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yuraimi-lee-bunny · 3 years

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GRAY’S CHARACTER ANALYSIS Part III.5. Graham Calloway: The Walking Enigma.

After a full two weeks of work I managed to finish this part! As I mentioned before, it will be part "3.5", where you will see interesting details about Graham. It will be a long chapter guys, I warn you. Thank you very much for all your support in the previous chapters and I’m glad that you’re liking it and that it has also helped some to understand Graham in some aspects. Nothing more to say:

Here we go!

In the third season there was nothing of Gray, just a scene where it gave us to show that the moment has come: The return of Gray and his importance in the fourth season is now inevitable.

And well, who would have thought that Gray would be the first thing it showed us in the first scene of last season.

I told you, it’s something important. The first scene with which a season begins is sometimes, in some cases, used to show some signs of what the whole season holds, or what a character holds throughout the season. A great example and one that is one of my favorites, but at the same time it’s painful, is from second season of 13 Reasons Why. The first scene that opens the season is where Tyler Down comes out, a character that with his dialogues and the cut to black of the first scene with which he opens the seaso, is basically anticipating EVERYTHING that Tyler would bring in that season. Showing Tyler, a secondary character, and not showing the main characters, is an indication that you should pay attention to that character, that Tyler (and Gray) would be an important character throughout the plot to point out something, which will be important at some point in history (or the most important). Believe me when I analyzed the Tyler scene, I was fascinated by such visual/narrative language, but at the same time I almost cried to understand everything… sorry, let's get on with Gray.

Here, in my opinion, is the same: it show in just one scene EVERYTHING that will happen to Gray this season. I explain:

(Earlier, Congratulations Gray! You were promoted to Lighting Technician!)

He’s in a dark room, illuminated with the light of the work, which is a red light. As we know, Graham, actually has amnesia, he doesn't know anything about who he really is, that's why the allegory with the dark room. The red light represents Carmen, who watches over Graham, he trusts her a lot, so he's "protected", because Carmen will not allow him to remember that he was a VILE agent. For this reason, a dark room and a red light, and he’s calm and happy.

Well, no more.

ACME has arrived, has revealed his full name, has opened a door that illuminates the other side with white light. ACME is the one who will unknowingly cause Gray to know the truth, and with that, a new path for Graham that will lead him to the light.

A path where he will choose which identity will predominate in his life. But before going to light, Graham/Crackle and Gray will have to endure and deal with many obstacles and decisions. He’s the only one who will decide, No ACME, No VILE, No Carmen.

One more thing.

Graham, what is your obsession for wristbans? All I can say is: Graham likes to do his job well.

Chief introduces herself to Graham, and he can't help but know what would happen if he touches Chief's hologram. As I have already said: he wants to know the answers with his own hands.

She asks him a question and Graham, as he’s in the habit and I had previously analyzed it, he gives details that no one asked, but he likes to give. Fun fact: in the original dubbing, Graham says the english name of the Opera "The Thieving Magpie." In the Spanish dub, Graham says “La gazza ladra” saying the original name, even using a slight Italian accent.

I loved this little detail because it adds to that curious Graham/Gray habit of giving details to his answers, and let's remember something: the dubbing is supervised by the crew, so I guess they liked the idea.

Gray asks if they are Interpol or the CIA. Faced with CHIEF's response that they are "Consider us all of the above. Except they don’t know we exist" Gray thinks of a single person. That is somehow cute like him until he gets excited that maybe this is a new chance to see Carmen again. For Chief it’s a new path towards Carmen.

You don't know how much I would have liked to hear all the conversation Graham gave Chief. With those details that he loves to give. But it makes me laugh a bit as even he has a cup of coffee, hinting that the story was going to be long. And once again, showing his love for coffee. How nice of ACME to have given Graham coffee. One more thing to make you laugh more.

His expression, that expression that seems to express "Thank you but... you aren’t Carmen"

Chief's questions confuse Graham because since he already lived what Carmen does from his own experience, he’s sure that Carmen is one of the "good guys". Confusing Chief further. We move on to how Chief believes that Graham is no clue to be closer to the truth behind Carmen, but Chase arrives, and finally finds Gray again, that missing link for Carmen. Gray is still being targeted by ACME.

Chase arrives and thinks that everything will be easy, but again, he won't be able to get anything because Gray doesn't remember being Crackle back then. Gray finally reveals to ACME his "accident at work" that has caused him to have a year-long amnesia. It's funny how Graham responds to Chase that he's an orphan. As he does not like to mention that part of his life. Interesting point is the only thing I will mention.

Graham when mentioning such an accident and the consequences of it, it shows that deep down, he is worried and intrigued in all that year he disappeared from his life. As if he feels that he can't be himself if he doesn't have all the memories of him. From his body language, he shows how something really affects him.Mentioning this, in addition to showing for the first time more clearly that Graham really cares about his amnesia, this data is interesting to Chase, he believes him and that serves to make Graham closer to the truth.

Chase and Chief reveal everything to Gray, that although Graham left the hospital, he never entered, all the details, and Gray doesn’t remember anything. It’s revealed that he is telling the truth, and Chief says one of the best ways to describe Gray.

This phrase, this phrase for me is the best way to describe Gray, and not because of his current state with amnesia, but since the beginning of the series, his actions and feelings are a mystery, his empathy for Carmen is clear, procuring the good of people he appreciates, but also his ambition and being successful, going too far to the point of taking actions of questionable morality. Now, something that has left me thinking a lot, is that he really seems very concerned when he notices that many things don’t make sense, and as I already said and this proves it one more: the truth matters a LOT to him. He cares a LOT about identity, really being himself.

Graham already said it, he's an orphan. Of course, no one but him cares to know the truth, of all those memories that are blank. In himself, he doesn’t know anything about his roots, the phrase "Not that I know of. I’m an orphan" suggests that he really doesn’t know ANYTHING about his parents, he doesn’t even know if he had siblings. Surely he doesn't even know if they died or abandoned him. I may be over-analyzing everything, but I think that's why Graham/Gray cares about being himself, being a person of integrity, and want to be successful: because he only has himself. And he can only trust himself. He wants to show himself that he can achieve many things. But everything is for his own benefit. Something that has caused me a lot of curiosity is that Gray is never seen around people, or that he is seen to be extremely sociable. He gets off work and he's alone, he's at work and he's alone, he's in the cafeteria and he's alone. I don’t know if it’s the factor of the series, I mean the fact of not putting more character in the story and the whole story mobilizes faster. But I want to believe that this also reflects how Gray is lonely, for his own sake, because he just trusts himself. Yes, he has a certain personality of being able to work as a team and interact with them, but that was within VILE, but outside, in the world, it seems that he doesn’t connect, or doesn’t want to connect with the world. Why? I think I have a slight idea:

we had already heard it before

Although it’s a good joke, it’s curious that he asks this kind of thing. He’s afraid of the unknown and that it may harm him. This is just my little theory, but maybe just maybe, Gray doesn't like to be and feel vulnerable. He always looks calm, being out of the unnecessary drama, he recovers quickly to any failure or mistake he makes. But deep down, I've noticed that at the 3 phases: Graham/Gray/Crackle, they don't like being vulnerable, being in the unknown and not knowing what to do, being in danger and being harmed. Physically and emotionally. I think I understand why: the world has already hurt him since he was born, living alone, not knowing what to do and why he came into the world. He doesn’t know his roots, he doesn’t know why he came to the world. What kind of parents he may have had and what kind of "customs" he inherited from them. He only has himself, what he knows is the only thing he has, his memories, his experiences are the only thing he has and he knows what his personality has shaped him, his way. Nobody built his path, nobody guided him, it was him alone. We don’t know if somebody adopted him or if he just wanted to survive as he could. But at least, from what I can see, is that he has always wanted to be alone. Now that he doesn’t have that amnesia, he feels that he has lost himself, because that year of experiences, of memories is important for Graham, because it’s the only thing he has that makes him feel complete in this world where he is alone. I hope I have been clear and haven’t confused you.

His actions and personality come from there, from realizing that he only has himself, that he doesn’t belong to anyone or anything, but still he will give everything to himself, he will not let anyone or anything make him feel bad. He will take advantage of everything he knows and can learn to do, live his entire life completely, be successful, show himself that for him and for him, he will be able to do interesting and great things.

This makes me a little thoughtful and empathetic, because here Graham, seeing all the details that his stay in the hospital doesn’t make sense, that he doesn’t know what happened, and just having himself, as never before, Graham feels lost, he maintains control as much as he can, but little by little he’s overcoming the situation, he feels a little vulnerable and the saddest thing in some way is that there is no one to help him. Apparently there never was. And let's be honest: Chief is proposing the experimental method just because she wants to know about Carmen and the connection she has with Graham, nothing more, it isn’t to fully help Graham. It isn’t by putting ACME as being “not at all empathic” but rather that this reaffirms how alone Graham is in the world. I hope I don't sound exaggerated with all this I have mentioned.

The moment has arrived:

They put the device on Graham, activate it, and memories begin to emerge.

When Chase asked about the train trip 18 months ago, it’s one of the first memories he sees: attacking Carmen with the Crackle Rod. He screams, and I think I know why, because he appreciates Carmen and can't believe he was going to attack her.

This scene in his eyes is VERY important for later, in the next part of the analysis it will be mentioned why. I loved this scene because taking this approach to his eyes invites you to be inside Graham's head and his memories. And at the same time, it will have a reason for being later.

Seeing the scenes of how Graham suffers without understanding anything, seeing VILE, the Faculty, the training, his first mission. Graham, the one back then who cared about being one of the "good guys" was facing memories where he was a "bad guy." The crew seriously did a good job of showing how much he is shocked and suffered when dealing with so many memories that made him confront his morals.

They turn off the device, Chase worries and wants to see how Graham is doing. But, as someone had already mentioned before:

he woke up AND CHOSE VIOLENCE

He goes out. Without a problem he takes down some Acme agents. And he leaves ACME.

The reason for his uncontrolled "bad" side is because Graham believed that he only had amnesia, but as we already knew at the beginning of this season, they also suppressed his stealing side, his "VILE side", the device not only caused a clash of memories , but also one of morals. Crackle left ACME, but on the street it was Graham, remembering only numbers to dial, which was VILE. Crackle did actions that only confused Graham more and more. Crackle was awake but only unconsciously and for lapses.

Crackle dials the number, but Graham is the one who answers. He doesn’t recognize anything that he does, but those memories, that unconscious that is Crackle is the one who responds. This shot to his eyes again, now with a green glow. The visual language they use in the series in general is simply wonderful.

One of my favorite scenes: Graham saving this boy.

Believe me something, this scene, this action is not filler, it wasn’t only to continue the suspense of "Crackle to Graham and vice versa" but it tells you a lot about Gray's true morality, of his experiences in 18 months with empathy are beginning to bear fruit.Including how much Carmen impacted on his life.

I mean this: Gray is supposed to have had his "VILE side" suppressed, the side of him that steals, but only that, the rest that complements Gray's personality is still intact. Now that Crackle is unconsciously awake, it’s only for lapses. Because Graham didn’t understand those memories in VILE, Graham, the one who cared so much about being one of the "good guys", that body identifying himself as Graham who lived 18 months of empathy, had an effect on his cognition.

Remember in part 3 of this review, I asked if everything that was presented to us in past seasons about Graham was a lie? Well, from these first 3 episodes of this season I can confirm that NO, all that moments weren’t a lie. Although Crackle/Gray didn’t voluntarily make the decision to be "good", his body, his cognition responded well and he agreed to do those actions. Crackle didn’t take full control of Graham, he appeared only when he saw the opportunity to steal.

But when doing something for others, Graham appeared.

The Graham/Crackle body was having a "moral" discussion. Graham was holding on to his belief that he was the good guy. Graham is latent like Crackle. If we call it very crudely, the "good" and "bad" side of it are coming out at the same time, one doesn’t predominate more than the other. Very chaotically and unwillingly, because of ACME's experimental apparatus, he was being Gray. Without fully understanding yet that he’s what he really wants to do: be empathetic or ambitious. When actually it can be both, but then we'll get to that part later.

Graham goes to the boy's house. He considers going to boy’s house to return his wallet.

A point that isn’t from me, but from a friend who insists that I put this. I appreciate her very much, so I will: My friend thinks this smile is because Graham when he looks the house, he imagines what it would be like to have a home and a family. I leave it to your own criteria.

When he looks out the window to see if there is someone, it opens for isn’t properly closed. Again, Crackle emerges.

The unconscious never speaks, it only acts. It's interesting to see that whenever Crackle shows up, he never speaks, it just acts, it just steals.

This is one of the most interesting scenes (and at least for me, it hurt me a little bit)

Do you notice how Graham returns when the world has contact with him? When Crackle arises it’s because he sees his ambition, when those VILE memories come out and they’re the ones that impacted him the most, that marked his life. But when the outside world makes an appearance, makes contact with him, Graham appears again. Graham in 18 months of empathy vowed to be good, and his cognition agreed with that, no matter how strong his memory drives were in VILE. Because this is his personality as he has already been mentioned several times: he’s committed to what he wants to achieve, to what is really born to him.

He sees this woman, and remembers the archaeologist. It’s the same as with the boy who was almost going to get run over, this scene isn’t only for the suspense, it’s to show that memories in VILE have marked Crackle back then. Being in VILE, studying there, the crackle rod, the adrenaline of stealing marked him, but the archaeologist's event also and from another way. When he was going to take a life for the first time. In the second part of my analysis I said it, it was obvious that he wasn’t convinced to do it, something inside him didn’t like doing such an act. This confirms it.

Remembering that whole event, how he almost took a life shocks him so much that he fell to the ground. He’s actually suffering from confusion, but also from remembering something so vile that he was about to do.

He answered not only because the woman asked him, he's telling himself too. You can see that by the tone of his voice, the way he's closing his eyes. He wanted to deny that the one he sees in his memories is him. He doesn't want to believe that he was bad.

Well… now Graham is going to jail. Making him a target now of all: ACME, VILE and Carmen.

He’s locked up in jail, just because Iceland has a very low crime rate, he doesn’t want to eat, he looks sad, and not even the police are there to investigate further his answers. Graham claims that he doesn’t know why he wasn’t in that house. The police only answered by mere logic, that if he had other people's belongings, it was theft. They don’t bother to delve further into Graham's answers to at least realize that he suffers from amnesia and incoherent seizures. Again: he feels alone in this world.

... you know? this whole chapter watching Gray so confused and sad made me feel sick. I'm a very empathic person, so everything that was going on Graham really I feel it. And seeing this scene with Gray's photo, I was between laughter and suffering. I couldn't bear to see him more and more confused.

This shot makes me very sentimental but it's great, can we appreciate it for a moment please?

In addition to showing how frustrated Graham is, the visual narrative in this image also explains his situation. He’s alone, he feels that no one can help him, the shadow covers the part of his head, his forehead to be concrete, where are all those memories that he doesn’t understand and he doesn’t want to accept. Where he lies and now is awake unconsciously Crackle. But his body is in the light, he clings to the light and in believing that he is Graham Calloway and he always was. And at that moment, he’s no longer alone, Carmen's shadow emerges from the light, somehow erasing the fence, that separation between the two. Because unconditionally she was always there. She will always be there Carmen for Graham.

He’s amazed to see her but at the same time he feels so relieved. She’s the person he trusts the most and that he knows that she will help him. But the cleaners arrive and give Carmen a tough fight. Graham helps her with whatever he can. After they leave, Carmen doesn't know why but she doesn't waste time trying to get Graham out of the cell. But the Bellum Robot arrives. And now Graham is in VILE’s hands.

Did you realize that these 3 episodes happened in a whole day? Graham basically hasn't slept. The boy goes a long way without sleeping I guess.

I never believed that he would analyze so much in these 3 episodes, I’m still surprised but very happy. I hope you liked it and as I always tell you: if you have any questions or want to comment/add something that was commented on, do so, what better than feedback from everyone. The fourth part will be published soon, I promise. Greetings!

Part. I Introdution

Part. II Empathy vs Ambition

Part. III Amnesia and it’s Future Consequences

Part. III.5 Graham Calloway: The Walking Enigma (HERE)

Part. IV Integrity At a high (and unfair) price

Part. V The final decision and a new beginning

Plus 1. Gray and his strange habit of explaining things

Plus 2. Crossover: Sabrina And Gray: New Beginning

Plus 3. Crossover: Hawk/Eli and Crackle/Gray: Redemption

#carmen sandiego #graham calloway #carmen sandiego 2019 #graham crackle #carmen sandiego netflix #VILE #ACME #chase devineaux #red crackle #eve's analysis

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scaredsimp · 3 years

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Not ready to let go

tsukishima x female! reader

Warnings: angst, fluff, it’s awful and I’m unmotivated to fix it

You stand next to coach nekomada staring at the court in awe as the sound of sneakers against hard wood and loud breathing and grunts Fill the room. You’ve been to plenty of kuroos games but now instead of being in the bleachers you were right next to the court.

It was like a totally different experience and now since you were nekomas manager you felt like you were apart of the team not just watching it.

You’ve been best friends with kuroo since you were children and only started being nekomas manger this month! You did it because you saw how much it meant to the team.

And if it meant more opportunities to make fun of kuroo than you were more than willing to do it. They were only having a practice match against kurasunos and it looks like a really close call, But nekoma ends up winning the final set.

After both teams bowed and said there rather aggressive “thank you for the game!” You jog over to where kenma and kuroo are standing. Kuroo is talking to kurasunos number 10 and 11 and Kenmas playing on his game console but he keeps stealing glances at the orange haired kid.

‘I’ll have to remember that’ you take a quick mental note of kenmas behavior. Kuroo notices you walking over “hey, y/n were you so entranced by my playing you came to give me a victory kiss?”

You scoff “in your dreams rooster. I came to say hi to your new friends.” He puts on a playful pout before continuing to speak. “Well kitten this is tsukishima kei and hinata shoyo.”

You turn to the two boys “it’s nice to finally meet you both, I’m y/n nekomas new manger. I hope kuroo hasn’t been to much of a bother.”

Tsukishima gives an annoyed look and says “I wish I could say he wasn’t.” It makes your eye brow twitch in annoyance. ‘Ugh great he’s one of THOSE type of guys the ones that acts like assholes than are surprised when people are mad at them for it.’

You know it’s bad to assume but it’s a gift of yours to have amazing prediction of personality. And it keeps you out of making bad friends.

But you don’t say any of that instead you just return his annoyed glare hoping it sends the message of ‘I don’t like you already’. Hinata has been looking confused since you walked over.

And he finally speaks up “wait kuroo why didn’t you tell me you have a girlfriend???” The way hinata has a slight pout on his face and his hand gestures remind you of a toddler.

you just turn and give a playful punch to kuroos shoulder “Sorry for the confusion it’s just how we are. Me and kuroos family have known each other for a long time.”

Since your now facing kuroo you can see that he and tsukishima are staring at each other. It’s definitely not friendly but it’s not completely hostile either . You can’t quite pin what it is.

“Kuroo? Are you okay?” You asking in a slightly concerned voice. Kuroo looks down and gives you a small smile “I’m fine. You look so cute when your worried.”

His hand moves it self to your shoulder but you don’t move away. You and kuroo have known each other for so long that this kind of intimate Gesture was completely normal.

Little did you know that ever since the match started tsukishima could not take his eyes off you. Of course he payed attention enough to play but whatever moment he had to spare he spent it glancing at you.

I mean how could he help it? You looked adorable, watching the match in amazement like a small child looking through the window of a toy store.

kuroos been in a sour mood ever since he noticed tsukishima looking at you. After all you were his. he adored you, you were kind yet outspoken and wouldn't let people walk all over you.

He hasn't said anything to you about his feelings because he was scared you would hate him. He’s not sure he’ll ever get over you, he supposes when a guy he approves of comes into your life he’ll let it go but that guy is NOT tsukishima.

when the match was over Kuroo decided to give tsukishima a warning before looking at you like that again. he stepped in close so hinata and kenma couldn't hear him.

“Watch your self tsuki, if you hurt her I’ll rip you to shreds.” tsukishima just scoffed “Calm down Prince Charming I don’t plan on it.”

That’s when he noticed you walking over so he put on his smile for you. “hey, y/n were you so entranced by my playing you came to give me a victory kiss?” you shot back one of your insults but he wasn't listening instead he was staring right at the clearly pissed tsukishima.

he broke his staring to look at you again while you interduce yourself “it’s nice to finally meet you both, I’m y/n nekomas new manger. I hope kuroo hasn’t been to much of a bother.”

He can see your eyebrow twitch at tsukis response. ‘always so protective’ kurro gave a silent chuckle, shooting a look at tsukishima that meant ‘see she doesn't even like you’ that tsuki ignored.

.......

its been a month since that kurasuno match. you, Kuroo, tsukishima, and Bokuto are hanging out together. and turns out your ability to read personalities failed you because tsuki is just a big tsundere and he’s fun to be around when he’s not teasing you or calling you a brat.

The original plan was to go to an arcade but once you got there you all realized it was a total dump. the carpet smelled awful, there was mold growing in the corner of the walls, and all the games were either out of order of for children.

so you turned around and tried to find something else to do. kuroo was on his phone to see if there were anymore arcades near when Bokuto said “we should go see a movie! there’s a new scary movie out and i want to see it. akashi said i would be scared so i want to prove he’s wrong!”

tsuki gives one of his stingy remarks “Ugh, i know witch one your talking about. it has awful reviews why would you-” you cut him off with a punch to the stomach “of course we can see it bo! don’t worry tsuki if you get scared you can hold my hand.”

..............

When walking into the theater your hit with the smell of melted butter. your thankful that the theater was in much better shape than the arcade. Kuroo and Bokuto take the liberty of getting the tickets while you and tsuki get the snacks.

“I hope Kuroo is okay. he’s been awfully quiet this whole time. And bokuto has been acting weird to it’s like he’s really trying to make kurro laugh.” you and tsukishima are standing by a table tucked in a corner waiting for the others. tsuki gives a soft chuckle

“I'm sure he’s fine brat.” rolling your eyes you look up at the boy ‘w o w. has he always been this pretty?’ when you feel your cheeks heating up you turn you head away from him ‘hopefully he didn't see that....’

tsuki cant believe how adorable you are. he places his hand on your chin and forces you to look at him you. You completely forget where you are and lean in but the sound of Bokutos cheering makes you both pull away.

“Alright! lets get going! whos ready to watch trolls!!” you can tsuki deadpan wile kuroo burst out laughing. “TROLLS? Bokuto what happened to getting the horror movie tickets? This is why I can leave the both of you without supervision.” You say in a mildly annoyed tone.

............

While sitting in the theater you feel your eyelids start to get heavy. You have been working yourself pretty hard that week trying to get all your assignments done.

Before you know it your out like a light and are resting your head on a very concerned tsukishima. ‘Why’s she so tierd? Has she not been getting enough sleep?’ he eventually makes the decision to take you home, make sure you had food in your stomach, and send you to bed.

He taps your shoulder lightly. “Huh?” You blink your eyes open “what is it tsukishima?” “Get up I’m taking your home.”

After some protest you eventually agree.Bokuto and kurros head turns in your direction. “Why are you leaving I thought the movie was good?” Bokuto says with a pout while kuroo just sits still. With a horrified look on his face.

When you both leave the theater kurro exscuses himself to the bathroom. When he gets there silent tears run down his face.

Bokuto placed a hand on kurros shoulder. Kurro jumped in surprise not knowing the boy followed him in. “C’mere” he says soft and gentle and pulls kurro into his chest.

Kuroo told bokuto about his feelings for you and could tell that kurro was upset about how close you’d gotten with tsukishima. All he could do was comfort his friend and help him move on.

‘I’m such an idiot.’ It felt as if his heart was drowning and would never recover. He loves you. He loves you so much and his biggest regret is not telling you.

#kurro x reader #kurro tetsuro #tsukishima angst #tsukishima fluff #tsukishima x reader #tskuishima #tsukikuro #bokuto #bokuaka #haikyu headcanons #incorrect haikyuu quotes #haikyuu!!#haikyu x reader #haikyū!!

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thebibliomancer · 3 years

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Essential Avengers: Avengers #235: Havoc on the Homefront!

September, 1983

Welcome to the Wizard’s Mansion of Mechanized Mayhem!

This cover has got it going on!

Where “it” is “multiple things.”

Still, I love covers that are just like ‘here’s a couple things happening today’ and this is a great version of that concept with the things being viewing screens that the Wizard is looking at.

He’s watching the Avengers in various peril channel.

This is a good cover!

So last time: uh, a couple things. Wasp called Vision and Scarlet Witch in as reservists when Annihilus tried to blow up the universe with an invisible dome. The two basically contributed nothing but Vision was thrown into a robotic coma.

