#it was actually. another tactic because the first one didn't work. and yeah she IS pregnant but it was still a tactic.

[gregoftom]

TOMMMMMMMMTOMAFOMAFO TOM SWEEEEEEP TOM SWEEP!!!!! TOM SWEEP GOL GOL GOL GOL GOL GOLAZOOOOOOO GOL GOL GOL

[englandsgirl18181234]

I'd say sorry for the sudden political spam but I'm really not. We finally have a good option and we need to grab it with both hands and run with it as far as we fucking can. So here's some facts that people seem to be ignoring when they say you shouldn't vote for Harris.

Harris was not a fucking cop, she was a district attorney and attorney general. Stop fucking saying otherwise, it's misinformation and you need to understand that.

Harris is documentedly pro LGBTQ+. When she was elected Attorney General, she co-sponsored legislation to ban the gay and trans panic defense which passed. She also officiated the first same-sex wedding in California after Section 8 was overturned 20 years ago.

In her entire time as District Attorney she never sought the death penalty. She also created the San Francisco Reentry Division, with the first of its kind reentry program Back On Track for first-time nonviolent offenders. 200 people graduated from it with less than 10 percent going on to commit another crime, compared to the 53 percent of California drug offenders that would do so in less than 2 years after release.

When she was elected to Attorney General of California, she introduced the Homeowner Bill of Rights, considered one of the strongest protections nationwide against aggressive foreclosure tactics.

In 2015, Harris's California Department of Justice became the first statewide agency in the US to require all of its police officers to wear body cameras.

So to reiterate:

Fucking vote for Harris.

Voting third party right now is not the fucking way. All it's gonna do is split the fucking votes that we need to keep Trump out of office. None of the third party candidates have the numbers to actually beat Trump. It's not going to fucking happen, stop saying it will because you're lying to yourself and others.

Not voting at all is even fucking worse than voting third party and you're an idiot if you think otherwise. Not voting isn't a fucking protest like some idiots are spouting. It's not making a fucking point. It is giving the fuck up and being a coward about it. It is actively choosing to not make things better when you have the fucking chance and I am disgusted that people actually think it's a good idea when we are on the verge of a second term for a literal traitor and convicted felon that actively thinks disabled and LGBTQ people should die.

Someone is still going to be President. Full stop, that is how elections fucking work. THERE IS STILL GOING TO BE A PRESIDENT. There is still going to be a president whether you vote or not. And our only real options right now are Harris or Trump. So use your fucking vote to make things better in the only way we can right now.

Yeah, there are things Harris needs to change and things she isn't on the right side on. But Trump is worse in every possible fucking way. So we need to lock this down and push for improvement, not decide shit is hopeless and fucking give the bad guy the win now that we finally have a fucking shot!

You didn't want to vote for Biden? Great, you're not! Now take the fucking miracle that just dropped into our fucking laps and run with it!

[emwritesstuff]

DYNAMO | Steve Rogers x Reader | part 2.

HYDRA has made their share of human experiments. You're just one of them. One of the least successful ones. One of the least functional ones. At least your life in the facility gave you a few things: unwavering resilience, cool(ish) superpowers and a great sense of humor. Steve Rogers would strongly disagree with that last one. A single chance encounter with him reluctantly brings you into the Avengers Compound, and you're determined to make his life as miserable as you can. Feeling's mutual.

AO3 | Masterlist | Playlist (coming soon!)

notes: part 2 is up! I've had this written for a while and I didn't want to wait to post hehehe. Not a lot of Steve interaction this time around though, just getting the plot going </3 (warnings: mentions of human experimentation, violence, cursing) (2.5K words)

2: CONDUCTIVE ACCORDS

“So, I’ve been thinking about what that thing you asked me,” Natasha slides on a stool next to Steve, and he raises one eyebrow at her, silently waiting for her to elaborate. He asks her lots of things, all the time. “on the girl with the electric powers. And then I remembered something.”

She opens the laptop she’s brought with her, and Steve feels dizzy by the lack of, well, anything, in her desktop area. He’s aware she has a meticulously crafted system, and that it never fails her, because she is Natasha Romanoff. But come on. There’s not even a Google Chrome on there.

After a couple of clicks a PDF is up on the screen. Medical records, and a picture attached. Yeah, that’s her alright-- he could spot that intense gaze anywhere.

He reads her name on the top of the page and tests it on his tongue.

“Or…A-7463. They refer to her mostly like this, anyway. She was part of an experiment to get people into manipulating energy.”

“Seems like they were successful.” He’d know. His body was still recovering from that.

“Almost…They wanted an army.” Natasha scrolls down, and more pictures come into view. They all have a bright red VERSAGEN stamp over the pages. Failures.

Kids.

That makes Steve grimace. “She was the only one who survived.”

“Yes. And when I came across these for the first time I thought--”

Steve’s head whips to Natasha’s face. His eyebrows meet at the center of his face.

“You knew? You kept this from us?”

“Well, it didn’t seem relevant—"

“An enhanced HYDRA agent walking around free isn’t relevant?”

“She’s not so much an agent – she’s more of a victim, don’t you think?” Natasha sighs, and closes the laptop. Steve perks up in his stool, staring down at her, even though he knew damn well that intimidation tactic wouldn’t work. But he wants her to know that he’s angry.

A victim. She didn’t seem like a victim when he was writhing on the ground like a fish out of water.

But those cries of pain he heard then weren’t his. His jaw was too busy being clenched shut to utter any sound.

Steve pinches the bridge of his nose, trying not to feel sympathy for the girl—woman, actually; from her files she is around 23 something now.

She’s HYDRA, still. And hasn’t turned herself over to justice. There was something off about it, Steve could feel it even though he couldn’t pinpoint it exactly.

“And I figured they’d have eliminated her already.” That brings Steve out of his own thoughts. She had been slipping through everyone’s fingers, then – and that was intriguing.

Maybe they could get her to collaborate. Take down HYDRA once and for all. Smash all the heads, burn all the tentacles to a crisp. From the inside, or at least with an insider on their court.

Even though their first impression was less than positive.

“We should take this to Fury and the others.”

“As if we needed another one of those.”

“Tony—”

“No, no, let ‘im talk, Natasha. Those what?” Bucky plants both hands – one human, one a prototype – on the table in front of him.

“Those—”

“Will this ever stop…” Steve shoots a sympathetic look at Wanda, though Tony’s remarks were never directed at her.

“Those what, Stark?”

Since Bucky Barnes had moved into the Avengers compound with the rest of them, his and Tony’s bickering had become a constant. They revel in civility until Tony decides he’s bored and it all begins again.

“Okay, children, you can stop now.” Fury drops a manila folder on the table – theatrics, because he never opens it, and instead uses a controller to turn on a screen behind him right after. It works though, as all of them turn to look at him. Steve rests his chin in his hand.

The face of a young A-7463 is up on the screen, staring right at him once again. A mystery wrapped inside a challenging gaze. Steve’s need to figure out just what she wanted and who she was grew more every time he looked at her.

Wouldn’t you like to know, Cap.

“…so we make her an offer she can’t refuse: freedom in exchange of information. Of course, with the bonus of not letting another superhuman on the loose.”

“Temporary and conditional pardon isn’t really freedom, Fury.”

“Well not everyone is as lucky as you, Barnes.” Bucky clenches his jaw at the same time Steve does his.

But it’s different. Bucky was a prisoner of war. He was forced into it. Who’s to say which side the girl was really on.

And those powers… she could be dangerous. Taking her down would probably need all their forces combined. They all agreed on that, at least.

But the plan was set: find her, convince her to cooperate in exchange of a conditional. Keep the girl and her powers under their watch and their control.

Finding her would be Natasha’s job. Steve and Sam would play the diplomatic part. Or they’d try.

He had a feeling that would be the hard part. Maybe they should cause a power outage in the vicinity just in case.

A-7463.

He thinks about your name again. It’s fitting for a hurricane, and he’s about to walk right into it.

There’s something humorous about having blue hair when you have electric powers.

Your hair is dyed a deep indigo now – and it should make you easier to spot in any normal circumstances, but not in Los Angeles, it doesn’t. This specific shade of blue was sold out in all of the Sally’s you walked in. So, like the sensible person you were, you broke into an apartment and stole a jar of it. You know, as you do.

The good thing about this city is that there were plenty of empty apartments for you to stay in – granted, most of them were just arranged to look livable, but a couch is a couch and for a night, that’s enough for you. 

It’s not like you can rent an AirBnb.

Your mousey life has been going okay so far – since meeting Captain America over a week ago, you managed to stay lowkey, powers included. A blackout in L.A. would be a dead giveaway.

The balmy air of the city fills your lungs and clings to your skin as you munch on the other half of the burrito you got for lunch. You haven’t been able to eat much these days—something about the migraines left you with barely enough energy (ha) to keep yourself alive.

You’d never thought you’d miss the devils in lab coats and gas masks, but you almost do. It’s hard doing it yourself, and you don’t have the access to the drugs they used.

The view is pretty from the top of the building you’re sitting on, all windows and lights and cars going up and down the elevated highways. It’s nice. You wonder what New York would look like, but you don’t have the guts to go up there. Too close.

“Nice view you got there.”

A woman’s voice makes you jump and drop your food on the floor. You groan in frustration, but your breath gets caught up in your throat when the red hair comes into your line of vision.

Natasha Romanoff.

She’s leaning casually against the door that leads to the staircase down, and you know it’s to stop you from getting to it.

“Smart move with the hair. I almost got to three other people before finding you.”

You shrug, but inside you feel a little spark of pride.

“You made me drop my dinner.”

“Sorry about that. Although half a burrito barely sounds like dinner to me. I’ll buy you a decent meal—if you agree to sit and talk to me.”

The offer was tempting, and Romanoff’s face made you want to trust her. You were starving, really, until the realization that she was going through an effort to keep that expression on made you take a step back and your appetite vanish.

“Not hungry. And I’m not really a conversational kind of girl.”

“We have a proposition you might be interested in.”

“An apartment behind bars? Rogers already made that,” Casually averting your eyes back to the skyline, you begin scanning the horizon for the rest of them.

“They’re not here. Relax.”

“Lie.”

“Yes and no. They came with me, but they’re not close enough to ambush you.”

You don’t miss how she skirted around the actual reason she was here – a proposition. Bullshit.

“Right.”

“Not that I think they couldn’t—but they won’t. Trust me.” Her voice sounds much closer than before, and you turn your head to meet her intense gaze as your hairs stand on end. She’s sizing you up; you know her methods.

You had classes on all of them before you got out.

A former field of study standing right in front of you, casually inviting you for dinner. You wonder if she knows you feel like you’re caught in a mousetrap.

“Should I?”

Natasha chuckles lightly. “Not if you’re smart. Now, I am dying for that Pho across the street, so I’m heading there. Offer stands until I walk out that door, and I’m not leaving without you. Noodles or handcuffs, take your pick.” She sighs as you square your shoulders and keep looking ahead. You can hear the creak of the door at the same time your stomach rumbles.

Oh, screw it. Might as well take your chances.

“Wait—” You catch up with her a second before the door closes. When in Rome.

Well, L.A.

Turns out the choice between food or handcuffs wasn’t one. You inhaled the Pho like it was your first meal in days, because it kind of was, and then you got your wrists bound behind you on the next.

There was just a little scuffle in the middle.

Honestly, it wasn’t your fault; Captain America and the Falcon descended on you just as you were leaving the restaurant, your belly still warm from the food.

All you managed was a snarl as you leaped away from the three and gathered the block’s electricity on your body. One by one the lamps were out, and your face was illuminated by the familiar blue glow.

