#might need to update my banner if I keep up the monster fucking

[biscuitdragonwithastick]

Minotaur Ranch

cw: cnc, dubious consent, monster fucking, bestiality(?)

Based on the Eggpregtober Fic 3

I keep imagining what it'd be like to work on a Minotaur Ranch.

The beasts mostly keep to themselves, grazing the fields and laying around in the shade. They can act real cute with you sometimes. Nuzzling into your palm when you scratch their head just right. Mooing impatiently to be let out after being cooped up at night. It's easy to forget they're running on primal instinct until one shoved you against a wall and rips through your pants.

That's when you remember the rules of the ranch: Don't pet the Minotaur, Don't feed the Minotaur, and Don't ever present your ass to a Minotaur.

You hadn't thought these rules were that important.

How could you have known that petting and rubbing their bodies with soothing touches would be seen as an act of submission. It never would have occurred to you that feeding them a bit of your lunch every once in a while would be seen as a sign of courtship.

And when you turned around to pick up some equipment off the floor, how could you foreseen that the bull behind you would take it as a sign you were in heat.

Muscular hands hold you off the ground. As your legs dangle below you, you feel the wet muzzle of your Minotaur lick into your neck. It's meant to be a soothing gestures as he lines his bovine cock against your opening, but all you feel is terror at the rough fucking about to take place.

You've seen the ways the Minotaur's fight each other in the fields. It's part of their DNA to show dominance to the weak. You've heard of monster "bitching" before, and you know it's supposed to be an act of ferocious claiming meant to humiliate a subservient other.

You close your eyes, waiting for the pain of being split on Minotaur cock, but instead yelp as they pull you up further off the ground and lick you. Their tongue is long, wet and thick, thicker than a human cock. You can't help but moan as it breaches your hole. That only seems to encourage it, roughly thrusting it's tongue into you as deep as it can go. You writhe in its grip. At the angle its holding you, you can look down and see its tongue pushing your skin taut.

Once it's satisfied you've been opened enough it moves you down, back over its cock and thrusts inside. It doesn't hurt. It's so gentle with you, fucking you like it knows you weren't built for the full force of a Minotaur's strength. You clench down as you cum from the treatment. It bellows loud and low at how good you feel.

It fucks you against the wall like that. Slowly rocking forward into your human frame You can't help but imagine if you had been any other Minotaur. Would it have fucked you harder? Or was Minotaur mating far softer than you gave them credit for? You'll have to answer those questions later. Right now, you just want to focus on your next orgasm.

You know its close when it starts to breathe heavier and thrust a little faster. Wet slapping sounds fill the air as its balls hit your thighs. In one final thrust, it groans and hot cum fills you. You can feel its balls draw up behind you. You didn't realize how long a Minotaur could cum until minutes passed and you were still being filled. Most of it has pooled between your legs and onto the floor, but your bulging tummy is aching from what little can fill it.

But you love it. You loved being bred by your bull. You wished you could be fucked over and over again just like this.

As it pulls out of you and holds you limp in its grasp, it hands you over to another Minotaur. The whole herd had watched you be claimed, now they think your a mare in heat. You can't blame them. As you spread your legs for the next bull, you think about how good it is to work on a Minotaur ranch.

#monster breeding #monsterfucker #terato #monster x reader #minotaur #nonspecified gender #might need to update my banner if I keep up the monster fucking #is it so bad that i want to be held down and fucked by a monster #Biscuit tumblr fic

[nyan-koii]

Hashira ft. Sabito as genshin impact players

aunotes : Bad grammar ahead! I didnt proofread it so be aware of brain damage. plus i initially wrote it at the 1.6 update

PART 1 : T.Muichiro, R.Kyojuro, K.Shinobu, S.Sanemi, U.Tengen 

Muichiro : he probably would be uninterested at first. He's more to first person shooting game or anything other than this concept of farming or investing. So that's why when he saw yuichirou banging his fist on his desk, trying to get his fav character, he would simply just watch

"Fck this game, i've had enough,"

"But you havent finish your wishing things yet,"

Stares. "How about you give it a try mui. You might get the character i want,"

"You sure about that? You might get angry at me," "better than nothing. Now go go, get em you donkey,"

His first ten pulls on the game brings out a light we all want to see

"Eh is tha-" "AAAA A FUCKING 5 STAR FCK FCKFCK,"

Apparently, it was one of the luckiest wish yuichiro had ever seen so far

"OHMYFUCK, you GOT A GODDAMN KLEE, QIQI AND SUCROSE WTFF???"

"I think i get your fav character?"

"Yeahh!! More than that to be honest. I want klee but you brought me two more person," sniffles and cries "you're really lucky mui. You should try and play the game,"

"It's probably the system. I doubt im that lucky tho,"

Nah, he really is lucky. Apparently he wished for his friends and got what they all really wanted for so long

"Thank you for getting me the aquila favonia, muichiro,"

"It's nothing really. I just simply press the button. It might be the system that's giving you the thing you want when i wish,"

"But still, even if i were to wish, i can get really scared and paranoid over it,"

"That's bad. You shouldnt invest yourself that much in the game tanjiro. It's just a game,"

"Ehehehe, i guess so. But you're really good at it muichiro! If you download it, we can play together :D!"

!!!!

It took the word "play together" to get muichiro down on his knee for that game. Usually the idea of playing with your friends is not that interesting. So when tanjiro said that, you bet he's going to play it

Type of player

Extremely lucky it's not even real. He got a five star on the beginner's banner

Fast farming. He probably will complete all the quest and become an endgame player within one month

"I just wanted to play with tanjiro..." bashfully

He's really good with whatever he's doing. Attack combo, dodging, elemental reaction and all sorts of stuff. If he invest more of his time on artifacts, he would probably even one shot it!!

He's very lucky. Very

Kyojuro : he wouldnt even know the existence of this game. Well, he took a glimpse of it one day and boom, heart stolen. Maybe it was the fiery burning passion in bennett that made him play the game.

'oh wow!! What a determined young boy! Even though he has a very bad luck he still keep pushing forward! Amazing!!'

'I want to be like him'

Kyojuro's the type of player to read and pay attention to every single lore of his fav character. Bennett, oh my how he wish he could've had bennett in his team. Every wishes he made would make him a c6 bennett main if only barbara wont stop coming home

"I really like you barbara but i dont want you!! Thank you for the c6 though!! I promise to use you in the future but just-" he prepares to wish

"not NOW!!" Clicks

The highest con of bennett he had ever gotten is probably c1. One day the paimon's bargain shop offered bennett as their monthly character. Kyojuro had never been so excited over a game before. He usually perks up over academics and not this kind of thing. But it's bennett, the character he admires the most.

Unfortunately he couldnt get it due to low currency. He had never feel so sad in his life.

"I shall not give up. Dont worry, i will be a c6 bennett main!!!"

He will be a c6 bennett haver!!

Type of player :

Carefully reads every stories and listens to their lines attentively. He finds it amazing how the company spent their everything on this game. It amazes him. From the stories, lores and lines, he truly appreciates it.

Balance his team pretty well. He mains bennett so he doesnt need that much of a healer in his team.

Enjoys bennett's hangout very much!! He tried to not get him killed by the dungeon's trap but ended up having to sacrifice him which ultimately ends the route. He had never felt so down and guilty before.

Not much of a damage dealer. He prefers to play it in normal mode and doesnt care that much about one shotting monster.

He feeds his character three meals a day!! If only there's a sleep option, he would be sending bennett to sleep first before the rest.

Everyone loves his teapot

Shinobu : found the game while she's scrolling through the app store out of boredom. Initially she played it on her phone but due to the fps and a really bad ping, so bad that douma wouldnt find her interesting anymore, she finally downloaded the game on her pc where things has starting to get real

"Ara, shinobu chan, it's lunch time already. Come downstairs please,"

"Sis give me five more minutes, JUST FIVE PLEASE I NEED TO KICK CHILDE's ASS,"

"he's not going anywhere sweetie,"

"yEAHH BUT MY BP IS,"

'Bp?'

"DIE DIE DIE!!" Aggresive clicking intensifies

"Shinobu chan dont hurt the keyboard that much!!"

She got lucky on the beginner's banner too and pulled a 5 star along with bennett and noelle. Who's the 5 star? Diluc Ragnvindr in all of his glory. Shinobu benched him sadly. She prefers sword over any other weapon

"I mean he's cool i guess but i just really dont get that 'WOAHHH COOL' vibe from him you know?"

"then give your diluc to me! I really want him so bad shinobu chan!"

Deep sighs "yeah sure. You can have my c2 diluc mitsuri..."

Loses 50/50 to diluc everytime everyone would think she either is lucky or cursed by the amount of that man greeting him on the screen. She still bench him though, sadly

"Im begging you, give me jEANN THE GRANDMASTER I NEED HEALER iN MY PARTY TO DO ABYSS

Type of player :

Suffers a lot in the abyss because she just want the primos which is a valid reason to do because that's the only thing that keeps her going

She's a sword character main. She'll properly build every character as either support or dps. The support would be kaeya and bennett, and her main dps ayaka

Ayaka main btw

Honestly at some point she wanted to quit the game because of how tiring it is but then inazuma came out

Fragile resin = 0

Resin = 160/160 happens once in a blue moon

"i should probably control myself with the amount of resin i've used,"

"But i cant,"

Hates domain but always can be seen playing in there

Only coops if mitsuri is there

"So that someone can calm me down,"

"That's not a really good reason shinobu chan,"

Sanemi : dude probably know the game through obanai. He watched the latter play and finds it interesting on how high the numbers he dealt. He loves challenges so a game like genshin impact would probably satisfy his need.

"Obanai, are you hearing this shit?"

"What is it sanemi, im busy doing this event,"

"That loser giyuu is also playing the game,"

"Oh yeah i know,"

"YOU KNOW? WHY YOU DIDNT TELL ME??"

"i just know right after you told me,"

"...."

Sanemi's a meta but a mediocre one. He's meta but he doesnt show it that much. Probably buys welkin once in every three months or when he really needs it same goes with battle pass too. Honestly, he really just use his money when he really needs something

"Donno if my allowance can buy me a welkin so i'll probably skip,"

"But the next banner is zhongli's,"

"....."

"Ah fuck it," buys

My man cant dodge after he got zhongli. Its very painful because he used to studies the enemies movement in the early game so that he can utilizes it on the team but zhongli's shield is so tank he forgot that dodging exists

"Im gonna kill you and you and you hhahaahhaah just you wait im gonna shred all of yo- oh shit zhongli's shield. puT IT BACK PUT IT BACK ON,"

That one event where zhongli's shield plays an important role in the domain? Yeah, he felt like a god at that time. Even got his c2 on his rerun. Sanemi just really like zhongli because it kinda reminds him of himejima. Calm and wise and strong too. He looks up on that kind of person

"Zhongli sama, im in debt for all of your hard work protecting my team," bows and wipes tears

Type of player :

Spends a little money on the game to get what he wants

Zhongli main

Is that one player that has hoards of food but doesnt even use it

"Why need healer when you have zhongli's shield,"

Compare to kyojuro, he doesnt even touch the teapot because he finds it ridiculous and bothersome to create and design everything in it

Loves one shotting bosses and compares it to giyuu. He ask for advices from obanai regarding team build supports and stuffs

Doesnt do character's story quest. The key is full every single time. He unlocks it but leaves the quest like that.

"Ah shit, i accidentally activate the quest,"

His friend list only has obanai in it. Whenever people sent him friend request, he wouldnt hesitate, more like wouldnt care to accept it

They either have to coop in obanai's world or his world and after that, unfriend immediately

Says thank you after coop because he has manners and then completely disappears

"Zhongli main forever,"

Tengen : played since 1.0 this madlad has been staying loyal to the game ever since. Quite huge amount of money he spend on this game to be honest but he never gets broke by it. You can see his regular donation to the game by purchasing welkin and battle pass and some genesis crystal too. He's loaded with money, he didnt know what to do with it.

Uzui also plays honkai impact and guns girl Z so when he saw the unknown god at the intro , he was not surprised.

"Oh we have to pick between the siblings? Cool cool co- oh hi kiana,"

"Thats so herrscher of void hahahahah,"

Although he is a loyal fan to MihoYo games, he lost his composure when he saw the 1st genshin anniversary reward because what was that. Imagine getting billions of money and they give us this? Tengen cant believe this shit

"Oh god wtf was that reward, i have to draw to get a welkin and some primos?? aND I ALSO HAVE TO BE LUCKY? WHAT-"

"WHERE'S MY FREE MONA,"

In need of mona. He needs mona so bad he literally spent his money on standard banner to get mona but always ends up with qiqi. Not that he's complaining but he just wants the astrologist to complete the support team

"GOD QIQI YOU AGAIN? WTF WFF WTF-" converts genesis crystal to primigems

"Tengen, you should control yourself!"

"SHUT UP KYOJURO, IM GONNA WASTE MY MONEY TILL I GET HER,"

"yeah but my f2p ass is hurting with how many bennett cons you got," droops

Tengen sees potential in every character. Everyone has their weakness and strength so when kokomi comes out, he diss her at first but then realize maybe its a new way for a character. Adds the uniqueness if he may say so.

"Meh i dont care honestly. You guys should pull whoever you find nice or beautiful. Like me ;)"

"Who do you main uzui?"

"Beidou,"

Type of player

Spoils the storylines, lores, leaks A LOT THE REST HAVE TO BLOCK HIM ON SOCIAL MEDIA

Speed runs the game and has become an endgame player ever since but he still does his daily commission and helps people with domains and stuffs

R5 every battle pass weapon

Fights azhdaha for fun and to test out his characters rather than ruin guards and stuff

Mona wanter

Puts traveller as the pfp and doesnt display any showcase of his characters and namecards. You can only see his achievements and spiral abyss ( 12-3 ). Says its for fun and mystery

Throws a lot of pickup lines and roleplays a lot. Spams your chatbox messages with stickers and censored stuffs

Probably steals your ores and exotic things like violetgrass, qingxin and silk flowers

Screams in the chatbox whenever he saw Mona until Kyojuro had to calm him down

Changes signature every single time and sometimes put spoilers in it

In every survey he would complain "MihoYo where the fuck is my Mona,"

Doesnt heals his characters

#demon slayer #kimetsu no yaiba #demon slayer hashira #kny hashira #tokitō muichirō #shinazugawa sanemi #shinobu kochou #uzui tengen #rengoku kyojuro #kamado tanjiro #kochou kanae #iguro obanai #demon slayer headcanons #kimetsu no yaiba headcanons #hashira headcanons

[genshin-djinn]

Genshin Impact Chapter 1 Act 3: A Reaction.

Chapter 1 Act 3 is what took my experience with this game from “good game” to “masterpiece”.

THIS POST CONTAINS MANY, MANY SPOILERS FOR GENSHIN IMPACT CHAPTER 1: ACT 3

Genshin Impact has some problems— actually, it has a shit ton of problems. But during the fight against hordes of Fatui, with the Adepti channeling their abilities through my gang, flying through them as Oz, decimating them with Diluc— I just thought, this is the best time I’ve had in a mobile game in my life.