Wanda and Vision in a tube moved into the mansion while he recovers and Wanda recapped her entire backstory including new retcon that Magneto is totally her dad.

Then she had a Dr. Strange crossover. Since it also involved Monica, two Avengers makes it notable enough to synopsize in brief. And its titled Assault on Avengers Mansion! so its like its baiting me.

Dr. Strange astral projects to bother Wanda when she’s trying to get some grief reading in. He wants to find the Darkhold and she’s the last known possessor or vice versa because thats when she was possessed by Cththon and had to be saved with a care bear stare from the Avengers. But Dr. Strange really wants the Darkhold to stop Dracula from getting it. Yes, Dracula.

Since the Darkhold is being stored in a vault at Avengers Mansion after Beast brought it back from Wundagore, Dracula’s cult attacks and manages to break into the Mansion. Dr. Strange, Wanda, and Captain Marvel all fight off Dracula’s cult and then Dr. Strange trolls Dracula by teleporting the Darkhold somewhere else.

Also, Avengers Mansion got trashed in a break-in in Fantastic Four #257. Dammit. Whats with all the intertextuality in this era?

So that story there is: mostly a lot of Galactus eating the Skrull homeworld and fallout from aforementioned Annihilus story. Only the last two pages are relevant.

Mr. Fantastic shows up to Avengers Mansion to check on Vision, Wanda goes to make him tea, and then he’s teleported to a space trial leaving a giant melted hole in the mansion.

Honestly, I don’t know why FF got asterisked instead of the Dr. Strange issue. They both messed up the mansion but the Dracula cult was more of a break-in than someone leaving a giant hole in the wall. Although that’s more mysterious.

Anyway, with two different ‘read this also’s between issues that messed up the mansion, no wonder the opening splash has to be devoted to a repair crew patching things up.

Wasp is putting her size-shifting to good use to literally micro-manage. Zipping around at tiny size telling everyone how to do their job.

Captain America who is also supervising and impressing people with how buff he is gets annoyed and goes to tell her to stop but stops himself.

Captain America: No... No. She’s in charge here, and I have to let her handle things as best she can. Her methods do seem to bring results... They’re just not my methods, that’s all. Yeah...

And then he sulks off, ignoring Wasp when she asks what he’s muttering to himself.

Hm. The new leader honeymoon period is off, it seems. Cap was Wasp’s biggest supporter as chairperson and now he’s grumbling and second-guessing.

Dang.

I hope this isn’t snapback to Wasp not being leader because she’s flighty and silly. I hope we’re not just going to do that.

Cap wanders over to where Vision-inna-tube and Wanda are. Wanda is still glued to Vision’s side. And either Wanda can read minds or Cap says something between panels because we have Cap wondering in a thought bubble whether if Vision has shown any signs of improvement and then Wanda answering that he hasn’t shown improvement or worsened.

Cap(tain) America: “Well, don’t let yourself get too worried, Wanda. That husband of yours has been through worse scrapes than this. He’ll pull through!”

Scarlet Witch: “When you say it, Cap, I can really believe it!”

Inspirational Cap! Charisma rolls: Very.

Still, Wanda is sad because Vision is lying in a tube helpless and she can’t even touch him.

Cap wanders off again, without even saying goodbye (rude) while musing how much it sucks.

Cap: Blast it! Those kids were just starting to make a life for themselves, and this had to happen! Why was it that of all the Avengers who went up against the threat of Annihilus -- it had to be a couple of reservists who suffered most?

And then starts musing how weird it is that Scarlet Witch and Vision as reservists since they were active Avengers for so long!

Remember, Wanda joined the Avengers not very long after Cap did! Only a couple months in-universe! She was one of his Kooky Quartet!

Cap: At times I wondered if the Avengers would survive -- but somehow, through all the tumult and changes, the team not only survived -- it grew stronger! I pray it always will... with the menaces we so often face, we can’t afford to weaken. We’ve gone through so many changes lately. We’ve picked up two fine new Avengers in Captain Marvel and the She-Hulk, but we’ve lost Hank Pym... and now we’ve lost Iron Man, too. Even Thor has taken himself off the active roster to pursue a personal mission. I hope he won’t be gone too long.

Cap is clearly in some sort of dour Mood.

A dour and monologue-y mood.

And what’s Thor up to leaving the team roster OFF PANEL?

(Sigh)

Well, since the asterisk is telling me to see Thor #334... oh geez, Don Blake is under suspicion of killing Jane Foster. Thor, and Lady Sif take Keith Kincaid (the non-Thor love interest of Jane) on a trip to get the Runestaff (long story) and restore Jane Foster (long story).

Annoyingly, the Thor issue does show him telling the Avengers he’s going to be gone for a while and to take him off the active roster. And borrowing a Quinjet.

I think that it would have been nice to see at least a panel of that. Or something. I don’t want the book bloated with ‘see alsos’ but I’m confused why it put the most emphasis on the FF one when it was literally two pages where Reed manages to ruin the wall while getting kidnapped.

Whatever.

Anyyyyway.

Even though he thinks the new Avengers are good, Cap worries about having both Thor and Iron Man off the team.

Especially Iron Man.

He was their science/technical guy. And on the current team, the only one with any sort of science expertise is new trainee Starfox.

Who is busy making out and not being on time for his daily training session.

At least he remembers that he has a prior obligation.

And he’s only two minutes late. Or to put it another way, he’s a whole two minutes late. And Cap(tain America) is a notable stickler for punctuality.

Cap: “Punctuality may be an anachronism in this day and age -- and, for all I know, it may be unheard of on the planet Titan -- but in my day, it was something that was expected of people!”

Wow, Cap really pulled a ‘in my day.’

Frankly, I’m surprised he doesn’t pull that more often.

Starfox does seem contrite and apologizes for putting pleasure before business which sends Cap into an introspection about why he’s really being so harsh on Starfox.

Protip: It’s Tony. It’s almost always Tony.

Cap: Pleasure versus duty, that’s what it always comes down to. It was Tony Stark’s ‘pleasure’ which led him to giving up his Iron Man identity... leaving the Avengers. Some ‘pleasure’! He’s crawled so far into the bottle, he may never get back out. And there’s nothing I can do to pull him out... Nothing any of us can do, unless he lets us. That’s what’s really bothering me... isn’t it?

And he accepts the apology with a “just don’t let it happen again.”

You sound so old sometimes, Cap.

Meanwhile, She-Hulk is off on a jog through New York, listening to some Beach Boys’ California Girls.

An overeager driver scoots forward and cuts her off at the crosswalk and (I assume) in frustration, she punches the hood of the car.

And given it’s She-Hulk, she kinda punches a hole IN the hood. And probably engine.

The guy being either an idiot or incredibly unperceptive runs after She-Hulk to grab her arm and yell at her.

She does not care for that at all.

Like, why would you? She’s seven feet tall and green and just punched a hole in the hood of your car.

Luckily for the guy’s skeletal integrity, Spider-Man pops out of nowhere to be Friendly Neighborhood and mediate this conflict.

They both air their grievances.

She-Hulk: “This creep grabbed me!”

Creep: “Hey! She... she crunched the front of my car!”

She-Hulk: “That was you who cut me off in the crosswalk? You’re lucky I didn’t rip out your axle!”

Spider-Man: “Now, now! Let’s keep this friendly! Sounds like you’re in the wrong, chum! The lady had the light!”

Creep: “Lady?!? She’s no --!”

Spider-Man: “I wouldn’t say that if I were you! That’s the She-Hulk, dummy! Remember what she did to your car? Well, just imagine what she could do to you!”

Creep: “Oh yeah.”

And with the power of Spider-Man’s bomb-ass mediation, the guy realizes that he was in the wrong, apologizes, and leaves in a hurry.

(Her skeptical glare cracks me up for some reason)

Moral of the story: Don’t be a jerk. Stay behind the line when the little man is lit up.

After the guy takes off, She-Hulk praises(?) Spider-Man’s amazing mediation skills by saying he should have been a lawyer. And then they catch up.

She-Hulk is still having trouble adjusting to the East Coast lifestyle and lack of beaches so Spider-Man suggests checking out the Jersey Shore.

She-Hulk: “My big problem right now is housing. Avengers Mansion is nice, but I want a place of my own.”

Spider-Man: “It’s tough -- rents are pretty steep.”

She-Hulk: “The real trouble is finding a place I like. With the thousand a week I get as an Avenger, rent’s no big deal.”

Spider-Man: “I guess not, if you’re making a... a thousand A WEEK?!? I passed up a chance to become an Avengers, and they make $1000 a week?!? Oh, NO!!”

Ha ha, that ol’ Parker luck.

Maybe Thor should have mentioned the money when he tried to recruit Spidey.

Meanwhile, at a federal penitentiary in Vermont, a scene change.

Bentley Wittman, aka the Wizard, aka the Wingless Wizard, aka the adult man who thought the best use of his time was bullying a teenager, is being questioned about Plantman Sam Smithers’ escape from jail.

The Wizard claims that he knows nothing about Plantman’s escape and that he barely knows the guy anyway. They were airlifted from Ryker’s in the same helicopter and that’s it.

But a convenient x-ray tells a different story.

And that story is that “the Wizard” doesn’t have any skeleton bones.

... Were we really at the point in 1983 where we didn’t know about the dangers of overexposure to x-rays? They just causally scan both “the Wizard” and the guy questioning him?

Anyway, the ruse being rumbled, the fake Wizard rips the bars out of a window and jumps out to his death.

Or it would be death if he wasn’t just animate wood wearing a fake skin suit.

Kinda gross if you think about it.

Anyway, where is the real the Wizard?

Obviously, he escaped jail a while back. Not only is he a sinister criminal mastermind who has sinister masterminding to mastermind but also he was tired of the prison hair code. Because dammit, he wants to rock the goatee!

(Literally a comment he makes, calling the prison barbers butchers)

The Real Wizard gets a BLIP-BLIP-BLIP priority alert that informs him that the plant-him has been discovered which means that the authorities will be looking for him now.

Wizard: Now every law officer in the nation will be looking for me. Well, let them! They’ll not find me, unless they look here! And if they do look here, they’ll have a fight on their hands! The Wizard will not bolt and run like some common criminal! My home is my fortress! They’ll never get me out of it! Never!

Anyway, within an hour of the discovery of Plant-Wizard, a disgruntled agent of the national security council named Mr. Sirkorski receives a briefing.

Usually, this problem would be Gyrich’s problem but he’s busy somewhere else, probably making mutants miserable if I had to guess.

-checking- Yup, he’s over in the X-books, being involved in Project: Wideawake, the project that will later accidentally shoot Storm with a demutantifying gun that will take away her powers, leading her to kick Cyclop’s ass, leading to him leaving the team and feeling sad about being happily married.

Wow, Gyrich, you’re the worst.

Anyway, since the Wizard is tied to the presidential hostage crisis via Plantman, that makes it Serious Business.

Hence, Mr. Sikorski’s serious business.

And he hates it.

He hates this bonkers superhero universe. He just wants to live in a spy thriller universe without all this specific nonsense.

Mr. Sikorski: “Oh, great! Plant-Men... criminal scientists... prison breaks! Don’t they think I have enough to do, just keeping track of what the Russians are up to?”

Also Mr. Sikorksi, on the following page: “And it’s up to me to call in the appropriate parties. I feel a little weird doing this! It’s hard enough for me to believe there are such things as Avengers! I certainly never thought I’d be calling them for help!”

This guy is great. I hope he becomes a recurring and just continues to be low-key pissed about what genre he lives in.

SCENE CHANGE TO AVENGERS MANSION’s actually looking cooler than ever meeting room.

The table looks enormous and theres a giant viewscreen that they can display stuff on.

Only misstep in my opinion is that the seats don’t have personalized icons on the back.

On the big viewscreen map, Cap(tain America) is displaying for Captain Marvel known properties and hideouts that the Wizard has used in the past.

And then big boss the Wasp comes in with She-Hulk to start the meeting.

Since the government has requested that the Avengers help search for the Wizard, Captain Marvel suggests that she could zoom around and check off the whole list in no time flat by using her lightspeed.

Cap(tain America): “You probably could, C.M. -- that’s up to Jan to decide, of course. It would save us some time. After all, the Wizard could be in any of these places... or none of them!”

Wasp: “You think so? If I’d escaped from prison, I’d want to go home. But that’s just me, I suppose.”

Cool contribution, Jan.

I don’t mean to mock, its just she makes a goofy face.

(Hey, I wonder if her new costume was inspired by the FF’s negative zone’d ones. It’s kinda got a similar palette and rough design)

Anyway, Scarlet Witch asks whether she can be excused from superheroing for the day to keep an eye on the Vision.

Wasp: “Why, Wanda! I should say not! You agreed to fill in for Thor while he’s off in space, and I intend to hold you to that! I’m the chairwoman, and I’ll decide who goes where!”

In fact, since somebody does need to watch the Vision, Wasp chooses the most reasonable candidate.

Captain Marvel!

Who needs her to get the task done in five seconds! She can watch the coma-robot.

You make interesting decisions, Jan!

The remaining Avengers will split up into squads.

Captain America will take Scarlet Witch and She-Hulk to check the hideouts on the east of the map. Wasp and Starfox will check out the western ones.

She-Hulk: “You and Starfox, huh? That’s rich... the All Flirt Squad!”

Pfft.

Cap(tain America) isn’t feeling the humor and tells She-Hulk to save her jokes for when they don’t have a job to do.

Minutes later, the Avengers land a Quinjet on the front drive of the Wizard’s Long Island estate. He has one of those.

Cap: “Come on Avengers -- let’s get this over with!”

Good attitude, Cap.

Wanda notes that the grounds look neatly tended considering that the estate has been empty for the past several years but She-Hulk thinks a gardener was probably kept on retainer.

The Wizard was stupid rich.

When they get inside, Cap changes his tune. The place looks too tidy and ready for occupancy to be empty so maybe the Wizard is here.

So he pulls a ‘lets split up gang’ and splits up gang with each Avenger taking a wing.

Cap: “Oh, and She-Hulk, try not to break anything if you can help it. This is private property!”

Priorities!

Granted, She-Hulk is known to break things. Why just today she broke some dude’s car.

The Wizard is watching all of this on his home security system and springs individual traps on the individual Avengers.

She-Hulk finds herself in a series of identical small non-descript rooms, each more identical than the last.

So identical that its the same room, looping.

Wizard: “Through the circuity in that doorway, I’ve activated a dimensional matrix which will keep your walking back and forth ad infinitum through the same room!”

Except without seeing herself leaving which you’d think she’d be able to see.

It’s a smart way to trap a Hulk, provided they don’t run out of patience or get frustrated and smash something.

Meanwhile, Cap gets locked in a chamber where an anti-gravity field has been activated, leaving him flailing through the air.

Oh, and dozens of high-intensity laser torches pop out of the walls and start trying to carve up Cap.

Meanwhile, Scarlet Witch’s individualized trap is the most individualized of all.

Because She-Hulk’s and Cap’s could be used on any number of people really. But Wanda’s feels like it was created to counter Wanda. Pretty on the ball from the Wizard considering he doesn’t often fight the Witch.

When Wanda enters the room she suddenly starts spinning out of control, flies across the room, and lands in a chair.

Wizard: “Marvelous! I’ve ensnared the Scarlet Witch within something against which her astounding hex powers are useless. My field effect devices have generated a pocket of non-causality within that test chamber! Within the area, all actions have an equal chance of occurrence. Therein, all probabilities are skewed. She won’t be able to stand, much less cast a hex!”

Wow! That’s some high octane comic book nonsense science!

The point being that every time Wanda tries to do something, something random happens instead because its all equally likely. She tried to walk into a room and ended up standing on the roof. She tried to back out of the room, she started spinning. She tried to stop spinning and she flew into a chair.

Sure.

With the Avengers all trapped, the Wizard turns his attention to deciding how to dispose of them.

Except, as cleverly foreshadowed by my snide comments, She-Hulk’s trap is only as good as Jen’s patience.

Which is good forrrrrrr. Two dozens loops.

At that point, she’s sure some bullshit is up and scratches the wall with her nails to leave a tangible mark. When she sees the same mark in the ‘next room’ her suspicion is confirmed.

And now that she knows someone is jerking her around, she decides to ignore Cap’s suggestion to not break private property by breaking private property and rips the doorframe (and the dimensional matrix) to crap.

There’s a backup trap that drops slabs of six-inch omnium steel around her but yeah she’s a hulk and she’s not playing considerate anymore. She starts KRUNGing the walls with her fists.

Meanwhile, Cap uses physics to get out of his jam. He throws his mighty shield to break some lasers so action/reaction will propel him backwards and he can jump off the wall, grab his shield back, and uses one of the broken-off lasers against the others.

Also, meanwhile, Scarlet Witch tries to figure out her own, incredibly specific trap.

Scarlet Witch: This is like a nightmare! Whatever I try to do, something else happens. Just in making the attempt to call on my hex power, I wound up falling flat on my face! I can’t even... wiggle my fingers? I... I can! Oh, but only very close to the floor! Whatever is causing my actions to go awry must be weaker near the room’s outer surfaces! Then there’s HOPE -- !”

Wizard must have gone cheap on the pocket of non-causality projector for that room if it’s not completely covering the area. Sure, the area it doesn’t cover is relatively small but now what’s about to happen is going to happen.

So Wanda gets as low as she can go to the floor and uses her probability-altering powers.

This causes the non-causality field to reverse because why wouldn’t it? And causes feedback through the circuitry which causes the master control to shock the Wizard.

It also causes every logic circuit in the master control to overload and the whole dang thing explodes, Wizard barely flying out of the control room in time.

Right in She-Hulk’s path.

She’s not happy. He’s not going to like her not being happy.

She-Hulk: “After what I’ve been through, it’s gonna be a real pleasure to pound that helmet down around your ankles!”

Wizard nopes right out of her way and decides to abandon fortress.

Then Scarlet Witch probability alters his battlesuit flight controls to malfunction to halt his escape and make him crash to the-

...

I’m pretty sure his neck is broken now.

I mean, it’s apparently not because he keeps talking and moving and living but he look at that panel. Guy should be dead as movie Zod.

Y’know, if the Avengers are going to kill the Wizard, the FF should really get them back and kill one of their villains. I suggest Grim Reaper.

Anyway, surrounded by Avengers, Wizard pulls his trump card.

Wizard: “Your confidence is ill-founded, Captain America. There is one resource I can yet draw upon. There is a thermonuclear devise beneath my house -- powerful enough to destroy half of Long Island and make the remainder very unpleasant for a very long time. Much as I hate to see this place destroyed, I would press the button, so to speak.”

“You being such renowned public heroes, would hate that even more. But unless you allow me to go unharmed, I shall active the timing sequence of the bomb’s detonator.”

And Cap is like ‘do you mean this detonator’ and pulls out one he prepared earlier.

HAH!

You know, ironically, if he had just hidden in a safe room or on the roof or something, the Avengers probably would have came and went without noticing him. Springing traps on them really backfired in oh so many ways.

The threesome return to the mansion, presumably after turning Wizard over to the authorities, and Wasp comments that it sounds like they had a bit of excitement (Starfox grumbling to himself more excitement than he had searching the Bronx with the Wasp ha ha).

Cap(tain America): “You’ll be glad to know, Wasp, that your instincts were correct. The Wizard had indeed gone home. He gave us all a pretty good challenge... a welcome challenge, I dare say.”

Wasp: “Looks like I assigned the right people to search the right place, huh?”

Cap: “Yes, Ms. Chairwoman, I’d say you did!”

And elsenow, Wanda goes to the medical bay to check in on Vision and relieve Captain Marvel.

Scarlet Witch: “Can you hear me, darling? I hope you can. I was feeling awfully blue today... And I was given a duty that first seemed annoying, and later became dangerous. But I didn’t give up... I came back, and I won. I know that you can come back, too, darling! It’s just a matter of time... and hope.”

“It’s funny! I thought the Wasp was silly for sending me on that mission. But -- in a way --it was something I need. I think the others needed it, too!”

Captain Marvel: “Then that’s why she sent you, Wanda... because she knew what you needed! And that’s why she leads the Avengers!”

Secret friend mastermind Janet van Dyne sends you out for punch therapy when you need to punch something.

Reminds me of when Captain America picked a fight with Goliath Hank Pym to lift his spirits. Except with a lot less fighting her own friends and more pointing them in the right direction.

Something I love about this era of Avengers and with the big shift in Wasp after Hank’s court-martial is that while her character has changed she’s still recognizably and uniquely herself. She’s still a bit goofy. She’s still playful. And on top of that, she’s proven that she’s a good leader for the Avengers. It’s not mutually exclusive.

Cap (previously Wasp’s biggest supporter as leader) started this issue grumpy and even had his own ideas what the best tactic for searching for the Wizard would be, but by the end he agrees that Wasp made a good decision.

Despite playing the ditz for a long part of her career, Wasp isn’t dumb. And she’s got a good head for the interpersonal challenges of running a team too.

I’m reminded that during the much later Busiek run, when the Avengers need to expand and modernize to match up to expanding challenges, Captain America turns the leadership of the team over to the Wasp.

My point being, I was worried that there’d be snapback on Wasp being leader because she is flighty and silly. But instead, she can be flighty and silly and still a good leader.

I’m pleased with this take, Stern.

Follow @essential-avengers because there will probably be more Wasp being a good leader. Fingers crossed. Also, like and reblog this post maybe if you also like Wasp being a good leader.

#avengers #the Wizard #the Wasp #Captain America #Captain Marvel #Monica Rambeau #Scarlet Witch #She Hulk #essential avengers #essential marvel liveblogging #the great feud between witches and wizards #wasp does a leadership #Cap be like hey don't break this supervillain's doom fortress its private property

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angstsfordays · 4 years

Text

Stay With Me

Summary: You liked Steve. No, you still like Steve. When you finally confessed, he could not give you a definite answer. Your heart broke. But what happens when you came face to face with Steve the very next day, only this time he wasn’t really your Steve….

Pairing: Steve rogers x Enhanced!reader (Y/N)

Warnings: FLUFF. ANGST. MORE FLUFF. AND PERHAPS TEARS. A couple of swear words. Death.

Word count: 8987

Notes: HI EVERYBODY! This is my first Marvel fanfiction! I wrote fanfics before, but I have always been much more of a reader. After a 1.5 year hiatus, I felt compelled to write again. Hope everyone enjoys this piece. I still am trying to establish myself as a rookie writer.

This is AU and doesn’t fall in any of the MCU timeline. Let’s just assume that the world is currently at peace from Thanos and this is just set in an everyday Avengers timeline. A like, reblog or comment will be deeply appreciated :)

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You woke up with an unnerving feeling in your chest. You wondered why and then you were reminded of the day before. You had confessed to Steve. Yes that Steve, the Steve Rogers. Captain America. Your boss. Your hopeless crush. You joined the Avengers not too long ago. It had been over two years. You were an agent of SHIELD, but more importantly an enhanced individual.

You always had your powers since you were young but hid it to blend in. When you’re 20, you used your powers for the first time to save someone in danger. You ended up on SHIELD’s radar and then recruited into the academy.

You undergone training to become a SHIELD operative under Phil Coulson’s tutelage and was recognised to be an outstanding agent. However, more so often, you were not a stickler for rules and had gone off book several times in operations.

This placed you on a thin line to getting kicked out of the academy, but you always had the backing of Phil who grown a soft spot. You reminded him of his younger days and also his fellow colleague, Melinda May whom put the interests of saving lives at the forefront in their work.

When the Battle of New York happened, you were broken. Mainly because you lost your mentor and your dearest friend. You were teetering on quitting when Phil died in the line of duty. Director Fury pulled you back, reminding you of Phil’s sacrifice and how Phil thought the world of you, feeling that you had much potential to unfold. You continued working under Director Fury’s orders, working on special missions.

When SHIELD was taken down by HYDRA from the inside, you didn’t know who to trust. All you knew was that Director Fury had seemingly been assassinated. You wanted to find out what happened, but plans deviated when you realised you were on HYDRA’s radar. Your powers were of great interest to them and you were wanted. You had to abandon the place you felt like home and went into hiding.

A couple of years later, you resurfaced. You found yourself facing the Avengers while they were on a mission. No you were fighting not against them, instead you stumbled upon them while you were on the run. That’s when you saw Steve Rogers for the first time. It didn’t feel like the first time though.

Perhaps it was because you heard so much about him from Phil that you felt you already knew him. A smile formed on your face when you recalled Phil’s rambling of his love for the war hero. It was one of those moments when you saw him as the real Phil, and not just Agent Coulson- your supervising officer.

