#military!tom holland

[ilistentogirlinred]

woo met gala tomorrow

i can't wait to see the clothes they're cool

[msclaritea]

Charles Manson, Jolly West and Scientology with Eric Hunley & Jon Atack

Eric Hunley speaks with guest, Jon Atack.

"We have ways of making Slaves here...We can brainwash faster than the Russians..." L Ron Hubbard, 1952

[usafphantom2]

‘Greatest Show on Turf’ – Warbird Night Engine Run at Geneseo

Tom Pawlesh

Thom Richard in his P-40 American Dream, and Lou Horschel in his FG-1D Corsair flying formation for Tom Pawlesh. Photo by Tom Pawlesh

By Tom Pawlesh The National Warplane Museum (NWM) held its annual “Greatest Show on Turf” airshow on July 13 and 14, 2024 in Geneseo, New York. Although this show has a small-town feel, there are always a large number of warbirds in attendance. This is an “open” airshow, meaning the spectators can walk along the flight line see the aircraft up close, and talk with the pilots. With today’s security concerns, the intimacy of this airshow is a breath of fresh air from a bygone era.

Rob Holland in ihs Extra 300, Thom Richard in his TP-40N American Dream, and Lou Horschel in his FG-1D Corsair flying formation for Tom Pawlesh and other aviation photographers in a air to air photoshoot organized by Mike Killian.

With the growing popularity of night engine-run photography sessions, the NWM joined the growing number of airshows that offer this type of event. Aerospace Photojournalist Mike Killian was in charge of the event while pilot/photographer Tom Pawlesh provided the lighting. Not to be outdone by any airshow, the NWM fielded an impressive ten aircraft for the evening. First up was Skipper Hyle in his Stearman followed by the Fokker Dr.I and Dr.VII run by J. B. Aldred and Ruben Alconero, respectively. The NWM’s C-47 Whiskey 7 and the Tunison Foundation’s Placid Lassie, both World War II veterans, were next followed by Thom Richard’s TP-40N American Dream and Scott Yoak’s P-51D Quick Silver. Lou Horschel did a solo run-up in the Corsair and folded/unfolded the wings twice for the photographers. The evening finished with the T-6s of Steve & Juliet Lindrooth and David Steele.

It was a memorable evening that left photographers very happy. We can’t thank the pilots and ground crew enough. It is because of them that this event was such a success. The National Warplane Museum is dedicated to the preservation and display of significant historical and military aircraft and artifacts for the benefit and education of the public. They honor United States veterans for their service and sacrifice. For more information, visit www.nationalwarplanemuseum.com

[callmemana]

James Bucky Barnes: Fanfic 1

Key: smut -🍓/fluff -🌼/angst -🐂/personal fav -👓/

A Little Superstition @jadedvibes 🌼 (college athlete au)

A Million Reasons Series @perpetuelledaydreaming 🍓🌼🐂(college athlete au)

Accidentally In Love Series @creativebeang 🍓🌼🐂👓

Awake My Soul Series @foreverindreamlandd 🍓🌼🐂 (zombie au)

Baby Love, I Need Your Love @shortcakezaza 🍓🌼👓 (mafia!bucky x baker!reader au)

Bad Intentions Series @itsanerdlife 🌼🐂👓 (mafia! au|Ch. 1/30)

Broken Knights Series @itsanerdlife (mafia! au|Ch. 1/30) 🍓🌼🐂👓

Brotherhood & Bullets Series @rookthorne 🍓🌼🐂 (biker!au)

Brooklyn Pride Series @rookthorne 🍓🌼🐂(street racer!au)

Cruel Intentions Series @itsanerdlife 🌼🐂👓 (mafia! au|Ch. 1/24|sequel to bad intentions)

Chemistry 2 @onceuponastory 🌼🐂👓 (danceteacher!bucky au)

Firebug Series @areyoureadyforsomemeatballz 🍓🌼🐂👓 (firefighter!au)

Forever @onceuponastory 🌼🐂👓

For Love of the Game Series @perpetuelledaydreaming 🍓🌼🐂👓 (baseball!au)

Heat on High Mini Series @tom-holland-parker 🍓🌼🐂👓 (firefighter!bucky x singlemom!r)

His Empire, Her Rules Series @rookthorne 🍓🌼🐂 (mafia!au)

I Think I Met You In My Dreams Once Series @frostironfudge 🌼🐂👓 (ex!military! x +sized!reader)

In Seven Years @perpetuelledaydreaming 🌼🐂👓 (baseball au {mentions of pregnancy})

In The Embers Series @foreverindreamlandd 🌼🐂 (+sized!Rogers!reader)

Inked Sun Series @rookthorne 🍓🌼🐂 (tattoo!artist!au)

It Comes Back To Me 2 @frostironfudge 🍓🌼🐂👓(lawyer! Bucky)

It Started with a Smile Series @writing-for-marvel 🌼🐂👓 (regency/bridgerton!au)

It Takes Two @jessybarnes 🍓🌼👓 (pregnant!reader)

It Was Always You @ddaz3d-and-cc0nfused 🍓🌼🐂(+sized!reader)

Last Night’s Story Series @the-canary 🍓🌼🐂👓(stripper!bucky au)

Like I Want You 2 @tmpestuous (college au)

Lieutenant Smolder Series @baezen 🍓🌼🐂👓 (firefighter!au)

Love & Lace Series @itsanerdlife 🌼🐂 (mob!Bucky x burlesque!reader|1/24)

Moth to the Flame Series @tmpestuous (college au/ enemies to lovers au)

Our Life Series @creativebeang 🍓🌼🐂

Out Of Mind @rassvetsky 🌼🐂👓

Part Of A Family @onceuponastory 🍓🌼🐂 (singlemom!reader)

Promises @jadedvibes 🍓🌼🐂 (soft!dark! 1940’s bucky)

Playing Games Series @itsanerdlife 🌼🐂👓 (tw: S/A|HS au|1/28)

Save Me Mini Series @espinosaurusrexex 🍓🌼🐂 (college au)

Scars Series @chickenfics 🌼🐂👓 (western au)

Something Domestic Series @fandoms-writings 🌼🐂👓 (ex-military amputee farmer Bucky)

Something More Series @tellmealovestory 🍓🌼🐂👓 (fwb/situation-ship au)

Shattered Pieces Series @itsanerdlife 🌼🐂 (fighter!bucky|1/20)

Silhouettes in the Spotlight Series @frostironfudge 🍓🌼🐂👓 (actor Bucky x plus sized reader)

Six Months Series @creativebeang 🌼🐂 (explicit themes 18+)

Ties That Bind Series @itsanerdlife 🌼🐂👓 (MC|ch. 1/32)

The Best Man Series @glutenfreepeach 🍓🌼🐂👓 (dark themes 18+)

The Sargent’s Heart Series @foreverindreamlandd 🌼🐂 (+sized!reader)

The Time of the Prey Series @subwaysurf45 🍓🌼🐂 (Knight Bucky x Princess Reader)

The Unseen One Series @extremelyblackandwhite 🌼🐂 (hades!au)

Wrangling Forever Series @itsanerdlife 🌼🐂👓 (farm hand Bucky au|1/10)

Whatever It Takes Series @angrythingstarlight 🍓🌼🐂 (mafia!au)

Where Do We Go From Here Series @sebastianstansqueen 🌼🐂👓 (mafia!au)

I Wanna Be Yours @theeleggymeggy 🍓🌼🐂 (besties to lovers!au)

[randomestfandoms-ocs]

Time For Tea: Introduction

Lavender Haze ( Violet Kingsleigh & Cian Hearts ) has now been merged with Long Live The Queen ( Queenie Hearts & Ace Hearts & Maria Frollo & Helena ) to create a clusterfuck political intrigue series, and several more Wonderland characters have been added to the mix

PS: huge thanks to @cecexwrites @ginevrastilinski-ocs @the-witching-ash for listening to me completely lose my mind and jump all over the place as I figured this out!