This game might not be perfect now— it’s only a quarter of the way done if we’re counting Karenri’ah. But it will be a fucking masterpiece once it’s all out. If this is the level of quality we’re getting for our archon quests, this game is going to be an amazing time on story alone.

KEQING

I love Keqing with all my heart. If she were alive today she would be a socialist here to topple the ruling 1%. When ningguang asked Aether who they trusted more, her or Keqing, I hit the Keqing button as fast as possible.

I think one of my favorite things about Keqing is that she’s so completely honest, which is unusual for a Liyue politician. If she doesn’t like something, she’ll speak out against it. If she thinks something else should be happening, she’ll make it happen. She can probably be deceitful at times, but in general she’s straightforwards in that she wants a government for the people and by the people.

I can’t wait for her story quest!

NINGGUANG

pretty.... voice pretty....

Ningguang is cool. Her JP voice is very pretty, like she could do ASMR videos online or smth. One thing I decidedly did not like about Ningguang is how her personality just ???? flips? In the middle of the quest, for no reason other than “because plot”.

It’s established that Ningguang cares about two things more than anything— the Jade palace and Mora. Why, then, would she destroy the Jade palace for the sake of Liyue? I get that she’s a good person at heart at all, but I want to see more of her indecision, her brain saying “mora” and her heart saying “Liyue”. The way she just flips on a dime isn’t really strange but it does contradict with her preexisting characterization.

Childe’s Boss Fight!

The section of this quest from Childe’s fight to the Adepti + Qixing battle is just nonstop adrenaline.

Childe is IMO a lot more fun than Dvalin (sorry Dvalin). I’m at WL5 and have a tendency to play fast and loose with important mechanics like.... dodging, for example.... and Childe’s Mask Electro form ended up destroying my team. I killed him with Guoba because everyone else besides Xiangling was dead. I

Another thing I really enjoy about Childe’s boss fight is that in the irrationalities of Childe as a character, it actually makes sense. Genshin is decent at making weekly bosses logical excursions— Andrius wants you to get stronger, Dvalin’s weekly fight is ~~all a dream~~; but tbh sometimes the weekly bosses don’t make sense. Andrius wants to train us, not murder us! How does dvalin, a dream slash memory that doesn’t exist, manage to knock someone out?

Childe as a weekly boss actually makes perfect sense. He’s an adrenaline junkie addicted to the thrill of fighting people— to put this in modern AU terms, he’s the guy who’s first in line to ride the rollercoaster that failed all of its health and safety checks. Childe wants to befriend the Traveler entirely because they’re stronger than him, so that he can fight them over and over again until he’s the strongest. Of course, this will never happen, because the Traveler is the MC and therefore is stronger than all others. However, in this way Childe being a repeatable boss makes 100% perfect sense— he actually wants to fight the Traveler again and again and again.

The one question I have about Childe is how in the living feck are the Fatui letting him join the Traveler and fight for them *against the Fatui*??? I think this might be touched on in Childe’s Story quest, which I’ll do in a bit, but like????? They let him keep his delusion and just walk over to Aether like “aight fam I’m on your team now”? How?

Jade Chamber/ Guizhong Ballista vs Sea Monster Fight!!

Basically, all my charged adrenaline from nearly dying to Childe just came to a head in this one huge fantastic fight.

And Xiao :)

I absolutely loved seeing the Adepti and the Qixing work together. This fight was probably my favorite fight in the whole game— the music was amazing (soundtrack where), the graphics were so nice, the adepti were so feckin cool, using everyone’s abilities was n I ce. My adrenaline was reaching its highest point at this fight and it was just perfect. It was just so fecking fun after days of WL5 pain, having to pop like five ultimates to kill one hillichurl, to be able to just demolish swathes of enemies with Fischl and Diluc, run around like a madman thanks to Xiao, have infinite health idr who did that for me but bless them, just absolutely destroy.

Ever since I hit WL5 I haven’t been able to really just go insane during a fight and stop caring about HP/ when to use skills/ dodging and this have me that opportunity.

Zhongli’s Deal

*punches Zhongli across the room with the power of being the player character* I love this man so much.

Zhongli Zhongli Zhongli Zhongli Zhongli. I AM VERY ANGRY AT HOW THE PLOT RESOLVED HIS STORYLINE. But it also makes a lot of sense. And I think, for once, Zhongli should be allowed to be selfish.

Because choosing to leave Liyue was a bit selfish. He’s leaving the country that adores him, loves him, gives him shit for free; to its own devices and then to a completely unknown fate once the new Geo Archon becomes god and takes over. But he made a frankly fantastic plan and can now leave the country, for now, in peace.

I was absolutely delighted to see Zhongli in Morax form. Making deals with La Signora, being a complete and utter puppet master who set this entire situation up and played Childe like a kazoo; but just like his dear friend Venti, I think Zhongli is happier when he’s just Zhongli, the eccentric mortal. He seems so much happier and so much more relaxed when he’s forgetting about mora and eating dinner with Aether and Paimon. Rex Lapis might have just put Liyue through the wringer, but he can now put down his 3000- year long reign and just be the happy, eccentric Zhongli.

Zhongli’s little bit of insecurity over being a “bourgeois parasite” makes perfect sense now— he doesn’t want to be seen as Morax, a superfluous god who’s using his name to get whatever he wants from the humans he watches over.

But also the part of my brain that feeds off lore nEEDS to KNOW what Zhongli got from Tsaritsa. What could be worth a gnosis? His own happiness isn’t enough— Tsaritsa is likely going to use his gnosis to try and destroy Liyue. What could be worth that?

My main thought would be either “someone’s protection” or “another gnosis”, but I don’t think the latter is possible. The former could be possible but doesn’t really make sense either— a) whose protection is worth putting an entire country, much less the world, in danger and b) the Fatui are out to kill everyone who isn’t Fatui, so they won’t agree to spare a major player in the war to come like that. Brain go brrr.

I’m very hyped for Zhongli’s story quest, which I think is coming with his banner on Dec 1, when Childe’s banner ends. I really hope that Zhongli visits Mondstadt and chills with Venti for a while, but anything with this guy would be fine lol.

LORE

We got a lot of lore this update and I am delighted by it.

Firstly, we get a tiny hint of how Visions are bestowed— “if a person shows true strength of will at a desperate and fateful moment in their life, the gods will look upon them with favor.” Vague but more than we had before.

Next we got some neat lore about Inazuma— firstly, that it’s led by a god named Baal and secondly that it steals everyone’s visions. I’m very hyped to visit because guess what fam aether doesn’t have a vision.

Final Thoughts

In case you can’t tell from my insane ramblings, I loved Chapter 1 Act 3 and I absolutely cannot wait to play through Childe’s story quest and Chapter 2 and beyond.

The Prologue in Mondstadt set the stage for Genshin. We started out in a fantasy environment with a fantasy tale of an immortal bard and a dragon. Mondstadt was an excellent introduction to the world of Genshin.

And now? We’re starting to build on that. Chapter 1 brings us another story of another god and their relationship with the country they watch over. Liyue is much less of a traditional fantasy setting and takes the darkness we saw in Mondstadt— a friendship ruined by manipulation and suffering— and build on it. Now we don’t just see the Fatui more often but we also see more of the Treasure Hoarders and the way both groups kidnap and experiment on humans.

Mond started to introduce us to the Fatui, but Liyue is where they really start bringing continuous plot relevance. Inversely, we saw much more of the Abyss Order in Mondstadt than we did in Liyue. I’m extremely disappointed we didn’t see any more of the Princess this chapter, but it makes sense given that Chapter 1 was really more about the Fatui than the Abyss Order.

All I’m trying to say is the Liyue arc was an excellent continuation to the stage Mondstadt’s arc set. Now, we’re on to the world of the Eternal Shogun, Baal! I’m really excited to meet new characters and experience new stories of Inazuma, but I hope we’ll continue to see Mondstadt and Liyue in the future. Mondstadt is likely going to be the most “boring” of the countries we experience, cuz it’s just so classically fantasy- themed, but it will always be the first country we explored in this world.

After Inazuma (if I had to take a shot in the dark, inazuma’s arc will take from December 23 to maybe March or April) we’ll go to Sumeru, which I am really extremely hyped for because it sounds extremely different from Mond and Liyue and we’ll meet Cyno and possibly even Collei! (just me extrapolating lol). I can’t wait to see where Genshin Impact goes story- wise, because its first major update has brought so much to the table.

.

#genshin impact #genshin spoilers #gi spoilers

[solastia]

Author Interview : underthejoon

((If anyone wants to make a cool banner for this, please do. I suck at them))

Today is the debut of a new project. Whether it sticks around for long depends on you guys, but for now the plan is to interview one author a month. Creators are often underappreciated on here (or anywhere, for that matter), so this is me doing my part to connect our readers and writers in a meaningful way. Our first interview is with @underthejoon​, someone whose work I myself have enjoyed for many years now. If you enjoyed this interview, please be sure to send in authors you’d like me to talk to for future editions, as well as any specific questions you’d like answered (except for questions about updating, that will get you a ban). 

Where can your work be found?

I’m kind of a mess and so while I attempt to cross post, I’m not always great at it. All of my work can be found on my tumblr masterlist but some of my things are on Wattpad and AO3. I’m also underthejoon on both of those platforms.

Links to where readers can donate:

I made a ko-fi account ages ago that I never shared with the public because I’ve always felt guilty. Which is silly, idk why I do. But there it is!

Main bias (and why if you’d like) 

So!! I have always been a Namjoon bias. From the very first time I saw them/the very first song I heard I was like yes, you. You are the one, I’m a goner!! He’s so wonderful and unique. He’s very mindful and creative and such a beacon of light to me. Plus, he’s very open with his humanity, if that makes sense? Like he is open about his therapy, his feelings about his perceived shortcomings, his excitement about finding place and things and works of art that inspire him. ALSO THOUGH, in the last year or so I’ve also become a Hoseok bias. He is just so dedicated and loving. He’s insanely talented and vastly underrated, in my opinion. And through all the back breaking work, he is kind through and through. He’s seriously just so warm and makes me really happy.

Hogwarts House : 

Okay, the very first time I ever took it I was a slytherin. A few years later, I took it again and got hufflepuff. I like to think I’m a combination of the two but can see myself as more of a puff. 

Describe yourself in five words:

Creative, Extroverted, Empathetic, Intuitive, Inquisitive 

Current favorite BTS songs: 

SO MANY, but I’ll pick 7 for 7 members. Some of these are old as hell but still currently my favorite lol. Love Maze, Love is Not Over, Outro: Her, Dimple, Tomorrow, Like, 2!3!

What was the defining moment when you decided, “Yes! I am going to write the thing!”? 

For like fanfic in general? I feel like I had been reading a lot of it after “discovering” k-pop and then after a few months I was just like fuck it, I’m doing it!! I was always super into writing poetry and never thought I would be any good at anything like this but it sounded fun so here we are now. 

What do you most enjoy about writing BTS fanfiction specifically? 

I think it’s the community of writers. When I started my blog, I met a lot of really amazing supportive writers that I’ve managed to stay friends with and I think that makes a really big difference when you have people that can relate to you and what you’re doing.

Any tropes or au’s that you want to explore later? 

I would really like to try writing some sort of supernatural creature fics. I’ve had this werewolf love triangle universe planned out forever that I would like to eventually write. Maybe like a workplace romance? 

Which of your fics would you suggest for new readers? 

For a completed series i’d say Piece by Piece. My WIP series, Love is Not Over is another one. For a one-shot I’d say, For You. Maybe the sweetness/make it right drabbles too. 

Which of your fics is your favorite? 

Piece by Piece, no doubt. I really feel proud of it and I have a hard time admitting I like anything I write. 

What other fandoms do you wish you had the time to write for? 

I used to write for EXO, Got7 and sometimes Monsta X and I miss it sometimes but also, I feel pretty contented in just writing for BTS. There’s a lot of inspiration there and I always felt I was being pulled in too many directions by my readers when I wrote for multiple fandoms.

What are your writing goals for the upcoming year? 

I’d like to finish three series I have planned, get caught up on my collab fics and at least finish an outline for my original fiction piece I’ve been putting off!

Which writers do you read religiously? 

There’s so many amazing writers on tumblr and I try as hard as I can to keep up with my mutuals when they put stuff out but sometimes it’s hard! I’m gonna be really brief because otherwise my list could go on and on. Okay, first and foremost, Shanna (@kpopfanfictrash) - she’s my best friend and a fabulous, wonderful writer. I would just like to give her a special shout out because not only does she entertain me for hours with her writing, she is very supportive of mine. Other authors I adore as humans and content creators and keep up with most regularly are @floralseokjin and @lamourche !

What is the weirdest thing you’ve had to google in the name of writing?

LOL. Hmm… I’m really boring and feel like I don’t really google that much when writing except maybe like different sex positions when i need a visual or synonyms to certain words. I’ve found some good porn though? Because visuals do help me.

Reader/OC fics within this fandom are often still looked down on and we all have to work hard to make them good enough for readers to look past their reputation. How do you combat the cringe? 

TBH, I don’t think that responsibility lies on us as writers. If people don’t like certain types of writing, that’s on them and they can avoid it. Reader insert/oc fics are just as valid a genre as any. I’ve read some of the most beautiful, creative stories on this platform, some of which could be published if names were changed/reader was switched to a named OC. There’s something out there for everyone and it’s all subjective. While I might find certain things super cringey, others love it. To each their own as long as they aren’t shoving it in the faces of the people they’re writing about or being disrespectful, you know?

What is your personal guilty (or not-so-guilty) pleasure trope? 

MUTUAL PINING/FRIENDS TO LOVERS. I feel like it’s so basic but I fucking love that trope and I think so many people do it so beautifully it is my absolute favorite. 

What is something that you see often in other fanfics that drives you insane? 

I think the only thing that really bothers me is when people romanticize abuse or other toxic/triggering topics. 

Are any of the boys or ships more difficult for you to write than others? 

I think I have the hardest time writing for Jimin and Taehyung but only because I feel I am the most similar to them and for whatever reason that deters me from writing about them often.

We all think we are the most hilarious person there is (even if we won’t admit it), so what is one line or scenario of yours that you like to go back to and giggle over? 

Okay this was actually really difficult for me because I don’t write like any humor and don’t think I’m good at LOL. I think my only attempt at humorous writing was The New Guy in which the reader is high off her ass lying on the front lawn and thinking the world is ending then accusing Namjoon of being the Grim Reaper when he comes looking for her.

ONLY IF YOU WANT TO - A scenario as long or short as you want. Maybe 250 words or less. Godzilla is attacking the city and BTS is your rescue crew. How screwed are you? 

“D-danger, you say?” Seokjin stutters.

“G-giant lizard monster headed this way?” Hoseok chokes. 

The pair exchange glances then turn their focus towards you. Seokjin jerks his head towards the door and you nod in return. 

“I hear what you’re saying, gentlemen,” Hoseok says as he stands on shaky legs. He grabs your hand as if to instruct you to do the same. 

“And as much as we would LOVE to help you…” His grip is tighter now and you know what comes next. 

Before he can finish, Seokjin shoots up from his chair and makes a mad dash towards the door. “Now, now, run, holy shit, NOW!”

Hoseok joins his friend in his haste to evacuate, dragging your nearly petrified form behind him. “No way in hell are we getting anywhere near that thing!”