A HYDRA agent was going to aim for Steve from a hidden spot and you almost flew in to intervene. You knocked out the agent with your gloved fists engulfed in high density energy. You remembered staring into the sparkling blue eyes of Steve Rogers for the first time. His eyes widened at the sight of you- wondering who you were and what were you doing.

You heard backup coming and the two of you fought off a couple more HYDRA agents together. It was as if you had been working together your whole life, the two of you fought in sync. You covered for him and he did so for you. There was an unspoken synergy that happened between you two. When the last HDYRA agent went down, you two finally looked at each other once more. Panting and out of breath, you hunched over trying to catch your breath.

You heard his footsteps coming closer, as if to check on you. You looked up at him, and he took his helmet off. His crop but luscious blonde locks fell over.

“Hey, are you alright-” You heard his voice for the first time. It was not really; you had seen him before and heard him before. You remembered the video clips that were played in classes at the academy. SHIELD was founded on the legacy of Captain America afterall. But this was different. You heart started to beat wildly, knowing that he was speaking to you.

“Steve, are you alright?” Another voice appeared. It was familiar. You two both spun your heads in the same direction to see a scarlet head emerging in your sight. Natasha Romanoff. You had seen her before back at SHIELD. Phil had worked together with her and Agent Barton several times. You were introduced once to them before as his mentee.

“Who’s that with you?” She spoke once more. You started to panic, what was this situation with you, Captain America and Black Widow? You were supposed to be in hiding from the HYDRA operatives that came to capture you. Should you seek refuge with the Avengers? Would they keep you safe? You were not a hundred percent sure. You felt that you were still safest alone.

That’s why you decided to take flight. Literally. Because with your powers, you managed to push yourself off the ground and into the air, landing far away from where the two avenger members were.

The next time you saw Steve was in your apartment. You came home to see him standing in your kitchen. You dropped your bag of groceries and let out a scream that would have your neighbours appalled. Your powers came out almost immediately in defense and Steve had to duck when a shot of energy aimed at the kitchen cabinet behind him.

He raised both his hands in defense and assured he meant no harm. He explained that Natasha had helped him to track you down. He understood your situation and offered you a place in the Avengers compound. No more hiding and no more fear of surviving.

All previous resistance thrown out of the window, the sincerity in his eyes and voice won you over almost immediately. You knew not to trust people easily, that much Phil has taught you but how could you not when it was Steve Rogers.

So you then found yourself becoming a part of the Avengers. You blended into the group seamlessly, like you were an old-time friend. You had gotten closer to Natasha who was once an intimidating senior agent in your eyes. You became fast friends with Wanda whom you bonded over the love of food. More so of her cooking and you being the taste tester.

Sam and Bucky welcomed you into their group especially when you find yourself the buffer between their bickering. You always went along with Tony Stark’s antics and he saw you as a little sister. Bruce and you have a polite relationship, not having much in common but you still got along with him in the group.

Vision and you have a pretty interesting relationship, you found yourself as a life sensei to him whenever he was curious about the human way of life. You only met Thor a few times but you two had a friendly relationship whenever he visited Earth. He felt like another older brother to you.

Now. Where does that leave Steve Rogers? The man who brought you into this new life. You regarded him as your leader, captain and comrade. You wanted to impress him especially since he offered you a new chance in life. You always made sure you did your best during missions so as not to disappoint him. You wanted to be in his good books. You wanted him to like you as a teammate and maybe more?

You didn’t know when you started to have feelings for the American hero, but you believed it was gradual.

When you saw him in the morning eating disgusting plain oats, you offered to whip up some fluffy blueberry pancakes (which you learnt how to from Wanda). When you see his brows knitted to get his Netflix account created, you chuckled and decided to help the poor guy out. When he found in himself from unwanted attention at Tony’s gatherings, you slid in smoothly between him and the other party, coming up with smooth lies to help him out of an awkward bind.

You didn’t know why you wanted to do all of those things. Were you being nice? Or perhaps you wanted to be nice to him? He was on your mind most of the time. How can I make a good impression? How can I get closer to him? Your mind was always boggling with such thoughts.

Whenever he was in the room, your eyes always wandered off to him. You tried to subtly get closer to him- sitting beside him during movie nights, sitting across him during meetings. It was those little things that made you feel like you could signal your presence to him. You wanted him to notice you just as much you did for him. Of course, these things did not go unnoticed. Unfortunately, not by said man himself but everyone else in your inner circle.

Natasha caught your longing look at Steve one movie night, and she smirked to herself. She nudged your hips the next morning in the kitchen when Steve walked into the room. She gave you an all-knowing smile and your eyes widened in horror. How? You mouthed the word to her, and she just shrugged while looking all smug.

Wanda was the next one to know you both baked together for Valentine’s Day. You two were baking for everyone in the team. You decided to make a special cookie, she noted. One in the shape of a heart and with familiar colours of red, white and blue icing. Steve, Bucky and Sam were walking in from their workout in the gym when they smelt the scent of freshly baked goods.

Sam’s hands were reaching out for your special cookie when you turned your back to wash your hands in the sink. You let out a shrill scream of horror when you saw Sam picking it up and bringing it closer to his lips.

“STOP RIGHT THERE!” The three soldiers almost jumped back at your voice and Sam raised his other hand in surrender. You took your cookie out of his hands and dusted it off as if his touch sullied the baked biscuit.

“This is not yours, Sam. You can have those.” You pointed over to the other batch of cookies. They were all smaller in sizes, in the regular circular shape with generic red and pink icing drawn in heart shapes on the surface.

“What? Then the heck it that cookie for?” Sam retorted, almost offended.

You grinned sheepishly when you directed your eyes at a certain blonde soldier. Your previous bravado shaken as you tried to find your voice to speak. You swore your hands were trembling and you tried hard to not break the palm sized heart shaped cookie in your hands.

“Happy Valentine’s Day, Steve. I uh made this for you.” Yes. You got the words out. The expressions on the faces of the other three people in the room would have been hilarious but they were not in your sight. You only had eyes for one person.

“What? How come he gets a special cookie from the rest of us? Now that’s just discrimination.” Sam quipped. Bucky shook his head like he could not believe how dumb Sam could even be. Wanda had to bite her lips back, when she realised what was going on all along. Oh my dear Y/N…she thought.

“Would you accept my it?” You added nervously when you noticed Steve did not give a response.

“Uh, thank you Y/N. That’s really nice of you.” Steve answered as politely as he usually did and took the cookie from your hands. When Steve just stopped at that response, Bucky looked like he was going to die from the stupidity of the men in the room except for him. Bucky also knew there and then what was happening. He could not believe his best friend was so oblivious.

“Hey, that’s unfair. I want one.” Sam whined almost like a child. Bucky face palmed himself and grunted.

You were a little disappointed at Steve’s response, nice of you? Urgh, you secretly wished he had more to say. Did you put him on a spot in front of his friends? How stupid could you have gotten?

“Fine fine, geez I will make a falcon-themed one for you, You big baby.” You huffed in annoyance, but also to mainly mask your disappointment. You quickly grabbed a piping bag. “Would you like one too, Bucky?” You mustered a smile on your face to make it seem like you were not affected by Steve’s response at all. Bucky gave you a look like he knew- he knew what’s up and he gave you a sorry look.

“Sure doll, I would love one.” Bucky said in hopes of making you feel better. You felt a hand on your shoulder and turned to see Wanda to give you a comforting smile. You fought to hold back the tears welling up in your eyes.

But that was not your actual confession to Steve.———————————————————————

That time came during an Avenger’s game night. The team was playing truth and dare Jenga. It was your turn and you hoped you gotten something that would not be too difficult to do.

“Tell the person across you something that you always wanted to say to them.”

You looked up immediately and were met with cerulean blue eyes. Your breath hitched when you realised who it was.

You cursed in your head and perhaps even muttered it under your breath. You felt the eyes of the rest of your teammates intently on you. After a minute, Tony started to get impatient.

“Come on kid, what do you want to say to Capsicle? There should be plenty right? If not drink up.” Oh boy, if only Tony knew. You looked nervously elsewhere and locked eyes with Natasha beside you. Your eyes then fleet towards Wanda who looked concerned and then to Bucky who almost looked nervous for you. Your legs were getting jumpy and then your hands lunged forward to grab the bottle of whiskey in front of you.

A series of ‘Nos’ came up, but you couldn’t hear them clearly as you drowned down the liquid. It tasted like fire down your throat and it almost burned. You stumbled backwards as you tried to recover your footing.

“Really, Y/N? You rather drink up than say something to Cap?” Tony jested. “By the way, you just drank Thor’s special Asgardian liquor by mistake.”

“What?” You let out a loud exclamation and you turned the bottle to see a flask bottle that you recognised to have been Thor’s.

“Oh boy.” A sudden wave of adrenaline surged through you and you had to close your eyes to gain your bearings once more. You opened your eyes to meet Steve’s eyes once more. You did not know what was happening next. The words left your mouth before you could even formulate it in your head.

“I LIKE YOU SO MUCH!” What was going on? You didn’t mean to say this out loud?! Why were you even saying it? You already drank to pass saying the truth. Why couldn’t you control yourself?

“I REALLY REALLY REALLY LIKE YOU, STEVE ROGERS.” You declared your love once more and you were shocked by your boldness. Everyone else was reeling in their seats as they looked at the situation unfolding in front of them. Tony Stark could be seen muffling his laughter at Y/N’s antic while a blonde soldier, who was at the end of the confession remained stiff in expression.

“CAN’T YOU HEAR MY HEART?” Your speech was slurred as you brought your hand to clutch the side of your shirt where your heart was.

“You have super hearing, right? Can’t you hear my heart beating like crazy? Whenever I’m around you, I feel like my heart is going to jump out of my chest because I like you much!” Your mouth continued to blabber, but your mind was reeling. Control yourself Y/N! You willed yourself but you couldn’t. Stupid Asgardian alcohol.

“I can’t hide it anymore. I need to let you know! I need to let the whole word know!” You flailed your hands out in motion. “Do you know how much it hurts to like you and not letting you know? I need to get this off my chest. Right here and right now!” You put a foot up on the table and stretched your hand out to point at Steve Rogers.

“Steve Rogers! Do you want to go out with me?” You asked boldly, not caring a hoot about everyone in the room. Your mind was chastising you for being foolish, but your heart felt fulfilled from doing what it always wanted to do.

There were gasps from people in the room. A series of ‘oh my god’ and suppressed laughter from others. Sam’s jaw looked like it was going to drop to the floor. Tony at this moment couldn’t hold back himself and howled. He needed to take a swig of booze to continue watching this. Bucky looked over to his best pal who looked like he didn’t want to be anywhere else but here.

Both Natasha and Wanda had worried expressions. They were glad you were able to confess but they also knew this was not the way you would want it to go. Vision and Bruce looked like they couldn’t believe what was happening in front of their eyes.

Steve Rogers was at a loss. The last thing he expected was a confession from you. Steve was not sure how to respond. He liked you alright, but he wasn’t sure if he liked you as much as you to him. He always seen you as a friend and teammate.

He remembered how shy you were when first joined. You were wary of everything, and it was normal. He read up on your profile. He was surprised to learn you were under Agent Phil Coulson’s personal tutelage. He knew the man and thought highly of him. Natasha gave in her input, remembering you were a spunky and enthusiastic rookie agent who always seemed to put in her best efforts.

When he realised you had been on the run from HYDRA because of your powers, he knew he had to step in. It was only the right thing to do. When he first saw you, he was taken aback at the girl who covered for him. You didn’t have to. If you did, you exposed yourself to the risk of your location to HYDRA. And when the two of you fought hand in hand, he felt a weird sense of camaraderie he did not expect to find in someone he met for the first time.

He remembered when you accepted his offer, he offered his hand but instead you pulled in for a hug. He was taken aback but gave in when he felt you shaking in his arms. You let out muffled cries and Steve could feel your sense of relief that you didn’t need to hide anymore. You were safe and he would keep you safe.

You opened up to the rest of the team almost instantly, your easy-going nature made everyone comfortable about you. You had an effortless way of getting along with people and you soon became an indispensable part of the team.

However, Steve started to notice while you were getting closer with everyone, he could feel like you were keeping a distance from him. While you were still friendly with him, he could not help but to feel that you showed hesitance around him.

Sure enough, you always did nice things for him, but Steve could not help but feel you were always guarded around him. You were unafraid to be silly and goofy around the rest of the team, but he could sense you always wanted to present a good image whenever he’s around.

When you were not looking, he could see you making faces to Sam across the room when meetings get boring and draggy. It was one late night, both you and Bucky could not sleep, and you offered to help Bucky with his nightmares when Steve happened to pass by the common kitchen.

The look of excitement when you brought out an entire tea set and assortment of tea selection laid on the table. “You should give up on coffee from now on. Tea is the way to go!” You said in a matter of fact tone. You went on to talk about the benefits of tea and how they helped you especially in the line of work you were all involved in.

You went on to brew actual tea leaves for Bucky, claiming it was even better than putting a sachet in a cup of hot water. Steve couldn’t help but smile at the lengths you went for Bucky. It was nice to see Bucky having another friend aside from himself and occasionally Sam.

Steve didn’t know how long he was staring but he was snapped out of it when Bucky called him out from where he was hiding behind the wall. When your head snapped to see Steve, your carefree smile dropped and became one that was more reserved.

“Uh, hey Steve.” You greeted him. “Tea?” You asked him as you held up the pot. Sure why not, Steve thought.

The three of you began to have a heart to heart late night talk. Your enthusiasm from earlier mellowed but you still talked easily with Bucky and him. Steve noticed your eyes were always looking towards Bucky. Did you like him? Steve saw you throwing glances every now and then, but you kept your eyes on Bucky, as if wanting to avoid having to look at him. You laughed easily at Bucky’s sardonic humour and even rested your head on his arm a couple of times in affection.

You had to like Bucky right? Steve never seen you so close to another guy in the team, except for Tony and Sam whom he knew you had sibling like relationships with. Steve knew it, Bucky always got the girl.

Even back in the 30s’. Bucky had an effortless charm about him, and even after all he had gone through, he never lost his appeal. Steve knew about the glances that some of the female staff in the compound had whenever Bucky stepped into the room.

Steve suddenly felt like the scrawny kid back in Brooklyn. The one who always gotten put aside. The one who was always forgotten. Even after the serum, Steve felt like this from time to time. Steve did know he had gotten more attractive with his increased height and bigger build, but he couldn’t help to wonder if that was all he had.

He was aware of the looks he received by female staff too in the Avengers compound, but he was also aware that they were attracted to Captain America and not Steve Rogers.

Steve felt like you weren’t like the rest. Sure, you did nice things for him and smiled at him everytime you two met, but Steve felt like you were genuine. Yes, they were more muted than what you did for the rest of the team, but he did felt you were not just fawning over him. You were just nice like that.

He did secretly hoped you could be less guarded around him though. Was he intimidating? Was he not approachable? Steve thought long and hard about this once in a while.

Back to the confession, Steve could not believe what he was hearing. You liked him all this while? It wasn’t Bucky? But how? But why? He thought you liked Bucky for sure! And here you are, declaring your crush for him in front of everyone like it was nothing. Yes, you did drink Thor’s special mead but it was a complete flip of how you usually were around him.

What was he supposed to say? You were drunk. Steve didn’t even know if you were even thinking straight. But your eyes. Your eyes were boring straight to his and he realised this was the longest that you have looked him in the eyes without shying away.

“Come on, Rogers. Don’t leave a girl hanging. Give her an answer.” Tony egged on, the only one amused in this entire situation.

“I-uh…” Steve looked to his best pal and Bucky could only returned a look that said ‘It’s all up to you, punk’.

“Y/N, you are drunk. You should return to your room.” Steve instantly regretted his words when he saw the sullen look on your face. You looked like you were crushed, and he felt horrible.

“I’m not drunk!” You retorted almost defiantly. “I’m wide awake. I’m woke.” You claimed.

“Do you not like me? Am I that unlikable?” You added on in a whimpering tone. You turned to your side and grabbed Bucky by the collar.

“Why? Why does he not like me?” You cried almost like a child who didn’t get she wanted. Bucky decided to intervene and hoist you over his shoulders. “Okay time for you to be in bed.”

“Put me down Bucky! I am perfectly capable of walking. I don’t want my face to meet your ass!” You fought back as you started throwing fists at Bucky’s backside to get him to let you down. You didn’t remember the events of that night after Bucky dropped you on your bed. You did have an inkling memory of Wanda and Natasha helping you get ready for bed.

———————————————————————

Shit, you thought. Every memory came back rushing back to you and you squished your face to the pillow. You didn’t want to face the music. You didn’t even want to step out of your room to face the consequences of your drunkenness. What have you done? Every last possibility of your relationship with Steve had been tossed out the window.

Should you quit? Pack up and run away? You didn’t think you could ever stand to be around him anymore. Your mind then wandered to the pounding headache from the hangover you acquired. You turned your face to the side to see a glass of water and two aspirin pills. You wandered who left them there. Must be either Wanda or Nat.

You took the pills and down them with the glass of water. You sat up to get your bearings and let out a sigh. Woah, you stunk of alcohol. A bath sounded nice at this moment. You dragged yourself with every ounce of energy left in your body and struggled to fill the tub with warm water. You didn’t know how you managed but you went over to your cabinet to grab some relaxing essential oils to be added into your bath.

Yes that bath was helpful indeed. After you rinsed off, you changed into a long-sleeved cropped Henley and loose sweats. You were drying your hair as you mulled over what happened last night.

What were you supposed to do? You could feel the hunger growling in your stomach. You asked Friday for the time and it was well over 2pm. You then asked for the locations of everyone in the team. If you wanted to avoid social interactions, you needed to come up with a plan. Bucky and Sam were training new recruits. Nat, Wanda and Vision were out while Tony ad Bruce were in the lab. Steve was in his office.

That sounded good, you could sneak into the kitchen, make a sandwich or something and get the hell out in 10 minutes tops. As quickly as you could, you made sure to make a sound even while sprinting to the kitchen. When you assessed that the coast was clear, you quickly opened the fridge and cabinets to take out what you want.

You messily put a sandwich together and even grabbed an instant ramen bowl. You placed everything on a tray and quickly returned to your room. You wolfed down on the sustenance as if you didn’t eat for days. The soup from the ramen cured was a warm welcome for your stomach. You placed your tray aside and lay on your bed. What next?

You walked over to the toilet to relieve yourself once more when you suddenly felt the ground shaking. You shot up in surprise and quickly cleaned up.

“Friday, what happened?” You asked worriedly.

“There has been an explosion down in lab beside the garage.” Friday answered immediately.

“Are Tony and Bruce okay?” You asked after the Science bros.

“Yes, their vitals show no danger. However, Captain Rogers was also present when the explosion occurred.” Steve was there too?

“I cannot detect his-” Friday spoke once more, but you didn’t hear the end of it as your door flew open and you raced down to the lab.

Tony and Bruce came into view as they stood around the weird panels in the lab. There was a faint smoke in the air.

“Woah what happened?” You could hear Sam’s voice behind you, and you turned to see Bucky present too. The three of you walked over to the scene hurriedly to examine what happened.

“Where’s Steve? I heard he was also-” Your sentence was interrupted by a coughing. The voice sounded familiar, but something was different. The smoke cleared to reveal….

“Yo Steve, what happened?!” Sam exclaimed at the sight standing in front of him. All eyes turned to see Steve Rogers only much much older in physical appearance. It would match with his actual age but you couldn’t believe your eyes.

The Steve in front of you looked shocked at the sight of everyone. He also had a look of longing like he had not seen everyone in a long time.

“Shit, we made Cap old!” Tony gasped aloud.

“Steve, you there?” Bucky stepped forward to place his hands on the shoulder of his old friend. Your attention was brought to the height difference. Steve was no longer the same height range as Bucky. He in fact, looked smaller. His grey hair was combed neatly and you could see the wrinkles adorned on his face. His blue eyes were still sparkling, you thought. Steve was dressed warmly in several layers on top and he turned his head slowly to take in his surroundings.

His eyes landed on you and started to panic. Last night’s events came rushing back to you and you then realised you didn’t want to face him. You turned your heels to leave immediately but you were stopped in your tracks.

“Wait, Y/N. Please don’t go.” The voice that came out of him sounded so frail that to didn’t had the heart to continue walking.

Your body turned back to face future Steve and he was slowly making his way to you. As you got closer, you realised the two of you were almost of the same height. Future Steve went in for a hug without any other words. Though he was much smaller, his hug was still firm. Your eyes widened at his actions and you awkwardly returned it with your arms wrapped under his arms.

“It’s so good to see you again. I missed you so much.” Future Steve muttered as he leaned his face into the crook of your neck. His voice shook almost like he was holding back tears.

“Again? What do you mean again?” Bruce took the words right out of your mouth. Steve reluctantly let go of you and turned to face the rest of the people in the room.

“What year is this?” Future Steve asked. Bruce gave the answer to which future Steve let out a short laugh.

“That long, huh. 50 years I see.” He spoke once more.

“50 years? Wait a minute, are you from the future?” Sam asked incredulously. Future Steve didn’t gave an answer but the silence that followed confirmed our suspicions.

“So if Cap here is from 50 years into the future, where does leave the Cap in our timeline?” Tony inquired. Old Steve gave a shrug.

“You always make the impossible seem possible, Tony.”

“Perhaps, they switched places.” Bruce deduced. He then went on rambling how Tony and himself were experimenting with the idea of time travel and different universe. The original Steve was walking in to talk to Tony when the blast had happened and he got caught in it, which all led to the current situation.

“Can we get him back?” Bucky spoke up, looking over to long-time friend.

“We can try but we will need time to work out the mechanics and see when we have gone wrong. We cannot guarantee how long it would take.” Bruce answered.

“Friday, you got all of this on tape right? I cannot wait to show out Cap this footage when he gets back.” Tony jested and you turned to him with an annoyed expression.

“This is serious Tony. You better fix this!”

“Geez kid, cut me some slack.” He rolled his eyes. “So what are we going to do with this Cap?” He pointed over to the future Steve standing beside me.

“We can take him back to the common room, let him get comfortable while you fix your machine. Best to not let anyone else know about this outside of our circle.” Bucky remarked before gesturing for Steve to follow him. Sam was still reeling in surprise as he assessed future Steve.

You stood rooted to the ground, unsure what to do. Should you follow Sam and Bucky with future Steve? You were still haunted by what happened last night. Well this Steve didn’t know what happened, but you couldn’t help but to feel embarrassed still.

“Y/N, are you coming?” Bucky offered you to join. You were about to reject his offer, make up an excuse to go back to your room when someone grabbed hold of your hand.

You looked to see future Steve holding your hand gently with his wrinkled hands. You could feel the blood rushing to your cheeks and ears. He was gazing into your eyes with a shy smile.

“Walk with me?” He asked and you swore you wanted to melt into a puddle.

“Me?” You were sure you looked confused at the transition of what was happening. Future Steve chuckled and continued walking on, pulling you with him. Bucky who witnessed this smiled to himself and Sam continued to look baffled at everything.

His hand felt warm and soft, you thought. Unconsciously, your other hand went to hold his arm. You were shy to meet future Steve’s gaze especially since you were now the same height as him. It was much more intense than looking at him now.

All of you walked silently to the common room. Everyone sat around the dining table, you offered to make coffee but future Steve held onto your hand as you stood up to walk over to the pantry.

“I would like some tea, if you don’t mind. The one with actual leaves and not just the tea bag.” His face crinkled as he smiled at you.

“Uh sure- you two want some coffee?” You turned to the other two soldiers. The two went along with Steve’s request for tea and you went to find the tea set stored in the cabinet.

You placed the tea set in the centre of the table. It was a clay tea set that was gifted to you by your Bucky as your Secret Santa last Christmas. Nat and Wanda gave their input on the design.

You got the boiled water ready to rinse the teapot and cups. Following this you started to brew the tea as you added the tea leaves into the pot and added the hot water. You rinsed the first batch of brewed tea once before making the second batch that was prepared for drinking.

You were honestly nervous even though you done this hundreds of times. Somehow having future Steve watching over you made you wary of your movements. There was a good few minutes of silence before you poured the tea into the small teacups and offering it to everyone. Future Steve appreciated the teacup in his hands before blowing on it and taking a sip.

“Y/N, it always tastes the best when you made it.” Future Steve turned to me again with a sweet smile. Shit, Steve was still adorable even beyond his years. Calm down your heart, Y/N!

“So Cap, what’s life like 50 years down the road?” Sam decided to break the ice. Future Steve laughed at his bluntness before answering. It felt like nothing changed. Even while this Steve has aged, the three soldiers fell back into easy conversation.

Sam was curious about himself and tried to pry information out of future Steve. Future Steve warned that knowing the future may not be a good idea. He did throw in several teasing remarks that Sam and Bucky will continue to argue in their old age in front of their grandchildren.

