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shy-taylorsversion · 3 months

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Want You Back | Dean Winchester x Fem!Reader

Inspired by Want You Back by Maisie Peters

Pairing: Dean Winchester x Fem!Reader

Summary: Over a year ago, Y/n started hunting with the boys. Her and Dean's friendship became more than anything she ever had before. Then he hurt her like never before. The worst part was she didn't really care.

Takes place somewhere in season 6 after Sam got his soul back. Flashbacks are during season five.

Word Count: 4k

Warnings: Cursing (minimal), canon-level violence, few innuendos, and mentions of things. Reader is kinda sad and desperate. Angst. no happy ending :(

A/N: Hi!! After a year of trying to write a complete fic to post, I finally did it. Please excuse any grammar or spelling errors, I relied on Grammarly lol Also I had no idea how to write the action scenes but tried my best. I really don't know if this is worth much but I had so much fun writing sooo I hope you enjoy it!! (gif not mine)

March 2010

Y/n’s phone buzzed, drawing her attention from the hunter drunkenly blabbering in her ear. They’d just wrapped up a quick hunt, a werewolf somewhere in northern Montana. She didn’t even really know the guy but Bobby had given him her number to ask for help. She agreed, not really having anything more to do. He was fine for a hunter, other than he never shut up and was getting too handsy for her liking, and him being on his fifth drink wasn’t helping.

She opened the message, not recognizing the number. Bobby had to stop handing it out to whoever.

“Hey, Sweetheart. Whatcha up to?”

The phone fell into her lap. There was only one person she ever let get away with calling her that, or anything really, and he didn’t come around often.

“Depends, who is this?”

The response was almost immediate.

“Don’t do me like that, Y/n”

She could almost see his stupid grin on the screen and had to look away to control the heat rising in her face. Within five seconds and two texts, Dean Winchester had turned her into a giggling schoolgirl with a crush.

“I’m at a bar, what do you want?”

“Ah, a girl after my own heart. Which one? I wanna see you.”

In any other universe, she would have assumed he had ulterior motives. She had the first few times she’d received that text but ended up spending the night hiding her disappointment. He only wanted to see her. He’d meet with her wherever she was. A bar, a motel, a diner.

They’d spend hours talking about everything. She’d tell him stories of her recent hunts and the hunters she was stuck helping. He’d tell her of whatever they’d been facing. On rare occasions, when it was super late and they were sprawled on her bed, in a half-drunken stupor, he’d tell her about Sam or their dad. He’d mention their childhood and what he was put through. One night, he even mentioned a girl named Cassie, he skirted around details but Y/n understood.

They’d fall asleep like that, on top of the covers of a dirty motel bed. The next morning, he’d take her to breakfast, hug her goodbye, and then he was gone.

Her phone buzzed in her hand again.

“I miss you.”

Her blood ran cold as she stared at the screen. He’d definitely never said that before. They just never went there and maybe this wasn’t him going there but it was different. Without another thought, she sent him the address.

Present, April 2011

“What Dean did wasn’t ok, you know that right?” Sam said through the phone. “He never should’ve left like that. We just really could use your and Bobby’s help on this case.”

Y/n sighed in response. What could she even say? That she knew, that she understood. That it still didn’t matter because even through all of the anger and hurt, she’d take him back tomorrow.

Not that he’d ever actually been hers. It was only half a spring, barely two months.

It didn’t matter either way. There was a job to be done and she had to do it. She could put her feelings aside for a few days.

“He always left like that, not like I’m surprised.”

“Look, I’ve gotta go but please, Y/n, call us if you need anything. We’ll be there soon.“

“Bye, Sam.”

The call ended, leaving Y/n leaning against the railing of Bobby’s porch. The early spring wind whipped around her and she hugged her flannel closer, looking out onto the empty road.

It had been over a year since she’d seen either of them. She knew of everything that happened to them. Sam going to hell and coming back without a soul. Dean, living a normal life for over a year with a woman and her kid.

Y/n didn’t know her, only hearing about the situation from Sam and Bobby in passing. She knew her name was Lisa and that Dean cared for her. Maybe more. She knew that Dean had promised Sam to live a normal life after he jumped into the cage. And she was happy that he got a year of peace. She was.

She could picture him helping in the kitchen, wearing an apron with flour smeared across his face. He’d probably set up family movie nights and weekend outings and birthday dinners. He’d been happy and okay. Against all odds, he had gotten out.

That didn’t stop the wave of hurt that washed over at the thought of him, all domestic and soft.

The click of the door opening pulled her out of her thoughts. Bobby stood there, a knowing look on his face.

“C’mon kid, let’s see if we can figure out something before those boys get here.”

A few hours later, Y/n stared at the book in her lap. She’d been rereading the same paragraph for thirty minutes. Every time she’d get drawn into the book, the house would creak or the wind would blow and she’d be snapped out of it.

She kept waiting for the door to open, for footsteps to trail down the foyer and into the living room. She couldn’t even begin to prepare for what the next few days were going to be like. Her only plan was to act as normal as possible, which was already proving to be difficult.

A pit formed in her stomach, there was a lump in her throat and her head was clouded. The whole room was hazy and it felt like she was watching herself exist.

She didn’t even realize she was crying until something wet hit her hands and slid onto her jeans. She quickly wiped her eyes and tried to focus on the book again. The lines blurred together as more tears filled her eyes.

God, she was sitting here crying over some guy. She was a grown woman, she had to get over this. It was pathetic at this point.

“You know, what Dean did was wrong. Leaving like that, not telling you what happening.” Bobby said, walking into the room, a stack of books in his hands. “I love the kid but he’s a real dick sometimes.”

He meant well but she swore if one more person said that Dean had done bad, she was going to go crazy.

She knew that. More than anyone, she knew. She was the one who spent months hunting with him, helping him and Sam figure out how to save the damn world. They’d spent nights wrapped up in each other, more than ever before. Farther than before.

She was the one who woke up to an empty bed with no trace of him anywhere. He never responded to a call or a text. Never even let her know he was alive.

He’d left like an assassin.

Part of her couldn’t even blame him. It probably had been for the best because if he’d told her what the plan had been, she’d have begged.

In the end, he’d got to be a coward and she salvaged some amount of self-respect.

“I know, Bobby.” She said, giving him a small smile, “I know.”

The door creaked causing Y/n to jump, earning her a concerned look from Bobby.

She smiled at him again, trying to reassure him. She could tell he’d been worried about her lately. He was justified in it. She’d been on edge and closed off for the last year and a half.

She took a deep breath and steadied herself. She’d known these boys for the better part of her life, it wasn’t a big deal.

Sam rounded the corner first, entering with a slight grin. His eyes immediately found hers and without warning he pulled her off the couch and into his arms.

Y/n let out a surprised laugh as her feet dangled off the ground and the life was squeezed out of her.

“I missed you too, Sam.” She said, unable to hold back more laughter, “Put me down now.”

Her feet hit the floor and Sam stepped back. She looked him over, still smiling.

“I’m so glad you’re back.”

“Yeah, me too.”

A set of footsteps grew louder causing Y/n to look up, only for her to meet two green eyes.

The breath was knocked out of her and she was all too aware of the pit in her stomach again.

Ignoring the pairs of eyes on her, She spun on her heel to face Bobby.

“Let’s get started?”

March 2010

“I call shotgun!” Y/n yelled as they walked out of the diner and took off towards the Impala.

She was probably being unfair. She’d barely shared the passenger side in the few weeks she’d been with the boys. Sam was getting huffy about it, she could tell but she enjoyed the view more from the front. Sitting in the back she’d miss the way Dean’s hands looked gripping the steering wheel, the way his lips moved as he mouthed the lyrics to whatever was on the radio, or the way his eyes would flicker to hers for just a split second.

Dean had also finally let her DJ and she didn’t plan on giving that rare privilege away anytime soon.

“C'mon, dude. It's my turn.” Sam whined, “My legs are starting to cramp.”

Sam beat her to the car which wasn’t surprising since he was literally the size of one. She was close to giving in when an arm landed on her shoulder. Dean nudged Sam out of the way, ignoring his protests, and opened the door.

“Sorry, Sammy.” Dean’s eyes never left hers as she slid into the seat, “Need my Darlin’ by my side.”

Present, April 2011

Cracked wooden planks creaked under Y/n’s feet as she followed the boys and Bobby into the abandoned house. It was pitch black. She blinked her eyes, trying to adapt to the lack of lighting.

According to Sam, a nest of vamps had been holed up there for weeks. They’d started leaving a trail of bodies, teens who’d come through as a dare or curiosity. She didn’t know the exact numbers racked up in that time but it was enough for Sam and Dean to ask for help.

Dean motioned for them to split up, two taking the downstairs and two going up. She went to follow behind Sam who had taken off into the next room but Bobby beat her to it. She would’ve fought back but it wasn’t exactly like she could cause a scene right then.

She followed Dean up the stairs, cringing every time the stairs groaned underneath their feet.

Dean slowed as he hit the final step before a long, dark hallway. Y/n was a step behind him. His body nearly covered her. She shifted to the side to peer around him.

Both raised their machetes, trying to keep their breathing quiet as they waited for any sign of movement.

A crash came from down the hall. Dean started towards the sound, Y/n following close behind. The complete darkness put them on edge. Being minus one sense in a house of at least ten fanged bastards, not fun.

The floorboard creaked behind her causing her to flip around, just in time to dodge the first vampire of the night.

She swung her machete, hitting its arm. Distracted, she brought down the weapon. Its head hit the floor.

Dean yelled out from behind her. She flung herself around to hear him fighting off, what she guessed was three on his own. Her presence seemed to catch the attention of one of them because it charged at her.

She dodged, the vamp lunged again grabbing her by the arm. She twisted out of its grasp. Using the angle to her advantage, she swiped her leg around, knocking it off balance. Its head rolled away as its body hit the ground.

She wiped the sweat from her forehead and turned to try to find Dean. She still couldn’t see him but she could hear him panting a few feet away.

She was yanked forward. Hands gripped her forearms tight enough to leave bruises and slammed into the wall. Her head buzzed on impact and she forced herself to stay upright. Its fangs grazed her neck and then its head dropped to the floor.

Dean stood in front of her, so close she could feel him breathing, rather than hearing it. Without thinking, she reached out to him and landed on his arm. She went to pull away but his other hand grasped her wrist, holding her in place.

