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fanfiction-funtime · 3 years

Text

Self insert oc: Alexander Vodka

AKA: Eis Cay'zar

Author of fate

A writer from Schneznaya who was driven from his home for his anti-Tsaritsa paper.

_____________________

Physical description:

A chubby fellow in a 1950's style noir trenchcoat and hat, some would even say he looks like he jumped right out of a noir comic book and into reality. He has brown hair and green eyes, a cowboy mustache, and a pointed beard like some kind of comic book supervillain genius.

He often acts confidently and even a bit egotistical when in places he's recognized and famous in, however in newer places he often seems distant and shys away from almost all contact.

Noone knows where his vision is, but they know he has one because of the cold aura that surrounds him.

At night he'll often trade his outfit for one more reminiscent of demons or vampires.

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Abilities:

Weapon type: Catalyst

Basic attack-truth: uses his catalyst to shoot a short burst of up to 3 ice shards, can attack in fast succession.

"Truth hurts, especially in bursts"

Charged attack-Bifrost: Alexander quickly makes an ice clone behind the enemy and fires 6 shots, this can increase to 3 clones if charged enough(times: 1 for 1 second, 2 for 2 seconds, and 3 for 2.5 seconds)

"I hate crowds, best company has always been myself"

Elemental ability-ice wall: creates an aura of sheer cold around himself that will damage enemies the more they stay in it, and apply the normal sheer cold to them. Does not affect party.

"My therapist said I put up walls because of trauma, but I couldn't hear them through the wall I had just built"

Elemental burst-a story to be told: Alexander takes out his book and opens to a random page, then randomly summons ice sculptures of one of 8 beings:

"Aster": this summon looks like the flatwoods monster, it surrounds the party in a swirl of ice blades that deal 2X damage as the character for 10 seconds.

"Who needs brawn, when you got brain"

"Ultimate foe": a demonic, pointy being of shadow. Will independently deal 25000 damage to three random foes.

"Meet my penultimate friend"

"Beethoven": a sculpture reminiscent of a ww1 zombie general, calls down a barrage of ice bombs that deal 5000 damage to enemies hit for 7 seconds.

"Good scifi doesn't predict, it prevents"

"Sorrows Joy": an angelic, faceless, robot like humanoid that spawns 25 angel shaped traps that freeze enemies around the character.

"With any luck, you're the only real one I've made"

"Death rider and the magic prince": two statues, one of a mummy like Schneznayan mystic of ancient barbarian times and the other an elven cavalry knight from the myths of mondstadt. The knight gives the party a 45% boost to speed and attack while moving, and the Schneznayan gives +10% damage bonus to elemental skills and +55% damage bonus to Catalyst.

"Feel the wrath of honor long passed"

"Zero point and Lion queen": a knightly man of spiked armor and a golden ottoman warrior woman whose golden chain completely obscures her head. Your enemies become inflicted with pyro and you are surrounded by thorn bushes that deal continuous damage of 1000 for 10 seconds.

"Walk down the way on a moonlit day"

The traveler: a child in a red straight jacket, his binds become undone after 4 seconds at which point all enemies take 10,000 X Alexander's level of damage.

"I uh,wont have to pay any copyrights will I?"

"Giota": a child in pyjamas who looks ready to sleep, this summon is very rare. It fully restores all party members and gives a 200% boost to both defense and damage of your characters.

"This fella's been with me since I was a kid"

"If it is a soldier's duty to escape the confines of a prison, is it not every person's duty to escape reality if even for a moment? A wise man said that, pray that I may one day be like him."

Passive-part the wasteland: Alexander is immune to sheer elements, and Grant's 50% resistance when in the party to all members.

_____________________

Story

Abandoning a dream

As a kid, Alexander was always put down when he said he wanted to write fiction, "there's no money in it" they all said.

He couldn't get into any art schools without support so he focused his mind elsewhere, a place he could hopefully use his writing to do just as much good: the first newspaper in Schneznaya.

Horrible truth

He didn't start as a trouble maker, but the more he sought out the truth the more he couldn't stand back and watch. He published numerous papers about the Tsarista's wrongdoings and the crimes of the fatui, how they would harass merchants in other nations, the unfair taxes many shipping businesses had to keep quiet about, all the way up to the war crimes the Tsarista had done in direct contradiction to her own laws.

Sadly, not many believed him even with evidence, but some got his message.

Those who fight

One day Alexander was approached by a man who claimed to have formed a resistance against the fatui. Alexander had inspired many people to disrupt the organization, and have even begun working with those outside Schneznaya.

With their help he didn't just publish some crimes, he published them all, he even got information that turned the general public against the fatui even if just a little.

In a way h had achieved his dream of helping others with his writing, even if it wasn't how he wanted.

Stop the presses

When the Tsarista started her big move of taking gnosis, she brought the hammer down on dissent like a boulder on a ten year old's wrist. One day a squad of thirty fatui stormed Alexander's home and business to silence him, and while they shut down his business they couldn't catch him.

Alexander fled into the wastelands of ice and snow and wasn't seen for several weeks.

Deus ex Vodka

One day Alexander showed up in Inazuma, a nation that had been oppressed for some time now and had recently reached it's height, yet no resistance had formed.

That was until Alexander came along.

Alexander published numerous books, spreading them throughout Inazuma. All of them spoke of freedom, of bravery, of rising up to achieve your ambitions.

And with those stories he inspired countless to take up arms, and in turn inspired countless to join the resistance.

And with mere fiction he had brought about hope,

And with mere fiction he shall do it again, in every form, and in every nation.

Vision: cold hearted

While wondering the waste Alexander fell down and looked to the skies.

He did not ask celestia why, he did not grieve or blame that he did not do more, instead Alexander did something he hadn't done in a long time:

He imagined.

And after he imagined he took out his notebook and wrote. In the freezing cold for seventeen days he wrote stories of hope and freedom.

For seventeen days the cold did not so much as cause him to flinch as he wrote tales of bravery.

For seventeen days Alexander Vodka lived how he wanted to live.

And at the end, he lied down to die.

Then a light shown, and when he opened his eyes to look he saw that the storm parted around him, and in his hand was an ice blue gem.

But Alexander was too paranoid from years of abuse from his peers as a child to wear it loosely, and far to extra to just get a lock. So instead Alexander shouted to celestia "if I shall have this Vision for my art, then it shall not kill me no matter what I do!"

He then shoved the vision into his heart and fell down.

Before he could bleed out however, a woman appeared.

"Hey Tsari, how ya doin." Alexander said as blood poured out his mouth.

"You dramatic fool," the Tsarista sighed as she put a hand on his chest, "you have my element, do you know how bad it'll look for me if you die by shoving your vision into your heart?"

"Why do you care? We hate eachother, in case you forgot."

The archon sighed, "you're just rebelling against what you see as unjust, just as I am. To be honest I feel a sort of rivalry with you, so it'd be a shame if you just died. Also," she painfully shoved the vision all the way in, painfully, "if your going to die it better be because of me, got it?"

Then Alexander sat up, and the god was gone. Along with the hole in his chest.

"Rival of a god eh?" He sat up, putting his gat back on his head, "I like the sound of that."

_____________________

How is this an insert?

Well his story can't be the exact same as mine, so I took my life and goals and made predictions, then fictionalized those predictions and expanded.

His appearance is pretty close to how I'll likely look based on my current appearance, and his dramatic attitude is exactly how I wanna act.

Him being shy in new places with strangers is me exactly as I am now really, however I do believe I'd act confidently if I were famous so he does as well.

Him being Catalyst is because I'm not athletic at all, and I figured a dps Catalyst would be cool. His main ability and resistance/immunity to sheer cold is based on how I wrap up in warm blankets when it's cold, and his ultimate is made up of characters I've made.

_____________________

Tagging: @genshin-obsessed, @golden-wingseos, @storytravelled, and @love-psxlm

#genshin #genshin impact #genshin oc

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winterinhimring · 3 years

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for the character ask meme: Horatio Hornblower - and/or Côtard, should you have opinions on him.

For reference, that ask meme is here. I'll be answering these primarily for book!Hornblower and series!Côtard since those are the versions that live in my head, but honestly book and movie Hornblower kind of blend together in my head after a while so there will be bits of both.

How I feel about them:

Hornblower: I have three states of feelings about Hornblower. In #1, I want to hug him, wrap him up in blankets, give him a mug of hot chocolate, and try to convince him that he's really not nearly as terrible of a person as he thinks he is. This applies most often to midshipman H. In #2, I want to pull an Edna Mode and smack him on the head with a newspaper. This usually happens when he's been rude to Bush. In #3, which is probably the normal state of affairs, I find him faintly comical, because his thought process resembles what would happen if you took my stressed mental spiral that occasionally crops up at odd hours of the night and just kind of...made it a person that was very good at math.

Côtard: He has a very wholesome character arc, and I enjoy it. I'm always annoyed by his rudeness and condescension to Bush at the beginning, but at least part of that seems to stem from his ignorance of naval life, and by the end he's seemingly figured things out and managed to earn both Bush and Hornblower's respect. My real feelings come from his interesting relationship with patriotism and his role in the war, though, which really hits home to me as someone who both loves their country dearly and disagrees with many of the things that it does.

All the people I ship romantically with them:

Hornblower: Lady Barbara, because she's so good for him in so many ways, and he's good for her too, though that's more of an informed attribute from Forester's narration. Also because I find their little shipboard romance endearing, and because I enjoy competent and confident female characters.

Côtard: None, really, I don't think he has any canon love interests and I haven't made one up for him or seen one in fanfic that I found really compelling.

My non-romantic OTP for them:

Hornblower: Bush, no question. I enjoy Horatio's friendship with Archie in the show, and it's arguably a healthier relationship then his friendship with Bush in the books, but Bush is such a patient, faithful saint (can you tell that he's my favourite) that I find it difficult to imagine anyone else as Horatio's best friend.

Côtard: No strong feelings here, but I do enjoy the rapport that he builds with Bush and Hornblower over the course of his episode.

My unpopular opinion about them:

Hornblower: The closest thing I have to an unpopular opinion on him is probably not shipping him with Bush. Otherwise I think I'm pretty much in line with general fandom opinion on everyone's favourite anxious genius.

Côtard: None as far as I know of.

One thing I wish would happen/had happened with them in canon:

Hornblower: Quite a number of things, but I'll restrict myself to two general ones. I wish he hadn't married Maria, to begin with. Not that I have any ill-will towards her, but she and Hornblower have a sad tendency to bring out the worst of each other, or at least she brings out the worst in him, though it's through no fault of her own. And I wish that he would learn to temper the cruel edges of his own temper, because far too often he hurts both himself and others with them.

Côtard: I would have liked to see more of him in the show and learn some of the backstory that led him where he was. He seems to be acquainted with Pellew, he's got a spy network in France; there's more to this guy than meets the eye.

Thank you for the ask, I had lots of fun writing this!

#hornblower #hhornblower #horatio hornblower #major cotard #asked and answered #ask game #winter says things #william bush #guardevoir

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whump-tr0pes · 4 years

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Honor Bound 4 - 18

Honor Bound 4 - 18 (Undeserved Reputation) @badthingshappenbingo

Requested by @whumps-the-word

This is a series. Start here, continued from here.

This is a sequel to Honor Bound, Honor Bound 2, Honor Bound 3.

AO3

Cw: past captivity, implied whump of a minor, PTSD, dissoci@tion, death mention

Gray smiled gently as they drove, avoiding potholes in the road caused not by violence, but by the simple, innocent freeze and thaw of the ground. The sun was already high in the sky after more than three hours of driving. The sky was clear, the air clean and cool with the northern summer that was already well under way.

Edrissa sat in the passenger seat, almost completely turned around, chattering happily to Vera in the back seat. Every now and then, Gray and Vera met eyes in the rear view, and Gray could read something like gratitude in her gaze.

“…and there’s this store in Crayton that sells three different kinds of lace!” Edrissa said, the wispy blonde bun at the top of her head bobbing along as she spoke. “And there’s a lot of cotton, I mean, obvious, but they also sometimes have some nice linen and I think that’s what I’ll make Sam’s sling out of, so it breathes. Because it gets hotter up here than I thought it would, because I thought it wouldn’t get very hot at all and it’s already May and it’s been pretty warm, and the winter was so cold so I just kind of assumed it would stay cold. I mean, it’s been nice outside. Maybe when it gets a little warmer we can go hang out at the lake, maybe do a picnic, I mean it’s not very far from the house but it’s really pretty and I’ve already been in it and it doesn’t go that deep, but it is really cold. Before that I hadn’t been swimming in so long. But yeah, I think I’ll do the sling out of linen, and I hope they have blue because that’s Sam’s favorite color.”

