#none of this is to say i think these characters will be addressed or brought back

[imtryingbuck]

Told you I’ll always come back

~ gif not mine credit to owner ~

Pairing: Bucky Barnes x fem!Reader

Summary: 4 years ago Y/n was Bucky’s fiancé and the team thought she betrayed them

Word count: 7,772

Warnings: angst. reader can teleport ~sorta~. reader also rolls her eyes like a trillion times. major character death. swearing. pregnancy. small mention of child birth. mention of cheating. tiny mention of sexual assault. mention of Sharon (I really need to get off the sharon-hate train) guns. gunshot wounds. sad all around

Translation: голубица - dove (if wrong please let me know)

Masterlist

When Fury rang her begging asking for her to come back for one final mission, she agreed with a condition, she’d bring her old team with her. Fury accepted.

That had been two weeks ago.

Landing back in New York brought back many memories, some good - some bad and some she wish she couldn’t remember.

“Hi can you take me to Avengers Tower please?” Getting into the cab she tried desperately to calm down her nerves.

The sky was a visual of her emotions.

Dull.

Standing outside the huge impressive building she felt like she was going to be sick. It’s been four years since she was last here.

“Hi I have an appointment with Director Fury at 12” 

“That’s fine, take a seat and I’ll let him know you’ve arrived”

“Thank you” She didn’t listen to Haley the receptionist, choosing to stand instead.

Fury came down not three minutes later with a small smile on his face. “I’ve missed you - no touching I know”

“Let’s get this over with Nick. Sooner the better”

The man knew not to try and annoy her anymore so he lead her to the elevators, going up.

Her stomach squeezed tight at the sight of her former team huddled on one side of the table, with their back to her.

“Take a seat” Fury whispered in her ear.

The moment that they saw her they were already shouting out their protests, she ignored them and listened to Fury by taking a seat to sit in.

“Calm down everyone. Now!” Fury slams his hand on the table causing everyone to fall silent. “Now, Y/n has agreed to help us with a missi-“

“We won’t work with her Fury.” Steve interrupts.

“You have no other option. No one else will or can help other then Y/n”

“We’ll just do it ourselves” Tony shrugs.

“No. This is happening, if none of you can play nice then you’ll be sacked.”

“You can’t sack us” Steve says with a scoff.

“I can and I will. Now Y/n I sent you over the details of what we’re up against, did you read it?”

“Yes”

“Your team, have you briefed them on everything?”

“Yes Fury, and yes they’re happy to help”. She rolls her eyes at Tony who mocks what she had just said.

“You said in the email that you’ve already paired people up from both teams, do you want to share it?” Like her Fury completely ignores Tony’s childish behaviour.

Sliding over a piece of paper towards her former boss and friend she continues to talk “When you see them in training and you don’t agree with my decision feel free to change it-”

“Oh we will do sweetheart”

Once again ignoring Tony “You said that my team will be allowed to stay here, in the tower?”

“Yeah Peppers done your rooms up herself, you should be grateful”

Turning her head towards the man she saw as a father figure not that long ago “When I see her I’ll give her my thanks.” Sighing she addressed the rest “You have a problem with me, so you will take it out on me. Not my team, but me. Do not think for one second that just because of our history together you can treat my guys like shit. They’re good, hardworking fighters. Fury we have two weeks to train for this mission and if I find out my team isn’t being respected or treated fairly I will not hesitate to pull them and myself out, is that understood?”

Fury’s eyebrow raise as he nods “I completely understand Y/n, welcome home”.

“My team will be here tomorrow at 12, I’ll see you then”.

“Don’t you want to know what room you’re going to be in?” Fury asked.

“No, I’m not staying here.”

“Where?”

“Not here. See you tomorrow Fury”.

Making a beeline for the elevator she takes her leave, it’s once she’s outside of the building she gasps for air.

After her shower and nighttime routine she climbs into bed, her head was throbbing but all she was hoping for was a good night sleep.

It didn’t happen.

“Tony splash me with water one more time you’ll regret it!” She laughs.

“What are you going to do huh?”

“I’ll-I’ll smash up all your vinyl albums”

“Okay okay I’ll stop”

•••

“Steve wait up I’ve only got little legs”

“Sorry.”

“Can’t you just carry me?”

“Nope, come on we’re nearly there.”

•••

“Y/n will you marry me?”

“Yes, Bucky I’ll marry you”

•••

“Natty get your bum out of bed”

“Don’t want too”

“Okay, I’ll come and cuddle with you”

“Yess!”

•••

“Y/n it’s an emergency come quick”

“Sam what’s happening?”

“Come!”

She walked in on Tony fast asleep on Bucky’s shoulder.

•••

“Wand I love you, I’m gonna marry you instead of Bucky”

“Y/n/n your drunk”

“I know”

“Why you sad for?”

“I don’t know”

•••

“Bruce turn into Hulk so I can beat him up”

“Why do you want to beat him up?”

“Because… leave me alone”

•••

“Thor guess what?”

“What?”

“Your so beautiful and I hope you so much happiness”

“La-Lady Y/n,give me a hug”

•••

Opening the door, her heart broke at the sight of-

Gasping for breath, she sat up in bed. It’s been almost two years since she last had a dream turned nightmare about her former team.

The red numbers on the clock stated it was 4:33 in the morning, laying back down she grabbed the remote and turned on the telly, there was no way she was getting any more sleep now.

Getting to the Tower a little bit earlier, she sat in her car waiting for her team to arrive. An hour later a text message popped up from her colleague and confidant stating they had arrived she got out of her car.

Greeting them all and introducing them to Fury who said to her.

“You could of come inside you know”

“I didn’t want to” Leaving him to sigh in response.

Introductions between both teams were done and it was straight onto business.

“So what powers do you lot have then?” Tony asks.

“None. We’re all human, Marley’s a witch though” Douglas your closest friend replied.

“Oh. So why are you here if you don’t have abilities?”

“We follow Y/n wherever she goes”

“Why? She’s a tra-“

“Tony enough” Fury interrupted. “Now on to business, the organisation going by The Lords have been on our radar for quite some time now, recently they’ve been getting more cocky” Fury turns around to face the screen, image after image of buildings up in flames, innocent people covered in blood, dead bodies littering the streets were shown to them. 

“We need to have them stopped. In just over two weeks they’ve planned to attack a government base, but we’re going to be taking the fight to them.”

“How?” Colleen - the woman who saved Y/n’s life ten years ago - asks.

“We’ve got their location-“

“Why don’t you just get them” Douglas nods his head to the team on the other side of the table “just to drop a bomb on the bad guys?”

“We need them alive so we can question them”

“Okay… but why all this man power?” Marco says.

“What is it with you lot always asking questions” Nat says with an eye roll.

Y/n sighed, looked at Fury “Marco has a point but I already know the answer, so I’ll be the one that fills him in. We should probably start the training, everyone knows what this missio-sorry I need to take this”. Getting up she answers her phone “Hi baby-“

Bucky hasn’t been able to take his eyes off of her from the moment she sat down. Her hair is so much shorter than it used to be, it suits her. A long jagged scar went across her cheek was new, he wondered how it happened. Seeing her sit there hands placed in her lap, her shoulders tensed up and a blank expression on her face makes him conflicted on his emotions towards the woman he was planning on spending the rest of his life with.

His heart tinged with sadness when he saw the small incrusted diamond ring with two small love hearts sitting on her finger, the finger his ring for her use to take up residence.

He wishes he could take her hand in his so he could rub his thumb over her knuckles, just like he use to whenever she was in that position as he knew it meant she was uncomfortable.

But he knew she didn’t have the right to his affection anymore not after she betr-

His thoughts are cut off as she stands, bringing her phone to her ear, greeting the person on the other end of the line with “Hi baby”.

A scowl made its way onto his face. Not that he had any right to do so.

“How are you? And don’t say you’re okay because I know better love” Douglas’s rough Scottish accent comes from next to her.

“I’m… I’ll be fine Doug, the sooner we’re done with this the sooner everything will be okay”

“Yo-you don’t have to do this, me and the team will tak-“

“Don’t. Everything will be fine after I’ve done this Dougie, you and the guys will be fine.”

They sit in silence. Doug didn’t like the plan she was going through with but he’s known her for years and knows she isn’t going to change her mind.

After training with the Avengers Y/n left, despite Fury telling her to stay and have dinner with them. Douglas left straight after the awkwardness of dinner was done, and being the only person who knew where she was staying, he headed straight there.

She brought this house for her and Bucky to live in after they retired, which they both agreed would be just before they married.

The home was beautiful, four bedrooms with two bathrooms, a large living room, kitchen with a pantry off the side of it, dinning room, an office that she had already planned to turn into a man cave for him. Two car garage, backyard was huge with a beautiful willow tree - as soon as she saw it she knew she had to have the house.

Bucky never knew about the house, she wanted to surprise him. It never happened obviously, and with a heavy heart she rented the house out.

The previous renters contract was up a month before she got the phone call from Fury, and there was no way she was going to stay in the tower. So she went to the place she wanted to call home.

“Have you spoke to them?” Doug asked breaking the silence.

“Yeah, driving Fran up the wall”. She laughs causing him to join in.

“She loves them though” He chuckles.

Nodding with a soft smile, “You should get back it’s getting late, I’ll see you tomorrow”

“You’re right” Standing up he pulls her into a hug, kissing her forehead he whispers “Don’t push me away love, not now”

That night she had the same dream as the night before, waking up at the exact same time again.

A week had been and gone, training was going good for both teams; apart for her. None of the Avengers held back, her body throbbed and ached after each session.

Today was the only day where Fury had to step in, seeing Y/n struggle against Wanda’s powers, he had to stop it.

Wanda had Y/n pinned against the wall and slowly dragging her up it, the whole room went quiet. The Avengers moved closer to the redhead whilst Y/n’s team moved closer to her.

“Mar-Marley don’t!” Y/n managed to rasp out to her friend. 

Marley though small was deadly, her powers being similar to that of Wanda’s “She’s crushing your chest!” She shot back.

“I-it’s ok-okay”

“Wanda put her down!” Fury demanded.

“No. She’s a traitor, she betrayed all of us”

“Wanda!” Fury started to get nervous for the woman being pinned to the wall.

When Wanda’s eyes shot towards Marley, Y/n grew scared. She didn’t want either one of them hurting each other. “Marl-Marley stop! T-that’s an or-order!”

“She’s hurting you. And she’s lying!”

“No she isn’t. She’s a traitor” Tony shouted.

“Admit it and I’ll let you go голубица” Wanda smiles.

Even with the pain of her chest being crushed it didn’t hurt nearly as much as the pet name slipping from her former best friends lips.

“Admit. It. Y/n.” Everyone aside from Wanda flinched at the sound of Y/n’s ribs breaking.

Y/n bit the inside of her cheek, hard enough to draw blood. She wasn’t going to give Wanda the satisfaction of seeing or hearing the pain she was going through. She held Wanda gaze, both women refusing to backdown.

“D-Doug…ge-get Marley out of h-here”.

She sees in the corner of her eye Douglas struggling to pull Marley with him. “If the little girl wants to play, let’s do it” Wanda says breaking eye contact with Y/n to look towards Marley.

“No! N-no don’t!”

“Admit it then Y/n, admit to your team that you’re nothing but a liar and a traitor” Wanda screams.

“It wasn’t her!” Fury shouted, taking in a shuddering breath afterwards.

“What?” Steve’s eyes bounce from Y/n to Fury.

“She wasn’t the one who betrayed us.”

“Liar!” Wanda screams again just as she brings Y/n’s body away from the wall, throwing her back into it.

“I’m not lying Maximoff! Now let her go!” Fury shouted.

“Sh-she betrayed u-us!” Y/n’s heart broke at the sight of the tears filling up in Wanda’s eyes.

“She didn’t lass.” Douglas says as he still struggles to gain somewhat of control over Marley. 

The hold on Y/n was released as she drops to the floor gasping for air. Her team run straight over to her as well as Fury who looks over at the other team with disappointment in his eyes.

“I-I’m okay” Y/n mumbles before succumbing to the darkness. 

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” Dr Cho asks when she sees Y/n trying to get out of the bed.

“I need to le-leave”

“You’ve just had your breast bone fractured and several ribs broken Y/n. You need to rest”

“I’m leavi-“

“No you’re not love, you need to stay” Douglas speaks from the doorway.

“I-I need to speak to them, it’s six”

“You need rest soldier, come on I’ll even stay with you, it’ll be like old times ay?” He smiled softly at the woman he respected more than anyone.

“Bu-“

“No buts my sweet girl, back in bed now” He gives Helen a nod before climbing into the bed with Y/n. “Get some rest love, I’ve got you”.

The next day Y/n wakes up in an empty hospital bed. Removing the wires from her, she stands up and carefully puts her clothes back on.

She crept out of the room and down the corridor, knowing exactly where she needed to go.

Hearing the raised voices coming from the briefing room, she took in a deep breath before slowly exhaling.

“-your concern Scottie”

“It is when the witch tries to kill my friend”.

“Friend” Bucky scoffs.

“What’s that suppose to mean?”

“I see the way you look at her”

“Don’t be stu-“

“Doug stop.” Y/n says as she walks in.

“What are you doing here? Your meant to be resting”

“I’m fine”.

Marco pulls out a chair for her, gesturing for her to sit smiling at the woman who saved his life time after time.

“I’m going to say what I have to say then I’m leaving, don’t worry Nick my team will still help”

“What about you?”

“I’ll be there, can’t exactly back out of a deal now can I?” Fury’s eyebrows furrowed with confusion and Bucky noticed Douglas tensing at her words.

Sighing deeply, she closes her eyes “Sit or stand I don’t care but here’s the truth- I was the one that did betray you. I’m not sorry either”

“Y/n stop lying!” Fury says.

“…fine. It was Sharon.”

“That’s a lie!” Steve shouts.

“No it’s not. You see Steve, she was fucking you but she wanted your best friend. She wanted me out of the way, I didn’t even know that you lot were branding me as a traitor until Hydra found me several months later. Oh and I also killed Sharon”.

The Avengers sit there searching their memories from four years ago, and sure enough everything they were told was by Sharon.

“Wait what do you mean you killed her?” Steve asks.

“I put a round of bullets into her head, she was there with Hydra when they came knocking” She shrugged.

“But th-then that means you didn’t betray us?” Tony wheezes out.

“I’m many things but I’m loyal to a fault”

“I’m so-“

“Don’t. I don’t want to hear any apologies. Not from any of you. Fury I’m gonna go now, I’ll see you on the day of the mission.”

Leaving the room before anyone can say anything she heads back to the house.

*Four years ago.*

The nausea was driving her insane, she was on her way back from a mission with a handful of SHIELD agents who could hear her gagging in the back of the quinjet. Nothing was happening for her though.

“Talk to Cho and see if it’s something you ate or something” Lucas said to her as she came and sat down.

“Yeah I might”

And she did just that, getting off the jet she headed straight to medical bay. Telling Helen all her symptoms the nurse tells her to undo her suit and lay on the bed.

“What the hell is that noise?”

Chuckling “That’s a heartbeat, wait no there’s two. Look-“

“What? How?…What?” She always wanted to be a mum but Bucky thought he couldn’t have children because of what Hydra did to him.

“Two strong hearts, you’re having twins Y/n congratulations darling” Helen beams.

It’s only as she was zipping her suit back up she noticed the small prodding bump. Smiling she walks through the corridors subtly touching her stomach as she goes, reaching the common room she sees her friends - her family.

“Hey, where’s Bucky?” She’s asks.

“He’s in your twos room” Steve says with a smile.

“Okay thanks” Reaching the door to hers and Bucky’s room she didn’t realise that the team had followed her, with a smirk on their faces.

Opening the door, her heart broke at the sight of Bucky’s bottom half covered by the quilt moving back and forth and Natasha underneath him with her arms around his neck.

Natasha was the first one to see her, with a smirk playing on her lips she taps Bucky’s shoulder making him look at the doorway. His face completely void of showing any resemblance of emotion.

The team honestly expected Y/n to say anything, something, but not a single word comes from her mouth.

Instead she vanishes into thin air. The only sound for them to hear was her engagement ring clinking off the floor.

*Seven months after.*

Y/n did the most cliche of things, by moving to the middle of nowhere. She had a three bed cottage with acres of land.

It became her sanctuary. The one place she felt at peace, at home.

Most nights she didn’t sleep and if she did she was plagued by the images of Bucky in bed with Natasha. Tossing and turning throughout the night with silent tears streaming down her cheeks, the only thing that she had left in this world was her unborn babies and Roxy the fox that would come to see her every night.

At 8 months pregnant with the twins she was huge. She didn’t know what she was having, nor did she have a scan, which did sadden her. Luckily for her though the pregnancy was going smoothly. 

It was turning ten o’clock at night on a Thursday, she knew something was wrong when Roxy hadn’t showed up. The hairs on her arms stood to attention, Y/n could feel the air changing - becoming toxic.

