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the-bau-quinjet · 3 years

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Summary: Steve thinks you’re too young to like him despite the obvious hints you’re dropping.

Warnings: unspecified age gap

Word count: 2246

a/n: I’ve clearly spent too much time on TikTok recently, but inspired me to write something so that's good. It was loosely based on a request for a young reader x Steve, but I forgot part of the request so I'm gonna write something else for that one! Also, I wrote this on my phone so please excuse any typos I missed when trying to edit it lol

Masterlist

Messing with Steve is one of your favorite things to do. Tiny pranks, over the top flirting, poking fun at his lack of understanding of technology. Anything you can do to get him to roll his eyes and chuckle.

Nat would say it’s because of your feelings for him. She would be correct. Not that you’d ever admit that to anyone. Nope. So instead, you have your fun, and enjoy the way his eyes crinkle and his cheeks redden.

Your newest method of hearing the sweet sound of Steve’s laugh? TikTok. It’s a double whammy. One because he doesn’t understand the app and two because a lot of the trends make him blush.

It started as a fun way to blow off steam. Sometimes, being one of the younger and newer team members made you feel like an outsider. Of course, Peter was younger than you, but he had his own friends outside of the team. You didn’t have anyone else. When Tony found you and invited you to join, it was you against the world. Now you have this makeshift family.

Having your account on TikTok helped you when you hadn’t really become a part of the group yet. You bonded with Peter because of his account, and you found a new way to make Steve blush.

Anyway, you’ve learned way more TikTok dances than you ever would have thought just to see his pink cheeks. It’s not even always over the top dances that have him chuckling. The last trend you did had him laughing the entire day. It was that sound about Wednesday Adams having one thing on her mind. Only when it said homicide, instead of a deadpan expression you panned the camera to show Bucky and Sam arguing over who got the last donut.

Of course, you knew when you made the video it would appeal to Steve’s sense of humor. Sam and Bucky feature in a lot of your videos for that exact reason.

In general, you make a lot of videos featuring the Avengers just to keep Tony happy. He likes to be the center of attention, plus the only way he would approve of your account was if it could also feature as PR for the team. You agreed, as long as you had final say over what you posted. There’s nothing scripted or designed for a specific reason, you just feature the team sometimes.

Like when that sound from the Big Bang theory was popular amongst Avengers fans, you made a video confessing to Pepper that you’d been thinking about the Avengers, panning to show the team during training.

Of course, the text on the screen said “you are an Avenger” instead of “I believe that”, allowing you to play off the joke. But still, it was fun to include the team.

One of your favorite videos features none other than Scott Lang, mostly because nobody else would do it. Scott thought it was hilarious though.

Using the sound from New Girl, Scott played Schmidt and you Jess. The text on the screen read as follows:

Scott: You just walk around all day thinking about America’s Ass?

You: Yeah, don’t you?

Scott: No! How do you get anything done?

You: It’s hard…

Steve blushed like crazy when everyone cornered him to watch it. Bucky, Sam, and Tony wouldn’t stop bringing it up for at least a month. A part of you hoped he might make a move after that video, seeing as you put yourself out there, but he just assumed it was a joke and laughed it off.

Honestly, you were running out of trends that you could use to get him to understand your feelings. You only had two ideas left, and one of them would be mortifying if it didn’t work out…

“Steve. You’ve got to be kidding me.” Bucky sighed, exasperated with Steve for the umpteenth time that month. “You’ve been pining for forever, just make a move!” he whisper yelled, doing his best not to throttle his lifelong friend.

Steve rolled his eyes, purposefully ignoring Bucky’s pointed glare. The two men had spent the last hour looking through your TikTok account. Bucky was adamant that you liked Steve, but the blonde didn’t believe it, despite the so called proof Bucky kept forcing him to watch.

“Buck, would you please just back off? We’re friends. She’s too young to want to be with me like that.” Steve blushed, thinking about the context of his words.

Before Bucky could say anything about how repressing his feelings is bad for him, a new video popped up on your account. Bucky smirked when he saw the thumbnail was once again a picture of Steve, this time with a beard. Steve took the silence as an opportunity to escape, walking into his closet to change.

The video opened with a video of you and Natasha just hanging out, you lip syncing to the words “I like you have a cupcake.” You repeated the words as the video cut to you and Tony.

Bucky nearly dropped the phone when “smack my ass like a drum” blared from the speaker. He cackled bending over in a fit of laughter when he realized that’s what Steve’s picture was used for- and one where he had a beard to boot.

“What is it now, jerk?” Steve emerged from his closet, having changed into loungewear. The sight of Bucky fully cackling had him nervous.

Bucky tossed him the phone, doing his best to stop laughing long enough to tell him to watch the most recent video. With a hesitant sigh, Steve obliged.

Again, Bucky rolled his eyes at how obvious Steve’s feelings were. The second he saw you on the screen, he smiled. And not one of those half hearted polite smiles, a full on happy smile.

Steve’s eyes widened, nearly bulging out of his head when he got to the end of the video.

“‘She doesn’t want to be with me like that.’” Bucky mocked his friends earlier words, grabbing his phone back. “Punk, I don’t know how much more obvious she could be.”

With one more glare in Steve’s direction, Bucky finally left him to his own thoughts. Okay, so you made a lot of videos about how you find him attractive. That doesn’t necessarily mean you’d want to be in a relationship with him. Leave it to Steve to talk himself out of everything Bucky had spent so long trying to convince him of.

You were desperate at this point. You honestly thought the cupcake one would send him over the edge, but it didn’t work either. It has been three days, and you know Steve’s seen the video because everyone likes to tease him about it.

“Naaaaaat, it’s not working,” you whined, dramatically throwing yourself onto her bed. She laughed at your antics, briefly looking up at you before deciding to stop what she was going and give you her full attention.

“Look, not only is Steve one of the most clueless people I’ve ever met when it comes to women, but he can also talk himself out of believing someone’s interested in him. Especially you.” Nat watched as you lifted your head from her comforter, slowly turning to stare at her with narrowed eyes.

“Especially me?” you questioned. Why would you have a different standard?

“Y/N, Steve’s from the 40s. He’s super old fashioned. You're a hot young thing, super up to date on modern trends. He thinks you're just messing around as friends because he doesn’t believe someone as young as you would be interested in actually having a relationship with him,” she spelt it out for you, sick of trying to get you to figure it out on your own.

You took a minute to fully understand what she was saying, but then sat up when a new idea struck. “So you’re saying I need to be more direct?”

Her eyes narrowed, but she nodded nonetheless.

“I’ve got an idea. Thanks Nat!” you ran from the room before she could question your newest plan, instead checking to make sure her notifications were on for posts from your TikTok account.

“Steve!” you shouted when you saw him down the hall, about to turn a corner. He immediately stopped, turning back to see you running at him. “I need your help!”

You pulled him into the gym, briefly glancing around the room to make sure it was empty. Confirming nobody else was present, you set up your phone on one of the weight racks to record the two of you. It was already open to the recording section of TikTok, the sound you needed queued and ready to begin.

“What’s going on?” Steve looked between you and the phone, nerves heightening as he realized what you were doing. All of your videos about him thus far hasn’t actually involved him filming anything.

“I just need you to react to this trend, okay? It’s kind of old, but that doesn’t really matter,” you spoke quickly, trying to start the video before he could decline.

The music started playing instantly, with Steve awkwardly looking between the screen and you. He wasn’t sure what exactly he was reacting to, and it had him on edge. Just as the song reached the chorus, you turned and grabbed his face. Throwing caution to the wind, you followed through with your plan before you could back out, kissing him with all the passion and emotion you’d been holding back.

Steve froze, clearly surprised by your actions. Before you could pull away, he wrapped his arms around you and pulled you closer. He kissed you with equal passion and emotion, no longer paying attention to your phone recording the moment.

Neither of you noticed when the music cut off, too wrapped up in each other. When the need for air overpowered the desire to keep kissing him, you pulled back to gasp in a few breaths. Steve leaned his forehead against yours, eyes closed and breathing erratic.

The two do you spent the next few moments just breathing, trying to come to terms with what just happened. You gasped when his hands moved, one resting on your waist and the other cupping your cheek. His eyes were still closed when you chanced a glance at him.

“What was the trend?” he breathily whispered the words, still coming down from the high of kissing you.

“Huh?” you mumbled, unable to comprehend the question when he was still touching you like this.

“The TikTok trend? What was it?” his grip on your hip tightened, but his hand framing your face remained gentle.

“Oh, uh, it was- it was kissing your best friend/crush.” You whispered, heart still racing from his proximity. Your nerves had never been greater. Yeah, Nat always tells you that Steve has feelings for you, but what if he was just being polite? Maybe he didn’t know how to reject you when you kissed him out of nowhere, and now he’s trying to find a way to turn you down gently. What if-

“Was my reaction good enough to post?” he broke your train of thought with another question. You took a minute to think about the question, your brain still moving like molasses

“Um, that depends…” you froze when his eyes opened and stared into yours.

“On?” he prompted you to continue.

“Which caption I can use.” you finished the thought, finally remembering the two most common outcomes of the trend.

“What are the choices?” Steve smirked when you looked flustered, clearly not expecting this conversation.

“Uh, the two-” he began rubbing small circles into your hip with his thumb, effectively cutting off your train of thought again. It wasn’t until he lightly squeezed your hip again that you remember you were answering his question.

“Right! The two most common captions are some variation of ‘this was so awkward’ or ‘we’re dating now’,” you managed to blurt out the choices, blushing when he smiled at you.

“Well, I know which I prefer…” you waited with bated breath as he prolonged the silence, enjoying seeing you so on edge. You nearly whined when he let you go, moving to pick up your phone from the weight rack.

You watched in silence as he typed out a caption, tapping each letter with his pointer finger. A small smile formed on your lips at his adorable old man behavior. He then managed to find the post button, adding the video to your account before handing you the phone to see what he chose.

Your smile only grew after you read the caption, dropping the phone and immediately kissing him again.

Meanwhile, Nat had gathered the rest of the team that happened to be around to wait for whatever video you had planned to be posted.

Tony, Sam, Bucky, Wanda, Vision, Peter, and Clint all watched as the new video popped up on the screen. Peter bounced with excitement when he heard the song, instantly recognizing the trend. The rest of the group watched as you kissed Steve, mouths gaping open when he actually kissed you back.

Fans were already commenting about how long it took for the two of you to get together, but the team was too focused on laughing at the caption to pay any mind to the comments.

She said the trend was kind of old, but that fits because I’ve got a habit of waiting too long anyways.

Permanent taglist: @averyhotchner @jesuswasnotawhiteman @strawberryspence @sebastnstn @jswessie187 @ellobruv

Marvel: @leyannrae @livstilinski @oceaniamaddness @justreadingficsdontmindme

#Steve Rogers x reader #Steve Rogers x you #Steve Rogers x y/n #Steve Rogers fluff #Steve Rogers one shot #Steve Rogers fic

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h2obased · 2 years

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Another Word For Surveillance - Part One

Summary: You asked Bucky out. He said no. Cool. So how do you move on from that? Ha! You don’t.

Notes/Warnings: Bucky x Reader | Fluff, swearing, innuendos, canon typical violence (a smidge), light angst, pining | I do not give permission for my work to be copied/reposted/translated anywhere. I only post stories here and on AO3.

Word Count: 2,369

Series Chapters

Another Word For Surveillance - Part One

It sounded like an accusation, the way your colleague said “Bucky Barnes likes you.”

“Of course he likes me, I do his paperwork.” The keyboard rattled as your fingers flew over the letters. Red squiggly lines scattered across the page with increasing frequency, but you refused to stop and edit typos. A pause was all your work wife needed to launch an interrogation.

You didn’t feel like elaborating on the topic because you knew for a fact he didn’t like you that way. You’d rather not get into how you found out about it either.

“Eh.” Claire Chavez could sniff out a story a mile away because she’s a great analyst. That and her four-year stint with you at the Department of Defense. No detail got past her and sitting at the cubicle next to you in the Operations wing gave her full access to everything happening at your workstation.

She looked pointedly at the unopened pack of Snickers bars and a roast beef sandwich from Bucky on your desk.

The Avengers visited your office area often for briefings with analysts like you. It’s not unusual for Clint Barton to nap on one of the empty chairs while waiting for his meeting or for Steve Rogers to return case files with his comments scribbled on post-its. Man loved his yellow post-its.

Bucky’s tall, imposing figure standing over your shoulder as you highlighted cells on a spreadsheet and explained why Tuesday noon was the best time to order a salmon sandwich from Vic’s Deli was a common sight. The super soldier worked in your unit for nine months.

That’s right, the dark-haired, unassuming guy who could take out 10 armed men in close combat with a hand tied behind his back was assigned a desk job following his return from Wakanda. He occupied the table by the window. Nobody wanted that corner spot because it received direct sunlight from 9 to 11am, effectively warming the area the entire day, but Bucky didn’t seem to mind.

You often saw him staring out at the sprawling field across Grid 3 in the Avengers compound. Each grid contained offices and other Stark Industries facilities. Most admin and support function offices were in the first two grids. Operations staff and R&D teams worked in the third and fourth grids respectively. The Avengers’ living quarters in Grid 5 sat at the farthest edge of the property to give occupants as much privacy as possible.

Bucky glared at the view outside your office building like he couldn’t quite figure out what was wrong with the grass. There was a meditative quality to his silent judgement of lawn maintenance. You quickly learned how to distinguish Bucky’s resting face from his actual “I’m surrounded by fools” face.

Although he had been cleared for field work more than a year ago, Bucky continued to visit the analysts in G3. A few times a month, you found him at his desk, which remained unoccupied since he vacated it. Sometimes he’s there to study reports away from Sam Wilson’s chattering. Other times, he was there to check in with your unit head. Your boss’ grandfather served during World War II; she had a lot of experience speaking with grumpy war vets and Bucky had a lot of experience with war.

He has this thing where he’s automatically nice to military families.

Nobody blinked when Bucky approached you about an op update today, but when he tossed Snickers to your desk, a discreet hush fell over the room. You didn’t have to look around to know everyone within 20 feet turned their attention to you. Analysts not minding their own business shouldn’t come as a surprise. You and your esteemed colleagues on this wing were employed to find, study, and interpret data after all.

“Sweets.”

Your head snapped up at the sound of his voice. Regret consumed you instantly because why would you just assume he was talking to you?

Something whizzed past your nose and landed on your desk.

Bucky frowned. You hoped he didn't notice how fast you turned to him. Maybe he was just unhappy about nearly decapitating you. He reached out, deftly moving his hand above yours and repositioned the pack of chocolate so the front cover faced up. He pulled his arm back just as quickly as if your desk was on fire.

The analyst in you had long observed that Bucky wasn’t completely averse to human contact.

He enjoyed the solitude offered by his overheated corner desk, but he didn’t seem to mind when people lingered around his cubicle to look out the window. While he wasn’t much of a hugger or toucher, he’ll indulge Sam with the occasional high-five. Bucky and Steve Rogers put each other in a headlock on a weekly basis.

When the engineering lead fainted in the hall, Bucky caught her in his arms without hesitation. The entire floor wanted follow suit and swoon too.

After a facility-wide duck, cover, hold earthquake drill, he offered his hand to assist Claire off the floor. When it was your turn to scramble from under the table, Bucky rapped his Vibranium knuckles on your desk instead, urging you to hurry. What was the rush? He wanted to know if you had any Kit Kats left.