She paused to take a breath. Vera grinned at her.

“It is Sam’s favorite color,” Vera said, and Gray was tempted to give Vera a conspiratory nudge. “What else have you been up to while we’ve b-been—” Her voice wavered for just a moment. “—gone?”

“Um…” Edrissa’s mouth twisted and she leaned towards Vera. “Yeah, um, a lot. Gray said, Gray said I could paint my room if I wanted, but I haven’t found the right color. They’re all so… so garish.” Edrissa flipped the stray wisps of hair out of her face and looked to Vera, eyebrows raised, as if she was waiting for something.

It was so good to see Edrissa looking for Vera to assure her not that she was safe, but that she was… cool.

“Absolutely,” Vera said with fervor. “Sometimes walls just need to look sophisticated.” Edrissa lifted her chin, and her mouth pulled into a wider smile at the word.

“Exactly,” she said with an emphatic nod. “Sophisticated. I was thinking I could do a whole thing with a mirror on the wall and, and maybe a nice painting if I can find one that captures the… the…” Edrissa stumbled for a moment, her eyes still fixed on Vera. “…the atmosphere I want.”

Sadness dragged at Gray’s heart. She hasn’t been allowed to make her own choices, any choices for two years. And I remember how much I just wanted to be me when I was eighteen.

They pressed their lips into a line to stop the corners of their mouth from falling.

“That sounds like such a great idea,” Vera said, her face breaking into a smile again. “And… Tori and I wanted to start a garden out back. It’s a little late for planting, but… if we get seedlings, would you want something?”

“Yes!” Edrissa cried, and distractedly tapped Gray on the shoulder. For a moment Vera looked at Gray in delighted surprise. Edrissa hadn’t let anyone but Tori and Vera touch her since she’d been rescued almost five months ago. Gray knew the easy touch on their shoulder spoke volumes of the healing she’d done just in the past three weeks.

I wonder how much of that is time away from Gavin. Gray pushed the thought out of their head.

“Oh, my god, I totally forgot. Last time I was in Burmingham, they had little mint plants. Gray said they wanted some, and I forgot!” She turned to Gray with an unsteady smile. “I’m sorry, I—” Edrissa shivered. Her eyes went distant. She curled into herself slightly, shrinking back against the door of the car.

“It’s alright, Edrissa,” Gray said gently, never taking their eyes off the road. “I’m not hurt. I’m not angry. It’s just a mistake, right? Mistakes are alright.”

“Mm-hm,” Edrissa said uncertainly. She relaxed slightly.

“Remember your counting?” Gray said, low and calm.

Edrissa jerked her head in a nod. She took in a deep breath. “One two three four five,” she muttered, and shook out her hands at the wrists with each number.

“Good. Let’s do it again, together.” Gray’s hands were steady on the wheel, never faltering. Watching the pavement of the road disappear under their car.

Edrissa drew in another deep breath. “One two three four five,” she and Gray said together as she shook out her hands, her quavering voice mixing with Gray’s steady one.

“One more time. Deep breath, one two three four five.” This time, Edrissa, Vera, and Gray said it together.

Gray glanced at Edrissa, at how her shoulders hunched just a little more than they had before, at the dullness in her eyes that reminded them so much of… of Vera, when she was under. Their mouth made a hard line.

“S-sorry,” Edrissa murmured. “I j-just…”

“It’s alright, Edrissa,” Gray said evenly, passing the first few houses on the north outskirts of Crayton. “Everyone has moments, and you were just having a moment.”

“Having a moment,” Edrissa said softly. “Just having a moment.” She smiled tightly at Vera, the corners of her mouth twisting in embarrassment.

Gray’s heart ached for Edrissa, for the girl who had just been going on and on about her room and her fabrics not thirty seconds ago and was now trembling, embarrassed, frightened. Vera leaned forward and put her hand palm up on the center console. An invitation, not a demand. Edrissa fit her hand into Vera’s, and Vera squeezed.

“Tell me more about what plants you want.”

Edrissa offered a wider smile. “Um, I like osteospermum,” she said, her eyes shifting down. “And sunflowers. I like the tall kinds of flowers.” She looked up at Vera. “I had to get a book on plants that do okay with the, the climate up here, because down south it was always—” She cut herself off and swallowed hard. “I like the colorful tall kinds of plants. I’d try for a rosebush but I think it’s too hard for this year.”

“Hm.” Vera nodded. “Well, I’d like to try some raspberry and strawberry bushes. And we could build a shade for the garden, in case the sun is too much.”

“Y-yeah,” Edrissa said softly. She sat back slightly in her seat until Gray pulled onto the main street of shops. They eased the car into a spot along the sidewalk. When Gray stopped, Edrissa shook herself slightly and looked up.

Gray put the car in park. “I was thinking you two could get out here,” they said, indicating with their hand the store that had regular deliveries of fabrics. “I should go to the town hall and check in with Daniel Schiester. I understand your check-in was… rushed.”

“And good fucking thing, too,” Vera said quietly, her jaw clenching shut.

Gray dipped their head. “I don’t exactly appreciate the way he’s spoken to you in the past, so I thought I would make this visit alone. Make sure he feels in control of the situation. Stroke his comically over-inflated ego.”

“I swear to god, he’d make a great fucking syndicate leader,” Vera said, rolling her eyes. She opened the door and climbed out, moving stiffly. Edrissa got out, too, and drifted to Vera’s side.

Gray rolled the passenger window down and leaned towards it. “Shouldn’t take longer than twenty minutes. If you move on from here and I don’t catch you, I’ll meet you in the square in an hour, and we can get lunch. Sound like a plan?”

Vera nodded and cocked her eyebrow. “Have fun with DFS,” she said, snidely.

Gray’s brow furrowed. “DFS?”

Vera bent forward and leaned into the car. “Daniel. Fucking. Schiester,” she said, her voice nearly gleeful with contempt.

Gray snorted and leaned back. “Ah. I’ll have to try not to call him that to his face.”

Vera straightened and shrugged. “If you do, get pictures of his reaction.”

Gray laughed and put the car in drive. “See you soon,” they said, and pulled away.

∴

As Gray got closer to the town hall, their hands tightened on the wheel. Something itched in the back of their mind, something about how Daniel looked at Vera with fascination, with humor. As if he was watching a dog performing tricks. Saccharine. Amused.

Something in the back of their mind stirred at how Daniel looked at Gavin.

There was something there, between them. Gray doubted they had ever actually met. Perhaps it was just morbid, spiteful fascination on Daniel’s part, fascination with the syndicates who ruined the lives of the victims he saw every day. Perhaps it was buried rage, resentment that people like Gavin’s family were the reason Crayton had to exist at all.

Perhaps it was something else, though Gray wasn’t sure what.

Gray pulled in front of the town hall and parked the car. They sat quiet in the seat, staring at the front door, already feeling the tension headache starting. They breathed a sigh, turned off the car, and got out.

Inside the atrium it was cool, dark, and empty, just like it almost always was when refugees weren’t being processed. Gray’s hands tightened into fists and they began to climb the stairs to Daniel’s office.

The stairs creaked under Gray’s feet, their footsteps muffled by the dark green carpet. They made their way to the landing and turned in the direction of Daniel’s office. They almost hoped he wasn’t in today. Their hands clenched tighter as they walked down the hallway, almost feeling the urge to tiptoe, to not make any noise.

Gray grimaced. I’m being ridiculous.

They stopped in front of the door to Daniel’s office. They knocked.

“Come in,” came the deep, even voice. Gray’s face fell. They turned the handle and pushed the door open.

Daniel glanced up from his work on his computer, then looked up and pushed himself away from his desk. “Mx. Uriah,” he said, standing, and held out his hand. “Always good to see you.”

Gray’s skin felt cold as they shook Daniel’s hand once.

“Mr. Mayor,” they said stiffly.

“Ah,” Daniel said with a smile. “I suppose if I wanted you to call me by my first name, I should have begun with that courtesy. Forgive me.”

“Old habits, on my end,” Gray said, and forced their mouth into a smile.

“Right.” Daniel sat back into his chair and leaned his elbows on the desk. “What can I help you with?”

Gray had to stop themself from staring at the pictures of refugees on the walls. Those pictures definitely weren’t of every single refugee Daniel had saved, they couldn’t be. There couldn’t have been more than forty or fifty people in those pictures, and Gray knew Crayton could see that many in a busy week. Maybe those refugees held some meaning for Daniel. Gray didn’t want to pry.

If they were perfectly honest with themself, they didn’t want to ask.

“I’m sure at this point that you are aware that my family has returned from the south?” Gray said, meeting Daniel’s eyes.

Daniel grinned. “Ah. Yes. The triumphant heroes return, quite successful, I’m given to understand. Colleen Stormbeck is dead, and the region is destabilized.”

“That’s right,” Gray said. “They were successful, although at great cost to themselves.”

Daniel’s mouth turned down. “You don’t mean that any of them died…?” He turned to rifle through some papers on his desk. “When my people checked them in, all six were—”

“They all came back alive, yes,” Gray said, their heart twinging. Their gaze fell. “But they all came back with some sort of… permanent… mental or physical scarring.”

“Hm.” Daniel leaned back and folded his hands in his lap. “When you say they all came back alive, I’m assuming you’re not including the Stormbeck boy in your count.”

Gray blew out a slow breath. “When he left here, his name was Gavin Uriah.” They raised their gaze to meet Daniel’s, his eyes a cold blue that always seemed to pierce through Gray. “But yes. He is dead.”

Daniel huffed out a silent laugh. “Generous of you to allow him to take your name, considering everything he’s d—”

“I don’t wish to discuss the rehabilitation of Gavin Uriah,” Gray said softly, their cheeks reddening. “I am fully aware of your opinion of him, and of redemption in general. The fact is when he left here, I had become rather fond of him. And I’d like to let his memory remain for me what he was: a broken boy who died trying to set things right.” Gray’s stomach churned.

Daniel was silent for a moment, regarding Gray coolly across his desk. After a long moment he nodded and said, “Just more evidence for the syndicates’ cruelty, then. I’m sorry your family was the target.”

“So am I,” Gray murmured. They glanced around the office and returned their gaze to Daniel. “But they had to check in with your people in the dead of night and move on without proper processing, as one of them was gravely injured. I wanted to make sure nothing was missed, and answer any questions you had.”

“No, nothing was missed,” Daniel said with a winning smile, waving his hand. “I know that your team arrived in no condition to follow protocol, and the people who checked them in are very thorough.”

“Good,” Gray murmured. The hair on the back of their neck tingled. “Did you need anything from me?”

“Actually, I could use your assistance,” Daniel said with a smile. “Due to the instability of the western region, we are already seeing an increase in the frequency and number of refugees, and am very certain that will only continue to increase. Summer is always a busy season for us, but I am anticipating unprecedented numbers. At the moment, I currently don’t have the people to handle this efficiently. Your family is particularly suited to assisting with refugees, given the nature of your work. I was hoping to recruit you in the processing, if you’re able.”

Gray nodded. “Of course. I can’t speak for the others as they are all convalescing, but I would be happy to help. I will pass on the request. I have no doubt they will offer what they can, as soon as they are able to travel. A few of them may be ready now.”

“Whatever you can do will be appreciated,” Daniel said, and stood, offering Gray his hand. Gray took it. “Always a pleasure, Gray. When you and your family are ready we will orient you with our process.”

Gray nodded. “I’ll keep you posted. Until then, stay well, Daniel.”

“Thank you.” Daniel smiled and sat down. He turned back to his work.

Gray turned and left the office, closing the door behind them. They walked down the hall, their steps quickening, their shoulders tightening. They made their way down the stairs and across the atrium. By the time they pushed through the doors out into the sun, they were nearly jogging.