Captain America’s shield deflected your first blast before being hurled in your direction, lodging itself on the wall behind you. The next hit him right on the chest. Your lips curled into a smirk.

And then the energy vanished from your hands. As if evaporated into the air.

Groaning, you concentrated on bringing it back and directing yourself to your second target. Spots filled your vision, and your head felt like it was being split open.

It was a fraction of a second, and the Falcon took it. He knocked you over your middle and handcuffed you. And that was the end of it. You vision was too blurry to react and you had to make an effort to keep yourself conscious. The lights returned to the street. Shit.

Your powers are unreliable, you know as much. And now here you are, being strapped into a high-tech aircraft by none other than Mr. America himself.

“Absolutely fucking not.”

They had finally shared what the proposition was.

You could be arrested. Or you could be arrested, but with a pretty bow on top.

“You don’t have a third choice here. This the most generous we’ve been to anyone ex-hydra.”

“Except for Barnes.” Rogers clenches his jaw, now even more pissed than he was by your swearing. “Pity you and I are not besties then.”

His hairs are still unruly from your energy blast, and it makes you smirk. No hair gel is invincible.

Natasha must have caught a wave of it too, because you notice her usually impeccable hair a little bit frizzy. You almost feel bad – she did buy you dinner, after all.

There’s something almost empathetic to her demeanor, but it must be to break your resistance. Good cop, bad cop, as they say. You’re honestly surprised Rogers is the bad one this time.

He must really hate HYDRA. And so do you.

Thing was, you were kept in the dark on most of their operations. You didn’t even know where your base was until you escaped from it: two days away from civilization across the frozen tundra.

And this felt like walking back to it, except with a government issued name.

“I don’t know all these things about them like you think I do,” You start, and you meet eyes with Sam Wilson.

“We’ll take whatever you got.” He’s frowning, as if he’s undecided about you.

“And then let me go.”

“You will be pardoned. But you’ll stay at the compound for the time being.”

That’s that pretty bow on top.

However long or what would be done with you after said pardon, no one was willing to make that clear.

“That’s a shit deal. Prison or prison! Who did you guys learn to negotiate with, the Russian mob?” You squirm on your seat, but the cuffs on your wrists and ankles are tight. Your powers nowhere to be found. All that lab fuckery for nothing.

“You’ll see the living conditions are pretty good there.” Natasha arguments. “And we have a pretty damn good doctor that can figure out whatever’s going on with you.”

You look at her like a deer caught in the headlights. You’ve always thought she had no special powers, but now you’re wondering if she can read minds.

All three of them are staring at you now.

“Your nose is bleeding.” She explains it, and you hastily wipe it on your shoulder. There goes your last good hoodie. “And I read your file. We did.”

Your file. She has your file, the thing you’ve been looking for, the answers you need.

As if on cue, the pounding on your head returns. You close your eyes, letting your head fall back and knock softly against the wall. All you wanted was to just live. No stupid powers. No running. No Avengers, no HYDRA, no migraines and nosebleeds. The boring life everyone complains about.

You didn’t want to waste away while your own body turned against you, mad someone tampered with it until things went haywire.

The promise of a solution at last makes you go quiet. 

“Fine. The Avenger Disneyland it is.”

[meet-me-in-the-pouringrain]

The Phoenix And The Rocket

Chapter 5 / 8-ish

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Emily Prentiss, at the insistent of her therapist, signs up for a Trauma ‘dumping’ site. She never expected that her Dump would connect her back to her old boss and the man she’s been in love with for over ten years.

Also the man she’s absolutely furious at for leaving

We’re moving spectacularly fast yall, i’m the one writing and i’m like 🫣 slow down guys

Edit : Since publishing I have been made aware that the term ‘Trauma Bonding’ is actually an abuse tactic and doesn’t mean ‘bonding over shared trauma’. Would like to make it clear that was a very strong mistake on my part and I apologise deeply for any offence.

Read below the cut

She's not surprised when Dave walks in her office when the case ends and they're home five days later, two glasses in one hand and a bottle of Jack in the other. She manages a smile at him as he shuts the door and sits up to pluck the bottle up.

"Wanna tell me what's going on?" Dave asks, teasing but Emily can detect the concern. "Who the guy is?" After her outburst at the precinct, he knew there was more to the story.

After the thing with Mendoza ended badly, Dave was Emily's sounding board. He was there for her in lieu of any of the girls as a drinking buddy, an ear to listen or a shoulder to cry on.

Emily didn't have a father growing up, he ran out the second he could, and Dave has worked his way in, settling in her heart and filling that hole in her life. It's not a secret they have a relationship further beyond colleagues. He's her father figure in all walks of life and she's his daughter.

His favourite child out of all of them, if you will.

The concern he's showing her now is that of a father panicking about his daughter not of a colleague probing into another's love life.

She's told her girls, and they've most likely already relayed the information to Garcia so eventually the correct story is going to go around so she may as well confess her sins now.

Emily sighs and swigs the drink to hold of her reply. "I don't know" She admits finally. Seeing his confused expression, she looks down, fiddling with her glass. "It's an anonymous website" She tells him. "It's called TraumaBuddi-"

"TraumaBuddies" Dave finishes off, nodding. "Heard of it, it's where you unload all your shit right?"

"Yeah" Emily laughs slightly at his words. "Yeah it is. Some of the stuff on there is heavy" She breathes, shaking her head. "But uh. Yeah this guys story was intriguing so" She shrugs and finishes her first glass quickly, just after he took two sips of his own.

"So what is it?" The man asks, intrigued.

Emily pauses, wondering not for the first time if by telling a story that wasn't hers to tell would be betrayal. Dave seems to read her mind, for he nods and backs off.

But Emily decides to tell him everything that Rocket has told her. She can't hold it in any longer, and almost vows that she'll send Rocket an apology once Dave leaves.

She tells him all the details of his story but leaves out anything else. Dave gets told that Rocket's wife was killed by a serial killer but not that Rocket got a piercing on his ear when he was 15 and dared to by the girl who later became his wife. He gets told that Rocket had been stabbed more than 5 times but not that his favourite hobby is fishing because of the way his son laughed when the Bass he caught fought back. He gets told about how Emily talked him through the multiple identity crisis but not that Rocket's favourite movie is Interstellar.

"Wow" Dave laughs when she finishes. Emily is breathless by the time she spews all that out. There is more sneaky glinting in his eye that makes Emily want to scream. "Two serial killers, a car bomb, losing the love of his life?" He shakes his head and drains the rest of his whisky. "If I didn't know any better I'd say this 'Trauma Buddy' was Hotch" He says before standing and disposing of his glass.

Emily freezes mid pouring. His words echoed around her. "Hotch?" She laughs though it was shaky. Dave just looks at her suspiciously. "That's impossible" She shakes her head, resuming her task of pouring a healthy dose.

"Why?"

Another shake of her head and pathetic laughter. "Because it is, Dave" She insists through gritted teeth. A fume of anger sparks in her chest that she doesn't think is fair but also doesn't attempt to push away.

"Okay" The old man shrugs. "Don't drink any more of that bottle, Bella" He warns like a father on his way out of the office. "You drive here."

"Relax, dad" Emily grumbles. "I took a cab" He doesn't hear her as he exits the office otherwise he'd have been forcing her in his car.

Emily sat alone, making no move to follow him, and drank a further two glasses. Dave's words made her lose herself in thought.

It can't be, right?

It was an hour later when the cleaners showed up and the lights shut off that Emily got moving. One of the janitors flashes her a friendly smile, too many late nights in the office was the cause of that, as she leaves. Her hands itched towards her phone as she waits for her cab.

A serial killer who got his Ex-Wife.

Foyet and Haley.

A Car Bomb that made his hearing go fuzzy.

NYC and Kate.

Another serial killer targeting his son.

Scratch and Jack.

Rocket checks all the major boxes.

Emily curses loudly and angrily upon entering her house. She throws her satchel forcefully, stomping towards her laptop. She wonders how in the hell she missed it? Is she that stupid? What kind of profiler is she to not read through the subtext. She slams her fingers on the keyboard, logging into that stupid website and immediately going to Rocket's page.

With every new sentence she grows more angry and resentful until one made her pause.

"After my wife died, I moved on. But just two years later, I experienced the same heartbreak again when I lost the woman who I had grown to love. She didn't know that, of course, when she left but I lost her all the same. She came back briefly for around 7 months but decided to leave again.

In the span of a year I lost the love of my life twice.

In the span of three I had lost two."

It couldn't have been Hotch.

Emily would've have known - Garcia would have blabbed the second it happened - if something that detrimental happened while she was away. In Paris or London. It couldn't have happened while she was here and she just didn't know about it.

It couldn't have been Hotch.

With a sigh of relief, Emily begins typing out a new message.

PhoenixPren : Hey Rocket! I see you haven't replied to my last message is everything okay?

She starts moving around, not one to wait for a reply, when her laptop pings almost instantly.

RockyRackoon : Hello. Sorry for not replying sooner, Max and I are moving house and it's been hectic. How are you, Phoenix?

She smiles, ignoring the warm feeling in her chest, and shrugs as if her partner can see her.

PhoenixPren : Max? Is that your son?

She types and deletes that message a few times before ultimately sending it.

PhoenixPren : And I'm okay.Ish. We have a rough case at work

RockyRacoon : Oof makes me glad i'm retired.

RockyRacoon : And yes, He's my son. He's 16 nearly, we're moving closer to his maternal aunt.

Emily grins at the personal details Rocket shared.  Then her smile wavered. Jack Hotchner would be 16 and Jess still lives around here, somewhere, JJ saw her in a grocery store a few months back.

His name is Max, Emily.

She couldn't tell whether she was happy or disappointed at that.

Mid typing out a polite congratulations / good luck reply, Sergio suddenly shoots out of her workspace making papers fly everywhere.

"Sergio!" She scolds, exasperated. "What is up with you lately?" She shakes her head, putting a hand on her beating chest. She ignores the pest as he mewls for her attention, dropping to her knees to pick up the papers. Emily can't even tell you what half of them are and spends a while just reading over them with furrowed brows.

Until she gets to a paper that only she has and that she should have destroyed.

A letter of resignation, another of recommendation followed by two fake IDs.

Aaron and Jack.

Frank and Max.

Emily buckles, falling to sit awkwardly on her hip as she gasps. No fucking way. She scans each ID thoroughly, lingering on Jack's - Max's - for far too long.

Well now she was fucked.

A ping on her laptop made her whirl around.

RocketRacoon : Actually, Max's aunt lives in Alexandria, Virginia. Isn't that your neck of the woods?

She could scream.

With shaky hands, she types slowly.

PhoenixPren : Yeah. I'm in Dupont Circle.

RocketRaccoon : Oh, only 20 minutes away.

Emily is still on her knees on the floor, using her couch as a table.

Don't do it. Please don't ask. If you ask I cannot say no.

RocketRaccoon : This may be a bit forward, But would you like to get coffee? We arrive Friday Morning.

Ah, he did it.

Emily was typing before she could even think. The possibility that it was that man was making her act upon impulse.

PhoenixPren : Given that my team and I aren't on a case, absolutely. I know a great cafè in Alexandria. Rise and Grind.

She recalls, briefly, that R&G was his favourite coffee place but he never could get it because he lived in Quantico, almost an hour out.

RocketRacoon: I know the place. See you there, Phoenix.

PhoenixPren : How will you know it's me?

RocketRaccoon : I'll know.

Aaron stares at the computer, heart beating fast and filled with dread. Jack is next to him on the couch, waving his broken arm around like he could magically fix it.

He didn't know what the fuck just overcame him.