Bucky was surprised that he would even have his own family in the future. He was about to ask Steve about his own when Bucky’s eyes wandered to Steve’s left hand, a silver band resting on one of his fingers.

“Guess we’re not the only ones who had our own families.” Bucky remarked smugly as he nodded his head to future Steve’s wedding band. Future Steve thumbed over his wedding band before sneaking a glance over to you.

“Well, uh-yes I did. But-” The idea of Steve married was not impossible, I mean after all he was such a great catch. You were pretty sure Steve finally gotten a nice girl to settle down with. The gnawing feeling in your chest returned. Damn, this hurts more than you thought. You just wished Steve had a happy and fulfilling life.

You stood up abruptly from your seat, almost seething with jealousy. You couldn’t help it. The feelings from yesterday were still raw and you couldn’t handle the truth if future Steve were to talk about his happy married life.

Your abrupt action caused the chair to screech as it was pushed back. You felt the eyes of all three soldiers on you and you hasten to collect the tea set to mask your reaction. You hurriedly walked over to the sink to wash your tea set, leaving it to air dry.

“I’m going off for a walk. See you boys later.” You quickly waved off before you transitioned to a brisk walk to the elevator. When you exit one of the doors of the compound, you headed straight for the clearing near the lake. It was your secret spot that you had claimed as your own. You always came here when your mind and heart were heavy.

You had a bench secretly installed so that you could sit there and gaze into the sunset on occasions. You remembered ordering it on Tony’s card and had to bring it out to the clearing when everyone was still asleep in the early morning, You laughed silently at your own antics.

You laid on your side on the bench, propping your head up with your arms and you dazed off into the lake in front of you. You didn’t know how long you were lying down but you wished you had brought your phone and earpiece to pass the time.

“I guess even the serum cannot help me at this age. Way to make an old man come after you, Y/N.” Your ears perked up at his voice and in a moment of surprise, rolled forward and off the bench.

“What the fu-” You exclaimed when your body hit the ground.

“Language. Although, many reminders wouldn’t have stopped you anyway.” You couldn’t believe who had followed you to your secret spot. Moreover, how did he know? Even Friday didn’t know! Or did she?

“Steve? What are you doing here?” You asked in a panic as you gathered yourself, brushing the dirt off your knees and elbows.

“Are you alright? That was not a pretty fall.” Future Steve now stood in front of you, his eyes were worried and concerned. His hands reached out to examine the extent of your injuries and was relieved to know that they were nothing major.

“How did you know I will be here? Nobody knows about this spot except for me.” You said.

“Well doll, you were not that subtle moving the bench across the hallway at 5am. Besides, I was already awake at that time” He spoke in a fond tone as he recalled the memory. “Curiosity got the better of me and I decided to follow the girl who was carrying a bench larger than herself.”

You cringed at the exposure of your secret and grimaced at how foolish you must have been in Steve’s eyes.

“I won’t blame you for keeping this place a secret. It is beautiful.” Future Steve spoke with a lingering gaze towards the lake and the surrounding flora. He then gestured for you to sit beside him and you reluctantly did, unsure of what to do either. You made sure that there was a gap between the two of you. You looked anywhere else except for him and didn’t what to say in the following silence.

“What would it take for you to look at me? Am I that unlikeable in your eyes?” Future Steve first broke the silence.

“No, I would never!” You immediately countered. You were shocked at how loud you were and reminded yourself to calm the f down. “I mean who would not like you?!” You gestured dramatically as your hands moved up and down at him. Steve inched closer to you and placed his hands over yours where were resting on your lap.

“I am glad to hear that, Y/N.” You looked into his eyes and had to avert them immediately before you feel like your heart would explode. You looked down to see his wedding band in your lap and you were reminded once more of what made you came out to the lake in the first place.

“Hopefully, Tony and Bruce can come up with a way to get you back to your time. I’m sure you’re missing your family.” You said to future Steve to which he shook his head.

“Not really actually. It’s nice to see all of you young again, reminds me of the good times where we were all together. I lost some people in my time and am glad to see them once again.”

“Oh, did we not all live to an old age like you?” Future Steve’s jaw clenched at your remark and you immediately realised you hit a nerve. “I’m so sorry-” You started apologising before future Steve waved you off, reassuring that it was fine. You could feel the grip of his hands tightened around yours.

“You must have been shocked to see me like this.” Future Steve looked over at himself.

“Shock would not have been the word, surprised was more accurate.” I corrected him.

“Still, you couldn’t have believed that the big and strong Captain America actually looked like this in his old age, right? The serum’s effects waned as I got older in age. I still am strong for someone my age, but my physique reverted back to my pre-serum days.” Future Steve said despondently.

“Hey, don’t say! Who cares about Captain America?” You retorted at his words. “All I see is adorable grandpa Steve Rogers. You’re way cuter like this!” You even emphasized your point when you grabbed his arm and laid your head on his shoulders. If it was the current Steve, you wouldn’t have dared to do any of this. But this Steve right here surprisingly made you feel comfortable around him.

You were still nervous knowing that he was still Steve, but somehow future Steve looked less intimidating.

“You’re still the same as ever. I missed you so much.” Future Steve brought your hands up to lips for a kiss. Now this shocked you as you couldn’t help but feel that this gesture meant more. You quickly withdrew your hands and saw the crestfallen look on his face.

“Look, Steve. I really appreciate you, but I don’t think this is appropriate.” The expression on his face told you he was hurt by your words. “You’re married, Steve.” You pointed to his wedding band.

Future Steve looked down to his wedding band and then his eyes went back to you. A ghost of a smile formed on his face and he shook his head. “I’m sorry if I came off weird. It’s just been such a long time since I saw you- I mean the younger version of you. My emotions took over, I apologise.”

“No-no don’t be sorry. I understand, sort of.” You rubbed the back of your ned in awkwardness. After a while, the two of you decided to head back to the compound. Future Steve offered you his arm and you took it as the both of you enjoyed the walk back in comfortable silence.

“Hey old man, Bruce and I might have figured it out. I think we can send you back.” You and future Steve looked at each other, both sending unwilling looks as if your time together was too short.

“I guess this is goodbye.” You said in a disappointed tone.

“It’s alright, love. I promise we will see each other again.” Future Steve cradled your face with one of his hands. You wondered what he meant, and did he just called you love?!

Future Steve went over to say goodbye to Bucky and Sam, giving each other hugs and claps on the back. Future Steve gave a small salute to Tony and Bruce to which they returned with a nod. He walked over to a raised platform and shifted in his feet to get comfortable. He looked over you once more.

You didn’t know why but you started to have tears forming in your eyes. You hesitantly raise your hands to give a weak wave. Future Steve smiled fondly and returned the gesture. He started to mouth words in your direction but before you could figure out what you wanted to say, a blinding light took over.

You shield your eyes from the light and turned sideways as you felt a rush of smoke and wind. You blinked your eyes repeatedly as you take in the sight before you. Gone was future Steve and…..

“Welcome back Cap!” Sam exclaimed excitedly at seeing his friend again.

“Quick question, Rogers. Where were you?” Tony chimed in as he walked over to Steve. “We met an older version of you 50 years down the road.” Tony replied and he waved up a screen to show a photo of future Steve in the garage with everyone.

“Oh I was somewhere, but it didn’t look like it was far off from this era. Everything looked the same. I wasn’t sure where I was until I saw a date somewhere.” Steve seemed like he was trying to phrase his response carefully and he looked back at Tony.

His eyes then swerved over to where Bucky, Sam and you were standing. He started striding forward and you were sure he was going over to Bucky and Sam. Your feet decided to shuffle backwards once you recalled what happened between you and this version of Steve just yesterday. You made to turn back when you felt yourself being pulled back into an embrace.

You were pushed against a solid mass of muscle; you didn’t need to look up because you knew who it was. Steve wrapped his arms tightly around you, seeming to not let you go anytime soon.

“Stefve-” Your voice was muffled against his shirt. You weren’t sure where to place your hands and you were sure it could have felt your heart being wildly against his own chest. Steve placed his head in the crook of your neck and took in a deep breath before sighing. Talk about déjà vu.

You looked over to see the rest of the guys in the garage staring on with bambi eyes. You gestured a wave towards Bucky, signalling for help. You weren’t ready for this Steve at all!

“What’s with the Capsicles hugging Y/N today?” Tony quipped from the side.

You didn’t know how long it was but knew it was long enough for a hug to turn awkward. You tried to place your hands between Steve and yourself to create distance.

“Steve, what’s wrong?” Your voice came out squeaky as you willed yourself to look into his eyes. You were surprised to see Steve’s eyes looking red and puffy as if he had been previously crying.

“Stay with me, Y/N. Just a little while longer.” He answered and how could you say no. You obliged and eventually wrapped your arms around him, returning his hug. The rest of the guys were befuddled at what was going on but decided to let the two of you have your moment.

You could hear Sam making a comment as he walked off. “Geez what a weird day and I haven’t even had a drink yet.” Bucky scoffed and proceeded to smack his head before walking forward.

Your eyes followed him and when he caught your stare, he winked before walking off. Your brows knitted at his previous actions but then you realised you had something more important to attend to. You still had a blonde super soldier clinging on to you like a koala.

“Alright, Steve. That’s enough of a hug. This is getting weird.” Upon your words, Steve finally released you but still held onto your arms.

“About yesterday, Y/N, I-” Steve started speaking and our eyes widened in anticipation of his following words. You don’t think you could bear to hear it. You cupped your ears and immediately ran off, making gibberish noise to tune him out.

“Wait, Y/N! Please listen to what I have to say!” Steve started chasing after you. He chased after you for a good several minutes out to the compound grounds. He knew where you were heading, you didn’t know why your feet decided to bring you there but you guessed that if any form of rejection is happening, you want it away from the eyes from anyone in the compound.

“Y/N Y/L/N! Stop it right there!” You halted in your tracks.

You turned back to see Steve Rogers with both hands on his hips. You felt like child being reprimanded by a parent. “Way to make an old man chase after you, Y/N Y/L/N.”

“You’re not that old.” You quipped back at his words.

“I’m well over 100, doll.” Steve reminded you as he laughed.

“You don’t need to run away from me, Y/N. What I’m about to say, well I-” Steve started stuttering and you could see him slightly nervous.

“What is it?” You tried to encourage him. Steve’s eyes started to turn red and he was looking at the ground.

“I like you too. I really like you Y/N.” Steve finally mustered the courage to let the words out of his mouth.

“Be my girl, please? I promise to love you and protect you always.” He added on. You felt your jaw dropped at what you were hearing. No way! Did Steve return your feelings? But how? But why?

“But yesterday, the party, you didn’t, I was drunk-” Your sentences weren’t making sense, but Steve knew what you meant.

“I know and I was honestly taken aback by your confession, doll. But I did some thinking and I realised that I feel the same too. I never realised how much I did until I lost you doll.” Steve’s long legs brought him closer to and he cradled your face with both his hands.

“You didn’t lose me, what are you talking about?” His words were puzzling, what did he meant by lose? How could it even be possible? You were right here all this time.

“I just- I don’t want to let you go ever. Please stay by my side.” Steve’s words only served to confuse you further, but you couldn’t bother to think about it in greater depth. You wanted Steve and he wanted you too. You nodded. “Always.”

Steve grinned a toothy wide smile before leaning in for a kiss. You two poured all your emotions into the kiss and it made your hearts soar. When you both finally pulled apart for a breather, Steve spoke. “I can’t wait for our future together.”

———————————————————————

50 years into the future

Steve landed on a grassy patch from the combustion of Tony and Bruce’s machine. He looked over to assess his surroundings and realised that he was not in the compounds anymore.

Steve then realised he was at a cemetery and there was a bouquet of flowers that laid on the ground beside his feet. He picked up the bouquet with lavender wrapping paper and turned to examine it further.

He then looked down again, this time to a gravestone standing just a few feet away from him.

Y/N ROGERS

A DEAR WIFE.

A LOYAL FRIEND.

A FIERCE FIGHTER

1988- 2030

The words Steve read before him hit him harder than a train wreck. How could this be possible? 2030? This means that Y/N only lived till a young age of 42. That was earlier than expected. Why was his heart aching in pain?

The tears started streaming down his face before he could even comprehend them. Steve dropped to his knees in front of the gravestone and hunched over with the bouquet gripped tightly in his hands.

“Y/N…” He whispered. “I swear I will change this future.”

———————————————————————

#steve rogers x reader #steve rogers #captain america #marvel fanfiction #marvel fanfic #au #stever rogers x y/n #angstsfordays

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nataliedanovelist · 3 years

Text

GF - How A Star Is Born ch.V

A Hercules AU, founded by @evaroze, whom this fic is a gift for. I hope y’all like it!

ch.IV - ch.VI

AO3 link

~~~~~~~~~~

Years went by. Both Dipper and Mabel went through vigorous training under their uncles’ supervision. After allowing Mabel to visit the world, Stanford had combat training be added to her lessons so, if needed, she could defend herself. Now a master of duel swords and a brand new goddess of the arts, Mabel spent her days inspiring humans, helping to keep Olympus beautiful and safe, and exploring the woods throughout Greece.

She also spent a lot of time talking to Dipper. At least once a week he would sit at night and draw in his journal to talk to his sister, swapping stories and inspiring each other to learn and grow.

Dipper was no longer a scrawny little boy, but a strong, muscular, clever young man of seventeen. Stan had never been more proud in his entire life, boxing with the kid and having him go through trials and tests and watching him grow up. He even managed to teach Dipper a few swears.

Stan coughed into his fist, standing at the end of the most difficult obstacle course Dipper had ever been set to. He grinned as Dipper emerged from shark-infested waters, blazing hoops, electric spikes, and racist homophobes, without a scratch on him, and Stan and Dipper high-hived and cheered and celebrated.

“You did it, kid! You were great!”

“Thanks, I couldn’t have done without you.” Dipper said with a smile.

“Obviously.” Stan smirked, earning him a soft punch in the beer belly. “Oof! Okay, okay. You go pack up, ya gremlin. We’re going to Thebes!”

“Isn’t that place, like, the worst place in Greece?” Dipper asked as they headed back to the Mystery Shack.

“You got it, you’ll be just what the doctor ordered.” Stan explained. “Young hero like you can help a lot of people in an Underworld-hole like that. Great place to start out. If you can make it at the Big Olive, you can make it anywhere.”

The men set sail before the sun rose the next morning. For some odd reason, Stan locked up the shack in a way that made it seem like they were never coming back, but Dipper assumed it was only because Stan believed that Dipper could make it big. The young man smiled, determined not to let his teacher down, and made sure they were on the right track.

After sailing across the ocean for a few hours, they floated into a river that traveled along the woods, taking a shortcut for Thebes rather than travel through the sea for Greece. Stan was resting in a chair with a cold drink in his hand, letting Dipper sail for a while, when they heard a scream.

The old man shot up and grinned. “Perfect! A damsel in distress! Good warm-up before we hit down. Lower the anchor here.”

Dipper did as he was told and they crept down the river for the waterfall, where they saw a young lady stumble away, groaning and growling in her throat.

The girl had long, beautiful blonde hair and stunning blue eyes that crackled like raging fire, wearing a long baby-blue dress. She hurried to her feet but was soon scooped up by the enemy that came around the river bend.

A huge Manotaur with a toga around his waist was so huge he grabbed the woman in his fist around the waist. “Not so fast, sweetheart.” He growled.

“Put me down right now, Chutzpah, or I’ll…!” The woman threw a punch at the monster, but he held her away and laughed.

“I like ‘em fiery!”

“HEY!” Dipper yelled from the riverbank and stomped on the river, leaving Stan in the bushes to munch on some popcorn.

“My money’s on Hooves.”

The girl and Chutzpah stared at the newcomer and the monster growled, “Beat it, twerp, I’m busy.”

“Sorry, mister, but you’re gonna let her go, or…”

“Keep moving, junior.” The girl sneered.

“... or I’ll…” Dipper’s sentence dropped and shattered. “But aren’t you… er, a damsel in distress?”

“I’m a damsel.” The woman said as she tried to pull herself free from the giant fist. “I’m in distress. I can handle this. Have a nice day.” She said with a sly grin with cold blue eyes.

Dipper swallowed and cleared his throat, reaching for his sword. “Uh, ma’am, I think you might be too close to this situation to realize your…” But the Manotaur punched him with so much force that Dipper flew onto a big boulder on the other side of the river.

Stan winced while Chutzpah laughed and the damsel looked bored. “C’mon kid, shake it off!” The old man coached.

Dipper charged, leaving his sword behind, and started to toss left and right hooks back and forth and landing, making the monster dizzy, and then used his head to hit him so hard it was his turn to fly back onto a hard surface, landing behind the waterfall and dropping the girl in the process.

“YES! That’s what I’m talking about, sport! Keep it up!”

“UGH!”

Dipper looked down at the wet girl and gently scooped her up out of the river to sit on a rock. “Oh, I’m sorry, ma’am. That was dumb… Excuse me, please.” And he and Chutzpah resumed their battle, the demigod using his strength to throw the Manotaur over his shoulder and putting him in a head-lock.

“Fight! Fight! Fight!” Stan chanted while the girl rang her hair dry, a smirk on her face.

“Not bad, not bad.”

“What are you talking about, he’s great!” Stan cheered. “Throw him a left! Atta boy!”

With one final punch, Dipper made Chutzpah the Manotaur fly up in the air and then come back crashing down face first in the water, a shiny bruise on his snooze button.

“Alright! Nice work!” Stan coached. “You could’ve gone without the distraction from a pair of big goo-goo eyes, but good recovery! Alright, let’s hit the water and move on.” And he walked off for the boat.

But once again, Dipper was distracted. The woman was rubbing her arms dry and sliding off the rock to stand, stretching her slender back; Dipper’s face felt hot and his whole body felt like it wasn’t even there. “Uh… are you alright, miss…?”

“Pacifica.” The girl said with a voice that dripped with sarcasm, like she believed she had better things to do than be standing here and talking to him, but she didn’t know what. “I’m fine. Thanks for the save. So, you got a name to go with all those rippling pectorals?”

“Uh… um, ah… I’m uh… uh…”

“Don’t speak Greek or something?”

“Dipper!” The man cleared his throat and answered in a calmer tone. “M-My name is Dipper. How did you get mixed up with the…”

“Knucklehead with hooves?” Pacifica finished for him. “Ah, you know how men are. They all think ‘no’ means ‘yes,’ and ‘get lost’ means ‘take me, I’m yours.’ Well, thanks for everything, Dip. Bye-bye.” And Pacifica began to walk away.

“Wait!” Dipper called out quickly, a reflex of seeing someone beautiful and cool-headed going away, and he offered sheepishly, “Uh, c-c-can I give you a ride on my boat, erm, me and Stan’s boat?”

“I’m fine,” Pacifica giggled coldly. “I’m a big tough girl, I tie my own sandals and everything. I can look after myself. See ya, Dippin’ Dots.” And Dipper watched as she disappeared beneath a hill.

“Uh… bye.” Dipper said weakly, clumsy on his feet as Stan sailed their small boat behind him, going down the river for Thebes.

“OY! Knucklehead! We going or what?”

“Huh? Oh, yeah… yeah…”

Dipper pulled himself on board, smiling with his head in the clouds. Stan sighed and shook his head, muttering, “Twitterpated.”

As Pacifica walked further and further into the woods, the atmosphere got darker and darker. The young lady walked as coldly as the air, unafraid and all too familiar with who was approaching her. When a huge gust of blue fire erupted from the Earth and a floating triangle appeared before the teenage girl, she rolled her eyes and sneered, “Great, I needed cheddar for dinner.”

Bill cackled as he held his three-sided body and kicked his legs in the air. “Oh, my little Llama. Care to explain what exactly happened?” He made a chess board appear before him with various pieces of monsters and anomalies on the board. “I thought you were gonna persuade the River Guardian to join my team for the uprising and, here I am, kinda River Guardian-less.”

“I gave it my best shot,” Pacifica said coldly as she flicked Chutzpah off the board. “But he made an offer I had to refuse.”

“Okay, fine,” Bill replied as he made the board disappear, closing it like a book. “Instead of taking two year from your lifetime sentence, Imma add two on, okay? You got your best shot?”

Pacifica groaned and walked away, leaning against a dead tree. “Look, it wasn’t my fault, okay. It was this Wonderboy who beat your Manotaur up.”

“Wonderboy?” Bill repeated.

“Some new hero who came with this big innocent farm-boy routine, but I could see through that in a Peloponnesian minute.” Pacifica said with a cold snap of her fingers.

“New hero, huh?” Bill said, a hand to what might have been his chin but was really just under his eye. “If some new guy is beating up my minions it could weaken our chances of over-throwing Sixer…” The demon stopped his talking when he heard a voice. He swooped Pacifica up into the trees as a dark cloud, just in time to hide from the intruder.

Mabel was running through the woods with a pig at her feet. He had grown quite large since the young muse had met the pig, and now they both ran as fast as they could, but the teenage girl made it to a tree first, planting a hand on it, making the dead tree sprout leaves with life, and she jumped and cheered and punched the air. “That’s twenty-two for me… How about twenty-two out of forty-five?” She asked Waddles.

The big tired pig flopped over and showed his belly lazily. Mabel awed and fell to her knees to scratch him. “Aw, you’re just a big dummy-dumb. C’mon, why don’t we go see if Grunkle Ford is too busy to hang out. This Mabel’s gotta have some family time.” And she picked up her pet pig and skipped back home.

Bill plunged back onto the ground, dropping Pacifica, who sat on a rock boringly, as Bill glowed red with fire and yelled loudly, “WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT?!” And soon every tree circling them was no more.

~~~~~~~~~~

“Who’s a cute lil guy? You are!” Gideon said into his hand mirror, sitting at the front desk of the Underworld.

The huge doors flew open as Bill, still red and fiery with anger, entered and grew to the size of a giant before his minion. “YOU SAID YOU TOOK CARE OF THE TWINS!”

“The what now?” Gideon asked calmly.

Bill towered down at the white-haired chubby teenager and bellowed, “Sixer’s brats! The ones destined to stop me from ruling this dimension! You said they were dead as doornails! But the girl is still alive!”

“Yeah, so?” Gideon asked. “The prophecy said both twins had to be there for you to lose. There’s only one. So there. And besides it took you seventeen years to realize Stanford was still dotting on his niece. If anything you suck at keeping up with your own prey.”

Bill shrunk down, shaking with anger and still red, but he had to admit that the jerk was right. “Fine, but the boy, Mason, is dead, right?”

“More or less.”

“”WHAT DO YOU MEAN MORE OR LESS?!”

“He will be when the mortal world is done with him.” Gideon sneered with a crooked smile. “That scrawny twerp doesn’t stand a chance in Thebes.”

“And you know all of this HOW?!”

“It’s fun watching him struggle and lose.” Gideon admitted with a shrug.

“I’m not taking any chances!” Bill yelled and floated away. “We’ve got one year until I can free my friends and take over this dimension! Since I can’t curse Shooting Star into a mortal, I can still kill Pinetree.”

“I’m telling you,” Gideon said, following his boss. “That loser doesn’t stand a chance. I know just who to send to kill him.”

And Bill’s anger melted away as he listened to his minion’s plan and helped make it better.

#GF #gravity falls au #fanfiction #hercules #dipper pines #mabel pines #stan pines #pacifica northwest #bill cipher #hope you like it!!!#gift

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talldecafcappuccino · 3 years

Text

Title: Between Close Friends

Rating: General Audience

Chapters: 1/1

Relationship: Ted Lasso/Rebecca Welton

Summary: Ted is bad at social media, but is that a bad thing?

Ted, what the fuck are you doing????

Ted peers at his phone, rubbing sleep from his eyes and reads the message again.

He scrolls down and sees he has twelve more texts and three missed calls all from Keeley Jones. He turns off his nighttime notifications with a few exceptions for emergency contacts, so it’s not surprising he slept through the messages.

He scratches at the stubble along his cheek and checks his clock. It’s seven o’clock here in Kansas, so it must be . . . early afternoon in London. He thinks through the last day, but he can’t remember anything interesting enough to have Keeley on the case.

Henry came over to his extended-stay hotel, they went to an American football game, got a late dinner in downtown Wichita, and watched a movie before bed.

They did make it on the Jumbotron for the Lasso-off, the team’s half-time dance contest, but his moves weren’t especially embarrassing. At least not in his opinion. Unless one of the moves was actually an insult to the English in which case, oh jeeze, he needs to get on this quick.

The call barely connects before Keeley’s voice echoes in his ear.

“Oy! Ted!”

“Keeley, I am so sorry for whatever I did to offend the great people of the United Kingdom. I am ready to make a statement and an apology tour as soon as you tell me which dance move I need to retire immediately.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about, but I need you to log out of the AFC Richmond Instagram account. Like, now.”