Continued here

@untilthepainstarts, @womping-grounds, @free-2bmee, @quirkykayleetam, @walkingchemicalfire, @inpainandsuffering, @redwingedwhump, @burtlederp, @castielamigos-whump-side-blog, @whatwhumpcomments, @cursedscribbles, @whumpywhumper, @stxck-fxck, @omega-em-z-02, @whumps-the-word, @justwhumpitwhumpitgood, @justplainwhump, @moose-teeth, @slaintetowhump, @finder-of-rings, @inky-whump, @thatsthewhump, @orchidscript, @insanitywishes, @this-mightaswell-happen, @newandfiguringitout, @whumpkitty, @pretty-face-breaker, @cinnamonflavoredhugs, @inaridriscoll, @im-just-here-for-the-whump, @endless-whump

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thewebcomicsreview · 5 years

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as an artist who's... incredibly bad at drawing a lot of things, am I still able to make a webcomic?

Sure! You can do anything you put your mind to, and making a webcomic will eventually make you a much better artist! By doing, one learns, which will help you grow as an artist and as a pers-

“I meant a successful webcomic”

Ah.

Well, the answer is still yes, and there are a few options available to you

1. Hire an artist

This is what I do, so let’s not beat around the bush. Hiring a regular artist can be expensive, because even if you don’t care about “ethics” that one tumblr artist asking for $20/page is going to flake on you pretty regularly because you’re not paying her enough make space in her schedule for you. How realistic an option this is depends on your financial situation, of course. But if you’re willing to get a non-color comic or update less than one page a week, it’s not as expensive as you might think.

2. Do a gag comic

They just generally can have less art than story comics do. Consider, for instance, Pet Foolery. The art here isn’t terrible

But from the simple art and no background, you probably wouldn’t expect this to be the single biggest comic on Patreon, with fifteen thousand patrons. But, in fact, it is! And that’s not me saying “If your comic has cute dogs you can fart out some comics and rake in the patreonbux”, this dude does a lot of stuff to promote his comic, something I’m honestly not any kind of expert in beyond half-jokingly linking my patreon, which has worked one time ever (wanna make it twice?).If you wanna “make it” in webcomics, you should probably learn SEO instead of art, especially since webcomics creators are almost comically terrible at SEO stuff. Did you know google penalizes sites sites in their search rankings if they don’t have an SSL certificate? Did you know Hiveworks, the big company dedicated to some of the biggest webcomics out there, doesn’t have SSL certificates on any of their fucking sites?

Jojo, plz

Anyway, if you’re funny and can’t draw good, there’s plenty of comics to look at that did well, including nearly every newspaper comic ever.

3. Make a comic that shows off what you ARE good at

Get a gimmick, find a niche, come at this whole “comic” idea from a new angle. Many comics use some techno-wizardly to add some effects

Maybe you could use reader feedback to determine what the characters do, which is how MSPaint Adventures started.

4. Just make a fucking comic, loser

“Daniel, I don’t want to make a gag comic or a gimmick comic or pay someone else to draw for me. I want to make a longform story comic as my first project and I won’t listen to people who tell me that’s a bad idea, it’s what I want to do!”

Okay, that’s cool too.

Here’s a webcomic. The art is very crude and the letting is so bad that parts of it are literally unreadable. I have repeatedly called this among the best webcomics of all time.

Because Shaenon Garrity just kept making comics and got better at it, and eventually had a big amazing action-movie climax that wrapped up five years of storylines in a neat elegant bow and that’s never been topped by any webcomic before or since.

A lot of the early webcomics had shit art at the beginning, and now it’s harder to get noticed than ever, but it’s still possible, and you’ll improve by doing and eventually git gud.

#Pet Foolery #Problem Sleuth #Narbonic #Advice #Anonymous

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gumnut-logic · 4 years

Text

We’ll Be Home For Christmas 5.3 (Bit 1)

From here | 5.2 Bit 1 | 5.2 Bit 2 | 5.2 Bit 3 | 5.3 Bit 1

This fic is my @tagsecretsanta fic for 2019 and it is for @scattergraph .

And I managed a little bit more writing. I’m going to attempt to chip away at this and be kind to my writing muscles in the process. There honestly isn’t much left of this fic, two, maybe three scenes at most. We’re nearly there (unless it decides to do something all of its own ::eyes Virgil:: )

But anyway, this is the last bit of the Virgil/Kayo for any who want to skip that bit. The last line pretty much lines up for the next scene, though Scotty is prodding me saying he wants to put his two cents in - I have no idea what they might be, but then, since when I have I been in control of anything.

I hope you enjoy anyway.

-o-o-o-

Kayo eventually dragged him out of the comms room and away from his brothers enough to find a quiet spot and talk it all out. They ended up on Two’s runway, A Little Lightning rocking gently below them. The breeze teased his hair.

Yes, she was interested in him.

No, she wasn’t interested in Wayne Rigby.

Yes, she had been interested for a while.

No, she hadn’t said anything until she realised he felt the same.

She kissed him again at that point and his world narrowed to her touch, her lips, her tongue, the woman in his arms. How had this happened?

How had she known?

Perhaps it didn’t matter, perhaps he should just accept the miracle for what it was. Kayo Kyrano, strong, independent, smart, cat-like and gorgeous was interested in him.

She laughed as if reading his mind.

Those green eyes...he hummed the sound that made the colour. Or part of the sound, because it wasn’t quite right. He couldn’t...

“Virgil?”

He startled. Her hand was on his arm and she was frowning up at him. The palms rattled a little above them.

He opened his mouth. “There’s a sound that makes the colour of your eyes. A transition between wave and sunlight, kelp forest and sky.” He hummed again, but hit the same frustration. “I can’t...” He sighed and looked away.

Her hand on his arm tightened. “The whales?”

He let his head drop, but said nothing.

“You need to speak to Gordon.”

“Kay-“

“You’re not fine, Virgil. You haven’t been fine since I set eyes on you yesterday. Something happened out there and it has affected you whether you want to acknowledge it or not.” Her lips thinned. “You need to speak to Gordon. He will know who to speak to.”

“Sam.” He wasn’t sure why he was reluctant. He had encouraged Scott to invite the cetacean biologist over yesterday. Yet since last night, something was holding him back.

An internal sigh. No, he knew what it was.

He was scared.

Of what, he didn’t know, but there was definitely fear. It writhed in his gut.

Colours, song, an endless ocean. It was tantalising, poetic, mysterious. Perhaps he didn’t want an explanation, perhaps he wanted to keep the magic alive.

Well, that was just stupid.

There was a musical note for stupid. It paired with a jagged shape and a sickly colour.

His fingers twitched.

Oh, hell.

“Gordon, grab Sam and meet Virgil out on Two’s runway.”

He blinked at her. Kay was never one to beat around the bush. Gordon’s acknowledgement was concise.

She was right, but… “Kay…”

She reached up and cupped his cheek. “I’ll still be here.”

He covered her hand with his own, almost scared that she would vanish and that this sudden revelation was just a dream. “Promise?” It was whispered.

She smiled up at him, but anything further she had to say was interrupted by Gordon clattering out of Two’s hangar and onto the tarmac, Sam behind him.

Those green eyes darted to his brother for a moment before looking back up at him. “Promise.” Her lips curled up around that single word and she withdrew her hands and stepped back as Gordon approached. She turned to the aquanaut as he neared.

“Look after him.”

Those three words stopped Gordon in his tracks. A flicker of comical fear flashed across his brother’s face. “Okay?”

With that, Kay smiled at Virgil again before turning and leaving, her hair rippling in the breeze behind her as she made her way back to the hangar.

“Now, that’s a little scary.”

Virgil straightened where he stood. Okay, let’s do this.

He caught both Gordon and Sam with his eyes. “We need to talk.”

-o-o-o-

TBC

#thunderbirds are go #thunderbirds #thunderbirds fanfiction #Virgil Tracy #Kayo Kyrano #virgil/kayo #kermadec fic

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solar-pxwered · 3 years

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Lol, i love that comic of split personality trish and spice girl. What are your Narancia and separate personality spice headcanons?

Oooooo, yes, I have these!!

1. Narancia was the first one of the gang that Spice Girl spoke to directly and, even though it was really uncomfortable at first, he treated her like her own entity instead of simply an extension of Trish and so that made her very happy.

2. If Narancia and Trish are near each other and Trish falls asleep, Spice will show up to keep him company.

3. It's during those times that Spice will casually and without bad intent, spill all kinds of secrets about Trish's thoughts or habits. Narancia has learned a lot of things, some of which he didn't need or want to know.

4. I LOVED the panel in that comic where Spice is carrying Narancia around because she thinks he's "neat" and now I just really want that to be a thing. She just randomly grabs him and carries him effortlessly and it annoys him so much.

5. Spice Girl is the one to spill the beans about Trish's feelings for him. Growing tired of Trish beating around the bush, one day she just pops out and says something like "We like you a LOT, Nara! Trish thinks about you aaaaallllll the time."

6. While the rest of the Gang find Spice's autonomy very unsettling, Narancia accepts it easily. She's still part of Trish even with her separate state of being and he can recognize both and roll with it.

7. Spice is curious about EVERYTHING and she asks Narancia questions all the time. He'll always answer as best he can but sometimes he gives her wrong information and Fugo gets annoyed and has to correct her later.

#Chewing The Bamboo || Panja Answers #Volare Via || Narancia

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mail-me-a-snail · 4 years

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House Keys

chase…oh chase i love you so but you’re in for it now. chase brody, the former bro average superstar, comes home for the first time in a year.

part 1 part 2 part 3 Even if Chase Brody had moved out the year prior, he still has the keys to his brothers’ house. He stands now on the crisp, green lawn and swings the key-chain around. He cards a hand through his hair and rubs his eyes—he doesn’t get much sleep these days. Three years before he moved into his brothers’ house, he was sleeping in the back of his car. He’s been conditioned to fall asleep on the hard leather of the car seat, not in his own bed. He didn’t have a bed those weeks. Stacy and him still don’t talk.

He shoots Marvin a text.

