#it ticks every box except for the coffin

[awordwasthebeginning]

Unfortunately yes, and not just because the MC’s name is Zoey.

A Four Letter Word chapters 6 & 7

Click to see the rest of the snark & image descriptions

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[p-artsypants]

The Ghost of Smokey Joe (7)

Till Then

Adrien Agreste was acting bizarre. Stilted body language, plastic smile, and he seemed to have forgotten how close they were. Before she can get the truth out of him, Marinette finds herself as the sole heir to the Gabriel brand and the mansion, following the murder-suicide of both Adrien and Gabriel Agreste. The mystery continues as Tikki explains that Adrien was Chat Noir...but if Adrien is six feet under, why is Chat Noir still running around?

Well, it’s spooky season! You know what that means? OH BOY SPOOKFEST!!!

FF.net | Ao3 

--

This investigation was not going well. 

First of all, she hadn’t attended the funeral. Perhaps she should have, to keep up appearances, but she couldn’t stomach sitting through the service while knowing there were no bodies in the caskets. 

It was wrong. 

She gave poor excuses to Alya and Nino, and skipped it. Maybe if she had gone, she could have learned more, but she couldn’t. She just couldn’t stand it. 

Later that evening, Ladybug made a visit to the cemetery where the family crypt was. She allowed Tikki to do the actual investigating. She phased into the dirt of the freshly buried, unmarked grave, and concurred, it was the same coffin from before, with only sandbags inside. 

Gabriel’s too, over at the crypt. 

“Not much else to glean from this place,” Tikki said sadly. “Where to next?” 

“Actually,” Marinette wondered. “I have a hunch. Could you check Emilie’s casket too? She’s been dead for a while, so I apologize if what you see is…awful.” 

“I’ve seen worse. I’ll take a look!” 

Marinette waited anxiously, biting into her thumb nail. She really hoped she was wrong. Really really hoped. 

Tikki reappeared, her brow furrowed in concern. “You’re hunch was right. Emilie’s is just sandbags too.” 

She groaned, dread bleeding into her bones. “Damn it.”

“Maybe they’re all together?” 

“At this point, I don’t know if I should even hope for that. Emilie has been gone for years. Wherever she is…I doubt we’ll ever find her, let alone Adrien and Plagg.” 

“We’re not giving up though, right?”

“Of course not!” 

Marinette knew she had a chance of answers at the funeral home. The director knew more than he was letting on, but she had asked too many questions as Marinette, and going in to interrogate him as Ladybug would probably put her identity in jeopardy. She’d have to think on that one, and try to find a way around it. 

Now for the ‘basement’.

Till then, my darling, please wait for me

Till then, no matter when it will be

Someday I know I'll be back again

Please wait till then

Since Felix had confirmed that the Mansion didn’t have a basement, she assumed the office building did. Nowhere else did Gabriel or Adrien spend a significant amount of time. 

While the workers were still on their vacation, she went in. There was still a secretary, though she was dressed in casual clothes, and the doors were closed to the public. 

“Hi Miss Dupain-Cheng. Working today?”

“Um, something like that. Organizing some stuff.” 

“Alright, well, let me know if you need anything. I’m just here to tell clients that we’re off for a while.”

Marinette smiled. “Thank you. Um...perhaps, do you know if there’s a basement?”

“Basement? Uh...there might be one. I’m not sure. The main elevator doesn’t go there.”

“Alright. I’ll look around then,” she smiled patiently and bid the woman adieu. 

The building was unsettling without anyone in it. Half the lights were turned down, and the only sounds were the hum of the air conditioning and her footsteps echoing in the dim hallways. 

Several years ago, when she had first started, she was given a tour. A tour that seemed so unimportant then, she was scraping for now. There was a back staircase, in case of fire. That much she could remember. 

The big iron door slammed shut behind her as she entered the stairs. There was a door with an Exit sign over it, the outside world on the other side. A set of stairs went up and around, to every floor above. 

But there was one more door. Labelled with a big ‘SS’ for ‘Sous-sol’. 

‘Basement’, in French.   

“Tikki! I found it!” She said to her purse. 

“Great job! Let’s get to the bottom of things!” 

Marinette screwed up her lips. “Pun intended?”

“In memory of Chat Noir, yes.” 

“That is what he would have said, isn’t it? God, I miss him so much.” But she decided not to mourn her best friend in the dank, spider-infested stairwell. 

Of course, the door was locked. 

“Nothing is ever simple, is it? I wonder who would have the key. Janitor? Maybe Gabriel has a set in his old office.” 

“Aren’t you forgetting your ultimate skeleton key?” Tikki asked. 

“...um, yes, apparently.” 

Tikki flew from the purse, and phased through the door handle. It clicked a moment later, and the handle turned. 

“Wow, you’re convenient. Remind me to ask for favors in breaking and entering more often.” 

“Anything for you, Marinette!” 

She felt along the wall, found a lightswitch, and turned it on. Deep below, a few scant lights flickered to life. 

And in the columns of flickering light stood silhouetted figures. Still, waiting. 

Marinette held her breath, afraid she had been caught. 

“Tikki…” She readied herself to transform the moment they moved. She was still in the dark, they wouldn’t have seen her. 

Seconds ticked on. They stood, never flinching, never so much as breathing. 

“Oh my god, they’re mannequins,” she breathed. “I mean, duh but holy shit that was terrifying.” 

She descended the stairs, one at a time, still being quiet, and keeping her eyes glued to the forms. 

They didn’t move, because they were plastic, and as she drew closer to them, she realized how fake they were. 

They weren’t even good mannequins. The paint was chipping and the proportions looked odd. 

“These go in shop windows, right?” Asked Tikki. “I’ve seen a few from your purse.” 

“That’s right. These look really old. I’m surprised they haven’t been recycled.” 

“Is this what Adrien wanted you to see?”

“I doubt it. What would mannequins have to do with anything?”

Tikki shrugged too, and looked around.     

It was the worst three hours of her life. 

But because Adrien had used what was presumably his dying words to tell her to look here, she scoped that place out thoroughly. She named all the mannequins, to try to take the edge off. It didn’t really help, but it made ‘James’ the eerily realistic mannequin that stood in the shadows a little more friendly instead of a murderer in waiting. 

There was nothing there except old clothes, rejected materials, and a whole lot of new friends that Marinette never wanted to see again. 

As Marinette pushed aside the 9th box filled with 70’s paisley shirts, she sighed. “I think...I think I’m looking in the wrong place.” 

“I agree,” Tikki said, her antenna drooping. “I think we should have found something by now, right?” 

“I couldn’t even find any inspiration down here.” 

In the corner of her eye, she saw something, and turned quickly. 

“What?” Said Tikki wearily, already knowing what was wrong. 

“Another freaking mannequin! I swear they’re moving when I’m not looking at them!” 

“They can’t do that.” 

“I know that, but my eyes are tired and my heart is on the edge, and coffee isn’t working on my brain anymore!” 

“I think we should leave then. Maybe try looking at the mansion again. Maybe there’s a basement that Felix didn’t know about.”

At that moment, her phone chirped with a message from Nathalie. 

Please don’t forget, tomorrow, despite it being Saturday, your presence is required at the Agreste Manor. Gabriel’s Last Will and Testament will be reviewed, and you have been named. Since Mr. Agreste is so famous, we have asked all beneficiaries to attend. Sunday, you have off.

“Well, looks like I have an excuse to go back to the mansion after all. Probably should get in there and explore quickly. I have no idea what’s going to happen to it in the wake of...well, you know.” 

“Someone is probably going to inherit it. Probably Felix now. He seemed rather friendly at the funeral. He might let you snoop.”

“Friendly?” 

“More than usual, at least. But who knows how long that will last.” 

“If I have to show my cards to investigate, I will. If Ladybug has to break in, I will. I’m not going down in silence.”

 Our dreams will live though we are apart

Our love I know we'll keep in our hearts

Till then, when all the world will be free

Please wait for me

True to form, she arrived the next day at the mansion. 

As she came into the parlor, where many people were gathered, Felix caught her eye. He jerked his head, gesturing for her to come sit by him. 

As she sat, she looked at the others gathered. She recognized Nathalie, of course, Amelie and Felix, and Mayor Bourgeois. There were a few other people she didn’t know. One she had seen at the company, but she couldn’t remember his name right now. 

“So,” she asked softly. “Is the lawyer going to read the Will out?” 

Felix scoffed. “They don’t do that anymore. We’re just all going to get a copy, and the lawyer will be here if we have questions. Normally, I’m pretty sure they mail it, but I heard that the Will is sealed so they wanted us to get it in person.” 

“Sealed?” 

“Meaning no one else can read it. Last Wills and Testaments are public records after death. Unless they are sealed.” 

“Uh. I didn’t know any of that. This is my first time being in a Will. Well, I think my dad has one, but he’s still alive.” 

“Good for you.” 

“That is—I mean—I wasn’t trying to—“ 

“Just shut up, Dupain-Cheng.” He chuckled. “You are so sensitive.” 

She just childishly stuck her tongue out at him. 

A moment later, Nathalie and a white haired gentleman arrived. 