That stops Ted in his tracks.

Does he even have access to that? He remembers a post-it note of accounts and passwords from Beard on their first day with Richmond.

There was an account run by the previous manager, but Keeley had taken it over long ago, converting it to the official team account. She had also made Ted a personal Instagram for his own use and brand development, but he never posted publicly.

He puts her on speaker phone and opens the Instagram app. She’s right. He’s logged into the team account with all 25 million followers. Well, shoot.

There are about a dozen stories posted from last night. All of Ted and Henry’s day together. There’s puns (“having a cow” at dinner with an image of Henry holding up a beef rib and screaming his head off), Ted and Henry singing at a dueling piano bar, the two brushing their teeth together in the bathroom mirror.

“No offense, but I think this may delay the Tom Ford deal you asked me about.”

“Yeah. I get that.”

“It’s just, you know, dads aren’t quite their brand. Or our brand. I mean we’re not anti-dorky dad, but you know with the whole comeback narrative during the season hiatus . . .”

“No I get it. You’ve put a lot of work into rebranding this team and I just undermined that.”

She sighs, but it’s fond.

“Sorry, Ted. It’s not like what you posted was bad, it’s rather sweet actually. It’s just a little different from the posts I had scheduled.”

Ted nodded. It wasn’t the most embarrassing thing that had ever happened to him, but he felt bad for making Keeley’s job harder than it needed to be.

“No, I’m sorry Keeley. I swear, it won’t happen again.”

****

“Can you believe what Ted did last night? I’ve never seen someone so bad at social media.”

Rebecca has no idea what Keeley is talking about when she walks into her office. She flops onto the couch, feet splayed on the coffee table, clearly exhausted by whatever Ted has done from 4,438 miles away.

“So many puns. Which, don't get me wrong, I love word play more than most people. But I don’t think it’s right for the team right now.”

Rebecca shuts her laptop.

“You’re right about puns not being part of the team plan, but what’s this about Ted? What did he do, exactly?”

Ted hasn’t posted anything in at least 24 hours. Not that Rebecca is keeping track.

“Oh he managed to switch to the team account on Instagram and posted about his entire evening out with Henry. It was quite sweet, actually. The ones that made sense,” but then she pulled a face.”He’s like, really, really bad at social media.”

Oof. Well that isn’t great, but Rebecca doesn’t think there’s anything particularly terrible about Ted’s social media use normally.

“But everything seems under control? No big PR actions needed.”

“It’s fine. I had him log out and wrote a post about Coach Lasso’s surprise social media takeover from America.”

Rebecca nods. Okay, so it was all sorted. Keeley has things totally under control.

But she reaches for her phone anyway. She opens Instagram, taps through the AFC Richmond stories, and snorts at the image of Henry with the rib as big as his head.

“Are people at least being kind?” Rebecca hopes Ted logged out without seeing any messages about Henry. Not that she could see any reason for it, but people were shitheads on the internet.

“Well, wanker is still the most common response. But many of them are wanker with a little heart at the end, so I think it’s fine. We actually got a lot of responses, proper engagement and all that,” she looks up at the ceiling, considering it for a moment before rolling her head to look back at Rebecca.

“If we weren’t trying to present the team as a badass phoenix rising from the ashes, I’d say a Ted takeover isn’t a bad idea. He just needs some supervision. Maybe a phone with a better camera.”

Rebecca is only half listening as she taps to the next story.

“Aw, they went to dueling piano night. That must have been fun for Henry.”

She’s smiling at her phone when Keeley asks, “Dueling piano night?”

“Yeah, you know at Jim Bob’s Bar.”

Keeley is looking at her blankly.

“Fine. I know it’s not really Jim Bob’s bar. It’s probably not even a bar if Henry’s there. But I can’t remember the real name off the top of my head.”

She’d looked it up once, after Ted first posted about the dueling pianos. For some reason she started calling it Jim Bob’s. Ted didn’t seem bothered and had even started calling it that himself.

When she looks up again, Keeley is staring at her, eyes narrowed.

“What are you talking about?”

“What do you mean?”

“How do you know so much about some bar in Kansas?”

That gives Rebecca pause. She isn’t sure what Keeley means by the line of questioning.

“It’s not some totally random bar. Ted posts about it whenever he goes for dueling pianos.”

If he gets to the bar early or she has a particularly late evening, Rebecca catches the story before going to bed. When she does, she always asks him to put in $5 for Wannabee by the Spice Girls. She owes him a small fortune by now, but it’s worth it to see the bar explode with cheers and jeers.

Some nights she misses the story, but he puts money in anyways and she wakes up to a shaky video of, Yo, I'll tell you what I want, what I really, really want.

Rebecca thinks this is a good enough explanation, but Keeley is still staring at her.

“I’ve literally no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Keeley, you know social media is not my thing. All I know is that sometimes Ted posts about this bar on his tiny friends list thing,” she waves her hand around, trying her best to describe it. “The one with the green ring around it.”

Keeley leaps to her feet, eyes wide.

“Am I not on Ted’s Close Friends list??”

Before Rebecca can say a word, Keeley is halfway out the door, texting furiously.

“Roy, better not be on there, if I’m not on there. Ted knows how I feel about being left out!” she shouts over her shoulder. “Sorry Rebecca, I need to do some investigating, asap.”

Oof. She may have just created a problem. It’s probably best to give Ted a heads up before Keeley gets through interrogating Roy.

She drafts a text once, twice, then deletes it and presses call instead.

“Hey Boss, let me guess. Keeley got a hold of you?”

It’s been a while since they’ve chatted, what with the time difference. It’s bizarre how familiar his American accent has become.

“She just left my office, yes.”

There’s a loud crack in the background and a metal clang.

“Where are you?”

“Oh, just the batting cages with Henry,” he says, cheering loudly. “Hey, do you guys have a sport called baseball that has nothing to do with American baseball? You know, like football and football?”

She chuckles, “I don’t believe we do. However there is always cricket.”

He hums, considering it.

“Now Ted, I think there’s something you should know.”

“Lay it on me Boss. I know I caused a headache this morning, what’s the damage? What do you need me to do? I am at your disposal or I’ll lay really, really low as long as you need me to.”

“It’s not that Ted. It’s Keeley.”

“Keeley?”

“Yes, she’s on a bit of a mission at the moment. It seems you left her off your Close Friends list? I think that’s right. On Instagram?”

“Huh. How did that come up?”

“I was telling her about Jim Bob’s. Apparently she had never heard of it and realized you had a whole social media life she was unaware of.”

“Right . . .”

“So do what you will with that.”

“You haven’t talked to anyone else about this yet, have you?”

Rebecca is confused by this new direction.

“No. Why? Ted, is something wrong?”

It takes a long moment for Ted to respond.

“What can I say, I’m just really bad at this social media stuff.”

It's a non-response and an overly folksy one at that. But Rebecca can’t be fooled by the aw shucks routine—not anymore. She tries again.

“Ted. Who is on your close friends list?”

“Uh. Not a lot of people.”

“That doesn’t answer the question.”

“What can I say?” He huffs, a little frustrated. She would feel bad for prying, but she can't help herself. “The list of people I want to share silly life things with is small.”

“How small?” she wonders.

“Very small.”

The line goes silent and Rebecca swears she lost him. But then she hears him take a deep breath.

“It’s you. You’re the list.”

Rebecca feels flush. That’s not where she was expecting this conversation to go.

“I know that might be a lot. You don’t have to say anything. I just, that’s the honest truth and I’d like to get ahead of it before Keeley harangues the entire team.”

It’s a lot to take in, but it makes sense. Sometimes when she’s watching his posts, she wonders about his audience. Who else cares about his biscuit recipe improvements or Broadway Sundays (a recent development that’s turned into a shared movie night.)

“Rebecca?”

She realizes she’s been quiet for a while. The moment feels tenuous and she worries about saying the wrong thing, sending him running faster than Keeley during a social media snafu.

Finally she settles on, “You know, you’re welcome to text me silly life things. It wouldn’t be a bother.”

She brushes invisible crumbs from her desk, listening carefully to his breathing on the other end of the line.

“Yeah?”

“Yes. Maybe I can send some, too?”

Rebecca can hear his smile from across the Atlantic.

“Well, alright then.”

****

That night, Ted’s phone pings and he rolls over to see a text message from Rebecca. It’s a picture of the sun rising over her garden wall.

Something silly to start the day.

But it doesn’t feel silly. Not at all.

#ted lasso #ted lasso fic #some fluff #because a plot bunny got in the way of what I planned to write this weekend #I blame the Easter bunny #ted x rebecca

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asgardianthot · 4 years

Text

Flesh And Bones – Part 10 (End)

Sam/Bucky Soulmate AU

Series Masterlist

A/N: I can’t believe this is over? It took me a while, but I made sure I was happy with every chapter and I think I love how this story turned out. I’m emotional, don’t mind me, this series meant a lot to me so I will be weeping in a corner from now on. Please enjoy, and thank you so so so so so so much for reading, from the bottom of my heart.

Warnings: mentions of suicide

Words: 2739

Bucky woke up surrounded by a sense of warmth. The first thing he saw when he opened his eyes was Sam’s face, sleeping next to him with pouty lips resting against the back of his hand. he was sleeping on his belly rather adorably, and as Bucky contemplated him with amazement, the events that led them there came back to his mind. The discomfort in his chest made him remember the shot wound he had received from the rogue Hydra agents he had killed. The wound wasn’t anything he hadn’t endured before, physically speaking, so he wasn’t in too much pain.

As much as he could have spent the following minutes focusing on remembering how he found his way back to Sam, Bucky was too hypnotized by the man’s peacefulness. He ran a finger across Sam’s cheekbones, and the latter responded by opening one eye. It took him a few seconds to fully come back to earth, then he ran a hand down his face to rub the sleepiness away.

"Hey." Sam mumbled.

"Tell me I didn't just faint.” Bucky pleaded jokingly, yet found a confirming smirk on Sam’s face and let out a defeated groan, “God, that's embarrassing."

Sam propped himself up on his elbows and lied back against the bedframe in order to accommodate the both of them. He helped Bucky ease into his torso, handling him with extreme care until the brunette head rested on Sam’s chest.

"Your adrenaline wore out when you found out I was okay.” Sam explained with deep fondness, dropping a kiss to his head, “You moron."

Bucky recalled the events. Sam was so worried, while he was so confused as to why the wound hadn’t affected Sam.

"Told you I healed fast." Bucky flaunted with a bit of a smug.

Sam smiled, "That, you did."

"What about-?"

"Nat's taking care of it.” he interrupted his partner before he could struggle to find the words, “Aside from you, it went pretty well.”

As a matter of fact, a lot of the agents they tracked down had gotten away, but the team gathered a bunch of information and arrested many people willing to rat each other out. Just as predicted, Hydra wasn’t what it used to be; they were barely surviving, so, cut off one head and the guy watching will desert to save his own. Sam, on his part, was usually more of a merciful man, and he didn’t enjoy the hero talk, nor the morality of the gig. He didn’t pretend to have all the answers. But when it came to Hydra, it was a lot more personal. He became more relentless. Therefore, after seeing the organization who broke Bucky for seventy years shoot him, he wished for nothing but pain and jail for them. He hoped, deep in his bones, that every agent in that base got what they deserved.

However, right there in bed, with Bucky safe and sound, and in his arms, he was able to let go of that hatred. Because nothing mattered more than Bucky at that very moment. He forgot all about the raid, and the information procedures Natasha was supervising, and he just held Bucky.

"No one's ever cared so much about me, Buck." He admitted.

What Sam couldn’t go past was the fact that Bucky was dying, and still the only thing he cared about was Sam’s ghost pain.

"They should." Bucky stated easily.

"I mean… I'm usually the one taking bullets."

"My point exactly.” Bucky raised his voice a bit, and crooked his neck so he could look up at Sam’s face with seriousness, “I want you safe. I know you can take care of yourself a whole lot better than I do, but... If I gotta take another bullet, it'd be for you. And I'd be praying you didn't feel it."

Sam couldn’t even fight back. If Bucky was willing to put himself out there for him, then Sam couldn’t stop him. After all, partners take bullets for each other, and they were so much more than just partners. Perhaps, one day ago, Sam would have rejected the idea. He would have told Bucky he was being senseless and reckless, but now, he understood. He would do anything for Bucky, too. This time, all he thought about was how immensely lucky he was for having Bucky in his life.

"You know I love you, right?" Sam asked like he was deeply worried that Barnes might not know.

Bucky smiled up at him playfully, "You're my soulmate."

"Yeah, but besides.” Sam continued, giving Barnes love-eyes, “I think I'd have fallen for you even without the bond."

Bucky reveled in how pretty that sounded, and contemplated the thought.

"Yeah, me too.” He concluded.

The injured man stretched up his body to plant a kiss onto Wilson’s lips, yet the second they met, he felt the pain in his torso. He winced with discomfort, but also with embarrassment at the realization of what a bad idea that was.

“That was so stupid.” Sam mocked him although there was nothing but sweetness in his tone.

Over all, he was amazed by how much he loved that idiot. Bucky, on his part, laughed at himself and lied back on Sam’s chest.

“Let’s forget I did that.” He proposed after groaning with the movement, “Good thing you can’t feel that anymore.”

“You think it’s for good?” Sam wondered, tiptoeing around the topic that had been just brought up, “Like Tony said, the physical bond’s over?”

Barnes thought long and hard, but he couldn’t come up with any factor that would confirm that theory entirely. He didn’t know why the bond would cease now, of all times; perhaps because they needed it to cease in that base. Perhaps because they truly controlled it all along and just managed to do it willingly. Perhaps it was a random event, or perhaps merely a one-time thing.

“Maybe.” He said truthfully, “I think we got this under control, so whatever happens…”

Sam filled in the silence, “We got this.”

“Yeah.”

After the proper amount of time, Bucky’s flesh healed completely, and Sam took the opportunity to incentive him to go outside more. It started out as a midnight walk, a trip to buy donuts –which became a discussion about whether or not that was a date-, and ended as a jog in the park. The latter, however, wasn’t too enjoyable for Bucky, but it got him to love running with Sam, so they agreed on jogging at night every once in a while.

That was the scenario, both of them in sweats and jogging side-to-side throughout the empty bride. It was perfect, having that as a couple, while being away from the public eye for the most part. This time, unfortunately, there was a dreadful surprise on the edge of the bridge.

Usually, Bucky forced himself to ignore the bystanders, hopefully becoming invisible to them, but this specific person came too fast and too strong into the couple’s peripheral vision: they were standing on the high edge, staring down.

It didn’t take a single more second for the heroes to react. When he got closer, Sam stopped on his tracks to avoid startling the jumper, meanwhile Bucky, lacking much social tact, ran towards her decisively.

"Hey, hey, get back down." He commanded her, struggling to conceal his desperation.

He looked up at her and saw a frightened young girl, crying her eyes out as she contemplated her next step. He stretched out his hand to her tentatively, and as much as he wanted to grab her arm and yank her away from the edge, he figured that could possibly make it all worse.

"Don't.” He pleaded, “Don't do it."

All he could think about is that she seemed too young to give up, whatever reason it was that drew her to that decision. She had so many years ahead of her to turn her life around, he found it hard to believe that she would even think about ending it for good.

"Please, just leave." She sobbed, missing eye contact.

"I won't until you get down from there.” Bucky raised his voice to a more stern demand, “If you try to jump, I'll stop you."

The threat brought more sobbing to the girl, who covered her face with her hands and trembled into them.

"Why, cause I got my whole life ahead of me?” she yelled with rage, “My soulmate died. She's not getting a second chance at life, I'm not getting a second chance!”

Barnes took a sharp breath and approached her slowly.

"I'm sorry." He expressed genuinely.

The girl looked down at him and for a second, Bucky saw something in her face, like she recognized who he was, but didn’t say anything. She simply shrugged it off and looked down again.

"Why would I live an entire life without a soulmate?" she asked barely above a whisper.

"You don't know that for sure."

"Yes, I do!” she burst once again, “She was the one, now I'm alone forever!"

"No, it doesn't work like that.” Bucky said firmly, finally captivating her silent attention, “The bond... it makes no sense, at all. Don't make a choice like- don't make any choice based on that, ‘cause nothing's for sure."

The way he spoke made it sound like his opinion on the bond hadn’t changed from that day before he found out he had a soulmate; he wasn’t a fan, and the technicalities of it never made any more sense to him, not even after going through one himself. His tone, however, convinced the girl a little. She looked behind Bucky and found Sam standing there, keeping his distance from the tense scene, with a cellphone in hand and expectancy written all over his body. He was frozen, and trusting Bucky to be capable of saving her all by himself.

She sniffled and returned her glance to her savior, "How do you know?"

"Cause it didn't make any sense for me either.” He confessed like he was letting go of a weight from his chest, “At any point. And yet, here we are."

The word ‘we’ made her glance at Sam one more time. This time, when Bucky offered his hand, the girl took it, and as she cautiously stepped down from the edge, Bucky shot a quick glance for Sam to make the call. She didn’t need the Avengers, she needed 911 and her parents.

She was taking off the blanket the ambulance gave her, when her mother, who ran to hug her hysterically when she showed up, began guiding her to the car. The last thing Sam and Bucky saw of the survivor was a jacket being wrapped over her shoulders and a car door being closed. The pair remained there, sitting on a bench in waits of the girl to be driven home, safely.

"You did really well." Sam spoke finally, the second their job there was done.

Barnes ran a hand down his face, exhaustedly.

"You think so?" he mumbled.

Sam pressed a kiss to his temple, "I think you're ready to be a hero again."

Bucky let out a soft laugh, matching Wilson’s proud smile.

"I didn't know this was on the contract of being an Avenger." Bucky joked.

"It's not. That's why you're better than an Avenger."

The words hit Bucky, and all he could think about is that being an Avenger wasn’t his ultimate goal. His role model wasn’t Steve, nor Wanda, no matter how much he admired them; the person he thrived to be like more than anything was Samuel Wilson.

Before the bond, before everything, any time Sam would come back from his jog at the park with a gloomy face and tell whoever was in the common area that yet another desperate soul had injured themselves in front of him, Barnes would listen. He would see the disappointment in Sam’s eyes when he said he didn’t get to the stranger in time, and Bucky wouldn’t understand why Sam thought avoiding self-inflicted physical harm was more important than calming them down afterwards. Eventually, he understood Sam viewed the talks and advice and comfort as the least he could do, because that was who he was: a sensitive, responsible hero.

"You do these kinds of things all the time.” Bucky remarked, “At the park. You reach to people."

As a matter of fact, Sam had reached him. And in the end, Bucky thrived to be like Sam, because in his eyes, Wilson -and not the Falcon- was the biggest hero the world had ever had, and everyone should want to be just a little more like him. But Sam, he believed it had been Bucky who really reached out, in his own unique way.

He sensed the warmth of heart coming from his partner, and his tummy did a small flip.

"You're about to say something real cheesy, aren't you?" he teased Bucky.

The appellee grinned, "Maybe."

As much as Wilson pretended to be too manly for cheesiness, hearing Bucky’s sweetened words awakened something in him he didn’t think he could enjoy. So he nodded, truly expectant for the ‘cheesiness’.

"Go ahead."

Bucky shook his head and looked down at his feet.

"No, I was just thinking... how you're, you know... I wouldn't have done these things without you.” Barnes admitted, a little shameful, but making sure he sounded confident in his declaration, “Taking care o' myself, getting out of the compound... shit, saving someone."

Sam took in the compliment, yet humbly as ever.

"You just needed a little push.” He nudged his partner’s shoulder minimally.

"Or a hero.” Bucky corrected him, this time staring right into Sam’s eyes, “For me to look up to."

Somehow, the thought of Barnes seeing him as a role model made Sam crumble. It made him feel so wonderfully loved, because in his eyes, the strongest, most resilient person on earth was still that man sitting next to him. And finally, he internalized the utopic notion of being adored by the person he adored, which he had to force himself to accept as a reality. He was his hero’s hero.

"You and me, both." Sam replied with devoted eyes.

Sitting on that bench, and slowly beginning to cuddle closer to the other as the chilly night air caught up to their bodies, both of them felt the particular adrenaline rush that one feels when contemplating the fragility of one’s heart. Usually, when a heart is so drawn to another, the poor thing hangs by a thread of futile stability; if the other person leaves, said heart would crumble into pieces, and it is precisely that fear that sinks into the intensity of romance. It is what we call being terrified of losing a loved one.

However, moments later, as if they could sense the other’s soul and connect through them, they both settled into a peaceful sensation as they remembered that if all went well, they would be together forever. That was the whole point, right? The mutual understanding. The bond. The fact that, even though their flesh was no longer sewed together, they still had each other’s names carved into their bones.

In the end, pain is still such human extravaganza. Nobody does aching from love, or the lack of it, better than humans. The pain parade of romance is something so deeply rooted into the dumbest parts of our brains, that that must be the reason behind soulmates. So, indeed, it is only logical for such a cruel universe to bond love and pain so tightly. But it is also a vital human necessity to turn that pain into something beautiful. Something comfortably joyful. Something easy.

Because no matter how difficult loving can be, it is such a human trait to turn that same love into something soothing.

At first it comes like a tingle, a small pinch or even the ghost sensation of a scratch, and hopefully, it transforms into a healing factor. Something like a comforting hug, or a little push. Some needed and given bit of space, a little blind faith, an honest talk, a first-aid kit, or even a box of donuts to replace unspoken words. That is all we have, after all, and it is who we are: comfort, warmth, and human connection. Without it, all we would have left of existence would be pain, and flesh, and bones.

#sambucky #sam wilson x bucky barnes #fatws #tfatws #marvel fanfiction #sambucky fanfiction #angst #fluff #soumate au #tw: suicide

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asarahworld-writes · 4 years

Text

a place we could escape sometime

Fritz, Chaz, and Zephyr all belong to @unusual-ly. Thanks for filling up our sandboxes with fleshed out background characters. Hopefully I’ve done them justice.

The football team had, now unsurprisingly, won the game. Coach had given them their choice of ordering pizzas in to their hotel rooms or taking the bus to a mid-scale diner across town. Surprisingly, the vote had split perfectly fifty-fifty. Even more surprisingly, the same vote had split the same way with the cheerleaders on the floor above. The coaches then allowed the teams to mingle, each supervising roughly one team. The cheerleaders’ coach stayed in (Zed suspected that they were used to having little to no real interactions with the squad, with the cheer captains running everything from tryouts to the championship routine) and Coach took everyone else out to the diner.

“Okay, if everyone who wants to come out isn’t ready by seven-thirty, then I’m sorry but you’re stuck with pizza. There’ll be no latecomers – we gotta stick together. This is a school event and we’re responsible for you kids,” Coach said. “Now, you all need to hit the showers, okay? I’m adding that to my list of rules for dinner. Shower and be ready by seven-thirty. That’s all I’m asking of you guys. Can you do that for me?”

Zed’s roommates for the trip were Chaz, Fritz, and Zephyr. Although they had tried to pass it off as a coincidence, everybody knew that they had been grouped together because they were the zombie students on the team. Chaz, the youngest of the group, had pounced on getting ready for dinner as soon as they had entered their room. The other three were too tired to be bothered, at least until Zephyr remembered that they were on a time limit and three people still needed to shower. When Chaz emerged from the bathroom, Zed and Fritz were in and out as quickly as they could.

“Come on, Zeph. We’re hitting the town, let’s go.” Zed shrugged a jacket over his maroon hoodie, knowing that Addison would steal at least one or the other before the night was over.

“You guys go. I’ll grab some pizza from Coach’s room,” Zephyr deflected, looking at the phone meaningfully.

“What? No way, come on you guys aren’t going to leave me alone all night, are you?” Chaz looked around the room. “Zed’s going to meet up with his girlfriend, Zephyr obviously wants the room to call his boyfriend, and Fritz…” Chaz perked up. “Hey, man, we could hang out.”

Zed opened the motel room door, stepping out into the crisp, cool evening air. He quickly crossed over to the room Addison was staying in and knocked.

“Hey, Zed,” Bree opened the door, smiling. “I think Addy’s just looking for her jacket.”

Zed grinned. “Hey. Awesome cheers tonight,” he winked.

“Yeah, they were pretty good. It’s definitely because of us that the team won,” Bree joked, her smile fading when Zed didn’t laugh. She turned to see that Addison had entered the main area/bedroom.

“Hey, gorgeous,” he said, slightly breathless. Addison ducked her head, tucking a stray lock of hair behind her ear. She was so beautiful, wearing a pale blue jumpsuit, damp hair tied back in a messy ponytail. He couldn’t help but notice that the sweater was fairly thin and smirked, knowing that she would end up stealing his jacket at some point during the night. “How about we skip out of here,” he whispered.