Inviting her out for coffee?

Where the fuck did that come from?

He removes the glasses from his face, wiping his hand over it tiredly. He groans lowly, making Jack snicker. The trees rustle harshly, mockingly, in the window making him shoot a glare out.

"Mom thinks you're funny to" Jack muses, smirking at the window. Aaron rolls his eyes and closes his laptop after Phoenix doesn't reply.

"Mom can shut up" He retorts, resisting a smirk of his own when the trees shake harder, as if Haley was yelling at him.  She probably was, if he could delude himself that far.

Jack snorts. "That's you told" He says, switching the channel on the tv. "Told you dating is okay."

Aaron groans again and puts the laptop on the floor in front of him. The coffee table is gone, sold in a yard sale they had two days ago. The rest of the nicknacks and furniture around the room baring the couch has either been sold or packed away. They fly out on Thursday night, the cheapest flight times he could find, with the rest of their stuff meeting them throughout the weekend.

It's taken a lot of effort. Jack is in his sophomore year at school so Aaron has had to deal with admin pulling him out, then actually finding a house that's moderately close to another school, vetting the school and seeing which is best for him but also trying to find a house that's close enough to Jess but far away from any of his old teammates.

And that's hard enough in itself when you haven't had contact with any of them so you don't even know where they are living.

So yeah, moving across the country is a little hectic.

"Jack" He scolds. "It's not a date."

"You've been chatting up a woman-"

"I don't think you can call it chattin-“

"You've been chatting up a woman" Jack repeats as if his father hadn't spoken. He smirks as he remembers the woman's user name but wisely chooses not to comment. There's a reason his dad didn't tell him it was Miss Emily, so he won't push. "Flirting a lot and then you ask her out to coffee? Sounds like a date to me dad"

The trees rustle as if to back up his point.

Aaron rolls his eyes. "No it was a moment of madness fuelled by you and your mother's" He points to the tree. "Meddling tendencies." He stands and puts his laptop away in the bag in top of his suitcase. "It is not a date, I'm merely going to meet and thank this woman for helping me. Now, Are we playing Mario Kart or what?" He asks pointedly.

Jack side eyes the window again as Aaron leaves to find the game in one of the boxes. "I don't think we meddle" He says to the ghost of his mom. "Do we?" The trees shake again and Jack takes it as if she's shaking her head. He carefully watches the doorway. "It is who I think it is right, mom?" He asks softly. "Be still if it is." The child that still lives inside him holds out the imagination that the nature outside really is his mom, still with him.

The trees shake gently a few times before the wind miraculously dies down. Jack breaks into a wide smile as Aaron comes back with the game in hand.

"What?" His father asks suspiciously.

Jack just shakes his head. "Nothin" He replies nonchalantly. The tree backs him up with another shiver, making Aaron roll his eyes and start the game with no other thought cast to his ‘date’.

Word count :2200

tag list : @lonelychicagos @84hotpockets @serqueljisbon @loriprentiss @velvetblackness @castielryan

If you would like to be added or removed from the taglist, just DM me ❤️

[dysfunctional-family-fight]

Propaganda for the Fey Family

CW: murder

"The Feys are spirit mediums and leadership is hereditary; Maya is next in line and Morgan has tried to Get Rid of her twice (once by framing her for murder and another by actually murdering her), in order to make Pearl the new leader instead. Pearl is 8. Misty disappeared almost twenty years ago and left behind two kids, she was assumed dead but was actually living a fine life and awkwardly spying on her kids, one of whom did not recognize her when they came face to face for once. Mia abandoned the family in search of Misty and was murdered before ever finding her. Dahlia and Iris are Morgan’s kids from another marriage, and Dahlia was part of Morgan’s plans to murder Maya, while Iris… tried to prevent it but in a very ineffective way that ultimately ended with Misty getting murdered instead. It’s noteworthy that near the end of these games Maya says she wants absolutely nothing to do with the Fey clan anymore"

misty fey disgraces the fey clan and abandons her then-adolescent children, mia and maya, to go into hiding for seventeen years

said adolescent children were put in the care of morgan fey, misty fey’s sister, who actively hates both misty and her kids due to fey clan politics (misty’s kids were the successors to the fey clan and rightful leaders)

dahlia and her twin sister iris were abandoned by misty because they lacked spiritual prowess

heavily implied that pearl fey, misty’s youngest daughter, suffered abuse of some sort due to misty’s strict child raising tactics

honestly everything related to dahlia and her sister. girlies are fucked up. lots of murders and coverups and lies > oh yeah misty tried to have maya killed multiple times so that pearl could inherit the fey clan

canonically a lot of marriages fail in the fey clan because it’s an extremely matriarchal society, leading to pearl fey developing an unhealthy obsession with fairytale romances due to only ever seeing toxic and failed marriages in her life

i am SURE there is more fey clan politics but. listen. is this not enough. is the fey clan not fucked up enough

"IMMENSELY fucked up family based on the idea of spirit channeling, the familial power that's passed down through the women of the family. The most powerful of them gets to be the "main bloodline" and be the master of Kurain Village where they live, so there's intense power plays at work!

Misty and Morgan are sisters, and Morgan was originally going to be the master until it turned out she didn't have enough power. Then, Misty left the village due to a perceived failure and subsequent widespread ridicule, leaving her two daughters Mia and Maya in her (controlling, murderous) sister's care!!! Morgan had her own daughters, Dahlia and Iris, who were twins, but their father took them away, and Morgan LET HIM because they didn't have enough spirit power to become master :/ So she started plotting to kill Mia and Maya in order to become the main bloodline again, wanting her youngest child Pearl to become the master instead. All for power! And her new husband left too, just like all the other men!

Mia eventually left the village and got murdered by someone else, leaving Maya to be the lone member of the main family left. But Dahlia had already found Mia and developed a grudge against her. Dahlia is extremely fucked up (I love her tho) and murdered several people and also forced Iris to participate in her crimes sometimes. Iris is a good person overall but they sure are dysfunctional!! And then Dahlia (after being executed for her crimes) was able to come back as a ghost because Morgan hatched a plan to use Dahlia to kill Maya!! This is the second time Morgan has tried to get rid of Maya!!! And Morgan uses Pearl, who is, like, 9 years old, to do it, trying to get Pearl to channel Dahlia's spirit. This only fails because others, including Misty and Maya herself, channel Dahlia first, and Misty dies during it without even properly talking to her daughter she hasn't seen since Maya was a very young child...

Just... a very messy family full of people with their own goals. They may not all WANT to be the master of Kurain, but they're all haunted by the family legacy hanging over them constantly <3"

[phoenixiancrystallist]

Month 4, day 26, Keen gets better defined gauntlets and I finally put those Rheddig skeleton pictures I've been taking to use! :D Turns out that's not a helmet, it's a mask! Don't ask me how it stays on, I'm assuming like sticky tack or something (I'm joking, it's probably a combination of "the designers didn't think about that" and "who cares? It looks cool!" Both of which are more common design choices than you might think!)

Reference images under the cut, warning for skelebones

Poor bastard's neck fused with the stairs ): Probably not a pleasant way to go

Anyway, its a super interesting design, clearly meant to be intimidating! The eye-like designs are actually far above the eye socket, because they're not actually eyeholes! The eye holes are the two little slits you can see below the eye-shaped decorations. And yes, you can see out of those slits! It was a common design in certain styles of armor, because it afforded the eyes the most protection while still allowing some, albeit limited, vision. They're not wide enough to get an arrow through them (although you can still be blinded by the arrow splintering and piercing your eye), for example, but they are wide enough and sit close enough to the face that they don't obstruct much of your vision. These guys are probably foot soldiers, because even though you can still see out of those slits, they kind of fuck up the kind of distance viewing an archer or artilleryman would need. This particular design is more decorative than combat-practical, considering that massive blind spot in the center of their vision thanks to that beak, but it looks really cool and tells me something nifty about Rheddah's culture and priorities when it comes to combat.

Specifically, it tells me that Rheddah values intimidation as a valid battle tactic. Look at this thing! Look at how far up the eye motif is on the mask, and how hard to spot those slits are. First, it'd be fucking terrifying to see these fellows bearing down on you, armed with pikes. Or at least I assume the pikes I've seen lying around these guys are theirs, but they might belong to Sila's soldiers. Or it's the same design regardless of nation of origin; I mean why design two kinds of pole-arm weapons when one works just fine for your environmental story telling purposes? It's not like a very specific nerd is going to trawl through and photograph every tiny detail that she sees! That would be absurd!!!

...ahem, anyway. Where was I going with this? Oh, yeah!

Without the rest of the Rheddig field uniform to go off of I have no way of knowing, but based entirely on these battle masks, I'm fairly sure Rheddah likes to use optical illusions to their advantage in battle as well. Because of where that eye motif is situated, their soldiers seem taller than they actually are, and in the heat of battle that split second of "wait those aren't eyes" can make or break a combat encounter. Something like this can fuck with perception just enough that your opponent will be slightly off in where they aim their attacks, and a well-trained soldier taking this into account can certainly use it to his advantage. There's also, like, someone's aiming for your eye? No they're not, my eyes are down here, asshole!

Oof, I had more to say about this than I thought I did, and I have more to say, but it's past my bedtime, I've had a stressful day, and I am the sleepy tireds, so I'm off to bed. Good night my loves! I shall return to gush about various designs in this game another day!

[sophieswundergarten]

Does anybody remember the weird and excessively long post I made in the middle of the night earlier this week about S. Q. being psychic? Well I just did, so here's round two:

Once he shows up at the Benedict household it becomes highly apparent that he's psychic. The kid himself isn't aware of it, since he didn't talk to that many people at the Institute, so there's a little confusion at first by how strangely he's acting. At least, until Constance walks over and is like "Reynie, why didn't you tell anyone he's psychic? That seems like it would have been an important detail to mention.", at which point there's dead silence. S. Q. is certain that he's not psychic, and says so emphatically, until Mr. Benedict points out that he's been automatically covering his ears since Constance made her announcement, despite no one having said a word.

He sheepishly lowers his hands, at which point Constance grabs his arm and pulls him upstairs to her room (Which, while being close to the adults', is her private space, and she know's everyone will stay away while they decide what to do). She tugs a weighted blanket off her bed and shoves it at him, waiting until he's settled before asking questions.

Constance: "So, you can hear people's thoughts."

S. Q.: "Kind of? I guess. I haven't been around a lot of people before, so it hasn't been as obvious."

Constance: "But you can sense it now?"

S. Q.: "Yeah. I can still kind of hear everyone from downstairs, but it's not that bad, now." [He winces before looking curiously at her] "Yours aren't as loud, though."

Constance shrugs: "That is because I am dampening them. Can you not do that?"

S. Q.: "No, I can't really do anything. I didn't know that this was a thing until just now."

Constance: "Right. Well," [She closes her eyes, tilting her head slightly in concentration] "How is that? Better?"

S. Q., quietly surprised: "Yeah.Yeah, actually." [He looks toward the door] "How did you do that? I can barely hear them anymore."

Constance: "It is something I was experimenting with on the island, with the Emergency messages and everything. I won't be able to do it very much, though, so we'll have to find another method."

S. Q., nodding: "Okay. Thank you. You don't need to do it, though. I'll be able to figure it out on my own."

Constance, staring at him with disdain: "Right, and you're going to be figuring it out like you did downstairs? You'll go through life with your hands over your ears?"

