yang, however, isn’t really in a position to pat Jaune’s back.

Meanwhile, the group crash at Whitley’s mansion, but Weiss doesn’t immediately point a sword at him. She’s tempted to as Whitley complains about having to harbour criminals without an explanation as to what’s going on, but then she notices that… he’s afraid. She then remembers Willow’s words to her and calmly goes “If you’re willing, I’ll explain everything. Please. Just help her.”

And we end on the Grimm River.

Amity

This episode is mostly the same, but with two exceptions. One, Ironwood does not, in any way, try to interfere with the broadcast. This had been the thing he was working on the whole time and, albeit without the Ironwood could no longer be trusted bit (which he looks solemnly away to), is pretty much what he wanted. And two, Watts ‘fakes’ hacking Penny.

He later reveals to his coup that there’s no way to hack Penny, bringing up how they had her schematics back in Volume 3 but were unable to activate the virus for her. What he really did was force a reboot and lied out of his ass about how it was a failed attempt. He then reveals the broken phone and offers the escape plan one last time.

Midnight

Here we are. One of the biggest episodes in Volume 8. The big backstory reveal for Cinder…

And we’re instead going to make it about Hazel, so instead, it’s going to be…

Gingerbread

We open with twins, lost in the woods. The elder reassures the younger that everything will be fine. They were abandoned by their parents to line their bellies and forced to fend for themselves. There, they come across a house that looked like it was made of gingerbread, with eagled eyed viewers being able to spot a young Cinder being carted off.

A blind woman greets the kids and brings them into the house. We know the schtick here, though instead of fattening the kids up to be eaten, she toughens them up to be sold to wealthy people who use them as child labourers. Gretchen finds out about this but she gets captured and is about to be killed to be silenced. Hazel, in a fury, ends up awakening his Semblance and, using a Dust Crystal, sets the house ablaze as they escape.

A montage plays out of them surviving however they can, even joining some bandits and raiding towns. However, during one such raid, they’re stopped by a young Qrow and have them be brought to Ozpin, which plays out similarly to how Ruby got inducted into Beacon.

We cut to Oscar chatting with Ozpin about Salem’s plan and how it seemed to be working before getting the idea to do the same to her. As Hazel walks in and gets upset that Ozpin casually says hello, Ozpin asks: “Why? Why do you follow Salem?”

“You know why. Did you tell him the full story?”

We cut back to another montage where we see that Hazel and Gretchen are part of the same team and they were the best years of their life. Unfortunately, they go on a mission to Mountain Glenn where it just so happens to be the time a mad scientist was fucking around there. They try to stop the Grimm from overrunning it, but it seems hopeless. Hazel, as the team leader, pulls the team back. However, Ozpin gives them the order to not run away and to hold the line. Gretchen follows this to a T and sacrifices herself in vain.

This devastates Hazel and causes him to drop out of Beacon, bearing a grudge against Ozpin. Not only that, but it paints some parallels between Hazel, Qrow, and Jaune, as all of them had friends they lost to the orders of a Headmaster who they despised. Qrow teeters in the middle (he talks big about killing Ironwood but hasn’t committed to it yet) between Jaune (who accepted Pyrrha’s choice and lets go of his hatred) and Hazel (“OZPIIIIIN!”). It also presents a dark parallel to the current story, since Atlas and Mantle are currently undergoing a similar siege, but it’s Ruby who insists on holding the line.

Ozpin admits that this was just one of his many mistakes, but asks again why he decided to work with Salem because of it, when she was the one behind the Grimm. Hazel then answers the obvious:

“I tried to kill her.”

We then get to see Hazel beat her senseless in a flashback, only to reform from dust and taunt him. Eventually, he gave up as Salem comforts him before revealing that Ozpin has sacrificed people like him for one huge lie (as she does this, Sacrifice plays). He then swears his allegiance to her if it means there’d be no more Gretchens.

Ozpin cuts the flashback by retorting that she’s planning to bring-

Salem comes in. The show’s about to start.

Cut to Weiss as she enters Whitley’s room. She notices that he just finished calling someone and suspects he’s ratting out on them. Whitely denies this and calls Weiss out for being overtly protective. Weiss counters by saying that she grew up in a hostile home and can’t really trust any Schnee but her sister, which she begins to doubt.

Whitley brings up that she barely had it as bad as he did and talks of his turmoil of living with the parents alone while Winter was at Atlas and Weiss was at Beacon. Between his mother’s drunken rambles and his father’s angry rants, he barely had time to live his own life. He just lets Weiss have it for ditching him before he breaks down and realizes that, no, he’s just jealous because she got to be free while he was still stuck in the cage. Weiss remembers when she was grounded and stripped of her title and realizes “oh… shit.”