“Don’t you mean _delicious_?” Addison held out her hand and Zed took it, firmly clasping them together.

“There’s a diner across the street. Everyone’s either in the motel rooms or at the restaurant. What do you say we have a little date night?”

“I mean, we _could_ get into so much trouble.” Addison grinned. “Let’s go.”

If Zed had had a fully functional human heart, it would have been thudding loudly in his chest. Sure, they still had to sneak out, but they were finally going on a proper date, somewhere where most people didn’t really know about zombies, where they would just be a couple of kids. As he held the door open for Addison, nobody really paid them any attention. There was no sharp spike from his Z-band as he entered the diner.

The little diner was mostly empty, aside from a man passed out in a corner booth. They chose a side both on the other side of the diner, Addison not releasing her hold on Zed as a waitress brought over some water and their menus.

“How are you guys doing tonight?” She placed the menus on the table, and continued: “house special is the classic burger n shake with Joey sauce. Crisp lettuce, red onions, and our secret Joey sauce. I’ll be back in a few minutes, holler if you need anything.” She left them to look at their menus, walking back into the kitchen.

Bells chimed as the front door opened again a few minutes later. The waitress was back; smiling, she seated the new arrivals, then stopped at the table. “How are you guys doing?”

“Good, thanks,” Zed smiled, looking over to his girlfriend.

“You kids see the football game this afternoon? That sure was something else all right, don’t think anyone’s seen Seabrook play like _that_ for, I don’t know, twenty years? Heard they’ve got one of them mutants on the team now. Heck, nobody around here even knew there _were_ mutants in Seabrook, can you believe it? Just twenty miles down the coast, a whole other community of mutants from back when the power plant went down.”

Zed’s stomach twisted.

“Now what can I get you kids tonight?”

Addison picked up her menu, scanning it. “Could I get the chicken salad...with garlic bread...and extra Parmesan?”

“And you?”

Zed pushed the knot in his stomach down and swallowed. “Yeah, uh, could I get the special? Uh, blue rare and could I get it with cheese?”

The waitress was staring at him, so he flashed her a smile. That was when he realized that Addison was also staring at him.

“Sir,” the waitress began uncertainly.

“Oh! And we just won the football game tonight, so if you could add a couple of double vanilla shakes to that, that would be amazing.”

The waitress nodded. “Double vanilla shakes.” She left with their order, and Zed turned back to the table.

“If they make money from people eating here, then why do they serve you a tiny loaf of bread before your dinner?” He sawed off another slice from the small bread, buttering it carefully before swallowing, nearly without chewing. He could feel Addison still staring. “What? Is it meant to just be decoration?”

Addison laughed at that. “What? No, don’t be ridiculous.”

“Then what was it? That waitress was giving me vibes, but like, I don’t know.”

“You ordered a _burger_,” Addison whispered in a hush.

Zed stared at her blankly. “...yep.”

“_Blue rare_.”

“...yes?”

“Zed. Humans can’t eat beef that under-cooked. That’s why she was staring at you. We’re not in Seabrook, she doesn’t recognize you as a zombie. You’re just the weirdo who brought his girlfriend on a date to get food poisoning.”

“Can’t take me anywhere nice, can you?” Zed chuckled, grinning. “Think the chef will do it?” His question, though rhetorical, was answered by the momentary return of their waitress.

“Sir, unfortunately we will not be able to fill your order. When ground, beef must be fully cooked in order to avoid bacterial poisoning.” The waitress looked at Zed, clearly expecting him to order something else. When he said nothing, she continued: “we have a selection of meats that can be prepared rare for your enjoyment – steak, lamb, and beef are our most commonly rare dishes.”

While Zed understood that there was a liability issue that could result if the restaurant served under-cooked meat, he was also starting to crave the specificity of a minimally-cooked burger.

He decided to take a chance.

“I’m a zombie. One of the ‘mutants’ from Seabrook. Believe me when I say that this is definitely the way I prefer my burgers.” His wallet sincerely hoped that the establishment would listen to him and allow him to order the more inexpensive menu item.

The waitress stared at him. “I’ll get the manager for you, sir.” She left quite quickly.

The evening wasn’t going at all how Zed had hoped. In Seabrook, he was sometimes treated differently because he was a zombie, but things usually worked out. Integration was slowly becoming more commonplace, but outside of the community were issues that nobody had thought of before. Such as what would happen when a zombie tried ordering food that matched their zombie-fied preferences.

The manager would not allow him to order a rare burger. Zed understood, of course, and had resigned himself to ordering the burger to be cooked as little as the chef deemed safe when Addison stopped him.

“I know that the date was your idea and that you were going to cover it,” she started. Zed smiled sadly, knowing the gist of what she was going to say.

“Addy, it’s fine.”

“It’s not fine. You have special dietary needs and if a restaurant can accommodate a person with food allergies, I don’t see why this should be any different. But my dad gave me fifty dollars ‘in case of an emergency’, like that would ever happen, and I think this qualifies.” She turned to address the manager. “My boyfriend will be having a steak as rare as you can make it. As will I.”

“Addison, you don’t even like steak,” Zed interrupted. “You wanted the salad. At least have the steak cooked.” Addison looked back at Zed and he could see her relenting. “Come on, the salad has fresh strawberries, you love those. And I’m certain it was you who was disappointed with the garlic bread last week when the cafeteria served spaghetti.”

The waitress looked at them, clearly waiting to see if the couple had finished deciding. “Do you need a few more minutes?”

“No,” Addison shook her head as she turned back to the waitress. “One steak and one salad. A side of yam fries with the steak, and garlic bread with the salad. And two double vanilla shakes for dessert,” Addison ordered confidently.

“That should take about ten minutes.” The waitress finished jotting down the order and went to help another table.

“Addison,” but this it was Zed who was interrupted.

“Zed, it’s fine. Dinner’s on me. Well, technically it’s on my dad. But, hey, we’re out on a date. Let’s not waste it by arguing over something so trivial as who’s going to pay.”

Zed smiled, easily leaning across the table and kissing his girlfriend. “I can think of much better ways to pass the time,” he agreed, mumbling against her lips. He felt her smile, felt air hit his nose as she exhaled, felt her hand reach for his, fingers fumbling as they interlocked. _“Gar gar ga za,_” he whispered, pulling back slightly before re-initiating the kiss. Ten minutes had passed before they knew it and their waitress was back, clearing her throat as she placed their plates on the table.

“Enjoy your meal,” she said casually, giving them a look as she left.

“What was that supposed to mean?”

“Addison, it’s fine. That’s what people say when you’re in a restaurant. Or so I’ve heard.” Zed picked up his fork and speared one of Addison’s strawberries. “Now let’s have dinner, neither of us have eaten since before the game. Eat your salad before I steal all your strawberries,” he grinned, taking a bite from the one on his fork. Addison’s eyes narrowed playfully and accepted the proffered remainder of the stolen strawberry from her boyfriend.

#zombies #zeddison #disney zombies

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myriahkamm · 4 years

Text

Work-Related Rant (Because Those Are Always Fun)

Do you ever get sick of more of the same, no matter how much things seemingly "change"?

A coworker and I left out old team for a new one largely because our team lead was an insufferable narcissist who couldn't take constructive criticism and literally had it out for us because we did our jobs right and, weirdly enough, expected others to do the same and called them out if they didn't. Expecting your coworkers to get shit done? What? Blasphemy.

So yeah, new team, same team manager. (The hierarchy is the team manager is over the team lead who's over us lowly workflow coordinators, the ones who do all the hard work lol.)

We got a team lead on the new team after a few months (a new hire off the street instead of an internal hire, so she didn't understand anything we did, but hey, she could sort of supervise the personnel side of things when she felt like it). She left after a year for a "new opportunity," and we were without a team lead.

Weirdly, my old team's lead left around the same time, too. So there were 2 open positions for team leads on teams I'm familiar with.

I've had a lot of issues with internal hiring at the company I work for. I've had HR "forget" to forward applications to hiring managers, I've had hiring managers "forget" about scheduled interviews and then give the position to someone else, lots of shitty stuff like that. So I told myself, “One more time. Apply for both these lead positions; they claim they like hiring internally because then they don't have to train new leads on all the basic stuff the workflows do, and you're familiar with both teams and what they do, so theoretically that should help.”

So I applied. I had an interview with my manager scheduled.

And then the pandemic hit and we all started working from home. HR contacted me to reschedule the interview as an electronic interview. I gave them my availability.

And never heard anything.

I contacted them a week later like, "Hey, what's happening with that interview?"

HR: Let me check into that.

*1 week later*

Me: Hey, I still haven't heard anything from you guys. Can we schedule that interview?

*3 days later*

HR: It has been determined that you lack the necessary experience for the position and will not be interviewed at this time.

Me: 😲🤔😒

So after that bullshit response (because why did I not lack experience the first time you scheduled the interview, dumbasses?), I contacted my manager to ask about what happened. She eventually (after I swear another goddamn week) told me someone with "more experience" or "better experience" or some crap was hired.

Okay, I can acknowledge that I don't know everything and there are definitely people who have been with the company for longer, so I guess that makes sense.

Then I found out they hired someone from outside the company. So maybe more recent supervising experience, but hey, they usually like hiring internally so they don't have to train on the basic workflow stuff, so that doesn't seem right. Then she didn’t start training for, like, weeks after that. And now she’s finally starting to do team lead stuff...

...and she’s driving 90% of the team absolutely crazy.

Most of my team is made up of introverts. We do work stuff, we sometimes chat in a team chat about non-work stuff (I personally hate that, but whatever), and we get stuff done (for the most part; there are a couple of people who don’t pull their weight, but whatever). Our new team lead is super, super extroverted. And she’s been bombarding the team with silly, pointless games and shit because she’s “team building” (a team that already exists, okay, why are you trying to “build” something that’s already there, idiot?) and “everyone needs to get to know each other.” She doesn’t seem to comprehend that most of us know each other, work relatively well together, and, you know, have already existed as a team for over a year.

But, no, we totally need silly email caption contests (how does that help you get to know people?!) and pointless “let’s guess which pet belongs to who!” contests (we pretty much all know each other’s pets, we’ve worked together for a while already, omg) and really stupid “virtual happy hours” outside of work time. That’s totally all necessary. If you can’t hear my sarcasm, I think this is all incredibly stupid and has nothing to do with work and, my effing god, there are only 4 new people on the team including the new team lead, so we don’t all need to “get to know each other” because we already effing know each other (at least as much as necessary to do our jobs).

The coworker who came from my old team and I chat outside of work. We both think all of this is really stupid, and it makes is uncomfortable. Sure, these things are all optional, but how is it not going to create favoritism for the people who participate when our new team lead thinks these are super important “team building” exercises and thinks they’re “fun ways to make people happy”? There are definitely others on other shifts (I work overnights and don’t chat with most people outside of work because, you know, we’re coworkers, not best buddies) who are annoyed by all these silly exercises, too. So the coworker who came from my old team and I have both sent emails to our new team lead indicating that we’re not fans of all these activities, all this “team building”: it’s not helpful; it doesn’t fit the personality of most of our team members; our team already exists and has existed for about two years, so we don’t need “team building”; stuff to that effect. I mentioned in one of my emails that I’m a private person and don’t want all my coworkers knowing everything about me because we’re not friends, we’re coworkers.

So our new team lead isn’t happy about all of this, but she’s taken it out on the coworker from my old team (and not on me, for some reason? It’s really weird and I don’t get it...I think it’s because she’s been working days (as pretty much all leads do) and not overnights so she feels like she doesn’t know me and is giving me more of the benefit of the doubt than my coworker, but that’s shitty favoritism and is really gross and ugh). They had a virtual meeting yesterday (with our manager there too) in which our lead basically said it’s not fair of my coworker to “try to prevent her from doing activities that are fun for everyone” and was super defensive and passive-aggressively said “I’m sorry I’m trying to have fun with the team and put out fun activities” and...wow. I just can’t handle it.

The big problem I’m noticing is that our new team lead is super freaking similar to the lead on our old team that caused us to leave that damn team. I cannot believe our manager hired someone just like her. Did she think that shit through? Because at this point, it’s looking like that same coworker and I might end up leaving this team, too, because of a bad team lead. And yes, I acknowledge it’s personal and I might be biased because I wanted that position and didn’t even get to interview for it, but since other people are noticing the same things, I’m pretty sure it’s not just me. I just find the hiring process so freaking ridiculous, because how can my manager possibly know I wasn’t the right fit for that position if she didn’t even fucking interview me?! I feel like either something got fucked up on HR’s side again and she was covering for them OR that she didn’t want me in that position and won’t be honest with me about it so she came up with some bullshit excuse. Like, just be honest with me if you don’t want me to be a team lead/don’t think I’d be good at it/don’t want to work with me as a member of your management team. Don’t give me a bullshit excuse that’s obviously not true.

As a note, for the position on my old team, she promoted two people internally on that team to the team lead position, so it’s not like people can’t get promoted internally...they just have to kiss ass a hell of a lot more than I do, I guess. I can’t trust her now, so whatever, that’s a thing.

Anyway. Things keep changing, but saying exactly the same. What I’ve learned from this whole experience is that (a) it’s not worth applying for promotions at this point because I’m never going to get one (despite the fact that my manager and HR keep telling me “No, it’s not that we don’t like you; you have the possibility for upward mobility; you should totally keep applying for promotions”); (b) the company I work for looks for team leads who have recent leadership experience, regardless of how poor of a fit they’ll be on the team they’re joining; and (c) managers at the company I work for are super dishonest, incapable of handling constructive criticism, and are going to do whatever they want to do even if it doesn’t really fit the team they’re leading.

Cool. Great.

Work sucks.

Capitalism sucks.

Adulting sucks.

I want off this ride.

#myri speaks #long post #work stuff #ugh #i just #i just can't anymore #rant #apologies for the rant #if you made it to the end of my boring rant congrats #i just need to vent

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mikauzoran · 5 years

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Adrienette Drabble Fifteen: Judge

Gabriel snapped something about sartorial trends in Italian that Adrien didn’t quite understand. He had heard his father rant heatedly about fashion in Italian often enough to the point where Adrien himself was able to thoroughly insult designers, models, lighting specialists, the sound people, the critics reviewing a show, and the owner of the venue, but the comment Gabriel had just made was more subtle; thus, it went completely over Adrien��s head.

“Maybe I should learn how to say something useful in Italian like, ‘Where is the train station?’ or ‘Does this have meat in it?’,” Adrien thought as he watched the Seine fly by outside the car window.

Gabriel put his line back on mute and sighed, “This call is a waste of time. The idiot has no conception of the direction current trends are pointing for next season. Why, just the other day, I was speaking with a few of our new interns, and Ma—aa…”

Gabriel stopped dead, slowly turning to scrutinize the damage he had done.

Adrien smiled sadly. “Go on. What did Marinette say?”

Gabriel gulped. “…Neoclassicism is making another comeback. And she’s absolutely right.”

Gabriel cleared his throat. “I’m sorry. Are you okay? Are you going to be okay going to school today? Are you going to be okay seeing her? Am I pushing you too hard? We don’t have to do this.”

Adrien chewed on his lip thoughtfully. “I don’t know. There’s only one period left today, so…I’m sure I can tough it out for one period. As for Marinette…”

He covered his face with his hands. “God, I want to see her. I want to see her more than anything. Is that masochistic?”

Plagg sighed, poking his head out of Adrien’s shirt collar. “A little bit, Kid.”

Adrien blew out a long sigh, his hand trailing down his face to rub at his neck.

“I’m pathetic, aren’t I?” Adrien mumbled.

“Not pathetic,” Gabriel assured. “Just pitiable.”

“I can live with ‘pitiable’,” Adrien decided, distractedly tracing the bruises with a finger.

Gabriel’s lips pressed together in a thin line. “It won’t be like this for much longer. Things are going to get better.”

“I hope so,” Adrien mumbled, leaning his head to rest against the windowpane.

“Did Nathalie tell you we were able to schedule you to see a counselor at six this evening?” Gabriel inquired.

Adrien’s head whipped around, and he stared incredulously at his father. “What? Really? So soon? I thought we’d have to sit around on a waiting list for a few months or something.”

Gabriel shook his head gravely. “We didn’t really have time to be waitlisted. Measures might have been taken to circumvent the waiting list.”

Adrien’s expression slowly morphed into a frown. “What did you do? Do I want to know?”

“Let’s just say,” Gabriel sighed. “They’ll soon begin construction on the Emilie Agreste Memorial Mental Health Wing thanks to our generous donation.”

Adrien pursed his lips. “Part of me feels bad for cutting in line, but there’s also a part of me that reasons that they’ll be able to help more people with a new, updated wing.”

Gabriel shrugged. “I’m not concerned with being a good person. I’m concerned with being your father.”

“Mother would be pleased to have something named after her.” Adrien smiled nostalgically and began to giggle. “She would probably make some snide remark about giving her name to a psych ward.”

Gabriel began to laugh even as his heart throbbed. “Yes, she would, wouldn’t she? Emilie always had something snarky and irreverent to say.”

“…Dad?”

“Hm?” Gabriel was still getting used to the new moniker.

Adrien smiled with green eyes full of gratitude. “Thank you so much. You’ve been so great the past two and a half weeks, and I can’t tell you how much I appreciate it. I’d be absolutely lost right now without your support…. I’m sorry I didn’t believe you when you said things were going to change.”

Gabriel reached out to run a hand through Adrien’s hair. “I’d given you no reason to believe me.”

“Thank you for today,” Adrien whispered. “I know you think psychologists are quacks, so it means a lot to me that you’ve gone to so much trouble.”

“I am willing to do anything you think we need to do to get you better, Adrien, regardless of my personal beliefs. At this point, I hope that I’ve been wrong this whole time and she’s actually able to help you,” Gabriel confessed.

Adrien nodded. “Yeah. Me too…but still. Thank you, Dad.”

Gabriel shrugged. “All I did was throw money at the problem like usual. This was a team effort. Nathalie spent all day finding a doctor and making the phone calls, and Plagg covered Nathalie’s desk while she was doing that, so…”

Adrien awkwardly tried to look down his shirt at the kwami. “Really, Plagg?”

Plagg floated out to shrug, landing on Gabriel’s shoulder. “I mean, you were out cold, so it’s not like you needed strict supervision. It wasn’t so hard to answer the phone and play around on the computer between poking my head in to check on you.” Plagg cleared his throat and recited, “‘Gabriel Enterprises. You’ve reached the desk of Nathalie Sancoeur. This is her assistant Plagg. How may I help you?’ And then you just have to tell them what day you need what where. Nathalie made me a cheat sheet. It wasn’t too hard since Nathalie has everything so organized.”

“Wow, Plagg,” Adrien snickered. “I didn’t think you had it in you to be useful.”

“I surprised myself,” Plagg admitted.

“He’s actually a very skilled resource manager,” Gabriel praised. “He reworked our invoice system.”

Adrien’s eyes widened in surprise.

Plagg shrugged. “I had a kitten who was an accountant for a law firm back in the late eighteen-hundreds. The principles are the same. I just had to learn how to work the computer, but I’ve seen you do that plenty of times, Kid.”

Adrien nodded dumbly as they pulled up to the school and the car stopped.

Gabriel looked at the building and then at Adrien with a dubious expression. “You’re sure you’re okay to do this?”

Adrien shrugged. “I’m at least going to try. I’ve got this. I mean, I get pummeled by akuma thrice a week, so how bad can this be?”

Gabriel winced, thinking, “Not anymore, you don’t.”

Gabriel leaned in to press a kiss to Adrien’s forehead. “Have a good day…. I’m proud of you.”

With a genuine smile, Adrien stepped out of the car and made his way into the school.

He snuck into Madame Mendeleiev’s Calculus class through the back door, hoping to escape notice by sitting at the back of the room, but Mendeleiev herself foiled his plan.

“Monsieur Agreste, so nice of you to join us,” she remarked sarcastically.

Nearly the whole class turned to stare at him.

“I’m sorry I’m late, Madame,” Adrien replied, head down, refusing to look at anyone so as not to witness their reactions to seeing him.

Apparently, the akumatization sensitivity training the teachers had to take had not made an impression on Madame Mendeleiev.

Adrien could feel his cheeks burning as he buried his eyes in the textbook and tried not to fuss with the scarf covering up the marks on his neck.

His classmates started whispering, and as much as Adrien actively tried not to hear, Chat Noir’s heightened senses affected him residually even outside of the mask.

“Wow. He looks like crap.” Juleka.

“Did you see the pictures online of him crying at the park Saturday?” Max.

“Look at that scarf. No points for guessing what that’s covering up.” Alix.

“Someone saw some action. Maybe he was so bad she broke up with him.” Kim.

“Serves him right for the way he’s been treating Marinette.” Mylène.

“Has your brother said anything yet?” Rose.

“How is he? How does he look? Does he look okay?” Marinette. Marinette obviously unable to look at him herself and asking Alya to do reconnaissance.

Adrien heard Alya draw in a sharp breath. “He’s…fine,” Alya lied.

Marinette sighed. He could almost see her rolling her eyes. “Alya?”

Alya blew out a weary breath. “Honestly? I think you wrecked him. If anyone was ever being held together by rubber bands, it would be him.”

“Oh,” Marinette replied in a barely-there whisper. “G-Great. Thanks.”

God, he hoped she didn’t look at him. He hadn’t thought he’d looked that bad, but, apparently, the situation was dire, and he didn’t want her to see him like that.

Tomorrow he’d put on more makeup. He would smile so hard and look everyone in the eye and stand up straight and be the Adrien Agreste that everyone saw on billboards. Tomorrow he would fake it so well that no one would suspect a thing.

But in that moment, he felt like a wounded seal watching the sharks circling round. He was not the Adrien Agreste on the perfume bottle. He was just that dorky loser Adrien whose life was currently rimming the drain.

He sank lower in his seat, hunching his shoulders to hide his face. He kept his head down until Madame Mendeleiev called for order and resumed the lesson.

He considered sneaking back out of class and heading to the nurse’s office until all the other students had left for the day. He’d been wrong. Battling akuma might be physically challenging and painful, but that was nothing compared to the mental anguish of sitting in that classroom, feeling like a freak show and having everyone whisper about him.

“Don’t stop breathing on me, Kid,” Plagg whispered. “Come on. In and out.”

Adrien took a shallow inhale. It was all his lungs could handle.

“Hey. No hyperventilating,” Plagg chided, concern softening his voice. “Kid, this was a bad idea. Let’s go home,” he suggested.

But Adrien couldn’t move. He was too afraid to get up and leave, knowing it would draw even more attention to himself. He was afraid to run away and show them how scared he was of them and what they would think and what they would whisper behind his back. He was too terrified to move, to flee and let them know they had beaten him.

He was afraid of what Marinette would think. He had to convince her he was emotionally stable. He had to prove that he was the kind of guy that she would want to get involved with. Running out of class crying would not accomplish those goals, so Adrien stayed and focused on not letting anyone see what a disaster he was.

After a few minutes, he tentatively peeked up at Marinette. Or, at least, the back of her head. Her hair was up in a bun, and she was wearing a black lace choker she had made out of some of the fabric scraps he had once given her.

Adrien lightly touched the bruises she’d left on his neck and thought that it was nice that she had a gift from him around her neck too.

The bell had barely rung when Adrien bolted from his seat, hoping to get to his locker and get out before anyone could look at him or say anything.

His plan failed.

He couldn’t remember his locker combination. The information was just gone. He tried several strings of numbers that seemed to have some potential, but none of them worked. It could have been the fact that his hands were shaking so badly, he wasn’t certain he’d entered the numbers he was intending to in the first place.

“Breathe, Kid,” Plagg reminded, phasing down Adrien’s arm and through the locker to pop the door open.

“Thank you,” Adrien mumbled meekly, feeling the edge come off his panic.

Until someone yanked his scarf off from behind.

“Hey, Agreste.”

Adrien spun to find Kim looming over him with a predatory smirk. “Wow! It looks like someone really mauled you. What happened?”

“Kim, could you please give me my scarf back?” Adrien reached for it, but Kim pulled it away, balling it up and holding it over Adrien’s head.

Adrien was five-nine in shoes while Kim had reached six foot three, and those few inches made all the difference.

“Make me,” Kim snickered.

Adrien stood on his tiptoes to no avail. “Please, Kim?”

“Nope,” Kim rejected the request gleefully. “You know, I don’t know what Marie ever saw in you. She’s so over you, by the way,” Kim added savagely.

“W-What?” Adrien blinked stupidly, hands dropping to his sides. “Marinette…is…?”

Kim shoved Adrien back into his locker door.