hey bro im outside. will come in with the keys. jackie okay? are you all okay? There’s no response. Chase shrugs and tucks his phone into the pocket of his jeans. He’s a little hurt, but it’s fine. It’s Chase’s first visit since he’s moved out. It’s exactly as he remembers it. The lawn is in immaculate condition, with the hedges trimmed neatly and flowers springing up all over the place—Jameson was always in charge of that. He has an eye for lawn care. He takes after Jack. The door and porch are dark mahogany, though it’s washed in orange now as the sun is starting to set. The house itself is painted an egg white. The tiles of the roof are black. Potted plants litter the porch, some new, some old, but all beautiful and trimmed to perfection. No doubt it’s Marvin’s work. The sidewalk he stands on is decorated with faded chalk drawings. Robbie. Of course. Chase is standing on his own face drawn in chalk. It’s a wonderful likeness and Chase can’t help but smile. Robbie even got the faded green in his hair. He steps off. He doesn’t want to ruin a masterpiece. The light in the wide upper story window—Henrik’s room—is off. The doctor’s probably getting his much needed and deserved forty winks. The only light on is in the living room. He takes a deep breath, the kind that pulls his shoulders up like he’s shrugging, and walks towards the door. Anxiety wriggles in his belly. He clutches the keys tightly in his hand—they bite into the skin and leave an impression with their teeth. He remembers the call with Marvin the night before. He had been in his apartment putting together some videos when his phone had rung. Marvin had explained everything to him; finding Jackie bleeding out in the city, teleporting him home, the surgeries…all of it. Jackie was okay, Marvin had assured him, and that he would heal. But the fact that it was…was you-know-who’s work… It hadn’t stop his hands from shaking as soon as he said goodbye and dropped the call nor did it let him breathe. His panic attacks were always bad, but he managed the one he had that night fine. And the one in the bathroom this morning. On the drive here, too. He doesn’t have everything under control yet. Being here again reminds him of all the times you-know-who had been there. He had been there, for Jack and Henrik. It went the same way; a phone call. A panic attack. The fear. Now it’s happening all over again. Why can’t he ever escape the demon? Why can’t any of them? Even a year after…he still looks over his shoulder and tosses and turns at night. When will he stop being afraid? The keys bite into his palm like his old dog had lovingly done. He misses him. Stacy had to take that away from him, too. The sting and the thought of Bulls-eye grounds Chase and he lets go, letting it hang by the key-chain instead. Deep breaths. He slides the key into the lock and turns. The door opens. Chase looks around as he steps into the hall. It’s just the same. The walls are orange. The umbrella stand to the right of the door filled with Marvin’s props, the coat hanger opposite, and the stairs upwards at the very front. To his immediate left is the closed door to Henrik’s makeshift clinic. To his right is the doorway to the living room. There’s a movie on, though Chase can’t identify it as the volume is set way down low. He doesn’t know where to go first as he stands awkwardly in the middle space. “Hello?” He says to the seemingly empty house. “Is anyone home? Marv? Schneep?” “Chase,” His heart skips a beat when he hears the raspy call from the living room, but he brightens when he recognizes the voice. “In here.” Chase has to stop himself from running into the living room. Brown couch, flat screen TV (playing Die Hard, of course), wide windows, and white curtains that blow softly. The coffee table has coffee mug rings on it and abandoned medical supplies like gauze, cotton balls, and antibiotics. Henrik’s neatly folded coat, too. Jackie sits on the couch in a black t-shirt with the brightly coloured graphic of a cartoon dog on a bicycle. He wears the flamingo shorts to accompany it. It’s the first time Chase has seen the hero out of his supersuit; it almost feels wrong. His hair is the neon green Chase remembers it to be. He’s wearing his mask. The only sign he’s been hurt at all are the bandages around his neck and forehead. He’s hardly watching the movie. He has a big smile on his face, the toothy kind of sunshine Chase missed so much. “Jackie,” he breathes. Chase wants to cry with relief. He settles with hugging Jackie as tightly as he can. “I missed you, Jackie,” he says, muffled as he buries his head into the hero’s chest. “I was so worried about you!” “O-ow, ow,” the other hacks out a laugh and winces, patting Chase’s back. “I missed you, too, bud, but…stab wound.” “Shit, right, sorry.” Chase lets go, albeit reluctantly. “Dude, how are you? It’s, I mean—I’ve never been stabbed before.” “I don’t recommend it,” Jackie grimaces. There’s humour in his voice but he also sounds exhausted. “You get here okay?” “Parked out front,” he says, “Came in with the keys. Still have ‘em.” He holds them up to confirm that. He drops them in his lap. “How’re you holding up?” “This thing—” Jackie pats his stomach, presumably where the wound is. “—is a bitch and a half of pain. The neck thing I can handle. It just hurts to talk.” He coughs. It sounds like shaking a dead bush. “Really hurts.” “Oh, I can do the talking, if you want.” “No, it’s okay, Chase. Marvin did something to me, I think, when I was out. Makes my mouth and throat taste like mint. Pretty soothing, actually. Besides, I haven’t seen you in forever! I want to talk.” How can he be so chipper even after he almost died? Chase doesn’t understand it. He really is a comic book superhero. Always getting back up again. “Aw, it hasn’t been that long,” Chase ducks his head, sheepish, but straightens right away. “Can I ask, though? What…what happened?” The silence is thick with tension. Chase bounces his leg, the sole of his sneaker squeaking against the hardwood floor, and pulls at the rubber bracelet around his right wrist under his hoodie sleeve. He picks at the multicoloured bandages on his fingers and arms. Jackie turns the TV off just as John McClain launches himself through a window. He turns to Chase. Their knees touch. “This is what I remember,” Jackie says, and begins. He had met Anti during one of his day patrols, but it wasn’t the song and dance number they usually did; it was in the back-alleys where no one could see them. Maybe that’s what Anti wanted. Maybe it wasn’t. “Anti had…had said something to me,” he mumbles, “that I’m not the hero I think I am. That all of what we do, this hero versus villain thing, is just a show. I-I don’t know why he’s been pretending this long, or…or what he hopes to gain, but…” Chase watches him closely. Jackie stops, shakes his head, and moves on. That’s how the hero has always been. Hit a wall? Just go around. Forget about the wall and keep going. He remembers the fight—and the pinning stab through the gut. The words Anti whispered into his ear. Chase is trembling with raw anger as he sees the large dark bruise marks wrapped around Jackie’s neck where Anti’s hands had been. “But after that,” he growls in frustration, “I can’t remember anything else. By my wound here, I can guess what finished me off.” He taps his neck. “Everything else is beyond me.” “Fuck him” Chase breathes, voice quivering with fury, “You’re a hero to me, to everyone. To Jack.” Jackie flinches when he hears those words. “I don’t have any powers,” Jackie mutters. “What? Yeah, you do! That—that super strength of yours!” “Anti can manipulate objects,” Jackie shoots back, “Time and space, just like Marvin can. How do I know he hasn’t been doing it for me this whole time?” “I…I don’t know.” The anger evaporates as quickly as it came. “I-I don’t want to talk about this.” Jackie throws his hands up. “Please, Chase, let’s…let’s talk about you, okay? I want to hear about where you’ve been—what you’ve done.” Chase bites his lip, trying to find a way to stop the subject from changing. The one frustrating thing about superheroes? They build walls around them, shutting the people they love out hoping to save them from whatever inner turmoil they’re wrangling with. …Chase isn’t stupid or in denial. Even he can admit the similarities between them. But that’s just it. Chase knows he does it—Jackie doesn’t. He’d rather not push further and get into an argument, spoiling the whole visit, so Chase drops it. It’ll sit in the back of his mind, though. He tells Jackie about the new apartment; it’s spacious and less of a dump than the last one. Modest kitchen, shower instead of a tub. “I miss the tub here,” he says forlornly, gesturing to the stairs. “And my little rubber ducky. Shower’s okay, though.” He earns Jackie’s laugh. The apartment is far into the city, maybe ten blocks away from the alley Marvin had found Jackie in, and just across a coffee shop. Having cleaner, more colorful walls than ugly white granite that popcorned helps a lot to take his mind off more…painful things. He hung up posters, bought a flatscreen, had a whole new gaming rig up for himself—he’s doing okay for himself, he thinks. The therapy, the talking, has brought him out of the hole he was in three years before. He tells him about new friends. Baristas at the coffee shop who’ve recognized him as a regular. YouTube is more fun than anything for him right now. The Bro Average brand was dissolved, but he couldn’t care less. It had been time for a fresh start. His channel is up and running and he’s been invited to panels, talks, and conventions. Some people from AA said they had watched his videos. He tells Jackie about how good it is to just. Work. To produce content for others to consume, to make people happy, but not at the cost of his own happiness. He notices he’s rambling when Jackie says nothing and keeps beaming at him. He falters and lets his words trail off into silence. “What?” Chase says. “I’m so proud of you,” Jackie replies, and the pride is trembling in his voice. “Chase, you’ve gotten so far without us. You’ve got a job, a new house—you’re practically shining!” “You’re…you’re proud of me? You mean it?” Chase feels himself smile, too. “Yes. I’m proud.” Jackie puts a hand on his shoulder. “You’re my bro. You’re the bravest damn person I know and you’ve come out of this so strong, so…it’s…Jack would be proud too.” Chase understands why he starts crying. That’s all he ever wanted. To hear those words come out of Jackie’s mouth. It means he’s done it. He’s gotten better. Maybe not recovered fully, not just yet, but better. Even in his joy, he hates himself for crying because whenever he cries he bawls like a big baby. He buries his face into Jackie’s chest, shoulders shaking. He’s staring at the cartoon dog through blurry, teary eyes. The dog says, in a neon bubble, “RADICAL!” The other rubs his back in soothing circles. “That’s it, buddy,” Jackie whispers, “I’ve got you, bro.” Chase swallows thickly, sniffles, and wipes his face with the back of his hand. Jackie hands him a tissue and he blows. His eyes are stuffy. He looks up into Jackie’s eyes, milky white, hidden behind the film in the mask, but he can tell they’re full of soft, unspoken love. The hero holds his cheek. “Chase Brody Mcloughlin,” Jackie declares, “I, your loving bro, will never stop being proud of you. Don’t forget that.” “Thanks, Jackie,” he sniffs, wiping his eyes. “Thank you. It’s…i-it’s nice to hear that what I’m doing is finally right.” “We’re all proud of you.” Jackie’s hand drops but gives Chase’s shoulder one last firm pat. “S-speaking of,” Chase clears his throat. “Speaking of…where is everyone?” Jackie blanks. “Uh,” he says, unsure. “Good question, actually! No idea. I woke up, like, ten minutes before you came in. I kind of assumed Henrik went to work, and who knows where Marvin is at any given time? JJ and Robbie are out on vacation or something. It’s just Henrik, Marvin, and I.” “Huh,” Chase frowns and stands. “You wait here, Jackie. Henrik can’t have gone to work; he’d never leave you here alone.” “Marvin would be watching over me!” He argues. “This is Marvin we’re talking about!” He shoots back as he leaves the room. He considers going upstairs but stops before he can do it. He notices, to his surprise, that across the hall the clinic’s lights are on. How did he not notice that coming in? The harsh white fluorescents bounce off the tiles and under the door. Chase knocks. “Doc? Marv?” He says, “Yoo-hoo. Anyone in there?” Of course, unsettling silence follows. Great. Chase has played enough horror games to know that whatever’s on the other side is bad. He flinches as glass shatters behind the door. A shadow moves under the door. “Henrik?” “Schiesse!” comes a muffled curse to answer. Angry German swearing? Yeah. That’s Henrik. “What the hell was that?!” Jackie says from the couch, halfway to standing. Chase notices he’s wobbling like a newborn deer. “Jackie, get back on the couch,” Chase scolds the hero, “You’re in no condition to walk!” He turns back to the door. “Doc, I’m coming in.” He takes a deep breath, grips the doorknob, and turns. What he finds on the other side isn’t horrible, so he releases the breath he didn’t know he was holding. Henrik, hair messy and eye bags seemingly darker, clutching his head, is kneeling among shattered glass. From the way the metal table beside the hospital bed is on its side, Chase surmises that Henrik knocked it and the beakers that were on it to the ground when he tried to stand. “Doc!” He exclaims, rushing over to Henrik. He takes the doctor by the arm, helping him up, and looping the arm around his shoulders. “Danke,” Henrik grumbles, eyes still squeezed shut. “Chase, is that you?” “A-are you blind, Henrik?” Panic momentarily flares up in him. “Oh, jeez, I can get something for your eyes. Maybe ice—” “No,” Henrik sighs, but in the most affectionate way possible. He opens his eyes halfway, tired grey-blues looking up at him. “Chase, relax. I’m not blind. It’s these damn fluorescents—they could make me go blind. I don’t know why I thought they were a good idea. This nausea…it’s like someone took a hammer to my skull. Might as well have… I see enough of those lights in the hospital. Is it any wonder I wear glasses…” Henrik reaches into his pocket for something. He swears again as he brings out the bent and cracked frames of his glasses. “Oh, that is just great,” he hisses under his breath, “They must’ve gotten smashed in the fight.” “T…the what?” This is plenty strange already, but of course, he just has to notice only now that Marvin is crumpled in a desk chair, long, flowy hair messy and tangled, falling behind him as his head leans back, showing his neck. “Oh my God—Marvin!” “He’s okay,” Henrik straightens, though he’s still too weak to stand. Chase helps him into another chair. The doctor sits down with a sigh of relief, pinching the bridge of his nose and squeezing his eyes shut. “What the hell happened here?” Chase gestures vaguely to the entire room. “To Marvin? Actually, to you? Was it…was it you-know-who?” “Anti,” the doctor spits. Chase winces at the name. “It’s not right to fear his name. He and I had an…encounter last night. I thought I was going to die.” He briefly touches his neck. Chase sees all the scars crisscrossed there; it’s why the doctor wears turtlenecks to work. He’s always been insecure about them. “I thought it was all over but…but I woke up here. My head hurts like a bitch but I’ve got no other wounds. My neck, my concussion—they’re healed, like they were never there. "So, I have reason to believe,” he continues, “Marvin used the full extent of his magic to save me. It’s probably why he’s passed out.” “He’s always been shit at restoration magic,” Chase jokes, but turns serious right away. “Jesus, doc. Are you really okay? Why the fuck did you-know-wh—I mean,—A…Anti go after you?” “Teach me a lesson? Finish me off?” Henrik raises his shoulder in a shrug. “Your guess is as good as mine. God, I’m sorry, Chase, that this is the scene you’ve returned to. You’ve had enough of this…this Anti business, and now we’re dragging you back into it. Forgive me.” “No, doc, don’t say that,” Chase waves him off, “it’s not your fault. Besides, the guy’s messing with my brothers. That’s not gonna fly with me.” His voice shakes. He knows how unconvincing his moxie is. He swallows the stone in his throat and turns away before Henrik can call him out on it. The man crosses the room and takes a trauma blanket from the cabinet—he practically knows the clinic as well as Henrik does—and drapes it over Marvin. The magician barely stirs. He’s completely out. “CHASE? IS EVERYONE OKAY?” Jackie shouts from the living room. Chase startles and nearly knocks some important doodad over. Henrik’s blue eyes crackle to life at the sound of the hero’s voice. “He’s okay,” he says more to himself than Chase, “Oh, God, he’s okay.” To Chase, he says, “Chase, help me up—I must see Jackie.” “But what about Marv?” “He’ll need rest. Neither of us are strong enough to move him upstairs. Please, Chase, let’s go.” Henrik is almost begging. The tone unnerves and stirs Chase into action. He helps the doctor, slowly and surely, into the living room. “Henrik?” Jackie breaths, “What happened to you? Why are you limping? Is Marvin o—” Henrik launches himself from Chase’s arms and onto Jackie, nearly tackling the hero into the sofa. Jackie grunts in pain. “You idiot,” Henrik growls, though with utmost love. “You had me so worried! You could’ve died.” He hugs Jackie tight, despite his weak state. “Don’t ever do that again.” “What, get stabbed?” When Henrik glares up at him, he sobers. “Okay, okay. I won’t. I promise. Chase, where’s Marvin?” “Getting some rest,” Chase explains, “He used a whole bunch of his magic to heal Henrik. A-Anti attacked the doc last night.” “He…what?” Jackie’s tone is dangerously quiet. His shoulders are tense—he looks like an apex predator. It takes everything in Chase not to back away. “Calm yourself,” Henrik cautions, “I’m okay now. Marvin made sure of it. It is true; I had a fight with Anti and…I did not emerge the victor. But it’s alright. I’m alright.” Jackie deflates and hugs Henrik back. “I’m glad you’re okay, doc.” “You too, Jackie.” Chase bites his lip and leaves the room. He knows what he said about Anti, that he’d be ready to fight the demon again, given the chance. It’s one big lie, because he is fucking terrified of Anti, terrified of the fact that this is all very real, and that it had gotten all too real very fast. He wants to run away in that stupid little way of his, where he drives and drives until he can’t or locks himself up in his room, anywhere where Anti can’t reach him. He’s managed not to see the demon for a full year. He can’t do this. He can’t. Not again. Not again. – Chase goes up to his room and finds the hatch to the roof still unlocked. He goes out and sits there, on the uncomfortable tiles, and stares up at the stars. It’s somewhere around 11:30, maybe midnight. He doesn’t check his phone. Henrik’s gone to sleep. Jackie had helped Chase move Marvin to the couch. The both of them weren’t nearly strong enough to bring him up to his bedroom. Some part of Chase is telling him to relapse. To drink. He snaps the rubber bracelet against his wrist over and over instead. It makes an angry red mark. It’s a distraction. It makes him all the more ashamed of how fast he crumbles in the face of all this. He’s hasn’t gotten better. Even in the darkness, he knows what the bracelet says. He’s seen it, worn it ever since the last time Anti had tormented him. Alcoholics Anonymous, in white letters against a garish neon green. His mouth tastes of smoke. His eyes are heavy. He is tired and deflated. His brothers nearly dead—what a sight to come home to. At least now, he’s here for them. He is so tired, he doesn’t turn around when the hatch opens and Jackie sits beside him. He’s changed out of that cartoon dog shirt—he sports one of Henrik’s striped shirts. “Hey,” Jackie greets him softly. Chase can see the hero watching the bracelet snap repeatedly against his wrist, which he doesn’t stop. “Hey.” Silence. Cicadas. Snap. Snap. Snap. “How long have you been sober?” Chase knows how much Jackie wants to say more, but he doesn’t. It’s a simple question. “A year.” An exact year from the last time Anti hurt him. He and Jackie match in scars now. Not on the neck, though. “Dude, that’s awesome. I’m proud of you.” The words are hollow. He doesn’t deserve them. Snap. Snap. Snap. “Chase?” Snap. Snap. Snap. “Welcome home.” Chase breaths shakily. His wrist stings. He cries, the fourth time that day, and bites back the urge to scream. “He’s g-going to f-find me again,” he says through quick breaths, “I’m n-next.” “Chase…” The man shakes his head furiously. “I-I’m not leaving. If he think he can fucking s-scare me,” Chase hiccups, “he’s w-wrong. I’m tired of r-running away. I’m going to fight.” Nothing, for a moment. Then, Jackie says, “It’s what Jack would’ve wanted.” Chase cries harder at that. He wants to toss his house keys off this damn roof and never see them again, because they remind him too much of the doors he’s just opened up. He’s not afraid. Shaking and sobbing, he is not afraid. He is furious.