Seokjin and Hoseok babble horrified nonsense between them but you can’t really decipher much of it. Your heart is pounding in your ears as you replay the name “Godzilla” in your brain.

They wanted you to rescue the city? What were they thinking?

When you reach Seokjin’s car, you have a brief moment of clarity. There are lives at stake, after all. How can you really just abandon the city when it needs a hero?

“What about everybody else?” you ask, voice small and fearful.

“Everybody else?” Seokjin huffs, putting the car in gear. He hardly gives your question a thought before he peels out of the parking lot. “Jungkook can handle everybody else. I raised him on my back, you know? It’s the least he can do!”

#bangtan bards #bts #bts writers #underthejoon #bts fanfic #bts authors #solastia #author interview

[masaru2042]

King of the Monsters is the Best Season of Game of Thrones Ever!

When I came out of the theater, I hadn't had warm and fuzzies about a movie in...I can't tell you how long.  And this movie gave me warm and fuzzies.  And this is despite the nay-sayers and the idiot critics who are slamming this movie.  Just a little FYI here, Godzilla beat out Aladdin for the #1 spot.  Godzilla pimp-slapped the Mouse into second place opening weekend.  And I approve of this.

But despite all the critics REEEEING over Godzilla and calling it garbage, I'm gonna tell you this movie is awesome and is worth your money.  And if you have a $5 dollar Tuesday like me because you have a Cinemark Cinema in your town...and you're worried about shelling out too much money for something you think you might not like...go see it on Tuesday, pay the 5 bucks, and then see why I said it's worth every cent.  And then go back and see it again full price if you want to.

So like any review I've done, usually I review a movie that I found bad and wanna shit all over it.  It is my thing, after all.  I mean see what all I've said about Godzilla Final Wars and everyone got pissy at me for hating on Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah 1991 and why I said I like GMK so much better...

And of course me shitting on Minya every time I mention Godzilla, because I hate that shit stain...I'm gonna actually give a positive review.

I mean the last movie review I did was Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, and...well...

It’s safe to say I really hated that movie.

But this one, I didn’t.

Just remember, this movie is worth every cent of your money.   You did it!  You did it, Hollywood!  You finally made a REAL GODZILLA MOVIE!  COMPLETE WITH THE ACTUAL GODZILLA THEME SONG!  And the Blue Oyster's Go, Go, Godzilla at the end.  And yes, there's even Mothra's theme song.  And I was singing it during the movie.  To anyone out there who said it couldn't be done...Cough-Steven Spielberg-Cough...we did it!  America has finally made a real Godzilla movie!  You also made the first Godzilla movie that actually gave a proper jump scare...and Godzilla was the one who did it, and I actually jumped!  10/10!  You made me jump at a jump scare and I don't usually jump at jump scares.   And yes, there was one, and it's at the beginning but...it's good.   First Godzilla movie to have a genuine jump scare that actually made me jump.  Thank you, movie! So, how does it start out. Well, it starts out in 2014 and we're following a family called the Russel Family.  No sign of the Brody family, but that's probably because they finally got eaten by sharks because...JAWS, damn it!  And also the Brody family was dull, save for Brian Cranston, and why the fuck didn't G2014 keep Brian Cranston in there? Anyway, we have Mark Russel, Emma Russel, and their daughter Madison Russel...who is played by the actress from Stranger Things...Millie Bobby Brown. I'm gonna refer to her as Eleven from here on out because that's who I know her the most as.  And yes, next month, Stranger Things is coming back to Netflix, and I'm gonna be watching that.  There's also Eleven's little brother, but he only appears in photographs because he ended up getting squashed by Godzilla's foot in San Francisco...so...I'm not gonna bother to learn his name.  Interesting to note, the actor who plays Mark...played Bruce Baxter from King Kong 2005.  But I barely recognize him...so, he doesn't get a quirky name. We do have Ken Watanabe returning as Ishiro Serizawa.  Who I suspect is actually the sun of Daisuke Serizawa...though Daisuke is a completely different kind of person in the MonsterVerse than what he was in the original Gojira.

Okay, so, we cut to about 5 years later, so 2019 and we meet up with Eleven and her mom and El is contacting her dad who is not with them.  He's studying wolves.  And they have a little email convo, Dad's worried about his wife, El is worried about Dad, and so on.  And I like how they build things up here because we don't realize that Eleven and her mom are in China studying Mothra's egg.  Until we hear Mothra's call, and yes it is very recognizable.  I suspect that there weren't veteran Godzilla fans like myself in the theater with me, so, pretty much every fan moment in this movie was something I would recognize but would mostly fall flat on most viewers.  The monster calls and the music.   Except for King Ghidorah's call...they were trying to do his call but...to be honest, it sounded like a bad mix of Heisei Ghidorah and the version they used in Final Wars.  With a little Showa in there.  The most perfect Ghidorah call was done in GMK.  It made him sound powerful, big, and kept the iconic call.  However, King Ghidorah's design looks rather interesting.  It's more of an updated version of Heisei Ghidorah than any of the other Ghidorahs.  Even more interesting is that the three heads all have their own separate personalities.   How can I explain them?  This fan art done by Michael J Larson just might help.

I present to you, Moe, Larry, and Curly.  Legendary turned King Ghidorah into the Three Stooges.  And here's the funny bit, Moe is the middle head, while Curly is the one on the right, and Larry is the one on the left.  And just like in Three Stooges fashion, Moe hates Curly a lot.  He even bops Curly a few times to pretty much make a point on just who these thee heads represent.

Rodan's call didn't sound much like Rodan's call either, but, I'm not a big Rodan fan, so I forgave it.

So, Eleven and Mom here goes down into a cave where Mothra's egg is so they can witness Mothra being born.  And of course call the giant moth-like creature...Mothra.  Because yeah.  We need to state that.  Complete with Mothra's theme!

Well Mom's got a gadget that seems to be able to create a signal that makes the monster docile, and lo and behold it works! And then Tywin Lannister shows up!

This is Charles Dance's character Alan Jonah...you know, like the whale...however, I'm gonna stick with Tywin Lannister.  Because that's who he is!  Well, Tywin kidnaps mom and Eleven.  Tywin actually is trying to be a little nice to Eleven, even making a silly face at her.   Which I thought was cute.  Until she flipped Tywin off...because yes, Eleven can do that to Tywin!  She's probably the only person who can flip Tywin Lannister the bird!  Anyone else would have been beheaded.

Apparently Tywin now runs an eco-terrorist group who are a bunch of nihilists.   And they wanna release King Ghidorah for the purpose of ending the suffering that man has caused the planet.  So...Anime Godzilla Xaliens? Really, Tywin?  The Dragon has three heads, but apparently you merely wanted to end the Targaryan dynasty just to set up the new Ghidorah dynasty.  Well, to tell you the truth, King Ghidorah would make a better ruler than Bran the Broken, so he has my vote on that.  Honestly, this whole movie is like the best Game of Thrones climax ever!  With a little Stranger Things mixed in for good measure.

And King Ghidorah...or rather Ghidorah as they call him in the movie...is actually located in Antarctica.  Because of course he is.  How did he get there?  We don't know.  He is a space monster just like he usually is, and he also wants to fuck over everything on planet Earth, like usual.  But this time...it's him doing it, and not someone controlling him...or rather...that device they call Orca sends out a call at first controls him, but the he's like "Naw, man, I'm my own boss."  And really fucks over Tywin's plans.  Because King Ghidorah at least listened to Olena Tyrell's suggestion of "Be a Dragon."  And he pretty much shows how much he is a dragon, rather than what Danaerys did until the very last minute.  Yes, I won't stop the Game of Thrones comparisons, shut up!  So, apparently, Ghidorah has the Queen of Thorns on his side and she's been talking into his ear more than Mamma Russel's Orca's machine has.  And to show Olena how much of a dragon he is, King Ghidorah eats a few humans as he is freed.

No, I'm serious, King Ghidorah eats people!  Olena would be proud.

He also doesn't listen to Tywin Lannister.  And neither did Aerys, but that's only because Aerys didn't want Cercei to marry Rhaegar.  So, Tywin pretty much gave that dragon a middle finger and decided to get with another three headed dragon...a literal three headed dragon, and they're gonna fuck up the planet, yo!  Until Olena Tyrell started talking to King Ghidorah about playing the Game of Thrones, and now King Ghidorah uses his magic monster call to literally "Call the Banners!"   I'm fucking serious!  There is a reason why the Game of Thrones references will not stop!  King Ghidorah pulls a Rob Stark and turns to Maester Lewin.

King Ghidorah: "Maester Lewin..."

Lewin: "Yes, your Grace."

King Ghidorah: "Call the banners."

Lewin: "All of them?"

King Ghidorah: "All of them."

And the ravens fly!

Meanwhile, Daddy Russel got wind of his wife and daughter being kidnapped, as well as Orca being used to summon King Ghidorah and well, he seems to have a big beef with the monsters in general.  Apparently, he has a bone to pick with Godzilla for the death of his son.   And he wants to Inigo Montoya Godzilla's ass.  The problem is, he's about the size of Godzilla's talon, so I don't think that duel is gonna work very well.  However, it's here where we get to the jump scare that works and why I loved it.  You see, in this scene, we're in an underwater Monarch base where they discuss what they want to do with Godzilla.  Russel is on the "let's kill the bastard" boat along with the American military, and Serizawa is more on the boat of...we becoming Godzilla's adopted children in which he protects from other threats out there.  Or rather...his pets.  Which of course doesn't go very well over with the Americans.  Because...

You honestly think we're gonna be Godzilla's little pet humans, Serizawa?  HELL NO!

But I chock that up to poor translation since English isn't Serizawa's first language.  And maybe that came out wrong.  Anyhoo...yeah, Godzilla's pets.  No.  I like you, big guy, but I ain't gonna be your cat.

So, while we're in this underwater base, Godzilla decides to show up!  And they start pointing their guns at him...which kinda pisses him off.   While Russel here hates Godzilla, even he knows it's not wise to go and pick a fight with him without a plan, so he even tells the guys to stand down, which they do.  And then we have a moment where Godzilla slowly inches close to the glass and Russel and the King of the Monsters have some kind of moment.  And to tell you the truth, it's a better moment than what we had with Brody and Godzilla.  Well, Godzilla at first slinks back into the darkness...and everything seems fine.  And this is where the jump scare happens.  They don't draw it out to where you expect a jump scare to happen, like...most jump scares do.  That's how you know it's a bad jump scare, they draw it out for so long that you know it's gonna jump out and get you.   You're just waiting for it to happen.  Here?  Nope, the moment you think everything is okay, Godzilla jump scares you by just suddenly swimming by the glass.

And that's it.

And I did not expect it at all!

That's how you jump scare people!  Again, this shows why Godzilla is King of the Jump Scares! There is no lingering shot, there is no "he's still there, he's still there, he's still there...he's still there..."  It just comes right out of nowhere like a jump scare does.  And I did jump.  So again, good work, movie.

And I will say I like Russel as well.  Yeah, he's in the "I hate Godzilla and I wanna see him dead" boat, but it's not taken to ridiculous extremes like you'd think it would be.  He's smart, he knows when to fold them if he has to, which in Godzilla movies...is a good thing.  You see, Godzilla movies tend to have characters like Russel be so over the top moronic in their hatred...you just wanna skip right over them and get to the monster fight.  Russel is not one of these characters.  His wife on the other hand...is an idiot, and I might as well address her.

She's flawed, and I'm glad we have for once a flawed female character in a world of female protagonists have to be perfect awesome people so that the feminazis can relate to them.

 Apparently, the SJWs didn't really affect this movie much, and I'm grateful for that.  Yeah, I had one guy tell me how he hated that Ghidorah wasn't called King and that he wasn't really a he...but an it.  But I had to remind him that pretty much that's all the monsters.  Including Godzilla.  And Ghidorah's first movie was Ghidorah the Three-headed Monster in which this movie is a bit of a remake of.  But not quite.  In fact, I went into this movie thinking it was going to be a remake of that movie.  Right down to Eleven being maybe a person possessed by some supernatural being who wanted to warn everyone about King Ghidorah's coming.  She wasn't at all.  I half expected Tywin to be some guy trying to assassinate her and he wasn't.  And I thought Rodan would team up with Mothra and Godzilla against King Ghidorah after Mothra smacked their asses around and talked about friendship and the heart of the cards and shit, but he didn't and neither did Mothra.  Mothra was on Godzilla's side, but not Rodan.   Rodan was on King Ghidorah's side!  He was one of the banners Ghidorah had Maester Lewin send a raven to.  And another one of those ravens went to Nevada of all places and to...and I'm shocked to say this...Kumonga!   Yes, our giant spider from the 60's Showa era has returned in the American reboot!  And much like his Final Wars counterpart, he decided to be in the American Southwest.  Maybe he liked Cowboys or something.   We also had a giant mammoth creature rising out of Wyoming.  And another MUTO.  Why, Legendary?  Why another MUTO?  I guess we needed to reuse an asset or something.  Well, it wouldn't be a Godzilla movie if we didn't.  So...you're checking off the marks here, Legendary.  We even have stock footage in the form of clips!  They are checking off all the Showa marks!

So, while King Ghidorah is flying around in a hurricane he created (totally awesome) and telling Lewin to call his Banners, we suddenly find out that Mamma Russel was actually the mastermind behind this whole "the Dragon has Three Heads" thing.  Yeah, Tywin Lannister wasn't the guy in charge, it was Ma Russel.  And she managed to convince Eleven that this is for the well being of mankind.  You see, she wants the monsters to basically cull the humans and our evil technology, and return the world to a more peaceful time where we were subsistence farmers worshiping giant monsters as gods?  Because that was a more peaceful time?

And this is why she's an idiot.  And her ideas is batshit crazy!  The world has never been more at peace now than any other era.  I'm not kidding about that.  Yeah, we're polluting the planet, and we need to cut back our carbon footprint, but to be honest here...the planet was much warmer during the time of the Dinosaurs than it is currently NOW.   And while I've touted about the lessons of the P-T Extinction Event, aka the Great Dying, in which a flood basalt in Siberia started an out of control greenhouse that resulted in nearly 90% of all life on the planet dying, including the life in the oceans, and set our planet in a biological to be resetted in a way...and that was caused by just the temperature rising on top of all the nasty gasses put into the atmosphere by said flood basalt...I don't think that just going back to subsistence farming is gonna solve the problem, lady.  In fact, it's stated even if we just stop all the polluting now, the damage has already been done.  There is no stopping it.  And NO!  Suddenly causing the entire planet to just become more radioactive is not gonna solve your problem either.  She honestly believed that radiation is some miracle grow fertilizer.  When, no it isn't.   And Carl Sagan can tell you why!  Did you not listen to Threads?  Did you not watch that movie, lady?  I feel like I need to sit you and Final Wars Godzilla down and you both watch that movie together to see why just pumping a bunch of radiation into the atmosphere is not gonna help things.  Final Wars Godzilla needs to learn that we understand the message of nuclear war.  Threads has told us that.  And you, you moronic bitch, need to learn the lesson of radiation will make farming HARDER!

And apparently for a scientist, she's never heard of the Red Forest of Chernobyl.

If you want to know what it looks like to an entire ecosystem when it's been bombarded by radiation...just radiation alone...

