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delirious-donna · 2 months

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Awake At The Witching Hour [Part Four]

story summary: Your best friend lets you crash at her place over the spring break since you have nowhere else to go. Little did you know that it isn't actually her place. Instead, it belongs to a tall (grumpy) hot guy who finds you in his apartment–her brother.

chapter summary: You can't sleep and it seems your handsome host can't either. What is there to do in the middle of the night?

pairings: Nanami Kento x female reader

warnings: NSFW, mutual masturbation (but separate, you’ll get the gist), Nanami being pent up, imaginations running wild (both Nanami and reader), cumshot, reader described as being generous and soft in body

Part Three | Series Masterlist | Part Five

The witching hour. When it is said that the veil between worlds is at its thinnest, and the power of the nefarious is at its strongest.

You weren’t entirely sure what had roused you. No sense of fear gripped your heart so you doubted it was due to some bad dream, though it had taken a moment to remember where you were.

Black velvet darkness impaired your vision at first, drowsiness adding to your inability to pick out the details of the room you were lying in. The air was pleasantly cool against your warm sleep-soaked skin. You pushed back the duvet to feel the faint breeze play across the soft squidge of your abdomen—the oversized t-shirt you wore pushed up to your chest in the disarray of a tumultuous sleep.

The events of the day unfurled in your mind’s eye like a low budget movie. It still didn’t feel real, though you well remembered the blind panic and sense of anger then irritation at being walked in on whilst bathing. No, not walked in, leapt in on. Now that you knew Nanami Kento a little better it was hard to fight the smile that rose to your lips in memory.

He seemed so different at that moment, the booming “booo” not something you would ever expect from the rigid man he had been since then. You wondered if he was a little more relaxed with his friends and loved ones. Did he even have friends?

A suspicion told you that he was the type to keep to himself, or maybe one or two close friends at most. That was relatable, and made him all the more human in your eyes. What might he be like as a boyfriend, you wondered? Attentive and loving or distant and cold? Either was possible, as well as a multitude of other attributes and combinations.

Sighing deeply, you turned onto your side and pulled the covers up to your chin now that your body had cooled from the stream of air that crept in from the ajar window. A glance at your phone told you it was late—an hour you should be asleep at—but you were annoyingly awake.

It seemed the only thing on your mind was that of the man asleep in the room next to yours. A man that didn’t want anything to do with you, a perfect stranger. Yet, you couldn’t help but wonder… couldn’t help but fantantise that he could be interested. If he were to knock on your door right now, his hazel eyes, dark pools speared with lightning, and desire evident on his cheeks you would welcome him.

Did he sleep naked? The thought of all that glorious skin bare beneath covers that matched the ones you were snuggled under sent a throb directly between your legs. You were developing a second heartbeat at an alarming rate and it was all his fault. It was ridiculous how good looking he was, and what made it worse was he didn’t seem to know it. You imagined your fingers running through his neatly parted hair and knew he would look even sexier with it all mussed. The just fucked look.

He was well built and definitely strong. Biceps didn’t bulge against shirt sleeves in the way his did if you weren’t bench pressing a decent amount regularly. That and the small home gym were more than enough to know with certainty that if he meant business, you’d be in a heap of trouble. In the best way. Your mind whispered, and you felt fiery warmth fill your cheeks.

You weren’t honestly sure when your hand had begun to stray.

The peaks of your nipples rubbed against your shirt, thumb and finger tweaking the sensitive buds and rolling them deftly until your thighs pressed together at the crave for friction. It was wrong to be thinking such lewd thoughts of your generous host—unwilling as he might have started out—but you couldn’t stop. Kento’s broad frame filled your mind, the looming shadow dwarving you enough to make you feel diminutive by comparison, and equally as thrilled.

The laboured breathing of his barreled chest hard to resist, the rise and fall evidence of a man close to the limit of his restraint and you badly wanted to reach out and touch him. Wild desire radiating from his every pore like a heady musk that you inhaled greedily, longing to become entirely intoxicated by him. Who would break first in the game of lust and longing? Regardless of the answer, there would be no loser.

This was so wrong. So stupendously wrong, not to mention, futile. A veil of madness shrouded the bed and you couldn’t stop nor did you actually wish to. In the darkest part of the night your deepest desires unfolded in perfect clarity. He ticked so many boxes and left question marks in many more. An enigma that you longed to solve. A riddle that you wanted to crow over the answer when it finally revealed itself.

Nanami Kento…

Your fingers dipped beneath the waistband of your underwear, eyes widened at the searing heat you encountered. The skin of your pubic mound was warm to the touch, but as you raked through the neatly trimmed hairs and moved closer to the heart of your sex, it increased tenfold. You might have hissed if you weren’t concerned with making any noise that could alert the object of your arousal. Wetness glided over the pads of your fingertips, sticky and abundant. It spread along your plump folds engorged with blood until your tented knees butterflied outwards and you could feel the twitching urge to toy with your clit.

What would he think of this madness? A young woman intent on masturbating to the thought of him. Would he deepen that permanently etched scowl and reprimand you? And why did even the idea of that outcome spark the ends of your nerves with raw electricity?

Speaking of the man in question, he was awake. Blinking into the darkness as if the ceiling held the answer to his current dilemma. That dilemma being the tent in his tight navy boxer briefs.

Without looking, he palmed himself and manoeuvred his cock to lie flush against his thigh. There. Now it didn’t appear like he was pitching a tent that could sleep a family of four. Instead, the heat of his erection seeped into him and roused his mind all the more.

His dreams had been a jumbled black and white mess, an indicator for the state of his mind. Sleep had found him easily, but the wrinkled and twisted covers showed that it had not been a sound slumber.

Kento puffed, grumpy and aching. He couldn’t recall the last time he wrapped his palm around himself to let off some steam. It had always seemed like a poor use of his time. Opting for cold showers to numb his swollen member, focusing on getting in a rigorous albeit begrudged workout in before the commute to work.

He baulked at the realisation he hadn’t cum in nearly six months. The last time he entertained the idea of dating even further back than that. So what was different?

You. You were something different. Smiling before he could school his features into neutrality, he surmised that your presence was fucking with more than just his routine. It was you that he thought of when he adjusted himself, trying and failing not to think of your smaller fingers around his shaft.

“What is wrong with me?”

He recalled the smile you gifted him when you parted ways for the night, how your small hand had once again reached out to lightly touch his bicep in thanks for carrying your small suitcase into the room. His cock twitched in response. Groaning, he smacked the pillow next to him over his face. If he were a dog his tail would be wagging. Not just a dog, more like a mongrel.

Kento swore your scent lingered in his room. The wafts of your perfume were stronger in the bathroom and he tried to ignore the subtle sweetness even as it infused inside his nose. Right now, it seemed to have settled into his sheets and he longed to bury his nose in the high count cotton and inhale deeply. Nothing was dissuading him from lowering the band of his briefs until he stood proudly erect.

Maybe if he satisfied the urge now, the fog that clouded his judgement would clear and all would be right again. That was what he told himself while pulling back the covers to free himself. Precum dribbled from the angry slit of his cockhead, turning the near purple tip glossy and sticky.

His thumb swiped through the mess and his hips rose instinctively. Behind his shuttered eyelids he saw you approach the bed, generous hips swaying clad in the softest satin. In truth, he couldn’t give a fuck for expensive lingerie, but it was aesthetically pleasing and this was his fantasy so why not indulge? He’d be just as happy to greet you in sweats or better yet… his shirt.

Oh fuck.

The tendons in his neck strained, head thrown back whilst he pumped himself lazily at first. Would you be shy in bed? Assertive? Would you drop your jaw to let your tongue run over the seam of his balls whilst using that quick witted mouth of yours on him?

The unknown was almost more tantalising to him than the act itself. It had been so long since the experience of working someone out appealed to him. To learn their nuances and what made them tick. More specifically, your nuances and what made you tick.

With months of denying himself under his belt, it didn’t take long for Kento to feel that familiar tingle begin at the small of his back. His balls drew tight and full, and he flushed a darker red at how easily he was ready to cum. His free hand clenched into a fist, the cotton of the sheets held tightly whilst his toes curled. A guttural groan escaped his throat before he could smother it, quickly biting his lip as spurts of hot cum lashed his quivering stomach. Warm honeyed pleasure dripped in inversion from the bottom of his spine to the base of his skull until his eyes rolled over.

Kento slowed the stroke of his hand, wringing his cock of every last drop until he was close to whimpering from the sensitivity. Panting from the far too quick ejaculation, his eyebrows pinched at the mess he had made. Streaks of milky release pooled near his navel, his hand and softening cock sticky and webbed from the moment of madness. As soon as he was certain his legs would work, he trudged into the bathroom to clean up with guilt weighing heavy in his gut.

A similar sensation burned in the pit of your stomach. Your chest heaved from the release you’d found, but it came at a price and now you were paying it.

You didn’t regret your actions but there was still a guilt associated with them. You were two unattached adults, and you couldn’t deny or sweep aside your attraction to Kento any longer, but he was Karin’s brother. He should be forbidden. You wouldn’t give oxygen to the mean voice in your head that said she deserved it for not telling you about him sooner.

The little pulsing aftershocks of your orgasm were fading, fingers sticky from how you had done your best to fuck yourself before switching to manipulating your sensitive pearl until white sparked in your vision. All the while you thought of how it would look to have his head between your thighs, his mouth on your pussy and your fingers tangled in his hair. Would he eat you sloppily or bite at the tender inside of your thighs? Would he welcome you rutting yourself against his mouth or would he hold your hips steady?

You sat up, legs wobbly when your feet fell to the floor. The bathroom wasn’t far and you needed to clean up and change your underwear. The reflection in the mirror over the sink looked hesitant despite the soft glow your skin exuded. A healthy dose of dopamine and the pump of blood circulating your body brightened you up even though it was the middle of the night, and you looked away with a troubled sigh.

The apartment was silent, your footsteps the only sound as you tiptoed barefoot into the kitchen for a glass of water before heading back to bed. Leaning your forehead against the cabinet, you listened to the rushing water for a moment or two longer than necessary before filling a glass and taking a sip. The sound masked the footsteps that approached, pausing then continuing on.

“Oh, you’re awake.”

A strangled scream caught fast in your throat, muffled by the water now rushing down the wrong way and making you cough and splutter. You whirled on the spot and came face to chest with the man you had spent the last half hour pleasuring yourself to the thought of.

Kento was bare chested—a fact your bulging eyes couldn’t believe—with a faint smattering of ash-coloured hairs decorating between his meaty pectorals and leading down towards his stomach. You didn’t dare follow it any further for fear of knowing whether it went right down to his happy trail, a fact that most definitely would see you moaning aloud.

A pair of pale blue pyjama trousers hid the rest of him and you were grateful for that. He stalled next to the kitchen island, an unreadable expression on his face, and were his ears red? It would be comical if you weren’t burning with mortification. Your heartbeat raced so thunderously that it was amazing he couldn’t hear it from across the room.

“I… couldn’t sleep,” you finally offered once you could breathe again without coughing.

His eyes seemed to search your features, whether for signs of lying or something else, you weren’t completely sure. At last, he nodded and walked closer to grab his own glass and fill it with water.

The silence was oppressive, thick and charged with an energy that bristled down Kento’s spine. “Do you need anything?”

Your head snapped around so fast he was surprised you didn’t give yourself whiplash. If he didn’t know any better he would say that warmth seemed to fill your face. The question was innocent but perhaps… no. He was trying to see things that weren’t there.

“An extra pillow. A thicker duvet.” He elaborated when you didn’t answer.

Having this casual conversation was excruciating enough given what he had just done to the image of you in his mind. It was made worse with the realisation that the reality of you was so much more appealing than his imagination could ever conjure.

The almost comically oversized t-shirt you wore dragged nearly to your knees, with the sleeves reaching well past your elbows. It kept your modesty intact and the mystery of it all made his mouth water. Discovering the curves of your body, which parts dipped and the soft rolls of your body would be hours of fun if he were given the chance, not that he would be. He idly wondered if you would look this good in one of his shirts before dismissing the thought, or trying to.

His cock twitched in his clean briefs and he cleared his throat and turned away, terrified of pitching another tent when one was not wanted nor needed. Kento didn’t need to think about how close you were, how all he had to do was reach out a hand and discover whether you would step away or approach. He couldn’t decide which outcome would be the better one.

“No, I don’t need a pillow or anything like that,” you said finally, though you left the sentence hanging because you did want something, but you couldn’t tell him that. “I’m just adjusting to sleeping in a new place, I’ll be fine.”

“Alright, but don’t hesitate if there is something I can do to help.”

You could stop looking like a damn five course meal.

The thought was in your mind so suddenly you nearly gasped, instead, masking it by taking a long gulp of water and walking towards the hallway. You needed to put some distance between you, to retreat to the relative safety of your room and chastise yourself for being no better than a lustful bunny.

With a faux smile and an appreciative nod, you turned one last time to glance at him. “Thank you, Kento.”

Kento watched you slip out of sight, back along the darkened hallway and listened to the soft snick of your bedroom closing shut. He was throbbing, a hand drifted to his crotch to hide what was growing. That was the first time you had called him by his given name, and he liked it.

What a mess, he thought whilst returning to bed. His eyes never wavered from your door until he was safely behind his own. His guts still twisted in memory of his unsavoury actions, but something more pressing was on his mind as he screwed his eyes shut and prayed for sleep.

I want to hear my name from your lips again…

#delirious writes #nanami x reader #nanami kento #nanami kento x reader #nanami smut #nanami fluff #nanami kento smut #jjk x reader #jjk smut #jjk fluff

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supernovafics · 1 year

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𝐀𝐔𝐆𝐔𝐒𝐓

pairing: steve harrington x fem!reader

word count: 6.3k words

summary: in which the summer of ‘84 was both the best and worst time of your life

warnings: explicit language, underaged drinking, angst, fluff, implied smut, cheating

author’s note: second part to cardigan (but could be read out of order). i fully did not expect this to end up this long but hope y’all enjoy<33 (full “folklore” album series masterlist here!)

.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。. .・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.

“but i can see us lost in the memory. august slipped away into a moment in time.”

.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。. .・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.

July 19, 1984

Ten.

That was how many days in a row you and Steve had seen each other.

From the first time you two talked to one another outside of Ralph’s Sandwich Shop, his first ever words to you being, “Potato chips on a sandwich? That’s kinda weird,” and the conversation that proceeded from that somehow led you to watching a movie in the theater room at his house that same night. To now this— him spending the majority of his afternoon with you at the library, where you had been working for the past year and a half.

You wondered how long the two of you would keep the streak alive.

If it was anyone else you probably would have gotten sick of seeing them that many days in a row, but with Steve you weren’t. In fact, you looked forward to whenever you got to see him again. And maybe that feeling, the anticipation toward seeing this guy who you probably shouldn’t even be seeing this often anyway, should’ve worried you.

Whenever you thought about how easily the two of you were able to go from absolutely nothing to this— an unlikely friendship that somehow felt like you’d known each other so much longer than barely two weeks— it startled you.

Before, you had simply known of him; of course, you had, he was practically royalty at your high school. “King Steve,” a charmer, a perpetual flirter, somehow dating straight-A student Nancy Wheeler. It was the combination of those things that told you during that first conversation you had with him that you should stay away from him, but for some reason, you still said yes.

Maybe it was because the home theater he had been bragging about sounded way too tempting not to take up the offer. Or maybe it was because you liked being an idiot sometimes.

If it was the latter that was true then you still were an idiot because there you were ten days later still hanging out with him and not regretting it one bit.

“I need to bring you better games here,” Steve said. He was standing across from you on the other side of the counter.

“What’s wrong with Uno? Is it because you keep losing?” You jokingly asked, a small smile on your face as you started shuffling the deck. “Also, I’m technically working right now, so I shouldn’t even be playing any games with you.”

“There’s no one here except you and me,” He said and then gestured to the quietness that surrounded you both. “Actually, I think the only other person that’s been in here all day was that old lady who just wanted directions to the park.”

You loved your job at the library and you really didn’t mind how it was rarely busy, especially during the summer, because it meant that you could spend most of your shifts reading instead of helping someone find what they needed or reshelving books. Now the majority of your non-busy moments during your shift were spent with Steve.

“What are you doing tonight?” He asked as you began dealing the cards, because what else was there to do but play another round of Uno?

“My guess is hanging out with you,” You answered. “What’s happening?”

“Party,” He stated simply, and you realized that probably should’ve been your first guess. “Need us to be beer pong partners again.”

It had been last week, two days after you and Steve unspokenly decided that hanging out with one another would become a common occurrence, when he dragged you to a party; some too big thing at Matthew Lancaster’s lake house.

A beer pong table was set up, which was not all surprising for a high school party, and you suggested that you and Steve play and be on a team with one another. You were insanely good, practically making every shot, and Steve wasn’t too bad at playing either, which made your team pretty unstoppable. It was a random hidden talent of yours that you would only show off every once in a blue moon because you deliberately didn’t frequent parties.

