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imawreck · 3 months ago

Text

Innocent

Pairing: Bucky Barnes/Winter Soldier x Original Character

Summary: A truth is revealed too late, and a rat amongst the Avengers makes itself known.

Author's Note: I barely edited this so I apologize if there's any mistakes!

Warnings: Cursing, feral Max, gore and descriptions of wounds/violence

Word Count: 6,016

Bucky-

Max's eyes didn't stay in one spot for more than a millisecond, always moving and analyzing our surroundings. I had joined her against the side of the tent to keep out of sight. The knife still swiveled in time around her finger as she mumbled lowly in my direction. "I don't think they know we're here, which means that Rogers and the other's have done their jobs right. Or they're captured, Hydra wouldn't kill them without an audience."

I flexed my hand, "If they're caught we can't leave without them." Not like last time.

Her reply was said through gritted teeth, "I am aware."

Thunder still rolled overhead, and the air had grown cooler with the moisture. At least her God of Thunder was still around. "Do you have a plan?"

She shrugged, "Kill the enemy and don't die."

I grimaced and scanned around us once more. "If they don't know we're here, then it should be easy enough to get out."

She shook her head slowly, "Not if they find that body or the bodies of their watchmen. Hydra shifts their lookouts frequently; we have no idea when they'll do it next. I've got a very bad feeling it will be soon. I can hear them moving more."

I tried to hear what she did, but the only thing that met my ears was the breeze and the rustle of the trees. That, and the sound of someone breathing inside the tent we leaned against.

"Shit!" I launched to the side just as a knife tore through the fabric of the tent, a soldier tearing his way through behind it. I tried to find Max through the tattered remains of the tent, but she had vanished.

I didn't have much time before the soldier was barreling towards me. I scraped at the dirt, finding my footing just in time to dodge him once more. I was ready to fight, lifting my fists and gritting my teeth, but I didn't get the chance to before his body was tackled to the ground. Bones crunched, and his scream was cut into a cacophony of gurgles before I had the opportunity to blink. Max hovered over his body, blood coating her clawed fingers.

I couldn't take my gaze off of the mangled flesh of his throat and the deflated shape of his shoulder where her hand still rested. Four distinct holes littered his jugular, bloodied and oozing. It was enough to make me sick.

I didn't have the time to think about it before her hands were gripping the front of my uniform and hauling me into the brush. I shoved her away, wrapping my metal hand around her wrist and squeezing until she hissed in pain. "Don't fucking touch me."

She sneered in my face, teeth bared. "If you die, this mission is a failure. So, unless you're going to grow a pair of fucking balls, I'm going to continue to drag your ass to safety whether I like you or not."

Harsh words of Russian left her lips faster than I could comprehend as she leaned over into the dirt and began smearing it through her hair, "I'm going to kill anyone who gets in our way in whatever way I see fit to ensure that we make it out alive. You can bitch and complain about it when we're all back at the tower sipping bourbon and coddling our wounds." When she stood again, her hair was the color of the tall grass swaying around us. "Find Tony or one of the others and tell them what's going on. I'm going to take out everyone in this camp, so make sure they're all cleared out."

There was no room for discussion. By the time I had mustered something snarky and hateful to send her way she was already gone, nothing but the downed grass to show where she had disappeared. I clutched my gun, yanking it out of my holster and moving back towards the jet. Most of the soldiers were situated in the camp, most likely settling in for dinner. It was late afternoon, and the sun had turned orange as it descended through the sky.

Behind me, shouts began erupting through the camp. Crashes echoed across the space between myself and the camp, and I knew it had everything to do with Max. Gunfire was quick to follow the uproar, bullets whizzing past just close enough to have me hunkering a little closer to the ground as I hustled back to the team.

A body hurled into me as I cleared the grass, a knife raised before I threw my hand up to block their assault. I twisted away and raised my gun only to be met with another drawn to my eye level.

"What the hell, Barnes!" Natasha's exasperated voice let out a breath as she dropped her gun. "I could've blown a hole straight through you!"

I lowered my own, "Says you."

Natasha swiveled her head around behind me, "Where's Lover Girl? Did you ditch her?"

I couldn't help but notice the hint of a smile on her face, but I brushed it off. "No, Max is-." Someone screamed somewhere behind me, and I pursed my lips as it came to an abrupt stop. "She's cleaning up the camp."

Natasha's brows rose, "Why are you back then?"

"Coms are down. Max said it was a trap and we fell right into it. We searched the whole area and didn't find any sign of the scepter. It was a setup." I holstered my gun and ducked as another stray bullet fired. The shots had died down significantly in the last ten minutes, a sure sign Max was making quick work of the place. "We need to regroup with the rest of the team."

Natasha nodded but tilted her head back towards the camp. "What about her?"

Max's words rung in my head, 'I don't need you.' Like she'd meant every word of it. I shrugged, stalking away. "She can handle herself. She doesn't need me."

Natasha, surprisingly, didn't push any more about it as we both rushed back towards the jet. Rain had begun to fall against the ground, adding onto the chorus of agony growing louder behind us. The angry shouts had molded themselves into desperate screams, pleas for mercy. I knew there wouldn't be any. Max was an executioner, and there was no mercy for people like Hydra.

Natasha and I finally made it back to the jet to find Tony tinkering with a hologram and arguing dramatically with his AI. His helmet sat on one of the seats of the Quinnjet and his arms waved around, swiping through the multiple displays and pressing his finger to his com. "Dammnit!" Tony swiped up on his hologram and ran a frustrated hand through his hair before he turned to find the two of us. Relief swept over his face, "Thank God you two are alright. Comms went down fifteen minutes in, and I haven't been able to get ahold of anyone. I think we will have to get up in the air-- where's Max?" He swiveled his head behind us as he asked, searching for her.

I grit my teeth, "Max found out that Comms went down, and she sent me back to regroup. The camp and signal were a trap, the scepter wasn't there. We checked everywhere."

Tony just stared at me for a long moment, letting the sound of distant gunfire and screams envelope us. His lip curled in a frown when he finally spoke, "You just left her?"

"She said she didn't need me." It was a poor excuse, but it was true.

Rage flickered in his eyes as he stepped forward, but before he could spew any accusations he was interrupted by the jarringly kind voice of Friday. "Mr. Stark, Max's vitals are showing signs of severe injury."

All of us froze and Tony whipped around to snag his helmet off the chair. "What injury? What happened?"

Just as the AI was about to answer, an explosion blasted from behind us and sent us all ducking for the grass. I watched as pillars of black smoke rose into the air, listening to the rush of fire in the distance. There were no more screams. An awful, vile scent filled the air, and we all slapped a hand over our noses. I knew that smell. I had smelled it all those weeks ago on that mission with her when the flames had raged and torn over flesh and water alike. Flames rose higher, and I watched Tony jog closer to get a better view of the damage.

I followed him, flinching as the strength of the smell increased as we got closer. A shining shield caught my eye as Steve appeared from the other side of the camp, Clint not far behind him. Thunder clapped and lightning followed a speck falling from the sky before Thor whipped around and landed smoothly against the dirt a few feet from the rest of us. The team's faces all resembled some variations of shock, worry, and caution. Tony looked desperate for the most part, his eyes frantically searching the flames.

From somewhere in the blaze, someone shouted. It was Russian from what I could hear, and another voice replied in a tone much more desperate. A shadow moved within the fire, and we all gripped our weapons. Something was chucked out of the flames, falling hard to the dirt and shouting again. A person.

They scrambled in the dirt before another silhouette stepped through the wall of fire that had wrapped itself around the camp in an angry red. The person on the dirt nearly got to their feet before the second one stepped on their leg while they patted out the flames threatening to set them alight.

The person on the ground screamed, deep and guttural. "You bitch!" The words fell from his lips in a heavy accent.

Max's mask hung from her belt and dirt and blood smeared her face. In one of her hands hung a bottle of liquor with the cork missing. Her eyes stayed solely on the man before her. "You should watch your tongue, or I might just lose my patience."

The man laughed bitterly, "You won't kill me, I am valuable."

Her leg sank deeper into his flesh, and he yelled out again. "I think you overestimate your value. I'll find what you're hiding with or without some measly, low-level agent. Having you tell me would just make my job much easier."

I watched the man's eyes widen at the sincerity in her tone and the broad, animalistic smile she wore. I shivered at the sight of it too.

His voice seemed to have raised an octave as he dug his elbows into the dirt in order to try and further the distance between them, "You're not as strong as you once were, you even bleed now." He nodded towards the blood leaking from a gash on her forehead.

This didn't seem to bother Max much as she ran a bloodied hand through her hair to push it out of her face. "Still strong enough to take down your little camp and steal you away though, aren't I? Still the biggest threat Hydra has to face." She bent down and gripped his collar as she began dragging him towards the jet. "I'll heal. Anything I do to you, won't. Not in the short amount of time you have left to live, anyways."