“Thanks.” She breathed, “You good?”

“Yeah, You?”

She wished she could see him, make sure he was being truthful. He didn’t exactly have the best track record with honesty. But in the dark, she had no choice but to trust him.

“I’m fine.” There were definitely bruises forming in her arms and her head was still spinning but she’d had worse.

Dean’s hand dropped her wrist. She ignored the deflated feeling in her chest and dropped her arm back to her side.

Without warning, he ran his hands over her arms and up her shoulders. She tried to pull away but he didn’t stop.

“What are you doing?” She whisper-yelled.

“I literally heard you hit the wall, Y/n,” He said, running his hands over her head, checking for any bumps.

“I am fine.” She tried to swat him away but he grabbed her wrists mid-air and pulled them to his chest.

The air was humid around them. She heard him panting. Leather and sweat invaded her senses. Any focus she had before vanished.

He was here, touching her, after so long.

Silence enveloped them. The only noise was their panting.

This was wrong. Sam and Bobby were probably fighting for their life downstairs and here they were, doing whatever this was.

She was about to pull away when a loud yell came from downstairs.

The moment was broken. They took off down the hallway and stairs. Staying close to not get lost in the dark.

They hit the last few steps as a vampire, charged at them.

Dean swung his machete and it fell to the floor.

They moved further into the first floor of the home, finding Sam and Bobby fighting off at least four vamps each.

They split up, him going to Bobby and her going to Sam.

None of the vampires were aware of her yet. She grabbed the syringe of deadman’s blood out of her pocket and plunged the needle into the closet to her.

Now they knew she was there.

Two turned towards her giving Sam time to take down his remaining one.

Both charged at her, hissing. She ran in between them.She flipped around, slicing the blade in an arc. The one on her left doubled over at the impact.

She swung.

The right one lunged at her. She pivoted and cut the blade up.

Its head hit the floor.

She looked around the room, a slight beam of moonlight flooded the house now. She made out Sam helping Bobby up from the floor, right as Dean took down the last vampire.

The room was silent other than everyone trying to catch their breath.

Dean’s eyes found hers. She forced herself to look away. Sam interrupted the non-moment.

“Time for drinks?”

Y/n and the boys decided to go out. They were leaving soon but everyone needed time to wash off and get ready.

She dragged the black liner across her eyelid, double-checking to see if it smeared the shimmery brown eyeshadow she’d already put on. The cracks in the old mirror made it kind of hard to perfect the make-up but it would have to do. She already changed from her bloodied hunting clothes into a clean pair of jeans with a simple tank top. She didn’t own much and traveled with less.

“Broke mirrors are bad luck, ya know?”

Dean leaned against the doorframe, flannel pulled taut around his crossed arms.

She ignored the pit that had reappeared in her stomach and continued applying her lipstick. She flipped through ideas for a response. She could yell at him to get out or cry about how much he hurt her. Instead, she opted to act like nothing was wrong.

“I’m pretty sure you’re the one who broke it.” She said, shoveling her makeup back into the bag, still never meeting his eye. She stood and gathered the rest of her stuff into a neat pile on her bed. Her back was completely towards him.

She heard him walk into the room and the door clicked shut.

“Y/n, look at me.”

She turned around and looked up at him. Her eyebrows raised like he was boring her. In reality, she was struggling to breathe. Her hands shook and a lump was stuck in her throat.

Her eyes glanced over his face. His jaw was set but eyes were soft. She knew where this was going.

Dean took a deep breath before starting.

“Look, what I did-”

“Do not finish that sentence, Dean Winchester.” She spat.

“I just-”

“No. You don’t get to say anything. You don’t get to say that what you did was wrong or how sorry you are. You don’t think I don’t know that what you did was wrong? Everyone keeps telling me that. Bobby, Sam and now you. They kept telling me how horrible of you that was like it wasn’t me. Like I wasn’t the one who spent months with you, like I didn't help you figure out how to stop the fucking apocalypse. Like I didn’t stitch you up after every hunt or spend every car ride next to you. Like I wasn’t the one who would hold you after you woke up screaming or it wasn’t me who spent every single night in your fucking sheets.”

Every ounce of refrain she’d worked to keep was gone. Hot tears were streaming down her face as her eyes bored into his. He didn’t try to interrupt her but his jaw twitched and body tensed.

“Like it wasn’t me who woke up two months later to an empty bed. You were gone, Dean. You left without a word. No text, no note. Nothing. You fucking left me. And then I found out you were with some other girl for a year? So yeah, I know that what you did was bad.”

Somewhere in her speech, she’d moved close enough for their chest to touch. Her finger was stabbing into his chest. He didn’t move, was barely breathing but she wasn’t finished.

“Maybe it was cheap to you, or maybe it was some fling to pass the time but it was real to me. It was all I had. You were all I had.” Her voice broke at the last word and she dropped her hand. Her head fell as she cried. Over a year of built-up heartbreak exploding in one moment was too much.

His hand found hers and placed it back on his chest. She looked back up at him, his other hand reaching out to cup her cheek. She closed her eyes as his thumb wiped away the remaining tears.

“Do you want to know what the worst part is?” She whispered, eyes still shut. “I’d be yours again if you wanted. If you asked. How pathetic is that?”

“Y/n.”

She opened her eyes to look at him despite her embarrassment.

“You are anything but cheap or pathetic.” His voice was thick and his eyes were glassy. She’d seen him in so many different states but she’d never seen so much emotion written across his face.

“Ask me then. Ask me to come with you.”

His expression darkened and he dropped his hand from her face. He took a step back and looked away.

“It’s not that easy.” He said, shaking his head. “It's never that easy.”

She let out a bitter laugh.

She wasn’t even surprised. She should’ve been disappointed or furious but she was just over it. She was tired and desperate. And if she couldn’t have him, he needed to go.

She wiped a hand down her face and glanced back into the mirror assessing the damage her outburst caused. She started wiping off the messed-up liner before starting to reapply. Dean stood behind her, brows furrowed in confusion.

“Get out.” She said without hesitation, her voice as steady as possible.

He opened his mouth as if to speak but shut it. He walked towards the door but stopped with his hand on the doorknob.

“For what it's worth, I am sorry.”

The buzz of conversation filled the packed-out bar. Sam found them a small booth in the corner and was now talking about a new piece of lore he’d found about some Egyptian god. Most of the time, she loved hearing what he had to say but right now all she could focus on was Dean's hand trailing up and down the woman’s hip. He never even sat down with them, finding himself a spot at the bar, next to a pretty blonde. She’d watched for half an hour now as he grinned at the girl, whispered in her ear, and bought her a drink.

She wanted to puke or cry or both. She decided to get drunk instead.

She went to take a sip of her beer only to realize it was empty. Motioning to Sam she was going to get another, she slid out of the booth and made her way to the opposite side of the bar from Dean.

She planned to order a shot of some vodka and another beer but she couldn’t catch the attention of either bartender.

A body bumped up against hers causing her to stumble. A hand wrapped around her waist to catch her. She almost jerked away but she looked up to find a familiarly unfamiliar pair of dark green eyes and dark blonde hair.

The man was by far the prettiest she’d seen all night.

“I am so sorry, It's packed in here. Isn’t it? Nowhere to stand.” He had a slight southern drawl and a boyish charm about him.

“It is. Can’t seem to even order a drink.” She smiled at him.

“You see, now that had to be fate or something because I was just wantin’ to buy you one.” He grinned and waited, almost seeing if she’d allow it. His hand was still on her but she found she didn’t really mind.

The room was fuzzy and she could only make out the man in front of her. Even then, he was a little hazy and she had no idea what he was saying, only that his mouth looked pretty as he said it.

Y/n didn’t know how long it’d been since the handsome stranger volunteered to feed into her night of drunkenness or even how many she’d had so far. She vaguely remembered him buying her the first shot and then the second and maybe a third. They made small talk, she gave some bullshit story about what she did for work and where she was from. Somewhere in between she had a fourth, fifth, and sixth one.

And somewhere between the seventh and now, she’d lost track of Dean. She didn’t even know if he was still there. She did know that the new guy made her feel ok, at least for now. His hands never left her and the drinks never seemed to end.

She could barely remember the events of the day. Maybe by tomorrow, she wouldn’t remember any of it, or at least a girl could hope.

But right now, she didn’t feel like crying or throwing up as long as she didn’t think of it.

She decided in her drunken haze that maybe this was what she needed. So when the stranger asked her if she wanted to leave, she agreed. And when he leaned down to kiss her, she let him.

#dean winchester x reader #dean winchester fanfiction #dean x reader #dean x you #dean winchester songfic #dean winchester

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thankskenpenders · 8 months

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So I wrote a whole long thing about Amy's tarot cards, but what about, you know... the rest of the Sonic Frontiers DLC? The new alternate story route, the hours of new gameplay, all that?

Having now played it, I'm not sure Sonic has ever had this specific combination of good ideas that make the future of the series look bright, and execution that I fucking hate.

(Full spoilers ahead.)

The good

There's a lot to like here, conceptually.

First and foremost, Tails, Knuckles, and Amy are finally playable in a new mainline 3D Sonic game for the first time since 2006! Seventeen years! We've been begging for this for so very, very long. Nature is finally truly healing from the fallout of Sonic '06. Early on I hedged my bets and expected them to be locked to Cyber Space or something like that, assuming that there was no way they'd be fully playable in the Open Zone. But sure enough, while they're a bit limited compared to Sonic, they're still all full-blown characters with skill trees to unlock and lots of exploration to do.

We also got a more bombastic alternate final boss fight, after the first take on The End kind of underwhelmed. And it's obvious that Sonic Team has listened to our pleas to focus on the 3D platforming over the forced 2D sections, and to reduce the amount of automation in the level design. This update is chock full of Actual Platforming. Wow! I can only pray this means we never get an area as agonizing to explore as Chaos Island again.

Sure, there's still some jank - especially with Knuckles' movement, which is kinda rough. But if this is the stuff they're trying out so that they can refine it further for the next game, then I'm really excited.

On the other hand, good fucking lord is The Final Horizon tedious. And that tedium sapped most of the fun out of it for me.

The frustrating

The new scenario massively increases the difficulty over the base game, seemingly out of a desire to give the hardcore players who were posting speedrun videos and whatnot more of a challenge. It's the Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels of Sonic. This difficulty comes in many forms throughout your playtime, some worse than others, and continues to ramp up over time.

