#several parts of this are striking but the fact that she basically didn't sleep to go see buffy being filmed...

[trillscienceofficer]

“In the first year [of Star Trek: Voyager] I talked with [executive producer] Jeri Taylor about directing,” Roxann Dawson recalls her own route to the director's chair. “I had directed in the theater and I just liked bossing people around! I wanted to give it a try but I honestly didn't know if I'd like it. I told Jeri I'd love to learn, if they'd give me the opportunity. Then she and Rick Berman opened up Director in Training.” Over the course of seven seasons, [Robert Duncan] McNeill and Dawson, along with fellow VOYAGER cast members Tim Russ and Robert Picardo all helmed at least one episode of the show as directors. The process of swapping Starfleet uniform for megaphone involved going back to school. “We had DiT school,” explains prolific VOYAGER director David Livingston. “‘Director in Training,’ where Rick Berman would allow actors and crew to go through a training program, observing as much of production and post-production as their schedules would allow, showing a commitment to study. Even though I went to film school, I had never directed on a large scale until I got to STAR TREK. Rick offered me that opportunity.”

[...]

“I became a Director in Training and I could go into everything,” adds Dawson. "I observed other shows that were shooting at Paramount. I did so much observing, I would be on an all-nighter downtown in Los Angeles on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, then come into work on VOYAGER at 4am so I could take a nap. I learned a lot and put myself out there.” “Roxann would come and sit with me in the editing room,” remembers Livingston. “She was very observant, asked a lot of questions and it was clear she knew exactly what was going on. Roxann recognized that she needed to go through the process to be grounded, not only in the aesthetics of how to do this, but the technical aspects of it. I respected and admired her for that.” While directing his first episode of VOYAGER during season 6, John Bruno remembers Dawson's observant approach to DiT school: “I had one day on set in the conference room when I was shooting two overlapping cameras. Roxann was standing beside me, looking over my shoulder at my storyboards. I explained what I was doing, and then I realized she was going to direct a show. She was following me, and I didn't really know what I was doing!”

[...]

“The reason I started directing later [in the course of the show] is because I was pregnant and we waited until after I gave birth in order for me to start,” says Dawson, whose first directing assignment was the early season 6 episode ‘Riddles’. “How prepared can you be for something you've never done before? You can prepare and prepare and prepare, but if it's an experience you've never had before, for somebody who really likes to be prepared, it's torture. There are a million scenarios that you'll be facing, things that you couldn't possibly have prepared for because you had no idea and no experience. It's learning to deal with all that with grace under pressure.”

[...]

“You're with people that you love and want you to succeed,” Dawson says of the support she received from her fellow VOYAGER ensemble. “It made me a better actor. I began to understand that I'm not just dealing with this part of the pie, but the entire pie. All of a sudden there were so many moving parts of which I was this much a part of. Often, actors need to be myopic, they need to concentrate on what they're doing and I respect that. But as a director, I've come to respect and understand those insecurities, understand that actors need to do that in order to show up and do the job. But at the same time, I've had payback. I've been on the other side, I've paid my dues in terms of actors doing things that have cost me time and money and face. On every level! I've had payback because in the beginning I was one of those actors who judged every director that came in.”

[...]

“After the first time I directed, I was in so much physical pain, there was so much pressure I didn't know if I wanted to continue with it,” Dawson honestly recalls the aftermath of directing ‘Riddles’. “That was a learning experience. I would call my husband after the first few episodes I did and let him know if it was a two Advil day or a six Advil day. I literally was in physical pain!”

[...]

“After I did my first episode,” remembers Dawson, “Rick Berman came up to me at the wrap party for that season and said he liked ‘Riddles’. ‘So I'm going to give you another opportunity to fail.’ It was the oddest wording, I will never, ever forget that!” Dawson subsequently directed ‘Workforce, Part II’ during season 7, and has since become a highly sought-after director on some of modern television's biggest shows. “I just fell in love with it,” Dawson say[s], looking back. “It was trial by fire, especially moving out of this STAR TREK world into the rest of the world that didn't care whether you succeeded or not. Now it's a complete and utter joy. I love directing and I have loved it for a long time. I'm so glad and so grateful to Rick Berman and Jeri Taylor, who gave me this opportunity and literally changed my life.”

From “Star Trek: Voyager - A Celebration” by Ben Robinson (2020)

[hotgirlmythology]

Dieselpunk world war one soldier oc oh yeah

this js a shameless rip off of iron harvest except it's not because everyone is not quite as happy as in that universe.

