#and oj covered it up and probably planned it

[bellamer]

So I’m thinking about the They Cloned Tyrone and Nope crossover thing I proposed and like I imagine the Haywoods finding out about that clone shit via the news and the cloning facility is probably exposed in California as well (where Tyrone lives) and I kind of want to go the route where Jean Jacket is an extraterrestrial that was being studied and followed by the government to learn its behavior but they didn’t interfere with the Haywood’s or Jupe and they were actually planning on the Haywood’s getting eaten by Jean Jacket and then sweeping it under the rug but didn’t actually think that the Haywood’s were smart of enough to take Jean Jacket down. And that they also had like some super expensive super secret government non electrical equipment and stealth protocols so that Jean Jacket didn’t catch them watching it. Also they purposely let Jupe and the guests get eaten because it was a way to get rid of witnesses and study Jean Jacket.

But since these movies don’t have a specific year but do take place in modern day, I’d like to propose that the Clone facility got exposed not long after The Haywood’s captured Jean Jacket on photo but their story more or less got swept under the rug and silenced because the cloning facility had way more physical evidence and the government, in order to save a little more face, still try to attempt to hide the proof of extraterrestrials so they claim that The Haywood’s photo is fake and doctored and make up some fake proof and say that the disappearance of the Jupe’s Claim guests is due to something else.

So where do the main three from TCT come in ? Completely accidental. They’re on their way to Memphis and Yo-Yo and Fontaine let Slick Charles drive so that they can catch up on some sleep and Slick Charles completely ignores the GPS and takes them all sorts of wrong ways and they end up all the way in Agua Dulce and their car just conveniently breaks down not far from the Haywood ranch.

So they walk until they get to Haywood Ranch and knock on the door for help and Emerald lets them in and recognizes them from the news, or better yet, recognizes Slick Charles and Fontaine from the news because she saw their clones and Yo-Yo does state that they indeed did that shit.

Emerald convinces OJ to ask them for help exposing extraterrestrials and shows them the picture of Jean Jacket and they even get Angel to testify for them because they know that the government is trying to cover what they went through up.

And for some reason the TCT trio helps them out because if there’s dangerous aliens out there eating people and the government is willingly sacrificing people for the sake of studying them, then the world needs to know.

I gotta work out the kinks but I think it could come along nicely

#nope 2022 #nope film #nope movie #emerald haywood #oj haywood #ricky jupe park #jean jacket nope #jean jacket #angel torres #they cloned tyrone #fontaine they cloned tyrone #slick charles #yo-yo they cloned Tyrone #they cloned tyrone netflix #fandom crossover

[horrormoviemonstermakeout]

MONSTER RATING: Jean Jacket (Nope)

Nope (2022) is the third movie from writer and director Jordan Peele, and the inaugural review of this blog because I cannot stop thinking about this movie. It’s a horror movie. It’s a western. It’s about the cruel, dehumanization of spectacle. It’s about the erasure of black voices in Hollywood. It’s about what it means to really see something for what it is. There’s so much to even think about, it’s so dense and laden with ideas that you could probably write a thesis paper about it.

The plot boils down to this: OJ Haywood (Daniel Kaluuya) runs a horse ranch and rental service for film sets out in the Californian desert, with help from his sister Emerald “Em” Haywood (Keke Palmer). After the unusual death of their father (Keith David) by way of a coin falling from the sky and piercing his brain, the ranch is beset by money troubles and OJ is forced to sell many of his horses to the theme park next door, run by former child star Ricky “Jupe” Park (Steven Yeun), who is currently commercializing the tragic massacre of “Gordy’s Home,” in which a frenzied chimpanzee killed two of the cast members and disfigured one of them, for fame and profit.

Things start getting weird when an unidentified flying object - which the Haywoods later name Jean Jacket after Em’s horse - begins appearing around the ranch, abducting their horses and causing all electronic equipment to fail around it. We later discover this UFO is actually a giant, living organism that had been lured into the area by Jupe in hopes of taming it and turning it into an attraction for his theme park. This inevitably gets him, his entire family, and most of the park staff and guests eaten and digested by Jean Jacket.

The Haywoods, along with the eccentric electronic store employee Angel Torres (Brandon Perea) and the film director Antlers Holst (Michael Wincott), begin planning a way to get photographic evidence of this creature so that the nightmare will end and their ranch will be saved from money troubles.

That plot synopsis covers the jist of what occurs but, in all honesty, feels like it only scratches the surface of what is really occurring. Take the Gordy’s Home incident for example, what I would consider one of the thematic throughlines of the entire film. So thematically central, in fact, that the movie starts on the scene of a bloodied chimpanzee among the corpses of its co-stars. Actually, the movie starts with a Bible quote, Nahum 3:6 - “I will cast abominable filth upon you, make you vile, and make you a spectacle,” which I feel sums up one of its major themes and ties back again to the massacre; the inherent dehumanization of spectacle.

Jupe, at that point a child actor, is the only actor that manages to survive unscathed from the incident. When we first get introduced to Jupe, we see his room filled with memorabilia from the show, as well as numerous references to the massacre which he plays off with jokes. He’s clearly traumatized from the incident, and yet he charges people to come into this room and gawk at what happened. For fame, money, or just to suppress his trauma, he allows himself to become spectacle and lets himself be dehumanized by the people who laugh at his trauma.

And it is this desire for spectacle that gets him killed by Jean Jacket. Jean Jacket is the ultimate unknown, a bewildering, fantastical creature that Jupe knows will wow his audience. However, Jean Jacket refuses to be a spectacle. As OJ learns, the thing that most enrages the flying saucer is direct eye contact. If you look into it, you will die. It’s ironic, Jean Jacket is the most spectacular creature in this movie, central to so many horrific but extraordinary sights, but no, you cannot look at them. You will not dehumanize this creature. The only time it gets its photo taken, the only time the public finally sees it, is when it dies. It will cast an abominable spectacle upon you, but the moment eyes are set on it, it will die. The same way Gordy was turned into spectacle, both on the show and when it went on a rampage, before being killed by the police. You cannot look directly at it.

I have to go on to rate this monster but you can see what I mean when I say I can’t stop thinking about this movie right? Jean Jacket as a monster represents so many things and if I went into each and every thing the review would be ten pages long. I insist, watch this movie, you won’t regret it.

- MONSTER RATING - JEAN JACKET -

CREEPINESS: 9/10 - Genuinely, it is rare for a movie to get me this fucking tense while watching it. So many things about Jean Jacket just elicit pure fight-or-flight instinct from me as it depicts some of the most horrifyingly ingenious ways to create a terrifying monster.

Where to begin? The fact that we constantly hear it screaming, and that we later find out that the screaming is not actually coming from it but from the people trapped inside begging to be released? The fact that it’s the size of several school buses, a kaiju in its own right, but travels completely silently, hiding itself behind clouds? The way its disruptive electromagnetic field shuts down all electronic equipment, plunging the area into an extremely tense silence, only to be broken by its echoing clicks and moans?

Jean Jacket makes you feel unsafe. The movie effectively conveys how this creature is a predator, silently stalking behind clouds so that it can pounce on you the moment you’re disarmed. The vore scene, which I will discuss later, drills into your head the mortifying fate which is set out for you the moment you are captured - you will be eaten, and digested alive. Jean Jacket reduces you to prey; insignificant prey, like a mouse completely unaware of the eagle that has already set its sights on it a mile in the sky. You were already dead the moment you stepped into its territory.

I’ve never felt more terrified for the fate of the characters, I nearly screamed when Angel was almost consumed by Jean Jacket. Jordan and the animation team behind Jean Jacket deserve phenomenal praise, this is by far one of the more horrifying movie monsters ever thought up. I’ve seen posts discuss how, after seeing the movie, they’re suddenly afraid to stand underneath the sky. Do you understand how terrifying something has to be in order to make someone scared of the fucking sky? What a wonderful monster, I love it to bits.

WETNESS: 8/10 - We need to talk about the vore scene. The brief thirty second moment in which we see all the park attendees travel through Jean Jacket’s digestive system. The claustrophobic space in which we see the innocent park goers - men, women, and children all - become trapped inside its intestines as its guts pulsate, sending them further and further inside. Wailing, crying, retching and vomiting echo throughout as Jupe’s wife bumps up against the viscous, partially digested remains of a horse, and screams. None of these people make it out alive, they die in one of the cruelest ways imaginable.

I need you to understand something: I’ve always said that being digested would be the most horrifying way to die. Trapped inside this dark, fleshy pocket with absolutely no means of escape, no way to survive. To be slowly eaten away painfully by digestive enzymes as you scream in futility, knowing that you will die this way. This scene warped my face into sheer abject terror and it is absolutely fucking killer. The phenomenal sound design comes out in full force again as you hear every squelch and throbbing of Jean Jacket’s intestines, and the horrified screams of all the park attendees. You can practically feel yourself getting drenched in foul smelling intestinal fluid and stomach acid; the stench of vomit and rotting partially-digested flesh violating your nostrils.

Let’s not forget the scene in which Jean Jacket torments the Haywood ranch by vomiting the hundreds of gallons of park goer blood all over the house. You can see it traveling down the window panes, this viscous, almost congealed red goop of viscera and intestinal bile. These scenes are one of many that made the movie, and this goes without saying: extremely wet! We’re just a little ways away from perfect wetness as I do not believe the exterior of Jean Jacket is all that wet, in fact I would think it would be not too dissimilar from shark’s skin - coarse and rough, perhaps a bit rubbery. But make no mistake - when Jean Jacket eats you, you will know wetness.

DATEABILITY: 2/10 - Listen, I could talk about the insane head Jean Jacket could give you, I am painfully aware of the powerful suction force behind that mouth. I am also aware of how gorgeous its final form is, its dress could make anyone at the Met Gala jealous. Good for a one night stand but I’m here to talk about its compatibility as a romantic partner, and I doubt the relationship could go far with most people.

Let’s talk about the biggest deal breaker: the lack of eye contact. Sure, this is not an insurmountable hurdle, I’m sure the charismatic among you could woo a monster without making eye contact. However, responding to eye contact with horrific consumption and digestion feels like taking things a little too far. Jean Jacket has a lot of boundaries that need to be respected, and you should be ready for the consequences should you break them even once. To some, that’s already way too much baggage to deal with, but let’s say you do successfully manage to get with this flying cephalopod, what then?

I hope you like sitting and waiting, because this creature is an ambush predator, and spends most of its free time hiding inside a cloud digesting its food. Hobbies, interests? Throw them out the window, the only thing Jean Jacket needs in its life is a horse to eat. You might feel a lot of distance between you and the UFO, not only does it communicate very infrequently, but you might feel left behind when it travels into the upper atmosphere to hunt an exploitative theme park owner. Let’s just say that a relationship with this monster would not be a very rewarding one, and as beautiful as this beast is, I would suggest finding someone that doesn’t put so much distance between you two.

FINAL RATING: TOO PRETTY FOR PICTURE / 10

#monster rating #nope 2022 #nope movie #jean jacket #jordan peele #movie review #movie analysis

[bizarrescribblez]

Selfshiptember Day 20: Watching the Sunset

Holst.

You idiot.

I stood on top of the roof of the Haywood’s ranch house and looked on in shock as Antlers got sucked up by Jean Jacket. I wasn’t quite sure why and didn’t even have time to think. Quickly covering my mouth in terror wondering if anything happened to Angel. I grabbed the binoculars I had nearby and looked, instantly regretting it after seeing Angel get covered in a tarp and rolling down the hill. I sighed knowing he was okay even if it was for a bit before I immediately gulped.

The powerless tamagotchi should’ve been a dead giveaway.

Jean Jacket was approaching. I instantly looked at the window that was thankfully still open and quickly ran towards it. I could hear JJ come faster and faster by the second as I struggled to jump to make it inside. My hand made it to the windowsill before the window shut, luckily avoiding my hand from being crushed by it stayed stuck on the sleeve of Angel’s hoodie.

Shit.

JJ finally made it as I felt myself get lifted up.

I thought some things over during my time in the air. Like how I probably should’ve texted my parents something meaningful this morning. How I should’ve somewhat tried to reconcile with my distant brother. Maybe I could’ve gave something to Em or OJ to remember me by since their chances of surviving were higher than mine.

Maybe I should’ve told Angel I liked him on that car ride together. Or after we escaped near death (which was a daily occurrence nowadays). Or when we shared the guest room bed here at the ranch house.. or even this morning before this plan was set in full motion..

When I wasn’t regretting all my life choices, I screamed and floated for what felt like minutes before making it back to the ground and landing painfully where I was prior. I opened my eyes and saw that being stuck was what helped me from my could be doom.

Jeez how strong was that window.

I didn’t bother thinking too much of it as I managed to pry the window open enough to free the sleeve and make my way inside. Quickly running downstairs in hopes of anybody being inside hiding for safety, but nobody was inside. I rushed outside, the aftermath of Jean Jacket’s appearance was apparent as vinyl records and various items scattered the dirt plains. I looked around to see if he was still around before pausing in my tracks to see JJ appear again and stop. Exactly where Angel was last.

I should’ve ran to him, but he was too far.

I should’ve yelled for him, but he wouldn’t be able to hear me.

All I could do was stare as JJ began to open and attempt to catch him one more time. I couldn’t see too well but I could make out the tarp he was still tangled up in. Which once again fell to the ground. Once Jean Jacket found Emerald and OJ, I sprinted to where Angel landed. Occasionally stopping the moment I felt as if Jean Jacket would strike again, making my trek to him take a while. I paused once more seeing OJ try to distract him, Em yelling for him and I continued to watch until Em drove off. Jean Jacket following suit, presumably to Jupiter’s Claim. I then continued my way and was finally able to make out the blue tarp.

“Angel.. Angel!” I frantically said in hopes he was still alive and that there wasn’t a lifeless corpse under the tarp. I saw movement and him slowly getting up, occasionally wincing in pain from the fall and also the barbed wire wrapped around him. “Angel holy shit.” I immediately had my hands on him, looking over the areas where he got cut by the wire. He tensed up and was finally able to keep himself standing, letting me take the wire off him.

“Holy shit you’re alive…” Was all he could say, looking at me with teary eyes. I occasionally huffed and winced from nicking myself trying to take the wire off him, before it became a team effort and he begun to help me. “Hey it’s okay.. I don’t want you getting hurt..”

“Angel, you’re cut everywhere. Let me do this…” I was finally able to get the wire off, doing my best not to get him cut again as I removed it. Angel practically tore the tarp off him and once he did he slowly sat down on the ground. Mostly from exhaustion and pain. I looked down at him, still taking in the fact he’s here. He’s alive.

“…sit with me…” I heard him say as I couldn’t fight back the redness in my cheeks, even when a hungry alien was running about..I couldn’t fight back how Angel made me feel. I instantly sat next to him, both of us looking over seeing Jean Jacket and .. the balloon from Jupiter’s Claim (?) in the sky. A minute passed and all that remained in the sunset sky was the remnants of Jean Jacket, being exploded by the balloon it ate a minute prior. “Holy shit it’s over..” Angel sighed. Both of us still sat there, we could get up to check on Em or see if OJ is okay or even checked if we needed immediate medical attention..but we still sat.

Should I tell him now? Was nearly escaping death for the hopeful last time the right moment to confess your love? And how awkward would a situation like that be if he didn’t like me back. Thoughts kept racing in my head I had to say something. Anything.

“…your hoodie saved me..”

“What?” He asked, looking over at me. Tilting his head his usual puppy dog way.

“The um.. sleeve got stuck in the window and kept me from getting sucked up..” I explained. “I guess we both could’ve been dead meat today hehe..” Referring to both the hoodie and the barbed wire saving is both. We both sat in silence processing that fact. All these talks of bad miracles, I guess we were inclined to have good ones. “I’ll make sure to wash it and you can have it back, there’s probably blood or dirt on it..I mean most likely I’m still wearing it-“

“No no. Keep it. It looks.. I mean it’s like a good luck charm..” He stopped my rambling as I felt my heart beat grow faster. “..I’m. I’m glad you’re okay…” He inched closer to me and our knees practically touched as I faintly smiled.

“I’m.. really glad you’re okay too.. I don’t know what I’d do if..anything happened to you…” Those words made his eyes widen, the sunset covering the obvious red in his face. I slowly but surely leaned my head on his shoulder, almost pulling away once I heard him wince but he quickly rested his head on mine. Both of us taking in the Jean Jacket-less sunset. “..we should probably get up and go get you stitched up or something..you smell like blood.”

“..yeah.. but in a few more minutes, okay?” I couldn’t say no to him.

“Okay.”

DAY 20 FINISHED AND ON NOPE DIGITAL RELEASE DAY NO LESS I STILL NEED TO WATCH THE DOCUMENTARY BUT I WATCHED THE DELETED SCENES AND GAG REEL AND IM;)?.$/!:!:!/! REELING(,)(;(??()?;?