“Hello everyone, thank you for coming. This is Dr. Nathaniel Grey, the Agreste family lawyer and executor of their estate. Now, everyone listed in the Will will receive a copy. Each copy has the same content, but for convenience, I have highlighted your name.” And she started to hand out the packets, calling out names as she did so.

Some of the strangers had the last name ‘Agreste’ so they had to have been related to Gabriel. 

“Marinette Dupain-Cheng.” 

Marinette held out her hand to receive the thick white envelope. 

“Oh Felix!” Amelie cooed. “Emilie left you her corvette! She loved that car, I know she’d be proud for you to have it.” 

“I’ve seen it. Beautiful classic car. I’m honored.” As much of an ass as he was, Felix sounded genuine in that sentiment. 

To not seem too eager, Marinette carefully opened the envelope. As she did, she tried to imagine what he would have left her. A share in the company maybe? Maybe a family sewing machine? Nothing much, surely.

She unfurled the sheet and wow that was a lot of pink. 

“What the hell?” Felix gasped, looking over her shoulder. He glanced back at his page, and frowned in confusion. “No offense Marinette, but what the hell?”

“I…I don’t even know…” She glanced over the assets willed to her. 

Gabriel left her the mansion.

Up until that moment, she had forgotten she was supposed to be looking for a new place after Nino and Alya got married. She had mentioned it to Gabriel once, off-handed, and he seemed to not really care. 

But if he left the house to her, could he have cared more than she thought? 

The mansion wasn’t the only thing he left to her, either. He left his share of the company stocks, as well as trusts and bonds. Marinette had become a multi-millionaire. 

“What’s the meaning of this, Dr. Grey!?” A woman shouted. 

The shout drew all attention to her. She was a rail thin, tall woman, with high cheek bones and blonde-white hair tied up in a bun. 

“What seems to be the problem, Madam Laurent?”

“I was left a small fraction of stock and my mother’s ashes, but this—this half breed harlot gets the entire estate!?” 

Marinette flinched, feeling guilty and wholly undeserving of Mr. Agreste’s gift. 

Thankfully, Nathalie of all people came to her aid. “Miss Dupain-Cheng has been working tirelessly and closely with Gabriel to continue his brand. She’s been named head designer for his company, and everything left to her is to help in that endeavor.”

As she and Felix looked over the list of gifts, she wondered how true that was. 

“But I’m his sister!” Said Madam Laurent. “I take precedence over her!”

“Not with a will, you don’t.” Dr. Grey explained. “Children are the only protected heirs in French law. The rest of his estate is his to do with as he pleases.” 

Marinette looked back at all the pink highlights. She began to wonder if they served a purpose in distracting everyone from the obvious. 

Adrien wasn’t on there. Not once. 

Although there are oceans we must cross

And mountains that we must climb

I know every gain must have a loss,

So pray that our loss is nothing but time

He couldn’t be disinherited from the Will, not under French law. And yet he was missing…like the Will had been drawn up with the knowledge that Adrien wouldn’t be alive once it was valid. 

Pale and shaking, Marinette turned to look at Felix. 

“Don’t let her get to you, Kid,” he nudged her, taking her appearance for still being put off by the woman. “Gabriel’s family has always been lower middle class, before he became famous. She probably just wanted a bunch of money…whereas most of it was my Aunt’s and it was returned to our family. Does that make sense?”

Marinette shook her head, and then whispered. “Adrien isn’t here.” 

He gave her a soft smile. “Yeah, I know. He’s gone, Marinette.” 

“No!” She shouted, then hushed herself as the others turned to look. “No, I mean…he’s not here.” She pointed at the Will.

Felix grew pale too, and poured over the Will himself. “No way…how…but—maybe it was an assumption. Maybe it was assumed that Adrien was going to inherit half anyway, so he made the Will in case something happened?” 

“Dr. Grey,” Marinette stood and walked to him. “How old is this version of the Will?” 

Nathalie gave her a sharp look, but didn’t comment. 

“Well, a little over a week, actually. Gabriel called me and asked to make some changes.” 

“And why isn’t his son in here?” She asked, darkly. 

Dr. Grey screwed up his lips. “You know, I don’t know. I told Mr. Agreste what the law was, and he said, ‘just write it up as if Adrien didn’t exist.’ I wonder if he knew what their fate was going to be.” 

Marinette tried not to cry. She really did, but she just clenched the document to her chest and sobbed. 

“Now now, my dear. Don’t be so blue.”

“Adrien isn’t a murderer! He can’t be!” 

“Does it really matter anymore?” The lawyer asked. “The truth of their demise will not be released publicly. Only a handful of people will know. I doubt anyone outside of this room, in fact.” He said it so casually, like nothing was wrong. 

“Didn’t you find it suspicious?” She demanded. 

“No,” said Dr. Grey. “You would be surprised at how many clients have second versions of Wills without a child in it. Whether it’s because they’re hoping something will happen, or they see their child going down a dangerous road. Or perhaps the child is terminally ill and the parent doubts they will survive longer than them. Regardless of the reason, I choose to not ask questions.” 

Marinette wished he had. 

Till then, let's dream of what there will be

Till then, we'll call on each memory

Till then, when I will hold you again

Please wait till then

“Now, did you see the conditions?”

“What?” She sniffed. 

“Here,” Dr. Grey pointed to an asterisk at the end of the mansion item. “This states that there’s a condition applied, and the condition will be on the backside.” 

Marinette wiped her face and turned the paper over. 

“Miss Dupain-Cheng must reside within the mansion for ten years. Within that time, she may not redecorate or refurnish any room except for the ‘pink room’. Guests, spouses, and children are welcomed to join her, as long as she is the primary resident. If she is to go on vacation or an extended business trip, the house must be vacant, save for those who would keep it from disrepair. If Miss Dupain-Cheng fails to comply, the house, and all that is in it, must be demolished. It cannot be sold or gifted to anyone until the ten year mark passes.” 

Marinette just continued to stare. “I…that’s…really specific.” 

“More specific than I suggested, but it’s what Mr. Agreste wanted.” 

With a calm expression, but a heart in turmoil, Marinette folded her copy up. “Thank you for your help, Dr. Grey. If you’ll excuse me, I need a minute alone.” She took her copy and quickly walked across the lobby to her office. 

There, on her desk, was a vase with a bouquet of roses. She hadn’t been in here since before the funeral, but they looked fresh. No card though. 

She set the roses to the side, and unfurled the Will once again, laying it flat on the desktop. She poured over every item, not just Willed to her, but to everyone. 

Indeed, there was no sign of Adrien, but also no sign of his property. Did he have his own Will somewhere else?

There was the curious case of Nathalie, who was in the Will, but received only money and trusts. Not an inch of material property, despite her closeness to Gabriel after all these years. 

What did she know? What had she seen? Truthfully, Marinette was too afraid to ask. 

Tomorrow, she would visit City Hall and get the records of the mansion. Hopefully, there were some blueprints in there, and the hidden basement would be found.

Till then, let's dream of what there will be

Till then, we'll call on each memory

Till then, when I will hold you again

Please wait till then

[translations-by-aiimee]

Dig a Grave to Dig Out a Ghost - Chapter 3

Original Title: 挖坟挖出鬼

Genres: Drama, Horror, Mystery, Supernatural, Yaoi

This translation is based on multiple MTLs and my own limited knowledge of Chinese characters. If I have made any egregious mistakes, please let me know.

Chapter 1 Chapter 2

Chapter 3 - Mortuary

There were always one or two friends in your life who you're never afraid will scold you or hang up on you in the early morning hours, even if the reason is because you had a nightmare about potatoes in your home growing lots of hair. Yin Zhou was this person to Lin Yan. He had two long strands of messy hair on his head, always wore unwashed shirts, and the eyes under his glasses could never focus because of how long he had spent gaming.

They grew up in the same neighbourhood, attended the same elementary school, middle school and high school, and they were each that "brilliant other child" in the eyes of both their parents. Since childhood, Lin Yan, regardless of how hard he worked, achieved the high grades that Yin Zhou could have achieved if he didn't skip class every day. No matter how good his grades were, his parents would praise Lin Yan for his diligent and hard work. After the college entrance exam, the two drank a glass of wine as a farewell and celebrated them parting ways. Unexpectedly, Yin Zhou missed half a page of questions while writing the math papers, but he still went to the same university as Lin Yan, so almost two. So the friendship continued with the constant cycle of loving and hating each other.

Later, they were divided by their majors. Yin Zhou studied electronics and Lin Yan studied history. From then on, there was little crossover with the two majors. Without the pressure of competition, the two of them became much closer, playing games, flirting with girls, talking about politics; there was no end to their activities.

The 'regular place' referred to the bar.

When Lin Yan walked in, he saw Yin Zhou shooting his shot with a girl at the bar unsuccessfully. Lin Yan called his name several times before he turned around. Yin Zhou opened a bottle of beer and his eyes widened: " Yo, you weren't responding to any of my calls or texts. Were you on a date?"

Lin Yan drank half the bottle in single breath, and said calmly, "I've got lost and was going around in circles."

"Got lost?!" Yin Zhou stared at him for a long time. Seeing that Lin Yan wasn't joking, he couldn't help but smile and said, "Are you feeling alright? If you're feeling sick, let this brother take you to the hospital."