“Little pig little pig I know you’re in there” A loud rough voice came from outside.

“Whatever you’re selling I’m not buying” She shouted back.

“Not selling anything sweetheart, you’ve got something that belongs to us.” The voice says again causing her to roll her eyes.

Creeping as much as she possibly could with an 8 month pregnancy bump towards the window leaving her to mutter out a quiet ‘fuck’ as she sees the two dozen men outside, armed and ready for a fight. Rolling her eyes once again at the symbol embroidered on their chest of the suits they wore.

Hydra.

She hated that she just couldn’t snap into thin air, more than ever right now. She had tried it a few times - like the time she ventured out in public to go to the store, and she was standing there in the middle of isle three when she had an accident. The most humiliating thing she ever endured. Trying so hard to disappear even as she tried to helped the young woman who worked there clean up her mess.

Even after she left the store without her things she walked as fast as she could to the beat up jeep she had, trying desperately to get it to work, nothing happened.

For weeks after that event she kept trying but always failed. It had only happened once and that was many years ago now, it was when she was shot in the leg. Her emotions were all over the place, she was only fourteen. It hit her that it was because of the twins she couldn-

“Come on Y/n you’ve got no where to run, you’ve got no one to help you, just co-come out”. A new, familiar voice was now heard.

Y/n squinted her eyes thinking of a way to not only protect her babies but the woman who had been her friend for years, the woman who she thought and believed had been abducted by Hydra and was being used to get her.

“Sharon? What are you doing here? Long time no see huh”

“Y/n they promised that they won’t hurt us, just come out”.

‘Think. Think. Oi don’t kick me right now. Come on and think’ repeating softly to herself as she looked around the room. Of course her home was littered with all sorts of weapons and ammunition but she didn’t want to be the first one to shoot just incase Sharon got caught in the crossfire.

“You’ve got five seconds to come out willingly before we start shooting. We don’t need you alive little pig just need that special little thing you stole from Hyd-“

Sharon’s safety wasn’t a priority anymore, not now that Hydra thinks her babies belonged to them. He gets cut off with a bullet in between his eyes.

“Let’s go boys” She shouts as bullets zoomed through the air one straight after the other.

Bullets tore their way all throughout her home, destroying everything she had built for herself and her babies. Holes littering one side of the home.

“No no no not that vas- goddamnit!” She mutters as her favourite vase smashes into tiny little pieces. “Now it’s personal”.

One by one the sound of heavy gunfire became more quieter, until there was only two guns firing.

She grimaces as a bullet skimmed her cheek, she readied herself to shoot again when a bullet was fired.

“Y-Y/n are you hit?” Sharon shouts.

“No, it took you long enough to help out Shaz”

“I’m coming in okay”

Y/n moved away from her position, moving towards the fireplace mantle to pick up a photo of her parents that had been hit when the door came open.

“How did they get you? Are you hurt?” Y/n says with her back to Sharon. “I’ve missed yo-“.

A gun clicking from behind her stopped her words from coming out. Sighing with an eye roll she continues her task of trying to get the glass out of the picture frame. “What are you doing Sharon?”

“What’s so important about you? Why does everyone always want you huh?”

“Hell if I know, nothing special about little ol’ me it’s quite annoying really”.

“What was Simon talking about?” Sharon questions.

“Who the hell is Simon?”

“The leader, the first one you killed”

“Oh him, I’m not sure. Didn’t he tell you when he abducted you?” Y/n could see a glimpse of her friend through the broken glass, gun ever so slightly shaking as her arm starts to tremble.

“They didn’t abduct me, I’ve been working with Hydra for over a three years now.”

It took her by surprise hearing that “Fair enough” is all she says.

“Yep, I told the Avengers that you turned rat and was betraying them and they all believed it”

“Silly twats, aren’t they?” Y/n chuckles.

“Turn around. Slowly and put your hands in the air” Sharon demanded.

“And wave them around like you just don’t care” Y/n sings, as she slowly turned around and raised her hands.

Sharon audibly gasped and stumbled backwards “Yo-you’re pregnant…”

“No shit Sherlock”

“Whose is it?”

“Bucky’s but don’t tell him it’s a secret” She winks.

“You bitch!” The blonde screams “you’ve taken my life!” She starts to pace back and forth, eyes bouncing from the gun to Y/n’s stomach.

“Not yet I haven’t…” Y/n whispers.

“I love him you know! But no he wanted you, you had him and I had to settle for Steve. And now, now you’re having the love of my life’s baby!”

Despite the situation she was in Y/n couldn’t stop the sharp tang in her heart at the sight of the tears gathering in her friends eyes. But just to be a bitch she corrected the blonde “Babies, plural”

“Y-you’re having twins?”

“Yep”

Her throat tightened as she sees Sharon’s finger squeezing on the trigger, both sets of eyes shot straight to the gun as it jams.

It all happened so fast, Y/n grabbed the gun and using the handle to smack Sharon in the face, causing the woman to fall on the floor screaming in pain. Y/n walked past her to leave her home when Sharon’s hand wrapped itself around her ankle and pulled her to the ground. Sharon was up first out of the pair and was straddling Y/n back, gripping her hair in a tight vice she raised Y/n’s head before smacking it down. Again and again and again.

Sharon finally gets up kicking Y/n’s side in the process. “I’m going to do the thing I should of done years ago, you ruined my life-“

The blonde gets cut off when Y/n kicks her legs out from underneath her, causing her to fall back down.

“You’re fucking crazy you know that Sharon, Jesus”. Ever so slowly she manages to get up, her hands going to her belly “All this for a man? You’ve really lost your bloody marbles Shaz!”

“It’s Bucky! I love him” Sharon screams.

“Yeah well so did I until I caught him fucking my best friend!” She screamed back.

The pain and confusion flashed over Sharon’s face “No, your lying”

“I’m not. God I wish I was, but nope caught him fucking Natasha”

“He wouldn’t do that to me!”

“You? He was engaged to me, you absolute weirdo. Sharon just stop alright, it’s over I’m done. You want him so badly have at him! I don’t, I don’t want to fight you anymore, so please get up off my floor, stop crying and leave.”

She watches as Sharon picks herself off the ground, who then stops as they both hear that one sound Y/n had been dreading.

Her waters splashing onto the floor.

“You’ve gotta be kidding me” She whispers to herself as she looks down at the sight.

With Y/n distracted she didn’t see Sharon standing fully or her running towards her.

The punch to her stomach caused her to stumble backwards, the punch to her cheek that had been sliced open by the bullet from earlier caused her to flinch. The pain in her abdomen intensified as she sees Sharon bending down to grab the gun.

“Told you I was going to end th-“ Sharon says just before she’s cut off with a bullet in between her eyes.

Whether it was because of the pain to her aching body or at the fact she was just made to kill someone she thought was a good friend, her finger wouldn’t stop pulling on the trigger.

Even after the gun kept clicking.

“Stupid bitch you could have just left but no you had to be a cunt” Y/n shouts at the dead body laying in her living room.

Dropping the gun, her hand went in between her thighs, bringing her hand back up her heart dropped at the sight of blood.

Slowly walking to find her phone she dialled the number of the one person she trusted more than anyone in this world.

“Hi love, we’ll b-“

“Doug I-I need you. Babies are comi-“ She cuts herself off when a scream tears its way out.

“We’re on our way!”

“H-hurry.” She says just as she drops the phone as she slides down to the floor.

Doug and Fran arrived as fast as they humanly could. Both of their hearts dropped to the pit of their stomachs when they saw all the bodies lying in her front yard.

Running inside they see the body of a blonde and Y/n, legs open as she births her baby.

“Love we’re here, Doug get towels quickly” Fran’s frantic yet soft voice says.

“I-it’s the second one” and that’s when the ringing of adrenaline fades and was replaced by a cry, when they look to the side they see the tiny body of baby number one.

Neither Fran or Doug moved as they watched their friend deliver her second baby. Neither one of them could wrap their heads around the strength Y/n showed time and time again.

It shouldn’t have surprised them really.

“T-this one’s a girl, what about the other one” Y/n asked, voiced laced with tiredness.

“A boy, he’s a beautiful baby boy” Fran smiles as she picks the still crying baby up, handing him over to his momma.

“Logan-Douglas and Harlow-Francesca” Y/n’s eyes move from her babies to the couple in front of her.

“R-really love? You want to name them after us?” Doug asks with tears in his eyes.

“Of course, you’re their godparents after all”

*two months before Fury rings her*

Y/n makes her way through the busy streets with her head down. She can’t stop the eye roll when she notices the two agents following her.

Slowing her pace she waited for the inevitable to happen.

As the agents got behind her a black van comes skidding past, the sliding door comes open, a sack is placed over her head and she’s pushed in.

“Do you guys want me to act scared or what?”

“Shut up”.

“Feisty”

After a while the van comes to a stop and she’s all but dragged out of it.

When the sack was removed her eyes dart around, rolling her eyes for the hundredth time, she’s in an abandoned warehouse.

“Ah Ross, so good to see you. You know if you wanted to see me so badly you could have just called” She smiles at the man.

“Wanted to surprise you Y/n”

“Oh yeah no I noticed, I was so surprised I didn’t see it coming…notice the sarcasm?”. Her head tilts to the side at the sound of footsteps “Hi Fury”

The man gives her a curt nod “Y/n”

“Wanna tell me why I’m here?”

“We have proof that you weren’t the rat, you can come back to SHIE-“

“Absolutely not. I’m fine in doing what I’m doing now thanks, can I go?”

“Y/n you’re a mercenary-“

“It pays the bills” She shrugs.

Fury shakes his head at Ross when he tries to continue, “You didn’t seem so surprised when he mentioned a rat, why?”

“Bit slow aren’t you? Let me guess the one that betrayed you was…Sharon? Yep I knew, um three years ago? Yeah something like that”

“Why didn’t you tell us?”

“Didn’t think you lot deserved the truth so, can I now go?”

“We need to tell the Aveng-“ 

“No. Don’t, look let’s just keep everyone thinking I turned rat okay? It’s the best for everyone.”

Both men look to each other before slowly nodding. “It’s so great to see you Y/n” Fury says as he tries to pull her into a hug.

Stepping back she puts her hands up “I don’t like being touched nowadays, so no touching but it’s great to see you too Nicky”

“I told you not to call me that. See you” He chuckles and making his exit.

“We need to talk Y/n” Ross sighs once the pair are alone.

“About?”

“Your old team” 

Her heart stops.

“W-what about them?” She knows exactly what it’s about.

Rubbing his hand over his face, he looks at her with sympathetic eyes. “The officials want you all to pay for what happened that night”.

“We was set up Ross! Right from the get go, it was all a fucking set up!”

“I know, Y/n I know. I tried telling them but they won’t listen to me” He speaks earnestly.

“Why aren’t they going after John?”

John Cooper, a name she hasn’t heard or spoke of or thought of for over ten years now. He was Y/n’s handler for a year, he made her go out and find people who was at the top of their game. She didn’t know why but she did as she was told to do, finding the best of the best.

Douglas - best snipper in the army. Helped that he could fight like a beast.

Marco - best hacker she had ever seen, fighter, built like a brick wall (secretly a cuddle bear).

Colleen - she saved Y/n’s life when she had been cornered in a dark alleyway neither her or her attacker saw the knife coming. No brainer.

Marley - a young girl at the time was an experiment Y/n stumbled on, she didn’t have the heart to leave her and when she saw what she was capable of doing, she brought her on board too.

Then there was Hank - the biggest mistake she ever made. He was ruthless and conniving, she thought it would work well in her favour until they all heard screaming and they saw him pinning a seventeen year old Marley to the wall and was trying to shove his hand into the girls trousers. Y/n didn’t hesitate to put a bullet into his skull, catching Marley as she fell.

John said they needed another person but she refused. There was no way she was going to bring another person in, not after what had happened.

Their mission was for them to break into a government base and download all the information off the computers, when they got there, there was dead bodies of workers.

Pulling back Y/n ordered them to leave, the moment they stepped back outside they were surrounded by the military, FBI and even SHIELD. 

That was the night she met both Ross and Fury.

“Y/n he’s dead, died in a Mexican prison seven years ago.”

“Oh…”

“I need you to tell me the locations of all four of them”

Chuckling softly, “that’s not going to happen Ross and you know it.”

“No I know-“

“If I give them me, confess to murdering all those people, tell them l was the only person that did it, will they leave them alone?” She asks desperately.

“But that’s not tr-“

“It doesn’t matter what’s true or not Ross. Will they yes or no?”

Closing his eyes he whispers “yes”.

“Let me make one phone call and I’ll come with you, right here right now”.

“That doesn’t need to happen. I’ll need your help soon, you help and I’ll make sure you get a fair trial”

“My old team walks. Free and clear, no one comes after them and I want it in writing Ross.”

“Deal.”

Shaking hands she walks back over to the van, hopping in “take me back from where you kidnapped me from”.

*Back to the present*

The first thing she did when she got into her car was FaceTime Fran who answered after a few rings.

“Hey”

“Hi, Doug told me what happened you’re supposed to be resting Y/n/n”.

“I’m fine,honestly. Where’s my little terrors?”

Laughing Fran calls for the twins, Y/n couldn’t stop smiling when she heard their feet’s pounding on the floor shouting for her.

“Here, talk to momma - I’ll talk to you after okay missy”.

“Of course. Hi babies”

“Momma” they replied in unison. To see them brought a smile to her lips, her heart ached with the need to hold them in her arms.

“Guess what bubbas!”

“What” Logan asked.

“Momma loves you both, so so much!”

“I wuv you mama” Harlow screams down the phone, making her and Fran laugh.

“Logie aren’t you going to tell me the same?”

“I wuv you momma so so so so so so much” His little face beams.

They were truly the perfect mixture of Y/n and Bucky. Logan had Y/n’s eyes whilst Harlow had Bucky’s, Harlow had her fathers smile and Logan had his mommas. The mannerisms of the pair were the exact same as their parents.

She spoke with them for close to an hour, them telling her all about their fun filled day. Saying goodbye to them pained her, she hated saying them words to her babies. Speaking with Fran for a bit she ended the call and went back to the house.

In dire need of sleep.

The rest of the week passed, Douglas visiting her most days and telling her that the team of superheroes wanted to see her to apologise, nothing was ever said back to him, leaving him hoping that things were different. 

It was the day of the mission, she rang Fran so she could speak to her babies one last time. She left the house and headed back to the tower.

“It’s important that everyone knows exactly what the plan is. Nothing can go wrong”. Fury speaks from the head of the table. “Anyone want to saying anything?”

“Yeah, Y/n I’m so so-“ Wanda tries to say.

“It’s fine. Let’s just get this over and done with, my guys- are you ready?”

“Yes boss” All answer.

“Well, good luck everyone”.

On the quinjet ten minutes later, awkwardness filled the air as both teams sit on opposite sides. No words are spoken other than the pilot saying they were taking off.

Exactly three hours twenty-five minutes and 13 seconds - she timed it - was how long it took for Tony to say something, to be honest she was shocked it took him that long.

“Y/n can we talk?”

“If it’s an apology I don’t want it, it mean’s absolutely nothing to me. If it’s about the mission, then yes we can talk.”

“We need to apologise Y/n/n”

The nickname coming from Sam’s lips make her flinch. “I don’t want it nor need it.”

The quinjet fell silent once again.

That was until Bucky broke it. “I never cheated on you”

Everyone noticed the flash of pain in her eyes, “what?”

“I never slept with Nat, we pretended in order to hurt you, ba-Y/n we believed that you betrayed us”

“Believed Sharon don’t you mean.”

“We-I didn-“

“Awesome.”

“What?”

“I think it’s funny that instead of asking me and oh I don’t know believing me, instead you all believed a desperate blonde who had to settle for the man who still pines after her dead aunt, it’s quite absurd to me really.”

“We didn’t know what to believe Y/n. You’re the one that killed Sharon s-“ Steve speaks and ultimately gets cut off.

“I only killed her because I had no other choice!”

“There’s always a choice” He spat back.

“You’re right. But that night I didn’t have one, I wish it wasn’t but she left me no choice!”

“Why did you do it?”

“Pilot how long do we have long left?” They all look baffled by her change of the subject.

“We’re nearly here Miss”.

“Thanks” turning to look Bucky directly in the eyes “when this is all over Doug can explain it to you, end of discussion.”

The quinjet lowers to the ground and everyone takes their leave, just as Y/n walked past Douglas she slides two things into his pocket before gripping his hand and smiling towards him, he squeezes her hand and leans over to place a kiss to her temple.

Bullets fly freely, smoke fill their lungs, grunts and screams are heard. Pushing forwards they all work as one.

They had only been there for less than an hour before the remaining members of The Lords surrender.

After all the intel was gathered, the prisoners on board, they hear the sound of another jet.

“What the hell?” Tony asks.