Then the doorbell rings and, surprise, it’s Klein. Whitely explains that they need a doctor for Nora and without Jacques, he figured to invite the person he fired just to further spite his ass. He and Weiss begin to rekindle an old flame that they never ignited.

Back with Salem, the scene plays out like normal, but when we see Cinder get tortured, we see flashes of Cinder having a shock collar, hinting to her big backstory event. Then Salem has a small speech.

“It would appear that we have been brought forth into the light as monsters and villains. So, why not play that part and show them why dear old Ozma had to keep me a secret for so long… It’s time.”

Suddenly, Beringels fly out of Monstra and Zerg Rush the shields while the Grimm River activates and rushes forth, destroying the hut that RJY were at and almost killing them. Jaune sends out a distress call with his scroll as they try to avoid getting washed away in the water. They see that it’s heading to Mantle and that the plan by Salem is a two-prong attack to further force the division between Mantle and Atlas by putting them both in peril.

During this, Ren tries desperately to activate his Semblance, but just couldn’t. He panics, he worries, he sees Grimm emerge from the River to try and kill them and he just can’t make his Semblance work. He asks why now of all times must this happen. He closes his eyes and tries to think… Then sees petals on himself. Before he has any time to figure out what happened, they see a plane arrive and blast the River, stopping it in its tracks. Just before Jaune is about to thank their savior, they see that it’s Winter and the Ace-Ops…

War

The Beringels break through the shields and invade, destroying much of Atlas and overrunning the city, killing people on-screen. The rest of the scenes play out, however, when we cut to RWB, we see Weiss is trying to restrain Ruby from running out there, saying that she could be arrested or killed and Ruby responds with wanting to do the right thing. May interjects and asks why they bother saving Atlas when all they do is laugh at the misfortune of others. She’s basically the “Let Atlas Fall” part of the fanbase.

And this is where RWB give their counter arguments.

Weiss says how, even though the elite are snobby twits, Atlas is not exclusive to just them. May and her were just born with silver spoons in their mouths but that doesn’t excuse them from leaving everyone else on Atlas to die, bringing up how the Mantleans they saved were also on Atlas.

Blake brings up that, yes, Atlas has done bad things in the past, but so did every Kingdom at one point or another, bringing up Mantle’s role in the Great War, so to say that Atlas deserves to burn is to basically say Mantle deserves to burn.

Ruby then uses her “there are no sides” bit, but also blurts out that the whole situation was her fault and that she’s at the very least trying to fix it. And that starts by heading straight to the Whale and beating Salem herself.

The whale scene plays out the same, as does RJY’s scene right up until they plan to blow up the Whale. Yang and Jaune argue against it while Ren vouches for Atlas, saying how this may be the only chance they have at beating Salem, proposing to Winter to go ahead into the whale to scout it. This leads to the argument about replacing Oscar which pisses Ren something fierce as he finally drops the Pyrrha bomb on their ass.

“You say that like we haven’t lost a team mate before!” Boom. In a flash of light, Ren could see clearly. While muted colors were around him, he can see the petals around everyone. Jaune has blue petals, Yang has red petals, and Harriet has burning crimson petals. He could hear what each petal represents. He hears crying when he sees blue, he hears screaming when he sees red, when looking at Winter, he hears a bunch of different things as he sees multi-colored petals.

He sees that most of the Ace Ops don’t have a consistent feeling. Not even Vine and Elm, who he can’t help but see himself and Nora in their places. Then he looks to his own petals. Pure white as he hears exhaling: calmness. He’s reached a zen state, making peace with what he had felt in Volume 7: A desire to stop Salem and prevent what happened to him and Nora from happening to other people.

Hopefully that gives a slightly better explanation at what his Semblance does without directly telling the audience. However, he doesn’t use this to basically read the script and tell the audience what people feel because, reading the dialogue, it just feels forced. “You’re going to be a good guy because I have magic petal seeing powers!” Instead, he plays therapist.

“I understand why you think people are replaceable. I guess it comes with the territory of being in the army.” “If you can’t even gauge what your partner is feeling, you can’t work as a full team.” “What did you hope to accomplish when you joined the Ace Ops?” “Who are you trying to prove yourself to?”

I feel like that’s a lot more in character for Ren. As for Winter, she doesn’t go “I outrank you” but rather appeals to Harriet’s blood thirsty nature by saying that they’re basically sentencing them to a trial by Grimm, even tricking Harriet into agreeing that, should they survive and free Oscar, that they’d be let go, kinda playing into how she’s the Hare.

