#i have it equipped currently but i always forget how pretty it is

[the-paper-monkey]

Reincarnation? If you so please

For the ask game

This is really just my Tomarry reincarnation scribbles for any AUs that come to mind.

I'm cracking up rn because the only scene I have polished enough to share is one with secondary-school-student!Tom and dying-in-a-pallative-care-ward!Harry 💀

Anyway, you're welcome:

Scene

“Look at you.” The voice of a teenage boy.

Harry pried one eye open.

There, leaning in the doorway, was none other than Tom Riddle, looking perhaps sixteen at the oldest. He was dressed in a crisp school uniform that looked expensive enough to pay for private palliative care thrice over. His hair was artfully tousled in a way that might have been carefree if it had been anyone other than Tom. On the breast of his blazer was pinned the predictable prefect badge.

“This is perverse,” Harry said. He closed his eyes, wishing Tom away, thinking of Ginny, the children, the grandchildren. Anything other than Tom Riddle.

It didn’t work. He could still hear the soft sound of Tom’s feet on the lino as he approached.

“I won’t disagree.” Tom dropped himself onto the mattress beside Harry, peering down at him with his dark, pretty eyes. “You look hideous. How old are you? One hundred? Two?”

“Eighty-three,” Harry replied, “and not likely to make it to eighty-four.” It was jarring to see his sun-beaten, wrinkled old hands beside Tom’s pale, youthful ones. How would it work in this world? Would Tom continue to live a long, healthy life after Harry had passed? Would he forget him?

“You look much older,” Tom said, matter of fact.

He wasn’t the most conscious of the Toms, Harry mused. He’d met versions of him with varying degrees of knowledge of their shared pasts—some who remembered only when he saw them, some who had known for decades, some who didn’t recognise him in the slightest. This Tom seemed to remember well enough, but he didn’t hold himself with the maturity of a Tom Riddle who recalled a thousand lives. He was a boy, nothing more.

And even from the brief words they’d exchanged, Harry could already tell he had been raised by his father.

“This coming from the lad who didn’t manage to make it to his seventy-eighth birthday?” Harry said.

Tom shrugged, which was not the reaction that an iteration of him closer to Voldemort would have had. If—in his decrepit, geriatric form—Harry had dared voice that to the Librarian Tom, he was certain all the life-saving equipment currently attached to him would have already been severed. But instead, this Tom only watched him curiously, head half-cocked.

Harry was, predictably, charmed by him. However, much to his relief, he felt no great surge of attraction. It was one benefit of being eighty-three and on seven different medications with a total of forty different side effects.

“I saw your name on the door. I remembered it, though I wasn’t sure where from.”

“Almost like a half-forgotten friend from when you were very young?” Harry supplied.

“A friend?” Tom’s lip curled. “I never had friends.” He spoke as if Harry had gravely offended him by even suggesting the possibility.

“No,” Harry said, “neither had I. But that was how I felt when I read your name—the first time.”

“Hm,” Tom said, mouth twitching down. “Why’s it always you, then? What’s so special about you?” He didn’t question his own importance—as Harry recalled doing in iterations further from the core—simply accepting his place at the centre of infinite parallel universes without batting an eye. 

“You marked me as your equal,” Harry said. “Really, it’s all your fault. I’m still waiting on an apology.” His throat was dry, arms too weak to reach for his water, but he didn’t ask Tom to help him. Not this petulant, young version of him.

Tom rolled his eyes. “Whatever.”

A nurse came in, almost as if she’d read his mind, bustling about and neatening up Ginny’s bags. She helped him take a sip of water, sparing an incurious glance at Tom. Harry supposed she imagined he was just another grandchild. It was nauseating enough to almost make him laugh.

“We fucked,” Tom said abruptly.

The nurse dropped the cup, the thin plastic straw spinning away somewhere under his bed. “Pardon me?”

It was likely Tom hadn’t even intended to provoke a reaction from the room. The memory had certainly just come to him. Harry had experienced the same many a time. However, while rarely was that an admission one would wish to make in front of a stranger, stating such a thing while in school uniform in front of a mandated reporter was surely near the top of the list of inadvisable decisions.

Tom flicked a disinterested glance at her. “I’m sixteen. If I have a taste for the toothless then that’s none of your business.”

“He’s only joking,” Harry assured her. “You’ve seen my records. I’m not up for any sort of physical activity.”

She did not laugh, leaving in a huff. Harry hoped she wasn’t off to make a call.

“I’m not going to have this conversation with a child,” Harry said. “Come see me in the next life.” 

“We did,” Tom insisted, perhaps not understanding that plausibility was not the roadblock to their conversation. “In an atelier out the back of a piano shop in Paris.”

“Well,” Harry said, memories of a thousand lives blurred and smudged together in his mind, “I suppose we may have.” That it was the closest iteration to this Tom did not mean it sprang quickly to Harry’s mind.

“We did, we—”

The door slid open again and Harry looked up, expecting a police officer or some sort of security. But instead, there stood an exceptionally handsome man who could have been the twin of any of the versions of Tom in his thirties that Harry had met.

“Tommy,” Tom Riddle Sr said, looking tired and rather distracted, “you mustn’t just go about bothering other patients. I’m very sorry, Mr…?” He was dressed in a crisp black suit and had his Blackberry in hand, looking like he had about a thousand things to do that were more important than apologising to Harry.

“Potter,” Harry said. “And that’s quite alright.” He was old enough to be the man’s grandfather. Never had he felt older. He was beginning to understand why Voldemort had paid him little attention or respect in the worlds in which they were fifty years apart in age.

“I was just saying goodbye,” Tom said. Then, with a sly glint in his eye, he dipped his head and kissed Harry square on the mouth. “When do you suppose you’ll die?” he asked, breaking away.

Harry glanced over at Tom’s father, but saw that he was typing out an email on his phone and had missed the exchange entirely.

“The doctors have given me two months.”

Tom’s eyes dropped to his own hand on Harry’s chest for a brief moment, then up at his face again. “This will be the last time I see you, then.”

“In this lifetime.” Harry winked. Tom frowned.

Behind him, Tom’s father cleared his throat. “I hate to interrupt, but we’ve really got to dash. Tommy, will you come say goodbye to your grandfather?”

#asks #ask game #anon

[tflaw]

— IT’S A RICH MAN’S WORLD.

The wealthiest man in Snezhnaya wants you. Is it a blessing or tragedy just waiting to unfold?

꒰ა ❤︎ ໒꒱ . . . f!reader. yandere!pantalone. dubious consent. coercion. blackmail. power play. unprotected. pee & uh cum. fingering. finger sucking. reader is smaller than pantalone. he’s a very nasty man and downright crazy.

++ anyways! it has been… weeks? months? since i’ve last written a one shot. this is my first yandere content that i’m actually a little proud of. a breakthrough. it cracked the writer’s block out of me fr. i’ve had so much fun writing this and i hope you’ll feel the same while reading! if ever i’ve forgotten to include a warning, please tell me! it’s 12 am where i’m at rn and my mind’s a biiit foggy. tell me what u think! <33

The air is sharp with perfume, rivaled by the redolence of wine placed in the hands of nobles completing the hierarchy in Snezhnaya. Bejeweled to the teeth and garbed with the finest silk, they filled the main hall of Zapolyarny Palace like scattered gemstones against the crystal blue shades of pillars and gothic windows. Buzzing noises of business talks, gossip of who wed who, which lord cheated on his wife, and the anticipation of whatever such lavish revelry might offer has taken over the place. 

“We’re up in a few minutes,” a girl whispered before muttering the same to the other person standing beside you. 

A feast is dedicated to the Harbingers’ return to Snezhnaya after months of diplomatic work. All over the country, everyone who possesses an invitation bolted to their favorite seamstresses and lapidaries. Even markets, shops, and stalls have all been occupied by the preparation. While you, on the other hand, have spent most of your days in the theatre to perfect the dance for the festivities. 

You palm your stomach, blowing out the anxiety poking your belly with a few deep breaths. It’s not always that chances to wander around the Palace’s halls are bestowed upon someone like you. Hailing from one of the poorest villages in Snezhnaya, the elders would consider it the highest of honors to walk on the very halls as the Tsaritsa. However, your mirth has been lost to the acid in your throat, ignited by your need to flee.

If this night hasn’t been a turning point in your rather mundane life, you would’ve done just that. But the stakes are high and you couldn’t risk a misstep.

Even with knowledge of what is to come, you start as the drums begin to roll. Heads turn expectantly towards the huge frescoed doors. All face luminous except yours, as one by one, the Harbingers march into the hall clad in their regalia. 

The throng immediately parts to make way for the Harbingers and Her Majesty, the Tsaritsa. They say she is as cold as the snowflakes blanketing Snezhnayan soil and just as pretty. Seeing her in all her glory, the songs and poems proved to be true: she is the most beautiful woman you’ve ever laid your eyes on. 

Forgetting for a moment the current plight you are situated in, your lips part in awe as your eyes trail her walking towards the crystallized throne. Heartbeat wild and frenzied, you’ve made a mental reminder to savor each moment. But your thoughts have been snuffed out like embers embraced by snow when your eyes moved a little further to her right. 

In blatant recognition, Pantalone tilts his head at you. There he is, eyeing you like a predator. He walks into the place knowing exactly where you are. Watching and looming over like a storm gathering in the middle of the sea. Afraid of its familiar intensity, you are, but a small part of you seeks refuge in sniffing out its whereabouts to better equip yourself on how to escape its havoc. An endeavor you were yet to accomplish. Despite your swift effort to sever the connection, his eyes have lingered. They always do.

“It’s time,” the same girl says, bobbing her head before proceeding towards the made-up stage in the corner of the hall.

At the first beat, you attempt to steer your mind away from thoughts of Pantalone. He makes you unsteady. His very presence is hard to bear most especially when he looks at you like he owns you. Which, in more ways than one, is true. 

You twirl and sway to the music, plastering a toothed smile whenever you spin to the center. If all goes well tonight, the theatre could attain favors from the Harbingers and the Tsaritsa. You could be a performer in Zapolyarny Palace and your future, as well as your family’s, will be secured. Perhaps, then, you won’t need to lean in on anyone for help. Such small hope but hope nonetheless. 

Years of performing and blending your very soul with the stage have not prepared you for the attention that followed after the dance. For some reasons unknown, men and women alike flocked in your direction, congratulating a job well done. Alien you might be to the nobles’ way of conversation, you have treated the courtesy as your liberty from Pantalone’s presence. 

If you can entertain these nobles long enough, perhaps you wouldn’t need to cross paths with the Harbinger tonight. 

That has been the bane of your existence, has it not? Thinking that you can undermine, even for a little while, Pantalone’s eyes.

Your heart sinks as a hand slips around your waist, pulling your body close to a solid chest. 

“I see that you have been enjoying the night without me, darling,” he whispers, shooing away the men attempting to approach with stares alone. 

“Your Grace,” you breathe, hand tightening around your glass. Stomach coiling at the endearment, you shake out of his grip but he proves yet again how it’s futile to do so. He’s bigger than you. Stronger. 

“It seems to be a challenge getting a hold of you tonight. What with all the men circling you around like vultures.” He looks down at you with a glint of mischief. His hand makes fast around your waist. “Worry not. They will not bother you any longer.” 

You nervously sip from your glass, wondering when will you ever have the tongue to tell him that you’d rather conjure up fake smiles with the nobles than be in his company. 

“I’m quite alright, Your Grace,” is all that you’ve managed to say. “And… and I wouldn’t want to deter your reunion with your fellow Harbingers,” you follow, hoping that he’d remember the comrades he has abandoned. 

“Nonsense,” Pantalone scoffs. “In truth, I’m growing tedious of conversing about work and I’d assume you are, too. We shall retire to a quiet room.” 

He leads you through the body of the crowd, as though parading the both of you together. Noticing the curious eyes thrown upon you by guests, your confidence evaporated. With his hand on your waist, claiming more than protecting, you know exactly the source of the next gossip in town. 

Such a straightforward display of affection by a Harbinger, no less, is not to be taken lightly. You grow uneasy ruminating about what might be the impression of people around you by now.

The discomfort settles deep in your bones when Pantalone opens a door to a secluded room. Far from the crowd, no doubt, the distance muffles the music from the hall. Standing on the threshold, you hesitate for a moment, debating whether to run and make for the exit. 

“Come on in,” he encourages, tone honey-laced. If he sensed your hesitation, he’s hidden it quite well with oblivion. But only when you’ve stepped inside the chamber does he finally look away. 

Pantalone shuffles out of his fur coat, revealing his turtleneck sleeveless shirt embedded with jewels near the collar. “You may leave us now,” he commands the servant poking the hearth with a metal rod, whom you failed to acknowledge because of your nerves. 

He politely bows to you both before departing the room.

“Come sit near the fire,” he says with a mirthful twitch of his brow on your unmoving frame. “One might think you’re afraid to come close. Come here.” 

Mustering up all courage, you ask, “Why did you bring me here, Your Grace?” 

There is nothing but the sound of wood crackling and liquor pouring down into two glasses after your question. Warmth might have enveloped the space, but you remain cold against his penetrative stare. 

“Why, you ask? I know you’re not one for social gatherings. Therefore, I took it upon myself to save you from such dull conversations. Political matters aren’t your thing, I surmised. And they ken nothing else but politics,” he explains before walking towards you, offering the other glass with a smile.  

Stop the charade. You know nothing about me. 

“It matters not,” you insist, voice feeble as you reach for the glass. Frustrated are you by his theatrics, you have not forgotten that he is a Harbinger. Through and through, he gives away no sliver of doubt about his capabilities regardless of his laidback demeanor. “I have to be there with the others. This night is important to the theatre. We have to be there for when the Tsaritsa—”

“When the Tsaritsa, what?” He caresses your cheek, invading your personal space once again. “When Her Majesty bestows the theatre a favor of being permanent performers in the Palace?” he narrates as if he’s reading your mind. 

“Is it a far-fetched dream, Your Grace?” You blankly stare at him, heart thudding. 

“Oh, no. Not at all,” he says before turning away, taking your hand to sit you down on the sofa before the fireplace. “The dance was impeccable. But it failed in comparison to you.” 

To that, you refuse to say anything. 

Pantalone leans over your shoulder, tracing the side of your neck with his finger. “Although I have to remind you that for it to happen, the Harbingers need to be unanimous.” 

Your breath hitches at the skinship. Reminding yourself that you need only get through the night, you close your eyes. “Are they, Your Grace? Unanimous?” 

“Nothing has been decided yet,” he whispers against your skin. “But they’ve been quite enthralled by the performance— and by you, no doubt. I’ve seen it in every man’s eyes tonight.” 

“Surely, you’re mistaken, Your Grace,” you reply nervously, sensitive to the direction of the conversation. 

“They want you,” he insists. “And I’m not one to share.” 

There it is— the words. His adamant claim to mark you. To claim you. To make you his territory. 

“I’m not certain I understand, Your Grace.” Your throat bobs deeply, eyes fixated on the dancing flames as you await his response. 

Pantalone sighs and takes a step back before circling around to crouch in front of you, blocking the flames from your sight. It has taken everything in you not to flinch when he took your cold hands in his warm ones.

“The Harbingers need to be unanimous,” he repeats while brushing your knuckles with his thumbs, as if consoling. And yet there is nothing in those eyes but unadulterated determination and yearning. So flagrant that his pupils dilate because of it. 

“And you…” You release a shaky breath, realizing what he truly means by being unanimous. “You do not plan to agree, do you?” 

He sighs in relief, as if grateful that you’ve finally understood his dilemma. “It is far beyond my patience to watch these men ogle at you—”

“Why are you doing this?” you croak suddenly, throat burning with anger and the need to lash out. “Why are you doing this to me?!” 

It’s not only your life that’d crumble. The others… the whole theatre… and he cares not even the slightest bit. 

Pantalone squints a little, confused at your unforeseen rage. He stands up, towering over your frame. “You look at me as if I’m wicked.” 

Your nails dig into the soft flesh of your palms, restraining the rancid words you wish to throw at him behind clenched teeth. How powerless you are under his mercy. It’s pathetic. It eats at your bones from within, leaving only a rotten mess behind. 

Receiving silence, Pantalone tilts your chin up with a mere lift of his finger. “Am I truly that terrible?” 

“It is… it is a terrible thing to be desired by you.”

At the look he’s given you, cowardice snakes into your ire and poisons what little bravery it has offered. 

“Why? Because I want all of you and I have not a mind to share with anyone?” An odd sense of curiosity tints his voice. It sounds as though your disapproval over the matter downright confuses him. 

“Pardon me, Your Grace. I am in dire need of fresh air.” You stand up but he catches your wrist swiftly, crashing your body onto his forcefully enough to have elicited a wince from you. 

“Look me in the eyes. Say that you’re willing to face the consequences of leaving this room and I’ll let you go.” The threat echoes as a whisper. Sharp and baleful.

“Consequences?” Seized by terror, your lips went ajar and pallid. You face him completely, wrist hot under his fingertips. 

He brushes the skin below your eye, as if plucking an invisible thread. “This is hardly the time to bring out the list, is it?”

The list. The list of everything your parents owe him: loans, mortgages, and debts. Who in Snezhnaya doesn’t owe him something? He’s the bloodline in which mora flows freely. A man of great wealth and influence, no one would dare displease him on purpose. 

“One day, I swear, I’ll pay everything we owe you. To the last penny. After that, you won’t hear from me ever again,” you hiss, clueless as to where you’ve gained the courage. Perhaps it’s rooted in your hopelessness and exhaustion towards having to bend on his will. 

“And I’ll do everything in my power to prevent such a horrible day,” he says, unaffected by your attitude. If anything, the determined set of your brows only deepened the flush on his cheeks. “Now, be a good girl and I might just change my mind…” he extends the last word, taking off his glasses before closing his mouth on yours. 

Everything, up to this moment, is weighing on a scale. Perhaps ever since your family has been indebted to him. The other side of the scale fattens and grows heavier with each mora beside your parents’ name. 

One day, Pantalone’s list will become as blank as your mind tonight. 

One day. 