His hands clawed at her arms as she trudged through the grass, growing closer to us all with every step. She winced with each breath she took and drank several swigs from the bottle she clutched in her hand. Max only dropped the man once she cleared the grass, making sure to shove him between her and the rest of us so there was no easy escape route.

She took in every one of us with cold eyes, "Glad you're all in one piece." Her gaze snapped to the man clutching his mangled leg between us, observing him like prey. The bottle in her hand swung from side to side. "Found their stash and used it to destroy the camp. This one hinted at knowledge of the scepter's whereabouts while I was hard at work so I figured we could interrogate him. He could be lying, but it's worth a shot." She took another swig from the bottle, turning to Tony. "Your call Stark, say the words and I'll make it clean."

Tony's eyes flickered between her and the hostage, tugging his lip between his teeth in concentration. I raised a brow at him, because of course he couldn't be considering her request. Of course not, because that wouldn't make us much better than them. We maim and kill now, thanks to Max, and with every mission she was assigned we bloodied the Avengers name a little more.

"Tony," Steve warned.

Tony held up his hand, "Cuff him and strap him in next to you, Max."

She followed his orders immediately, tossing the bottle away and hauling the man up the platform and into the Quinnjet as he kicked and spewed insults at her.

The minute she was gone, Steve dove into an argument with Tony. "Are you going to let her burn everyone she wants, whenever she wants, like a psychopath, or are you going to have her put in a cell where she belongs?"

Stark's eyes blew wide in anger as he marched right up to Steve's face. "She got us intel that we need in order to keep people safe. Those people down there were Hydra, in case you've forgotten, and I'd be happy to let her burn however many of them she wants. Max is not a psychopath, she's one of us."

Steve scoffed, "Open your eyes, Tony! She's a murderer!"

Tony's arm snapped up to point at me, "So is he! We let him walk around without chains or a muzzle, so why should we make her? He was waltzing around claiming she was innocent months ago, what changed? And now the two of you are gunning for her." Silence sank its claws into all of us as he held us both with a condescending stare. "Get in the jet, we can duke it out like children back at the tower." With that, he stalked away and left the two of us simmering in anger.

"I can't believe him!" Steve muttered, "He was all for locking her up the second you brought her to that tower and now he can't see anything clearly."

I nodded silently, feeling a simper of anger roiling in my veins. Steve was right, he couldn't see what she was. He couldn't see the way she looked at people, how she hunted them and mauled them like an animal. Genetically modified or not, she was still a person, and she should act like one.

I lead the charge back to the Quinnjet where the others had already taken their seats. Max had strapped the man up two seats away from her and clamped thick metal cuffs around his wrist. She had left his leg mangled and sticking to the side, not bothering to fix it. With each shake and tremble of the jet the man groaned and whimpered. Still, she sat there, face as blank as the mask at her hip.

I took in her bloodied face, the smears of fingerprints like someone had grabbed at her neck and cheeks. The gash on her head still trickled blood and she pressed a firm hand on it to try and prevent what she could from slipping between her fingers. The other hand held her side where the red fabric had darkened a shade or two from the blood seeping through from the inside. Tony came out of the cockpit moments after takeoff to examine her wounds.

He wrapped a bandage around her head, securing it behind her ear as best he could. He ordered her to remove the top of her suit next, and she grumbled something under her breath that earned her a harsh glare. She didn't say too much after that and did as he asked. I watched as she tugged the fabric down her arms, my eyes widening at the bruises littering her skin. Max never had bruises. They couldn't last, not with her healing. Which meant that...

"Shit, you're not healing." Tony's voice echoed my thoughts as he leaned over to examine the obvious angry skin. "Why aren't you healing?"

She attempted to shrug but halted with a wince as she clutched her side once more. "'M’tired is all."

"Max." Tony gave her a sharp look to which she just shrugged again, further frustrating him. His chest heaved in a breath, and he pressed a hand to his brow, smoothing out the wrinkles forming on his forehead. "Show me your side."

"It's nothing." Her tone was unusually defensive. "It will heal."

"If it hasn't already, something is wrong so let me see it." The bite in Tony's words was rearing its head and Max heard it too, I could see it in the way her mouth thinned, and her brows tugged together. She knew it was a losing battle.

Slowly, she continued to unzip her uniform until the fabric pooled around her waist and the wound was exposed for us all to see.

Infection was the first word I thought as I took in the yellow tinted scabs that had pulled away from the skin around her ribs. It was bruised there too, the hues of purple and green adding to the irritated red lining the wound. Every time she breathed, she winced, and the scabs stretched and cracked further. It was ugly, and it should have been treated the moment she noticed it.

But she hadn't.

Tony threw his arms up. "What the hell were you thinking coming on a mission with a wound like that? You should be seeing our medical team! They said it was healed!"

Max's features schooled themselves into a calm indifference. "I am just healing slower than normal, it's nothing to worry about."

Tony threw a pointed finger towards her, and his voice dripped in anger, "That's bullshit and you know it. Why the hell aren't you healing?"

Her eyes burned in warning as she held his eyes, "I've been dealing with a lot."

A loaded answer if I had ever heard one. But I knew... I knew what she had meant. I tried to keep her out of my head, tried to forget her and force her away from me. But the harder I tried, the more I was aware of her. The few times I glimpsed her in the hallway and noted the hint of bruises under her eyes, the way her figure didn't fill out her uniform the way it once had, or the way her smile hid from everyone no matter how many jokes they cracked.

Tony didn't press any more, but he did turn to retrieve the small med kit stored under the pilot's chair and fished out the supplies to fix what he could. "You're grounded until you've healed, and I want you to visit Banner down on the cell level the second we touch base. He might be able to figure something out with your healing."

Max gaped at him, "I am perfectly capable of attending missions, I proved it today."

"You are not capable, and you won't step foot on another mission until you've had a full physical under observation." The tone of finality bounced off the walls of the jet as we all avoided the burning look she held him with.

No one dared to talk, and I finally was able to tear my gaze from their spat to stare at the floor instead. My mind wandered back to the way he had defended her, how he had asked what had happened even though I had filed a clear and detailed report to him the following afternoon. I wondered if he had even deemed it worth reading. I knew Tony still held me accountable for his parents' death, and he had every right too, but that didn't give him the right to ignore the facts we were presenting him with especially if it has anything to do with the teams' safety. He had said so many times himself.

I made a note to discuss the matters with him as soon as we landed. Until then, I leaned myself back against the backrest of the chair and kept quiet like the rest of the team. Even the man Max had dragged aboard didn't dare break the silence.

_____

The distinct scent of New York air entered my senses the moment the jet hanger hit the landing pad, finally back at the tower after the agonizingly quiet ride in a cramped jet. The tension had held the whole way back. Steve was livid, and Natasha and Clint actively avoided anyone's eyes to avoid setting anyone off. I hardly glanced at Max as I stared at the floor all the way home. The only noise other than the silence was the man's whimpering and Max's low, quiet curses with each jostle of the jet.

Tony had practically shoved her in the direction of the medical bay, demanding that she gets attention before she goes down to see Banner. She went with nothing more than a weak nod. The others gathered their gear and stumbled tiredly to the hanger. We all needed sleep, but few of us would get any either because of the mission or the paperwork that was sure to follow.

I watched as Steve took the liberty of ushering the Hydra Agent to the cell floor, giving me a nod in goodbye as I gathered my own things and headed out not long after him. Tony stood not far from the jet discussing something with Thor who kept looking over at the med wing. I ground my teeth, trying to shake off the dark feeling that always rippled through me at the looks he cast towards... towards her. Tony finished whatever he was saying to Thor and let him leave, and I wasn't surprised at all when he hustled off towards Max.

Tony folded his arms over his chest and turned towards me with a long sigh. "What do you want, Barnes?"

I dropped my bag, "I want to talk to you about the last mission Max and I were on with Natasha. Did you read my report?"

"I read both of your reports." He turned his shoulder and began walking away. "What is this about?"

I hustled after him, frustrated by his nonchalance, "It's about the safety of this team and the risk you're putting us all in by keeping Max here. Especially concerning the safety of the public."

Tony scoffed, the sound bouncing off the glass walls and rattling in my ears. I flexed my hands to keep my anger at bay as he slipped into the elevator and he turned to reply, "There isn't a risk. I wouldn't put her on the team if there was. I'm insulted you and Captain Ass-merica think that I would do that to this team."

I shoved through the closing doors to stand beside him. "Are you that blind?" I threw a hand wide, "She burned a whole town, Tony! I watched her do it! She fried the innocents just so she could kill a squadron of Hydra Agents! You don't think that's dangerous? That's mass murder! We went to war for that, and now you're just going to let her do the same thing with no repercussions?" My chest rose and fell rapidly as the anger trembled inside of me, lashing out.