Valerie is actually one of my older oc's and in her "normal" incarnation is a cyborg femme fatale with a penchant for robbery, seducing people for laughs, dance, the occasional gardening and running a clothing page on instagram. However this is the 1920s soldiering version of her. Thus:

Born and raised in Draguignan (south of france), quite a small town. Her upbringing was boring... depressingly boring in fact. Her father was a settled soldier and had little time for a daughter, and her mother, though she meant well, was far too laid-back for Valerie's taste. Thus it was that Valerie Beaufort spent her childhood gallivanting around the countryside and generally getting underfoot. As she grew older, her striking auburn hair and unusually masculine interests started to turn heads, first in a vague interest in the unusual, and then steadily more hopeless crushes once she learned how to play the game. She did try to let them down gently for the most part, but some were slightly too persistent, and the norms of the time were very much stacked against her. She started carrying a pocket knife, more for the reassurance than any actual use.

Things came to a head when her parents forced her to give up her horse-riding, which had been her favourite hobby. This was down to a rumor one of her irate peers had put about that she was casually sleeping around (big no-no in early 20th century). She had, for all her flirting and kissing boys, never once slept with one for the precise reason that she did not want to later get blackmailed by them. After basically going under house arrest from her parents being terrified their daughter who they hadn't given a shit about for years would besmirch the family name, she turned 18 and promptly ran away from home.

late 1916, the hurried ceasefire after the discovery of Plotanium (WORKING NAME) marked Valerie's arrival in Toulon. It was lucky for her too, boarding houses were flowing out the ears with homeless soldiers and she was able to cram a lonely looking kepi over her head and bed down for the night among the similarly dusty and exhausted soldiery. In fact, it was a whole week before she got figured out as having not paid to stay there and was booted out, after having made friends with several soldiers who, disturbingly, were near her own age. Some had enlisted at 16. She took to begging in a ratty blanket and the now slightly dented kepi along with the soldiers she had made friends with, although night-time was a dangerous time for her and she relied on them to smuggle her back into the house to have a safe place to sleep (The owner knew, but didn't have the heart to turf her out again).

As the boarding house emptied, soldiers heading to resettle, Valerie had finally supplemented her savings enough to start paying for a room of her own. It took her a while to regain her previous light attitude after the dour frame of mind of the soldiers, but as she managed to blag her way into a job as a medium's assistant of all things. They were very in vogue at the time, what with the uncertainty around returning soldiers, the whispers of some of the soldiers still manning their posts and the blazingly fast conversions of vehicle factories into something very new and very alien even to those who had used to work in them. In her correspondence with one soldier in particular, a young cavalry officer, she learned that he was the only one of his unit back. The rest were still battle-ready, having received orders to keep patrolling the french-german border. This coupled with the sheer amount of distraught wives appearing at the medium's claiming that their husbands had not returned home while not receiving news of their death made Valerie smell a rat. She did not make long-term plans and kept in very close correspondence with her "friend" the officer. He had become somewhat more of a friend by this time, it is fair to say.

Sure enough, it made the news a couple of months later when a german zeppelin of unknown type was spotted leaving french airspace. It took a couple more days for news of the soldiers it had apparently deposited into french territory to reach the papers, which caused uproar. The ceasefire was on tenterhooks, but luckily there was the convenient event of new Plotanium-powered "Crawlers", developed by the British, to crow about (plotanium is just a substance that is efficiently manufacturable and vaporises efficiently and reliably - basically making it ideal for hydraulics). Thus the occasional incursions became the norm, one side attacking the other on a small scale. Very little news reached Toulon about the silent running war being fought on the old western front by the armies that, behind closed doors, were being furiously altered. Some girls she had known from the munitions factories and as reservists (in this universe women were allowed to enlist into reserves. A few made it to the front, though this was avoided) were melting away to the secret-filled factories that were increasingly said to be building new machines of war. After several months, out they came.

France had gone all-out on its crawlers. Far stockier than the British "Duck", these had six legs instead of three and a whole host more weapons. Officially named Porte-Infanterie Modèle 1918, but called "Dalle" by anyone who had the misfortune to actually try piloting one, it made a huge splash on the news when the first one made its way to the border in bits on a train. Though nobody wanted to admit it, the war was still in full swing. The situation in the overseas colonies, especially those of the British, was testament to that. The Duck crawlers had already been put to work by the territorial armies, and the hold on the colonies was stronger than ever. They had even began to attack those of historical enemies. All this considered, Valerie was expecting her officer to be called out of his home training post any day now to go and bolster his men. Accordingly, she turned on the charm a little. He grew steadily more besotted and when she asked him one night if he'd take her with him when he rejoined his soldiers, and unthinkingly he told her yes. Valerie promptly enlisted into the reserves of the regiment his squadron fell under.