Despite the frantic need that is evident in his eyes, Pantalone’s kisses are patient. He’s like an ocean on nights like this: dark, blood-curdling, and yet tempting. You couldn’t deny, no matter how you fight the admittance burning on your tongue, that he knows exactly where to touch and kiss you. How to coax lecherous sound after lecherous sound from your lips whenever his fingers would reach inside your cunt, curling and pumping until your stomach tightens. 

“Don’t be shy,” he sighs a breadth away from your lips, breathing in your heavy pleas. “Let me hear you.” 

You want to refuse him the pleasure of watching you melt under his playful ministrations. Want to extinguish the carnal lust painted in his eyes as he sucks and bites on your tit. Silence would wound his pride and crush his ego underfoot. And yet silence is the weapon missing from your arsenal. 

“I do appreciate your efforts in trying to keep your moans.” The corner of his lips tips up. “But your cunt is so wet. Nobody will believe your displeasure.”

Panting, your mouth opens for a rebuttal but he quickly shoves his fingers on your tongue. Overwhelmed with a whiff of something vinegary, you gag. 

“Taste yourself,” he commands. “Suck.” 

At the first swirl of your tongue, Pantalone grabs your throat with his free hand to steady your head. He hisses on your cheek, “I’ll fuck you so hard tonight you won’t think of anything else.” 

And he did fuck you. Hard. In many positions that have kept you exposed and embarrassed. He moves with his back flexing as he pounds your cunt. 

Your eyes blurred with tears when he flipped you on your stomach, ramming his length completely inside from the back. You have been stretched open, reduced to a whining mess. And he, grunting and groaning, drives himself in and out while securing your waist with big hands. 

Pantalone feels his cock growing harder, balls plumped and full of unreleased cum. His stomach clenches down to his cocktip. But before his release, he pops his cock out of your wet cunt. It bobs eagerly under its weight, shaft glossed with your arousal and ringed with white around the base. 

The interruption has given you but a few seconds to breathe before he pulls your leg and guides himself completely inside once again. You both gasped at the continued connection. You shriek when he hooks your other leg over his shoulder and starts to fuck you sideways. 

It’s embarrassing. The position is far too crude yet feels so good. It lasted for a minute before Pantalone shifted to face you. Both of your bodies are bouncing to his movements. 

“I’m close,” he declares in the crook of your neck followed by a gutted moan. 

Along with your head being fuzzy, the need to pee arises. “W… wait—” you rasp, palming his chest away. “I need to pee. Stop— stop!”

He stiffens and slows down, rising above you just enough to press a hand on your lower abdomen, before picking up his pace again. 

The knot in your chest slides to your abdomen, to where his hand is pressed down your flesh. You look up at him, a harsh cry escaping your lips. Utterly devastated with pleasure, you haven’t the strength to stop yourself from gushing around his girth. The warm liquid secretion from your cunt squirts everywhere— on the sheets, your thighs, and his thighs. 

“Archons,” you hear him sigh before an interval of unrestrained moans and grunts leave him. He gathers you in his arms, cock throbbing sporadically inside your walls. 

You know, by then, that he had come hot and needy straight to your womb. The last you’ve seen are his eyes, stricken with nothing but satisfaction and desire before sleep tugged you in its embrace. 

It’s the slip of the sun’s rays through the curtains that woke you up the next day. Sitting up on the bed, you’ve found yourself alone in the spacious room. No signs of Pantalone, and yet you still feel him in every corner of your body as if he’s stuck himself in your skin. Shivers thunder down your spine at the remnants of last night. The flashes of memory you’d rather forget have rendered you hankering for a good, long bath. And yet you have been faced with a dilemma right after stepping out of bed: your clothes are gone.

Panic rising, you clasp the sheets around your body before checking under the bed. The floor is spotless. 

How are you supposed to leave now? You might’ve already sold your soul to the devil named Pantalone, but you hold a sliver of self-respect to even consider marching naked out of Zapolyarny Palace. 

“You’re awake.” 

You jolt at the sound of his voice. 

He might’ve noticed your alarm, for he chuckles and raises his hands in defense. 

“Where are my clothes?” you rasp, putting as much distance between you as physically possible. 

“Oh, that?” He pumps his shoulders up in realization before snapping his fingers, then a servant carrying a huge box enters while looking at the floor. “I could not let you in those rags so I had someone burn them while you sleep.” 

Stupefied beyond recognition, words have unfortunately failed you when you needed them most. You feel faint just sorting through his revelation. Rags? And burned them without your permission? 

He motions to the servant, who placed the box on the bed beside you. “Go ahead and try the dress, my love. I’m certain the color will suit you.” 

There is no doubt about it. The dress has been bought from the most expensive shop in the city. You know this because of the name written on the box. Once, you’ve dreamt of possessing a dress made in that shop. Yet now, all you can feel is dread.

“I can’t,” you counter, “I can’t take this. I have not the mora to pay for this.” 

“Leave us,” he commands and the servant ran off without a backward glance. 

Pantalone closes the distance between you, breaching your personal space and claiming it as his own. He takes your chin and says, “It’s a gift. And it’d please me so if I see you wearing it.” 

“I do not want to please you.” You wag your head to take his hands off you. “I’d rather dress in rags or go home naked than… than wear that.”

From your peripheral, you’ve witnessed him wipe the sides of his mouth. He’s turning impatient, that you are certain. However, he reaches for your hand and holds it tightly despite your struggle. 

“Although the latter entices my imagination, do you want me plucking out the eyes of each person that’d look your way? I suppose not.” He grips your chin and made you look at him this time. An eerie smile, one that would’ve appeared lovely to a stranger’s eyes, shapes his lips. “However, you do have a choice, my love. You always have.” Then he kisses your forehead and leaves the room. 

Choice. You want to spit at the word. Trample on it until it’s reduced to pieces. He talks of choices but in truth, you have been left with none. 

It’s either you wear the stupid dress or remain in this stupid chamber with your stupid pride. Nothing matters. Whatever it is you decide to do, it will end up pleasing no one but Pantalone. 

do not repost, plagiarize, copy, or edit anything published by wtfkuni. check masterlist.

#tw dubcon #pantalone x reader #pantalone smut #genshin x reader #genshin smut #genshin impact x reader #genshin impact smut #yandere pantalone x reader #yandere genshin x reader

[the-bau-quinjet]

Six Years

Summary: Y/N forgets her life with Steve, but it's not as simple as just remembering.

Warnings: uh angst maybe?, migraines, nothing that bad I think

Word Count: 12,901

a/n: look I am and always will be a Steve girly. Chris finally winning Sexiest Man may have inspired me to finish this

Masterlist

If you had to choose one word for how you felt in this exact moment, it would be tired. Granted, that’s not an uncommon occurrence, but it just felt… more this time. Your eyelids felt like paperweights, far too heavy to even consider opening. Your entire body was fighting your consciousness, begging you for more sleep. Who were you to say no to another five minutes?

You let out a low groan, rolling over to find a more comfortable position. Your body protested the move, but if you were going to fall back to sleep you absolutely had to roll over.

"Y/N?" You were too tired to really pay attention to the voice, simply responding with your current plan of action.

"Five more minutes," you grumbled inaudibly, barely able to form the words. Your throat was too dry. It felt as though you hadn't used your voice for weeks.

"What?" The voice was closer this time. You managed to clear your throat, doing nothing to hide your annoyance at being disturbed.

"I said, five more minutes," your throat scratched as you spoke louder, only resulting in another groan from you.

Of all the things you expected in response to that statement, laughter was pretty low on the list. Maybe if they were laughing because you were supposed to be up an hour ago and you were going to be late for work, but that wasn't what you heard.

No, this laughter was shocked, maybe a bit disbelieving, but overall happy. As if the person laughing was pleased to hear your early morning grumbling. Well, at least you assumed it was morning.

You rolled toward the voice, still fighting with your eyelids to open, When you finally managed it, your eyes burned from the harsh light. It didn't even feel overly bright, but it seems you'd grown used to the dark and weren't ready to face daylight again.

"Why are you laughing at me?" you groaned, finally accepting the fact that you were now awake. Although, you regretted that almost instantly. Being awake enough to open your eyes meant being awake enough to feel how sore and worn out your body felt. "And what the hell did I drink last night?"

The last thing you remember, you were coming home from your last final, ready to party it up with your roommate. You don't even remember opening the drinks, let alone any partying that came after.

"I'm sorry..." You refocused on the voice, rubbing your eyes in an attempt to get used to the lights. "It's not funny. Just, only you would ask for five more minutes after waking up from a coma. Steve's gonna be so pissed he wasn't here."

A coma? Steve? Your thoughts were suddenly racing. You finally managed to open your eyes well enough to see, voice failing you as you took in your surroundings. The voice was definitely not your roommate. In fact, it was a brunette man you don't recall ever meeting before. And you were not, in fact, in your bed- or even in your apartment.

The room looked like a hospital, but fancier. Maybe a private facility? You could hear the faintest of beeps indicating your heart was in fact pumping. It wasn't as jarring as the equipment in an actual hospital. You would know. You worked in one.

"Where am I? What happened? Who..." you trailed off when you noticed the mystery man's metal arm. He seemed relieved to see you were okay, although he was ignoring you in favor of texting someone. When he finally looked up, you nearly stopped breathing. Good lord, that man is attractive.

You opened your mouth to ask more questions when the door on the other side of the room flew open. Startled by the sudden noise, you shrieked, turning with wide eyes to stare at the intruder.

It was another mystery man, blonde this time. Also wickedly attractive. What are they feeding these people? His blue eyes were filled with relief, although you had no idea why it would be over you. Yet again, the second you opened your mouth the brunette started talking.

"She just woke up punk, take a deep breath," he chuckled when the blonde glared at him.

"And I would have been here for it if you didn't make me leave, jerk," he huffed in response, only confusing you more. Why was he so pressed to be here when you woke up? You looked between them, mouth agape and eyebrows furrowed. It seemed the movement caught their attention, suddenly two pairs of blue eyes were focused on you.

"How are you feeling? Are you okay?" The blonde one took your hand, holding it with a gentleness you wouldn't expect from such a large person. Your gaze flickered between his eyes and his hand, confusion still fogging up your brain.

"What happened?" you started with the basics. "Where am I?" Something was telling you not to ask about the identity of the men with you. It felt as though they knew who you were, and you wanted answers.

"You're in the med bay. The last mission you were on, it was a setup." The brunette started to answer your questions, but he trailed off when he noticed your confusion only grew with each word he spoke.

"What mission?" you emphasized the word, thrown off by the men acting like you're some sort of spy.

"What's the last thing you remember?" The brunette asked the question. The blonde was beginning to make you nervous with his aggressive staring, even if it seemed to be coming from a good place.

"I... I just finished my last final. It was my last class before graduation, and I was planning to go out with Jess to celebrate being done with school..." The answers to your previous questions did very little to fill you in, so you asked the obvious question you'd been holding back. "Who are you?"

The two men tilted their heads, their confusion clearly evident. It would have been funny how similar they reacted if you weren't so damn confused.

It was their turn to be cut off by the arrival of somebody new. Or in this case, multiple somebodies. The med bay, as the brunette put it, was suddenly full of people, none of whom seemed familiar to you in the least. At least not on a personal level.

"Tony Stark?" you whispered, but it seemed some of them still heard you.

"You really asked for five more minutes after being in a coma for a month?" Tony Stark himself spoke as if he knew you personally, really adding to the headache you've felt growing since you woke up. Although, Tony's presence did do one good thing for you. It suddenly clicked who the two mystery men were.

Realizing you are in the presence of the Avengers, while trying to figure out what the fuck was going on, combined with hearing some sort of mission put you in a coma for a month really took a lot out of a person.

"I kind of wish I just went back to sleep," you muttered, rubbing your head with your free hand since the newly identified Steve Rogers was still holding the other one.

"The last thing you remember is finishing college?" he finally spoke up, earning confused looks from everyone but the other newly identified man, Bucky Barnes.

"Yes? I mean, I think so..." The room grew quiet after your admission, nobody knowing where to go from there. "How long ago was that?"

Suddenly, the pattern of the tiles on the floor grew more interesting than this conversation for nearly everyone in the room. The only one who maintained eye contact was Steve. You could see the hurt in his eyes when he finally admitted just how much of your life you'd forgotten.

"Six years ago," he whispered, just loud enough for you to hear. You squeezed his hand when the new information registered, needing something to anchor you or else you may just pass out again.

"Si-six years? It's been six years? What the fuck happened to me?" Your breathing sped up as you began to panic, the feeling of the medical equipment stuck to you was too much. Everything was too much. Nothing made sense. "No. No that can't be right. No, because I just finished school..."

The room started spinning. Everyone was staring at you, their mouths moving but you couldn't hear any words. Your eyes flickered from one face to another, the panic growing with each second you couldn't make out what they were saying, and then everything went black.

-

You groaned as you woke up, body still aching. For a few blissful seconds, you forgot about the team of heroes who informed you six years of your life had passed. The ignorance didn't last long, resulting in your eyes flying open and your body sitting up.

The first person you saw was none other than your college roommate and best friend, Jess. After scanning the room, you realized it was just the two of you. She was looking at you with clear worry.

"Jess, thank God. I had the weirdest dream..." You shook your head, still trying to make sense of the brief period of time you thought you were in a coma. "I was in a coma and the Avengers were there... What the hell did I drink last night?" you chuckled, smile slowly falling when Jess didn't respond.

When she ran a hand through her hair and sighed, you knew it wasn't a dream. It was her tell. She did it every time she had bad news, like the time she bailed on you to go on a date, and the time you forced her to check your grade on a really hard exam because you were too scared to look.

"I was in a coma?" You took a few deep breaths, trying to make sense of what in the hell was going on. "It's actually been six years?"

"It has," she nodded. "They called me when you woke up, but I didn't get here fast enough." She pulled a chair next to your bed, finally coming close enough for you to see a bandage on her hand.

"What did you do this time?" you joked, finding comfort in her still being as clumsy as you remember. The tears in her eyes were unexpected.

"I cut it when they told me you were awake." She let out a soft chuckle, wiping the few stray tears. "I was so surprised, I stopped paying attention to what I was doing. Pretty ironic you couldn't heal it for me." Her eyes went wide when she realized what she said.

"Heal it?" you asked, confusion still plaguing your thoughts. Suddenly, memories of an explosion flashed through your mind, accompanied by searing pain in your head. "What the fuck!" you practically screamed, your frustration boiling over. You forced your eyes open, trying to stop the pain.

Looking back to Jess, you figured your best chance was to ask what happened. "Was there an explosion at some point?" She glanced at the door, unsure if she she actually tell you anything. "Please, Jess, I need something." You grabbed her hand, gasping when it glowed.

"Okay! Okay, but you need to breath, okay? You can't pass out on me again." You watched as she unwrapped her hand, showing completely healed skin. "After graduation, we both got jobs in research at Oscorp..."

"I can't believe we actually work here." It must have been the seventieth time you've said those words to Jess on your lunch break.

"I know! It's so surreal to be part of... all this." She gestured around the building, her giddy smile matching your own. The two of you started working at Oscorp 3 months ago, her in electrical engineering and you in biomedical.

"I'll see you after work?" You began cleaning up your garbage, preparing to go back to work.

"Actually, I have plans. Liz and I are celebrating our one year," she smiled, a wistful look in her eye.

"How could I forget? I'm so happy for you guys," you smiled cheekily in return. "I guess I'll see you tomorrow then... or Monday?" You ran before she could throw something at you. "Bye!"

Shaking your head, you made the trek back up to the biomedical floor. You were in the process of isolating stem cells for regenerative medicine. Ideally, in a few months your 3D printed skin prototype would be ready for trials.

You still marvelled at the equipment as you made it back to your lab bench. Neither college nor your part time position in a hospital really did anything to prepare you for the private sector. It was so much more advanced. You still sometimes felt a bit of imposter syndrome. Shaking off the unpleasant thoughts, you got to work.

Without realizing, you worked later than intended. Typically your friday ends at 4:30, but it was already 7:15. No wonder you were so hungry. Just before you could pack anything up, you felt the building shake. A bright light followed, the force of the blast knocking you and your bench over.

"I really pass out a lot, don't I?" you griped, annoyed with the circumstances of your memory loss. "Is that what happened, I hit my head and forgot six years of my life?"

"Do you want me to finish the story, or not?" Jess rolled her eyes, but she smiled. It felt good to have you back to your sarcastic self. When you nodded, she continued. "I heard about the explosion, and panicked when you didn't answer any of my calls. Liz obviously understood, and we rushed to the hospital where they were sending the survivors..."

The ER was a wreck. Thankfully the majority of the employees had left before the explosion, given that it was a friday. The havoc came from family and friends who couldn't contact their loved ones due to the cell reception issues.

Jess finally made it up to the nurse's station, Liz hot on her heels. "Hi I'm looking for Y/N L/N. Is she here?" She followed up the question with a general description of your appearance.

The nurse looked through their stacks of papers, finding a chart with the right name. "You can follow me." They threw procedure out the window, aiming to just rid the room of people as quickly as possible.

When Jess and Liz rounded the corner toward your room, they could hear you arguing with someone.

"I'm fine! I feel fine, I promise," you paused, waiting for someone's response. "They're keeping me for an hour or so for observation just in case. I promise I'll call you when I'm free to leave." You looked up when the new bodies entered the room. "Jess is here. She'll drive me home, don't worry. It's not worth sitting in the traffic because I'm completely fine. I promise." You shook your head, finally saying "I love you too, bye."

"Your mom?" Jess guessed, smirking when you nodded. Seeing as the two guests did in fact know you, the nurse left, wasting no time in getting back to the ER.

"You know how she worries. Granted, this time feels kind of warranted." You were still trying to wrap your head around everything. "It's crazy I'm not injured. Sorry about your date. You too Liz. I would've called, but as soon as reception came back my mom was calling."

"Don't worry about it!" Liz answered when Jess only surveyed you, eyes roaming your body.

"How are you so okay? The news is saying it was the particle accelerator that exploded. That's that floor below you." Jess inquired.

"I have no idea. Last thing I remember, I was being thrown across the room with my research, then I woke up here and felt fine," you shrugged.

"You don't even have any scrapes or bruises. How is that possible?" Jess shook her head, more so voicing the questions out of disbelief than actually expecting answers. Eventually, the three of you moved on to talking about anything you could to pass the time.

