#then in her final confrontation with rio she takes the first steps

[thymejot]

Do you ever thing about the comparing of scars scene in Agatha All Along?

How, in all Agathas 300+ years of existing, it is probably the first time she has just chilled out with her peers?

All other times, except maybe with her first coven, when engaging with witches, it's with the sole purpose of manipulating them into stealing their power.

Yet here this sad sack of a witch is, snort laughing with her ex as she shows how she got stabbed with a knitting needle.

It's such a tiny moment, yet it is also probably the first time she has felt any kind of kinship with someone outside of Rio or Nicky.

Do you think about her uncertainty as the other witches laugh at her story? How she is waiting for the other shoe to drop?

Did she have this bond with some of the Witches in her first coven before her mother would come in and stomp all over it?

An instinctual moment where she waits for Evanora to come in and punish her for being so frivolous, being so damned.

This was probably the first time she experienced community without punishment.

There was probably the tiniest spark of hope that maybe she could finally belong.

Then hours later, in swoops her mother and takes it all away from her again.

Because I do. I think about it a lot, and it breaks my heart.

[lowkeyerror]

Talk it Out

Agatha Harkness x Rio Vidal x Reader

Word count: 1.5k

Notes: Agatha All Along Finale Spoilers, Angst, I guess it's hurt/comfort, happy ending

Summary: The confrontation between Agatha and Rio goes differently with you there to mediate.

An: I've been itching to write for Agatha. I check the tags everyday for new fics, so I thought maybe I should contribute. Hope you like it

Masterlist

“Are you guys really going to do this? There has to be another way?”

Dark skies with ominous clouds loomed over Agatha's backyard. Rio was perched on the rooftop magic buzzing in her hands. Agatha stood on the ground exhausted from the trials of the road.

You found yourself standing in between the two.

“Darling, there is no other way. I don’t want to hurt you, don’t make me hurt you,” the rage dims in Rio's eyes as she looks at you.

You turn to the other woman. She’s trying to activate her powers, to no avail. You see a panic rise across her features. It's then that Rio begins her attack. When Agatha is flung back, you can’t help but scream her name.

“AGATHA!”

You attempt to run to her side, but vines snake their way up your legs keeping you in place.

“Rio please,” you plead with her.

Agatha answers, “She’s not going to listen to you sweetheart. Death is unkind, cruel even, and she cares for no one.”

Tears brim at your eyes hearing those words. Your whisper doesn’t get lost in the chaos, “That’s not true.”

“You can lie to yourself all you want Agatha, but she knows you’re full of shit,”  Rio hurls a vine at the witch leaving a nasty cut on her ankle.

“Look around Y/n, does this look like love,” Agatha spits out before her back connects with a tree.

Wires and vines alike start to wrap around Agatha, keeping her in place. Rio stalks towards her in a predatory fashion.

“End of the road Agatha, and you know where all roads lead.”

Agatha starts to beg for her life. This whole scene pulls your heart in two different directions.

Your magic was weak in comparison to most, but in this moment that didn’t matter. It was enough to escape the hold from the vines.

Just as Rio was going to blast Agatha out of existence you step between the two. Your hands outstretched to shield Agatha.

“Take me instead,” your gaze is soft when you meet Death’s stare.

“No,” Agatha and Rio speak in unison.

You shake your head, “You don’t get to say no. You need a soul and I’m offering mine.”

“It- it’s not your time,” Rio's excuse is flimsy.

“I’ve been around just as long as she has. I’ve sat by and watched her do the things that she did. I am your lover, just like she is. So you’re taking my soul.”

Agatha protests again, “She can’t have you.”

You turn to face her, “She already does, my love. I do not fear her as you do. I do not resent her. Spending eternity with her does not scorn me. I love her just as I love you.”

A scowl grows on Agatha’s face, “How can you forgive her?”

Rio wants to speak, but you place your hand on her chest, causing her to hold her tongue.

You squat down to Agatha’s level. Your hands caress her face, “I am grateful for what she gave us Agatha. Are you not? We’ve been alive for centuries, yet nothing has ever come close to those 6 years.”

“She took him from us.”

You shook your head, your voice was delicate, “He wasn’t even meant to take his first breath. We might’ve made him from scratch, but there’s only one person that gave him life, and you hate her for it.”

“He was my son too,” Rio speaks, no longer in her fighting stance.

Her eyes boring into Agatha, with a sorrow only death could convey.

Angry tears welled in Agatha’s eyes, “In the middle of the night. When we couldn’t even say goodbye. I was going to- I was going to do better for him, Rio.”

“I had to take him, and if either or you asked me not to… I don’t think I would’ve been able to do it. Don’t you think I would’ve loved to see him grow, Agatha? He was so much of all of us even at that age.”

“He was smart and cunning like you,  Agatha. He had your affinity for nature and balance, Rio. And he.. .”

“Was kind, just like you sweetheart,” Agatha finished your sentence.

Rio frowns, “I took no joy in taking him. In fact, taking a soul has never hurt so much. I didn’t just lose Nicky, I lost you too.”

“Tell her the truth,” you say to Agatha, who shifts a bit under your gaze.

“There’s nothing to tell,” her sentence falls flat at the end, in the way it does when she's lying.

Your tired eyes look at her, “Agatha, please.”

“I ran because I’m scared. Not of you, but of facing Nicky. If he saw who I am, what I’ve become he would-"

“Love you anyway,” Rio spoke with certainty.

It’s then that Agatha fully drops her mask, vulnerability on full display, “How are you sure?”

“You never hid yourself from him. He knows what kind of person you are, he always did. Maybe he wanted you to change, but he still loved you the way you were,” Rio spoke it like a fact.

It broke Agatha. She began to sob, “I don’t hate you. I could never hate you. I’m sorry.”

You began to free Agatha from her spot against the tree. Rio instantly broke the binds after watching you struggle. She was cautious in her approach, of the two of you.

Rio wraps her arms around Agatha. Agatha melts into the embrace, the warmth comforting her. Rio begins to wipe away the woman’s tears.

You watch with a tender gaze and relief flooding through your features.

“No more fighting,” you look between the two of them.

“What about Billy?” Agatha clears her throat, trying to regain her composure.

Rio deflates, taking a step back from Agatha, “I still-”

“I told you to take mine,” you speak up.

Rio’s eyes darken, “I won’t.”

You invade the woman’s personal space. Your arms settle around the back of her neck. You lean into her, forehead resting against hers.

She breathes you in calmly. Eyes fluttering close. You kiss her, deeply. You don’t focus on the pain coursing through you, but rather the softness of her lips, the eagerness of her hands, the warmth of her body.

You can feel yourself slipping, but it doesn’t go too far as you are roughly shoved away from Rio.

“ARE YOU CRAZY!” Agatha yells.

Your breath is ragged as your life force slowly returns to you, “Maybe.”

You don’t think as you shoot your magic at Agatha. You know her instincts, you’ve seen them in action. Without thought she begins draining you of your powers. As you crumble, she rises.

“AGATHA!” Rio’s voice echoes something deadly.

It knocks Agatha out of her trance and she quickly cuts the line between your power and hers. You lay flat on the ground with your eyes open towards the sky. You’re breathing is minimal but present.

Rio looks at Agatha, “You need to give her some back or she won't make it.”

Agatha’s hands are trembling and she tries to out the power back, but nothing is happening.

“She’s- she’s not taking it,” Agatha begins to mumble.

“Y/n you have to receive the power, you have to do it or you’ll die,” Rio says sternly.

“The soul,”  you mumble.

Rio growls, “Forget about the soul, I’ll figure it out, just please.”

Before Agatha can put the magic, back into you again, you’re hit with a bright blue ray of energy. The force with which it hits you makes you jolt into an upright position.

“Is she going to be alright?” Billy jogs over to the scene in front of him.

It’s not what he thought it was going to be originally and for that he’s grateful. Fighting Death was not anywhere near his bucket list.

“Did you-”

“I-I came to fight and then I saw… everything. It just made sense to help,” Billy’s eyes search all 3 women.

You answer him first, “I’m alright, everything is fine.”

“A-are you sure?”

You look to Rio, who is already looking at you, she tells the teen “You are free to go.”

He looks at Agatha first and then you.

“We will around if you need us, don’t fret. This is not a journey, you have to walk alone,” you tell him.

The boy is quick to wrap his arms around you in a hug. You squeeze him back and whisper in his ear, “We will help you find him.”

He nods at your words. He takes one more glance at Agatha and Rio before leaving the yard.

“When are you going to tell him about the road?” Agatha questions you.

“Later, after I’ve spent some time with the women that I love. Both of them,” you say hopefully.

Rio looks at Agatha, you both knew it was her call.

The woman let out a dramatic sigh, “Nothing too strenuous I'm exhausted from all of that hard work.”

“A bath would do you well,” Rio bites back.

Agatha rolls her eyes, “You just want to see me naked.”

Rio chuckles, “Well, it has been quite some time. I’m sure Y/n wouldn't mind an intimate moment with both of us either.”

You shook your head, “Not one complaint.”

“You’re both ridiculous,” Agatha speaks.

“You love it,” Rio counters.

Agatha looks at you and then Rio before letting out a sigh, “I love you both.”

[artsninspo]

FORGIVELESS - V - BACK AND FORTH IT GO, IT'S HARD, I KNOW 🔄

« previous part

➨ rio's library - good girl nbc

「 ✦ full library & archive ✦ 」

V - BACK AND FORTH IT GO, IT'S HARD, I KNOW 🔄

Pairing: Rio (Good Girls) X Reader

Word Count: ~2K

Warning: Mentions of cheating & abusive behaviour.

Summary: The aftermath of the tiff between the reader and her soon to be ex husband is explored with Rio and her mother. Rio is confronted with the depths of his feelings for the reader and how to make his next move his best move. This one is fluffy 🧸 and angsty.

It’s late when you wake up in Rio’s bed alone. You don't remember falling to sleep. All of the stress and adrenaline of the day had finally caught up to you. The clock reads 3am and you sigh climbing out of bed. The cold floors cause you to tiptoe into the bathroom. The tiled floors are even colder. When finished in the bathroom you see a loungewear set and smile that Rio has thought of you. You help yourself to a hot shower. It feels like you've been re-wired. The events of the past 24 hours had been too much mentally and physically. Not only had James cheated but he’d been too close to getting physical. As angry as it made you feel it was sad that it even had to come to this. Freshened up you leave the bathroom and find Rio on the couch looking at a chess board studiously. It’s like he senses you immediately and looks up.

“Thanks for the clothes” you smile and he sits back with open arms. You take the invitation sitting on his lap. It feels good to know he has your back. He doesn't need to make a promise or a declaration. He’s shown it every step of the way. Rio didn't do crazy, drama or stress. He had enough problems to sort out. It was how he knew this thing with you was different. You were in his home and in his arms fully dressed. His previous relationships with women had been more transactional. Sex without strings suited his lifestyle and expectations well. The responsibilities and expectations of a committed relationship didn't appeal to him after exiting his teens and early twenties. The world was too big to commit to one person without seeing what else life could offer him.

"Thanks for letting me crash here” you speak first looking up at him. Rio holds you there against him calmly, settling your nerves and anxiety.

“You don’t have to thank me but you should call your mom.” Rio says. He’d watched your phone ring every hour before plugging it up into the charger. There was no need for missing reports but he could tell she was worried. You sigh ready to admit the truth out loud. You still don't want to, knowing the truth will likely break your moms heart worse than it broke yours.

“Can you drop me to the airport? I don't want to talk about it over the phone. I’m her only child” you confess.

“Alright” Rio responds and his calm is too much for you. You mistrust it knowing how much he lives for control and his principals.

“Rio” you say and his eyes close.

“If you're gonna cop a plea for him don't. It’ll piss me off, he almost put hands on you. He doesn't deserve grace. Keep your plausible deniability. Go visit your mom and then meet me in Mexico. You deserve a vacation” He says with his next steps laid out as far as James was concerned.

You swallow your commentary looking Rio in his eyes before sighing. “I’ll come to Mexico. I get a flight from my moms” you concede.

“I’ll get you the flight,” he says. His usual demeanour is gone, there’s no humour or play in his eyes. Lust is absent too; he’s angry, attentive and composed instead. A side you aren’t familiar with. He gets his phone out and then sighs. “Come on, we gotta go now so you can board on time.”

“Rio, I’m alright. Lighten up” you smile trying to lighten things up.

“Let’s not start lying to each other.” He stands dismissing your attempts to placate the situation.

“Just promise me you wont get yourself in trouble” you sigh, willing to drop it with that assurance.

“I won't” he agrees immediately. Relieved you stand getting your purse and necessities. Rio holds his arm around you the entire ride down the elevator and to his car. He keeps a concerned look on you as he drives you to the airport. He pays for your ticket at the counter and sticks close. He doesnt give a fuck if word gets around that he’s been around town with a woman. Hell he wants it to get back to James. That’s part one of his plan. He needs the whispers to make James sick. He’d fuck with James head first before holding him responsible for his actions.

“Call me when you land” he swallows.

“Ok” you nod, walking into his arms. “See you in Mexico” you smile. Rio forces one. Your commitment to make the best of the situation in spite of your obvious pain only infuriates him more. Not wanting to push your process he presses a kiss against your forehead.

“See you later, Mama” he says, letting you go. He stands there until you're cleared and out of his sight. You feel thankful for how attentive he is. The fact that you are hyperventilating right now is in direct correlation with who Rio’s been for you lately. The fact that your eyes are dry and you have a safe place to land is everything to you. The fact that he had someone there to look in on you makes the world. Once on the plane you draft a message to thank him while your phone is on airplane mode. 

The flight is significantly shorter than the drive and you walk through straight to arrivals without any baggage. Your mom greets you with an uneasy smile and you run to her relieved. Her perfume has an instant effect on your nerves and worries.

“Ohh baby, I’m so glad you came,” she says, squeezing you tight.

“Me too Mommy” you admit.

“Are you hungry or do you want to go home?” she asks.

“Starving” you admit having slept on an empty stomach. Checking her watch, your mom sees nothing is open.

“I’ll make your favourite” she smiles, taking your hand.

Once in her car you send Rio a message saying you've landed and are with your mom before sending the one you constructed on your flight. You hope it isn't too much.

“So tell me what’s been going on?”

“What did James tell you?” you ask and she sighs merging onto the freeway.

“That you’ve been absent lately, stopped cooking, cleaning, being around and that you threatened to leave him. He says you think he’s cheated but it’s a misunderstanding. One of his clients has gotten inappropriate and he’s only entertained it via text but not in person. He says he thinks you’ve actually stepped out on him physically. Asked me if you told me anything.” she says and its your turn to sigh.

“Momma-”

“Don’t explain, the panic in his voice told me he was cheating. It was how fast he was talking, how scared he was to lose you. If you think he’s cheated I trust you and I’m so sorry baby.” your mom sighs looking over at you with remorse. Your eyes water, feeling the pain she feels for you.

“He’s been cheating since we moved and she’s fully aware of me, and she talks about me” you confess shaking your head. “I’m done mom.” you add letting a few tears fall.

“I’ll help you move out, for now stay with me” your mom says, surprising you. You frown looking at her. “My love for James is conditional to how you feel about him and how he treats you. The fact that he called me LYING, baby. I’m sorry. He has no shame and I’m disgusted with him. He does not have an ally in me. Hasn’t since he moved you away. I knew something was up when we spent so many weekends having virtual movie marathons.” she says and you look shocked as you arrive at her house. Once parked you follow your mom into her house. A Bachelorette pad, without a single trace of a male touch. You smile feeling the good energy as she heads to the sink to wash up before starting breakfast.

“You don't know how relieved I am to hear you say that” you sigh, sitting at the island as she begins preparing your favourite breakfast. She backs you, oiling the frying pan when she speaks again.

“We haven’t talked in a few weeks, and you dont look like someone who is distraught by cheating. Is he right about there being someone else?” Your mom asks. You feel your face and hands heat. She keeps her back turned giving you privacy and opportunity to lie.

“When I found out I decided I wouldn't be the only one honouring our vows” you confess and when you turn you see your mother is smiling. It's a surprise that she isn't disgusted or disappointed with you. It’s the last thing you expect after your highly moral upbringing. She smiles, shaking her head.

“Good” she says and a smile creeps onto your lips.

“Good?!” you ask shocked.

“Smelled his cologne on you when you hugged me. I’m happy you trust me with the truth and really I’m grateful you're not in pieces” she says. You hold your shirt before remembering you showered at Rio’s using his things.

“MA!” you scoff and she chuckles.

“I’ll never encourage you to stay somewhere you aren't appreciated or treated well. James better not call me again if he doesn't want me to tear his head off. The uppity mother and father of his either.” she adds.

“Thanks mom” you smile giving her a hug and she breathes you in.

“So what's his name?” she asks and over breakfast you giggle.

“Rio?” you respond.

“Baby, not the codename like Japan” your mother laughs and you realise you haven't asked him about his name.

“Rio’s what he’s called,” you tell her honestly before detailing all the PG versions of what you know and your time with Rio. She sits happy for your outlet and his disposition with James. She warns you about Rio’s boundaries, reminding you not to fall too hard and heed what he says. You feel rejuvenated by the time she’s asleep. You sit on your bedroom balcony looking out onto the lake behind the backyard. You respond to Rio’s goodnight text and he calls riding around in his truck. He’s even more fine to you now that your mom knows the truth and approves of your marriage ending in the eyes of the law too.

“What are you smiling about?” he asks.

“Just imagining how much fun we're gonna have in Mexico” you tell him and he smiles.

“Momma gonna let you leave her?” he asks.

“Yeah, she knows about you too” you inform him.

He raises a brow. “And?”

“So far so good. She trusts me and she appreciates you for being here for me.” You tell him.

“Hey” Rio says, getting your attention. You look at him in the camera.

“Don't thank me for being here for you. That's what a mans supposed to do.” he says frankly. “Don't apologise either. I wasn’t upset with you earlier.” he says.

“Rio?” you ask.

“Hmm?” He responds sitting at a red light.

“I never asked, but what's your real name?” You say. Rio smiles as the light goes green glancing at you back on the screen to you.

“Christopher,” he says without hesitation. Smiling as you look at him. You wouldn't have guessed it. Honestly you haven't put any thought into it until your mom had asked if Rio was his real name or a codename like Japan. 

“Christopher” you repeat trying to get a feel for it.

“Get some sleep Mama, i’ll call you tomorrow and text you the details for the trip. Ok?”

“Ok. Good night” you say not liking the emptiness on the line.

“Goodnight” Rio responds feeling it too. You hang up first to ease the tension. It felt like there should be more. But your mother had advised you wisely to take heed of Rio’s initial warning. Endearing terms and lovey-dovey language wouldn't serve the inevitable end that would follow whatever this was. Even if it felt like more now. Cradling your phone in your lap you take in a deep breath getting up and heading back into your room. After completing your nightly routine you check your phone before plugging it up.

Night ❤️

Ria

You smile changing his name back to Rio in your phone. You like the message before sending back one just like it and sleeping tight.

Author's note: Thanks for reading loves! How do we like Momma? How did we like Rio's name reveal? What do we think about how Rio is handling his anger? Comment some baecation activity ideas to put in the next part. Vote, Like & Reblog! Also my inbox is open with ideas. There'll be an intermission after this chapter before I start on the 2nd half of the story.

» next part

TAGS:

@meadows5 @wnbweasley @becauseimher @ariiaeltheedonn @woahthatshitfat @miniaturehideoutmentality @kokobells

[rootspiral]

Agatha all along deep dive: episode 1 part 2

(Wandavision entries: [1][2][3])

(AAA entries: ep1 [1][2][3][4] ep2 [1][2][3][4] ep3 [1][2][3] ep4 [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][+1] ep5 [1][2][3][4][5] ep6 [1][2][3] ep7 [1][2][3][4][5][6] ep8 [1][2][3][4][5][6][7])

Okay, let's keep going through Agatha All Along epsode 1, in which detective Agnes sees Nicky's lock of hair inside her brooch and is stunned into silence for a long ten seconds

she's feeling agonizing heartbreak and cannot even tell why

you know what, she technically is home. she's in her living room as we speak. but every line has multiple readings, so go home... where? to her old self? to her witchy roots? to her coven? to Rio? to Nicky, in the afterlife?