S. Q., making a face: "Good point. Um, what do you do when things get too loud?"

So Constance stays with him for a while, sharing various tactics to quiet his mind (Using physical sensations to ground, reading with someone, and journaling among them). After a bit, Rhonda is elected to go and check on the two of them. S. Q. is doing a lot better, and so he agrees to come back down and talk to Mr. Benedict about everything. The other kids have been asked to go wait in the backyard for a bit, but Constance stubbornly stays with S. Q. It is decided that, since he obviously needs someone to help him, he's going to be staying with them for a while. He can live in one of the rooms that's further from the center of the house, and Constance and Mr. Benedict (as the only people remotely close to an authority on the subject) will work with him on how to control the constant influx/outflow of thoughts. S. Q., luckily, had grabbed one of Curtain's notebooks before leaving, so they have that to go off of. And, with a little bit of time, he gets better.

It goes much smoother because when words aren't helping Constance is able to simply shove the concept into S. Q.'s brain. (This doesn't make her sick because a) She isn't changing his thoughts, just adding information, and b) S. Q. is aware and open to it; he wants her to do it) The best bit is that, after a few weeks of working at it, S. Q. is comfortable being around the rest of the family most of the time. But he and Constance don't stop having entire silent conversations, so they'll be in a room full of people and suddenly someone notices that Constance has been really quiet, only to find her apparently engaged in a staring contest with S. Q. It's great.

[twoidiotwriters1]

Copycat: Genesis —(Marvel Fem!Oc)

A/N: I loved writing these chapters bc Cat is always surrounded by men and I was desperate to get her out of that 🤧-Danny

Words: 1,322

Phase Six Masterlist

Previous Chapter // Next Chapter

Listen to: ‘YOU AGAINST YOURSELF’ -by Ruel

xv: Miss Williams Holds Herself Accountable

"I do not need this shit right now!" Riri snatched papers from the board. "I swear to God, I was doing so well! Goin' to class on time! I must be dumb as hell— real dumb to think the princess of Wakanda and a young Avenger gonna show up at my doorstep and then shit about to pop off!"

Cat looked at her freaking out remembering how Peter had reacted when Tony had gone to his apartment to recruit him. It was a different world then, smaller.

"I think that I'm actually gonna take my chances with this merman— because at least he never brought the FBI to my garage!"

"I like her," Cat sentenced.

"Hey! Namor sank an entire ship of CIA operatives because of your little machine," Okoye informed her. "So those popo out there, are the very least of your worries."

"Oh, man," Cat muttered. "Is it wrong that I kinda like that Namor guy too?"

"Remember who's making your suit, Copy," Shuri warned her, then spoke to Riri. "Listen, we need to work together to get out of here. General, they've got us surrounded, maybe we should just split up?"

Okoye laughed. "Out of the question. Does this vehicle work?"

Riri made a face. "No."

"She's lying."

"Hey!"

"I'm sorry, you're not the one that's paying me," Cat shrugged.

"Everything in this lab works," Shuri pointed at the next option. "Including this bike."

"Don't even think about it," Okoye warned her. "Besides, there are four of us."

"Three of y'all. I'm takin' this."

Cat looked up and she felt a strange mix of emotions at the sight.

"You built one..." she said in awe.

"Whoo! I knew it! Don't tell me that you built this in two months!"

Riri chuckled. "I spent years on this. On and off... you okay?"

The mutant blinked back the tears. "Yeah! Jeez, I don't know... sorry, give me a minute..."

"Man, is it that bad?" Riri said worryingly.

"No," Cat turned back to her. "No, I just... Tony... it's a good-looking suit."

"You met Tony Stark?"

"He raised her," Shuri said. "All the Avengers did. Excuse her if she gets emotional. Have you flown it yet?"

"That thing can fly?" Okoye asked skeptically.

"There's an entire youtube channel dedicated to sightings of me."

"Spider-man and I had one of those when we first started."

"Didn't Spider-man come way before you did?"

"Riri, don't get on my bad side."

The lights went off abruptly. Cat activated M.O.U.S.E.

"Come!" Shuri handed the young girl a com, and Cat linked hers to their signal. "So we can communicate—"

"Don't try to scurry off—"

Cat nudged Riri forward. "You better soldier on, kid."

"You sure you good with what you got?" The girl asked her.

"Those are just men," Cat drew out her claws. "I won't even need my knife."

"The tactical unit will breach the entrance in three, two..."

"It's so nice to be back!" Cat whispered giddily.

"One."

The doors burst open.

"FBI DON'T MOVE!"

Cat teleported out of sight and reappeared behind one of the agents. She heard Riri igniting her repulsors. "Stay where you are!" Copycat pushed the man toward Riri's line of vision and the girl shot with no hesitation.

"Go little girl!" The mutant cheered. Cat disarmed the next guy kicking him in the face. Shuri got out of the car and activated her A.I., which drove Okoye out of the workshop while the woman shouted at her to get her out. "You'll be in trouble for that!" Cat teased her.

"Shut up and hop in!" Shuri shouted.

"Yes, your highness!"

Cat elbowed a guy and stole his gun, then kicked him on the crotch and shot him four times, though she pointed at his bulletproof vest. Another person attacked her but Cat seized them by the jacket and lifted them in the air, tossing them to the other side and knocking down two other agents in the process.

"Cat, stop playing we need to go!"

Copycat teleported one more time and landed on the back of the bike, she wrapped her arms around Shuri. "Can I drive?"

"If you find a way to switch seats in the middle of a car chase!"

Cat laughed. "It's like you don't know me."

"Griot! Give me a visual!" Shuri used a small elevation on the road to gain speed and caused two police cars to crash.

"That was amazing!" She exclaimed.

"Next one's all for you," Shuri replied.

"I'm calling dibs on the armored car," she joked.

"Okoye we're on our way to you!" The princess announced.

"Who's with you?"

"The Heathen!" Cat said happily. "We're having fun!"

"That is not a good thing!"

"Police car ahead!" Copycat announced. Shuri had to drift to avoid crashing against the car, and as she did, Cat jumped and teleported, landing on the vehicle's roof. "Go ahead!"

Shuri drove away from the scene, Cat stabbed the roof of the car with her claws, and with her free hand, she copied Wanda's powers and ripped the hood of the vehicle leaving it bare and at her mercy.

"Now, I'm no mechanic," with the scarlet mist, she seized the car's battery and pulled it out at once. "But I think this will do!"

The car came to a halt, Cat teleported and landed in front of Shuri.

"Holy shit!" The girl twisted the hand grip.

"Scoot over!" The mutant demanded.

"That's cheating!" Shuri let go and wrapped her hands around Cat's waist.

"I never play fair!" She replied. "I'm a better driver than you anyway!"

"You don't even have a license!"

"Irrelevant!" A car caught up with them and Cat smiled at the driver. "Hi, Okoye!"

"I don't understand why this country lets you walk around freely."

"I'm just really good at escaping prison!"

"We need to find an extraction point," the woman reminded them.

"There's one across the river," Shuri let them know.

"Hey, yo'— they're cutting off the bridge!" Riri said through the coms.

"I can't teleport you two at the same time," Cat informed them. "What now?"

"Princess, there is a surveillance drone locked onto you."

"How high?"

"Thirty thousand feet."

"I'm not sure I can go that high," Cat said worryingly. "I never teleport in that direction."

"Hang on," Riri said. "I got it..."

The girl went up without waiting for a reply, and Cat's hands started to sweat. "You got this, kid!" She told her. "Be fast!"

Riri took down the drone, but she was now falling aimlessly. Cat tense, preparing for teleporting to aid her at any moment. "Shuri?" She said.

"Wait," the princess replied. "Riri, are you okay?"

Silence.

"Riri!" Both young women shouted.

"Yeah," she breathed heavily, her suit turned on again. "I'm good!"

Cat shouted a couple of swear words but she was in the best of moods. "Good job, kid!" Ahead there were several police cars, Cat prepared to leave her spot again. "These will take a while," she mumbled.

"No worries," Riri told her, "I got a special delivery for y'all in three, two, one!" The drone landed directly on top of the police cars, clearing out the way. "You'll recruit me now?" The girl said humorously.

"Riri, if I ever make a team of super teens, you'll be the first I'll call!" Cat laughed.

"Nice one Riri!" Shuri exclaimed.

Cat drove faster across the bridge, Riri flew ahead of them but then she came to a sudden halt. At first, Cat thought her suit had malfunctioned, but then she heard something rolling down Okoye's car.

"Shit!"

A water bomb lifted the two transportations from the ground, Cat was quick to turn in the air and seize Shuri, she used Wanda's powers to shield the both of them and landed on the ground roughly. She left the princess there and ripped out the door of Okoye's car, Cat carried her out of her seat, also teleporting her to where Shuri was.

"Stay here," she said to Okoye, Shuri seemed to be a little stunned. "I'm checking on Riri—" The girl's body started to get dragged across the pavement, something was pulling her towards the water with a rope. "Hey!" Copycat set her free with her claws, she turned the girl around and examined her face. "Mouse, vitals?"

"Stable. She passed out."

"What the hell was that?" Cat looked over the edge of the bridge, but she couldn't see anything.

"That must be the merman," Okoye said grimly.

Next Chapter—>

Taglist.

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[ellenent]

Triangle Strategy spoilers!

Just finished playing the Golden route! Finally got my happy ending ;w;

If they showed us more about the wedding I would cry lol but yeah, I was so happy!! I know maybe this ending is too optimistic, but after seeing the other endings, I don't care lol

Also, I saw this and I'm like Anna is so short? kdjfkdj She looks like a child

Or Benedict is too tall? I wish we had the height chart for all of them, didn't know Serenoa is also higher than Frederica (in my head they had the same height)

I was wondering if they would reunite, I was happy that they did! Of course I would prefer like a scene where they meet again and talk "hey I'm your mother" (and I was expecting something like this in the battle with Lyla, but the dialog was kinda vague). And now I feel kinda bad for killing her in Frederica's route ops But Anna can still adopt Quahuag, she already got Decimal adopted lol I think I missed the final side story of him, but it's okay I think

I really liked the part that Serenoa finds another path option; I tried to think for myself what the solution would be, and I was pretty satisfied with the plan!

He looks so sad and small lol

The part where they divide the regiments caught me off guard; at first I was in panic, because I was so used to my favorite units, that I wasn't sure if I would succeed in the battles. Not knowing how they would go, which characters would fit the best the strategy and not being able to change them later got me nervous lol but I tried to balance all regiments (put at least one mage in each, one archer, etc) and leveled up the characters I didn't like to use that much (and later realize some were great actually!). The Frederica's regiment was the one without a unit, I never got to recruit Cordelia, so If I replayed the game again in the future, I would go for her! But the Benedict's battle was the hardest, at least I knew a strategy that would work best because of that one battle in the first chapters of the game.

And I really like how the battles went! I liked that even I couldn't edit the units, if you got a good strategy, you can work it out! I think I just didn't like that I couldn't edit the rings each character got (like Benedict had one that I wished to remove and give to a character in another regiment, so yeah makes sense we couldn't do this). Anyway I was happy to get out of my comfort zone for a bit!

The revelation of the hierophant was a little weird for me, because I already didn't expect it to be a person lol actually I didn't even think something was behind the curtain lmao to see it was a robot was the least of my problems. The battle against Idore was way harder on Frederica's route, this one was pretty okay after I killed all the automatons. I liked that all the characters had something to say to him lol

Overall, I really really enjoyed this game! I like tactics and political games like Fire Emblem, but I liked this even better; it feels more realistic, the gameplay is harder too (at least for me that likes to over level my units, TriStrat said I couldn't lol), the fact you have to make decisions all the time and they all have consequences is pretty nice and made my anxious lol convincing the others to vote for the path you wanted made me feel good lol I was a little afraid of playing this because I didn't like Octopath Traveler that much, so it was a great surprise for me! :D

I haven't done Benedict or Roland's route yet, but now I'm at 100 hours and I feel I must play another game right now lol and I don't know if I have the heart to do them actually lol I want to make some fanart aaaa I already read lots of fanfic, avoiding spoilers, but now I'm free lol

[lollytea]

Yeah exactly!!