Tag List:

@jils-things @sequids @pinkdinkydoon @captainscyarika

#🐶🐰 angel of the morning #selfshiptember2022 #selfshiptember #self ship #self ship fic #self shipping #self ship community #fictional other #f/o community

[the-firebird69]

We're issuing orders and he says watch out Steve the two gay boys are show a picture of a bronco like OJ and he says yeah I get it so one of his McCracken and we think it's the a****** bothering you which is Dan. It's not innocent and it's a threat on our people and on our son and we are getting ready to launch a major attack and strike on them everyone is and we have some stuff ready you're not going to like and it's all their stuff that's not enough we have a huge amount of things to detonate upstairs add to detonate of theirs with them in it as for the threat today.

Thor Freya

ALL TROOPS TO DUTY ALL FORCE TROOPS TO DUTY WE'RE BEGINNING TO MANEUVER IN MOMENTARILY

I'm not really accustomed to saying this but f you Dan you're a dead man

Thor Freya

We know what the time is of Dan dying we're going to kill him everyday but now we got attention and we need to use it so we need to hit him pretty hard I'm organizing groups they're going to go over the tapes and watch what he's saying I'm sick of this piece of s*** freaking guys are moron when organized Army and sitting there threatening us like you're nothing and I get what you're doing are you going to die doing it and I'm saying it now and he said it to Trump as he's hearing his license back since nobody does that s*** nobody does that stupid s*** and nobody definitely threatens them you people are going to die so you went over there and he said you're a f****** idiot cuz he said it out loud. They said they're going to attack us here and use this cover you're a fool and what is he saying it we're launching these attacks here and pulling those people in and he's getting messages and our son already took off and another cop was heading right up there and he was kind of boxed in because he was in front of me pulled in and he's saying what's up and he's stalling him all sudden you start getting angry and said we've been set up and this kid of mine won't shut his stupid face and he found out what the problem was my son shoved him so now it's on they're trying to shut him up and they can't seem to do it and a lot of people are mad about it but we're more angry than anyone but he's sitting there trying to threaten us no he's trying to do it out there and we got ready a huge wave of nights White satin of his idiots and he started doing his s*** and we start wiping them out so he's sitting there with this green on his face his father all sudden people got mad and they kicked him out he told him not to come back in any format and yeah he was just a clerk like 10 minutes ago the guy transforms way too fast he gets very sick I'll tell you what we need him out I'm tired of this little baby saying stuff to us and yeah he's a little grunt over retard too and of course he's stupid he is stupid so he's threatening Us in public out loud it's time to get him back for it I had known for having a song played the freaking queer. All troops to arms form on me we're going to teach these two twitch a lesson

Thor Freya

We have plans to assassinate them but we're going to nail tons of their people so we can get it done permanently

Olympus

It says I'm okay it says he says that the black guy was doing something and that they're probably taking over there's no who the guy was I do it's not gas and it's not a black guy and it's not Mac it's bja starting trouble and he's competing over the player toys and we say so what you going to pay for it this is no I said yeah and burn twice stupid so we're going to make him pay for it right now their ships are still feeling up all over the world they're taking on fuel and Max ships are feeling up feeling up huge amount of fuel and the arming up and Brian ships are not arming up too much nor trumps but they are getting ready for a war it's a limited one and they're getting ready to go down there too it's going to be huge numbers. Some people say half the populace eventually it's a lot and they they're getting a whole bunch of shifts together and they're going to strike.

-meanwhile Cuba is being watched and investigated for having a big army there and the Army is going to go here and it's a conspiracy and tons of people are going to go at him and the morlock what ships and stuff and they're going to go out to him shortly all the same time and we do believe by Tom and obey happens afterwards and they try to stop Mac from grabbing Tommy f

When he was at Walmart this lobbed next door and the slob Dave was in Palm Blanchard format almost and he's issuing a threat against our people he said "I've killed a lot of people like you" hey it's starting to take his bike and he's threatening his likeness while he's saying it he's using terminology that is theirs saying that he ate the doughboys and what we say is he's delivering the threat for his people but he's trying to attack in the Midwest areas that he thought we were in and we're deflecting them and decimating his troops and in many cases grabbing tons of them and we have his plan and it's not good and I need people to come in now for a meeting about these two we're treated gently and they should not be were at the full-blown war with them in the Midwest and we should act it.

Hera

Huge numbers the troops are pouring over them out there and half again will be gone today and they're trying to attack us as we're getting ready to flow over them it's a weird experience it's like a little brat and doing it in a few cities too and there's some cloning and a fumigating themselves. Regardless of issues serious threats against us and right to my husband's face something more than him walking around town has to happen he's using it's a barometer

Hera

I need some dangerous here let's take a look at what it's doing and it's not alive and we're going to go get him

Thor Freya

I've heard this a lot and I've seen very little action but today justifies us doing something and that's right us and other races who are here with us including the race of our leaders country and we need the leader out there and he says this is how the time it is I'm going to go out there and kick their ass and we want it in so we're going to wait and see there was a we're going to grab tons of stuff there's this huge cone of factories and stretched all the way down to the Southern Wall and at the tip at the top it was 500 miles wide now it's about 300 miles wide and stretches less than half it's probably 40% downwards since about half the size and today tonight I'm going to cut that in half and we're getting ready for tonight the other areas for securing it and we're doing the upper Midwest as well several states are going to be ours no but we're getting ready for it maybe one state tonight and we'll show you which

Duke Nukem Blockbuster and we are moving on the guy Dan he's a huge s*** head and we're not ignoring your threats for negating them by obliterating your troops and spies and stuff

[gogglor]

Cap-Ironman RecWeek: What-If Wednesday

Time for another installment of @cap-ironman rec week! Today’s theme: AU’s.

I know AU’s in different settings are half the reason most people read fanfics, but they’re not really my thing on the whole. AU’s where different choices are made, or different events transpire? Absolutely. Coffee shops? Not my cup of... you know.

So, here’s my AU recommendations for mostly “turn left” scenarios. This time with an under-the-cut break so I don’t take over everyone’s timelines (sorry about that last post). Also with some summaries truncated for length.

Alone Like This

Author: GotTheSilver

Word Count: 7,452

Summary: Steve, post waking up, runs away from SHIELD, and Tony's the one who tracks him down.

Why You Should Read It:

First off, GotTheSilver’s been consistently and regularly putting out solid Stony since 2012 and not only are they not stopping, they’re only getting better. This writer doesn’t get nearly the fanfare I’d expect in Stony circles for someone who puts out this much good stuff, and here’s hoping this post can be a part of changing that.

While I am always a sucker for enemies-to-friends-to-lovers, there’s something to be said for stories where Steve and Tony hit it off right away. And watching these two very different people look at each other and see the same sense of being lost, then finding each other again is... excuse me, there’s something in my eye, ignore me.

Second Chance Lives

Author: raeldaza

Word Count: 43,872

Summary: Tony's gonna die of palladium poisoning anyway, why not join a pointless expedition to recover Captain America’s body? And after, well, why not dedicate his last few months to making sure an American hero settles into his new life? What else is he going to do, get drunk at parties?

Why You Should Read It:

This writer doesn’t write a lot for the MCU but when they do, dang.

“Tony is the one helping Steve acclimate to the new century before Avengers 2012″ is a whole genre of Stony fanfics that scratch an itch I didn’t even know I had before I started reading fanfiction, and this is one of the best ones out there. It’s got it all - Steve poorly coping with his PTSD, Tony poorly coping with his immanent mortality, some breathtakingly poor communication between the two most emotionally stunted men in the MCU, and a cat named Roomba. What’s not to love?

Should You Choose to Accept It

Author: elwenyere (look, you’re gonna be seeing a lot of them this week, sorry-not-sorry)

Word Count: 27,106

Summary: After a terrorist attack and a field operation gone wrong, the Avengers realize that Nick Fury's secrets are just the start of a much bigger mystery. Steve and Tony try to keep some things from each other as well, but that can't possibly affect the mission — right? Mission Fic + Getting Together (or Mission: Getting Together) that mashes up elements from Iron Man 3, CA: Winter Soldier, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. season one, and Mission Impossible 3.

Why You Should Read It:

You can see my post yesterday for singing El’s praises, but what I really liked about this fic was how how damn creative it is. The CAWS/IM3/AOS mashup is everything I wished the actual MCU gave us and more, with well-developed characters and an exciting story to put them in. And because it’s El, you know the banter’s gonna be on point, the way the characters care for each other is gonna be emotionally constipated but touching, and the pacing’s gonna be exciting enough to draw you in and keep you there. Also, this fic doesn’t have nearly enough kudos so please go read it and fix that or I’m gonna have to try to hack AO3 and that’ll just be embarrassing for all parties involved.

What Happens In Vegas

Author: sabremc

Word Count: 161,951

Summary: “What the hell, Tony?” Rhodey demanded brusquely.  Tony winced and drew the phone away from his ear.  “You’ve got cops and Feds all over the hotel.  I’m watching you perp walk out of the police station on repeat on CNN.  They’re saying you tried to bribe Stern?  Fox News has you selling weapons on the black market, and God that picture they’re using is the one from Bali in ’09.   You look like shit.  They wheeled Stern out and put him in an ambulance, by the way.  Got some paparazzi swearing you decked the guy.  Now they’ve got ‘copters following it like he’s OJ.”

“Yeah, don’t worry, Sourpatch, I’ve got it covered.   Uh, though, I should probably tell you that, purely in the interests of national security and the greater good, I kind of had to fake marry that stripper-gram  you sent.  Thanks for that, by the way,” Tony added quickly.

Why You Should Read It:

If you’re deep enough into Stony to see posts like this on Tumblr, you probably know sabre’s what we in the business call a “big name author.” They’re prolific, they’re popular, and most importantly, they write words good (technical term). Seriously, sabre just keeps cranking out high quality stuff over and over again, raising the bar for the rest of us like a jerk (not really. I’m not bitter they write stuff so good I wish I’d thought of it first. Not at all.)

I never read stripper!Steve or stripper!Tony as a rule, but this came so widely recommended that I broke that rule and boy am I glad that I did. This is also the only fic on this list that’s a true-AU, with Steve being a non-powered vet from Afghanistan who left his army career to help Bucky and is stripping in Vegas to raise money for a prosthetic arm. He’s booked to do a private show for Tony, shenanigans ensue, and now they’re fake-married. This fic’s got some top-of-the-line banter and character development, but I particularly love it for its rich setting. Sabre paints a Vegas not just with strip clubs and blackjack tables, but KISS-themed minigolf, romantic dinners on the Eiffel tower, gaudy hotel lobbies, and making out on giant ferris wheels. It’s such a richly developed playground for the characters to play on, and through it, Steve manages to find a life for himself he’d given up on, and Tony finds multiple ways to show his kindness and depth of feeling for Steve. I know the word count’s long for this one but trust me, you’ve gotta read this fic.

Wait & Sea

Author: Lenalena

Word Count: 53,244

Summary: In which Tony and Steve get sent on an undercover mission aboard a cruise ship to make contact with Hydra. In this AU the military has kept the discovery and defrosting of Captain America a secret, so Steve and Tony have never met before. Yet they are to pose as newlyweds....

Why You Should Read It:

This one’s old and popular enough to be considered one of the “classic” Stony fics, and for good reason. Lenalena doesn’t write too often and not as much as they used to, but the fics they have up there are an absolute delight.

This is another fic that I skipped a bunch of times for being outside my comfort zone, but when I finally read it I saw why everyone’s so wild about it. In this story, Steve’s defrosted a bit earlier and not revealed as Captain America. He and Tony are sent undercover to sniff out Hydra shenanigans on a cruise and, because it’s fanfiction, they’ve got to pretend to be a married couple while onboard. There’s tons to love about this fic, but the things that bring me back to reading it over and over is first, Tony’s kindness and the way he’s attuned to Steve’s feelings, which... God, just inject “kind, observant Tony” straight into my veins, please and thank you. This is also another really rich setting for a story, and Lena knows how to fold the the hokeyness of the cruise into the seriousness of the mission and the depth of feelings Steve and Tony are finding for each other in a really beautiful, layered way. It’s funny, it’s heartfelt, it’s steamy, it’s gripping... why are you still reading this here? Go check it out for yourself!

Ashes to Ashes

Author: dirigibleplumbing

Word Count: 51,582

Summary: After regrouping following some surprise time travel, the world's heroes and sorcerers come up with a plan to protect the Mind and Time Stones by taking them into space in opposite directions. The result involves a lot more time loops than Steve would like, but at least they're getting a second chance to stop Thanos. (As well as a third, and a fourth...) And if Steve takes the opportunity to try to reconcile with Tony, too—well, they have the time, and Steve's going to make the most of it.

Why You Should Read It:

Dirigibleplumbing’s another name in Stony fanfics that does not get nearly as much fanfare as they deserve. They’re consistently a really creative voice in Stony fanfics and I always look forward to their stories showing me something new. Go read all their fics, I need more people to geek out with me over them.

I tend to limit myself on Steve-and-Tony-mend-things-after-Civil-War fics not because they’re not good, but because they’re so heavy, and also the Sokovia Accords have five hundred layers of crap in them that no good fic could possibly hash out well. This one, though? When you add in the Infinity War/End Game fixit? Poetry. Art. Music to my ears. DP wrote a really engaging, twisty story where it’s hard to predict what’s coming next, in spite of it literally being a pseudo-Groundhog day scenario. The characterizations are great, the story is engaging, and the feelings are big and sad and eventually happy. Go read it, you’ll love it.

I have tons of other recs for this category but this seems like a good place to stop for today. Tomorrow’s Alternative Media Thursday, and I’ve got some real gems I’ve been saving for that day (aaaaand possibly a self-rec or two ;)

#capimrecweek #tony stark #Steve Rogers #stony #fanfiction #MCU #ficrec

[milkacchan]

Request for anon: Gib the angst with grandpa enji and grandma rei. Grandbb gets hurt b a d due to smth and 😬😬😬

(Ojiisan is granddad in Japanese, the fir al version of it anyway. Jiji is informal, baba is the informal version of grandma)

Hero work was risky. Enji knew this. He knew better than anyone you can be fine one minute and dying the next but he still never fathomed it happening to /you/. He didn't /want/ to.

And then he gets a panicked call, from Shouto, and it sounds like he's crying, like he can't breathe. And in seconds, his retirement is thrown out of the window. His old costume is on and Reis concerned- he doesn't even have time to explain it all to her, just that you /need/ help.

When he arrives, the scene is at a stand still. Heros unsure of the next move, unsure of how to progress without hurting the situation and Shouto- although his exterior remained calm, endeavor could see it in his eyes. He was panicking. The facade cracked a little upon seeing his father, his expression turned sorrowful, sour and concerned, all at once; for just a split second before he returned to collected.

"She's in there, in the rubble. She got hit before he went down. He's in there with her but he's hurt. They both are."

"Negotiator?"

"Tried, he won't budge."

Enji nodded, mentally racking over plans and strategies- that green haired kid would be useful right now. But he was away, in America, probably watching it all go down on tv. So for now, Enji was alone in strategizing.

"I want the building stabilized and watched. Men on ever corner, exit and window of this place. The girl is first priority. If there is a choice between her and him, let him go. Do I make myself clear?"

There was a chorus of 'Yes sirs', both from special forces and heros that would be initiated in the plan.

He gaze flickered from the building back to those in front of him and he continued his explanation. This needed to be executed carefully- very carefully.

Casualties were at a low but he sure as hell wasn't going to add to that number, especially with you.

His plan was explained and he received confirmation, then it was put into action. His son on his right and ground zero on his left, the plan was initiated.

They used distractions and the stormed the building- probably not the smartest, but it's all they had right now.

Enji didnt care about anything else but you. He didn't care about the chaos ensuing around him. He didn't care about the others he saw. He did however, care about that blood trail. It could be you. Or it could be him.

He looked over to Shouto who nodded. "I'll take this one, you take the other."

"Got it," Shouto agreed with a small nod before taking off in the other direction.

Enji followed it, eyes scanning his surrounds with frevor- analyzing everything in his path. The blood trail dotted; it got light until it stopped, just outside a closed door. He wasted no time opening it. He scrunched his nose. It smelled foul.

Then he saw you. Crumpled in the corner in a pool of blood and his heart stops. It feels like the world is crashing around him because Fuck- you looked dead.

"Shouto!" He calls, his head turning towards the door but his gaze remains on you.

He's quick to get to you, kneeling down and putting his finger under your nose

You're breathing. Oh thank fuck, you're breathing.

He gently moves your arm, which is cradled over your stomach. It looks broken- its bruised and swollen and he doesnt like the blossoming purple patches along it. But your suit is ripped too, theres a large gash on your stomach and he cringes at the blood. He gently moves the sticky fabric off the wound. It was deep and tissuey- he could vaguely see the bruises beginning to form on your ribs- he didn't like that either. You were hurt, bad. Really bad.

He slides an arm under your back and the other under you leg to pick you up, almost crying in relief when you /move/. It's just a squirm but it's something, at least

He's /praying/ that you make it through, immediately thinking of the worst scenarios. They're playing over in his head.