Lin Yan was in a weird mood because of all the strange events that had happened. Now, his voice wasn't very strong either. He simply put down the beer bottle, put his hands on the table, raised his voice and shouted into Yin Zhou's ears: "I! Saw! A! Ghost!!"

His voice was so loud that most of the people at the bar heard him. They turned to look at him like he was crazy.

Yin Zhou hid his face behind his hand and muttered about how embarrassing it was. After thinking about it, he raised his head and said with a dazed expression: "Was it a female ghost? Was it pretty?"

Lin Yan was at a loss for words and the muscles on his face twitched.

Then Lin Yan explained all the night's occurrences to Yin Zhou in extreme detail, but he started regretting it halfway through. Yin Zhou obviously was eating it up, and a pair of unfocused eyes were shining with an excitement that couldn't be matched in ten thousand years. He rubbed his hands together and stammered when he heard the section of the figure under the street light: "This is too unscientific, or maybe it's too scientific. I'll apply to use one of the labs tomorrow, maybe I can figure this out!"

Lin Yan wanted to smash the beer bottle on his head.

"You seem busy, I'll head out first."

Yin Zhou caught him before he walked away and scratched his head: "Alright, alright. I'm just kidding. Have a drink first and we can go back to my place afterwards."

"Let's be optimistic. If that thing is a guy, then you've got to get rid of him immediately. If it's a woman, then she should definitely get down on her knees to see what is under your jeans."

Lin Yan was actually very grateful to him when he drove Yin Zhou all the way to his house. He thought that unreliable people would have unreliable benefits. No matter how weird things were, he would really listen to them, but he immediately regretted it once they reached his apartment. The reason was simple: Yin Zhou's room was dirty and no living person would ever be found in this room.

The sight that Lin Yan was faced with when he stepped in the door made him scream inside. It's better to go home and be scared to death by ghosts. God only knows how he lives like this. It was a 10-square metre rental with rubbish and clothes littering the floor. There were mountains of instant noodle boxes on the table. Some of them were being used as ashtrays and there were cigarette butts floating in the murky soup. He had no idea how long they were left there, but they were exuded a rancid smell.

The laptop was thrown on the bed, and there was a line of characters moving across the screen. Yin Zhou rushed to take a look, and groaned: "It's been going on repeatedly. The program has to be changed." After he was done talking, he didn't pay any more attention to Lin Yan. He leaned against the headboard, flipping through his notebook and clicked to stop debugging, tapping on his keyboard with his long fingers.

"There is food in the cupboard. If you get hungry, grab something to eat."

Lin Yan opened the cabinet and inspected Yin Zhou’s selection. Various brands of instant noodles, rice vermicelli, pickled mustard greens, a large number of ham sausages that were about to expire. . . If this guy croaks one day, the number of preservatives in him would help him survive for at least thirty more years. If ancient people had eaten things like this, it could've saved conservation historians so much time.

"Do you have any clean clothes? Mine are soaked from the rain. Could you lend me some dry clothes first."

"There's some on the ground. Grab those."

After feeling Lin Yan's murderous glare, Yin Zhou reluctantly got up and slowly opened the wicker basket at the foot of his bed: "Yes, yes, my mother comes to wash my clothes once a week, and the clean ones are here."

After speaking, he threw him a graphic t-shirt.

"You earn so much from your projects yet you live in such a shabby place. You don't even own a washing machine, and that quality of life is catching up with you. Aren't you afraid that your arrogant old man won't give you money to marry a wife in the future? Lin Yan took off his shirt, stretched the t-shirt over his head and put it on. With the shirt over his head, he asked in a muffled voice: "Help me find a pair of pants."

Yin Zhou threw his hands up and said with disdain: "You're being so picky. A person uses so much stuff when they are alive but when they're dead, they only need a coffin. Why are you being so particular about this?" After finishing speaking, Yu Guang looked at Lin Yan with a smirk. : "Xiao Linzi's figure is good, the fitness card is not for nothing."

He glanced at Lin Yan with his peripheral vision and gave a sly smirk: "Little Brother Lin is in good shape, your gym membership wasn't bought in vain."

"Don't you dare call me Little Brother Lin, I'll show you want a real man is!" Lin Yan picked up the electric kettle that was thrown by the bed, wiped off the ashes, and smacked his lips.

Lin Yan picked up the electric kettle that was thrown near the bed, wiped off a handful of cigarette ashes, and smacked his lips.

"Disgusting."

Yin Zhou ignored him and spoke to himself as he flipped through his suitcase. "I remember I had a pair of new jeans, where are they going. . . Huh? What's this? Did my mother leave her clothes in here?"

This was. . .

The body was made of red satin, black lining, with loose sleeves that hung down, and there was heavy embroidery around the wrists. Yin Zhou shook it out curiously. Just as he was about to hold it up to compare it to his body, Lin Yan cried out: "Put that down, don't touch it!"

Looking at Lin Yan's pale face, Yin Zhou also noticed that something was wrong, so he threw the red clothes on the bed.

"These are mortuary clothes. It's for the dead." Lin Yan said weakly.

Yin Zhou's face also changed.

"This thing doesn't belong here."

Yin Zhou looked around his room, as if to relieve the nervous atmosphere, he laughed twice: "Is it wrong? How about I call my mother and ask if she left it."

Yin Zhou looked around his room. Trying to break the tense atmosphere, he laughed twice: "Was this a mistake? How about I call my mother and ask if she put it in here?"

Lin Yan looked at the clothes and said dejectedly: "No need, I believe you."

He was getting angry, thinking that this thing was trying to provoke him no matter what, and now it was involving his friend. He was clearly trying to get a reaction out of him.

For a while, both of them were speechless. The room was silent except for the ticking of the clock on the wall.

Under the light of the bright light, the red clothes were laid straight out on the bed like paper. Despite its bright colour, it was gloomy and had a terrifying appearance. The ancient style and the luxurious fabrics exuded such a cold atmosphere that it was like the sun had never touched it.

Ten minutes later.

Lin Yan picked up the car key on the table. He sighed and said to Yin Zhou: "I'm going back home. This thing is coming after me, staying here will only hurt you."

Yin Zhou spat out: "Don't give me that bullshit. It would be stupid to go back by yourself, just stay here."

What Lin Yan wanted to say was interrupted by Yin Zhou: "We're close enough that you're wearing my pants. Won't I be the one that will have to explain what happened to your parents if there's an accident? Don't mess with me. We'll talk about this in the morning."

After talking, yin Zhou searched under the bed for a while. He found another notebook and handed it to Lin Yan: "Do you think a ghost would be able to scare us to death? Hurry up, let's get some kills on Dota!"

Lin Yan was silent for a while, opened his notebook, and said with a smile: "You asked for it, I won't go easy on you!"

The light flickered and dimmed, and the room became more and more gloomy. Lin Yan knew instinctively that something was staring at him somewhere in the room. Maybe it had a pale face, wrapped in a red mortuary, and said sorrowfully: Your death is approaching.

This must be the weirdest night in his 22 years of life, Lin Yan thought. Once the sky begins to get bright, things will be over by dawn.

The red mortuary was like a long, stiff corpse lying on the bed, the sleeves folded across the front as if to remind him that this was only the beginning.

[trompe-la-mort]

Los miserables, 1971 – “Holy Hugo, they included ‘insert rare scene here’!”

Wrote this a while ago and realised I never posted it. So here goes.

Do you have a favourite obscure scene or detail in Les misérables that hardly ever makes the cut in screen adaptations? If you do, this might just be the adaptation for you. If you want to see an adaptation that tells the story well, however, this is not for you.

It's a nineteen-part (coincidence? I think not...) TV adaptation by the Spanish channel RTVE within its show “Novela”, a show of multiple literature adaptations that ran for fifteen years in total!

And the best part: You can see it all online on RTVE's webpage: http://www.rtve.es/alacarta/videos/los-miserables/

You can skip all episodes with mod 5 = 1 (except the first one), those are the episodes originally shown on Mondays, recapping what happened last week.

Like the Italian TV adaptation, this is unfortunately hindered by its budget. Unlike the Italian TV adaptation, this has the additional problem of its screenwriter's frankly bizarre understanding of concepts such as “pacing” and “importance”.

Now, don't get me wrong, I think it's rather cool to have an adaptation that includes many of the more obscure scenes, but I know the book and I know the context for all of these. I think asking how much sense the plot actually makes to someone who only knows this adaptation is a legitimate question.

Time is “wasted” on montages, dream-sequences and scenes of characters tossing and turning in bed, all of them many times longer than they have any right to be. Partially, it feels like the screenwriter couldn't decide which plot details to include and then just tried to incorporate as many of them as possible – continuity be damned. As an example, he took the time to include Mabeuf's death at the barricade, but it doesn't mean anything, since it happens to a character we have never seen before. Because Mabeuf's entire background is missing. To top it off, the watching students call him “le conventionel”, probably just to tick another box on the check list. To get another time saver, “show, don't tell” is occasionally blatantly violated. We get Valjean's entire history from him telling his life story to the bishop. The backstory of Marius and Gillenormand is conveyed in their fight before Marius leaves, meaning all the info is solely for the benefit of the audience, because all characters involved already know this stuff. Yet, bizarrely, they occasionally have time for a “show” where none would have been necessary. We get a far too long montage of Fantine with Cosette in Paris, that includes Fantine getting fired from her old job. Honestly, you can cover the question of why Fantine leaves Paris with a single line – you know, like it's done in the original?