I wonder if all the water puddles are deliberate. do they symbolize mirrors, is she gone through the looking glass? or is water = rio?

the way she has to steel herself before getting into Nicky's room

THE MOON PHASES OVER THE BED. as if she wishes there was a coven looking over him, protecting him

I saw some reactors laughing their asses off at this scene, still hung up on the parody of it all, going "did they make the rabbit into a dead kid backstory? that's HILARIOUS." Sure. So funny.

(they keep associating Nicky with rabbits tho, in the previous scene with Rio there's a blink-and-you-miss-it moment when a plant in the background suddenly turns into Nicky's picture. was señor scratchy named after him?)

why can't they properly light their scenes goddamnit I shouldn't have to use 6 layers to see her face

oh look it's Aubrey Plaza and pizza, two of the sexiest concepts humanity has ever come up with

first of all: open vest and white shirt? that's hot. second of all, the way she's sitting so confidently with her whole chest out, so open, taking deep breaths. she just wants to drink her all up, all of her, her beauty, her sorrow, her goofiness. she's SO damn in love.

what a goober. what a delight. plaid shirt and no makeup, drinking beer and snorting when she laughs, a bit awkward and bashful. what a stud. I would die for her. I would wife her so quickly. I'm gonna say this whit my whole chest, the more femme presenting Agatha is, the more she's wearing a shield and playing a part. this is Agatha raw and defenseless and true, and I want to protect her like she's a precious kitten. (me and Rio both, tbh)

case in point: Agatha is manspreading like some idiot lumberjack, and Rio looks like she has never seen anyone hotter

Agatha: "I have a lead in the case". Rio, with goddamn bedroom eyes: "that's not why I came over."

But then when Agatha looks overwhelmed she immediately course-corrects and encourages her to talk about the case. Love me a boundary-respecting king. Real talk, she's been respecting those boundaries for a long time. And even if she's quite angry at Agatha, she won't unleash all that on her when she's so defenseless.

She pushes a little, and the moment it's too much for Agatha she steps back and regroups. She's being SO gentle.

That's fascinating that her subconscious knows what happened to Billy. Exactly how connected are they?

Whoops, we're leaning in again.

She says yes so openly. When the real Agatha has been running away from Rio and this confrontation for centuries! The real Agatha is SCREAMING in terror, but he body won't listen because it's fallen back into that feeling of domesticity and trust. This is the same body that will always yearn to kiss Rio. The mind that categorically forbids it is shut away for the time being.

Why is Rio trying to wake Agatha up? She could let her stay like this. She could easily make Agnes O'Connor fall in love. The two main reasons why she doesn't are: because she's so fucking angry with her, and she wants them to finally have a mature conversation about Nicky and she needs Agatha to understand that she's hurting too. The second reason is - because she loves her too much. It's honestly just that. She cannot let Agatha live like this, tortured, imprisoned, without agency. She want to have a mature conversation with the real Agatha, she wants to get angry with the real Agatha, most of all she wants Agatha to be okay. Do you see the difference? She's not just in love with her, because being in love is a selfish act, but to love someone is fundamentally selfless. And she will keep loving Agatha no matter if they are together or not. She loves her enough to bend the rules of the universe for her. She just... she loves her.

and this, letting Agatha exist in this form, is a punishment too cruel for Rio to allow

The half smile, the bitterness behind it. An Agatha who doesn't hate her is just a beautiful fantasy, but Rio knows better.

it's Billy! and another mirror! yep, that's a theme.

Ha, the real Sharon was calling him a hooligan. RIP sharon, gone too soon

so intense!!?! even when she's not doing it on purpose, her characters are cheesy and cliched. and it takes a lot of talent to write a bad show too, so kudos to jac schaeffer & co

go to part 3

[lucid-heart]

fascination

Sofia Falcone x Rio Vidal

Sofia stands in her room after killing her entire family when a strange but beautiful woman appears seemingly out of nowhere. She claims to know her intimately. But Sofia has no idea who she is, despite how familiar she seems.

WC: 1.7k words

masterlist • read on ao3 • request

A/N: HELLO it's me, I've mashed my two interests together and made this, you're welcome

CW: references to death and suicide

"Someone's been a naughty girl."

A voice comes from behind her, almost melodic in a mocking way. Sofia turns around, instantly on guard. No one else should be here. She killed her entire family and their protection. The only ones alive are Gia,who is sound asleep in the greenhouse, or Johnny, who should still be in his room.

No, this someone else.

A woman stands behind her, backlit by the large window to bathe her face in shadows. She wears an emerald green cloak, further obscuring her features from view. The only thing Sofia can see about her are dark glowing eyes.

"Who are you?" she asks.

"Mm. Don't you recognise me?" the woman says. "We are… intimately familiar with each other."

"I don't think so," Sofia says coldly. "How did you get in here?"

The woman glances behind her and then around the room, as if surprised to be where she is. Sofia catches sight of dark hair and a cruel smirk underneath that hood.

"Oh. I suppose this is your bedroom," the woman muses. "Very nice. Very fancy. Usually I'd say take me out for dinner first but I can make an exception for you."

Sofia decides enough is enough. She doesn't know who she is or how she got into her house without her noticing but she knows she can't let her leave alive. No witnesses to the tragedy of the Falcone Family. It's unfortunate that she chose tonight to do whatever weird stunt this is.

She grabs her gun from her nightstand and fires right at her.

Suddenly, the woman is in front of her. A hand grabs her neck while the other grabs her wrist with enough force to make her drop the gun.

Sofia finally sees her face and she is startling beautiful. Dark eyes, a positively ethereal face, and an amused grin. There's something timeless about her that marks her as different despite how human she looks.

"You can't kill me, Sofia," she says.

"Who are you?" Sofia demands again. "What are you doing here?"

"Again, we know each other. You've dreamt of me many times in that dark mind of yours." The woman tilts her head and licks her lips, a motion that sends heat blossoming through Sofia's chest. "I've heard you begging for me to take you, to save you. But it wasn't your time and it still isn't. We have many more meetings in the future."

Sofia wrenches herself free and shoves her away. The woman doesn't resist and steps away but the warmth of her hand around her throat persists and it burns. They stand across from each other in an odd confrontation.

"I don't fucking know who you are. So you either you leave now or I shoot you again and this time I won't miss."

"You didn't miss. You never miss."

She knows that. She could have sworn she hit her right in the chest. The shot should have killed her and yet, she stands before her, completely unharmed. It doesn't make any sense but none of this interaction does. Who is she and what does she want? She hasn't made a move or demanded anything from her yet. In fact, she seems to just want to stand and stare her in wonder.

Sofia bends down slowly and picks up her gun again. She watches the other woman for any movement but she does nothing. Just smiles at her and nods encouragingly.

"But… I can't leave yet," the woman says. "There's still thirty six bodies here to collect."

Thirty six. Sofia pauses and counts in her head. Thirty six is the collective number of her family and their bodyguards. The number of the dead in the house. How did she know that?

"You are really bumping your body count, aren't you? Very impressive. That will teach them to underestimate you." She wags a finger. "Don't mess with the Hangman."

"I'm not the Hangman," she snaps.

"I know. But, reputation outlives us all. The names they give us, they stick, especially when created out of fear. The minds of the masses are not easily changed, no matter how many pardons to give to you."

"What's your name then?"

The woman pauses but her expression is pleased. "I have many, given to me throughout the ages. But…" Dark eyes sweep over her with an expression of fierce hunger. She looks at her like she sees more than just her body, something else, something more. "You can call me Rio."

Rio pulls down her hood and inclines her head politely. She is truly a gorgeous woman, even if she does look at her like she's prey. She will learn very quickly that Sofia has fought her way to predator. Or perhaps she knows that, and that's why she's so fascinated with her.

"Okay, Rio," Sofia says. "I'm going to shoot you again."

"Be my guest."

Sofia raises her gun and levels it to her head. Most people cower when facing down the barrel of a gun but Rio seems to revel in it. She bites her lip and leans forward until the barrel rests against her forehead. Her eyes spark with excitement.

"Go on. Pull the trigger. Blast my brains out. Let's make it thirty seven tonight, shall we?"

"You're insane."

"You're the one trying to shoot me."

Trying. And despite the feeling that it again won't work, Sofia pulls the trigger.

Something flashes brightly and Sofia flinches back as she's momentarily blinded. When she blinks her eyes clear again, Rio is laughing. She has her hand wrapped over Sofia's, holding her in place, showing her that she didn't miss. And yet, she lives.

"What are you?"

"Now… isn't that a better question?" Rio slowly lowers their hands and bows towards her. "I'm an old friend. We first truly met when you were… nine? I want to say?"

Nine years old. Images of a deep repressed memory flashes through her mind and Sofia cannot breathe. She knows what happened when she was nine. But there's no way Rio should be know unless…

"Mm. A tragic first meeting. But look at you now, all grown up and-" Rio exhales, a little shakily, "-so powerful. Oh, my dear Sofia, we are going to have so much fun together."

Everything she's said so far hasn't made sense but she had been considering Rio has a person. A human. But in a world where aliens, monsters and gods exist, perhaps she had been too shallow minded.

Rio's lips peel back into a wide grin as she watches her figure it out. The air hums between them with tension and power. She can feel it now, wrapped around her form like a blanket or like armour. A energy that cannot be contained. And she recognises it now. She was right, she does know Rio far more intimately than anyone should. She's been with her her whole life. They've walked down this road hundreds of times.

"Go on," Rio breathes. "What am I? Who am I?"

Her face shifts before her very eyes. An impossible shadow clouding her features. Sofia watches as her skin turns to bone and her eyes grow hollow. And all the while she's still smiling.

"Rio," she murmurs.

Rio nods, although she looks very different now. Gone is the beautiful woman with soft skin and hungry eyes. She stands tall, showing Sofia how things will be in the end. The face of life lost to time. No flesh, no skin, she is unmasked.

"Death."

And Rio's smile widens and laughs. It's loud and unashamed, triumphant in her discovery. Sofia sees her as she truly is. Yet even without her human face, Rio is still beautiful.

Sofia steps forward into Death's space and lifts hand towards her. Rio pauses in her glee, possibly surprised although it's hard to tell without her face. But she doesn't stop her as Sofia's fingers ghost over hard bone. She brushes along her hollow socket of her nose, then her jaw, hand coming to rest on her cheek.

She stares at her in deep fascination. Rio reform her eyes, half of her face returning to mortal flesh, but she keeps her lower half–the half that Sofia is touching–dead and ice cold to touch.

"Come on then," Sofia says. "We have a lot of work to do."

Rio gazes at her with an expression of both adoration and hunger. For a second, her eyes flicker to Sofia's lips and then back up again. She is intoxicating intense and Sofia simply cannot step away. They breathe into each other's airspace, losing track of where the boundary is. The living and the dead, some think they are opposites in nature. But in reality, they are the same, just different steps of the journey.

"Oh, Sofia Falcone," Rio breathes. "You are so interesting."

She moves forward as if to kiss her but Sofia holds her back. Rio huffs at the barrier but her eyes glow at the challenge. There's something deeply needy about her and Sofia basks in that power. She holds the cards, this is her game.

"First work. Then we play," Sofia says. She reaches up to brush Rio's hair back. A little power play, touching her skin, when she knows exactly how she's affecting her. "Sound good?"

Rio rolls her eyes but she cannot contain her smile. "Fine. I'll follow."

"Excellent."

Sofia steps away and picks her gas mask from where it sits on her bed. She holds eye contact as she puts it on, securing herself away from Rio once again. There's a delicate balance here and it's electrifying. A push and pull between them. She heads towards the door and smiles.

"Let's go."

Rio, who didn't keep her distance, inclines her head. "After you."

The gas is heavy in the air as she opens her door but the mask keeps her safe. Already, just down the corridor, she sees her first body, lying on the marble floor. She glances at Rio to see her reaction but Rio only has eyes for her. Rio gestures for her to keep going. She's loving this.

So Sofia steps out in her family's mansion, and Death follows in her footsteps once again.

[seizerofdarkness]

Following up on this post, here's a takeaway of the writers' commentary on the season 5 finale.

(click read more for extra stuff I noticed playing in the background)

Plan "Perfect Alliance" was planned ever since "Animaestro", with the papers Gabriel and Tomoe needed signed.

Nightormentor's existence functions essentially as capitalism, people in power dishing out poison to sell the antidote, creating useless tools and causing mental illnesses to render people addicted to said tools. Hence Adrien using it being described by Plagg as "succumbing to the Alliance ring".

Frédéric/que Lenoir is called the "Queen of Cheese" for coming up with Plagg's cheese puns (their coworker Mélanie meanwhile, like Tikki, loves extra sugar in everything).

Plagg shaking his rear to the camera allowed to break the tension and recall that the show is targeted towards a younger audience that needs a laugh once in a while.

"The damaged Peacock Miraculous will eventually kill you by where you've sinned." - Astruc in the most dramatic voice ever.

To write Miraculous, they had to write the story of Gabriel, Emilie, Audrey, André and Nathalie.

Ivan is more stressed than he appears. We'll learn more about why later down the line.

Emilie's coffin is quickly called a sarcophagus (Pharaoh parallels?)

Marinette hiding under the sink was a Jurassic Park reference.

Luka and co. were fighting in Rio, in the beach of Copacabana.

From the moment Bug Noire grabs her glue Lucky Charm and knows what to do with it, it delves into the writing of season 6 since they know how the battle ends from there on out.

According to the writers, it's not Ladybug/Bug Noire who wins, it's Marinette. Violence or powers aren't the resolution as she talks to Gabriel, it's the people who talk to one another, delivering their emotions and rather than be the toy of their emotions, master them and try to understand them. By understanding your emotions, you can think in more reasonable ways and take the right decisions.

Gabriel's scene crying is very emotional to the writers because it's the one scene where he's this moved, where the struggle between his wish to bring Emilie back and his love for his son comes to play. He believes love is above good and evil, and to solve this emotional crisis, Marinette takes a huge gamble by detransforming to try and confront him by the feelings, rather than the fists as stated before.

Gimmi is compared to a Swedish 70's album cover image.

What marks Marinette's victory is not what Gabriel says, but what he does, removing the Bee ring to free Marinette from Venom (in a way, I think it works well as a villain move as well, as if he was still evil, freeing her from his trap would be the first step towards his usual undoing, hypothetically in a less final situation).

And now the big one...

NO, GABRIEL DID NOT REVIVE EMILIE. HE FINALLY EMBRACED HIS GRIEF AS HIS SON DID. BUT, as his love for her is too much, he decides to join her instead by remaking reality.

But then again, when seeing Emilie/Amélie, they beg the question which one it is, say they don't know and that we'll figure it out. WRITERS, WHY

Additional words that Gabriel realized that with all the power he has, he still can't make his son happy. There's more to his wish.

The next seasons will have a different flavor compared to what we have.

They consider the final kiss between Marinette and Adrien to be their first real kiss.

The Miraculouses' original forms and their ring forms are an analog to industrial and traditionally handmade crafts. Marinette reconfiguring them changes them back from chain products to more individual, personalized items with their own identities for everyone rather than owned by one.

The season 6 school will be the kind of school system "that should be" (with Thomas sending an indirect remark to his art teacher).

And that's about it.

In the background while writers are talking, Marinette and Parisians can be seen dancing on a screen testing unfinished models and animations with captions at the bottom, singing about how lovely Paris is. Seems like another music special's on the way, or we'll just have a song in season 6. Marinette is musing about her dreams and someone, seemingly Adrien, says "those are beautiful" before taking her as she resumes singing and hopping around.

Marinette's still in her s1-5 getup, so it's possible it's for a sequel to the movie (there's a still 2D image of Marinette looking embarrassed like the first movie when she's walking in the halls).

[reina-santiago]

Reina had never really considered herself a therapeutic communicator. She was blunt, and from what she’d been told, bitchy, but…she was real. She’d never been the type to say anything she didn’t mean or sugarcoat the ugly details to help soften the blow. Some blows didn’t need softening, otherwise what was anyone supposed to take away from them? But in the same vein, Reina also didn’t believe in toning down praise when someone truly deserved it the way Nate did. He was a good man and he’d never given her a reason to think otherwise. “Good, but what’s important is that you believe it too,” she pointed out, hoping he’d use what she said as encouragement to take that first crucial step into his new normal. She had all the confidence in the world that he’d do right by his daughter, no matter how awkward the circumstances were. She sighed softly, folding her hands together to keep them from fidgeting with a reflexive need for a cigarette as she mulled over Nate’s question. Perhaps it was a bit of both, guilt and fear. Guilt because she hadn’t been able to do more for Wes and fear that she’d relive the same nightmare with Rio one day. “I think it’s a little bit of both,” she admitted, shrugging her shoulders, “And I think a lot of it is that I’ve never met anyone who’s made me want to try to move past that fear until now, and I have no idea what to do with that.” She’d spent so many years not confronting it, at least not in a healthy way, and now she wasn’t sure how to. But maybe it was like Nate said– she needed to talk about it until it no longer felt like a barrier, just a memory. “Just feels wrong, I guess– me moving on while he’ll never get the chance to.” Scoffing softly beneath her breath, Reina shook her head, already hating the way that confession sounded once it hit the air between them, “I know that sounds stupid.” But she’d never claimed to approach matters of heart rationally, because she never had. “But even before Wes, I was afraid of commitment. I guess it’s just this fear of not being enough, you know?” Perhaps it stemmed back to her years in foster care, that fear of not ever measuring up and being tossed aside simply because of it. She didn’t know what to call it, but if the thought of committing to someone else was a hurdle she still didn’t know how to leap over, perhaps she needed to look at it as finally committing herself to her own happiness. It felt good, hearing Nate say that she deserved that, particularly when Reina had never counted herself as deserving much of anything, least of all the level of happiness she knew Rio could bring her. “I do want to be happy, and I know I would be with this man. It’s just me,” she chuckled softly, knowing full well that she was getting in her own way, per usual. “He hasn’t run yet though, not even when my brother was stalking us, so I guess that’s gotta count for something,” she mused aloud, rolling her eyes. Pursing her lips, she glanced across at Nate, waiting for his reaction to that little tidbit, “Oh yeah– forgot to mention that little detail.”

He nods lightly, showing that he was listening, that he was taking in what she was saying. He also knew that showing up was his first step. That was thanks to Cole, to Taliah, now Reina. He wouldn't ever dream of doing the opposite. What sort of person would? Smiling he soon started laughing softly as she quirked her brow in his direction, something about her saying she wouldn't blow anything up anyone's ass tickled him. "Okay... well I appreciate it," he chuckled, feeling at least ten times more relaxed now than when he first set eyes on her. It was strange to him how in the space of mere days he had a bombshell dropped at his feet and in that same space, been picked up by those he loved. He'd do the same to anyone else, sure, it just hit differently being the one told how good you were. It was overwhelming.

Resting his elbow on the table before him, he places his chin on top of his hand, letting Reina speak whatever she needed to. Not minding the change of subject because at the end of the day, Nate cared immensely about the people around him and if there was a way that he could help, he would. He could only imagine what being here felt like for her, especially when it had been literal years since she had last been in here. It was bound to bring up memories, more so the last ones ever made between her and Wes. Even for Nate his thoughts were clouded by the sight of Wes's body that night. It tainted all the good because it stuck. Hearing her say she was in a position to move on brought the faintest smile to his expression, there's a small warmth behind his eyes because that was a good thing. At least he thought so.

"Do you think you're talkin' yourself outta it because you feel guilty or because you don't wanna be in that position again?" where whoever she saw potential in, would just drop down dead without any warning. "Because I can tell you that Wes would want you to be happy, you went through a lot," coming out the bathroom and seeing the man you love dying and be unable to help, was enough to cement trauma on anyone's brain. "and that's never gonna go away, the most you can do is talk about it until it doesn't hold you back anymore." which it still clearly was. "I know what it's like to hold yourself back because of your own fears, y'know it's not healthy. Can't odds it either," the same thing happening again, "So why hold yourself back? Sometimes gettin' over a fear means jumpin' straight through it and if you think the person you wanna build somethin' with can keep you upright, don't lose that. You've been through so much, Reina, you should let yourself be happy." which he meant with his whole heart. "And y'know what? I think it's time you start seein' that."