Back at the manor, Weiss gets ready to accompany Ruby. Willow approaches her and they have a small chat about what to do now that Jacques is arrested. Willow brings up that Jacques was promptly fired from the SDC due to his treason and, as a result, his previous rulings are called into question, including stripping Weiss of her title. She lowkey implies that Weiss should return and become the proper heiress to the SDC once more, even resisting the lure of the bottle to prove that they can make it right.

Weiss, however, looks to Ruby and Blake getting ready, then says to her “thanks, but… I think I’d rather be a team player than a team leader.” The two have a small, proper mother-daughter bond before BOOM!

It’s Penny, and she says that she’s sorry.

And that’ll wrap up this half of the rewrite. There are a lot of unaltered or even minor altered stuff, I know, but the front half of Volume 8 was alright to say the least. I think the back half of Volume 8 will be where major changes for this rewrite will happen. So, tune in for part 2.

[thesharondefenseleague]

ok not technically about sharon but like does it seem like the team cap vs team Ironman stuff is worse now? Like I remember before it came out and even sometime after the team stuff was just which set of characters you liked more. Not so much the actual issues. And after it came out it seemed like most agreed that the situation was contrived a bit to make these guys fight. Which ...you know makes sense considering the comics its based on had the same problem ( though the comics are worse) 1/2

But now I see alot more salt ( especially at Cap) for the events of Civil War. Like not in like a this was ooc and I hate the direction they went , it was more no this makes sense for Cap and Tony actually, also Tony is right and Caps being a dick. I haven't noticed as much for cap stans @ Tony they don't really talk about CW much. Like was I just unaware of that drama right after CW? Or did people actually get saltier? 2/2

It’s (for lack of a better word) upsetting that this movie gets this much level of discourse over sides. This movie isn’t worth the debate of who was right/wrong.

Straight-up, I was always leaning Team Tony in the comics, and the movie made it stronger, because of how the story treated Wanda, Clint, and Scott. I hate the “I drop my life because Steve told me to” crap every movie writes, when two of those characters have families that they sacrificed for this?? No they wouldn’t the last movies they appeared in established that they wouldn’t?????

Listen, because I’m gonna rant and put it under the read more, but TL;DR: Civil War was already a bad story, and the movie was much worse, because it missed the most important part of the battle: the middle ground.

Civil War needs a strong knowledge of Marvel to go into comic-wise. Everyone is and isn’t a player, and you need to read it all to know where every single person stands, both hero and villain. It’s icon status would not exist if it didn’t have 1) the official public unmasking of Peter, and 2) the immediate death of Steve after. But there are so many other important people tied in that you can try to read the comic, but you won’t know seventy-five percent of the characters without doing research first. It doesn’t help that this is a story with seven official issues and a hundred tie-ins.

Comic Lesson:

The Sokovia Accords? Fuck that. It was the Superhero Registration Act, and this issue was set solely in the US. Why? A group of D-List heroes on a scuzzy reality show started a fight with a group of D-List villains, and one blew himself up right next to an elementary school. Many people died, majority being young children. At a funeral service that Tony attended (don’t think many others did, if any, that were heroes), a grieving mother spat in his face, hence why he backed the SHRA from the start. When it was presented to everyone, Sam said fuck that, and officially, Falcon is the first to vocally go against it. Then Steve did it on a SHIELD aircraft to Maria Hill’s face (she was relatively new when this began). Because Steve and Tony were the most public figures on each side, they were the faces, but they were not the showrunners. SHIELD and Maria Hill ran Team Iron Man with Reed Richard’s tech. Nick Fury from an undisclosed location used his many secret hideouts and funds to run Team Captain America in secret, with Steve and Sam being the ones running as the face of the fight.

Major players include but are not limited to: Hank, the FF (mostly Reed and Sue), Hulkling, Tigra, Daredevil, Goliath (who dies in battle), clone Thor (who kills Goliath), Punisher, etc.

The one thing that was present throughout the whole story was side-switching. Every issue had someone switching sides. It was a major ordeal every time, and everyone had reasons. Peter because SHIELD was shady. Cassie Lang and YA Vision because they wanted safety and Scott had recently died (not because of CW, but Wanda was killing people). Sharon was threatened into staying with SHIELD by Maria but was a liaison to assisting Steve. Half of the heroes in the movie weren’t even in the actual book event. Wanda was in hiding. Clint was looking for her (and then banging her, because comic book Clint gets around). Scott, as mentioned, was dead. T’Challa just got married and didn’t want to be involved. This Vision was a different version using the body of Iron Lad, and his name was Jonas (adult Vision is named Victor Shade). Bucky was running missions for Fury in other countries. I’m still miffed that they got to be involved but the movie didn’t have room to include Fury and Maria, the two people actually in charge in this game.