A half hour later, you were being discharged to make room for more emergent cases. They removed your IV, had you sign some papers, and you were in the car on the way to the closest fast food place.

You brought the food back to your apartment, trying to convince Jess and Liz to salvage what was left of the night for their date.

"Seriously, I'm fine. I don't need you to babysit me-" Suddenly, Jess cut you off.

"Y/N! You're arm!" she pointed excitedly, eyes wide. You glanced at your arm, turning it around.

"It seems fine." You looked back at her as if she had lost her mind.

"Yeah, but it shouldn't be! You should have a bruise or at least a mark from the IV," she shot back, watching the moment it hit you.

"What the hell?" you whispered, refocusing on your arm to try and come up with some explanation. Suddenly, you were grabbing the nearest piece of paper, intent on giving yourself a paper cut. You winced when it stung, but watched in amazement as your skin healed itself, a faint glow emanating from the wound. "What the hell?" you repeated.

"And that's it." Jess finished the story, shrugging when you gestured for more.

"What do you mean that's it! That can't be it! How did I figure out I could heal other people? Are there other people with... powers? What's the most dangerous thing I've healed? Will it last forever?" You rambled with every question you could think of, staring in amazement at your own hands. You could still feel the splitting pain that reliving your past seemed to cause, but you ignored the feeling in favor of figuring out as much as possible.

"Well, after the accident we obviously stopped working at Oscorp since the building was practically obliterated. We did what we could, but we didn't really have the tools to test your newfound powers," she smirked. "You moved in here a few years months later."

You bit your lip, eyeing her with a curious gaze. "We still hang out though, right?" you nervously voiced your question, scared to hear that you haven't seen her in years.

"Oh, yeah! All the time. We actually just had lunch before your last mission." She smiled fondly at the memory, but it faded when she remembered the result of the mission. "We didn't know if you were going to wake up," she choked back a sob. "Ever since the explosion, you've never been down for long. A few minutes at most from what I know. Nothing's ever hurt you like this before..."

"That's why we think it was a purposeful attack, designed to knock you out." Suddenly, the two of you weren't alone. Tony Stark waltzed into the med bay, a young man right behind him.

"That's my queue. I'll see you later, okay?" Jess hugged you before she left, leaving you with more questions than she had answered. Your eyes remained on Jess until she turned a corner out of your view, forcing you to look to the two newcomers.

"Is this the part where you tell me how I ended up here?" You questioned, looking between Tony and the younger man you didn't recognize for answers.

"You saved my life," the younger man answered with no hesitation. Your entire body jerked toward him. If you had water, you definitely would have done a spit take.

"I what?" you sputtered, still trying to put together what you remember with the information Jess gave you.

"I'm just going to run some tests while Spidey fills you in. Pretend I'm not even here." Tony started messing with the machines you were connected to, ignoring the increased furrow of your eyebrows.

"Spidey? You're spiderman? You're practically a child!" Your mouth hung agape as you stared at the man. The last you had seen, Spiderman was responsible for capturing weapons dealers who specialized in alien tech. That's definitely not something you'd expect a child to be capable of.

"Hey, I'm twenty-two!" he practically whined, only reinforcing your image of him as a child. "Anyway, this is the story of how you saved my life." Spiderman paused, as if expecting an audience reaction.

"Kid, get on with it." Tony muttered, still focused on the various machines. In fact, now that you've actually had a chance to look around, these are definitely not standard hospital machines. Before you could ask about them, he started his story.

"Well, a little less than six years ago, I was fighting these dudes..."

Peter swung from building to building, looking for anyone or anything out of place. It was his standard patrol route, but something felt off. His spidey sense was definitely tingling.

He was being extra vigilant as he looked down each alley for anything suspicious, but it was of no use. The bad guys weren't trying to hide in an alley. No, they were right in the middle of the street, and they were looking for a fight.

One of them shot some alien tech weapon into the sky, resulting in a loud boom echoing through the block. Instantly people started running, looking for anywhere they could hide if they couldn't get away.

He swung closer to surprise them when someone shouted about his arrival. His graceful landing was rather rudely interrupted when bad guy number two shot his alien gun at Peter's webs, unceremoniously dumping him to the ground.

Despite the rough landing, he jumped right into the fight. Everytime he thought he had them cornered, they'd whip out a new weapon. By the third time, he expected the surprise and easily dodged the blast. Unfortunately, it was enough of a distraction for them to blast him with new weapon number four.

He flew backwards, crushing a dumpster from the sheer force of the blast. Before he could recover, another blast hit him, sending him clear through the brick wall into an adjacent alley. The group of attackers took this as there opportunity, escaping in the waiting getaway car before anyone was apprehended.

Peter groaned, unable to even sit up. Karen was listing his stats, but he couldn't focus on her words enough to do anything with the information. Karen must have alerted Tony to his distress because he could hear Tony's voice. Or maybe he was hallucinating.

"Oh my god, Y/N that's Spiderman!" A voice a few yards from Peter spoke up. "He looks hurt... Are you okay Mr. Man? Mr. Spider? Mr. Spiderman?"

"He's clearly not okay, Jess. Oh my god." You ran toward him, concern clear on your face. Just as you knelt down in front of him, he started talking.

"Mr. Stark? I'm fine." Peter was not fine, but his ever present fear of disappointing Tony inevitably lead to his denial.

"Kid, you're not fine. I can see your vitals." Tony deadpanned. Meanwhile, your concern was growing. From your point of view, there was nobody present for him to be talking to.

"Oh my god, Jess. He's hallucinating." You worriedly looked at your friend, concerned for the man in front of you. He didn't seem to hear your comment, but that only added to your worry. "Spiderman? Can I help you? Maybe we can take you to the hospital?"

Jess nodded in agreement, confirming that was the best plan. Peter vaguely nodded, not really hearing you. You reached for his arm, slowly pulling him up to help him stand. The second you made contact, your hands started glowing. You would've dropped him if he wasn't also holding on to you.

"What the fuck?" Jess called from behind you, watching the mysterious glowing. You nearly shrieked when another voice sounded from behind you.

"Well, that's new." Iron Man himself stood behind you, watching curiously as the glow faded.

"Uhh... yeah. It is," you confirmed, staring wide eyed yourself.

Everyone looked at each other, confusion and concern on their faces. It wasn't until a voice came from Peter's suit that anyone said anything.

"Vitals stable." Karen updated the group, although it seemed to already be known.

"How..." you mumbled, overwhelmed by your newfound ability. It had already taken so much to get used to healing yourself, but you can heal other people too?

"That's what I'd like to know." Tony chimed in, a smirk adorning his features.

"And then you came back to the tower with us!" He finished his story, unphased by the disbelief in your expression. "Dr. Banner ran some tests, and it turns out the particle accelerator altered your DNA."

You nodded silently, thinking about everything you've learned since you woke up. "This is insane." Your headache spiked again, beginning to reduce to a dull throbbing after the story, but still enough to earn a grimace. Tony seemed to notice your discomfort, marking something down with the rest of the test results.

"It seems your vitals are all stable. Nothing seems to be different than the first time we ran all of these tests. Slightly depleted levels of serotonin and estrogen, but nothing noteworthy. I'll have Bruce look it over when he gets back from Cho's lab, but everything seems fine."

"So why can't I remember?" you asked the question, not really expecting an answer, but hoping for at least a working theory. Tony sighed, glancing at the door before giving in.

"We think whatever weapon Hydra hit you with was designed specifically to take you down. They somehow targeted the regeneration of your cells, slowing it down enough to allow you to be injured. The amnesia could be a side effect of whatever process they used, or the result of hitting your head."

Science. You understood science. That was something you could work with. "But everything's back to normal? My cells are regenerating again?"

Tony nodded, showing you the results from your original tests six years ago and the ones he just finished running. "So we don't know if it's temporary..." you mumbled, thoughts running wild.

"Which means we should treat it like retrograde amnesia..." Tony supplied you with the next logical conclusion, knowing you wouldn't appreciate the treatment plan.

"Damnit," you cursed.

"What?" The young one questioned the shift in mood.

"It means no more stories, Pete." Tony sighed.

"Pete..." you repeated the name, closing your eyes in an attempt to remember something new. "Pete... Peter... Peter Parker!" Your eyes flew open. "That's your name right?"

"Um... yeah," he replied, looking at your warily.

"Okay. That's good. I remembered something."

"You mean you didn't know my name the whole time I was telling that story?" Peter guffawed. "Why didn't you say anything! I would've introduced myself.

You shrugged. "I wanted to hear the story."

Tony just shook his head. "Hey, kid. Why don't you take her on a tour? Start with her room."

"My room?" you asked, still trying to wrap your head around everything.

"Well, you don't normally live in the med bay," Tony joked. "See if walking around helps. If you need to rest, you can do it in your room instead of here."

You simply nodded, so thrown off by the information overload. Peter lead you out of the room and down the hall to the elevator. You definitely could've gone back to sleep, but your desire for answers was definitely outweighing your need to rest.

Peter dutifully showed you around the entire tower, starting with your room as Tony directed. You slowly walked around the space, looking at the various pictures and items strewn about.

"It's just like it was before the mission." Peter supplied, hoping to jog your memory. You simply nodded, still trying to digest everything that happened today. Sitting down on the bed, you reached to grab the picture frame from your nightstand.

The photo showed you and Steve Rogers at Coney Island, his arm wrapped around your waist. While you were smiling at the camera, Steve was looking at you. The expression on his face suddenly answered a few of your questions from earlier.

"That's why he cared so much..." you mumbled under your breath, barely even registering Peter's presence in the room. You glanced around again, noticing all the small things you missed before. The men's sweatshirt left at the end of the bed, the drawings that were framed on the walls with the tiniest signature of initials SGR in the corners, even the few candles on your desk that you knew you would never choose for yourself. There was clearly two people living here.

You reached for the sweatshirt, mourning the memories you knew you should have. More than anything, you felt sorry for Steve. Just thinking if the roles were reversed has you ready to cry. You held the sweatshirt to your chest, trying to keep your composure while you're with Peter. Holding the sweatshirt that close, you realized you could smell Steve's cologne on the fabric.

Suddenly, you feel as though you were thrown back in time, remembering the first time you met. "He was there the first time I healed someone after you..." You glanced at Peter, trying to gauge if you were actually remembering something. The more you thought about the memory, the more you could feel another headache coming on.

"I, um, I don't know if I'm allowed to talk about this. Mr. Stark said no more stories..."

"You don't need to tell me. I- I remember it. I mean, I think I do. Just tell me if I'm right?" When Peter nodded, you jumped into the story, paying no mind to the growing pain in your head.

You had just finished your tour of the tower- Peter giving the actual tour while Tony continued to ask you random questions about your powers- when someone ran down the hall to get Tony.

"Stark! We need Cho, it's Barnes." The mystery woman paid you no mind aside from one questioning glance, although you still felt exposed under her gaze.

"She left for South Korea a few hours ago, but I'll make the call. Banner is in the med bay now." Tony replied, already asking the built in AI to redirect the quinjet. He started to follow the woman back towards where they ran your tests, leaving you and Peter with no choice but to follow.

The room was much more chaotic than when you left. Multiple Avengers were in beds around the room with varying injuries. Sam Wilson was being checked for a concussion. Another woman you didn't recognize was having a wound stitched up in the next bed over.

The most people were huddled around a bed in the middle of the room, Steve Rogers' voice shouting over the commotion. "Tony!" He waved him over, Bruce Banner already standing at the bedside. Steve was covered in blood, although from the state of things you could surmise it wasn't his own. Bucky Barnes was laying motionless in the bed, his face growing paler with each second.

You and Peter watched with wide eyes as they discussed what happened. With what you could overhear, it seemed the mission they were on was based on outdated intel. The base was swarming with Hydra agents, leaving the team outnumbered and outgunned.

Bucky took the brunt of it, jumping in front of the gun fire to save some of the others. Although he could deflect some of the bullets with his metal arm, there were too many for him to stop them all. Not too mention, he had already been stabbed in the side before the guns were fired. The only thing keeping him alive was the super soldier serum. If not for his advanced healing, the stab wound would have resulted in blood loss had the gun shot wounds not done it first.

"He's losing too much blood," Bruce muttered, trying his best to help despite not being that kind of doctor.

"Cho left hours ago. Even with the maximum speed, she won't be here for another 30 minutes," Tony informed the group, their expressions growing more and more panicked.

"Y/N!" Peter exclaimed from next to you, startling you into looking away from the horror in front of you. It seems nobody else noticed his outburst, still focused on stopping the bleeding. "You can heal him!"

"What?" you replied in a panicked voice. "No I can't! I don't know if I can heal wounds that serious!"

"You healed me!" Peter replied, trying to encourage you. "Mr. Stark said my vitals were failing. I was probably bleeding internally and you saved my life. You can save him too!"

You shook your head, staring wide eyed at Peter. You had no idea how to control your powers, let alone if they had any limits. Before today, the most you had healed was little scrapes and cuts and they were only on yourself.

"At least try. Please?" he asked, encouraging you to help. Glancing at everyone's distraught expressions, you nodded. "You can do it! I know you can!"

Peter instantly started pulling you through the crowd, getting you right next to Bucky before anyone even noticed you moved. He nodded at you with a supportive smile, encouraging you to try.

"What are you doing?" Steve shouted, his emotions running wild. Just as he asked, your hands started to glow. "Get away from him!"

He started toward you, but Peter held him back. Tony, in turn, held back the others. They watched as a bright, warm light emitted from your hands and encased Bucky's wounds. Before their eyes, the wounds started healing. He was no longer bleeding out and the color was returning to his face. Within 30 seconds, he was completely fine.

Nobody said a word, everyone stunned by the events they witnessed, yourself included. It wasn't until Bucky sat up that anyone spoke.

"What happened?" Bucky croaked, looking around at everyone's faces. He rubbed as his side, expecting to feel sore from the wounds. Instead, he found skin that had completely healed. "How long has it been?"

"About forty minutes," the mystery woman from the hallway answered, her eyes glancing between you and Bucky.

"C'mon Tash. Even I don't heal that fast. Steve?" Bucky asked, looking to his oldest friend for more information.

"Forty three minutes to be exact," he replied. He too glanced at you, although his face betrayed what he was feeling. Despite the utter confusion at how you did it, all Steve could think was you saved his life. Suddenly, Steve Rogers was hugging you. He held you to him tightly. Despite the blood, sweat, and dirt coating his suit, you could still smell his cologne. "Thank you," he whispered.

"You're welcome," you whispered back, unable to even attempt speaking at a higher volume. Seemingly remembering where he was, he let you go, a pink hue blooming on his cheeks.

"Who are you?" Bucky asked, a smirk already appearing on his face after Steve's uncharacteristic display of affection.

"Um, Y/N," you answered, overwhelmed by the number of eyes on you. Luckily for you, Peter was more than willing to explain. He spared no detail in telling the team about your day, starting with swinging through the city and ending with who you've come to know as Natasha interrupting the end of your tower tour.

"So you can heal people?" Bucky asked, being the only one who didn't witness the whole ordeal. "And that's why I'm not dead?" You nodded, still shocked at what you were capable of. Everyone seemed to have questions, but Tony was more than willing to talk about all the tests he and Banner ran earlier.

In the meantime, you healed the others who were hurt. Each time, everyone marveled at the glowing light. Sam's entire head seemed to light up as you healed his concussion. The woman who needed stitches, Wanda, said it felt like a warm hug when you healed the gash on her arm.

When everyone was healed, you stepped back. You didn't want to intrude on the group. Everyone here knows each other. They're like a weird little family. You couldn't just walk in off the street and expect to fit in. It seemed Steve noticed your discomfort, moving to stand by you.

"Thank you again," he started. "I'm Steve Rogers by the way." He held out his hand for you to shake, earning a chuckle from you after his earlier hug.

"Y/N L/N. It's nice to officially meet you," you smiled, feeling more at ease now that you're actually part of a conversation instead of just the topic of discussion.

"And then nothing. That's everything I remember," you finished the story, looking to Peter with a hopeful expression. Your headache only got worse as the story progressed, and it was obvious you were in pain. He narrowed his eyes at you, concerned over how much pain you may be pushing down.

"That's.. yeah. I mean that's what happened," he answered. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah," you replied shakily, the headache slowly shifting from shooting pains to a dull throbbing. "I'm fine." The relief you felt was like a weight being lifted. It was only the first step, but remembering the people you apparently live with is a big first step.

"I guess, if you're not too tired, I can show you the rest of the tower now?" Peter offered, unsure if more information was good for you. Although, he knew if you were left alone it could be worse.

You nodded, a small smile on your lips. You had the vaguest idea that you had enjoyed his tour the first time around

-

You were right, Peter's tour was quite amusing. Maybe it was slightly different than 6 years ago, but you still found yourself smiling and laughing as he excitedly showed you all of his favorite parts. However, you had some questions.

"How is it we walked through almost the entire tower, and ran into nobody?" you asked when Peter announced the end of his tour.

"Oh... um," Peter struggled with finding an answer, unsure if this was breaking Tony's rules.

"You can't tell me anything about the time I forgot. You can tell me about now though," you assured him, watching as the tension left his body.

"Okay! Most everyone is training or in their rooms. I didn't show you the gym because you can't use it until your cleared, so I didn't want to tempt you."

"Most?" you questioned, trying to figure out why that word stuck out to you.

"Oh, yeah. Captain Rogers and Sergeant Barnes left for a mission. They took Wanda with them, mostly because everyone thought it was a bad idea for-" Peter abruptly cut himself off, eyes widening as if he said too much.

"For who? Steve?" you pressed further, trying to figure out why you suddenly felt like there were bricks in your stomach. When Peter didn't reply, realization dawned on you. "He left to get away from me..."

You sat back on the couch behind you, feeling an all encompassing dread. Peter, realizing he'd already given it away, started babbling with hopes of cheering you up.

"It's totally going to be fine! He's gone on missions with less preparation before, and this one isn't even that long. Wanda's there and she knows this mission inside and out-"

Once again, Peter found himself revealing too much. "Why does Wanda know more than him? Was he not supposed to be on this mission? He's just avoiding me?"