Tony stormed out of the elevator into the floor it had stopped on. I recognized it as his main lab from the main computers and displays of his suits lining the wall. I followed him, staying right at his heels. He shoved a chair out of the way and yelled out to the AI.

"Yes Mr. Stark?"

He gripped the counter where holograms danced above his head, "Bring up the surveillance footage."

Immediately, the holograms warped to display a large screen panning over the valley where I had been only weeks prior. I remembered the damage clearly, the downed tower, the bodies littering the ground and the burnt grass and houses all flooded in the events of the mission. On the screen though, people were bustling around with repair equipment and trucks hauling boxes and trucks labeled with 'Stark Industries' across the side in bold black letters. I watched as it flipped to show from a body cam, a man helping out a family repaint the side of their house and laughing merrily about something he said.

Tony spoke quietly from beside the picture. "She really didn't tell you?" When I didn't reply, Tony kept going. "Max came to me late the same day of the mission and begged me to send help to the valley. She told me what happened on the mission, but she left out the spat you two had. She told me that she got everyone she could out of that valley before she brought that tower down. She went into those people's houses and demanded that they called everyone they knew and tell them to get as far out of town as they could and avoid the water. She got them out, and not a single casualty was civilian."

I felt my heart still, every word he said hit my heart like sharp shards of glass. "What?"

His voice was low and tired, but sincere. "Max made sure the people were safe before she brought down the tower. The only people she killed were the ones trying to hurt them."

She hadn't killed civilians.

I planted my hand on the counter, mirroring Tony as my body wavered at his statement. I had accused her of killing those people. I had called her a killer, a heartless murderer that didn't care about anyone but herself and her stupid missions. She had let me too, let me yell and curse and spit at her in disgust. I remember her trying to cut in, to tell me something.

"Of course not, Bucky, no. I care about so much more and I-"

But I had cut her off, not allowing her to tell me any more lies. She hadn't been lying. The image of her crestfallen face plastered itself on the back of my eyelids as I clamped them shut to recall the memory.

She had tried to explain herself, but I was too selfish, too scared and betrayed to let her fill my head with anything other than what I believed to be true. She had my file; the one Hydra had compiled from all those years of my torture. Those were my worst days, and she had kept them. Probably read them too. I was so concerned about what she might know, too afraid that she would use what was in that file against me, that I hadn't let her explain what had happened just an hour before.

I let out a shaky breath as my chest threatened to suffocate me, "I called her a monster worse than me." I gasped, realization of what I had done to her sinking like a stone into my chest. I had hurt her. I had hurt her over and over because of my fear. I let myself insult and belittle her, to beat her on the sparring mats, because of my fear and my anger.

And she was innocent.

Tony couldn't fully understand the damage that single sentence had done to her, but the fact that I had said something so awful to her set his eyes ablaze in anger. "Fucking hell, Barnes. She's been tearing herself apart because of you."

He was right, I realized. It was like all the pieces clicked together in my head. She had stopped eating, I knew as much. I did it when I spiraled, it was a trauma response. Her healing relies on the intake of energy she gets, and without it she can't heal properly. I had heard Thor talking about her nightmares with Tony once, heard Natasha complaining about being woken up by her screams. Lack of sleep made sense too. Max took those missions recklessly because she was spiraling.

My eyes caught the swift movement of Tony's hand dragging through his hair, "Do you have any idea how much she cared about you? She talked to me when she would come in and work in the labs with me. She told me that she was so glad that you had lived, that you had gotten out even if it was without her. She had been planning an escape for you, did you know that?"

I didn't, and it hit like a hammer to my gut.

"All she ever wanted for you was happiness. That's what she told me." His grip on the counter turned his knuckles white. "Once, she told me about the things they did to her. It was awful to listen to, but I wanted to listen because she had never opened up before. Not like that, anyways. Max told me that you had defended her in there as the Soldier. Even after they wiped your mind, you would defend her over and over. You were the first person to ever show her an ounce of kindness. She grew up in that hell hole, and the first person to ever show her kindness was the Winter Soldier. What does that say?" He shook his head, and my eyes began to burn.

I was so sick with myself I thought I would hurl right then and there. The hatred I had for myself clawed at my mind, tearing me apart from the inside. What had I done? Panic clawed at my throat, threatening to choke the life out of my lungs but I forced myself to breath.

In the distance, the elevator chimed, and someone joined us. I couldn't focus on anything other than the feelings crashing around in my mind, couldn't escape the images of what I had done to her, and the pain written on her face. Someone as kind as her, who had only ever experienced harsh unrelenting hatred until an emotionless killer showed her kindness, didn't deserve anything but happiness for the rest of her life.

I stood on unsteady legs, turning to take the elevator down to the cell level when the lights shut off and swathed the lab in darkness. My eyes snapped to Tony, adjusting to the dark. "What's going on?"

Tony spun around just as the security bars slammed down over the windows to the outside of the building. They clicked into place a moment later. I found Tony's form again as another voice spoke in the dark, "Is this some kind of test run, Stark?"

I recognized the voice from the night at the themed dance, his voice sending tremors of distaste through me. "What are you doing here, Rumlow?"

I caught the shrug of his shoulders out of the corner of my eye, "It's my job to keep tabs on the Avengers while Hydra operations are running high. I'm in for a report on today's mission."

Tony called out to Friday, but the AI didn't reply. He tried once more, but it still resulted in silence. My nerves began to rattle as he cursed under his breath, "Something's wrong."

"What do you mean something's wrong?" Rumlow turned around in a circle, "The electricity went out, why is it such a big deal?"

Tony shot him a distasteful look, "My AI system operates on a separate power source, and she shouldn't go out with the rest of the building. I made sure of it." He marched towards the computer at the table and tapped it a few times. "Computers are down too. This was intentional. We need to contact the rest of the team before-“

A voice crackled overhead, and we all reeled around in a circle to locate the source, only to have it crackle again. "-rk! Mr. St-k! Hy- trated th- ding! Hydra!"

I felt my heart drop to the bottom floor as my brain processed her garbled words. Alarm bells were ringing then, loud enough to send me hunkering with my hands clamped over my ears.

Rumlow bellowed over them, "What the hell is going on?"

"We're under attack!" Tony threw out his arm, his suit crashing out of its container and flying through the air from across the room to clamp around his body. "Hydra is in the building and I bet they've hacked the system." He viciously attacked a keypad on one of his arms before a display popped up with the tower levels labeled. The cell level was red. "They're on the cell floor."

Something wild awoke inside of me, "Max is on the cell floor."

I shoved past Rumlow as my body moved on its own, slamming my fingers into the elevator doors and prying them apart with all my strength. The elevator was nowhere in sight, and the elevator shaft was dark and cold. I reached out to snag one of the suspension wires and clung to it, taking it as far down as it went before my legs hit the top of the elevator. I pried the doors open, sending a silent thanks up to whoever watched us as I realized it had a stairway. The hum of Tony's jets followed down the elevator shaft as he made his way after me. The alarms still blared throughout the building, but I could only hear the roar of the pulse in my ears as I stormed the stairwell.

Tony flew down the center as I took them four at a time, launching myself over the railing when I was close enough to the bottom. Shouts echoed from the cell floor and the scrape of metal on metal grated through the air.

The second my feet hit the ground, I was gunning for the door where Stark was firing up his cannon and aiming it at the door. The lock kept us from entering, but the panic threatening to consume me drove me into violence. I slammed my boot into the door over and over until the locking mechanism snapped with a sharp crack. I rushed into the room to catch the scene unfolding just across the room, Tony quick on my heels.

Our prisoner had escaped, his mangled leg rested on the floor as he clutched a gun in his hand and a radio in the other. He let the gun fall back to his side as he whipped his head around, a sickening smile spread over his face and his eyes wild. My attention snapped to Max, scanning her for any injuries other than those she had from the mission. No blood, so I moved to Natasha who stood a few feet towards her who stood stock still with her eyes latched onto Bruce. I dragged my eyes over him too and found the source of their attention. A dart stuck out of his side as a silver liquid drained into him.

He stared at it in horror, his brows pinching and his hands shaking as he hastily pulled it out of himself and let it clatter to the floor before he looked back up. Our eyes met, and the fear he held on his face was the same mirrored in my own when I knew something I couldn't control was about to happen. When my body would betray me and there wasn't a damn thing I could do about it.

It took me seconds too long to move, to shout, before the brown of his eyes flickered green and his ferocious, rattling roar tore through the room.

And the cell slammed shut to cage Natasha and Max in with him.