[bvckys-doll]

Let me take care of you

Pairing: Bucky Barnes x female!reader

Word count: 2.7k

Summary: Bucky broke up with (Y/N) a month ago and she still doesn’t know why. When she decides to visit the HQ for the first time after their break up to get the rest of her stuff, the whole team is out on a mission. (Y/N) is not prepared to meet her ex soon after her arrival. Heavily injured.

Warnings: bloody wound. (Y/N) needs to stitch him up. Blood, duh. Angsty fic with a happy ending!

Author’s note: This one-shot sat in my Bucky folder for too long so now I finally got the chance to post it. Italics is the past. I hope you like it and might leave a comment in the reply section! PLEASE! Take care of yourself, stay safe and healthy! Cosplay the Winter Soldier and PUT ON A FCKING MASK!

You can find my main masterlist here!

It was a strange feeling to walk through the hallways of the headquarters without being able to call it her home. Bucky and (Y/N) had broken off their relationship a month ago and it was still hard to process everything. Normally she wouldn’t be so tense and would walk down the hallway without a bad feeling, but the bad feeling was omnipresent.

After more than a year of their relationship, it was Bucky’s decision to end it. It had happened out of the blue, but he thought it was for the best, as the missions were getting harder and harder each time and Barnes knew that (Y/N) was worried sick.

He had often come home in the evening and found her still awake on the couch. She could not sleep if she knew that the rest of the team was on a risky mission that she could not or was not allowed to participate in.

Bucky loved (Y/N). He still knew that. Yet he had never said it out loud. Bucky knew after the first three months of their relationship that he loved her, but he was too much of a coward to tell (Y/N) the truth. What if she turned him down? What if she thought they were moving to fast? So, Bucky kept it that way and tried to show her his affection in different ways.

But in the end, the former Winter Soldier knew he could no longer keep it from her. So, James chose the simplest method: to let her go. Of course, he knew from the start that (Y/N) wouldn’t just leave. After a year of dating, she wouldn’t just leave if Bucky told her to. She would ask questions, probably cry, and beg him to try again. There was only one option: he would have to break her heart.

~

With a broad smile on her lips, (Y/N) opened the door to her room, while trying not to drop the plate of the fresh cookies she had baked and brought with her.

“Baby, you’re not gonna believe what Sam just said. ” (Y/N) chuckled and put the plate on the coffee table next to the couch when Bucky came out of the bathroom. Before she could speak up again, she paused, and her eyes widened. His eyes were swollen and red. He must have cried. A lot.

“James, what’s going on?” (Y/N) approached him and put her hands on his cheeks. Meanwhile Bucky was clenching his hands in fists to prevent himself from pulling (Y/N) close. The next words that passed his lips would not only break her heart, but also him.

“I want you to go.”

“W-what? I don’t understand. Shall I go down to the living room and leave you alone?” (Y/N) tried to make sense of his words. Another tear ran down Bucky’s cheek. Immediately she wiped it away and watched him anxiously. Slowly, he grabbed her wrists and pulled her hands from his face, whereupon (Y/N) looked at him completely disillusioned.

“I can’t be with you anymore. We are too different” James replied and stepped past her as (Y/N) froze at her place. She couldn’t quite believe what he had just said. Before she could say another word, he continued and pulled the final straw “I don’t love you…and I never loved you. This...was all just a pastime for me to feel a little better after everything that’s happened to me.”

Her back was still turned to him as Bucky saw how (Y/N) now clenched her hands into fists as well and a sob escaped her lips. How he would have loved to take her in his arms. Tell her it was all a lie to protect her. But he didn't. He stood firm and left it at that.

Without another word, (Y/N) turned on her heel and left their shared bedroom, pulling the door shut behind her with a loud bang.

~

Since the confrontation, they hadn't seen each other or exchanged another word. Natasha had packed a few things and left with (Y/N) only a few hours later after the incident. Natasha hadn't spoken a word to him since that day either.

Meanwhile, (Y/N) had been staying in a hotel for the past four weeks because she couldn’t find a new apartment so quickly. In New York it is never easy to find a good apartment and most of them are incredibly expensive. Despite (Y/N)’s constant reluctance, Tony insisted on paying for her accommodation at the hotel because she was one of his best employees.

Most of the time she worked from her hotel room, which Tony fortunately allowed her to do. Still, (Y/N) knew it couldn’t go on like this forever. Sooner or later, she’d see Bucky and the pain would come back.

According to the team’s entries in the system, everyone was on a mission near Rio de Janeiro. No one had told her why and for how long, but she knew they were not back yet. At least, that is what (Y/N) thought.

Since she still had some clothes and other stuff in their old, shared room, (Y/N) wanted to get them before the rest of the team started running around the headquarters again. So, with a moving box under her arm, she made her way to the room where she entered the usual code.

Beep!

Pushing the door open with her hip, (Y/N) groped for the light switch with her free hand. Briefly, (Y/N) squinted her eyes as the bright light illuminated the room. Why did Bucky always leave the curtains closed when he was away?

With a glance around the room, her question was answered.

The room has been left in a great mess. His shirts, shoes and sweatpants were scattered on the floor and his bed looked as if he had just got up. The cushions were either at the foot of the bed or in another corner of the room.

One of the signs for his nightmares. Things that (Y/N) wouldn’t have to deal with anymore.

Murmuring, she made room on his desk and set the box down. The first mission: the wardrobe. One of the doors was already open and one of Bucky’s knives laid on the floor. She opened the other door as well and pulled her clothes and blouses off the hangers before carefully packing them into the box.

Now it came to the sweaters.

To be honest, she sometimes didn’t even remember which ones belonged to her and which ones to Bucky, since she had usually put his shirts on instead of her own.

While (Y/N) was busy with her other t-shirts, Bucky’s red Henley shirt fell into her arms. Sighing, she held the thin, dark red material in her hands and looked at the thin seam. She probably had to mend the shirt five times already.

Suddenly the door of the room opened, and (Y/N) turned around in shock when she saw Bucky standing in the door frame. For a short moment none of them moved and they just stared at each other. (Y/N) was still holding his shirt in her hand before she quickly threw it behind her on the bed.

“What are you doing here?” they asked at the same time before Bucky raised an eyebrow and added a bit abruptly, “I live here. What’s your excuse?”

“I’m just going to get the rest of my stuff. I’ll be gone before you can count to three”, she snorted at his tone “Actually, I was hoping that- …you’re bleeding.”

(Y/N)’s gaze went to his hand, which seemed to squeeze a wound. Not successful, however, because the blood swelled through his fingers. Bucky briefly looked down at himself, pressing his hand further into his side, and gritting his teeth briefly “No shit, Sherlock.”

“Do you think now is the right time to make jokes, Barnes?” (Y/N) growled in a serious tone as Bucky pushed past her towards the bathroom. He got out of his jacket and closed his eyes while gritting his teeth. In the bright light of the ceiling lamp, (Y/N) could see the blood in his hair and the slight scratches on his face. Apparently, it had been a pretty rough mission.

“Why didn’t you go straight to Helen with an injury like that?” (Y/N) watched him throw his leather jacket into the bathtub and then leaned on the edge of the sink. Before James was about to lose consciousness, (Y/N) quickly came up to him and wrapped his arm around her shoulder, while his other hand was still pressing on the wound. He had already lost a lot of blood.

With the last strength James had left in his legs, he made it to his bed with (Y/N)’s help, where he laid down and squeezed his eyes in pain. (Y/N) quickly ran into the bathroom and dug the first aid kit out of the drawer before sitting on the edge of the bed next to Bucky, who was breathing slowly.

“You don’t need to help me” his voice was raspy as his eyelids slowly dropped.

“Hey, you’re staying with me” (Y/N) patted his cheek “Where are the others?”

(Y/N) took the scissors out of the box and used them to cut his shirt open so she could get a better view of his wound. His voice was still raspy as he replied, "There were too many. They surprised us and we weren't prepared for it. Some bastard caught me pushing Steve out of the way. What's he got that stupid shield for if it doesn't even help?"

"Is the bullet still in there?", (Y/N) asked him as she pressed a couple of compresses into his hand so he could use them to stop the bleeding, which was slowly but surely receding. Relieved, (Y/N) slumped her shoulders as he shook his head before replying, "Helen wasn't there and I didn't feel like looking for anyone else. I don't necessarily trust the others. Clint flew me in quickly and then flew right back. I told him the wound was already closing up."

“This lie could have killed you, you know that, right? If I hadn’t been here, you would have collapsed in the bathroom and probably died of blood loss.” (Y/N) answered as she tried to get the thread through the head of the needle, which was not as easy as she thought. Probably it was also because her hands were shaking, which Bucky noticed when he watched (Y/N) “I would have made it somehow.”

But the way (Y/N) looked down at him was enough for him to shut up. Knowing it was a straight lie. And he had to admit that he wouldn’t have cared if it had happened like that. (Y/N) was gone. He had lost her, and that was all his fault.

Attentively James watched her as she prepared everything and checked again and again if the wound was still bleeding heavily. After it had slowly but surely subsided, (Y/N) removed the compress from his stomach and glanced at the gaping wound. Sighing, she took the disinfectant and dripped some onto a cloth before looking at James, who understood immediately before he said “I'm used to the pain, you know that. Don't worry about it. "

“You don't need to play hero here, James. I know how much that it hurts.” (Y/N) muttered, holding the cloth tightly before pressing it to the wound. Briefly, Bucky's chest heaved, and he growled in pain, breaking (Y/N)'s heart in the process, before she finally managed to take the cloth down and throw it away.

Quickly she took some of the numbing gel and smeared it around the wound before looking to Bucky, “I'm stitching it up now as best as I can. I'll have Helen look at it as soon as she gets back.”

Without another word from Bucky, (Y/N) began stitching up his wound. She was still shaking a little, but slowly it was getting better. Finally, she bandaged the wound with a compress and took care of the small scratches on his cheek.

They hadn't been this close in a long time. (Y/N) didn't even notice how she held her breath as she ran the disinfectant over the wounds. Bucky gritted his teeth again for a moment, but his gaze didn't avert from her.

Calmly, she stuck a band-aid over the wound and gave it another quick brush with her thumb as it blurted out of Bucky, "I lied."

Bucky watched her reaction carefully as she removed her hand from his cheek and held his gaze. His gaze wandered to the ceiling, kneading his hands nervously. He added, "When I said you were just a pastime and I didn't love you, I lied. That's not true. "

"Then why do you say such a thing?", (Y/N) asked him in a calm voice that didn't show if she was amazed, sad, or angry. Bucky himself was afraid of any of these reactions.

Desperately, he tried to find the right words "I was worried about you. This life with me could break you. You haven’t slept for weeks because of me. Because you're always so worried about me and while doing so, you forget to take care of you. When I…come back from missions, you're still awake because you want to know that I got home safely. You…you're too good for me and I don't want to destroy you like I've already destroyed everything else around me. I got you-. "

"You've already destroyed me, James. ", (Y/N) interrupted, looking at him with glazed eyes. This was exactly what he tried to avoid. He never wanted to be the reason why she felt bad, but now his worst fear had come true.

"You successfully broke my heart when you told me I was nothing more than a silly pastime you're done with now. I thought that you…I thought that we will go on like this forever. Do you know how happy you've made me? You were the one I could imagine anything with. I never wanted kids. I never wanted to get married, only to get divorced three years later. I never wanted this. But then you came along and showed me that there is a man who could make this all a possibility. A family. A life together. . . "

Tears were streaming down his cheeks when he saw her sitting in front of him throwing all this at his head. He had been such a coward. If he had just talked to her and told her everything, it would never have come to this.

But he was scared. Scared of being rejected again like all the other women did it before. But his (Y/N) wasn’t like them, but he couldn’t bear the thought that she might be.

“I love you, doll. I really do.” Bucky sobbed and wiped the tears from her eyes as (Y/N) looked at him and her eyes were just as swollen as his own before he continued, “I love you more than anything and I-I was stupid because I once again thought only of myself and…and not of the consequences. I love you and I don’t want to lose you. You’re all I have left. ”

Sniffing, (Y/N) looked at the man she loved more than anything. How he lay there on the bed, showing his most vulnerable side. He always appeared so strong in front of everyone so they would not see the real Bucky. But this man was so exhausted by everything that had happened to him. He didn’t want to have those thoughts. These doubts. That fear. He just wanted to live a happy and fulfilled life with (Y/N).

Slowly, she moved closer to him on the mattress and brushed the hair out of his face, which was still a bit sticky because of the blood. Gently, she leaned down to him and embraces him as best she could without touching his wound.

At first, he remained calm, then he wrapped his arms around her center and pulled her into his arms until finally she lay next to him in the bed. The two were sobbing in each other’s arms with (Y/N) running her fingers through his hair. Again, and again.

“I love you, James Barnes. So so much.” (Y/N) muttered as she buried her face in his neck while she was still fondled the back of his head. “But I swear to God, if you do this again, I’ll send Natasha after you and you know what she is capable of.”

“Of course, I know that. I taught her well.” Bucky mumbled while he held her close “I’ll never let you go again. I promise.”

[addictedtomanga]

Shoujo manga recommendations - love triangle

1.     Ao Haru Ride

While most girls desire popularity among boys, Futaba Yoshioka wants the exact opposite. After attracting many admirers back in middle school which resulted in her being shunned by her female classmates, she decided that high school will be her chance to revamp her image. Therefore, she starts acting unfeminine and indifferent to boys, allowing her to make some “friends” along the way.

Little does Futaba know, her life will take another drastic turn when her first love, Kou Mabuchi, returns after his sudden disappearance years ago in middle school. Despite his extended absence, the fond memories they shared together still linger in her mind, and she wishes to return to those days. But she realizes that the sweet, gentle boy of the past has completely vanished, and in his place stands someone cold and pessimistic. While he admits that her feelings for him back then were mutual, he warns that they can never go back to the past, as everything, including him, has changed.

2.     Beauty Pop

Although a truly gifted hairstylist, Kiri Koshiba has no interest in using her talent to pursue fame and fortune, unlike the three popular boys in the "Scissors Project" at school. Determined to become the best makeover team in Japan, they give showy makeovers to handpicked girls. As much as Kiri tries to shy away from the Scissors Project spotlight, she finds herself responding to beauty's call...

3.      Blue Sky Playground

On a cold day, Mirita finds discovers a hidden room with a kotatsu (a table that keeps one warm) inside. The kotatsu belongs to two of the most popular and handsome twin brothers in school. Both immediately kick Mirita out. However, Mirita becomes even more determined to get back into that room. What love triangle will commence?

4.    Boku kara Kimi ga Kienai  

Hotaru managed to get in the same high school where Haruna-sensei teaches to see him again! However, on her first day there, she meets a very unpleasant guy who looks just like her beloved sensei...?

5.      Dear!

Rei, Kazuma and Banri are close childhood friends. Rei, who's better than any guy, the cool and smart Kazuma and Banri who's mischievous and bright have the perfect balance. It's normal for the three of them to be together all the time and without thinking of themselves as men and woman they're just together. But something happens after which Rei starts to think of Banri as a "man", so the relation of the three changes...?!

6.       Faster than a Kiss

After losing their parents, Fumino and her brother hop from one relative to another. Getting tired of all those moves, she finally decides to quit school and work to support her brother on her own. As they sat on a park bench, her teacher appears in front of her and agrees to her demands of marrying and supporting both her and her brother!! Is he serious or just playing around...?!

7.      Haru Matsu Bokura

The timid and reserved Mitsuki Haruno seeks her dream sociable life at high school. But despite her best efforts, her ineptitude to speak her mind impedes her from befriending anyone. Nonetheless, while working at a cafe one day, she has a fateful encounter with her school's four idolized basketball players—Towa Asakura, Rui Miyamotoi, Ryuuji Tada, and Kyousuke Wakamiya. At first glance, these four heartthrobs come off as arrogant individuals, responsible for invading her cafe's safe haven. Soon after though, as they uphold their promise of keeping her workplace a secret, Mitsuki starts to see them in a new light.

Hence begins an improbable friendship between Mitsuki and the boys, as her days of solitude finally comes to an end. However, things aren't always so simple—with her heart waning toward Asakura and the female students green with envy, is there a chance this friendship could blossom into something more?

8.      Hirunaka no Ryuusei 

Suzume Yosano has spent the entire 15 years of her life in the countryside, so when her parents decide to move overseas for work and leave her with her uncle in Tokyo, she finds herself in a whole new environment. On the way to her uncle's house, however, she gets lost and faints.

Waking up safely at her uncle's house, she learns that a strange man had carried her there and that he happens to be an acquaintance of her uncle. Moreover, when Suzume goes to her new school for the first time, she discovers that the weird man in question, named Satsuki Shishio, is actually her homeroom teacher! Now, Suzume must adapt to her new school and make friends, since her blossoming high school life in the city has just begun!

9.    Hoshi to Kuzu - Don't Worry, Be Happy   

Anzu is poor but very ambitious and aims for a bright future. Her first step is to be student council president but that chance is destroyed by the equally ambitious and egocentric Yamabuki. She just has to settle for being the vice-president.

10.  Iya da Nante Iwasenai 

Anzu currently works part-time at a beach house however when it comes to serving male customers, she can't help but be cold and shy. When she accidentally spills a drink on one of them, a male co-worker saves her who ends up being her childhood friend Rei. Anzu is happy to reconnect with Rei, however, Rei might be after a bit more...?

11.   Kaichou wa Maid-sama

Seika High School was an all-boys school, but it has since turned co-ed. Misaki Ayuzawa is the first female student council president of the school, eventually earning the nickname of the "Demon President" due to her mastery of Aikido and imposed iron rule.

However, Misaki harbors an embarrassing secret—she has to work at a maid café to support her family. If anybody from her school was to find out, her reputation would be utterly destroyed. And after Takumi Usui—the most popular boy at school—discovers her secret, that might just happen.

12.  Kaoru-kun to Hana no Mori 

Kaoru is as kind as a prince towards girls. She would love to met men stronger than her! And then, two men appeared in front of her...

13.  Katakoi no Tsuki

Kurumi likes Souta-kun, but what happens when Kurumi witnesses Souta-Kun hugging one of her friends? Could Souta-kun already have someone he likes or is Kurumi misunderstanding? What can she do if that girl is her friend, too!?

14.  Katakoi Triangle

Sekiya-san of the cultural library has an unrequited love for Yuuki-kun. The one who cares about Sekiya-san is the popular Kasai-kun, who is also Yuuki-kun's friend! And, what's this? Yuuki-kun is rooting for Kasai-kun?! It seems that everyone's feelings are one-sided...or are they?

15.  Kimi to Koi no Tochuu 

Just when I thought it'd start with you, you disappeared; I would've never thought this... Yuna has lost trust in love after her first boyfriend Takumi broke up with her. Shiina-kun from her class has already confessed to her twice and now finally she approached onto love another time. But Takumi appears in front of her!! What will the swaying Yuna do!?

16.   Kyoudai Gokko

Growing up, Takara Rio has always wanted siblings. So when her parents decide to move overseas without her and tells her she will be living with two people around her age, she's cautiously optimistic. But they turn out to be brothers who fight like cats and dogs. Is this what having siblings is like?

17.  Last Game 

Nothing is beyond Naoto Yanagi, heir to the Yanagi business conglomerate. Idolized for his athletic and intellectual competence, looks and wealth, Naoto lived like a king during his elementary school days—then entered Mikoto Kujou, a plain, gloomy-looking transfer student.

Due to her low financial status, Naoto was initially apathetic towards Mikoto. But despite having just arrived at his school, she completely eclipsed him in everything by consistently scoring top marks in exams and placing first in athletic events. After a brief confrontation with her that left him shocked, Naoto vowed to outdo her no matter the cost.

Ten years later, they are now students attending the same college. Having failed to defeat Mikoto throughout middle and high school, Naoto decides they will have one last game: if he can make Mikoto fall in love with him and then break her heart, it will be his victory. However, he finds himself falling in love with her instead...

18.  Last Notes 

Haru and Aki are the masters of the branch store - an old-looking and very unusual shop. It sells only one thing: a special kind of incense that, when burned, allows the user to see and speak with the spirit of the dead person that appears in the smoke. Every customer has a different reason for calling up the dead, and how they use this unusual opportunity is up to them...