I’ve read this comic several times. I took a class where we had to read the book, watch the film, and discuss sides. And here’s the conclusion: no matter whose side you take, you can agree with the other side, and you’re actually in the middle ground of it, but if you had to pick, this one was slightly more persuasive. It’s a very complex issue that the story went into. Tony saw unchecked heroes as a risk and didn’t want to have another incident that would cost hundreds of innocent lives. Steve saw government control as the potential unchecked risk and didn’t want heroes to be controlled by a single power. But they saw the other side as right too: Tony tried to stop SHIELD from apprehending Peter when he defected, and Steve realized that their fighting was proving the point of how dangerous heroes could be when civilians physically had to stop him from killing Tony. Because that was the point: they were both right and wrong. Superheroes could be dangerous, but government registration and control could abuse them and manipulate heroes. Didn’t help that the Negative Zone was the fucking worst thing ever, thanks Reed, Tony, and Maria.

The movie took out the middle ground, and moved this into international territory. It wasn’t one country, but 117. It wasn’t a group of unchecked heroes who caused the major conflict, but one specifically. It wasn’t dozens of heroes, but just a dozen. It wasn’t children dying, it was rulers of countries. And it wasn’t one major storyline that the movie was focused on, but several (the Winter Soldiers, Bucky, Zemo). It liked two things about the comic: two groups of heroes fighting, and Steve beating the shit out of Tony. And this story was adapted by a pair of writers and a pair of directors who don’t care about following the canon of other movies, including their own, so they just did whatever the hell they wanted and bastardized a story that was already a mess and a half to begin with. And it took a story that made you think every character’s decision and motive through and decided nah, fuck that. We’re gonna make major decisions, and you have to pick one to agree with, because the other was designed for you to hate them. Civil War was a debate, not a literal war, Russos, thank you very much.

The movie took a shit approach to the question of whether or not heroes need checks and balances, because it wasn’t interested in answering that question, it liked battle scenes because you like the paintball episodes they directed for TV. If you’re in 2020 and wanna still fight about who was right and who was wrong in the movie, the answer is: the movie is wrong, go read the comic. Cap 3 is the worst Marvel adaptation, and a strong contender for worst movie. I could rip this shit apart all day.

~Mod R

[karliesbuzzcut]

It feels like with Misha and Mikeys baby boy. Cornacirus quarantine. Karlie posting her love to Josh daily. Taylor clearly quarantined with Joe. TTB and her followers have clearly passed over officially into Larrie territory. I just checked out her blog after a break and man its just shifted. Its officially in the paranoia category. Anyone else notice this?

Yesterday night, before I went to bed I read this exchange here:

And I already was like

😟

There’s so much to unpack here and you’re absolutely right: this is Paranoiapalooza 2020.

1) Using the typical “don’t believe everything [insert people in power here] says”.

2) “if she was ever pregnant”. I need to research this a bit, but has this ever been an actual thing? I don’t mean it as in “there was this one time New Zealand during the 90s when a woman...”. No. I mean a trend. A confirmed one... and what someone wrote on their blogs doesn’t count as proof.

3) Misha is a fashion designer. Misha created a maternity line. Illuminati confirmed?? How would this plan work, according to TTB? Did Misha want to create a maternity line so she decided to fake a pregnancy so it would sell??

4) Is Maria Sharapova gay too? Can I have a list of the non-gays? I think we would finish first.

Aaaaanyway. I thought that was as crazy as we would get for a while, but then I woke up to this:

There are blackmailers threatening to kill family members if our lovely protagonists don’t marry the bad guy; there are “devil Brothers”; there are fashion models in our history books!

What a juicy telenovela, I can’t wait to find out what will happen next week.

[ravenforce]

All you had to is ask

Requested by: @jocey-2001

Prompt: Not sure if you’re accepting prompts at the moment but I would love if you could to a Natasha Romanoff x Reader one shot where they are at a avengers party and Nat is flirting with the guys to see what the reader's reaction would be. (Not dating but maybe the could be something between them by the end?) thanks in advance x

Pairing: Natasha Romanoff x fem!Reader

Word Count: 2504

Warning/s: None

A/N: Hey! Sorry, I’ve been AWOL for a while; I’m a tired baby. I’m not sure what I did here, I apologize if this doesn’t make sense. I still hope you guys enjoy it. xx

Masterlist

***

You have known Tony Stark since you were a child. Your family has been friends with the Starks since you could remember and you live on the estate opposite theirs. Tony was the annoying big brother you never had. At first, you and Tony didn't get along. You found him too loud and too proud, while he finds you too nice.

You two bicker about everything until one day, Tony found out you're a genius as well by pointing out why his formula wasn't working. At first, he was annoyed that a child just bested him but you weren't the type to gloat. Since then, even with a ten-year gap, you and Tony have been inseparable. When he took over Stark Industries, he hired you and you agreed easily; you're after all the third brilliant mind he's ever known.