Valerie had long harboured a desire to go into the military, despite the haunted faces of the men she had made friends with in the boarding house. Being able to ride a horse was qualification enough for the tired sergeant who was just happy that someone wanted to join the reserves as opposed to draining away like the rest of them. Though it would mean she would have to sacrifice her more feminine interests, she was already tired of the confines of the city, and by all accounts the new war was a far cry from the hell of the trenches. Went through training for a while, then when lo and behold her darling officer sent word that he was heading back, he didn't take much persuading to let her come too. Valerie cut an unusual figure on her arrival. The other cavalry soldiers were slightly taken aback, and more than one bore suspicion toward their officer's thought process in allowing her to come with him - suspicions that were allayed when she managed to sit her horse through its woefully frequent tripping (it had been a bit rattled by shellfire in the war and never quite recovered).

Valerie adapted to it all very quickly, accompanying the squadron as a trooper. To the others' chagrin she was often at the front of any assaulting action, the brazen attitude cultivated through barefaced lying to a succession of customers at the medium's serving her well in motivating often soggy and tired troopers, even when she was wet through herself. She proved herself time and time again, and though she was never the greatest shot or the quickest to the sword, she clung to her horse with abandon and those under her grew to dread the times she gritted her teeth and determinedly fixed her lipstick from the grubby tube in her pocket (yes she did no it wasn't practical yes it was cool). In camp and on the move her hastily stifled peals of laughter were often heard, more often than not stemming from a trooper's attempt to impress her. While it wasn't any secret that the only one to have her heart was her officer, she was loath to give up her fun. Besides, it helped her to unwind, something that was a rare privilege. It appeared the Germans had spent all of their time developing new aerial vehicles rather than land vehicles, and their parachuting soldiers were playing havoc up and down the border, and deeper in French territory. A cavalry regiment was therefore sprinting all over the place trying to keep them back.

Currently 1921. Valerie has been in active service for nearly two years. She has had her fair share of close scrapes. Now a lance-corporal after a battlefield promotion, her word carries some weight. She has gone through several tubes of lipstick, each emptied one carefully stored in her lodgings at home. She has reached an uneasy peace with her parents on her breaks away from the front. She has a handsome black mare now, who doesn't collapse at the first rabbit hole, and woe betide the cocky private who thinks he can beat her in a race. Her smile is the terror of the unit, because nobody knows if it's to flirt or receive a five page disciplinary. She has meticulously carved a rose vine onto her sabre hilt. Caring for her horse is a welcome diversion, and though inwardly she is as worried about seeing tomorrow as any of them, she finds ways to distract herself. Many have woken up with very hazy memories and a lipstick mark on their cheek, for instance (and none more than her darling officer heheheheheee).

Hot woman joins the cavalry in alternate universe world, goes kinda masculine but not quite, she likes lipstick because ummmm not sure, enjoys the adrenaline thrill of charging with a sword even if she understands that it is maybe not the greatest idea most of the time.

ALso she might be bisexual but just never worked it out because of the norms back then idk the original version was bisexual so it makes sense for her to be now maybe???? Maybe she had the hots for the medium she worked for or something.

[thornstocutyouwith]

The reality was that her outburst did in fact have something to do with his fainting. After all, she had summoned a bolt of pure electricity to strike just inches from him. Which sent that electrical current out along the ground in the narrow passage they were both currently residing. Him, being the only one touching the ground at that point caused the electricity to reach him, and proceed to electrocute him in the process. Good thing he wasn't entirely human, however.

Laying on the ground, unconscious, little electric currents continued to taper off a moment after coursing through his body. Which could mean, her touching him might lead to little shocks to herself, briefly. But after another moment or so this effect itself had also warn out now that any constant strain of lightning was gone. Another problem would be that he had no one here, as he was here on a trip, himself.

Naturally, he was American, and had resided there. Other than that, when she did approach him, it was obvious that he wasn't apparently suffering any other ill effects from the bolt of lightning, other than being unconscious. As she was figuring out how to move him he was unaware of what was going on outside of his own mind. It was dark for the most part, with no sound what so ever, at the start. Then he could hear a few squawks from a crow, then a couple more. Several crows appeared below him.

Staring at the crows, he frowns, confused about this dream. As the moments passed by he realized he was in the body of his child self, reaching out his hands for a moment he swallowed, noticing how different this dream had been from any other dream he had before now. He was questioning if it was because he was dead, more than that he was sleeping. Then he heard other children laughing where the crows had been bouncing around. A group of children had rushed over to them, throwing stones, and messing with the birds. Parker moved closer, trying to speak, only for one crow to turn it's head and yell at him to keep quiet! It's form briefly transforming into a women before shrinking back to being a crow.