19.  Love Berrish 

15 year-old Yuya Fukushima has always wanted to live on her own, in an inn next to her school. This new dorm of hers, the Strawberry Tree Dorm, turns out to be a place with weird people -- a girl that touches her chest out of the blue, a guy with one of the shortest tempers ever. BUT the good thing is, there's a really handsome and nice guy that she fell in love with instantly! Also, not to mention a crazy cat who adores him (looks can be deceiving...). Yuya's life has just became much more interesting...

20.   Mata Ashita

Towa's always been shy around guys, despite being a total tomboy. This has crushed her chances of ever having a boyfriend, but a perhaps fateful encounter on the first day of high school might lead to love? But will it be with the surprisingly kind "angelic" delinquent, or the popular yet secretly "devilish" prince?!

21.  Momo Raba 

Chieri (Cherry) was living an ordinary life, until her sister Ichigo (Strawberry) suddenly left her child Momo (Peach) on Chieri's doorstep. Momo is an infant; how is Chieri supposed to take care of a baby while still in high school!? To make matters even more frustrating, two guys are fighting for Chieri's love...!

22.   Monokuro Shounen Shoujo

Kureha Mimachi, a 15-year-old girl, has just transferred into Shiritsu Kenhono High School. However, there is something weird about this school, it is actually a school where the Princes and Princesses of the beast-kind go to! Even though Kureha is human, she is there as a way to help the students lead their lives peacefully with humans and has the role as the "rabbit". Will she be able survive without being eaten by the students? Only time and her hidden bodyguards will be able to answer that...

23.   Ouran High School Host Club

At Ouran High School, an academy where only the children of the rich and powerful attend, there exists a club consisting of the most elite of the student body: the legendary Host Club. Within the club's room, six beautiful, bored boys spend their time entertaining equally beautiful and bored girls.

Haruhi Fujioka, a poor scholarship student, has no interest in the Host Club—until she breaks a valuable vase in their clubroom. After being mistaken for a boy, Haruhi is forced by Kyouya Ootori to work for the Host Club to repay her debt. Tamaki Suou, the princely leader of the club, eagerly takes her under his wing to teach her the ways of the host. Things, however, are never quite so simple with the Host Club around. Even the most mundane events can turn into huge spectacles with the likes of prankster twins Hikaru and Kaoru Hitachiin, stoic Takashi Morinozuka, and sweet Mitsukuni "Hunny" Haninozuka. The crazy adventures of the Host Club are just beginning, and Haruhi must learn how to survive in the glitzy world of the hosts.

24.  Parfait Tic

Fuuko is a happy and cheerful girl. One day, two cousins, Daiya and Ichi, move into the apartment upstairs. Cold Ichi and mischievous Daiya gave a very bad first impression. All three are going to the same school as well. How will Fuuko's high school life turn out?

25.  Renren Zakari 

The day of her graduation, while she was lost and end up on the infirmary, a girl met by coincidence a good looking boy. But she was so panicked that the young man started to make fun of her...?

26.  Rockin Heaven 

Sawa applies to Heaven's Wing Academy, thinking she would look cute in the uniform. But she never expected the academy to be a previously all-boys' school! And the head honcho of the school, the class president himself doesn't seem to like her one bit and takes no pains to hide it. At first, adjusting to life at the academy is tough. Sawa is bullied and teased, and the boys in the class even throw her new shoes in the water. While attempting to retrieve her shoes, she falls into the water and is unexpectedly saved by Ran, who up until this point has made her life hell. The newfound gentleness in Ran intrigues her, and she finds herself falling for him. What will her days be like for the rest of her school life?

27. Saiouji Kyoudai ni Komarasareru no mo Warukunai  

Satou Fuuka is an orphan. Her aunt, who was her guardian, absconded in the night, leaving her with no money. Her parents wanted her to go to school, so she was looking for a job to cover her school expenses and rent (plus living expenses, though she didn't mention it). She goes to be interviewed for a part-time house helper job but is rejected before she can say anything, because the guy offering the job is the eldest for 4 brothers and it's an all-male household. She pours out her story, so he takes pity on her (even though he'd pointed out that she can't really take a part-time job if she doesn't have a guardian) and offers the job as a live-in position. However, he has one condition: she's supposed to disguise herself so his brothers don't take an interest in her. Her disguise: lots of towels around her body, so she looks fat; makeup so she looks old (39); plus her hair is all loose and she's wearing glasses.

28.   Sekirara ni Kiss

Chitose has always done well wearing her face like a mask: always smiling, always cute. She feels complete whenever she put it on because it's built to hide her unrefined self: no one hates her, and no one makes fun of her. But after meeting a cute boy who is instinctively more annoyed by her mask than her real self, can Chitose change and make people accept her for who she really is?

29.  Shiawase Kissa Sanchoume 

Uru is a very short girl and is constantly mistaken for an elementary school kid, but despite that, she is ridiculously strong and decides to live by herself after her mother gets remarried. She ends up working at a small cafe with two rather unique co-workers, Shindou, who acts gruff and intimidating, but who is really a nice guy who loves to make cakes and pies and the like, and Ichirou, who is really good-looking but who instantly falls asleep when he gets hungry and doesn't wake up again until he's force-fed something? What will the future bring to them?

30.  Stardust Wink 

I’m Anna. I’m 14 years old and I’ve just entered the ninth grade. Sou and Hinata, who live in the same apartment complex as me, are my childhood friends and we’re all the same age. I thought that from now on we’d become even closer friends, but then Sou suddenly did that to me…!!

31.  Strobe Edge 

Having no experience in romance, the vibrant Ninako curiously explores the meaning of what "love" really is, and is surprised to feel a colorful range of emotions as she grows closer to the school heartthrob, the quiet yet gentle Ren, who also happens to be involved in a longtime relationship. With every intention of keeping her head held high, Ninako prepares to face the mental pain of this one-sided love that she had allowed to take root, facing a series of trials that would either contribute to her growth as a headstrong woman, or break her as it did with other girls.

32.  Suki desu Suzuki-kun

Suzuki Hikaru, Hoshino Sayaka, Itou Chihiro and Suzuki Shinobu are all new students who have just entered the same middle school. Sayaka is a shy girl who secretly loves acting. Hikaru is an energetic boy who loves basketball. Incidentally, he shares the same last name with Shinobu, a popular rich boy who would be perfect if not for his rotten personality. Chihiro is Hikaru's childhood friend and has long had a crush on him. On the day of the opening ceremony, Hikaru happens to witness Sayaka acting out the lines of a drama on the rooftop and is instantly captivated. Upon seeing Hikaru getting along with Sayaka, Chihiro's chest begins to ache. When Shinobu sees this, he is overcome by a strange emotion and his heart starts beating faster... Unbeknownst to the four, this is the beginning of their magnificent love story; one that would last years to come.

33.  Taiyou no Ie 

After her mother abandoned her and her father remarried, high schooler Mao Motomiya is left feeling like she doesn't have a place where she belongs. One night, her childhood friend Hiro Nakamura finds her in a shrine eating cheap convenience store food and offers to take her to a restaurant. Their subsequent heart to heart leads to Hiro suggesting that Mao move in with him. To Hiro who has lived apart from his younger siblings all these years after their parents passed away, bringing his family back together in the once-lively Nakamura home begins with the first step of giving Mao a loving place to belong. When Mao reluctantly accepts his invitation, she is surprised at how easy it is to settle in with her longtime friend. Now she must deal not only with mending her relationship with her father and helping the oldest Nakamura brother attain his goal, but also her growing feelings for Hiro.

34.   The Maid at My House

Runako is studying hard to someday succeed as owner of her family's maid dispatching service company. One day, a request comes in from an entertainment production company and shockingly, it's for their super-popular star, Seirei Moroboshi! But could it be that the image he projects on the TV is far different than his true secret face...?!

35.  Tonari no Koigataki 

Hiro-kun and Icchan are both very important childhood friends to Akane. She thought they would always and forever be good friends, but...

36.  Tsubasa to Hotaru 

Tsubasa to Hotaru follows 15-year-old Tsubasa Sonokawa, a young student—and a renowned stalker? After one very romantic gesture by a popular upperclassman, she falls head over heels for who she believes to be her one true love. Unfortunately, love can be deceiving, as her feelings are soon proven to be one-sided; the upperclassman directly tells her that she's annoying and that she needs to stop bothering him. How's that for some tough love? Shortly after this horrific heartbreak, her good friend Yuri suffers from a sprained wrist, making it impossible for her to continue her position as the basketball team's manager. After some coaxing on Yuri's part, Tsubasa decides to take on the role in her place. This may be the perfect opportunity for Tsubasa to move on and forget about her unrequited love. On Tsubasa's first day as a manager, the team's shooting guard Aki Hidaka saves her from being hit by a ball. Is this another fateful encounter? Or just a random, meaningless event? One thing is for certain: Tsubasa's days will never be the same again.

37.   Uwasa no Midori-kun

Midori Yamate is a 15 year-old girl and is very much a tomboy. When she was young, Midori meets a boy called Tsukasa Hino, who came to the island she lives on for a holiday. He teaches her to play soccer and she falls in love with the sport. Midori is inspired by Tsukasa and continues to play soccer in hopes that they would meet again someday. When they do meet again Tsukasa does something unforgivable. Determined to defeat Tsukasa on the soccer field Midori enrolls in an all boy high school.

38.  Yagami-kun wa, Kyou mo Ijiwaru

 Just by talking to the famous Yagami-kun, Shizuku's high school life has become hard even from the start—!?

39.  Yumemiru Taiyou

While loitering in the park, Shimana Kameko, who intended to run away from home and skip school, meets a suspicious man in a kimono. This man, who had been locked out of his house, offers Shimana a place to stay. However, he requests she fulfill three conditions in exchange for her tenancy!?

[missmaxime]

how do you feel about the show making rio so unlikable? is the backstory a fix it?

Let me start of with that I don’t think the show is making Rio more unlikable. I don’t know if you mean that they are visibly showing him committing more violence and crime. But I’m assuming this is an ask in response to the wire-scene from Sunday’s episode.  Watch me under the cut go through the past three seasons and a little some season 4 to tell you how I see Rio’s character progression. I’m not really sure if this is what you’re asking an answer to, but if it’s not tell me! * Rio’s (non) POV * Escalation in violence * Different views on S3 * More into the wire-scene * Prediction for 4x06 / Backstory

Rio has always been shown to be a ruthless and violent criminal. In the beginning of S1 he had no problem murdering the girls, and has made death threats ever since. He shot Dean, killed Eddie, had Turner assassinated and murdered Lucy in front of the girls. I don’t know how people can see him any other way, it’s not something that was ever hidden by the show. He’ll go through every length to protect himself and his business.  We know Beth has been a soft spot for him since Season 1 too. In the beginning because it was a fun and interesting business opportunity, but we’ve seen their relationship develop for better and worse across seasons. I think we have to keep in mind that Rio is a character we’ve seen almost exclusively through POV that aren’t his own, and mostly through Beth’s. And we as viewers see a limited amount of information about him, that we translate in our own ways. I’ve seen people interpreted the 2x01 scene where Rio shows Marcus to Beth through such rose-colored glasses for example. I can see how a viewer, and Beth, could see it as a scene that would frame him as more likeable. But I also see how that was exactly Rio’s point; He wanted Beth to see that it’s not just her who has kids on the line with her crime-life, as a way to invalidate her constant argument of ‘being a mom’ and ‘having a family’ as if that would make her special or something. She’s a drug dealer and counterfeiter like him, not a criminal with a heart of gold because they happen to have a child. Season 2 really started unpacking Rio’s character more. In Season 1, if the whole Rio/Beth – CH/MM chemistry hadn’t existed, I could definitely see the character of Rio being done late Season 1/early Season 2. But that’s not what happened, so now Rio had to become a person with connections and feelings and deeper motivations – but it’s still a character that’s in the base there to drive Beth forward as a character and deeper into crime. Which is a tricky balance, and I don’t think the show always made that work. Obviously the most clear example of that is the loft scene in 2x13. Now there’s more than one thing to be said about that scene, but I’m focusing now Rio himself. It’s the big finale, a lot of things needed to come together here and explode. Overall I don’t think the build-up was executed well, but it doesn’t help that we have no Rio POV here. His decision to kidnap Beth, confront her with her lack of taking responsibility and lying about her rotten eggs, and his complete oversight of her response to being pinned his fall guy really dropped out of – maybe not completely thin, but at least barely medium thick – air for me. Concerning the racial element I think THIS POST by @septiembrre explains this much better than white, non-American me ever will.  Regardless of the fact if the racial element of 2x13 affects a viewer, this poorly executed finale left lots of people unsatisfied at best. When Season 3 started we did start to see more Rio POV, or parts of his story told through Rhea, even though it was limited. I know there’s a lot of critique on the S3 we got, that I personally don’t understand – I loved it, it was so amazingly angsty, especially the Beth and Rio interactions were so loaded and simmering with guilt and anger and sadness and desperation – but if you’re searching for catharsis in a way of Rio coming back with a vengeance with guns ablaze, then that’s really not what you got. What Season 3 did do was putting the violence and cruelty Rio is capable of more on the forefront, and making us feel the weight of it more (I don’t know about the rest of you, but in the previous seasons I felt they really underplayed a lot of it). Rio had competing gangs taken out through Turner, has Turner assassinated along with a lot of other FBI agents, he fully intended on killing Beth before the pregnancy lie, kills innocent Lucy through Mick and disposes her body gruesomely, has the girls deliver Boomer with all intention of harming him (if not murder) and full on frames Beth for Lucy’s murder with her prints on the gun. I don’t think these kind of actions weren’t going on in the previous seasons, but now it’s more on display because Rio made Beth a part of this side of crime (and with that, us the viewers). In the beginning of Season 4 I feel like we’re making a bit of a jump when it comes to Beth and Rio’s relationship, maybe one that’s a little too big compared to the distance we ended on in Season 3 (even if they seemed friendly in their last Boland Bubbles scene). Lucy’s body is found and we learn that said gun was also used to taking out some gang member of an opposing gang of Rio’s, so after Turner’s sweep he apparently wasn’t done. That gun now becomes a much bigger thing to hold over Beth (and I’m speculating because we don’t know for sure, but we can guess that now Annie’s prints are on it – which is an ever bigger press on Beth because she won’t let her little sister take the fall, while she would do so herself. And I think she’s up for a rude awakening that while she’s under the impression that Rio has always employed the three of them, what was actually going on is that Rio employs Beth, and he sees Annie and Ruby as Beth’s employees and thereby offers them zero protection). So her counter with his print doesn’t come a moment too soon. I feel like Beth asking him to murder ‘Dave’, albeit with a lie about his identity and not as straightforward as Rio might wish, is a positive shift for him. She might not pick up a gun herself to do the deed, but much like Rio has Mick shoot Lucy, she very deliberately gives a killing order through him. And with a very drama heaux set-up we see him personally – and he has no reason to not have Mick do it – shoot Fitzpatrick. Aside from the fact that I have no doubt Rio may not have knew the specifics but he knew Beth had something orchestrated, the fact that some sniper dude was the target has it really drive home to him that it’s something else than Secret Service, and that they are still active around Beth. So we’re finally here, 4x05 The Banker – which I’m gonna guess was the reason you send this ask in the first place. In particular the wire-scene. In the first scene we learn that Rio has found the tracker on his car, and he turns it off or breaks it – so he knows he’s still being watched. It makes the most sense that even if he takes the leap that he put down a Secret Service agent, that they just replaced them and Beth is likely still working for them. He meets her in her kitchen – which isn’t that common at this point, last we know he was there is after the failed hit on him. And she doesn’t even jump when she sees him, just accepts it. He motions for her to be quiet before slowly stepping into her space, and she very logically responds with a ‘what are you doing?’, and he stares back long and hard to say that he means business. He has all the reason to suspect her wearing a wire, even if this wasn’t a planned meeting, and it wouldn’t be the first time she lied to his face. It’s clear to me (but I’ve seen this interpreted differently) that Beth fast finds a solid stance in this powerplay. Rio doesn’t seem happy about the fact it has come to this, and neither does she. I’m not sure if you send me this ask because you have negative feelings about this scene, but I can tell you I can’t answer those. This scenario could have been portrayed so wrong with any other actors or the way they shot it, but I feel like they delivered superbly on it. It’s in no way sexual or intimidating like I’ve seen some posts suggest, I just see two brokenhearted people who see the little trust they rebuilt fall apart in in thirty seconds. At the end Beth ends up winning, a bitter win maybe, this confrontation. Rio’s obviously still suspicion, but she also gained some trust with her asking him to kill ‘Dave’, so setting her up as The Banker is some sort of twisted reward and punishment and test at the same time. It’s not explained, but I think ‘The Banker’ might have been a hidden figure before Beth stepped up to show her face (before her flunky’s came to collect in name of The Banker) – making this an even better set-up if it’s so because that takes Rio out of the equation altogether even. We end the episode on the note where Rio tells Beth he has people he answers to, and that they want to meet her. Which, again, sound like both a reward and a punishment and a test. We’ll have to see next Sunday what it really means. IN this episode we’ll meet some of Rio’s family, likely his boss(es) and get backstory on him. I don’t see that as a fix-it, but mostly because I don’t see anything needed of fixing. I’m glad we’re getting an insight into Rio’s past, and I love that it likely will broaden his backstory and motivations more. But I feel like the way Rio’s character and the amount and the way of it seems very fitting to the story and the perspective it’s told through. I’m not sure if this is an answer to your question, so feel free to send me a more specific one if you want to!

[fumiko-matsubara]

June 22, 2014 ー 13:41

Characters: Chiba Ryuunosuke, Yamazaki Jenny, Nakamura Rio, and Maehara Hiroto

Word Count: 2.3k words

Author's Note: I've just been wanting to write anything about these particular four lol

"What are you two doing here?"

Nakamura and Maehara purposely avoided Miki's intense stare as she interrogated them.

"I was just getting something to eat but then I saw you two across the street..." Nakamura answered innocently before finally letting herself meet Miki's gaze. "So I just thought of saying hi... didn't expect to bump with this guy though," she pointed a thumb towards Maehara.

Verbally unresponsive, Miki blankly stared back for a few seconds, seemingly taking in Nakamura's answer, before moving her gaze towards Maehara's instead and raised an eyebrow, prompting him to speak up.

Maehara immediately looked sideways, avoiding her gaze once again. "Well, you told me last week that I should cancel my date with Remi-chan and that's what I did so now I have nothing to do-"

"Bullshit," Miki cut him off, clearly not amused. "That was last month, you bastard."

Nakamura lightly scoffed at that.

"I uhh..." Maehara trailed off, his gaze darting everywhere until they landed into Miki's hair. "Your hair!" He cracked a tight grin, obviously trying to change the topic. "It looks cute today!"

"I know," Miki answered dryly. Her hair is currently tied into loose twin dutch braids. "I see myself in the mirror everyday."

"Nevermind that, there's something I wanted to ask you," Nakamura butted in, "who's that guy? He looks familiar." She gestured towards the person standing next to Miki, who had worn his bucket hat down to his face, making it almost impossible to make out his appearance.

The said person let out a deep, seemingly annoyed, sigh at the question. "You can't even recognize me and yet you decided to follow us for almost thirty minutes straight?" He breathed out.

Nakamura immediately recognized that voice. "Chiba-kun?!" She exclaimed.

"Wait, Chiba?" Maehara took a step closer towards the guy to get a closer look at him.

Chiba clicked his tongue in irritation, pulling down his bucket even further while turning his head away. "Yeah, it's me."

Maehara stood almost awkwardly by the aisle as he watched the other three go over some make up products and try them out.

...or rather it was Miki trying out the products onto Chiba while Nakamura was going through the shelves.

After their mini confrontation by the street, Miki soon had told them that she was out with Chiba to shop for make up products to use for his future stages.

"The red palette was getting kinda boring lately so I thought of experimenting with colours on him and see what fits him the best," she explained to them earlier.

Maehara admitted that, aside from what he saw or heard from his older sisters, he doesn't know that much about make up since he was more of a skincare kind of guy.

Almost 30 minutes have passed ever since Miki and Chiba settled themselves at the testing corner of the aisle, and Maehara felt like he should entertain himself with the skincare section of the store instead of awkwardly waiting for them to finish.

As he was about to excuse himself, he saw Nakamura suddenly approaching him.