“I’ve retired for the time being,” You told him. “I can’t show off my beer pong skills too often or it won’t be a cool talent anymore.”

He laughed a bit at that but still nodded. “Okay, what do you wanna do tonight instead?”

“Don’t let me stop you from going to the party.”

Steve shrugged and shook his head. “Probably wouldn’t be fun without you, anyway.”

His words confused you as much as they made you feel so happy. And you quickly pushed that “happy” feeling away because you knew just how fast it could lead to feeling other things; things that would make you look like the worst person in the world.

Once again, you wondered why you were doing this. Why were you allowing yourself to get close to him when you’d probably just look like an idiot in the end? And why had he wanted to talk to you in the first place? Those fleeting questions would hit you a lot over the past few days, but you’d quickly push them away because you didn’t want to think too hard about everything. However, this time you couldn’t force them away.

“Why?” You asked, breaking eye contact with him for the first time probably that entire afternoon. “Why… are we friends right now?”

If he was surprised or confused by the randomness of your question, he didn’t show it.

“I don’t know. I wanted to talk to you that day, so I did it,” He made the answer sound so simple. “I didn’t really expect it to turn into this friendship, but it’s nice finally having something that actually feels so easy.”

What about you and Nancy wasn’t easy?

You wanted to ask that but refrained from doing so. He probably didn’t mean her when he said that. You knew that the only reason why he was with you instead of her, and had been for the past ten days, was because she was out of town for the summer. That thought hurt a bit, knowing that you were essentially some sort of “consolation prize,” but it kept you from looking too much into things. You took everything Steve said that could be read as flirtatious with a grain of salt and forced yourself to see it as solely platonic.

And you’d rather it all be completely platonic anyway because you really liked the friendship you’d developed with him.

“You’re right. This does feel easy,” You ultimately responded, smiling at him because now that the unspoken lines were finally verbally drawn— the two of you were friends; nothing more, nothing less— you felt the tiniest bit better about it all. “But, I’m glad it does. I’m happy we’re friends.”

Steve smiled back at you. “Me too.”

.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。. .・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.

“you back beneath the sun. wishin’ i could write my name on it.”

.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。. .・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.

July 28, 1984

The only reason why you allowed Steve to bring you to this party was because you were a sucker for a bonfire.

And the only reason why you were currently drunk off your ass was because you couldn’t say no to a game of hide and seek, especially a drinking version of the childish game, which Steve had suggested and you quickly agreed to.

There was something about this game that made you realize that maybe your entire friendship was a game; a game of who would break first. But, that was something to think about at a different time. Or actually not at all, because thinking further about that would probably only complicate things.

It was easy to pretend that there was nothing more to you and him when you both were sober. It was also so much easier to lie to yourself that you didn’t feel anything romantic toward him and that you didn’t see that maybe he actually felt the same way too.

There was a constant back and forth happening in your mind, with you continuously telling yourself that being friends with Steve wasn’t a bad idea, even though maybe it was because it was slowly making you want something more. Sometimes it felt as if it made sense to like him; it felt obvious. The way you could talk to each other about anything and everything mixed with how constantly you two wanted to spend time together made you fall in so deep so fast.

But, you couldn’t accept or think about any of that, and the reasons why were painfully obvious.

However, with the alcohol currently clouding your brain, that felt like a slightly different story.

“Sitting behind a tree? Not your best hiding spot.”

Hearing Steve’s voice right then should’ve made you feel at least the tiniest bit upset because it meant that you lost that round of hide and seek, but you drunkenly smiled up at him.

“I wanted to be original and we’ve been playing for so long I feel like we’ve done everything else at this point. But, that was at least two minutes, though, right?”

“It was actually barely thirty seconds.”

“Oh, wow,” You said with a laugh as you extended a hand up toward him so that he could help you up. You wobbled a bit before getting your balance and then you grabbed the red solo cup in Steve’s free hand to drink the rest of what was left in it as your punishment for losing; the exact contents of the drink were unknown, but it tasted fruity.

When you were done, you handed the cup back to him and then leaned back against the tree because it somehow felt nice and you weren’t bothered by the roughness of it touching the parts of your skin that the tank top you were wearing didn’t cover.

There were a ton of people at the infamous “Lover’s Lake” because of the party, but nobody had been paying attention to you and Steve running around like five-year-olds playing hide and seek and getting severely drunk in the process.

The lopsided grin taking over Steve’s features let you know that he was just as inebriated as you were, maybe even more so because he’d been drinking a bit before you two started the game.

“Maybe we should be done with hide and seek now.”

You gave him a nod. “That sounds like a good idea.”

Things became quiet for a few moments with the two of you solely staring at each other in the darkness and ignoring the loud rowdiness of everyone else who was only a few feet away. Steve closed a bit of the distance between you both and leaned in close to you; his gaze flickered down to your lips for a hint of a second before going right back to your eyes.

If this was any other moment, your mind would be running a million miles a minute, screaming at you to not allow the inevitable to happen. But, somehow, you were actually calm.

“We can’t do that, friend,” You told him, making your voice sound as serious as possible, but you couldn’t help but smile a bit.

“I know,” He responded but still shut the final space of distance between you both, bypassing your lips and kissing your cheek instead. “That’s okay, though, right?”

The reasonable side of you was obviously telling you to say “no,” but it was hard to make yourself care enough to listen to it. “I’ll allow it.”

The three words came out so quietly, but Steve heard you. He kissed your other cheek and then your forehead and then your nose before pulling away and smiling at you.

Before he could say anything, you did the same to him; kissing both of his cheeks, his forehead, and his nose, and then pulling back to lean against the tree again. That time it was your eyes that glanced down at his lips before going back to his eyes.

You were so close to doing it, and he almost begged you to, but then you were pushing off of the tree and asking him to turn around.

“Piggyback ride to the car, please?”

“We can’t drive right now,” He said as he leaned down a bit so you could hop onto his back.

You nodded even though he couldn’t see you. “I know, but I will die if I don’t sit down.”

The walk to your car should’ve taken less than a minute, but instead, it nearly took five because, of course, the two of you got a little lost and it took way too long to realize that the first car you had walked past was yours.

“God, we’re acting like such idiots right now,” You said, laughing as Steve let you down so you could get into the car.

He laughed too as he got in on the passenger side. “Yeah, definitely not our finest moment.”

You sighed in contentment when you leaned back against the seat, immediately finding comfort in it, which definitely said a lot about how drunk and exhausted you were because you never usually found your car as super comfortable.

You turned on your side to face Steve, and as if feeling your gaze on him, he turned to look at you as well. You silently admired each other. Sometimes it felt as if a thousand things were being said in the silences you two shared with one another, things that would probably always be left unsaid.

“I really like you,” He whispered suddenly and you realized that maybe not everything silently said would be left unspoken.

You let out a small breath before closing your eyes because it felt too hard to look at him right then. “I really like you too.”

“Please let me kiss you.”

It was difficult to describe exactly what his words managed to do to you, and you tried your hardest to disregard those feelings.

“We can’t.” You shook your head, eyes still shut. “It’ll ruin everything.”

“What if that’s okay?” He said, voice still quiet.

It could’ve been easy.

To finally do what you both had desperately wanted to do for weeks at this point, but had refused to admit. And doing it at this moment instead of any other time because, with the drunken states you both were in, none of this would be remembered. Which would also mean that it didn’t really happen, right?

Your eyes finally opened and you looked at him. “Neither of us is gonna remember this conversation in the morning.”

“You’re probably right.”

“And if you did, you’d regret saying any of this,” You said, and your words were met with silence from him. You couldn’t tell if that meant that they were the truth, or instead, quite far from it.

Even in your inebriated state, you were too scared to push him further and get an answer because you were unsure which response would be worse; “Yes, I’d regret it,” or “No, I wouldn’t regret it at all.”

Before he could potentially say a version of either of those responses, you began speaking again. “I’m really tired.”

You then pulled your eyes away from him and looked straight ahead at the people that were still partying around the fire. A part of you wanted to join them, but the other part of you just wanted to fall asleep.

“Me too,” Steve said and with how long he had been quiet, you were actually surprised to hear his voice right then.

Both of you fell asleep just like that for the time being, putting an end to a conversation that would not be talked about in the morning because just as you’d both assumed, it seemed as if it had been long forgotten.

.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。. .・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.

“salt air, and the rust on your door. i never needed anything more. whispers of ‘are you sure?’ ‘never have i ever before.’”

.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。. .・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.

July 31, 1984

The sun had long ago set behind the trees, but you and Steve still had no plans to leave his pool anytime soon.

You swam close to him, your hands finding his shoulders and then pushing down to dunk him under the water. A laugh fell from your lips as you immediately started swimming away, but Steve’s hand quickly found your waist and pulled you back toward him.

“What was that for?” He asked, one arm still wrapped around you, causing your back to be firmly pressed against his chest, while his other hand pushed back his wet hair.

“For pushing me in the pool earlier,” You answered, only trying for a moment to wriggle out of his grasp but failing miserably so you stopped.

“That was hours ago.”

“Revenge is best when you don’t see it coming,” You said, smiling widely.

He laughed against your ear. “You’re evil.”

You attempted to pull away again but he was still holding on to you, so instead you maneuvered so you were simply facing him instead.

You were smiling up at him, and you assumed he’d match it with a smile of his own, but he didn’t. Instead, there was a certain look on his face that you couldn’t necessarily decipher. You almost asked him what was wrong, but he started speaking before you got the chance to.

“I remember the conversation we had in your car at the bonfire.”

You could feel your heart start to race a bit, not expecting things to take that turn. “Oh… You do?”

He nodded his head. “Do you?”

“I remember the whole thing,” You told him, and that was entirely true. You’d spent the past few days constantly thinking about that moment and running through every single thing that was said. You had also tried your hardest to push the memory away because it seemed as if Steve didn’t remember it.

“I don’t regret anything I said,” He told you and then a hand came up to cup your cheek. “I still really wanna kiss you.”

You were quiet for a moment, letting Steve’s words settle over you, before responding to him in a small voice. “Are you sure?”

Instead of verbally responding, he gave you the smallest of nods and closed the tiny bit of space between you both, dipping his head down and slotting his lips against yours.

All you could think at that moment was finally.

Finally, you were this close to one another.

Finally, you were kissing.

Finally, you were doing what you had wanted to do for so long.

The thing that both of you told each other and even convinced yourselves wasn’t going to happen, finally happened. And in a way, it sucked because neither of you felt bad about it, at least not bad enough to stop.

Your legs wrapped around his waist beneath the water and your arms came up to wrap around his neck, one hand finding its way into the hair at the nape of his neck.

You weren’t in the deepest part of the pool anymore so Steve was able to stand, but both of you were still almost completely submerged in the water. He walked you both over to one of the sides of the pool, pressing you back against it and deepening the kiss.

Nothing was said, and nothing needed to be said. In fact, you thought that if either of you said something, it would ruin the perfection that was that moment and harshly shove you both back to reality. A reality that told you that this was the farthest thing that should have been happening.

For the time being, with Steve against you and his lips finding that particularly sensitive part of your neck, you were happy living in this fantasy world. It was a dream that you didn’t want to wake up from, and you convinced yourself that it wouldn’t hurt too bad when you did finally have to wake up from it.

“We should…” You took a breath, biting back the moan that threatened to spill from your lips as Steve continued the assault on your neck. Your next word should’ve been “stop,” but stopping this was the absolute last thing you wanted to do. “We should go to your room.”

He finally, and sadly, pulled away from your neck and pressed a quick kiss against your lips. “That sounds like a great idea.”

You detached yourselves from one another just enough to step out of the pool and into his house, wet bodies leaving drops of water across the floor that weren’t the slightest bit cared about.

You couldn’t keep your hands off of each other.

After getting as close as you just had been, it was hard to go back to how it used to be; the friendliness and innocence that had surrounded the brief touches you two would usually share. Instead, your hand was intertwined with his as he led you up the stairs, and then his arms circled around you when you entered his room, cocooning you in the towel he’d grabbed from behind his door.

It was you that kissed him that second time.

You reached up to push his wet hair back and then leaned in, inwardly sighing in contentment. Both of his hands found your waist, causing the towel to fall and it was immediately long forgotten.

When you pulled away you took the smallest step back and simply looked at him, his pretty face and soft brown eyes that were full of nothing but adoration for you. You tried your hardest to find something within you that resembled regret or made you want to stop this, but you couldn’t. And you knew exactly what that said about you, but it was also difficult to force yourself to care about that either.

Steve eagerly brought you close to him again, which made you smile into the kiss he pulled you into. He slowly started leading you back toward his bed.

“Wait,” You said, detaching your lips from his and softly pushing him back a bit. “It would be really rude of me to lay on your bed with my bathing suit on.”

He slowly nodded and swallowed harshly as you removed your top first, letting that fall to the floor, and then going to your bottoms. “That’s very considerate of you.”

You only smiled at him and his sudden nervousness, which managed to wash away any and all of your own shyness at that moment.

His eyes met yours. “You’re so fucking pretty.”

“You’re not too bad yourself,” You whispered, reaching out to grab his hands and pull him close to you again. You were about to kiss him again, but it was then that you noticed the time on the clock that was hanging on the wall behind him. “Shit, shit.”

His eyebrows furrowed in confusion and a look of concern crossed his face. “What’s wrong?”

“The time,” You answered and then sighed as you started grabbing your bathing suit. “It’s 12:40, and if I’m not home by one, my mom will kill me and then you.”

“Your mom loves me too much to kill me,” Steve responded, grabbing a t-shirt for you to slip on too.

“Yeah, kinda weird how after only one meeting where you two barely even talked, she somehow likes you more than me now,” You said as you put on his shirt which kind of swallowed you whole but you loved it and already knew that you would never be giving it back to him.

You looked up at him and your next words came out quietly. “I’m sorry I have to ruin this right now.”

Steve shook his head at you. “It’s okay. Don’t be sorry.” Both of his hands found your hips again, squeezing softly. “We’ll pick up where we left off next time.”

You couldn’t help but smile at that. “Next time?”

“Mhm, next time,” He said, smiling back at you and nodding. “If you want there to be one?”

“I’d like that,” You responded and pressed a quick kiss against his lips.

Even as you headed back downstairs and Steve walked you to your car, kissing you for a few more minutes before you reluctantly drove away, your stomach had yet to fill with even a hint of regret or guilt.

.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。. .・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.

“wanting was enough. for me, it was enough. to live for the hope of it all.”

.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。. .・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.

August 12, 1984

The constant sound of something softly pinging against your window pulled your attention away from the book you were reading in your bed.

There was only one person that could've been throwing something at your window, but still, you were the tiniest bit surprised when you opened your curtains and saw Steve standing on your front lawn.

Even though seeing him was such a natural thing at this point, it made sense that you were at least a little surprised because no part of you felt secure with this “thing” you had going on with him, which was more than just a friendship but so much less than any type of actual relationship. You lived in the perpetual state that it would all abruptly end. And maybe that thought process came from you knowing that eventually, this would all have to come to an end; there weren’t that many days of summer left.

But then there was that tiny slither of hope that maybe it all wouldn’t have to end. You kept that thought buried deep down inside of you, though.

You lifted your window. “Throwing rocks at my window? That’s very rom-com of you.”

“Sometimes I like to be cheesy,” Steve said, smiling at you.

It was a sweet, adoring smile that you shouldn’t have been on the receiving end of; it was a smile that didn’t belong to you. It was so easy to see that, but it was nearly impossible to actually do something about it and let him go.

“Can I come up?” He asked. “I promise I’ll be quiet and your mom won’t hear me.”

“She’s gone for the weekend, actually,” You told him, smiling a bit. “I’ll be down in a second.”

When you opened the front door, he was quick to greet you with a kiss before pulling you in for a hug.

After that first kiss in his pool, there was an almost immediate shift that happened. An easy shift where you’d gone from constantly telling yourselves that everything was solely platonic to finally allowing yourselves to do every little thing that deep down you both had always wanted to do. With him now always greeting you with soft kisses, and you secretly spending so many nights in his bed because his parents were never home and most of the time it was easy to make up some sort of excuse to your mom.

Something else shifted too, though. It was a shift that neither of you spoke about because you never really wanted to acknowledge what exactly your friendship had transformed into and what it really meant. Not talking about any of it was a decision that you were unsure if it was completely yours or his because it was all so unspoken.

When you thought about it hard enough though, you could see that the decision was mutual, because on both sides it was easier to pretend that none of the outside things existed. In that fairytale, he didn’t have a girlfriend, he didn’t belong to anyone else. You were his and he was solely yours.

“Tell me about this thing that your parents forced you to go to tonight,” You said as Steve kicked off his shoes by the front door and the two of you started heading up the stairs. One of his hands was intertwined with yours and there was barely an inch of space between you both. It had become really hard not to be close to one another.

“It was this big event for my dad’s job, and they always drag me to stuff like that as a way to prove to his coworkers that they’re ‘good parents.’ It was very boring,” Steve responded with a small sigh and then gave your hand a light squeeze. “It would’ve been much less painful if you came.”