My interpretation of Seperate Tides has always been Hunter's attempt to weasel out of the job of killing. Like he knows it has to be done but he isn't at that point of his character development to rebel outright. Belos ordered the creature to be slain and Hunter has to make it a reality one way or another. So, he tried transferring the job to someone else because he was dreading doing it himself.

He is very good at bluffing. He does it frequently. And I think his gentle nature is the reason he's gotten so good at it. It's a very sneaky tactic that makes him seem violent and intimidating, without forcing him to hurt anyone. And it gets results! So, he keeps at it. No wonder he's mastered it by this point.

Hunter had no intention of killing King. But no matter how fucked up his idea of it is, he does understand love. Because he's so loving himself. He's pooling with the stuff. He knows that people will go to great lengths for those they love, because it's what motivates him. So, he was certain Luz and Eda were gonna do the job when King's life was threatened.

He does something similar with Amity at the climax of Eclipse Lake. He didn't plan to hunt down Luz. But he knew the threat would work.

He makes threats constantly but it's rare that he executes them.

Like it's even used comedically. In Hunting Palismen, Luz is cockily shrugging off Hunter's attempts to intimidate her. Which just results in him declaring he'll zap her to dust and throw her into the sea. But as you get to know Hunter better as episodes go on, you can look back on this moment and know with full certainty that he had no intention of killing her. His threat came from such a juvenile place too. He just wanted to win the interaction and make her annoying ass shut up. Because, at his core, he's just a kid like her.

It's further implied later in the episode when Hunter sincerely advises Luz to stop dabbling with wild magic for her own safety. And it's like huh? Why does her safety matter, Hunter? Are you not blasting her to smithereens once this is over? Like. He wasn't gonna do it. He's very sweet. Every life, even that of a "criminal" like Luz, is important in his eyes.

And YEAH, Flapjack too. What always stuck with me is that Hunter had no reason to treat Flapjack so gently at the end of HP. Like he wasn't particularly attached to the bird at that point. This is just who Hunter is. Or, at least, who Hunter would like to be. (Even if he's not entirely aware of it.)

And it carries to Eclipse Lake. Hunter still doesn't like Flapjack. He actually finds him really annoying. He won't leave Hunter alone but that doesn't matter. Hunter would rather endure this ceaseless pestering than hand this bird over to Belos. There's probably a few reasons for this. Likely because Flapjack seems to trust Hunter wholeheartedly and he cannot bring himself to take advantage of that trust.

It also probably has something to do with Luz's final words to him. I feel like Hunter has probably repressed a lot of things when it comes to turning over palismen to Belos. Like I'm sure he's always known that it's not right. Hunter is not only kind but he's a very intelligent person, which comes into direct conflict with his brainwashing. Like it's obvious some things Belos does are not the actions of a good person. And Hunter is smart enough see that, but he's unable to confront the reality of the situation because it's just too unbearable which results in a lot of mental gymnastics in order to justify it.

But unwillingly becoming fond of Luz was the first crack in Hunter's armor. She very bluntly throws the reality of Belos devouring innocent palismen back in Hunter's face. Something nobody has ever acknowledged as wrong before. And Hunter already knew that, but coming from a person he actually respects and somewhat cares about, it makes a dent in his deliberate wall of ignorance. She then laments that she really believed that Hunter was good, that he could have been her friend, before bitterly declaring that he isn't. He's just the Golden Guard.

And this is absolutely the reason Hunter doesn't turn Flapjack over to Belos. This is what wakes him up. It's what makes him decide "Yeah, I'm not doing this anymore." He still can't admit that there was a moral reason behind it or that this is an act of rebellion against Belos and starts again with the mental gymnastics. (Claiming he's keeping Flapjack for "Observation and Experiments." Even though he's insisting on this excuse to nobody but himself.)

Hunter is a heavily brainwashed child soldier but he's so SO naturally kind and gentle that there's still love and mercy pouring out of him constantly, even when it's best interest to be devoid of it.

He's just. A very sad story.

You ever notice how Hunter, despite a lifetime of combat training, is actually pretty averse to violence? Like he'll fight. He absolutely will if it's necessary and also he's good at it. But it's never been his favored solution to a problem. It's always been something he had to do. Characters like Willow, Amity and even Luz, who are literally just highschool students, are shown to be way more comfortable initiating violence than Hunter is. And I love the eventual detail of them handling most of the offensive fighting, leaving Hunter with the defensive role. They deal the blows and he protects them, which he obviously prefers. Its nice.

[marzipanandminutiae]

If you ever want to rant (I think you have in the past??) about the specific issues surrounding language in history when describing queer romance (aka Chopin's friend issue) I know I would love to hear it at least

Oh boy. It's. It's a lot.

So, first of all, in case anyone didn't read my blog description or is very very new here, I'm a gay woman. And a big history geek. Which means I really do get how frustrating- even infuriating -the erasure of queer people from history can be. It has been, and unfortunately continues to be, a massive stumbling-block in society's recognition of LGBT identities as an inherent, universal part of humanity.

Moreover, it just makes you feel really, really alone. To think there was never anyone like you before the 1960s...yes, that's incredibly disheartening.

However. I'm also a museum professional. So I also get how careful we have to be when talking about the past.

The terms people use for queer identities have a history of shifting around a lot. And, for a large chunk of at least western history, same-sex attraction in particular was less an identity and more a behavior. Something you did, not something you were. So in expressing these feelings, people might be less likely to label themselves than to just talk about what they were doing. Which means we don't even have preferred labels for them during their lifetimes, much less within the modern framework of queer identity.

Complicating things still further, the old Straight 1950s Historian rallying cry of "FRIENDS WERE MORE AFFECTIONATE BACK THEN!!!" is actually true. I mean, yeah, in some contexts it's a silencing tactic used to erase obviously queer relationships. But it's also just a real fact about western platonic friendships, for a long time. I have seen a lot of 19th-century primary sources to indicate that, yes, a woman could kiss her literal platonic female BFF on the lips and not have it mean anything sexual or romantic. In some eras and places, that applied to men, too. Pointing that out in the proper context is not erasing queer lives, because there are no known queer people involved.

And let's talk about "friend." The r/sapphoandherfriend crowd gets VERY torqued about this one. Let anybody with any hint of same-gender romance/sexuality be called the "friend" of someone they had a relationship with, and the gates of hell are flung wide. Again, this is another one that CAN be erasure, but definitely isn't always.

Straight married couples used to refer to each other as "my friend" or "my dearest friend" or whatever, all the time. Obviously society wouldn't use that term for them, except in poetic descriptions. But if you have a culture where "friend" can have connotations beyond "platonic bestie," you just might get queer couples also applying it to each other. And at that point, it might well be the only term we know for sure a given couple used. So what are we supposed to do but use their terms, describe what they did, and let the reader interpret that information?

"But you can tell what they'd call themselves today!" Sometimes. Sometimes we can't.

Anne Lister, for example, clearly and exclusively loved women. She also incorporated masculine elements into her gender presentation, sometimes used "male" nicknames, and felt strongly about that. We use she/her pronouns for her now, and call her a woman, because that's how she referred to herself. But given the modern spectrum of available terms and identities, would she still think of herself the same way? We don't know. All we can do is use the information these people give us, and their chosen self-descriptors, unless it's EXTREMELY clear-cut.

Finally, as a queer person working in the historical sector, it's incredibly depressing to me to see other queer people talking about how "historians erase queer identity" as a blanket statement. Because we're here! We're real! We're trying our best to uncover and amplify the stories of our ancestors, because we know how awful erasure feels! Don't minimize our work like that.

And don't say you want acknowledgment of queer people in history, then turn around and shit on it because it doesn't always fit into neat, modern Identity Boxes.

[ppgxrrblove]

I am honestly glad monster high is officially been killed...the cgi child like reboot was okay, I didn't have a problem with it at all, it fit the target audience 100%

but the new reboot they're doing is just a woke, satanic - well woke is satanic in its core definition, if your a Christian you'll understand this, for those who don't understand - Satan, lucifer is woke himself. All of the woke hot garbage agenda comes from him, "shocking I know" lol - anyway, back to the topic; they changed possibly more characters personality, changed who they are originally to fit the woke agenda they even changed one or more character sex - to again please the woke sex cult, to be exact...and I honestly believed back in the day till this date..until I found out through reddit fanatics that it has always been a theory including the doll community as well - that it was true that clawdeen is bisexual, and...I forgot the rest lol cause of this ugly as heck live action movie, it was the only reason how I remembered this old news discussion.

But as I stated already it was false, it was made up by the fanatics that desperately wanted to project their personal life styles onto a children's TV show a bunch of adults - don't try to make up excuses that teenagers were the ones that asked for this a lot of times when they weren't, I still remember those early day comments and majority of the children viewing MH were more interested in how the show progressed, who Frankie gonna ditch next, or who she is gonna actually end up with, to making a huge stack of monster high oc - that's what majority of the children that watched MH were focused on, yes I know of the woke parents indoctrinated they're children towards their woke ideologies, that they will be asking for such stuff, however, they weren't as many as the regular child audience.

Nonetheless, it doesn't surprise me that the creator of MH is lgbt, - I found out by the time the lady gaga doll collab released, it hit me right there and then - of course, the books "hinting" it honestly more like treasure hunting hiding it because nick ain't about that life at said time this was occuring, they don't want to get again caught by grooming situation *cough* icarlycreatorandpeopleonnick , but yeah, i can see why they told the groomer - I mean creator for MH to not put that into the children's TV show back in the day...until they broke it off this year with loud house..really terrible show, I believe there may have been a before first lgbt stuff on nick content?? But that's the only one that I believe was the first time they've done that towards going on with there other grooming tactics lol.

Now the gromreator...trying to fuse groom + creator here e.e....not working, creating a monster name hahaha....- had stated on his Instagram that he was just gonna slap all types of grooming(making the entire cast well some of them, lgbt) content originally for MH but nick again didn't want to around said time - they need to rail in those fishes before they do such acts. So knowing that this happened...it sucks cause I love monster high, my first favorite monsti was Frankie stien until I learned about her just being a terrible, cheap dollar teenage whore...yeah...once you realize this- it..it don't look right even if they try to 'fix' it by potentially making her love interest be that unicorn Grey rainbow hair guy - sadly it didn't even last, like jeez they really destroyed her character on the relationship department and back then up until before this entire reboot live thing occurred people despised the heck out of Frankie and now people love her(note; reddit go to r/monsterhigh and scroll past until you find the post about Frankie being none binary - look at the comment section, and I do believe there is another one as well discussing it too) - not kidding, because she is none binary..because of that..they will ditch the real og Frankie- accept..like you're just trying to half butt clean a stain that has been left there for too long mate - it ain't gonna work for those who can see, smell the pandering, and yes they should've created a new character for that instead of grabbing an already existing character which really does fit with draculaura but we shall get to her in a minute, - fairly it doesn't really matter the real Frankie, will always be a skank, and a terrible ghoul nothing that you do will change about this character.