Tags<3

@calwitch / @blackbirdwitch22 / @hzdhrtss / @imdoingathingmom / @cjand10

#angst #bucky barnes #fluff #marvel #winter soldier #drama #original character #mcu #fanfic #the avengers

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fibromyalgicaf · 13 days ago

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I recently saw someone asking on Reddit about gaming as a person with a chronic illness or disability which got me thinking...

So I divide games into four categories based on how taxing they are and what device they require. And the category I choose a game from depends on my pain and energy levels.

Here's the four categories and the games I play in each one (please add your faves!):

1. Idle mobile games for when I'm really low on energy and experiencing high amounts of pain (basically, when I'm feeling drowsy and disconnected but just laying in bed is boring and I can't fall asleep)

Cluster duck (an idle duck breeding game that's quite cute and feels quite different to your bog-standard idle clicker)

Pizza Ready (you "manage" a pizza joint but it's really just running from one side to the other)

any other idle clicker game that keeps me focused on something but without really using any brain power. There are hundreds (maybe thousands) of these.

2. More-involved mobile games or basic PC/console games for when I have more brain power and some energy, and medium pain. These will require a fair amount of thinking, maybe some basic strategizing, but don't require a lot of planning or multitasking

Plants vs Zombies (fight the zombie invasion by placing plants in their way; a retro classic game available on mobile and PC)

Pokemon Go (yes, it's marketed as an outdoor walking game but if you live in an urban area, you might find enough Pokemon in your house/backyard and battles can be done from anywhere)

Lemmings (a mobile app game based on the old PC game; place directions or ladders so the creatures reach their goal)

Tower War (using a similar concept to the boardgame Risk, send your soldiers out to capture other towers)

3. Cozy or "easy" PC games for when I'm feeling good enough to sit up with my laptop and I have reasonable brain power and energy

Stardew Valley (a very cute and cozy farming game with a little bit of mining if you want to do it, and a storyline)

Minecraft but on creative; I'll try out build ideas but without the intensity of a survival game

4. Other PC games for the days I'm feeling "good" (i.e. minimal pain, decent energy) or, to be honest, the days when I don't give a shit how I feel, I wanna do something exciting and gaming is the closest I can get. I have a tendency to favour survival and crafting games so this might be an absolutely useless list for some of you

Valheim (my all-time favourite game and one of the most visually beautiful games ever; an open -world survival game with crafting, building, and farming, as well as combat)

Minecraft on survival (open-world survival game with some combat, crafting, building, and farming)

Raft (start on a tiny raft and gather resources to build onto your raft, discover islands, solve small puzzles, some basic farming)

Barotrauma (a 2D submarine adventure in which you complete missions, collect resources, recruit crew, and fight monsters of the deep)

Factorio (for my fellow management nerds; build a network of conveyor belts and factories, and then optimise for efficiency!)

Disclaimer: all mobile games mentioned above are for Android (I don't know if they're available on apple) and I can only speak for my experience as a 30-something person with fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue; if you have additions or edits to suggest based on your experience, I'd love to hear it 🤞

#fibromyalgia #chronic pain #chronic illness #chronically

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krikeymate · 1 year ago

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About the chosen one… I don’t think they’d let Tara take the pictures herself. She would have to let them take them. It’s too easy to edit stuff, so her sending pictures of herself doesn’t prove anything. But let’s go into two different scenarios… they take the pictures and they get published in a way Tara didn’t expect, so Sam finds out. How would Sam react to that?

OR Sam, being the overprotective sister she is, knows something‘s up. Tara‘s acting weird-er. She’s more jumpy. Whenever Sam tries to talk to her about it, she deflects. So Sam starts to follow her around. Tara goes out to the meeting where they want to take the pictures. She watches someone hand Tara an envelope. Tara briefly checks it. There’s a lot of money in it. Sam‘s almost ready to intervene right there, but she needs more information. They lead Tara into an old, abandoned building. There are more people in there, so it’s a bit difficult for Sam to get in undetected. But when she gets in, she finds Tara, in the process of undressing in front of all these strangers who stare at her sister like she’s the last drop of water in an endless dessert - and they have cameras and phones in their hands. Tara looks soooo uncomfortable, but she seems to be doing it willingly. No one’s pointing a weapon at her or anything. What the fuck is going on here? Sam is angry. Angry at these people. Angry at her sister for doing whatever she’s doing. They will definitely need to have a long conversation about this. But first she needs to get her sister out of here. She jumps in, ready to kill or at least severely hurt whoever gets in the way of her getting Tara out of that situation. (No one gets in her way. They part like the sea for Israel when they spot her, staring at her in absolute awe.)

Previous. Why can't it be both?!

She accepts some money and they take some photos on their phones back in their dorm rooms. The photos get published online, on their weird little forum. Tara tries not to care. It's not obvious it's her, it's just some wounds, who's going to know, how many people are really going to see? It's not like anyone is going to find out, and she made sure they weren't going to reveal how they got the images, they weren't going to mention her by name. They call it the final girl's wounds and make some weird comments about Jesus and the cross and the wounds he bore. But people do find out, because Mindy stalks those sites sometimes, and Sam finds out because Kirby is watching those forums too.

They have a family meeting, Sam is focused on promising Tara that they'll get them taken down. She's so mad that these freaks are getting pervy about her sister, that they're pretending they have 'nudes' of her. Kirby swears she'll do everything she can to shut it down. The photos aren't very high res, the camerawork is shaky, but they do seem kinda accurate, Sam thinks. It makes her a little suspicious. Tara's reaction is what really makes her rethink the situation. She expected her sister to be upset, to rage, but she just sits there fidgeting and the picture of uncomfortable. It makes her wonder if Tara hadn't taken the pictures herself and... sent them to a boy, maybe. It can't be Chad that leaked them, he's furious, and she trusts him not to do something like that. And these wounds... they're not- that one there is new, it's barely healed... these pictures were taken recently. But if Tara's been sending pictures of herself to someone...

Sam thinks Tara might be cheating on Chad, and begins to watch her closer, waiting for the right moment to catch her in the act and confront her, to make her cut it out before people get really hurt.

The boys offer Tara more money, triple this time, to get photos taken professionally. There's been so much interest, they say! Same rules as before, they'll keep her name out of it, her face will remain obscured. All she has to do is stand there and look pretty for the camera. Sam just got fired from one of her jobs, how can she say no?

So Tara gets to the location and she expects it to just be the three of them, but there are more people there than expected. She didn't expect this many people, why are there this many people?

Sam's been following Tara, and she has to resist the urge to scream where the hell are you going as she walks down a street she has no business walking down. It's not the kind of place a young girl should be going. She watches her meet... two boys, what? Then they hand her something... Sam can't see what it is. She catches the glint of the white envelope as Tara stores it in her bag. Sam isn't sure what's happening, but she knows she doesn't like it one bit. She's beginning to suspect that something worse than cheating might be happening, she's beginning to think it might be drug related.

Sam sneaks up to peer through a window and is captivated (derogatory) by what she sees. Tara is taking her shirt off in front of half a dozen boys with cameras. Her baby sister looks so uncomfortable, but there are no weapons, no yelling or crowding her, she even hears one of the boys ask her if she's ok, if she wants to continue, when she pauses for a moment. Tara's doing this willingly.

What the fuck is going on here?

She's so angry, she almost thinks she might be sick. What the hell is Tara doing, what the hell are these boys taking pictures of her for?! There's a part of her brain that tells her she needs to calm down, to think rationally. A larger part of it has her already storming through the door towards her half-naked sister.

Tara looks horrified, and a little afraid, as Sam stomps up to her and forcefully shoves her shirt back on. "What the fuck is going on here?" she demands to the room, eyes swivelling to the boys when Tara fails to answer her.

Only one is brave enough to respond, the rest whispering, in awe and fear at her presence. "Nothing weird! I promise, it's just photography, for our blog! Her face will be hidden, we're only interested in her scars."

"Nothing... weird," Sam repeats, staring at him in disgust. Her hand never leaves Tara's forearm. "It's not like she's not getting anything out of it," he explains, "we paid for the pictures!"

"PAID?" Sam growls, turning back to her sister. Tara flinches, eyes stuck to the ground. "What were you thinking?" she demands. "I was thinking we need the fucking money, Sam!" Tara cuts back, embarrassed and frustrated.

"The- get out." She tells the boys to leave. It's not a request. "But what about-" one tries to interject. "You'll leave now or I'll give you some scars to take pictures of," Sam threatens. They leave. The brave boy lingers in the doorway, he feels guilty. "Are you going to be ok?" he asks Tara, concerned to leave her with her angry 'psycho' sister.

Tara sighs, running a hand through her hair. "It's fine David, I'll see you in class."

"Class?! He's a fucking classmate?!"

"Would you rather he was a fucking stranger?"

"I would rather you weren't doing this at all! Why would you do this?"