When he asked you to join the Avengers though you were doubtful he's your brother and how could you say no when he's giving you the best puppy face he could ever muster.

"Come on Y/N, it would mean the world to me if to know that my sister has my back on this one," he pleaded.

"Stop being dramatic Anthony," you said as you continue to type away your report on your current project.

Tony sighed dramatically on his seat across your table, you rolled your eyes as you look at him. "What makes you think I'm fit to join your superhero team? I'm a lab rat, T. I got zero fighting skills whatsoever," you ranted.

He wanted to chuckle. Now who's being dramatic, he thought.

"First of all, you're not a lab rat. If you are, you're definitely the prettiest and smartest lab rat I know," he said as he walked around your table and give you a head kiss. You just sighed and hummed happily on your seat.

"Second of all, you have fighting skills. Your father didn't enroll you on all that fighting summer classes for nothing," he continued. You're pretty sure your father signed you up for those classes for self-defense, not actively going on fights but you held your tongue.

"Plus, you can train physically. I'm sure Roger's would be kind enough to train with you," he said with slight aggression on his voice.

You leaned back on your chair to regard him, he just crossed his arms against his chest. He looks smug, he knows he got you. "Fine, if I die that's on you," you said. He just laughs at you, there's no way he would let anything happen to you.

***

It's been a couple of months since you officially joined the Avengers but you still haven't met all of them as some of them has been dispatched in a mission. So far all you've managed to do is finished your suit and other R&D projects at Stark Industries and keep up with the training schedule Agent Maria Hill gave you. Training is often with Steve, Clint, and occasionally, Wanda. The boys were great, they claim that there's nothing much they could teach you since you're clearly capable. Wanda is amazing and really friendly, she goes out of her way to make you feel welcome and included to which you're thankful.

It took another month before the rest of the team arrived back at the tower. Thor, Sam, and Rhodey arrived first from their mission in Germany, and they've taken an instant liking to you. The team was already gathering for early dinner when Natasha and Bruce arrived from their mission in Russia.

"So where's the new girl everyone was gushing about?" Nat said as she sat on her usual spot from the table. Nat may have been away since but she has heard so much about you from Steve, Clint, and Wanda.

"Tony called her downstairs for some meeting," Steve answered just as Tony walked in.

"Speak of the devil," Rhodey teased. Tony just grinned and sat on his designated seat.

"Y/N's not here yet?" Tony asked while shoveling food on his plate.

"We thought she was with you?" Clint asked to which Tony just shrugged.

Before he could answer though, the audible tapping of heels approaching can be heard from the corridor even before you entered the dining hall. When you did, Nat's breath caught in her throat. She heard you were a genius like Tony, a capable fighter as well but no one told her how gorgeous you are especially in a navy blue three-piece suit. You were too tired and too riled up to account for your surroundings that you didn't realize the whole team was in the room.

Nat watched the confident sway of your hips as you walked towards the bar.

"That bad?" Tony asked from across the room laughing.

"I swear to God Anthony, throw me against those jackals one more time without so much as a warning I would end you," you husked loud enough for him to hear as you pour yourself three fingers of scotch.

Tony laughed harder. You poured yourself another glass before you decided to walk to the dining table. Only then did you realize how many people are in the room.

"Shit, I'm so sorry. I'm so used to coming home with just Tony here," you said as you unconsciously undo three buttons of your suit's undershirt. Nat gulped as she watched the movements of your fingers.

"Are you okay?" Steve asked.

You downed the rest of your scotch. "Nothing I can't handle, thanks for asking," you answered the captain politely.

"Anyway, you've met the others before you left this morning. Now, meet Bruce Banner and Natasha Romanoff," Steve said.

Bruce waved and smiled at you, you smiled back. When your eyes landed on Natasha though, you felt like all your exhaustion from today's meeting fade away. When she gave you a small smile, you felt like you're on fire. The rest of the night was relatively uneventful, everyone migrated to the living room after dinner to unwind. You spent the majority of it lounging on Tony's recliner while listening to everyone, quietly drinking your goblet of scotch, and subtly watching Natasha sit way too close to be platonic to Bruce.

Maybe they’re dating, you thought. You shook your head lightly before taking a long swig on your drink, it’s really none of your business anyway.

***

Between your job at the Stark Industries and missions and saving the world, you rarely see Natasha. Whenever Fury gives you missions, it's always with Tony and Wanda while Natasha's always with Steve and Bruce, which for no apparent reason infuriates you. You just wanna get to know her but the universe seems adamant to keep you apart. At long last, after three weeks the team has caught a break and Tony being himself saw it as an opportunity to throw in his usual parties. Everyone groaned when he announced his plan for the night.