After me accepting that Frankie is like this, I drifted apart from the series, but, I did try my best to keep up with it by rewatching each web episode on their website back in the day. Thanks to me rewatching the episodes my love for drac, blew up - like drac, Gothic Victorian, Lolita cutie pie drac stole me away - I drew all my attention towards her until they gave her a wrong "boyfriend" ..sigh..I had hoped it would be someone else but yeah not into the whole pairing sorry, and clawdeen as well - I fell in love with her she was adorable, sassy and what made me love her even more was the matter of her being into fashion - her story progressing in the France movie was really sweet..but, that's not to state that I didn't like any of her outfits she wore cause boy oh there were times that i just couldn't stand some of the outfits at all she wore. I loved some but others ew.

Now in the live action, as I stated before I would be mentioning said quote i mentioned how they should have created a new character instead of stinking being lazy pieces of poop and taking an already beloved established character..again this a reboot to the series so..it doesn't surprise me but it disgusts me. They already *have* a witch character, so what do they do with draculaura? For those who don't know yet, they swapped her entire characteristic of what she does - just slap the witch gross sticker on her and call it a day..I am not gonna lie that I was upset about it but I already had moved on from it since i know that will never be og draculaura, even though..in the game that I have for MH I find out that she vegan..I forgot about her profile bio it's been so long and my memory ain't well at times, so me realizing it again, is yeah..not into her being vegan like I get it she's trying to avoid blood but she can still eat meat just cooked - i never understood why she couldn't eat cooked meat..- it doesn't have no blood at all lol plus it's coming from animals.. while clawdeen got 0 problems eating meat with the rest of the characters as well as ghoulia being a zombie xD - it just I don't get it.

...With that being stated, I am done here, MH was a good show, it was fine while it lasted for me, now I have since moved on from it..though I will never move on from my favorite ghouls, I already have cut ties with media that has woke imagery in it..that includes og MH it had way too much of it, now the new one is gonna have a ton on blast it's just not my tea anymore, I rather continue following the lord then just engross myself with something that is vile.

[procrastinatingsapphictrash]

Already dating

Word count: 1618

Genre: Probably fluff, idk really

Pairing: Natasha x gn!reader

Warnings: None (let me know if I need to add any)

Request: could you maybe write something with Natasha x male reader (if your comfortable, otherwise you can write it with female or gender neutral) where Natasha blushes when the reader compliments her in front of the team and the team immediately goes crazy and does everything in their power to get them together, only to find out they've been dating all along?

Summary: Steve and Tony (mostly Tony) lock you in an elevator to admit your feelings, not knowing you’re already together.

A/n: Thanks @mochamoff for the request, sorry it took so long to do it! I’m writing this authors note over a week before I’m posting the fic which is unusual because usually I post within twenty four hours of finishing. Anyways it feels nice to be on a break and this fic being posted means I’m officially back which I’m excited for. To be honest this fic isn’t the whole team, just Tony and Steve, but I’m pretty happy with the way it turned out so I hope you all enjoy reading!

“Next time you have to listen to me in the field Stark.” Steve says as soon as everyone is settled into their place on the jet.

“Actually I don’t, you have absolutely no power over me and as much as you want to be the leader of this team you are not so stop acting like it.” Tony snaps back.

“Someone has to step up and lead.” Steve tells him. “It’s not like you could do any better, you would probably mess things up.”

“Maybe I would, but I would do a hell of a lot better than you are doing.” Tony says. “You like to pretend you’re all high and good and above us but who made you leader? Nobody. You crave control so you took it.”

“I did what needed to be done.”

You watch them snap back and forth at one another a few more times, rolling your eyes at Natasha. She gives you a small smile to show that she’s amused and turns her attention back to your two teammates whose argument has only gotten more and more heated.

“Y/n what do you think?” Tony asks, catching you off guard.

“About what?”

“About who would be a better leader for the team.” he explains. You think for a moment and they both stand as tall as possible (in Tony’s case it isn’t tall at all) and puff out their chests. You scoff, the male ego is so big, even in men who are good and try to do the right thing.

“Neither.” you decide.

“Neither- but the team needs a leader, you have to pick someone.” Tony splutters.

“Just because I don’t think the best leader is either of you doesn’t mean I don’t think the team needs a leader.” you tell him. How one of the smartest people in the world can’t figure that out for himself is beyond you.

“So who would you choose then?” Steve asks, confused.

“Natasha obviously.” you say, smiling at her. The corners of her mouth tug up slightly and even that small movement makes you feel proud.

“No offense, but Natasha???” Tony asks, seemingly outraged. “Why?”

“Well first of all she doesn’t have a fragile male ego like you dumbasses.” you tell them. “But it’s more than just that. She’s smart, both book smart and street smart. She can hack into computers and memorize information easily and knows how to blend in, or to get people to like her. She is more rational than the both of you combined but is also good at making decisions on the fly. She is an excellent fighter and can keep track of strategies and she has connections in and out of the government, with backup plans for almost every situation. Not to mention she has an amazing heart and don’t argue like some other people on our team tend to do. And of course she’s absolutely gorgeous but that doesn’t have anything to do with it.”

You wink at her at the end of your mini speech and are surprised to find her cheeks noticeably pink. She can’t help the smile that creeps onto her face when she thinks over your words.

“Abort mission, Romanoff is blushing and smiling, I think I might be about to die.” Tony states obnoxiously.

“Shut up, you’re just annoyed that she likes me better than you.” Natasha tells him, taking a breath to (mostly) collect herself.

“You’re scary when you’re happy. I haven’t seen you like that before.” he says. “Are you in love with Y/n or something?”

“Shut up.”

Tony smirks. “Make me.”

Natasha takes one threatening step towards him and that’s all it takes for him to back away, stuttering out apologies and mumbling under his breath about how Natasha is too scary to be a team leader. Natasha’s scare tactics do seem to work though because he doesn’t speak to anybody but himself for the rest of the ride home.

As soon as the jet touches down you and Natasha exit, heading straight to the room where you are supposed to be debriefed. Steve tries to follow but Tony grabs his arm to let him know to hold back a second.

“I know I joke but I honestly think they’re in love with each other.” Tony tells him. “I didn’t see it before today but there’s no way Y/n’s speech was platonic, who memorizes lists of reasons why they like their friends, not to mention their flirty wink at the end. And then Natasha, she’s scary but she was acting weird and happy around Y/n.”

“I hate to say this but I agree with you and they would make a cute couple.” Steve says. “But we should probably catch up now.”

Tony takes Steve’s words as an opportunity to stop being serious and become obnoxious again. “Onward dear captain, lead the way fearsome leader, how ever could I-”

“Tony I’m trying to be polite but you are making it very hard.”

---

“Tony no.”

“Tony yes.”

“That is a horrible idea.”

Tony opens his mouth in outrage. “I think it’s a pretty good idea actually.”

“I won’t work.” Steve counters.

“Well I think it well and need I’m the only genius here.” he says smugly.

“You can’t force love!” Steve tells Tony, running his hand through his hair in frustration.”

“Ah, ah, ah,” Tony says, “I’m not forcing love, they are already in love. All I’m doing is giving them a little push.”

“By locking them in an elevator?” Steve asks in a deadpan voice.

“Exactly.”

“You can’t just go around locking people-” Steve starts to say but he gets cut off by Tony.

“Shhhhhhh, hi Y/n, hi Natasha.”

“Hi guys, what are you up to?” you ask, obvious to what was going on seconds before you entered the room. Natasha eyes them suspiciously because they are acting weird, holding their bodies stiffly, which means they are hiding something.

“We were just about to head down to the training room, want to come?” Tony lies smoothly while Steve shakes his head in the background.

“That sounds good,” you reply, “you want Tasha?”

“Okay.” she agrees, still eyeing both of them, Tony in particular suspiciously.

“Great!” Tony says and starts to walk towards the elevator and the rest of you follow him, Steve trying to convince himself that going along with Tony’s plan is doing no harm.

“Ladies first.” he says, stepping off to the side and giving a big flourish with his arm. It’s weird but then again Tony is always weird so you don’t think too much of it, stepping into the elevator. As soon as Natasha follows you in he orders Jarvis to close and lock the doors and to prevent the elevator from moving and then pulling up a screen so he can watch you.

“You better run when I get out of here!” Natasha yells. “You too Steve!”

“You’re going to thank me later.” Tony says. “Steve, why don’t you explain why we locked them in.”

“Um,” Steve hesitates, not knowing where to start, “well we think that you two need to talk about, um, feelings.”

“Feelings?” you ask, confused, while realization dawns over Natasha’s face.

“Um, yeah feelings.” Steve responds, feeling very awkward and hoping this works so he didn’t do all that for nothing.

“They don’t know we’re dating and they’re trying to get us together.” Natasha leans over and whispers in your ear before straightening back up and talking to Tony again. “I didn’t take you for such a romantic Stark.”

“What? I’m not- romantic me? Pepper says I’m the least romantic guy she’s ever been with.” he splutters, trying to regain his masculinity.

“And that is not a compliment.” you tell him. “But for some reason even though ‘you aren’t romantic’ you wanted to get us together.”

“Maybe I did,” he says. “but you have to admit that my plan is amazing and it's totally working.”

Natasha snorts “What part of this conversation screams working to you?”

“Well you haven’t killed Y/n yet and neither of you have denied your feelings so it’s obviously working. I expect a thank you speech dedicated to me at your wedding.” He says arrogantly.

“There will be no speech.” Natasha tells him.

“But there will be a wedding?” He asks, wiggling his eyebrows suggestively and Steve has to look away because it looks ridiculous.

“Hopefully.” you say, teasing Tony with your vagueness but also making Natasha smile as she thinks about what that might be like.

“Told you my plan would work.” Tony brags to Steve before telling Jarvis to release you from the elevator.

“Your plan sucked.” Natasha tells him. “We were already dating dumbasses.”

She grabs your hand and pulls you out of the room as Steve and Tony stare after you, shocked.

“Did you know about this?” Tony asks, looking at Steve with suspicion.

“Not at all.” Steve answers, his mouth still half open. In hindsight it should have been obvious. Of course Natasha wouldn’t want to be open about her dating life right away, she likes her secrets way too much.

---

“You owe me fifty bucks Y/n.” Natasha tells you once you’re out of earshot.

“Seriously?” you whine.

“You said they already knew but they didn't, so pay up.” She holds her hand outwards expectantly and you both laugh.

“Later.” you tell her. “There are more important things to do now.”

“Hmm, like what?” she teases gently, taking a step closer to you. Your breath catches because you still can’t believe you are dating someone this beautiful. You match her halfway and pull her into a deep kiss, only pulling back when you need to breath.

“This.”

---

Taglist:@fayhar@xxxtwilightaxelxxx@acertainredhead@madamevirgo@megaqueenmaeve@cherryblossomskye@aaron-despair@chickenhavewisdom@emril-osvigne@nyankitty987@agathaharkness-simp@midnight-lestrange@thewidowsghost@nyx-aira@stephanieromanoff@satxnsupreme@likefirenrain@wlwlovesreading@stop-drop-and-drumroll@peggycarter-steverogers@casperlikej@redswing@mochamoff@king-star@blackbat2020

[jewfrogs]

i forgot to say first and foremost also fucking weird as all hell

so i ripped down one of those stupid zionist propaganda posters which was a mistake and a bad choice not because it was wrong but because it was useless and not worth what happened but sometimes we do not think through our actions. also because there was a wild amount of tape

but anyway as i was doing that this man came up and started standing near me and sort of talking to me (chastising me) and i was ignoring him but after i put the paper in the bin i started to walk away and he grabbed my arm and pulled me back (which fucking hurt) and was yelling at me to clean up my mess because i had not noticed one single small scrap of paper that fell. and after i picked that up he told me i was going to get a citation for littering which is when i properly processed that he was a campus cop

he took my id and made me wait there with him for 15 minutes for two other campus cop cars to come (there was one funny moment after he had my id when he asked "however i identify" because he "didn't want to be disrespectful" yeah man grabbing me and bruising my arm is all good but misgendering wouldve been way too far for sure), because apparently a single scrap of paper was serious enough to necessitate the presence of 3 cops, and once they came they issued me a ticket for littering (after i lied about my address lol) with a $150 fine

but there was a guy who was also watching and he had gone to get someone who works with an organization that helps people deal with bullshit legal charges? and after the cops let me go they came up and checked in and gave me the number of the place which was incredibly kind (i was almost openly sobbing by this point i was so overwhelmed)

and i kid you not the fucking second after she gave me the number another cop came up and talked to the other cops and they went "actually we take that back. we are giving you a warning instead" and took the ticket back

so i assume the whole thing was a scare tactic meant to intimidate and humiliate me. which unfortunately fucking worked and sucked

had a really fucking stupid and scary law enforcement encounter

[vdlest]

You matter

Characters:

Bucky Barnes x Girlfriend!Reader

Summary:

You and Bucky together with the other Avengers went to Florida for a mission. When your ex-suitor were also in the same area, your boyfriend, Bucky Barnes, is triggered by your ex's words. How can you make him feel better?