Suddenly, another memory popped up, accompanied by another searing pain tearing through your head. You felt woozy, leaning further into the couch to combat the dizziness.

"I can't do this right now, not again. We've already had the same argument over and over," he got up, promptly throwing the door open and speeding down the hall.

"You can't avoid me forever," you screamed after him as he practically ran away. Sighing, you walked through the now open door into the living room.

"Boy problems?" Nat chimed in out of nowhere, reminding you of the very public setting for this latest confrontation. Sighing, you sat down with her and Wanda.

"I just don't get why he's so upset. It's not like I can really be injured," you scoffed at Steve's sometimes overbearing worrisome attitude. "Plus, he puts himself in more danger than I do. Benching me is so unnecessary."

"Y/N, you were shot." Wanda stated the obvious, earning another scoff from you.

"I literally healed on the way home from the mission. I was fine before we even landed!" you started pacing, your frustration with Steve avoiding you boiling over.

"I bet I know why he did it," Nat practically singsonged, a devious smirk adorning her lips. "Someone's following his heart and not his brain."

"What?" you stared, dumbfounded.

"He's got a crush, you moron." Nat spelled it out for you.

"Yeah, I know that's what you meant, but that's not possible. There's no way. It can't-"

"She doth protest too much-" Tony chimed in, having joined your trio just as Nat revealed her theory. You gaped at him, offended. "Let's face it sweetheart, Cap's got it bad for you."

You sputtered an incoherent reply as all three of them simply stared you down. "Really?"

"He's clearly worried about you, even if it seems irrational. You don't think that's coming from somewhere?" Wanda, much more gently than the other two, tried to help you see it.

"Yeah, friendship!" you snarked, not enjoying the feeling of the blush in your cheeks.

"He didn't bench Barnes when he got shot." Once again, Nat was smirking at you.

"I'm leaving now." With that, you abruptly left the room, trying to compose your thoughts. There was no way, right?

-

You later found yourself aimlessly wandering around the city in an attempt to clear your thoughts. To your surprise, you ran into none other than one Steve Rogers in Central Park. The second you made eye contact, you could feel the blush from earlier returning.

"I'm not stalking you!" you abruptly stated as soon as he was within a reasonable distance. It was such a shock to see him in an unofficial capacity. He paused, clearly not expecting that. "I mean, I was just going on a walk." When he still didn't reply, you kept rambling. "Not to find you and argue again. Just to clear my head... and think."

"About what?" Steve finally stepped closer, no longer standing an awkward 5 feet away. Your eyes widened at his question, feeling like a deer in the headlights you blurted a half-truth.

"You," you abruptly threw a hand up to cover your mouth, turning and walking away after 10 seconds of silence.

"What about me?" Steve followed you, walking beside you as you once again aimlessly walked through the city.

"Just something Nat said." He was clearly waiting for more information, but given that this is the first time the two of you have talked without screaming since that mission, you were hesitant to bring it up. "Steve, I-"

"She was right."

You froze, earning a few choice words from the people who had been walking behind you. "What?"

"Nat, she told you I wasn't thinking with my head, didn't she?" Your disbelief only grew as you really registered what he was saying, and the meaning he likely didn't want to imply. "No, not like- dammit. This is not how I wanted this to go." He ran a hand through his hair, seemingly struggling to find the words he was looking for. "I just-"

It was your turn to interrupt him, briefly pressing yours lips to his before backing away just as quickly. He looked starstruck, lips hanging open ever so slightly.

"Are we on the same page?" you asked hesitantly, trying to determine if you now needed to avoid him within the confines of the tower.

"I mean, I have some more I want to say, but overall I think so." Steve stuttered out the reply, clearly still shocked by your actions.

"So, no more avoiding me?" he shook his head. "Promise?"

"Promise."

Your eyelids fluttered as the memory finished replaying in your head, the searing pain coming back with a vengance.

"Y/N?" Peter asked, his voice betraying his worry.

"M'kay" you mumbled. You could barely hear him well enough to stutter out a response, too overwhelmed by the shooting pains causing your vision to blur and the room to spin.

"You're clearly not okay. I'm taking you back to the med bay." Peter reached over to help you up, needing his reflexes to catch you as you slumped over. "Yep, not okay. Not okay!"

He picked you up, fully carrying you to the med bay while your head lolled over his shoulder. "Mr. Stark!" He called as he deposited you onto the bed.

-

"What happened?" you whispered as your eyes fluttered open. This time, you recognized the faces looking back at you. Peter and Tony were now joined by Bruce, each one glaring at a different machine.

"In short, we don't know. You keep passing out." Bruce answered when he finally looked away from the charts he was reviewing. You glanced between him, Peter, and Tony. They each wore a matching expression telling you one thing- they really had no clue.

"This isn't fair," you whined. "I'm just trying to figure out my life."

"Just try to relax, we'll figure it out eventually." Tony rolled his eyes when you just whined some more. "Take a nap then, I can't work while listening to your whining."

You mulled over his words, some vague sense of something coming back to you. Before long, you could fully picture the date at Coney Island- or more accurately the non-date. "Bucky and Sam said we should all go and then ditched us."

"Where are we going?" you asked, still groggy from the surprising wake up call. "Is someone hurt?"

"Nope," Sam answered. "You need a day off. And before you protest, Steve is coming. If he can take a day, so can you."

You were going to protest, but the sound of voices from down the hall cut you off.

"Buck, would you just tell me where we're going? I should really-"

"No," you laughed at Bucky's tone, knowing he was sick of Steve working himself to death. "We're taking a day off. That's all you need to know."

Bucky and Sam nodded at each other in greeting. Together they lead you and Steve out of the tower and into a car, driving away before either of you could come up with a reason to stay behind.

"Any idea what's going on?" Steve asked you, figuring Sam and Bucky were dead set on not telling.

"Unfortunately no," you answered. "Sam woke me up at the crack of dawn and wouldn't even tell me why." As if on queue, you yawned. Steve chuckled at your expression, swiftly apologizing when you glared at him. "I'm not made to be up this early," you pouted.

"Not exactly a relaxing day off if you spend the whole thing tired." Steve muttered just loud enough for the two in the front to hear.

"Take a nap then. I don't want to spend the whole day listening to your whining." Bucky called back, rolling his eyes at Steve's glare.

You decided to take the advice, leaning your head against the window in an attempt to fall asleep. However, with Bucky driving, your head was bouncing up and down off the window, only resulting in more whining.

"Lean on Steve if the window hurts that bad." Bucky mumbled, smirking to Sam. You felt the heat blossom in your cheeks, practically forcing yourself to keep looking forward.

"You can if you want. Lean on me, I mean." Steve murmured, trying to keep Sam and Bucky out of the conversation.

"Thank you," you practicaly squeaked, choosing to just do it rather than stare awkwardly.

Despite the comfort of leaning into Steve, you were too wound up to get any sleep. You simply shut your eyes, allowing your mind to run a mile a minute with what he could be thinking for the entire car ride.

As it turns out, you had plenty of time to spiral. The car didn't come to a stop for nearly an hour. Reluctantly, you drew your head away from Steve's shoulder to better look out the window.

"Coney Island? This is your idea of a relaxing day off?" You glanced at Bucky and Sam in time to see them both roll their eyes.

"Would it kill you to have a little fun? Get out of the car, both of you." You held your hands up in surrender, shrugging at Steve as you followed their directions. To your surprise, neither man followed you out of the car. "We'll be back later. Try to enjoy yourselves."

Before you could protest, Bucky was hitting the gas. The car squealed away from you, too fast for even Steve to try and catch it. You glanced between him and the park eventually pulling your phone out to buy tickets.

"Are you more of a pay-per-ride or full on wristband type of guy?" you questioned, looking up at Steve only when he didn't answer. You found him staring at you, a slight raise of his eyebrow confusing you. "What? You don't want four hours of fun, thrill, and excitement?"

"How ever will we manage it?" he quipped, earning a chuckle from you.

"Sam and Bucky will never believe it." you joked back, smiling when Steve laughed in turn.

And so, the two of you set of to ride as many rides as you could in the four hours before your wristbands expired, fitting in a few breaks for snacks and water. You even managed to convince Steve to end your day on the slingshot arguing about how it was included in the price and he clearly met the height requirements.

"We didn't take a single picture," you lamented as you and Steve walked the boardwalk after eating. "However will we convince them we managed to have fun?"

"I'm pretty sure I saw Redwing following us around at least once... besides, what's stopping us from taking one now?" Steve asked, smiling ear to ear. You grinned up at him, quickly looking around to find someone to take the picture.

"Excuse me, would you take a picture of us?" you asked a teenage girl, knowing she would be able to frame the photo correctly. She nodded, gawking slightly at Steve- but could you blame her?

He pulled you into his side, one arm wrapped around your waist and the other in his pocket. You both laughed as the girl instructed you to move this way and that in order to get the best lighting. Steve glanced between you and the camera, his gaze settling on you almost subconsciously. His smile morphed from one of giddy excitement into a soft, lovestruck grin.

Eventually, the girl seemed happy with the result. You thanked her as you accepted the phone back not realizing Steve still hadn't stopped smiling at you.

"Steve! You're only looking at the camera in like three of the fifty pictures she took!" He snapped out of his state, blushing slightly as you looked through the three photos for which one you should send to Sam and Bucky. "You think they'll come get us anytime soon?"

"Knowing them, they'll milk this day for all it's worth. How about we get some dinner?"

You were nearly screaming as a new round of pain tore through your head, black dots clouding your vision. You could tell someone was talking to you, but you weren't with it enough to understand the words. Before long, the world was once again fading to black.

-

"It doesn't make any sense." Bruce lamented, still going though the various labs and data collected while you were sedated. "The only result even mildly out of the ordinary was such a random drop, it's more likely equipment error than an actual measurement."

You looked over the results in front of you, nodding your agreement. "Even the brain activity?" you questioned, looking through the various results for the correct sheet.

"Unfortunately, yes." Bruce answered, passing you a different tablet with the results you were asking about.

It had been four days since the medical team decided to sedate you after you remembered your trip to Coney Island with Steve, but still nobody could figure out why remembering things made you pass out.

"Maybe it won't happen again?" Your hopeful tone was not lost on the others in the room.

"Hope isn't a very good plan." Bruce spoke up, his expression solemn.

"But for now, it's all I've got." you sighed. "Thank you all for the help. I think I'll just... take a walk." You smiled at Tony, Peter, and Bruce before leaving.

You spent the next few hours wandering the halls of the tower desperately hoping for a new memory while scared of the associated pain. When nothing happened, you decided to take the excursion outside. You sat on the roof, watching the sunset in peaceful silence until the wind started picking up.

It wasn't hard to find the source of the sudden disruption. A quinjet hovered over the landing pad, slowing making its way down. You watched as the wind died down and the door opened, allowing three very tired Avengers to disembark.

You were about to ask how the mission went when you noticed Steve limping down the ramp.

"What happened?" you rushed over to the trio, unsure of how to help once you actually got close enough. Steve just stared at you, unprepared to face you so soon.

"The dumbass got himself shot." Bucky informed you. "Through and through. He'll be fine in a few hours..."

You stopped listening to Bucky after the first sentence. You started acting on instinct, not even second guessing your movements. You knelt in front of the three of them, hovering your hands hovered over the wound. A faint glow emanated from your palms while Steve slowly started leaning less and less on Bucky.

"Why wait a few hours when I can do it in no time." You smiled up at Steve. His small smile pulled at a string in your mind, sending you back in time.

"Stop pacing. He'll be fine." Tony stood to your left, nervously drumming his fingers despite his words.

"Bucky said he got stabbed! With a knife! And it must've been a big knife if it was bad enough for them to have us meet him on the roof!" You would've continued the rant if the quinjet hadn't just come into view.

Tony had to hold you back long enough for the jet to actually land, but the second the door was open you were running onto the jet.

"I told you I should've been on this mission, but no! You said it was just recon! How did he get stabbed doing recon!" you huffed, frantically searching the jet for Steve because you wouldn't stop talking long enough for someone to tell you where he was. Bucky just pointed to the back, not willing to get in the way of your fear induced rampage right now.

You refused to look at his face, knowing the pallid gray tone of his skin would only bring tears to your eyes and prevent you from helping him. Instead, you blindly reached for him, allowing Nat to guide your hands to where hers had just been. You felt the slight warmth from the glow of your hands, still not looking at him.

It wasn't until you heard Steve cough that you reopened your eyes. He still looked like shit, but at least his face had some color to it.

"Where'd all the anger go? He's the one he said it was just recon." Sam mumbled, earning a glare from Bucky and Nat. It did remind you of your fear though.

"I'm mad at you," you pouted. Everyone else took that as their cue to leave, allowing you and Steve the space to talk. "You said it was going to be easy."

Seeing Steve alive and well allowed the fear to dwindle, but the adrenaline rush had to go somewhere. You couldn't stop the tears from rolling down your cheeks.

"Hey, hey, hey. Don't cry. I'm okay. Everything's fine." He wrapped his arms around you, slowly rubbing his hands up and down your back.

"This time!" you screeched, reliving the paralyzing fear of not knowing if he would make it back to you in time. "This is why you should just let me go on missions. If I had been there, then there never would have been any question and you wouldn't-"

"You could've been hurt." Steve argued, albeit weakly.

"I could've been hurt? You were hurt! You nearly died Steve, and-" he cut you off again, this time with a kiss.

"You can come on missions now," he mumbled, lips still touching yours.

"Is that an official offer, Captain?" you smirked. Steve smiled at you, laughing lightly at the sudden change of tone.

"As official as they come. Now let me kiss my girl."

"Y/N? Y/N!" Steve called your name, catching you as once again remembering something incapacitated you. He rushed you to the med bay, Bucky and Wanda hot on his heels. "Tony!"

Tony and Bruce were still in the med bay, going over the test results in hopes of finding something they missed the first seven times. Hearing Steve, they both assumed something had gone wrong on the mission.

"Who is it? What happened?" Tony rushed over, seeing you he relaxed slightly. "Put her on her bed."

"Her bed?" Steve questioned, nonetheless laying you on the bed in the direction Tony gestured.

"This is the sixth time, not including that first one. Every time she remembers something significant, it causes a migraine so bad she faints." Tony sighed, one hand running through his hair and the other looking at vital signs.

"What triggers the memories?" Bucky asked, noticing Steve's inability to process the situation.

"Deja vu basically. Anything with enough power to relate to something from the six years she's forgotten." Tony answered absentmindedly. He was more focused on running the panel of labs as quickly as possible.

"Why?" Steve mumbled, his heart breaking even more at the clear pain you've been in while he was avoiding being here.

"We don't know." Tony answered truthfully, anticipating Steve's anger. He was not anticipating Steve up and leaving the room.

"I never should have let her come on mission." Steve grumbled on his way out.

"Steve, c'mon man-" Bucky called after him, but he wasn't having it.

"I can't be here when she wakes up. What if I trigger another memory? She's clearly in pain. I can't cause more. I won't."

With that, he was gone. Bucky and Wanda turned to Tony, but nobody was sure of what to do. Eventually, Tony noticed the same abnormal drop of serotonin and estrogen.

"Hmm," he murmured. Bucky and Wanda both instantly looked at him. As if he could feel there stares, Tony explained. "We've gotten the same error reading a few times. I wonder if they made it so we wouldn't get accurate results either on the brain function or the labs."

"I wouldn't put it past them. I just don't see what they're trying to gain." Bucky sighed. "Why erase her memories?"

"Maybe they thought they'd be able to use her, but we managed to handle the attack well? They never got a chance to actually capture her." Wanda suggested, cringing as she tried not to directly reference Bucky's past.

"It's definitely possible, but why would they make it painful to recover? It's either there or it's not." Bucky rebutted.

Tony listed in while still going through the results. "Everything still looks normal except for the error... Maybe it's just an effort to get her away from us? With no memories of us, she could've chosen to leave."

"She would never-" Bucky started, but Tony cut him off.

"Stay with strangers who consistently cause her to pass out or go back to living with her best friend?" Tony questioned. "Yeah, before she wouldn't have, and now she probably won't, but it could've happened. Just think about how vulnerable we'd be without her. We haven't exactly been careful since she's joined us on missions."

Bucky and Wanda nodded, finally seeing the point. The conversation would have continued, but all focus shifted to you as you groaned.

"Damnit." You slowly sat up, groaning at the residual ache in your head. You looked around the room, slowly piecing together what it was that you remembered this time. A soft smile grew on your face as you let the memory of your feelings for Steve wash over you. You couldn't help but notice the room was missing a certain super soldier. "Is Steve here? Is he okay?"

The three of them looked at each other, not quite knowing what to say. "He, uh, he's okay. He just didn't want to cause you any more pain." Bucky finally answered you.

"Oh. Well, good that he's okay." You bit your lip, contemplating everything that's been happening. "I think I'll just go to bed for the night. We can regroup in the morning in case there's anything new." You waited for their agreement before you left, slowly untangling yourself from all the machinery. "Thank you for all the help."

-

The next day, you found yourself wanting to give up. You could tell that you had felt something for Steve, and felt it strongly, but it was just out of reach. Despite how badly you wanted it, you couldn't quite get there. Not seeing him at all didn't help. If he even heard you coming down the hall, he high tailed it out of the room.

Wanda found you just after lunch, snuggled under the blankets in your room watching the Reputation Stadium Tour movie on Netflix.

"Hey, can I bother you for a minute?" she asked, hovering in the doorway.

"Sure." You paused the movie, shuffling slightly so she could sit next to you on the bed.

"How are you feeling?" she questioned, easily picking up on your downcast mood.

"I just wish I could remember everything." Your voice broke, tears pooling in your eyes once again. "I wish I knew what could fix it. I wish I could talk to Steve about it because I'm so confused, but I know it's hurting him to not have me remember, but I can't fix it.I just..."

She stroked your hair, trying to comfort you as you cried. When the tears slowed down, she tried to change the subject. "What are you watching?"

"Taylor Swift. Apparently she put out a billion songs in the six years I can't remember, so at least I get to experience those for the first time again," you mumbled. Wanda paused a minute, but then the two of you burst into laughter. "Always look on the bright side, right?"

The two of you laughed and laughed. Everytime you thought you had it under control, one look at each other had you giggling again. Another few minutes, and the laughter died down. You fully sat up, Wanda officially having lightened your mood.