"Settle down children, it'll be low key," Tony promised.

Knowing your best friend, it'll be far from being low key so you decided to shower first and take a nap. Besides, who goes to a party on time. When you decided you're fashionably late enough, you dragged yourself to the venue wearing a crisp white oxford with one too many buttons undone, black leather jeans and red Louboutins. Wanda immediately spotted you and hugged you before dragging you to the bar.

"You look amazing Y/N," she said as you both settled in at the bar.

You laughed, gave your order to the bartender before looking back at Wanda.

"That's why naps are very important," you said as you bumped your shoulder against your friend. She laughed heartily before turning on her seat to survey the crowd. There's got to be at least a hundred people in the room, SHIELD agents as well as R&D personnel from Stark Industries.

You spent the majority of the night talking to Wanda about anything and everything from work, what sort of experiments and tech you're working on your lab, to her life before the Avengers, to his brother. From time to time, members of your team would gravitate towards the bar and stopped to chat; both you and Wanda didn't mind. You took note thought that one particular person didn't seem inclined to do the same, you watched Natasha from the corner of your eye talking to Bruce, again. The mere sight of him close to Natasha makes you want to roll your eyes but you reigned it in and carefully kept your poker face in place. You downed your scotch before asking Wanda if she wanted to do shots, just as Natasha subtly cast her eyes in your direction.

***

Unbeknownst to you, Natasha was having an internal breakdown as she watched you chat, laugh and stays by Wanda's side all night. She had very limited interactions with you but on those handfuls of occasions, she took quite a crush on you. She finds it inconvenient to have feelings for anyone on the team but she couldn't help it with you. Even from a distance, she can see why everyone seem to gravitate towards you; you're smart, funny, friendly, soft yet lethal. She's jealous that Wanda gets to know you on a deeper level.

She wished she was the one who stayed behind so she was the one you met first. Maybe then she won’t be in her current predicament; sitting across the room, forced to watch the object of her affection with someone else. She frowned at the mere thought, she’s not a sap but she’s frustrated. She was brought back to the present by Wanda's laugh, and almost broke her wine glass when she saw where Wanda's hand rests on your thigh. She gritted her teeth loud enough for Clint, who was sitting beside her hear.

"You should really just ask her out," Clint said without taking his eyes off you and Wanda at the bar.

"Witches seems to be more her style," Nat said without looking up from her wine glass. Clint chuckled, it's extremely rare for Natasha to feel insecure and jealous.

"They're just friends," Clint tried once again.

Be as it may, Natasha doesn't like not knowing. She doesn't like guessing, so she devises a quick plan that she thought will tell her how you feel about her. She scanned the room and quickly found the person who will help her with that. She took a swig of her wine before quickly striding over to Bruce who was conveniently speaking with you, Wanda, Tony, and Steve. You caught sight of her in the corner of your eye as she approached your group.

"Hey guys," her greeting more enthusiastic than usual and punctuated by her hand landing on Bruce's arm. Surprise was evident in Bruce's face, Natasha was not a tactile person unless she wants to be. Steve and Tony just gave each other a look while you and Wanda pretended not to notice, which irked Natasha even more.

"What are we talking about?" Nat asked without taking her hand on Bruce's arm. Poor Bruce looks like he's gonna have an aneurysm.

"These nerds are talking science," Steve answered.

Nat batted her eyelash at Bruce, her voice dripping with honey as she asked, "oh anything good?" Face completely stoic as you watch the display, you carefully analyzed the interaction to determine what Natasha's endgame is.

Bruce laughed. "Nothing much. I just found out Y/N does not only have a double degree in biology and mechanical engineering but also has a Ph.D. in biochemistry," he explained.

Nat made eye contact with you, "impressive." She didn't intend to sound so breathless but she couldn't help it. You, on the other hand, had the audacity to look sheepish.

"It's not a big deal," you tried to dispel the attention away from you. Nat grinned at you but before she can say anything else, Wanda leaned closer to you and give you a quick kiss on the cheek.

"Not a big deal? You're.." Wanda wasn’t able to finish before the sound of shattering glass echoed in the room. You looked at Natasha's bleeding hand, furrowed brows and deep scowl. She's staring at you and Wanda.

"I'm sorry, I just..I'm gonna get cleaned up," she stammered before she untangled herself from Bruce and walking away.

You quickly jump off the bar stool. "I'll go check on her," you explained before you disappeared to the direction of the clinic. While walking the long corridor, you go over everything in your head. You have a theory but you didn’t want to assume, you need just one more proof.

***

When you arrived at the clinic some intern was prepping to check on Nat's hand. You strolled inside without so much as a warning. The intern acknowledges you, “Ms. Y/L/N.”