The OGs

Ace Hearts [ Curran Walters ] – Long Live The Queen; son of the Queen Of Hearts, Queenie's left hand man & chief enforcer

Cian Hearts [ Gavin Leatherwood ] – Lavender Haze; son of the Queen Of Hearts, invited to the isle because reports say that the child of the Queen of Hearts is running the Isle and they assume it must be her son

Helena [ Tegan Croft ] – Long Live The Queen; daughter of Hades & Persephone, Queenie's right hand man, and other chief enforcer

Maria Frollo [ Elle Fanning ] – Long Live The Queen; daughter of Judge Frollo, grew up locked in his tower and has only recently been freed and brought to Crims, manages Crims

Queenie Hearts [ Madison Davenport ] – Long Live The Queen; daughter of the Queen Of Hearts, unofficial Queen of the Isle, runs her crew with an iron fist and military precision

Violet Kingsleigh [ Meg Donnelly ] – Lavender Haze; daughter of Alice & The Hatter, heir to Wonderland, goes to Auradon because Wonderland suspects Auradon of poisoning the White Queen

The Wonderland Crew

Caoilinn Whittemore [ Florence Pugh ] – daughter of the White Knight & Violet’s personal guard; goes to Auradon with Violet

Arley Whitaker [ Tom Holland ] – son of the White Rabbit & Violet’s personal secretary / manager / wrangler; goes to Auradon with Violet

Chelsey Chester [ Rowan Blanchard ] – daughter of the Cheshire Cat

Tenney Earwick [ Jack Wolfe ] – son of the March Hare

Mallaidh Merrick [ Mary Mouser ] – daughter of the Dormouse

Deirdra Taggart [ Ella Hunt ] – daughter of Tweedle Dee

Deryn Taggart [ Joe Keery ] – son of Tweedle Dee

Duncan Taggart [ Joe Keery ] – son of Tweedle Dum

The Isle Crew

Neasa Kearney [ Kaia Gerber ] – daughter of the Red Queen, runs recruitment & orientation for the crew

Caitria Devlin [ Billie Lourd ] – daughter of the Duchess, crew manager

Keira Knave [ Alba Baptista ] – daughter of the Knave of Hearts, combat trainer

Killian Knave [ Freddy Carter ] – son of the Knave Of Hearts, combat trainer for the crew

Shiloh Reece [ Emilia Jones ] – daughter of the Cook, medic

Bonus – existing ocs who have been added to Time For Tea as part of Queenie's crew

Nettie Tremaine [ Peyton Elizabeth Lee ] – daughter of Anastasia Tremaine, medic

Raisa Rasputin [ Sophia Ann Caruso ] – daughter of Rasputin, barge day coordinator, collector

Rini Bing [ Jenna Ortega ] – daughter of Herman Bing / The Ringmaster, crew manager

Savina Stromboli [ Diana Silvers ] – daughter of Stromboli, collector

Winona Sykes [ Milly Alcock ] – daughter of Bill Sykes, head of inventory

( now need to decide if the existing ocs added to Time For Tea should keep their current titles or become part of Long Live The Queen )

[stormblessed95]

I don't follow or keep track of tiktok couples who got famous by making their relationship their job. Queer or straight couples, because I think that's a bad idea, but that's a whole seperate post (that we could relate to jikook as well if you want).

Oh please make one. I also think one of the major reason they became so private is to keep their relationship safe,not just from military or anything but just to keep it private and safe as possible. The reason nick and Pierre broke up was they started to feel like their relationship became more of a brand than an actual relationship. Like posting about your partner or private life once in a while is ok, especially if you are at two different places career wise, but making it your whole job and personality is definitely hard as gradually it will be just job and playing out characters for media than actual relationship.

Lowkey, saw this guy Chris from tiktok who said most of what I could say about it, he went through his own tiktok relationship public breakup too, it was awhile ago I believe. A relationship is between 2 people. You can share without giving it up for public consumption. You can share some stories and moments and your love without jeopardizing your privacy if you want to. And that's important.

Your intimacy as a couple together is meant for the 2 of you, not for people to invite themselves into. Tom Holland and Zendaya are a really good more recent example of a couple who does this. Jikook do not owe anyone confirmation of their relationship together (romantic or not) for it to exist. Their bond does not exist for our enjoyment. It's theirs. They can share without outting themselves. They can share without confirmation. They can not share without suddenly becoming enemies. They are real people, not characters in stories. Making your relationship what you base your content on or what you talk about all the time, makes things more fictional (for lack of a better word, it's not quite what I mean, but hopefully yall understand) at times because you don't just get to experience things, you have to turn them into a story for your audience too. And there is pressure to give the audience what they want. No one is owed anything here. From anyone online or from BTS or from Jikook. Everyone's relationships are their own.

I don't want Jikook to come out or confirm their relationship or anything. I want them to stay safe. I want them to only ever come out if and when they feel safe to do so. And if that's never, that's fine by me. I'd love it for the representation given on such a global scale, but I'd hate it because I worry about their safety enough ALREADY. Lol

[ao3feed-drstrange]

The Tired Wives Support Group

by tyrantonut ** and Husbands (Honorary Wives) When the Avengers return home to the HEROES Compound, it's to a whole new status quo. Their only chance to return things to normal is to talk to Tony, but he's suddenly a hard man to find. Blockaded by his "new team" and FRIDAY, Stark's AI, Steve Rogers and his team are stuck trying to find the perfect point to meet with Tony in private. When they realize that Tony has some unknown standing appointment on Thursdays, their concern is renewed -- when Tony works alone, things have a habit of going wrong. Where is he going, what is he doing, and will this give them the chance they need to finally talk to the man? Words: 9828, Chapters: 1/6, Language: English Fandoms: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Iron Man (Movies), Captain America (Movies), Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies) Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Categories: M/M Characters: Tony Stark, Erik Killmonger, Steve Rogers, Sam Wilson (Marvel), Natasha Romanov (Marvel), Clint Barton, Scott Lang, T'Challa (Marvel), Shuri (Marvel), Wanda Maximoff, Carol Danvers, James "Rhodey" Rhodes, Hope Van Dyne, Eddie Brock, Bruce Banner, Peter Parker, Laura Barton, Pepper Potts, Stephen Strange, James "Bucky" Barnes, Everett Ross Relationships: Erik Killmonger/Tony Stark Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Post-AU Civil War, Post-AU Black Panther, Not Canon Compliant, Timeline fuckery at its finest, Team Iron Man, Not Team Captain America Friendly, Not Steve Rogers Friendly, Not Wanda Maximoff Friendly, Golden Tribe protects its own, Protective Erik Killmonger, Protective T’Challa, Military Spouse support group, Tyrant knows fuckall about military spouse support groups ya’ll, rarepair let’s go, seriously why are there so few of these via https://ift.tt/Nem0KTE

[ao3feed-irondadspiderson]