Rather than giving you a tutorial level, the new scenario dumps you directly into a remixed version of the final island and makes you do some fairly precise platforming with Amy, Knuckles, and Tails - new characters with new movesets that you won't have any experience with. You'll also need to find character-specific Koco that give you free levels, because Sonic's friends all start at level one and certain locked moves in their skill trees will be mandatory to progress. They don't even have Cyloop unlocked at the start. And because they're all low level, that means you'd better steer clear of the beefed-up bosses scattered around the map, which will absolutely annihilate Sonic's friends. (I honestly just avoided them and never bothered beating any of them, not even with my high-level Sonic. I have no idea if they're beatable with the others.)

None of this is explained to you particularly well. I spent my first few minutes with Amy wondering why the attack button did nothing, only to eventually think to check her skill tree and realize that I had to unlock her basic attack. If you don't bother to take the time to read through the skill trees, you'll very quickly find obstacles you have no way of getting past with no clues as to what exactly you're supposed to do.

Adding to this confusion is the fact that objective markers often tell you to go half a kilometer into the sky, and you'll have no idea how to get up there because all of the relevant platforms are out of your draw distance. Many objects seem to only pop in for me when I'm within about 60 meters of them, which isn't a long distance for a high-speed open world platformer like this. I was having this problem running the game with high graphics on PC, so I can only imagine how obnoxious it is on Switch. I'd frequently find myself poking around nearby clusters of platforming objects and praying that they'd lead me to a spring, rail, or cannon that would eventually point me in the direction of the floating objective marker.

There were always complaints about the art direction in Frontiers and the way it relies on floating rails and prefab platforms that are visually disconnected from the natural scenery of the islands, but it's even more dire here. The new platforming sections are dense and complex, but they seemingly didn't have the budget to change the topography of Ouranos Island at all, so it all takes the form of these prefabs. It very strongly gives the vibe of a Forge creation in Halo 3, back when there were no blank canvas maps and people just had to make "new maps" by jamming a bunch of shipping containers and barricades together in the sky above one of the default arenas.

I was still more or less having fun, though, despite the jank. It's a big creative swing, I told myself! They're trying stuff out! They're experimenting!

And then I hit the towers.

The towers are agonizing because they're SO close to being great. The logical part of my brain understands why some people love them, but god, I just fucking hate them. The platforming there IS cool! These layouts are cool! The individual challenges along the way are a bit tough, but totally doable. You know what's not cool? Making one mistake and slowly falling 800 meters all the way back down to the ground, forcing you to start over. Because none of these towers have checkpoints. For me, this one decision transforms what should have been a fun set of platforming challenges into a massive, unfun difficulty spike.

I enjoy some masocore platformers, but those are typically games with quick deaths and restarts like Celeste, Super Meat Boy, or VVVVVV. Hell, the Mario games tend to get way more difficult than the average Sonic game, and those are obviously all great. Quite frankly, unlike those games, Sonic Frontiers is nowhere near tight or polished enough to make this difficulty feel fair. Bits of jank that I could ignore in the base game due to its lower difficulty are now matters of life or death. Missing a jump because I boosted off an incline in a way the game didn't like for reasons I don't understand is not fun. Falling off a tower because the camera was pointing in the wrong direction while I was in midair and I couldn't see the next thing I was expected to homing attack is not fun.

And it's such a jarring spike when moving from the base game to the DLC that it feels like the game is suddenly quizzing me on skills it never bothered to instill in me. Maybe if you've spent the last year labbing out the movement tech in this game this is all a no brainer, but for the average returning player it's a kick in the dick.

I'm sure I could've beaten these towers normally if I gave them enough tries. They aren't the hardest thing in the world. But I very quickly decided I had better things to do with my life and turned on easy mode, which adds tons of extra springs and homing attack balloons to make all of the platforming piss easy. I wish there was a middle option between Only Up: Sonic Edition and this extreme hand holding, but when given the choice between the two I gladly picked baby mode. I just wanted to see the story.

(The new Cyber Space levels are also long, challenging, and devoid of checkpoints, not unlike the towers. But I only ever found the entrances to two of them. So I only did two. They're theoretically required, because they give you "Lookout Koco" that you need for... some reason? But in a rare act of mercy, Sonic Team put Cyloop treasure spots that give you free Lookout Koco all over the map.)

As I continued, so many little things started adding up to piss me off. Why do you only reveal like five tiny squares of the map at a time? I would've loved to find all the new 1-on-1 dialogue scenes, but not if I had to do dozens of hard mode versions of the stupid little puzzles and challenges to reveal the whole map. Why does every character need their own unique collectibles? What is this, Donkey Kong 64? Why can't I just grab this EXP for Amy when I find it as Tails? Why can I only manually swap characters by talking to an out-of-the-way NPC unlocked right before the final boss? Why is fast travel disabled? Why are the new vocal themes you hear when playing as Amy, Knuckles, and Tails so monotonous, with a single verse repeating over lo-fi beats ad nauseum? Why is the jukebox feature completely disabled throughout the DLC, even after rolling the credits? Why can't Tails homing attack? Why do I have to wrestle with the camera so much while also holding the jump button to fly as Knuckles and Tails? How many right thumbs do they think I have? Why is this animation for picking up animals in the Cyber Space levels so incredibly slow, and why can I still take damage while it's playing? Why does the stupid starfall event have to make it so hard to see what I'm doing when climbing these towers? Why does this shitty combat trial have a popup that makes it seem like I should be using the Cyloop when the actual strategy revolves around repeated parries? And on and on and on...

The story

What about the new story? Well, there sadly isn't much to chew on here. Most of the DLC has the cast running around and finding different macguffins for arbitrary reasons, as part of some sort of plan to divide up the work on the last island so that Sonic can go train with the spirits of the Ancients and harness the power of his cyber corruption. What the fuck is an Impact Form? I don't know, but Knuckles needs something to do, so go find one.

It's a thin excuse plot meant to make you do platforming challenges around Ouranos Island, with little room for Ian to add any real flavor of his own, even though he certainly tries. Having Sonic meet the spirits of the Ancients who controlled the Titans, who are revealed to directly parallel the personalities of him and his friends, is kinda neat, I guess? It's something. The optional conversations seem to have some fun bits, including both conversations between the supporting cast and additional lore. But again, I only found a few of those because of how tedious filling out the map was.

The writing is also let down by the voice acting - or I guess the voice direction, because I know this cast can do better. Roger's voice continues to be weirdly, distractingly deep as Sonic, which was clearly something that was requested of him just for this game. (For a recent example of him going back to his regular Sonic voice, see this LEGO trailer.) The performances of Sonic's friends are also WILDLY mismatched. This is most clear when they start feeling the effects of the cyber corruption. Knuckles seems to be barely affected at all, Tails sounds like he's moderately hurt and low on energy, and Amy starts completely overselling her pain out of nowhere. The extremely strained performance makes it sound like Cindy's literally being tortured in the fucking booth. I have no idea what's going on over there.

The final challenges

People have debated whether or not things like the towers and the new Cyber Space levels are fair challenges. What's not up for debate is the fact that Master King Koco's Trial is complete and utter bullshit, and I can't believe they shipped this.

Before you can fight the new final boss, the game forces you to do a boss rush of the first three Titans - INCLUDING the pre-Super Sonic climbing sections - with a hard limit of 400 rings. For all three lengthy, heavily scripted fights. Back to back. You can't even cheese it with the leveling system, because you're forced to do this at level 1. This all but forces you to look up speedrun strats for the Super Sonic fights so that you don't run out of rings and fail the trial.

And the real kicker? They changed the parry just for this trial! Originally, you could just hold down the bumpers endlessly and Sonic would ready himself to parry the next attack, whenever that may hit. Now it requires you to do a "Perfect Parry" with specific timing. And you HAVE to hit those parries if you wanna clear this trial and get to the new ending. Miss a few and you're probably fucked. You just have to reset. Time to go through all those fights, all those climbing sequences, all those QTEs, and all those unskippable mid-fight cutscenes all over again. This is by far the most egregious example of the DLC deciding to quiz you on new skills that the base game never required of you, and it's one of the most absurdly unfair things I have ever seen in a Sonic game.

Easy mode does make this trial easier by making the timing window for Perfect Parries much more generous, but that's all the help you get. It's still easy to lose time failing to parry Wyvern's hard-to-read animations, or to lose rings by getting hit on the climb sections, or for things to just fuck up because these fights were always kinda jank. I gave it a few shots. I looked up guide videos. I tried the Quick Cyloop and stomp combo strat that seems all but mandatory. But I quickly decided that, again, this wasn't a worthwhile use of my time. It just sucks. And I really, REALLY didn't want to overwrite all my fond memories of these Titan fights, some of my favorite setpiece moments in any Sonic game, with memories of this shit ass boss rush.

So I cheated! And if you're on PC, you should too.

With the worst hurdle out of the way, I turned cheats back off and moved on to the new final boss. It was pretty cool. It's much flashier than the original fight against The End, that's for sure. It's still kinda annoying, and it requires you to do very specific shit without properly telegraphing it, but it's nowhere near as bad as the preceding challenges. I was hoping for one last new metalcore song to go with the new fight, which we sadly didn't get, but at least the new version of I'm Here is good.

The ending is... mostly the same, with a couple altered scenes that don't really change anything in the long run. But overall the new finale was pretty good. I just wish it hadn't been such a slog to get there.

Closing thoughts

Sonic Frontiers: The Final Horizon wants to be three things:

A patch that adds a new alternate ending that was probably supposed to be in the base game in the first place.

An experimental take on making Tails, Knuckles, and Amy playable again, presumably testing things for the next game. And...

An official Kaizo Sonic Frontiers mod for the sickos.

The thing is, the people showing up for #1 and #2, the main things that Sega hyped up about the update, are not necessarily going to be down for #3. If they had announced some uber-hard new Cyber Space levels for the arcade mode or whatever, I'd be like, neat! And then not play them. I would never touch Master King Koco's Trial if it was an optional challenge. I would leave that for the sickos. But instead, they made the hardest content mandatory for anyone who wants to see the new Good Ending where the final boss gets an actual budget.

I'm mostly left in a state of shock that it shipped like this. I cannot believe they playtested this and decided this was the state The Final Horizon should be released in. That this should be the note Frontiers ends on. That this should be how we remember those Titan fights. That this should be the lingering taste in our mouths as we wait however many years for the next 3D game.