"Did you need something?" you asked, wiping the last few tears away.

"Oh! I was wondering if you'd let me try looking in your head? I thought maybe if Hydra did something to prevent you from accessing the memories like normal then maybe I could see it." She looked nervous as she made the suggestion, but your grin eased her worries.

"Absolutely! I'm willing to do whatever it takes to fix this." You tried not to be too hopeful, but after nearly a week of trying the same thing over and over having Wanda suggest something new was thrilling.

"Okay! Just try thinking about the things you've already remembered and maybe that will trigger something else." Wanda suggested, her hands already glowing red.

You closed your eyes, imaging reliving all of the things you'd already remembered. You pictured waking up in the hospital right after the particle accelerator exploded. You thought about saving Peter and in turn saving Bucky the first day you met the Avengers. Then the memories of Steve floated through your mind. The non-date at Coney Island, the walk in the park when you first kissed him, the feeling of relief when you healed him after that mission. Every single thing you'd remembered.

Throughout it all, you kept trying to calm the hope you were feeling. After each memory, the feeling grew. You couldn't help but think how happy you would be if this worked.

With your eyes closed, you couldn't really tell what Wanda was doing. It wasn't until she cleared her throat that you opened your eyes again. Instantly, you could see the regret on her face.

"Nothing?" you questioned, already knowing the answer.

"I'm sorry. I really thought it could work." You could tell she was genuinely sorry, possibly regretful for even suggesting the idea now that it didn't work.

"It's fine, Wan. I appreciate the help, even if it didn't work. We'll just have to figure something else out."

You smiled at her as she left, genuinely grateful to have friends who care so much. Speaking of friends, you figured it was about time you gave Jess a call. With so much effort going into figuring out your memory issues, you've barely thought about everything that could've happened in her life during the time you forgot.

"Hello?" she answered on the third ring.

"Hi, are you busy?" you asked, realizing she might in fact have a life outside of talking to you. When she replied in the negative, you asked her to meet you for lunch.

"I'd love to! Half an hour?" she suggested.

"Sure! See you soon."

You jumped around the room, getting ready as quick as you could to make it on time. It would've been easier had you already been dressed, but this morning's mood prevented anything productive from occurring. You managed to be ready to leave twelve minutes later, throwing your stuff in a bag and bolting out the door.

"Ah! Sorry!" you yelped when you ran into somebody in the hallway, practically dumping the entire contents of your purse on the floor. "I'm so sorry!" As you repacked your stuff, you glanced up at the person you'd run into. "Steve!"

It was hard to understand the mixture of emotions running through you at the sight of him. To be fair, he seemed to be feeling something similar. You smiled up at him, apologizing again in a softer voice.

"You're still so like you," Steve murmured, his eyes softening. You tilted your head in confusion. "Always in a rush, always smiling for miles."

Your smile faltered, the phrase catching on something in your mind. "Smiling for miles..." you repeated, eyebrows furrowed. Steve caught on a moment later, understanding your confusion.

"It's from a song. One you played for me," he confessed. His words on top of all of your thoughts about hope this morning clued you in.

"But hope is a dangerous thing for a woman like me to have... But I have it. Yeah, I have it." You sang, the song throwing you back in time once more.

"Y/N, this song is sad." Steve argured, but the smile didn't leave his face.

"Yeah, but it's real. It's about life. Plus it's beautifully produced." you argued back, pulling him closer to you. "I'm not saying it's this big love song, but that doesn't mean I can't dance with you while it's playing."

The two of you swayed around the room, simply basking in each other's presence. When the song ended, you continued to hold each other.

"I love you," you whispered, barely audible. Still, you knew Steve would be able to hear it. For a second, you were afraid it was too soon.

"I love you too," he whispered back. "More than I could say."

You could feel the tears, but for once it wasn't from the pain. Sure, your head hurt, but the memory wasn't long enough to incapacitate you.

"Y/N?" Steve questioned. This was exactly why he was avoiding you until he could at least come up with an idea to help you. To his and your surprise, you surged forward and kissed him.

He didn't respond immediately, too caught off guard. It wasn't until his arms wrapped around your back that you realized what you'd done. You pulled back, hands covering your mouth as if you didn't trust yourself.

"Steve, I'm so sorry." Your eyes were wide, expression panicked. Your heart only broke more when his smile faltered. "I have to go. I love- I have to go."

You ran before he could respond. Literally, ran out of the tower and down the street. You knew that he could catch up if he really wanted to, but it didn't matter. The emotions you were feeling after that last memory hurt more than the rest. You could tell that you love Steve, but you had no idea what lead you there. Besides the bits and pieces you'd remembered. It was like you skipped the falling and simply landed in a relationship. You were still cursing yourself for nearly uttering those three words when you made it to the restaurant.

The second Jess saw you, she knew something was up. After convincing her that you wanted to stay for lunch, she finally asked, "what happened?"

You nearly broke down again as you explained everything that happened since you last saw her. You gave her as much detail as you could remember, sighing when you explained how you lost control and kissed him.

"Jess, it was so unfair of me. He spent the last five days avoiding me, and he runs into me one time and it's like I've lost my mind," you complained, wishing for the ground to open up and swallow you.

"Go back a sec, you said there was only one abnormal result?" Jess asked, making you realize something.

"Shit. I wanted to get lunch with you so we could talk about you! You're my best friend and I haven't got a clue what you've been up to for the last six years! Forget my problems for now. Let's talk about you."

"Y/N. What was it?" she asked again. "I haven't lost any of my stubbornness, so you might as well just appease me." You rolled your eyes, but you answered her nonetheless.

"It was an error. It showed a drop in estrogen and serotonin, but there's no way they could actually drop and rise that much that quickly." You expected a response, but when she didn't say anything you tried moving on again. "Can we please talk about you now?"

She shook her head, clearly still thinking about what you said. Slowly, her smile grew and she was taking out money for the food you'd yet to eat. "We have to go."

Despite your protests, she pulled you out of the restaurant. You could tell she was dragging you back to the tower, but you'd yet to figure out why. She refused to stop her train of thought to answer your questions until you were back in the elevator on the way to the med bay.

"Remember how Liz would sometimes get migraines?" she asked you, completely throwing you for a loop. You nodded, vaguely remembering the few times you'd seen it happen. "Well, she was prescribed some meds to regulate some hormones that made them worse."

"Serotonin and estrogen..." you finally caught on to her train of thought. "But how-"

You were cut off by the sound of Steve's voice in the med bay as the elevator doors opened. He was talking to someone else, a voice you didn't immediately recognize.

"Does it make sense?" he asked, a desperate hope coming through in the tone of his voice.

"It's definitely possible. I'll be there in two hours, and I can tell you more then."

You seemed to have caught the tail end of a video call between Steve and the mystery woman. Nobody immediately noticed your presence in the room.

"Serotonin and estrogen are," Jess started, gaining the men's attention.

"Migraine inducing hormones." Steve finished with her, seemingly having already caught up to speed. "I did some digging."

"I can't believe we missed it, but the reading seemed so impossible," Tony lamented, looking more guilty than he should.

"Would someone care to explain what is happening?" you asked, feeling as though they were talking around you. "The result is impossible. What could possible cause my hormones to drop like that?"

"Hydra." The answer came from behind you, Bucky and Sam entering the med bay as well. You merely raised an eyebrow, still not understanding the science behind it.

"They altered your brain chemistry. Accessing your memories involves the hippocampus. They seem to have attached that functionality with a drop in serotonin and estrogen, both linked to migraines."

"Y/N, would you mind?" Tony gestured to 'your bed'. With a sigh, you climbed in and started hooking yourself up to the machinery. You had a million questions, but Bruce kept asking you to stay still. It wasn't long until the lack of movement and the white noise of the other people in the room lulled you to sleep.

"She needs this to work... I need this to work." You could just barely hear Steve as you slowly woke up.

"I don't see why it wouldn't." The mystery woman's voice answered. You glanced in the direction of the noise, trying to understand what was going on.

"Oh good, I was just going to wake you up." The mystery woman walked over to you, a weird tablet in her hands. "I am going to use this to alter your brain functionality." Your eyes widened at her proclamation.

"Okay... and you are?" you questioned, nervous at the idea of annoying messing with your head again.

"Shuri fixed my head after... She deprogrammed Hydra's ability to control me." Bucky jumped into the conversation. "She definitely knows what she's doing even though she's still basically just a kid." Shuri glared at him, but you could tell it was friendly.

"And this is actually going to work?" you asked, still nervous after all the other failed attempts.

"Yes," she answered simply, leaving no room for negotiation.

"Okay, go for it." You laid back down, closing your eyes once again.

"I am going to need you to think of the strongest memory you have from the time you forgot. It will let me target the correct area with much more precision." Shuri instructed. You nodded, eager to get going.

Despite its brevity, you thought of your most recently recovered memory. Dancing with Steve while Lana del Rey sang in the background. You could practically feel his breath in your hair, the smooth fabric of his shirt. You definitely remembered how it felt to say and hear 'I love you' for the first time. It's what lead to your impromptu kiss in the hallway afterall.

You could have stayed in that memory for hours, reliving the simplicity of dancing with somebody you love over and over. In fact, it could have already been hours and you wouldn't have noticed.

"Okay, I'm done." Shuri stepped back, allowing you to sit up.The bright lights made your head spin, but it was nothing compared to the last few days.

"How long has it been?" you asked, still unsure how much time had passed.

"About an hour." Steve answered, his voice causing butterflies in your stomach.

Suddenly, your hand flew to your chest and your jaw dropped. You stared around the room, taking in everything you couldn't believe you forgot. Your eyes sparkled with unshed tears as you looked at all the people surrounding you.

"So, do you remember?" Tony finally asked, but you couldn't take your eyes of Steve once you had located him in the room.

"We got married..." you whispered, too overcome with emotion to speak at a normal volume. "We got married, and I forgot it."

Steve smiled, his own tears pooling in relief. He took the few steps required to reach you, gently taking your hands in his own. "We did."

"Where's my ring?" you questioned, still not quite believing the turn your day took. He silently pulled the ring out of his pocket and slid it onto your finger.

"You don't wear it on missions," he explained, relieved when you nodded in agreement. "I've had it with me since we got back." You laughed through the tears, kissing him quickly but mostly just needing him close.

"Any other major life events I've forgotten? No children running around, right?" you joked. When the room remained silent, you panicked. "If someone runs through that door yelling mommy I'm going to have a heart attack."

Finally, everyone laughed and Steve calmed your fears. "Nope, no children... yet." He whispered the last word just soft enough for only you to hear.

You smiled up at him, more in love than you could've imagined after the last few days.

"You better get on that."

Permanent Taglist: @averyhotchner @jesuswasnotawhiteman @strawberryspence @andrwgxrfield @jswessie187 @ellobruv @alohastitch0626

Marvel: @leyannrae @livstilinski @oceaniamaddness @justreadingficsdontmindme @ladydmalfoy @freyathehuntress

#steve rogers x reader #steve rogers x you #steve rogers x y/nb #steve rogers fluff #steve rogers angst #steve rogers one shot #steve rogers fanfic #marvel

[moonbeamwritings]

You’re not sure how long you’ve been like this, but you hope it never ends. Izuku sits beside you on your picnic blanket, his sandwich sitting forgotten as he rambles about the intricacies of support equipment and its role in hero work. Excitedly, he tells you about the other pros that could stand to use it more often and the ones who don’t. One thought always tends to lead to another, and another and another with Izuku.

And though you have a hard time keeping up as he shifts to talk about the current hero ranking, you nod along, popping blueberries into your mouth like you’re eating popcorn at the movies. You watch as his eyes shine, glimmering with wonder and fascination. Sunshine kisses his cheekbones and decorates his hair, filtering through the trees to emphasize his freckles and his grin — bright and beautiful. You can’t help the way adoration settles in your heart, spreading through your lungs like wildflowers. Your eyes soften and your head tilts just slightly, your chin coming to rest in the palm of your hand.

“And I just really think that Kacchan could use-” Izuku stops, interrupting himself with furrowed brows and confusion evident on his face. “Why are you looking at me like that? If I’m talking too much you can just-”

You don’t move a muscle, you just stare. Have his eyes always been this green? Or his expressions this cute? Words spring from your mouth before you can blink, interrupting his frantic apologies. “You’re so pretty, Izuku.”

He sputters, shocked. “P-pretty? No, no, I-”

Again, you ignore him in favor of reaching out a hand to touch his cheek. His skin is warm and soft beneath your fingertips. “Very pretty.” As a second thought, you lean in to kiss the tip of his nose. “Don’t forget to finish your lunch.”

Izuku’s face burns, and you’re much too pleased with yourself at the sight. Flustered, he replies, “Oh! Right, right. I wouldn’t want your hard work to go to waste.”

You nod in quiet agreement, savoring the feeling of his skin against yours for a moment longer before returning to your own lunch. You watch with pointed attention as he takes a bite of the forgotten sandwich. Silence lingers in the air for a moment after, the leaves ruffling overhead.

“Now,” you begin, your chin returning to the palm of your hand, “what were you saying about Bakugou?”

#izuku midoriya x reader #izuku midoriya imagine #deku x reader #deku imagine #mha x reader #mha imagine #bnha x reader #bnha imagine

[jeonghanspookie]

Intro

Another day of work.

You sighed you walked into the office. Once you clock in an grab you equipment. You grab your carat device and walkie. After leaving the equipment room you go to check the whiteboard for your schedule.

Looking at the details for today, you see that today had a pretty light truck. Thank God. You also look down the list of team members working that day. The grid is on the desk right next to the whiteboard. It tells you that almost all of your favorite coworkers are working today. You look back up at the whiteboard to see what the work day has in store for you.

“Pushing in seasonal today” you end in a sigh. “Oh? Looks like I have a trainee today.” Right as you finish your sentence and start to wonder where this trainee of yours could be, the office door opens abruptly.

A guy comes rushing in with a panicked look on his face. He was slightly out of breath and you look at his hands to see him holding a training schedule in his hand.

“Ah,” you let out, “running late on your first day?” You said with an amused smile on your face.

“Yes. Sorry!” The guy start to stumble over his words. “I couldn’t find the office and the worker at guest service gave me some confusing directions.” He said as he awkwardly scratched his head. “He also didn’t tell me the passcode for the door so I had to ask someone else.”

You gave him a friendly smile. “It’s all good. You probably aren’t in the system yet so we can just say you came right on time when we punch it in later.” He seems to relax a bit as you reassure him. You reach your hand out and introduce yourself, “Nice to meet you, my name is Y/N! I assume I will be training you today.”

He takes your hand and shakes it. “Oh, yes it says so on my schedule. Nice to meet you too, my name is Lee Chan.”

“So…” you both let go of the handshake and you lead him over to the computer. “ We have to get you in the system before we do anything else. Here you enter all your information and afterwards it’ll give you your employee ID number. You use that number to clock in so don’t forget to write that down. Usually our HR lead would help you out with this. But he is currently on vacation.” You point to the desk with the name tag ‘Minghao” on it. You explain a few more details to him and after a few clicks on the computer, you can start some actual training.

You start to lead Chan out of the office and towards the hall.

As you get to another locked door, you turn to look at him “As you learned, passcode for the door is 0808#, no one knows why. But I have reason to believe it’s because our AP lead wanted to use his birthday.” You rolled your eyes.

As you start to give Chan a tour of the store, you make some light conversation. You ask if he shops at CARAT often and if he always wanted to work here. Answer. No one does.

You give him a quick lesson on how to use the CARAT device and how log in. The first place you take Chan is the break room.

The room has chairs and tables set up and the tv on the wall is playing masterchef junior. Luckily, there wasn’t anyone occupying the break room so you do your little intro at peace. “This is where you can go for your breaks. Usually HR fills it with snacks. On special occasions we get food catered too.” You point one side of the room with all of the appliances. “There are fridges if you want to store any food there. Just be careful because sometimes the cleaning crew has to clean them out and they might accidentally throw away food you were keeping.” You look off slightly to the side, "it’s happened to Hoshi way too many times.” You shake your head. “Anyway, there are also microwaves up there, a toaster, sink, coffee maker, etc. Oh and the vending machines are on that side.”

Once you leave the break room, you head through the market department.

You stop in front of the market backroom.

Looking over at Chan, you start to explain the department to him. “This is where the market team keeps products to push out and where they backstock them.” You point out the different coolers and freezers to him. “This one is the meat cooler. The one next to it is the produce. That one over there is the dairy cooler, and the one next to that is the freezer.”

Chan listens very attentively and does his best to take in all the information you are telling him.

As you make your way out of the room, you bump into a busy Jihoon, who is wearing a heavily padded puffer jacket.

“Jihoooooon! Good morning!” You greet the man excitedly and make your way to him with open arms.

He sighs but accepts your embrace, “Yeah, yeah. Good morning to you too.”

After the light greeting, you turn to Chan. “Chan this is Jihoon. He is our market team member.” You then turn to Jihoon. “Jihoon this is Chan, our newest employee.”

The two greet each other and shortly after Jihoon says he has produce to push out. You and Chan quickly say goodbye and make your way towards the main stockroom.

While on the way, you ask Chan if he had any questions so far.

“Anything questions or concerns so far?”

Chan stops to think for a moment. “What department do you work in?”

You look at him, “I’m kinda like a floater.”

Chan looks confused, “A floater?” He tilts his head to the side.

“Yeah I don’t really have a designated department anymore.” You shrug. “I work in whatever department needs the support. My hours are also pretty all over the place so that’s also a factor.”

He nods his head understandably. “Yeah that makes sense.”

You finally get past the double doors of the main stockroom. You show Chan how each aisle is number and labeled with which department is which. As you walk down the aisle you meet some team members and introduce them to Chan.

You make your way towards the stationary aisle. There you see two of your coworkers/friends.

“Y/N!" a very happy (and VERY loud) Seokmin greets you with a smile. “Good morning!’ Jun greets as well.

“Hi Junnie! Hi my little sugar plum!” You greet the two with a big smile.

Chan looks slightly confused at the nickname but doesn't make any action to question it.

They smile back and move their attention to your trainee.