I wouldn't usually mind, but it not only messes up the pacing, but it also takes up time that could have been used to flesh out some of the details. Or even some of the main plot points. We have Marius letting Thénardier go at the end, but Marius doesn't owe him a debt in this one. It might have made the Gorbeau robbery easier, but at the end, Marius has no real reason to not call the police. That is, if Thénardier is even a prison escapee. It's never shown nor mentioned how he got out of prison after the Gorbeau house robbery. On a smaller scale, it leads to a few bizarre moments, where introductions or transitions are missing, as if someone was trying to cut the corners wherever possible. For example, one episode starts with Marius' and Gillenormand's fight, without any introduction to their conflict or any real introduction of the characters (apart from Marius being the cute boy from the park). Or take the Champmathieu trial. The prosecutor asks for the witnesses to be heard and the very next moment, the judge is already questioning Brevet. No scene of the witnesses entering the room or at least the camera pointing out that they've been there all the time (because I definitely missed that in the overhead shots of the fairly small courtroom set); no scene of the judge calling the first witness, which becomes even worse when he does it to every subsequent witness.

Between this kind of overly short editing and long, drawn-out scenes of Marius healing (which commits the additional cardinal sin of making us think that it's finally over with a short conversation, only to continue for another minute or so) or of Fantine tossing on her bed (which we only later realise is prossibly Cosette's birth!), it feels a bit like there were too many people involved and no two of them could disagree over the tone and style of this adaptation.

I have another, if slightly petty, complaint: Why do the opening credits contain pictures of scenes we never get to see? It makes it pretty hard to identify which actor played which character and it also made it look they would include scenes that end up not being there. From the credits, you could be forgiven for thinking that there are scenes in Toulon, that Valjean's sister shows up or that they include the scene where Éponine stops Patron-Minette from robbing the house in the Rue Plumet. None of these actually happen.

Just to finish my list of complaints about this adaptation, let me talk about Javert. Now, I like the basic idea of what they did with the character, if only because it is the opposite to what most other adaptations do. In many adaptations, Javert is portrayed as a far more villainous character than in the book. These guys went the opposite way. Javert is calm and polite most of the time (making his one outburst when he arrests Valjean even more meaningful) and in one scene seems concerned about Fantine's safety (while she's still employed at Madeleine's factory that is), when he meets her in a disreputable part of town after dark and insists on accompanying her to her destination. Yes, it's later made clear that he still uses this to find out what she was doing there in the first place and this is what kicks off the chain of events leading to Mme Victurnien finding out about Cosette, but the two scenes taken together imply that Javert is both caring about the safety of an innocent civilian and spying on said civilian, just in case they're not as innocent as they seem to be. If they had done it like this throughout the movie I wouldn't be complaining.

Yet, it also means they had Javert come up to Madeleine, stating that he is happy to be the first to congratulate him about his appointment as mayor. It makes Javert's later resentment of Madeleine seem quite petty. Or the end of the “Confrontation”, where Javert, rather than leading Valjean out  of the room, just makes a hand gesture to ask him to step out. Which again could have worked, but then he would have had to stay polite for all of the scene. Which he didn’t. They also decided not to stick to it for the entirety of the series. The portrayal of Javert in the later parts is more “traditional”, so to speak.

The acting is solid, for the most part, but hardly ever outstanding, although I’m likely not the best judge. Valjean's acting is fairly, occasionally too, subtle and he's a bit too calm for my taste in his entire encounter with the bishop. The actor, Pepe Calvo, is better known for his work in spaghetti western movies and I've by now realised that the reason he seemed familiar to me from the beginning is because of the western “Dead Men Ride” which I saw as a child, in which he plays a Myriel-like character of all things. I've described my thoughts on Javert, but I think that is due to decisions by the director and the scriptwriter, not the actor. Fantine has an annoying tendency to overact, especially in the later parts of her appearance. Cosette, fortunately not played by the same actress, is a bit boring. Little Cosette, however, does outstanding work for a child actress. Both Thénardiers are decent; they went the “Mme Thénardier needs to look sufficiently trustworthy for Fantine to leave her child with her”-route and she doesn't quite manage to be as scary as she should be. Everybody else is rather unremarkable.

Oh, and while we're at it: If you cast as Cosette an actress who actually looks like a teenager and as Marius an actor who might be in his early thirties, you need to specify that Marius is only a few years older than Cosette. Please!

But now to what I like about this adaptation: It's occasionally insane attention to details.

I've complained about the over-abundance of dream-sequences, but some of them really work. Showing one of Cosette's daydreams explains her life, character and dreams much better than any number of “real” scenes could have. Even more awesome is the inclusion of Valjean's dream before the Champmathieu trial. I mean, “Tempête sous un crâne” is usually going to be a weird scene anyway, you might just replace it with a weird dream while you're at it. Also, holy shit, they included Valjean's dream! That's a definite first.

Here's a list of further uncommon scenes this movie has: -Valjean steals Petit-Gervais's coin, although he does it before meeting the bishop -The bishop gets some exposition. It's only done in two conversations with his sister and Mme Magloire, but it's there -The scene of Tholomyès and Co. dumping the girls -A meeting of the Amis verbatim from the book -Gillenormand believes Marius to be dead and faints when Marius opens his eyes.

And here's a list of crazily uncommon scenes this movie has: -Fantine's meeting with the Thénardiers includes the girls using a cart chain as a swing -Details about work in the jet factory -Fantine thinks she hears Cosette outside the hospital -Cosette lying about watering the guest's horse -The coffin-escape! In full, glorious length and details. -Javert has a letter from the prefect in his pocket -Marius' note to identify his corpse -Escaping from the barricade in National Guard uniforms (although Valjean doesn't put in the one he is currently wearing) -Valjean writes the letter explaining to Cosette the origins of his fortune

Also, the ending is really well done. I really recommend you watch it for yourself, I don't think describing it can do it justice.

Generally, avoid this for a first look at Les Mis, but for a fan this is an interesting adaptation to watch and I suggest you give at least some parts a look, if only for the novelty.

[lazywriter7]

on your left

This one’s dedicated to @suitofhumour , who often inflicts angst on people with a cheerful gusto I’ve always admired. I get the feeling that you’ve also often bemoaned the lack of SamSteve brotp content in the world, and so I have delivered... angstily.

warnings: canon death and grieving

The sunrise peeked through the darkened blinds, casting light-slivers high up on the wall opposite the window.

Lying in his bed, Steve watched the slivers grow – lengthen across the plaster as the minutes ticked by and the sun got higher and stronger in the sky outside. There was no other movement in the room: the temperature-controlled air perfectly still, the blinds hanging straight and undisturbed, even his own chest barely rising and falling with his breaths. His eyes burned from the watching, but he didn’t blink; the spots in his vision and the white-bright patches on the wall mingling together indelibly.

(Click to keep reading)

He didn’t remember the last time he’d been indoors when the sun came up. Dawn after dawn, his feet had pounded down along sidewalks, and gravel lanes, and dirt-packed running tracks. Sprinting up and down the Watergate Steps, the Potomac’s waters tinted pink by the lightening sky; weaving through the golden streets of Birnin Zana, trains whizzing overhead even at four am. It was familiar and addictive. The bunch and release of the muscles in his legs, lungs expanding and contracting in his chest, oxygen rushing in and the world brightening minute by minute. Running at the horizon, full tilt, as the streets stripped by and one day tipped into the next.

The slivers of light, unchecked by the blinds, had reached the middle of the wall now – about halfway up from the floor. Steve curled his toes in. Something itched at the balls of his feet, tension coiled in the forced stillness of his limbs.

He didn’t remember the last time he’d been indoors when the sun came up. Except today. And the day before that, and the day before that. And all the days since that one day – one morning when the world woke up different.

Halved.

 “Your bed, it's too soft. When I was over there I'd sleep on the ground and use rock for pillows, like a caveman. Now I'm home, lying in my bed, and it's like...”

“Lying on a marshmallow. Feel like I'm gonna sink right to the floor.”

 Steve turned on his side, and closed his eyes.

 ~

 The next day was worse.

He did not sleep, which wasn’t out of the ordinary. He stayed still in bed, watching cracks in the ceiling, arms and legs perfectly parallel to the sides of the bed. Like being locked in a coffin of his making.

He jerked out of bed at three thirty, and went down to the gym in his sleeping pants. He punched out bags till his bare feet were caked and crackling with spilled sand, the split seams and torn remains of the bags heaped on the floor where they fell, or were absently kicked out of the way. No one was there to raise a judging eyebrow – the place was absolutely desolate. He hadn’t exercised alone, in a gym facility empty of Dora Milaje or SHIELD agents or Avengers since… since the first time he’d been out of the ice.

The bag still strung up was swinging around noisily – Steve stilled it with his hands, split knuckles stinging with the motion. He rested his forehead on the cool canvas.