"We need the money, Sam. You can't- you're so tired all the time, and I know the pizzeria just fired you and I just... I just want to help."

Sam pulls her sister into her arms, clutching at the back of her head. "You never need to worry about something like this, ok? And you definitely never need to resort to selling yourself, do you hear me?" Sam thinks of her teenage years, of the times she slept with someone for just another hit, of the times she used herself as currency. Tara will never go through something like that.

"But-" "No." "I-" "Tara."

Tara sighs, whispers ok into Sam's shoulder and relaxes in her grip.

"How much did those losers pay for those pictures anyway?"

"5k."

"How much?!"

#/mp #ask box #Scream #Sam Carpenter #Tara Carpenter #scream concept #my writing tag #-after 6 #captivated (derogatory) is bought to you by I didn't want to use horrified twice so close together but couldn't think of another word #this was such a cool concept anon. thank you for sending it.

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thehighfiveproject · 2 years ago

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Round two: ready to go!

Here’s the card we’ll be using for this month’s edition of our bingo! Grab it up and get going. Remember, zero need to sign up, but if you want to share it with us so we can reblog and share the love, make sure you do so by next Wednesday, December 7.

Below the cut: a list of definitions for each of the squares in case you need help or ideas (don’t worry, those will be added to the FAQs post for easy reference), and a black & white version of the card, in case you want to get creative with it.

☆ How do I fill my card? How is each square defined?

Here’s the way we’re defining the activities associated with each card. If any of this is confusing after you read it over, send us a message and we’ll help!

- ‘leave kudos on a fic’

This is the easiest one! Just go out and find a fic you like and leave a kudos on it, if you haven’t already. It’s a small gesture but it makes an author know that someone actually read their story!

- ‘reblog/retweet an art post’

Find any art post you like and share it! Here’s the catch: you need to interact with it a little. When you reblog/retweet, please tell the creator what you thought about the piece – you can add some tags, or reply to the post, or quote-retweet or add a comment, or anything! A simple “I love this!” is nice but some details are even better (“your linework is so good!” or “that shade of blue is perfect”). One thing to think about: a lot of art on Tumblr is reposted (like when a user posts another artist’s work from Pixiv, say), so it’s nice if you make an effort to interact with posts that are actually from the creator if you can. That way the artist will see your comment!

- ‘reblog/retweet a fic post’

Same as the above, but for fic! Again, tags/replies/comments are needed, preferably with a little detail. You don’t need to be super eloquent or leave a detailed review (although if you have time/energy, that would be appreciated!); a tag as simple as “that was really cute” or “great characterization!” will do. Like with the art posts, it’s nice if you reblog directly from the writer (if you can) – some fics are posted by AO3 feed bots and the like, so the author may not even know a reblog has happened.

- ‘reblog/retweet an edit’

Same as the above, but for edits! Edits can include a gif set, or a set of screencaps, or even a fanvid. And, again, some simple tags/replies are needed. “I love that song choice!” for a vid or “great coloring!” on a gifset can let people know their work is being appreciated.

- ‘comment on a fic’

Find a fic, on any fic-hosting site you like, and leave a comment. That’s it! Again, no need to leave a novel-length comment (unless you’re inspired!) – a sentence or two is all we’re asking for this square to be considered complete. This is a great opportunity to let a writer know how their piece made you feel, or what section you particularly liked.

- ‘message a creator’

‘Creator’ here can mean anyone who makes *anything* to do with fandom: art, edits, fic, meta, knitted sweaters with character faces on them – if they’ve made anything, they’re a creator, and now’s your chance to let them know they’re appreciated. Send a message (anonymous or not!) letting them know that you enjoyed their work!

- ‘rec a curator’

You know that one blog that's just a joy to follow? They find and post all the stuff you love, whether that's art or fic or screencaps or really elaborate fan theories that just make you want to applaud. Maybe they write great tags that help you understand the fandom you're in a little better, or maybe they're in the know about what's happening in your fandom, or maybe they're just fun to see on your dashboard. This is your chance to rec a great fandom curator -- one of those people who put in the effort on tumblr to make your scroll a better place. Please make a little rec post, tag the blog and explain why they're a great follow, and show them that their work is appreciated, too!

- ‘promo a fan project’

Here's where you get to help boost the boosters. Fan projects are great: they encourage creators to get together and make more of the stuff that makes fandom fun to be in. Find any fan project you love -- this can be a brand new big bang, a kinkbingo that runs every year, an old art exchange that you loved and wish could happen again -- and then help people see it! Reblog their announcement post, their fic/art masterlist, make a little rec post for it and link to their blog/AO3 collection/Livejournal -- anything that lets people know that the project exists. Maybe you'll get more people to join in, or more people to admire the work, or maybe if it's an old or abandoned event you'll get people excited about running it again! Can't hurt to try.

And here’s the non-decorated version of the card, in case you feel like making it your own. Go hog wild! (Seriously, put hogs on it if you want.)

#admin #fandom boost bingo #ffb round 2 #card template

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the5thcellar · 5 months ago

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I hate how the media weaponise shippers and fans. I don't get people telling 'stop, they have their personal lives'. Yes, they do, but at the same time they're celebrities and they have images and their private lives will always affect their jobs. It's what you sacrifice for fame. It's not an easy job to be in. I mean to a degree I get that not everyone in fandom is doing their best, like tagging his gf in weird stuff and sending hate. Don't do that!

The majority though stays out of their social nets and enjoying the show and tour, sharing opinions on Tumblr, making gifs, cracks and edits. First, they make fans be invested in the show, hyping it and engaging fans in the press tour, blurring the lines. Then, people are calling fans out after being sad over his gf(worst timing ever), although the first reason delusional happened the way they did Pr. I mean who is here to blame and what did they expect?

What I mean is that Nic and Luke aren't that guilty either, but fans are just reacting to the decisions that were made behind closed curtains and resulted in a wave of engagement with the polin fan base. It's not even about his relationship, but the bittersweet taste of how it changes perception of the show, if you were not a passive viewer of their dynamic, but observed their press tour and love bridgerton as a concept. The only reason the show is sold and spoken about is fans. The viewing record is the fans. Don't engage in weird Pr dynamics, if you don't want to be part of fandom outrage. Stay respectful to your colleagues, behave clearly and don't play games. Respects fans. Don't lurk your gf the whole tour, if you want to launch her and be open about it. If you want to stay private, stay private and out of social media or get another private account. Same for the partners. There are plenty of celebrities like that. If you do play games with the fan base, get ready to receive reactions, that could be negative because of how large fandom is. That's it. It's a coin with two sides, I still don't get why everyone is up fandom's neck, when it was Luke's decision to unfold pr nightmare. Nic might also have someone, although we won't ever know. So weird.

again I don't agree with everything on here but I see what you're saying so I'm posting it for those who want to see a different take.

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bonefall · 2 years ago

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Regarding the fire scene, this au https://docs.google.com/document/d/18k0UV5txDbk9_S4hVVzwGnkM048u5SYtVDGm1Wvr_Uc/edit actually fixes this by having Squirrelflight say to Ashfur she's not ready for a relationship, so when she suddenly "has kits" Ashfur feels betrayed, and that's why it would matter to him that the kits are not hers.

Alternatively you could set up that there's an in-universe bias against adoption where adoptive parents aren't expected to actually love their children, rather than it just being out-of-universe author bias where every adopted kid ever thinks that way.

@halogenwarrior

Ready for a Relationship Excuse

Hmm... I dunno, that still doesn't make sense to me. "I'll kill the symbol of you getting into a relationship because you lied and told me you weren't ready," feels like it's too logical. Ashfur wants to hurt her, because she hurt him. His motivation is emotional.

Which is why I also wrote myself into a bit of a corner by canonizing adopted kittens being on the same level as biological ones... I could go back to canon (it would certainly make fixing the tree MUCH easier) but, I would rather fix this terrible implication, instead of keeping it for one scene that doesn't even make sense in canon.

(I love the au tho, HUGE fan of aus that let Shrewpaw live. As a side note, his StarClan name in this rewrite is Shrewface. I may send him out with a Dying Apprentice ceremony.)

My plans

I'm thinking that maybe I'll fix it by having Ashfur be trying to end Squilf's bloodline. That would foil his plans for sure-- "I'll kill your kits and end your legacy the same way you've put an end to MINE!" "They're not my kits!"

But I still feel like that's less than Ashfur just wanting to HURT her, y'know? I wish I could preserve that, but no matter what way I slice it, it's obvious she loves them. She RAN TOWARDS A FIRE to save them. Even if it was just as clanmates, it would hurt her if they died.

And god don't get me started on Ashfur just going, "well shoot. Guess there's no point killing these witnesses!" Like Ashy, baby, you are going to cat jail for 1st degree attempted murder. Commit to the bit, you know??