Parker glared, ready to tell her off before his mouth disappeared. Reaching up he felt where his mouth should have been, only to feel smooth skin. As the birds continued to be attacked he noticed one of the girl's in the group stuck out the most, and a sense of recognition struck him. She seemed to be the younger version of his long since disappeared mother, which he never knew. Inching closer, he noticed that he was basically invisible to the children. Watching as the girl tossed a rock at one of the crows, it hit it, cracking it in the head, killing it. Everything had suddenly rewound then, the scene playing again, this time in slow motion.

The crow that had been struck suddenly looked at him screeching "This is your fault!" Before suddenly diving from where it was, hitting him with a force Parker didn't expect from a tiny bird. He hit the ground as the bird moved in to start pecking at his eyes and ears, mostly his ears, soon ripping fleshy bits from them, his ears suddenly ringing before being deafened as he fought to get the bird away from him it continuing to shout that it was his fault.

Parker suddenly sat up, suddenly awake and looking around as if the crows were still around, and the children, only to find that it was indeed just a weird dream. Falling back he looked around before looking at Darla, then down, realizing he was floating off the ground. Looking to Darla again, he signed *What are you doing?*

Well... shit.

From the look of things her little emotional outburst had caused him to.... faint? At least, she thought he fainted, maybe he was just really scared of thunderstorms because she was certain the lightning strike didn't hit him.

Regardless, communicating with him was a challenge as it was, he didn't seem like the type who would just take a power nap on the ground in the middle of a conversation so the only way she was going to get any help was to help him first.

But, that was the other challenge. She didn't know where he lived, if he even lived close, if he had any family, friends, a girlfriend (or a boyfriend), so the best thing she could do was carry him to the nearest village and ask for help for him there. Maybe then she could actually FIND a phone --

Darla had walked over to him and started walking around him, he was built, quite nice looking actually, but the point of her looking him over was to try and judge if she could even pick him up and carry him. She had quickly determined that while she couldn't carry him - her power certainly could.

So Darla had done just that. Her slender digits had outstretched as a pocket of air had gathered underneath him, forming a dense cloud that lifted his sleeping form into the air to bring him about chin-length. Calmly she kept her hands up, "carrying" him floating on a cloud as she made her way to the nearest village she could find.

[ofhouseadama]

Ed gets drafted into the Navy right after high school, and in between finishing basic and getting shipped out to the Pacific, he promises Lorraine that the next time he sees her, he's going to propose.

after high school, Lorraine needs something to do so she gets a part time job as a secretary at the Diocese of Bridgeport helping wrangle parish finances and correspondence and other clerical and administrative work.

(this is where Lorraine first meets a young Father Gordon, who occasionally borrows her because she knows her way around a files room and takes excellent notes; he hears a lot about her boyfriend who's away on a ship in the Sea of Japan)

Ed and Lorraine write... a lot of letters during this time, which range from very chaste and heartfelt to NC-17 horny teenage screeds referring to their 3-day sojourn when they were seniors in high school, their many misdeeds in the back of Ed's car, and the time he snuck her into the Alamo Theatre after it closed so that they could have a "private showing" of a movie they remember very little of

when Lorraine is too anxious to sleep, she sews her wedding dress. she saw the pattern a few weeks after Ed left, and liked it, and bought it. she's been slowly buying yards and yards of satin and lace and tulle.

Ed squirrels away all the money that he can towards buying a wedding ring set for Lorraine. after he buys them while on shore leave in Tokyo, he keeps the rings in the breast pocket of his uniform shirt, next to his heart, to feel close to her.

his ship strikes a mine and goes down in the small hours of the night in June of '53; the rings are in his shirt pocket, and Lorraine feels it immediately. Father Gordon has to drive her home from work, and believes her immediately when she says she knows something bad happened to her boyfriend.

Ed makes it home to Bridgeport ten days later; he gets in a taxi at the Navy yard and immediately goes to Lorraine's house. she meets him at the front door before he can even knock and tackles him on the front lawn.

he proposes to her while very exhausted and not exactly coherent.

technically, she proposes to him because she tells him they're getting married and she's not waiting any longer.

these are two hotly contested facts for years to come.

they get one very hasty pre-cana session in as the Moran family (+ Father Gordon a little bit) cash in all their political capital with the church to expedite a wedding as soon as humanly possible.

Georgiana and her friends plan the wedding, everyone is very concerned about Lorraine's dress. Georgiana tells them they should be more concerned about Ed's dress uniform, currently at the bottom of the ocean.

(He wears a suit from Sears. It's fine.)

the story of Ed Warren, hometown boy, as the sole survivor of the sinking of the USS Saint Paul makes the local papers and absolutely no one remembers to tell his father that he made it home until a full 24 hours later.