Armchair devs always love to say that things would be "easy to fix," but like... there really would be easy fixes for the insane difficulty and general tedium here! Add a few more tutorial popups explaining what the game expects of you with Sonic's friends. Give the Cyber Space stages and the towers a couple checkpoints. Give the combat trials more generous time limits, especially on the lower difficulties. Remove half of the map puzzles, and make the ones that remain uncover twice as many squares. Skip the startup animation for Knuckles' glide. Let me turn on the goddamn jukebox. Since so much of this update was designed around fan feedback, I can only pray that Sonic Team is still listening, and that they tweak at least a few of these things with a balance patch.

But still, after those many, many paragraphs of complaining... this still somehow makes the future of 3D Sonic seem pretty promising?

Sonic's friends are FINALLY playable again, and the focus is back to proper 3D platforming, rather than railroading players into awkward forced 2D sections in what's otherwise an open world. These are the things that they hopefully want to carry over to the next game. The difficulty? Well, that's just because it's the postgame DLC that's supposed to be the toughest challenge in the game. It's just an unreasonably cruel one of those - an example of how designing and balancing for a vocal minority of your fanbase can really hurt your game. But Sonic Team is onto something here, and I hope that they can learn the right lessons from this expansion and not throw the baby out with the bathwater.

#tkp post #other media

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infinitebrians · 5 months

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Favorite Games of 2023 Part 4: Pseudoregalia

I knew Pseudoregalia was going to be good the minute I started the game and did the input for the Mario 64 side flip jump and the game’s main character Sybil did her own version of that satisfying jump. One of my all time favorite things to do in a Mario game (or any game) is that side flip, a jump that is as practical as it is just simply satisfying to do. Sybil being able to do that jump without needing any of the power ups found in the game told me that the developers of this game knew the importance to making character feel good jumping around in a 3D world. Her movement only gets better from there with a bunch of new platforming abilities that makes her capable of getting what feels like anywhere in that game world if desired. The pure control you have over Sybil's platforming capabilities gave me so many great moments of pure curiosity to experiment with what could work. What's better is watching friends and others play the game and figure out their own solutions to the game's open ended platforming design. There are no wrong answers in the world of Pseudoregalia, just results.

This game was a complete surprise in just about every way, just the best feeling platformer I’ve played in a long while in this small, cleaned up former game jam game. I’ve followed the main dev rittzler on twitter for a few years because the gameplay clips of their work have all looked fun and impressive and they always shared other really cool indie dev work as well. So, I was excited to finally play Pseudoregalia when it was announced to be released. It's super low price (6 dollars USD) and being something I was able to finish in the span of one day alone was a huge breath of fresh air in this current gaming environment. It’s something I’ve been personally thinking a lot about recently is the appeal of a simpler, lower priced game. It’s appeal to me coming from playing something that never needs to be some sort of omnipresent, super game. Instead, Pseudoregalia presents itself in a humble statement of, ‘here, enjoy a few hours jumping around this wacky maze like castle as a goat bunny lady!’.

I'm not a person who typically ever has a desire to replay a game right after finishing it, I usually prefer to immediately move on to another game that I've been wishing to play for for a while. Pseudoregalia is a game I've played four or so times now from start to finish, I even started another playthrough in preparation for this drawing/writing and found myself wanting to play it all the way through again. Its the first time I found myself actually physically seeing the appeal of speedrunning, a hobby I always just enjoyed as a spectator. Pseudoregalia just lends itself so neatly to that part of me that loves routing out a path for stuff. How quickly can you find all the vital movement abilities for Sybil? What's unnecessary, what can be improved, what can be gathered while on the path of gathering something else. From at least my perspective of not actually investigating the proper speedrunner's routing, the options feel immense. From these handful of times replaying the game I've gotten a good handle of finding my way around the map and a good idea of how to get a lot of the really important movement abilities almost immediately. It also made the game feel quite different from how it felt to me with my first playthrough, what was once mysterious and labyrinthine was now a familiar playground.

That is one thing I will miss when doing those repeat playthroughs is that sense of discovery that occurred with that initial run. Soon before Pseudoregalia came out, I watched a lot of Videochess and spaghoner's exploration and documentation of the incredible Mario 64 hack, B3313 ( https://youtu.be/pLKB0SG0i8c ). I found that hack incredible at creating a sense of uneasiness and wonder from simply keeping you constantly guessing what was next behind each door something even those two expressed while streaming. During my first playthrough of Pseudoregalia, I was completely lost in that castle and was constantly finding paths that led to new zones or ones circled me back to old ones from hours ago. It was a pretty incredible feeling of discovery that only wore out it's welcome at the end when I just needed one more big key necessary for progression. What helped make exploration in both of these games engaging the whole time is that aspect of having a really fun character to move around as while being lost. It was okay with being completely lost because I could still just keep doing these long jumps into wall kicks that just make Sybil go fuckin' fast in an immensely satisfying way.

I think in the time it's taken me to think about this game again, and briefly revisit it in preparation for this art/writing I've come to decide that this is probably my favorite new game of 2023. In a year full of fantastic platformers to pick from, this one was just a class above in terms of movement design and movement application.

#drawdogs #art #pixel art #favorite games of 2023 #writing #pseudoregalia #sybil pseudoregalia

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guaxinimraccoon · 5 months

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I’m honestly curious to know how you came across G/t and got into it

Wow ok this is pretty much the first time someone asks me about it djskdjs saying in advance that this will be a long answer.

It's not a interesting story though, it happened in a very casual way and it has always been related to me being extremely curious and captivated by G/t.

I think I can say I like G/t since I was a kid. I was about 6 or 7 years old when I had my first encounter with size difference. My parents were watching a comedy show on television and one of the sketches was about a giant cowboy (don't ask me why). I was watching it with them and when this sketch started I remember being completely fascinated by it. I was so dumbfounded that I kept asking my mom stuff like "Why is he so big? How did he got that big?", now I know that it was mostly me trying to understand why I was so interested in him being a giant.

I used to have these very tiny Polly Pocket dolls that were, like, 1 cm tall at best and I liked to pretend that I was a gentle giant and they were my friends. I had imaginary friends who were borrowers, I loved Clifford The Big Red Dog, Arthur and the Invisibles, The Ant Bully and essentially anything related to size difference had me completely curious, enchanted and OBSESSED with it.

I started to do drawings and stories with size difference characters since I was a little kid. I remember to spend hours daydreaming about a little girl who was very small and lived with a normal sized family, I had a lot of fun drawing her living in a world so much bigger than her.

Eventually I grew up and these things were left behind and forgotten in the middle of my pre teens, other interests appeared until it came a time where I barely remembered my fascination for size difference.

Until I found the G/t fandom on Tumblr.

I was 14 and I had just joined the Undertale fandom, I'd search and scroll through a lot of fanart on Tumblr. Then, out of nowhere, a drawing of G/t Fritz and Sans from rockonewjeans (who appears to no longer have an account here) popped up in the middle of the feed.

I still remember to this day looking at it and feeling all that nostalgic curiosity and fascination from when I was a child emerging to the surface again and being like "Oh my GOD wait- I remember that, I used to LOVE that... Wait there is a whole fandom about it????". Like, for real, I just felt super euphoric (see where I got the name now? haha) in a way I hadn't felt in a long time. I just suddently remembered how I used to find size difference so interesting since forever.

I spent the rest of the night scrolling through her blog and I learned that there was an ENTIRE fandom about it and stories and art and wow I was extremely amazed. After that I created my blog, started searching, reposting and following artists and writers, thus effectively joining this weird but special corner of the internet lol.

So essentially, I've liked it since I was a kid, I didn't know it was a fandom and a thing until I saw rocknewjeans art so it's basically her fault that this all happened LOL wish I could thank and blame her for it someday.

Sorry for the long answer, but I think it was worth the tale!

#ask #haha memories #i've always been a weirdo what can i say #its funny how a simple concept such as size difference can become an obsession #i regret nothing #i love it a lot

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mezzy-1 · 8 months

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VALORANT UNIVERSITY HEADCANONS

@eviethelesbian once again thank you for the Headcanon List. Also shoutout to @darthladyofillusions because I included ur OC :)

Harbor is a history professor dating Astra, the archeology professor. Both of them met on a trip to a site in India

Both of them reached for the same the brush at one point and they laughed it off later

Both of them are excellent teachers in their own way. Varun has a habit of going on tangents about stories and is super nerdy about his subject. Efia’s classes are fun and her energy is infectious

Cypher has a family and does cyber security for the University. Nobody knows his actual name.

Nobody knows him that well but when he comes out of his office he’ll say hello to anyone nearby. He goes home quickly though and usually avoids working late.

Cypher’s office is full of pictures of his family, drawings from his daughter, screens, and the scent of imported Moroccan teas

He and his wife and kid see the students off when they graduate, and all of the students are amazed to realize that this guy has such a good family life. (They thought he was a no-life kinda guy)

Liam ‘Brimstone’ Byrne is the university’s Dean and basically runs everything as much as possible for the good of the students. Tariq and him are the brains and guiding hand of the university

He retired from the military after he was given an educator’s license and became a professor of tactics at a military academy. He then took his skills elsewhere and turned the college into what it is now

Liam keeps the students at the forefront of any policy changes and takes an interest in professors that are considered brilliant but difficult to work with. He’s an expert of recruitment and reining in the right people

Has snacks in his office for students but they can only get them if they complete a pull-up on an pull-up bar he has in his office. One arm only.

Sabine worked at R&D at a pesticide company but is the only Organic Chem teacher that the Valorant U could get. Somehow is a good professor despite hating students and no general teaching

She doesn’t really hate them but it isn’t a good idea to get on her bad side. It’s rumored she poisons the students she hates.

Stared daggers into the first person (Jamie), to make a Breaking Bad reference and since then nobody brings it up

Classes with her are pretty tense but if a student actually tries and gives their all, she’ll notice and be kinder to them. Especially students who study chemistry. Double for O-Chem.