Maybe this is how it would’ve been, if he’d never driven the Valkyrie into the ice. All this time, his fantasies of post-war peace had fixated on Peggy, on dance halls filled to the brim with celebrating people, on growing old with friends. But war didn’t only live in the fighting of it – it lived on in bombed out streets, in neighbourhoods that weren’t half as populated, in closed businesses and families that would always have empty spots at the table. It lived on in fear: of more enemies, of the next war, in crueller weapons and larger stockpiles, until entire cities were wiped off the face of the planet in the name of peace.

Maybe the ice had done him a favour. Maybe he’d been the lucky one who got to skip over the aftermath.

 “What unit you with?”

“58, Pararescue. But now I'm working down at the VA.”

 When he came up to his room, after a brief, scouring shower – his closet door was cracked open by an inch, the sleeve of a shirt caught in the hinge. He extricated it roughly, a too-firm tug causing a button to go flying off. It pinged and landed somewhere in the darkness of the closet floor, obscured by the line of running shoes set neatly along the back.

The first two or three were forty-dollar pairs, black or white with a plasticky gloss. It got better as one moved down to the right – flex grooves and EVA cushioning, a couple foam soles here and there. The furthest one, shoved right into the corner, was a brand new pair still in the box. Nike Zoom Pegasus Turbo, in a peat-grey colour scheme. Steve remembered researching it carefully, and ordering a pair under a false ID.

He’d never gotten around to wrapping it. Christmas had been so far away, and at the time with everything else going on, it’d seemed like the least of his priorities.

He’d probably have included a card, along with the gift. A little something to make up for all the pairs you left behind in your flat stateside. Then, in a postscript – thanks for always having my back.

Steve closed the closet door, the tiny click resounding in the silence.

 ~

The day after that, he went to the common area to sit with Nat.

Nat sat with folded knees and elbows on the couch, dulled and pallid strands of hair swinging to the fore of her face. She had a laptop open on her thighs, fingers tapping across the keys too fast to sometimes follow. Her lips flickered minutely, chapped and dry, mouthing along to whatever she was bringing up on the screen – a tell there was no longer any point hiding.

The cushions dipped as he lowered himself down next to her. Her eyes didn’t lift from the screen. Steve squeezed her gently by the shoulder; she pressed back into the touch.

You’re still here.

He didn’t ask for any updates – Nat would’ve told him if there had been any developments. She’d been working on this for weeks. Ever since it’d been reported that Cooper and Lila Barton were among the many registered as ‘long-term absent’ in their school’s attendance records. Laura had stopped turning up for local garage sales. The farmhouse was deserted, the upstairs crib empty. It all pointed to the obvious, but it wasn’t…wasn’t confirmed yet, with eyewitnesses. Not like Nick, and Maria, and Wanda, and Vision and T’Challa and Shuri and–  

Steve exhaled, letting the air scrape out of his throat inch by burning inch. It wasn’t confirmed, so he sat by Nat while she ransacked every corner of the intelligence community, shadowy underbellies and seedy hiding-holes, rooting through scores of copycat archers and blonde white men, looking. Just looking, while her fingers clasped and unclasped, unendingly, at the arrow necklace still strung around her neck.

After thirty minutes of this, Nat’s fingers grew slack again. She lowered the lid of the laptop by a fraction, baggy eyes staring above the rim.

“Didn’t know I still had it in me, to become complacent.”

“I know.” Steve said, quietly sufficient. He probably wouldn’t have phrased it that way, but the point stood. After the life he’d had, he wouldn’t have thought himself to be the kind of person who took things for granted. He could be affected by loss, but not surprised by it – or so he’d thought.

It was in the nature of such things, wasn’t it? To worm themselves into your safe, secure places, to irrefutably become a part of them. To be so…solid, so wholly dependable, that you could be the most jaded person on the planet, and still find a best friend in a smiling stranger on the street.

Steve had taken his gut punches. The ones that robbed him of breath, that made the world white out at the edges. Till the end of the line, pal. I will miss you Tony.

And he’d staggered, and he’d fallen – only to find nothing to put his back against. No wall to lean on, no easy smile waiting in the wings to support his strength.

“It’s fight or flight,” Sam said, without sounding like he was explaining. More than anything, he sounded slightly amused. “We always knew you liked punching out your problems. Turns out, you also like running through the streets if there’s nothing to be done, till it feels like you’ve gotten somewhere. Coping mechanisms – everyone’s got them.”

“I,” Steve said. It stuck strangely in his throat, though he’d swallowed so much worse. Lived through so much worse. This one stuck. “I can’t go running anymore.”

[xwing-baby]

The Avenger’s Angel (PART 1/?)

REQUEST: The reader is an angel that is a part of Team Free Will, but its 50 years in the future and she’s the only one alive. She ends up answering a prayer of one of the Avengers (Steve praying to find Buck maybe?”) and ends up becoming an Avenger!

Pairing: Eventual Steve x Reader (??) Bucky x Reader (friends??)

A/N: This is my 1st Marvel fic EVER!! I’m super excited for you all to read it, cus I have worked super hard on it. It’s gunna be in two parts, one part this week. Part two next week. Writing Marvel is HARD!! Thanks to @bethanystan for helping me with ideas and beta-ing. And thanks @sireennotsiren for the brilliant idea! I hope you enjoy and be sure to leave a comment in the notes.

Also special mention to @princess-evans-addict , @emilyevanston , and @imagine-assembling-the-avengers avengers. Each of your works has helped me immensely in getting these characters (sort of) right.

TAGGED: @sireennotsiren @18crazybutcutealsopsycho @krockszz   

When I got my first look at Earth, I was immediately enamoured with it. The beautiful big blue seas, the rolling hills and sharp mountain tops. Rivers filled with silverfish that sparkles in the glorious light of the sun. It was just beautiful. I watched it all. Father built such a beautiful thing but unfortunately, it would not stay beautiful for long.

Father made Man. Adam and Eve were everyone’s favourite for a while. Those little-naked apes were adorable! But then… well, you only have to read the bible to know what happened.

From humans came murder, hate, greed. They chopped down trees and trampled land. They killed animals and took over until the once beautiful green land was now concrete and steel. The world the humans created was cold. There was poverty and so much suffering it was almost unbearable.

I hated humans for a while, they’d ruined my father’s creation! They killed the most animals and destroyed the most beautiful landscapes/ I hated them. However, like with most things- The Lord will prove you wrong.

After the angels fell from grace I was stuck. I fell in Manhattan, New York City, into a lovely girl named Emma. Emma wasn’t particularly special. She had a good job, two children, a dog and a cheating husband at home but she always devoted even in those troubling times. It was almost admirable.

Unfortunately, although I was very lucky to have survived the fall it seemed that that was all the luck I had. Within six hours of me falling I’d been attacked.

Somehow, Hell found out about the fall. All demons on Earth were on the lookout for the fallen angels and had been told to kill us all. How I got out would be impossible to tell you, I have no idea how I did it! I was already weak from falling, fighting a fully charged demon had drained me completely.

A fight between an angel and a demon was never a quiet ordeal, and thanks, mobile phones someone managed to get a film of it. I’d been shown it by the police when I was getting questioned. Somehow the very weak grace I had inside me managed to be enough not only knock the demon out of the man being possessed but also the glass out of the windows for the next two blocks over. You could call it luck, because well that’s all it was. I passed out almost immediately, almost sure that I would die, but somehow I managed to stay alive. The video went viral, the Winchesters saw it and came to meet me within four days.

At first, I didn’t trust the Winchesters. I barely trusted Castiel for that matter but slowly, over months of rather reluctantly helping them, I learnt to trust them. I learnt to like them.

Sam was the first of the three for me to trust fully. He was kind and had a much greater soul than Dean’s. He let me help with research when I was too weak to fight.

Castiel came second. At first, I hated him. He was the reason the angels fell after all. His betrayal was beyond comprehension but I saw his remorse and his pain. He didn’t mean for it to happen. We worked well as a team and although it took me a while to get used to his more ‘wayward’ ways, we become a lot closer. I never knew him in heaven, but having a member of my ‘family’ with me whilst trapped on Earth was comforting.

Dean was the last for me to trust. Nearly an entire year passed before he’d trust me. We were both very strong-willed and clashed almost daily. I didn’t know any better and in some situations, I would mess up or I would go against what Dean had said. It ended in huge fights and I even battered Baby a few times- usually ending with me getting a battering too. Yeah, we didn’t get along.

But like a lot of things, it took time and a lot of patients. We got there in the end and those three men became my family. My true family.

But they were dead.

I was alone.

I tried not to think about it much but sat in a once again empty bunker with nothing but Sam’s old dog to keep me company, it was kind of hard not to. For a time I didn’t do anything. I just sat and waited. They’d come back from the dead before! They could do it again! I hadn’t burned their bodies, all three’s coffins were sat in the basement. The lids left ajar and the door left open. Just in case.

Just in case.

A year, maybe two had passed by the time I decided to do anything with myself. Time travel wasn’t difficult. In a few simple steps, I could be back with my boys but… well, I just couldn’t bring myself to do it. They were gone and there was nothing I could do. For a few years, I travelled, trying to teach new hunters on what to do. Luckily for them, Team Free Will went down kicking and dragged nearly every scary thing with them. Eventually, that wasn’t enough though. I had to leave. 