The Avengers watch as Y/n gives each of her team a lingering hug - who all apart from Douglas looked confused.

As she gets to Doug hugging him too, she whispers something into his ear that even the two super soldiers couldn’t hear, pulling back they stand to attention and salute one another.

She says nothing as she passes them and up the soldiers who put handcuffs on her.

“What the hell just happen-“ Bucky stumbles out but is cut off when the jet carrying the woman who he was still very much in love with inside exploded.

Marley screams and the sound breaks Douglas’s heart, he grabs the woman who he’s always seen as his daughter in his arms as well as Colleen who falls to her knees. Marco stands there with his dark brown eyes not moving away from the still falling parts of the jet.

The Avengers, they all have silent tears streaming down their cheeks, none of them know what to say or do. They’ve just witnessed the person who at one point they trusted more than anything, the person they all betrayed just die.

Douglas walks past them all with both women in his arms and walks straight up the ramp with Marco following behind.

When everyone’s on board the quinjet they see him sitting in the seat Y/n was occupying.

“The day she walked in on you fucking her best friend she found out she was pregnant. The night she killed Sharon, Hydra had showed up at her home wanting the babies, that scar she has-had on her cheek was from a bullet graze, Sharon tried to kill Y/n - caused her to go into early labour. Y/n killed Sharon because she had no other choice, hell she even gave the blonde bitch an out. When me and my wife got there she was in the middle of delivering her second baby.” He shakes his head sadly “the reason my best friend is dead is because of us” pointing to himself and the other three “she made a decision to leave her babies behind just so we didn’t get given the death penalty”.

Douglas pulls out the items Y/n had put into his pocket, her ring - the one with two love hearts that represented her twins, and her dog tags that also had two smaller tags with the twins names, date of birth engraved on them.

“James, she made me and my wife adopt the twins. She knew exactly what she was going to do when Ross talked to her about their deal, she said it was okay for us to let you see them. But please don’t think for one second that you’ll be able to take them away from us, because pal even if you are a super solider I’ll still kill you.”

Bucky sits there with tears in his eyes, “what’s their names?”

“Logan-Douglas and Harlow-Francesca” Doug tells him with a smile.

“Ca-if it’s okay with you and your wife, can I meet them?”

“You won’t try anything stupid?”

“No, god no of course not!”

“Then yeah that can be arranged.”

For two years Bucky sees the children he didn’t know existed until two years ago.

His heart dropped to his stomach when Douglas took him to the house that Y/n had brought for them to live in after they retired. It became the warm loving home for Douglas, Fran and the kids.

Bucky did retire, the day after he lost the love of his life and met his children for the first time, and not only that but he also brought the house next door.

He formed a great bond with the couple who let him see the kids whenever he wanted - which was now every day since he moved next door.

The bond he had with his children was now unbreakable. Everyday he was reminded of what he lost and lost out of just by looking at their adorable little faces. He loved them so deeply, loving them at its purest form. He wishes more than anything that he could go back in time and redo everything all over again, but since he can’t he continues to make up for lost time.

He’s sat in the living room with the kids, Doug and Fran when a knock comes from the front door, he watches as Doug goes to answer and truly didn’t think anything of it.

“Hi babies” A warm voice says.

“Momma!” The twins scream in unison.

Shooting up from were he was laying on the floor building with the Lego set Steve brought Logan, he watches his kids jump up and run over to Y/n who instantly picks them up.

She’s alive. She’s standing right in front of him. His chest tightens. She’s really here.

“H-how?” He whispers but she hears it.

“You’ve been doing so great with them, I’ve been watching” she smiles.

He walks slowly over to her as she puts the kids down and he doesn’t hesitate or think about it before he smashes his lips to hers.

“I still love you Y/n/n”

“I still love you Bucky”

The kids squeal and jump in circles around their parents as Doug and Fran hold on to each other. 

Y/n pulls away from the man she still loves after everything and picks up her big babies.

“I told you I’ll always come back”

~ banner credit goes to @sweetpeapod ~

#marvel #bucky barnes #bucky barns x y/n #marvel fanfiction #bucky barnes x reader #bucky x you #bucky barnes x you #bucky x reader #marvel fic #bucky x y/n #Bucky angst #Bucky reader angst #avengers x fem!reader #avengers x y/n #avengers x reader #the avengers #avengers angst #james barnes x you #james bucky buchanan barnes #james barnes

[nexysworld]

Dead Dove, Content Entitlement, and Fandoms

There's been no end of posts clogging up popular fandom tags with arguments and opinions on dark content, dead dove, and related things. While I've seen some decent posts that go over media literacy and dark content, I personally feel like none fully encompass my entire feelings on this nor provide all the points that I feel are important.

I know people have strong feelings on this subject, and I'm not expecting to immediately change anyone's minds. But I hope maybe I can toss some food for thought out there, or provide further context from both a victim of SA as well as a content creator. This has been bothering me for a while now to the point where it has been making me no longer want to write or engage in fandoms on Tumblr, and so I needed to get this out there with my stance. I've also had people in my inbox stating that my dark content is somehow morally better than other writer's dark content. TW: Mentions of dark content including discussions of noncon/dubcon, harassment, SA, etc.

Addressing Common Points

If you write or consume [INSERT CONTENT], you're romanticizing and endorsing it and that makes you a bad person. Or, you're weird/wrong/gross for it. I see this brought up primarily with dubcon/noncon topics. It should go without saying, but fiction is fantasy, it's separate from real life. Adults who consume this type of content understand that these things are NOT ok in real life. But to take it a step further, I want to stress that having noncon fantasies is actually INCREDIBLY common. In studies regarding these fantasies, nearly 50% or more of people who participated admitted to having fantasies that align with these topics the majority of which are women. Not only that but these kinds of fantasies are even more common in people who have been victims of these crimes. This isn't some niche thing only liked by a minority of people. If you don't believe me here's an example of ONE study, but there's plenty of easily accessible information out there. By conflating consuming/writing this content with someone's moral character stigmatizes these feelings further and does more harm than good. And I know what you're thinking though. But why? Why would someone who's gone through something like that fantasize about something so awful? Why is this appealing to anyone, victims or not? Fiction creates a safe space to explore topics. In fiction there are no real victims, no one is actually getting hurt, it's all fake. The characters aren't real and if at any point as the reader you are too uncomfortable to continue, you can stop and exit. You can like the idea of a fictional person tossing you around, while also feeling uncomfortable if a real life man tried to pick you up a the bar or didn't take no for an answer. There's also "normal" things you can fantasize about, but not want to participate in IRL.

Hypocrisy and what is considered dark content? This won't apply to everyone, but I've seen a number of people who claim to be anti-dark content but reblog things that are non consensual, perhaps without realizing it. And this is especially true for those who are younger on here. Please understand that noncon/dubcon does not inherently need to be violent or gory. Any situation in which there's a lack of consent or a power imbalance is inappropriate. Somno fics? If it's not explicitly stated that it was agreed upon prior in the fic, that is still non consensual even if it's written to be "sweet.", even if it's a pre-established relationship. Professor x student fics? There's power imbalance there. There's a reason you cannot have a relationship with your teachers in real life. Hybrid fics? Most people write hybrids as completely sentient people who are treated as sex slaves. They have little choice or are "following instinct." You cannot consent to someone who literally OWNS you after adopting you. You get the gist. There's far more to consent than physically manhandling someone. Yet because these things are written in a way that contextualizes them as being "sweet" and "normal", they aren't considered dark content by many people. If you're ok with the above, you have to understand that these ARE forms of dubcon/noncon. I would even argue that these are more romanticizing of these topics than stuff that's far more explicit in nature. If you would be pissed if your IRL partner tried to feel you up in your sleep, but enjoy somno fics, or enjoy the Taboo of Professor Leon, but wouldn't fuck your actual college professor - then that is the EXACT way in which people who enjoy even "darker" content can enjoy the fiction whilst not partaking in real life.

It sets a bad example for younger people on the website/"protect the children." Children shouldn't be looking at smut in general, dark content, vanilla content, etc. I don't know what else to tell you. It is NOT the job of content creators to try and police what teenagers do on the internet, that's between them and their parents. The majority of creators who make 18+ content explicitly state MDNI and block those younger than 18 if we discover them trying to interact with us. That is the most that we can and should be expected to do.

[INSERT CHARACTER] would NEVER act like that, it irritates me when people write them as OOC. Fanfiction is by definition NON canon. The only people who truly know how a character is supposed to act are the people who created those characters. But I want to add on to this, there are plenty of times in which a character acts entirely OOC even in fluffy or vanilla fanfiction. Every writer is going to have a different interpretation of how a character acts or thinks - and yet it's only really complained about when it's dark content. These characters are not real. Leon cannot be upset or hurt by people writing dark content about him, because he doesn't exist. Part of the fun of fanfiction, at least in my opinion as well, is justifying certain things within the context. Many dark content writers will and do explain why the character became how they are or why they think that way using canon as context - not that I think it's required because fanfiction can be whatever you want it to. The point is, dark content or not, not everyone will be on the same wavelength as you about your favorite character.

Even if you're a victim of SA or other crimes, you should get professional help, not read dark content. This is a very bad take in my opinion. Mental health care can be incredibly hard to get. Reading fanfiction is free, it's harmless. But genuinely, imagine you're a victim of a heinous crime, and you're already struggling with feelings regarding it - to then be mobbed by people online telling you that you're weird and wrong for having the feelings that you do? This is also in league with my first point, but having these feelings are actually VERY normal. This is a healthy way to process the emotions in a safe environment where no real person gets hurt, where you can leave whenever you want. Stigmatizing these things does hurt real people though.

You're hurting other people who're victims of these things. Look, if a fic is not properly TW then I fully understand. Every victim will have a different experience, and while some may be ok with dark content, others won't. So if you open a fic expecting it to be one thing and it's another, that's shitty. But tags are there for a reason. If you see something marked Noncon, and that's triggering for you, no one is expecting you to read it. And here's the thing with tags/tw's as well, everyone's trauma is different. Something that one person might not consider dark content, or is generally considered innocuous might trigger someone else. If you are one of those people who think even seeing the trigger warning could be harmful to people, then that's a prime example of WHY you must curate your own experience online. Block certain words, tags, and phrases to make sure you don't see them. But that's on YOU to do, not people who create content. Their only responsibility is to warn you about the contents of the content they've made, their responsibility stops beyond that point. You know what DOES affect real people besides the stigmatization of their feelings or kinks? Harassing them. Leaving hate comments, telling people to unalive themselves. These affect the mental health of the real people behind the content that you don't like. I've seen death and rape threats SENT to dark content writers.

Dark content in other forms of media. It's interesting to me that the majority of discussion around dark content comes from people criticizing fanfiction specifically. Take horror movies for example. The Saw Franchise, we'll say. Do you think the creators of that series want to enact those horrible things onto other people? Do you think they want to be the victims of Jigsaw themselves? What about people who watch content like that? You probably don't think that they do. There's TONS of movies, music videos, even horror novels that have incredibly, and I mean INCREDIBLY dark dead dove content - and yet most people understand that the appeal is in the taboo. That it's fiction. That people who consume THOSE forms of media don't want to participate in those things but do enjoy consuming that content. But when it's fanfiction it somehow becomes a problem.

Entitlement and demand of fandom content. In addition to all of the above, there is a major uptick in people complaining about the content within fandoms some not even relating to dark content. "There's too many stories where reader acts like X." "I hate how so many people characterize this person because that's now how they would act!" "Why is there so much smut? Why can't there be more of {insert what I want}". This is FREE content made by people who do this stuff as a hobby. No one owes you content, and no one HAS to write the way you want them too. If there's tons of content like that, then it's because it's popular. Perhaps your version of a character is in the minority opinion, and that's completely ok!

What's the solution to all of this discourse?