The Hedgehog's Dilemma/The Parker Dilemma

https://archiveofourown.org/works/57463501 by Mantis_Shimpish A group of Hedgehog's seek the warmth of each other through cold winter nights, but cannot risk getting too close to avoid hurting each other on their spikes. Penny used to seek the comfort of others, but has been hurt time and time again. She used to be an orphan, an experiment, a mentee, a hero, and a prisoner. By her fifteenth birthday, she's decided that it's not worth trying again. She has plans to clock out early, and reunite with all that she's lost. But it seems life would have other plans for our young hero. This is her story of resilience, loss, healing, and finding companionship in the most unexpected places. TLDR: Being a fifteen-year-old girl is hard in itself, but try balancing godly superpowers and an internship with a world famous scientist at the same time. Words: 1677, Chapters: 1/?, Language: English Fandoms: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man - All Media Types, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies) Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence Categories: F/M, Gen Characters: Peter Parker, Harley Keener, Tony Stark, Natasha Romanov (Marvel), Bruce Banner, Kate Bishop, Eli Bradley, Michelle Jones (Marvel), Gwen Stacy (The Amazing Spider-Man), Harry Osborn, Norman Osborn, Ned Leeds, Steve Rogers, Pepper Potts, Sam Wilson (Marvel), Clint Barton, Thaddeus Ross, Nick Fury, Aunt May Parker (Marvel) (mentioned), Uncle Ben Parker (Marvel) Relationships: Harley Keener/Peter Parker, ... eventually, Harley Keener & Peter Parker, Bruce Banner & Peter Parker, Peter Parker & Tony Stark, Peter Parker & Natasha Romanov, Michelle Jones & Peter Parker, Harry Osborn & Peter Parker (Past), Peter Parker & Original Male Character (Past), Uncle Ben Parker & Peter Parker (Past), Bruce Banner & Tony Stark Additional Tags: Dead Dove: Do Not Eat, Medical Torture, Trauma, Peter Parker has PTSD, military torture, Female Peter Parker, Hurt/very little comfort, Healing, Suicidal Thoughts, Suicide Attempt, Hurt Peter Parker, Self-Harm, Bruce Banner Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure, ... why do I always do this story?, writer has questionable mental health, aka she wrote this through a possible manic episode, read if you dare, Peter Parker is a Mess, Peter is Penny, BAMF Peter Parker, Teen Romance, eventally, she has to get over trauma first, Not Beta Read, Peter Parker Needs a Hug, I swear guys just lemme cook, LEMME COOK 🗣️🔥, Possible Body horror warning?, ah why not I'll toss it into the growing list of issues this fic tackles, Body Horror, I'll give better content warnings for the start of each chapter ;), Mental Health Issues, Peter Parker Whump, Peter Parker-centric, Angst with a Happy Ending, a mixed bag of good and bad parental figures, radiation poisoning, It's like... oryx and crake level medical horror, mixed with a teenage coming of age supa hero redemption arc story, Guy's pls suggest tags I haven't published a long work since da cobid-19 read it on AO3 at https://archiveofourown.org/works/57463501

[freetheshit-outofyou]

First, I applaud their efforts to stop senseless violence, even if I personally think it is as much wasted air as thoughts and prayers. The "Lightguard system" is a non-starter, it will make things much less safe than the actual confrontation itself. Here is their "proof of concept" clip.

First, we're in 2023 not 2003 lets make this a little more presentable and less like a high school digital project.

I'm speaking as someone who spent a career as an LEO and in the military, when I make these observations I'm not just shooting from the hip as it were. This clip shows the offender dropping their gun and running away blind, and the clerk looking back at your system lovingly, two problems. 1. Your clerk would also be blinded, thus rendered defenseless to anything that follows on. Light of this magnitude is all encompassing, it will bounce off every surface and it will blind in all directions except for maybe directly behind it. The light will not care if the person is looking at it or away from it. Everyone recovers from this kind of event exposure differently, the criminal may recover before the clerk. 2. The very last thing you want to do when someone is pointing a gun at you is to shock them or surprise them. There is a greater than average chance that the activation of your system will scare the criminal causing them to shoot reflexively. Now you have a clerk who had a criminal pointing a gun at them shooting blindly. As I said, good in concept, but practical application may need a little more attention. Also see strobing firearms lights, strobing crowd control and Laser dazzlers systems. As for "Smart guns", where to start? One of the two companies mentioned LodeStar, admits the fingerprint sensor may not be the most effective means to unlock the firearm for use, think your phones finger print reader and how often it fails. So they added a PIN pad AND a near-field communication signal to increase the probability that their concept would work. They had to put a finger print reader, an electronic signal receiver and a freaking PIN pad in the weapon. That tells me two things, the tech is so bad that they had to put multiple systems together to TRY to ensure the firearm would work most of the time and if you are putting your life on the line hoping all of those gadgets work when you need them too you are already dead. LodeStar says their firearm's will start at about 895.00 or about 355.00+/- more than your standard Glock 19 Gen 5. Every time I type LodeStar I hear... "Not so fast Lonestar!" from Spaceballs (1987), I digress. The other company, SmartGunz, is marketing towards Law Enforcement with a side market to everyone else. Their concept requires an RFID chip to make the firearm work, Oh, but there's more. Their concept only works on a 1911 style firearm, it will only work if the user depresses the grip safety WHILE ALSO WEARING A FREAKING RFID GLOVE to activate it. I don't know about all y'all but I don't often walk around or sleep with a glove on like I'm Michael Jackson.

Sorry Mike, I still love your music. On 8 July 2021 the firearms were projected to cost 2,695.00 for LEO's and an astounding 2,995.00 for all the rest of us peasants. I say "US" because I am no longer an LEO and can't get their gracious discount. On 12 July of that same year Tom Holland, president of Free State Firearms, LLC announced that the cost for pre-orders would be 1,795.00 for LEO's and the low price of 1,995.00 for everyone else. As far as 1911's go that is the cost of a Colt Gold Cup Trophy or a Dan Wesson Valor 1911 without all that tech to get in the way of you saving your own life. It's also the cost of 3 Glock 19 Gen 5's or or 3 Palmetto State Armory "PA-15 16"NITRIDE M4 CARBINE" 5.56mm riles. With all that said, these technologies are not in place to make the end user safer, they do nothing to address violent crime, it only lays the burden on the person who at their point of most need, when their mind is in survival mode, it adds roadblocks to their chances of survival. SIDE NOTE: A German company named Armatix came out with a smart gun in 2014, soon after people figured out that with magnets on the sides of the firearm it would bypass the guns radio signals and allow anyone to use it, it was pulled from the market there soon after.

[fourfears]

anyone want to jump into plotting in a shared discord 1x1 server? after we chat a little and see if we vibe ofc. 21+ only pls as i am over 25. my main blog is haziest but i'm shadowbanned so i am posting here. check out my guidelines/some fcs i want under the read more and feel free to message me on discord at iranoveroprah, just tell me your url first please!

i'm called nine

he/him

cst

25+

queer

i generally like playing face claims of color, and i prefer if you do too

i play any gender including nonbinary & trans muses & fcs, and i prefer if you do too

ask for my discord where (if we vibe) we can plot and make a server and headcanon and thread and stuff (i can make it if you want me to no pressure lol)

will not rp: pregnancy, anything involving babies or parenting including parents with grown children, military, historical, royal, cops, generally “taboo” topics (inc*st, r*pe, etc. but just ask if you’re unsure), fcs or muses under 20, or celebrities as themselves

i now have a list of banned fcs (sorry it keeps growing):

anyone under age 20. no exceptions. benedict cumberbatch, bts members, choi jongho, choi seungcheol (s.coups), chonnasorn sajakul (sorn), chris evans, chris pratt, colton haynes, david harbour, ezra miller, henry cavill, holland roden, jackson wang, jacob elordi, jennifer lawrence, jeon soyeon, kardashians/jenners, kim woojin, kim youngjo (ravn), kj apa, lim jaebeom (jay b), matthew gray gubler, miley cyrus, oliver sykes, park jaehyung (jae/eaJ), ryan gosling, taylor swift, tom holland, won kunhang (hendery), wong yukhei (lucas). this may be subject to change over time.

i generally like fast-moving threads, and i find <300 word threads are easiest to reply to, but i don’t mind long threads too! usually i’ll recommend doing a rapid fire thread alongside a longer thread to keep the inspo going

anything else just ask!

wanted plot dynamics/tropes:

addiction ᝰ affairs ᝰ angels & demons ᝰ codependent & toxic relationships ᝰ dumb stoners in love ᝰ grief & comfort ᝰ hauntings ᝰ impulsive confessions ᝰ long-distance & online relationships ᝰ musicians ᝰ opposites attract ᝰ poly ships ᝰ post-apocalyptic rebuilding of society ᝰ religious differences ᝰ spooky things !!! ᝰ unrequited pining ᝰ urban fantasy elements/settings.