He sat down on the foot of your bed when the two of you walked into your room, and the oversized t-shirt you had on as your pajamas rode up a lot as you settled yourself in his lap, knees on either side of his thighs and hands resting on his shoulders. It was an un-innocent position that, for the time being, felt quite the opposite.

“Going to something like that is something a girlfriend would do, not…” That was the first time you’d even minorly referred to Nancy, and it felt both weird and wrong. It woke you up for a second and made you falter a bit in your next words, breaking Steve’s gaze. “Not a… friend.”

One of his hands found the side of your thigh, rubbing the skin softly and trying to pull you back into this moment with him. You could feel him reading you so easily and knowing where your mind was going, and he didn’t want you to go there, and neither did you.

You didn’t want this– you and him, him and you– to break just yet.

“Um, anyway, you didn’t tell me that it would be so formal,” You said, gesturing with your head to the suit he was wearing.

Your eyes met his again and you could see the relief wash over his face because you didn’t bring up the unspoken topic. Things shifted right back to normal. Well, the normal that you two created for yourselves.

“I feel kinda ridiculous, and I hate this bow tie,” He responded, hand continuing to rub your thigh. “I should’ve probably changed before I came here but I just really wanted to see you.”

You let his words further push away any thoughts of Nancy that lingered in your mind, thoughts that finally told you that what you were doing with him was wrong.

“Stop. You look good,” You told him, your fingers playing with the bow tie for a brief moment. “Like, really good.”

“Okay, now I’m really glad that I didn’t change, then.” He smiled before leaning in to kiss you.

You only deepened the kiss in response and focused on nothing but the feeling of his mouth on yours and his hands beginning to snake underneath your shirt.

He pulled back, maneuvering things so you were sitting at the foot of the bed and he was standing. The black suit jacket he had on was the first thing to fall on the floor. You slipped your t-shirt over your head and tossed it to the side before helping him unbutton the long sleeve white shirt he had on.

His hands found your bare waist and squeezed softly. “I’m so fucking happy I’m here right now.”

“Me too,” You responded and then sighed in contentment, eyes slipping shut for a brief moment, when you felt his thumb graze over your already hard nipple.

Sometimes, usually in moments like these, it felt as if it was your sole purpose to be with him; canceling your plans just in case he’d call or show up, and meeting solely at his place, or yours, or the library.

How deeply intertwined you felt with him let you know exactly how much it would hurt when this all came to its eventual end. But then you were hit with the thought that maybe you would deserve it because you put yourself in this situation.

Steve’s hand came up to gently stroke your cheek and pull you out of your thoughts. “What are you thinking about?”

Your gaze met his as you shook your head. “Nothing important.”

But, maybe it was the most important thing.

.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。. .・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.

“i remember thinkin' i had you.”

.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。. .・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.

August 23, 1984

You expected to see him that night.

So maybe him unexpectedly showing up to the library– which was now busy with a bunch of kids scrambling to do their summer reading assignments– was what should have told you that everything was about to go to shit.

“Hey,” You said to him and placed the book in your hand in its rightful place on the shelf and then did the same thing with the other one you were holding. “I didn’t think I’d see you until tonight.”

Steve was quiet for a few moments too long, which made you look at him, and your eyebrows furrowed in confusion when you saw the look on his face. It was hard to exactly decipher his expression because it looked as if he was experiencing a thousand different emotions at once.

“What’s wrong?” You asked, voice quiet.

“I got a call from Nancy,” He told you, and you nearly flinched at hearing him saying her name to you for the first time ever. “She said she’s coming back tonight.”

“Oh…” Was the first thing that fell from your lips. It was the word that perfectly encompassed your initial shock at that moment. “That’s, um– That’s really, uh…” You almost said “great,” because if the circumstances were different and if things were actually normal between you two, it probably would’ve been great that his girlfriend was coming back after being gone for almost two months. But, things were far from normal and the circumstances weren’t different at all, so you were at a loss for words.

Finally, after what felt like hours of silence, but what was really probably only seconds, you said something. “I really don’t know what to say to that, honestly.”

“I’m sorry,” He said softly and pulled his eyes away from you. He looked down and ran a nervous hand through his hair. “I guess we, uh, both know what that means.”

“Say it, Steve.” You muttered. You had to hear him say the words in order for it all to be real for you. You couldn’t take all of the unspoken, reading-between-the-lines bullshit.

He was quiet for an unbearable amount of time before he finally spoke. “We can’t see each other anymore.”

From the second he kissed you in his pool nearly a month ago, you knew that those words would ultimately come. Each happy day that passed with you tangled up in his bedsheets or cuddled up on his couch laughing about nothing was leading to this moment.

It had all been so inevitable, but it still hurt harder than you had expected it to. You quickly decided to pretend as if it didn’t, though.

You nodded at him. “Okay. Got it.”

“I’m sorry. This shouldn’t– I didn’t–”

“Don’t,” You quickly shook your head, not at all wanting to hear whatever pitying thing he would say to you at that moment. “Please don’t.”

You were suddenly glad that you were at work right then because you could distract yourself from thoughts of him and everything that had just ended with the current busyness of the library. You looked away from Steve and noticed a little girl struggling to grab a book that was high on a shelf.

“It’s really chaotic here right now, and I have to actually do work for the first time probably all summer, so yeah…” You forced a small smile and then walked away from him, ignoring the words he said to you that you barely heard and couldn’t make out.

Over the next two final hours of your shift, you’d silently accepted that that brief conversation would be the last time you talked to Steve Harrington. Although there were a thousand more things that probably could’ve been said, it was okay. That ending was okay. Or at least in the long run, it would be.

So it slightly startled you when you saw him in the parking lot, leaning against the side of his car. When he noticed you, he waved.

“Have you been here this whole time?” You asked, walking toward him, but leaving a wide space of distance between you two.

“Maybe, yeah.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know…”

For the first time probably ever, he confused you.

“I just— I wish things could be different,” He ultimately said, and hearing those words simultaneously made you feel happy while also making you feel so fucking upset.

“Things can be different,” You told him as you stepped toward him, the tiniest glimmer of hope inadvertently beginning to swirl in your stomach. “We could be together.”

Your hands found his, slowly intertwining them. His gaze met yours and you let the silent conversation play out. Your eyes pleading with him to not let go of what you two had, and him looking at you so softly while also battling whatever else was going on in his mind. After a few moments, he gave your hands a quick squeeze before he let go of them.

“I love Nancy.”

Not you. Those were the words he didn’t say, but you could read between those lines a little too easily.

“I love you” was the one thing you hadn’t said to one another, but you thought that you could feel how much he loved you through each soft touch, every longing look, every plea for you to stay in his bed for just a minute longer; one minute that always turned into at least five.

Apparently, you were wrong, though.

And now you knew for certain that you were wrong about every single thing that happened that summer.

Because you knew that you felt that way toward him. You loved him.

But he didn’t love you. He didn’t want to be with you.

He loved her.

His girlfriend— the only girl he was supposed to love.

You let the feeling of regret and guilt toward everything that happened this summer crash over you like a tsunami.

“I should’ve never done this,” You said, whispering that more to yourself, than to him.

“What?” He asked, unsure of what you’d just said.

“You love her.” You said as you moved away from him. “Go be with her.”

“I’m really sorry,” You heard him say as you walked toward your car.

You didn’t say anything in response to that. Mainly because there was nothing to say, but also because you refused to talk to him any longer. And quite frankly, you never wanted to talk to him again.

.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。. .・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.

“so much for summer love and saying ‘us.’ ‘cause you weren't mine to lose.”

.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。. .・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.

let me know ur thoughts<333

(read “betty” here!)

#steve harrington imagine #steve harrington x reader #steve harrington fluff #steve harrington series #steve harrington x fem!reader #steve harrington x you #steve harrington x y/n #steve harrington fic #steve harrington smut #stranger things fluff #stranger things smut #stranger things series #stranger things imagine #stranger things fic

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halfmoth-halfman · 6 months

Text

My MWIII Thoughts

I’ve finally taken the time to get all of my thoughts about the new campaign together and put them in a single post. There are no spoiler tags since the game is officially releasing today/tomorrow, but everything is under the cut with a warning. I have a lot of things to say here, so I’ve tried to organize it point by point. The points I think are most important are first, and I ask that you take the time to read through them. If you want to skip to the points about characters and that death, the beginning of those sections is marked with red, but be prepared to scroll.

I watched the custscenes, with gameplay, all the way through once and I’m not doing it again. I tried to go back to specific scenes to reference in this post, but even that was a lot for me, so if my timeline in here is a little screwy don't fault me too much.

If you just want my quick, overall thoughts: This campaign was two hours of egregiously incoherent, poorly written, shoddily thrown together military propaganda, even more than the cod games usually are, and your money would be much better spent donating to help Palestine - there are links to do so in this review, marked with green, as well as boycott information, and the same donations links are also provided on this shorter post if you want to go directly to them.

(There are spoilers below, and this is long. I'm not kidding. Do not click the readmore unless you are prepared to scroll.)

Military Propaganda/Islamophobia

I spoke about this some already here and here because I felt this was an important enough topic that deserved its own post.

Call of Duty has never been has never been the game where I expected to see proper representation of the Middle East or Middle Eastern politics. It is first and foremost military propaganda. More than that it is American military propaganda. Just like with every superhero and pro-military movie post-9/11, it should be expected that you’re not going to get any kind of meaningful insight or depth when it comes to Middle Eastern storylines and characters, but there is usually more of an effort to hide the Middle East = Terrorist subtext.

To say I was shocked at how overt and blatant the Islamophobia was in this game is an understatement. We get four deaths of named characters in this game. Two of whom are Middle Eastern women, Dena and Samara, from the country Urzikstan, the fictional combination of Syria and Afghanistan and home to terrorist group Al-Qatala (real subtle, right?). Both of these women are associated with the ULF, the Urzikstan Liberation Force, Farah’s group of freedom fighters whose goal is to free their country from foreign subjugation with Samara no longer being an active member. Both of these women are introduced in this game. Both of these women are minor characters. Both of these women, Samara in particular, are trying to live their lives peacefully now that their country has been freed.

Both of these women are given deaths more brutal and more shocking than the other two deaths of two main characters in the series.

We meet Dena at the beginning of the game when we’re first re-introduced to Alex and Farah. We see her have a heartfelt reunion with Farah, and the two have a conversation while driving where Dena expresses her concerns about wanting Urzikstan to remain peaceful but assures Farah that everyone will support her. After, Dena is suddenly shot in the chest, and Farah is forced to take control of the vehicle they’re in, which ultimately flips over and we get Farah’s first death fakeout.

It’s in this cutscene that we see a lingering shot on Dena as well as her corpse being thrashed in the car as Farah tries to take control and as it flips. We are given a Middle Eastern woman showing hope for her country that the peace she has fought for will be maintained only to then watch her die for shock value and a fakeout for another character, and watch her body fly across the car as it flips. We don’t get that with either of the other two gunshot deaths in this game. Soap’s is just as sudden, but we see it coming, and there are no shots of his body being thrown about, no closer views of his face like there are with Dena. Shepherd’s is entirely off-screen and all we’re left with is a shot of him lying face down on his desk - no blood or bullet wound in sight.

Notably, the only other person we see a comparable amount of blood on in this game is Makarov, the enemy of the series.

Samara, who gets the worst death in this game, in my opinion, is a retired ULF soldier we’re introduced to on a plane. I’ll start by saying I was under the assumption this may have been the reboot replacement for No Russian, the mission in which Makarov and Co. shot up Zakhaev International Airport to frame America for terrorism in the original series, and the mission that was teased after the credits in the MW2 reboot. We get the scene of Makarov and his men at the airport before boarding the plane, which could just be a nod to the original mission. However, until there is an official reboot of the No Russian mission, I’m going to assume this was Activision’s new take on it.

In this mission, we learn that Makarov plans to use this plane bombing to frame Urzikstan, Farah and the ULF specifically. The thing is, as Big Mak and friends are in the airport preparing to board, we are shown that the ULF is already being blamed for the missile attack on Arklov Military Base from the previous mission where their missiles were stolen, capped with Konni’s chemical gas, and one was detonated. There’s even a news sequence showing that the world already thinks of the ULF as a terrorist organization, and has not-so-quietly thought that for years. That makes this upcoming scene feel not only unnecessary but like a deliberate choice made by Activision to be extra cruel to a Middle Eastern character.

We see Samara text with her family and are shown a picture of her husband and children before the man next to her begins speaking to her in Arabic. He compliments her family and, I assume as we’re not directly shown, gets the No Russian text - a text, for those who have not played the original games, meaning to not speak Russian to not tie the terrorist act they’re about to commit back to the Russians. The Traveler, as he's called, then reveals that he knows who she is, knows her family, and knows that she is a former ULF soldier and fought the Russians. He then pulls a gun on her and Makarov and Konni take the plane hostage, purposely speaking Arabic and declaring this is for Urzikstan.

We are then forced to watch as Samara fights back, but is ultimately taken to Makarov where a bomb is strapped to her chest. He gives his usual cryptic speech, and over-explains to the audience what’s happening before diving out of the plane D.B. Cooper style.

Samara is then dragged to the back of the plane by a Hijacker, where the remaining passengers are, kicking and fighting and trying to reason with him to stop. He pauses and we then get this exchange:

Hijacker: Are you a terrorist?

Samara: No…

Hijacker: You look like one.

He then puts a gun in her hands, tosses the cellphone that will let her stop the bomb, and shoves her into a crowd where we have to watch her struggle to explain what’s happening to her and that she needs the phone to a crowd of people that are either afraid of or angry with her. She is shoved to the ground by a random man, forced to fight through people trying to tackle and beat her, and, when the phone is finally within reach in the hands of a scared passenger, the plane blows up.

I want to emphasize that most of this is a cutscene. There are a few button presses for the player to try and get the phone, and you are allowed to look around and try to fight back, but that is quickly stopped, and you are forced to sit and watch through Samara’s perspective. The end result? There’s an investigation for who may have done this, and you play as Farah collecting evidence from the crash site so Makarov can’t frame the ULF. The mission succeeds, because it’s a story mission and it has to, Makarov is unable to control the narrative so people can only suspect the ULF did it but can’t prove it, and Samara…died for nothing. All of that was so people could suspect the ULF was a terrorist organization, which the game has previously gone out of its way to establish was already happening before Makarov got on that flight. This entire sequence and the mission after added nothing to the storyline other than the brutal forcing of a Middle Eastern woman to hijack a plane 9/11 style and die a death worse than two of the series’s main characters.

Two side characters, two Middle Eastern women who have never existed before this game, are put in this game solely to die in ways where their deaths are more emphasized and graphic than a character we’ve played as since the series began, and one of the main villains.

There is a genocide happening in Palestine. Islamophobia in the United States, and the West as a whole, is rising to post-9/11 heights. There is already so much propaganda being spread in an attempt to dehumanize the men, women, and children who are being murdered by Israeli forces, to justify the actions - the war crimes - of the Israeli forces. Could this be a sloppy attempt at Activision trying to mirror real-life stereotypes and how quick the media is to jump to the Arab = Bad narrative? Possibly. I don’t think it is. I think this was a deliberate change from the original No Russian mission in which America is framed for terrorism, made by an American company that makes games meant to garner interest and support in the American military, during a time when the American government is being criticized for funding and aiding an ethnic cleansing.

As slapped together as this game was, I don’t believe they couldn’t have changed the campaign in the time since the situation in Palestine escalated to this level. I firmly believe it was a purposeful choice to write that scene, to film that scene, to keep that scene.

It is blatant, it is clear, it is as in-your-face as it can possibly be. It is not something this fandom gets to ignore because they don’t like the campaign. It is not something this fandom gets to overshadow with Soap’s death as poorly written as it was. It is not something this fandom gets to stay silent about while also posting about #freepalestine.

I have never expected the best when it comes to Islamophobia from the Call of Duty games or its fandom. I’ve never expected anything beyond mildly okay. Call of Duty is military propaganda, I know. The fandom is known for its racism and it’s not getting better, I know that especially. But I don’t see how anyone, in the times we’re living in right now, would be able to look at this and not acknowledge it for what it is.

It is the purposeful brutalization of Middle Eastern characters.

It is propaganda.

It is racism.

It is Islamophobia.

It is wrong.

Engaging Critically/Acknowledging Privilege

While I may be stepping back from the CoD fandom, I understand that not everyone is going to. For some people, these games are a comfort or an escape. I’m not here to call for a boycott of Call of Duty or Activision while there are more important boycotts to be focusing on - and you can find more info on them here & here.

What I am asking, particularly of those of us in the fandom that are not being directly affected by what’s happening in Palestine, is that there is more acknowledgment of the level of privilege that we have and that people learn to engage more critically with the media they consume.

It is a privilege to play a game like Call of Duty and not have to think about the propaganda. It is a privilege (and ignorant) to say “it’s not political”, “it’s just pixels”, or “it’s not real”. It is a privilege to be able to just turn the game off and never have to think about war, and the impact of the representation of the characters, and the real-life events that these games base themselves on. And this isn’t just a CoD issue, this is something that should be considered with every piece of media you engage with.