Sabine’s style of teaching could use work, but when she tries to explain complex ideas she’s genuinely in her element. She once explained how tetrodotoxin and nerve ion channels worked to Zyanya’s little sister

Zyanya is a professor for sure, probably the best Spanish teacher ever. Beyond terrifying to new students

She will not let students forget proper accents and grammar, and god help the people that do. Somebody once forgot their homework and Zyanna was literally this close to killing them

Her Spanish is specifically Mexican, and that extends to the class through some of the words she teaches. Especially bits in culture and authenticity

Zyanya’s idea of testing people is borderline an interrogation. 10 minutes of extensive and stern conversations and multiple pages of writing. People say it feels like their souls have literally been drained

Students come out of the classes fluent or scarred for life

Ling is a professor of medicine and completed her PHD around the same time Viper completed hers. They were amazed to see each other teaching

She does Tai Chi for relaxation but did at one point learn Kung Fu while living abroad in a monastery for a couple of years. She once broke a board in front of her class just to prove it

Hosts meditation hours during finals week and her office hours are always super useful for all of the medical and nursing students. Calming as hell to anxious people

Tala got a scholarship via cross country and another from basketball, and wants to major in physical therapy. She also got a job doing late night shifts at the library as security.

Hazal is in a band called Nightmare. Her and several other introverts got together and started one. Only perform in the most obscure venue. She can play bass REALLY WELL

Tala found out and now shows up to every performance the band has. If it weren’t for the lights flashing red and blue, you could see Hazal blushing when she spots Tala in the crowd

That’s how she met Hazal. Tala was approached by her because Hazal wanted to study late and the two became acquainted

Both of them love the late nights that they share and Hazal is always at one of Tala’s games. Tala picks her out of the crowd every time, and at the end Hazal always kisses her

Mateo is a veterinary student and is everyone’s friend. Except Iselin because some of his patients got into her office once and trashed her latest project model

He keeps fish, dogs, lizards, cats, and nearly everything else. At one point he was in charge of a project that kept some monkeys around at one point

The animal counterparts are a chameleon (Dizzy), a Chinese High Banded Shark (Thrash), a bullfrog tadpole (Mosh), and an Axolotl named Wingman

He has a crochet version of his (radivore) crew, courtesy of Omen being bored one day

Mateo is a Gen Z kid, and his vocabulary beyond salvaging

Jamie is an English major, I mean, obviously

Everyone likes Jamie, he brings a certain energy to everything he does and it resonates well with people. His writing has a level of power and rhythm that makes it both easy to listen and layered

He is a songwriter, and poet, and even has a collection of published short stories. His mums are proud. His scripts are also incredible and his goal is to get his own musical to Broadway

When Jamie is in a play, it’s usually as the protagonist or the main antagonist. It is wonderful to see him on stage, especially because he’s trained as a Shakespearean actor

Tayane is THE art student and the reason most of the faculty drinks. And also the reason why most of the students drink too

Absolute ragers getting thrown anytime Tayane is involved. This woman does not stop until the sun is up

Her graffiti portraits are inspired, colorful, and almost always on government property or university property. Brim started commissioning her in order to stop her from painting everything

The commissioned murals are a lot better for her, and gave her legal access to make huge projects on some of the older buildings

One of the walls is a silhouette of a woman with big circular glasses, geometric pink and yellow patterns around her, and surrounded by flowers

Vincent Fabron is the art teacher and Viper HATES him. He’s also that one teacher an unreasonable amount of people of have a crush on

He was a tattoo artist while taking art lessons in France, then moved into high class art. His gallery pieces gained a lot of attention and he gained a lot of money from them.

Now he teaches art, and has done graphic design for many upscale companies. His own business card has won awards from design and art societies though

Omen is a guy in a scarf and hoodie that is somehow in everyone’s classes. He crochets in the back sometimes.

Texts notes at 4am to anyone who needs it and is incredibly nocturnal. He doesn’t need sleep he needs friends

Students never remembered or learned his name, so they just started calling him Omen after the laptop brand he uses

Erik ‘Breach’ Torsten is a coach they brought in and actually manages a paralympic team. May have criminal past according to some of the athletes he manages

He will scream at people in Swedish during games, practice, going over strategies, and if he sees them in public. Friendly but so loud

His prosthetic arms were a courtesy of the university’s science program. They were partially a gift and partially a test to see what they could do. Erik made sure that he could flip people off with the arms

Iselin the professor of Industrial Design, and she is the most stern professor ever. At times she works for a wilderness recreation company and does product design for them.

She is very organized, and her lecture presentations are always available, she lists the pages to read, dates for every assignment are posted a month in advance

Iselin’s a professional and rarely eases up, but the few times she’s been out with the other faculty she’s been surprisingly fun. Especially with Ling for some reason

Kirra is a Biology professor that has so many plants in her room. Has a parakeet, dog, and fish tank at home too. Does wildlife photography on the side.

Kirra protested in college and was arrested once for sabotage. So she is totally chill with people missing class for stuff, and gives extra credit for students involved in causes

Goes on wilderness expeditions with some students for a class and memorized several survival books worth of information and knows every plant, animal, and fungus she comes across

Klara is an engineering major and Tayane just comes to those classes because she can. It usually results in the equipment being plastered in stickers and paint.

They met when Tayane decided to tag the garage that Klara was keeping her final project in. Both of them sort of caught feelings as soon as they saw each other

Klara fell so damn hard, and realized this while Tayane was doing a kegstand. Klara whispered ‘she’s perfect’ mindlessly and then realized Sunwoo was right next to her

Sunwoo finished what was in her cup, patted Klara on the back, and said ‘good luck’ before walking away and pretending she didn’t hear

Her final project has been her ‘Lockdown’ which is basically an EMP crossed with a massive DDOS hack. It went off once and downed the college’s internet for a week.

She’s going to switch it to something a little less destructive at this point, and Tayane is helping her brainstorm. Currently it’s a robot but she’s trying to figure out what to make it do

KAY/O is Tariq’s gamertag. The man is a CS:GO fiend and has crazy flashes due to muscle memory

Liam and him are MARRIED. I’m not budging on this one and you will find me dead in the ground before I let this go

Tariq’s good at a lot of random stuff and doesn’t help out too much at the college but is well-known as the ‘guy who Brim allows to help grill things’ because nobody else is allowed

Helps Liam plan out things for the students and assists in any sort of set up that he can do

Ryo is studying Japanese History and works as a mechanic at a chop shop. It is shady as hell over there but Yoru will hook people up if needed. They definitely steal parts though

He takes business classes and there’s a real chance he might double major. His business acumen and aggressive nature would make him the ultimate CEO

Sasha is the professor that most students simp for, and he teaches Russian Language classes. Throws things at students that don’t pay attention and rarely misses

He has an owl nesting outside of the window to his classroom, he named it Matrioshka after the nesting dolls. It had owlets so it seemed fitting.

His babushka lives out of the country but gets a continuous stream of gifts from him

Sasha is that one professor that has a weird story for everything in his room. The bow he has? killed a grizzly bear with it. Glass eye on display? It was a gift from a glassmaker that was caught with illegal firearms. Weird rock? It was at the sight of a historic battle and has a bootprint in it

Has SO MANY books from Russian writers he reads in his off time. Also does archery at a cabin he has in the woods.

Nobody could handle Novikov at the cabin, the sheer hotness of him splitting firewood, bow hunting, and chopping trees would send people into a simp coma

At the end of the year, he writes each student a short note in Russian telling them something worthwhile.

Sunwoo is an amazing sprinter and also amazing at darts. Loves adding photos to the corkboard she has in her dorm

She isn’t really sure what she wants to study at the moment or even if she wanted to go to college. Gotta love families pressuring college on their kids right?

It isn’t as depressing though, she shows real talent and enjoyment in studying Business but surprisingly is leaning towards learning Journalism as well

She writes stuff for the school paper, a blog, and even has a (somewhat inspired by people around her) science fiction story. She hasn’t thought of a name yet.

It’s about secret agents that fight against an alternate dimension that tries to steal a powerful crystal from them. It’s quite popular with the people who she let read it and people are constantly asking for updates

Sunwoo is trying, and hopefully she’ll manage to find somewhere she can feel comfortable

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Kayra is studying botany, and started a garden in one of the common areas. At first it was small but cute, then after a few weeks the flowers and bushes spread outside of the garden and overtook the common area.

It's now her favorite place to get away from people because trellises were added in and nobody can see through the vines. There’s a chance she keeps patio furniture in the garden too

Has been living in an apartment with Hazal. Tala has been the only one in there and says its overrun with houseplants and hanging lamps.

(@darthladyofillusions I hope this is accurate to some extent)

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averagemrfox · 3 months

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2 for the ask game for each member of team RWBY!!!!!

Alright I’m home from work and have had time to think

2. Favorite canon thing about this character?

First of all this goes for every single one of them and my individual answers might overlap with this we’ll see. I love how much they’ve all grown and persevered! They’ve been through so fucking much both together as a team and separately and have come out on the other side of it. They were kids!! They made bunk beds and had food fights and were starting to figure out the types of people they wanted to be and then got thrust into Remnant’s Worst Divorce™️ and throughout all of it have only grown closer as a team (not friends family!!) and still have hope that they can make the world a better place (Keep moving forward!!!) (They all need therapy tho fr)

Ruby: she’s perfect just the way she is!! This is supposed to be about the canon things I love about these character but god do I want Ruby to see herself as an individual separate from Summer. I think she’s getting there after her talk with the blacksmith. She’s just so accepting of people without hesitation. Penny is a robot? Don’t care new best friend. Little is a talking mouse? Don’t care new best friend pt 2. I’m sure there’s other examples but she’s always so ready to just let people be who they are and I wish she’d give herself that same grace

She’s also just a giant fucking nerd. About weapons about comics about video games

Weiss: 🗣️🗣️I DONT KNOW WHO YOU THINK YOU ARE BUT LET ME TELL YOU WHO I AM. I AM THE GRANDDAUGHTER OF A HERO AND THE CHILD OF A VILLAIN. I AM A CITIZEN OF A FALLEN KINGDOM AND AN HEIR TO NOTHING. I WILL NOT BE DEFINED BY MY NAME BECAUSE I WILL BE THE ONE TO DEFINE IT. I AM WEISS SCHNEE AND I AM A HUNTRESS🗣️🗣️

Also I love that she’s canonically a fairly well known (at least in atlas) singer. Now I’m not sure she’d do that by choice based on what we saw in v4 but it’s super cool that that This Life is Mine is canon to remnant because of that. Also Jacques made her sing and she was like alright bet and then roasted him in song on stage in front of all those people and we don’t talk about that enough I think

Blake: I say that’s my baby and I’m really proud

Blake tells Sun she joined the white fang 5 years ago in v2. She was TWELVE she was a BABY!! If I had to give Blake a word the way she gives others a word it would be conviction. She never gives up on what she believes in. And she does her best to support others in doing the same, in v7 she tried to encourage ironwood and in v9 she tried to encourage Ruby poor girl got shut down both times but she tried!!