“Eat a banana,” you grumbled as you got on your feet without his help. “Take two,” you added when he only dubiously looked at the bowl of fruit by your desk monitor. You dusted your knees and watched him tear a banana from the cluster.

You thought he chuckled softly before he replied, “Yes boss.”

When it came to getting your attention, Bucky relied on office supplies. He rolled sheets of paper to nudge your arm or he tapped you on the shoulder with a folder. One time, he flicked a paperclip across the conference room table. It landed in your coffee, which made you yelp and interrupt Tony. Bucky raised his brows, a picture of innocence, while you pretended to have a question for the billionaire genius about jet propeller functions at high altitudes.

These were things that shouldn't occupy significant storage space in your head. Space you could use to remember decidedly more useful information like how to deal with a clogged sink or use a gun. You really should learn how to shoot or at least learn basic self-defense.

You eyed the Snickers pack, wondering how he knew you’d just run out of supply. “Thanks Sergeant Barnes, but you didn’t have to.”

His nose flared at the use of his military designation but he caught the slight tilt of your head, letting him know he had an audience. He sighed like a tired parent but the corner of his lip curled.

You ought to be suspicious, but the butterflies in your stomach wouldn't let you focus on a single train of thought.

“Fine but when you see the incident report, remember that’s what you said.” He jerked his head, tossing it back a few times to get rid of the stray locks stuck to his cheek.

As if on cue, a bell alerted you to a new email. “Do I want to read that?”

The gorgeous, steely-eyed super soldier shrugged. He wasn’t smiling but that didn’t mean he wasn’t feeling smug about knowing something you didn’t.

It wasn’t fair, those eyes. That pouty mouth. The way his brows shot up when he talked about landscaping machinery.

You cleared your throat and it was not because you were about to read highlights from the email. “Let’s see here… Six-car pile up, seven if we count the truck that turned on its side, confirmed minor injuries, two GSWs, road damage. Public Works recommends closures… for at least three days, which means… one week? Geez Bucky.” You checked the location pinned on the report. “Oh and it’s just off the Alexander Hamilton Bridge. The city’s going to love that.”

You barely got past “six-car pile-up” when Bucky started talking too, with raised hands, his low voice weaving between your stress-induced higher pitch. “Look, the important detail, which I’m sure the report notes, is that we got the bad guys. Witnesses, all safe. Check the report; gotta be in there somewhere. We got the bad guys.”

He moved closer and an electric pulse ran up your spine. The only way to hide your reaction was to fake indignation over the report. “Bad guys.” You hummed and pretended to skim the email again. “I can confirm the report mentions ‘bad guys’ a grand total of... zero times. I feel like we’ve had too many chats about why we don’t write 'bad guys’ in field reports.”

“You haven’t even read through the whole thing. And I stopped doing that because you asked me to.” Bucky crossed his arms. It was impossible to ignore how jacked he was, even under the hoodie and leather jacket.

You were done. So done. He could pass gas and you would giggle like a person with a crush, because, well that’s your affliction. A terrible case of having the hots for James Buchanan Barnes. You shouldn’t, but who gets to just pick who to like?

“I’m a fast reader.” Your ability to look him in the face and maintain motor functions was worthy of an Academy Award and an Olympic gold medal. Minimum.

He mistook your narrowed eyes for annoyance. “Fine, shall we call them unscrupulous businessmen in clear violation of Wakandan laws and at least two international treaties?”

“Alleged.”

He scoffed. “Please, not when I catch them red-handed.” He tried blowing the hair off his cheek this time. “Always making a run for it. Always get them in the end.”

People were used to the back and forth you’ve got going with Bucky. It was the only time they heard Bucky speak beyond what was required to communicate something.

You scrolled through paragraph after paragraph on your screen. “You couldn’t just ask them nicely to return whatever they stole? I’m going to be wading through this until after lunch.” The arms inventory alone had to be 20 pages.

Bucky had the decency to look sheepish. He nudged the Snickers pack closer to your hand before stepping away. You glanced just in time to spot it - the split-second rounding of his baby blues, conveying an apology for the hours it’ll take you to work through the case documentation.

He returned before noon with the sandwich.

“Do you want my lunch? I have to drive downtown with Sam and Steve.” He placed the take-out container on your desk without waiting for a reply.

Claire wasn’t even pretending to be busy. She spun in her seat to greet Bucky. “Hello again Barnes.”

You acted like you cannot see her watching you and Bucky, with a know-it-all smile and chin resting on her hand.

“Oh, um, thanks Bucky.” He just saved you a 30-minute trip to the cafeteria. “So what’s in the city today? Alien invasion? Unexplained noises at Bleecker Street?”

“Pizza. Crown Heights.” Bucky gave you a funny look, like aliens and sorcerers didn’t exist. He pointed to the sandwich. “It’s roast beef by the way, because it’s not Tuesday, I remembered. It’s from that deli with the angry old guy.”

He handed you an old man joke on a platter and you couldn’t resist. “You own a deli?” The quip stopped him at the door, where he glowered at you, but you could have sworn he broke into a smile before jogging down the hall.

As soon as he was out of earshot, and you hoped he was out of hearing range, Claire rushed to your desk to deliver her theory: “Bucky Barnes likes you.”

“Of course he likes me. I do his paperwork.” Your remark came quickly. Too quick for your own good. Your silence only encouraged your friend to proceed with her breakdown of the facts.

“Eh.” She dismissed the explanation. “He called you Sweets.”

Maybe Bucky meant the chocolate. Come on. You wanted to be cool about it, to not care, but the ambiguity bugged you. It banged on the door of possibilities and that’s a door that needed to be bolted shut for people dealing with unrequited feelings.

You shot your friend a look. “Chavez. He obviously meant the candy.”

“Oh honey.” She pitied you and she didn’t hide it. “We’re not going down the ‘just friends’ line. We’re friends and I don’t give you candy on a regular basis and the only snacks you ever send my way came from Barnes in the first place.”

“Girl, I wish. This is just bribery by junk food.” You waved your hands over the items on your desk and thought about last week’s Skittles from Bucky that Claire didn’t know about. Yet. “Trust me. Steve Rogers has more feelings for post-its than Bucky does for me.”

Claire didn’t look convinced, but it didn’t matter. It was the truth, one that chipped into your heart with every rare grin, or look of mock confusion whenever you asked him why heavy objects seemed to get lodged into concrete surfaces in operations he's assigned to. Or every time that blasted lock of hair refused to cooperate and cuddled his jaw line instead.

You could only guess why it’s called a crush - with all the heart-crumbling, stomach-lurching, and ego-shattering that came with it - and lordy, crushing on Bucky was a special kind of torture.

For the record, he wasn’t into you and that’s been made clear months ago. That’s not the sad part, not really, because people faced rejection all the time. You weren’t in a unique position.

Conventional wisdom said move on. The sting of liking someone who quite frankly only saw you as a friend would fade. Eventually it’d be a memory you’re supposed to be able to laugh at.

But for reasons that haven’t been made clear yet, this crush evolved into actual feelings, emotions bottled as you and Bucky went about your days, arguing about how many doors he and Steve kicked down that week and who ate the last chocolate bar hidden in one of the desk drawers.

Therein lies the soul wrecking and emotional torpedoing that came with falling in love with Bucky Barnes.

-----

I hope you liked the chapter. Thanks for taking time to check this out.

Part two

Find the other chapters here.

#bucky barnes x reader #bucky barnes x you #bucky barnes imagine #bucky barnes x y/n #h2obasedfics #bucky barnes fanfiction #another word for surveillance #bucky barnes

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iacon-stargazer · 3 years

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THE POSITIVE & NEGATIVE: MUN & MUSE

fill out & repost ♥ this meme definitely favors canons more, but i hope oc’s still can make it somehow work with their own lore, and lil’ fandom of friends & mutuals. multimuses pick the muse you are the most invested in atm.

tagged by: stolen from @oneshallfall like.... months ago. im a slow gremlin hjksd. it's been in my drafts and i finally decided to finish the last few sections while working on clearing them out

tagging: steal it

MY MUSE IS. canon / oc / au / canon-divergent / fandomless

is your character popular in the fandom? YES / NO.

is your character considered hot™ in the fandom? Well.../ NO / IDK. (i know optimus is but i don’t really... know about orion? i have seen a handful of fanartists who turn him into a very sexualized moe baby but i’m not sure about the fandom at large)

is your character considered strong in the fandom? YES / NO / IDK.

are they underrated? YES / NO. (lmao there’s like no fan content with him unless it’s with megatronus)

were they relevant to the main story? YES / NO.

were they relevant to the main character? YES / NO / THEY’RE THE PROTAG.

are they widely known in their world? YES / NO. (not yet.... lol)

how’s their reputation? GOOD / BAD / NEUTRAL.

HOW STRICTLY DO YOU FOLLOW CANON?

This... this is a trick question in this goddamn mess of a continuity. That said, I try my absolute best to make my portrayal coherent with the TFP show... even if said show contradicts itself at times. I take inspiration from the earlier parts (the thirteen primes section) of the Covenant of Primus for his origin backstory, but ignore the rest of the Covenant since it makes absolutely no sense with his characterization in... literally anything else. I’ve peeked at Exodus and it utterly sucks, but I’ve picked up bits and pieces of concepts that originated there just from spending time in the fandom. Aside from that... I spend a ton of time thinking about how to weave everything together in a way that both makes sense and makes for a character development arc.

SELL YOUR MUSE! (aka try to list everything, which makes your muse interesting in your opinion to make them spicy for your mutuals.)

Orion is genuinely kind, thoughtful, and introspective, very loving of the world around him.

He’s also a more complex character than is initially obvious - despite mostly being good sweet pure baby nerd he’s still flawed, with many of those flaws being his strengths put into the wrong situation. His strong morals can lead to dogmatism, and he’s only slightly less likely to deliver lectures than Optimus. His determination to be kind and help everyone can come off as unintentionally patronizing at times; he has a very “well-intentioned semi-privileged middle class” perspective that he’s not always self-aware of. However, he’s also willing to look at himself critically and learn/adapt.

Essentially, he has many of the same traits as Optimus... just more or less apparent and/or developed. He's less confident than he eventually becomes through his future experience with leadership, wanting to change the world for the better but sometimes struggling to ground his plans in reality—something that continues to apply, but with reduced intensity and frequency over time. Idealistic cinnamon roll will eventually develop some realism, though never really quite enough. His selflessness remains a strength for now, but we know that eventually it will dip into martyristic tendencies.

NOW THE OPPOSITE! (list everything why your muse could not be so interesting (even if you may not agree, what does the fandom perhaps think?)

He could be potentially ‘boring’ in some senses. he’s the polite, considerate ‘next door’ type, who has for most of his life has just lived as a very average middle caste nobody. He’s more laid-back than he eventually becomes as optimus, but where others might get into trouble and shenanigans he’s most likely to just express concern. And since I try to keep him at least mostly ic, even with non-serious posts, this can derail ‘fun’ stuff and I fear dissuade some interaction.

While I try my best to give him realistic flaws that work with his character, he could still be seen as a little too good. very kind, understanding, forgiving, patient, considerate... almost endlessly so. A lot of my “he’s so good and pure” interpretation comes from using his having been the thirteenth prime as backstory, where he was pretty much the epitome of that, but some might not like the “he was a literal deity in a past life” idea for its “super special chosen one protagonist” elements.

His responsiveness to his environment can also be a downside. He’s not the type to start things; he just reacts and responds, standing his ground and finding himself when things get crazy around him. without megatronus, he may have eventually attempted political campaigning, but it wouldn’t have gotten very far. He needs to have more intense characters or events around him for major plots to really go places. Without those nothing would ever happen besides slice of life fluff, because he’s content with that kind of life.

WHAT INSPIRED YOU TO RP YOUR MUSE?

Honestly I just wanted to write op/ratch fhsjkdjsdh. But I also wanted to be able to interact with a variety of muses and so I chose Orion over Optimus because he’s not so emotionally closed off, which I figured would give more flexibility beyond the handful of characters op would reasonably have close personal and/or plot-important relationships with. Also, I can relate to him on a thought-process level which lets me get into his head easily, which additionally made him an appealing choice for my first real rp muse.

WHAT KEEPS YOUR INSPIRATION GOING?

I just love him so much, especially with the layers of his character I've built up around him. I don't always have inspiration to write or rp, but I think about him a lot. When I do find motivation to write, it's generally out of wanting to continue to work on developing him and just having a chance to express his characterization.

SOME MORE PERSONAL QUESTIONS FOR THE MUN.

do you think you give your character justice? YES / NO.

do you frequently write headcanons? YES / NO.

do you sometimes write drabbles? YES / NO. (i should do it more...)

do you think a lot about your muse during the day? YES / NO.

are you confident in your portrayal? YES / NO. (at least most days fhsdhfskj)

are you confident in your writing? YES / NO. (it waxes and wanes. I know I'm a good writer but I could still be better...)

are you a sensitive person? YES / NO.

DO YOU ACCEPT CRITICISM WELL ABOUT YOUR PORTRAYAL?

I’ll be honest; I’ve never gotten criticism. I haven’t been here very long in comparison to some and I’ve never been that popular, so I figure I’m pretty easy to just ignore. I guess how I would feel about it would depend on what it was and how it was delivered, though I like to think I would be reasonable regardless

DO YOU LIKE QUESTIONS, WHICH HELP YOU EXPLORE YOUR CHARACTER?

yes? yes absolutely?

IF SOMEONE DISAGREES TO A HEADCANON OF YOURS, DO YOU WANT TO KNOW WHY?

I would be curious to hear their reasoning, but I think enough about how everything fits together that chances are I would agree to disagree

IF SOMEONE DISAGREES WITH YOUR PORTRAYAL, HOW WOULD YOU TAKE IT?

Depends on if their disagreement makes sense. Maybe I’ll give back my own reasoning for why I characterize the way I do. Maybe I’ll just agree to disagree, if their view is just totally different from mine. If they have valid points I’ll probably overthink it and spiral into self doubt. In all cases I’ll spill my thoughts to friends on discord.

IF SOMEONE REALLY HATES YOUR CHARACTER, HOW DO YOU TAKE IT?

......Orion in general or? ... fhsjkdhf...... Well if it was mine specifically that might hurt lol. But at the same time.... I doubt i’d agree with their takes either so... fair enough.

ARE YOU OKAY WITH PEOPLE POINTING OUT YOUR GRAMMATICAL ERRORS?

Sure. I’m good at grammar so if something glaring is there it’s probably a typo I missed and I’ll be grateful for the chance to edit it out before more people see it lol

DO YOU THINK YOU ARE EASY GOING AS A MUN?

Yeah. I’m pretty quiet most of the time because I just don’t have energy to talk to a lot of people, and I never want to get caught in drama. I honestly wouldn’t know what to do in a situation like that. I tend to avoid conflict, I’m quick to apologize, and polite with anyone I don’t know very well.

#;the art student behind the muse {ooc}#;as for myself... {tag game}

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dimigex · 4 years

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Sneak Peek. . . Thursday?