Ed and Lorraine get married exactly two hours after the end of the legally-required 72 hour Connecticut waiting period elapses. it's a Friday afternoon.

when he sees her in his dress, Ed absolutely cries.

their wedding readings are Romans 12:1-2, 9-18 and Sirach 26: 1-4. it's not a full wedding mass, due to time restraints. it's actually nothing like Lorraine thought her wedding would be like, but she's so relieved Ed is alive, and he's not allowed to go back to the war without being her husband.

their reception is some cake and champagne in the parish hall, Ed's hands have been shaking so badly all day that he can't manage to get cake in her mouth off a fork so Lorraine grabs his hand and sucks it off his finger.

by this point she's had three glasses of champagne on an empty stomach.

it's over by the middle of the afternoon, and they're speeding off to the same aunt's beach house that they ran off to when they were seventeen, this time with permission and this time knowing the whole drive down that they're finally going to have sex.

Ed spends much of the four-hour drive from Bridgeport, CT to Cape May, NJ rucking the many layers of the skirt on Lorraine's dress up her legs, running the hand not on the steering wheel of the car up and down the inside of her thigh, keying her up.

they arrive shortly after dinner, having eaten cheeseburger and fries in the car in their wedding clothes, and are suddenly very very nervous.

even though they've done everything except the technical deed itself.

as Ed peels himself out of his suit and tries to not psyche himself out, Lorraine goes into the bathroom and changes into the peignoir and robe she made for her trousseau. she comes out of the bathroom to grab her brush to take her hair down, but Ed asks her to sit on the bed and pulls all the pins and flowers out himself, gently brushing her curls.

when he's done, he moves onto gently touching her. the last time he saw her naked was also in this bedroom, as they shook with restraint. now they're shaking for other reasons, hands rediscovering each other's bodies and warming themselves on each other's skin.

kissing her neck, he reaches one hand in-between the halves of her robe as the other moves her hair off her shoulder, exposing more skin.

he rucks the hem of the sheer white peignoir up to her knees, then her thighs, then her hips. Ed decides that he needs to make her orgasm before they have sex, because if he doesn't last long, then at least she'll be satisfied.

he eats her out like a man with a point to prove, because he's nineteen and very much is one in this moment.

it's been almost eighteen months since they've been physically present together, and they didn't have much alone time together before their wedding, and Lorraine feels like her body is on fire. it's been so long, and she feels like a bullet leaving a gun. it doesn't take much to make her cum, and Ed manages to do it several times before she's hauling him up her body.

he's still not done getting her ready, unable to not think about every horror story he's heard about bleeding and pain and discomfort and the terrible jokes from his bunkmates.

(they're all dead now. he tries to not think about that, why he lived and they all died. why did he survive, if not to make Lorraine feel good? if not to make them both feel alive? he needs to feel alive, and when he drinks her with his mouth and feels her clench around his fingers, he finally does.)

he sucks hickeys into Lorraine's neck and chest and breasts, keeping her high as he circles her clit with the fingers on one hand as he plays with her nipples with the other.

he is harder than he's ever been in his life, he thinks, pumping two and then three fingers into her. she's wet and all over his hand, dripping down onto his wrist. he wants to eat her out again, taste her again. his mind is a feedback loop of her pleasure.

Lorraine is trying to touch him, but her hands don't feel entirely attached to her body. she ends up curling her fingers into his hair and pulling. the sharp pain is delicious, and he moans while lapping at her nipple and thinks he might see God.

eventually he realizes that she's begging, chanting "now, now, please now, Ed, please--"

they both feel lust drunk and clumsy, all limbs as they take their clothes off, as Ed slots himself between her thighs.

she hasn't touched him at all, and he thinks if she does he'll cum immediately.

he pushes into her slowly, incrementally, watching her face the whole time.

she gasps, bites her lip, scrunches her face up. then, it starts to feel good, and her eyes flutter closed, and she moans.

he doesn't want to move. he wants to move more than he's wanted anything in his whole life. dropping down on his elbows and forearms, he shakes while hovering above her.

Lorraine's mouth is a perfect "o," and slowly she tests out how she wants her legs, first pressing her heels into his calves, then his hamstrings, before pressing her knees in at the sides of his hips. it feels incredibly intense, and she's not quite sure what to do with herself. she no longer feels in control of her body. all of her gifts of perception narrow down to hyper-perceiving Ed, the red sheen to his face, the flop of dark hair over his forehead, the sweat dotting his brow, his heart in his chest. his racing thoughts, his love for her. she feels him inside her body and inside her head. she shivers.

she squirms, trying to get him to move.

he does not, burying his face in her neck.

eventually he realizes that, as she traces her hands up and down the side of his spine, she's whispering, "move, honey, you gotta move, oh God please move, Ed honey please--"

something in his head breaks loose a little bit, and he snaps his hips into hers. when she moves with him, it breaks loose entirely.

it's entirely unskillful and uncoordinated, but Lorraine is already so close to orgasming again that it doesn't matter. when she cums again, Ed's entire brain malfunctions and he stops, watching her, feeling it and feeling her. she reaches down and straight up spanks him, telling him to keep moving.

doubling down, he sucks on the tendon where her neck meets her shoulder, and doesn't last much longer than her.

he thinks his vision almost whites out, gripping her hips tightly as he cums inside of her before pulling out of her and collapsing, happily burrowing his face into her breasts.