I also love how Blake is canonically a good artist and would like to see more of that. crwby show us a drawing Blake made of Yang

These:

Yang: this girl can fit so much love in her god. She goes to any and every length to protect the people she loves even if it’s to her own detriment (which someone really needs to have a conversation with her about) the Yellow Trailer tells us straight away that there’s more to her than meets the eye and yet there are people who fell into that trap anyway and criticize her character for “not being fun anymore” as if that isn’t the point!!

She’s so confident and cocky until a pretty girl Blake flirts with her I love the disaster lesbian representation.

She punched god in the tiddies!!! And she’d do it again I bet! Maybe we’ll see her punch one or both of the Brothers next I’d like that

This:

#answered #thanks Stevie!!!#rwby #ruby rose #weiss schnee #blake belladonna #yang xiao long

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silverscreenlipstick · 2 months

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helluva boss rants #3: blitzø, hero amongst men.

so, as the entirety of the fandom has probably established, blitzø, the main character of helluva boss who has so much hatred for himself that he even tries to cross out the last letter of his name.

our deeply troubled and misunderstood protagonist. i love him so dearly. he is so important to so many for so many reasons.

this character is not only deeply traumatised, but covered in guilt and absolute spite for himself. he draws himself out of pictures of his loved ones, that’s how much.

as established, one main focus (if not, the main focus) of the entire show is his relationship with prince stolas of the ars goetia. someone so royally and upper class wants to be with him? no, something must be wrong. so rather than admitting to himself that he has fallen for stolas, and stolas has fallen for him, he much rather cover all of that love with frustration. he cannot bear someone like stolas loving him.

he never could. it is a difficulty he has within himself that he needs to open up for.

something blitz will never understand though is that, although seeming antagonistic at times (god forbid, he’s having realistic emotions and reactions!), he is the main hero of this story.

starting off with maybe his earliest - stolas. as a kid, being guilt tripped into stealing from a mighty prince of hell doesn’t really make you think huh, how did he save him?

it begins as soon as he shows stolas the world outside of books and a fun, kindred spirit stolas aspires to be, who lets him be a free bird (pun absolutely intended).

later on, we get to see the two reunited. and for the exact same reasons. blitz is there to steal an important artefact from stolas, but in the meantime, saves him from the horrid and toxic relationship he has with his deranged wife. he sets him free once again, and this time, to the fullest.

next up is moxxie. we get to see the start of their relationship when blitz asks for moxxie’s help to break out of jail. moxxie smiles at him after having cried about the betrayal of a loved one and his father.

blitz caused him to never look back - to never go back - and without him, he would’ve never gotten to meet millie, have the life he has now. he saved moxxie.

loona is super important to this too. blitz, who is already painted in self-hatred, decides officially to adopt loona, a seventeen year old hellhound as his daughter.

he sees herself immediately in her - lashing out at others although she doesn’t mean it - issues controlling emotions - upset about herself. and he protects her with all that he has and saves her from having become a lost cause.

to me, he is the hero of this story. i hope he eventually sees himself this way, too. :)

#helluva boss #blitzø #blitz #stolitz

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silenzahra · 25 days

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A very silly (and cute) post 🤪✨

Hello! First of all, the thing I had last Thursday ended up going well and faster than I expected! Thank you again to all of you for your love and support 🥹🥹🥹 You're all so amazing!!! 💖💖💖

Remember the pic I shared a few days ago with Mario himself? 🤭😁 Welp... Two days ago, after "the thing", I went to the fair again with my friends and had lots of fun, and I went and took pics of all the weird (and cute) Marios I saw here and there 🤭 Soooo.... Are you ready to see them? 😁

As I said, some of them are cute while some others... Well 😅 I'll let you judge by yourselves. This is gonna be a very silly post with some cuteness here and there, so I hope you enjoy! ✨

I didn't know there were Super Mario Pop figures... nor that most of them looked so weird 🤭😅 Glad to see Explorer Mario from Odyssey though! As well as a Green Mario 🤭😂

I have to say, most of these plushies are very cute! I really like the last pic because it looks like Peach is hiding behind Mario so that he can protect her 🤭🥹🩷❤️✨

Okay... Mario, what's with that stache? 😅

This may look like Mario, but if you look closely... That is NOT Mario! That's Red Luigi!!! 😱 The stache and clothes and hat may be Mario's, but the face? It's Luigi's!!! 😱😱😱

I have to say, these are the weirdest sets of Mario toys I've ever seen... Most of them look horrendous 😅 Especially Bowser and some Peaches, lol, though, again, I like to see that there are so many different Marios and Luigis, like Metal Mario or Bubble Luigi, as well as King Penguin and the Rabbids! And, of course, Peach looks very good in Daisy's yellow dress 🤭😂

These are some random figures and things I saw, and, please, if by any chance you know what the two latter things are... I'd be very happy to know 😶

These little figures 🥺🥺🥺 The absolute CUTENESS 😭😭😭 I had bought some of them last year (specifically Mario Maker, Fire Mario and Green Mario), and this year I saw Mario on a plane and it reminded me so much of Super Mario Land that it came home with me 🤭 Also, I don't care at all that Mario has never ridden a unicorn: that figure was so freaking CUTE that I also had to buy it 😌

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO Green Mario, what happened to your leg????? 😩😩😩😩😩

Again, some Odyssey references! And, again, weird Bowser and Peach 😂 Toad looks really good though!

I may or may not have bought one of these 3D posters... 🤭 I was very surprised and happy to see not only Mario Kart and Galaxy, but also Rabbids! 🤩🤩🤩 That's the game I'm currently playing so it was really a nice surprise!

The last two things I'm gonna show you are two fairground rides, so you'll see there are some emojis or red paint here and there: those are people 😅 The fair is always VERY crowded and these two rides were meant for children, so it was very hard to take pics without people in them. Still, I hope you can see them as clearly as possible! ✨

Look at this cute bouncy castle with Mario and Luigi and a pair of Game Boys showing Super Mario Land 🥹🥹🥹 Listen, I LOVED these things when I was a child, so believe me when I say, if adults were allowed in them, you BET I would've jumped in the very first day 😂😂😂

Also, I took the first picture from the top of the Ferris wheel! 😁 The quality wasn't very good, but I just had to seize the chance and photograph the bros from the air 😂

This one, apparently it's made like the videogames? 🤔 With places you have to jump and climb and such, I can't be sure because, again, it's only for kids 😅 But I really loved seeing it from the outside as there are so many beautiful drawings of the characters! 🤩

I LOVE how angry both brothers look on the pic on the left 😳😳😳 And also how in the next two we have Mario Kart, Sunshine, Odyssey and Tanooki in just one look 😂

Also, on the second one, I tried taking pics of Mario and Luigi using their Firebrand and Thunderhand, but unfortunately that one was on the second floor, and there was a fence in front of it to prevent children from falling off, so it was VERY hard to take a decent pic from below 😅 Still, I wanted to include it because, I mean: Superstar Saga reference!!! 🤩🤩🤩

I'm pretty sure you're gonna LOVE the next two 😁

It's THEM!!! 🤩🤩🤩🤩🤩 The best brothers in the entire universe!!! Of course I had to take a pic of them!!! 😁😁😁

And... are you ready for the next one? 🥹

IT'S THE COUPLE EVER. AAAAAAAAHHH

My God, I can't even explain how absolutely HAPPY I was to see they had figures of Mario and Peach, nor how tremendously HARD it was to take this pic as there were always children right in front of them 😅 (or taking pics with Mario, obviously, which I would've done too if possible!)

BUT IT'S THEM. THEY'RE TOGETHER. AND THEY LOOK AMAZING 😭😭😭

Lastly, before I leave, let me show you the cute figures I bought! ✨

As I said, I couldn't resist to the cuteness of both the plane and the unicorn ones, and the shroom and regular Mario are joining a family that I started making last year! 🤭👇

As I mentioned, last year I bought Maker, Fire and Green Mario, but I couldn't find regular Mario. Which is why this year I immediately went and bought him as soon as I found him! 🤭😌❤️

I hope you liked the many Marios they had this year at the fair in my city! 😁😁😁 Out of curiosity: which one was your favorite? And your less favorite? 🤭

Love you! 💖💖💖

#super mario bros #silly post #silly merch #weird merch #mario merch #the fair #fairground rides #bouncy castle #mario and luigi #mario brothers #mario and peach #weird mario

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hannahssimblr · 1 month

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tagged by @sirianasims

oc deep dive with Jude Turner

What uncommon/common fear do they have? If you ask him, he'll try to convince you it's something stupid like bicycles or his teacher's pinky toe after the time she wore sandals to class and it poked out over the strap, but actually he's afraid of his own thoughts and dying alone. Speaking of, anyone single? Wanna make out for a while?

Do they have any pet peeves? People who take everything so seriously. Painful bores. People who are obsessed with World War 2

What are 3 items you can find in their bedroom? Rugby boots with mud still in the studs and getting all over the hardwood floor. Charcoal dust and mounds of sketchbooks, three coffee cups he neglected to return to the kitchen two weeks ago.

What do they notice first in a person? Something in their eye that tells him they know how to have fun and get up to trouble. A sense of humour, a nice mouth and teeth.

On a scale of 1 to 10, how high is their pain tolerance? 5. Average, baby!

Do they go into fight or flight mode when under pressure? Flight. Oh things are hard? Brb deleting my socials again. Forgot to text back. Oh? Did you email me? Sorry I've been super busy...

Do they come from a big family/are they a family person? It's him and Ivy and their parents really. He's not a family person with regards to his fathers side (they are weird) or his mother's Dublin family. He yearns for the peaceful days at great aunt Maureen's and her four adult children....

What animal represents them best? Monkey.

What is a smell that they dislike? Tequila, Weed, Vomit, in that order.

Have they broken any bones? Of course. He got his hands on a skateboard at 10 and immediately tripped down a flight of concrete steps and shattered his arm bone. Being in a cast was cool though, everyone like, signed it and shit.