Okay, it’s not Sunday. And nobody has tagged me, but hell, I want to share this snippet of a KakaSaku that’s killing me. It’s heavily based on the song “I Can’t Not Love You”. Also, this is pre final edit, so forgive the typos or crappy dialogue that will be fixed when I edit it lol But, I needed someone else to be excited about this piece which I think will be called Beautiful, Perfect Disaster while it sits on the back burner XD

Thankfully, heartbreakingly, Sakura pulled away and wiped her eyes with trembling fingers. “I’m sorry. You must think I’m being terribly childish.”

“Not at all,” a voice that sounded very much like Kakashi’s answered. Then, it continued. “I think that he’s a fool who never deserved you in the first place.”

Sakura’s green eyes widened at the words as she pulled away. They stood half a dozen feet apart: Sakura shy and embarrassed and Kakashi conflicted by the truth he hadn’t meant to say.

Her eyes searched his, looking for Kami only knew what, then she nodded. “Thank you for saying that.”

“It’s true.” Kakashi had more control over his voice this time, but barely. “What you have with Sasuke isn’t love. It’s not supposed to hurt this way.”

Fire flared between them, Sakura closing the distance to glare up at Kakashi. “And you’re an expert now?”

Of course not, Kakashi thought with stunning clarity. Look at how poorly I’ve handled this. For months, I’ve felt this way. I refused to admit it until it came spilling out like poison. But, he couldn’t say that. Sakura’s anger wasn’t directed at him, anyway. He could bear the brunt of her fury if that’s what she needed. So, Kakashi answered as truthfully as he dared. “No, but I know enough to know that this isn’t it.”

Kakashi knew that he’d made a mistake when Sakura looked at him with a mixture of pain and disbelief. The room spun and he thought that he might be sick. He fought the nausea down and took a half step in her direction. I’m sorry.”

“For what?” Sakura spat. Somehow, she drew herself up, towering over Kakashi in her fury. “For lecturing me about something that you even understand? For acting like you were for my friend? For--”

“For falling in love with you.” The words hung there for a moment, louder than the echo of Sakura’s anger. Kakashi had never looked squarely at the thought, never viewed what was happening between them as more than general protectiveness. But now, he knew it for what it was.

#My writing #Dimi Writes #Sneak Peek #WIP #Kakasaku #Kakashi Hatake #Sakura Haruno #All the feels all the time #Angst and fluff and complicated emotions #Relationships are way harder than battles

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neshabeingchildish · 4 years

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Hensley & Char: Friends or Whatever || Part 3

@just-a-j-reallly @junknstu1f @henryharts I absolutely pushed this bad boy out in a couple of hours, since I’m trying to hold myself to a somewhat organized schedule, with going back to a second job on mornings that I don’t have to work nights. If there are typos and such, please just remember that this is free and that I am busy. Lol. I promise, whenever I’m not pressed for time and energy, I do everything to give y’all my best, but when I am those things, my best has to dwindle a little, in terms of editing, hopefully not content. I’ve been missing Chasper, so this chapter is kind of Chasper heavy, from Hensley’s view of them, and also I wanted to get into the universe that we’re more familiar with, so while I didn’t feel like certain things needed to change - like meeting Ray and getting the job, I wanted to just sort of do the ff thing we do and look at other areas of the world while all of that was happening.

The Danger Befriends

“We’re almost 12. Her issues might strictly be hormones, and maybe that means that she’ll be less mean soon,” Jasper said.

“Shut up about hormones!” Charlotte snapped at him. “You ALWAYS blame women being rightfully angry with you on hormones! It’s NOT hormones, Jasper. It’s YOU. YOU are the reason we’re mad!”

Hensley didn’t want to get in the middle, but these were both her beast friends and she knew that this was all just a misunderstanding. Jasper wasn’t inconsiderate or stupid… Just very, very gullible. This was dirt from Jupiter all over again. “Jasper,” Hensley said, as gently as she could, “I think what Charlotte means is that instead of telling us the reason why you’re holding a filthy cat instead of our carnival tickets, you’re focused on her reaction to the fact that you handed a stranger the money for the tickets and they gave you a disgusting animal.”

“She’s not disgusting. She just needs a bath…” Jasper said, but before he could complete the thought Charlotte lunged towards him and Hensley had to collect her in a restraining hold to keep her from getting her hands on Jasper. Jasper’s eyes widened and Hensley cooed in Charlotte’s ear to try to calm her.

“It’s okay, Char. It’s Okay. I carried a little extra money and I’LL get your ticket. Okay?It’s all good. It’s ALL good.” Charlotte struggled Hensley’s hold off of her and glared at Jasper, shaking her head, before she marched off and went to stand in line, herself.

Jasper shook his head, “I think that a good counselor and perhaps even medication will help her with that.” Hensley just sighed. He had a point, but he also missed the point. But, moments later, a guy in a trench coat really did come back with their tickets and three drinks, because they were waiting out in the sun with his cat.

Hensley pulled Charlotte from the line, explained that this time, Jasper hadn’t screwed up and Charlotte said, “Well, it still was careless and under normal circumstances would have been a scheme.” Then, they got on rides and all was forgotten for a while.

The moments where the three of them had fun and enjoyed each other’s company were Hensley’s favorite. She frequently felt like she had to pick sides because they argued so much. Jasper loved Charlotte. He had always liked her as a person and spending the past couple of years around her only accelerated that for him. The three were together everyday and always made plans as a team. No one would be left behind, because to Hensley, that would feel like choosing between them. And she really couldn’t.

Jasper was her yes man. Charlotte was her voice of reason. Those were things that she needed to always receive both of in order to make good decisions. She did not always make them, but she couldn’t comprehend what life would be without the two varying options. They were like the little angel and devil on her shoulders, except Jasper was the clueless angel and Charlotte the all knowing devil. You’re SUPPOSED to listen to the angel, but this particular angel was only right every now and then. The devil was always right, but she was an angry little person and threatening… That made her truth seem like it wasn’t so. Yet, she was usually right, and Hensley only SOMETIMES listened to her.

But, in those moments whenever Jasper couldn’t be around - they flowed better. And in the moments that Charlotte didn’t show her face, Hensley and Jasper made more sense. It was… confounding to Hensley. She NEEDED both of them, but it was so much easier to deal with them separately, usually. She wondered if they were like that too. Did Jasper and Charlotte have a harmonious dynamic whenever Hensley wasn’t there to demand both of their attention? She wondered what that was like.

She imagined that Jasper was sweet and that in spite of herself, she would soften for him and smile a lot, maybe even giggle… She… kinda felt a little bit jealous about it. WHAT did Charlotte and Jasper do whenever SHE wasn’t there? Sometimes, if they studied together, or Charlotte’s mom gave him a ride home or something, even at times, he stayed the night over there??? WHAT? They could barely get along, WHY would he be able to sleep in the same room as her? AND… He was a boy!

Hensley watched Charlotte reading and Jasper leaning up against her, getting ready to fall to sleep. She made a frowning face at him and he quickly shuffled away and made a makeshift, non-Charlotte pillow of his over shirt and backpack. But, when he drifted off, Hensley noted that Charlotte sighed, grabbed a bandanna out of her bag, wiped his sweat off and tucked the bandanna in his pocket. Why had she done that? Did she LIKE him? Why was Hensley so preoccupied with these details?

Charlotte stared at her and looked confused for a moment, then figured it was because of what just happened. She explained, “Jasper’s medication for his sweating problem has changed. The new one makes him a little more tired. I don’t want him sweating all over me or my carpet.” Rational. Reasonable. Nothing to be concerned about, and even if it WAS… She wouldn’t be concerned, because she and Charlotte were just friends anyway. Just like Charlotte and Jasper were. But then, “He looks different when he sleeps. When he’s shut down and silent - he’s actually cute, right?” Charlotte asked.

Of course, she meant like a roly poly rodent, but Hensley just heard cute and while she agreed, denied it. “Jasper? Cute?” She laughed. “Why don’t you just kiss him?”

“I would get sweat on my lips,” she said, cringing, “Jasper sweat. I don’t even want my own sweat on my lips…” She looked at Hensley like she was extremely gross for even attempting such a joke, and Hensley relaxed and didn’t think about it again.

There was no way that Charlotte liked Jasper. He wasn’t gross, but Charlotte found a lot of his habits to be. Plus, he irritated her very easily and even though she was nice to him sometimes, there was just this… Hensley couldn’t find the right word to describe a disconnect, so she thought of it as a no-no region… Though that sounded like their private parts, so she just simply stopped trying to find words and counted it as “would never happen.” Yet, she spent about a year convincing herself that Jasper and Charlotte were just friends and woul;d always just be friends.

It was hard though. That Charlotte had two best friends of different genders who both liked girls and she seemed to like both of them sometimes and like neither of them sometimes. All of Hensley’s life, there were people who would say things like she and Jasper would wind up dating someday or that they were probably soul mates/would get married, etc. They made it out to be like boys and girls couldn’t have friendships that were just that and it never moved her before because she knew that Jasper was not her type. She and Jasper had the SAME type, for as long as she could remember thinking about it. But, now… That could/might include Charlotte.

Charlotte wasn’t really the kind of girl that Hensley tended to be attracted to, but by 13, she definitely had become aware that it was probably because she didn’t see other girls that were like Charlotte, and that she hadn’t for as long as she had been in school, and not because Charlotte wasn’t totally pretty. She absolutely was. But, the more time went by, the more she realized that despite that Jasper had always noticed Charlotte. He knew her name. He knew about her plans and her life. He treated her like a person who he cared about… and he did this before she became Hensley’s best friend. It wasn’t a competition, but Hensley had a problem not competing.

The feelings were exacerbated whenever Hensley happened upon a part time job… No, Charlotte found her a part time job. Hensley was now, not only a productive member of society, but the actual sidekick to Swellview’s superhero, Captain Man, and that required secrecy and discretion. That required leaving Jasper and Charlotte alone and going to work to keep the city safe, to keep them safe… and she made an oath never to tell them.

“Why aren’t we allowed to stop by your job?” Charlotte asked, while Jasper drank from his bucket thermos as they walked from school. “We aren’t going to ruin anything, and we just wanted to be able to look around and possibly even make a purchase and contribute to your paycheck. You barely let us in the door…”

Hensley nervously laughed and shook her head, “I… don’t need your money for my paycheck. You two don’t even have jobs..”

“Yeah, upon further research, I found out nobody really hires 13 year olds for anything…” Charlotte started.

Jasper quickly spouted out, “Oh, it’s illegal. It’s one of Swellview’s many stupid laws.”

“It’s not just a Swellview law, though. It’s most places. My research concluded that the jobs available for kids under 16 are generally permissions for entrepreneurial ventures, Internet personalities, highly regulated child celebrity gigs, and family businesses where they aren’t actually on payroll. I wonder why the junk store doesn’t have to follow those regulations…” Charlotte said, suspiciously. The last thing that Hensley needed was Charlotte being suspicious.

Jasper offered, “It may be a historic building, in which case, in Swellview, they are allowed to hire as early as 13, but only in a part time capacity, and if the training for said job is at least one year.”

“That’s gotta be it! Ray’s father bought the place when he was a kid,” Hensley said, unsure of what even constitutes as a historical building, but hoping that Charlotte wouldn’t investigate it. She wasn’t even paying attention to her, though.

Charlotte smiled at Jasper, “You really know Swellview laws.”

“One of Dad’s main rules is if he ever has to get a call that I’ve been arrested, it better be a misunderstanding,” Jasper said with a shrug.

“You almost always get in trouble at every bit of fault of your own,” Charlotte told him.

“Yes, but not illegally.”

Hensley was happy to have the conversation off of her work.

Jasper’s dad was a defense attorney, so Jasper knew a lot about laws and ordinances and stuff. Maybe that was why he was so good in social studies and language arts. He knew laws, history, and wordplay. Charlotte was good with sciences and math. Between the both of them, Hensley was able to keep her head above water in school. She would need them now more than ever, because her job as Kid Danger was taking everything out of her and she hadn’t even been doing it for very long. But, whenever she looked at her two friends, who bickered like an old married couple, but also loved on each other, she knew that this job wasn’t just about the money or even the newfound high of fame. It was about what was best for Swellview. For Hensley Hart, Swellview was her two best friends…

“So… Can we stop in sometime, though?” Charlotte asked, not being deterred.

“Oh, my boss Ray is kind of a stickler about it…” Hensley said.

“Probably doesn’t want something to happen where he has a liability,” Jasper said.

Charlotte looked disappointed as she shrugged her shoulders and tugged Jasper’s sleeve, “Well, I guess that means we’ll see you tomorrow. Jasper gave Hensley a hug and the two walked beyond the store, debating whether they were going to get snacks before heading to Charlotte’s, or trust that her mom had something other than organic/vegan/no added sugars or flavors stuff that Jasper always felt like was a crime against taste buds…

Hensley went into the store. Just another day of Danger, for her. And her friends would be alright.

#Friends or Whatever #Hensley and Char: Friends or Whatever #Hensley Hart #Girl! Henry wlw AU #Henry Danger #Nesha HD Fics

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fritzllang · 4 years

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so! here’s the Vic/Eddie nobody asked for, featuring a road bar, some country music and even a couple of punches! thanks to @anticmiscellaney for giving me great ideas and editing my awful typos. hope you all enjoy

all the songs referenced are listed at the end

Don’t touch me, I’m a real live wire (Vic/Eddie, G, 3.6k)

“Uhhh… I’m bored as shit,” Eddie lets the pool cue fall from his hands onto the table as he speaks, and Vic gives him a raised eyebrow. They’ve been shooting pool for a couple hours now, but he’s noticed Eddie’s attention drifting away from the game for the past thirty minutes.

“Let’s go someplace,” Eddie insists.

Vic props himself up and nods obligingly, “Okay,“ he looks up for a moment, musing, and remembers there’s a place he’s been meaning to visit. “Let’s go to Bull’s Bar-B-Q.”

Eddie tenses up, only for a moment, but the gesture doesn’t escape Vic’s attention. He knows him, he can tell there’s something up, so he follows Eddie out of the room and down the stairs and waits for his answer.

“Nah, don’t feel like it,” Eddie says nonchalantly, “pick somewhere else.”

Vic squints his eyes. What is Eddie trying to hide from him? Is there something, someone at the bar he doesn’t want Vic to run into? “I wanna go to Bull’s.”

“Well I don’t,” there’s a tang of irritation in Eddie’s voice as he puts on a flashy yellow and blue polyester jacket, “so let’s go someplace else.”

Vic reaches to open the front door and smiles slowly, looking at Eddie with slightly raised eyebrows; he takes a bit of amusement in making Eddie nervous. And if there’s something he doesn’t want him to know about at the bar, then Vic’s going to find out.

“Well I’m going to Bull’s,” he takes his car keys out of his pocket and walks out into the driveway toward his Cadillac, “You’re welcome to come if you want.”

He knows Eddie will follow, and sure enough, he huffs loudly behind him, making a show out of his sulking as he gets into the car, “Vic, you’re impossible.”

In the way over Eddie turns the radio’s dial one way and the other every two minutes, doesn’t let a single song end before he’s changing stations. Every time it looks like he’s finally picked something to listen, his arm shoots out and he’s at it again. Eventually, Vic clicks his tongue irritated and reaches across to slap Eddie’s hand away.

“Leave the fucking thing alone, you’re getting on my nerves,” he glances at Eddie, and tries again to get an answer, “What is up with you?”