A groan pulls him from his thoughts and he looks down, watery eyes peer into his. They're lidded and tired and scared; he let's out a breath he didnt know he was holding.

"Oj-Jiji-" You groan out, gripping his arm. Your head his on his shoulder, hair knotted and dirty, face covered in layers of dust and dirt. But the tear streaks are obvious.

"Firefly," He whispers, "it's okay,"

"It hurts," You whimper. "It hurts so much-"

"I know, I know. We're getting you out of here-"

"Did you find her- oh god," Shouto paled upon seeing you. He stumbled into the room, placing a cool hand on her cheek. You leaned into the touch.

"Dad," you kept her hand on Enjis arm, your grip tightening.

"Princess you're gonna be okay, alright? It's not- It's not that bad. We're gonna get you out and to a hospital,"

"If you're gonna lie," you mumble, "make it convincing. I know it's bad."

"You're gonna be fine baby, I promise you, you're gonna be okay."

He gently hands you to Shouto. "Go, I'll take care of things here. I'll meet you at the hospital. Go quickly."

"Jiji-"

"I'll be there soon, Firefly," he kissed your forehead.

"Jiji I love you," It was small, panicked and scared. But you wanted him to know, you wanted him to know in case you didn't make it. You'd lost blood. A lot of it. He could see it in the way you spoke. The adrenaline started to wear down by the time Shouto had entered the room.

You were crashing again and he hated it but there was nothing else he could /do/.

"I love you too, Firefly."

You let out a quiet cry, gripping your fathers shirt, looking behind him at your granddad as he carried you out. It hurt to breathe, it hurt to keep your eyes open. Black dotted your vision and you could vaguely hear someone calling your name as the world faded.

Rei sat quietly in the waiting room chair, her leg bounced and she chewed the inside of her cheek. Her hand held her son's tightly as her husband paced in front of them.

He should've gotten their sooner, he should've known it was happening. He should've been there to help her.

"Enji," Reis voice ripped him from his thoughts. The nasty thoughts running through his head a mile a minute.

They'd taken you in for emergency surgery. The bruises- those were from him. But the gash was deep. Deeper than Enji had originally thought. And with the blood lost, it wasn't looking too good.

"Are you alright?" His deep voice rumbled, the concern evident.

"Baby, come here." She whispered, holding her hand out. "You've been pacing for hours. Sit down. Relax."

He hesitated. Could he really? Could he really just sit? Shouto had zoned out. For what felt like forever his just stared at the ground, before he fell asleep with his head on his mothers shoulder. Natsuo and Fuyumi were somewhere- he wasn't sure where at the moment.

He supposed he could calm himself down enough, try to breathe through it. So he did. He walked over and sat down, sighing when her hand slipped into his.

"She'll be okay," Rei whispered. "She's strong. She's resilient. And there's a great team working on her. It's-It's going to be okay."

"I don't know," he mumbled. "She looked bad when we finally got to her. She was so pale," he squeezed her hand. "And there was so much blood. I should've gotten there sooner."

"No, you can't blame this on yourself. This isn't anyones fault. You did your job and you brought her home."

"But did I bring her home right? Did I bring her home alive?"

"Yes."

And Rei was right. He did bring you home alive. The surgery was a success. You stabilized, you regained the color in your face, normal breathing and heart rate.

They stitched you up, fixed a few broken ribs- sewed up that cut on your chin. They used a quirk for your arm, that seemed to be the easiest but for the others it was too risky.

So the Todoroki family sat in the small hospital room, around your bed, just waiting. They held small conversations, took turns sleeping; though Todoroki needed it the most. He kept putting it off.

"Aw- don't tell me you've all been waiting here. You all are getting soft," a voice mumbled.

Enji looked up and smiled. "You're awake."

"Princess," Shouto leaned foward and kissed your forehead. "How're you feeling?"

"I mean- all things aside, fine. It's a party in here though, you having fun?"

"I'm going to hit you." Natsuo narrowed his eyes.

"Can't hit a cripple," you hum. "Nice try though, Uncle."

"You almost died, yet here you are, cracking jokes."

"Yes. That's how I handle uncomfortable situations. You know this. I blame Auntie."

"I blame your father." Fuyumi rolled her eyes.

Shouto looked up, saying something back. Enji had turned them out.

"You feel okay?" He asked, eyes trained on you.

"I mean, it hurts a little but I'm okay." You smiked softly. "Thank you for finding me. I'm sorry you had to though."

"Don't apologize. You did nothing wrong. I'm just glad your okay," he swiped his thumb across your cheek gently.

It was okay after all.

#bhna todoroki enji #todoroki enji #mha enji #enji todoroki #enjirei #enji x child reader #enji x daughter reader #bhna todoroki #todoroki shouto #todoroki natsuo #mha fuyumi #fuyumi todoroki #todoroki shouto x daughter reader #shouto x child reader #grandpa enji #granddaddy enji #endeavor x daughter reader #endeavor x child reader #endeavor x rei #endeavor x reader #my hero academia

[chipsfics]

part 6 2/2

2/2 is finally here! sorry for the long wait!

rated: PG-13 for swearing and crying.

Down in the basement. It's dark, musty, and everything is still covered in cobwebs. Once Tissues flicks on the light, the only thing that changes is the "dark". His brain is buzzing with activity- What could go there, what could he put here? So much wasted space in the hotel- and he was 99% sure that nobody else had been down here in a long time. He had to try and avoid being suspicious- But he'd already pretty much failed when Trophy caught him tiptoeing down the stairs to the basement at 7pm on a Wednesday. He went over to the covered-up couches and the chair surrounding the television set and small table- He carefully lifted up the sheets as if they were going to fall apart like wet paper towels. Underneath, the couch was the same dull orange-ish color as the rest of the hotel's furniture- probably a spare put down here. The furniture was suprisingly in pretty good shape, although the covers were kicking up a lot of dust that made his nose itch. He stifled a sneeze. The TV was tiny and old, but still a flatscreen- Looked like from when Meeple HQ was just dipping into television production. The small, outdated meeple logo on the power button confirmed his suspicions.

He picked up the cord attached to the back of the TV and plugged it into the small, dusty, offwhite outlet. Surprisingly, the TV almost immediately turned on with a loud startup jingle that just about made Tissues jump out of his skin. He walked over and looked at the screen, which had the old Meeple logo spinning on it's screen as it tried to boot up. Once it finally finished the startup sequence, the screen was on an empty DVD selection menu. "Hm." Tissues scratched his head as he continued to explore the area. What else could he fit in there? And more importantly, how would he get it down the stairs? 

Tissues sat down on the couch and a puff of dust fluffed out of the cushion. He sniffed... sniff... achoo-! Tissues sneezed. Tissues pulled out his phone and started to browse online for something to buy to fill the room- He had a little extra cash, because despite being eliminated first, he was still compensated for participating in II. That, and the lawsuit against Mephone that OJ pulled a while ago got him enough money to last for a long time. A minifridge, a new game console, a recliner... too many options! He wanted to make this basement space absolutely perfect. 

The more he thought about how hard it'd be to order all of this stuff and not have OJ- or god forbid, Trophy- notice what he was up to was leaving him puzzled as well. Maybe he needed to call in some backup... Or just do all these activities at night (although that'd be even sketchier if he got caught.) In a moment of frenzied impulse, Tissues loaded everything he was pining after into his online shopping cart and purchased them all at once. He turned off his phone and rocked back into the couch, processing what he'd just done. It was a bad idea, he knew that, but something about it was so thrilling. His heart was pounding- It was like he was making the hotel into his home, cozy underneath the earth, exciting and secret and all his. He was giddy.

After that brief moment of happiness, Tissues paused as he realized something. Oops. How was he going to pull this off? He scratched his chin, and another lightbulb went off above his head. To find someone to help him... He went back up the stairs, clinging to the handrail as he tried not to look backwards- He /has/ to find a way to get up the stairs without having to scale them. Yinyang was, of course, busy that day (with some kind of... event? He didn't say), so his only option was... sigh.

Cheesy was in his usual spot- loudly unwrapping and eating fun sized candy bars on the couch, throwing the candy wrappers on the floor after he's done with them. Tissues waved to get his attention. 

"Hey Tissues, what's up?" Cheesy said, and looked around. "Where's your boyfriend?"

"He's not my-" Tissues sighed. "And he's doing something today. Listen, Cheesy, would you be willing to help me with something?"

Cheesy narrowed his eyes. "Like what?" 

"Something... against the house rules," Tissues said. "It involves snacks! And TV," 

"I'm interested," Cheesy said. "I'm always down to cause some trouble. What exactly are we talking about here?"

"So." Tissues looked around. "There's a place in the basement that's completely unused, and already has chairs and a couch and stuff, and i'm planning to fix it up into a kind of secret hangout spot?"

"Hmmm, interesting..." Cheesy nodded. "Sounds fun! But how're you gonna pull that off?"

"That's what I need you for," Tissues said. "I ordered a minifridge, some video games, and a couple other things that i absolutely can't carry down the stairs myself- That's where you come in." 

Cheesy looked deep in thought for a couple seconds. "I'm in. But you have to let me hang out down there too," 

"Of course! Just don't tell anyone, ok? Especially OJ." Tissues said.

"No problemo, Tissues." Cheesy said, winking. "Until then, do you wanna play Space Bubble with me? I need a player 2 to complete this level." 

"Seriously?" Tissues said. "You wanna play video games with me?"

"Sure, whynot. It's not a huge deal," Cheesy said. "You seem like a cool guy."

"Ah, really? sorry, ehehe, It's just that, people don't usually want to be around me... on purpose," Tissues said bashfully, smiling, and grabbed the second controller. In his head, he was wondering when Yinyang was getting back. This game would be really fun with 3 players...

----

The next morning, Yinyang was still nowhere to be found. It'd been like this a couple times before, and Tissues wasn't too worried- They were probably just sleeping in or taking an extra long shower or something. He figured he'd be able to catch up with him later. Although, the thought lingered in the back of his mind- something was wrong. Was it him? Did something bad happen to his friend? He pulled himself out of bed all at once, stumbling a bit and catching himself before he fell, sniffing and sighing. Down the elevator, no Yinyang. Into the kitchen, no Yinyang. Past the living room, Trophy was sitting in Yinyang's usual spot. Trophy sneered at him, but Tissues was too busy with too much on his mind to really care. 

Tissues took a deep breath. Into the basement. It'll clear his head. Stairs, step, step, stumble- whoops, back on his feet and step, step step again. Flick on the lightswitch. Vision blurs a little bit. Stress or vertigo? Doesn't matter.

Someone was sitting on the old couch, twiddling his thumbs, looking upset. 

"Yinyang?" Tissues said, and he jolted up and looked.

"Tissues," He said, his voice was shaky. 

"What- uhh, What're you doing down here?" Tissues said, sounding concerned, walking over and sitting next to his friend. "Are you... alright?"

"Umm.." Yinyang shifted in his seat, getting more choked up. "I... well."

"It's okay, you don't have to talk about it if you don't want to." Tissues put his hand on Yinyang's, and he immediately melted into the gesture. "D-do you need a hug?" Tissues smiled sheepishly.

Yinyang wordlessly nodded and pulled Tissues closer into a soft embrace. He was shaking really bad. Clenching and unclenching his fists, gritting his teeth. Tissues pat him on the back. "Is there anything I can do to help..?"

Yinyang didn't respond. He was crying. They stayed in that hug for a long time before Yinyang stopped shaking.

Tissues pulled away, his eyes sparkling with sympathy. He pulled a tissue out from his head and handed it to Yinyang. "Here you- sniff.. go, buddy. Please feel better... It hurts my heart to see you cry." 

Yinyang laughed. "You..." He sniffed, smiled, and wiped his face off. "Have to stop being so kind to me. I'll just end up disappointing you, or hurting you," 

"Wh.... no way..!" Tissues' eyes widened.. "I think- I... you're the only real friend I've ever had..! I love you and- and I really do care about you!" Tissues was getting choked up..

Yinyang laughed again, tears rolling down his face. "Dammit... this is what I'm talking about." Yinyang sniffed. "You're the only one who's ever cared about me, and it hurts- it hurts because I know that I won't ever be able to let you go." Something about Yinyang's voice was so sad. 

"Stopp it- sniff, you're gonna make me cry too..!" Tissues wiped his nose, and paused for a moment... "and... sniff... You're gonna have to try really hard to get rid of me. I'm already imprinted on you like a baby duck you know like in the cartoons where-"

"Tissues, what the hell are you even talking about-?" Yinyang laughed. "You nerd...!" He punched Tissues on the shoulder. 

"Aahhh, ahaha, oww.." Tissues smiled. There was a moment of silence. "Are you feeling any better... do you need to talk about anything else, i mean..?" 

"ah.... Tissues." Yinyang sighed. "I'm so scared of scaring you away. But... there's something I need to tell you... I. How do I say this..." Yinyang took a deep breath, and seemed to have regained some of his composure. 

"It's okay...! You can tell me anything..!" Tissues put a hand on Yinyang's shoulder, and he shivered. 

"Tissues. I've never said this to anyone so ... i apologize if we mess up. But... I think I'm in love with you." Yinyang looked away in shame and embarrassment. 

Tissues stared at him, wide-eyed, his face red. "W-wait. that's a funny coincidence, because.. Nobody has ever said that to me. Yinyang, I..."

"It's okay if you don't-" Yinyang sniffed, "Feel the same or, whatever. It's been forever since we were able to agree on anything, and it's kind of... terrifying. But i love you. We love you. And..."

"I love you too!!" Tissues stood up on the couch suddenly. "I was so worried you thought that I was hitting on you because I was and I was scared that you didn't like me like that and I just realized that i like liked you a couple days ago and-" Tissues rambled on and on...

"Shut up." Yang said. "Hey!" Yin scolded. "Now is not the time," 

Tissues laughed. "Sorryyy... I just got- really excited, and emotional, and I've never been in a situation like this and-..... just, wow. What does this mean? How does this work, are we like, boyfriends now?"

Yinyang blushed. "I dunno, probably. I'm too busy fighting with myself to learn how relationships work..." Yin laughed. "It's not... can we just... hang out down here for a little while...? I'm... still kind of processing. A lot of stuff."

"Of course..!" Tissues scooted up next to him and cuddled up to him. "I'm so scared, and happy, and worried, and sad, and just... emotional. Everything is changing."

"We're in it together," Yin grabbed Tissues' hand. "Thank you... for a lot. for everything," Yang added. 

"I love you," Tissues smiled. "I love you too." Yinyang said.

Hotel OJ was a vague silhouette on the horizon when the sun finally set- millions and millions of uncertain years stretching before them, as inperceivable as the distance between stars.

#tissues #yinyang #inanimate insanity #ii #ii2 #tissyang #tissuyang #yissues #fanfic #fanfiction

[popculturebuffet]

Of Moons, Millionares and Mothers Part 2: The Ballad of Duke Balloney or “I’m Flintheart Glomgold and I Always Will Be!” (Commission for WeirdKev27)

Hello all you happy people. I”m Jake, I review stuff and today continues my look at Ducktales season 2 story arcs, of Moons, Millionares and Mothers. And while this arc as a whole is paid for by WeirdKev27, due to the Arc’s length, 17 parts including 15 episodes and 6 comics (2 of which will be in the same review), this one’s special as he’s using his patreon review every month to do so. If you too want me to review something of your choice simply hit up my ask box or join my patreon at patreon.com/popculture buffet. You get access to my discord, to pick a short when I do a group of them for characters birthdays, help me hit neat stretch goals like my next which is reviewing a darkwing duck episode a month, and best of all EXCLUSIVE REVIEWS. And I just added one this saturday of a carl barks story centerting around wigs, legal battles and attempted murder, both by our villian.. and by our heroes...

I will never get tired of that panel nor the boys inexplicably finding a blowgun. Point is it’s there if you want it at THIS LINK, but enough plugging so I can help pay the streaming bills and keep doing this... let’s get to the meat of things shall we?

This episode begins the second arc of this retrospective, The Glomgold Arc. And this arc was inevitibly going to come to this blog for two reasons. The first is that I have made no secret, in fact i’ve shouted it as loud as I can the neighbors are concerned, that I fucking love the 2017 Version of Flintheart Glomgold. 

Glomgold is Keith Ferguson’s best role, tied with Lord Hater obviously, but it is indeed a tie. No one but Keith could’ve pulled off glomgold’s combination of ego, ham, and batshit insanity. He just makes the utterly stupid and wonderfully ludicrious things that come out of the mans mouth sound so damn natural with such an unearned confidence. It’s very clear that Frank had Keith in mind when putting this version of everyone’s faviorite South African Billionare pretending to be a Scottish Billionare and wisely built the characcter around him and his immense talent. I was not familiar with Keith at all, wasn’t even aware he voiced hater before this show but damn if that hasn’t fully changed. 