There is no such thing as a “politics-free” book/movie/game/show. Everything carries the biases - conscious or subconscious - of the person or people who created it. There is no such thing as media or fiction not having an effect on real life, especially in a fandom for what is essentially War Crimes: The Game.

I’m going to take a quote from this post by @yeyinde.

"It’s incredibly egregious to pretend that the media you consume isn’t based, in some part, on real life or has no repercussions outside of it just being fiction. And it’s especially dishonest to say this isn’t the case within the COD fandom when people have said that the erasure of Gaz from the fandom in favour of a white character is traumatising. The portrayal of the Middle East is traumatising. The portrayal of Makarov in fiction as an uwu-sympathetic babbie is traumatising. The portrayal of the military as heroes is traumatising. These are real people expressing real emotions and bringing up important matters that impact them long after they’ve logged out of tumblr. Just because they stop being relevant to you after that does not, and SHOULD NOT, matter. Their trauma, their feelings, and their interpretations shouldn’t be ignored in favour of some catch-all excuse to limit your responsibility as a consumer to think critically about the media you’re devouring just because it has no consequences for you."

Fiction mirrors real life whether you want to admit it or not. It shows real biases, and it affects real people. Participating in fiction and the surrounding culture does not magically absolve you of consequences. It does not suddenly mean you get a free pass at things like sexism, racism, ableism, colorism, romanticization of abuse and sexual assault, etc. just because your escapist fantasies are conveniently free of people who are different from you.

It may be your fiction, but it is someone else’s non-fiction, and you do not get to decide that it isn’t or that the impact doesn’t matter because it’s about fictional characters.

I'm going to link another post from @yeyinde with another quote here.

"It’s easy to get swept up into something when you have no tangible ties to the effects of what’s being portrayed, which can lead to making dismissive or hurtful statements out of pure ignorance. My biggest gripe was the excuses being laundered out and (either unintentionally or intentionally) giving the creators a pass for what they created and the harm they caused other people to experience. Just because they did not experience the same trauma, it does not diminish its impact on others. This is a very important distinction, which I think was being missed."

Does this mean you can’t ever write or read about traumatic things, or that you can’t enjoy the CoD games ever again? No.

But I need you all to understand that you can criticize the media you enjoy. You should criticize the media you enjoy. Criticism does not mean never letting yourself enjoy a piece of media again. Criticism does not mean trying to get a character or creator “cancelled”. Criticism does not automatically equal hate.

Criticism is an act of love, and it is necessary when deconstructing and confronting biases - both yours and other people's.

Resources To Support Palestine

The lovely @moondirti provided some organizations where you can donate to support the humanitarian aid in Gaza with the note:

It's important to acknowledge that, while limited aid is being allowed through, recent negotiations have allowed your charity to reach the people of Palestine.

DOCTORS WITHOUT BORDERS

PALESTINE CHILDREN RELIEF FUND

UNITED MISSION FOR RELIEF – PALESTINE EMERGENCY

ANERA

Onto the actual game.

The 141

I don't know what happened during development between this game and MW2, but the relationship between the members of the 141 is severely lacking. We get the usual Soap and Ghost banter for one mission, because, let’s be real, that's what got a lot of people into the last game, but that's about it? There’s nothing new, nothing added to their relationships, and the game sticks to the same duos (Ghost/Soap & Price/Gaz) that we’ve had for the past two games. Even Soap and Ghost’s banter during the attack on Milena’s private island doesn’t have the same impact on the characters as their banter during the Alone mission in MW2. They get a few lines about Soap admiring Milena’s cars and Ghost taunting him about marrying an Oligarch, and…that’s it until the cutscene where they interrogate her.

There’s maybe a few quippy lines here and there, but overall the 141 gives off the same feeling as a group of semi-friendly co-workers that sometimes work on the same project rather than an actual team that has shed blood, sweat, and tears with each other.

This would’ve been such a great time to explore deeper into the team dynamics, show us pairings we don’t get to see as often and build on those relationships, make us really feel for these characters on a personal level. In the original series, you got a feel for every character and their team dynamics, and the player felt the impact of each death as they watched the other characters react (something I’ll talk about later). With this game, we get…what? Four men that desperately need a lozenge throwing a few sassy one-liners at each other and giving each other a harsh pat on the back like a bunch of dads at a barbecue?

I feel like so much of the heavy labor regarding the 141 in the reboot is done through fanfiction at this point because this game especially gives us barely anything to go on, and that’s such a missed opportunity on Activision’s part considering how so much of MW2’s popularity came from the relationship built between Soap and Ghost. It all just feels so hollow and surface-level; there’s no depth here, no attempt to build a connection from the player to this group as a team. In my opinion, Activision relies too heavily on the older fanbase’s connection to the original series, and the newer fanbase’s self-created characterizations, to fill in the blanks so they can leave these characters as empty and vanilla as possible in order to appeal to a broader audience.

And they’ve still somehow managed to fail at that. Speaking of failing...

Graves and Shepherd

Graves should’ve died in that fucking tank, and I will stand by that opinion even after I die. It was such a cop-out to have him live, and for him to suddenly come back with the excuse, “Well, I wasn’t in that tank, blah, blah, blah.”

This is supposed to be a game series where characters die and stay dead. The characters die. Some die heroically, some die horrifically, some die quickly, some die painfully slow, most die bloody, but they die. It’s a staple of the series, like Game of Thrones pre-season 5. I don’t know if Activision didn’t know what to do with his character, or if they realized he was semi-popular with the fans and decided to magically bring him back via deus ex remote-controlled tank, or if they were trying to “subvert expectations” and give us all a little surprise plot twist, but it sucked.

Also, no one checked the tank for a body? That seems to be something everyone has a problem doing in these games, and I don’t know what Activision thinks that does for the 141, but what it does do is make these elite military officials look incompetent as hell because their “dead” enemies keep coming back.

There was nothing different that Graves did in this game from what he did in the previous game. We get the same air support mission from him that we got last game, and really that’s it. Okay sure, he’s working with Farah now, that’s a little different, but what did he do in that mission? Give her vague instructions on where to find some GPS trackers and then give her more vague instructions on where to find the missile containers to slap the trackers on? He could’ve easily been replaced with one of Farah’s people who scouted ahead, or Alex, or a decorative cowboy hat, and the mission would have gone the exact same.

Other than that he spends the entire game hiding behind Shepherd like a scared child up until the end when he ultimately turns on Shepherd, and even that felt so blah. He faces no consequences for his (racist) actions in Las Almas other than Gaz refusing to shake his hand, he faces no consequences for betraying the 141, going so far as to lie that it even happened in front of Congress, and he gets off completely free as far as we know. There was no point to his character, no point to bringing him back, no point to him being in this game at all, and if I find the Activision employee who decided to keep him alive I will be throwing hands expeditiously.

Shepherd was…there, I guess? I’m sure he was meant to be a menacing, sly, back-stabbing character, but he came off as more irritating than anything. His rescue mission felt akin to being forced to babysit your annoying younger sibling who questions everything you do. They give you a cute little nod to the OG series with his cutscene with the 141 in the snow (because Activision has to rely on nostalgia and easter eggs since they know this game is emptier than the promises of an absentee father), but most of it is spent with Shepherd preaching about how great he is and threatening the 141 like he’s been doing the entire game. I’m sure he’s supposed to come off as clever, outsmarting the 141 and tricking them into rescuing him - this big, bad, battle-hardened General - but all of that is undercut by him getting captured to begin with.

The General Shepherd in the original series killed two of the player characters. How am I supposed to be intimidated by this nagging grandpa briskly jogging through the snow behind me in his ugly pajama jumpsuit? Even his ending is lackluster. He’s outwitted in front of Congress by Graves of all people, and then we get a cutscene where Price shoots him off-screen. That’s it. There was no satisfaction like in the original series, no triumph, no sense of vengeance, only a tired feeling of thank god I don’t have to deal with this anymore. This constant attempt at build-up in this reboot series of Shepherd being this looming figure over the 141 ends not with a bang, and not even with a whimper.

Makarov

I’m going to start this off by saying I mean absolutely no hate to Julian Kostov, Makarov’s actor, he definitely did his job.

Unfortunately, that job was playing a random Russian man that happened to have the same name as the Vladimir Makarov from the original series. He’s literally just a dude. There’s nothing particularly menacing about him, nothing that really screams Leader of an Ultranationalist group, nothing that would set him apart in a line-up of kind-of-gruff white men. I wasn’t expecting him to be some over-the-top supervillain, but he feels too normal, too regular, too everyday. Maybe that was the point Activision was trying to make - that having a villain with too-sharp features, eyebrows with in-your-face arches, and two-toned eyes is realistically too much - but it feels like they leaned too far in the opposite direction to compensate.

How am I supposed to take Makarov seriously when they gave him such big, brown, babygirl eyes? Though I realize this may be a character model issue because everyone in this game seemed to have huge doe eyes at one point or another (looking directly at you and those unblinking baby blues, Soap).

The first time we get a proper cutscene with Makarov, he shoots one of his own men – one who had questioned his plan in the rescue mission – and he gives some passionate Make Russia Great Again speech that involves a lot of big gestures, promises of showing the world “true power”, and him being weirdly touchy with one of his men. It’s not a bad scene, and I think Julian really shines here as Makarov. It’s a little in-your-face for me, but overall not a bad introduction to what is supposed to be the overarching big bad for the rest of the series. It gives you a good enough sense of danger, and just enough worry for the main crew as they get ready to go up against this guy.

Unfortunately, the rest of the game doesn’t really follow through on that. Makarov spends more time monologuing, asking his men “philosophical” questions about prisoners and guards, and cryptically foreshadowing at the 141 than he does doing…anything. We are told about all of the bad deeds he’s done. We are told how evil he is. We are told that Makarov needs to be stopped at all costs. The only problem is, we aren’t shown any of that. We see the aftermath of Verdansk, a distant explosion after Makarov has been captured, but we never see Makarov do any of that. When we do get to see Makarov, his men are doing all of the dirty work while he stands around and looks evil. It’s his men fighting and killing guards to get him out of prison, his men attacking Farah and her soldiers, his men launching missiles topped with biochemicals, his men forcing Samara to blow up a plane, his men guarding Milena and his finances. The most he does during any of these scenes is order his men around and give evil villain speeches to give the audience exposition about why he’s doing all this.

We probably see more of Makarov’s shirtless Tinder pic than we see him in action.

In the original series, we see Makarov being at the forefront of his movement, unafraid to get his hands dirty. He is part of the group that commits the massacre/terrorist attack on Zakhaev International Airport, he kills the two FSO agents protecting President Vorshevsky, he’s the one who shoots and kills Yuri, and that’s only part of what we see in-game. Sure, we’re told about his other crimes, but we’re shown enough to back up the claims that he is evil. In this game, he kills two people himself, one of them being his own soldier that I mentioned earlier, and the other being Soap (and we’ll get to that later). Two extremely lackluster deaths that are over before you get the chance to really digest them. Maybe he kills more people during the intro mission when you rescue him, but it’s during gameplay and easily missed when you’re too busy trying to fight your way out of this Arkham-esque prison. I think I could look past it if he wasn’t also present during some of the scenes where his men are carrying out his atrocities for him, but instead, Activision chose to have him in the background standing there…menacingly.

I don’t want to say Makarov was a bad villain; he was certainly better than Shepherd and Graves. I just think Activision made very strange choices with his character that resulted in him becoming this weird mishmash of an average monologuing movie villain and the micromanaging boss that stands over your shoulder, and it took a lot of the “oomph” out of his character for me.

Soap's Death

I hope whoever made this decision at Activision has to live the rest of their life constantly feeling like they have to sneeze and are never able to. What the fuck happened here? In what world did Soap’s death make any kind of sense here? This felt like they knew fans were expecting someone to die (and they already retconned the yeehaw war criminal) so they put a bunch of names in a hat and had some poor unpaid intern pick one out.

I have not been quiet about how much death I wanted in this game. I expected at least two deaths, with one of them preferably being Price. Going into this I was prepared to lose characters, and I was prepared to lose them to a heroic sacrifice, to an exhaustingly epic gunfight, to an explosion in a clocktower, to literally anything, but I was not prepared to lose a character to bad writing. And that’s what Soap’s death was. There is no build-up to it throughout the game other than a cryptic, “I’ll see you again, MacTavish.” from Makarov in a flashback scene. There’s no exploration of Soap’s character arc, his background, his family. There’s nothing.

Price and Soap try to defuse a bomb, Makarov shows up and his men overpower them, Makarov goes for the kill on Price, and instead shoots Soap when Soap tries to stop him. The entire cutscene can be summed up as A Series Of Conveniences. Makarov conveniently gets to Soap and Price just as they’re about to defuse the bomb, the officers they have with them are conveniently incompetent to stop any of Makarov’s men, Makarov’s men conveniently don’t notice Soap getting up to stop him from shooting Price, Ghost and Gaz are conveniently one second too late save Soap, and a train conveniently passes by to let Makarov make his escape. It’s over in less than a minute, and there’s little to no reaction from the surviving 141 members before the game starts shoving in your face that there’s a bomb you have to defuse that has conveniently not gone off yet and was conveniently missed in all of the gunfire.

Aside from the bullshit way it happened, the most disappointing thing here was the cutting of Soap’s arc and the lack of reaction from Price, Ghost, and Gaz. There was no growth for Soap in this game, no building of his story that would make his death feel like a satisfying conclusion. We just got the same Soap we’ve had in the rest of the series, and then he was gone. And the fact that we got absolutely nothing from the team in that moment was so…frustrating. Yeah, Ghost kneels by his body, and gives a brief, “Johnny!” but that’s…it? Price says nothing. Gaz rushes to the bomb and says nothing. After that moment in the cutscene, Ghost says and does nothing. There’s not even a hitch in their voices as they finish disarming the bomb. In Soap’s original death, we got Price screaming and begging over his body. We got to see his grief and pain and hurt at losing someone so close to him. Here we get…them standing over the body, a cut to black, and then a funeral cutscene that doesn’t feel earned full of commiserations that feel empty, hollow, and generic.

Maybe I’m too nostalgic for the Captain MacTavish we had in the original series, and the death they gave him that was impactful enough that people still talk about it to this day. Maybe there’s something meaningful here that I’m not seeing. Or maybe Activision can’t write for shit and rushed Soap’s death without a care just like they rushed this game as a quick cash grab to ride the hype of MW2.

Whatever the reason, these characters deserved far better.

Soap deserved better.

And I deserved to see a rebooted Captain MacTavish.

Gameplay

This section is going to be short because I didn’t spend money on this game to actually play it, I only watched gameplay. The general consensus seems to be that this game is nothing but glorified DMZ, and I can’t disagree with that. Supposedly, at least two of the campaign settings were ripped straight from Warzone, the Gulag and Verdansk Stadium, and I think that really shows how much of this game was slapped together because Activision wanted to hurry to release so they could capitalize off the CoD hype as much as possible. The combat is the same in every mission, the air support mission is as boring as ever, the NPC AI is all over the place, and the character models constantly shift from being really good to mobile game bad within the same cutscene.

I’m not saying I could do better, but I don’t think I could do worse. You can take that however you’d like.

The Writing/Storyline

Starting off, I’m going to say this with my whole chest:

Main story content should be in the main story, and not in optional or additional content.

Look, I don’t mind an easter egg here and there in DLC. I don’t mind the mention of a big bad in an extra, paid quest to build up hype. What I do mind is when the understanding of the main storyline of your game is dependent on things that happen in content that players are required to complete outside of the main game.

Do you know how we found out Alex was alive? An optional Raid.

Do you know how we learned Graves was a little bitch and wasn’t in the tank? An optional Raid.

Do you know how we–

You get my point. These kinds of reveals should have been in the main storyline because they pertain to the main storyline. Otherwise, you have people reacting with confusion because the main campaign was all they played, and they were left under the assumption that Alex may or may not be dead, that Graves burned in that tank in Las Almas, that Farah’s brother (Remember him? Activision doesn’t.) was alive and out there somewhere, etc, etc. It feels like they’re trying to do what Marvel does when they interweave their cinematic universe with their television shows: leave references to things only the more committed audience - the audience who will watch every show, play every game, see every movie, buy every DLC - would understand while punishing everyone else. It feels lazy on Activision’s end, and cheapens any kind of suspense they may leave us with going forward.

I wouldn’t even be surprised to see something like “Oh, Soap died and Makarov escaped at the end of the main campaign? Just kidding! They revealed in the newest Raid that Soap actually survived, and Makarov got hit by that train at the end.”