Be the change you want to see! If you feel like there's too many x reader fics where the reader doesn't act how you want - then write it the way you want. Do you have head canons about a series or character that you haven't seen discussed before? Make that post yourself! If you don't feel there's enough fluff in the fandom - then create some! And if you don't want to make content yourself - request it, commission it. Interact with your favorite writers! Encourage them, don't demand. Talk with them about their work, leave comments, and reblog, reblog, reblog!! Being a part of the discussion and interaction is the BEST way to help the community thrive. Surround yourself with the content that YOU want, curate YOUR experience. Block every dark content writer you see if it helps. Go into your Tumblr settings, block words, block tags. Don't set yourself up to be upset or bothered by the content you're getting. Even if you read the above and you still think every dark content writer is a horrendous, awful person - the best thing to do is still block them. Block their content. Harassing them and complaining on it will NOT stop that content from existing. But you will continue to upset yourself by not curating your own experience.

~~~~~~~~

If you made it through all that, thank you for reading. I want to add that my blog WILL continue in the future to have a mix of both dead dove and regular content. I also interact with other dark content blogs, so if you're someone who followed me because of my "regular" fics and want to unfollow/block me, I'm ok with that. <3

#nexyspeaks #Leon Kennedy x reader #resident evil #fandom culture #resident evil writers #resident evil x reader

[iam93percentstardust]

one of the things that really bothers me about modern franchises, and in particular over the last 5 years or so, is their refusal to commit. what i mean here when i say this is that it's not uncommon for a major franchise to make a decision, whether about the plot or the characters, that should have had huge, world-changing consequences... and then just never address that again or worse, immediately go back and undo it. and i'm gonna pick on star wars and the mcu here because those are the two big franchises i'm into at the moment (and i think they're kind of the worst at this), but i don't want you to walk away from this thinking that this is solely a disney thing. i've seen this happen with game of thrones and supernatural and plenty of other non-disney franchises. spoilers ahead, you've been warned:

in ant-man & the wasp quantumania, scott and hope make the life-altering decision to stay behind in the quantum realm and defeat kang instead of going through the portal to return to their world. this should have been a huge meta decision for the mcu, and when i first saw it in theaters, my immediate thought was wow, what is this going to mean for the mcu going forward? are we going to get a movie/miniseries about scott and hope helping to rebuild the quantum realm? how are cassie, janet, and hank going to react to the losses of their loved ones (in some cases, for the second time)? is cassie going to become the "first" young avenger because she has to take her father's place among the team lineup (and i only say first because as of this moment, none of the other young avengers introduced to the franchise are official avengers yet)? except nope, because less than 2 minutes later, cassie had fixed the portal that had broken way back at the beginning of the movie and brought scott and hope back.

and it felt like such a cheat. i was so disappointed in that theater, not as someone who was invested in these characters on a personal level (because yay, cassie gets her dad back!), but as someone who has spent years investing themselves in the story of the mcu. what was the point of wasting screentime on scott and hope accepting their new lives in the quantum realm if it was just going to immediately be undone? the entire scene could have been cut to scott and hope making it back bare seconds before the portal closed and it would have had the same emotional impact. there was nothing added by making scott and hope (and us) think that there was no way back only to rip the rug out from under us and go "gotcha! you really thought we were gonna give this movie a sad ending? haha! you're so dumb!"

and this isn't the first time the mcu has done this. one of the biggest complaints about endgame was the decision to set it five years in the future with no consideration for how that would actually change the setting of the mcu. characters were brought back to the exact place they disappeared from with no consideration for how things might have changed in the interim five years (like planes that weren't in the air anymore, buildings no longer standing, even just something as simple as a chair being unoccupied). and then the mcu didn't even really have the courage to address how this would have shaped the world other than a few jokes and making the bad guys in the falcon and the winter soldier people who cared about how the world had screwed them over during the blip.

and things like this happen over and over and over again. the accords are put into place in civil war, but by the time we get to she-hulk, they're gone with no explanation because, as best as i can tell, the writers didn't want to have to deal with the worldbuilding that went into the accords. gamora is killed in infinity war, but heaven forbid quill not have an emotional investment in a film he appears for maybe 10 minutes in so now she's back in endgame. steve got to go live in the past with his ex-girlfriend (which is in itself a refusal to commit after the mcu both gave her a different husband and had the woman herself tell him to move on) but we need to establish that messing with timelines is bad because that's what the entire next phase hinges on so actually his ending was predestined and it's only everyone else who can't change time. whoever took this entire town and also wanda hostage and forced them to live out a sitcom fantasy is bad and needs to be stopped but wait, it's actually wanda and she can't be the bad guy yet, we need her for doctor strange 2, so actually everyone's going to defend her now and say that no one else could ever possibly understand her grief. thor has decided to accept responsibility as king of asgard, but we can't use him for any more movies if he's stuck in asgard, so actually he's decided to pass it on to someone whose entire leadership capability is developed offscreen. i could list more examples but this is making me angry, so let's move on to star wars instead.

with star wars, i look at first the oft-quoted meme, "somehow palpatine has returned." yeah, i shouldn't really need to go into detail on how that counts as a refusal to commit but. the last jedi was a study in how johnson refused to commit to anything that abrams had laid down in the force awakens, but rise of skywalker was almost like abrams had looked at the franchise and said "screw you for taking it away from me, i'm going to come up with the most bullshit stuff just to spite you for doing that in the first place. and i'm going to start by undoing the most important plot point of the first trilogy: the emperor dies." and yeah, disney's kind of tried to salvage this by dropping hints into the bad batch and the mandalorian about cloning, but that only really works if you're watching the franchise chronologically and not considering that both of those series came out after rise of skywalker.

and then there's the mandalorian, my sweet summer child, who is, in my opinion, the worst at backtracking their plot points. i'm not entirely convinced that any of the higher ups for this show really knew what they were doing when they started working on it and i'm not convinced that they know what they're doing now. yeah, there's the tie-in to the last season of clone wars, but the mandalorian has managed to walk back pretty much every single major plot point it's had. din is this legendary warrior who can't be beat, but no one will watch this show if he defeats everyone too early, so he's constantly getting beat up (tbf, sometimes some of the fights he loses makes sense like the krayt dragon and the mudhorn, but a lot of them don't. at all). moff gideon is dead, no wait no he's not, now he's imprisoned, no wait no he's not, now he's definitely dead, you can totally believe us this time guys. grogu can use the force and must be placed with the jedi, but wait, the only person still actively teaching the way of the jedi is luke and all of his students will be brutally murdered ten years from now, and we can't have that, everyone will be mad at us for killing off such a cute character and no one will buy baby yoda dolls (and also we have to set up luke's character degradation from hopeful, believes-in-love cinnamon roll to "i'm going to kill my nephew") so in between seasons let's have grogu decide to go back to din (and don't even get me started on how frustrating it is that a casual mandalorian watcher also had to watch book of boba fett to understand why grogu is back). din has the darksaber now which makes him king of mandalore, that's totally going to be important and what the entire series has been building up to, right? wrong! he might have spent the first two seasons making connections, learning about the world outside his sheltered upbringing, and demonstrating the various qualities that would make for a good leader, but the entire third season will be about din realizing that actually he's super unworthy and the darksaber should actually go to someone who... saw an animal in the water.

and it's really, really frustrating as a viewer! because how am i supposed to get invested in any of these plot decisions when they almost always get reversed? why should i care that mj and ned have forgotten peter when ant-man 3 has shown me that they'll remember him the next time they're all on screen together? why should i care that tech is dead when half of the last season of clone wars was about how echo was actually alive? if none of these decisions have any permanence, then where are the emotional stakes? why should i watch your movie if all you're going to tell me is that nothing matters?

#and also i want to make a point that the early mcu did permanent stakes really well #iron man 1 ends with tony announcing that he's iron man and that's something that still resonated years later #the entire second film hinged on that one moment #loki falling into the bifrost is what leads him to the chitauri which is what kickstarted the avengers #steve is woken from the ice and the first organization who presents themselves as someone to trust is shield #which sets up the betrayal he feels in the winter soldier #these moments resonate throughout the first two stages and the decisions the characters made MATTERED #so you can't help but get invested because what if it's the wrong decision??? #anyway i'm frustrated with the state of franchises #alle talks #long post

[helga-grinduil]

People are being drama queens over nothing like why is everyone pretending this twist ruined tomura's character when this shit was foreshadowed and it's so obvious?

Also since tomura mentioned before the league not having a healer maybe he'll unlock reconstruction; heal deku and the villains since everyone in fucked up condition.

I talked so much about this on twitter I think I will throw up if I have to explain what you just said to other people. Some are saying that it 'absolves' hero society from it's issues (it doesn't, no one still helped Tenko because they believed that heroes are the ones who should be, well, heroes), some are saying that it ruins the fact that Tenko was 'born wrong' and was rejected by the world for something he couldn't control when it NEVER WAS the point of his backstory. AFO convincing Kotarou to have Tenko doesn't change anything about society's faults nor about the abuse Tenko experienced at home.

And the fact that AFO already knew who Tenko was when he met him was there since day fucking one - he literally addressed by his FULL NAME and knew exactly what happened to him! Even if someone did help Tenko, AFO would've kept stalking him, probably 'causing some shit to try and snatch Tenko anyway. Because that's WHAT HE DOES.

Tenko was neither rejected for having no quirk nor for having Decay. Kotarou would've rejected his desire to be a hero anyway, because that rejection was due to his trauma (which was, ding-ding, caused by Nana trying to save Kotarou from AFO in the first place!!!! AFO was the cause from the start!). He would've hated the idea of Tenko becoming a hero whether Tenko had a quirk or not. The idea that Decay was the reason Tenko was ignored was what AFO made him to believe, it was never true in Tenko's case. The ONLY societal issue that ever truly mattered when it came to Tomura was the fact that hero society made people complacent and distanced from reality.

People just... latched onto the wrong ideas when it came to Tomura and what made him a good character for the sake of seeing him as more 'relatable'.

And I saw some people say that AFO being behind Tomura's backstory makes Tomura into a 'perfect victim' when his appeal was that he's not, that his destructive tendecies are a bad coping mechanism and that made him relatable, but now it turns out that AFO just made him think he wants to destroy, so it's not Tomura's own coping mechanism anymore... which is completely wrong. TOMURA IS A MURDERER. He automatically isn't a 'perfect victim'. None of the villains are. Destruction (and self-destruction) IS Tomura's coping mechanism. It BECAME one, it wasn't one from the start. Sure, AFO was the one who made him think he wants to destroy, but that was always the case. Tenko didn't want to kill people on his own. But AFO also didn't make Tomura want to destroy everything either. Or feel relief when he was destroying stuff. This was Tomura, and Tomura alone.

Destroying brought him the sense of catharsis, because it reaffirmed Tomura's beliefs about himself (the beliefs that were created by AFO, which was, again, always the case, and a lot of people talked about it for years prior to these chapters). That when he destroys, at least he's being himself. «Everyone will keep rejecting me anyway even if I try not to be a bad kid, but if I'll embrace my real self and do what I want to do (I don't) at least I'll be accepted by someone». He followed AFO's words and killed those two hooligans for the unsaid promise of being accepted - something that he craved the most. Destruction is still his unhealthy coping mechanism - he destroys stuff -> feels good because he feels reassured in his purpose and his views -> it passes, he feels sick, angry, empty and depressed -> he is in need of some catharsis -> rinse and repeat.

#ask tag #bnha #bnha spoilers #bnha meta #bnha 419 #shimura tenko #shigaraki tomura

[norahastuff]

There’s a lot to like about The Winchesters, but I think one of the reasons it hits so hard for me is that it solves my biggest problem with the finale. Personally, I don’t have a problem with tragic endings. The season 5 finale of Spn has a tragic ending, and I think it’s a wonderful feat of storytelling. Aside from the fact that 15x20 tried to pretend it wasn’t tragic and tried to make it seem like Sam and Dean standing alone on a bridge in Heaven was a happy ending, what I hated most about the finale was they had to flatten Dean into a two-dimensional caricature of himself to do it. Aside from maybe the revelation that Dean stood outside Sam’s apartment at Stanford for hours trying to psych himself up to go in because he was nervous Sam would turn him away, there was no moment in the episode that Dean felt like the complex, nuanced character we had come to know and love over the past 15 seasons. He had no desires or characterisation beyond pie, car and Sammy. There was no sign of all the growth we’ve seen from him, no hint of his own needs, wants or sense of self. I mean, he wasn’t even allowed to interact with his own heaven before Sam showed up. Even after his death, he was never allowed to have anything that was just his. 

Look, I’ve said all this a hundred times before – if you look at my 15x20 tag, it’s basically just this sentiment repeated over and over again – so why am I saying it again now? Well, because The Winchesters is fixing that. The mission Dean is on is all his. It’s not about Sam, or pie or whatever surface level bullshit that finale tried to boil Dean down to. He’s going back to the past, he’s meddling in something insane because he sees value in it, and in the process going on a journey to understand himself better. His narration makes it pretty clear that through this quest he’s learning to contextualise his own life and feelings better. The past presents the future, after all (full disclosure, that’s an Ugly Betty episode title that I just really loved and use far too often in casual conversation), and one of the biggest hang ups in Dean’s life was that he was given this mythologised version of events and expected to believe them. Mary was this perfect saintly mother who sat at home baking cookies all day before she was brutally, and through no fault of her own, ripped away from them. John was the perfect mild-mannered husband and father who only slid into anger and obsession after he lost his perfect wife. 

Eventually Dean realises that none of that is true. Mary couldn’t cook. She was a hunter. She was involved in the circumstances that brought about her own death. She was a complicated person, and in the end he got the chance to see that knowing the real her, flaws and all, was infinitely superior to believing the white-washed fairytale about the perfect martyr that John created after she died. There’s also the fact that John was never the perfect husband or father, even before Mary’s death. We get maybe one reference to that in Spn, how in Dean’s heaven in season 5 he remembers John and Mary fighting and John moving out for a few days, but not much else. The focus is very much on how John turned into a neglectful parent and an angry man after Mary’s death. But The Winchesters is working hard to dispel that lie. John always had this anger in him. Mary even calls him out multiple times on how he’s using her and their relationship as an excuse to avoid his issues. She straight up uses those words. There are also references to how raising your kids to be soldiers and being their drill sergeant rather than their parent is one of the worst things a parent can do to their child. 

Anyway, as interesting as it is to see all these things addressed in the Spn universe, what’s so damn satisfying is seeing Dean realise it. Dean’s on a mission to learn more about his past. To understand that our parents and where we come from shapes and moulds the people we become, but it doesn’t have to define us forever if we don’t let it. By accepting his past and finding out the truth about who his parents truly were, he can accept himself and move forward, free of whatever baggage that had been dragging him down for so much of his life.

And the greatest part about all of this, is that Dean’s the one driving this story. It’s not God, or his father or even his duty to take care of Sam which dictated so much of his life and his choices before. This is about Dean’s choices and who he is as a person and what he wants. It’s funny because as little as we saw John Winchester in season 1 of Spn, he was very much the spectre hanging over the story, and the search to find him is what drove much of the plot throughout the season. Much of what his sons were doing was in reaction to him. And now in The Winchesters, Dean himself is the spectre that’s been hanging over the season. He’s the one making the big moves and steering the action. He’s the one everyone, friend and foe alike, is looking for. He’s the one who gave John the note and put this whole thing into motion. After the ending of Spn took away so much of his agency and everything that makes Dean Dean, he’s finally getting it back and then some.

I’m excited to see how the season’s going to end, but I’ll forever be happy that this show gave us Dean being his own person again. He’s the one picking the music this time.

#the winchesters #spnwin #my spn thoughts

[horde-princess]

Nimona's origin story - or lack of one - is so important to me. like first she lies to you, then there's a weird metaphor that may or may not have anything to do with her, then finally at the very end there's a real flashback which clarifies. almost nothing?? EXCEPT perhaps it leads you away from the possibility that she's being possessed. personally my thinking is that she was born as a "regular" shapeshifter and became this colossal monster after she was "lab-modified." but i can't say that with any confidence, maybe the monster was part of her all along and the trauma just brought it out. maybe nimona herself doesn't know.

as frustrating as it felt to read at times, the ambiguity is the whole point. it's a commentary on how society (specifically christianity) will look at something it doesn't understand and try to stuff it into boxes it just doesn't fit in.

the whole "gloreth's beast" metaphor is so insane to me because it confuses you as the reader and makes you wonder if maybe nimona IS actually this satanic creature, or possessed by him. despite all your good intentions and your fondness for nimona as a character, there's a part of you which wonders if it might be true, because the author himself is implying it to you. it's only at the end that nate hints otherwise but still he leaves it up to the audience to wrestle with their own interpretation of what they've just read. i don't think i figured it out until the part where it says nimona's parents believed a monster had taken the place of their daughter.. i was like oohhhh i see what you did there

i've heard it said that nimona is a commentary on how society views lgbt+ people as a threat and i do think that sums it up nicely but. it's a story about how religion views queer people as a threat, how conservative christians stay in power by labeling us as the enemy, and how they get us to internalize this queerphobia so that we lose the will to rebel against them. it's about how oppressors have no say in how people take their stolen freedom back.

ITS ABOUT bipolar disorder and mental illness!!!! and the prejudice & discrimination & outcasting this community endures, which intersects uniquely with queerphobia and is still used today to characterize being gay and trans as mental disorders, as if that somehow justifies the hatred in their minds.

it's about addressing the fear & confusion surrounding the existence of queer people - "are they born this way? are they possessed by satan? are they mentally ill? are they a product of childhood trauma?" and Nimona is essentially like, sure. all of the above. or none of them. who cares? i'm here and i'm a human being - you don't have to understand me to treat me like one.