"You may go, I'll take it from here. Thank you," you said to the intern. He nodded before scurrying away from the clinic. You washed your hand before putting on some medical grade latex gloves. You sat on the chair in front of Natasha and begun cleaning her wound.

"Thank goodness these are shallow wounds. You wouldn't need stitches," you said. You chance a glance on her face, she still has her eyebrows scrunched together and her lips set on a deep frown.

"Thanks. I got this. You should go back to Wanda," she said quietly as she took the bandage from your hand. That's it, you thought. That's all the confirmation you need, suddenly all the faux friendliness and excessive touching with Bruce makes sense.

You stood up, pulled the latex gloves and threw it in the bin. When she finished putting bondage on her own hand, you walked back to her and grabbed her hand to inspect her work. You looked up a minute after and she's watching you.

"You know if you were so interested, all you had to do was ask," you said as you caressed her hand. She gaped at you.

"Wanda?"

"Is my friend," you answered.

"I wanna be your friend," Nat said. You stepped closer to her.

"Is that all you want, Tasha?" You husked her name out.

Nat gulped, "I want you." She's so close she can practically taste the smell of mint on your lip gloss.

"Good," you said as you pull back. "You're buying dinner tomorrow then," you continued as you step away from her. Heady from the scent of you, she struggles to make sense of what's happening.

"Natasha," you called out to her. She looked up to find you watching her by the door, she nodded before you left. You're practically skipping back to the party when you passed by Clint. He just watched you for a second before he continued towards the clinic. He found Natasha staring at the door.

"Hey, what happened?" He asked.

Nat looked up at her and grinned, "I think I got myself a date."

[ichika27]

Destruction Flag Otome

With a long title like “ Otome Game no Hametsu Flag shika Nai Akuyaku Reijou ni Tensei shiteshimatta“, manga and LN readers have been shortening it to the English title “Destruction Flag Otome” and it’s what I called it as I read the manga before the series’ announcement. The official English title for the anime series when it came out however is “ My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom! “ which is a bit more closer to the English translation of the original title. I’m just putting this out there cause I’d still be calling it DFO as everything else is too long haha

Now, to get to my thoughts...

Story:

Catarina Claes (or spelled “Katarina” if you’ve been reading the manga) is a spoiled rich little girl engaged to a prince. Her attitude and personality changed when she gets a bump on her head, went unconscious for a while and got all the memories of her past life back - memories of her being an ordinary high school student. As she also realized that, unfortunately for her, this new life of hers is basically the same as the otome game she played in her past life and that she’s been reincarnated as the game’s villainess!

Having nothing in her future but death or exile, Catarina strives to change her future and avoid all the doom flags she could or have a back up in case her life gets overthrown into chaos like the original Catarina’s from the game. Little did she know that she’d change much more than her life with her plans.

Characters:

Catarina Claes - a spoiled rich girl who remembered her past life as an oridnary student when she got a bump on her head at age 8 and realized she’s now the bad guy in a different world similar to an otome game she played before. Since then, she’s become a nicer but stranger person to everyone around her. She plans to survive to adulthood by making sure she can defend herself when the time comes or have a back up plan in case she gets exiled. She’s pretty dense and so she doesn’t notice herself turning into the heroine instead.

Geordo Stuart - the prince engaged to Catarina. Geordo is well-known for all his abilities, looks and intellect. He was supposed to fall for the heroine and kill the villainess like in the original game but due to Catarina changing into a much nicer and more interesting person, Geordo falls for her instead. He’s probably the most straightforward on the guy’s side with showing his feelings for Catarina unfortunately for him, she is really dense.

Keith Claes - Catarina’s adoptive brother. His powerful but hard to control Earth Magic became a source of grief for him as a child and was the reason he isn’t with his biological family anymore. Resigned to being alone, Catarina’s kindness towards him is what made his life happier and what got him to falling for her alone which is contrast to his otoge counterpart that became a playboy. He’s pretty overprotective and is just as frustrated as the rest for having too many rivals for his adoptive sister’s affection. Out of all the rivals, he clashes with Geordo the most.

Alan Stuart - Geordo’s twin brother whose engaged to Mary. He’s competitive but feels inferior to his more well-known and much praised sibling. He ended up competing with Catarina as a child and her support towards him made him realize and appreciate the abilities he has that’s better than his brother’s. He became friends with Catarina and has fallen for her, too although unlike everyone else, he doesn’t actually realize this (it also doesn’t help that there’s a certain someone making sure he never does).