Alternatively

Squilf could reveal the secret and it DOESN'T work, Ash just goes to kill them anyway. I could use the, y'know, meat-grinding machine that is Lionblaze to just benchpress Ashfur?

Would that be too easy? Lionblaze was abused pretty badly by Ashfur's mentorship, and I can see him hesitating. Maybe he can attack, but still let Ashfur escape in the end?

And then, of course, Hollyleaf finishes it later.

#Ashfur #Hollyleaf #Lionblaze #Squirrelflight #Bonefall Po3 #Bonefall Rewrite

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alexanderlightweight · 1 year ago

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I saw you talking about finding a better way to organize your posts and apparently there are ways to do master posts and link all your stuff. I like the way rayshippouuchiha does it best to be honest. She has a great system going on. I encourage you to go to her tumblr page and check it out. First go to the au master post list. It leads you to a page with fandoms listed. When you pick a fandom, it leads to another list with all of her aus for that fandom. Click on that and every post with that specific tag is right there. Super easy to use and navigate.

there are! and it's great and i love ray's stuff.

so the thing is, i don't have title tags/verse tags on all my past fics which means i would have to go back and find every single post related to that fic and retag it

which takes an incredible amount of time and energy alone, not to mention then adding descriptions and links. s

saeth spent yesterday talking to me about stuff like /chrono and tags vs search etc. they're trying to help me with this going forward and it's the plan (so thank you for sharing because this is good information and i might have needed it and i'll remind them to go look at ray's blog if they want further ideas)

i don't have a need for the fandom button since it's all malec and i'd keep the verselist on the already pinned page. but if i'm going to dredge back through my old stuff and get it ready for ao3 and edit and add notes, i'm probably not going to have the energy to also retag all of the old stuff.

i tried it out yesterday and honestly, it was a lot of work and i'm still attempting to get links at least. but i looked at the tags and realized i'd have to delete and rewrite them all to get the verse tag in the top five. saeth mentioned smething about x-kit at some point. so again, almost anything tumblr related is reliant on them.

i do the cooking and the cleaning and they do the computer/anything mechanical/internet stuff because we divide house chores based on who is best/enjoys the most/won't make it worse/won't hurt themselves.

can i set up a brand new router and modem for a friend? yes. can i restart our own router without a meltdown... no.

they've made my last... they've made my tumblr icons since a few months after we met so like all of them. and my tumblr only got a facelift because they saw it and went 'babe when was the last time you updated that?"

they were not impressed when i told them 'when i made it?'

thank you for sending the information, it was very thoughtful!

<3 lumine

#lumine talks to ppl #lumine answers asks

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asksoldieron · 1 year ago

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SO-6: And Then There's THIS Asshole!

If there's a lot of engagement on this, this post is liable to get real long, beware before you expand.

I'll edit in the real art once I make some!

Welcome to the Engagement Lounge, for Life with David (SO-6) an instalment! Short comments can go in the replies, but there's a 475 character limit. Longer ones will need a reblog. Remember to @asksoldieron if you're reblogging someone else's reblog, so I can see it too!

(I love Bloom County. I'd need footnotes to get a lot of the political humour, but it's still worth reading... Can't speak for the reboot, I mean the original. Although Steve's arc was... Wow. Yikes. If Milo Bloom's look is a little familiar... Yep, that's where I got it from!)

If you read from the beginning, you suspected they meant THAT David, and when Erik checks in on him, you know it. But either way, this is the first you'll meet this version of him. He's... Not easy to work with.

So who, or what, is that? My official response is, and will remain:

The characters will make up their own minds, much as they do with Milo and Ann. And they are under no obligation to agree with each other!

This is one of the many reasons not to work with the gods. David is everything turned up to 11, and an experienced person would not call him, but they're all like that a little. They have a few things they care about to the point of distraction and everything else can go to hell. And some of them will send you there!

Auntie Enora has a Compelling Voice too, and it's possible that power is standard issue, but so far nobody in-story has put it to use like David. Wherever he goes, even if it's just a version of him, he will move fast and break things. As an Invisible, that will get you marginalized and ignored...

Unless someone really desperate and stupid needs just about everything you're able/willing to do. And if he's cute, too, well, hey!

John is... not in a good place. Not strategically or emotionally. Erik would probably be a better friend and help to him... If he could. But as far as John knows, if Erik figures out what's going on, he will just leave, with no ambivalence about it. Erik can't tell him he's figured it out over and over again and doesn't know what to do either. Communications breakdown!

Oh, but, so far, David's having a blast!

The gumballs have made another belated appearance, as a last resort for awkward social situations. We'll see them in use in the next six.

Now I'm all caught up with SO, and I'll have to go back and put up some posts for TS as I illustrate, or as the spirit moves me. Since the future of my eyeballs and how long I'll be laid up is still in doubt, I'm focusing on making sure I get the maximum number of upcoming instalments illustrated and ready to go, first. See ya tomorrow!

[Back to the Site?]

#tin soldier and soldier on #instalment #engagement lounge #david is a terrible friend #however he is also a very loyal friend #he's doing his best!#and that's terrifying

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touchstoneaf · 1 year ago

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People act like all that ever happens as a general rule is Crowley saving Zira, like it's all one-sided, but in a roundabout sort of way, didn't Zira do the magic show in order to help Crowley, too? I mean, obviously he did it as much because he wanted to do magic on stage, but Crowley constantly saves Zira because he likes it, and isn't this one also because Crowley looked bad with the delivery of broken bottles? It feels like it to me, anyway; esp after "There must be something i can do for you!" after Crowley saved the books, and given that the bottles wouldn't even have broken, if Crowley wasn't there to help him in the first place (whilst inexplicably smuggling alcohol without telling Zira he's back in town, but putting that aside for now)...(theory confirmed harder in the next scene when Crowley thanks him for it, and confirms he's ready to help by saying 'this mightn't be easy, lad, you know that?' (paraphrasing), which is step one in the 'Crowley's about to pretend not to volunteer to help Aziraphale' dance, and is followed by him totally suggesting how to improve the act, and totally pumping him up, (which btw, Zira's response to Crowley talking him up? *ded*. So) and rn Zira's way high off of realizing he's madly in love. So it's like, "I'll do this for you, technically, as a way to try to make myself feel like we're back on even ground, because being insanely in love with you is freaking me out cuz we're technically not even supposed to be friends, shut up; but you have to help me to do it... which is then you doing this for me, which you're doing because you love me, even tho you'll never admit you did a nice thing for anybody, even me; and anyway that makes it like there's something in this for both of us, because you also like saving me, apparently; and i'll sell the hell out of it because i'm doing it to prove my love to you without admitting it, and also you can be my assistant, which let's face it, is hot"... and this night is too fucking romantic for me to handle. Also it's always kinda like this, right? Like, Crowley agrees to help Zira hide 'Jim' because it's in both their best interests, it's not just to make his adorable hubby happy, but they help each other to accomplish it, and that's the way to share places and belongings and fulfill all their mutual love languages (which they're very good at btw, for dopes who never discuss the lurve), because Crowley gets to give acts of service, and receive quality time, and Zira gets to give quality time and receive acts of service, and GAH I CAN'T SEND HELP.

edit: AND CROWLEY PAYS FOR THE SHOWSTOPPER!

and INSISTS HIS HUBBY IS IN FACT A MAGICIAN...

and even tries to MIRACLE HIM SUCCESS...

and TOTALLY PLAYS ALONG WITH THE DRAMATICS!

THEY ARE SO *CUTE*!!!

#ineffable husbands #aziraphale x crowley #good omens 2 spoilers

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bahamutgames · 1 year ago

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AFTERTHOUGHTS - ROUNDUP ROUND 3

April 2023

Nintendo Switch Online Edition!!

HELLO EVERYONE! Yes, you right that right, NSO Edition. This time I'm gonna split the round up into 2 different posts. In April I spent most of the month moving. It was a particularly hard move but we managed to make it through. And some days I wouldn't have a car so I would just be sitting around with my Switch, and even after the move was done I did a lot of just sitting around cause I injured my feet during the move! So, I found myself playing a TON of Nintendo Switch Online games. I've mentioned before that I can't afford the expansion pass, but I was actually able to get 8 people who could all send me $10 each, so we were able to finally afford the $80 family plan!

As such, I've been finally getting to sink my teeth into those other emulators and try out stuff that isn't just on the default version. So get ready for a lot of N64 and Genesis stuff haha

As always, these aren't reviews just thoughts yadda yadda yadda. If you wanna play any of these play them. They're all easy to emulate (I think? Idk how good N64 emulation is atm). Anyway enjoy.