(very niche) wanted fcs:

avan jogia ᝰ bae sumin ᝰ barry keoghan ᝰ bella poarch ᝰ brandon perea ᝰ chase sui wonders ᝰ choi beomgyu ᝰ choi in ᝰ choi yena ᝰ choi yoonah (doa) ᝰ conan gray ᝰ davika hoorne ᝰ dev patel ᝰ do hanse ᝰ dong sicheng (winwin) ᝰ evan mock ᝰ fukutomi tsuki ᝰ greta onieogou ᝰ han hyun min ᝰ hong siyoung (giriboy) ᝰ huh yunjin ᝰ hunter schafer ᝰ ivan rzhevsky ᝰ jang eunseong (dosie) ᝰ jeon somi ᝰ jeong jisu (albin) ᝰ jeremy allen white ᝰ jo gyehyeon ᝰ jonathan daviss ᝰ kai kamal huening (hueningkai) ᝰ kim gyunhak (leedo) ᝰ kim sunwoo ᝰ kim yongseung ᝰ kwak jiseok (gaon) ᝰ lee jooyeon ᝰ lee seoho ᝰ lee suyeon (sheon) ᝰ lee taeyeob (yoojung) ᝰ lights bokan ᝰ lily rose depp ᝰ lizeth selene ᝰ mae col ᝰ maggie lindemann ᝰ mat musto (blackbear) ᝰ na goeun ᝰ nicha yontararak (minnie) ᝰ oh seungmin (o.de) ᝰ osaki shotaro ᝰ park jihyo ᝰ rahul kohli ᝰ riz ahmed ᝰ tahliah barnett (fka twigs) ᝰ tati gabrielle ᝰ sen mitsuji ᝰ simone ashley ᝰ son dongju (xion) ᝰ song yuqi ᝰ thomas weatherall ᝰ xu minghao (the8) ᝰ yoo yongha ᝰ zhou xianxianye.

[destinyc1020]

I dont care about timothee tom comparisons thats whatever, but defending cherry is wild b/c take away the acting for a sec but from technical / filmmakers perspective, cherry was poorly edited with blatant mistakes, a movie that is visually bland with poor choices in terms of cinematography and choices that make no sense to the plot that ultimately is like take a step back and think of film as more than just actors on screen. Script that is littered with sterotypes. A movie that was supposed to cover a topic like the opiod crisis but never once does anything with it nor has any meaningful conversation about it. The first part talks about the linkage between us imperialism and ptsd only for the russos to completely drop the critique of the us military mid way through the film there is literallly a lack of cohesion of what it wants to say b/c the script is muddled and unfocused. No movie is perfect but if you are not even open to actual critiques of the film is wild, is film that has potential but its poorly constructed with numerous plot holes and under developed themes. Its style over substance in this case style lacked any thematic purpose rather its used to tell the audience " hey look we can make an independent film" and visual style is never justifeid. Acting is subjective but I tend to argue that cherry blurs more into the realm of overacting, a more talented director would tell tom to control and to hold some things rather than go all the way to 100

the last 30 minutes border more on parody rather than being an honest representation of someone who is a addicted to drugs struggling with ptsd and geographical/ socio economic displacement. The best scene was him in the hospital after that it blurs into over the top hyper realism and fouth wall breaking which tom struggles constantly throughout.

Like Im sorry why are unafraid to engage in critique, tom is a great actor but cherry was all over the place in terms of acting. Like whenever someone critques him you and your anons are quick to dismiss it and say can people think for themselves well here you go I thought for myself its so dismissive and condesending when you think people do have opinions.

Timmy tom comaparisons are dumb, they go after different roles, timmy has admittedly has had more critical success but as that anon said he knows what works for him.

Tom is a great actor and shines in alot of his movies but his films outside of his performance do have flaws and alot of them are technical such as poor visuals ( uncharted) and mistakes in the editing room ( infinity war, end game) under developed script ( TDATT).

This isnt reserved just for toms films but timmys films as well. You also undercut timmy, you said I want the person with range as in tom but literally timmy, austin, zendaya, florence , anya , keke palmer, kelvin harrison, daniel kuluyaa,dev patel like the list goes on of people with range, I dont understand what you mean when you say range like do you just watch tom holland films or something 😭😭😭 i dont know how you can convincingly say one actor as more range than another based on what. Lee, Elio wonka, paul, king henry, yule is a diverse subset of characters, in the same way that arvin, cherry, peter parker, billy elliott are diverse characters.

Wow...This was a LOT Anon. I see you've already written a dissertation, so I'm not going to add on to this by writing a dissertation of my own. I'll just pick from a few things here and there.

but defending cherry is wild b/c take away the acting for a sec but from technical / filmmakers perspective, cherry was poorly edited with blatant mistakes

What mistakes? Can you list examples?

a movie that is visually bland with poor choices in terms of cinematography

What do you mean by this?? And did it ever occur to you that maybe this might have been done on purpose? 🤔 The movie is about drug addiction after all. I also disagree that the entire movie was "visually bland". Some scenes, maybe?? But I think there were quite a few visually appealing and well-shot scenes in "Cherry". You might disagree, but I felt that these shots in particular were quite nice with the lighting (imo). The Cherry and Emily scenes in particular.

and choices that make no sense to the plot that ultimately is like take a step back and think of film as more than just actors on screen.

Again...if you provide some examples, maybe I can agree with you.

Look, I'm not saying "Cherry" was the best film ever made, but to say it was "horrendously awful" is a bit of a stretch to me.

Tom is a great actor and shines in alot of his movies but his films outside of his performance do have flaws and alot of them are technical such as poor visuals ( uncharted) and mistakes in the editing room ( infinity war, end game) under developed script ( TDATT).

And these might just be personal opinions? 🤷🏾‍♀️ But either way, what an actor has done in the past doesn't always equal what they will do in the future imo.

Maybe one day, a film that Tom does will live up to your expectations, but I just feel like you're being unnecessarily hard for no good reason.

You also undercut timmy, you said I want the person with range as in tom but literally timmy, austin, zendaya, florence , anya , keke palmer, kelvin harrison, daniel kuluyaa,dev patel like the list goes on of people with range,

Ummm....When have I EVER "undercut" Timmy (or any of these other actors you've mentioned above)??? 🥴 I've said plenty of times that Timmy (as well as the others you've mentioned) are great actors!

I dont understand what you mean when you say range like do you just watch tom holland films or something 😭😭😭

Okay, now I KNOW you're just trolling. 😒🙄 How many times have I talked about other movies and other actors here on my blog?? Like, literally ALL the time. I don't just watch "Tom Holland movies". 😒 If anything, I've been one who's always told fans to expand their film and actor horizons and appreciate a wide variety!

I've seen 98% of Tom's filmography though, so that's why I do feel like I have an honest view of his filmography overall.

i dont know how you can convincingly say one actor as more range than another based on what. Lee, Elio wonka, paul, king henry, yule is a diverse subset of characters, in the same way that arvin, cherry, peter parker, billy elliott are diverse characters.

Okay look, I know you're a huge Timmy fan and all, and that's okay! But I think you're misunderstanding what I meant. I didn't say "range", I said DIVERSITY of filmography. There's a difference! I never said Timmy doesn't have acting range. I just said that Tom has a more diverse filmography....and he DOES! That's just a fact.

[mariacallous]

Nicki Minaj wanted to delete the internet—and with good reason. In July, a deepfake video of her went viral on Twitter. “What in the AI shapeshifting cloning conspiracy theory is this?!?!!” she tweeted after a fan brought the clip to her attention. A Billboard-charting rapper known for her sometimes extreme outspokenness online, Minaj had not given consent to use her likeness and responded with a characteristic blend of fury and farce. “I hereby abolish the internet. Effective @ 0900 military time tomorrow morning,” she continued. “BON VOYAGE BITCH.”