"Hey, so I just saw this tint right here," Nakamura held up a product in warm pink colour in a shape of some plastic tube Maehara can't make out of, "and I thought it would look good with your skin tone."

Maehara blinked in confusion. "But I don't really wear make up though-"

"Relax~ The colour's not that pigmented and it won't even feel like you have something on your lips at all!" Nakamura breezily reassured while opening the tube's lid.

Maehara quickly stiffened when Nakamura suddenly grabbed his chin. "Now stay still," she ordered.

"Hey this is kinda..."

"Don't get any weird thoughts here, Maehara-kun~" Nakamura quickly cut him off without missing a beat.

Meanwhile, Miki slowly leaned backwards to examine her work so far. "Oooh the warm purple is kinda sexy with the faint gold!"

"Oh! That does look nice on him, miss!" A nearby clerk praised when she took a closer look.

"Right?!" Miki grinned before turning back to Chiba. "You holding up there?"

"This is nothing," he shrugged. "Though I have to be honest, I'm slowly starting to get embarrassed with all these people around..." 

Miki smiled reassuringly at him in response, gently brushing away loose strands of hair from his face. "Well, at least people here hardly recognize you. So perhaps that helps a little, right?"

"Yeah, it does..." Chiba softly replied, his gaze following Miki's fingers as she went through the lip products she has scavenged so far. "What happened last week at class was borderline torture."

Miki stiffened at his remark, clearly remembering the exhaustingly chaotic events that had occurred in less than an hour that day. "Aha..."

Chiba just rolled his eyes at her lack of response. "Say, can you hand me a smaller mirror? I want to take a closer look on what you've worked on so far while you keep looking for uhh... whatever you're looking for, I guess."

"Here," Miki handed him her own compact mirror, before returning her focus to finding the right colour for him. "Ohh this is nice!" She barely heard him say.

"Umm miss?" Miki approached the clerk who had praised her earlier. "If you don't mind, I was wondering if you could help me with selecting the right lip colour that would go well with his eyeshadow?" 

She then laughed sheepishly afterwards. "I'm not too well-versed with things like colour theory, you see..."

"No worries, I would love to help!" The clerk smiled brightly at her in return. "Just let me take a closer look again so I can help you find the right fit!"

"Oh that kinda looks sexy, don't you think?" Maehara commented as he and Nakamura watched Miki do her work.

"That's what I thought..." Miki almost whispered, carefully applying the chosen colour onto Chiba's lips.

"Must be nice," Nakamura suddenly blurted out after quietly watching for a while. 

"Which is...?"

"Working on those kinds of lips," she answered.

Miki hummed in agreement, now blending out the pigment with a small brush. "I find it easier to apply technique if your workspace is wide enough."

"No wonder I struggled with this guy..." Nakamura let out a disappointed sigh, barely gesturing towards Maehara. "There's barely any space to work on with how small his lips actually are."

Miki nearly choked at the revelation. "Wait, they are?" Failing to suppress an amused grin, she turned to look at a now annoyed Maehara to see it for herself.

"Oh, the colour's nice. Good choice," she first complemented, taking note of how well the faint coral tint goes with Maehara's warm skin tone and brown hair. "You did a great job applying it, Rio. It doesn't even look like he's wearing anything on his lips."

"Ahee~" Nakamura grinned widely at the. compliment.

Miki cracked a smile. "But yeah, somehow it made it obvious how small his lips actually are," chuckling, she turned back to Chiba and continued her work. "Even I just noticed it."

"I don't know how I am supposed to feel right now..."

Nakamura nudged Maehara with a cheeky grin. "Hey, at least she basically said the colour looks good on you~"

"I would honestly be more convinced if she wasn't still mad at me..." Maehara sighed in disappointment.

"If only you never lied to me~" Miki hummed, not even once looking at him.

Maehara groaned in response. "C'mon Miki, that was way back in April. Can't you just drop it?"

"I think we're done here!" Miki suddenly announced, standing up straight after minutes of leaning. 

Maehara sighed again, not surprised that she was purposely ignoring him. He's more than aware that last month's discourse with Kaho truly had him lose Miki's trust. He just didn't think that she was the type to hold grudges for this long.

"I don't know about you, but I think it'd better if you just stop bringing it up to her every other day?" Nakamura said in a low voice, quirking an eyebrow at him. "Like no offense, Maehara-kun, but if I we're in Miki's position right now I'd be annoyed too."

"Rio, can you help me put back the testing palettes to their shelves?" Miki called out now from the other end of the aisle.

Sending Maehara one last look, Nakamura walked towards the taller blonde. "Sure~"

Maehara was then once again back to awkwardly standing by the shelves. However, it didn't take too long for them to return the testing products to their respective shelves.

"Say, Ryuu. You want me to remove all that now or are you planning to just leave it on?" Miki called out despite her hands currently full.

Chiba was examining Miki's work through the long mirror on top of the shelves. "Hmm I think I'll just leave it on and take it off myself once I get home," he answered, running his hands through his hair. "The shadow work is not heavy enough to look weird to wear in public.... thankfully."

"Yeah it doesn't look like you're wearing much," Nakamura commented, walking away from the counter near the aisle and towards him. 

Most of the heavy shadow work Miki had done were on Chiba's lower lids and on the outer corner of his eyes. Hence why, unlike earlier when he had them half-closed, which made them look more obvious, they were barely noticeable now that he was looking ahead.

"Kinda looks like you're just wearing eyeliner with some colour here and there," Nakamura added with a slight grin. "You look good though, by the way."

"Thanks," Chiba replied almost shyly, though his following smile was making it more prominent. "My stage makeup is much heavier than this, especially the shadow work. Miki tends to go all out around my lower lashes especially..." He explained to them briefly, though more to Maehara since the guy looked kind of lost for a moment.

Maehara nodded in understanding. "Ahh that explains why it doesn't feel the same as last week's..."

Chiba hummed in reply, proceeding to mess with his hair again. "It's getting hotter outside but I can't leave my hair loose like this. I don't have anything to have it up," he briefly gathered his hair again, as if he was planning to tie it into a ponytail, but soon let go of it. 

"...can't even wear it down with all the makeup now," he sighed, brushing it again with his fingers.

"Just tolerate the heat and make do with the bucket hat," Nakamura suggested, handing Chiba his white bucket hat which now that he thought about it, he had no idea how she even got a hold of it in the first place.

Maehara watched as Chiba brushed all of his hair backwards before putting on the hat. "Hey, don't pull it too down."

"Nah I'll look weird otherwise."

Maehara raised an eyebrow at his response. "What are you talking about? I'm pretty good-looking myself-"

Nakamura let out a gagging noise.

"but even I can- Will you stop that?!" Maehara hissed at Nakamura, who only stuck her tongue out to him in response.

Taking off the bucket hat, Chiba approached the counter where Miki was still waiting in line. "Miki, do you have anything with you?" He asked rather tiredly. "Hair tie, clip, a beanie, or just anything I can use?"

"Let me check," Miki quickly went through her tote bag. "Ah I have my beanie, though it's those bigger types..." She brought out a red beanie and handed it to him.

Chiba happily took it from her hands. "Oh I have one like this in blue, thanks!" 

He went back to where Maehara and Nakamura stood and immediately wore the beanie. Tucking the rest of his hair behind his ears, Chiba looked at the mirror in mild satisfaction. "Hmm yep I guess that does it."

"Cute," Nakamura cheekily commented, thus ruining Chiba's composure as he broke into a shy smile.

"Be quiet," he muttered, turning his head away from the now grinning duo.

"Is it even fine for you to be seen with us on a Sunday afternoon?" Maehara suddenly brought up when they left the store.

"I think it's fine," Nakamura answered before Chiba even opened his mouth. "We took pictures last week and I posted some of mine on twitter too. So, it shouldn't be surprising to people that 'Lead Guitarist-kun' is hanging out with people his age on a weekend."

Miki hummed in agreement. "He's just a rather popular member of a local band in this town," she then scoffed, "not a damn celebrity for him to be not seen in public."

"That's true but I'm talking about us being class E students," Maehara turned to Chiba. "Since the reason why you even hid this whole band thing from us was so that people won't find out that you're a class E student technically participating in club activities," he elaborated.

Chiba nodded in confirmation. "You're right. But as they said, it's fine."

They all came to a stop before the pedestrian lane, waiting for the stoplight to turn green.

"We're not wearing our uniforms, so it'll be hard for people to even recognize you guys as students from class E.... let alone wonder why I'm hanging out with you," he reassured with a small smile.

"Exactly," Miki agreed before wincing when the sunlight suddenly came back. "Anyways, you guys got any place y'all want to go to? I don't like the sun..."

Maehara scoffed at her last remark. "Are you a vampire or something? Anyways, I want to go-"

"If you say Marui, I will deck you."

"Come on now. I didn't even say anything!"

"That place is on the other side of the town, you dumbass, and I'm about to die here."

"A little sunlight won't kill you!"

Nakamura just watched the two continuously bicker and turned to Chiba with a grin. "There's a cafe nearby just across the lane. Wanna go there and get some of their iced offers?"

"That works," he replied with a fairly amused smile.

[pynkhues]

So it's starting to seem like Rio is really hurt about Beth. What do you take of his comment, "they always do"? Does Beth have any idea that he is hurt by what she did?

She’s definitely hurt him, anon, and I think Beth does know that, yes, but I also think that she might be mistaken on what it is that hurt him. I think she thinks that the biggest trauma for both of them right now is the shooting at the end of 2.13, and while I think that is a capital-i Issue for Rio, I also....don’t think that’s what has him pushing her away with one hand and pulling her closer with the other. 

I think he’s most hurt because she quit him fairly brutally both personally and professionally in 2.09 and 2.10. 

Which is a big statement, I know, so let’s break that down a bit. 

(Behind a cut, because this got long, and I wanted screencaps, haha)

The Way We Were

The thing about S1 and S2 is - for the most part - Beth and Rio’s relationship trajectory felt positive, even if it wasn’t necessarily. After the first time he’d tried to kill her in 1.02, they formed what was essentially a box waltz with one another, which meant they were ultimately performing both to and with one another, while going through a familiar set of steps. 

He did the one-step - giving her a seemingly impossible task (the Canada trip), she stepped up to meet in line with him on the two step - rising to the occassion (she delivered), she stepped forwards on the third step, making him step back to accomodate her - in other words, she did something that kept them dancing (leaving him her pearls).

And again one-step - he gave her a seemingly impossible task (Eddie’s bleeding body), the two step - she pivoted the occassion, in a way that - three step - kept them dancing (her operation). 

And again:

1 - he gave her a lot of money to wash.

2 - she did it successfully.

3 - next time she asked for more money.

And again: 

1 - he confronted her about a failed secret shopper 

2 - she handled it (badly, haha)

3 - they talked, she gave him an order for the first time (”Don’t ever point a gun at me again”) 

And they kept dancing. 

Every scene between them was a step that moved us around a dance floor in a way that felt like progress, but was more just the next step of that same dance.

Even their earlier break-ups were the same. 

In 1.09, we have the step one (impossible task) of the truck, the step two (of her delivering), with the bonus misstep of her throwing the keys and him breaking up with her, followed by the familiar third step - her stepping forwards and him accomodating (her getting him arrested, him shooting her husband in response, before going back to step one, and ordering her to kill Boomer). 

In 2.06 too:

1. Rio tells her she has to take his cars on the Boland Motors Lot (with the added forwards step of showing off Dylan, haha)

2. Beth responds by stealing everything.

3. Beth forces his hand, and Rio agrees, keeping up the dance. 

The Break-Up

2.09 is actually very different as a whole, because she doesn’t necessarily break the waltz with the break-up, she breaks it with the seduction. 

From that moment in the bar to the moment in her bedroom, Beth and Rio aren’t falling into familiar steps, they’re pushing closer in a slow dance. Something they both sink into, that they both want, and the slow dance, while they’re in the midst of it, matters. 

Rio’s willing to change the tempo. 

And I think Beth was too, but want, in that sense, wasn’t why she did it. She was ending the dance. 

The moment is pointed. 

In every other misstep in every other episode, there’s still been the expectation from one of them that the dance would continue. Beth was never going to let Rio go at the end of 1.09 - she needed him professionally, and wanted him personally too much, just like in 2.01, Rio was never going to let sleeping dogs lie. Even in their brief distance in the early part of 2.04, there was still the lead - Rio offering her the money, the realignment - Beth starting up the Boland Motors job, and Beth’s step forwards - seducing him at the bar. 

That wasn’t an option in 2.09, not for Beth. The stakes were too high, so she severed it all, and the dance was done, whether Rio wanted it to be or not, and - - 

Well.

I think all signs point to him not wanting it to be.

The After Party

There’s been a bit of commentary from all sides lately about Rio’s escalation in violence and aggression this season, but to me at least, it didn’t begin with 3.01. It started in 2.11. 

After Beth broke up with him in 2.09, we only got the briefest glimpse of him in 2.10 where two things happened - one, he warned her about Turner’s raid on Boland Motors, and two, the show revealed Beth had blocked his calls and Beth told him he’d get over it (the latter of which I’ll come back to for probably the exact reasons you’re thinking, haha.) 

Then we have a very distinct character progression. 

2.11 - Rio tries to coax her back into their dance through a) his darkest means yet in severed body parts, and b) with decidedly ulterior motives. Beth caves, continues step two, only her step three - where she steps forwards towards him via breaking into his loft isn’t met with him stepping back to accomodate her and swing them into step 1 again. It’s for her to crash into his chest. 

In other words, Rio restarts the dance just so he can be the one to end it. 

2.12 - There’s no dance this episode, just a desperation on Beth’s end, and a willful vindictiveness and - I think - clear hurt on Rio’s where he tries to tell her they weren’t ever dancing at all. 

2.13 - Ahhhh, the biggest mess of all, haha. Beth tries to dance, but Rio isn’t there to meet her, instead goads her, and then bounds forwards by kidnapping her, then lunging at her. She shoots, he falls, she runs. 

3.01 - And well - Beth’s dancing with herself (*cue Robyn*) and Rio’s dancing with Turner, but it’s not like how he dances with Beth. It’s him faking being on the backfoot, right before he steps forwards. More than that though, they’re also back in the dance hall - via Rio’s fixation and Beth’s via Rhea and Marcus. They’re dancing with different partners, waiting for the switch. 

3.02 - Really a continuation of the previous episode, but it underlines Beth’s fixation on Rio through her fixation on what he would do. In this episode, really, she’s dancing with the ghost of him. 

3.03 - The reveal! Gosh, this is the episode the music cuts, right? It also marks another escalation in Rio’s overall behaviour around Beth. He’s going to kill her. He’ll put the final cross through them, only - - once again - - despite herself, Beth keeps the dance going with the pregnancy lie. The rest of the episode isn’t so much a box waltz as it is a tango, a furious, rising tension between them that’s catapulted by the memory of the slow dance in 2.09 which rises the tension of the tango in 3.03. 

3.04 - Until they break step. Beth tells him it could all be over. They’re not tangoing anymore, or waltzing, but they’re actualy almost slow dancing. The episode deliberately put them in a similar set-up to what they were in 2.09 - at a bar, practically alone, emotionally raw. They sway around each other, and Beth asks him what it would take, and Rio - - 

Well.

Rio takes that first step. 

He gives her an impossible (possible) task. 

And the thing is, Beth is stumbling to step 2 when he shows up at Paper Porcupine, when he watches her make the money - a dance we’ve never seen before, but one slow and intense, and that hails back to former intimacy in much the way the earlier scene had called back to 2.09. 

3.05 - And well, despite themselves, they’re dancing, albeit not entirely in-time, and not entirely in-step. Rio does his one-step - giving Beth an impossible task (to make the money), and Beth is on track to meet step two when Dean breaks the plate, and then Rio escalates the situation, stepping forwards again too far, deliberately encroaching on Beth’s space, keeping the dance going almost as a punishment. Enough she can feel the weight of him on her toes. 

3.06 - And maybe this is the episode where, despite everything, they try to waltz again - he steps forward with his job, she holds steady until she steps back (telling him she’ll make the money again)

Since 2.09, it’s been a series of missteps. Of one of them trying to re-start the dance and the other refusing, or one overstepping, or understepping, or refusing to move at all, but we’re edging closer and closer into a similar dance, albeit one with raised stakes, raised tempo, and richer emotion.

Take Me Back

The dialogue and visual imagery this season has frequently underlined this too.

When it comes to Beth and Rio, there have been callbacks to 2.13, but almost all of them have been accompanied by references to 2.09, particularly when Beth and Rio are together. 

Whether that be the initial reveal, where Rio’s dramatic display of the bullets was broken down by Beth’s pregnancy lie - a deliberate callback to 2.09, to some visual callbacks and reframings too. Most obviously, the fact that they’re at a bar, and they’re positioning at that bar: 

But also, Rio’s hand on her arm in an attempt at comfort vs

His hand on her arm in an attempt at intimidation.

Later, that episode doubled down on those cues - from the whole sequence at the OBGYN where Rio specifically referred to 2.09 by way of telling the doctor he “hit it in the bedroom while [her] husband was at work”, which is affecting, I think, to both of them.

In 3.04, it’s emphasised though in a big way as the entire final scene is framed in a way that feels like a love scene, in no small part, because it deliberately calls back on the blocking and visual language of 2.09:

Rio awkwardly entering a space that is definitively Beth’s:

Rio following her into the most Beth space within that Beth space - her bedroom vs where she makes the money:

Them staring at each other as they are increasingly vulnerable to one another:

And them getting close, and sharing something that’s personal and professional and everything in between. 

And then again - it’s underpinned in 3.06 by Rio calling back to multiple s1 and s2 episodes. Key-waltzing-territory! He calls her darling, which he does in 1.10, reiterates their ‘rotten egg’ conversation from 1.07 (and asks for a name too), references 2.13 with her putting ‘three slugs in him’ - notably the first reference of that since 3.03, echoes the conversation in 2.12 where she’s just business to him; she agrees to print, he talks about a lockdown, chin-hands and everything like they were in 1.08, and then he dismisses all of it, pointedly not referencing 2.09.

Something that’s only reiterated by the end of the episode where they deliberately callback to 2.10 - Rio asks about Max, and Beth says he got over it, and Rio replies with “They always do”, contrasting with Beth telling him he’ll get over it in 2.10 - Rio’s lone scene in the direct aftermath of 2.09. 

Rio’s harshness has always cast a long shadow on the ways that he can be warm and gentle, just like that warmth has always softened the sharpness of his violence and aggression too. I think where we’re at at the moment is very much aligned with Beth and trying to negotiate those parts of him - in no small part through her seeing him weaponise that warmth against Lucy, but also through his very real relationship with Rhea and Marcus too; and similarly I think we’re seeing Rio try to disentangle Beth’s criminality, her own violence, and her softness too in a way that he both is drawn to and deplores, and the result is just - - a glorious mess, haha, at least to me.

But in all of that, I think it’s pointed that the season is drawing attention back to 2.13 explicitly while also very pointedly leading us back to 2.09, either directly (the pregnancy lie) or indirectly (the blocking), as the true source of this season’s conflict. 

In that sense, to answer your question, I think Beth’s fixated on the shooting, and Rio’s fixated on the break-up, and in that sense, they aren’t communicating about either of those traumas, which means, well, in true Beth and Rio fashion, they aren’t communicating at all. Still, as of the last episode, we seem to be slowly kicking back up into our familiar waltz, and I can’t wait to see how that plays out!

[artificialqueens]

Galactica, Chapter 47 (Group Fic) - TheDane/Veronica

A/N: Click here if you’re looking for previous chapters (or here if you’d rather read on AO3). 💫

Last Chapter: Violet bombed her design pitch, and Adore and Pearl broke up.

This Chapter: Violet gets a lovely surprise, Aiden gets angrier, and Courtney comforts a friend.

***

“So,” Fame looked over at Raja, leaning back on the green velvet couch. “What do we think?”

Ivy had come by with lunch, two salad containers now sitting half empty on the table. They had received printouts from Ivy with the original couture sketches, whatever samples the designers had handed them, and polaroids of the garments as they looked today.

“About the couture looks?” Raja smiled. They were talking about the Spring collection, but Raja was also finalizing the dresses and roles for Monday’s holiday collection showroom show.