“Well for starters I don’t wanna go to that stupid cowboy bar of yours.”

Vic takes a long drag off his cigarette, peers at Eddie before answering, “Why not?”

“I don’t fucking feel like it,” Eddie drags the words out, like he’s trying to make a stubborn child come to reason. Vic doesn’t raise to the bait.

“Why not?”

“What the fuck does it matter why?” There’s a vein starting to swell in Eddie’s neck.

Vic shrugs indifferently, “Well I wanna go because I haven’t been there since I left the can. Nobody’s forcing you to come.”

Eddie throws up his arms out like that’s the most stupid thing he ever heard, “Oh, yes, I can just get out here in the middle of fucking nowhere and walk back home.”

“Just sayin’.”

They’re both dancing around the issue, pretending they don’t know there’s something Eddie’s not saying. Vic doesn’t push, just keeps driving until he sees the neon sign creep up behind some trees.

They pull up into a place on the side of the road with a big parking lot full of pick-up trucks and motorbikes. The blinking sign on the front displays the face of an angry bull with big red horns, along the name “BULL’S BAR-B-Q”. Vic parks the car and gets out, then comes around the back to open Eddie’s door with a grin. Eddie rolls his eyes, pouring sarcasm into every word as he speaks, “Who woulda thought, prison’s turn you into a real fucking gentleman.”

Vic ignores the acid in his voice as he follows him toward the door.

The room is crowded, dimly lit with fake orange kerosene lamps on the tables and neon signs on the wall with the names of beer brands. Gang bikers in leather vests mumble among each other in the dark corner tables, and men dressed in cowboy outfits take their girls out to dance on the open floor by one side, where a young man who’d made a great Waylon Jennings softly sings …Someday when we meet up yonder, we’ll stroll hand in hand again… if some cowboys hug one another and start dancing together, nobody seems to notice.

As soon as they’re inside Vic notices Eddie’s attempt to be subtle about the way he’s giving the whole place a glance, stretching his neck and looking left and right. Vic sneaks closer in silence until he’s perching over his shoulder and whispers quietly on his ear, “See a table you like, Eddie?”

Eddie jumps startled and shoots back a glare at Vic, slowly blinking, “Do not fucking do that to me Toothpick.”

Vic can’t help a low chuckle as he settles a hand on Eddie’s neck and squeezes softly, “Why you so hot under the collar, huh?”

Eddie seems to be satisfied with his survey of the place, because he shrugs away, turns around and sits down on the first table that he finds available, immediately signaling for a waitress. They order beer and start drinking in silence, and soon he seems to unwind, losing his nervous edge, and they even manage to have a conversation about Waylon Jennings’ 70s transition from dapper genteel cowboy to scruffy, brash outlaw without barking at each other.

Vic is saying, “He peaked right after he changed his looks, nothing tops Dreaming My Dreams,” he starts singing quietly, “I’ve been a fool, I’ve been a fool, forgiving you each time that you’ve done me wrong…”

Eddie makes a dismissive gesture, “Yeah, but what about Ruby, Don’t Take Your Love To Town? That’s a country classic.

“Yeah, but that Nashville sound shit is so impersonal, he was just doing what everybody else was doing. The other stuff is raw and unique, he’s singing about his struggles in life” he tries to take a swig of his beer before realizing it’s empty, “He looked hotter in the sixties, though… when he sang Your love scares me to death girl, it’s the chokin’ kind…,” he purrs, and gives Eddie a wink.

Just then the bar’s band wraps up a song, and after a brief applause the singer starts crooning and strumming his guitar, “The only two things in life that make it worth livin’…”

Eddie chuckles, “Well, speaking of the devil.”

Eddie’s laughter and the stupid conversation makes Vic remember how much he missed having fun with him while he was in jail, and suddenly he doesn’t care too much about whatever crap he was hiding anymore; it was probably just Eddie’s usual bullshit, he must have been caught cheating at cards or something like that. And Vic’s been giving him shit all night for it. He looks up Eddie sideways, smiling smugly.

“Hey, you wanna dance?” he could swear he sees Eddie blushing a little, but maybe that’s just the beer.

“What am I, your girlfriend?” Eddie says with exaggerated offence, and Vic tilts his head and scratches his brow like he’s seriously considering the question. Eddie huffs, “Nah, you go.”

“Your loss,” Vic grins and stands up and moves toward the dance floor with swaggering steps.

Vic dances alone for the duration of half a song until a young redheaded girl in a denim skirt approaches him with a grin.

“Hey stranger, you wanna dance?” she has a chirpy voice and a soft southern accent. Vic offers her his hand and his most charming smile.

“Sure, sweetheart.”

She takes his hand and places the other on his shoulder, coming nearer but not quite touching him; Vic doesn’t close the distance but rests his arm around her waist when they start moving to the music.

“You’re not from around here, are you?” Vic is a head taller than her, so he has to tilt down his head to look at her eyes.

“Is it obvious?” She’s the kind of girl that smiles with her whole face and voice, and she’s cute, too, but Vic doesn’t really care about it, he’s just dancing with her to make Eddie a bit jealous.

“I’m from Kentucky,“ she continues, "but I moved out here because I wanna be an actress.”

He shoots a glance at their table and can’t repress a smile; Eddie is looking at him with an angry expression, mindlessly turning one of his golden rings in his finger. Just as he wanted.

Vic turns his full attention to the girl again, “An actress, huh? How’s that working out for you?” If he’s gonna make Eddie jealous at least he’s gonna enjoy himself.

They dance around for a couple of songs, talking about the weather in Lexington and the traffic in LA, until Vic looks up again to watch Eddie. But he’s not looking back; instead, he’s sitting on the edge of his seat with a tense stance, looking at the man sitting by his side and trying to put as much distance as possible between them. Vic furrows his brows and lets go of the girls hands without peeling his eyes from the table.

“‘M sorry, sweetie, my friend’s calling me.” He doesn’t see the disappointed look on the girls face, but hears her voice as he walks away.

“Oh, well… okay, it was nice meeting ya’.”

He circles tables and shoves people out of his way with his eyes fixed on Eddie and his companion. He seems like a really big man even seated, bigger than Vic, with broad shoulders and hairy arms resting on top of the table. His cowboy hat keeps his face in the shadows so Vic hasn’t yet seen his face when he stands near the table, interrupting whatever the man was whispering to Eddie.

“I don’t think I know you.”

Eddie looks up alarmed, eyes wide and face twisted with something very close to fear. Vic squints his eyes, confused, and then he looks at the man for the first time. He’s got a broad face, with a dimple on the chin, high cheekbones and a perfectly straight, pointy nose; his eyes are dark as the curly strand of hair that falls from under the hat in the middle of his forehead. He is handsome, and that makes Vic’s gut squirm with anger.

The man chews on a gum slowly, giving Vic a disinterested look up and down before speaking up, "I don’t think I know you.”

Vic chuckles like he finds the answer remotely funny, but he won’t be intimidated by some rowdy rancher. The stranger keeps a straight face.

“I’ll rephrase…,” Vic says, “who the fuck are you?”

Now the man does laugh, a low chuckle as he swings his arm up and around Eddie, resting his hand on his shoulder. “I’m a friend of Eddie’s. Sal’s the name.”

Vic shoots up his brows in surprise at the friendly gesture. He wants to know exactly what the fuck is up with this guy and his eyes go to Eddie in search for an answer, but Eddie’s just standing still, paralyzed and shooting nervous glances between Vic and Sal.

Vic gives the guy a friendly smile now, “Well, Sal, me and Eddie were having a good night, so why don’t you go fuck off,” he makes a swiping gesture with a hand and widens his grin.

“Vic-,” Eddie makes an attempt to intervene but Sal interrupts him.

“Nah, I don’t think I will,” The man reclines his chair back, balancing himself in the back legs with a smug grin on his face and looking like an absolute asshole, “You see, Eddie and I have been very good friends for… what, two years now?” Vic’s muscles tense listening to him, but he lets Sal continue speaking. “And I’ve never seen you so I think you’re the one who should split.” He draws up his thumb from Eddie’s shoulder to stroke his face, which prompts a cringe from him.

"Don’t fucking touch me,” Eddie snarls.

“Now Eddie,” Sal clicks his tongue and uses a chastising tone, “you weren’t saying that the last time I saw you.”

And that does it for Vic, who falls down into a chair next to the man and with a smooth motion grabs him by the collar and gets really close. With his other hand he pulls up the leg of his jeans, trying to draw his blade out of his boot.

“Buddy, if you don’t let go of him right now I will-” he feels a sharp pressure on his stomach and recognizes the shape of a gun’s barrel. His reacts with a surprised laughter, but even he can tell when the odds are really tipping against him, so he opens his left hand to let go of the cuff oh his pants..

“C'mon pal, I don’t think there’s anything that interesting down your boot. Hands where I can see ‘em.”

Vic clicks his tongue and obliges, releasing his collar and drawing up both palms slowly over the table. Sal takes the opportunity to bring Eddie closer and stand up, forcing the other man to get up with him. Vic doesn’t miss a beat and gets on his feet too, hands still up, pressing his chest forward into the gun with a smile on his face. Sal stands tall and strong, a few inches over him, big enough to scare anybody with a hint of common sense. But Vic doesn’t scare easy.

“If you take one single step I’ll break your neck,” he threatens calmly.

Sal’s face hardens as he tightens his grip on the gun, “I don’t think you wanna play this game, pal.”

“Oh, I wanna play,” Vic speaks slowly, “You wanna shoot me?” he points at his own chest with his hands, amused, “C'mon, tough cowboy, shoot me.”

“Vic…” Eddie starts speaking.

“Shut up Eddie,” Vic doesn’t need Eddie getting in the way, the whole fucking point of this is to get this guy away from him, “you, why don’t you pull the trigger if you’re such a tough boy, huh?”

“Vic, fucking stop it.” Eddie’s hurls through closed teeth; Vic can see his face starting to redden from the tension and anger bubbling up in him, but Sal still has an arm around his shoulder, gripping him tightly.

“Cmon.” Vic spurs again, speaking lower and pressing forward, and for a moment he thinks he might have to start throwing punches to get a reaction from the man, but Sal seems to be thinking better of it already; starts releasing the pressure from the gun, drawing it backwards slowly to place it in his hip holster again.

Vic grins, tilting his face up with arrogance, “That’s what I thought…”

The hand around Eddie’s shoulder relaxes, and Sal takes a slow step back as he squints, “I’ll be seeing you, Vic…”

“Yeah, I hope so.”

The man walks backwards slowly, keeping his eyes on Vic until he disappears among the people of the bar.

Vic exhales slowly, distensing his body for the first time in a while. He isn’t sure what the hell just happened, but he knows two things: he wants to kill this Sal guy, and he is very, very pissed at Eddie. He turns to glare at him with eyes cold and angry; unlike himself, Eddie has not relaxed at all.

“Vic…”

“Now who the fuck was that?“

"Vic, I can…”

“Let’s get out of here.” Vic starts circling the table toward Eddie as he gets a few crumpled bills from his pocket, throws them among the beer bottles without trying to count them, then he grabs Eddie by the arm and starts walking fast toward the door.

“Hey!” Eddie yanks his hand away hard, but still matches Vic’s walking pace. “I swear to fucking God, if someone else grabs me again tonight.”

“Oh yeah?” Vic turns to confront Eddie, crowding him, but he still speaks slowly “Is there someone else who’s gonna come take you for a dance, huh? Any other guys I oughta know about?” Vic chest feels like it’s on fire, and he thinks if Eddie gives him any more shit it might be his breaking point tonight.

But Eddie looks back at him like he’s gonna start shooting sparks out of his eyes any moment, “You know very damn well that’s not what I meant, you fucking nutcase,” he walks around Vic out the door and Vic follows behind.

Eddie crosses the parking lot in a few long paces and gets immediately in the passenger seat of the car, closing the door. Vic could get in the car, drive away and act as if that guy didn’t just threaten to kill him and got away with it; it’s probably the best thing he could do, considering he’s still on parole. But he doesn’t move toward the car’s door, instead, he approaches Eddie’s window and gives the glass a light tap. Eddie rolls his eyes as he rolls down the glass.

“What?!”

Vic perches himself on the window, points at Eddie with his finger, “Don’t move, I’ll be right back.”

“Have you ever heard the phrase ‘don’t bring a knife to a gunfight’, you moron?” Eddie’s squinting his eyes like he can’t believe Vic would be so stupid, but he doesn’t take offence, “Get back in the car!”

Vic is already standing up and walking toward the bar.

As soon as he gets in he starts scanning the place methodically, with a sharp look on his eyes as he walks along one wall so he never loses sight of the whole room; the guy is nowhere to be found. He makes his way to the bathrooms and inspects them too, with no luck. He closes a fist in frustration before walking back outside. When the chill night air hits him he takes a slow breath, brings his arms to his hips and gives the parking lot a glance, too; maybe the idiot is staying behind in his car waiting for Vic to break his face.

When Vic sees him he can’t believe his eyes. Sal is perching over Vic’s own Cadillac’s window, his hat hanging from his neck and thrown over his upper back, in the same posture Vic was not five minutes ago, speaking with Eddie and giving his back to the bar’s door. He might be big and good looking, Vic thinks, but the man sure ain’t the sharpest fella.

Vic approaches slowly from behind, stealthily, and when he’s close enough he brings his right hand back, taking impulse for a moment before swinging it forward with full force and an open palm towards Sal’s head; as soon as he comes in contact he grabs the hair and shoves him face first towards the car door. The knock of metal against forehead makes a loud thud.

“Shit!” Eddie pulls back, taken by surprise.

Vic uses the moment of confusion to take Sal’s gun from his holster, then stands back and throws it toward one end of the parking lot over the roofs of the cars; when he turns back around Sal’s already recovering, left fist up in front of his face while he swings the right. A cold punch lands on Vic’s jaw, another on his sternum. He stagers back for a moment, struggling to breath, but regains his balance quickly. He lets out a sigh and grins.

“So you can hit too, huh?”

He takes one step back to gain momentum, then throws himself with full force toward Sal’s waist, knocking him on his back with Vic on top of him. He scrambles up, grabs the man’s hair again and yanks upward, then back down, hitting the crown of his head against the hard pavement. He does it again. Sal grabs his shirt and pushes back, trying to get him off, but Vic’s got him pinned to the ground, resting his full weight on his ribs, the man almost unable to breath. Vic lets go of his hair and throws a punch to the eye, the jaw, the nose, starting to breath heavily himself. For the first time, he’s vaguely aware of Eddie’s amused howling and laughing through the car’s window.

“Heh, he sure didn’t see that comin’,” he taps the door of the car with a pleased grin, “Cmon, that’s enough, you’re gonna kill him.”

But Vic hasn’t had enough. He reaches for the razor in his boot, panting slightly from the strain of the fight, and opens it carefully, then brings the blade to the man’s face, resting it flat on his cheek. Sal’s face is smeared with blood from his nose and the open cuts in his brown and cheek, and he is gasping for air. Vic moves his face closer, his lips almost touching the other’s ear, and he whispers.

“If I ever see you again I’m gonna give your pretty face a fix-up,” he tilts his face sightly sideway to look him in the eye, “You want that, huh?”

Sal shakes his head faintly, keeping his eyes on Vic’s, but he doesn’t speak.