Lorraine laughs, wrapping her arms and legs around him, holding him to her tightly.

the insides of her thighs chafe a little, and she feels a bit raw, but she likes it.

they almost fall asleep that way, but Lorraine knows that's probably not a good idea. her mother knew enough about their relationship to know that Lorraine needed a little bit of motherly advice before her wedding night, but not that much. after rolling him off her, Ed promptly falls asleep on his side of the bed.

he didn't sleep the night before.

Lorraine takes a quick shower, washing the shellac out of her hair and scrubbing the make up off her face. she doesn't bother to redress, just gets into bed with him. he feels her weight on the mattress and rolls over, blearily reaching for her to pull her against him. he's half in between dreaming and wakefulness, and slides his hand up to cup her breast in his hand.

"can we do it again?"

[dragon-kazansky]

Til death do us part | Helmut Zemo

Bodyguard AU! 🕶

Gender neutral reader

Collage by @realremyd

[Previous chapter] - [Next chapter]

Part 2

You stand outside the airport, officially now in Sokovia. The nerves hadn't settled. Bucky had to lean over and reassure you several times everything would be OK. You couldn't pinpoint why you were so nervous about this job, but his kindness really helped.

A car, sent by Sam, came to pick you up. You both get in with your things. Promptly, the car leaves the airport and you're on your way to Castle Zemo.

You're driven to the edge of the city. The estate stands alone, a long drive leading to the building. The grounds are stunning, despite how bare they appear. There isn't a thriving garden or lush trees surrounding the area, but the mass of land stretches far and is still beautiful.

Castle Zemo is decently large. It certainly looked like it contained many rooms to explore. Somewhere within one of them was your priority for the next upcoming days.

The cars pulls up and both you and Bucky climb out. Your things are taken from car and given to you. Sam greets you after crossing the drive to meet you.

"Glad you could make it," he grins at you.

You hadn't seen Sam for a bit. He had been taking job after job these last couple months.

"Glad to be here. I'm ready for the job."

"Good. Your things will be taken to tour appointed room. We need to introduce you to the Baron. He's waiting in his office upstairs," Sam explains.

"Where's Nat?" Bucky asks.

"Guarding the office. Someone has to be with all times while we're working for him."

You adjust your tie and take the earpiece Sam held out for you. Once it was in, all nerves melted away.

You were the bodyguard now. The job starts here.

Sam leads the way. Heads held high, expressions stoic, you all move smoothly through the building. The foyer is big, a grand staircase is to one side, large double doors are situated right ahead of you. On either side are arched doorways, both leading to a long hallway.

Sam takes you upstairs.

Other than the limited staff, there is no one else present within Castle Zemo.

Natasha stands outside a tall dark brown door. She nods at you all as you approach.

"Good to see you," she smiled at you.

"Right back at you, Nat."

"Is he inside?" Sam asks, though mostly out of formality.

"Just as you left him."

Both of them turn to you and Bucky.

"He's.... a tough one, I'll give you that much," Natasha said.

"What do you mean?" Bucky asked. This was his first time meeting the Baron too.

"Well, he's a proud and confident man, that's for sure. Nice isn't a word I would use to describe him. We might have to really reel it in for this guy."

You glance at the door.

You wouldn't let him intimidate you. You were here to do a job, and do it you would.

"Better get introductions out of the way then," Sam said, adjusting his tie.

Natasha knocks on the door.

"Enter."

Natasha pushes open the door and let's you all enter, needing to remain in her stationed spot.

Sam takes again and comes to a stop in front of the Baron's desk. You and Bucky stand side by side and face him.

Baron Helmut Zemo is standing behind his desk. Once again, now seeing him in the flesh, your mind still agrees that he is handsome. His dark hair looks soft to the touch, those deep brown eyes were such a beautiful colour, and his accent, even though you had heard him only speak one word, was smooth and pleasant on the ears.

So much for being professional, you thought.

However, his expression was less than impressed, and those beautiful eyes of his were very clearly scrutinizing you.

You swallow back the nerves that threatened to rise.

"Bucky Barnes and Y/N L/N, the second pair of your bodyguard entourage for your trip, sir. The rest will meet us in Paris tomorrow."

Zemo looks you both up and down. He takes his time doing so. His gaze is piercing and cold. You can't tell what he's thinking about and that worries you slightly.