idk how/if the nimona movie plans to handle the ambiguity of her origin but its so so important i hope they're able to honor the spirit of it 😭🙏

#im sorry i just did a 2nd read-thru to prepare for the movie in june and i have THINGS to SAY #nimona

[soapybutt17]

The Love You Want III

Summary: An unwanted familiar face comes to bring her nightmares back to life. Character: König x Female!Riley!Reader. Word Count: 1,883 Chapter Warnings: None

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Chapter III: A Man on A Mission

König’s time with you was too short. Even with the 2 months together doing anything and everything to catch up what he missed. It wasn’t enough for him just as much as it wasn’t enough for you. But you understood. You always understood him and always made sure he knew that you knew what you signed up for when you two got together and made a life for yourselves.

Even with the reassurance that came with your promise of waiting for him to come home to you all over again, he still had his guilt. Of not being there when you might need him the most. It’s been well over months since you’ve confessed that there was someone from your past crawling back to you, a few days after where you were back to your normal self but short moment where you had a sad look on your face before switching back to your normal self.

He did his best to be there for you, but he knew it wasn’t enough. He accepted that he needed to let you solve this on your own for now. If worse comes to worse, he would be there to support you at whatever means necessary at whatever extent you might need out of him.

“How was the time off?” Horangi’s welcoming words the moment he had stepped back into the base. Back to the usual bullshit of his work and away from the bliss of his home with you.

“Good. The usual.” König responds, not wanting to delve too much on his time of peace.

“Laswell is actually looking for you. Brought along some men from the other base. They’ve found a lead on the upcoming mission.”

König could only nod, being reminded of the file handed to him months prior. He read the files, the various pictures of a certain Lieutenant’s family was in full display. But the most jarring fact about the file was the lack of a picture for the very individual that they were seeking for. It brought more question than he would even dare try to ask anymore.

“Of course she is.” He finds himself muttering before making his way to his office, certain that the woman is already waiting for him.

His heavy footsteps had lead him straight towards his office, the sight of on Kate Laswell was not truly a sight he wanted to see on his return back. A frown resting on her lips that he did not have the time nor the place to care for at the moment.

“Station Chief Laswell, to what do I owe the visit?” He inquired, a little too sarcastic for even him as he opened the door and allowing her to enter first.

“I hope you have done your review on the mission like I’ve requested.”

“I have.” He nods, sitting himself down onto his desk.

One of the few things he had learned as he climbed the ranks was it was okay to seem smaller, especially because of his taller stature. It gave most, if not all the men that works under him the reassurance that he wasn’t one to intimidate any of them unless properly intended. But with Laswell, someone that was too much of a personality in her own right, it was intended to avoid unnecessary conflict from either of their ends.

“We have some new intel and we will be requesting you along with a few people from a Price’s team to deal with as soon as possible.”

“I bring my men into this, Laswell. I cannot work with outsiders just because you say so.”

He was not about to allow someone else to dictate this mission, not on his watch if he could avoid it.

“Consider it done. Captain Price and his team are waiting in the meeting room for further discussion about this mission. I hope that any concerns you might have with regards to this mission could be addressed.”

“I only have one in mind.” He responds, knowing that it was one of the few reasons he could think of that could give an insight to what he thinks about the situation. “Do any of them not stop to think that if this missing Captain is alive, but the chances are close to zero from reading the report, would prefer not to be found?”

It was an insight that he had somehow grasped when he was talking to his girlfriend. How the hurt of the trauma from your family only brought you pain you wish not to return from or even acknowledge. It was like reopening closed wounds.

“We would accept that she is dead, but there were talks that if she was alive, she is still under hostage from the Cartel that took her, or worse we’ve got intel that she might even be working alongside them now.”

König nodded, accepting her response. It was now more about tying loose ends than reuniting lost family. A bitter ending that he never thought would be callous for any blood could have for a missing sister.

“Understood.” It was a response not truly his own, but it was what was expected out of him in the long run. He bent and nodded for whatever they might want out of him.

After a few more minutes of discussion with regards to the upcoming missions, he had followed Laswell out of his office and into the meeting room that housed four somewhat familiar men whose reputation precedes them.

“Guten Morgen meine Herren." He greeted sensing the apprehension in each and every single one of them.

“Gentlemen, this is Colonel König and he will be leading the mission for the possible search and rescue of Captain Y/N Riley.”

König felt himself tense at the mention of the name. The name on the file had just been a call sign. Captain Wraith. Never once did it mention any legal names. He had simply assumed the last name due to their relationship with the Lieutenant that sat stiff in front of him.

No. It was just a coincidence. There were many people that shared the same name as you. It was simply just a chance of a situation that wasn’t your own.

“If we learn that she is also working for the enemy?”

“You will have full execute authority, Colonel.” It was Simon Riley that had answered and it brought a shiver down his spine. How callous and cold he was to what could possibly be the last remaining family he still had in this world.

“Then consider it done, Lieutenant.”

“We have found a possible location for the target. A message was sent to her last known number a few months prior. We were able to have a rough estimate of her location but before we could pinpoint exactly where, the phone had died and we are certain that the phone was destroyed.”

“Where?”

“Austria.”

~

You had known since your boyfriend has been deployed that there were eyes lurking and watching over you. It didn’t take you much to realize as much. You’ve gone to and fro work with a small pocket knife in your pocket in the off chance that your brother or the Cartel had come to look for you.

Your brother had opened up Pandora’s Box and you were certain that if he was looking for you, what was left of Roba’s Cartel would just follow suit. You had thought that you have escaped their clutches but somehow it comes haunting you back all over again and you did not have your boyfriend to keep you sane in this time of need.

You would be too selfish to ask for him to be here for you when he was more needed in the base. Your problem was for you to deal with. It was of your past and nothing that needed any of his concerns any more than he should.

A part of you should have known of changing your first name too when you’ve escaped the clutches of the Cartel. Even without the last name of your family and your past, you still had so much attachment to your first name. It was given to you by your mother when she had hoped for a girl. It was the only thing you had left of your past and it took so much out of you to even think of letting it go for good.

But it gave everyone the opening. You know as much and you feared that the day would come that everything you built would come crumbling down and the love that you finally accepted into your life would fade away with the lie that had become the foundation of your life with your boyfriend.

“Captain Riley.”

You tensed turning from your own thoughts at the sight of an all too familiar man. You had known about your brother and his attack on Roba in his mansion and the destruction that left his wake, but there were some that were able to survive and you have learned during your escape had created a cartel of their own. Zaragoza Drug Cartel was like a Hydra whose head was swiftly cut off only for numerous heads to pop up as replacement. You know it instilled the birth of numerous cartels in the borders but you did not wish to dig further knowing what it entails.

“Manuel.” Your voice was shaking as you looked at one of the numerous captor you had had under Roba’s control.

“Who would have ever thought you would be hiding in plain sight?”

You tensed at his words. How easy it had been for him to find you. Your eyes turned towards the public. You were in the middle of the bustle and happening of the streets. Everyone was going somewhere but at anything that would catch their attention you were certain they would see.

The man would do nothing to hurt you, especially in broad daylight.

“I’m not hiding. What do you want?” You questioned.

You shoved your shaking hands inside your pocket. You tried your best to maintain eye contact with the man in front of you but the cruel gaze brought back all the more unsavory memory that you wished never to relive. You could have dealt with the physical or mental torture that they had inflicted on you, but the memories of being thrown naked to a pack of drunk members of the cartel had you sitting under the showers scrubbing your skin raw for hours. You hated it, hated to know that even in the years since your escape, the man in front of you still held so much power over you.

“Your brother, he’s been looking for contacts that does not concern him.” He spoke. “The boss was not having it and throwing him to your direction should have been the proper way to deal with him, but your brother really knows how to multitask it seems.”

You tensed.

“What does he know?” You questioned.

“Enough to know you’re still alive. But not enough to know whether you’re working for us or not.”

“You put a target on my back.”

“No, your brother had misplaced the target on your back and your boyfriend is assigned as the executioner when he figures it all out.”

=====

TAGLIST:

@sleepyqueernoises @eddiemxsonlvr @cosychick

#call of duty modern warfare 2 #cod mw2 #konig #konig x reader #konig x female reader #konig x you #könig #könig x reader #könig x female reader #reader insert #cod smut #konig smut #könig smut #könig call of duty #könig cod #könig mw2 #konig cod #konig mw2 #konig modern warfare #könig x you #könig x y/n

[lazydoodlesandfanfic]

Stubborn Like Me (Tony Stark X Teen!Reader) *PLATONIC

Characters: Tony Stark X Teen!Reader

Universe: Marvel, Avengers

Warnings: None

Request: Tony Stark x teen reader. The reader is the second best genius mechanical engineer behind Tony. The reader can basically build anything they can think of. (He has a IQ of 267) One day after a contest the reader school beats Tony old school. Tony tries to recruit the whole team including the reader. The reader says "No I want to build my school up by being the best." (The reader is on their school own debate, robotics, athletic, etc team.) That's when Tony stops by the reader parents house and they make the reader goes to Tony's old school m

Tony wasn’t really one to dwell on his earlier years, or to check in on those back then unless they actually meant a lot to him, and with his messy history, there wasn’t many of those people. However, one thing that he always ended up checking on was his old school. He had a lot of good memories there, and it was his refuge from his toxic homelife with his dad. It was a place where he could be himself, have friends, and where he was able to thrive.   

One of the aspects that he kept up to date on with his old school were their competitions that they reigned supreme in. Since his turn around into a hero, the school often asked him to come, give speeches, be judges for inward competitions and to give out rewards for projects he put funding in. With it being the best school not only in New York but also in all the neighbouring states, he had handed out a lot of rewards and gone to give a lot of speeches. So he was fairly surprised when he found out that his school came second in an mechanical engineer. To a public school. An average public school that had never even passed the initial round before now. It was shocking to everyone, and it wasn’t long until it ended up in the local newspapers. It also brought a lot of light to the winning school- mostly the mystery group that ran and won the championship without breaking a sweat. Tony was one of those people, and he spend an afternoon and night doing his research into the group. Several members had been in the group a few years, not long from graduating, and while smart, clearly hadn’t been the winning force, so he looked at the newer faces to the team. He didn’t have to look far until he stumbled onto you- the newest recruit to the team. 

Y/N L/N, 15 years old, also on the school debate team, Robotics, and also in your school’s sports team, and in each you had gotten yourself an important role by working hard, managing all that in just a year of being in high school, and in that year of you joining these groups, you had boosted their success. In fact, the robotics team were in the middle of a local compeition with some other local schools that could go to the championships, and the debate team were now successful enough to be able to compete as well next year, and your sports team had their first winning streak in quite a while. It all revolved around you.

Tony sent a letter to your family’s address to congratulate you and offer a transfer to the best school in New York- his school, letting the school know of this and why, only to hear back from the school a few weeks later that you hadn’t applied or got in contact with them, and you hadn’t contacted Tony either. He double checked the address was right and that the letter sent, and it had. Unsatisfied, he decided the next action was to reach out to your school, saying he wanted to meet the winning team, and they weren’t gonna turn that down. 

And so here he was, at your school which was a major downgrade to the school he attended many years ago, in a small classroom next to the parking lot which was apparently where your group operated… along with the robotics group. As soon as the group walked into the room to see him, they were all surprised, but in awe to see him… except you. Tony looked right into your eyes, and the look you gave him told him alot. It told him you already knew why he was here, and you weren’t falling for it.

Still, Tony persisted, keeping a smile on his face as he congratulated the team on their success, how he always kept up to date on the competitions and how impressed he was with them. After softening them up, he made his proposition. “So, this place is a bit cramped, and that’s not considering you’re sharing with the Robotics team. Well, I spoke with the school your won against, and they were impressed by your potential, and they want to start a program where your class with have access to the garage they assist at you you’ll have better tools, a larger work place and more vehicles and such to work on. If it works between your two schools then there’s talk about doing it for your other neglected classes, maybe combining your school’s extra-curriculars, and since it’ll be the big guys funding it, that’ll show on your records so you’ll have a better rep when it’s time for you to look into colleges, universities and jobs.” Tony informed you. He watched the group look amongst each other with excited grins at the proposition that was too good to give up. 

“What’s in it for our school? How does it benefit?” You spoke up, your arms crossed, sat on the edge of a desk.

“Other than having students have access to better activities that they won’t need to fund so they can put that little into other things to better the school?” Tony responded, copying your pose but on the teacher’s desk. Your friends noted the silent argument happening between you two, and split to give you both a clear sight of each other, but also allowing them to watch the interaction like a game of tennis. 

“I know the rules and regulations for the competitions for school competitions. If we use the other school’s resources- which by the way is biased because it’s the school you went to and you’ve been funding them essentially ever since- then our school technically can’t compete. We’d have to compete under the name of the other school, which means any trophies, rewards, certificates, and more importantly money that can be spent by the school to improve, would go to that school, not ours. In the larger image, that doesn’t seem fair.” You pointed out. Tony didn’t speak immediately to rebuttal your comment, because honestly he wasn’t expecting it. You pointed out a flaw in his offer that no one would have spotted without prior information- like the fineprint of the competitions rules and regulations. 

“While that is a negative, I believe the positives outweigh it.” Tony reasoned with you. “But that your decision. Please decide amongst yourself and let your principal know your decision.” Tony spoke, before leaving the classroom. 

He heard back the following day from his school that the offer had been accepted. With one problem. You dropped out of the program. If you didn’t remind Tony of himself before, you did now. Stubborn and determined to not give in to something you didn’t agree with, even if it meant self-imploding. It took a few hours of pondering, talking with his teammates and Pepper, before he formed a new strategy, this one being far more personal, and an offer you couldn’t justify turning down or sabotaging, and to ensure you couldn’t just rip up a letter or delete an email to ignore it, he decided to personally show up at your house. Needless to say, when you opened the door and saw him there, he sent you a shit eating grin and your face… oh if looks could kill. However, you kept in any curses for him to turn around and leave you alone, your manners overruled you and you stepped to the side to let him in. He stepped inside, noticing how quiet it was.

“You have an hour until my parents come home. Make it quick.” You answered his silent question, brushing past him to walk deeper into the home, sitting down at the dining table, leaning back and crossing your arms. Tony followed you, keeping his eye contact with you as he came and sat down opposite you.

“I heard about you dropping out of mechanical engineering.” He started. 

“I’ve got several other extra curricular to sparkle up my resume, dropping that one isn’t that big of a deal.” You brushed off. 

“We both know that’s not why you dropped it. You were the brain of that group, the reason they won. Without you they’ll go back to being mediocre and the merging of the schools will be cancelled.” He pointed out. 

“If that means we can claim our own prizes and we can reap the reward for our hard work instead of having to hand it over to a school that doesn’t need it, that’s fine by me.” You retorted, and Tony could feel his frustration bubbling in his chest at your refusal to even consider, before he remembered why he was there.

“I have a new offer for you.” 

“I’m not transferring or doing anything for your little private school.”

“I want to offer you a paid internship.” He told you bluntly. You paused, staring at him for a moment, blinking several times. 

“What?” 

“Fully paid. And you can still go to your school. Since you dropped Engineering, that might clear up some of your busy schedule, and since there’s no major competitions for the next few months, I’m sure your other extracurricular activities won’t sink if you only do every other class. You won’t be the only intern either- I have another bright mind called Peter working for me, but you’ll be working in different roles. I’d like you to be more hands on, right beside me with major projects.” He explained to you. You remained quiet as he spoke, waiting for a catch. Any catch.

“What do I need to sacrifice?” You asked of him. Tony paused his ramblings, looking at you. You were slumped now. Almost defeated. Almost. He could still see the fight in you- the urge to support your school and your peers. 

“…Nothing. You don’t have to sacrifice anything… You clearly love your school, enough to give up on a hobby you’re talented in and give up a chance to go to the best school in the area. I guess it’s because you know you’re the thing keeping all the other extracurricular activities running. Without your success, your school would have to shut them down- and by doing so, those other students lose important notes on their record for college and university.” You didn’t say anything, and that proved to Tony he was right. He leant forward, resting his arms on the table. “I’m going to start a new project. One that funds the activities in the smaller schools. That includes yours. If there’s any you’re only doing to keep them running and you don’t enjoy it, you can drop it. It’ll be safe, I promise. All I want from you is your cooperation. You have an amazing mind, kiddo. You’re going to do some amazing things, and I want to give you a boost to the top. We could really do with someone like you with us.” He spoke softly. Your ears perked up as you glanced up at him. 

“Us?” 

“The Avengers. SHIELD. Those are the projects I’m talking about. You’ll be on the payroll. Of course, you won’t be able to tell your folks about what exactly you’re doing, but that’ll just make them more impressed, right? What do you say?” Tony offered, holding out his hand. You stared at it, looking for any loopholes he might have made, but soon finding nothing, you reached out and shook his hand. “Welcome to the team, Brainiac.”

Hope you like it! If you have any questions, please send them in! 

*Not my GIF

TAGS:  @klanceiscannon14​ @marvelhoeingismyhobby-blog​ @bellamyblakemorley @dummiesshort  @freyathehuntress​ @abbybills22-blog​ @mutantjediavenger​ @theoraekensnotsosecretlover​ @alicedanganh @sleutherclaw @sleepy-coffee-bean @stawwpp  @hello-love-youre-pretty  @courtneychicken​  @graysonmalfoy​ @bellero​ @originalpottervengerlock​ @supernatural-pan​ @esoltis280​ @lady-of-lies​ @lenaswritingandstuff @macbetheliza @mandywholock1980​ @cdwmtjb8​ @caswinchester2000​ @determinedpines​ @huntheimpossible @automaticbakeryfreakshoe