“Yeah, ’s what a thought.” He gives him a last grin and finally gets up, brushing one hand back through his messed up hair; with the other he closes the blade by pressing the blunt edge against one leg.

He walks around the car and gets in the driver’s seat, immediately puts in the key and starts the ignition, then maneuvers out of the parking lot without giving even one last glance to the man still lying on the pavement. Eddie’s giggling dies away as he sees Vic’s livid expression, and Vic’s glad because he doesn’t want Eddie to think for a moment that he’s off the hook.

“You have a lot of explainin’ to do.”

“Yeah, I guess I do, huh…”

As they drive back to the house Vic steals a glance to his right; even in the darkness of the road he can make out the younger man’s frown, his lower lip between his teeth. Vic wonders if Eddie missed him too.

***

1. yes they did have hot angry sex later.

2. also in case you read my posts where i detail my writing struggles yes Rock Hudson was my reference for Sal

3. Songs in the fic:

Blue Eyes Crying In The Rain by Willie Nelson

I’ve Been A Long Time Leaving (But I’ll Be A Long Time Gone) by Waylon Jennings

The Chokin’ Kind by Waylon Jennings

Luckenbach, Texas (Back To The Basics Of Love) by Waylon Jennings & Willie Nelson

title of the fic comes Psycho Killer by The Talking Heads

#toothpick bitchslap #vic/eddie #ficlet #fic #my writing #reservoir dogs #vic vega #nice guy eddie #mr blonde #blonde/eddie

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onewaywardwitch · 5 years

Text

Just A Typo (10/?)

Pairing: Bucky Barnes x Hacker!Reader

Summary: It was a simple challenge between a very competitive group of friends. A challenge that ended very differently than anticipated.

Warnings: Pure fluff

Word Count: 1941

A/N: I’m back! Yay! Thank you all so much for all your kind words, I’m really loving writing this series. Exams are finally over which means regular updates! Imagine that...

There is a small scene in this part that was not my idea. I got it from a tumblr post that I saw ages ago and can no longer find. So full credits go to the person who came up with the idea! There’ll be a series of ***** beside the scene.

“I'm going to miss being able to feel my arms,” I groaned as Nat knocked me down to ground once again.

“Come on, get up,” she said, smirking at my exhausted form on the floor. I didn’t answer her at first. Instead I slowly got into the fetal position and covered my eyes.

“If I don’t look up, she won't be there, if I don’t look up, she won't be there,” I muttered repetitively. Her laughter from above me confirmed that my chanting did nothing.

I crawled as slowly as I possibly could until I was facing her and scowled.

“This is pointless.”

“Stop slouching.”

We had a mini stare off before I coped on that I was arguing with Natasha Romanoff and I should probably just shut up and get this over and done with.

I didn’t notice Bucky and Steve coming in to watch us train. Or rather, watch Nat look bored as she effortlessly knocked me down.

“Shouldn’t you actually teach me instead of just acting like I'm capable of defending myself?”

“I've found it's better to learn on the job.”

“You just wanna hit me.”

She shrugged in reply, not easing my nerves in the slightest.

She swung her fist in my direction, and instead of attempting to block it, I just walked off the training mat.

“I cannot be anywhere near her. This woman is trying to kill me!”

Steve shook his head at my statement. “Come on, I'm sure you're learning plenty.”

“Well, I did learn what a treadmill looks like,” I replied gesturing in the general direction of where the treadmills were across the gym. “But all I've learned from Nat is that I'm hopeless.”

“Here, try this,” Bucky said, holding out a knife to me. I stared at him in disbelief. Steve raised an eyebrow at his friend, but Nat wasn’t fazed in the slightest.

“A knife?”

He looked surprised at my reaction, as if he expected me to welcome the idea of knife-wielding. I'm sure he thought he was being helpful. “You're shockingly terrible at self-defence without any weapons. This might help. How else are you going to defend yourself?”

“I figured my winning personality would be enough for them to leave me alone.”

“And if not?”

I paused for a moment, mulling over my other options before I muttered in a small voice, “A very loud battle cry.”

Steve snorted and even Nat tried to hold in a laugh. Bucky shook his head, pocketing the knife and walking out, a defeated look etched onto his face.

~~~~~

Angie and Becca decided they would grace me with their presence and managed to save me from another training session with Nat. Tony took it upon himself to make sure the kitchen was always fully stocked with tea for Angie and a lot of Haribo for me. He didn’t get anything for Becca. Instead, he swore that she had his full permission to attack any of the Avengers with pillows if she felt they screwed something up. Or if she just felt like it.

The kitchen was empty for a change. Some privacy was rare in a tower as busy as this one and I was grateful for the time to catch up with my friends.

“What’s it like living here?” Becca asked while admiring the toaster (“It's just so shiny!”). “Is it as awesome as everyone imagines? Do they spend all their time training? Does Captain America just walk around with his shirt off all the time, or only sometimes?”

I thought back to how I spent nearly forty minutes explaining the difference between regular flour and self-rising flour to Bucky yesterday. “It's definitely an experience.”

Angie raised an eyebrow at me, a small smile playing on her lips. “You realise you're living the dream millions of people have had?”

“Yeah, well when you watch Captain America try to work a laptop it starts to lose its appeal.”

*****

“Hey, have any of you seen Bruce anywhere?” Tony asked the few Avengers that were gathered in the kitchen. Unfortunately, his words were drowned out by the sound of Black Sabbath’s ‘Iron Man’ blaring throughout the room.

A few of the teammates looked surprised. The rest just sighed.

“Not again,” Steve muttered. Him and Tony shared a knowing look. Bucky stared at Steve, a frown on his face and he looked around for where the music came from. He glanced at Wanda who was giggling at the look of pure exhaustion on Tony’s face. She noticed him looking at her and explained the situation, grinning widely.

“Y/N’s got bored lately so she hacked into F.R.I.D.A.Y. and has her play certain songs every time certain people walk into the kitchen,” she explained and Bucky couldn’t help but laugh.

“You can laugh now,” Steve said, folding his arms across his chest and huffing. “It's not funny when you get up at three in the morning for a glass of water and the American anthem starts playing at full volume.”

Sam laughed, choking on whatever it was he was eating. Bucky retaliated by whacking him on the back with his stronger arm. Sam went flying off the sofa, glaring at Bucky who looked away innocently.

“I don’t blame her for being bored cooped up in here, but why don’t you just get F.R.I.D.A.Y. to stop it?” Clint questioned Tony.

It was a fair question, and everyone turned to Tony, waiting on his reply. His ears tinged the faintest shade of pink, which was a rarity for the ever-confident billionaire.

“Becauseshelockedmeout,” he mumbled quickly.

“What was that?”

“She locked me out! I have no idea what she’s done but she changed F.R.I.D.A.Y.’s protocol so the one thing I can’t access are the speakers around the tower. I'm incredibly proud and impressed but, I gotta say, my ego’s taken a hit.

~~~~~

At that precise moment, I walked in, failing to notice the array of looks I was being given. From exasperation to pure amusement, everyone seemed to have mixed feelings regarding my antics.

It took a moment for me to feel the number of eyes glued on my figure. I immediately decided to play the nonchalant, nothing-is-going-on card.

“Who had the last poptart?” I asked, looking everywhere except at Tony, Steve, and Nat, who were the only people I had edited songs for. So far.

Steve cleared his throat, but I focused my attention on Wanda.

“Was it you? I knew you were eating all my food.”

He coughed slightly again so I turned to him.

“I have a great doctor in the city if that cold is bothering you.”

Tony tried his hardest not to smile, stepping forward to talk to me.

It took nearly twenty minutes for our discussion to end, during which he asked (begged) me to turn off the music. My immediate response was accusing him of trying to inhibit my creative musical expression.

I could tell Tony didn’t know how he felt about meeting his quick-witted equal. We were similar in more ways than he would admit. The only difference was that I didn’t flaunt my abilities as he did. I preferred to remain under the radar while he enjoyed the life of celebrity genius. It gave me an idea of what my life could have been like, had I shown my skill to large companies years ago. The thought of it made me shudder. There was no way I would have been able to cope with the press Tony does all the time. Each day I spent in his company made me respect him even more. It was refreshing to see him as a real and generous person and not the self-centred man the media often painted him as.

~~~~~

Bucky was looking for absolutely nobody because for once he had nothing to do and was planning on finally understanding all the hype around ‘Game of Thrones’, when he caught sight of Y/N sitting on the floor against the wall of the corridor with her laptop on her lap. She hadn’t seen him yet and he contemplated going a different way so he wouldn’t make a fool of himself in front of the tower’s resident hacker. God knows every time he was left alone with her, he said something stupid or tripped up. He was convinced she thought he was an idiot, and he couldn’t blame her.

~~~~~

I looked up as I heard heavy boots approaching me. Bucky was nervously chewing on his lip as he stood in front of me. There was silence for a moment, both of us wondering if we should be the first one to speak up.

“How are you?”

“What are you working on?”

How convenient that we both spoke at exactly the same time. I could only imagine that I had a blush on my face that matched the one growing on his.

I nodded at the screen in front of me. “I'm just changing around F.R.I.D.A.Y.’s protocols before Steve wets himself every time he goes into the kitchen at three in the morning. Which, apparently, is a regular thing.”

Bucky chuckled. “Yeah, he doesn’t have the best sleeping schedule.” He gestured towards the empty space beside me and I patted the ground, not even hesitating for him to sit beside me.

He kept silent at I worked on my laptop. He was watching what I was doing but I could tell he was completely lost.

I glanced over slyly and nearly laughed as his eyes went back and forth at record speed, doing his best to scan and understand what the lines of numbers and words meant.

“All of this is F.R.I.D.A.Y. You're looking at everything she’s responsible for.” I pointed at a specific few lines, drawing his attention instantly. “See that there? That’s the code that stops unauthorised individuals from entering the private floors. And down here,” I moved down the screen. “is how she analyses fight patterns.”

“And this is how Tony gets an immediate notification whenever someone blocks the disposal with coffee grounds.”

Bucky’s eyes widened and he stared at me in shock. “He knows about that?”