See those red trees?  That is caused by massive amounts of radiation being released upon a forest.

Again, I prove why I know more about radiation than anyone who makes a Godzilla movie.  But this time, I will forgive it because this lady is actually stupid and everyone else is far more intelligent in regards to dealing with radiation.  Seriously, how did this woman get a doctorate in which she ended up working for an organization built to study monsters from a time when the Earth was "more radioactive" as it's was stated in this universe's past? And unless you wanna die from cancer or bleeding out your ass, you need to sit your ass down and shut the fuck up.   But thank god this woman is basically the villain and a stupid one at that.  Even Tywin Lannister got tired of her shit.   And Eleven just figured out her mother is a loon.

Basically, Tywin Lannister makes more sense than crazy lady, because well, he at least just wants to release the monsters and wipe out humanity as a whole.  In which the radiation will certainly do that.  So, he's pretty much on the bar on the consequences of what will actually happen more than the idiot bitch.  He just wants to make it happen because he's seen enough evidence of what humans are like, and he's tired of it.  Which I can respect.  Not the whole genocide thing, but the whole...I'm not doing this to "save humanity from itself thing" like crazy moron had pretty much talked herself into...to the point of stupidity and forgetting what radiation actually will do to humans and the ecosystem. Sure, maybe the ecosystem was actually more hardy against radiation in this universe than in our own...but still...that doesn't resolve the issue that TODAY'S plants and animals are not hardy against it! Well our Monarch heroes show up to where Rodan was popping out of that volcano like in the trailer, and we finally get to the first fight.   Monarch leads Rodan to the storm and King Ghidorah, hoping to just have the two fight...but they don't.  Because Rodan is on Ghidorah's side.   So, it's up to Godzilla to take this false king down.  And he does!  He literally pulls a Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah 1991 and decapitates Ghidorah's head!

Well...the United States has a plan to finally put all three monsters down and it's....

The Oxygen Destroyer

Okay, this is where I'm gonna have to gripe.  Because this thing is the single most stupid idea ever!  But at least it does have a pay off in the stinger at the end when everyone basically states that the Gulf of Mexico is now devoid of fish.  However, the existence of this weapon in this movie is uncalled for.  But I suppose it's meant to set up the scene where Serizawa decides to sacrifice himself to bring Godzilla back onto the field.  And to be honest, it's not needed. King Ghidorah could just be enough to knock Godzilla out for a few rounds while he goes on his little mayhem run and Serizawa can still sacrifice his life to revive Godzilla from that horrid beating.  You don't need this thing in this movie, guys!  You don't!  You put it in there because you had that little teaser a few years back showing the Oxygen Destroyer in an old Monarch location and people were speculating it.   So, you had to give us something.

And people wonder why my Game of Thrones references are happening in this review...because...this is Clegane Bowl, people.  This is Clegane Bowl and how stupid Dumb and Dumber made it.  It comes out of nowhere because the fans were expecting it, and you didn't even bother to set it in the Dragon pits and fill it to the brim with chickens.  We are disappointed with you!

However, I did get a laugh out of it.   Military guy: "We have this weapon we've been developing.  It's called the Oxygen Destroyer!  We're gonna use it on these monsters."

Thanks, America, you just killed all the fish in the Gulf.  You morons!

And it didn't work on King Ghidorah because he's an alien. Tell Kiryuu Knight that!  He managed to stick his Oxygen Destroyer into King Ghidorah and it worked like magic.

However, I will say that you're not the only ones who did something stupid with the Oxygen Destroyer, Legendary.  Kiryuu did to in Halo 3 Different.  He had the thing with him, took it to High Charity, and then forgot that he had it.  Yeah, I'm capable of my idiot moments in writing as well.   But I noticed that no reader really noticed the Oxygen Destroyer was even mentioned in that story...so, can't complain.

Well the Oxygen Destroyer also didn't really kill Godzilla, however it did wound him enough that he retreated to the bowels of the Earth to recover.  Basically Hollow Earth theory.  Or rather, not really.  They call it Hollow Earth Theory, but it really isn't.  I know Hollow Earth Theory because I love poking fun at morons who claim stupid shit.   Hollow Earth Theory looks like this.

See that?  That's a sun instead of a molten core.  This is the theory touted by racists like Hitler and Lewis Farakhan.   The thing the MonsterVerse came up with is more like...the crust is made out of Swiss cheese.  Rather than the Earth being hollow.  Basically, the Earth is Tennessee.  Tennessee's crust is made out of Swiss cheese, and now these guys applied that to the entire planet.  But no, the Earth isn't really hollow in the MonsterVerse, not the way the actual Hollow Earth Theory states.  And that has been my biggest problem with the nomenclature they use for this theory in this universe.  but I guess Swiss cheese Earth didn't really catch on as good as Hollow Earth.   So Godzilla falls through one of these Swiss cheese holes and King Ghidorah regrows his head.  Holy shit!  However, I noticed, to regrow his head, he had to be sitting on a volcano with his storm raging over him.  So...he's drawing power from somewhere to regrow that head, which is why he probably can't regrow his entire body from a single severed head in the totally not gonna make Mecha-King Ghidorah with Tywin Lannister as the pilot stinger. And he's calling his banners.

So this is where we have our Serizawa sacrifice scene.  They go into one of the Swiss cheese holes after Mothra in her full glory appears and starts raining down her prettiness on top of the water to guide them to where Godzilla is...complete with her theme of course...and the guys find out some very ancient ruins of a civilization long gone.  These ruins appear to be a hodgepodge of Egyptian, Mesoamerican, Mesopotamian, Eutruscan, Celtic creation.  Why are they down there, why haven't we seen these things before, and is this the Lost City of Atlantis...I'm banking it's Atlantis.  And the Atlantians worshiped Godzilla...before they all moved to Georgia and built the greatest airport mankind has ever seen.

It's all connected, I tell you!

LAX has nothing on Atlanta!

And the closer to where Godzilla is sleeping, the more radioactive it becomes.  They decide to deliver a nuke to him to wake him up because nukes feed Godzilla.  But the battle with Rodan and King Ghidorah damaged the sub's launching bay and they have to deliver it manually.   So Serizawa draws the short straw, gives Papa Russel his notes on Godzilla, and decides to go in and give Godzilla the pick me up he needs.  But not before Serizawa boops the Goji snoot.  Which is cute. And going back to think on it.  At least Serizawa gave Godzilla much deserved pats.  Because he's a good boi, damn it!  Unlike Jon who...only gave Ghost pats at the last second!

Why you so mean, Jon?!

It seems Godzilla is very much aware of our existence.  As he's shown even in the 2014 film to notice those tiny ants under his feet.  He is very much aware of the humans, and even after he awakens...to the sound of this...

Since when did we import Akira Ifukube into this thing?

Okay, are you trying to show how awesome you are to us G-fans, movie, because we get it!  We get it!  You are awesome.   Thank you for that.

Alright, so Goji theme going on and Godzilla starts heading to where King Ghidorah is.

Meanwhile, Tywin Lannister and his eco-lions along with crazy bitch and Eleven are in Boston of all places.  While King Ghidorah is making a mess out of Washington DC.

But he is making a mess out of the place and according to the scientists, he's also trying to reformat the planet to suit his needs. In Boston, Eleven decides to steal the Orca and head into Red Sox Stadium.  She hooks it up to the massive broadcaster speakers to signal to King Ghidorah to come to Boston.  And it works.  Unfortunately.   Godzilla also gets that signal and he heads for it too.   Papa Russel then gets the idea of rather than letting the Gods duke it out in the Red Sox stadium, it's probably time for the humans to show Godzilla that they are on his team.  And so...by the power of Akira Ifukue...Godzilla and Monarch charge into battle.  And no, not kidding about that either.  They charge in with Godzilla's theme song playing in the background.  And yes, Godzilla knows they are on his team.  You can tell.  You can seriously tell.  Godzilla is surrounded by military planes and he's like "These guys are with me!"

I'm literally getting Godzilla vs. Hedorah vibes from this because Godzilla and the military actually did team up to defeat Hedorah.  And not only that, but Godzilla acknowledged humans several times in that movie.  And yes, this movie is actually dedicated to Banno, who was the director of Godzilla vs. Hedorah.  So, I approve.  And so would he.  And it's explained in the movie why Godzilla recognizes the humans as his allies.  The Orca's signal is not only mixed with the call of an alpha "titan" as the kaiju are called in the movie, but also the voice of humans.  Because we're the alpha predators of this planet!  So, Godzilla, obviously hearing not only that sound, but also seeing human dominance all over the place has pretty much recognized humanity as a partner species.  And apparently he also recognizes Mothra as a fellow partner species that helps him keep the order, so he now has "imprinted" that status onto humans as well.   We're not his pets, Serizawa, we're his partner.  I knew the Serizawa's English was off on that.  But it reaches the coexistence he is trying to achieve. Mothra also joins the fight, but a bit later when Rodan starts fucking Godzilla's shit over.  Meanwhile, Godzilla is building up for a finishing move on Ghidorah...and because of that, there's a timer.  Papa Russel wants to go in and save Eleven before that timer runs out.  And I'm suspecting Godzilla knows this because he's actually holding back a bit.  It's severely hinted that Godzilla knows this.  At least to me it is.  Like Russel shot Godzilla a message or something.

Russel: "Can you keep that thing busy, Godzilla?  I gotta save my daughter!"

Godzilla: "Sure, but not for long.  I'll give you 10 minutes, tops!  But after that, I gotta unleash this nuclear pulse, or else I might blow myself up if I don't."

Russel: "Ten minutes! Got it!"

Again, not that I mind, but Eleven has Arya Stark plot armor, so...she'll be fine.  However, the plot armor is a staple of Godzilla.  So, not that gripey about it either.  Honestly, when dealing with Godzilla, no character, not even the main ones, should have plot armor.   Unless they are so far away from the fight it wouldn't matter.

That rule goes for you as well, Toho!  Especially with that whole 24 week long half life thing you had in Shin-Godzilla!  Plot armor was the only thing keeping those boring characters alive, because it sure wasn't their hazmat suits.  Those things looked like they were made out of tissue paper.  Which wouldn't help in dealing with rads that high.  Even my mother would know that!

So, if 24 week long half life could get a pass on not killing characters in that shit of a movie, this much better one can get a pass on Eleven not dying.

Meanwhile, crazy bitch Russel finally decides to do something of actual merit and go after her daughter.  And Tywin lets her.  Because that's not his problem.  Just as long as she doesn't take his men with her...he doesn't give a shit. 

He really doesn't give a shit.

So that's it for Tywin, we don't see him again until the Stinger, but I've revealed that already.   So crazy bitch goes after her daughter, Papa goes after his daughter, and they end up finding the Orca all smashed up.  And Godzilla is not doing very well in the fight.  He is obviously holding that nuclear pulse in. And yes, it is a nuclear pulse.  He's like: "Russel, hurry up! I can't hold this fart in!"

Mothra punctures Rodan in the chest with her stinger.  And honestly, she's GMK Mothra.  Which is cool.  However, she does end up dying during this fight in the attempt to help Godzilla get back on his feet.  But like always, she is basically a phoenix and will rise from the ashes through another egg. King Ghidorah is kicking Godzilla's ass all over the place.  And when the Russels finally reunite and fix the damned Orca, they turned it on and lead King Ghidorah away from Godzilla long enough for Godzilla to unleash his secret weapon that I spoiled.  The nuclear pulse!  And it is glorious!  He goes red like Burning Godzilla from Godzilla vs. Destroyah, but...it's so much cooler.  This red burning look isn't because he's gonna die, it's him charging up his new weapon.  And that nuclear pulse is...basically like an atomic blast!  Right down to the shearing of flesh from bones!  Unfortunately, crazy bitch basically dies in the fire, leaving Russel and Eleven to watch from a distance as Godzilla incinerates King Ghidorah.

And for good measure to make sure Ghidorah doesn't come back...GODZILLA EATS KING GHIDORAH!  That has never happened in any Godzilla movie.   EVER.  Clap!  This Godzilla is just the most brutal of any Godzilla.  I think GMK Goji might have to bow to this king since he EATS his foes!

And Godzilla stands over a demolished Boston, roars in triumphant.  And as the other kaiju show up, he pretty much pulls a Robert Baratheon.

As if the Game of Thrones references couldn't stop there. So, Godzilla reveals himself to be King Robert Baratheon, which works out because Tywin Lannister is wanting to take him down.   So, I'll describe the stinger at the end of the movie.  We show Tywin Lannister and his eco-lions walking into a bunker and the guy is explaining that after the Oxygen Destroyer, the fishing in the Gulf is shit now.  Because yeah.  It would be.  It's the Oxygen Destroyer.   Well, as he walks into a large room, we see King Ghidorah's only remaining head with flies buzzing around it. And it looks exactly like the scene from Godzilla vs. Mecahgodzilla 1993 when General Aso and a team of scientists come into a room with Mecha-King Ghidorah's head in it...saying "We have it now, a robot to kill Godzilla."

And this is why I think Tywin Lannister is gonna build himself Mecha-King Ghidorah...and take over Westeros.

So all in all, I really look forward to Game of Thrones season 10.  It really is shaping up to probably the best season we're ever gonna get.   And Season 9 of Game of Thrones ended with a huge bang.  I was really satisfied with what they did.  Tywin's back!  And he's backing the real Dragon...with the Three Heads.  I don't think Maester Aemon thought the dragon having three heads meant King Ghidorah, but as George RR Martin stated...prophesies do end up biting your prick off.

So, what do you all think Season 10 of Game of Thrones is gonna be like?

All joking aside, I loved this movie.  I really did.

And continuing the Game of Thrones comparisons, the night fight shots in this film...10 times better than The Long Night of Season 8 of Game of Thrones.  Why?  BECAUSE YOU COULD ACTUALLY SEE FIGHT! But if I have one true gripe to say about it...aside from the Oxygen Destroyer...it's that this movie happened BEFORE Godzilla vs. Kong.

No, I'm serious on this.  This movie sounds like it should have been done after Godzilla vs. Kong.   And I did kinda hated that King Ghidorah had to die in this movie, rather than return as an actual threat again later.

But who knows....we do have that head left over, so anything can happen.

#Godzilla King of the Monsters #legendary pictures #Godzilla #Game of Thrones #GoT Season 8 #Tywin Lannister #Charles Dance #stranger things #Eleven #King Ghidorah #Rodan #Mothra #Ghidorah #kaiju #American kaiju #Titan #spoiler review #movie review

[igottheissue]

This Time Around 2

A strange woman Bucky is sure he knows but can’t fully recognize, picks him up after the fall of SHIELD. She claims to be friends with Steve and that she is here to help him. He can’t help but keep wondering where he knows her from; it’s definitely not through Steve Rogers. Can she help him be the man he wants to be or will the all too familiar struggles of being a super human overcome him?

Pairing: Bucky Barnes X OC Rowan O’Connor Word Count:4,531 Rating: M Masterlist Chapter 1

Chapter 3

Taglist: @xmarveled​ @spidey-the-killer-queen​

Rowan jumped slightly when she felt her cell phone buzz in her back pocket. She eyed the sleeping form of Bucky, who had made his way to her now-made bed not long after their nearly-all-day conversation of how the two found themselves in this shit-show. 