#jacksepticeye #antisepticeye #chase brody #marvin the magnificent #jackieboy man #fanfiction #fic #nearly 4k words if you'll believe #jse #mine #my writing #alcoholism tw #alcohol ment #writersofjack

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sith-shame-shack · 4 years

Text

1. yes V for Vendetta was worth the rewatch 15 years later, 2. BIG oof

re-watched V for Vendetta on the advice of a comrade last night and fellas: it does really, really, really hit different now. Not just because of the Situation generally but because when I first saw it in theaters I was 14 and not especially aware of even the contemporary American political context (Bush, the then-new War on Terror) let alone the context of its writing. But now I’m a Marxist, have been to way more riots, and recently got arrested by the national guard. Also my roommate and I watched it only a couple hours after she got maced by cops. It hit DIFFERENT.

First of all, I think there’s textual evidence that V was written, in the original comic, as like a classic anarcho-nihilist. I know Moore wasn’t involved in the film adaptation and was actually against it, and I haven’t read the comic in many years, but there were elements here and there which made me think that this was probably the authorial intent translated through an American writing team and director.

Anyway, I was thinking about what I would do if I were to re-write the movie specifically.

I’d nix the romance plot-- both because I didn’t find it very convincing or useful, it didn’t exist in the comic, and because I don’t think V is a person with the capacity to pursue that kind of relationship-- but I would emphasize that V and Evey now have a bizarre traumatic bond. She now understands what he came from, even as she knows that he tried to galvanize her by torture. She is the sole remaining survivor of what happened to him at Lark Hill, if only a second-hand survivor as a function of him directly inflicting it on her. (This plot point also made a lot more sense to me for.... upsetting personal reasons, mostly. Like, yeah, being confronted by life-imperiling violence does, in some people, engender a new relationship with fear and a new capacity for inflicting violence themselves. I don’t know how other people talk about this but I think of it as like, breaking the psychological violence barrier that most people have. This is NOT actually a good way to make cadre because there are also other, often life-destroying effects, but I don’t actually think V was trying to canonically forge Evey into a militant. I think he was trying to just kill Evey’s lifelong all-encompassing fear in much the same way that he himself became what he became, so that she could do Whatever. I also wonder how much of this was a horrific, malignant attempt to reveal himself, to make someone else who knows what happened to him. It’s perverse but it makes sense to me.)

I think in my re-writing they’d mutually agree to his murder-suicide thing. Evey would acknowledge that part of this decision has to do with his spirit’s inability to confront the question of the struggle that comes after his big demonstrative act of undermining and delegitimizing the state monopoly on violence: of breaking that barrier in the minds of the public at large. He’s not capable of facing this future but she is, and actually her entire life— not simply his role in it— has made her able to cope with that in large part because she’s still capable of finding solace and strength in having human connections. His capacity to do this is so eroded that his primary relationship for decades has been to a dead woman he never met except by suffering in a way similar to how she suffered. Maybe this is the key to why he tortured Evey, too: he needs to be known in the most intimate way he ever knew another person.

really what i’d want to see is V precipitating mass action by making its possibility unignorable, and Evey participating because she can be in a mass movement. I’d want to spend more time on Evey’s resiliency as coming from not only a well inside of herself but also her capacity for loving others and being loved. This part isn’t really present in the text at all, but I’d want V and Evey to be in contrast: the total lone actor, the woman who is still a member of the human body and who still wants to be.

Really, I would want my imaginary remake to be about: 1. surviving trauma, 2. carrying on the struggle, 3. how connections to others impact both of those things.

It was worth the re-watch but boy, I don’t think I really understood how incredibly different it would read to me now.

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butchbella · 5 years

Text

a (mostly) comprehensive comics guide to james buchanan “bucky” barnes / the winter soldier.

this is my simple attempt to make comics accessible, for both seasoned readers & folks that know nothing about comics and just want to see more of bucky.

key

[ ▶ ] personal favorites & best-of-bucky moments

[ ✘ ] non-essentials & blink-and-you-miss-it appearances

[ ⚑ ] marvel event; typically do not directly feature bucky but impact the universe/him in some way

[ ★ ] ongoing / still being released as of january 2020

[ ☗ ] indicates that i haven’t read this myself & can’t be sure of how involved bucky is

last updated: february 6, 2020

golden age comics

[ ✘ ] captain america comics (1941) #1-12

[ ✘ / ☗ ] young allies (1941-1946) #1-8

[ ✘ / ☗ ] all-winners comics (1941-1947) #1-21

[ ✘ ] quick note:

none of these are essentials. if you are a history buff or are interested in the roots of the characters, these might interest you. however, please take note that while there are some cute/fun scenes & these have historic significance as early anti-nazi messages from jewish writers, these comics are deeply “of their time” and full of overtly racist caricatures & many other deeply problematic themes/images, and i generally would recommend avoiding these.

silver age comics & beyond

[ ☗ ] avengers (1963) #1-20

[ ☗ ] avengers classic (2007) #1-12

(reprints of 1963, w/ new stories)

[ ☗ ] tales of suspense (1959) #63-71

[ ☗ ] giant-size invaders (1975) #1;invaders (1975-1979) #1-22; annual (1977); marvel premiere #29-30; avengers #71; invaders #23-41; giant-size invaders 2; what if? (1977) 4; invaders (1993) #1-4

[ ✘ ] fantastic four annual (1976) #11

(the fantastic four go back in time to wwii and help the invaders stop the nazis from winning the war with vibranium. 40s kid bucky plays a small part here.)

90s / almost modern comics

[ ✘ ] adventures of captain america (1991) #1-4

(a 90s retelling of captain america’s origins - some interesting panels, but nonessential.)

[ ☗ ] marvel universe (1998) #1-7

captain america: sentinel of liberty (1998) #12

(1940s cap & bucky adventure, featuring some cute “what comes next” dialogue)

captain america vol 3 (1998, dan jurgens era) #32, #48, #50

(#32 is a wwii story told from the perspective of someone cap & bucky saved (brief bucky cameos), but #48 ends with a beautiful funeral/memorial scene honoring bucky & featuring rebecca barnes.)

[ ✘ ] captain america annual (2001) #1

(dan jurgens era cap story; offers a new 40s invaders story in which cap is captured by the red skull; president bush is in it for some reason)

modern backstory

[ ▶ ] captain america: man out of time (2010) #1-5

(modern retelling of origins; great starting place to get familiar with bucky and steve in 616 and incredibly heart-warming.)

[ ▶ ] captain america: white (2015) #1-5

(another retelling, featuring some gorgeous art and a letter “to” bucky)

captain america comics 70th anniversary special (2009) #1

(40s bucky narrates steve’s origin story again, providing some new context from before project rebirth.)

the marvels project (2009) #1-8

(a modern retelling of several major characters, including steve & bucky, by ed brubaker)

[ ▶ / ✘ ] history of the marvel universe (2019) #1-6

(don’t start here; this creates a general marvel timeline of the whole universe/events/etc)

self-contained stories

[ ✘ ] captain america: the 1940s newspaper strip (2010) #1-3

(a reimagining of the 40s cap comics as mini ‘newspaper’ strips. cute idea but nonessential.)

[ ▶ ] captain america annual (2018) #1

(1940s cap & bucky run into jewish, romani, & gay camp escapees.)

[ ▶ ] winter soldier: the bitter march (2014) #1-5

(1960s political thriller on a train, featuring some incredible sad dialogue)

[ ▶ ] marvel comics presents (2019) #7

(remembering a 1968 winter soldier mission; see some of ‘bucky’s’ kindness escaping)

pop secret exclusive comic (2016) #1

(not really a full comic; promotional pamphlet in a popcorn box ft bucky & black panther, linked [here])

[ ▶ ] a year of marvels: july infinite comic (2016) #1

(bucky’s shit is stolen and he wants it back)

[ ▶ ] winter soldier: second chances (2018) #1-5

(included below, but can be read as self-contained; a post-winter soldier journey about healing; bucky has a cat, goes to therapy, is friends with sharon, ‘adopts’ a kid - all good)

main storyline (earth-616)

[ ▶ ] captain america vol. 5 (2004-2011, aka: brubaker era) #1-21; 65th anniversary special

(this is often recommended as a starting place for bucky comics, and for good reason - the plot tends to be pretty good, the winter soldier is introduced for the first time, etc. not my personal favorite *comic* generally, but vital for understanding bucky in 616. in tpbs: winter soldier ultimate collection & red menace ultimate collection.)