“It's a common problem.” I giggled slightly, casting my eyes down the corridor. “I'm surprised no one has come down this way yet. This is normally one of the busier hallways.”

~~~~~

Becca came to visit her friend and just so happened to bump into Tony as she searched the tower. They walked together for a bit, casually chatting about nothing in particular. That’s when they came across Y/N and Bucky, sitting very close together. Becca grabbed Tony by his shirt and pulled him back around the corner and down the halls they came through, as quickly and quietly as she could manage. By the time she let go of him, he appeared relatively flustered.

“What the hell was that?”

“Y/N has been babbling on about Bucky for ages. They're sitting there talking and being all obliviously lovey dovey, so nobody is going to interrupt them, capiche?”

Tony took a step back, the intense look on Becca’s face scaring him ever so slightly.

They stood guard a few corridors away from the couple, stopping anyone from heading down that way. It wasn’t long before Steve tried passing them, to no avail.

“Come on guys, what’s the issue? The closest bathroom is down that way,” he complained.

“Sort out your bladder issue somewhere else, Rogers. My best friend’s love life is on the line here.”

That got his interest.

When Bruce attempted to cross them, he was stopped by Steve who had joined the cause.

“Bucky needs to get a life” was Steve’s only response.

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junionigiri · 6 years

Text

Yes (BNHA) Chapter 8: Maybe, Somehow

Fic Summary: There’s nothing quite like a first love that cannot love you back. This is a collection of loosely related one-shots about the students of 1A dealing with unrequited love, which begins when people start to notice that Midoriya Izuku might be falling for Todoroki Shouto.

Chapter Summary: To make up for her numerous mistakes in class rep work, Yaoyorozu takes Iida out for burgers. Their meal is interrupted when Iida receives word of his brother being admitted back to the hospital. (IidaMomo; implied one-sided TodoMomo)

Read the chapter on AO3

The 1A classroom was quiet and tidy and almost empty. As much as Iida Tenya liked his classmates and tolerated their rowdy behavior, this was the time of the day that he enjoyed the classroom the most, because he could give his due silent, proper reverence to the room which was pivotal to the growth of many of the heroes he respected.

… or so he tried to tell himself, as his bespectacled eyes befell over the gentle movement of a certain delicate hand that needed to tuck a stray strand of hair behind a delicate ear. He refused to admit that this was his favorite time of the day on his favorite day of the week, just because he and Yaoyorozu Momo-kun tended to meet for class governance related matters at that time.

He also steadfastly refused to admit that he looked forward to that meeting in particular, because Midoriya-kun, Uraraka-kun, and Tsuyu-chan-kun had other things to do, and there was apparently nobody waiting for Yaoyorozu-kun either. In other words, it was just him and her and a pile of hard work. His shoulders tensed in excitement.

“Let’s work hard today,” she told him with a quiet elegance that no other living thing on the face of the earth could produce, and he found it a little harder to refuse his steadfast train of thought then.

He was at least willing to admit that there were many things he liked about Yaoyorozu Momo-kun. For instance, he liked having her as his--no, not just his, Class 1A’s--vice president. She was organized, decisive, serious, cooperative, all those good qualities and more. She was the type of student who separated documents in color-coded plastic files, used page flags and post-its with cute notes and smileys, and tended to use a specific brand of ball point pen with a 0.5mm width to keep her handwriting neat and consistent.

When he commended her for these, she proudly told him that she’d bought her items in a stationery store that she liked, instead of creating them with her quirk. He liked her for that. He liked that she respected the economy.

But that wasn’t all--come on, Iida, surely you realize that it’s anemic to say ‘I like this girl for respecting the economy!’ He liked that she was always poised and presentable that he couldn’t help but take in all the little details about her when they meet like this.

Yes, that was all. He frequently found himself thanking the other anonymous voter who gave her a vote during class elections and thus propelled her to the role of Vice President.

But that meeting, as much as he secretly looked forward to it, was turning out to be not as ideal and as productive as he’d liked. They were assigned by Aizawa-sensei to form a data grid of all the class members’ physical attributes, including compatibilities and incompatibilities with each other, which they should do incognito as part of planning for their next training camp.

However, Yaoyorozu-kun uncharacteristically forgot her share of files in the dorm.

She apologized very profusely, bowing her head so many times that he feared her ponytail would dismantle. Iida reassured her that they could work on it next time, although he knew that this would be a major deviation from their meticulously formed and mutually agreed-upon Gantt Chart. She’d suggested working on it in the common room, but then realized that they couldn’t keep it a secret then, and she apologized once more for her silly idea.

“Please worry no further, Yaoyorozu-kun,” he said, karate-chopping the space in between them in an effort to stop her from bowing her head like the paw of a Maneki-neko. “Let us focus instead on writing our activity summary for the past cultural festival.”

She agreed then, but even that didn’t go as smoothly as Iida expected. Yaoyorozu’s share of reports had small typos riddled here and there, which was frankly concerning because she was also the type of student who tended to edit her work a minimum of three times before submitting them. Iida corrected these quietly on the spot, until he came across a major error in one of them.

He didn’t mean to, but he made a small grumbling noise as he looked over the report in front of him. He saw the ponytail move downward again from the corner of his eye.

“.. you’re right, I think I made a mistake here,” he heard her say across from him. They were looking over the financial reports from the last school festival--certainly an important, crucial activity that required utmost accuracy and care, but not one that warranted this much distress from the vice-president. “I must have messed up in my calculations. I’m sorry, Iida-kun.”

She sighed very deeply then, and Iida was reminded of how exhausted she appeared since the beginning of their meeting. He didn’t want to acknowledge this, because he had a very annoying inkling of what might have happened to cause this, although Iida didn’t tend to talk about other things with her, for professionalism’s sake.

“Yaoyorozu-kun, I think we need to wrap up today.”

Hearing the tired tone in his voice made her look up. A new glassy sheen covered her onyx eyes. “Oh, but we have so much to do, Iida-kun, we should at least finish the festival paperwork…” She took the report back from him and began to re-do her computations. “I… might have had a little trouble with these, but I can fix all of them now. No need to worry.”

She put on a brave smile for him before she focused on her work, the steely glare of determination back again, and he didn’t have the wherewithal to stop her.

But he wasn’t blind. Seeing the dark circles under her eyes and the lack of the usual glow on her usually dewy skin reminded him of at least twenty terrible injustices in modern society that were slightly less just than the sight before him then.

Yaoyorozu-kun didn’t deserve this turmoil, he thought bitterly to himself. As to why he felt so bitter though, he didn’t want to acknowledge.

Somehow she pressed on, and it took about an hour before they were able to come up with a comprehensive report that passed both Iida and Yaoyorozu standards. To his relief, it seemed that she was able to push whatever was bothering her to the back of her mind, and she was able to smile 10 times in their meeting, with about 2 of them obviously genuine.

Just like that, their meeting for that day was over, but Iida told her that they needed to meet again later in the weekend, perhaps in the library, to work on their remaining assignment together. She nodded quietly as they walked together to the print room to have the final version printed.

“Everything looks to be in order,” said Iida, tapping the sheaf of papers satisfactorily over the counter. Nothing like the sound of a job well done. He raised one arm in salute to the vice president. “It is time for me to pass this to the student council--”

“Iida-kun, I feel terrible about today,” she said, cutting him off mid-karate chop. She rubbed one arm bashfully and kept her eyes to the floor.

“It’s all right, Yaoyorozu-kun! I do understand that anyone may feel overwhelmed and exhausted given the many responsibilities we have in hero training, school work and such. Even an upstanding student such as yourself.”

He didn’t always wish that his way of speaking would be less stiff, but even he felt like cringing when he realized that he called a girl he was comforting ‘an upstanding student’. As if he was channeling Principal Nezu or something.

A bashful smile was on her face as she replied quietly, “Still, it’s no excuse for my mistakes today. I caused you a lot of trouble, Iida-kun.”

“Think no more of it,” he said, a little quieter this time. “I’d… prefer it if you spent a little more time tonight taking care of yourself.”

“Do I look that haggard? Is my skin that hideous, Iida-kun?” she asked, putting one hand to her dewy face in reflex.

“No--of course not--you don’t look hideous, heaven forbid, you are the farthest thing from haggard or hideous, I mean--”

Wait, she was laughing. It was a little weak, but she was laughing. And now she was laughing at him stumble over his words like the fool that he was. “It was a joke, Iida-kun. Thank you for your kind words. I do understand your sentiment, but I was hoping to make things up with you by treating you to food before we head back to the dorms.”

Just the two of us? an insolent part of his mind immediately voiced in his head, resulting in an embarrassed choking sound emerging from his mouth.

“Or are you busy?” asked Yaoyorozu in concern. “Because if you are, I understand. It must have been too brazen of me to assume…”

“Let us food!” proclaimed Iida, already marching to the direction of the exits. Only realizing belatedly that a) he forgot about the student council papers, b) he was leaving Yaoyorozu-kun behind, c) he said something nonsensical, and d) he was a big, square-shaped fool.

Luckily, Yaoyorozu only laughed at his tomfoolery and accompanied him to his tasks without a second thought.

While initially Iida worried about her treating him to an upscale restaurant befitting of a refined girl like her, much to his relief, Yaoyorozu had insisted on treating him to burgers. More specifically, the new Mess Burger that opened within campus.

It was perfect. The most important thing, of course, was that the place was within campus, so they would remain within the safe perimeter of the campus. Furthermore, Iida wouldn’t feel too embarrassed about being treated to anything too fancy. Besides, it looked like she was more excited about eating something so middle-class. “I’ve only ever eaten hamburgers when we go to America for vacation,” she said without a hint of boastfulness. “I wonder how local burgers will compare…”

It was comforting to Iida to see that she planned to order a lot. She ordered three types of burgers, three large fries, onion rings, chicken tenders, and a large milkshake. When she turned to him to ask for what he would like, the cashier almost lost his mind. Embarrassed to order anything less than her, for some reason, he loudly declared that he would have exactly the same thing.

“Are you sure?” asked Yaoyorozu in concern, to which he just nodded stubbornly.

And that’s how he ended up halfway through his second burger, trying his hardest not to throw up and wishing that he was wearing sweatpants instead of his starched school uniform slacks. Across from him, Yaoyorozu was delicately eating her way through all of her entrees, a bit of her glow coming back to her.

“Thank you for accompanying me, Iida-kun. I couldn’t imagine that a locally made American-style hamburger would be so wonderful,” she said brightly.

“Th… think nothing of it,” he said, struggling not to sound like he wanted to throw up. “Is this your first meal of the day?”

She nodded bashfully. “My… appetite hasn’t been the best these past few days. It hasn’t been ideal for my quirk. So I have some catching up to do, to be honest.”

“I see,” said Iida, swallowing a mouthful of meat. He knew about her lack of appetite very well. He had been there during their hero training, after all, and saw how she barely had the will to eat at least one of a mountain of rice balls that Aizawa-sensei was pressuring her to finish.

She had that look of concern on her face once more as she looked at his struggle. “Iida-kun, you don’t have to eat as much as I do… I’m surprised that you ordered so much!”

“No, no, no, it looked too strange that a taller and bigger-built individual such as I would eat less than you! Besides, with the increased amount of physical training that everyone is doing, we could all use the extra calories to build more muscle!”

Yaoyorozu started laughing. Ah, what a refreshing sound. His stomach suddenly felt like it could manage another five burgers or so. “Please don’t feel pressured by me. If you really can’t finish, we can always bring the leftovers back to the dorm.”

“Ever the sensible one, Yaoyorozu-kun. I do agree--ah, excuse me.” His phone started vibrating in his blazer’s pocket.

The screen showed that his mother was calling. He was suddenly overcome by a sense of apprehension. “Mother,” he said, voice low.

“Tenya.” His mother’s voice sounded strained, as it usually did these days. “I’m sorry for bothering you if you’re busy. But it’s about your brother. Not to alarm you, but today, he…”

Iida nodded and made sounds of affirmation as his mother relayed what happened. “All right… I’ll notify our instructor. I’ll be right there.”

He hung up and met with Yaoyorozu’s worried gaze. He released a breath he didn’t realize he was holding.

“Is… everything all right?”

“They… had to take my older brother to the hospital again.” Iida didn’t like how his voice shook, even if it was subtle. Yaoyorozu’s eyes widened in worry. He tried to gesture vaguely with his hands not to worry, even though he didn’t really understand what his stupid hands were doing. “No, it’s all right. He has a fever, that’s all. My parents are just being extra careful when he has small problems like this. I just… I just need to inform Aizawa-sensei… the hospital’s just a train away, so…”

He said those things to stop her from worrying even though he himself didn’t fully believe in his words. Tensei’s strong, but his spinal injury made him prone to a lot of complications that made Tenya deathly anxious just reading about them. What if it’s sepsis? What if it’s multi-drug resistant this time? What if he goes into shock? Just the thought of it scrambled his thoughts into an unreadable mess.

His fingers felt numb and heavy as he searched for Aizawa-sensei through his contacts. He barely noticed a graceful hand reach out to keep his still.

“Iida-kun,” said Yaoyorozu, bringing him back to reality. “I’ll come with you. Let Aizawa-sensei know.”

His thoughts, which were filled with noise just a millisecond ago, were suddenly stunned into silence. “What?”

“You’re not okay.” She had her own smart phone out and was dialing a different number. “As the vice-president, I have a responsibility to look out for you, class president. Please leave the transportation to me.”

He shook his head vehemently. “No, I can’t possibly ask you…” he began. Suddenly stern, she held out her hand up to keep him from speaking further.

At the other end of the line, he heard Aizawa-sensei’s curt voice, snapping him back once more to reality. Trying not to lose focus, he stammered out the family situation once more, and asked for permission for him and Yaoyorozu to come to the hospital.

“Yaoyorozu too?” asked Aizawa-sensei, a curious undertone to his bored voice apparent. After explaining that she extended her assistance to him, the teacher made a hum of affirmation. “All right. While you’re off campus, you two stick together. You’ll be responsible for her and vice-versa.”

“Understood.” Iida nodded as Aizawa-sensei added a few standard threats of them to not break any laws and to not use their quirks for whatever reason, and to let him know if they were back in the dorms.

After ending the call, he nodded to Yaoyorozu. Within minutes, a stretch limousine belonging to the Yaoyorozu family skidded to a halt in front of the humble burger joint. They stood up and left without a word.

Iida tried not to feel too numb or too anxious during their ride on the limo or their walk in the lobby or their ride in the elevators to room 504 in Ward 5A, where his older brother Tensei was admitted for the 3rd time this year. But the smell of antiseptic, the abnormal brightness of the lights, heck, even the shades of white and green and blue that scrubsuits and coats that the doctors and nurses wore made an array of uncomfortable feelings arise in his chest.

It was probably good that Yaoyorozu forced herself there. Somehow hearing her call out to him woke him up and made him aware of how he needed to walk forward and open the door or press the elevator buttons. He probably wouldn’t have made it to Tensei’s room if it weren’t for her.

Somehow, they reached the room in question. Tensei was sitting up on his bed, a little red in the face and a little tired, but he was smiling. “Tenya!”

All the other vital signs on the monitor were stable. Good. All good. Tensei was good. “Onii-san,” he called out. His shoulders sagged in relief.

“Hey now, don’t give me that kind of look. I might just get sicker, you know?” Tensei teased as he reached out to embrace him.

“Is… is that possible?! Are there new studies regarding caregiver stress and prognosis?! Then I shall smile!”

“Tenya, you’re too serious!” Tensei laughed as the younger brother made a weird grunting noise as he bared his teeth to him. And then, an altogether different smile went up his face, as he nudged him playfully. “So… are you going to introduce me to your friend?”

“What…? Oh,” Iida tensed, inwardly cursed his rudeness, inwardly cursed that he did something ridiculous in front of her. “This is my older brother Tensei, the pro hero Ingenium--”

“Former pro-hero,” clarified Tensei. The words still stung, but Iida pressed on.

“And this is my classmate from UA, also our class vice-president, Yaoyorozu-kunnnnnnnn?!?!?!” Iida’s jaw dropped when he turned to the girl in question, who was, for one reason or another, already carrying a large Ming-style vase with various genuine-looking flowers encased within.

Yaoyorozu blinked once, and then blushed furiously at Iida’s flabbergasted expression. “Oh… I apologize, Iida-kun! I thought it was improper of me to visit without bringing a gift for Iida-san, so I took the liberty of making a get-well bouquet with my quirk,” she stammered sheepishly. “They’re plastic flowers, so infection control concerns shouldn’t be a problem…”

Ever proper, Yaoyorozu-kun! Iida already regretted looking at the large plastic bouquet in shock. Behind him, Tensei laughed so hard he started coughing. “It’s fine, Yaoyorozu-kun! Please, pardon my overreaction! Your gift is very much appreciated!!!”

“Really? That’s a relief,” she said, carefully setting down the vase on the floor (it was way too big to be placed on any of the tables). She bowed her head politely in the patient’s direction. “This is the first time we meet. I am Yaoyorozu Momo.”

“Likewise. Please continue taking care of my brother Tenya,” replied Tensei just as courteously. His smile looked too much like the mischievous grin that he gave Tenya right before he teased him relentlessly.

Yaoyorozu nodded. “I’ll give you some time alone, Iida-kun. I’ll wait for you at the lobby.”

“... All right.” Iida watched as she bowed her way out of the room. As soon as the door slammed, he yelped when he felt Tensei’s still-strong hand slap him on the back.

“Tenya-kun, you’re so cool. You didn’t tell me you had a girlfriend~ should I have mom send some red bean rice for you in the dorm?”

The indignation! He gasped in offense at the mere thought of it. “You are -very- mistaken, onii-san! I would never--Yaoyorozu-kun is merely a reliable classmate--I wouldn’t dream of--”