Warning:

Jealousy

A little bit of smut

Swearing

You and the rest of the Avengers are staying in the safehouse for a few days now. This mission lasts longer than you think. But since you are in a mission with your Bucky, everything seems alright. However, things became off-handed between you and Bucky upon the arrival of your ex-suitor, Frank, who is currently working under Stark Industries.

It turns out that Frank has been living in Florida for quite some time now, so Stark thought he'd be useful to this mission. On the other hand, you haven't seen Frank since high school and you must admit that you also liked him back then, but that's not important anymore since you're happy with your relationship with Bucky.

Speaking of Bucky, the guy clearly doesn't like Frank that much. He hates it when he is too confident when talking to you and the rest of the team. It's like he's showing you that he is better than Bucky, but you have no care or concern about how he thinks. All that matters to you are your work as an Avenger, your friends, and the love of your life.

"Sir, the information I gave you could be accurate if only Mr. Barnes here did not intervened and change the strategic plan I made based on my research," Frank said.

Everyone is in the dinning room for a meeting of what happened in yesterday's tasks.

"Excuse me," Bucky glared at Frank as he points himself, "Are you seriously blaming me for your inaccurate research?" he asked then he chuckled, "I am not the one who made that research, boy. So whether I intervened or not, your strategic plan could've worked out."

Whenever Frank and Bucky would be in the same room, a heated argument should be expected.

"Enough," Steve stopped Bucky and Frank, "We should just think of something else. We're running out of time already," he pointed out.

"Y/n and I could sneak off the building tomorrow morning and we'll give access to Barton and Banner," Wanda suggested.

"Yeah, I think the only way to get this mission done and over with is to use the "disguise & sneak off" tactic," you added in support of Wanda's suggestion. You turned to Steve, "Once Barton and Banner are in to hack the security system, the rest of you can take it from there."

Steve seemed to like your plan so he nodded and asked all of you to get the rest you all need because you have an early day tomorrow.

You left the dinning room alongside with the other Avengers, while Steve, Tony, Bruce, Clint, and Bucky are left inside the dinning room to finish their whiskeys that they started before the meeting. You're about to go to the kitchen to grab something to drink with Wanda and Nat when Frank approaches you.

"Hey Nat, Wanda, go ahead and find something to drink. I'll go catch up," you said to Wanda and Nat, they gave you a nod. Wanda gave you a warning look, she knows how jealousy and Bucky don't match up well enough. You faced Frank, "Hey, you need somethin'?" you asked him.

Frank smiled at you, "I was wondering if you want to go and visit a few places the day after tomorrow and before you and your friends go back home," he proposed.

You didn't want to be rude but you are not clearly into him anymore and you know that he isn't the guy you want to be with in visiting tourist places here in Florida. It's Bucky.

You clicked your tongue, "That's a very nice offer Frank, but I don't think it's a good idea."

His face turned into a disappointment, "It's Bucky, isn't it?"

You nodded, "Frank, Bucky and I are together. He's my boyfriend. I know things were pretty well between us during high school, but we didn't make it because it wasn't meant to be at all. So, let's just be friends and stay like that." You wanted to tell him about this since you got here in Florida, but he keeps on disregarding whatever you say about your relationship with Bucky.

Unknown to you, Bucky's near both of you and can actually hear your conversation with Frank.

"But y/n..." Frank moved closer to you and held both of your arms, "...he was a killer. He's the winter soldier. He killed millions of people."

You moved a step back away from him, making you free from his hands. You gave him a disbelief look upon moving away from him.

"You don't know him, Frank," you shook your head and glared at him, "You don't know who Bucky is. You may know him as the winter soldier but it wasn't him. He didn't have a choice when he did those awful things. He is the love of my life and the bad things you're telling me about him won't change how I feel for him. First of all, you have no right to judge him. You have no idea who he is."

Before Frank could say anything in reply to you, Bucky approached both of you. He stood besidd you as he give Frank a death defying stare.

"Say another word and I will break your neck. You'll see the winter soldier you are telling y/n about," Bucky said.

"See, y/n!" Frank said as he waved his hand to motion towards Bucky, "He killed lots of people from the past and he could do it again! He's a threat to your life, he's a threat to every man's life!"

You saw Bucky clenched his jaw and how his knuckles been wanting to punch Frank's face, but you immediately put your hands on his shoulder to calm him down. Steve, Tony, Bruce, and Clint came out of the dinning room and were already sensing not so good things between Bucky and Frank.

"Frank, I don't think it's advisable to go across my pal," Steve said as he drag Frank away from Bucky.

"Wait, Steve," you stopped Steve from dragging Frank away. You walked towards Frank and held him in his collar, his feet can't even touch the ground anymore as you lift him up in the air, "Bucky is not the winter soldier, he never was and he never will be. Put that in your mind. You understand?" when he did not answr you, you tightened your grip on him, "Do you understand?!" you repeated.

"Yeah, yeah! I understand." he answered.

The moment you put Frank down, Steve and Clint dragged him outside and talked to him.

You turned around to face Bucky, but when you're about to approach him, he walked away and went straight to your room.

"He's still sensitive about the winter soldier thing," Stark said behind you. He taps your shoulder before making his way to the kitchen where Nat and Wanda are, "You should go and talk to him. Make out after," he joked.

•••

You did not have to knock on the door of the room that you and Bucky shared in the safehouse, it is open and it is also your room anyway. When you entered the room, you found him near the window, staring outside and you could feel that he's thinking of something.

"You know what Tony asked me to do after I talked to you?" you closed the door behind you and rested your back against it, "He said we should make out."

It was just you, trying to lighten up the mood.

But he did not even dare to look at you. He is just staring at the glass window and what's outside.

"Bucky," you walked towards the edge of the bed, which is only a few inches away from where he is standing, "You know he's just trying to tear us apart. Whatever he said was all a lie," you reached for his hand to make him face you.

His eyes met yours, making you see how Frank's stupid and baseless words affected him. He has always been sensitive when someone is bringing up his past. He is not denying the fact that it was part of his past, but he also know that it wasn't him anymore.

You put his hand on your cheeks and leave a few kisses on his palm while your eyes are still with him, "No matter what happened in the past, it doesn't dictates who you are now. You are a different person from who was inside your head before. It doesn't even matter what happened in the past, only you and I matter. You matters, only you. So please, stop doing this to yourself over and over again," you said, almost in a pleading voice.

"I'm not affected by the fact that people are still seeing me as the winter soldier or who I was before, but I..." he kneel in front of you as he grabbed both of your hands, "...I am asking myself if I really do deserve you."

"You what?" you asked and you shook your head, "Bucky, come on. We're really doing this shitty conversation? Of course you deserve me. When you and I became a couple, there's not a day or any time of the day that I'd find myself smiling like a fool. Whenever you're out of my sight, in a mission or something, I'd find myself longing for you, your hug..." you pulled him towards you as you lay on the bed and putting him on top of you, "...your touch, and most of all..." you twisted your finger in his dog tag and pulled him closer to you, "...your kiss." you said before you kissed him on his lips.

You didn't have to wait, he kissed you back as soon as he felt your lips against his.

You found yourself deepening the kiss both of you are sharing, and few seconds later his hand moved to your waist and the vibranium one removed strands of hair blocking your face.

He pulled from your kisses as he caresses your face, "How did I get so damn lucky to have you, y/n?" he asked as he look into your eyes deeply.

You smiled, "We're both of lucky. We'll talk about your cocky attitude later, but for now..." you pushed yourself up and push him on the bed as you straddle him on his waist, "...I need you to do me."

He smiled as he pull your shirt up, undressing you and leaving you on your brassiere, "Oh, on the contrary..." he pulled himself up and unclasps your bra, "...I'm the only person who deserves you."

You grin but before you could say anything, he kisses you and claims your lips like a hungry beast and you're his last meal. While he's busy ravishing you with his lips, your hands are busy unbuttoning his shirt, but when you ran out of patience, you just rip it off.

Upon hearing the shattering sound of fabrics, he stopped kissing you, surprised with your aggressiveness, "Did you also learned that from Nat?" he asked.

You chuckled, "No, I learned that with you, asshole. Now stop talking, just do the work."

He pinned you against the bed, feeling the matress behind you as he slowly tug your pants down alongside with your panties.

"Spread your legs for me, and let me taste you, my love."

You obliged and spread your legs to the hungry man in front of you.

"This is gonna be a long night, so hang on and let me make it up to you," he said before he went down between your legs, remembering that Tony told you to make out, but you ended up doing a lot more. MORE.

-v.dl

[cherry-gemz]

Open Book: Part I

Summary: As the Assistant Librarian for a small town in Florida, you find yourself intrigued with an extraordinary little girl and her charming uncle. As each day goes by, you teach the girl about adventure and mystery with your love of books. Little do you know what's in store for you next.

Pairings: Y/N and Frank Adler

Rating: PG, all fluff

Word count: IDK, failed at the assignment 2k+ lol. So I split the fic.

Challenge Prompt: Write a story about someone trying to find the perfect birthday gift.

A/N: Happiest of birthdays dear @a-little-counter-esperanto. You are the bees knees and really a true gem! I'm so happy we've become friends - we have so many things in common it's cray. I'm wishing you all the love and happiness, sunshine! May you continue to have a fantastic birthday sleepover and enjoy being loved by all! Hope you enjoy the fic xx - Cherry

"Did you get the flowers?" Mary asked as she sat on the couch flipping through the tv.

Frank patted his chest and then his jeans in search of his keys.

"What?"

Mary kept changing the channels without a beat,"Frank. You're supposed to buy a girl flowers on the date."

Frank furrowed his brow, "Uh...no. Have you seen my keys? Really?"

Mary rolled her eyes, "She's not gonna kiss you goodnight."

He searched on the kitchen table and rummaged through old mail when a knock at the door interrupted his concentration. As he bee-lined to the door, Mary turned off the tv and hopped off the couch to grab her latest book she'd chiseled her way through for the week.

Frank swung the door open abruptly and started you as you stood at their doorstep.

"Hey! You made it, great!" Frank exclaimed. "Sorry, my head's a mess."

Mary now situated herself at the kitchen table and shouted over her shoulder, "It's because he hasn't been on a real date in over six months."

Frank turned red," What? No...I mean yes, but jeez, Mary. Remember we talked about how to read a room?"

He turned back to you, "Come in, come in. I'm just trying to find my keys."

You chuckled and nodded to the doorknob which held his set of keys and he smacked his forehead.