Glomgold was also just in general a brilliant update of the character: While I know a lot of duck fans weren’t happy with this version at least at first. As the action figure sitting on my shelf that once road in a car with my david hasslehoff baywatch funko pop I have entirley due to my love of baywatching,  this insane music video hoff did in the early 2000′s, and just in general how gloriously rediculous the man’s life is when you stop and think about it for a second from a pay per-view concert that ended up falling on the same night as The OJ Chase,  to his kung fury cameo , to his weird insetence they never had sex on baywatch desspite mounds of video evdience and the fact the show was buit around the bulk of it’s cast’s sex appeal, to the fact the model of his pecs used for the spongebob movie was sold in an auction and on and on... I was going somewhere with this...

Oh right as the action figure, and previous praise, shows I am not one of these fans: The original isn’t bad, in fact one of my faviorite life and times chapters that i’ll be covering this week and talking about later in the review has him as the main antagonist and a pitvitol figure in Scrooge’s life in the worst way possible. Rosa GETS what’s needed for Flinty to feel specail: to have him be an evil mirror to scrooge, what he could’ve been had he kept down the path he started down in Africa. A ruthless, amoral asshole who will do ANYTHING to get rich. 

It’s just often that isn’t emphasised enough and he’s instead just another one of the millions of generic assholes trying to get scrooges money sometimes with hired goons...

Not only that but Frank really COULDN’T have him at full effectivness. See an arch enemy in the Silver Age, which STARTED the same year Glomgold Debuted no less, wasn’t a big deal. They were still considered your deadliest foe but they’d often, much like Flinty be shuffled into the rogues gallery, show up for an issue to meance the hero, then either escape, get thrown in jail only to escape from that easily later, or be presumed dead. The last one I bring up because it happened to Magneto a LOTTTT pre-claremont. For Fuck’s Sake Charles have those teenagers train to look for a body once in a while!

Original Flinty was built for that, and brilliantly so as Barks had a talent for it , as seen by the fact The Beagle BOys, Flintheart and Magica have stuck around ever since and even in comics overseas where Flintehart is replaced.. it’s by Rockerduck who Barks ALSO created. The 87 Show followed the same formula, which was just as standard for 80′s cartoons. It’s why Megatron took until his toy was canceled the movie to shoot starscream in the face. 

The problem is villians evolved and the expecation became more that a true arch enemy had to be a true threat. While Frank and Matt COULD’VE made Flintheart a real and honest threat, he also would’ve had to make him a Big Bad. The probelm was those seats were clearly taken: while i’m pretty sure some ideas came as they went, the main story beats were clearly planned out well in advance: Webby being a clone was always the plan, as was FOWL, Darkwing being a fan of a fictional Darkwing who became the real thing, and Della being on the moon. So he presumibly carefully choose each season’s big bad... and thus Season’s 1-3 would be full up wise. Season 1 had Magica, who he made into a TRUE threat, yet left the door open for her to return as she did, Season 2 had Lunaris who even if they hadn’t fully thought him up, they probably had thought up the moonvasion, and Season 3 was what they’d built the series towards with FOWL. 

Details probably changed, it’s very clear to me they were likely going to have all three buzzards be important and ended up deicding to pivot to it just being Bradford over time. But given how well they though tout the general framework, I highly doubt Flinty was ever considered as a seirous big bad.. and I know i’m saying this in an arc that tried to set him up as one, but i’m getting there simmer. 

So they could wait for a season 4 that might not happen.. or make him a recurring villian. So Frank and Matt decided to do that and leaned into comedy. Centering him around keith who Frank worked with previously on Wonder and thus knew he could play a hammy manchild like no one else, they simply leaned into the goofier aspects of his personality. His being similar to scrooge became him being an intentional and blatant knockoff. As Scrooge himself perfectly summed up in episode 1 “The poor man’s version of me.. which to be fair still makes him insanely rich”. 

It’s another reason to really love this version as while yes, they did make him a bafoon.. he’s a wonderfully, redicuously layered bafoon: He still contrasts scrooge perfectly, manically hammy to Scrooge being calm, especially around flinty, blantatly crooked to Scrooge’s died in wool honesty, and wasting money on revenge instead of spending it on his actual company. There’s more obviously but some i’m saving for the review. 

Not only that but his insane schemery has a rhyme and reason to it: He attacks Scrooge every week like the saturday morning cartoon villian he is, but his schemes are always unwieldly and massively stupid, and he always goes with the first draft. It’s something the team enforced: the first version is what they role with because that’s how his sad brain works. He also is obssed with sharks and explosives, the former being given a suprisingly heartfelt and unsuprisingly insanne origin story towards the series end, and works them into every plot no matter how much itm akes no sense. He’s pure ego, pure stupid and pure fun. 

So yeah circling back to him being the big bad, I felt he was made one for this season for two reasons: the first is while a lot of fans (raises hand) enjoyed this version, some didn’t like how inept he was, so this would give them a breif bit of Flintheart being a genuine threat again. The other was frankly... they didn’t want to play their hand. Lunaris WAS the big bad... but fans would get supscious if there was seemingly no true threat on the horizon. Magica popped up in episode 4. We didn’t know her full plan yet true, but all we needed was lena SAYING HER NAME and fans of any other version of teh Disney Ducks would instantly go “Oh shit there she is”. So fans would now have the expectation of a main antagonist.. but would be instantly supscious of Lunaris and Penumbra if there wasn’t one for the first third of a season it took to them, and it’d leave a gap in the story to not have someone driving the plot on earth. 

So Flinty got an upgrade.. a slight one and we’ll talk about the eb and flow. And thus he got a proper origin. Now granted they could’ve planned this too, but this one’s harder to tell as the curse you me gag could’ve been a clever setup or could’ve just been a one off gag they somehow turned into an entire episode. So Flinty got an arc.. and a comedic foil, the other reason this was inevieble, and Kev’s faviorite character, Zan Owlson. So how did it work out for them? Well we’ll begin that journey under the cut. 

We begin our story a few months ago.... on every level really: the months ago shadow war aired when this episode originally good, the months ago I reviwed Shadow War (which via counting I found out was my 200th episode not counting Patreon. Nice), and most importantly for this story, the four months ago before the present day of Season 2. 

Glomgold saying curse you me as he fell into the bay during the Shadow War.... only for once in his life he dosen’t somehow get out of it unscathed and instead passes out, almost drowning. He’s found by Fisher and Mann, two fisherpersons... Mann is specific about that due to being a woman despite the obvious irony. It’s a good gag. Flinty acts like he normally would.. hostile, demanding that they know who he is.. and while they don’t.. neither does he. 

Cue credits and cue present day. Via a newscast with Roxanne we learn what I mentioned earlier: It’s been four month and Glomgold’s been missing. The general mood.. has been about what you’d expect. 

Yeah Roxanne turned on him real fast. I genuinely wouldn’t be surprised if it was because he later openly bragged about stealing scrooge’s money during the shark thing on live tv at some point, making Roxanne look terrible for enabling him and for blatantly supporting him earlier. I mean.. how else do you get a corrupt journalist to do anything decent. 

But with Glomgold gone SOMEONE’S gotta replace him.. and that someone is Zan Motherfucking Owlson. Top of her class at Mouseton Univesity, Owlson is the show once again updating things: previously they added Mark Beaks to the Rogue’s Gallery as he contrasts the 50′s (scrooge ) and 80′s (glomgold) idea of billionares from previous versions of the property being a modern tech weasel. Though instead of just one thing Owlson represents a few: The most obvious is she’s a woman of color: Having a black woman in such a high position of power is something disney would’ve outright vetoed in the 50′s and 80′s. Here it’s well accepted as it always should have been. It also feels like a delebrate move on Frank’s part: There weren't’ any major african or african american coded characters in season 1, despite the show being very open and accepting, so that needed to change. The other is frankly outside of Brigtaa MacBridge, whose also weirdly absent from this series for some reason and has taken Fethry and Rockerduck’s place as the most major overseas duck character to never get adapted, there are hardly ever any females on Scrooge and his richer foes level. He’s had the occasional female rival or suitor, but only Brigittta had staying power and while I love the idea of her, another person as rich as scrooge whose willing to spend more and has a crush on him, she badly needed an update as she’s essentially Adventure Era Amy Rose in a grown ass woman’s body. 

Owlson also provides a diffrent dynamic in that she portrays the ideal of what we’d want from a ceo: She’s honest, works hard, earned her way as square as scrooge did, gladly donates to charity and is extremely charismatic and intelligent. Granted most CEO”s are nothing like this but still, she’s what we WANT them to be. Using the money not for themselves or taking big paychecks but to help people. She also provides something Glomgold needed: a straight man. While he has one in Scrooge at times, Owlson unlike both of them is a fully functional resonable human being. Scrooge, while a good person deep down, can be reckless, impulsive and greedy, and Glomgold had a tarzan like experince with sharks, goes on to name his dummy son sharkbomb, and tried to murder Scrooge on live television twice that we know of. She’s the calm, snarky, put upon sane person trying to reign in the crazy shark explosion man. 

Owlson dosen’t get a ton to do here, but that will change and she does get a decent amout in the final scene. But what she does here establishes who she is and how sh’es FIXED Glomgold industries; She’s shut down the vast number of money sinking scheme related departments, set ups everal charities, and is even setting up a new one with Scrooge, Dimes for Ducklings. In short she knew exactly what was needed to fix the company and it’s image and did so in FOUR MONTHS. Probably even less given they had to be sure Glomgold wasn’t coming back right away. I guarantee he’s faked his death like 10 times just to try and kill scrooge. They have to make sure it’s real first.  As one last note before we move on, Owlson is played by Natasha Rothwell, a producer and writer who i’ve only seen outside of this in Love, Simon and Sonic the Hedgehog.. that is a weird combo of things that mean a LOT to me I haven’t been able to bring up here again. 

We find the tv this was all playing on on the docks with a non-anthro segull pecking it while a bunch of fisherpersons go about their day. We also get this guy. 

Add him to the list of spinoffs I want THE LIST OF SPINOFFS JAKE WANTS: 1. Darkwing Duck 2. Donald, Daisy and the Kids 3. The Sabrewings 4. Tailspin Reboot 5. The Flintheart Glomgold Show 6. A Sequel Movie 7. This Guy Punching A Fucking Fish 

So you might be wondering when any of our main cast are going to show up.. and why the fish puncher isn’t in said main cast. Well that’s about now as Webby and Louie are fishing. Well okay more acuratley webby is fishing because she genuinely enjoys it and Louie is tagging along so he can nap on a boat while Webby paddles him around. That plan is threatnned by her spear fishing and he suggests using rods instead, but they need bait for that. 

Naturally, given we need to get this plot going our heroes run into Duke Baloney, aka an amnesiac Glomgold. Understandably, both of htem think this is some sort of scheme at first because waiting for someone related to Scrooge to stroll by his fish stand for some sort of shark themed trap, especially since he’s right near the water so he dosen’t have to worry about keeping them hydrated like that time he dropped one from a plane onto scrooge’s board meeting with two chainsaws strapped to it. But .. it’s not. While we the audience saw him amnesiac, and at first I thought that spoiled the episode... it really dosen’t. He still ACTS like himself on instinct, so your not sure if he faked it as part of some elaborate scheme or is really gone till this scene shows that, no he really isn’t there. And the how is simply in knowing the guy: Glomgold is not good at subtley. He has disguises and such, but their never remotely convincing. He could NEVER pull off  actually being a humble fish monger nor have gone four fucking months without yelling at scrooge or remotely contacting him. There’s also the fact Fisher and Mann 100% belivie in duke and back up his very real story of being dredged out of the bay. There’s also his south african accent, which actors including David Tennant himself have admitted is one of the hardest to pull off but Keith does swimingly, which is a hint.. but only on rewatch or for those who know his comics origins. 

Louie isn’t convinced which is fair: even if Glomgold isn’t good at this sort of thing, he’s still tried it a lot. Webby however correctly figures he has amensia. So the two simply try talking to him. Fisher and Mann do get a bit dickish laughing off the idea he’s possibly Glomgold.. despite the fact you know you dredged him out of the fucking water 4 months ago.. and if you actually looked at the news, would see Glomgold disappeared around the exact same time you found Duke. It just annoys me because otherwise these two are great characters: Friendly loveable fisherpersons who love their job, have no comeptiviness and genuinely want to help their friend duke. The encounter does have them seeing a fancy money clip Duke has but with no other options they leave for now. 

But while Duke has forgotten who he was... bits of glomgold still stir within him. And that starts when Duke spots the McDuck Industries fishing boat, the best fishing boat on the sea, something his friends are okay with.. but Duke naturally isn’t. So while Duke was a calm sane fisherman before the true glomgold in him is on full display as he comes up with insane schemes involving fish and explosives, before presenting a rather insane scheme to his friends involving getting engineering degrees and other stuff.. it’s as poorly drawn and wonderful as you expect from him. But what’s telling is that he reigns it in when his friends show obvious concern with his actions... something Glomgold would NEVER do. For one he dosen’t have friends. For another, he doesn’t care about anyone else’s feelings or thoughts. 

By now Webby is also championing that Duke is a diffrente person.. which is true. Duke is Glomgold stripped of his hate and resitment towards scrooge. He’s who the man COULD’VE been had he not sworn eternal vengeance on Scrooge. Louie is doubtful that he’s amnesiac still.. but neither can quite figure out the full story so it’s time for research.. and for Webby to accidentally knock Louie into some lobster traps.. which given he’s spent the entire episode assuming an amnesiac man isn’t that despite all the evidence to the contrary, he earned that. That said these two were the perfect choice for it: All of the boys have a bit of skeptic in them, and we already had a plot with Huey being skeptical.. and even he would’ve given up by now as would dewey since he only has a pinch at best. Webby.. has none. She can question motives and stuff sure, but at her heart she’s a kind forgiving soul who belives the best in everyone. And.. its’  paid off fo rher. Look at the whole Lena situation, she believed in her, even while Lena was actively manipulating her,.. and it truly changed her, convinced Lena to do the right thing despite the cost, to choose love over the abusive monster who made her. It’s the only missed opportunity in the episode for me. Character wise it has exactly the 8 it needs to tell the story and focuses heavly on the five it truly is about. But not having Webby bring up Lena when we don’t hear her mentoined AT ALL during her absence (though to the shows credit they did a good job showing Webby still had never remotely given up), and it made the wait more agonizing and would’ve made her motivations hit even harder: that she belives in duke because she believed in lena and it was real. And while this thank christ isn’t remotely romantic, the point does stand: She wants to see the best. 

Louie is a conman by nature so he only sees the worst, the weakest in people, the things he can use to take htem down or take hteir money. He can’t fathom someone doing good because he can’t fathom HIMSELF being good. And that.. says a lot.. but he’s accepted himself as a shady conperson who cares only for himself.. even if that’s not the truth. His inclusion here enhances his own arc much like Huey’s role in quack pack enhanced his. It shows that deep down Louie dosen’t think much of anyone.. and probably not himself. That he has to be shady and greedy to survive when that’s not tru. Sharper than the sharpies yes but also square.

One last bit before we moved on  I just found out though: The Crew originally had this as a straight up origin story: no kids, none of the rest of the duck family, except presumably Scrooge’s parts here, just Glomgold’s struggle with amensia and his past leading to who hei s now. Honestly I think that version could’ve worked, but likely given disney seems TERRIFIED of making a show starring an adult without a chlid and had to be talked into the child light Golden Lagoon, that was a non starter but I think it still works fine. I also foudn this out via a twitter thread of Frank’s rewriting history that goes in deep on teh production of each episode. Had I known this existed before writing this one, I would’ve used it for the other two arcs and most dangerous game night, but I intend to read through it so I have everything on the table from here on out. 

For only the second time in her long career of researching stuff though, Webby has hit a dead end. Mostly because she couldn’t find anything on Duke.. and NOTHING on Glomgold’s past pre-Duckburg. The most she has is his visa...

I want to frame this on my wall.. and someone is actually seling id cards out there, so I want this one at some point. It’s not Disney because they don’t care about fan merch like this, but then that just means they don’t get the money because they didn’t think of it or put the work in then huh. 

But yeah with nothing else our heroes go to the only person they know who knows him well...  Scrooge. 

Meanwhile Duke has .. this... I just.....I can’t put words to this truly bizzare surreal dream sequence.. it involves Glomgold going insane, the kids dancing on a bagpipe, and owlson is there.. despite the fact that Glomgold should have zero idea whot hat is. I think the kids mentioned here but even then, he somehow knows exactly what she looks like.

Otherwise good stuff and it’s raining hard as Duke goes in. Fisher and Mann have formally added him to their sign, and warmly welcomed him in and Duke says “this is the nicest thing anyone's ever done for me I think” which is probably true. and makes what’s coming all the more heartbreaking. 