He walks around his desk, taking slow yet wide steps, and comes to stand in front of you both. His eyes narrow on you.

"You're a bodyguard?" He asks.

"Yes, sir."

"Fully trained?"

"Yes, sir."

The Baron glances back at Sam Wilson, then his gaze turns to Bucky Barnes. He knows what Natasha looks like because she had been escorting him most of the morning.

"Are you sure they are qualified?" He asks, turning to Sam.

Your professionalism almost drops at the insinuation. Does he not think you're capable of the job?

Sam stands a little straighter as he replies.

"They are capable. Fully trained and up to the job. It was Natasha Romanoff who trained them, sir."

Zemo's eyes turn back to you. He looks far from impressed. In fact, he looks beyond annoyed by this information. He clicks his tongue in an annoying manner and turns on his heel.

"Very well. There isn't much I can do anyway, you are excused."

Sam nods and guides you all outside. You leave that office feeling a bit defeated and hurt. Never before has a client ever made a comment on if they thought you were up to the job or not.

A hand on your shoulder brings you out of your thoughts. It's Nat.

"You good?"

"Yeah," you put on a smile, but it doesn't quite reach your eyes. "You were right about him though. What an asshole."

She smirks.

"Don't let him get to you. Let's do our a job and before you know it we'll be back in New York awaiting a new assignment."

You nod. At this point, you couldn't wait to go back home. However, you would pull through and do your duty.

You're good at what you do, and no Baron is going to change that.

An older gentleman approaches you.

"This is Oeznik, the butler," Natasha introduces you.

"Your rooms for the night are ready," he tells you. Natasha lets you go as you follow him long with Bucky.

Once you were settled, you would swap with Nat and Sam so they could rest a bit. They had been on duty for the past couple of days.

You are shown to a room down where the staff reside. You didn't expect anything more anyway, for now you were his staff too.

Oeznik holds the door open for you so you can look inside.

It's basic, not too big, but it's comfortable. You would be fine in here. You've slept in worse places anyway.

Bucky pokes his head on and nods.

"Not too bad."

You smile.

"This will be fine."

Oeznik nods and proceeds to show Bucky his room right next door. It's much the same as yours.

Once you had both been shown around a little, you headed back upstairs. Zemo was still in his office. Natasha smile as you both approach.

"Shift change?"

You nod.

"Thank goodness."

You chuckle as you take up the position of where she was before.

Bucky knocks on the door and goes inside once permitted to. Sam comes out shortly after. He smiled at you as he walks by.

This was it. This was the job.

You were stood there for more than an hour before fine door opened and the Baron came out. He glanced at you, but said nothing. With a nod from Bucky, you followed the Baron as he walked.

You were present throughout dinner, present throughout the evening as he read, and then present when he retired to his room. Bucky and you did your jobs perfectly.

It wasn't until a much later hour when you exchanged positions again with Nat and Sam.

As you walked back down to your rooms with Bucky, you couldn't help asking, "what are we protecting him from?"

Bucky doesn't reply right away, but you can tell he knows the answer.

"Well, we're not sure who they are exactly. A group of individuals who despise the Baron. I don't know the details, just that with him travelling through Europe, it leaves him pretty exposed and they could strike. We're here to make sure nothing happens."

"That sounds ominous," you eye him.

"I don't know the exact details. We aren't privy to them."

You figured that would be the case.

"Anyway, get some sleep, we have another flight tomorrow."

You nod and bid him goodnight as you disappear into your own room. You dress down and sit on the bed, sighing softly.

You felt like this was going to be a tough job. Not only did it seem like the Baron was being targeted by a dangerous group that you knew virtually nothing about, but he didn't seem to like you at all.

At least he hadn't said anything demeaning after the switch. Just looked at you with a slight glare in his gaze throughout the evening.

You lie back on the bed.

You would show him. You would show the Baron you were capable at your job.

@thesuitkovian @justfangirlthingies @belle82devart @zemosimp420 @anteroom-of-death @silverlambcaptain @that-stupid-head-tilt-thing @lieutenantn @daniielbruhl @awesomesauce-abbie @latenightartist-author @lazygurl05 @rumblelibrary @nonamec0s @shura-gorl @ginger-abreu @caligrl1992 @livvyshmiv @luciadiosa @vverliebt @tatooineisdry @charistory @somethingthatsaysbubbles

[leevila-today]

Thoughts on Connor and his Endings

Yes, I posted this on my other social medias as well (namely the D:BH and Bryan Dechart Amino's). I just want to share my thoughts on something I haven't really seen people talk about yet.

NOTE: PLEASE READ THE WHOLE POST BEFORE YOU COMMENT ON IT IF YOU DISAGREE. If you still have an argument to what I'm saying after considering all that I have said then, feel free to comment whatever you want and I will respond accordingly.