#marvel #Avengers #Iron Man #tony stark #Tony stark x reader #tony stark x teen!reader #tony stark x male!reader #tony stark x fem!reader #x reader #x male!reader #x fem!reader #x teen!reader #reader #teen!reader #fem!reader #male reader #oneshot #writing #story writing #question #request #ask questions #ask me anything #send me questions #send me asks #send me anything

[simplynotcapable]

i’ve had someone counter my “aegon loves his brother” argument with a reminder about aegon arranging the whore when aemond is thirteen, and i am SO GLAD you brought this up and let me explain why i think this proves my point even more

first, as a preface: aemond was, inarguably, assaulted. i’ve seen people who theorize he was forced, i’ve seen people who think aegon convinced him, i’ve seen people argue that he probably just went along to look cool to his big brother. that’s irrelevant. he was a thirteen year old child, the whore was a grown woman, it was arranged by his older brother who should have been protecting him. he was a child. this was assault. aegon is 100% in the wrong here, what he did to his brother is horrific and twisted.

now, moving on: i do not think aegon did this to aemond with any intention of malice. i do not think he considers what he did wrong, i do not think he saw it as a prank (not in the same way the pink dread was, anyway) or a cruelty.

i think it’s more proof that aegon has a twisted relationship with love and so, in trying to show his love, it comes out cruel.

now, aemond loses his eye at ten in the book. in the show, it’s a little more ambiguous? we don’t have numbers really, so it’s difficult to say. but if we’re going off leo ashton’s age and the appearances of the characters, aemond is around 12-13 when he loses his eye.

you could argue the brothel happened BEFORE driftmark, but based off aegon and aemond’s interactions at the funeral and the prostitute’s lack of reaction to aemond’s missing eye, i would definitely say it happened afterwards.

which means, when aegon takes aemond to the brothel, he has just freshly lost his eye.

aegon takes his freshly mutilated baby brother into the depths of the city and buys him a night with a whore, though aemond is a child and (we can assume from the severity of his reaction when seeing her again) was not fucking on board with this plan at all. he says “time to get it wet”, which can easily be read as a mocking “lol ur a virgin” type insult.

that is not how i see it, and i do not think that’s how aegon sees it (unless we ever see him address this i doubt we’ll ever know, so granted this is also mostly my interpretation of his character)

aegon turned to debauchery at a very young age to escape his world: the pressure from his mother, the fear of rhaenyra, the lack of control over his own life, his absent father. his coping mechanism for everything bad in his life is pumping himself full of alcohol and engaging in risky sexual behaviors.

aemond just had his eye torn out by boys that he and aegon have been raised to believe are bastards whose mother will have them killed. they watched their mother go apeshit, and they watched their father not punish luke. rhaenyra called for aemond to be tortured. aemond is never going to get his eye back and recovering from losing an eye is HELL.

and so aegon sees all these terrible things and offers aemond a coping mechanism. his coping mechnism. “this terrible thing happened to you, and i avoid terrible things with this, so here. here, you can use this, too. here, it doesn’t take it away but you forget it for awhile. here, here, here, look, see, isn’t this better than letting yourself feel it?”

now, none of this is to say it didn’t BECOME one of aegon’s intentional cruelties once they got there. i’m sure if aemond let himself be visibly uncomfortable or tried to argue, aegon very quickly fell back into bullying asshole mode—maybe even worse than usual because he feels aemond is slighting him. but i don’t think any of it was initially rooted in a desire to hurt aemond or humiliate him in any way.

aegon was a little boy who grew up too quickly in some ways and never grew up at all in others, and he tried to drag aemond down that same path because he truly, genuinely sees nothing wrong with the choices he’s made and who he’s become. he started having sex and drinking at a young age, why shouldn’t aemond do the same? it makes him feel better, so why wouldn’t it help aemond?

aegon loves his brother. i think he did this BECAUSE he loves his brother.

i just also think that aegon’s idea of love is so warped that the consequences of him trying to show it are almost always disastrous, and he doesn’t seem to think of how his actions will endanger those around him.

case in point: his little brother being deeply affected/traumatized by an assault that he is not likely to ever truly get over—but aemond’s feelings about this entire thing and how i genuinely believe it’s the partial cause of his later proclivities is an entirely separate conversation.

#house of the dragon #hotd #anti team green #anti team black #team green #team black #aegon ii targaryen #aemond targaryen #the green brothers

[arogustus]

Splatband Analysis - Wet Floor

(Disclaimer: This analysis is based on what I get out of looking into the character descriptions we have of the splatband characters. If you disagree with what I say, that is fine, we are all beheld to our opinions. Just don't be a jerk about it.)

Watch out, the floor is wet. Cause I’m about to spill the tea on Wet Floor all over this floor. Get it? You probably do.

Wet Floor was the Squid Squad of Splatoon 2, what with the previous one falling apart due to the leader and the bassist attempting to kill each other. They’re not a band I think about often, but hopefully this analysis changes it. It helps that, as the main band, they get privileges such as a section in Splatune 2 where they get interviewed, meaning actual dialogue from these people! Which also reminded me that I missed the one for Squid Squad… I think once I’m done I’ll do a compilation post of all information I missed for some of the bands, and maybe even some stuff you guys pointed out!

The band

Wet Floor formed through the magic of social media connections, and were evidently recently formed before the events of Splatoon 2. At the time they weren’t used to crowds or live performances. Their main motivation is to spread more kinds of music in a world dominated by pop stars. That part is said in Kagi’s twitter blurb, but from the interview it’s clear the opinion is shared between the whole band, even if at different levels. They use docs to write their songs. The process we’re given is that someone writes a riff on the doc, and everyone adds to it on their own time. Compared to Squid Squad, there’s a pretty clear level of communication going on between the group, they all seem pretty close, and just have fun together in their work. Outside of Tsumabushi, none of them are morning people. 

Kagi

Kagi here’s the founder, and really the one with the whole motivation of restoring indie dignity to Inkopolis. Wet Floor are his like minded peers, discovered thanks to social networking. Likely he wouldn’t have met them any other way considering he seems pretty shy. He prefers being in a studio over performing, and prefers the others take the lead over him. 

Rather famously, his skin is a particularly unnatural tone of teal compared to the natural skin colors we see in other inklings. Unlike Yoko, who has her mutation addressed, no attention is brought to it anywhere for Kagi. It might have something to do with how Inklings look when young, where they’re a uniform color of their ink before eventually gaining their kid forms. Maybe Kagi’s mutation made it so that his body never formed fully? It probably bears noting he also lacks an eyemask too. What an enigma.

Mizole

Compared to most Splatband characters, Mizole’s descriptions lay out a fair amount of his personality in front of us. He’s shrewd, cynical and prone to making cutting remarks, and is mainly motivated by a desire to either subvert or exceed people’s expectations. Despite that, he does get along with his bandmates as seen in the interview, he banters with them without being actively rude to them. That said, his relationship with Ryan is more vitriolic. The two work together, but are prone to bickering due to conflicting viewpoints (Ryan is a fan of Squid Squad, he’s an enemy of Squid Squad, though obviously there’s more to it than just that), a frequent enough occurrence that Kazami is perfectly fine watching the two argue without having to intervene. Again, outside of that, the interview shows the two do get along, and music wise, when they work together, the results are magical.

He’s got a personal rivalry with Squid Squad, which influences him more than he wants to admit. We don’t know if Squid Squad were aware of this (they were busy with other stuff), so it’s likely to be entirely one-sided. His name, Mizole, comes from Mizore, the word for shaved ice. Get it? Cause he looks like a cone of shaved ice? His hair is at least semi-transparent, since you can see his eyebrows, not to mention an almost snow-white skin tone. Is it a condition or perhaps something regarding his species of squid? 

Ryan

Ryan is our last inkling of the band, and co-vocalist with Mizole. She’s a faithful follower of the church of punk rock, quote the Haikara Walker, explaining her style and interests. A particularly big fan of Squid Squad, which causes friction between herself and Mizole. That seems to be what her descriptions focus on, her relationship with Mizole, so we don’t get much about her outside of this belief. It wouldn’t be hard to view her as an opposite of Mizole, since that would naturally make the two contrast each other more Diss-Pair style, but that’s speculatory talk. Sorry girl. Not much else I can get out of you.

Kazami

Unlike the others, I like her english name, Candi. It’s cute. She’s the youthful type, someone who comes off as “spontaneous and right-brained”. Right-brained here means she comes off as creative and artistic, but secretly she’s very serious about her performance. She’s very self-critical about her performance when she listens to her recordings. I mean, read this quote of hers from Haikara Walker, she says, “That didn’t sound cool, ‘cause I sucked so bad.” What the hell.. She might have self-esteem issues, but she refuses to let the others know about it, probably to maintain that cheerful vibe she gives off. That’s kinda sad… At the very least she’s having fun when she plays, especially when Ryan and Mizole bicker, so she loves herself a little chaos. It’s her favorite pastime.

She and Tsumabushi have a friendly rivalry going with each other, and are overall pretty close, to the point of even secretly training with each other. Ooh la la. 

Tsumabushi

Lastly, the bassist of the band, and an archetypical one, I.E. he’s a supporter. He’s described specifically as a big brother. He’s probably the type who wakes everyone up during mornings, especially since he’s outright stated to be the only one to work well during them. Goes at his own pace, so probably a relaxed personality type. A very talented bassist who only needs to glance at the sheet music once or hear a tune to get it down. I wonder if he has arms?

—

Wet Floor is not my favorite band, but I’m beginning to see their appeal now. My main criticism is that none of them have gotten involved in any kind of drama since their debut. How can you be the lead band of a game when you haven’t committed an act of plagiarism or tried to kill each other, come on people, step it up. 

Anyways, if you guys have any questions or wanna point out something I missed, I’m gonna open asks to let y'all toss your thoughts at me. See you guys next week.

#splatoon #splatbands #splatband analysis #wet floor #kagi #mizole #ryan #kazami #tsumabushi #my work

[the5n00k]

Character analysis essay: (kind of, it's mostly me just rambling)

The Ghost and Molly McGee and the concept of unconditional love and acceptance

‼️Spoilers ahead for both seasons 1 and 2!‼️

The Ghost and Molly McGee is one of the most special animated tv shows I've ever seen for several reasons but none quite as special to me as this. A ton of shows, especially on Disney channel, boast of their friendships between the main characters and their hijinks they get into but none have quite impacted me like the friendship between the two titular characters Molly and Scratch. I mean when I first watched this series in July after the season 1 finale, I expected to have a brief period of obsession, a few drawings, and then I'd move on. As you can tell by my blog, that did not happen. (For better and for worse)

People dismiss this show because of the more grounded slice of life episodic approach it takes but honestly I feel like that's it's strongest aspect. It allows the characters to have more moments where they can just slow down and connect. There's no urgent threat (save for a few episodes) that needs to be addressed or the world will end. The characters get to talk, react, and grow because of its slower pace. I say slower loosely because this show will also throw jokes at you harder and faster than an automatic tennis ball server but it knows when to take a moment seriously when it needs to. (This is also why season 1 Amphibia is my favorite and y'all can fight me for it.)

Now onto my main point; Molly and Scratch's relationship.

They start out rough. REALLY rough. They're not good for each other in the slightest. Scratch is mean and constantly trying to sabotage Molly and Molly is controlling, dragging Scratch along on her daily tasks even if he expresses how much he does not want to come along. But no matter how terrible they treat each other, there's still a level of care.

Take First Day Frights or The Unnatural for example. Scratch is more than willing to watch Molly fail until he sees her getting picked on, something he's experienced almost every day of his afterlife, possibly his living one too. He has this connection to her early on, he has this empathy. He'd never expressly admit it and he still tries his hardest to make her give up MANY times throughout season 1 either for his own amusement, thinking the effort isn't worth both of their time, or simply because he has to keep Brighton miserable. But seeing her upset always sets something off in him. And while he doesn't verbally admit he cares about her until the season finale, he does eventually acknowledge her as his best friend (although in that instance it was more to spite Libby) and acknowledge himself as part of her family. The most notable episodes that highlight their more stable relationship are season 1, 18-20 (for those unaware, that would be Out of House and Home/Home is Where the Haunt is, Scaring is Caring/All Night Plight, and The Jig is Up/Molly Vs the Ghost World)

Moving onto season 1 Molly now, she was controlling and seemed to enjoy annoying Scratch in almost a sibling-like behavior, poking him, teasing him, playing with his "hair" but the further you get into the series, the less annoying these feel and the more endearing they become. She also begins to respect his boundaries more, summoning him less and kind of letting him do his own thing in the general area while she has her own plot going on. (Goat Your Own Way and gags ... The Internship) And even after the curse is broken, she seems willing to let him move on away from her if that's what he really wants. She's more interested in his happiness now than her own. Letting go of that control is HUGE for her considering how much emphasis she put on him being her first forever friend. She didn't even expose him to Libby until she got his permission. I brought it up once and I'm bringing it up again dammit.

These two broken, mistreated, flawed people who found each other by complete coincidence would do anything and go to the ends of the earth for each other. And they did.

Moving onto season 2 I was terrified they would regress in some way from this. It was such a high note and a perfect end to their arc all throughout season 1, but now there was this new status quo. They were used to each other now. They could feel like completely different characters at this point. But they weren't, in fact they're even better.

They fight, they argue, they disagree on A LOT of things, but at the end of the day they're even more supportive and loving of each other than ever before.

They're not tearing each other down anymore, they're actively building each other up. Making the other a better person. Cheering them on. This even extends to the B characters like Libby and Darryl, they feel like a close-knit family. Even when they argue, the first thing they see when they say each other again is "I'm sorry" which is HUGE for Scratch, acknowledging fault was (and still is to some degree) really hard for him. They love each other no matter what. They've still got their issues, Molly still feels like she needs to burn herself out to make others happy and Scratch is still calloused and mean towards new additions to his social circle but that just makes them feel more authentic. I don't want them to be perfect. Watching them improve yet still struggle with the same issues they had at the start of the series makes them feel so real. For being a show that's mostly episodic with loose continuity, the development its characters go through is so slow burn sometimes you don't even notice it just binging the series. But if you jump back and forth between an early season 1 episode to a late/season 2 episode, it is STAGGERING.

Molly doesn't love Scratch because he stopped being mean. Scratch doesn't love Molly because she stopped being an overbearing ball of energy. They've loved each other in spite of that. They see past these flaws to their source and relate to the feelings they stem from. At their core, Molly and Scratch are exactly the same; social outcasts seemingly doomed to never having lasting connections. They just responded differently to what they had to go through, their two extremes are even similar in some ways with over possessiveness and insecurity. When Scratch was defending himself to Libby, he couldn't even name any of his redeeming qualities. And Molly still thought Scratch wanted to leave her in spite of everything. They're so torn from their experiences and that drives them closer together. I'm tearing up writing this.

They're broken but they're healing. They're best friends forever. One without the other would not be the same person. Although they aren't codependent, they've gotten along fine on solo adventures without the other needing to step in and solve their problem. They're healthy in their toxic behaviors because they call each other out. I don't consider a relationship toxic if there's noticeable improvement and growth. They're mature in their immaturity, their friendship is so simple and sincere. They enjoy each other's company and don't care who knows it. They're weirdos and so is everyone else they're friends with. Save for maybe Geoff. I don't think a single soul hates Geoff. I'm getting off topic but their friendship is something I always wanted.

They know they're broken, they know they're flawed and selfish at times. But they're trying. And that effort is sometimes all that one can ask for. The dream team for all eternity.

#the ghost and molly mcgee #tgamm #tgamm spoilers #character analysis #i cried writing this #legitimately i almost started violently sobbing over these cartoon characters #that's what thinking about their relationship does to me #they're such besties #i hope they never change but also change for the better #if that makes any sense #my poor broken meow meows #i want to hug them so hard all their trauma goes away

[kitkatopinions]

Regarding the nitpick about the lack of religion in RWBY. We know the worldbuilding leaves much to be desired. So I'm betting religion isn't present simply because the writers themselves are non religious and never bothered to address the subject. Which is stupid because George RR Martin created several religions to flesh out the world in Game of Thrones and he's a lapsed Catholic. Just goes to show how little the writers care about worldbuilding. The existence of the Brother Gods and the Great Tree invalidate pretty much all the faiths in Remnant yet nobody seems to care. That would be like IRL we find indisputable proof that one religion on Earth is the undeniable truth but everyone continues their lives exactly the same as if this mind blowing revelation doesn't affect them.

Yep!

it's easy enough to say "oh well religion does exist it's just that none of the mains follow a religion so it doesn't matter" but it is so bland and flat and disappointing! Like I'm not gonna pretend that I would find building multiple religions to be a particularly easy thing to do and I especially would find it hard to write characters undergoing a crisis of faith when they discover what's real... But world building is also just so much fun and it's so interesting so like? Why just hand wave it away?

There would be Salem worshippers and Salem would love that and use it and probably enforce worship among her followers. And there would be people who worshipped a vaguely Oz-ish figure and Oz would hate that. People would worship Oz and Salem together not knowing of their history (and again wouldn't have to call them by their real names or have a real understanding of them to do it.) People would have religions that sprung up on their own centered around the Grimm, people would have religions about how the world ended and when it might end again, some people Oz had trusted and told the whole truth to thousands of years ago could've prompted more worship of the brother gods, people would have religions that include the formation of the world as they know it - heck, the world of RWBY the very planet they're on is called REMNANT and there isn't some common religion about what it's a remnant of? The moon is busted up, people are always gonna be people, you think there wouldn't be some religious explanation people had for that? People have in the past just fucking gone to a completely different dimension where everything is nonsense and sentient teapots and great trees and getting transported to bridges that force you to come out of the closet - there's no way I'm believing that in thousands of years the only people it's ever happened to are Team RWBY+J and Neo through a set of very specific circumstances we know and also randomly two kids through Narnia means presumably because we don't get any other explanation - and the only thing that's ever come from that is a children's book. Kings existed, the main world powers are still called 'kingdoms' and I'm meant to believe that a 'divine right to rule' wasn't a part of that? Or more like it doesn't matter what I believe was and wasn't a part of royalty because none of it impacts or affects our main characters AT ALL.