How would a stranger likely describe them? Wild, manic, troublesome (words taken directly from parent teacher reports)

Are they a night owl or a morning bird? Surprisingly, a morning person. He got used to being up early to get Ivy ready for school when his mom started going to work at 7:30. He stays up late sometimes, sure, but his inner alarm clock always has him wide awake at 7.

What is a flavor they hate and a flavor they love? Jude is not picky, he's an eater, but don't come at him with those big, wet, brown mushrooms they give you with your hotel breakfast. Not in a million years. Flavours he loves is broad, so I'll choose his ice cream preferences. Pistachio, sea salt, raspberry, cherry.

Do they have any hobbies? Drawing, rugby, playstation, hanging out with friends.

Boom, surprise birthday party! How do they react to surprises? He is overjoyed! You guys did this for me? Whaaaaat?

Do they like to wear jewelry? Have you seen his cute lil earrings?

Do they have neat or messy handwriting? Neat enough, c'mon, he's an artiste. His pen control is exemplary

What are two emotions they feel the most? Boredom and melancholy (in private only, thanks)

Do they have a favorite fabric? Plain old cotton. None of that poly-whatever shit. He doesn't need to be the yellow-sweat-stains guy.

What kind of accent do they have? The weirdest Dublin/American hybrid. At this stage of the story he's pretty much just an Irish guy who says a couple of vowels in a weird-ish way.

This was fun! I'll tag @lynzishell @elderwisp @earthmoonz @stillgotme @rebouks @daniigh0ul @scrapplesims

#ask game #lucky boy extras

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aboardthescheherazade · 1 year

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Companion concept art for my collab with @professorcalculusstanaccount (which you can see here)! They needed reference for Marlene Katz's apartment, and then I tried my hand drawing some moments from their concept - her disguise, the finale, and helping give Tintin a makeover.

Extended notes below the cut:

With her apartment, I've always envisioned Marlene living with very kitschy decor. As I said to ProfCal, she's someone who decorates based on sentimentality, rather than keeping to a uniform style, so I tried to make her apartment have little bits and pieces of furniture and decor she's picked up throughout her travels. That doll on the mantle is based on a real Cuban doll I have in my home!

The placement of the evil eye wall ornament was also deliberate. When ProfCal described what they wanted to do with the shootout gif, I thought it would be cool to put in something that's both a sentimental piece of art and symbolic of Marlene's Jewish heritage. The evil eye took the hit for her in that scene.

Story planning assistance was also fun to do, since it ties into a lot of stuff I was planning for The Shattered Emblem...after the events of The Blue Lotus, Rastapopoulos goes to jail, but gets a lighter sentence after making a few bribes. He begins to worm his way into the more criminally-inclined celebrity class, mainly to rebuild connections, especially ones who can help him bend the law better this time. He even crosses paths with Castafiore thanks to his new links to the elites, but the one thing tethering him to his "old" life pre-arrest is Marlene. She's never given up hope on him, even after he got tried for running an actual fucking mob, but Rastapopoulos has only seen her as an air-headed bimbo, a product of being rich and famous and not someone who can actively make him money, so he unceremoniously dumps her.

Marlene is shattered. She goes back to America and she starts teaching ballet to kids in the Bronx, since dance was what she first got into stage productions for. Things actually go really well, and Marlene realizes she likes her new life and being self-sustaining. However, she still misses being in films, even though she's scared to really get back into the industry in case she sees him again. But then he comes to Marlene, now sporting different, ridiculous facial hair and claiming to be a businessman from Gorgonzola, like a character in a bad screenplay. Every nerve in Marlene refuses to trust Rastapopoulos now...it's not because he looks different, but something seems to have warped inside him. This isn't her "Robbie" anymore. She breathes a sigh of relief when all the newspapers declare the Marquis drowned during a standoff in the Red Sea.

(This is a way sillier version of this scene versus the one in my drafts)

And then, leading up to The Golden Palm - Marlene begins to realize she saw a lot of suspicious faces and activities during her time at Cosmos Pictures. It was all so mundane and inconspicuous that she never brought it up, and Rastapopoulos never seemed to hide anything from her, since he assumed - again - that she was an airhead and not to worry about her noticing. But Marlene was witness to a lot of connections that the people involved would kill to keep hidden...

For people new to my blog, this is the character Marlene is adapted from! She is super minor to the plot, but back in 2020 I kept getting ideas for what this random woman's story was, and the ball kept rolling from there:

Once again, huge thanks to ProfCal for inviting me to collab with them! It was a ton of fun, and also super humbling to know how helpful my blog has been for others over the years. To think that all of this started after a few shitposts about mobsters! Tintin belongs to the fans, and I'm so glad to have been part of a fan project like this!

#drawings #oc lore #marlene katz #rastapopoulos #tintin

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povlvr · 2 years

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1 • A New Kind Of Mission | OPERATION: FAKING IT ...?

1 • A New Kind Of Mission | OPERATION: FAKING IT …?

Description: You are summoned to a meeting with Tony Stark, Bucky Barnes & the long suffering PR Executive to present a new kind of mission: Operation: Faking it. Fake dating Bucky Barnes to raise his reputation with the public sounds fun, right?

Pairing: Beefy Bucky Barnes x Female Avenger Reader

Word Count: 3.2k

Warnings: Cute Bucky, swearing.

A/N: I can't believe the response the master list got so thanks for all the likes & follows!! FYI I wanted the presentation above to look as goofy & ridiculous as possible, as though Tony actually sat at a computer tongue out in concentration drawing tiny hearts around Bucky.

Series Masterlist

[Next Chapter]

---

‘Could you repeat that again from the top Tony?’ you glanced at the shy super soldier to you left expecting a similar annoyance that you were feeling to be reflected back at you, if anyone looked like they wanted the floor to open up & swallow them whole it was him & quite frankly you were ready to jump in there with him because you were convinced you had entered a parallel dimension before you were summoned into this meeting; that is the only explanation.

You didn’t even give Tony the chance to open his mouth, holding your finger up to shush him as you began summarising the tomfoolery that had just been presented to you.

‘You are concerned about the image of the team, specifically public opinion of Sargent Barnes, the man whom I might add saves the world on the regular & has jumped through hoop after hoop to appease the government & public, so the only way, literally the only strategy a so-called ‘genius’ with a powerhouse of a PR team behind him can come up with is to stage a romance between said super soldier & myself? Did I get everything there? Encompassed your PowerPoint presentation you worked so tirelessly on, clip-art hearts & everything?’

‘You seem to have grasped the basic concept of ‘Operation: Faking It’ & also thank you for noticing the hearts.’ Tony cockily boasted; you loved Tony, you really did, but even this was trying your patience.

After giving yourself a moment to gather your thoughts, including a exagerrated irritated breath release & nose bridge pinch you were ready to verbally rearrange his insides, when in doubt point out a man’s stupidity & misogyny aka the Romanoff technique.

‘Again, it’s not quite adding up for me because you’re telling me that all the years I have been working my ass off to be in the position I am was leading up to the moment where I have basically been told my sole use in the team is to fake a relationship so that the public, who are complete morons by the way will like a man who was a prisoner of war, tortured & brainwashed for 70 years?’

You caught the smirk on Bucky’s face out the corner of your eye, you knew he would enjoy witnessing Tony Stark being firmly put in his place & you hoped he didn’t think your reluctance to participate was anything to do with him.

Tony’s offended face & fake pearl clutching almost broke your composure ‘Don’t twist our words kid, you know you’re a valued member of the team & everyone’s favourite Avenger.’

‘Then why was I asked? Why me? You could have chosen Natasha? Hell, you could have actually thought outside the box & suggested Steve, Sam, Thor? You know be an ally & get the LGBTQ+ community behind this.’ Yours & Tony’s silent battle of raising a brow to each other was swiftly interrupted by the ‘expert’ PR Exec.

‘You were chosen because your image with the public is solid across the board which will intern lift Sargent Barnes’ & the market research concluded that the idea of two assassins together would make the public nervous.’

‘Ex assassins’ you & Bucky corrected in tandem between gritted teeth. If looks could kill she would have been dust from the scowl you gave her.

Tony was quick to lower the tension, knowing you were a hair's breadth away from walking out, ‘Plus you’re his type & Thor doesn’t look like he’d snuggle up to Barnes quite as adorably as you would for the cameras.’

‘Would people even buy it?’ the whole time the ridiculous proposal was being presented you couldn’t help thinking that the public wouldn’t even fall for it?

‘If you make it convincing enough they will, public dates, hand holding, glancing into each other’s eyes, bit of PDA, under the jumper action around the city.’

‘Thin ice tony’ You warned. A wave of humiliation overcame you at having to ask the question & address the elephant in the room. ‘What I was implying is that Sargent Barnes is a 10. I am … well not, would they even believe he’d date me?’

Tony’s face fell at your comment & you could see Bucky’s expression of confusion in your peripherals, normally you’d explain a modern term to him but this one he could remain clueless about, the last thing he needed to hear was that you thought he was a 10.

You were confident enough when it came to guys, but Bucky wasn’t any other guy, he was probably the prettiest man you’d ever laid eyes on, he was huge & had a hell of a stare on him but was so soft once you got to know him, you’d become friends since your arrival in the tower. You never thought of him as more than a friend, he could do date anyone he set eyes on, like someone supermodel levels of hot so never thought of him as more than a friend.

Tony looked at you with the sincerest face you’d ever seen on him, ‘You’re an 11 kid.’

As much as you appreciated the gesture & threw him a little wink of thanks you were still completely unconvinced this was going to work.

‘Whilst I commend the work that went into the presentation, I’m not sure going for a coffee & dinner is going to get anyone talking.’

‘Well, there’s a little more to it than that.’ Tony stated like he was pointing out the obvious that this stuff is rife in the entertainment industry.

‘We hire a photographer & leak some pictures to the press for your coffee date, it will drum up some attention for the gossip sites & then fan attention with social media will do the leg work to get you noticed in the wider news circuit.’

‘So, you’re almost encouraging strangers to spy on us, that’s a bit of an ick for me Tony.’

‘You’ll be safe with Tin Man over there.’ He assured.

‘I know I will be, but who’s to say that when I’m on my own I will be safe if people are reporting my location to Deuxmoi every day, where I hang out, my schedule.’ You shuddered at the thought, yeah you could handle yourself but the idea of looking over your shoulder constantly wasn't appealing.