[ ▶ ] wolverine (2003) #36-40

(“origins and endings” arc, set after house of m. wolverine regains memories of his life, some of which involve bucky. shows a pretty dark and grim side of bucky and his time as the winter soldier, & is a pretty well-paced mini-arc overall.)

[ ▶ ] wolverine: origins (2006) #1-30

(this is a continuation of the story mentioned above (wolverine #36-40) with wolverine unraveling his memories/past and finding his son. bucky comes in around issue #15 and pretty consistently stays until around issue #30. we see a really interesting, darker take on bucky’s wwii days, as well as modern bucky working with logan.)

[ ⚑ / ✘ ] civil war (2006) #1-6; civil war: the confession

(if i remember correctly, this “marvel event” does not feature bucky at all - not a single panel - but is vital context for the second half of the brubaker era. read the wikipedia summary if you’d prefer to skip it.)

fallen son: the death of captain america (2007) #1, #5

(#1 is a wolverine-centric story immediately following the death of captain america in civil war. the opening pages involve bucky and logan, and while nonessential are quite well done and interesting. #5 focuses on the two funerals of steve rogers & includes blink-and-you-miss-it bucky.)

[ ▶ ] captain america vol. 5 continued (2004-2011, aka: brubaker era) #22-42; winter soldier: winter kills; #43-48

(bucky!cap begins during this arc. brubaker era continued. “the death of captain america” & “the man with no face” arcs.)

[ ▶ ] young avengers presents patriot (2008) #1

(this is most interesting if you read the young avengers comics & ‘truth: red, white, and black’ first - but still an exceptionally sweet short story.)

[ ▶ ] avengers/invaders (2008) #1-12

(bucky!cap comic; 1940s invaders are transported to 2008, 1940s bucky’s war journals)

[ ⚑ / ✘ ] secret invasion (2008) #1-8

(this event bored me to tears, but i do think buck is in a few panels.)

the new avengers (2010) #48-60

(after the secret invasion, bucky!cap creates his own team of avengers.)

free comic book day avengers (2009) #1

(a short story where the avengers go toe-to-toe with another god. set during the lead-up to the siege event. has a few cute panels of bucky!cap.)

[ ▶ ] young allies comics 70th anniversary special (2009) #1

(super good; bucky!cap contemplating what it means for all his friends to be dead, dealing with the weight of the cap mantle - and reunites with some old friends.)

[ ▶ ] captain america: forever allies (2011) #1-4

(modern bucky!cap revisiting his old friends and an old young allies mystery.)

captain america vol. 5 continued (2004-2011, aka: brubaker era) #49-50; #600-601

(this is called the “road to reborn” which is going to spark another change in re: cap.)

captain america: reborn (2009) #1-6

(continues the brubaker storyline, just under a different name.)

[ ⚑ / ▶ ] siege (2009) #1-4

(the rare enjoyable marvel event; bucky has a pretty decent role in this one, too.)

new avengers: siege (2009) aka new avengers #61-64; new avengers annual #3; dark reign: the list - avengers; new avengers finale

(continues the new avengers storyline and leads through the siege event. features this scene with bucky!cap saying he killed hitler.)

siege: captain america (2009) #1

(bucky!cap and steve!cap team up.)

avengers: the initiative (2007) #34

(while he also shows up briefly and inconsequentially in #19 and #35, there is actually a good chunk of #34 set during the siege event featuring bucky!cap and steve!cap working together against the taskmaster - pretty fun stuff.)

captain america vol. 5 continued (2004-2011, aka: brubaker era); #602-605; who will wield the shield?

(brubaker continued. “two americas” tpb.)

fall of the hulks: gamma (2009) #1

(i personally haven’t read any hulk stories, so this was hard for me to follow. however, bucky!cap does seem to feature quite prominently in this issue.)

world war hulks (2010) #1

(continues the fall of the hulks storyline. bucky!cap features in the mini story arc ‘nobody dies forever’ and tells a story from his time as the winter soldier.)

hulk (2008) #21-22

(part of the ‘fall of the hulks’ and ‘world war hulks’ storyline, where bucky!cap plays a small role and becomes a gamma-infused hulk.)

[ ▶ ] world war hulks: captain america vs wolverine (2010) #1-2

(some more hulk stuff, but this one is actually pretty fun - bucky!cap and logan are in a hulked out rage, which triggers memories of another fight they had in bucky’s winter soldier days.)

avengers vol. 4 (2010) #1-6; #12.1; #16

(bucky!cap joins the avengers. we meet james rogers.)

[ ✘ ] invaders now! (2010) #1-5

(bucky does have a major role, but this isn’t essential to the timeline nor particularly good imo - if you want to skip something, this might be it.)

captain america vol. 5 continued (2004-2011, aka: brubaker era); #606-610; #611-615, #615.1; #616-619

(brubaker continued. “no escape”, “the trial of captain america”, & “prisoner of war” arcs)

captain america vol. 5 continued (2004-2011, aka: brubaker era); #620-624; #625-628

(brubaker continued. not continuous to the story, alternatively titled “captain america and bucky” - “the life story of bucky barnes” and “old wounds.”)

fear itself: the book of the skull (2011) #1

(provides some context to red skull, sin, baron zemo, and hydra in the lead-up to the fear itself event. features flashbacks to sidekick bucky in the 40s.)

[ ⚑ / ▶ ] fear itself (2010) #1-7; and fear itself: captain america (2010) #7.1

(another event that is actually pretty good & majorly features bucky - essential for the story. bucky officially gives up the captain america mantle.)

secret avengers vol 1 (2011) #15

(this issue involves natasha in the wake of bucky’s death during the fear itself arc. in it, she talks with a group of clickbait reporters about mortality and grief and loss. bucky doesn’t feature centrally, but there’s a strong bucky!nat focus here.)

[ ▶ ] winter soldier (2012) #1-19

(more from ed brubaker; includes the arcs “the longest winter,” “broken arrow,” “black widow hunt,” and “the electric ghost.” uneven, but mostly very good arc about finding redemption.)

[ ✘ ] captain america vol 7 (2013) #1-25

(at the end of this run is where sam wilson takes on the captain america mantle. bucky appears in #13 in a winter soldier flashback and #20 in a fantasy sequence, but otherwise this isn’t essential.)

[ ✘ ] all-new invaders (2014) #1-15

(not my favorite, but it’s okay - a rebooted modern team of invaders.)

[ ⚑ ] original sin (2014) #1-8

(the arc where bucky becomes the man on the wall. a small-scale, space/murder mystery-esque event that is pretty fun.)

[ ✘ ] bucky barnes: the winter soldier (2015)

(man on the wall bucky. personally, i count this one as nonessential - it’s very abstract and not very cohesive. not much happens, so don’t feel bad if you skip it.)

[ ⚑ / ✘ ] secret wars (2015) #1-9

(non-essential reading for bucky; just know that some weird things happen with alternate universes here.)

all-new, all-different avengers vol 1 (2016) #8-9

(part of the stand-off event. we see the winter soldier with nadia van dyne, & a panel with the three captain americas introducing stand-off omega.)

[ ⚑ / ▶ ] avengers: standoff (2015); welcome to pleasant hill prologue; assault on pleasant hill alpha; captain america: sam wilson #7-8; assault on pleasant hill omega; captain america: steve rogers #1-2; #4

(the titling here gets very silly, so this is a hodgepodge of various issues; the pleasant hill issues are essential, and the full sam wilson/steve rogers runs are pretty good if you’d prefer to slow down and appreciate them. there’s a very comprehensive guide [here].)

[ ▶ ] thunderbolts (2016) #1-6; #7-12

(bucky starts leading the thunderbolts (a group of morally dubious heroes) & looks after a traumatized child-thing. super good. #7 begins the secret empire tie-ins, see below.)

[ ⚑ ] secret empire (2017) #0-10; secret empire: omega (2017); captain america: steve rogers (2016) #16; captain america vol 8 (2017) #25

(it’s a tricky choice to include this, because while the art in these is often very good & the secret empire arc encompasses the majority of sam wilson’s (incredible) time as captain america, this event was very controversial - primarily because steve rogers “becomes” hydra. i think you should still read it if you’d like to, but engage with it with a critical lens. there’s a good guide to the reading order of this run [here].)

[ ▶ ] tales of suspense: hawkeye & winter soldier (2017) #100-104

(this one is a fan favorite and for good reason. post-secret empire hijinks as bucky and clint barton try to solve a mystery. there’s a big russian bear involved.)

[ ✘ / ★ ] captain america vol 9 (2017; aka: ta-nehisi coates era) #1-?

(so far, features only minor appearances of bucky - but still a pretty interesting take on post-secret empire steve rogers)

[ ▶ ] winter soldier: second chances (2018) #1-5

(included above as well; a post-winter soldier journey about healing; bucky has a cat, goes to therapy, is friends with sharon, ‘adopts’ a kid - all good.)

invaders (2019) #1-12

(a cool modern invaders story that centers around their relationships to namor.)

[ ⚑ / ✘ / ▶ ] war of the realms (2019) #1-6

(war of the realms is a truly incredible event featuring many years of build-up in the jason aaron thor canon, which you can follow [here]. however, it only features a few quick panels of bucky - so if you have no interest at all in thor, you may want to skip this.)

war of the realms: strikeforce - the war avengers (2019) #1

(another team-up where bucky plays a role during the war of the realms - a quick issue, and pretty fun.)

[ ▶ / ★ ] strikeforce (2019) #1-?

(bucky joins a different strikeforce team, where he and a team ft. billy kaplan, blade, monica rambeau, etc face a post-war of the realms foe. super, super fun.)

guest appearances

black widow: deadly origin (2010) #1-4

(a black widow origin story with some bucky history involved; features a pretty misogynistic storyline about natasha, though.)

black widow vol 4 (2010) #1-8

(heavy on the buckynat romance, if that is your thing.)

[ ▶ ] black widow vol 5 (2014) #8, #15, #17, #18

(a gorgeous series illustrated by phil noto that heavily features glimpses of bucky!nat after the memory loss in winter soldier 2013 #14. bucky is also in #12 of this run in a blink-and-you-miss-it panel.)

[ ▶ ] black widow vol 6 (2017) #8-10

(“stop pining, schoolboy.” these issues have a bunch of buckynat, also in the wake of natasha’s memory loss.)

[ ▶ ] the web of black widow (2019) #1-5

(bucky’s appearance is mainly in one issue, but this is still a lovely arc about friendship and trust.)

[ ✘ ] hawkeye & mockingbird (2010) #1, #5

(bucky!cap makes two brief appearances in this run, helping bobbi morse and clint barton.)

[ ▶ / ★ ] hawkeye: freefall (2020) #1-?

(ongoing comic by acclaimed team; so far, very fun vibes between clint, bucky, and sam in #1.)

punisher: war journal (2006) #11

(in this issue, bucky invites punisher to a fight after he dons cap’s uniform.)

punisher: war machine vol 2 (2016) #224-228

(some fun bucky scenes, but nonessential.)

[ ✘ ] punisher vol 12 (2018) #4-5

(“world war frank,” post-secret empire. bucky has a small role fighting against the punisher.)

[ ✘ ] punisher (2019) #16

(bucky is in a few panels on a team with natasha, nick fury, etc.)

captain america and the falcon (2004) #5-7

(disassembled-era story. in these issues, we see steve having hallucinations of bucky – and mourning a prized photo of bucky he keeps in his apartment.)

[ ✘ ] cable & deadpool (2004) #45

(deadpool goes back in time to kill captain america for hydra. lots of baby bucky being especially ‘feisty,’ but nothing essential plotwise.)

[ ✘ ] thunderbolts (2006) #125, #137

(completely nonessential. these taken place during secret invasion and dark reign/siege, respectively. bucky!cap appears in the background a few times.)