The two introduce themselves to Chan and he does the same. Seokmin tells him that he works in stationary and Jun works in outdoor living. After wishing Chan good luck, you two are on you way to receiving.

“This is where the truck is unloaded every morning.” You explain. “The inbound team takes the boxes and sort them on the vehicles by aisle number. Oh look, you can meet Mingyu” you say as you spot the tall man yourself.

“Mingyu~” you yell out.

Mingyu, who is holding a very big and heavy looking box, looks over at you and Chan. “Hey guys. A bit busy. Sorry”

You let out a playful sigh. “That’s Mingyu. He throws the truck. He also works in the chem department after the truck is done. He calls himself a "chem bro". You say while making the quotes with your fingers. “I think all the cleaning chemicals he stocks affects his head sometimes”

Leaving receiving, because it is still hectic with the inbound team running around, you go through the doors and make your way towards tech.

“This is the teach/entertainment department. Our tech expert doesn’t get in til 9 so you won’t see him yet. His name is Wonwoo.”

You then take Chan over to the style department.

As you two make your way past all the clothing aisles, you can see and hear a frantic Seungkwan who is trying his best to keep his department together. You also notice that his Americano is not in his hand so this tells you that your best course of action is to just pass by and let Seungkwan do his thing.

You look over at Chan who is also looking at Seungkwan run around.

“Yeah it’s best not to disturb him when he is in that state. He has a process. I should also grab him a coffee so he doesn’t lose his mind.” You quickly note to yourself.

The next stop is the fulfillment center.

Chan looks around the room filled with online orders.

You start to explain the hold area for the many, many online orders that come in. You explain the whole process to him and just from the look on Chan’s face, you could tell that it seems very scary to someone new.

You try to calm him down.

“It seems very overwhelming but if Vernon can do it, anyone can.” You give him a reassuring smile. “You’ll see what I mean when you meet him.

“Okay and here is the cafe. Joshua is the best barista in this store. Make sure to get on his good side.” You tease.

“So now here is the front of store. The registers and self-checkout are over here. Hoshi is our only cashier this morning since its pretty slow around this time. But he can also handle rushes by himself pretty well. That’s why he calls himself a tiger.”

Chan makes a very confused and slightly disgusted face. “He calls himself a tiger? Wait. Is he wearing a tiger print shirt?”

“Yup. That’s Hoshi for you.” You chuckle. “He gave himself that nickname. His real name is Soonyoung, but it got too confusing with another team member, Sooyoung, so we just call him that now. It’s actually kinda funny because now Sooyoung goes by Joy so we told Hoshi he could use his real name but he refuses.” You both let out a laugh.

You make you way to the center of the front of the store.

“Now I see you already met our guest service team member.”

Chan nods his head dejectedly. “Yeah” he says with a straight face.

“I wouldn’t beat myself up about that interaction. Jeonghan just likes to mess around with new employees.” You slightly turn your head so Chan can’t hear. “And current employees” you whisper to yourself.

“Huh. What did you say? I don’t think I caught it.”

You quickly change the subject. “And last but certainly not least, that big scary guy standing in between the enterance and exit is Seungcheol. He is our security/assets protection.”

“All right,” you look at Chan. “Are you ready to start?”

Chan gives you a determined look. “Yes.”

“Okay then.”

You clear your throat and talk into your walkie.

“Y/N and Chan clocked in for the day.”

masterlist -> next

#seventeen #svt #svt smau #seungcheol #jeonghan #joshua #jun #soonyoung #wonwoo #jihoon #seokmin #mingyu #minghao #seungkwan #vernon #chan #seventeen smau #svt ot13 #seventeen x reader

[claire-starsword]

The Guardiana Magic School Run -Part 18

Certainly it must be obnoxious that I keep bringing up the novel wherever I go, but consider: 1) i waited years to read that thing so i don't care; 2) translating 300+ pages for free is hella work so i get to brag; and 3) we are literally on Rudo lol i can't stop looking at everything differently now. I know this dog now. I love this dog. She's my friend.

Back to the run, we're still on the spirit of treasure hunts!

After a very fun and not at all garbage puzzle involving unclear map boundaries, we get Musashi, who is not valid for this magic user run. Yes, the guy is invisible and making words pop out of thin air, but he's NOT magical. He's just built different. You would understand if you had studied the blade like him.

We then get Lyle, who is also not for this run. Very sad. But at least they'll kindly donate their weapons to support our magic school. It's not much, but it's the thought tha-

MUSASHI WHAT THE HELL

ARE YOU MADE OF MONEY MAN

so uh, wow! that's something i'd never learn in a regular playthrough. Since it's a unique weapon it goes to the deals section for double the price. The deals section is very clogged right now so I guess we'll soon learn if new deals still pop up or if we're done with it. Not like the useless swords there were helping anyway.

On the topic of weapons, we also get a Holy Staff like I promised last time. I could promote Khris right now, giving up on an early Aura, to use this. Her attack is currently pretty ok (28), so a boost would likely put her in the 30+ with attackers like Max and Arthur. That's wild to think about. But am I going to use her like this with her squishy defense? In the chapter where Golems and Dullahans start to appear? I'm not sure. The next battle is also forest and she doesn't have great movement in that. But we'll be surrounded by spawns, so she might make a difference in wiping out some enemy in that chaos.

I'm pretty afraid of the next battle, so that's what I'm going for. At the end of the day she has four levels to go until Aura and I hate this kind of grinding very much lol

Say hello to Vicar Khris! Boy I hate the stat loss so much. And yet, upon equipping the Holy Staff, she now has the greatest attack in the party. Dog that mauls you for your sins. I'm losing it.

And we're not done with upgrades! First of all I forgot to equip the Soulbuster on Max, but don't worry, it still doesn't make him stronger than Khris.

Arthur on the other hand jumps above the Khris bar thanks to the Chrome Lance. The unpromoted Lowe and mages cannot use the Guard Staff for now, which is a bit of a loss for Lowe, but the girls on the other hand should just be blasting things with magic anyway. Tao might be our greatest weapon against the Golems.

Narsha meanwhile gets the Holy Mace, which is not only more powerful but also capable of Heal 3. Unfortunately I did forbid using weapon effects on my rules, didn't I? Uh oh. Still a nice upgrade, and I didn't have any idea on when to promote Narsha, so let's do it.

Establishing herself once more as the deuteragonist of this thing, Saint Narsha is now as strong as Max, but with a few more points in defense, which is great.

I am still afraid however, so I don't think the upgrades will end here.

I do sit atop a sizable collection of stat boosting items. That I always forget to use in casual play. I would like to not mess my challenge run doing that. The only characters were missing by now are Alef and Torasu, neither of which will need Power Wine, for example. I would also hope they won't need five whole defense potion.

But do I know how to distribute this in an smart and efficient way? Hell no. I do hate seeing Max without defense though, so one potion goes for him, taking him over 20. I do chicken out on using the rest of them though, because I don't think they'll make enough of an impact on characters that are still on the 14-17 range, especially when they don't have enough HP to survive two hits even if their defense was raised.

What I do end up with is using a couple Life Loaves on Narsha. Her defense is now on par with Max yet she has way less HP, so I'm hoping the +3 here helps.

I also end up facing this bizarreness here where the game does not update her current HP? Hoping she doesn't enter battle like this. I can't even use Medical Herbs outside of battle to fix it now.

I also decide to use the Power Wines on Max and Narsha, I'm really betting on them as the frontlines here. So congrats Max, now you're on par with dog girl. Only took a lot of effort.

I also give Anri a Quick Chicken in hopes she'll get more chance to hit the enemies before they hit her.

After all these very insecure decisions, I'm now turning my game off and on again because the Narsha thing bothers me.

:/ it does not fix it

Had to enter this screen and retreat, this is honestly some garbage code.

Anyway, let's finally get to the battle. The clear bonus is just money. Thanks to Musashi's patronage I'm not worried about that. Also no way in hell I'm rushing this battle.

I don't know why I haven't mentioned yet, but Domingo should be the star of this battle. The game even knows it, giving him some extra dialogue here. He has the best defense in the team, floating movement to ignore the forests and mountains, and magic damage against the enemies with high defense.

Arthur is currently the other tank of the team, but being a centaur he won't be moving well in this terrain.

He's at least enthusiastic enough to be the first one to move, but not like there's many threats in this start.

Also I'm just learning that Attack 3 uses 40 MP so, uh. Don't expect to ever see this thing used lol

Very unsure of what to do with Narsha as usual. I might try setting positions to catch Max, Arthur, Hanzou and herself in an Attack 2. I could boost the mages' damage instead but I'm unsure if that will be impactful enough on level 2 spells, and Tao's Blaze 2 is not in a deep need of help. Besides, MP eventually ends, while attack boosts are forever.

After a boring turn 2 we are finally ready to beat these things up. They're doing nothing to Arthur.

No point in wasting Domingo's MP with these weak enemies though. Arthur, Max and Hanzou wipe them out in a single hit each.

It takes me several turns because Khris is slow and has little movement, but I include her in the Attack plan.

In the next turn, I could use a Boost 1 on someone to finish Narsha's MP, but I feel like saving it for Aura in case I need healing.

I seem to have attracted the Artilleries' attention, but not triggered the spawns yet, which annoys me. I don't want those things to catch me off guard.

LIKE THIS YOU KNOW

EXACTLY LIKE THIS

Welcome to hell! The Master Mages have Freeze 2, which is pretty dicey to take on when there's many of them and we're gathered like this. The golems and worms should have a lot of attack, and Domingo and Arthur are my only tanks, so I can't exactly surround everyone else. At least I think the golems can't reach anyone yet since I tried to stay on the bottom, and their movement is not great. The worms should have less defense than the golems. Maybe we can defeat them before the golems arrive! Optimism!

You can already feel the centaur pain with Arthur not even being able to cover Tao here.

But he can one hit a guy in forest land effect.

Also, look! He finally fits this playthrough! Baby's first spell! Will we be using it instead of 20+ chrome lance damage? I don't think so.

Domingo also can't cover Tao, so clearly I screwed up bad. Maybe he'll distract the other worms though.

Max one hit kills a worm, but Hanzou fails tragically at this mage. He gets a level up with +4 attack to ensure it won't happen again.

I hit image limit as expected so, to be continued in a reblog, see i told you this one was more exciting than the last

#shining force #ressurection of the dark dragon #guardiana magic school run #long post

[thehappiestgolucky]

I, for one, would love to hear you talk about monster hunter. *Hands you one "free rant about monster hunter" card*

You have genuinely no idea the beast you just unleashed but i am taking this card in my mouth and tearing it like a rabid animal

Monster Hunter - despite being very well known in Japan, still feels like a hidden gem in the western world. And I get it - its a hard game for beginners to get into because of just how many mechanics there are and especially when I first discovered it back in like 2012 ish. It also wasn’t well marketed. In a time where everyone sung nothing but praises about Skyrim - I found a game that genuinely changed my life. I mean that so literally.

I had practically gave up on art and things that made me happy - and whilst I still have pretty intense depressive episodes - I nearly quitted art altogether back then. You can thank Monster Hunter that I’m even here being able to ramble about it.

The games breathed a life into an ecosystem that I had never really seen done in games before and after - the only current contender being Rain World. I’ll be blunt - I don’t like Skyrim, which made me so sad as a kid. The combat is clunky and I was bored so quickly with the lack of coolness from the dragons. So to see what Monster Hunter brought in such a variety - made me want to art again. Every creature is thought out in both individual and ecosystem - how they interact with other and how they adapt to their habitat. And some designs are fun, cool or downright scary - and each one fights like you would expect it to.

My first Monster Hunter was 3 Ultimate on the 3ds - after seeing one of the adverts on the TV featuring a Brachydios chasing down hunters down a volcanic cavern - cornering them. Little me was in such awe - it was the coolest design I had seen in ages. I couldn’t get many games but I managed to get that one after pestering my mum a lot - and I’ll be honest I was fucking terrified at first! but then I got better and understood it - started just fighting the monsters. Its an experience I’ll never forget. When you spend nearly the entire 50 minutes you get fighting an absolute tank of a monster because you don’t have the right equipment - but you keep going even when you run out of healing items because when you do manage to win its a rush that I still have never felt in any other game. It both rewards and punishes risks - it entices you to grind and prepare and throw that all out the window.

I’ll be the first to admit Monster Hunter has flaws - especially the game I first got - but they’re flaws that keep getting sorted out with each iteration of the franchise. For all those flaws you battle through to see and feel the grit and beauty of the game - the brutalness it offers but the rewards when you each and every time make it step by step.

I felt a rush finally beating the Lagiacrus that terrified me, I was grinning stomping on the Brachydios that dominated the trailer, the awe of the Caedeus in a unique and almost somber fight against an ocean god - and the fear, terror, adrenaline, frustration and euphoria of solo falling the Dire Miralis, a living volcano that boiled a sea by its presence. And beating an Alatreon is still such a difficult, nervewracking task. But you still try. you may lose, but you try again.

It’s a game with memorable and beloved characters - full of life and fun, jokes and genuine touching stories hidden behind simple interactions. Each receptionist that you get the quests from have their own unique personality and goals that you learn from passively just doing the quests - 3 Ultimates guild receptionist always pulling out her hand written book of monster information basically boiling down to “Oh thats awful, well good luck!” or even just “Whoops nothing here! Dont die!” is genuinely so fun and engrossing than any tragic story for a quest giver can give to me. And bro - Monster Hunter is not known for its story or characters, it’s known for its monsters and gameplay and rightfully so.

I know the complaints of Capcom - but as a FPS disliker I can firmly say they just don’t fucking miss with combat. The giant Great Sword feels clunky and meaty - and landing a hit with it feels like you’ve torn a chunk out of the monster. The small lathe Dual Blades feel like the risky weapon they are, sacrificing protection for raw DPS that can double for status effects as it quickly repeatedly applies them. The newest weapons added being the Insect Glaive and Charge Blade being such unique mechanics that through iterations of games still hold their light.

And the base mechanics of these weapons are hard to learn they are - you only realise how many hidden and complicated mechanics and combos there are after so many hours of playing. You will never steamroll Monster Hunter on your first game - but the more you do it later games makes you feel like the veteran you are, adapting to the new mechanic whilst having the basics down. Its a learning curve each game has actively tried to make easier and easier to overcome.

That’s another thing about this franchise that I adore - they iterate each time, trying new things with each entry to both make every one feel unique from the others despite sharing the base mechanic each time, and trying new things. 3 Ultimate had underwater combat, which was received poorly, and as much as I want it back for its unique cast of monsters - and to bring my beloved Lagiacrus back its full glory, I know why they’re hesitant to bring it back. 4 Ultimate focussed on a mounting mechanic - the Insect Glaive was created with that in mind. It was received well but informed it was overpowered. So it stuck around for Generations Ultimate but that wasn’t the main mechanic of Gen, Generations introduced Hunting Styles - anime power moves basically. And they were fun as hell. In World Iceborne they introduced a new style altogether - a basic slate to show the new polish of the franchise. The art style was still there - the iteration brought the franchise to a new light. Hunting styles vanished in replacement of the Grappling Hook thing - which was uhh mixed. In the latest entry - Sunbreak - they mixed the grappling and hunting styles together in such a unique and fun way - introducing a new way to explore the world and use your combo knowledge to really dominate a hunt.

They try - and god when they do it well they do it well.

Monster Hunter was not my first game ever. That was Pokemon Pearl. And whilst that means the Pokemon franchise does hold a gem in my heart - I’d be dishonest if I didn’t mention Monster Hunter Stories - a spin off to Monster Hunter I didn’t see coming. Its everything I wanted out of Pokemon. Its everything I still want out of Pokemon.

And the first game was basic - it had a fairly generic but heart warming story and the characters still shone as fun as they always have. Reverto my beloved.

But then came the sequel. I didn’t believe we’d ever get one because the first game flunked in the west.

And just like each iteration of the main franchise before - Stories 2 did exactly that - change. Be better, learn from previous mistakes and change. You could bring in your knowledge of the main games to fight the monsters - you can build your team in any way you wanted - and the story matured with it. I urge every disheartened Pokemon fan to give the free demo on the Switch a shot. Its so worth it. Its the one I recommend to newcomers BECAUSE its so much more accessible and you never have to play the main games to adore the nature of the franchise. Even watch a Kinship move compilation if nothing else - its everything I wanted Z moves to be and more.

I will say - it isn’t a game for people with flashing problems or camera issues. Its unfortunate, that it limits a bunch of people despite the settings in place that aim to reduce that. But if you can handle it I urge you to give the free demos a shot. You might not like it - you might find it’s not to your tastes or you don’t like how it plays. And that’s fine. Games are for the people it appeals to. Monster Hunter simply appeals to me.

Look at the monsters, watch the ecology videos on youtube. Its wonderful, its goofy, its serious. Genuinely seriously look at the MUSIC. There’s a reason Proof of a Hero played during the Olympics. Listen to it now/lh

The community is… alright. There’s a larger amount of gamer bros unfortunately but some are gems. Hell, the official Twitch livestream gaming each week is really fun and wholesome! I just listen to it when I’m doing things because its just people! Playing a game!

Overall, its just a game I hold so dearly to my heart. It’s creative, the devs care so much and it shows through every piece of art, each monster, everything that this franchise is. Its love. Its nature. And its wonderful.

#happy rambles #long post #*ahem* its 2 AM i’m sleeping now #i probably missed more but this is already long as hell lmfao #please though. if nothing else listen to the monster themes #they’re SO good on god i could assign so many characters to themes and be a banger each time #this ramble isn’t cohesive but i dont care #get special interested/lh

[cospinol]

TODAY’S EPISODE!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Koku you amethyst time!!!!!!!! 🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰 And it’s apparently the moment that the show’s staff have been waiting for just as eagerly as I have because it’s the best looking episode not just of this season but maybe… of the entire series since its inception…????!! I genuinely can’t think of another one that has Multiple dedicated cuts of detailed action in a row like the sequence from kyou kai snapping on the mountain road to the encounter between shin and kyou kai + rai do and koku’ou at kan ki’s camp, and certainly not one anywhere near as good looking, it’s such a treat…!!!!!!!