But before what’s coming Duke has another thing coming.. Scrooge who the kids brought to talk to him. The two talk casually, the kids watch not knowing.. and then Scrooge comes back to them. Turns out Webby was, unsurprisingly right on the money, Flinty does have amnesia, and unlike what Louie thought.. he isn’t inherently evil. Duke is just duke.. and Scrooge has no intention of fixing the amnesia. And while that SOUNDS bad.. his intentions are noble: Glomgold.. was a throughly miserable person. He was never happy and never would be till Scrooge was dead by his hand and that was never going to happen.  It isn’t even taking an enemy off the board: Flinty is only a threat on occasion. Scrooge clearly ENJOYS their conflict: it may annoy him from time to time, but he clearly enjoys upstaging the guy. And as he points out, it’s not a brain injury or anything: Glomgold is practically immortal as Louie put earlier, and Scrooge outright mentions Glomgold’s taken a LOT of explosions to the face. So he’s in no real danger physically or emotionally.. he’s happy. He has friends, a calling he truly enjoys. There’s another reason too but we’ll see that in the final scene. 

So Duke is finally happy... but it doesn’t last... the kids go out but a storms a coming, and Duke selfleslly heads out to save them.. only to get hit on the head and fall in the ocean again. 

It’s here we get the 2017 version of Glomgold’s origin story. We did kinda get one with life and times, as we saw his first meeting with scrooge and why he hated him, long story short with the long story coming later this week Glomgold left Scrooge for dead and Scrooge’s response was to come back, kick the fuckers ass, tar and feather him and utterly humilaite him, leading to Flinty swearing vengance. 

But while I love that version..t his one is just as awesome if not better. And it’s without having Scrooge ride a lion. Here we instead meet Flinty as a child Scrooge’s age... and as a shoeshine boy. Yup just like Scrooge Duke, Glomgold’s birth name, was an industrious young boy with big dreams. He also had unwieldy schemes from minute one, but Scrooge saw in this lad the same fire he had and tried replicating his own origin. 

The problem was... the different context ruined it. Scrooge was paid by an equally poor ditchdigger the us equilvent of his pay: still useless in scotland, but a good lesson in hard work and not being swindled. Scrooge tried that... as the richest duck in the world and without giving flinty the same amount of money. 

So Duke/Flinty took umbrage at this yelled at scrooge.. and pick pocketed his money clip. In the only bit taken from the rosa version of their first meeting, Scrooge never realized he’d met flinty already. There and then duke came up with his first true, and first insane scheme: Save the money and use it to mold himself into a richer, more scottish version of scrooge dedicating his life to one upping him and killing him. A “single white female” type thing as Frank put it. 

It’s.. utterly brilliant... taking Glomgold being a knockoff as mention and just running with that... making Glomgold a LITERAL knockoff. This was indeed the plan all along: A way to have him be both south african and scottish and it was brilliant. It also gives him more depth and more tragedy: He COULD’VE been the next scrooge.. but instead of being his own man or learning any of the hard lessons scrooge did he doubled down on never learning anything and getting vengeance on an old man’s well meant but accidently classist gesture. 

So Glomgold reawakens and while it first looks like he’s going to save the kids... he instead throws Webby into the raging sea, and steals their fish. Webby is heartbroken and Louie asks him “what about duke.” His response is heartbreaking as it is character defnting

“I”m Flintheart Glomgold and I always will be!” the lightning shot, the cackle..i t’s just such a damn good moment that underscores the tragedy of the episode as Glomgold’s new friends are horrified by what he is now and what he was always meant to be and Glomgold leaves to go stalk scrooge once again. He indeed is Flintheart Glomgold and always will be.. because he threw the decent person he could’ve been away. He’s miserable.. because he can’t let go of his rage or ego and just move on from something that happened to him when he was ten! He has to be in his 60′s now! Glomgold may think Scrooge is his worst enemy.. but it’s really Flintheart Glomgold.... and it always will be. 

So naturally his first actoin is to storm into his company and scream at scrooge. How he found him there... honestly not a huge suprise it’s his company and he likely knows how to find scrooge anywhere because he’s a creep like that. Scrooge and Owlson’s reactions are both worth a look at:

Given Glomgold bursts into an already annoying meeting of Scrooge trying to get the dimes part knocked down to nickles (and likely lower before that given he mentioned Pennies earlier), to accuse Scrooge of trying to trick him by appearing as a boat in his dreams her bafflement is both understandable and hilarious. Like she probably HEARD what Glomgold was like but gennuinely didn’t belivie it and her face is just now frozen in a look of “oh my god they were not exagearating what fresh hell is this”. 

She tries to be professional and introduce herself but he just brushes her off and yells at Scrooge blaming him for being forgotten (”You literally forgot yourself), with Owlson also considering calling security. She only dosen’t because Scrooge points out he’ll tire himself out eventually and as usual for their jousts, is not remotely threatened or worried. He’s just..sad. And getting back to his reaction.. that’s what’s telling about his plan. He probably KNEW this would happen. He in his heart knew Duke Balloney would be gone soon, and he’d have to deal with Glomgold again. It helps soften the implicatoins: it wouldn’t last and fraknly if it did Scrooge would probably have people check on him regualry to make sure he was okay. He’s not a monster.. he just wanted Flinty to be happy for five minutes and to not ruin that out of some misplaced sense of right and wrong.. when the right thing was to simply let the man be happy till it inevitably blew up. 

Glomgold however, furious at being forgotten and cast aside has decided to take a huge poorly thought through gamble and challenges scrooge to a classic Scrooge comics trope between the two, but with higher stakes: A contest to see who will be the richest duck in the world by the end of the year.. and given Christmas happens right after this i’m just assuming he means a year from now. Winner gets both companies and fortunes. Scrooge scoffs at this.. till Flinty pulls out the clip, taunting him with how he did it and “If I can beat you once scrooge i’ll beat you again”. And this, Flinty revealing he stole from him and he NEVER KNEW it or realize it, enrages scrooge enough to agree and to take him seriously... meanwhile Owlson.. just tries to get actual work shit done and just forges their signatures. Look she is a woman of color in the business world with genuinely good motives... she’s probably used to using white nonsense to get things past two idiots having a peeing race. 

Final Thoughts:

This episode is truly excellent and like Most Dangerous Game Night! i’d forgottne just HOW good it was. The pacing, the comedy, and the character work is all on full blast and i’ve gushed plenty enough about how great an origin story is. it’s a character piece that explains why this doofus is the way he is and that is what holds him back. 

Next time on MMM: Louie’s back as he pulls a ghostbusters to make quick money and Storkules starts rooming with Donald with predictable results. 

If you liked this review consider joining my patreon and i’ll see you at the next rainbow. 

#ducktales #flintheart glomgold #scrooge mcduck #the ballad of duke balloney #webby vanderquack #louie duck #fisher #mann #fishing #weblena #disney plus #disney xd #disney channel

[deathonyourtongue]

Willow Run | Ch. 7

Summary: On a horse ranch in Texas, life is far simpler than on the streets of Bakubah, but Syverson has a bad habit of taking in strays of all kinds, no matter what demons may be after them. Pairing: Captain Syverson x OFC Word Count: 3K Warnings: Drug use? A/N: Y’ALL ARE THE BEST!!!! CHAPTER 1 | CHAPTER 2 | CHAPTER 3 | CHAPTER 4 | CHAPTER 5 | CHAPTER 6 | 

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“I’m a nice guy, right? I mean I got a place, roof don’t leak none, got food...Hell, I gave it to her good, too. She always moaned like a whore when I gave it to her. She loved it, especially the rough stuff.”

“I mean, you did say you were gon’ kill her.” Wade giggled, inhaling deeply from a bong and momentarily taking his eyes off Travis. His shaggy blond hair was in need of a wash, but from the state of his shirt, it was clear cleanliness wasn’t at the forefront of any of his thoughts. 

Tapping on a dying lightbulb that sat next to his recliner, Travis grinned. He took a long drag off his cigarette, swilled it with lukewarm beer, and finally nodded. “Well, that’s ‘cause she disobeyed. She doesn’t have a lot to remember, really. Keep the house clean, keep the food hot, keep her legs spread, keep takin’ ‘er pills. Four things. That’s all she needs to remember, but that seems too hard for ‘er. You tell me Wade. If someone finds it too hard to remember four things, should they really be breathin’?”

“No sir,” Wade laughed, grabbing a handful of pretzels and putting the whole lot in his mouth at once while shaking his head. 

“Exactly. And seein’ as how she’s mine, it’s my right to do with ‘er as I please.” 

“Can’t argue with that one, boss.”

Standing, Travis made his way to the kitchen, pausing in front of a mirror his fiancee had broken with her face some time ago. Slipped into the frame was a picture, taken years before on a Polaroid. He stroked over the image with his thumb, smiling. Travis could remember the day like it was yesterday. She’d tried to surprise him by bleaching her hair a white-blond with pink streaks. He took a deep breath,trying to keep from getting hard as he remembered how rough he’d given it to her that night after the party at the drag strip. In his experience, blondes were always bimbos, good for one thing and one thing only. He treated her like a blonde that night, then made her dye it back to its original color the next day; it didn’t matter to him that she had a hard time moving her hands up to her head, so long as she got the job done. 

His reflection, disfigured among the cracks of glass, made him look more sinister than usual and it suited Travis’ mood. His grin grew as he met his own gaze; tri-colored eyes reminiscent of a broken marble stared back, amplifying the decision he’d already made. Running a hand through his mussed russet hair, he looked over his shoulder at his best friend before opening the fridge and grabbing a fresh beer.

“Wade? What d’you do when a deer runs away from ya out into the bush?”

“Y’hunt it. Why?”

“Well, my dear ran away, Wade. Get your stuff and call the guys. We’re gonna go huntin’.” 

Sasha couldn’t help but smile as she read over the second note Sy had left her in as many days. To him, it was probably nothing more than common decency, but to Sasha it was such a tender gesture of affection that it nearly brought tears to her eyes. 

Feeling better than she had in a long time, she slipped out of bed, leaving the puppies to sleep and moved to get ready for the day, intending on finally surprising Sy with the breakfast she’d planned on making the day before. After a quick stop in the bathroom to tie her hair up in a floppy bun, Sasha put on a touch of the makeup she’d bought, slipped into the second outfit she’d tried on, and with new shoes in hand, headed downstairs to start cooking. 

Though she hadn’t cooked from scratch a lot in her past, Sasha had always felt it important that a person have one or two recipes that they could make to near-perfection. Her favorite by far was her breakfast burritos and she’d yet to have someone fail to compliment her on them after trying them.

After a quick rummage through Sy’s fridge, she set about making two for him and one for herself, Sasha watching the clock closely, knowing full well she had a limited time frame to get the food to him before his meeting with the buyer. Where Sy sang, Sasha preferred to dance in the kitchen as she cooked, every movement accompanied by a happy little shuffle of her feet, whether or not there was music playing. 

Before, she’d have to watch herself, as dancing was looked down on, but now, feeling freer than ever before, she couldn’t  help but make her movements a little more grandiose. To anyone looking in, she might have looked a little strange, dancing and smiling from ear to ear when there was no music playing, but Sasha couldn’t have cared less. She was happy for the first time in a long time and she wasn’t going to hide it.

With the kitchen cleaned and the dogs all given a bit of bacon for their good behavior, Sasha set off with everything she’d made, the food wrapped in tin foil then gathered in a clean kitchen towel for easier carrying. Along with the thermos of hot coffee and a bottle of water in place of her OJ, Sasha headed off by foot to find Sy, not ready to try her hand at the ATV that sat parked at the back of the house. 

Her smile grew as she neared the barn, hearing an upbeat country tune playing through speakers she could only assume were hardwired into the building itself. Seeing Wyatt, Sasha put a finger to her lips, silently asking him to stay quiet. The taller man only smiled, shifting his gaze back to a horse he was grooming while discreetly tilting his head to the left, giving away Sy’s location. 

She was expecting him to look as he always had when working in the heat; sweaty, a little disheveled, and wearing his beat up baseball cap. What met her eyes however was something closer to the cover of a romance novel, and Sasha was momentarily stunned into stillness. 

Wearing a navy and black plaid button-down, tight blue jeans with a black belt, and a far less trodden pair of black, round-toed boots, it was the black Stetson on Sy’s head that made her stomach explode into a million butterflies. Biting her lip, Sasha felt a stirring she couldn’t remember ever feeling for her ex, the realization a startling one that nearly made her drop the thermos. 

It took a deep breath to refocus her mind, but once she had, Sasha tiptoed as close to Sy as she dared. With a quick look to Wyatt, who gave her wholehearted approval, Sasha leaned up as far as she could, standing on her tiptoes to try and reach his ear. 

“Morning, handsome,” she whispered, echoing his morning note. 

“HOLY FUCKING SHIT, WHAT THE FUCK?!” Sy jumped a mile, turning and banging his elbow into the stall as he tried to figure out what was going on. Seeing Sasha, his fear instantly turned to elation, and he placed a hand over his heart as he took her in. Even more radiant than she had been the previous morning, Sy could tell she felt a million times better, not just physically, but emotionally. The gleam in her eye said it all, and before he could even register it, Sy was grinning like a fool. 

“Morning, mama,” he said with fondness, his voice quiet and sweet as he tipped his hat back enough to kiss her cheek. 

Though Sasha was momentarily confused at the formality of the kiss, it only took one look at Wyatt’s raised eyebrows for her to realize why Sy was being a little coy with the PDA. Everything was still new. Blushing a little, she pulled her surprise from behind her back, smiling hopefully up at Syverson.

“I thought I’d make your morning a little easier,” Sasha said, her smile growing as Sy slipped a hand around her waist, guiding her down the aisle towards his office.

Sy’s face showed genuine appreciation as he took a seat in his high back leather chair, pulling Sasha down into his lap so she wouldn’t have to sit on the perpetually hay dust-covered chair. 

“You didn’t need to do all this, darlin’. You made coffee and everything. Thank you.” Sy met her eyes, his own gaze making it abundantly clear that he wasn’t used to being treated. Turning her face with his hand, he kissed her deeply now that they were in private, Sy sighing happily when he finally pulled away. 

“Been thinkin’ about kissin’ you all morning,” he confessed, Sasha unable to keep the small squeak of happiness from escaping, her head falling to Sy’s broad shoulder as he reached around her to unwrap the kitchen towel. 

With the tinfoil off in a hurry, Syverson’s face turned into one of delight as he immediately recognized what she’d made. 

“Did you use the chorizo?” He asked, bouncing a little in his seat when Sasha nodded. Laughing softly, Sasha held off on taking her first bite in lieu of watching Sy. While his food always tasted amazing, he usually didn’t have much of a reaction to his own cooking. Now, with someone else’s handiwork in front of him, it was a totally different story. 

Sy’s eyes rolled back into his head the moment the first bite touched his tongue, a loud, appreciative moan coming next as he began to chew, followed by more bouncing and a bob of his head that was unmistakably made in time with the music. 

“Damn, woman! You could make some serious coin off these! It’s so good! I think you’ve ruined me. Never, ever tell her I said this, but... Even my mom’s isn’t this tasty! Holy shit!” 

Blushing profusely, Sasha hid her face deeper into the crook of Sy’s neck, her smile wide as she felt his free hand come up to cup the back of her head. Warm and safe, she almost forgot about her own meal until the baby moved and her stomach growled simultaneously, both Sasha and Sy laughing and the loud interference. 

“Might wanna eat quick, mama. The lil’ one’s gettin’ restless,” Sy grinned, his hand slipping under her overalls to rub her belly gently over her shirt. The touch made her heart skip a beat, Sasha still amazed that Sy seemed to have no qualms over the fact that she was pregnant, even now that they’d declared their interest in one another as more than just friends. 

Unwrapping her burrito, she took a hearty bite, Sasha glad that her appetite was coming back a little stronger now that she was well away from her previous situation. Still watching Sy, she felt her blush returning as his excitement over the food didn’t waver a bit. It was so opposite of what she was used to, Sasha didn’t quite know what to do with herself. 

“Seriously, Sash, I could have these as my last meal and I’d die a happy man.” Giving her a squeeze, he looked up at her and something in his eyes changed. 

“Darlin’, you’ve got a little somethin’...” Sy’s voice softened as he leaned in, pressing a tender kiss to Sasha’s lips and knocking her heart into overdrive immediately, with how charming he was. 

“Stop,” she whined playfully once they parted, her broad smile making it clear she didn’t actually want him to do anything of the sort. “You’re too cute for your own good, mister,” Sasha added, pressing the button of his nose, her own scrunched up playfully. 

“Nuh uh. That’s all you, mama. I’m just the big ���ol rust bucket that works with horses,” he joked, Sy about to lean in to kiss her again when Wyatt’s soft throat-clearing interrupted them. 

“We got about five minutes. He’s all ready to go, trottin’ around the pasture so he’s seen as they drive up. You need my help with anythin’ else or am I good to get back to the trees?” Wyatt asked, trying his hardest not to let his face show how surprised and happy he was for his best friend. 

It had been eons since Sy had shown any interest in a woman, and despite only having met her briefly, Wyatt could already see how much of a difference Sasha was making in his former C.O., a difference for the better as far as Wyatt was concerned. 