[ ✘ ] new avengers: the reunion (2009) #1-4

(short story set after the events of secret invasion, where mockingbird (bobbi morse) reunites with former husband clint barton. the first two issues feature bucky!cap in a supporting role.)

[ ✘ ] agents of atlas (2009) #3-5

(bucky!cap and the avengers go up against the agents of atlas, in the dark reign/siege era. nonessential, but shows an interesting twist in bucky’s story that doesn’t really ever go anywhere.)

invincible iron man (2008) #8-19; #20-22

(this covers iron man’s story between secret invasion and siege, where bucky!cap plays a small role in tony’s fight against osborn alongside black widow and maria hill.)

[ ✘ ] amazing spider-man (1999) #523, 537, 600, 601, 637, 648, 661

(most of these are set approximately during dark reign, where osborn is in charge and bucky!cap is teamed up with peter parker, et al. mostly just in the background of a few panels, nothing important here.)

[ ✘ ] avengers vs atlas (2010) #1, #4

(the original 60s avengers team replaces the current bucky!cap avengers team for this short team-up arc with the agents of atlas. bucky isn’t in this much, so it’s skippable.)

tails of the pet avengers: dogs of summer (2010) #1

(in the second story of this collection, bucky!cap, thor, and iron man team up – and get turned into frogs.)

avengers vs pet avengers (2010) #1-4

(bucky!cap, iron man, and thor are frogs. they team up with the pet avengers, led by throg - the frog thor.)

[ ▶ ] wolverine: weapon x (2009) #11-15

(a fun arc that starts with steve rogers on a pub crawl. this is one of the few times bucky!cap is used to full advantage, and it’s glorious.)

i am an avenger (2010) #2, #4, #5

(a collection of a bunch of little short stories focusing, primarily, on off-times and side-battles. includes one called ‘a little help’ where bucky!cap inspires a suicidal teen to seek help.)

[ ✘ ] captain america and the falcon (2011) #1

(an issue that centers on sam wilson/the falcon. includes a nice moment with bucky!cap in the beginning, but he doesn’t play a central role.)

captain america and batroc (2011) #1

(an issue that centers on batroc the leaper. features a fight between bucky!cap and batroc.)

[ ✘ ] x-club (2011) #1, #4

(40s sidekick bucky appears alongside the invaders in a few flashback panels that provide context for this mutant story.)

captain america: hail hydra (2011) #1, #5

(a short series showing how hydra and steve have intersected throughout history. the first and last issues feature bucky - first as sidekick baby bucky and later as bucky!cap.)

a+x (2012) #1

(40s captain america and bucky team up with time-hopping cable to fight against some robots. pretty fun stuff.)

secret avengers vol 2 (2013) #9, #16

(bucky plays a small role here as the winter soldier. i didn’t read the full run so i don’t entirely understand his role, but he seems to team up with bobbi morse/mockingbird and daisy johnson/quake against shield/maria hill’s policy of altering agents’ memories. also hinted that they vacation to hawaii together.)

[ ✘ ] marvel 75th anniversary celebration (2014) #1

(this issue is a collection of mini-stories, released as part of the 75th anniversary stuff. the first two feature one panel of bucky-as-winter-soldier in flashback and a 40s stan lee original classic text story adapted into modern comics.)

[ ✘ ] secret empire: brave new world (2017) #5

(bucky appears briefly in the namor mini-story, sanctuary. he has the thunderbolts arm and a little bun in these panels.)

rise of the black panther (2018) #3

(fills in some gaps following fantastic four #52 from 1966, after they are invited to wakanda. this details the process of king t’challa opening the lands up to international affairs. as the winter soldier, bucky is involved in a russian assassination attempt.)

[ ✘ ] uncanny x-men (2019) #11

(natasha and bucky meet up with logan for a few panels. there’s a mutant hate rally ongoing, and the x-men are working to stop it.)

captain marvel (2019) #6

(a war of the realms issue that opens with a team-up of natasha and bucky. eventually, nat goes off to work with captain marvel, however.)

[ ✘ ] gwenpool strikes back (2019) #3

(gwenpool is doing weird shit, bucky is hanging out on the beach with steve in a few panels.)

[ ✘ ] marvel (2019) #1000-1001

(a bunch of mostly disjointed one-page comics to celebrate marvel’s 80th, has a few cute pages with bucky)

[ ▶ ] unstoppable wasp: unlimited (2019) #7-10

(read this whole series - #1-10 if you can; incredibly tender scenes with former red room trainee & forgiveness themes; lgbt youth & mental illness)

[ ✘ ] avengers: no road home (2019) #10

(the vision manifests bucky & many others to help aid in a fight. he’s seen in a few big battle panels.)

ruins of ravencroft: dracula (2020) #1

(related to the upcoming ravencroft event. in it, bucky narrates a previous run-in with the ravencroft institute. heavily features 40s kid bucky and cap fighting dracula and an american eugenics research program.)

alternate universes

what if? (1977) #5

(this issue asks: what if captain america and bucky hadn’t died in wwii? in it, steve starts to age - and bucky takes on the mantle of captain america.)

[ ✘ ] what if? vol 2 (1991) #28

(this issue asks: what if erskine didn’t die, and there was an army of supersoldiers? unfortunately, it takes a very nick spencer-esque approach and turns steve rogers into a racist, fascist, eugenicist president. bucky features in a very minor role - he never goes to battle because he isn’t a supersoldier. skip this one.)

[ ✘ ] what if? vol 2 (1998) #105

(bucky is not in the main story here, just in a small doodle on the fan letters page. there’s a mini two-panel ‘story’ that asks: what if bucky hadn’t died in wwii, and came back to fight alongside steve as an old man?)

[ ✘ ] what if? (2005) #1

(what if captain america was in the civil war instead of wwii? this introduces an evil, ‘white skull’ bucky barnes. it also features some pretty grotesque appropriate of indigenous customs and other assorted racisms and bastardizes bucky’s key personality traits. skip it.)

[ ✘ ] what if: house of m (2008) #1

(what if the scarlet witch said ‘no more powers’ instead of ‘mutants’? bucky appears in just a few quick panels.)

civil war: house of m (2008) #1-5

(confusingly, has nothing to do with civil war. this is a “house of m” alternative universe where bucky is sent to kill magneto.)

[ ✘ ] what if: world war hulk (2009) #1

(what if the heroes lost world war hulk? briefly features winter soldier bucky barnes, who dies.)

what if: secret invasion (2010) #1

(what if the skrulls won the secret invasion? bucky!cap is a part of a resistance team, and kills norman osborn.)

what if wolverine: father (2010) #1

(what if logan found the winter soldier killing his wife, and got to raise his son daken? bucky dies in the beginning of this one, for obvious reasons.)

what if? dark reign (2010) #1

(what if clint barton succeeded at killing norman osborn? bucky!cap, bobbi, and spider-man hunt down clint, hoping they get to him before the rest of the world does.)

[ ✘ ] what if? (2011) #200

(what if norman osborn won the siege of asgard? sentry decapitates steve rogers/cap in front of bucky!cap.)

[ ▶ ] planet hulk: warzones (2015) #1-5

(au of implied stevebucky, where they are beefy gladiator-type warriors)

[ ▶ ] battleworld: runaways (2015) #1-4

(a moody teen!bucky alternate universe.)

[ ✘ ] 1872 (2015) #1-4

(in this western alternate universe, bucky barnes was sheriff steve rogers’s deputy & the wife of natasha. he is only depicted once, in a photograph.)

[ ✘ ] a-force (2016) #5

(features a brief but cute cameo where bucky is called a heroine.)

1602 witch hunter angela (2015) #1

(in this battleworlds alternate universe, witchhunters angela and serah [a wlw couple] hunt down and kill captain james barnes of clan buchanan, who transforms into a monster.)

batman/captain america (1996) #1

(in the 40s, bucky and steve team up with batman and robin in this dc / marvel crossover comic. there’s some very cute stuff with bucky and robin.)

[ ✘ ] the ultimates (2002) #1-13

(frankly, i hate this because everyone is an asshole. there’s a whole lot of things set in this universe if you seek them out. bucky didn’t tragically “die” in the 40s and instead marries steve’s fiance and grows old with her.)

wolverine (2003) #66-74

(most of these issues are from the ‘old man logan’ run, and feature bucky!cap in a few panels.)

old man hawkeye (2018) #6-8

(bucky features as the winter soldier with glowing red eyes - after the events shown in the old man logan flashbacks. he’s put on a mission for the bad guys, and then dies.)

[ ✘ ] bullet points (2006) #1-6

(a ‘what if’ dr. erskine died before giving steve the serum; steve becomes iron man; bucky has two small roles in this, but nothing too major)

[ ✘ ] marvel zombies vs the army of darkness (2007) #2

(there’s a zombified winter soldier featured on a single page, where he’s killed by ashley.)

marvel zombies destroy! (2015) #1-5

(in this one, bucky is a nazi zombie & member of the invaders. in the last issue, we see his demise.)

[ ✘ ] marvel apes (2008) #1-4

(a weird story where everyone is an ape and ape-cap and ape-bucky are vampires. skip it.)

[ ✘ ] marvel apes: amazing spider-monkey special (2009) #1

(spins out of the above ‘marvel apes’ story, and features a quick update on what happens to ape-bucky after the vampires are defeated.)

[ ✘ ] world war hulks: hulked-out heroes (2010) #2

(hulkpool, captain america, and 40s bucky briefly team-up in this issue.)

captain america corps (2011) #1-5

(takes place in the lead-up to bucky turning himself in in the brubaker issue #611. captain americas of the multiverse are going missing, and john walker, 40s cap, bucky cap, a sharon cap, and a future descendent of luke cage cap all team up.)

a-babies vs x-babies (2012) #1

(‘bucky bear’ features centrally, with great/cute art by gurihiru.)

rebecca “rikki” barnes / nomad

captain america vol 2 (1996) #1-12

(heroes reborn era marvel, which was super unpopular for good reason. this introduces rebecca ‘rikki’/‘bucky’ barnes, the child of richard barnes and peggy carter barnes in a pocket universe created by franklin richards.)

[ ✘ ] heroes reborn the return (1997) #3-4

(rikki barnes says goodbye to cap/steve in this, as the heroes reborn era wraps up and the universe returns to normal.)

[ ✘ ] heroes reborn: young allies (2000) #1

(truly this is a mess and not worthwhile at all. in short, it’s an alternative universe version of the young allies, led by rikki barnes, with a hard to follow and bizarre plot.)

exiles vol 1 (2006) #81-82

(the pocket universe where rikki is from has been removed and placed in the 616-universe. rikki’s young allies and exiles team up to stop proteus from destroying the pocket planet.)

onslaught reborn (2007) #1-5

(onslaught, the villain involved in the creation of the pocket verse by franklin richards, returns in the wake of the genocide in house of m. in the pocket verse, rikki narrates the events leading to her death, which then draw her into a post-civil war/cap’s death 616.)

nomad: girl without a world (2009) #1-4

(rikki barnes takes on steve’s old title - nomad - and deals with the jarring move to a new reality. bucky!cap appears a few times in this one, too!)

captain america (2005) b-sides #600, #602-615

(pretty solid stuff - rikki barnes is acclimating to the 616 universe, and she teams up with anya corazon/spider-girl, patriot, steve rogers, & black widow.)

[ ☗ ] spider-girl (2010) #1-6

[ ☗ ] young allies (2011) #1-6

[ ☗ ] avengers academy (2011) #13

[ ☗ ] onslaught unleashed (2011) #1-4

[ ☗ ] exiles vol 3 (2018) #1-12

[ ☗ ] future foundation (2019) #1-5

mcu-verse bucky

[ ▶ ] captain america: first vengeance (2011) #1-8

(a captain america: the first avenger comic that shows a ton of extra content not in the movies, like bucky taking steve boxing & bucky meeting the howling commandos at azzano.)

[ ▶ ] captain america civil war prelude infinite (2016) #1

(a really beautiful short comic that shows the immediate fall-out of the final events of the winter soldier film.)

marvel’s avengers: infinity war prelude (2018) #1

(covers events immediately following civil war, including bucky’s move to wakanda.)

marvel’s black widow prelude (2020) #1

(comic that provides some background for natasha’s history in the lead-up to the black widow film. there’s a page that gives a brief overview of natasha and bucky’s mcu-verse relationship - which, notably, does not place him in the red room program.)