The clip in question was from an episode of Deep Fake Neighbour Wars, an eccentric mockumentary-style show that broadcasts on ITV in the UK and lampoons celebrity culture. In the video, Nicki and Tom (as in actor Tom Holland) are depicted as a working-class couple who return from their honeymoon to find their next-door neighbor, Mark Zuckerberg, asleep on their sofa. The sheer ridiculousness of the video was not lost on Minaj—hence, “I hope the whole internet get[s] deleted!!!”—but its release does pinpoint an unsettling trend taking hold online. The video belongs to an emerging genre of AI-generated media that capitalizes on the disfigurement of race and gender.

Of the many issues at stake amid the AI gold rush, from ethical concerns to ownership rights, perhaps the most terrifying is the purposeful distortion of our very selves. Some experts in generative AI anticipate that the majority of internet content may be “synthetically generated” by 2026. ​​One industry where this shift will have major implications is in Hollywood, where actors and writers are currently striking to ensure AI can’t have too heavy a hand in the visual entertainment the town exports.

In this time of fixed spectacle, the marvel and mystery of visual media are inherent. Our eyes chase awe. We sometimes greedily seek it. Its thrills and intoxications. We obsess over the possibility of what we might see in the reflection of our digital screens. We obsess over what gateways might open inside of us. That AI could further warp our understanding of race by slowly scraping the fundamental soul from our visual identities, onscreen and online, especially in social domains where the mutation of identity has gotten easier, is no small matter.

This moment is primed for bot-driven cultural theft, says Zari Taylor, a doctoral researcher at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill who specializes in digital studies. “Ownership of one’s image is something that has been tremendously lost as internet media and celebrity culture has grown,” she says. “We have become so accustomed to accessing the likeness and image of celebrities and socialites in traditional media and online, that we don’t blink twice when we trade our own data for ‘free’ access to social media platforms. Giving away ownership of our image, and taking the image of others, is not questionable but quotidian.”

The business of cultural theft was, and remains, a lucrative pastime. Minstrel shows were once the most popular form of entertainment in the United States, and although they fell out of public favor more than a century ago, their grotesque codes and customs have endured in other ways, in large part, because of the monetary appeal. “Blackfishing raised their profile as influencers, to the detriment of actual Black women,” University of Alabama professor Robin M. Boylorn wrote in 2020 of the Kardashian-Jenner family, who today are worth a combined $2 billion. In America, the commodification of Black identity is all in a day's work.

Left unchecked, the visual culture of entertainment is headed into a phase of post-authenticity, a period where artificial media will have an even more damaging impact on how culture is made, represented, and sold. Like the video of Minaj and Holland, these skewed and skewering visuals, as they grow in intensity through advertising campaigns and marketing efficiency, are a reminder that the present is the future: a constant, ferocious collapse of the real into the unreal, an ungovernable reality where the remixing of stereotypes is not only accepted but big business.

To make a product viable in the marketplace, one must first test it, and that is where the world currently sits: The borderless commercialization of AI is in full swing. The thing is, as generative AI tools continue to adapt and scale, the commercialization of them will find root in a culture already poisoned by racial division and gender imbalance. “If everything is mediated on screens anyway, who can tell what is actual truth?” Taylor says. “The technology that we create will never be neutral.” 

Still, Lori McCreary tells me she is cautiously hopeful about what’s unfolding in the AI space. A former computer scientist, McCreary founded Revelations Entertainment with the mission of fusing “artistic integrity with technological innovation.” Since 1996, and alongside her cofounder Morgan Freeman, she has produced a slate of movies and TV projects that includes everything from Invictus to The Story of God and the Emmy-nominated miniseries Through the Wormhole. She views generative AI as just another tool, but one with drawbacks.

“The main strength of generative AI is ironically also its biggest weakness,” McCreary says, “namely, that it is heavily based on pre-learning an existing data set, and most data sets—including the entertainment industry’s history of films and content—are inherently biased.” In her formulation, “bias has ‘inertia,’ and through [AI’s] tendency to learn and emulate previous examples, its systems tend to propagate that bias forward into the future, despite our best efforts to avoid this built-in phenomenon.”

She shares one example: “If you ask a generative AI system to give you some Academy Award-worthy plotlines, it will go through millions of pieces of data and find trends—from Hollywood’s movie history—of mostly white leading actors in mostly white-centric stories. So the AI will then amalgamate what it observes has been ‘award-winning’ content in the past.” This, she says, “can easily propagate past biases well into the future, creating yet further inertia in that direction.”

What this momentum engenders is a dangerous disparity in how and whose stories get green-lit. That’s not to say that imbalance doesn’t already exist—Hollywood’s earliest pictures were riddled with prejudice, and the industry still suffers from racial conservatism—but what the commercialization of generative AI portends is something deeply uncontrollable. Already we are witnessing the poisonous churn of racial and gendered masking across TikTok and Twitter, where bigotry is rewarded with virality. On YouTube, celebrities are rendered in a brutish hue of exaggeration for shits and giggles. All around, cultural distortions amplify in whispers and roars.

Look. I get it. I grew up on the internet. I welcome its penchant for parody, its love of the uncanny. I have always understood it as a playground for unlimited imagination, where the random and unexplained luxuriate in meme form. What I fear, however, is that our playfulness in matters of difference will evolve into IMAX-ready deceit. I fear that our laughter will bend toward manipulation and into something much uglier, only to be turned against us. The full-scale politicization of generative AI is already here.

At its most menacing, the mass adoption of AI tools is a mass adoption of the biases they absorb and perpetuate. In doing so, we grant the wrong dogmas credibility. We arm them. We deepen our unhealed wounds of division and otherness. Without safeguards, this new minstrelsy will produce the inverse effect of the post-racial fallacy peddled during the Obama years. Race and gender inequities will not vanish so much as infect the visual vernacular of everything we watch, share, and learn from. This new minstrelsy will color all that we accept as real and dare us to challenge it.

Consider the context. Generative AI is taking hold at a time that has lent itself to comic artificiality. This is happening as Black TV execs are exiting top studio positions despite corporate promises for more inclusion, as the US Supreme Court believes race has no bearing on one’s social rank, as women, in several states and countries, do not have the right to their bodies, as queerness is outlawed and retrograde whiteness wears the mask of victimhood. To expect no cultural repercussions of the AI boom to unfold in soil so perfectly fit for its sly manipulations would be lying to yourself.

Minstrel shows were profoundly harmful to the fabric and development of Black life—but they were also, first and foremost, a business. AI has the potential to enable the same evils on a much larger scale, and everyone will play a role in legitimizing its reach. “The conversation around generative AI and robbing people of ownership of their image is really a money conversation,” Taylor says. “The Nicki Minaj and Tom Holland clip is clearly fake, but used because they are celebrities. Would they both be OK with it if it came with a check?”

[red-riding-wood]

Heroes - Chapter 1

Chpt. 2 , Masterlist

Pairing: Sgt. Elias Grodin x Original Female Character (Alexis Ryder)

Summary: He is king, and she is queen. He smokes, and she is mean. Tomorrow, death may take them, but today, they are heroes. A story about love, war, courage, and the duality of man -- inspired by the David Bowie song, "Heroes".

Fandoms: Platoon (1986), Cherry (2021) -- I pull Tom Holland's character in but that's literally it WARNINGS: graphic violence and gore, language In future chapters: explicit sexual content, graphic torture, attempted sexual assault, language

DISCLAIMER: This story is fictional, but based on the U.S. war against Afghanistan. I have done my best to portray it and the military accurately, but there may be some mistakes. I apologize if this is the case. As the author, I also do not take any political stance on the themes in this book. The characters' thoughts, statements, etc. are of their own. Notes: Alexis/Alexa/Alex = "defender of man, defender of humankind, defender/protector"

Thirty minutes ago, my world had been music. My world had been peace, in a land ridden with war. My world had been a chopper’s deck, rumbling beneath my boots, and jagged mountain peaks soaring past windows like seagulls on a bright, blue horizon. My world had been ignorance, had been the world of someone who’d never had a bullet whiz past their jaw or watch a man’s intestines spill from his spasming body.