“Mmh,” Fame nodded, fiddling with her thumb, the edge of her manicure looking like it was cracking.

“Who do we want this on?” Raja held up one of Kiara’s holiday designs, the dress a lovely red. “I’m thinking blonde?”

“Good call.” Fame smiled, that particular dress without a doubt ending up in Chad Michaels’ closet. It always got Fame in the best of moods to watch Raja work, her friend at her very best when she was pulling final styles together, her eye for the entire picture unmatched.

“We still need a holiday dress for Raven,” Raja smiled, holding up her fiance's headshot. “Opening or close?”

“Who says she’s getting either?” Fame teased, a laugh leaving her when Raja shot her a look. “I want her closing. She does that very well. Makes everyone feel like spending money.”

“Mmh,” Raja smirked, a proud expression on her face, putting Raven with one of the prettiest dresses in the bunch. It was weirdly romantic how Raja always looked out for Raven, though Fame was sure she’d deny it if she was ever confronted directly.

“Okay,” Raja sat back on the couch, putting her elbow on the back, golden bracelets clacking on her wrist as she rested her head on her hand. “What’s the verdict for couture?”

“Hmm,” Fame chewed her lip, flicking through the folder on her lap. “I think Alexis should open. This sky-inspired piece of hers,” Fame pulled the sketch out, “is lovely.”

“I agree.” Raja nodded.  “And closing?”

There were several to choose from, but if Fame was being honest, there was only one that made sense for her.

“What about Violet’s?”

“Violet’s?” Raja sounded genuinely surprised, her eyes widening. “I thought you hated it?”

“What? Why?”

“Because you cut her off?”

“Raj, please,” Fame rolled her eyes. “She was talking my ear off, explaining all these incredibly unnecessary details when her work clearly spoke for itself. It’s very unbecoming to need that much reassurance of a job well done.” Fame pulled Violet’s dress from the folder, the flared sleeve and horizontal beads exactly what Fame wanted.

“Aha.”

“Good.” Fame put it down on the table, not noticing the small smile on Raja’s lips. “We’ll email everyone, and start looking for our exclusive models if we need anyone from overseas-” Fame paused. “Hold on. I have to call Courtney. This manicure is driving me absolutely crazy.”

***

It was always a rare relief when Fame decided to go into Raja’s office for a meeting rather than the other way around, and today was one of those lovely days, Ivy taking care of everything they needed and urging her to go take a real lunch break while she had the chance, that she’d call her back if necessary.

Which for Courtney meant a visit to her favorite department at Galactica: makeup. It was incredible how just walking into their suite made her whole body relax, the bright and sunny creative energy something she absolutely craved. Even the way people dressed was better down here: bright colors and fun patterns and hair every color in the rainbow. Alaska gave her a warm welcome as always, inviting her to sit down and eat with them, even sharing some of the Chinese food they’d ordered, which was a very nice addition to Courtney’s own sad little garden salad.

“You know,” Kim said, wiping her mouth with a napkin as she took in Courtney’s face, eyes squinted as if imagining the way the colors would look, “the Spring Rain palette would look amazing on you.”

“Omigod, it so would! Let’s try it out!” cried Amy, clapping her hands. Amy was the department’s coordinator, and Courtney hadn’t spoken to her much, but based on her electric-blue pigtails and ruffly Lolita dress, she knew she liked her.

“Whaddaya say, Court? Wanna be a canvas for a bit?” Alaska asked.

“Sure!”

Soon, Courtney was sitting in a director’s chair as Kim and Amy went to town on her face.

“Are your eyes green or blue?” Kim asked, tilting her chin this way and that in the bright light.

“Green. But I think in some lights they look blue.”

“Yeah, this cerulean is really picking that up.”

“Try adding a bit of the peacock,” Amy suggested.

“Yes! Good call!” Kim said, picking up the palette again.

Courtney closed her eyes, enjoying the feel of brushes being swiped against her skin, Kim’s movements both precise and certain. It was awhile before Courtney felt any urge to speak again, asking a question that had been on her mind for awhile.

“Um...do you guys know Bianca Del Rio?”

“No, I wish!” Kim chuckled. “She’s such a badass.”

“We have mutual friends. Why?” Alaska smiled curiously, and Courtney suddenly felt a bit embarrassed.

“Well...I don’t know, I was just wondering what you think of her.”

“She’s everything I want to be when I grow up,” Amy piped up, swatching a few lip colors on Courtney’s arm. “She’s supposedly a real ball-buster, but my friend at Marie-Claire says she’s a decent boss. At least, people like working for her.”

“That’s cool,” Courtney said, biting her lip, cheeks growing hot under the lights as she worked up the nerve to ask what she really wanted to know. “What about, um...her...dating history. She’s gone out with a lot of girls, huh?”

“Yeah...she has,” Alaska replied slowly, exchanging a look with Kim as Amy stepped up to apply the chosen lipstick.

Kim waved a pair of lashes in the air, waiting for the glue to become tacky.

“The thing about Bianca is…” Alaska paused, seemed unsure of whether she should continue, before saying, “She’s not really into relationships. She just doesn’t ever seem to want more than flings. I mean, we’ve crossed paths dozens of times over the years, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen her with the same girl twice.”

“Oh.” Courtney nodded, settling back while Kim applied her lashes, wondering why her heart was pounding so fast.

“But that said, I mean...she does seem to treat people pretty well. You certainly never see girls crying about her in the tabloids, which I think says a lot, considering her...volume.”

“It helps that she’s apparently god-level in bed,” Amy giggled.

“Don’t trust the rumors,” Alaska warned.

“Well, I’ve heard it from someone first-hand, so…” Amy trailed off, giving a suggestive wink before reaching forward to finish the look with a delicate, shell-pink lip gloss, as Courtney tried her best not to squirm in her seat.

“Umm...anyway…” Alaska began awkwardly, when loud buzzing from the table interrupted. “Oh, Court, it’s Fame.”

Alaska handed her the phone, the usual seizing of Courtney’s stomach whenever her boss called telling her that the fun was over.

“Hello?”

“Courtney. I’m done with Raja, and my thumbnail is chipped.”

“Ye-”

Fame hung up before Courtney could respond, leaving her slightly puzzled.

“Thanks guys, this was super fun,” she said, sliding off the chair and grabbing her handbag, knowing she’d be expected to send a memo to design right away, along with apparently finding a manicurist to come to the office? Maybe?

“Wait!” Kim cried, holding up a lighted mirror for her to see the whole look.

“Wow.”

It was certainly a lot more colorful and dramatic than the makeup Courtney normally wore, and for a split second, she let herself imagine that she was backstage getting ready to perform, or on the set of some glamorous photo shoot, before pushing those silly fantasies down and giving Kim a grateful smile.

“Thanks, really, you guys are awesome,” Courtney said, internally lamenting the fact that she had to leave this colorful and fun office to go back to the stark white institutional tension upstairs.

***

From: Courtney A. Jenek To: (undisclosed)

Subject: Spring Runway Selection

MEMO TO GALACTICA DESIGN AND TAILORING DEPARTMENTS

FROM THE OFFICE OF MISS FAME

Please find attached the selected looks for the opening and closing of the Spring runway show, along with the alternates that we are keeping in the show, placement TBD.

Additionally, make sure to note the following upcoming deadlines in relation to the Spring couture collection:

December 5, 7 pm - submission for the rest of the Spring couture runway looks

December 11, 7 pm - final revised Spring couture submissions

December 12 - Selection of final couture looks/alternates

December 14 - Individual designer meetings with tailoring dept

December 18, 11 am - First fitting

January 11, 11 am - Second fitting

***

“Oh...“ Violet couldn’t believe it.

She had clicked on the placement, hoping that her dress would be in there somewhere, Trixie’s promise that nothing would get scrapped completely not enough to reassure her, but there it was, in black and white.

Her first couture look for Galactica was closing the fucking Spring show.

“Holy shit-” Violet whispered, the information not sinking in at all.

She had been chosen, she had done well, she was making the company proud.

Violet was just about to panic, everything so overwhelming, when a second email ticked in.

From: Courtney A. Jenek To: Violet Chachki

Subject: Fwd: Spring Runway Selection

OMG ALKDJALSKDJALDJ IM SO HAPPY FOR YOU!!!11 AKFJSALKFJASLKFJALFSD CONGRATS!!!!!!!111

Violet snorted, Courtney’s excitement radiating through the screen, that message somehow making it real.

From: Violet Chachki To: Courtney A. Jenek Subject: Re: Fwd: Spring Runway Selection

Thanks

***

Aiden closed the door to Trixie’s office firmly behind him, using all the strength in his body not to slam it with full force. He briefly imagined how good it would feel, to be able to make the walls vibrate with all of the rage he felt inside. Instead, he swallowed down all the bitterness and headed to his desk.

It had been an awful meeting, Trixie pulling his typical nice guy act to say that he was “concerned” about Aiden’s “attitude” and wanted to make sure that he was gonna be the right fit for the Galactica team long-term. That he wanted to see more collaboration with the other designers, and as a learning experience, he should be prepared on Monday to assist backstage for the Holiday collection show.

Assist.

Aiden was a designer, not a fucking tailor, not a fucking assistant, and this was going to be a new low. Not to mention that he was already in a foul mood, having seen the selection for the opening and closing Spring runway looks. That new little brat, the baby with no experience, not like Aiden, had been chosen to close the show.

He sat at his chair for almost a minute, saying nothing, just breathing deeply. Before Kiara asked, “Everything alright, dude?”

“Oh yeah. Everything is fucking great!” Aiden snapped, not bothering to stay and take in the stricken look on her face before getting up and marching to the restrooms, where he could at least lock himself in a stall and get a tiny minute of peace and quiet.

***

“Omigod, I’m so happy to see you!” Adore exclaimed, pulling Courtney inside her apartment, over to the sofa. “I stole a bunch of alcohol from Bianca before I left, so I’m well stocked! What do you want?”

“Gin and tonic?” Courtney asked, taking off her coat and settling down against the plush velvety purple fabric of Adore’s sofa.

“Coming right up, ma’am!” Adore exclaimed, walking over to the open kitchen to pour Courtney’s drink.

“So, you seem...how are you?” Courtney ventured, knowing that Adore was probably still in a fragile state, but not wanting to destroy what seemed like a decent mood.

“Well you know… It’s been shit. But I stayed with B all week and she’s like, kinda the best in this situation. She didn’t even gloat over being right.”

“Aww, that’s sweet. I’m glad she took care of you.”

Adore set Courtney’s glass down.

“Yeah, it was nice.”

There was a firm knock on the door, and Adore jumped up again, running to answer.

“Pizza’s here!”

“Pizza?”

“Yeah, I ordered ahead because I knew you’d be working late and you probably haven’t had a real meal all--thank you!” She closed the door, carrying the boxes and a bag over to the coffee table and setting it down with a smile.

It was such a sweet gesture, and Courtney was truly starving, so she almost felt bad reminding Adore, “Um...I’m still doing that vegan thing, remember?”

“Oh shit. I’m so sorry, I totally forgot, I-” Adore bit her lip, looking more distraught than was probably necessary, given the circumstances.

“It’s okay, I’ll just pull off the cheese, don’t worry!” Courtney reassured her.

“But you’ve told me like a billion times and I keep forgetting and I’m just the worst friend ever,” Adore sniffled. “I’m so sorry.”

“Baby, it’s okay, really.” Courtney crawled over to Adore, hugging her tightly.

“It’s not. I got you a kale caesar salad too because I know you used to like those but that’s not vegan either. God, what is wrong with my stupid brain?”

“Nothing. Nothing at all. You’re human, you make mistakes. It was still so nice of you to get all this.” Courtney pressed a kiss to her temple. “And you know what? I’ve been so strict for a few weeks, I think it’s okay to have one cheat day.”

“Are you sure? We can order Chinese or Thai if you want, or there’s-”

“I’m sure. I came here to try and cheer you up. Not to make you feel guilty.” Courtney snuggled against her, head on her shoulder.

“Okay. We can postmates some vegan gelato for dessert.”

“Perfect.”

Adore sighed, leaning her head against Courtney’s for a moment before sitting up and opening the food. Courtney accepted the plate from her, pulling the cheese off her pizza and shaking up the caesar salad - she decided that she could handle the dressing if she omitted the little container of parmesan.

They ate in silence for a few moments before Courtney looked up at Adore and asked, “Do you want my cheese?”

Adore’s eyes widened, looking down at her plate.

“Yes!”

She took it with such enthusiasm that it made Courtney laugh.

“Was this the plan all along?”

“I wish. I’m not that smart,” Adore told her.

“Yeah you are. You’re very smart. You’re the best.”

Adore held her gaze for a few moments, eyes welling up before the tears spilled down her cheeks. She covered her face, and Courtney shoved the plates aside, laying Adore’s head down in her lap.

Courtney stroked her hair for awhile, letting her cry, not saying anything, tears soaking into her skirt and tights. When her sniffling finally subsided, she asked, “So on a scale of 1 to 10...how much do we hate her?”

Adore rubbed her red, swollen eyes. “That’s the hardest part. I don’t really hate her at all. I mean, I asked her to be honest with me, and she was, and...it just wasn’t what I wanted to hear. So...no, I don’t hate her. It would be too exhausting to hate her.”

Courtney took her hand, holding it tight and solemnly saying, “Okay. Then I’ll hate her for you. So you don’t have to.”

Adore’s face crumbled as her tears began falling again.

“You’re the best friend in the world.”

“No, you are,” Courtney said with a grin. “Come on, let’s go wash your face and order that gelato!”

***

“I just can’t believe that my dress is going out on that runway, like, I was so sure Fame absolutely hated it, and-”

“You don’t need to chop the parsley that finely lovely eyes,” Sutan smiled, stirring the pasta puttanesca sauce they had made together. Sutan wasn’t necessarily the best cook in the world, neither he or Raja ever really picking up on their mothers love of spending time in the kitchen, but he could do a few dishes well, and after seeing Violet’s fridge, he had made it a mission to make sure his girlfriend had a minimum of culinary experience.

“Oh,” Violet paused, looking down at the cutting board. “Sorry.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Sutan pressed a quick kiss against her temple, standing side by side in the kitchen surprisingly nice. “I know it’ll be just as amazing as your holiday dress.”

“Please,” Violet smiled, though Sutan could see on her face that she was pleased. He wasn’t going to buy anything at the show, but he was still coming along, both to test one of his newer models, but also because he wanted to see what Violet had created in action.

“I’m serious.”

The sauce was almost done, Violet pulling a face when she had seen him slice up the anchovies, but Sutan was pretty sure that she’d like the dish, if what she tended to gravitate towards could be used as any indication.

“Would you mind setting the table?”

“Not at all,” Violet smiled, putting the knife down, quickly washing her fingers, her jewelry left in the little bowl by the sink that Raja and sometimes Raven had used when they all lived together.

Sutan hadn’t actually noticed it until Violet had dumped her rings into it, the fact that it was there completely escaping his attention, interior design never something that had interested him.

When he had gotten married to Kahmora, he had moved from this apartment directly into her place and back again after their divorce, how she wanted things decorated not anything that had mattered to him in the short time they had been married.

He had never really lived with Jinkx, their relationship thankfully never moving any further than their disastrous engagement, but he was fairly certain that he wouldn’t have been asked about his preferences, shame momentarily curling in his belly at the thought of how unfair and terrible he had been to Jinkx.

“Sutan?” He was pulled out of his thoughts by Violet’s voice, the woman standing by his cabinet with a smile on her face. “Did you buy wine? To have with dinner?”

“I got us a bottle of red.”

“Okay,” Violet nodded, grabbing the wine glasses from the shelf. Juju used to complain when she came over, and had told both Raja and Sutan multiple times that the apartment was furnished for giants, but Violet never had trouble getting anything.

Sutan’s alarm went off, telling him it was time to drain the pasta, Violet handing him two plates so he could serve up their meal, both of them sitting down at the table.

“Do you like it?” Sutan smiled as he watched Violet taste the food, a thoughtful expression on her face as she chewed on it.

“It’s fine.”

“So you hate it?” Sutan lifted an eyebrow, a smirk on his face.

“No!” Violet seemed outraged. “Don’t put words in my mouth.” Violet kicked him under the table, smiling now. “It’s nice.”

“Sure,” Sutan laughed, Violet’s deadpan deliveries still something he was getting used to, her dry humor a lot more enjoyable than he had ever imagined. “Good.”

They ate for a while, chatting back and forth, Sutan refilling their glasses, Violet almost finished with her pasta when she put down her fork.

“I-” Violet looked at him, her teeth biting into her lip. “I’ve been thinking about Aspen?”

“Yes?”

“And I’d like to go.”

“Oh?” Sutan wasn’t aware that it had been something she had been considering, the fact that she was even thinking about turning it down not even crossing his mind.

“Well I’m glad.” Sutan smiled, hiding his confusion. “Mostly because I already booked your plane ticket.”

“Really?” Violet sounded genuinely surprised, almost as if she wasn’t sure if he had been serious about the offer.

“Really, not that I would have forced you to come.” Sutan tapped her foot under the table, Violet still such a mystery to him. “Raven on the other hand,” Sutan smiled. “That could have been a problem, since she’s bought matching everything for you two.”

“... What?”

***

ADORE: Courtney’s a vegan, you know.

BIANCA: Yeah, she told me.

ADORE: I keep forgetting like an asshole so I just wanted to make sure you knew and would have some vegan stuff on thurs

BIANCA: It’s gonna be 100% vegan, I hired a chef to cater. She even making vegan relleno de pavo

ADORE: WAIT WHAT

ADORE: How the FUCK do you make vegan relleno de pavo?

BIANCA: I dunno, but she’s a professional.

ADORE: And what about the corn pudding? IT NEEDS BUTTER

BIANCA: Would you relax? It’ll be delicious

ADORE: WHAT ABOUT THE TURKEY

BIANCA: I don’t eat turkey. You’re outvoted 2 to 1.

ADORE: BIANCA DEL RIO I’VE HAD A VERY TRAUMATIC WEEK! IT’S THANKSGIVING! TURKEY!

BIANCA: I’ll get you a package of fucking Hillshire Farm, calm down

ADORE: I want to be mad at that but I love Hillshire Farm. lol

BIANCA: You’re welcome

BIANCA: Btw you’re also welcome to cook whatever you like and contribute to the meal

ADORE: Um...no thanks

BIANCA: Thought so, cunt

[walker-journal]

Moon’s Ebb (POTW, Adam, Orion, Nell, Connor)

Context: As the Hunter’s Moon is coming to an end, Nell, Orion, and Connor confront Adam. 

Location: Dark Score Lake (Glass), Sunrise

Content Warnings: Passing Descriptions of Gore (not detailed), Mental Instability (Hunter’s Moon)

Time had become meaningless to Adam long before the faint glimmer of light had appeared on the far horizon, softening the night to a livid bruise where black was not quite blue yet. 

The glass surface of Dark Score Lake was a mirror to the sky, a little flicker of the nascent sun discoloring its eastern shore.

The moon was still brilliant burning ivory in Adam’s veins. How long had he been killing? Hunting? Sprinting nonstop through the forest and urban alleys? Adam didn’t know, the surges of endorphins that’d swelled higher and higher with each kill had made him numb to any fatigue or pain. Everything was just manic anticipation, climax of evisceration, and hot spilt blood keeping the night’s chill off his skin. 

But as the sun’s tiny candle challenged the moon for supremacy, a hint of rational thought managed to push its way through the Hunter’s thirty six hour high. He remembered that his name was Adam and...maybe...he was forgetting something. 

But there were footsteps, smells, more heartbeats approaching. Adam rose from the dismembered mass of skinless flesh and exposed ribs that’d been a person before his knife had gone to work. He stepped over more once humanoid shapes of carnage, leaving a trail of bloody footprints across the lake’s glass.