“Nope, I’m all good to go. D’you mind if I share this with Wyatt, darlin’? He hasn't’ eaten yet either and he’s about to go out and break his back.” Looking down at Sy as he asked for permission, Sasha only let the shock of his request flash briefly across her face before nodding quickly. Men never asked her for permission; they usually just took and took and took. Feeling overwhelmed with emotion, Sasha found herself slowly getting off Sy’s lap, mouth parted slightly. 

Was it too good to be true? Would he end up being like every other man she’d ever been with? Was this all a dream that would leave her sobbing when she woke?

Managing to keep the smile on her face, she bent down and gave Sy a sweet kiss to his cheek, letting her lips linger just a little longer than was customary. 

“I think I’m gonna head back up to the house.” Sasha murmured, stepping backwards while trying to keep her composure. Sy frowned slightly, confusion marring his features. 

“You alright, darlin’?” Nodding quickly, Sasha waved the two men goodbye before turning on her heel and heading back towards the house as fast as she could manage. 

Hearing the buyer’s truck pulling up as she crested the hill, it was all Sasha could do to keep from running, afraid seeing her might deter Sy’s prospective customer. Inside, the cool air hit her and without anyone watching her, Sasha let her tears spill, elated that she’d found such a wonderful man, but terrified that it was all going to go south like it did any time she had even a modicum of happiness to herself. Overwhelmed with emotion and forgetting all about the hormones coursing through her, Sasha kicked off her shoes before beelining the couch, curling up with Hudson and letting the tears fall silently until sleep overtook her. 

Sasha wasn’t sure how much time had passed when she felt soft lips on her face. Moaning quietly, she braced for the kisses to turn to punches. With her eyes squeezed shut tightly, she was certain she’d feel the familiar wakeup call tear her out of her dream, which would put her right back to everything she’d run away from. 

“Travis, I’m up, I promise,” she mumbled, whimpering even as she put her hands up to block whatever violence was coming her way. 

When the gentle kisses stopped and all she felt was the circulating air of the AC, Sasha finally opened her eyes, confused; the sight before her put a lump in her throat instantly. Sy sat on the coffee table, back hunched over, his eyes gazing into a spot on the rug. Lips pressed in a tight line, two tear drops clung to his lower lashes, streaming down his face only when he finally looked up, their path cutting through the fine layer of dust on his face before he wiped them away slowly. 

“Ah, sweetheart. Wish I could take all your fear, all your pain away,” he whispered, sniffling and wiping a little harder at his eyes when the tears wouldn’t stop. 

Sitting up, Sasha found herself at a loss for what to say, her own eyes already red-rimmed from having cried herself to sleep. Looking at Syverson, she couldn’t help but feel the same guilt she’d felt during her first day with him. Only now, she could add making him cry to the list of things she felt responsible for. 

“I feel like I’m a burden on you already, nevermind you wanting to take on my pain,” she admitted, her voice small and pinched, Sasha looking anywhere but at Sy. 

Opening his arms, it only took a moment before Sy had Sasha in his embrace, holding her as close as he could and letting her fresh tears fall into the crook of his neck. Rocking her back and forth as he stroked her hair caringly, Sy could only think of one response to her words. 

“No, not a burden. A joy.”

#henry cavill #syverson x ofc #captain syverson #captain syverson fic #deathonyourtongueoriginals #willow run

[imaginetonyandbucky]

Keeping Me Alive

Chapter 10: Get Out Alive

by @dracusfyre​

    Now

“Save who you can,” Tony said to himself as he splashed water on his face.

He blindly grabbed for a towel and dried off, meeting his eyes in the mirror for what felt like the first time in years. “Don’t look back.” He straightened his shoulders and took a deep breath, trying to calm his nerves, and went out into his bedroom. He picked up the photo that sat on his bedside table and took it out of the frame, tucking it into the pocket of his pants. Glancing around his bedroom, he nodded once, and went down to his workshop. He saluted the painting of Howard on the wall then dug out the photo of the Winter Soldier from his desk and set it on fire, dropping it to the concrete floor and watching it burn.

 “Ready, JARVIS?” he asked. He ground the last bit of embers into the concrete to put them out.

 “Are you ready, sir?”

 “Yep,” Tony lied. “Let’s rock and roll.”

“Let it Burn Protocol initiated.” As JARVIS spoke, Tony felt the first explosion rock the house, rumbling through his feet as he stepped into the matte black suit in the gantry in the middle of the room. The facemask closed over his face as cracks appeared in the walls of the lab, and as the ground fell away from his feet he was already in the air.

36 days ago

Once he was sure that Stane was gone for good, Tony went down to his work shop and said, “Wake up, JARVIS, we have work to do.”

Sitting down at his workstation, he opened up the master file with the suit schematics and eyed the hologram critically. The hardest part of the suit to master was going to be the flight system, so he isolated and magnified that part from the diagram, studying the repulsors built into the gauntlets and boots with stabilizers along the back. “Start machining the parts I’m going to need for these,” he said. “Circumstances have changed and we are going to need to hit the ground running, so to speak."

“Yes, sir,” JARVIS said, and the whirring of machinery became a low hum, punctuated by sharp bzzts as parts were cut and de-burred. Tony studied the prototype, exploding the diagram, moving it around, and after a while came up with a short list of non-critical design items he could spoon feed to Hydra to show his ‘enthusiastic’ cooperation. An hour later, the whirring stopped and the sudden quiet broke Tony out of his concentration. He sat up and stretched, wincing as his back popped. Standing, he went over to the coffee maker and started a new pot, then dug under the counter for his emergency stash of scotch, splashing a fingers worth in his mug while he waited for the coffee.

He had realized two very important things today. The first was that the Soldier needed saving even more than Tony did; the knowledge that the man was Hydra’s slave, kept ignorant and locked up until Hydra needed an attack dog, had shifted Tony’s world view like a kaleidoscope, shaking up everything he thought knew and making an entirely new pattern. The second was that he couldn't keep waiting around for a chance to escape, he was going to have to make one.

This suit, he knew, was the key to both of those realizations. But this half-baked, insane plan to rescue the Winter Soldier was going to kick the anthill big time and Tony also knew he needed to have some kind of plan for dealing with Hydra in the aftermath. This wasn’t going to be like Afghanistan, where he thought he was out and got pulled right back in again. The stakes were way too high this time.

With that thought in mind, when the coffee was done, he filled up his mug and went back to his desk. He pulled up the operating program for the suit and created a subroutine to overload the reactor, ignoring the flash red warning that said that this would result in a critical core breach and an uncontrolled chain reaction, and set the activation code as “Last Resort.”

One way or another, he thought as he sipped on his doctored coffee, this suit would be his way out.

  32 Days Ago

Tony stared tiredly at the news as he took a swallow of stone-cold coffee. The breaking report was about the assassination of an Iranian nuclear scientist. Iran was already blaming Israel, who was of course denying it, but in response Iran was threatening to pull out of the treaties against nuclear enrichment and swore they could split the atom within the year. Political and military analysts were seeing storm clouds on the horizon unless someone backed down and talking about how another war would tax America's already overstretched military. Tony, meanwhile, could tell that this assassination had Hydra's fingerprints all over it, and knew that this was almost certainly the work of the Soldier. "JARVIS," Tony said, muting the television. "I need you to break into Hydra’s servers and find everything you can on the Winter Soldier. Cross reference it with the name James Barnes.” There was a chance that Stane had made the name up, but it seemed unlikely – from what he could tell, the Soldier would have responded to anything, and ‘James Barnes’ was a lot more specific than a simple ‘John Smith’ or ‘Joe Blow.’ “Actually, while you’re at it,” Tony said, having a sudden thought, “I want all of Hydra’s files. Copy them to one of SI’s remote servers.”

Hours later, Tony was just finishing up the wiring assembly for the repulsor system when his computer dinged. Setting down the soldering gun, Tony rubbed his eyes tiredly and turned on his monitor to see what JARVIS had found. To his dismay, there were thousands of files on the Winter Soldier; as he scrolled down the list, he realized that they went back decades. “Fuck,” he said aloud as he looked at the dates and the file names, most of which were a string of letters and numbers that no doubt made sense to someone in Hydra but gave no clue as to what the file contained. He buried his head in his hands and tried not to cry at the enormity of the task in front of him. He was so tired that his eyes were blurry and his head was pounding, but every time he tried to close his eyes he kept seeing James’s body arching with pain and hearing his screams.

“Sir, it has been twelve hours and thirty-six minutes since you last ate,” JARVIS said. “And you’ve made four mistakes in the past fifteen minutes. You need to rest.”

“I have?” Tony pulled his magnifying glass back over to the circuit board and saw what JARVIS was talking about. “Shit. Alright, fine.” He pushed away from the desk and went to the bar sink next to the coffee pot and ran his head under cold water for a second. He came up and wiped his face and the back of his neck, shivering as water dripped from his hair down his back, and went upstairs to look for food. Leaving his work shop felt like he was crossing into hostile territory, like he could be attacked at any moment. And he could, he thought as he opened the refrigerator. Stane had made sure that he always had free access to Tony’s home, because a locked door meant secrets and the only secrets Hydra allowed were their own. He wished he could just walk away from this place, blow it up and find a place to live that Hydra had never stepped foot in, a place that would feel like it was his –

He froze with a jug of orange juice in his hand. He stood there, thoughts racing, for so long that the chiller on the refrigerator came on with a hum. Then Tony said “Huh” to the boxes of leftovers and absently shut the fridge door, OJ still in hand.

25 Days Ago

“JARVIS, this doesn’t make sense,” Tony said, rereading the file for the fifth time. “This thing is saying that the first Winter Soldier was James Barnes, but the current Winter Soldier is James Barnes.” It was hard to think that it was a clerical error, since the earliest files went back to the 1940s and consisted of paper files that had been scanned into a computer sometimes in the 80s. “Is it an alias? Are all Winter Soldiers called ‘James Barnes’ as a security precaution?”

“Facial pattern analysis indicates that it is the same James Barnes,” JARVIS said, and it flashed up an image that looked like a scanned-in polaroid; in it the man was unconscious on an operating table, face dirty and bloody and pale. Next to it JARVIS pulled up an image from Hydra’s own security footage of what the Soldier looked like without his goggles and mask on. There was a vague resemblance to Tony’s eyes, but as the facial recognition algorithm measured the features in each photograph, the conclusion was mathematically precise – there was a 99.7% chance that it was the same man in each photo.

Tony’s face went slack with shock. “How is that possible? He’d have to be almost 100 years old!”

“That part I don’t know, sir.”

“Holy shit.” Tony went back to the original file, reading it more carefully. “James Buchanan Barnes,” he read. “Born 1917. American POW.” He paused at that and sat back in his chair. “Why does that sound familiar?”

In response, JARVIS pulled up a Wikipedia page on Tony’s screen. As he read it, Tony was speechless; for a long moment, he flipped screens between the dead-eyed man from Hydra’s surveillance footage and the smiling man with his arm around Captain America, but this time he didn’t need JARVIS to tell him that it was the same man. The implications made his stomach turn, and as he stared at the screen he exhaled shakily and covered his mouth with his hands. 80 years. James Barnes had been in Hydra’s clutches for 80 years.

He stood suddenly, sending his chair rolling backwards. “We’re doing another flight test. Right now.” 80 years was already far too long, and Tony wasn't going to let it be one more day longer than it had to be.

19 Days Ago

“Tony!” Ms. Potts said with surprise. “I didn’t expect you in the office today.”

Probably because Tony had been dodging Stark Industries for a while now, only coming out of his lab long enough to get her to leave him alone before burying himself in work again. It had occurred to him as he got in his car to go to SI headquarters, blinking in the bright sunlight, that this was the first time he had been outside of the house since Stane’s forced excursion. “Yeah, I wanted to meet with you,” Tony said, shutting the door behind him.  He set a stack of papers in front of her as he sat down.

“What’s this?” She said, flipping through the papers. There was a line of confusion between her eyebrows which only deepened as she started reading them.

“I’m making you CEO of Stark Industries,” Tony said. “Effective two weeks from now. Should be an easy transition, you do most of my job anyway.” He grabbed a pin from her desk and clicked it, the sound loud in the sudden silence. “Sign on the highlighted line, please,” he added, holding the pen out to her, and despite everything he had to smile at the stunned look on her face.

  11 Days Ago

Tony put a hand on Rhodey’s arm and met his eyes, willing him to understand. “I’m saying that Afghanistan wasn’t a random attack,” he said urgently. “I think I was being targeted, and I think whoever did it might try again.” He palmed a thumb drive from his pocket and slid it across the table. In the Hydra files, JARVIS had found that a senator named Stern had been behind the Afghanistan attack, apparently trying to get Tony out of the way so that his good buddy Justin Hammer and his company Hammer Industries could take over SI's lucrative military contracts. There was all of that and more on here, just enough information that if Rhodey put all the threads together he would start getting the bigger picture. Pierce, the STRIKE teams, all of it. “If anything happens to me, I need you to finish what I’ve started.”

“Tony, if you are afraid for your life-“ Rhodey started, still looking dubious but starting to get alarmed.

“Not just me. You. Ms. Potts. Anyone I'm friends with. I can’t do anything to make these people suspicious,” Tony insisted. It was strange to feel like he was lying even though every word he’d said was true. “No unexplained bodyguards, no sudden trips, and absolutely no cops.”

“I don’t like this,” Rhodey said emphatically. “You’re asking me to sit back and wait to see if someone kills you!”

“I know what I’m doing,” Tony said. That part was a lie. He had a plan in the broadest definition of the word; mostly he was making it up as he went along and praying he could handle the fallout. “I need you to trust me.” Rhodey’s mouth was a grim line and his jaw was tight, and Tony knew he wasn’t convinced so he pulled out his trump card. “I can’t do this unless I know you are safe,” he said, lowering his voice and leaning forward. “I won’t risk you.” It took a long minute, and Rhodey looked like he was swallowing something unpleasant, but he finally nodded and put the thumb drive in his pocket. Tony exhaled and sagged with relief. “Thank you."

“When this is over, you better have a good damn explanation,” Rhodey said threateningly, and Tony barked out a humorless laugh.

“You won’t even believe me when you hear it.”

  8 Days Ago

After Tony hit save on the final design of the suit, he stumbled over to the couch and landed on it face first, exhausted. He was laying on the couch, eyes drifting shut as he went over his plan for the hundredth time trying to figure out if he’d missed anything when the lab went dark. “What the hell, JARVIS?”

“Sir, it’s been 56 hours since you last slept,” JARVIS said. “I’m turning off your systems for a minimum of twelve hours.” The light in the stairwell going up to the main floor turned on, its glow just enough to let Tony get from the couch to the door without running into anything.

Tony stayed stubbornly on the couch. “We don’t have twelve hours to waste,” he said. “Turn my power back on.”

The lights stayed off. “Sir, you are a hazard to yourself and others.” Tony scowled and wondered if he had actually programmed JARVIS like this or if he was channeling the man himself. "Also, there's nothing for you to do while I assemble the suit."

“Fine. Ten hours.”

“Ten hours," JARVIS repeated. "I will be monitoring the situation while you sleep,” he added, and Tony knew that he meant not just monitoring Stane and James, but also Tony’s vital signs to make sure he actually slept.

“You’re insufferable,” Tony accused as he made his way up the stairs.

“Yes, sir.”

 2 Days Ago

“Sir, there’s something you should see.”

Tony looked up from the fine-tuning he was doing on the suit’s shoulder-fired weapons to look at the computer screen. JARVIS had maximized the window where he was constantly monitoring Pierce’s communications and highlighted a text that had just been sent. It was to an unknown number and all it said was lvl 10, CovJer10131973 nlt 200810162200Z. The first part was clearly a target identifier and Tony knew enough about the military to recognize the latter as a date time group, set for five days from now. “Bring up the camera feed,” Tony said, and sure enough when Tony looked at the video surveillance of the room where James was kept, he could see that the lights in the room were on and a technician was already in the room powering on computers. They’d found out a while ago that what Tony had taken for a hyperbaric chamber was in fact a cryostasis chamber, which partly explained why James was almost a hundred years old but looked younger than Tony.

“Shit." Tony exhaled long and low, feeling his heart rate spike with nervousness. "How long it takes to thaw him out? Was that in his files?”

JARVIS was silent for a moment. “Evidence suggests approximately 24 hours from the time the procedure is first initiated,” he said.

“Right,” Tony said grimly, turning back to his work with a new urgency. “Guess it’s time.”

 Now

Tony flew north along the coast as his house collapsed into the Pacific Ocean behind him, throwing billowing clouds of dust and smoke into the air as carefully placed explosives reduced it to a smoking ruin. It was thrilling and terrifying to know that for all intents and purposes Tony Stark was sinking to the bottom of the ocean. He'd become a dead man after all, and now the only thing left was this suit and his mission: rescue the Winter Soldier then burn Hydra to the ground.