Kuru Kuru Kururin (March 21, 2001) - Gameboy Advance

Of course, we start with GBA first. I'm obsessed with this console and it's actually insane how few games on this console is available on Switch! But one of them is Kuru Kuru Kururin! Which is a game I've actually wanted to play for YEARS cause it's an assist in Brawl. But it never made its way over here (but I found out the day I played it that it WAS released in the UK so... I could have been playing it the whole time. Oops.)

But yeah now that's I've played it, I think this game is pretty cute! It's short and sweet, only having around 30 levels or something around that range. But it can be TOUGH to make it through! The game is all about patience so if you're like me, it's tough to make it through. And if you're like me, you'll use rewinds a LOT to make it through this cause you suck at waiting. Regardless, yeah, this game is fun! Cute music, cute visuals, and you can customize your ship!

Only real complaints is that some of the levels are like straight up mazes, so they can be really hard to navigate. And also in general the game is a little frustrating but I think generally people will find it very easy. Again I'm just not patient. Glad I finally got to try this one out! Would have loved to see this get a sequel on DS or 3DS or something. Oh well. Look at my custom ship! The red parts blink on and off like a warning light :)

Yoshi's Story (December 21, 1997) - N64

And here we go with some games I replayed! Recently I said in my first attempt to do a podcast (shameless plug) that I don't have a lot of memories with the N64. But getting NSO just totally brought everything back. I never forgot how much I loved Starfox 64, Paper Mario, ect ect. But I completely forgot about just how many games on this console I ADORE! One of which being Yoshi's Story!

I was OBSESSED with this game as a kid, I played every level in the game and this also spawned my love for the Black and White Yoshi! And I'm happy to say that, yeah, this game still holds up. I see SO many people say this game sucks. But honestly, I don't agree. Maybe if you payed $60 for it back in the day it'd be disappointing. And while it is easy there's a lot of levels to play and trying to get the high score can be really really tough in certain stages like the piranha plant level or the level with the big fishes.

Regardless, I still think this game is incredibly charming and fun! Great music, great visuals, i ADORE the characterization of the Baby Yoshis. This game really makes them feel like puppies? They growl and act so much like little dogs and I LOVE it. The story book aesthetic rules. I think the gameplay is great. And honestly, this might still be my favorite Yoshi game if you can believe it! My only major complaint when coming back to it is that the switch version makes a lot of the graphics look REALLY odd. This game gets the 2D stuff messed up more than anything else on the service. Very odd.

Starfox 64 (April 27, 1997) - N64

Here we go! Here is one of my all time favorite games EVER! Honestly... I don't even really think I need to write up my thoughts on it as I'm fairly certain the last time I beat this game and talked about it was just last year aha. Without a doubt, Starfox 64 is one of my all time favorites and is easily the game I have played to completion the most. I ADORE this game. So, yknow a quick run of it again wouldn't hurt right? I have NSO now anyway so I might as well...

And now we're here. Yeah, I'm not gonna sugarcoat it. This game still absolutely RULES! It's such an amazing game and shmup (do on rail shooters count as shmups? I think they should... 3D Shmups). Even all this time later and after so many playthroughs the game never fails to scratch that itch. Great music, great levels, great characters, great gameplay. And that ending. Augh, gets me every time.

If anyone is curious my favorite route is

Corneria > Meteor Herd > Starwolf > Solar > Macbeth > Area 6 > Venom. Always my favorite set of levels to run through!

Pokemon Snap (March 21, 1999) - N64

Another all time favorite! I mean... This is basically an on rails shooter, if you think about it. Just with VERY different objectives and the bullets are, yknow, photos. So it's only natural I would love this Shmup classic! For real though, if you know me you know I LOVE taking pictures in game, so I love games all about taking pictures!

I used to play Snap a TON back in the day. And after I was absolutely madly in love with the sequel that took way too long to come out, I was interested in revisit the original for a bit now. I will come out of the gate and say it, New Pokemon Snap is better by leaps and bounds. It's got tons more content and things to do. But this only speaks to how good New Pokemon Snap is, because the original still holds up great! It feels fantastic to play, it's super cute, great music, lots of lovely scenarios to take pictures of. And it's made at that cute time period where the Pokemon brand was still figuring itself out. Honestly I think seeing Pokemon just living in nature is one of my favorite ways to see them and now I REALLY wanna play more NPS!

My only real complaints outside of just, not as much to do as the sequel that came out YEARS later is that the stages are SO short! I forgot how insanely short they are! I would love them to be a little longer with more Pokemon, but again that's what the sequel is for I suppose!

I had a bunch of really nice photos I wanted to show off but I deleted my save data before the final boss so I had to play the game a second time and didn't really feel so intense to take many pictures. eh.

F-ZERO X (July 14, 1998) - N64

I feel like I NEVER get to talk about it but I LOVE FZero! It's a series I totally adore and find super fun to play! And with the small amount of games in the series (crying and dying and coping and seething) it's also not very often I get to play a game in the series I've just NEVER played before! But here we are!

I've wanted to try this game for ages but just never could really get my hands on it for one reason or another. But now I didn't really have any reason not to try it! I'd still say it's not as good as GX, but it's still REALLY good! And it's crazy to me that they were so close to the insanity of GX on the N64. Game feels AMAZING to play and has TONS of characters, alt colors for each of them, and lots of tracks! And of course the OST is SUPER GOOD but that's not surprising for FZERO. I'm not a music guy but the guitars in this game sound really good and cool. And it has the fantastic cover of Rainbow Road if you've never heard that.

Off the top of my head the only issue I really have are kinda nitpicky. it's not amazing looking, but I totally understand that it just kinda can't look crazy good on N64, it's a big game with a lot going on and it's not gonna look as good as GX I'm not stupid. But a larger problem I had is that there are SO MANY KILL PLANES! I was trying to jump around the track and kept dying super high up or the collision for the road wouldn't load in cause I guess I skipped checkpoints. Frustrating. LET ME GO NUTS!!

But yeah, good game. I played as Pico and did every track in the Novice Class cause I suck

Dr. Mario 64 (April 8, 2001) - N64

Another game I've been interested in for a while but never got to play before. This one is very odd. it's Dr. Mario so of course it's good but it actually has a story mode with 2 very slightly different stories between Dr. Mario himself and Wario! Yeah this game actually features TONS of Wario Land 3 characters which is so weird and was a big reason I wanted to check it out.

Not much to say on this one. It's Dr. Mario so it's good. But it's just Dr. Mario. Story is cute. Although I didn't have the energy to play through both stories on higher difficulties so I didn't see the true final bosses. It plays fine, looks cool, has a good amount to do. I think the game is a little brutal though. I've never played VS Dr. Mario believe it or not. And I actually think trash blocks in this game are totally detrimental to you if you're not the best at it (like me) so the enemies had a pretty easy time just filling my board with garbage. Ah well. Still neat. Wouldn't mind a new Dr. Mario with a Story Mode and maybe more stuff like Miracle Cures from Miracle Cure on 3DS.

Kirby's Dreamland 2 (March 21, 1995) - Gameboy

Random Gameboy Jumpscare! Yeah last time I played Dreamland 1 so... Why not run through Dreamland 2? Yeah, this one is a LOT better than Dreamland 1. It's got copy abilities, and a whole game set up more similar to Adventure (or Nightmare in Dreamland if you're like me aha) and it has some animal buddies from Dreamland 3! Who, of course, all have different ways of using the copy abilities so there's LOTS to see and experiment with!

Cute sprites, some really honestly very cute and nice looking environments. Good soundtrack. It's honestly pretty dang good feeling and looking for a Gameboy game! I think something that really surprised me with this one is that there's a LOT of unique and cool boss battles in this that I've never really seen before as a casual kirby fan? Nruff, Sweet Stuff, and Ice Dragon are monsters I've seen before but never as bosses. It was neat and actually surprising to not only fight whispy and stuff. I know a lot of Kirby games have new bosses. But still!

Only complaints are stuff like. Ah not enough copy abilities or animal friends. But it's still gameboy there's only so much you can jam pack into it. No, my biggest issue is easily the final boss. Which, if you've played this game you might see the screenshot and realize I didn't fight! Every game in the Dark Matter saga (DL2, DL3, 64 as far as I'm aware?) all do this annoying thing where you can only challenge the final boss after 100% completing the game. This doesn't bug me all the time as I did this for Super Princess Peach and Demon's Crest, but I wasn't like ecstatic to do it in those even though I adore those games. And while I really like these Kirby games. I'm just not crazy enough about it to sit down and try to do EVERYTHING in them at the moment. But that's just me I'm sure Kirby fans could probably 100% this with their eyes closed. And if I ever do sit down to play the entire franchise, I will make an effort to try and grab everything and finally fight the true final bosses to these games.