The psychedelic notes of David Bowie’s “Heroes" weren’t playing past my noise-cancelling headphones anymore. The air didn’t smell fresh and pure with pine. Now, the gurgling groans and howls of agony laced themselves like venomous demons through pine trees spattered by crimson, and the air reeked of the foul tang of blood and viscera.

My nose was buried in my sleeve, sucking in the scent of my uniform only to pant it back out against the cotton nylon. It was hot, stale, and even smelled faintly of the bile that had risen to the back of my throat.

My chest rose and fell with difficulty, my tactical rig suddenly digging into my ribcage past my plate carrier, both suddenly feeling heavier than they had back in the chopper.

My knees trembled, as did the fingers that were curled around the barrel of my M-4 carbine, not wishing to use it, but knowing that I might have to again at any moment. Just as my breath, it was hot around my fingers, having discharged only a minute or so prior. If I removed my nose from my sleeve and brought it to the barrel, I would still be able to smell the nitroglycerin. 

“Alex, listen to me. You’re okay. You’re having an anxiety attack,” the man beside me told me, his hand resting gently on my heaving shoulder. “I get these all the time. You’re gonna be okay. Alex, look at me.”

That man went by the nickname “Cherry”, which was a word that the military assigned new recruits. What his real name was, I’d never found out, but we’d spent a lot of time together in basic training. He was maybe a year younger than me, barely past the age of eighteen. His eyes, like mine, still shone with that naivety that I’d never seen in anyone who’d been deployed during their service.

I sucked in another breath of stale air through the fabric of my sleeve, and rolled my head from my arm to look him in those wide, dark eyes. His gloves were bloodied, staining the fabric of my uniform where his hand eased my shoulder.

“Alex, I need to tend to the wounded,” he told me, blood-speckled jaw moving urgently and his own chest rising and falling with fervor. “But you’re gonna be okay.”

Cherry was a medic. He was gentle, caring. But he was also a soldier, one who knew his duties and his purpose. And as much as I felt I needed him, he couldn’t stay by my side. I’d gotten through this firefight with merely a few scrapes from the elements – the jagged rocks and the bark of fallen branches – but there were members of my platoon that were far less fortunate than I’d been.

He gave my shoulder a squeeze with those bloodied gloves, and I nodded at him, still wordless in my response, still swallowing back bile at that tang of iron and viscera that invaded my senses.

And then he was gone.

Gaze now fixed down on the grass beneath my boots, I began to mouth the lyrics to the song I’d been listening to a half-hour ago. Soundless, at first, my lungs still held captive by my anxiety. I traced the barrel of my gun with my fingers, tapping them, contorting them, as if composing the beautiful notes with my fingertips.

And slowly, as sound began to form from my sour, bile-tinged tongue, and my breath began to ease in my chest with the raucous beating of my heart, my fingers trembled a little less, and things like the sun that filtered through the boughs of the trees or the birds that resumed their song along their branches began to slowly trickle back into my mind.

“Ryder!” My name was called, ripped through the air with deep, monstrous baritones like a gunshot, and I flinched.

I knew before I looked to the man that the caller of my name was my squad leader, Sergeant Barnes.

Barnes was perhaps the most intimidating, most dangerous man I had met. The right half of his face was ravaged and sewn together, a hideous scar reaching across an already-deathly glare, a stoic expression framed by strong, broad features.

Barnes was the type of man who drove his soldiers to the very end of their wits, and forced them to walk its treacherous wire. He didn’t allow for grovelling, or snivelling, or a moment of hesitation or fear in the face of danger. I wasn’t even sure if he had fears.

Barnes was also the type of man who scoffed at those like Cherry; he was the type of man whose vocabulary didn’t include words like compassion or empathy. He was hardened, cold, unforgiving, and his purpose he made clear: to push his troops to their limits and to keep them alive, so that they could kill those responsible for 9/11, for the deaths of countless Americans, like that of my father.

Though I agreed with him on few things, there were many times that I also realized I needed to be more like Barnes. That I needed to be stronger, less afraid, that I needed to be the hero my parents would have wanted.

Back in that chopper, I’d felt like a hero.

But now, broken and fearful, and flinching at the sound of my own name, darting my eyes back down to the ground to avoid his hardened gaze, I realized I was the farthest thing from one.

“Yes, Sergeant Barnes?” My voice came out softer, quieter than I would have liked, a quiver to my tone.

“What in the hell is wrong with you, Private?” He demanded, his strides bringing him to an uncomfortable proximity to me. When he came to a stop, towering over me, glaring at me from those cold, blue eyes, he let his rifle fall from its position over his chest to rest the butt of it against the earth, fingers curling around it not out of desperation like mine, but out of fury, his knuckles turning white.

“My soldiers are dyin’, and you’re sittin’ here without so much as a scratch on ya, keeled over like you’re still in your mother’s goddamn womb,” he said to me, Texas cadence lilting his words.

A pang, at the mention of my mother, shot through my chest, but I forced my gaze to meet his, forced my body to remain still, obedient, taking the verbal punishment in submission but not showing weakness.

“Get yourself together, Ryder,” he said. “Or I will. And you won’t like that too much.”

I nodded, swallowing a cruel knot in my throat. “Yes, sir.”

“And that medic, you’re distractin’ him from his duties. In fact, I don’t think I ever seen you two not joined at the hip. I’m gonna get him transferred to A Squad.”

Panic bubbled up from my chest, but I swallowed it back down. Cherry was my only friend here. He was the person I’d been leaning on all through basic, all through those moments where I’d felt like this had been a mistake, that I should’ve quit, faked a suicide attempt so I’d get sent back on the grounds of being psychologically unfit.

And Barnes was going to take him away. And there was absolutely nothing I could do about it. Protest, and I would be punished. Ask questions, and I would be punished. This wasn’t school where you got a call home to your parents and a sternly-worded letter; this was the army, and you weren’t allowed to fuck up, because it could cost lives, and you certainly weren’t allowed to question authority – especially Barnes’ authority – because if you did, they’d make your life more of a hell than it already was.

So I merely nodded, complied.

“It won’t happen again, Sergeant,” I said numbly.

“It’d better not, Ryder. You’re already enough of a liability. Now get off your sorry ass and go patrol the perimeter. There could still be hostiles on our position, and I need you coverin’ the west treeline.” Barnes lifted a finger to point in the direction of the forest, which was all wild, untamed wood. Behind every aspen, every bough, every bush, could’ve been an al-Qaeda or Taliban soldier, creeping through the brush with an AK and a death wish.

“Yes, sir,” I said, and forced myself onto wobbling legs, ignoring the surge of nausea in my gut and bringing the stock of my rifle back to my chest.

At least, patrolling the temporary perimeter we’d set meant I was just a bit farther from the cries of the wounded soldiers and the dampness of blood against petals of grass.

But it also meant that if there was another ambush, that I’d be one of the first to get a bullet through my skull.

“Hey,” another man’s voice called to me from my six, nearly as deep in tone as Barnes’ but far lighter in expression.

I turned a head over my shoulder. It was Sergeant Elias Grodin, the leader of Two Alpha.

Though I’d never really spoken with him, I knew from how he interacted with Barnes and from what the others said about him that he was much friendlier, much more forgiving. And he disagreed with Barnes on practically everything, would always make it known. He seemed to be the one person who had the guts to stand up to him. Not even the platoon’s lieutenant, Wolfe, dared question Barnes.