Outside of that, the whole storyline just feels unnecessary. This whole game feels unnecessary. I know there are rumors that this was meant to be a DLC for MW2 that got extended into a full game because Activision wanted more money, and if I didn’t already believe that, the writing would confirm it for me. Nothing feels fleshed out. Not the story, not the plot, not the characters. It all feels very surface-level and shallow, like more of the exact same thing we got in the last game, but somehow worse. The banter between the 141 is just not there, the tell don’t show when it comes to Makarov, the rapid POV switching, it all feels so thrown together, so last minute, like the writers had no idea what they wanted to do up until release.

One thing that really bothered me was the constant death fakeouts. It felt like every mission something awful would happen and one character would be left with their fate unknown in a dramatic cut to black as a cheap way to build suspense…only for that suspense to be immediately undercut by showing them alive in the very next cutscene. This happens with Farah (twice), Price, Alex (partially, there’s no cut to black, but there is a fakeout that he has been captured), and Laswell all within the first half of the game. At some point, it starts to get irritating and kills any and all suspense going forward. I was spoiled on Soap’s death, I knew it was coming before I watched the cutscenes, but by the time I got there, I was almost expecting Soap to show up in the next sequence without a scratch on him. Up until that point, I had stopped caring when characters were in danger because the writing led me to believe everyone was safe. There’s a way to build suspense, and every writer understands that, a majority of the time, less is more, so I don’t get how this went so unbelievably wrong.

The characterization is also so weirdly off. In what world would John “Somebody has to make the enemy scared of the dark. We get dirty, and the world stays clean.” Price not immediately take a kill shot when he has Makarov in custody? Soap was ready to kill every person he talked to in this game, so why did he let Makarov live? Why would Gaz advocate for giving Shepherd a gun after his multiple betrayals that he shows no remorse for? Why would Farah continue to begrudgingly work with Graves after learning about Las Almas? Why is Makarov over-explaining his plans to his victims?

I’m not saying I expect Shakespeare-level writing from a Call of Duty game, but I expect something better than whatever this is.

I don’t know who Activision hired for their writing team, but there are so many instances here where I almost have to believe that they may not have hired one at all.

Overall Thoughts

I wish I had a time machine so I could go back to who I was before I watched this campaign. This whole game was nothing but a DLC lazily stretched to two hours with assets taken from other games and a storyline that was slapped together using blindfolds, a dartboard, and too much alcohol. Please do not use your money to buy this game. Your money would be much better spent donating to help Palestine.

#moth talks #game got me so heated i'm using proper grammar and punctuation and shit #call of duty #modern warfare #call of duty modern warfare #modern warfare 3 #modern warfare iii #call of duty mw3 #call of duty mwiii #cod mwiii #tw: racism #tw: islamophobia

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downtroddendeity · 3 months

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@turnkeyassurance saw your tags and figured I'd take the opportunity to pause my descent into madness to give my more sober opinions on the Ni no Kuni franchise, lol. (Warning: I am a humongous JRPG nerd)

The NNK games are really odd ducks, quality-wise. You can call either one a good game or a bad game and call either one better than the other, and any combination of those opinions can be something I think is entirely justified. Both of them have things they do remarkably well and also serious, profound, deal-breaking flaws, and the really weird thing is that there's almost no overlap between those two lists for the two games. What clicks and doesn't about both of them is going to be deeply individual.

What Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch does, with resounding success, is Vibes. It sets out at every single step with the goal of being a playable Ghibli movie, and it sticks to that principle. It's all about beautiful, cel-shaded whimsy. It's a game for people who want to feel like they're wandering through the meadows in the movie version of Howl's Moving Castle. There are lots of puns, and you can befriend all the random encounter monsters and feed them ice cream.

But that's also its Achilles' heel: because it's dedicated entirely to imitation, it has trouble bringing things to the table that are really its own. It has the visual and narrative aesthetics of Hayao Miyazaki's films, but it doesn't have the raw emotion at the heart of them. And as a game, its mechanics combine the clunkiest features of menu-based combat and action RPGs, and while everything about the Pokemon-esque mechanics seems designed to encourage players to collect and experiment with them, the balancing turns attempting to do that into a miserable grindy nightmare.

The other problem is that it... isn't actually the first Ni no Kuni game. Wrath of the White Witch is, in fact, a remake of the Nintendo DS game Ni no Kuni: Dominion of the Dark Djinn, which was never released outside Japan. The reason for this is pretty easy to explain, because DDD had another gimmick besides its aesthetics: it came with a real-life physical copy of the wizard spellbook, and the player had to look things up in it and draw sigils on the DS touchscreen to cast spells. So, we've got a high-effort remake that had to completely cut the central mechanic... and which also expanded the plot so that the original main villain was no longer the primary antagonist. This results in a game with what is very clearly a final dungeon and very clearly a final boss and very clearly a resolution to the story, which suddenly has a completely different plot dropped on it like a fucking anvil that it expects you to be just as invested in even though it hasn't had anything like the same level of buildup.

And ironically, this is almost the exact opposite of the biggest problem with Ni no Kuni 2: Revenant Kingdom, a.k.a. the one with my new blorbo, the President of the United Union of Eagleland. 2 is an effort to try to cement an identity for the series that can be its own, rather than requiring them to depend indefinitely on borrowed Miyazaki nostalgia. It just has the teeny-tiny, itsy-bitsy problem that at some point in development it had a budget shortfall so bad that you can finish the game without ever realizing that there is a continent-sized crashed interdimensional spaceship on the world map.

This game has had a machete taken to it. Don't get me wrong, I genuinely respect the work they did to make what they could with what they had, but you can see the signs of massive scope cuts to literally every aspect of the game. The back half of the game has almost exclusively recycled enemy and environment assets; voice acting has been trimmed down to canned voice clips; the catboy protagonist's ears and tail are barely animated; one minigame was so inadequately playtested that a level 16 mission is massively harder than level 50 ones; and while whatever restructuring they had to do to the main plot still left the final version with a more solid and coherent central arc than WWW in my opinion, it also left a lot of truly gaping plot holes, like oh, I don't know, why the President of the United States got turned into a 19-year-old.

Literally, they just. Entirely forgot to explain that. Half the DLC is just the writers scrambling to fix stuff like that and add a bunch of character development that should have been in the base game.

However, despite all this, I personally enjoyed NNK2 more than NNK1 unironically, not just for Rolandposting reasons. Compared to the first one, it plays much more smoothly as a straight action RPG, and while it can't provide the same knock-your-socks-off aesthetic cohesion, to me it seemed a lot more heartfelt- that is, like a game that was made because people had a story they wanted to tell.

But, well, we wouldn't be here if it wasn't for the non-unironic reasons, because the story they really, genuinely wanted to tell was about a magical catboy growing up and learning to become a leader, and somehow, miraculously, they really thought that was the story I was here for too when they opened the game with the President of the United States being isekaied by Nuke-kun.

Sorry, guys, I have a crippling addiction to dramatic irony and my day job is tech work in local politics, you could not have more laser-targeted this at making me specifically laugh my ass off if you tried.

#turnkeyassurance #reply #gameblogging #/#//#ni no kuni #ni no kuni 2

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ykiwrite · 1 year

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golden rush

description: breaking down your and jenna's golden globe awards

words: ~1.4k

warnings: none?

Sound of black nails continuously colliding with the table underneath kept you on your toes.

Well, it did for the first ten minutes.

Now it's merely a background noise.

Jenna was devoted to the computer screen that was unhealthy-distance close to her face. Folded in the chair, she found strange comfort, with head on her knees and arms trapping them. She didn't move since the nominees broadcast began. With occasional remarks of "ha, i knew it", if the guess was correct.

"You already know you're gonna get it. So stop stressing out. We don't need next 'big thing' retiring early 'cause of stress." You said fully assured.

The obvious success of Jenna's shows, movies, even her appearance brought an enormous amount of spotlight. Less to you, more for her. Although sometimes, with the very few facts known to the public about you, it felt pressuring enough just being by her side. Let alone be in her position.

You can't really wrap your head around how she deals with thousand pair of eyes prying on her daily. Just like vultures circling above her head. It was fair she feels the way she does right now. Nervous, scared, debating if this career was worth it. You did voice the concern, of course. Her answer stayed the same each time. It went like;

"You know, i'm not alone. I got you so it's not that bad as you make it sound."

"It's whatever. That's not more important than you."

Maybe if she was less of a hopeless romantic it would be better. But who are you to argue if it keeps her steady? Not that you are against it either.

Still, she was going through a deadly combination of overthinking and overanalyzing. Knowing well how 'Wednesday' skyrocketed, she was a guaranteed nominee for Golden Globe. It appears only you saw it that way. Fully carefree while she was timidly cracking her fingers.

"It's starting, come here." She rushed you to your feet.

Taking a stand behind her slouched form, you wrapped your arms over the shoulders. Giving her excited shake, you said " You are gonna do it. I know it."

"Why are you so sure?" She asked, turning her head to give you a wondering stare.

"I called headquarters. It's all set for your win." Laughingly, you admit the lie.

"Yeah, shut up."

If anyone were to enter your apartment right now, they would do immediate 180. First thing to encounter would be two people in the middle of the room in complete darkness, except the screen.

All ears were on the presenter's voice. Time was closing in. The sacred envelope in his hands to be unwrapped will determine the rest. By how unusually still she became, it felt like hugging a lifeless body.

You closely watched the host preparing for reveal as you angled your face near her ear. Ready to match your own voice with one coming out of speaker. "And the nominees for the category of The best actress in a television series are..."

"Jean Smart"

She sighed with a trace of regret. Her hand lost the grip on you. On the contrary, you weren't discouraged.

"Our next nominee on the list is..."

Aligning your breath, like you knew from beforehand, you whispered "Jenna Ortega". Clearly matching with the presenter, Jenna wasn't sure whose voice she heard until scenes from her own roles were shown. Signifying it was truly her.

Backing up a few steps, you opened your arms and claimed "I told you!"

Jenna was peeking at you through fingers covering her face. A smile she couldn't contain was passing the barrier. It was worth it in the end.

Coming back to where you left, inviting her into an embrace with sheer care. "I'm so proud but you already know that." You refreshed her memory and linked your foreheads together. She had her eyes closed so she had no knowledge of you secretly admiring her.

A romantic moment was cut short by the sound of her phone going off. "You should answer." Hesitant to pull away but thinking of how many people are currently wishing their congrats. You gave her a nudge towards the table.

"I should?" she asked teasingly. Moving away from you, she grabbed her phone and put it on silent. Not bothered with replying. Lastly, exiting the broadcast.

With folded hands, you watched her pace around in overjoyed manner. "First, we will celebrate. Then, you know what we're gonna do?" She asked pointing a finger at you.

Shaking your head instead of saying no, as expected she provided the answer. "We are on a hunt for your red carpet looks."

Not wise enough about what to say right now so you muttered out a confused "Why?"

"You're my date for the red carpet," Jenna told nonchalantly. Making her way over to the kitchen on a mission to grab a drink.

"Oh. No. There's no way i can go Jenna." You pointed at yourself, "I'm not famous. Besides, i can be on the sideline. Cheering on like i usually do on these events."

Half of her face blocked by the fridge door, she raised her voice so you'll be able to hear. "I won't force you but just know i really, really want you to be there in front lines with me."

Slightly taken aback by her statement, it made you weigh out options. How awful could it be? You know Jenna consistently tries to keep you out of the eyes of the media. Maybe you could thank her by being there. However, it's naturally impossible to stay unknown forever. Also, it's her first time on Golden Globe. Your arrival would break the internet definitely.

"I don't know. I mean, those paparazzi, the press. You know how they are the best. They will eat me alive." Letting your worries get the best of you.

"No, no, no." Handing you a wine glass that landed with a quick kiss on the head. "Don't go there. When was it ever important what they think?" she questioned with a heartfelt tone.

Sitting down she pulled the chair closer to you. With her legs crossing she persisted, "I just think we would kill it. Imagine the headlines," as she used her hand to point out in the air, "top ten couples right now."

Rolling your eyes you pushed her backwards. Realistically saying "Mhm, and the next thing you know they break up month after."

Pouring a wine, she gave you a side eye. "Well, if you're serious about not going i'll still have to take someone with me. Emma probably."

She knew what she was doing to well.

With a click of tongue, you gave in. "What's the carpet theme?"

Stepping out of the obscure dimness and privacy of the black fancy car wasn't something you're accustomed to. Shielding your view from the sun and brightness caused by this event. It was overwhelming. Right, no idea how she deals with this regularly.

You'd much rather watch the livestream from the serenity of your home. No need for the first hand experience but it is what it is.

Grabbing Jenna by the hand so you can secretly confess before all the high-end equipment and lunatic lip readers are on you.

"I'm not made for this Jenna."

Beaming at the sight of you, she fixed accidental wrinkles of the dress. "Me neither but we'll be fine. If it gets too much we'll step aside like i promised."

The lady led you down the arranged route that was getting more frantic with each step. Cameras were piling up just like people, staff, and press did.

Jenna's name repeatedly called over was more prominent now that you're closer to the center. Here and there you could point out your own.

"Wait, hold on." Her voice was barely registered by you thanks to shutters setting off. She reached for you to let an offer out there.

"Since we talked about edits you watch nonstop, you know what we could do?"

The distracting sounds and cheers grew stronger which added to the thrill.

"You would never do that Jenna." Thinking she's brought up the plan you made while you were drunk at home just to get a kick out of you.

She did to your surprise. The brief action of drawing you in for a kiss in front of the mass suppressed everything that made you upset.

A lover's smile spread from left to right made the room spiral into madness.

"We really did it."

"I won't let them get used to this, don't worry. I got you," she pledged connecting your arms as one.

You were, without a doubt, a topic of the day.

notes: listen there was this lovely heavenly idea but did i write it out good? not really, this looked 10x better in my head but if u still read it i owe you 🖤💌

*kept writing golden globus instead of globe, i hope i fixed all of it

#jenna ortega imagine #jenna ortega x reader #jenna ortega #this is officially my downfall im retiring/hj #whoever prayed for it its working

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thyla-scene360 · 27 days

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I have returned with more TSSM AU art. Sorry about the hiatus, real life has been rather busy these last several months.

I’ve had this concept floating around in my head for a while; here’s my take on a much younger Vulture, aka Adrian Toomes.

I mentioned a while back that I imagined him being a Sphynx Cat in my AU. He still is, but I imagine he had a very thin coat of fur running from his nose to the base of his tail in his youth (some sphynxes still retain a small amount of velvety hair on their bodies, although it varies). Unfortunately, a combination of old age and significant stress caused him to lose all but most of it over the years - only a few sparse patches of peach fuzz remain on his back.

Overall I wanted to try and see what Ol’ Beaky may have looked like in his youth while still staying true to his character. I gave him a slicked-back, businessman sort of hairstyle; I also gave him ginger hair as a nod to the comics (yeah, Adrian was apparently red-haired in his youth, both in the comics and in the 90s animated series).

Anyways, here’s a couple of headcanons I came up with for him, taking inspiration from some of the movie and tv adaptations (including tssm of course).

Unlike many of his fellow villains, Adrian didn’t have a particularly bad or unstable upbringing. He actually had a pretty normal childhood all things considered, and was raised by strict but loving parents.

Hot-tempered, disciplined, straightforward, and determined, Adrian’s turn to villainy was in truth far more gradual than most were led to believe. Decades of stress, frustration, and failure in addition to experiencing workplace corruption first-hand slowly hardened his heart. The bright-eyed young man with big ideas who joined the engineering business in the hopes of revolutionizing the industry was now a cynical, tired, and bitter old man with a short temper and an even shorter patience. The final straw was having his life’s work (years of research, setbacks, failure, and constant work) stolen out from under him by a mega corporation with no hope of recognition or even an ounce of compensation.

Adrian and Otto have been longtime friends, having known each other and worked together since their Tricorp days. Despite his cold exterior, the former cared a great deal for his friend and worried extensively about him during their time at Oscorp. Adrian knew it was only a matter of time until Otto received the same backstabbing treatment as himself, and tried to no avail to convince him to find better employment. However, Otto was simply too afraid of Norman at the time to do so. It came as no surprise to the old bird to find out his good friend had finally snapped…and ironically enough their turn to villainy has strengthened their friendship more than ever. Even through countless failed schemes and prison stays, the pair continue to support and look out for each other.

#fanart #anthropomorphic #furry #sphynx #tssm vulture #adrian toomes #the spectacular spider man #the vulture #tssm #sinister six #spectacular spider man #spiderman #marvel

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soundbluster · 3 months

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How I would rank the various Transformers series:

Love:

- IDW1 - phase 2 (MTMTE, Windblade and RID)

- Earthspark

- Prime

- Cyberverse Series 3 and the specials

- The War for Cybertron and Fall of Cybertron games (I use screenshots I took of those games for art references all the time)

Like:

-IDW1 - phase 3 (Lost Light, TAAO and OP, I feel the latter especially got dragged down due to the shoehorned in hasbro universe crossovers, like visionaries, and all the books suffered from the rushed ending and reboot)

- Animated

-The Bumblebee movie

- Skybound's Transformers comic (got the best take on G1 Optimus for a long time, though I'm not thrilled about the GI Joe crossover part)

- The 1986 movie

- Cyberverse Series 2

- IDW2 (works a lot better when you read it all at once rather than as single issues)

- IDW Shattered Glass ( though I felt the first series was a lot stronger than the second)

-Transformers 2007 film

- IDW Beast Wars Comics

- Headmasters (in a so bad it's good way, the show itself is awful XD)

It's okay:

-G1 cartoon

- The Aligned Novels

- RID2015 (I think it's dragged down because it's really poor sequel to prime, partly because it was aiming at a much younger audience so there's a big disconnect in tone between the two shows, it would have worked a lot better if it'd just been it's own thing.)