It's just so mind boggling to me that this would be the case. It'd be like if Fire Emblem Three Houses actually had zero religious aspects, that's what it feels like. If it was just a game where people went to a combat school led by a thousands of years old person in a secret war with Those Who Slither In The Dark and people had Crests and Sothis was in Byleth's head talking to them and Arval was in Shez's head talking to them and they had the heroes relics weapons and the Holy Kingdom of Faerghus and there were castles and churches and there were what looked like ruins of ancient castles or temples just like lying out in the woods, but like no single character that exists is even sort of religious and how different things might be connected to religions is never brought up and the characters never talked about any religion even existing past acknowleding that not a lot of people believed in any religion anymore. That's how weird it feels with RWBY. Like, the elements of 'this world definitely has religions and beliefs' are all freaking present in RWBY, there's no way to logically believe that religions just aren't present and have no effect on anything or any character, but then there's nothing there. It's so weird and I just do not understand how the RWBY writers could engage so little with the world and the story they made that such a crucial element of world building especially for the story they wanted to tell could just get so wholly passed over.

#rwde

[gabbasposts]

>Luke Finding out you’re still alive and well, years later after he left Tatooine<

Star Wars: Luke Skywalker x fem Reader

Warnings: Angst, mild arguments, tragic past, reader has a sister who this is kind of centered around, but don’t worry, it isn’t an OC 💀 she can be whoever you want lol

(Not my gif)

A/n: this is a bit OoC, and maybe a little self indulgent. Reader has a sister who I don’t give a name because idk 💀 same with the parents. When I write for reader I don’t like using Y/n because I feel like Y/n in my mind after years of reading fanfics is their own individual character which is weird because technically they aren’t…

👁️👄👁️ at all… but yeah… anyways, if you like it, thanks!

He didn’t know what to think as you both stared at one another, in shock and mild dismay… mostly on your part.

It had been… well, for the better part of a few years since you had last seen one another.

He had left Tatooine before the news had reached you that the empire had raided his home and slaughtered both his uncle and aunt.

You remembered how you had rushed to his home immediately, asking anyone you knew Luke typically communicated with where he had gone and if he was hurt…

Your first regret… because what followed after multiple lonely nights of crying, and regretting the argument you had both gotten in which so happened to be the last time you saw him, you received news over the radio transmitter that none other than Luke Skywalker, had been awarded a medal for blowing up the Empire’s Death Star.

Of course, you had been thrilled then… relief had flooded your senses immediately once it became obvious that he hadn’t died with his uncle and aunt, despite the report only stating it was just the two of them who’s bodies had been found outside of the home… no one else’s.

Of course that didn’t mean you hadn’t mourned for the their losses just as you had for Luke before finding out he was alright… safe, and alive…

You blinked, turning your head as you adverted your gaze from him… you felt more than exposed right now. One he was standing in your home, your new home at that, which was the last place you’d ever want to see him again in… You hadn’t wanted to see him again, to be honest but it seemed your sister who stood starring at you with a wary, yet confident look in her eye, had other ideas.

You had already had a conversation about this… that you would not interfere in any decision that you two’s “parents” had made for her.

You were an adult now, and lived fairly close to them. Therefore you no longer had to abide by their rules… but because she was still young, and by law under their wing, you really didn’t have any say in the matter she kept trying to drag you in.

Which is why, even though your gaze wasn’t harsh as you stared back at her, you couldn’t help but to feel annoyed by her utter disregard for bringing not only a Jedi into your home when she knew your opinions on them, but one you had intimately known prior to you both coming to Naboo after the events that had taken place during your relationship with him… of course then, she had only been a baby.

Unaware of you two’s relationship, nor the fact she had met him before, shortly after she was born… so you couldn’t truly bring yourself to be angered by her look of both refusal to allow you to sit on the sidelines, as well as confusion for your obvious annoyance towards none other than Luke Skywalker, the hero and Jedi Knight who helped end the reign of the Empire. The same empire who killed your actual parents…

However… you could be mad that she brought someone, who she assumed would be a stranger to you, no matter the weight of his name… into your home.

You watched as she frowned, her eyes glancing to Luke’s for a moment before coming back to look at you, now shrinking inward a bit under your obvious stony gaze on her. She knew you hated having visitors…

She cleared her throat, seemingly get ready to address the situation but before she could even get a word out, his voice came through in a steady tone. “It’s alright… can I speak with your sister for a moment while you wait outside with the others?”

While his tone didn’t seem to be deterred by your blatant rudeness, that didn’t stop you from turning to shoot him a warning look. You already didn’t want to see him at all, a fact you were sure he was well aware of.

“No. I’m not her guardian by law, I’m her sister. She can choose to do whatever she pleases, but because she isn’t my responsibility I can’t sign for that.”

You turned away, moving towards your kitchen area as your sister began to follow you, letting out an exasperated sigh as you walked towards the tea kettle which had began to whistle… your heart racing but not with unease or happiness. It was anger…

Anger you had thought you had buried after years of both therapy and trying to shove all your old feelings inside so that you could focus on moving on with your life, and leaving that painful chapter behind, had just been re-ignited.

“But… please, don’t be like this! I know your worried I’m going to get hurt and all, but I’ll be fine! This is Luke-��� your sister tried to reason with you, but you interrupted her, a slight venom dripping from your tone at his name was suddenly used aloud.

You heard it all the time wether you wanted to or not… you had thought you would be able to not have the walls of your home, your new home you had worked hard to get, tainted with the sound of it.

“I know who is.” You bit out, turning to glance at your sister who’s eyes only narrowed at the sudden bite in your tone. Luke winced internally, his jaw clenching slightly as his gaze fell to the ground for a moment… it wasn’t that he felt uncomfortable by your reaction, but more so the fact that he knew why you were having this reaction… after all, he was the reason.

“But at the end of the day, I can’t give permission when you aren’t my legal responsibility.” You stated, turning your attention back in front of you, as opened one of your cabinets to pull out a mug. Your sister was only a baby when things had transpired between you and Luke, and as for the parents, they were in actuality, your grandparents.

You simply referred to them as your parents due to the fact the kids you had finished primary school with, had been wicked enough to try and poke fun at the fact that you and your sister were basically orphans… and you didn’t want your sister who was far more sensitive to you, to have to fall victim to that as well when she started.

So you told her to refer to them as that when speaking outside of their home you had grown up in… it was sad that you had to even consider that, but children sadly could be cruel.

Your parents died when the empire invaded Tatooine looking for those who were alive, and had possibly known Luke in person… the same Luke who stood in front of you now. Only he was no longer the slightly light blonde he had been all those years ago, and his demeanor… it was still the same, but he didn’t have the familiar air of need in it.

Any other time, if you were being as stubborn as you were now, even prior to you two’s friendship becoming something more, he’d be hounding you down, questioning why you were being this way, and not hearing anyone out. It seemed he had become more patient… no doubt the Jedi training.

You had fled with her… your sister, in your hands the moment your father got word that they were approaching… you didn’t even get to hug your mother who had been screaming at you to run as the travel crafts approached…

“I know that!” Your thoughts were broken by your sister and you turned to look at her, your gaze turning bitter at your sudden recollection of the now painful memories.

“But mom and dad aren’t going to let me go because they don’t think I should. They think I should stay here with you guys, and considering you had to basically beg them to let you go to university, I think they’d be more inclined to listening to you about this! Please, I want you to help us convince them.” She stated, walking beside you in an attempt to face you, but you kept your eyes on the cup in front of you.

The thing is, you didn’t convince them… after multiple arguments and them repeatedly saying no, you left to attend much to their annoyance. But they weren’t angry enough to not allow you to communicate with your sister, and come visit on vacations.

“Please, I’m not doing this. If you want to go, then go. Besides, don’t the Jedi take force sensitive children anyway?” There was a sudden shift in energy in the room.

It wasn’t a heavy one in the sense you suddenly felt like you were in danger, but it was one that made you feel like what you had said had been wrong which you couldn’t pinpoint why considering, it was a known fact.

“No. That was the old way, we don’t work like that anymore. I dont work like that.” Luke’s voice cut in, a frown on his face as he took a step forward towards the kitchens entryway. “The new Jedi order I’m creating isn’t one that takes or separates children from their homes, and families. I only take in those under my wing, and mentorship if they reach out through the force first, which is what your sister did.”

You didn’t know why, but his sudden defensive response was almost nostalgic. He wasn’t a confrontational person, however, he was someone who always tried to call out things he didn’t agree with no matter if it would escalate.

You simply chuckled, nodding a bit before your lips pursed as stared at him. Surprisingly, the twitch in his brow that usually followed when he felt like he wasn’t being taken seriously never came... “Well then, if that’s the case she wants to go. So take her.”

“No!” Your sisters voice cried out in alarm as she rushed in front of you. For a moment, your cocky steel faced facade slipped from your face as you took in her sudden watery gaze.

“Please, help me… I don’t want them to hate me! They didn’t talk about you for months after you left, even after they let you go and I didn’t hear from you for long after. I thought I’d never see you again, and I don’t want them or you to hate me…”

Her voice quivered as she looked up at you, and immediately, your instincts took over as you moved to place your hands on her shoulders in an attempt to calm her sudden shaking.

While you we’re confident she knew you meant it out of wanting her to do what she pleased, you couldn’t help but to feel a little upset with yourself, having upset her… and it had came from a place of wanting to elicit some emotion from him nonetheless.

You wanted him to react in anger so that you could bring up the fact your parents died trying to protect you and your sister… they died lying about not having a clue who Luke was despite the fact you had brought him to your home as much as you could when he had been free from chores, due to both your parents liking and accepting him enough to let you go out with him… you felt like through your actions of being with him, and loving him, you had damned your family… and you hadn’t even received an apology, or any sort of sympathy from him. Not for killing your parents of course… you knew he had no part in that, but it was the fact that the empire had been on the haunt for him since his feat having to do with the death star, and you were positive your parents hadn’t been the only one to die in the hands of the empire for merely knowing Luke at one point before he left…

And even now, as he adverted his gaze, you knew he knew…

“Hey now… stop that. I would never hate you for wanting to choose what you want to do in your life. I love you, and you know that.” You said, your tone softened naturally due to her frantic emotional response. You tilted her chin to look at you gently, not wanting her to recoil from you in anger and hoping she understood your words as you kneeled down to her level.

“Listen, if you feel me coming with you to tell mom and dad your leaving to become a Jedi is the right decision… I’ll do it.” Her eyes widened slightly before returning to that familiar frown you had grown accustomed to seeing… she was just as miserable living with your grandparents here on Naboo as you had been when you had lived under their roof.

And even though you were basically offering to help her despite not wanting to… you knew she didn’t want you to just do so because it’s what she wanted. She wanted you to genuinely think it a good idea, letting her go this. To support her as she always did you.

And again, even if you didn’t want to, because that meant you’d have to stand in front both her, and him as a shield to protect them from your grandparents possible wrath having to both see him, as well as give up another grandchild to let them lead their lives… you’d do anything for her.

“But…” your shoulders squared as you mentally formulated as best as you could, how to tell her you truly thought it’d be a bad idea trying to bring Luke with her, without specifically telling her she shouldn’t...

“I can tell you now, mom and dad aren’t going to say yes. Because despite telling you they gave me their blessing, they didn’t say yes to me. I left. Because I knew if I didn’t, I would be stuck living the same life you’re trying to escape now.” You frowned, hating to admit you did leave her even though it was in hopes of coming back with a career so that you could hopefully move her in with you… and while you did have it now, it seemed it was too late… she had already found a path she wanted to walk down.

She shook her head gently, her eyes still on you. “You really think they could forgive me for doing this? That I’ll be able to visit one day once my training is over, and they’ll be alright with the fact I just up and left?”

“Yes.” You steeled your voice, wanting to know you were being serious.

“I do. I’m not going to lie to you and tell you it’ll be immediate. Which is why I hope that this path you me choosing will pay off… because if it doesn’t, and you return without anything, they won’t let you live it down.” You were starting to hate how much you were recalling bitter memories now… when you had first visited them a few months after leaving for vacations, they repeatedly kept pointing out the fact you had no career, or solid work experience. As if a few months would’ve been enough to establish that…

“At least if you get the Jedi title you want so badly, they’ll be forced to keep quiet and admit they were wrong. But this has to be something you’re confident about.”

Luke nodded, agreeing with you as your sister turned to look at him. “Your sisters right. It’s important you’re confident that this is what you want… while I won’t ever deny you passage to leave if you ever would like to return home and stop your Jedi training, it’s best your sure you won’t have doubts in the future.”

You couldn’t help but to nod in agreement, even if felt uneasy with his words. If his new order truly was one that was different from the old, that meant his promise of allowing her to return safe and sound, was true… she knew Luke wouldn’t kill her if she decided to abandon his order, but the Jedi of the old would’ve thought otherwise… there weren’t many known Jedi who had been able to leave peacefully and tell the tale.

And if they were, they were most likely still in hiding despite the original order now lying doormat.

Your right hand moved to rest on the left side of her face, thumbing away the tears that were escaping before your other hand followed pursuit on her right… she wasn’t that old, yet she still had the same baby face you knew Luke recognized. And yet it seemed he wasn’t willing to tell her they had met before, just as much as you weren’t ready...

Timidly, she nodded. Her eyes moved to look down at the necklace hanging around your neck, a copy of the one that hung around her own.

While it was still evident that she was a worried, she physically calmed a bit at your touch. Something you felt happy about considering despite you two’s grandparents taking you under their wing, they very much like your parents, were traditional people. And emotional responses like hers were usually met with threats to either give them more to cry about, or to fix their faces and suck it up.

Another reason she had left her grandparents home, and sometimes felt a bit bitter about her parents despite missing them badly…

Ignoring the presence that stood across from them, watching the scene unfold, you looked down at your lap, your mind seemingly growing more tired by this interaction… “Listen. Go with Luke if your sure this is what you want to do… I’ll talk to mom and dad. They’re not going to listen, but I can assure you they won’t hate you.”

With a heavy sigh, your eyes met hers again, and you couldn’t help but to smile sadly at her. Part of you wanted to tell her no…

To stay with you, due to the fact that you were the only immediate family she had. Not to mention, she was so… young, innocent, and sometimes gullible.

And her overwhelming kindness was definitely an aspect she had adopted from you guy’s mother, whilst you seemed to have inherited your pessimistic and hardened personality from your father.

“Are you sure?” She frowned more, her eyes searching yours and even though you didn’t carry the force like she did, you could sense the sudden anxiousness rising from her. “I’m positive. They’ll riot the moment they see you walk in with him, and you know how they are… leave it to me.”

It was weird… when you had been apart, you had never been one to suddenly develop immediate anxiety, even when what happened between you and Luke, who still stood with his own expression of worry on his face, had transpired… of course you had been naturally worried for the only man you at the time, foolishly declared you loved… but you didn’t count that. He wasn’t family. Not anymore.

Yet, when you had been at your university, you’d sometimes get these sudden anxious feelings that would cause you to squirm in your skin… sometimes in the literal since that you’d shudder, or your breathing would become a bit ragged.

Almost immediately your thoughts would rush to your sister, and you wasted no time leaving either mid-lecture, or hangout with friends, to race back to your dormitory and call her… and sure enough, she’d either be just as anxious or upset about something.

Maybe it had to do with her seeking you out through the force when she developed these feelings. Maybe it was simply because you were sisters… either ways, it was like you could sense her emotions no matter where you were, or how close you two were to one another. And the aspect of her ever feeling nervous or upset while you most likely wouldn’t be able to go directly to her was a thought that filled you with dread… but you didn’t want to be another version of your grandparents.

And you did have confidence she’d become an amazing Jedi. After all, she was more experienced with the force than you

“What if they don’t… what if they don’t forgive me?” Her voice was a bit more steady, but still held that hint of anxiety she typically carried with her. You smiled sadly, before smirking and shaking your head. “Then you have me. And that’s all that matters, right?”

Her face slowly shifted from that sad worrisome gaze, to a small smile as she nodded steadily her eyes still glued to yours. “Yeah…”

You smiled leaning in to kiss her forehead before standing, straightening your posture as your face steeled itself to face Luke who had watched the display, a small smile of his own having overcame him even though your face had shifted to one of indifference as you looked at him. “I can tell you right now, you walk into our parents home and try to convince them, you might not walk out…Therefore, I’ll allow you train her.”

He stood still for a moment, his gaze on yours. That familiar softness emitting from them that years ago, you would’ve blushed at and wanted to push yourself into his embrace like the silly little teen girl you had been…

But your eyes… you couldn’t bring yourself to look at him with that same softness, and familiarity that would’ve been easy to stomach his sudden re-appearance back in your life… you had hated him for so long after you had left Tatooine… you hated him for never sending you a letter or messaging you to tell you he was alright… You hated him for never reaching out when your parents had been slaughtered by the empire, it didn’t matter that he had help put an end to... You hated yourself for giving yourself to him fully before he had left Tatooine, wanting and assuming that you’d be together through thick and thin afterwards, and most importantly, even if he had been in the right during you two’s argument… an argument that had started on your accord due to you thinking you were so in love with him, that maybe he’d consider marrying you and having a family instead, when you knew he wasn’t in a rush to do that and he wanted to do things before settling down… you had hated him for it…

He looked down, his hands behind his back as he began to approach the two of you. He reached out, resting a gentle hand on your sisters shoulder, and smiling at her as she did him at the sudden contact… you don’t know why, but your stomach twisted at her expression.

Maybe it was because she didn’t know it was because of him knowing their family so intimately, it was the reason that had gotten their parents killed… maybe it was because it was like looking into a mirror, and immediately making out the obvious blind trust and admiration that her sister held in her eyes for the man, that was now a galaxy renowned hero, and being reminded that she had once gazed up at him with the same adoration, trust, and love for him, at one point in their lives... Regardless, it made her suddenly want to yank her sister back, but she calmed herself, her harsh gaze turning to look back at him.