Adrien caught himself on one of the shelves inside the open locker and looked up wide-eyed at Kim as the other boy growled, “You bastard! Marie! Marie, that girl that you dated. Marie who was head over heels in love with you, you self-absorbed prick! You should be shot,” Kim spat, looking down at Adrien in disgust. “Guys like you should be taken out back and shot. I hope whoever gave you that hickey makes you suffer. I hope she toys with your heart like you did Marie’s.”

Adrien didn’t even have the presence of mind to flinch when Kim drew back his foot to kick Adrien.

Thankfully, the blow never landed.

“Back the hell off, Kim,” Marinette snapped, charging Kim like a rhino and shoving him away from Adrien while Kim was off balance.

“The hell, Marinette?!” Kim snapped.

Marinette stomped her foot, putting herself between Kim and Adrien. “You heard me: Back off,” she repeated, an eerie calm in her voice that spoke of someone who was master of the situation. “You mess with him, you deal with me.”

Kim shifted uncomfortably under Marinette’s intense glare. Upon brief consideration, Kim put his hands up, unwilling to go up against Marinette. He tossed the scarf at Adrien’s feet as he walked away, muttering under his breath.

The rest of the locker room went back about its business once the show had ended, but Marinette and Adrien remained motionless. He stared as she took a deep breath and forced her muscles, her jaw, her fists to unclench.

She didn’t turn to face him, and he was glad of it because he was positive that he looked pathetic. That he was pathetic. And she was just so cool and brave and wonderful.

Had she hurt him? Yes. Would he let her hurt him again? Gladly. Over and over and over if only that pain could be interspersed with happiness like she had made him feel when she’d smiled at him, called him Chaton, returned one of his puns with a pun of her own, kissed him…

She had told him not to speak to her. He wondered how strictly she’d enforce that rule.

“Thank you,” he ventured in a small, timid voice.

She visibly deflated.

He almost apologized, but she spoke first, “I will always have your back. No matter what.”

Without another word or a glance behind, she walked away.

But her words, that simple promise, meant the world to him. He shut the locker door and fled before anything else could happen to kill the hope inside of him.

#Adrienette #Miraculous Ladybug #Miraculous Ladybug Fanfiction #Marinette Dupain-Cheng/Adrien Agreste #Adrien Agreste #Gabriel Agreste #Plagg #Marinette Dupain-Cheng #Mikau's Writings #There's a Daisy

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skammovistarplus · 6 years

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Culture and Translation - S01 E01 C05-12

This post deals with cultural and translation concepts in clips 6 to 12, from episode 1. I also wrote about some things that I forgot to mention in the first post. I think this is it for the first episode, though. Let me know if there is stuff you’re still unclear about.

CLIP 5: Let us discuss ALEJANDRO

As I mentioned in the first post (just click the tag), in Spain groups are pretty stable through class periods. Therefore, and based on who we’ve seen in clip 3, Eva, Lara, Lucas, Amira, Viri and Alicia all go to class together. Amira may have met Nora in class, or during break. Cris may be part of the same group, since I gathered Viri is her class president as well.

Prior to the show airing, there was some discussion over what kind of vehicle Alejandro would drive. It is EXTREMELY unusual for a Spanish high schooler to drive a car.

You can only get a driver’s license when you turn 18.

It is a somewhat involved process.

A student turns 18 in his or her second year of Bachillerato, AFTER the New Year. This is similar to Norway. Chris Berg (born the 6th of January, 1999) and Sana (born the 24th of December, 1999) are in the same grade.

Even if Alejandro had the money and means to get a driver’s license and a car in as painless a process as possible, finding a parking spot in the heart of Madrid is a fucking nightmare. My high school teachers came to work via public transit.

We find out in clip 5 that Alejandro comes to school on a motorbike. This is fine; you can get a driver’s license for a motorbike when you turn 16. There are some limits on how powerful the engine can be, but it’s still a bike.

That said, when the profile for Alejandro went up, we found out he’s been held back a year (like Even) and he’s already 18. So he could theoretically show up with a car in the future. This factoid also implies things about Alejandro that weren’t a factor for the other Williams. All the other Williams haven’t had issues education-wise.

CLIP 6: In which Eva’s lineage is besmirched

Eva has already called Lucas a son of a bitch, but in this clip, we get the female form. Daughter of a bitch just doesn’t roll off the tongue as well as the male form, so I settled on fucking bastard.

I could’ve translated it as any number of slut-shaming slurs, but. Given the themes in Eva’s season, I think the actual slut shaming slurs will come out eventually, and I want to make a distinction between those and what Inés calls Eva in this specific clip. Right now, Inés isn’t making an issue of Eva’s sluttiness, but rather her mother’s. Who probably has no idea any of this is happening, but hey. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Inés also tells Eva, “Flipo contigo.” I translated this as the appalled, disbelieving, “I can’t believe you.” The literal translation would be “I’m tripping on [your attitude].” “Flipar” makes reference to the effects a drug has on your consciousness, mainly hallucinations. The construction “flipar contigo” can be positive or negative. They might be appalled with you, as is Inés, or they may think you’re amazing. They might think you’re boasting, or that you’re literally high! So many options!

CLIP 7: Jorge Is Concerned

Jorge has a Slytherin folder! I thought the snake was Lucas. Cute detail, though.

I know that shippers gonna ship, and you’re not going to want to warm up to a Jonas when Penetrator Chris is coming. Still, Jorge might be the most attuned to Eva’s emotions of all the Jonases. He knows something is wrong and insists that she tell him, over and over in this clip.

Hugo and Dilan are apparently doing some kind of Fortnite meme? They could be doing a Polish traditional dance for all I know.

Hugo congratulates Dilan on a dance well danced by calling him a “cabrón.” Literally, this word would mean that Dilan is being cuckolded. For a number of reasons, I will be translating “cabrón” as bastard or asshole, unless someone actually gets cuckolded.

You can check the shows happening in Madrid on the 14th of September, if you would like to make a guess as to where the boys went that was so packed: here.

CLIP 8: Endorphin hits

I already mentioned this on Twitter, but Eva taking off her jeans to put on pajama pants, yet keeping the top she wore to school, is peak relatable.

Eva ordered a pizza from Telepizza. I find them to be too greasy and prefer other chains, but it’s certainly Spanish as fuck.

Again, I can’t tell what she’s snacking on while she reheats the pizza. Some kind of squared-shaped crackers, yes, but the brand isn’t obvious. She also grabs a few ruffled chips.

CLIP 9: These three dumbasses

I’ve said elsewhere that my top 3 Skam characters are Eva, Isak and Sana. That said, I have a huge weak spot for the Eva/Isak/Jonas trio and their dynamic in season 1. It’s a friend group that starts out seemingly stable—a couple and their best friend—but one of the thorough-lines of season 1 is how it comes to disintegrate into lies, cheating and manipulation. All the ingredients for that eventual implosion are subtly interwoven in this clip, and deployed nicely for a wholly original clip.

Tomás Aguilera is doing some great work here, he genuinely looks and sounds like he’s exhausted. But it also means he’s slurring some of his lines. I have listened to them with headphones, had someone else listen to them with the speed slowed down . . . No dice. I tried for an approximation, instead. The lines that are giving me problems are, “el triunfo está siendo una puta ______ en el campo” and “_____ se lo compró sola, ¿eh?”

I love that both Lucas and Eva are wannabe football commentators.

Jorge calls himself “el puto amo,” an extremely common way of bragging. There are in fact og Skam parody subs kicking around on Twitter, where Eskild tells Isak to say that, “Eskild es el putísimo amo,” instead of a guru. A literal translation would be, “the fucking boss/master.” I think these are both valid translations, but I already used “master” for the first clip for a totally different word. “Boss” is good, but I find “badass” to be a much more common way to brag.

Jorge calls himself a badass, and Eva replies, “Te has flipado muchísimo.” This is, again, about “flipar” or tripping. Eva thinks Jorge’s bragging is so over the top that he’s actually tripping—on the drug that is his own ego. In this case, I did go for the literal translation. Their banter is fairly par for the course. Jorge wants to build Eva up, since he just bailed on her, and he succeeds at least at making her smile.

Lucas says of Eva’s hat that it “tiene estilo,” i.e. the hat is stylish. I translated it as, “the little hat is something.” I am aware that it loses some of the subtext about Lucas. I definitely wouldn’t fight a literal translation of the sentence. This is where I go full meta. Are the writers trying to say something about Lucas by having him say that? Or is that something any Spanish dude would say to be sarcastic? I’ve met a lot of straight guys who’d say something like that just to be funny, so I picked something that was a bit more subtle. Lucas is still commenting on Eva’s clothes, rather than Eva’s body or any number of things someone who was into girls would find attractive. He’s just doing it in a way an English-speaking straight dude would go about it. But this is a very personal take, so your mileage may vary. AM I STRAIGHT-WASHING LUCAS, especially since the people watching these subs will have probably watched all other remakes and know what’s coming? A question to ponder.

CLIP 10: Ye olde bait-and-switch pt. II

More thoughts on class trips. As I mentioned previously, I went to Majorca when I was 14. These girls will be turning 17 next year. Because of that, I find Majorca to be a bit of a destination for kiddies. When I did Baccalaureate, the class trip was to Prague, Czech Republic. This is still a thing. In fact, the high school where Skam España is filmed organizes a trip to Prague for Baccalaureate first years.

I’m not naming the school here because it took only a couple days for someone to learn where the show is shot, to go and crash the filming. Let’s avoid another Nissen situation, folks.

The fact that Viri wants to go to Majorca comes across, to me, as Viri being more immature than her peers. But, it might also be that she missed out on an earlier class trip at her former school. Or she knows that parents would absolutely not allow a bunch of high school girls to go to Prague without an adult to supervise them. Or that they won’t ever get enough money to subsidize an international trip, and she’s managing her expectations and ambitions. Or the trip is actually going to take place and it’s easier for the production team to film in Majorca.

At any rate, this trip, much like my trip to Majorca, is not supposed to entail any learning. They’re going to spend the whole day at the beach, and the whole night partying. As an aside, when Viri comments on how hot the guys are, she sounds like a divorcee ogling hot dudes. It’s hilarious because she’s so young. I tried to have that come across in translation.

There was some discussion about Cris in this trip. Og Chris Berg was someone who, while colorful in her own way, did her best to avoid confrontation. She’d much rather not say anything, rather than say something that could possibly offend someone. We see here that Cris Soto is a different kind of Chris. I could start rambling about the way the different remakes have adapted Chris, but I’ll keep this to Skam España. My impression is that, because Amira’s actress has been very vocal about the ignorance she encounters as a hijabi, Skam España is making more of an effort from the jump to show that ignorance. (In the og, we only really start to see this ignorance on the part of the whole girl squad when we get to Sana’s season. The previous impression was that only Vilde was ignorant.) I don’t feel that Cris is being intentionally rude, although Amira is certainly put off—and right to be, since Cris is making a joke about a piece of garment.

Cris just seems like she doesn’t know much about what Amira’s life is like. And although she doesn’t get it, particularly, she’s willing to go with whatever Amira feels is right for her.

As in the og, Cris brings Amira into the group. The difference is that it’s Amira who tips Nora. Of course, Noora only joined the bus group to get to know Eva, but also Sana. It works!

CLIP 11: Madison, Wisconsin

Mr. Wonderful is a Spanish enterprise that takes inspirational/cheesy/corny stuff you’d find on Instagram, puts them on all kinds of merchandise and sells them. As you might’ve gathered from previous clips, Spanish people are a bit more rough and tumble than the Mr. Wonderful products would suggest. So while popular among some, Mr. Wondeful stuff is also hugely backlashed. There’s an instagram account called puterful_es that takes demotivators and slaps them on merchandise, too. Hilariously, Eva follows both Mr. Wonderful and Puterful on Instagram.

I know that people who watched og Skam saw Ingrid and Sara as the popular girls. However, as the show goes on, we learn that Ingrid, Sara, and their crew, are first years, just like Eva. They’re only starting to build their rep at school. The truly popular and feared girls are Maria and her Rad Girls bus crew. This isn’t the case with Inés and Alicia (who earlier was a total idiot about Amira wearing a hijab). These girls are THE girls you want to have on your side, or your projects won’t ever get off the ground.

Amira thinks it’s notable that she was born in Spain, instead of being born somewhere else and moving to Spain. I guess that makes her identity more in turmoil, since she’s constantly moving between two worlds. I think all the Sanas were born in the cities the Skams are set.

Nora is from Madison! I know @lightsandlostbells finds it hugely amusing. So do I! You’d expect someone like the Noora expy to come from someplace glamorous or exotic. Noora, Manon and Mia came from Madrid. Who knows what red-lipped woman of mystery Eleonora has done with her life. Grace is from Dallas, so not that high in the exotic scale. So far, we don’t know whether Liv has spent time anywhere else. There’s some exotism to be mined just from the magic words “Estados Unidos,” but it’s clear the girls don’t find Madison hugely impressive. If Nora had come from New York or Los Angeles, the meeting would’ve gone off the rails because the girls would have so many questions.

In real life, Nora’s actress Nicole Wallace’s father is from the D.C. area, while her mom is Spanish.

Viri’s façade is torn to pieces when she sullenly mutters, “De puta madre.” This would be a sarcastic way of saying, “Fucking great.” I picked fucking hell, but in hindsight, I’d fix that. Subs are a continuous work in progress, I’ve found.

There has also been some discussion regarding house parties. House parties have not been part of my Spanish teenage experience. It is far, far more common to go to “botellones.” I know there’s some confusion over what a botellón is or isn’t, so I’ll explain. There are some public places in Spanish cities (parks, squares, basically any decently-lit place with space to accommodate hundreds of people) where teenies will gather every weekend. They will bring their own beverages and get drunk. They will mingle, perhaps meet someone new and hook up. Botellones are unofficial gatherings. You don’t need to get an invite. It’s a public place. You go there because you know other people are going to be there. You can hit botellones in other neighborhoods for a change of pace, and no one’s going to tell you to stay out.

It is much cheaper to buy some booze at a convenience store, than to buy a drink or several at a bar. Besides, the drinking age in Spain is 18, so the girls wouldn’t necessarily be able to get into a club, and they’d be carded.

I’m not sure whether we will see botellones in Skam España, simply because the logistics of filming one would be really complicated. You’d need about a hundred extras, each with an NDA, the willing participation and silence of a neighborhood, and to make sure no one’s going to wander in and find a camera crew filming everyone. That said, the trailer did contain some videos clearly shot at botellones. Possibly actual botellones, not ones for the show.

But back to the house parties. While they haven’t been part of my experience, I’m told they do happen, in neighborhoods that are way posher than mine. Alejandro and Cristián are implied to be that rich, so I guess it works. More on that in episode 2 commentary.

Amira implies she wouldn’t be successful at flirting, because her hijab would put guys off. This is a departure from the og, where the Penetrators were certainly into the idea of partying with Sana. I’m not sure I believe that plenty of Spanish guys wouldn’t want to hit that BECAUSE of the hijab, too. And let’s be clear, while Amira singles Eva and Nora out as pretty, none of these girls would have an issue getting hot dudes to consider them.

My parents wouldn’t have been happy to find I’ve been drinking their beer, while underage, and offering it to my similarly underage friends.

CLIP 12: Can’t miss that backpack

The microphones caught bits of a background conversation mentioning Ramadan, but I don’t think that was intentional. I didn’t include it in the subs. If a random conversation, such as the girl from the og that was hungover on Wednesday, seems relevant, I’ll include it.

Much like Jorge, Nora has caught on that there’s something wrong with Eva. She asks her if she’s fine several times. Also, I guess since Nora just came from MADISON, WISCONSIN, UNITED STATES, she’s still not great with the bus system. She did get to the meeting late, after all.

#skam españa #skam spain #skamesp #skames #culture and translation

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bucky-is-a-hero-fightme · 6 years

Text

Royals (1/8) Bucky’s PoV

ROYALS MASTERLIST HERE

Okay, so...because I try to force myself to write something new in everything I start (In Your Heartbeat was my first dab at long-term reader inserts, graphic torture scenes and a bunch of other stuff), in this series I’m gonna post a parallel chapter in Bucky’s PoV to every chapter with the Reader’s PoV. I don’t know if you guys will like it, but...yeah.

Pairing: Bucky/Reader, Steve/Peggy, Implied or presumed Brock/Reader because Bucky is a dumb-dumb.

Universe: Mobsters!1940′s!AU

Timeline: Early 1940′s, but I’m gonna gloss over the war, I’m sorry, I just can’t see a Steve that wouldn’t want to join the fight, so…I’m glossing over it.

Word Count: 2600 approx.

Summary: News of the Princess of Brooklyn’s return spread like wildfire, and while Peggy holds on to the certainty that the girl she used to calla best friend would never turn on her people, Bucky has been burnt too badly to believe anything but that the girl’s return means the end of what he has built.

Warnings: I mean, general violence and pigheadedness, but that’s basically the summary of this whole fic so...

A/N: Please let me know your thoughts!! This is my first time writing Bucky’s PoV, and I want to know how to improve or anything, really. Your feedback gives me life.

Taglist (always open): @amandamartinez3568 @champagnejoker @lovemarvel101 @itsbuckysworld

Peggy drops a folder on the desk, making herself at home on one of the chairs in the office, eyes set on Bucky as she tries reading him. Still, the Game was never her thing, out of the two of you, she was the one with the strong presence, the rough words, you were the one playing with people’s heads hiding behind whispers and promises.

He lets his travel over the title on the document, the bold letters of the family that got you to turn your back to Brooklyn staring back at him, taunting him with what he would like to forget. What he should have forgotten, long ago.

“Is there anythin’ you want, Carter?”

“Did you now about that?” She accuses, deft chin pointing at the file on his desk. He carefully opens it, stealing a glance to the British before focusing on the words in it. “Official report from Manhattan.”

The Rumlow Family is saddened to see go one of the most loyal and able Captains that has fought at their side. We wish our former Spy and Counselor the best in her new endeavors.

Bucky looks up just as Sam enters the room, and faces Peggy’s hard gaze, brown eyes cold in their anger.

“Whose family got Romanoff to switch sides?” He asks, setting down the file and greeting Wilson with a nod as the Bratov finds himself a place in the office as well.

“Not Natasha,” Peggy answers easily, and Bucky’s core caves under a new weight at the realization, “Y/N apparently parted ways with Brock.”

He narrows his eyes at the woman, but Bucky is well aware she sees through the façade, sees how much the news throw him off.

“Why do I find that hard to believe?”

Sam scoffs from his place on the leather sofa, where he is going through the newspaper, “Because you are bitter and jealous.”

Peggy pushes on though, ignoring them both.

“Word in the street is she is coming back to Brooklyn.”

With the intensity of the tough girl that landed a few solid punches on his teenage face when he made you cry, Peggy stares back at him, trying to gauge his reaction. But Bucky keeps his cards close to his chest, fully aware that giving nothing away is more than telling, you taught him that, but with no alternative when the brunette knows him so well already.

She was the one holding Brooklyn together after its Princess ran off, not him. Hell, Peggy was the one holding him together for too long after everything went south.

Bucky has tried offering her a place as a Captain, to run alongside Stevie and not as an independent agent, but he knows Carter would join no other family than yours, not even Steve’s. Even after almost eight years, she still claims you are undermining Brock’s family, pulling the strings to take back Manhattan.

Bucky calls her innocent, gullible. Peggy insists on calling him a bitter fool. They manage.

He nods once, turning his gaze to Sam, “Stevie’s lookin’ into it?”

But the man shakes his head, leaning forward and taking in the seriousness of the Bratov that would soon rise to Captain, the teasing edge forgotten for the sake of the family.

“No, he’s supervising tonight’s hit. Apparently the Triad was tipped off, security was increased.”

Bucky lets go of the file, tossing it somewhere in the mahogany desk and crossing his arms over his chest. He tries to ignore the way Peggy follows his moves with a twisted eyebrow, lips furrowed and knowing eyes.

“No need. I’m joinin’ the team. Who’s the leadin’ Bratov?” He asks, silently daring Sam to voice the questions he can so clearly see in the other man’s face.

But Wilson remains quiet, and quickly explains the names involved, only to nod in understanding and leave the office to change the schedule when Bucky promises to be the one leading the heist.

He remains quiet as the other man closes the door behind him, and takes the few seconds before Carter undoubtedly opens her mouth to look over his information on tonight’s heist, ignoring the way the folder with that name on the front seems to call for his attention, gleaming in the dull light of the office.

“She could be on our side, James,” Peggy tries, walking to him but stopping short of reaching him when his steely grey eyes rise to meet her own. With an exasperated sigh, the British woman tries again, “If we play this right, we can…”

“If we play this right, we survive. If we don’t, she stabs us in the back. Again,” He interrupts, noticing how his hands clenched into fists, and suppressing a scoff at his own stupidity, he forced himself to relax tightly coiled muscles. “Give her time and she’ll be givin’ our city to Brock in a silver plate.”

“Let go of your pride, Barnes,” Peggy growls, rolling her eyes at the man Stevie calls his brother. “Y/N was never with the Rumlow’s, she was…it was the only way.”

But Bucky is already standing up, walking out of the office.

“Of course it was, Pegs. Keep tellin’ yourself that if you want, but don’t come after me when you end up with a knife on your back.”

______

Bucky is readying his rifle and getting ready for the car to stop when Steve approaches him, blue eyes narrowed and stealing a quick glance to Bucky’s left hand. He clenches it into a fist, hiding the object from his friend’s view.

______

A quick shout of his name ahs Bucky turning around, eyes searching for his girl. Your radiant smile is the first thing he sees as you approach hastily, your heels wobbling a bit before he catches you in his arms, holding you tight and making sure that you stand on solid legs.

“I missed you so much!” You squeal, blinking back a few tears as you take his face in your hands, looking him over before pressing your red, red lips on his cheek, jaw, nose.

Bucky huffs a laugh, and takes your hands in his, prompting you to stop your assault. Despite the smile and the bubbling happiness within him at the prospect of having you back in his arms, his eyes scan the crowd, looking for anyone lingering too long on the two of you, watching too curiously your embrace.

“I snuck out, Buck. No one knows.” Your voice soothes, and he turns his gaze back down to the girl in his arms.

With a smile tugging at his lips, Bucky gives in to the lure of those red lips of yours, pulling you in for a long-overdue kiss.

He feels your soft, almost silent whimper against his lips, his chest tightening at the small sound, though he would deny to his very own grave the way you have him wrapped around your finger.

When your teeth scrap lightly over his bottom lip, pulling a groan from his chest, Bucky’s hands travel to your hips, pressing you even closer against his body as he begs silently for you to part your lips.

The deliberate sound of someone clearing their throat near you has you both jumping, his hold around you tightening before he realizes it was merely a bitter woman walking past you in the street.

You shake with laughter, hiding your face against his chest and making him forget for a second the threat of danger, of accusing fingers, and reproaching stares.

“Whaddya say we head to your place, doll?” He asks, leaning in for one last, albeit quick, taste of your lips before straightening and taking your hand.

“Charming, Barnes, truly charming,” You tease, but your face quickly loses the mocking edge as you gasp. “Oh, I almost forgot! I got you a present!”

Something within him falls at the thought that you probably bought him something he would never, not even rising as a Captain and working for the rest of his life, would be able to afford. Something like you: thoughtful and lovely but oh, so out of his reach it was sometimes painful.

But while he was distracted, trying to think up a way to get you to return whatever it is you got him, you pulled out a small box from your purse and hold up a ring his way.

It is a simple band, dark silver and in what looks like a handmade, very rustic design. There’s a faint engraving on the inside, that when he tries to get closer to read, you cover with your own fingers.

Tuning his eyes to your own, he encounters your smile, returning it before he can even think twice about it.

“I saw a man in Vienna make these on the streets, it was so amazing, Buck, I wish you had been there. He let me write something in it! It’s not perfect but…”

Your voice dies down as he takes the hand holding the ring and presses it gently to his lips, eyes still on yours. Delighted in the way your cheeks seem to darken, he keeps your hand to his mouth as he whispers,

“I love it, princess.”

______

And although Bucky’s glare may have intimidated any lesser man to stay quiet and lower their eyes, that was never the case with Stevie, still the kind kid too dumb to run from a fight.

And the blonde starts, clearing his throat carefully,

“Are you sure about this, Buck?”

Bucky’s answer is automatic, calculated.

“C’mon, punk, we used to do this with our eyes closed. Don’t tell me you’re scared.”

“Bucky…”

“I’m fine, Stevie.” He interrupts, voice a little more honest but still reticent to let Steve start the conversation he has managed to avoid -while sober- for eight years.

The other man just sighs in response, before turning his focus back to the upcoming battle.

“Just don’t do anything stupid.”

The blond jumps out of the car, and Bucky still yells after him, “Hey, that’s my line, punk!”