Tensei laughed again, and Tenya grumbled a little bit on how healthy and not-sick he was and he should just go home already if he was feeling so well. “Jokes aside, Tenya, I’m okay. I didn’t need to be in the hospital, but mom insisted and the doctors said it was about time for another executive check-up anyway.”

“But you have a fever--”

“Just a cold. Let’s not talk about what’s wrong with me.” He smiled so brightly it betrayed his illness. Tenya was grateful for the blanket that covered the atrophied legs and engines at the lower half of his strong older brother’s body. “So, Tenya, what’s going on at school?”

Tenya smiled and obliged, telling him about all the fantastic experiences and funny stories of his colleagues in UA. His brother, the very beacon of positivity, looked very genuine as he asked a few questions every now and then, just pausing a few times to let a cough escape from his throat. Tensei mentioned Midoriya, saying that he should keep such a reliable friend around him, and also mentioned that the green-haired boy reminded him very much of a friend of his who was similarly brave and an avid All Might fanboy.

“So… about Yaoyorozu-san,” said Tensei, again with that teasing tone.

Tenya sighed in exasperation. “It’s… impossible, onii-san.”

“What are you talking about? I didn’t say anything.” He merely chucked when Tenya did his odd karate-chopping movements a little more violently than usual. “Seriously, though, Tenya, this is the first time I’ve ever seen you with a girl, and with such a good dynamic between you two to boot. Can’t I feel a little hopeful for you?”

“Brother,” he said, his voice unintentionally dropping a bit.

“Are you holding yourself back again?” Tensei looked up at him expectantly, an enigmatic smile on his face.

Of course he’s holding himself back. Why wouldn’t he hold himself back? There were more important things in his life than his silly, childish crush that Iida Tenya had to worry about. Like being an upstanding UA student. Like being the class leader. Like being a great pro Hero. Like being the next Ingenium.

Besides… he knew about Yaoyorozu-kun. He knew about how slowly, deftly, she let Todoroki-kun into her heart, watched her work so hard to stand on equal footing next to him for such a long time that Iida felt he was on a completely different stage from them. And he knew that even if he was brave enough to ask, there wasn’t going to be room for him there in her heart, anyway.

Not for him.

“It’s fine,” his older brother’s voice cut through his introspections like broken glass. He was smiling back at him again, a little more apologetic this time. “I didn’t mean to pressure you into it, Tenya. Whether it’s a question or timing or whatever, you know best what to do.”

Timing? Iida blinked slowly at this. Was there really a more appropriate time in the future when he could stop convincing himself that he didn’t only like Yaoyorozu-kun as his vice president? He could only imagine being able to do so after he’s proven himself worthy of being somebody else than the Iida Tenya of that day, who couldn’t even walk up to his brother’s bedside without being guided like a blind man.

And… it was going to be a long journey between this Iida Tenya and that Iida Tenya. He was still so far away from where he wanted to be. He told his brother so.

“Exactly. That’s where we all start, Tenya.” Tensei gave him another comforting smile then. “That’s why I’m telling you now that not all impossible things remain impossible forever. You wouldn’t really know unless you keep moving forward.”

Tensei placed his still-strong arm over Tenya’s shoulder, and gave a reassuring smile. The younger brother touched his hand gratefully.

“Now… go get ‘em, Tiger.” He winked at him then, and Tenya wondered whether they’d kick him out of the hospital for slapping a sick man with the back of his hand.

When he went down to the lobby, Yaoyorozu was speaking to someone on her phone. She met his eyes briefly, smiled politely, and told the other person on the line, “Iida-kun’s here. We’ll go home in a bit. See you soon, Kyoka.”

She hung up the phone and smiled up at him warmly. The meal they had about an hour ago did her well, and the beautiful glow on her skin was back and ever radiant. “Iida-kun, you’re back!” She tilted his head at him the next moment in curiosity. “… what’s wrong?”

Iida straightened his mouth, only realizing then that he must have had a ridiculous expression on his face. Tensei’s go get ‘em Tiger~ echoed in his brain as he tried to avoid Yaoyorozu’s doe eyes. Ah, stupid onii-san and his silly jokes! “It’s nothing,” he supplied weakly.

The vice president blinked curiously at him. “Is there anything wrong with Iida Tensei-san?”

“Oh, no, on the contrary, he’s annoyingly risible,” said Iida. When Yaoyorozu looked at him questioningly once more, he elaborated, “He… just gave me things to think about. Like… timing.”

“... timing?”

“... yes,” he answered, suddenly finding it hard to not look into her eyes. He noticed this long ago during the earliest days of school, but once again he was reminded that they were a shade of onyx that was exquisite, and he’d like to spend more time staring into them, if he could. But…

He stared at the shadows under his eyes. Felt the exhaustion that she tried to hide from plain view. It’s only been a week since ‘then’, he knew, and he decided that it was more honorable to wait. “… the timing of his antibiotics,” he said lamely, after some introspection.

“... oh!” Yaoyorozu was suddenly nodding fervently. “That is a very important point of discussion. You know, I’ve studied about the chemical structure of antibiotics, thinking that it may be useful during rescue operations, and…”

She practically bounced as they made their way back to her family’s limousine. He listened to her quite contentedly as she spoke about the intricacies and controversies about antibiotic use. It wasn’t long before they reached the dorm and he sated everyone’s questions about his brother, and it wasn’t long before he was saying “good night and thank you” to Yaoyorozu-kun, who gently told him the same thing with her wonderful voice.

He could listen to her voice forever, he decided, and he decided then that it was something worth waiting for.

#bnha #bnha fic #iidamomo #unrequited love #iida tenya x yaoyorozu momo #my fav square

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wahbegan · 7 years

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I really miss the post editing function actually because i used to be able to fix like minuscule little typos when i reblogged something and nobody would notice and the world kept spinning happily around but now i just have to sit there and look on helplessly as people reblog posts with one tiny little thing spellcheck didn’t pick up on glaring at me like having “out” instead of “our” or something and then i have to reblog it myself cause it’s a good post but there’s that one niggling little fucking typo with its beady little eyes burning into my soul and boring its way into my fucking heart and fucking nesting there because you disgusting liquefied fucking rat testes just couldn’t resist cyberbullying fucking john green NOT EVEN VERY WELL I MIGHT ADD you sons of bitches got the edit post feature ripped away from us just to make a bunch of jokes about how john green likes to suck cock you are GOD when you can edit someone else’s post you can make it say anything your imagination could possibly conceive you could have edited that post to make him confess to being behind the Zodiac killings in gruesome detail, you could have made him rant about how he loved 9/11 or humping dead dogs, you could have done anything and you just put in a fucking copypasta about how he loves the taste of cum like some homophobic prick in middle school i hope you’re happy you shit weasels

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podcastcoach · 4 years

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The Zoom Podtrack P4 Portable Podcast Recorder

The Zoom Podtrack P4 is coming out next month (from what I hear) and this appears to be a game-changer for those podcasting on a budget. Here are some of the features of the Zoom Podtrack P4:

Zoom Podtrack P4 Podcast Recorder Four mic inputs with XLR connectors Four headphone outputs with individual volume control Gain control knobs and mute buttons for each input Phantom power for all XLR inputs Automatically prevent feedback from call audio using the Mix-Minus function Easily connect your phone using the TRRS connection Trigger sound effects using four assignable Sound Pads with 11preset sounds All input sources can be recorded on separate tracks 16-bit /44.1kHz audio WAV Records directly to SD, SDHC and SDXC cards up to 512 GB 2-input, 2-output USB audio interface Class-compliant mode for iOS compatibility Up to four hours of use with just two AA batteries or a USB power supply Can be powered via 2 AA Batteries Can be powered via USB or Zoom AD-17 AC Adapter

Comparing the Podtrack P4 to the Rodecaster Pro

Zoom P4 VS Rodercaster Pro

Zoom Podtrack P4 Manual (pdf),

Price: Zoom Podtrack P4 is $199 Rodecaster is $599

Audio Processing: The Rodecaster has built-in APHEX audio processing and mic modeling. There is a "big bottom," an aural exciter, a compressor, and noise gate. The P4 has a low cut (to cut out unnecessary frequencies) and a limiter (to make sure you don't peak and distort). ThePodtrack P4 does have very powerful preamps that are very quiet. The Rodecaster also features a built-in ducking option so if the host is in channel 1, and someone tries to talk at the same time this feature (which can be turned on and off) will ensure the host (mic 1) is heard.

Sound Pads: The Rodecaster has 8 pads for sound effects vs the 4 on the P4. If you're doing things live and want the ability to play sounds with a press of a button. As both the Rodecaster and the P4 have the ability to plug a phone in and you could use an app like Backpack studio which enables you to have a ton of sound pads.

Slider Vs Knobs The Rodecaster has sliders vs the knobs on the P4

Storage: The P4 has a SD card, the Rodecaster has a micro SD Card. On their website, the Rodecaster mentions Micro SD up to 256 Gigs. The Podtrack P4 mentions card up to 512 Gigs. Both of those sizes are huge.

Bluetooth: The Rodecaster has built-in Blue Tooth, the P4 has an optional BTA-2 Bluetooth option ($49)

Recording Sample Rate: The Rodecaster records in 48khz/24-bit, the P4 is 44.1khz/16 bit. While I don't feel this makes that much of a difference (as in the end your podcast is listened to in earbuds, car speakers, and portable speakers). However, if you're doing anything with video, your video editor will be happy you have the ability to record in 48khz.

Number of Tracks: The Rodecaster can record up to 8 tracks, the P4 records up to 4 Both units provide a stereo mixdown, and in addition to the mic inputs, they provide tracks for the pads. The Rodecaster has the ability to turn off the multi-track recording.

Recording Into Your Computer Both send a stereo mix to the computer (great for live streaming), but the Rodecaster can also send map individual tracks to channels.

Interface The Rodecaster has a touch screen. The P4 has a simple to use menu system.

Markers The Rodecaster has the ability to add markers (which can be very useful for editing) While other room recorders have this feature the P4 does not )

Outputs The Rodecaster has 4 headphones out in addition to a stereo out. The Zoom P4 has four headphones out.

Footprint: The Rodecaster is 14" X 11" the P4 4.1" X6.1.' This might be important for those with smaller desktops. The P4 is 1/4th smaller than the Rodecaster.

For my friends across the pond the Rodecaster is 350 mm x 275 mm the Podtrack P4 is 112 mm x 155 mm

Warranty: RodecasterPro: Limited 1-Year Warranty with 1 Additional Year upon Registration. (source BNH). Podtrack P4: Limited 1-Year Warranty (source BNH).

If you're looking for a great sounding unit, and never need to record more than four sources, this is a great unit. Audio snobs will complain about the lack of ability to record in 48khz/24hz but 44.1/16 will be fine for something that is heard in-car speakers and earbuds. Some will complain about sliders vs knobs. The knobs help cut the footprint which gives you your desk back. If you want to achieve the tone of the rodecaster you will need to invest in some plugins. If you're on a budget and want an easy way to record separate tracks including the phone, this is worth checking out. Just don't drop it.

Check out the Zoom Podtrack P4

The Zoom ZDM-1 Dynamic Microphone

I must confess that the Electrovoice RE320 has been my mic for many years. It's also close to $300. The ZDM-1 comes with a pop filter, "stand" a cable, and headphones for $120. I didn't think it was fair to compare it to the RE320 so I pulled out the Rode Podmic (another microphone designed for podcasters for around $99).

Both microphones are very well built, and when I kid about using them as a weapon, I'm not kidding. You need a sturdy stand to hold these up. The ZDM-1 has a great mount that screws into the bottom and just seems solid. The Rode Podmic also is well built.

The Zoom ZMD-1 has 50 Hz to 18 kHz frequency response with tight bass and smooth highs enhance vocal tone for radio, podcasting, and more

The Rode Podmic has a frequency response of 20 Hz to 20 kHz. In specs, it should pick up a bit more bass and a bit more high end.

While neither one of these microphones sound bad, I thought I heard a little more high end and sibilance on the Zoom ZMD-1.

The one thing that Audio Technica, Zoom, and other microphone companies need to quit doing is giving us microphone stands that are 100% completely worthless. While the TPS-4 stand that comes with the ZDM-1 is sturdier than the other worthless microphone stands, They are so short that you have to do a bizarre yoga pose to lean over to use it. Either invent a new mic stand as an accessory, or just include the clip/mount and lower the price. Nobody in their right mind is using the TPS-4 microphone stand.

The Zoom ZHP-1 Headphones were amazingly clear. The high end was crystal clear to an almost alarming point. The somewhat self-adjusting headphones fit nice and snug and really cut out the outside world. I used other "included" headphones with other microphones and they were typically uncomfortable and had the fidelity of a record cut out of a cereal box (you have to be over 50 to get that). These had a nice sound, and I love that the cable can be disconnected at the headphones (great for those of us who are always tangled in or headphone cable.

For $199 this a good value with a solid mic, nice pop filter, study mount and comfortable headphones to boot. Just pick up a nice boom arm (are strong desk stand as it is heavy).

August Question of the Month: What Keeps You Going?

This month the question was, "What has kept you going with your podcast when others have stopped?"

Kris and Kristine from the Kris and Kristine Show

Kris and Kristine are engaged and this is just another great way of spending time together. (everyone together - awww....). Kristine said, " I'm big on trying to constantly strengthen our relationship. And there's a lot of research that says, for a woman, when she invests in the hobbies and the interests of her partner, then it really helps to build that bond. And so Kris could have loved going to golf or you could have had all these hobbies that take you out of the house and away from me, but instead, you choose to build and grow a hobby with me. What woman wouldn't want that from her significant other that you want to spend dedicated time with me?

These are super nice peeps and I wish them the best when they get married in November. Check out their show at www.krisandkristine.com

Curtis Longellow from the Rerozest Podcast

Curtis Longfellow from the Retrozest podcast needed an outlet. He wanted to talk about all things retro (70's and 80's) and by starting a podcast he attracted other people who are just like him.

It turns out it's really paid off. Diane Franklin, the actress who portrayed Monique Juno in the classic 80s dark comedy film Better Off Dead, granted me an interview in celebration of the 30 fifth anniversary of the film. In fact, it just posted yesterday.

The other thing that keeps me going is the power of podcasting network shows. In fact, via Episode Number 678 of the School of podcasting, you really prepared me for the aforementioned interview with Diane Franklin. What was supposed to only be a 45-minute interview ballooned into an hour and 15 minutes. This was largely because the tips you shared on Episode Number 678 really prepared me and helped me to frame and ask some very unique questions, which kept the stories from Diane flowing.

Additionally, you recently did a short review of my AC DC Back in Black 40th anniversary episode on your Podcast Rodeo Show. You shared several tips which helped me to plan for future episodes. And also you pointed out a glaring typo on my podcast description to which I immediately responded and corrected. Thank you for all you do. Dave. I suspect that your contribution to teaching about podcasting is really keeping a bunch of podcasters going, keep up the good work, and check out the retros s podcasts at retro zest.com forward slash podcast.

Civilla Morgan from the Childless, Not By Choice (and Not Just Another Religion and politics Podcast)

Here is what Civilla from the Childless, Not by Choice had this to say, "I believe I believe in the power of podcasting, I believe podcasting is a Message carrier. And I can see the results of it because of the response that I get. I may not be at a million downloads. But I'm hearing from people whose lives are literally being changed when they listen to the Childless, not by choice podcast episodes. They're writing into me. One woman just called me about a week ago from Holland on speakpipe on my website, and she left a message because she was so excited to find thes podcast, she couldn't believe it. And she had to tell me all about what episode she was on and how the podcast has completely absolutely helped her and that she just recently joined the Facebook group.

I've got to keep going. I've got to keep getting the word out. Slowly but surely it can be tedious. There can be deep valley moments where you just want to throw everything across the room and just walk away from it all. And then those awesome mountain top moments where you get that awesome interview, like when I got that interview with you, Dave Jackson. And so you have to take the good with the bad when it comes to podcasting and I just love that I can get the message out whether it's the Childless, not by choice podcast, or the Not just another religion and politics podcast where I get to say my part as to how the Christian community is behaving (or misbehaving right now), in some instances. It's just a way to get the word out to get your message out. It's truly a message carrier. And that's why I'm still podcasting.

Craig Wealand from Ingles Podcast

Here are the reason Craig keeps podcasting:

I podcast with a co-host, who I've known for many years. He's a very good friend. And it's a lot of fun to get together with him. once every three weeks, batch record some episodes, then have a nice lunch together and just hang out, just be with someone who I really like. We have a laugh, we have fun together. So one big element of the fun I get from podcasting is getting together with my friend and colleague.

I think we're helping people with our product when I know we're helping people, we get feedback, voice messages, emails, telling us that because of the podcasts, we've helped people, get promotions, find a job pass an exam in English, so we know that we're doing some good out there and then keeps us going the feedback from our community.

I really like the podcasting community. They're a great bunch of people. And I enjoy hanging out with podcasters. I feel very comfortable when I'm with podcasters. And, and over the years, I've made some really good friends in the podcasting community going to events and conferences, and meeting people online. So I really like being part of the community. And it's much easier to be part of the community if you have a podcast.

I think I really like creating something that wasn't in the world before. Hopefully, that's a good thing. It might be a bad thing. But I like the idea that we've put something out there that might be of use to people and it didn't exist before we turned on the microphones. I like the idea that I've created something.

Check out Craig at Ingles Podcast

Dave Jackson from the School of Podcasting

I've always said that podcasting scratches every itch I have.

It is somewhat technical, and I'm somewhat of a geek.

You are in 100% control and you can do anything you want. As a creative person, I love that.