She understood where the guy was coming from. She really did. She had been subjected to some of the same treatment. Cryostasis, memory-wiping, brain-washing, being used to do the dirtiest deeds against her own will. She would be forever grateful for Natasha saving her from the hell that the United States government put her through, but right now, she was not thankful to know the red-headed assassin.

I know you found him. -N

Who? -R

It's been over two weeks. If you hadn't, you would have updated me by now. -N

Update: I haven't found him. -R

You're lying O'Connor. -N

You know what this means to Steve. -N

We need you. -N

Damn it Rowan. Answer me. -N

Rowan sat for a long while thinking about how well Natasha knew her. Should she tell her? Nat knew she was lying and Rowan knew how desperate Steve was to find his friend. Over the past ten years the newly-formed Avengers or SHIELD, respectively, had called Rowan in on some cases. 

She had gotten to know the team pretty well, considered them all friends even. But she liked to keep to herself. Help out for the greater good here and there, slowly but surely clearing out her red ledger as Natasha always said. Then back into the shadows she went; there were still people looking for her, wanting to use her like they had The Winter Soldier; like the Captain was originally meant to be used; how she had been used by those that got their hands on Erskine’s formula and updated it. 

Fury and SHIELD, Steve and the Avengers, they had offered her a place to seek refuge, but she felt like she shouldn't have to burden them. After what she had done, for them to openly welcome her to their safe hold... Would the same be said for Bucky Barnes? Probably, they knew who he was before all that HYDRA shit happened. Rowan was no one before The Sector. She had only ever been The Sector’s puppet.

"Are you gonna rat me out?" A deep voice from behind her startled her once again. Damn, she needed to be on her toes, no matter how at ease she felt with someone who had been through what she had. If anything, she should be on high alert, for she knew what this man was capable of and who was after him. She didn't answer him right away, letting the tension grow within the room.

"No."

I haven't found him. But I'll keep you updated. -R

Where are you.-N

Home.-R

Which one... -N

One you don't know about. I'll ttyl Nat. -R

She could feel Bucky reading the texts from over her shoulder. When she was sure he was finished, she shut her phone off and set it on the side table. She turned fully around to face the standing man.

"You know, I know you remember Steve, at least a bit. I've come to know him well over the past few years. Natasha saved my life; Steve is trying to do the same for you. They've... offered me a haven of sorts with their team. I'm sure they'd do the same for you. They're good people." Rowan tried to convince herself of what she was saying too. To be honest she wasn't one hundred percent sure what would happen. 

Tony was a decent man, Rowan liked him a lot, but he didn't know all of what Bucky had done. She already knew Nat and Steve were a go, Thor wasn’t even on planet but was so happy-go-lucky all the time she doubted he would mind, and Banner was nervous all the time and second guessed most everything their little band of heroes did anyway so she didn’t even bother worrying about him. 

She smirked when she thought briefly of Sam Wilson, the handsome and comedic soldier that had helped Steve and Natasha during the past few weeks, all he had done while she visited them shortly was complain about how “that asshat” had ripped his steering wheel off. She had a feeling he would go with whatever Steve said though, he was a fantastic soldier, and a good friend to Steve. Still, she had her reservations about the whole situation. As much as she trusted Natasha and Steve, it was others around their team she didn’t quit trust yet.

"So why aren't you with them now?" Touché.

"I have my reasons."

"Then so do I." Bucky could tell Rowan was trying too hard to sound convincing. He wasn’t sure why, if these people really were her friends.

"Fine. Look, you're welcome to stay here as long as you need. But Natasha knows I know where you are. So eventually she's gonna come checking up on me. And it won't be for afternoon tea." Rowan blinked and looked away from Bucky's intense stare. She could tell he didn't like what she had said, not one bit. But he was thankful for her not giving his location away.

“Look, I know what you’re going through, and trust me when I say it will most definitely get worse before it gets better. But I’ll be here to help if you’ll accept it.” Why was she offering her help? It wasn’t like her. Maybe it was his situation, so much like hers… 

She didn’t know where she’d be if Natasha hadn’t helped her through that horrible time. And, much as she loathed to admit it, she trusted Nat and Steve with her life, they had come through a lot over the past few years. Anything she could do to return the favor was still not enough, and never would be in her eyes. Maybe that’s why she didn’t bother staying long with the group after she helped them out. Would Bucky feel the same way?

An important thing in her recovery was that Natasha didn’t need to help her. She hadn’t even known her, but she believed in her, or at least was a good enough actress to make Rowan believe it. She knew that Fury had all but forced Nat to follow after her and help her, for as long as it took. It was the fact of the matter that someone who didn’t know anything about her other than those horrible years believed that she could be better than what she was subjected to. 

She had a feeling that Steve would put too much pressure on Bucky to be like he was back when they were kids. He didn’t need that, he needed to see that total strangers believed he could overcome his red ledger. Sure he was the old Bucky now, but once all the memories came through… He wouldn’t be the same as he was when Steve knew him best, he never would be, and she had a feeling Steve expected him to be when this was all said and done. 

Bucky would be a man who had memories from three different lifetimes, Bucky Barnes, The Winter Soldier, and… the man he will become now, whoever that might be. She was getting ahead of herself, they would cross that bridge when they arrived. Right now, she just needed to show him that he could trust her.

Bucky stared at the green-eyed woman in front of him. The woman who had apparently saved his life and who had pretty much led the same life as he had. She was offering him a place to stay, a safe place to stay; at least for now. Hell, if he were to admit it, he kind of wanted to stay with her. 

She knew what he went through, and from her own stories from today, vague as they may have been; he was sure she would be the best equipped to handle what his mind would do to him and the people around him when he started remembering more… But a voice in the back of his mind screamed a warning at him just when he found himself trying to trust this red head. It was dark and scratchy, it made his head hurt.

"Thanks for everything." Bucky said roughly. The woman's mouth dropped open slightly as he walked away abruptly, heading for the only door out of the apartment.

"Hold on buddy. Where do you think you're going?" No answer. Before Bucky could blink twice Rowan had rushed towards the front door, blocking his escape route. His automatic response of lashing out was met with Rowan's automatic response of defending herself against him. He was on the floor in a compromising position about three seconds later. 

He let his head fall to the ground. He was rusty. Rowan also had the same strength as Steve, if not more so with how his body felt; whereas Bucky had been injected with the Nazi's rip off serum according to Rowan. He just wasn't quite strong enough, especially in the state he was, freshly healed from gunshot wounds and being in what was probably as close to a coma as his body could get for two weeks. Hell, the only thing he'd eaten was some toast and butter over the last twelve hours.

"I'm guessing you just worked out how really fucked you are over the course of this encounter. I'm not going to hurt you Bucky. I'm here to help you. I know what you've gone through and I'm not going to let it happen again, okay?" Rowan relaxed her grip on Bucky's arms and sat up a little, although she remained kneeling over the other super soldier; not quite trusting him not to run.

"Before we go anywhere, you're going to need to rest up a bit more, you'll need a shower, and probably a shave and haircut… Or you know, you could probably rock the hipster man-bun look." Rowan smacked herself mentally, not even finding the words to reprimand herself for that last afterthought.

“Why are you doing this? Being… nice to me. After everything I’ve done. I’m a, a monster. I don’t deserve this.” Bucky looked up at Rowan with pathetic eyes, a dimple residing on his forehead in between his eyebrows as he frowned. Rowan sighed and closed her eyes a moment before answering,

“Because, when I was in your situation, someone reached out to me and helped me. Call it settling a deal, erasing my red ledger for all the bad shit I’ve done. Once you’re ready, you’ll probably find yourself in my position. You’re welcome.”

He didn’t have an answer to that. Bucky realized, as Rowan removed herself from above him, that this woman was right. He couldn't defend himself properly while in this state. So he would wait, regain his strength, use the help she was offering, then he would leave. Leave and never return so no one else would get hurt. He doubted he could erase his red ledger.

-TTA-

“She’s either with him or knows where he is.”

“How can you be so sure Nat? I mean, she isn’t giving up any information, and you only texted her. How can you tell she’s lying over a text?” Steve chewed his lip as Natasha turned around from her position on the couch. She hid the urge to roll her eyes.

“Because, Steve, I know Rowan, very well actually. I know she’s lying. There has to be a good reason for it. She knows how much he means to you; if he were hurt or is hurt, she might be waiting for him to heal up before letting you know he’s okay.”

“Well what if she can’t properly treat him? What if he needs a real doctor?”

“Then she’ll find a real doctor, Steve. Look- I know you know Rowan, this woman was trained like Bucky and I, sure - it was for the United States, but you know how corrupt they are. She knows her shit. She can protect him too, before you try to pull that card on me. 

“The US government copied and enhanced the serum that you were injected with, she is definitely strong enough to handle anything that comes her way, and she’s spent enough time in the lab with Tony and Bruce to know her way around anything medical or mechanical.” 

Steve had found a seat at Tony’s kitchen bar while Natasha had been speaking. She was probably right. From what Steve had seen of Rowan she was definitely formidable against anyone who came her way. Steve paused for a moment in his thinking. Had she meant to say those things about Rowan? He had only assumed SHIELD had found her and tried to make another super soldier. It seemed that wasn’t the case.

“Okay Natasha. I’ll trust you on this one… I guess. Only on the condition you tell me what’s up with Rowan. No beating around the bush. I want her story. I haven’t asked once about how she got the serum or where she’s from, because I trusted you and she’s proved herself more than once. 

“But this is Bucky we’re talking about… You said she was injected with the same serum I was? When did this happen? Why aren’t there more soldiers just like her working for the US? And why for the love of God won’t she just come live with us? I mean seriously, she fits right in with the team.”

Natasha smirked at Steve’s last sentence. She did fit in well with the team. Natasha suspected that with time Rowan would come to find that not everyone was out to get her and the people that were would have a harder time if she stayed with the Avengers, as they had now been dubbed.

“It really isn’t my story to tell, but for the sake of me winning this argument and the fact that she probably doesn’t mind if I share with you, I’ll tell you everything I know.” Steve took a seat across from Natasha, somewhat surprised at Natasha’s admittance that Rowan wouldn’t have minded sharing the information with Steve. 

Maybe he should have just grown a pair and asked her himself when she was here a few weeks back. He waited for about ten seconds as Nat pulled a device out of her pocket that looked like some sort of calculator. After another few moments, Steve grew even more impatient.

“Natasha. Am I supposed to be reading your mind or something here?”

“I’m disabling JARVIS in this room so he can’t overhear. Not that I think Tony would do anything with this information, but until we rat out all the HYDRA agents from what’s left of SHIELD and Stark Industries, I’m not taking any chances.” Steve admired Natasha while she typed furiously on the tablet in her lap. 

She was a strong soldier in battle, a world-renowned spy and assassin- no matter what end of her gun you ended up on, you had to give her credit for how badass she was- and among many other great qualities that the red-head possessed, doing everything in her power to keep her friends safe was one of Steve’s favorites. Once Natasha was finished with disabling Tony’s bodiless, voice-only robot-thing that Steve didn’t want to admit still freaked him out sometimes, she adjusted her seat for a more comfortable position.

“Rowan was born in 1935, in Ireland. Because of the unsettling government issues across Europe, her parents shipped her over to her Uncle’s farm in Virginia when she was ten. Her parents went missing and a few months later her mother’s body was recovered but the reason of her death was never revealed; they never found her father, there were rumors he a was a mutant; a human that possesses the X-gene. 

“I’ll explain that later. Her Uncle worked on the farm as a cover, but actually worked with the White House- he was a scientist. That’s how the government found out about Rowan. They had been looking for young, impressionable people to shape into soldiers to “protect” the US and her allies. With an immigrant Uncle that was willing to keep quiet and no other family it was easy to start her training. 

“After a few years in Virginia and D.C., they moved her to Australia, then Wales, then back to US soil when she turned twenty four. You kind of know what happened during the Red Room with me growing up? The US version was The Sector.”

“So she grew up like you did, training to be a spy? Did the US think the war would last longer than it did?”

“Hold your horses old man, I’m not finished yet.” Steve blushed and tucked his arms tighter across his chest, waiting for Natasha to stop chuckling at his impatience. Could he really be blamed though? He told Natasha that he would trust her on this one, and lord help him he would, but he still wanted to know everything there was about the woman supposedly keeping his best friend from him. 

If she was as trustworthy as Natasha claimed her to be (and he thought she was…but come on this was Bucky they were dealing with!), then he shouldn’t be freaking out, but he just couldn’t help it. Bucky had been there from the beginning. And he was supposed to be there till the end of the line. Steve thought that line had ended a long time ago. But somehow, God had other plans in mind.

“Rowan was twenty four when The Sector took your formula and enhanced it. I’m not sure how they got it from Erskine, I thought he kept it in his head and not written anywhere; if Rowan knows, she never told me. They immediately injected her with it, claiming she was already physically in top condition, so all there was to enhance, as far as they could tell, was her speed, strength, reflexes, hearing, eyesight, you know; the whole shebang. 

“They heard rumors about her mutant father, but no powers ever surfaced, so they pretty much forgot about that. The serum worked, and, since the world was at a general peace, they locked her in the ice box until Bucky started showing up. Every time they got wind of The Winter Soldier they would send Rowan out to try to bring him down. She got close a few times, but HYDRA’s tech was just a little better than The Sector’s during those years.

“She’d be taken out for other missions though, The Sector was an organization that was almost as crazy as HYDRA, only rooting for the US. They claimed that they had allies, but at the end of the day it was all about good ole ‘Murica. They’re not known very well, the most you would ever hear would be whispers throughout SHIELD about a rogue government organization who was crazy about making sure the US was the biggest threat out there. 

“All they cared about was making sure the United States had no enemies, and not because they made friends. They were out to strike fear in the other countries, to make sure no one dared to defy what the US wanted… About ten years ago Coulson debriefed me on a possible new asset to SHIELD. The file name was titled OBSIDIAN. Surprisingly it wasn’t an acronym, which our government loves to use usually. 

“Something about Paleolithic history and how Obsidian was viewed as a protective power totem, given to soldiers to strengthen them. The Sector saw themselves ultimately doing good work for the US, the light-side if you will. Well there’s a light and dark side to everything… Rowan was their dark side.”

Natasha sighed rather loudly and stood, stretched, then headed over to the fully stocked bar. She poured two glasses of Tony’s no-label-although-lets-face-it-probably-privately-made whiskey and downed both before pouring two more. Steve sat quietly and waited for Natasha to finish before he dared speak. He watched her closely as she walked slowly back to where he sat. He took the offered drink and sipped a little before setting the glass on the coffee table. Natasha drank about half of the glass before setting her own down.

“So I did my job and brought her in. She had been in hiding for about two months from HYDRA and The Sector. It actually took about two years for her to fully trust me enough to get help from SHIELD. Over that time she and I travelled across Europe and Canada, though mostly sticking in Ireland. 

“A lot of her memories from before she was used in The Sector came back to her while we were travelling. It wasn’t pretty. She hurt people, depending on when the memories came back and where we were. Anything can trigger them. One of her worst ones was when we were on a train. We passed by some old castle that apparently her parents took her to right before they shipped her over to the states.” Natasha took another long sip of her whiskey. She set the glass down and clasped her hands together, elbows on her knees. Her eyes stared blankly ahead as Natasha relived the day from so many years ago.