“Pull up James' video feed for me," Tony said as he flew. Since he was over water, he set the suit to autopilot and shifted his attention to the small window at the corner of his HUD.  James was out of the cryostasis chamber, sitting on a chair as a medical assistant appeared to be taking his vitals. Every now and then he shivered, still shirtless. Other technicians were milling around, tending to the computers, and standing guard were was two members of the STRIKE team, hands on their weapons as they kept an eye on him. His records had indicated that he was prone to ‘erratic violent outbursts,’ which Tony figured was code for “periodically tries to fight back.” Tony had actually been happy to read that, because it meant that Hydra hadn't managed to break him completely. Right now, though, James just seemed willing to numbly submit to whatever the technicians were doing, his long hair a curtain in front of his face as he stared at the floor.

“Sir, we are approaching the facility,” JARVIS said, and minimized the video. Tony flew lower to the water, navigating around the giant cargo ships at dock. Even for a twenty-four hour facility it was late, and there were only one or two ships that had people still unloading shipping containers. He landed close to the Hydra facility but out of the line of sight; he had managed to camouflage the suit to the best of his ability, but he couldn’t hide the bright lights of the repulsors so he made the rest of the approach on foot.

JARVIS’s scanners found four total guards around the building, patrolling in pairs. By sticking to the deep shadows cast by the stacked shipping containers and the orange-yellow glow of the sodium-vapor security lights, Tony got within hearing distance and hit them with a pulse of high-pitched wave frequency. They both stiffened and fell over, paralyzed, helmets bouncing off the pavement hard enough to knock them unconscious. Tony bound them with their own zip ties and hid them out of sight, then used his backdoor access to the security system to unlock the doors and set all the surveillance cameras on a one hour loop. As he strode through the door into the lab, all eyes turned to face him, and before anyone could even speak there was a brrrt noise and they fell to the floor, killed by the precision targeting system Tony had built into his suit.

When JARVIS confirmed they were all dead, Tony took off the helmet and looked down at one of the bodies; the one closest to him had been here a month ago, monitoring James’ vitals as they wiped his mind. This was the first time Tony had killed anyone and he expected to feel..something, sad or upset or even vindictive, but he didn’t really feel anything. It all felt too easy, and Tony knew it was because he had designed a suit that had made it that easy. All the more reason that Hydra couldn't be allowed to get their hands on it.

James was still sitting in the chair, watching Tony as he approached; he hadn’t even gone for cover as everyone around him had died. Tony wondered if it was out of surprise or indifference. “Do you know me?” He asked, coming to stand in front of him. James studied his features for a moment and shook his head. “My name is Tony Stark. You are James Buchanan Barnes, and I am here to rescue you.” Tony offered him a hand to get to his feet, but James didn’t move, he just stared at Tony with those glacier blue eyes. There wasn't blankness in them now, only a narrow-eyed look of consideration. “Come on,” Tony tried again. “We’re escaping. We have to hurry before more people show up.”

James didn’t move. “There is no escape from Hydra. The only way out is-”

“Death, I know.” Tony kept his hand out but gestured expressively around the room with the other. “But they never said whose death.”

James studied him again, then turned his gaze to the dead bodies. Finally, after a long moment, he took Tony’s hand and let him pull him to his feet.

#tony stark #Bucky Barnes #tony x bucky #winteriron

[oscars-wifeyyy]

Chapter 4 (The Innocent)

Masterlist

Halloween finally came around and traditional shut in was happening at Ruby’s, like usual, and the crew was there, sans Cesar. Monse, Jamal, and Elizabeth were in costume while Olivia was getting into hers inside her room. Monse was a lifeguard, Jamal was a hospital patient, Elizabeth was Harley Quinn from the Suicide Squad, and Ruby was a vampire.

“Eighty-six the chat and focus,” Ruby interrupted the talking, “this is gonna be our best shut in ever. But we have to follow protocol,”

“Dude, we know the drill,” Elizabeth rolled her eyes.

“This year’s gonna be different. It’s not about our survival. It’s about Olivia. There was magic in our first dance,” Ruby sighed.

“Have you guys been to Brentwood?” Jamal asked from the dining table.

“I haven’t, J,” Elizabeth turned to face him.

“My parents are out so I set up touch control LED lighting,” Ruby turned the lights on, “Bordello Red. Nightmare on Elm Street us gonna get Olivia scared…” Ruby sat on the couch, “a little lappy,”

“You know that’s creepy, right?” Monse asked.

“One step ahead of you,” Ruby grabbed the blanket over the couch, “little cover in case of wood,”

“Speaking of wood, Brentwood sounds kind of fun,” Jamal tried to get his ideas on the table.

Elizabeth looked around at the couches, “where is Cesar sitting?”

“In Oscar’s Impala,” Ruby replied.

“He’s not coming? Why? It’s tradition,” Monse rushed out.

“Who cares?” Ruby shrugged.

The door busted open and Cesar walked into the house, “shut in!”

“B-but I thought you were with Oscar?” Ruby stuttered, looking horrified at the sight of his best friend in the house.

“Good to see you too,” Cesar smiled sarcastically.

“Nice costume, Julius,” Elizabeth chuckled as the two did their own handshake.

“No, it’s fine. It’s just…”Ruby sighed, “take a seat, any seat,” Cesar moved to sit on the loveseat, but Ruby quickly shoved him away, “not the loveseat and don’t block my scented candle,”

Olivia walked out of her room with her costume on, “What do you think?”

Ruby looked stunned and grabbed the blanket, “that looks nice,”

“When are we going out?” the new girl asked the group.

“Never. Trick or treating in Freeridge is a no go,” Ruby said.

“Why?”

“You might wanna sit down. I’ll be brief,” Ruby sat down on the loveseat with Olivia, “In 2012, Prohets rolled up on us. Glocks to our head and snatched our bags. 2013, we were kissing pavement all night. Caught in a drive-by. That night we lost our candy and perhaps out innocence,”

“Can we talk?” Monse asked Cesar.

“I’m good,” Cesar responded.

Elizabeth grabbed both of their arms and pulled them to the hallway, “listen here, estupidos. Y’all are going to talk and chop it up. Bye, I need to piss,”

By the time she got back, she realized that they were going to Brentwood for Halloween, but she wasn’t complaining because they gave out big candy bars. Abuelita came in and ushered the kids inside her car so she could drive them to Brentwood. After the hour drive, they arrived at sun down and the kids were exiting.

“Buena suerte,” Abuelita smiled at the kids.

“We don’t need luck,” Ruby chuckled, “It’s Brentwood. Nothing bad happens here,”

“How about OJ?” Cesar brought up, “no offense, Jamal,”

“Oh, I’m good. We don’t claim him,”

“So, we should be ready around ten,” Ruby leaned in the window.

“Good for you, but I have plans,” Abuelita said, driving off.

The six turned towards the neighborhood, “we are not in Freeride anymore,”

“We have lots of ground to cover, so to maximize candy efficiency, let’s divide and conquer then split our booty,” Jamal faced the crew.

“Great idea. Olivia and I will go this way. Meet back here at 10?” Ruby dragged Olivia in one direction.

“Jamal,” Cesar and Monse said together.

“On second thought, I’ll go with Eli,” Cesar walked to Elizabeth.

The crew split ways and once Elizabeth and Cesar were out of earshot from the crew she started asking Cesar questions, “wassup with you and Monse?”

“The night of homecoming, Monse said that I wasn’t safe,” Cesar sighed, “it sucks because it’s true,”

“Salad, I know it hurt when she said that, but give her time,” Elizabeth wrapped an arm around him, “after all you are a new Santo and she never dated one either,”

“You’re probably right,” Cesar smiled, “What’s up with you and my brother?”

“We are...getting closer,” Elizabeth cheesed really hard, “I told him about my dad and he took me to a pretty special place.

“You told him about tu papa?” Cesar asked, shocked with the fact that she opened up to Oscar that much, “well I hope you guys work,”

“Yeah, but I don’t know how to do these things, like relationships and whatnot,” Elizabeth stressed, “I’ve never done this, but I’m starting it with this big bad gang leader,”

“I would tell you, but obviously mine isn’t going so great,” Cesar laughed.

“Headass,” Elizabeth laughed and caught sight of a familiar boy and girl, “ain’t that Ruby and Olivia?”

Cesar turned and saw the two, “yeah. Let’s go catch up,”

When the two finally caught up, they caught sight of the party across the street.

“You know what would be crazy cool?” Olivia asked Ruby, “if we crash that party,” she pointed at the house across the street.

“I don’t know. They look like the’re at capacity. We don’t wanna create a fire hazard,” Ruby stared at the house.

Elizabeth face palmed, but went to the two, “what’s up, guys! Olivia, if you could excuse us a second? Thank you,” “Compa,” Cesar looked at the short friend, “you need to not be you,”

“Me? What’s wrong with me?” Ruby looked at the two of them confused.

Cesar pointed to Elizabeth who started talking in a weird voice, “‘I don’t know. They look like the’re at capacity. We don’t wanna create a fire hazard,’ dude, be outside Ruben,”

“Take her to the party,” Cesar walked back to Olivia.

Ruby followed, “New plan. Let’s tear that party up!”

Ten minutes later into the party, Ruby was coming back to the group with a plate full of food and an excited expression on his face. He went to the couch where most of the crew was sitting at, “everyone here is so friendly. I told someone I was from Freeridge and got major props. Hood must be trending,” Ruby held out the plate out to Olivia, “here’s some napkins and lemon wedges,”

“You’re so thoughtful and always such a gentleman,” Olivia smiled.

“Gentleman, scholar, and a damn good swimmer too,” Cesar tried to hype Ruby up, but was going above and beyond.

Olivia handed the plate to Cesar, “Excuse me, it’s time for my adventure to find the restroom and wait in a long line,”

“I’ll come with,” Elizabeth smiled at the new girl.

“Awesome! Let’s go,” the two walked to find the restroom, “so, anyone special?”

Elizabeth chuckled, “maybe. I don’t know, we’re kinda just taking it slow,”

“Is it Cesar? You guys seem close,” Olivia looked down.

Elizabeth couldn’t help, but laugh, “definitely not. He’s just a friend, nothing more! However, this person that I’m taking it slow with is close with Cesar,”

The two finally arrived at the bathroom and paused the conversation until after Olivia was done using the restroom. After a few minutes, she emerged from the restroom and the two decided to go find something to drink and arrived in the kitchen, looking through the fridge, while Elizabeth settled with a soda in a bin.

“Is he in the group?” Olivia smiled big.

“Nope,” Elizabeth smirked, “you’re not gonna know, but I feel like you’re gonna end up finding out soon so I guess just wait,”

The two laughed when they made their way back to the boys, but saw a group of white boys talking to them. Elizabeth sat next to Cesar while Olivia stood next to her.

“Hey,” Olivia smiled.

The white boy dressed as a cholo saw the juice in her hand, “Where’d you get that?”

“From the fridge,” 

“That’s my mom’s pressed juice,”

“Oh, I’m sorry,” Olivia started.

“She’s on a cleanse,” the white boy stressed, “she knows exactly how many bottles there are,”

“I had no idea. I just wanted a drink and I just assumed…” Olivia got cut off.

“What? That you could just go in and take it? There are drinks everywhere. There’s a whole bin of soda right there. You should have been smart like your… very sexy friend here,” white boy winked at Elizabeth who rolled her eyes, “why were you in the fridge?”

“I was thirsty. It’s just juice. It’s not a big deal,” Olivia shuffled her feet.

“Don’t tell me what’s a big deal, ok? Do people go into your house and take stuff out of your fridge?” The white boy asked the underprivileged kids.

“Yes,” the group said.

“What the hell is wrong with you people?” the white boy chuckled.

“Hold up,” Elizabeth stood up and towards the white boy, “you people?”

“Hey, just let it go,” Cesar held Elizabeth’s arm, but she shook it off.

“No, I’m not letting shit go. This white boy wants to be a little racist shit,” Elizabeth glared at the boy in front of her.

“Don’t you have any respect?” the white boy glared

“Dice que el gringo se viste como un cholo,” Elizabeth stood her ground.

“Excuse me, hoe? Excuse me?” the white boy stepped closer to Elizabeth.

“We don’t want any problems,” Cesar stood and moved to stand next to the hot headed girl.

“Exactly,” Ruby interfered, “I got her. How much is the juice?” Ruby started pulling out his wallet.

“Ok,” the white boy nodded, “fifty two dollars a bottle and twenty dollars each for all the food and drinks you had,”

“We don’t have that kind of money on us,” Olivia said.

“Of course you don’t,” The white boy said.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Olivia glared.

“Just stating the obvious,” the white boy sarcastically smiled at Olivia then turned to Elizabeth, “how about you stay and I can show you a real man?”

“Now you’re just being a dick,” Olivia seethed.

“Dude, control your bitch,” white boy said to Ruby.

“You better apologize,” Cesar stood up to the white boy.

“Nah, he doesn’t have to apologize,” Elizabeth winked at Elizabeth.

“Exactly, gorgeous. How are we gonna settle up?” the white boy smirked.

“Like this,” Olivia said, opening the bottle and spilling it all over the floor.

The four soon ran as a person came up to them and handed the white boy and his group eggs. Eggs started being thrown and hit the four people as they ran farther away from the house with the group following. They ran into Jamal and Monse so they quickly told them to run, but it was too late when eggs were thrown at them as well. After a few more minutes of running, the crew stopped running and started trying to figure out how they were gonna get back, but Elizabeth caught sight of Cesar focused on his phone.

“Whatcha doing, compa?” Elizabeth asked Cesar.

“Askin’ your novio to come and handle it,” Cesar turned to the group, “don’t get a Lyft. It’s handled,” everyone except Monse looked confused, “it’s handled,”

Ten minutes later, Cesar and Elizabeth walked up to the house party and towards the white boy cholo. They met at the top step of the lawn and faced off.

“You want some more?” The white boy asked Cesar, but he didn’t respond, “you think you’re hard, ok. As for you, gorgeous, you come back to let me show you a man?”

“No I didn’t, gringo,” Elizabeth rolled her eyes.

“I’m not, but he is,” Cesar looked back as the familiar Impala stopped in front of the house.

Oscar got out of the car and towards them as the music stopped and everyone looked scared. The Santo walked up to Elizabeth and held her chin to inspect her face and looked down to check out her body, “haces daño, bebé? Nice costume, too,”

“Yo estoy muy bien. simplemente hacer lo que tienes que hacer y vamos a ir,” Elizabeth crossed her arm as yolk ran down her cheek.

Oscar kissed Elizabeth’s cheek and wiped off the yolk before walking up to the white boy. He looked at his face before licking his thumb, wiping off the tear tattoo, and copied the action on his own, but his didn’t come off.

“This shit’s real,” Oscar glared.

“What do you want?” The white boy whimpered.

Oscar looked at Cesar who responded, “all of your pressed juices, candy, and an apology to Elizabeth,”

Those words caught Oscar’s attention, “what did you do to my girl, cabron?”

“Nothing, man,” the white boy stuttered, “boys, get what they asked already!”

“Boy, if you don’t stop lying,” Elizabeth glared at the boy, “didn’t you call me a hoe? Don’t back up now when an actual man steps up. You say you could show me a real man, right? Where is he now?”

“I-I-I’m s-sorry,”

Elizabeth rolled her eyes, but nodded before throwing her fist at his face and watched as he fell back on his butt with a mouthful of blood. His group walked back out with all the stuff and quickly shoved it into their awaiting arms.

Oscar laughed at the boy silently crying at the punch before leaning down, “so where is the real man? I’m curious to see how you could handle a baddie like her pero we ain’t gonna know,”

The group was now piling into the back of Oscar’s Impala with their own arms full of the things that were given while Cesar sat in the front with Elizabeth in between them.

“Where to, hermanito?” Oscar asked Cesar.

“Ruby’s” Cesar said.

The ride was quiet and after tonight’s events, Elizabeth was tired as she yawned and felt her eyes close when she felt something touch her left thigh, but she didn’t mind, knowing it was Oscar who laid his hand on it. She slowly drifted off as her head lolled to Oscar’s shoulder after a right turn and soft snores filled the air with the music playing softly in the background.

“Aye, anyone of you, grab the flannel that’s there somewhere and give it to Cesar,” the freshmen in the back shuffled fast and quickly handed it to Cesar, “Cesar, lay it on her pero don’t wake her up,”

Half an hour later, they were in front of Ruby’s house and Elizabeth felt the stop so she opened her eyes with a groan. Her eyes caught sight of Ruby’s house and saw the position she was in causing her cheeks to grow ablaze and quickly got out of the car to let the crew out while Oscar smirked at the girl, but saw the red on her knuckles. Monse left shortly after leaving the crew to go inside and Elizabeth was about to make her way inside, but Oscar called out to her.

“Eli! Get back inside. I’m gonna take you home,”

Elizabeth shrugged and went back inside the car. They drove in silence and arrived at Oscar’s house, but Elizabeth was confused.

“What are we doing here?” Elizabeth asked the man.

“I gotta patch you up, mamita,” Oscar grabbed her bruised hand and held it up, “now get your ass inside,”

“Bossy much?” Elizabeth rolled her eyes, but a smile emerged onto her lips.