Our platoon consisted of four squads: Alpha, Bravo, Charlie and Delta.

Unfortunately, I had been assigned to Bravo Squad, which was led by Barnes, and filled with men who were equally as deplorable and crass – perhaps even worse, because they seemed to take joy in their scathing insults and their awful jeers and their sexist remarks.

“I heard Barnes giving you a hard time back there,” Elias said to me. “Try not to take it to heart. Everyone’s a mess after their first firefight.”

Immediately, my gaze darted from him to the trees around me, back to where Barnes had disappeared likely to torment his other soldiers. Though he was far less kind than Elias, his company scared me less merely because I had no idea what my squad leader would do to me if he found me talking with his arch-nemesis. I already wasn’t exactly his favourite member of the infantry.

“Thank you, Sergeant Grodin,” I said, stiffly, as I continued walking the perimeter.

He had caught up in stride alongside me now, so that I had to switch the positioning of my rifle to point at the ground before me, and he was blocking my eyesight of the carnage that the al-Qaeda had caused. But I wanted more than anything for him to leave me be.

Elias chuffed out a laugh, eyes glittering with a mirth that was rare to see in a line of work like this. Though they were as blue as Barnes’, they were brighter, warmer, more full of life somehow despite his own years of experience in the war.

“I told ya, Ryder, it’s Elias,” he said to me.

Everyone called him that. But I was so accustomed to using every formality in the book that I’d forgotten.

“Sorry, sir,” I said. But I didn’t call him by his name; I didn’t want to open up that personal connection, that informal basis. Every survival instinct told me to keep as much physical and emotional distance I could from the man.

Elias examined me for a moment from blue eyes and mousy lashes that were teased by the locks of earthy-brown hair that fell around his headband. He scarcely ever wore his helmet; I’d noticed this about him from my observations, though I’d never had the opportunity to ask him why.

And then, he said, with the hint of frustration in his tone, “I told Barnes that he shouldn’t be sendin’ out the new recruits to lock down the perimeter. But he thinks throwing ya in the deep end is gonna somehow make ya into a goddamn Navy SEAL.”

Neither of the staff sergeants from Alpha and Bravo kept their thoughts hidden about the other. Almost everything negative I heard out of Barnes’ mouth was “Elias this”, “Elias that”, like he was a perpetual thorn in his side.

And almost any time I’d ever heard Elias speak with Barnes or that fuck-head O’Neill who never stood by anything he said, he’d always have a sarcastic insult or two to throw at them.

I let Elias rant in silence, the only noise coming from me being the soft landing of my boots against the grass, the occasional snap of a twig that I failed to avoid.

And then he said to me, the frustration ebbing from his tone, “Wanted to come check in on ya, make sure you’re doin’ alright.”

I met his gaze for a moment – just that, a moment –, nearly let myself get lost in the softness of his eyes in contrast to Barnes’.

“I’m alright,” I told him, giving an anxious nod and forcing the tight line of my mouth to curve upward. “I don’t need to be checked in on. But… thank you, sir.”

One of his brows shot up, and he chuffed out another laugh, his lips stretching wide and pulling into a toothy grin. Now that I thought of it, I’d never seen Barnes so much as smile.

“Well, alright,” Elias said almost amusedly, and then added, “And you can cut it out with the ‘sir’ bullshit too, yeah? I ain’t on a power-trip.”

Though I knew he wasn’t like Barnes, or O’Neill, or my drill instructor, he was asking me to work out one of the laws that had been ingrained so deeply in me during basic that even if I wanted to, I didn’t think I could go back on.

I nodded again, and said, “Thanks, Elias.”

And I glanced again, fearfully, over his shoulder.

Elias’ grin faded, falling from expressive cheekbones as his blue eyes scoured my own features, studying me with an intensity that made me feel so exposed, as if he could read my fears, my weaknesses, with only a glimpse of those glittering optics.

 “You sure you’re alright?” he asked me.

Just leave, before Barnes sees us and yells at me again, I thought, each stride we made against the forest floor heightening my anxiety.

“Yes,” I said, from partially-gritted teeth. “Really, I’m okay.”

He didn’t believe me; that much was obvious. That blue gaze raked again across my face before finally he said, “If you say so, Private.” A quick glance at our surroundings, and then, “Good luck.”

And then he was gone, too, but I managed to breathe a sigh of relief that had built in my chest.

---

My eyes remained trained on every stalk of wood, every bush that seemed like it might be obscuring a threat. My senses were alert, listening to the sounds of the forest, inhaling once more the pine and the fresh, summer grass. Sweat clung heavy to my forehead, and I rubbed a hand across my brow, jostling my helmet. It caused my uniform to cling to my armpits, my sides. Even my khakis were sticking like cling-wrap to my damp calves.

I swatted a fly from my neck, hissing in frustration. The summers here, even in the alpines, were sweltering with dry heat, and it only encouraged the insects. Though I didn’t envy the soldiers that had been deployed in the lower valleys, it was still far from the comfort of home.

As my attention fixed back on the forest, I noticed a movement from behind one of the bushes, and my body tensed, heart picking up in my chest.

I rose the barrel of my rifle immediately, pointing it at the bush and trying to even my quickened breath.

A hand that had wrapped around some of the brambles to pull them aside stilled, and a dark eye peered at me in petrification.

“Hey,” I said, fear causing my tone to come out harsher, louder than I had intended. “U.S. military. Hands up, now. Out from behind there, now.”

I held my finger above the trigger, though it twitched, itching to lower. I didn’t know if this native was armed, or if he was the only one. I didn’t know if, in the next series of seconds, if I’d end up like one of the guys back at the ambush site, blood and organs spilling from my abdomen or my brains splattered against the trunk of a tree.

Slowly, hands raised, the man stood and stepped out from behind the bush, along with a woman and who appeared to be his son, based off of their age. A colourful turban was wrapped around the skull of each man, while the woman wore a black burqa that covered everything but dark, fearful eyes.

The older man uttered something in his native language to me.

I scanned each of them, but they didn’t appear to be armed. Still, that didn’t mean they weren’t hiding a pistol or a knife under their layers of ornate cloth.

“Sergeant Barnes!” I called over my shoulder. I was close enough to the ambush site that I would hopefully be heard. Us grunts didn’t carry radios on us. “I’ve got some civvies over here!”

It wasn’t long before Barnes showed up, along with a couple more of his men, Bunny and Junior. But my finger was tense above my trigger the entire time.

“Search them,” Barnes ordered us, and we got to work patting down the Afghanis.

The older man said something to us again, and Bunny sneered at him. “Keep your pussy mouth shut, old man. Or I’ll shoot your tongue off.” He yanked at the pockets of the man’s clothing, tearing a hole in his shawl.

I eyed Bunny warily. He was another one of the new recruits, picked out by Barnes likely because he didn’t trust Elias with conditioning us properly. And out of everyone in my squad, Bunny was the most liberal with what he said and did.

And even though I didn’t like the Afghan any more than the other soldiers, even I thought that his comment was perhaps unnecessarily far.

Barnes said nothing.

When we’d finished checking them for weapons, he ordered us to escort them back to the ambush site, where he would decide what to do with them. Elias and his squad had gone scouting ahead before we’d move forward, so that we wouldn’t get caught in another hairy situation. However, the translator, Lerner, had gone with them.

The barrel of my gun remained pointed at the back of one of the Afghanis the entire walk there, of which Bunny and Junior spent shoving the three of them forward impatiently. No matter how much they quickened their paces, it wasn’t enough for the two young men.

We waited several minutes for Two Alpha to return, and I was allowed to sit again, resting my aching legs by dangling them from the log of a fallen tree. Every muscle in my body ached from the tension that had built up from the firefight, tension that not even hours of running and scaling obstacles had prepared me for.

Bunny, Junior, and a couple others were shoving the prisoners around, roughing them up a little and cackling, grinning like children who’d just found new toys.