And I guess this could be counted as a theory???

Also: SPOILERS FOR CONNOR'S AND (MOST LIKELY) MARKUS' STORIES. But I'm sure you knew that from looking at the title. If you don't want spoilers, don't continue reading until you are comfortable with that.

Onto the main event!

While I haven't actually played the game myself (too broke for ps4 and I'm not spending a ton of money for basically one game), I've done a lot of research on the game and therefore know my way around it a little bit. I'd certainly like to think that, at least! Anyway, I haven't really seen people talk about this so I decided to mention my thoughts on Connor's endings myself. Specifically the choice of deviating, or staying a machine. But, I will talk about that later in this post, the current focus at the moment are his endings.

His endings suck.

Also by endings I'm talking about these three:

Getting decommissioned

Getting replaced

And the good one where they hug! Assuming Hank is alive. If not, he's a Deviant and didn't shoot Markus.

I'm not saying they're badly written or anything, just that his main endings (like getting replaced or deactivated) really are awful for him in particular. I'm not counting the ones where you fail a QuickTime event and die, or choose to sacrifice yourself, because those are just plain old death scenes (even though those suck as well rip in pieces Connor). The only good one he has is the one where he becomes a Deviant and helps Markus win the revolution, also choosing to not shoot him and succeeding.

But I'm here to tell you something that I noticed, especially in that particular ending. Something big.

Something that apparently no one else has noticed (that or they just haven't spoken up yet, or I haven't seen them say anything about it). This is also where I'll begin talking about his choice to deviate.

Connor has no freedom throughout this whole game. Not at all. When he stays a machine, he is basically an obedient dog that follows Amanda's every command, no question. And that makes sense, he's an Android and they're "meant to serve". So of course he has no free will if you play him as a machine. So for those endings Connor is cast aside in favor of the new and improved RK900 (or just being deactivated, although I'd like to assume he gets replaced with the new model there as well, since Amanda mentions that the RK900 is much more powerful/smart/successful than Connor ever will be). Which makes sense considering the disposable nature of Androids in this game.

So, Connor has a lot of bad endings. Big deal we already know that. He's still got that good one where he ends up deviating and living happily ever after with his new dad (or best friend or however you wanna classify Hank I don't really care that's not the issue). And that's great! Connor can finally be free from Amanda's clutches and be out in the world living his best life. Except...

You see, there's this one line Amanda said that really bothered me.

Actually, make that several. What Amanda says here really got me thinking (and also rustled my jimmies), for more than one reason. What she's saying here is that they planned for Connor to end up in this situation (or a similar one based on the ending where Connor ends up leading the Androids). They planned for him to deviate, possibly encouraged it even. Their goal was to regain control of all the deviant Androids, by any means necessary.

If that means having their prototype defect and join them, well that's all part of the plan as well. Just watch and wait for the prototype to be in a position of power, then strike and completely obliterate the revolution. Or, if it remains loyal, simply have it complete its original mission and destroy the Deviant Leader. And if that fails, just decommission the series and start again, but make them stronger, faster, smarter.

Enter again, the possibility of RK900.

What I'm saying, is that even when the option appeared, this one right here:

Connor has no real say in it. It could have even been a part of his programming to Deviate, all to progress towards the goal of his mission:

Stop the Deviants.

But we don't know that. I could be spouting nonsense, and you don't have to believe a word I'm saying. I just wanted to speak my mind about the whole situation of Connor's free will and the possibility that he never had it all along.

Of course, he does actually regain complete control over his body if he thwarts Amanda at the end. But I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about his choice to remain a Machine or become a Deviant, how that can affect his character and how I interpreted his freedom of choice. Which I still believe was almost nonexistent at that moment where he was at Jericho.

Believe me or not, I just wanted to share my thoughts with others and possibly even inform some people. Feel free to comment your opinions as well, even if you disagree. Especially if you disagree, I wanna hear. As long as we can have a civilized conversation, I'm all ears.

And yes, I stayed up till 4:15 in the morning (for my timezone) on a day where I have to go to work, just to write this long winded post. Also I couldn't sleep so I decided to just bounce some ideas off the wall and see what could stick.

P.S. this is also my first theory/meta post or whatever where I share my opinion in depth on a topic. Actually quite nervous about posting it, in fact. Not sure how it turned out, probably pretty disorganized but I think I did alright for my first attempt.

Screenshots from good end are from Video Game Sophistry's video on Connor's good ending: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=cZ1pd4xaCBo&t=967s

Also for getting replaced, shots are from CINEMATIC GAMING's Machine Connor endings video: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=25u3iJdY3Bk&t=263s

And finally the shots from him getting deactivated are from Illuminati3d's video where Connor fails to locate Jericho: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=pWw_ed4_CvU&t=545s