______

Motioning for the Bratov Sam offered for the mission to move forward, Bucky lingers in the door, scanning for any threat in the nearby area before following his men in.

The Triad was not supposed to know about their plans to take over their shipment, and Bucky couldn’t help having something in the back of his mind telling him that it had to have something to do with the issues rising with Manhattan.

Especially considering Brock’s treasure was apparently coming back to Brooklyn.

What were you trying to play at? Coming back like nothing had happened, like eight years hadn’t gone by, like you hadn’t…

“Hey, jerk, you okay?” Steve’s voice brings him out of his reverie, prompting Bucky to nod a curt affirmative response, furious at himself for being so carelessly distracted, so much that Steve takes note of it.

The pair watch over their men taking inventory of the Triad’s goods, and so far only a slightly reinforced shipment, no signs of the big movement of soldiers Wilson warned them about.

A mayhem of screams and warnings has Bucky running towards the cargo, only to be thrown back with the force of the blast once the bomb goes off.

There’s a splintering pain in his head, blood coming from his nose or his mouth…he doesn’t even care to know. Reaching for the gun on the inside of his jacket, Bucky stands up, eyes squinted past the smoke and tries finding his team and his brother.

“Buck?” Steve coughs out, hand clasping on the brunet’s shoulder in a mix of relief and affection. They set to move for the tall flames, side by side.

“Fuckin’ convenient that the shipment with the guns to rival Manhattan’s is lost and the Triad tipped off, Stevie. Still agree with your dame that none of this is tied together?” He growls as they enter the house. Three men were lost, the rest were lucky enough to get out with only minor wounds and the few that got hurt out of commission for a while were compensated greatly.

Bucky feels the weight of his whole body in tenfold, can already feel the bruises forming in his back and ribs from the force of the blast and his body hitting the ground. His face and neck is covered in sweat, soot, and blood.

A wise man would leave him be, let him work his anger and frustration alone. Not Steve, though, who sighs behind him, but still fires back,

“Yes, I think it is a coincidence, Buck.”

“Really? Because-…” Their conversation is interrupted by a hurricane in the shape of a 5’7 woman storming down the stairs.

“I told you I should’ve gone with you, you thick-headed fool!” Carter yelled, finger raised accusingly at her fiancé and eyes narrowed.

Still, when her body finally was done stomping down the stairs, she had thrown her arms around Steve, ignoring his grunt of pain and holding on tight to his shoulders, face in his chest and mumbled words Bucky did not care to pick up on.

______

At the sharp sting, Bucky winces, and sardonically states, “You don’t hafta be so gentle, princess.”

You scoff where you stand between his legs, right hand holding his head as you turn it to the side and left hand dabbing not-so-kindly at the cut over his cheekbone.

“Shut up. You don’t get to complain when you go ahead and do stupid shit like this.”

“You know, I love you and all, doll, but I don’t think is gonna look good that I let my girl’s title save me from initiation rites.” He mumbles, leaning back on the old couch in his apartment and hiding a grimace of pain at the pressure over his tender ribs.

He can’t see you properly, but he is pretty sure you are rolling your eyes at him.

“If you weren’t so stubborn you could’ve affiliated with one of my father’s trusted Captains, and not a brute that thinks beating someone to death qualifies as ‘initiation’.” You grumble, and Bucky can’t hold in the stupid smile that curves his lips upwards, busting open the barely-scabbed cut on his lip.

“Well, how else would I get ya to play nurse, huh?”

He feels the alcohol-ridden cotton ball press against his left eyebrow where another well-placed punch -or kick, he honestly can’t remember at this point- had broke the skin. The sting is expected but not any less painful when you apply pressure, and judging by the playful and soft swat at his shoulder you give him, it was definitely intentional.

Still, he holds on to the smile, and closes his smile as you continue to fawn over him, grumbled curses and complaints about his lack of self-preservation only a side-effect of having his girl with him.

______

Casting his eyes to the side and shifting his weight, Bucky waits for Peggy and his friend to break apart, and smiles in thanks at Peggy when she asks him if he is okay, her worried brown eyes looking over him.

“I’ve had worse, Pegs,” He says, fully aware of how much she still hates the nickname. “I’m gonna hit the sack. See you tomorrow?”

Before he can continue on his path to his room though, Steve’s voice stops him.

“Buck, I think y-...we need a breather. Whaddya say we head countryside for a few days? Sleep off the fight?”

The brunet narrows his grey eyes, facing his brother for a few seconds before asking,

“Y/N is in the city, isn’t she?”

“Subtle, Steven.” Peggy grumbles.

________

Knights never linger on one side. They jump from white to black, from black to white. From Royals to Subjects, they are one of the strongest pieces of the whole board.

And Random thought: I always wanted to see more interaction between Peggy and Bucky without him blatantly hitting on her, so...here it is. Also, suffer with Bucky at the idea of being a third wheel to Peggy Carter and Steve Rogers’ relationship for eight years...ugh.

#bucky x reader #bucky barnes x reader #mobster!bucky #mobster au #mobster!bucky x reader

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smollandtoll · 6 years

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HC: Wizard AU

Well, it’s still really snowy and cold here in the frozen north, despite it being mid-April, and we could definitely just curl up in bed with a 90k Wizarding Sid/Geno AU. Luckily we do headcanons, allll the emotional fulfillment and only like 10% of the work!

We just want a world where Sid is an auror (inevitably) and Geno is a magical creatures handler that consults and assists their department from time to time. We see Geno’s love for all animals and raise you hippogriffs and demiguises and dragons. Sid falls slightly, accidentally, in love with him, and no one really understands why.

There’s just something undefinable about him, the way he moves his hands around his wand, how delicate he makes it look, how graceful his limbs are, despite being so long. It’s the way he dresses, somewhat flamboyantly in plum and emerald pinstripe three piece robes, fitted around the shoulders and waist and flaring out to his heels. It’s the way his mangy tabby cat follows him everywhere, purring and snatching unattended heels of toast and nubs of cheese.

Most people see a big guy with an accent and a slightly squashy face but a good smile. Mostly everyone blinks and says "Kay, he's Geno."

Sid: But he speaks mermish and pets bunnies and gets really worked up about centaur rights and owns 3 owls because he couldn't just pick one and he has a cat and a massive dog and he's so tall and his hands are so big.

Sid is just in love.

Speaking of Sid, let’s backtrack for a minute: he’s extremely magically talented, the kind of guy who makes muggles uneasy because they can sense his magical energy but don’t know what it is. He’s halfblood, his dad’s a wizard and his mum is a muggle - his magical talent kind of came out of left field, his dad isn’t particularly good at spell casting and prefers to stick to potions and other more basic kinds of practical magic. So Sid having such an aptitude for all kinds of wandwork really surprised them all.

He put his exceptional grades and talent to work immediately out of school, becoming the awkward darling of the auror core - not that he wants the praise or fame of it all. He just wants to keep people safe. He’s very quick-thinking, strategically strong, always thinks about the safety of his men before glory, he’s an avid quidditch fan, absurdly beautiful, generally great, etc. You know, basically Sid in real life.

Anyway, this actually all started because the Aurors kept getting into dangerous messes they couldn’t handle alone. Magical creatures are a huge unknown variable and you never know what kind of creature you’re going to find in a civilian’s home, or in a field while in pursuit of a suspect, or lurking in someone’s wardrobe as you’re looking for evidence. So Sid's been lobbying for years to hire a magical creatures liaison from the magical creatures department. The department in question is usually impossible to get ahold of in an emergency, or to get to respond to anything with any real urgency unless there’s a literal dragon in Diagon Alley. Sid cares about the safety and well-being of his team most of all; he’s kind of baffled as to why no one’s implemented this idea before.

That’s how Sid met Geno. He needed a consult down Knockturn Alley and couldn’t waste a week waiting for some paper-pusher to find the time to accompany them and assess the situation. Maybe he threw his hands up, marched straight into the magical creatures department and demanded/begged/firmly requested for someone to come out ASAP. Maybe he found a particularly sympathetic secretary who knew a good option. Sid needed action, he needed forward thinking, he needed Geno.

And that’s who showed up, ten minutes late, battered suitcase in hand, bagel hanging out of his mouth, wand sticking out of his breast pocket along with his pocket square that looked suspiciously doily-like. He was all sleepy eyes and rumpled hair, his suit-robes wrinkled, tie askew, Sid thought he was going to be something of a dud at first but then he was efficient and prompt, no-nonsense and actually pretty disappointed to find out they weren’t dealing with anything more dangerous than a particularly rankled boggart. We firmly believe in Sid’s competency kink in ANY universe.

After the op was finished up his crew invited Geno out for a drink with them to celebrate and thank him for his work with them and that’s where Sid learned more about him. Geno was in auror training too when he was a teen in Russia but then realized his real passion is actually animals and so left his home to pursue his dream of researching and handling magical creatures. Maybe there’s not much regard for magizoologists in Russia? Maybe schooling or training opportunities are just better elsewhere? WHO KNOWS. But he sounded too good to be true to Sid in that moment, just professionally, particularly the fact that he was a magical creature specialist who also understood that creatures couldn't always come first. Most magical creatures consultants couldn’t fathom that sometimes hard decisions have to be made that affected creatures. The aurors obviously want to do their best to protect them, but wizarding and muggle lives sometimes need to be put above the creatures; and if that’s your whole job, caring for creatures and explaining how mistreated and misunderstood they are, it’s hard to shift your priorities when there are more variables (i.e. humans).

(because a lot of the people in the magical creatures dept are like peta zealots we'd assume)

So, Geno has a huge heart, and he gets it and he’s a delight to work with and he cares for humans and animals and everyone/thing that deserves CARE. So Sid maybe consults him on projects for a bit and on his constant pet project of getting a magical creatures liaison permanently installed into the magical law enforcement department - eventually asks more like if Geno wants to be the person to put their name forward, to always consult on things like this.

Sid isn’t prepared for the huge grin and smacking kiss he gets to his forehead, and turns an alarming shade of magenta but Geno is onboard and together they petition to get a position opened for him in the Auror department.

Position granted, Sid helps Geno move into his new office in their cluttered little wing of the ministry, is charmed by the waving portrait of Geno and his parents and brother that gets put behind his desk, is charmed by all his books in various languages and conditions of worn, is very charmed by his purry grey cat, is intensely charmed by his everything. Sid realizes he’s probably in trouble, considering every time Geno smiles at him it feels like his heart just did a feint with his broomstick in his chest.

So Sid pines a lot from afar, but keeps things professional, because this is their place of work, and no one appreciates being hit on or leered at at work. It doesn’t stop him from spoiling Geno’s cat though, she’ll like Flower better than him over his dead body.

The feelings situation definitely comes to a head however when an op goes wrong in a potions merchant’s shop (selling blackmarket polyjuice pills out the back of their shop). Bottles are smashing everywhere as the merchant tries to make an escape and Sid gets an accidental dose of Veritaserum right in the face. He doesn’t even realize he’s been hit until they’re cuffing their perp and he finds himself pointedly assuring the sneering shop owner as he takes custody of his wand that he’ll keep it very safe, because it’s his job and also because it is a very beautiful wand and it would be a shame if anything happened to it. The perp shouts asking about if that was a threat while Tanger and Flower look at him like he’s grown a third head.

Sid: Why are you looking at me like that? I don’t have food on my face again right? It took forever for everyone to stop calling me Agent Eggsby after last time.

It’s then Flower notices his robes are worryingly damp and gives him a suspicious sniff before taking his arm and side-alonging him directly to St. Mungo’s. The healers assure them that Sid will be fine and he’d only absorbed a bit of the truth potion, enough for him to be acting kind of loopy and honest and probably need supervision but that it’d wear off soon. He’d be no worse for wear as long as he doesn’t end up in the wrong hands.

So they just take him back to the office:

Flower: well you can do paperwork and just read it over after you're back to normal.

Sid: I never lie in my paperwork, Flower

Tanger: okay Sid, do-gooder of the year award is already yours - let's go see if Geno fixed the coffeemaker

Sid: ...Geno is going to be at the office!

T: Yup.

Sid: I love Geno so much.

Flower: ........oh yeah?(at this point they are taking him about as seriously as a toddler saying they love/want to marry someone or something, honest and sweet but ultimately kind of silly and harmless)

Sid: Yes, I think I might be actually in love with him, I’ve thought so for months.

F&T (exchanging a very intrigued look): ........OH?

Sid: Do you think I'm sick enough he might touch my hair again? He touched my hair that one time I got singed by that skrewt.

Tanger and Flower just sniping at each other all the way back to the office:

Can we really bring him in like this? IT'LL BE GOOD FOR THEM. THEY NEED TO DEAL WITH THEIR SEXUAL TENSION, IT IS KILLING ALL OF US.

Sid coming into the office is so pleased to see Dixi sitting atop the nearest filing cabinet, surveying them ushering a kind of drunk-acting Sid inside with bored blinks.

Sid: She smells so good, like Geno! And she's so cute, I let her sit in my lap when she wants to (the last part is delivered in an aside to them like he’s telling them a very serious secret but he’s almost shouting so it kind of nulls that, especially when the whole department is starting to look up and see what the commotion is in the bullpen.)

T: Yikes, okay you'd better go sit down Sid.

Duper probably isn’t on active field duty any more, but is more of an overseeing management type for the department would probably come over to survey them pouring Sid into his desk chair and asking what the fuck they’d done to him and why they thought it’d be a good idea to bring him back to work.

Sid: Duper!!!! Your eyebrows are so hilarious!

But Geno probably saw them steering him in, and Sid's general kind of dreamy facial expression and just is like CONCERNED, so he probably comes out, all long lines in his deep purple suit and vest, having ditched the jacket robe long earlier.

Probably in this universe Geno has thought ‘til now that Sid is really cute but not interested. Like, Sid very rarely makes eye contact, and he smiles nicely but it’s kind of awkward and he usually is nice to everyone. He’s so professional, he's nice, but not too nice, so they're friends! Sid is a catch realistically, Geno thinks he probably has a girlfriend or boyfriend, he's very private and doesn't talk about his outside of work life that much, he’s probably very happy, maybe has a dog, seems like the type to have a dog. Geno likes him, would go on a date with him, but is a realist and doesn't really get his hopes up. People like Sid are always in relationships.

When he comes over there’s a bit of token commotion to keep him from Sid, mostly instigated by Duper, but Sid seems to want to talk to him, and he wants to know what’s wrong. Him and Sid are friends, after all. He’d narrow his gaze at Flower and Tanger, asking what they did to him, if they didn’t have his back thoroughly enough.

Sid (loudly): BUT I LOVE HIM, HE’S SO BEAUTIFUL. I SHOULD BE ABLE TO TALK TO HIM. YOU’RE BEING REALLY RUDE.

Geno definitely freezes at that, everyone does, the whole department heard that. Sid seems to be the only one not in shock, and then makes a noise of delight when Dixi uses that moment to jump up onto his desk.

Geno probably then pushes Flower and Tanger aside brusquely and crouches in front of where Sid is sitting to inquire if he’s feeling okay.

Sid: I’m great because you’re here. You make me feel better. And worse. Both. A lot of butterflies.

Geno probably definitely glares at them all and then takes him into the break room and shuts the door and when they open it again a half hour later Sid looks positively ashen and also incredibly angry. He won’t even speak to Tanger and Flower, stops briefly by Duper’s desk and then gathers his things and leaves.

Geno doesn’t look that pleased with them either when they crowd him to find out what he did to Sid.

G: Did nothing to him. He sober up on own, realize all things he said. Angry you brought him here.

There’s probably a lot of grovelling for forgiveness after that, and maybe some self pranking on Flower’s part, and Geno is suspiciously out of the picture lately - but they all find out it’s mostly because he and Sid are trying to play it cool at work after having sorted out their feelings for each other firmly OUTSIDE of the workplace. Then further magical-creature-based adventures and cases ensue and Sid and Geno end up as the old-marrieds and everything ends up in gloriously HP-flavoured goodness.

BONUS:

In wizarding society is it practice to give everyone a hockey nickname but wizard style?

"Sid the serious" or "Sid the splendid"?

"Flower the funny" or "Flower the fair"?

Mostly Geno gets "Geno the giant" but Sid privately while he's alone likes to think of him as "Geno the gorgeous"

#sid/geno #sidgeno #hockey rpf #headcanons from the icy void #harry potter AU #YER A WIZARD SIDNEY

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douchebagbrainwaves · 6 years

Text

EVERY FOUNDER SHOULD KNOW ABOUT PROBLEMS

My test was to think of intelligence as inborn is that people trying to measure it have concentrated on the aspects of economic inequality where the cause of poverty is the same as the root cause of variation in income is a sign that something is broken? At Yahoo, user-facing software was controlled by product managers and designers the final step, by translating it into code. I'm not saying that if you let Henry Ford get rich, he'll hire you as a waiter at his next party. Somehow the idea of making really large amounts of money. When people come to you with a problem and you have to sound intellectual. All the hackers I know, managed to be mistaken. An organization that wins by exercising power starts to lose deals. That was not, probably, how McCarthy thought of it as a personal insult when someone from the other team from scoring is considered to have played a perfect game.1 Right now, VCs often knowingly invest too much money at the series A stage. And if you weren't rich, you took the omnibus or walked.

Microsoft.2 Great hackers also generally insist on using open source software. In that case, stay on a main branch becomes more than a way to please other people. It's so cheap to start, this conflict goes away, because founders can start them younger, when it's rational to take more risk, and can start more startups total in their careers. When you reach the point where 90% of a group's output is created by 1% of its members, you lose big if something whether Viking raids, or central planning drags their productivity down to the average Frankish nobleman in 800, and report back to us. Art History 101.3 Hacker News and our application system.4 That way we can avoid applying rules and standards to intelligence that are really meant for wisdom. Whereas the independence of the townsmen allowed them to keep whatever wealth they created.5 These initial versions can be so pervasive that it takes a great effort to overcome it. Then you could see in the house, the herds, and the number one thing they have in common. The difference is that wise means one has a high average outcome.

Editorialists ask. Bottom-up programming suggests another way to convince investors to let you do it? If circumstances had been different, the people running Yahoo might have realized sooner how important search was.6 But that won't eliminate great variations in wealth would mean eliminating startups.7 When I heard this, I thought he was a complete idiot.8 You can see wealth—in buildings and streets, in the original sense, is something you write to try to figure something out. The more of your application you can push down into a language for writing that type of application, the more we'll see multiple companies doing the same thing ourselves.9 Which is precisely why we hear ever more about it.10 Society as a whole ends up poorer. But startups aren't like that. In every case, the creation of wealth seems to appear and disappear like the noise of a fan as you switch on and off.11

Central France in 1100, off still feudal. Or consider watches. You have to be nice to, you have two options: work at home, hackers can arrange things themselves so they can get the most done. And they think of it as normal to have a remedial character. The idea is basically that you sort search results not in order of how much money Yahoo would make from each link. It consists of some things that are good and some that are historical trends with immense momentum and others that are random accidents.12 The place to look for what I learned from Paul Buchheit: it's better to make a deep point here about the true nature of wisdom, just to make sure they're ok guys. I don't think there's any limit to the number of failures and yet leave you net ahead.13 Thanks to Trevor Blackwell, Jessica Livingston, and Jackie McDonough for reading drafts of this.

One of the things pinned up on our bulletin board was an ad from IBM.14 Brandeis was a product of this period. But Apple created wealth, in the sense that the authors didn't know when they started exactly what they were trying to get people to start calling them portals instead of search engines. This isn't true in all fields. And this is the route to well-deserved obscurity. So it's not just fastidiousness that makes good hackers avoid nasty little problems is that you make what you measure.15 That's why Yahoo as a company has sunk into technical mediocrity and recovered.

And of course if Microsoft is your model, you shouldn't be looking for, most of the time, perhaps most of the time, and runtime. You'd seem a barbarian if you behaved that way today. Starting in the tenth and eleventh centuries, petty nobles and former serfs banded together in towns that gradually became powerful enough to appropriate it.16 If Lenin walked around the offices of a company like Yahoo or Intel or Cisco, he'd think communism had won.17 Why?18 It's hard to predict what will; often something that seems interesting at first will bore you after a month. Understanding your users is part of what makes them good hackers: when something's broken, they need to get a work visa in the US, without an undergraduate degree—but tests like this will matter less and less.19

Though useful to present-day languages, if they'd had them. When you look at the history of stone tools, technology was already accelerating in the Mesolithic. We think of the core language semantics.20 The design paradox means they're choosing more or less a subset of potential users, or satisfying a subset of the needs of a subset of the needs of a subset of potential users, or satisfying a subset of hash tables where the keys are vectors of integers. Whereas if you're doing the kind of productivity that's measured in lines of code. But between the two. He knows what happened in every deal in the Valley. Extraordinary devotion went into it, and most decent hackers are capable of that. As big a deal as the Industrial Revolution was well advanced.

Notes

Joshua Schachter tells me it was true that being part of wisdom. This is actually a computer. See, we can teach startups a lot like meaning.

We're only comparing YC startups, just that if colleges want to believe this much. If they're on the order of 10,000 sestertii for his freedom Dessau, Inscriptiones 7812. But you couldn't do the equivalent thing for founders, HR acquisitions are viewed by acquirers as more akin to hiring bonuses.

The point where things start to rise again. The most striking example I know of no Jews moving there, and that's much harder. I'm convinced there were about the origins of the things attributed to them.

If you ask parents why kids shouldn't swear, the police treat people more equitably. Please do not take the form of bad idea. In Boston the best day job, or at least should make what they do.

You have to do this right you'd have to deliver these sentences as if you'd invested at a pre-money valuation of the first phase of the most part and you can probably write a book about how things are different. The only people who get rich by creating wealth—university students, heirs, professors, politicians, and there are few who can say I need to fix once it's big, messy canvases that philistines see and say that's not art because it looks like stuff they've seen in the beginning. None at all. No, and there are no false negatives.

It tipped from being this boulder we had, we'd have understood why: If they were friendlier to developers than Apple is now very slow, but when people in return for something that conforms with their company made money from it, but they can't teach students how to value valuable things.

Everyone else was talking about art, they made, but investors can get done before that. There is a qualitative difference in investors' attitudes. I believe Lisp Machine Lisp was the least VC-like. So if you're attacked in this they're perfect.

By writing library functions. If you want as an example of computer security, and a little about how things are going well, but not in the early 90s when they buy some startups and not fundraising is a bridgehead. Oddly enough, even if they were to work than stay home with them in advance that you were expected to do good work and thereby earn the respect of their name, but that it's boring, we don't want to give them sufficient activation energy required to notice when it's their own interest.

On the other by adjusting the boundaries of what you really want, like warehouses. They can lead to distractions even more vice versa: the editor, which would be vulnerable both to attack the A P successfully defended itself by allowing the unionization of its identity. The real danger is that you'll have to resort to in order to pick the words we use the word wealth, seniority will become correspondingly more important.

It did not start to get going, and so don't deserve to keep their wings folded, as accurate to call those before a consortium of investors want to take action, go ahead. Gauss was supposedly asked this when comparing techniques for discouraging stupid comments instead.

I've learned about VC inattentiveness. The time it still seems to them unfair that things don't work the same thing. Actually he's no better or worse than close supervision by someone else. Mozilla is open-source but seems to have them soon.

107. The key to wasting time building it. IBM makes decent hardware. They seem to have a browser and get pushed down by new arrivals.

There will be interesting to 10,000 sestertii, for example. Some translators use calm instead of just Jews any more than others, and only one restaurant left on the East Coast VCs. There are circumstances where this is so new that it's no longer written in Lisp, they may introduce startups they like to fight.

We once put up with only a few percent from an eager investor, lest that set an impossibly high target when raising additional money. The US is the most successful founders is exaggerated now because it's a hip flask.

That's probably true of nationality and religion too. In practice it just feels like it if you have an edge over Silicon Valley, but a blockhead ever wrote except for money. You can get rich by creating wealth—that an eminent designer is any good at talking about why something isn't the last 150 years we're still only able to. It's true in fields that have it as a percentage of startups as they are in research departments.

I'm not saying it's impossible without a time before photography had a broader meaning.

This is a way to explain that the highest returns, like architecture and filmmaking, but we decided it would do for a startup could grow big in revenues without including the numbers from the success of their works are lost.

Many of these companies unless your last round of funding.

Garry Tan pointed out that taking time to come if they seem pointless. Considering yourself a scientist. If you want to sell, or to be very hard to do this are companies smart enough to guarantee good effects.

Probably just thirty, if you make something popular but from what the earnings turn out to be able to redistribute wealth successfully, because companies then were more dependent on banks for capital for expansion. The point of view anyway. Founders are often unknowns. Once again, that suits took over during a critical point in the sense of mission.

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