His smile fell into a steady expression as he regarded her. No doubt sensing her emotions for him now through the force. “I swear on my life, I’ll protect her and guide her in the path of light. I won’t ever put her, nor any of the children under my wing in immediate harms way. I can promise you that.”

“You better.” You replied. The sudden bite in her tone returning. “I’ll kill you if so much of a hair is harmed on her.” The sudden harshness in your tone didn’t go unnoticed by your sister, as her sudden frantic voice broke through, calling your name.

Your threat didn’t deter him however. He only nodded, a smile appearing on his face once more as he gazed at you again with that familiar smile you felt yourself beginning to hate even though, the tiniest part of you missed it…

“I promise. No harm will come her way.” You nodded, letting out a small sigh as you turned to look back at your sister. Your eyes naturally softening as you gazed down at her slight horrified gaze on you due to your hostility which was unknown to her… you had always attempted to shield her away whenever you were beginning to grow upset, not wanting to display that image of you to her no matter what the situation was.

But with him suddenly coming back… it’s like you couldn’t possess yourself to have an ounce of self control over your emotions.

“If anything happens, call me. I’ll be there in light speed before you can blink. And if anything happens, regarding him, give him hell.” You watched as she groaned, turning to look at Luke, muttering a small apology for your behavior but he only smiled telling her it was alright…

You two had hugged each other once more… you possibly doing so a little more tightly than anticipated but she didn’t comment on it.

When you had separated, you smiled kissing her forehead once more, before you two spoke your goodbyes and promises of meeting once again, before she joined Luke at the door.

“I love you, and I’ll call you everyday after training.” She promised, before exiting from the door after you had nodded.

Luke followed behind her, and while you weren’t happy to see her leave, you felt a small sense of relief watching him follow after her. Not just for the fact he was leaving your house, but… you trusted him oddly enough to hold his promise…

He stopped just before exiting fully, turning to spare you a glance, a sad expression appearing on his face as you two stared at one another for a moment in silence…

“… I can’t change the past. But… I’m sorry. I’m so sorry… I hope you can believe me.” He didn’t wait for your reply, a part of him not wanting to wait and see your reaction as he quickly exited your home, closing the door behind him.

You had been doing so well… so well, before he came back.

With the door closing behind him, your face finally fell, and you walked over to your couch, sitting down quickly before your legs could give out as you began to sob.

#star wars #star wars x reader #luke skywalker x reader #luke skywalker x you #luke skywalker #angst #gabbasdumbthoughts #this took longer than it should have

[spotofmummery]

OOC: State of Mummery 2023

On the eve of Amon’s Nameday (tomorrow), I just wanted to take a moment to talk about Spot of Mummery, my creative endeavors (rather the lack of), a bit about what’s happening IRL, and what I’d like to do more of in 2024.

Feel free to take a peek into my life if you wish, below the cut. Your suggestions are always welcome!

I want to start this with a disclaimer – I’m going to talk about difficult things that I don’t normally address here, but I am doing okay. I’ve learned how to work through many difficulties the last couple of years, and this is not a post of lament.

Some might know that I lost my father unexpectedly right before Christmas last year.

Most don’t know that for the last couple of years (and right now currently), I’m also dealing with unexplained chest pain on and off through the year. My heart was checked this past year, and that was all fine. It’s undiagnosed, but I’m thinking (and the cardiologist also thinks) it’s a form of inflammation. The pain I can deal with, the worry about “what is this?” is a bit more troublesome.

All this is to say, I haven’t been very creative in 2023.

During NaNoWriMo of 2022, I finally wrote Amon’s triumphant return to Syrcus Tower in the First, as I’ve wanted to for years. But then, my Dad passed, and it took months for me to finish editing and posting all that writing. I did finally get it done, but my focus was other places, obviously.

In 2023, I haven’t written a word for Amon’s story outside of the Choose Amon’s Adventures (which I’d like to get started up again, maybe) and his silly adventures on Island Sanctuary (which I need to complete with the newest content for the last patch).

My RP interactions here have been little to none. My energy for attending in game events has been low.

I did organize my own event around the NA fanfest, and that went great, actually! Thanks to all who attended!

But aside from that, Lunarcon, and a few small art parties, I’ve kept to myself a lot this year. In fact, my game time in FFXIV is probably an all-time low – and that’s not because I’ve fallen out of love with the game.

On a positive note, the whole fiasco at Twitter/X brought me back to this Tumblr account full-time. I was already moving this direction, but now I’m here primarily. I do have a Pillowfort and a Blue Sky account for Amon, but Tumblr is my main gig.

I’m not exactly sure where I’m going with all this, other than to just note that my creativity and interaction has not been up to snuff this year. I’d love to say something like, “My resolution for next year is to knock it out of the park!” – but the reality is, I’m not sure what I can commit to just yet.

I think what I'd like most of all to start by getting back into enjoying time spent in game with Amon again, for one. Not that I dislike time spent with Amon, just that I recognize that it’s not got that spark that once motivated me (probably user error).

To be fair, though, I haven’t been spending a lot of time with any of my characters in game like I used to. So, it’s not just Amon.

If you’ve gone through a time where you needed to reconnect with your OCs, let me know how that turned out and what you did. I’m open to suggestions!

And if you’ve read all the way here to the end, thanks for listening. You are appreciated, friend! <3

#IRL #Creative struggles #Feedback welcome #Thanks for listening

[izzyspussy]

Hey. So. I just had a thought. Totally out of the blue. What about OFMD characters as Tarot cards, huh? Whadaya think? Totally unprompted thought.

Wow, what a strange and interesting thought to have without any kind of cue at all... 🤔

Okay disclaimer. This isn't going to have everyone or tbh even most of 'em, because this post is fully brought to you by how no character has more perfectly exemplified The Hermit to me before and not much else.

Stede + The Fool

I think Stede and Ed both fit this very well (among other characters). I had a plan a while back to draw a card where Stede was The Fool upright and Ed was The Fool Reversed except instead of The Fool and The Fool Reversed it was Fuck Around and Find Out, but then I couldn't find reference pics I liked and I actually can't draw. So. But anyway. I don't feel like I need to defend this pick? Stede is at the beginning of the journey of his life and he's got a youthful energy because of that, but he's ill prepared and needs guidance!

Ed + The Devil

Fave card alert. Ed has a pretty clear "dark side" that he believes he can keep separate from his "good side" - which of course is not possible, they coexist. This dark side consists of his temper, his traumatic past, his self loathing, etc, all things brought up in The Devil. He also tries to satisfy these darker things with instant gratification type shit - drugs, sex(? metaphorical? who can say what he's been doing to Izzy or not askfjsk, but at least it was literal with Jack anyway), physical destruction, sadism, etc. He also has himself convinced he has no control or choice over his actions, that he's just evil or whatever, which this card addresses. The Devil can also represent a powerful and passionate relationship - or a codependent one, like Ed and Izzy's. And of course he also does literally just call himself the Devil straight-up. Who am I to argue.

Zheng + The Empress

I mean she has an Empire, so. A bit on the nose, but you can't beat 1:1 accuracy lmao. She also has her balancing act between tenderness and authoritarianism. She's nurturing (so far, but considering her ship is called the Red Flag I doubt that's gonna last or will be proven disingenuous soon, but anyway...) but it can't be questioned that she is the Ruler of Rulers.

Oluwande + Strength

Patience! Gentleness not from the lack of violence but despite the abundance of it! Commitment! Steadfastness! Emotional endurance! Yeah!

Ben + The Hermit

My longest yeah boi ever. A man at a remote location in nature that may or may not materially exist, there to guide a lone, lost visitor to understanding of himself in absolute spiritual solitude. I mean, there have been purgatories just like this one in fiction before, but none of them quite struck The Hermit so hard on the nail for me as Ben did.

Izzy + The Hanged Man

*ominous - and disconcertingly horny - chanting* Whipping Boy! Whipping Boy! Whipping Boy! Not just that, though, of course. As a character Izzy also represents the need to put things on pause and think them the fuck through before you do some stupidass shit. He wanted a plan, and when he didn't get one he put a screeching fucking halt to god damn everything. And then he didn't fully think through his own actions either and got fucking murdered about it lol. He also, narratively, represents a differing perspective (at least in season one) from the accepted standard, that without considering - as many """fans""" have proven lmfao - you cannot fully understand the story. Izzy is also the number one guy who would need to take The Hanged Man's advice. Give up, bud!!! It's over!!! Stop torturing yourself!!! (Don't actually though, babygirl you look so good 🫦)

Black Pete + Knight of Cups

He's so romantic... *dreamy sigh* When he's at his best, he's compassionate, understanding, emotionally available and expressive, and has such an innocent natural charm. At his less best, he's constantly talking talk he actually can't or won't back up with action. "I'm a perfect shot," he says, and then balks at being asked to shoot something mere hours later. He has an idealized, unrealistic view of himself.

Jim + Page of Wands

Like The Fool, the Page of Wands is at the beginning of their journey, but they are still deliberating about where exactly it is they want to go. Jim in particular has two clear paths they can take in becoming the person they'll be. They can take the path of revenge and ruthlessness laid out for them by Nana and Blackbeard, or they can take the path of redemption and compassion they're being invited to by Oluwande and Stede. And the only way to figure out which way to go is to look internally and discover what they truly want, and choose the path that will give them that.

Frenchie + Page of Swords

Frenchie is full of ideas and enthusiasm! But he's also very adaptable, and though he's got that youthful energy he is not necessarily lacking in awareness or experience. He's a Jack of all trades like The Magician, but without the social separation or ambition. Reversed, Page of Swords can represent repression and lack of communication, which Frenchie "Invented Compartmentalization" is clearly familiar with. It can also be about promises you can't - or have no intention to - keep, like Frenchie's murderboat First Mate duties.

We don't really need to address how BlackBonnet are The Lovers, I think. And I've already seen more than one fanart of BlackHands as Three of Swords, so I'll just mark that correct shall I? ✔️ Keep 'em coming baby.

Thank you so much for indulging me, Andie!! IDK if you're even in this fandom at all or not alsfjks, but I hope you like these answers anyway.

#jack chats #jack facts #ofmd #stede bonnet #ed teach #izzy hands #jim jimenez #frenchie ofmd #black pete #hc #tarot

[brightwoods]

Does anyone else feel like almost all of the conflicts that had to do with the various character dynamics in Chain of Thorns didn’t actually get resolved, they just unexplainably ceased to exist after two books of building them up because CC didn’t feel like writing them anymore and she didn’t know how to resolve it naturally after how she’d built the issues up so much?

Like how none of the characters but Cordelia and Thomas had any clue about the Alastair and Charles situation and then suddenly in CoT it was like who doesn’t know? Of course Matthew knew and didn’t say anything before and then randomly brought it up to Cordelia in Paris while assuming she knew too

Or how Alastair and Thomas went from how things were at the end of CoI with Alastair thinking it could never work because Thomas’s friends hate him to oh look everyone suddenly is friends with Alastair with no grudge with no development of that in this book at all, just an abrupt shift

Especially the Alastair and Matthew dynamic where Matthew hated Alastair and wanted him to have nothing to do with any of their friends and he spent CoI ranting about him to Cordelia. And then suddenly in CoT it’s like of course Matthew is supportive of Thomas and Alastair and oh look Matthew and Alastair are suddenly not just tolerating each other for Thomas’s sake but friends despite barely interacting and no development actually showing and never getting any mention of the other in their own POVs, just having Cordelia be like Alastair stop being dumb, you’re literally friends with him now

Or like everyone other than Christopher and Grace where it was like oh we don’t like her for how she’s treated us and her friends straight to anyway she’s one of us. Like yes Grace was useful and yes Tatiana manipulated her whole life, but none of that was why anyone changed their minds or opinions? It was just suddenly the flip of a switch when it was convenient for CC

Or Anna and Ariadne where it didn’t so much develop as Anna just acted mean to Ariadne on and off throughout the series and at the end of CoI she wanted nothing to do with a relationship and then in CoT she was just suddenly like sure I guess I do. Also, slightly different note, but I did not like that Anna barely interacted with anyone else for the entire book and she was just off in the corner being an irrelevant romantic subplot for almost all of the book except when she showed up to barely even be shown in the background being sad about her brother being dead

(Although Anna still got more of a reaction than everyone else and his death was poorly executed all around in the sense of how did you write this so predictably and poorly that no one even knows when he died and it’s so background and 99% of the characters don’t care at all and we don’t see his parents finding out or much of Thomas’s reaction or anything and it’s just as if he wasn’t a character anymore 2 seconds later which is a different genre of issue with CoT but similar problem in the sense that both issues made the book feel a lot more emotionless to read)

And how the issues of Thomas and Alastair being together as two men and Anna and Ariadne being together as two women in this time and the issues of what would happen if the fact that Charles and Alastair were gay got out to the entire Clave just disappeared and never got addressed at all. We know how the ClVe reacted to Alec Lightwood YEARS later. We know society was homophobic at the time TLH is set and that it seems like shadowhunter society was a lot less open-minded than mundanes a century later

I understand that Charles being blackmailed and making shitty decisions was annoying but it was like suddenly everyone finding out wouldn’t have consequences and all the other queer men characters were like how could you possibly be worried about this :/ as if they haven’t spent the whole series knowing they have to be careful about who they tell. And then suddenly it was just of course it’s totally fine and safe to have everyone find out and why wouldn’t you be fine with that. And it was really written in a way that had other queer characters like oh Charles is such a coward for not being ready to publicly tell a bunch of homophobic people his sexuality and it just wasn’t it??? And super weird after Thomas was terrified of telling even Anna and Matthew for years. And also, I did not care for the fact that when Charles did go risk getting outed to finally do the right thing, we didn’t even get to see it through any character’s perspective or how that important meeting went, we just got one line of dialogue from somebody else saying that it happened with no details at all. And I can’t think of other examples right now but there were quite a few moments like that where we got one line saying that something had happened that was important to the plot and to characters’ development that seemed like it would have been more interesting than some of what we did get to see where it was just totally breezed over and way too easy and totally background to less important stuff

And then there was the whole no one reacting to Ariadne and Anna dancing together publicly thing was like yeah that’s nice I guess but not realistic and it doesn’t go with the way things have been presented up to that point, it also just feels like a situation where CC was like well this would be easier for me so there just won’t be consequences and then they can easily end up happily together

And then there was the whole Thomas and Alastair thinking they couldn’t realistically be together thing and knowing they couldn’t get married or be known to be together by anyone they’re not close to and then at the end it’s still not really addressed how they’re going to be together? Like there was the laziest write off of the family tree being wrong and then we still are just left to assume that eventually they move in together and suddenly it’s not a problem and everyone’s fine with it? And then I also feel like we don’t actually know if everyone found out about Alastair and Charles’ sexualities after the blackmail or if people are going to assume about Thomas and Alastair or if that’ll cause issues or if no one knows outside of who they’ve told and they have to be careful or what. Which like wouldn’t necessarily need to be addressed if it wasn’t for the logistics of being together as two men in that time being part of the obstacle that they were struggling with being in their way and then it felt like it was totally forgotten to even be one at the end by CC

Idk like I’d love to think they just lived in a world where homophobia didn’t exist but it felt like homophobia was a plot point when CC wanted it to be an inconvenience and then suddenly disappeared just to make her writing easier the moment she didn’t want it there anymore instead of actually addressing the plots she raised with it if that makes sense?

And sorry, I really did not mean to go on a rant this long. And maybe everyone else had a very different reading experience than I did and other people don’t agree with some or all of this. I personally am just very confused about how the book was almost 800 pages long and it felt like so much of the development in it was us abruptly being told that development had happened rather than actually getting to see it and how so many of the issues were abruptly solved in an I don’t want to write this issue anymore kind of way rather than anything actually needing to be worked at outside of the Belial situation

Edit: You know what, I mentioned it in my tags but I feel like it’s annoying enough to put in the body of the post and make it even longer. What the fuck was with everyone outing or potentially outing everyone else just so that characters could openly talk about the queer characters and tell them to do what they want them to? Why did Matthew out his brother multiple times? Like yes, the people he said it to coincidentally already knew, but he didn’t know that. And why was Thomas outing Alastair? The straights got to keep their secrets as long as they wanted and fix their problems more naturally. Why did I have to sit through queer characters constantly having their sexualities and romantic histories to everyone else when they clearly had not okayed it? Why were the queer characters doing so much of the outing? Why were people who cared about them and knew what it felt like to be afraid of the wrong person finding out just broadcasting their sexualities to make it easier for CC to breeze past development to have their things get resolved fast? Why did no character have an issue with it at all?

#As a queer person the whole using homophobia against her characters as plot just to pretend homophobia doesn’t exist and call her characters #cowards for worrying about it as soon as she’s decided writing it doesn’t serve her plot agenda anymore really icks me right out #Like yeah I’d love homophobia to not exist but girl what are you doing that’s so gross to go about it that way #ALSO everyone outing or potentially outing everyone else to other characters to make it easier to get the queer characters to do what she #wanted them to was a HORRIBLE vibe. Why is Matthew outing his brother? Why is Thomas outing Alastair? Why is everyone telling everyone else #people’s sexualities as if it’s nothing and everyone has a right to know when that character clearly did not feel that way #And it’s so out of nowhere every time too #Hot take: Charles protecting Alastair’s privacy instead of outing him was more valid than anything any of the other queer characters said #about Charles or Alastair’s sexualities even if I hate Charles and his going along with the blackmail was bullshit #Also now that I’ve written all of this down and 99% of what I wrote about in here has to do with the canon queer characters that’s not #a great look either that she did breeze over some of the stuff with the other characters for sure but she was way more likely to skip depth #and development with the queer characters in CoT #CC said no slow burn gradual changes in this book… there’s only room for abrupt 180s and Cordelia running 🏃‍♀️ #Sorry if this has weird typos and other mistakes in it. I typed on my phone and didn’t check for autocorrect nonsense and I’m too lazy to #reread this all rn at my current brainpower level #CoT #Chain of Thorns spoilers #Chain of Thorns #The Last Hours #The Shadowhunter Chronicles #Cassandra Clare #My Posts