- Age of Extinction

- Cyberverse Series 1

- Dark of the Moon

- Netflix Kingdom (I think it's the best of the trilogy but I hate how it just killed off Elita etc, who were the best part of Earthrise, off-screen)

- Netflix War for Cybertron

- The G1 Marvel Comics

- IDW1- phase 1

Didn't like:

- Last bot standing (It's just too dark for my tastes)

- Beast Machines

- Energon

- IDW King Grimlock

- Japanese G1 manga (it's just not for me)

- The G2 Marvel Comics

- The machinima Prime wars Trilogy (combiner wars etc., the way Megatron was characterised was the only redeeming feature of that series)

- Netflix Earthrise (Just awful, though I liked the Elita one segments.)

Hated:

- Dreamwave comics (awful art and the fact it was a scam company makes them even worse in retrospect)

- Rise of the Dark spark game (awful, laggy game and it had a game breaking glitch which bricked my PC the first time I played it, and I haven't bothered playing it again since! The fragged-up business decisions behind the game makes it even worse.)

- The last Knight

- Revenge of the Fallen

Haven't seen/ haven't seen enough of it to make a judgement:

Victory and Other Japanese-only G1 and Beast wars series, except headmasters

Beast Wars, I just can't get past the uncanny valley 90s CGI animation, sorry.

RID2001

Armada

Cybertron

Rescue bots and RB Academy

Botbots

Rise of the Beasts

I probably missed some out! And this is just my personal opinion. How would you rank them?

#transformers #maccadam #random post #random fandom stuff #fandom thoughts #theres so many transformer series its hard to keep track XD

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mysticaltora8276 · 5 months

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The Jedi only downfall, was being a tied and lied to by a corrupt government that screwed them over and being arrogant to not realizing there was a Sith in the middle of their government. As for Anakin? That was a combination of gaslighting, which was Palpatine’s doing, and Anakin’s own flaws and arrogance and inability to follow the Jedi code. There’s an entire comic in canon that indicates that the Force is trying to tell Anakin there is another path, and he could’ve chosen anything else, but he personally insist that this is the only way, which means that, even despite being shown the different options, he still chooses to do wrong. I’m an Anakin fan, but I will be the first to say that he is a moron, and he chose to be evil. There is no “the Jedi were mean to him.” The Jedi gave him every opportunity to prove himself, and he knew he was personally failing them, but because of his arrogance, and Palpatine whispering in his ear, he didn’t do anything about it that would causes him choosing to ignore his flaws, and the fact that he wasn’t listening to the order so his arrogance got the better of him better of him him.

Jedi are victims in Star Wars. In fact the clone wars TV series makes it clear even if some people do not get it. Nowhere in the interviews during the TV show or after the TV show or during the movies or after the movies does George Lucas blame the Jedi for their own genocide. The only thing he blames them for, is not noticing the evil in their midst, because of the fact that the government around them was corrupt, and they were caught up in the corruption. Their treatment of Anakin was more than adequate. Anakin failed them, not them.

#anakin is responsible for his actions #anakin critical #star wars #pro jedi #pro jedi order

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natlacentral · 17 days

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Avatar Netflix Season 2 Will 'Condense' Original Storyline (Exclusive)

Season 2 of Avatar: The Last Airbender will follow in the footsteps of the first season's storytelling "condensing."

Each season of the animated Avatar series had twenty episodes, most of which followed their own adventures. When it came to the live-action show, the first season only had eight hour-long installments.

This led to many elements of the original storyline getting condensed, such as the combination and relocation of a handful of plot threads to the team’s stay in Omashu—meeting the Mechanist, Jet, Bumi, and venturing into the Secret Tunnel.

As one might imagine, these types of changes did not always land well with audiences.

Season 2 Will Condense Original Avatar Storyline

Speaking with The Direct at Paleyfest 2024, Avatar: The Last Airbender Seasons 2 and 3 executive producer Jabbar Raisani confirmed that they will need to condense some of the original story as the Netflix show moves forward.

Raisani pointed out how their handling of Seasons 2 and 3 which will conclude the live-action series - will be "a lot like Season 1," which also means "some condensing" has "to take place:"

"I think it's a lot like season 1. There's a lot of content in the animated series. And we will be looking at all that content. But we don't have the number of episodes that we have in the animated series. So, certainly, there will be some condensing that has to take place."

While speaking to The Direct about the possibility of more original moments in Season 2 for his character, Uncle Iroh actor Paul Sun-Hyung Lee shared that he "[does not] know how they’re going to remix the stories" going forward:

"I wish I could; I have no idea what they have planned for us... I know we're getting an opportunity to finish telling the story. Obviously, the animated series is going to be the template for us. But other than that, I don't know how they're going to remix the stories. Nobody tells me nothing. So I'm just gonna show up. And yeah, hopefully, we get a better, clearer sense of where we're going with that in the future. But right now, I have no idea what's going to happen."

While the original animated series has been finished for nearly two decades, the story of those characters will continue in a new animated film called Aang: The Last Airbender.

Currently, not many details are known about the project, but fans do know it will follow team Avatar as they are older following the events Avatar.

As for whether its story will have any influence on future episodes of Netflix’s The Last Airbender, Raisani admitted it will not, at least "not at this point:"

"No, not at this point. We are really looking at the animated series at what came before and less of sort of what they're currently doing on the new movies."

As for whether or not he would be interested in potentially adapting Legend of Korra for live-action, he firmly responded:

"Certainly, I'd be interested in anything that is in this universe."

[ Avatar 2025 Movie: Last Airbender Release, Cast & Everything We Know About Adult Aang Film ]

Remixing Season 2 Episodes Was Inevitable

When it comes to adapting the source material, condensing is unavoidable. Avatar: The Last Airbender fans shouldn't be surprised the same will be happening for Seasons 2 and 3.

Simply put, 20-minute bite-size adventures do not work well for the more extended episode structures of the Netflix show. If the original episode is a self-contained, isolated story, odds are it may not make the cut—or be weaved in with other plot threads.

Hopefully, at the very least, fan-favorite episodes such as the desert spirit library and how Appa got stolen can see the light of day in live action.

One thing that will make it notably more difficult to stick to the original episodes, though, is how behind on Aang’s bending lessons he is. Book 2 is all about him learning earthbending from Toph—however, in the live-action Last Airbender series, he hasn't even started lessons for waterbending.

The show is ahead of the game when it comes to Azula’s storyline, however, as she doesn’t originally appear until Season 2. That alone could save some episodes from the chopping block.

#natla #atla #avatar the last airbender #netflix avatar #netflix atla #avatar netflix #atla netflix #dallas liu #jabbar raisani #paul sun hyung lee #the direct #article #paleyfest

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bethanythebogwitch · 7 months

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Halloween Digimon

If you follow my blog you know I like Digimon and I like Halloween, so why not combine them and gush over Halloweeny Digimon. I'll be showcasing Digimon species that fall into classic Halloween archetypes.

What's spookier than ghosts? Digimon has lots of ghosts and the most recent and honestly probably the best is Ghostmon. That is such a good design and it's even a friendly ghost as it likes to help people, but turns invisible first because it's really shy. I love it so much!

The rest of the ghosts aren't as friendly. Meet Bakemon, a wicked creature that possesses and destroys computer systems. Nobody knows what's under the cloth it wears and while it isn't good in a fight, it can do really nasty stuff to enemies it catches by surprise. Its name comes from "bakemono" a type of Japanese mythical creature that is sometimes translates as "ghost". Bakemon has a variant called Soulmon who wears a witch's hat and is more powerful.

Combining ghosts with the grim reaper is Phantomon (JP: Fantomon). Its a common evolution of Bakemon that has the power of clairvoyance to foresee then others are about to die. The interior of its cloth body contains a portal to another dimension and its scythe can cut through souls. The weapon it carries is a mix of the grim reaper's scythe and a Japanese weapon called a kusarigama. Phantomon has a variant called MetalPhantomon which is an absolute beast. I love this design of a mechanical grim reaper. I have no idea why it isn't en evolution of Phantomon, they're the same level for some reason. MetalPhantomon is rumored to be controlled by something from another dimension.

Witches are another Halloweeen classic and Digimon has a great example in Witchmon. She is a classic witch, but her design makes her look a bit artificial, kind of like a doll. Of course she rides a flying broomstick and a black cat familiar. She's a counterpart and rival to Wizardmon and both come from Witchelny, the setting of another series of Bandai virtual pet games.

Skeletons are Halloweeeny and while there a few animal skeleton Digimon, the closest we have to a human skeleton Digimon is SkullSatamon. Its lore is pretty bland, just being a fallen angel, but hey, lookit the bones

Speaking of fallen angels, the big red devil with a pitchfork archetype is also represented in Digimon with Boogeymon and its evolution Phelesmon. Boogeymon is obviously named after the boogeyman (I love whwn they play around with the mon suffix) and has a pretty sick design. I love the tattoos and in the lore they let it cast dark spells. Phelesmon puts on some clothes and becomes a charming manipulator that convinces people to sell their souls in exchange for fulfilling their desires. Its name and behavior comes from Mephistopheles, the demon from the story of Faust from German legend who gets the title character to sell his soul in exchange for knowledge.

How about spiders? Digimon has a few spiders, but the best in terms of spookiness is Dokugumon. It was once a peaceful creature, but a virus turned it into a monster that corrupts the network by its very presence. It is a relentless predator that follows its prey no natter how far they flee and its very breath is toxic enough to kill. Just imagine being lost in the woods and seeing this nightmare coming after you

You better believe Digimon has a Frankenstein, and its story is a sad one. It was built as a cyborg Digimon at the same time as another named Andromon. However, the primarily mechanical Andromon was deemed a success while the primarily organic Boltmon was considered a failure due to it possessing emotions. Its creator rejected it and now Boltmon wanders around, consumed in sorrow. It is based on the movie version of the monster in appearance (green skin and lots of bolts), but its lore drawn more from the book version.

You want mummies? We got mummies! Mummymon and is evolution Pharaohmon are excellent Egyptian monsters. Mummymon is a necromancer that manipulates the souls (residual data) of deleted Digimon. I like how its not just a mummy but its design of using leg braces and its gun as a crutch implies that being a desiccated corpse has limited its mobility, maybe due to being stuck in rigor mortis. Pharaohmon is also a mummy, but the sarcophagus and death mask it wears are more specific references to ancient Egyptian funerary rites. It was the absolute ruler of the ancient Digital World and many ruins from its reign dot the land. It can produce a flesh-eating mist to attack and will only cure those affected if they swear eternal servitude to Pharaohmon. This is a clear reference to the idea of a mummy's curse.

Digimon has a lot of vampires, so many I'm only going to showcase one of them. If you want to see more, look for Dracmon, Grandracmon, Bastemon, and Sangloupmon. The one I'll cover here is the vampirest of vampires, Myotismon (JP: Vamdemon). He absolutely looks like a cheesy vampire Halloween costume, but do not let yourself think that he's not scary. Myotismon is immensely cruel and cunning, being a classic evil mastermind while also being very capable of throwing down in a fight by summoning swarms of bats and hypnotizing others into serving him. A testament to his skills at villainy is that he was the big bad of what most fans consider to be the best story arc of Digimon Adventure, the original and definitive Digimon anime, and returned as the big bad of the sequel. Mytoismon has several evolutions including VenomMyotismon, MaloMyotismon (BelialVamdemon), and NeoMyotismon, but the OG is the most Halloweeny of them all. His English names comes from a genus of bat while his original name is literally vampire + demon

Evil clowns are a newer Halloween icon, but are a great one and Digimon offers two: Jokermon and Piedmon. Jokermon is a newer Digimon that has been used as a preevo for Piedmon. It is an enigma that randomly appears on battlefiends, cutting down one side with no rhyme or reason and for its own unknown purposes. Piedmon (JP: Piemon) is also an enigma, a being that appeared from another dimension. Its origins and goals are a complete unknown, but it has incredible power and it thoroughly malicious. It served as a major villain in Digimon Adventure and was one of the most powerful Digimon in that setting, soloing almost all of the heroic Digimon at once. That show also emphasized its cruelty as it decided to sadistically chase and torment the youngest human characters instead of just finishing them off. Its english name comes from the pied piper while its original name comes from the pierrot character archetype form pantomime.

What happens when you merge two Halloween monsters? Well apparently when Myotismon and Piedmon merge they become Boltboutamon (JP: Voltobautamon), a vampiric pirate. It is a being with no will of its own that serve as the herald of an entity called the Grudgeful Hand, an evil intellect born from malicious data that seeks to drown the world in darkness. It or its master is a sadist that takes its time to kill its foes and revels in their suffering. Its original name comes from the volto and bauta, both venetian masks. Its English name appears to be a poor transliteration. There's a lot of that in Digimon.

Those are all great spooky Digimon, but is there a Digimon that is the Halloweeniest? Why yes there is: Pumkinmon and its evolution NoblePumpkinmon (JP: Pumpmon and NoblePumpmon). They were born from a computer virus created during Halloween, but are not malicious. Pumpkinmon is a mostly peaceful Digimon that is shy and wants friends. It is adorable and I love it. NoblePumpkinmon tries to befriend all Digimon and remains neutral between good and evil. It is charming and mischievous and gets along well with both heroic and villainous Digimon. It even makes pumpkin pie. Of all the Digimon showcased here, I think NoblePumpkinmon is the most appropriate for Halloween. This is a holiday of scares and horror, but it's all in good fun.

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deadpresidents · 2 months

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Are you looking forward to Manhunt on Apple TV?

Are you kidding me? OF COURSE I AM. I loved James L. Swanson's book Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln's Killer (BOOK | KINDLE | AUDIO), which I believe the series is based around. Swanson's follow-up book, Bloody Crimes: The Chase for Jefferson Davis and the Death Pageant for Lincoln's Corpse (BOOK | KINDLE | AUDIO), is even better than Manhunt, but I'm guessing that it's not as easy to pitch a series about the Confederate President fleeing Richmond at the end of the war while undertakers try to hide the fact that Lincoln's body was rapidly decomposing during his 20-day-long funeral tour.

But I'd just about watch any show or movie dramatizing historical events, so I'm pretty much the target audience for things like this. I'm already a dangerous combination of excited and impatient for the series that Netflix is producing about James Garfield, Charles Guiteau, and the Garfield Assassination which -- as if that news wasn't enticing enough on its own -- will star Matthew Macfadyen and Michael Shannon!

(One major question I already have about Manhunt, however, is about Tobias Menzies, who appears to be playing Secretary of War Edwin Stanton in the series. Now that's totally fine -- Tobias Menzies is an excellent actor and I thought he was awesome as Prince Philip in The Crown. But in the trailer, Menzies looks nearly completely clean-shaven while Edwin Stanton had a pretty legendary, nineteenth-century, facial hair of God-length beard. I'm sure I'll get over it within the first five minutes, but it seems like a pretty significant choice/oversight.)

#History #TV Shows #Manhunt #Apple TV #Tobias Menzies #Assassination of Abraham Lincoln #Lincoln Assassination #TV #Abraham Lincoln #President Lincoln #John Wilkes Booth #Edwin Stanton #James L. Swanson

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faulty-writes · 10 months

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Hey uh I dont know if you can but I'd love it if you made bakugou or some of the mha boys with a wednesday addams reader? like the one in the netflix show, use female pronounces thank you love<3

[ Hello dear Anon. So I decided to make this into a headcanon request and used three of our boys. I hope you like it. To be quite honest, I'm a fan of the original Addams Family television series from 1964, but I do love how Wednesday is portrayed in the Addams Family movies. I haven't actually seen the Netflix show, but I will do my best to combine all the knowledge I have regarding the Addams Family into this. ]

The dark and mysterious nature of you caught his attention at first, but your honesty and confidence drew him to you as well. As a girl, it was uncommon to be interested in the macabre but that was why he saw you in a different light than the damn extras he knew.

Unlike most who might see him as an angry broken boy and feel sorry for him, you loved the scent of misery and anger on him. He was a source of chaos, a source of chaos that sought to help others at all costs. But more so, he was a God who held fear in place. You had never been afraid before meeting him, and it was that fear that you loved most about him.

"Yeah, you think that'll work babe?" He enjoyed the provoking and in-depth conversations he could have with you. Although, they mostly revolved around his quirk and how he could improve his tactical skills on the field. Of course, he appreciated your violent descriptions of what you wished he could do to others, including how he should keep any blood he spilled on his person until you could see it.