Heaven has been a mess for a long time, there was no order or anything really for that matter! This reality was filled with too much regret. I had to move on, for my own sanity more than anything.

Alternate universes, although hard to come by were easy to jump to. I could have my fresh start. I could try again and maybe do a better job. I wouldn’t have to be constantly reminded of the blood and the screaming. I wouldn’t have to think about my family in such an awful way. I could be happy- or at least content.

This one was fairly similar to my previous reality. Except there were no monsters, not ones like I’d seen anyway? There was still war and anger but these humans had much more advanced science than any I’d seen before. Plus, there were superheroes. Real life superheroes- I can imagine how excited Dean would be about that-the jokes he’d make, the nerdy things Sam would add and how confused by the whole thing Castiel would be…

I shook my head, trying to shake the thoughts. This was a new start. Though I didn’t know where to start.

I needed a new vessel that was sure- vessels don’t do great passing through dimensions and Emma was failing, I felt a little bad but she’d done well- nearly eight years! Emma no longer had a voice in the back of my head, that’d died a long time ago, but I always felt of a duty to her to do what she’d have wanted and what she thought was right.

I didn’t want to take a living person’s body- I wasn’t entirely sure if it’d let alone what the implications of it were. This was a different universe after all. I decided to go to a hospital morgue. Get one, second-hand as it were. The vessel would be empty and I wouldn’t have to worry too much about the person’s history and what I could and could not do while habiting them.

Getting a new vessel is kind of like getting a new suit. It’s sort of uncomfortable and itchy but you soon get used to it. In a little while, it feels fine. I stole some clothes for this new vessel from the ‘lost and found’ box in an office in the next room then transported myself outside- not wanting to traumatise any doctors who came back to check on the dead woman.

New York was thankfully pretty much the same. It was comforting and surprisingly fitting seeing as this was the place it all began last time. I walked around for a while, getting used to walking and talking and doing nearly human things. But something felt off.

Something kept ticking in the back of my head. It felt familiar and like someone was calling my name. Which was impossible because no one knew it here. I tried to ignore it, tried to block it out, it was probably just paranoia. Or maybe it was a side-effect of jumping worlds.

I sat on a bench on the sidewalk and looked up at all the skyscrapers of Manhattan. I’d always liked human architecture.

One building stood out, one that hadn’t been in my old New York. A large silver sail-shaped building shone in the sunshine, which a glowing ‘A’ on the side. I decided to go check it out, curious as ever about this new world. Walking towards it, the tickle in my head became stronger and stronger. Until I finally realised what it was. It was a prayer. I tried to ignore it, but the tickle never left. I finally gave in to its little demands and listened.

It was a man. An old man. His prayer was quiet and almost as if he didn’t want to be heard at all. He was praying to find his friend. I couldn’t tell why but he’d gone missing. Or something to that effect. The prayer, surprisingly, was coming from somewhere close. So, like any good angel would, I decided to answer his call.

I flew to where ever the call was coming from. And much to my surprise, I landed on the edge of the helipad of the ‘A’ building I’d just been looking at. I looked around for a second, in awe of the beautiful view but then my focus returned back to the task at hand. Answer the prayer.

The man’s name was Steve Rogers and considering there was only one other person out here with me I assumed he was the man in question. The man was sat on the edge of the helipad, his legs hanging off the side.

“Excuse me?” I spoke up as I got closer to the man. “Are you Steve Rogers?”

“Who’re you?” The man jumped, startled by my sudden appearance, and looked up.

“My name’s Y/n,” I said softly, stepping a little closer, “I’m an angel of the Lord. I heard you’re prayer,”

“An angel? Yeah right?” He dismissed me, looking back down at the people on the street below

“You want to find your friend. You said you were scared, wanted to know if he was alright.” I pressed. Steve turned to face me once more, with a puzzled and amazed look on his face.

“I’m not scared. Bucky will be fine,”

“Then why are you sat on the edge of a building praying?” I asked with a smile. Steve laughed and shrugged. I sat down on the ledge with him and looked around at the view. The sun was setting now, and the golden light bounced off the glass-clad buildings making the entire city glow. Streams of light were visible along the highways into the city in the distance, and the somewhat quieter hum of the city below filled my ears. I sighed, breathing in the dirty air. It truly was beautiful here.

“It’s amazing what humans can do, turn back a few hundred years and this was all forest. Millions of miles of forest. Now, it is its own kind of jungle, much harsher but so much more… vibrant,” I mused, more to myself than to the man sat next to me. “Truly makes me envious of you all,”

“So you’re really an angel?”

“Yes,” I nodded,

“Why did you answer me? Why now?”

“I heard you. I haven’t heard a prayer in years, I just wanted to see who it was. I wanted to help. Like I used to,” I said wistfully. 

“Can you really help me? Find Bucky, I mean?”

“Of course, that’s what angels do right?”

Mr Rogers told me all about his friend James. Or Bucky as he called him. The two were on a mission in Mexico when James was captured. Apparently, the two of them are super soldiers, whatever that meant. Steve had been a good one while James was the ‘Winter Soldier’. I don’t know what that meant but it sounded ominous. Steve said it’d been three weeks since he’d heard from his friend and he was starting to worry. Well, he didn’t specifically say that but it was pretty obvious.

The reason that Steve was sat on the helipad was that he was waiting to go and find his friend. A plane was being sent to send him and a team of special agents to retrieve him. Of course, I offered to help- in so answering his prayer. After a little hesitation, Steve agreed. If I could just appear on top of the tower then surely I could do a lot more.

One thing I did not anticipate however was the plane ride itself. It was awful. The moment the huge thing landed on the tower I was fear-stricken. I followed Steve obediently and tried to appear calm, but it failed.

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah, absolutely,” I lied, gripping the armrests tighter as the engines kicked in. “Brilliant, just never done this before,”

“You’ve never been on a plane?”

“Nope. I am definitely starting to see Dean hated this. This is highly unnatural!”My voice going up in pitch as I tried, with no effect, to stay calm.

“Just relax, it shouldn’t take long,”

“How can I relax when we’re hurtling through the sky at completely inhuman speeds? This is crazy, this is crazy!”

“Y/n, just calm down!”

“Calm down! I am a celestial being! I’m an energy from God and even I think this is unnatural! Why you are not freaked out by this!” I hissed, getting more and more agitated by the second. Steve just laughed and shook his head “How are you so calm about this?” I asked again, clipping myself into my seat.

“I’m a pilot, I love flying!”

“Crazy humans,”

“I thought angels could fly?”

“Yeah but that’s different. It’s not so much flying as it is teleportation. I can’t really feel it and I sure as hell don’t watch the world racing past while it happens”

“We’ll be there in an hour, its fine,”

The hour dragged on for what seemed like days. Constantly in fear, as I watched the world flash past below. Yes, it was mainly just clouds but the fact that we were so high, above the clouds, made everything so much worse. When the plane landed, I let out a sigh of relief.

“Thank father that’s over,”

“For a high power being, I really thought you’d deal better with that,” Steve teased.

“Yeah, well… Shut up,”

We got off the plane, stepping into the warm air. The last time I went to Mexico was when the Aztecs were ruling. They thought I was a goddess. It was quite fun really as much as I tried to protest it back then. Now, so much had changed. Mexico City was huge and bustling with people. Even though we were quite a way out of the city, I could still hear the traffic and the beautiful noise of human life.

I was not used to having so much order when it came to hunts. Before, it would be a set research, find, kill. Simple. Sorted. But with these people everything had to be planned out meticulously, back up squads and intercoms and to be honest I was getting impatient. I knew what I had to do. Why couldn’t I just go do it already?  

‘The Captain’, as everyone called him, was walking around watching what everyone was doing while stood and watched him. I could tell everyone respected the guy, the way they all stood up straight and saluted him- heads so far up his ass you could barely see their legs. From what I’d seen so far, the guy was fairly normal. Super jacked but normal enough.  

Eventually, the two different groups we had to bring sorted themselves out and we all split off into trucks. Steve and I in one, one team in the next and another team in the last. A couple engineers stayed behind to act as a control centre.

We drove for a while, through the outskirts of the city to towards a large industrial building. It loomed over the shanty town surrounding it like a mountain over a lake. Its solid concrete structure cast a rather ominous shadow over the little houses below it.

I followed Steve silently through the building. I was on high alert- sensing at least five men in the closed rooms. I hoped that we would be able to get in and out without much fuss, although that would be very unlikely.

The hallway was hardly lit, the deep red lights that lined the hall created more of an atmosphere than providing any light. Metal crates littered the way all once holding something important, I deduced, from the heavy locks on each. Whatever went on here was important and very secretive. There was still no sign of Bucky. Or anyone for that matter. For such an important place, we had just strolled in without any issue. It was unsettling, to say the least.

The three men and two women that came with us as the backup had split up from Steve and I a short while ago. As long as they all made it to the centre of this maze of a complex we’d be okay.

Suddenly, a crash and a thud erupted from somewhere. Steve and I stopped. Another crash and a scream. It had to be Bucky.

“Bucky!” Steve shouted, his voice echoing across the halls. “Buck!”

“Mr Rogers, please be quiet,” I hissed.