I get to help people. As someone with a teaching background, that puts a lot of "Gas in my tank."

As someone who spent myself into bankruptcy trying to have children (and failed), this is somehow my "Legacy."

Check out all of Dave's shows at www.powerofpodcasting.com

September Question of the Month

Right now, I'm obsessed with the word, Interesting. When you hear the word interesting, what comes to your mind. If someone who spoke another language and asked you to explain what Interesting mean, how would you describe it. Feel free to "riff" on your thoughts of interesting, and explain any examples of content you feel is interesting. I need your answer by September 25th, 2020.

Go to www.schoolofpodcasting.com/question

Ready to Start Your Podcast?

I love helping people plan, launch, and grow their podcast. I have multiple plans and scenarios to meet any budget. Let's work together.

Check out this episode!

#podcasting #podcast #coaching #new media

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deliciouslyelegantwombat-blog · 6 years

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essay editing service uk ebay Essay Editing Service Online in UK, WritingPeak

You get a couple and learn how to handle them, and pretty soon you have a dozen." - John Steinbeck. UK Essay Editing and Proofreading Assistance. Image working hard on your all-important term paper and submitting it on time only to have your confidence shattered by a poor grade. Thanks to the professional proofreading team at Writing Peak, you will never encounter this nightmare scenario with our essay editing service UK. When you ask us to edit and proofread your essay, you will receive a polished product that truly impresses your instructor. Regardless of subject and academic level, we will fix your essay by correcting grammar mistakes, typos, and making sure it is formatted in the proper style. Prepare to see your grades soar thanks to our essay editing and proofreading help! Best Essay Editing Service from WritingPeak. No matter how thoroughly researched your academic papers or PowerPoint presentations look if they contain spelling and grammar mistakes, your grade will suffer significantly. While the main purpose of an essay is to demonstrate your ability to convey knowledge and information, you are also expected to organize it properly. In addition to your professor, nobody will be pleased to read an essay that contains glaring errors and annoying punctuation issues. These serve as unwanted distractions that can ruin even the most enjoyable essays. Our best essay editing service is to the rescue! The process for taking your academic essay to the next level is easy! Simply fill out the order form, specifying that you would like editing and proofreading service and indicate the academic level and deadline. Once we receive your request, a qualified professional editor will carefully go about cleaning up any mistakes and phrasing sentences in a manner that makes your essay more clear. Editing an essay – easy peasy lemon squeezy! Your assigned editor will also ensure that the paper follows the correct formatting style whether it is APA, MLA, Harvard or any other type.... View more ...

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superblydeepestcrusade · 6 years

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The Importance of Editing and Proofing Your Social Media Posts

You spend hours each week deciding what kind of content to post to your social media. But how much time do you spend editing and proofreading that content? There’s a strong argument to be made for making proofing a regular part of your social media strategy. It’s your absolute last chance to make a good first impression on new viewers and to make a lasting impression on your current followers.

One reason why it’s so important to proofread your social media activity is to protect your content. If you took the time to discover the content, format it in a way that’s attractive to your followers, and post it to your accounts, you should be invested in the outcome. One little typo in your Tweet can convey carelessness to your followers. If your audience thinks you are careless with your social media postings, they may also assume you are careless in other aspects of your business. And carelessness is rarely followed by success.

Another factor is your credibility. It’s important that you maintain an air of confidence and professionalism in all of your online interactions. A failure to proof your social media content can reduce your credibility with your reader base. If you don’t know the difference between their and there, what else don’t you know? This is especially important if you own a business that requires your customers to put a lot of trust and faith in you – areas like finance, marketing, and healthcare are a few examples.

Here are some online tools that can ensure error-free writing in all of your social media postings.

Editing service NinjaEssays can edit, proofread, and format your documents. So, whether you’re posting a blog post to your Twitter account or linking your website to your Facebook page, your writing will always be clear and correct.

Add in any amount of text and get instant feedback about your writing. After The Deadline will critique your writing for grammatical errors, spelling mistakes, and even style recommendations. Run your blogs, tweets, and Facebook posts through it before you post.

Ginger is a fantastic software app that integrates with everything you write online. As you post on any of your social media accounts, blog, website, or even Word processing program, Ginger will highlight any mistakes and offer suggestions.

Avoid unwanted plagiarism by letting PlagTracker scan your document and compare it to thousands of sites online. If the tool finds any plagiarism, it will alert you so you can amend it. Or, if you’d prefer, Help.PlagTracker can modify it for you.

Slick Write is an incredibly fast proofreader that learns your style and makes suggestions based on your writing. There’s also a fun word association game on the site to help you break through writer’s block.

Nobody is perfect and even professional editors and proofreaders miss typos every once in a while. But do your best to polish everything you write before you share it with the world. After all, if you get dressed up in the morning, do your hair, and look great, but you forget to brush your teeth, what do you think people will notice first? The same is true of typos. Even the best content will be ignored if readers can’t get past the glaring typos in your first sentence. Always take the time to edit and proofread. It’s the final step before you present your work, and yourself, to the world.

About the Author:

Brand24 is the most effective method of monitoring your brand or product on the Internet. It is also a tool that measures the buzz around your brand, product or keyword.

Similar can be discovered at https://buy-essaycheap.com/accounting-papers

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bizmediaweb · 7 years

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7 TED Talks to Make You a Better Social Media Marketer

TED Talks are a great way to learn about new developments in your industry and smarter ways of working. I spent 10 hours hunting down the best TED Talks for social media marketers—so you don’t have to.

In this post, you’ll find TED Talks that will teach you how to:

Make your ideas spread (from one of the world’s best marketers)

Understand why certain types of video go viral with insights from YouTube’s trends manager, Kevin Allocca

Find more free time and balance in your schedule with smarter time management

Continue reading for a list of our favorite TED Talks that can make you a better social media marketer.

1. 3 Ways to Usefully Lose Control of Your Brand

Strategist and author Tim Leberecht opens his TED Talk with the quote “Your brand is what other people say about you when you aren’t in the room.”

He explains that brands need to come to terms with the fact that they have little power over their own reputation and “if you’re relevant, there’s a constant, free-form conversation happening about you that you have no control over.”

According to Leberecht, there are three ways businesses can positively lose control of their brands and create more meaningful experiences for their customers:

Give people more control. This means trusting your employees and your customers to collaborate towards better solutions.

Give people less control (and more meaning.) Trust is earned by predictable behavior, so this is a wonderful way to counter the abundance of choice customers face every day.

Be transparent. Staying true to the brand’s self is the only true value proposition. As Leberecht says, “Openness is paramount but radical openness is not a solution.” He suggests each brand find the level of transparency that works for them.

2. How Better Tech Can Prevent Us From Distraction

Design thinker Tristan Harris wants to figure out how technology can help us avoid distraction and spend our time more efficiently.

Harris shares his ideas surrounding the notion of choice. As he explains, “We want to have a relationship with technology that gives us back choice about how we spend time with it.”

The constant interruptions involved in work and life cause serious harm to attention spans, and Harris wants to show how technology can fix this.

Harris’ theories focus on one core metric: net positive contribution to human life. He calls for a world where all designers are first and foremost asking themselves how their creations will positively impact the lives of real human beings.

Social media marketers need to be constantly thinking about how their content is creating more meaningful interactions and, with Harris’ philosophy, this can become top of mind.

3. How to gain control of your free time

If you’re a social media marketer you might be scoffing and asking, “What free time?” Time management expert Laura Vanderkam has your back. She believes successful time management is not about finding more hours in the day, but about figuring out where your priorities lie.

Her ideas hinge on the importance of work-life balance and helping people find time for what matters most. Vanderkam provides two key steps for figuring out exactly what your priorities are. You can apply this approach to any areas of your life, whether it be your social strategy or your personal growth.

Pretend you are one year in the future. Write next year’s performance review as if you are looking back on the year. What were the things that made it so amazing? What did you accomplish? When you know what a successful year looks like to you, it’s easier to carve a path in advance.

Break down your goals into doable steps. Treat these goals as priorities, and put them into your schedule. Make a three category list including career, relationship, and self-improvement goals, and see where you can make time to work on these.

Concentrating on your social media efforts is difficult when you feel strapped for time and under pressure. Apply Vanderkam’s approach to your work and personal life to find “small moments with great power.”

4. The nit-picking glory of The New Yorker’s Comma Queen

Social media marketers know the importance of writing and editing. One typo can change your content’s meaning and distract from your message. Nobody knows this better than the New Yorker’s copy editor, Mary Norris.

In her TED Talk, Norris explains the level of detail that goes into copy editing and the processes surrounding the art. When this process is rushed or ignored, the copy editors work is at the mercy of public critics.

Social media marketers understand this pressure well. With every tweet and Instagram caption you write, there’s always the terrifying possibility of a glaring typo or grammatical error. Explore the ways Norris has made peace with her work—and how you can too.

5. Adventures in Twitter fiction

While the art of storytelling hasn’t wavered, the chosen format has evolved. Hearst Magazine’s chief digital content officer Andrew Fitzgerald (previously Twitter Moments Editor) explores the ways microblogging platforms like Twitter are changing the landscape of media and content sharing.

Fitzgerald is most interested in how “creative people are experimenting with the bounds of what is possible in this medium.” As a social media marketer, telling your brand’s story within the confines of each platform’s limits is a constant challenge.

If you’re tweeting, using Instagram Stories, or posting to Snapchat, real-time storytelling is something you need to consider. Fitzgerald explores the blurring between fact and fiction, real and digital worlds, and the tools we have available to us in our search for creative experimentation. Watch his TED Talk for inspiration and examples surrounding these ideas.

6. How to get your ideas to spread

If you want your audience to take action, you need to find a way to get your ideas to spread. Author Seth Godin walks audience members through a series of examples where seemingly simple concepts have spread like wildfire.

According to Godin, brands need to find a group that cares about what they have to say. Talk to them. And then make it easy for them to want to tell their friends.

As Godin says, “It’s really simple—you sell to the people who are listening, and just maybe, those people tell their friends.”

7. Why videos go viral

Nobody knows the answer to this better than YouTube’s trends manager, Kevin Allocca. If you’re a social media marketer looking to get your video content in front of a bigger audience, you’ll want to take note of Allocca’s three key reasons a video goes viral:

The influence of tastemakers—The people who are influencing their audience and seen as authorities in the industry have huge power. For more on influencer marketing, check out our post Influencer Marketing on Social Media: Everything You Need to Know.

Community participation—It’s key that your content inspires some sort of reaction from your audience. Read more about creating engaging content with our post How to Use Social Media to Engage With Customers and Build Your Brand.

Unexpectedness—Branded content can get boring fast. Keep your audience engaged and constantly surprised by providing unexpected content on the regular. Learn more with our post How Big Brands Are Using Humor on Social Media (and Why You Should Too).

TED Talks are a great way for any social media marketer to discover new ways of approaching their craft. Take a look at the ones above, and let us know of any others you have found valuable.

Sharing ideas across all your social media platforms is easy with Hootsuite. Try it free today.

Learn More

The post 7 TED Talks to Make You a Better Social Media Marketer appeared first on Hootsuite Social Media Management.

7 TED Talks to Make You a Better Social Media Marketer published first on http://ift.tt/2u73Z29

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makeitwithmike · 7 years

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7 TED Talks to Make You a Better Social Media Marketer

By Dara Fontein

In this post, you’ll find TED Talks that will teach you how to:

Make your ideas spread (from one of the world’s best marketers)

Understand why certain types of video go viral with insights from YouTube’s trends manager, Kevin Allocca

Find more free time and balance in your schedule with smarter time management

Continue reading for a list of our favorite TED Talks that can make you a better social media marketer.

1. 3 Ways to Usefully Lose Control of Your Brand

Strategist and author Tim Leberecht opens his TED Talk with the quote “Your brand is what other people say about you when you aren’t in the room.”

According to Leberecht, there are three ways businesses can positively lose control of their brands and create more meaningful experiences for their customers:

Give people more control. This means trusting your employees and your customers to collaborate towards better solutions.

Give people less control (and more meaning.) Trust is earned by predictable behavior, so this is a wonderful way to counter the abundance of choice customers face every day.

2. How Better Tech Can Prevent Us From Distraction

Design thinker Tristan Harris wants to figure out how technology can help us avoid distraction and spend our time more efficiently.

Harris shares his ideas surrounding the notion of choice. As he explains, “We want to have a relationship with technology that gives us back choice about how we spend time with it.”

The constant interruptions involved in work and life cause serious harm to attention spans, and Harris wants to show how technology can fix this.

Social media marketers need to be constantly thinking about how their content is creating more meaningful interactions and, with Harris’ philosophy, this can become top of mind.

3. How to gain control of your free time

4. The nit-picking glory of The New Yorker’s Comma Queen

5. Adventures in Twitter fiction

6. How to get your ideas to spread

According to Godin, brands need to find a group that cares about what they have to say. Talk to them. And then make it easy for them to want to tell their friends.

As Godin says, “It’s really simple—you sell to the people who are listening, and just maybe, those people tell their friends.”

7. Why videos go viral

TED Talks are a great way for any social media marketer to discover new ways of approaching their craft. Take a look at the ones above, and let us know of any others you have found valuable.

Sharing ideas across all your social media platforms is easy with Hootsuite. Try it free today.

Learn More

The post 7 TED Talks to Make You a Better Social Media Marketer appeared first on Hootsuite Social Media Management.

The post 7 TED Talks to Make You a Better Social Media Marketer appeared first on Make It With Michael.

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unifiedsocialblog · 7 years

Text

7 TED Talks to Make You a Better Social Media Marketer

In this post, you’ll find TED Talks that will teach you how to:

Make your ideas spread (from one of the world’s best marketers)

Understand why certain types of video go viral with insights from YouTube’s trends manager, Kevin Allocca

Find more free time and balance in your schedule with smarter time management

Continue reading for a list of our favorite TED Talks that can make you a better social media marketer.

1. 3 Ways to Usefully Lose Control of Your Brand

Strategist and author Tim Leberecht opens his TED Talk with the quote “Your brand is what other people say about you when you aren’t in the room.”

According to Leberecht, there are three ways businesses can positively lose control of their brands and create more meaningful experiences for their customers:

Give people more control. This means trusting your employees and your customers to collaborate towards better solutions.

Give people less control (and more meaning.) Trust is earned by predictable behavior, so this is a wonderful way to counter the abundance of choice customers face every day.

2. How Better Tech Can Prevent Us From Distraction

Design thinker Tristan Harris wants to figure out how technology can help us avoid distraction and spend our time more efficiently.

Harris shares his ideas surrounding the notion of choice. As he explains, “We want to have a relationship with technology that gives us back choice about how we spend time with it.”

The constant interruptions involved in work and life cause serious harm to attention spans, and Harris wants to show how technology can fix this.

Social media marketers need to be constantly thinking about how their content is creating more meaningful interactions and, with Harris’ philosophy, this can become top of mind.

3. How to gain control of your free time

4. The nit-picking glory of The New Yorker’s Comma Queen

5. Adventures in Twitter fiction

6. How to get your ideas to spread

According to Godin, brands need to find a group that cares about what they have to say. Talk to them. And then make it easy for them to want to tell their friends.

As Godin says, “It’s really simple—you sell to the people who are listening, and just maybe, those people tell their friends.”

7. Why videos go viral

TED Talks are a great way for any social media marketer to discover new ways of approaching their craft. Take a look at the ones above, and let us know of any others you have found valuable.

Sharing ideas across all your social media platforms is easy with Hootsuite. Try it free today.

Learn More

The post 7 TED Talks to Make You a Better Social Media Marketer appeared first on Hootsuite Social Media Management.

7 TED Talks to Make You a Better Social Media Marketer published first on http://ift.tt/2rEvyAw

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