Pokemon Stadium (April 30, 1999) - N64

Ah now here's a game I have a lot of nostalgia for! Despite not ever doing a full playthrough of the original RBY until last year, I played Stadium a BUNCH growing up! The minigames of course, everyone did, but I actually played Free Battle with Rental Pokemon a LOT for some reason. I was really into it and I remember really wanting Stadium 2 and whatever the GC and Wii ones were called but I never got them.

And something I tried as a child but never managed to do was beat Gym Leader Castle! And now I'm happy to say I did! Did it all with Rental Pokemon of course because they... dont have RBY on Gameboy Online for some reason which is a HUGE mistake by the way. I'll just come out and say it. With your own team I feel like this game would be REALLY exciting. But looking back, with Rental Pokemon. It's REALLY boring. It feels so slow to get through and I totally understand why I just didnt have the energy without save states as a kid.

BUT this game is still nice in a lot of ways. Very charming little title and I ADORE the animations made for all 150 Pokemon. They all have tons of personality, are fun to watch, and are just plain cute. I know Pokemon Company has said there's no reason to make a game like this now that Pokemon main series games are 3D but I disagree because a game like this really allows them to showcase unique emotions and quirks in the personalities of the different species. If that makes sense. Game looks good, music is nice, and of course the announcer is LEGENDARY.

No I am not unlocking Mewtwo, I thought you got him for clearing Gym Leader castle. You do not. I looked it up, you have to do EVERYTHING. I am not doing that.

Also if you wanna see the team I took on Gym Leader Castle with. All rental Pokemon of course. But still neat! (x)

Pokemon Puzzle League (September 25, 2000) - N64

Gosh now here's a REALLY weird game. For years I've seen people say this game is absolutely awful and... honestly it's not. It's just Panel De Pon so it's good objectively. But it still sucks but like, in other ways? Like. I don't know how to describe it the game is just really weird. It's fully based around the anime, which is rare. It has one or two original animations made just for the game (I think they're made just for it)? Which is neat. And it has covers of music from the anime which is neat! I was particularly blown away by the inclusion of Catch Me If You Can from the first movie which is a song I liked a lot in highschool lol. (no Free Up Your Mind or Brother My Brother though 0/10)

But I'dunno even though it plays fine and it has a lot of stuff to do including making your own boards for people to solve which is neat. The game just feels so lame? It looks like a PowerPoint presentation and while you can pick a Pokemon to bring into battle as far as I can tell it has 0 impact on the actual battles which is a HUGE waste because the blocks have type icons on them so I feel like there's a huge missed opportunity for a Panel De Pon game with like elemental weaknesses? Idk how to describe it but it really feels fake, or maybe like a flash game you would have played on the official Pokemon website back in the day. It's not bad but even playing it for free, I'd rather just play Panel de Pon lmao. Sorry Puzzle League.

THAT BEING SAID, I did randomly beat it twice so I could get the better ending. Which I didn't bother doing for Dr. Mario 64, so that's gotta be worth something.

Pulseman (July 22, 1994) - Genesis

Speaking of Pulseman, here's a game with no Pokemon in it! I'm sure I don't have to tell anyone this at this point but Pulseman was made by Gamefreak and even has a lot of the art done by Ken Sugimori which is very neat! This is a game I've actually enjoyed for a bit as I bought it on Wii Virtual console a loooong time ago. But I could never beat it sadly. Thankfully I finally managed to get through it!

Pulseman is VERY cool! I like the character designs of Pulseman and his sidekick girl a LOT. Pulseman also has a lot of really interesting abilities, I think the ability to run fast and build up static to super charge your moves is SUPER cool! There's even some voice acting which is REALLY neat. The game feels very advanced in a lot of parts. And the game has a lot of impressive visuals and looks very good for the most part!

For the most part though. I honestly can't help but feel a little disappointed in Pulseman now that I've played it? I think a lot of the levels don't play to Pulseman's cool abilities enough, I think a lot of the levels in general kinda suck. A lot of the game looks kinda headache inducing with tons of flashing lights instead of focusing on the REALLY nice sprite art if that makes sense. I don't really remember most of the enemies and bosses. And I don't recall any of the music. Idk I hate to say it cause I love Pulseman's design and a lot about the game. But I can't help but feel like this game didn't bring out the concept's full potential.

PERSONALLY I think Pulseman REALLY could use a sequel and honestly, it's not too late. I know Gamefreak is kinda eh on not doing Pokemon every year or so but I really think Pulseman is a game that could go SO nuts nowadays with some cooler levels and expansions on Pulseman's abilities and giving him new tools he can use and upgrade using the static electricity stuff. Ah well, it's still worth playing as an interesting piece of history!

Street Fighter II - Championship Edition (March 18, 1992) - Genesis

Can you believe I've never beaten this game before? Yeah despite how much I love fighting games I only really got into Street Fighter during covid when I played Street Fighter 4 and really found myself loving Juri Han. And while I've been REALLY wanting to get the Capcom Fighting Collection, which includes this, I've just been kinda strapped for cash so I'll have to go with the NSO for Street Fighter II!

Yeah it's fine. Not mind blowing but it is REALLY interesting to go back and play this and see how much of it is still accurate to modern day fighting games? Either the genre hasn't changed much or this game just hit the nail on the head so well (probably a bit of both) but yeah it's neat that it has a lot of modern day fighting game trappings and while it feels outdated, it doesn't feel as outdated as you would expect such an old console port fighting game to feel? Idk how SF2 feels in general though cause I've barely played it. But yeah it's neat. Looks good, has good music, stuff you would expect for Street Fighter. I played as Blanka cause Cammy isn't in this version. Neat :)

Super Fantasy Zone (January 14, 1992) - Genesis

Ah never a bad time for Shmups! I have a little bit of history with Fantasy Zone as I used to LOVE playing my bootleg NES cartridge of it as a kid! Fantasy Zone is very reminiscent of Twinbee with its cute bullet hell stuff and also having a living ship. I love OpaOpa.

This game pretty good, feels great to play, looks adorable, has great boss fights, nice music. And I especially LOVE how many upgrades you can buy for OpaOpa! I just wish they were all permanent or at least lasted longer? I also appreciate that it had a kind of out of nowhere ending with a really cool and edgy dark matter concept and villain, I guess I need to research more Fantasy Zone lore!

My only problem with this game, and while this may feel stupid, I think it's fair to bring up. This game feels like it would be impossible without rewinding? It's 1 hit and you're dead, and it's a bullet hell where it can be really hard to tell where everything is including your ship (which is REALLY important to tell where that thing is during bullet hells aha). With rewinds it wasn't a problem, but I genuinely don't know if it would be possible without them. Still, it's fun so if you have NSO (or an emulator which is free btw) it's a great time!

Ristar (February 16, 1995) - Genesis

Last, but absolutely NOT least, is Ristar! HEY!! RISTAR ROCKS!? WHY DID NO ONE TELL ME THIS GAME RULES ACTUALLY!?!? I've seen it around a lot but idk the game just never really looked like something I'd enjoy. But I figured, why not? Let's give it a go. And I can safely say I was WRONG! Ristar is a FANTASTIC platformer I'm sad I never sunk my teeth into before (well, I never owned it I dont think. But still)

First off, Ristar is ADORABLE. I didn't like how he looked on the boxart but he looks GREAT in game and has some lovely animations (him making snowmen in the ice world killed me.) The music is also fantastic, the bosses are cool, and the whole game is full of really cool ideas! It's even got a neat albeit small story. But particularly, the visuals. Oh my god. This game is GORGEOUS! Ristar has such AMAZING sprite art I was honestly totally blown away by every part of the game's visuals! A part that really made my jaw drop when I first saw it is when you beat a world, the cutscene that plays when Ristar flies to the next planet looks AMAZING and also has some really beautiful music! Honestly, Ristar looks like an indie game trying to look like a Genesis game, but massively overshooting what the Genesis could actually do. And I mean that in the best way possible!

I have some nitpicks with it, I think the final boss had some attacks that were really stupid to dodge? And there were some stages that just... Weren't hitting. But I think my biggest issue with the game is similar to Pulseman's issue. Ristar has cool abilities. He can stretch his arms out and launch things around by bouncing into them like a sling shot. But, this just kind of never gets used? You use it for the spinny things but that's it? I feel like I should be able to angle enemies when I grab them to sling them into eachother, or just be using these abilities in ANY additional ways. Also the game is SLOOOOW, it's REALLY slow game. I think Ristar is another game that REALLY could use a second go around. Ristar 2 could really add to Ristar's abilities and turn up the speed! I think there's so much you could do with grappling and slinging with this character that hasn't been explored yet. PLEASE GIVE US RISTAR 2!!

#2023 #roundup #thoughts

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modernelectronicsgadgets · 4 months ago

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#Digital Camera #sony mirrorless camera #sony digital camera #camera #technology #tech

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