“She just spazzed out. She shoved me out of my seat and went on a rampage. I-I could barely stop her. She ended up passing out; but she had snapped one guy’s femur bone and literally ripped the security guards arm off with her own two hands. This woman-she, I, Rowan… Rowan didn’t even touch her, just looked her way, and she… Her body bent at odd angles, and she flew out of the window, over the edge of a ravine.

“There was lightning coming from Rowan’s fingertips, her eyes turned black. A storm popped up out of a seemingly clear blue, cloudless sky. I’ve never seen anything like it, at least not from any human besides Banner when he goes green... Or Thor when he uses Mjolnir. I hadn’t been actually nervous like that in a long while. I thought I might have to take her out.” Natasha seemed to be looking through Steve. 

She had a troubled look on her face, eyebrows closely knit together, remembering the years she had spent with Rowan, who she now considered her closest friend, were not always rainbows and butterflies. Natasha had never seen Rowan use that power again. Not even in battle. It was as if Rowan hadn’t even realized she’d done it. She still didn’t know what she had done that to the woman, Natasha had never told her. 

Never told her about the lightning that flew from her fingertips as she rampaged through the train compartment, or the storm that raged over the train while there was an otherwise beautiful blue sky over the Irish countryside. She hadn’t even told Fury or Coulson about it. 

The only people on the train that witnessed it were either dead or had passed out from Rowan beating them to a pulp, luckily they hadn’t remembered when they woke up. A very attractive red-headed nurse had made sure of it. It was the only true secret she had left. Well, she guessed, not anymore. God, maybe she trusted Steve more than she wanted to admit. She didn’t like that...

Steve worried at his lip a bit more while listening to the tales of Rowan regaining her memories. He couldn’t imagine what Bucky was going through, if the memories had started to come back at all. He guessed the silver lining was at least Bucky wasn’t as strong as Steve or Rowan, he only had about eighty percent of their strength, as far as they knew, unless HYDRA had gotten a hold of The Sector’s updated formula. They might be in trouble then, until he could get to Bucky at least.

“She finally gave in enough to help us bring down The Sector. Fury was beyond furious and had some strong words with the President and his colleagues about how much of The Sector was hidden from SHIELD eyes all these years. Turned out The Sector was just a little too harsh for even Fury’s morals.” Natasha smirked.

“Turns out SHIELD was a little too much for Fury too, huh?” Steve nodded his head and blew hot air out of his nose in agreement. When Natasha didn’t continue, Steve took that as an opening for his questions.

“So why do the memories coming back make them go crazy?” He could only picture Bucky picking someone up and killing them with his mind…

“I don’t know if the same thing will happen to Bucky, but it’s more than likely. And I’m not sure, Rowan didn’t have an answer and she never really wanted me to ask Banner or Stark. They still don’t know her whole story. Only Coulson, Fury, and I know besides her. We were the only four who knew about the OBSIDIAN file. There’s no data left on it. All Sector data has been wiped from existence. 

As far as we know, there are no more agents, unless they have gone deep under cover. Rowan doesn’t trust Coulson or myself when we’ve tried to tell her, she is more paranoid than even I am.” Natasha and Steve both chuckled at her little joke. She had to put some kind of light hearted statement out there, for both of them were almost choking on the seriousness of the situation.

“Sorry. I didn’t mean to unload this much information… If you could keep it to yourself, that’d be great. Rowan doesn’t even know about the details of the train incident. I didn’t want to tell her, I don’t know how it would affect her.” Natasha felt rather guilty now. It hadn’t been in her plan to tell Steve this much, but the words just kept flowing. 

Her time with Rowan had been one hell of a mission. Usually missions are easy for her to shake off after she’s done. She keeps it strictly business, how she was taught. But with Rowan, and it seemed since she was drafted for the Avengers and even SHIELD, her cold heart was warming up a bit.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          The things that happened with Rowan turned personal when Natasha and she became friends. The whole situation went up a whole other level for Natasha that she hadn’t ever been on. Sure, at the Red Room growing up, she thought a few of the other girls she trained with were considered friends, until they proved her wrong. It felt good to unload some of the heavy information she had on her friend. And Natasha knew she could trust Steve.

“Natasha, thank you. I won’t say anything.” Steve patted her knee before holding up his right hand, fingers tightened into a fist, sans his pinky. Natasha rolled her eyes slightly at Steve before reluctantly enclosing Steve’s pinky with her own.

“You’ve got to stop trusting Sam and Tony to update you on modern-day traditions.”

#marvel #bucky barnes #bucky barnes x oc #bucky x oc #bucky oc #bucky barnes fanfiction #the winter soldier #james barnes #ihavetheissue #this time around #rowan oconnor #shared histories and favors #marvel fanfiction #shield #hydra #steve rogers #captain america #natasha romanoff #black widow #sebastian stan #katheryn winnick #tony stark #iron man #civil war #avengers

[2ptonpt]

This Time Around Ch. 2

A strange woman Bucky is sure he knows but can't fully recognize, picks him up after the fall of SHIELD. She claims to be friends with Steve and that she is there to help him. He can't help but keep wondering where he knows her from; it's definitely not through Steve Rogers.

Pairing: Bucky Barnes/ OC(Rowan O'Connor)

Word Count: 4,526 (I like long chapters sorry)

Rating: M

Masterlist

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

  Rowan jumped slightly when she felt her cell phone buzz in her back pocket. She eyed the sleeping form of Bucky, who had made his way to her now-made bed not long after their nearly-all-day conversation of how the two found themselves in this shit-show. She understood where the guy was coming from. She really did. She had been subjected to some of the same treatment. Cryostasis, memory-wiping, brain-washing, being used to do the dirtiest deeds against her own will. She would be forever grateful for Natasha saving her from the hell that the United States government put her through, but right now, she was not thankful to know the red-headed assassin.

I know you found him. -N

Who? -R

It's been over two weeks. If you hadn't, you would have updated me by now. -N

Update: I haven't found him. -R

You're lying O'Connor. -N

You know what this means to Steve. -N

We need you. -N

Damn it Rowan. Answer me. -N

Rowan sat for a long while thinking about how well Natasha knew her. Should she tell her? Nat knew she was lying and Rowan knew how desperate Steve was to find his friend. Over the past ten years the newly-formed Avengers or SHIELD, respectively, had called Rowan in on some cases. She had gotten to know the team pretty well, considered them all friends even. But she liked to keep to herself. Help out for the greater good here and there, slowly but surely clearing out her red ledger as Natasha always said.

Then back into the shadows she went; there were still people looking for her, wanting to use her like they had The Winter Soldier; like the Captain was originally meant to be used; how she had been used by those that got their hands on Erskine’s formula and updated it. Fury and SHIELD, Steve and the Avengers, they had offered her a place to seek refuge, but she felt like she shouldn't have to burden them. After what she had done, for them to openly welcome her to their safe hold... Would the same be said for Bucky Barnes? Probably, they knew who he was before all that HYDRA shit happened. Rowan was no one before The Sector. She had only ever been The Sector’s puppet.

"Are you gonna rat me out?" A deep voice from behind her startled her once again. Damn, she needed to be on her toes, no matter how at ease she felt with someone who had been through what she had. If anything, she should be on high alert, for she knew what this man was capable of and who was after him. She didn't answer him right away, letting the tension grow within the room.

"No."

I haven't found him. But I'll keep you updated. -R

Where are you.-N

Home.-R

Which one... -N

One you don't know about. I'll ttyl Nat. -R

She could feel Bucky reading the texts from over her shoulder. When she was sure he was finished, she shut her phone off and set it on the side table. She turned fully around to face the standing man.

"You know, I know you remember Steve, at least a bit. I've come to know him well over the past few years. Natasha saved my life; Steve is trying to do the same for you. They've... offered me a haven of sorts with their team. I'm sure they'd do the same for you. They're good people." Rowan tried to convince herself of what she was saying too. To be honest she wasn't one hundred percent sure what would happen. Tony was a decent man, Rowan liked him a lot, but he didn't know all of what Bucky had done. She already knew Nat and Steve were a go, Thor wasn’t even on planet but was so happy-go-lucky all the time she doubted he would mind, and Banner was nervous all the time and second guessed most everything their little band of heroes did anyway so she didn’t even bother worrying about him.

She smirked when she thought briefly of Sam Wilson, the handsome and comedic soldier that had helped Steve and Natasha during the past few weeks, all he had done while she visited them shortly was complain about how “that asshat” had ripped his steering wheel off. She had a feeling he would go with whatever Steve said though, he was a fantastic soldier, and a good friend to Steve. Still, she had her reservations about the whole situation. As much as she trusted Natasha and Steve, it was others around their team she didn’t quit trust yet.

"So why aren't you with them now?" Touché.

"I have my reasons."

"Then so do I." Bucky could tell Rowan was trying too hard to sound convincing. He wasn’t sure why, if these people really were her friends.

"Fine. Look, you're welcome to stay here as long as you need. But Natasha knows I know where you are. So eventually she's gonna come checking up on me. And it won't be for afternoon tea." Rowan blinked and looked away from Bucky's intense stare. She could tell he didn't like what she had said, not one bit. But he was thankful for her not giving his location away.

“Look, I know what you’re going through, and trust me when I say it will most definitely get worse before it gets better. But I’ll be here to help if you’ll accept it.” Why was she offering her help? It wasn’t like her. Maybe it was his situation, so much like hers… She didn’t know where she’d be if Natasha hadn’t helped her through that horrible time. And, much as she loathed to admit it, she trusted Nat and Steve with her life, they had come through a lot over the past few years. Anything she could do to return the favor was still not enough, and never would be in her eyes. Maybe that’s why she didn’t bother staying long with the group after she helped them out. Would Bucky feel the same way?

An important thing in her recovery was that Natasha didn’t need to help her. She hadn’t even known her, but she believed in her, or at least was a good enough actress to make Rowan believe it. She knew that Fury had all but forced Nat to follow after her and help her, for as long as it took. It was the fact of the matter that someone who didn’t know anything about her other than those horrible years believed that she could be better than what she was subjected to. She had a feeling that Steve would put too much pressure on Bucky to be like he was back when they were kids. He didn’t need that, he needed to see that total strangers believed he could overcome his red ledger.

Sure he was the old Bucky now, but once all the memories came through… He wouldn’t be the same as he was when Steve knew him best, he never would be, and she had a feeling Steve expected him to be when this was all said and done. Bucky would be a man who had memories from three different lifetimes, Bucky Barnes, The Winter Soldier, and… the man he will become now, whoever that might be. She was getting ahead of herself, they would cross that bridge when they arrived. Right now, she just needed to show him that he could trust her.

Bucky stared at the green-eyed woman in front of him. The woman who had apparently saved his life and who had pretty much led the same life as he had. She was offering him a place to stay, a safe place to stay; at least for now. Hell, if he were to admit it, he kind of wanted to stay with her. She knew what he went through, and from her own stories from today, vague as they may have been; he was sure she would be the best equipped to handle what his mind would do to him and the people around him when he started remembering more… But a voice in the back of his mind screamed a warning at him just when he found himself trying to trust this red head. It was dark and scratchy, it made his head hurt.

"Thanks for everything." Bucky said roughly. The woman's mouth dropped open slightly as he walked away abruptly, heading for the only door out of the apartment.

"Hold on buddy. Where do you think you're going?" No answer. Before Bucky could blink twice Rowan had rushed towards the front door, blocking his escape route. His automatic response of lashing out was met with Rowan's automatic response of defending herself against him. He was on the floor in a compromising position about three seconds later. He let his head fall to the ground. He was rusty. Rowan also had the same strength as Steve, if not more so with how his body felt; whereas Bucky had been injected with the Nazi's rip off serum according to Rowan. He just wasn't quite strong enough, especially in the state he was, freshly healed from gunshot wounds and being in what was probably as close to a coma as his body could get for two weeks. Hell, the only thing he'd eaten was some toast and butter over the last twelve hours.

"I'm guessing you just worked out how really fucked you are over the course of this encounter. I'm not going to hurt you Bucky. I'm here to help you. I know what you've gone through and I'm not going to let it happen again, okay?" Rowan relaxed her grip on Bucky's arms and sat up a little, although she remained kneeling over the other super soldier; not quite trusting him not to run.

"Before we go anywhere, you're going to need to rest up a bit more, you'll need a shower, and probably a shave and haircut… Or you know, you could probably rock the hipster man-bun look." Rowan smacked herself mentally, not even finding the words to reprimand herself for that last afterthought.

“Why are you doing this? Being… nice to me. After everything I’ve done. I’m a, a monster. I don’t deserve this.” Bucky looked up at Rowan with pathetic eyes, a dimple residing on his forehead in between his eyebrows as he frowned. Rowan sighed and closed her eyes a moment before answering,

“Because, when I was in your situation, someone reached out to me and helped me. Call it settling a deal, erasing my red ledger for all the bad shit I’ve done. Once you’re ready, you’ll probably find yourself in my position. You’re welcome.”

He didn’t have an answer to that. Bucky realized, as Rowan removed herself from above him, that this woman was right. He couldn't defend himself properly while in this state. So he would wait, regain his strength, use the help she was offering, then he would leave. Leave and never return so no one else would get hurt. He doubted he could erase his red ledger.

-TTA-

“She’s either with him or knows where he is.”

“How can you be so sure Nat? I mean, she isn’t giving up any information, and you only texted her. How can you tell she’s lying over a text?” Steve chewed his lip as Natasha turned around from her position on the couch. She hid the urge to roll her eyes.

“Because, Steve, I know Rowan, very well actually. I know she’s lying. There has to be a good reason for it. She knows how much he means to you; if he were hurt or is hurt, she might be waiting for him to heal up before letting you know he’s okay.”

“Well what if she can’t properly treat him? What if he needs a real doctor?”

“Then she’ll find a real doctor, Steve. Look- I know you know Rowan, this woman was trained like Bucky and I, sure - it was for the United States, but you know how corrupt they are. She knows her shit. She can protect him too, before you try to pull that card on me. The US government copied and enhanced the serum that you were injected with, she is definitely strong enough to handle anything that comes her way, and she’s spent enough time in the lab with Tony and Bruce to know her way around anything medical or mechanical.” Steve had found a seat at Tony’s kitchen bar while Natasha had been speaking. She was probably right. From what Steve had seen of Rowan she was definitely formidable against anyone who came her way. Steve paused for a moment in his thinking. Had she meant to say those things about Rowan? He had only assumed SHIELD had found her and tried to make another super soldier. It seemed that wasn’t the case.

“Okay Natasha. I’ll trust you on this one… I guess. Only on the condition you tell me what’s up with Rowan. No beating around the bush. I want her story. I haven’t asked once about how she got the serum or where she’s from, because I trusted you and she’s proved herself more than once. But this is Bucky we’re talking about… You said she was injected with the same serum I was? When did this happen? Why aren’t there more soldiers just like her working for the US? And why for the love of God won’t she just come live with us? I mean seriously, she fits right in with the team.”