"Tell anyone about this and I'll blast your damn face off!" While you seemed to enjoy threats like this, you knew that despite his explosive nature, he appreciated your emotional support. The fact that he could cry around you and show his vulnerable side was new to him and something he would need to get used to. Still, being cradled in your shadow of darkness away from the rest of the world brought him comfort.

Being a hero was once the most important thing to him and victory was the only thing on his mind during training. But over time, you consumed his thoughts. He found that you were the most significant thing to him and he wanted to be a better hero for you. Everything he did was to prove he could continue to be the one you could always look up to.

Your sense of adventure led you to do unusual or unorthodox things with Katsuki when you were free. "Yeah, you can hold my hand if you're scared babe," he'd repeatedly tell you when the two of you explored abandoned places around Japan or embarked on a haunted house tour. Although you always refused the offer, at the end of the night your fingers were interlaced. It was an odd feeling, but you never wanted to let his hand go.

He noticed your compassionate nature when you sat down next to him one day, he assumed it was because you had seen he was sitting by himself. Despite your uncanny appearance that drove most away, the fact that you held such concern for others that were misunderstood or discriminated against is something that he cherished.

"I can't b-believe how much information we just learned! T-This is amazing!" Izuku was the only person you thought was tolerable when he talked and scribbled in that small notebook of his. In addition, you enjoyed the conversations you had with him which usually involved heroism and morbidity. Unlike most, he accepted your interest in darker things and often asked you questions regarding your villain analysis.

"Yeah, I g-guess I've always felt different even when…when I got my quirk I s-still felt like I d-didn't deserve it." While the two of you could have conversations about your life experiences, sometimes the conversations got dark and frankly you loved it. Being able to dig into Izuku's mind and bring out his inner darkness only made you feel more connected to him.

While you didn't care what others thought of you, if anyone spoke badly about Izuku you'd often threaten them with the most morbid, most gruesome descriptions of what you'd do to them if they didn't stop. While Izuku appreciated how protective you were of him, and how you were always ready to defend him whenever necessary, he apologized on your behalf to the people you threatened.

On the other hand, you always encouraged Izuku to embrace his own strength and stand up for himself. You'd even explain the dangers of conforming to a society that should bend to your will. But deep down you knew he could show everyone what he was truly made of. In return, Izuku encouraged you to explore your own potential even if it was a touch too dark for most.

Izuku enjoyed keeping detailed notes about your quirk which was similar to Sir Nighteye's but with one small difference, you could see the past and the future when touching someone or something. Unfortunately, your quirk was one of the reasons you refused to be physically affectionate with Izuku, that is until he requested specially designed gloves to be made for you.

From the beginning, he immediately noticed the intriguing qualities that made your presence immaculate, as well as your guarded nature and limited attention to others. He grew fascinated by you, a beautifully morbid girl.

Your fashion sense was perplexing yet charming to him. "To clothe yourself in such a style from an era vastly different from our own is quite extraordinary!" he'd praise. Your Victorian-inspired wardrobes usually included chokers, fishnet stockings, and combat boots. Tenya could not help but remain in awe and stare at you whenever you entered the room, despite knowing staring was quite rude.

Tenya enjoyed that you shared his values regarding intellectual pursuits, although your conversations varied across different subjects. His favorite thing to discuss with you was literature. While he fell more on the academic side of it, he admired your knowledge of the darker aspects of literature like Grimm's Fairy Tales or Edgar Allan Poe's work.

While the two of you had different hobbies, you shared a love of acting. Whenever an opportunity came to put your acting skills to work during training exercises or a play Yuuei High put on, you went off script and implemented the use of fake blood during any death scene. This usually terrified the audience and your fellow classmates and angered Tenya who always screamed, "Clean up this mess at once!" At the end of the day, he accepted your eccentric taste.

Tenya respected your unique and unconventional date ideas, although he was still slightly uncomfortable whenever you insisted on having a picnic or taking a walk through the graveyard given you usually wanted to do this during the evening. He would grow protective and continuously urge that the two of you needed to be back on Yuuei property before curfew.

You and Tenya had an unusual sense of humor. Tenya didn't understand most jokes, and when he tried to tell one it fell flat. In addition, he hated when others laughed at him and often scolded them unlike you who held a dark sense of humor and whose jokes regularly made others feel uncomfortable. Still, he always tried to find some sense of comedy when you told your jokes even if they were inappropriate at times.

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booktomoviebrawl · 8 months

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We are not judging how bad the movie is, we are judging which adapted the book the worst. There are good movies that are bad adaptions.

Propaganda below the cut (spoilers may apply)

Tales From Earthsea:

I don't think it could have been better, but it was just so off from from the books it was mainly drawing its inspiration from (I mean, I had no interest in seeing that weird weaver guy decide to off himself in the boat, but still).

Studio Ghibli is the perfect studio to capture the Le Guin vibe and yet Goro torched it so hard for no reason

To give credit where it is due, the film has some good settings and animation. Unfortunately, its beauty is only on the surface, and it is the worst Studio Ghibli movie I’ve seen. (I’ve seen almost all of them but Earwig and the Witch.) The plot is a collage of random bits of context from the first four books of the series, as well as its own stuff. It really is not the same story at all. I may have enjoyed it more if I had seen it as a child before reading the books, but not covering all the events exactly isn’t the only issue, it’s just worse. It takes the moral complexity and sensibility of the original and turns it into a typical fantasy war between good and evil (the Japanese title even translates to Ged’s War Chronicles) with emphasis on physical violence, in which evil is personified as a goth queer-coded villain whose death resolves everything. It completely misses the point of the books, which gives no such simple answers and is more focused on the darkness within everyone than an external battle. Where is the nuance? It also whitewashes everyone: most of the characters in the book are dark-skinned, but in the movie…

I was also bitter that they did my favourite character, Tehanu/Therru, dirty. She’s supposed to be horribly scarred and disfigured on half her body and reviled by people as a monster but in the movie she’s just a pretty girl with a red mark on her face. In the books, she doesn’t appear until the fourth book, Tehanu, which takes place after Lebannen is grown up and ruling a kindgom, and in which she is a mostly-nonverbal child. But here she’s aged up and thrown into the earlier story to give the protagonist a love interest and the film has him stay with them so it can focus on their romance. Even though a plot-relevant part of his character as well is his lack of interest in women and not settling into a relationship despite the people’s wishes.

Basically, they whitewashed, heteronormatized, macho-ified, and de-nuanced the narrative, and also took out the feminism.

On top of this, trying to cram the whole series into one movie is just not a good idea, and it would have been better to just decide on one book to adapt and do more justice. And yet they still added in so much that didn’t happen. When you have that much material to cover, you don’t have time or budget to be putting other things in, mate. Turning four books into one results both in a mess. Abridgment is one thing; taking particular aspects of different parts of the timeline and combining them in different ways is another. It doesn’t make a lot of sense. It’s in an unfortunate middle area where it doesn’t follow the source material but also doesn’t give enough context that people unfamiliar with the source understand. For Earthsea fans, it’s infuriating; for others, it’s confusing. Also, why did they name it after the fifth book, which is a short story collection that it doesn’t reference whatsoever?

The failure of the movie is upsetting because the books are sooo good. Yet, it was the highest-grossing Japanese movie of the year, and did win a couple awards… The Bunshun Kiichigo awards for “Worst Director” and “Worst Movie”.

The Golden Compass:

The Golden Compass isn't even the title of the book! It's called Northern Lights! And now there are editions of the book with the wrong title on them. Enfuriating. Anyways, the movie tries to follow the books story and fails completely because they don't kill off a character because they wanted a happy ending when that character being dead is crucial to the story in the third book. Also they made Mrs. Coulter blonde. Unforgivable.

They remove the ending of the book so it has a happy ending and I guess leave it for a better beginning to the second movie, only of course they never made a second movie cause the first one bombed. They also rearranged the order of the events, and, more importantly, made it lose its bite by removing darker elements and removing explicit critique of the catholic church by making the antagonistic magisterium way more generic

Terrible movie. The acting is awful, especially Mrs. Coulter, whose character in the books is chilling because of her smooth, sweet nature that belies a deep sinister calucating mind. Plus they butchered the story and took out any mention of the church as the main villain for fear of offending Christians. This ultimately defeats the purpose of the book. I hate this movie so much it's unreal

#tournament poll #the golden compass #his dark materials #tales from earthsea #earthsea #a wizard of earthsea #northern lights

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emma-frxst · 7 months

Text

The Implicit Demand for Proof (15. End)

Series masterlist

Pairing: Detective David Loki x reader

Summary: you, a forensic psychologist, get called in on a high priority child abduction case in Conyers, PA. What happens when you catch feelings for the mysterious detective Loki?

Warnings: spoilers for the movie, movie level violence, slight change of events, language.

Sad this series has come to an end but it’s about damn time lol! I enjoyed it and I hope y’all did too! It’s the end..But fret not dear friends!! If you love our fave detective and forensic psychologist!Reader, I’m going to be writing a continuation of this series! My new fic Choking on Circumstances will be out soon! Check my masterlist for more deets! (Saying deets like I’m in the mid 2000s) if you want more Loki content feel free to send me a request and check my masterlist!

Reblogs and comments help me the most! Let me know your thoughts, even if it’s only a keysmash. Let me know if you want or off the tag list. Thanks for reading, commenting, and supporting me!

Tags: loki only tags: @spideyrights @sataninsatin @go-commander-kim @severuined @romancries @eclecticfashionbookszipper @fagen @sizzlingcloudmentality @mottergirl99 @ @1ivinqdeadqir1main @new-romanticz1989 @kittycat-kisses @in2meijasworld 2@diegos-sad-chick @sharp-cheekbones-locked @ochoaslvr @captgrim @buck-this-nasty @shycollectionwolfstuff @in2meijasworld

(Also tagging some others just this once who’ve commented/ liked/ reblogged this series to let you know it’s complete for real this time! Let me know if you want to still be tagged for Loki stuff!)

After checking for Keller Dover everywhere- his house, the liquor stores, the church the family attended, and the creepy small town survival gear store- he was no where to be found. You even showed people his picture and asked if they’d seen him, but no luck.

Where in the hell else could he have been??

Ugh

Poor Alex Jones..Can’t believe Keller would do that to him- Wait.

A sick feeling came over you, the kind of feeling you got when looking a murderer in the eyes, or when you get a confession in the interrogation room from someone you know is guilty. That feeling.

Maybe Dover was having a PTSD episode, a psychotic break, or worse, a murderous rampage- His missing daughter driving him to the brink of insanity. He always blamed Alex for the girl’s disappearance, but now that he was done with Alex, maybe he got it in his mind to go after Holly Jones next.

Now knowing what Keller was capable of, you jumped in the car and drive out to the Jones’ residence. You didn’t want Holly to end up like her son.

You called Loki, seeing if he would meet you at the Jones’s place. Better to have a partner in these types of situations.

It rang and rang until it went to voicemail.

Weird.

He usually picked up on the first couple of rings.

That’s okay though. You’d just go by yourself, proceeding with extra caution.

You never thought more of Keller Dover than a concerned parent, in light of recent events, maybe Loki’s obsession with the man wasn’t completely unfounded.

As you headed to the Jones residence, that sick feeling only grew. Nagging at you from the inside.

You tired to call Loki again.

No answer.

Your next step was to call O’Malley, maybe he knew why Loki wasn’t answering.

“O’Malley.” He answered quickly.

“Have you heard from Loki recently?”

“I sent him to notify Holly Jones about Alex about, oh-“ he paused. “A little bit ago.”

Your stomach dropped, your mind automatically assumed the worst. Not that David couldn’t handle himself, but that you tended to worry.

“Why, is everything alright?” He asked,

“I can’t reach Loki, phones going to voicemail. I’ve been searching for Keller Dover, I thought Dover might’ve gone for Holly or something. I’m gonna go over there and check.”

“Let me know if I need to send a unit over.”

“Thanks captain.”

You decided to hightail it to the Jones’ residence. Safely of course, the unfamiliar Pennsylvania roads combined with the darkness and the sleet made driving difficult.

As you were driving, your mind was on Loki. Of course you were thinking about Anna, but in the back of your mind was the earlier unfinished conversation between you and Loki. All the ‘what if’ scenarios swirled around in your brain. What did he want to talk to you about? It was killing you. You thought there was a chance Loki liked you, but he was hard to read. At this point there’s no denying your crush on the man. You didn’t know how much longer you’d be in Conyers, maybe you should rack up the courage to make a move.

The tiniest bit of flashing blue light caught your attention from down the road.

The lights looked like they were heading towards you.

They were.

They were police lights.

But they weren’t big lights that sat on top like a squad car, no. They were the kind like on a detective’s car.

The car was going fast; recklessly so.

Erratic and urgent.

Before you could get a good look at it, the car zoomed past you, barely giving you time to think.

That wasn’t Loki’s car, was it?

The little bit of it you saw, it did look like it. The pitch black of the Pennsylvania back country made it particularly difficult to see.

You pulled out your phone to call him again.

When it went straight to voicemail, you knew you couldn’t ignore your gut feeling any longer.

Fuck it.

You whipped the car around to follow the other car. It was so far ahead you couldn’t catch up, the faint blue lights your only guide.

Your pulse pounded in your ears as you followed who you were now sure was Loki.

Where are you going in such a hurry, Loki? And why? Why won’t you call me back?

You went ahead and called O’Malley and had him send a unit out to the Jones’ residence. But that was really all you could do, besides hope and pray everything was alright.

Loki barged into the ER with a limp Anna Dover in his arms.

His desperate cries for help rang throughout the hospital, demanding the attention of the doctors and pulling the heartstrings of all who were near.

Once she was safely in the hands of the doctors and his adrenaline wore off, he felt white hot heat radiating from his head.

His was vision blurry from the blood in his eyes, or maybe it was from the pain.

The pain.

The fucking pain.

It was a burning, stinging pain that hit him like a ton of bricks.

There was a sharp ringing that invaded his eardrums and he suddenly felt lightheaded, but he needed to stay awake..he needed to move his car from the ER entrance and needed to tell the captain what happened and needed to make sure Anna was okay, and needed (y/n) to..(y/n).. (y/n).

The last thing he remembered was mumbling something to the nurse before his vision faded to black.

You shifted in your seat and the old chair creaked under your weight. The nurse had offered to bring in a extra bed for you, but you declined, not wanting to take away form someone who really needed it.

But your ass going numb convinced you that you should’ve at least asked for a better chair.

Loki had been moved out of the ER and into a room for observation.

He laid there all bandaged up, sleeping..well he was unconscious, but saying he was sleeping made you feel better.

Loki wasn’t one of those people who looked peaceful when he slept, his permanent scowl still ingrained on his face.

That beautiful, pouty scowl.

Staring at Loki, you felt a tinge of guilt in your bones. You should’ve figured out it was Holly Jones all along, maybe you could’ve been there with Loki and things would’ve turned out differently.

The forensics team was able to speculate what happened based on the crime scene and, upon further digging, found evidence of dozens of child abductions.

Loki could’ve died. If the bullet went just a few inches over, it would’ve been a whole different story.

You quickly shook the thought form your head, he was here and he was okay. Joy and Anna were alive. Although it was almost a happy ending, it definitely wasn’t the ending to this case you expected.

You pulled the car to a screeching halt outside the ER entrance, Loki’s car still sitting outside. Lights on and doors open.

Shit shit shit

You barged in the doors, making a beeline for the front desk, but the commotion of doctors working on a dark haired man caught your eye.

Your stomach dropped.

Loki

He wasn’t conscious.

There was so much blood all over his face.

You closed the distance between you and them in two seconds flat.

“Is he okay?! Whats going on?!” You pleaded with the doctor to let you know something.

“A gunshot wound to the head, just passed out on us.”

A gunshot wound. To the head.

“Is he going to be okay?!” You asked, panicked.

“It only grazed him. We will keep you updated. Now, Ma’am step back please, let us work.”

You stepped back from the medical staff surrounding the detective, giving them their space.

“Please be ok Loki, please” you whispered.

You felt like the air had been knocked out of you. He can’t die, not like this.

You stood there in a daze, watching the doctor and nurses buzz around Loki. You lifted a trembling hand to brush the hair from your face and noticed how clammy your hands were. Suddenly, you were aware of a tightness in your chest and tears pricking the corners of your eyes.

A panic attack.

You tried to force your feet to carry you outside, the cold air would be good to dissolve your panic, but they felt like they were glued to the floor.

When your patients were in crisis you reminded them to do things that were in their control.

Maybe you should take your own advice.

Forcing your brain back into work mode, You turned to go move the cars from the ER entrance and take care of things, but you stopped dead in your tracks noticing the little girl two beds down from Loki.

Anna.

“Are you sure about the bed?” The nurse asked as she came in to check on the detective.

“Yeah I’m sure, thank you though.”

“If you change your mind let me know.”

“Thanks.” You replied, thankful for her kindness and her gentleness with David.

She’s nice.

“So how long have you all been together?” She asked, her innocent effort to make small talk turning awkward quickly.