It had only been a day and a half since they’d left one another by the very same lake, and as Nell’s tracking spell led her and company towards Adam, the scenery was much changed. There was a new ball of tension in her chest, uncertain what might come of this confrontation, but hoping that she, Rio, and Connor would get the hunter back with as little pain as possible. The bloody figure approaching from the horizon wasn’t one she’d ever expected to need be wary of, but at this point it would be foolish to approach without some sense of caution. She paused at the lake’s edge, having no desire to test her and her friends’ balancing abilities when it came to finding purchase on the slick surface of the glass. If things did get physical in the end, it’d make for terrible footing. Murmuring to Rio and Connor, she wondered if Adam could already hear their voices. “I think we should stick close. It’d be easier to pick us off if we fanned out or anything like that.” But at the same time this was meant to be a deescalation, and huddling together might appear as more of a risk. Unfortunately there wasn’t a handbook on talking down murder-infected, super-powered humans. Then she spoke to the reason why they were here in the first place. “Adam?” she began tentatively, trying her best not to appear as a threat or worth killing— as if she were speaking to some creature she’d stumbled upon in the extensive forest of White Crest. “Are you ready to go home?”

The night was giving way to dawn, distant streaks of purple leaking into the blackness of the sky. Even without the spell, they might have been able to find Adam with just the trail of blood and destruction. Bloody hell (literally), this was a mess. Connor hadn't known Adam that long, but he'd seen something in him the first time they'd met down by the river. All he'd wanted to do was help and end suffering. Now, he was causing it, a human wrecking ball who had become a force unto himself. "Imagine how bad it would've been if he actually had turned into a wolf," Connor murmured to his companions. 

He stuck close, like Nell had said, though he didn't really know why they'd needed Rio here, the lad was deceptively strong. Connor had practically got a semi watching him break that lock with his bare hands back when they'd first met. He stood up a little straighter when they finally caught up to Adam. Connor felt the need to project strength, not in a machismo sort of way, but in a please-don't-pick-me-off kind of way. The kind of body language that said I'm here for you, and please don't kill me. "You alright mate?" he asked. "Been on a bit of a bender, yeah? Come and sleep it off. I have some weed cookies in the car that’ll really take the edge off." 

Orion had kept his arms crossed the entire trip to the lake. Part of him wasn’t convinced he should even come along at all. But despite the anger and confusion, the idea of Adam getting hurt because of this still made Rio sick to his stomach. “Yeah well, wolf or not, Adam is still plenty dangerous on his own. So be careful.” He had no idea how much Connor knew about Adam, and despite maybe not deserving the luxury of privacy, Rio had no interest in outing Adam to anybody. The plan seemed simple enough. Keep Adam safe, keep Nell and Connor safe from Adam. Rio stayed back while Nell and Connor talked to Adam, opting instead to eye the man, covered in blood. His breath caught at the sight, but he tried to make sure that nothing gave his fear or anger away. “Be careful. He seems… off.”

Adam ran a gore-caked fingernails absently through hair matted with blood and stray sinews. However, the bloodshot eyes staring out from the Hunter’s scarlet-spattered face didn’t contain much sign of recognition. Even when Adam’s chapped lips smoothed in a languid smile, the soft expression didn’t march the monomaniacal intensity of his gaze. 

It seemed to take Adam a bit to realize that they were addressing him, as if he’d simply expected everyone to start ripping each other apart the way nature intended.  

“Home,” he questioned in the warm baritone whose tone was soft but unsteady on the edges of the syllables. “I uh,” Adam’s facial muscles flinched at some thunderous sound. “Your hearts are racing,” he claimed eagerly. “Fast so fucking fast...god you’re so alive …”

In a single motion Hunter made a standing jump whose high arc carried him forty feet forward, slamming down near the lake’s shore. Glass shattered outward in a fractal spiderweb from the impact point. 

“You’ve come to take my edge off Connor,” Adam repeated softly as more glass shard snapped during his advance on the group, fingers spinning a knife whose edge had been nicked over hours of sawing through bone and gristle. 

Nell nodded carefully as Adam seemed to question the concept of home, resisting the urge to draw a weapon of her own. No doubt that would only escalate things. Still she let her magic gather as Adam launched himself closed in a feat that would have been impressive had it not also proven that the hunter was far stronger than any of them could hope to be at the moment. “Yeah- home,” Nell repeated evenly, trying to lock onto Adam’s gaze and pull his focus. “You could see Terry- have some food. Have you eaten? It’d be nice. I could come too, if you wanted.”

Instinctively, Nell took a step between Adam and Connor, remembering how she hadn’t wanted the exorcist coming in the first place. Her eyes flickered to the way the twirling knife reflected the first light of the day before returning to Adam, knowing that any movement he’d make would probably be impossible to fully dodge at this point with how juiced up he was. A shield spell teetered on the edge of her lips. While she hoped she wouldn’t need it, it was ready to be uttered nonetheless. “What about the whole getting the moon in us?” she asked, latching onto one of the things the hunter had said earlier. “Maybe that’s what Connor was talking about. Rio might even want to, as well. All together, right? Find something to get us going.” If they could just outrun the last of the moon, maybe this would work.

If Connor hadn't been convinced that Adam wasn't quite your average human before this, well, now the jig was up. He did his best not to flinch. Shit, he did his best not to crap his pants and run the fuck away. Yeah, his heart was racing - good fucking observational skills, Adam - because he was terrified, and he tried really hard not to look it as Adam jumped what appeared to be about half the length of a football pitch. No wonder Nell was so intent on keeping Connor out of this. Now, he understood, but he wasn’t about to back down. 

"Yeah, take the edge off," Connor repeated, nodding. "We can have some drinks, get you a shower, you can sleep all this off." But somehow, he knew it wasn't quite that simple. He just wanted Adam to believe it could be, even if just for a moment. "Come on, my Jeep's parked not too far off. It's nice and warm." And hopefully not about to be stained with my blood. 

It hadn’t seriously crossed Orion’s mind that they might be in danger until now. Sure, Adam had been acting weird and Rio knew how dangerous Adam could be. But he wouldn’t hurt them right? Even if things were weird and Adam wasn’t in the right frame of mind. But looking at him now, Rio wasn’t sure if anything. This wasn’t Adam at all. Not the Adam that Rio had gotten to know. Nell and Connor wanted to talk it out with him. But it was hard to focus with the smell of blood overwhelming Rio’s senses. It was so strong that Rio was starting to get dizzy, but he tried to force himself to move ahead. Rio had no chance of fighting off Adam. But Rio had the best chance of surviving if things got physical. Both Nell and Connor were on the right track, talking softly at him, even asking to join on on the fun. Could Rio manage to play along without completely losing his cool, and maybe his dinner? “Adam... please listen to them. Can you put the knife down?”

Unnatural power burned in Adam’s veins like a fever, filling him with a savage vivacity even beyond his already superhuman abilities. But sweat trickled down Adam’s forehead, cutting thin lines through the blood covering his face as the hints of dawn spreading across Dark Score Lake’s mirrored surface started to erode the moon’s grip. “Terry uh...no like..I haven’t,” he mumbled while momentarily meeting Nell’s eyes, a flicker of humanity surfacing in a state of confusion. 

But his head snapped around at Connor and Orion’s words. The Hunter actually seemed about to assent their request to come with them and put the knife down before a tensing of muscles in his shoulders signaled that train of thought breaking apart. 

“Rio you need to let the moon in,” Adam insisted with manic intensity as he offered his gory knife to Orion handle-first. “Never be afraid again,” he asserted with what a lunatic shade of genuine compassion touching his voice. ���Nobody’ll ever hurt you again,” Adam pressed, continuing to reach the knife’s handle unto Orion as if ushering him into some ancient rite.

“You’ll need to bleed one though…”

Adam moved with a speed impossible even for a Hunter, lunging forward to grab at Connor with a whiplash celerity, apparently intending the Exorcist as a sacrifice to induct Orion into the madness. 

Nell could only watch as Adam moved so quickly he nearly blurred, her brain taking an extra second to even realize that the hunter had grabbed for Connor in the first place. It wasn’t ideal, but if she squinted enough it might actually lead to a better situation. Adam was offering Rio his knife, and though she suspected the moon-addled hunter might have another weapon stashed elsewhere, if Rio took the knife— it’d be one weapon down, wouldn’t it? “Go ahead and start it Rio,” she said quickly, hoping he’d get the hint of accepting the weapon, a semi-peaceful way to at least momentarily disarm Adam. 

She glanced towards the sun another time, willing it to rise faster with an irony that wasn’t lost on her. After all, hadn’t it only been a day and a half ago she’d wanted it to slow as it set over the horizon? The three of them still needed to burn time, and try and stretch these moments as long as they could. This time she stepped towards Rio, standing alongside Connor as another selection to be carved. “Why don’t you do me, though? I’m used to sacrifices and stuff, you know?” It wasn’t the strongest argument, but perhaps she could finesse some way around actually getting sliced if Rio chose her, whether it was illusion magic or some other option she’d yet to think of. Or maybe he could stall between his two choices, buying them a few more moments of dawn.

“Wait, wait, this wasn’t what we agr--” Connor never got to finish his words before Adam moved with preternatural speed, grabbing him so firmly that he thought he was in a vice. He struggled to talk, to breathe with Adam’s grip so tight on him. “Adam, no, don’t--Rio, don’t do it!” He knew Rio wouldn’t actually do anything, but Adam he wasn’t so sure of. He could feel the heat of Adam’s body against his own. “This… isn’t exactly how I fantasised about you holding me, buddy,” he joked morbidly. Maybe he could break Adam with humor. God, he reeked. Like a butcher’s slaughterhouse. He looked at Nell and Rio, eyes searching their faces. They had to have some kind of plan, right? He instinctively fought against Adam. Plan or not, he wasn’t going to just let it happen. It was no use. Adam’s body might as well have been made of concrete with the amount of give it had. Once the sun was up, they were going to have to have a real fucking long conversation. If he made it that long. “Adam, please… just let me go. It’ll be okay.” 

Even by hunter standards, Adam was incredibly fast. When Adam had offered the knife towards Orion it hadn’t take any time for him to begin shaking his head to decline the offer. Stalling or not, Rio had no interest in holding onto the knife that had been used to kill people. But before Rio could even find words, Adam had already reached forward, grabbing onto Connor and locking him into place. Rio jumped at the sudden movement, covering his mouth with his palm to stop himself from screaming. This couldn’t be happening. “Fine! Okay? Fine.” Despite the cold biting at his face, Rio was sweating. A mixture of the sweat and tears that he knew would be coming stung at his eyes, but Rio didn’t dare wipe at them. Hearing Nell nudge him along, Rio held out a shaky hand and carefully wrapped his fingers around the hilt of the blade. All the anger that he had held for Adam on their way here had been replaced by fear. If Rio didn’t do something, Adam could grow tired soon. Connor was too important for Rio to hurt, but if he didn’t what would stop Adam from finishing the job for him? Nell’s suggestion broke through Rio’s panic. He had seen her in action before. He knew he could trust her. “Not him. Please. I care about him.” Rio tried to keep his voice leveled as he slowly swung his arm around and pointed the bloodied edge of the knife towards Nell, “I want her.” The words made Rio’s voice crack, but he kept his expression hardened. He just wanted this to be over. If they could just hold out for a bit longer. “Tell me what to do.”

Orange spread across the mirrored lake, refracting rays of mauve and gold dawn through the surrounding trees. Dark Score Lake’s glass filled with radiance as if morning had been poured into a bowl. The moon became wane and faint in the brightening livid sky. 

Adam was sweating in the manner of a fever breaking or an amphetamine high being finally being flushed from his system. At Orion’s request to kill Nell instead, Adam hesitated, looking at the Exorcist struggling in his submission hold for a moment as if truly comprehending who Connor was for the first time. “Yeah me neither,” he affirmed to Connor, unpinning the other young man’s arms, remaining his bicep from the crook of Connor’s neck, and freeing him from the hold. “I wish I hadn’t…”

Adam’s bloodstained features turned between Orion and Nell, dilated pupils deep pits seemed to drink in the morning shadows still cast by the overhanging trees. The unnatural power that’d been coursing through Adam for these past days and nights ebbed as those shadows grew shorter with the rising sun. That inexhaustible vitality gradually gave way to a weariness more appropriate to someone who had been running and fighting nonstop, the last faint traces of the Hunter Moon's power and sheer mania were perhaps the only things keeping him from collapsing. 

“Why are you crying,” he asked Rio hoarsely. “I don't want to either …,” Adam shook his head as if struggling to think over some painful sound, “Stop..stop it!” 

He seemed to regain focus, pointing from Orion to Nell. “You need to do it, because it’ll...” Adam bit his chapped bottom lip as that murderous clarity of purpose burned its way out of his veins. “We need to do it now! C’mon slash her just…get her life all over you!” 

Adam’s hoarse voice broke as he tried to shout at Orion, dilated eyes filled with both confused mania and tears. “C’mon! Do it!” 

“It’s okay, Rio,” Nell said reflexively, not wanting to cause any more distress than was already at hand. Sympathy twisted in her gut as she watched the struggle that was beginning to emerge in Adam’s voice, the dawn warming her face ever so slightly as the sun continued its determined ascent. Apparently it was just as eager to end this night as the little gathering on the side of the lake was. While the hunter’s words began to border on hysteria, Nell turned back in the direction of Adam, moving slowly with deliberate and careful motions. It seemed like he was cracking as more glimmers of the person she knew were shining through here and there. Maybe this was the time to try and wiggle through those slivers of light, and see if he could be pulled through them into the brisk, morning air.

“Adam—” she started gently, reaching forwards in an attempt to take his wrists in her hands, not unlike the way she had when they’d performed her supposed last magic together. “I don’t think you want to do this. Not really.” She tried to find his gaze with her own, even with his eyes as crazed as his were. “You don’t wanna do this. Connor doesn’t wanna do this. Rio doesn’t wanna. And me-” she paused with a shake of her head before continuing on. “I don’t wanna die, Adam. Not like this. We’re your friends. And you’re our friend.” It wasn’t groundbreaking, but it was the best Nell knew how to do in their current situation. “We can go to the house and get you cleaned up- and you need to rest and get food. I bet Taki would wanna see you.” Maybe trying to jog his memory of past recollections would bring him back. 

Connor gasped like he was experiencing oxygen for the first time as Adam let him go. He lay there for a few moments before being able to muster the energy to stand. It hadn't hurt, at least in the physical sense. Nell's protection spell had taken care of that. But God, it had shaken him. It was almost as if Connor hadn't believed Adam could do this until he was right there with a knife to his throat. 

"Not her either," he pleaded, standing upright, a little shakily. Something was changing in Adam, light returning to him as the streaks of orange leaked into the sky. "Not Nell! Dude! C'mon, Adam, look at her. You know she's right. We don't wanna die, okay? Nobody else has to die. I've seen death. It comes back to haunt me. Literally. Trust me, man. You don't wanna cause any more of it." Connor looked at Nell, Adam, Rio, desperation filling his gaze. He just had to keep him occupied a little longer, just had to keep delaying. He nodded at Nell's words. "Come home with us. Please." 

It was harder and harder for Orion to maintain his composure throughout this. Tensions were high between everyone. Connor’s fear, Nell’s pleading and Adam’s own conflict. Something was changing, a shift in Adam that was slowly becoming more and more apparent. He was growing desperate, as if time was actually running out. The frantic voice cut at Rio. He had never heard Adam sound like anything other than the calm and collected persona he put on. Even when he was injured or exhausted he had always tried to keep the image going. Now, in between these two moods Rio thought he may actually be the most dangerous he had ever been. 

“Listen to them. Please.” Rio joined in with Nell and Connor, begging the man to stop whatever he was doing. The knife became harder to hold the shakier his hands got. As much as he wanted to hold onto it just in case the worst would happen, the toll of the weapon became too heavy for Rio to keep hold of. The knife slipped from his hand and hit the grass below. “I can’t do this. You know I can’t do this,” Rio admitted, knowing full well that the real Adam knew Rio would never be able to do what he had been asking. He held up his hands in surrender and took a few steps forward, “Please don’t hurt them. If you have to do something… if you can’t fight this. Pick me. Don’t touch them. It’ll be over soon, okay? Just please keep fighting this.” 

“You have to!” Adam grabbed the knife from the ground and sprinted towards Orion in one seamless blur of motion, attempting to thrust the knife inches away from  the younger Hunter’s jugular. 

“Struggle! Fuck it! You need to struggle Oreo,” Adam yelled in hysterical mania, voice a harsh crack against the rustling awakening of birds and breezing branches of autumnal golds. “I’m going to kill you! You're going to die!” Adam kept pressing the dagger almost at Orion’s throat, seeming to threaten and beg the other Hunter at the same time. “We need,” he swallowed as the words came up fast. “This is all there is Oreo! Kill to live! Nothing else! Dammit, I will fucking open you up!” The knife pressed closer “C’mon let it in! “

“Please..,” Adam plead as morning burned away the night’s shadows

But even though Orion had told Adam to pick him and the next kill to restore the his rush of vitality and adrenaline was an inch away, Adam hesitated. The window of opportunity to renew himself with the moon’s power one last time shut. The sun rose over the trees and in its light Adam was just a mortal man again.  

“Oh god…”

Adam looked down at the knife in his bloodstained hands, caked to the nails with gore. Revelation came in a subtle softening of the Hunter’s imbrued features. Mania became confusion. Confusion calmed to clarity. Clarity deepened to opened-mouthed horror. Ay last horror became a cascade of despairing weariness, tears of sheer exhaustion finally coming after days and nights of carnage. 

“It wasn’t a dream,” Adam rasped thickly, the charnel-house stench of murder clinging to his clothes as dawn washed away the touch moonlight.

[newstfionline]

Tuesday, September 21, 2021

UN chief warns China, US to avoid Cold War (AP) Warning of a potential new Cold War, the head of the United Nations implored China and the United States to repair their “completely dysfunctional” relationship before problems between the two large and deeply influential countries spill over even further into the rest of the planet. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres spoke to The Associated Press this weekend ahead of this week’s annual United Nations gathering of world leaders. Guterres said the world’s two major economic powers should be cooperating on climate and negotiating more robustly on trade and technology even given persisting political fissures about human rights, economics, online security and sovereignty in the South China Sea. “Unfortunately, today we only have confrontation,” Guterres said.

Canada votes in pandemic election that could cost Trudeau (AP) Prime Minister Justin Trudeau gambled on an early election in a bid to win a majority of seats in Parliament, but now faces the threat of being knocked from power in Canada’s election on Monday. Polls indicate Trudeau’s Liberal Party is in a tight race with the rival Conservatives: It will likely win the most seats in Parliament, but still fail to get a majority, forcing it to rely on an opposition party to pass legislation. “Trudeau made an incredibly stupid error in judgement,” said Robert Bothwell, a professor of Canadian history and international relations at the University of Toronto. Trudeau entered the election leading a stable minority government that wasn’t under threat of being toppled.

Biden easing foreign travel restrictions, requiring vaccines (AP) President Joe Biden will ease foreign travel restrictions into the U.S. beginning in November, when his administration will require all foreign nationals flying into the country to be fully vaccinated. All foreign travelers flying to the U.S. will need to demonstrate proof of vaccination before boarding, as well as proof of a negative COVID-19 test taken within three days of flight, said White House COVID-19 coordinator Jeff Zients, who announced the new policy on Monday. Biden will also tighten testing rules for unvaccinated American citizens, who will need to be tested within a day before returning to the U.S., as well as after they arrive home. Fully vaccinated passengers will not be required to quarantine, Zeints said. The new policy replaces a patchwork of travel restrictions first instituted by President Donald Trump last year and tightened by Biden earlier this year that restrict travel by non-citizens who have in the prior 14 days been in the United Kingdom, European Union, China, India, Iran, Republic of Ireland, Brazil and South Africa.

Recall vote highlights California’s geopolitical divisions (AP) The California recall election was a blowout win for Gov. Gavin Newsom that reinforced the state’s political divisions: The Democratic governor won big support in coastal areas and urban centers, while the rural north and agricultural inland, with far fewer voters, largely wanted him gone. “It’s almost like two states,” Menlo College political scientist Melissa Michelson said. Though California is a liberal stronghold where Democrats hold every statewide office and have two-thirds majorities in the Legislature, it is also home to deeply conservative areas. Those residents have long felt alienated from Sacramento, where Democrats have been in full control for more than a decade. A conservative movement in far Northern California has for years sought to break away and create its own state to better reflect the area’s political sensitivities.