[ ✘ ] quick note: other prelude comics

(if you’re a big bucky fan, you might like to know that there are other prelude comics about the mcu films specifically. i’m not including them as must-reads because, unlike the others listed above, they add no new info - they are mostly line-by-line and scene-by-scene comic renderings of the films, which i found quite dull. if you’d like to seek them out, try captain america: the first avenger adaptation 2013, marvel’s avengers: civil war prelude 2015 #4 (catws adaptation), marvel's avengers infinity war prelude 2018, marvel’s avengers endgame prelude 2018.)

upcoming or ongoing

captain america vol 9 (2017)

#19 coming february 18, 2020

strikeforce (2019)

#5 coming march 4, 2020

hawkeye: freefall (2020)

#3 coming february 12, 2020

falcon and winter soldier (2020)

#1 coming february 26, 2020

blink-and-you-miss-it appearances

[ ✘ ] quick note:

these are issues commonly included on others’ rec lists for bucky. everything in this section has bucky in the background / in a single panel / in some other inconsequential role that is easily looked over. none of these are worth reading specifically for bucky, unless noted otherwise.

[ ✘ ] deadpool (1997) #0

(bucky is brought ‘back from the dead’ by arnim zola; he’s in about two quick panels. this issue suffers from 90s comics sexism and transphobia, tho.)

[ ✘ ] iron man vol 3 (1998) #73

(features in a single panel in a flashback as told by steve rogers.)

[ ✘ ] deadpool (2002) #61

(from context, it seems that deadpool dies and then in some sort of afterlife finds bucky playing poker with abe lincoln, etc.)

[ ✘ ] mythos: captain america (2008) #1

(a short retelling of steve rogers’ origins with painting-like artwork and heavy-handed patriotism. features a few quick panels of baby bucky that are pretty cute.)

[ ✘ ] secret invasion: front line (2008) #4-5

(story focuses on journalist ben urich during the secret invasion storyline. bucky!cap is in the background in two panels. skippable.)

[ ✘ ] the mighty avengers (2009) #29-31

(occurs after secret invasion and before siege. bucky!cap plays a small role in the battle scenes.)

[ ✘ ] new mutants (2009) #30

(set during dark reign event. in one quick panel, someone has a vision that bucky!cap gets his arm ripped off - see that panel here.)

[ ✘ ] timestorm 2099 (2009) #1-4

(bucky!cap is sort of in the background of a few panels. mostly focuses on spiderman and wolverine and some bizarre future stuff that was hard to follow. imo, skip it.)

[ ✘ ] fantastic four (2009) #569, #584, #588

(once again, while these feature bucky!cap in a few panels/background scenes, this isn’t vital and doesn’t add anything to his story.)

[ ✘ ] ms. marvel (2006) #41-42

(set near dark reign. another two quick panels of bucky!cap with his team, helping out during a battle. there’s a lot of this stuff, as you can see.)

[ ✘ ] incredible hulks (2010) #601, #606, #607, #609

(more bucky!cap saves the day… in the background. also nonessential. there’s a lot of hulks.)

[ ✘ ] dark avengers annual (2010) #1

(bucky!cap appears in a single panel alongside steve rogers, spying on noh-varr pre-siege.)

[ ✘ ] origins of siege (2009) #1

(blink-and-you-miss-it single page that gives a quick summary of bucky!cap’s history.)

[ ✘ ] spider-woman (2010) #7

(another brief blink-and-you-miss-it type appearance, where bucky!cap shows up with the avengers team to aid spider-woman with a foe.)

[ ✘ ] dark avengers (2009) #16

(post-siege, taking in the dark avengers for their crimes. bucky!cap has a small role here as the battle raps up.)

[ ✘ ] siege: embedded (2010) #4

(during & post-siege, with ben urich reporting. bucky!cap appears a few times in the background in battle.)

[ ⚑ / ✘ ] age of heroes (2010) #1

(post-siege, bucky!cap has a few quick cameos in this issue. introduces the heroic age ‘event.’)

[ ✘ ] new avengers vol 2 (2010) #1

(this issue sets up the next new avengers team, which bucky!cap will no longer be on - though he appears in the background once.)

[ ✘ ] heroic age: prince of power (2010) #1

(this focuses on amadeus cho. bucky!cap makes a single-panel background cameo. nonessential.)

[ ✘ ] x-men: legacy (2010) #236

(another brief appearance of bucky!cap coming to save the day with the other avengers.)

[ ✘ ] web of spider-man (2009) #8

(appears in a single panel with the other avengers as bucky!cap. irrelevant to the story.)

all-winners comics 70th anniversary special (2009) #1

(features a story about the all-winners squad, with jeff mace captain america and fred davis bucky – the replacements put in by the government after they disappeared. doesn’t truly feature our bucky except as a sort-of zombie/ghost.)

[ ✘ ] heroic age: one month to live (2010) #5

(bucky!cap appears briefly with the other avengers, where they temporarily induct a hero dying of cancer into the avengers.)

[ ✘ ] uncanny x-men (2010) #525

(bucky!cap appears briefly with the avengers, working alongside the x-men on a mission.)

[ ✘ ] shadowland (2010) #1

(this is a dark daredevil story, and bucky!cap makes a brief appearance here with other avengers.)

[ ✘ ] doomwar (2010) #6

(bucky!cap makes a single cameo in the background of a large group scene at the very end here.)

[ ✘ ] chaos war (2010) #1-2, #5

(a few panels of bucky!cap in this story centering on hercules.)

[ ✘ ] chaos war: dead avengers (2010) #1; #3

(two blink-and-you-miss-it panels of ‘dead’ bucky!cap.)

[ ✘ ] thunderstrike (2010) #2

(small bucky!cap cameo among other avengers during a search-and-rescue / clean-up mission.)

[ ✘ ] the twelve: spearhead (2010) #1

(40s wwii story. features blink-and-you-miss-it appearance where bucky can be seen, in shadow, falling off of the plane to his death in the background.)

[ ✘ ] invincible iron man (2011) #501

(bucky!cap features in a single panel in a meeting with iron man.)

[ ✘ ] all-winners squad: band of heroes (2011) #1-5

(in flashbacks, 40s sidekick bucky features in the background a few times with steve/cap. this story focuses on bringing the aged timely comics c-list characters back.)

[ ✘ ] herc (2011) #4

(bucky!cap appears in a single panel that is included to provide context to what else is happening in the 616 universe during the fear itself event. spoilers for that arc, but no new info here.)

[ ✘ ] heroes for hire (2011) #9-10

(set during fear itself arc. misty knight is monitoring the ongoing battles, bucky!cap features in two quick panels showing the action.)

[ ✘ ] avengers vs x-men: versus (2011) #6

(bucky doesn’t appear, but he and the rick jones bucky are discussed/mourned by cap.)

[ ✘ ] battle scars (2012) #3

(features in a single flashback panel of bucky!cap and steve fighting taskmaster.)

[ ✘ ] deadpool (2012) #49.1

(this is a musical-style rendition recapping the last few years of deadpool’s comics. bucky features in a single panel that harkens back to his role in wolverine: origins.)

[ ✘ ] deadpool: killustrated (2013) #1

(blink-and-you-miss-it appearance where bucky!cap appears as a corpse among a pile of corpses.)

[ ✘ ] deadpool (2013) #17

(40s bucky appears on the very first page in a flashback. the rest is an adventure shared by steve/cap, wolverine, and deadpool.)

[ ✘ ] superior foes of spider-man (2013) #7

(bucky… sort of appears? as a doodle. featured in an interaction between a lawyer and baron zemo. skippable and not really an appearance.)

[ ✘ ] all-new marvel now! point one (2014) #1

(features a bunch of short stories that briefly introduce the major players and storylines of the marvel now era, including the all-new invaders story. features a few brief mentions/panels of bucky.)

[ ✘ ] loki: agent of asgard (2014) #12

(loki makes a quick reference to bucky and the events of bucky barnes: the winter soldier 2015 in this panel.)

[ ✘ ] what if? age of ultron (2014) #4

(blink-and-you-miss-it appearance of 40s kid bucky’s death in a recap panel.)

[ ✘ ] amazing spider-man vol 3 (2014) #1

(blink-and-you-miss-it appearance of bucky barnes as a cardboard cut-out.)

[ ✘ ] secret wars: secret love (2015) #1

(often included on bucky guides, but *incredibly* blink-and-you-miss it panel where we see a very brief background glimpse of buckynat.)

[ ✘ ] inhuman special (2015) #1

(40s bucky appears in a single panel in flashback.)

[ ✘ ] agents of shield (2016) #8

(this is part of the civil war ii event. bucky is shown in a single panel in a large battle scene.)

[ ✘ ] all-new, all-different avengers annual (2016) #1

(ms. marvel’s fanfiction world, come to life. bucky appears in the background of a single panel, on a date[?] at a coffee shop.)

[ ✘ ] guardians of the galaxy vol 4 (2017) #16

(a cute little story about groot on earth. bucky features in a single panel, as part of a large scene depicting many other superheroes at once.)

[ ✘ ] generations: sam wilson captain america & steve rogers captain america (2017) #1

(sam wilson goes back in time and gets to grow old and watch steve rogers in wwii and his younger self much later. a good story, but bucky features only as 40s kid bucky in the background a few times.)

[ ✘ ] unstoppable wasp (2017) #7

(blink-and-you-miss it panel where we learn bucky is a magazine model. a good comic, just not bucky-centric.)

[ ✘ ] unbelievable gwenpool (2017) #16-18

(not really an appearance, but bucky does appear as a doll on gwen’s bedroom shelf.)

[ ✘ ] ant-man & the wasp (2018) #2

(the winter soldier appears in a brief flashback panel, explaining nadia van dyne’s origins with the red room.)

[ ✘ ] cosmic ghost rider destroys marvel history (2019) #4

(no clue what’s happening here, tbh. frank/the punisher is the ghost rider of the future, maybe? there’s a wwii story here, and a few brief glimpses of bucky from the 40s - nothing important.)

[ ✘ ] friendly neighborhood spider-man (2019) #9

(spider-man’s neighbor marnie, also ‘rumor’, tells her story about japanese internment camps. cap and bucky fought with her, and 40s kid bucky is present in one panel.)

[ ✘ ] marvels epilogue (2019) #1

(in one two-page spread showing phil sheldon’s past run-ins with superheroes during his journalism career, a small image of 40s bucky can be seen.)

[ ✘ ] spider-man annual (2019) #1

(bucky appears in a single panel, as a horse.)

amazing spider-man (2020) #38

(j. jonah jameson tours a millennial clickbait newsroom that publishes pieces critical of superheroes. bucky appears responding to a hydra!cap accusation, joining the angry comment section.)

frequently asked questions

where/how can i read comics?

you can search for a local shop [here]. digital comics are also an option. i recommend [marvel unlimited], which you can pay $9.99/mo or $69/yr for almost all marvel comics older than 6 months.if you want to try an issue out before purchasing, there are also sites dedicated to pirating comics - getcomics and readcomiconline being the most popular - but if you can afford to pay, please do.

there is a comic missing from this list! what gives?

i do have an ongoing list of possible bucky appearances mentioned by others that i haven’t vetted myself that you can find on [this google doc]. if not listed there, please feel free to send an ask and recommend with as much detail as possible (title, issue, year, volume, author, etc). if i’ve read it and it isn’t listed here, it probably means that it doesn’t fit my own arbitrary criteria (in the background of a single distant panel, merely mentioned by another character, etc).

i would like to know more about [x]…?

there’s a lot of cool resources for those types of questions. to find more comics about a certain character/event/etc that excites you, try googling “[name] comics reading order guide” or “[x] marvel wikia.“ these pages were really essential for me trying to figure this stuff out: - comic book herald guide to bucky barnes - comic vine’s captain america: the definitive reading guide - marvel wikia’s james buchanan barnes (earth-616) extended history - wikipedia’s bucky barnes page - angela’s comic-bucky tumblr posts; bucky!cap guide - travis starnes’s bucky 616 appearances list

how are comics bucky and movie bucky different?

this is getting harder to answer, because newer writers keep retconing things to fit the movies. but for (most of) the comics above, the stories differ mostly in bucky’s timeline. for most authors, he meets steve for the first time at camp lehigh & doesn’t die by falling off a train, but on an exploding plane. he also does not kill tony’s parents as in the mcu. he is also generally a more well-developed character, by virtue of actually having lines in the comics.

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