Natasha smirked at Steve’s last sentence. She did fit in well with the team. Natasha suspected that with time Rowan would come to find that not everyone was out to get her and the people that were would have a harder time if she stayed with the Avengers, as they had now been dubbed.

“It really isn’t my story to tell, but for the sake of me winning this argument and the fact that she probably doesn’t mind if I share with you, I’ll tell you everything I know.” Steve took a seat across from Natasha, somewhat surprised at Natasha’s admittance that Rowan wouldn’t have minded sharing the information with Steve. Maybe he should have just grown a pair and asked her himself when she was here a few weeks back. He waited for about ten seconds as Nat pulled a device out of her pocket that looked like some sort of calculator. After another few moments, Steve grew even more impatient.

“Natasha. Am I supposed to be reading your mind or something here?”

“I’m disabling JARVIS in this room so he can’t overhear. Not that I think Tony would do anything with this information, but until we rat out all the HYDRA agents from what’s left of SHIELD and Stark Industries, I’m not taking any chances.” Steve admired Natasha while she typed furiously on the tablet in her lap. She was a strong soldier in battle, a world-renowned spy and assassin- no matter what end of her gun you ended up on, you had to give her credit for how badass she was- and among many other great qualities that the red-head possessed, doing everything in her power to keep her friends safe was one of Steve’s favorites. Once Natasha was finished with disabling Tony’s bodiless, voice-only robot-thing that Steve didn’t want to admit still freaked him out sometimes, she adjusted her seat for a more comfortable position.

“Rowan was born in 1935, in Ireland. Because of the unsettling government issues across Europe, her parents shipped her over to her Uncle’s farm in Virginia when she was ten. Her parents went missing and a few months later her mother’s body was recovered but the reason of her death was never revealed; they never found her father, there were rumors he a was a mutant; a human that possesses the X-gene. I’ll explain that later. Her Uncle worked on the farm as a cover, but actually worked with the White House- he was a scientist. That’s how the government found out about Rowan. They had been looking for young, impressionable people to shape into soldiers to “protect” the US and her allies. With an immigrant Uncle that was willing to keep quiet and no other family it was easy to start her training. After a few years in Virginia and D.C., they moved her to Australia, then Wales, then back to US soil when she turned twenty four. You kind of know what happened during the Red Room with me growing up? The US version was The Sector.”

“So she grew up like you did, training to be a spy? Did the US think the war would last longer than it did?”

“Hold your horses old man, I’m not finished yet.” Steve blushed and tucked his arms tighter across his chest, waiting for Natasha to stop chuckling at his impatience. Could he really be blamed though? He told Natasha that he would trust her on this one, and lord help him he would, but he still wanted to know everything there was about the woman supposedly keeping his best friend from him. If she was as trustworthy as Natasha claimed her to be (and he thought she was…but come on this was Bucky they were dealing with!), then he shouldn’t be freaking out, but he just couldn’t help it. Bucky had been there from the beginning. And he was supposed to be there till the end of the line. Steve thought that line had ended a long time ago. But somehow, God had other plans in mind.

“Rowan was twenty four when The Sector took your formula and enhanced it. I’m not sure how they got it from Erskine, I thought he kept it in his head and not written anywhere; if Rowan knows, she never told me. They immediately injected her with it, claiming she was already physically in top condition, so all there was to enhance, as far as they could tell, was her speed, strength, reflexes, hearing, eyesight, you know; the whole shebang. They heard rumors about her mutant father, but no powers ever surfaced, so they pretty much forgot about that. The serum worked, and, since the world was at a general peace, they locked her in the ice box until Bucky started showing up. Every time they got wind of The Winter Soldier they would send Rowan out to try to bring him down. She got close a few times, but HYDRA’s tech was just a little better than The Sector’s during those years. She’d be taken out for other missions though, The Sector was an organization that was almost as crazy as HYDRA, only rooting for the US. They claimed that they had allies, but at the end of the day it was all about good ole ‘Murica.

"They’re not known very well, the most you would ever hear would be whispers throughout SHIELD about a rogue government organization who was crazy about making sure the US was the biggest threat out there. All they cared about was making sure the United States had no enemies, and not because they made friends. They were out to strike fear in the other countries, to make sure no one dared to defy what the US wanted… About ten years ago Coulson debriefed me on a possible new asset to SHIELD. The file name was titled OBSIDIAN. Surprisingly it wasn’t an acronym, which our government loves to use usually. Something about Paleolithic history and how Obsidian was viewed as a protective power totem, given to soldiers to strengthen them. The Sector saw themselves ultimately doing good work for the US, the light-side if you will. Well there’s a light and dark side to everything… Rowan was their dark side.”

Natasha sighed rather loudly and stood, stretched, then headed over to the fully stocked bar. She poured two glasses of Tony’s no-label-although-lets-face-it-probably-privately-made whiskey and downed both before pouring two more. Steve sat quietly and waited for Natasha to finish before he dared speak. He watched her closely as she walked slowly back to where he sat. He took the offered drink and sipped a little before setting the glass on the coffee table. Natasha drank about half of the glass before setting her own down.

“So I did my job and brought her in. She had been in hiding for about two months from HYDRA and The Sector. It actually took about two years for her to fully trust me enough to get help from SHIELD. Over that time she and I travelled across Europe and Canada, though mostly sticking in Ireland. A lot of her memories from before she was used in The Sector came back to her while we were travelling. It wasn’t pretty. She hurt people, depending on when the memories came back and where we were. Anything can trigger them. One of her worst ones was when we were on a train. We passed by some old castle that apparently her parents took her to right before they shipped her over to the states.” Natasha took another long sip of her whiskey. She set the glass down and clasped her hands together, elbows on her knees. Her eyes stared blankly ahead as Natasha relived the day from so many years ago.

“She just spazzed out. She shoved me out of my seat and went on a rampage. I-I could barely stop her. She ended up passing out; but she had snapped one guy’s femur bone and literally ripped the security guards arm off with her own two hands. This woman-she, I, Rowan… Rowan didn’t even touch her, just looked her way, and she… Her body bent at odd angles, and she flew out of the window, over the edge of a ravine. There was lightning coming from Rowan’s fingertips, her eyes turned black. A storm popped up out of a seemingly clear blue, cloudless sky. I’ve never seen anything like it, at least not from any human besides Banner when he goes green... Or Thor when he uses Mjolnir. I hadn’t been actually nervous like that in a long while. I thought I might have to take her out.” Natasha seemed to be looking through Steve. She had a troubled look on her face, eyebrows closely knit together, remembering the years she had spent with Rowan, who she now considered her closest friend, were not always rainbows and butterflies.

Natasha had never seen Rowan use that power again. Not even in battle. It was as if Rowan hadn’t even realized she’d done it. She still didn’t know what she had done that to the woman, Natasha had never told her. Never told her about the lightning that flew from her fingertips as she rampaged through the train compartment, or the storm that raged over the train while there was an otherwise beautiful blue sky over the Irish countryside. She hadn’t even told Fury or Coulson about it. The only people on the train that witnessed it were either dead or had passed out from Rowan beating them to a pulp, luckily they hadn’t remembered when they woke up. A very attractive red-headed nurse had made sure of it. It was the only true secret she had left. Well, she guessed, not anymore. God, maybe she trusted Steve more than she wanted to admit. She didn’t like that...

Steve worried at his lip a bit more while listening to the tales of Rowan regaining her memories. He couldn’t imagine what Bucky was going through, if the memories had started to come back at all. He guessed the silver lining was at least Bucky wasn’t as strong as Steve or Rowan, he only had about eighty percent of their strength, as far as they knew, unless HYDRA had gotten a hold of The Sector’s updated formula. They might be in trouble then, until he could get to Bucky at least.

“She finally gave in enough to help us bring down The Sector. Fury was beyond furious and had some strong words with the President and his colleagues about how much of The Sector was hidden from SHIELD eyes all these years. Turned out The Sector was just a little too harsh for even Fury’s morals.” Natasha smirked.

“Turns out SHIELD was a little too much for Fury too, huh?” Steve nodded his head and blew hot air out of his nose in agreement. When Natasha didn’t continue, Steve took that as an opening for his questions.

“So why do the memories coming back make them go crazy?” He could only picture Bucky picking someone up and killing them with his mind…

“I don’t know if the same thing will happen to Bucky, but it’s more than likely. And I’m not sure, Rowan didn’t have an answer and she never really wanted me to ask Banner or Stark. They still don’t know her whole story. Only Coulson, Fury, and I know besides her. We were the only four who knew about the OBSIDIAN file. There’s no data left on it. All Sector data has been wiped from existence. As far as we know, there are no more agents, unless they have gone deep under cover. Rowan doesn’t trust Coulson or myself when we’ve tried to tell her, she is more paranoid than even I am.” Natasha and Steve both chuckled at her little joke. She had to put some kind of light hearted statement out there, for both of them were almost choking on the seriousness of the situation.

“Sorry. I didn’t mean to unload this much information… If you could keep it to yourself, that’d be great. Rowan doesn’t even know about the details of the train incident. I didn’t want to tell her, I don’t know how it would affect her.” Natasha felt rather guilty now. It hadn’t been in her plan to tell Steve this much, but the words just kept flowing. Her time with Rowan had been one hell of a mission. Usually missions are easy for her to shake off after she’s done. She keeps it strictly business, how she was taught. But with Rowan, and it seemed since she was drafted for the Avengers and even SHIELD, her cold heart was warming up a bit. The things that happened with Rowan turned personal when Natasha and she became friends. The whole situation went up a whole other level for Natasha that she hadn’t ever been on. Sure, at the Red Room growing up, she thought a few of the other girls she trained with were considered friends, until they proved her wrong. It felt good to unload some of the heavy information she had on her friend. And Natasha knew she could trust Steve.

“Natasha, thank you. I won’t say anything.” Steve patted her knee before holding up his right hand, fingers tightened into a fist, sans his pinky. Natasha rolled her eyes slightly at Steve before reluctantly enclosing Steve’s pinky with her own.

“You’ve got to stop trusting Sam and Tony to update you on modern-day traditions.”

#marvel #Bucky BArnes #Bucky Barnes x oc #Bucky Barnes oc #The Winter Soldier #James Buchanan Barnes #2ptonpt #This Time Around #Bucky Barnes fanfiction #Marvel fanfiction #avengers #Captain America #James Barnes #SHIELD #Rowan OConnor #Chapter 2 #Civil War

[andrewuttaro]

New Look Sabres: GM 63 - PHI - Brandon Montour

The Flyers tonight are a really tough pill to swallow. Ugly mascots that end up changing the game aside, overly optimistic Sabres fans such as myself have been looking up in the standings at who these guys can catch, rather frustratingly so as of late. With a Flyers win tonight they surprise the Sabres from behind and hop ahead of them in the standings. Can you imagine that violent, orange cookie monster impersonator surprising you from behind? Want to hear another surprise from behind, no this isn’t a sex joke: Marco Scandella paired with Brandon Montour. OH VETERAN, MY VETERAN! WHATSOEVER WOULD COACH HOUSLEY DO WITHOUT YOU! Housley’s prioritization of veteran minutes is going to be a whole paragraph in the Season Retrospective isn’t it? Yea, THE SEASON RETROSPECTIVE THAT WILL HAPPEN IN APRIL IF HE CAN’T PROPERLY UTILIZE THIS ROSTER! Ok, stop, Andrew. Optimism; remember the optimism with which you started this blog. Ugh, what different days those were. Speaking of not making the playoffs, let’s talk trash about the last team the Sabres played in the playoffs! Philadelphia, the past of this match up it that old ballad about working class cities just smashing their blue-collar lunch pals at each other as hard as possible. The world and the NHL has changed and now a playoff matchup between these two teams looks more like it would be a speed-skill bonanza then any kind of grit-for-grit hockey men party. The Sabres are building something new while the Flyers are copying the Penguins model: yeah, I said Penguins! Sabretooth wasn’t wearing pants when Gritty wasn’t even a sparkle in Jakub Voracek’s eye yet! 2011’s rematch is a going to go for the Sabres in 6, you sloppy copycats. That was fun; too bad it’s going to make this next part harder. This was the night the playoffs died. But no, you’re New Look Sabres, you preach taking a New Look at this team time and time again! How can you say its over!? Well, eight points with twenty games left will do that to you. Luckily, we’re not focusing on that tonight.

New Flyer Ryan Hartman set the tone of this game leveling Rasmus Dahlin along the boards early. Zach Bogosian and the old-time hockey alliance came crashing in like you know and instigator penalty, other penalty, whatever-whatever it panned out to nothing. Want to know why contemporary hockey fans don’t give a shit about keeping fighting in the game old boys club? It doesn’t help. At best it gives your team a moderate morale boost at worst it chops years off dudes’ lives. Whatever, it didn’t help the Sabres win this game. If the Sabres weren’t outshot each period they were certainly outplayed. By eight minutes in the Flyers were already up 2-0 on the backs of Oskar Lindblom and Jakub Voracek. Let’s get something out of the way: this loss wasn’t because of Carter Hutton. He was left out to dry and when we look back on this season their will be poetry in that. More and more every year this club is Jack Eichel and friends. Our favorite Patriots fan put this team on his back and made us believe again like Tom Brady! Ok, that was gross to write. I’m sorry you had to read that. I’m going to collect myself now. Jack Eichel did get the puck from Skinner and did toe drag a fucking bullet in there, but the period ended 2-1 and even the grossly optimistic types like me still kind of felt this crap wasn’t going to get much better. Like the cold, cruel march of time closer to death the Sabres would get scored on once they began to give us hope. 15 minutes into the second period James van Riemsdyk redirects a puck in front and gets the orange boys up 3-1. What is that? This is one of those game Casey Mittelstadt flashes the kind of brilliance we’ll get from him on the regular in a year and a half or so? Awesome, New Sabre Brandon Montour gets the play going in the defensive zone that would eventually end in Casey Mittelstadt tapping in a goal via Evan Rodrigues and Conor Sheary. 3-2 Flyers would be the high-water mark of this game for the Sabres as the only positive highlight of the third period would be Travis Sandheim doing his Sabres ten game winning streak impression and crashing the net less then a minute in to get the Flyers their two-goal lead back. Whatever whatever, Claude Giroux, whatever whatever, can you believe they eliminated Caelynn on the Bachelor, whatever whatever; Sabres lose 5-2 in regulation and give up another spot in the standings falling to a full eight points back. The Panthers might still win their game at the posting of this and they can hop over the Blue and Gold too because irony has no bounds in the season of the ten-game winning streak that saw no playoffs.

So yes, it’s not over until the fat lady sings. There is a ridiculous scenario where the Sabres win 65-75% of their remaining games to sneak into the playoffs. As I began saying last night, start cushioning the blow now, fam. Enjoy what’s left of the ride but start thinking about what’s for dinner. I’m letting my soccer side out starting now. Hell, I just posted on my politics blog for the first time in like a month. Let loose, Spring is officially 21 days away even if playoffs aren’t. However, this is not how I’m ending the blog today. No sir: we have a new player to celebrate. Brandon Montour had about as decent a game as you can have in a loosing effort on the road when your new coach insists on putting you with a negative player that is really only in because he’s been in the league for a while. I mentioned Montour being the catalyst of the Mittelstadt goal play earlier, but Montour made some good moves in this game. He broke up a lot of opposition passes in the defensive zone, more than you expected before with this Sabres defense. For all you suburban hockey dads he also laid out a decent hit or two in the third period that feels right in a game against the Flyers. He made his mistakes too, struggling in the offensive zone shortly before the JVR goal. Nonetheless Montour is a clear addition to this team and if shit ever gets better here for a Sabres fan I have a feeling #62 will be a part of it. This one just hurt, and I very much look forward to turning my attention to the Rochester Americans for tomorrow’s Amerks Angle update. I’ll be discussing banners in that one so if you need a palette cleanser check back tomorrow.