‘Tony, I’m not putting her in danger just to score points.’ Bucky warned, he’s a man of few words but when he does speak everyone in the room pays attention at his deep gravelly voice, you couldn’t help noticing the way his jaw was clenching.

‘Ok, if you agree to this then switch it up, go to a new coffee place, bakery, book shop etc just whilst we’re running the campaign. Oh & it’s probably best you both temporarily re-locate to the tower too, just to prevent any potential for people following you home. I’ve already set up the arrangements on the assumption you agree.’

The very quiet PR chimed in. ‘It’s not that we expect crazy fans to show up at your door, we just expect the media focus to be intense at the start & you really don’t want them chasing after you home.’

‘Enough Tony, she’s not uprooting her whole life, putting herself in danger for me & my mistakes, all to prove to people I’m no longer a psycho killer.’

You reached across to squeeze his arm, he wasn’t huge on physical touch but you both needed grounding to keep this meeting from boiling over, you spoke to him earnestly ‘They weren’t your mistakes Bucky.’ Before turning back to Tony ‘if and it’s a big IF I do this then relocating to the tower is a sensible option I guess, I’d have a list of demands though & so will Bucky.’

‘I expect nothing less kid. Look, it will be initially coffee, dinner, a bit of social media interaction, attend a party or Gala nothing taxing & nothing you don’t already do as friends, so just hold hands, stand closer to one another & the gossip sites will put two & two together & write about you. Then we’ll reassess in a month to see how it’s going & if it’s worth continuing etc. Think it over & we’ll reconvene tomorrow.’

‘Ok but how does it end? It can’t go on forever, what if one of us meets someone, we’ll eventually start seeing other people for real, I mean a girl has needs Tony.’ Bucky’s stomach weirdly dropped at the thought of something not even real ending, then couldn’t get his mind off you at your other concern.

‘Easy tiger, it’s simple, a ‘close source’ will tell a reputable publication that you work better as friends & decided to call it a day. You both get out of it your reputation intact & Bucky’s elevated if all goes to plan.’

You let out a breath & rubbed your face trying to keep your mind from going into overdrive, ‘Ok, can Bucky & I use the room to talk it over & decide if we want to do it?’

‘Sure you can Kiddo, oh … and no missions whilst this is going on, k byeee’

As the eccentric billionaire swanned out the office in style with the PR exec on his tail you turned to the Super Solider on your left, you couldn’t help but laugh at his expression, it was a mix between being perplexed by the situation & angry about being benched.

‘So, no missions aside, what do you think about all this?’

He couldn't quite look you in the eyes as he gathered his thoughts, ‘I think … I’m mainly embarrassed that I’m 107 years old & being made to stage a romance so that strangers on the internet will like me more & that you of all people are being dragged into it.’ A little sad smile graced his face before his customary scowl returned.

‘I get it, modern times suck I bet, but there will be more than just strangers paying attention. It’s laughable that they didn’t lead with appeasing the higher ups which could intern give you more freedom & less scrutiny seeing you as a ‘functioning’ person. I would have agreed to it in a second had that been mentioned, if you were comfortable with it, of course.’

‘But why are you so willing to help? It’s a lot to ask of you to put your life on hold, move & then the fake dating thing.’

‘Helping out a friend is reason enough. Plus, think about it, we won’t have to cook, clean or do laundry for like a month if we’re living in the tower, it will be like a vacation & Tony will give us whatever we want.’ You wiggled your brows coming up with a list in your head of ridiculous items you could ask Tony for as the Super Solider shook his head chuckling at you.

‘I only need a bed.’

‘Where’s the fun in that Bucky? We could be outrageous I’m thinking new car, a puppy, cinema room in my apartment, unlimited ice cream, a unicorn.’ You checked off your fingers at every wild thing running through your imagination.

He raised his brows trying to stifle a laugh at your ridiculous list, ‘you do realise unicorns are mythical beings, don’t you?’

‘Hey if anyone can get me a Unicorn, it’s Tony Stark.’

‘And a puppy? You are an actual puppy you couldn’t handle one on your own.’

‘Yeah, a puppy, why not? You can be their Papa. We could take him on walks around the city, the beach, oh my god we can set him up an Instagram account & all wear matching outfits in our pictures. It’ll be so freaking cute.’ You were practically bouncing on your chair.

Bucky being the voice of reason wanted you to think this over a bit more, ‘Don’t get your hopes up Doll, Tony hasn’t agreed to it yet, what about missions? Who will look after him? What about this when it’s all over, we won’t be living in the tower, so I won’t see him.’ He looked so sad saying that & you knew you had him wrapped around your finger, no one can say no to you.

‘You could come over & see him whenever you like or us come to yours, we’ll share, he’ll be ours. Tony can’t say no to me, he thinks he can, but I just need to flash him some fluttery lashes & he would sign over Stark Industries to me, so me asking for a puppy is showing him mercy, trust me, the puppy is ours. Fury will love him, did you know Fury loves dogs, he has two, I'm not supposed to say what kind, if anyone asks they are Dobermann's ... they're actually Pomeranian's, white little fluffy things. I bet we’ll have so many people fighting to look after him when we’re on missions.’

Bucky couldn’t help being swept up in the imaginary scenario of you sharing a dog with him, despite him knowing it was a terrible idea & all the horror scenarios his brain conjured at the thought he nodded his head at you. His therapist would be proud of him choosing the path that leads to potential happiness instead of the safe miserable one he usually went for despite it being reckless & not thought out in the slightest. Who was he kidding, he couldn’t say no to you.

‘Ok so the puppy is on the list’ he conceded, ‘But, do you actually need a new car?’ You beamed at him agreeing to the puppy so easily, you should use your powers of persuasion for evil if the hero life didn’t work out for you, you thought.

You shrugged your shoulders trying to justify the request knowing Tony would expect a valid argument presented to him to justify the cost, ‘Nope, I never drive but you just never know when you’ll need a ride so it’s handy to have, ya know?’ You argued.

‘Where are you going to keep the car, does your apartment have a parking garage?’

‘No, it does not. I could keep it at the tower, yeah Tony will let me.’ You nodded trying to convince him with your smug smile & challenging eye contact.

He looked at you amused knowing you would fold at his next logical question, ‘So, you’d have to travel to the tower to then travel somewhere else?’

‘I see your point.’ Ok, so you couldn’t win every battle & you really didn’t think the car through in fairness, it just sounded so fun to be able to go on rides in the middle of the night to McDonalds without anyone from Uber judging your eating habits.

‘How about if you need a ride you call me & I’ll take you, I’ve got my bike or my car if the puppy is with you.’

‘Sweet. I guess it lowers my chance of being kidnapped by an Uber driver.’ You grinned at him, he’d learn to regret that offer, you really did get on with Bucky & he seemed comfortable with you, he tended to keep you in check & according to Tony ‘within the atmosphere of reality’ when your enthusiasm or imagination ran riot, so you knew this would be a fairly simple assignment for you both.

‘hmmm what else could we get?’ you said thinking out loud, your fingers drumming on your chin as you pondered what else to ask for.

‘Like I said, having a bed, you & a puppy seems a good deal.’ You let his words sink in because he would be stuttering in no time at the gaff, oh his sweet innocent 1940’s mind.

‘What I mean Is …’ Bucky stuttered, he was such a gentleman that any accidental innuendo or double meaning took him a second to register & then a flood of embarrassment would hit him, it was incredibly cute really.

‘I got what you meant, don’t have a coronary. What about a cabin in the woods, co-ownership? We can take road trips, swim in a lake, see baby deer, build a fire. Oh, the puppy will love it, we need to think of a name for them, we can get matching Kagools.’ You quickly clapped your hands in excitement, you wanted a rainy forest & warm cabin covered in blankets & all snuggling up in front of the fire.

Bucky chuckled at you knowing there was no talking you out of something once you’d painted that picture in your head, ‘Whatever you want Bambi. Just make a list & see what you can get away with I say.’ He chuckled.

You blushed at the nickname, you needed to think of a woodland related one for him. ‘So, we’re doing this? Coffee, dinner dates, bit of insta flirting?’

‘Sounds like we are, no idea what insta flirting is though.’ He admitted shyly.

You smiled warmly at him, ‘I’ll teach ya.’ He couldn’t help reaching out for your hand & bringing it to his mouth, he didn’t understand why you were always so kind & understanding towards him, he always enjoyed spending time with you so to have an excuse to be in your vicinity whenever he wanted felt like it was his lucky day.

You winked as his lips touched your knuckles gently, ‘That’s the spirit.’

‘Hey, that was genuine.’ He faked scowled at you as he unlinked your fingers.

‘Oh, Sorry.’ You blushed at his gesture & that him being sweet came from a real place, you reached out to him & placed a kiss on his cheek.

‘So we’re doing this.’ You smiled at him & Bucky found himself reflecting it on his own, he would even go so far as to say he was looking forward to the next month.

As you made your way home to pack up your belongings & spend one final night in your apartment you couldn’t help but be excited for what was to come, yes for the puppy but Bucky being there with you too, he was a good guy & needed pushing to leave his house when he wasn’t on missions. He had once told you that living his life as a free man was stressful, he’d missed out on so much, having been held captive for so long he found the choices of what to do & where to go overwhelming at times so just stayed home. You always hated the thought of him alone, so having a little family tied together with a puppy would be good for him, who cares about the PR bullshit you thought.

The next day you both crossed the T’s & dotted the I’s & laid out the final plan & agreements with Tony & Rachel the ‘PR wizard', you’d snitch on Tony to Dr Strange at a later date for the ridiculous title he gave her.

So, you didn’t end up getting the blue whale on your list, you compromised graciously with a whale watching trip, a trip to Wakanda to see Bucky’s goats, use of Tony’s log cabin in the woods whenever you liked, a puppy & unlimited Ben & Jerry’s for life for both you & the super soldier, quite frankly it seemed like a sweet deal.

Bucky quietly admired your strength in arguing every crazy demand & saw Tony almost working out how he could get you a blue whale at one point before you relented to common sense once Bucky had managed to talked you down but mostly he loved seeing the sheer joy on your face at every yes from Tony, immediately turning to him with a wink, he knew that the next month or so would be filled with your unwavering enthusiasm for every event & would hopefully let him experience some of it through you, it was just a few dates & pictures with a friend, nothing more, right?

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Hoped you enjoyed guys, this was just the set up chapter ready for the two fluffy idiots to commence their faux romance. Don't forget to like, reblog & follow!!

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