US launches mass expulsion of Haitian migrants from Texas (AP) The U.S. is flying Haitians camped in a Texas border town back to their homeland and blocking others from crossing the border from Mexico in a massive show of force that signals the beginning of what could be one of America’s swiftest, large-scale expulsions of migrants or refugees in decades. More than 320 migrants arrived in Port-au-Prince on three flights Sunday, and Haiti said six flights were expected Tuesday. In all, U.S. authorities moved to expel many of the more 12,000 migrants camped around a bridge in Del Rio, Texas, after crossing from Ciudad Acuña, Mexico. The U.S. plans to begin seven expulsion flights daily on Wednesday, four to Port-au-Prince and three to Cap-Haitien, according to a U.S. official who was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.

Madrid street party (Reuters) Roughly 25,000 Spaniards joined in an illegal mass drinking party on the streets of Madrid on Friday, which took police until 7 a.m. the following day to break up. The huge outdoor parties, known as “macro-botellon,” have been resisted by Spanish authorities for years, and have taken on renewed significance as coronavirus restrictions limit public interactions. Police may find quieter streets next weekend as closing times for Madrid’s bars and clubs are finally extended to 6 a.m. from their previous 2 a.m. limits.

Thousands flee as lava spewing from volcano on Spain’s La Palma island destroys houses (Reuters) Authorities have evacuated about 5,000 people from villages in the Spanish Canary Island of La Palma as lava spews from an erupting volcano, local officials said. The 15-meter high lava flow has already swallowed 20 houses in the village of El Paso and sections of roads, Mayor Sergio Rodriguez told TVE radio station on Monday morning. Since erupting on Sunday afternoon, the volcano has shot lava up hundreds meters into the air and poured flows of molten rock towards the Atlantic Ocean over a sparsely populated area of La Palma, the most northwestern island in the Canaries archipelago. La Palma had been on high alert after more than 22,000 tremors were reported in the space of a week in Cumbre Vieja, which belongs to a chain of volcanoes that last had a major eruption in 1971 and is one of the most active volcanic regions in the Canaries.

Shooting at Russian university leaves at least 6 dead, 24 injured (Washington Post)  At least six people were killed and 24 were wounded after a gunman opened fire at a university in the northwestern Russian city of Perm, the government in the region said Monday. President Vladimir Putin called the shooting at Perm State University “a tremendous tragedy, not only for the families who lost their children, but for the entire country.” Such a rampage, which sent students hurling themselves from windows in a bid to escape the gunfire, is extremely rare for Russia, which has little experience of the kind of mass shootings routinely seen in the United States. Russia’s Investigative Committee, a law enforcement agency, said the attacker was a student who had purchased a hunting rifle in May. The agency said he had been apprehended and is in the hospital for treatment of wounds suffered while resisting arrest. Russia has strict laws on civilian gun ownership and requires people to pass psychological exams before obtaining a license for hunting and sport firearms.

Evergrande debts (NYT) Once China’s most prolific property developer, Evergrande has become the country’s most indebted company. It owes money to lenders, suppliers and foreign investors. It owes unfinished apartments to home buyers and has racked up more than $300 billion in unpaid bills. Regulators fear that the collapse of a company Evergrande’s size would send tremors through the entire Chinese financial system. Yet so far, Beijing has not stepped in with a bailout, having promised to teach debt-saddled corporate giants a lesson. Evergrande is on the hook to buyers for nearly 1.6 million apartments, according to one estimate, and it may owe money to tens of thousands of its own workers. As Beijing remains relatively quiet about the company’s future, those who are owed cash say they are growing impatient.

Pacquiao for president? (Foreign Policy) Manny Pacquiao, the former professional boxer and Philippine senator, has said he would run for president in next year’s election, accepting the nomination put forward by a faction of the ruling PDP-Laban party. His decision comes after Christopher “Bong” Go rejected a presidential nomination from a rival PDP-Laban faction earlier this month, although his running mate, President Rodrigo Duterte, accepted the nomination for vice president. If electoral authorities recognize Pacquiao’s nomination, he may still face competition from Sara Duterte-Carpio, the mayor of Davao and daughter of the president. Duterte-Carpio has topped recent opinion polls but has been cagey about her plans for higher office, saying last week that she would run for another term as Davao mayor in 2022.

Talibanning Women From Work (Guardian, BBC) In mid-August, with American troops still present, the Taliban vowed to respect women’s rights, forgive those who fought against them, and ensure that Afghanistan won’t become a haven for terrorists. Zabihullah Mujahid, long-time Taliban spokesman, gave his first ever public news conference, saying leaders had encouraged women to return to work and girls to return to school. He promised women would retain their rights, but qualified that as being “within the framework of Islamic law”—specifically, Sharia law. To no one’s surprise, it was just ‘happy talk’ meant to allay suspicions of world powers and the fears of Afghans. Soon there were ample reports of Taliban soldiers going house to house, searching for “traitors” and executing them. Working women were told to stay home and schools were shut down, although it was labeled a temporary security measure. In Kandahar, women bank tellers were forced out of their jobs at gunpoint. In the next days and weeks the group’s new government issued decrees restricting more rights of girls and women. Female students in middle and high schools were told they couldn’t return to classes, although boys were allowed to. Female university students were informed studies would now take place in gender-segregated settings, and they must abide by a strict Islamic dress code. Other crippling measures from when the Taliban ruled in the 1990s surfaced unofficially, including a requirement that Afghan women have a male guardian accompany them in any public place. On Friday, female employees in Kabul city government were told they couldn’t return to work if their job could be performed by men, meaning almost 1,000 women who were part of the city’s workforce of nearly 3,000 lost their jobs. The Taliban shut down the Women’s Affairs Ministry, replacing it with a ministry for the “propagation of virtue and the prevention of vice” tasked with enforcing Islamic law.

The Taliban vs. ISIS (Washington Post) After years of waging a holy war to overthrow the U.S.-backed government in Afghanistan, Taliban fighters have struggled to adjust to their new day job: the mundane task of securing a city. “All of my men, they love jihad and fighting. So when they came to Kabul they didn’t feel comfortable. There isn’t any fighting here anymore,” Taliban commander Abdulrahman Nifiz told The Post. But the Taliban still faces a violent foe: the Islamic State affiliate in Afghanistan, which claimed responsibility Sunday for a series of blasts over the weekend in the country’s east that reportedly killed several people and injured tens more. The improvised explosive devices were set off Saturday and Sunday around the city of Jalalabad, known as a stronghold for the Islamic State-Khorasan (ISIS-K).

Troll Farms (MIT Technology Review) A report produced by a Facebook employee details the enormous impact troll farms—that is, organized networks designed to spread misinformation—have on the social network. The October 2019 report identified that the most popular pages for Christians and Black Americans were, in fact, operated out of Kosovo and Macedonia. As of October 2019, 15,000 Facebook pages with a predominantly American audience were operated out of those countries, reaching 140 million U.S. users every month. Troll farms operated the fifth-largest women’s page, the second-largest Native American page, 10 of the top 15 African-American interest pages, and every single one of the 15 top pages targeting Christian Americans.

[dukereviewsmovies]

Duke Reviews: The Incredible Hulk

Hi, Everyone I'm Andrew Leduc And Welcome To Duke Reviews Where Today We're Continuing Our Look At The Marvel Cinematic Universe...

By Looking At The Film That Introduced That Big Green Monster Of Might, The Hulk To The MCU, The Incredible Hulk...

This Film Sees Bruce Banner (Played In This By Edward Norton, Before He Transformed Into Mark Ruffalo) As An Unwitting Pawn Of The U.S. Military, Led By General Thaddeus "Thunderbolt" Ross (Played By William Hurt) Who Are Trying To Restart The Super Solider Program Which Led To The Creation Of Captain America But Without Erskiene's Formula It Leads To Hulky Results For Bruce Which Forces Him To Go On The Run From The Military Until He Can A Way To Cure Himself Of The Raging Spirit That Dwells Within Him...

But When Bruce Is Captured By Ross, His Worst Fears Are Realized When A Power Hungry Solider Named Emil Blonsky (Played By Tim Roth) Turns Into A Similar More Bestial Creature Named Abomination And Causes A Panic Throughout Harlem, Can Bruce Stop Blonsky With The Hulk?

Let's Find Out As We Watch The Incredible Hulk...

The Movie Starts With A Flashback That Shows Everything I Just Mentioned Including How Banner Became The Hulk (Which Looks Reminiscent Of The Bill Bixby Tv Series), And How Banner Went On The Run After Nearly Hurting His Love Interest, Betty Ross (Played By Liv Tyler) Who Is Daughter Of General Ross...

Years Later In Rio...

Seriously, How Banner Doesn't Run Into Dominic Toretto And His Crew There Is A Mystery To Me...

Bruce Holds Down A Job As Both Worked And...

In A Soda Factory While Also Trying To Find A Way To Control The Hulk By Taking A Medatation Class?...

Let's Hope Bruce Doesn't Become The Hulk There, Because The Last Superhero Who Was There? Well...Let's Just Say It Didn't End So Well...

While Also Working A Mystery Guy Named "Mr. Blue" On Ways To Cure Himself Of The Hulk At The Same Time, But When Some Of Bruce's Blood Ends Up In One Of The Soda Bottles At The Factory And Poisons An Old Man...

Stan Lee Cameo!

It Catches Ross's Attention And Soon Him, And His Men, Led By Emil Blonsky Are On Their Way To Rio To Find Bruce...

Getting A Message From Mr. Blue, He Says He Has Something That Might Cure Bruce But He Needs More Data (Which Bruce Doesn't Have) Otherwise He Can't Help Him...

Hearing Some Noise, Bruce Makes A Run For It As Blonsky And His Men Burst Into His Apartment But They Eventually Spot Bruce As He Runs From Street To Street And Rooftop To Rooftop...

Eventually Losing Both Blonsky And Ross. Bruce Ends Up Running Into Some Guy Who Was Hitting On A Friend Of His At The Soda Factory And Him And His Guys End Up Following Banner To The Soda Factory Where They Start Beating Up Banner Which Leads To Bruce Becoming The Hulk...

With Blonsky And His Boys Soon Arriving After The Hulk Beats Up Those Guys And Thrashes Everyone Except Blonsky...

Regrouping At Bruce's Apartment, They Find Bruce's Laptop Along With A Picture Of Betty, Which Eventually Leads To A Talk Between Blonsky And Ross, As Blonsky Feels That They Had Banner But When The Hulk Showed Up Everything Went South...

Interested In The Hulk, Blonsky Swears To Find Banner And Get Him To Tell Him Where To Find It, But Ross Simply Tells Him That That Thing Was Banner And Walks Off As He Tells Blonsky To Pack Up So They Can Go Home...

The Next Day In Guatemala, Bruce Wakes Up By A River As He Gets A Ride From Someone Heading Into Town, Asking Where Bruce Is Headed, Bruce Tells The Man In His Native Language That He's Headed Home...

Back In The States, Blonsky Talks With Ross As Tells Him That He's Not Stepping Away From This And Whatever He's Involved In, He Wants In...

Back In Guatemala...

Okay, What Is This? Why Are They Playing The Lonely Man Theme From The Incredible Hulk Tv Series? Not That I'm Not Happy To Hear It, But This Is A Movie Based On The Comic Book, Not A Movie Based On TV Series...

If I Wanted To See A Movie Based On The Tv Series I'd Watch One Of The Tv Movies That Have Daredevil And Thor In It (And Yes, This Is True) Either Way, It May Be A Good Easter Egg But It's Done For The Wrong Reasons, If Anything They Should Be Playing This Since Bruce Is Going Home...

Telling Blonsky We Already Saw In The Flashback At The Beginning Of The Movie (Only Thing We Really Learn Is That Bruce Thought That He Was Working On Radiation Resistance And Ross Never Told Him What The Real Experiment Was) And Says As Far As He's Concerned Bruce's Body Belongs To The U.S Government...

(Start At 0:45, End At 0:51)

Arriving At His University In Virginia, Bruce Spied On Betty Who Has Found A New Boyfriend In Phil Dunphy...

I'm Sorry, I Know That He's Supposed To Be Leonard Samson, But Ty Burrell Is Phil Dunphy And That's All I'll Ever See Him As...

Visiting A Pizza Place Called Stanley's, Bruce Catches Up With The Owner, Played By Hermey The Elf...

Seriously, The Guy Who Plays Stanley, Played Hermey The Elf In Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer Which In Turn Makes Me Wonder If Stanley Has A Side Job As A Dentist...

He Offers Him The Room He Has Upstairs And He Asks To Borrow A Pizza Boy Delievry Outfit So He Can Keep The Guard (Played By Lou Ferigno) Distracted With A Free Pizza While He Tries To Get The Data He's Looking For Only To Discover That It's Not There...

Telling Mr. Blue This, He Says That Without It, He Can't Help...

But As He Prepares To Leave, Betty And Phil Stop By Stanley's Only For Betty To Catch A Glimpse Of Bruce...

Asking Stanley To Tell Her The Truth, He Tells Betty That Bruce Is Back, Which Leads Her To Confront Bruce On The Bridge Which Leads To A Tearful Reunion For The Former Lovers...

Taking Bruce To Her House, She Gives Bruce A Drive Which Contains All Their Data And Info That The Military Erased, But Wondering Why They Can't Just Talk With Her Father And That's Because He Told Bruce That He Wants To Make The Hulk Into A Weapon...

Taking Blonsky To A Lab, Ross Injects Blonsky With The Same Stuff Banner Injected Himself With But Warns Him That At The First Sign Of Any Side Effects, He's Off The Team Until He Straightens Out...

The Next Day Betty Takes Bruce To The Campus To Say Goodbye But Turns Out Phil Dunphy Was Like...

(Start At 0:44, End At 0:55)

And Called Betty's Father To Come Get Bruce...

Going Through A Building To Get Away From Ross's Forces, They Eventually Lock Bruce Into An Overpass As They Fire Tear Gas Inside...

(Start At 0:36)

Ross Thanks Phil For Calling Him, But Phil Is Not So Sure Now As The Hulk Protected Her And Ross Almost Killed Her But Either Way Bruce Would Get His Revenge On Phil Later When He Autotuned Him On YouTube And It Went Viral...

(Start At 0:06)

Taking Betty To A Cave, The Hulk Is Hurt By A Thunderbolt (Possibly By Thor) Which Forces Betty Calm Him Down As He Thinks He's Under Attack...

Eventually Getting The Hulk To Calm Down, They Get Some Sleep...

Checking On Blonsky In The Hospital, It Appears That The Hulk But As The Saying Goes, He May Be Down, But He's Not Out As Blonsky Appears To Be Healing Rapidly...

The Next Day, The Hulk Has Turned Back Into Bruce And Bruce And Betty Go To A Motel Where They Stay For Now...

With Bruce Taking A Shower, Betty Soon Arrives With Provisions Including A New Heart Rate Watch And Purple Pants...

Giving Bruce A Haircut, It Eventually Leads To The Two About To Have Sex But Turns Out Because Of The Hulk Bruce Can't Get Too Excited...

When Someone Comes In About Blonsky, Ross Goes To See Him Only To Discover That Blonsky Is Completely Healed On All The Injuries The Hulk Gave Him...

Dumping Betty's Phone And Credit Cards As They Can Track That, Betty Sells A Necklace That Probably Belonged To Her Mother In Order To Get Some Cash, While Bruce Sends The Data To Mr. Blue, However, S.H.I.E.L.D. Copies The E-mail And Sends It Ross's Way Along With The Identity Of Mr. Blue, Which Happens To Be A Doctor Samuel Sterns...

If The Name Sounds Familiar, That's Because That's The Leader (Apparently Before He Became The Leader)

Eventually Arriving In New York, Bruce And Betty Soon Find Themselves In Crazy Taxi...

(Crazy Taxi Announcer) Hey!!! You Got 5 CRAZY Minutes To Get Your Passenger To His Destination Before He Turns Into The Hulk And Kills You For Being So CRAZY!!!!!

Before They Arrive At The University, Where Sterns Works And He Finally Meets Bruce...

Talking With Sterns, He Tells Bruce And Betty That Even Everything Goes Perfectly And They Induce A Hulk Out And And Get The Exact Dosage Right, They Don't Know If It'll Be A Lasting Cure, Just An Antidote To Suppress That Particular Hulk Out Or Worse, Kill Bruce. But Willing To Take The Risk, Sterns Gets Ready...

Back At Ross's Base, Blonsky Starts Noticing Changes In His Bone Structure But Doesn't Tells Ross About Because He Feels Like A Monster...

Tying Bruce Down On A Table, Sterns Shocks Bruce Full Of Electricity And Causes A Hulk Out But With Help From Betty In Calming Him Down, The "Cure" Is Injected And Bruce Goes Back To Normal...

Not Believing What He Just Saw, Sterns Tells Bruce And Betty That The Gamma Pulse Came From The Amygdala And Betty's Primer Let Bruce's Cells Absorb The Energy And Then Abated It (Which Is Basically How Bruce Didn't Die Of Radiation Poisoning Years Ago) Maybe They've Neutralized The Cells Permanently Or Maybe They Just Suppressed That Event But Either Way It's Hard To Tell As None Of Sterns' Test Subjects Survived...

Not Liking That Sterns Said That, Sterns Shows Bruce To A Room With Bags Of Blood That's Bruce's As Bruce Didn't Give Sterns Much To Work With So He Had To Replicate It. Seeing Limitless Possibilities With It, Bruce Tells Sterns That He Doesn't Understand And They Need To Destroy The Blood...

But As Sterns And Bruce Bicker About This, A Sniper On The Rooftop Across The Way, Shoots Bruce With A Tranquilizer As Blonsky Bursts In And Punches Bruce In An Effort To Bring Out The Hulk But Bruce Is Tranqed And It's Pointless...

Carrying Bruce On A Stretcher, Betty Tells Her Father That She Will Never Forgive Her Father For What He's Made Bruce Into And To Never Speak Her As His Daughter Again...

Knocking Out The Soliders Questioning Sterns, Blonsky Tells Sterns To Inject Him With Bruce's Blood But Realizing That Blonsky Is On Something Sterns Warns Him That If He Injects Banner's Blood Into Him Without Knowing What He's Already On It Could Turn Him Into An Abomination...

Ooh, Foreshadowing....

Not Giving Sterns Much Of An Option, He Injects Blonsky With Bruce's Blood And It Transforms Him Into The Abomination...

Tossing Sterns On The Ground, Some Of Bruce's Blood Ends Up Inside Of Sterns And Starts To Transform Him Into The Leader For A Possible Sequel That'll Never Happen At This Point...

Causing Destruction To Try To Get The Hulk's Attention, Seeing Everything That's Happening On The Ground On From The Plane, Ross Knows That Abomination Is Blonsky And That They Have To Go Back To Help The Remaining Soliders On The Ground...

This Leads Bruce To Suggest To Let Him Fight Blonsky Despite Him Having No Control Over The Hulk...

(Imitating Bill Murray In Ghostbusters) If I'm Wrong, I'll Go To Whatever Government Jail Cell You Have Waiting For Me, Peacefully, Quietly, I'll Enjoy It, But If I'm Right, Thunderbolt, You Will Have Saved The Lives Of Everyone In This City...

Lowering The Ramp For Bruce, Betty Tries To Stop Him As She Doesn't Know If He'll Even Change, But Either Way He Has To Try As Bruce Gives Betty A Kiss Before He Goes...

A Few Weeks Later In British Columbia, We See Bruce Back Living A Life Of Solitude In A Cabin As He Has Given Up His Search For A Cure And Instead Seeks To Control Him As Our Movie Ends...

In A Pre-Credits Scene, We See General Ross Having A Few Drinks When He's Confronted By Tony Stark (Played Again By Robert Downey Jr.) Who Tells Ross That He's Putting A Team Together...

However, In A Marvel One Shot Called The Consultant, It's Revealed That Stark Was Only Sent In To Piss Off Ross So Much To The Point That He Wouldn't Give S.H.I.E.L.D. Blonsky So He Could Join The Avenger Initiative Which Both Fury And Coulson Did Not Want To Happen Despite The World Security Council Wanting Blonsky Because Of His Decorated War Hero Status And Saying That The Harlem Incident Was Bruce's Fault...

This Movie Is Okay...

It's Not Bad It's A Good Movie, I Like The Characters, The Story Is Nice And The Action Scenes When They Happen Are Awesome But Sometimes The Talking And Science Babble Goes On Forever And It Sometimes Gets Boring But I Still Say See It...

Till Next Time, This Is Duke, Signing Off...