Mary Hunt - a shy girl whose engaged to Alan. Her family situation made her quiet and unsure of herself until she met Catarina who friendship and kindness made her open up. Her love for gardening is what got the two of them to bond as she helped Catarina with her vegetable garden. She grows up to be the most proactive of all Catarina’s harem with her being straightforward like Geordo but also more possessive making sure no one else gets the lead but this doesn’t stop her from being real friends with everyone else.

Sophia Ascart - with her white hair, pale skin and red eyes, other people think badly of her or outright bully her making her quiet and nervous with only her family to depend on. That is until she met Catarina who befriends her the first time they met and told her she looked beautiful. Her love for novels is what got the two to bond. She likes Catarina as well but unlike the rest, she wished for Catarina to marry her brother Nicol instead. Unbeknownst to her and everyone else, she has something else connecting herself to Catarina.

Nicol Ascart - Sophia’s older brother who cares for her a lot. He hated how everyone else treated and viewed his sister that meeting Catarina has been a different experience for him as Catarina never berated Sophia and even complimented her. He maybe quiet and doesn’t talk much but he’s smart and good-looking that he’s very popular to a lot of people (and Catarina couldn’t deny the boy’s good looks either). He likes Catarina but doesn’t actively pursue her the same way everyone else does.

Maria Campbell - the heroine of the otome game “Fortune Lovers”. She’s kind and sweet and hard-working but it’s all overshadowed with the fact that she has the rare light magic and the rumors surrounding her. Despite the bullying and her difficult family life, Maria never gives up still gives it her all although she is lonely... until she gets saved by Catarina from bullies. Catarina’s encouragement and friendship helped her and she ends up happier and surrounded by supportive friends. She also ends up falling for Catarina instead of any of the actual love interest.

Atsuko Sasaki - Catarina’s bestfriend in her past life. Acchan has played Fortune Lovers before and has given Catarina advice, hints, and some spoilers in her past life which helps her currently as she tries to avoid her doom flags. Despite being from Catarina’s past life from Japan, Acchan slowly gains a much more important role in the story as time passes by.

Thoughts:

First of all, I was super duper excited when I heard this series is gonna have an anime version as I decided to binge read the manga online before I saw the announcement. The OP is catchy as heck and is perfect for the show! The Ed is pretty good as well. The character designs is close to how it is in other adaptations which is great! The show is colorful and bright which shows that it’s pretty lighthearted most of the time (and of course something intense happens in the end haha).

Now for the episodes... they rushed the childhood arc a lot and cut off a lot of things that isn’t part of Catarina’s harem which is sad cause the manga sort of did the same (although it retained some backstories for certain non-harem characters). It would’ve been okay but they rushed the beginning only to add filler episodes in the middle of the series. Don’t get me wrong, I liked some of the stuff they added as they gave a bit more focus of some of Catarina’s harem members but it’s still sad we never got to see focus on the other people Catarina helped and influenced (like her parent’s argument regarding Keith or the gardener who taught her and his connection to the family, etc.). They did give Anne’s backstory screentime though so that was good.

I also don’t know how to feel with them revealing early on about Acchan’s “role” in Catarina’s new life. Like, a few hints here or there is nice but they gave the entire reveal before the finale even happens. It’s not really that bad if you’ve only watched the anime but for me, personally, I liked the reveal in the manga better cause it felt more intense and dramatic. Their flashback about Acchan and in her POV was awesome but it would’ve been nice if it was shown when that reveal happened. That’s just my opinion though.

Overall, it’s pretty fun and good and where else can you find a reverse harem + yuri harem at the same time? I’m not sure if any other series tried this before but this series certainly pulled it off nicely. I don’t usually like dense harem protagonist since the romance part of the show gets nowhere but it works very well in a way for this show. Plus, we can’t really argue that they fell for her too quickly when her new life is basically in an otome game which, if you’ve played a bunch like I had, knows that it’s kinda normal? lol

A new season has been announced for next year which follows the 2nd part of the series with new characters joining in. It’s exciting cause unlike the first part, Catarina has no idea about this as she passed away before the new game for Fortune Lovers was released so the new members of her future harem would be a surprise not just for us but for her as well!

And with that, thank you for reading this far! Hope the next season would be just as fun and entertaining as this one. I know I didn’t include a certain character in the “character” section of this but I’d rather not put too many spoilers here just in case new people decide they wanna watch it. I do hope the popularity of this series starts the “reincarnated as a villainess” story trend for anime cause I’m really hoping for “Observation Log of the Fiance of the Self-proclaimed Villainess” to get it’s own anime version. That one’s pretty good, too!

Also, I ship Catarina with Acchan haha. I have since the manga reveal so the added stuff about her and the flashback with her life with Catarina was very fun (and heartbreaking) to watch. 2nd to that are Keith and Alan who got some sweet moments with her. I do ship her with everyone else and wishes she could gain the harem ending though haha.