Barnes watched over them silently, checking his watch every so often.

Wolfe had traipsed over, exchanged a few tense words with the sergeant, but had quickly decided to leave him alone. I couldn’t help but notice the flicker of uncertainty in his eye when he walked away, gaze flicking to the prisoners but never intervening.

No one fucked with Barnes.

Blood was starting to form on the jaw of the older Afghan man, one of his eyelids blackened and bruised, when Barnes gave his watch a final check and then stood, gathering all of us around.

“We’re wasting our time here, playing babysitter,” he announced. “Elias might not be back for another fifteen, and by that time, we might have another ambush on our hands.”

A few of the men murmured in agreement.

I stayed quiet.

“We don’t know if they’re al-Qaeda,” Barnes stated. “We don’t know if they’ve got IEDs set up for us. We don’t know if they’re gonna go cryin’ back to their village about us and send more troops. If we let ‘em go, there’s a chance that could happen. And I won’t risk any one o’ you like that.”

“I say we waste ‘em,” Bunny piped up, and I looked to him in surprise. I knew already that he got away with a lot, because he marched to Barnes’ fife, but this was bold, even for him.

But Barnes didn’t chastise him, or even acknowledge him. Instead, those cold, blue eyes locked on me, and I froze, a chill running down the length of my sweat-slicked spine.

“Ryder,” he said. “You do the honours.”

[theconstructsworld]

THE MAIN THREE:

The Construct - ‘C’ Likeness:  Cillian Murphy In-game Name: Theconstruct (WrA-H) Artist: Merwild His Master, Gaebral’s, finest and most ‘innocent’ creation.  Although he presents himself as a Death Knight, no one is really sure if that is the truth or not - there’s much more to him than meets the eye.  He tends to be a bit of a wanderer and never stays in one place for too long, often preferring to watch and observe but is ‘friendly’ enough upon approach.  His views on life and the world may be a little too extreme for some.

Aerden Lo’sharri Jr. Likeness:  Tom Holland In-game Name: Aerdenn  (WrA-H) Artist: Teallinum Looks like a cinnamon roll and IS (mostly) a cinnamon roll!  He joined the military as soon as he was of age and has been there ever since.  He started in the medical tents but has since become a combat medic, being one of the few that uses Life magic and is also an empath.  He was recently chosen to go through the Elite Forces training and is currently in training for that. He still has a lot of growing up to do but he has a bright and optimistic outlook on life despite all the hardships. He learned in the recent years that Pollux Hale is his biological father! 

Ryland Falkov Likeness: Thomas Doherty In-game Name: Falkov (WrA-A), Ryyland (WrA-H), Ryyland (MG-A) Artist: Zoratrix A half-elf born from a human mother and a high elf father (whom he has never met nor even knows the name of), Ryland grew up in his mother’s dance studio where she taught lessons. Now he can be spotted in a variety of night clubs go-go dancing for tips, and more recently you can find him on the Succulent Tart stage! He is also the lead navigator for the Lady Lillium, working under Captain Felonous Blacksun. He’s charming, flirtatious, and loves to be the center of attention - he’s also always on the lookout for his next sugar mama/daddy.

THE OTHERS:

*Rarely RP’ed, but available upon request!* **Info below the cut!**

Taric Sunflare (Darkmorn) Likeness: Joe Alwyn In-game Name: Darkmorn  (WrA-H) Artist: Zoratrix An alchemist and herbologist who owns the alchemy shop, The Red Rook, down in Booty Bay with his cockatiel Pickles, Taric could be considered something of a ‘modern hippie’. He prides himself on the quality and effectiveness of his all-natural potions, having studied the craft under his mother for his entire life until she passed. Often found traveling for work, he is able to adapt and thrive in pretty much any culture.  He is the nephew of Tristenne ‘Red’ Darkmorn, although that will likely remain a secret for some time even though most that know both suspect some sort of relation given their similarities.  Like all the Darkmorns before him, he’s able to freely traverse the Shadowlands and commune with the dead.

Kareenia  Amberlight - ‘Kara’ Likeness: Anya Taylor-Joy In-game Name: Kareenia  (WrA-H) Artist: AvannTeth The younger sister of Dicenne Amberlight, Kara is something of a wild card. She currently lives in a small apartment in Silvermoon City with her cat, Shabby, but can be found often visiting Dice in Ratchet. She’s had a rough life, but thanks to her big brother she’s done a lot of healing in recent years and is less afraid of being out in public and in crowds. Art is her therapy, and she’s quite the skilled painter.

Inistellan Volanthus - ‘Stellan’ Likeness:  Clive Owen or Jon Hamm In-game Name:  Inistellan  (WrA-H) Artist: Merwild My oldest (in age, not in time played) and most distinguished character, Stellan has led a very long and fulfilling life…that the majority will never hear about.  He’s gone through three name changes in his lifetime, although he’ll only ever go into detail about his present persona. Currently he works as a bouncer and an occasional host for The Red Moon when not doing mercenary gigs with Talonoa. The man prefers to remain a bit of a mystery to just about everyone, even those closest to him - for a good reason.

Ourobor An’dar - ‘Ouro’ Likeness:  Dan Stevens or Ryan Gosling In-game Name:  Ourobor  (WrA-H) Artist: DarkTarou While he’ll tell others he’s a freelance mercenary, Ouro is first and foremost an arms dealer and anyone in the business would know him as such. Horde, Alliance, military, citizen, mercenary - he’ll cater to anyone that offers the right price. He will never be found without a gun somewhere on his person, they are his lifeline and his obsession. On a quest for vengeance right now, his violent desires tend to play a heavy role in all aspects of his life.

*NEW CHARACTER!** Garren Norassin Likeness: Lucky Blue Smith In-game Name: Garrenne  (WrA-A) The son of Xylaes (former high elf, now blood elf) and Callia (night elf, now deceased and in Maldraxxus), he doesn’t remember much of his mother and has only recently met his father. Their relationship is very shaky given the circumstances, but Xy is now the only family that he has left. He’s stillyoung and is trying to find his footing in this world, which has not been easy given his unusual appearance that puts him as a bit of an outcast within both the Horde and Alliance. He lost his home and grandparents when Teldrassil was burned, and is currently living in Bel’ameth trying to find a new path in life.

*All character are on Wyrmrest Accord, Ryland is currently the only one with a Moon Guard counterpart!* *Always open for pre-established relationships with any of them!* *Can find me on Discord at:  the_construct* *Message me here or on Discord if you wish to RP!  The top three are currently the most active, but that could change at any time!

[stony-ao3-feed]

blanket forts and running shoes

Read it on AO3

by Perlmutt

Peter is eight years old. He loves Pokémon, pancakes, and blanket forts. His favorite pastime is helping his dad in his workshop. He might not have a mom, but that's okay. He's got his dad after all.

But then Tony brings /him/ home. Steve.

Steve is nice. He can cook. He makes his dad laugh. Peter decides that he will not like him. He won't allow this Steve-guy to steal his dad.

Steve and Tony didn't get that memo.

Words: 6738, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English

Series: Part 35 of All the Stony Oneshots

Fandoms: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Iron Man (Movies), Captain America (Movies), Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies)

Rating: General Audiences

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Categories: M/M

Characters: Peter Parker, Tony Stark, Steve Rogers

Relationships: Steve Rogers/Tony Stark, Peter Parker & Steve Rogers & Tony Stark

Additional Tags: Fluff, Domestic Fluff, Getting Together, Getting to Know Each Other, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - No Powers, Kid Peter Parker, Jealous Peter Parker, Single Parent Tony Stark, Military Backstory, Steve Rogers Has PTSD, Family Bonding, Family Feels, Peter Parker is Tony Stark's Biological Child, Superhusbands (Marvel), Superfamily | Steve Rogers/Tony Stark Parenting Peter Parker

Read it on AO3