“Oh we’re not…uh..” you stuttered, feeling your cheeks flush

“Oh I’m sorry, I just thought since he asked for you..that..well you know...” She said, giving you a small smile.

“He asked for me?”

“Yeah. Last thing he said before he passed out.”

You couldn’t help the grin that plastered itself onto your face and those pesky butterflies that formed in your gut.

2:14 AM.

David stirred from his slumber, a groan escaping his lips. He cracked an eye open, the harsh hospital lights making him cringe.

Hey! He was alive!

He still had ten working fingers and toes. Arms and legs still worked. He was alive and intact, thankful he was in one piece. It was a real miracle he avoided a car crash on the way here.

His fingers brushed over bandages on his injury. In the back of his mind, David knew he’d end up with a massive headache, but every beat of his heart sending pain to his wound was a little much for him. He looked around for the call nurse button. His heart skipped a beat when he looked to his left.

“(Y/n)” he whispered. There she was asleep in the hospital chair. That familiar fuzzy feeling flooded his chest at full force. What was she doing here? How did she know he was here?

He chuckled slightly at the sight of her. How she was able to sleep in such a cramped position, he didn’t know, and how she was able to look so adorable doing so was also a mystery.

(Y/n) was only a moment’s distraction before the throbbing pain returned to his head, he smashed the call nurse button, the commotion awaking (y/n).

Startled, she shot straight up out of the chair. In the few seconds it took her to recognize that it was indeed Loki who pushed the call button and not that he was dying or some other medical emergency, her eyes grew wide and her smile widened.

“You’re awake!” You exclaimed.

“(Y/n), it was Holly!” Loki said, trying to sit up, a groan escaping his lips as he did so. “Where’s Anna? Did she make it? You gotta get the CSU out to the Jones’ right now- she shot me-“

“Loki everything’s okay!” You assured him as you scurried to his bedside, gently grabbing his shoulders and making him lay back down.

Classic Loki, mind always on the case even when he’s laying in the hospital.

“Anna made it, she’s gonna recover. I already took care of everything.” You said, sitting on the edge of the bed.

“You did? How did you-“

“You need to rest.” You interrupted him, smoothing out his blanket, your fingers brushed his- only for a moment.

In that moment, your eyes locked and only then did David truly take a deep breath to calm down.

“How did you know?” He asked.

“I didn’t” you explained. “I was searching for Dover and was worried he’d gone to Holly to do what he did to Alex. I passed you on the way and followed your car back here. The scene has been processed and everything. We can get your statement in the morning, Loki.”

David breathed out a heavy sigh of relief

“Thanks, (l/n) You’re the best.”

“Thanks.” You said softly, unable to hide your blushing at Loki’s compliment.

“Just tell me what happened.”

Before the two of you could exchange any more words, the nurse came scurrying in to the room.

She upped his morphine dosage and cleaned his bandage, then made sure the two of you comfortable. Once again you praised the heavens for her kindness.

Once she left, David went into detail about what happened.

You listened intently, hanging on to his every word.

When he finished, you dropped the eye contact you and David were holding.

“I’m sorry, I should’ve figured out that it was Holly Jones sooner, maybe you wouldn’t gotten hurt and-“

“Hey-hey. it’s not your fault.” he said gently, reaching out to take your hand.

Maybe it was the morphine or the near death experience, but either way David was feeling bold.

Your heart could’ve stopped in that moment, was now a good time to confess your feelings? Should you?

You opted to offer him a small smile instead, you figured he’d been through enough tonight.

“I’m just glad you’re okay.” You told him.

David caressed the back of your knuckles with his thumb sending pleasant chills through you.

“Me too.” He replied.

“So do you need anything? Anything I can do?” You offered.

“I keep a emergency bag in my desk-“

“Got it!” You enthusiastically hopped up, ready to help in any way you could, but David didn’t let go of your hand.

“Wait! Don’t leave. Please.” You stopped in your tracks, glad he wanted you to stay.

“Let O’Malley bring my bag. Please stay.” David begged, those sad blue eyes got you, but he didn’t have to beg. You’d do anything he asked of you.

You sat back down on the edge of the bed.

“Thank you.” He said, his eyes growing heavy.

“Get some rest ok? I’ll be right here.” You said, smoothing his blanket out once again. When you got up to sit back in the chair, you could feel David’s eyes on you.

“What?” You inquired.

“Nothin’.” He murmured, only flashing you a small smile.

You flicked the overhead light off so you could both rest.

You’d definitely tell him how you felt in the morning.

David’s eyes lingered on (y/n) as she got up to turn off the light. He should’ve told her how he felt right then.

“What?” She questioned, catching him staring.

David hesitated.

Just tell her, David. Come on.

“Nothin’.” He responded with a tired voice and heavy eyes. He dropped the conversation, opting to let her rest. They’d been through enough tonight. They’d talk in the morning.

You made a trip to the cafeteria for breakfast while David showered and changed clothes.

“Hey, hey, look at you, all clean and such.” You praised Loki, coming into the room with coffee and bagels.

David chuckled at your remarks.

“Thanks. Hey, look at this-“

You sat on the bed next to David, leaning in to see the paper.

Barry Milland AKA Alex Jones reunited with family after 26 years

“Poor Barry.” You mumbled.

Lokis eyes stayed glued to the paper, but yours wandered up to his wound.

He looked a lot better this morning and was doing much better.

“It’s rude to stare you know.” Loki teased, cracking a sly smile.

“Yeah, well, you look like shit.” You teased back, a cheesy grin plastered itself across your face.

You tried to hold in your amusement as Loki gave you a funny look, but couldn’t help it as giggles escaped your lips.

Then, Loki started laughing too.

It was a good laugh. A real one.

After laughing too long at your own joke, you looked over at David, only to find him already looking at you.

Loki’s expression was soft, his usual scowl nowhere to be found.

“What?” You questioned.

Loki, seemingly mesmerized by you, was at a loss for words. His brain? Total mush.

You noticed his eyes moving between your eyes and lips, searching for a sign.

You leaned in, closing the gap between you and the detective- Loki’s sign that yes you wanted this. You wanted this since the moment you laid eyes on him. Finally.

Your lips connected oh so gently but in a way that sent sparks down your spine. The kiss was soft and-

“Detective Loki? Agent (l/n)?”

The two of you pulled apart quickly

There was Grace, Anna, Joy and Nancy all standing at the door.

Loki cleared his throat and you both tired to act like she didn’t interrupt.

“I hope we’re not intruding.”

Loki shook his head and mumbled “no” even though they obviously were. But you knew it’s be good for him to see the girls.

It particularly warmed your heart hearing her refer to Loki as a hero.

They continued talked for a minute, well, Grace Keller did, Loki was a man of few words. You had the thought to weigh in, but you couldn’t concentrate, those damn butterflies in your stomach were doing somersaults.

“Thank you two, for everything.”

Grace said and turned to leave, but stopped at the door, breaking down in tears. She tried convincing you and Loki Keller was a good man, but you and Loki exchanged knowing looks.

Not prepared to face the awkwardness of the situation, you couldn’t bring yourself to look at the detective after she left.

Lucky for you, Loki suddenly grabbed your chin, tilting your head towards him and his lips captured yours in a hungry and needy kiss.

A stark contrast to your kiss a minute prior, fire burned through your chest as your lips moved in sync with David’s.

Loki moved his hand to cup your cheek and you absolutely melted into his touch.

You broke apart from David, breathless and with a smile on your face.

“Sorry I didn’t do that sooner.” David said, his thumb stroking your cheekbone,

“Yeah me too.” You replied, still high from the bliss of your first kiss with the handsome detective.

“Look, (l/n), I uh-“

“Hey..Call me (f/n)” you interrupted, sad that David removed his hand from your cheek.

“Okay, (f/n),” he said. “I’m uh not too good with feelings and shit, but I uh, I really like you.”

“I like you too.” You gushed.

Davids eyes lit up, almost like a kid on Christmas.

“You do?” He questioned.

“Yes David, I do.” You gave him a reassuring smile. “And that kiss told me all I needed to know.”

David blushed.

David Loki blushing, you didn’t think such a thing could happen.

“Glad you enjoyed it.” He said, a smug smile replacing his blushing cheeks.

Your turn to blush.

“How do you uh, feel about long distance? I mean I’ve never done it before- but I’d be down to..you know.

“Me neither, but I think we make a pretty good team, so I think we can make it work.”

Yes!! He wanted to make this work. Now the butterflies in your belly weren’t just doing somersaults, it was more like the butterfly Olympics down there.

“Yeah?” He questioned, giddy like a child.

“Yeah.” You assured him, giving his arm a squeeze.

The day shift nurse came in to finally discharge David. She sent him home with a dozen care info papers and aftercare instructions, none of which David was likely to read or follow through with.

“Let’s get you home.” You said. “At least for a bit.” You knew Loki would not stop searching for Keller Dover. He was determined, you’d give him that. You also weren’t gonna let Loki drive home by himself after being shot in the head, even though he insisted he was fine.

“Yeah. Home.” He agreed.

David’s thoughts began to race while you began to gather your things.

Loki was hopeful, for the first time in a long time. He had a feeling that, eventually, home would be wherever (y/n) was.

END.

#detective loki #detective loki x reader #David loki x reader #David loki imagine #detective loki imagine #prisoners 2013 #David Loki #mine #kacceywrites #TIDFP

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yes-i-am-happyaspie · 11 months

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Hiiii!!! How're you doing? Good I hope!! ahh I'm seeing these amazing reblogs on your page and with College and my F1 brainrot I haven't been able to read Irondad fics 😭😭😭 is it okay if I ask you to give me some recommendations? preferable whump or sickfics (with fluff, lots of fluff) 👉��👈🏼 or like which fics did you enjoy the most this year/past 6 months 💙💙💙🩵🩵🩵🩵

Sorry for the delay in answering! I just needed to find the right time to really sit down and make a *good* list. Haha. Here is a list of what I've read recently and enjoyed a lot. Some of it fits better into your criteria than others, and some of them are still in progress, but here's the list! Don't forget to kudos and comment!!

[fic list with links below the cut!]

Paradigm shift by Bergen (T) In Progress (I love where this one is going! Lot's of fun surprises)

Peter got a Stark phone when he was ten. Adrian took him to a big store with lots of TV screens that all played the same video of Tony Stark declaring to the world that he was Iron Man. They ducked behind the microwaves, both of them giggling as Adrian stuffed the phone under Peter’s sweater.

They walked right out the door without tripping the alarm, and Adrian bought him ice cream to celebrate

After his parents die, Peter is taken in by the Toomes’ family. Things slowly, then quickly spiral out of control. All Adrian wants is to take revenge on Tony Stark. All Peter wants is to do the right thing. Why is that so much harder than expected?

Spaghetti and Red Wine by arthropodwithapen (M) In Progress (Lots of good whump moments but also some fluff and angst!)

After Peter's precarious position goes from bad to worse time and time again, he is left all alone with nothing but his anger and resentment at the world to keep him company. He wonders how much more he can take and whether the growing grudge between him and the Avengers will be enough to finish him off for good. Will he be able to complete his mission in time? Does he even want to anymore?

Of course. He is Spider-Man and he has a job to do. And he'll do it even if it kills him. For everyone else's sake.

Strands in the Rope series by Sara (ctrsara) @ctrsara (T) Complete (this whole series and its follow-up are super great. Lots of angst, misunderstandings, and of course, a whole ton of fluff)

A collection of insights starting after the events of Homecoming, mostly from Tony's perspective. The relationship that Tony and Peter had built by the time Infinity War happened (or not - I'm not a big fan) wasn't built on any big world-ending events, but on countless lab sessions, movie nights, smaller emergencies, and conversations. All of these combined to form a bond between them just as strong as blood ties, and just as unbreakable. I feel like we missed out on all that on-screen, so I can never read enough stories that would maybe cover that period. There is a follow-up series called, Unbroken Strands.

Please, Help Me by Muikelle (Not Rated) In Progress (So. Much. Whump.)

Mj watched as they pride apart the car. Her car. The only car she had, the one Tony had gifted her as a graduation gift. The car she and Peter first- well. Anyways. Then Peter was being moved out of it, and slow motion had taken over once more. She was standing to go get to him, he needed her. She needed him. But a man stopped her, told her to sit down, or something of the likes. She was pissed off when they closed the ambulance door and finally took off with her inside, she didn't need to be in there, she needed to be with Peter.

Or Mj and Peter get into a car crash when coming home from spring break.

Iron Dad: Coming Home by JAWorley (T) Complete (I just started reading this but so far it's really great!)

Cold, tired, hungry, and homeless, 14 year old Peter Parker gets taken in by Adrian Toomes and his crew. Mr. Toomes is a great guy who teaches Peter how to survive on the streets, and Peter loves him for it, despite that Mr. Toomes hates Peter’s hero Iron Man and says Tony Stark is out to line his own pockets by stepping on the little guy. When Iron Man appears one day and presents Spider Man with an opportunity too good to pass up, Peter finds himself having to make up his mind about what ‘helping the little guy’ really means. Peter also begins to find out some ugly truths about the things Adrian Toomes and his crew are making, and has to decide if the safety Toomes offers is worth throwing Spider Man’s mission and morals out the window. Can he find that same safety with Mr. Stark? So much of Peter’s future hangs in the balance and depends on the choices he makes. An anti-hero and an anti-villain are just one step over the same line in a different direction.

Double-sided Coin by kingdomfaraway @asyouleft (G) Complete (I have never read anything like this before and it was so so good!)

The Iron Man rarely had assignments that weren’t direct kill orders.

Usually he was given a weapon and a target, with the strict instructions of leaving no one alive, target and witness alike. They didn’t expect him to make too much conversation, to integrate himself into the person’s life, to find a way to gain the target’s trust. He was not a spy. He was a machine made to kill, to take down threats to HYDRA, and to preserve the Greater Good.

When the assignment came from high up to kidnap, not kill, a young boy, Peter Parker, he was a little baffled.

(or How to Make a Deadly Assassin Adopt You: A HYDRA!Tony fic)

How to Get Banned from Monaco (again) by niniblack @niniblack (T) Complete (This is so funny and so perfectly in character. I love it.)

Tony texts Rhodey before they leave for Monaco:

two rules for this trip

don’t let Peter out of your sight

don’t let him do anything Pepper would get mad about

Rhodey: that second one doesn’t leave many options

will you make me a lot of pancakes (when we meet again?) by Peng_Peng (G) Complete (This is some great Ironfam whump, right here!)

Five times hurting you + Five times receiving your kindness.

Peter knew from the first time they met that the kid wasn't going to like him. But Peter could do that. She was his first and only sister after all.

A New Point of View by waitingondaisies (T) Complete (This one is si so fun with lots of funny and serious moments. It's a good balance)

Peter rushes out of school to join Tony in fighting the aliens that appear over New York, leaving behind the problems that plague his life.

He ends up leaving them behind for far longer than expected when an alien substance causes him to swap bodies with Tony. They agree to live each other’s lives to keep the mishap under wraps, giving each of them an up-close and personal view of the other’s hidden problems.

Peter will come to learn that Tony’s life isn’t as glamorous as it appears, and Tony will come face to face with all of the things that Peter never told him about: bullies, unfair teachers, and economic struggles.

Saving the World Does Not a Hero Make by Azure_K_Mello (M) Complete (This isn't an Irondad fic so much as it's an older MCU/X-Men Crossover but I read it again recently because I love it so much)

Years ago, Tony Stark created a brutal weapon. Even when he was the Merchant of Death, he couldn’t bring himself to put it on the market. But, when S.H.I.E.L.D. learned of its existence, they wanted it. Deciding Spider-Man was the weakest link in Iron Man’s armor, Captain America, Black Widow and Falcon were sent to apprehend him — hoping he either knew where the weapon was or that they could trade him to Tony for it.

But, apprehending a fifteen-year-old is more correctly be termed as kidnapping. And what S.H.I.E.L.D. called interrogation was, in actuality, torture. And, when push came to shove, Peter had to save himself when no one else was going to help.

And my shameless self-promotion...

Threenager by happyaspie (G) Incomplete

While on patrol, Peter is struck by a spell that turns him into a toddler. Or mostly into a toddler. His memories, intellect, and experiences are still intact. Unfortunately, that makes being trapped in a toddler's body, with a toddler's motor skills that much harder. His legs are too short, and his fingers are too uncooperative. He can’t ride in the car without a super claustrophobic car seat. He can’t even wash his hands without help and it's all very frustrating. Between the teasing, Tony does his absolute best to help.

I could add so much more to this list, but I think I'll stop here. Haha. As far as sickfics go, @sicktember is coming up soon and I know *I* will have plenty to add to the genera during that event!! So be on the lookout for that, my friend! And Thank you so much for asking me to compile this list!!

#asked and answered #marvel fic rec #irondad fic rec #irondad and spiderson #peter parker #tony stark #spider-man #iron man #mcu #marvel #x-men #fanfic rec list #irondad #spiderson #mcu fanfiction #irondad fic recs

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