[quick aside, before I forget I want to add that rai do is addressing shin as ‘obocchan’ in the last cap above :DDD truly the gift that keeps on giving]

And anyways that’s without even touching on how good this sequence would be regardless of looks because it’s still Amethyst Plot time 🥰❤️💞❣️💓💍💘 Bi hei giving in to peer pressure in just the kind of moment of weakness that you can’t actually detest him for (of course you would want to believe him when he tells you it wasn’t a civilian village..), kyou kai absolutely fucking snapping, the cool head ten maintains between trying to hold shin back and immediately pivoting the hi shin unit to a defensive formation for the real possibility that shin and kyou kai actually start pvp against the kan ki army , and of course shin and kan ki putting their cards on the table :)))))

^ my favourite panel of him ever now animated!!!!!!! 🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰 and my favourite moment in the exchange between them, shin’s is still yet to come (I think all his talk in this week’s episode about kan ki not being equipped to handle sei’s dream of unification *is* sweet and sincere but it’s also dumb and that’s why kan ki is able to refute him so easily; the point that really matters and where his moral stance becomes unassailable, for me, is in the fact that it’s all for hyou’s sake. there’s no counter-argument about what you may or may not be turning a blind eye to there, it’s the mandate made absolute and incorruptible instead…) but this is maybe my favourite line of kan ki’s ever… he’s just following through on the promise he made you; these are the rules you agreed to play by! 🥰🥰🥰 i don’t even need to go into the premium emycore aspect of ever part of this sequence lol, the indulgence of it all…

also I was pleasantly surprised to see that they preserved just about all all of the gore from the scenes covered in this week’s scenes; there are some minor changes (the zhao soldiers kan ki is having the saki clan interrogate early in the episode are shown a little less mutilated than they are in the manga, and there’s no nudity) but they really are minor which bodes pretty well for the saki clan artworks coming up soon :~) I think there’s a chance we might not see that scene until the week after next since next episode’s primary focus will of course be Bi Hei And The Hi Shin Unit as per the ep title, but i’m so curious to see what they do with it since the anime has *always* omitted saki and saki-adjacent activities in the past. but I won’t get ahead of myself when we still have all of bi hei’s crisis to savour first :D

also, in shin’s speech telling kan ki off, we got a little additional visual of ran dou from sanyou campaign! always on the lookout for scenes from s1-2 appearing in flashback in the current art style <3

and i really had forgotten what he looked like lol even though this is another scene I absolutely adore for similar reasons to the one in the camp in this episode - though there’s no mou ten around to step in and defend shin this time, of course… :)

#not to go to bat for a really worthless minor character for a second here but ran dou looks cool actually #like really good-looking in the context of the type of guy he is anyways. sorry lol #I reread a little sanyou looking for his original scene but I can’t start talking about that arc proper now or I’ll never stop lol. anyways #hey if this season is still 2 cours we’re only a few weeks away from seeing mou ten in his winter outfit!!!!!! #the prettiest any character has ever looked in the entire series I love him so much 🥰 #kingdomposting #txt #really really can’t overstate how good this episode looked we are SO LUCKY #also so many kan ki lines that i couldnt cap for this post for the sake of Appearances but are just. highest concentration premium emy #the scene where he’s sitting on the table at the camp!!!!!!!! agghfhgbgbf #you know how it is with mountain bandits… #also unrelated but. I won’t hold ten’s stupid comments about prisoners of war in coalition arc against her here #but obviously the events here Did make me think about them and they Are still stupid lol

[karuinekom]

ouizzy modern au ideas

i've been dwelling on the idea of a modern ouizzy au fanfic (embracing the new name with all my body and soul), just to have a less grumpy and gloomy izzy, without that much trauma and maybe with his little pinky still at his place, attached at his foot. and also, I just wanted fewer troubles figuring out how those two could've interacted at the end of season one. so well I'm finally writing down headcanons about the characters and just like some plot lines ;)

frenchie just started teaching as the music professor in a secondary school (that thingy won't have a name until the very last second), and even on his first day, he arrives late for his own classes, as the goof and the unorganised guy he is

izzy is the school headmaster of said school, and he is planning to quit his job because he's worn out and doesn't really like his current position, longing for the times when he was just a teacher. right, because to be a headmaster, he requires at least 5 years of teaching, but no one except edward knows what subject he taught

edward is an old friend of izzy. the two have been together since elementary school, even if they had to part when ed decided to become a chef and open his own restaurant (the modern version of the bar and grill and other delicacies and delights and fishing equipment and gift shop). he did actually manage to open his own restaurant, but instead of selling fishing equipment, he sells motorcycles gears, being a biker himself

stede is part of the teaching staff in the school, teaching history and philosophy. he has a "secret" affair with ed, without realising that everyone knows about them, considering he always goes back home riding the motorcycle of this "unknown" leather-covered centaur

lucius is the school doctor, actually knowing very little about actual medicine but being the greatest psychologist in the school, giving the best relationship advice ever

pete is the PE teacher, that kind that seems strict at first glance but ends up making the students do whatever they want, letting them play without stretching, just to flee and go flirting with his hot boyfriend, that has his doctor's room right near the outside courtyard

oluwande is the spanish teacher who fell in love with Spain during an erasmus and met a person who initially didn't talk at all, but showed him the city and some of the most beautiful places around the neighbourhood. indeed he may have fallen in love with that person - who happens obviously to be jim - far more than just spain. years later, he found them once again, by accident, at a concert and recognised them right away and started chasing them down until they remembered oluwande as well

beyond the school faculty, frenchie has a band with a couple of friends: wee john, his roommate, plays the electric keyboard player, buttons plays the bass, and Jim the drum. swede joins them occasionally and does the background vocalist, and just some times because swede is a musical actor and he's often busy even at the weekends. and then i'm not forgetting my boi frenchie, the lead guitarist and main singer and they will need a name for the band- but i'm still thinking about it and, in any case, will keep it secret for now

roach is the chef in the bar and grill and other delicacies and delights and whatever else, firstly starting as ed's sous-chef and then becoming the one in charge considering his unusual recipes made the restaurant unique and making him a very in-demand place. also, ed decided to step down from being the chef and work more like the restaurant owner, and he's actually pretty good with math and being the management accounting (comeback of Jeff the accounter) of the bar

wee john, other than playing the electric keyboard and knowing something about songwriting, has a garden shop and, actually, he's very good at gardening. he's frenchie's roommate and best friend, and despite being his close friend, he was one of the latest ones joining the band because he wasn't sure he wanted to be also a musician

buttons real job is a mystery by now (and that's not me trying to avoid making up a story at this moment), no one in the band really understood it because the story keeps changing: once, buttons had been a sailor and met the love of his life, a mermaid, and he followed her blindly before stranding on a deserted island, one another time he said that he's been a famous flautist before having to leave the country, and another one, he said that he simply works in a pet shop, where he can talk with birds as much as he wants. Buttons started playing the bass after he watched bohemian rhapsody at the cinema with wee john, a friend, and frenchie, who told him that they were definitely searching for a bassist. i also want to think that he got his skills basically in one night, simply magically

jim are a spanish drummer that worked a lot as a bartender before focusing full time on music. that's why they are a great listener. Jim and Olu met in spain when they both were just teens, and the foreign kid really stuck into his memory, and when they met by chance again, it didn't take long for them to recognise him. they have been helping out Ed with the restaurant, and were the one suggesting to invite band and singers for live performances in the bar

still, i don't really have big plans for ivan and fang but i love them too much to not include them ever, so for now, Ivan is a regular at Ed's restaurant and a biker as well, while Fang works in a pet shelter and has like 5 dogs at home. are they in a relationship? who knows, maybe yes, maybe not

now, for the more plot things i planned, i don't wanna say too much, but the first dynamic between that clumsy guitarist and the grumpy, sad headmaster has to be fucking stupid: on his first day, that same day where he arrived late for class, and he probably did something else totally extra, he got locked into the music classroom because he forgot the custodian told him the door is actually kind of broken, and without the keys, from the inside, it was almost impossible to open. and guess who forgot the keys outside the door, in the outside keyhole? you guessed right, it was frenchie. So his last hope, since it's pretty late and the students just went home, is that someone is still around, maybe the janitor or some other teachers, and that whoever is it could hear him sing and play the guitar and possibly rescue him. doing so, a pretty tired izzy hands walk into the corridor and hears a fucking loud noise coming from one of the classes. annoyed and upset that someone was still in the school, he unlocked the door, and a bright smile starts thanking him, energetically shaking his hand, not even realising he was talking with the headmaster. and said the headmaster is utterly dumbfounded in front of this kid, not caring at all about his position and the fact he's just a teacher, moreover, a new one. and his blackened, stony heart may be cracking a little- just a little crack for now. but what if izzy hands, confused by what happened, barge inside his ed's restaurant, ending up talking with jim. and that week was even worse because the two kept crossing each other without even realising it and in a blink of an eye it's friday, and again izzy goes to that bar where a certain band is making a concert...

#is it too much to ask for a happy izzy #ofmd #ofmd modern au #our flag meets death #izzy hands #frenchie #frenchizzy #izzy x frenchie #frenzzy #ofmd izzy #ofmd frenchie

[phoenix-is-the-hottest-thing]

hello uhh I hope I'm not bothering you but can you help me with er stuff, you're the expert that I know of

I was watching this youtube video tutorial for HoHE(??) and they use terms for the signets like Griseo 2 and Kalpas 2 but I have no idea which that is... so how do you figure out which signet is signet 1 or signet 2 or signet 3 and so on, please help me I'm suffering in ER and this youtube tutorial is my salvation but I can't figure it out..

THANKS IN ADVANCE I REALLY NEEDED THIS

Alright so!!! First off here are some text guides (warning for some choice cropping coz they’re made by redditors):

When someone says “Griseo 2” or such it means her second Nexus signet. You get to pick one Nexus signet per Flame-Chaser per run when you have have 3 or more normal signets of a Flame-Chaser upon beating a level where their portal appeared.

In other words, you should try to get the same Flame-Chaser over and over again until you have the buffs you want. You can do this by equipping a corresponding signet rate up item and/or being lucky. You also get to reroll portals three times in a run, and three additional times if you equip a specific item.

When you’re picking a signet from the list of 3, the above guides will often have recommendations of which signets you should take in priority. If you can’t get the one you want, it’s okay, you will probably go through that door again, just pick the next best thing you can think of— either more damage or utility (Mobius Lodging: -20% cooldown for summoned entities, support valkyries and ELFs, for example, is a pretty good utility signet to have even if it doesn’t give you more damage)

When you’re in the shop, you can buy signets without going through doors BUT you’ll never get a Nexus signet that way. I would recommend you try to have 2 signets of the Flame Chaser(s) you’re aiming for when you’re ready to exit the shop, so that next time their portal shows up you can directly get their Nexus signet. If you have extra coins of course you can grab more stuff (to take the previous example, Lodgings is always useful to have).

Pay attention to what you’re taking though— less damage taken is usually useless, and Hua signets have damage types that can be useless for your valk (Pardo does ice damage so she can’t use Physical Breach or Physical Damage, while Miss Pink Elf does physical damage and can’t use Elemental Breach or Elemental Damage). If you’re never dodging, Sakura signets will probably be a waste of time. If you’re always at full HP, Kalpas signets will be useless until you grab his second Nexus, etc.

Follow the guide for your valk, and remember what kind of damage you do and what kind of abilities you use!

That said. An important point these guides forget is that not every player has beaten all of ER’s story. Flame-Chasers are unlocked by storymode. If you haven’t met certain characters during the story chapters yet, you won’t be able to get the signets of the corresponding Flame-Chaser.

So if you’re in that situation, use what you currently have and play storymode to unlock more Flame-Chasers! If possible, play a character who’s using the early signets.

Unlock order:

Chapter 1 + potentially the beginning of Chapter 2

Elysia

Hua + Kevin + Sakura

Kalpas

Eden

Su(?)

Mobius

Su(?)

Chapter 3

Pardo

Kosma

Griseo

Aponia

Vill-V

I’m not sure about Su because I’ve heard his order was changed to after Mobius for some people, not sure if it’s random, an update change since I played it, or a bug.

You will unlock the items of the Flame-Chasers by playing Elysian Realm and upgrading their Remembrance Vessel with a currency you earn with every run. This will unlock a cutscene (don’t skip it, ER story is really good) and pretty quickly the items. Additional items and emblems can be unlocked through doing certain tasks in ER over and over. Don’t sweat it, just keep playing the game mode and they’ll be unlocked eventually.

Each time you upgrade a vessel you’ll also unlock a text called a Recollection, reading it gives your crystals and it’s more delicious, delicious lore.

Sometimes there’s bad translations though, especially in chapter 3. You can read most of the recollections as better quality fan translations here:

And you can find a sometimes anotated transcript of all of ER-related content here:

Hope these help you enjoy the story as well 🥰

Oh and, as for rewards, the minimum difficulty you need to beat to get all of them is Corruption. Finality is for the bored and the tryhards. If you can’t beat Corruption, just downgrade the difficulty until it’s easy enough for you to beat then try to go for harder content progressively. Even if you can’t win, you do unlock rewards relative to your score, and your valks become stronger the more often you play them in ER (and upgrading them all the way to ER level 15 also gives crystals).

Good luck o7

If I didn’t cover something, feel free to send another ask.

#elysian realm #honkai impact #hi3 #asks

[caatws]

This isn't strictly about vol 3 but what you said about how female and poc characters not always used to the fullest is incredibly important. I think a lot of people forget race and gender don't get left at the door when people approach writing characters and how their stories/arcs are plotted out. Even big name actors and actresses have talked about both gender and racial disparities in different aspects of the film industry. It wasn't a coincidence that it took until 2018 to get a film like Black Panther or 2017 to get Wonder Woman. Both of these strides forward are less than a decade old. Gamora was the first female lead played by a woc in the mcu and despite how things have been going now, she didn't start out an accessory to the male leads story. She was a leader of her own. She was the second most prominent character in IW and part way through the film it all came crashing down. Vol 3 finished it off by not dealing with anything that happened and made some things worse.

Taking all of this in it's easy to see that we often take steps backwards even as we stride forward. Who's in charge of writing, directing and other factors count towards the treatment of characters particularly the less they're like Steve Rogers and the more their like Natasha or Gamora.

Vol 3 left all the characters alive so yeah Gamora is around to come back and we know Zoe isn't entirely closed off from maybe returning. However that doesn't guarantee her return or that she would be treated well. I love her character and she has the most potential for further development but marvel can be hit or miss and like it or not Gunn kind of screwed her over. Unless someone as dedicated as the Gamora fans I currently see sticking up for her is put on the job I wouldn't be shocked to see her get turned into a caricature with only 1 personality trait.

yuuuuup i pretty much agree with all this anon. with the way gamora's story ended up going, i think it's realistic to expect that a middle aged white man wasn't exactly the most qualified to tell that kind of story, especially if he already has blinders on due to having a clear, self-admitted favorite character of the ensemble (rocket). like it or not, either gunn had no interest in doing gamora's story justice or he was simply not equipped to, and either way, gamora lost big time

#madibox #the gamora situation

[anomalouscorvid]

💜🏵️💎😑

@nebulous-apocrypha combining these asks together:

this post got pretty long so under a readmore it goes

🚫 (is there a storyline you’ll never play?) - is seeking too obvious? i mean, i'm sure it's the one plenty of people would also answer this question with, but like. i don't have any particular interest in seeking the name, even without the whole perma-death thing, it just doesn't seem that interesting from what i've heard. (also i have to admit candles actually seems kind of annoying as a character just based on the bits of text i've seen (from others' screenshots))

'uhhh basically most fate storylines' seems like a bit of a non-answer. i guess there's the stuff related to 'a player of chess' that i never acknowledge because i forget it even exists as an attribute the majority of the time

💜 (top 5 favorite npcs) - only 5.... hmm. for the purposes of this i'm making a distinction (that i can't put into words) between 'favourite npc' and 'favourite character', even though i guess they're just the same thing in this kind of context, but like, there's just a difference you know?

april (<- this one is predictable i think. probably obvious why in terms of her as a character but also seeing her dialogue in the laboratory is always fun)

the drummer in the depths (<- i do wish there was more to do in regards to the drummer apart from like. visiting him once and then occasionally getting his vote on railway board matters.)

the mercies (<- but i guess really mostly lettice)

either mathilde, montgomery, or gulliver (the rats that accompany the coquettish, curt, and capering relickers, respectively) (<- they can share 4th place i guess. idk i just think they're neat. all four relickers themselves are also 'just think they're neat' though. actually maybe #4 is just 'the relickers and associated rats, in general, with the exception of pinnock')

february (<- she wouldn't be in my top 5 favourite characters, but i like seeing her dialogue on the occasions when she appears, so i might as well put her as #5 here)

🏵 (what accomplishment are you proudest of in the game?) - i don't really have an answer to this one, i guess maybe completing my ambition and the railway? but that seems like an obvious answer. maybe getting my renown: revolutionaries above 50. shrug

💎 (favorite ambition) - i've only done bag a legend, but i have to say, killing a giant capitalist bat was pretty great, so i guess that's my current favourite

😑 (most frustrating grind you’ve had to do) - i lose the memories of frustrating grinds as soon as i've completed them. so the MOST frustrating one might have been while doing bag a legend, or it could've been to do with the railway, or maybe the most frustrating one was at some point during the normal making-your-name progressions that every player goes through... i barely remember what my precise emotions were last week let alone being able to compare how i felt every time i had to spend all my actions and more on one thing

but so far the mostly-opportunity-and-newspaper-based process of getting revolutionaries renown has been. repetitive and certainly frustrating. especially now that it's far enough that, even after i get all the favours, even with my shadowy at max and all my shadowy items equipped the shadowy requirement is so high that i have to wait for the mood-granting opportunity card to show up. but after i have all the favours that's less a grind and more luck-based, not as if i spend all my actions on it anymore or anything like that

WAIT NO IGNORE MY PREVIOUS ANSWER it actually was the impossible theorem. THAT was a pain to get

[the-masked-ram]

Taking His Beauty-Chapter Three

A/N:Was a little late posting this one Reposting all current works, hopefully everything will be up to date in the next 6 months. However my patreon will always be 2-3 months ahead. Currently not tagging anyone unless they request to be added, any old taglists will be added during Chapter 6 CW: Not SFW, Dark Content, Yandere, Fem Reader, Reader Death, Major Character Death, Non-Con elements, Dubious Consent, A/B/O Dynamics, Forced Mating Bond, Omegaverse, Piss Kink, Scent Kink, Biting, Possessive Behavior, Knotting, Breath Play, Abduction, Slow Burn, Violence, Mild Gore, AU ---- Chapter 3: Shocking, Isn’t It?