Steve, however, did not listen and quickly ran following where the noise had come from. Of course, I followed behind not wanting him to get into trouble. Turns out super-soldiers can run fast and by the time I turned the corner Steve had completely disappeared and it was silent once more. Great!

Cautiously I walked down the hallway checking every door and dark hallway for any sign of the man. Nothing. That was until I looked through the doors of what I thought was just a closet. I looked through the dust-coated glass on the door and saw the outline of two men. I slowly pushed the door open, slipping into the room

Two bodies lay on the floor near the door. Long dead. Both covered in dried up blood and dotted with bullet holes. Large cobweb covered windows on the walls let in golden streams of light, giving the entire room a yellow tinge. A few doors led out of the room and a broken down forklift sat collecting dust in a corner. Steve and a dark-haired figure stood in the middle. It must be Bucky.

Neither men were saying anything, both of them not sure what to do. Slowly, I walked up beside Steve. The dark haired man noticed me first, his blue eyes cutting straight into me- watching me closely as I walked up. If this was Bucky, he was nothing like I was expecting. He had a silver metal arm, for one thing, I was definitely not expecting that! He wore all black, though some of it was stained a weird brown- probably blood or dirt. He stood a little way off but didn’t seem afraid. Just confused.  

“Bucky?! What’s the matter with you?” Steve spoke up, stepping slightly closer. I could tell that he was upset to see his friend like this. Maybe this was what he was like before. Steve had mentioned a ‘before’. Maybe this is what the backup team were whispering about. This ‘winter soldier’.

The long-haired man continued to stare at us. His fists were still clenched tightly and his metal arm clicked and buzzed as it moved slightly.

“Mr Barnes?” I continued forward towards him.

“Y/n what are you doing?”

“Helping,” I said, holding him off. “Mr Barnes are you okay?” He gave no reply. I could see the conflict going on inside his mind, something very dark was clouding it, something like nothing I’d ever seen before. I stepped closer again, Steve tried to protest but with a simple snap of my fingers, I sent him outside. “Mr Barnes, my name is Y/n. I’m an angel of the Lord,” I spoke slowly and calmly, approaching him almost like I would a spooked animal. “I’m only here to help. I’m not doing to hurt you,” I was only one step away from him now.

It was quiet for a moment. Both of us staring at each other. I tried looking someway into his mind but it was blocked. Something dark and twisted- not a demon or ghost, just dark. Like a thick black fog clouding the view. James launched at me in a second, pushing me straight down to the ground.

I quickly rolled out the way and kicking the man’s legs out from underneath him. He started to fall and just as I thought I had him down he flipped over, backflipping over his head and landing on his feet. I tried to gain a vantage point, running past him but the man grabbed my arm and threw me across the room. I skidded to a halt and jumped up as James launched himself at me again.

Several punches, a kick in the ribs and a knee to the jaw. Both of us were pretty battered by now, I had a split lip and a large array of bruises and cuts littering my body. Bucky was similar, his hair matted with blood- his own and mine.

“Let me help you!” I shouted. Again, James didn’t speak- just growled and launched at me again. I dodged the first punches, successfully jumping out the way- then into a locked door. Smacking my head on the wood. Hard. “Shit,”

Bucky stalked towards me as I recovered, I tried to move but my head spun. Everyone else in the building had gone, Steve was who knows where. I was stuck and was starting to panic. I couldn’t just fly off. I wouldn’t be finishing the mission and the prayer. Bucky was a few metres away now, his fists clenched tight and jaw locked.

I tried using my grace to knock him back. The usual strength didn’t work- only creating a wind in his hair if anything. I tried again and again. Nothing. It was too late. Bucky kicked me hard, grabbed my jacket pulling me up to face him.

“B-bucky. Please, I just-just want to help,” I chocked out, my mouth filling with blood as I spoke.

“I don’t know you,”

He raised his hand to punch me once more, no doubt then leaving me to bleed out. I shut my eyes and let myself go. When I opened my eyes again, Bucky was across the room, head bleeding and completely unconscious. Thank Father.

After a few moments of recovery, I got up and zapped Bucky and me outside to where we’d been told to meet back once the mission was over. The instant I appeared, I was swamped by medics from the team who took Bucky off onto the plane and me off to another area. I was patched up, much to my disapproval and protest. I could heal myself eventually, I just had ‘recharge’.

The medical team left me alone after a while; not knowing what I should be doing I just decided to sit and wait to be told. I did wonder where Steve was, however. The one thing I can never truly get a hundred percent right is teleportation of others, especially if I’m not concentrating on them. Once I sent Sam out of a risky situation but instead of sending him back to the motel I sent him to the middle of a very deep lake in North Dakota… in winter. So, obviously, I was anxious to see if I’d even sent him to the right continent. My questions were quickly answered, as Steve came storming through a few seconds later.

“What the hell were you doing?” He yelled.

“Me?” I replied, shocked by his tone. “I saved your friend like you asked!”

“No, you didn’t! You nearly killed him!”

“He was going to kill me!” I protested.

“That’s not an excuse!”

“Seems pretty valid to me Rogers!” I snapped, standing up to him now. “You never mentioned that your friend was a maniac! Whatever the hell got him could have gotten to you too, I was protecting you!”

“I could’ve helped,”

“I got him didn’t I?” I exclaimed, very confused as to why Steve was so upset.

“We were meant to be a team,”

“And I was being a good teammate and protecting you,”

“I don’t need protecting,” He snarled.

“You prayed to me. You wanted my help and you got it. I can easily put your friend back- leave him to die like he would have if I hadn’t shown up,”

“I thought angels were meant to be nice,” Steve said glaring down at me. I hacked out a laugh and rolled my eyes

“Whoever told you that? I’m a soldier just like you. Except I actually do my job,”

“Oh really?”`

“Absolutely,” I growled. With that I turned on my heel and disappeared, leaving Steve to stew in his anger.

I reappeared in the medic’s rooms. Bucky was awake, had an ice pack held to his head and a few stitches in his hands. I knocked on the door and walked in.

“I can heal that if you want,” I said sympathetically. Bucky looked me over, tilting his head in slight confusion.

“What are you?”

“A friend?” I said, half asking, trying to work out how Bucky would be feeling.

“No, no you’re not human. You can’t be!”

“I’m an angel,” I admitted.

“Who are you?” Bucky growled, putting the ice pack down, staring at me.

“Y/n. My name’s Y/n.  Don’t panic please,” I stepped forward, putting my hand up to heal him.

“How do you know me?! Don’t-,“ Before he could move out the way, I pressed my index and middle fingers to his temple, healing the internal and external injuries I’d caused him.

“Steve prayed to me to find you, James,” I continued, smiling.

“Stop calling me that,” James snapped.

“That is your name,”

“Just call me Bucky, everyone else does,” He sighed.

I couldn’t help the smile that crept onto my face then. Maybe it was looking up after all?

--

WANT TO READ PART TWO?

[bizarrebird]

As mentioned, I’m still on my Buffy kick, so I’m gonna continue with my live blogging. Fair warning, I may skip some episodes because they’re... not great or too Xander centric for my tastes. But I don’t think anyone’s gonna read these who isn’t familiar with the series so you probably know why I’m skipping the ones I am.

Anyway, onto Season 2, Episode 2: Some Assembly Required

First, I just wanna say, I’m really dumb cause I thought this was the episode where Spike and Dru show up and stuff gets good but SURPRISE THAT’S NOT TILL EPISODE THREE FFFFFFUUUUUUUU

So we start with Buffy in a graveyard (we start here a lot, idk if it’s the same graveyard all the shots here are so fucking dark you can’t tell what anyth) waiting for a new vamp to rise from his grave. Angel appears out of nowhere, startling her because, as Buffy points out, he never learned to approach people like a normal person. Angel makes a comment about how he expected Buffy to have Xander or someone with her.

And okay, there’s a lot to unpack in this conversation, the parts that happen before and after they get interrupted by random vampire of the week. Don’t wanna spend the whole liveblog on this, so I’m gonna bullet point the important things

Angel giving Buffy shit for dancing with Xander, but refusing to admit he’s jealous cause Angel is a tool (this is a recurring theme)

Buffy saying she just did it to make Angel jealous, probably cause he’s a tool and never wants to talk about his feelings (also a recurring theme)

Vague slutshamey talking about the dancing which is super uncomfy

Angel calling Xander ‘just a kid’ which has a lot of just... super creepy implications, which are like almost addressed when Buffy asks if that means she’s a kid too, but we don’t get an answer to that (for the record she’s 16 and Angel is super fucking old, yeah I gotta talk about this later in another post)

Angel just tries to go cause he’s a little shit baby who makes Buffy do like 80% of the work in their relationship

Alright, there’s a lot of expansion that can be done on all this, but a lot of it’ll probably happen in liveblogging future episodes.

SO ANYWAY as Buffy goes to chase after Angel (like he always makes her do), she falls into an open grave and they realize the body has been dragged away, starting this investigation into the ‘monster of the week’ as we go to OPENING CREDITS

As the cool music fades we go to Buffy and Xander walking into the library to find Giles talking to an empty chair, practicing how to ask out Jenny Calendar. It’s actually pretty cute and I love awkward nerd dad Giles and Buffy sasses him in a charming way... which Xander then makes super weird, leading to the very, very warranted line from Buffy: “I fear you.” You should fear him, Buffy. You and every other female character in this show. Buffy goes on to give Giles some advice about asking Jenny out, which is sweet, while Xander is a tool.