The two got inside and Oscar led her into the bathroom, lifting her up so she could sit on the counter. He shuffled through the cabinet to get the first aid kit as Elizabeth sat patiently while swinging her legs back and forth. Finally, Oscar got the kit and took her hand after he doused a cotton pad with alcohol to clean her knuckles before wrapping it in gauze to prevent infections. Elizabeth smiled at his gentle touch, but it didn’t get past Oscar when he looked up.

“Que?” Oscar raised an eyebrow.

“Nada,” Elizabeth shrugged, “it’s just Spooky got a soft touch for a gang leader,”

“Callate, pendeja,” Oscar scoffed, “it’s only ‘cause it’s you,”

“Oh my God,” Elizabeth put her uninjured hand on her chest, above her heart, “the Spooky is becoming soft because of me,”

The two just stared before laughing at the impersonation of the hormonal women that were afraid of him, but still swooned over his beauty. After they were done, Cesar walked in looking stressed, but Elizabeth pushed it aside, thinking it was over Monse. Oscar was staring at the girl that was in front of him when her eyes closed due to the events from that night.

“Are your parents gonna be home tonight?” Oscar asked.

Elizabeth shook her head, “my mom picked up double shifts,”

Oscar nodded, picking the small girl up causing her to wrap her legs around him so she didn’t fall on her ass. He walked the two of them into his room and plopped her onto the bed before taking off his tank top before laying down next to her. The two laid next to each other in complete silence until they let their eyes closed and their bodies give way to the sleepy feeling.

@lostgirl219​  @love-me-91393​

#on my block #Oscar Diaz #oscar spooky diaz #oscar diaz imagine #oscar diaz x reader #oscar diaz imagines #spooky diaz #spooky diaz x reader #spooky diaz imagines #spooky diaz imagine #julio macias #julio macias fanfic #julio macias fanfiction #cesar diaz #monse finnie #Jamal Turner #ruby martinez

[coreastories]

A Drive Around the Coast

Well, several drives.

They go on a trip.

Like normal people, they get to know--and love--more about each other. 

The King: Eternal Monarch RPF (Real People Fiction) Yep, this is LMH/KGE. Don’t worry. No cringe. Never. :) 

Inspired by July 13 - My Love By My Side

Extended MEGA version of Twitter thread fic I posted on July 13

With thanks to Joyce @singersleeps on Twitter and RCL. On July 16, she shared her translation of the Weibo speculative posts that in turn inspired how I could extend the thread fic I originally posted July 13 on Twitter. 

For @collectsfallenstars and Patty @pateetsie again, because RPF shenanigans, and just because. 

Companion to A Ride Along the River, but can standalone. 

ON AO3 for kudos and download :) 

July 9

He was such a tall tree man that when she got into the driver’s seat, she fully stretched her legs and her feet just thumped uselessly on the car floor. She couldn’t reach the pedals at all. 

He laughed his weird laugh while he adjusted the seat for her. 

Once he had put on his seatbelt and the van passed them, she started the car and followed. 

They were on a coastal road now and everyone’s business was to drive along it, so both of them felt safe enough to open their windows. They grinned at each other at the delicious wind that buffeted their hair and faces. 

It was so good. She felt so good. 

She handed him her phone and she pursed her lips and tried not to smile when he expertly navigated it, and in another second, the speakers played exactly the song she had in mind for a drive like this, with someone like this, on a trip like this, in a life like theirs. 

She realized he was looking at her to see if he’d done right, and she scrunched her nose and smiled. Without taking her eyes off the windshield, she reached for his hand, and it was already there waiting to catch hers. 

Sometimes their sync scared her. Or was it how he was so attuned to what she wanted? She had never felt so carefully... observed. He observed her. Out of the corner of his eye or with both those beautiful eyes, he saw and catalogued everything. 

And when all this began it had made her feel conscious of what he saw and whether he liked it. 

And apparently he did. Everything about her. Her truest self. She hadn’t hidden anything, to test him, to test herself, and he’d passed every test. 

So now she was well beyond the point of being conscious and well into the territory of getting used to it and loving it. 

He flipped the visor for her just as the angle of the afternoon sun started poking her in the eyes.

He offered her a sip of water just when she felt a little parched.  

He reached across her waist to shut all the windows just when she felt the wind start to bite and sting. 

This time, she turned to him with an eyeroll. “I could have done that.” 

“You didn’t have to. I can do all the buttons for you.” 

It took three seconds. Then he realized the ridiculousness of what he said. The lip bite came first. Then the grin. Then the laughter. 

She kept both hands on the wheel, trying to keep her eyes open as she shook with her own giggling. His hand was on her shoulder, keeping her upright because her body was curving over toward the dashboard. 

She ended up pulling over because her fit of giggles refused to stop. 

He was still chuckling, probably more at her laughter now. She felt him put her ball cap on her head, put his on, and then she saw him climb out and round the car to her door. She opened it herself but she was still too far gone to do much else.  

She had both hands over her cheeks now, alternately covering and fanning her face as she tried to calm down. He gently grabbed both wrists and pulled her up and out of the car. 

The wind helped. The change in temperature helped. His closeness helped. She took a deep breath and she was done. 

The visors of their ball caps collided and dovetailed as he peered down at her face. “It wasn’t that funny.”

This just triggered another giggling fit and she pretty much collapsed against him with her hands sliding from his chest to his waist so she could hold on to his hoodie and not fall to her knees. 

He held her and laughed a little again, rubbing her back a bit. “What?” 

She took deep breaths. When she was sure that answering wouldn’t make her giggle again, she said, “I… I remember the… the... button scene. You know…”

“Ahh.” And he grinned. 

“Yeah.” She ducked her head because he was looking at her intently and-- just when she thought she was getting used to it, he always managed to show her she was still not used to it. Would she ever be? His gaze was so intense, so unbelievable, because it made her feel like all he saw was her.  

He twisted her ball cap on her head, and once she was visible to that gaze, he said, “Our first kiss.” 

Almost on instinct as a defense, she said, “That wasn’t us.” 

He blinked. “Oh. Right. So when was it us then?” 

She looked up at him and realized, after all their text messages and phone calls, that they’d never talked about this yet. 

Instead of pressing in that direction, he pushed her gently in another-- toward the car. “Let’s get you back in the car. It’s getting a bit cold. I’ll drive now.” 

“But I only drove for an hour.” He had already driven the two hours from Seoul to their meeting point. 

“You drove a bit more than that.” He gestured for her to get into the passenger side. “I think we’re less than thirty minutes away now.” He adjusted the seat before getting in. 

Only when he was seated did she drop back in. She took off her ball cap and tossed it to the back seat, where it joined his. The caps sat bill to bill like they were having their own dialogue. 

She faced him just as he started the car. “It was me when we kissed by the window.” 

And she was glad the sun was going down, because she felt her cheeks burning. 

He maneuvered the car back onto the road. As soon as they were cruising again, he turned to her for a bit and reached for her hand. And she loved it that whenever he did that, his eyes always sought hers first. For permission. Or maybe he just really enjoyed turning her to mush by making contact with his eyes before making contact with his hand. Or with his lips. 

She really was thankful it was getting dark, especially when he said what he said next.  

“It was me when we kissed by the bed.”

He squeezed her hand. 

July 10

She was sitting in the passenger seat on her side, clutching her middle. The lights from the street lamps showed him she was grimacing a little. 

“I think I ate too much.” 

He grinned. “They served too much.” He cursed when he hit a random pothole. “Sorry about that. You okay?”

Her expression and position hadn’t changed. He was afraid that would unsettle her currently full stomach. Apparently not. She really was made of sterner stuff. All she said was, “Let’s not have bibimbap again while on this trip. Not like that anyway. How many side dishes was it? I lost count.” 

He laughed. He remembered how well she ate. He loved that she loved food and had no compunction about eating with enthusiasm, wherever she happened to be. They’d booked a dining room at the restaurant so it was just them and their teams, so she probably felt at home. But he had seen her eat with everyone else before. She was consistent with everyone, everywhere. 

Her unchanging character was what intrigued and charmed him when he finally met the person behind those magnificent and diverse roles. 

“I’ll grill meat tomorrow. The guys got fresh fish and ojing-eo and saeu, too.” 

“That sounds awesome,” she said, carefully sitting up and adjusting her seatbelt across her body. “Is it weird to fantasize about food when I’m still about to burst from food?”

He laughed again. She could always make him laugh. “No.”  

“You lost weight during the shoot too, right?”

He nodded. “About eight pounds, I think. You?”

“About the same. Do you want ice cream?” 

She was smiling as the light of the convenience store fluorescent lamps filled the car. He pulled over, shaking his head and grinning. She flitted out of the car fast-- for someone with a heavy stomach-- and he wondered if she should have put her ball cap on. But sometimes being in plain sight helped better than any attempt to hide. People didn’t expect you to be bare-faced if you really were a celebrity. 

And it was a godsend that everyone wore masks right now. 

She came back to the car and he didn’t need to ask her if anything happened. She was usually blushing and a little unsettled when she was recognized. She was shy. Eight years in the industry and she still blushed when she was at the center of attention off-camera. 

But now she neither blushing nor rattled. Just excited with her loot. 

He started the car and they ate ice cream. She fed him as he drove, and he pretended nonchalance that he was sharing her plastic spoon. 

That was new. 

Another new thing to add to the list so far. 

Sharing a blanket when they were all hanging out together. 

Good night kisses before they went to their separate rooms with the team-- girls and boys together. (No funny business on this trip-- he took care of his people).  

Her hand playing with his hair and ear when he laid his head on her lap.

The cute way she nodded when he agreed with what he or anyone else said. 

The silken softness of the skin where her back met her nape, when he lost thought one time she sat by his leg while he was on the couch, and he didn’t realize where his hand had gone and stayed. 

She must have felt him freeze, because before he could casually remove his hand, hers was there on his wrist, stroking and patting his arm, before letting go and going back to strumming the guitar on her lap. 

He moved his hand to her shoulder, but his thumb was stubborn and stayed glued to that new delicious place. 

July 11

He leaned back on the passenger seat and closed his eyes, but he was grinning. She took her hand off the wheel for a second to poke him at his side. He dodged the second poke and caught her hand. 

“What?” he asked, eyes still closed. 

“Did you really not plan that? They just also happened to be here?” 

“Yep.”

“I don’t believe you.” But she was smiling. It was so good to see the girls. The three of them hadn’t really gotten the chance to spend more time together during filming, but both women had become close friends. One she shared an agency with, and the other was such a nice and warm unnie. 

He had driven them to the bay today, with their staff staying behind at the villa, completely off the hook for their own plans. The bay was a perfect, secluded place for a sunset walk, and her heart recognized the romance of it and was thrilled at it. 

And then she saw two people approaching them, crossing the sandbar, waving and calling out annyeong. 

They had dinner right there, on a blanket on the sand, wrapping meat and sides in sangchu as fast as they talked, catching up with each other as the sun set before them. 

And throughout all that, he had sat slightly behind her, his back perpendicular to hers, so that whenever she leaned back she had something to lean on, and whenever her hand rested on the blanket, it was beside his, their fingers touching or overlapping. 

He let the women talk. He asked and answered questions, but for the most part, he let them talk. At some point he even leaned on her, so her instinct had been to lean back on him, and they stayed like that, until it got too dark and they packed up everything with the light of their phones. 

She and the girls had promised to meet again in Seoul. Her mind was already buzzing on how exactly to get that done. 

But she was also completely, entirely in awe of the man napping--or pretending to nap-- beside her as she drove his car. She hadn’t expected this sunset to turn out like this, with new friends she’d sorely missed. 

But then he always did surprise her. Not always in big ways like this one. But in quiet, small ways. 

Like how he always got embarrassed when their teams teased them. 

And how he intently listened to her all the time and looked surprised sometimes, even with his uncanny ability to intuit what was on her mind and what she needed or wanted. 

Or how he never assumed she would give him anything-- whether it was her hand, a kiss, or her head on his shoulder. 

Earlier on the blanket was the same. He had offered to be there for her to lean on, but he hadn’t pushed. He had this ability to get close to her without invading her space. 

Or was that her? Was he simply welcome now, his touch and presence beside her something she now wanted that it was never an intrusion in the first place?  

She leaned back on her seat, extended and locked her left elbow as she held the wheel with one hand, and looked at him again. 

She was almost startled when his eyes opened and looked at her. Almost. 

Because over the last few days, she had gotten used to him meeting her gaze. And holding it. 

Of course she couldn’t lock eyes with him just now because she was driving but she felt her lips turning up in a smile. 

She glanced at him again, and when he saw her smile, he grinned that boyish grin, reached out and took her free hand in his. 

“Did you have fun today?” 

She nodded.

“And my grilling is five-star, right?”

He laughed. 

Just to mess with him even though he did grill so well, she wrinkled her nose. “You’re pushing it.” 

She was in danger of loving that silly laugh too much. 

July 12 

They’d fallen asleep on the living room couch. 

Every single one of them was a little or a lot drunk. And judging from the blanketed lumps scattered around the living area, every single one of them hadn’t made it to the bedrooms either. 

He was on his back on the long white couch, his arm around her, securing her against him as she lay half on the sofa and half on him, her head fitting perfectly against his shoulder and neck. Her arm was around his waist, her leg thrown over his thigh. 

She sang last night. And he could still hear her singing voice in his head. 

She was an angel. And he couldn’t believe his good luck in meeting her, knowing her, and now holding her like this. 

With just a small movement, his lips reached her forehead, and he kissed her there. 

He closed his eyes again. 

She felt that kiss and smiled to herself, tightening her arm around him and relishing how warm and solid he was. She could feel nothing but space behind her back and beyond his hold, but she felt safe in his arms. He wouldn’t let her fall off the couch. 

After all, he had kept her secure while they were both on a horse. He hadn’t allowed her to be forced into anything she wasn’t comfortable with, even a tiny thing like calling him “oppa” in public. He had always… always made her feel safe. He was her sunbae and now he was… 

He was an angel. He was kind and he was funny and he was a dork and he made her heart race and made her feel at peace at the same time. 

With just a small movement, her lips reached his jaw, and she kissed him there. 

She closed her eyes again. 

This was their last day here. Maybe they could prolong it by sleeping. 

July 13

She was asleep, her legs tucked under her, both feet at her hip, the shape of her toes discernible through her yellow socks.

Her cheek was slightly squished where it rested on her shrimp neck pillow.

And he catalogued these details, these mundane details, because he was driving.

But when the lights turned red, he stopped the car and looked his fill of the details that stole his breath away, no matter how many times he'd already seen them before.

Those lips, slightly open, pink, and unadorned with any artificial color.

Their script had never called for him to touch those lips, he just did. And he had clung to the thought that it was because he was dedicated to his craft, and Lee Gon couldn't possibly NOT touch those lips when he kissed her. 

But HE couldn't either.

It was-- he was fascinated that she never had any artifice, especially on those lips, which in all the time he'd known her had never uttered a single word he couldn't like or adore.

If she wasn't saying respectful, thoughtful, or generous things, she was laughing or smiling.

Laughter that always made him laugh. Smiles that stuck to the back of his eyelids so that he saw them even when he was away from her. Just the thought of it made him smile right now. 

He pursed his lips, but his grin was too persistent, unstoppable, not when she was right there.

She stirred and scratched her nose. His eyes followed her hand as it went back to join the other on her lap. 

He loved those hands, too. 

Soft, and brave, because those hands never shied away from handling anything she thought worth the effort.

Including him. Apparently, she thought he was worthy, because here she was beside him.

And nothing else mattered. 

Everything else could be finessed.

But in the meantime, she was on a furlough before the mad rush of winter.

They had months, or realistically, weeks together. 

Or practically, perhaps days and nights scattered here and there. 

They'd be busy. So busy.

But they’d just spent four blissful days together. He had seen so much of her to fill his mind on their days apart. 

And in the meantime, she was right there beside him, sleeping and slightly... 

...slightly snoring. 

He grinned. He'd tease her about that later. And she'd probably punch him.

He loved those hits and punches. 

Like the image of her smiles, those punches gave him solid ground, made him think, anchored him to wisdom. 

He wasn't going to make mistakes this time.

He took her hand and waited for the light to change.

And then they were at the park, and her car was pulling up beside his. He squeezed her hand to wake her up. 

She saw her car the same moment she opened her eyes. 

“Oh.” 

She looked at him. He didn’t know what she saw. He hoped he didn’t look pathetic and woebegone. He tried to smile, but she had already taken off her seatbelt, already crossed the console, and already gently taking his cheeks in her hands. 

And then she was kissing him, and his arms were going around her, pulling her tight against him. She melted against his embrace and he loved the way her cheeks stroked his when she hid her face against his shoulder. 

He turned his head and pressed his lips against her neck. “I’ll talk to you later?”

She nodded against him. 

She kissed his cheek. He kissed hers. And then they were smiling at each other. “I’ll talk to you later,” she repeated. 

He hugged her again and it was her turn to nod against her hair. 

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