The next day you came to him, you seemed nervous, anxious, Dabi would say distracted as well. Muttering regularly and biting your lip, constantly shaking your head, and seeming to delete numbers on your tablet only to write something else. It wasn’t normal for you to be like this, your scent was like the smell of bitter crab apples and it made his nose wrinkle. What had upset his omega? His arms flexed as he fought against his bonds, his instincts screaming at him to scent you, to calm you, and to fuck you dumb so nothing would bother you again. Groaning, he forced them down again, as much as he could, unable to stop of the tap of his fingers against his thigh, making the machinery in the room once again react. This time you didn’t seem to notice him or the incessant whirring of the gears though. Instead your nervous gaze flicked back and forth between the tablet in your hand and the numbers on the equipment attached to him. “Hey, doll, what’s got ya so worked up?” he asked nonchalantly, while his muscles fought to tense. You blinked, looking up at him, “Oh I’m sorry, it’s nothing.” You shook your head forcing a laugh, and he bared his teeth in response, managing to avoid letting out the growl in his throat, however. He narrowed his eyes at you and tilted his chin, even in the chair he looked like an alpha, displeased with lack of submission. “Tell me, what’s got yer pretty little head in a mix,” it wasn’t a request and they both knew it, especially since he was carefully controlling the amount of tension in his voice. “Ah… well you know how we were talking the other day about… what happened to the person who used to take care of this cell block before me?” you said hesitantly. “Well, I learned that the inmate who was involved… he-he--” You couldn’t finish, your breath catching in your chest and hiccupping sobs threatening to take over. You swallowed. God, you couldn’t do this, pressing your fingers against the bridge of your nose you inhaled deeply. The smelled of your distress sharpened. Bitterness now mixing with the smell of rotten fruit.   “Sorry,” you said, voice carefully neutral and he could hear the desperate self-control woven into it. “You don’t need to and shouldn’t know this.” He scoffed out a laugh, “I was the one who was interested. I ain’t a kid and I sure as hell ain’t a civilian. I’m a villain in case you forgot, and I’ve done my fair share of killin’, omega.” He watched your eyes flick back and forth, refusing to meet his gaze. You finally dropped his curious stare and your head ticked to the side and he wouldn’t have recognized the movement if it weren’t for the mellowing of your scent. “Oh damn, lil’ thing. You did forget, didn’t you?” he narrowed his eyes, greedy tongue swiping his lower lip as a dark sense of victory twisted in his chest. “You forgot that I am just one of the filthy evil doers who got caught in the act of killing and maiming.” Dabi threw back his head and laughed, laughed so hard that the machines trained target spots on his body, but he couldn’t catch his breath. Couldn’t stop the ache in gut long enough to even care about being shot down. Fuck, how beautifully naïve could you be? He heard the guns power down and you were in front of him, giving him the most frustrated look of disdain. He laughed harder. “You aren’t like the others,” you murmured. He smirked, feral excitement bursting in his chest. God, you were so perfect. You were made for him, exactly what he needed in this fucked world. You couldn’t even ignore him in a that labeled him loud and clear. “If you trust me so much… why not untie me, doll?” he grinned, eyes gleeful. You clicked your tongue, “I may think your different, that your easier to talk to and open up to, but I’m not suicidal. I also would like to keep my job.” His face darkened minutely, and though he wanted to be angry, honestly, he was a bit irritated, he couldn’t help but admire the chase you were giving him. Dabi always loved a good hunt, a good fight. Who would have guessed that his omega would put up such a nice one? He would have thought the amount of bad karma he’d amassed over the years would have made you an impossible dream. Yet here you were in front of him, not only a physical embodiment, but so willing from the newly sweetened apple blossom scent pouring past your scent patch. How often had he sat in here, alone, imagining burying himself in your sweet cunt? How often had he thought of knotting you? How often had he thought of you bearing his mark? He’d forgotten, it was almost a constant loop now of different ways he would take you. He felt like he’d known you all his life, maybe it was just because without knowing it he’d been searching for you in some fashion. He felt himself losing focus, getting lost to his thoughts and allowing his desires pushing to the forefront. So, when you leaned over to fix one of the lines for an IV, and he leaned to meet you, it was understandable. Especially with those delectable pheromones you were pumping out, teasing him with. His alpha canines already descending and a low grumble rolling up his throat, he didn’t even think of not being able to properly bend, let alone hold you still. You looked up and squeaked. Fear shimmering in your wide eyes, without even thinking about it, without thinking about the bonds keeping him still, without thinking about backing away, your quirk activated. Volts of electricity were sent through layers of skin into the muscle fibers of his arm, causing them to race through up to his pectorals and neck. “F-F-F-Fuck,” he stuttered as his muscles seized under he onslaught. Once again you squeaked in distress, chirps of fear leaving you but this time from the fact that you may have hurt the alpha in the chair. “Oh my god! I’m so sorry Dabi! You just… just startled me,” you murmured, heart thrumming far to fast in your chest. He didn’t answer because even though your quirk had stopped, his muscles were still spasming and his jaw felt glued shut. “I’m just going to get the doctor to double check I didn’t do any damage,” you whispered, and before you stepped out the door you looked back over your shoulder with the most concern he’s ever been shown in the world. Dabi wasn’t sure why but he felt like laughing again. The shock you had delivered had hurt, fuck it still hurt as his body tried to shake free from it, but that softness you showed him had him wanting to have you even more. Had him wanting you for himself and never let another touch, breathe the same air, or even look at you. You were too precious now. He needed you for him and only him. He groaned as a shudder wracked through him and the last bit of seizures stopped, his eyes rolling back at the physical exhaustion he felt. “God damn. What a fuckin’ trip,” he chuckled. “This is gonna be more interesting than I thought.” He grinned up at the ceiling, whistling softly while he waited for the doctor and more importantly you, to come check over him. ---- Find early access and a lot more at my Patreon      

#dabi #dabi x fem reader #dabi x reader #bnha #mha #not sfw #dark content #fem reader #please read cw

[rollingourinitiatives]

30 Days of Naberius

Prompt list can be located here! Shout out to spacegod-of-coffee for putting it together.

In true character fashion, I will be combining the next three numbers into this one post, as they’re likely to be smaller responses otherwise.

3. Alignment

(Are they lawful good? Neutral evil? Chaotic bastard?)

Naberius is chaotic neutral in every way (although chaotic bastard is probably more accurate for him, honestly).

4. Equipment

(What are they carrying?)

I don’t have his character sheet onhand right now, so I’ll try to recall the main things he has in his assorted collection.

In terms of weapons, Naberius has three daggers - which he rarely uses. He tries to avoid close combat and only keeps them as a means of defense for when he absolutely has to resort to them, but he’s much more used to clever tricks and magical spells and cantrips. He also currently has a machete, but that’s for use incase the party needs to traverse into the nearby jungles. To help with his spellcasting, Naberius wears a pendant necklace. It used to be purple, but since ~ the incident ~ it’s slowly changed it’s colour, and is now closer to red.

He carries a leather-bound diary, which I imagine to be tired and well used, with pages falling out if it from where it’s been full of his research, rubbings and sketches. He always has an ink bottle and an ink pen on hand, just incase he needs to sketch or note something down.

Naberius loves his trinkets, and so has a giant red ruby (which is ... actually a golems eye that he stole). He has a little wooden carving of a skeleton man that he made with a member of the current party he’s with, and although it’s a little bit odd looking, Naberius really likes it as it was his first time crafting something like it and a nice memory he shares with a new friend he’s made on his latest adventure. He also recently picked up some orbs, mostly because they looked interesting. And let’s not forget that this boy is a walking bomb right now, as his pack is also bundled with a selection of ingredients ready to make acid resistant potions, acid potions themselves, and ethanol.

... I don’t make the rules, my son is just a chaotic mad man.

5. Magical Item(s)

(Do they got any? Where did they get it from? No? What would be one they want? What does it do?)

His pendant necklace is the most magical thing he carries (although Naberius would argue that he’s pretty magical himself). It was gifted to him when he was young and first learning how to properly harness and channel some of his magical abilities better through it, and it’s probably his most prized possession despite not being worth a lot otherwise. Although it’s changed in nature a lot, Naberius is still very protective over it, and can’t bear to be rid of it due to how much it means to him.

#naberius #30 days of naberius

[irismono]

Aight, waffles are yet to materialize so I'm gonna get my project list outlined.

In order of priority/how ready I am to work on them:

The Redwall Retrospective

Basically I'm rereading the series at roughly 1 book a week, and vlogging it on my mostly-dormant YouTube channel. I'll do a Jenny Nicholson style multi-hour video at the end. Currently working on Mariel of Redwall. Will get a link up to the logs for the first three books.

Red Fraction

My take on the "Pyrrha Lives" (Stomp Stomp) style of fix-it-fic. Got some fun ideas for it. Basically got Pyrrha's consciousness split into pieces across several characters, with the ultimate goal being recombining them all. See the opening for Black Lagoon if you want a sneak peek at chapter titles.

RWBY Modern AU (No solid name as of yet)

Man I love AUs, AUs are cool. And I've got some fun ideas for this one. Ruby and Jaune married for tax reasons? Got it. Coco Adel, the wholesome Yuri manga addict? Check. Gauntlets and Greaves? Hell yes, I read some baller GnG fics last year and I've been hooked ever since. There's other stuff too, but I've had trouble figuring out a main plotline, which is why I have...

Old Masters

This is a side story (or perhaps pre-sequel?) for my Modern AU, and one that has a defined plot line. The last generation's megahit pop duo was "Young Masters", made up of Ozma "Ozzy" Calavera and (The Pseudonymous) "Salem". The two had a fairly consistent will-they, won't-they subplot in their music and stage performances, until it came out pretty publicly that "they did", and the act (and relationship) broke up in a rather messy fashion.

Now some (insert number) years later, Salem has a grown up daughter, Oz is still trying to get his solo career off the ground, and neither of them are really happy. They meet by chance, and eventually (though with much pain) reconcile. Don't know all the details yet, but leaning towards a secret romance between Oscar (Ozma's Nephew) and Salem's daughter (either Emerald or Ciel, undecided) being part of it.

To aru Isekai no Tabibito (A certain otherworldly traveller)

It struck me one day that Semblances are rather close to ESPer abilities when it gets down to it. Thus, a RWBY x Toaruverse crossover feels pretty natural, at least to me. My thought: RWBY (and probably JNPR) find themselves dropped into Academy City with minimal equipment and have to figure out their way around.

The Bard for Advanced Systems

Don't know how big Advanced (as in 1st edition) Dungeons and Dragons is on Tumblr, but I take a great deal of issue with 1e's handling of the Bard. I can expand on why in another post if anybody's interested. TBFAS would be an essay and class write up of my idealized Bard Class, probably looking most similar to the 1e Monk in design style. I've got some ideas, I just need to set them in motion.

RWBY x Pokemon Special

More "nifty idea" than anything else. Pokemon Adventures was my first Manga, and I'd like to cross it over with RWBY at some point, probably by dropping RWBY characters in as trainers/Dex Holders. Could even do a full swap, but I'm less sure on that point.

As you may have gathered from the above, I have a penchant for RWBY fanfiction. This is because it is a world I have grown comfortable in, and the fandom I first explored fanfiction within. I haven't actually seen Volume 8, and am not planning to watch volume 9, and really I think things have been going downhill somewhat since... Well actually the show was always a bit of a mess if I'm being honest.

That all said, the world is great, and the characters, as interpreted by FNDM, are also pretty great, and rife with opportunities for cool storytelling.

What's that? Surely I'm forgetting something? Are half a dozen projects I want to work on not enough?

Okay fine, I've got some original works as well, but waffles are just about ready so I'll share those in another post.

#waffles #fanfic #writing #rwby #toaru kagaku no railgun #to aru series #redwall #advanced dungeons & dragons #d&d #pokemon adventures #pokemon special

[constructionaccounting]

470: How To Balance Profit Centers And Cost Centers In Your Construction Company

This Podcast Is Episode Number 470, And It's About How To Balance Profit Centers And Cost Centers In Your Construction Company

Success in operating a profitable construction business is all about maintaining the proper balance of control over both The Profit Centers and The Cost Centers. If either one gets too powerful and is allowed to run your construction company, it can cause more damage than good.

  The definition of a Non-Profit Construction Company is one that tries to fix its weaknesses and continues making the same mistakes repeatedly, expecting a different result and continues to struggle until the owner lays down and dies from over-work and exhaustion.

  A Highly Profitable Construction Company builds on its strengths and core competencies and continues innovating, growing, and responding to changes in its environment. 

  It's Not Rocket Science; It's A Lot Harder Than That!

Profit Centers

Most construction companies earn most of their profits from less than four different project types or Profit Centers.

Residential Remodel Contractors Have Four Main Profit Centers:

Kitchen Remodels

Bath Remodels

Additions

Whole House Remodels

Commercial Tenant Improvement Contractors Have Three Main Profit Centers:

Commercial Service Work

New Installation

Whole Space Remodel

Service And Repair Contractors Have Three Main Profit Centers:

Service Work

New Installation

Remove And Replace

New House Builders Have Two Main Profit Centers:

Spec Homes

Custom Homes

Every construction company has strengths and weaknesses, which means there are particular types of projects they consistently earn lots of money. And there are some types of projects that they always lose lots of money doing.

The answer is found in that gold mine called QuickBooks Job Costing Reports and QuickBooks Job Profitability Reports. These reports provide you with a treasure map to see which profit centers your particular construction company makes the most money in and which ones you lose the most.

Do more of the ones that make you money and fewer of the ones you lose money on. I will give you a hint; you may not like it, you may stop reading and leave angry; In most of the research we have done for our construction clients, we have discovered the concept of Leveling applies not just to whom you spend time with but to who refers jobs to you!

Cost Centers

They all share the same three Cost Centers, Marketing - Accounting - Production (MAP)

Marketing Is The Number One Cost Center

One current client or customer is worth more than all of your prospects combined.

All contractors need existing customers and new ones to survive and thrive.

The 80-20 Rule for contractors can guide your marketing dollars where they will do the most good.

Understand and document your target market demographic and psychographic profile.

Focus 100% of your marketing on your target market and forget everyone else.

Identify the top 20% of your customers that generally generate 80% of your net profit. 

Identify the top 20% of the goods or services you sell 80% of your revenue.

A good rule of thumb to grow sales is to budget 5% to 10% of gross sales on marketing.

Anything less is like winking at a pretty girl without her knowing you are doing it.

Relying 100% on word of mouth and referrals keeps contractors poor and broke.

Accounting Is The Number Two Cost Center

Successful, highly paid contractors understand and use reliable QuickBooks Financial Reports and Job Costing Reports to know:

Which jobs they are equipped to do and make a handsome profit on because it is one of their primary to bid on and pursue

Usually, contractors who understand this concept earn the bulk of the profits in the construction industry. For what it is worth, "There is a Hall of Justice; however, there is no Hall of Fairness."

Production is the number three Cost Center

This is where all your hard work pays off. At this point, you have some basic operation manuals in place for your field and office employees. It is the document that answers the same questions you will be asked hundreds of times. It is the Wikipedia of your company. "This is Who We Are, and How Things Are Done Here."

Now you have a road map to success, and all you have left is to assemble the tools, equipment, and employees, set up your trucks or vans, and work!

The reason is simple. A contractor focusing on finding and optimizing profit centers will have a much more difficult job than someone overseeing a division that is not classified as a profit center. A profit center manager will have to increase sales by generating additional revenue and decreasing costs (as a percentage of income), much like an entrepreneur would have to do in their own independent business.

On the other hand, a cost center manager only has to worry about staying within budget. (A cost center is a department that is important to the overall success of a company, but its contribution to revenues and profits can be only incrementally measured. A cost center is an area that typically runs red ink in upfront losses but will result in a much richer company if managed correctly; think of the research division of a major pharmaceutical corporation that spends billions developing new drug treatments without selling a single pill for years).

If the pipeline were to dry up and the cost center shut down, the company would soon find a shadow of its former self. Yet, it is a cost center and not a profit center that is likely to find itself at the top of a list for recessionary layoffs.

Many businesses are tempted to treat all divisions as cost centers instead of profit centers. This can be a horrible mistake because if managers are rewarded simply for cutting costs, they will not make sufficient reinvestment in a business to grow profitably in the future. Hence, you eventually end up with outdated equipment, facilities, and staff and your customers are likely to go elsewhere because their needs aren't being met. On the other hand, a profit center approach blends the need for current cash with the desire to grow earnings in the future, making a manager accountable for the long-term health of a business.

The legendary management consultant and thinker Peter Drucker created the term profit center in the 1940s. He subsequently asserted that the term profit center is a misnomer that leads managers to focus on the wrong overall priorities, insisting that everything is a cost center. By focusing only on the absolute profit of a division, factors such as return on capital, opportunity cost, efficient use of resources, and relative returns are ignored to the detriment of the stockholder or owner.

Final thoughts

A holistic Business Process Management Strategy (BPM) is the only way to optimize profit and cost centers. Outsource your accounting services to a firm specializing in Construction Bookkeeping And Accounting because it is a chore for you. In most cases, we can do the job for much less than an in-house bookkeeper because we have a system. Above all, learn to read your financial reports; we can guide you on which reports to pay attention to and why specific reports can make you more money than the other ones.

About The Author:

Sharie DeHart, QPA is the co-founder of Business Consulting And Accounting in Lynnwood, Washington. She is the leading expert in managing outsourced construction bookkeeping and accounting services companies and cash management accounting for small construction companies across the USA. She encourages Contractors and Construction Company Owners to stay current on their tax obligations and offers insights on how to manage the remaining cash flow to operate and grow their construction company sales and profits so they can put more money in the bank. Call 1-800-361-1770 or [email protected]

    Check out this episode about Contractors Marketing - Accounting - Production (M.A.P.)!