As you walked into the house, you noticed little knickknacks here and there on shelves. And books. Mountains of books everywhere. Piling on top of each other.

"Hi Mary," you smiled as she kept her back to you, nose deep in her book.

"Mary…" Frank scolded as he put his hands on his hips.

"Hi, Ms. Y/N."

You smiled as you approached her, "May I sit?"

She nodded in agreement and you pulled out a chair.

"I brought you something…" you say as you rummage through your canvas bag for your book on crabs. "Well, actually I was hoping you could help me...see…"

Frank smiled as he saw the two of you bonding. He caught himself admiring you more than he'd like to admit as he needed to head off to his date soon. He appreciated your assistance with babysitting Mary as the two of you first met at the local library. His date, Justine, was a waitress at the bar he would visit from time to time. While there was a chemistry between them, it was really just through vanity. With you, he had come to know you at a deeper level: the way you’d squint or furrow your brow when reviewing your clipboard. Or how adorable you’d look chewing on the cap of your pen when trying to finalize an email at your desk. He saw that you loved the color yellow, considering how many skirts and cardigans you’d paired together. And that you were a romantic at heart - the classics were your fave to read and how’d you get lost in historical facts when he had first asked you what your hobbies were. Seeing how a beautiful person you were, inside and out, he now regretted asking Justine out with you on his mind.

Mary's eyes scanned the books of quantum physics and mathematics. At first you thought perhaps she had another book instead, but as you watched her day in and day out, you were astounded at the tiny prodigy and her ability to ascertain such knowledge at her age. You'd correct the cataloging errors for the day and find her reading for enjoyment it seemed.

Then one day Frank arrived. Mary had always left on her own, but as if it were any old regular day, the handsome uncle came to retrieve his stellar niece. He had a warmness to him. His dark brown hair and beard complemented his face, one that was obvious in an overall attractiveness. And he was kind, he showed that by adopting his niece after her mother had passed away and truly nurturing her gifted talent. You learned he fixed boats for a living and lived not too far from the library. You smiled at the odd pair together, they somehow seemed to work however.

As you checked their books out, Mary tiptoed over the large walnut desk and glanced at you.

"You're pretty," she stated.

"Mary. What did we say?" Frank tsked, embarrassed, but didn't disagree with her observation.

"What? Frank, you told me that I need to state facts, rather than assumptions. And I am stating a fact that Ms. Y/LN is pretty. Do you think she's pretty, Frank?"

Frank coughed into his fist and blushed, you smirked, half wanting to know his answer, half laughing inside of how Mary was so blunt.

"Yes, Ms. Y/LN is very pretty," he replied and gazed at your eyes. He licked his lips and you had to turn away feeling flushed. You closed the last book and placed it in Mary's backpack.

"All set," you replied. "These are due on the 23rd."

Frank zipped up the backpack and slung it over his broad shoulder. "Thanks, we'll see you tomorrow."

"Oh?" You replied as Mary looked at you both attempting to assess the flirtation occuring before her eyes.

"Well, yeah, she loves it here, I mean. And we have a few other books to return."

"Yes, we'll see you tomorrow. Bye, Mary."

"Bye," Mary replied and skipped off.

Frank showed up every day after that. You found it endearing, but not wanting to read into something that wasn't there, you focused your attention on Mary. That only seemed to peak his interest further. While he had a knack for attracting women, his heart was never in it for the long haul since the minute they found out about Mary, they'd either run away from the possible responsibility, or Mary would run them off herself. But with you it was different. You were genuine and kind to Mary. Knowing quite well of her mathematical abilities, you would challenge her in other areas: art, zoology, history. You found that while she could read more college level books than any person you met in the small town, she still was a child wanting to learn about all other aspects of life. You'd sit together at a table: you, reviewing inventory spreadsheets for the latest book fair and her, immersed in some book that would put you to sleep at night.

"Frank, you should ask Ms. Y/LN out," Mary stated one day as the three of you sat at a table together. Frank practically choked and you shook your head, secretly wanting to say yes.

"Aw, Mary. Well, I bet Ms. Y/LN has guys lined up at her door every night."

"No, she doesn't," Mary replied as she turned a page of her book. Frank laughed and placed his hand on Mary's shoulder, pretending to shake her.

"Well, actually Ms. Y/LN…" he said as your heart skipped a beat.

"Y/N," you interrupted. "You can call me Y/N. I feel we're on a first name basis now considering you're here everyday."

“Y/N,” he smiled. His hair was more combed today. You had noticed that he seemed to be disheveled when you first met him, however either Mary’s tactics were rubbing off on him, or it was your pure imagination.

“Yes?” you piped. You haven't been regularly dating lately. There just weren’t many prospects these days. Not ones that could keep up with conversation, let alone intellect. So instead, you found yourself immersed with your favorite fictional characters in the sea of books you’d grown to know and love.

His brow furrowed, he seemed nervous and he picked at the edge of a book as he attempted to gather his thoughts.

“Do you have a favorite book?” Mary interrupted as Frank turned to her, but seemingly glad she saved him from embarrassment.

“Do I have a favorite book? Hmmm...” you thought and a childish smile appeared on your face. “I have many favorite books, Mary...The Velveteen Rabbit, The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe…”

“Yeah, but what’s like your most favorite book?”

You extended your hand out to her and she willingly accepted. Frank perked up his interest as he watched the two of you scamper off into the fiction area. Curious, he stood up and decided to follow. The two of you giggled quietly as you made your way around the columns, your free hand lightly ghosting over the spines of the books. The subtle scent of paper and dust permeated Frank’s sense of smell. He was more of an outdoorsy person nowadays as he had left behind his scholarly days teaching in Boston. It’s where Mary learned most from, his appetite to keep learning, vernacular, and wit . You slowed down and perused a row until you found your favorite book.

“Aha!” you exclaim and hid the book behind your back as Mary jumped up and down with excitement. “Now, I’m not sure if this is something you’d be interested in, it’s more for ten year olds in my opinion. However, I know you’re a very mature young lady and I find that you’d quite enjoy the story if you give it a chance.”

Frank smiled, perplexed as to what book could possibly be your favorite. You pulled the book from behind and showed Mary.

“Little Women,” she stated. “By Louisa May Alcott.”

“Yes. It’s a beautiful story, really. About sisters and the trials they endure during the American Civil War. There’s friendship, love, and growth.”

Mary bunched her nose, you could tell she was on the fence about whether she’d enjoy a story about fictional sisters and yucky love stuff. You started to pull it away, however she grabbed it from your hands. You laughed and looked at Frank who leaned onto the columns and folded his arms.

“Seems someone is wanting to expand their horizons,” he chuckled.

“So it seems,” you smiled back as Mary skipped off to return to the table leaving the two of you behind.

“I’m more of a Lord of the Rings man myself.”

“Really?” you responded playfully. “The Hobbit included, right?”

“Of course,” he scoffed. “I think I actually just read that one to be honest, I just wanted to impress you. I spent my time reading Calvin and Hobbes more, probably how Mary learned my sarcasm.”

You laugh and touch his forearm as a reflex, but quickly realize and pull away. The spark that you felt when you connected was undeniable. You felt butterflies with him standing next to you and you hoped he hadn’t noticed your inability to remain calm.

“Y/N…” he started to say nervously. “Would it be alright if I called ya? Maybe we can get together sometime?”

“Oh, umm,” you replied, caught off guard. While you definitely had caught feelings for the handsome man, you never would have thought it’d be reciprocated. You stuttered, trying to gather your response.

Your hesitation threw him off, and he quickly replied, “I mean...like to sit for Mary or whatever. She really likes you.”

“Of course...yes,” you reply defeated in hopes that he would have asked you out. Instead of asking why he didn’t, you started to walk back to Mary. Frank scrunched his face in frustration in knowing he missed his shot with you and blurted out the most platonic question instead. He realized as well and quickly shoved his hands into his jeans pockets and followed your lead.

Frank watched as you comfortably plopped yourself next to Mary on the couch, dreading that he had to meet up with Justine. He’d much rather relax on the couch with you and the rugrat, enjoying some silly kids movie together.

You peered over the couch, “Is it okay if she has popcorn?”

“What? Yes,” Mary said flatly and jumped off the couch to the kitchen.

“Okay, miss. But not too much sugar. Bedtime is still at 9,” Frank replied as you shrugged your shoulders.

“It’s the weekend, Frank,” Mary called out from the kitchen.

“Yes, but-“

“Will you be late?” you asked.

He looked at you in surprise, “Um, no. Probably before ten?”

“Okay, have fun.”

“It’s Y/N’s birthday,” Mary replied, carrying two coke bottles and a bag of jelly beans.

You shook your head in regret of ever telling the child when your birthday was. She was so inquisitive that day, asking about all your favorites: food, animals, books, and now birthday.

“It’s your birthday?!” Frank asked.

“Yeah, no big deal.”

“How old are you?” Mary asked as she set the drinks on the coffee table and then remembered how Frank would scold her about leaving water rings. She grabbed the coasters and placed them under the bottles.

“Mary!” Frank detested and placed his hands on his hips.

“How old do you think I am?” You tease, waving off to Frank that it was okay.

“Older than Justine, that’s for sure. She said she was 24, but looks 34. But she acts like she's 12. She hasn't even read anything on quantum physics, she thought wave mechanics was something Frank was working on with a boat,” she said coolly and popped a few jelly beans into her mouth. She nestled herself back into the couch cushions and wiggled her feet.

“Mary Elizabeth!” Frank’s voice boomed as he entered the living room.

Mary leaned over to whisper to you, “Frank says I'm not supposed to correct older people. Nobody likes a smart-ass.”

“And a busy body,” he huffed.

You nodded and laughed quietly, entertained at his expense.

“Well I am 32,” you smiled and looked at your watch, “As of one hour ago as a matter of fact.”

“That’s good. You’re much more mature than Justine and a better fit for him. Happy Birthday.”

“Thank you.”

“Mary…that’s it. You’re on your last warning,” Frank bellowed. “Don’t make me let Y/N go home and then you’re stuck with me tonight.”

“What? No! Okay. I’m sorry,” she lamented and folded her arms.

Frank’s demeanor changed as he turned to you, “I hadn’t known it was your birthday. Don’t feel pressured to sit for her tonight if you have other plans.” Secretly he wanted to cancel on Justine and spend the night celebrating you instead.

“Oh it’s okay! It kind of appeared out of nowhere. I usually go back home and celebrate with friends and family, but my schedule didn’t permit it this year. Next year, perhaps.”

“What’s your favorite dessert?” Mary asked as she chewed on another handful of jelly beans.

“Red velvet cheesecake,” you smiled. “I have a sweet tooth.”

Frank couldn’t concentrate on his date with Justine. His mind was elsewhere. On you. Justine grazed her hand as they sat next to each other at the bar. He seemed unfazed by her gesture and looked at his watch, 9:14pm. Would it be too obvious if he cut the date short that he was into you? He coughed and took a swig of his beer.

“Do you wanna come back to my place?” She cooed and bit her lip in anticipation.

“What? Oh actually I was gonna head out. The sitter needed me home by 9:30,” he lied.

“Oh, sitter?”

“Yeah, Mary. Remember? My niece?”

“That’s right. How old is she again?”

“Seven,” He said, annoyed. He recalled they had met once before. The bartender approached them and handed Frank the receipt.

“Hey, do you have any desserts on the menu?”

Justine’s ears perked in curiosity of where he was going with asking about dessert.

The bartender grunted slightly and threw a mangled tri-fold menu and Frank grabbed it quickly.

“Buddy, ring me up for the red velvet cupcake.”