In fact, cross-promotion city here because how long can we talk about this dreadful team, if you got an eye for Soccer, I have a whole soccer blog at Rochester Rhinos Outsider if you want to check in on that. I also have a politics blog but let’s keep it in the sports family for right now. Right now: I just want you to like, share and drop a comment on this post. Let’s commiserate together because now, with the deadline past this is the bed we’re sleeping in from now until April 6th, fam. I’d love to hear from you. If you’ve read this far you probably won’t mind a conversation with me either. Reply or @ me on twitter or DM on twitter or Tumblr. If you’re only on this blog because I posted that neat little graph last night, stick around, there’s another one of those coming Saturday! No matter what you’re here for, it’s the Sabres that brought us all together and no matter how ass they maybe they can’t take that from us! Let’s Go Buffalo!

Thanks for reading.

P.S. In all the busy-ness of the last few days I forgot to mention Kyle Okposo is back already. Evidently his concussion was only slightly worse than Jeff Skinner’s ankle injury and he’s already back! I like to think fan support helped that along.

[beardcore-blog]

Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus Review

This review will have all the spoilers. You’ve been warned.

It was either late 2013 or early 2014. Good times. I was messing around on Youtube one day looking at videos of the latest Batman game. Then in the recommended videos I saw something that both confused and intrigued me. The thumbnail was the iconic image of Niel Armstrong saluting the American flag he just planted on the moon. Except there were a couple differences. Twisted, terrifying differences. The American flag was replaced with the banner of Nazi Germany. And Niel was Seig Heil’ing to it. I’m pretty sure I let out an audible "what the fuck?" apon seeing this. This was the E3 trailer for Wolfenstein: The New Order. For those who don’t know, Wolfenstein is one of the oldest franchises in gaming, and put FPS games on the map. A goofy game about shooting Nazis in WWII that gave 90s gamers the chance to shoot the hell out of Mecha-Hitler. Think of it as a prototype to the more infamous Doom series that would launch shorty after. The New Order was a modern-day reboot with some ambitious questions. The biggest one being "what if they won instead?" The New Order takes you to an alternate 1960 where the Nazis beat the allied forces to the nuke (among other advanced tech) and thus took over the world. It was grim. It was campy. It was subtle. It was loud. It was dumb. And it was also much smarter and more engaging than anyone would’ve thought. So it went on to be a smash hit in 2014, and one of my favorite games ever. A few months ago to the day this is being posted, Bethesda stopped by E3 and showed the world it was sequel time, showing off Wolfenstein 2 The New Colossus (Actually like the 3rd or 5th in the series) to the world. The next day I preordered the hell out of it. Was it worth it? Well after 10 days of tearing through it, lemme tell you.

So I’ll start off with things I didn’t like, get the negativity out of the way. It’s not a big list but I think what on it is valid. In The New Order, which I shall now abbreviate as TNO, in nearly all sections you could either go in fast and loud, putting holes in everything that moves with dual automatic shotguns and a big laser cannon. Or you could be a bit more stealthy about things, sneaking through vents and corridors putting knives in throats and taking care of problematic enemies from afar with a suppressed pistol (which might I mention was one of the things I loved about the TNO; keeping the pistol relevant and not just a forgettable starter weapon like most shooters). It was all about personal play style, but both options were viable. In The New Colossus, which I shall now abbreviate as TNC, going in loud was the way I always went because it seemed more viable. And I always went stealth in TNO. I probably just need to learn the areas, but there was some problems I ran into. Like this game being dark. Not story wise (even though it is) but literally. I remember alot of areas meant to be stealth-able lacking in the lighting department, and I set my brightness at the recommended settings, too. Anytime I’d get caught it’d be from and enemy that I couldn’t see. And that leads to another problem. In TNO, enemies stuck out in the maps. Even if they were dully-colored humaniods coming in plentiful shades of gray you’d still spot them from across the area. It was probably due to both TNO being brighter and the enemies having a wide design variety. Not so much in the TNC. There’s less design variety here and they all seem to just blend into the background alot. Even the brightly-colored HAZMAT and Venus space troopers don’t pop in anything less than Glamour Magazine photo booth. On top of that those two previously mentioned troopers, while being obvious separate models apon inspection, honestly just look like classic Mortal Kombat-esque palette swaps. Again, TNO had alot of variety in their designs. Which is why it was a shame there was no proper model viewer in TNO, and why it’s straight-up bullshit their isn’t one in TNC. One of my favorite bits of last year’s DOOM (another Id games classic updated for the modern world) was a model viewer that let you get an up-close look at the game’s monsters and weapons. The Batman: Arkham games have had it for years. Hell, I remember having them back in 2005 with Jak III. Why can’t Wolfenstein, with their toybox of greatly-designed characters, weapons and assets have it? Or a photo mode, too? I’m not insane about graphics in games, but I still appreciate them with how incredible they are today, and TNC is no exception. It’s a beautiful game. Let me appreciate it to the fullest extent possible. Honestly these days model viewers and photo modes are something all games should have with how far graphics have gone. If only bosses got the same advancement. TNO had a few that aren’t Psycho Mantis or Big Baby Bowser levels, but they were fun nonetheless. DOOM’s bosses were one of the highlights for me. TNC has none of those. Here and then there’s an enemy that can act as a sort-of miniboss, but their’s nothing big and climactic like TNO’s showdown with the towering London Monitor, or the final showdown with the main antagonist, General Deathshead. The "final boss" of TNC is more of a gauntlet than anything. 3 pairs of Supersoldiers, a higher-powered but still common enemy assisted by a shitload of standard infantry, finished off by 2 "Zerstörers", which are basically super versions of the Supersoldiers (I call them "Super-duper Soliders"). The main antagonist of the game, General Engel, goes down with one melee attack, only vainly defending herself with a pistol. An outdated pistol by both the game’s and IRL standards. In a game where mechs, actual Avengers Helicarriers and boimechanically-enhanced mutants are possible, you’d expect so much more. Especially with Hitler himself making an appearance. I was really looking forward to a modern-day Mecha-Hitler. Not sure if I’d want bosses to worry about though since something as simple as getting your weapons out can be a pain. In TNO you could dual wield nearly every weapon in the game, but you could only dual wield two of the same gun. In TNC dual wield returns, for every weapon you can carry, and you can interchange between them. And while it has it’s uses for sure, it feels kinda clunky, not to mention slow. TNC takes it’s sweet time letting you change your weapons which can be fatal, especially since this game carries over a problem TNO had in that you’re not exactly warned when your current ammo’s about to run dry and you’re gonna get lit up while changing a clip.

Now to the good, which I assure you outweighs the bad. Lemme start by saying that the gunplay feels as fantastic as before. Every gun has kick and you feel it whenever you see a Nazi get turned to mush by your triple-barreled automatic rotary shotgun. Yes, that’s a thing in this game. As is a pistol-sized grenade launcher. And sticky-bomb launcher. And an OP-as hell laser cannon that atomizes people and metal covers/doors alike. And all of these can be powered-up through upgrades. The Shotgun can be upgraded to have ricochet rounds to deal even more damage. The pistol can have a suppressor so it stays useful like it did in TNO. The Assault Rifle can have both a scope and armor piercing rounds making it able to down mechanical enemies in one shot. And the laser cannon. Oh god the Laser cannon. Called the LaserkraftWerk in the game, it’s by far the best weapon you’ll get, even before upgrades. One shot will destroy even more armored infantry, but when you upgrade it so the blast can be charged, ooooooohhh. One charged blast will down Super soldiers with ease, and even on higher difficulties the powerful Zerstörer units I mentioned earlier will fall with a few good shots. Combo this with an extended battery doubling your already-decent ammo pool, And you’re unstoppable. I guess that leads to another issue. While every gun has their uses and you’ll likely use every one at one point, like DOOM before it you’ll probably cruise along primary’ing 2 guns. For me it was the Shotgun and Laserkraftwerk. But even then they weren’t the weapons I used the most. It was the heavy weapons. In TNO there was a Heavy MG you’d find here and there. It was powerful, sure, but could only be picked up and not carried in your inventory, and slowed you down considerably. You couldn’t sprint and crouching reduced you to a snail’s pace, and interacting with anything would make you drop it. In TNC there’s 4 types of heavy weapons and they’re awesome. They still slow you down but nowhere near the TNO’s. You CAN interact with stuff and you can even sprint with them. Doesn’t sound like much but believe me, that makes a world of difference. Another thing that gives you an edge in combat is the contraptions. There’s 3 in total; The Ram Shackles, which allow you to bash through both weak walls and enemies alike, the Constrictor Harness, which allows you to sneak around in tight spaces, and the Battle Walker, my favorite, which is just some goddamn stilts. They let you get to higher places so its not anywhere as useless as it sounds, but also has perks, like the other contraptions. You’ll be able to tank explosions without falling over, make enemies freeze n terror at the sight of you, and even keep your overcharged health from going down, my favorite. Speaking of health, one thing that makes the newer Wolfenstein and Doom games is the lack of regenerating health. You have to find health and armor in the levels, and this returns in TNC. One addition though is instead of having to pick up stuff manually, walking over health and armor pieces will make you pick it up automatically, though manually picking them up like before is still an option. It admitting needs refinement but it works well enough. It’s nice after a firefight were I took a beating, I remember where a health pack or some armor was, I run to that location, and I already have some extra heath/armor on me when I get there from the bits that was lying around. While I did say that their isn’t much variety in the enemie’s designs, the designs that are there are good, and carry over that retrofuturistic asthetic I loved so much about TNO. My favorites are either the Ubersoldat, with is basically a Nazi T-800, or the previously-mentioned Zerstörer. Enemy behavior is much better in this game too. In TNO during a stealth section if an enemy ran into a dead body, they’d just move along like something happened. In TNC, enemies are much more sharp. Anything louder and light sniffle they’re hear and investigate, and if they find a dead body they go into high alert and start hunting for you. The levels are incredible too, truly feeling and looking like a 1960s America under Nazi control. The level layouts in this game are kinda funny. In TNO a new level was an entirely new location. In TNC, multiple levels are across one location. This is due to the levels being so much more vast than TNO if anything. My favorite level is either the Nazi base on Venus (the actual planet), or Manhattan, which was directly hit by a Nazi nuke in WWII and is now a desolate, irradiated wasteland. You could feel how thick and cancerous the air is, and the devastated buildings have their upper skeletons eerily bent and curled from the blast. Fallout fans will have a bit of deja vu going through it. All these locales help guide the story along, which like TNO before it is a standout part of the game. TNC takes place right after TNO more or less, after the main character, BJ Blazcowiz, is mortally injured in his big battle with General Deathshead. You’re saved by your resistance buddies before they nuke the place, but you’re still messed up. After 5 months in a coma, the game finally starts. With you shooting Nazis on a U-boat you captured previously in a wheelchair. For half the game the only reason you’re able fight again is thanks to a power suit wired to BJ’s brain. Even while you’re fighting BJ’s injuries are taking their toll. By his own estimate, he has weeks. Which is tragic to think about since in TNO, he met Anya Oliwa, a nurse who took care of him during a prior comatose, and eventual lover. By the time TNC rolls around, she’s heavily pregnant with BJ’s twins. Not being their for his kids is something BJ laments a few times, and you feel for him. Especially when you learn about his awful childhood at the beginning of the game. He deserves a good family, and it sucks he’ll never get that. And for a bit it really seemed like that he wouldn’t since midway through the game, BJ’s betrayed by his abusive, racist, Nazi-loving father who make his childhood such a shitshow, and is captured by Nazi forces. After a few weeks of parading "Terror Billy" The most horrible terrorist the world has ever seen according to the Nazi propaganda machine, BJ is executed in front of the Nazified Lincoln memorial to an audience of millions. Beheaded, it really seems like the game took a grim turn. Luckily due to the quick work of his aforementioned buddies in the resistance and some advanced tech, BJ is saved, if head slapped onto a new super soldier body. This brings up something that some reviewers had an issue with. TNC goes through a tone shift in story midway through the game. It starts out very grim and foreboding. Your base was attacked, the leader of the resistance is murdered right in front of you, America seems like it’s perfectly fine living under the Nazi’s boot, BJ is crippled and basically expecting death, and his unborn kids seem like they won’t have a dad. Even in gameplay things feel grim at first. Even with the power suit giving double armor you can’t escaped the halved health. You really feel like you’re playing a crippled character. BJ himself puts it out there pretty good. "I take it off, I’m afraid I’ll fall apart and all the pieces won’t fit back together again." Then he loses that body and gains one that can actually move on it’s own power and then some. BJ is basically reborn. stronger than ever. It makes sense that the game would kick up to a more upbeat tone. You’re a new man, more powerful than ever before. This can be done. You can save the world. This upbeat attitude peaks at the birthday party scene. Just before the final assault, it turns out it’s BJs birthday, so what do you and your resistance buddies do? Party like theirs no tomorrow, because for all they know there might not be. If their’s one thing I like in a story it’s reminding me that the character I’m playing and the characters around them are people, and not by just showing me their trauma and flaws. Every character in Wolfenstein already has those in spades. I’m more for seeing them having fun. Being happy. Enjoying eachother’s company. Take me out of the misery for once and remind me that their’s something good in the world. Not to say seeing smiles on their faces is what made them good characters. Every major character is pretty good in this game. Grace Walker, The new resistance leader and black revolutionary front member is pretty much a female Samuel L. Jackson. General Engel, The game’s antagonist, is the perfect villain in that you want nothing more but to see her get what’s coming to her. Super Spesh, Grace’s husband and crackpot alien conspiracy theorist, gives some good comic relief for the time he’s around. And Anya. Fucking Anya. Loyal, smart, and considering the crazy shit she does while carrying twins in her, may be more badass than BJ himself. And even with the grim beginnings don’t think this game takes itself too seriously. In one level, right after BJ monologues to himself about his imminent mortality, he (and us) get a first glimpse at the Nazi’s rocket-powered train system. Something he immediately responds to with basically "what the fuck?". After nuking the Nazi high command in fucking Roswell, BJ escapes on what’s pretty much the monocycle from Men In Black. Before BJ’s head is slapped onto his new body, it’s dropped in a jar like Futurama. That Venus level I mentioned earlier? You get there on a Nazi flying saucer. And again, stilts. One of your upgrades is big, stompy stilts.

Overall out of all the recent iD software games to hit the scene lately, I’d say DOOM is my favorite. But I’ll give it to The New Colossus. With a few bumps here and their it’s just as fun to play as it’s predecessor, and improves in most areas. Overall, yes, it’s a step up from The New Order, and if you want a fun, absurd shooter with a good story to tell, look no further,

Posted by SHARPSPEED on 2017-11-08 21:23:49

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