Buffy then starts talking about the grave she and Angel found. Xander of course has to comment on her being there with Angel, y’know the guy Buffy has a legit on and off again thing with, who she has every right to hang out with without you judging her Xander, shut your gross mouth. Buffy continues to explain stuff and they decide to get Willow to look into the missing body, cause I guess this was the 90s and no one else knows how computers work

Willow we find being adorable and signing up for a science fair where random creepo of the week (I think he’s called Erik???? idk he’s gross so I don’t wanna acknowledge him more than I absolutely have to. Isn’t it wild that a feminist show has so many just casually creepy dude characters? I wonder what that’s about, Joss) Less creepy rando of the week, Chris, shows up and has a nice chat with Willow (too bad we’re going to forget he exists after this episode) Then light of my life, queen of my heart Cordelia shows up to also do the science fair cause the writers needed to find a reason to get her into this plot where she’s gonna get creeped on a whole bunch, great. Buffy shows up for Scoobie bizz and Cordy and Willow go with her, conveniently missing the super cryptic lines the episode randos drop in the middle of a crowded school hallway, but I guess none of the extras can hear so no one calls the cops

Cut to the library where everyone except Willow is scared of the witchcraft that makes the computer work, so she looks up the missing dead girl. Cordelia doesn’t care what they’re doing, but follows along anyway cause the writers kinda want her to be in the Scoobie gang but can’t figure out how to make it happen. She also drops some big foreshadowing that no one listens to because no one in this show appreciates her the way I do. Willow finds that their missing dead girl was killed in an accident with two other girls, so they decide to see if their bodies are gone too as Giles runs through creepy theories about flesh eating demons or zombies. Buffy briefly mentions Angel and Xander shoves his own foot up his ass in protest

We then go to the graveyard where Giles and Xander dig up the grave while Buffy and Willow talk about boys (will we pass the bechdel test this episode? we just don’t know) Buffy gets shamed more for her ‘sexydance’ with Xander and then she asks about the foreshadowing Cordelia dropped earlier and Willow turns into an exposition fairy to talk about Chris’s dead brother, who totally isn’t related at all to the dead bodies being dug up now. Buffy opens up the coffin and we cut to--

Cordelia heading to her car after cheer practice, only to be stalked by a mysterious pair of shoes in the most ripped from a horror movie scene this episode. She hides in a dumpster only to realize the creep following her is actually Angel, who still doesn’t know how to not terrify people he’s trying to talk to. As she’s getting out o the dumpster, Cordelia finds a severed hand trying to cop a feel

The gang gets back to the library where Angel and Cordelia are hanging out (probably planning their spin off already) and Xander and Angel are stupid at each other because that’s the only kind of interaction these two can ever have. Angel tells them about the body parts in the dumpster, which apparently he looked at enough to know some bits are missing, throwing out all the theories the scoobies came up with. He says that the stitching was super good and Giles makes the (very justified) point that high schoolers shouldn’t know how to do that, but apparently they like to stitch up bodies in the science club, so it’s time to break into some lockers. Cordelia asks Angel to take her home and it’s weird for everyone (also Angel’s wearing a really weird jacket right now, it’s khaki and makes him look like a business man who just got laid off and is super bummed that means he can’t sneak around with his secretary anymore)

We then go to Chris’s house where his mom is clearly grieving, but still awful. Now okay, this scene is super short, but very good at establishing everything we need to know about Chris’s homelife, so points there. Back to the school for breaking into people’s lockers. Chris and creepo are found to have lots of medbooks and the creepiest fucking frankengirl made out of pictures from magazines or something. We then go to Chris and creepo in their secret lab where they’re frankensteining the girl bits together

And now we go to the school where Buffy rightly says how messed up this is and Xander opens his mouth to word vomit about love and it’s so weird how his mouth moves but Whedon’s words come out and shit all over female characters. Then we get some cute flirting with Giles and Jenny and he stutters a whole bunch and she asks him out and it’s a genuinely sweet moment (this is when we feel the Whedon destruction of happiness hammers looming. Remember kids, Joss Whedon hates happiness)

Willow tries to do research while Xander’s a dumbass, then Buffy gets there and they discuss the possibilities of frankengirl already being shambling around, only for Giles to get there and say that all three dead heads have been found, so Chris and creepy haven’t finished the job yet. We go to them, talking about how they’ve gotta move fast cause there’s a time limit before the limbs start being extra super dead. Creepy wants to kill a girl and Chris is like ‘dude what the fuck, I’m not doing that’ and it’s revealed that his super dead brother is now a frankenjock and these guys can just... bring people back from the dead??? For a show where people drop like flies, you’d think this would get a little more focus, but no. Super dead bro just wants an equally horrifying lady friend and manages to football talk Chris into agreeing to murder. Dead guy looks at creepy’s pictures and he picks Cordelia (cause it’s been almost an episode since she’s been kidnapped, gotta tick that box again)

The Scoobies meanwhile realize that Chris and creepy have to kill a new girl to get a head and Buffy’s the only one appropriately enraged by this. Willow tries to argue sympathy for Chris, which Buffy doesn’t seem to go for until she goes to Chris’s house and gets an idea of how shit his situation is with his mom. Buffy goes to check out Chris’s weird basement room while dead bro looms, she finds a creepy cut up picture of Cordy and rushes to the rescue. Meanwhile Cordelia gets menaced and kidnapped in the locker room but Buffy shows up just in time to save her. Then Cordelia, cause she’s a fucking pro, insists on going out for cheerleading stuff, gotta lead all those fuckin cheers

Buffy realizes Chris is still there and does try to sympathize, but tells him he’s gotta knock off the creepy shit. Chris plays the pronoun game saying he has to do this for “him” until Buffy realizes he means his dead brother. We briefly see said brother smashing everything and attacking creepy until he says he can make him the lady friend on his own. Buffy and Chris get back to the hidey hole too late and realize dead bro and creepy are still going after my sweet Cordelia

At the football game we see Giles and Jenny on their date, her actually calling it that and making Giles go all awkward. But then the cockblock crew shows up and Willow and Xander steal Giles’s food instead of... y’know, worrying about the potential frankenteen stuff going on. Cordelia gets statched by the dead guy and dragged off while the crowd is distracted by the bizarrely shiny yellow pants the football players are wearing. Buffy and Chris get there a little too late and then we see Cordelia with the creeps and she screams a lot, which... fair Cordy, me too

Chris tells Buffy where to find Cordelia. Apparently they’re just doing this in an old science lab??? .Chris goes to get backup and Buffy goes for the save. She real quickly tries to talk things down, cause she does sympathize with Chris, but when deaders goes to attack Cordy, Buffy goes for the ass kick. The fight goes on for a really, really long time cause this guy won’t get staked. The lab starts catching on fire as Xander gets there and (being useful for the first time this episode, no this season) goes to get a tied up Cordelia out (or he tries to, he can’t undo the fucking straps holding her down on her weird gurney thing, just ignoring all the knives and cutting tools like a foot away cause why use his thinkerbox for anything other than petty quips)

Giles and Willow get there and remove an unconscious creepy. Xander just... he fucking throws himself onto a still screaming Cordelia, giving up getting her untied and just wheels them out because the lab is on too much fire now. This knocks the gurney where the rest of the bits of the would be frankengirl are into the biggest fire. Dead bro is about to super smash Buffy when Chris gets there and yells at him.

This makes him notice the burning body and he just... really awkwardly climbs on top of it and gets redeaded in the fire. And it’s kinda sad but he’s been super creepy this whole episode and no one will remember this later

Outside the fire department gets there a little before Angel does (still wearing his weird khaki outfit like he forgot his middle and last names are “I’ll stop wearing black when they invent a darker color”) And he just... stands there for a bit until we cut to Giles and Jenny talking about a second date. I’m sure that will go well and there won’t be any drama

Xander and Willow talk about how they’re sad and dateless for some reason. Well, Xander says that because he’s a clod and Willow humors him because she’s a soft lovely lady who hasn’t realized there are better options out there yet (soon, honey, soon) Cordelia, who has been temporarily possessed by Joss Whedon, tries to flirt at Xander a little, but he’s dumbass and just brushes her off

Cordelia makes the greatest face ever and is temporarily released from the mild insanity that makes her think Xander is anything more than a terrible worm boy (this won’t last and I hate that)

Now we close out on the same graveyard where we started (wow, neat, such closure, much meaning wow) There’s also this weird cut to a closeup where Sarah Michelle Gellar is clearly standing on a box as Angel talks about how he is in fact jealous of Xander. Progress! I guess. He talks about how being a vampire is suffering cause it makes dating a teenager hard

I joke, but okay, this is a sweet scene and a nice way to bookend the episode, and this is coming from Bangelhater69 over here

FINAL THOUGHTS: In terms of advancing the plot, not a whole lot happens, but there are some good character and relationship moments here, so it’s definitely not all bad. But hey guys SPIKE GETS HERE NEXT EPISODE!!!!